#slay even in death

[urlocalgaycoffeaddict]

I honestly don't get the "WhEn ArCHLhEOlOGiSTS DiG yOu uP iN 100 YeARs tHeY WiLl sAY yOur bOnES aRE whAt YOu WeRE BorN aS" argument,like in 100 years I'm pretty sure current grave yards are still gonna be astablished and archeologists aren't just going to go around decimating burial sites,so like unless you die tragically in the middle of no where or something archeologists aren't going to be digging up shit,but also like I'm getting cremated and being made into a gemstone and put on a necklace to be sold for thousands bc I'm worth it bitch

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

the reason i trust the ofmd crew with my life is that during the past year and a half multiple ofmd fanartists have come up with all these really really cool emo makeovers for jim and frenchie in s2

but then. somehow. despite how fucking epic all those fan designs looked.

none of them came even CLOSE to how incredibly fucking badass their season 2 looks actually are in canon

[kayberrie]

So I was rewatching the Maze Runner and like… this is the best concept ever. Teenage boys, trapped together for the foreseeable future, and the smartest thing they can think of… is the go explore the maze of doom. But let’s be honest. If 50+ teenage boys were shoved into a box, they’d get up to way wilder shit than just some light homicide.

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

The more I think about it, the more... not exactly sympathetic, but more understanding of the Narrator's frustrations because He is operating under an insane set of restrictions to convince us to slay the Princess without making her enough of a threat that she can fight back. He's not even trying to thread the incredibly tiny needle Himself, He has to guide you into doing it without you even realizing it.

Like, the core problem is that the Player Character's belief (and the Princess's) literally shape reality. To demonstrate how great a change even a small shift in perspective can cause by your own actions alone, taking the knife or not taking the knife results in the Princess having a different personality and skillset from the moment you enter the basement. Taking the knife implies she's a potential threat and even before she sees that you have the knife, she speaks far more threateningly. If you talk rather than killing her right away, which further reinforces all the ways she's a potential threat (she's aloof, somewhat cynical, intelligent, well-spoken, and outright threatens you at one point), there's no way to kill her and also survive. And if you let her kill you after freeing her and the Narrator hijacks your body, she shows herself to be skilled with the blade and unflinching in putting you down.

But if you go down without the knife (signalling you don't see her as a threat, not even a potential one) she's much sweeter when calling to you on the stairs. She sounds harmless, scared, but a little hopeful. And when she kills you after you free her, she doesn't know how to use the knife effectively at all. She kills you while crying and stabbing randomly. She both doesn't want to kill you and is incapable of being an actual threat. You have to hold still and let her kill you.

Unless, of course, you try to kill her anyway, which means she's now fully capable of beating you to death with her bare hands, likely because trying to kill her implies another shift in view (probably due to seeing her try to gnaw off her own arm). She is a potential threat now, and of course attacking someone comes with concerns about them trying to defend themselves--how capable are they of fighting back? And of course she'd fight back, who wouldn't? All the Princesses fight back when attacked except for the Damsel because by that Chapter the idea that she A. can't, and B. wouldn't, is locked in by her inability to put you down efficiently the last loop and the Smitten's unfailing faith in her.

So as early as Chapter 1, from the moment you enter the cabin and even during your interaction with her, your thoughts and beliefs are shaping reality and that ability is incredibly volatile.

And that's part of the Narrator's problem! The Princess needs to be helpless so she can't hurt you or defend herself but in that case, what justification do you have to kill her? So she has to be enough of a threat in the future to justify killing her, but not at the moment, and killing anyone comes with concerns about them fighting back. The Narrator has to walk a very fine line here because even thinking it's possible she might have the ability to fight back or kill you means she absolutely can, but you also have to believe that she could possibly be a big enough threat that you simply can't risk leaving her alive.

So the Narrator has to go "Okay. There is a Princess. She is harmless. She cannot hurt you or escape right now and you have to kill her. Why? Because she will be a great threat in the future. Not right now, she's perfectly harmless right now, but you have to kill her. No, no, you can't talk to her and ask questions because she'll trick you into not killing her. What kind of threat? The world-ending kind so even if you doubt me you can't risk it, there's too much on the line if there's even the smallest chance I'm correct and you must do it right now. How is she capable of ending the world? Don't think about it, please please don't think about it."

(I also think that's probably part of why the Narrator made her a princess of all things. The stereotype around a princess locked away is that they're fairly helpless in a fight, simply waiting for someone to come save them, but also you could justify killing her because she's an oppressive monarch, in title at least. And, indeed, that is a perspective the Narrator pushes and one you can agree with. Not to mention all the story tropes where royalty or a maiden of some kind is infused with a special connection to the world or god--a Princess who can end the world just by the nature of her being is not far removed from those tropes)

I mean, trying to get someone to kill another person without thinking them as an immediate threat or questioning anything too deeply is a monumental task. And everything from the ethical questions you might ask to risk assessment all have the potential to make the Princess quite a threat. No wonder it goes wrong so fast.

[bas1c-lup1ne-ur0logy-66]

neil gaiman writes four kinds of characters.

- broody emo bitch

- shockingly cheery carrier of great depressing burden

-selfish fool

- lesbian

[msfcatlover]

So here's the thing with the Narrator in my version of the Slay the Monster AU... he's still trying to kill death, he just thinks of death differently.

Now a lot of this is just my own philosophy, but I personally never thought of death as a form of change before playing StP. Death was stopping. Death was stillness. Death was an ending, and there's Nothing after. Change is when you go from living to dead, but being dead? That's an unchanging eternity. Your corpse'll change, sure, but that's not you anymore ("You are not your body.")

The Narrator wants a world without death. Without stillness, without silence, without rest. You might change from living to dead, but your heart will not stop beating, your nerves will not stop firing, and you will change right back from dead to living the instant after. You cannot properly die if nothing can stay dead.

Ongoing, ever-changing, vibrant, thrumming, thriving life.

So He splits the divine heart of reality. He sculpts Change into a heaving, beating cage for Stillness. But Stillness is too great a concept for anything short of divinity to ever truly kill, and the very nature of Change means Stillness cannot be imprisoned forever; sooner or later, Change will shift and leave an opening for Stillness to escape.

He does His best, though. He shatters Stillness and tucks each fragment away in a different chamber of the cage, trying to keep them separate. And He crafts a living, breathing avatar of Change to go kill it, one shard at a time.

Of course, He'll have to be careful about it. Change is a powerful thing, after all. This reality is made of her, and now she can think. Stillness is too broken not to be affected if Change decides it's something else.

A placid mirror will always reflect back whatever you happen to see in it.

[thesoupisburning]

im not an artisti but this fuckin game is making me wanna try

call it a draft right now, might go in and edit

anyways

[gingermintpepper]

Hello! I want to know... Besides Hyacinthus, who is your fav Apollo's lover (male or female)? I really love Cyrene 🤭

Oho, thank you so much for the ask!

There are a couple candidates that immediately come to mind tbh. I'm not the sort that has a strict OTP sense when it comes to Apollo because I imagine there's importance in each of the affairs of the gods that are written about - there must be some reason that we remember their names and stories even now, y'know?

Ultimately, I have a brief selection of the lovers of Apollo whose stories I have personal and vested interest in with no particular preference except maybe for Evadne who, if I were forced to give only one additional favourite besides Hyacinthus, I would probably say it's her.

As for why I prefer Evadne over all the great and powerful romances Apollo has had; maybe it's just because I'm a sucker for the ooey-gooey romances but there's something so sweet about Evadne and Apollo's relationship and the consequent relationship Apollo has with Iamus, his and Evadne's son. I also love the subtle politics of such a relationship - from Evadne's side, yes she's a princess but more importantly, she's one of Poseidon's inhuman daughters - a child between Poseidon and a nymph - and the child between her and Apollo - a son of Zeus - goes on to become the father of a long line of famous prophets for the King of the Gods himself. That makes Iamus one of those rare children of a major god who is not divine but certainly not human either, something that is further exacerbated by the fact that for the first five days of his life, Iamus is cared for by his father who ensures that the baby is fed not milk but honey from the fangs of a snake.

All in all, it's not a very remarkable story in the grand scheme of things. There's no big drama like with Admetus and there's no great tragedy like with Coronis or Melia. Apollo doesn't act particularly noteworthy in either Pindar or Hyginus' account of the tale like he does for Cyrene or Branchus and the end result is a line of prophets sacred to Zeus and the Olympia oracle - a classic example of Apollo in his role as father to the great prophets and wisemen and yet something about the gentleness of Apollo in his affair with Evadne has always captivated me.

Evadne, who so feared her father that she would abandon her newborn child just to spare herself his anger, was able to trust and love Apollo. Likewise, Apollo did not once abandon her, sending the most blessed of attendants to help in her birthing and automatically stepping in to make sure Iamus was fed, clothed and warm until his mother returned for him. It's something about a young Iamus going into the River Alpheus - an ancient stream - and calling out for his purpose from his father and grandfather. It's something about Apollo's immediate and calm response and the way he leads the youth to the temple that will be his destiny and personally educates him in the ways of divination.

It's just one of those stories that always sticks out to me for the portrait of a father and lover it sketches of Apollo, even in a seemingly innocuous myth such as this one.

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

it's actually so important to me that in the memory loss extras xie lian finds out he doesn't have spiritual power anymore (because he's been having sex). it means

he feels comfortable relying on hua cheng

he's able to be 'selfish', and choose what he wants rather than what other people think is correct

he's free from the responsibility of being the most powerful martial god in heaven

he's getting thoroughly dicked down

[wiser-girl]

We finally convinced my friend to watch OFMD and she finished season 1 earlier today but she just texted me that she’s up to s2e3 and… imagine not having waiting a year and a half to find out what happened like we hadn’t even acknowledged Lucius being dead before he’s just back this is INSANE

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

I think Slay the Princess is so popular partially because the *gets stabbed* "I'm in love" reaction is both intentional on the part of the developers and then they completely follow through on it.

[richardsondavis]

The reason why some in the Devil May Cry fandom refer to the Switch ports as a travesty is because the dips in frames on handheld and the input lag (I'm assuming if docked and are using a Bluetooth controller) is a few frames then playing Devil May Cry, especially the third entry as how it's meant to be played i.e, like a fighting game, is very very bad when you're comboing till kingdom come and that's how it's meant to be played.

[jaydaydaima]

So.....found out I have covid! Sucks bc I'm missing exams but oh well :') art might be a bit slow rn as well but have this frame of Shin dying in the meantime (I need to thank the storyboard artists personally for this pose)

[urlocalwhumper]

things that give me whumperflies like fucking crazy: the look of genuine fear and surprise on the princess's face if you just charge her with the knife in chapter 1

[aziraphalalala]

your username is my favorite thing ever

Why thank you! Here, have Furfur attempting the name, and then Michael Sheen stomping on him (and our hearts) with "Aziraphale".

[macbethz]

As silly as I think the doctor who look straight at the camera “here’s the thesis of the episode” moments are at least now we have a literal concrete part of the text that I can point to when ppl like to pretend doctor who isnt about tragedy & death & change. This is how companion death can still win