I have such qualms with the idea of pit madness that is super popular in most fics because like…obviously is completely veers away from anything even remotely canon from the comics, and it’s usually used only in reference to Jason as a way to quickly resolve the issue of his violent actions instead of actually addressing them.
But also I think that, if you’re going to use it as a plot device, it’s being severely under-utilised. Like, I think that taking the idea of pit madness to its logical extreme and applying it to all characters that have used a Lazarus pit would make for an incredibly interesting story. It has a lot of potential as a trope, considering that the general idea boils down to ‘imagine if mind control specifically targeted your strongest emotions (especially anger) and forced you to act on them’ and I think that more authors who are going to use it need to lean into it instead of using it as a throwaway explanation for Jason’s actions.
Utilising a highly popular fanon trope in your fic is fine, but I think that if you’re going to use it we need to stop ignoring what it could potentially offer for a story.
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SO I was inspired by This Reblog and absolutely adore any and all dragon Aus. And was hit with a rapid bit of inspiration.
Danny sighed through his nose, rolling his shoulders as another blob coiled across his arm like a serpent. It was an interesting thing, how they mimicked other forms, though he didn't understand all of it.
Normally they wouldn't mimic him so much, not so strongly at least. But well, the ghosts here were mere whispers, visible to a few and unable to interact much. Which is what really brought him here in the first place.
Apparently something is blocking the access to the Realms here, enough that someone needs to do something about it. And look, he's not the Ghost King (thank fuck, he'd never be able to have Star-Time if he was) but he does sort of have a job to do. As the child of Time and new Ancient of Space to-be.
Not to mention that as said new Ancient-of-Space-to-be the Observants can't complain that much about him entering a world they didn't like.
And oh boy, this world. Yikes. There's some corrupted stuff freaking everywhere (even if not visibly), and monsters. And he does mean monsters, a lot of these things are corrupted as all heck- though thankfully the skeletal undead ones leave him alone no matter what form he takes.
On the other hand? There's this little gremlin child that reminds him of Ellie that runs into him repeatedly. Danny is starting to think it's on purpose actually. Child? Child where are your caretakers, you can't just charge at the lion-horse people-
...
Danny despises prophecies. Alright child, he's going to start following you because you haven't even eaten tonight apparently. And your weapon has broken. Twice. And you're apparently surrounded by ghosts, how has he not noticed- alright. OKAY. This is fine.
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Link, would like everyone to know, that he is actually having so much fun right now! There's this sort-of Hylian that he found when looking for Koroks whose sort of like a stal-hylian? Or something? But they're nice!
And they have wings! He thought it was some sort of cloak at first, but no, they're full on wings! And he's going to convince them to take him flying. He will.
After he takes care of this itching on his back, because it's getting really distracting...
Yes I used Flight Rising specifically because @fairy-lights-and-blobs mentioned it specifically for Danny's wings.
A Danny & Link <3 But also feel free to imagine them as mixed with any dragon really.
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for real WHERE does the idea that [utdr humans] are nongendered so that "you can project on them" come from. their literal character arcs are about NOT being a blank slate to be filled in by the audience
i think i understand the assumption on some level for undertale, because there is a very intentional effort to make you identify with the "player character" in order to make your choices feel like your own (the beating heart of undertale's metanarrative lies in giving you an alternative path to violence against its enemies after all, and whether you're still willing to persue it for your own selfish reasons. YOUR agency is crucial).
of course, the cardinal plot twist of the main ending sweeps the rug from under your feet on that in every way, and frisk's individuality becomes, in turn, a tool to further UT's OTHER main theme: completionism as a form of diegetic violence within the story. replaying the game would steal frisk's life and happy ending from them for our own perverse sentimentality, emotionally forcing our hand away from the reset button.
i think their neutrality absolutely aids in that immersion. but also, there's this weird attitude by (mostly) cis fans where it being functional within the story makes it... somehow "editable" and "up to the player" as well? which is gross and shows their ass on how they approach gender neutrality in general lol.
but also like. there's plenty of neutral, non PCharacters in undertale and deltarune. even when undertale was just an earthbound fangame and the player immersion metanarrative was completely absent, toby still described frisk as a "young, androgynous person". sometimes characters are just neutral by design. it's not that hard to understand lol.
anyone who makes this argument for kris deltarune is braindead. nothing else to say about it.
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Thinking once again about the very weird emotional reaction I had (am still having) re: Timothee Chalamet's performance in Dune Part 2. Because I came out of that theatre legit a little scared of that guy, which is not something I ever thought I'd be able to say -- he's very much not an intimidating person in most people's minds and if you'd told me what Part 2 was like before I knew anything about Dune I wouldn't have been able to believe it. But he's so good, and I think part of the reason he works so well in this new phase of Paul's character especially is because of that audience perception of him as an actor, because you go into it thinking "this shouldn't work" and then it does work, and that weird dissonance makes it work even more in a meta way. Paul as a character also isn't supposed to seem like he could be this crazy warrior cult leader, and then he is and people within the narrative believe it and it feels within the narrative like it isn't supposed to work, yet somehow does. The fact that it Feels Wrong is perfect because it's supposed to.
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