#something extremely important to me about them

[twilightofthesandwiches]

A lot of Deltarune… isn’t quite a refutation or counterargument to Undertale’s themes as much as it is going, like, “I mean, you’re not wrong… but it’s a bit more complicated than that sometimes”. Or, like, elaborating on nuances that were present in Undertale but weren’t given as much focus as Deltarune, as a much longer and more complex game building on Undertale’s themes, can give them.

And it happens most often with Ralsei. Ralsei’s worldview often seems to be an oversimplified and corrupted reflection of Undertale’s themes. Exaggerating them and stripping them of their nuances so that the other characters (mostly Susie) can respond to them and re-introduce nuances and complications back into them.

Most obviously this is done in Chapter 1 with his ultra-Pacifistic and ultra-nice attitude to conflict. His views at the start were a lot more simplified than Undertale, as even a True Pacifist Playthrough requires one to defeat Asgore and Flowey through violence at least once. Plus a bunch of times where Sparing an enemy required an acknowledgment that they can’t be appeased or convinced to back down from a fight. There was sometimes a bit of trickery involved, rather than just 'being nice'.

But these nuances weren’t really Undertale’s narrative focus, the focus was on selling the Player on the value of Pacifism in the first place. So Ralsei’s oversimplification of the idea is a good basis for Deltarune to start putting these nuances to the forefront of the story and really focusing on them, now that Undertale has already established the baseline of “even Random Encounters can be real people with feelings and you should always strive to non-violence.”

And I think a similar thing is kinda happening with his whole…

Which feels to me very reminiscent of…

Like, okay, it is very thematically important that Asriel can’t be ‘saved’ in Undertale. The Royal Siblings Tragedy is a traumatic shadow looming over so many characters in the game, and it’s not something that can be perfectly fixed by being nice or even with Unkillable Time God Powers. Toriel and Asgore and, yes, Flowey/Asriel himself all have character arcs centered around moving on from the tragedy and accepting the present, and would be weakened if a Player could just… magically fix things.

But that doesn’t mean that doesn’t hurt to hear Asriel be so resigned to his fate. Susie Deltarune’s reaction to hearing Ralsei speak so plainly about the idea that he’s just an illusion and that she should prioritize her ‘Real Friends’ very much echoes the emotional reactions of most Undertale Players seeing Asriel ask them to not worry about him and focus on their real friends because he’s already doomed. And in both cases it’s extremely understandable.

The fact that even with Unkillable Time God Powers, the past is the past and there is a value in acceptance and moving on is itself an important nuance in Undertale’s central theme of Determination. With enough Willpower and Defiance, the Player can defy the concept of a kill-or-be-killed world, and free the Monsters from their seemingly hopeless prison, and resist the laws of death and time… it’s a power that comes from a refusal to accept the inevitable. But if you deny everything that goes against your personal will, you’re gonna end up like Flowey, utterly consumed by grief and denial over Chara’s death.

Flowey has to accept that the game between him and the Player is going to end, Asriel has to accept Chara is dead, Asgore has to accept his family will never truly return to what it was before, the Player also has to accept the game is over and that replaying it will just tear away the characters from their happy ending, and that the Asriel they saw at the True Pacifist Ending is gone.

But even with all of that… that doesn’t lessen the emotional pain of watching a little goat boy asking you very kindly and very genuinely to abandon him. It doesn’t make it any less valid for one’s reaction to be “Well, who said I have to leave and forget you? I’m sure that with the pure strength of my heart and the Power of Friendship(TM) I could save you too!!”. It doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking, even frustrating, that this is the thing the game ask you to give up on.

Undertale already added some nuance to the situation, first things first, Asriel does honestly appreciate it if you go all the way back to the start of the game and talk with him. Although he still feels that he's doomed, at least he accepted that Frisk is going to remember him.

Secondly, with Flowey’s Post-Pacifist Dialogue

And especially that Winter Alarm Clock Dialogue…

…both showing that while there was nothing that could be done to stop Asriel from turning back into Flowey, that does not necessarily mean Flowey is doomed. Despite his claims both in his Flowey form and as Original Flavor Goatboy Asriel, Flowey does still show hints that he cares for other people, that he has been truly affected by the events of the True Pacifist Playthrough, that the heart he had as Asriel isn’t actually truly gone…

We’re still dealing with the fact that we can’t undo the trauma of the Royal Siblings Tragedy but… Just because Flowey can’t be magically turned back into the person he was before his Trauma, doesn’t mean he is doomed. What happened happened, but he is still capable of healing and self-improvement. And although he’s still kind of in the margins of the Post Pacifist Friend Group, it doesn’t seem like he’s just been abandoned or forgotten for the sake of the people who are more ‘real’.

So just like with Ralsei’s Pacifism, I think his fatalism and absolute lack of self-worth is an exaggerated and simplified reflection of Asriel's situation. It's kind of a Very Different Thing between Ralsei believing he's ontologically doomed to matter less than Lightners and Asriel believing he's ontologically doomed to be an asshole, but...

It still creates a basic foundation to add nuances and subversions to the point about the importance of moving on and acceptance. Not rejecting it outright, but demonstrating how seemingly clear-cut situations of acceptance can become more complicated.

Because in Susie we now have an actual character to voice the frustrations many players felt about being unable to 'save' Asriel and argue in favor of the desire to never abandon a friend, no matter how doomed or unimportant or lesser he claims he is.

Because now we can better demonstrate the more toxic and unhealthy manifestations of the idea of ‘moving on’. How it can be just as bad as clinging to the past relentlessly.

And allow more time on-screen to explore the nuanced alternatives that aren't either unhealthily clinging to the past or quietly accepting your own lousy fate.

And now we can create more situations where Susie’s instincts to reject acceptance and reject leaving anyone behind and reject ‘moving on’ are actually the unambiguously correct answers.

Not necessarily always, I do think she’ll have to accept that Gerson is dead. And obviously with this being DivorceRune the Divorce Game, the theme of needing to move on from clinging to a past that will never be restored just as you remember it is still very important.

But she has a point, and just like with Pacifism, I think she actually has an important lesson to teach Ralsei specifically.

[thetrasha]

Hi Tasha! How are you? It's my first time requesting something im nervous husahauhsuahau

I'm here to ask for a request with the boys from One Piece (it can be whoever you want :) ) with an autistic reader. A slice of life fluff (?)?)?) well they're pirates, their life is quite chaotic), little moments where they deal with the struggles the reader has and overcome it in their own way (together). It can be just headcanons too, I don't mind! I'll appreciate anything you can offer, I really like your writing

Also I'm sorry about my english, I tried my best to be clear!

Hello anon ╰(*°▽°*)╯I'm fine... even if I'm being boiled alive in this wretched heat :((

Thank you so much for this request, it’s an honour to fulfil this one for you. Usually, I wouldn’t accept asks like that because I want everybody to feel like they can project themselves onto my works, but this is a bit of a self-indulgent passion project if you will. I saw this and knew I had to write it – I can relate because… guess what 🤡 Yeah…

So I’m sorry if my lived experiences don’t align with yours or anybody reading this.

Everybody’s burdens and strengths manifest in different ways… to make up for the fact that I cannot represent everybody since I’ve been shaped by my own impressions and biases, I’ve chosen a variety of symptoms and comorbidities to make up for that. And btw thanks for letting me choose the characters!!

I really hope you like this one. And your English is great, don’t worry 🫂(●'◡'●)

PS. This will be the only request of its kind I will accept. Thanks for reading! But we’re back to business as usual after this :D

PPS. This also won't be featured in my masterlist to discourage requests that resemble it.

One Piece with an Autistic Reader

feat. LUFFY, ZORO, SANJI, FRANKY, MIHAWK

LUFFY

You struggle with… extreme trust issues.

Interpersonal relationships meant something to you. You wanted and needed friends who would understand you wordlessly, who would be there when you needed them the most – people who genuinely cared. You wanted to truly bond. That depth of care isn’t easily found within the general population. Modern life most often happens in the fast lane… where relationships are disposable and the next experience is just waiting for you. You cannot relate to that side of life at all.

You feel… alone in the middle of a crowd, unseen and forgotten. You watch other people’s friend groups with envy and bitterness, wishing such a thing for yourself. You don’t chase experiences, you just want someone who wouldn’t abandon you.

Maybe that’s why you couldn’t believe Luffy when he wanted to recruit you. You couldn’t see your own shine and you thought he was just messing with you… promising the world before he’d grow aware of your strangeness and get rid of you, like all the others before him. When his crewmates talked about their life experience and how little they trusted Luffy in the beginning, you started getting… antsy. Restless. You began overthinking this thing.

So many people cannot be in on the same lie, can they? Someone would eventually cave and confess – until they didn’t. It just… it doesn’t make sense.

You try to push Luffy away from you, but he clings even closer. He actively tries to tear down your walls, even if they’re reinforced with years and years of struggle. Being with him… it’s actually pretty fun. He doesn’t listen much – only to the most important bits… but he’s there. Always. Always! So far, he’s trying so much harder than anybody else before him. He’s there at every waking moment, wanting to help you out and get you to agree to join his group of adventurers.

You don’t have to pretend you’re someone else when he’s near. He accepts you just as you are. It doesn’t matter to him.

It’s the first time you weren’t the one putting in actual effort into a relationship… Luffy was doing all the heavy lifting. He showed up, followed you even when you ignored him – what a useless protective mechanism – and talked to you as if you’d been friends for years already. You didn’t have to earn his trust, it was just there for the taking.

Just before you’re ready to take the plunge and go along with his antics, he’d formally introduce you to his crew… as one of their own.

He’s always viewed you as one of them, you’d suddenly realise.

It... makes you want to cry.

ZORO

You struggle with… feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything.

Zoro is hard to make sense of for you. He’s… kind, in his own ways, but since he doesn’t talk much, you struggle to read him. He’s also just… an intimidating guy – physically and spiritually. Strangers respect him because of his nature, even if he’s just… Zoro to you. You don’t think you need to be scared of him, but you have started walking around on eggshells when he’s nearby. He’s always napping somewhere when he’s not with you… and you don’t want him to perceive you when you try to master your own ambitions. Watching him makes you feel worse about yourself. Zoro is a successful man by any metric… he’s always had a natural talent for swordsmanship and refined it through hard work and steeling his mind, he’s so confident and always shoots for the stars, knowing that he’ll get there eventually. He doesn’t doubt himself, it’s in his instincts to be the best there is.

You cannot claim the same for yourself. You excel in certain niches, but you’re… not as crucial of a member as Zoro is. He’s kind of the backbone of this crew.

You feel small in comparison to him, insignificant even.

Of course he notices. It’s Zoro! He’s not as dense as he seems. He’s frighteningly perceptive and observes everyone silently.

So what does he do? Nothing at first.

He believes in your independence and knows you’re smarter than him, this is just some inexplicable poison corrupting your mind.

When you can’t free yourself from your own insecurity, he starts seeking you out, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Zoro cares about you – maybe more than you realise. He’s glad to have you on this crew, you accept him as he is and you have an unspoken 'friendship' blossoming between you two. Why he’s so affected by you being so distant – he doesn’t know, but he can guess pretty easily… So he started breaching your personal space. There he was, standing beside you once more, looking at you with his unreadable expressions… but then he speaks. Zoro started talking about… his feelings.

What has happened? “I wish we’d spend more time together… like we used to.”, he’d grumble with pink cheeks.

And you could just stand there in shock. Zoro… wanted, no, needed you around? He… liked spending time with you? You’d ask him whether you weren’t too weak for him, ready to feed your soul with more negativity.

Yet all he does is honestly tell you that he believes you’re meant for greatness, that he thinks you’re better than him – he’s always thought highly of you and acknowledged your skills. He’s always been watching you, so of course he’s able to recall moments when you had to save the day.

Zoro doesn’t think you’re less than at all, he reminds you that you’ve always gone above and beyond.

Society's conditioned you into feeling like a failure for not fitting into a mould like he does, but he has a different way of measuring success. You don't have to fulfil expectations, you just have to try your best and hold your head high while doing so.

He's proud of you - and he views you as his equal.

SANJI

You struggle with… being a picky eater.

Certain tastes and texture just make you resent the food you’re eating. It suddenly turns pleasure into anguish.

At the same time, you feel like you cannot reveal these things about you, because Sanji already uses the best ingredients for your meals, just to make sure it’s especially nutritious. And because he likes you the most, secretly.

You appreciate his thoughtful gestures every time, but the fact that certain foods touch each other on your plate makes you inexplicably mad. You try your hardest to hide it from him – Sanji knows what starvation is like, for God’s sake. You’re disrespecting him by being the way you are!

But he’s already picked up on your unusual habits; he subtly watches everyone when they eat and derives a lot of happiness from seeing their faces light up – it validates his pride in cooking – but your eyes are dull, almost pained sometimes. You… cannot enjoy anything.

Sanji also doesn’t want to embarrass you for your preferences, which is why he doesn’t initially ask you about it bluntly. He’s caught glimpses of the way you’ve been socialised and doesn’t want to reignite bad memories for you, so he… just tests different things to try and accommodate you.

And he starts applying these things to everyone just to make you feel included. He’d never single you out.

You seemed a lot happier a few days ago, when he started separating the veggies from the rice and handed everything out on different plates. Nobody even bat an eye at the new way of assorting his dishes, not even you. It makes your dearest chef smile. That’s how he slowly started probing for your likes and dislikes. You suddenly even felt way more comfortable expressing yourself. Maybe you hated bitter tastes, maybe you just really disliked sour foods, maybe you were sensitive to salt – he doesn’t know, but he subtly tries to figure you out by baking zesty, sour rhubarb into a sweet cake instead of a savoury meal… and he noticed that you liked it all of the sudden. You even smiled at him while you stuffed your cheeks.

Sanji absolutely had to pause to deal with his oncoming cardiac arrest. He’s never felt pride like this… people usually liked his cooking, but knowing that someone who’s probably never got to enjoy certain foods love his meals just hit different. It squeezed his heart painfully tight.

You’d never have to feel bad about yourself around him. He would try to make things right either way, but soon you’d gain the courage to tell him about your habits yourself, making him melt on the spot.

He’s the first person who took your strange tastes seriously.

FRANKY

You struggle with… noises.

It would sound crazy if you asked Franky whether he could hear the out-of-sync gears turning within him, you thought quietly. You could even hear fluorescent light because its crackles and sharp hisses annoyed you – so every time you heard a minor squeak coming from inside his chest, you cringed at your rudeness.

You liked Franky, he was an amazing guy, funny without even trying, charismatic, empathetic and he always offered words of encouragement. You actually thought you clicked best with Franky. He was… unconventional like you and made sure you knew that you were fine just the way you were. You were pretty much inseparable. He made you feel confident since he didn’t care about social rules despite very much understanding them and made you feel secure in expressing yourself however you liked. Franky always hyped you up from the sidelines and, if the mood allowed it, provided the intellectually challenging conversations you needed to thrive.

He was naturally complex like that – you adored him.

It’s just that every time he’d invite you to sit by his tinkering station, you were leaving with a massive headache. You felt burnt out just listening to his metal spinal plates scratch against one another… there were so many sounds getting processed in your brain that you had a hard time following the conversation. You often had to ask him to repeat himself, which he always did with a laugh and a cheeky remark.

But after a while, he notices a pattern. He doesn’t know what’s been causing you discomfort, but Franky’s an inventor. Of course he would try to make you something that would help you. At first, he believed that you had trouble with background noise and just had an insane auditory processing ability, which is why he installed panelling inside the walls of the common rooms to block sound waves echoing throughout the ship – and while it helped, you still showed some signs that you weren’t doing well around him.

Naturally, Franky would search for a different solution. Whether it’s as easy as handing you headphones or as difficult as restructuring the springs that replaced his joints, he’s trying it all.

And one day, you sit next to him, watching him put screws into one of his newest projects completely unrelated to you and you commented with wide eyes,

“You’re… silent. It’s quiet. Are you feeling okay?”

All he could do is laugh with pride, his chest pushed out before he struck his signature pose.

Truth be told, all he did was oil the old pistons that pumped cola and oil through his engineered heart – he started getting a clue after you once confessed in passing that you’d suspected a leak near the keel of the ship… and Franky notices these little things and puts them together all by himself.

You could hear everything – all the time.

Even a rhythmic stream of water passing through a crack in a plank at the bottom of the Sunny –

–and that’s when he realised that you could hear when something was awry with him, that it made you anxious. Well, you will never have to worry about that again! But… he’s grateful… so grateful for your care. Franky couldn’t ever go to Chopper for help because the doctor wasn’t equipped to deal with a pile of junk, but… you were, clearly.

MIHAWK

You struggle with… having nobody to talk to.

It was silly, really, to go to your greatest rival for small talk, especially when he was such a lone wolf who desired to be left alone, but despite your own drive towards independence, you wanted someone who would be willing to listen to you.

You’ve never been taken seriously – many people deem your ramblings childish, uninteresting or inappropriate, but Mihawk was a thoroughly serious man whose entire purpose was dipped in devotion. And he knew your worth as a fighter. You’d mastered your rapier, even if you would never be as good as he was. That’s how you met, but you’d never try to actually take his title by aspiring to get even better at it. It wasn’t… something you were interested in; this was just a means to an end, you fought to survive as a fellow pirate. Nothing more, nothing less.

You overperformed in your own interests, so much so that people who were casually interested would leave a conversation with you within minutes. Nobody in the world could relate. Not even Mihawk, you guessed bitterly, but you… trusted him – to listen and, most importantly, to stay.

He was just as much of an autodidact as you were, even if he chose to study the blade and you chose to acquire knowledge about something that truly fulfilled you.

So you wander the halls of his sparsely furnished castle in hopes of finding him.

And find him you did. He was just nonchalantly having dinner all by himself at his desk… it’s truly bizarre that this was one of his most normal moments.

You invited yourself in with a smile, hearing the pleasant ring of his quiet hum upon noticing your presence.

And then you started talking if not info-dumping on Lord Dracule Mihawk. And he just sat there, taking it all in while eating a plate of unseasoned plain pasta…

“So… then me more about this intriguing ‘comic’…”, he murmured, taking a relaxed sip of wine.

He noticed that your eyes shone and that you seemed confused for just a moment before blabbing on with visible excitement, talking a lot faster.

Even though he had trouble following, he sat forward, elbows firmly placed on his spread knees and hands on his chin as if in deep, profound thought all the while nodding at all those random trivia facts you shared about your passion.

At the same time, he shared some random side facts on ranked blades he’s picked up over the years and even let you touch Yoru, explaining in great detail how important the cut of the blade truly was and how maintaining it is his secret to slicing through ships with his brute strength and Haki.

And that’s when you noticed – Mihawk had nobody to talk to about “these things” either. Or maybe he had nobody to talk to in general. Who knows?

But you did have each other.

[eeriesilkworm]

Mike's struggle with instinct vs expectation 🍕🐶

Something which could mean nothing, but that I find interesting anyway, is Mike's line here while Argyle and El are playfully forcing him to try the pineapple pizza:

"I'm not a dog!"

What Mike is basically saying here—albeit playfully—is, "I'm not a dog, you can't order me around and tell me what to do."

Obviously it's a light-hearted moment, but the theme of Mike feeling forced to do something (or say something) follows him.

Because we proceed to get a scene where Will essentially instructs Mike to give his declaration to El.

Mike is visibly distressed by this responsibility.

And for the record, Mike didn't need to be told to be there for El or support her through this.

He takes initiave to hold her hand. He's the one who wanted to remove her from the freezer and take her to the bench.

In fact, his initial instinct wasn't even to encourage her to fight: he urged her to retreat.

Considering the cirumstances and his panic, his instincts were sharp and admirable: remove her from sensory deprivation and wake her up. While everyone else floundered, he took action.

He's exercising his autonomy at the beginning, following his own gut instincts, and doing what feels right in this extremely pivotal and emotional moment.

But when Will tells him he's the heart, Mike understands what's expected of him (The dog’s trick).

The result is a rushed, desperate declaration—one that seems to come more from a place of obligation than genuine emotional clarity. There’s no softness, no intimacy.

Even if you approach the scene from a lens which is favorable to Mike and El's romance, you should still want this profession to be done on Mike's terms (and El's, for that matter).

But it wasn't. Neither of them is particularly pleased.

From's Will's perspective, it would make sense for Mike to do this now. He's doing what he thinks is right, and is best for both of them.

But at the end of the day, he's still urging Mike to perform—to be inauthentic to his own feelings and instincts—while under immense pressure.

I know the love monolgue has been analysed a million times, so I’m not pretending to offer a brand new perspective—but I do think this little line from Mike, “I’m not a dog,” is intentional and important.

Mike isn't a dog and he shouldn't be expected to perform tricks.

And yes, we can interpret Mike’s monologue as a “trick.”

A trick is defined as a cunning act or illusion—sometimes for amusement, sometimes to deceive or outwit. And even from a perspective that’s sympathetic to Mike and El’s romance, this definition still holds up:

Because if Mike had helped El defeat Vecna in that moment, it would have been a very clever trick!

He would have successfully exploited a loophole in Vecna’s powers: the power of love.

An emotional sleight of hand.

It didn't have to be about him decieving El, it could have been about him outwitting Vecna!

But by associating Mike's struggle with autonomy to that of a dog, it invokes the idea of a dog trick specifically.

A dog trick is a trained behavior or performance. (Erm... heterosexuality perhaps?)

Either way, when Mike says “I’m not a dog” as he resists trying the pineapple pizza (even though he eventually relents), he's telling the audience not to boss him around.

To let him go about things at his own pace, based off his own instincts.

Whether that’s telling El he loves her, or beginning a romantic relationship with Will—no matter what you ship or if you ship at all—we should respect that.

[beatcroc]

been dying to formally introduce these guys for months now FINALLY got a general ref done. designs for sales and mean as their own individual....designs! which i made for my own nefarious purposes, but if this is something you ever had need or want for your own you're welcome to them.

i'm fascinated by how willfully confusing the game is about what traits belong to what side whenever there's any call to distinguish between them; the voices and colors and such have all been assigned to a contradictory side at least once and it's an extremely cool way to portray that despite ena's duality theming, she's still very much one being & it's futile to try and draw lines about where one part of her ends and the other begins. but, yknow.... it's interesting to try and do so anyway, and a very fun challenge to make something that still line up with my interpretations of each's role in the bigger picture.

anyway. rambling about my own business with them under cut

ok if you're down here i will be blunt. i made them for unbelievably toxic selfcest. really obsessed with how worker ena is kind of just the absolute worst to and for herself. mean Cannot Fucking Stand sales, and sales is... as indifferent and uncaring towards mean as they are to everything else.

it's intentionally very nebulous how much each are "themselves" vs. the whole entity of "ena", but the important vibe is just that they both know basically everything there is to know about the other and how they work. no lying to or hiding from themselves through the other, which is something ena loooooves to do normally. shes got to confront it here.

for sales i suppose there is.... the satisfaction of being effortlessly great at what they do. mean is a tough nut to crack but they have explicit insider knowledge of how to do so, and again for her own lack of desire to engage with anything, really just kind of lets them do whatever; meanie is really just to all ends their favorite to mess with. and while she's definitely way more dependent on them than they are on her, they do also need her to keep them in check since their "doesn't give a shit" nature also extends to their own being and they're bad at recognizing/respecting their own limitations and weaknesses as well.

this being what it is i haven't made much effort to give them actual extrinsic reasons for being/staying together; being part of the same entity means They Just Are A Pair And That's How It Is; but there's maybe something there in the ways of "sales really likes getting to do as they please and mean puts up with WAY more of their shit than anyone else", + "mean is just glad to not have to engage with anything herself and knows they know her better than anyone else will". 

there's an unfortunate amount of....trust? which is a word i that does not feel right to use here, but i've been unable to find a better one-- on her part, in the general familiarity they both have; in knowing no matter how much they piss her off that they're not going to try any shit to actually hurt her; being the same being and all, it would be detrimental to them both. meanie is also, i would say, Rather Particular, and feels like she hasn't got much else outside of them- which im going to be frank seems pretty damn substantiated by the game, but for the sake of this isolated dynamic i suppose it comes more from the passive dehumanization she’s been with from sales’ never giving a shit about her. 

it does bear to stress also that they are both terrible. don't get me wrong, salesperson is way more of a piece of shit and i do generally think meanie is getting the short end of the stick here, but also they aren't harmful by intent and meanie is still very much... well, mean about everything, on purpose, and even if it doesn't really phase sales at all i think somewhere she enjoys getting to take out that vitriol on someone, even if it is herself. maybe even especially then.

anyway i dont normally release wip's this scrappy but it's all i've got rn and it's tested well in friend circles for getting ppl on board w/ what im trying to cook so here's an Extremely basic vibes sketch

come with me. my awesome ship where everything sucks and nothing is good.

[sycamorality]

I'm the opposite of that one ask, in that you view minecraft nothing like I do, but I am absolutely in love with the world that you've given me a peek into. Your skill and dedication to getting these feelings across, especially through a tool like mspaint, is nothing short of incredible. I love seeing things that I've never seen before, and I've never seen anything like your art before.

This is about to be the weirdest compliment, so give me a moment to explain myself, but something about some of your art, especially and mostly the speedrunning piece, made me think it was AI generated at first--not the kind of AI generated that is corporations and people trying to create something generic and marketable with as little thought and cost as possible, though.

Specifically, similar to Secret Horses (if you've ever seen that piece), where it's a love letter between artist and computer in attempting to synthesize an extremely specific feeling down to it's bare bones, leaving everything else to fall away to the uncanny valley. That's something that computers have always been very good at--human artists will naturally try and create something that makes sense even in the small and unimportant details, while a computer can only make exactly what you tell it to, which means it will often create something uncanny valley because you told it to make 'horses' and the only way it was taught to (you taught it to) make horses was these sort of shapes, so you end up with something that isn't colored like a horse, doesn't have any limbs or a tail or even a definite side that is the 'front' of the horse, but it still somehow feels like a horse. Computers, in that way, are a very good tool for discovering that uncanny valley of exposing your expectations and the reality of what you asked the computer to do.

I think the incredible part to me is that your speedrunner piece has found that place in the uncanny valley through the other direction, in more ways than one. Within the piece of art, depicting a speedrunner making a run, the player has become so intimately familiar with the game that many important parts of it have become background noise, unimportant. They've even purposefully filtered out things (like the shape of the dragon, leaving only it's hitboxes) that were deemed unnecessary for the sake of the run. Engaging with only the very smallest part of the wide expanse of the game. This world has never seen a bowl of mushroom soup. It's never had a paddock full of sheared sheep eating the grass. There will never be an enchanting table used, or a fish caught, or a dog tamed. Not because those things were unknown, but because the speedrunner knows everything there is to know about them... and then decided they were weren't useful. Minecraft, but also not. And Outside the art and the story it's telling, the actual art itself (and of course the inside and outside of the art can't be separated, but) It's instantly recognizable as Minecraft, it has the right shapes to be Minecraft. It lives in the same place in all of our heads that has come to pattern match to this incredibly popular game that lives within the grander social zeitgeist. But also the shapes aren't quite correct. The hotbar is messy, unfocused. The further away you get from the 'target' of the dragon, the most round and bubbly the ground gets, as it's not something the speedrunner will need to walk on and thus won't be necessary to look at. There are things missing that should be there, things stretched out in ways they never would be in game. And yet somehow it's still Minecraft. A synthesis of what Minecraft feels like, if not what it looks like. It feels like you yanked an image directly out of someone's head, pulling the curtain away on the illusion that our brain provides for us to live in--because we feel like we can see all the things around us, but in reality we can only focus on a very small part of the world in front of us, and everything else is just patched together by our brain in our peripheral vision.

It's just... very very cool, and I think shows the other end of the bell-curve that you can find yourself on, where something has become so intimately familiar to you that you have the capability to strip it to it's most bare bones, it's essence--except, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to become a good measure.

All that to say that I love speedrunning and I love your art and I feel bad for Jean (who's name I only learned today, ironically from a piece of art that depicts her as nothing more than a box to be slain (but I guess that's also sort of the point of the art is to make you think about that, huh?))

holy fuck. reading this whole ask took some time (Wtflip!!! you spent time sending me an essay-length ask about my art and what you like about it????) and i don't even know how to respond. i don't know how to respond positively through words. i really like the reference to secret horses - it's not exactly what i'm going for (moreso the feeling of a memory, but i suppose secret horses is the feeling of a memory of horses you saw once years ago), but i can definently see it and i feel honoured because i love secret horses (and other images of the same genre).

gosh. i genuinely dont know how to respond to this further. thank you so much. i've never had someone describe my art, how and why they like it in such length.

and, hah. i suppose art is that way. i know jean?'s name isn't known by everyone - but the fact people learn her name because of an art piece where she's nothing but a target to be killed is fascinating :')

[creatingblackcharacters]

Last question did make me pause and think for a while, specifically on where the "end of the line" is. I think a large part of it for me, outside of the prevalance and extremity of the antiblackness itself, is that I like talking analysis and breaking apart what I watch and read, but if I go to try to find dissections and it's overwhelmingly nonblack people.... that'd be part of it. As much as you can dissect things and pick them apart and as important as that is, if it's just people patting them on the back for being able to identify an awful stereotype and talk about it at length? I don't know. I like a variety of things, and when you pick from here and there like that you'll always stumble into something antiblack eventually because of the mediascape.

But, if the only people that will even poke at it are majority white? If it's just an echo chamber of people who never criticise each other, or just a congratulatory circlejerk for finding obvious bigotry? Hm. At a certain point I have to ask myself why I'm willing to put my name next to something and why I'd be okay signalling that to people around me, and what that says about who I want to be around. I just feel like I see a lot of people who will utilise being "antiracist" and "critical" about their media as a badge of honour, and that does make me uncomfortable, but thinking on it more I do have an issue of thinking about my personal feelings of discomfort before I think of how the people actually targetted would feel about it.

Will be thinking about this more.

Thank you for considering 👍🏾

[yarnfireflies]

Listen I am a golo but I feel like there is a bit too much dooming on my tl right now.

We have zero idea how George feels about the drirlfriend and I feel like just assuming he is extremely sad and depressed about it doesn't help anyone. We saw dnf at vidcon and they looked absolutely fine. The time without George content right now is not longer than usual and he himself has talked about his reasons for not streaming and/or editing.

We also don't know how dnf have talked about their relationship/friendship. They could have tried and decided they are better of as friends. They could have decided to not try and focus on their friendship for now in this phase of their lives. There could be something about their sexualties or life goals or non-negotiables for relationships that made them decide they would rather be boybestfriends for the rest of their lives than crash and burn in a relationship. Maybe even George fell in love with someone else, who knows??

I feel like with fanfiction there is this narrative that "true love" conquers everything else and I get it, that's why I love reading fanfic as well. But IRL it's not this easy. Love and relationships are messy and sometimes love is just not enough to make a relationship work. Sometimes the decision to not date (in the monogamous, getting married way) is way better in the long run for two (or more) people even if there is romantic love between them.

Also (!) friendship love is not less than romantic love, you don't have to be romantically in love to be the most important person in eachothers lives!!

At the end of the day I am a DNF truther and they are definitely not normal about each other and very very important to each other, whatever way this relationship (in the broader sense) means to them. I also do think Dream is going the wrong way about being open about his relationship in this way but I also get it.

I don't even know where I'm going with this and I promised myself not to write a long paragraph about it but somehow it got to me anyways.

I hope there will be new content soon, we have the Titan SMP to look forward to and guys all this is priiime fanfic material! The yearning, the angst, the possibilities :D

Thank you to everyone who feeds the dash with dnf content and moments and is writing fanfiction in these trying times 🫶

[storiesoflilies]

hello everyone!

welcome to my commission page! i’ve decided to open up a few slots for the summer to try and make some extra money while i try to find a big girl job :3

PLEASE READ THE RULES BELOW!

SLOTS – OPEN — [ 0/3 ]

• please place an order for your commission via my ko-fi account.

• you can speak with me on tumblr (preferable) or on ko-fi to discuss the nature of your commission. please do this before paying for a commission! this is to make sure that both me and you are comfy and understanding of what it is that you want.

• once we agree on what you would like, i will take half the payment upfront and the rest after the commission is complete. you can split your payments by simply tipping me on ko-fi, or alternatively, you can pay me the full amount upfront :)

• during the writing process, you may message me with small changes to the story, and i may message you as well just to check if you are happy with certain things :3

• any major changes will be rejected, and this is because we will have already agreed on a outline for your story before you paid!!!

• there will be no refunds once the commission has been sent to you!

• IMPORTANT – you are only allowed to use your commission for personal use! under no circumstances are you allowed to use your commission for commercial use.

• additionally, you are not allowed to repost your commission on any website under your own username. this is plagiarism, and i will seek action against anybody who does this!

• there will be no changes after the commission has been sent, except for spelling/grammar mistakes.

• estimated wait times for commissions are about 2-3 weeks. i will work on each commission in the order i receive them.

• rates are charged in great british pounds (gbp/£).

• RATES (SFW)

1k words (minimum) — £10

2k words — £15

3k words — £20

4k words — £25

5k words (maximum) — £30

• RATES (NSFW)

1k words (minimum) — £20

2k words — £30

3k words — £40

4k words — £50

5k words (maximum) — £60

• SPECIAL RATES (SFW ONLY): please expect 3-4 weeks to process this type of order.

6k words — £40

7k words — £50

8k words — £60

9k words — £70

10k words — £80

• WHO I WRITE FOR: my account is mainly jujutsu kaisen centered, so i’ll write best for those characters. i don’t mind writing for other characters outside of jjk, but if it’s for a character that i have no idea about, then i will require you to tell me a little bit about who they are, so that i don’t write them too out of character.

• WHAT I WILL DO ✅: alternate/canon universe, angst, fluff, smut (refer to rules below).

• WHAT I WON’T DO 🚫: smut for underage or aged-up characters, incest/step-cest, bestiality/zoophilia, necrophilia, heavily kinky stuff, super rough/degradative sex, gangbangs, nsfw male reader, rape/non-con, poly relationship, abuse, childbirth, extreme dark content, childhood trauma.

• you can always message me before ordering to check if i am comfortable with anything i haven’t mentioned on the above list, or to see if we can reach a compromise with something! i am open to discussions <3

• i would prefer these commissions to be self insert (or x reader), but i will do canon ships (such as satosugu) depending on which one it is! this would be something to ask me before placing an order.

• you can have a super detailed request or even very little detail. you can even send me quotes or poems or songs that fit the vibe of what you are going for and i can write something around that. let’s be creative together eeep <33

• feel free to pop in and message me during the writing process to check on the progress of your story, or even just to chat about it :3

• please remember to be patient and respectful to me! if you are rude before/during the whole process, then i will terminate the commission!

• i will post your completed commission on my tumblr and ao3 after you have received it (removing your name and any physical details). if you do not want me to do this, then please let me know when we are discussing your commission.

• if i so happen to go over the requested word count when writing your commission, you will not be charged anything extra (lucky you hehe). however, do not expect this when you order a commission.

• if all my slots are full, then you can private message me to be added to a waitlist!

• you can see snippets of some of my work below!

[ren-cerati]

TW yap and pressure spoilers

Something a buddy of mine brought up while I was sobbing over p.ai.nter

Technically, if you think about it, you *are* rescuing him.

Stay with me.

Painter is one of my favorite characters EVER. Like hes very important to me okay and you will not believe the crash out i had when the update dropped. There is a painter made of cardboard in my room now. I was literally exploding. Kaboom kaboom kaboom EXPLOSION

Anyway

Now, let's reference the scene. Player smashes his screen in, effectively destroying him (assumedly permanently, since Sebastian can be heard afterwards in distress, and he kills the player at the end.)

Thing is, maybe this is mercy. Sebastian and painter have been trying to get out of the black site for what, 13 years? Thats a long time. Even if its a lesser number than what im thinking, thats still a godawful long time.

Painter has actively expressed regret over his actions through multiple voicelines. Even if some of the lines seem to take joy in gunning down expendables or trapping them in a room with eyefestation, he still expresses regret. He'll apologize to you after you enter a door with good people.

Sebastian himself puts it really well- they're just doing what they need to survive. Its them or the expendables.

So in destroying him, you truly could say that was the kindest option. If it's taken this long, it might never happen. Why continue watching blood spill, deaths caused because of what you've done?

And something alongside that- it's heartwrenching how sebastian and painter have dialogue on what they'll do after escaping. There's hope there, but is it misfounded?

Think about this from his perspective- you're a computer programmed for art, an expression created from life. You gain sentience and form an attachment to your creator. One day, jealous people decide that because of their own lackings, you're for the taking. They track down your creator and torture him, later killing him. You're taken to a facility and forced to give up the passion that was coded into you and mine roblux.

You try to fry your circuits multiple times, resulting in unstable behavior and drop of the hat moodswings. You fail to destroy yourself, and existence continues on.

Eventually, someone saves you. Someone who's also experienced the injustices of the company.

You team up. Eventually, alliance turns to friendship, and even with the passing days you trust your benefactor to save you both. That one day, you'll get out of this awful place and be free.

You have to kill to do it. Because once the crystal is retrieved, who's to say they cant blow the black site sky high, covering up all their misdeeds? Or a hundred other horrible options. So you do. You kill, you shoot, you misdirect and trap.

And it's horrible. Because those are people, no matter if they're searching desperately for a pardon for a crime they could have or could not have committed. Many are guilty. Many are innocent.

They all bleed the same, regardless of who they were.

And you? Slowly sinking to madness. You can't remember your creators face. You cant say his name. When you don't talk with Sebastian, you sit in a room, alone, maybe drawing, maybe just staring into space. You watch as people run to their deaths, even sometimes without your prompting.

People pass through sometimes. You try to let them know it isn't personal- you just want to survive. There's a reason to survive now, since theres a chance to get out. There's also someone to live for.

You'll get out, surely. Ignore any doubt you might have as the days drag on.

And now back to the weird analysis claim thing- I'm not good at phrasing my thoughts.

I likely sound like a broken record, but im just gonna lay out my base idea.

Killing painter is mercy because he and Sebastian might never get out. Why prolong suffering if it's pointless?

This probably sounds extremely depressing and nihilistic, and it is. But there's literally almost no hope to be found in the situation.

Now, this isnt to say oh, painter and sebastian will never escape and wah angst sad wah, but it's a sort of deep dive into why destroying him could be considered 'rescue.' You're releasing him from the torment of worrying about the next day, from watching red drip over the walls and floors, from having to wonder if each day is the day you'll get out.

But in destroying painter, you essentially destroy sebastians hope. He likely knows he and painter may never get out of the blacksite, but he still wants to try, needs to try. Because someone is relying on him now, and they believe in getting out. I like to think they're both sort of each other's reason for carrying on after everything.

Will NEVER be mad at Sebastian for killing the player at the end. It's so deserved. It's insane. (Also Simps. Wtf. You just killed that mans computer buddy and you're kicking your feet as he rips out your assumed heart and basically calls you a piece of shit and a horrible person.)

Bit of a rant there uh

Anyway! Yeah I feel like theres just so much to think about given the update and there were so many thoughts in my head but theyre gone now. I really hope the update spawns a lot of fluff fanfics for painter and seb because im still in shambles. I really hope theres an actual option to rescue them both in the future and not some relaly fucked up mercy kill.

Holy yappathon. Anyway sorry if this is incorrect first time yapping about my thoughts about a fictional character (I should stick to art)

[spuzz]

Lots of thoughts I will run down later but the Nicky and Joe stuff is an immediate forefront so:

I feel like a lot of people are going to be like SEE? I was right in my [extreme characterization] of [nicky and/or joe] re their argument over Booker.

But I think ultimately they’re both correct! And they’re both in character in nice rounded ways. Joe WAS angry and was furious and as Nicky points out WAS arguing for his head. That’s not something that was from thin air, it’s presented in the first film. Then he cooled off, missed him, and started being concerned for his brother and reaching out. Nicky WAS willing to be lenient WAS presenting a lesser sentence but when it was decided he STUCK to what he agreed. I feel like it’s an argument of Nicky saying, this is what I said I’d do and I can’t go back on that, he did a wrong and he needs to repent and be punished. Joe saying, yes we agreed but we punished him enough let’s change it.

Which seems totally in line with who they are and how they approach wrongs and even a bit of their own past. That Nicky would find the principle of it important and be able to move forward with the idea of this is the right thing for the family even if I don’t necessarily agree and it’s painful, it’s punishment. Joe being willing to act in anger but then forgive and want to have all of his family together even if it’s not perfect, it’s what is best for us emotionally and for Booker.

I feel like you could easily see this philosophical debate being argued by them for centuries over any number of conflicts.

And I love that they addressed the idea of “space” from someone you’ve been with for a thousand years. Not only does that make sense just because hey sometimes we do HAVE to be alone just to have our thoughts and reflect and need to be one person instead of always two, you also show the hurt and pain of that when you are still after a thousand years desperately in love! I think this rounds out their relationship without doing actual damage to it. Even in the comics they had conflict and arguments and debate! They’re still people. But their love for each other is deep and as it’s so beautifully put, immortal. Even if they disagree they’ll figure it out.

I think it’s one of the more consistent things they did from 1 to 2 and I liked it. I wish it were even more fleshed out but what we got was more than I expected. It makes their partnership even MORE and expands it in a way I liked without like I said doing damage to it.

Other stuff: I loved how much joy Luca and Marwan put into their scenes outside of this. There was a lot of like…giggly energy and a sense that Joe and Nicky have so much life in them that a lot of the other characters sometimes struggle to show. When they’re with the family it seems like there’s a lot of laughing and storytelling that is driven by Joe and Nicky. They present such a lively couple, people who still find love and energy in the world after a thousand years and it reflects onto others.

I loved that they clearly like to fight together. We saw that a bit in 1 and off screen certainly in the van scene they clearly enjoyed knocking everyone and then bantering about it afterwards. They have such skill and coordination with each other and the sense I get is like…a lot of foreplay with the fighting TBH. It’s definitely fun when they want it to be. It brought to mind Joe being smirky and excited for the first mission in 1. He was hyped up.

It was fun to get to see Nicky have more emotion and get to see Luca show off a bit. He’s such an amazing actor he doesn’t get to do much to flesh Nicky out in the first one. Here they let him do a bit more, not a lot, but a bit more to show him off. He plays giddy and silly, action boy, betrayed, remorseful, loving, etc. I feel like Nicky is an even more real person in this and that is so exciting to me.

More later…

[mrentrapta]

Something I've noticed is that when a piece of media talks about discrimination, people usually just talk about the ships and get extremely upset when peoples perception of the show is solely the discrimination and not the characters individually. Especially when there's complex characters because some mfs don't understand that complex doesn't always mean they're automatically an amazing person who can do no wrong.

Especially Arcane because people act like you have "no media literacy" because you think Caitlyn is lwk a bad person in some ways😭

She is a police officer/ enforcer and her character arc is representative of how even someone who went into ts extremely well intentioned can "lose the plot" and how it really takes one or two people w/o to persuade a easily impressionable person in power, we also see that with how Mel handles people.

Police officers/people in high places in the government always try to convince themselves that it isn't personal and or that they are just trying to do the right but most of the time as soon as it is personal people start to abuse the law that put others at risk. For example : when she wanted to shoot Jinx and Isha was in the way, it seemed like she was seriously going to kill Isha / risk killing her if Vi didn't show up, God forbid it wasn't Vi and someone else who likely wouldn't care because Isha was very clearly from the undercity too.

Infact alot of things Caitlyns did were greatly influenced by the fact that she met Vi and she loved her

Don't get me wrong Caitlyn is very complex but that don't mean that her count fagula era was not objectively just bad vibes, especially when there were SO MANY options and she chose the worst ones with the lowest success rates and the highest chance of unnecessary causalities.

Also did she get manipulated, yes but she is literally in the government it's real bad vibes when you're a whole officer of the law in one of the highest positions and you fold like a damn lawn chair the second it becomes personal for you.

Like yall do know why Viktor is disabled right, like we all understand why so many of the disabled people in this show are from the undercity and why deciding to gas a fuck ton of these mf just because of one girl is bad vibes , RIGHT??

Like even Viktor starting a whole cult and what that says and why he did that is majorly overlooked

And another example is how mha was very much about discrimination and how the government and society is extremely unjust and corrupt and has a large part in why the worst people are even able to get to that point in the 1st place

Literally every person in the LOV except for Twice was there because of how society treated them. Midoriya being the main character and having so many similarities to shigaraki and being someone who so easily could have been a villain is very intentional shit BCS THAT'S WHAT THE WHOLE SHOW WAS GETTING AT.

and half of yall are still deep in 2020 shipping beef to this day🤦🏾

When mha ended I was disappointed because Midoriya didn't end up doing more about how the government operates and whatnot and you guys are upset that bakudeku wasn't a thing , guys it's very clear why they didn't get together and either way it wasn't the most important part of the damn show😭

Shit, there's alot more shows but these two pissed me off because they are probably the most clear straight forward shows about discrimination released recently like come on guys😭

[edward-cabrini]

My thoughts on defensive vs. aggressive writing as a Dark Fantasy author

The TL;DR is that you can't write defensively. It's dishonest to yourself and your intent, reader's will see that and immediately disengage with the content. That is, only if you write genre fiction or more comedic things. Dark Fantasy is different beast altogether. Dark Fantasy deals with some of the most terrible aspects of being human, if you write defensively about such material it's like saying you don't think a particular trauma is really all that bad. In your attempt to not push the reader and refrain from going too dark, you've made yourself and the trauma a joke. At least for me, my writing is a way to discuss the various traumas, internal conflicts, and societal problems others and myself either have or could experience. It can be damaging to try to mitigate the very real traumas people have experienced by attempting to skip over, the often times, brutal reality of various traumas. You have to write with 100% sincerity and not shy away from the horror. With that said, the inverse is also true. It's one thing to skip over the terrible nature of a thing, it's worse to worship it. By which I mean, reframing a terrible act by obsessing over it's details to the point it becomes aggressive/accusatory or even fetishistic. It can certainly become quite easy to get lost in the weeds of prose and metaphor but a good reread will help spot the problems and you can roll it back. I would certainly encourage all Dark Fantasy authors to have someone else read their work, ideally someone who will tell you, "What the fuck is this?!" When they comes across something that's not a good portrayal of a traumatic moment. Having read all that you might think I'd advise a middle of the road approach. Afterall, I told you that writing Dark Fantasy should be done with 100% sincerity. However, being sincere doesn't mean a taking the middle road between extremes. To be sincere in your Dark fantasy writing you need to carefully utilize three things.

Character

Narrator

Narrative

Your character is the victim(s) or perpetrator(s), what are they seeing? What are they feeling? What can they smell? What are they thinking? What are they doing? The answers to these questions will inform what you think is most important to get across. How you should portray those things comes next. Your narrator is you. The omniscient presence describing the scene. Now, not all books have a narrator as such, but they still have you. You need to put yourself in the position of your character(s), think hard about how it was to be them or how it would be to be in their shoes. Use those feelings to colour your language as you write the scene. Lastly there's the narrative. Everything has a preamble and an aftermath. Even surprise violence has a preamble, for example your protagonist might've seen a headline about a mugging near their workplace a few chapters before. Alternatively it can be as brief as seeing a blur of movement or a hearing quick footsteps. Preamble let's your reader prepare; it sets the tone. That isn't to say you essentially put a big warning label before things happen, rather, you create the set up for things to happen, even you don't fire the gun until much later. The other half of the narrative is the aftermath. In my humble opinion this is what makes Dark Fantasy a genre that is more than just monsters, violence, and gore. What are the immediate consequences for what your characters have gone through? How have their relationships to each other changed? How will your characters interact with your setting after the traumatic event? It can be hard to expose your inner most thoughts for all to see, especially with the fear of reprisals for writing content that can be critical or otherwise considered distasteful. I think you should still try anyway, even if people do pull your work apart and hate it, it's worth writing for yourself if nothing else.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

hero/villain showdown but one of them has a spontaneous medical emergency and the battle gets put on hold while their archnemesis drives them to Urgent Care

[vaguely-concerned]

just had the thought 'in the end the most important thing varric taught rook was how to make a home for, with, and in other people' and then I had to go lie down on the floor and clutch at my head in unceasing agony for a few hours, as you may well imagine. hawke and the kirkwall crew........ in the end you kind of saved the world a bit in the most characteristically indirect and chaotic of ways. not by anything in particular that you did or achieved or accomplished (lmao imagine!), but just by -- having existed, and by the love that was always there, despite it all, in all its imperfections, even when no one was saved by it in the end. you're not here right now and you're not quite haunting the narrative but I hear your voices bickering and arguing and laughing from the other room. (and so, I think, does varric. all the time.)

'did you think you mattered, hawke? did you think anything you ever did mattered?' yeah actually, varric says with da2 and keeps saying through the series. you were here. and I loved you. and as it turns out that mattered more than almost anything in the world, no matter how long it lasted or how fucked up it was at the time or what else happens, because varric manages to pass that feeling, that intangible... home, that echo of you all as you were together, that love, hopefully the best parts of it, on to someone else for them to bring with them on their journey, with their family. and maybe the world will be kinder this time. you never know. merrill's line of 'Everything affects everything. We were born, a bunch of things happened, and now we're in a mess with our friends.' varric's greatest fear of becoming his parents. even through the wreck and the ruin of the world, ghosts upon ghosts upon ghosts of love -- malcolm hawke, who we never even see, but his life touched hawke's and hawke's touched varric's and varric's touched rook's and rook is passing it on to the family they're creating. the unbroken legacy of love shines through in ways that are stronger and stranger than any magic. help

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[sysig]

Got your number (Patreon)