#the long and short of the meta

[glassiskies]

Okay i dont know if anyone else has pointed this out but throughout the vast majority of the ball (and honestly throughout many scenes in episode 5 as well but they don't seem as significant), Aziraphale and Crowley are on opposite sides of the screen they would normally be on. Particularly when Crowley is trying to tell Aziraphale about the demons outside the bookshop and he doesn't listen.

It's so interesting because this scene, in my opinion, is the crux of Aziraphale's denial and refusal to see what is actually going on and the danger of it (affectionate). The entire season we've witnessed Aziraphale downplay the real danger of hiding Gabriel in his bookshop. This is partly on Crowley, who knows more of the extent of the danger they're in and does not tell Aziraphale. BUT, we can't deny that Aziraphale is also ignoring the severity of the situation. I mean, he literally says that Crowley is overestimating the trouble they are in:

I just think it's INTERESTINGGGG. After the ball their positions return to normal and don't switch again until Episode 6 Crowley puts his sunglasses on and crosses to leave the bookshop.

It's also an interesting moment to choose switching their places on the screen because it's the moment Aziraphale's fantasy of being in Heaven with Crowley is crushed as well. You can tell that through Crowley's confession, Aziraphale isn't listening to a word he's saying, much like during the ball. BUT the dynamic doesn't switch until Crowley has totally rejected Aziraphale's offer.

Would love to hear anyone else's opinions on this, I could be overthinking it (I am the person who spent multiple days analyzing the lengths of Crowley's sideburns in each promo photo only to discover it was just a continuity error when the actual show came out LMAO.)

[mollysunder]

What if Ekko and some the Firelights are the only Zaunites that came to help defend Piltover?

I noticed in what is supposedly the big battle between PnZ vs Noxus, we actually don't see Zaun fighters attacking Noxian forces. The only Zaunites we see fighting Noxians, or at least providing support to Piltover is Ekko and the Firelights.

Between Ekko and the Firelights, only Ekko is wearing Jinx's X tag. From the trailer we can see that other Zaunites that rally behind Jinx or just support her either wear her pink X, dye their hair blue, or wear burgundy red (like Silco). The firelights don't dress like this, but Ekko does while he leads them in this fight. It could be a sign that they separated recently and came back together for this fight.

From the battle scenes we get in the trailer, it's more likely that Ambessa's forces had tried to take hold of Zaun, but were ultimately pushed out. In the shot where Ambessa's topside fighting against Piltovan enforcers, her mask is clearly damaged. If you look closely, you'll notice that there's at least three deep diagonal scratches across it.

There are only two seasoned fighters capable of leaving that kind of damage, Warwick or Sevika with her new arm (or maybe dhe got her claws back). Since I'm confident Warwick would turn Ambessa into ribbons, I think it's likely her and Sevika traded blows instead.

And then there's the scene where Ambessa has lead her forces in what must supposedly be Viktor's territory in the Sump. From the few shots of the place, we know there's about 6-7 people there including Viktor, and somehow they'll manage to repel Ambessa's army back?

Really, all the teasers and trailers have shown that Noxus will try to occupy every level of Zaun from the Sump to the Promenade, and even in Stillwater. The battle in Piltover probably only happens once Ambessa's forces are completely pushed out of Zaun and back into Piltover, and suddenly it's Piltover's problem.

Ekko and the Firelights are probably only helping Piltover because they assume leaving Ambessa in control would make everything worse. Meanwhile Jinx, Sevika, and Viktor's factions won't see a difference between Piltover and Noxus since they were literally working together (really it's a lateral move to most), and are content to watch them fight it out.

Obviously we see Jinx in what could be an airship over Piltover, but what makes us think she's there to help?

Tldr: Jinx, Sevika, and Viktor's factions respectively when Piltover asks for aid against Noxus.

[pocketgalaxies]

oh i Will be thinking about this silaha emhira convo for the rest of the week. silaha developing such an affection for the beauty of mortal life, something he has never experienced, that he begins thinking the way a mortal does - how can i make my life here beautiful and meaningful before it inevitably ends. and wouldn't it be poetic and wouldn't it be such a relief if it ended tonight. vs emhira who specifically has ascended from a mortal life to godhood and finds herself preoccupied, perhaps selfishly so, with the future of her newfound infinite life. the one who deals most intimately with mortality also the one who most desperately wants to escape it herself

[bbcphile]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook and Complex PTSD Representations: Part I

One of my favorite things about Mysterious Lotus Casebook is how surprisingly nuanced and unusual its portrayal of complex PTSD is. So many shows either introduce character trauma to make the character Sad and Brooding, Angry and Violent (if they’re a villain) or Hesitant to Start a Relationship (if it’s a romance), and that’s usually as in-depth as it gets. If they address the unique after effects of child abuse that lead to complex PTSD at all, it’s usually either explain why a character is a homicidal monster (which is all sorts of problematic) or it’s limited to a single phobia, which can be overcome by the Power of Love, or it’s just something that crops up occasionally for Plot and then forgotten about the rest of the time. 

Mysterious Lotus Casebook gives us two deeply traumatized characters–Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng–who each have clear symptoms of complex PTSD, and yet, their cPTSD manifests completely differently because of the types of traumas that caused it and their relationships to the people causing the traumas. And their manifestations of cPTSD affect just about every level of their being, including their sense of self, their decision-making, and their relationships with others, and it includes some of the incredibly important manifestations of cPTSD that are almost never shown in media while avoiding the most insulting stereotypes! 

PTSD vs cPTSD

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder caused by experiencing a single (or short lived) traumatic event (an accident, assault, medical emergency, fighting in a war, etc), where the symptoms last for longer than a month. Symptoms include things like reexperiencing the event (flashbacks), avoidance (of things related to the event), changes in mood (depression, anger, fear, etc), and issues with emotional regulation (hypervigilance–being constantly on the lookout for threats–irritability/angry outbursts, etc.).

Complex PTSD happens if someone has experienced long term, chronic/repeated trauma that induces hopelessness and no chance of escape (survivors of extended child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence, prisoners of war, slavery, etc.). It’s also often interpersonal in ways a car crash or medical emergency is not, and is particularly linked with chronic trauma during childhood: chronic stress hormones introduce literal physical changes in a growing brain, particularly the amygdala (which processes fear), hippocampus (which is responsible for learning/memory), and the prefrontal cortex (which is responsible for executive function), so it can affect every aspect of life and also affect a child’s progression through developmental stages. In addition to these physical changes to the brain, the prolonged trauma–particularly the helplessness–distorts a child’s sense of self, the perpetrator, and the world in ways that alter their decision making, their memory, and their future relationships. 

For instance, whereas a traumatic event that caused PTSD might make you depressed or not trust the person who harmed you (or to fear driving), the trauma from cPTSD might make you suicidal, blame yourself for your victimization, decide to isolate to avoid interpersonal relationships to keep from getting hurt, or become obsessed with never being harmed again.

Basically, cPTSD has the core symptoms from PTSD with some extra challenges, including issues with emotional regulation, self-concept, interruptions in consciousness, difficulties with relationships, perceptions of the perpetrator, and systems of meaning.

DFS and LLH: CPTSD Symptoms

There’s so much more to say about this than I can cover in this superficial introduction, so this will be the first of a series of metas; I’m hoping to go into more depth about some of these categories in future posts (the DFS and emotional regulation/violence one is already drafted, so stay tuned). 

Difficulties with Relationships (problems with trust, communication, missing red flags): Both DFS and LLH have a history of trusting the wrong people and not trusting the right people, both in the past and in the present of the show: in the past, LLH missed the fact that SGD hated him and DFS missed the fact that JLQ was obsessed with him, and as a result, both sects were destroyed, many people died, and the two almost destroyed each other. If they had communicated with each other instead of fighting at the donghai battle, they might have realized they were being set up and could have worked together, but their difficulties with trust after perceived betrayal made that impossible for them. They both have a history of overlooking red flags in the present–DFS in particular, keeping the red-flag-personified-JLQ around despite her history of poisoning people, including himself–and they both tend to struggle with relationships in the present: LLH runs away from and/or drugs the people who care about him, and DFS sends endless mixed messages by not telling Li Lianhua most of his plans to help him. 

Self-Concept (Self-hatred and self-fragmentation): Li Lianhua is basically the poster child for having a negative self concept: he has an overdeveloped sense of self-blame and responsibility, even believing he deserves to die for leading his men to their deaths, and once he learns he was manipulated and SGD was behind it all, he seems to think it’s his own fault that he was manipulated, lied to, and abused. His self-loathing is so extreme that he imagines his earlier self, Li Xiangyi, to have died, and tries as much as possible to be nothing like that earlier persona. His repeated insistence that Li Xiangyi and Li Lianhua are NOT the same person is reminiscent of the fragmentary sense of self that comes with more extreme trauma, like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or Other-Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD), where traumatic experiences are so painful that people form different alters, or differentiated self-states, that can have different names and skills and memories and identities. 

Di Feisheng doesn’t have the self-hatred or guilt that LLH does, and it seems like he tries to skip over questions of self worth, blame, or hatred by focusing exclusively on staying true to his code of ethics he’s developed for himself and focusing on gaining the strength necessary to fight for his freedom from mind control and the Di Fortress. But even though he’s kept his Di name, kept his goals the same since escaping Di Fortress, and hasn’t tried to separate himself from his trauma the way LLH did with LXY, he’s even more willing than LLH to take on different identities: it’s literally one of his martial arts skills. The Bone Constriction Skill lets him become someone else for a time, whether that’s a child or Shi Hun. It fits well with his willingness to be whoever he needs to be to accomplish his goals: he’s perfectly willing to be seen as a heartless villain if it lets him protect LLH, and he’s willing to flirt with and pretend to be jealous of JLQ to get information from her, and he’s willing to be LLH’s a-Fei, both with and without his memories.

Interruptions in Consciousness (Amnesia and nightmares for Everyone): LLH and DFS both have nightmares and flashbacks/memories of traumatic events, and as mentioned above, both have interesting hints of having fragmented/fluid senses of self. They both also dissociate, or separate themselves from the present when dealing with traumatic things:  LLH spaces out and gets stuck in his past memories about SGD when talking to FDB after burying SGD, and DFS dissociates from physical pain so as not to make noise both after he’s been stabbed and poisoned with Wuxin Huai and again when JLQ is torturing him in her water dungeon.

They both also have dissociative amnesia that takes away trauma memories, although one is from a poisonous incense plus the magic of qi macgyvering:  LLH forgot the existence of his older brother who died in front of him, and DFS as a-Fei had just about all of his memories (except a few of killing as a child) taken away. Amnesia is a huge part of cPTSD, because it’s the brain’s way of trying to protect you from truths that you might not survive. It can manifest as blocking out one single traumatic event, a bunch of thematically or temporally linked traumatic events, a skill set related to the trauma, or, in the case of something like DID or OSDD, just about everything. It’s endlessly fascinating to me that the show gives us one example of definite traumatic amnesia through LLH, and then seems to almost transform the experience of having DID and being a new part and finding yourself with a new name and very little else into an exaggerated fantasy setting (interestingly, people often report experiencing debilitating headaches when they try to regain memories behind the amnesia barrier). I doubt this is what they were actually going for, since DID is almost universally portrayed incorrectly and offensively in media (one of the alters is almost always portrayed as a serial killer, but that’s a rant for another day), but the different names and the presence of amnesia with LLH made it a fascinating enough parallel that I had to mention it.

 Problems with Emotional Regulation (Lashing in vs. lashing out): Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng are polar opposites when it comes to struggles with emotional regulation: whereas LXY turns his anger inward, directing it all toward self-hate in what’s often called a “toxic shame spiral,” both after the donghai battle and after he finds out about SGD’s role in his shifu’s death, DFS lashes out physically at those who have harmed him, usually via choking people, although he is usually exerting an impressive amount of control over his emotions and strength. To put in perspective just how different their emotional strategies are and how much effort DFS puts into emotional regulation, compare how much more calm he is than LLH during any revelation of past betrayal or painful information, any scene where they confront the people who have abused them, or any scene where they learn they’ve been wrong about something big; LLH is most likely having an emotional flashback (re-experiencing the emotions from the earlier traumas) and DFS is probably compartmentalizing them or dissociating from them to process later/never so he can stay semi-functional and not show a potential opponent a weak spot. 

NOTE: This means that DFS is loooong overdue for a very dramatic breakdown when it eventually all catches up to him and he can’t distract himself from it anymore.

Perceptions of Perpetrators: In this way only, Di Feisheng has one advantage: he knows the head of Di Fortress is a cruel, abusive tyrant. While he clearly still fears him, even as a physically strong adult (he has nightmares, flashbacks, and dedicates his life to being free from him, which means he still to some extent feels young, small, and helpless when he thinks of him), DFS knows that he hates him and wants to be free of him. This is probably part of why he’s spared some of the self-hatred LLH experiences: he knows he didn’t deserve the abuse because seeing it happen to other children means he knows the abuse wasn’t a personal reflection on him. It does, however, motivate him to want to be stronger and invulnerable so as to never be helpless again, and that obsession is what drives him to have a single-minded focus on reaching the pinnacle of the jianghu.  

It’s so much more complicated for Li Lianhua (and for a more detailed analysis, check out this meta): the childhood perpetrators were manifold–a slew of bandits, whichever children and adults on the street would abuse him for existing and being poor–it probably felt like life itself was to blame. It’s no wonder that when his shifu and shiniang took him in, they were the ultimate rescuers whom he hero-worshipped, so when he felt he made a mistake and his life fell apart, he blamed himself: at least there would be someone to blame that way and something he could do about it (try to kill his past self and hate everything about him). It’s also very telling that LLH doesn’t blame JLQ or YBQ all that much when he learns they poisoned him, and that he’s more angry that SGD murdered their shifu than he is that SGD set him up, hated him, and was the real mastermind behind everything he had blamed himself for; he struggles to stay angry at people who harm him, and would rather blame and hate himself for being tricked than hate the person who tricked him. So, whereas DFS tries to destroy the people who abused him, LLH tries to destroy himself.

If you read this far, thanks! I’m probably going to be posting the DFS and emotional regulation/violence against perpetrator meta next, because it’s drafted, but if there are any of these you desperately want me to talk about more sooner rather than later, let me know! :D 

[messiahzzz]

while it’s perfectly fine to have your own headcanons that are non-canon compliant — by all means, go wild. recognizing pieces of yourselves in fictional characters can be a very healing and validating experience. this is nonetheless a casual, well-intentioned reminder that gale, in fact, does not have bpd.

bpd is a pervasive pattern of instability affecting interpersonal relationships, self-image, and mood. the disorder is marked by impulsivity beginning in early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts. a diagnosis requires at least 5 of the following 9 criteria to be met:

Fear of abandonment

Unstable or changing relationships

Unstable self-image; struggles with identity or sense of self

Impulsive or self-damaging behaviors (e.g., excessive spending, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).

Suicidal behavior or self-injury

Varied or random mood swings

Constant feelings of worthlessness or sadness

Problems with anger, including frequent loss of temper or physical fights

Stress-related paranoia or loss of contact with reality

source: [x]

i highlighted the criteria that do apply to gale in one way or another in a pretty purple.

i personally believe that it’s rather harmful to equate his relationship with mystra with her being “his fp”. she is a deity, his goddess, and the source of his powers, who is in in full control of the magic he wields.

gale: mystra commands all magic. salvation, if such a thing exists, is hers to bestow or withhold.

gale has been effectively groomed and conditioned to serve and revere her at every turn since early childhood. imo this comparison really undermines a lot of crucial points in gale’s story that deal with his overall trauma and abuse. after all, you wouldn’t call shar sh*dowhe*rt’s fp either.

gale doesn’t revile mystra, nor does he commit benevolent deeds solely motivated by the secret hope that she will somehow notice and take him back. when you meet gale in the game he has already fully come to terms with the fact that he has been abandoned by mystra with no hope of reconciliation whatsoever. he also had some very fitting lines in ea regarding this topic that i'm sad haven't been repurposed in the full release in some way.

gale: [the tadpoles] don't know that some things are impossible. they don't know that... they don't know. player: what is impossible about what you're being shown? gale: forgiveness. gale: it is mystra i see. and yet it cannot be her. there was a time when i would have believed - but no longer. gale: suffice it to say she would not bestow upon me the favors promised in these dreams. that is how i know they are delusions.

he has already reached the stage of acceptance. moreover, gale only starts to realize that mystra might have been in the wrong for requesting his death once the tadpole squad & tav speak some sense into him. and even then he doesn’t ever show that his emotions regarding mystra are anywhere along those lines. he is instead rightfully angered that she only saw value in his death, after he had been worshipping her loyally for years.

gale: i worshipped mystra loyally for years, and in that time she granted me the barest sliver of the power i was ready to wield. gale: even with the fate of the world at stake, she had little more to offer me than the means of blowing myself up at a more convenient time. she's done nothing to help us.

gale: you abandoned me in my hour of greatest need. i had no obligation to help you in yours. gale: because you had no right to ask that of me. you cast me out, remember?

gale doesn’t display rapid changes in mood either. he is a character who is generally very composed and has been known to remain nonchalant even in the face of utter horror. tim downie himself even commented on this once. source: [x]

the only instance i can think of is his sudden switch from resigned-to-death to utter-eye-sparkling-enthusiasm once he spots the crown of karsus. apart from crucial story reasons that i won’t touch upon in this post, i’d also like to add that it’s a rather common phenomenon for people who have just barely survived a suicide attempt to suddenly be filled with zeal and unbridled energy. he doesn't display impulsivity without thorough consideration when it comes to its acquisition either. he considers this a golden opportunity and is positively enthusiastic and elated that this might prove an alternative to him ending up in a cloud of netherese smoke. nonetheless, he knows what he is doing. evident in him actually succeeding in ascending in one of his endings.

gale: this is no passing whim, trust me. if i can obtain that crown, it will affect us all. it is not a decision i'll take lightly. gale: it's our future that i'm thinking of - we can't rely on anyone else to do it for us. gale: for now - we've learned all we can.

neither are his relationships that we do know of (namely elminster, tara, and morena) frequently changing. they are marked by years of mutual respect, care, and consistency. there is nothing unstable about them. while it's important to note that his relationship with tav is still in its honeymoon stages during the main game, there is no inclination of any push-and-pull dynamic between them whatsoever.

gale isn’t preoccupied with keeping up some sort of benevolent act in order to win (back) affection — he genuinely IS a good person and he proves this at every turn. moreover, to have a tressym become your familiar you must be of Good alignment.

(taken from tumblr user galedekarios's post.)

there is never a moment where his ideals or alignment suddenly change. in fact, i’d argue that he and wyll are most consistent in this regard when compared to the rest of the companions. gale makes his moral standpoint very clear from the beginning on and also explicitly states that he believes that in order to survive this entire ordeal it would be selfish of him if he wouldn’t be willing to compromise on his morals. this isn’t a sudden bout of ✨muahahaha wizard hubris✨ that he barely contained to hold in before, this is yet another act of selflessness — it is what he’s willing to do for the group and subsequently, the welfare of faerun.

player: i love unsavoury things. don't feel guilty on my account. gale: that's good to know. although i should say i do what i do out of a sense of utility and pragmatism, not a love of the unsavoury. gale: we're up against the greatest threat faerun has ever faced. i don't mind getting my hands dirty if it gives us a better chance of surviving. gale: whatever advantage i can gain for us. i will. and i refuse to feel guilty for it, no matter how much mystra's chidings might echo in my skull.

this is him, once again trying to be useful in whatever way he can. to give them an advantage, a slither of hope against seemingly impossible odds, so they might make it out of this in one piece. gale wouldn’t approve of those actions under normal circumstances, but their predicament is as far from any definition of “normal” as it can get.

gale is no fool, he realizes this is essentially about survival. he knows that he has no option left other than to tolerate, which is why he can be convinced to not immediately depart tav’s company even if they choose to commit atrocities. this is no character flaw of his or him displaying a previously dormant openness for cruelty, this is about recognizing the necessity.

player: you don't stand a chance alone. you're free to go. i dare you. gale: gods damn you - you're right. few things are more powerful than the will to live.

gale: i thought the orb to be the greatest of my sins, but i see now that there are darker depths to which i might yet sink. you may be content to sink into that abyss, but i assure you - i am not.

gale doesn’t lead a split existence. he has a very strong sense of identity. he knows what he wants, what he doesn’t want and he isn’t shy in expressing his boundaries either. which he has especially shown when it comes to his relationship with tav. i originally had intended to touch upon this in another post entirely but: i firmly believe his entire Gale of Waterdeep™ persona is more of a performance than him struggling to find a sense of identity and trying them on for size. it is an intentional decision to separate gale dekarios from the great wizard of waterdeep, to create distance and make sure his family name remains untarnished in case things should ever go sideways.

gale: i agree. and on the plus side, if i get myself into any truly cataclysmic straits during the remainder of our journey, my family name will go untarnished.

there is also a deep-rooted feeling of unworthiness and his firm belief that love and praise are conditional resources that he will only be granted through his talents alone, naturally. presenting himself as gale dekarios, the man, would mean highlighting his shortcomings and very human flaws, while distracting from the aspects of himself that are deemed praiseworthy, the ones that actually matter: his magical prowess.

i personally believe that part of the beauty of gale’s story is him realizing just how “little” it takes for him to be truly content. he gets his happy ending, with someone at his side who truly sees him, understands him and unabashedly commits to him. they worship and adore him in return — and it is well deserved. he isn’t reduced to be constantly and restlessly searching for some unattainable ideal to fill the gaping void within himself. he doesn’t secretly thirst for more power still or believes that in being with tav he is settling for something. instead, he is finally happy to just be. be and be accepted. teaching a class of unruly wizards and coming home to his spouse each day already fulfills him.

gale: that's how i feel with you - content. it's a rather unfamiliar feeling, i must say. not something gale of waterdeep ever craved.

even if he doesn’t pursue a romance with tav, he reaches a realization of “oh, it appears i am not irredeemably flawed and only able to reach true redemption through my own death. what i needed was actually with me all along.” throughout their journey and through his friend's support. i think that’s a very powerful and comforting message. he is very well capable of finding peace within himself.

devnotes: his default state is that he returned to waterdeep and became a professor of illusory magic at his former school, blackstaff academy. general vibe here is that this is a gale who's found peace with himself - he's a great teacher, one his students are mostly in awe of.

to repeat myself: sharing your headcanons is all in good fun, nor should you ever be discouraged from doing so. this is your personal tumblr experience, after all. but i personally think we should be mindful of unintentionally perpetuating negative stereotypes, such as narcissism being a general indicator or being deemed a classic depiction of bpd. i think we can all agree that the continuous longing for acceptance, connection, praise, and approval is something we all have in common deep down, regardless of whatever disorder we may have. [insert victoria justice meme here]

gale may be many things to many people, but he is no entitled narcissist.

[thelongestway]

hey no shade but you know dungeon meshi isn't actually based off dnd right? there are definitely some overlapping concepts and it can be fun to analyze it through a dnd lens but really it's its own homebrew fantasy setting. just checking bc i nearly got in an argument w someone over dungeon meshi lore the other day only to realize it was because they were trying to apply dnd lore to it ahahaa

Oh yeah, absolutely, it's its own thing. You don't even have to go far to show how it's its own thing: for one, the whole set-up with the dungeons being what they are isn't found anywhere else in D&D-inspired material that I know. You could maybe reflavor Halaster's Undermountain to something like the Dungeon Meshi dungeons, but that would be another layer of homebrew. That said, I do have the feeling that Ryoko Kui grew up on the same kind of D&D material that I did - stuff like Elminster's Ecologies, or old school Greyhawk materials. Her story genuinely feels like an AD&D game run by an old-school DM, maybe even earlier in the editions (hi, Chilchuck and "I'm a rogue, I'm not gonna fight"!). I don't mean that she follows D&D canon in any meaningful sense--her stuff isn't set in Greyhawk, nor on Abeir-Toril, nor on Krynn, etc. But I do think she's someone who's inspired by old school stuff, even as she makes her work thoroughly her own.

An acquaintance of mine once wrote that long tabletop games gain a quality that she called "being well-trod". This is when the players and DM are so familiar with the world they live in that it becomes, well, lived-in. They don't need to look up rules anymore to extrapolate: they understand the logic of the setting, and they get the same kind of intuitive feel for the world that we do when living in our own world, in real life. A feeling of where the boundaries lie, and how things work.

This is how I feel about Dungeon Meshi and D&D. It feels like a work written by someone who walked the same paths that I did, and whose work is therefore both new and startlingly familiar. That's it in a nutshell, but then I also wrote a bunch of examples, which got very long, so cut for length and spoilers!

I wrote somewhere in the tags on my Dungeon Meshi posts that it's incredibly surreal reading a story that seems to be informed by the exact materials that you base your own homebrew games on. Kui takes her work in a wholly different direction than I did - but the disparate elements of the story would fit in like a glove, because they're based on similar logic. I could quite literally take any of the ecologies elements of Dungeon Meshi and put them into a given module I'm running, and it would need less adaptation than 5e material. And most of the cultural/racial elements of Dungeon Meshi? That, too. Where it's not a one for one match, it would so easily be explainable by "different continent".

Let's take the example you're probably here from: the Canaries and elves in general, and let's take elves in general first. In D&D, there's been a switch in models of elven aging throughout the years: from "they are literal babies up until 60-ish, and then have 40 years of actual adolescence" to "yeah they grow to full adult size at about the same speed as the other races, and are then just culturally considered too young to make their own decisions". I am decidedly not a fan of the second model - I think it takes away from the cool biologies early D&D thrived on. BG3's treatment of Astarion's age of death, for instance, keeps throwing me. Yeah, I get it: it fits in with the edition they're working off, but I hate it. That's not how things work on our Faerun! But then we get to Marcille's backstory, and we see that she has the problems old school half-elves did, and you're like "oh, well of course someone invested in weird cool biology as an author would interpret elves like that." Her treatment of age makes sense to me. She makes the races as alien as possible, and hits that vibe of "D&D-style fantasy is its own thing, with its own set of rules" that I love. In contrast, and unlike any prototypes I know, Kui takes her half-foots in a different direction! They don't live longer than tall-men, they live shorter lives, closer to goblinoids. And I think it's for the same reason: because it's that much cooler to have different experiences of life in humanoid races. This is decidedly Not D&D, but it would absolutely fit into that vein.

With smaller details, I keep joking around here that the Canaries are grey elves, and of course they're not. But then Kui keeps putting in these tiny little details - which can be either nods to existing material, or the same extrapolations that other authors drawing upon high fantasy tropes have made. The white ships that have travelled all the way from Tolkien's Valinor to Evermeet and now to Shima. The fact that the Canaries have basically the right color scheme for grey elves threw me completely: I was not expecting that! Elves being that specific brand of destructive that they are - jeez, the Canaries would be right at home in Myth Drannor, or during the Crown Wars. So I joke around about these specific dolts a lot, and I am having an inordinate amount of fun seeing if my predictions that come from running a Myth Drannor game for a good long while now come true. And it goes on. Marcille doesn't prepare spells, and the magic here is obviously not Vancian. But Mithrun's teleport shenanigans are literally stuff I've done in games. The differences between races in D&D aren't because of wishes made by mortals; they're built in by gods for their own purposes. But the towns that spring up around anomalous spots and that have to deal with the weirdness have the same vibe. Kui draws on a more extensive tradition than just D&D, of course, but she transforms the tradition in a very similar way to old D&D. Of course the elves' magic in Kui's work does weird and creepy stuff with soulbinding and immortality; that's been their dark side since Tolkien and Celebrimbor's work with Annatar, and then it turned into stuff like elves regularly sacrificing their lives in high magic rituals in Faerun. Of course Senshi's backstory is about the dwarves that have dug too deep - but they are, of course, distinct from gnomes, and the gnomes are a peculiar and interesting breed of arcana specialists. Of course Chilchuck is a Burglar - but he works on dungeon delving unions, of all things! It's a familiar transformation, so the world makes sense to me, and I love it. So yeah. Tl;dr: not D&D ofc, but the vibe is there, and I am having fun with it.

Also - can you tell me about the argument? I am super curious, and I wonder if the person you were arguing with was working from 5e material.

[eirenical]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episodes 3 & 9 - The Letter

There is so much we don't know about what happened ten years ago between Sigumen and Jinyuanmeng.  A lot of it gets unraveled as the show goes on, but one thing remains true: there is a hell of a lot of unreliable narration to pick through to get to the truth.  And when it comes to the particular truths of what happened between the individual people involved, that becomes even more true.

And one of the little mysteries that always bothered me was this letter that Qiao Wanmian wrote to Li Xiangyi to break up with him.  Because I absolutely could not figure out when he actually got that letter.  Anyway, I finally caught a few details that helped me to tease that apart and my first realization was that he fucking LEFT HER ON 'READ' for about a month (Li XIangyi, PLEASE OTZ) and the second realization was that we get two different versions of these events YET AGAIN, but this time both from Li Xiangyi's POV in flashbacks, and I'm CHEWING GLASS OVER IT, so naturally I have to share.

So the first time we get this particular flashback is in episode 3.  Li Lianhua is remembering the aftermath of the Donghai Battle, how he fell into the ocean and washed up on the shore... a husk of what he had once been.

He wakes up and makes his way into town and to Sigumen's steps, overhearing all this terrible news as he walks.  People injured, homes destroyed, people killed, and so much of the blame being placed on all the sects, and on Sigumen in particular.  And as he walks, you can see it all starting to weigh him down, until he's literally bent over from the weight of it on his back.

And then the final betrayal.  His people, his friends, want to disband the sect.  They want to walk away.  They blame him and his hubris for this disaster.  And the coup-de-grace is Xiao Zijin asking Qiao Wanmian... "You don't like this place either, right?"

And the sad look on Qiao Wanmian's face finally breaks Li XIangyi of his paralysis and he turns away, back to the scene unfolding on those steps and drifts back to the shore, where he ultimately collapses.

And that's all we get.

We know he returned to Sigumen.  We know he overheard them wanting to disband the sect.  We know he left without a word.  And that's the end of the story as far as Episode 3 is concerned.

But this makes sense.  Li LIanhua is mid-Bicha attack and has just left Fang Duobing on the side of the road when this flashback comes on.  He's fighting his own body in a desperate bid for survival to complete the one task he's set himself and Fang Duobing has just dredged up all this stuff and gone off on a tear about how he's Li Xiangyi's disciple.  A road Li Xiangyi never got a chance to walk.  Another person he failed along the way.  And so he's focused on all the ways in which he is a failure in that moment, all the ways he doesn't live up to Fang Duobing's hero, Li XIangyi, all the ways that he is no longer that man.  So he zeroes in on the moment he lost it all: his reputation, his sect, his health, his power.  So that's the part of the flashback that we get.

But in Episode 9, we have an entirely different set of circumstances.  He's just saved his A-mian.  He's focused on helping her let go of the man he thinks she still loves.  He's putting himself aside to focus solely on her (or so he thinks—that's honestly a question for later, but bear with me, we'll get there ;D) and what she needs.  And we get dumped into this flashback again.

Only this time it doesn't start on the beach.  It starts here:

It starts with Li Xiangyi seeing his sect disbanded again.  Only this time, he remembers the words that come from Xiao Zijin differently:

There's no speaking out load of "you hate it here too, don't you?" or any similar sentiment.  Because at this point, Li Lianhua knows this isn't true.  She can't hate it there.  She lives there.  She didn't leave.  And she doesn't hate him because she very obviously misses him and mourns him.  So in his mind, he gives this moment a little less abrasiveness.  A little less fierceness.  But because he's so focused on A-Mian in this memory, we finally find out that there is an entire piece to this incident that we haven't gotten until now.

A-Mian's grief.

A-Mian's recognition that he was there.

And the letter.

The letter she wrote a month ago.

A letter Li Xiangyi NEVER READ.

We get to see A-Mian's regret.  We get to see her grief: both for her own sense of shame at being unable to keep up with the man she loved, and her sense of loss over her own innocence and the opportunities that they'll never have now to make amends.  And we get to see her break from her grief for just a moment to rush down those stairs because some instinct in her just won't quit.

Li Xiangyi had returned.

And she knew.

But it was too late.  She no longer trusted herself.  And Li Xiangyi, having heard her outpouring of grief, had already decided that he owed it to her and to everyone else to just… walk out of their lives for good. 

And he did. 

But he owed her one last thing first.

He owed it to her to read the letter that she'd written him a month ago and he'd never opened.

So before he goes back to that beach, he returns to his rooms in Sigumen to retrieve that unopened letter and read it.

On first watch, I had assumed this was after his healing with Monk Wuliao.  That he was RE-reading that letter, not reading it for the first time.  But these are clearly his rooms in Sigumen.  The desk he conducts business from is at the bottom right and the table he confronts Shand Gudao from is on the left. But unlike when we usually see these rooms, brightly lit during the day, they're now mostly in darkness, the sun clearly setting given the angle of the light coming into the room. This is the sunset of Li Xiangyi. The last moments of his life, in a way.

And the letter is very VERY obviously unopened when he first takes it out:

And reading that letter is the final nail in Li Xiangyi's coffin, I think.  Final proof that he'd failed in every aspect of his life: being a brother, being a lover, being a sect leader, being a friend, being a student.  After this, he leaves Sigumen and goes back to that beach to lay down where he washed back up initially, ready to let the death he temporarily escaped take him away.  And when the monk saves his life anyway, he still manages to kill off the part of him that was Li Xiangyi.  Li Xiangyi is dead, he insists over and over and over again, until he believes it himself.

Because in that letter—a letter he left unread FOR A MONTH—Qiao Wanmian manages to show him that he never really saw her at all.  That he never saw one of his dearest loved ones in pain right in front of him—pain that he finally witnessed on the steps of Sigumen as she poured out her grief and regret in sending this letter to begin with.  How ironic then, that a letter she'd sent intending to set him free of her to fly up to the heights on his own, was the final arrow that brought him down.  I don't think that's what she would have wanted at all.

But I really feel for her.  I do.

Just imagine sending this letter and knowing that it's sitting in Li Xiangyi's mail pile somewhere… and assuming that he read it and that's what spurred him on to this last desperate fight.  Because in that outpouring on the steps that clearly what she thought she did.  She thought this letter sent him to his death.  And in that moment she's wrong, because HE NEVER READ IT.  Not until long after that.  Not until after this moment.  And fucking HELL, but that just hurts me.

Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything if he hadn't witnessed that moment.  Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything if he hadn't read that letter.  Maybe he still would have felt that he'd failed enough to warrant death of some kind.

But maybe not.

I guess we'll never know.

[tippenfunkaport]

something something, visited by three spirits that push you to reinvent yourself

and meanwhile, the three mother-type figures in Adora's life were all key to her to figuring out what she really wanted and who she wanted to be but literally...

Light Hope "died" trying to right a wrong from the PAST

Queen Angella died trying to preserve Adora's PRESENT

and Shadow Weaver died to give Adora a chance at a FUTURE

[skribuggmicake]

old comic I made in freshman year bc I don’t have a lot of time to make art right now. (Long post)

moot tags and comment under cut:

I made this with a lot of self loathing

hey friends

@theratthatgotyeeted @imjustagirlintheworld777

@moth-wave @sp1derw1re

@wankingoffyermumndad @stupidfin

@ask-the-prowler @gobytovy

@coreyis-awesome @punkeropercyjackson

@theyluvbix @clownsforlife

@applepinsss @wizardex-yt

@fun-k-board @hahahahaha

[remus-poopin]

Hi! Sorry to bother you but I’m looking for specific pieces of HP meta and I’m kinda lost.

Do you have any reading recommendations about homosexuality in the Harry Potter world? I’m trying to decide a couple of things about the world-building for a fic and I’d love to read about other takes on the topic.

Hi! It's not a bother at all I love this stuff! I have my own thoughts about this too and this is a question I often think about and I was planning on writing something about this eventually anyways so I'm glad I got this ask because now I have a excuse to! (And I can talk about some gripes I have with the author as well so yay)

CW: Homophobia and misogyny

Here is a meta by @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta on homophobia in the wizarding world.

Here is @hchollym's take on gay marriage in the WW

The books give no mention of homosexuality explicitly, but the author has slightly expanded on the topic at later times in interviews and tweets. In 2007 she confirmed that Dumbledore was gay and later she gives us more details about his sexlife. She then said this in 2007 about homosexuality and homophobia in the wizarding world:

"MA: 'We wanna talk about Dumbledore so bad. We know that you've created worldwide intrigue when you said that he is gay. But I wanted to ask you about homosexuality in the Wizarding World in general. Is it a taboo?' JKR: 'Now, that's something I never thought of. I would think that that would be-- it would be exactly what it is in the Muggle World. But the greatest taboo in the Wizarding World is, well, for some wizards... I mean if we're talking about prejudiced people within the Wizarding World, what they care most about is your blood status. So I think you could be, um, gay, pure-blood, and totally without any kind of criticism from the Lucius Malfoys of the world. I don't think that would be something that would interest him in the slightest. But, you know, I can't answer for all witches and wizards because I think in matters of the heart, it would be directly parallel to our world.'"

She also says this in a tweet about homophobia in 2014:

“Only by ludicrous Muggles. The wizards don't give a damn - it's all about the magic for them.”

Now whether or not you take this to be canon is up to you. What I think is interesting here is I feel as though we are made to think that homosexuality is a non issue in the wizarding world and not a point of prejudice by the second statement. From her first statement she says that its “something she never thought of” and I'm guessing her second statement is contradictory because she wanted to appease LGBT+ fans and reassure them that Hogwarts is a safe space (for some, lets not ask her about the other letters in the acronym). 

This is a pattern I've noticed JKR exhibiting in a lot of her post book words in which she is trying to communicate how egalitarian the world she created is through her new information, while the text does not reflect this worldview. I think a good example of this is how when she listed the ministers of magic she included several women, going back as far as the 1700s to try to show there are not as many barriers to entry for women in the WW. Yet we see many instances of sexism throughout the series from the characters. I think what she was trying to do is have her world primarily focus on blood purity, and creature rights and have the issues we face either go to the backburner or not be present at all. Now I understand this choice, (though I really don’t think it's necessary, more interesting or remotely realistic) but I also think her execution is pretty awful because you can (and I'm about to) make an argument that these issues are still very present in the wizarding world. I think the biggest issue here is that she doesn't understand the structures and systems of oppression that she handwaved to the side to truly write a world where they would not be a real problem. To me, given what we've seen of the wizarding world, homophobia would still very much be an issue. 

So I think if we're going to talk about what homosexuality looks like in the wizarding world we would also need to talk about what homophobia would look like in the wizarding world. Homophobia has many factors contributing and working with it to make it function as prejudice and a system. If I had to break it down to its biggest parts I would say our big three is: religious fears, rigid gender norms, and disgust. Those often play off each other to create an effective tool for upholding a power structure in society by subjugating certain members. Let's examine these in the context of Harry Potter.

Religious fears: 

Religious fears resulting in homophobia is very common in the real world but for this factor to apply to the WW I think we would need to determine whether or not the wizarding world is even religious. We have examples of christianity showing up across the books in casual ways, Harry has a Godfather, he was christened as a baby, and Lily and James have a quote from the bible on their tombstone. From this we can at least make the assumption that the Potter family is religious to some capacity. We also see that one of the Hogwarts ghosts is called “The Fat Friar’. But to my knowledge this is where the references end. If the wizarding world is religious, or at least wizarding Britain, they seem to be casually so. So I don't see this being a huge driving factor in any homophobia we would see in that universe. 

Rigid gender norms:

I think if you take away any religious influences you're still going to see homophobia even in its most violent forms and this has a lot to do with rigid gender norms. If gender norms are established to sustain a power structure that a society relies on to maintain a certain order, any breaking of those norms will be met with punishment (socially or physically). In a heteronormative culture, homosexuality can be seen as a breaking of these norms.   

First off, Pureblood culture seems to be obsessed with lineage and creating heirs, In one of the meta I linked it talks about how homosexuality would be a threat to that. At least in pureblood society, your job as a man is to make pureblooded babies and your job as a woman would be to give birth to them, anything else would be looked down upon.

If we step outside of pureblood society, we can see that the general wizarding population also seems to have strict ways in which men and women should act.

So what are the gender roles the wizarding world has? Well there are the clothing, all wizards wear robes, but dresses are traditionally for women and any robe that looks a little to dress-like for a man could be seen as embarrassing: 

“'What is that supposed to be?'  He was holding up something that looked to Harry like a long maroon velvet dress. It had moldy-looking lace frills at the collar and matching lace cuffs. - ‘Mum, you've given me Ginny's new dress,’ said Ron, holding it out to her. ‘Of course I haven't,’  said Mrs Weasley. ‘Thats for you, dress robes’.- “You've got to be kidding’ said Ron in disbelief ‘Im not wearing that, no way!' - In some trepidation Harry opened the last parcel on his camp bed. It wasn't as bad as he expected, however. His dress robes didn't have any lace on them at all - in fact they were more or less the same as his school ones, except they were bottle green except black” (GOF, pg 155 and 156)

“Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville changed into their dress robes up in their dormitory, all looking very self conscious, but none as much as Ron who surveyed himself in the long mirror in the corner with an appalled look on his face. There was no getting around the fact that his robes looked more like a dress than anything. In a desperate attempt to make them more manly he used a severing charm on the ruffs and cuffs." (GOF, pg 411)

There are cultural roles:

“‘Come on, Ginny's not bad,’ said George fairly sitting down next to Fred. ‘Actually , I dunno how she got so good, seeing how we never let her play with us…’  ‘she's been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren't looking’  (OOTP, pg 574) 

There is no ostensible reason for Ginny not to be able to play Quidditch with her older brothers, even if she was too young at one point, very soon after she should have been able to, considering Ron was only a year older. From this we can assume that wizards, or at least the Weasleys, have a view of femininity as more fragile, or weaker than masculinity. This idea is reinforced through the founders of Hogwarts making separate dorm rooms for girls and boys where boys cannot enter the girls dorm but girls can enter the boys, this also positions men as aggressors in a sexual sense.

There are sexual roles, any time there is slutshaming in the series a women is at the end of it. Hermione is seen as a “scarlet women” for appearing to toy with Harry's heart:

“I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of - scarlet women!’ Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. ‘Scarlet women?’ - ‘It's what my mum calls them’ Ron muttered." (GOF, pg 513)

 Ginny is constantly facing accusations of behaving a little too promiscuously by her family. 

“'Let's get this straight once and for all. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them, Ron -' ‘Yeah it is!’ Said Ron just as angrily. ‘D’you think I want people saying my sister’s a-’ (HBP, pg 287)

"'my tiara sets the whole thing nicely, said Aunt Muriel in a rather carrying whisper, 'but I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut.'" (DH, pg 145)

Merope Riddle is called a slut for running off with Tom Riddle Sr.

"'dishonored us, she did, that little slut!'" (HBP, pg 365)

All of these instances are made to seem as negative and as a breaking of the societal norms. The norm being women as chaste, demure figures of virtue.

We've established these gender roles, and we've seen there are consequences when you fall out of line. So, what if the gender role calls for you to be masculine as a man and then defines that masculinity in part with obtaining women and sexual prowess? Homosexuality would be in direct conflict with that. And with that lets tie it into disgust.

Disgust:

The disgust that a homophobe feels can be stemming from a couple different places. Maybe it's religious fears like we talked about or maybe it's because of gender norms. But that disgust is only taking place because they perceive something they hold to be pure being tainted and violated; the word of god, the sanctity of masculinity, or hegemonic gender roles. In a society where these beliefs are upheld and treated as sacred, any conflict with that will be met with judgment at best and violence at worse. 

I don't see the wizarding world as a progressive space where homosexuality or anything LGBT+ would be considered a non issue because the text does not reflect that. The text shows the same misogyny, the same disdain for femininity, and the same reverence for masculinity that we see in everyday life and because of that I feel it only makes sense to see the wizarding world just as bigoted as ours. 

Ok so what does homosexuality look like in the wizarding world then?

Well if we've established the wizarding world as a society that would be hostile (in any way) to gay people I think its easier to move forward on how to imagine how they fit into that society since we have ours for reference. However, Its important to remember that our oppression doesn't define us and its not the only thing to consider while writing. Think about what the fashion would look like, what the music would sound like, what the spaces would be like and just generally what the culture would be. Have fun with it!

Hope this helped a little!

[babygirltangerine]

i often think about how the environment plays such a big role in the storytelling of the bullet train movie while also shaping the story itself, and all of the characters have such a unique way of interacting with their surroundings, with their belongings, and with objects in general. i'm also interested in the meanings they ascribe to these objects, so of course i have to make a post about it.

for the wolf, objects remind him of where he's been, what he's been through and what he's accomplished: we see his identity tied to the wolf pendant he'd been given as a boy, and he takes clothing articles from the people he kills (like the sunglasses, shoes, and hat) as he rises through the ranks of el saguaro's organization. it's also very meaningful that he wears his wedding suit to the train (and part of that is a belt that says mexico on it).

objects for tangerine signify who he wants to be - a lot of his identity management is wrapped up in portraying himself as polished, as wealthy, and as in control, and again, clothing and jewelry is a big part of this. also important to mention is his kleptomania and his compulsive need to accumulate as much as possible (which i interpret as a symptom of his growing up in poverty) and this is just one way the story clarifies that his image is an expression of desire and a crafted self rather than an authentic one. tangerine is constantly grappling for control and objects play a large part in establishing this theme, but objects are mostly in control of him, not the other way around.

objects for ladybug are tied to survival, not only for himself but for those around him. they're distractions and decoys, they buy time and disarm his opponents in intentionally non-lethal ways. he doesn't like guns. he doesn't like to kill, and he is incredibly resourceful in his pursuit of nonviolence. ladybug is in a constant state of damage control and the objects he chooses to discard or keep in his possession give him some sense of control over his bad luck.

objects for lemon provide a means of communication and a lens for understanding the world and the people around him. the sticker book objectifies the role thomas the tank engine plays in his life, and acts not only a reference for him to categorize personalities but also as a way to express his beliefs to those around him. percy sticker, diesel sticker, thomas sticker. i also like that objects for lemon tend to have protective qualities - the bulletproof vest saved him from the gunshots and tangerine's medallion saved him from drowning. when i rewatch the movie, i appreciate how this makes me feel like he's never in any real danger despite the massive target on his back as a black man ("i don't bleed").

objects for prince provide a way to get what she wants. she uses weapons - taser, rigged gun, explosives in the briefcase - and disguises to achieve her goals. she uses objects to manipulate people and paint a picture of herself as innocent and harmless. at the same time objects reveal her true nature, such as the shibumi novel she reads and the dangerous scissors-inspired hair clip. the hornet uses objects similarly. for her it's also all about stealth and weapons and disguises.

objects for shigeru relate to his past, the knowledge he's gained from it, his goals and his beliefs. thinking of the cane with the sword inside, how he fights with both, and the flowers - how he went into hiding and became a florist. we see him with flowers at various stages in his goal to get revenge on the white death (in the hospital room with wataru, as he boards the train, and when the white death has finally been defeated). when i think of shigeru and flowers, i also think of his trust in fate, the natural world and the forces of the universe.

for the white death, objects signify beginnings and endings. i associate the white death with his mask (again, identity management, the mask signals the birth of a new criminal empire and the emergence of its new leader) as well as the car he was meant to be in, and his robe and slippers. the beginning of his reign and the end of it, how objects symbolize his rise to power and the consequences he's now facing.

the importance of objects in the story can also be seen through the prominence of the briefcase, the water bottle, the rigged gun, the wolf's knife, and the tangerine and lemon truck, all of which serve a narrative purpose and have a presence in the story from the beginning to the end.

[desultory-novice]

hello! out of curiosity, do you have any headcanons/theories/etc. concerning how moonlight mansion’s secret laboratory area factors into the dmk connection? if you don’t mind my asking, i’d love to hear your thoughts if you have any :>

Not...yet. Not a full one, anyway. I will say that the secret lab was in the back of my mind as I was writing my initial post.

Was tempted to say it belongs to someone else. King Dedede is always portrayed to be a secret gear-head but the tubes...

(Photos for those unaware of Moonlight Mansion's secret underground lab)

If... If Dark Meta Knight never had his own "Dark Halberd" and Moonlight Mansion was only his home base... Well, the Halberd is run on Wheelie technology (like the lab has Sparkies) and has similar trap/breakaway passages on it like the basement does...

Although if DMK didn't have his own Revenge of Meta Knight-style coup on Dream Land in the wings... what the HECK was he planning on doing with THIS stuff??! (All of a sudden, the idea of Susie and DMK bonding doesn't seem that strange after all...)

I've also thought a lot about DMK choosing Radish Ruins for the site of his second ambush. If it's a sign that he's got a barely concealed interest in ancient technology and old cultures as MK does...

(I was also thinking about how Moonlight Mansion is a hub to just two realms: Onion Ocean and Candy Constellation. Onion Ocean could relate to the sunken Halberd but I don't have anything relevant for Candy Constellation. It is one of the more tech-y of the realms so that could be where he got the equipment at least...)

If the Mirror enhances the negative, perhaps... MK's interest in the past was taken a bit too far in DMK? Perhaps he wasn't just content to observe it, he wanted to try and reproduce some of it?

...Then again, we're also talking about the guy who, when given a crayon and told he could draw whatever he wanted chose SWORD.

(I tease. Though him drawing a sword badly is still the funniest thing ever)

And, you know, perhaps he just needs a lab to keep the Halberd up and running? This baby is not gonna maintain itself!

Although, hot damn, that test tube is full of GREEN liquid isn't it...?

:Dess begins shaking violently:

EDIT: Last minute thoughts!! If he's got portraits of the realm bosses up, maybe he was...running experiments to try and connect the realms?? Or power the cellphone batteries...??!?

(Who DOES make those batteries? Maybe it IS DMK?!)

[prince-liest]

Random question! In your fics, Alastor is shown to be uncomfortable with his non human characteristics like his hooves/tail/deer ears, so do you think the reason his hair looks like this on the sides is because he grew it out specifically to hide his nonexistent human ears? (Unless he has two pairs of ears, a human one and a deer one, but that would be weird. Then again, why not?).

I don't personally see him as massively uncomfortable with those traits - at least, haha, not like how I write Hawks from My Hero Academia and his collection of semi-nonconsensual cosmetic surgeries - which is a choice I make largely because hell and heaven are just too full of furries for it to not be at least generally normalized. So when I write him as uncomfortable with those traits, it's largely a bit of the "this is not what my body used to be" uncanny valley effect in combination with two other things:

The amount of undress required to even catch sight of the hooves or tail being a state of vulnerability. This is a guy who's buttoned up to his chin and wearing a three-piece suit at all times in canon, and I imagine he would be uncomfortable with that much of himself being revealed at all. A lot of a person's image (something clearly very important to Alastor) is bound up in how they look and dress, and being undressed is losing part of that.

People touching him without his permission, especially in a demeaning, condescending, or entitled way. While I'm just, y'know, generally obsessed with cute animal traits, I also write his reaction and the circumstances in which people get touchy with his ears and tail very deliberately with respect to his relationship with the person doing it, their intent, his boundaries/permission, the ongoing situation, etc, ranging from "this is pleasant" to "my tolerance of this is rapidly waning" to "this is unpleasant but in a kinky way" to "this was arguably the whumpiest part of a fic where he also nearly got his ribcage ripped out."

Anyway, all of that is to say that I hadn't thought about his hair style specifically that way, but I approach the whole thing from the perspective of his control issues and I think it's a totally feasible headcanon! I imagine he would find that lacking human ears would look odd, and it's much easier for him to control how people see him (and what particular flavors of oddness he projects) when he has a haircut that makes human ears or a lack thereof a non-issue.

[descendant-of-truth]

The amount of unexplored concepts in Zi-o is driving me insane but I can only tackle one thing per post so let's talk about Sougo for a minute

As someone who immediately clocked Sougo as having something off about him (to the point where I wrote day-one fanfiction about it), I was really expecting there to be a few episodes where we just. sat down and unpacked all of it. We didn't get that, but the crumbs we did get only solidify my opinion that Sougo is a really compelling character when you take the time to think about him.

On a surface level, Sougo is… very normal, I think. He's a cheerful guy, he's polite, he has a definite silly streak to him. He's kinda awkward, he fumbles around with Sento's catchphrase and struggles with his schoolwork. Like any good-natured protagonist, he has a drive to protect others and has no problem inconveniencing himself a bit to help someone out. These are all true things about him.

Sougo is also very good at manipulating people. And he does it by using his usual mannerisms to his advantage.

Take the episodes with Kuroto for instance. Sougo gets on Kuroto's side effortlessly by looking bright-eyed and enthusiastic about working with him, and this is completely believable to us as viewers because Sougo is always this enthusiastic. It's even relevant to his goal to become king - of course he would want to study under an actual king to get experience!

What makes this interesting is that it's only half true. Sougo isn't faking his enthusiasm, but he is faking his motivation. He doesn't want to work with Kuroto because he thinks he's cool, he wants to work with him because he wants to confirm if he's terrible first, and then take notes on how to not be terrible in the future.

And this is what makes him so good at manipulation: he knows how to channel his behaviors in such a way that he always seems genuine. Of course, it probably helps that he's often only half-faking anyway, which makes it even more convincing.

He's also usually using this skill for a good cause, but when armed with the knowledge that he became evil in the original timeline, it suddenly puts him in a different light; one where you can go "oh, so that's where he's keeping all his supervillain potential."

He displays this cunning side to him in a lot of smaller instances - using Woz's dedication to him as a means to summon him at any time, getting Geiz and Tsukuyomi to hang out with him under the pretense of their mission to keep him from turning evil, so on and so forth.

They sneak this part of him into the script all the time, and the only person to really bring it up is, interestingly enough, his mirror world self.

This scene makes me go nuts because it perfectly displays Sougo's inner conflict that he's usually really good at keeping under wraps. Though admittedly, they also make it a little unclear as to whether he was actually trying to manipulate anyone or just feels like he did anyway... but I think I've got it mostly figured out.

What's happening here, as I understand it, is that Sougo does genuinely want to save Geiz, but there is a small part of him that wants the power that comes with the Ryuga watch, too. And he does not like that part.

He knows that he's manipulated people before, and so when he notices having a second motivation here beyond his more idealistic one, he feels like he's manipulating people again. Making Tsukuyomi think that he's actually a good person when he just prompted Geiz to go sacrifice himself - he harbors a surprising amount of guilt.

And that's another key thing about Sougo that I haven't talked about yet: he hides things constantly.

Like, for example, why he wants to become king in the first place.

This is a lie. Sougo wants to become king because of a recurring dream depicting the most traumatic event of his life, where his only solace is someone telling him that he can save the world if he becomes a king.

But he insists in multiple episodes that it's just "something he's always known." He treats it very casually, despite it dramatically affecting his life plans.

Sougo treats most things with the same smiley nonchalance, honestly, in a way that can make him feel sort of detached from reality at times. But he takes things more seriously than it seems, and it's clear that he harbors a very deep sense of loneliness in him as well. Geiz and Tsukuyomi being his first real friends is one of the driving forces of the narrative, after all.

He also just drops lines like this sometimes that make me go crazy like hey has anyone checked on this guy emotionally during the entire show, I am Concerned

Like!! he says this about the possibility of him being the only person to not survive the final battle, and I know this isn't the first time he's expressed a similar sentiment and it's kind of a tradition for the protagonists of these shows to be like this but. god. and he says it while smiling

(You might be noticing a theme with Sougo and smiling through pain and you would be absolutely correct to do so)

I guess what I'm getting at with this whole post is that the appeal of Sougo's character, to me, is that he's just as much a silly, awkward guy with loads of enthusiasm as he is a cunning, clever person who knows how to lie to get the outcome he wants. He's both very cheerful and very sad on the inside, and none of these things are treated like they're in conflict with each other.

Sougo himself said it best:

And I dunno, I just think that's a really cool way to write your main hero who's working against his destiny to become evil. Or just any character in general. I both completely believe him as a hero and also never quite got rid of that "off" feeling that made me compelled to write about him when the show first started.

Zi-o as a show missed a lot of opportunities to explore things deeper, and Sougo is definitely included in that, but it never failed to keep me interested in him as a character because something about his specific combination of personality traits makes him very compelling to watch.

(He also makes the other writing flaws that much more frustrating because he's way too good of a character for these scripts)

[arosnowflake]

The part where Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish is probably my favourite part in the entirety of Link's Awakening for how effectively it plays into the overarching themes and message of the story, utilizing Marin's character.

Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish because she believes this might make her wish come true. This is not interpretation, this is text. Earlier in the game, Marin states directly: "They say the 'Balled of the Wind Fish' is a song of awakening. I wonder, if the Wind Fish wakes up, will he make my wish come true?"* We also know what she wished for because of this piece of dialogue during the beach scene: "If I was a sea gull, I would fly as far as I could! I would fly to far away places and sing for many people! ...If I wish to the Wind Fish, I wonder if my dream will come true..." Although Marin refuses to tell us what her wish to the Wind Fish was, this piece of dialogue also makes that abundantly clear. Marin believes that waking the Wind Fish will allow her to fly to many places and sing to many people, like a seagull.

And she is not wrong! If you get the secret ending (obtained by not dying during the game), you see a vision of Marin change into a seagull after the Wind Fish wakes. Marin's attempt at waking the Wind Fish and her repeated assertions that waking the Wind Fish might grant her wish is, in part, clever foreshadowing for this secret ending. This is clearly part of its function.

But another, arguably more important aspect of Marin's attempt to wake the Wind Fish is that it serves as a kind of dramatic irony for the player, regardless of whether they know about the secret ending or have even finished the game: at the point of the game where Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish, you, the player, have already had Koholint's Big Secret revealed to you. Marin, on the other hand, is entirely ignorant. We know that waking the Wind Fish would make Koholint vanish, but Marin doesn't.

An isolated, surface-level reading of the situation is as follows: Marin, in her naiveté, is attempting to accomplish something that would doom her. This reading is, to a certain degree, understandable: Koholint's transient nature, and its inevitable end, is certainly sad. We can wonder whether Marin, knowing the full extent of the consequences, would have still wanted to wake the Wind Fish. That was her home, after all, and while she would like to explore the great wide somewhere, she might have been less eager to if she understood that this is only possible if her home did not exist anymore.

But ultimately, this reading is shallow and does not engage with the explicit themes present all throughout Link's Awakening. While Koholint's inevitable end is sad, yes, it is also ultimately not a tragedy. The Nightmares in the world have the aim of controlling the dream and, to accomplish it, are prolonging it unnaturally. The only people who ever protest your quest to wake the Wind Fish are those same monsters, the obvious bad guys of the story. In the end, after the Wind Fish has woken up and Koholint has vanished, we leave on a shot of Link watching the Wind Fish fly off, smiling. It is the nature of dreams to end: all throughout the game, this is made abundantly clear, spelled out in the Wind Fish's final speech, and crucially: this is not a bad thing. The bad thing is forcibly prolonging a dream, clinging to it and refusing to move past it, as the Nightmares were doing.

Engaging with the game's themes, the cynical reading holds no water. Koholint's end is no doom; its doom would be existence in perpetuity, especially if ruled by the Nightmares, as would be inevitable (they are the ones keeping the Wind Fish asleep, after all). By attempting to wake the Wind Fish, Marin is not dooming herself. In addition to all of the above, again: there is an ending where she does have her wish come true, if the Wind Fish wakes. She was correct.

So what, then, is the purpose behind this scene? If not the dramatic irony of unwittingly working towards your own doom, what does it want us to take from it?

Marin is an interesting character on Koholint. While its other residents routinely and consistently fail to comprehend even the general idea of a world beyond this island (as shown by dialogue such as "Dude! You're asking me when we started to live on this island? What do you mean by 'when?' Whoa! The concept just makes my head hurt!" by the children in Mabe Village), Marin asks questions. She's restless, as evidenced by her frequent visits to the beach, her need to know about the world beyond Koholint, and, of course, her attempt to wake the Wind Fish. Why is Marin capable of these questions, whereas most of the other residents are at best unconcerned with the outside world or, at worst, incapable of even thinking about it?

It is up to interpretation, but I posit: for the same reason the Owl is. More or less, anyway.

The Owl is perhaps the strangest part of the dream, not just more aware than the other residents, but more aware than you, as well. It acts as your guide, purposefully so; it references being 'instructed' to help you ("I was instructed to give you directions... Your next goal is north, in Goponga Swamp!!"). The reason for this becomes clear during the ending sequence, where the Owl reveals: "As part of the Wind Fish's spirit, I am the guardian of his dream world." The Owl has a much more direct connection to the Wind Fish than the other residents, which makes sense; as the dream world's guardian, it would have to be aware of its nature and its mechanics in a way none of the other residents would be.

'As part of the Wind Fish's spirit' is interesting; the most literal way to interpret this is the literal one, where the Owl is a part of the Wind Fish's spirit in a way most everyone else on the island isn't. This is supported by the mural you find in the ancient ruins that tells you Koholint's secret, which depicts the Owl immediately alongside the Wind Fish.

But it is important to note that all of Koholint is a part of the Wind Fish; its dream, if nothing else. While the Owl obviously has a different role and greater connection to the Wind Fish than the other residents, it is not unfair to assume Koholint's residents all reflect parts of the Wind Fish, as dreams often reflect parts of ourselves, as well.

The Wind Fish is being forced into a slumber for much longer than is natural by the Nightmares. Repeatedly, the Owl references the Wind Fish growing restless as you get closer and closer to waking it. Before entering the seventh dungeon, the Owl states, directly: "Go! The Wind Fish grows restless!" Upon exiting the seventh dungeon, you can find Marin on the bridge, after having attempted to wake the Wind Fish.

I say the reason Marin tried to wake the Wind Fish, as a matter of fact, the reason she wanted to leave Koholint at all, is a reflection of the Wind Fish's desires to do the same. Her role in the dream is to reflect the Wind Fish's restlessness; or perhaps, that's a fancy way of saying that this is one of her main thematic purposes in the game.

Marin is Koholint's personification. Not necessarily in-universe, but for the purposes of gameplay. It is harder for the average player to get attached to the whole of an island than it is to get attached to a singular girl, who is opinionated and likeable, with a strong personality and hopes and dreams. Without Marin, Koholint's inevitable fading would have much less emotional impact, as Marin shows us that Koholint's residents are people, and provides a microcosm of the island as a whole for us to get attached to. Marin is, effectively, Koholint's representative to the player.

As such, Marin mirrors Koholint in many ways: sweet but mischievous, a bit weird but lovingly so; her name is literally 'Marin', meaning 'marine' in at least French and probably Spanish (I don't speak Spanish and only a little bit of French) and it's one letter off in English as well. When Marin tells you not to forget her at the end of the game, this is connected to the Wind Fish's declaration at the very end, that Koholint will now only exist in memory. This demand to remember her not just meant to be taken literally; it's also meant to be taken as a declaration by the game to remember Koholint.

As such: Marin's restlessness are intended to be reflective of both Koholint and the Wind Fish. Her desire to leave the island and fly away is the Wind Fish's, and therefore, Koholint's, as Koholint is a part of the Wind Fish. The purpose of having Marin try to wake the Wind Fish is to signal to the player that the island wants to wake up; the island's representative made an attempt, and the Nightmares' monsters punished her for it. She needs you to help rescue her, like you need to rescue the island.

Having Marin attempt to wake the Wind Fish is one of the strongest moments of writing in Link's Awakening, showcasing the story's themes and overarching message in an interesting way that adds a lot of character to Marin as well and I'm very, very normal about it.

*All quoted dialogue in this post is taken from the Link's Awakening DX script on gamefaqs, which I would truly love to hyperlink in this sentence but Tumblr is refusing to let me, so it can be found here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gbc/197769-the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-dx/faqs/38914.

[hellisanhonourstudent]

Me whenever I remember the hardcore environmental subject,taught by one of the toughest professors at uni,then remember how RT made Logan an "environmentalist"

How the fuck one (1) guy riding a bicycle is going to do anything against air pollution? And considering how intelligent and well-educated Logan has always been(yes,always. He had plenty of problems at school,but none of them were with grades,AFAIK),he'd have realized it was merely an empty virtue signaling gesture. One would think Logan could help clean beaches and other places in Neptune(small scale,but still something with real results - making the city prettier and healthier),petition for proper disposal and treatment of residues(in all scales,not only in the industrial one),be invested in basic sanitation and water supply(those affect the poor disproportionally - see,Noir-relevant),engage in environmental education(bonus points if he gets to mentor troubled youth and take them under his wing - just like the professor did with him). Young!Logan might have plenty of flaws,but he got shit done.

Logan Echolls became what he hated the most - a virtue-signalling shithead who half-asses good deeds to stroke his own ego. Also,a State-Sanctioned Mercenary. Not very different from the vapid Hollywood he hated so much. I know the Doylist explanation was simply incompetence from RT,but can anyone think of an Watsonian one?