#ok established is a big word for characters we don't know yet

[skyeslittlecorner]

Can I request a Raphael x angel MC please 🥺

The Gabriel x Michelle and Lucifer x Michael were so good 😭😭

I'm stuck with you and your scenarios now 😠

You're welcome, dear~! I see my total eclipse of the brain bring some good after all. I hope I will be able to fulfill this request. Rafael is on the verge of being a character I dare write for, but let's try.

It was all your fault, that you make Raphael feel so special, then forget about it, and after all, you died. Lowly, pathetic human being. How dare you? Do you think he will forgive you for this? Tsk. Not only stupid, but naive, too. You are lucky that you chose to be reincarnated in heaven. Maybe there's still a chance for your pitiful soul.

And *maybe* you will repent if stop teasing him and start to suck.

Even though you were below him, licking his piercing and letting him tug at your hair, you knew who was boss. Poor, unaware angel. Blessing? Being the chosen one? Good joke. Only few strokes and his tip was already covered with whitish ooze. You raised an eyebrow and snickered.

“And who is the pathetic one?” 

He grabbed your hair harder. 

“Shut... up. Do your work.”

“Truly pathetic…” Your tongue stroked his trembling manhood. “Swayed so easily.”

“Enough!” 

As you opened your lips once more, he thrusted deep inside your mouth. Smiled vindictively as you chocked. He wanted you to lose your breath, to finally be quiet, and obediently end the act of his ascension. As cruelly, as holy. New madness hitted his insides as you murmured with a trickle of saliva ran down your chin.

“Better…” Those full cheeks, clenched throat and murderous intent in your eyes make you both dirty and perfect. Perfect to be used. Clouded with pleasure, he thought that he found his new favorite toy.

All Raphael stans! Let me redirect you to @livelaughlovesubs and her wonderful fics - here you got first and second part. I assume you've already seen it, if not, check it out~ She can write and catch his personality way better than me

[beesmygod]

today is webcomics day. i am bea and i make "A Ghost Story" - part 1: pre-gaming

webcomic day is a yearly celebration of the art form concocted by the screentones podcast team as a way for people to see how the sausage gets made. my webcomic "a ghost story" has been running for over 10 years, and yet i still don't think i can say i am good at making a webcomic. regardless, the comic is getting made because otherwise i become very, very sick in the head. today i would like to share with you the process of making a page of "A Ghost Story" from start to finish. either this demystifies the process or will make you think im so cool and strong for doing this 2x a week. instead of reblogging this one post until it gets very long, i will be posting individual updates that i will then compile and post on my personal website. block the tags now if you HATE comics and want them to EXPLODE.

if you have any questions, even things like "what the fuck are you even talking about" feel free to ask. i want to feel confident in what i make again and i think sometimes interrogation from an outside source is really

---

that said, let's get started. wait just kidding i want a cup of coffee first, hold on.

ok now im ready. i have a big glass of water. i have coffee. i have a headset for the parts of work that don't involve typing words. i can't type words and listen to some streamer babble in my ear at the same time, so it has to be instrumental music or nothing. i just took my meds so they should kick in after about 30 mins. i woke up late today, which is weird and annoying. but maybe i can work late instead.

first off, i need to know where i'm going beyond this one page. if i dont know where im going with something, then i usually create something that sucks that i have to deal with later. hold on my internet died, i have to reset the router. ok, anyway.

what's rattling around in my brain is that not only do i have to deal with maxine's current predicament, i am also dealing with multiple plot elements i need to wrap back around to from the previous chapter. luckily, im about to put maxine down for a nap, which means i can get back to those other elements:

i need to finish the exposition from the three ankou characters for this story arc establishing their motivations as the oppositional force in the story. the "villain" is not these three specifically, but their boss. they need to have a loose understanding of what's going on in order to communicate this to the audience. god this started turning into a huge ass paragraph so i'll just keep it short there.

we've jumped back to before jack's horrible day from the first chapter of this storyline so we have to make our way back toward that and then lapping it, which means wrapping up his various open threads like:

feeding victoria and learning something new about her

finding out alice is a very exceptional employee who is getting many awards

watching valdo call lily while interrupting her during something personal to ask her for help with maxine's situation.

jack meeting with valdo and lily the day after they first met so jack can just tell them straight up that lily has 4 sisters she doesnt know about.

help that girl with her poltergeist problem. remember that. i've had jokes for this rattling in my head for like 4 years. im going insane.

and also the fucking tilberi!!! that has a point its going somewhere!!! there's a larger menace here!!!

other things to set up the climax of this storyline. sexual tensions, hints at larger emotional problems not immediately evident to the reader

lots of moving parts. and i feel like im moving in slow motion to get to them. i can see them all weaving together in my head, its the process of putting that onto paper that's proving difficult.

ok that took an hour starting and stopping. -_- let me write the next part as i keep brainstorming on how to approach this page. taking a "rubber duck" approach to this might help. heres an image from the last page i worked on (i have a 5 page buffer rn so the site does not match the finished pages) to get us semi-situated.

also because images will help people understand what skill level we're working with here. i need to be able to communicate an idea to the audience; if the art also looks good on top of that, then that's just an added bonus. but the ability to communicate my ideas is sometimes hampered by my lack of artistic skill or comics language ineptitude. like those speech bubbles kind of fucking suck but at a certain point you have to just hit print on what you're working on in order to keep your already glacial pace.

webcomics is a tightrope act where you're also spinning 4 plates at once. the trick is to keep the audience from realizing how many actually fall or how wobbly they all are. the act sucks but technically its not a failure.

[vole-mon-amour]

"i know they don't become a thing" who the hell said that? literally no one said that. royjamie endgame bc i want so (and bc phil teased us & i can't get it out of my head and my clown wig). the way i see it, they're very self aware about what they're doing. we'll see where it goes with that Roy x Jamie x Keeley thing. we'll see and only then decide if we should take our clown shoes off or not.

i mean, i can definitely imagine Roy and Jamie becoming a thing. it would be very logical. the problem is, i don't see this show going past s4. what are they gonna film? losing yet another year? no, we will be lucky if it gets to s4 and finishes on a good note: the team wins the cup eventually and carries on. the characters resolve most of their issues and find their path. bc if s3 is their last one, then yeah, we're in a big fucking trouble bc i would still like to SEE my ships becoming endgame/a thing on scrren.

at the same time, if that's not possible, maybe they'll give us a solid ground to continue with fanfiction after the show ends, who knows? i was convinced Jamie was bisexual a long time ago and right now the hints are very loud (again, including Phil's words about benefiting the certain part of the fandom, bc what else could it mean? the possibility for Roy x Jamie opens ONLY if Jamie comes out as bisexual, and Phil is very much into that idea, that we know for sure.) and it doesn't matter whether Jamie comes out as bisexual to Roy and Keeley only or to the entire world. the important thing is for the audience to know that he's bisexual and for the show to establish that. i think right now it goes pretty ok into that direction aka Keeley has fun with a woman while two of her exes have excellent bonding time together.

i just can't stop thinking about that moment in the trailer where Roy and Keeley hold hands when talking and Jamie walks in. again, this show is very self-aware, the big question is what they're gonna do with it.

we'll see, okay? don't give up hope just yet.

[italwayshadtobeyou]

I consider "Fan Fiction" to be a mixed bag, but it's definitely better than "The Executioner's Song," which has one of the Carver era's worst fight scenes. Scratch that, fight episodes. It all hinges on an intended-to-be-epic battle with Cain, yet the lack of preparations renders it boring. With nearly half the season to go, we know Dean will win; the only suspense could be in how. Plot armor, that's how. The characters' established strengths and weaknesses play little role in Dean and Cain's big showdown.

Once they have Cain in a devil's trap, what's the hurry? He says that it won't hold him long, but why wouldn't it? His opponents are drawing on the Men of Letters archives, decades of hunting experience, and King Kraken-Warehouse Crowley's material resources. If a simple star-shaped rail network planned by a 19th-century mortal could keep out Azazel until the magic "equivalent of an A-bomb" ("All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2"), then surely this devil's trap should keep Cain in for more than 10 minutes.

Then there are all the ways they could weaken Cain, yet don't bother with. As much as I dislike the Carver-era retcon about paralyzing devil's-trap bullets, it's been emphasized too much, in too many episodes, for me to not think about it now. Iron cables? Iron bullets? Even holy water, while it probably wouldn't injure Cain, might sting his eyes and give Dean a little bit of an edge. Basically, if we know the characters have access to something that works on demons, they should throw that at Cain before Dean ever steps into the trap.

Minor complaint: Could they not have given the purple-glowy disguise spell a real name? "Rune of amaranth"? OK, yes, amaranth comes in purple-flowered and purplish-leaved varieties, but that's weak. Even the episode commentary acknowledges that they picked the word for no better reason than that it sounded cool. Not exactly worldbuilding at its finest.

I'm willing to give the episode 2 things:

I like Sam's creepy "true crime" hobby. We know from "Swan Song" that Sam has the capacity to enjoy absolutely horrific violence, even if he usually refrains from it. We also know, from most of the show's episodes, that he tries to incorporate normalcy into his life. Combined, these two aspects of Sam make his interest in serial killers feel oddly appropriate.

At least the heroes' refusal to use anything means that they don't use holy oil, which is supposed to be very rare and yet keeps popping up. ::Grr.:: It's season 10, I'll take my wins where I can get them.

Supernatural Battle of the Episodes!

Looks like Fan Fiction won its 9th battle! One more to make it to the Hall of Fame! Is it strong enough to beat the next contender?

Bring 'em out Chuck!

Chuck: For Fan Fiction's final match, we have The Executioner 's Song - Cain resurfaces and is killing male members of his bloodline! Dean takes him on in a barn before Cain kills a young boy. Dean kills him with The First Blade!

[we-are-inevitable]

it's time once again for unsolicited newsies opinions with jac! on the chopping block for today: a look into David Jacobs being the "mom friend", featuring classism in the newsies fandom. yay!

disclaimer: this is purely my opinion and i am not trying to start discourse. i don't really care if you don't agree! it's fine to have your own thoughts. these are mine.

moving right along, the biggest thing- and something i talk about quite a lot- is that it's interesting that people see Davey as the mom friend.

ok first of all, i feel like to be the """""mom friend""""" you have to be really well established into the group as someone who has been, is, and always will be a caregiver.

and davey does not fit this description!

also: "mom friend" is just a weird term in general; it just feels like a backhanded title for a friend to have. most "mom friends" are forced into- or force themselves into- the role because all they're """good for""" is caring for others and pushing themselves to the side

anyway! moving on

you're not just going to make a new friend and immediately label them as the mom friend, because you don't know their personality or how they mesh with the group, yet this is what the newsies in fanon seem to do with davey.

is davey loyal to the cause? absolutely! does he want what's best for the newsies? yeah! but he's never going to have the same history that jack has with the boys, since jack has been taking care of them for a while. if anyone is going to be the "mom friend," it's jack.

there's a difference between Davey making a speech at the rally advocating for workers rights and united boroughs, and Jack taking care of all of the newsies for as long as he's been the leader.

Jack is more of a family member, Davey is more of a spokesperson. joining the strike and coming up with the rally- which failed, as @jack-kellys pointed out- doesn't mean that Davey automatically replaces Jack as the parental figure of the group.

also, as @roideny pointed out in a conversation on discord, it's kind of... sketch? seeing people replace Jack with Davey?

Jack is undoubtedly the "parent" of the newsies. a lot of them don't have families, and he's had to step up. he's been stepping up. he's responsible, he has the newsies best interests in mind, and sometimes he can be a little selfish in his wants- hi, Santa Fe!- but it's because he's under so much pressure.

so why does the fandom take Jack and replace him with Davey as the "mom friend" ??

i think we know why!

it's interesting to see that people will see a smart kid who uses big words and is somewhat more well off than the other newsies and say, "yeah. he's the one who takes care of everyone."

as if Jack hasn't been doing that for YEARS.

wow !! the kid with an education and more money is the one who steps up and acts as a "parent" to the poor kids !! because the leader is a "disaster dumbass" who is also a poor orphan !! isn't it funny how that works out !!

and this idea coupled with the rising popularity of poc jack kelly........ do you see where i'm going with this? the connotations are there.

all i'm trying to say is:

there's so much in this fandom that just shows that everyone is only paying attention to the actors and the characters, not

how the characters interact with the world and class systems around them

how the characters interact with each other as products/victims of the systems around them

there's no denying that David Jacobs is a good and loyal friend. but you can't sit here and say that he's the one who tries to "tame" or "parent" the kids who are less fortunate than him. it just leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the audience.

Jack Kelly is more of a "mom friend" than David Jacobs will ever be (even though "mom friend" is a sketchy way to describe it). he's not constantly a disaster- he's a stressed teenager with the weight of the world on his shoulders, in charge of a huge group of kids who deserve so much better than what society is giving him. cut him some slack. he's not stupid, yet the fandom paints him to be this wild, impulsive, dumb guy who cant tell left from right. are we really going to ignore the entirety of canon? are we going to ignore everything Jack did for the newsies? intelligence doesn't equal education. as @the-calvarys-coming-out put it: Jack would've been unstoppable if he had the same resources as other kids.

in conclusion: our fandom as a whole needs to reevaluate the fact that this show isn't just about characters and fun friendships onstage. this show is about classism and class inequality. just be mindful that some of your opinions, headcanons, and ideas can are liable to go against this core meaning of the musical, and understand why.

and again, big thanks to @roideny @jack-kellys and @the-calvarys-coming-out for helping me get my thoughts in order! love you guys very much 💙

[writingquestionsanswered]

Help, how ok is to leave an open ending, i am planning a series, whose first story would end on an mysterious note, without showing what happened to the fate of those characters, i mean they get to the end of their own Journey, but the magical event they tried to avoid wont be shown because then the second story would jump several centuries where other characters will discover what truly happened to the characters from the first story. Note on that, second story is neither a spin off or sequel, or whatever, is literally the co tiniation of the story, strongly bounded to the first one. I have read articles on open endings, but your blog is the only place I can adress the story itself, how to make an open ending work on a story with huge timeskip?

Story with an Open Ending

First and foremost, I want to address the fact that a book that continues a story is still a sequel. Siege and Storm continued the story that was set up in Shadow and Bone. Catching Fire continued the story that was set up in The Hunger Games.

Also, if you package a story as its own separate thing, and then you write another story that takes place in a completely different time and/or location, with completely different characters, that is still very much a "spin-off" (or what we call in fiction a "companion book/story/series") even if it addresses characters and events from the previous story. An example would be Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone series and its companion Six of Crows duology, which take place in the same world, referencing some of the same events and characters, but with its own individual story arc and characters.

Having said that, your story exists in a weird middle ground. It fits the definition of both a sequel and a companion series, yet it's actually neither. It sounds like what you're doing is telling half of a story, which could be a problem.

All long fiction adheres to a basic structure, which looks like this:

Since you say "the magical event they tried to avoid wont be shown," it sounds to me like the magical event is the climax, so by not showing it, your first story is structured like this:

And honestly, that's going to be a really hard sell no matter what your end goal is for this story. Readers don't want to invest in a story only to get to the end and find out there was no climax and there is no end. Readers want a complete story with a beginning, middle, and a satisfying ending. In other words, it's okay to leave the door open for the next story by setting the ball in motion for new events, but the events laid out in the current story need to be wrapped up.

Ultimately, what you need to do is reconfigure the story so that this "part one" story has its own setup, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Look at what's already in the story and see if those things are there. Maybe you can tease them out a bit, then find a way to wrap up as much of the story's threads as possible while letting the hint of the impending magical event be the cliffhanger ending that leads into the next story. I think if you do this, you can probably pull it off as long as you're writing it for a small audience, such as for friends or to post on your blog or a fiction-sharing site. However, this is not a story that is likely to find success in traditional publishing.

Traditional publishers rarely commit to a series unless the author is already well established, with a solid platform and strong sales record. Otherwise, they want a book one that can stand on its own while still leaving the door open for a second book if sales warrant a sequel. They're certainly not going to take on the risk of publishing half a book. But, I think as I said in the above paragraph, there's probably a hidden complete structure in there somewhere that you can tease out to come up with a more stand alone story, while leaving the characters' exact fates somewhat open-ended and the big magical event still on the horizon. (At least as far as the reader knows...)

Good luck with your story!

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[projectjasper]

Honestly Archer you are so brave, both for being a voice that calls out how parental abuse is portrayed as ok and for staying here to answer asks about Bad Buddy the following week. Even during these hard times, you're still here and a safe space, so thank you so much for that. I appreciate you and everything you do. I hope you first and foremost consider your own health, and take all the breaks you need. I want to let you know I agree with you about the direction Bad Buddy has taken. I hated the use of that parallel and the message it's sending.

People saying it's realistic and in character for Pran, I get what you mean. In real life people can have a hard time changing and changing how they react to situations. In my opinion though, this is a narrative, where the characters don't have to act "realistically" in that sense. By making the narrative choice of them pleasing the families instead of fighting, they disregarded the character development in Pran. I may have missed some cues, but from how I understood and interpreted Bad Buddy, that is bad writing. I haven't experienced anything similar myself so this isn't really my place and I apologise if I'm overstepping. I don't think it would've been unrealistic to go with breaking the cycle, though. That's also why I'm really struggling with the message they are sending right now. Previously I was of the impression that Bad Buddy was about reconciliation with the hopeful tone that things can get better. They had the opportunity within the narrative to question established/problematic views, and didn't in this case. Isn't that what art is supposed to do? So yeah, I'm disappointed.

As of now I can't enjoy this episode or Bad Buddy in general to be honest. After having read, written and processed a little, I feel like I'm ready to take a break too. I will reserve my final judgement for when the series is finished, though.

Sending all my love and virtual hugs to everyone who needs it,

song rec anon

thank you very much, i really appreciate your kind words!! i very genuinely and seriously want this blog to be a safe and kind space for everyone who is upset by what's happened, so you would all be able to talk about this and to feel supported and understood instead of feeling judged. so i am doing my best to reconcile talking to all of you and not completely breaking down over some of the hurtful mentions and messages i get. so sometimes i don't get to certain asks right away or just take big breaks because of this, but i promise i am here for all of you and you can continue talking to me about this, my response just might take some time.

as for your point, i think there is space in an unspecified character's development arc to go back a bit and then return on its path to change, but with one episode left, this is clearly not what bad buddy is doing, and with junior's arc in episode 11, the message regarding the parents was also made loud and clear. so with the former, we get all character development going to the drain and both the message and the tone of the entire series shifting completely. and with the latter... well, we get yet another media that perpetuates the generational cycle of abuse not just without criticising it, but with upholding it quite loudly and firmly.

sending you lots of love and hugs back, thank you for being here for me, dearest song rec anon <333

[itsblorbotime]

i really do not like the narration at the start of every zone. like, it's not nearly as good or evocative as edmont's, but there's a /reason/ for that -- he's writing a book and is an eloquent man, whilst lyse is just… recounting things (to whom?) -- and also a kind of important established character trait of hers is that she's /not/ good with words. like, it's way too repetitive. "i remember this. i remember that." okay we get it. also, the voice acting in stormblood is generally excellent, and lyse's performance in particular is fantastic… EXCEPT IN THESE SEGMENTS. who the fuck was directing these?

iirc, shb does this too? and endwalker? i don't remember if both or just one do it but either way i do not like it there either!!

anyway. the azim steppe rules, what a great part of the expac. for one thing the xaela have SUCH interesting, rich, varied lore that gets explored in great depth (unlike the poor raen...), for another the basic storyline of the area is pretty neatly contained. the pacing feels tight, the characters are memorable...

the problem as i see it is it is yet another part of this expac where the focus shifts away from lyse. she got pushed out during the time between the seconds, she gets pushed to the side a lot here in favour of developing hien... it's like they wanted to tell a story about lyse but kept getting sidetracked, not really knowing what to do with her, a problem which is compacted by her NOT being the main character -- that's us. honestly all the stuff WE are doing here, SHE should have been doing.

anyway.

thanks for the exposition, guys!

this is the first time we see real horses in this game, not like, chocobos or giant hawks or whatever. (ignore the horn, i have a crime to turn the arr ponies into unicorns LIKE THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN.) it's weird!!!!

now kith....

it's cirina! hooray!! we love cirina! man it's been a minute since i've heard her speak.

hi.

hien is basically everything lyse is trying to be, which does come up in a scene a little later, but i found his introduction very striking. he's pretty immediately likeable, imo. he's got a lot of rizz, he's confident and eloquent, but we also very quickly see him being silly and playful, too. you pretty instantly know what this guy is about.

he has a plan and the game doesn't fuck around with a bunch of busywork to start enacting it. you show up, you find him right away, he immediately knows what he wants to do and how to do it, so you set about doing that thing right away. that's what makes the azim steppe part of the expac feels so good, i think. there's no pussyfooting around like "oh we need to pad the runtime and add a bunch of things to justify making this map so fucking big..."

lol

val is sooooooooooooooooooooo small. who let him be that small.

damn these lines go fucking hard post-shadowbringers... damn. DAMN. like it's a bit of a coincidence, a bit of them probably remembering this dialogue and finding ways to tie their later writing back to it.

i think cirina gets flanderized a lot. she's got a bit of that aerith personality imo. she's a bit less Silly and Goofy but she's also not the blushing delicate maiden i keep seeing people portray her as.

ok the azim steppe DOES make you go out and collect literal shit but it's fine, it's all for lyse's character development and so she has something to do. also,

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH OH GOD OH GOD OH NO OH GOD OH NO

i don't... love this scene lol, i think they could have done a better job with having lyse explain why it's important for her and hien and everyone else to go home. like, all she needed to do was to explain that the nation of doma is hien's tribe, the nation of ala mhigo is lyse's tribe. instead she kind of waffles on about how it's a special thing that lives in your heart that no one can ever take from you like um, lyse? THEY DID TAKE IT FROM YOU. THEY ANNEXED ALA MHIGO AND DOMA.

this scene also feels weird because so far in doma lyse has done like. fuck-all? the wol has been doing all of it - which, again, is a consequence of you being the player character but like, MOST of what WE'VE been doing should have been attributed to lyse. she spends a lot of time just passively standing around because the writers don't seem to know what to have her actually be DOING. it's really frustrating because you can see that she has an interesting character they don't really know how to work with.

hien is so fucking cute and hot, jesus. this is what i mean - the azim steppe focuses SO HARD on him. lyse should have been in this scene. she and hien should have bonded over their silly childhood stuff, how hien used to cry when gosetsu beat him in combat, how lyse used to throw tantrums when yda tried to reach her to fight, something, anything. give the girl lines!!!!

anyway, off to bardam's mettle...

stormblood replay part 3

[thedownloey]

Atots Week Day 4 (Part 1)

~they are more important then the home we shelter~

~Part 2, Part 3 ~

Ok, so I know this is at least a day late but, in my defense, I haven't been punctual in years. However, I wanted to make a post about my favorite atots character, so here we are.

1) Who is your favorite supporting character?

In line with what @thebadmoonsrising calls my Drake Agenda™️, it's my king:

Rang is both funny and endlessly warm and I appreciate him immensely.

Question 2 under the cut ~~~

2) What is your favorite scene with your supporting character?

In episode 3, Rang is the one who walks Tian halfway to the blessing ceremony in the village. First he meets him at his house and eases Tian's mind about fitting in in the village.

Then he makes a joke, demonstrating his own confidence as well as further easing Tian into the conversation.

And even though I understand this is a lie (I have seen Phupha, Rang; in spite of my biases, I know you're lying), I appreciate it.

After my boy eases Tian into conversation, they walk to the village. During this walk they kind of joke with each other about how different their homes are. Rang has always lived kind of out in the country, and Tian has always lived in a big city. Out of this conversation comes this quote:

I love this, because I think it establishes Rang as like. Insightful? Like yes this is a cliché, but he rephrased it in his own words, so he gets full marks from me.

This moment just kind of makes him seem like he's intelligent, as well as comic relief. I think this makes him feel more real? Like he's a real character, a real person, he has an internal world, and we just don't know the depths of him because this is Tian's story and Tian doesn't know him that well yet.

Immediately following this moment comes a flagrant demonstration of my above point - yes, Rang has moments of gentle intelligence, but then he must bombard us with comic relief. I love Drake's comedic timing, and he delivers with the most transparent 'oh fuck i left the stove on' ploy I have ever seen.

(featured in Part 2, because I got overexcited and gathered too many images to demonstrate my love)

[keagan-ashleigh]

Hello tis me 👋😊

Ok so just like many people I have been following Loki's show and I have been sharing my thoughts on Twitter (look for @KeaganAsh if you want to meet me there) but, well, I thought, hey, that's been a while since I've posted something on Tumblr, and since the finale's tomorrow, well.

So. I haven't had many theories, some thoughts here and there but nothing big, but one. This is about Sylvie - it's not exactly my theory, I've seen some tweets about it and I tend to sort of agree with it: I am not 100% convinced Sylvie is actually a Loki. I think there is a possibility, a fair one, that Sylvie is the Enchantress. The actress has answered about it but in case the theory is true she can't just spoil it, and she's been vague enough so the theory still has a chance to be true.

First of all there's the name: Sylvie. Sylvie Lushton is one of the two characters that has taken the Enchantress alias, the other one being Amora.

The two are not the same character but they have things in comon and as Sophia Di Martino said they took inspiration from Lushton but are telling a different story from the comics. That doesn't rule out the theory at all since Sylvie and Amora can have been merged into this new character we've been presented.

I'm going to introduce those characters - even if in the end I end up being wrong, which is a possibility, they're still interesting.

Sylvie Lushton is a human, who obtained the powers of Enchantress from Loki who met her when she was a teenager, in Oklahoma where she was born. His reason being, basically, he wanted to play with the life of a human, and see what will happen. With her newly gained powers she tried her chance at joining the Avengers, taking The Enchantress name and lying about being an asgardian. But she was rejected.

She later joined Coat of Arm and the Young Masters, still trying to be a hero, then was accepted by the Young Avengers before being rejected because of her bad attitude. She joined other groups until she ultimately led a villainous group and was defeated by The Defenders then led by Valkyrie, Misty Knight, Hyppolita, etc.

Her powers: she has the ability to cast illusions, to control people's minds (!), teleportation, she can transform people into animals, cast some sort of energy field, transmorgrification (changing form, often in a grotesque way)

Amora is a born asgardian, her powers have been taught to her by the Norns, especially the Queen of the Norns, Karnilla. She's been continuing her studies by seducing or stealing knowledge from mages, wizards. She associated w Brunnhilde but soon betrayed her.

She's been for a long time associated with Skurge, who was deeply in love with her.

She's notably known as Thor's love interest - more precisely, Amora fell in love with Thor, tried to seduce him but when she couldn't, asked Skurge to kill Jane Foster. She was then defeated.

Later she has been associated with Loki, Zemo, Doctor Doom, etc.

She later was forced by the Beyonder to fight on Battleworld, at some point she fought against Miss Hulk and lost. She met Thor again by that time.

[note that those are mostly characters that have an importance in the incoming mcu phase]

The Enchantress was exhiled from Asgard by Odin who was unhappy with her villainous actions. But she fought against Surtur's army, and against her sister Lorelei when she refused to fight alongside asgardians. So she casted (?) a spell on her so she fell in love with Loki.

Her story doesn't stop here but it's a long story, see the rest on Marvel wiki.

Her powers: she has the asgardian strength of course, speed, ability to fight, endurance, etc. Plus obviously she is a witch so she casts spells, throw lightning bolts, teleport, cast illusions, transform her appearance, she manipulates men by seducing them, she can use force fields and blows up things with energy she emits, she can levitate, AND not the least: she can astral project to possess other people yes !

Both Enchantresses have obviously things in comon with the show's Sylvie - including their looks. Their powers seem similar to Loki's but there is things they can do that he can't, such as what is said in Lamentis: Loki can't enchant people, not the way she does it.

Loki manipulates minds in a different way as established in Avengers, he used the scepter that multiplied his power and emotions, to control minds and unleash Avengers deep anger to awake the Hulk. In a way, that power came from him, but it's not something he really does in the movies. Initially, he can astral project, use hypsnosis, telepathy, but he doesn't possess people. I guess Sylvie is teaching him to use this power he doesn't yet control. Still, it's quite possible that this is to make us doubt, or to focus our attention on the fact that Sylvie can help him unleash his powers, and not on the fact it's fairly possible that he just doesn't have Sylvie's abilities.

There is not many differences between a Loki and an Enchantress and that makes it really easy to deceive people into believing they are the same person.

What we've seen from the show and Sylvie's past, she was taken away from Asgard by the TVA as a kid and then hid from them and ran away... But there is actually nothing that really say unequivocally, the kid we saw was Sylvie. That is the story she is telling.

Plus there this tiny detail that the kid had dark hair, while Sylvie doesn't - yep I know hair dye is a thing but that blurs the line, that creates a visual difference between those two persons. What if it's implying they're not the same ?

And there is other details, like the HUGE amount of times they use the words "enchant", " enchanting", and such. I mean. Why insist on this word, when her power can be described differently, could have used telepathy, mind manipulation, etc, but they insist on using "enchantment".

And there is the fact her first impulse when called a Loki is to reject it, perhaps with a bit more anger than necessary. Why doesn't she wants to be associated with this name? Why insisting on the fact they're two different beings and not two versions of the same person. She's the only Loki to reject being a Loki, the only one who doesn't dramatize everything, and if they have comon traits, they are very different. Even Loki points it out, they're different. They imply that's because she was taken out of her timeline befire she could learn to be Loki, but again, it'd be a very good way to mislead us.

And of course there's the fact that they make them fall in love with each other - I doubt they really are to be honest, but they make it such a point that falling for himself is sick and absurd, then what if it means he's not? Yes it IS absurd. What if that's precisely the point?

I don't care if they end up together if she is not Loki but Enchantress, Loki is still canonically bisexual no matter who they set him up with, that is a win they can't take back. But yes, if she's actually Loki, then this pairing is weird. They are different people anyway, they don't share the same timeline, the same life, the same experience, still that is weird. And perhaps it's meant to feel weird and to be questioned.

In conclusion : I am not sure this theory is right. Not at all. But I feel like there is a piece of the puzzle missing, I feel like there is a lack of an actual twist. For now there has been 2 twists (tva agents are variants and the Time Keepers are fake), but we have been told that since the beginning, we started the show with this fact that it was all bullshit so there is no surprise, we have been led from the start to the understanding that the tva was coated in lies.

I expect something more unexpected. Something that not only will give a starting point to the multiverse just as it has been announced on the medias, but also something, pretty much like the Agatha reveal in WandaVision, that will make us go back to the beginning and reconsider everything we've seen. Why not that thing be that Sylvie is the Enchantress and has been either pulling the strings or been manipulated into tricking everyone.

Maybe not. Maybe I am wrong. We'll see tomorrow, maybe not this time but next season if there is one - everything is possible. If I am wrong, no worries, it happens, but if I am right I'll be happy but not surprised. 😁

[crackandcrumble]

i played deltarune chapter 2 right when it was released, and I was finishing omori at the same time, and now that i think about it there’s a lot of parallels between sunny/basil/mari and kris/noelle/dess, respectively. spoilers for both deltarune and omori ahead

stay with me here, ok?

let me just establish some things; I believe the theory that dess disappeared in the bunker, and also that she is the one saying the unused dialogue. whether that means she's dead or trapped in a dark world there's no way to be sure, but nonetheless she was never heard from again. I don't think they ever recovered a body. I think the events that led to her disappearance happened on the night that the four of them explored the woods. since we can see noelle's child sprite during the spelling of the word december puzzle, she was probably that small and that much younger when it happened. If they're high school age now, like around 14-16, I'd put the events of dess's disappearance at around 4-5 years ago. that would explain why the adults of the hometown don't really mention it but it's still a touchy subject for kris, noelle, and susie (her dialogue when you check the angel doll). I also believe that "Don't Forget" is dess's singing, and her motif.

how does omori relate to this?

- the 'don't forget' motif is present in a majority of the tracks in Deltarune. It seems pretty important, yet we don't know the true meaning of it just yet. in Omori, the Final Duet motif was present in a majority of the tracks before you actually hear the full duet at the end of the game, where it is revealed to be the song Sunny practiced with Mari and was the piece they were going to perform on the day she died. I think the big reveal is going to be that Don't Forget is Dess's song, and that kris would play the piano accompaniment for her. The ending could allude to Omori in that for kris to be able to heal from this traumatic event, they need to play through Their duet with Dess.

- This is also why I put Sunny with Kris instead of Noelle, despite dess and noelle being the ones who are actually related. I think Basil and/or kel matches best with noelle because basil and sunny were the closest to each other before mari died, and noelle was most likely kris's closest friend in hometown before dess died. Different from basil however, is that noelle actively invites you to hang out with her, and she herself says they've grown apart and is glad to be adventuring with them again, which is more similar to kel's role in omori. Noelle and kris definitely have a different dynamic than either character and sunny as I don't think they suffered the exact same way sunny and his friends have, but they definitely still have a shared trauma around Dess. I think they both know the truth of what happened to her and why she could never be found; similarly to how basil and sunny were the only people who knew what really happened to mari.

I'm uh. not really sure how asriel fits into this. I don't know if he also knows the truth of what happened to dess, or how it affected him, and we probably won't find that out (if at all) until he comes back in the last chapter.

tl;dr my strongest point from all of this is that Kris parallels sunny, they played the piano arrangement for Don't Forget and dess, who parallels mari, sang the song, and they were going to perform it before dess mysteriously disappeared and it haunts kris now, hearing the motif from the song everywhere they go.

[muwi-translates]

why u should love sanada fucking yukimura

man, this character... is one of the most lovable otome bois i have encountered in a long time,,, because he’s such a loser.

i wouldn’t even call this a character analysis anymore i just spilled all my feels and love for this stupid wholesome boy. thank you to my two biggest sandman supporters, this is all yuu’s fault. @sea-reiusly @snow--blanket

LET’S START. so,,, aside from the fact that he’s cute-dumb; you should love him because he loves you a lot and he deserves love too.

he is the literal embodiment of boyish selfless love.

if iI had to describe him I would describe him as a big red blanket you can wrap around yourself and make you feel safe and warm. or a big spoon of honey; slightly bitter but also sweet.

1) he is mega Friend for Life

first things first; he would be, and is, a good friend - if not to you then to the people he cares about. his whole concept is ‘boy next door’. he is soft, he won’t disappoint you because he cares about you as a person and he worries sometimes even if he doesn’t show it. for example in Shingen’s route he plays messenger for you - he thinks you’re ‘cool’, you’re his pal. he seems like the type who could develop feelings for you but is content just being close to you as your friend and see you happy. despite being told that he’s ‘tactless’, Yukimura actually, not surprisingly, has the ability to read other people, but just sucks at expressing it to you. so occasionally, he ends up proper advice to other suitors if you’re not on his route:

like the time Kenshin was excited to bring you home with him to Kasugayama and you were torn about leaving the home you’ve come to love and your warlord family. to Yukimura, family and friends are important, that is what one of his 'wants' are, after all. he does it for shingen, he does it for his men and the men in the Takeda army.

in a way he’s a bit like your brother too. except Hideyoshi is the clearly caring, wise older brother and Yukimura is your bratty younger brother who would throw a banana at your face, and pretends he doesn’t give a shit about you but that one time he sees you carrying heavy stuff down the hall he takes it from you and calls you ‘weak’ but he just doesn’t want to see you hurt.

if he's not established to be quite as close to you in other routes (Ieyasu/Masamune), he continues to help you on behalf of sasuke. even though you’re a complete stranger to him and he barely knows anything about you background - especially considering sasuke gave him a coverup story and not what or who you actually are. it's moments like these where he is willing and able to separate 'his job' and 'enemy' and do things that would otherwise produce results the opposite of what he’s supposed to be doing (which is actually a point of conflict in his OWN route, which will I will talk about later uwu)

2) ultimate Fam man

Yukimura is inherently a selfless character. he doesn’t care about himself, he only cares about the people around him and what he can do for them. he overworks himself and shoulders all the stress by himself, to take weight off shingen (it's always 'leave it to me, lord shingen!!' from him). 

I believe he has a mild form of ptsd as well; he mentally and emotionally cuts himself away from feeling anything in battle to perform his best, he has trouble sleeping at night, and he ends up holding things he’s sleeping with very tightly (eg. you). we also learn from Shingen that:

he was raised to be strong and upstanding, but has problems with adapting, so he puts all he has into what he does, meaning he gets hurt more (EN)

when he has his heart set on things, his conviction lasts for a long, long time (CN)

so, he likes it a lot when he gets to surround himself with people he cares about. he comes off as an ambivert leaning on extrovert, based off how he seems to like hanging out with his men not just as their field commander but as their friend, he enjoys parties and even entertains Kenshin. it’s been noted that he is visibly more relaxed and laughs often around his soldiers - so it’s safe to assume he gets energy by being around the people he cares about, because at least he knows that they’re alive.

in fact, the idea of people around him dying makes him angry. he’s willing to put aside his hatred of Nobunaga to ensure that no unnecessary lives are lost, even if he’s sacrificing himself in the process. they all share the simple dream of one day being able to return to their homeland, and Yukimura expects almost all of them to be able to fulfill that dream together.

so when Shingen insinuates that he won’t be able to be there for that, Yukimura gets understandably worried and angry.

okay, so now we know that he's a selfless iron woobie. what else? as stated above we know that he is actually a closet Sensitive Guy(TM). Yukimura is sensitive to his own feelings, at least. he's a Thinker, he thinks a lot and even overthinks. he is a tsundere to himself - because he's hardwired himself to sacrifice other needs and wants aside from the goals he's set for himself. if it’s not something for the benefit of his dream or Shingen or Sasuke - does he really need it?

he clings onto all the light he can hold onto no matter how small for the sake of his dream - it’s literally defined his life, he’s somewhat dependant on using his body to fight for something or someone and that’s why he’s always moving around doing something. Yukimura also respects other people who have a similar mindset (also his highest criteria when it comes to women; he gotta have something to respecc). 

if he didn’t have anything to fight for what do you think would happen? :thinking:,,,, check out chapter 13 of his dramatic route for the answer,,,, it is not pretty :( 

3. 95% giver 5% taker (and only after some self-deprecation)

of course his selflessness also applies to his love interest?? 

even as a lover he's such an adorable loser that makes me want to cry. he is selfless love in the form of a man. he is basically a dog boi. he only wants to take care of you, your happiness is his happiness. he always offers to make YOU happy and not himself first- it's like as long as you're smiling he can keep going, even if he's tired or if he worked all day, he always has time to spoil and coddle you-- if you want all his attention he'll give it to you, no matter how tired or busy he is. in fact, he thinks that its part of the job description, that its his duty to indulge in your desires. even on his birthday, you know the day where HE'S supposed to get something, he goes out of his way to get YOU a present.

the conflict in his route is literally him coming to terms that he wants something for himself, denying himself from his own goddamn happiness. he finds out that you are on the side of his enemies, yet he still wants you because he’s fallen for you - but he tells/forces himself to think that he doesn’t need you after all, because “it wasn’t meant to be” and that he doesn’t deserve you because he brought you to the battlefield. even though he can do exactly what he needs to if you were simply just ‘friends’ or ‘acquaintances’ - the idea of giving himself true happiness by being with the person he loves? nah, fam.

literally the only time he wanted to be selfish for once he slapped himself and said ‘no’. if you didn’t chase after him, the regret would eat at him for a long time, regret that he’ll eventually learn to squash down inside himself and only add to fuel of performing only for others - and not himself.

👏 👏  related analysis: why does he come off as insensitive when it comes to his route? why has he demonstrated that he is actually not Stupid but is also a butthead to you?

answer: defence mechanism - he thinks women are bothersome because they cry. and when women cry he lacks the confidence(?) to use words to comfort them. they embarrass him, he’s a tsundere, he only says things truly from his heart under Very Specific Circumstances where he is completely vulnearable and open (like pre-spice or... some angst situation).

so instead he just falls back to being selfless like he normally is. all he knows is how to care about other people, carry their burdens and wanting them to rely on him. that's why when you're upset at the festival, he just keeps shoving food at you instead of asking 'what's wrong' and going off on that. because his mind is literally just thinking food = good = makes people happy = ok, let's do that then. that's also why he'd rather you be angry than sad. sad is bad because he doesn’t know how to deal with bad except being physically intimate - pretty sure Yukimura would rather die if he had to hug every crying woman he ever encountered.

conclusion: he’s just a lost, lost boi who doesn’t know how to comfort people so he sacrifices himself and puts others ahead of him using actions - he pampers, he lets people vent out on him, the works. what a fucking wholesome loser who needs to love himself for once.

👏 👏 end of insensitive boi in love analysis

there’s a part of Yukimura that is actually a bit insecure. it's odd because he’s usually so confident in himself, and so proud, but he’s also so self-deprecating? under that tough boy exterior is just a boi who wants to be loved. he wants someone who will be there for him and support his stupid ass. he uses himself to hold up everyone else's burdens, but sometimes there's nobody that might be able to do the same to him. he wants someone to come home to, when he's stressed and wants some loving because otherwise he'd hole up his emotions and explode-- if he didn't have Shingen and Sasuke there with him.

his route sort of expresses the fact that Yukimura has never experienced a ‘mature love’ before, or a love where he imagines a life together with them. crushes, probably at some point in his life. sexual experience? how can he not have any??? but mature love? questionable.

these moments are few and far between because its not explored quite as much, but when they do...

he says things like "don't leave me, i'll prove that i'm the man for you." (bitch doesn't have to prove jack shit, he literally radiates with Care and Love) and “I need you”. he just doesn't want you to disappear on him. 

why’d you think you decided to leave without telling him? bitch would fucking fight the sky to keep you with him.

he's scared to lose you because he's finally found someone who is willing to accept him and taught him that its ok for him to be selfish for once and do things for his own sake and his own happiness. what he wants most is to just come home and eat food with you together. every encounter with you is precious to him because you rarely see each other. he wants to spend time with you. he doesn't like it when things cut into plans that seperate the two of you- but he doesn't mind it if plans didn't run as expected as long as he still got to spend the day with you. even if he's busy, he lies to go out with you to do things that YOU want. 

he’s finally come to find some happiness outside of work and outside of how he already copes - that alone is special to him, whether you end up as his friend or as his lover.

so basically:

you should love this guy bc he is mega Lovable and radiates warm Energy,,, he will always care about ur dumb ass one way or another.

[yyh-revival]

Ok so about hxh I don't dislike the show it's a good show. But the reason I prefer yyh is the set up makes more sense. It makes sense for a place like the demon world to have a fucked up tournament like the black tournament. The stuff that Koenma's dad pulled to fuck over demons given the system and that kind of character. You know what doesn't make sense? Giving known assasins and psychopaths more access and power. In HxH becoming a hunter means you get access to all sorts of locations pt.1

That regular civilians dont have access to and a liscence to kill without getting into trouble and all sorts of other shit. And they give that power to Hisoka who never tries to hide the fact he just likes killing people and randomly killed one of the examiners last time. And Illumi a assasin who freely admits that he wanted the liscence for a job. He says this to the people in charge of the exam. And he still gets his liscence what the fuck. Not to mention his family the secret pt2

oldeck family who the public doesnt know their faces have a house so famous that tour guide point it out while going through the city. Like it might have unbelievable security but why would you risk people knowing? Not that it’s a bad show or I dont enjoy it. I’m not that far into the series. But things like that kinda take out of it. It kinda takes me out of it. Especially when this world isnt like this world of chaos its actually kinda like our world. Or supposed to be Pt.3

Yes, I have to confess the setting didn’t sit right with me, either. I typically enjoy fantasy (in fact it’s my #1 favorite genre, and my preferred to write in, whether that’s high fantasy like LOTR or something like Fullmetal Alchemist, or even modern fantasies like stories about vampires, etc. All of my childhood favorites have fallen into this category… aaaand still do haha)

But the setting always did feel strange to me. I never understood who or what was in control of this Hunter licence, and why they were giving them out to children, or what the point of them even was.

More under the cut. Long analysis of character, slightly more productive than what I wrote yesterday, and some more dissing of HxH (I’m sorry) and its poor management of plot, setting, and character.  Also, from now on, tagging all discussions and comparisons of HxH and YYH as HHD (for hunter hunter discussion) to keep it out of the hxh tag. 

Once again, this is all just my opinion, my personal feelings, and are not meant to grade the merit of the show or insult anyone who enjoyed it!

See, I typically also like “secret clubs.” But I like them being fleshed out. In Mass Effect, we know what a Specter is. They have almost unlimited power, but 1) they answer to a council which can strip them of this power, and 2) they have a clear goal – serving the council and the interest of the council races.

For YYH, we have the same thing. Yusuke has more power than the average human, having the authority to kill and having access to knowledge most humans do not have. But he 1) answers to Koenma, 2) has a clear goal of protecting the innocent from evil demons and other psychic phenomena. 

And that stuff is outlined the MOMENT our protagonists enter the secret club, in clear words, and it doesn’t take, you know, forever… But HxH, I have no idea what the whole Hunter organization even is? I looked it up and turns out I saw the whole 1st season, 31 episodes… and I have no idea what this hunter thing is.

So yes, I totally agree. For comparison, in YYH, we go through a rather good introduction to Spirit World all before episode 5, an intro to what Spirit Detectives are without learning all the details, but enough to understand, by what, episode 8ish? We learn how Spirit World can bend rules with Kurama and Hiei within the first few episodes, too. We learn Spirit World is a bureaucracy, that it has rulers and managers (Enma and Koenma), that it is occupied by mostly two species (ogres and Spirit World citizens, who are like spirits, neither alive nor dead), that they have prisons, that they take interest in human lives and society, that they have the power to revive the dead but that there are clear rules and procedures. We learn Spirit World citizens can inhabit human bodies made specifically for them. We learn Spirit World can unlock human’s innate spiritual awareness. We learn the Spirit Detective job is sorta a new and untested thing (sending a kid to fight 3 demons… Koenma seriously didn’t think the job through yet). We learn Spirit World houses powerful treasures like the 3 artifacts. We learn they have a freakin’ treasure room to start with. We learn you can break into Spirit World and its vaults. We learn that living creatures, even demons, can enter it. We learn spirits and living creatures can interact with each other as if both were on the same plane, tangible and all, while in Spirit World. We learn Spirit World watches and records events of interest in the Human World, sometimes flat out spying on humans like when they watch Keiko being chased or when the little girl (the investigator) stalks Keiko along with Yusuke and Botan. We learn ghosts aren’t allowed to stay forever in the human world. We learn that the spirit and the body have separate energies that converge together. We learn Spirit World uses actual technology, not just magic, like VHS types and pocket watches. We learn Spirit World citizens can live incredibly long lives and look like babies while being a couple hundred years old or more.

^^ See all that? That’s what I know about Spirit World from watching the first EIGHT episodes. Episode 9 Yusuke enters Genkai’s tournament… How insanely concise is that? Episode 8, and we know so much about just one aspect of this world.

Whereas HxH? episode 31… and I still have zero clue what hunters are, what their purpose is, what they can do, who they work for if anyone, what the qualifications for them are (just being able to fight?) We know nothing. 31 episodes!! 

For another comparison, by episode 31, Yusuke is in the Dark Tournament, fighting Chuu. By this point, we had all four main characters go through the first cycle of their character arcs, we were introduced to most of the supporting cast, we had relationships established, we got backstory on some characters, we learned how spirit energy and psychics work more, we saw Yusuke begin his second cycle, we saw the introduction of a major villain… we had a lot. Whereas with HxH, all I remember is the damn big boat in the storm thing.

Speaking of character arcs… I wrote this in a response to something else, but I think it also makes my point here. I am incredibly fascinated with character arcs and character in general, even more than plot or setting or anything else. To me, character is all. So here’s my breakdown of some character growth within the first 8 episodes.

YYH never really feels like it drags, maybe only in those moments I mentioned before. But it had an incredibly strong opening. Excluding Hiei, within the first 7-8 episodes, we have two characters (kurama and Yusuke) go through full character arcs that affect them all the way down the line of the show. The other two join after episode 25, though we also get to see glimpses of character background and some development even earlier (Kuwabara’s sensitive side is shown with the kitty, his devotion to friends, his honor code – all before episode 8 as well, but that’s not really an arc. He doesn’t have one till about the Yukina Rescue arc concludes. Though his is a bit weak, mostly because Kuwabara was… pretty alright to start with? It’s hard to develop when there isn’t many places you can go. And out of all the 4 boys, Kuwabara had the least amount of baggage.)

For Yusuke, we have the theme of “caring/not caring.” Yusuke stars off believing no one loves him and that he’s better off not being in anyone’s life. The wake proves him wrong enough that he makes an effort to come back. Then when he thinks he’s missed his chance by throwing the egg, and sees his friends and family happily talking about him returning, he mourns because he knows he’s not coming back. 180 from “meh, ima stay a ghost it’s better I’m not in their lives.” So, he goes through a complete cycle just in that moment, from I don’t care, to I do care and I’m happy, to I do care and I am sad. Not just a simple arc, from point A to point B, but A to B to C. It’s a very well constructed growth of a character. Full arch, full growth, and that’s why it tugs at the heartstrings. Because the moment he started to care… he thought lost his chance.

That arc he goes through all before episode 5 cycles throughout the show, and makes us care because such a strong arc, such an emotional one, too, grabs the viewer’s heart by the balls and refuses to let go. 

It cycles in the Suzaku fight – he experiences horrible pain to save people, but in order to really motive himself, he must see Keiko in danger. He’s getting there, to the point of caring about humanity, but not quite. Then in the Dark Tournament, the lives of multiple people hang on his victory. But they’re still mostly people he cares about, though now that has extended beyond Keiko into Shizuru, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, etc., all of those people. He’s getting there, increasing the circle of people he cares for.

It keeps going up, challenging Yusuke to care more. The hospital had Keiko and shizuru in it. But also the new psychics. Then Sensui threatening all of humanity. Then the 3 kings arc threatening all of the realms. Yusuke progressively gives more of a shit about more people with time and new challenges and as he earns more friends.

And all of that is outlined in he first Fucking 4 episodes!! We know what hsi arc is, we know where he is going, we know what sort of character he is, and we get to see him become truly fleshed out in just 4 episodes.

That’s just Yusuke, too. Kurama also has a complete arc within the span of like two or three episodes, and those themes cycle throughout the show. (guilt, suicide and redemption – think Ura Urishima fight, when Kurama projects his want to sacrifice himself for Shiori to make up for his deception, where he tells the guy that suicide has no honor or redemption in it, even though the guy didn’t care for that, his lie was about getting out of having to hurt people without causing harm to his grandmother, not about redeeming himself – family, lies, the better of two evils – to lie to shiori and stay with her so she has a son, or stop lying to her and punish self for stealing her “real son” away)

It’s consistent, mostly concise, cyclical, and oh so fucking satisfying to my literature loving senses….

And then hxh… where apparently nothing of substance happens in the first Twenty Freakin Episodes. I legit cannot tell you about any character growth in that time. Or plot? They take a test. For who knows how long. Uh… kurapika starts to like leorio when before he didn’t? So he gets friendlier?? Maybe?? Killua begins a friendship with gon instead of getting himself that therapist… they play a ball game together. That gets them to like each other so much Gon goes chasing after Killua when he goes missing at the end of the season. Uh…. they are faced with the horror of fighting people they had to cooperate with before I guess. *shrugs* 

If you put a gun against my head, the only character growth or arc I could maybe try to name for the first 30 episodes is that Kurapika started to like Leorio and starts to address him with a bit more respect, cause they worked together, so uh… nope, nope, that’s not an arc in the slightest. Kurapika can simply be a person who doesn’t like others until he gets to know them… So yes, I’d get a bullet in the head.

And the fact that you need to skip the whole beginning of the show to even enjoy it, as @perpetuallyfrowning suggested … I can’t do that. I cannot enjoy any change in Gon if I don’t know where he was before. But I hate where he was before, and we’re stuck with that for so long… Even if you didn’t like Yusuke’s personality at first, you only have to deal with it for a bit because he changes so much so quickly.

So there it is, my rather lazy analysis of the beginning of YYH and HxH, looking at setting and character.

- Mod Lola

[evilwickedme]

babe I really do operate on the smallest amount of encouragement so here we go the secret good version of Deadpool that marvel comics are too much of a COWARD to let me write

okay so firstly. fuck the timeline. yall know I'm a secret empire hater to the core. so this story is assumes that Ellie is in the custody of Emily Preston and Wade is spending most of his time in a house across the way from the Prestons just watching over his babygirl. secret empire? I don't know her.

the plot would have to do with, believe it or not, something from Daniel Way's run. I've shat on Daniel Way's run repeatedly and I will do so again but part of the reason I hate that run so much is it brings up all these good concepts and then does nothing with them or worse, makes light of them. so a thing that Daniel Way's run did was it brought in a sort of reverse Deadpool - a wade that was made of all the pieces of wade that had been cut off of him over the years. like damn. not to be all "stories should have meaning" but that could've been such a good antagonist and it was fucking wasted bc Daniel Way can't handle a metaphor if it hit him in the fucking face.

the arc would deal with his crippling self hatred. like, his enemy is a version of himself that's made of literal pieces he discarded and is hunting him down for sport. his self loathing is that goddamn strong. so he goddamn runs. he takes Ellie in the middle of the night and they run to Canada and stay in a ruined, burned shell of a house. Ellie explores and finds something of Wade's - a photo of him in high school - this was his childhood home. "Parents," Wade says. "Can't live with 'em, can't remember killing them."

it's pretty well established that Wade's dad beat him, but honestly it's never been in there for anything more than a joke. here we find out that wade had a boyfriend - yes, a boyfriend, we're done avoiding Wade's sexuality or walking around it or making fun of it - in high school, and that he lived in constant fear of his homophobic dad finding out, and his enlistment to the army had a lot to do with escaping the small town homophobia he was surrounded with. he tells the audience and possibly also Ellie that he hates that he can't remember killing his dad, cause he's pretty sure he deserves it. Ellie's asleep; she doesn't ask any follow-up questions.

of course anti-Wade shows up before long and after a fight between them decimates even the hollow corpse of this house, wade asks him what he wants and anti-Wade responds that he wants to take him apart "brick by brick". wade visits a series of old haunts and allies, all of which slam the door in his face, and finally reaches Spidey, who agrees to help, especially when he sees Ellie's big doe eyes. "Hi uncle Spidey!" she says. Peter melts. We all melt. Ellie is the best.

Spidey basically says that this anti-wade has all of Wade's healing powers and therefore can't be destroyed, and spoilers, the solution is to accept him as a part of himself, but they're not there yet.

ok it's really late and I gotta go to bed but basically the idea is that wade hates himself so much but it never occurred to him that even the worst parts of him would never harm his daughter until she's in harm's way and anti-Wade literally stops dead in his tracks. Both versions of wade explode and heal together into one wade (inspired by the way Deadpool and madcap originally combined into one) and it's about embracing the self and healing from past trauma and AHH

like yes you can still have crass jokes and Deadpool doesn't sit and brood the entire time but also the word chimichanga won't appear once in the entire series and Wade will use he/she pronouns and I'll have him address the fucking audience if I have to for him to let everyone know that the killogy is shit

anyway so yeah that in a nutshell is the good version of Deadpool that exists in my head. y'know. an actual character, not a series of bad jokes about abuse

I said this in a comment to one of stackthedeck's TikTok stories and I've had many convos with like, my mutuals and the like about this but I'd give anything for marvel comics to let me write them the secret good version of Deadpool that exists in my head. Like I dunno if any of you are actually interested but I have plot ideas, themes, characterization that doesn't suck ass, not dismissing him as a gimmick??? Marvel comics could never but I want to so badly. He deserves it

[charmspoint]

I know you said they don't have a concrete story yet, but would you be ok with telling us more about Zan and Ghost? They seem really interesting

Anon you don't know what you unleashed its like past 1am here but I could talk about them forever.

This is gonna be under the cut because nobody has to be subjected to this.

General quick point: Both of these started off as bnha oc's but then reached that point where I was like 'yeah, I want them in their own story' so rn their powers are just powers with no wider context since I aint got that story

I'm gonna start with Zan cuz he's older by creation and my fav oc atm. For him we have TW's of child abuse and neglect, familial death, trauma, drug abuse, depression and anxiety, though I'll be running through this points as quickly and non graphically as I can cuz...I'm not gonna make you read my thesis so it should be fine.

His full legal name is Kazuya Moriyama but he goes by Zan Mori, he's 24. Zan was created to be two things 1. Character design with a fully body tattoo 2. Someone to use a power I came up with but didn't match with a character yet.

Here's that power, yes I have a copy paste off it:

Nightmare fuel is a power that terrorizes everyone, including its user. Zan’s sweat contains a special kind of chemical that when smelled causes mild to severe hallucinations, paranoia and other fear responses by interacting with victims brain chemistry. However, this chemical is only contained in sweat that he produces as a result of fear so, for example if he goes running in the gym, nothing bad will happen. The strength of the power depends on how much Zan himself is afraid and how much sweat he is producing. A weak dose will only result in sense of unease, a feeling of being watched, escalating through general paranoia, with its worst manifestation being complete loss of touch with reality and intense hallucinations. It's odorless and since it’s a chemical can be stored for later use. The last stages of it are very hard to reach because they require for Zan to be at similar levels of severe distress. It affects him as well, often resulting in endless loop of him being afraid, activating his power because of his fear, the power causing more intense fear and so on.

So here is where we start to build.

Zan's backstory hinges on him developing this power very early on in his life, as a result of mutation that his parents were not ready for. Kids get scared of things, a lot, especially when their own power feeds back into that fear. His family quickly spiraled from it, going from trying to figure out how to help him to neglecting him to dying very bloodily in front of him as a result of the constant psychological distress. After that he was cycled through different foster and youth homes with pretty similar result before striking it on his own basically as soon as he could.

Zan's main motivation is to find a way to get rid of his power. He hates it, hates what it represents and how it essentially stripped away his ability to connect with anyone. He doesn't control it, he doesn't activate it, it simply happens to him whenever he gets distressed and as someone with deep seated anxiety caused by that very same power, he gets distressed a lot.

He self-medicates. He self medicates a lot. I don't really have the world planned out but it's very much a world where powers are a new thing and the society just doesn't have systems in place to catch people like Zan. So he basically keeps himself high as much as he can, to numb himself out so he doesn't feel anything so he doesn't get scared so his power doesn't get activated.

When I created Zan, I expected him to be a very jaded, angry, abrasive character and in some ways he is. He's very slow to trust and tends to keep away from people. His first instinct is to mock and insult, he dresses like an emo reject, he's absolutely covered in tattoos, he's a dark humored pessimist and just not the kind of person you want to be around for long. He's also probably one of the most empathic characters I have on the roster atm. He's like, a natural big brother. Any kids younger then him, fuck older than him but awkward and unsure, he's instantly adopting. Fuck everything else, his kids now, he'll make them lunch and make sure they get to school. Zan is more so abrasive out of need than out of actual malice or bad attitude. He does want to be close to people he just knows how that always ends so keeping away is a lot safer. He is genuinely very loving and soft when he lets himself be. He's not great about advice but he's a good listener and the type to throw everything on the backburner to come and help a friend out. He is inherently kind, he just doesn't allow himself to be so very often, unless someone damn well takes a chisel and digs it out of him.

Fun fact time:

He's got a knack for painting and idolizes Van Gogh

He's got a cat named Shikei who he picked up after it got run over by a car, it likes only him and wants to see the rest of humanity burn

Here are his established tattoos, yes I have a copy paste for that too:

Full body tattoo in shape of a jungle of thorns crawling over his entire body, save most of his face. The whole piece is done in eerie, cold colors, with a sudden splash of warmer color here and there, the thorns themselves being colored in misty and muted blues and greens. Over his heart, there is a tattoo of a birds nest, but the nest is breaking apart, suffocated by the thorns clustering around it and breaking into it, its branches drenched in blood, the baby birds in it barely even noticeable. Along the length of his spine and over the width of his hips an ornate cross of st. peter is painted, also crumbling, red spider lilies breaking through the frail rock. His shoulder blades are covered in sunflowers, strikingly bright on the cold surface of the thorns and painted in Van Gogh style. There is a chain of daisies lines across his neck and down to his chest, covering an old scar and a tiny ring of roses over his ring finger. On the nape of his neck, two butterflies are pinned by the thorns, appearing to still be alive and in agony as their bodies are pierced. A silver snake slithers through the thorns on his right arm, though its shade helps it blend in with the color of thorns, it’s body a tiny bit coiled, considering should it strike or not. On the back of his left hand there is a tiny leaf bug, trying to hide amidst the bare thorns and on the outer shell of his ear, mostly hidden from view by his head, is a ladybug, wings spread like it is about to fly away. A swarm of blue butterflies paint the silhouette of his lungs across his skin and two koi fishes circle each other endlessly on his hip. In thorns climbing up and down his neck, there are tiny fireflies, just barely bright enough to be seen. Two thin thorn branches separate themselves from the cluster on his neck and climb across his temples, their thorns appearing to be piercing through his skin and letting blood flow.

The tattoo is still in progress.

This was the brief summary.

Ghost! Ghost is a lot newer than Zan, I only made them at the start of this year so they are a lot less detailed but they hit the ground running. Their tw are mostly prostitution and existentialist feelings but I'm not getting into anything in detail.

Their full name is Ghostown Verb and yes they did name themselves that. They are 27 and their power is Forget me not, as I said previously, as soon as they are out of someone's line of sight, to that person it's like they never existed. The memories of meeting them return as soon as they are back in the field of vision but uhh you can see how it would be super easy to lose a child like that.

Ghost grew up on the street in a kind of do whatever you can when you can how you can attitude. Turns out it's really hard to get help from anyone when they can't remember you as soon as they stop looking at you, which includes but is not limited to social workers, well meaning passerby, police, foster homes and landlords. The name and face for the paperwork doesn't exist and people just find themselves grasping at nothing, feeling like they are forgetting something but not knowing what it is. It works in some ways, shoplifting is a lot easier when you're sure that you can just turn a corner and be safe, but it's mostly just a hassle. Ghost is homeless most of the time and when they were old enough for it their career of choice became prostitution simply because it's pretty much the only job where the customer doesn't need to remember you after they're no longer looking at you and it's not like Ghost has to answer to any boss who would have to either.

They had not had a kind life but they are the let and let live type. They don't stress a lot about things and generally take everything in a fly. They are very extroverted, very loud, very friendly. They form friendships fast because they know they'll lose them fast and same goes with love affairs. They live in the moment because for everyone else the moment is the only place where they exist. Loud fashion, loud words, loud actions, provocative and noticeable, they just want to be seen by people, remembered by people, they want the attention on them even though they know it's useless. Much like Zan they also have no control of their power so all they can do is live with it. At least it doesn't bring anyone any direct harm, they are grateful for that much.

But it does leave them displaced, unanchored. They don't have any support system, no family, no long term friends. The system can't even remember them for long enough to decide it isn't equipped to deal with them. They flitter through peoples lives, there one moment and gone the next. The biggest impact they can hope to have is the nagging feeling of having forgotten something.

It's not like they are exactly sad about it, their main mentality is just not to worry about things they can't change. These are the cards they've been dealt with and play those cards they shall. At the very least they are having fun with their life, doing whatever they want with no one remembering them long enough to stop them.

But it's a lonely existence with no viable human connection. That much does get to them.

Fun facts!

They have a tattoo of a forget-me-not on their shoulder, I haven't decided do they have it before the plot whatever it is starts, or do they get it cuz Zan's influence.

They like to make their own clothes when they can, though having a stable enough place to be for a long enough time is rare.

Their biggest fear is that when they die nobody will remember to look for their body :)

That was a brief rundown of these two! If you made it to the end damn congrats I love you

[2bstudioblog]

Thoughts on Composer forums, no more negativity...

But before we begin, let’s make it a straight and clear... I don't want to out anybody, but I guess it isn't news because we are all aware that these community/forum problems/people exists, no matter the content or platform.

In the community of film-composers, game-music composers, Audio-directors, Sound-designers and perhaps music supervisors, the film-composer forum/community has been one of the first stepping stones to help and most of all build new relationships with people in the industry.

I’ve always had the image of this community to be about being equal, nobody was above or below, but talking to each other on the level. All that was required to enter was 1 IMDB credit (Internet Movie Data Base), get it verified and then you were in this very exclusive groups.

But so far, the idea was sound, we started to establish a group of a mix of westerners and Japanese composers, and the idea was to share ideas, help people who wants to break into the Japanese scene and the AAA-gaming industry. However, we only had a few meetups and 2 of them happened in a very interesting place in Korean Town in Tokyo. We ended up in the home of former On Tour QUEEN Keyboardist Morgan Fischer, who in turn was one of the first names I remember on an instruction manual for the Yamaha DX7. The first gathering brought about 7-8 members and we talked, showed each other what we do and then we enjoyed general talk, jamming and had a lot of fun. There I also ran into another young guy, who just scored an iPAD app. Let’s call him R2.

A few months later I was contacted by someone from the U.K community chapter, a young lad, with ideas on how things should be and he asked me if we should meet up and talk a little bit since he knew I’ve written music for Resident Evil 6 at this point, so I felt honored and thought let’s help each other out. Let’s call this guy D2.

D2 is now at first glance, I thought he was an OK guy, and I showed him around the city, we talked a little about ourselves and then I had to get back to my ordinary job as a teacher afterwards. He’s very focused on keeping up a fashion and to look cool... all the time. At this I didn’t really care, but I told him that if you want to have a chance at pitching to get into the industry, perhaps he should meet one of my agents. So I arranged that, brought him over to the agency, took about 1 hour, sitting down talking to one of the toughest and impressive women in the industry. She asked about his ambitions and why he was in Japan for a casual tourist visit and in the end the question came: - “What game would you like to write music for in the future?” -”Metal Gear...” was his answer.

He already told me before the meeting that he always wanted to work on a MGS project but I felt a little bit guilty but I told D2: -”I can’t guarantee anything about the chances of getting that kind of gig as a first from that agency. But they’ll try to find something up your alley.” The agent said that would be hard one to get him into because they only like to work with established artists on their MGS franchise, so getting it would seem to be impossible at this point, since we didn’t know that it was being developed at the moment, or so it had been in secret.

He returned back to Europe and I was on my own again. But we promised that we’d follow each other on the platforms and he said he’d try to promote me to get a few more followers on twitter (Duh, he didn’t, naive as usual.) and give a shout-out on his “incredible” YouTube channel devoted to his brand of a software/kontakt library creator. Nothing came to fruition on that front. I sure did give him a shout-out and told people about him, but I got nothing in return.

A few months later he returns and he decides to meet with me again, so I thought, what is it this time? Well, turns out he was back in Tokyo again for a business meeting or something, however he also met someone last time he was in Tokyo and decided to say hi to his girlfriend.  So we all 3 went out to a cafe in Shinjuku area and we sat down and talked about film, games and music since we all were kinda in that industry. But since I know he is passionate about “EPIC” music as he would call it, we (me and his girlfriend) started to talk about Star Wars and he was .... incredibly ignorant. I told him, if you want to hear EPIC music, these are the films you have to see.

I told him: -“John Williams is the reason I am here. The reason I started to do film-scoring and bringing that into cinematic games like Resident Evil 6.” -”Who's John Williams? Never heard of him...” was his response.

Me and his girlfriend were completely flabbergasted of this guys total ignorance of a film-defining classic that changed film-music for science-fiction, approaching it with an operatic execution, giving characters themes, music that flowed with the action like those old golden-era film styles, but modernized for a new generation of movie-goers. It was the biggest risk, bringing in an orchestra for a sci-fi fantasy, but it paid off. Orchestral music was COOL again. Without John Williams, we wouldn’t have one of the first hybrid-action scores in Return of the Jedi with big thick synthbasses in Jabba’s Palace for that ominous uncertain character that turned out to be Leia unfreezing Han Solo from his carbonation chamber. Minimal amount of synth, but it was there.

The ignorance of D2 started to show. But I didn’t want that to be the moment, so I told his girlfriend to sit down and watch those films together. Not sure if they did, but it was here I started to feel the “British twit” mentality, the “I am better than thou”, the “I’m in my 20′s and I have already figured out the meaning of life...” All he had was his own business back home generating the dough in making sample-based kontakt-libraries. Good on him.

Then a few month’s later, I saw something on his YouTube channel that really started to kill my vibe for the dude. Whenever when I work for big companies like Konami, Capcom or Sega, I always sign an NDA. That mean’s I’m not allowed to record or show off my work for projects that are in progress. But here he is, talking about his cues he’s composing in real-time on YouTube. My first thought was, maybe I should tell anybody about this, but I don’t want to be a buzz-kill. I decided I didn’t want to butt in. Perhaps he would learn something from that mistake. Or did he?

A few months later D2 came back, now the game was pretty much in it’s final stages and he decided to meet me up together with R2 and we went out to yet another cafe, talking about software and stuff. Before we even met up with R2, D2 started to ask me if I had any registration keys for some software he didn’t own... I’m now getting even more confused. Is he asking me for pirate copies??? I just can’t make this one slide, so I’ll just stay quiet. R2 shows up, they start to make fun out of my English, my use of words in fun ways. I know the Britt’s and the Australians share the dry word humor, but I told them that I really like to perform on real hardware and twisting knobs for cutoff filters and stuff. All they wanted was to make fun out of me using the words “I like to turn knobs” (English slang for wanking off people, not my intention since we are talking about synthesizers...) R2 however was sucking up to D2 due to his huge following on YouTube and Twitter, so my point of view was completely irrelevant for R2. I had made valid points, but D2 shot me down, R2 is right behind him like a narcissists flying monkey.

This was the moment where I felt I should distance myself from D2 for trying to acquire pirate software keys, asking me if I had any cool software etc. He’s bloody rich. He should buy the software like everyone else, especially guys like me. I pulled a small ploy and pretended I got a phone-call from an agency going;

*hanging up the phone* -”...Sorry guys, it’s seems to me something important has just landed in my lap and I have to leave you here, but I wish you all good on your ventures. Take care and talk to you guys later.”

From that moment, I was just exhausted from R2 and D2. They are a perfect fit for each other. But the ignorance and bluntness from D2 lost all of his credibility for me and I just said to myself quietly I just have to keep fighting my own battle in an uphill, serving D2 with the best kind of courtesy I’ve learned from the Japanese and being shit on in the process. He doesn't respect many of us, so I’ll now don’t give a damn.... I need closure. And with a snap of my fingers, all the bad went away.

After leaving these thoughts to you, I’m ready to let go and start a new future in the land of music production. But one thing is for sure, I'm done with the charade.

Of course there are times when enough is enough. And I've had enough.