#she sees things like gods through that lens mostly

[wildstar25]

MiqoMarch Day 26 - Faith

Though she is constantly reminded of her status being blessed by the goddess- Hydaelyn's chosen, as they called it - Arsay maintained a reluctance to allow her fate to be subject to the will of any higher being. Instead it is her friends, her family, whom Arsay puts her absolute faith in. Their bond is the greater gift by far.

[disgruntled-detectives]

Some ramble that has been on my mind lately.

I’m a huge fan of John Finnemore’s writing and sketches. If you don’t know who he is, he’s an English comedy writer. He’s born and raised in the UK. And he has a radio sketch show called “John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme” it’s a hilarious show and I highly recommend it. It’s made me laugh and honestly been a bright spot in dark times.

Occasionally, he has what he calls “meta sketches” where one person from the cast (there are five comedians in the JFSP cast) will address him about something in another sketch or make fun of him or something. And in one sketch, he pokes fun at Christianity. In the following meta-sketch, a cast member asks why he always makes fun of Christianity but not any other religion. And John responds with that Christianity is the religion he knows. He was born and raised in it and while he’s not a Christian, he recognizes how Christianity shapes British culture and always has. And it wouldn’t feel right to make fun of a religion he isn’t part of, and knows nothing about.

Then he says “actually the only other religion I know anything about is Judaism. And actually I’ve been thinking of a sketch idea based on a man I saw in London on a Saturday at a crossing patiently waiting for someone else to press the button so god wouldn’t he cross with him for working. And he’s perfectly right to believe that, but you can’t pretend there isn’t something a little funny about that.” And the sketch moves on.

This is the thing I’ve been thinking of. He said “the religion I know anything about would be Judaism” and then immediately in the *very next sentence* demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge about Judaism. In that “god would be cross with him for working” in that one sentence, he demonstrates so *clearly* the cultural Christianity that permeates western culture.

Because mostly…Jews *don’t* (can’t speak for all Jews obviously) believe G-d would be “cross at us” for violating the laws of Shabbat. We follow the laws out of a place of love. Not fear. We follow the laws because we believe they are part of the covenant G-d made with the Jewish people. We don’t believe in divine retribution. Like an orthodox Jewish woman I used to follow when I had TikTok said in a video, “if we break a commandment we don’t believe G-d is gonna strike us down or anything. We just acknowledge that we broke the commandment, say sorry, and then move on and try not to do it again.” And she has answered that question *numerous times* in numerous videos.

And Christians and former Christian’s have demonstrated time and time again that they fundamentally do not understand this. I was raised Christian. Catholic to be exact. And let me tell you, it’s fear. Not love that drives a lot of their rule following. Fear of going to hell and spending eternity being tortured and separated from g-d is a very real thing. They legit have something called “mortal sins” and missing Sunday Mass is one of them.

Because Judaism is a religion of orthopraxy. Not orthodoxy. In Judaism, what you do matters far far more than what you believe. You can be an atheist and an Orthodox Jew. Hell, I don’t eat pork. Do I think G-ds gonna be mad at me for eating bacon? No. Of course not. I don’t even really know if I believe in a G-d like that. I sorta flip flop between agnosticism and like a pantheist view. I don’t eat pork because I am a Jew. And it’s a commandment I chose to take on. Because I love being Jewish. Not out of fear.

Now I’m not saying this to hate on John Finnemore. Like I said. I am a huge fan of his work. I absolutely love Cabin Pressure, and JFSP, and Double Acts and just about anything else he’s written. I’m just saying this because it is clearly demonstrates the cultural Christian lens through which that people here in the west, including former Christian’s and now atheists like JF see the world.

So basically what I’m saying is that just because Judaism was the religion that Christianity sprang from, and you grew up Christian or even just in a Christian country in the west, does not mean that you know anything about us. It’s so easy to think you understand what Judaism is about because you’ve read “the Old Testament” and seen Fiddler on the Roof or something. And yet get even incredibly basic facts about Jewish worldview wrong because you haven’t grasped that Jews see the world completely differently. (Not to mention that 2000 years separate the split from Judaism of Christianity and Judaism developed and evolved on its own ever since. It’s a total and separate religion. But Christians tend to think we’re the exact same we were 2000 years ago. Which is why their minds are *blown* when we say that to us, Jesus is as irrelevant as Thor is. We literally do not care about your special boy. He may have been a Jew, but like…he’s a dude that lived over 2000 yrs ago.)

So basically what I’m saying is that if you are not Jewish, or at least put in serious work to learn about us, from us, you don’t actually know about Judaism like you think you do. Cultural Christianity permeates everything here in the west, and it’s a lot to unpack and unlearn.

[peggyao3]

Kaleidoscope

PAIRING: Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen x Unnamed Ambiguous FMC

SUMMARY: In a fight for freedom or death against the na-Baron Feyd-Rautha, his woman figures out how she feels about him, her poor devil wrapped in the skin of a beast.

WORD COUNT: 2,750

TAGS: Third person POV, AFAB she/her FMC, explicit sexual content,  rough sex, PiV, Switch!Feyd, Switch!FMC, but mostly Dom!Feyd, Feyd-Rautha's black cum, blood and injury, pain kink, blood kink, extremely dubious consent, gory nasty smut, blood for lube, mutilation, very public sex, and they lived happily ever after

A/N: Happy FEYDUARY! 🖤 Pulling this one out of the archive (specifically the ao3) for the occasion.

I've been obsessed with trying to decode the Harkonnen language (even though there's just a snippet of it in the fic) and I've found this reddit post and especially this one extremely interesting. The user @/tharpi9145 on YouTube commented under this video that the Harkonnen arena chanting was translated in Chinese theaters and provided the translation, so here's where that's coming from in the fic.

The theme and some of the descriptions in this oneshot are heavily inspired by the RP I'm writing with my sweetest friend.

Reposted from Ao3 💕| Masterlist

Divider by @/saradika-graphics

"Ek te stroeng ge e deser xhakhing grul klaxhkseda de haun dau ek se en-Barun Feyd-Rautha!" ~ Our glorious, black sun welcomes you to these special festivities of our beloved na-Baron Feyd-Rautha's holy birthday! ~

The booming echo of boos and whistling from the crowd passes through her heart and soul as she stands poised at the center of the arena, a brutalist behemoth chiseled of coal-black concrete. With her hand wrapped around the chalky hilt of her double-ended spear, she lets the vibrations pass through her in waves, taking deep lungfuls of Giedi Prime's putrid air that gathers in the pit of the arena like a thick bog.

When the crowd begins to chant in Harkunnin, guided by the announcer's guttural timbre, she perceives the world as if through a filter.

sacrifice to House Harkonnen her mortal blood   (give up her blood!) dedicate to House Harkonnen her faithful flesh   (give up her flesh!) leave to herself the deadly fear   (leave the fear!) leave to the mortals the endless fear   (beckon to death!)

The halves of the oval doorway slide open, like a birth canal giving way to its hellish spawn, and Feyd-Rautha marches confidently into the triangular colossus. From the highest stand he is no bigger than a mote on the lens of the binoculars, yet his presence fills the entire arena, more god than man to the one million spectating fanatics.

What is she thinking, challenging their god of blood and rot? Everyone craves to see her fail, no one wishes for her to earn her freedom. No one understands how she could reject their idol who has chosen her - unworthy, unwilling thing - as his concubine.

A putrid breeze catches the fabric of Feyd's tunic as he saunters in a wide half-circle, like a snake drawing closer and closer, hypnotizing its prey with slow movements made of liquid. This is how the gladiators in the Empire of Roma on Old-Earth must have felt, she thinks, thrown into the ring with a beast to fight for life and death. Freedom or death, in her case. Feyd is the beast and she is the human. The only human, going by the fanatic crescendo of Harkonnen chanting.

"May my spear skewer you dead," she greets Feyd-Rautha when he stands before her, a smooth pillar of black and white, unfazed by the chanting and the radiation. The corner of his mouth twitches.

"And mine you." Feyd grins at the brief flicker of confusion as she glances at the weapons he holds so carefully. Blades, not spears.

The crescendo peaks, a beehive of frenetic anticipation, all eyes on who will launch the first attack.

She was never meant to win, she realizes the moment she lunges, soft sand shifting underfoot. The sand in the training pit is harder, more gravelly. Her balance feels off and Feyd knows it.

He playfully parries her attack, then the next and the next. The humor in his eyes is the worst thing, and the condescending gleam. 

Months of hoping and training for her freedom are reduced to nothing and less than nothing within minutes. This is not the fair chance he promised her. All of their training together was a slight. The sweat, blood and tears she shed into the gravelly sand, those times when she scraped him bloody with her spear and made him laugh, made him praise her like he was truly impressed.

"You dishonorable dog!" She screams against the thick smog and the wailing background noise of the crowd. "You promised me a fair fight, you promised!"

Feyd's expression darkens momentarily, pouty lips turned downwards, a storm brewing in his eyes. A telltale muscle in his jaw twitches.

Yes, she's made him angry, good! Perfect!

Feyd's blades smack against her spear, a quick succession of tack, tack, tack. Then a thump as he aims for her fingers with the handle to shatter her bones. She dips backwards, thrusting the spear forwards at the same time. Feyd's shield prickles angrily, repelling her thrust.

Back into defense, quick, tack, thump, sksshhh!

The longer of the kukris scrapes unpleasantly against the spear shaft. She gyrates in a tight circle, piercing Feyd's shield with the lower end of the shaft pressed against his neck. She ushers him with her in a circular orbit until he ducks under the spear and aims for her thighs, slowing his attack just in time to penetrate the shield. Her trousers tear and blood hotly soaks the fabric. It's a shallow cut. He could have sliced her femoral artery.

"Why are you holding back, you motherless bastard? Kill me now!" 

Disbelief slackens Feyd-Rautha's features as he takes a step back, blades dangling from his hands. He looks surreal in the glaring light, stripped of color, stripped of the soft hues that only show themselves in the artificial light of the glow orbs in her room. She is mad for provoking him.

The unbeaten gladiator roars - the birthday boy - he lunges and slams down, not with the blades but with the handles. With brutal force and precision, they hit the center of the spear's shaft, accomplishing the impossible.

A hairline fracture springs over the shaft, Sardaukar craftsmanship damaged by the ferocity of one apoplectic Harkonnen who laughs boyishly at her expression. Abusing her surprise (has her weapon been sabotaged?!), he tackles her to the ground.

Dust puffs up, momentarily obscuring her vision. Instinctively, she yanks up the spear, pressing it through Feyd's shield, shaft against his throat.

He sits on her thighs, blades sinking through her shield to kiss her sternum, tickling without killing. The pressure against his throat draws terrible grunting and choking noises from the na-Baron who laughs open-mouthed, spit dribbling off his teeth, an inky rivulet that penetrates her shield and slips wetly over her bare clavicles. She fights to shove him off with the full force of two hands.

The hairline fracture in the spear begins to branch out, crack by tiny crack. She stares awestruck and with horror as Feyd-Rautha's face turns grey, teeth bared grotesquely as he groans and salivates and laughs like a boy.

Aaaaaa-ooooohh!

The crowd bellows as the spear splinters right in the middle and Feyd's throat bursts through, marred by a fat bruise that stretches black and ugly just below his Adam's apple. His voice is hoarse and barely recognizable when his body pushes into her shield, chests coming flush, and his drooling mouth finds her neck, sucking a bruise as his breath rattles in his throat. His blade-wielding fists push harmlessly into the sand.

"Anything you'd like to feed the dishonorable dog?"

"I want you to choke on sand and die! I want you to- Ahhh!"

Feyd wrenches the spear halves out of her hands and throws them away. She screams into his laughing visage as he pins her to the sand, hikes up her tunic and tears off her shield generator, then slashes through the front of her pants.

When he reaches down to unclasp the armor plate that shields his crotch, she lunges and punches him in the guts, punches him again, only waiting for the crotch plate to come off so she can punch him there, but Feyd slices her hand with a flash of white metal. The lacerating pain momentarily knocks the breath out of her lungs and she falls back, clutching the hand to her chest, howling.

Gazing up, she is looking into a kaleidoscope of madness, a writhing mass of Harkonnens all around, an ensemble for a nightmare and she is the involuntary harlequin.

The heat of the black sun brings a second pulse against the inside of her eyeballs and she feebly lifts her lacerated hand, surprised to see that all of her fingers are still attached, though her middle and index finger stand unnaturally far apart, separated by a glistening, weeping gash diagonally through her palm.

A pale, writhing shape behind her hand catches her attention and Feyd-Rautha's disfigured voice penetrates her brain fog. "You thought you could ever make it off my planet, whore?" His eyes gleam with mania, bleached by the black sun. "Out of my palace, out of my arms, unless I allowed it?!"

His shield is gone, his blades lie next to him in the sand. This is his victor's feast. The crotch plate is gone too and he cuts through more of her trousers and underwear. Groaning, she feels for the spears or knives, hissing when sand grates against her injury.

The wailing crowd convulses like one entity, a parasitic hive mind that undulates back and forth, a sea of black and white.

  (give up her flesh!)   (give up her flesh!)   (give up her flesh!)

She screams when Feyd's hand wraps around her thigh where he cut her earlier, squeezing and prodding until it comes away coated in blood. The hot liquid touches between her thighs, spread over her cunt by calloused fingers that even find the mercy in them to sink into her once, twice, lubricating her walls with her own blood.

Compared to the searing pain in her cut flesh, the ache of his blunt cock sinking into her is dull, almost comforting in its familiarity. How many times has he fucked her by now? It must have been hundreds. Humiliated in front of a million Harkonnens, this still isn't the worst way he's ever fucked her.

The thought makes her giggle and Feyd looks smitten when he crawls over her, fucking her with long, hard strokes. His eyes keep drifting to her lacerated palm, biting his lip at the sight of blood shed on his holy birthday. He supports his weight on his forearms, fingertips tickling her neck.

"Feyd…" she slurs and Feyd feels compelled to lean further down, anticipation on his features and a noticeable swell of his chest.

"I hate you."

Feyd's jaws twitch, serpent eyes becoming pinpricks while his hips roughly slam into her cunt. His hand wraps around her throat, but then he howls, open mouth turned to the sun, cursing, panting, eyes squinted. His own knife in her hand has slashed through his bicep, deep, deep, deep.

Feyd is unbalanced and she knocks him over. He hits his tailbone on the ground, dust billowing all over them. His cock is still buried in her cunt which has begun to warm up to him, offering slick to ease the glide of the thickly veined, velvety flesh.

She will give the Harkonnens something to boo at.

"Stay back!" Feyd laughs at the prowling picadors.

He is paralyzed by arousal, hips bucking on their own accord as she pins his arm down by the crook of the elbow and hacks the blade into the cut. Pieces of blood and gore splatter over his pale flesh and the armor plate covering his shoulder. His free hand clutches her hip, mind split between pleasure and agony, gripping her flesh to rut into her hard and fast, so he doesn't throw up into the sand.

There is a nauseating crack, hack, cchhrrkkk and Feyd bawls until her bloody hands come up to cover his mouth, knife victoriously planted into the sand. How is she covering his mouth with both hands when she's still holding down his arm? Feyd glances to the side and sees his severed arm being snatched away by a picador's hook.

The horned man-creature sprints away quickly, slipping into the bowels of the arena colossus. If the nerves are preserved, the arm  can be reattached later.

"Will you be a good boy now and let me go?" She growls, drawing the attention of black and white glassy eyes back to her. Her pelvis rolls greedily against his. Scratchy sand is trapped between their bloody, sweaty bodies.

Feyd laughs through the pain, laughs and laughs and laughs to mask the raging insanity because his woman still hasn't understood that she will die on Giedi Prime one day and nowhere else. His arm stump twitches against the ground.

"I'm, haha, never a good boy, hnnng-hah!"

"Hah! Yes, that I know!" She blurts out, voice high-pitched. The tears in her eyes may be from laughter as well. She gives a half-assed punch to Feyd's chest. "Fine, then I'll have to make do with a filthy mutt."

Feyd nods, yes, yes, he will be her filthy mutt and it doesn't matter if she wants him or not, if she hates him or not, it is not important, no, it is not important.

"Release me or I'll kill you!" She reaches for the blade again, but Feyd's knee jerks up, slamming into her ribs so she is knocked to the side. Feyd scrambles, crawling on top of her. They're only connected by his plump cock head that is still squished by her wet hole. Feyd's vision prickles with black dots and he sways, trying to catch his weight on the phantom arm that he swears is still there.

He falls down on the stump, howling, howling, like a beast in a bear trap, fighting against unconsciousness. He is the unbeaten gladiator - unbeaten! The ghost of a caring touch prickles against his ribs, stabilizing him.

With his intact forearm pressed against her throat, he throttles her like she did to him with her spear earlier, except that his veined forearm will never shatter, unless she cuts it off too.

She regrets not accepting the contacts that would protect her eyes from radiation. She had been scared of getting sand all over them, but now she wants nothing more than for the burn to stop and the throb-throb-throb behind her eyeballs that somehow matches the drag of Feyd's cock against her walls and the pulse in her slashed hand.

"Why don't you close your eyes, my darling, pretend we're in our bedroom?"

She does close her eyes and the cacophony of chanting voices turns into a warped melody, like wind tearing on leaves and whistling through porous rocks.

Humm, hummm, hummmm.

In this waking nightmare, the vision of her home world is swallowed by the black sun, a ravenous maw in the good universe. She lightly gasps when she feels hot lips against her neck and hot blood dripping on her chest. 

She wraps her arms around his neck, fingers tearing on the shoulder plate over the stump until it comes off. Softly, she caresses his shoulder while the rutting of his hips is anything but soft. Her legs wrap around his waist because at least he is familiar, an island in the sea of faceless, chanting monsters.

This is what happens when one listens to the voice of the devil. It crawls into the soul and rots you from the inside.

And suddenly the beast you've pitted yourself against is no longer a beast but a man and you're friends with the devil. The thought strikes her and she begins to laugh while tears track down her cheeks. Her poor devil has a severe bruise on his neck and she mustn't think about the arm — Oh, her poor devil!

Her laughter drives Feyd over the edge, pain, pleasure and humiliation, and he spills his rot inside her. Thick, lazy pulses of his cock that she finds oddly comforting. Her toes curl inside her boots and her pelvis happily grinds against Feyd's while the warmth of his seed sinks into her core.

Feyd's breath is heavy and strained when he shuffles away from her and stands, gritting his teeth. He is imposing even though a part of him is missing. The glaring light curls around his soft cheeks and full lips and touches his anemic eyes.

She wants to lie here just a little while longer, the sand is so nice and warm, but Feyd's hand cruelly wraps around her biceps and he drags her across the sand. She calls his name but he keeps marching, fueled by the mad cacophony of chanting and stomping. The hive mind salutes. Sand whirls up under his boots and dusts her face. Her shoulder joint screams in agony.

This was never a battle for death or freedom, it was death or rot.

   (Flesh!)   (Flesh!)   (Flesh!)

They probably don't care whose flesh was given.

Feyd-Rautha maintains his posture for show, internally trembling from blood loss, but the people only see the inhuman strength of their idol, virile and unfaltering despite sacrificing an arm. Still unbeaten. 

A black trail of seed and blood stains the white sand where the na-Baron walks and pulls his spoils of battle through the oval door, back into the womb of the concrete behemoth.

FEYD TAG LIST:

@nostalgichoya, @forgedfromthestars, @sweetiee-o, @missbingu, @minedofmoria

@sebastianswallows, @charmingballoon, @flower-frog, @welliah, @aoi-targaryen

@coastalcowgirl35, @esolean, @szapizzapanda, @tatertooted, @sunny747

@ughdontbeboring, @meetmeatyourworst, @gravesdiggergirl

[swordbisexual]

I'm curious; what is your take on the Gale-Mystra situation?

I want to begin by saying that abuse and grooming are very serious and sensitive topics, and I don't ever speak of them lightly. I've been very, very fortunate in not having had first hand experience in a sustained, ongoing pattern of it; however, growing up evangelical in the southern United States, I'm absolutely no stranger to power imbalances reinforced in a hierarchy of religious authority where God (and his self-professed best examples of discipleship) is placed above the authority of all other.

And that, I think, is the crux of what bothers me about the abuse and grooming narrative applied to Gale and Mystra's story. It's placing it within a decidedly Christian lens, whether one is Christian or not, because the majority of the Western world is culturally Christian, and that informs the white Western fandom majority on the context they apply.

The structure of divinity and godhood in the Forgotten Realms is incredibly pagan in its approach (though what constitutes pagan is up for debate, since again, it's a word expressly made for religion and belief outside of Abrahamic - and mostly Christian in this day and age, lbr - context). The definition of divinity is itself fluid; mortals ascending to godhood is a regular occurrence, all things considered, and while ascension is shown to strip these people of mortal grace and largesse, they're still largely prone to mortal foibles, and in some cases take time to shift into the full aspect of divinity (at which point they're likely to get usurped by someone else ascending). The gods regularly walk the earth; there's a reason why they have listed avatars for this purpose. It's a much more tactile approach, and the lines are much more blurred.

It's all very Greek mythology, in that way. And Gale's story is a classic Greek myth of hubris and the price of attempting to touch the divine even when expressly warned of the dangers therein. There is a power imbalance, yes, but that does not neatly fit into definitions of abuse and grooming as they're so often applied to the relationship. Unlike Christian power dynamics, where there is a completely physically absent god who exists solely in the faith of believers alone and people declare themselves his mouthpiece, the power dynamics in the Forgotten Realms are so much more fluid and tactile. The imbalance lies in the fact that godhood is attainable; the difference between Mystra and Gale is that she was given this power out of necessity, and he wants to hold this power by his own initiative.

Casting Mystra as the all-powerful abuser strips Gale of agency and accountability, whether one intends it to or not, and in these narratives the one who facilitates him regaining his agency is almost always the player character, rather than his own inner motivation. I'm not going to tell someone that their personal fantasies - and perhaps even the ways they wish to regain their own power, through embodying a figure they wish they had at a difficult time - are wrong and bad, and I wish them all the best in that journey. My issue comes with where this very raw and personal read (created by a culture that has stripped those of less privilege of agency) has somehow become accepted canon, and the knee-jerk vitriol that comes up when discussing it.

Ultimately, I see Mystra being cast as the abusive, petty ex in a lot of these reads, and I think that takes away some of what makes the story an interesting exploration of myth and mortality.

[macdenlover]

i’ve been thinking a lot about dee’s sexuality compared to dennis’s and I wanted to reblog this post with my thoughts but it would end up a being like a mile long so I’m dumping it here!

lesbian dee is probably one of the more “far fetched” headcanons i have (in the sense that dee hasn’t canonically shown interest in women at all) but i think it’s still a fun idea to explore because it doesn’t really take away from or water down anything previously established about her in canon and narratively it still draws from the intention of her character.

the crux of dennis’s and dee’s characters boil down to chasing a sense of power to repair the damage left from the emotional neglect in their childhoods— dennis obsessively trying to reach a distorted internal image of perfection, and dee constantly seeking out some sort of external approval. her relationships with men have always been shallow and fruitless, mostly just a series of one night stands to stroke her ego, kind of like dennis. the difference is dennis’s string of one night stands are way more about the journey than the destination than they are for dee. he gets off on the foreplay and the success of his own slimy methodology— it’s a different itch to scratch than the validation that dee craves, this lifelong desire to be wanted by someone even if she doesn’t want them back.

it’s also impossible to ignore the gender roles of it all. dennis and dee parallel each other a whole lot but it can never really be a 1 for 1 comparison. there is no direct parallel you can make for a character like dee, in her circumstance as a woman constantly surrounded by men who’ve been belittling her her entire life, who then desperately winds up craving approval from men in the form of sex. I think viewing it through the lens of comphet adds suchhh an interesting layer to it. would i love to see her canonically hook up with a womanthe waitress? of course. is it ever gonna happen on the show? probably not god please please please please i’m going to beg 8000 times.

now as for dennis. i firmly hc that he’s bi/unlabeled (in the sense that he’s bisexual but he thinks he’s too special to call himself bisexual).

he’s always had a more complicated relationship with queerness as an identity than he has with homosexuality itself, considering how weird he was about mac coming out, and the big speech he gave above mac’s obsession with labels. but he seems to be perfectly fine openly admitting he has a system to attract men and how much he loves putting his balls in dudes’ mouths. he’s not in denial about his attraction to men the way mac was, and i don’t think he’s had any reason to pretend to be sexually attracted to women if he wasn’t. he doesn’t value the respect of women enough for that, he’s really just in it for the puss.

speaking of which, something i think a lot of people forget about/ignore when analyzing these characters is the fact that they’re meant to be puppets for the show’s satire. the choices they make with these characters is meant to say something about the world, so i think viewing a character who’s primary traits surround his predatory behavior toward women as secretly gay just ends up saying the wrong thing?

ultimately it boils down to how much of the show’s intentions you factor into the way you see these characters but my general rule of thumb has been having as much fun as i can without disrupting the canon :)

[mahiiragi]

I find it so funny when people say zutara fans are delusional or that Zuko was never an option for Katara and that kataang was always going happen... I mean, yes, kataang was probably always going to happen at the end of the day since Aang is Bryke's favorite and they have a "soft spot" for kataang (do you ever wonder why he resembles Michael DiMartimo in The Leyend of Korra? And by "soft spot" I mean they are die hard fans more immature than Aang seeing the Boy in the Iceberg, they got to the point of making a whole ass video mocking the ship and the children who liked it out of spite because zutara had fans in the first place and some kids didn't want Aang to end up with his "forever girl") and they have the final word for what goes in the avatar franchise.

Subparagraph to say that everytime I remember that Bryke made a video mocking zutara fans I lose my mind. What are you, grown ass adults, doing ridiculizing kids for a fictional couple that wasn't even canon and was not ever going to be canon because you, creator of the show, had the power to decide that? Don't you see how stupid and frankly evil and mean-spirited it is? Focus on developing your ship so it can have more fans instead; show us how Katara sees him as an equal, someone who she can share her burdens with, how she sees him through pink lens, how she decides to be with Aang because she chose it instead of just some "destiny" bullshit, how he challenges her and promotes her growth, how he supports her in her sorrows instead of being mostly the other way around, how Katara doesn't stop being Katara after she got together with Aang, HOW DID SHE LET AANG NEGLECT HER KIDS??

But people can't say zutarians are just "seeing things" or that it undeniably was never an option when there is a lot of official content implying Zuko and Katara as a couple and it was discussed in the very own writers room if Katara would end up with Zuko or Aang because many writers liked zutara (probably the reason we have too many winks at the ship in the show, books and promotional material in the first place) and it doesn't say anything to you that half of the fandom likes the "ship with no content" or the one that was created "out of the air" more than the one we see since ep 1??? Hint: it isn't because people are delusional, as Bryke said that one time: "Zuko and Katara may have shared some sparks"

Even my fifty-one year old mother likes zutara I swear to god. She saw both atla and tlok and thought zutara had a lot of potential and preferred kataang as a strong platonic relationship.

[henrysglock]

A Deal With God: Taking Another Look At Max's Song Through A New Lens

Something you may have seen me talking about over the past month-ish is this really obvious (yet easily overlooked) plot armor the Duffers have given Vecna.

Vecna has a hostage. He can't be killed, or rather, can't be allowed to die, until Max has been retrieved. If he loses, so does everyone who loves Max. This means neither El nor the Party can strike any real blows—which also means El and the Party can't allow the military to strike any successful blows. As I've discussed, these are prime circumstances for a possible "setting aside our differences to take on a bigger enemy" moment, even solely for Max's sake.

And I was sitting around last night, doing a whole lot of nothing, when it hit me. This has already been foreshadowed—heavily so, and specifically in regards to saving Max.

It's quite literally in the lyrics of her song:

Do you wanna hear about the deal that I'm making? ... And if I only could I'd make a deal with God And I'd get Him to swap our places ... Oh, there is thunder in our hearts Is there so much hate for the ones we love? Oh, tell me, we both matter, don't we?

In "Running Up That Hill" Kate Bush describes a man and a woman struggling to understand each other—a lack of understanding that leads to mutual harm/loss. If the two could see each other's side of the fight, then the fighting would cease. The woman says she would make a deal with God to swap places with the man so that both sides would finally understand each other and work as a united force.

I've discussed, previously, the heavy-handedness of Vecna's God coding, as well as the barely-hidden soft spot he still seems to have for El, the breadcrumbs of "asking for understanding/trying to tell the story" that are interspersed between the Vecna victims, and hints that someone from the "other side" may already be trying to help under the table. None of this is to mention the fact that even in 4.09, El was still trying to bargain with Vecna. The only thing causing the talks to fall through was her lack of power in the situation. The military is a large source of bargaining power.

A mutually beneficial deal with a God-coded character that puts an end to fighting between a girl and a guy who love each other—even if their relationship has become clouded by hurt and betrayal—is quite literally the theme of Max's "saved from Vecna" song. "A deal with God" is quite literally what was saving her from the fate of the other victims.

It would be an olive branch, another minor plot line that's tied directly to both Max and El (not to mention Max and Billy's tenuous peace between seasons 2 and 3). All Mike had to do was offer El some candy to smooth things over in favor of working as a team against the Mindflayer. All Max had to do was speak Billy's language; safety was the bargaining chip.

Imagine what a bargaining chip like Max could do in terms of solving the situation in Hawkins? What kind of language is this speaking that both parties might understand?

Guaranteed the military won't give two shits about a mostly-dead girl in the face of the literal apocalypse. They're already starting the season off wanting El dead anyway. Even if they change targets, the military is not a trustworthy ally—not like the alliance between someone who has everything to lose in avoiding a war on two fronts (It didn't work for Napoleon at Waterloo, it won't work for Vecna in Hawkins. Not when one side has El and the other has free access to napalm and bombs.) and someone who has everything to lose in terms of loved ones held hostage.

It would also bring the show full-circle to the original ST1 message that the government is the big bad, and that all the weirdos—yes, even the "bad" boys that everyone thinks are creepy—need to band together to protect their own from the government. Any government.

It would also be a really good chance to dig into Will's habit of holding resentment towards people. If his modicum of resentment towards El about Mike was enough to make him lash out verbally, then what is his anger and resentment towards the UD going to push him to do? Especially if there are talks of making deals...who knows?

Has Will healed enough to put his past with the UD aside for Max's sake? Or would he be steadfast in his believe that they need to kill Vecna/One as soon as possible regardless of Max's situation? (Staring at his behavior re: Mrs. Driscoll in ST3)

Which is to say: could Will...reach across the aisle, if need be?

And would Vecna require some kind of insurance? What would he ask for as a placeholder, to ensure that El won't just take Max and turn tail to join up with the military? Because El wouldn't keep up her end without first ensuring that she's really getting Max back, but it would be an illogical and OOC gamble for Vecna to just send them on their way without, as I said, some kind of insurance.

Maybe—and this is pure, pure speculation—someone who isn't in the Party's best graces? Someone who might not have been able to move past "we have to kill him", who may possibly almost mess up the deal because he hasn't worked past blaming Vecna/One for things done by other people (i.e. the Mindflayer). I mean, everyone wants Will to be special. Everyone wants him back in the middle of the supernatural arc. The Duffers have said Will's emotional growth will be important. He very much needs to face and grow through his trauma, and he very much needs to broaden his view of the world beyond himself.

Will and El swapped places in ST1, putting El into the UD and Will into the hospital, fresh out of a coma. All I'm saying is that a swap would be an interesting way to play it out, seeing Will be swapped to save El's friend, who is so coincidentally in a coma in the hospital. Get God to swap our places, and all that jazz.

Alas. I'm rambling. Just needed to get it down on "paper". Lots to say, so little time to say it in!

[ladydaybreaker]

Do you have some fic recs?

Oh do I! :3

Through the Looking Glass/Of Rust and Frostbite by SilverTails or @mephiles97 here on tumblr, Looking Glass is Silver's swap AU that's absolutely fantastic and has a cast of characters that don't really see much light in canon. Frostbite is their "survivalist" au where the bunker doesn't exist and the main cast have to survive the DDs and the harsh life of C9 outside it. Silver's works are criminally underrated and they deserve all the love for it...they work incredibly hard.

Retrospect/Great Tribulation/Steel Soul all three of these are by The_Caretaker or @existence-overwhelming here on tumblr. Retrospect is a series of character studies of the cast, featuring N, Uzi, J, V and now Tessa. GT is part of Eschatology which is his own retelling of the MD series. The Steel Soul series is Ghost's core coupling fics and I'm a liiiittle biased there because the two that are in there atp are featuring two of my fankids (Tori and Orion) and their partners (Zhenya and Andy).

Whispers In The Sky/Fourth Law/Hand That Feeds by Nosferatank or @banyanas. Whispers is my ALL TIME FAVORITE feral DD story, they normally work in pre-Heartbeat capacity so don't expect tooo much Solver shenanigans there. Fourth Law has some more Solver shenangians but still heavy AU for things (is also where we get our first look at pings from their creator!!) Hand though is more canon compliant and...goes through Tessa's POV after her demise.

Flipside/sileNce by DoodlingNutjob. Flipside is a swap au much like LG is, but different characters doing different things. While the DDs are mostly similar to what a bunch of swaps do...the Workers are very different and it's very fun to watch where that goes. She's gotten through the Heartbeat arc and is working towards the Prom part. sileNce...ever wonder what would happen if J managed to 'fix' N's personality before Uzi ever showed up? A brutal and effecient killer who got the job done no matter what? Join the "J Sucks and I want to hit her" army for sileNce then because OH GOD...

As Above, So Below/Sun and Moon/Little (Big) Changes by VexInheritance. As Above is still the ONE fic that has gotten me to throw my phone at the end because I couldn't believe that's where it ended and it had no sequel. It also got me to sob like a child. An AU of the series that is set in an alternate post canon. Sun and Moon is just sweet and pure Nuzi things and my heart just goes ahhhhhh...I haven't gotten too far into LBC but from what I've read so far? It's a very well done swap with some fun little twists. Vex is another author that's criminally underrated.

The Moments Inbetween by SparkTrace. Similar to what I've done with Ad Astra, Spark's decided to expand on the "what happened between the episodes". Unlike me, he's quickened the Nuzi getting together as dating. (I took 120 chapters to get there...) His entries into the Something Strange In Coppersville are beautiful pieces of work if you're big into Juzi and Vuzi. He's got plans for a Full Company route so expect the Nuzi, eNVy, Oilrose and Code Gold/Silly Business stories soon.

Take Care, Its a Desert Out There by ColdNightsWarmBlankets or @waycoldernighttimes. An OC centered story that feels like it could be situated right alongside canon. The original MD Cast does not interact with the OCs...but that doesn't lessen the experience whatsoever. Between Levi's mania, Serial Designation T's snark and Pequod's wisdom...it's a massive ride on the arctic seas as they try to hunt down the Solver on their own terms...or die trying (least, that's what Levi's been saying).

by chance by Spero11. I'm normally not one for human aus but this one grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go. A streamer AU where N's a big time streamer and Uzi's his gaming partner, it blossoms into a relationship between the two as we see how Uzi deals with anxiety and depression and see N's problems through his lens too (though big ol focus is on Uzi). I have sobbed and cried on this fic and felt...seen...while reading it. Lot of the "I'm too broken for anyone to fix and love" hit closer to home than I ever thought it would...and it inspired me to do my own little au in a streaming arena.

There are SO many more...but these were the big ones off the top of my head. Main thing for me? Don't go into ao3 looking at hits or kudos or comments...sometimes the really good ones? Are the ones most overlooked. <3

[eddieisashifter]

🧺, 🩰, && 🐚 for this ask game !!! whatever dr you wanna talk about <3

hi moony!! thanks for the ask <333 I'll be answering for my addams family reality!!

🧺 : SOFT LAUNDRY . . . what is your comfort item? a necklace you always wear? the soft blanket at the end of your bed? a certain drink you pick wherever you go?

!!! my beloved cerberus plushie that I've had since I was an itty child. i have to have it in order to get good sleep. if anyone dares to make fun of me, I will punch them in the nose without remorse.

his name is lethe, by the way. I love him more than life itself

🩰 : DYNAMIC DANCE . . . who is the one person that is the complete opposite of you? are you two friends? why are they the complete opposite of you? what mannerisms do they have that conflict with yours?

oo, a hard question. i mean, most people I suppose are the opposite of an addams. but, I don't go out of my way to interact with them. most of my friends either have similar aesthetics, or similar interests.

I suppose if I had to choose based on aesthetics, I'd choose my sister, eden's, best friend, pandora. she's the complete opposite of our aesthetic, dressing in mostly whites and pastels. she's also quite different from me in personality, I suppose. she's very optimistic and friendly. I love her, she's so very sweet. (eden's also hopelessly in love with her, so I got to know her to approve, and ended up becoming friends).

🐚 : QUICK SHELL . . . okay, just a quick fire of a few questions. favorite inside joke? what food combination do you love but other people think is strange? how do you feel about surprises? do you live a more analytical or creative lifestyle? if you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?

OKAY!

eden and I have all the best inside jokes. I think my favorite is probably our oldest. one time as little children, we both came to the same conclusions in one of our classes and just kept talking in unison. it freaked out our teacher and they asked if we just got possessed by the same ghost. so, now whenever we say the same thing at the same time, we say "jinx, you owe me an exorcism".

food combinations are of the devil. separate out your food groups like autism god intended

surpises are evil. evil evil.

a mix of both, I suppose? I tend to approach things from an analytical perspective, but I'm also an artist and a poet so I tend to see the world through a creative's lens.

I'm very bad at describing myself. I'm almost never my own muse because I'm horrid at being self-aware. but, I suppose I can think of something. perhaps... poetic, quiet, and intense.

[the-shifting-long]

Hi I just wanted to say THANK YOU for calling out fandom misogyny my goodness. Very tired of being like. An alarmingly underwhelming number of people who has very little interest in most of the Voices and much love for the Princess in all her complexities. Especially as a Thorn fan tbh it gets really tiring watching folks strip down complex characters into just waifu bait??? Or a Beast fan when folks can’t see past the vore jokes on her character to understand the mastermind she truly is? The fandom’s understanding of abuse victimhood and survivors is RANCID and it’s about time someone said as much.

It's hard. I understand that feeling of like, wanting to love and be loved by the princess, so of course you focus On the parts that are the most loving, and on the affection that's there. I try not to judge people when I feel like they're "softening" the princesses, because a lot of times it's just that they're showcasing the softest side of her even though they know the brutal, hard reality exists-this is especially the case for a lot of Den fans, I feel like. I myself am guilty of focusing on Fury's characterization in the leave ending like she doesn't spend most of her time on screen brutally ripping us to pieces.

...but then sometimes people post things that make me go "hold the fuck on that is NOT her."

HEA/Damsel fans are like. The most guilty of this. She would never be a tradwife. Like. Me when I'm in a "missing the point" competition and my opponent is someone named "#1 Damsel Lover" on discord. I'm especially sick of edits where people paste Damsel's face/personality on a "hotter" princess like Adversary, like...eugh. No. They're their own fucking people, for one, and for two, if you need a "soft" face and a submissive personality to the point of being a major character flaw to love a woman, I don't think you love her.

The vore thing in particular is like...ugh. It's so. It's nuanced, right. Because while it wasn't intended to Be vore or Be sexy by the artist/writer, it IS the act depicted in vore fetish fiction, and it IS appealing to vore fans for the same reason vore is. It is explicitly meant to be intimate because the two of you are being combined through digestion, because she is consuming you and making you into her. So it's not intended to Be vore, but it's also not shocking to me at all that the vore community latched onto it/Beast at all-the Beast chapter literally depicts digestion in an intimate and even romantic way. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to find the sexy in things unintended to be sexy, especially since Abby Howard herself said that it's not wrong to find anything in StP hot, she put it there for us. but i do think it goes against the core themes of the Beast's route to Solely look at the digestion scene and to view it from a Solely sexy angle, and good GOD, the joke is SO OLD. IT'S SO OLD. DO PEOPLE EVEN KNOW HOW MANY TIMES THE VORE JOKE HAS BEEN MADE ABOUT HER ROUTE IT'S NOT FUNNY ANYMORE IT WAS BARELY FUNNY TO BEGIN WITH I-SCREAMSSSSS

i don't personally read a lot of the dynamics in StP as abusive, mostly because people try to apply it to fucking. Adversary. a completely consensual situation between two people for whom death literally does not fucking matter. And even when it DOES apply, people focus on it to the point of ignoring other themes of the route-looking at you, Tower/Moment of Clarity. But there's totally a double standard. Tower/Nightmare defenders are relatively rare, and then with HEA, where it's explicitly US as the controlling/abusive element, people literally blame Smitten...and then defend Smitten. :/ HELLO. it's so dark in here.

literally any willingness to admit these characters are Nuanced and have Flaws and that they have reasons for having these flaws would go a long way but that'd require treating the Tower/Nightmare as human beings and that's too much to ask for a lot of people lmao.

like even if you want to SOLELY view their routes through the lens of "evil abusive woman" and ignore the ways you've pushed her to that point + the other themes their routes are dealing with. the horrifying reality is that abusers are like. People. Who believe themselves to be in the right and who have issues themselves. A refusal to engage with that does nothing to actually help abuse victims, who often stay with their abusers Because...their abusers Are People. with their own issues and complexities. like it's hard as hell to get out of a situation like that when you can't even conceptualize your abuse as abuse because abusers aren't like that, they aren't in pain like that, they aren't kind and caring like that!

but at the end of the day it's not Actually about examining abusive relationships/dynamics. It's an excuse to hate on a woman that's too confident and too strong and too mean to the guy who just stabbed her or abandoned her to be locked in a basement forever. If it actually WAS about these women being abusive, we'd see more people get into that, but it's not. It's about Broken as a perfect little victim and about a convenient excuse to hate on someone they don't find attractive because she's not Waifu enough for them.

anyways. i'm attached to these women. i'm attached to the weird and complex and violent and loving and contradictory and beautiful relationship between the long quiet and the princesses. i am. horny. sometimes. so i get where people come from when they talk about their favorite princesses as Wife and whatnot. but also is she really your wife if you have to recharacterize or redesign her in all of your art lmao

[giselberts]

ms ashma :) also called ms asthma. don't worry about it. i've been messing with an idea of her since i finished enderal but i've only been able to put a face on the idea just a few days ago!!

the short of it is that she's dragonborn + meridia knight who's ass gets sent to enderal/nehrim to fix stuff that's going on over there :)

the long version is below the cut :) she's more of a vyn oc than a tes oc tbh? there's a lot of cool concepts introduced in tes that become even cooler when you view them through the lens of vyn!! (esp the whole predestination thing or having a path/being pathless, the false gods in both morrowind/nehrim, lots of little fun things)

warning uhhh nehrim/enderal spoilers below the cut. and it's very rambly/disorganised so beware

alsoalso!! if anyone wants to like. workshop this idea/AU with me hmu im so open to trying to make this au work (and also im going back through nehrim/enderal so the ramble below is extra messy)

OKAY so. i'm going rusty on my TES knowledge tbh BUT ashma was a follower of meridia and became her babygirl when she found her beacon/got dawnbreaker and that jazz, like a 4th era darien gautier/golden knight except she's emotionally constipated and she's a redguard (in my heart she is berber <3)

she becomes dragonborn, does dragonborning things, has an existential crisis when there's the old 'to kill or not to kill' with partysnax (this comes back in later <3) but that's fine. she's gotten the attention of every daedric prince after killing miraak + meridia personally vouches for her at some later point in time.

one thing i loveeee about vyn is eventualities!! and tes also has those with dragonbreaks. and also in this AU either tamriel/yokuda or akavir is lethonia which works and doesn't work but it's fine it's fictional. who cares. no actually if you care hmu i wanna workshop this to make this work. yes eventualities. SO i think a short while after skyrim canon events end (mainly dragonborn dlc), that's when nehrim events kick in!! mostly the uprising/killing the gods thing. the lightborn are dead BUT the (nehrim) prophecy isn't filled.

that's when meridia and herma mora go "hey there's this thing going on in this other continent where we don't do shit just to see how these idiots fare. it's not going well. we should probably send this one single person there"

ofc ashma is all "fuck yeah ill do it. anything for you mommy meridia because i am blindly loyal and will follow any order given to me"

and so bam homie is sent to enderal, probably not too far from jespar while he's investigating yero so that he's all 'hey there's a weird knight over there :) surely i will talk to them'.

ashma just.... does things without questioning them? 'oh yeah we gotta stop the world from blahblahblah' 'aight bet' she's just the perfect soldier who doesn't ask much questions, barely becomes pals with jespar and calia, they're coworkers at most? to her this is all temporary, ms meridia will take her back as soon as her mission is over. things take a real big turn when she's on that one quest with constantine and jespar, because she uh. falls and hits her head on a rock and straight up dies and gets thrown back in time to nehrim events. the whole predestination/killing fate/having a set path for you REALLY fucks her up because it's pushing her to question her beliefs. that paired with the rhalata questline (is one worthy of redemption + should one strive to make the world better no matter how small they are + basically every philosophical shit enderal throws at you) makes her maybe have a mental breakdown. it's okay she's fine. and besides she can have another go at this! this time around she's pal with jespar and calia, she knows the rules of the game now.

tbh i think catharsis ending suits her best? ok that's all thank u for reading this very messy ramble :)

[jennamoran]

The Far Roofs

cover art by Isip Xin

Hi!

Today I'm going to talk a little bit more about my forthcoming RPG, the Far Roofs. I've previously talked about

general principles,

the rats,

and the campaign.

Today, I want to talk about the Mysteries.

Up on the distant roofs, you see, the rats hunt, and are hunted, by these ... things. These vast, impossible god-monsters.

The Mysteries.

These things that are as much experiences as beings.

I like to anchor them to real-world myths. That's mostly an authorial choice, rather than something intrinsic to their character---

I think if I named them all in some made-up language of my own, called them all things like, I dunno, Alolitha or Eidumir, then they'd come across as cooler ... but also harder to get a handle on.

You'd have to be immersed in the setting to really get what they're about.

So I give most of them a byname that's more accessible. Something like Harpy, Hoop Snake, Lennan-Shee---whatever---so that you can tap into your memories or impressions of real-world mythology and the work of fantasists and cultural tropes and monster manuals from other games and the stories of your childhood and all of that.

Even still, they are vast things.

You might be forgiven, if I just named them without that prelude, in thinking that they seem vast to the rats because the rats are small. Thinking, perhaps, that you could fight off a Mystery like Jackalope, say, or Hippocampus ... if you were lucky, or had a gun ... whereas a rat might have a harder time.

The thing is, to walk in the realm of myth is to lose your grounding in the world. On the Far Roofs you can't rely on your ability to frame a story or a conflict through a rationalistic lens. The Mysteries are not physical creatures of a certain size, but rather the animating spirits of dramatic, life-changing experiences. Like the starring monster of a horror movie, or divinity that visits you in dreams, it's loosely possible to pay them off, or punch them out, or argue with them about Naruto, or whatever, but you can't really extrapolate out from that to resolve whatever underlying problem they can be.

Jackalope isn't a thing you shoot, or whatever:

It's a thing you encounter on dark nights, sometimes, and can't ever really prove you've seen. Maybe you don't even encounter it, just ... find its tracks.

It's not a conflict you can easily rewrite.

As for something like Harpy ... she is dead, the rats have killed her ... and even dead and disembodied your fate is very likely in her hands.

.

This kind of thing is why the rats are valid protagonists in this world:

In the face of the Mysteries, there's not much difference between the standings of a human and a rat. We are all such small, imperiled things.

.

Each of the Mysteries is tied to some internal state. Some mood or emotion or whatever. It's not clear how much that's true, and how much that's a game convention, and how much that's how the rats, who you're going to be getting most of your basic information from, understand them.

... but it's at least a little bit "all three."

This is, fundamentally, an authorial choice. The Far Roofs is an expressionist game. It's a game about emotion bleeding out into reality, about moods and experiences taking on physical or quasi-physical form in the world or narrative around us. So that's part of why I made the Mysteries like this.

The other part is, if you want to make up your own Mysteries, it helps a lot that you can start with an internal state.

Deciding to make up "Centaur" as a Mystery is kind of boring. I think.

Deciding to make a Mystery named Centaur that is on some level "about" mind-body duality or immersion in the body, or wisdom, or the post-exercise endorphin mood, or having ADHD ("I'm stuck on a horse that's going where it wants"), or whatever ... that's a bit more interesting.

Starting with a mood you want to talk about, I think, like ... Sorrow ... and figuring out what mythical entity best matches that (I'd go with Banshee), and then figuring out how its stories work from there:

I think that's the most interesting option of them all.

.

I do give some of them fancy made-up names, to be clear. I'm not opposed to having an Alolitha or Eidumir or whatever around! But that's not the default or primary approach.

.

In theory, the game expects you to make up most of the Mysteries you encounter.

In practice, there's a built-in campaign that features a bunch of them, so there are enough worked examples in the book that you might never have to come up with one from scratch:

there's solid summaries of about three dozen, plus

in-depth writeups of Goblin, Harpy, Hoop Snake, Unicorn, and four other Mysteries that map a bit less precisely to established myths.

.

There's a lot in those in-depth writeups, but my favorite parts are the pages that are just questions the GM can ask the players when that Mystery is at hand.

(Questions, sometimes statements, sometimes actions or power uses, but ... it's the questions that I love.)

I have spent the better part of a decade working on power sets for spiritual, mystical, and divine entities, and you can find some cool rules toys for the more purely mechanically minded here. I like how their game-mechanical writeups all turned out.

... but in both practice and theory, none of that is as cool to me as the list of asides and questions the GM can crib from when the Mystery is involved. Simple stuff like "the wind is rising" or "speak to me of solitude." More nuanced stuff like GM-as-Death playing a spade suit card and saying, "tell me of a nasty accident, and how you avoided or survived it." In every case, a bunch of options.

As a reader, I love the detailed mechanics more. As a reader, I don't really care that much about the actual how of how the Mysteries do things but I love that there is a how. It tickles an important part of my brain, deep down.

... but when I'm actually GMing, I love the lists of phenomena and questions so very much.

I am admittedly usually in a constant state of panic when GMing, so perhaps I get more value out of both the cue card function and the ability to hand off responsibility to the player than others would.

Perhaps.

.

If you're curious about those examples:

The wind rises when you're dealing with Harpy because a lot of her story is the story about how being on the Far Roofs is like falling, like flying, like losing the stable influence of the ground. So naturally you feel the air. You feel the motion. It arises. Naturally you become isolated, or at least experience intermittent solitude, because the ground ultimately mediates almost every social connection and interaction.

Maybe not love or skydiving teams, I guess.

When Death's presence is weighty in your life ... well, it's in your life, so you're probably not dead yet, but stuff happens! You nearly died!

I like that you don't have to think through that theory when playing with this stuff, but it's still all right there, implicit, presented in a couple of different forms.

That's what I have to say tonight!

.

From the Cutting Room Floor for this Post:

... there is still a part of my brain that loves it when you write up the power that lets the Christian God be three species of hypostasis and a single ousia, or whatever, and loves it even more when you can use the same power to combine three mechs.

I have not written up that specific power, though, to be clear, as I rarely put either Christianity or mecha in my games (albeit, see Invisible Mecha) ...

[princess-of-the-corner]

So, how did Sunset approach religion when she went to the human world? And are all of the Rainbooms in the same religion?

hhm. So!

Canonically everyone celebrates Christmas and considering it's America that runs fairly true. But we can roll with different aspects!

Sunset is first!

Her relationship with Religion is Complicated™ coming from Equestria where their Gods are confirmed real and she knew one personally. So worship/prayer isn't as common for Euqestira in that sense.

Coming to the Human world and finding different religions.. she doesn't doubt their Gods' existence even if she feels little need to worship them.

When it comes to blending in she picks the most 'popular' and rolls with it enough that no one questions it, but thankfully the town isn't super religious.

Though a lot of celebrations are similar to Equestria's so she can kinda. Celebrate them on her own without being clocked.

As for the rest of the Six!

Twilight - Given that I write it that Twilight's dad is a scientist like her, I think the family is mostly atheist, but chill about it. But they do still get into the holiday spirit of togetherness and the like so 'Christmas' is less about Jesus and more just appreciating one another. (the revelation that Magic is Real is gonna lead to a faith crisis eventually but in the long run she just goes from atheist to agnostic)

Pinkie - Pinkie is funky in that I think family-wise? Actually Jewish and though her family isn't very practicing does lean from that lens going into things. Pinkie herself is kinda funky in a kinda believing in everything thanks to her experiences ie: peeking into Equestria via Dreams, and loves the excuse to throw a dozen holiday parties through the month.

Rarity - I see her as more believing than the others, but not particularly 'into it'. Like she'd attend church services on holidays but isn't an 'every sunday morning' kinda girl. Miiiiight have to do with her being a bit parentified as a kid who did not want to get up early to go to church on sundays.

Rainbow - Rainbow is kinda more in that somewhat 'rebellious against the institution more than truly nonbeleiving' phase. Like her parents were more religious and would drag her to church more as a kid and she kinda hated being forced into it and is annoyed at having no choice so she says 'whoops have soccer practice sunday mornings!' and doesn't go and while she's not gonna insult anyone to their face she does get in a sour mood when religion comes up. She's probably going to come to terms with it a bit but never really get 'into it'.

Applejack - tbh I see the apple siblings as mixed Native American and White and I think their traditions mix that as best as one can.

Fluttershy - I see him running a gambit of religions for different reasons? Like in my au Fluttershy is adopted so I think her adoptive parents are one religion but her bio parents were another. So he was raised in the adoptive one but as he explores roots he explores the bio family's one. Though I ultimately see him leaning into something more Pagan in the long run.

[aspoonofsugar]

Despite CRWBY early on saying there was no sexism in RWBY, it seems as though patriarchy is a very real thing and in fact is intrinsically tied to the story both on the surface with Ozpin and cosmically with the Brother gods.

There are women of authority, like Glynda and Winter, but even those female figures are subordinate to men in power. It’s a world created by men. Men dominate their hero myths (“Men made from Dust”), the huntsman standing triumphantly above the huntress at the monument in Beacon’s courtyard. There are four huntsman academies with four men as headmasters and no women. The four Maidens are powers given freely by Ozpin that he now seeks to control again by handpicking his guardians.

It seems like a deliberate contrast with RWBY and its emotional themes as a counternarrative to the male-dominated hero myths shared by Ozpin and Ironwood, who operate within that accepted framework and are failing because it’s fundamentally flawed. The cosmic wound of Remnant was inflicted by Salem trying to resurrect Ozma and being punished by the Brothers (masculine deities that created humanity but are themselves unbalanced), who cursed her and then destroyed the world when she retaliated. Salem and Cinder (the main villains, both female) are treated as victims, each rebelling against a patriarchal system that has harmed them (the Brothers and Huntsman society respectively) while hurting one another and others. Toxic masculinity and authoritarianism are critiqued through male characters.

There’s even a lost female “mother” goddess that the Brothers are disconnected from in the Blacksmith, who highlights the failings of trying to find the answer to balance within that accepted system and endows the titular heroines (and Jaune) with the forbidden knowledge that is the thesis of the story.

Team RWBY seem poised to pass on this knowledge to the four Maidens to liberate them from the same tragic misunderstandings of what the Maiden powers are for, each member of RWBY set to have a Maiden counterpart personally tied to their storyline - Cinder, Winter, Ilia(?), and Raven. Jaune, too, critiques patriarchal values in his story about redefining heroism, and by receiving the same boon from the Blacksmith, seems set to exist as a bridge between the rigid and self-harming patriarchal myths (which he often struggles with in his masculine anxiety, and comes to embody and demonstrate the failures of in his Rusted Knight arc) and the feminine counternarrative of RWBY.

Does this seem like an intentional critique of patriarchy, or is it an unintentional blind spot where the patriarchal scaffolding is inherited from traditional storytelling? I have to think that it’s at least a little conscious on their part.

Hi!

Thank you for this long analysis :D I think a critic of toxic masculinity and a celebration of virtues traditionally linked to femininity are definitely present in RWBY. At the same time, I think it is a theme mostly present in the stories of specific characters, like Jaune and not the main theme of the story.

In short, I think it is a lens you can definitely use to analyze the story, just like you do in your great ask, but it is personally not my favorite lens. That is because I think it can lead to an oversimplification of the characters and of the story (not that I am saying you are doing it anon btw). For example, I keep seeing people downplaying Jaune and Oscar's role in the story, whereas it is obvious their arcs are just as complex and as pivotal as those of the four girls. Similarly, I saw some people trying to turn Salem into a misunderstood heroine, whereas my favorite interpretation of her is that she is was never a hero, but rather a victim (as you say in your ask).

In short, I think your thoughts are great and it is definately a lens you can have fun with :) It is simply not one I am particularly fond of! At least, for now.

[mommyashtoreth]

I think among "trans allegory" interpretations, Crowley is more popular than Aziraphale, which is quite unfortunate, because I think Aziraphale works just as well. Crowley does, certainly, work as a trans allegory - she was once one thing (an angel) and is now something else. Aziraphale, however, is also transitioning into something other than what she once was - it even works when viewed through a lens of gender performance. Aziraphale is slowly, over thousands of years, allowing himself to become something other than what he was assigned to be by God. Part of this is, in fact, via gender performance - angels are genderless and mostly androgynous, and in his earliest appearances chronologically, Aziraphale aligns with this; the featureless white robe is basically as textbook "bland androgynous nonbinary fashion" as you can get without basically being a burlap sack. As time goes on, Aziraphale changes her presentation further and further, adopting human clothing until she is quite visually different from other angels. This is costume-based storytelling - you see less and less pure white and more brown, beige, blue, and gold, signature "Aziraphale colors" from a design perspective. I remember seeing a post a little while ago that talked about Aziraphale slowly experimenting with chosen names (like the "human" name "A.Z. Fell") rather than the name he was given by God (as opposed to Crowley, who in all versions of the text does not use his given or "true" name), and that just feels extremely transgender to me. I guess in the most literal sense, Aziraphale is transitioning to be more humanlike. Not transitioning to human, he's not human and I don't think he'd ever want to be, but he's found a middle ground, and he's far more humanlike, in appearance and behavior, than any other angel we see. Nonbinary in a system where the two genders are angel/demon and human

[dn-hc]

Hi! How would they react if their best friend or s/o came out as transmasc? :3

L Lawliet

L would approach the situation with thoughtful calm.

He might ask a lot of questions—not out of judgment, but to understand.

“What does this mean for you? What do you need from me right now?”

He’d want to make sure they feels supported, even if he’s unfamiliar with the experience.

Social norms don’t mean much to him.

He wouldn’t particularly care if this makes him straight or gay as he never cared to label himself anyway.

“If this is who you are, then I accept it. I’m not interested in anyone other than you, regardless of labels.”

Light Yagami

Pre Kira

Pre-Kira Light might struggle at first, mostly due to internalized perfectionism and pressure from societal expectations.

But if he genuinely loved them, he’d come around and be supportive—eventually.

Though, viewing himself as strictly heterosexual, he would likely end the relationship but opt to be good friends instead.

“I understand. If that's how you feel, I support it. But, I'm into women so I think it's best we go our seperate ways.”

Kira

He’d calculate the "utility" of the relationship to his image or goals.

If he saw it as a liability, he'd cut ties (maybe even cruelly).

If it could be used to his advantage, he might feign support for appearances.

“As long as this doesn’t interfere with our future, I’m fine with it.”

Mihael Keehl

At first? Shock, possibly even anger—not out of hate, but because he's emotionally volatile.

His initial reaction might be defensive: “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

But once he gets past his pride, his loyalty kicks in hard.

He’d go full ride-or-die.

Probably even threaten anyone who gave them a hard time.

Though, given his inferiority complex, it would take him some type to come to terms with the fact, and accept, that he is now is a gay relationship as he's always viewed himself as heterosexual.

“You’re still you. Just next time, don’t keep this kind of thing from me. I’ve got your back.”

Mail Jeevas

Matt would be the most chill and accepting of all of them.

Gender stuff wouldn’t faze him much.

He’d shrug, maybe say something like, “Cool. Thanks for trusting me.”

He’s nonjudgmental, and if the vibes are right, he’s staying.

Though he'd tease about how you guys are technically gay now.

“You’re still the person I fell for. So what do you need from me? A name change? New pronouns? I got you.”

Nate River

He’d take it in with little outward reaction.

Probably says something like “I see,” and just… adapts.

Social constructs don’t matter much to him, and he’s used to seeing people beyond labels.

He may not express support in a warm way, but he’d quietly adjust his behavior to align with their identity.

He, like L, never cared to label himself so he has no concern for whether this makes him gay or not.

“You’re still the same person to me. This changes nothing in how I value you.”

Misa Amane

Misa might be shocked at first—mostly because she sees love and gender through a very traditional and romantic lens.

But she’s incredibly emotional and loyal.

Once she processes it, she’d likely go overboard in her support, even making it all about her partner’s journey.

Lots of hugs, compliments, maybe even shopping trips to celebrate.

“Oh my god! You’re so brave! We are so getting matching outfits for your new era!”