#ooooo this is a really interesting reading of that scene

[greenandbreathing]

just read your maddie/caitlyn fic and ohhhh????my?? god??? life changing. i know you said you probably won’t write for them/arcane ever again (ooooo 🌀🌀🌀 you wanna write more maddie/cait fic so bad) but id love to know if you have any headcanons for their relationship dynamics 💕

hey omg thank you so much for reading !!! do i have headcanons…… oh my friend. you doubt me

(i'm gonna keep these sfw but if people want specific nsfw ones i couldddd be persuaded. speaking of which, this is the fic in question)

first of all i wanna start off with this. if you think they were ever “in a relationship” or “girlfriends” you are making your first mistake. here we have a woman who has just lost her mother and the real love of her life within a week, and then immediately she is handed more power than she even truly knows what to do with, try as she might to make it seem like she has it under control. she’s grieving and heartbroken but she doesn’t have time to manage anything  because she has a war to deal with. and then we have her subordinate, her coworker. imagine you are a girl with a raging hard on for power who has just witnessed a very hot officer ascend to leader of her house and your commander. she’s also in such a vulnerable position that it would be impossible not to offer her your shoulder to cry on. caitlyn is not herself, maddie is a horny twenty year old lesbian. i don’t believe that maddie was a traitor from the beginning, but i do think she was being remarkably selfish and did not care that caitlyn was using her. furthermore, i think she was into that part of it.

more under the cut!

THAT BEING SAID! there is nothing wholesome about what was going on between the two of them. maddie’s smart, and she feeds cait all the praise and validation she needs to create a bandaid on her heart, and caitlyn takes it all in because nobody else is around to take care of her. at a point where she has never felt more unloved, here is a girl willing to smother her. fine. 

i do think that the deleted scene where maddie approaches caitlyn at a bar and has a heart to heart with her did happen. i think that’s how it started. i think they shot the shit and had a few too many drinks and caitlyn invited maddie home with her, and it startled her the next morning when she realized she didn’t feel any regret about it, only a dull sort of. well. that happened. it was kind of cathartic? i actually think she had a spring in her step following the first time, which pissed her off because it meant for sure that this probably wasn’t going to be a one time thing. and it wasn’t. 

maddie loves it. she sees it as being useful and helpful, but she also folds so easily for a girl who will boss her around. she’s a follower to her core: when someone’s in charge, she has to be the best for them (i.e. gold star sticker — good job, maddie!) 

maddie lovesss getting to stay the night at cait’s. her sheets are soft and always clean, there’s no risk of being interrupted or overheard, and she will take every opportunity to use her fancy shower (and maybe— no, definitely— all of her expensive products. you can’t convince me that she isn’t secretly having everything showers with cait’s stuff) 

maddie is an abhorrent bed sharer— blanket stealer, toss and turner, the works. the only way cait is able to get under the covers fully is if she snuggles up to maddie, which maddie occasionally (unwisely) mistakes as genuine affection. its not, really. (although, cait will sometimes relish in the comfort a little more than she should, too. but she’s more aware of herself) 

i wish i had a clear answer on how i think maddie switched sides, but it’s so difficult to sort out in my head because i do think season 2’s writing is really flawed in a lot of ways (not an unpopular opinion), one of those being maddie’s whole character. i think ambessa manipulated her though, i don’t think maddie turned on cait on her own. if anyone has thoughts on this i’d be interested to hear them! 

[badsalmonella]

SGATGK getting 'er done.👍

TLDR: some neato historical/fantasy drawing references, I like character design would be neat if someone paid me to do that someday, I have to trick myself into being motivated to finish anything like one tricks a dog into taking their meds by putting it in the wet food, tales passed down for centuries are cool.

Why did I do this? : Because I'm obsessed with art books and design bibles and it's what made me want to study animation in the first place. Portfolio pieces like this, this and this were always something I wanted to do, I think they are so inspiring.

Unfortunately you like have to put in a lot of effort to get something like this done, and as I have learned from a semi-failed attempt to do this with Hadestown it is very easy to get too precious about the art and restart 80 times and essentially never get anything done. I'm out here chanting "finished not perfect" to myself in the mirror like a mantra maybe one day it will seep into my bones and I will fully embrace it. Full disclosure, one of the circumstances that led to me actually finishing this is that I have way too much free time on my hands atm, like I don't think I would have gotten this done (or gotten it done in a timely manner) if I was also balancing full time work, but I was tryinggg to squeeze some lemons out of a less than ideal situation. Second thing, on top of trying to do this for 4 years with Hadestown, I alsooo initially tried to do this with the musical Camelot/ the Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere love triangle part of the Arthurian legends but found I was once again too obsessed with the thing, and getting too precious about the art to get anything substantial done. I did get these Guinevere runaway bride drawings done though. Phillipa Soo high cheekbones Guinevere will always be important to me!!

So I switched gears and chose an Arthurian legend I liked well enough, but not so much I would sike myself out of getting it done and went with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It's also a story that adheres to a pretty traditional fable structure. A young guy goes on a quest, he experiences trials in threes, he comes back a little changed having learned a life lesson, etc. Also designing The Green Knight comes with a fun 'cool' factor that I like. The Arthurian discord server run by queer-ragnelle on tumblr is full of really nice, and wayyyy more knowledgeable people who pointed me in the direction of Simon Armitage's translations of the poem so that's what I read to get started. Another great resource I liked was Queer as Fact's podcast episode on the story. Something that I found really interesting was that they discussed Gawain's kissing game with the Bertilak's being something that brought on both queer positive and queerness as a sort of cautionary tale that was encouraged to be turned away from interpretations*. Interesting that you could take away two opposite readings from the same text, but also really framed the experience of staying with the Bertilaks as something that is otherworldly and treading into unknown territory for Gawain.

*I wanna add that 1. just because I acknowledge the two conflicting interpretations doesn't mean that I think one cancels out the other's validity 2. Just because I acknowledge it doesn't mean that it's one that I like or agree with. Obviously these stories are so old we can't ask the author what intent they were writing with so we'll never get 'the right answer', all we really have is interpretation. So like why not interpret something positive out of it, especially if you can back it up with the text.

I got pretty tired of using Google images for research, and actually went to the library for most of my drawing reference. This was also good because it got me out of the house yay! It made me feel like those movie behind the scenes featurettes I love, where people go on their little research trips, like OoooO I'm making the fake movie in my brain!! I unfortunately never wrote down the titles of these books I was using but there were some great illustrated book of clothing worn throughout history. I wanted to keep Gawain, and the design of Camelot fairly close to something historical.

I loved this book especially because all the art was so colourful. I think a lot of people have this idea that medieval costuming should be dull/dark colours but I definitely didn't want to go in that direction. I love bright colours!

I really took inspiration from this illustration I found for Gawain, even though people typically associate medieval knights with full plate armour, in the story Gawain is going on a lengthy journey to find the green chapel, then accept his beheading so I actually felt something lighter like this chainmail outfit with robe on top was the way to go to make him feel mobile. Also Gawain really lays on the self deprecating sauce thick when he volunteers himself up to participate in the Green Knight's game, claiming he is of no great importance, he's just a little guy, it's not a big risk if he gets hurt. (that's not a direct quote. That just the vibe) So I also snuck in the small detail that his clothing is a little oversized, not quite arranged straight, but he grows into it by the end of the tale :3

I also used designing Gawain as the chance to lock down what artstyle I wanted to move forward with. My brain told me 'oohhh storybook!' but go into a bookstore and give it a peruse and you will quickly find there is a wide array of storybook artstyles. So that was not specific enough. I tried simplifying my art style, I liked Cartoon Saloon's stuff (good catch everyone who commented on it's influence in the post's tags) but felt it was a little too simplified and stylized for what I wanted to do. The big lightbulb moment for me was when I found this art by an-old-lady on tumblr. I really like how this artist's work is pretty stylized but sticks close to recognizable human proportions. So I put this one my inspiration board, while still trying to keep it distinctly mine. not really my call to say if I succeeded at this or not lol

But yes Cartoon Saloon's influence is still there, especially with backgrounds,

and I also really loved looking towards the art of Sleeping Beauty. Really amazing use of colour in this art, also the way they simplify nature into easy to read shapes, then pack in all the detail there is something I loved.

me doing my best to harness that Disney concept art power

(Side note one books I can name from all this research is this one because I would like to own it some day. Fantastic resource for not only showing the classic art and architecture they are taking reference from, but how you can apply that to something a lot more cartoony and simplified. Seriously the side by side comparisons of medieval book artwork next to their Sleeping Beauty storybook scenes are masterclass mwah)

From there something I really wanted to drive home was this contrast between Gawain's world and Lord Bertilak/Green Knight's world. The Green Knight comes with lengthy descriptions about his odd (but hot *wink*) appearance, and there is definitely an aura that something unknown has entered King Arthur's court. While I tried to find inspiration for Gawain's armour from old artwork, Green Knight's outfit I was looking more to fantasy influences like Lord of the Rings, House of the Dragon, Renaissance Faire costumes, etc.

When you look up medieval fashion you get a lot of reference for these crazy cool headpieces

Lots of head coverings too for women (lots of it done for modesty reasons. Also a little bit for hygiene reasons) so I kept that consistent with the women of Camelot

Also even though a lot of medieval media associates the revealed shoulders and the sleeves with interesting cutouts with woman's fashion at the time, a lot of actual historical imagery I was finding has a full coverage layer underneath known as the kirtle (mostly for hygiene purposes......though I'm sure modesty is also a factor)

( Alicent where is your underlayer?? Cringe.)

But for Lady Bertilak I went full medieval fantasy and whipped out those sleeves that I always associate with princesses and gave her long flowing hair. Also interestingly I remember the story once emphasising her ~flirtatiously~ revealed shoulders. I wonder if that was a fashion choice still made back then, or if this is fantasy detailing, sort of like how the trash doctor drama TV show Doctor Odyssey will have doctors doing work on patients in full cocktail party attire a decision that is not based on any sort of reality but maybe hundreds of years from now if the media is preserved humans might assume that was how the doctors of our day dressed. HM!

Lord Bertilak actually gave me a hard time with his look. I went in really only knowing I wanted to give him that Hozier inspired bun hairstyle. My reasoning being that like Lord Bertilak loves going hunting he's a kind of man of the woods.....but he's also supposed to be this hot Lord who is making Gawain question if he wants to join a very unchristian open marriage and when I think of man of the woods but make it glam I think of this dude

but other than that I had no ideas on how to approach this 'same shape as the Green Knight but make him more warm and approachable' look I was trying to achieve, so I just made lots of sketches that got trashed pretty quickly. Also at the time I didn't know what colour scheme I wanted for these two yet, only that I wanted green as an accent colour to hint at his true identity (also because plot relevant green girdle) but not the MAIN COLOUR of their colour scheme. So anyways that's how you get this funny drawing of Lord Bertilak looking very Curious George's Yellow Guy vibes.

Then it hit me in the most unexpected of places....

You're probably wondering "hey there is literally a fantasy historical King Arthur musical you are OBSESSED WITH why are you not turning to that for inspiration?" or maybe "why would you reference House of the Dragon earlier but not the much more famous Game of Thrones?" and the answer there is as cool as those costumes are they are taking a LOT of inspiration from modern runway fashion and that just wasn't the vibe I was looking for. But then one day as I played the Camelot bootleg as comfort background noise (normal behaviour) I found inspiration from THE UNDERRATED FASHION ICON SIR PELLINORE!

I just really loved the long sleeveless drapery situation he had going on. I added the fur along the neckline for Lord Bertie though to make him more top heavy (like his Green Knight counterpart) and as a nod to hunting. but yes big props to Pellinore. ty king!

The contrasting shape language I used in the character design then informed all the extra prop details surrounding these characters.

But to keep things consistent I tried to keep some similar design principles for costumes. They like drapery. They like big sleeve moments. Bold colours. Girdles to break up dress forms. Tunics that generally fall close to knees in length.

I think the coolest bit of research I did was I visited a church in my city and got some good pictures as reference for the green chapel. In the poem the green chapel really ends up being a grass mound but that's not really an impressive drawing to put in your portfolio so I got the idea to have a chapel so old that nature has overtaken it and there's a structure in this hill. The church is open to just look through for free without attending a mass, it's a bit of a tourist destination for good reason it's really well kept, I'd been telling myself to go check it out for years of living here now but this project was what got me to finally do it.

I sketched some random object in there (this can be helpful even if you don't draw these things in your actual project just because it fills up your design bank in your brain) I also wish I took this picture but they had what looked like one of those office water coolers but it was labelled 'Holy Water' and I just thought that was funny. Sorry just wanted to share.

and I am HORRIBLE at drawing backgrounds, I really hate doing it, I find placing the horizon line/ vanishing points incredibly hard to do, so if you are like me but you wanna push yourself TAKE YOUR OWN PICTURES OF PLACES. AND TRACE OVER THEM. THEN ADD WHATEVER CHANGES NEEDED. IT'S NOT CHEATING I PROMISE. YOU CAN LITERALLY DO ANYTHING YOU WANT EVER IT IS NOT THE SAME AS PLAGIARIZING OR TRACING ANOTHER PERSON'S ART AND IT WILL SAVE YOU HEARTACHE. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Anyways this has been my incredibly long advertisement for your local library, your local tourist spots, cool art books, cool cartoons, The Green Knight poem, the kirtle, to try your best to make the art you wanna make because it will fill your heart with joy. Don't be precious about your art in a design project, just sketch like your life is ending in the next couple of hours, it's cool if you draw something like this

There's definitely stuff I wish I had drawn, more props, something more to indicate Lord Bertilak's hunts (I also suck at drawing animals oop) and maybe those things will be drawn in the future, but I am happy to call this done for the time being :)

Did you get this far? Well thanks. ilu 🫶🏼

[lesbiandatekaname]

Also Ryuki is a severely underdeveloped character. Not as in "he's one dimensional and all of the actions he take are flat and there's no texture to his arc" but "he has not been developed alongside his companions." In the first game Date was just familiar with Mizuki, Renju and Shoko but he develops a complex relationship with everyone else in the main cast over the course of the game outside of the case. On the other hand, Mizuki in AINI has pre-established ties with basically everyone in the main cast right off the bat. Kizuna, Iris and Mame are her close friends, Shoma is her classmates, she like Gen bc she likes going to Brahman, etc.

I could not tell you anything about Ryuki's dynamic with anyone (aside from Tama, which is incredibly good but due to the nature of her existence she can't actually interact with anyone else to give him more ties). Everyone either treats him politely as an acquaintance, or they're annoyed with him for pushing at their secrets because he's investigating the case. By the time you've gone through the Mizuki route, it feels like no one gives a shit about him.

And I think the easiest and most interesting way to fix this is by having people Not Really Like Ryuki. Like in the past they're still polite enough, but in the present they're all kind of giving him the cold shoulder. People either blame him for the explosion, or they feel bad for him but he's just too much to handle and they're aware of their own lack of capability to help and just try to stay out of it.

This would also complicate the twist in a fun way because 1) You can have an odd kind of sticking point between scenes in Ryuki's route where the previous time you talked to someone they were very nice and then suddenly they switch to being cold and vice versa. Ryuki's naturally nervous disposition works for this because you can have him massively beating himself up and you're like "oh it's just Ryuki being Ryuki, probably reading into things too much" but ooooo it's actually the weird timeline shit and

2) You can actually have Mizuki have a relationship with him because she uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Blames Him For Her Dad's Death and toy around with how Bibi has similar feelings for different reason. Aiba can be trying to push Mizuki to be a little bit more understanding of Ryuki because since she was with Date when they were first hanging out she has past sympathy towards him and also gets how complicated depression is since Date canonically used to have depression so severe he'd get so drunk he'd pass out at Marble (wow like Ryuki). The fact that Mizuki doesn't have stronger feelings about Ryuki after her third parent died on his investigation is fucking wild, let alone it's strange that your dual protagonists don't have more emotions about the other than that "they exist."

Make Ryuki feel guilty about how he fucked up Mizuki and Aiba's lives! He already feels bad about "killing" Date, but why doesn't he actually care about the effect that had on others? Or, alternatively, swing in the other direction! Make him so absorbed in his own feelings of loss that Mizuki gets upset at him for wallowing in self-pity when she's the one that lost the center of her support system! Make him a hard character to stomach in the second route! Just do something so he doesn't feel entirely self contained.

[crispycreambacon]

😁 Hehehe I'm glad you like the memes!! I haven't actually written any full fics for these two unfortunately, but I have made a couple aus! 👀

Got one where the Substitute succeeds in skinning Ryan in season 5, but Ryan manages to wish for the Professor back before the Substitute can finish him off. That one's super fun, has the Professor finding Ryan's body in a back room and having to get help from someone else to wish Ryan back to life (along with just dealing with the Substitute who's currently pretending to be Ryan)

And another au where Ryan gets turned into a puppet accidentally due to genie shenanigans (specifically a puppet similar to what the Professor looks like, not necessarily a puppet that looks like human Ryan.) That one's much fluffier and very silly 😁 (My friend @digital-dumbass actually wrote a fic about it semi-recently which was super fun!)

If you're ever interested in hearing more about either of these aus I'd be more than happy to yap at you about them! 👀 Sorry I don't have any actual fics to offer you though, I haven't written a full fic for anything in a hot minute 😔

Also, one of my absolute favorite scenes of them would have to be the constellation scene from Season 5, which is still one of the most romantic things I've ever seen. (WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU MADE RYAN ONE OF THE FIRST CONSTELLATIONS EVER CREATED, THAT'S ROMANTIC AS FUCK)

THESE AUs ARE SO SO GOOD 👀👀👀 I've always been interested in scenarios exploring what would have happened if the Substitute had succeeded, and one where the Professor is back, but Ryan isn't is aBSOLUTELY HEARTBREAKING AUGH :'( The Professor was just starting to finally get over their feelings of resentment, and yet he couldn't amend it in time. Plus dealing with a homocidal clone of yourself pretending to be your dead best friend is tERRIFYING O.o I've always believed S5 has the potential to be psychological horror, and the AU sounds like it taps into that. I'm eating it up!!!

OOOOO I'VE READ THAT FIC!!! IT WAS REALLY CUTE!! (Fic link if anyone else reading this wants to read it tee hee) I also love the idea of a puppetified Ryan. I've been meaning to write a fic exploring that, but my writing motivation has been beaten up o+< I did make a design for Puppet!Ryan though! (Alongside Human!Professor tee hee). I really like the idea of involving genie shenanigans for the AU, that's very silly.

I would LOVE to hear more about the AUs!! And it's alright if you haven't made a fic in a while ^^ I'd still like to read your ideas regardless! Also holy moly I just realized Professor and the dinoparents made the first constellations in the PH universe. Oh my god give me a minute I'm gonna aheemheeeeeeemmmmmm.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia,

Behind-the-scenes-fic-ask, number 21 and falling falling stars please ❤️

21. What is something you didn't expect people to notice or gravitate towards in this fic?

Ooooo, okay, actually quite a few things!

So the biggest one is that I just never expected to have Dr Gary be anything more than an extremely minor character that Efnisien mostly reflected on. I never planned to write whole sessions, and the first one was only a section of a chapter rather than a whole chapter, because I thought readers would hate it.

I actually really hate reading a lot of fictional therapy sessions, especially when that's not the focus of the fic. Most fictional therapy sessions read like 'therapist is narrating pop psychology and telling this character everything they want to hear and they're subbing in for a kind parental figure' at best.

There are exceptions to that, but for the most part, I find that boring - it feels like a kind of writing that is not quite lazy, but a bit 'there are other more interesting ways to share this.' Therapists don't feel like real people in those circumstances, with their own motives, thoughts, intentions and drives. They feel like an extended part of the character's brain, or they feel like an empty function.

But Dr Gary was like, was a hit. I was getting a lot of asks about him, a lot of interest about him in the comments, and in the first few chapters, me and my beta actually kind of shipped him and Efnisien together before he met Arden (that's how we ended up with Underline the Black lol).

So yeah, that's the biggest one!!! And that one is a pretty big one. :D

Otherwise, I was also surprised by (but maybe shouldn't have been) how many Kadek/Efnisien shippers there are and Kadek/Efnisien/Arden shippers. I was like...hmm...how can I put this - Kadek has darker brown skin, and in those cases some readers don't really go for that chemistry. He's also 20~ years older than Efnisien, though he doesn't act like it, lol. Like, I personally shipped them even though I wasn't going to write them into the main story, but I was very reserved/aware that people might not want that. Especially with how confrontational and sometimes even mean Kadek can be.

Honestly that was like, probably the nicest surprise. It wasn't that I expected people to be awful, often I try and go in with fairly open expectations, it was more like I was prepared for people to not feel/see what I was feeling/seeing about a character. And I was okay with that, because he's a side character. But we got way, way more scenes with Kadek because of how people responded to him.

This story really couldn't have been what it became without the readers! The best part about not planning a story is I can follow the kind of momentum of readers. I don't believe in caving to fanservicey stuff, but I do believe in 'oh you're open to this? I can give you more of this!' or 'oh you like him!!! Yay!! I do too! Let's experiment with a whole therapy session chapter and see how y'all feel about it.'

:D That's my favourite part of writing, honestly. I actually kind of feel bad for the people who don't read fics as they go like this, and just read it all when it's completed at the end. Because they miss this kind of alive creation of this ongoing story, and they miss being a part of it. And obviously they also miss the agony of waiting for chapters, but as someone who reads WIPs myself, idk there's something very cool about seeing something come to life - especially like, if say early on you are like 'I love this character so much' and then a bunch of other people say it, and then the author is like 'well this character can make the story stronger so good news everyone, I'm putting him in more because you all love him so much.'

That's... like... *chef's kiss*

~

From this meme!

[thebrisingamen]

Reactions to The Grimm Variations

Under the cut, read at your own risk, spoilers in the read out

Episode 1: Cinderella

Rating: 6.5/10

Not impressed with this, to be honest. Kind of tired of 'Ooooo we made it DARK and EDGY'. Mostly because I am not sure of the reasons for Kiyoko to do anything she does?? Like it just seems arbitrary, and maybe that's the point. Way to easily predicted for the plot and there's not much in the way of twists, but the animation is, of course, wonderful. Not sure where we are in the setting, and I would've liked a more cat and mouse game of wits here, but it suffices.

Episode 2: Little Red Riding Hood

Rating: 9/10

Fantastic version of Little Red Riding Hood, with a Cyberpunk flavor. I love the blurred lines of virtual versus reality and Gray was just straight up evil, but the twists were great in this, and the gore was the right amount of enough. I really enjoyed it, even if there weren't any animals.

Episode 3: Hansel & Gretel

Rating: 6/10

I agree with another consensus that this would've been better as it's own thing, but the space stuff was cool, I loved that the station was shaped like a cake, and in full CLAMP style... Hansel & Gretel aren't two people, but one and we stan a Genderfluid Ruler (I really don't know how else to read the scenes with Gretel and Hansel realizing they're one, not two. Or at least I think Hansel is Bigender but that might be me. Why imagine a female twin of yourself otherwise? *knocks on egg*)

Episode 4: The Elves & The Shoemaker

Rating: 4/10

Thematically, interesting to do it with a novel, but it loses its way, meanders through the meaning and everything is kind of lost. We never find out about the 'elves' helping the writer or why and half the stuff added is just nonsense. I wish it could've been stronger when talking about the themes of a novelist who's lost his drive, though.

Episode 5: The Town Musicians of Breman

Rating: 7/10. Could have been stronger with a bit more backstory to Roba and Neko, and I would've preferred Rooster be the one to take on the final brother. It was fine, though I think there was a waste of some character designs for characters who barely have any dialogue and die right away

Episode 6: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Rating: 2/10

Honestly, the worst one. It's just Footloose, but with a creepy teacher. I really didn't like anyone in the story at all.

[bugsbenefit]

What are your Stranger Things 2024 predictions? Not like "What do you think will happen in ST?" NO. I'm talking: What do you think will be leaked this year? What drama do you think will take place? What rumors do you think will end up being true? What promo do you think we will get? Any scandals? Will the show/actors win awards? If so what awards or acors? I want hot tea predictions.

Sincerely, Prediction anon

ohohoho okay, now that's actually a good question

we'll definitely get some official table read content really soon, which the official twt account has confirmed. it's just kind of likely imo that we'll get those sometime this year because filming is already supposed to start in january if the most recent leaks are true

what's basically guaranteed to start with filming is softcore production teasers by the cast right off the bat. so basic, "back to shooting" instagram posts/stories, generally being on a set, getting make up done, hanging out with co-actors, and so on. we might also see some costuming/hair there, but it might also take a few months before we see concrete looks. also possible that we'll see a costume early on but then it never ends up being in the show because the picture was from fitting and the look didn't make the cut

but none of that will be too wild imo. i mean, i want to see the costuming but that's probably going to be all we'll really get, especially as 2024 starts

and in usual production fashion we'll probably also get typical teasers of things we already know will be relevant for s5 just to remind people of what's going on with the show, like "ooo Vecna ooooo". classic still shooting promo like that. but probably nothing really plot revealing

but that's all really basic. the thing i could see be the most interesting about official teasers in the early months of filming is getting a glimpse of the vibe s5 will have. like if we see more military props in a picture, how does the UD look, if someone posts a pic of like a destroyed house and so on

but yk, official teasers will hold back a lot. they'll get more interesting later on for sure but that's also where it's kind of hard to predict what they'll go for. like how they started with their evil grandfather clock teaser for s4. honestly i could see them continue that since they didn't actually answer any questions about the grandfather clock... i can also see them lean more into the "Hawkins will fall" line of s4. they emphasized it so much in the show and even in all the s4 trailers only for s4 to only be the set up for it. so in my opinion they'll go there again fr this time, now that they finally finished the build up to it (s4) and got to payoff (s5)

the most interesting will for sure be the unofficial leaks but those will also be the messiest. because pictures are always without context and text "leaks" are almost always fake, or at the very least (like, only 1% of leaks isn't fake honestly) missing context and facts

similar to how there were "photo leaks" pre s4, that had people going crazy but gave away nothing. like the byler cabin leak pic for example that i think had people think that would be a confession scene? only for it to end up being the s4 cliffhanger spores leadup and some people ended up being disappointed

and something like that will happen again for sure, 100%. like getting two characters in a leak photo and people make up their own theory on what will happen in that scene. and then it's something entirely different in s5 and those people will be mad. lmao. could happen with byler, mleven, something platonic. basically anytime we'll get a bts leak i'm guaranteeing there will be people who think it tells them what happens in s5 and it will be unbearable to wait an entire year with people around who are convinced they managed to predict an entire plot point by a still image of two actors looking at each other where we don't even know if they're in or out of character. it will happen and it's one of the worst parts of any movie/show fandom during production imo (not speculating about possibilities the pics give us tho, speculating is fun)

also the text leaks will be insane (bad). like usual, we'll get more and more as filming goes on, and all of them minus two credible sources will have the "i know someone who works on the show trust me" backing. so we'll get at leat 20 versions of "mleven is endgame and has two kids <333333", maybe 10ish versions of it with byler endgame. and that also goes for the supernatural plot. someone will say Vecna dies, someone says orderly Henry shows up and stabs El, the upside down starts spinning in circles, there's a dragon, no there's a demogoron but it's two stories tall, the school gets blown up, Steve trips and dies from hitting his nose on the ground etc. it'll be the wild west basically. also i'm expecting multiple "this character dies" leaks too, going into s5 the entire cast will be dead essentially. (most likely for this are probably Will. duh. reddit seems to Really want that guy dead. El -> sacrifices her for everyone else's sake. and Mike, which i unironically think is going to come from a) mleven hardcore believers who'll say he sacrifices himself for El b) "byler shippers" who actually only like Will and think he's too good for Mike, and c) people who just hate Mike and pick him for their "x character dies" leak since they'd like that, and we'll be left to guess which of these the original leaker is)

basically, March-ish to s5 release will be hell on earth because you'll have the people who have no experience with show production periods fall for every "leak" and be in a constant "we won" "we lost" cycle. not fun. unless your dash is normal which i'm recommending you take care of before you get the first people crying over a "my cousin who does the lights says he saw Matt Duffer say they'll kill El :((((((" leak on your dash, lmao

and tbh that'll definitely get worse once we actually get semi reliable leaks like we had for s4. because some things always end up being the opposite of what the leakers make it sound like. either due to lack of info on their part or personal bias. like how there was a leak about about the s4 sbp scene "mike confesses his love to el", and then we got.... that monologue, which was the opposite of the "cute" moment the leak described and made everyone and their mom hate the ship

funniest leak in that regard imo would honestly be a "scene of Mike and El talking about their feelings for each other <3" and then it ends up being a breakup. is that likely?.... honestly i can see that, that's exactly the way that would end up being telephoned to us in a leak😭

also i'm expecting the UD lore to get SO confusing next year. because someone will "leak" something that's entirely nonsensical. like "demodogs die when you shine a light on them", but then it ends up turning out the "light" is a blowtorch in s5 and we won't know until it releases

tbh what i'm most excited about leak wise is, yeah sure a) the costuming/outfits. that's always interesting and leaks will be the place we'll see the most of that. but more so b) actor combinations in different shooting locations. which will absolutely fan the s5 plot speculation flames. like with how there were set leaks during s4 about Steve/Robin/Max/Dustin at family video and so on (i think that's the department we're going to get the craziest theories from as well. like for example, if we got leaks of Jamie ever shooting out of studio with other actors, that would open the floodgates to speculation. honestly kind of want that. let him show up in some vision, or put his ass out in the open in the UD, i want people go crazy over speculating about the s5 vecna interactions. and same obviously goes for the relationship department, bc bts leaks usually tend to spoil either season group ups or at least a shared scene between characters. and i want to know the s5 group ups SO bad)

and tbh, i don't really know/care what the actors will do. i can only see them get awards post s5 in 2025 unless they're doing other projects on the side. same for scandal wise, i'm Assuming there won't be anything (said with a raised eyebrow and a frown), given that they all act normal, especially given they'll be busy actively filming and being instructed on promo posts etc

so my predictions would generally be:

regular socmed actor promo, mostly about bts of the actors hanging out (non work things), some costuming bts etc

i think they'll probably lean into the "hawkins will fall" slogan of s4, and i can see them carry the grandfather clock motif on as well when they start more official promo/teasers

also reminders of things that will be important in s5 semi frequently as well. like "remember when will went to the UD" and "remember how Steve and Jonathan both have feelings for Nancy" and so on

with the filming being exclusively in atlanta again i can also see set leaks getting more interesting again than they were for s4. like how they covered the irl trailer park with vines for the s4 UD. especially with things like the giant downtown replica set for s5 there's a lot of potential for us to see Something happen there. i can see them deck that prop out for the UD, or make it a "destroyed" version of downtown. etc

and obviously a shit ton of things that are baseless or straight up lies. a million mleven is canon vs byler is real ross duffer told me leaks. a shitton of leaks of A interacts with B and then it never happens. all the classic "source? i made it up" leaks that spring up around popular shows. hell on earth. i'm excited btw

[shoheiakagi]

ooooo I'll jump on the nana crossover idea! What are your thoughts about it?

Okay first, taste!!!!

And to be honest, I find Nana soooooooooo much better written than a lot of the popular animangas like naruto. I love how the female characters are fleshed out and have actual flaws, the relationship dynamics, the reality of how toxic some relationships can be, and the dialogue?? *chef’s kiss* Like seriously, the plot may not be adventurous or mysterious, but the characters are so interesting? And don’t get me started on the heartbreak!! Nana x Hachi is my overall favorite ship, but I do like Nana x Ren and I’m still not digesting that Nobu x Hachi breakup 😭😭😭😭

And again, I really love how flawed the female characters are! My problem with female characters in most animes, including the new anime out rn, is that a lot of female characters are very one dimensional. Like before it used to be the damsel in distress/love interest trope, and now its characters whose only trait is being a ‘badass’ yet they’re still getting their asses kicked in major fights and get saved by the male hero. So an anime like Nana, where the female characters are filled with depth AND are the main characters, is so refreshing, especially for someone who doesn’t really read shoujo that much either.

Like for example, a character like Nana is pretty popular in other medias cause theyre usually that tough, cold female character, with a secret heart of gold. The mysterious types who always have their guards up until the end and their character flaw tends to be “traumatized or grew up in a terrible environment so now she’s all introverted and snarky to most people” (like raven from teen titans and artemis from young justice. love them, but kinda tired of how most ppl think all well written female characters must be written like them). But what makes Nana unique for me is that she’s selfish, insecure, and controlling.

Same with hachi. Another character trope popular in manga. The sweet, naive girly girl who tends to be the one dimensional primary love interest/damsel in distress for the main hero (orihime from bleach and hinata from naruto). While Hachi is very naive and is prone to falling in love very quick (more like the idea of falling in love), I love how she isn’t written to be 100% all sweet and sugar and nice girl who’s saving herself for marriage with her one true love (that one guy she likes in high school). She’s shallow, self-centered, and emotionally dependent on her love interests, junko, and nana.

Bonus points to womanhood being a main theme here, especially with two female characters who are the opposites of each other in their personality, fashion, background, etc.

I love to think about one of the homra guys, maybe someone like chitose, gets everyone hooked on nana lol. Like he probably overheard a lot of his f*ck buddies and random girls on the streets keep talking about some nana show, so he looks it up and at first loses interest when he realizes its shoujo, but then gets a little curious and wants to know what the hype is (and he lowkey finds the girls hot). So he brings it up to the other guys when they’re all chilling in the bar one day and obviously a lot of them are like, “fuck no, we’re not watching that girly shit” but then totsuka gets interested and he manages to get everyone to sit around the tv and watch the show lol (except for anna since totsuka did some research and found out that there are implied sexual scenes and mature topics). At first, the guys are annoyed at being forced to watch the show (a good chunk of them glaring at Chitose for bringing the topic up), but then suddenly they’re all incredibly invested by like ep 3. A lot of the boys probably talk about which Nana is better or more of their type at first, but then they all probably start shipping the two Nanas and god damn just f*cking kiss her already!!! Not gonna lie tho, I do think some of them are gonna hate on Hachi for leaving Nobu :/ They’re definitely going to sympathize with Nobu, but I just know some of them (Chitose) are probably gonna be like ‘thats what happens when you’re a simp’ 🙄 Overall, I do think most of them will be extremely sad/depressed once they reach the end of the show, not realizing how much this show and its characters impacted them lol

[thekdramallama]

Today’s Webtoon. Episode 5.

That little shit starts everything but overreacts the second someone refuses to let him hit her.

I would not be letting Bland PD talk to me like that. No. I’m not going to let someone try to hit me then complain about their hands hitting when I stop them.

I love the senior artist defending nurse artist. He’s right, but he’s taking the moment to defend because Bland PD is being a dick.

“No one is good at anything from the start.”

I’ve never had a problem with the way anyone eats in any drama I’ve ever seen—until now. Man does villain make me dislike food just watching him eat for three seconds. Which I guess is the point to that mini scene.

He better just be playing that guy…

Tf is that bike 🤨I can’t take interview buddy’s thoughts seriously while he’s on it. He can’t have taken that guys deal while intending to go through with helping him. I want to say it will look like he did but really intended to sabotage the saboteur.

lol nurse artist’s circles look like someone’s doodles after being cursed by a ghost.

I have pens like that! I love them.

I bet he ends up drawing a perfect circle by the time he’s done.

Uhh that’s a LOT of feedback all at once for a new artist to take in.

Bland guy is really pmo.

I respect FL’s new girly artist for really working through all that feedback then asking for specifics. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Being vague is so unhelpful (FL is still learning though!) specifics can help someone understand so they know how to fix things.

🥺 I’m glad her mom knew to stop and saw how she just needed her support. I would love to see the mom become the biggest cheerleader for her.

Oopsy. She shouldn’t have made that promise but I love his determination.

😳 oooh shit. 😬 that bordered on almost “rude” But I think it came out just this side of encouraging and is probably what the veteran assistant needed to hear.

Interview buddy has a knack for reading people. That will come in handy.

But people need to watch out for veteran assistant. He looks like he’s about to snap.

Nurse artist reminds me of my niece. They don’t look anything alike other then they both have cute faces. But I think it’s the hoodie that reminds me of her.

Ooooo… that’s interesting! Face blindness perhaps? Something else… I forget what it’s called?

I love the way they are helping him with expressions. And I love how hard he’s working to improve.

Dude… I REALLY don’t but trust bland guy. Tf is he doing?

FL’s mom is the greatest. I love how she covers for her. 🥰

I wonder if that opponent faked the injury, wasn’t actually hurt other than something minor, or if she went in with an injury to get hurt enough to justify quitting. I feel like those are the options that would work in a story/drama

Bland PD needs some ointment for that burn from Glasses. 🤣😂

I get why she waited so long to tell her dad. But I’m glad she is standing up for herself.

[acatinstarktower]

Thoughs on Avengers: EMH

S1:E1 Iron Man Is Born

(Under a read more because I spoke a lot)

I do very much enjoy the lines for Tony they have the snarky, cocky yet also self sacrificing behaviors down to a T. Found it really funny how he was speeding on the highway too/zooming into the garage. Pepper didn't move at all when he was coming full speed at her, which means this is a common occurance/she trusts Tony and his driving skills to know she is in no danger of him not stopping fully. Rhodey also wasn't worried about Tony speeding, which I think sets up Tony's character very well as seemingly doing reckless things but the people around him trust him to have the skill to back it up.

Very interesting how they kept mentioning how Tony Stark used to work for/with Shield and as a weapons manufacturer (and also as a prison designer apparently??). I'm looking forward to see if they go more in depth as to how he got into that/why he left it.

The fight scenes are a little ridiculous but that's kinda to be expected I think from a superhero show.

Hmmm not quite the biggest fan of how they've portrayed Hill, as she's supposed to be Fury's right hand man, but they literally introduce her with Fury insulting her for relaying information about something she has no control over?? And they made her be an audience stand in it seems, where she learns new things about the world with the audience that Fury already knows about. (Which doesn't make sense for someone in her position to be so unaware/not on the same page as Fury) I'm getting the feeling this is going to be many female characters being shafted in favor of male ones, which again i should be expecting given when this came out/the target audience.

I'm very impressed with the amount of abuse this iron suit/Tony can deal with tbh. Water, fire, drills, blunt force, plasma blasts/electro pulses or some shit.

(Also the setup of Tony being on his own and not accepting help/not having a team to back him up and suffering for it ooooo I am so looking forward to the pay off of getting the whole Avengers team together)

The confrontation of Tony vs Shield is also very very interesting. Everyone's using his tech whether he wants them to or not, and im also 👀 to see what comes of that in the future. (Again it pits Hill and Fury against each other though and I don't quite like it)

Very non subtle world building infodump about the prison. How did no one check these guys before they came to the super secret prison that holds the imprisoned leader of their group??? Seems like a policy oversight ngl.

And seems normal humans are also immune to long term effects of blunt force trauma. Kudos to the people of this universe though they clearly needed that evolutionary trait.

Anyway! Solid introduction episode, I'm already very endeared towards Tony (to no one's suprise) and I will keep rooting for justice for Hill she deserves better. I am def hooked to see how they resolved the plot lines set up in this episode. See yall next time!!

[crossover-enthusiast]

She walks with Gregor and the kids, being completely silent and nearly falling asleep while standing—but she only kinda snaps back I reality when she sees them point out Roy, and nearly pulls them back when they almost run into oncoming traffic, but Gregor does that before she can. Sunny gains a mildly offended look when Evermore goes 'Oh, great..' while looking down at the kids, but follows the kids when Gregor dismisses them, and she also does it just to be sure Roy doesn't do anything.

Sunny immediately starts glaring at Roy the second they walk up to him, and when he tries beating them up the first time, she kinda gets in front of them so he can't—and is relieved when Robert and Ross pull Roy back. She really doesn't think they need to apologize to Roy, and is very irritated over the thought, but she wants to get it over with so she let's the kids apologize after explaining what they came for. Robert and Ross say they don't need to apologize, Roy is a dick about it though obviously, blah blah blah, Sunny watches the whole scene in silence until Roy tries to go up and beat them—but Sunny just kinda pushes him away and at least tries to block the few hits he manages to land on them. She puts the kids behind her again, saying 'What the hell?!' once he's done. And she only gets more angry when he refuses to apologize, but she keeps her anger in and just goes back with the kids to where Gregor is.

When they go back to Gregor, Sunny explains what happened while helping the kids put their proper masks back on—and is still pissed so she resorts to having angry daydreams. She hears they're going to the Hospital though, and thinks she could possibly visit Patty since she hasn't seen her in a bit, so on the way there she probably asks off screen if she can go see her and Gregor probably says yes lmao. Sunny also probably realizes that they wronged Patty somehow, so after scolding the kids a bit, she decides she'll let it go as long as they apologize—which they're going to.

(Stopping so ya can read—it'd be kinda interesting to imagine how Roy would react if he knew all the shit that happens to her on a annual basis lmao/j)

Ooooo

Uh oh Sunny bout to experience the Horrors of her possessed aunt!

[knightzp]

✨🥳🎨

✨️ out of the comments youve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

just two or three???? ive got a lot of lovely comments since i began posting so i just cant choose !!! but i especially love when people comment things like my fic was Exactly what they wanted to read for x characters/ship or when they say it made their day or when they say they hadnt read fics in forever and they decided to open mine and theyre glad they did bc they loved it.... ofc all comments make me always very happy but situations like those bring me a special kind of joy i cant describe.... also i love when people get unhinged on the comments of my fics like aldjkdkdkdk i just Love reading it. i wasnt going to post pics but i spent some time reading all the comments ive ever got and got nostalgic so shoutout to these two people who commented on All the chapters of one of my fics their comments always gave me LIFE

🥳 why did you start writing fanfic?

i already liked writing in general way before writing fics! ive always loved reading since i was a little kid so at some point i just got interested in try working on my own stories and write them down as well! tbh appart from a couple of really short stories i never finished (or really got very long into) anything of what i started writing and now that i think abt it maybe that was bc i started with very high goals and expectatives. and then i got into reading fics and after a year or so of just reading them one day i was like wait i Can write my own stories abt my blorbos too! and i remember i was so excited bc i could write my fave characters in the exact situations i wanted them to be and it also turned out to be So much easier than trying to write original stories bc fics just give you so much more freedom and you dont have to worry abt coming up with characters or places bc theyre already there !! i remember the day i started writing my first fic and i was so happy and excited all the time it was really fun and im so glad i gave it a try bc its now a great hobby of mine <3

🎨 if someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

ooooo i think that would be my killugon dancing au "false steps". theres only so much i can do describing them dancing with my words so it would surely be so nice to actually see art of them dancing and wearing their dancing clothes or costumes......

i also wanna say my ritsumao 5+1 fic bc i love that fic and think it would be so cute like im imagining a big picture with a little drawing of each of the six scenes and 🥺

[windcarvedlyre]

Ooooo, ty for this :D

Replying to the last paragraph first because hard agreed. Outside of the implications of DR2.5, imo he absolutely does know what he's saying; he just believes it so sincerely, and is so desensitised to horrible things in general, that he doesn't understand for the most part why that would be upsetting to people. The FTD would make matters even worse, though I feel like his problems would predate that due to his trauma and isolation growing up.

Additionally, Komaeda's ideology is thematically extremely important to the game imo. He genuinely devalues his life to the point of being willing to self-destruct, just as Hinata did pre-despair. They take the original game's theme of questioning the importance of talent for someone's worth and push it further by being walking illustrations of what happens when you take the ideas Kodaka is criticising to their logical conclusion. NWP Hinata manages to move past that with the power of friendship, survives, and saves everyone; Komaeda succumbs to his ideology and dies alone. He spent the entire game acting like dying as a stepping stone would fulfil him but when he got what he 'wanted' it didn't actually make him happy. He died with his face twisted in fear.

While his FTD and extreme trauma likely greatly contributing to his radicalisation complicates the ethics of his situation, I think that when he isn't manic/breaking down he's still intelligent and self-aware enough to have moral agency and the potential for growth, and said moral agency is important to DR's broader themes as well. I feel like that contrast between him and Hinata is part of a broader trend: characters that lose hope for another way out and refuse to cooperate with others, instead viewing things through the lens of the killing game and pursuing their own agenda, end up digging their own grave unless they develop and turn around. DR is big on rehabilitation instead of punishment but the character has to be an active part of that; someone like Syo can live and be accepted by everyone else because she stopped murdering, while on the opposite end of the spectrum Naegi offered Junko an olive branch but she refused it and fully chose her own death.

That aside...

For Momota, I totally see where you're coming from! I think the scene's writing is a bit awkward in a way that could let it be read different ways tbh? On my end I feel like Momota was kinda fair in finding this line off:

because it immediately and entirely fixated on 'bringing hope to the world' instead of referencing anything about space at all, but maybe it would've been better for them to extend that over some back-and-forth that made it clearer that that was all Komaeda was fixated on before Momota said that. And like we said in DMs, since Komaeda's views on talent and hope are his sincere worldview I think he'd be unable to distinguish (or have difficulty with distinguishing) the sort of interest he expresses above and interest in Momota himself. It's unfortunate.

Likewise, for the exchange with Souda, I do agree that it's sad on Komaeda's end; even in that conversation he can't really comprehend Souda's criticism of him and continues to just blame himself for everything. That said, I think Souda still did demonstrate some self-awareness in acknowledging that his criticism of Komaeda was a bit hypocritical, and I feel like people weren't thaaat unfair to him in UTDP/DRS? Souda's having this conversation with him after 3 years, and the way he goes about it makes it feel to me like he's sincerely tried to get him. Beyond Souda, if we look at this scene at the end of his UTDP run:

both Sonia and Mioda actively try to include him in the conversation and group activities and just struggle to deal with his extreme self-loathing. Sonia especially seems to be trying really hard not to react badly to him, and Mioda's reactions make it feel like there's been conversations about this before.

It really sucks for Komaeda, but at the same time... I think it's understandable that 3 years of things like that would wear some people down, because there's only so much you can do when someone in your life is mentally unwell and won't change or even acknowledge they have a problem. It's not a pleasant position to be in; it can lead to people getting more and more frustrated and lashing out instead of handling things well.

Nanami and Usami do better with him, though- but they have gentle therapy skills coursing through their veins.

Hinata also actively pushes to stay in Komaeda's life instead of letting him drift away at the end of UTDP but that one's really badly translated. I swear I've reblogged a better version but I'll have to track it down.

In the post I just reblogged I especially like the wording of

he's genuine when he calls the others his friends, but it's still second to seeing himself as their stepping stool for their hope

because I think that summarises Komaeda pretty well. I've been thinking about that for ages but struggled to fully iron out my thoughts. Here's my latest attempt to.

Komaeda can be (relatively) normal sometimes

It would be incorrect to say Komaeda never sees people as anything but their talents and/or is constantly subservient to them. He at least tries to socialise with other people as, well, people, not always making things about their talents, even if a lack of filter and difficulty empathising with people outside of things that can be logically inferred create problems for him anyway. On top of proactively pushing his views in conversations and trials he can still, say, tease Souda for Sonia's avoidance of him:

And in the prologue he pretty much threatens Hanamura over his predatory behaviour:

and later follows up on this by intervening when Hanamura tries his bullshit on Sonia again anyway. If he stuck to his ideology 100% of the time, acting more like he does as Servant in UDG, one could argue he could have stood back, avoided imposing his will on an Ultimate in any way and left Sonia to 'overcome' that 'hurdle' herself, but it seems like he has some limits.

Additionally, he's aware that he can weird people out, and in at least FTE 5 he links his ideology to that:

but despite his filter issues he still manages to hold back his more extreme views- plus most of the paranoia we see in Island Mode- throughout the prologue and most of chapter 1. Was he trying to make a good first impression? I've talked about his Shot Through The Heart event and its implications before; that fear of pushing people away by being weird could easily extend beyond Hinata. Either way, he has at least some ability to tone himself down and engage with people more normally- at least in the short term and if his mental state is relatively good. He seems more openly self-aware in the prologue and chapter 1 as well.

This is all before we even start to unpack DR2.5; I touch on the ideology aspect of it later, but it also establishes that he subconsciously has a more nuanced understanding of his classmates' relationships with talent and a desire to be friends with them on more equal footing.

However,

His ideology still overrides that a lot

One of the themes Kodaka claims to have written him with is "the fear of someone you can’t empathise with/someone that can’t empathise". While he can be more nuanced during low-stakes socialisation, whenever he's engaging with the killing game himself his complexes go into overdrive and seem to take precedent over any empathy or sympathy he has for others.

Positive outcomes and anyone he sees as having potential to bring them about get abstracted into 'hope'. Death and suffering get abstracted into 'despair'. He tunnel visions on the former 'outweighing' the latter because that's how the world works for him.

Those things aren't really quantifiable in practice, though. How can you weigh a horrifying kidnapping against winning a lottery when you're already rich? Or getting accepted into the institution you revere against developing terminal illnesses that could kill you before you even graduate? But that's how he sees things. Telling yourself that everything you're going through will be worth it might be the only way to live with his luck without crumbling. Relatedly, an ideology under which everyone's potential is predetermined and there's no point in striving for more:

might resonate an awful lot with someone whose life is more of a rollercoaster he feels strapped to than something he's ever steered. He's had a lot of extremely good and bad things happen to him that he's never really done anything to earn; all he can do is roll with the punches and hope he gets a chance to make his existence useful eventually.

DR2.5 indicates that some deep part of him does resent this, resents the concept of talent as he views it, and would rather excise his concept of 'hope' from his mind entirely and effectively advocate for the opposite:

which could track with this exchange from his final FTE in DR2, which doesn't say that would be good but doesn't say it's bad either:

But an emphasis should be placed on deep. The hesitation of the latter makes it sound like it's not something he's allowed himself to think about much. If his ideology is partly a coping mechanism, if he allowed himself to consciously question whether his idea of 'hope' is actually worth the 'despair', whether his lack of a real talent means his life actually has less worth, whether a talented/talentless binary that determines the course of people's lives without them having any agency even exists in the first place, et cetera... he would also have to acknowledge that his life is hell. That the world has been extremely unfair to him, that no amount of lottery money can compensate for a life without love, and that maybe he has potential that might never be fulfilled because of his terminal illnesses. Maybe everyone else that has died in ways he'd attribute to his luck- much likelier than not to be 'talentless' like him- had worth too.

But he doesn't do that, at least most of the time, so processing the killing game through his talent/hope complex it is.

And it's one thing to apply those ideas to his own suffering, but when he finds himself in a situation with other people... where deaths are inevitable and he has some ability to influence this... it gets ugly.

When you crush whether people live or die and the wide range of ways the survivors could be affected by that into two abstract quantities, fixating on one value being larger than the other, the lives of anyone with talent become interchangeable. He speaks about his classmates as a collective here- 'Ultimates' and 'symbols of hope' and 'everyone' and 'them'- even though his actions would require anything from one to all but one of them to die. Because it doesn't matter who specifically dies (he's happy to orchestrate a murder with anyone) or how many (siding with a murderer is on the table for him as long as their 'hope' has potential to outweigh everyone else's).

It's fitting that when he eventually lived up to his promise, dying to make himself a stepping stone for hope, he didn't even know who it was that he spared or took with him. It was chosen at random. This gets visually hammered in the way the Closing Argument gives everyone but him the grey silhouette treatment.

Whether he was trying to increase the hope of the talented or take out a bunch of fellow terrorists with him, his treatment of them when it came to murder cases reduced them to one aspect of themselves in a way that was utterly dehumanising. I feel like there were still cracks in that- signs he, for example, felt bad about what happened to the Ultimate Imposter- but that's something I want to save for another post.

In non-killing game contexts like UTDP and DRS he doesn't toy with anyone's lives in the same way; the above behaviour was technically making the most of a preexisting awful situation (at least from his point of view) and we only see him force people into new ones as Servant. It still seems to be the case, however, that he doesn't really mask his views long-term and they affect how he interacts with Ultimates to the point of making them uncomfortably. The post linked at the start covered a great Komaeda-Souda DRS scene on this; the Komaeda-Momota UTDP scene below is also really relevant.

Momota correctly clocks that Komaeda's admiration of him is... maybe not quite aimed at him as a real person. He drops it because of Komaeda's reaction- presumably he'd misattributed the off vibes to Komaeda being inauthentic- but it still feels like Komaeda's engaging with him as some abstract vessel for talent and hope to some extent.

-

I feel like there's more I should cover here but this took way longer than expected- it's now past 5am- so I'll stop there. Hopefully it still illustrates the main point: Komaeda's a character full of contradictions and that very much applies to his views of the talented. He doesn't completely reduce people to talent-based caricatures but part of him still kind of does, and the degree to which that affects his behaviour varies a lot with the circumstances he's in.

[drabbles-mc]

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGKNG TELL ME IM THE FIRST PERSON TO DROP AN ASK FOR THE FANDOM GAME FOR NARCOS MEXICO, PLS LET IT BE SO bc you stuck to OG narcos for the other ask with the exception of Calderoni which, fair. Like I am a Calderoni apologist through and through but I would also totally throw him off a roof. It’s complicated. But anyway, since you kept it OG specific I feeeeeellll like you must be begging for an Nmx specific ask. Am I wrong??? If not, I am here to deliver this ask.

Kay, my beautiful, wonderful mamadas enthusiast. You're never wrong. And I can never say no to you. ���

The first character I first fell in love with: Okay so we all know who I ended up having severe brainrot over as the series went on 😂 I am not immune to the meerkat man. HOWEVER!!! I will say that the first character that I started to like right off the rip was Rafa. And also Don Neto, too, but Rafa is way prettier 😂 I just loved his chaotic energy idkidk

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: The way that Victor blew into s3 like a hurricane and immediately threw me for a 180. I feel like at first I was just curious about his character and what the whole deal there was, but by the end of the season I was weeping. The tears I've wept. I love him.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Okay so I said my piece about Calderoni in the last Narcos ask. And I don't wanna repeat answers, so I shall reach into my hat and pull out another unpopular opinion. Because there is nothing I love more than swinging bats at hornets' nests lmao. I feel like I should preface this with saying, I do NOT hate him. I don't. I just, I don't really get/feel the hype around Ramon Arellano. Like I can look at him and see that he's pretty, and I enjoy his scenes well enough, but he has not bewitched me. Idk if he ever will lmao

The character I love that everyone else hates: I don't think??? I have one?? I feel like the closest I get to this is being a Walt Girlie but I don't think anyone actually hates him. He is just not the preferred entree on the NMX menu lmao.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Okay so coming into the series, I was already rooting for Felix because I am in love with Diego Luna lmao. Unfortunately, however, I realized that no amount of loving Diego Luna was ever going to make me love Miguel. Literallyyyyy who cheats on Maria???? Dumbass. 😂

The character I would totally smooch: God. Most of the cast??? What do you want from me?? 😂 Nah but fr I think Mayo could fix me. I'd let him try, at least. 😌

The character I’d want to be like:  Solid tie between Dina and Andrea. I love them both. I can't choose one.

The character I’d slap: A long fucking list if ever there was one, Kay. 😂 Am I allowed to put Calderoni here? In a different category?? Is that allowed? 😂 Fuck it we ball.

A pairing that I love: Miguel and jail. 😌 Sksksk no but for an actual pairing, there is just something that I really love about the whole Claudio/Dina dynamic that I just love, for as short-lived and tragic as it was. I love them. I want someone else to write fic about them so I can read it sksksk

A pairing that I despise: Ooooo this is interesting. I'm not...I'm not sure if there is one? I mean obviously allowing Miguel to be near any woman is criminal. Maria deserved so much better and so did his second wife that I don't remember the name of even though we literally just watched the fucking episodes 😂 But that has to do more with Miguel than the actual pairing hahaha. I don't think I have a pairing that I hate off the principle of it. Maybe I need to be more of a hater or something sksksk

Thank you for this!! tqm 💕

Send me a fandom!

[moons-among-distant-stars]

HI!!!!! SORRY IT'S TAKEN ME SO LONG TO RESPOND!!!! BUT I STARTED READING CHAPTER 1 OF OTC TODAY SO I THOUGHT I OUTA RESPOND!!! SPOILER CUT

ooooo yayayayayay im so excited to meet them!!!

aaa im so blinding normal about sif being the sheep!!! cause ya!! ofc he wants to follow!!! ofc he doesn't want to lead!!! the universe Leads!!! we can only Follow!!!!

:((( they can fit so much shame... they need a hug

staaaars starsabovee you best not!! you better not!!!

so fair!!! love projecting stuff on to my favourite characters it's the best (shoutout my own ocs that are like a part of my soul)!! also as a sidenote fuck the capitalist and ableism-upholding notion that like we are self dependant day-to-day? like no we're not?? at all??? and we shouldnt be!! we shouldn't be expected to be!! that's not how humans were built!! we were built for community and support!! anyways ramble over, 7 YEARS??? okayokay i'll trust

hehehehe sif's just silly like that, definitely not because their whole childhood and life and people and culture was erased via wishcraft

OOOOO i wanna know the name!!!! (also i like Kaia! good name!)

I AM IN YOUR WALLS!! CAUSE IT'S COMFY!! SNACKS!!

hehehehe always the last to realize!! and she's so real for that (she's just like me fr)!

oooo okay okay thank you!!! i am not french (i do speak some but it's bastard french, not even quebecois, worse) so i cannot say nothing!! ooo siffrin hazelnut!! w/ calling them saffron that would be sillier, siffrin aveline saffron hazelnut

so siffrin's always been making a home in the house of change, fucked up that vaugarde's house probably reminder him of home while he still remembered home

oooooo lucien florist has islander decent!!! and is a florist!!! w/ the king flower dialogue that's interesting!!! cause in vaugardian culture you only give someone a flower if you like them but in islander culture you can give a flower to anyone who's important to you, i wonder if there's flower language in islander culture!! i wonder what amount of islander tradition got mixed into coastal vaugardian customs!!! i love cultural exchange in worldbuilding!!

DDDDD: how could you do this to me (i will i will, in time lol)

ooooo very interesting!!! are they like bird feathers?? like what kind of bird would they be closer to? (so i can visualize) ooo genetics okay okay trust

YESYESYES!!!! YAAAAAY ISLANDER EUPHRASIE!!!

oooo okay okay!!! im so here for that!! UGH i would actually sob if like the hairbrushing scene he asks mira for help! i would sob at the tenderness of her picking through his feathers, his shame, his self hatred, his last connection to home

THEY DO!!! YAY!!! hehehehe i love that, just a very much no touch stay away :D also it'd be funny if pre the party finding out about sif's wings they just assume that's when he gets his period and so at first try and bring him some stuff to help and he's like ?????

OOOO YAYAYAYAY I CANT WAIT!!!

WOAAAAH i wanna see loop's wings!!!!! :O that'd be so cool!!!

SO TRUE i also hear everyone's voice as the jello stream voices, like i don't hear written things in ppl's voices really but i assocciate them w/ those voices!!

i... i may try to do a shitty little sketch mayhaps.. i do have time this evening, fair warning i am not an artist im just so very normal about these characters (not hyperfixated at all idk even know what that is)

but happy holidays!! and a happy new year!!!!

(also if you want my thoughts on OTC i will happily give my silly little thoughts i've been writing down)

HELLO HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE @moons-among-distant-stars I COMR WITH A PRESENT.

OTC/DEISY RAMBLING!

im not warning for spoilers because im too tired to do that LMAOO but im putting most of this under the read more

So i saw one of ur reblogs to my reblog of ur reblog (a lot of reblog there) and i was like. Im gonna ramble again!! Mostly ab Sif’s wings!! So ya!!

No, Siffrin does not like his wings. They view them as a burden, as he can’t use them to fly, glide, or anything, and for other reasons. One of those being the fact that it’s a connection to the King, as he has wings too. But, it’s also not just with the fact that they’re just there, no, it’s also appearance wise. Their wings have shades suspiciously close to the shades the King’s wings once were before he was frozen in time. I WONDER WHY!! bats my eyes at you aggressively

Siffrin has trust problems when it comes to his wings, too. He’s so ashamed of them that he doesn’t let anyone outside his family see them, and even then that’s iffy on some days. Only a select few can even touch their wings without asking, those people being Isabeau, Loop, Colette, Léonce and Lucien.

Due to this hatred for his wings, Siffrin hardly takes care of them on some days. The only reason he does on most days is because Odile told him to, and Siffrin’s a sheep most of the time, not a shepherd (ouch, sorry Siffrin… LMAO). And when they don’t want to, then Léonce and/or Loop help him with it.

Sure, Isabeau thinks Siffrin’s wings are very cute, and yeah, it helps a little, but it doesn’t fix Siffrin’s insecurity and loathing of them. Siffrin’s self-hatred runs very deep, but, if you want a good side, it doesn’t run so deep that Siffrin would consider getting rid of them. That’d be severing one of the last links he has to his home, and that’s the last thing they want to do.

A. TIME FOR FLUFF!! Grabs you by the shoulders. Since Siffrin has wings, that means that normal clothing… really wouldn’t work for him. Before the events of IBaS,iTaT!ISAT, Siffrin stuck with cutting wing holes into his shirts, but after the loops, Isabeau began helping Siffrin with that, so now, most of Siffrin’s shirts and such are made by Isabeau. Isabeau has offered to do the same for Loop but Loop very quickly denied it and said they’re fine and they don’t need anything when they can steal from Siffrin. Which… is true. They do that sometimes LMAO.

Im giving you more fluff to balance out the angst. I did some thinking a few days ago and decided THIS!!!: Siffrin washed up in Vaugarde at 16 and Léonce found him (already canon) - they very very likely legally adopted him (translation: she did) since he was a child at the time and yk that child needed a guardian, (and fuck, sometimes he still does have you SEEN the stuff he gets into sometimes?) and well, they stuck to her like glue. Léonce’s last name is Aveline, and by proxy, that became Siffrin’s last name. So, technically, Siffrin does have a last name, which is Aveline. I really need to write a scene where Léonce full-names Siffrin in a tone of an annoyed mom 💀 (“SIFFRIN AVELINE.” LMAOO)

Due to the loops, Siffrin totally forgot about this until he went to Kaia with the party. Then he remembered. He has yet to even bring it up with the rest of the group but Odile has pieced things together based on observations of how Léonce treats Siffrin god awfully like a child of her own… so has Isabeau… but the others remain unknowing LOL

OKAY END OF YAP. IF U HAVE ANY QUESTIONS SURROUNDING THIS AU PLS PLS PLS ASK ME I WANT TO YAP MORE.

[roger-paladino]

Ooooo you wanna read my really long timeline/headcanons for Roger Paladino oooo oooo

Mother and Father were history buffs and often gave Roger gifts that were related to that. Most of the time being about legends from New Jersey, sparking the interest in cryptids Roger would take on.

Initially mostly interested in any kind of folklore, he started to hone in on specifically creatures as a teenager, and would spend a long time researching them while his parents worked

He was always sociable but hadn’t found anyone that stuck with him due to his intense hyperfixation on cryptozoology and myths, and how he could just ramble for hours, not many kids in his school enjoyed it.

Going to college and starting the zine was the first time he had found a group of people that clicked with him and he loved it

He and Linnie ended up becoming best friends, they’d often be the ones staying late to get issues out, or just generally hanging out after the official club hours were up

He has many many scars and scrapes from his adventures looking for cryptids, a pretty sturdy guy when it came to that stuff.

Entering college he started to dress more on the formal side so people would take the zine more seriously (button downs and polos) but before that he was exclusively a graphic T and jeans guy (band shirts/videogames/cryptid/horror shirts you get the vibes)

Dated Linnie for a short time but they broke up mutually after figuring out that they really were just best friends

Roger figured out he was gay (stays closeted) and his first real crush was on Vinnie 🙁

He was more focused on telling people about what he saw and documenting it for other enthusiasts, not for any kind of clout or to prove they were real.

He barely even bothered photographing anything he saw, the stress of trying to capture something good took away from the moment of seeing the supernatural. He’d rather have a good experience and tell people about it, than have someone pick apart a photograph to tell him it was fake.

Surprisingly enough he seemed to attract that sort of thing, but skirted the edge of being involved to where they just left him alone..... Until he met Vincent.

After Vinnies disappearance, Roger took it upon himself to figure out what happened. He dedicated the rest of his college years to it, Vinnies photo and story was printed on every Zine issue from then on.

He became a Crime scene investigator after college and was great at his job, but was always focused on figuring out the Vinnie situation, which was what got him noticed by the Habit.

He was kind and welcoming to people who were grieving, though sometimes would be too pushy with his questions relating to the situations and would often be scolded for upsetting people if he thought he was onto something

His choice to go into this line of work broke him off from his friends, especially Linnie. He didn’t mind, since it meant not getting them involved. He knew he’d probably be killed. But leaving them behind was difficult and he turned to drinking and smoking to cut some of the edge off from both that and how much tragedy he had to come face to face with.

The Habit essentially left him a bread crumb trail leading directly to itself, and his death. 

Most of Rogers' adult life was in line with what Habit wanted to happen to him, he was so focused on trying to take it down he never realized how convenient everything that had been laid out was.

He died right after finishing the blog post.

The Habit had played the Audio recordings of what happened to Vincent back to him before he was killed, but not enough to give him the full story. He died minutes away from having the answers he wanted.

In his death he regretted never getting revenge for all the people the habit hurt, and for getting all of the people in the team he brought in massacred for nothing. 

The murder was ruled a suicide. Everyone took it at face value given how erratic he’d always been, and how he had practically no one close enough to know that couldn’t have been the case.

Despite the years-long hiatus it had been on. Linnie ran a final issue of the Zine after Roger's death, featuring work he’d never finished due to his focus on Vinnies disappearance.