#open to critique

[blairx-bitch]

I made a comic based on this silly post i saw from @/ the-mschristine 😌:

ALSO HIT UP MY AMA BOX ILL DRAW BG3 STUFF (or anything honestly) FOR FREE⁉️ FOR FREE‼️🙏😻😻 RAHH 💥💣

Here's a full page of the comic too (I have no idea what I'm doing :3)

(edit: I JUST REALIZED TUMBLR MICROWAVE QUALITY DOESNT SHOW HIS SMILE LINES D:)

[exanimateisacomic]

CHAPTER 1: The Fall and The Deal

Weightlessness.

This is what Seth Morris felt. He could feel his limbs just floating around him, anchored by his joints. They felt like sandbags, stiff and heavy. Then he became aware of something else. The sound of rushing wind. It was the roaring in his ears. He opened his eyelids and jerked his head around wildly but was unable to see anything. He suddenly got a splitting headache as he was blinded by a sudden bombardment of light. It seemed to fade and he could see once more. He soon wished that he hadn't.

Seth wasn’t floating.

He was falling.

He tried to scream but couldn’t. Even his throat felt stiff and unmoving.

Panic set in as Seth looked around. He was several miles up in the air, falling towards what looked like a seemingly endless stretch of desert. He noticed the sky he was falling from was cluttered by other people falling as well. Various ages, races, and genders of people, just as scared and confused as he was.

They were also dressed up in suits and dresses.

He glanced below him and he saw a large canyon filled with… something, he couldn’t make out. He hoped it was soft enough for him to land safely. He tried to angle himself to land towards it, bracing himself. As he got closer he could make out what he was landing in and his eyes widened with shock.

THUD!

He landed on something stiff and lumpy. He could feel hands, arms, legs and feet unglating and squirming below him. The canyon was full of other bodies. Everything felt cold and clammy. He screamed in terror but all he felt was his throat rattle, unable to hear himself over the wails and screams of the people under him. He was dodging other bodies that fell around him in utter confusion and disorientation. All of it overwhelmed him and made him sink in a bit. The unnerving feeling of hands grabbing him and trying to bring him in deeper. But something in him forced him to scrape himself towards the edge of the canyon, clawing hand over foot, seeing bodies plummet and land next to him and sink into the masses.

He had made it. Seth had gotten to solid land. The dry dusty earth he'd pulled himself onto felt warm to the touch, in comparison to the cold calamity of the canyon. He backed away, his heels scraping into the dirt as he slid across his rear.

His head darted around as he took in his surroundings. The desert sands he was on were a dark golden color that was littered with large piles of rubbish and miscellaneous debris.

He looked to the skies once more and saw the falling bodies against the purplish-pinkish sky. Trying to catch his breath and finding it difficult, the air thick with heat and smog. Suddenly, something started to trickle down his nasal passage and out his nose. Pressing his fingers up just below the nostril to stop the flow, he pulled his finger back to see what was coming out of it. It was purple in color and cold to the touch, but Seth knew what it felt like, it felt like blood. The shock of seeing the purple blood was only matched by the shock of seeing his hand. He was fairly pale to begin with, but his hand was like bleached paper, and the veins within his hands were more visible than before. He got up and looked around, stumbling a bit and thinking to himself Where the fuck am I and what happened to me? He stopped looking when he saw the remnants of a mirror sticking out of a large pile of junk in the distance. That’s convenient he thought as he rushed over, stumbling as his limbs felt stiff, like they were asleep. until he slumped in front of the mirror and looked into it.

What stared back at him was a face absent of any lively color, just as pale as his hand. His eyes were more sunken in and the dark circles under them took on a bruised purpleish look. His irises were an unnatural blood red color, and the off-whites of his eyes made them look like they were glowing. The purple blood trickling out of his nose matched the flushed color in his cheek.

But the thing that really filled Seth with abject terror was the scar he saw on his neck. A big nasty gash that was sewn up with seven visible stitches. He lightly caressed it, his finger caressing the ridge of the cut.

Wincing at the pain it caused, Seth’s head suddenly throbbed with pain. There were sudden flashes in his vision and he could recall some hazy events just before his fall. He saw he was in his room, thrashing around and knocking stuff around, his arms were slacked and swung wildly. Another flash, now he could see himself holding a large kitchen knife towards his neck. He was standing in front of his bathroom mirror, his face was obscured in the reflection but he saw the knife dip below his field of vision and slashed to the left. Seth jerked back to his current predicament.

He fell back away from the mirror and looked at it in sheer terror. His breath was labored. He looked around at the other piles of junk, trying to find answers. He stood up and started to think

‘Okay Seth, get it together’

His mind was cleared as he stood there silently, looking down at his clothes. He’d finally noticed what he was wearing: a cheap black suit jacket with matching slacks, an over- starched and stiff white shirt and black tie.

‘I don’t like these clothes, too stiff and uncomfortable’

He moved his shoulders around, trying to make his clothes fit more comfortably.

‘No, focus! he thought, stopping his motion. What do we know?’

He started walking away from the pile of junk with the mirror and into the desert, hand on his chin deep in thought.

‘Okay, I woke up in the sky there…��� he turned and looked back at the morbid cascade of bodies seeming just falling out of the sky, Seth couldn’t make out where they were appearing from, they just did. ‘…Somehow… that’s not important right now, what's more important is-‘

“Where the Hell am I?” He murmured to himself, finally able to hear himself speak.

He was still piecing it together until he heard a voice from behind him

“Ooo-hoo-Hoo! Looks like I got myself a live one!”

Seth turned around to see a large man sneering at him from behind a nearby pile. Seth was distracted by the man’s scarlet red skin, sharp yellow eyes and pointed ears. He glanced up and saw two charcoal black horns resting out of his head. As the man stepped out from the junk pile, Seth could only muster “A DEMON! WHAT THE FUCK?!”

The large demon walked over to Seth. “Oh A live one that talks! Well, I wouldn't say ‘live’, considering where you are,” he snickered at him, looking down at him.

Seth backed away, eyes still glued to the demon. Hoarsely, he asks “And…W-Where’s that?”

The demon looked at him with a smarmy smile “Oh I just love the ignorant ones.” He paused and raised his hands in a grandiose way “Why, Where do you think you are young man?”

Seth looked at him, His brow now knit in confusion and bafflement “Uh..I..wha…” he stammered as he tried to fit the pieces together.

The demon leered closer to Seth, the smell of cheap cologne made him turn his head away. “Really? No guesses whatsoever?” The demon said, a dangerous playfulness in his voice. “I mean, you did just…Drop in didn't you?!” gesturing towards the falling bodies in the distance.

Seth felt himself becoming more tense as the demon circled around him.

“Ye-yes, I did..” he squeaked out, his chest tightening.

“Well now smarty pants, let's put the pieces together… What’s a place where you would fall into and meet someone, a demon as you put it, like myself…especially after death?” He said condescendingly.

Seth jolted away from him as the pieces, illogically as it seems, felt together

“No…”

“Oh yes my dear boy…heh, you're in THE AFTERLIFE!”

Seth looked at him, his mind seemingly spinning in his head, then his expression softened and relaxed. His face was now seemingly removed from emotion.

He understood.

“Oh.” He said, his panicked voice now sounding monotone and dull. “I died.” The smug demon looked at him strangely, his cunning smile falling into a curious frown. “Y-yeah, you did.”

Seth stared at him. “So…” he looked around unamused. “This is it?”

“I…I uh What?” The demon stammered

Seth gestured with his hand “This is the afterlife?” He frowned disapprovingly. “Gotta say, I'm unimpressed.”

The smug demon, pissed off that his prey suddenly has an attitude, grabbed him by his jacket lapel. “Why you- Sheesh, these funeral suits just keep getting tackier and cheaper…” He let go, he then notices Seth’s neck “Ooo boy” he said, trying to get back into his playful groove “that’s one way to go. Did you do it with a friend or by yourself?”

Seth’s hand shot up to his neck, covering up his wound “I..I don’t remember..” he said, a slight waver in his voice.

The smug demon clicked his tongue in disappointment and shook his head. ‘Thank the lord this guy has some stupidity in him’ he thought “Typical, fresh meat like yourself never seem to remember, isn’t that right fellas?” Seth then became aware that this man wasn't alone, as two more goons slunk out from behind other large piles of junk

One of them was a hulking figure with stout horns and scars running across his face, dwarfing the guy Seth was talking to, and the other was more small and snide, with an unfortunate receding hairline and short bulbous horns.

“It’s not everyday we see a damned soul like yourself escape the canyon.” Said the man leering over Seth.

“A- damn-what?” Seth muttered.

The smug demon smiled.

“Aw, and to think you had something special. It isn’t fun to explain this shit to new arrivals, but for you, I’ll make an exception.” He said in a mocking tone “so, You’re dead. and your soul has been damned to spend eternity here in the afterlife. And since I guess you weren’t a piece of shit in life or died wealthy, you weren’t selected to become a demon, like me and my father before me.” He pointed at himself as he said that with a shit eating grin.

Seth looked at him suddenly baffeled “I’m sorry, but what the fuck?” He said, gesturing his hand in a wiping fashion. “I may not have all the pieces here, but you expect me to believe that because of some arbitrary reasoning, that dictates what happens after I die?”

“Yeah basically” the demon said, shrugging his shoulders. His lackeys nodded in unison.

Seth just stared at him. “That’s just stupid.”

“Well, that’s how the ball bounces.” he said as he pushed Seth down to the ground. The goons circled in as Seth raised his hands up to defend himself.

Suddenly behind the demon's henchmen, a pale yellow car came barreling towards them before it turned and drifted, just stopping shy of the hulking demon. They jumped out of the way as it came to a stop. The driver’s door opened and out stepped a thin gangly demon with long shaggy hair. Seth could see he was wearing a faded green army jacket, faded brown biker boots and acid washed blue jeans.

“Hey Fuck-o, I called dibs on this one already.” Said the smug demon looming over Seth.

The demon made his way over. He was slimmer and more skeletal. the tip of his nose was missing, exposing his nasal cavity. He cracked a wicked smile on his face, a grin of yellowed teeth with a missing front tooth.

“Nah man, the kid is coming with me” he said, pointing his thumb at himself, a wild look growing in his eyes.

“Actually, fuck this.” Seth said, getting up and brushing the dirt off of him. “Whatever all of this bullshit is, I don’t want to be a part of it.” He shot dirty looks at the demons around him and waved as he said “Bye.” He started walking away.

The shaggy demon lowered his arm. “H-hey, hey wait!” He said befuddled.

Seth paused and looked at him in his yellow reptilian eyes. “Sir, I just got used to the idea of life after death and my continued existence. So please, let me be.” He continued on his way.

The demon interjected “But- But It’s dangerous out here and I want to help!”

Seth rebutted “I don't need help sir!”

The demon grabbed his upper arm in a panic. “No, I really think you’ll need help.” His tone was panicked and pleading.

Seth tried to wriggle his arm out, but the grip was too tight, the facade of indifference began to fall away. “Hey! Let go of me!”

The Demon now had a look of concern “Bud, you’re going to die out there without help.”

“Well, I don't need it, bud” Seth retorted, practically spitting ‘bud’ at him.

“No, You do!” The demon shouted, a crazed look growing in his eyes

“Why? And why you? I don’t know you and you don't know Me!” Seth spat at him.

“I know you, Seth Morris!” The demon spat back.

The silence hung heavy in the air. Seth’s look of shock was only matched by the demon's look of regret.

“…what?” Seth just muttered.

The Smug demon casually pulls out a gun. “Uhh, enough of this fuckin’ drama.” he said, firing a bullet into the shaggy demon’s shoulder.

“Motherfuck-“ he said, twirling away as it hit him. the giant demon went over to grab him. Seth just backed away slowly, still processing what had just happened. ‘How did he know my name?’

The giant demon held up the shaggy demon, he groaned as the giant demon squeezed him, putting pressure on his fresh bullet wound

The Smug demon made his way over to them, the shaggy demon writhing in despair.

Seth kept walking backwards, but was stopped by the small, snide demon. He grasped his shoulder and stuck a pistol in the small of his back.

“Hey boss, I got your fresh catch.” He said in a very nasally tone of voice.

“You hold him there while I take care of our would-be saboteur.” The big demon said, holstering his gun and drawing out a Bowie hunting knife as he looked at the shaggy demon.

The snide demon adjusted his stance, digging the barrel of the gun in Seth’s back.

Seth just stood there, the words reeling in his head, repeating over and over

“..you‘ll need help..”

“…I know you, Seth Morris..”

“..you‘ll need help..”

“…I know you, Seth Morris..”

“..Help..”

“..Seth Morris..”

“HELP SETH MORRIS.” A voice shouted, Seth looked up in shock and looked around in a panicked frenzy. He suddenly found himself unable to catch his breath. He started hyperventilating as he frantically tried to reach into his suit pocket for his medication, which he normally would have, but nothing in this situation was normal and it wasn't in the pocket. ‘Funeral suit’ he thought. He tried taking deeper breaths to try and calm himself. That was in vain when the migraine hit.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!” He shouted, his hands launching up to his head in a futile effort to quell the pain. He fell to his knees, collapsing onto the ground in a fetal position.

The Shaggy demon saw something going over where Seth and the snide demon were, he started to thrash violently in the giant demon’s grip “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU FUCKS?!” He yelled before getting slapped by the smug demon.

Seth brought his head closer to his chest, still screaming his head off.

The snide demon yelled over his cries, freaked out.

“Hey boss, your catch is having a fit! he won't stop screaming!” He looked down at him with unease in his face.

“Shoot him.” The smug demon said, teasing the Shaggy demon with his knife “It won't kill him, nothing can kill a damned soul…” he looked at the demon who was being held by the giant demon with a twinkle in his eye and a smug smile.“Why, if I didn't know any better, I’d say you have some deeper connection with my prey.”

The snide demon looked at him, seeing him playing with the demon and said “O-Okay boss..” he cocked the hammer back on his pistol and aimed it at Seth’s head. The gun barrel hovered over Seth’s temple

“Here we go…” the snide demon said, wincing and looking away from his victim. Seth felt his eyes roll into his head as they closed tightly, as he felt himself losing consciousness.

He never heard the gun go off.

—-

It was all a haze. He could make out faint screams and shouts as they swirled around him but one voice started cutting though it all, yelling his name until-

“Seth!” The voice shouted, stirring him out of his mental fog. Seth suddenly found himself gasping for air and catching his breath. He shot open his eyes and started looking all around him.

He was in the back of a moving car, his limbs stiff and hard to move so he just laid there in the back seat, his jacket draped over him like a blanket. He looked over to the driver who was calling his name, it was the Shaggy demon, looking spooked and frantically looking back at him and at the road. He looked roughed up and had bruises on his neck.

“Wha-What?” He said, his mind still soupy.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” The demon said, with a weak smile and fear in his eyes. Seth stared at him blankly, his mind finally clearing up. “How-who- What Happened?” He asked, leaning up into a sitting position. His head throbbing in pain.

As he sat up, the Shaggy demon looked up at him in the rear view mirror.

“Ah well, uh…I..I got the jump on them and got you out of there!” He said as he tensely gripped the steering wheel.

Seth was about to question how when the smell hit him, like a mix of acetone and sulfur. He cringed and almost gagged “Oh…god, what is that smell?” He asked

The demon looked at him, hesitant to answer “Well, that’s uh… that’s the smell of demon blood…and well… you’re kinda covered in it…” He looked back at the road with a wince on his face.

Seth looked at him before shouting “What?!” At him.

Seth’s suit jacket fell away and he looked down and saw his shirt was soaked in blue fluid, his hands stained with it. They started to tremble as something started to stir in his stomach.

“W-what the fuck…” he said, almost throwing up.

“Right? That’s fucked up!” The demon said with a nervous smile.

Seth looked back up at him, dumbfounded at his response. Luis turned back to the road, embarrassed.

“W- what the fuck happened to me !?” He guestured wildly with his hands before turning his gaze to the demon “AND WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” Seth yelled, suddenly agitated. He made an attempt to open the back door.

The demon saw this and slammed on the breaks, jolting Seth around and away from the door. He turned and looked back at him and frantically spoke.

“Look, my name's Luis, alright? I’m the fucking guy who tried to save you before you went berserk and-“

“What woah, what? Berserk? what do you mean?” Seth said, interrupting Luis. “You said you got the jump on them!”

Luis pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “Okay, I lied. I don’t know how- but you-maybe, fucking went feral and attacked them after that one bastard’s gun went off.” Luis said in a manic tone of voice, staring down at the blood soaked passenger

“WHAT?” Seth said exasperated, feeling around for the entry or exit wound. “I-I have so many questions…” He looked to Luis

Luis shook his head and turned back in his seat. “Man, what else do you want from me? We cut a deal-“

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN DEAL? I NEVER MADE A DEAL WITH YOU!”

Luis rested his palms on his eyes in frustration and exhaled deeply. He raised his head up and answered

“Ok look, you’re familiar with the term“deal with the devil” yeah?”

Seth nodded, unsure where this was going.

“Well, it’s not just relegated to ‘the devil’, anyone can make a deal with a demon like me. Think of it like a very serious pinkie promise. And you…maybe, I-“ he sighed heavily as his head rested in his hand “I’m going to sound fucking crazy”

Seth stared at him “sound cra-, I’m covered in what you’re saying is demon blood, riding in the back seat of a-a jalopy! with a crimson bastard missing his fucking nose, literally how much crazier can you sound?”

Luis looked away for a sec, clicked his tongue and looked back at him.

“You’ve got like multiple personality disorder or something Seth, someone or something inside you took out those men, ATE those men and threatened to eat me if I didn’t help-“

“Woah woah woah!” Seth said, furrowing his brow as he looked at Luis “…ate?”

Just as he said that, he felt the weird queasiness in his stomach, something began to travel up his throat, he jerked his head down and threw up on the floor, making a sickening SQUELCH as it hit the floor of the car.

“Aw Man!” Luis said, upset that there’s vomit in his car.

Seth caught his breath and looked at the mess he made. It was a bright blue slurry with lumps and chunks, something caught his eye in the mix.

It was a red finger. Wearing a ring. From the smug demon who was toying with him earlier.

Seth looked up at Luis dumbfounded.

Luis nodded at him. “Yeah, Ate.”

Seth, in a state of panic and confusion, opened the door, stumbled out and started to run away from the car. Luis stepped out of the driver's side and shouted “Hey wait!” He looked in the back of his car, seeing the cyan mess on the floor.

“Damn it, I guess I'm going to clean the carpet in here tonight.” Luis said in defeat, slamming his car door.

Seth ran off a bit until he stumbled and fell to the ground. Luis caught up with him and found Seth crying. He tried to approach him but Seth jolted away

“Go away, I don’t even know you…” he said “and-and I still don't know how you know me!”

Luis sighed and pulled out his wallet and fished out a small photo. He held it out to Seth

“This is how.” Luis said seriously and somberly

Seth looked over and saw the photo of two young men, posing victoriously, one of the men looked like a human version of Luis and the other was…

“Dad?” Seth mumbled, as he took the photo from him.

“I was friends with your dad when he was young. He made me promise him one night that I’d watch over his kid if anything happened. But I died before you were born. But I never forgot his promise. Then imagine my surprise when I was out here bumming around when I saw you.”

Seth handed back the photo. “That..checks out.”

Luis started tucking away the photo as he spoke “So I’m trying to uphold the promise and that’s why I intervened when I did but then…” he paused.

Seth looked up at him when he paused and saw the spooked look on his face.

“You became something else…not a damned soul or a demon, just…” he shuddered.

Seth looked worried. “I am- or I was on medication for migraines, I got a really bad one before I- I lost consciousness, back there. I remember closing my eyes and screaming but-I didn’t even hear the shot…” he remarked. ‘Or felt it for that matter..”

Luis looked down at him. Seth was rubbing the back of his neck.

Seth cleared his throat. “So…what deal did you make with uh…the other guy?”

“So you believe there is another guy?” Luis said.

Seth let out a deep sigh. “I believe I just threw up a finger back there that I don’t remember eating,” gesturing to the car behind them. “and with everything else that just happened, begrudgingly that’s the most plausible thing here. So…what’s the deal?”

Luis popped out a pack of smokes and hastily stuck one in his mouth. “Well, in short…I’m going to help him kill the devil.”

Seth looked up at him “Excuse me?” He said. “How did it come to that?”

Luis snapped and his fingers sparked and caught fire, lighting his cigarette. Seth’s eyebrows shot up in slight amusement.

“Well, here’s what happened…”

-BANG!-

“No!” Luis said, trying to break free from the giant demon’s grasp to get over to Seth, but it was futile.

The Smug demon with the knife looked over and nodded. “Finally, some peace and quiet.” He remarked and he turned back towards Luis and continued hovering the knife in front of his face.

“Now, let’s deal with you, you little bastard!” He said to him getting ready to plunge the knife into Luis. Suddenly, there was a scream. Everyone looked over to where the snide demon and Seth were.

The snide demon had his back to the rest of them and was hunched over Seth’s body. It looked like he was struggling to get away from him, but Seth held him down. His screams sounded gargled and terrified.

“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?” The big demon said to the snide demon.

Suddenly they flipped over, Seth now on top of the snide demon, revealing that his throat was torn open and Seth was ripping tendrils from his neck. Everyone looked in shock as they saw the life in the snide demon’s eyes fade away as Seth began to tear into his chest cavity, gorging on all he could get his hands on. He suddenly stopped as he felt everyone’s eyes staring at him.

Seth raised his head, everyone gasped as they saw he now possessed a set of horns like themselves, only one was shorter than the other, like an offset crescent moon. He turned his head and showed his skin now had a more pinkish hue to it, with it being more red in the now pointed ears. His face was now overtaken by a large, inhuman grin, his eyes and nose seemingly gone. with top teeth that dwarfed the bottom teeth in size, pointed and razor shape. They were chewing on what remains of the snide demon's intestine. He slurped it like a noodle and swallowed it and stared at the remaining demons, its teeth glistening with blood and saliva.

The smug demon took a step back “what-what the fuck?” He turned to Luis “ the fuck is that?” He asked him, pointing his knife at him

Luis looked at him derangely “wha- I- You think I knew about this?”

“You didn't?” The smug demon said in surprise

“NO!” He yelled back

They stopped their banter when they heard ‘Seth’ growling. They looked back over to him. He was now on all fours, hunched in a way that looked like he was ready to pounce. He started walking towards them, like a tiger stalking its prey.

The giant demon started breathing hard and panicking. “I gotta get outta here!” He said in a low register as he threw Luis aside and tried to run away, Seth seemingly launched himself, landing on his back and tackled him to the ground. He raised his hand and took a big bite into his shoulder, blood exploding all over the place. The giant screamed for help. ‘Seth’ then jerked his head up and spat out the chunk, gagging at the bitter taste. He leapt off of him as he continued to gag. the giant demon got up and ran away from the carnage.

The smug demon looked fearfully at the beast before him and started to back away before dropping his knife and breaking into a sprint.

Luis looked at him, stumbling and tripping over himself when he whipped out his revolver, he paused and looked at it “why didn't I bring this out first?” He mumbled to himself. He cocked the hammer back and shot the big demon in his knee, grounding him and making him easy fodder. Luis smirked, but not before he was tackled from behind by Seth, knocking him to the ground.

When Luis looked up, he saw ‘Seth’ feasting on the flesh of the big demon in front of him. He saw that the big demon was missing several fingers and that he was cloaking up his own blood.

“Oh god.” Luis murmured to himself.

The feasting stopped, Seth leaned up from his meal and turned to look at Luis.

He let out a “Eep!” Before Seth dismounted off of his buffet and lunged at Luis, pinning him to the ground. His big smile looming just inches from Luis' own face, he could feel his hot breath radiating over him, he winced at the sour breath. Then his mouth opened, ready to take a bite out of him.

Luis quickly tried to weasel his way out of this by begging.

“Wait, stop please don't do this Seth I-“

‘Seth’ paused, and moved his head back, his smile turning into a snarl as he yelled

"I AM NOT HIM!”

Luis looked confused "wha-but..you're not?"

“I AM NOT SETH” the beast said, heaving his chest in and out.

Luis paused and looked at the being. The voice was much deeper than Seth’s speaking voice, a look of utter confusion spread on Luis' face.

“Wait, but then who-“ he turned his head away when ‘Seth’ leaned in and spoke

“I DO NOT KNOW.”

Luis felt the hot breath move away from him. He looked up to see the beast’s now looking towards the sky.

“THIS BODY IS NOT MINE...I DO NOT WISH TO USE IT MORE THAN I HAVE TO…“

The beast then lowered his head, its unseen eyes looming over the crimson bastard before him.

“BUT YOU..” he said as he leaned and smelled him. There was no nose to be seen but Luis could feel it. “YOU KNOW HOW I CAN GET A BODY…YOU ARE A CLEVER AND RESOURCEFUL BEING.”

Luis was taken by surprise “Eh? How would you know that, I-I mean-“

The beast leered closer to Luis' face.

“CAN YOU OR CAN YOU NOT DO IT?” He demanded, his rage flaring up.

Luis leaned his head back in an attempt to put distance away from him and the snarling face before him.

“I- I mean I can, but it’s going to be damn near impossible!” He said.

“WHY IS THAT, DEMON?”

“It would require killing a demon-“

“I CAN DO THAT”

“Uh, uh.. well..It-it would require a bit more planning than just tackling and eating him. We’re talking about a demon that has more power that-“

The beast leaned in closer as he spoke

“YOU SPEAK OF THE DEVIL?”

“Well, Yes and No.” Luis said in a smart alecky tone.

The beast lunged a hand towards Luis’ throat and grasped tightly.

“NO TRICKS, WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”

Luis coughed and spoked in a strained tone

“I mean, the Devil isn’t ‘the Devil’.” He said, making air quotes. “It’s- It's a title that’s earned. Any demon can be ‘the Devil’ if he or she can kill the current guy or gal in charge and take their place…”

The beast loosened his grip on Luis' neck, allowing him to catch his breath.

“THEN IT IS DECIDED” it said, its smile stretching out once more

Luis looked at him in shock “EH?”

“YOU WILL HELP ME KILL THE DEVIL SO I CAN GAIN A BODY OF MY OWN!” The Demon said.

Luis Scoffed. “You’re crazy, man I’m not gonna-“

The beast lunged his hand once more at Luis’ neck, his grip tightening once more.

“DO IT OR ELSE!“ he said with a snarl.

“W-What? You’ll kill me and eat me like you did with these fuckers?” Luis said defiantly and with a strained smirk.

The beast grinned “NO… I WILL GO AFTER THEM.”

Luis looked confused “W-Who?”

“THE WOMAN AND CHILD… WIFE AND SON…I CAN SMELL THEIR SCENT ON YOU AND I WILL HUNT THEM AND EAT THEM!” he then ran his tongue over his teeth

Luis’ blood ran cold “No..NO PLEASE!”

The beast released his grip on Luis and then he stuck out his hand.

“MAKE IT OFFICIAL” it said

“Wait, how do you-“

“MAKE IT OFFICIAL, DEMON!” It yelled once more.

Luis hesitated and then shook his hand, sealing the deal.

A band of light suddenly appeared on their wrists before darkening and solidifying like a tattoo.

“GOOD” the beast said. Then he suddenly fell on top of Luis, Luis had to wrestle him off to get out from under him. He flopped him over and saw his face slowly turn back into Seth’s face. The smile shrunk and the eyes and nose emerged seemingly from within the head. The horns slid back into his skull and his ears rounded back down, all the while his skin faded from a dull pink to its bleached paper appearance.

Seth was back to looking like himself. Unconscious.

Luis caught his breath and looked over all the chaos caused by him. “What the FUCK!?”

…

Luis dropped and snuffed out his cigarette with his boot.

“Yeah… then you-he passed out and turned back to you. I tried to clean you up with some hand wipes I had in my car and then I loaded you in the back there and-“

“Wait, you actually took his offer? what made you agree with that-being you described to me?” Seth said in disbelief

Luis held his tongue about the beast’s comment about the woman and child. “Well, it was that or having my face mauled by him and dying out here. Plus,-“ he sighed. “I’m not doing this alone.”

“What do you mean?” Seth said with a quizzical look

Luis cocked his arm so that his sleeve fell back a bit, revealing a black band seemingly tattooed around his wrist. “Him and I made the deal, but he’s in your body so…”

Seth looked at him startled. He pulled back his cuff and saw a similar dark band around his wrist too. “I’m a part of this?!”

Luis raised his hands up defensively “Hey, I don’t make the fucking rules. Yeah, it’s bullshit but something, something Binding demon contract.”

“Well that’s just unfair!”

“I completely agree, And if it were possible, I’d think you two should talk it out. But for now, we need a game plan, and for that we need someone who’s smarter than me!”

Seth looked at him.

“That shouldn’t be hard.”

Luis was stunned for a second.

“I feel insulted, but you're not wrong.” He took a big sigh as he rested his hands on his waist “let’s just hope my wife isn’t busy..”

“Your WHAT?”

[quasibell353]

I am just learning to draw, and I'm not a master artist, but I've only had five lessons and I'm already doing stuff like this, and I'm so heckin proud. ^_^

[demigods-posts]

imagine a world where the heroes of olympus series was one big crossover. a world where we meet an eleven year old boy named jason, no last name because it reminds him of his mother — a drunk who literally threw him to the wolves as a toddler. jason, who's earliest memory is chewing on a stapler and his older sister tending to the wound on his bottom lip �� but he hasn't seen or heard from her since they were separated years ago. jason, who grew up reaching for the sky like a purpose, desperate for a chance to prove himself. jason, who fought to save the world at fifteen years old. and jason, who finds himself in the grand canyon four months later with no memory of who he is or where he came from, feet away from some frantic sixteen year old girl in search of some dude named percy jackson. imagine what this could have been.

[chamoemileclown]

going to start making all my faves who aren’t in wild life into snails

[hesperocyon-lesbian]

I’ve said something along these lines before but I think the typical zionist narrative that “Jews are indigenous to Palestine and Palestinians aren’t because Jews lived there first” falls apart when you start comparing it to the logical conclusions you’d have to draw for some of the European equivalents.

South Slavs have only lived in the Balkans for about 1300 years, definitely a far shorter time than the Greeks were there. Does that mean they should be driven out and the territory handed to Greece? The proposition is absurd on the face of it and then you remember that the kind of people who genuinely want that are Greek fascists. Hmmmm

Magyars have only lived in Hungary for about 1200 years and they outright conquered it, but I think anyone who’s not a Central European white nationalist would also think it’d be ridiculous to kick the Magyars out of Hungary.

This is fundamentally where such an ethnonationalist sentiment leads. It is only through the inertia of imperialism and the backing of western nations that the idea that Palestinians are uniquely not indigenous to the land they’ve lived in for more than a thousand years has taken root

[077891st]

Congratulations GemPearl for winning the trafficblr shipping poll!

this is compensation for missing the vote entirely please forgive

year of yuri off to a roar of a start!

[owllooker]

Joel!! (to be read in the way Iskall says it)

My idea that in Joel’s cyberpunk town food is made out of local ingredients that he farms: glowsquid, glowberries, and sakura ofc! (does he have honey as well?)

Oh, and those things on his back? They are some high tech stuff that allows you to model light after anything, so it can be basically used for carrying berries, or transform into an elytra!

[radishearts]

[Wip] it’s a falsie and a Ren :D!!!

I’ve been sort of logging my thoughts into a note pad while I draw and it’s so interesting to figure out how I think when I draw. Anyways. No idea how I’m gonna render this but I’m gonna give it a hell of a shot :D

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The fans: Ugh Sonic was just so preachy. I mean obviously he's supposed to be the good guy, so any uncomfortableness I feel here and any way I feel like Sonic's choices are framed as being why some other people have shitty lives is just bad writing because he is obviously supposed to be right always, but this characterization makes no sense. Isn't he right for the things he did?

Ian Flynn, using Kitsunami to say the (barely even at this point) quiet part even louder: Hey it's almost like ever since the Mr. Tinker event we've been purposely running with the critique of Sonic as being more selfish than he appears. Sonic is upholding a system of Eggman v Sonic that currently benefits him and shuts down talk of how to improve the current system because he likes his own personal enjoyment and he's attached enough to Eggman that he'd rather Eggman pretend to be a good person than be stuck in prison for life. He doesn't even quite practice what he preaches. We are trying to show that the current hero v villain system and Sonic's recklessness currently affects some people poorly and that Sonic isn't a perfect hero.

[aimfor-theheart]

on the death of skirt chasers

a small think piece on how media has been stripped of romance, sex appeal, and charm over the last 20 years using trigun and trigun stampede as an example—specifically looking at this through wolfwood and vash as a tangible way to track this evolution.

it’s interesting and also unsurprising to me that trigun stampede stripped vash and wolfwood of some of their biggest personality traits from the 98 anime, which were their love of women. to be frank— they were both dogs lol

but vash was this sort of forlorn man who, meryl, upon meeting him, adequately describes him by asking, “are you the type of man to fall in love right away and get your heart broken?” or something to that effect. and he says what, no way! and then proceeds to fall in love with the next beautiful woman he sees and gets his heart broken by the end of the episode. and we were seeing this constantly throughout the show, then even in the later movie of the early 2010s badlands rumble.

and the 2000s are notorious for dubious, sexist comments from men who are women-obsessed. our action movies are packed with sexy female characters only existing for romance, etc. etc. we’re sort of at the tail end of it in 2010. so arguably, vash is almost worse here to me? he’s really pushy and borderline inappropriate with how stubborn he is. in a way that, while persistent in the 98 anime, he had a little more boyish charm to him and they never made him so forceful.

and then the middle and later 2010s happen where marvel takes over our action movies and romance and sex and womanizers are all but killed—originally, in reaction to the sexism. it’s important to note that the me too movement picks up in the middle and later 2010s too and becomes well-known by the end of this decade. and in response, i think we nosedive into puritanical ideas and sentiments by the end of the decade.

now we must always remember when a movement (ie feminism in this case) has a critique or reaction that catches on (the me too movement, men being pushy and overly flirtatious in our media, treating women in action movies only as sexy romance options, or showcasing toxic dynamics that subconsciously tell men to keep chasing her, even if she’s not interested) then the oppressive force (patriarchy in this case) will always transform as a way to take control again (bringing puritanical ideals back—we shouldn’t be showing sex or romance in our movies. we should not be consuming any dark content, ever. etc etc.)

i believe we killed romance and sex in the later 2010s because of an over correction of our sex-obsessed media of the 2000s—or rather, the patriarchy over corrected in order to maintain control. there were critiques of the 2000s that were valid, but like i said, the oppressive force will always transform to maintain power, so we hit puritanical beliefs again. “political correctness” if you will.

(capitalism surely has something to do with this too and it’s definitely along the lines of—be more beautiful and even hotter, but your body is not a sexual one, but a visual or capitalistic one. etc. etc. another topic, another time.)

and so here we are and we don’t really have any flirty or womanizing characters like we used to. and we see this very plainly in 2023s trigun stampede, where they have completely stripped vash and wolfwood of any of those traits.

and i sort of miss them? i think a 2023 forlorn vash who loves great and hard and gets his heartbroken would not be a bad thing—one who is effected and charmed by women, maybe rather than nearly stalking them like in the 2010 movie. i think it shows another piece of vash and that is quite literally that he wears his heart on his sleeve. and he gets hurt for it, endlessly. more than that there is a little more whimsy to him? and aching. he’s this lonely man who wants love so, so badly.

now, wolfwood in 98 version was less this forlorn chaser and more this suave womanizer. many jokes are made where vash is chasing a girl that wolfwood sorta already has if he wants her. but he’s this lone wolf who leaves everyone a little high and dry. (of course until the end—with milly —where, in a very classic lone-man way, he dies after leaving a woman with his child. the tragedy being that when he was ready to stop roaming and settle down with her and meryl and vash, he dies, thus still leaving everyone). and i mean even his appearance in the 98 version—big chested with low-buttoned shirt, shaggy hair and stubble. he looks like a 90s rockstar. he looks like your lone cowboy. he’s reminiscent of spike from cowboy bebop who has a similar charming air to him that never leads anywhere because he’s destined to be solo. the unintentional, intentional womanizer.

then the later 2010s hit and we kill the charming womanizer. (tony stark kills the womanizer. another topic, another time.)

and now in 2023, wolfwood is completely stripped of any of his sex appeal and suave personality that the 98 and even 2010 version of him oozed naturally. gone is the cool, tough, lone wolf. replaced with a sort of boy-bandish, squeaky-clean, semi villain, semi hero. he’s crass and he’s snarky and he’s supposed to be rough around the edges. but he doesn’t look it? and he lacks the charm that 98 wolfwood naturally had. which aided him when he talked to kids—he was softer. charming. people liked wolfwood, even when he was being crass. he knew how to talk to people, maybe even how to con them when he wanted.

2023’s wolfwood is tough to get along with. and while fun sometimes, i think it does lose this…romanticism to him? there is a softness in wolfwood that is sorta lost in 2023s version. while we get a fuller and better written backstory, we sort of lose this other aspect of him. we’re supposed to infer from his backstory and his relationship to his brother that he is a good man, just one put in a horrible situation, always had bad luck. whereas the 98 version, we saw that wolfwood was good with kids. gentle. women loved him—he charmed rowdy men, even swindled when he needed to. we saw that there was something good in wolfwood, even if he remained mysterious.

all this to say i do miss the romanticism? i do miss these men being…romantic? flirty? charming? and not even in a fangirl way but in a…humans are romantic creatures way? we are sexual beings? and romance and sex can tell us a lot about characters and their personalities.

and i think looking at vash and wolfwood in particular is a good way to track how we lost this romanticism in our media over the last 20 years—we literally see it in them, in their remaking in 2023, where they are stripped of it.

i think the mid and later 2020s will continue to return to it in some way—we already see this with the resurgence in romance novels (or these dark fantasy romance novels gaining popularity) and even fandom spaces being more “mainstream” on social media. but in late stage capitalism (and thus late stage patriarchy, racism, etc.) it looks a little like a carnival mirror of romance and sex to me.

another topic, another time. etc. etc.

[placeholder-mcd]

(Obligatory "I sound like I'm speaking objectively from authority but this is just my opinion and it's okay for you to like media I dislike for whatever reasons you may have")

Okay so like. while "the minecraft move trailer is so bad that it makes minecraft story mode look good in comparison" is both true and funny, can we please not start pretending that story mode is a well-crafted piece of media. as someone who has played through it multiple times (first when it originally came out and I was 12 and thought it was awesome, then later as an interactive Netflix experience with friends for so-bad-it's-good reasons) I feel pretty qualified to say it blows

Like, yes. There are so many things that MCSM got right that the movie apparently got wrong. But, like, they're all extremely common-sense things to get right -- like having the whole thing be animated, and maintaining a visual style that feels consistent with minecraft, and spending time with individual aspects of the minecraft experience that have their own communities (like redstone contraptions). that sense seems a little less common now that the movie trailer exists, but still, these are all bare minimum expectations of a piece of narrative-driven media set in Minecraft.

MCSM still completely fails, however, to have any compelling characters (RIP Reuben you were just as annoying as everyone else) or non-grating dialogue. The universe they depict isn't even well thought out! Like, okay, example:

Right off the bat, they make a big decision about how they're going to handle MCSM: they are not telling a story about people playing Minecraft the video game, but are instead depicting a universe where Minecraft is inhabited by a civilization of NPCs that have identical abilities to a player (aside from like, pausing the game or changing settings or what have you). This, in itself, is not a bad decision, but it puts the writers in a position where they need to conceptualize what is effectively a Minecraft AU. You're not playing survival mode or creative mode, you're playing Story mode. In this AU, humans exist in the minecraft world and have for a long time (centuries, at least?), they've built cities, they have language, etc. Imagine you're Jesse. Imagine you've grown up inside of Minecraft. Everyone is playing on hardcore, there is no respawning, and you live in a world filled with strange and dangerous creatures that seem hell-bent on killing you. Why the Fuck does anyone go out at night. Why isn't literally everyone combat-trained. Why is Jesse acting like he's never seen a Creeper before. Why is Petra the only member of the main party who knows how to craft a pickaxe.

At the build competition, the party is surprised that the reigning building team has a beacon. But nobody takes a second to actually investigate what that means. Did their team intentionally spawn and defeat a Wither? Doesn't that make them more badass and legendary than the order of the stone? Is there a black market for nether stars? (I think Petra is probably the one who gave them the beacon since she also trades Ivan a Wither skull. But like. Why isn't literally anyone else just going and doing what Petra does. Why aren't they impressed)

Ivan having access to a Command Block is also insane. Like, it has potential to be an extremely cool choice -- did Ivan find a way to break the fourth wall? Did he find an exploit in Minecrafts code that allowed him to obtain this? The command block has the power to just generate resources out of thin air. Ivan could actually use it to become a god and give himself creative mode. But okay, we can assume that the command block is just... Different, in the AU. Fine. It's a computing center / power core for the Wither Storm. Sure

But, like. I, even as an 11 year old, knew everything there was to know about minecraft when I played story mode (and, unlike the Movie, MCSM was actually attempting to appeal to the existing fanbase), so watching these characters who have lived for DECADES within the Minecraft universe just. Be helpless and completely clueless as to how the universe works? It makes me hate like all of them. I don't care about Jesse or Gabriel and if I actually had the freedom to perform the basic actions I could perform in Minecraft -- mining, building, and crafting -- I could use my game knowledge to pretty swiftly end the entire conflict at like any point in the story. And I'm not very good at video games. But I would expect a character who's been LIVING IN THE MINECRAFT WORLD TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT. BECAUSE THEY'D BE BETTER AT MINECRAFT THAN ANY OF US.

The whole thing is a contrived and buggy mess that feels like it was written by a Hollywood CEO who watched someone play the game for 30 minutes, looked up some basic information like how to beat the game and whether there's any in-game lore, and then riffed on that until a script outline was finished. The programmers, visual artists, and composers clearly did a ton of work to make MCSM feel like minecraft. And they did a good job -- clearly, a much better job than the Movie is going to do. But that doesn't change the fact that the Story -- the focal element advertised in the title -- completely misses the fucking mark and centers around a group of characters who are largely incompetent and stupid in an unfunny and uninteresting way. MCSM was a shitty cashgrab by telltale games and I am not apologizing to it.

[jennilah]

wanna take a moment to shoutout this channel which is relatively small but growing fast that some of u might enjoy

i enjoy it because i am actually horrendously picky with the movie analysis side of youtube bc im not really here for hot takes and digs and jabs and teases at the things that make me happy, no matter the rottentomatoes scores

and i also dont really care for normal reviews, i enjoy quirkier content. so, unique & silly concepts by people who are genuinely endeared to franchises and the jokes come from a place of real love for the characters and lore

so when Kitten Arcader's videos started getting recommended to me, i was hesitant. but i clicked, and ive been binging all their videos on movies ive seen because holy fuck they are funny as hell & fit all my criteria and are extremely well-edited and deserve more views 👌

theyve made one of these for each Saw film and they only get better and better as they get into the groove. theyre like comedy summaries of each movie but the only analysis is done on each object in the room. and the writing is hysterical. they come up with better trap names than some of the canon ones 😭

& they know about the fan theories & hoffthirst & fanfictions so they are def in the trenches

anyway if you also enjoy that kind of overanalyzing-the-mundane type of humor in general, Any Austin does the same thing but with video games

[apollos-boyfriend]

jack doodle bc i’m trying to get used to dealing with his long ass limbs

[bizawa-art]

not pictured: sakura absolutely showing naruto and sasuke up post chunin exams with her new big sword skills she learned from the big sword master himself

[ratcandy]

Big Huge Irritated Rant About The Latest COTL Update's Story Choices and the Implications

So the lore drop in the new Cult of the Lamb update, Unholy Alliance, pisses me off. The writer's confirmation of what that lore drop means pisses me off more.

Why? Because it's unnecessary recontextualization that was made pretty obviously in favor in one character in particular, and somehow in that process makes that very same character way less interesting. I think it's incredibly detrimental to the story and I will Explain Why in a second.

But before I do, I just want to put this out there: Prior to this update, my opinions on the Bishops and Narinder and that entire plotline were pretty neutral. I'm an NPC enjoyer, I spend my time thinking about that moth with two lines of dialogue. I did not previously have strong opinions on Narinder or Shamura outside of mild dislike for fandom treatment. So I'm not coming from a place of bias here (or at the very least I'm not trying to be). I genuinely, wholeheartedly, 100% believe this writing decision was unnecessary and the Wrong one to make, and I think it severely undercuts the original plotline because this was a retcon and one that sucks pretty bad.

Ok we're on the same page here? Ok awesome. Long rant ahead, and obvs spoilers for the Unholy Alliance update

So first, what the hell am I talking about? What part of the update do I not like? Let's clarify that first.

It's Shamura's dialogue. Like, all of it. For ease of understanding, here is all the dialogue I will be talking about:

"Ah... we gathered here, the four of us, a council of war and I the general. I have not forgot. I did not tell them that chains to bind a God must be forged of Godly matters. What matter of Gods? What matters of Gods? I have not forgot. The betrayal of kin, the breaking of spirits, blood spilled, his and ours. ...the sacrifice of what we had sacrificed so much for... ...shaped into shackles for our own brother. And our wounds always to weep. Such sharp claws..."

--

"He sought to break nature's own laws. Death was his, yet he placed his sacred duty in peril. His experiments... Experiments I encouraged. I am not... blameless. My soul, stained... yet I do not... Ah, The story. Yes the story... He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals. Even though he knew their sacrifices, their faith, their fears sustain us. Death must be the end. Otherwise, what use would they have for Gods? They began to flock to him. What he promised, we could not match. He swelled with devotion... while we waned. Would he have let us perish? I could not take... the risk... the hunger... You are lucky there are none left to force such a choice on you. Hail, Lamb. Last God... lonely God... Ah... I feel... unburdened..."

And for fun, before anyone tells me I'm misinterpreting any of this or that it's left up to interpretation or is intentionally vague, Word of God (the writer of CoTL):

And it's this being Word of God that's spurred me into making this post to begin with. Because prior to this, I just seethed about this dialogue's implications in my server and hoped I was wrong. But now it's been confirmed what this means, and I'm . Disgruntled, to say the least!

And since I've started writing this post, there's been another addition made to further clarify parts of this. But I'm going to go over that addition more towards the end, because it also irritates me for separate reasons.

So, let's get this straight.

Prior to this update, the specifics of what happens between Narinder and the Bishops were pretty vague. We were told Narinder was "gluttonous in his ambition," per Shamura's previous dialogue, and that they "introduced him to ideas of change" but "Death cannot flow backward." Heket somewhat elaborates on this by saying he preached "heresy" and "noxious ideals" that would not be tolerated. Heket also notably refers to Narinder as a flat-out "monster." Narinder attacked his siblings and left them each with a big, symbolic wound. Then he was chained by the four of them, with Shamura the one to lead it (in their own words).

There's a lot of talk of betrayal, but before this update, it was unclear if the betrayal was meant to just be Narinder's experimenting with death (which even then was pretty heavily suggested to be resurrections) or the wounds inflicted upon his siblings. There's also a lot of talk of sacrifice, i.e. from Leshy if you kill Heket before him: "After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Regardless, the picture this painted was of Narinder being this ambitious, evil, violent God that even his fellow Gods (Kallamar) feared and felt needed controlling. The idea that the wounds could have been in the nail in the coffin to this entire ordeal made sense; as they were obviously planned by Narinder to some extent (otherwise why be so intentional about who got what wound?) and a fair reaction to Being Mutilated would of course be to chain him.

Then of course there's the idea that the wounds were given while he was being chained and in self-defense, which only seems possible if you think Narinder could take on all four of his siblings at once like that and only manage to lose his claws in the ordeal (which was only revealed in this update to be something he's implied to have lost thru the relic). I thought this at first too, but realized it seems pretty impractical for that to have been the case if the wounds were also purposeful in who got what. I mean, sure, they could all be coincidentally symbolically appropriate for each Bishop, but I have doouuubts?

but now we're here, with this update, and all has been revealed.

And what's been revealed exactly?

Narinder's thing he was doing was indeed resurrections (we knew that)

Shamura encouraged him to do it (we also already knew this)

It seems like he did literally nothing else outside of that

His siblings got pissy about this because it made their domains purposeless and got all their followers to flock to him

"Would he let us perish? I could not take the risk" - Implies they literally did not even ask him

Shamura knew that in order to forge chains that could keep Narinder down, it would require a sacrifice of their bonds AND their flesh

They DID NOT tell the other Bishops this

Their wounds were requirements to chain him. They had to get the wounds they bear now in order to chain him. ONLY Shamura knew this. That means they allowed their siblings (and themself) to get attacked knowing full well what would happen. They may have even encouraged it, perhaps provoked Narinder into it, seeing as they knew the wounds were necessary to have him chained. (Or they just knew he would retaliate. Which, like. Yeah. They're condemning him after he went down a path they encouraged and, as far as we can tell, nothing else.)

And for... what?

In this version of the story, Narinder was experimenting with resurrections, and Shamura told him to keep doing that. Then he was successful, mortals turned to him, and his siblings (including Shamura, the one who told him to do it) got mad. That's it. That's their reasoning for chaining him. There's nothing else given. "Would they perish?" We have no idea. Is that how it works? Seems like Shamura doesn't know either. Or at the very least doesn't know if Narinder intended for that at all. Gives the vibe that literally no effort was made to talk to him and figure this out. They don't even really go down the "it puts nature out of balance!" path, which would at least have some merit, maybe. It's literally just "we are no longer sustained. What's the point of Gods in this world?" <- idk babe you had all the other ones slaughtered. So you tell me

And then Shamura just took it into their own hands, leading their siblings to their shared wounds (WITHOUT consulting them) and their inevitable destruction because of........... reasons, I guess. (I mean, if you think about it really hard, they probably also already knew what would happen following all this. With the lamb genocide and Narinder's resurfacing and etc. And they had their siblings wounded anyway. For no god damn reason)

And now why does this make me mad?

Because, honestly, in and of itself, there's not anything necessarily wrong with this added context. It's not contradicting anything in the main game. Shamura knowing what was needed makes sense, after all.

But it's... unnecessary. It screws up the motives and makes them more shallow, less nuanced, more... petty. Making gods petty is cool and all, I love doing that honestly, but in this case it just feels like a waste of potential.

But beyond all that. But most importantly.

This entire recontextualization of events REEKS of being made specifically to absolve Narinder.

I mean, come on. He's made out to be the victim, here. Shamura knew what he would do, knew what he would become, and knew exactly what would happen to their siblings if they sought to chain him (without doing so much as talking to him beforehand), and yet they encouraged it.

All blame is being shifted on Shamura. All Narinder did specifically against his siblings was inflict the wounds, which at this point seems to be hinted as self defense or a retaliation against threat or insult (assuming he was provoked into attacking, somehow). Because the wounds were part of the process.

And almost equally irritating, this seeks to arbitrarily absolve Leshy, Kallamar, and Heket as well, as they had no idea what the plan was and were just strung along. Which is just kinda worse, right? As far as they are aware, Narinder did just randomly attack them for no reason, and this wasn't foreseen, and surely couldn't have been stopped. All because Shamura didn't tell them any of it.

Shamura is being made into the big bad. Shamura is at fault for everything, for all of it. Narinder is a victim of Shamura encouraging him down a path they later condemn him for, their siblings are victims of Shamura and Narinder both (the latter of which could have been resolved at any point prior), and now any possible intrigue about Narinder being this big bad guy who tore apart his siblings due to his own ambition getting the best of him is ERASED.

It's GONE. All in favor of making him more sympathetic.

And sure, about a million different excuses could be made for Shamura, or could be used to headcanon whatever you want about exactly what happened. But with what we're given right now, just from the source, no attempt as made to stop Narinder before it got to this point. It is literally suggested they didn't even talk to him.

"Maybe they were too scared" - For the other three, maybe. Shamura is the eldest and clearly the most respected one, by Narinder as well (he holds some amount of respect for them even STILL. After EVERYTHING). They at any point could have stopped this.

"Narinder could still have been a bad guy outside of the attacks" - Sure, but we're given little to nothing on that front. In the old dialogue, literally all that's mentioned is the resurrection stuff and the wounds. Shamura is the one who said his ambition made a glutton of him, by the way. And hell, this isn't even touching the very real possibility that all of the Bishops (Narinder included!) are unreliable as hell.

"But Kallamar feared him even before his chaining, that suggests he was still a bad guy beforehand" - Sure, it could! But that's about all we get! And hell, in this new update, Kallamar's fears are fucked with, too. He states:

"Once, long ago, Followers would worship at my altar just to glimpse the beauty of my temple… of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known. It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha…"

Here, it seems Kallamar's fears have been changed to be more about the decline of his temple and the loss of his followers, which was happening because of Narinder. He refers to Narinder's plans as "foolish" as opposed to... idk, horrifying, or threatening, or whatever. He also fully takes on the 'cowardly' title, giving the impression that his fears were somehow unfounded, which wouldn't make a lick of sense if Narinder indeed sucked ass outside of the wounds.

Not to mention he "didn't want to hear it" when Shamura "revealed the plan," but we know because of Shamura that they didn't mention anything about the wounds, so Kallamar didn't want to hear that they... had to chain Narinder? That's literally all he could've been told about the plan. Why wouldn't he want to chain Narinder if he was scared of him up until that point?? Doesn't make any sense!!! EDIT AFTER I POSTED: On reconsideration this might just be referring the lamb genocide plan, but that's hardly better, because now this update absolves Narinder, Leshy, AND Kallamar by making them blameless in everything (both Leshy and Kallamar expressed not fully understanding the plan for the slaughter or, in this case, not wanting part in it). What's up with THAT. Why is Shamura getting the blame for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, my point is

This was a story decision made to make Narinder sympathetic. It's so blatant. And it's so, so irritating. It gets rid of so many potential cool flaws of Narinder and replaces it with "Actually, Shamura was the bad guy the whole time! Huzzah!"

And honestly, had the entire game come out like this to begin with, released at the start how it is right now, I don't think I'd care this much. But being added now, as an afterthought, after the fandom and devs alike have grown to favor Narinder above all others, it just...

It reeks of favoritism. It smells of revising the story to make Narinder more likeable. It's just erasure.

And for what. Like, I don't want to be That Guy, but I cannot help but notice that one of two nonbinary characters (outside of the Lamb/Goat themselves) is being this heavily demonized in favor of absolving a Man of his crimes. What's, uh. What's up with that.

Oh, and that addition by the writer I mentioned was made while I was writing this.

This was made after Jojo was questioned whether this was a retcon as to who caused the wounds, as this whole thing could also certainly be read as Shamura being the one to directly wound their siblings (which I didn't think was the case, but still).

"I don't know if they thought it would be so severe" - How do I put this in a nice way. This feels like a weaseling out answer. This feels like giving Shamura an out only after being questioned on this writing choice. How could they possibly not know how severe it would be. This spider is Knowledge. This spider has Foresight of some kind. And how do you not know what they thought. You are the Writer. If you want to clarify something like this you gotta say it with your full chest.

Not to mention a good portion of the fandom probably won't even see these tweets, so this context is all missing from the story presented in the game. This is Tacked On Context on top of already Tacked On Context. It's unnecessary retconning all the way down.

Anyway. I realize the fandom at large will not care about this, because (and I mean this in the nicest way I can manage) the Narinder favoritism in this fandom is already impenetrable, but for me personally? This retconning that was so clearly done out of that favoritism?

It ruined Narinder's character for me. More than the fandom possibly could have. I mean, if it's fanon, it can be ignored. But this was canonized. Because Narinder is the dev team's favorite guy.

And I can't stand it.