#same kinda applies to the plot/story side of things

[tempestmothstorm]

ok ok so I was just going to draw long haired Sayori but then I came up with a bunch of elementaryish aged designs and now I came up with a bunch of headcanons and more sketches so woohoo lots or text under cut open for more headcanons (also idk why tumblr made the image change quality that is not the same colour or quality I had it in)

Yknow for some reason I just can’t imagine Natsuki being like a happy kid in the past like at all. I think it’s like a “kid who obviously has a bad home life and acts out because of it but nobody’s gonna to actually try to do anything about it so they just put her in detention” kinda vibe. I don’t think anyone outright hates her since she probably would have brought it up in base game/side stories, but she isn’t exactly a beloved member of the school either

In the side stories she talks about being very different in the past and specifically going through a really edgy ‘I hate everyone phase’ in middle school. This isn’t a middle school headcanon but I feel like her being kinda bitter before the total edgy phase makes sense.

I think in contrast to her having a super defined sense of self present day, Natsuki here was a lot more identityless and unsure about what she wants. She gets really into cutesy stuff in the future but here she leans a lot more into the angry side of her because she doesn’t really understand a lot of what she’s feeling. It’s why I didn’t really give her a unique hairstyle, if she had something she’d actually like I don’t think she would have changed it to the pigtails

Also her clothes are kinda bad and has a hole in her sleeve since she doesn’t really get a lot of clothes due to obligatory ~home life angst~ but this post isn’t about that so

She gets into manga pretty early but just kinda enjoys it casually on a surface level thing. She drops it for a bit before picking it back up, and suddenly understanding what plot and themes are lead to her going insane about it until present day.

She’s into skating because I said so

It also makes a great explanation for why she gets a broken arm and why she always has a bunch of bandaids :))))))))

Ok I might also just like giving character designs bandaids

Tbh I forgot if they said Natsuki’s friends met in middle school or not but I think it still applies since they probably knew her through every cringe phase she had (including the fanfics). But either way they were probably one of the few people to actually give Natsuki a chance which is part of why she puts up with their bullying so much. Throughout every phase she might have had they made fun of her every step of the way, to the point she’s just kinda used to it now. Doesn’t help that she thinks her old self was cringe, so by present day she just assumes she deserves whatever bullying she gets from them. Girl needs to have compassion for her past self. And present self tbh

While Natsuki was cringe in the ‘I hate everything’ way, Yuri was cringe in the ‘I am a massive nerd for cringe pieces of media and am going to make everyone aware of that fact’. At least that’s how they see themselves now

She’s a lot more open to talking about her interests. She can and will yap to random people with little to no prompting because she hasn’t really learned yet that people would be put off by it

She’s not overly social but more willing to chat with others with a polite and friendly attitude. She hasn’t been hurt yet so she is filled with joy and whimsy and is overall more cheerful compared to present day

She has her hair like that so I could give the vibe of ‘cheerfully annoying and/or adorable☝️🤓’ nerd archetype instead of ‘would rather become a speck of dust than talk to a person’ nerd archetype. Her hair is generally more dishevelled to show she’s more naive and less elitist I guess. She also isn’t as good at taking care of her hair yet so it looks kinda bad in a charming way(her school would not agree)

Her bangs being up with the headband shows her being more open and willing to be vulnerable to others in a way that’s lost in present day, where her long bangs hide a lot of her face in that one sprite. Her forehead is a metaphor 😭

I don’t really have parent headcanons but the cardigan is from her mom. I just think it’s cute

Random headcanons idrk where else to put but since that one act 2 sprite just borrows the teeth from Natsuki I like to think her teeth is also weirdly sharp it just doesn’t stick out as much. People think her teeth are creepy though so she tries not to smile with her teeth. She doesn’t care to smile like that anyways since she doesn’t really know how to in pictures (me projecting) and her natural smiles are a lot more subtle/don’t show teeth so it’s all fine.

Stating the obvious here but she was totally outcasted by like most of her school. Most people thought she was weird and her enthusiasm off-putting so they’d try avoiding her. She doesn’t really know why they think she’s off-putting though, people just start avoiding her for no reason. A few would go out of their way to bully her too, which ont added fuel to the iscolation fire, which ended up give her massive vulnerability and self esteem issues. Shocker ik. It takes a while to fully break her down from here to her high school self but it does mess her up a lot even then. At this specific point in time though she stills has her innocence so dw it’s fineeeeeee

Her anxiety issues are also there but she still has enough of a positive attitude to go ‘hey this sucks but maybe this time talking about my interests will work and they’ll actually like me!’ even if it didn’t work the last time. She doesn’t really know how else to talk to people so she keeps trying the same thing hoping maybe this time it’ll work out.

Uh.

things get worse. you probably know that

Sayori still the sillyyyyy

But tbh she probably changes the least compared to present day. I mean she gets more mature and less starry eyed but her mask is basically the same as her kid self. I don’t have as much to say on that specifically cause compared to the rest she doesn’t change that much

Yeah Understanding said she used to have long hair but cut it since she couldn’t really take care of it. I feel like even before the depression got worse she sucked at taking care of it because she has the self proclaimed attention span of a donut. Her hair is really scruffy and if you tried to comb it would probably hurt a lot. So she doesn’t ever

Her and mc are still the the goofy-goober and straight man dynamic they have in base game. Sayori drags mc into some shenanigans and mc tries to help her get out of trouble. He also has less of an ‘I don’t want to be seen with this cringe’ attitude he has a bit of in the base game since he isn’t as concerned with reputation because he’s like 7, so he’s more open with being directly nice to her. He acts a lot more genuinely with their friendship overall compared present day where he finds it a lot harder to earnestly share his appreciation of Sayori as a cool sigma male

A lot of their banter is light hearted, but Sayori doesn’t start interpreting his teasing for actual criticism of her character until a little later into their relationship. His jokes probably hurt more in hindsight when they do end up drifting apart because his lighthearted jokes stated feeling more real.

It’s sorta implied in side stories that there was a point where everyone found out about her depression and was worried constantly about her. It probably was from an old friend group considering nobody else seems to know about it, but I feel like mc drifted apart before that considering he doesn’t know. I think they became friends again by sides stories, but considering he doesn’t act like he’s as concerned for her well-being as he is by the end of act one, he probably wasn’t there when everyone else found out and therefore doesn’t know about the depression here either. Idk though side stories have different continuity apparently so who knows maybe that never happened or maybe he’s just stupid

Yeah of course she still has depression here. It probably got worse over time though since I feel like her constant silly oblivious persona would have came from somewhere. She is naturally pretty upbeat, it’s just that she had to lie more over time in order to keep that idea going. Now she feels like that old her is basically dead, with her just masquerading as someone who isn’t there anymore.

She’s like the only one here who has a positive opinion of her past self, to the point where she actively wants to go back and be that person. In a way she still is that little kid, but at the same time things can never go back to how they were. Uh yeah but she still hates herself so I guess no one gets to reap the rewards of caring for their past self.

She also trips constantly. I don’t think it’s that surprising

Since Monika has the least specific info on her past I got to be a bit silly about it and make up as much as I wanted.

She is like completely different from her present self. Similar to Natsuki she’s also sorta identityless but in a weird quiet gifted kid sorta way instead of an angry lost child sorta way.

She’s pretty quiet and doesn’t talk much. With a pretty expressionless face and more deadpan voice she kinda gives creepy horror movie child vibes but the type of child that appears before the horror actually starts (which is to say not actually scary but just kinda weird) (I just realized a lot of this is just me projecting what I was like as a kid but with less prep energy)

Yeah she’s extroverted but at this point she doesn’t really seek out people until she starts actively trying to boost her image

She doesn’t really have many hobbies outside of being a teacher pet and if it weren’t for her stellar grades she totally would of been bullied, but she’s nice enough to help people study so she’s safe

She isn’t really the most popular in school until high school. She does start out as the token prodigy gifted kid so everyone expected her to excel in everything so on a whim she’s like ‘ok guess I’m doing everything now’ and it’s totally not going to alter the course of her life forever

She likes the validation and wants to live up to the expectations so she starts leaning super hard into the perfect image. She gradually starts joining clubs, getting cool achievements, studying for those straight A+ grades, talking to people and networking, and overall changing her image from quiet kid to strong confidence friendly student who’s going to go far. Awesome

She kinda had to train herself to not be weird creepy child and would practice smiling, facial expressions, being more sociable, talking less deadpan, etc. She has a lot of “fake it till you make it” vibes in the side stories to the point I don’t think she even realizes she’s doing it. I imagine her going from weird little kid to most popular high schooler around was like wearing the mask until it became the real thing.

Tbh this whole design started because I really like the headcanon design of her bangs covering her eyes. And then I gave her a stripped shirt because it felt generic but also not boring but it ended up making her look like one of the seven human souls lol

Honestly if I could describe her vibe here in one sentence it would be utdr protagonist but like in prep school

ok that’s it idrk how to end this but thanks for watching hit the like and subscribe and

[codgod]

genuinely i don’t think i’ve ever thought and theorised and analysed any other piece of media as much as i have qsmp it’s so fun

[theycallmeazalea]

My thoughts #5

Okay, so this is a rant about my opinion about the lmk community, especially the community in the west. This is pointing out the “little” problem I see in that side of the fandom, since I mostly seen more stuff about there than in the eastern fan base.

I wanna add that I am in fact NOT Chinese, however I do have Chinese folklore told through my parents due to one of them being into folklore of mainly Hindu and Buddhist folklore, but still knows some stories of other folklore outside of that.

So, I wanna point out how rather hypocritical the fandom in the west is, specifically about what’s right and what’s wrong there. It’s so weird for me personally about how they treat the characters, specifically the characters who are inspired by actual mythical figures in Chinese folklore like Redson/Redboy, Sun Wukong and etc.

1. thing is about what not to ship and what is okay to ship. I’m going to take Sun Wukong and Chang’e for example.

It’s already established in jttw (a Chinese Buddhist book) that Sun Wukong after the journey was ascended to Buddha hood, it’s obvious what a monk in Buddhism is not suppose to be in a relationship, or have any “mortal” connections in order to ascend to Nirvana (a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.).

It’s already known that in multiple series of people’s own spin of jttw where Wukong had a love interest, kinda going against the whole “Nirvana” concept that happened to Wukong. The same goes with in Lego monkie kid, where Sun Wukong didn’t ascend to Buddha hood for plot reasons..

Now here comes Chang’e, Chang’e is the goddess of the mood who’s either married and or in love with Hou Yi. In some versions of her backstory, Chang’e was either in a healthy relationship or in a toxic relationship where by in the most popular versions of her story they split up. Where Chang’e ascended to the moon and Hou Yi lived his own mortal life till the end.

But where comes the complicated part, Chang’e in lmk specifically is never said to have a husband. But since Chang’e’s lore she does have a husband, it’s safely to assume that on lmk she also has one. But the info about their relationship in unknown and if her husband is alive or not.

So, in Lmk Sun Wukong didn’t ascend to Buddha hood (so he’s able to be in a relationship), Chang’e probably has a husband and their relationship is unknown. But where the problem comes is about the ships, the lmk community in the west is A-Okay with shipping Sun Wukong while doesn’t find it okay that some people ship Chang’e with someone else. Their only excuse is that Chang’e is married and forever bound to her Husband. This specific part ONLY applies to mythology, nor have I ever seen a part where it was said that Chang’e was forever bound to her husband (if there is proof of that, please do show me). But then the community is okay with shipping Sun Wukong, even though in the myths Wukong ascended to Buddha hood and the community just turned a blind eye towards it because they find the Sun Wukong ships cute.

WHERE’S THAT LOGIC? Why only apply to one SPECIFIC character and not to the OTHER one?! What? Did that “rule” grew legs and skedaddle off the face of the earth or something? Am I missing something? Or is it just because you don’t want a character to be shipped so you gatekeep them in the at most un-logical way?

Okay, another thing. This time I’m gonna be honest with this, Nezha and Redboy..

We all know how both characters are VERY similar, a bit too similar that people confuse the other for the other. Now, Redson and Nezha are both adults in the present of lmk. This is a sensitive topic amongst the fandom about Nezha, because someone accidentally spread misinformation about Nezha. And we all know what the topic was about.

Now anyways, Redboy in lmk is an adult, being around in his early 20’s. We physically saw how he aged, we saw his 2 forms. Adult and child form. And the lmk community agrees that Lmk Redson is an adult, even though In jttw Redboy is seen as a child. Not as any other age. Not adult, just portrayed as a child.

How there’s Nezha, also in his 20’s but obviously older than Redboy and even Sun Wukong. Same story with Nezha, he’s an adult in lmk but instead of only seeing as a child in myths, Nezha is seen as both a child as well as a young adult. Not only that, but Nezha appeared in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Being named Nalakubara instead of Nezha/Nazha. But the fandom in the west (because of that misinformation) infantilize Nezha, saying he’s eternally a child, specifically a 12 year old.. And in all honest words, from my research and experiences never in my life have I ever heard a god having a specific age, as in I never heard how old they were in the present. Never in my life. I never heard ever about Nezha being 12. Did some reading on many sites and asked many people, I was never told he was 12. Only that Nezha is a youthful deity being at the age of toddler or young adult.

The only proof I saw in the fandom about this claim is somewhat, but easily countered with heaps of evidence that Nezha’s age in mythology is fluid. I wanna remind everyone that Nezha is over 3000+ years old in mortal years. Since he was born is the Shang dynasty it’s kinda simple math to realize what his mortal age range is. Because of how ancient he is, the info about him is scattered throughout the earth. Whereby it’s hard to know what’s true or false, so we depend on more modern interpretations of him. And on modern depictions, he’s both seen as a child to young adult. I remember a post where their evidence is the fact they were inspired by a so called “child god”, which is literally false because the god they were talking about was Maha Krishna and Nalakubara. First of all both figures grew up and had a family, and second just because Nezha was inspired by a part of Maha Krishna’s life doesn’t mean Nezha’s is forever a child because they were only inspired by that part of the story. Because by that logic Sun Wukong is also a child because he was inspired by Hanuman’s childhood.. like it doesn’t make ANY sense.

And I understand why so many people gatekeep Nezha because they don’t want Nezha to be shipped with a canon characters, but to spread misinformation makes you no different from others. If anything use REAL information why shipping Nezha with for example Sun Wukong is weird, because 1 they met when Nezha is a minor and Wukong was at that point an adult.

2. The fact that lmk is not a direct copy of jttw or any Chinese folklore.

The day when the lmk community FINALLY realize that lmk is not jttw is the day I can feel peace in my heart. I see so many people bickering about how “oh not to do that” or “not to do this” because of the fact a character was “a direct copy of this god”. Look, I know lmk is not fully finish so we depend on jttw and fsy about how the plot will go and how the characters back story is.

But to FULLY depend on jttw or fsy for lmk is pointless, lmk has its own timeline and spin of jttw. Which makes lmk already its own story and lore, doesn’t matter if it’s heavily influenced by jttw. It’s still its own plot. Just think that lmk is it’s own AU of jttw. So go comparing a character to their mythological counterpart, just to proof something is still useless. It’s like comparing a bowl of chocolate chip cookies with vanilla chip cookies and say that they’re the same flavor because of the fact they’re a cookie. That doesn’t make sense. Lmk god figures are VERY different from the actual mythological ones, sure their lore is kinda similar but really different. I mean look at Sun Wukong’s lore, it’s almost not the same with the jttw Sun Wukong.

This is all I have to say for now, I’ll probably post more about the troubles in the fandom somewhere in the future..

-

[trashlama]

Heeeeeyyyyy.... guess who's ADHD can't let them write for shit?~ This bitch✨~

I suuuuuucck guys I know! I did a poll and everything just so I would have to write some of these! I just couldn't help but get side tracked.... My brain is in the LMK and Spiderverse fandoms!!! Though I will say I basically got this Rise Donnie x Big Mama Assistant req almost done. Almost I say. We'll see if I post it in the next two days and not something else random instead.... I suck lol

Anyways— here's my 3am thoughts from the other night that I'm finish up tonight ironically at 3am again. Soooo bare with me these are basically a bunch of summaries/plots/not fully flushed out possible one shot ideas I might do. Probably could've re-read it a couple more times buuuuttt it's about to be 4 now so....

I hope you guys enjoy!

Sorry this is long↓ I don't own these memes. I've never claimed to do so. I just come across them on Pinterest when I'm on break at work and think they're funny so I like to share them. If I mistakenly put one on here that I shouldn't have please let me know! I like to respect people's wishes. And if you could add the creator names too that would be great so the same mistake isn't made twice. Sorry for the inconvenience that my sharing may cause. I hope you have a good day.

+++++++++++++++++++

Sooooo I was going through the Across the Spiderverse tag(specifically Miguel O'Hara) because you know he's hot. Priorities— Anyways— I kinda had an idea. Brahhzz what if I just took the whole Miguel kidnapping his dead wife/lover's alternate dimensional copy deal that everyone has been throwing around and introduced a new take on this tale?

We all know that the Spiderverse is very open to a wide selection of possibilities and versions of Spiderman and we're all aware that the same thing applies to other characters as well. Soooo who said that Y/n has to be a civilian/or a version of Spiderman for this idea to work?

My fellow peeps I introduce to you Earth 2099 Miguel O'Hara x  Villain/Alchemax worker/Morally Grey scientist Reader!

I can kinda see this playing out in a few ways.

1.)Villain reader investigating the strange phenomenon that occurred a couple months before hacking the multi verse and stirring up trouble. Miguel intervenes and takes what he wants.

For the last year since the bizarre phenomenon in downtown Brooklyn you've been stirring up more trouble than you typical due to collecting the materials needed for your "experiments" to figure out what that phenomenon really was and what the hell was Alchemax —your ex-employers— were up to with your research. With some finessing of the illegal kind you figure out what the corporation was up to. Before being fired you had discovered the existence of the multiverse however before you could investigate any further you were let go. Now that you have your research back you're able to Doc Octo this shit and break into the multiverse. If you could pull this off nothing was stopping ya' from fulfilling yer goal and maybe scoring some fame while you were at it. After some convoluted ass science mumbojumbo. You manage to Doc Octo this shit and break into the dimensional web that held the spider verse. Inside the alternate universe you immediately start messing up shit straight off the back as soon as you fly through the colorful portal. Miguel is quick to pick up on this anomaly and sends some Spiders out to handle the issue. Long story short— they fail. Forcing Miguel's hand to go and correct the anomaly himself. Only to find that it was you. Her. His dead wife/or dead lover. The only problem is that you're obviously not a good guy. Miguel being Miguel will try to rationalize it to himself as he demolishes your equipment/suit that you're not his Y/n, you're a villain, he can't keep you without risking a whole universe just for his selfish desires. However as he stood over your defeated helpless form. He decided. If one anomaly can exist and not destroy existence why can't another? There were ways around this. There had to be. Holding you in his grasp again the hero wasn't sure if he could let you go once again....

2.) You're an inventor/scientist that works at Alchemax/or your another rogue scientist . Either way you're looking to get into the Spider verse. Since the phenomenon from a couple months ago you've been intrigued by the strange occurrence. The news labeled it a "strange weather occurrence" however you knew that wasn't the case. If you're working at Alchemax you've known about the phenomenon since the beginning. If you're an inventor/scientist (with some grey morals) you found out after some research and trespassing. Either way your tinkering pays off thanks to the help of some stolen tech from Alchemax and an interesting glitch from the hacked tech. You eventually have yourself a fully operational universe hopping watch. And where do you end up? Right in the middle of Earth 2099. Miguel is immediately alerted of your presence. An obvious stranger to this Jetson world you find yourself quickly apprehended by a small group of spiders/or Miguel. Either way the red & blue leotard nosferatu as soon as he catches sight of you the dude is all over you. Miguel may be a man who would like to believe he is in control of himself and his rash decisions buuuuttt that's gonna be a nah. Never had the Spiderman ever expected to speak to an alternate version of his dead wife. Especially in person. Every time he's stolen a glance it was from a distance or behind one of his various monitors. He couldn't risk ruining another verse. However somehow regardless of his attempts to keep his desires at bay you've still managed to break past that last thing that was keeping you from him. Now that you're here the thirty year old wasn't sure if he could let you leave him again...

3.) What if instead of breaking into the multi verse. Alchemax employee/Morally Grey scientist Reader! is lured into the multiverse? In your home verse the Miguel who you had married was dead. Struggling with piling debt and depression you choose to bury your problems under research into the weird phenomenon that occurred in downtown Brooklyn a few months before. During this time of trial and error you figure out how to access the multiverse thanks to some misplaced Alchemax files and risky choices. The documents aid in building the device that would aid in your plan to find your ex-husband's alternate universe copy. All the while you were walking right into Miguel's clutches. Cause like you Miguel was having an equally hard time getting over his family's death. Although they are gone the widowed father couldn't help but, search for his loved ones amongst the various worlds that rest at his finger tips. He needed them. He needed you....and you needed him. Although you guys weren't from the same earth you both can replace the pain that was birthed from this tragedy and regain something more. Just be a family.... Hopefully you want to play his game because Miguel couldn't watch from the sidelines any longer.

Alrighty guys that's all for now! Sorry if they're a little all over the place. Regardless I hope you guys liked them and I hope you guys have a good week!

[butterkofiinthemorning]

I was trying to find Mangas that have similar vibes to Dungeon Meshi because it's really the best media I ever consume for awhile and it checks all the boxes on what I'm looking for in a story.

But then, maybe I'm just trying to find something that is plot consistent or ever growing, character driven and at least have some system within the story. No ass pull whatsoever. Probably why I dislike most of the Isekais so much and the lazy writing of some OP characters (Mob Psycho 100 and One Punch Man might be my only exception for this, because they did handle OP characters very well).

The reason I liked Hunter x Hunter more than any other shonen out there is because of the nen abilities well explained (and it's the basis for Jujutsu Kaiden CTs) and it can potentially grow.

Railgun on the other hand got my curiosity with how abilities could be applied. I don't have the same sentiments with Index as I'm more pulled in by the science sides of things and I kinda dislike some harem sub elements on it, both the mother and the spin off story.

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So, from what I gathered these will probably be my to read list;

1. Witch Hat Atelier - I've seen some artworks, and it's one of the best panelling I've ever seen. Plus it's the fantasy closest to Dungeon Meshi. And the author's a fan of Good Omens! I think.

2. Blue Period - The talent vs. hardwork discussion made me wanna read it.

3. Fool Night - Apparently Sui Ishida liked this, and I watched some video regarding this and it pique my interest delving back to this type of genre.

4. The Summer Hikaru Died - Hmm.. I've seen this quite a few times last year when I was scrolling through a raw manga, and honestly the blue background and some ominous looking boy got my attention.

5. March Comes in Like a Lion - I've been dismissive of this for quite a year/s because I thought it was too heavy for me back then. But now that I'm in the mood of ever growing characters, I would like to read it. Though what really made me read about it is because the artist is the same with Oberon's design which I really liked in FGO.

6. Chainsaw Man - I already know what happened. I watched a summary video in YT that explained Part 1 and Part 2. BUT I wanted to give it a proper read. Denji and Asa is something special and yet relatable to me in a sense. Plus I like how clean his panelling is for this.

7. Kaze Hikaru - Man, I looove Shinsengumi. Okita has been my favourite character in FGO and my first 5 star saber. But this Manga, it fleshes out his character more and also the Shinsengumi as a whole up until it's downfall. I already read some of it but I think I just can't find the continuation.

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Maybe this post is just a reminder for myself on what I'll be reading because I'm too forgetful in everything. I doubt anybody is reading this though.

[stealthsuitdeku]

I kinda wanted to share a few thoughts on why I think All for One possibly was a university professor, mostly because it’s a seemgly small thing but I think it adds interesting layers to him and possibly give us an idea on how his rise to power might have been so… here we go ^^’

1- The place where his last battle with the 2nd OFA user took place

Now, this was the detail about him that first set off this whole speculation train of though: as it was pointed out by @nakamafor on twitter isn’t any random place but rather the University of Tokyo.

Despite most of it being destroyed we can still make out that the walls of the Takeda Auditorium behind them, and the buildings around are also set in the same layout as the University of Tokyo

(kinda like they also noticed that the place being bombed for having people who oppose AFO also seems to be a irl place)

Now it seems that a lot of detail was included to this brief panel, true, but is it enough to conclude that AFO has any connection to this place? Was it just a coincidence that the battle took place in here?

2- Sensei

One of the most defining things about AFO that we know of is that he plays a role of a mentor, an autority, a Teacher. This was ever since his introduction, before we even knew about his connection to the noumus or to One for All

.

Also it is not unsual for him to go on long spiels and infodumping, it’s the role he seems most confortable with

3 - Ujiko

Ujiko’s backstory and the key event that brought him and AFO together was the article he released about the Quirk Doomsday theory, where he was the one to first speculate about the possibility that, as quirk evolves, they could reach a sincularity where there would be no way for control them or wield them in any way

Notably amoung his circle of academics he was widely rejected and the theory was met with disdain with everyone other than AFO. This was Ujiko’s side but what about AFO?

If anything this fact seems to demonstrate that AFO is acquainted with academic circles, and he paid close attention to studies regarding quirks. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if he belonged to theses spaces as a member, possibly as a professor.

4 - Boku

Now, we know that throughout the manga AFO and Izuku share many similarities and have many parallels.

Most notable is their affinity with quirks and using them by creating a combination

One of those similarities is that they both, in the japanese version use “boku” to refer to themselves in the first person. Which mean that “my hero academia” could apply to both of them, this story could be the one of the rise of the OFA user or the story of the greatest viilain, All for one.

In a way, this specific parallel is a mean to tie the plot, both how things started and how they will end. In one academy, rose of the Greatest villain, from another academy (UA) the greatest Hero of All time will rise along the people he saved and inspired, in order to defeat this Villain.

[mrstsung]

DEADASS old man shang tsung should be loved more

Like mk legends shang tsung specifically is absolutely delicious.

(Minus some things like not really showing his treachery to shao kahn. Like it's playing a bit too safe in the cunning department. And honestly makes it look like he's a sinp for shao kahn when he fucking wasn't and hated his guts and would happily stab shao in the back 1000 times over if you ask him and given him the opportunity to. And not to mention it's so convenient around plot. And i hate that. Because honestly holy shit this shang had potential. He had the presence,the aura,but never really shown to fight. And it sucks. Because shang is supposed to be a beast in kombat. He was a fucking boss after all. Like gdi nrs. Why you gotta fumble this guy so hard?! Like the writing is right there!)

Anyways. Old man shang. Let's get back to that.

The reason why i feel old man shang or at least how shang tsung IS SUPPOSED TO BE.

This mofo is cursed. To age. Less he takes the lifeforce/souls of others Because he decided to say "fuck you elder gods! Imma take your ritual healing dark magics and apply it to kombat. Imma take this shit and make it my own!" DEADASS a Dracula energy/soul vampire. Like this man despite everything,still could whoop your ass because he is fucking 500yrs old! From old dynasty china. In earthrealm. Yeah.

This man used to be a warrior from earthrealm,got into beef with raiden,and said fuck you im switching sides as soon as he caught whiff of an opportunity to(at least in his mind at the time) be treated "better" (which he really wasn't as better off,maybe even worse,but he had some power and some better standing tho at a cost)

Like you could take shang tsung in many ways. But all in all he doesn't need to be twirly mustache to be evil. Nor does he need to be good or "SOME GODS PLAYTHING!" to be righteous or do honorable things.

Legitimately mofo shang tsung as an old man should be written as a person who comes off as uncannily and eerily calm,a air of danger but you can't really run away nor want to. You're too damn curious even tho you're screaming inside to run. He needs that true fucking snake vibe.

Very few people have written and portrayed this successfully. And tagawa pioneered that well vibe for villains imho. (Tho the man was unfortunately typecasted by Hollywood this man by god set the bar high. He did it so damn well. He put his whole heart into this. And honestly out of all his roles,this was the most notorious of his roles. Tho i hope this man gets more leisure roles and happier roles in the future. And eventually has a safe,and peaceful retirement. He deserves it. Fr. Thank you Mr. Tagawa seriously. <3 )

Artt butler did a fantastic job with shang tsung,tho given a better script it would be better.

Same with alan lee. I feel his would have made me like it more if fans and story weren't shit.

But all in all shang tsung being rejuvenated and young is nice. And should be shown especially since he is cursed. But his default,unpopular opinion here but. His old man form should be his default look. If not old man old man,then a but of salt n pepper at bare minimum.

Honestly,shang i prefer at his old man look because thats what i well grew up on. And that's kinda how i see him. 🤷‍♀️ *shrug*

Like guy is a flashier more fancy pai mei from Tarantino's kill bill to me. Maybe slightly bit more nicer and considerate but not by much. Lol.

I could go on and on about old man shang tsung specifically. But I'll leave this at.

Honestly we just need to bring him back. We need to bring back shang tsung with that vibe. We need to not make him conveniently made for plot. No give me the shang tsung that i fucking knew.

That bastard needs to make a comeback. And mk11 can't be the only game that he does it in.

And mk legends can't be the only media outside the games that does it either.

Anyways,old man shang. I love this foxy grandpa.

[haleigh-sloth]

What Present Mic said to Shiragiri in this chapter bothered me, and I know it's best to wait until the full translation but I doubt the translation is going to make it sound better I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same thing still. I'm tired of the villians being dehumanized.

It's good that it bothers you, because it's supposed to.

Mic was never the one who was going to be super tied to ShiraGiri's influence on the battlefield. That was always, always Aizawa.

Mic is barely a character. I mean he's been there from the beginning, but beyond knowing his attachment to Shirakumo and Aizawa, he doesn't have much to him. So it wouldn't have made sense for him to have an open mind.

Not to mention, I feel like people forget this actually, look at the difference in his and Aizawa's reactions to Aoyama:

Mic has a slightly averse reaction to Aizawa saying he "feels the same as the kids" (foreshadowing much?). And then:

Mic says this, meanwhile Aizawa:

I mean, imo Mic hasn't earned the "suddenly an open minded old gen hero ready to change the status quo" role in the story. I expect him to ultimately side with Aizawa and the kids in the end, but only because that story calls for it and not because his character was necessarily built up to it.

That talk Aizawa had with Aoyama is so obviously meant to be repeated later...to someone else.

"I feel the same as the kids". Blatant foreshadowing for Aizawa. Not to mention him thinking about Kurogiri RIGHT then and there when he is saying those things. It's almost like he knows this speech might apply to more than just Aoyama, at some point, somehow.

Look at all the adult characters who have relevance and impact on the plot: All Might, Endeavor, Aizawa, and Gran Torino. Out of those characters, the only one who has the same type of arc as the kids who will save the villains is Aizawa. ShiraGiri is his villain. It's pretty much the exact same type of set up.

He has to reconcile the current version of his villain with who they used to be. Midoriya sees the crying kid inside Shigaraki, so the next step is tying that kid to the person Shigaraki turned into, and helping those two parts of him reconcile--thus he is saved. Shouto knows Touya is his brother, and by god he is TRYING to view him as Touya, but he keeps treating him as Dabi. He's trying. Toga, same story. She was a normal teenager like Ochacko, experiences the same feelings as her. Ochacko has to accept Toga for who she is now by acknowledging who she used to be.

Aizawa---it's exactly the same. Accept ShiraGiri for who he is. Someone different, but still the person he knew in his childhood nonetheless.

Mic doesn't have that ingrained into his arc. He's kinda just there, and he's presenting the opposing ideals that are set up to eventually be shut down later. He sounds like Gran Torino--"death is better". We as readers know BNHA doesn't believe that. So his beliefs will be shut down later.

[cringefaecompilation]

been thinking about my post again for what’ll happen after the weird moon shit gets fixed. imogen obviously has all her stuff tangled up in the main plot so as soon as that gets solved she’ll be good to just chill after the fact. orym’s also tied to the main plot with otahan and there’s not really anything in his backstory that could come back to cap it all off (like… is there any grounds for some kinda twist where orym’s shitty deadbeat dad is the BBEG? does anybody actually want that?) because imho his arc is about him realizing who he wants to be as a person, not about something in his past coming back to bite him.

chetney really has nowhere else to go with his character arc. they’ve hit all their bases and dotted all the i’s. he’s just along for the ride now. ashton’s titan (and dunamancy) stuff does apply to the main plot and possibly could lead to other story beats, but the hishari have been toast for decades and i’m not really holding out hope for a "secret hishari cult that’s been running underground in secret" twist.

laudna’s arc is obviously being set up for her to kill off delilah on her own terms (marisha said on a 4-sided dive that she felt uncomfortable with everyone else having to solve laudna’s problems "like she was their drunk friend" so um. orym opened a door to let delilah through and on the other side of that door is laudna with a steel chair LMAO), but i can’t really see that being a massive endgame thing. and while i am fully jonesing for a "reverse bard’s lament" moment with dorian, likewise i can’t help but reckon that the fallout of that would be a b-plot.

and sure, there’s been a lot of talk about space travel and underwater kingdoms but that all seems like possible venues they could go with in a possible campaign 4 or miniseries. so what does that leave us? fcg and fearne. and oh boy do we have a lot of stuff to be explored with them.

because with fcg, they have devexian. another aeormaton that is bringing back more and more of their kind. tons of which could also have the exact same care and culling programming that fcg has. and unfriendly reminder that the gods literally nuked aeor from low orbit, so with ludinus flapping his gums about "ew gods" this could lead down some dark roads for what devexian’s end goal for reintroducing these robots into modern society is.

and of course, my beloved fearnie, who for some reason had a vision of dark eyes glowering at her and a decimated feywild before her as she almost died and had someone sent after her who wanted her entire family dead. but for what reason were they wanted dead? weren’t they just trying to stop the apocalypse from destroying the feywild? why would the unseelie court have a problem with that? unless there’s something else going behind the scenes…

tl;dr i think that the endgame is either gonna focus on fearne or fcg, maybe both.

[ahamkara-apologist]

please hear me out. sagira comes back. and everyone comes together at the end of the story/raid to fuck up the Witness. and we get to see Osiris back to his peak as he unleashes hell with Saint

I appreciate how even tumblr agrees so much with bringing Sagira back that it sent your og ask (the one I'm answering rn) three times and your follow-up twice lmfao

But yeah if Cayde, (aka the guy whose death progressed the plot of the story more than he ever did when he was alive*) gets to come back, then I feel like Sagira should as well. I'm hesitant to think that we'll see her reuniting with Osiris- because I don't know if Osiris is gonna be in Final Shape when he was already in Lightfall- but I do really think that it's kinda a fucking shame that we never really got to see the full extent of Osiris's powers, given the fact that he was one of (if not the most) powerful Guardian who ever lived. Sure, we see his reflections and him popping a super in Curse of Osiris, but that's not even close to the shit he did in the lorebooks that I'd kill to see. And tbh, I'd love to see them reunite, reconcilliate over what happened, and then maybe have Osiris realize post-channeling her Light again that he really has found closure with losing it, sort of like driving past your childhood home and realizing that you've moved on for good. I also want Sagira herself to see that Osiris is okay, and that he's become more mellowed out (a teeny bit) now that he's living with Saint, allowed to do research on Strand, and has found fufillment in his job teaching Guardians on how to use it. They've been pair bonded for hundreds of years- thousands if you take into account the time distortion of the Infinate Forest- so it would be a massive wasted opportunity to not have Sagira as one of our guides, and for her to acknowledge how Osiris has grown without her. I think she'd be happy for him, even if the road to get there was hard and bittersweet.

As for the idea of bringing her back for good- it's kind of a mixed bag? I don't think that Cayde is gonna be undeaded at the end of Final Shape, so it probably wouldn't be the same for Sagira, and the arguments that people have about it undoing the whole purpose of their deaths certainly can apply there. (I also think that if Sagira was to ever be returned, it should be via the Young Wolf, Ikora, and Saint teaming up with the Sundial to do it once Mercury was returned, rather than through the Traveler itself.) But on the other hand, I think that Sagira differs slightly from Cayde in that bringing her back doesn't really undermine the impact that her absense had. For one, Cayde's death was a very fitting character beat for him; he always had a sad streak, buried grief from all he'd lost, so death wasn't something that was too jarring or terrible for him because he had lost loved ones presumably waiting for him on the other side (ex: his line 'I'm coming home, Ace'). It was also a fitting death, going out in a blaze of guns and glory, which I suspect is how he expected to die for a good long while- maybe even wanted. And his death was also a catalyst for a long chain of very undoable things to happen, the most prominent being the rise of Crow, and how he was shaped by Cayde's legacy. There is no going back from Cayde's death because of the sheer SIZE of the ripples it made.

(Personally, I think that Cayde being a ghost stuck in the Traveler Dimension doesn't exactly negate this at all, because if he's stuck in the dimension of what once-was in the Traveler, that still means Crow is needed to take his place as Hunter Vanguard- and there's a lot of potential there for Crow to meet him, come to peace with what Uldren did, and to gain the tutoring he needs in order to rise to that position. Cayde can pass on the mantle, endorse Crow to Ikora and Zavala so they don't feel guilty at giving his position to his once-murderer, and then his prescence in FS would be that last nick of closure needed to put him to rest. Which I think that he not only needs, but also wants.)

Sagira's death, on the other hand, was extremely in-character...and also extremely abrupt, and way more focused to a singular character- Osiris. It felt right that someone as stubborn and fiery and fiercely protective would have sacrificed herself to save him, and it was what allowed Savathun to posess him, but in terms of the death and the more widespread impact? Her death was abrupt, and the damage done by Savathun was reversable. Osiris himself was the one who suffered the most from her death (and Saint too, by virtue of being close to Osiris), but I'd argue that her death and its relation to him was less an earthquake chaining into a tsunami and closer to what Mara felt when Uldren died and was revived as Crow- a slap of cold water to the face. Osiris was stubborn, arrogant, entirely determined to save the whole universe by himself- and then his own actions lead to Sagira needing to sacrifice herself to save him, and he was suddenly forced to sit the fuck down and confront the sheer impossibility of his situation. He's mortal now. He's mortal, and he's vulnerable, and is now reliant on other people- so much so that it was Saint and Misraaks who saved his life, and barely. Before, he could just steamroll past all his limits and concerns- and he did- but now there are no second chances, and finally can see what that arrogance and high standards cost him. Sagira dying forced him not only to slow down, but also that he is no longer alone, and can rely on those he loves to solve the problems he used to try to take on by himself-problems far too big for only one man. It taught him how to process grief, and how to appreciate life instead of being so focused on the future that everything sped him by. And it taught him that not only was he no longer the exiled heretic warlock who did everything alone because he HAD to, but that he had a purpose beyond being a Guardian, and people other than Saint who valued and trusted him- people that he could trust in return.

Her death was the harshest lesson he'd ever been taught. Her death changed him. And that isn't something that can be undone, even if she returns and he becomes a full Lightbearer again. Truely, if she returns, it wouldn't have been for naught, because now Osiris has seen what happens when he Icarus dashes flies too close to the sun. It would just be an upgrade to the Osiris we have now, and might even soften him up further. Maybe. From super-hardass to hardass to medium-hardass, I suppose.

(And I really wanna see Ghost and her reunite, aaa. AND I want to see her meet Glint!! Just imagine the teasing that could happen if she met Glint)

Besides- Sagira is the ghost of the Phoenix. It would be fitting for her to return, and to potentially rise again. It wouldn't make sense for any ghost, but it would with her.

*Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm adding on a side note here that I don't think Cayde's prescence in Destiny pre-Forsaken was worthless, because it wasn't. He was a very beloved side character, and he did have his place in helping along other major storybeats, but it was BECAUSE he was the hypeman on the sides that his death became a major plot progressor. All that buildup of him being a steady constant was what cumulated in him dying being such a big bang. Sagira did the same, but the impact of her death was focused on Osiris rather than the Young Wolf

[semi-sketchy]

Well, that's Sonic X finished. Yes I still really like the show.

Firstly, season 3 is a bit mixed. The first half it struggles a bit to find it's footing with the rhythmic "new planet, Metarex stole the egg but are still there for some reason, fight ensues". It gets pretty tedious. Honestly, at this point I was missing the human characters and their antics. Like Mr. Stewart shadowing everyone as if he was coy, Rouge having Topaz to bounce off of, Ella and Chuck... I wanted something to spice it up.

However, the second half, after the Emeralds get scattered again, it starts being less formulaic, having reveals and turns into some good entertainment.

Although, Eggman stuck out to me as being particularly not great this season. First half when he's causing trouble and such is fine, but then when he becomes a sort-of double agent and starts looking out for Sonic and his friends...I just didn't like that for Eggman. It was framed more as fatherly-oversight instead of Eggman perusing his best interests. It only happened a few times in season 1 and 2, so it was easier to overlook there, but it's prevalent enough in season 3 for me to take issue with it.

On the plus side, Shadow is actually enjoyable! I didn't care for how Shadow (or SA2 in general) were done in season 2, but I liked what they did with him here. He's kinda neutral, clashing with Sonic and trying to kill Cosmo, but at the end of the day his interests are still to stop the Metarex and save the universe. He's cold, but his actions show he does care, he just has his own way of doing things. Plus he is a bit of a showoff.

I still think season 1 overall is my favorite with 3 in the middle and lastly 2. Man the Discotek subtitles made season 2 worse...

I also went into this biased that the changes between the dub and sub were negligible. Perhaps because the dub isn't as fresh in my mind as when I formed that opinion, but the sub is definitely my preferred version now. I prefer the Japanese voice cast (I wish Cream could have an English VA as good as her Japanese X one, high pitched yet so soft spoken...it's so easy on the ears) and the music is so much better.

The biggest difference for me is Chris. I actually liked him. I can't exactly narrow down why, he used to annoy me, but that wasn't an issue this time. Maybe I've grown up, perhaps the writing frames him better in the sub, maybe it's this specific translation, I can't tell.

Are the dialogue changes that huge? No. Don't get me wrong, there is a difference, however the show's plot is still the same and understandable in the dub, which, makes sense. The story has to follow the animation. Like I said earlier, the translations between these two languages is somewhat subjective and sometimes sentences need to be shortened or made longer to fill the space. That's why plenty of lines carry the same or similar meaning but are said in a different way.

Yes, the writing is better in Japanese, hell everything is better in the Japanese version and I think that applies to season 3 the most. Could I recommend it over the dub? Easily. If possible, watch the original version. Although if you really can't stand subtitles and want the audio in English (or only have access to YouTube where the Japanese version doesn't have English subs), is the dub acceptable? Also yes, it'll do.

You do have to deal with the censorship in the dub, though I've been aware of it since I was a kid. The animation censorship is silly and stupid, but aside from Chris getting flung in season 2, I didn't think the cut scenes removed much of value. However, while I didn't like the beginning of an episode reusing the end of a previous one during bingeing, when coming back to watch more after a few days, it was a nice refresher. A reminder of a time when you had to wait a week to see what happened next instead of bingeing an entire season in a day. I liked it even though it isn't necessary in this day and age.

As said before, this was not my first time watching X in Japanese. I saw it several years ago and this series rewatch was moreso an excuse to say I finally used the Blu-rays I spent money on.

If I had to rate it, 8/10, maybe even an 8.5. Solid show where there's some very high highs and the lows are still quite enjoyable while the cast is mostly faithful to their game personalities. There's a reason this show has reigned supreme in the fandom for such a long time.

Coming off of Frontiers, it was a nice reminder that yeah, Sonic is still good.

Anyways, I guess next is Boom, although I rewatched it like a year or so ago when I bought the steelbook. I've seen it so many times, I've practically got the show memorized by now. Spoilers: I like it a lot.

[cloud-somersault]

Your fic "The constellations within us" was so perfect, and exactly what I wanted and needed for since I joined the fandom. I wish I had eloquent words but english is not my native language, and I'm struggling with the translator now, but this fic is probably one of the most high quality ones I’ve ever read so i've finally worked up the energy to leave a solid comment.

I love your prose, the descriptions and internal monologues are so immersive and emotional that I need to reread over and over again. The worldbuilding scratches my brain real nice, all contribute to make a really cohesive image that canon still doesn't quite achieve in my opinion. And you did a good job capturing the mood and humor of the show with every little detail but at the same time you’ve added a whole new dimension to the plot and characters. Keep cooking, I beg you but also have mercy on me. I imagine you saying something like: I am going to create an situation that is so emotionally fucked up before writing any chapter.

I really love the way shadowpeach interact in this story. From trying to kill each other to sharing the food. It's kinda crazy that people genuinely thought shadowpeach was a one sided crush until s4.

To be honest, I'm not a fan how the fandom treats shadowpeach but you have successfully kept the characterization of mystical monkeys to perfection while setting up a realistic shadowpeach plotline. I read this quote in another fic but it applies very well to them: "They really embody the pain/comfort thing, except that comfort is understanding and trust."

Sun Wukong is canonically a latent danger that not even the most powerful entities in celestial realm or underworld could subdue him, but he has no self preservation skills whatsoever. He's a bleeding heart. He's the one who sacrifices everything possible to protect the few he loves because, god, he has lost so much. The immortality he achieved with peaches, wine, pills, among many other things, may have made him indestructible on the outside, but inside they made him emotionally vulnerable, lonely and afraid of attachment. This monkey can fit so much trauma and he's holding a lot close to his chest even from the audience. The fandom villainizes him unfairly, but sometimes they also put him on some kind of pedestal, which is also incorrect.

The same happens with Macaque. He's the walking mystery who may or may not realize how much of a prickly capricious hypocrite he is in some things. For example, he feels an apparent resentment at being relegated to being a mere shadow of someone much brighter, but at the same time he seems unwilling to step out of that role. In s1 and s3, he clings so much to the past that he pushes Wukong, the only constant of him in a modern world after his resurrection, to be the version he remembered. Where Wukong advanced, Macaque retreated.

Nonetheless, the motives behind every action of his are more nuanced than him just being evil. He did once he was free from LBD's control was immediately start helping everyone even until s4, as if it were a tacit way of apologizing because he was just trapped under incredibly shitty circumstances, let's remember the part where LBD said she'd kill him if he didn't do what she wanted. Although I don't think he didn’t have fun knocking everyone around a bit (to his ex-husband especially).

It's little funny because I consider that before the perigranation trip, Wukong is a self-proclaimed hero with destructive or villainous tendencies (depending on which side you look at, celestial Realm definitely sees it that way still) while in the current timeline, Macaque is a self-proclaimed villain with heroic tendencies.

I wont keep rambling, but thank you again for pouring your time and talent into this beautifully painful read. I can't wait to chew on the next chapter like a hungry dog ​​with a good steak and also I'll be keeping an eye out for your future works, in case you continue writing about queer monkeys with emotional constipation, but if not, it's such a treat to read what you've already gifted us. Have a good week! and sorry for any translation errors again.

AAAAAH i'm sorry i've taken so long to respond to this. this ask is SO SWEET and i loved just rereading it over and over to suck all the serotonin out of it. Filled me with gleee!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to translate and write out this message! There weren't any errors, it's okay! I'm so glad you liked my story sm and read it and ENJOYED IT YAAAAAY!!!

honestly, I only cackle evilly before posting chapters sometimes. Only sometimes, when I remember. I usually cackle while writing, but then, by the time I've posted it, I've read it so much, it doesn't have that emotional impact on me anymore LOL

I think that's a great way to sum up shadowpeach! It's about understanding and trust. No matter what, that trust has to be rebuilt, and that process is so painful and hard and time-consuming that...it takes such a great amount of effort on both their parts. It's the choice to persevere in spite of that amount of hardship that makes them beautiful, even if what they create together isn't inherently beautiful. What's beautiful is that, in spite of tragedy, these two monkeys want to be together in whatever way they can.

I think with any fandom, people are going to misinterpret characters. I've kind of gotten used to it, but there's definitely a lot of missed nuance and character depth that the fandom chooses to not see or doesn't except. Maybe they like to keep it surface level, but i think critically thinking about the plot and characters is where you can find depth or make depth of your own that's not present in the show.

Wukong is either a trickster villain or a precious soul who has done no wrong and needs to be protected. Macaque is usually a mustache-twirling villain or a sweet, bashful monkey who was just pretending all that time! and has never done anything bad.

A lot of the fandom sees things in a clear black and white way, which is dangerous for several reasons, but it means that their interpretations lack that depth or understanding that people crave. Because no one is black and white. The world doesn't work that way, so it's kind of worrying that they think that's...normal. It's not normal. I see it as a lack of life experience and maturity, but I also don't know these people. Maybe they like their fictional worlds to be black and white, I dunno.

Aaaanyway, you're not the first person to speak about this topic with shadowpeach and how, through constellations, they found some understanding or were pleased with how shadowpeach interacted. and to that I say, thanks! I just like some realism and three dimensional...ness to my characters, please and thanks. Don't even get me started on MK.

But wow! Yes! I'm so honored you'll keep reading whatever I write next. I have no fucking clue what I'm doing, and I'm just smashing my dolls together, but I'm happy to have you here in Constellations AU land! Welcome! Enjoy your stay 💕

[breezybeej]

real fast rapid fire short film assesments:

* Sleepwalker - A mother comforts her child after a sleepwalking incident, the mother then experiences an even worse nightmare. For being 7 minutes long, it does some cool parallel shots of a daughter sleepwalking and her mother going through nearly the same motions and shot angles later. They even had shadows look like hair on the mom to match the daughter's hair. The absence of a ||father was conspicuous and it felt like that played into the idea of the mother's past trauma reflecting in the daughter even though that was never spoken. the "shadow person" darkens a doorway similarly to how a lot of media has a druken abusive father darken doorways.|| Solid acting, the writing was okay, visuals were good except for one part that was kind of... too much? Too far into weird territory. 7/10

* The Monitor - A man is packing up his recently passed relative's things (i think?) and he calls his wifemto check in. After she leaves to shower, he sees ||a man break into the house on|| the baby monitor. ||He tries to warn his wife but then sees the man is actually Himself. Some kinda doppelganger. || The dialogue was, to put it bluntly, not good. The characters had no chemistry and their lines weren't helping. The editing was jarring when cutting between the two people on the phone. It was determined to be in their perspective for every single word said for each character. There was a cool shot when it transitioned to the baby monitor footage. I really didn't get much from this one thematically, it was mostly just a spooky incident. I think i need to watch it again though. 3/10

* Bobby Came Home - The reddit story. It's so obviously the same story beat for beat that i was shocked to see no mention of what this film was adapting. They did fun stuff with lighting but it was *harsh* lighting. Put a filter over that bulb please. They leaned into the comedy side way more than the reddit story which honestly helped. breaking the immersion is necessary for this one. The plot was obvious *without* being overexplained by a voice-over narration. yet they had one anyway 5/10

* Dark Side of the Moon - A gunslinger has a wanted man tied up by his campfire. They discuss innocence and morality before the wanted man ||turns into a werewolf and gets shooted.|| Their discussion *was* neat. The acting was unfortunate because at first i thought they were trying to be hokey but they were not. Also they had a prop with a VERY obviously modern shoulder strap and i couldnt stop giggling when it was on screen. 5/10, once you get "oh they are sincere"

* Leave no Trace - Three campers, two scare the one with a spooky story (the zone in Yosemite where you "can kill someone without consequence because loophole." They didnt even explain it right 🙄) ||The two then get scared in their tent and get got.|| I was disappointed because i wanted so badly for ||the film to be comedy. Have the thing that scares them be the other guy just going to pee or something.Let the people who tried to scare their friends be scared of their own scary story because they are gullible scaredys.|| Dialogue was, once again, just not well written. No one talks like this. 4/10

* The Night Visitor - Man sees a figure outside at night. He goes to bed, a noise wakes him up, figure is inside. He barricades his door, the figure appears behind him. This was like 2 minutes long. There wasnt much plot or characterization, just "what if a guy was in your house." And yeah, that would be fucked up huh. They applied a Damaged Film effect but it was so bad. It was JUST rapid white speckles. None of the smears or lines or anything. It felt so artificial the whole scene. It was the only film that had no dialogue recording issues because there was no dialogue. 3/10

* The Strangle of Ivy - A woman tries so hard to connect with her estranged ex-senator mother (who is scared of the ivy overgrowing her home). ||She learns that her mom killed her sister 30 years ago to keep her senate seat or something.|| I *really* liked what this movie tried to do with Guilt and the Choking Vines. Like this murder kept her pinned to her home and threatened to suffocate her. Daugher tries to help by pruning the vines but they grow back because she didn't "resolve the real problem" you know. This had such a neat idea going but the acting was just so distracting. The main character walked around with the same agape confused expression for most of the film. The sound was so bad for so many scenes like i was legitimately confused by what happened because the sound did not match up. But there WAS still some cool shots and storyline. It was an adaptation of a book so they had to cram A LOT of exposition in. 5/10 anyway though

* Bay for Blood - I can't even summarize this. A plug thinks his clients are his personal friends? He thinks one is in love with him? He drops incel talking points and other such things. He's got a guy who he's torturing in his bedroom and the guy says he deserves it for... making a mess at a party and damaging the dude's eardrums with firework sounds by accident?? idfk. He's the world's most normal plug. There are two shootings (like with a gun) and both of them have zero impact. they don't have a gun sound, no visual, no anything. Just cut to a character bleeding after a tussle. The weight of "being shot" just wasn't there. Also the final third had the most baffling editing choices like a screen flicker in time with the music, a 360 panning shot of people looking at a dead guy and it spins around them for like a full minute. In a short film. 2/10

* The Secret Other - Man comes home for a romantic night with wife after business trip. They dance, kiss, go to fuck and "have a baby." Wifey brings a knife and kills hubby for cheating on her with his secretary. This happens while her own dead body is on the bed. Doppelganger? Ghost? Unclear but i liked the representation of infidelity killing a marriage as infidelity literally killing the couple. A few dialogue issues, the vocal recordings had a hiss to them. Overall 6/10

* The ones across the pond - Woman moves to england and her neighbors kill her after she throws away some shitty cookies they gave her. I'm pretty sure this movie represents British people accurately. There are some stellar individual shots of still scenes that have scary things to notice. Also still scenes with sudden, slow, deliberate movement. It's apparently a cult thing but I saw no hint of "cult" early on. I think they put that in the credits but not in the film. Unlesn the cult was an HOA because then it would all make sense.

* Special bonus short film (it was so fucking long. like 25 minutes?) Shiver - Surreal film of a man reliving memories that you just kind of have to interpret. Pretty sure this was about a man coping with the loss of his wife and daughter by locking himself into only thinking about happy memories (represented by him taking a blue pill to stay in the world where she's still alive, an illusion of reality. Yes. He's bluepilled). This film was way to long. We were constantly leanisg over to each other and whispering "OPEN THE FUCKING ENVELOPE" because they JUST KEPT THROWING DELAYS AT IT. I can appreciate what the film was trying to do but it was so far away from actually getting it done. But the most important part was making Rocket Man integral to the plot.

The film tried to use a solo piano rendition of rocket man as an uplifting defiance of the monster stalking his dreams but it just sounds so fucking goofy. I felt so bad because i wasnt able to catch my laughter so everyone heard a guffaw before i clamped my hands over my mouth. 2/10. You get a point for trying. You did weave a story that I eventually understood but it still failed entirely to engage me. I really do like the idea of exploring "im trapped in a brighter past and it is hurting me to stay here" but not like this. Sorry.

[marvellouspinecone]

Thank you so much for your ask!! Please come talk about s10 in my ask box whenever you like! I ADORE the idea with the TARDIS breaking her rules for Bill!! 😍- but I will answer your ask properly to swoon over that.

I actually wanted to tell you about the one (main) time I tried co-authoring. Which was during school, it went on for at least a year, probably two and stretched ages 15-16 approximately. I was bored in class often and so me and two of my friends started writing a nonsense story by handing a paper back and forth, writing one sentence and then handing it to the next person. You know, like that party game. Just that it turned into an actual THING.

It was this awesome, completely chaotic adventure story of a woman and her dragon and cat (of course there was a cat) trying to retrieve an artifact for some nameless evil to rule the world with. And she starts out as this "as long as they pay me Idc" type of goon, but then she meets a pretty (helpless) man and kinda picks him off the street and that makes her learn compassion and responsibility. And then he backstabs her, I think. And there was this other man who was like her rival that she always fought and bickered with and I am pretty sure at some point the story involved a third man and a second woman, but I do not remember what was their deal.

It got very complicated and convoluted, especially since the cat kept finding new important plot points that added to all the unresolved stuff we already had. And I was the only one who kinda still knew what was going on because I STUDIED that tale.

Anyway, at some point my friends got tired of the game and the story never got finished. But it was so much fun. I still have the (huge) folder with all the paper we filled somewhere. And there's art! I think I drew the hero and her dragon and cat at least twice and the love interest (not quite sure whether the hero was interested in him, actually. I think it was some sort of unrequited love on his side) at least once.

Not sure if there's a point to telling you this, only that you made me remember good times 😊 And well, maybe that co-authoring is fun especially when it doesn't have to be perfect. But I understand that going about it in any way similar to mine at school is not an option for s10, obviously

This is so fun omg, it's like text rolepaying ig? But better bc you can write for different characters. It's cool to be in that headsapce and live in a fictional universe where nothing you do really matters bc it's for fun and the more wild and complicated you make it the funnier it is. I totally get the appeal. I wish i could personally apply the same to writing i actually intend to finish, bc, like, as they say, your first draft is created to be a complete dumpster fire and then it all comes down to editing

[tori-tumbls-04]

Alright, by popular demand and after much anticipation, I present to you:

The Jedi Culture and Religion as Presented by Me, Tori

Now why the hell should you read this? I mean like, you don't have to. This is tumblr dot com, not a social sciences class, and I have not assigned this as required reading. However, I took a class on Star Wars, and we essentially discussed the irl religions and moral philosophies that influenced many things in Star Wars. This class really helped me understand the Jedi in a broader sense, so I think that my summation of it will help you too

WARNING: This post contains incredibly broad descriptions of religions that do not always apply to every aspect of said religion (This was a short class and we were mostly comparing religions, so going into a deep analysis on all the traditions would not have been helpful for our purposes. Also, because any religion is hopelessly complex, we learned the mainstream versions of them, so not everything I will say will always completely apply to every person who practices these religions)

If you want to read more, click on the links where I've attached them for references or just ask me! I'd love to gush about the Jedi so give it a go

Table of contents:

Buddhism

Daoism

Christianity

Conclusion

Before we get into this, let me give y'all some context.

Overall, Star Wars was inspired by the book The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. In it, Campbell claims that every religion is, by in large, the same, which he argues by distilling down what he says are the main hero stories of every religion into a step-by-step plot line that can supposedly apply to every religion's stories. This is the monomyth, or the original Hero's Journey.

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From a religious studies standpoint, this is WILDLY untrue. Campbell picked and chose his stories elements based on what he believed fit the narrative, and not even all Western hero stories fit this narrative, let alone Eastern stories (for example, Jesus never really has a Road of Trials. He's born, there's a twenty year time skip, and suddenly he's the all-powerful Son of God/God Reincarnate. I think a lot of Christians would say that Jesus is their hero- a perfectly valid and acceptable thing to say, since that is indeed the point of Jesus!- but nevertheless, he doesn't follow the Hero's Journey). Also, you can't claim that every religion is inherently the same, that's ignoring literally everything that makes religion religion, and it makes white idiots from Seattle think they understand everything about Confucianism just because they read that one book. It's also not super well written and the book kinda sucks overall.

However, this was a really popular book and it influenced a lot of minds on storytelling, including George Lucas's. It's mostly regarded with scorn in religious studies spheres today, but a lot of screenwriting classes assign it because the Hero's Journey creates stories that audiences want to hear told. Lucas used it for this reason, but also claimed that the Jedi were every religion in the world distilled into one, taking broad themes and building a culture around it (paraphrased- I can't find the exact quote and I didn't write it down so just like trust me bro). This is Hero with a Thousand Faces, plain and simple. I think we'd be hard-pressed to apply the Jedi religion to every religion, but there are three religions that emerge as the core for the Jedi, plus a few philosophies. These chosen few are Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity.

Buddhism

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Anyone who's been on the pro-Jedi side of any social media site probably saw this one coming. Jedi are inherently Buddhist in practice and culture, and we see it everywhere. But for the previously uninitiated, here's the rundown.

What is Buddhism?

**Disclaimer: I am not an expert in Buddhism. What I know is what I've learned from this class and from one of my best friends who is Buddhist. If you want to know more, I recommend doing outside research because I'm really only equipped to talk about Buddhism in relation to the Jedi Order**

Buddhism was created in about 5th century BCE by Siddhartha Gautama, who was a wealthy prince that grew weary of the material and physical pleasures of this world. He left his titles, wealth, and wife behind and traveled for years to learn meditation techniques and ancient truths about the world. Eventually, he became the Enlightened One, or the Buddha.

Buddha taught with the Four Noble Truths:

Life is characterized by suffering

The cause of suffering is desire and delusion

Suffering has an end

You can alleviate suffering by following the path to Enlightenment (aka nirvana)

Yeahhh Buddha wasn't really Mr. Happy Fun Guy. Essentially, to Buddha, everything is suffering, and I really mean everything. Everything bad is bad, everything good comes to an end and becomes bad, and the more invested you are in earthly affairs, the more you'll suffer because of how they'll work out (eventually bad). The solution? No attachment to earthly affairs. This allows you to stay on the path to Nirvana without making yourself suffer (and here's the kicker) or making the people around you suffer. The goal is for no human to suffer.

Now, Buddha recognizes this is hard. Like, he got it in a few years, but he's also The Best At Everything Ever. Most people take multiple lifetimes to get to the point of nirvana (reincarnation exists in Buddhism), and by multiple, I mean somewhere around 500. So the goal of your life is not to achieve complete non-attachment by the time you die, but to get yourself closer and close to non-attachment and non-suffering with each life. That means continuously and consciously working to do good and reduce suffering everywhere, even if you can't reach nirvana just yet.

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"But Tori!" you may protest, "How in the hell are we supposed to do that??? How do we know what will make people suffer and what won't???"

That, my friends, is why the good Buddha came up with the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment, or what I call the Cosmic Playbook for Doing Good. Here's the Eight Folds:

Right Understanding (accepting Buddhist teachings)

Right Resolve (committing to action)

Right Speech (telling the truth)

Right Action (avoiding wrong behavior)

Right Livelihood (not having an occupation that does harm)

Right Effort (controlling one's mind)

Right Mindfulness (being present in the moment)

Right Meditation (mental calm)

The Eightfold Path is based on three pillars: Wisdom, Morality, and Meditation. Wisdom says you must have understanding and fight delusion; Morality says you must have benevolence and never give into anger; Meditation says you must be non-attached and never give into greed (Is this starting to sound familiar?)

Now here's the key part: Buddhism teaches selflessness and compassion. And like yeah, I mean this in the Western sense of "don't be a dickwad," but there's also a Buddhist-specific reasoning behind this.

Selflessness in the Buddhist sense literally means no self. As in you do not exist, except in a constant state of change. Your self is not permanent, therefore tying things to yourself (attachments) is going against nature and preventing you from reaching nirvana. If we accept that we are fleeting and the things associated with us are as well- money, power, influence, things in general- then we may act selflessly and with compassion to other humans. We are all connected, so acting with compassion to other people will spread compassion further throughout the universe, alleviating suffering further.

Ultimately, this is what Buddha wanted for his followers to act, and this is why Buddhism distinguishes between "good" and "bad" attachments. "Good" or selfless attachments are connections made for the goal of helping others. The focus is not you, and when the time comes, you are content with parting ways. This person is not a part of you, simply a part of this point in your life. This doesn't mean they can't have a lasting impact on you or you can't have emotion towards them, but it does mean recognizing that nothing is permanent and accepting it with peace. "Bad" or selfish attachments are people you latch onto as part of you. Bad attachment is making it about you: you have to have this person or you will die, you have to have their love or support or whatever and you're unwilling to compromise. When they leave, you can't except it because you believe both you, your self, them, and their self are permanent, and it causes you to lash out to protect your self. According to Buddha, this is the cause of all aggression, and that is why selfish attachment is to be avoided as much as possible.

Buddhism and the Jedi

I started with Buddhism because, in my opinion, the Jedi religion has its foundations in Buddhism. If you don't understand Buddhism, you can't understand the Jedi, and I think that's why many people believe that Jedi philosophy doesn't make sense. Cause lowkey, from a Judeo-Christian standpoint, it doesn't. But if we start with Buddhism and work from there, the understanding might come better.

Let's take a look at the pillars of the Eightfold Path again:

Wisdom (Understanding, no delusion)

Right Understanding (accepting Buddhist teachings)

Right Resolve (committing to action)

Morality (Benevolence, no anger)

Right Speech (telling the truth)

Right Action (avoiding wrong behavior)

Right Livelihood (not having an occupation that does harm)

Meditation (Non-attachment, no greed)

Right Effort (controlling one's mind)

Right Mindfulness (being present in the moment)

Right Meditation (mental calm)

Now compare it with this version of the Jedi Mantra:

"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force"

(Source)

Some of these are not relevant right now, since they come from Daoism or Christianity (and also, we'll come back to the other version in a minute). But you can already see the parallels between Buddhism and the Jedi, especially in the Meditation pillar. Right Meditation and Right Mindfulness correspond directly to "There is no emotion, there is peace" and "There is no passion, there is serenity." Also, Right Understanding and Right Resolve feel very "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge" to me. This means that "There is no emotion" does not mean there is no emotion ever, it simply means controlling your gut reaction and staying calm. Reacting with gut emotions sometimes means that people around you will suffer, especially when your gut emotions are anger and hurt. Remember, we're not about suffering in this house, so there will be no gut reactions here when we can help it.

Also, the idea of attachments comes straight from Buddhism. In Buddhism, delusion leads to anger and greed, which leads to further suffering, and we delude ourselves by being selfish (remember, in this sense selfish is thinking our self is permanent, not necessarily being a dickwad). Now, I really hope this sounds familiar, because this is "fear leads to anger leads to hate leads to suffering" in practically the same words. Here, delusion of the self and fear of losing it are one in the same, and the Jedi fight this by not being attached to one state of themself, and everything that entails. Ultimately, the Jedi exist to alleviate suffering throughout the galaxy. That is their literal job description and what they sign up for when they become Knights. In Buddhist philosophy, having selfish attachments is directly counter to this idea, as we see in Anakin.

Because this definition comes directly from Buddhism, this does not mean that Jedi cannot make connections. In fact, Buddhism says we are all connected (just like with the Force! Wow it's almost like that was planned), and we should have compassion for everyone. The Jedi also say this, plain and simple, in broad daylight.

(Source: @ gffa, David Thibault on Pinterest)

The best example of a Buddhist Jedi is Yoda, who was based off of literal Buddhist monks and has non-attached compassion down to a science.

So, in summary, we got the Buddhist ideas of attachment, compassion, and selfishness for the Jedi. What about everything else?

Daoism

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Next up is Daoism/Taoism! This one is possibly the least obvious if you don't have familiarity with Eastern religions and philosophies (or maybe it is for everyone else, but I was kind of surprised to see Daoism and how well it applies to SW/the Jedi). Let's get into it

What is Daoism/Taoism?

**Same disclaimer for Daoism that I had for Buddhism! Except I know even less about Daoism than I do about Buddhism. Again, if you have more questions, I recommend doing outside research because I'm about to tell you just about everything I know on Daoism here**

First things first, how do you spell it? Daoism or Taoism?

There's no actual difference between them. The sound at the beginning of the word doesn't really exist in English, but it's somewhere between D and T, and translators often switch between the two. I use D because I just like the way Daoism sounds better than Taoism, but that's literally such a dumb reason. Call it whichever, people will understand you! There's gonna be a lot of those in this, since Chinese to English translation is tricky on the best of days and translating Daoism is... well, we'll get to it

Lau Tzu, from source

Daoism is one of the six great philosophical schools of China. It emerged around 3 century CE when Lao Tzu wrote the Dao De Jing (also known as the Tao Te Ching. To keep my spelling of D/T consistent, I'll be using the Dao De Jing spelling). The story goes that he was a great sage of his time, and he was stopped by Chinese border patrol one day. When the agents recognized who he was, they begged him for advice and pearls of wisdom. So, he gave it to them, and someone (possibly Lao Tzu, possibly one of the agents) wrote it down. This would be awesome and hilarious, because the Dao De Jing is a short book, but it has 80+ poems/maxims/stories in it, which means mans was there for way longer than the border patrol probably wanted him there

It's also possible that Lao Tzu doesn't exist and the Dao De Jing was actually written by multiple people buuuuut the other explanation is more fun so let's go with that

Dao De Jing roughly translates to "The Book of Virtue and Wisdom." In it are a lot of verses that explain the Daoist school of thought. They can be translated in many ways, but the version I read was in poetry. Here are a few excerpts that I think explain the Daoist religion the best:

"The way you can go isn’t the real way. The name you can say isn’t the real name. Heaven and earth begin in the unnamed: name’s the mother of the ten thousand things. So the unwanting soul sees what’s hidden, and the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants. Two things, one origin, but different in name, whose identity is mystery. Mystery of all mysteries! The door to the hidden."

Source: "1, Taoing" Tao Te Ching, trans. Ursula K. Le Guin

"Not praising the praiseworthy keeps people uncompetitive. Not prizing rare treasures keeps people from stealing. Not looking at the desirable keeps the mind quiet. So the wise soul governing people would empty their minds, fill their bellies, weaken their wishes, strengthen their bones, keep people unknowing, unwanting, keep the ones who do know from doing anything. When you do not-doing, nothing’s out of order."

Source: "3, Hushing." Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin

"Be completely empty. Be perfectly serene. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising is their return. Now they flower, and flowering sink homeward, returning to the root."

Source: "10, Returning to the Root." Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin

Now if you think that these are confusing and difficult to parse, you'd be correct. It's not just cause they're written as poems and not just cause they're translations between two difficult languages to translate; the Dao De Jing is intentionally written to be difficult to understand. You have to work to understand the Dao (the Way), and that's how Lao Tzu intended it. But part of the work in understanding the Dao is part of the experience of the religion. In other words, putting the work to try and understand the Dao is already halfway there!

Because I'm nice and because I want some baseline understandings for this discussion, I'll go ahead and give you broadly accepted interpretations of and concepts from the Dao De Jing.

The goal is to be unified with everything around you. All things cycle into each other and influence each other, and the goal of the Way is to be one with the natural flow of the universe

There is a common delusion that things are separate from each other. In Daoism, this is false. Nothing is truly separated- all things flow into each other and become each other in time (This is where yin and yang come from)

Adding off of that last point, identifying things too much will result in privileging one over the other. In Daoism, humans operate too much in absolute terms- what is good, what is bad, why each is each, and how to keep the good without having the bad. But all things must cycle into each other (dirt to flowers to dirt, sun to moon to sun, winter to summer to winter, etc), otherwise there is no balance, and no Way to follow

To follow the Way, you have to practice wu wei, or non-doing. In its absolute simplest terms, non-doing is going with the flow, but in a very specific way. Non-doing requires acting organically and adapting as specific opportunities arise. Having an end goal is contrary to the Way. Instead, the philosophy of wu wei says that what you need/want will come to you naturally if you follow the flow of nature

Expect things in unexpected places (but not... like... expecting? Cause you gotta Go With The Flow y'know? Anyways)

Pacifism to the Max

You must follow the Way completely and fully. Half-assing the Dao will result in being generally unhappy since you're not actively pursuing your goals either outside the Way or inside the Way. So it's just like lose-lose no matter what

There's like... more. But that's enough to delve into the Jedi methinks so let's do it.

Daoism and the Jedi (and Star Wars overall)

Jedi are notorious for defying expectations. A crotchety old frog is the most powerful Jedi in the Order. The most devout Jedi Padawan ends up being the person who tried to blow up their Temple. The person who will become The Villain of All Time is regarded as being well on his way to being one of the Best Jedi in the Order, if not already there. The list goes on. The same crotchety old frog says everything as cryptically as possible to force his students to do the work to understand what he's saying (a mannerism that many Jedi copy, if they're not as cryptic as Yoda). The Jedi are not pacifists, per se, but they go out of their way to be non-violent as often as possible (this overlaps with the Buddhist idea of attachments and their relation to violence). The Jedi also try to treat within their Order the same, and hierarchy is pretty loose.* Also, the Force is the Way. It literally flows through everything, it doesn't get more obvious than that. Also, "do or do not, there is no try," anyone?

*This point is contentious, I know, but looking canon it's true. The Jedi do not privilege one Jedi over another- councilor members seem to be treated roughly the same inside the Order as every other Knight or Master. The difference between Knight and Master is nebulous at best and the only difference between the two seems to be raising a Padawan. But at what point beyond that does a Knight become a Master? Why are Knights also called Masters and vice versa? Padawans and younglings are a different story, but certainly within ranks there is little differentiation.

But more than that, the world that the Jedi operate in is very Daoist. The Light and Dark side of the Force come from yin and yang (though, due to Buddhist and Christian influences, yin isn't quite the Dark side and yang isn't quite the Light, but the idea definitely came from Daoism). Light and dark people have bits of both in them, as Clone Wars goes out of its way to demonstrate over and over again. In The Last Jedi, Luke outright states that the Force is what ties together the Light and the Dark, and that they cycle into each other. This is reinforced over and over again. In Mortis,

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On Ahch-To,

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And just about every time anyone says where there is great light there is also great darkness, plus a lot in Legends content because Legends writers apparently love playing with this.

Also, time in Daoism (and generally in Eastern religions/philosophies) is cyclical. In the West, we view time as cyclical- one thing happened back then and it won't ever happen the same way again. But in Daoism, the same events happen over and over again in a continual cycle, just as they do in nature. Star Wars operates in the exact same way. The Republic rises, then the Empire, then the Republic, then the First Order, and on and on. Characters rise and fall with their times, and at times, it seems like the same story is doomed to play out over and over again. Where exists bright light, also exists deep night; every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Alright, back to the Jedi Mantra. Now that we're in Daoism, let's look at the weird one:

"Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."

Source

Many interpretations of this mantra have focused on the idea that both exist, and I personally agree with that interpretation, especially in the context of Daoism. The key with Daoism is that Daoists aren't trying to change the world, like Christians or Buddhists. They're simply trying to be one with the universe, as is the natural state of things. They do not deny the chaos, but harmonize with it instead. They do not deny death, they simply follow the Way/Dao/Force to death when it's time. The key to Daoism is holding contradictions together and finding the way between them like water in a stream, instead of choosing one side over another. Also, tell me this doesn't read like the Dao De Jing? You can't because it does.

(Side note: the holding contradictions together thing is also the explanation behind Obi-Wan's iconic line "Only the Sith deal in absolutes." Sith cannot acknowledge shades of gray or sides that are not their own: for the Sith, there is only their side and everyone else's side, and their side is always right. Jedi are trained to see the white dot in the black swirl and the black dot in the white swirl. Sith can only see the black or the white, nothing in-between. This is also known as obsessive and/or antagonistic thinking.)

The best example of a Daoist Jedi is Qui-Gon Jinn, aka Mr. "Let's-Bet-On-Some-Kid-Who's-Never-Won-A-Podrace-In-His-Life" whose middle name is Maverick. Need I say more?

So, in summary, we got the "weird" and confusing parts of the Jedi religion from Daoism (though I hope I cleared some of them up! But they are meant to be confusing lmao)

Christianity

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"But Tori," you protest, "If the Jedi are supposed to be following the Way and the Way goes between what's good and bad, why are Jedi constantly the Good Guys who do Good Things instead of being neutral monks on their mountain?"

Well my friend, let me introduce you to a little thing called Christianity.

Now, in my opinion, the Jedi are possibly least inspired by Christianity. By in large, most of their themes and Main Religious Points can be found in either Buddhism or Daoism. But so far, all we have for motivation of why the Jedi do good things is compassion and to alleviate suffering. How do they know how to do that? The Jedi say they do it by following the Force, but how do they do it by following the Daoist Force, which says they have to be neutral as possible and one with nature?

Let's pivot to Christianity (with no disclaimer for this one because I was raised Baptist and Catholic (long story) and I actually know quite a bit about Christianity).

What is Christianity?

Christianity grew from followers of Judaism right around 0 CE. Though the Torah (the primary Jewish religious text) is official canon in Christianity, Christians follow God and Humanity's savior, the Son of God, Jesus. When Jesus was alive, He preached gospel to His followers over the course of a few years. Though there are many things that make up Christian theology, Jesus's teachings are often first, foremost, and the foundation of that theology. These were written down in the Bible in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, and further expanded into the New Testament of the Bible (the primary Christian religious text).

Jesus was real simple. He preached that there is a Good and a Bad, and both of those things are determined by the creator of the universe, God. A true Christian will do Good things, like feed the poor and respect your fellow man. If you do Bad things, that's okay! You just have to confess and repent, and you will be forgiven by God. Other Christians also must forgive you, because that is one of the Good things that All Christians Must Do. If you refuse to repent, you go to Hell when you die. If you believe in and worship God, follow all the rules, and do all the Good things, God will reward you in the afterlife by sending you to the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is No Bad Ever.

Tl;dr: don't be a dickwad and say thanks to God every once and a while and you're good homie.

Therefore, Christianity is based around three pillars: Faith, Love, and Hope. Have faith in your God to know what to love and what to do, and hope for a better tomorrow and afterlife.

Everything else is kind of extra and we don't really need it here (including the Ten Commandments, since the Jedi don't really follow them), so like... don't get mad at me for summing up Christianity like this please haha

Christianity and the Jedi

I've already alluded to this, but Jedi get their moral compass from belief and faith in the Force to essentially tell them what to do. This is fresh outta Christianity ladies, gents, and enbies; though themes overlap a bit in Daoism, Christianity takes pains to make it clear that its moral compass come from God and Jesus. If you want to read more about this, CS Lewis articulates the argument really well in Mere Christianity.

Now, this bit can be a little tricky to see clearly with the Jedi, since the Force doesn't act like the Christian God. The Christian God is generally fairly active in a Christian's life, especially in the Bible. God will straight up send heavenly messengers or like communicate with people himself in the Bible to tell them what to do, but the Force is more subtle than that. Obviously the Jedi can feel the Force, but they rarely- if ever- know what the Force is trying to tell them. So instead, Jedi seem to use more of a river current approach: where the Force flows is obviously Good, so they try to feel the Force tugging them in that direction and go there. But you can swim against the flow of a river, and sometimes it's super easy to do in still spots. That's okay! As long as you repent and turn around, it's all good.

The practice is obviously Daoist, but the Force as the Ultimate Moral Good is a Christian concept. This is why Jedi are the good guys and why following the Force generally leads to the most narratively rewarding and best outcomes- if they were purely Daoist, they'd spend their days doing things like eating wood and carving cart wheels perfectly right (Daoist stories can get more exciting, but generally Daoist hero stories revolve around mundane things like this to emphasize that the way to live is to be perfectly in tune with the world around you). Instead, Jedi often present themselves as Christian heroes. You know, the ones who follow God and defend their city from evil forces, magically know which food is poisoned, carrying people across a near-impossible to cross river, levitating and making things fly across rooms, and more. Any of this sound familiar?

The Jedi morals themselves are influenced from many places, as we've already seen. But the Dark side vs. the Light side are Western/Christian; it's very reminiscent of heaven vs. hell and the motifs in both mirror that. The Dark side is cold, aggressive, and "bad," and the Light is warm, kind, and "good" (in Daoism, these concepts are flipped). The visuals draw from Western visuals of both.

Also, Jedi are supposed to look like a cross between samurai and Christian monks, and many of the other aesthetic choices for Jedi come from one of those two influences.

Source (1, 2, 3+4)

The Vatican compared with the Jedi Temple in AotC and RotS

Jedi are also literally called Knights. How much more obvious can it get.

Christian Jedi are a little harder to nail down, but if it came down to it, I'd probably place my bets on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan has doing Light Side things down pat, as well as forgiveness and repent. Plus, tell me he didn't sound a bit like God when he was talking to Luke in ANH.

Conclusion

So, if I had to sum up the Jedi, I'd say it like this (Bold is from Buddhism, italics is from Daoism, and bold+italics are from Christianity):

"The Jedi Order is a Force-sensitive religious group dedicated to the alleviation of suffering throughout the galaxy. Though they are mainly trained as peacekeepers, all Jedi are proficient with a lightsaber, and the Order encourages this practice as long as they use their skills to defend.

Due to their Force-sensitivity, Jedi can connect to the living things around them and sense emotions, thoughts, and sometimes memories as though they were their own. Without proper emotional regulation, Jedi can become overwhelmed and pass out or obtain other psychic damage. For this reason, the Jedi practice mindfulness and non-attachment through meditation. From a young age, Jedi are trained to regulate emotional instincts and react mindfully to their surroundings to not overwhelm themselves or others.

The Jedi follow the Will of the Force. Though this can be difficult to interpret, Jedi train their entire lives to recognize the signals of the Force as they are presented to them. The Jedi follow the "Light Side"* of the Force, which puts them in direct opposition to the Sith, who follow the Dark Side. The two have been mortal enemies since time immortal, and will continue to be so as the cycle of light and dark continues to chase itself.

*it's worth noting here that at no point in time is the Force that the Jedi follow referred to as the "light side," it's simply the Force. This implies that the Jedi truly are just following The Way, and the Sith have completely convoluted The Way.

There are two versions of the Jedi Mantra, which outline their philosophies well:

"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force"

"Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."

The Jedi believe that fear leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to suffering. Therefore, Jedi try to conquer fear and selfishness as much as possible, which is how the Jedi principle of non-attachment came about. Though Jedi believe in compassion and love, their duties and Force-sensitivity require them to forgo attachments, or unhealthy and obsessive relationships with others. This is a struggle that many Jedi work through their entire lives. Jedi also believe in non-material possession and contentment in the natural world. Since the natural world and the Force are intertwined with each other, this allows Jedi to listen to the Force better."

Finally, the way the Jedi follow the Force is not the only or "correct" way of following the Force. Just irl as there are no correct cultures or religions, just the ones that align with you, personally, the best, there is no correct way of practicing the Force (though the Sith are generally set up as bad guys in Star Wars, the Dark Side of the Force is corruptive by nature, and Sith are almost always rampaging killing machines, so I think we can make an exception for them). The Force seems to manifest in many different ways, so therefore the religions can too.

I hoped this helped you guys answer any questions you may have about the Jedi! This got so long so if you read to the bottom you're a real trooper. If you still have questions, feel free to rb or shoot me an ask!

[space-spring]

Got through the first few battles of Let Us Cling Together! Pictured here is Denam hanging out with Lanselot (who I'm side-eying much less now).

Main highlights:

The UI + tutorial text! It's a little detail but I'm kind of obsessed with how well the UI blends into the world of the game. All of it uses the same fantasy-esque voice that you'd expect any of the characters to actually talk with, and it's just a fun detail. I wish I'd gotten more screenshots from the middle of the first tutorial battle, but the one below kinda shows what I mean:

Another highlight: this entire conversation/fight that happens between Canopus (one of the more experienced NPCs) and Vyce (Denam's friend (?) who everyone wants to throttle).

Not pictured here is Vyce + Canopus actually committing friendly fire mid-battle by throwing rocks at each other. Again, I'm a little insane over all the little ways they're integrating the game mechanics into the story; I've played around with modding/game stuff before and always find myself giving up on little details like this because they're so much of a hassle, so it's so so cool to me that they went through the trouble to actually have their HP decrease. That's immersion baby!!!!!!

Same thing with the sprite animations during cutscenes; there are so many unique animations (most with a not-insignificant amount of frames), and I can only imagine what a labor of love it was to put all of those together

Dame Raveness! Mostly she looks like Sumia from fe awakening while acting absolutely nothing like Sumia so it was just funny to me. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be a major character or anything but I'm hoping she shows up again.

Catiua is wonderful and I want good things for her. Unfortunately I keep doing everything she tells me not to and effectively keep forcing her to stick it out with me and Vyce. I'm assuming she'll be a little more leaned toward the neutral route, which is making me wonder whether I might shoot for that one, but I haven't quite figured all of that out yet.

There was also a level with some ghosts and necromancy that was fun, and now I am stuck on the next battle after that (which also has ghosts and necromancy). The difficulty curve is nice!!! I'm slowly being forced to figure out how to apply the skill points/spell slots in an efficient way, so I'm feeling very smart and strategic which is my #1 goal in trpgs. Also recently realized I can hurt the Risen undead foes by using heal spells, which is handy

Plot-wise I'm excited to figure out what exactly it is I'm doing haha; my initial thought was that Vyce and Denam's strings were being pulled by bigger political forces + that they weren't super clear on what the consequences of their actions were going to be, but I'm also currently fighting a guy who's pretty much a dead ringer for the Nergal-esque "I suck the life out of people for fun" type of villain, so it seems like maybe I was being a little too harsh on em.