#that we couldve seen things end the way they were supposed to

[kitkatisvibing]

i think jack manifold really managed to perfectly sum up my thoughts on the dsmp. i miss it. but given the chance, i wouldnt want to do it again.

i think what made it special wasn't the story itself- though it was, and still is, amazing. Theres something poetic about a story that so heavily involved referring to parts of itself as an unfinished symphony to forever remain unfinished. We'll never get an ending to the egg arc. We'll never get an answer to the cryptic messages in Tubbo's lore.

And maybe thats okay. Because what made the dsmp special has always been the fandom. The people who dedicated so much time and mental space to what started as just a simple minecraft server. Everyone, from the people who created constant fanart and animatics, to the people who spectated and never even posted about it. We were what made it special.

We are why its still relevant. Theres people writing fanfics about endings to arcs that never got finished, or alternative ways storylines could've gone. People are making comics of possible epilogues for their favourite characters. People, even now, are theorising about the oftentimes cryptic and contradictory lore of the series.

And at its core, i believe thats what the dsmp is truly about. Community.

Ive joked about it a lot before, but i believe the dsmp truly is this eras homestuck. Not because theyre in any way the same. But because they both managed to bring together a widely criticised and hated fandom, that still brought happiness to the vast majority of people who engaged in it.

[serejae]

WE CANT BE FRIENDS | 17. YOU CLING TO YOUR PAPERS AND PENS, WAIT UNTIL YOU LIKE ME AGAIN

(written)

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paring : myung jae x fem!reader | wc: 700 ish | warnings : none (this chapter is bootycheeks next one is better trust!!!) | genre : fluff and angst @onedoornet

mstl

taglist @lilriswife4life @cherrytaesan @tubatu-lovie @woonsbot @guiltysungho @taylorluvation @kage-yaa @lionhanie @dearly-somber @nicholasluvbot @nujeskz @unhakki @lblossom21 @crispy-kirby @seunghancore @nctrawberries @i03jae @icewons @miidorei @hanbinniesmango @helpsplease @dongminz

its been 55 minutes since jaehyun was supposed to be here. orginally your solo shot was suppose to be shot today, but woonhak texted the group chats changing the plans. sure jaehyun couldve not seen the text but you doubted it, maybe he was embarrassed but you had a sense of deja vu.

you heard woonhak sigh making you look up. “we can just film your solo shot today” you nod and follow him as he walks out his door. as you follow him to the park he starts recording you.

“we have L/N Y/N here and in this segment you’ll be asked questions that you WILL answer without jaehyun around” he started “will?” you laughed at his phrasing “long story…anyways!”

“what are your opinions on myung jaehyun?”

you keep walking looking at the ground and something just blew up in you. “he hasnt changed like at all. cause for the viewers, jaehyun and i were suppose to be filming together again but he didn’t show up and this is what he always did! especially for dates, i’ll wait for hours alone just for him to be in his studio so i’m really not suprised that he isnt here. i swear his office saw him more than i did in our almosy 2 years of dating. its irresponsible no? just to ditch everything for your career and don’t get me wrong im all in for it but its just…” you paused, why were you so bothered? “next question please woonhak.”

“i thought you both ended on good terms?”

“pfft thats what you both tell everyone when you first end things but deep down there…well like you said before lingering feelings that you just cant express because it already ended and now since everyone thinks you both ended things well you start overthinking, ‘hm i shouldnt feel this way we ended things well’ , ‘theres no point on being stuck on him now because we’re friends’ but you both know damn well you ended things ‘on good terms’ because you both swept the conversation you needed to have about the breakup under the carpet due to the fact you and them are pussies who cant handle confrontation.”

“so what if the mess under the rug is too much to the point you cant sweep anymore?”

“um, well…

either you both stand on the elevated rug thats floating at this point ontop of both your guys mess and never talk to each other again because if you do, inevitably the conversation you tried to avoid will be brought up.

or you…

fix it?”

“do you think ending things on good terms is better than ending it on bad terms?”

“no. if you end on bad terms you have nothing to talk about, because youre too focused on hating each other, but good terms each time youre around that person your mind cant help but go ‘what if?’ and soon they start to fill up your mind the same way they did when you were crushing on them then the cycle repeats of you falling in love again but then again you cant do anything because you already broke up and once they move on you have a resentment or a heartbreak feeling towards them.

the same way it does when you both end on bad terms.”

“do you…” woonhak paused and noticed your neck area. “ive always seen the chain around your neck but i never seen the charm on the necklace before” he said examining the necklack, the charm was a heart pendant with mj+(l/n initial + f/n initial) on it with the date you both started dating under. shit, you forgot the tuck it into your shirt.

quickly you tuck it into your shirt and clear your throat

“do you ever have any ‘what if’s with jaehyun, and…theres no need to lie now” woonhak laughed

you smiled and bit and continued “uhm, i wonder where him and i would be if he didnt end things. like would we be together still? if yes is the love still pure, or what we would be together right now but if we still ended things i wonder if it wouldve been on bad terms.”

“do you think of him often?”

“yeah.” no. what?

yeah?

as in yes?

you turn to look at woonhak and he looks at you with wide eyes.

“oh look a music store!! woonhak i completely forgot i told a friend id meet them there, we can end this now!” you rushed out

“NO YN! I CAN COME INSIDE AND FILM-“

“BYE!”

you run inside of the music store and pant hiding behind a shelf. when you look up and see a pair of familiar eyes. you groan silently and rested your head against the shelf, its like he’s been spawning everywhere lately and its not for the better. you look up again and see he’s staring at your neck, looking down you realize the necklace that you tucked away somehow escaped and is now staring at jaehyun. you look back up with your cheeks hot and realized hes gone

[thegreymoon]

i'm not an anti 😭😭😭 it's funny that you're absolutely missing my point. there are plenty of works about noncon fantasies. it's rare to see an author single out her shou's sexuaI abuse and depict it as erotic while in the SAME story speak about the horrors of sexuaI abuse/sIavery when it comes to other characters. i dont think this is an unfair criticism and definitely not anti nonsense. just because you disagree with me doesn't make me an anti but i digress. my point wasn't call out noncon fantasies in fiction.

You literally said, and I quote:

lmfao?? erotic novels can be written without ertoticizing sexuaI abuse. she couldve done the same with consensual scenes.

This is typical anti nonsense. Sure, we can write erotic novels without eroticizing sexual abuse, but how is that relevant? You cannot write non-con kink into it without it and Meatbun is not being shy at all about what kinks she's into. This is a book she wrote, first and foremost, for herself, and then for the rest of us who share her proclivities. People who would like to read something else - for example, vampire fic, a comedy of manners or a zombie apocalypse - are free to go and find such a book because, in theory, Meatbun could have written any of these things instead of erotic fiction of the non-con variety, but she didn't because she didn't want to, and if she had, non-con enjoyers probably wouldn't be reading it to begin with.

If you don't want to be mistaken for an anti, you should not come into someone's inbox with their rhetoric and expect them not to see you as one.

I sat on this ask for a couple of days and decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and answer in good faith. I did not miss your point, I just thought you were an anti, and in my opinion, dead wrong, so I didn't feel like typing out a proper reply. There is nothing contradictory about the way Meatbun treats non-con vs. rape within the context of this particular subgenre. It is, in fact, a very common trope, where whatever is happening between the main couple is not seen as something that cannot be overcome (or even enjoyed) because the fantasy itself is about relinquishing responsibility for your own sexuality with someone you want all this to happen with. The point is that Chu Wanning enjoyed it because it was Mo Ran, and Mo Ran did it because he loved Chu Wanning. It is the foundation of this kink.

Now, I don't know if you don't typically read fics like these, but contrasting it with actual rape that is not a part of the fantasy is actually extremely common because it reaffirms that the main relationship is an exception, therefore special and safe in spite of the fundamental violation. With actual rape, nobody wants that to happen, not the characters and not the readers, and it is treated as horrific (which is why in fic, we typically use non-con and dub-con warnings for the erotic variety and the rape warning for actual unwanted rape, even though non-con and dub-con don't exist IRL, where it is ALL rape). Yes, there is a contradiction here, but it is something that is super common within this subgenre and something that the readers definitely want to see, in part to validate that what happened between the main couple is the exception to the rule.

Chu Wanning is not going to enjoy being raped just by anyone (though there certainly are books/erotica out there that play with this idea too and 2ha is actually on the very mild end of the spectrum here, which is why I find it hilarious that so many antis get their panties in a twist over it), which we see when he is assaulted by Shi Mei. Just like Chu Wanning, we are supposed to feel visceral disgust (though I do not deny that there are people out there who are into this too, which is totally cool, you do you) because it is happening outside the main pairing, which is treated as special. Mo Ran is supposed to rescue him from the bigger villain because the readers find his possessiveness reassuring and the fact that his relationship with Chu Wanning (consensual or not) is the exception. The encounter ends with Chu Wanning's chastity preserved and Shi Mei defeated and humiliated, which makes the readers feel good.

The rape of the girl that led to Mo Ran burning down the brothel is supposed to be horrific, and it is supposed to give us insight into Mo Ran's actual personality, where we see that when he is not under the influence of mind-altering magic, he finds the act horrifying. He is not a habitual rapist and if it had not been for the extraordinary circumstances (i.e. the mind-bending magic and the fact that he actually loved and wanted Chu Wanning more than he needed to breathe), the violation would never have happened. It is the exception because he loved, just like Chu Wanning wanting and even eventually enjoying it is the exception because he also loved him in return. It is not narratively contradictory, because, within this subgenre, it is actually very consistent, again, because this is an erotic non-con novel and not an actual commentary on the evils of rape.

Anyway, I apologise for calling you an anti if you really aren't one and I hope that me answering your question seriously this time around makes up for it.

All the best! :)

[autisticbisexualemaskye]

OH also as u can tell i finished mythic quest. season three was... dissapointing. brad and his gaggle of autistic women were great as always and Sarian was an AMAZING episode, 10/10, no notes, but the season overall? ian was MIA and poppy just... didnt really work without him. dont get me wrong i love her and she has great dynamics with the rest of the cast but overall grimpop was a HUGE missed opportunity and making dana ian 2.0 was a poor choice. dont get me wrong, i was rooting for them to team up in season two, but thats because i thought ian could give her what she wanted, not because shes identical to ian. shes certainly not so up her own ass that she thinks "confidence" and "total disconnect from reality" are the same thing. ian? definitely. rachel? unconsciously. but dana? no fucking way. she never felt like she had a unique place in the grimpop team. minimizing the scenes with her and rachel i would have actually loved to see if it helped give both of them more depth and solo development since their romantic relationship was built up as their main character arcs from the start, but dana just took away from ian and poppy's dynamic and didnt get any development of her own until basically the very end.

now, dont get me wrong, AGAIN, it makes a lot of sense that ian doesnt want to work on poppy's game. hes egotistical and unmotivated and childish and self centred. but they seriously waited until the season fucking finale to work that out? a conflict between the two main characters that has one of them just... absent from the narrative? conflict is the core of poppy and ians relationship but if they don't have any scenes together the conflict becomes BORING. and they had the perfect opportunity to work it out! when hera failed. when the playtesters told her it was technically perfect, but not fun to play. ian makes fun games. ian is really good at making fun games. theyre supposed to be partners. why couldnt he have helped her with this? why couldnt this have been the moment where she realizes that, just like ian, she needs help creating her vision? that even though she can build things and have big ideas, she cant do everything all on her own all the time? instead she and dana throw her vision away to focus on a project she hates and thinks is bad. its total fucking bullshit and a complete waste of an arc.

which, as a side note, i still dont totally understand the difference between hera and playpen. theyre both sandbox games, yes? where the point is to build something yourself, entirely from scratch? so what makes playpen fun and hera not? is playpen more customisable, is it easier to control? is hera too difficult, is it not difficult enough, is it too bare or too micromanaged? this feels like something we couldve gone into instead of just tossing hera out. there are tons of games like that out there already. minecraft, the sims (all FOUR installments, plus simcity), cites:skylines, roblox, all of them extremely popular and extremely fun. why not hera? again, a question the narrative gets out of answering by throwing the game out.

and FINALLY when the grimpop dispute does get solved, their solution is "you be who you are, and ill be who i am, and neither of us changes or improves or alters our dynamic in any way"? what a FUCKING cop out. the previous seasons, so far, have ended with poppy and ian trying to mend their dynamic into something more stable and mutually beneficial, where both people (poppy, mainly, but having it be her game this time SHOULD have been an interesting subversion) feel seen and heard, where neither of them feels subservient. you want to watch the next season to see how they develop and how their dynamic shifts. but in the season 3 finale they just straight up tell you, in the show, that they're done trying to change, and then they abandon their partnership and go back to work at mythic quest. season 3 was such a wasted season in terms of the grimpop dynamic, and neither of them develop any kind of compelling relationship with the other characters either. the closest we get is dana, who, again, is turned into ian 2.0 because apparently they couldnt develop her existing character any further or use the actual ian grimm in any of her scenes with poppy. again, dana and ian have similarities, but shes not ian! and she shouldnt have had to be!

ok. rant done. if u disagree u may write me a strongly worded essay in the comments or we could just have a conversation okie dokie i love u ^_^

[gaienenkidou]

HELLO 6 7 20 enkidu character opinions Please

wtffff i had to dig through my activity to find that you sent this because it got eaten by other notifs!!!! whoever coded this website needs to get fired i swears. ON IT BOSS o7

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

im more chatty online but even then the amount i talk depends on the day. but irl I understand why enkidu is the way he is in any social situation because quite frankly yeah me too. i dont even talk irl i just think to myself and observe everyone and just go "ahum yup ok" and nod at everything people say because literally what am i supposed to say. but once people talk about a topic im familiar with i might say a thing or two all of a sudden. maybe three. the only difference is that enkidu is The strongest man ever and i am just some random ass person that takes care of children sometimes

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

unib memes range from annoyingly overused as per usual for fgs (chesto/akatsuki thot slayer. mika XD half of the time. hilda is 19...do people even still make bathwater and jav jokes anymore oh god those were annoying day ONE) or either funny to Mehhhh depending on the context (just any memes involving merkava come to mind. wagner honest mids My toxic trait is thinking a good chunk of them are funny btw. nana jokes are hit or miss too) but enkidu memes have always been the ones i've consistently laughed at the most being removed from my inherent bias and i imagine that's the result of him being very under the radar. but like holy shit enkidu mains are funny as fuck? the enkidu tier jokes in unist. you had to be there for the "they added enkidu in uniclr" era. and then the memes after that when they took 66c away from us. and of course "I guess I won't say anything..." and the enkidu autism jokes. guy who just has the funniest meme material with just his balancing history and being the way he is ALONE

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

even though they have the whole "ending each other with honor" thing going on the fact that they kinda worked together in uni2 (wished we couldve actually seen how they were working together ahahahaha. ha) and also their mutual respect for each other i think wald and enkidu should settle down from their own debts and be old men besties. idk linne can have a weird uncle now or something i just want to see them talk in a slice of life context so bad ESPECIALLY FOR WALDSTEIN. like they can't just give us funny ass trivia like "he has to eat like 7 bowls of food and also needs to enter the back door" and not put him in SoL situations with other people.

[jackienautism]

One thing about this game that really irks me is how Laura keeps saying how the werewolves “aren’t people” but is never really challenged on it. The game doesn’t want to talk about it either since Laura rudely asks Ryan if he “really wants to talk about ethics now” on the way to the mansion if you’re rude to her and enforces the idea that “we’re not killing Chris Hackett, we’re killing a werewolf.” I know the game’s supposed to be campy 80s horror but I just wish it explored this topic in full

this is actually a very great thing to bring up, ive never really considered it as anything more than a comfort thing. as something to make laura feel better about what she feels she has to do

i can absolutely see where shes coming from and why she says what she says, but you're right, that sort of thinking is definitely flawed. especially in the grand scheme of things. because yeah sure you're killing a werewolf but literally SECONDS later they transform back to human form.... and THEN you'll be forced to face reality. maybe there's no irl "equivalent" to this kind of situation, but going into it deeper wouldn't have hurt anyone. in fact, it would have been quite interesting, now that you mention it!

the idea that theres a chance where the creature nd antagonist of the game is actually someone you know nd love? only for a short amount of time too? meaning its not even permanent??? like. which is more important, yr own safety or that of yr loved ones (despite it being a gamble every time a werewolf enters view)? it's a fantastic concept. and yet they didn't really deliver, as you said

and like.... the one time they COULDVE done more with that topic (albeit w/ different characters) was with emma... when she gets bit in ch 4 and transforms in the van in ch 8? kaitlyn's able to shoot and kill her and yet. the game. doesn't have it so she and dylan find emma's body afterwards? they don't make them have that moment of. oh... i literally just killed my friend. like yes she did essentially kill only a werewolf but there's still someone BEHIND that werewolf, yk? and that someone is someone who she's spent the last 2 months living with and befriending

they do have kaitlyn be like "what if it's nick?" to which dylan responds with "what if it's not." which is a valid view, sure, but even if it were someone they didn't know, that's still a human person????

if Only the game presented and applied that specific dilemma to the characters more... bc even kaitlyn during her fight with caleb... i find it interesting that NO one ever had a moment of. ....i just shot and killed a person. like YEAH the person in question was under a different form and ATTACKING but, there's no way that still isn't in the back of their minds eating away at them yk?

the same thing can apply to silas too! and it's interesting to me because if you choose to not lift yr gun, laura DOES have a moment of "this is a boy im about to kill" but that's kind of IT........ so we KNOW that she understands theres a person behind the werewolf. but because there's no huge spotlight put on it in general, or shown to have been a problem for laura before, it doesn't really like. matter? it appears so. little. in comparison to everything else, i mean

the difference between chris and silas for laura was obv. max. but it is irritating how laura holds a certain view for chris' situation and a different one for silas'. especially when it's only seen in ONE potential choice during that scene. maybe it was to show laura's complexity nd duality, but i mainly think it was. poor writing. they should've made that predicament, that battle of morality, a bigger thing, for laura, for kaitlyn, for everyone

so, yeah, in the end it's never "just" a werewolf. in relation to chris, to someone like laura MAYBE, but to someone else, like ryan, it's just. not

[toytulini]

I saw Barbie last night, I dont think i have a long film review of it for yall but idk I'll put some thoughts under a readmore I guess?

-Right off the bat, I enjoyed it, it was fun. It was a fun pink poppy romp. Thats about what I expected of it, and thats pretty much what I got

-Its not particularly radical in its gender/feminism takes, its very basic, which, I saw a number of ppl mention that before I saw it so I wasnt expecting anything radical. It couldve done better. it was. fine. im shrug about it i guess.

-My mom enjoyed it and was apparently not expecting any sort of emotional depth or story at all so it caught her off guard. I heard her crying. she cries easy at movies. I'm glad my mom liked it. Maybe she'll absorb some of the very basic feminism it drops idk.

-I knew the Kens adopted patriarchy and introduced it to Barbieland but it felt lile that happened very fast, idk.

-The ending....I. is her going to a gynecologist supposed to be like. shes gotten a vagina by deciding to be human?? or is she trying to schedule a surgery or something? that felt pretty weird to me if im honest, i thought it was gonna be a job interview or smth... Especially with how everyone was like "Barbie is ace (heheeh i agree) cos she has no genitals! (sorry what. excuse me. wanna run that by me again?)" like okay that makes that headcanon reasoning even more dewply uncomfortable that it already was?

-I enjoyed weird Barbie. i wish theyd cast someone else cos iirc ka/te mckin/non was a transmisogynist? unless she apologized or said she changed her mind on the topic since like 2017?? but i havent seen anything? idk. just. annoying to keep platforming these ppl. i guess theres probably other actors involved that have shit views of trans ppl. whatever i guess.

-I did dress up a little. i feel like my outfit had Weird Barbie Vibes. maybe ill post a pic.

-I did enjoy it and it had a number of shots and or transitions i liked, i think the one with the disco ball to the moon or whatever was enjoyable.

-god we really are so weird about barbie

-it just feels factually incorrect that all dolls pre barbie were baby dolls? idk. im sure it was the most common kind. but idk. not to be weird about The History Of Dolls but like. the porcelain dolls from the Victorian era. idk if those count as baby dolls. iirc those were to help young girls practice prepping dead bodies of loved ones for funerals or smth??? but i guess porcelain dolls have a sort of babyish look about them. and are fragile so you cant play rough with them.

-Like i Know its a 2hr long toy commercial for mattel but also god that cant be right. even if they werent filling the same niche as barbie as idk basically a fashion doll? there had to be other dolls right?

-I know the flat foot thing is Supposed to be over the top and silly for them all to get upset about but also tbh. as a bitch with falling arches the way some of yall make jokes about flat feet still is uh. well. rude. but also lmao man. the day my arches started hurting for no reason while i was barefoot did sorta feel emotionally like her feet falling to the ground lol.

-i want to introduce barbie to margot robbie's harley quinn owo. i think that would be Fun :3

-i want Ken's job. how do i do Beach as an occupation.

-I actually liked how they handled Ken and Barbie's rship til the end. i feel weird about that ending overall and also it feels weak wrt her dynamic as Ken. they make him grapple w her not reciprocating his feelings the same way but then she just leaves barbieland anyway?? and ig they dont get to explore a friendship or qpr dynamic. ok. its fine i guess.

-her saying she has no genitalia felt so transgender in a way im not sure it was intended to. ken saying he has all of the genitalia felt even more transgender. headcanoning them both as extremely transgender in fun weird new ways and no one can stop me.

-Allan is my favorite character i think. bro me too

-bibbleless movie. add bibble.

[guilt-na-zan]

ok it's been a billion years since you've posted it but oh my gosh ur theory is so good. i had been theorizing the same thing myself. imma yap about some other things to consider, as well as brainstorm as i go!!!! im so normal about this game LMAO im just yapping here

as for the lady in red and tryst after death, i speculate that the woman he loved so dearly may have used him for his wealth when he thought she was different from all the others. he may have had a child with her and everything and found out she was just like all the other women and because of this, caused him to spiral even more because the one person he felt he had an escape with was all just a trap. this also can be seen in that grey area with all the ladies, because it's the place where u get locked in a room with ib's parents on a painting that even garry can see, (which feeds into a whole nother idea i have but i'll save that yapfest for later), but is still ruined and the "safe room" is invaded by the ladies. the painting is literally titled "couple" and in a safe room away from all the ladies but gets invaded and broken by them anyways, not even using the door to come in but breaking in through the wall, which could symbolize that the downfall of his relationship was unexpected and so damaging that it left a permanent stain on his heart.

as for what mary's description implies, i think with this theory, it might imply that guertena's happiness was never real. mary is supposed to represent the happiness he wish he had but bc of that, she was painted with jealousy in mind. he died an old man, bc i did math and calculated that from some point in highschool all the way to his death, he had at least 53 years of art experience, making him at least 68 by the time he died (the numbers next to the painting descriptions represent years, confirmed by kouri, meaning this takes place far into the future sometime after the year 6248). this also, branching off ur theory, could be defended by the description of serpentine spirit (6248) ---->

"Beginning with this piece, Guertena shifted to greater focus on abstract art. But at the time, cubism was more in vogue, leaving Guertena's various abstract works largely ignored."

with this, it could be that guertena's efforts were never taken into consideration, which feeds off ur theory again, where its clear that the value of a person is not seen any deeper than skin-level. no one saw the value of his works because they werent cubism.

mary's implication also ties into color theory and the other theory that "mistake" couldve been a self portrait of guertena when he was younger. flower language says yellow roses can be used to convey friendship or be signs of jealousy during the victorian era, which is what surrounds mary in her portrait. if we take that into consideration, as well as the mistake painting, yellow and blue (if we take symbolism shown throughout the game of the red and blue pairings) combined makes green: guertena painting with bitterness. this could also be why mary and garry dont mix well, because in guertena's world, green is a sign of bitterness to him, which would honestly be so funny but at the end of the day, its entirely speculation off of just a few points.

yapping here vv

honestly??? the mention of yellow roses signifying jealousy in the victorian era led me to dig into that historical era a bit: the clothes of the late victorian era look similar to the clothes worn by ibs parents and the lady in red!!! the clothes are very simplified but have a clear victorian influence. this could definitely tie into the theory of the yellow roses not only signifying mary's friendliness, but also guertenas jealousy OF her! green being her major color despite having a yellow rose would tie into that too. if we take green meaning jealousy, would that mean that at garry's core, he is also a bitter and jealous person? underneath his coat, he wears a green tanktop. blue as a standalone color means grace, wisdom, and stability. blue roses often imply something is mysterious or longing for the impossible. ib just wears red, like her rose, the only one without a variety of colors in her outfit! garry is ib's rock throughout this entire journey, which would connect with that stability and wisdom that he provides to her, but his background is a complete mystery despite us knowing hes not well off (he could be middle or lower class) and he likes sweets. the feeling of longing could tie into your theory of garry showing a similar perception of life to how guertena lived, which would really explain more about his character and upbringing. tying back to that thing about guertena living to be at least 68, that means he lived a really safe life, bc the average live expectancy during the victorian era was around 40. to live that long, he def was privileged to the day he died. this could also tie back to that bitterness bc he had it all, just like ib did, but never was happy or satisfied with himself or the people around him. one thing he really lacked was that openness and maybe even that love that ib has with her and that she gets from her family.

anyways im done yapping

i just wanted to add in my own lil pieces to defend ur theory a bit or add some food for thought. ive been obsessed with ib for the longest and accidentally found this theory while searching for guertena's self portrait. a thing i noticed about his self portrait was him painting something with green. the shape looks like mary's lower dress but the legs wouldnt make sense as they look to curvy to be her legs. u can tell me ur thoughts or if anyone else has any ideas, that'd be cool!! anyways, im done yapping byebyeeee

Ib Theory - The World of Guertena, part 2

One of the things in Ib that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out is just what Weiss Guertena was like.  I’ve touched a bit on it before, largely in the context of how I think the world operates, and what the implications are for a perfect ending where everyone survives.  But I didn’t really talk much about Guertena himself, or about what I think the world actually is.  So now, I’d like to talk a bit about my perceptions on the man himself, and what his painted world is really all about.

I should note: I consider this a lot more my perception than anything else.  There’s very little known of the guy, and perceptions about the painted world and how it works varies greatly, I’m sure.  This is more a reference guide; an explanation of my thoughts regarding how the painted world works so that things will make more sense when I start talking about our protagonists later on.

Keep reading

[away-ward]

Long post!

1. This might be an unpopular opinion, but i actually like that alex fought in the train with emmy because she was jealous of em. + alex was probably jealous of emmy too because alex and aydin was seduced by em. A big part of the sex in the BC shower and the train was because em was the one doing the talking and seducing and going after what she wants, teasing the men and women there, no? Not alex, and what was alex known for? Exactly this but even she (and probably his ex fiance and othe rhigh profile women) couldnt get aydin in bed together after everything, but this woman aydin just met for a couple of days is serving up his fantasy and contributed to him being pleasured? In alex's mind, she was pronably angry af at emmy, even angrier when she wanted to touch her too, and unlike rika and banks or even kai, it was not business hour, she really did found emmy attractive and wanna get on with her, so she probably thought "ok if i wanna fuck her, why wont aydin?" So instead of seeing this scene as only emmy pleasuring alex, it also means that theres alex and aydin who were always getting what they want and dominating the conversation or sex, seducing people left and right, but with emmy in their equation, THEY were the one who became charmed, and yes, alex didnt like that because em got aydins attention. I'm pretty sure if alex was not in the picture, or will, aydin would've wanted emmy ☠️

2. Unlike you guys, i never thought that alex ever thought she owned will *like that*. The most extreme is just her protectiveness of her best friend and family, which throughout the whole series every woman and man did the same thing, they're physically and emotionally intimate with each other, they casually become possessive over one another, doesnt matter if it siblings, friends, partners etc, and we can see, even that stoic doofus michael was protective of emmy when martin came near her later on at the end of nightfall. +Em was never their friend, and they dont do casual for best friends and family, so how were they supposed to react to and approach her knowing she put them in jail without caring to confess before? A bit entitled for emmy and us to ask for more from them, no? But i can totally see why it's understandable in emmy's pov, she could've seen the whole situation differently just like how will and alex misunderstood emmy's connection with aydin. But whether or not aydin wnated em like how alex and em wnated each other in the train, i think it could be possible, and add to the flames of anger for will and alex (which was drama and messy and at this point, anything that put will alex a peg down, i'm all up for it, lmao, im a messy person 🤣🤞) but we'll never know now how that'll play out in the future. And like i said, this was probably the biggest reason why alex was mad, because aydin wanted em, and em couldve had aydin even without doing much (or even if she might not be interested in aydin herself).

3. I feel like in this book because emmy was the more dominant one, i actually dont see it as her pleasuring alex was something bad or megative, the way we look and frame these scenes in outr minds play a big part to how much we accept it (again probably just my unpopular opinion), because in my mind, that scene was an empowering move for emory, because she gets what she wants, while her man was watching, and it shows that people wants her and wants to look at her too. Women who gives is just as empowering as those who gets back, idk why a lot of you anons and asks always have this implication that being served or pleasure is the only way for empowerment for em, because that thought alone is weird, but maybe it's just me who didnt find your questions and answers kinda ok? Idk, emmy was doing what she wants and maybe it was ugly right, but hey who cares? Not emmy, because the one who was pridefully trying to prove a point to their friends by dragging the other down was alex, not emory (in fact emory had a history of not giving a fuck about what people think of her, so do you really think she would start now?), so even if alex play this game, emmy was not losing anything even out of pride, because after eveyrthing had happened, alex realised that she was the one embarrassingly playing this winning game alone. This was how iinterpreted the bridal gown scene with alex and emmy too, that alex felt guilty towards emmy because the game was one-sided. I remember that in the train, when emmy called her out when alex said em didnt know how to sacrifice lke her, alex couldnt verbally fight back because m was right, alex just didnt want to understand her out of her shallow pride. She fought her physically, but it should how kinda dumb alex was in that moment, Which also goes to show how big-hearted and mature emmy was about the whole situation. Emmy had to get the short end of the stick again, but hey, at leats the characterisation was consistent 🤣☠️😭 (im so sorry emmy for this pun)

4. Now, Could all of these scenes be handled better? Of course, but with characters as immature and wrongly and immaturely loud (most of the time) as will and alex, always talking faster than they think because they do whatever they "feel" like and that is comsidered as the benchmark of "freedom" instead of irrationality like how we and emmy saw it, do you think a rational comversation can happen in the midst of chaos? With will and alex? 🤣 no fucking way, hahaha! I have to laugh when i see someone recommending this because as much as thats OUR wish fulfilment, we dont always get what we want and in this case, a mature and understanding will who was not hurting and able to talk without wanting to just destroy eveyrthing. a lot of dn scenes had more than one meaning, and i dont think all these scenes you guys have mentioned were only catering to one pov, because clearly like mine, it was beyond just emmy giving into alex, but also everyone giving into each other. A scene where emmy getting pleasured by being submissive most likely wont happen because SHE was the one who always seduce and dominate people, and thats how most dominant women gets pleasured, even in real life or in WLW dominant relationships, by dominating others no matter their pride or unjust anger. Idk why we're surprised here and it was not also seen in a different pov like it was something good that a dominating woman gets what she wants, even when her pride was thrown out of the window. Maybe because ikm queer so thats why i can understand this scene better. The only thing that i fucking hated about this scene is the fact that will would let em fuck alex, but not aydin. If they"re all queer, then why would there be a difference between em getting pleasured by and for aydin any different than with alex? This can come off as queer or WLW fetish instead. The same goes when em was ok when will hooked up with damon, but not when he was with alex? Borderline queer fetishes are here in these scenes and its implication, not anywhere else as far as i can catch them by now. But i can also understand how people get angry at alex unlike damon because damon made it clear that he wasnt will's potential love interest, unlike alex who always look like she might snatch will from emmy especially in emmy's povs.

5. Also another interesting point to add is the horsemen, banks and emmy were very prideful people about their weaknesses unlike rika, winter and alex (and even will to some point), they just never talk about their pain or hardship, and its affecting their relationship with others, so something just has to give for these prideful people to talk about it or so something about their weaknesses in order to bridge the gap between them and everyone else, and the classic fashion for pd was through shocking and horrid sex scenes (physical intimacy) imstead of honest talk (verbal intimacy). In that train, emmy finally submit to them all and accepting their all, and them too submitting to her, and for someone who took nearly 10 years to give in like emmy, i think the train scene was shocking, but the impact of it, if you relatively consider about her 10 years of absence, it doesnt really NOT make sense. I feel like we're getting angry at the scene because out of pride as the readers who we want our wants catered to us, we do not want to lose against alex in this game of cat and mouse, but we're not emmy guys, this was how SHE solves her problem, and she was TIRED OF BLEEDING. She was not ashamed of dominating and playing the field too. Something has to give. It's clear that even will thinks like that and even alex later on was more subdued with her behaviour when she met em again in that bridal gown scene, because alex was the one actually losing, not emmy. It's a win fo them but alex, as a friend doing all of that, at what cost? She lost.

6. They cant be like that forever, especially when em wanted to be with will, and is now more accepting to the idea of fitting in with the horsemen and their wives (because she gets to trust and love herself more now, and more inclined to work with his family instead of self-sabotaging herself thinking she wasnt enough to keep up with all of his "amazing life" and him too with everything that is her), and everyone then with emmy because now they know she's with them for life. She's theirs now in ther little cult family with that little cult family crest of a chocker and rongs. Because the ball was almost always in her court then, even in high school, except for damon, no one was against her, and even later damon slowly warmed up to her, but she just never threw it their way and thats also why will couldnt bring her anywhere even in the mask giving scene because he thought she didnt want this lifestyle. Unlike rika in corrupt who already admitted to want to be like them and join this hell shit family. We might not like her to be in this shitty family, but emmy like it, likes them, never hated them, and finally found enough time and love for herself to want to admit to be apart of them, and them with her. Her going to SF and ditching will would be some readers' wish fulfilment but was nit what emmy would wnated for her life. The fact that she went back home after the horsemen went to jail, and would worry when his brother always causes trouble for them since high school showed that in a corner in he rheart where she lets herself be honest, emory did care about will and the horsemen, even if her mouth says no and her actions move backwards.

7. It's all very layered i think, it wasnt as easy as "oh emmy was pleasuring alex and thats not what we want evn though thats what emmy wants", "lf the horsemen were shit to her for no reason" etc etc. like you all got your points here and there, and im adding this ask to add my pov too, +and i believe some of these opinions were already discussed in your older posts about michael and kai's response towards emmy in the train, right? but do let me know if what i said makes sense, because it made sense to me but it might not to others. Sometimes what we want from an author might not fit into our narrative because we kinda already have something in our mind that we want from themand we're fixated on it, and i feel like this is the case for people reading nightfall especially, but this doesnt mean it's good or bad, it just impacts how we read the story. However i also agree that these atrocities could've been done better and pd should really get their shit together and write a better story. It's not a simple series with a black or white pov, i feel like a lot scenes could kean different, IF you're willing to engage yourself in a different pov which a lot of you guys might mot simply because what you guys wnat is nkt guven here, just some two cents from me. I believe a discussion can still be made though, only after considering many povs without limiting an option because lets say "we dont want aydin alex here" "oh this could be a different plot". I liked your "No Apologies" fic but i dont think someone as daring to make shitty turn around arc like pd would go for your tamer plot for both will and emmy, something MORE had to happen, so it was a good fic, but i cannot ever see these fanfic characterisations of emmy by you happening in PD's writing or plot. The willemmy in your fics were always a bit mellow than in pd's, and i feel like it's because it's usually lacking in weird and shocking actions or words that were always present in pd's works. It's canon and fanfics for a reason, i enjoy them both, but for different reasons. They serve their purpose between author's voice and fan works.

Anyway, It's just a goofy fun series to not be taken too seriously at the end of the day, and like your older posts, i agree, some things might make sense, some thing might not, but i like the discussion going on for it though, because the way you guys interpret this series was woahh, very different than me and thats ok. It's because these characters who always feel everything deeply, i feel like we also get carried away with them, the irony! Sorry if this post is too much, or if i come off as harsh, i was just trying yo put two and two together, putting aside feelings and making one scene made semse with the other. Idk if that worked or not.

Hey! Thanks for taking the time to send this in. It was actually very refreshing to get.

but i actually like that alex fought in the train with emmy because she was jealous of em. + alex was probably jealous of emmy too because alex and aydin was seduced by em.

Not wholly unpopular. This idea as a reason for Alex and Em’s back and forth, specifically on the train, has been bought up before. I believe their idea was that Alex felt inferior to Em, but I’d have to check.

This woman aydin just met for a couple of days is serving up his fantasy and contributed to him being pleasured? In alex’s mind, she was pronably angry af at emmy

I personally never felt that Aydin sincerely wanted Em. My interpretation was always that he saw her as being the same as him, and wanted to use her to hurt Will like Alex had hurt him. Not that he had ill-will for Em, but she was never his focus. From what I gathered, he only ever wanted Alex. And I can’t really comment about whether he would have wanted her if things were different, but it’s open to interpretation.

, i never thought that alex ever thought she owned will *like that*.

What I said in that previous post (if I'm thinking of the right one from earlier) probably came out wrong. I didn’t mean that Alex felt Will’s was hers, in that she was possessive over him, but more like you said – hers to protect. Will was her reflection; they were one and the same. They weren’t in love, but they were more than friends (thinking of it from their perspective).

Em was never their friend, and they dont do casual for best friends and family, so how were they supposed to react to and approach her knowing she put them in jail without caring to confess before? A bit entitled for emmy and us to ask for more from them, no?

I’ve expressed similar thoughts in the past. I think it’s important to remember (but also easy to forget) that, one: unreliable narrators very much exist, and two: every character is working with different information. From the past to the present, the reader is the only one with all the pieces as we go.

Even I get lost in the thought of how things should have gone because I’ve gone over this so many times, but you’re bringing up very good points.

Because in my mind, that scene was an empowering move for emory, because she gets what she wants, while her man was watching, and it shows that people wants her and wants to look at her too.

This is a fair way to look at the situation. I think for myself, I’ve always had an issue with this scene because I didn’t see the build-up to Alex and Emmy. For me, Emmy saying she wanted Alex came out of nowhere. I also didn’t understand how they became such good friends after spending one night drinking together.

I have a post where I go into my thoughts on Alex as a character. I don’t think her role within the story was bad. Unlike some, I don’t wish Alex never existed (though I do understand why people feel that way, and occasionally think the things they have to say are funny. What can I say, I think angry rants can be funny. Sue me.). But I get irritated with the way Alex is written.

So, because of those things, I don’t understand why Emmy wants Alex. I do get that Emmy is finally going after what she wants and on her terms, which great for her, but as for why it’s Alex? That I don’t get.

A lot of Anons do have a problem with Emmy always being the one to give and bend. So, to see her dominating Alex, who has recently said and done some pretty nasty things to Emory personally, doesn’t feel good. Even if Alex was acting out of jealousy, she still took the same actions.

This was how iinterpreted the bridal gown scene with alex and emmy too, that alex felt guilty towards emmy because the game was one-sided.

You know, it’s been awhile since I read this scene, and I was working from memory, which admittedly could be faulty. It could be that Alex did express some guilt over the one-sided game she was playing. I do remember her apologizing, but I also remember Emory stopping her, which is what I was pulling from. The conclusion is that Emory is always the one being the bigger person when Alex rightfully owes her an apology.

I think readers get mad that PD didn’t want Alex to apologize?

Which also goes to show how big-hearted and mature emmy was about the whole situation. Emmy had to get the short end of the stick again, but hey, at least the characterization was consistent

Yeah, exactly this.

Of course, but with characters as immature and wrongly and immaturely loud (most of the time) as will and alex, always talking faster than they think because they do whatever they "feel" like and that is comsidered as the benchmark of "freedom" instead of irrationality like how we and emmy saw it, do you think a rational comversation can happen in the midst of chaos?

This is my general feelings towards the idea of the characters “just talking.” Like… even if they were to communicate, it probably wouldn’t do anything because they’re all just talking faster than they think (what a great way to phrase that!).

Because as much as that’s OUR wish fulfilment

It really is. Because of the general discourse on tumblr, sometimes I think that readers have forgotten that characters aren’t always going to do things the “right” way or a way that makes us feel good. For me, when a character behaves in a way that doesn’t make sense, it can draw out my curiosity. Why did they do that? What’s making them act this irrational way? Can I explain it? And even if the explanation is messy, there’s still something to it, I think.

and i dont think all these scenes you guys have mentioned were only catering to one pov, because clearly like mine, it was beyond just emmy giving into alex, but also everyone giving into each other.

Like Will said, Emmy was finally going over the cliff with them. And they were seeing what she was made of.

It was not also seen in a different pov like it was something good that a dominating woman gets what she wants, even when her pride was thrown out of the window.

I see what you’re saying and why it would be a good thing from Em’s pov, but again, for me, it goes back to not understanding why Alex is suddenly the one needing to be dominated. I’m all for Emmy going after what she wanted, taking it without asking. But I don’t see the bond between her and Alex, and I don’t see how it fixes anything between her and Will.

I also don’t like that this is the last fully fleshed out scenes in the series. Every other scene that would happen between the main couple after this is fade to black. It really does emphasis that Will and Emory take a back seat in their own book, and this is feeling is only amplified by how much Alex is featured afterward compared to Emmy, and the kind of scenes that Alex is the focus of in both Will and Emmy's pov.

Maybe because ikm queer so I why I can understand this scene better. The only thing that I fucking hated about this scene is the fact that will would let em fuck alex, but not aydin. If they”re all queer, then why would there be a difference between em getting pleasured by and for aydin any different than with alex? This can come off as queer or WLW fetish instead.

This is a fair explanation for what other anons have been saying. I’ve said that I couldn’t comment on it because I don’t know the intent PD, a queer author, was writing with, but this explanation does help. I had noticed the pattern, but hadn’t made the connection.

. The same goes when em was ok when will hooked up with damon, but not when he was with alex?

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that Em was ever mad about Will hooking up with Alex or anyone else. She wanted him to be happy, even if that was without her. It hurt that it couldn’t be her, and of course she didn’t want his conquests shoved in her face – which is what he did all the time. That’s where I saw her jealousy mostly come in to play. She could acknowledge what he had done and be fine, but when he started taunting her is when she’d get angry and react.

But your point stands. That was just a little side thought on my end.

I feel like we're getting angry at the scene because out of pride as the readers who we want our wants catered to us, we do not want to lose against alex in this game of cat and mouse, but we're not emmy guys, this was how SHE solves her problem, and she was TIRED OF BLEEDING.

I think it was in character for Emmy for her to want to take charge of the situation. She was never passive with Will; why would she be with anyone else.

I really just think the issue is the dynamic between Emory and Alex needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

Because she gets to trust and love herself more now, and more inclined to work with his family instead of self-sabotaging herself thinking she wasn’t enough to keep up with all of his “amazing life” and him too with everything that is her

I just really liked how you phrased this.

We might not like her to be in this shitty family, but emmy like it, likes them, never hated them, and finally found enough time and love for herself to want to admit to be apart of them, and them with her. Her going to SF and ditching will would be some readers' wish fulfilment but was nit what emmy would wnated for her life. The fact that she went back home after the horsemen went to jail, and would worry when his brother always causes trouble for them since high school showed that in a corner in he rheart where she lets herself be honest, emory did care about will and the horsemen, even if her mouth says no and her actions move backwards.

Yeah.

And this is also why I like working within canon universe a lot of the time. Because when, as a writer, you’re forced to work within the decisions the characters have made for themselves, it helps you understand and sympathize with their decisions.

It’s all very layered I think

It is all very layered. Absolutely. There is no clear-cut, right and wrong interpretation.

Do let me know if what I said makes sense, because it made sense to me but it might not to others

I think a lot of what you’ve said makes sense, and I agree with the majority of it. I do think some of it is going to be unpopular, but different interpretations is just a thing to deal with in fandoms.

Sometimes what we want from an author might not fit into our narrative because we kinda already have something in our mind that we want from themand we’re fixated on it, and I feel like this is the case for people reading nightfall

Oh it absolutely is. PD said so themselves and the negative reactions to NF is one of the reasons they don’t really want to come back to the series. And even in the bonus scene, you could see them struggling with what to write because they already knew that half the fandom was going to hate whatever it was they came up with. Which turned out to be the case with most of the people here.

Again, I can only say what I think based on my experiences, but I feel that part of the issue that what you said before – PD writes these “shocking and horrid sex scenes (physical intimacy) instead of honest talk (verbal intimacy)”, but since we’ve already had the physical intimacy, a lot of readers are ready for the domestic, verbal intimacy, and it just never comes.

I liked your "No Apologies" fic but i dont think someone as daring to make shitty turn around arc like pd would go for your tamer plot for both will and emmy, something MORE had to happen, so it was a good fic, but i cannot ever see these fanfic characterisations of emmy by you happening in PD's writing or plot

and i feel like it's because it's usually lacking in weird and shocking actions or words that were always present in pd's works

Oh yeah, I totally get that. This is very accurate and will always be so. I won’t ever write to the degree of wild, weird, or shocking that PD writes. It's just not what I'm interested in writing. My fics have just been a way to fill a hole in the narrative that I feel, and I post with the hopes that others get a moment of fun from it.

It's just a goofy fun series to not be taken too seriously at the end of the day

Couldn’t agree more. As I’ve said, this isn’t a series that was meant to be looked at this closely. It was meant to be a fun rollercoaster of a series.

And I think there is something very fun about this series and the characters and the writing that keeps readers engaged despite all its flaws, because otherwise half of us wouldn’t have made it through NF.

Sorry if this post is too much, or if i come off as harsh, i was just trying yo put two and two together, putting aside feelings and making one scene made semse with the other. Idk if that worked or not.

Not too much at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

-KO

[talesofthewonderingfool]

I bet she was told by doctors monthsssss agoooo , but knowing now , it was only in her mind that she felt burdened by telling the whole world . And not just that but her whole family . She was ousted by her sister when looking after her mum but the sister only did that because 2 weeks before she was made redundant from her job . Her whole life has been looking after her mum . Thats the samoan way…the youngest is supposed too do that . And too have it taken away like that , and not only that she passed away many months later . But it was strange it was happening because EVERYONE knew that she got high but she did what her mother wanted , and she knew what her mum liked and what not …..not her sister . But the other siblings didnt really mind it was just her older gossiping sister . The Samoan or Fa’aSamoa way is too serve.But…. its like once her mum passed like…nothing mattered too her . And eventually her body caught up too her . It took a fuckin WEEK . In the hospital on a Thursday and passed the next week on the same day…it was fucking strange too…..we came too see her that day for a visit…we got flowers too for her thinking she would be finally awake so we could tell her she the s gonna be better , mum was gonna give a whole Jesus speech and looking too the lord , all that christian stuff .We got too the hospital , went up the elevator , went the same direction…but knowing mum walked slowly and her friend that she brought over with me and my brother , went too the same room we went two days ago and her nametag wasnt in the room . A lady runs past and asks for a name and comes back but they give us a unnerving look…” ward 4” .i actually pay it no mind cause I dont wanna muck around and walk faster….. I am the first one too walk too the door . My brother and mum and her friend were walking too slow…I walked too the door and look through the window , and my cousin is balling his eyes out with arms on the end of the hospital bed. I open the door slowly….he looks at me crying and he says…Aunty just passed . But…as soon as i turn too see her , my auntys sister who wanted there mum was closing her eyes…and the colour of her skin was what threw me.It was really yellow and ive never seen her like that before…i looked into her eyes and…i dont think i will ever unsee that look again in my life. I look out and already see my mum doesnt walk through the door…but shes already crying. You see…my mum and her were best friends before my mum met my dad . But as life goes on and things change they didnt see each other as much but once together they were a duo of misfits as i see it now . As friends should be .I do eventually walk out the room cause after seeing that made me sad . I talk too my cousin later on in the other room and lays out what happened too her….she was healthy before xmas but noticed she kept going toilet…then had a really sore stomach that put her off work…she went too the hospital for sore bowels months before this week but tells the family she just got sore bowels and thats it , no one pays it no mind untill last week where they find out she has stage 4cancer . But that was soo fuckin fast i didnt even get too talk too her on her last days only the last time was a whole different time and she only missed the good times with all my cousins together mocking each other over shit that made my childhood soo fun being around that side of the family .My cousins theory is that she got told aggggesss ago and didnt wanna tell anyone . And that shit hurt because i felt like that once , “it would be better if i wasnt here”kinda talk or even not burdening anyone with my problems .But you mean too tell me , that i just missed her passing in seconds .Just as I walked through the door? There were soo many roadblocks and humps of interaction that couldve been avoided so i could see her alive ONE more time .How the fuck did it go stage 4 in one week . This maybe playing into my mind too much but its 4 fours were going on throughout that day . Ward 4 , stage 4 , and shes the fourth sister . Also 4 is a badluck number .

[aaronswarner]

I quite honestly cant grasp how people are confident elriel is just a set up for azriels character development and gwyn is endgame when

- elain is almost definitely having the next book based off the two bonus chapters. so is azriel. and elriel being set up like this regardless if they're endgame or not solidifies their books are together considering Rhysand set up a whole plot on his own with them. SJM said before each book is about one couple getting together, she couldve not potentially meant to mean only one per book but as far as that goes, there's no room left for Gwyn/lucien in elriels story to have their own journeys and endgames. she's unlikely with what we know to be writing a book about BOTH couples getting together. not to mention it's just extremely unlikely elain is going to be used just as a plot point for azriel. We know she has her own story coming and I don't know why she'd be a big part of azriels book but not have a POV.

- rhysand set up a forbidden love trope and their kiss was interrupted/azriel had to force himself to say it was a mistake/elriel are in a bad spot right now, why would sjm put all that together if she wasn't setting up a slow burn journey. if she was setting up gwyn and elain not being what's best for azriel she wouldn't have made their relationship so complicated

- why would gwyn and azriel end up together when he regifted his present to elain to gwyn just because he was told to stay away from elain lmao that never in any storytelling suggests great things for the relationship

- why would sjm put so much long term thought into elriel to just let it go in 2 seconds over a character we JUST met and is unlikely to ever be a main character. they've been set up since acomaf and acowar and she went through all the effort with the longing breadcrumbs in acofas/acosf

- gwyn as a character doesn't really add up to main character material, she already went through her journey in nestas book and while she still has more to go through (as nesta does and everyone does) it would just be odd to give her a whole book when she's not an integral part of these books

- sjm has been setting up the mate bond being rejected for elucien for awhile, just as she's been setting up elriel for awhile. elriel came true (which btw, the people who are so confident elriel is dust were the same ones who were so confident elriel were like siblings so lmao why are we trusting their bad takes?) so the mate bond rejection is likely to also come true. The ONLY way gwynriel would be endgame is if she did something so corny and made them mates, so you really think almost every main character in these books are conveniently going to end up happy with their mate when 1. mates were supposed to be rare and 2. the emphasis the cauldron can get it wrong, it would be so dry and overdone to go through TWO more mate bond journeys would be so ridiculous. What we haven't seen now is the impact and consequence of a mate bond being rejected

- gwynriel doesn't have any obstacles against them and would be so easy to get together. You can maybe say azriels trauma/obsession with elain are their obstacles but that is soooo weak for a whole 700 paged book. SJM said her couples need something in their way (those aren't her exact words I can't remember what she said exactly but something like that). Elriel is the relationship that has the forbidden love component and if they got together a whole war could be started. even elucien doesn't have much against them except elains unwillingness to give it a try. I don't know how you would think a gwynriel book would at all be interesting for anyone to read about

- basing your elriel takes off this one part is so ridiculous, claiming azriel is only obsessed and sexually attracted to elain is an already debunked point when we have 3.5 other books to go off of with him risking his life to save her, giving her truth-teller, obviously always caring about her (solstice dinner, etc) yall are just intentionally obtuse with this one

[sarroora]

Lol what u sorry for this was so much fun to read I couldn't stop laughingXD

LISTEN - I would need to record a 3-hour video or something if I wanted to say everything I have to say about the movies, so I'll shut that part of my brain up and keep it short:

Beverly Hills Cats:

I 1000% agree on the pacing. Oh my God.

When I was a kid and saw the movie for the 1st time on CN, I was just grateful we finally got something new for TC. The series was always very niche so getting his own TV movie made me happy. But after watching it again as an adult all I could do was scream internally at the pacing and the writing. Like I know it's a low-budget movie, so I can look past the poor animation, off-model characters and weird artifacts and all that. But I can't ignore the goddamn writing asghjkl but I like the cute cat jokes

Brain, Benny and Choo Choo are written quite okay in the movie. They're probably the 3 who are most in-character. Fancy and Spook come in second. Kinda.

T.C. and Dibble are ALL. OVER. THE PLACE in terms of how they're written. The especially-egregious part about Dibble is you can remove him entirely from the movie, put in literally any random new guy and it wouldn't have made any difference.

For new viewers who'd never seen the series and have no previous idea of what these characters are like, I wouldn't blame them if they decided they don't care about checking out the series because of how badly T.C. and Dibble were written.

Amy was a wasted opportunity. They could've done something really good with her, but like a lot of things in the movie her situation makes no sense and makes the ending and whole premise of the story boring.

Top Cat The Movie:

IMO this movie technically has the least problems out of the 3, but I agree that the people working on it did it with passion even if they didn't have Hollywood-level resources.

I don't really like rebooting time-piece stories into the 'current era', and this especially applies to TC since I've always loved the 60s NYC vibe it has going, so the idea of robots and automation wasn't really for me but that’s a personal preference. I watched the movie for the cute gang moments. Dibble is borderline tolerable in this movie in terms of writing but could've been a hundred times better. Since it's a reboot of sorts, I can forgive a few strange things like the gang believing for one hot second that T.C. would steal from an orphanage.

Brain barely exists in the movie, and sadly the way he’s written is unlikeable. And Strickland could've been more interesting if they didn't overuse the weird handsomeness joke.

Top Cat Begins:

OK I said that TCtM is the one with the least problems from a technical standpoint, but Begins is the one I like best for some of its concepts. Like it has some very good ideas, but the problem is that the movie was trying to do too much in too little time, so it ends up feeling like there is no proper character development.

And yeah same, I don't consider this origin story canon. (I don't really consider any of the movies canon)

Even though I don't think of Dibble's grandma's character as 'canon', she's extremely funny and I love her lol. As for Dibble my mind could never grasp that this is supposed to be the same guy as the series, they're two different characters. But at least some of his and T.C.’s interactions are actually funny.

Mr. Big is a good villain, although him being a crocodile is a little weird for me? but YES Bad Dog is super fitting into the TC verse, like I can easily see this design in the 2D series. I don't like Panther's design at all. Very out of place in terms of char design and silhouette especially when compared to everyone else. Fancy's in-movie design? I actually love it for some reason, he looks very cute. Personality-wise? Hmm...

Brain imo is a little better in this movie than in TCtM, but his, Choo Choo’s and Fancy’s backstories couldve been awesome and varied. Lumping them together in the same origin story as escaped circus performers was made because there really is no time in the movie to flesh out anyone. As for Spook-

"Also he's got a bit of a plot hole where he's like 'why should I stick my neck out for you' and then legit like 2 minutes later he's like 'i've been following you around so we can join forces' like ok bro"

☝ROFL YES? THIS?? XD☝

I appreciate that they tried to include cute gang moments which is an absolute must in my book but again - TOO MUCH going on, too little time, where's the development. T.C. telling them they're his family at the end of the movie could've been 1000x better if there was a strong build up to it. Then it wouldn't sound like a phoned-in soap opera script.

I don't have a problem with the weird animations and unpolished designs - again - because it's completely unfair to compare Anima to like, Pixar or something. They did they best they could with what they have.

So yeah, IMO both these movies rank higher than BHC thanks for coming to my ted talk~

(P.S. it always tickled me that they gave most of the cats' eyes colors similar to CGaL because now I can joke-brag that I wrote it first in 2012 lol /slapped)

Here's another ask: 1 thing you like + 1 thing you dislike about each TC movie

Almost guaranteed these are gunna end up being more than one thing because I don't know how to shut up but let's see

Beverly Hills Cats:

I like that it's silly and also because it gives Brain more of a spotlight, also it confirmed a few of my lesser headcanons (Spook can play the drums and Brain likes rats) also The Rap for their costumes (specifically Spook's and Brain's they slay) also Spook's voice is very gruff in BHC and so now I have a REAL reason to make his voice a little gravelly/give him a little growl when he talks whenever I read a dialogue from him other than just because I want to

However the PACING OH MY GOD THE PACING 😭 some of the movie just drags and the dialogue feels clunky sometimes, also the visuals look dirty if that makes sense? Everything's a strange color y'know? Also The Rap because it's so poorly composed and it makes me die a little. Also Amy Vandergelt fuck Amy Vandergelt all my homies hate Amy Vandergelt. Also Dibble didn't really feel like Dibble y'know like he was oddly mean and (extra) dense like 😭

Top Cat: The Movie:

I am inherently biased because this is a movie from my childhood I was FUCKING OBSESSED with it and would watch it every day once I got home from school in 4th grade and I still remember a dream I had about it years ago and I'm pretty sure I put Spook into a story I had to write for class 😭 it's how I got into Top Cat in the first place so I hold The Movie very near and dear to my heart anyways I really love that it legitimately feels like Anima Estudios put a lot of love into it and like they made a genuine effort to make it feel like OG even if they fell short. Also THE ARTSTYLE I WOULD FUCKING KILL TO GET A REBOOT IN THE STYLE OF THE MOVIE ARARAR GEOMETRIC ARTSTYLES EATS A BRICK anyways also Trixie, they could never make me hate you Trixie (I need to draw her more) also the robots are funny as fuck for no reason

While I still think people greatly exaggerated how bad the movie was, I can kinda understand where they're coming from because the plot holes are ABYSMAL OMG 💀 also fucking Rob Schneider is Strickland in the British dub which is immediately awful, also not as awful but Dibble doesn't feel nearly as like strict or intimidating as he did before and I think that's mostly because of the voice they gave him, it's very squeaky. Also I feel like Strickland could work as a good antagonist but I feel like they leaned into the 'oh I'm so handsome I'm the prettiest in the world' thing too hard and it just made him feel really annoying and not like an actual threat at all, also naturally the flanderization of Brain (Anima Estudios must've had beef with him or something cos they did him even more dirty in Begins)

Top Cat Begins:

To be completely Frank, to be completely David even, there's really not that much I like about Begins other than Hellcat Spook (naturally). I mean I like Furletta Duchat because she's purdy and Dib's grandmother (Grambo) because she's fucking insane. Chooch's little waddle of a walk. OH I actually REALLY like Mr. Big as a villain. He's an actual threat to T.C. and the gang and his design, voice, and behavior is actually intimidating and probably the best crafted out of any of the new characters in Begins (also his model isn't fugly like most of the rest of them). If a new movie or series ever gets made I hope he makes a return even just as like a minor villain. Also Diedrich Bader voices Bad Dog and that's an inside joke between me and my sister lmao (also I do really like Bad Dog he's an excellent goon)

First things first for things I don't like about Begins, THE MODELS. WHY ARE THEY SO UGLY. WHO'S IDEA WAS THIS. I mean like they could be worse BUT THEY COULD CERTAINLY BE BETTER 😭 I mean I do appreciate them for giving us canon eye colors for the fellas but good fucking lord

Help him 😭

Tbh I'm trying to think of who the worst offender is and tbh it's almost all of them but I will say that Benny and Spook look the best, Fancy isn't ugly but he doesn't really look like Fancy, (same with Dibble) and ig T.C. isn't bad but he's not good. Brain and Chooch though what did they do to my lads. Chooch has gingivitis and lacks fangs (actually all of them lack fangs except for T.C. and Benny which I think is especially offensive) and Brain's model is built in such a way where any mouth movement he makes looks FUCKED UP. Also his eyes are really small and so are his ears and his proportions are generally fucked.

Fun fact I found some like beta promo art for Begins a while ago and Fancy's model is completely different and dare I say he looks better than his official model

Anyways models aside I think this is kind of a dogshit origin story for the gang. Making T.C. and Benny meet Fancy, Chooch, and Brain all at the same time only to not see them for the next 45 minutes was real fuckin lame-o and lazy and they also retconned that whole thing where T.C. and Benny were in Boy Scouts together which I really didn't appreciate. Also could've stood to have moar Spook in the movie instead of him being a deus ex machina and having LESS THAN TEN MINUTES OF SCREENTIME, like shit dawg. Also I always thought it was lame that he was just the pizza guy and not ACTUALLY involved with Mr. Big y'know? Also he's got a bit of a plot hole where he's like 'why should I stick my neck out for you' and then legit like 2 minutes later he's like 'i've been following you around so we can join forces' like ok bro if that was the case you would've just pulled them up and not've done that whole thing where you made it seem like you would've left them there but alright dawg. In my opinion I would've had it where Mr. Big sends out Spook to find them and follow them around after they lose their tracks of them and then when they escape Spook's grasp THEN Mr. Big fucks up Eleanore. Anyways what else. Uhh. Oh I can't tell if they just forgot what Dibble acted like or they tried making him younger in Begins but like. That's not Dibble. Who is that. Also again, Brain flanderization to the extreme and some mischaracterization of Fancy. Anyways I think that's it actually

This turned into a full rant I'm sorry 😭 but yeah I think a remake/revamp of Begins is in order because it's so bad and then BHC isn't bad, just mid at times, and then I've always found The Movie to be charmingly bad despite it's plot holes

[tastyykpop]

𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛-ρ† 3

Pairings: enemy, barista, student!jaemin x student, barista!reader. 

<previous next>

Warnings: fluff, angst if you squint real hard

Anger and frustration was the only way to describe it. Plus the lingering feeling of humiliation when jaemin didn't give a direct answer. Students eyed the two of you, mostly you for your braveness to even confront the boy which was shocking from their point of view, knowing all too well of your history with each other.

For once though, you've seen jaemin hesitate and stutter with an answer. It was quite something really, and you couldn't believe it.

And it wasnt like it was a yes or no answer, he only blurted out, "W-we have tu-tutor sessions...later...." and walked away after a few seconds of looking at you. God, and everyone was whispering among themselves and friends like it was the hottest topic, which in a strange sense it kind of was.

You dragged yourself back to the table where yeri sat and put your head in your arms.

You felt stupid. This wasn't how you thought your day would go, nor did you think jaemin would say something like that. Instead, you thought jaemin would for sure say yes. The things he said, the way he acted, jaemin couldve passed as your boyfriend and you thought maybe now it was possible.

"Y/n are you okay?" Yeri put a hand on your arm and you shook your head, still buried in your arms.

"I hate him." Your voice came out muffled.

Yeri let out a long sigh, "Its going to be okay. There’s plenty of other guys you'll meet who'll be worth your time." She stopped when you lifted your head. The look on your face was melancholy and red, but she didn't know what she could do about it. "What about that taemin guy? He's pretty cute. And from what you told me, he's super nice." Yeri wiggled her eyebrow suggestively making you groan.

"I don’t want to hurt him." You frowned, not being able to imagine using him as a rebound, "I realized I don’t like him like I thought I did."

"I get it. But don't pain yourself over a boy." She shook her head and let out a quiet chuckle, "especially jaemin."

"But jaemins literally what I want. How am I supposed to ignore that?"

Yeri stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, "Its almost impossible to ignore feelings..." There was a short pause until she started again, "So maybe just...ignore him? I don’t know man, I’m not good at this stuff."

"Yeah no shit," You snorted, "but ignoring him is an option. He gets mad when I do things like that, and ignoring him would get his attention, which means," you took a deep breath and grinned, "I’d get my ass destroyed by him whenever he breaks!"

"That’s literally not at all what I meant by ignoring him."

You sat back in your seat, smiling like a maniac to yourself at the devilish plan that would possibly not end well for you.

"But it could work." You pointed out.

"Could doesn't mean would. You know what, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall." As yeri stood up and gathered her trash, you threw your pile along with hers just to annoy her. "This is why I'm your only friend."

"I thought you were going over jaemins for tutoring?" Jimin asked with a raised brow at your sudden intrusion into the apartment giving him no time to put a shirt on.

"I decided not to go." You shrugged, setting your bag on the floor. In reality, it was just the start of your plan of ignoring jaemin, but you weren't going to tell jimin that.

"Huh?? But you said he was good at trig and you would fail without him." As he tilted his head in confusion, you tried to come up with an excuse.

And not even a second later, an idea popped into your head, "I’m starting to understand it better." It wasn’t far from the truth to be honest, jaemin was doing a very good job at explaining, but in reality, you weren't perfect at all.

"Liar! You suck at trig!"

Your eye twitched, "I understand it slightly better."

"I still don't believe you." Jimin shrugged, "its only been like 2 days."

"I’m a fast learner." You huffed. Sadly your roommate knew you too well for you to lie. It wasn’t surprising anymore that he could point out just one flaw.

"Another lie. Now run along, I’m watching tv." Jimin shoo'ed you away with a hand motion. It took almost all your patience not to say anything in return, but it was pointless now.

Once in your room, you threw yourself onto the bed, not caring enough to close the door as you started changing from school clothes to regular shorts and a tank top.

Now once looking back at it, today was just a weird day. It was quiet in all the classes like someone just flipped a switch and one thing that threw you off the most was that jaemin didn’t ignore you completely like you thought he would, but instead he still helped with the work you were struggling with. Other than that he never talked to you. And it wasn’t like you wanted him to, you actually didn't want him to because of your little plan.

To be expected, you got multiple texts from him wondering where you were and why you weren't at his house and each text got more and more threatening so you just put your phone on silent and decided to take a nap until work. If this is how jaemin acts when you ignore him for barely a day then it should be easier to break him then you thought.

Rolling over in your bed, you closed your eyes, ignoring the aching feeling of anxiousness in your gut and tried to get some sleep. But sleeping was almost impossible. No matter how sleepy you were, or how heavy your eyes were, sleeping just didn't want to come. And you really didn't want to go on your phone because jaemin was calling you and in a matter of time you would probably answer it because you were just a little afraid of him.

Moving out of the bed and getting ready for work was your last option. Though the amount of black pants and white shirts that were lost from your closet made you realize how much you actually worked. The last time you had a day off was during summer vacation with jimin and a few of his friends plus yeri. Its been a while, and you kind of missed the break but you can't complain too much since you're making such good money.

After throwing on the clothes and lacing up your shoes, you left after saying good bye to jimin. Its still early, but you couldn't bring yourself to pass time until work and going there wasn’t as bad as one may think.

After you got in the car, you left the apartment, driving off to the cafe. You blasted some of your music on the way, singing the lyrics loudly since no one was in the car. You gotta say, driving alone is sometimes more fun since you can do stuff like this without people judging you.

Finally at the cafe, Irene happily greeted you, not giving you time to say hi back and started jumping up and down talking about her promotion to manager. She literally looked like she'd explode any minute from too much happiness.

"I get to boss you around even more than I did before." She grinned and you playfully shoved her to get to your station.

"If that’s possible." A little fist punched your shoulder as you laughed, "I’m kidding, I’m kidding."

"Hey, I'm not that bad! But I could be worse if you’d like." You covered your mouth to stifle the laugh that would come out when she sent you a wink.

There were many orders coming up, food, smoothies, coffee, anything. It kept you, irene, and your coworkers in the back completely occupied and busy. Youd even catch yourself drifting off into space because you were working too fast, almost messing some orders up too.

"I can bring this to the customer, go work on the other orders please." Irene rushed away after you smiled and did what she wanted.

Moments passed and after a few more drinks you saw the familiar black haired man walking into the back where you stood making a drink.

Jaemin didn't look all too happy when he saw you, so you tried your best to ignore him, but its not easy to ignore someone who’s been on your mind the whole day and somehow you're just figuring that out now.

He looked nice too, well he always does, but his black hair looked particularly very good. The way it was parted yet still fell over his face on some ends, and the way some parts stuck out just looked pretty on him.

"You’re here early...again." jaemin spoke while looking up at the orders, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"I was kind of bored at home." You muttered, moving as jaemin reached over you for a cup.

"Should’ve came to my house to study, maybe you wouldn't have been so bored." He lifted an eyebrow in your direction almost tauntingly and expecting a snap back but you stayed quiet, keeping it silent for a bit.

Jaemin was doing his order, and you did yours, though it did feel like time was just dragging you slowly through the day because you were so anxious near him. You felt as if he would break if you stepped out of place even just a bit. But wasn’t that your plan in the first place? 

"Why didn't you answer my texts?" Jaemin began and you looked up from the last drink you put in the tray. He had anticipated your answer as you suspired.

"I was sleeping.."It was obvious that you didn’t want to talk as you tried to walk away with the tray in hand followed by jaemin grabbing your shirt and pulling you back, the tray tipping slightly.

"Sleeping? How could you be sleeping when you read my texts? Now why are you lying to me?" Question after question, you tried wiggling out of his strong grasp and rolled your eyes to show you didn’t care. With only so much patience left, jaemin grabbed your hair, bringing your face closer to his. "I asked you a question so i suggest you answer before I spank your ass in front of everyone."

You stopped and nervously looked around the cafe to see if anyone heard him, but luckily for you everyone was minding their own business or not paying attention but still you couldn’t mask your shyness, "Y-you wouldn't do that. You're bluffing." You huffed.

Though you're not much shorter than jaemin, you felt small under his strong gaze, almost weaker near him too.

"Wanna bet?" He questioned and his sincerity was almost scary. You could feel his hand snake a bit too far down your backside and you pushed him off. "Answer me; why are you lying?"

"I don’t know." He slowly let go of your hair and ran his fingers through it. Nervousness fell over you, thinking he'd grab it again.

"You don’t know, huh." Jaemin said softly. You shook your head hoping he'd believe it.

"I-i don’t.."

Jaemin rolled his eyes, "Don’t lie or ignore me again."

"Yeah yeah whatever-" You cried when he grabbed and tugged on your hair again, making your face contort in pain, "Okay! Fine! I wont do any of that again!"

That being said, jaemin let go after giving you that natural look telling you not to push him today, or any day for that matter. "Little bitch." You mumbled.

"Call me that again, I dare you."

It took almost all of your self control to not flip him off.

Lee jeno, the infamous frat boy and fuck boy on campus, was jaemins closest friend. He was gorgeous, kind, and smart, but one thing that set you off about him was he could be quite rude. Just one flaw, and it happened to only be towards you. So you wondered; 'why the hell am I asking lee jeno for help when there's a hundred more men in this school?' Because jeno was jaemins closest friend. Plain and simple. The only thing is, your brilliant plan could fail. Either way it was a fifty-fifty chance.

"Lee jeno!" You called and ran up to the boy, confused as to why you looked happy to see him when you and him don't really like each other. "I have a question."

"I might have an answer." Jeno surprisingly smiled, now you see why people were whipped.

"I want to make jaemin jealous."

He stopped in his tracks and nervously laughed, "Why would you want to do that? Of all things?"

You smiled up at him, "I wanna be a pain in his ass so I have an idea and I need your help." Jeno scratched the back of his head, still not sure where you were headed with this conversation.

"Uhh...okay what is it then?" You happily jumped when jeno gave you the go to ask.

"Can you be my fake boyfriend?"

"You’re who-what!?" Jeno choked trying to find a hint that you were joking and just testing him or something, but you were dead serious and that's what made him scared. "So you’re plan to make jaemin jealous is to date me? Damn that’s kinda smart and bit bitchy."

You frowned, "I just like making him regret certain things and testing his patience is all."

"So a bitch," he shrugged, " but how the hell would this whole thing work? You and I don’t have a really good record with each other and hes well aware of that. Jaemins not dumb." Jeno pointed out as you tilted your head in almost a ‘you’re so stupid’ manner.

“Didn’t you take acting lessons?” There was a slight delay but he nodded nonetheless, “Then just act the part, lee. Its not that hard.” you rolled your eyes with a scoff, jeno playfully slapped your shoulder.

“Its not that simple! Its you for gods sake! How am i supposed to pretend to like you?”

“I dont know, you just do it.” Shrugging off the almost annoyed yet smiling boy, you noticed someone out the corner of your eye; the devil himself. Just staring at the two of you. Surprisingly, jeno took notice of that and grabbed your hand while walking close to you, never letting his smile fall, and walked around the school building to a bench.

"That was smooth." You mumbled earning a laugh from jeno. "See, was that so hard?”

The boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously with an eye smile, “I guess not, but do you really think he’ll fall for it?”

That was a good question and if you sat and thought about it more, you probably would’ve said no, but for some reason you pushed out a yes. Jaemins a jealous and possessive boy, there’s no way this shouldn’t work.

“Hell yeah. Have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Well-”

“Don’t answer that.”

Currently, you and jeno were awkwardly flirting with each other in front of jaemin at the cafe. Light touches and small smiles and giggles was kind of annoying in jaemins eyes. But this was the best plan yet.

After not going to jaemins third tutor session and ignoring multiple other calls because he didn’t bother texting anymore, you were at the cafe on your day off just to piss him off. And for some reason, this was probably the most fun, yet awkward moment in your life.

"Is he still watching?" Jeno whispered as he smiled to make it seem as if he was flirting.

You quickly glanced up and jaemin was indeed still watching, actually glaring, but you couldn't even tell if it was at you or jeno, maybe even both.

"Hes still watching." You turned and grinned at him. "He looks very mad."

"I know something to get him more mad."

"And what would that be?" Raising an eyebrow at him, jeno suddenly grabbed you by your face and kissed your cheek.

"Now look back and tell me if hes still there."

You were shocked but did as he said and sure enough, jaemin was no where to be seen, "Hes gonna kill us..."

"No just you, I’ll be gone by then." He laughed when you sent him a glare. "This was your plan not mine."

"And this will for sure end my life later on," You faced jeno, "When was the last time he was really mad?"

Jeno sat back to think about it and let go of your hand that you forgot he was holding, "He got into a fight with one of our friends just a few months ago. You know donghyuck, right?"

You nodded your head. Of course you knew donghyuck, he was the biggest brat of them all and out of every one of jaemins friends, you got along with him pretty well, turning out to be very good friends. You haven't talked to him in few weeks though, college kind of messed some things up for you guys but you still try to keep in contact as much as possible.

"Well a few months ago jaemin and hyuck got into this huge fight."

"Was it as bad as that time mark and hyuck fought?" You asked and jeno shook his head.

"No it was probably worse. Jaemin was almost in a fist fight with him--actually no I think they did end up physically fighting." Jeno sighed, "Anyways jaemin was super cold to everyone and got into a lot of fights with some other people like me," he giggled at the thought, "It was also around the time he dumped coffee on your head."

Only jeno could bring back that stupid coffee incident and make you remember when you wanted to commit a murder.

"That was one of the worst things hes done to me don’t make me think of that." You whined, throwing your head back, "And hes done a lot of bad things."

Jeno grinned, he was standing next to jaemin at the time laughing at you. In his perspective it was funny, but for you, it was not.

"Not gonna lie it was kind of funny, but I did feel a bit bad."

"Woah. You felt bad for me!? Who the hell are you?" You said dramatically making jeno throw his head back in laughter.

"Someone who actually has remorse," He looked you up and down before starting again, "for some people."

You huffed, "And to think you were becoming nice." Jeno giggled one last time but it quickly faded away when a hand slammed on the table.

Both of you looked up at the boy with jet black hair, he was none too happy with all your laughing and 'flirting', and wanted to interrupt it the best he could.

"Hey jeno," jaemin nodded his head in his friends direction, somehow managing to make his anger dissolve into a real smile.

"Whats up?" Jeno smiled.

You sat back staring at the two, jaemins eyes were locked onto jenos and his hand was still sitting there. They were like statues.

"Oh you know...working and watching you dumbasses flirt." Jaemin painfully grit his teeth, still holding a smile and you tried not to laugh.

Out of all things you found cute, it was jaemins poor attempt at trying not to be angry or jealous. It was like watching a rom-com but in real life.

"Its disgusting." Jaemin mumbled.

He turned towards you, but with no smile like you didn’t deserve one which in this case you was probably true since this was your idea in the first place.

"I've never seen you come here on your day off. Isn't that a bit strange?"

"Jeno wanted something sweet," you lied, "and we have the best sweets. What, can I not come here on my day off?” Man did jaemin find you annoying right now. It was getting to the point that talking to you was becoming a chore. Either he couldn’t talk to you because you ignored him or you started speaking in ways that made his eye twitch.

"You're gonna be in so much trouble later." Jaemin muttered low enough for you to hear. Jeno smirked at jaemins words too, knowing this was working way too well for you. "I should get back to work before irene gets mad and you guys should get going too."

You raised a brow, "And why is that?"

"Jeno always brings his dates home to fuck."

"If you're jealous then just say it." You growled.

Jaemin looked between you and a red faced jeno and snickered, "Im not jealous, I already had my turn." He winked and walked away leaving you and jeno staring at each other with wide eyes.

"I...feel like this didn’t go as we intended.." jeno laughed but with no emotion, almost in a sadistic way.

You puffed out your cheeks, not sure what to do now that jaemin was playing like this too.

"I should bring you back home." He started standing but you grabbed his hand to stop him.

"No wait.” He looked down at you, “Isn't there a party later?"

"Yeah?" jeno tilted his head, wondering why you’re asking this question when you never go to any of the frat party’s.

"Lucas is throwing it right?" Jeno nodded his head and you perked up, "Can we go?"

It was a strange request, you never wanted to go to any parties because you worked and studied whenever you felt the need to, so parties were never on your mind. But right now, you felt that a party is what you need. You've never been but it can't be that bad if you're with someone. And you even know the host so there should be other people you know too. It would be fun anyway.

"If you really want to, but you might lose me at some point."

"That’s okay," your face said otherwise, "I’ll try to find someone I know." It wasn’t likely that you would, but you knew that the main people who were going to go was hyuck and lucas. There was also jaehyun and johnny, the only thing was you didn’t know them as well as hyuck or lucas and ever talked to them a few times. They were nice, but you probably wouldn't go up to them and strike up a conversation.

"Alright then let's go, the party’s gonna start in like two hours. And seeing how long it took you just to get ready for this stupid date, you’re probably gonna need it." Jeno pulled you up by the hand that stopped him before, and you both walked out of the cafe.

You got into jenos car and put on your seat belt waiting patiently for him to drive off. The only problem was that he was busy on his phone, trying to find music to play.

"Don’t look at me like that." Jeno did a double take at your unamused face that clearly stated you wanted to leave so you can get ready for the party.

"Then pick a damn song and let's go." You smacked his thigh repeatedly causing him to groan and put his playlist on shuffle, driving off after hitting play. "See, that wasn’t so hard now was it?"

"Your’e annoying. I cant believe i even said yes to this fake dating thing. Now I see why jaemin didn’t respond."

"Hey that's not very nice," you pouted, "and don't make me think of that for God sake, its depressing."

"Good now shut up and let me drive." And so you did, letting just the music and jenos quiet singing be the only thing playing in your ears.

It was a quick ride anyway from your job to the apartment, jimin was doing his normal thing which was sitting on the couch shirtless and watching dramas. The little up and down he gave jeno wasn't unseen by you either, but you never commented as you walked by with a smirk.

Jeno was close behind you too almost like a lost puppy. He even sat on your bed and watched you apply a bit of make up for the party and lazily lounged about as you picked an outfit, not sure whether to go with an innocent pink flowy skirt, or black ripped jeans.

"I like the skirt better," jeno hoisted himself on the bed, "it gives me better access-"

"Don’t even think about it!" You whipped a pillow straight to his head, he wasn’t quick to dodge as it hit him perfectly where you wanted it to, "I’m about to choose the jeans."

The boy tilted his head as he pouted at the two choices in your hand, Jeno preferred the innocent look on women but this wasn’t for him--in fact it wasn’t for anyone except yourself, but he couldn’t stop from staring at the pretty baby pink skirt.

"How about you try them on and pick which one you think looks better on you." He smiled that eye smile of his after having a little war with himself.

You nodded your head and rushed to the bathroom to throw on one of the bottoms first.

Once you came back, you stood in front of jeno with the jeans on and checked yourself out in the mirror. It hugged your waist sweetly and complimented your legs well, but you didn’t think this was going to be the winner out of the two.

"Okay maybe a skirt would look better." You whispered loud enough for jeno to hear.

"Told you! Skirts suit you better anyways." Jeno sat against the headboard in victory as you went back to change into a skirt. The only thing left was a top, but jeno seemed to already have that covered when he threw a white laced bralette at your face. "This is cute." He made heart eyes at the bralette you held up.

"It is but don't you think it would show too much?" You questioned, though you couldn’t lie that you were a bit tempted to wear it though it did cut a bit low.

"Dude its fine, a lot of other girls wear way worse stuff than what I just gave you."

You decided to trust jenos words, and left to put on the shirt. Unsurprisingly it looked amazing with the skirt and your beautiful skin. So maybe jeno was good at picking clothes out, but you wouldn't tell him that.

After doing any last few touches you had, you and jeno left after saying goodbye to jimin, who was still checking jeno out, and left for the party.

"You’re not gonna change?" You wondered as you sat in the car.

Jeno shrugged and smiled, "I’m a guy so I don't care what I wear."

"Thats cap."

Jeno rolled his eyes and began driving to the destination. Sometime during the ride you snatched his phone to find a good song to play, ignoring the boy who whined as you took it from him.

After finding a song and placing the phone back down, you carelessly started belching the lyrics out to purposely irritate jeno who was struggling to not pull the car over and leave.

"Y/n, who sings this song?"

"Michael Jackson, why?"

"Please keep it that way."

"I-"

"And we are here!!" Jeno slammed on his breaks and peacefully left the car as if he didn’t just insult your singing. You got out, a bit intimidated by the crowd of people standing outside dancing with drinks in hand while others smoked. Girls all in tight shirts that hugged them perfectly or the shorts that made their ass pop almost literally. Boys being boys by taking shots or chugging their beer in competitions. This was all new to you and somehow you found yourself clinging onto jenos arm like a little girl.

"Is it always this crowded?" You looked up waiting for his answer.

"Yeah but that's because it's lucas' party. He always knows how to bring people in," he looked around at some of the unfamiliar faces that were chilling by the entrance, "c’mon let's go inside."

Jeno dragged you in like you were the lightest thing and passed you a cup once at a table filled with drinks.

"Want something. Maybe a shot?" Jeno winked as you scoffed.

You looked between the variety of drinks, they were all too strong or too bitter for your liking because of your lack of drinking so it only made your face scrunch, "These are all disgusting."

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you're a light weight!" Jeno complained but needless to say he still grabbed your cup, barely filling it with some alcohol and handed it back.

You looked at the somewhat dark liquid and sniffed it. Not the sweetest scent, but it is what it is. Tilting your head back, you drank the small amount that jeno gave you and he watched with wide eyes as you coughed at the intense flavor. Something like a mix of cinnamon.

"...you just drank fireball.." jeno mumbled but you were still focused on the burning sensation in the back of your throat. It definitely isn’t a smooth drink and its fairly strong, something you can't take, but you shook the cup in his face for more, "Are you trying to get wasted?"

"Well we are at a party-"

"Y/NNN!!!!" A voice interrupted the conversation and you both turned to see none other than lucas himself running towards you with wide arms, two cups in hand, and a huge smile on his face. "I haven't seen you in so long!!" Lucas engulfed you in a bear crushing hug making jeno laugh behind you.

"You saw me last week." You said in his chest, still being crushed by the giant.

"That’s a long time for some people, be considerate man." Lucas let go, drinking out of the cup in his right hand. "So what brought you here? You never come to parties."

"I asked jeno-"

Lucas spat out his drink, "Jeno!?" He looked behind you to jeno smiling and waving at him. "I think i drank too much cuz im seeing shit." He stared into his drink.

Jeno chuckled and took the other drink out of lucas' hand, "You aren't seeing things." He started drinking from the cup and Lucas frowned watching the younger. "She just wanted to come with me for some reason."

Lucas looked at you and you nodded back, "Then now that you're here, get drunk so we can play games."

"More fireball?" Jeno lifted the bottle up and Lucas nodded.

"More fireball."

You shouldn't have taken more than 2 shots of fireball. It was impossible for you to think straight, in fact, you found yourself sitting on jenos lap with him being equally as drunk, well, maybe not as bad but still pretty hammered. 

There were even times where you both would start flirting with no context. From someone else's point of view, it was probably funny, but to you and him, it was like you wanted to get into each others pants.

"Look," jeno lazily pointed over to the entrance where seulgi walked in with jaemin close behind. "I have a plan if you wanna do it."

"Hmm," you frowned at the two, jaemin was smiling at seulgi who was talking his ear off and giving him subtle flirtatious hints while she walked to the drink table, "Sure what is it?"

Smirking, jeno moved his hand lower on your waist, "Promise you won't kill me after this?"

"Depends on what you're gonna do."

Jeno reached to take a sip of beer, knowing that after this night he'd be throwing up from all the drinking, "Ill do it when he looks over."

A drunken pout sat on your face as you were so curious to know what he had in mind, but jeno still grinned at your behavior, rubbing up and down on your waist.

What shocked you the most was when jeno suddenly put his lips on yours. You've figured out by now that this was his plan so you didn't push him off.

Though you couldn't see it, jenos was staring into jaemins eyes as he smirked against your lips. It was like he beat jaemin at something and came up to the top for once. But you were too focused in making out with jeno to even notice the burning eyes in your back, watching as jeno gripped your hips and kissed you back hungrily like a devil. He tasted like alcohol and you couldn't say you were any sweeter, but maybe it was the intoxication that made you start to enjoy this moment a little more than you should’ve.

"W-what the hell...?" Jeno pulled back hesitantly looking behind you. Trying to look back, jeno took you by the face making you look at him, "Please only look at me."

"Whyyyy?" You leaned into his hand and jeno almost softened up but clenched his jaw in return.

"Drink some water." He changed the subject, handing you his bottle of water that he kept with him the entire time for whenever any of you needed it, and right now seemed like the time.

You swatted his hand away, almost spilling the water and started, "But I wanna look."

"Unless you want to see jaemin shoving his tongue down seulgis throat, I suggest you don’t."

"Hes what!??"

Jeno giggled like a little school girl probably from your furious face, "Its what you get, so don't even get mad when you do the same thing."

"But you’re the one who kissed me first, I only went along with it." Your growled and took a heavy chug from the water you pushed away. "I’m mad at you."

"Should’ve pushed me off."

"I figured you did it for a reason."

"Then don’t get mad."

"I- you- I'm gonna be mad!!"

Jeno rubbed his temples like you were the most infuriating thing known to man. He doesn't know how jaemin could put up with you and hes amazed how far he got with your antics. It was ticking him off but he didn't want to just drop you now, it was still somewhat fun.

"We should go dance." You looked towards the many groups of sweaty people grinding on each other, having a good time enjoying the party. You sighed, it would be fun you thought. 

Jeno perked up at your sudden mood change noticing how you weren't in the slightest mad anymore, now registering that you have mood swings when you're drunk or tipsy.

"I don’t dance."

"Don’t lie! You're literally a dancer, c’mon!" You got up off his lap and hoisted him up, bringing him to the dance floor. He placed his hands on your hips as you moved against him, just letting the music flow through you and let your body move on its own.

You didn’t actually care if jaemin saw you grinding on his best friend because right now, you were actually having fun. Maybe it was because you were wasted or maybe it was because of the excitement and happiness here that made you love it so much. Either way, you found joy just dancing with jeno.

"Isn't this fun?" You moved your head to smirk at him, but jeno seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"Maybe if you weren't grinding on me, I'd say yes, but right now it's a hard no."

You knew what he meant and that’s why you pushed back a bit. Stopping when he gripped your hips in a way that hurt a bit.

"Stop it y/n." He whispered in your ear.

You whined and said, "Make me." Jeno stood back, not sure what to do right now. He may be a fuck boy but he has boundaries. Plus you’re drunk and don’t know what you’re saying.

"We should go home."

"But I wanna dance and have fun with you!!" You voice came out slurred and jeno automatically took another step back.

"Not gonna happen, you’re wasted." Grabbing your hand, he walked towards the front door so he could bring you home, but of course this would be the perfect time for jaemin to stop him.

"Whats wrong with her?" His voice was laced with concern seeing your current state; droopy eyes, and a way too happy smile.

"Shes drunk so I’m taking her back home." Jeno tried walking passed but jaemin stopped him again. If jeno wasn’t as drunk or tispy, jaemin probably would’ve let him bring you back, but jaemin couldn’t be so sure and wanted you safe. Plus, he may or may not be a bit mad at jeno.

"No stay, I can bring her back." Jaemin pushed, not because he wanted to show you discipline for the last few days, but because he was genuinely worried for your current state.

"What about seulgi?"

Jaemin looked back at the girl who was now talking with some of her friends, clearly not paying attention or taking notice of his disappearance. "She'll be fine." He brushed it off, "Lemme take y/n."

It took a few seconds for jeno to let go of your hand and stand back for jaemin to take you before you fell over. But he was so gentle with you, and because of that jeno was sure jaemin wouldn’t do anything bad to you.

"Be careful." Jeno said, jaemin nodded back and walked away with you slightly stumbling down the stairs just after he said that.

You started giggling at yourself while jaemin was actually struggling to keep you up. Somehow though, he made it to the car before you tripped and out your seat belt on before climbing in the drivers seat.

"Nana, where are we going?" You slurred.

Jaemin smiled at the little nickname you never used, "To my house if that’s fine with you."

"Your house is nice." Leaning against the window, you rested your head as you started zoning out.

Jaemin didn't mind though, he wanted you to get some rest, at least before he got to his house so he could put you to bed. But it wasn't like you'd sleep for long because the drive was only 5 minutes. 

When jaemin started carrying you out, that was when you started putting up a fight. Not only was jaemin try his best to not get angry, but he also tried to reason with himself when you started whining and pushing him away. Either sweet talk or show who's in charge.

"Y/n please cut it out, I’m just bringing you to my room." Jaemin groaned, struggling to keep you still in his arms.

"But I wanna walk."

"You can barely walk right now."

You didn’t care and continued moving around and kicking his arms away trying to get him to put you down, but just like you--he was stubborn and he carried you the whole way to his bed.

Softly putting you down, he went to grab some clothes for you. When he came back you already discarded your skirt and were about to take your bralette off until jaemin stopped you.

"What are you doing?" He pulled your hand away from the strap.

"I wanna play with you."

Jaemin shook his head at your sad face and pulled your body closer to his so he could start getting you changed, "Its almost 3am and you're drunk." but you whined once he rejected you.

“So what? Im still giving you my consent anyway.” You said, smiling at him as he took your top off, quickly putting a shirt on to cover you up. He wondered how you could wear such a tight top without feeling uncomfortable.

“You're not giving me full consent, y/n. I’m not gonna take advantage of you.” He stepped away after dressing you. Jaemin had only put a shirt on you and just left you in your underwear since it seemed the most comfortable. 

Jaemin changed too, only wearing sweatpants and no shirt because he was most comfortable that way himself, and crawled into bed with you. Somehow you found yourself already snuggled into his chest, breathing in his delicious cologne.

“Goodnight nana.” you mumbled into his chest.

“Goodnight princess,” jaemin hesitated for a second before speaking again, “nana loves you.”

You woke up to a painful headache and an empty bed. You knew where you were at least, but didn’t know how you got here. The last think you remembered was sitting with lucas, jeno and some other people playing a game of beer pong. That was probably when you got hammered, but why where you at jaemins house?

As much as you wanted to sit up and go find jaemin, your headache is what kept you in bed.

“Jaemin!!” You screamed, the sound of feet came running up the stairs.

“What is it? Are you okay? Do you need water? Medicine?” Question after question and jaemin seemed worried at your distressed state.

“Medicine and water would be nice actually.” You murmured and jaemin was already on his way to get what you needed.

Jaemin handed you two pills and a glass of ice water. You thanked him and took them, swallowing both the pills and the water at the same time.

“Do you need anything else?” His face still held concern and you almost wondered why he wasn’t mad at you like he had been for the past few days. Though you easily brushed it off as a sign that maybe he let you off the hook.

“No I’m good now.” You shook your head causing jaemin to sigh in relief and fall on the bed next to you. He gave you space, letting you cuddle and wrap yourself up in his blankets assuming that you were trying to find ways to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. And as much as he wanted to hold you, he was almost too scared to. It was funny really. Jaemin; the most out-going yet introverted person ever, was too scared to touch you right now.

Maybe it was his feelings getting the best of him or maybe he was too scared to finally fall in love with someone hes afraid of hurting in the end.

[bimbosupreme]

mephistopheles love post

the equivalent of a mental breakdown tangent is all going under a read more

yes believe it or not that freaky ass literally not even human clown in fgo gets love, and love from who? me and like 3 other people

first off

ok and with that out of the way,

i’m not even familiar with their lore. Reason why i stopped caring about the lore behind faust and mephistopheles is that an interlude happens that shows that mephistopheles is just some homunculi made by some mage nobody named faust. and even then the interlude doesn’t talk about the lore behind the novel, its just you helping mephy kill faust

that being said though i would hope the developers expand on their origins more and potentially even release a “true” mephistopheles (a girl can dream)

So, they’re not even the real deal demon known as Mephistopheles in the first place, and i can hear u going “well that’s lame” and like, no, we just need to redirect our feelings from appreciating a demon to appreciating a homunculi who has a weird characterization in the fate universe

Design tangent:

Fgo was actually my first gacha, and so when I came across this servant I kinda instantly fell in love with their design, I love the colors used in their final ascension and overall appearance. The hat that has horns but they're not quite horns, theyre these weird colorful pointy twisty things, the large garish butterfly ornament on their chest (which isnt ugly at all and somehow works so well with their everything on them) is cool, the tights are so cool to look at, i mean look -- a checkered pattern with golden lining on the shorts portion, the tits out look like yes we get it youre insane, the gloves??? purple and also cool, plus theyve got this gradient thing going on? and the fingers have this line going through them, thats so cool. actually the only other servant that comes close to this in terms of “out there” colorful designs is probably final ascension kama and qsh ( i love them both). Also, mephy has this scissor weapon?? thats so cool lol i dont see any other servant wielding giant scissors (for the love of god give mephy an animation update i need to see them use the scissors while doing flips) and they also have this bomb obsession going on? cant relate, but the bombs designs are so so cool i mean its a fucking centipede -- no idea if centipedes are a thing in the original faust but thats something Ill have to look up at some point. ALSO mephy is wearing heels oh my god anytime people wear heels is an automatic win. No clue whats going on with the hair but its kinda cute (dont question me on that) and it has curls and the hair colors are cool i mean its like a lavender thing with darker purple highlights? i love colorful things and i love people with wacky personalities so. Oh my god their tail how could i forget that its so cute and dumb i almost forgot it was there, like what is that even a whip? i dont.. but its got these little purple tips to them that are kinda cute/cool but more cool because tails are fucking up there alongside heels in terms of cool stuff on characters. and of course their fluffly cape -- again no idea what the designers were going for i mean look its a mess of a design i have no fucking idea what any of it means and i hope they explain it someday because that hair and the butterfly and the tail and the hat and the fluffy garb and a bomb obsession?? and this got the go ahead - yeah lets add that to the game like what

ALSO LETS TALK ABOUT THEIR EYES

appreciate these with me for a second

god.

oh and the blue lipstick and face paint god thats a cool design ugh

they can be normal too or at least as normal as possible i mean they even trimmed their eyebrow here lol but you can see the not so well hidden insanity/goofiness peaking through with the inside of the suit at the bottom being highlighter purple and a green shirt with gold accents underneath the black coat at the front <3, fuckin hate that hairstyle tho bro we gotta get that middle part hairstyle outta hereeeee--

TAKE A DETOUR AND LOOK AT THIS LINK THOUGH THIS IS THE MOST NORMAL AND BEST IVE SEEN THEM IN FANART. THE POTENTIAL IS THERE. WE CAN HAVE NICE THINGS AND THEY LOOK GREAT ITS POSSIBLE. I HAVE TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE FROM THAT DRAWING.

anyways this is me going off all about why i like their design! but we haven’t even touched the nitty gritty of it all. their personality! what personality you may ask? havent they always been some weirdo laughing a lot and saying dumb shit all the time? well yes and no

Characterization:

True to their dumb little clown design mephy also acts like one.

Some servants bond 1 lines are like “fuck off” and some actually talk to you, nah this bastard mephistopheles’ just laughing. and for the second bond line it seems to imply theyre fuckin with you more (showing up and dissapearing and saying ‘afterimage’) so thats nice that theyre actually making some effort to mess with you in a way? some servants take a long time to actually interact with you so this shows theyre not afraid of interacting with you and thats just at bond 2. and of course the third bond line implies they were probably trying to betray you, its stated in more than 1 place that mephistopheles (actually isnt this a caster class thing?) will betray you or attempt to do so. So the third bond line seems to imply that their attempts have been stopped by you and that’s what they say after some failed attempts. So after stopping this freak from doing some shit their next bond line is actually doing a confession! a jester being honest who couldve seen that one coming but theyre 100% not lying, they really arent a demon but a homunculi made by faust

speaking of faust we’re going to backtrack a little into their interlude that i brought up at the start of this post, its one of those dream interludes and it starts with mephy asking you to help him plant bombs for their eventual reuinion/showdown with faust -- in the meantime faust keeps sending golems in an attempt to kill both you and mephy

When you track faust down, it’s shown that faust was your typical mage, inhumane and uncaring. It’s also pointed out that this faust killed innocents, but this typical mage behavior is boring to mephy, and they say that boring typical behavior is why they wanted to kill them

 so i really cant blame mephistopheles for being the way they are, being raised by this type of guy, even if mephy was always messed up and wacky from the beginning its no reason for faust to attempt to kill him.

Mephistopheles also shows up in salem, cu alter’s interlude, and of course the knk crossover event, and some other things im most likely forgetting but those 3 are ones that i find notable

anytime they show up theyre actually helpful, in salem mephy points out that the nature of the being responsible for the salem epic of remnant is something alien rather than a typical foreign god, mephy also tells you that time is also being sped up and in their weird way they try to cheer you up by spouting some nonsense at the beginning (guda needed some kind of distraction from the grim events that had just transpired at that point in the story), i cant quite remember what mephy did in the knk event but they were a part of your group and were helpful the whole time, actually @/zeravmeta does an amazing analysis of their role in the knk event as well as some extra character analysis here

mephistopheles is kinda cryptic in a weird way though,

like overall i mean theyre a jester homunculi in appearance so yeah its to be expected but come on i love morally gray characters, despite their supposed betrayal hints scattered around here and there

they have this one line that always gets to me

and this line is said with a completely serious face too

the rare serious mephistopheles face! its kinda grim to see that line, no laughs, no nothing, their voice is kinda serious and monotone too. of course this could be just to get you to lower your guard but its still kinda out there that they have this rarely used portrait and that line, so i like to take it as being said to you when youre by yourself and with sincerity

and at least sei (with her wacky outfit and all lol) seems to get along with mephy and thinks theyre nice woohoo

so at the end of the day you have this guy that laughs a lot and gives mixed signals

and they fuck with you

and will most likely try to kill you more than once but hey thats just another tuesday at chaldea

Before I finish last thing I want to point out is this snippet from the fgo source material book which provides more information on servants, and this specific translated bit under mephistopheles

at the core of it all this homunculi....can be your friend! you just need to not go into despair i guess

of course this entire post is an overanalysis into an underwritten character, quarantine + all online college classes have done this to me, i have a douman icon what did you expect

OH...BEFORE I REALLY SIGN OFF AND FINISH THE POST HEY CLOWN LOVERS CHECK OUT THESE FANARTS AND FANARTISTS...

THE FIRST ONE IS HASENDOW YES THE DOUMAN DESIGNER... <3

i cant believe they drew mephy

twice !

and for those of you on twitter check out @cuz_pb and @L0VEYAMA003

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[kariachi]

#sorry i keep talking in the tags instead of in ur replies lmfao#but it rly does just feel like such a nothingburger of an arc#they dont even use the one character in it that couldve given us anything substantial#aka phil whom weve seen before both in os and in maxs monster#they dont even give any real import to him besides 'look! its phil!' and then moving on#and its like idk. like they came up with a way to retcon things but that was their entire goal#like they didnt care abt the plot they cared abt a vehicle to introduce retcons#it was just... failed potential (via @expired-blueberries)

The thing is I would bet money- and I don't have a lot of it- that that's exactly the situation. Somebody didn't like the idea of there being hybrids running around, somebody didn't like the backstory additions UAF gave to Kevin, so they came up with something they could throw out there to make all that shit not really canon anymore. There was no care what it brought to the story overall, no care to what it said about characters, or what it added or took away from characters (Servantis straight says Kevin's memories were altered so he could get close to the Tennysons, but there's no indication that this actually affects anything when it should affect everything) (who is Kevin without the shit Servantis did to make sure he got close to the Tennysons? Apparently exactly the same for some reason). There was no care for the plotholes all this shit would leave behind.

What's going on with Alan's family, now that we can't be sure they are his family? We don't know.

What's the relation between Helen and Pierce, now that we know there was a fucker out there manipulating heads and memories to his whims? We don't know.

What the fuck happened with Manny's missing hand (no I will not stop griping about them retconning his disability I will burn with righteous anger forever) We don't know.

Where did multiple people hear about Osmosians if they're a term only Servantis uses and that he faked being a species for some fucking unknown reason? We don't know.

What the fuck was going on with Aggregor? We don't know.

What the fuck was going on with the whole Ragnarok thing? We don't know.

What the fuck was going on with Kevin's supposed mom and stepdad? We don't know.

The entire point of the arc, I am fairly certain, was to be able to go 'this shit we didn't like in the old shows is not canon'. It doesn't affect anything as far as characters and shit go because nobody cared about it as something that happened, just as a way to say 'no that isn't a thing anymore'. It doesn't get build-up because it was not meant as a part of the story, it was meant as a retcon. It's a retcon, a chance to give us a 'oh btw Kevin has that scar now' and a 'hey btw this is where that outfit from Kev 11k comes from'. And those last two are only in there because for some reason the fuckers making OV decided they not only needed to set up for the Ken 10 timeline to be canon but also had to cram everything that was ever canon to it that they could without the fans actually rioting into the end of OV.

(And trust me, I have even more to say on that.)

It's a nothing of an arc that has no impact on the story or characters at all, is given the briefest oblique reference towards the end for no reason beyond 'must line up with this specific timeline', and that exists for no reason beyond retconning things, with no intention of or attempt to fill any of the many, many voids left gaping by it's existence.

There's a lot I love about it from a character perspective, from a 'wow we can probably work out some potential shit about Ken 10 11k from this', from character potential perspective, but goddamnit it is, as you say, a nothingburger of an arc on top of all the rest of it's damn problems.

Annoying thing with the Rooters arc is that we never do find out what the fuck the Rooters had planned in the long run. Because the first-and-foremost matter is destroying Ben, yes, but Servantis may as well be holding up a big glowing neon sign saying "this is step three in a greater, larger plan". He grabs Kevin in the first episode of the arc and is talking about using him to make more amalgams, when discussing Kevin seemingly coming back into the fold he describes him as 'coming along nicely' like this is just a step in his training, when he sends the kids out after him in the flashback he refers to the Rooters 'subtle manipulations' and how Ben can't fuck them up, he's literally forming a group of hybrid child soldiers as if he couldn't just snipe the fucking 10-yo as he walks out of his elementary school, or fucking recruit him like the Plumbers already end up doing.

This is not shit you get from someone whose entire deal is 'this one child is too dangerous to live'! You don't see 'child has superweapon' and go 'well then I'll have to transform myself, my staff, and a host of children into hybrids through painful experiments and then train and damn near mindcontrol the children into going and killing the kid'. You don't talk about plans for making more, you don't talk like when the chips are down the big problem is the kid might get in your way, or like the kids you've sent out to kill him are still in training.

These fuckers had Intentions and Plots and they got completely dismantled before we could get an actual answer on what they were longterm.