#of course it's gonna have lasting effects on those with that identity!

[fohatic]

don't mind if i do.....

there are still beautiful things by @meidui

The day Tony takes Steve home from the New York Army National Guard is the best day of his life.

the hope that kills you (series) by @meidui

Steve used to go on so much about freedom and choice. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. Some of the freedom he loved was big, big enough for him to lay his life down for over and over, and some of the freedom he loved was small, like the wind in his hair when he took his motorcycle out, but now he has to sob and take it when Tony sucks a deep flowering bruise where his prison uniform couldn’t possibly cover and whispers in his ear, “Who’s gonna help you now? Where are you gonna run?”

The Prize by @sabrecmc (HOWWWW IS THIS NOT ON ANY OF THESE LISTS YET)

Steve ends up as a concubine in the royal harem.

Deep End by @festiveferret

SHIELD has found a way to make Project Rebirth work - something Tony's father was never able to accomplish. An unexpected side effect has Fury begging Tony for some rather unusual help: the painful procedure has put their volunteer, a sub called Steve Rogers, so deep into subspace he can't come up on his own.

Tits Aren't Just For Ladies by Dr_Amuly ( @everybodyilovedies)

Tony fucks Steve's tits (man-tits, no genderswap or implants or anything).

(Not for) Public Consumption by Poose

“Can’t you like, I don’t know, do a little pirouette for me, sweetheart?” He shuffles backwards cautiously, glancing over his shoulder to avoid hitting the wall. There’s a chair back there, he should sit in it before his legs give out. Steve cocks his head, hand on his hip. He puts his front foot at angle to the one in back and executes a tired swing around. You’d think he’d like the attention a bit more. Tony may have to goad it out of him. “Steve, seriously, you’re like a bored stripper.” And then, suitably affronted, Steve takes another turn, more slowly, so that Tony can pan down and zoom in on his ass from a slightly lower angle.   *** Or, Steve and Tony make a sex tape. Exactly as sophisticated as it sounds. A non-powered AU of another AU that I haven't written yet. Contains zero plot.

Surrender Yourself by xWinterDreamsx

Tony has Steve tied up in ropes for some kinky fun.

Some Great Reward by @kiyaar

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Tony and Steve come to an agreement. It doesn't involve affection.

Come on Closer by @epiphanyx7

[[... porn.]] Or, the one where Steve wants to talk to Tony about something important.

Leave Your Marks Written Upon My Skin by blue_jack ( @some-blue-jack)

“I want you to keep your hands right here, alright?”

Keep Us Warm, Tonight by @copper-mouth

Steve and Tony often keep late hours together when sleep won't come to either of them. Tonight is shaping up to go a little differently, however.

Working Late by @tinystark616

Some nights, Tony stays up late, building and rebuilding and upgrading his suits, until Steve walks into the workshop, usually already in his pajamas, and wraps his arms around Tony, kissing him until he forgets what he was doing and then dragging him to bed. A fill for the prompt "Steve sits in Tony's lap and rides him" from last year's Community Gifts prompt list. Because there's really not enough bottom!Steve in the world.

Ship to Shore by @mserm

The Avengers beat Thanos. Everyone is safe. (If you don’t count those five days they thought Natasha was dead.) All that’s left is to return the stones, a feat that Tony is sure will end his new friends-with-benefits relationship with Steve.

Consecration of the Virgin by @dracusfyre (sequel to The Penitent Man)

Steve gives his body into Tony's keeping. For the good of his soul, of course.

In The Springtime of His Voodoo by shaenie

“I’m removing Captain Rogers from this base, but not from active duty. I want him as SHIELD’s liaison to Stark Industries first and foremost. He’ll report directly to me,” Fury says. “As it is, your identity as Captain America is not public knowledge and it will remain that way until I say otherwise. That said, if you think you can get Tony Stark to work with you if you disclose that information, you have permission to do so.”

heyyy！i just saw u reblog an ask and it just happened to be the exact same thing I wanted to ask👉👈 do u have and recommend stony fics that are top Tony/bottom Steve 🥺

you know i do!! see also k's rec list and bulky's rec list, i tried not to rec any that were already on their lists <3

Jackpot by @elcorhamletlive

It’s not always like this.

Tony leans back on the bed, assessing his view. Near the door, balanced on his knees, Steve stares at him with half-lidded eyes, blue eyes darkened under those beautiful eyelashes. His blonde bangs stick a little to his forehead, where a glimmer of sweat is evidence of how long he’s been in that position: knees firmly planted on the rug of Tony’s bedroom, naked aside from a pair of cotton black briefs, hands tied up behind his back, exactly as Tony left him this morning. He breathes heavily, his muscular chest going up and down as he watches and waits.

Doubling Up (Steve) by @elcorhamletlive

“Well,” Tony drawls, his gaze going from the bed to where Steve, and, uh, Tony are standing, next to the small pile where Steve’s shirt lies along with his trousers. “This is awkward.”

Chamber of Reflection by @thahiree

A few years after retiring, Steve and Tony get a surprise visit from another Steve. Steve Rogers from Earth 1610 is lost, grappling with the new century he’s been unceremoniously dropped in, with confusing feelings for his new teammate, with himself.

Steve and Tony decide to get involved.

A Proportional Response by @mserm

Steve doesn't have a reason for cock-blocking Tony.

No reason, whatsoever.

It's Hard To Look Right At You, Baby by Albuss

“Woah,” Tony says, “slow down. Take it easy. Hold your horses.” He can be forgiven for saying the same thing four times because he is already completely, utterly wrecked.

“Fuck me,” Steve whispers. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me.”

Five Times Steve Woke Up Early (And One Time He Didn’t) by @airlocksandaviaries

Steve's not actually a morning person, despite his body's insistence. It's quite possibly the one thing about the serum he's not immensely grateful for. Forcing himself up and on a run to burn through the overwhelming, restless energy that builds bright and early would be much more tolerable if it were a few hours later. Tony decides to do something about this.

Underneath it All by @hollyandvice

Steve's finally ready to indulge Tony's fantasy of seeing him in a thong. He just has terrible timing when it comes to implementing sexy times. But that's alright, Tony's a master of making the best of a (not actually) bad situation.

the year you were mine by @areiton

The night that changes his life forever, Steve is on a date with another man.

Or: Steve is a pricy escort and Tony buys him for a year. Neither of them are doing this for love.

a thousand things you call me by @areiton

He calls you a thousand things, and you love them all, count them all and guard them close, because with each he calls you mine.

Your Reputation Precedes You by @vanilla-shoes

Tony agrees to watch the desk for the salon next door to his garage as a favor -- but when he meets the salon owner's fiery best friend Steve, maybe the favor is for Tony after all...

Brooklyn After Dark by darefanny

”I could do that”, Steve had said before his brain could catch up to his big, stupid mouth. He had leaned over Tony’s shoulder to look closer at a photo of a man in lingerie on his tablet.

Slow Burn Fireworks by felisnocturna

Tony fucks him incredibly slowly this time.

praise you like I should by @firebrands

steve gets de-serumed for a hot second, but tony's pretty quick to reassure him of all his lovely traits. (made even better by having to sleep in a shitty motel with a mirror on the bed.)

Suds 'n Studs by @fohatic

Tony didn't mean to hire some super hot, young guy to take his clothes off for money -- honestly! He just wanted somebody to wash his cars! But accidents happen when you let your AI do the hiring for you, apparently. Now the recent divorcee has an awkward apology to make. He also has as an invitation to subscribe to Steve's OnlyFans. What he doesn't have is any clue what he should do in this situation.

In Too Deep by @fohatic

Steve knew that he was asking for trouble when he agreed to let the gallery auction off a date with him for charity, but he needed to get in the director's good books if he wanted to make it as an artist in this cutthroat town. He never imagined that his participation would ignite an outrageous bidding war, or that the infamous, billionaire ex that he hadn't seen since their sudden breakup two years prior would show up and stake his claim.

the thorn in his side by @fohatic

It had been there from the beginning. There was no end to it, that mutual wanting between them—forever unresolved—that had grown so terribly soft and unbearably romantic with age...

But there was an unspoken rule between them, as well: an understanding that they could never act on it.

That is, until an alien parasite's brood nest gets violently dislodged from its Chitauri Leviathan host during the Battle of New York, dispersing its contents directly over two time-jumping tourists who are very much in the wrong place and the wrong timeline.

pull me down by breakeven

He doesn’t mean to pull, is just brushing through the locks there as a means of comfort, to show Steve that he’s still there and present with him, that Tony is just as affected by the wet grasp of Steve’s hole as Steve is by the insistent pressure against his prostate

wind me up by breakeven

Steve hadn’t known it, but apparently Tony could tell after the first time they ever fucked. He could see in Steve the need to please, the need to be of some sort of service, and had known that it would translate perfectly in sexual desires, even when Steve hadn’t had a clue himself.

honey from your hive by meidui

"Steve, stop that," Tony says, sounding strangled as his grip tightens and Steve stops, letting Tony grab his face and tilt him up. "You're kind of scaring the crap out of me. What is it? What's going on with you?"

"We blew up the lab," Steve manages, and something dawns on Tony's face. "Everyone had a reaction 'cept me. Think 'm having it now."

Blushes Per Hour by @blossomsinthemist

Steve chewed on his bottom lip. “Well, no,” he said. “Um, but.” He was breathing heavily now, through his nose. “Rachel liked it when I did it, because she has, uh, she has sensitive breasts, and I, um, err. Sometimes I’d pull on my own nipples during, or, or after, on my own, and. And I’d imagine—wonder, really, if I was. If I had enough, or—”

“Are you saying you’ve fantasized about this?” Tony said, and he couldn’t help the pure delight that came through in his tone, because had he actually stumbled onto one of Steve’s kinks, here? He’d never let on at all before, not at all.

Please Please Me by @blossomsinthemist

Steve looked so beautiful flushed and wanting, on his knees, begging.

Failing To Not Fall by @nvrthlessthsun

Steve was failing to not fall in love with Tony Stark.

AKA the one where Steve thinks he's Friends-With-Benefits with Tony, and Tony thinks he's dating Steve.

Paint Job by @valdomarx

“You want me to what?” Steve looked incredulous. “I want you to detail my car,” Tony said with a smirk.

Relax, Darling by @valdomarx

Steve is stressed and tense after a hard mission.

Luckily for him, Tony and his tongue are available to relax him in a variety of delightful ways.

Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd, Four’s a Party by @valdomarx

How to satisfy the secret desires of a horny supersolider:

Ults Steve gets gangbaged by Tony from four different universes (Ults, MCU, AA and 616).

Mark Sixty-Nine by @everybodyilovedies

Tony is irritated that Steve's first hug-and-fly wasn't with him. As the source of many of Steve's other "firsts", Tony has a brilliant idea of how he could take one more. Specifically, Steve's first time being fucked by a machine.

Afternoon Delight by @greyduckgreygoose

Tony watched with narrowed eyes as Rogers nodded politely to Natasha. They exchanged quick, familiar smiles, which suggested that they knew each other better than the acquaintances they seemed to want Tony to think they were. Up close, Rogers was even more attractive than he had appeared on camera, a touch of blonde stubble along his jaw, large square hands.

He also had a nice ass, not that Tony was particularly staring.

“Mr. Stark,” Natasha said, as they both stood before Tony’s desk. “May I introduce Steve Rogers? Or, if you prefer, Captain America.”

The Sixth Time is the Charm by @onemuseleft

The fifth time Steve tried to get Tony to fuck him (and failed) is when he started taking it personally.

Your Kind of Love by blue_jack

The first time they have sex, Tony isn’t really hoping for much.

[powerfulkicks]

lately i've seen that post going around with the comic of a lesbian couple waking each other up where someone replies with a screenshot of another comic trying to claim op is homophobic. this was because the comment featured talk about asexuals and this comment was made in the height of the ace discourse.

someone else replied to that comment trying to explain that "in the ace discourse, asexual identities themselves were seen as homophobic and that's what the commenter is saying!" i don't really agree with that, at least in this instance, because i think the poster's real problem is with the word "allosexual"

back when ace discourse was in vogue, a big talking point was how the word "allosexual" to describe non-asexual people was problematic. i even saw people refer to it as a slur. this was because it "groups us [gay men, lesbians, "real" queer people] in with our oppressors." never mind that sexualities already group the oppressed with oppressors: race, disability, socioeconomic status, etc. are all grouped under the same label. but this apparently was "different"?.

i think the main problem people had with allosexual is that they thought that it painted queer people as sex obsessed, when in reality it is a neutral descriptor, like cisgender. it just means you experience sexual attraction.

honestly, i still avoid using the word and cringe whenever i see it because i worry people are still going to be upset about it. it's just another way the ace discourse has had lasting affects on asexuals. it destroyed communities, destroyed the language we used to talk about our identities, destroyed in-jokes and memes, and destroyed a lot of asexuals' pride in their identities. all this was by design - the goal was to make asexuals ashamed of their identity so they would shut up about it.

i'm glad we've seem to have moved past that portion of our history, for the most part. at least all the popular blogs aren't making fun of us anymore. i hope we can use the term "allosexual" again because it's a useful descriptor.

[centrally-unplanned]

Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:

--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!

--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.

Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.

--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.

--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.

I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.

--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:

MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993? YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.

Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.

More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.

In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.

(But I hope to dig into this question more)

[salmalin]

So I have thoughts about Roche, Queerness, themes related to Modern Christianity in regards to Conversion Therapy, and the Sephiroth Cloning Effects in FFVIIR. Which, uh… I realize are extremely strange topics to connect, but bear with me here.

(Spoilers under the cut.)

It starts specifically with thoughts about how Roche is flamboyant and fun and weird, and he’s also unapologetic about that. Thoughts about how his fight scene in Part 2 involve him exclusively on his bike, and how he’s weak to fire. He’s dramatic, invites others to the “party”, and makes a spectacle about everything. He involves his bike in every attack, too.

I’m also thinking about that last fight scene—after the procedure. I think about how he said he was disobeying orders. So who brought him there? His friends in the army? And honestly, the moment the scene started, I knew he wouldn’t come out of the other end of the battle. Why? Well:

1. He leaps out of a container full of people instead of bringing them with him. He has abandoned the audience and his fans and very literally left them behind.

2. He destroys his bike himself and doesn’t even flinch, then he fights on foot, suddenly without his bike but still demanding Cloud’s best despite having thrown away his ability to do his own.

3. He’s not even weak to fire anymore. Which means not only has he thrown away all his strengths, but all his weaknesses, as well.

Over the course of that scene, followed by the disappointing fight to follow, it becomes abundantly clear that Roche has lost all sense of himself. His ability to maintain himself leaves even before his will and honor, which is very in-character for him. Almost nothing remains of the man he was except his honor. But also the fact that they lay this out first is such in-your-face symbolism… It’s honestly a big reason why I’ve been enjoying the remake of 7 so much.

Roche lost every bit of himself piece by piece before our very eyes, and we watch the last of him slide off and become swallowed by Sephiroth’s ego, and that honestly drives home just how powerful Sephiroth’s ego is, and just how terrifying it is. How destructive.

I also think it’s incredibly beautiful to apply a story-line like this to a character who—let’s be real here—reads as unbelievably queer. Like holy hell. This man brought a brass band to a knife fight. His ego and his honor shine through even through the end. Even after every part of him is taken from him, someone else’s will hammered into his body and mind…

The Sephiroth Cloning technique, through this lens, reads a lot like Conversion Therapy.

Those subjected to this specific brand of torture are forced to conform to the identity of another, their initial personality lost and distorted as they are directed to bend to the will and desires of another. Most of them die before reaching the end, usually through the action of moving itself. They shuffle along, mindless, with nothing to them beyond this horrible trek to serve another’s purpose—a being that is beyond the reach of mortals; a being that has died and returned to their World through the touch of their (Father in Heaven) Mother.

Cloud comes out the other end after years of this and barely even has a sense of self left, if you can even call it that at that point. Heck, if Advent Children is still canon, this means he’s still so messed up by guilt years after the fact that he doesn’t even know how to be happy, or to bring himself to be around others for long periods of time. He fundamentally does not remember who he was before, basing his identity around a man who was not compatible with the cloning technique and managed to escape. However, this puts MORE holes in his head and his story because this is not who he is. He is pretending to be something he cannot even remember. You know. Like horrible PTSD from being in a Conversion Therapy Camp for just shy of five years.

I’m gonna stop myself here or I’ll go on for ages. Regardless, food for thought.

[persmo]

Not that last anon, but there are endogenic systems in the OSDDID community. There are systems who had trauma after their system already formed which can cause a dissociative disorder to develop. There's also like what I think that anon's case is, there are DID systems with endogenic headmates who are spiritual, thoughtforms, etc.

This especially goes for OSDD, which isn't even inherently a system disorder. OSDD is just a catchall in the DSM-V for disorders that don't fit DID, Dissociative Amnesia, or DPDR.

What you are doing is closer to gatekeeping in that sense. Even if you think their experiences are real, you are excluding systems from dissociative resources for something as arbitrary as origin that may not even impact how the system is now if the later trauma was severe enough.

This is also where a lot of fakeclaiming that targets OSDDID systems comes from. It starts with "we don't want endos in our community" then spirals into "this is how you spot an endo". This is how fictives started to be viewed as a faking red flag (the term "fictive" came from endogenic systems), too many nonhumans make you fake (endogenic systems and otherkin have a long lasting overlap), as well as knowing too much about your system (endogenic systems don't usually have dissociative barriers unless something happened later). Even if you aren't fakeclaiming explicitly, encouraging an origin binary and excluding endogenic systems does contribute to the problem that loops around and effects all systems.

Also there are a few cases where you can win a debate with a fakeclaimer. Some people are genuinely misinformed, and if you have the energy, ability, and sources, it can be worth to send a message to try.

Ok so, I know I already said and established that I wouldn't be answering anon things regarding this topic, but I need to clarify something cause, again, you didn't read correctly or you didn't get the point of our post/reply, so I'm gonna explain in detail every point your talking about in this message and also some extra things hoping that people would stop making themselves incorrect ideas about us and maybe do a purification regarding followers (Cause damn, we are getting a big hate even though we aren't famous or shit like that)

So please, if you really want to hate us and really want to know our stand read this whole and then comment or reblog-respond, because if you don't read it whole we're just gonna block you and don't count your opinion

First paragraph topic: Endos in the OSDDID community

I didn't talk about that topic, but you're bringing it out so I will now, and I hope that you and other people can understand my point in this. I know there are endos in the OSDDID community, I know there are cases in which someone has a dissociative identity disorder and also have plurality in some other way, if that's what you're trying to explain me well... You didn't explain anything that I didn't know already, with the last anon I said if their case is they having DID and also having a cultural-spiritual base plurality I know they exist and I don't fakeclaim them because they have OSDDID, so why would I fakeclaim them?

The specific point that I have it's the way they talk and/or present those parts that aren't because of the disorder, but I'm fakeclaiming those parts? Of course not, cause I know they're a different presenting way of plurality that have nothing to do with the disordered parts, and I won't talk about them because our speciality is disordered dissociated parts, not plural parts in general, also cause I don't know almost anything about the topic and, most importantly, don't know last anon case

So with this I hope I clarified this point, if not, tell me and I will explain (Like with every point, so this state applies to all)

Second paragraph: OSDD not being an inherently a system disorder

With this I have a lot to unpack cause we entered in our hyperfix and knowledge field. For this part I'm gonna do multiple paragraphs cause there's a lot to say and explain

First of all OSDD is a disorder, that's why it is in the DSM-5, I'm not sure if you claimed that OSDD is not a disorder or just is not a system disorder, so I clarify this just to make sure

Now, let's see what the DSM says about OSDD, ok?

The DSM V says:

The DSM V TR says:

Besides that info it's good to know that OSDD can be classified in various subtypes, 4 to be exact, and why it's important to clarify the 4 subtypes? Cause only one of this subtypes is capable of being a plural disorder this being OSDD-1 (This subtypes includes from OSDD-1a to OSDD-1d)

So if you're gonna say that OSDD isn't inherently a system disorder you're half correct, because it depends in the subtype you're seeing, if you're talking about OSDD-1 when it is, but if you're talking about OSDD as a whole and not seeing the subtypes, well you're right, and in this case when I talk about OSDDID community I talk only about OSDD-1, it's just that it's better and shorter to just say "OSDDID community" rather than "OSDD-1, P-DID and DID community" don't you think?

And for the OSDD being "just a catchall" for the other dissociative disorders... Well you're not completely right and let me explain. The OSDD stand for "Other Specified Dissociative Disorder", just in the name says it's for specifying other thing because it doesn't enter to the other criterias, and yes, that make OSDD a comodin like diagnosis, but if you read below that you'll find the UDD or "Unspecified Dissociative Disorder" and this diagnosis puts more info about dissociative disorders that doesn't fit in the other criteria including OSDD so even though OSDD can count as a catchall UDD too, and you're not talking about it

So with this information I hope I got clarified this point

Third paragraph: Gatekeeping and excluding

First I'm gonna address the gatekeeping thing.

If you're saying I'm gatekeeping by saying "endos DNI", then I am, because that's one of our boundaries, getting mad for someone else boundaries because it doesn't align with you it's horrible in my opinion.

If you're saying that I'm gatekeeping for excluding endos when I talk about systems and plurality in my blog, then I am, because this is a disordered aligned blog and I'm not gonna be talking about endos, and because a lot of endos want to make everything about themselves I don't want them to interact.

If you're saying I'm gatekeeping because I'm not talking about endos because I don't want, then I am.

If you're saying I'm gatekeeping because I exclude endos that are also disordered well you're wrong, I'm not doing that, if they want they can interact ONLY if they keep comments about them being endos away from our blog, I'm not saying they have to stop being endos cause they have a disorder, just that comments and things about being endo don't put them in our blog, outside our blog talk all you want about being endo cause we don't fucking care

It's just our preference, our boundarie, I don't get why people get mad about it when I'm not even attacking endos, damn we're not even anti-endo, we said it the last post and we'll repeat it. I hope this explains it because, from what I understand we're not gatekeeping nothing, we're just setting boundaries, and if you're mad for that is a you problem, not ours, but if we're gatekkeping please come and explain in detail how

Now about the exluding allegations... Simply we're not ???

I'm not excluding anyone from dissociative resources, I don't know were do you take that conclution, because from our words don't. We can't decide and stop every random from the internet and exclude them, that's imposible, we're not in position to exclude anyone

Again, if you have disordered plurality we don't care if you also have another kind of plurality, if you have disordered plurality and/or you experience maladaptive dissociation go ahead and use the resourses, after all the resourses are for people who strugle with complex dissociative disorders

But if you're not disorder nor experience maladaptive dissociation then why would you want to use resourses for people with CDD??? (No, I'm not counting neither Simply Plural nor Plural Kit in the dissociation resources because, one, their aren't resources just tools, and two, the creators said that SP and PK can be used for any reason that you please including disordered plurality)

If someone has a disordered plurality, a trauma disorder or a complex dissociative disorder then go ahed and use that resources, because the resourses are for you, we don't care if apart from that you have another type of plurality and if you do well good for you, you're still able to use that resources because one, I can't literally stop you, and two, the resources are for you

Fourth paragraph: Fakeclaiming (A binary excluding way and disordered targeting)

This is the most long paragraph you put so I'm gonna talk part by part just to make sure you don't miss any point at all

I don't understand what you mean by "This is also where a lot of fakeclaiming that targets OSDDID systems comes from", but if I'm getting it correctly you said that the exclusion and gatekeeping that I'm doing (Again, I'm not, but you're assuming and claiming I am) encourages the fakeclaimin towards OSDDID systems which in my opinion sounds dumb and let me explain why

Fakeclaiming is not a term that the plural community invented, fakeclaiming has been existing for years before that, but the use of the word was popularized by the plural community. Fakeclaiming disorders have been happening way back before the internet even existed, now a days fakeclaming has been evolving and having new stupid criteria to fakeclaim

Endos fakeclaiming, disordereds fakeclaiming, singlets fakeclaim, everyone fakeclaims, actual plural fakeclaming is mainly towards OSDDID systems and yes, some things of the fakeclaimings is because endo fakeclaiming, but the fakeclaiming to OSDDID has been existing way before the name change to DID/OSDD, the fakeclaiming criteria just evolved and changed

So yeah, for me saying that the fakeclaiming or at least a lot of fakeclaiming towards OSDDID systems come from endo exclusion seems dumb, but everyone has different ways of viewing this and I respect that, I'm just stating my opinion and view of things

Now, you can't say all OSDDID systems act the way you say, first saying that they don't want endos in the community and then making guides to spot endos, because if you're gonna generalize I'm gonna do it to with endos too. We don't do guides to spot endos because that obsessive, wrong and kinda sickly, we just don't care at all about that, endos sometimes say explicitly that they're endos and I believe them so I don't interact with them and sometimes block them, that's all, I don't think that's wrong if it's my prference

It is obvious that I cannot speak for the entire OSDDID community cause we're just some random system online, we're just talking about ourselves in this case. Do you know the amounts of OSDDID system that we have blocked because they're horrible? No, you don't, because you don't know us and our point of view in this topics, in reality we hate almost all the internet OSDDID community (generalizing)

You're explanation of what its seen like signs of faking is correct, and we actually can't say anything for that part, just to clarify that we know singlets that have never encountered the plural community nor plural things in the internet and do that fakeclaiming (we know it because they have done it to us), so no, it's not actually encouraged by the endo fakeclaiming/exclusion like you say

Now about the endo exclusion and binary origin. All that I'm gonna say in this point is about us and our point and stand of all this things, I'm not talking about the whole community, just for us, because to talk about the whole community another post

AGAIN, we're not excluding endos in general, in that case we're excluding all systems besides close friends. Saying that in this blog we don't want endos here is to be safe and prevent fights and things similar to this and other more horrible actions to our person becasue we don't feel comfortable with endos atacking us

In fact if we met endos that are opend minded, respectful, patient and have an attitude that we like we're not gonna exclude them, actually if they want we're more than willing to befriend them, so no, we don't exclude them

It's like neurodivegents prefering not to interact with neurotipicals, they're not excluding them, just they don't feel comfortable around them, but obviously if they found a neurotipical they like they'll can befriend them, we're in a similar position with endos

And in the same manner of exclusion it's the binary origin thing. We only care about origin when talking about our preference and experiences, it's like the cis and trans, it's a binary system about identity, but for some reason that is not offensive and this is?

Like I don't get your point, we're not excluding via origin because we're not doing it at all, pointing out the differences is important to recognize and understand the diversity around systems, and also know it to understand the subcategories and have personal preference, just like us

Again with the allegory, saying that neurotipicals and neurodivergents and different it's ok because even though the two are humans they have some differences and that's ok, and even with neurodivergents are subcategorys and some people may have preference to one or another, but that doesn't make them bad people because it's just a preferencem of course sometimes this can be related to discrimination and things like that, but not always, and when is about discrimination you will be a bad person, but if just for preference it's ok

And now with the last sentence, doing the exclusion (we don't, but you say we do) it's countribuiting to the problem that affects all systems, and here's when I ask how we're countibuting to doing harm to people?

We're not excluding, perpetuating harmful thoughts or points or view to others, we're just setting boundaries bassed in our preference, how we're countributing to harm around systems when we're not atacking no one and we're not doing any harm?, in fact are endos and pro-endos who are atacking us and are trying to make us the bad guy when we're not even mentioning them in a malicious way, damn we're not even a big account or something, we're just starting this blog and people already have us in a blacklist when we did nothing wrong, the only thing we did is have and set boundaries (that people keep breaking just to see cool or for some other reason) and respond attacks and comments against our person just because we don't have the same opinion

If we're gonna talk about problems that affect all systems let's do it, but do it in a right way, not making assumptions about someone and trying to prove some random point when you don't know if the person your talking to is in your side, sometimes remarking things in a condescending way when someone already agrees with you and claiming that they're something that they're not makes the person don't be in your side anymore

I'm not in the plural community as a whole nor in the system community as a whole, I'm not talking or saying things about systems in general, I'm just talking about OSDDID systems and the OSDDID community because for me that's comfortable, because I know about that topic, because that's my comfort zone, and if I'm a bad person and huting others just by having preferences, boundaries and prioritizing me without attacking anyone then I'm a bad person and I do hut people, but we're not and I don't get what's the fixation of people telling me that I'm that villain they're making up with their assumptions

Because if we're gonna talk about hurting others endos have hurt us A LOT way back we had our medical recognition of DID and knew the meaning of "system community", and if that's not a problem that affects all systems because I know that have happend to many OSDDID systems, that and some more horrible thing done by endos to disordered systems then I don't know what it is. But I'm not here to talk about the bad things endos have done because that's not the blog purpouse, because I'm not here to talk about endos, is the people that are making us talk about it and it seems a bit hypocrite to us

For this paragraph I have nothing to add, so again, if I didn't make myself clear or something like that you can tell me and I will clarify it

Last paragraph: Win debates with fakeclaimers

Yes, I'm aware sometimes fakeclaimers are just uninformed people and you can win the debate with them, but many of them just want to mock and attack people, specially within the OSDDID community, that's why I think is best just to block them and don't give them attention, and we made clear in our posts about fakeclaiming that it was our opinion, you don't have to agree with and that's ok

If you want to do a debate with a fakeclaimer go ahead, I respect your patience because I don't have that and you will be helping

We just give our opinion, we just stated our point of view, we don't have to be perfects like no one. And it's not like the post have a big reach, it doesn't even have 50 likes, so it's not like a lot of people is seeing it

Sometimes we do tend to debate with fakeclaimers and uninformed people in general, when we're in the mood and we have the sources and references in hand, we had won various debates because we're informed, but that experience also teached us that most of fakeclaimers don't even care about it so we made a post about that

Extra notes: Some other points not deeply talked about in this post

Ths post already extend so much that we see prudent to just stop it here, even though we have a lot more points to talk about and clarify. We're planning not only to update our intro to be more specific and so we can avoid problems like this in the future, but making some other post talking about various of the topics seen here and a bit more about our points of view

If you want us to clarify some points or things, ask us things or something like that go ahead adn will do it gladly, also, anon of this post we're be gratefull if you say something about this text we did for you

Like a extra note I'm gonna say in short words our stand with endos, we're oct-endo, in other post we're gonna expalin it deeply

That's all, if you read the whole thing thx and see you random people on internet :)

[sykam0re]

Oh my god I was talking with @cryptidanaphafsi on a call earlier and we were discussing the potential plot/villain for the side order DLC

AND WHILE I CANNOT SAY WHETHER OR NOT I'M RIGHT YET....DAMN IT'S SUCH A GOOD THOUGHT TOO

So sit back, grab your popcorn, and enjoy this bit of speculation we came up with 👀✨️

Ok, so, this much is probably obvious given Agent 8's presumable presence alongside Pearl and Marina but: it's likely gonna be Tartar, if not someone new. But there's an issue with that!!

The NILS statue boss fight cast Tartar into the sea. Right...?

Well, yes. But there's another thing to consider: Tartar is an AI. A computer program set to preserve humanity and its memory and pass its knowledge on to the next sentient species should they go extinct (which, of course, they did). The Tartar we fight in Octo Expansion witnessed humanity's downfall and the rise of cephalopod kind and sentient sealife...

And was disgusted by it.

But, with the Alterna logs in 3 revealling the last known humans of Alterna being the direct cause for squid and octopus evolution, we know two new tidbits of information that may play into the DLC somehow:

• The scientist that created Tartar likely resided in Alterna (it was home to humanity's greatest minds after all)

• That the inklings and octolings likely share a similar set of brainwaves/some similarity with humans, given they evolved directly from their hopes and dreams through those ceiling crystals

We even see what appears to be an almost neuron-esque effect in the side order trailer, making this idea even more possible

Why is this important? Well...

What if there was another Tartar somehow?

After all, Tartar was an AI. A computer program, no doubt the scientist that made him kept a backup or beta version of him somewhere! Perhaps...even being the scaffolding for the creation of O.R.C.A, given the similarity between Kamabo Co.'s tests and those that O.R.C.A tasks you with in Alterna. And if that's the case, what if after the events of Splatoon 3's story mode...

O.R.C.A got corrupted?

And that backup Tartar somehow managed to gain control?

Of course, it'd have no knowledge of the other Tartar or even humanity's demise. It'd be a blank slate; a sterile form of the murderous machine we defeat in Octo Expansion. But how on earth could it be a danger then? Well, that's when we go back to Tartar being a manmade machine, an AI, a program. One made to follow a single order: preserve humanity, and pass on its knowledge.

Being that this Tartar never saw or likely even knew of humanity being extinct, it would possibly try and continue in its protocol. But: where are the humans? It has to find them.

Then...we have the Inklings and Octolings. Those evolved directly from humanity's last wishes, likely even sharing similar if not identical thought patterns and brain waves to them.

Meaning that this second Tartar could very well mistake them for some strange or even ill form of humans. Perhaps, it encounters Agent 8. Perhaps it mistakes them for a human, and in trying to 'protect' and 'preserve' them, it takes the technology it has at its disposal in Alterna to investigate. To look into 8's memories, and try and understand what has happened, and where all the other 'humans' have gone. Maybe even trying to 'clone' them to make more 'humans'? I'm not quite sure yet.

Maybe the main part of the DLC is 8 fighting their way through their own memories trying to wake up and escape. Perhaps the Pearl and Marina we encounter in 8's head is due to Marina hacking into this Tartar to speak to them; after all, she and Pearl presumably still have contact with (Ex) Captain Cuttlefish, and may be aware of the goings on in Alterna as a result.

Maybe once 8 wakes up you are aided by a returning 4 to get you out of there and get you to safety. Maybe you have to fight Tartar again, no longer able to fulfill its objective and thus destroying everything to wipe the slate clean again. Maybe you even have to fight a memory of yourself...

Either way, the thought of a corrupt O.R.C.A giving way to a directive-following, unintentionally harming beta form of Tartar is an incredibly interesting thought to me and I wanted to share with you all :)

If you read this far: yippie!! I hope you enjoyed!!

And if this is somehow in any way even close to what we actually get, I will kick myself hskshs

See you when Side Order drops :D

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

hey I just saw your post about the minister and the ace community, do you perhaps have a link or somethin? thanks

Okay, so I'm sorry but I'm gonna use your ask to talk about the so-called 'trans law' in Spain because IT JUST GOT APPROVED!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! CONGRATS TO EVERYONE!!!!!

First of all, I am having a lot of trouble finding links to English-speaking news outlets talking about it so all links are gonna be in Spanish for now, I'm sorry. Please, if anyone finds stuff in English let me know and I'll edit this post!!

Anyways, let's start answering your ask lol. She said this this morning (December 22nd 2022), before they voted for the law. Her name is Irene Montero, and she's the Minister of Equality and creator of the law. Here's a twitter clip where she says it, I'll translate it in English:

"... there's also the rights that are still missing. I know that today is a difficult day for non-binary people, who celebrate the advances that they have also conquered but who need the legal recognition of their reality. In the last few years, you have succeded in letting a very important part of society know you exist; may there be more and more respect and less discrimination, mockery or misunderstandings for your lives and your identities' sake. But I am aware that you also need your rights to be recognized; we will continue to protect and care for you, we know we have to keep advancing. We also know this is the case for trans and LGBTI immigrants, for ace people, for all those lives who are still invisible in the eyes of society and who are going to keep pushing the transformations that your lives need."

After it, Congress voted for this new law. It ended up passing with 188 votes in favour, 150 against, and 7 abstentions; it'll now have to be ratified by the Senate before finally being effective. This finally put an end to a months-old drag and trampling of the law by T*RFs all over the country (and of course the usual conservatives and fascists but that was expected), an extensive hate campaign towards Irene Montero herself (although tbh ever since she started in politics the poor woman has been submitted through continuous heckling and disinformation campaigns) and serious doubts on its approval, many thought it would change too much or be indefinitely delayed; in this article they neatly talk about how many hardships it has gone through if you're interested. But it's finally here. It's finally approved.

So, what's this law about? Well, it basically aspires to recognize a series of rights and protections to LGBT people in Spain, focusing mainly on trans people. As you could imagine, seeing the word T*RF in this post, this was what generated the most controversy and overall bullshit. For what I've gathered, these are the main points of the law:

It facilitates sex change. Under this law, a person who wants to change their sex being between 12 to 14 years old will need a court endorsment, from 14 to 16 the parents' approval, and from 16 on they don't need any documents or permission, they can just go to the corresponding office to change it.

It depathologises transexuality. This means that for the sex change no hormones or medical report will be needed; you can just go to change your sex without any clinical data.

It protects detransitioning. Detransitioning will be able to happen if the person wants to, changing their sex the same way as mentioned above. If there's more than two sex changes, then they will have to go to court for it.

It bans conversion therapies and sets a fine for them of 150,000€.

It protects queer families. Until now, when a queer family had a baby, the non-pregnant partner had to adopt the kid to be recognized as their parent; under this law, they just need to express it so when the kid is born and has to be registered.

It protects intersex people, by banning genital modification for those younger than 12 yo unless it poses an urgent health issue, and from 12-16 yo they can be performed only if the intersex person consents to it.

It protects LGBT people in rural areas, establishing their right to have the same resources and services than their urban folks have.

It studies 'sexile', that is, having to abandon your place of birth due to issues pertaining your sexuality or gender identity, especially in rural areas. Its main objective is for sexile to be recognized as one of the causes of depopulation within the larger measures against depopulation in the country.

There are also general measures that protect LGBT people in hostile environments and instaurate anti-discriminatory measures.

Hope this was clear enough, I'm so happy this law was finally approved, I feel it was so mentally tiring for all progressists in the country, it was a lot. But finally ES LEY!!!!!!!

Also, I'm not really an expert on it so if I've said something wrong or if I'm missing stuff please feel free to add to this post!

[spenglercore]

Tell us about the Big Damn Heroes incident where Ilse almost murdered Piotr

So, to start with: Piotr is the kind of guy who would rather suffer himself than let other suffer if he can help them. The man has a heart of gold and it's gotten his ass kicked more than once in his life. He's got a strong sense of justice and loyalty and would give you the shirt off his back or take on someone he knows is going to beat the shit out of him if means you'd be spared the harm.

At some point in his late twenties he joins the army as a tank mechanic and serves in both Korea and part of Vietnam. In the latter conflict, he gets set to a forward repair base when their foreman is KIA. He's slated to take the guy's place temporarily until his replacement arrives, and while he's there they end up having to go on tank recovery in hostile territory.

Now, retrieving an M48 Patton tank is almost always going to be An Affair in and of itself, depending on just how badly damaged it is. And if it was damaged enough that it couldn't be driven back to base, that means you've gotta send people out to get it, which requires a tank recovery vehicle (usually just another wholeass tank modified for towing) and also possibly do any repairs that it might need to even make it towable, and do so in the field.

This is what Piotr and his guys are doing when they discover it was a trap and they walked right into it.

So bullets are flying and people are diving for cover, of which there isn't much. Piotr is the guy in charge as far as the mechanics go, and he knows that the longer they sit there the more losses they'll incur. Yeah, they've got a guy on the radio yelling for backup, but between that moment and when backup actually arrives, IF it arrives at all, is an unknown quantity and a lot can happen in that time frame. Their best bet is to get to the recovery vehicle and beat a hasty retreat, while hoping the VC don't have any anti-tank weapons.

So this motherfucker decides that it's his job to get the recovery vehicle unhooked from the tank they were gonna recover and pile as many guys into it as possible while providing moving cover for anyone else so they can get out of the middle of things and into a more defensible position. Of course, this is a dumb idea, but Piotr can be dumb as a box of rocks at times. He's a machinist, engineer and mechanic, not a tactician.

He gives his dog tags to another guy, says the classic 'tell my wife and kid i love them' line, and then runs off. Miraculously, he's not instantly hit. Instead, when he gets to where the two vehicles are hooked together, he runs into an enemy soldier. Once again, he miraculously escapes injury or death by bayonet and instead brains the guy on reflex with the mini sledgehammer he had in his hand. Being close enough to see the effects of a hammer on a human head and watching the guy die is not something he was ever prepared for, and it's here that he locks up and gets hit. Not only does he get perforated, but his left knee takes a decent piece of shrapnel right to the joint and he gets a pretty nasty concussion and goes down.

Backup does arrive, and being concussed and panicky because holy shit he's been hit, Piotr gets uncharacteristically combative and gets his ass sedated before he's flown out to a MASH unit where he's patched up. But when he starts to come out of sedation, he's still combative due to having a traumatic brain injury and keeps saying his last name isn't Spengler, it's Kowalski, so not only can they not immediately verify his identity, he gets put in a medical coma for a while and is expected to recover but have chronic problems at absolute best.

While he's out, a clerical error occurs where he's mistakenly listed as KIA, and the corresponding letter is sent out to his wife, who is understandably distraught. Luckily, the day after she gets the letter, Piotr is brought out of the coma and it turns out he's just one of those lucky sons of bitches who recovers completely from the brain injury and nobody really knows why or how. And once he's been awake for a day or so, he finds out that he was mistakenly listed as dead and goes 'Oh fuck I need to call my WIFE.' Which he does, and when he explains that this whole mess is because he was trying to be a hero, he gets chewed out in German loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

Not long after that, he finds himself on his way home on a medical discharge because the cartilage of his left knee got pretty fucked up and he's no longer fit to serve. But rather than a warm welcome, Piotr is greeted with a halfhearted slap across the face and another tirade of German as Ilse goes off about what an ass he is, how he scared the shit out of her, about what a dipshit move that was taking off his dog tags and trying to be a hero, etc etc. The ride home is quiet and tense, as is getting settled in for the evening.

Once everything is put away and they're behind closed doors though, he pulls Ilse in for a hug and apologizes for putting her through so much. er emotions finally come out and she just sort of collapses into the hug and cries. Seeing her crying over the whole thing has more of an impact on Piotr than her being pissed enough to slap him; he goes to sometimes comical lengths to avoid causing her distress or otherwise upsetting her or making her feel bad, even on accident, and knowing that he did it anyway really eats at him for awhile.

Over the decades though, the time Ilse almost murdered her husband for being a shit idiot becomes something of a running joke.

Along with the time he got goaded into going streaking on a motorcycle.

[interdimensional-ship]

✭ ✭ one for the two of them if that’s allowed

((Guessing you mean one headcanon that applies to both Lor and Magolor? If not you can just send this ask again specifying two distinct headcanons, or just two asks. Anyways… I suppose this is as good a time as any to explain how Clash fits into things, eh? This will contain spoilers for Magolor Epilogue, so if you’ve still not played it and have managed to avoid them thus far I suggest not reading beyond this point. For those still here, strap in, this is gonna be a long one!))

((So, for those who haven’t read the fic I’ve been writing that explores the earliest days of Magolor and Lor knowing each other, I’ll just establish right out of the gate that Magolor simultaneously did and didn’t survive his fight with the Tree Crown. He defeated it and all, but his injuries combined with the physical and magical exertion took its toll on him. However, the latent magic where he was, combined with his desire to go to some semblance of a normal home and Another Dimension Weirdness™️, essentially coalesced into that portal to the Dream Kingdom, which itself drew heavily from what Magolor knew of certain historical figures and events, altered by his own experiences. Or, in other words, spurred on by that wish of his and the magic at play, part of the Dream Realm fragmented into that version of the Dream Kingdom due to Another Dimension being unstable as hell and technically not being a place. Hard to die normally when you aren’t anywhere.

Because he ultimately “died” while going through that portal, the world essentially ended up with two separate Magolors. There was Magolor as he thought he might be in his dreams, now living in the Dream Kingdom as a respected and successful seller of various magic items and armor and weapons and the like, who also didn’t truly have to face the consequences of his actions because they magically went away. Then there was the “original” Magolor, still in Another Dimension, who just died and ended up in a limbo of sorts due to the reasons stated above. Given the circumstances of his death and the fact that he wasn’t really “supposed” to die to begin with, Morpho Knight(in butterfly form) ultimately brought him back(on the brink of death still but not Dead dead) to the last home-adjacent place he’d been… Which just so happened to be Lor’s main room.

That brings me to how she ties in with this. Remember how the “real” Dream Kingdom essentially came about as a result of Magolor’s thoughts, feelings, and memories? The concept didn’t just disappear from his mind entirely, and in fact the idea of making a vaguely accurate(if not somewhat anachronistic) retelling of some history/folklore was something he couldn’t help but want to do. Lor, being incredibly advanced and also bigger on the inside than on the outside, can do a lot of cool things, be it having an entire bamboo forest folks can do target practice in, a large firing range that has its own sky and stretches back miles, entire obstacle courses for various skill sets, etc. She also liked the idea, and had information to work with regarding what certain figures were like, essentially allowing her to fill in the blanks between Magolor’s broader ideas while he could focus on details like items and good ol’ “what part can someone I know play in this?”. Thus, Clash ALSO exists as an interactive simulation Lor can run that is effectively a playable reenactment of historical events with a few extra things mixed in.

Of course, because things weren’t confusing enough, neither of these “versions” of Clash are “canon” in the sense that one is an alternate microuniverse and the other is a simulation in a timeline where the original events already occurred. So, y’know, there was no gem apple tree, no Shoppe, Landia hadn’t been around back then, Doctor Healmore and the other heroes weren’t just identical twins save for their colors, Taranza and the Animal Friends and Meta Knight wouldn’t have been there, etc. Galacta Knight, being the Aeon Hero, would’ve been one of the “playable” heroes(he was the Sword Hero of yore), but that obviously wouldn’t have worked for a simulation intended to be like a game. It was actually Lor’s idea to essentially include the depiction of Galacta in the period between snapping and becoming the strongest warrior in the galaxy. It’s by far the biggest creative liberty that was taken, given the fact that Galacta really went off the deep end after the other events of Clash took place. It essentially gave an idea of what he might be like(she didn’t know about Meta Knight’s wish/encounter) while also not omitting the fact that he wasn’t always the dangerous figure he turned himself into.

As for why totally-not-Magolor was included but not some version of herself? One, some anachronisms are too big and blatant to do anything other than break immersion. Two, there’s a point where including familiar faces(or in this case figures without a face) in a historical recreation goes from being a fun little nod to being excessive. Three, accurately simulating herself would have been extremely difficult because she knows she isn’t the type to say “>No you can’t come in go away”, and that would’ve meant needing to recreate her own interior and amenities and the like for accuracy’s sake. If you’re gonna simulate yourself you gotta do it right or else what’s the point?))

[carboardserpent]

what are your reasonings for liking chick hick describe in vivid detail

Oh boy where do I even start.

Okay so...

Chick isn't the first character like him that I've gotten attached to. The other one is Guzma, from gen 7 of Pokémon.

They're very similar in a lot of ways. They're the big scary antagonist with anger issues and they cause a lot of destruction which may or may not harm people (or cars?) around them. A lot of people might only see that about them.

But if you go looking, there's a lot more depth to them. Daddy issues, for one. We find that out in the Cars comics. Chick's father was abusive, no two ways about that. Nothing was ever good enough for him except first place. He got angry with Chick for stopping to help one of the other racers, claiming that he should be doing everything in his power to win, not wasting his time on others (I'm paraphrasing, that might not be exactly what was said).

The fact Chick stopped to help shows us that he wasn't always bad. He was a good kid, and I firmly believe that. It was his father who told him over and over again that he must "win at all costs" that did the damage. When you spend your whole life trying desperately to please someone who cannot be pleased, that's bound to end up reflected in who you become.

I believe that he's violent on the track because that's what he thinks he needs to do to win. Just like his dad told him. And he's insufferable off the track because of an inferiority complex: He's never won. He has a rival that always beats him, and the entire racing fanbase (millions of people) dislikes him for how reckless and destructive he is. That, of course, only gets much, much worse after the end of the first film.

Now those millions of people all hate him. He let his anger get the best of him. He wanted to beat his rival one last time before Strip retired. We know at the point he crashed Strip that he knew he couldn't win. Lightning was miles ahead. He didn't crash Strip to try and win. He specifically said, "I am not coming in behind you again." That's the inferiority complex coming through. When you go your entire career and never get more than second place because of one specific man, yeah. You're gonna be bitter about it.

Then, when Lightning stopped, that meant Chick won. He wasn't expecting to win, but he did. He won, and as a result, his dad would be proud of him. Right? Well, we can't know for sure, but I don't think so. Not because he crashed Strip, no. But because Lightning LET him win. So despite everything, despite being universally hated by millions of people, he still couldn't make that one man proud of him, which is what he's been trying to do his entire life.

Then we get to Cars 3. At this point, Chick has had YEARS of being hated by the entire racing community. He's probably incredibly depressed, clutching to the one cup he has like a lifeline and living purely out of spite. He made a TV show so people couldn't just put him out of their minds. He made it a good show, so even if they hated him, they would still watch it. They made his life miserable, so he's not going to let them forget about him. I think he leans into the hate because otherwise it would smother him. How could it not? Everyone expects him to act like a dick, so he does. He's even worse than he used to be. At this point, it's his entire identity.

Under all that, though, I think he's probably hurting and lonely. I don't think Strip's crash was supposed to be as bad as it was. I think all he wanted was to cause him to spin out into the infield. Harmless. But it went wrong, and he leaned into it to save his already fragile ego. It was easier to admit he was brutal than it was to admit he made a mistake. Especially when his dad was watching.

But you know, most of that is just speculation and some headcanons to fill in the gaps. It's why I love him so much, though. I thought about the effects of his actions and what impact that might have on him, but I also tried to figure out why he did those things to begin with. That's important for understanding a character; the why. This is where I ended up.

Thank you for asking, though, because I can not gush about this guy enough. I have so many Thoughts(tm) about him.

[yellowocaballero]

HEY!! Your trigun swap au is so very good!! I've always loved roleswap aus as a concept, and yours is the perfect example of why. it's all about the balancing act of twisting the (swapped) character's background/mentalities for maximum domino effect while not actually *destroying* the character ya know? you still gotta recognize them, it's half of the fun. just some little nudges here... and there... with the delightful result of a changed plot/world that you can discover anew

Also I surprisingly vibe with Dr Knives. a lot. what can I say I guess it's the fucked up superiority-inferiority/guilt complex with a dash of imposter syndrome. also the transgenderism. he's just like me fr fr (minus the speciesism and bloodlust) 1/3

SPEAKING OF! I'm literally a week late for that but chapter 4 may be my favorite so far. it's got it all: Ww's bloodlust coming through and being given a GUN, M&M being #JustNormalGunsmokeKidsThings about it, Knives being incredibly tired and enthusiastically murderous in turns, TRANS PEOPLE!! Funky morally dubious trans men ! Intersex nonbinary Knives (in humans terms) !! small internal rants about ecosystems!

I particularly like that one bc I too found myself twitching whenever I see (in fics or fandom at large) Gunsmoke being shown as a ~hostile, barren~ planet when, like.... *waves agitedly at the Tomases* *waves frantically at the WORMS, in all their INCREDIBLY DIVERSIFIED sizes and shapes* tell me there isn't an entire ecosystem supporting and including these bad boys. And god do I wanna know about it. Terraforming this terraforming that. Enough. I want bio-worldbuilding fics that are just as weird and unhinged as the rest of trigun (2/3)

To go back to Nicholas : I loved his discussion with Knives about fate and predestination and stuff (esp since -I may be reading too much into it, but it’s interesting that Knives says he doesn’t believe in predestination anymore, and just a bit later goes about how his personality is Like That bc he’s Biologically Programmed for it), and his last words in it are especially ominous. WHAT were you gonna say about Vash. How does it concern Nicholas. This is gonna bite them in the ass later isn’t it.

Also ur last asks/answers REALLY doesn’t reassure me about woowoo’s fate. Is he gonna die. Is he gonna end up going thru the same things than his canon counterpart (concentrate of medical-and-general unethicality). Idk what those flags are for but boy They Are There.

Aallll that to say I absolutely love that fic and can't wait to see what you do next with it, thank you so much !! (3/3)

This is so nice thank you so much :D :D :D To comment in order:

Roleswaps are no fun if you can't recognize the character. You're absolutely right - the funnest part is to make the smallest changes possible, and see how they cause the biggest differences. That's true of every AU, honestly - you guys know those 600k shonen manga aus where something major is different but every story beat is identical to canon? Or they're identical to every other au? They're addictive but without substance. Also sounds boring to write.

It's so funny that you (and others) vibe with Dr. Knives! From my end, he has my own very wry deadpan and self-esteem problems. Characters who have both a ridiculously inflated ego for comedy purposes and some real self-esteem problems for drama purposes work great.

I was surprised that so many people enjoyed the trans thing so much! I didn't expect it to make people so happy. Of course it's a nice surprise. I don't remember why I made the BDN decision (funny, probably) or the 'Knives invented gender reassignment surgery' thing (funny definitely), but a very active decision and something that made Knives above every other character fun to write is that he is not a human being and does not think of himself as such. The way his body experiences emotion is different, his body itself is different in a way that probably includes genitalia, and there's no reason for him to experience gender the same way. As I'm about to talk about in the upcoming chapter, he casually refers to himself as a thing and with it/its and it doesn't affect his superiority complex whatsoever.

I...would not have said that this is trans by myself, if that makes sense, because I wouldn't have wanted to say "in order to really hammer in how this character is INHUMAN then I'm gonna make him not male or female and prefer neopronouns!". It's just the shape of the character, to me. BUT LIKE IF Y'ALL LIKE IT! NO PROBLEM! I was just worried I might be saying the wrong thing, so I didn't want to say it, if that makes sense. Y'all can say it though.

Trigun worldbuilding is nonsensical and hideously vague and as a writer if you stop and think too hard about silly questions like "where does the wood come from" or "why is Vash eating salmon sandwiches" then you go insane. But...yeah, Gunsmoke's like any other ecosystem, and its worms and thomases seem to be doing great! It's not Gunsmoke's fault it is almost completely uninhabitable to humans. It sucks for us, but...does Knives care about that??? Lmfao???

There is a shitton to say about Knives' relationship with predestination and inevitability, because it's why he made the worst decision of his life. I think of it as...reasonable, in a lot of ways. If all you knew about humanity was what you read in history textbooks, and human history ended with the destruction of Earth and themselves, how would you feel? Everything humans have done, they do again. And if they dissected your sister, in an act of cruelty that they had done to even themselves...of course you'd worry. Of course. If you're young and scared and you can hear the screams of the dead in your ears, of course you feel like it's going to be you or them. And if you're.........Millions Knives.......and reverse!Vash.....then eliminating the threat is just good business sense.

And you aren't reading too much into it - Trigun in so many ways is about choices, and the impact of your choices. Your decisions are you own, and you must take responsibility for them. Decisions have weight in Trigun. I think what ppl miss sometimes about Vash is that he also wants to fuckin' murder people sometimes. He wants to be violent, he wants to hurt. He just chooses not to. Sometimes choosing pacifism is a hard fucking choice, and I think wiping that away does a disservice to the character. So if Knives would say, "Well, it's just who I am, I had no choice, I had no control, I just go nuts and murder it's not on me..." - what does that mean, in Trigun? It's??? Like??? A pussy thing to say???

But, the way I thought about it - what Knives is fighting is his internal sense that he is predestined for cruelty. He knows "who he really is" and any attempt at goodness is futile, because he's secretly bad and will always be bad. And he fucks up sometimes and starts exploding worms. But Knives chooses goodness, and I don't think he's really cottoned on that his choice to do good is more important than his internal desires to do bad and his history of badness. Because he hates himself.

I think what Knives knows now as an adult is that our lives have paved a path for us to tread. Sometimes that path is innocent, and sometimes your life paves a very nasty path. But it's our choice if we walk it or not. Knives knows what his path is, and it gives him extreme shame - but he chose which one he walked, and that's what I judge him on. Still funny how much he loves murder though.

[radiantlyrey]

Thoughts on Uprising Episode 5, Identity

- Beck continuing the trend of getting into trouble with Wrong Place, Wrong Time stuffs. poor kid…

- love that Tron is in this episode more, being the same Grouch as always.

- the disc theft is……. Interesting. We know from Legacy that there is such thing as a forged disc (Zuse mentions it in the list of things Sam needs to get to the Portal); perhaps stolen discs is where those come from? And stray programs are mentioned in Legacy as well, though not expanded upon. Honestly, TRON is FULL of Unexplained Worldbuilding Things that I would give my right hand to know. UGH

- stray programs are such an interesting concept. Like the disc is the program, apparently?? It’s like…. well actually thinking about it, it makes sense?? Kind of???? The program is made of fairly basic code; the disc holds that code and its log of activities, while the body is just a physical manifestation of the code itself. Unlike Users/humans, whose code is an inherent part of them/us, and thus can’t be memory-wiped by swiping an activity log. It’s interesting as fuck, is what I’m saying. Like the philosophical implications of the program being the disc and not the physical person—so Interesting!!!!!

- also the glitches are scary as Fuck. One moment you know what’s going on and then the next you don’t know anything?? Terrifying. And well portrayed by the episode, too, with the fisheye effect on Beck’s closeups and the general blurriness from his PoV.

- could have sworn Cobol was voiced by Ron Perlman, but it was some person I’ve not heard of instead. Doing one heck of a Perlman impression, tbqh.

- Lux is EXTREMELY INTERESTING TO ME. Siren who’s gotten caught up in the black market?? INTERESTING. Also she’s a whole hell of a lot more principled than Cobol, because when she sees Tron it’s like everything changes for her. Also the shaved head is just badass looking.

- meanwhile, a three scene B plot with Zed and Mara!! That took up like six minutes of episode time. Like okayyyyy. Turns out I didn’t need to be so worried about Zed joining the anti-Renegade taskforce, because it turns out Mara kind of guilted him into doing the right thing!!! Good for him I guess.

- Also someone commented on my last commentary post that Bartik here and Bartik in Legacy are the same character/program, and uh. Wonder how THAT happens, because damn. How does one go from happily helping Clu’s forces to hoping a revolution against Clu can be sparked into existence???? Color me intrigued as fuck.

- love Tron’s comments about Beck being his friend at the end there. Especially the bit about trusting someone as a friend and being betrayed, bc from what I know of later episodes, that could be like three different programs!!!! (Clu, like Beck assumes; Dyson I have heard was a friend turned enemy; and then Cyrus as well!! Again I have not watched the whole series and my last dip in was 10 years ago, but from what Discussion I have seen I am making some Assumptions.) also love the comment that he “made the right choice this time”, because that is just dripping with implications that I imagine pay off in future episodes…..

- other details: Purgos as the name of the black market district is interesting, with the obvious name tie to Xtian (or at least Catholic) Purgatory; wonder what the creators meant for us to take from that… // Galt was an interesting one off character; total sleazeball of course, but interesting nonetheless // ngl when they were surrounded by all of Cobol’s goons, I was kinda cackling because like. It’s Tron. Even scarred all to hell he’s gonna kick most of y’all’s asses.

- I am probably gonna watch this episode again with captions on so I can get helpful juicy deets for my TRON horror story fic idea. I gotta do some brainstorming on stuffs tonight for sure.

- that said the brainstorming might have to wait bc the next episode has Paige Backstory and also QUORRA sooooooooo…….. yeah

[giomagnetism]

pantomime

ok this one's gonna be fun! and long! let's talk about sprite's mimic abilities!

sprite is a mimic octoling, but is rather remarkable for not servicing the military—mimics are often recon agents, sometimes spies, or otherwise deployed to get a foot in the door of inkopolis culture and report back to the underground. their flexibility is extraordinarily useful and they are not the majority population, so (although there are of course civilian mimics or those who just never lived underground in the first place) their recruitment is a priority. they are trained to inhabit one or two guises completely, prioritizing detail and replicable results, with identities and personal histories fabricated and thrust upon them by the octarian government. despite their extraordinary nature, most mimics' daily lives are characterized by a pretty mundane routine and utilize one persona. but, none of that goes for sprite.

while he is native to the domes and has a familial history in the military, sprite got moved to the surface before he could get more than basic training and fundamental education. for most of their life they've relied on teaching themself how to navigate their abilities, and have taken it in a very different direction from the traditional path. whereas most mimics inhabit one or two persons to great depth, sprite really leans into their flexibility and has no eye for perfection, and for that reason, can manage a lot of things that most other mimics don't or even can't. i.e., most mimics don't dramatically change their height, or even hairstyle. but sprite's whole form is malleable, including their face, although they don't usually opt to change their features because they tend to forget to maintain that and ruin the illusion. oops.

his whole shtick is making up a person to live as for a day and then causing them to vanish into thin air once he goes home for the night, but he can also mimic existing people, if he wants. the only rule sprite abides by is the law of conservation of mass, ex., they have too much to make a convincing ness, but not enough to make a convincing marlo. funnily enough, they COULD manage a reasonable spencer or shiloh, or even bernadine, but it also turns out that memorizing the details of another person's physicality is really hard and requires an unreasonable amount of exposure. if you catch them in the act of this, you're gonna be uncanny valley'd real hard, because they're always just a little off, and if you look away and back again their features might have shifted in the meantime. they're mischievous, but not malicious, they don't ever do this for any reason other than fucking around (and if they're not careful, finding out).

sprite is a storyteller, theatrical and most often with an eye out for a good hook and a strong presence. very few of his "alts" are meant to last or weather examination (even the ones that do are playing to some sort of effect, including the one named "sprite", constructed, deliberately, to be a fly on the wall.)—which has proved both a good thing and a very bad thing.

[artyrambles]

So a new video with previews of changes/additions made to WoT in 2023 has been uploaded today, and overall I am getting a positive impression from it but of course I’m gonna wait for further details and the actual implementation before getting excited or mad. (Knowing WG’s track record, especially the cool exciting features tend to never make it into the actual game.)

For now here’s my first impressions of the things mentioned in the video:

New/Returning Special Game Modes

Can’t say I personally care much about those, never did. But I know the general playerbase likes them for variety so I’m not complaining.

New Frontline Map

Same as above, I’m not a special mode player so this doesn’t really affect me but at least the visuals of this map seem really nice.

New Oyster Bay Map for random matches

They didn’t show much of this one but I’m guessing it’s one of the maps they’ve been testing previously so it’s probably easy to find some info on it.

Rebalancing of 8 existing maps

So we got Airfield, Studzianki, Mountain Pass, Steppes, Live Oaks, Cliff, Westfield, and Mines lined up for that.

I think on Airfield it’s more difficult to defend the base on the West spawn, so hoping for some adjustments there.

Studzianki seems fine overall to me, curious what they’ll change there.

Mountain Pass feels a bit imbalanced on the South spawn, as in slightly easier to defend but difficult for TDs and arty to set up effectively compared to North spawn. 

On Steppes I notice that the battles always seem to happen very close to the North spawn, so maybe they’ll try to shift that more towards the middle.

Live Oaks has very wonky balance (it feels all over the place and kinda unfair towards North spawn) so it would be neat to see improvements.

On Cliff it feels like the big hill is more accessible to North spawn, so that is generally an advantage, and the valley down on the west side is where your team goes to die in the bottleneck... Hoping for fixes.

Mines is.... well, Mines. I think South spawn is kinda fucked over because it’s very easy to spot the entire southern half if you have a scout on the hill and it seems easier for North spawn to take the hill. So I could imagine changes there.

New Prestige/Achievement system

This seems a bit like another e-dong comparison system. I don’t have strong feelings about it - on first glance it looks like XVM ratings are being added to the base game but with the added bonus of in-rewards and even players without mods being able to see them. The video hints at various stats being included in this rating. It seems to be individual to the vehicle, so sort of like XVM’s xTE stat? Either way, sure why not.

Crew Skills Rework

This seems less jarring than the last time they tried to completely rework the crew system. I got a screenshot of the changed/added crew skills here. There’s some really noteworthy updates in there. Not sure if I understand the "improvement” of BiA, it seems identical to me. But it seems like they came up with good ideas how to finally make the “useless” skills more relevant, and the newly added skills are definitely looking interesting. I’m most surprised at the skills that will reduce RNG, since that is something players have been asking for but seemed unlikely to actually be introduced. Maybe the Arcade mode experiments were leading up to this.

Really surprised at the change to crew training. From what I understand all crews start at 100% training now, so skills are available immediately even if you don’t pay gold for a new crew member. Apparently the difference between the free, credits, and gold training is now just how much your first skill/perk will be trained right away. (Free - 0%, Credits - 50%, Gold - 100%) What I’m really curious about there is how this will affect already existing crews after the update. I‘m guessing the training levels for the skills will stay the same, but all crews below 100% major qualification will be raised to 100%. Slight bitter aftertaste here when I think about all the gold and credits I’ve spent in the past for crew training.

The crews will now be trained for 3 tanks, which I guess isn’t too bad cause let’s be honest, the being stuck to 1 tank limitation (minus premium tanks) has always been annoying.

Final Moment Camera (kill cam)

Another thing that has been a mod before and is now being added to the base game. No complaints here, I think it will help people be less likely to yell “HACKS!!!” when they can see where they were hit and what the circumstances were. It also seems to show a glimpse at whether you were spotted or not, which I think will also improve people’s understanding of why they died.

Vehicle Rebalance

There’s zero info shown here so we’ll wait until February for details I guess.

New Vehicles

I’ve seen it mentioned that the vehicles are being ported over from WoT Blitz, but I have to admit I don’t even care enough to look them up.

Gun Overheating Mechanic

With how little info is shown on the clip it’s hard to say how this will affect gameplay. Is it going to be retrofitted to existing vehicles or will it just be a new gimmick of newly introduced ones that WG then forgets about like so many before it? I can see that it could either severely hinder or improve the performance of existing auto-cannons (depending on how it compares to current magazines).

Night Maps

That’s a neat thing! I know the community has wanted night maps since the beginning of WoT and I’m curious to see if there’s going to be specific mechanics implemented for it.

Dynamic Water & Map Objects

This is honestly the thing I’m most curious and tentatively excited about. I’ve been joking about how the hurricane on Highway should just travel across the map late in the match before. It seems like maybe not something this extreme will happen, but tides on the maps that contain (ocean) water and stuff like non-player vehicles crashing into the map with large-scale destructive effects could really spice up matches. Of course it would add a giant RNG factor to the match if this happens randomly - but something like the zeppelin crashing into Himmelsdorf that we see in the video being a scripted event that happens every match could really add new strategic depth to the battles. I think it would be interesting if these big events had a sort of announcement or timer in the match HUD.

I’m not gonna get my hopes up, but in the clips it seems like environment being destructible might happen after all with this change, but who knows.

[dragonologist-phd]

As a fellow Aeducan player, give me all the 6s please😌

ah thank you! I love rambling about my lovely Marja!

In fact, I love rambling so much I'm gonna put this under a cut, cuz it gets long:

6. Do they have a preferred weapon they always use?

asdfghjkl yes and there's actually a lot of overthinking and symbolism(tm) behind the weapons she uses throughout the game.

Marja is a warrior, and in Orzammar she mainly used swords- greatswords were favorite, but she was also well-trained in sword & shield, and usually wore those weapons for ceremonial events and public appearances. They were all family weapons, and she was very proud to wear her ancestral shield even if it wasn't her preferred style.

Once exiled, of course, she lost all of that, and ended up returning to two-handed weapons. She got a battleaxe in Ostagar that she was immediately very fond of, and she continued to use weapons of the same style throughout her journey.

When she went back to Orzammar, however, she steadfastly refused to use anything but sword & shield. She was determined to gain her honor back, and a big part of that was wearing the Aeducan shield to remind everyone of who she was. She was also just having a huge identity crisis through that whole thing, but long story short is that her shield ended up getting destroyed in battle while protecting Darvis, and she was so distracted at the time she didn't even notice.

She briefly considered getting it repaired, but finally decided to leave it behind, as by that point she'd finally accepted that there was no way for her to return to the way things had been. She's been back to using her battleaxes ever since!

6. Which aspects of the culture they were born into holds the most significance for them?

For Marja, it's dwarven ideals of strength and honor. Marja was raised to never show weakness to anybody, and that still has a big effect on how she interacts with people

She's also big on the dwarven idea of honor- she hates breaking promises or resorting to underhanded tactics, and once someone breaks their oath or shows themselves as untrustworthy, she can be a bit ruthless in delivering justice. It's a bit of an eternal paradox- she knows that dwarven politics aren't as honorable as they claim to be, and but she really wants to be above all that, and to actually uphold the lessons she's been taught all her life

6. Do they have a love interest? How did their relationship start?

Marja had a relationship with Leliana- it kind of snuck up on her, and she didn't realize she was crushing on her until they had a moment together in Redcliffe. Leliana comforted Marja after the whole Connor debacle, and ended up confessing her backstory. Marja was really touched that Leliana trusted her with that, then realized how pretty she was, and then she was goner XD

The relationship didn't last- the two weren't a good fit for each other long-term, and Marja ended up kind of self-sabotaging the relationship while she was spiraling in Orzammar. It was messy for a bit, but they do still care about each other a lot

And eventually, Marja ended up in relationship with Sigrun! She was much more resistant to that relationship, as she was afraid of messing up again, but gradually she let down her walls, and the two of them are very happy

6. How do they feel about dragons?

Not a fan. They remind her too much of the archdemon.

6. What did they name their Mabari?

In my 'canon', Darvis was the who ended up imprinted with the mabari; he named it Nug, much to Marja's annoyance. She eventually got a mabari puppy of her own after the Blight, which she named Astyth!

Anyway, if anyone read all that and still wants more Marja, I never pass up an opportunity to shamelessly promote my fic Of Diamonds And Dust, which focuses on her and Darvis Brosca as Wardens!

[b66clematis]

those 2 P5 spinoffs (and its old men faceoff), pt 3: "what strikers can learn from tactica (spoiler: it's writing)"

last part of this series of writings between strikers VS tactica. see part 1 about which i like more here, and part 2 on between zenkichi and toshiro here. this one will be long though, and i don't intend to cut it again into 2 parts, as this series is long already.

now, while i did end up liking strikers more by overall, upon playing tactica, something btiters me about strikers. something that made me think of "damn man, strikers kinda sucked here badly, not gonna lie".

the first one is minor and not will be the focus here, but still gripped me: the UI. i liked how tactica has its a more distinguishable identity to their UI aesthetic. strikers meanwhile, feels really trying to follow what the base game has. my least favorite thing is the metaverse animation transition. the one strikers had is like a bad knock-off of the base game (the circles should have different weight and size!!!), it made me wish that strikers would just do a totally new animation, like what tactica did with its lava-bubbly effect. it's not mementos' metaverse anymore, anyway. even maruki's metaverse has its own effect.

the second, and my main point here, is the writing. the first thing that bugged me is, of course, how tactica's plot structure is not a P5 basegame rehash. even the first boss, which people thought is going to be "a sexual assaulter because they're pink skinned and has revealing/suggesstive outfit", doesn't feel like a kamoshida rehash. alice is definitely better and have a very different motive to harrass the powerless, but i always thought her BDSM-related writing always feel forced, as if they just want to make her pattern reminiscent of kamoshida. marie's real life counterpart at least isn't shown to be that kind of "horrible dominant" woman to toshiro. she's more like okumura with only a sprinkle of alice, if anything. which, hey, at least it breaks the mold more than what alice did.

although, i personally still loved with what we got for strikers. i think their approach, while fell in some aspects, also feels like "what can we appraoch differently, or maybe improve from the base game?". i just wish that they... maybe, avoid the 7 deadly sins pattern? make the first boss not another pink sexual assaulter? i think they can tread P5's water less. they already have a good concept by making the bosses sympathetic and using that as the game's angle, so i think they can be bolder in making their own story beats.

the second point of the second point (LOL) here is... i think there's a jarring quality between how koei tecmo and atlus writes the base game's characters (i don't know who are the writers for tactica - i think i read somewhere that at least one of them is outsourced, but at least it's picked and the game is mainly made by atlus themselves, so i assume more control). the two characters that i find to glow up the most from strikers to tactica are lavenza and futaba.

for lavenza... man, strikers lavenza is SO BORING. she's literally doing nothing but to guide you. and it doesn't help that she's guiding you with vague wordings, which kind of irks me. she's just there. i'm also irritated at how they wrote joker to always keep secret about talking to lavenza in the velvet room in strikers, when the entire party member already knew about the velvet room, igor, and lavenza in the base game! and i think, he should have introduced lavenza to sophia and zenkichi too.

in tactica, at least you see her having a bit more fun by trying to keep up with human lingo, remodifying her velvet room, and.. trains. i like trains [gets crashed by a train]. and joker doesn't gatekeep the velvet room from the team. erina and toshiro are also permitted to the velvet room (although to be fair, the plot kind of forces them to, otherwise there's no way they'll reach salmael). although in terms of lavenza's character, i can probably forgive them due to the lack of materials during strikers' development. you didn't get much time with lavenza, and you only get more of that in royal's 3rd semester expansion (which, she also gets to be silly there). probably the strikers writers are also as confused on what to do with her.

now, for futaba... wow. i think she really becomes BETTER here. i don't get people who whined how annoying futaba is for speaking in geeky references, beause like... she does the same in the base game, come on. she likened the real life like a game. her geeky lingo does not flanderize her at all, she's been like that since her arc in the base game. in strikers, i think she's the one that gets the least treatment (there's also another one, but we'll talk about it in the end).

she got her moment during the capture of the phantom thieves in kyoto jail and having to get zenkichi to them safely, but i thought 1) it was too brief, and 2) her talk pre-zenkichi's awakening about her mother feels... tacked. it's as if the writers go "oh shoot, we forget futaba's mother also died by a politican via car crash, quick put it in". i suppose it's due to how the writing have conditioned that each arc will be meant for a character, and while kyoto arc is about zenkichi, akane's circumstance made us think that this arc is about makoto, because the sapporo-okinawa trip mini arc looks it's dedicated for her. she also talks on a similar amount to zenkichi here. i think this could be fixed if futaba talks a bit more about it during the sapporo-okinawa trip mini arc. besides, i found her suddenly talking about her mother to zenkichi is weird, because we have never seen futaba saying anything about her mother. unless zenkichi does some detective work behind the camera (which seems to be the case, as zenkichi just connects like that), zenkichi won't know that futaba's mother died from car crashed planned by the government.

i actually think that futaba may do this due to her inability to communicate properly to others, so she may be holding off from saying things that... who knows how the other party will react. makoto thought explaining that she also went through a similar thing to akane would comfort her, but turns out it triggers akane a little bit, instead (due to lacking context of the case's behind the scenes). however, tactica gets this and still does the job right.

to recall kingdom 2, we got a geist on toshiro's mother, how she died, and how toshiro was blamed for her death. futaba definitely wanted to say something when she sees this memory. she talks about it, but she ends up holding it off. you get the intention that she wants to say something, but she couldn't. she looks frustated and has something to say. i think futaba has this moment too in strikers - she teared up when she heard akane's story during the study session with makoto. but she says nothing at all, so it comes off like she's just touched by it. she doesn't try to say anything to akane nor zenkichi.

and later on in kingdom 3, when toshiro finally unlocks all of his traumatic past and ends up thinking that he's a horrible person who doesn't deserve to be saved, futaba's emotion bottled up. it's full, and it has to be spilled. so she did - she slapped toshiro. with anger. she's done with holding it off and seeing toshiro falling down this easily. and what's great from this moment isn't just about how it shows the writers know what to do with futaba - it also has a good build up. it's not just a brief moment of "this character relates to the current plot". it's one done in a long run. it's so good that i have to put the snippet here.

these two really made me think that, goddamn. no matter how good is your third-party writer, the ones hired by atlus themselves and worked with the actual atlus writers will always get the characters better. like, koei tecmo did a good job in expanding characters that they intend to focus on to give them more spotlight, but the expense was a bit too much. the ones who don't get any are really left out. it kind of comes off as if the writers only know futaba the most for being a geeky girl, when IMO she has one of the most emotional arc in the base game. i also liked how all the characters got a roughly similar amount of spotlight in tactica, but i think this is just about preferences on how they approach the character focus. once again, strikers focuses more on giving spotlight for characters that are less-hyped by the fans, and they did it well. tactica just picks a more balanced approach by dunking all the kids' traumas to one old man. so yeah. i really wish for the next game, at least to have a more direct or strict overseeing from atlus.

now, the only issue both games have is... i think both games kind of forget that ryuji has an abusive dad, i think? surprised that ryuji still talks more about his school's bad enviroment more than his own family. this glaringly happens in strikers though, in which... i don't know man, i think ryuji should spat out his words more for konoe's dad. that guy literally murdered his own wife, man. but that F-word moment really saved him from falling into the same trap futaba has - although, that also only happens in the EN localization, who are familiar with that running joke. who knows what will happen, if we got a localization that are not familiar with it. i hope atlus gives him more spotlight too, at least for the international fans (i get that he's not popular in japan, and i think it's understandable. not a big issue to me). here's to hoping!