#or even just provided some good info on my rewrite

[existentialcrisis-24-7]

Abridged and very hastily summarised version of my winx magic system

(There will eventually be a whole post going into detail but that day is not soon)

Okay so you’ve got your 3 alignments, you have to be one of these if you’re going to do magic frequently:

Witch: using negative feelings and emotions to channel their magic. There’s transformations

Fairy: using positive feelings and emotions to channel their magic. There’s transformations

Wizard: not using feelings to channel their magic, instead just relying on your connection to it. There’s no transformations

Spells can be cast in two ways:

Oral (chanting, writing, singing etc)

Kinetic (waving your hand, dancing magic, magic punch etc)

And there’s also 4 different types of spells:

Offensive

Defensive

Healing

[no name rn] which encompasses: practical spells, Enchantments/Curses and Charms/Hexes.

Then there’s the types of magic, the list is kinda long and I’m debating whether or not some types should stay and also the names of some types but for now here it is:

Water

Fire

Ground

Air

Ice

Floral

Faunal

Fungal

Sound

Electricity(?)

Mind

Light

Dark

Opposite

Form manipulation/shapeshifting

Space

Everyone is born with at least two magic types (their native magic) with the maximum being five and they have a primary and secondary (and tertiary, etc depending on how many they have) magic. Magic types tend to manifest by the time a person is five or so. Magic types can be inherited, though you’re also very likely to be born with a naturally occurring magic if your on a certain planet (eg: if your parents have light and dark magic, you still might be born with floral if you’re on Linphea).

You also don’t technically have to have a full connection to use a certain magic (example being Stella, who was born with light, dark and space magic but still knows a fire spell or two). You can’t preform any powerful spells if you haven’t formed a connection to it though.

The two following are sort of different types of magics, and they’re magics you can’t be born into either. You either have to be gifted the ability to use them or you have to spend years trying to find a way to connect to them

Primal (like the dragon flame, a very source of magic itself)

Wild (essentially chaos magic)

Nymphs are all born with a connection to Primal magic. And on that topic!

Nymphs! They’re sort of like fate assigned protectors of a world. They’re not so much there to protect the people so much as they’re there to protect the magic of the planet they’re on. Nymphs, once they start practicing magic properly will earn a form called Nymphix. Nymphix is the only exception to the alignment transformation rule, as nymphs who are wizards can also earn this. And again, they all are born with a connection to primal magic and 99/100 are born with the main magic type of a planet (eg floral for Linphea).

Transformations! List is incomplete and will be added to but this is what I have so far:

Base, Renamed to Winx after season 1, can be earned in a variety of ways, from just happening when your magic fully manifests to a moment of strong emotions. It makes magic outside of transformation weaker but when transformed it is significantly stronger.

Charmix can be earned by overcoming a fear or a flaw and generally improving yourself. The vast majority of schools that teach fairy or witch magic will have earning this as the final exam, generally to show dedication to magic, a willingness to improve and also because it’s the easiest transformation to earn that doesn’t take a huge toll on the body.

Each magic type has its own transformation (I’m not gonna list them all here, as I said this is the abridged version)

Each magic combo also has a transformation

There is a transformation (lacking a name currently) that is formed out of a deeper understanding of oneself and a stronger connection to the magic they were born with.

There is a transformation that can be earned from finding a familiar, working name being Familiarix (the exception to this is if a familiar is found before someone’s magic is fully manifested. They’d have to some one on one bonding with their familiar to earn it in that case)

Enchantix, earned through sacrificing yourself to save someone. There’s a catch though. Most assume it has to do with home world, nah it’s just what magic you were born with, which conveniently, people of the same home worlds tend to share. This would mean that someone born on, say, Linphea had water magic and someone from Andros who also has water magic sacrificed themself for them, they would earn enchantix. It doesn’t happen a whole lot because most people don’t ever get in a situation where they need to sacrifice themself for someone, even rarer off your home world.

Disenchantix, same premise as Enchantix but you have to kill someone for someone else (of the same magic type).

Unfortunately that’s all I got for now (most of the cool names I had are for the magic-type transformations). There will probably be a Believix-esk transformation though it’s not gonna be earned the same nor will it have the exact same function, but because I haven’t ironed it out I’m not listing it.

Anyway as far as I can remember that’s everything, I know it’s very messy and disorganised but I like getting my thoughts out like this and then later returning and clarifying things.

[alfredojesta]

OC post but it's for jason the toymaker rewrite (THIS IS NOT AN OC X CANON POST I WILL BREAK DOWN SOBBING IF ANYONE THINKS ITS OC X CANON THANK YOU) (TS IS UNHEALTHY AS FUCK!!!!!!!) i wanna provide some info because i've been chipping away at this rework for a bit now and i've got. the basics if you will.

Margarethe is basically my version of Maggie (from Jason's OG story if you've read it you know) and Lizbeth is her sister (she acts as the replacement for Daisy. again if you've read the story you know LOL). they're VERY different in the rewrite. the only part i kept the same was Maggie's amnesia and dead parents

Marge is a 30 smth y/o woman with amnesia and she starts dating Jason who then proceeds to gaslight her for 3 years straight in an unhealthy relationship that ends with Marge getting turned to yet another doll. she works at a daycare before Jason tells her to quit because. erm. her job isn't that important anyway. Jason only dated her because she reminded him a lot of Amelia (and my version of Jason is always looking for a new Amelia to fill his void). Jason used her amnesia to his advantage, constantly demeaning her for her shitty memory and then reassuring her that her health problems don't make her any less deserving of good things

Lizbeth is Marge's fun-going half-sister who's a year younger. she's married to a wealthy guy and therefore uses his money for anything and everything. she met Jason first! she was like "WOAH YOUR TOY SHOP IS BEAUTIFUL MY SISTER WOULD LOVE IT HERE I'VE GOT TO BRING HER" BUT. the time between when she met Jason and when she introduced him to Marge was like... 7 years. because Marge was in a coma from when she was 15 to when she was 20. then for 7 years, Lizbeth forgot Jason existed until she was strolling London with Marge. only then did Lizbeth go "HOLY CRUD!!! I WONDER IF THAT TOY SHOP IS STILL OPEN!!!" and dragged Marge to the toy shop

anyway Jason doesn't like Lizbeth. funnily enough he always thought her name was Elizabeth which goes to show how little he cared about her LMFAO the last thing he ever said to her, when Lizbeth came to his flat sobbing about Marge being missing, was "I never liked you, Elizabeth." (then he shut the door on her and she stood frozen for a good minute.)

Marge loves Jason like she thought it was so cool he started his own business but it slowly dives into concern. As it always does. she gets confused abt his motives. she has so many memory gaps and Jason is alw telling her what happened (she can really only trust his word) she's left alone a lot but Jason also isolates her from others. she works until Jason tells her its better if she takes time off bc of her health. Marge cant say the same for Jason even tho hes constantly working. she in fact wanted to make connections with other people, and that is when they started to argue frequently. Jason became frustrated because why the hell is he putting so much effort into this woman (and then he decided, after a bit, he needed to fix her so he turns her into a doll.)

(There is no world where Jason can have a healthy relationship with a woman as long as Amelia is apart of his life. Jason sees all the women in his life as projects to work on and perfect. That's why he wants to keep them and gets angry when they try to leave. At that point, they've broken themselves again. And the only way to then perfect them is by turning them into a doll.)

this is also where mr. bunny comes into play because Marge wanted to purchase him and that's how she interacted with Jason for the first time. the fact Marge was a daycare assistant meant she was able to get free toys from Jason LOL it's sweet in theory but Jason thought acts of services were just ways to keep Marge at bay ^_^ so she wont consider leaving. god bless his stupid fucking brain and its dumbass way of thinking

n e way their relationship was toxic as fuck but was Jason's longest relationship . he only saw her as a replacement for Amelia though so it's safe to say he never truly loved her.

[tama-journey-to-inspiration]

lmaooooooooo CM is really boarding the struggle bus! I could practically hear his heart attack at the word /love/. Your TB has a crush on SWK au is captivating. Maybe that drunken argument could lead to CM becoming TB's beta reader? *why not both gif*

Hear me out: a crossover between this au and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. CM reads Journey To The West to prove TB wrong and becomes TB's beta reader anyway. He wants to hang out with TB, but he's still a SWK hater, tangcheong write themselves into being small time demons gunning for SWK, etc.

tangcheong write that fanfic for so long that they get really good at it (maybe TB decides to rewrite the beginning parts that he's unhappy with the quality of at some point or readers get to see the style shift). The fanfic is so good and so long that it gets a huge fanbase and enters the cultural consciousness of the gangho* and gets tied to their mythos just like their accomplishments as the Dark Saint, Plum Blossom Sword Saint, and Divine Dragon.

tangcheong have enough stories that they come back and ascend as constellations when the scenarios start. But the thing is, all versions of stories and characters become true if someone or something gets popular to become a constellation. So now TB and CM actually are a part of Sun Wukong 's stories, and actually have to fight him in some scenarios.

So CM isn't jealous because of TB's character crush anymore. He's jealous because TB's got a celebrity crush on what is basically their coworker, who he can't even beat in a 1v1 fight. At least CM can marry TB if he didn't before and CM's loved ones from both of his lives can hang out together...in a torment nexus gauntlet. Yay? Well, I believe in their chances of survival.

*I think that gangho is the murim equivalent of the jianghu but my bad if I got it wrong 😔

Well I have to say is a pretty nice concept you have there. I'm so glad to see people taking a silly concept and develop something from it! 🥰

However, I'm not familiar with ORV, and it's lore to provide and insight, and sadly my interest died when I realized how profound is that rabbit hole when it's story wasn't my cup of tea to begin with. However! I am interested in whatever you have to say about it! (specially when it comes to Bo simping over Wukong!!!)

That being said @chuliann (who happens to know about orv better than I do) is the person I've been talking with about the silly Sun/Tang/Chung drama. And they think you're a genius! And they wanted me to tell you that!

We would love to hear more about it, if you come up with new ideas♥️

All I can provide is a bit more info about Sun wukong, since I'm currently reading journey to the west, and being watching some adaptations recently:

Sun Wukong is, to some degree, like a child despite his high intelligence, he gets excited and jump out of joy, he's very impulsive and confrontative. He's like a more friendly version of Chung Myung (with a friendly approach). He likes being recognized. He gets excited when being assigned task like taking care of the stables or watch over the peaches, but takes great offense when he's diminished. As well, he was very enthusiastic about serving Tang Sanzang in his journey until he reprimanded wukong for attacking some bandids.

Wukong can be genuinely adorable, but also frightening. Of course. Hes not naturally mean spirited with people. So, belive me, if Tang Bo approach Wukong and tries to befriend him being honest, he'll be just like Tang Bō.

A passage I really like is wukong asking for a needle after his first bath to properly sew a piece of leather he previously got. Stealing a piece of cloth from Tang sanzang that he forgot to put back on, and then going back to him and walked all around asking if he looks good now.

Adorable!

[unhappy-day-in-hell]

The Dissection of Hazbin Hotel, Episode One: part 1

Hazbin Hotel is finally coming out and I want to talk about it!

Seems unreal, doesn’t it!? After four years it’s here, and it’s one of the biggest train wrecks I've ever seen with my own two eyes!

Like many people, I used to be a fan. I got into Hazbin at the end of 2021, and stayed with it until mid-2023, when I woke up to the series’ flaws and saw how horrible Vivziepop was as a person. But for that time, Hazbin gave me something to look forward to during a dark time in my life. I was excited for it. I liked the idea it would be a complex, dark, and nuanced look into some dark topics. I was convinced Angel’s trauma would be handled with care, because Addict handled it with care. I was convinced Hazbin would be a show that said “no one is beyond becoming a better person if they just make the decision to try, no matter how much bad they’ve done.” Being set in Hell, where the UNIVERSE ITSELF has given up on the souls damned there (the furthest extreme you can possibly get to), was a good way to exaggerate this conflict.  

Spoilers: It wasn’t that! Apparently it was never meant to be that in the first place!

Vivziepop threw out the original premise that everyone loved in favor of a Heaven war! She ripped off the “Rose Quartz = Pink Diamond” reveal with Rosie-Lilith-Eve. By extension, they de-clawed Alastor by making him Rosie’s pawn. (I loved Alastor. I wanted to see more of his deranged self; I wanted to see what he would do when he was proven wrong when redemption was possible.)

When I watched Episode One, I started writing my thoughts down. Then I tripped and wrote 13,000 words.

So I’m gonna post them here as a review! It’s long, so I’m going to break it into four parts.

I can be very forgiving of flawed projects, but in regards to Hazbin, I’m petty. No nitpick is too small. I will compare it to the pilot (because it’s in that Viv-canon-limbo where you need to have seen it but she pretends it’s not canon), and I’ll have tangents and rewrite ideas.

The story-crafting for this show is one of the more important elements to me, so I give a lot of attention to that.

And there will be SPOILERS, including all leaks! So just be careful if you don’t want spoilers or leaks! 

Let’s go!

Part 1: //

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

--Hazbin Hotel opens with a huge exposition dump about the supposed creation of Hell.

And IMMEDIATELY, we’ve run into a problem.

Sometimes, stories will open with lore dumps like this. They can be useful in giving the audience important knowledge, or setting the stage for the world. However, this lore dump provides us with neither of those things.

Even for people who aren’t religious (me), the story of Eden is really well known (even just the pop culture version of it.)  That means you don’t need to tell us the creation story at this moment-- What we NEED right now is to understand what this version of Hell is like.

What info do we need in order to understand the setting of Hell that Charlie lives in?

Important stuff like this: Hell functions like a big city with laws, and isn’t like the pop-culture fire and brimstone image we might have; dead sinners manifest with new bodies and are exclusively in the Pride Ring, which makes them the property of Lucifer, and they’re immortal unless killed by angels; angels come down once a year to erase them to keep them from becoming too numerous. Emphasize that it’s like a shitty country, with shitty jobs and leaders, Lucifer at the tippy-top. Emphasize the Sinners’ fear of the annual exterminations -- emphasize that Charlie feels helpless but wants to save them.

Your job as a storyteller is to tell us what we need to know, when we need to know it.

Right now, we don’t need to know why Hell was created – we need to know how Hell WORKS in the present. That’s your goal, to bring us into the world.

The only necessary information this narration gives us is that “exterminations exist." Everything else about the deeper lore can be shown to us later, after we’ve had some time to get to know the world.

(Have this be a fairytale Charlie tells during an emotional, quiet moment; or in a flashback, Lilith tells this to a baby Charlie. Or it can be a musical number Lilith or Lucifer sings for her, trying to make themselves look better than they actually were.)

--“Angels are beings made of pure light who worshipped good and shielded all from evil.” WE’RE FIVE SECONDS INTO THIS AND ALREADY WE HAVE A HUGE THING TO UNPACK. Buckle up.

So Hazbin's lore goes like this: the Angels already exist, and they worship a vague figure of “Good” (who isn’t God), and defend people from “Evil” (who isn’t the devil, because Lucifer hasn’t rebelled yet.) Since Lucifer hasn’t rebelled yet, evil really shouldn’t exist yet. Where is this evil coming from?

(I have a bad feeling it’s Roo -- the Root of Evil, that character Viv drew years ago and said is a looming presence in the distance. Is Roo some kind of “eldritch abomination”, who existed before the angels? Sadly, I think that’s very likely, at this point.)

Either way: Good and Evil are forces that already existed at the start of creation, before Adam and Eve and everything else, and Lucifer and the Fallen Angels had nothing to do with it. Which just doesn’t mesh, if you’re going to have a Christian base for the lore.

Also: It says the angels defend people from Evil. But who are the angels defending? They explicitly show that humanity hasn’t been created at this point, because we see the birth of Adam in a few moments; so who the heck needed defending during this period of time!?

…

Alright, to get this out of the way: Hazbin Hotel won’t use God as a character, apparently because they don’t want to offend anyone, or so I heard. It’s something to debate; was this a good idea on their part, or is it cowardice? For me, I personally feel like it’s the latter. The show has already taken many other incredibly sacred figures and stories, and jumbled them up and tweaked them for the show’s awful lore -- and Viv has never cared about offending anyone before so why would she care now -- which is why it feels spineless to me, for them to NOT go all the way and just use the Capital G himself. Plenty of other stories have used the Christian God as a character just fine.

If they’re worried about doing it tactfully, the solution is to just… NOT write God as an asshole? Maybe try for some genuine sincerity in the writing for once? Make him the single character in the cast who is never played for a joke, and whose personality has no stupid quirks. Have him be very distant, maybe even locked in Heaven’s Palace, that way you don’t have to show him more than a handful of times, but the audience will know he exists; and use his limited screentime to make him display wisdom and warmth.

Maybe he acts like a distant observer of the Universe, and he clearly knows something we don’t; he tut-tuts at the bad things, but “This, You See, is how it Must Be. And by the end of the show he’s right because everything works out for the good. Or... something.

My point is, they already used all this other sacred stuff from the bible, they might as well go all the way. (Viv certainly didn’t have a problem using Lilith or vodou symbols, did she?)

--Lucifer was a dreamer who was deemed dangerous to the order of Heaven. Then he fell in love with Lilith for her fierce independence and they wanted to share free will with humanity.

This story. This rewriting of the usual biblical tale to make Lucifer sympathetic.

It just doesn’t work.

It also ties back to their refusal to use God as a character. The character of God was an INTEGRAL piece of this mythological story, and God and Lucifer were inseparably intertwined figures in it. Lucifer’s entire rebellion and “Pride” sin was against God. You could say... Lucifer has major fucking "Daddy Issues." (That's a phrase Alastor will say later!) To take away his Daddy Issues is just so lame.

Even worse, this story is trying to paint Lucifer as a misunderstood artist who cared about creation. (He's so different from the actual mythological figure, it makes you wonder what the point of even using these figures as characters is.)

…There are two possibilities.

Possibility One: I wonder if this is a “sanitized” version of the story that Lucifer tells Charlie to make himself look better. (This feels very much like one of those “history lessons” that a fantasy world will introduce to the characters early on, only for that history lesson to be shown as a lie later on.) But if that’s the case, it’s WEIRD for Hazbin Hotel to do that with the story of the Garden of Eden?? Everyone/most everyone in the audience will already know the gist of how the Eden story goes, so they'll know this retelling isn’t right -- so what, are we expected to wait for Charlie to gormlessly stumble into the truth, ~as a twist~ that GASP D:> her father INTENTIONALLY fucked humanity over!?!?!? HE DID IT ON PURPOSE AND ALL THE SUFFERING OF HELL WAS HIS GOAL!?!?!? DAD HOW COULD YOU. That’ll be a shitty twist. The audience already knows this, so it’ll just be pounding our heads into the wall waiting for Charlie to get there.

(And also, it’s very suspicious they don’t actually SAY what Lucifer’s “ideas and dreams” were for creation. So that could be a lie by omission that he uses for his fairytale. In reality, he might have had awful, shitty, malicious ideas, which Heaven stopped him from doing, and Lucifer’s been a big baby about it ever since.)

Possibility two: This is legitimately the retelling of the Eden story in the Hazbin Universe. Which just suuuuuuucks! If Lucifer was a kind, caring individual, why would he let his Hell Kingdom become a total SHITHOLE of suffering? Wouldn’t he be a kind ruler? Wouldn’t he try to run the ship better?

And it’s a horrible decision to woobify him in general. You’re seriously going to de-claw THE DEVIL? You’re gonna rip out his teeth and make him soggy!? You’re gonna make the King Of Evil, The Father of All Lies, LUCIFER, EMBODIMENT OF PRIDE, a wet meow-meow sadboy who did nothing wrong?? COME ON!! What makes Lucifer an interesting character IS THAT HE MADE THE CHOICE to fuck everything up on purpose! He’s interesting BECAUSE of how he, to this day, wants to ruin the Earth to stick it to God! You can’t just take that away from him!

It’s incredible that these two possibilities are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but both are unsalvageable. There is NO winning with this backstory. They fucked up.

--Ah wait there it is. The apple is the same color as the Vague Evil’s eye from above.

Yep….

Man, making Eve the twist villain of the story (before or after Roo shows up? Is Roo inside of Eve controlling her? It doesn’t matter). You couldn’t write a worst twist.

I ask you: Why is it Eve, and not Adam who is the secret twist villain? Or, why isn’t it Adam+Eve TOGETHER who are the twist villains?

If this were the only instance of female characters being demonized, I wouldn’t think anything of it -- but there is a clear pattern across all of Viv’s writing. Viv is a known misogynist, and this feels like an extension of her misogyny. Of course the twist villain is female. Of course Roo The Secret Eldritch Abomination is female. The male characters get sympathy, or stuff handed to them. Lucifer is a good lad who did nothing wrong! Alastor isn’t evil, he was hired to protect the Hotel and is a father figure to Charlie! ADAM got to go to Heaven and Eve didn’t!

I have absolutely no doubt that the blame will be put on Eve, and Adam will be given a pass because Eve tricked him to eat the fruit of knowledge, or something.

--Yep, this thing is animated like a Root. It’s totally Roo.

--Eyes… just like Roo’s root tongue. Yep.

--Heaven only allowed Lucifer to see the bad of humanity, never the good.

They really ARE trying to woobify him, aren’t they? At this point, the only way they could salvage any of this is by making this a sanitized bedtime story (which again wouldn’t work in itself.)

This is the fucking DEVIL we’re talking about.

He is the King of Hell, and therefore, he is the ruler of the Princes of Sin, the Ars Goetia, and the legions of Hell that are trying to corrupt the Earth! We see in Helluva Boss that demons do actually go to make Earth worse. If Lucifer is King and didn’t want this to happen, he has the power to stop at.

Plus: there are portals to go to Earth, and magic to watch the Earth as seen on Helluva Boss. So Lucifer has every means to look at the Earth any way he wants, and could see the good the Earth has to offer…… and it's because he’s the one bringing evil to the Earth in the first place in order to destroy good (technically to fight against God, but God ain't here, so "Good" it is.) That’s still Hell’s MO in this world. We’ve seen this on Helluva Boss, which is canon to this universe. And you cannot convince me that the King of Hell was “oblivious to it” or "the other royal demons have their own power and Lucy can't stop them" or some excuse like that, as if the Princes of Sin and the Ars Goetia are doing it secretly under Lucifer’s nose and Lucifer doesn’t know it’s going on. You cannot convince me of this.

Plus even then -- if Lucifer were still a sadboy who WANTS to see the good of the Earth (even if all he sees is the bad), that means… in theory, he has a “good heart”. So why isn’t he a kinder King?

Because this is either a fake fairytale or Viv is a bad writer who doesn’t think anything through. (It’s both.)

--Lucifer lost his spark, huh? What does that actually mean? Does it mean his title as King is only symbolic and he doesn’t do any ruling? (This can’t be right – we see later in the episode Lucifer still has some authority over various things, like meeting with Adam but foisting that responsibility on Charlie.) Does losing his spark just mean he gave up trying to be good, and now just revels in evil?

And, as the embodiment of Pride, shouldn’t Lucifer of all people be the most stubborn, unshakable person in existence? Instead of losing his SPARK, he should just grow jaded and bitter but still have that fire to prove he's better than everyone. He’s the King of Hell for a reason.

(And if Lilith thrives, why isn’t she the ruling Queen of Hell?)

--So Lilith uses her powers to Empower Demons…

This wording is VERY suspicious, and once again, feels like a sanitized bedtime story for Charlie.

What does empowering demons actually MEAN? Huh? It sounds very good in this fairytale, but look at the evidence presented to us. We see what Hell is like (...eventually.) It’s a shithole where everyone is suffering and constantly beating and killing each other. For all we know, her “empowering demons” actually means she encourages everyone’s worst behavior, gives sinners powers and weapons that they can use against each other, and is the reason why Hell is so awful.

…Oh god, if LILITH is the cause of Hell being bad, and Lucifer is a Good Boy who sits back and doesn’t do anything, then it’s another female character being written to fuck everything up!

(We don’t know when Eve takes Lilith’s spot, but I don’t think it’s quite at this point in history. So Eve doesn’t get the blame here just yet. Hopefully?)  

--Overpopulation was always a bad motivation for Hazbin Hotel. I thought that even when I was a fan. Because: if Hell is a finite space where you can run out of room… then so is Heaven? If you start redeeming sinners for the sake of giving Hell more room… theeeeeen eventually HEAVEN is going to get overpopulated and run out of room. What then?

Hell also has other Rings the sinners are not allowed to go to. Are we going to mention the other Rings’ existence at any point? Will the idea of opening the other Rings up to sinners even be presented as an option at any point?

How much of Hazbin’s lore is going to be locked in Helluva Boss, unable to be shown in the series proper? Will the Princes of Sins, the Hellborn demons, the Ars Goetia ever make an appearance, or are they not allowed to? Will Charlie ever have to deal with the fact there is an entire slave caste in Hell, the Hellhounds? Is she going to free the Hellhounds? Imps are also oppressed, will the show ever explicitly TALK about that? Will the worldbuilding show us how imps, hellhounds, and Sinners intermingle in Pentagram City?

CAN HELLBORN DEMONS BE REDEEMED AND GO TO HEAVEN?

So many questions. And knowing Viv’s style, I highly doubt we’ll ever get any answers.

--So Charlie inherited her mother’s dream. But they completely neglected to mention what Lilith’s dream actually was. Do they mean she wants Charlie to “empowering sinners,” in general? Or did Lilith, specifically, want the exterminations to end?

They use such vague words, when this is one moment they should just give us a clear answer. This whole backstory was a mistake and a waste of time, but if you are going to use it to set up Charlie inheriting something from Lilith, you have to make it clear what she’s inheriting.

And also, while it’s not ENTIRELY a Chosen One scenario, in the pilot we got the sense that Charlie was the one who made the choice to try and help sinners, on her own. Now though, Charlie was GIVEN this dream by someone else, because she can’t have agency. It would be one thing if Lilith just taught Charlie to feel compassion (that would be fine, parents teach their kids morals all the time), but Charlie still came to the redemption conclusion on her own – it’s another for her to be said to have “inherited this from Lilith” or is carrying on Lilith’s legacy.

.................

With the opening monologue over, the only thing we know is that the lore is very messy. It has a Christian basis, but it's been fucked up so badly that it makes you wonder what the point even is.

Good and Evil are living eldritch forces that existed before creation and have nothing to do with God, Lucifer, or anything else like that.

There is no God, (who is the ENTIRE CENTRAL POINT for the biblical-inspired stuff in Hazbin); instead a whole Council of Elder Angels rules the universe.

Roo has no basis in anything.

I think in some tellings, Lucifer was the first Angel? Even if not, he was one of the highest. So Lucifer should be one of the ruling angels. They have to severely weaken him as a figure in order to make him under the control of the other angels. (After all, in Christian mythology, it's God who made Lucifer fall. Another way his absence fucks the story.)

And my final takeaway from combing over this lore is: why didn't Viv just make her own fantasy world? Everything in this show is only passingly similar to the stuff it's based on. If you're gonna take these aspects from religions and fuck with them so much, just make your own fantasy world where you can do whatever you want.

That was only the opening monologue. This is gonna be a long ride guys!

[yanderes-galore]

Romantic/Platonic Chol 'Von (Halo) with a human trader darling, who lives on one of the colonies that does unsavory business with pirates like her. Don't care which format, whichever is easiest to write.

I'm going to be honest, I've never read Mortal Dictata or any of the Kilo-Five books yet. However, I did do my research on the character so I hope I get her character right. Sorry for any inaccuracies! As a result this may be short. When I find time to read the book maybe I'll rewrite this, I'm happy to take feedback!

Yandere! Chol 'Von with Human Trader! Darling

(Halo: Mortal Dictata)

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Possessive behavior, Violence, Threats, Dubious companionship.

I wouldn't doubt Chol comes in contact with human traders.

With her ambitious goals and fondness towards human phrases and ideologies it isn't too far off to think she'd buy from you.

She needs supplies for her Kig-Yar navy and Kig-Yar have been known to ally with humans if it benefits them.

To you, Chol is merely a client when she visits your colony to discuss affairs.

She feels like an egotistical shipmistress T'vaoan Kig-Yar who enjoys intimidation.

Chol is also easily impatient and temperamental, very quick to be stressed when things don't go her way.

She's been known to be persistent in her goals and is stubborn.

To make some money you trade with her.

It isn't too new to you, you've traded with Kig-Yar and Sangheili in the past.

Yet this one is important... she's a feared shipmistress and knows it.

You've heard vaguely in Kig-Yar culture that females of the species tend to have a lot of power.

As a result you are always very respectful in your deals.

You supply fuel, weapons, all sorts of cargo.

In return you're given other valuable items or some sort of currency in return.

You're just in it for the connections and money.

Kig-Yar are pirates... but you feel they can be good allies if you provide them what they like.

Which is what Chol likes about you.

She likes your human ideologies and picks up certain phrases and info about you.

You aren't part of any major faction... just a human trying to get by.

In a way she relates due to her species culture.

Chol sees you as the key to seeing her goals through.

With your wares she can make that navy she wanted and maybe even convince the other Kig-Yar to listen to her.

Chol is more likely to be a platonic yandere to her new favorite trader.

However... toying with the romantic idea is a bit interesting albeit not plausible.

After all... she sees her current mate as a coward who fled from her and her chicks.

Maybe a human will provide much better... even if nothing can happen between you.

Chol is demanding towards you at times due to her egotistical nature.

It's an honor to help her as a human.

She respects you and is a fearsome T'vaoan shipmistress.

Can't you see you're special if she's interacting with you?

Having her as your ally will make you strong and protected.

So you better keep providing for her, yeah?

In fact... you only need her as your customer... she'll give you much better equipment in return for your services.

Her ego is definitely what makes her try to control you.

She promises you good things in return if you just make her your primary client.

If you don't do so willingly... she can threaten you.

Do you doubt her? She could cause so much trouble for you if you refuse her.

Chol feels she can control you.

After all she often boasts that she can get whatever she wants.

Any mate, any valuable, anything.

If not... she doesn't mind the ensuing bloodshed.

So when she makes an offer with you... one that makes you loyal to her on one of her ships by her side and under her protection as her primary merchant/negotiater...

She expects you to accept when she tells you.

[princess-of-the-corner]

MLP Rewrite AU - How is Starlight Glimmer's redemption arc changed up, as the most divisive one in the show?

OH OKAY SO

I went into rewriting both the premier and finale focusing on her before so I'm just gonna go through plot points

So like. With the town. Change it so that Starlight's belief has her genuinely take her own Cutie Mark. Like in general I'm changing it because like like. Even if your Talent is taken, you still have years of training and knowledge. So everyone in town, instead of sucking ass at what used to be their talent, is now forbidden from doing it(even though they still crave to do so).

Starlight still knows how to do the spell even without her Cutie Mark, so she can still take their Marks. And other than being forbidden from pursuing their old talent, everyone's pretty happy actually! Not- not fully happy. They miss their passion and they're depressed, but they're not full cult-mode.

I think maybe cut down on the actual 'kidnapping and brain wash' thing for the most part. Just Starlight being very preachy and manipulative and figuring out how to poke and prod at insecurities about ones' Talent. Maybe have her words genuinely get through to some of the Mane Six. Like have Twilight think about how much her Talent for Magic has lead to the pressure put on her and forced her into the Princess role. Have Rarity feel like her Talent is wasted in her passion, as gemstone spells are only a tiny fraction of what she does. They don't fully fall for it, but they consider it.

It's only once the Mane Six convince the town that no, you're not happy without your Talent, and the town revolts, then Starlight goes 'no fuck you!!' and we get the fight.

Now for the finale:

I think having her be less 'fuck the Mane Six in particular' but still on her crusade against Cutie Marks. Her jumping through time is more to study them to she can figure out where they came from and get rid of them for good, and ofc she jumps to the Rainboom because it was an Event that connected the Mane Six through their Cutie Marks. Clearly there's more info there, and if she could see it in action....

The changes and alternate Timelines come from either her being there in general and/or her and Twilight fighting and keep ending up changing the race.

After Time Shenanigans and all, when Twilight asks that Starlight shows her where this all started, Starlight has more examples than just 'my friend got his Cutie Mark and he left'.

There's another friend whose talent was in dance, until an accident disabled them. Yet another whose passion died because their family forced them to do nothing but their talent, never engaging in a hobby even.

Even showing her ponies from her town. Sugar Belle who might be a great baker, but feels lost amongst the sea of other ponies who have baking and cooking talents. Party Favor, who is good at providing the best items one would need for decor, games, catering, music, etc., but can't plan a party to save his life and ended up floundering in requests to make a spectacle like some other party ponies.

Twilight would muse on the subject, admitting how back when she first came to Starlight's town, she questioned it as well. If she'd had a 'normal' Cutie Mark, or none at all, she may not be where she is. No complicated mentorship with the Princess, no near-death experiences, no pressure to deal with every disaster that pops up, no being forced into a role she didn't ever want.

But she also muses that, without all of that happening, she wouldn't be herself anymore. She wouldn't have the friends she loves or all the memory of them. (hell bring them back to the castle so Starlight can see the memory chandelier tree!)

Twilight brings up how she knows Sugar Belle and Party Favor and the others were miserable, and that for all the hardships they wanted their Marks back. That, now with a supportive community, they and their talents are thriving.

She doesn't know what happened to the others Starlight mentioned. But she does know that it's not your talent that's the source of such a bad state of mind, it's the environment. You need people around you who care and support you, all of you. They need to let a talent thrive. And while there may be situations, like the dancer who ended up disabled, it doesn't have to stop them. It will hurt, of course. They may never be the same. But they can still find ways to engage in what they love.

Starlight, though still angry and hurt, cannot stay in denial. But she is lost and confused. So when Twilight reaches out, offers to help her learn how to be better and how to get herself out of this mess, she takes the offer

[sibylance]

hi sib!

me and a friend of mine have been following this whole AI charade pretty closely, and while we don’t want to get personally involved (yet; who knows what’s to come), my friend did some digging into AI detectors this afternoon and uncovered some interesting things about the terms and services on a lot of these sites.

while some platforms have only vague legal statments or official proof about whether or not they use the content you input (as in, the actual text, which would fall under content and/or contribution data, NOT personal data; that is your name, email, credit card info, etc.) for training purposes or sell it to third parties, others are very clear and transparent about it. almost all "popular ai detector sites" save and store the content you feed into it. there are official statements about this on scribbr, for example, which is very upront about how long they keep the content you provided (https://i.imgur.com/kqsSTDz.png), which probably applies to quillbot too, since they’re part of the same family. sites like copyleaks and zerogpt states that their site not only stores the content you provided but use it to develop and improve their services and sites (please note, that both of these sites use generative ai tools too, not only the checkers). (https://i.imgur.com/sD5JWHN.png)

and then there's our favorite: originality.ai

the site is very proud of it's transparency in the terms & conditions (which most of us just "i read and accept" lbr) clearly states that they use all content that was provided to train their very own AI - which is, again, not only detectors and plagiarism checkers but ai text generators, sentence and paragraph rewriters and basically 50+ more tools that you can use for marketing and writing. (https://originality.ai/free-tools). if you don’t want them to use your content, you apparently have to explicitly opt out. if you don't find and change this in the settings, they will use whatever you feed into it to train their AI and then allow them to own everything their models generate. again, these are official statements on their official site. (https://i.imgur.com/Bp6D9Tm.png) i really wonder if the people making these accusations against writers are opting out of this when they run stories (OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES) through these detectors. i kinda doubt it, especially since you automatically agree to these terms when signing up.

most of these sites don't even give you a chance to withdraw your consent, so they may just use whatever text they stored to train the exact technology that we are against, because we use these detection sites to prove our points. (gptzero is the ONLY site we found that clearly states it doesn’t "assert any ownership over your Contributions" – including, but not limited to, text, writings, videos, audio, photographs, graphics, comments, basically everything – but it also only allows use and claim content you already own or have the necessary licenses, rights or consents. so, putting someone else’s work into it is actually against their rules. funny how that works.)

none of us are in the legal field, and these sites are exceptionally good at making their policies as unclear as possible, so feel free to double-check everything!

i totally get it if you don’t want to deal with this, but we really think the word should get out about it (even if it's only in the form of our anon ask), so people can look into it themselves and realize just how messed up it is to check other people’s writing for fun – and then justify it by saying, “well, it’s already public, so what’s the big deal?”, especially if they unknowingly helping to train the very thing they despise.

that’s the kind of argument you’d expect from a pro-AI person, not someone who’s supposedly anti-AI. peak irony.

No thank you this is a very good point and deserves to be shared.

The situation is so much more nuanced than their black/white takes on it and honestly they can deny it all they want but facts are facts: the "awareness" posts were unjust and cruel.

But unfortunately they got the head start so when people fight back in defense, the community is already tired (I know I am) so it gets swept under the rug quickly instead of tackling the issues at hand and namely calling out the behavior they are perpetuating.

[thekalpar]

This is a Grift and You Shouldn't Fall for It

I want to talk about an article I saw from thebookseller.com that came out Monday which talks about a new AI-powered publishing platform called Spines which wants to disrupt the publishing industry by providing a new platform. I encourage you to read the actual article here, but I want to address how they are, based on my own observation as an independent author, a grift and why you shouldn’t fall for it.

Let’s address the first concern which I and probably a few other people have when presented with Spines’s goal of publishing 8,000 books in 2025 alone. Doing a very quick, unscientific google search, we can find that of the biggest traditional publishers in the United States, only Penguin Random House and Harper Collins publish more than 8,000 books a year, and these are massive global corporations. The next two largest, Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster, publish only roughly 2,000 books a year and these are still some of the big boys on the block. So the goal of publishing 8,000 books a year is certainly ambitious for Spines. How is this going to be done?

There are two possibilities and one is that a lot of this is going to be books produced in part or entirely by plagiarism software (“AI”). I want to acknowledge that as a real possibility, but I want to go forward with the good-faith assumption that there will be a significant number of passionate people who have poured their heart and soul into writing a book and are going to be taken advantage of by these techbros. Even before plagiarism software became widely available, self-publishing on Amazon had exploded and we saw millions of books self-published in just an ebook form every year. So I imagine that these people, who are self-publishing on Amazon and other places, are probably the market for Spines.

Now how do I know this is a scam? I do not have a ton of experience is self-publishing because I’ve only published two books at time of writing, but I do have recent hands-on experience which makes me qualified. There isn’t a lot of info in the article on what services Spines is offering but we get an exact number on cost as well as types of services in the article. “Spines costs $1,200 to $5,000 to automate proofreading, cover design, metadata optimisation and limited translation services, starting with Spanish.” Now, this may, on the low end, be cheaper than hiring professionals to do this kind of work, but it’s still going to be a scam because you’re going to get a shoddy product.

Let’s start with proofreading, which is under the umbrella of editing but is one of several types of editing. As Reedsy explains, there are four distinct types of editing, all of which come with specific costs. First there is editorial assessment, which is when you have a very, very rough draft and need some direction on writing it. (I have not yet done editorial assessment because I have been fortunate enough to be plagued with the knowledge of what I’m writing.) This is very broad advice which an AI cannot provide but a human can. Second is developmental editing for a finished manuscript, which is where you have an editor go through, provide specific feedback on areas for improvement and suggestions, and point out any major issues. This is where you get into rewrites and polishing a manuscript to a finished product. Again, and AI cannot do this.

So we finally come to copy editing and proofreading. Now, I’m going to fold them together although they are technically distinct because copy editing includes proofreading as well as making sure capitalization is consistent, tenses remain consistent, you don’t repeat yourself too much, all the little things which help polish the rough edges off of your manuscript. Proofreading is checking for spelling and typos, as well as grammar issues and any formatting issues. AI can do this, as tools like Grammarly exist for this sort of thing for a couple years now. (I wouldn’t recommend using Grammarly, but that’s a separate rant for a separate day.) Plus, you know, spellcheck which has been around since the 1990s. Technically this is a task which AI can do, but it can still make mistakes such as with homophones (the train went threw the tunnel). And with so many free tools available if you’re going to have AI do this task, why pay someone else to do it? AI is not going to give you insightful, meaningful feedback on your manuscript, but it will do spellcheck for you and LibreOffice does that for free anyway. So paying to have AI proofread your manuscripts doesn’t make any financial sense.

Let’s move on to the next area they want to automate, cover design. Again, I have limited experience and I can say very definitively that you can get a good cover for about $750 USD from a professional artist who will produce what you want and will be able to keep things you like but change things you don’t with an incomplete project. Plagiarism software that creates images cannot do that. Unless they’re hiring artists to touch up and improve generated images (which I doubt), all Spines is offering is another service you can get for free or cheaper elsewhere online. I highly advise against generating your cover images, if only for the fact the computer cannot give you exactly what you want. You can feed prompts into it and maybe get something close enough, but if you have a specific image of what you want for your book cover you cannot get that from AI. There are a lot of ethical arguments against plagiarism software as well, but I won’t repeat those here just for brevity’s sake. Again, if you’re willing to use plagiarism software to make your book cover, which is what the guys at Spines are offering, then you can do that cheaper elsewhere.

The final one which I can speak with any authority on is metadata, which I’ve had to enter for my own books before and you can too. For those who don’t know, metadata is information attached to the book’s ISBN and publication info that provides info about the book. This can be basic info such as the intended audience, the genre, and the subject matter, but it can also be more granular like what type of fantasy novel you have (romantasy vs cozy). While it can be an annoying or frustrating task, such as when every word to describe my book flies out of my head when I have to actually describe it, it’s also fairly simple. And I’m going to be honest, I don’t expect the AI to do much more beyond algorithm scraping and suggesting metadata like “for you” and “trending”. (Sort of like those videos that spam every popular tag in the hope of getting traction.) So I seriously doubt that this will be a service worth any sum of money.

Finally I’m going to touch briefly on translation because I haven’t translated a book and I don’t know what goes into translating one either but I can make an educated guess that it’s going to be the equivalent of pasting your manuscript into Google Translate. If you’re willing to accept that level of quality, you can get it for free. If you want a good translation you’re going to have to shell out far more money to get an actual person to do it.

And all of this doesn’t even get to a very important part of publishing, ISBNs. If you’re self-publishing you absolutely want to buy your own ISBNs, and buy multiple because they cost less if you buy them in bulk and you will need separate ISBNs for both the print and digital editions of your books. I don’t know if Spines is offering ISBNs as part of their package, they certainly could, but for independent authors it’s best practice to use your own ISBNs because you can control those opposed to whatever platform you publish on.

So are the AI-powered services that Spines is going to provide be worth it? I highly doubt it. For the amount of money you’ll end up spending you’d be better off actually hiring humans to help you with your book and get it to a finished, polished state. I can’t see this company offering you anything that isn’t already available for free or nearly free elsewhere with the same lackluster quality. If you have something you’re writing, you’re passionate about it, and you want to publish it, I highly encourage you to get real human beings to help you improve it. Reedsy (which this is not an ad for) is the platform I have used to get in contact with editors and artists to help get my books out into the world. But I’m sure plenty of other independent authors can help you find all sorts of other people able and willing to help. Spines is merely charging you for the privilege of receiving substandard work spat out by a computer.

[stackslip]

"you no longer have sole control over chainsaw man". do you think fujimoto could be talking about csm as a brand? i wonder if he would Fire Punchs it. like, follow through to such an extreme that he makes csm wholly unpleasant as a brand.

it's 2:30 am here so forgive me 1) if my answer isn't concise or structured or clear 2) for not providing screenshots/panels to actually illustrate my points. but thank you so much for the ask, i was actually writing about this v question in my chapter 133 analysis post that i didn't manage to save, which led me to feel depressed at the idea of rewriting it, so this is a really good like. jumping point for my larger thoughts on the matter.

so chainsaw man is a brand, yes. it's also so much more. when i talk about chainsaw man in this post (or most of my posts really), please assume that i'm not actually referring to individual characters, whether denji or pochita. you see, chainsaw man has never been an actual person, or even a persona/identity. chainsaw man is an idea, a concept that humans and devils project onto. chainsaw man is simultaneously to different people: a weapon, a messiah, a devil that needs to be put down, a scapegoat, a hero, a midwife to devils in hell, a cute plushie model, an ideal boyfriend, the only person who could ever understand makima, a foreign plot, a political talking point--i could go on forever.

so really, denji has never had control over chainsaw man, bc chainsaw man is nothing more than a mirror to others' hopes and fears! and similarly, pochita never had control over chainsaw man either! think about how people talk about chainsaw man through all of part 1: hero of hell, chaotic force, god, monster, the only person makima could be equal with. then think about how 1) makima literally fought pochita herself, and then said he could never be chainsaw man because he did not fit the idea she had in her head 2) pochita quite literally tells denji that all he wanted was a hug, which everyone took as attacks.

and yes, this 200% fits with fire punch and other works by fujimoto that deal with identity, with public perception, with the "real self" vs your myth/image/reputation, with the question of if there is such a thing as a "real self" especially as the lines begin to blur and you don't know who you are anymore. other works of his that explore these ideas are goodbye eri (self explanatory really), nayuta of the end (kenji's inability to understand his sister's intentions and the world seeing her as nothing but a monster and threat), and to a certain extent That Genderbend Oneshot (dealing explicitly with gendered perceptions).

now to answer specific parts of your question:

do you think fujimoto could be talking about csm as a brand?

fujimoto has been clear about chainsaw man being a brand even in part 1. makima releases the info about chainsaw man defeating the gun devil, and immediately people start making chainsaw man tshirts and posters and buying chainsaws. by the time of part 2 there's merch of him on every corner, fanclubs and gameshows and sandwiches and plushies.

like, follow through to such an extreme that he makes csm wholly unpleasant as a brand.

so you know what else is omnipresent in part 2, long before chapter 133? people thinking that chainsaw man is a danger and a monstrosity and a devil that should be put down. asa expresses contempt about him in her very first chapter, some of the people interviewed in chapter 103 flat out say they think he's dangerous and needs to die (some more aggressively than others). and now we're introduced to the true scale of what's going on--a spectrum that ranges from fanatic devotees to passive consumers all the way to anti-chainsaw man protestors.... which very likely includes that one preacher. just in this chapter we've seen violence erupt between the two extremes of that spectrum! and it's likely that it's going to get worse and worse.

now i'm not saying that a world war might possibly erupt just around chainsaw man and nothing else--i'm saying it might be the spark for other longer simmering tensions: the cold war between multiple countries who were using devils as weapons long before part 1, devils becoming bolder in their attacks on humans, the horseman family conflict, a crumbling social order based on propaganda/fascist structures/absurd poverty, etc etc. add to that the fact that we now know that devils can not only take human forms, but that hybrids are relatively common (see reze, quanxi, the weapon hybrids in general, etc) and that denji himself presents as a human. fujimoto is very inspired by devilman. you know what happens in devilman? humans figure out there are devils wearing human skin around them, panic, and start indiscriminately murdering each other.

and..... the prophecy. "mars will reign" is v commonly accepted to mean that yoru, the fucking war devil, is going to see a drastic increase in power. so yeah there's gonna be war. people are going to turn on chainsaw man more and more. people are going to cling to him more and more. one thing is sure--very few might ever actually see him as denji.

i wonder if he would Fire Punchs it.

i've said it before but one of my favourite things about fujimoto is how he has specific ideas/concepts that he keeps iterating and building upon, learning from experience every time until he makes something he can be wholly proud of. fire punch was his first serialized work, it was a mess in many ways and it's clear that he recognized that and was unsatisfied about it. so even in part 1, you can already see that fujimoto was tinkering with some of his fire punch concepts and trying to execute them in a better way. but from what we have of part 2 so far.... i think fire punch was indeed the prototype, just like the sisters oneshot was the prototype of look back. part 2 has so many more parallels to fire punch than part 1 did, its nge and devilman inspirations are that much more obvious, and some of the characters are flat out plucked right out of fire punch, and just given a makeover and additional depth (coughs coughs sun and iseumi coughs). and yes, it's the fucking end of the world that's coming too.

i don't think he's gonna follow fire punch 1:1--again, fire punch was his first try at a serialized series and its plot is a mess. i've seen people complain about part 2's pacing (the biweekly breaks and the fact that folks aren't bingeing but waiting doesn't help) and call the plot nonsensical but to me it feels a lot more deliberate and thought out than part 1 AND fire punch. like he's setting up puzzle pieces that seem out of place on first glance, and then they start adding up and you see the shape of it--the SCALE of it. in any case, chainsaw man and fire punch do have key thematic and artistic differences, and their themes/ideas do not align 1:1 either. however it's pretty obvious that in some ways, chainsaw man is becoming an answer to some of the questions fire punch asked but never followed through.

[thornvault]

Some more info on Kali!

- Some Kali x Magnifico ship songs I like so far are Sleeping At Last - I'll Keep You Safe and Soltero - Communist Love Song. In my mind the first one is for when Kali is just starting out as Magnifico's apprentice and sees the wishes for the first time, and also them slowly falling for each other. The second one is after everything goes wrong, and Kali studying forbidden magic to free him (hear me out okay. The first line fits perfectly. I can't really explain it but you should see the AMV in my head). Also The Greatest Showman - From Now On is on my playlist too, it's very Aftermath coded. I love finding songs for my hyperfixations deal with me.

- In the early days of being his apprentice, Kali initially forms a but of an unhealthy attachment to Magnifico due to him providing safety. It does get fixed and they become more normal about him once they get to know him as a person, but the first couple of weeks they're just looking up at him with big ol' starry eyes. He's not entirely sure what to make of it.

- Outwardly Kali is the awkward and shy quiet type that could rival Bazeema, with almost childish excitement over learning magic. Magnifico soon learns they're actually a snarky little gremlin (once they're comfortable with him that is, because he IS a King and you don't just start off being playful with him). The general population (including Amaya) still think of them as unassuming though, which is how they get away with studying forbidden magic in secret. Nobody expected it.

-It takes Kali months to get a handle on forbidden magic, years to even begin to fully understand it. Before they can even begin they need to invent new protective measures, and rewrite most of the spells (as for example Magnifico used people's wishes in one, and that's not really feasible if you're trying to be good).

Figuring out how to prevent being corrupted is difficult enough, but bringing someone back from it is infinitely more difficult. There's nothing about that in the book, not even clues. (We all know it's gonna be True Love's Kiss. It's Disney. Come on. How did we not have one of those in canon. I'll die on this hill).

[willowthegraycat]

Finkit and Fern

So, here's some news about Finkit and Fern!

I have completed drawing the clan areas, and those are now available to be seen as illustrations for each place listed under 'tri-clan area' on this page: https://finkitandfern.miraheze.org/wiki/Tri-clan_area

Speaking of that page, this is the first time I'm publicly sharing this wiki that I've been working on. It'll be a lot more impressive once actual episodes come out, because then I can add more information to it, but it has a fair amount of background info on it already, as well as drawings of the clan locations and all the characters. It's not finished, since I have more things to add, but it feels complete enough to share. You can get a good idea of what the finished wiki will look like by checking out the Ducky Momo Show section of the wiki, which acts as a mini wiki in of itself.

Of course, any requests for things to add will be done! I haven't gotten a request yet, maybe I'm not asking enough, but I'd really find it fun to get requests for things to add in particular if you want something added so keep that in mind I guess haha

Next up for me in drawing the backgrounds would be to draw the town, Tigrillo Town. The issue here is that I'm not done building it in minecraft, and building an entire town takes a lot longer than building a forest, even with all the extra areas and such. I have a lot of main buildings done, but there's still a lot of empty space, so I'm going to be working on that more passively when I feel like making more buildings, rather than forcing myself to make like 20 houses in one day. I really don't want to get burnt out with this project, so I want to switch up my focus and work on something else now.

So I'm doing another poll! Tell me what you want to see.

I'm making the poll only go for a day this time, but feel free to request things even if you missed it or your choice didn't get picked. I'll rewrite songs and share/design characters on demand happily, provided they exist inside my plans for this au. (most characters and songs do though, and I might make an exception for those that don't if you really want to see something, I can make like an au-au for stuff I left out of this au lol)

Also! I might not be drawing the buildings from Tigrillo town, but instead making labeled floorplans and light sketches of the outsides of the buildings. Once the town is built entirely, I will be making a Town Map, similar to the Tri-Clan Area Map I made.

If I give each building a page on my wiki, I would want to include who lives/works there as well, so that would mean design humans would be my next priority.

Just some thoughts

@cantdanceflynn

[sakurarisen]

Okay, took a little longer than I meant for it to, but Sera's carrds are now fully updated with all the new lore and info! <3 I've added a dedicated section for the phoenix lore here, holding the full, overall lore, Aria's continuation after its end, and misc regarding Sera/Aria in full - Including mentions that while Sera is Aria, Aria as a power is resting and tucked away, choosing instead to let her chosen human form Sera have the lead of things. Sera does not have access to her original abilities and power as phoenix unless absolutely forced into its use; she may be able to tap into tiny bits of it here and there at the cost of severely draining her energy and requiring bed rest level recovery, but she will not be able to use her original form nor power without outright killing herself - And even she wouldn't know if this death would be permanent or not. Best to keep it a last ditch effort kind of thing.

Added to my rules based on the above: Please do not automatically know about the phoenix lore unless things have been plotted out that way. While I'm beyond happy to finally understand more about Sera and the things she's hidden from me for years and the chance to actually put it into play for things, a major side effect to the countless rebirths and lifetimes she's been through, as well as Aria's sealing of her power to become Sera, has been to put memories of her previous lives in a box and put them aside. Sera does not know she's Aria, let alone a phoenix, and while I would love to (eventually!) explore things in regards to this, I'd rather it be plotted out first, as phoenix lore is incredibly old, and would truly only be known to those with ties to mythological beings on/about first meeting.

Also added to match in that rule is to please don't know Shayan is Zack's son on hello without a solid reasoning for it. While Shayan might look a great deal like his father and be recognizable if you know Zack, the fact Zack has kids at all is not something he, Sera, nor their kids talk about without reason, and are rightfully concerned for their safety, especially Shayan's, and even more especially in FF7 verses. Of course, for this rule in general, if your muse has a canonical reason to know these things that's great! <3 But this stands for those that don't, for personal reasons. <3

I've also updated the appearance of her scars and how they affect her healthwise, her name in the general section (Seraphina Fair rather than Mayuzumi/Fair), added an aliases mention (which currently is just Aria and The Snow Phoenix), and added mentions in the personality section to how she can be with others when fully, completely comfortable, provided they're all right with it.

Most things have been rewritten in some form to have more of a 'general' feel to them over '7 specific' - Anything related to 7 verses is explicitly now mentioned as 'in FF7 settings', for example, to keep both on one carrd - There isn't much that changes between general info and 7 based info, and anything that is different is either mentioned there or on my divergences page.

The GI verse carrd has seen a good bit of rewriting to reflect new info, including a bit of a verse entry blurb on the landing section and heavy rewriting and tweaks to her misc.

I still have to go through the Spellbound related sections and do another skim of the blog itself for anything that still needs updating, but for the most part, I think I'm done with the primary stuff that needed editing! <3 Sorry for the super delay in getting all that done - It's been a busy week, but I'm excited to get things into play and the like! <3

~Pom

[hedgewitchgarden]

”It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” -Elisabeth Báthory

In July of this year, an independently-published book called��Witchtoker’s Grimoire appeared on Amazon, the description of which stated, “This Grimoire is a collection of spells, how to’s, [and] magical writings, by a collective of creators from Tiktok.” I myself was unaware of said book until a snarling gaggle of videos about it popped up on the witchier corners of the Clock App, and the fury with which the Grimoire was being discussed piqued my curiosity, so I started doing some digging.

I am not sure when work on the Grimoire actually began, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, the creator behind it reached out to a handful of other WitchTok personalities and asked them to contribute spells, recipes, etc. A few people took issue with this — claims floated around that the creator would not accept submissions from witches she didn’t “approve” of, which seemed counterintuitive to a “community” driven book. But within the greater publishing industry, some projects involve open calls for submissions, while others are invitation only, so if the creator hand-picked her contributors, that doesn’t constitute compromised ethics.

The contents of the book, however, raised legitimate ethical concerns. One essay seemed to suggest that corpse water could be consumed. Another provided instructions for a spell jar that the author had made for a friend undergoing surgery to remove cancer: Because of the phrasing, some readers thought that the author was declaring the spell jar cured cancer.

Having read both snippets (screenshots abound), I can say that the actual problem is a severe lack of editing — like, if the cancer anecdote had been cut, the chapter on the spell jar would’ve been just fine. But it’s this dearth of editorial oversight that led to even bigger problems, primarily accusations that a good chunk of material in the book was plagiarized.

According to allegations, passages from at least seven different published works were lifted whole-cloth and incorporated into the Grimoire. Additionally, someone ran sections of the book through a plagiarism detection engine and apparently found that a number of spells had been copied and pasted directly from websites. And while the Grimoire does feature a bibliography, it does not include citations, which, honestly, would’ve only be helpful had the authors used their own voices to rewrite or summarize the info in question.

In a way, the bibliography almost functions as an admission of guilt. Like, “Oh, you wanna know where we swiped all this stuff? Feast your peepers!”

Lines were immediately drawn in the sand once official controversy hit the algorithm, with people on one side vehemently denouncing the Grimoire, and friends and family of the book’s creator vehemently denouncing the people denouncing it. The online battles escalated, and I decided that not a damn bit of it was any of my business. (Although I did throw the lithomantic stones to see if I should offer some objective clarification on what corpse water actually is. It felt like a neighborly thing to do.)

But as evidence of plagiarism piled up, and the book’s supporters realized that they were going to have to switch tactics if they wanted to stay on top of the situation, one of them said something that made me understand how problematic the Grimoire had been from the very onset.

I was scrolling through my For You Page a couple of mornings ago, flipping past conspiracy theories and videos from disillusioned contributors publicly requesting that their submissions be removed from future editions, when I landed on a live conversation between the book’s creator and one of her more ardent apologists. And that’s when I heard the following:

“[You] put together a conglomeration of people’s submissions. I don’t understand why all this comes on you. Like, you have to double- and triple-check every submission?”

“Or tell people that fire burns,” the creator replied. “Or that water is wet. Or that you should not get in the shower with a hairdryer going.”

And I had to stop for a second and collect myself, because the answer to all of the above is a non-negotiable yes: The editor of an anthology must absolutely double- and triple-check every submission, and the anthology itself must contain disclaimers to protect everyone involved. Whether desktop or traditional, this is how publishing works.

But this also made me understand that the people who put out the Witchtoker’s Grimoire approached publishing the same way they approach witchcraft: It’s something you can just do successfully without any education or training or skill. It’s not about growing, or teaching, or sharing knowledge: It’s about snatching up unmerited authority and using it to bully all of the smaller fish in the pond.

And when called out for troubling behavior, or spreading misinformation, or outright theft, it’s about redirecting the narrative, and manifesting a projective shield of victimhood behind which to hide: Anyone who speaks ill of them is a jealous detractor who doesn’t want you to know the truth.

It’s a shield that tends to collapse and bonk heads when the unbiased truth comes out.

As of this writing, the Witchtoker’s Grimoire has been pulled from publication, and the creator has issued a public apology, taking full responsibility and letting her viewers know that there will not be a revised edition. (The original plan was to tweak the worrisome bits and rerelease it.) To her credit, this was the right thing to do, and it displays some maturity on her part. Although as contrite as the video came across, it may have also just been an attempt to stave off the legal ramifications of selling a plagiarized manuscript.

If that’s the case, she’s in for a series of unfortunate surprises. Regardless of how sorry she may be about the debacle, the book went to print, and multiple copies were purchased — if the allegations prove accurate, this means that copyrights were actively infringed, and there will be  consequences for that. A remorseful “whoops” won’t protect her.

I don’t know if she’ll ever try her hand at publishing again, but if she does, she’ll have a very hard time convincing anyone to take a chance on her pitches. Traditional publishers will more than likely give her a wide berth, and freelancers who want to keep their reputations stain-free will avoid collaboration. This particular path has ultimately come to a dead end for her.

Speaking of paths, the whole saga of the Witchtoker’s Grimoire reminds me of Mandrake from the Liminal Spirits Oracle (by Laura Tempest Zakroff; Llewellyn Publications, 2020), and one of Tempest’s interpretations of the card strikes me as a fitting end to this post:

“There is no easy or fast road to big rewards that are truly worthwhile. Eschew tantalizing shortcuts and lazy practices. Fully invest the time and care needed to perform a task properly and responsibly — build any house as if you yourself were going to live in it.”

The results we get out of our craft are directly and prosperously proportionate to the effort we put into it. If we expect good results from whatever it is we’re doing without honest effort — or if we expect results without honesty, period — we’re better off not doing it at all.

And y’all, we don’t just have to live in what we’ve built.

We have to live with it.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

I LOVE your meta on how essek was the perfect asset and want to ask the follow-up question in your tags: how do you think it went down? The agreement between Essek and the Assembly? And I think the fandom was convinced Essek would be disposed of after the peace talks — how do you see his future if there was no intervention by the Mighty Nein in 97?

ruvi-muffin asked:

What are your specific thoughts abt how ludinus recruited essek??👀👀 oh Person who knows a surprising amount of spy stuff 🙏🙏🙏👀👀👀

Anonymous asked:

PLEASE share your specific thoughts about how Essek was recruited, I'm so intrigued!

Anonymous asked:

Hello yes i am very interested in these very specific thoughts about how Essek got recruited? All these things about how actual intelligence works/uses their assets/how that ties to Essek and the M9 is really interesting :D

Thank you all so much for asking me the specific question I wanted someone to ask. I had to write and rewrite this post a half-dozen times because I kept going off on tangents about other Cold War spy stories so trust me there’s plenty more where this came from.

For reference, my original post on what made Essek an ideal recruitment target and why the M9 were the ideal counter to it.

First off, this is all based on real-world intelligence ops and is only as relevant to the campaign as Matt Mercer cares to make it. Having said that *slams notebook on table* BUCKLE UP, KIDDOS.

There are two ways Essek may have been recruited: he approached the Assembly or the Assembly approached him. I think the Assembly approached him. Not to be too hard on the guy, but Essek said it himself: he’s kind of a coward. I can’t see him mustering up the nerve to take that first step. Plus his espionage seems to have focused specifically on the beacons rather than dunamancy as a whole; that sounds like the Assembly to me. The beacons specifically offer the prospect of immortality and the Cerberus mages are arrogant enough to assume they can figure out dunamancy themselves if they have a beacon in hand. There’s no way the Assembly haven’t been trying to beg, borrow, or steal those beacons for centuries. Essek may not have even been their first try - just the first that worked. 

Chronologically, Essek would have popped up on either the Assembly or the Augen Trust’s radar quite early as I assume they keep tabs on all powerful Dynasty mages. As they followed his career, the Assembly would have ID’d Essek as a perfect target for recruitment as a spy, and then further for ego-based recruitment. Recruitment for espionage is a slow process - even slower in a fantasy world where some races reasonably expect to live 500+ years. Many intelligence agencies will do a sort of light meet-and-greet just to start a file on various people who might years later be of interest. The Assembly would have cultivated Essek as an intelligence asset with the same degree of time and care - and using some of the same methods - that Trent used to turn the Blumenthal trio into assassins. 

If they followed a modern playbook, they would have made contact with Essek anywhere from 2 to 10 years before the theft - nothing underhanded. A Cerberus mage approaches him at a negotiation or conference and strikes up a conversation. Then it’s increasing “chance” encounters to get Essek familiar with the handler, play the “we’re both mages, really we’re on the same side” angle to earn enough sympathy & trust to start talking regularly. Once the channel’s open, the handler and asset meet and/or talk routinely while the handler assesses the target’s motives, weaknesses, and the possibility that they’re a double agent. 

Espionage proper then starts with small favors, acts Essek can rationalize as victimless or even helpful to the Dynasty. In this stage the handler is getting the asset comfortable with engaging in espionage. They reward the asset for what feels like minimal moral trespass. For Essek that would have been praising his research, encouraging avenues of investigation they knew the Dynasty had shut down. Having meetings with Ludinus plays right into the ego trip - the Head of the Assembly himself is taking the time to meet with him! The Assembly gets how important this work is! That keeps Essek isolated from Dynasty members who might convince him to take a step back and builds loyalty to the Assembly over the Dynasty.

Once an asset settles in, espionage becomes easier. Routines get established. Moral hurdles have been overcome. Now the asks get bigger and the rewards get sparser. The handler will suggest larger acts just to get the asset thinking about them, since the more they consider “just hypothetically” how to pull it off, the more likely it is they’ll do it. This is where the idea of stealing the beacons would get introduced (though of course it’s been the goal all along.) I’ll bet the Assembly hinted at all the study that could be done if they could just get to the beacons in person, constantly bemoaning the lack of access. By now Essek sees the Assembly as colleagues in arcane pursuits, kindred minds, unlike the boring, stuffy old mages of the Dynasty. Of course he could outwit the Dynasty’s security and get the beacons to the Assembly - he’s a prodigy, a genius, everyone says so. And it’s not like he was stealing all of them. The consecuted would be fine. Everyone would be fine.

None of this is intended to absolve Essek of personal responsibility. But it provides a context for his actions, and for why he might regret them so much even though he apparently did them willingly. Asset handlers are very, very good at drawing someone willing to commit minor transgressions into far greater crimes. Look at how Trent shaped Caleb, Astrid, and Eadwulf. He didn’t order them to execute their own parents on day one. He spent years coaxing, tempting, and coercing them into darker and darker crimes, letting them rationalize their own actions at each step, preying on the same vulnerabilities as Essek: isolation (separating the three from other students, telling them their work was secret), ambition (the promise of great arcane power, of shaping the Empire’s destiny), and ego (”we were going to keep the empire safe,” telling them they were gifted, they were chosen).

So how do IRL spies rationalize their actions? Those who spy for reasons of conscience or ideology have done the rationalizing ahead of time, but everyone else has to get there somehow. Some who spy for revenge tell themselves it’s what their superiors deserve, while others tell themselves everyone’s doing it. Some just need a lie to get started (most commonly about who they’re spying for), while others have to keep up the charade all along. Let’s look at a few cases similar to Essek’s that demonstrate just how slippery the slope can be.

Aldrich Ames, a long-term CIA officer slash double agent for the KGB, got suckered in by thinking he could control the situation and wasn’t really hurting anyone. Ames had chronic financial trouble related to excessive drinking & his wife’s lavish lifestyle and in 1985 came up with a plan: he would essentially con the KGB by selling them a minor amount of classified info that he deemed “virtually worthless.” In April he set up the exchange and the KGB paid him $50,000, enough to satisfy his immediate debts. But after actually doing it Ames said he felt he’d now crossed a line he couldn’t step back from, and continued to sell information to the Soviets. By the time he was caught he had, by his own admission, compromised “virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA.”

While some assets just need a lie to get started, others require a delicate dance of self-delusion. Col. George Trofimoff was an Army officer who ran the center where would-be Soviet defectors were assessed & questioned. Trofimoff, a Russian émigré at a young age, was chronically in debt. In 1969 he renewed his acquaintance with his stepbrother back in Russia, now a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church, and began to pass secrets in return for money - but he and his stepbrother never framed the transactions as such. Trofimoff described their meetings as, “very informal. ... First, it was just a conversation between the two of us. He would ask my opinion on this and that--then, he would maybe ask me, 'Well, what does your unit think about it?' Or, 'What does the American government think about it?’” His compensation was similarly informal: “I said I needed money. ... And he says, 'I tell you what, I'll loan it to you.' So he gave me, I think, 5,000 marks and then, it wasn't enough, because I needed more. ... Then he says, 'Well, you know, I'll tell you what. You don't owe me any money. And if you need some more, I can give you some more. Don't worry about it. You're going to have to have a few things, this and that.' And this is how it started.” Trofimoff could pretend to himself that he wasn’t really spying - just having a chat with his stepbrother - and wasn’t really getting paid for it - just borrowing a little money.

This got longer than I intended it to be and there’s still plenty to talk about, so I’ll save the rest for a second post. Next time: what happens long-term to espionage assets? And what happens if an asset regrets their actions and/or attempts to cut off contact with their handlers?

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

[lovebecomeshim]

hello! your zutara posting today has finally motivated me to ask this question because I came to atla very late(last year, to be specific) and I Love It Very Much but am 1000% out of the loop as far as why what remains of fandom (at least that I've seen among my friends) is so very strongly zutara. I'm not opposed to it per se I just don't really know what has driven it to apparently be such a popular ship? can you help me understand and maybe convert me a little bit?

Hey!! Your ICON! :D I can try but I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be; however I AM sure someone a lot more competent will be willing to add to this. Either way, I’m glad you asked because my plan was to drag down as many people as possible with me.

*smacks the hood of zutara* this baby can fit so much mutual love and support!

This got so long, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to put it under a cut on mobile and it already got deleted once so I’m scared to mess with it lol. Moving on.

I’m gonna start this with a disclaimer that im on mobile so formatting is tricky and I’m also really new to atla in that I only completed my first watch through in like 2019??? So some of my info is all just based on what I’ve picked up from Discourse 👀 so anyway the sparknotes version: zutara was wildly popular from the beginning. To the point where the atla crew internally disagreed on which ship should be endgame. (Ex. Bryke [showrunners] asked the writers to rewrite The Southern Raiders to make Zuko seem less ideal for Katara than Aang [which failed, depending on who you ask]; the animation team purposefully created a visual parrallel between Oma and Shu in the Cave of Two Lovers and Zuko and Katara in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se in the Crossroads of Destiny; etc.)

The ship was popular enough that Bryke actually chose to display zk fanart at a con for the sole purpose of mocking the fans, but that’s neither here nor there. The entire episode Ember Island Players, while a love letter to/parody of the whole show, was an opportunity to address zutara’s viability as a canon pairing (while, again, mocking zutaras for romanticizing that catacombs scene). Point is! It’s always been popular but with it not being endgame, there’s got to be something that’s given it staying power.

And that’s honestly got to do with three things: their dynamic, thematic cohesion, and potential.

(You know what... you know what, it’s four things. The fourth is they’re so aesthetically pleasing together and individually. Like, they’re just good looking people [specifically when they’re grown but they’re also cute kids] and that absolutely doesn’t hurt) (but it’s not the Point, it’s just nice to point out sometimes)

The dynamic is hard to get into without also looking at the canon pairings, but I think I can do that without unnecessary bashing. It’s just that part of the magic of zutara is really highlighted by what they give to each other that their other relationships don’t.

First off, it’s classic enemies to (would be) lovers. The absolute truest form of it. It’s not too different from how CS started out: a rogue antagonist with a job to do—but no personal vendetta against the future love interest—who is deeply and emotionally invested in his personal storyline (revenge/redemption) with little regard for how it effects other people after his entire life and genuine good nature are marred by suffering, and a fierce warrior girl with a strong moral compass and her own personal investment in stopping him (protect her family and save the world doing it). Obviously frustration and animosity grew between them by the nature of them being on opposing sides, but that just lends itself to the sweetness of their later reconciliation.

The thing is that while they’re wildly different on the surface (he’s a hot-headed prince of a fascist regime who is trying to capture the Avatar to please his father; she’s a nurturing daughter of the chief who is trying to protect and train the Avatar in order to topple his father’s throne) they find out that they have so much more in common both in their experiences and their personalities.

(What follows is an excessive use of the word “both” and I’m sorry about that)(I can edit it. I can do that. That IS an option............)

They both have an innate sense of justice that they are determined to see done (zuko, at the war meeting, sticking up for the Earth Kingdom kid when the guards torment his family, choosing not to steal from the pregnant couple despite his circumstances, abiding by his word to leave the SWT should Aang come willingly, etc.; katara, literally.... at any point). They both have pretty one-track minds at accomplishing certain goals once they’ve put their mind to it, regardless of a lack of support in that endeavor (it goes without saying I guess, but zuko’s entire hunt; katara’s determination to get the earth benders to fight back, her determination to absolutely destroy Pakku until he agrees to teach her, etc.). They both lost their mothers at young ages. Their worlds are war-torn and traumatizing to them both, if in different ways, but that ultimately forces them to grow up too quickly to be wholly independent individuals. They both have issues with their fathers (for WILDLY different reasons, but). They both hold extreme prejudices that they need to learn to overcome (which ties into thematic cohesion)(bit like Lizzie and Darcy in that way but magnified by a million). They’re both extremely emotional and empathetic—which can and often does result in loud outbursts. Katara’s a bit better adjusted and can temper her anger for longer than S1 Zuko can, but they both feel that anger deeply and have no compunctions expressing it (Katara is, usually, more justified, particularly in S1. Again, S1 Zuko is severely maladjusted but at the point when they could’ve feasibly become a couple, he’s so much better off with the way he carries himself). They both struggle with feelings of inferiority in their bending abilities when confronted with prodigal benders like Aang and Azula, but have the work ethic required to double down and become two of the most powerful benders in the three remaining nations. This is a little more minor but it is a parrallel that appeals to some shippers that they both have these alter egos in the Painted Lady (notably fire nation coded) and the Blue Spirit (water tribe coded) that are pretty different from who they are day-to-day and are useful in accomplishing a purpose that they as themselves cannot.

(I’m.... I just realized that this could potentially get very long. Should I have made a slide show with bullet points??????)

Anyway, similar. I know there’s more but there’s literally so much to love about zutara that I’ll drive myself a little crazy trying to compile all the ways they’re similar. (Just gonna say that at this exact moment I went back to add more similarities.... so okay then)

Once they’ve reconciled, we see how all of these things only lend themselves to a deeper intimacy together than they share with literally anyone else. There’s a steady partnership that positions them as the mom/dad of the gaang, while also providing the support necessary to allow the other to not have to carry so much responsibility. A lot of zutaras will point out how zuko is actually depicted doing the more domestic chores that are normally relegated to Katara once he joins the gaang, since the others in the group are two 12-year-olds and sokka. The one that sticks out the most is how he makes tea for the group and then serves them, while Katara is able to just relax with her friends around the fire. Fanon expands upon this a lot to Zuko helping with the laundry or the cooking or whatever else needs doing since he, as a once-refugee, is used to doing his own domestic tasks. Before Zuko joined, Katara was the one mothering everyone, sewing for them, cooking for them, etc. She’s always tending to the needs of the group, and that includes emotionally. She does the emotional labor for the gaang 99% of the time, but when she’s the one falling apart, she’s usually doing it alone and without the comfort that she normally provides for others. Until Zuko. And that’s before they’re even friends.

Which is WHY people romanticize the catacombs of Ba Sing Se so much. Katara is verbally attacking Zuko out of her own righteous anger but also her own prejudice when Zuko, surprisingly, chooses to be vulnerable with her. He’s been on a journey that’s opened his eyes a bit, but he’s never actively chosen to expose the rawest parts of his past to anyone. But for some reason he chooses to do that with Katara of all people. While she’s yelling at him. He sees her humanity, and for once can look past his prejudice and empathize with her. And this time, when she breaks down, she gets to be comforted. Katara normally talks about her mother when she’s trying to explain to someone else that she sees and understands they’re pain, as a form of comfort to them. Here, Zuko uses the exact same tactic. He sees her and he understands. And for zuko? He’s not being shut down. He’s allowed to articulate his pain regarding his mother without being ignored and made to internalize it, and he’s allowed to process how he feels about his scar out loud without being told that he deserved it. And then he lets her touch his scar, something we’ve seen him actively avoid before. He’s completely open to her and she’s completely open to him and all it took was one five minute conversation. She was about to use the little bit of Spirit water that she had, that she was saving for something Important, to heal the scar that still daily causes him pain just because they had, somehow, connected.

Plus there’s the whole parallel to the star-crossed lovers forbidden from one another, a war divides their people—

And then zuko messes up, he regresses, he gets what he wants and he HATES it. And the sense of justice he had as a child has been restored to him against his will and he can’t think of anything he wants to do more than the Right Thing, so he joins team avatar. Before he does that though, we get to see his relationship with Mai, which is where comparison really comes in. And what we see is Zuko, fresh off of his encounter with Katara in the catacombs, trying to be emotionally honest with Mai... and getting shut down and dismissed. Which is just how Mai is and it’s fine, but not for Zuko. Still, he keeps trying, and he keeps getting ignored or scoffed at or yelled at. Which is really a larger symbol for how he doesn’t fit in his old life anymore, but again that’s about thematic cohesion. He tries to articulate his anxieties about returning home, he tries to make romantic gestures, he tries to explain how morally conflicted he’s feeling—and Mai diverts to some kind of physical affection to shut him up and a parting comment that is pretty much always, in essence, “I don’t wanna talk about this.” So they don’t. On the other hand, once zuko and Katara are friends, we see him again emotionally distraught and caught up in his anxieties about facing Iroh, and it’s Katara who comes to him and listens to him and comforts and encourages him.

Similarly, we have Aang clamming up and getting uncomfortable whenever Katara shows any negative emotion, usually resulting in him making excuses or running away. Or, in the case of the Southern Raiders, lecturing her on how she needs to just let go of her anger about her mother’s murder. People have talked this episode to death and usually better than I ever could, so imma... keep it brief. There’s a serious disconnect between Aang and Katara in his ability to empathize with Katara and her needs that has her tamping down her vulnerability and amping up her anger. He tells her that he was able to forgive his people’s genocide and appa’s kidnapping (petnapping? Theft??), which is blatantly not true but also not an entirely equal parrallel to Katara’s situation, and continues making these little remarks throughout the episode. But it’s Zuko that Katara opens up to. It’s with him that she’s able to talk about the most traumatic day of her life, and it’s with him that she’s able to get the closure she needs, cementing their bond as friends and partners. This disagreement between Aang and Katara is then... never resolved. They just never bring it up and hear what the other is saying.

There’s a fic called The Portraits of Ember Island that has a line that so completely sums up the heart of the matter for why people love their dynamic. For context, zuko has woken up early to help Katara with the cooking and they spend the whole time just letting one another talk, and zuko stops to ask why she always just lets him talk. And so she stops to ask why he’s always helping, and it goes as follows:

There’s just... so much mutual support! Trust! Intimacy!! And it just continues like that from the Southern Raiders on, listening to each other, advising each other, watching each other’s backs! And then! Literally saving each other’s lives!! I will never be over the last Agni kai. Not ever. Zuko may have been willing to jump in front of lightning for anyone, but he actually did it for Katara. And in a show, that’s the thing that really matters. It’s a fulfilled trope usually exclusively applied to romantic pairings, and it ended up applying to Zuko and Katara. And then she ran out into the middle of a fight with tunnel vision just to get to him.

Also!! Also Zuko pushing Katara out of the way of the falling rocks at the Western Air Temple!! And Katara catching him as he fell from the war balloon that he fought Azula on!! Before they’re even getting along, they’re the ones reaching for each other. They come to this place of equal ground, as partners, who watch each other’s backs, call each other out but still listen attentively and understand, and provide the support that the other has been sorely lacking up until they knew each other (whether that be from lack of effort or lack of understanding from others, or an unwillingness to accept it for themselves).

Then, trailing along under the surface of this, we see the themes of the show totally embodied by Zuko and Katara as individuals and in their relationship to one another. There’s a YouTuber, sneezyreviews, who has a, like, 2-hour explanation on why she not only loves zutara but also believes that their endgame would’ve actually elevated the writing of atla to new levels particularly because of thematic cohesion and resolved character arcs. It’s the zutara dissertation I never knew I needed, and it’s funny and eloquent and effective, so I’m just going to sum up her section on thematic cohesion to the best of my abilities and then link it for whenever you have the time. And I HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you want a full understanding of what makes zutara so great and gives it such longevity.

Guru pathik has a line that goes something like this: separation is an illusion; things that seem different are just two parts of the same whole. Iroh also tells Zuko something similar: balance and strength are achieved when the different nations come together and influence one another and celebrate what makes them each unique. And this lesson is a massive central arc that both Zuko and Katara go through, moving past a black-and-white, good guys-vs-bad guys, us-vs-them mentality and into a greyer, more nuanced view of the world. Zuko sees the fire nation from an entirely new perspective and while he still loves and hopes for his nations future, he surrenders his blind loyalty to them in exchange for an unflinching loyalty to peace and love. Katara too had to come to terms with the fact that cruel people exist in the earth kingdom and water tribes, while some fire nation citizens are just regular, kind people who also need and deserve to have someone speak on their behalf. And this is honed in directly on how they view each other. They grow in their individual journeys to be open to the humanity in the other and then, once they’ve found that, they’re able to grow more in compassion for others in a beautiful feedback loop. And this is all matched in the symbolism repeatedly and intentionally associated with them in canon: sun and moon, fire and water, yin and yang, Oma and Shu who found love despite their warring nations. Their individual arcs are completed in each other and complement the themes of atla beautifully.

The canon pairs... just don’t. Which, again, is fine. But the very things that give atla longevity and popularity are anchored in zutara. Kat@ang doesn’t accomplish this. They’re... nice. Sweet. Especially when you erase a good portion of their interactions in S3. It could’ve been just a sweet love story. (Personally, the dynamic between toph and aang accomplish the same thing that zutara does, with complementary personalities that fulfill the theme of opposites blending in harmony) M@iko, on the other hand, is less sweet but I think wasn’t even supposed to last. Zuko’s relationship with Mai seems to represent his relationship with his old life as a whole. He can’t be emotionally vulnerable, he’s goaded into abusing his privileges, his agency and opinions aren’t respected. They just don’t have common ground with which to discuss anything that matters, so they don’t. As far as themes, the relationship doesn’t fit with atla. It’s zuko returning to and sticking with what is (on the surface) like him, what’s expected. Fire nation with fire nation. Fluid water bender with the flexible air bender. Like with like, separated from what is different and challenging and complementary.

And all of these things combined of course lead to the potential for the ship. I don’t know how familiar you are with the post-atla canon but... well, miss “I will never turn my back on people who need me”, miss “I don’t want to heal! I want to fight!” ends up living quietly in the SWT as a designated healer who turns a blind eye to the water tribe civil war happening right outside her front door. Which can be fine! People change! Some people just wanna stay inside. I just wanna stay inside! But the potential future for zutara is so much more satisfying, with Katara becoming the most unconventional Fire Lady the uppity old cads who are stuck on the old ways have ever seen. Fanon has her serving as a voice for the other nations within a kingdom at the point of its biggest political upheaval, as a confidante to Zuko who can actually help him while he’s trying to figure out how to move forward and make reparations. They have the opportunity, together, to accomplish what they both have set on their hearts to fight for: positive change that lends itself to harmony and balance. And the steambabies! A popular headcanon is that their firstborn daughter, the crown princess, is actually a waterbender, which causes such an uproar among the people who are adamantly clinging to the old ways. It’s just a future full of potential to be forces for good together, full of trust, intimacy, joy. The exact era of peace and love and balance that zuko announces that he intends to ring in with the start of his reign as Fire Lord is, again, magnified by the very personal zutara relationship. And we love to see it.

tl;dr zutara isn’t for everyone. Some people just don’t vibe with it. Some are nostalgic. Some love the canon they grew up with. Some have been disappointed for years. Some just see themselves in other characters and want their happiness instead. Whatever the reason, that’s fine. But for me, I love the way these two, from the moment they give each other a fair chance, are able to lower their walls and prejudices to see the other for the kindred spirits they are. They see each other’s humanity, and their response is to pour out love and support and compassion. I love that they’re a power couple in battle. I love the symbolism and, honestly, soulmatism that colors their every interaction. I love that they embody the whole storyline of atla in their relationship and how it develops, which is notably why their seasonal arcs always culminate in each finale with how they relate to one another. I love that zuko adopting a waterbending move is what actually saves his life and then katara’s. I love the chemistry! And I love the future they could’ve had, instead of the ones they were given.

So, in conclusion: I just think they’re neat and I hope you do too, at least a little bit. Even if it’s just respectfully from a disinterested distance cause you do you. And now here is the video I mentioned. I’m sorry this post got so long and then I gave you an even longer homework assignment, but I can’t recommend it enough. She says it all better than I can.

[reitziluz]

You could put the relevant flowers into the end notes of each chapter instead? It's your choice of course, but i recently read a six year old fic that required the translation of fantasy language words which were put in a tumblr post (similar to how you're planning). The problem was that the readmore somehow broke over the years and the fic writer had vanished at some point, so the translations were lost. That's just my experience though, you do you!

for a short list of meanings, or something as essential as fantasy vocab that's essential for understanding the fic, yeah, that's the obvious choice.

but you can look up flower language(s) (i referenced whatever comes up when you google "[flower] flower meaning]" and also some japanese sites) up on your own, and i would also want to write little commentaries or anecdotes about the plants in question. which would mean several paragraphs of text in the end notes. and, even though i wouldn't consider the flower info spoilers, some people do. being non-essential, making the notes unwieldy long, and counting as spoilers for some is why i've already put the rewrite commentaries in the comments instead of the end notes.

you could argue that there's nothing wrong in putting things like that in the end notes, and honestly, i agree! i just want to use the "more notes at the end of the work" link that appears in the notes on the top to provide people the chance to choose to view or ignore extra content warnings for chapters. and putting aaaaall this other info in the end notes might make people who need the warnings hesitate to access them.

but as i thought about this, i realized an obvious solution. duh, i already have the commentary in the comments! i can put the chapter's flower info in as a reply to that!

though idk, it also makes reading comments maybe a bit more daunting than necessary, if there's just a wall of text at the start...

... but then again, i have a whole unutilized fic just for spoofs and extras of shit-all! so i guess i could move all this there? i mean, i could then also attach the art i'm doing to each chapter's bonus materials!

(again, i could also attach them to each chapter, but i personally prefer reading my fics and seeing my illustrations separately. switching from reading to seeing an illustration can throw me off from a good reading hyperfocus, haha! plus in the bonus work, there'd be more space for image ids and stuff, if i finally were to figure out how to do them...)

lots to think about! thank you for letting me know that the readmores have been broken relativelt recently. i think i'll probably end up doing a hybrid thing, like both having separate listing posts on tumblr, and putting them on ao3 in some form!

if i remember/can be arsed ofc, lol