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essycogany · 6 months ago

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Why Sonic Prime Shouldn’t Be Canon

There will be 0 disrespect to anyone involved in this post.

Introduction

Think whatever you want to think and make your own conclusions after reading this. Prime is an entertaining show. This is only for whoever wonders why I talk about this show a certain way. Yes, the consistency in the franchise is already shattered to pieces, (no pun intended) but the excuse implies the mistakes in the past shouldn’t be improved upon. Making things worst doesn’t fix anything. Also, give the franchise a little credit, there’s more obvious reasons to believe this show isn’t canon then stuff in the games and IDW.

Why Are We Told Prime Is Canon

1. The writer for the games/comics and the director stated Prime was canon. I assume in order to sell the show and make it seem more important than it is. That’s not even an insult because so far, Prime impacts nothing in canon.

Ian Flynn: “It doesn’t matter, b/c Prime wipes itself out. It’s something after Advance 3, but otherwise, it’s moot. I didn’t want to sour anyone’s expectations or investment by spoiling how Prime resolves, that’s all. If you enjoyed it, awesom. Savor it. If you didn’t, then you can safely ignore it. Simple as that.”

2. While I don’t remember who said this, it’s also been stated Prime went through changes. It was originally meant to be written as its own thing and hilariously ended up feeling less canon because of this change. Which you’ll probably notice in a bit. Long story short Sonic Prime, like the movies and shows, is a disposable adaptation you can love or hate.

3. Aside from Sonic and Shadow, you aren’t able to spend enough time with the OG cast or world, so you’d need to know and understand them outside of Prime. Which debatably isn’t enough, but that’s a can of worms I feel plenty have already opened up, so I’ll only simplify it later. In the end, the show never gets time to establish itself in the OG world. Which has a terrible impact on the writing, but let’s move on.

Side Note: No, the shatterverse crew don’t count in my opinion. While they are similar to the OGs they are still their own characters with separate personalities and issues in their own worlds. They are similar, but not the same.

Evidence

Prime feels more like an origin story without the continuity of the games.

Example 1: Green Hill is Sonic and his friend’s home. Despite the games and IDW have them live everywhere that isn’t Green Hill. Classic timeline included. They barely talk about the place. I recommend watching “Where The Heck Does Sonic Live?” on YouTube. If you want the short of it, I’ll explain a few points and add my own as well.

Here’s most of the different homes these characters lived in.

Station Square, the Mystic Ruins, Emerald Town, and others use to be homes they stayed in and they’re never mentioned. It’s like they put the modern cast into the classic timeline. Which still had them not live in Green Hill. Heck, Shadow, Rouge, and Big are shown in Green Hill too and they didn’t even exist during the classic era.

This is how Green Hill is seen in IDW.

Sure looks like people use to live in this place. Sarcasm aside, Green Hill either wasn’t special enough for them to keep living in or they never lived there before and this was conjured up because Green Hill is constantly used in the games.

Even people who knows the bare minimum about Sonic lore would understand how baloney this is. Especially since Sonic and the gang has been established to be found in other places. Which is shown in the Origin cutscenes. They don’t clarify in the show who exactly lives in Green Hill and who doesn’t. They treat it like everyone’s home. Shows how much we know about these characters within Sonic Prime, doesn’t it?

Example 2: No other group of Sonic characters, locations, or worlds are ever mentioned/referenced. In Prime the blue blur meeting Chaos!Sonic should’ve reminded him of Metal!Sonic, but he talks as if he’s never seen another version of himself in his life. “Is that a… knock off me?” The lack of robot knowledge in this show is crazy when given more errors.

“Robots without flickies? Now that’s new.” I believe everyone knows how false this line is. Also, Orbot and Cubot doesn’t exist until Colors. (though Orbot is in Unleashed) Which is a problem because Prime is suppose to take place directly after Advanced. Which had several games before Colors. Where they didn’t exist.

Example 3: The OG cast though similar, still have their differences.

Big: He’s treated like a core member of the team when he’s not in anything else. Bro doesn’t even get much to do or say at all. He’s just there for the most part.

Knuckles: He meets Sonic in a completely different setting then in actual canon and doesn’t seem to live on Angel Island for some reason. At least not by what was shown.

Eggman: Still relatively fine, but teaming up with anyone even himself never turns out well. He usually doesn’t care for sharing his spotlight.

Rouge: Same thing as Big besides Dream Team. In the games/comics she usually does her own thing. And is also more sneaky and unpredictable while Prime shows off her more leadership side. She’s kind of half and half in the same to different category.

Tails: Surprisingly more closed off then usual and almost seems to switch sides with Sonic in the personality department. Emotionally that is.

Amy: She’s more of a motherly figure than anything else. Amy’s bird friend is pink instead of blue like in SA1. They also treat it like it’s always been with her but hasn’t. She’s also incredibly calm and collected compared to how she was during the 2000s. The time the Advance games where coming out. She was written pretty differently to say the least.

Not to mention one line in the entire show is the only indication of Amy’s crush on Sonic. It was implied not shown.

Sonic: He’s almost treated as an amalgamation of different variations before him. Except it’s his first time getting into an issue he isn’t ready to handle. Because he caused it. On top of that, this guy also carries most of his friends emotional traits. Amys’ excitement, Tails’ saddens, and Knuckles’ anger. Here’s why.

Prime!Sonic seems to be naturally affectionate then in canon since he hugs almost everyone in it. He’s also more emotionally triggered, childish, and inexperience while Game!Sonic isn’t. And has never been shown to be either. Not even in the IDW comics or games with Classic!Sonic. A younger version of him. Don’t get me started on the differences to the 2000 games like Advanced. Game!Sonic then was more introverted while Prime!Sonic is very extroverted. He also panics a bunch. As if he’s not use to terrible things happening frequently.

He can be very wimpy and whiny when it comes to confrontations. Which was never a thing before in any other media. At least not to the point where he’s begging and pleading to people over and over again. I’ll even admit this Sonic isn’t the smartest either. He’s the Sonic you’d be the most convinced to believe is a teenage boy. Besides Movie!Sonic.

Of course Prime!Sonic is still Sonic, but he’s as much of a Sonic as every other version of him. He’s not the same guy who use to not be a fan of hugs. Who can deal with atrocities without freaking out once. The character who hasn’t even officially cried up to this point. Who is just now starting to open up and is still having trouble with it. The silly hedgehog isn’t too out of character but is enough to not be called the same character. Sure, Sonic’s characterization is inconsistent in the games, but I’d say the 2010s is less out of character and more one noted. He at least carries these traits even if not written well.

- The “sentimental” line in S1 Ep6 is one of the few out of character things he says. Even if the blue blur thought this, he’d never say it out loud.

Shadow: He’s the best written character in the show. Not to mention the most accurate to how he is in canon. Even compared to some of the games and comics. He’s the true MVP of Sonic Prime and has the most common sense. I only hate how he’s literally pushed to the curve in every season. And how Shadow’s backstory is never referenced. Only implied by Sonic screaming his name when he plummets to his doom. But I’d argue that’s more so because Shadow is the last person left who isn’t implied to be dead. Sure, it reminds people of SA2, but that’s all it really is. A reminder not a direct reference.

I will clarify I don’t dislike the show for being different. I dislike the show calling itself canon despite it’s differences.

Conclusion

I know Prime “wipes itself out” but the original world doesn’t have the same continuity of the games either. The established world and lore in Prime is barely connected to the Games due to the writing, so wiping the shatterverse out doesn’t help. These may be small details but if you’re a person who might be interested in getting into the fandom it becomes small details that makes big differences.

I’m not saying if you think the show is canon you’re wrong. Actually you are 100% correct. It’s been confirmed multiple times and the deed was already done. I just don't think it should be. Does it really matter? It depends on what you think. Is Sonic Prime being canon a bad thing? I’d say yes and no. While I don’t think it was the best move, as long as Sonic Prime exists on its own, there’s nothing to worry about. Prime being canon isn’t a crime. It just makes no sense. I’ll leave it at that.

Stay Creative! 💜

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starryalpacasstuff · 9 months ago

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Indian BL? FROM 2017????

There's an Indian BL from 2017 that I just watched. And I have incoherent thoughts

Before I continue, massive thanks to my bestie @anixknowsnothin for telling me about this show and proofreading the post for me. You don't even watch bl so I have no idea how you found this, but I'm incredibly grateful nonetheless

Here's the link to where I watched the show from, there's a glitch in the first episode subs where the subs seem to be from another show entirely, but it's only for the first ep and about 50% of the dialogue is in English anyways, so it shouldn't be hard to follow.(My ask box is also always open if there's a specific dialogue/scene in Hindi that you want the translation of)

Edit: The link seems to be region locked, so to watch it you can use a vpn and set your region to India, otherwise the episodes are available on youtube, albeit without subs

Note:- this post is going to have a few mild spoilers throughout, but I'll flag major spoilers in red

It's no secret that India is fairly behind when it comes to queer love shows if we compare it to other Asian countries. While it has a handful of great queer shows and movies, it's still quite a small quantity. Additionally, before this, I'd never watched an Indian show that felt like I was watching a bl (if you have recs, please send them my way!!). I'm not going to get into the technicalities of what feels like a bl and doesn't, because honestly, I'm not completely sure myself. For now, I'm just going based off of vibes and feelings, and this show felt like a bl through and through.

Titled 'Romil and Jugal' after its main characters, the story is a modern, desi, bl remake of the classic story...

Romeo and Juliet

Well, Bad Buddy was the first Thai bl I ever watched, so Romil and Jugal being the first Indian BL I watched just feels right, no?

I didn't actually know that the story was based off of Romeo and Juliet till the second episode, because I didn't bother looking for a synopsis, and jumped right in. However, it's links to Romeo and Juliet quickly became apparent, around the same time I started to see similarities between this show and Bad Buddy. I also did not know that this show came out in 2017 before I googled it, having already watched the entire thing, which was a pretty huge shock, because this BL is progressive by 2024 India standards.

Alright, enough of my rambling. Here's a synopsis of the show in case you haven't heard of it. (I couldn't find an official one, so I did my best to write a spoiler free synopsis)

Ramya happens to start talking to a slightly older woman at an airport, who believes that there is no romance in the younger generation. To prove her wrong, Ramya decides to tell the older woman her brother's love story. The story from the past is shown to us as Ramya narrates it to the woman in the present. Jugal is a closeted 19-year-old who lives with his parents. One day, a family moves into the house next door, and Jugal immediately falls for the son, Romil. The two of them attend the same college, and eventually become friends. The two of them eventually get together, but have to face the challenges of a homophobic society and having parents that hate each other.

I was a little skeptical of the show going in, but the show surpassed all of my expectations in the best way possible. It's no masterpiece, and it has its flaws, but it was far better than what I expected. It had both comical elements and darker themes, and it did not shy away from exploring the darker themes at all. Oh, and it has a few musical numbers. What did you expect? This is India after all.

The show is 10 episodes long, with 20 minutes per episode, and so it does unfortunately fall into some of the pitfalls that shorter shows tend to fall into, namely underdeveloped relationships and rushed endings. I did end up feeling a little bit like it didn't make sense for the pair to sacrifice and suffer as much as they did because they hadn't known each other for very long, and I felt like they should have been given more time to fall in love with each other. But it also could be argued that the show stays true to the play, and Romil and Jugal are dumb teenagers who make mistakes and stick with each other through them. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.

One thing that I loved the show for was that it showed us that the relationship is not all sunshine and rainbows. They argue, they break up, they get back together, and they do argue even after that. But every time, they eventually work through the issue and reconcile. The show even depicts Romil dealing with internalized homophobia and struggling to reconcile with the fact that he will never be who his family wants him to be. Although I do wish they'd have had more time to explore this, I'd say it was decently depicted and handled. The show really delves into how children are forced to uphold their family's wishes and are constantly put under pressure to make them proud. Although it clearly affects both of them, it's more obvious with Romil, who is expected by his family to date and marry the daughter of his father's boss, whom they think he is dating. There's a metaphor along this theme too, where Romil pretends to like the mango shake that his mom has been making for him since he was a kid, even though he hates it, and when he tries to tell her, he has to act like it was a joke to spare her feelings. The show also goes into the communal mindset of basing your actions off "what will people think?", and you can see how a lot of the characters' actions throughout the show are haunted by this question. Some of Romil and Jugal's earlier disagreements are due to this very mindset.

The show also very candidly depicts the extreme homophobia of society in India. Romil and Jugal had to constantly hide who they were, always having to keep up a mask and I felt that reach somewhere deep inside me. When the pair come out, the show really shows how ugly homophobia can be in India. Their parents immediately disown them. They're mocked in college and wrongfully suspended for a fight that was provoked by other students. Very, very few people stand with them, and the pair very quickly realize that now that they are out, they simply cannot live in the city anymore. So with the help of Jugal's best friend and her mother, they flee to Mumbai, where they get jobs and live as paying guests with a friend of the aforementioned mother. But, even in Mumbai, the masks stay up. They have to act like cousins, for fear of being persecuted. The series depicted the worst-case scenario that so many of us live in fear of, so watching it was something of a cathartic experience for me.

Another thing that the show did quite well is showing how different people and their mindsets can be. Jugal's best friend, Ahalya, and her mom are very supportive, and they help the pair out quite a bit. Ahalya's mother provided a safe house for the pair and helped them find a fresh start. Meanwhile, Romil and Jugal's parents are incredibly homophobic. There was a scene that really stuck with me, (mild spoiler ahead, skip to the last sentence of the paragraph) where Ahalya's mother came across Jugal's mother, who prided herself on being educated and well-read, searching up how to cure homosexuality. Ahalya's mother then tells her off for calling herself educated yet believing that homosexuality is an illness. It is so important to me that the show depicted both the violent homophobia that permeates Indian society and the surprising, warm acceptance that one can find.

One final thing that I loved about this show so, so much is just how authentically Indian it feels. Asian cultures share a lot in common, but they also have their differences, so seeing a show where I can imagine encountering the characters in real life is really amazing. Rather than something big, it was little things sprinkled throughout the story that warmed my heart. The story felt like something I could hear the local aunties gossiping about. The way it depicts queerness in India hits incredibly close to home.

One thing I've learned watching Asian bls is that the ending of a show can make it or break it, but with this one, I'm stuck. The best way I can describe the ending is absolutely insane and incredibly Bollywood.

I believe this show was supposed to get a second season because the last two minutes of the show leave us with a massive cliffhanger. Now, it's been 7 years, so a second season is unlikely, so I'm simply pretending that the last two minutes of the show never happened. But the ending has so much more to it than just this (Major spoilers for the ending up ahead. I mean it when I say major, this is like going into Bad Buddy knowing that they're going to trick their parents in the end).

About halfway through the show, I remembered what play it was based upon and realized that there was a very real possibility that Romil and Jugal would die. The first half of the last episode leads up to this, telling us that they died when reconciling after an argument in the middle of the road when they were hit by a truck. We get a super emotional scene (yes, I cried) where the two families somewhat reconcile in their grief as they go to the police station to identify the bodies. Except... they're not dead, which is revealed when Romil's father hugs Romil's (not) dead body. They reveal that they planned this to show their family that they still loved their sons. I did say it was like PatPran tricking their parents in the end, didn't I? So the families reunite, Romil and Jugal get jobs in New Zealand and get married, and return to India for a wedding celebration (yes, I cried. again). The ending does feel slightly rushed, but if I'm being honest, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Believing that your child is dead for a bit is a somewhat justifiable reason for a sudden change of heart. There's a part where Romil and Jugal tell their parents that if they choose acceptance, they can reconcile, but if they choose to remain prejudiced, Romil and Jugal can simply get back on the stretchers, because they'll be as good as dead to their families anyways and it is *chef's kiss*.

All in all, the show was surprisingly heartfelt and poignant. It had me laughing, kicking my feet and even crying. There's a lot more about this show that I could talk about, but I'm going to stop here for now, and I'll try to write more on it later. This show really does deserve more recognition than it has, and I'm almost mad at myself for not knowing about it before. Am I being really biased when talking about this show? Absolutely. But I do think that this show is a worthwhile watch, and I'd really like to see what other people on here think of the show, especially because I'm aware that I am biased towards this show.

I'm tagging a few people who I know might be interested/have some thoughts about the show because this is a show that I really want to hear other people's opinions on and have conversations about, so I hope you guys don't mind!

@waitmyturtles @lurkingshan @bengiyo @neuroticbookworm

#good lord this post is almost 2k words #i think this is the longest post i have ever written #and there's more thoughts rattling around in my brain about this show #did i convince you to watch the show?#please say yes #i need people to talk to about this show #bl recs #indian bl #indian bl recs #romil and jugal #romil & jugal #bad buddy #i mean it's related #how does everything i write about somehow find it's way to that goddam show #but seriously romil and jugal was surprisingly very good #i did not expect it at all #but i have never been so glad to be proven wrong #queer indian media

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sunshine-and-christmas-caryls · 3 months ago

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My thoughts on The Umbrella Academy’s season 4 Love Triangle. Spoilers below!

Please Note:

This is ridiculously long and consists of my thoughts and interpretations of the characters and their motivations/ feelings based on what we got to see from the show. They aren’t necessarily right or wrong for the characters- they are literally just my interpretations and likes and dislikes with how they handled the love triangle in this season of the Umbrella Academy.

I do not want to get in debates or arguments about the merits of either couple, if the storyline should have been included in the first place, of what is in or out of character, or about who is endgame, or anything else. If you agree with my opinions cool; if you disagree with them cool; if you want to share those thoughts or have a conversation about it, also cool.

But please skip this post if you’re just looking for a fight. This was more for me to organize my thoughts on them, and share for others who found Five and Lila as a couple unexpectedly (for me at least) engaging.

Other Things to Note that I don’t really get into in the main body of this:

-I think there are a hell of a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies, and some poor dialogue scripting in season 4. Some of which really, really bother me. But I think the storylines and plots had potential as concepts and could have been done so much better had there been more money & care to make more episodes. (Some of the concepts would probably have needed much more time than a full season to really be done well though...)

Overall, I didn’t hate season 4 so much as I was kind of underwhelmed and a little disappointed by it. [But if we’re being honest, while I like TUA overall, I do think each season was at least a little bit worse as a whole than the previous one anyway, despite there being good and/or great parts to every season too…]

-I did feel like most of the characters were a little off compared to how they acted in previous seasons. However I don’t know if that had more to do with:

a) lazy and/ or rushed writing, or

b) the plot/ time skip

I am one of those who thinks Five actually is a little calmer in nature, but a lot more manic the more stressful and pressing the situation gets. However he doesn’t have a lot of the same smugness and sarcasm that I was expecting either. Diego doesn’t have the same kind of determined motivation he shows in previous seasons, and Lila is a little less chaotic even if there are still a few hints at it.

Now part of that, I think, is due to the 6 years time difference and the characters growth that we missed during that. Especially considering their new circumstances: Diego and Lila being parents and Five, for the first time since he first time traveled to the future, was not in the middle of (nor actively trying to stop) an apocalypse. Plus ALL the characters had adjustments to make in being without their powers.

Part of it, I’m assuming, is also because of the shortened episode count leading to a poorer script overall. And I’m hoping that had we got a full season we would have been able to see a little more of their previous characterization come through too.

-My opinion about Five’s sexuality since that seems to be a topic of conversation for some who felt he was OOC in that regards:

To be honest I don’t really have a clear idea of it, other than he is absolutely not aromantic, in my opinion. I can respect your opinion if you do/did and were disappointed, but he thought up a wife for himself when he was alone- not friends or a substitute of his family. To me that just means he’s a big romantic at heart.

Whether he’s asexual, Demi-sexual, bi/pan or straight otherwise, I honestly have no clue. I think I gravitate towards him needing an emotional connection for him to have a fulfilling relationship in the show. But I think I saw somewhere that he got around a lot in the comics, and I could see that too if that’s the unspoken assumption they were using.

Side note on Dolores: I thought 5’s romance with her was a great addition to 5’s personal story and as a way to show the basic human nature of needing others, but I’m also kind of glad that she didn’t actually become real, because at the end of the day, she was a delusion of his, and I don’t really want to see that story. (Just my opinion; no harm meant to others who would have liked that plot.)

-Sometime around the middle of season 3, I actually remember thinking that if Aiden/ 5 had been older or Ritu/ Lila younger, I would have shipped the shit out of the characters because of their symmetry and contrasts. However, I also immediately dismissed the thought because the physical age gap IS a little weird for me. I didn’t read their scenes as necessarily romantic or sexual, so much so as they could have been if they were of the same age (at least for me).

In universe, I took it as the characters being kind of fascinated by each other, both getting enjoyment out of goading and poking at one another, but there wasn’t really genuine interest in pursuing each other either. (In hindsight of season 4, though I suppose it was really laying the groundwork for what would eventually turn romantic.)

I thought the writers were going to make Five and Lila the “platonic besties who, to a stranger, looked like they were a couple but really weren’t” and Diego and Lila were going to be the “contentious and passionate couple who argued as much as they loved”.

After season 4 though, I adjusted my thinking, and that’s kind of the basis around my opinions in the main body below.

****************

By the end of season 3, I thought Diego and Lila might have been the best relationship that was still on going. Despite that, I couldn’t bring myself to ship it either. They were never True Love/ OTP material for my tastes, because while they certainly had passion, they lacked the kind of emotional connection that would draw me in. (Don’t ask me what that is specifically because most of the time I have no idea what makes me ship one couple over another…) So, even though I think it had the most development, I also was just not attached to them as a couple.

And maybe my apathy towards them as a couple is making me biased, but Diego and Lila being unhappy with each other and their domestic life made sense to me. It was surprising, because I thought they were going to make them a “happy violent” couple, (or at least something more along the lines of what the rest of the fandom had expected) but not truly shocking either.

Diego and Lila had only known each other for about four months by the time season 3 ended. And again their actual romantic scenes mostly take place during the few days we see on screen in season 2. It might not have been as quick as a “love at first sight” arc, but it was definitely a whirlwind romance.

Also, Lila grew up under the Handler and was primed from the start to be her weapon. So, I think Lila being around Diego for months (I’m working with the assumption that she was in the institute nearly as long, if not longer than Diego) would naturally lead to her becoming infatuated with him.

After all, Diego is a handsome, good, & maybe a little bit goofy man who cares about people and justice, and loves his family; and they had a lot of passion/ sexual connotations to their scenes. I feel like he was everything she thought she ever wanted.

And it was much the same for Diego. She was the wild, manic pixie girl of his dreams whose personal brand of crazy drove him mad as well. He’s got childhood trauma, too, which he relates to with her, and I think in the beginning he kind of viewed her as both damsel in distress and partner in crime, which would appeal to his need to be a hero and his desire to not be alone.

(I’ve always thought of Diego as the most insecure of the siblings, and his need to be THE hero- not just any hero but the main star of the show kind of hero- was the way he hid from his inner insecurities and desire to fit in and be noticed.)

Season 2 was essentially Diego and Lila falling for each other despite being on opposing sides; and it’s clear that both had strong feelings for each other. Season 3 picks up immediately after and is also only a few days long. The main plot point for Diego and Lila’s relationship in this season, was essentially them deciding to give their relationship a go and establishing them as soon to be parents.

Season 3 also continues some precedents that were set in season 2, and continue in season 4. (Lila lying, Diego not noticing or misunderstanding a part of her character, Five and Lila having a side adventure/ arc on their own, and Diego noticing Lila was around Five.)

Now there are obviously more details and nuances to both seasons- showing Diego and Lila both feeling like they can open up to each other a bit more than they felt they could with others, showing their desire for a family, and to be better than their parents, establishing the fear of failure in that regards (at least for Lila) etc.

And while It might not have been my ship, I don’t want to diminish their bond either. Diego and Lila obviously had a connection and cared a great deal about each other, and were probably happy and in love for a while too. But none of that changes that fact that Diego and Lila had a whirlwind romance built amidst lies and high stakes, end-of-the-world stress, on top of an unplanned pregnancy, all within only knowing each other for 4 months at most.

And in light of that, it’s not actually surprising that when the dust settled and things were calmer, the cracks in their foundation were visible. I think they were both swept up in their connection to each other and their dreams of having a family and life better than what they had, that they never saw that maybe they weren’t quite right for each other, maybe they each needed something a little different than what the other could offer.

It’s clear in the first episode that they are not in the best of places as individuals nor as a couple. Diego hates his job and is constantly complaining about his life. He’s a bit suspicious of Lila and her whereabouts but also seems to miss, or at least underestimate, how hard things are on Lila.

Lila is visibly and verbally struggling with her role as a mother, as being too tied to that identity, and is sneaking out of the house to do undercover work and lying about it to her husband. She’s constantly badgered with Diego complaining, but also kind of fails to acknowledge that his motivation for doing a job he hates is to provide for their family.

Neither of them are truly happy with the way their lives turned out. And I think a large part of that was because they tried to change themselves to fit the mold of what they thought they should be in their dreams of a family, rather than finding a balance of being themselves with and as a family.

But there’s a disconnect between them as a couple too. From their scenes in episode 1-4, I got the impression that Diego, while clueless to Lila’s unhappiness/ struggles, nonetheless still had feelings for her because he was still trying to show off to her (the chef had the wrong technique, throwing the axes blind, holding her whilst convincing her to go on the road trip, etc.).

I got the impression that for Lila it was the opposite. She still loved him as a person and a father to her children, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel the same way she did in the previous seasons either. Every overture he made, even if it wasn’t exactly the most romantic, she met with annoyance or disdain. And while she might have laughed at him previously, she also defended him too. This season she was the one poking at him the most without defending him really at all.

Had she never got lost on that subway with Five, maybe they would have been able to work it out and it really was just a slump for them, one of the lower points in the ups and downs that every couple experiences. But (in my opinion at least) her annoyance in Diego’s attempts at reaching out and the fact that after six years she still felt the need to lie to him rather than talk about her unhappiness were more a sign that the romantic love was gone for Lila. That after the initial whirlwind romance and honeymoon period, she wasn’t quite in love with him anymore; at least, not in the “you’re my forever person” kind of way.

But I think she’s stubborn, and she so wanted a family with him, that it kept her from saying anything about what she was going through for so long. And I think Diego was totally oblivious to this in the face of his own struggles with domesticity, but I also think that maybe he was a little less in love than he thought too?

I’m of mixed opinions on this, but it felt a little weird to me that he was more upset- at least in the moment- that she went undercover than that she had potentially cheated. It could just be that in the moment he was so upset to be left out of the action that he wasn’t really thinking about how much bigger of an issue it would be had she cheated. (Or maybe cheating just isn’t as big a deal to him as it would be to me? Like I said I don’t have a good read on this…)

But I could also see it as potentially showing him having settled into his choice in loving her forever rather than truly feeling- without falter- like she was his forever person. Either way he definitely still has feelings for her, and that’s what made me so much more sad for Diego.

Especially because, in the end, it was his brother that it happened with. I feel like her choosing to save Five at the Mexican Consulate in season 2 instead of him has always sat in the back of his mind, and that’s why he’s always noticed when they are together. Of course he went through the realization that she had first used him to get close to/ watch Five, but when she came back to bring him into the Commission he knew she had genuine feelings for him too, and I don’t really think he questioned it much after that.

But it’s something that I think stayed with him, lurking in his subconscious. Knowing that when he was on a metaphorical ledge and first reached out to her for help, she chose Five instead. And that’s why he always noticed when Lila and Five were together.

Also, I think the first two greenhouse scenes spoke volumes about both (though indirectly for Diego & Lila’s) relationships. It was mentioned at least twice in season 3 that Lila’s worried about not being cut out for a maternal, domestic role, and her struggles in the beginning of season 4 probably felt like confirmation of that to her. But then we see in episode 5 that she can be happy in a softer domestic role, when she’s with the right person.

I’m 100% aware that it’s different for Lila and Diego with the kids and real world things like mortgage, school, taxes, etc. than it is for Five and Lila who only had each other & whose sole focus is on surviving and getting back to their home. I understand the nuances make a HUGE difference. But at the end of the day, for Lila they are two sucky -albeit very different kinds of sucky- situations with two different men. And she’s happier making do with one than the other.

Which brings me to the Five/ Lila portion of things. I was VERY caught off guard by the fact that the writers/ producers actually went there. As in all the way up to episode 5, I thought the writers were just making hints of Lila/ Five as a red herring, or to highlight Diego’s insecurities. But then I saw the intro to episode 5, and thought oh, they were actually building them up as a potential couple. And the greenhouse scenes sealed it for me- whatever they might say, the writers really went there and let Five and Lila fall in love.

It was both a slightly uncomfortable and a very pleasant surprise. I’m not a big fan of big age gaps, they tend to leave me feeling a little icky, but there have been several ships of mine that it happens with because I feel like it makes sense with their characters and how deep or strong their emotional connection and history is. I don’t really enjoy that aspect, but I won’t deny that there are some stories that I just accept it & move on (notably book canon Braime for me).

Five and Lila is worse simply because Five is in the body of a 13 year old in the first three seasons, and that’s just a firm no all around for me. But his mind was that of a 58 year old and just because he’s had a weird thing happen to him, doesn’t mean that he suddenly can’t think or feel like any other adult does (I’m honestly kind of thankful they did at least wait, because it would have felt wrong to me when he was physically 13, despite knowing he was much older mentally).

It also helps that that kind of mentally older, physically younger character at some point take on “vampire rules” for me (as in the contrast between mental and physical age of some vampire/ immortal/ supernatural character and their human love interest is so absurd and abstract that it somehow cancels out for me).

And by the time there’s any kind of romantically intimate scenes between the two, Five is 25/26. And even though it’s heavily implied they slept together, all that’s actually shown are a couple of fairly tame kisses.

Furthermore, they’re both mentally adults, and had it ever reset to a timeline without any time travel involved, Lila and Five would probably be the same age (all the super power kids were born on the same day after all). So it’s really not that big of an issue when they actually do get together.

The other aspect that makes me a little uncomfortable about Five and Lila is of course, Diego and Lila’s relationship. I already mentioned that it wasn’t necessarily something I personally shipped, but it was the relationship I think the audience members were most familiar with, and them having a family and still technically being together, made it a little sad to see Five and Lila happy with each other.

I would have personally preferred the writers completely dissolve the Diego/ Lila relationship before actually having Five/ Lila get together, because I’m not a huge fan of cheating storylines, especially when there’s kids involved.

I also feel like they could have hit most of the same emotional beats even if they had let Diego and Lila divorce first? Like it still would have been an emotionally charged reveal scene at the house if Diego had something along the lines of “that was my wife, we only divorced a week ago” or “you’re my brother and she was my wife, what the hell!?”. But I actually think the writers were trying to leave the “end game” couple up to interpretation, which felt too much like a cop out to me.

I think most audience members just needed more screen time of all three & that would have helped quell some of the hate Five & Lila get. We needed more time to see how Diego and Lila’s romance fizzled and died out, and more time to feel the weight of the 6.5 years on the subway building to Five and Lila’s romance.

I think it would have been better received if they had a fourth, fifth, and side season, or made this fourth season extra long (like 12-16 episodes) with a split release (first in August, and the latter half of the episodes during Christmas time) with a mini or side season (or even a movie) of just Five and Lila’s subway adventures. Kind of like how they did a Queen Charlotte story between seasons of Bridgerton.

There would always be some who refused to like it because of the age gap, or because they just prefer Diego/Lila or Five & Lila as purely platonic; but I think more time would have helped shorten the list of haters at least a little (and given the writers an opportunity to work the kinks out of more of the storylines in general).

Like I said earlier I’m not a big fan of the cheating aspect of their relationship, but I also don’t entirely think it’s fair the way so many people seem to view it as Five “letting Lila betray his brother with him” or “Five not caring about his brother is so OOC. He’d never betray Diego just to fuck”.. Because from what I watched, that’s not what happened at all??

Putting aside the “letting her cheat” (because they’re all grown ass adults and no one is responsible for someone else’s actions) I don’t get how people don’t see the love that grew between Five and Lila. Lila might be saying verbally that it was “only survival” and that “it’s over”, but her actions, expressions, and tones all scream love and care and affection.

I think Lila was a little confused when she gets back, but it’s also very obvious that she loves Five in the same way it was obvious in season 2 that Lila was downplaying her interest and affection/ love for Diego when she said “nah” to killing him like the Handler suggested.

And it’s the same for Five. If it had only been a physical or lonely thing, I don’t really think it would have happened. It’s because it was Lila, who is so similar and so opposite him in equal measure that he fell in love with her. And it’s because he loves her that he would want to pursue a full relationship with her. The fact that they’re human and gave into their feelings rather than uphold moral standards wasn’t that crazy of an idea, especially given the somewhat murky circumstances. It was never about purposefully hurting Diego or not caring about him.

Them getting together was two damaged people put in extraordinary circumstances with only each other to rely on for years, without any knowledge of how long they would be alone, surviving through hardships and growing in love. Or at least, that’s how I interpreted their relationship from what we got to see.

None of that felt out of character for either of them to me. Everything through the first two greenhouse scenes (minus a few dialogue/ scripting issues) felt pretty in character to me, all things considered. What did feel wrong and out of character for me was Five hiding the journal for months and him saying he wants to kill Diego and physically fighting him, while the rest of their family fought the Bennifer Blob monster.

I get wanting to show Five struggling with the decision to prioritize the world because for the first time he’s actually experienced love and happiness with a real person; plus they already started him on the do “not save the world” mindset last season. But they could have executed that in a much better way than having him find and hide a cypher book that would take them back home.

[Hell, even within the scene, he could have found it sometime that same morning or within the past couple of days and it would change literally nothing about their argument except the length of time he’s had the journal- because his actions are literally never addressed!]

But while it could just be an expansion of him not wanting to lose the happiness he found, and faltering in his steadfast determinedness to do right by the world and be with his family, it still feels off to his character for me. (Obviously the writers disagree with my interpretation of his character though.)

For me, even though he would grapple with the decision, Five would, in the end at least, still have chosen to go back to save his family & the world because that is so central to him as character. What I think they should have done was have him find it right after or before her gifting him the instant coffee. Have him open the conversation that he found it and Lila being so excited that she initially missed his internal conflict.

It could pan to her realizing what it means to go back, and them having a short talk about it. Lila could say they have to go back because of her kids, they have to go back to save their family. And Five could say he knows but he was happy there with her, and a part of him didn’t want to leave. She could have said she was happy too, but flinched when he went to hold her hand and that could have prompted the start of the argument.

The argument itself could still keep to the core of what it was in the show with only a few dialogue changes, and it would hit all the same emotional tones of the scene but without feeling like Five’s core motivations as a character were totally flipped on its head. Again, that’s just my opinion on it.

I do feel like Five being jealous and lashing out at Diego a bit during the Christmas reveal was in line with how Five might react in that situation. After all, he gets more sarcastic, testy, and even manic with the more stress he’s under. The bracelet line from Diego should have been reworded though. I’m not sure if it was lazy writing, or if they were rushed and/or overlooking things because of the episode cut, but that felt off.

They could have just as easily had him say, “you hate bracelets now” or “you never wear bracelets anymore” before mentioning the traded Valentine’s bracelet, and it still would have shown the disconnect between Diego and Lila in their relationship. A blanket “you hate bracelets” after we had- for two seasons- seen her wear the one he made that she nabbed in season 2 just felt like poor script writing.

And I would be 100% down for the first initial shoves of their fight had that been as far as it went before Five or Diego said they bigger things to worry about and the other passive-aggressively agreed.

Or better yet, if their confrontation happened after the family escaped to Luthor’s, so that the writers could still have Five run off to the subway without having him & Diego, in a sense and literally by Five, abandoning their family & acting stupid in the midst of battle. Because that felt weird and out of character for both of them to me.

I also very much needed a scene where Five apologizes to Diego at least that he hurt him (but not necessarily for loving Lila) and Diego not necessarily forgiving Five, but at least acknowledging him before they died. Because letting things be so unresolved between them and then erasing them from existence was cruel.

All that being said, I very much loved Five and Lila’s relationship with each other. Their dynamic outside of the actual storyline is the perfect mix of enemies to lovers and two broken souls finding solace in each other. And while I do wish they had changed or tweaked a few things, their story was still rather tragically beautiful.

I also firmly believe that had they all survived, Five & Lila probably would have been end game. I think the set up for them was too deep (even if a little too rushed with the episode limit/ being the final season) for Lila to truly be able to go back to Diego. If pushed too much too soon, I think she’d probably try for the sake of the kids. But the unhappiness with each other/ their life together even before the subway time-skip, coupled with the distrust and hurt that comes when a partner cheats, isn’t something I really think Diego and Lila are strong enough as a couple to overcome. And that could have led to even more bitterness and resentment before they finally called it quits.

However, if given enough time, I think Lila would have pulled back from both of them for a bit to figure out what she wanted and focus on her kids, herself, and any ongoing apocalypse situation if there were still one. I think she would have come to the realization that she loves Diego and would always care for him, but that she was no longer in love with him. That when she pictures the rest of her life, it’s Five she wants beside her.

Maybe she procrastinates a bit on talking about it, because she hates the situation and doesn’t want to hurt either one of them, but eventually they’d sort themselves out. But I also think she and Five would have to have a long conversation about taking her choices from her, especially if it involves her kids, because hiding the book was a fairly big betrayal and not something I think she could totally ignore, like they did in the show. (I personally hated that it was even a part of the story to begin with, but Five hiding the journal really needed to be addressed. I hope it would have been if the had more time.)

& If this was along the lines of what they were going to do with the plot if they were to get another season or two, I hope the writers would have used this to let Diego spiral a bit, before confronting his underlying insecurities and moving past it all. Hopefully with a new love interest at some point that is as perfect as can be for him, because I don’t like him sad and he deserves love and a happily ever after too.

On a side note, one thing that I thought was cute & slightly amusing out of context, but firmly believe should have been left on the cutting room floor was the entirety of the van/ “You’re family needs you; I need you” scene. And I know they kept it in to push the uncertainty of the Five/ Lila and Diego/ Lila relationships, but this was too obviously a plot device for the love triangle that just wasn’t believable for me narratively speaking.

Because with Allison’s new powers, Klaus’ ability to raise ghosts that were corporeal, & Diego’s telekinesis with redirecting multiple bullets, what do you mean there were too many enemies for them to handle? And how am I supposed to believe that in the past seven years, Five, who was canonically shot at and chased, never took the time to practice and remaster his blinking abilities?

Especially since they established in episode 4, and earlier in episode 6 when he and Lila returned to the house, that he could apparently- and accurately- time travel over large stretches of time without any issues/ struggles. Not to mention that mere minutes later inside the department store, he’s able blink to the second floor without any problem?

Whatever issues or enjoyment I had with the way they had Five and Lila and Diego’s story unfold, most of it just came down to personal preference, tweaking the script, and needing more episodes. But this scene in particular just felt silly and pointless to me. They could have had Lila say “I need you” in a show of concern, or physically reaching out to Five instead of Diego; only to say the “it’s over” line a few scenes later and it still would have pushed the “who does she choose” narrative. But the fact that the love triangle never gets truly resolved either, makes all of it fall flat, in my opinion. (I thought on first watch that the “it’s over” line was just about the fight and misunderstood by Five, but it could have been about their relationship too. And now we’ll probably never know for sure because they didn’t resolve anything in any of their relationships to each other 😢)

All that being said though, this is a slightly whacky show about very messed up people, who do very messy things all the time- I shouldn’t be surprised they went for the messiest option for how to handle this love triangle…

#fivela #five x lila #tua spoilers #TUA season 4 spoilers #my thoughts on the TUA season 4 love triangle #reminder- these are just my thoughts and opinions on what happened

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twentydaysofmay · 8 months ago

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So at first, this was a reblog of a different post, but I am now making it an original one for greater reach. Be warned that it's going to be quite long.

So, we all know and love the promotional comics of our Wii boxers, like this one about Glass Joe:

You might have never questioned its origin, and neither did I when I first encountered it a year ago. I just assumed that Nintendo officially published it in a guide, because that's what every source about them that I've read was implying.

But then I learnt that these translations aren't official at all. They were apparently done by the Tumblr user @boink-the-joiner in 2013, whose blog seems to be unfortunately deleted.

And then I was informed of the existence of this image by my friend @fan-mans (Charlie):

He said he originally found it on Tumblr, though he didn't give me the link to where he got it from. (It happens to be included at the very start of this post.)

But this supposed "original version" seemed fishy to me for several reasons:

If this is the "original" Japanese version, and no "official" English one exists that was published alongside it, why are the sound effects written in the Latin alphabet?

Why is the authorship at the bottom in English? And isn't that the exact same font as in the well-known English version?

Why is it read left-to-right? Shouldn't it be flipped from the English version? Wouldn't it make more sense for Mac to punch him with his right arm and for Joe's hair to be more often on his right side than the left, and to first put on the left boxing glove, and hold the coffee cup in his right hand?

Why is there a red rectangle in the middle right?

Charlie said that all of this was because Nintendo was catering to an American audience, but never actually published the guide outside of Japan. (Apart from the red rectangle, which was apparently a part of the website that image originally came from, but he didn't have a link to that either.) I didn't believe it at first, because it just seemed like an incredibly stupid pair of decisions to me.

But today, I found this webpage. It's a blog post talking about strategy books for Nintendo games, and includes this image:

This is it! This is proof that Nintendo printed the comic to be read left to right in the original Japanese version!

There was that little bit of doubt in my mind though. What if the copy that shows the actual pages of the comic is in English? The quality is so low...

...but the kana here are clear enough.

That isn't the end of the story. Shortly afterwards, I came across this webpage:

THIS IS THE ORIGIN OF THAT JAPANESE VERSION OF THE JOE COMIC ABOVE! The red rectangle was, indeed, holding up a textbox.

Anyway, the full website can be found here, and includes a few other materials, such as this part of a guide on Title Defense Von Kaiser:

Sadly, the website only includes Joe's comic, and I haven't found the original Japanese versions of anyone else online, so currently, you'd have to own the guide to know what they look like.

Also, out of curiosity, I decided to use the Wayback Machine to see if the site has ever been modified, but it just wasn't archived there at all. Not even a single snapshot. So I went ahead and preserved what it currently looks like.

The website itself seems to belong to the company that published the guide, Enterbrain, a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing, which is a part of the Kadokawa Corporation. The names "Ebten" and "Famitsu" seem to be related to it as well, but I have yet to figure out exactly how. The full Japanese title of the book is パンチアウト！！完全クリアーガイドブック, and its ISBN is 978-4-7577-5067-8. At least according to these listings.

Not all questions about the comics have been answered. For instance, we still aren't quite sure why Nintendo (or Enterbrain, anyway) decided to flip them. And our translator Boink had to have the copies of all of the Japanese comics, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to translate them! What if they are reachable somewhere else, and we can ask them if they still have the original scans?

More information might come as I (and hopefully others) research more.

#glass joe #punch out #punch out!!#punch out wii #icosameron

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thecoffeelorian · 15 days ago

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Fandom Friday, 11/15: Fanart!

Hello again, everyone…and welcome to another installment of Fandom Friday, the two-post series where I go off to find new and interesting fanworks that might need a bit more visibility.

Before we get started, however...let me just open this with a little bit of positivity, because I know for a fact that we're ALL going to need it for a very, very long time...so. Let's all take a collective breath in...hold it for five seconds...and exhale. Take another deep breath in...hold it for five seconds...and exhale.

Feeling relaxed now...? Great. Here are my picks of the week.

THE CLONE WARS

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @lonelyredfox:

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @secretly-a-trekkie:

THE BAD BATCH

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @therainjumper:

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @m00ntunaart:

THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY

Original Trilogy Fanart---By @instarwars:

STAR WARS REBELS

Star Wars Rebels Fanart--By @starwarsrebelsrant:

THE MANDALORIAN

The Mandalorian Fanart--By @mythosaursarecool:

The Mandalorian Fanart--By @popolonium0227:

AHSOKA

Ahsoka Fanart--By @welcometocaritas-creations:

In conclusion, as part of my mission to poke around the Star Wars fandom and, on Friday every two weeks, highlight those artists who might otherwise go unnoticed…I hope you will check out the links I have included for yourselves and like, comment on, and reblog them, as well as also giving the artists a few more followers to their Tumblr pages.

Please also like and reblog this latest installment so that these links can be spread around to as many other fans as possible, just in case not all of them can tune in at the same time.

An additional thank you goes to @djarrex for making the divider I used earlier in this post, but still want to give credit for.

And finally, so that I do not forget…this post will be continued in its second half: the Fanfiction Edition.

Thank you, stay safe, and I’ll see you in the next post!

No Pressure Tags: @melymigo @algo-o-nada @theosb0rnway @everybirdfellsilent @skellymom

@leos-multifandom-corner @maggie-dylan @leenabb104104 @gun-roswell @tazmbc1

@bluedeedeedoop @its-time-to-rise-above @tlmtwelve and anybody else who might be on the lookout for new SW fanart.

#star wars #starwarsblr #fandom friday #star wars fanart #the clone wars #the bad batch #the original trilogy #star wars rebels #the mandalorian #ahsoka #the clone wars fanart #the bad batch fanart #the original trilogy fanart #star wars rebels fanart #the mandalorian fanart #ahsoka fanart #let's be careful out there

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ghostlyvoidbones · 13 days ago

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Haha, so I did a thing.

Story time!: I had a rough go of it this month and I've been over hyperfixating on Sonic to help cope. Working on my personal project was getting too much because I didn't have the energy to put thought and care into the thing. One thing I'd do is listen to to sonic related videos while I drew- y'know, keep it relevant and keep the mood going. One thing led to another, I listen to a Sonichu comic reading and a Project SNT Sonichu redesign video and here we are.

My brain pretty much went "wow, drawing is relaxing, and redesigning character's I have no attachment to and need literally no brain cells to use for it. A perfect combo!" So in a stress induced haze, I knocked out like 13 Sonichu characters as a distraction from everything around me. I figured I'd share them all here cause they'd just be abandoned in one of my folders otherwise- and I won't lie, I actually had quite a bit of fun working on these redesigns

<note: obv. I own none of these characters. This also is not intended to make fun of or offend anyone. I saw other artists doing this and thought it would be a silly little pass time, so no griping in the notes please>

Literally this one- this b*tch is the one that started it all. These were fun to draw mainly because I could just go crazy with the designs and the results often gave me a good little giggle.

She made me need to think a little bit because I could not figure out a satisfying color palette.

THIS- THIS A**HOLE. The fact I had to redraw this guy four times. Still not happy with how he looks but I’m not going through that again.

This drawing was interesting to figure out because it made me realize that Punchy is literally just Knuckles but… y’know. Also I want everyone to see the little tail I gave him. It’s so important to me you see his silly little Pikachu tail. It was a spur of the moment idea and I love it.

And this is the last one tumblr will let me post due to the max photo limit. I'll have a few more posts with the rest. (Also she came out really cute and I'm very happy with the results).

pt. 1/3 of the Sonichu redesigns.

NEXT>>

#fanart #my art #sonic fanart #sonic #drawing #sonichu

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whispangleblogger · 1 year ago

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I am not somebody that hops onto the "comic discourse" a lot. I usually prefer to talk things through with my friends and share opinions in private.

But since Tangle more or less got ignored so far i take the chance and talk a bit about her appearance in 64

She jumps in as a supportive character towards Whisper and helps her to prevent another breakdown. While yes, there was a scene in Urban Warfare that did the exact same thing, i feel like with issue 64 we finally see how strong of an impact this support actually has on the page. (I talk a bit more about Urban Warfare further down this post.) I don't even dare and call this bait (Edit: Not my words btw. i saw this used in another heated post. I personally never felt baited in any form. If anything, the girls relationship is one big highlight in these comics.) because it simply isn't. Here is a character that cares for her partner and also is uncomfortable with the whole situation to begin with. She has to decide where her priorities lie. Her reaction is to be expected to be focused on a trembling Whisper and all i can say is i'm glad we finally have a good depiction of that.

Tangle has the right to approach Whisper in ways i think no other character is able to, she earned it and it pretty much shows on this page. Softly taking down Whisper's mask and checking on her, the body language in these panels is chefs kiss. She's truly a bouncy girl, but it's good to see her being serious every now and then, i feel like it's a side of her that people usually tend to ignore. (And i really don't know why that is.) Evan Stanley does always an amazing job if it comes to showing Tangle in a different light or how she cares about her friends and loved ones. In regards about the current arc and even the last one, i feel like this post is a good chance to add my personal take to it as well, since it's been on my mind for a good while now. I feel like 64 finally makes a step into the right direction again.

To elaborate a little on that, i wasn't really a big fan of Urban Warfare, simply for the fact that it's pacing is all over the place. There were a lot of things that needed to be covered, to name a few: - new team building - Whisper's trauma - Lanolin introduced as a new character - a LOT of other teams jumping into the scene - the city itself all squeezed into a 5 book arc. One more book compared to a mini series that usually gives full focus to a set of chosen characters.

To make this clear, there are also good things in Urban Warfare as well but thanks to the fact how rushed the whole story felt in it's core it's a bit hard to enjoy the good bits as well...

Misadventures still deals with the same pacing problem and i believe that is where the real issue lies. As a reader/collector of the books and longtime fan of them, all i can say is:

I wish the comics would get their old, well cared, time for details back. Yes, a story like the Metal Virus was a long run but in the end it was a fantastic read. Mini arcs like Trial by Fire (Still one of my favorites), that focus on other things instead of the usual action, are also very important for character development and add a lot of depth to them. Endless Summer is a great example for such addition as well. These books provide insight into character interaction we usually don't see otherwise. Of course i have no idea how much SEGA is involved into everything if it comes to general decisions like how long one arc is supposed to last and when the next one should start.

(The next part is based on my personal taste, this has nothing to do with the general narrative of the books. I just want to share my thoughts about this since i really don't write them down a lot.)

As a little side note, i feel like Lanolin is a great character so far. Her stubborn and rule book like demeanor as a leader is refreshing to say the least. She also seems to be really close to how her creator ABT imagines her to be and i really appreciate that. But i can't help it and feel like her team dynamic with Tangle and Whisper comes of as rather… rocky ? On a combat level of things it works really good but on a friendship level it's somehow lacking atm. There is this boss and coworker relationship going on that feels more like real work. Obviously though she's new and needs more time to get better established. I guess we will see how this plays out in the future. I'm all in for a good or funny team dynamic but i also can't help it and feel like she works better as an addition to Jewel, running the restoration, the navigator typ that sends intel via com instead of a field combatant. Even if she proved she's good at close combat as well during her encounter with Whisper in 64. That being said, i am all open for surprises and more character development on her part. This is really just a "now" opinion and can easily change over time. I like the sheep, i really do.

#IDW Sonic #Whisper the Wolf #Tangle the Lemur #Whispangle #Just some thoughts i wanted to get out of my head #long opinion posts always take forever to write - language barrier demands extra brain juice - cries in german #Thanks to my friends SomethingSonicRelated - Honeydew - DillyWolf and ScurvyPiratehog for looking over this post #providing some additions as well #64 was a good read overall #the Whispangle moment was soft and needed #not adding more details about the issue in general since i still try to keep the theme of the blog as it's focus.#I think the post speaks for itself :>#There are still moments i hold really high and dear to me from the last arc #best example's probably my pinned post heh <3

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the-cu-genswap-au · 1 year ago

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hey hey, welcome to the first official post on this blog!

First order of business: updated refs for the cast! Starting with what I've been calling the "Main Quintet," or just the core cast of kid characters. I'll be posting a couple more of these bios to tide everyone over while I plan out the next comic.

Massive dump of information incoming:

- Ben Krupp takes the main character spot for this AU. Like mainverse Krupp, he's kind of grouchy and impatient and likes to stick to the rules, but there's meant to be a feeling of.... performance to it in this AU. He's had to take on a lot of new responsibilities in the family after losing his dad a few months ago and it's resulted in him feeling like he has to give up his childhood and be Mature™ now. The kid's stressed.

- Despite this, though, he still secretly holds on to his love of the Captain Underpants comics. He sees the fictional hero as a role model of sorts, the kind of person he wants to aspire to be. His attempts to be that kind of person, though, usually tend to fall a little flat....

- Design note: Ben's main color motif is green, but the bits of red are there as a nod to Cap's color motif. Ben may not actually be Cap in this AU, but I still wanted there to be a physical link between the two.

- Jasper Krupp is Ben's younger brother, the middle child of the Krupp family, and the glue that holds this whole group together. Unlike his brother, Jasper is a lot more open and friendly, and a lot more trusting and empathetic. He's a sweet kid, but like his brother, there's a hint of performance to his behavior, too.....

- Design note: the majority of Jasper's character in this AU is based off of my personal headcanons for Jasper, since he's pretty much a blank slate of a character otherwise. Canon is but putty in my hands etc. etc.

- Toilette Ree and his younger brother Lavatore are the new kids in town, having moved from Quebec to Piqua over the summer. It's been.... hard adjusting to the move. The other kids at Jerome Horwitz haven't exactly been making it easy for them, either. But hey, that's why they've got each other!

- Toilette is the more rowdy and confrontational of the two, but mostly when it comes to defending his brother. When he cools off he likes to put on this snarky, cooler-than-you attitude to make himself seem more formidable than his tiny frame would suggest. It.... doesn't really work all that well.

- In his spare time, he has a budding interest in engineering

- Lavatore, by contrast, comes off as the more timid, less aggressive brother, but that's only because he has a tendency to fall back on Toilette whenever the two of them are in trouble. When he's not struggling to survive third grade, Lavatore's actually a pretty nice, chill kid, with a surprising rebellious streak to his personality that comes out whenever he's emboldened enough.

- Design note: Toilette and Lavatore have the same color motifs as Ben and Jasper (green/blue). This is only partially accidental on my part.

- Design note: Toilette's hair curl is essential

- Edith (they never caught her last name) rounds out the core cast as Ben and Jasper's closest (and only) friend. A quiet, painfully shy girl, Edith has a hard time fitting in with the other kids at Jerome Horwitz Elementary, not that she isn't trying. Sometimes she can't help but think that the other kids can just tell that she's different, somehow....

- In her free time, Edith has a huge passion for baking. She likes to share whatever she makes at home with Ben and Jasper, her self-proclaimed biggest fans.

- Design note: Edith's color palette is an inversion of her mainverse counterpart's colors—mainly yellow with red highlights instead of mainly red with yellow highlights

#all there in the manual #(this tag indicates important info regarding the au)#(i chose it because i am a huge autistic nerd for tvtropes)

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ladydeadpoolismyspiritanimal · 2 months ago

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A Community Project to Celebrate a Year of r/OnlyFangsBG3

Hello to our lovely community of darlings, blood bags, and precious little Bhaal babes! As you may remember from last week, your hardworking mod team is in the process of putting together a little project to celebrate our one-year anniversary. We wanted to give ourselves a tiny head start (and, yes, maybe drum up some curiosity!) but we are now ready to announce that…

# We Are Assembling an Astarion Coloring Book!

The community we’ve assembled here is so incredibly talented in such an amazing variety of ways, and we thought this could be a fun way for our creative folks to get to come together and share that talent. ~~And. I mean, yes, *some* of us are slightly sad that we don’t have artistic skill but still want to make pretty pictures of the pretty vampire, *okay??*~~

We are currently looking for visual artists to help us by donating their original line art featuring Astarion, which other members of the sub can then color in whatever media they choose and share with all of us! **If you are willing, please send us your submission no later than September 23, 2024.**

While we are soliciting this art, we will be promoting a selection of charities that Neil publicly supports (more on those in a minute). No money will be going through us at any time, we will only be encouraging you all to donate to the charities directly. If you wish, you can then send us (redacted!!) receipts so that we can get a tally of how much the sub has raised and celebrate our community with some altruism. We won’t be requiring anyone to donate in order to get access to the coloring book, just encouraging donations to those causes on his behalf. At the end of the event, our sub’s birthday (September 30), we will share how much we raised and release a link to the compiled coloring book.

Anyway. That’s what we’re looking to accomplish!

## Requirements

* You are welcome to send us line art from an existing work, or create something new for the event. As long as the art is your own original work, you’re good to go.

* You may create line art by tracing or using filters on your own screenshots. If you use someone else’s screenshot, you must get their permission and credit them appropriately.

* Line art only, please!

* No AI artwork will be accepted.

* Artwork must contain Astarion; otherwise, please feel free to chase your muse. NSFW is fine, solo, M/M, M/F, multiple, the whole tadpole crew, Batstarion, comic panels, whatever floats your boat.

* Feel free to submit as much as you’d like! Depending on the volume of submissions, we may have to narrow things down a bit, but we will make sure that all contributors are represented in the final product.

* Include your name or handle in the bottom left corner. Those posting colored versions of these pages will be required to leave this legible (or rewritten elsewhere on the page) or they will be taken down.

* If you are not a frequent poster on the sub, we may do a bit of extra vetting to try to confirm that the work is your own. Please understand that this is us doing our due diligence to protect artists’ hard work and has nothing to do with you as an individual.

## How to Submit / File Info

If you would like to participate, you may submit your art in a few different ways. You can send an email to [email protected] with the attached image. Or you can send us a [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=r/OnlyFangsbg3) and include a link to your art on Tumblr, Twitter, Imgur, or other platform that your image is hosted on.

As for file types, please submit them as something lossless - so no crunchy jpegs or anything. Types such as PNG, TIFF, SVG (hell even BMP if you can find space to host it lmao) will do splendidly.

For size, we are hoping to stick to "standard letter" sizes - either US Letter (8.5x11 inches), or A4 (21.0x29.7cm). We figure those sizes make the most sense for a coloring book project!

## What Charities Can You Donate to?

We’ve picked two charities from a handful that were listed on Neil’s Twitch channel that you can donate to. These two were picked just to narrow down the choices a bit for simplicity’s sake, but if any of the other ones speak to you, we won’t stop you from donating to them! The ones we’ve selected are:

* [The Red Card](https://www.theredcard.org/) - “Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) is the UK’s leading anti-racism educational charity.”

* [Black Lives Matter](https://blacklivesmatter.com/) - “Black Lives Matter Foundation is an abolition-centered foundation fighting institutional injustice and serving Black people globally.” (US-based)

From Neil’s Twitch page

> Please have a look at these charities- Be an ally. Do your bit.

> I am. My family are. We all can.

> Support, move, scream and keep the momentum to help even in small ways like this.

As stated earlier, there’s no requirement to donate to receive the completed coloring book at the end of the sub’s anniversary event; it just seems like a very nice way that we can show our support for Neil and our community! If you do donate, please send us a [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=r/OnlyFangsbg3) with your receipt (blur out any personal information, of course) showing the total you donated. We will tally these up through September 29 and announce the grand total we raised for these charities on September 30th.

## Using the Coloring Book Pages

We’d love it if you shared what you did with the coloring book with the community! Whether you print it out and paint it by hand, color it digitally, use colored pencils, or whatever else your heart comes up with, we’d love to see! We will create a new flair for this purpose as we get closer to The Big Day.

That being said, be sure to credit the original artist! Any posts made with these images that fail to credit the original, or remove the artist's name/signature from the image, **will be removed**. Don't try to pass this off elsewhere as your original work.

## Spread the Word!

Do you know any artists, either friends or via patreon discords, that might be interested in participating? Then please (politely, gently!) see if they want to join in!

##tl;dr

* Send us line art by September 23

* Donate to charities and send us receipts by September 29

* We will release the full coloring book and the total we raised on September 30

* Share your beautiful pages, being sure to credit the original artists

Bonus Angel screenshot that I feel like has some meme potential

#baldur's gate 3 #astarion #onlyfangs #astarion brainrot #baldurs gate astarion #bg3 screenshots

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hezuart · 1 year ago

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Small question, if it was answered before then I must have missed it: What inspired giving RNK any powers? Not that it's a bad thing, especially not in the channel change story (which is great, btw! If there's more to come then I'll be excited to read it!) but I personally always liked how normal, so to speak, he was in comparison to the rest of the cast so far. So like, don't take this as critisism, more like, wondering what the thought process was? I'm trying to word what I mean right, sorry if it just comes off as if I'm repeating myself.

Glad you asked! So I explain his powers and a little bit of why I chose them in the description here and here.

I totally get where you are coming from, so here is where my thought process lies: (color coding my paragraphs to sort them by topic)

Absolutely no one in Little Nightmares is normal. The story seems like it's a supernatural post-apocalyptic meta-commentary on corruption that comes with adulthood. Nearly every highlighted character in this series has some sort of deformity or power. The Janitor has long stretchable arms. The Butler from the mobile game has telekinesis. The Doctor, despite his size and weight, can crawl along the ceiling like a bug(wall sticker?) and has successfully reanimated the dead. The Lady is a soul sucker. The Teacher has a neck that can extend indefinitely. The Granny can breathe underwater. The city folk have some kind of screaming power that can kill Mono or render him unconscious.

There are a few exceptions, like the Hunter and the Twin Chefs, but we don't see enough of them to truly determine whether they're completely powerless or not.

It's hinted that the deformities are caused by the tower. Whether or not powers come from that as well, or if people are simply born with them in this world is entirely up for debate. The Pretender was the first confirmation that some children are merely born with these powers and are unable to control them, whereas Six is portrayed as someone who gained powers from an adult later on, whereas Mono might be somewhere in between. The fact that porcelain fake children are running around like they are alive is also a highly questionable supernatural occurrence.

Most of the children we encounter are "normal" at first. But we have seen very few kids in this series before their untimely early deaths to figure out if they had powers. But most of our main characters that typically survive have major influence in the story on top of having great supernatural powers. That's one reason I gave RK the fandom's "Seven" name and powers. Because he is a main focus, no longer on death row.

In this post, I describe Seven's many connections to water before his death, and why, if he had canon powers, these would work best. Seven having powers isn't something common in the fandom. I wanted to contribute to that.

The main bigger reason, however, is that giving Seven powers balances his friendship with Mono. I didn't show it in my comic properly at all, but at the very least, you can tell Seven is nervous whenever Mono uses his powers. Seven witnesses him create a shockwave scream at the fearsome Lady. He witnesses Mono travel through television. He sees him open a metal can without touching it. I'd imagine some other things happened offscreen that Seven picked up on. Regardless, he was aware of Mono's powers. He didn't know exactly how powerful, but he had a feeling. Seven felt... weak? In comparison. He felt vulnerable. He still wouldn't give up on trying to help, nor was he willing to give up his trust in a friend who saved his life, but it still made him very uneasy and unequal. Mono is oblivious to this.

Seven gaining powers, powers that Mono can't wield, is important to their friendship and their dynamic in the future. Mono's powers are frightening and intense, but can only be used on land, otherwise, he'll short-circuit and burn his hands with water. Mono controls the land, while Seven controls the sea. There are many dangers in the water that surrounds them, so even though they escaped to this "Island" they're still, in many ways, trapped. For Seven to gain control over the sea, means they are also finally, truly free. (Well... not completely, just yet, but still more free than they were before.)

I wanted them to feel like they were on top of the world, that they could do anything. That no one could stop them. A calm before the storm. A win before sadness.

I will be doing one final edition of my comic, but I'm stuck on it at the moment because it involves the time loop. (Which is really difficult to solve) I plan to take this comic in a controversial direction of a popular, highly debated, and unconfirmed theory. There's a possibility people may be unsatisfied and confused with this ending, and I worry about that. I want to make it in a way that would feel like a good send-off to this AU. I don't know if I will succeed or not, but I'd like to try. I'm used to Little Nightmares typically ending badly. In a way, for the threequel finale, that will still ring true, but also may be a good ending. But I want it to be more significant and I just haven't figured it out yet. It may be a long while before I can even start drawing it.

#little nightmares #lN au #channel change au #text post #long post #ask #seven #LN seven #the run away kid #the runaway kid #channel change #ln channel change

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raffa-taff · 4 months ago

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HI UM UR PROBABLY NOT GONNA FIND THIS LMAO BUT I LUV UR ART AND I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THE BH ALPHONSE HEADCANONS U MENTIONED IN YOUR ART A WHILE AGO SRY

Sorry this took so long BUT headcanons!! Above is pretty much all (that I can remember atm) my physical hcs for Alphonse :)

Other hcs:

I don’t have too many hcs about Alphonse that aren’t based on his physical appearance, but here are a few

* I think his hair is important to him especially when he was in the armour because it’s the one thing about his physical appearance that he had control over, aside from maybe the loincloth thing he wears. I might draw a little mini comic abt this hc someday, so when his hair had to be cut in briggs he was really upset (which he was actually pretty upset in canon so it’s kind of building on that in a way?) . I also like to think that sometimes they braid each others hair or do other things with it.

* He loves music, especially the type of music that makes you want to dance. Another thing I like thinking about relating to this is him maybe taking a walk during the night and watching live performances in local pubs etc. He has to have some sort of feeling being in the armour I think otherwise I don’t think he’d be able to move as well as he does, maybe not a physical feeling but I think he can maybe sense vibrations which is why I think he would like music, especially LOUD music.

* He has a bit of a stronger accent than Ed does (they both have pretty heavy country accents imo and I love seeing things like that included in fan work) mostly because Ed does most of the talking and had to deal with higher-ups etc therefore trying to hide his accent a bit because of maybe not being taken seriously.

* This is purely projection but the elrics are Irish, I’m Irish so THEY ARE TOO. Or at least half.

* Nightmares 😁 horrible, horrible nightmares. I feel like the things he’s been through get ignored sometimes by a lot of fans. Eds already sort of had the worst of his nightmares but since Alphonse only got his body back AFTER like almost every single traumatic thing happened to him I think he would have them pretty intensely and for a while, it would probably take a long time for them to settle down.

* A fear of blood, or at least others blood. You do not go through things like carrying your blood-covered, dying older brother to get help and someone literally being murdered inSIDE of you without developing some sort of fear or trauma response when it comes to blood I think

* He tries to pick up an instrument or two over time and tries to get Ed to aswell, I think he’d probably play piano or something like a fiddle maybe

* Has autism and PTSD along with a probably not great immune system

* Has a lot of trouble seeing himself as a person and not just an object. Times when, for example, people grab his helmet and chuck it or the multiple times people take control of his body without his consent. The little comic I did recently kind of explores it and is sort of another little hc I have for him where even though he can’t feel gestures like hugs or pats on the back etc he still likes it for the most part because it makes him feel more human (but I feel like that’s kind of canon tbh) little comic linked below v :]

That’s all! For the moment at least, long post, very sorry again!

#fmab #alphonse elric #fma alphonse #fma #fullmetal alchemist #fma fanart #text #headcanon #headcanons #fmab alphonse #alphonse fma #al elric #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #ask post #answered asks #heavy topics #??? i think #fma brotherhood #rambles

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themulitipurposechannel · 1 month ago

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Hello!

I LOVE your story!!! CJ having healing Ninpo is so genius and it’s making my brain run wild with possibilities!

Are there any tidbits you’d like to share about the au? Also could you possibly explain what happened with CJ aging due to Ninpo (in the latest update)?

(No need to answer any of the questions if you do not want to)

AWESOME COMIC, AWESOME STORY, AWESOME ART!!! I can’t wait to see more!!!

Hope you have a great day ^-^

BDJDHDHDHDHD Aww dude stop you have no idea how happy this makes me 😭 I’m so so so happy you love my au!! 💗💗💗 I love the concept of Casey with healing powers! He’s has a temper but I still think suits him so well given how protective he is as a person ahah!! And I’m so glad there are ppl out there who agree with me too! But Hehe yesss join me join me in my healer!Cj brain worms hehehe

Hmm since you asked bout the aging(and that’s a little complicated) I’ll answer that first. So I can’t go into too much detail cuz that will spoilers for a comic and some other art that will explain everything! ..Maybe😂 But I will say this. Cj unlocked his Ninpo when he was 10 he was fine, he was aging normally. Till a certain incident happened when he was 11 and well.. we all know what happened next, freshly baked trauma and he aged a couple years forward overnight plus some extra long term injuries (that I will go into later).

The good news is that as long as he doesn’t push himself like that again he will be aging mostly linearly again? But the damage has alr been done 😅. But anyways, after the incident, he never pushed himself like that again. One, cuz the Hamato fam would never allow it and Two, cuz the recovery period is so long/bad (cuz Cj is no master and worse he’s a literal child unlike Mikey who was in his early 20s when the cursed Aging started) no one can afford for him to be knocked out of commission like that again. It makes him wayy too vulnerable.

Post-incident, at his worst he has only aged a few days forward but cuz that’s so small no one except Master Michelangelo (cuz he’s a mystic master and cuz he’s also in the same boat) can tell the difference. Plus it’s so negligible it doesn’t technically matter.

But long story short, pulling himself tgt from that incident physically and mentally loooonnng time haha. But as you can see even now it still leaves its scars haha and probably always will.

As for any other tidbits? Oh gosh where do I start ? Ahh there is just so much to say! Ok update wise I’m actually working a PMV for Healer!Cj so if I go quiet for a while that’s why. Idk how long it’s gonna take but I’m excited to show some sneak peaks along the way lol. This is my first time doing something like this so here’s to hoping it goes well!

Lore wise: although Cj does have a subway car in the lair. Once he gets more settled in he actually bounces around quite a bit. Boy was not meant to stay in one place for too long. While he does spent most of the week at the lair cuz the underground is familiar too him, he will spend 3-4 days crashing on the couch at April/Casey’s apartment. And on a rare blue moon he’ll give Draxum a heart attack 😂 by breaking into his apartment and sleeping on that old man’s couch. After a while it becomes their own little inside joke 😂. Draxum tries Cj-proof his apartment using mystic or otherwise and Cj makes it a point to still try and sneak in.

And the surprise of no one. In this Au, Uncle Mi is Cj’s favourite uncle. Sometimes second pesudo dad. But mostly on accident by a very sleep deprived Cj.

I have plans for P!Casey to eventually develop Ninpo a few years down the line. But I can’t think of any powers for her so if ya’ll got any suggestions pls fire away.

And oh P!Leo is gonna permanently need a leg brace. Sometimes on rlly rlly bad days, he will need to use a crutch (not that he ever does cuz he’s wayy to stubborn) but you get the picture.

Raph’s eye is permanently gone, Donnie and his shell will heal but bro will have chronic back pain for life plus certain parts of his shell where the tendrils dug into the thickest are now numb cuz ya know, nerve damage from being literally ripped out the technodrone. Mikey will need to wear compression gloves but his shaking gets significantly better over time. So he draw but he still needs to every two months or so he can get pretty bad flareups which are jsut Oof.

Good news is April is fine aside from a broken arm during the invasion that will heal. Splinter was surprisingly not that badly injured just a few pulled muscles here and there. And Cj is Obvi fine too aside from a minor concussion that he got prior to time traveling. Which to him was basically nothing. The reactions by everyone else was hilarious and a major culture shock for Cj. Turns out his apocalypse pain scale was drastically different to their normal not apocalypse pain scale.

It was hilarious the gang were like: “you’ve running around taking care of us a lot. Are you good?”

Cj: “yup all fine. Just a few bumps and scrapes”

8 Hours later..

Cj: “It looks like everyone’s settled? Great. I’ll go grab painkillers for my concussion now.”

Them: “I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE GOOD!?”

Long story short no one escaped the failed invasion unscathed :’D but also whoops sorry for the long ramble 😅 this kidna got away for me 😂

#save rottmnt #unpause rottmnt #rottmnt #healer cj #healer cj au #healer cj asks #bad future mikey

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taduki · 2 years ago

Text

The M6 w/ an MC who gives them books to read

This headcanon post includes books for each character !! I’ve only read a couple of these books so sorry if they’re not good or fitting……… Please enjoy !! I put lots of time into it, and I STILL want to write more on these entries !!! Alas, I will save my energy for another headcanon perhaps. :)

Asra

They were open to reading long before you met them, and you found they were HUGE on comedy books.

Their favorite one you've given them is "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell. When they finished it, they lent/bought a copy to give to Aisha and Salim, and it was a fantastic decision because they fell in love with it too. Now when they come over to visit, their conversations are full of inside jokes and laugh attacks.

When you give them a good, new book, the next few reading sessions are filled with Asra’s cackling and giggles. They are so excited to read bits and pieces to you, but if it's really bad, they'll be trying to explain it to you for like ten minutes between laughs and gasps for air.

Sometimes, they’ll stray from their usual genre and try something new like thriller, but they find those are too serious for them. They’re looking for fun!! Laughs !! Sillies !! Eventually, they find one or two books they like with serious undertones and those are the ones that they hold so dear to them.

Asra struggles to find good enough books for themself, as adventurous as they are. That’s why they hold your recommendations to such high opinion. You know where to find the best ones for them.

Julian

Julian’s choice of fiction books either range from, “Who makes this stuff?”, to, “What kind of genius wrote this?!”

Definitely likes to read fun and weird screenplays like “Some Like it Hot (1959)” by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond so you two can act out the scenes.

For the most part, he does prefer nonfiction books, particularly encyclopedias.

He never wants to go anywhere near a textbook about biology ever again!! He says as he picks up books about flora… He was referring to animals, of course. He’ll pull you over to the side of a road just to inspect a seemingly normal weed, and that is in fact what it will turn out to be.

It’s becoming a scavenger hunt for him, so if you indulge him, you’ll draw little stars or check marks on the ones he’s seen already. It may save you time if he’s not that interested in those particular ones. Otherwise, be prepared for a full day trip around Vesuvia.

He’s bought so many different encyclopedias about the same things, you’re not sure about specific favorites, but they tend to be of the thicker variety with many pictures.

You have to give it to him though. Sometimes he comes across the most amazing things. Besides flaming flowers and clouds that chase each other, you’ve seen trees with branches in such formations that they sing when the wind blows. He wants to show you the world…

Portia

Her favorite from your recommendations is still “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, as mentioned before.

Gossip. Gossip and DRAMA.

If the Palace drama wasn't enough, you've opened up a whole new world to her. Fictional drama is so juicy and unbelievable, she is so entertained. When she gets really into it, she likes to rant about the crazy stuff like, "I can't believe she picked him over the emperor! He's so much nicer to her, but no00000! Now she has to deal with this new guy and his jealous ex."

Sometimes you're not completely sure what goes on in those books... But you're happy for her nonetheless.

There are occasional sob sessions while you two popcorn read. She requires time to recover before she starts another book because some of the books she reads have emotionally taxing endings.

But for the most part, your popcorn reads consist of comically dramatic acting, courtesy of Julian’s influence. You’re pretty sure she’s just making fun of him…

Pepi likes to block Portia's field of vision when she reads. She sniffs each page turn and if Portia's not careful enough, she will pounce on the book like it's a toy and rip a page.

Nadia

It would be surprising to recommend a book she HASN'T read yet.

She is used to high literature, so you thought about bringing her books from the shop, but it turns out she's fairly knowledgeable and politely uninterested about the contents of the ones you suggested. She was looking for more fiction than magic journals. (She is afraid of looking at a spell the wrong way, lest it activate).

You go back and forth with her on which ones she’s read and what types she’s interested in, and you just about run out of ideas until you dig up a book Asra had tucked away called “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. Asra found it hard to read but didn’t feel like returning it that day, so they just shelved it and hadn’t touched it since.

She gets started on it during her free time and finds it very easy to read, but she didn’t like it. It had some nice quotes here and there, but most of the book was just preaching and buzzwords to her. It felt like waiting through a really long and unnecessary speech at wedding ceremony. And don’t even get her started on the contents!! The material is unrealistic, insensitive, and — oh dear, she’s ranting.

The experience ends with Nadia slowly growing a penchant for trash novels she isn’t actually interested in…

To curb her junk fiction fix, she opts to reread books you recommended previously. Whenever you have a reading session in the library or just a moment together, she likes to ask for your thoughts on specific parts and what she thought of them as well. Her thoughts are rarely anything bad with your taste though, so much so she can’t decide which suggestions are her favorites! She likes seeing into a little part of your brain that makes you who you are.

Muriel

Picture books of animals doing human things… He has no favorite either! It could literally be from “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” to “Peter Rabbit”.

It’s not that he doesn’t like reading novels! He just prefers things he can see in front of him, like you like drawings and his carvings. He finds it hard to visualize certain things, especially if they’re things he’s never seen nor imagined before.

If you can draw, you could read him stories like that, but whether you can or can’t, Muriel might still be confused…

So, you tried another alternative. You learned to create figures with your magic! You already knew some basic knowledge on it, but you couldn’t have a handle on the image for too long, much less while reading something.

After months of work and patience (and Muriel’s DELECTABLE food), you managed to read one page straight while visualizing it in front of you like a movie. When you finally tell him, he’s still confused but also incredibly flustered that you spent so much time and energy on this. You tried keeping it a surprise, going into the forest to practice, but he definitely went looking for you a couple of times. The first time was because he was worried. The next few times were just to see how you were coming along. He never told you though. He wanted to see you happy for when you showed him the final product.

When the time came to finally watch your “movie”, he prepared some snacks and the comfiest furs in the hut, and waited for you to feel comfortable enough. You had been working on this for a while. It was only natural that you’d feel nervous. When you opened the book and began to read, Inanna definitely tried to bark the apparition away, but once she calmed down, you read the book to him, making the room a real life movie. He was positively enchanted…

When you feel too tired to read on, Muriel gently holds your hand to reassure you this is more than enough and lets you rest on him. He already feels like the luckiest guy in the world. Now, he must be the luckiest guy in the universe.

Lucio

It’s apparent to you that he is not much of a literary scholar. He claims it’s because he’d probably rip the pages with his arm.

Reading still wasn’t much of his thing even after you guys got together, so as a joke, you bought him a children’s book, one of the big, flat ones with pictures of mice in cute human clothes, and he was unamused.

He didn’t want anything to do with it. In fact, he didn’t even want to go near it. Until one fateful day when you’re away, Lucio gets curious and opens the book up to the first page (after mentally arguing with it for a while), and MELTS upon seeing the cute little mice waiting for the mama mouse to finish cooking supper. He got so invested and was oh so disappointed in how short it was. He wanted more, but was way too embarrassed to admit it.

Every time you took him to a bookstore to look for your own thing, he’d let his guard slip and eye the children’s section for a second.

You didn’t notice for a while, but when you did, you bought another one for him in secret and placed it right next to the first book. Eventually, he snuck over to reread the first one and was absolutely delighted to find a new one.

It becomes a cycle until he is reassured enough that he can buy his own books and read them next to you, regardless of contents. Every week, he’s upgrading to a slightly longer children’s book, or even a new series. He finds them fun and sometimes healing. His favorite book(s)? “Dork Diaries” by Rachel Renée Russell, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

#the arcana headcanons #the arcana muriel #muriel of the kokhuri #asra alnazar #asra the arcana #nadia satrinava #the arcana hc #portia the arcana #the arcana game #lucio the arcana #lucio morgasson #lucio montag #julian devorak #the arcana julian #the arcana imagines #portia devorak #ilya devorak

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wirewitchviolet · 1 year ago

Text

A Teachable Moment

So I hopped into some freshly minted Discord server, maybe a month ago, and the norms of it still haven't settled into place. It's open to the public and focused on a game, so there's a bit of a mixed crowd, let's say, and prior to the incident I'm setting up the backstory for, there hasn't really been a test of their ability to moderate their damn public spaces.

Also when I say there's a mixed crowd I mean there's both a good number of trans women (because if you are making a deep game for a niche audience, we're gonna make up a shockingly high percentage of that audience every time), and a few right-wing extremists doing their best to "hide their power levels" (because if you create and promote literally any sort of social space, they WILL show up to test for whether local conditions are suitable enough to build a nest). In the early days of things they mostly kept their masks on aside from using the nazi frog as a reaction image to things (which IS something everyone should have a zero tolerance policy towards, but I feel like I need to know someone fairly well before I can explain that one), and their eyes lighting up when they see the server rules include "no politics" (a perfectly fine policy to have but you need to understand that if you post it you WILL have to constantly ban nazis who think you're using "politics" like they do- a euphemism for all the people they want dead).

Anyway, there's a few people on my radar here, but everyone's been civil enough, and it's a pretty relaxed vibe. Pretty quiet. Mostly just icebreaker talk. The most prolific poster is this one guy who saw there was a pet photo channel and just kinda sat down and made a point of posting several images a day to it, of a particularly uncommon sort of cute pet. Naturally this lead some people to ask some follow-up questions about whether these are his and how long he's had them, and this yielded the pretty damn weird in retrospect response that no, he has no pets at all, but would like one of these some day.

Now, this isn't at all the main thrust of this, and I wouldn't like, start keeping vigil for this as a sign of troublemakers, but a thing that undercover bigots do all the time as can be seen here is set up in a community and just kinda spam harmless generic platitudes and such to try and establish themselves as a known chill person. This goes double for anywhere that has a general public/trusted community members split. Never just go by "well he seems pretty chill" for giving people access to more private spaces, they can wait as long as they need, generally, as long as they don't have to improvise a normal person response to a situation where bigotry is in play.

Anyway, getting to the main event, a few days ago in this server, someone posted some cute little comic which... you know let me just find it.

Clever little subversion there. Got a polite chuckle out of the bulk of those paying attention, but seeing a nice wholesome bit of trans positivity incensed pet-poster guy, who immediately shouts "I've seen another version of that comic!" and posts a variation I am absolutely not going to share where the girl in the last panel is dead.

That is as clear cut of a do not pass go, do not collect $200, ban that piece of garbage permanently without a word and delete the post as soon as you can before anyone has to see that sort of hate directed at them offense in absolutely any community. Even moreso in this case as in the time it took a moderator to notice, this creep was going full mask off and responding to everyone's horrified reactions with grotesque anti-trans propaganda of a particularly hardcore "my other hangouts have openly posted swastikas" variety.

Here, people did delete the profoundly offensive comic, but then, to be blunt, otherwise handled this like a kindergarten teacher seeing a kid grab the blocks another kid was playing with and just nonchalantly explaining some basic manners. First off, nobody goes that hard on hate speech accidentally, and more importantly, showing a lack of willingness to dole out any real consequences for such an open act of hate has an emboldening effect. Sure enough the other sleeper agents present jumped up to try and push things farther, encouraging them to also remove the comic above, ban any mention of trans people, and jump the gun with prepared responses that don't work in context (you call everyone you don't like a nazi! Both sides are wrong! etc.).

I came pretty close to just quitting the server on response to that, but stuck it out a bit to double check if this wasn't just one particularly green mod trying to put the fire out before double checking if that's ban worthy when someone else was awake, or if I needed to explain the code-talk in the following conversation, or hell, if they just need more mods. I'm decidedly overqualified for that sort of thing.

Anyway, moderation policy handled that poorly... and to be clear, I'm not pinning that on any one person, basically everyone who ends up in a position of authority has a gut instinct to moderate as laxly as possible and needs some real training, reading, or tragic experience to learn how vital a firm swift hand is if you don't want people like this to show up and drive everyone else away. Especially not going to put this on the one green volunteer awake at 4 AM or whatever.

Still, the ball was dropped here, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how the rest of the community stepped up to hold their ground. Over the next couple of days, people just started casually dropping every cute trans positive thing they had handy in there, agreeing with each other that it was all nice and sweet. This both reestablished that chat as a relatively safe place to exist with a kind general vibe, and really got under the skin of these mask off nazis who started throwing tantrums. Apparently they just started privately messaging the mods to flag every single wholesome little image or comic as offensive to the point where people higher up the food chain came in, did some more serious reprimanding, and added an explicit policy against transphobia to their TOS... and threatened to ban these people if they pull this crap again.

Now, that increased firmness plus the community in general making it pretty damn clear they don't tolerate hate does seem to have scared the bigots into hiding (the one guy made this pathetic desperate effort to retake power by threatening to stop posting the animal pictures... that he's just pulling out of an image search, it was pretty funny), but... they're still there. The people they were threatening both broadly and as specific individuals still have to be careful not to share anything these scumbags can screencap and weaponize against them, and I'm sure at some time in the future when it's clear there's no mods awake they're going to pipe back up to do as much damage as they can in a blaze of glory if spying on all the queer people doesn't pay out for them, so while it is nice to see how just actively rejecting this sort of ideology can at least temporarily shut this crap down even without people in authority taking real action, I want to reiterate what responsibilities those in authority are neglecting here.

As a moderator of literally any sort of space, your basic duties are to keep things safe and to keep things civil. Those are two separate duties. Don't ever try and merge them together, and don't ever forget that safety must always take priority over civility.

If you see a situation where people are just getting randomly heated and angry over something inconsequential (happens a lot), yes, by all means, try to just deescalate things by stepping through just taking a stern tone, formal warnings, timeouts, 3 strike rules, temporary bans, etc. These are situations where we can hope that people who otherwise get along just let their emotions get out of hand and will hopefully shake hands and make up after having some time to cool off.

If on the other hand you see a situation where someone is threatening/antagonizing/intimidating someone else, especially in a case like this where the reason is transparently that the offender is a bigot who genuinely wishes harm or death on the target, there are no steps to escalate through. You remove the dangerous person from the community immediately, no exceptions, no warnings, no escalating response scale. That nazi posting crap about trans women in nooses, Jews in ovens, black people holding spears, women being raped etc. is not a friend having a rough day. There can be no reconcilliation no matter how much time you give. You just have a predator here to whittle your community down, and a vulnerable person who needs you to reassure them that they are safe in your community. The only option that should be on the table is the permanent zero appeals ban, and you should have no hesitation in deploying it.

Oh and here's the part where I remember that I am going to lose my home by the end of the year if I don't ask people to throw more money at me (this is a link). I hate doing this, but my other options for income went up in flames so completely I don't even know how to start to rebuild.

#moderation #safety

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