#pessimistic way

[feliciadraws]

*WANDERSONG SPOILERS*

I wanna talk about Audrey, the so-called 'Hero.' Now I'm not that good at writing or posting meta but man oh MAN Audrey is actually so much more interesting than I initially took her to be; she's actually deeply insecure about not only herself but how the world perceives her AND has a skewed, dare I say, SUPERFICIAL, idea of what it means to truly be the hero. She primarily sees it as a role she has to play or fulfill, rather than something someone chooses to be, and while she "knows" herself to be the hero, she doesn't actually BELIEVE she is A hero in herself. Even further is that she WANTS to be The Hero but is so dyed in the proverbial wool in both her insecurities and her perception of her role as The Hero that she doesn't want to stop, she wants to fulfill the role she was given so bad that she broke her promise to the Bard when she said she wouldn't kill anymore Overseer spirits upon killing the King of Hearts because, how she sees it, 'that's how it is.' What was interesting is that Audrey spoke about her dislike of being told what to do and where to go when Eyala was acting as her guide, that she found it demeaning that she couldn't think or act for herself, but was that her interpretation of being told to back down by Eyala? After all, Eyala did mention to the Bard that when she warned Audrey, Audrey felt that Eyala was 'taking something away from her', and that something was the role of The Hero, without which she would still be a nobody that no one saw or knew or cared about.

She wants to be the Hero and is so attached to that role and the adoration it had brought her and wants to fulfill that role because she believes that what truly makes her and that without the title of Hero and the Sword and the powers, she can't be A hero. Her insecurities tell her that she can't be A hero outside of being THE Hero, and she can't understand not only how the Bard had gotten so far but how he continues to have hope, despite his own innate feelings of despondence and his own melancholy. But he keeps going because of his hope, hope that he can still save the world and that there is always another, better way, a way that one can choose. A different way to be a hero, if you will. And I personally think that the Bard's approach to being a hero, it's confounding to Audrey for many reasons, one of those being that he wasn't chosen by anyone or anything to be a hero per se, but he chose to be a hero HIMSELF, despite everything acting against him, including Audrey herself. The Bard admitted he's jealous of Audrey being chosen to be the hero and her sword and her powers, not knowing that his innate goodness and his CHOICE to be good make him a hero, without the need for a sword or a title or a higher calling.

I honestly love how Wandersong toys with the definition of the word 'hero', and not only subverts the typical fantasy RPG hero archetype with Audrey, right down to the outfit and the magic sword, but DOUBLE subverts her; she could have been a twist villain who was simply a villain masquerading as a hero, but even this was subverted by making her not a hero, but not quite a villain either, but an insecure girl who sees herself as a nobody and is so obsessed with fulfilling a role that makes her a somebody that she's going to end up destroying the world and herself (both figuratively and literally), but is blinded by her self-perception and insecurities so that she can't see anything within herself that's heroic, making her both a mirror and a foil for the Bard.

I'm not sure where I was going and I know Wandersong isn't the first game to do this but I love how it was done here so far (I'm starting Act Seven), not least because I hated Audrey at first but she's actually growing on me, as much as I hate to admit it, not least that she actually resonates with me much more now this revelation has come about. I was pleasantly surprised and now I want to study this girlfail mess of a human being under a microscope.

[ladybugkisses]

I would love to see a drawing of Ari picking up Rocky and him just being like, WTH.

Also, what does Ari think of the band and Wick, if she interacts with them?

i'd love to see that too, so i drew it! ♥️

as for the band + Wick, all had not so great first impressions but Ari eventually came around and thinks they're okay guys overall

you won't get her to admit she actually enjoys Zib's company, though

[ruegarding]

i don't really think of percy as cynical or pessimistic bc he's so bad at it. like, even when he's at his lowest, when he's lost everything in tlt, he looks at the world and is angry bc it's so beautiful.

[itsnothingofinterest]

Wild to me that people are looking at the new Hero Commission president being this guy:

And thinking: "oh yeah, he's gonna change things, make them better, bring about some much needed reform." Because I must've missed the part where he had any revelation that anything the hero system or the commission in particular were doing was wrong.

I mean treatment of villains is going to get so much worse between this guy ^ being in charge and every other reason we have to expect that treatment of villains will get worse. But even something as small as the ranking system, which I've seen suggested he'll do away with...but did we ever get a scene where he said he didn't like the ranking system?

I mean I remember him saying it could do with some improvement, but I also remember he really liked the idea of there being a number one hero to inspire people, it's part of why he tried to help Endeavor be that inspiring figure (The rest is him choosing the worst hero to be a fanboy of, but that shouldn't discount his personal logic).

And overall I just don't recall him ever having any problem with the existing way of things besides wanting more free time (and without giving any thought to what makes a villain, which he has not, that one's out of his hands), or else otherwise complaints about his personal annoyances being told what to do. But we never got that he thinks what he was told to do was wrong. Even Twice he still thinks of as "The pretty decent guy who it sucks I had to kill-which I definitely did, what does 'arrest' mean?" He even doubled down by calling for Toga's death. (Goodness sake, I give Enji shit but at least he knows when he did something bad.) So besides those little things; he had no criticisms, nor did he ever agree with people who did have criticisms. I'm just not seeing a lot of reason to think this is the guy who will improve things.

[lalune9x]

I should’ve added a note that the word used for “get rejected” in the chapter 460s confession arc is also the same word used for “getting dumped/broken up with” (차이다). so the ambiguity of whom exactly Yoojin is so broken-hearted about is stronger in Korean because it’s the same word for both actions lol.

[ganondoodle]

1 year since i got scammed by nintedno leaving me forever yearning for a game we will never get and an extreme worry for the future

[eternity-death]

God… Sunday’s desire for control stemming from his fear of losing what he loves is like… gutting.

Look at what he did, look at the lengths he went to, looks at the lengths he was WILLING to go to if we didn’t stop him. And all of it was in good faith. ALL of it was to protect.

Do you guys get it?? He feels that deeply, he loves that deeply— so gravely that he was prepared to sacrifice himself to create a world where no one would ever know suffering or pain again. A world where he would become the ‘strong’ and protect the ‘weak’.

A world where he has control. Because under his control, no fledglings would ever learn what it feels like to plummet. He will become the metaphorical and literal cage that protects it.

[puppyeared]

man

[sil-te-plait-tue-moi]

i wonder if u agree, but sometimes when i read old man rust x younger oc, it's weird to me picturing somebody in early/mid twenties bc, realistically, that would make the oc around his daughter's age, and i don't think rust can go for that. i say that as somebody who's 23, so i don't mean to exclude younger women or whatever. anyway, that's why i really like your oc bc she seems like an actual match for rust and not bc of age, but bc she's just the type of person i can see him falling for, i guess? like directly canonically in the series, so yeah, thank you for your work!!! but that got me wondering: when u started to write, did you have somebody in mind already and thought of how that sort of oc will work with rust, or did u ask urself what sort of person compliments rust best? sorry if this is too much trouble.

NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE i think this is acc a super interesting ask!

my opinions below the cut…

���.ೃ࿔*:･

RIGHT so i wanna preface by saying EVERY SINGLE rust oc story ive read so far has meat to it, like the authors know their shit and they should get their due snaps and kudos

i think i read younger ofcs with like a pinch of salt in the sense that i know it’s a bit crazy — btw this is coming from someone who had a “relationship” with a much older man at the ripe age of 16 — but i think it’s still good to read

things we experience can be ugly and uncomfortable but it’s still real and a part of me appreciates like keeping it real 💀 this is going to sound a little femcel of me but let’s be honest, sex is about power and the dynamics of that power give intricacies to stories that make them interesting! rust is a man (😔) and have you ever seen that one study of like ages of women men find most attractive and it’s a consistent 20 even as men get to like 70

yeah

keeping it uncomfortably real but real nonetheless

true detective is southern gothic and what i love about southern gothic is that it doesn’t shy away from touching on the less palatable corners of human existence/nature/WHATever. do i see why a daughter woman child thing as a love interest to a middle aged man with a dead baby is off-putting? YES. do i still read things along those lines because it’s interesting? ALSO YES. because more often than not creators are self-aware and explore these topics with nuance, which i respect massively

now onto like the sort of second part of you ask, beautiful anon…

when writing The Idler Wheel, idk if i was thinking as deeply when creating an oc as i was fixated on the weirdness of rust and ocs like yearning 😭? for each other, and the fact that he felt anything at all was a massive woaaaahhh for them both. the way we experience / act on desire (not even sexual just any kind but actually maybe especially sexual) says so much about a person and i guess that’s the single point from which i branched out, and every other aspect of her came later

the reason she/oc is not like twenty is because, similar to what you said, i cannot picture 1995–2002 (around that time) rust with a youngYOUNGGGG woman becaaaause holy shit i think he’d just die, like out of sadness or hurt, i think he wouldn’t be able to look at her at all 💀

old dog rust on the other hand does not give a shit about doing what’s “right” imo if that makes sense, like he’s who he is and he feels what he feels and i think this version of rust would be much more receptive to a younger woman, even if it’s “wrong” because he literally just doesn’t care anymore

i think the only reason The Idler Wheel girl was able to sneak her way in around that time is because she’s grown and a part of his workplace and therefore she should be “safe”, no more than any of his coworkers. so he lets her in his space and he lets her bring him coffee and he lets her do him favours because she’s just like the others and he just has to tolerate her, just has to see her

but of course she’s not like his coworkers and he can’t place why he wants her so bad, only that he does, which is bad because she should be mundane and she should be nothing and yet unfortunately he wants to be her dog

does this answer your q or did i go off on a tangent

i love you anon 💕💕💕💕

[dykedvonte]

(abt my last ask) thank you for the answer, your understanding of charas is trully stellar!

I wanted to ask, what's your take on recovery!au (unless you intend to cover it in your fic)? In the universe, where Jimmy happens, but the crew somehow survives. Everyone is traumatised, Anya is pregnant, Curly is disabled (could he even be able to afford disability aids? Pony express in no more, would they even be paid a sufficient compensation?). There is also a question of p*lice investigation (or whatever agency is responsible for space crimes), even more trauma... Man, it's bleak.

-💀

I like them sad but for emotional and physical recovery reason rather than all the actual legal stuff that would ensue.

I like when Swansea relapsing is explored and Daisuke losing a little bit of his light. I am clearly a big supporter of Anya and Curly remaining close friend after but I think exploring the unhealthy dynamics of the trauma bond they’d develop should be played with way more. I think it’s a bit annoying when people are on the nose about Anya telling Curly he should’ve done more, especially when he’s struggling through recovery.

I feel like people really want her to be a character to rub salt into wounds, just to give her something cathartic, but it’s just OOC for me. It’s not a kindness thing but I don’t think she wants that sort of guilt to stay with him like that? He did not do what Jimmy did, he could’ve done more to stop it but she would not intentionally try to direct what she can never take out towards Jimmy at Curly. At least when they all make it out. This is not to say she doesn’t think he shouldn’t have any remorse but she understands that no one else could have foreseen Jimmy crashing the ship or getting that bad.

I like when it gets psychoanalytic in fics with the crew. Talk about Curly finally opening up on details on how he and Jimmy were friends, have the others realize how bad Jimmy was to even Curly, not a lot of people realize that they don’t know how Jimmy was to him. Have Anya be angry and snippy, have her worry she’s becoming like Jimmy even though she could never be like him, it’s that fear though, that she is owed that cathartic release and may take it out on others in some selfish subconscious desire to reclaim control for herself. Have her actualize-herself, is med school the only option? What does she want now? Does Swansea divorce his wife, give up on the life he created because he was just following the path of a good man, one he didn’t believe? Or does he stay and use the time he has left to make it something he believes in. How is Daisuke? Is he more mature or does he lose a little light? What are his new aspirations if any? His relationship with his parents?

Ultimately, I think a recover au should really focus on just them actually getting to know each other and filling themselves. So much of their interactions were likely based on coworker dynamics first. With that out the window they are now people who can’t really move on from each other but need to move on in life.

[venacoeurva]

Okay, but someone could STILL do something really, really funny

[zeravmeta]

arc v is a story I think people always misunderstand and in part it comes down to the absurdly fumbled ending but even beforehand I think people misunderstand the point of egaoism cuz it's not really "never be sad idiot" but more "if you wear a smile, you'll feel courage and can go forward" which is the point all the way up to zarc who himself became spiteful and went insane trying to please everyone with "never be sad" ideology

yuya is deeply depressed and pessimistic and yet his aspirations to be a dueltainer (i like the dub name shut up) come not just from wanting to be like his father but in wanting to connect with others. jack himself says that yuya was only imitating his father without understanding what he himself wants because dueling is a conversation with your opponent and your audience, so if he is just parroting his father without understanding it, his dueling is meaningless. it is by design meaningless because it is not genuine to what yuya himself wants. It's why he moves on from just saying his performances out loud to an audience that doesn't care, but focuses on how pendulum is something he did not borrow from anyone else, his own voice. He uses pendulum as a way to connect with others by, as the summoning method works, combining everyone's voices, not just his own but that of his friends.

the ideas of bonds and connections extend throughout every yugioh series and with arc v the point of entertainment dueling and action duels being reijis "weapon" against academia ironically come from the fact that while solid vision can be a powerful weapon, duel monsters and dueling itself is just a game, a game people play to connect with others and make friends. yuya's whole focus on dueltaining is simply that he doesn't want to end this conflict with academia by just ruthlessly crushing his opponents and focusing on winning (which is what awakens zarc when reiji pushes him to do nothing but focus on winning), yuya wants to end the conflict by making people happy. he wants people to enjoy dueling for duelings sake and to see dueling as the game that it is, not use it as a weapon of war.

now, is this handled/conveyed perfectly throughout the series? I'll say no, because while yuya does make the effort and there IS notable pushback from his enemies, sometimes it wraps up a little too neatly, such as the city council disbanding suddenly or academias forces in heartland just giving up after like 4 duels (which is what lead to the whole egaoism meme in the first place). arc v has thematic inconsistency in how it presents its characters and yuya himself has been contentious for the longest time because he flip flops in this regard (even if the whole point of pendulum is that this dissonance will always exist by people coming into contact with other perspectives but grumble whatever its not handled perfectly here either),

BUT i would say it is followed through on up to the end of the zarc duel, because the whole point of zarc is that he was never able to take that step. he was never able to express his genuine wish to make people smile the way yuya could, which is why as the duel goes on you see zarc go from this overwhelming monster to an outright cowardly and scared person. his deck, design, everything about zarc ultimately shows him as a giant manchild who cant handle even a fraction of resistance against him because losing in and of itself (even if there would be no consequences) is the most terrifying thing to him. he's unable to win with any kind of courage. and yuya's friends, each passing the pendulum necklace between themselves, each telling yuya how his efforts pushed them all to improve as well, is what reaches him in the end. it was the culmination of their voices and how they all were willing to support yuya that reaches him, that yuya (and by extension zarc) are nowhere near being the unforgivable monsters they think they are

it's what zarc didnt understand, that he didnt need to always be happy or please an audience while ignoring his own struggles. zarc completely misunderstood how pendulum was born, because it was not his malice alone, but how it had dissonance with his heartfelt wish to make people happy as a duelist. yuya is the base personality born from his split because yuya is the embodiment of zarc's original wish, but yuya himself is never perfect either.

and yuya was okay with that. but zarc could never be.

[kindaorangey]

i have no idea what happens in house md s8 except that wilson gets diagnosed with terminal cancer and it's crazy to me as an endpoint because it just seems so empty. i'm 99% sure most of the original cast has moved on by that point, the show has gone on for two long, the only thing that's left is these two forces that have been orbiting each other since the beginning of the show. and from what i can tell, they're (still!) each other's only friend, and wilson dies. the characters are almost trapped in the confines of the show, doomed to feel completely alone from start to finish. there's something about it that's existential in the same way as the last act of 2001: a space odyssey, or when the guy falls through time in interstellar, for some reason. the universe is empty and cruel and it does not care about you and life and love are fleeting. wilson asks house to tell him he loves him and house tells him no.

[thasorns-moved]

I cannot shake my thoughts about this and I’ll know I’ll keep this drama close to my heart. The fact that Myung ha’s ‘sunbae’ opened the riff to the world with the question “would you change it for me?” Also the fact that Myung ha’s alternate universe/game world started with the sound of an ocean tells already a lot about it but we won’t know until Episode 8 why. Throughout the series we watched Myung ha doing everything in his power to make Yeo woon happy while he himself couldn’t rely, couldn’t trust, couldn’t open himself up to him. We know the phrase of his ex gf “you don’t know how to love anyone.” left a deep scar in his soul which he carried with to the alternate universe/game. I try to think the system errors which occurred during the game was a way to change Myung ha’s mindset to not make the same mistakes and/or go on with his habitual habits he did in his life before he drowned himself. Also the different tasks was it actually for Myung ha to realize that he’s the one who makes Yeo-woon happy (which he didn’t). He retreated himself from Yeo woon because he couldn’t choose between the most important persons in his life as we saw his grandma died in real life which makes me think if he also knew that because in one sequence in the game/au it asked him if he wants to bring back some memories of Myung ha’s life. Also the last I love you from Yeo woon was the cherry on top to let the system completely crash where he distanced himself from Yeo woon. “I want to spend my remaining time making Yeo woon happy as best as I can. But it seems the more I try, the more unhappy I make Yeo-woon.” Which Myung ha remembers what Yeo-woon said: “whenever I see you, I both feel good and want to cry. I feel so much about every little thing. But I’m not happy at all right now.” Which again I try to think it is about why Myung ha doesn’t rely more on him? Why he doesn’t open himself up to him? A relationship is based off of trust, give and take… etc. but Myung ha goes into this relationship with deep rooted traumas which causes lack of self love. If one loves not itself enough how can they expect to love someone else which what explains Myung ha’s last phrase in the same scene so much. “Why did I think I could make you happy?” It’s as if he doesn’t think that a loner like him could be the one to give him love and happiness. What follows after is that he choses Yeo woon’s happiness even if he’s not his happiness… which again brings me to the beginning where Myung ha thinks “but I prefer lonely supporting characters to happy protagonists.” In this case he’s the lonely supporting character to our happy protagonist Yeo-woon. “But being fated to live that kind of life… is just so unfair.” He knew/knows how cruel life can be so he chose his happiness over everything and got vanished from the game. He realized by now that Yeo-woon is/was more important than he wanted to admit. Yeo-woon is/was a glimpse of happiness in Myung ha’s life. What brings us to the tragic backstory of his life and how he lived. All the obstacles he endured and went through led to his drowning (at this point we saw Yeo-woon’s obstacles in the alternate universe/game at least in my opinion). This is the turning point for Myung ha. “I was hoping if you saw yourself from someone else’s perspective, you would learnt to love yourself. I thought if you learned to love someone, you would be a little happier.” I want to make a reference here to the title itself “Love for Love’s sake” because all the sacrifices he did and cared more for others than himself… but he found happiness. In Yeo-woon. And he chose his own happiness for once. It’s the way he chooses all these things for himself, to open himself up for him, to rely and be cared for. “It would be nice to have someone. Someone who cares by my side. Someone who gives me chances when I fail and feel hopeless. It would be nice to have someone who always gives me love.” Which they found both in each other.

[stewy-hosseini]

i still maintain that money itself is never going to be the issue no matter how much money like this was literally stewy saying in his own bitchy cunty way “no matter what happens business wise i’ll still be in your life.” things only get complicated and create a real, lasting rift when the friend card is involved in whatever capacity which is why i’m. scared. girl help i haven’t been this scared since summer palace,

[sunset-unbound]

Genuinely, I'm taking longer to get over chapter 36 than the other episodes. The Silt Verses has tragedy, it has pain and horrible things, but at least we have catharsis.

In the end of S1, we thought it was over, and though Carpenter's presumed-death wasn't in her great moment of screaming against her former god, we still had a sense of finality. Of work being done.

Even smaller characters, like Dennis and Sister Thurrocks had strong, lasting impact in shaping the narrative and their deaths came with a punch.

But then we get to chapter 36 and we get softness. We have two people who grasp desperately for little hopes while trying to stay on the fence because they know that good things don't last.

Is there anything crueler than a god of hope?

Everything is cut short for them, before anything impactful and true change happens. They're left at the edge of happiness and then die with a whimper. There's no finality or great catharsis, it just feels unfair.

You could say the ending is ambiguous, but if you're Sebastian you know you lost. And you'll spend every day doubting this miracle, waiting for the catch, for the other shoe to fall. You won't be able to hear Dev's soft reassurances that it's okay and believe him. Any prospect of anything getting better is soured by your cynicism.

This is just what life already was for Seb. He just has even more reason to believe he is right.