#of this type of fandom makes people falsely

[earthmixsclowderofcats]

.

[minalover]

alright friends and enemies, gather round, it's time to talk.

first of all, looks like we're a little fuzzy on the term gaslighting. so, to refresh your memory:

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that often occurs in abusive relationships. It is a covert type of emotional abuse where the bully or abuser misleads the target, creating a false narrative and making them question their judgments and reality.

good. now that that's out of the way.

i got triggered by a post today, floating around the side of the fandom that doesn't cross my dash that often, that i didn't expect to hit that hard. see, that's the thing about triggers. most of the time, they're not big, scary, overall concepts. most of the time, they're very small. very specific. words, actions, tones. and i didn't expect this one to hit me. but it did. so hard that i've been trying not to cry for the past hour or so and inspired me to write this down. because it's unbelievably clear, due to the behavior over the last few days, that we need to talk.

eddie's behavior in the kitchen fight in 8x17 was not abusive. point blank. and calling it so is disingenuous. this was a painful and very realistic fight between two people who love and support each other and, due to outrageous circumstances, cannot fight clean. eddie cuts buck to the quick. buck does the same to eddie. the hand on the shoulder and pointer finger is the same behavior we've seen from eddie multiple times, ranging from goofy (bachelor party) to vulnerable (post-tsunami) to supportive (when buck comes out to eddie). this one was done in rage and grief. of course it doesn't look the same. of course it feels different. (from a cinematographical perspective, if they had wanted it to read as abusive, they would have shown it to us. but they didn't. so make your own conclusions if you're able.)

eddie does not have a history of violent or abusive behavior. if you're about to lean on the he almost killed a guy in fight club, yeah. he did. are you also talking about lena bosko, who got him into the first club, in the same way? do you want to talk about how eddie was using it as the world's worst coping mechanism to avoid grief? or how he immediately worked to save the man's life, call for help, and quit? no? okay. you know how else i know he doesn't have a history of violent behavior? because no one is afraid of him. not his son, not his aunt, not his parents, not his coworkers, not his girlfriends, not his wife. so go ahead and wrap that up.

eddie bringing chris and pepa home wasn't love bombing. again, let's go through definitions - [l]ove bombing is an attempt to influence another person with over-the-top displays of attention and affection. so just right off the bat, not the same. what eddie did was apologize to buck in the way he can hear it. we've been talking about love languages and, even though they come from a heteronormative and religious place, they're still helpful in this conversation here. eddie is always supporting buck with words and buck is always supporting eddie with actions. in this moment? eddie realizes that what buck's been struggling with is that lack of family (shown to the audience as the lack of family meals compared with pre-bobby's death). so to apologize and show his love, he brings family together to share a meal. just because it didn't sound like an apology to you doesn't mean it didn't sound like one to buck.

just because it isn't racist to you doesn't mean it doesn't come from racism. as we walk through white fragility 101 together, there is a difference between hey you're racist and hey that thing you said comes from a racist and problematic place can we break it down. holding a character of color (chimney and, in this case, eddie) to different standards than white characters (bobby and buck) is derived from racist ideology whether you intend for it to be or not. so take a step back and look at why you seem to be reacting in this specific way to this specific behavior by this specific character. i can't ask you to unravel every implicit bias you've ever been taught, but i can ask you to take a look at your actions if a bunch of people are pointing it out.

there is gaslighting happening here, but not how you think. the way some folks in this fandom have been posting and reacting to the buddie 8x17 kitchen scene have truly made me second guess everything i'd been seeing. the constant, vitriolic reaction to something i didn't find that upsetting made me go back and watch again and again. did i miss something, am i not able to see it, what's going on? and, here we go kids--what's happening here is gaslighting.

it is a covert type

of emotional abuse

where the bully or abuser misleads the target

creating a false narrative

making them question their judgments and reality.

finally, let's look at what you're specifically not saying. by saying that eddie is abusive, that it looked like he was going to come after buck with a knife, that buddies are sick for romanticizing the behavior (which i haven't seen but okay we'll go with it for now), you're implying that the people who support (or don't actively stand against) eddie's behavior in this episode are no better than abusers themselves. that's your underlying message. by spinning his non-abusive behavior as abuse, taking that narrative for truth, and putting everyone who doesn't agree with you on the opposite side of that argument, you're calling us abusers. and i, frankly, take issue with that.

i need you to understand the difference between uncomfortable and unsafe. i need you to understand that this was not inherently romantic, but emotionally vulnerable. and i need you to understand that clinging to your morally superior high horse will not save you in the real world.

if you want to come yell at me, by all means. anon is off, so you gotta do it with your whole chest. i'd much rather talk about it. i'm here to do white fragility 101 if you need it.

[lettiegrief]

It's ironic to me that part of the fandom insists so much that Hua Cheng's personality revolves around Xie Lian when in fact MXTX created Hua Cheng first and then had to make Xie Lian his ideal type. Like, the truth is that Xie Lian was molded for Hua Cheng. I find this contradiction very funny, I'm sorry.

But they were indeed created for each other.

Hua Cheng has a strong personality, he is firm in his ideals and beliefs, assertive in his opinions, cold in his justice and someone who does not bend the rules just to fit in, he creates a third way instead of adapting to a world that hates him and was cruel to him.

His ideal type would have to be someone as confident as him, who not only does not bend the rules, but also does not get corrupted by difficulties, someone benevolent enough to see people like him with kindness, because only someone faithful in his beliefs would be able to be so different from everything that the world says is right — because the right thing is for you to annihilate people like Hua Cheng, whether they are innocent or not, just because of a supposed curse that they did not ask for.

This meta is based on this excerpt from the afterword that MXTX put in TGCF ↓

When it comes to character designs, the Shou’s were decided on first for the first two novels, but I was torn over the Gong’s for a long time, and needed a run-in period. Hua Cheng, however, was an exception. Inspiration struck and there he was; inspiration struck again, and I blinded one of his eyes.

[...]

It was actually the Shou, Xie Lian, who tortured me for up to half a year’s time. When the novel started serializing, I was still torn over him for a long time.

[...]

But the most important thing is, by my instincts, someone like Hua Cheng will most definitely love someone like this. So, after a good half a year’s worth of qualms, in the end I still typesetted him: It’s you!

Speaking more about this postscript, I found it interesting how for MXTX, Xie Lian was the most difficult character she has ever played. People tend to think that Xie Lian only has two personality traits: (false, for many) kindness and idiocy. The idiocy may even be right lol, but when you stop to think about it, Xie Lian is a really difficult character to create and, mainly, to develop.

For all the layers he has, he could easily be a snobbish prince, a vengeful and bitter ex-prince, a fallen prince who rises again to reconquer his kingdom and reclaim his throne or a spotless saint who is always intelligent and wise and is above things like sadness, anger, lust, etc.

We know that Xie Lian is none of these things, he was not made for these plots. But if he is none of these things, then what could he be? Honestly, I find it very difficult for anyone to come to the conclusion that your protagonist is a "loser" who failed and has no ambition to rebuild his kingdom and become the new king. It's bold to make your protagonist a poor and extremely unlucky nomad, especially with the princely background that you gave him, we can see from the amount of stories out there about protagonists who lost their kingdoms and then have a path of reconquest that it's difficult not to be tempted to follow that path.

Of course, Xie Lian is a god, something greater than a prince or king, but he is a poor god, known as "the joke of the three kingdoms", he has no wealth and for 800 years he only had 1 believer that he didn't even know existed and he is also known as the "god of plague" and "immortal scrap collector", unconventional titles in the literary world lol

He must experience youthful ignorance, overestimation of his own abilities, have been laughable, been foolish, made mistakes, despaired, felt hatred, gone crazy. But he can’t run, and he can’t hide; everything is what it is. All this was killing me. Not just within the text, but outside the text too. My mediation was useless, and I’ve no energy anymore either, so in order not to be affected, I stopped looking at comments altogether. Since I always habitually vaccinate myself before a serialization begins, speculating on all the worst possible scenarios and preparing myself mentally, by the time serialization started I had already expected how all the negative comments would go down. But after much hesitation, I still thought, why not try all different kinds of characters? I haven’t tried writing a main character like this before.

— MXTX

[sapphicrot]

I am sure you are all aware of the current state of the fandom. I have done my best to avoid all of the controversy, but seeing how others have voiced their concerns I would like to as well.

I, as an artist, do not feel safe in the Rain World fandom.

I have expressed this in the past, but I have been the victim of false pedophile and grooming allegations with the use of manipulated and doctored screenshots. I do not have the words to articulate just how psychologically damaging it is to have an entire fandom turn on you in an instant. To have your social life destroyed. To have hundreds or even thousands of people celebrate your downfall, simply because you annoyed them, because now they have a "reason" to. Watching this fandom gleefully parade around shaky evidence and happily participate in this type of behavior is sickening to me. It makes me worry that someday, I will annoy someone enough to have another false allegation made against me, and I will have to go through that again. There is a part of me that believes I would not survive such a thing. I am not trying to be dramatic when I say that, but people need to realize that "internet drama" can cause serious harm your mental health. I still have PTSD nightmares related to the callout post made about me from 3 years ago. This is not something you can just “get over”.

People need to remember fanartists are not paragons of grace, nor are they perfect. The fact that the internet has allowed people to dehumanize artists into "content machines" that must never slip up rather than human beings who are messy and awkward and can fuck up at times is sickening. I do not feel comfortable in a fandom that jumps at the opportunity to harass someone over a mistake, that stirs up a witchunt over what boils down to miscommunications. A fandom that treats every situation as black and white and doesn't wait for all the evidence to come out.

I believe nyuuronfly put it best in their post:

"It is not inspiring to sit around and get attention in an atmosphere where the more attention you get the more you know many of the eyes that are looking toward you are searching for a weak point to go after."

I understand revealing a lot of my trauma in this post is a potentially stupid decision, but I believe my story can help make people realize the genuine harm callout posts cause. It is not fun having to deal with constant paranoia that hundreds of people are praying on your downfall. I have considered not posting about, or simply deleting my rot au many times because of worry that someone will think it's too “dark” or “problematic” and decide I am the fandom's #1 punching bag for months.

As of now, I will not be deleting, nor will I stop posting art. But I have considered it many times, and this behavior as of late brought me the closest I've ever been to doing so. I love rain world and frankly, I don't want to feel this way about the fandom! I want this place to be positive, I want better for this game. I'm not mad, just disappointed.

TL;DR:

PLEASE for the LOVE OF GOD stop reblogging callout posts.

Fanartists are PEOPLE. They are giving you FREE art. Treat them better.

You are not immune to false screenshots, mob mentality, and black and white thinking.

Rain world is a gorgeous, creative, and deeply moving game. Please, let's work to make this community reflect that.

[kerorokai]

it's really interesting to see how people perceive kabru cause there seems to be a bit of a disparity between how he really acts and how he's portrayed in fanart and fan memes and such

with the way people talk about him you'd think he's this huge flirt or actively trying to use his good looks or whatever to get a leg up but he really.... doesn't? at least i can't think of a significant time where he does. is it cause he teases rinsha? or kisses her as a fish? i think those are dubious examples, but also even if you do read them as genuine flirting theyre pretty small and not repeated with any other character.

it reads more like he's just genuinely charming and good with people. he never tries to make a pass with anyone, people just like him cause he's.... likeable. and in universe characters do act aware of how charming he is (see: mickbell, holm, daya), but they never seem to insinuate that he's actually a tease or that he like, gets around. i guess there's a mention of "rumours" here? have most people seen this? is this what they based it off of?

it's also worth noting that in the same comic those exact rumours (whatever they may exactly be) are proven to be unfounded, kabru is just the type of guy people feel like they can open up to. they don't even talk about him like he's doing it on purpose!

if it's cause he MIGHT be half incubus, my friend brings up a good point: it feels like an intentional subversion to not have him be a sexual "siren" in that way. ryoko kui is very intentional with her world and characters, and to have kabru's succubus/incubus-identity up for debate while also having him be not particularly flirtatious seems like the type of irony she would write on purpose.

to me, really, it seems very indicative of how fandom at large views brown men. kabru's in an interesting position cause he seems to get most angles of this type of flanderization. he's seen as both overly sinister and drama-seeking while also being extremely flirtatious and a whore when.... he's kind of neither of those things?

he's not evil or particularly more violent than anyone else, he's just really utilitarian and has this false impression at first where you think he's gonna be some sort of secondary antagonist but he's way too smart for that. he doesn't manipulate people any more than any other character. and he's not really a whore at all he just.... likes reading people? and knowing people? and people like him? idk man.

it's part of this larger issue where brown men in fiction are both demonized and sexualized at the same time. i don't even think it's on purpose, i just think that most people don't even realize this is something they need to unlearn. it's not even cause i don't like shipping kabru! i do! i just don't agree with flanderizing him to do it.

i think kabru is much more than the first impressions of him you might have, or even the first impressions of him the characters in universe may have. and while i don't think someone posting ooc fanart of kabru is directly racist, i think a lot of it upholds the racism people are already accustomed to. it makes me a little sad!

[bugsandboos]

tsurugi’s influence in revelator: let’s talk about it

something i noticed while watching revelator was the underlying implication that ms tsurugi is still very much active in the inner workings of the agreste family.

let’s set the record straight: we know very little about ms tsurugi’s partnership with gabriel from the earlier seasons. however, we do know that ms tsurugi is a very wealthy, smart, and cunning individual who owns a business in the technology industry, allowing for her to team up with gabriel to create the alliance rings in s5. she knew gabriel was monarch and willingly working with him (very important to note that she did not work for him), her intentions a mystery.

obviously, what made me realize tsurugi likely had some involvement in the events of revelator was vincent mentioning she sponsored him in one of his videos:

seems kinda meaningless at face value, like something the writers inserted to fill an awkward space in the script. however, if you watch miraculous, you know that everything is intentional.

okay, so ms tsurugi sponsors this recently famous influencer who makes a living off of spreading false information about people. this is odd, as it doesn’t seem like the type of content tsurugi (a very no-nonsense type of person) would endorse.

on the contrary, vincent’s videos are coincidentally targeted at “reporting” on people who tsurugi had some sort of personal connection to. weird, right?

the most obvious example of this is how vincent is very clearly anti-adrienette. tsurugi and gabriel pushed hard for adrien and kagami to get together in earlier seasons to create “perfect” images for their brands.

as soon as these words came out of his mouth, sirens immediately went off in my mind. WHY is vincent, a seemingly irrelevant character, using the same type of language gabriel and tsurugi used to describe their own children???

rich, famous, good-looking. vincent is glorifying adrien and kagami, describing them as pretty and powerful faces that shouldn’t be involved with common people such as marinette, a baker’s daughter (who he implied is using adrien for his status and success).

language like this has been used to describe adrien since his adrien, the fragrance days—perfect being the most prominent word. why? the lore is insane (iykyk), but to put it simply, adrien is a sentimonster, a creation in the eyes of gabriel. he believed his son could be nothing short of flawless.

a theory common in the miraculous fandom is that kagami is also a sentimonster. i won’t dive into this theory too much, but there’s plenty of concrete evidence to back it up—a noteworthy one being tsurugi using similar language to describe her daughter as gabriel did for adrien. she has high expectations for kagami, and wants her to be nothing short of the best—exactly how gabriel “parented” adrien.

from vincent’s video, it’s implied that tsurugi paid him to spread hurtful misinformation that marinette was a golddigger. her motivation? to get kagami and adrien back together. we already know she hates felix, her daughter’s current boyfriend, so it makes sense.

a possible counterargument:

“vincent is just creating meaningless drama revolving around the popular topic of gabriel agreste’s death, as it offers the opportunities for him to gain popularity”

respectfully, nothing is meaningless in miraculous. maybe i would agree with this argument if TSURUGI of all people didn’t sponsor his content. maybe i would agree with this argument if he didn’t spread false information that clearly villainized marinette and glorified kagami. he also obviously has it OUT for mari. don’t tell me he’s not obsessed with making people hate her because HELLOOOOOO:

people are gonna love hating the baker girl.

it’s giving very much lila/cerise vibes, honestly. i wouldn’t be surprised if this was some scheme involving tsurugi and lila to turn everyone against marinette, something cerise has been trying to do SINCE SEASON ONE.

so, what do i believe? i believe FOR SURE that tsurugi has something to do with the events of revelator, likely paying vincent to spread misinformation about marinette with the hopes of kagami and adrien getting back together. i also believe it’s very possible cerise is somehow involved in this, maybe working with tsurugi in some way.

LET ME ALSO SAY: tsurugi only cares about marinette because she is preventing kagami from a relationship with adrien. she would not care about ruining marinette’s life otherwise. cerise, however? she obviously hates mari. if tsurugi and cerise did work together to orchestrate vincent’s secrets, it benefitted BOTH of them: pushed for an adrigami redemption (for tsurugi) and demonized marinette publicly (for cerise).

i’m feeling a lil bit like cerise with her thousands of notebooks with this all over the place rant, but lmk what yall think 😭😭😭

[0-shutdown-0]

Hi! I wanted to create a collaboration of notes I had on Steb and his contribution to the plot of Arcane, also posted this on reddit, so here is everything from stuff I saw to things I hypothesized -

This is Steb:

You can look on his little fandom wiki tag for stuff that I don't touch BUT ESSENTIALLY

1 He appears in episode 1 as the silent officer who pokes Loris while Maddie talks to Vi. And from what I get from the conversation is that Steb had to have worked on the force long enough to be given Maddie as a junior officer that shadows him. An interesting combo considering he turned out to be reserved care and Maddie ended up being false cheer.

2 He's well trained in close combat and seems to prefer it on multiple occasions.

At the very beginning he holds a collapsible baton that seems to be geared more into disarming people or incapacitating them. During the attack on the memorial where he's not only the first to act but later when he reunites with Maddie and their surrounded by Shimmer mutants she seems to have given him a blade that Steb wasted no time in stabbing into the closest mutant. And it develops into him using dual single hand batons when he's enlisted on the strike team.

(We later see all mutants have spears in their head so I can't tell if he killed or not. But I do think he accidently killed the man that shot the flare because there was blood coming out, the mouth was parted open, and both Mel and Steb looked shocked.)

It isn't until episode 9 during the finale we see him shooting a gun that I think it resembles his decision that now he really doesn't have a choice other than to kill the enemy and save the platoon he was given to command (NOTE: I believe everyone he was given to command all ended up surviving) or die trying to knock people out and reduce casualties. I find it interesting especially since he's a medic in addition to being an enforcer.

3 HE IS SO AWARE OF EVERY LITTLE THING

Complete distrust to the Noxus when they arrive? Check. Wide eyed and stunned at Maddie and Caitlyn's decision to join the Noxus then literally checks out like Loris for a long while? Check. He's literally the person to see everything go down and just decides to assumably remove himself from the equation for the next few episodes before being called upon again AND I WISH I KNEW WHERE HE WENT (which has now led to me writing a fic but anyways)

4 Interesting things that I need to point out

-In the end of episode 1 where the strike team is introduced, Steb is the only one to not get a Hextech upgrade to his weaponry,

I assume this is from some type of moral code he continues to have where he refuses extreme force. Additionally, and its probably a stretch, the screen glitches over Maddie and Loris but focuses on him symbolizing he's the only one out of the three of them to live.

-His ears and his little cheek fin frills respond to EVERYTHING. Kind of reminding me of a fish's lateral line when it responds to vibrations in the water and stuff but anyways-

Considering he's some type of Vastya fishfolk, or half of cuz he has eyebrows and hair, it's interesting. I saw someone comment that the fishfolk had a connection to the Arcane and it's magic AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO COOL TO EXPAND ON BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE. That could have been the reason why he averted to using Hextech advancements. And the more in tune senses helping him stay alive.

As well as explain why he was the first to act like in E1 and E3 when the strike team meets Heenox.

- Speaking of E3, you can literally see him not even look up at the murder dolls which includes everyone's death or injury but his coming true. And when he does treat Heenox not only does he see the effects of the Grey but when Caitlyn loads her gun to shoot the man Steb is turning to Vi like a "Get your woman???" 

He seemed to loose trust in Caitlyn there, as I noted he was the only one to look back when their group split as Vi and Caitlyn went off to face Jinx alone.

I can one hundred percent imagine Steb getting angry as a medic when he realizes he was kept in the dark about the use of the Grey as well, because he's not only the one who has to treat it but also has to live with the realization they did more harm to innocents and Jinx was in the right for rerouting all the vents they opened to release it.

- It appears that he is selectively mute, I assume that is has something to do with his biology since Jericho, the street vendor showed in S1 and later in S2, doesn't speak either but is seen being able to laugh and yell just like Steb. Personally think Steb doesn't speak much because its hard to do/hurts.

Which would have been so interesting to have been explored or at least acknowledged because it would have hit so much harder when in E9 we presumably hear him shout for his unit to get up and move when his leadership was needed most. 

-Maddie's betrayal had to have hurt so bad for him. She was his shadow, the one he was suppose to teach and in the end her ambition for power took hold of her and was the reason for her end. And for him to be someone so observant and careful and let that go right past him must have killed a part of him because he probably excused some of her behaviors. Like how Maddie had called Vi "one of the good ones" when referencing her origin from the Undercity. OR even when they were leaving and when Steb motioned for her to follow him Maddie only went when she heard another officer in the distance call for her.

It definitely could have been expanded on if the Arcane team was given a bigger budget for him to sign and Maddie to mistranslate or even ignore his authority because of his disability. Like, she cares for him but not enough to respect him.

I feel like when Caitlyn woke up to see Steb sitting there that pain was shown heavily but not enough. 

Anyways!

If you made it to the end of my rant, yay, this is all the deep diving I'm using for a fic and I hope it helps, if you have any thoughts to add please do!

[nekohime19]

JTTW Six-eared Macaque

Alright, so I wanted to make this post for a while. I am aware that not everyone in the LMK fandom have read JTTW and so not everyone knows exactly how the character of the six-eared macaque appear in the novel and how he is treated. I'm mainly making this post to introduce JTTW Macaque to those in the Fandom that are curious about him and weren't able to read the novel yet! 😊

I'm also a bit frustrated by people who spread misinformation on JTTW Macaque to fit their own narrative. It's absolutely fine if you have your own headcanons, but I don't like when some people act as if their headcanons are canon when there is nothing of the sort in the novel.

In this post, I'll present Macaque appearances in the novel, how he came to be, and everything he did. I will also talk about some common interpretations of his character and the symbolism behind his appearances. Some of the interpretations I will present, however, will be my own, and remember that I am not a specialist of JTTW no matter how much I love the novel. I want you to form your own interpretation of the character if possible.

This post is based on Anthony. C. Yu translation of JTTW.

First of all, the six-eared macaque is not one of the JTTW main cast. In fact, he appears in only two chapters out of the 100 that makes JTTW. Precisely, he appears in chapter 57 titled "True Pilgrim lay bares his woes at Mount Potalaka ; False Monkey King translates text at Water-curtain Cave." (Yes JTTW chapters title are a mouthful 😭) and in chapter 58 titled : "Two Minds cause disorder in the great cosmos; it's hard for one body to realize true Nirvana."

The six-eared macaque dies at the end of chapter 58 and is never seen again after that.

JTTW, passed the first 10 chapters that present Wukong's birth and how he pissed off the entirety of Heaven, is very much a villain-of-the-week type of novel. Every three chapters or so, the pilgrims will encounter a new villain, so to speak, and fight against them. The six-eared macaque, in this sense, is nothing more but one more villain that troubles the pilgrims.

I) Chap 56 : context before Macaque's appearances

Before studying chapters 57 and 58 we need to go back to chapter 56 and understand the situation the pilgrims are in.

As usual, the pilgrims are traveling together when they encounter troubles. A shocker, I know, who could have predicted this? To be short, they encounter bandits and Wukong kill their leaders, he's a lil murderous fella alright. Tripitaka is furious but, after Wukong pleads his cause with his best puppy dog eyes 🥺, he let it go. The pilgrims then find a nice house and ask the old couple living there to shelter them for the night. The nice old couple accepts. The pilgrims and the old couple talks about this and that, and lo and behold we learn that the couple's son was one of the bandit from earlier! Wukong wants to go fight this rebellious son, how unfilial of him to be a bandit! But Tripitaka stop him. No violence!

Unfortunately, the son of the couple comes back the same night, and he led his entire bandit troop with him at his parent's house! Damn, talk about bad luck. When the son learn that the pilgrims are staying in his parent's house for the night, him and his troop decides to avenge their leaders earlier on killed by Wukong. The son's father hear his son plots against the pilgrims and warn the pilgrims, telling them to go. Tripitaka kowtow, grateful, and the pilgrims escape the troop of bandits. The bandits notice them and ran after them.

Wukong wants to go fight the bandits, Tripitaka tells him to not kill them but only frighten them a little. Wukong go and... kill them... He behead the rebellious son and brings back the severed head to Tripitaka. 😬 He's a feral one that's for sure.

Tripitaka is furious, once more, and use the circlet against Wukong. Then he banish Wukong from the Pilgrims.

Here is how chapter 56 ends :

For information, Pilgrim is Wukong nickname.

II) Chap 57 : The fake Wukong

A) Wukong sob story

So after leaving the pilgrims, Wukong doesn't know where to go. He's too ashamed to go back to his mountain, and he knows he's not going to be welcomed in Heaven. And so he goes back to Tripitaka to plead his cause and begs to be taken back. But Tripitaka refuse to listen and use the circlet. Ouch. That's not nice. Angry, Wukong decides that he's going to complain about his Master to Guanyin! Ah! When you have troubles with someone you bring it to the manager. A true Karen move, Wukong.

Wukong fly to Mount Potalaka, Guaying's place, and sobs about how unfair his Master is. Guanyin tries to explain right and wrong, and why Tripitaka used the circlet, but Wukong thinks he, at the very least, deserved a second chance. Wukong is over it pretty quickly, he's an adaptable fellow, and asks Guanyin to remove the circlet, but Guanyin is incapable of that.

Wukong was about to leave but Guanyin holds him back, she reads Tripitaka's fortune and tells Wukong that his Master will soon meet a powerful foe and he'll need Wukong's help. If Wukong help Tripitaka, Guanyin will tell the monk to take Wukong back.

Imagine a puppy eyed dog Wukong sobbing 🥺 and Guanyin as a tired mom. That's the vibe of this scene.

But who is this powerful foe Guanyin mention? 🤔

Well, that's our boy!

B) Wukong is... back ?

The pilgrims are on their way, they decides to take a breather and scatter to search for food/water. Tripitaka is left alone at the camp. Never a good idea to leave the easily snatchable monk alone 👀.

While Tripitaka is alone, Wukong appears with a bowl of water. Now, for the readers this is a bit odd, because we knows for a fact that Wukong is with Guanyin. But the narrative treats this Wukong as if it's the real one, so at first read you wonder if Wukong truly came back 🤔.

I'll let you read how this encounter go 😬:

For information, the elder here is referring to Tripitaka, which is also called elder Tang sometimes. Pilgrim Sun is one of Wukong's nicknames.

The rest of the pilgrims comes bask to check on Tripitaka and let me tell you, their flabber are gasted! They take Tripitaka to a nearby house and realize that Wukong is the one who hit their Master and stole their luggages. Gasp. THE AUDACITY!

Sha Wujing (that you know as Sandy) decides to go to Flower Fruit Mountain and confront Wukong!

At Flower Fruit Mountain, Wujing meet with "Wukong" ( I puts him in what I call the parenthesis jail because mmmm.... Is this really Wukong?). So "Wukong" is in his cave, reciting the journey's rescript to his monkeys. The monkeys are chilling.

Wujing is ANGRY and yell at "Wukong". How dare he hit Master and steal their luggages!? "Wukong" order the monkeys to seize him and that's when Wujing realize that going against a troop of angry monkeys is, in fact, not a good idea. He try to plea. Telling "Wukong" that they can go back and apologize, prehaps Master will take "Wukong" back.

"Wukong" goes nuh huh. Tripitaka banished him, so he doesn't need Tripitaka. He got the luggage and the rescript, he's going to the West before Buddha alone, like a full-fledged adult. He needs no one! No one!

Wujing : ... Mm, the pilgrims are charged with this journey. You can't go alone.

"Wukong" : Well, good thing I have my very own set of pilgrims then!

Lo and behold, "Wukong" show Wujing perfect copies of the pilgrims carrying the luggages. Gasp #2. How dare he copy the pilgrims!

Wujing is furious, he lunge forward and kill his copy. He realize too late that the copy was a disguised lil monkey, and so the lil monkey is killed 😭. Poor fella.

"Wukong" : You dare bitch!?

So "Wukong", angry monkey mode, charge at Wujing. Wujing decides that he's not going to fight an angry monkey, and flee to Guanyin's place.

Because in this world, when you have a problem, a foe you can't defeat, you go to Guanyin. She's like your fix-it-all deus ex machina! This tired mom need a raise.

Here is the scene of Wujing killing the monkey, then afterward "Wukong" cooking the dead lil guy 😬 :

For information, Sha Monk is one of Wujign's nickname, and specious means fake/odd. Bodhisattva refer to Guanyin.

In terms of interpretation, "Wukong" (or shall I say MACAQUE! You are not sleek 🔍my boy) is very different from others villain because, contrary to them, he do not want to eat or have sex with Tripitaka. In fact, his wish is glory. He wants the glory of the journey. That's why, when Tripitaka refuse to take him back, he decides to create his own set of pilgrims. This desire to complete the journey alone show that he's not after enlightenment, which should be the goal of this journey, but only the fame and glory that comes from it. It shows that Macaque's desire is not in lign with Buddhist principles, and thus is in the wrong. His bouts of cannibalism is, I think, also very symbolical. Eating meat is strictly forbidden by Buddhist teachings, the fact that Macaque is here eating a monkey's corpse show that he doesn't care about Buddhism. It also drives a wedge between the fake Wukong and the real one, because we know for a fact that Wukong generally doesn't eat meat and has what is called a "pure breath".

Cannibalism in JTTW is the sign of monstrosity. Demons are cannibals. It is the sign of "evil" so to speak. Here, Macaque being a cannibal show us that he's a fiend. A villain. There is also a corruption argument to be made, because he drags the other monkeys in his cannibalism. Now, I also wants to say that cannibalism is not specific to Macaque character, in fact Sha Wujing was a cannibal before joining the pilgrims. Every demons are more or less cannibals in this novel.

So let's go back to Wujing. He goes to Guanyin to complain and, surprise surpise, find Wukong there.

They both look at each other with shocked pikachu faces.

Wujing accuse Wukong of hitting Tripitaka and stealing their luggages, Wukong is shocked at his audacity, but Guanyin intervene before it goes out of hand and vouch for Wukong's sincerity. She then tell Wujing to take Wukong to Flower Fruit Mountain and see false from truth.

Here is how the chapter ends :

III) Chap 58 : Monkeys are fighting

Previously in JTTW :

Wukong : I will talk to your manager abt your awful behavior Master!

Wukong is back? Or is he? Who is this??

Tripitaka being bonked in the head.

Sha "I'm gonna kill a monkey today" Wujing

Macaque : I'm totally the real Wukong. Hehe. Now brings me MEAT!

Monkeys : huh not the wrost thing Wukong did, he could be real.

Wukong : someone is impersonating me!? The nerve!

A) Monkeys catfight

So Wukong follow Wujing to Flower Fruit Mountain and see "Wukong".

Both Wukongs look at each other. Think the Spiderman meme where they point at each other shocked.

"Wukong" (Macaque👀) was casually sitting on Wukong's throne drinking wine with the monkeys. He was really living the monkey life out there.

This how the confrontation ended up :

Wukong is NOT a patient monkey.

I think it's really interesting how much the narrative emphasize that they are equal. At this point, the readers are still wondering who the hell is "Wukong". We also got a description of Wukong's appearances. He's a wild fella.

Both Wukongs fight and no one is able to distinguish who is the real and who is the fake. Both monkeys go everywhere, while still fighting, in hope that someone could recognize the truth. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE.

They go to Tripitaka, he use the circlet and both Wukongs cries in pain.

They go to Guanyin, she can't see the truth.

They go in hell, a dog say he knows the truth but is too scared of the fake Wukong and refuse to speak.

They go to Heaven, a revealing mirror is used, but the mirror reflect both Wukongs and not the true nature of the fiend.

And so they go to the thunderclap monastery, where Buddha Tathagathe is lecturing his disciples. Mind you, the thunderclap monastery is supposed to be the end of the journey. But those two casually barge in there.

Just imagine a monkey tornado barging everywhere. That's the vibe of the chapter.

An interesting poem about the symbolical meaning of this fight :

In terms of interpretation, this poem, and all those shenanigans, adds a symbolical layer to this monkey catfight which is the battle of the True Mind and the Illusionary Mind. It is a Buddhist principle. In short, Buddhism seeks to detach themselves of the Illusionary Mind (desires/attachements) and seek the True Mind. Macaque and Wukong, here, symbolically represents this internal strife. Both an allegory of Buddhist principles. You have to understand that JTTW is highly metaphorical. And that, in a sense, every fights that happens in the novel can be seen as a metaphor of the fights inside one's mind to reach enlgihtement.

Here, as the poem said, this fight show us how a divided mind cannot reach peace and is constantly at war. So in a metaphorical lense, Macaque and Wukong can, here, be seen as two side of the same coin. A divided mind that is unable to reach peace because it is torn in two different indivuals. That's why a lot of JTTW interpretations consider Macaque as one of Wukong's clone, or a part of Wukong himself. But we also have to remind ourselves that this is metaphorical, and story-wise there is no clear indication of any relation (blood or other) between the two monkeys. In fact, as we'll see, they're considered as two very different species of monkeys.

So let's go back to the story. The monkeys fights and barge in Buddha's monastery.

Everyone : wtf is this?

Buddha : another day, another monkey shenanigan.

The monkeys plead for Buddha to reveal the truth and that's how Buddha casually drops the lore of the four celestial monkeys. No one was prepared I tell you!

That's how we also learn "Wukong" true identity as the six eared macaque.

Here is the lore :

Mind you, this page is the only piece of lore we have about the four celestial monkeys. They will never be mentioned in the novel again, and we'll never meet the two others. So for you all monkeys fan, keep this page preciously tucked!

This also means that this is all the informations we have about Macaque's origins. Except this single page, we know nothing of his birth, of his life, of his powers (outside prehaps the power to perfectly imitate others?). So, mark my words, every informations said about Macaque's lore outside of this page is nothing but theories, speculations or headcanons. If you see someone tell you "Well actually JTTW Macaque was born like this...🤓" go back to this page and checks out. If it's not on this page, it's either a headcanon/theory, or it comes from a very specific adaptation of JTTW and thus they are not talking about JTTW Macaque specifically.

So after Buddha reveal Macaque's name, Macaque PANICK. He realize he fucked up. He try to flee but Buddha capture him. Wukong looks at the six eared macaque in his true forms and kills him on sight. The species of the six eared macaque is said to remain extinct after this.

We don't have any description of our boy.

For information, Tathagata (which I call strawberry tagada in my mind) is the name of the Buddha. There are numerous Buddhas in JTTW.

To justify his killing, Wukong say that the crime of impersonating is punished by death. Brutal. Macaque is also a fiend, which is not the same as killing a human.

And so here is the end of our boy.

Brings out your tissues 🤧!

B) Symbolism of Macaque's death

Macaque's death has a lot of symbolism, especially regarding Wukong character developpement.

First, as I already said, Macaque can represent the Illusionary Mind, as such his death can be seen as the metaphorical victory of the True Mind over the Illusionary Mind. Wukong vanquishing the personification of his desires. This can be seen in Wukong's character, after this fight, he argues a lots less with Tripitaka and seems more agreeable to Buddhist teachings.

I personally think that Macaque's death can also represent how, in Buddhism, true teaching will always win over "fake" teaching. For this theory I have to talk about chapter 2 of JTTW. There is a theory on how the six-eared macaque was forshadowed in chapter 2 when Wukong tells subbodhi that he can reveal all his teachings because there is no "sixth ears here". It comes from a Buddhist saying, which is most likely the birth of the name six eared macaque.

Here is what Anthony. C. Yu says about it in his notes :

As such, Wukong could embody true teachings (as in he learned from a master) while Macaque embody fake teachings (he eavesdrop on secrets without grasping their true meaning because he wasn't guided by a master).

C) the sworn brother theory

Now I would like to talk about one of the theories made about the character of the six eared macaque which is directly linked to how LMK decided to present this character.

There is a common theory about Macaque that said he is the Macaque King seen at the beginning of the novel.

So who is the Macaque King? The Macaque King is one of Sun Wukong's sworn brothers briefly seen at the beginning of the novel. In short, the ruling demons neighboring Flower Fruit Mountain saw how powerful Wukong was and decided to becomes his allies, thus creating the "brotherhood" (the word brotherhood was never used in the novel, and Azure, Peng and Yellow Tusk aren't orginally parts of this, they are villains of the week that appear later on in the novel. LMK took liberties with this. In contrast, DBK was truly part of this brotherhood, as was the Macaque King). Now, be careful, in some translations of JTTW the Macaque King becomes the Monkey Queen. But, after further research, I can say that this difference of translation is born form a confusion on the term "Mihou". The word Mihou can means "Macaque" in general but also "female monkey". Yet Mihou only started to mean "female monkey" years after JTTW was published. So it's safe to say that the author of JTTW truly meant a Macaque King and not a Monkey Queen.

If you're watching OSP videos summary of JTTW (that I recommend), you'll see that they talk about a Monkey Queen in one of the first videos when talking about who is part of the brotherhood. This Monkey Queen is the Macaque King (and our boy Macaque in this theory).

But it's also funny to think that Macaque could have orginally been a Monkey Queen and that he's trans.

So why people believe that the Six-eared Macaque and the Macaque King could be the same person? Well, it's because both have Mihou in their titles. They are the only demons, out of all the demons in JTTW, to be named Mihou.

The theme of Wukong fighting against his old sworn brother is also a recurrent theme of JTTW, as we see with Wukong frequent battles with DBK.

This theory state that Macaque was Wukong's old sworn brother, but that he was assuming another appearances at the time and that's why Wukong didn't recognize him and killed him when Macaque revealed his true form after being capture by Tathagata.

Now, this is merely a theory. There is no actual proof of that. But it is a well liked theory and it's not rare to come across depictions of the six eared macaque as Wukong's sworn brother. It adds a little bit of drama you know.

If we follow that theory, Wukong's victory against Macaque can also symbolize how Wukong is overcoming who he was and becoming a new person by killing a reminder of his greedy past, so to speak.

Alright, I said all I wanted to say about Macaque! Hope you liked it. Before leaving I want to drop a funny theory that I've seen about the four celestial monkeys :

The four celestial monkeys, in this theory, would be four different facets of the same person. And if you reunite all the monkeys and fuse them (Steven Universe style) you'll get the one true celestial monkey. I think it's a funny theory.

[supernovanetwork]

10 Tips for New Stray Kids Fanfic Writers

Do you ever sit there staring at your Stray Kids draft and think:

“Is this even good?” “What if no one reads it?” “How the heck do I post fics on Tumblr anyway??”

But the truth is—everyone starts somewhere, and Tumblr’s full of people who do want to read what you’re writing (yes, even that fluff fic where Chan is your barista).

This guide is for you—the new fic writer, the quiet reader finally ready to post, the person overthinking everything.

Tip 1: Set up your space

You don’t need a fancy theme or 10k followers. But having a cozy blog setup helps people find and follow your work.

Pick a username you like (bonus if it hints at SKZ or writing).

In your bio, mention your fics, SKZ biases, and any ships or genres you focus on.

Pin a post!!! Link your intro, a masterlist, or a WIP schedule—your call. The most important thing is that this stays ORGANIZED. If people cannot find your fics , they wont be able to read them.

Tip 2: Use tags like your fic depends on it (because it does)

Tags = Tumblr SEO. The first 20 matter most.

Here’s how to tag smart:

Fandom: #stray kids, #skz, #stray kids fanfic

Member: #han jisung, #bang chan, etc.

Ship (if any): #hyunlix, #minchan, etc.

Genre/tropes: #fluff, #angst, #hurt comfort, #roommates au

Format: #oneshot, #smau, #drabble, #fic series

This helps the right readers find your stuff!

🛑 Important: Don’t tag members, ships, or tropes that aren’t in your fic just for reach. That’s called false tagging, and it breaks trust with readers. Someone clicking #seungmin isn’t expecting a Jeongin x reader fic with zero Seungmin content 😅

Keep your tags accurate and relevant—it builds a loyal reader base way faster than overtagging ever will.

Tip 3: Use the “Read More” feature

If your fic is more than a few paragraphs, add a Read More break (the little scissors ✂️ in the editor). It keeps dashboards clean and your post looking tidy.

Bonus: You can add a fun header, a quote, or tags before the cut to hook readers in!

Tip 4: Make a Masterlist (even if you only have 1 fic)

It’s your fic menu! This is where people will go to read your work. Be proud of it!! List your stories by member, ship, or type. Add emojis for ✨aesthetic✨. Update it as you go.

Even if you’ve only posted once—put it on there. You’re a writer now. 🫶

Tip 5: Engage with other SKZ fic writers

Tumblr isn’t a one-way street. You’ll build a reader base faster (and have more fun!) if you:

Reblog others’ fics and leave comments on their work.

Answer asks. Send asks.

Join writing events or tag games.

Hype up your mutuals!!

The stray kids community is super supportive—don’t be shy.

Tip 6: Use content warnings + proper tags

Keep your readers safe and informed by tagging:

Sensitive themes: #tw abuse, #death, #mental health

NSFW: Always tag it clearly, and don’t forget the 18+ warning

Major spoilers: if it’s plot heavy, give a heads up

It’s respectful and helps build trust.

Tip 7 : Reminder: Notes ≠ Worth

Got 7 notes on your fic? That’s seven whole people who took the time to read your words. That’s a small group reading circle. Intimate. Intentional. Beautiful.

20 notes? That’s a classroom full of people listening to the story you created.

100 notes? You just filled a conference room. Imagine standing at the front, reading your fic out loud to everyone in that space.

500+ notes? That’s a theater audience. All eyes on you. Applauding your imagination.

No matter the number, your story reached someone. That matters.

✨ Some fics blow up overnight. Some quietly change someone’s whole day. Both are real impact.

Write because you love it. Write because it’s in you. Write for the one person who needed that exact scene, line, or character—and found it in your words.

Tip 8 : Make your blog feel you

Tumblr loves writers who:

Share WIP snippets or headcanons

Post silly tag games

Talk about writing struggles (we all relate)

Make moodboards or fic memes

People connect with your words and your personality. Let that shine.

Tip 9: Start small—and keep it fun

You don’t need to drop a 10k word masterpiece your first time out. Write a drabble. A blurb. A tiny scene that makes you smile.

Low-pressure writing builds consistency and helps you find your voice. The best part? Those small fics often get the most love because they’re easy to read and reblog.

Tip 10: Reblog. Your. Own. Fic.

Tumblr moves fast. Your post can get buried in hours. So reblog it! More than once. With:

A different teaser line

A fun tag (like #if you like pain, read this)

A “thank you” or “I can’t believe I wrote this” moment

It’s not annoying. It’s smart. People are in different time zones and scroll at different hours. Let your fic breathe.

If you don’t hype yourself up, who will?

Did this help you?

Or maybe you have some tips that helped you as a new writer?

Feel free to leave them in the comments — we’d love to hear from you!

[thedubiousdallon]

Okay, fuck it, I've built up enough goodwill with this sideblog - let's risk it all by sharing my opinions on how Amy is handled in Ward.

It's kinda complicated I think.

Okay, now that I've resisted the urge to immediately hit post for the bit: I think the way her interludes are written substantially flattens her character in a way that I find distasteful and unpleasant, but I find the overall shape of her arc and her role in the narrative compelling. The things I dislike have been well-covered by plenty of other people in the fandom, so I'm going to focus on the things I like.

To talk about Amy's role in Ward, I first need to talk about my interpretation of Ward as a whole. To me, Ward is, above all else, about trauma and recovery. Society is traumatized by the end of the world, the shards are traumatized by the death of Scion and their loss of purpose, individuals are traumatized by all the things individuals are traumatized by. As an aside, this reading is a big reason why I'm not too bothered by a lot of the world building choices that other people frequently (and fairly) criticize - I think many of them serve this theme effectively.

One specific facet of that reading that I find particularly compelling is Ward's interest in people who are traumatized not just by the harm done to them, but by the harm they've done. Characters don't just regret what they've done, they don't just want to be better, they are traumatized by it, and their reactions to that trauma are as messy and complicated as any other traumatized people. I don't always agree with the stances the text takes on how to deal with having done harm and been traumatized as a result, but I find the exploration of the topic compelling.

Enter The Altruistic Amy Dallon.

Amy's arc in Worm was, to a degree, a prototype of this kind of storytelling. She is repeatedly and horrifically traumatized, the actions she eventually takes in response to that experience inflict equally horrific trauma on her victim, and she is further traumatized by her own actions almost to the point of ego death. She removes herself from the environment she was in, begins rebuilding her sense of identity and ethics, and reemerges having grown, prepared to do better going forward and to make reparations for her past actions as best she can. Arc done! It's satisfying and cathartic, and we leave content in the knowledge that the part she's on will take her to better places. It's the quintessential appeal of a redemption arc, and it's a strong example of its type.

There's something people like to say a lot when talking about mental health and personal growth in real life, and that is that progress isn't linear. It's an important truth to understand.

It's rarely true in fiction. Very often, in redemption arcs, in personal growth arcs, after a series of false starts and setbacks, the character reaches a critical point where they resolve their conflict and either overcome it or succumb to it. From that point on, their nature or behavior is fundamentally changed - if they've grown they never relapse past a certain point, or do so only fleetingly, or else never improve past a certain point. This makes sense from a storytelling perspective, but it doesn't map to how growth often works in real life.

In Ward, Amy occupies the very rare narrative position of being who completes her arc of growth and redemption, who crosses that critical threshold of lasting, meaningful change... but backslides anyway, to the point of essentially losing all that progress.

It's an outcome that I find very believable for her, honestly. Her newfound worldview and conviction were forged in the very insular environment of the Birdcage - of course they would be impacted by her new environment. She says at the end of Ward that she had been able to excuse all of her worst behavior because she had convinced herself that she could fix anything - and at the end of Worm, I can see how she would come to think that! She's been pardoned and released from Forever Prison, she overcame her old aversion to brains to create Khepri and thereby saved the world, she's formed a positive relationship with the father she never thought she'd meet, she's receiving love and support from parents she never felt good enough for, she's using her powers to help people in a way that doesn't make her want to die, and she even "fixed" Victoria, when failing to do that before was the final nail in the coffin she just finished clawing her way out of! The sheer number of seemingly impossible things she's accomplished, of apparently irreversible failures she's seemingly put right, is mind boggling! It'd be the easiest thing in the world to let that go to your head!

Her social circle is also a perfect environment to enable her worst tendencies - there's no one left in it whose opinion she trusts that's willing to call her on her shit. Marquis doesn't see anything wrong with her behavior, Carol is trying to make up for a decade of neglect and unwarranted criticism, Mark just wants everybody to get along and be happy, and Riley and Rinke are pretty shaky on this whole human decency thing themselves! With a (not unjustified) pride in how far she'd come, a circle of willing enablers, a complete lack of moderating influences, and a bulletproof get-out-of-moral-culpability-free card, and two years to spiral, I find her backsliding to be completely believable. And given that Victoria is the fly in the ointment to all of this, that her continued refusal to have anything to do with Amy gives lie to Amy's belief that she can fix anything, and thereby puts the entire edifice of her self-rationalizations at risk, it also makes perfect sense to me that Amy would become fixated on her, on proving that she really can fix anything.

Of course, being believable isn't the same thing as being compelling. The thing that makes all this so resonant for me is that, at the end of Ward, after being this grasping spectre that haunts Victoria the whole book, after rejecting countless opportunities to demonstrate a hint of self-awareness or the slimmest motivation to change - Amy does. She sits down with a therapist. She rips off the band-aid - both the metaphorical one and the literal one made out of Victoria's skin, jesus christ Amy - looks at what she's done, at how she went awry, and resolves to do better. And we end with her in essentially the same place she was at the end of Worm: prepared to do better going forward and to make reparations as best she can. But the journey she has taken to get there gives the destination entirely new meaning for me. She's already fumbled her chance at redemption! But her journey gives lie to the idea that you only have one chance, or two, or any finite number! Every moment you draw breath is a chance to do better.

To me, Amy Dallon's arc in Ward shows that the most important step you can take is the next one, and no matter how many times you walk up and down that road, it never stops being true. And I find that compelling as hell.

[mbbmz]

Who do u think would be a player vs sweetheart. I hope u reply💞I keep seeing posts of head canons on the boys and I couldn’t help but be curious. Could u add why u think so as well🥺

I’m glad you’re reading my posts, and of course I can tell you what I think about that! (Non-exhaustive list) also I didn’t really know what you meant by "player", so I hope what I wrote is okay!

Had so much troubles with the player part, because I don’t think any of them are players tbh, so I just put red flags that are closest to it

Absolute sweethearts

Kakucho: I cannot NOT put him here. I mean he ranked best boyfriend in the third character book. Would absolutely be a caring boyfriend.

Peak moves : Carries your favorite snack in his pocket, remembers your allergies (if you have some), eat the food you don’t like in your plate at restaurants

Takemichi: Bc of course, buddy literally time traveled to save his one and only love. Would rather die than to let you go.

Peak moves: Always insists on carrying your bags (no matter how many of them), takes you out even if he’s broke (he’ll find a way), always gets you something small and meaningful for your birthday

Shinichiro: Come on, he’s been struggling to find someone, once he finally does, you can be sure he’ll treat them right.

Peak moves: Insists on always being a "gentleman", opens the door for you, pull out chairs for you to sit on, he also talks about you to his friend A LOT

Baji: I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart this guy is actually a mess. Fights? Sure, he can handle. Keep girlfriend happy? He panics.

Peak moves: Awkward gifts, he’ll buy you flowers one day because Chifuyu told him it’s romantic, accidentally gripped them too hard. Also regularly threatens to fight people you don’t like

Chifuyu: Of course, how can I not put him there? He’s just sweetheart material. Golden retriever boyfriend vibes.

Peak moves: Always compliments your outfits, has an album full of pictures with the both of you, thinks about you when he reads shoujos and blushes hard

Mitsuya: Because, come on, we all agreed in the fandom he knows how to treat you right. Supportive boyfriend energy.

Peak moves: Always listens to you (even when he’s tired), gives you a blanket if you fall asleep on the couch, has a few sketches of you in his sketchbook (next to dresses he’d love to make for you)

Players

Hanma: Never takes relationships seriously (at first, at least). Avoids emotional and serious talks like the plague.

Red flag: Will brush you off anytime you ask for something more serious

Kazutora: Not a player per say, but he’ll give random hints he’s interested by you before brushing you off if you get too close. It’s like a push and pull

Red flag: Unstable, might tell you he loves you one day and ghost you the next.

Izana: One sided mess. The type to want and need attention and affection but struggling to give it in return. Will give you false hopes by accepting your feelings, but he’s just affection starved.

Red flag: Constantly needs your attention, rolls his eyes when you ask something from him

Mix of both

Ran: he’s actually quite complicated. He’s a player with people he’s uninterested in, he kinda likes creating false hopes for people. However, he wouldn’t act that way toward someone he actually liked. I actually think he’d be quite a good boyfriend.

[conclaveyaoi]

tumblr blog conclaveyaoi does not support any type of self-defined AI-generated material in this fandom, images (never to be called art because it isn't art) nor AI-writing (which isn't writing either). I'll never reblog or like it and whenever I see it on the eg. giulio sabbadin tag, I am extremely annoyed this is taking the place of the art from the fantastic artists and writers I have the privilege to see and interact with in this corner of the internet.

by the same token, tumblr blog conclaveyaoi has seen fantastic artists and writers be falsely accused in a witch hunt type of AI-accusation with no proof whatsoever and does not believe this is the efficient way to prevent the AI-generated slop. accusations can only stand with evidence and they have no weight without evidence. yeah, law degree and kafka fan here. a witch hunt leads to hurting the fantastic artists and writers who are then being unfairly accused of something they haven't done. this is not the same as calling out the self-defined AI-generated material (not art because it isn't art), I repeat, going around eg. the giulio sabbadin tag. there is evidence in the self-defined AI-generated images seen in that tag and I don't support any of it.

on the other hand, I've seen an artist I really enjoy being falsely accused based on a random "hunch" which I found very concerning. this is what I mean by witch hunt. if accusations = facts then we might as well leave the fandom because it'll become a battlefield of 'ragebait' people accusing actual artists and writers with no proof. not liking a fellow conclaver who doesn't use AI doesn't give you the right to make false claims without evidence. innocent until proven guilty exists because anyone can be an unfair victim of false accusation, which has always made my blood boil. in the exercise of keeping AI away from creative spaces, we cannot be hurting fellow conclavers, artists and writers because it's simply not fair to actual artists and writers (which needless to say does not include AI-users).

there is no room for AI in creative spaces. there is no room for AI in my blog because I'll never reblog AI-generated images or texts. my reblogs and my art tag are for the fantastic artists I see in this fandom, never AI.

to the person who generated the AI content in the giulio sabbadin tag and anyone in this fandom who uses AI: there's no room for your stuff in my blog. none. I don't want to see AI in the tag of my blorbo either. or in any tag. I am anti-AI for a myriad of reasons and when it comes to creativity it is firstly based on principle. it is in honour of the great Miyazaki and the late David Lynch, two of my heroes. it is in honour of ars longa vita brevis. because you took your time to justify it on conclaveconfessions, I kindly ask you to educate yourself on the tool you're using, on the political scale of the issue (especially in the US at the moment) and on the infuriating environmental damage you're causing in the middle of a climate crisis that affects primarily the most socioeconomically-vulnerable communities around the planet by your senseless AI use. technofascism is here already, it's scary and we are all just one tiny corner of the internet in the middle of a gigantic problem. still, as part of a creative space, we must stand up for art and uplift the actual artists and writers. if we don't have that, we might as well be numbers on an excel spreadsheet.

on behalf of justice, no witch hunt with false claims against actual artists and writers. on behalf of art, let's keep AI away from creative spaces and not support AI-generated material. both? both.

once again for the people in the back: this blog does not support the self-defined AI-generated material that I've been witnessing in the giulio sabbadin tag. of all tags, right in my boy's tag...

[mumms-the-word]

I know I’m screaming into the void here but do not witch hunt people with AI accusations

As someone whose job for the last two years involved me reading and rereading essays and creative fiction written by my students (a group of writers notorious for using AI despite being told not to because they worry about their grades more than their skills) let me tell you straight up that detecting AI in any written work isn’t straightforward

AI detection softwares are bullshit. Even Turnitin, which is supposedly the best, has an error rate that is slowly increasing over time. They’re not reliable. The free ones online are even worse, trust me

“Oh but it’s so obvious!” Sure. If you’re trained to notice patterns and predictive repetitions in the language, sure. I can spot a ChatGPT student essay from a mile away. But only if they haven’t edited it themselves, or used a bunch of methods (Grammarly, other AIs, their friends, a “humanizer” software, etc) to obscure the ChatGPT patterns. And it’s easier with formulaic essays—with creative fiction it’s much harder.

Why?

Well because good creative fiction is a) difficult to write well and b) extremely subjective. ChatGPT does have notable patterns for creative writing. But it’s been trained on the writing that is immensely popular, writing that has been produced by humans. Purple prose, odd descriptions, sixteen paragraphs of setting where one or two could be fine, all of that is stylistic choices that people have intentionally made in their writing that ChatGPT is capable of predicting and producing.

What I’m saying is, people just write like that normally. There are stylistic things I do in to writing that other people swear up and down is an AI indicator. But it’s just me writing words from my head

So can we, should we, start witch hunts over AI use in fanfic when we notice these patterns? My answer is no because that’s dangerous.

Listen. I hate AI. I hate the idea of someone stealing my work and feeding it into a machine that will then “improve itself” based on work I put my heart and soul into. If I notice what I think is AI in a work I’ve casually encountered online, I make a face and I stop reading. It’s as simple as that. I don’t drag their name out into the public to start a tomato throwing session because I don’t know their story (hell they might even be a bot) and because one accusation can suddenly become a deluge

Or a witch hunt, if you will

Because accusing one person of AI and starting a whole ass witch hunt is just begging people to start badly analyzing the content they’re reading out of fear that they’ve been duped. People don’t want to feel the sting or embarrassment of having been tricked. So they’ll start reading more closely. Too closely. They’ll start finding evidence that isn’t really evidence. “This phrase has been used three times in the last ten paragraphs. It must be AI.”

Or, it could be that I just don’t have enough words in my brain that day and didn’t notice the repetition when I was editing.

There’s a term you may be familiar with called a “false positive.” In science or medicine, it’s when something seems to have met the conditions you’re looking for, but in reality isn’t true or real or accurate. Like when you test for the flu and get a positive result when you didn’t have the flu. Or, in this case, when you notice someone writing sentences that appear suspiciously like a ChatGPT constructed sentence and go “oh, yes that must mean it’s ChatGPT then”

(This type of argumentation/conclusion also just uses a whole series of logical fallacies I won’t get into here except to say that if you want to have a civil conversation about AI use in fandom you cannot devolve into hasty generalizations based on bits and parts)

I’m not saying this to protect the people using AI. In an ideal world, people would stop using it and return back to the hard work of making art and literature and so on. But we don’t live in that world right now, and AI is prevalent everywhere. Which means we have to be careful with our accusations and any “evidence” we think we see.

And if we do find AI in fandom spaces, we must be careful with how we handle or approach that, otherwise we will start accusing writers who have never touched AI a day in their life of having used it. We will create a culture of fear around writing and creating that stops creatives from making anything at all. People will become too scared to share their work out of fear they’ll be accused of AI and run off.

I don’t have solutions except to say that in my experience, outright accusing people of AI tends to create an environment of mistrust that isn’t productive for creatives or fans/readers. If you start looking for AI evidence everywhere, you will find it everywhere. Next thing you know, you’re miserable because you feel like you can’t read or enjoy anything.

If you notice what you think is AI in a work, clock it, maybe start a discussion about it, but keep that conversation open to multiple answers or outcomes. You’re not going to stop people from using AI by pointing fingers at them. But you might be able to inspire them to try writing or creating for themselves if you keep the conversation open, friendly, and encourage them to try creating for themselves, without the help of AI

[aristaspark]

Gaslighting everyone into thinking Kenlynn is endgame

Chaos Theory Season 3 : Part 8

Finally getting around to posting a more *detailed* version of my Kenlynn are endgame thoughts.

Part 1 because I'm allergic to going straight to the point.

A little disclaimer because I think that it's necessary: this post is not meant to convince anyone of anything. It isn't me trying to convince myself either. I genuinely believe that in the forth season that is probably already fully animated as we talk, Kenji and Brooklynn get back together at some point. This post is just me laying out the elements that make me think that.

Most, if not all of it, will turn out to be wrong but I don't care, I like to theorize, that's fun!

Part 1: Brooklynn isn't in love with Darius.

While there are some things I am uncertain about - duh, I'm human - this might be the ONE thing no one will be able to change mind about.

If you only look at what's in the show (not relying on the false sense of security the popularity the ship has in the fandom brings nor the flawed belief that the writers took shippers' feelings into consideration when they wrote the show) everything that's actually on screen points towards Brooklynn only feeling platonic love towards Darius. I feel like people tend to forget THE TEXT, and only look at their scenes as being detached from the story and CONTEXT.

Firstly, her having feelings for Darius don't make sense chronologically. She has only spent a MAXIMUM of two weeks with him at the time he confesses. And this was right after her boyfriend broke up with her and she came home crying, throwing their picture in the trash because she was heart broken like a good romance movie heroine. She was in no mood to fall in love with anyone and her utter shock at his confession makes it clear that she had never considered Darius as anything other than a friend, these two weeks she had spent with him hadn't change that for her the way it had for Darius.

There's also that she only went to see Darius to fuel her obsession with her investigation. She made that face when she understood what was going on.

She recoiled.

She looked sorry for him, no sign of her being flustered, shy, lost in thought or enamored after he left.

She didn't even spend a second thinking about his confession after he left, she wasn't moved at all. She still expects him to help her with her investigation, because to her their relationship has no reason to change. She didn't feel any type of way about the fact that she was going to see him in the evening. She gets mad at him when he ignores her calls, doesn't give his feelings more credit.

When she sees him again in Senegal, she only reacts to his presence when they come face to face in person for the first time after he let her down, but when she sees him on the monitor (which would make it the first time she sees the man she supposedly loves after months apart), when she saves his life, or sees him above the arena, nothing. She never focuses on Darius.

They were adorable in season 3. But again. Brooklynn still prefers to do things on her own, Darius is not special in that regard, she rejects his offer at helping her. She doesn't treat Darius any differently from the way she treats Yaz and Ben.

When they separate, it's Darius who calls out to her, she was already on her way to leave.

She could have been the one to call out to him, she could have been the one needing that interaction with the person she loved, that would have shown that despite her always going off on her own, he is at least a little special to her, but no. She's treating Darius exactly the same as the others. She's pushing him away exactly like the others.

HE is the one always running after her, begging her to stay (what's funny is that when Kenji was the one doing it people used it as proof that he wasn't right for Brooklynn, but here it's crickets).

To me, but I know that other people opinions differ on that, the use of their nicknames feels like a re-affirmation of their friendship, a first step towards reconciliation. Like Darius will always be Dino-Nerd to Brooklynn, the kid obsessed with dinosaurs who was always her best friend, and Brooklynn, despite having been rejected by her, is still Superstar to Darius, the socially awkward girl with pink hair he struggled to understand at first but who later became his best friend. I feel like if they had used their names it would have said something else yk? Picture it, Darius calls her superstar, and she replies with "Good luck...Darius". To me it would have shown that there has been a shift in her perception of Darius. That she was no longer satisfied with him being her friend dinonerd, the name she wrote down on that post it while she was still in a relationship with Kenji, the name that he was registered as on her phone while she was in a relationship with Kenji, but that she now saw him as Darius. But I know that it's only my interpretation, that might or might not have been the writers' intention.

Brooklynn LOVES Darius, don't think I don't see the endeared way she looks at him, especially during season 3. But it's the key word, endeared. Endeared, as in opposed to "in love".

She looks endeared when she says "you too dinonerd", and I think that was what I tried putting into words in one of my previous posts but couldn't. It's like she's happy that he calls her superstar and that their relatonship hasn't changed despite everything that happened. The way she behaves with him just feels SO platonic to me. He gets her better than anyone else because he is and always was her best friend. They have a special bond, but to me it was NEVER shown as been a romantic one on Brooklynn's end.

As of the end of season 3 you have yet to show me a single element that suggests that her feelings for him have changed in the few hours she spent with him since the moment he confessed (as I'm POSITIVE she didn't love him during the confession scene).

Like, if she's in love with him, when did it happen? During the six months she was dead? It makes no sense because she spent 6 traumatizing months alone after that confession and her last interaction with Darius was her getting mad at him because he was ignoring her calls, demanding that he came for her investigation, not giving a damn about his confession.

I'm only looking at the actual story. They would be cute as hell because the trope is cute as hell, but it just doesn't fit with what was shown in the three first seasons. To me the only way for dinostar to happen would be to have Brooklynn fall for him/realize her feelings during season 4 (because I repeat myself, but there's no way she was in love with him before, at least not consciously). And with everything that's bound to happen, I don't see it happening, especially because of one...detail.

They are currently stuck in an helicopter, with Ben and Yasmina, who will probably leave them alone as quickly as humanly possible to allow them to get rid of the awkwardness that they are bound to display.

Dinostar WILL have a discussion at the start of the season, there's no way they won't. Darius even spoke about wanting to tackle the subject in season 3, so sorry, but them talking about their feelings is not shaping up to be that series final gran endgame ship reveal/pay off. And whatever that conversation holds for them, they will probably come clean about their feelings and as I said, I absolutely do not believe Brooklynn to be in love with him at this point, and her saying "I'm not sure" would feel extremely anticlimactic.

But let's imagine that somehow she's like, yeah Darius, while I was looking at my amputated arm, alone at Ronnie's, I realized that I actually felt the same.

That would make yet another thing Kenji would have to forgive her for.

We all have our beliefs about what ships will be endgame, but I think it's not too far fetched to say that in the end they will all be on good (if not great) terms with each other. Or at least cordial.

Brooklynn already has an endless list of things Kenji has to forgive her for if she wishes to someday be friends with him.

Seeing his dad behind his back. Neglecting him. Choosing her work over him. Secret appartment. Not telling him she was alive. Letting him mourn her despite knowing what it would do to him. Rejecting him after they see each other for the first time since she died. Choosing her work over him once again.

That's a lot to forgive if they want to be friends.

But then you would also have to add - falling in love with my adopted brother, your best friend, while I was still hurting over you and you were still treating me like crap, and deciding you wanted to be with him before we even had some sort of closure on our relationship, not even asking yourself if I would be ok with it.

And you know, you could take that endless list and throw it back at me and say, well, doesn't that only reinforce the idea that they have no chance of getting back together if the chances of them even being friends are this thin?

Well, that's the thing. There's this endless list of things Kenji has to forgive Brooklynn for, but I believe that these things all come down to one "big thing", that thing being the sole reason Kenji has currently given up on Brooklynn (someone counts the number of times I said *thing*).

I think the real reason Kenji is so mad at Brooklynn is that to him all her actions are all proof that she doesn't love him. This is what hurt him the most, this is the reason, to me, the real reason he broke up with her in the first place.

Just like his father didn't love him, the love of his life, the girl he loved for 6 years...also didn't love him.

He desesperately wished for her to prove to him that he was mistaking, that she did love him the way he loved her. He gave her the opportunity to prove it to him when he broke up (I can't be with you IF you're not going to be with me), but she didn't. He did it again in front of the plane, he made his heart vulnerable again because the fact that she was alive made him forget all the rest. She pushed him away. When I look at these two scenes I just SEE the set up being...yk, set up? This is right there, at the beggining of their arc: Kenji was waiting for Brooklynn to show him that he was mistaken and that she wanted to be with him - that she loved him.

But each and everytime her actions prove to him that she doesn't love him, so he ends up accepting it as a fact and thus gives up on her (the moment she pushed him away in front of the plane, which is why the focus was so heavily on them).

Which gave us season 3 Kenji, who has given up on her. She has proved to him that he was right, now he's done. You can see it in the way he talks about her that he genuinely believes Brooklynn doesn't love him/them. "She doesn't want anything to do with us" / "She sacrificed us willingly" / "She didn't look like she needed our help, or wanted it"

Now that I spoke about Brooklynn's feelings for Darius, I will talk about her feelings for Kenji in part 2 because I have way too much free time on my hands (I actually don't, that's the worst part 😂)

[otaku-girl-ao3-fics]

If you close your eyes | Kraven x Reader | M | 4.7k | Complete

Kraven the Hunter (2024) | 4.7k complete | Kraven x Reader | Sergei Kravinoff x Reader 

Kraven masterlist | Otaku_girl_AO3 masterlist | AO3: Otaku_girl

Summary: When the chance to escape your captor arises, you do what you know you must: You run. Still in restraints and in unfamiliar territory, it’s only a matter of time until Kraven finds you… 

Warnings: M, dark!soft Sergei, kidnapped reader, escape attempt.

Links: Read the full one shot on ArchiveOfOurOwn: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63315304

Heavy breathing echoes through the trees, rivalled only by the stumbling, desperate sounds of footsteps thud-thud-thudding through leaves and dirt and broken twigs. There isn’t so much as a hint of birdsong to be heard, the land surrounding your new home eerily quiet. It’s as if nature itself can sense the danger hidden within.

Your chest feels tight. Your lungs burn. You need to go faster. Faster. Faster. If you want to have any real hope of escape, you need to keep moving and never look back . 

The edges of your vision blur, tears — from the cold and fear — trail down your cheeks. Your vision narrows as you skid through the forest, no destination in mind and the sun setting steadily in the distance. All you know is that you can’t go back. 

Falling is inevitable. Without your hands free to help you catch your balance, it is only a matter of time. You flex your fingers, feeling the low burn of rops shifting against your skin. It’s tight, but not tight enough to cut off circulation. You have been trying to test it, to see if you can get any slack, for what feels like days. All that you have managed is to make a steady trickle of blood seep steadily down your chilled flesh.

The distant roar of water draws you in, sparking a false sense of security in the back of your mind. Running water gives you a sense of direction, of purpose. A point to aim for and something you can follow. Perhaps there might even be people somewhere around. 

Water means the chance to hide your tracks. Hiding your tracks means a chance of escape, however slight it might be. That chance is more than you had before, more than you have been able to conduct in the days — weeks? — since he rescued (took) you. Since he made you his. 

Water means hope. Possibly your last hope. And that’s something you can’t overlook. 

The embankment is steeper than expected. Your eyes widen, a breathy scream tearing from your throat. You throw your weight back, trying to stop your momentum as the forest floor beneath your feet suddenly falls away into a steep slope and sharp edge. 

It is too little, too late. 

You squeeze your eyes shut, bracing yourself for impact.

At least you got this far. 

At least you tried.

Your teeth begin to chatter. It’s so cold. Why does it suddenly feel colder?

Read the full fic here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63315304

If you close your eyes (does it almost feel like nothing changed at all) (4734 words) by Otaku_girl Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Kraven the Hunter (2024), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kraven the hunter - Fandom Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Kraven/Reader, Sergei Kravinoff/Reader, Kraven the Hunter/Reader, Sergei Kravinoff/You, Kraven the hunter/You Characters: Kraven the Hunter, Sergei Kravinoff, Reader Additional Tags: Soft dark Sergei Kravenoff, Dark Romance, unhealthy relationship, Captivity, Kidnapped Reader, chase - Freeform, hunter prey, Gift Fic, Possessive Behavior, possessive Sergei Kravinoff, Restraints, mentions of injury, Nothing permanent, stockholm syndrome setting in, Dark, dark vibes, but also loving obsessed Sergei vibes, Kraven likes to hunt you, no y/n, unclothed female clothed male, Brief Morbid Thoughts, Near Death Experiences, threatening behaviour, Unhealthy Dynamics, caring for injuries, dominant Kraven, Gentle Manipulation, Pet Names Summary: When the chance to escape your captor arises, you do what you know you must: You run. Still in restraints and in unfamiliar territory, it’s only a matter of time until Kraven finds you…

[sleepy-grav3]

Glitching issue

So I was getting distracted again. I heard Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango, wanted a yandere playlist with intense ballroom songs, that types of thing.

And then I thought of another story idea for my current hyperfixation: DCxDP

One of my favorite ships in that fandom is Dead Tired/Brain Dead, cause I love them... so much...

Anyway-

With the context of the yandere ballroom playlist, you should know where I'm going. And I read a few fics/prompts/whatever else you'd call them where it portrays a normally pretty toxic relationship but they're actually in a really healthy relationship.

There was one about mutual stalking, another with kidnapping shenanigans, one that mentioned attempted deprogramming- you get it. (don't ask me for them, I don't know what they're called and there's too much to sift through to find them, very sorry, do feel free to reblog/comment the authors of them or ones that hold some relevance)

But yeah, now I'm making a fic with a playlist as storyline inspiration. Idk the layout yet.

1 Long Chapter : 1 Song

or

Story Arc (probably short) : 1 Song

Always a 1:1 ratio, maybe a special 2 songs here and there? Not sure.

But so far!!! I have the usual: Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango.

Got the Cell Block Tango ready. El Tango de Roxanne will be there too. I got some waltzes and looking into other types of rhythms like them. Tango, Waltz, thinking about Salsa and Swing, got a few others too

Looking into some less yandere themed songs since I can't solely do it on yandere themes. I want it to be drama filled but with some healthy doses of attraction, y'know?

Yeah, that whole thing is going on a headcannon and an idea.

Ghosts feel things more strongly, so some unhealthy things to humans are meh or minimum level things to ghosts. Because of this, Danny's a bit unhealthy in what he considers love (his vigilante life didn't help with that, especially with Vlad), but his human side keeps it more on the downlow

There's a different species of beings that are immortal in a way: The Undying. Life loves them or they're obsessed with Life. Tim is one of the only true Undying. They're as rare as true Halfas.

So... yeah. Love this little idea. Been working on it for a few hours now. And I need help. Song recommendations mostly, storyline ideas are welcome.

I'll be posting a playlist once I get it all sorted out, chronologically, and the outline of the story put up. The summary will be a genuine summary and not just some background info or a quick sentence like I usually do.

But I want a happy ending. No bittersweet, no hurt/barely any or no comfort, no fully angst-

I need some kind of betrayal for someone to go to jail TvT

Will it be Tim or Danny? Who fits best as a viewer for Cell Block Tango, just casually listening to people talk about killing (and that one framed murder).

Who's the one that lives off the thrill of getting hurt (I'm thinking more of the bdsm way, but also the "I'll only let you hurt me" type of way too? Doesn't have to be physical or verbal or even intentional... I'm making this sound worse-)

I got this one part for the Roxanne one

The yandere is "cheating", no idea if it's fake or a previous relationship, or whatever. still under planning for that.

And the "victim" is the one who's begging the yandere to not deceive them. Maybe they've been lied to a bunch of times, maybe they really don't want false hope, maybe they're fine with an open relationship as long as the yandere doesn't leave- idk, but the "victim" is the one who's pulling the strings during then.

I'm trying to think of who's the other person, the yandere, and the "victim". Who's who? Not sure. And how does it fit with the rest of the songs too... Ugh, I really should just do oneshots T^T But I can't at the moment, not with the ideas-

So yeah

Ideas? Song recommendations? Character ideas? Scene prompts????

Please?

Oh, and this post is named glitching because it broke my fucking computer. I don't have a mouse anymore. Luckily, it's touchscreen and the keyboard still works. Still annoying though