#rant XD

[fitzrove]

Society has moved past the need for "together in the afterlife<33" endings to Elisabeth. Like, if that's your takeaway, why would you produce the show oabfösbgödlf

It's not a story about love, it's a twisted mockery of a love story. Lucheni's narration - because it was always supposed to be that and only that!!!! He is not an objective source of information and that is 900% the point!! - uses the conventions of a love story to make a point. Seeing what happens should horrify the audience, and if it doesnt horrify the audience, the audience should think about it a bit and be horrified upon realising that they've been made to root for something horrible (a relationship that kills and destroys) and possibly even find it sweet or comforting. Goes for Elisatod and Todolf both. Lucheni makes a big old romance or seduction narrative - something we're societally wired to enjoy and root for - stand for a lifelong fascination with death. He's the OG romanticiser. But, at the end, it doesn't work if the audience isn't shown the tangible effects and end results of that narrative, which to me are

Elisabeth's cruelty, bitterness and brokenness throughout act 2 and how she TANGIBLY harms other people in the course of her pursuit of freedom (this could also start in act 1 already, with Milch). In this we can root for her, but the audience should never forget the price paid. It's not that she's evil - far from it - we should almost see her selfishness as the only coping mechanism she has in her situation and be drawn to deeply understand and care for her and hope against hope that she'll reach happiness somehow. Which makes it even more tragic that it does still harm others, and EVEN MORE tragic, awful and uncomfortable that happiness slips from her grasp and she's literally joyful that she's DYING

Elisabeth's death as a "ruined" ending to the show. There's a kiss and the music swells triumphantly, still in keeping with Lucheni's pretense that this is a grand love story, but the audience should be left feeling empty and horrified after it ends. I don't care if it's bad for marketing ajfkdkkf. Tod should PUT HER ON THE FLOOR or otherwise show that after the charade is over, she's dead and her imaginary boyfriend can't save her or accompany her because he's an empty husk that doesn't exist unless she's there to imagine him - or, if Tod is a more real figure, that he doesn't care, or can't care. He cares during her life because she pertains to his fate-assigned task, but afterwards, there's literally no way for him to and no reason to. She's gone to a place he can never know about or follow her to. Or he's just done. I think it's a very grave mistake when the show is directed to have a genuinely triumphant-seeming ending. Death is not REALLY happiness, death is not really freedom, even though Lucheni spends the entire show gaslighting us to think that. If Elisabeth has a happy ending, it becomes a show that legit encourages suicide in a way that no amount of todolf flirting or Mayerling kissing can. (I see people wonder about whether todolf romanticises suicide, but in staged productions, it literally never does. It can't, because Tod never is outright tender with Rudolf, or is implied to stay with Rudolf after Mayerling. At least in European prods - idk if this happens in some of the Asian prods, I don't watch them because I don't like what I've seen of the way zuka, toho or koreabeth are directed ajdkkdkf. I can't believe homophobia is protecting todolf from the romanticisation treatment but I think it is 💀).

Overall.......... like, vbw please, less KKOG and more alle fragen sind gestellt. If you want a sparkly elegant princess love story with lots of drama, banger music and don't mind if there's no actual criticism or metacommentary, just go watch Anastasia 💀 (i mean that one does also have historical criticism, but it's just COMMUNISM BAD, aristocracy GOOD lol. Ajdkkdfb if Elisabeth was written by Lucheni, Anastasia was written by dowager empress Maria Feodorovna lmao)

[marsipain]

Norwegian Mikus :)

Left is Miku as a russ and right is Miku in a bunad!

[aimless-passerby]

Role Reversal/The Shire Falls Instead from @bagginshieldweek24 prompts but it is actually this idea I've got recently.

[elizabethrobertajones]

kriles summer trust top is kinda problematic tho... lalafell r smol and should be wholesome.

Aw, come on.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree because within the fiction, lalafell are just as mean, gross and horny as anyone else. Gegeruju is a perv, and the whole Ul'dah Syndicate is full of evil little bastards. On the good side, lala are just as complex and grown up as anyone else - Tataru courts followers and dances in a skimpy outfit in the Forgotten Knight, Giott is a roaring drunk stereotypical fantasy dwarf (not to mention whatever the heck is going on with the Tomra and Komra dwarves in general tbh :P). And Lamitt's story was sweet but it did involve her having adult feelings for Ardbert.

Like, really, I can only think of 4 completely wholesome lala out of a cast of hundreds, and they happen to mostly be the ones we've interacted with a lot (Nanamo; Pipin who is a Heroic Knight archetype; Papalymo, who was a grumpy old scholar man; Krile). But that's more about them being main characters serving roles in the narrative rather than indicative of how lalas behave as a whole. In fact after going through ARR, meeting Pipin and finding One Good Ul'dahn Lala is an enormous relief (since the other one is apparently dead now).

And Krile is a main character now so she's allowed to step out of the shadow of being uwu cat hoodie girl who wasn't written with much depth outside of being serious and earnest and rather spooky; she's actually 22 years old according to the first wiki I found - regardless of if that's totally accurate she's definitely meant to be a peer of the other adult Scions and they all treat her like an adult. Her introduction cutscene has her ribbing Alphy as an older friend laughing at how a much younger one used to behave, so we're supposed to immediately understand on meeting her that she's post-teen since she knew 11 year old Alphy and was of course older than him since he was a freak entry into the Studium at that age. Probably a necessary writing moment because establishing lala's age with hilarious moustaches or deep voices or whatever is a part of how the game has to present them.

Out of the fiction, I know lalas are part of a much wider trope that people do find problematic as a whole (e.g. just because in universe Tataru has babes across the globe and that's normal to everyone involved, who are consenting adults in a world which wholly understands Tataru as a consenting adult, is it actually really creepy that it's happening at all because her body type is toddler-esque? Is it weird in general that lala emotes are SO baby in the same way miqo emotes are SO kitty?

ffxiv definitely goes waaay further into borderline creepy territory than many games with smaller fantasy races in it, when it comes to how lala look, so yeah I know it's a fraught area and can be discomforting to see the game present child-shaped people as having adult desires and a thing some people understandably set aside along with other elements as things they're not happy with co-existing in the game with things they really love.) We can absolutely talk about that on a meta level of how we relate to the game and feel about it, just like things we find racist or uncomfortable in other ways e.g. eng translation Hien's treatment of Yotsuyu being a really problematic point.

But, that's one thing, versus talking about us here in fandom and how we relate to it, and I think your ask is, well, really not very deeply considered on any level, but I think is talking about how we as fandom relate to lalas, based on an inaccurate reading of them in the game, meaning you're really not even analysing a thing about it and therefore your ask comes more in the terms of policing how we should FEEL about Krile's beach outfit, and dictating that we SHOULD find lalas smol and wholesome, and that therefore there's an inherent problem in anyone reacting positively to the outfit, rather than critiquing its place in the game in the first place. Having hit a cognitive dissonance in seeing swimsuit Krile existing you've come to me to complain it's problematic rather than taking any actual meaningful action. Ergo, this is a fandom problem to you, not a game problem. WE should find it problematic and say so, you are implying, shocked that so many people looked at a post about the beach outfits and no one commented as such.

Aside from lalafell being fictional and at no point other than the visuals are they treated as children (and emotes aside, playing through the MSQ as a lala wol you easily fall into seeing them as an adult because of course all the cutscenes share the same level of gravitas no matter what you're playing or what clown costume you have on any player), there ARE actually real humans who are built somewhere closer to lala than not, and would be drawn to playing any of the smaller races in a game (like, gnomes in WoW, halflings in D&D, etc) because that's just their chance at representation. And because FFXIV doesn't have anything other than precious moments doll-shaped people the look might be great in the sense that they have the proportions of a cherub statue and it is a lot harder to meet in the middle than a halfling (notoriously hairy middle aged bastards and much easier to read as adult, though that doesn't exclusively represent people who've had growth developmental differences), that IS still the only representative option some people have in the game and if they want to indulge it rather than play something else with proportions forced on them by many games, then what the hell is wrong with that?

And they WILL go to bat for lalas and get upset when people say that they have to be precious baby characters who act like children. I've seen that on tumblr: there's a whole lala community who keeps kinda low key and away from everyone else by their own admission BECAUSE as soon as they get too much attention they're deluged with hate for playing characters who have adult desires and dress fancy - or, you know, like any other random slutty elf WoL. The fact I wandered onto lala blogs at random and saw that complaint on the first pages should speak to how often they have to deal with it. And, again, within the fiction of the game their characters are completely 100% normal and doing what other lalas who are written by the game do as well. I KNOW those blogs are out there and they'd be scared of getting this exact ask, and it would greatly upset them and ruin their day and put them off having any interaction with the community, which fucking sucks. We're here to have fun!

That said I'm not a weirdo anti all up in others' business, it's also fine to just like lalas and stuff without some huge circumstantial justification like "they look like me" - or - "my IRL wife" or whatever - you can also just play a lala or ship with one and it's like, your business. If that's all you're doing and it's not a hypothetical child molester who also has a whole gallery of lala porn that the cops find when they impound the computer full of REAL CHILDREN stuff as well it's never going to be anyone else's business anyway, ever, and that's like, one hypothetical awful person for a whole fandom of normies who are just surprised by how much idk Pipin's deep voice rocked their world and changed their whole perspective on what a hot character was.

Like, granted, that one HYPOTHETICAL weirdo will make everything rancid because there are people waiting to jump on people who like lalas, but also it still won't actually change what other people are doing into being Evil just because someone who actually hurts children found lalas attractive too. That, again, was the hypothetical awful person's problem and not theirs. And in no way can we just casually imply ALL people who like lalas are just inherently going to be dangerous, like real children, or enacting a private psychodrama teetering on the edge of all that.

They could in fact be completely average and boring psychologically and also have a crush on Tataru. Or, I guess, normal amount of weird for a fandom, but basically average XD In a fictional world where these characters are treated as adults, even normal people will naturally end up drawn to them as adults because, well, that's the story that's we're all engaging in. It's not inherently a thought crime to do so, because, weirdly, thought crimes don't exist.

Also, of course, people will literally discourse that hobbits are child-coded and shouldn't be shipped or seen as sexy, despite the most famous halflings, who made the entire halfling race as a generic brand, all being middle aged, hairy, smoking, drinking, guys with normal adult desires and mindsets. I mean yeah Elijah Wood was 18 when they started filming LotR (over several years so he was Krile's age by the end :P) but also Frodo celebrated his 40th birthday before setting off on the Ring Quest in the book and he was the baby of the group aside from Pippin.

In any case, there's no fucking winning and so I can understand completely that if a fucking Hobbit from Lord of the Rings gets shit for being short, and people are getting called a perv for fancying Sam Gamgee, then why not just embrace it with a Lalafell because you're literally damned no matter what in the eyes of someone who won't meet a LOTR HOBBIT where he stands as an adult man.

There's some DEEP puritanical brainrot going on online and I don't want to be a part of it whatsoever, so it means accepting lala likers for the sake of protecting Merry and Pippin's right to be seen as hot, than like, I know which side of of the line I'm dragging my beach chair. It's not even a question. I'm defending people who think lalas are appealing.

ANYWAY none of this is my business, I don't even find lalas sexy, I just think Krile looks nice in her cute summer top and it's lovely that she's getting fashion advice from her besties, and there's a million reasons to be happy about that and for her as a character, and only miserable bastard reasons to go "aurgh aurgh it's problematic" and condemn the game and everyone who plays it just for enjoying something. Lalas are NOT smol and wholesome, they're short and people, and that's fine.

[xx-sketchy-xx]

*grumble grumble* my photos are being annoying

LOOK AT THE COOL DUDES, I feel like Jax would try and make Wally commit as many crimes as possible with his eye eating powers

[theinsanefoxwriter]

Gregory Deserves Better...

I never make actual posts to be honest, but I feel the need to right now, because I’m just so…tired of this. My favorite character in the newer FNAF era has been mistreated by both fans and the creators. So I’m making this in light of the new book coming that, at least from the description we have right now, sounds like it’s just Security Breach, except Gregory is replaced by Cassie.

I’ve said many times elsewhere how I suspected they wanted to boot Gregory for Cassie, and...I had no idea how right I actually was. It angers me, but…mostly, I’m just hurt and very disappointed, because it sucks to see a character I loved get so disrespected then practically replaced. The ending of Ruin felt like a slap in the face, and the sting is only getting worse. (And very quickly, in case anybody takes this from what I'm saying, no I don't hate Cassie. I just don't want her to completely replace Gregory.) I’m not here to talk about that situation, though.

If anyone for some reason leaves a comment arguing the points I make, I’m just going to ignore or even delete it. I’m not here to discuss or argue with people who disagree with me and/or think Gregory is a bad character. I just want to express an opinion that I don’t think is said nearly enough. And that opinion is the fact Gregory is severely misunderstood and mistreated by both the fandom and canon itself. I’m not going to get into everything, but enough that you can hopefully understand the point I’m trying to make.

Most of the Gregory hate at the beginning was due to him destroying the animatronics and then lying about it to Freddy. I don’t see how this makes him hateable or a bad person. “Why’d he have to go out of his way to destroy them?” “He’s a bad person for lying to Freddy and giving him the upgrades of his friends.” “The Glamrocks were so awesome. Why did Gregory have to do that?” What kid in danger would want to help or be nice to the scary robots trying to kill them? Or against the better argument, why would he have sympathy for them in a moment of intense danger? When they were actively trying to kill him? He did what he thought he needed to survive, which was destroying them and using the good parts they had to give him a better chance against them. If they had been nice, he would have liked them, but they weren’t. They were after him. And choosing to do that plus being able to do that doesn’t make him a bad person, and it doesn’t mean he's uncaring towards others or that he’s heartless. What I think people don't take into account is that Gregory did befriend an animatronic, the one who wasn't attacking him. He went to great lengths to help Freddy, and genuinely cared for him; that bear needed to be rescued on more than one occasion lol, and Gregory clearly wasn't just doing it because Freddy gives him a hiding place.

And in regard to the lying, I think Gregory hid that he was getting the upgrades from Freddy's friends, because he didn't want to make Freddy mad or hurt his feelings. That does sound like something a kid would do, and he is a kid. He's not gonna be perfect in this situation, and he doesn't even do anything that bad. I don't think Gregory gets enough credit. Everybody just sees a mouthy kid destroying animatronics they like (despite the fact they're hunting him, and the virus has made them basically mindless. Why wouldn’t he?), and they hate on him for it and other rather stupid reasons. Gregory is more than the “annoying” kid who destroyed your favorite animatronics. He’s a clearly guarded and defensive child who got stuck in a bad and terrifying situation, but…in the end, stayed anyway to prevent this and other bad things from happening to anyone else. Gregory cares. Yes, even if he destroyed some animatronics. The creators calling him the “darkness of the Pizzaplex” or whatever they said doesn’t make sense. On the surface, he might look like some child who destroyed Freddy’s friends, but look any deeper at all, and that’s not the case. There’s so much potential for his character, and I’m upset that he isn’t being given the spotlight or time to further explore his potential properly, especially since Security Breach ended up being a bit lacking in a lot of areas: perhaps another factor in why he’s so misunderstood.

In the end, I’m simply tired of seeing a character that I connected with treated like he was just a writing mistake that now needs to be replaced by a “better” character. I’m not saying his writing was perfect, but he deserves way better than this. I feel very passionate about the characters I like, which is why this has affected me so much, and I hope at least a few people see this.

Anything I missed I’m going to touch on briefly here:

GGY? A cool concept, actually, that I wish was utilized in the games. And Gregory is clearly possessed there, similar to Vanessa, so him being Patient 46 and causing people’s deaths can’t actually be held against him.

Dropping the elevator on Cassie? I firmly believe that was not him, and very clearly the Mimic’s doing. There’s solid evidence behind it, but I’m not going to get into it because it’s exhausting. Just know that no one can convince me otherwise. And even if the writers wanted Gregory to do that, it’s out of character and clearly an act of character assassination.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Now go hug a misunderstood gremlin!

[house-of-mirrors]

Positive post: I like math, it's cool and useful! The culture of blindly hating math is a problem in an increasingly anti-intellectual society. We need some revisions to the way it's taught to make it more accessible and relevant. In fact, an entire branch of science isn't arcane devil magic!

Comment on tumblr "how dare you say we piss on the poor" dot com: you weren't talking to me but this is ableist because some people have dyscalculia

Record scratch.

Every single post I've seen about enjoying math inevitably has at least one comment like this and it entirely misses the point on multiple levels. Would you say reading and literacy is ableist because some people have dyslexia? No, so leave math alone.

Not everyone can do higher dimensional calculus, but not everyone can read middle English or carve a marble statue either. The experts in each field find great beauty in what they study. Isn't the human spirit of exploration and creativity great?

Like... I use a cane, are athletes ableist because not everyone can participate? I have food allergies, is the dairy industry ableist? Is the sun itself ableist because I get migraines? My hands shake and make it impossible to create precise lines and painful to hold an instrument for more than one minute, is the entire field of visual arts and the community around artists ableist?

The rhythms of calculus and physics are as beautiful as a symphony or a poem or a painting, get out of my house

[linked-maze]

I wish people would stop using the linkedmaze tag when it has nothing to do with the AU and they are just using the tag for attention? in all honesty, I wouldn’t be so bitter about it, but it's the fact that it gets my hopes up that somepony made a long speech about my comic but it turns out it's not :(

[spacebunniezzz]

Okeez so first off I just want to say that I love Hot Topic and I love that they brought back emo fashion and I'm extremely excited for the social collision collection from Xochitl Gomez so this in no way is me trying to put down HT or Xochitl because I'm super excited about what's going on with that collab (and maybe I will even post about it when it comes out)

But I wish HT would bring back scene fashion in full force not just the belts or Gloomy Bear or Invader Zim, I would love to see more neon monster shirts and hoodies come back and I'd love to see Domo make a return, I feel like just like how I see tons of emo content creators and people getting into the style I also see lots of scene content creators and I think it would be cool to bring all of it back in full force since so many people love it.

If they can make black and red clothes for emos than why shouldn't they put out sick neon scene fashion too?

[haveihitanerve]

The thing I love the absolute most about that entire long ass essay that one of you lovely people wrote here a while back about Bruce being rich and hating it and trying so hard to get rid of it and everything… it’s like 99% canon. Bruce is rich as hell and he fucking hates it. He uses it, of course, he needs the money to fund his work and help Gotham and etc etc, but what he hates above all else is people having money and others not and the people who have money not doing anything with it to help. Of course, he does help. A lot. But it’s not even a drop in his enormous wealth. And yeah. He invests so much into Gotham, canonically when he’s not Batman he is donating and funding and building hospitals and schools and doing whatever he can to help, to pay his workers to dispose of his money. Bruce hates being rich with vengeance near his Batman hate for crime, and his kids are 100% the assholes we know and love and will not accept a single extra dollar from him no siree, they make their own money and have their own jobs and they don’t want his do gooder money. Half of them still have the mindset eat the rich and while Bruce agrees it doesn’t bode well for giving them money and making them rich and the other half are rich and refuse to take more money and even give it to him when they feel they’re too far on their siblings radar. 

[heretodefyfate]

“the sleeping princess finally woken up”

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

i've never even seen the show First is from and yet i love your First x Chase Young ship so i have to ask. If anything did HAPPEN between the two of them what sort of emotions would they be dealing with afterwards?

Wow, this is such an unexpectedly nice compliment for me? Cause it means, you are a Chase/XS fan, who saw my crack ship and went 'I don't know what's going on, but I enjoy your silly little ship, funny crossover shipper.' and you know what? It's very nice and made me happy. ;) Thank you!

And well who said nothing ever happened between them lol IF anything happened between those two (be it emotional or physical ;3), their default way of dealing it would be DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL, in similar but also in slightly different ways.

Chase Young is a man who seemingly doesn't do softer emotions. Any possible feelings and reactions who could be attributed to him actually caring about First Ninja, are re-labeled in his head into him doing all of this because he is trying to manipulate First on his side (and he totally still is, but he also now wants to feed that man, talk with him during long evenings and perhaps take a nap with him, you know, disgusting cute domestic stuff amidst oh i dunno- taking over the world and being evil together. >;))

First Ninja on the other hand, is very much aware that for things to go this far means that he is absolutely having emotions about Chase. But he is also in denial, because how can he betray all of his moral standing and beliefs, if he starting to care about someone like Chase Young? So he shoves it so far deep, he is in denial about denial, and turns completely blind to anything even resembling them being something more than opponents who tentavely respect one another.

[galacticghoste]

Another Sona for the small collection XD

She's a Goat bc why not

Also if I had a Chao I want them to look like this lil guy hehehe

Then again I guess the chao could be it's own sona since my sona on this account is a lil ghost maybe I'm thinking too much

Sorry for not being too active artwise

I been so overwhelmed by the thought of school starting that my mental state kinda was everywhere wasn't fun. I didn't even have the desire to draw as usual I was kinda stuck worrying too much about school.

[aimless-passerby]

Finally, it's not in a wip queue anymore. Related to this strange au.

[all-my-ocs-are-evil]

Grojband, but as a band from an early 2000s shoujo manga

[desultory-novice]

There are two kinds of (Dream) Friends:

The Situation: Kirby of the Stars is on the ropes against a new and dangerous foe. He's on the verge of passing out when one of his Friends arrives with perfect Big Damn Heroes timing and says:

(exact phrasing may vary)

"How dare you hurt Kirby?!"

-Bandanna Waddle Dee -Rick, Coo, Kine -Gooey -Adeleine & Ribbon -Daroach -Magolor -Taranza -Elfilin

"I'M the only one allowed to beat Kirby!!"

-King Dedede -Meta Knight -Marx -Dark Meta Knight -Susie -Zan, Francisca, Flamberge