#so its vague and open to interpretation

[rielzero]

DOODLETOBER Day 1 to 5

1 - Early Morning Ardere's color pallette fits this description.

2 - Feeling Rushed Eldritch Riel always looks like he doesn't want to get up in the morning and does it anyways.

3 - Outfit Check Auvandeor's got a human disguise to hide his devilish nature..

4 - Moody Experimental Cheeb of a grumpy looking Nymrod.

5 - Restless Durge Loki doesn't sleep well, his mind muddled with dreams of blood and crushed bones.

My prompt list.

[macdenlover]

.

[st4rstudent]

ALRIGHTY SO- (I'm so sane and normal about these toons and cogs I swear) as I said before, personally I really like to think that brian's brain is a motherboard and/or wires/neuron like things covered in a silicone mold that made it shaped like a brain-! It would explain why when he starts getting more and more frustrated during his battle he starts overheating and eventually leading to his brain exploding at the end- (which leads me to believe that mayhaps his wiring needed some extra cooling to help him prevent that, perhaps being the reason why he has a dome head in the first place so that way it could be liquid cooled by being placed inside of- whatever brian has inside of there shchsdhs) which in turn would make the silicone brain a pretty solid idea-!! Keeps all his wiring n electricical brain bits all nice and dry, but also gives him a little flair and from the looks of it, seems like a fairly efficient way to help stop any overheating caused by his emotions or stress- (I mean he literally starts going red with rage, that's gotta be some hot pieces of parts in order to do that even with some cooling factors in place-) but what's really got my gears turning is that if he does have a sort of wiring inside of that brain mold of his, it would basically be the like- in between of cog parts and toon-ish parts-! Assuming that his wiring would help out his processors n act as any neurons should, they would not only help out his thought process (him being the self proclaimed smart man that he is /lh/lh) but it'd also allow him to feel things-!! Neurons are the main units of the brain and nervous system, they help the brain feel any sensory input from the outside, send signals to help the body control motor functions, and in general just relay electrical signals throughout the brain all the time- Which sounds very much close to what the cog equivalent of a brain could also do (and does for brian)-!! I know all the cogs have brains and all their inner bits, but I justshfhs I think it would be really cool if brian's brain had just a little bit more brain-like functions-!! I don't know if I'm making any sense here, but- if he can think, that man can feel too-!! Probably more than the average cog, but he would also probably just decide not to draw much attention to it-!! I know this started out as silly snowglobe dome talk, but in all reality I'm so very interested in the complexities that the cogs and toons have-!!! Doesn't mean I don't think it'd be silly to shake that man around and see what happens, that'd be silly- even more so to bonk him with hammers- BUT I JUSTSHFBS I THINK-!! THE COGS DESERVE SOME MORE THOUGHT INTO HOW THEY COULD ACTUALLY FUNCTION N FEEL THINGS AND WHAT THE INNER WORKINGS OF THEM COULD POSSIBLY LOOK LIKE-! BRAINS HELP SHAPE WHO WE ARE AS PEOPLE… SO I THINK IT'D BE COOL TO UNDERSTAND HOW THAT WOULD WORK WITH THE COGS AS WELL- but yeshdhghs I'm . very sorry that this got so much longer than I intended, but thank you very much for letting me ramble out my thoughts-!! I hope you enjoyed hearing some of my thought process SHCHSDHS

OHHTHIIS IS REALLY GOOD. i never even thought about him possibly having a heightened ability to feel things like touch . i imagine with his brain also moving around, there's probably other pieces in there that would also be shifting which would increase the need for it to be in a somewhat cooled down area.

BUT YEAH . it's all very interesting to think about!

[arolesbianism]

Was going to do some oni file digging but got too distracted playing the actual video game. Anyways look at her <3

[o-sunny-day]

@forgettable-au FAN ANIMATION ! LOUD NOISE WARNING!

*What was it all for…?

Song: Vishnu <3 by Peter Cat Recording Co.

…okay.

The main inspiration for this…can be summed up with I LOVE HOW SAD THIS CONCEPT IS. BUT i also adore how WEIRD it is.

This whole thing must be pretty weird and creepy for the characters right??? Like- we dont know for certain what EXACTLY is gonna happen, but we know for a fact that Wingdings finds out hes in a game, then kills himself so he can be closer with god-

THATS PRETTY WEIRD 😭😭 also sad but we can ignore that for now

I also experimented a tad with this in working with silence, so timing things at my own pace! It was really hard! I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!

But, time for my FAVORITE PART….ANALYSIS!!!

DISCLAIMER: some things stated as fact haven’t been said in the blog/arent canon to the au itself, just my animation/theories/interpretation, cause i’m silly and headcanoning :3

TITLE:

The proper title ive given this is “To You” which means 2 different and very vague things. What happened to you? and sending a message like “this is To You”.

In that case, “you” is whichever version of Papyrus/Wingdings/Gaster you want- Its not exactly clear which version of him means “you” which is kinda the point. The lines blur together sometimes…

But yeah, Gaster/crazy WD sends messages TOO himself so they’re “To You”

CONTEXT

Wingdings has JUST turned himself into Gaster. Ignore how impossible Sans interacting with him in this moment is, and just hear me out on the angst possibilities-

SCENE 1

As Sans approaches the mess- Gaster is encased in shadow, and looks at him. Expression not telling much- just looking blankly. Doesn’t even look like he’s alive… just… moving. Also the eye thats open, is just a slit. because- perspective. BUT I also had fun putting that there and going hehehehe it looks like WD/Papyrus’ eye

Sans approaches, and getting engulfed in the shadow, leaving the light.

His expression here was REALLY fun and REALLY hard to draw. Angry? maybe. stunned and terrified? DEFINITELY.

In this context (that doesn’t have a lot to go off of with the comics, YET) Sans knows that this was all very much intentional. He absolutely does not want to be angry, and is certainly only feeling it subconsciously.

But… he wanted so badly to understand, and enter his brother world. But now, Sans is just… Baffled. Hes like “what the fuck did you do???”

SCENE 2

Gaster continues to look blank. Looking up at Sans as he approaches, encasing him in even more shadow.

Sans’ hand reaches to Gasters face. From Sans’ perspective, his intentions are like checking for a pulse. Not literally ofc cause pulses arent on our face- but like, feeling for him. For a sign that something is there. (It’s also meant to be something motherly/comforting)

But then, Gaster leans into the touch, somewhat reciprocating this wordless “ive got you” gesture. That’s what makes Sans go from Terrified to just purely grief stricken. His brother is still alive. And he loves him.

But this form wont last for long…For universe fixing screw ups reasons :D 👍

SCENE 3

Gaster then opens his eyes, revealing hes even still got eye lights available for him. Thats what just SHATTERS the dam, and Sans embraces him suddenly.

SCENE(S) 4

Then, the “reset” happens, Gaster is gone, and Papyrus appears in place of Wingdings in his bed.

Nothing is boiling to add to a “frozen in terror” feeling!

Now- drawing all of the differences between the past and present rooms. DESTROYED ME. i HAD SO MUCH FUN BUT I ALSO CRIED 😭 There are no thank-you letters to santa, no racecar bed, no silly bone painting, no action figures, just BORING

I also wanted to keep everything monochromatic, so ofc we’ve got black and white for the void/Gaster, blue for Sans, red for Papyrus, and purple for Sans and Papyrus together.

The tape recorder and lab coat are still greyscale though cause Wingdings still has SOME of his stuff lying around. But the tapes are indecipherable, and Papyrus threw out that lab coat the first chance he got. It gave him the absolute worst feeling, worse than anything he’s ever experienced.

Something I also really enjoy is the fact that the dress shirts were still technically Wingdings’ but they’re red for Papyrus. The lab coat is the only real WINGDINGS thing that Papyrus wants absolutely no part in. Some things that were Wingdings’ are now Papyrus’ cause :D👍

in place of the bone painting are just family photos that I also have extra to say about. Someday I wanna make a comic of what happened to those/what I think would happen to em.

One day Papyrus is like “HEY UH- SANS! THESE PHOTOS! I DON’T LIKE LOOKING AT THEM! CAN WE NOT!?” Aka, he doesn’t remember these things happening/these photos being taken… BUT THEYRE PHOTOS OF HIM.

So he just feels really uncomfortable looking at memories he should reasonably remember, but doesn’t at all- and Sans gets that. But he keeps em in his drawer. Then! they hung up the bone thing in place of it cause SILLY!

But the family photos, I still had fun with. From left to right theyre a photo of Semi with the twins, the twins as baby bones, then as slightly older kids, then WDs graduation photo.

CONCLUSION!

This entire thing was so much fun, and I feel i’ve really grown as an artist over the process of experimenting and not being knocked down by annoying setbacks,

Also, as usual, Works In Progress’ plus extra behind the scenes stuff will be posted shortly after this!! YIPPEEE!!! HAPPY NIGHTMARES!!!!!

OHHHH ALSO EXTRA ART!!!

“AREN’T THEY BEAUTIFUL?”

That silly moment when your clone is really weirdly obsessed with stars and enthusiastically holds your eye sockets open to show you them

[ambrosiagoldfish]

Lucifer, Charlie, and alastor with a Kitsune reader ? :0

Hazbin Hotel x Kitsune! Reader

(Lucifer, Charlie, and Alastor)

Safe for all Audiences!

Warnings: None! Gn! Reader! Reader being a mischievous Little Kitsune, chaos ensues.

Request Box: Open

Word count: 1101

A/n: Hi! thank you for the request! This isn’t terribly long so I hopes that’s ok!

Now, I wasn’t entirely sure if you want this to be Romantic or Platonic so I kept it pretty vague so it could be interpreted as either! I hope that’s ok, if not just send another request and I’ll fix it!!

But either way I hope you enjoy it because i enjoyed writing it!! <3

Proofread once soooo… if there are any errors please ignore them/inform me 😭

Lucifer

When you first arrived in hell, he wasnt the most impressed by you. Not in a mean way or anything, just that he’s lived for a long time and has met a plethora of different types of beings so he’s pretty used to meeting interesting looking people.

But even he has to admit that he was intrigued with you. Your 9 well-groomed and lush tails that quietly followed you with every step and the fur of your fox ears looked soft to the touch. The thing that he seemed to notice most though was the whole eloquent aura you had with every movement you did. Smooth, almost tranquil.

You being a Kitsune did cause you to stir up a bit of… let's say trouble. Your fox nature of course caused you to have a personality that leaned a bit mischievously. You weren’t malicious by any means, you judt had a very… unique taste in humor and how you wish to spend your time. Pranks, stealing random objects that interest you, and going places that you probably should be. This gets you in trouble with many a folk but it’s really not something you can’t handle.

On one of these occasions. you took interest in his custom made duckys. First off, it was something new to you, 2nd, you had never seen someone be this interested in ducks as him, so when you randomly stumbled into the big man of hell’s workspace that’s filled to the brim of them, each with unique features and colorful designs, needless to say you were quite interested.

He was a bit embarrassed at first when you found it but seeing that you genuinely were into them he literally couldnt stop showing them off. Going into almost ecrusiating detail of each one's design choices. (This man is so autistic-coded. I love him so much)

He even made a custom one for you which he gave you when both met again. It was a basic duck design, except it had 9 tail feathers and wore fox ears that clearly mimicked your own, including your fur pattern. He then spent an hour going through each of its features with you. To say you were grateful would be an understatement.

“And if you pull this feather back… Bubbles! Oh-ho, and that's not all! If you take this and-”

Charlie

Definitely more impressed than her father would be. Of course she has been in hell literally all her life and has seen some weird, wacky, hot and cool people but it still doesnt not surprise her when she finds interesting people. When you first met her she was really interested in you, asking a bunch of questions and It was almost scary how enthusuatsic about it she got.

She then started talking about her brand new “Hazbin Hotel.” It was something to reform sinners so that they had a chance at redemption. Charlie seemed so excited to tell you about it that you honestly did have the heart to tell her that you didn’t exactly believe a soul could be redeemed.

Now depending on if you’re hellborn or a sinner, things can go a bit differently. If youre hellborn she’ll offer you a job at the hotel, well to say a job would be a lie, you didn’t really have 1 given task to do, you just helped out when needed. if you’re a sinner, you of course get to stay in a room at the hotel. Whether you actually go along and try to get better is up to you. It was a free place to sleep, so hey? Might as well. Either way though, Charlie always sees the good in people, hellborn or not. So she would obviously want to help you grow as a person even if you are hellborn.

The michevues aspects of your personality tends to cause some problems for the hotel at times. Fights happen, lessons have ended prematurely, and you may have accidentally caused a bar fight between Angel and Sir Pentious. It really was an accident, how was you supposed to know “borrowing” one of Pentious’ shiny tools would cause such a ruckus?

Charlie lectored you about taking others' stuff and made you apologize.

As much as Charlie doesn’t want to admit it (at least before episode 5) she’s a lot like her dad. That also expands to their likeness for your fur. She really can’t take her eyes away from it, it just looks so soft and neat… and soft… eventually you catch her staring at your tails and you just laugh and ask her if she wants to touch them.

“What!? Pfft, noooo, no no no. hehe…he…unless you’re offering…”

Alastor

Considering Alastor died in the 20’s I don’t think he knows what a Kitsune is exactly. Which is probably why he’s the most interesting in you at first glance (you could have also met when he first manifested in hell, which would only further his intrigue)

Either way, your personalities seemed to mesh well for the most part. You both stir up trouble wherever you go (Alastor a bit more… maliciously than you but still)

Whether you’re hellborn or a sinner is irrelevant to how he treats you, though he has tried making a deal with you every once and a while. You always decline but he thinks it’s always worth a shot to ask.

Alastor is aware of your devious behavior and knows the best way to handle it if it ever happens to come his way. He knows that you’re harmless and not a threat which is exactly why he has taken a liking to you. You’re someone who can only really help his cause and nothing bad can really come out of you being around.

Pranks though, are the one thing that Alastor can’t seem to sway you out of doing. He can’t even begin to count the amount of times he’s been at the front end of them. Of course he always sees through them and they’ve never once worked, but boy are you sure determined to one day get him.

This was one such case where you attempted to steal and hide his radio cane while he was asleep, only for him to sneak up shadow form and scare you half to double death

“You’re going to have to try harder than that to pull one past me, my, oh-so dear, exquisitely fluffy friend”

[thoughtportal]

For those living in one of the 22 states where abortion is banned or heavily restricted, the internet can be a lifeline. It has essential information on where and how to access care, links to abortion funds, and guidance on ways to navigate potential legal risks. Activists use the internet to organize and build community, and reproductive healthcare organizations rely on it to provide valuable information and connect with people in need.

But both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are now actively pushing for federal legislation that could cut youth off from these vital healthcare resources and stifle online abortion information for adults and kids alike.

This summer, the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that would grant the federal government and state attorneys general the power to restrict online speech they find objectionable in a misguided and ineffective attempt to protect kids online. A number of organizations have already sounded the alarm on KOSA’s danger to online LGBTQ+ content, but the hazards of the bill don’t stop there.

KOSA puts abortion seekers at risk. It could easily lead to censorship of vital and potentially life-saving information about sexual and reproductive healthcare. And by age-gating the internet, it could result in websites requiring users to submit identification, undermining the ability to remain anonymous while searching for abortion information online.

Abortion Information Censored

As EFF has repeatedly warned, KOSA will stifle online speech. It gives government officials the dangerous and unconstitutional power to decide what types of content can be shared and read online. Under one of its key censorship provisions, KOSA would create what the bill calls a “duty of care.” This provision would require websites, apps, and online platforms to comply with a vague and overbroad mandate to prevent and mitigate “harm to minors” in all their “design features.”

KOSA contains a long list of harms that websites have a duty to protect against, including emotional disturbance, acts that lead to bodily harm, and online harassment, among others. The list of harms is open for interpretation. And many of the harms are so subjective that government officials could claim any number of issues fit the bill.

This opens the door for political weaponization of KOSA—including by anti-abortion officials. KOSA is ambiguous enough to allow officials to easily argue that its mandate includes sexual and reproductive healthcare information. They could, for example, claim that abortion information causes emotional disturbance or death, or could lead to “sexual exploitation and abuse.” This is especially concerning given the anti-abortion movement’s long history of justifying abortion restrictions by claiming that abortions cause mental health issues, including depression and self-harm (despite credible research to the contrary).

As a result, websites could be forced to filter and block such content for minors, despite the fact that minors can get pregnant and are part of the demographic most likely to get their news and information from social media platforms. By blocking this information, KOSA could cut off young people’s access to potentially life-saving sexual and reproductive health resources. So much for protecting kids.

KOSA’s expansive and vague censorship requirements will also affect adults. To avoid liability and the cost and hassle of litigation, websites and platforms are likely to over-censor potentially covered content, even if that content is otherwise legal. This could lead to the removal of important reproductive health information for all internet users, adults included.

A Tool For Anti-Choice Officials

It’s important to remember that KOSA’s “duty of care” provision would be defined and enforced by the presidential administration in charge, including any future administration that is hostile to reproductive rights. The bill grants the Federal Trade Commission, majority-controlled by the President’s party, the power to develop guidelines and to investigate or sue any websites or platforms that don’t comply. It also grants the Executive Branch the power to form a Kids Online Safety Council to further identify “emerging or current risks of harms to minors associated with online platforms.”

Meanwhile, KOSA gives state attorneys general, including those in abortion-restrictive states, the power to sue under its other provisions, many of which intersect with the “duty of care.” As EFF has argued, this gives state officials a back door to target and censor content they don’t like, including abortion information.

It’s also directly foreseeable that anti-abortion officials would use KOSA in this way. One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), has touted KOSA as a way to censor online content on social issues, claiming that children are being “indoctrinated” online. The Heritage Foundation, a politically powerful organization that espouses anti-choice views, also has its eyes on KOSA. It has been lobbying lawmakers to pass the bill and suggesting that a future administration could fill the Kids Online Safety Council with “representatives who share pro-life values.”

This all comes at a time when efforts to censor abortion information online are at a fever pitch. In abortion-restrictive states, officials have already been eagerly attempting to erase abortion from the internet. Lawmakers in both South Carolina and Texas have introduced bills to censor online abortion information, though neither effort has yet to be successful. The National Right to Life Committee has also created a model abortion law aimed at restricting abortion rights in a variety of ways, including digital access to information.

KOSA Hurts Anonymity Online

KOSA will also push large and important parts of the internet behind age gates. In order to determine which users are minors, online services will likely impose age verification systems, which require everyone—both adults and minors—to verify their age by providing identifying information, oftentimes including government-issued ID or other personal records.

This is deeply problematic for maintaining access to reproductive care. Age verification undermines our First Amendment right to remain anonymous online by requiring users to confirm their identity before accessing webpages and information. It would chill users who do not wish to share their identity from accessing or sharing online abortion resources, and put others’ identities at increased risk of exposure.

In a post-Roe United States, in which states are increasingly banning, restricting, and prosecuting abortions, the ability to anonymously seek and share abortion information online is more important than ever. For people living in abortion-restrictive states, searching and sharing abortion information online can put you at risk. There have been multiple instances of law enforcement agencies using digital evidence, including internet history, in abortion-related criminal cases. We’ve also seen an increase in online harassment and doxxing of healthcare professionals, even in more abortion-protective states.

Because of this, many organizations, including EFF, have tried to help people take steps to protect privacy and anonymity online. KOSA would undercut those efforts. While it’s true that our online ecosystem is already rich with private surveillance, age verification adds another layer of mass data collection. Online ID checks require adults to upload data-rich, government-issued identifying documents to either the website or a third-party verifier, creating a potentially lasting record of their visit to the website.

For abortion seekers taking steps to protect their anonymity and avoid this pervasive surveillance, this would make things all the more difficult. Using a public computer or creating anonymous profiles on social networks won’t keep you safe if you have to upload ID to access the information you need.

We Can Still Stop KOSA From Passing

KOSA has not yet passed the House, so there’s still time to stop it. But the Senate vote means that the House could bring it up for a vote at any time, and the House has introduced its own similarly flawed version of KOSA. If we want to protect access to abortion information online, we must organize now to stop KOSA from passing.

[coddda]

Hiiiiiii. Episode 25/26 lawlight analysis rant thingy here. I don't know how to write an intro for this so let's just get to it LOL

I think one of the reasons that the rain/foot scenes stick out so much (the. Sheer insanity of a Foot Massage Scene in an anime revolving around two guys trying to kill each other aside 💀) is the fact that the anime specifically suffers a bit in terms of adapting a few of the "emotional" moments in death note.

And I don't mean "emotionally impactful" exactly. For example I think the adaptations of scenes like Raye and Naomi's deaths were very impactful and the atmospheres of their final scenes were great, but I mean more from a characterization standpoint (if that makes sense). Being more focused on mind and logic games, Death Note as a whole isn't as invested in individual characters' deeper feelings as it is in its action (which isn't necessarily a criticism per say, it's simply part of the nature of a mystery thriller series). But just because they're fewer and farther between doesn't mean there are none at all. In the manga we do get to see, for example, how much Light actually cared for his family and especially Sayu, and how he actually felt more conflicted and suffered lack of sleep/appetite when he first used the Death Note.

The anime specifically as an adaptation is pretty good at adapting the main mind fuckery and action of Death Note, but its lacking in properly adapting scenes like the ones I mentioned above is a criticism I see somewhat often, and it's pretty fair imo. Compared to all the other adaptations, it certainly seems to fall short on an emotional level: the musical has entire songs going in depth about the characters feelings and relationships, the 2015 jdrama is. Insane and has its emotional moments in spades (because it's a TV drama, which are more focused on portraying emotional conflict and the like), even the 2006 movies has its emotional beats and L Change the WorLd is. Well. Oh Man.

Anime Light to a lot of people is like. Light but he's "already evil" (which I have my own thoughts on but I digress). Light but after using the Death Note for like 2 minutes he's already like "fuck yeah time to kill criminals". Basically the anime doesn't take as much time to delve into his less cynical sides or really delve into his already vague and harder to decipher feelings in general, he is noticeably colder from the get-go here, etc.

But that's part of why I think episode 25 manages to stand out so much tonally (apart from it being, y'know, the episode L literally Dies). I love the episode so much and could probably rant for hours about how much I love the artistic choices made in it but what I'm trying to get at here is that it's one of the very few moments where the show tries to go deeper into specific character's emotions, and one of the very few moments where the show Attempts (emphasis on "attempts" because, well, you'll see in a bit) to get more in-depth into Light's feelings apart from his cynicism/apathy/justice. ness.

L in these two scenes in episode 25 is, well, pretty damn open about how he feels. It's usually interpreted as him knowing that he's going to die, and you can see it. He visibly looks/sounds lost, somber, etc. He never really had much to hide around Light to begin with (since he doesn't really care about hiding himself the same way Light does) but especially not now and it Shows, and I personally thought it was pretty cool to delve into his thoughts/show how he feels this way. The somberness can be felt throughout the entire scene, even people who don't already know the plot of Death Note from the manga could probably tell that he's about to die.

In the manga, once L starts suspecting Misa again and Rem realizes what Light is trying to do, it goes straight to Watari and L's deaths, but the anime instead gives a distinct and unexpected pause in the middle of this where L contemplates his own death. It's fucking great, and the shift from straight action to slower emotional weight makes these scenes stand out a lot, since, like I said, the show usually focuses more on the former. But it's kind of ironic, too.

Not only does the anime open up L's feelings more in these scenes, but it also tries to dig deeper into Light's feelings as well through L. And it's really funny honestly because while, yes, these are the more "emotionally open" scenes of the anime Light still manages to be Incredibly avoidant and contribute almost nothing to the entire ordeal.

L is visibly upset -> "Yeah Ryuzaki, you're not making any sense at all" (Not addressing the obvious conflict from L)

"Tell me, Light. From the moment you were born, has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" -> "[The most stale, over-explained, avoidant answer to a "yes/no" question that you could ever hear + blatant attempts to reframe the question]"

(L's half-smile here kills me) "I had a feeling you'd say something like that" -> [Nothing]

"I'm sorry" -> [Nothing]

"It'll be lonely won't it? You and I will be parting ways soon" -> [Nothing]

^ From this point Light continues to say literally Nothing for the rest of the scene. I'm not even joking, from then on the rest of Light's voicelines are reduced to nothing but vague noises of confusion.

Everytime L calls Light out as a person ("Has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" / "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." / "Won't it be lonely?") he doesn't actually acknowledge anything. Out of those three lines, he only answers verbally to if he's ever told the truth, and even then it's the most blatantly people-pleasing answer ever, as it usually is with Light. And I don't think it's because Light just. Doesn't care about any of what L's saying at all, or that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about (questioning Light's authenticity as a person, saying it would be lonely when they part), instead he's choosing not to acknowledge any of what this means about himself or him and L at all. He's like a fucking wall.

And like, for the truth question in particular, the show makes sure that you know it's not something that Light just. Doesn't care enough about to answer. The hard cuts to silence are a very rare but extremely effective way that the show conveys an extremely important moment (see: Light regaining his memories, Matsuda noticing Light opening the warehouse door before he escapes (not as much of a "direct" cut to silence but still)), and cuts to multiple angles/framings/zooms of the exact same shot are also used for the same purpose (see: Light hugging Misa when she was crying, Matsuda aiming his gun to shoot Light, Light regaining his memories Again). Just like the scene where Light gets his memories back, the moment L's question finishes the show utilizes both. That question cut Deep. There's is a solid Almost 5 seconds of silence before the sound of the rain gradually starts fading back in, and honestly that should be telling enough as is (but of course Light doesn't actually admit that. Or anything at all really, so). Oh also another fun detail! We do not see Light's face At All (except for the shot where you can see his mouth moving but not his eyes), for the Entire time that he's going on his spiel to L. We Will Be Revisiting This Later, by the way. This is not, in fact, the first time you're going to see this detail from Light.

The only sort of reciprocation that we see from Light during Any of these two scenes is when Light dries L's hair while L dries his feet. Biblical meanings/references aside it's interesting because it's the only time he directly does anything "for" L in these scenes, but even then he doesn't try to pass it off as anything meaningful really the same way L does ("You're still soaked", a purely neutral and factual statement. It doesn't Add Anything compared to L's. Sin atonement loneliness grieving stuff. While Light is showing his own reciprocation to this more personal moment he also tries to keep it impersonal enough that it doesn't actually have to mean anything deep). And when L says "I'm sorry" after he once again gets no response from Light. It's also after this that L gets that pained look on his face, like he knows that at this point he's not actually going to get anything meaningful from Light (again, very significant and rare from L in the show. We've seen him in distress (see: when Ukita died, hell, when Watari dies), but even then he mostly manages to keep his usually neutral expression), we never see him "look sad" like he does here):

I just think it's interesting that this is one of the few scenes in this particular adaptation of Death Note where they try to open up the character's thoughts/feeling (especially considering the fact that they. lowkey blunder in adaptations of original scenes from the manga), and L himself is being rather open (not that he ever really tries to hide what he thinks nearly as much as Light), and yet all Light contributes to it in return is like. Actually nothing. Bro fumbled it. There is no resolution to any of this, to any of what L asks at all, to any of the many opportunities for a meaningful conversation, and the only thing even relatively close to an answer that you can get from Light is what you can infer from how he acts in the episode after L dies, where he's just going through the motions, but hardly acting as if he's actually living at all.

(Honestly I think the transition from this scene with the taskforce to the subsequent scene with Misa says enough on its own. Light's expressions and tone says everything:)

(Oh sidenote but. This shit again:

"Light, this is our first date in forever. can't you enjoy yourself a little more?" ('Why don't you seem happy? We can finally be together since L is dead') -> No response, Light instead changing the topic to him wanting to move in with Misa without changing his mannerisms at all

Also there's that one detail again. You pretty much don't see Light's expression when he speaks here at all, except for one shot of his eyes, which is quite literally the exact same shot they used when he "saw" L, just altered for the new setting. You have No idea what he looks like when he's responding to Misa, although it's probably fair to assume that it's the same empty stare he has for the whole Two Shots where you can clearly see his whole expression in the entire scene.

Something something Light Yagami bad at feelings I think you get the point though)

I guess Light's Kind of showing what he's feeling now? He'll admit to himself that it's boring without L, but no more than that. Light never actually admits to anything "significant", and L's dead already anyway, so what would that even do?

And then we get, uh. Basically nothing from Light. For the next 5 Years. Except that he joined the NPA, so, uh, yay? Good job, Light you totally nailed it! Thank you for allowing us as an audience to delve deeper into your inner thoughts and feelings as a character so we can find out more about you as a person! Very helpful! Thank you for not sabotaging one of your few dedicated opportunities to look into yourself as a person and reflect on your relationships with others and being 100% honest with yourself! We stay winning guys.

Anyway, this got way too long for a scene that's over a decade old, and I've probably just said everything that everyone else has already said in this fandom before. But unfortunately this has been living in my head for way too long and I must scream. I just think this episode's neat is all :)

tl;dr Part of the reason why the rain/foot scene (tbh episode 25 in General) stands out so much is because the Death Note anime specifically was a bit robbed in terms of its more emotional character moments compared to the other medias, which makes more somber/introspective scenes like the ones in episode 25 stand out a Lot in comparison. But it's also incredibly ironic because it's one of the few moments where the show (or specifically L) tries to look deeper into Light's character, but because he is so avoidant for the entire duration of these two scenes he adds basically nothing at all. It's almost funny. Mostly sad. It's also very gay. Aand post

Okay actually nevermind one more thing I talked about how the jdrama is supposed to be more emotionally in-depth because it is a TV Drama and just for the record, same thing happens there! I could probably do an entire analysis of the Blue Scene in this context like I did with episode 25 but I'd literally be here forever, so uh, just take this iconic line as my main example:

Same Thing. L's statement "I wish we could have met some other way" is personal. It's his own wish, his own regret that he is expressing to Light. While Light's reply obviously has that same regret implied it's also phrased in a specifically impersonal way. It's closed off. "This is the only way we could have met" it closes off the topic and simply renders L's wish as ultimately futile. Light does not say that he Also wishes he could have met L a different way even if it was likely impossible, instead it's a cold statement of cynical fact.

Idk just. Something something L being able and Willing to be more openly sentimental/emotionally open towards Light/about Light vs. Light's inability to be honest with anyone including himself and his own nature preventing any form of meaningful reciprocation. Something something self-sabotage, y'know the drill. God don't even get me Started on how sincere L's tone is when he says "It'll be lonely won't it?"(at least in the eng dub) in the anime I could talk about his tone in that scene for ages. Also yes all of this relates to L Change the WorLd too by the way. Don't ask how it just does okay.

I do think that scenes like these (rain/foot scene, The Blue Scene. Uh. L Change the WorLd The Novel Adaptation) show, at least in those adaptations, that L does genuinely care for Light, and show that he values him as a friend not just in the mindgame-equal sense but also just like, a more sincere sense you know. Idk if that made any sense and that's a whole other topic for another day but you guys just have to believe me on this one alright please please believe me buries head in hands. Okay post over finally thanks for coming to my tedtalk hope you enjoyed my very-unnecessarily long analysis of the week

[the-palelady]

I was wondering if you were writing your crime wife thought as a full story/longer drabble? If not may I request her meeting Ghost???? Thank you!!!

- ��

i have written some thoughts on this, and half of a chapter, but it's been so long since i've written a series. i'm not sure how i feel about it tbh. i'm pretty self conscious. i'll mention here and in the warnings that reader is afab and she also doesn't have a name, but she does go by a nickname. friend of mine helped me to decide on the nickname and where it came from so shoutout to them otherwise it would have ended up being something about sharks lmao

but plz feel free to send reqs for this little idea or any others! ♡

cw ; afab!reader, brief mentions of abuse, reader has severe anxiety and a stutter, brief mention of blood in a metaphor, reader does not have a name but she does go by a nickname, i tried to keep most other descriptions of reader pretty vague so everything else is up for interpretation, she and ghost are hella awkward

The breeze was a stranger to you, an unknown feeling against your skin as you stepped out into the spring sun. Your dress fluttered like the wings of the birds that flew about around you, dancing along the thralls of freedom, something you had longed to taste.

How long has it been now? How long have you been stuck here in this prison, the walls of your cell slowly closing in on you day by day? Time was hardly something you understood anymore. What was the point in keeping up?

Your husband had taken his leave earlier in the morning. You were thankful that he left you be, allowing you to stay consumed by your dreams. However, you could hardly call a void opening up underneath your feet and swallowing you whole a dream.

But nightmares were safer than the gaze and touch of your oh-so-loving husband.

You had the house to yourself, for the most part. You knew somehow, someway, your husband still had eyes on you. You were unsure how, but he always managed to know every little thing you were doing from what books you read to what time you decided to crawl into bed. Even if he was miles away from home, he knew every detail about your life. Your own personal dictator.

The thought made your temples pulsate, a headache beginning to form when you had barely stepped outside.

You wouldn’t let your husband get in the way of your one chance at solace. He wasn’t here to hound you about how disheveled your hair looked when the wind had torn through it, pushing it to and fro. He wasn’t here to decide what your dinner for the night would be. He wasn’t here to put his hands on you, shoving you back into the wall as he blamed you for every little wrong thing that happened in his life. He wasn’t here to blame you for his own mistakes.

So you put on a dress you had kept hidden in the back of your closet, a white sundress with blue lemon tree accents and puffy sleeves. The waist was cinched, revealing your curves, and the square neckline allowed the sun to kiss the exposed skin of your neck and shoulders. The dress cascaded down to the middle of your shins, pooling out around you as you sat amongst the blanket you brought with you to the garden.

You were surrounded by all of your favorite things: the sun, flowers, and butterflies that danced atop the curves of the leaves on the bushes you had spent years mothering.

This was your safe haven, your joy. The only happiness you felt you had left.

Soon your husband would return, and you’d have to retreat back into the warzone that was your own home. You’d be tucked back into your tower, unable to see the sun, unable to see the flowers you’d spent so long taking care of, flowers you’d watched bloom with your own eyes all those summers ago when love didn’t take the form of a wild bull. Its horns had ripped flesh from bone, puncturing what was left of your heart and letting you slowly bleed out.

Nausea began to settle deep in the pit of your stomach.

Your hands reached for one of the many books you had brought out, landing on The Picture of Dorian Grey, one you had already read a thousand times.

You open to the first page, your eyes gravitating to the words as if it were second nature. You read sentences, and paragraphs, ahead in your mind, the book memorized from front to back, engraved in the crevices of your mind.

And yet you still found yourself smelling the roses and lilacs of Basil Howard’s studio as he listened to Lord Henry boast about his art, and how he explained the beauty of the young lad Dorian Grey.

“You might see nothing in him. I see everything in him. He is never more present in my work than when no image of him is there. He is a suggestion, as I have said, of a new manner. I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours…” You read the lines aloud, word for word, your voice growing soft as you reach the end.

“...That is all.”

Snap.

Your eyes fly up to the bush that sits to your right. Over the years your ears had grown sensitive to the sounds around you, always listening for the footsteps of your husband, listening for the clack of the bulls' hooves as he charged towards your cell.

But you were met with a silence that sucked the oxygen from your lungs. You could have looked away. There was nothing there. Nothing that you could see at least. So it was safe, right?

So you blinked back the fear in your eyes, pushing it aside and turning your attention back to the book in your lap. However, it was hard to concentrate on the words now, the syllables jumbled into one chaotic mess, a tornado of letters that seemed incomprehensible. Your ears felt full of water. Your esophagus became tight, an unseen force pushing you under the waves of an ocean you’ve only ever seen in your nightmares.

You were being consumed by the fear that your husband had instilled into you, the vexed look in his eyes flashing behind your own. However, fright molded you into an ignorant woman, that very ignorance keeping you from seeing the brawn of a man standing from behind the very bush you had been wary of. He was slow, calculating, giving you plenty of time to react, and yet you didn’t.

You were lost at sea, plunged under the waves by the anxiety that had nestled its way into your life, so graciously placed there by the so-called “love of your life”.

The leaves rustled, and you blinked: once, twice, then three times.

You were intelligent. This was one of the few words of affirmation you had given yourself over the years, one of the few things you actually believed.

And yet in this moment, you couldn’t have felt any more stupid. Thinking wasn’t an option when his clouded, amber eyes locked with yours. His size was something you should have accounted for when your book fell out of your grip and you lept from the blanket. You thought you’d be fast.

But he was much faster.

His iron grip was on you before you could even take a step towards the house. His massive, gloved hand practically consumed your bicep. Out of instinct, you kept quiet. You blame your silence on your husband. The only sound you made was a quiet gasp as the stranger tugged you towards him, forcing you to face him.

Those chocolate eyes were so much brighter up close, the color reminding you of the outer wing pattern of an Atlas Moth. They shined in the afternoon sun, glowing in a way that had you enamored despite the pure horror that circulated through you. The rest of his face was obscured by a mask with a skull painted on it. The skin around his eyes was painted with black paint that seemed applied in a rushed or lazy manner, and you could see beads of sweat dripping down through the pigment.

Your eyes were wide, you were sure, a deer in headlights. Yet you didn’t resist, didn’t tug against the hold he had on you. After all, obedience was all you had ever known.

“Shh shh…husband doesn’t need t’know I’m ‘ere. Be quiet f’me, yeah?”

You simply watched the way his mask crinkled where his lips would be. His voice was a deep timbre, a sound most would find intimidating and yet you found it…charming. The way he spoke was hardly threatening, and over time his grip on your arms seemed to loosen as well.

“Well?”

Your eyes darted back up to his, lips parting to speak, but words were never your strong suit. So you instead opted to nod, bobbing your head up and down slowly, noting the way he studied your movements so closely.

And as quickly as his touch was there, it was gone, one hand falling to his side while the other reached up to rub across his face and down his chin.

“Bloody hell…” he whispered, your eyes still tracking his movements. After all, this was your home, your garden, and this complete stranger was just…standing here, speaking to you so casually, even making demands of you.

Not that you’d have told your husband anyway.

You watched his irises flick from the flowers of your garden to the windows of your house that sat behind you and then back down to you. You stood on the brink of being consumed by the stillness of the air, the situation making you fidget your fingers, index fingers intertwining with one another as your hands crossed.

It was impossible to read him, his body language relaxed and yet stiff all at once. You couldn’t tell whether he was scrutinizing you or simply just had a staring problem, maybe even both. The man simply towered over you, staring down at you with a look you couldn’t decipher even as he spoke.

“Husband did say ya were a quiet one. Although most people would scream if they were grabbed by a stranger.”

His statement was blunt, tone flat. Perhaps you had a staring problem as well, focus cast on the look in his eyes, and the way the sun made the pools of amber sparkle. You didn’t even notice the way your lips parted or the scratchy voice that came out right after.

“Just…just wasn’t expecting it was all.”

You were met with silence, the quiet air between you both making your skin crawl with an uneasy feeling, fingers wrapping around one another tighter.

“You’re one of the men from…across the street, right?” You finally blinked, his gaze becoming too much and you looked away, deciding that the ground was much more interesting now. He shifted his stance, arms crossing over his chest. His biceps bulged out a bit, the sleeves of his shirt tightening around the muscles.

“I am.”

You felt an odd sense of satisfaction knowing that someone else out there was just as bad at conversation as you were. The thought almost made your lips twitch into a smile, but you stopped it before it grew any wider.

The breeze picked up again, cutting through the stillness in the Spring air. Your hair swayed behind you, dress fanning out even as you pressed your palms down against your thighs to keep it from flying upwards. The longer you stood there in the quiet, the longer that familiar blade of anxiety cut through your sternum and dug deep into your chest. You felt sick.

His boots drug across the dirt when he uncrossed his arms, “S’pose I should ask your name?”

“It’s…um…” You stuttered out, eyes flitting from the ground, up to him, then back down. Why was talking such an impossible task, something so menial?

“Make it easier if I told ya mine first?” Your hand came up, pushing a stray piece of hair behind your ear while you nodded, looking up at him from under your lashes just the tiniest bit.

“Ghost.”

“Ghost?”

Even through the mask, you could see the way his eyebrow rose in a quizzical manner underneath.

“Got a problem with it?” You thought perhaps this was his way of sounding sarcastic. You let out a faint huff and shook your head in response.

“Good. Your turn then.”

You uttered your name to him, quiet, yet loud enough for him and the ensemble of flowers and butterflies around you to hear.

“But…most people call me Scarlet.”

There it was again—that same curious glint in his eyes from before when you questioned his own name.

“It’s a butterfly,” and as you spoke you turned. Distantly, you could hear him take a step towards you. However, you simply bent over, grabbing a hold of a book that sat on top of a larger stack of books. When you faced him again, you were already opening it to a page that was familiar to you. Of course, you had turned to this specific page numerous times before.

There was a large picture at the top of the left page with a black butterfly sitting front and center, and a few paragraphs of information listed underneath. Closest to the body and on the edges of the hindwings were sections of scarlet. You point to the image, his attention moving from you to the book.

“They’re called Scarlet Mormons. I’ve always…liked butterflies and moths, but they’re my favorite…” Your cheeks grow hot with embarrassment as you explain your favoritism for the species. In your mind, you sound like a child, so any scrutiny he decides to throw at you, you feel you deserve. And as he opens his mouth, you prepare yourself for the worst.

“They’re beautiful.”

Your apprehension becomes a distant memory at the sound of his voice and the words that fall from his lips, a word that sounds taboo coming from a sinister-looking man like him. Is a man like Ghost allowed to say such a word? Does he even know what it means?

You don’t take him for an idiot. Of course, he knows what it means, but it doesn’t stop your heart from pounding against your chest cavity, begging to burst from the space between your ribs.

“Why are you here…Ghost?” The question comes out hesitantly as you seek a change in subject. You don’t notice the way his eyes flick to your lips when you enunciate the syllables of his callsign, the way he tracks your hands when you close the book and press it to your chest.

When you do finally look back towards him, you can see him pondering something. The gears in his mind are working double time, and you don’t think you’ll even get a proper response. There’s a hundred possibilities as to why he’s here. You think maybe he works for your husband, cozying up to you to earn your trust and tell your husband all of your whereabouts and what you do while he’s gone. Perhaps he is an enemy of your husbands and you’ve made a terrible mistake, your ignorance once again clouding your judgment. 

That same fissure begins to open up below you, threatening to pull you under. You’ll be blamed, and this time the mistake will be your fault. Your husband will take the last bits of happiness you have: your garden, books, the sunlight.

And it’s like Ghost sees this void underneath you, the foreboding tendrils of your husband dragging you into the furthest depths of Hell when he whispers out, “Think you’ve been pulled into this war enough. That’s a secret for another time.”

[eye-may]

A Post Where I Clumsily Trundle Through An Incoherent Web Of Thoughts On The Discrepancies Between OLC (Wayne Sleep) Mistoffelees and OBC (Timothy Scott) Mistoffelees, Specifically Regarding Their Vocal Tracks

I sit in a ✨rapt contemplation✨ of how much I do and don't think Mistoffelees should sing, based on the interpretation of the character I have scrunged together after two months' worth of obsessing over the subject, trying to make sense of the expansive history, and all the variations, of CATS. It doesn't help that, as far as I can tell, the most enigmatic (read: inconsistent as fuck, affectionately) fixture on the franchise is its own Conjuring Cat.

Read below the cut if you're at all interested in me trying to transliterate my thoughts! I promise you it will be confusing. ❤️

The gentle, vaguely mysterious way Mistoffelees sings "Have you been an alumnus of heaven or hell?" in the OLC recording is actually so beautiful and so personal to me. I could rationalize ad infinitum why it just makes sense for the inexplicably magical cat to have this line, but suffice to say: it just works. And of all the London-based productions in which I've heard this specific arrangement, my favorite delivery of that line still belongs to Sleep. His airy, almost pensive (?) inflection stands out so much from the rest of the cast, in a way that I think really befits the character.

Then he goes on to sing Jenny's number, again, with such conspicuous gentleness and sweetness. Everything he sings sounds almost like a lullaby, a trapping that works well for a song about a cat that lazes about and sleeps all day. it's a stark contrast to Munkustrap's operatic, romantic grandiosity. to say nothing of the fact that the Mr. Mistoffelees instrumental motif is what LEADS UP to the first line of that song; in my opinion, that's a vestigial indication of the original intention to have Mistoffelees narrate this part of the show.

When it's time for Old Deutoronomy to arrive, Mistoffelees opens up the lyrical announcement, again, with a voice that is soporific, melodic, gentle, sweet. He sounds youthful and unassuming, and yet is clearly a member of the tribe who is knowledgeable of its hierarchy and its history, and one who is so intimately trusted that its leadership bequeaths him the responsibility of making introductions, of musically guiding all and sundry through various beats and developments. I've heard others refer to this version of Mistoffelees as something of an 'assistant' to Munkustrap (shout out to this post, which singularly kept me from going insane while I tried to write this), a righthand cat as it were. I think later on, the closest we have to such an entity is Alonzo, the Secondary Protector; but this, in my opinion, is an incomparable archetype. Wayne Sleep's Mistoffelees is (I think) the most physically diminunitive version of the character there has ever been in a professional production. (Maybe except for Dane Wagner, whose actual height I cannot find anywhere on the internet, so jury's out). He doesn't cut the figure, per se, of a trusty backup during a violent altercation. Rather, his position on the community ladder is attributed to his acuity, which he conveys in his lilting, unaffected explanations. There's not exactly a pretense of showmanship, and Mistoffelees doesn't seem to come off esteemed as an entertainer. Rather, he's a member of the tribe who, although he's small and sweet-sounding...proverbially missable in a crowd...there's something about him that gives the rest of the tribe the impression that he's worth listening to. As much as, even, the tall and dignified Munkustrap, or the barely-hinged Rum Tum Tugger.

This Mistoffelees, despite all that, is not above casual comingling. He's not sanctimonious or high-flown...at least not if his adorably repulsed line delivery during Tugger's number is anything to go on.

I feel like when the roles were changed for Broadway (something something contracts something something principals), and Mistoffelees's narration was shuffled to the Mungoteazer number, the beat of Mistoffelees mistakenly attempting to lead the song and then getting chastised by Munkustrap was a cheeky nod to the original arrangement. In a metacontextual way, we DO expect Mistoffelees to sing Jenny's song. Even if you're not familiar with the OLC version, his motif still cues him in for it. Subsequently, it became his motif teasing his cue...only for him (and the audience) to realize that he was mistaken.

Obviously I have no way of knowing if that beat was, in fact, acted out in the original Broadway production with Timothy Scott (I suspect that it was not, and that Valentin Baraian was the trailblazer in the original Vienna run, and Lindsay Chambers's seemingly de-aged Mistoffelees in the early 90s further cemented the Woobie-fied awkward version of the character) but either way, this makes it so that the audience is acquainted with Munkustrap as a revered narrator, thitherto without much of an impression either way of how Mistoffelees is regarded by the rest of the cats.

In taking on the Puppet Show sequence, Mistoffelees's air of leadership and wisdom is abated, and filled in with an image of an eccentric showman. This isn't the least bolstered by Timothy Scott's cryptoid make-up, and his express desire to play Mistoffelees as bombastic and fascinating, rather than cute. His animation of piles of trash into dirigible puppets is the most ostentatious foreshadowing of his magic that there has ever been in any replica version; therefore, rather than the audience feeling as though Mistoffelees should be listened to, and that he's an unassuming and affable guide...they're given the impression that they should be mystified. Scott's Mistoffelees is replete with showmanship and grandiosity, in a more literal and traditional sense than Munkustrap or Tugger. He introduces himself before Tugger ever gets a chance to, resoundingly clapping himself on the back for his aptitude as a magician (the greatest magicians have something to learn...etc). In my opinion, this doesn't come off as egoism so much as it does a collateral feature of trained stage presence. He has bits. He's a professional.

Too much of a professional, even, to tease Tugger during the latter's number. I suppose the "bore" line is sung by Munkustrap and Alonzo at least, like it usually is in Broadway-based adaptions. In some productions, I think, Mistoffelees joins them for the delivery to form a trio. But, again, no way for me to know whether that's the case with Scott. I assume that he isn't just because it seems like his version of Mistoffelees is a touch too turgid to be bothered with Tugger at all.

The way he BANGS out Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer in the OBC recording...his voice and inflection so dynamic, using his magic to bolster his showmanship, to entertain, to be a storyteller...it feels very proper for the self-proclaimed magician to present his abilities with such aplomb. (He sings with equally stratospheric energy during Invitation, which Wayne Sleep did not sing in the OL version...and I almost feel like it's too high-energy and playful a tune for the 'gentle guiding' version of the character). He has none of Wayne Sleep's timidity. He is no longer gentle. He's hyper, florid, dynamic, and loud, singing in an unhesitating, playful baritone that takes on a growl during his most dramatic deliveries. Wayne Sleep's and Timothy Scott's versions of Mistoffelees seem almost incomparable.

I think about the characterization of Mistoffelees as vague and aloof, and, you would think there was nobody shyer. I could see that, yes, with Wayne Sleep's Mistoffelees; while he's seemingly comfortable with being the center of attention amid his group of friends, and while he's all too happy to come in clutch very flashily during the eleventh hour, he still gives the impression of softness that one could construe as timidity. He's able and willing to assist Munkustrap, to elucidate in front of a group, to be heard and seen, but it's not too difficult to imagine him reverting to a state of unassuming quietness in any other contexts. It may just be me, but I feel that two "Presto!"'s during his number are almost formative, or at least uncharacteristic and something you'd only hear in such an extenuating context. It's like watching the peaceful, wise mentor abruptly kick ass when the hour is nigh. Is Wayne Sleep...Trojan Horse Mistoffelees...?

Anyway. Timothy Scottfelees, on the other hand, is more difficult to brand as a supposedly avoidant and coy character. He can be aloof, maybe, if the magnitude of his specialness ends up making him truly peerless. But this is the version of the character often called the "consummate showman," and an evidently eager one at that. After dynamically spinning the Mungoteazer yarn, he then goes on to sing about himself for part of his own number, ironically delivering lyrics that are antithetical to the idea of their own subject conveying them. (This is partly why it's fucking stupid that Mistoffelees sings his entire ass own song in the 2019 movie but that's neither here nor there).

But I get it, again, with the contracts and the him needing to sing two songs to have a principal contract blah blah blah blah. I guess the director didn't want him to sing Gumbie Cat and Mungoteazer. I wonder why, if they had him perform the latter to get around casting two additional actors for the mischief twins (and instead had the psychic twins dress up as garbage), that they couldn't simply have him sing Old Deutoronomy like the OLC Mistoffelees did. Instead they initiated the tradition of having Tugger and Munkustrap duet it, when Tugger didn't need that extra singing credit to fit the criteria for a principal contract because he already sings his own number and also Mistoffelees's number. I know it makes sense for Tugger and Munk to be singing it if you subscribe, as seemingly most do, to the interpretation that the two of them are Deutoronomy's sons. But I don't think Mistoffelees's original part precludes that implication. I think it would be neat, even, for the three of them so sing it.

Tangentially, I cannot figure out why John Chester (OLC George) is credited in the studio recording for Old Deutoronomy. When I listen to it, it just sounds like Mistoffelees and Munkustrap alternating, and then the ensemble, and then Brian Blessed (Deut) singing his part. Maybe George is the one to escort him? (Weird that he would be given a track credit for that). Or maybe his voice sounds remarkably similar to either Sleep's or Shankley's and I'm just not able to discern when he is, in fact, singing.

I got all into these mental gymnastics because lately I've been bouncing between the two eras, trying to make sense of the directorial adjustments, and also trying to decide the implications for Mistoffelees's character and which tracks I prefer for him. Incidentally, it's wild to me how inconsistent and evolved the Mistoffelees character is in the grand scheme of CATS. He has a plethora of roles, personalities, and tracking variations the extent to which no other character compares. All of the cats have been interpreted and played differently, of course, depending on the company and the direction. But it seems to me like Mistoffelees is far and away the most varied.

All right. So these are my (barely) conclusive thoughts, formatted handily to mimic the inane back-and-forth constantly beleaguring my internal monologue. Buckle up for some unsolicited, worthless opinions!

Should Mistoffelees sing "The Pied Piper's Assistant," (Broadway), or "Have you been an alumnus of Heaven and Hell"? - The latter! No matter the character's vibe! The inexplicably magical and visually demon-coded character should have this line. It just ✨makes sense.✨

Gumbie Cat - I have grown rather fond, after listening to Wayne Sleep's version, of the idea that Mistoffelees sings this number. That is, however, in no small part due to how well Sleep's lullaby-ish voice works for the tune --- better than, I think, the deeper and more powerful registers you typically hear from Munkustraps. That being said, Mistoffelees singing this demystified him pretty quickly, and arguably ages him up just because you're given the impression that he's privy to, and comfortable with, the tribe's alumni, and furthermore is in a position to express his opinions this way. So all that being said, while I enjoy Wayne Sleep singing Gumbie, in the alternative blip of spacetime where I direct CATS, I'd go the typical route of having Munk sing it.

I think it may be interesting, though, to see a version where Munkustrap and Mistoffelees duet it; and this could be done in a way similar to the Munk/Misto combination for OLC Old Deutoronomy, but in a way where you don't get the impression that Mistoffelees is a peer to Munkustrap. The Broadway Revival seemed to restore bits of the OLC's impressing upon the idea that Mistoffelees is something of an Assistant Director to Munkustrap, just not by singing. (It's stuff like helping her out of her coat, pushing the mop off the stage, moving things around, etc). I really like the idea of Mistoffelees being an adolescent hopeful, sort of shadowing Munkustrap, bottomlessly eager to be helpful, and perhaps even being set up to lead the tribe one day.

All that, granted...I also do like the beat of him getting embarrassed. I could do without it, but I like how it contributes to the interpretation of the character as young and sometimes awkward. God I don't know. o(-<

"The Rum Tum Tugger is a TERRIBLE BORE!" - Mistoffelees should absolutely be the one to have this line. Primarily because it adds that extra vitriolic and playful layer to the supposed relationship between the two characters. And it is also, I think, funny to suggest that Mistoffelees, of all cats, is the one who is not impressed by such prurient behavior, because we see later that he's objectively more impressive and worthy of adulation. (Tugger would agree with me). I honestly think that part of the reason Terrence Mann had so little to contribute to the expansive "Tuggoffelees" discourse is because Mistoffelees wasn't the one to deliver this line in the OBC version. And, secondarily, I prefer a Mistoffelees that isn't peerless, and isn't immune to kiddish ribbing. I have my opinions about how this line should be delivered but that's frankly a whole other post.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer - I think we need the OBC version of this somewhere in the CATS ether, but modified. I agree with this post that is does create an issue where the foreshadowing of his magic is too conspicuous, to the point that it knocks the grandiosity of his Hero Moment down a notch when it's time for his big number. I war with this, however, because I love the idea of Mistoffelees using his magic to be an entertainer and a storyteller. I'd love to figure out some kind of synergistic version where Mistoffelees presents the legend of Mungoteazer in song, incorporating his magic, in a way that doesn't preclude the actual existence/presence of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. I saw a post floating around recently proffering the possibility of the three of them singing it as a trio...I'm a huge supporter of that idea.

Given currently extant versions of the song, I'd forego the puppet show and have the titular characters sing it, in keeping with the tradition.

So now I'm going right ahead and taking away Mistoffelees's expositions after all that. 😩 Let's continue.

Invitation - He should sing it. I don't feel super strongly about this one, but I simply like it better when Mistoffelees sings it versus Munkustrap. Even when we have the quieter, more kiddish versions of Mistoffelees, it doesn't disrupt those elements of his character. It feels like an exciting moment for an inchoate showman. It also seems to give him a "reason" to burst onto the stage amidst an orchestral explosion and pull Victoria into a step.

Old Deutoronomy - Mistoffelees can and should sing at least that first part that Wayne Sleep sings, and maybe the first chorus with both Munkustrap and Tugger. I have the impression already that the three of them form a trifecta of Jellicles who are specially favored by Old Deutoronomy. However...I also think Mistoffelees (rather than Skimble) should be the one to escort Deutoronomy to the stage...so I'd have him sing the first bit, then get signaled by Munkustrap to leave, and then the rest of the song is left to Tugger and Munk, and then of course the ensemble. Perhaps continuing to forego the verse about flatulence.

And then, finally:

Mr. Mistoffelees - Tugger should be the one singing the entire song, full stop. I feel very strongly about this because I want there to be as much emphasis as possible on the astronomical estimation Tugger, in spite of his apparent egoism, has of Mistoffelees. It's also silly, to me, when a character sings about himself being quiet and shy. I do need him, however, to say "Presto!" which, as far as I can tell, he pretty much always does. Timothy Scott is something of an outlier unless we're talking about the Mutestoffeli.

I end this diatribe...not much more resolute than when I began. Obviously this hemming and hawing did not even really touch the Mute Mistoffelees phenomenon and all my feelings about that. I guess all I'll say in conclusion is that I love all versions of Mistoffelees, and I love that his evolutions, interpretations, eras, and iterations are so different and so dynamic. I love that so many amazing performers have been able to have so much fun and creative freedom with the character over the years.

I just want yall to know that up to this very moment I keep looking shit up and re-reading posts and wiki pages and I'm only getting infinitely more confused about which Mistoffeli did what thing which way at whatever time, so I'm going to give my brain a break before it liquifies. <3

[ghostboneswrites2]

D.D. || Seductive Summer

Fic Challenge (18+)

How to participate:

Choose your prompt below!

Tag me in your post and use the tag #ddssf so that I can easily find your work!

Challenge open until August 31!

Rules:

500-5k word limit

You may only choose one prompt

You may only enter one story from one account/blog

Story must be able to stand alone. You can use it as part of an ongoing series, but it needs to stand on its own just fine.

Clearly tag NSFW works and use warnings

To keep things simple, stories must be reader inserts (Daryl x Reader)

Not a rule, but feel free to keep reader descriptions vague for the sake of inclusivity!

Story does NOT have to include smut!

Results:

Stories posted/submitted by August 31 will be compiled into a challenge masterlist (which I’ll also link on my main masterlist)

Within the second week of September, polls will be posted for readers to vote for their favorite story from each prompt

Winners from each prompt will have a story of their choice linked on my masterlist & to all of my one shots & reader requests until October 1st!

Prompts:

In spirit of this particularly hot summer, these prompts are all inspired by refreshing fruits 🍉

These prompts are intentionally somewhat vague to leave room for interpretation and unique execution.

This means these can be AUs, pre-apoc, within the canon timeline, etc.

Quick edit!!! - The collages I made for these prompts are very fem coded and that is for one reason and one reason only: because the app I use doesn’t have many (if any) masc stickers to use for things like this. Your reader does not have to be fem!reader!!

1. Lemonade 🍋

Prompt: Serving a cold treat on a hot day.

Quote: It’s mighty sweet.

2. Cherry Bomb 🍒

Prompt: He can’t focus on the task at hand with a vixen around to distract him.

Quote: Quit smackin’ your red lips and help me.

3. Peachy 🍑

Prompt: The Georgia Peach can’t resist the bad boy next door.

Quote: Well ain’t you just a peach.

dividers from @sister-lucifer

[seedlinggames]

Nobody needs another TTRPG taxonomy but I made one anyway

Posted here: https://seedlinggames.com/blogging/discourse/game_taxonomy_part_1_v_1.html I have a second blog post that is going to explain the small diagonal line, but basically it's that I think there is influence between those two camps that people don't seem to talk about much, probably due to internet discourse reasons

A million people have already done this - I'm kind of assuming you have vaguely absorbed the existing Internet discussions, and are familiar with terms like OSR, Story Games, etc. If you haven't, run away now and save yourself. But Six Cultures Of Play is probably a prerequisite to understand what I'm talking about, or at least what I'm complaining about.

I will try to, as much as possible, only discuss games that I have played. A lot of taxonomies seem to be written by someone who clearly likes one type of game a lot more than the others. For instance, I will not be discussing LARP because I don't have any relevant experience. I'm also not claiming that I am discussing the complete set of all games that exist, but I think I have played enough of them propose a taxonomy. If you're curious, I have an approximately complete list of games I've played or run here.

What is a TTRPG?

First we're going to have to look at everyone's other least favourite subject of conversation.

TTRPGs have 2 or more people taking on the following 3 roles:

A player, who is responsible for one or more characters who are the protagonists of the story.

A GM, who is responsible for the remainder of the story, such as providing additional characters and other aspects of the environment that the main players exist in. To do so they might determine the outcome of uncertain events or interpret rules agreed upon by the table.

An author, who provides additional, reusable material without being present. I'm using the term "author" for a lack of a better one, but it includes game books, blog posts, maps, drawings, or even fixed principles transmitted orally from game group to game group. These serve to facilitate or even replace GMing, as well as to introduce new ideas to the table without someone being physically present.

The same person often takes on different roles at different times, sometimes in the same game.

If you have only one of these roles, you are probably writing a book, doing improv, or some other activity. Which is of course totally fine.

This isn't the only definition you could come up with, but I think most people would agree it isn't totally wrong, and it's a lens that I'll be using to discuss the game taxonomy.

Maximalist Games

Apparently "maximalist" means something specific in art but I am not educated in such things and might be using the word wrong.

Characteristics of a maximalist game:

The three roles: clearly present and distinct, with the GM and author each taking on a large responsibility for the game experience.

Modularity: Semi-modular: There is a main game system which is designed to be extended by other modules, but these modules cannot be used with other games easily. A game book is typically not a self-contained experience and games are usually open-ended in duration.

Rules: A lengthy, complex ruleset with subsystems for resolving different parts of the game that are likely to come up, primarily oriented around the success or failure of an action and its consequences.

Characters: The complex game mechanics provide an opportunity for players to develop a distinct character before playing them, defined by game mechanics. Character and player motivations are usually aligned.

Narrative structure: Campaigns usually follow conventional narrative structure, but this is driven primarily by the GM, or by adventure modules, which define an outline of the narrative.

Who makes them: Often require more resources to create and thus are made by corporations, but that is changing.

Relationship to other media: While often inspired by fantasy novels, their larger budget and longer history has allowed some of them to develop their own genre conventions distinct from other media, and in some cases have inspired movies and books.

Solo games: Rare, due to the prominent role of the GM.

"Trad" games are a subset of these but a) I hate that word and b) I think the genre, starting especially with 4E and other inspired games, have gone in some very different directions. It roughly corresponds to "Fight D&D" in the Between Two Cairns taxonomy, but some games in this category involve no fighting at all.

Narrative Mechanics Games

The three roles: Blur the lines between GM and player more freely.

Modularity: Usually not very. Each game is made to create a specific experience, and the blurring of GM and player roles makes adding external content more complicated.

Rules: Focused on resolving problems in the context of narrative structures. Rules may facilitate pacing, allow for storytelling outside of linear time, allow players to temporarily take on a GM-like role, and allow for players to work together to create conflict between their characters.

Characters: Mechanics facilitate creating characters according to genre conventions with defined relationships to other characters and to NPCs. Player and character motivations are often not aligned.

Narrative structure: Rules are designed to support conventional narrative structures and genre conventions.

Who makes them: The focused scope of these games mean that they are often made by individuals rather than corporations, but there is a trend towards some of them being made by mid-sized organizations. Long development cycles may be needed to provide a polished experience, leading to some amount of professionalization.

Relationship to other media: Usually strongly inspired by other media, allowing you to create stories similar to movies, books, TV shows, etc.

Solo games: Rare, with Ironsworn as a notable exception.

Some "story games" fall into this, but I think "story games" has split into two meaningfully distinct categories. I've met enough people who only like one of the two categories. I think they are perceived as more similar than they are because there's less internet drama about the difference between them.

Prompt-based storytelling

The three roles: Blur the lines between the GM, player and author, with the GM often being absent.

Modularity: Usually self-contained experiences with limited modularity.

Rules: Often entirely forego mechanics for failure or success; mechanics tend to be minimal and about making suggestions regarding the story to tell, with the written text sometimes acting primarily as a GM or even player who is not present.

Characters: Character creation is usually a minor to nonexistent part of the game, with characters being defined by decisions made at the table. In some cases, all characters are already predefined. Characters are usually defined in words rather than numbers. Player and character motivations are rarely aligned.

Narrative structure: Stories often forego conventional narrative structures, and are focused around exploring relationships, ideas, or experiences. If a narrative structure is defined, it is usually in the form of a defined endpoint, with the purpose of the game being to explore how the characters get there.

Who makes them: Leans heavily towards DIY or single creators. Often comes in formats other than books.

Relationship to other media: Inspiration comes less from established genres and more from life experiences. Genre fiction is less likely to be an inspiration.

Solo games: Very common, due to the reduced role of the GM.

Adventure/exploration games

The three roles: Blur the lines between GM and author, both at the table and culturally.

Modularity: Are highly modular: not only are supplements and adventures often interchangeable, but are often not tied to specific systems.

Rules: Have relatively short rulesets focused on generating situations (on the GM side) and resolving danger (on the player side).

Characters: Characters are mostly created organically in play through interactions with the environment, including the tools at their disposal. Random generation is common. Character and player motivations are usually aligned.

Narrative structure: Campaigns often do not follow a typical narrative structure, aside from perhaps an escalation in danger, scope and/or strangeness.

Who makes them: Their modular nature means that they are often created in a DIY manner, through zines, blog posts, and informal discussions, though mid-size companies are also prevalent.

Relationship to other media: Inspiration from other media is often mostly vibes-based, with genre fiction, folklore, and even musical genres and political movements (for better or worse) being prominent. It doesn't seek to emulate the characters or narrative structure of other genres.

Solo games: Relatively common, usually provided by an additional module that may be specific and general-purpose, often focused on a GM emulator known as an "oracle."

"OSR" games are a subset of these, but a good number of these also make many OSR people very angry. It roughly corresponds to "Door D&D", but dungeon crawling is not inherent to this genre.

Other ways of looking at these categories

You could also map these on axes:

distinct GM/player/writer role vs combined roles: maximalist vs prompt-based at opposite ends of this spectrum

Highly self-contained vs highly modular: narrative vs adventure/exploration

Strong genre conventions vs naturalistic approach: maximalist/narrative vs adventure/exploration/prompt based

Resembles a D&D vs does not really resemble a D&D: maximalist/adventure/exploration vs narrative/prompt based

for symmetry I want to put another axis for maximalist/prompt based but I can't think of anything they have in common. Oh well.

But I also don't think this is a complete enumeration of all possible types of games either - this is some kind of n-dimensional space that has only 4 blobs on it

The part of the taxonomy blog post where you realize this is actually just me going on about my own preferences this entire time

I've played and enjoyed all 4 types of games, but putting this together has helped me figure something out - why it is that I like both the NSR side of OSR games and like the "super weird" story games. And why I don't seem to be the only one, even though these are often talked about as opposites. Because if you split story games into two genres, the similarities between prompt-based games and adventure/exploration games comes out.

[pastelstrawberriess]

((HI ITS @THEFINALWITNESS)) UR TAGS FILLED ME WITH SUCH UNEXPECTED JOY I AM CHEWING AND GNAWING AT THEM. Y'SHTOLA RHUL IS SO SELF-DESTRUCTIVELY BENEVOLENT AND LOVING AND I AM GOING CRAZY FEELING LIKE SO FEW PPL SEE THAT!!! SHE LOVES THE WOL!!! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE INTERPRET IT PLATONICALLY OR ROMANTICALLY OR ANYTHING ELSE SHE *LOVES* THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT SO MUCH.

the way her dialogue with the player changes after reuniting in rak'tika will live rent free in my brain forever. i could not BELIEVE the shift but it struck out to me immediately how obvious it was she was lowkey reeling from a combination of "what is fucking happening to you" and "i can't believe i almost killed you" and "i'm so fucking happy to see™ you" and "i wish i could see™ YOU and not whatever is HAPPENING to you" AND IT'S SO!!!! HOW DOES THIS NOT REND PEOPLE TO SHREDS ON THE SPOT. HOW CAN ANYONE CALL HER BORING OR JUST THE COOL KNOWER OF THINGS. TAKE HER TO VANASPATI AND TELL ME SHE'S BORING OR ONE-DIMENSIONAL. I'M THROWING ROCKS (NOT AT YOU I'M OVERJOYED BY YOUR TAGS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR RESTORING MY FAITH IN Y'SHTOLA NATION)

YEAH!! YEAH !!!!!

and regardless of platonic vs romantic interpretation, even her famously memeable moments are indicative of a genuine care for the wol. like, pre-shadowbringers y'shtola would not have made a casual sexual joke toward you, let alone several. that can be read as flirting or as the kind of dumb shit that two best friends say to each other, but it doesn't matter!! she's opened up to wol enough to banter on that level!! on urianger ass slap level!! but everyone just uses it as milf fuel! STAY AWAY FROM HER !!!!

the "I wish I had the echo so I could see into your heart without the need for words" moment! again, regardless of whether or not you read that as platonic or romantic, it's indicative of great care! she's saying "I want to understand you. actually, I do understand you because even without knowing what happened, I know that this was immensely painful and I don't want to inflict it upon you again." and then she prefaces asking the wol to recount the events with "when you're ready" .... I also vaguely recall a time (don't remember the expac so if someone knows pls say so) when everyone was ragging on alphinaud and y'shtola was the one to be like "okay hey, this is a bit too much. let's cut it out."

her calling out thancred during shadowbringers and holding him accountable for his behavior toward minfilia/ryne? love. always asking the wol to accompany her and help her observe ruins/artifacts/etc. and asking for their opinions (which is also keeping the wol in her constant sight™ in the event of the slightest change)? love. her being the one to voice that ryne should have her own name because she doesn't deserve to live in someone else's shadow? love. she's a lover. she's brutally honest and she's a reliable friend and everything that she does is rooted in love because she wouldn't ever put in so much effort or hold such high standards for something she didn't care about. one of the most layered and interesting characters in this entire game, not just waifu bait. god.

[misterxsamsa]

I think the JTHM universe's versions of heaven and hell are very interesting. They're evidently not based on mortality persay, not even just an objective measure of intelligence. It's very nuanced, and specific, and the introduction of it acts a good narrative conclusion to Johnny's character progression.

We're introduced to heaven first, and an evidently very flawed God. He's portrayed as all grotesque, and lazy, and funny-looking — not answering any of Johnny's questions, or doing anything about the the world's suffering. However, in relation to heaven's inhabitants, the concept of "content" is stressed above morality. There's nothing enriching in the enviorment, just chairs to "bliss" in, but they're all completely at peace and given immense power alongside that.

We're not given incredible amounts of insight into the people residing there. However, it seems some of them were likely quite unpleasant in character, like the crabby old woman. Through all this, the notion of morality not being the determining factor of where you reside in the afterlife is established. So, if it's not morality, subjective or otherwise, then what is it? Well, it's not any one thing, and the answer to that question is left somewhat open-ended and subjective.

When catching a glimpse of hell, the characters of its residents are just as mixed as heaven's — some nice, some mean. The shared trait between all of them though is a preoccupation with the inane. They're cartoonishly reactive to the smallest of inconveniences, materialistic, superficial, or lacking in attention span. We're told many of them are driven to neuroticism by an eye in the sky that they all simultaneously believe to be watching them specifically. To me, this is a barely symbolic representation of an obsession with appearences: the judgements, opinions, praises of others.

Personally, I interpret the determining factors for the fate of your eternal soul in JTHM to be that of priorities and perspective. To be specific, what you allow to consume your thoughts — the things you value and pursue during your life. By choosing [or rather prioritizing] contentment, the residents of heaven decided that it was more worthwhile than wasting mental energy on fleeting negative emotions, or other base things. It's not that their souls are being judged from some detached perspective outside of themselves. They're determining the course of their own afterlife, and hell is effectively just a self-imposed state of mind.

That's all intriguing from a lore perspective, but this system is a backdrop meant to emphasize the themes of Johnny's narrative journey. The idea that "heaven" and "hell" are states actively sought rather than assigned is meant to highlight Johnny's agency in his own deterioration. He's chosen to prioritize his misanthropy, and homicidal tendencies, over his art and relationships. By seeing himself in the residents of hell through their shared flaws, he's forced to internally take accountability. That's what ultimately drives him towards a pursuit of contentment in Issue #7.

What's interesting though is that the notion of what exactly "contentment" entails is left purposefully vague. Why wouldn't it be? The concept of "contentment" is subjective and self-determined. That's why Johnny continues to kill, and overall be very morally dubious even after his change in perspective. He's choosing to make it about his own amusement and enrichment rather than centering it in exhaustive hate. Hey, everybody finds happiness a little differently, I suppose, it's still tangible progress nonetheless.

There's an interesting dichotomy to be found between God and Senor Diablo. Upon a first glance, I've seen many take their portrayal [and differences] as a cynical, but straightforward poke at organized religion. That's probably the case, but I see more to it than just that. In JTHM, the systems of heaven and hell are meant to reflect and support Johnny's character progression. As such, I'd make the argument God and Senor Diablo could be symbolic of the judgements Johnny would normally make on others.

Senor Diablo is very distinguished, intelligent, and he loves the word "DOOM". He's seemingly well-off compared to the God of this world, and Johnny respects him significantly more [relatively speaking] as a result. However, he's unhappy with the people he rules over, and exhausted by their repetitively short-sighted tendencies. In some respects, you could view him as Johnny's parallel, both are cynical enjoyers of suffering looking down on idiots who they view as beneath them. Perhaps, by a subjective character evaluation, and on aesthetics, you could say he's above his heavenly counterpart. Still, that judgement would bring him no joy.

It's emblematic of the lessons Johnny has to learn about himself and others. He's not better than humanity for constantly engulfing himself in the sufferings and injustices of the world, ones he only pretends to truly care about. His intellect is only valuable for as much as he can properly utilize it to better his own circumstances. With God, he's greasy and ignorant, but he's completely happy, or content. He's a representation of all the traits that motivates Johnny's hatred of others — he's all fleshy-like, and completely unconcerned with his sorroundings in any deep sense. It makes sense for humans to be apparently made in his image, since he's a fucked up interpretation of the quintessential human.

Still, by the end of the comics, Johnny learns to appreciate his love of content, rather than fixating upon his numerous detestable traits. In life, you'll encounter many people you'll find to be as disgusting as that lumpy God-dude in his chair. Regardless, it's in your best interests to only allow their bad qualities to occupy your thoughts to a limited degree. By learning to internalize to philosophies of people different from him, or particularly flawed, Johnny's learned to become a more well-rounded person. Again, relatively speaking by the standards of a homicidal maniac. Rome wasn't built in a day!

[arolesbianism]

There's a well 🎉

[writingwithcolor]

Running Commentary: What is “ok to do” in Mixed-Culture Supernatural Fiction?

Dear readers: 

Today we are trying something new. To give you some insight into our process in the Japanese moderator section, we are presenting our response in the form of running commentary to show you how we dissect and answer long asks. We hope this makes clear what points are useful and not useful when sending us a query. As always, this is for learning purposes, not callouts. Be prepared: this is a long one. 

To summarize: the asker is looking to create a comic drawn in Japanese manga style, and has provided a long summary of the story and worldbuilding which involves a mix of “reimagined” Japanese yokai mythos and cultural symbols from many other sources. They have questions with respect to cultural appropriation, coding etiquette, and “what is and isn’t ok.” 

Opening Comments

I know a common advice when it comes to the thing I am about to ask is to talk to people involved in __, but I struggle with opening up to strangers for reasons I'm uncomfortable explaining. 

Marika (M): This is already a red flag. If you want to engage with another culture without talking to people from that culture, then research is going to be very challenging. You won’t have members of that culture to guide you towards sources and perspectives they feel most accurately represents public opinion. If I were in your shoes, I might start with tackling my discomfort when engaging with other people, if only to improve my work. If you aren’t ready to engage with a culture and its people directly, then I think you should wait until you are. 

I should note, reaching out to the Japanese mod team at WWC does count as engagement, but WWC should not and cannot be the only point of contact because there is no single, legitimate cultural perspective. 

Rina (R): Also, you don’t need to “open up” to strangers or talk to them in person to get perspectives. Asking specific research questions anonymously to a forum or on social media requires very little vulnerability. You managed to do it here on WWC. So give it a try! 

Anyway, my question basically amounts to the what is and isn't ok [sic] in terms of depicting fantasy creatures and concepts outside of their respective culture.

R: So, the reason why we turn away rubber stamp questions by that ask “is XYZ okay?” is because “okay” & “not okay” 1) is vague and 2) creates a dichotomy where there isn’t one. 

When we say something is “not okay,” do we mean:

It’s offensive to the general majority of XYZ group? 

It’s contentious among people who ID in the group? 

It has a potential to be interpreted in a certain negative way, but may not be a red flag to everyone?

Insetad try asking:

What are the reasons this subject is offensive? 

What makes cultural appropriation bad? 

When might it be “okay” to intentionally discuss a difficult or controversial topic?

What is your reason for including something that may be interpreted as offensive and can it be sufficiently justified? 

What stereotypes or tropes might it be consistently identified as or associated with, and why? 

When might it be justified to bring up these tropes?

With That In Mind...

Let’s get into the rest of the ask below. 

…a story I've been working on in recent times is largely inspired off the Japanese yokai, and the setting is basically Earth in the far future, as far as when the next supercontinent may form. These yokai, although portrayed differently here, do retain their main characteristics [...] Included in this world are two goddesses of my own creation, primarily representing the sun and the moon. [...] There will be thirteen nations, named and based after the Chinese Zodiac, and the life force found in the living things in this world, called qi, comes in two forms that are always opposing each other but can never fully overpower the other, this being based off yin and yang. They're even directly named this; yin qi and yang qi.

M: This reads more like using Japanese and Chinese culture for the “aesthetics”, not the cultures themselves, which I personally feel falls under cultural appropriation. From a world-building/ coding standpoint, the actual use of concepts is workable, and, dare I say, typical, given how Chinese cosmology influences Japanese culture. However, naming a concept “yin qi” or “yang qi” is the equivalent of naming something “- charge” or “+ charge”, respectively. That you don’t seem aware of this tells me you are pretty early in your research phase. In that vein, we’ve covered translating terms and names from foreign languages in fantasy before. See the following article linked here for our recommendation against using RL terms outright but instead encouraging people to create their own conlangs. 

R: Worldbuilding-wise, I think you would have to figure out the chicken-or-egg of the zodiac nations. Did the nations come first, and the zodiac later as an origin folk story (which you would have to rewrite to serve the nation-building narrative)? Did the zodiac come first, and the nations named (most likely re-named) by a political entity? What is the justification? Otherwise, again, it’s a shoehorning of aesthetics. 

There is also a third, lesser known god based off of fox spirits and trickery and I imagined he's the patron deity of a family that honors and worships him, but his influence on them has transformed them into Kitsune-tsuki, which I depict as fox-like anthros. 

M: Not related to this ask directly, but I have jokingly ranted about how often non-Japanese people prefer using imagery related to kitsune-tsuki in Japanese coded world-building (link). This makes me feel the same level of petty irritation. See my troll answer below for a similar experience.

R: Same. It’s boring tbh. 

M: Troll Answer: I get that kitsune-tsuki are very sexy furries, but Japanese folklore has other sexy furries too! These underrepresented demographics also deserve recognition and appreciation!!

The plot of the story is this; modernization has left the goddesses neglected of their worship and forgotten, something that is necessary in this world to stop them from fighting each other. The Moon Goddess awakens first, punishing the humans by unleashing the yokai. Then the Sun Goddess wakes up to fight in humanity's defense…

M: This could feel rather like Shinto-like coding (Ex. the myth of Amaterasu and the Cave, or Tsukuyomi slaying Ukemochi), but something about this scenario feels a bit too binary in terms of themes of good v. evil, light v. dark to be Shinto. The plot also feels more Gaelic/ Nordic in influence for me as a person raised in a Japanese Buddhist and Hindu household. I imagine this dissonance could have been fixed with better guided research. 

…but their fighting has caused a perma-eclipse and this world is in danger of ending. The yokai have run rampant; some are loyal to the Moon Goddess, and some aren't, and it lies to the main characters to bring balance back to Midgard. Yeah... the name of this future Earth is Midgard. I debate changing it since it and some other things I will mention sorta feel out of place.

R: Marika, looks like you were right on the Gaelic/Nordic influence /j 

Also, worldbuilding question: if the Earth is in the far geologic future, how long has it been since modernization (19th-20th century)? Centuries? Millennia? How long has this fighting gone on for? What triggered the perma-eclipse, and why now? Why is this time depth necessary? 

One of the main characters in question is a humanoid woman with wolf features named Ling, and she is a descendant of the dynasty that had first ruled the one of the nations, particularly the one based off the dragon zodiac. She accidentally summons the other main character to this world as she's praying at a shrine, a humanoid with dragon features--I call them drakon--named Angelynn.

[on the names of characters] is it appropriating by not having the world entirely based on [Chinese, Japanese, and Indian] influence? it's a little weird to me how worldwide the creatures are referred to as yokai, implying a strong Japanese influence not unlike how it is today with Western culture being so dominant, yet there are still names like Keith and Kiara.

M: I will give you credit for recognizing you have unconsciously veered towards white-washing/ race-bending: either presenting European cultural influences (drakons, Angelynn, Keith, Kiara, Midgard) as default or utilizing general E. Asian cultural influences and aesthetics for a Western-style story (Ling, qi, Chinese zodiac, yokai). I agree with you that this creates a sense of cultural dissonance. At this point, I’d say you have a clear choice: write a Western-style high fantasy using a background with which you have more familiarity, or get some better guidance on research with East Asian cultures so you can code the story more effectively. 

The focus of this story is centered around meeting all these yokai and showing that there's more nuance to them than Ling believes, all while saving the world. But I worry if I'm appropriating these concepts and creatures by 1, drawing from more than one culture--I initially imagined that there would be a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Indian influence because according to a website I am getting the info on yokai from, the yokai in question already draw inspiration from or have been based on something in Chinese mythology or Hinduism [...]

R: Sure, some yokai have Chinese or Hindu parallels as that tends to happen with folk tales. But not all–some are unique to Japan, and some are more modern. Sometimes it’s very political–some people consider the Ainu Korpokkur as being a “Yokai of Japan” despite it belonging to the indigenous culture. It’s up to you to research, untangle, and understand these influences. 

The fact that you bring up that the Asian continent has seen a lot of cultural exchange is not a sufficient reason to randomly combine influences for the sake of visual appeal or “coolness.” That is appropriation. These influences must be understood in their historical context so that you know how/why certain things combined or morphed into another, and what makes sense to combine/morph. 

M: This also indicates that the character views the yokai as evil/inherently bad, which I would argue is not a typical stance for much Japanese folklore. Again, this shows a deficit in research. 

2, reimagining these yokai in a new context even though I have done the research on them, because one thing I kept seeing in regards to cultural appropriation is that it's bad to do that […]

R: Refer above to my note on “okay” and “not okay.” The thing with folklore and fairy tales is that every–and I mean every–folk tale is reinterpreted with every new iteration of it. Reimagining in a new context is what people do every time they pass on a story or tell a story with the same plot or characters. Do not think of folklore as an “original” that is altered and rebooted, but rather a living document that gets added to. Reimagining is not the inherent issue. HOW you reimagine something matters. 

So I suppose my question is...if someone were to do research upon the creature they want to use, given they are allowed to use it, and gained an understanding of what the creature or concept stood for, are they allowed to pick it apart and reimagine it? Alternatively, is it ok if it's explicitly pointed out that it is derivative of the original?

It has actually become my biggest fear that I may have internalized something that could both continue to do harm long after the fact and attract the wrong people to me work. I don't wanna let people down!

M: As Rina has noted several times, I think the problem is in trying to ID a set of specific variables and circumstances that make a thing “okay” or “not okay.” I want to recommend that you read my joking response about writing in secret rooms while wearing a disguise (Linked here). Who can you hurt if no one knows what you are doing? There’s a difference between creating for oneself and creating to share. 

You have internalized a message incorrectly, but not the one you cite. The goal of many recommendations against cultural appropriation is to avoid causing direct harm to people who have seen their cultures demeaned, discredited and devalued, especially in shared spaces. Assessing cultural engagement, whether we are talking about appropriation, appreciation or exchange is not a measure of personal virtue or a collection of commandment style do’s and don’t’s. Rather, I believe engaging with other cultures is the state of mind of acknowledging that when using these cultures’ in one’s own work, there is value in consulting members of that culture and giving credit where credit is due. This will be challenging if you are only comfortable engaging with all of these cultures in a distanced, minimal capacity. 

FWIW, I’ve written stories that probably will offend people from other cultures and backgrounds, but I don’t show them off. I don’t think writing these makes me a bad person, but I also don’t see the need to give unnecessary offense, so those stories are just for me, to be written and read in my own secret room. However, I’m not ashamed of having written them, and I’m also comfortable to “let people down” provided that my own shared work reflects my personal principles of what I consider to be sufficient research and engagement with other cultures,  As a creator, my work wouldn’t be mine if I didn’t first please myself. I think the trick to the creator role is deciding what to keep private, what to share and what constitutes sufficient engagement. 

P.S. 

We’ve referenced the need for research multiple times in this ask, and in some of the other asks that have gone up this week, so we thought this would be a good place to plug a beginner’s guide to academic research created by the mod team.. Look for it soon under WWC’s pinned posts!