#she is ALWAYS thinking about other people and their perspectives

[madbard]

Thinking about how the Long Quiet outsources change. As the embodiment of stagnancy, it was never meant to exist on its own, never meant to exist as sentient being which, by necessity, must adapt and change to survive. And it handles this by creating the Voices, mental embodiments of trauma responses and attitude shifts and altered worldviews and everything else, externalized advisors embodying the changes it cannot personally undergo.

It accepts these Voices as guides because it needs them, but it refuses to be altered itself. Each princess and each story bring with it a physical change that horrifies it, and every time, it resets those changes, kills the new voices and returns to its original state. Theoretically, it stays the same as it always was.

But still. As it continues forth, it can’t help but remember. With each story, memory returns. Against its will, against its very nature, it changes, because it isn’t only stagnancy. There is a splinter of the Shifting Mound in there as well.

Thinking about how the Princesses exist as mere facets of the Shifting Mound, how the Shifting Mound is scattered among them because personhood requires a certain amount of stability and stagnancy that she cannot perform all at once. How the Shifting Mound cannot exist as a single, stable perspective because even the continuity of thought is contrary to the concept of change and destruction and evolution and death, expanding always and infinitely and away.

She pulls herself together from limited experiences and ideas, rejecting the possibility of being any single person.

But still. At the end of each story, she greets the Long Quiet, offers it comfort and company in the way she knows how. The progression of their relationship, though it is by necessity a story of change, is also a tale of repetition and familiarity. The Long Quiet asks the same questions. She gives different answers. But it is ultimately the same conversation, again and again. And she is capable of that because she is not just the Shifting Mound – there is a sliver of the Long Quiet in there as well.

And the Shifting Mound is only able to reform itself because the Long Quiet makes different decisions each time, bringing her fresh perspectives – because despite being the manifestation of stagnancy, there is a piece of the Shifting Mound to motivate it. And the Long Quiet is only able to try and remain stagnant because the Shifting Mound is able to wipe its memory and reset it – because despite being the manifestation of change, there is a whisper of the Long Quiet to stabilize her.

They weren’t meant to be separated. They weren’t meant to be sentient. As separate beings, they fail. As separate beings, they greet each other with violence and hunger and desperation – the fury of their essential conflict warring with their frantic desire to be reunited, to never have been torn apart. Two people who never wanted to be people. Two people who want to be the same thing and try again and again to join themselves together through bloodshed and love.

Movements synchronized, moving as one. As if they were still the same being because, in a sense, they are.

There is a reason they always appear to be dancing.

[badgalsasuke]

Hi, how are you? Let’s say I’m new to the Naruto fandom. I discovered the series when I was 12, but I only started following it recently. I started reading the manga not too long ago, but since I was 12, I’ve never liked Sakura. However, as I mentioned, I don’t know much about the story or the Naruto fandom, though I’ve noticed there are many toxic fans of Sakura and Sasusaku.

I have a few questions I’d like to ask because I really liked your perspective on many things. I must admit I feel a bit embarrassed and afraid of bothering you with my questions, which might seem a bit silly or even incoherent. But I’ve noticed you always present the facts clearly and show who Sakura really is. So, I wanted to ask if I could send you these questions without being a bother, especially since you might have already talked about or answered them before. Also, knowing myself, they would probably be quite a few and maybe a bit lengthy.

First Question:

Did Sakura really stalk Sasuke? I've seen many people claiming this, while others completely deny it, so I’m not sure what to believe.

Second Question:

Can the novels and databooks from the Naruto universe be considered canon to the main story? Once again, I’ve come across various opinions about this, and I’d like to understand how it works.

Third Question:

Is it true that Naruto almost harassed Sakura by trying to kiss her while disguised as Sasuke? I came across this argument in a video made by a Sakura fan, where they discussed the hate the character receives. I have screenshots from the video if it helps clarify this point.

This is the whole screenshot for context.

Fourth Question:

Are many of Sakura’s accomplishments in the story real, or were most of them made up by her fans? I’ve seen discussions about titles and achievements attributed to her, but I couldn’t find confirmation that they’re true. Once again, I have screenshots of where I found these claims if you’d like to check them. (I also saw on the Naruto Wiki that one of Sakura's nicknames is "Second Tsunade." Is that really true?)

Since this is coming from a Sakura fan account, I highly doubt that it could be true.

To be honest, I’ll stop here because I’m feeling a bit embarrassed and don’t want to be a bother. Please only respond if you feel comfortable addressing these questions, as I know some of them might sound a little silly or incoherent.

If there’s any grammar mistake, it’s because I’m translating this using a translator, so the translation might not be perfect.

Hello!

Don't worry about your grammar, your ask is perfectly understandable.

First, welcome to the fandom! I really hope you enjoy this community and Naruto as a series.

Now, let's go bit by bits.

Did Sakura really stalk Sasuke? I've seen many people claiming this, while others completely deny it, so I’m not sure what to believe.

In the manga you won't see Sakura literally stalking Sasuke hence why some people deny she did it. However, in an interview Kishimoto called Sakura a stalker back in 2006

Can the novels and databooks from the Naruto universe be considered canon to the main story? Once again, I’ve come across various opinions about this, and I’d like to understand how it works.

The novels are filler, period. Anyone who tries to tell you they're canon are het!shippers coping that Kishimoto never gave them any official content for their ship so they have to settle for the filler novels.

People might think novels are canon because they're official content but there's a difference between official filler content (videogames, naruto filler episodes, novels and anything comissioned by Studio Pierrot and Shueisha editoria) and official canon content which is everything written by Kishimoto. They're both called official because even though filler has no impact on the story, it's still licensed/copyrighted content you need to pay to get.

The only official canon content meaning it's written by Kishimoto is the Naruto manga (700 chapters), Naruto Gaiden, Minato One-Shot and Boruto The movie.

Movies like Road To Ninja and The Last are hybrids in the sense that Kishimoto was involved in the projects creation but it was ultimately other people who contributed more to them and even started them.

As for the databooks, they're not canon either because Kishimoto didn't write them (he didn't have time to do so). The information you'll find in them often contradicts what you see in the manga. However, they're still useful resources because they contain Kishimoto interviews and a few comments here and there on the illustrations. You can read more about it here

Third Question: Is it true that Naruto almost harassed Sakura by trying to kiss her while disguised as Sasuke? I came across this argument in a video made by a Sakura fan, where they discussed the hate the character receives. I have screenshots from the video if it helps clarify this point.

No, Naruto did not transform into Sasuke to assault Sakura or trying to take advantage of her. Naruto transformed into Sasuke to ask her what she thought of him, Naruto, that's it. It was Sakura who tried to kiss Naruto thinking she was going to kiss Sasuke, Naruto did not initiate the kiss attempt and then he left because he got diarrhea.

As for the assault, it's also Sakura the one that's extremely creepy towards Sasuke. Not Naruto towards Sakura. She's the creepy character.

Here she's thinking about Sasuke (it was actually Naruto) looking at her "with bedroom eyes"

Here she's planning on how "overwhelm Sasuke with sex appeal"

here she's thinking on how if Sasuke had to pee then she would've liked to see his penis.

Fourth Question: Are many of Sakura’s accomplishments in the story real, or were most of them made up by her fans? I’ve seen discussions about titles and achievements attributed to her, but I couldn’t find confirmation that they’re true. Once again, I have screenshots of where I found these claims if you’d like to check them. (I also saw on the Naruto Wiki that one of Sakura's nicknames is "Second Tsunade." Is that really true?)

I'm gonna go based on the accomplishments listed on the screenshot you share.

-Is Sakura the strongest Kunoichi? No, this is one of the most pervasive talking points in the fandom to the point is treated like the truth but compared to Tsunade, who is stated in the manga to be the strongest Kunoichi that has ever lived, Sakura is defeated multiple times by enemies that Tsunade, managed to defeat or at least, harm. Tsunade managed to defeat both Kabuto and Orochimaru.

But Sakura couldn't do anything when she, Naruto, Kakashi and Yamato encountered Kabuto and Orochimaru and was rendered unconscious for the rest of the fight.

What's funny here is that even though both Kabuto and Sakura received the same impact, Kabuto did not lose consciousness. On top of that, Sakura had to be saved by Yamato

Sakura charged against Madara without a plan or strategy, doesn't even scratch Madara and then has to be saved by Naruto and Sasuke, Madara mocked her for this and called her "the side show"

Meanwhile Tsunade was actually able to hit Madara

-Is Sakura the smartest Kunoichi? No, during the chuunin exams she was the only rookie who did NOT understand the written test. Neither the first part about the first nine questions nor the second part about tenth question. Everybody else did understand the first part of the written test and Naruto helped everybody pass the test by answering the tenth question that was more of a test of attitude/will than skills [LINK]. On top of that she's never able to come up with strategies to fight against an enemy. When Naruto and Sasuke were unconscious at the forest of the Death and Sakura had to take care of them, she could only come up with flawed traps the enemy spotted right away and when she attempted to fight the enemy she got beat up so bad, two teams (InoShikaCho and Neji, Tenten and Rock Lee) and Sasuke had to come to her rescue. When it comes to both bell tests, it was Sasuke the first time and then Naruto the second time who had to come up with strategies on how to take the bells away from Kakashi while she was just there.

-The screenshot calls her Konoha's only female pillar, I have no idea where they got that from. I don't know if they're trying to insert here in the Hokage/Shadow Hokage thing Naruto and Sasuke are, or what.

-Director of Konoha hospital, I think this is true.

-Member of Team 7, this is not an accomplishment. Iruka made the teams randomly, it's not like all Team 7 in shinobi history happened to be made up of the strongest ninjas and there's this requirement to be outstanding to be a part of team 7. It's a random made up team and Naruto and Sasuke ended up being exceptional shinobi, the greatest of all time actually. Sakura stans are just trying to make it seem like she's also a part of that.

By randomly I mean that Team 7 was created as a regular random team instead of an elite team where only the best of the best can enter, not that the students are randomly selected

-Founder of Children Mental Health Clinic. This is false and comes from a filler novel. Canonically the character that opened up an institution to support orphan children is Kabuto, as seen in Naruto Gaiden

-Sakura is a Jonin and learned the techniques from Tsunade, a Sannin, but she, as far as I'm aware, did not come up with her own, which is what made the Sannin, well, the Sannin. Naruto and Sasuke were able to create their own techniques unlike her, though, like Rasenshuriken and Chidori Nagashi, respectively.

So, as you can see most of what's listed there are false made up accomplishments to try to make her seem like she's on the level of Sasuke and Naruto but in reality she's a pretty mediocre kunoichi.

Anyway, don't be embarrased to ask questions, we were all new to a fandom at some point and wanted our doubts and questions answered :)

[duskdog]

Wondering, vaguely, if Steph's age had any influence on how Bruce viewed/interacted with her.

She was 15 when he met her, and would have been 16-extremely-close-to-17 (I am personally a "Steph was 17" truther because the timeline doesn't actually work otherwise; I would call the 16 an error, but it's what's stated in canon, so...) when she became Robin and died. That's significantly different than Dick and Damian, who came to Bruce quite young, and even Tim and Jason, who were a little older but still not as old as Steph when they first came under Bruce's wing. (I think it's important to remember that, until adulthood, even just a couple of years can make an enormous difference in development and how a child views/interacts with adults. 16 can potentially be very different than 13.)

I imagine there must be a difference between working with a Robin who is literally a child, and one who's very nearly an adult. Particularly Steph, who had been parentified from a fairly young age and very likely felt much older than her actual years at times.

Honestly, we'll probably never know for sure because their time together as Batman and Robin was so short... and because of the other, bigger factors that influenced their relationship: namely the fact that she was disposable to him as Robin (not as in "he was okay with her dying", but as in "he was only using her as Robin to achieve a goal and wasn't at all concerned with her feelings or well-being in that respect"). And of course, her gender, because that would also have influenced how they interacted, regardless of whether either of them wanted it to or not.

More interestingly, though, is the method by which Steph became Robin. She and Tim were the only "proactive" Robins -- the ones who came to Bruce with knowledge/intent, rather than being children he chose to take in and eventually mentor (and Damian, who was raised for the mantle, but from Bruce's perspective just sort of got dropped on his doorstep). And Steph is the only Robin who had any experience operating as a vigilante prior to her time as Robin. Even before she became Spoiler, she already had knowledge and understanding of the world of masks and capes thanks to her father's shenanigans.

We know that Bruce is very stubborn and often single-minded, himself. Love him or hate him, I don't think many people would deny that he very much always expects to be the smartest and most capable person in the room. (After all, he often is.) He frequently clashes with his peers, and often refuses outside help, particularly when it comes to his own "territory".

The Robins have historically been different, because they're his. He inherently has a position of power over them due to their ages and his position as guardian/mentor/teacher. (Please note that I don't intend "position of power" to be negative in this case -- I intend it the same way that I'd say any parent or teacher is in a position of power over a child under their care.) He's the one in charge. He's the one doing the training. He's the one supplying the gear. And they're young. Psychologically, this is a very different dynamic than Batman interacting with, say, Green Arrow (using them as parallels because they are both normal human "just trained our bodies and minds to do amazing shit" heroes).

But Steph comes into this mantle as very-nearly a grown woman -- someone who has cared for her mother like a parent at times, someone who has taken responsibility for her father's crimes onto herself, someone who has had an actual literal baby and had to make the extremely adult choice about what would be best for that baby and for herself. She has never depended on Bruce Wayne for food or shelter or affection. She has never depended on him for training (he did train her for a while, and she was happy about it, but remember -- he approached her -- and when he ghosted her, she actively sought out training elsewhere, so she knows he's clearly not the only game in town). She started as Spoiler with nothing but her own homemade costume and gear she cobbled together, and she continued as Spoiler on her own in defiance of him. He definitely had power over her in a way -- that is, influencing how other Gotham vigilantes thought of her and treated her, to the point of trying to directly forbid Cass from interacting with her -- but not in the way of a father over a daughter, or an adult over a child, or even a hero over a sidekick (until she became Robin). Steph made Spoiler all by herself. And she stayed Spoiler mostly by herself, without much support (what support she did get was shaky and/or didn't last). And she came to Bruce and put herself forward as Robin, as a nearly-17-year-old who was already psychologically an adult in at least some ways.

That has to have a real impact on how they would interact. Steph is frequently described as stubborn and defiant as Robin, but she's operating as sort-of an adult with her own independence and agency in a way that the other Robins were not when they first became Robin. Meanwhile, Bruce is used to dealing with new Robins as children/fledglings. The initial Batman-and-Robin-as-partners growing pains for each of the other three Robins up until that point would have had a very, very different tone than that same growing pains period for Bruce and Steph.

Which is sort of a shame, because I think they would have eventually realized that they have a lot in common. And that even some of their differences could have actually been good for their partnership. (For instance, when Steph realized she had been chattering in his ear all night back during her first mentorship and was mortified, and Bruce basically told her it's fine, keep talking, he sort of liked it? I think he actually meant that.)

[lilac-hecox]

i remember some of those losers on twitter were implying/joking with their other loser friends that damien was trying to push the ship for his popularity sake (their ego and and how important they think their warped perspectives are to the creators they are fan of as an incular little community is laughable btw) because he dared to mention angela a couple times. (im not even gonna get into how infantalizing it is to be this protective over 30 something year old capable adult woman. but i guess you can only be infantalizing to men!! women dont count as adult humans capable of controling their own narrative i guess lol) or they would imply he was being weird and obsessed because god forbid he had something to say about his coworker he clearly values and likes a lot because she is talented and lovely (this is something only the parasocial angela stans on twitter can notice and appreciate not the people who know her real life!!! nope!!!) just like he does with his other coworkers/friends btw. he also mentions them when its in the right context. shocking concept! (i remember him mentioning how chanse gives good level-headed fashion advice and how gentle he is with it how erin/spencer are so funny etc etc on his streams but nobody is clipping that because it doesnt fit an anti-shipper or shipper narrative!) these are types of fanfics/headcannons a hardcore shipper would come up with btw, i always notice how hardcore shippers acts the same delusional ways with antishippers but with narratives shifted a little, jokingly or not. they are made from the cloth lmao. there are some stans that loove taking largely innocuous stuff like this to fit their narrative about what damiens true intentions are over every little normal human things he does because they are obsessed with their idea of him as this uniquely bad dude that i think actually reflects who THEY are on the inside :) just my humble little opinion/rant. i really dont think they are that important or have much power btw. just annoying and loud in their own community which goes away easily if you mute it/ignore it. which i did for a longtime but this weird shit they are doing sparked some hidden ire i guess lol, all fan spaces have weirdos like this. i have been in a kpop fandom before and its so funny how these people are doing the same stupid ship wars over a youtube/improve troop. im sure they also partake in similar fandoms before just like this. talking about biases being obsessed with lineups etc all are kpop standom language. its that type of behavior a fanship/parasocial relashiship driven mega industry cultivated spilling over every little micro fandom now. /this is just my weird theory that explains some of the off putting behaviors i've seen, in my experience at least.

It is wild to me just how much Damien is hated over there on smoshtwt, and people are attacked for stanning him. The same for the crazy amount of hate damangela gets as a ship.

I think it's unfortunate that damangela stuff cropped up after shourtney came out as married so people began suspecting that people shipped damien and Angela in the same way?

Also, admittedly, there is a lot of infantilizing of both Damien and Angela by their respective fans.

I think it really just needs to be an issue of blocking/muting antis like you said!

[undeadoracle]

c3 has certainly been the least satisfying campaign so far, but the interesting thing about that is that i don't think you can point to any single point of failure and say "there, that's where it went wrong." it's been more of a death by a thousand cuts. this is going to be criticism, but very broad strokes from a narrative perspective.

first off: to try and play out a campaign with such monumental stakes is already quite ambitious, and unfortunately the player characters for this campaign were exactly the wrong mix for dealing with divinity. bells hells never really had a reason to do the right thing; vox machina's story was very clear cut good-and-bad, along with the personal investment of seeing their homes and people they care about under threat. the mighty nein floundered at times, but had enough self motivated and strongly opinionated characters with outside ties to keep the game moving even when they weren't sure where they were going. molly's death also galvanized them to Give A Shit about consequences and what was going on around them in a way they hadn't before.

bells hells, on the other hand, has never had any personal stake in any of this; laudna, chetney, ashton and braius are functionally alone in the world, with nothing to fight for and no close relationships to see threatened. (sure, braius is ostensibly a paladin of asmodeus, but sam himself has admitted he's not good at staying committed to evil characters. i appreciate the intention behind bringing a religious character back into the campaign after fcg's ending, but braius has been flaky, at best, about his loyalties.) fcg was just beginning to forge those bonds when they died. fearne's family is safely squirreled away in morrigan's piece of the feywild, away from consequences, and she doesn't give a shit about her father. imogen only had her mother, who she always kept sort of holding out hope for and keeping at arms length at the same time. aside from her, orym is the only one with emotional stakes in of all this, and even that was more attached to ludinus himself than the larger plot of predathos being released.

ergo, none of these characters except imogen and orym have personal investment in the story they're spearheading. obviously this is accidental; with them going into campaigns blind, there's no way they could have predicted they weren't going to mesh with the plot. in a story like c1 (largely black and white apocalypse scenarios solved by stereotypical hero work) or c2 (some political maneuvering, but, again, straightforward "stop this tyrannical flesh city" consequences) these pcs might've worked fine, but having characters who are not only disconnected from the gods, but from other mortals, means they never really figured out who or what they're fighting for. each of them is too caught up endlessly ruminating over their own isolation; none of them played a character with enough purpose and/or stability in life to really bring the team together for any common goal. fcg, again, almost got there, and their loss re-fractured the team. chetney sometimes steps in, because travis is a player with great instincts, but it would be playing against his established personality to always have him take on this role. no one else has the emotional intelligence or social skills to encourage the others on paths of personal growth, and with the plot essentially being on a timer for so long, there hasn't been room for the sorts of side trips and time skips that both c1 and c2 had to allow offscreen character development to happen. they've been hurtling at their goal for most of the campaign with no opportunity to work on themselves, and it shows. the characters have largely remained stagnant.

then there's the lack of meaningful npcs. this is partially because they've been all over kingdom come, and partially because they've never really committed to being on anyone's side long enough to form bonds with npcs. they have no "home base," no faction loyalties except orym's loyalty to the ashari and fearne's loyalty to morrigan, and again, few personal ties that would easily translate into recurring npcs. given that the purpose of npcs is largely to keep the plot moving forward . . . you can see how the hells have suffered without them.

this next part is going to piss some people off, because it's (gentle) criticism of matt, but it needs to be said. i do not think he should have told this story. i'm not talking about technical ability as a dm, i mean more from a philosophical, anthropological, religiological perspective. exandria is a world the opposite of ours, in which the existence of gods is unilaterally accepted and observable, but their "right" to act as such is now under debate with the revelation that they originated elsewhere, came to exandria, engaged in cultivation of exandria's raw materials, & killed the titans who technically had the "right" to the land but wanted to wipe their creations off the face of the earth. then things devolve into polytheistic dualism, a pantheon of good gods and a pantheon of bad gods, and they spend a long time warring with each other and killing each others' creations before, eventually, mortals figure out how to kill them, and they join forces to stop that before agreeing to withdraw their presence behind the divine gate.

then he includes this confusing angle that "divine" magic isn't actually divine in origin, it's just another kind of magic that exists and the gods have taken credit for it. then he becomes vague as to what sort of "cultivating" the gods actually did--whether they're responsible for life as it's known on exandria, or whether or not they've just taken credit for what was already there. which is a level of ambiguity that's deeply unsatisfying in a setting where any sufficiently devoted priest can directly talk to their god. the conclusion, then, is that the gods withhold the truth from mortals--not because mortals can't comprehend it, it seems, but because it is beneficial to the gods to withhold it.

there is no real world religion (that i know of) that is in any way comparable to this sequence of events. dualism as a concept does not play well with polytheism as a religious structure, and titan-type figures, aka superentities that are "othered" from the gods, are generally considered as fearsome forces that cause problems but aren't specifically interested in wiping humans off the face of the earth. and the gods themselves, it is understood, are of this world; typically they're either inhabitants of it in some abstract way, or they live in a plane of reality adjacent to it and are directly responsible for making it what it is. but they also, it is understood, cannot be held to human standards; that's why they're gods.

the reason exandrian religion crumbles under interrogation is that real world mythology is metaphor, and exandrian mythology is not. in the real world, mythology is a reflection of humanity, struggling to make sense of big concepts; in exandria, it's objective fact, but there's not really any theological rhyme or reason to any of it. when we tell stories about gods and demons we are not speaking of literal things that our great grandparents experienced, we are telling the stories for their deeper meaning. when you try to do that with exandrian mythology, it becomes a story of how the natural world has to be conquered and die in order for mortals to survive and the underpinnings of the universe are one big illusion, but they can still grant you real, tangible power. when you try to take it as a metaphor, it kind of sucks.

i'm not suggesting matt did this on purpose; i think it largely happened by accident. in c1 they started out using pathfinder deities, and then he transitioned into a sort of half-original version of them, then solidified them into a specific pantheon with clear influences from preexisting deities, but with his own explanations for why they exist. i also think he deliberately avoided making them too much like real world deities in order to avoid stepping on any real world toes, which is understandable. it is the struggle of any high fantasy enthusiast to have tangible gods make sense without being world breaking. but the point is that all these little changes and additions and careful avoidance of real-world issues added up to paint a poor picture in their own right, and then he drew his entire audience's attention to it by choosing to do a campaign about whether or not the gods should be allowed to exist. and even so, this might've worked out okay, had the players come to the game with a different mix of characters. we can see the difference in how vm and m9 reacted to the situation; a different group could've taken this story down a much more compelling path than bh did.

in the same vein, i think another ongoing issue in how this has played out is matt being anxious about people projecting their feelings about real world religion onto the plot. i don't blame him; he's under immense pressure to perform with the size of their fanbase nowadays, and i remember how many people were shitting their proverbial pants over the traveler's offhand comment about how there's no purpose to the universe back in c2. i get why he doesn't want to deal with that again. and i think the players are also afraid to be seen as either condoning religious oppression or condemning personal belief, so they've been hesitant to take a strong stance on anything, for fear that no matter what they choose fans will bring their own feelings about religion into their reactions to the game. the only exception, really, has been taliesin, and we see how much anger and criticism he gets from fans every single week who assume he's using ashton as a mouthpiece for his own ideals, even though he played an explicitly pro-god character last campaign.

and matt, presumably realizing this was becoming a problem, has backtracked instead of doubling down on the stance of "this has nothing to do with reality, stop projecting," both to his players and the audience. instead, he's grown increasingly vague about what, if any, the actual consequences of all this will be. there was no question of the consequences in c1 or c2 being catastrophic. but now we're working with a plot for which, it seems, there are no real consequences either way. apparently, everything will stay the same no matter what the bh choose, because apparently, saying "there will be catastrophic consequences for releasing a godeater" is the same in some people's minds as "mortals need religion in order to be good." it's the issue of our real-world religious metaphors running into the exandrian religious literalism again.

the problem then becomes that, in order to not take a stance of either "religion bad" or "religion necessary," he has had to create a plot for which all outcomes are the same, so bh just have to make the moral, philosophical decision on behalf of the entire world of whether or not the gods "deserve" to live. which is crazy! no wonder the players have constantly been plagued by indecision, second guessing, and lack of direction. by removing any distinct outcome either way, they've avoided making a statement that anyone might be upset by--and also created an ending with no substance or emotional impact.

honestly i feel like i could dissect this more, but i think the point has been made well enough: this campaign has died a death by a thousand cuts.

[11vein]

Hello! 11vein, this is my first time sending you an ask so I hope I am doing this properly! Anyways—

I want to know what inspired you and everybody else in Team 6x11 to choose to set the story of Qualia Automata in Iraq, out of all the Middle-Eastern countries. Like, I know that Carbon Monoxide on your team is Iraqi, but still, my question remains that why Iraq specifically? I’m not Iraq, but I live in an Arab country and, from my observations of cross-cultural representation, countries like the UAE and Iran and Saudi Arabia, as examples, are usually represented more often in stories set in the Middle East. So I was wondering why you folks chose Iraq as the setting for the story of Qualia Automata, and I’ll be glad to hear how you were inspired to do so as well. Tell me all about what brought the team to the decision. Reply back soon, please!

i wish i could say we had an elaborate reason to make QA's story based out of a futuristic iraq, but it was kinda spontaneous haha. we were deciding the ethnicity of tamari and went with iraqi because some of the members knew someone who was iraqi (carbon monoxide) who we could consult for further ideas. this later led to them being added to the team :) i asked carbon for further input: "while i can't speak for why the team chose to make tamari arab initially, i can say that i haven't seen too many experiences related to my specific ethnicity depicted in media, and it's something i've been wanting to work more towards. iraq occupies an interesting place in american culture, i feel; most americans know of iraq ofc and know of the iraq war, but if u were to ask a random person on the street, they likely wouldn't be able to tell u much about the country outside of that. my family had to escape as war refugees when i was extremely little, but i'd very commonly fly back home to spend long vacations with extended family. i'm very intimately familiar with the effects of war, it was fundamental to my development and my identity as an iraqi person. infrastructure was still ruined from bombs dropping, streets were destroyed or not maintained at all, power would very routinely go out and i vividly remember need to grope around in the dark for flashlights and fighting with my cousins for the limited supply of lamps, and that's all stuff that was YEARS after the actual conflict. not to mention all the generational trauma, the metaphorical and cultural scars that war creates that has ruined people and families.the first-hand accounts of war from the perspectives of my mother and older siblings were extremely harrowing.

when i first moved to america, it shocked me how little people knew about iraq, how deeply-embedded imperialist propaganda was baked within the fibres of american culture. a lot of people i'd met were completely ignorant to this thing that shaped everything about me before i was even born, that blew me away.

qualia automata of course isn't ABOUT the iraq war, it's set years afterwards and it was never meant to really reflect any sort of real-world historical events. but i put a lot of myself and my family into these characters, and just by virtue of me being iraqi and helping write iraqi characters, i've seen war refugees from my country comment on how they relate to what's being represented. fayrouz in particular was the character i had the biggest hand in shaping, and she's someone who's deeply-molded by generational trauma, and the attitudes iraqi women had to adopt in order to survive during such awful times being passed down throughout the years. it's the type of thing only other people with these experiences would be able to immediately point out, but i'm always happy when people do

that and i think it's very useful to just write about iraqi people as, well, people. there's a stigma around arabs especially, but like i said before iraqis occupy a very unique space within american culture, so i think it helps normalize these cultures and experiences by just, having characters exist as they are!"

[goddessofroyalty]

Because I have a touch of the Skincare Girly in me and find people's skincare regimes interesting I have thoughts about Zaun Family's skincare I need to share:

Vander, Viktor and Claggor are all the just use a bar of soap kind of skincare. Boys got their dads good skin.

Silco has a basic-moderate one (so proper cleanser, serum, eyecream and moisturizer twice daily (plus whatever his eye and scaring needs)), it's less vanity and more practicality in that if he doesn't his skin will get uncomfortable. He sometimes does things like face masks with Jinx as a bonding thing and will admit he can see the affects when he does. He has to be careful what he uses because of his eye so has his tried-and-true products he's used for 30 years.

Vi has a secret skincare regime. She wants to be the person that just uses a bar of soap but does like what using proper skincare does for her skin. She normally just uses whatever is closest from other family members when she's in the bathroom.

Important side-member note Caitlyn thinks she has a simple skincare regime because she isn't getting like regular facials. Caitlyn actually has an intense one (double cleanses, toner, essence, serum, face oil, eyecream, moisturiser with different ones in the morning and night). Her perspective is just skewed because Piltover generally is a more skincare culture.

Mylo has a skincare regime. His is on the more intense side and he's constantly trying new products but he can be a bit guilty of just chucking it on his face without really doing the correct order. He also has a little bit of the shame around it so refuses to do anything that needs to sit on his face for a little and be washed off. Instead just taking over the bathroom for like an hour twice a day. His mustache care situation is similar.

Jinx has the most intense skincare regime of the family. But it's because she likes the fun things. She has all the face-masks, all the eye-masks, all the lip-masks. Any new gimicky things (like those bubble masks or the face rollers) on the market she has to try. Sitting there with her music blasting working on her current project with a mask on her face. Always trying to convince the other family members to join her and then laughing at how silly they look with them on.

[xkaleza]

this is so interesting! i love seeing different studies of the characters!!

but i consider morally wrong characters to be characters that are politically incorrect or, throughout their entire character arc they do not change (and are usually empathetic.)

-my favourite example would be Xavier, the time we see him he knows that what he is doing is wrong but in his mind he believes that he's correct. His speech to Sarah about the new politics, silently revealing he had a knife on him the ENTIRE time, and him also purposefully sending the Nazis, Jean Luc's flight plans to leave Sarah alone, a character that MUST have had a reason for turning evil, just. being evil. for no 'good' reason other then selfishness.

-Marty from The Evil Make a Wish-Kid is another example, a sinister child that introduces himself in the first 30 seconds as a villain and it ends with no explanation as to why he acted that way, no backstory or reasoning just him burning out like a firework. ..i do have a theory that his actions were caused by grief and a fear of death which also doesn't justify him murdering Tina..

-Don Juan's wife from The Meringue Haberdashery was just, a terrible character (/pos). Someone who didn't work just because she hates it, purposefully causing her husband to stress and then ending the play by having the wife win in the end.

there's always gonna be some more but i gave a few examples that stood out to me that made me think. wow. cinema.

again, i know that this is just improv and their lack of explanation could just be a genius character flaw that people in the real world follow by and from the outsiders perspective the person seems heartless or cruel, or... its just improvised on the spot and they were feeling a lil villainous that day xDD

what's your guys' favourite morally wrong character?

ill start, my favourite character is the Father from Burglary and Bobsledding, he starts his role as very financially-starving, accidently stuttering and showing his true motivation on why he wants his boys to grow up to be bobsledders, money.

-in which Helter points out but is sadly ignored

he then ends his character in death, by revealing that he didn't do the gambling for the finance and for bringing money home to the family, he did all the gambling only for the thrill of it. the excitement of spending money.

and he dies. with no good ending or peaceful resolution. just. an absolute heartbreaking story of a bad father

[boarcide]

I truly think that one of the biggest tragedies in BEAST in regards to the Akutagawa siblings is that, at the core of it, Ryuunosuke viewed himself as a beast, and showed his love in a way a beast would, while Gin was the only person who ever saw him as human and judged him accordingly. She did not see a beast acting like a beast, the way everybody else did, she saw a human acting like a beast and it’s part of what drove her away.

The ADA saw their rookie detective at his worst, and watched—and continues to watch—him grow from a beast to a human over time. Consumed by hatred and only knowing how to be cruel, and slowly learning how to become human.

Gin saw her brother at his best—the best he could be in their situation—and then watched him grow from a boy to a beast within moments. The scraps of humanity that he had, all disappearing into rage so primal it no longer made him seem human.

[cnl0400]

"How are they going to make Thirteen/Mephistopheles/Raphael dateable If they aren't interesing in the MC"?

>A take made by someone who hasn't played S4 or any of the Memory cards/events that feature these three, or have gotten the Birthday calls...

It's even funnier with Raphael, because he's probably the one who states the most that he wants to get closer to MC, where do the "no interest" thing even comes from??

Even If you read all this cues as platonic, It doesn't mean that they can't become romantic later. That's what development Is for?????

[literaila]

On a scale of one to ten how emotional was readers reaction seeing megumi alive again

8.7 but she never really believed that he was gone. call her crazy but her son isn’t going to blindly submit to some manic gym bro from the heian era

megumi takes back his body and she’s basically jumping up and down with yuji and applauding. a standing ovation for her son, obviously.

and then later she goes home and cries herself to sleep because a. she’s really proud of him and b. the world is a terrible terrible place

[trunksette]

[EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER]

okay okay okay one more dungeon meshi thought

I keep seeing people saying Falin is "better at social cues" than Laios. Y'all she's just quiet. 😭 She just keeps her mouth shut. 😭😭 Girl was proposed to, said "let me think about it," and then did not even tell her own brother. She doesn't know what's going on either she's just quieter about it!!! 😭😭😭

[commsroom]

i'm still very attached to the idea that hera allots just slightly more of her processing power to monitoring eiffel than anyone else. "i've been keeping track of your vital signs and biological readings since commander minkowski brought you on board" as an expression of care, especially with how often eiffel is in danger, or sick, or missing, or... when hera is the first person to notice he's back in sécurité and even then doesn't quite believe what she's observing... that if eiffel asking hera "are you there?" - even knowing that she always is - is a bid for connection and reassurance, then the way hera keeps track of the people she cares about is how she tries to bridge that gap from her side, especially at times when otherwise she feels powerless to reach out and help.

[protect-namine]

I am about to start a neji route (because I feel that I need at least three playthroughs to fully understand neji and his plays, so I can't leave him for last). so my thoughts on this may change, but for the moment, my thesis is that neji and kisa are the same kind of thespian, just in different fonts.

(I am slightly exaggerating kisa'a character here. there are hints and I do think pushing the envelope of what her character could be is part of what makes kisa... kisa. as I'll explain later, for better and worse, kisa is constrained by the conventions of being an otome heroine.)

anyway. in essence. neji turns Other Persons into stories,

and kisa turns Other Persons into performances,

while they both simultaneously run away from, avoid, or sacrifice Becoming Persons themselves, for the sake of theater

or maybe it's the other way around. something something discovery if not recognition of the self through the other... except they're both unreliable narrators so who's to say if the recognition actually takes hold, really. kisa at least is a little bit self aware. neji, on the other hand, deals with realizations of the self through writing, without actually processing them (e.g. ms robin, domina, etc).

I keep thinking about (novel) kisa closing her eyes and feeling like her sense of self would melt away until tsuki centers her and gives her theater as a way to heal from the grief of losing her mother. it happens again during tsuki's univeil performance: kisa curling in on herself and tsuki pulling her back to theater as way to help kisa move forward with her dreams. pretending to be others is more fun than being herself.

and then there is neji (insert spiderman pointing at spiderman meme). but in his case, he would rather play eccentric roles, caricatures, comic relief, than be a Person With Depth on stage. neji is always either a seer of some kind (a fortune teller, a ghost who sees 10 seconds into the future) or a bit character (employee A), or... whatever he initially planned for domina. he is the mechanic behind the stage, but never the lead actor. his vulnerabilities do not need to "stolen" for the story, though others' are fair game.

kisa does not think about gender as it applies to herself in her daily life (mostly) and only sees it through the lens of acting and theater. how does she act mukai vs maiden, charles vs chicchi? the same way that neji does not think about the motifs and characters he writes as a window to himself, but rather as objects to be put on stage. rukiora is based on a younger neji, mary jane is I Am Death: Revisited (mary jane is to takihime as gashadokuro is to jacob), sissia is always meant to be the foil to I Am Death. but neji doeen't really understand that just like how he didn't understand oh rama havenna. sissia (kisa route, jack jeanne ver) is to kisa as domina is to neji.

literally kisa at her most extreme is just theater thoughts 24/7

kisa "I don't like being me; I'd rather be other people" tachibana 🤝 kokuto "I need to experiment and witness visions I can't create or I'll die" neji: this is a totally sane and Normal way to cope with abandonment and grief 👍

(it is not implied in the game, but since kisa turned to theater to cope with grief as a child, I wonder if the reason she never looks too deeply into tsuki's disappearance is because she's once again using theater as an excuse to conveniently Not Think About It. out of sight, out of mind. tsuki must be doing well, wherever he is, whatever it is he's doing.)

there is also the meta perspective of how kisa in-game inhabits a role where the player can (and is expected to) self-insert. otome dictates that protagonist kisa must be malleable to the player (who can choose to focus on a variety of relationships in her stead), and the plot dictates that actor kisa must be malleable to her stage roles (jack or jeanne, maiden or hero, flower or vessel), and novel kisa dictates that kisa must malleable to pretending to be other people because it's more preferable to being herself.

every thought she has about herself must be tied to acting, somehow. kisa's personhood is defined through stagecraft. she is the maiden, and mukai, and charles, and chicchi, and sissia. she can romance anyone in the school, of the player's choosing. she can be jack, and jeanne, and jack jeanne. don't get me wrong; kisa is her own character and has a strongly defined personality, but the story also demands for her to be malleable. a painting and a blank canvass at the same time.

neji externalizes where kisa internalizes. where kisa Must Perform™ to function and to avoid herself, neji Must Create™ to function and to avoid himself. scriptwriter neji dictates that neji must use everything at his disposal — his memories, his classmates, his obscure knowledge — as inspiration for stories. director neji dictates that he must use everything he knows about his actors — their complexes, their relationships, their weaknesses and strengths — as inspiration for stories. from the cook (mitsuki) needing apricots for a recipe and wanting to harvest honey from a beehive, to mary jane (fumi) being good at sewing and wanting an equal in jacob. suzu and sou fighting and developing a rivalry leads to jire and fugio fighting over chicchi. kai limits himself as a vessel in hasekura, and kai learns to embrace his desires as the priest. from the water/ocean/drowning themes, to rukiora being based on neji's younger self, and her family life and relationship with domina.

every thought neji has must be tied to stories, somehow. neji's personhood is scattered through stagecraft. the more you read his plays and lyrics, the more you get a glimpse of who he is. it is to the point that neji himself doesn't... really see how his stories reflect himself. ms robin being a "random" song the jazz lounge singer sings thay hasekura and ando can dance to, oh rama havenna being a so-so throwaway play that neji doesn't understand why it's entertaining. lmao. neji, please.

and this is why when problems arise, neji becomes a demanding director and kisa becomes a chameleon actor with a shaky sense of self (we don't really see this a lot because jack jeanne is not that dark of a story and kisa is still an otome heroine of an uplifting game, but it's a reasonable conclusion if you push hard on the kisa from neji's "good morning" exercise, or kisa going ham on method acting as charles. kinda wish the game explored more of that. I think a very stressed kisa can get lost in method acting, just as a very stressed neji is almost paralyzed by the fear of the death of talent).

idk where I was going with this. just. them. they have the same issues, just in different fonts. and I think that's actually what first attracts neji to kisa. kisa "steals" (to borrow neji's own words) just like him. kisa is a fountain of inspiration, an ever changing muse. and neji provides kisa with an endless amount of prompts and characters for her to inhabit. kisa does like to play pretend a lot. that's why she's in theater!

kisa and neji: Art Imitates Life people stuck in a Life Imitates Art video game

ANYWAY usual disclaimer that I'm jotting down livebloghing thoughts and I know some spoilers to neji's route but I'm only just about to actualy start his playthrough so. yeah. this was drafted all the way back in may lol, opinions may change and all that

[doedipus]

a large amount of time I've been spending on -untitled undefined scope original fiction project- since the last time I posted about it has been trying to develop the protagonist concept I came up with last summer or whatever into like, a character that would feel real and era appropriate.

it's fun research to do. naturally a lot of the details I assigned to her are things that I already think are cool, so it's been a lot of fun trying to trace her traits back through the relatively recent past, getting reminded of how much things have changed, or where the gaps in my intuition are, and then doing a flurry of reading to get a sense for exactly how someone like her and the people around her could have happened and what her life was probably like leading up to her present day. hopefully this results in some good good verisimilitude.

[acourtofquestions]

Dont be angry, Finnula said. Be smart.