#the more i think about my fave characters the more i realize my faves fit into that 'you can never go home' category

[lookforanewangle]

thinking. musing

[cryptidclaw]

Question: just out of curiosity but what is the simplest AU you find just 100/10, because even though it's such a simple change, something about the idea seems so good even if it changes so little of the actual book?

I only ask this question because I've seen your take on Warriors; though if you could change just one thing, what would it be?

I will admit, I don't know if you've been asked this before, so bear with me.

These are great questions!

ok my fave REALLY simple/small change is making Sandpaw and Longtail the same character. Think about it... Sandpaw is the one to fight Rusty and tear off his collar, Sandpaw is the one who was mentored by Darkstripe, Sandpaw was asked by Tigerclaw to join her in his exile... Sandpaw realizing that she had been looking up to the cat who had killed her father...

that and Sandstorm being Firestar's first deputy. she just deserves it.

...

the one thing I would change out of all warriors is either Ravenpaw being Scourge or Leafpool having Lion and Jay while Squirrel has Holly.

Ravenpaw, bec it is just SO thematically fitting, and it brings back around plot points from earlier in the series, tying up loose ends, something that is very important in a story! Scourge is NEVER hinted at until the very last book, however if he was the surprise return of Fire's old friend it would be a pay off from Ravenpaw's arc!

The 3's heritage bec if Hollyleaf was not actually Lion and Jay's sibling it would give more of a reason as to why she was not one of the three. And! it would be an absolute gut punch to Holly for her to find out that she was never her brother's biological sibling... she was never a part of their prophecy... (bonus points if Lion and Jay had a 3rd littermate that died, and would have been the 3rd cat!)

[bigskydreaming]

Something I'm always meaning to talk about more is that my issues with fanon have very little to do with griping about specific characters' fanons, and more just the insidious way fanon....flattens....so much about media interpretation in general.

And the fact that this happens across the board in every aspect of fandoms, in every fandom, and also pervades other modes of thinking.

I'm trying to figure out how to clarify what's so clear in my head but I'm pretty sure doesn't always come across when I'm talking about a lot of this stuff. My issue with the very concept of fanon is that its a misnomer, I think. It inherently calls to mind the idea that this is a fandom specific issue when IMO its an issue with how people interact with pretty much anything that's inherently more nuanced than they wish to engage with, and "fanon" in the sense of specific fandoms is simply where this issue is most easily apparant.

The best starting point I can come up with for what I'm getting at....this tendency to remove dimensionality from conversations in order to render things more formulaic and easily engaged with in a comfortable, familiar pattern that doesn't demand having complex discussions with controversial content.....

Is think about how often in various fandoms, a character with a lot of complicated nuances is stripped of anything controversial, conflicting takes, etc....and flattened to just their most prominent or popular traits. How often in shipping, nuance is lifted out of the character interactions in order to more easily fit the ship into a greater number of tropes, scenarios, or frameworks.

Most anyone who's complained about fanon takes on a fave character gets how frustrating it is to see conversations about them limited or misrepresented by a general fandom tendency to insist on LIMITING characters or ships to just the most popular fanon takes.

Its that LIMITING sense that is the crux of all of this for me.

So often fanon is presented as something that makes a fandom or characters or stories more accessible to a wider audience, more bite-size and easily digested, and part of the appeal of fanon for a lot of people is this by extension guarantees a wider audience for any takes or content that utilizes this fanon than you might be able to garner otherwise.

But there's a cost to that....the reduction in complexity that comes from shaving off all the more intricate edges to a character, ship or source material in order to more easily fit them into assembly line/cookie cutter frames that can be mass distributed.

The exchange for mass audience appeal is there's less depth to how much you can explore a lot of these things before you go beyond the limits of that 'mass popular appeal' framing and get into the complexities that make content come across as too daunting for a newcomer (or casual content-consumer) to see as worth trying to get into.

What I'm trying to get at here is think about how often when getting into something from a fanon-first vantage point, its....eye-opening to realize how much depth was shaved off of a character, storyline or ship in order to "fit it" into that mass audience appeal framework.

How often people who first are exposed to fanon and only get into the fuller canon later express frustration with the realization that so much depth was hidden or outright cast out by fanon. Deliberately so.

Now if you extend this to no longer talking about just fanon in the sense of characters, ships or source material, but fanon in terms of fandom MINDSETS, approaches to different topics in general....

PARTICULARLY any topics deemed controversial or complex....

Its not that different, honestly.

And this is why so much of my frustration with fanon and so much of my frustration with how people talk - or AVOID talking - about controversial fandom elements like racism, various -phobias, rape and abuse topics, etc.....

Its all one and the same to me.

If you can accept that fanon has a blunting effect on how so many characters and ships are talked about, how much they're ABLE or WILLING to be explored by most of their fandom.....

Can it not also, by extension, be considered that fanon - or related mindsets or approaches to engaging with topics in media - SIMILARLY has a blunting effect on how so many controversial topics are talked about, how much THEY'RE able or willing to be explored by various fandoms?

Part of what makes me want to pull out my hair and scream when people just default to confidently dismissing anything I ever have to say about sex-heavy content as skewed or emotionally biased due to me being a survivor who's too consumed by a focus on my own issues with certain things to be able to have sophisticated interactions with "mature, adult topics in fandom spaces" is the entire point of my "I am not remotely in favor of censorship and in fact I'm the one out here begging us all TO talk about all of this more" stance is that I look at so many people confidently talking about their sophisticated understanding of complex expressions of adult sexuality blah blah blah....

And I'm like....where is the complexity. Where is the variation. Where is the spectrum of content.

Just as a for instance....how many people when engaging with dom/sub tropes in fic can say that given how much of this content is out there.....there's a sizable amount of dom/sub content that explores ANY take other than "the appeal of it for characters is any character who is used to having a lot of control outside of the bedroom likes having the chance to explore the flip side of that IN the bedroom" -

like. Is this a valid angle that certainly exists and is worth exploring? Sure! But is it realistically the only angle from which anyone has ever partaken in dom/sub activities or does it not seem plausible that as is the case with a lot of fanon, there has been a mass blunting effect wherein this one particular angle or pattern to this overall topic or trope has been unilaterally applied across SO MUCH content that delves into this trope.....

That a whooooooole lot of other possibilities have just completely fallen by the wayside?

Now apply this to topics like abuse, like incest, like racism, like anything controversial.

And ask the "where are you getting your information" question that so many people have to eventually ask the biggest fanon adherents in pretty much ANY fandom, once they realize how little the most popular fanon takes on major characters and ships actually look like those characters and ships in the canon source material.

If you yourself aren't coming into a particular topic or conversation from a place of lived experience - and yes, with full awareness and admittance that coming into something from a place of personal lived experience still only counts as ONE angle of experience and doesn't mean that there aren't still multiple valid other angles to explore, perhaps even conflicting ones -

Then the question becomes.....how confident can you really be that the "fanon" takes on mass-popularized content that has people going from one fandom to another just in search of more of that specific content rather than to follow specific characters or ships.....

Are any more accurate than most fanon takes on major characters or popular ships?

What nuance is getting dropped and left out of all of these widespread fandom "explorations" of content that quite frankly does not have NEARLY as many actual CONVERSATIONS happening about the actual topics as there logically SHOULD be given how everpresent the topics are in terms of fandom-produced content?

Media exists in part to explore ideas through fiction in ways not possible in real life. Yes, true. I've never and will never say otherwise.

My point has always been and will always be "how much exploration is actually happening if so many of these ideas are flattened to just being the same one or two angles mass-produced for widespread consumption by whatever audience is already primed to receive that content as is, without risk of being put off by exploring these topics down unfamiliar or uncomfortable avenues they aren't prepared or willing to follow a content creator down."

And THIS is why I am so aggro at people constantly derailing my attempts to start conversations by shutting them down from the word "go" with BUT YOU'RE CENSORING ME.

How is the earnest request to TALK ABOUT SHIT MORE - which is literally what actual, genuine criticism IS - an act of censorship? By any stretch of the imagination?

And if you're not actually afraid of censorship - if that's not what these requests for conversation and criticism actually are - then what is it you're actually afraid of?

[twirlymarimo]

twirlymarimo's 2024 year-end zosan fic rec!

after a full orbit around the sun reading zosan fanfics, i decided to make a list of recommendations bringing light to these beautiful pieces of work, whether it made my heart hurt, made me laugh, or just simply hooked to the story. enjoy reading!

☆゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜★

i would give you my heart, i think by fairv it's not finished but the first chapter is an absolute banger. multiple angsty trope in one - canonical character death, pining, miscommunication, friends to lovers, secret dating, what more could you ask for. i constantly find my self thinking about this story and i wish i was patient enough to wait for the finished work. this one deserves a lot more kudos!

homesick by summerofspock another mystery banger from summer! the vibe is twin peaks meets teen wolf and the premise is angsty but fluff is sprinkled here and there to keep our hearts stable.

insiduous by riotoftime and aevv the dynamic duo of the century that brought us tin lover is back with a new world to take over our minds with every update. their synchronized writing style reads like a book, just take a look at the world building in this one. the story is starting to pick up just like the intense dynamic between our two faves.

a heavy heart to carry by inkinmyheart i realized none of the first recs are finished, my bad but this one is! i typically avoid vampire aus because trauma from reading twilight but the concept here is interesting! i always enjoy ptsd sanji and the build up to the ending/reveal was satisfying.

the proposal by brunetta6 a well-written adaptation of the rom-com classic, the proposal. the accurate description of hokkaido brought me back down memory lane when i visited in 2023. hilarious dialogues with a tiny slice of angst makes a perfect pick-me-up read in the winter time.

lost myself when i caught sight of you by thecrownofclowns the sigh i let out after reading this. so hauntingly beautiful, like one of the fics that made me believe zosan is canon lol if this was a song, it would be a house in nebraska by our queen ethel cain

the knight shift by strawhatbougie inspired by THAT photo that circulated the internet, the author brought justice to what the audience wants - sanji in white fishnet leggings.

the mummy by greenyogurtelephant i love movie adaptations as you can see lol i read this on my e-reader in the summer and it was so hilarious, entertaining, and truly fits the essence of zosan. i would suggest to watch the actual movie either before or after reading the fic.

loose ends of the night by veto_power_over_clocks if you like pain like me, the first 4 chapters are all about miscommunication and wanting to smack both of these guys' heads and screaming at them the entire time. zoro POV too which is so rare these days but author delivered!

this post has been deleted. by evils if you love social media au but need it in a written format, this one is for you! a mix of comedy, fluff, and a slice of angst thru miscommunication.

seagrain by fruityumbrella ever thought about what would happen if sanji and zoro find out they've both done the one thing that make up their very core? "you know what, hell yeah," author fruityumbrella said.

thank you for reading if you made it this far! i have way more fics that i liked this year but i only got my account a couple of months ago so i couldn't track the ones i read earlier in the year. i also tried to feature ones that are not from well-known authors but i still had to give credit where it's due ;) thank you to all zosan writers for keeping my mental health stable (or maybe not for adding to my delusions about these two) <3

if you liked any of the fics above, please don't forget to give kudos, comment and bookmark! writers work so hard to give us amazing stories and they take so much time out of their schedules to do so.

if you're interested in more of my fic recs, you can check out my ao3 bookmarks here.

[maxdibert]

I once saw a really hot fanart of AU silco from arcane and I was like "this looks like Snape" and then from there I wondered if you liked silco. Then I stumbled across a post from you (I think, I'm sure it was otherwise this is embarrassing) simping for Silco so I was right I guess. My question is do you think you can draw any similarities between those two, if there are any? Maybe even talk about silco? You're pretty good at character analysis so..

Ahhhhh Silco, my problematic fave without a doubt. I’ve criticized Silco a lot, and I still do, because he represents a massive social and structural issue that also exists in the real world: the figure of the criminal who takes advantage of the vulnerability and lack of resources in his environment to enrich himself at the expense of the lives of the poorest, even though he comes from that same background. To top it off, he convinces himself that he’s some kind of solution for the society or community he inhabits, when in reality, he’s a cancer. But I adore him—what can I say?

It’s also true that it’s quite difficult to hate any of the main or secondary characters in Arcane, because it’s a series with a well-developed script that lets you understand everyone’s motivations and actions, even if you don’t agree with them or find them awful. A lot of people criticized Caitlyn this past season, but I’m a strong Caitlyn defender because I completely understand where her anger and radicalization come from. It’s not just about losing her mother in such a traumatic way, but also the disillusionment she feels when she realizes that her attempts at advocating for conciliation not only don’t work but also end in tragedy. She embodies the disillusioned idealist, and it’s really well done.

But anyway, let’s talk about Silco. First of all, I don’t see many similarities between Silco and Snape, aside from young Silco being super Snape-coded physically. I mean, I’d totally accept him as Snape’s image because he has features that really remind me of him (which clearly shows I have a type—shame, no shame lol). But beyond that, their backstories, personalities, and motivations are very different. Silco isn’t someone who’s manipulated or desperate to fit in and join a gang. Silco created that gang; he’s the one doing the manipulating. He’s the one promising young people a better future if they follow him, when all he’s really doing is spreading a drug that’s poison and leaving his city even more impoverished than it already was.

If I had to compare Silco to someone, it would be Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, because of how both go from being idealistic revolutionaries to animated versions of Pablo Escobar. Both come from poor environments, both were ambitious young men dreaming of a better world, but those dreams were crushed by traumatic events. Both resorted to violence, coercion, and blackmail to achieve their goals, and both ended up as mafia leaders who climbed the social ladder but could never truly reach the upper classes because they didn’t belong in that world.

Silco is a very well-constructed character. His fight with Vander and the deaths of his friends, partly due to his own actions, shift his worldview from believing he can make the world better to seeing it as irreparably broken—but still something he can dominate, something he can reclaim if he becomes powerful enough. This leads him to become a drug lord. He’s not actually achieving Zaun’s freedom; he’s condemning it to drug addiction.

I always compare Silco to Pablo Escobar because it’s easy to see the similarities in their methods: both used the excuse of improving the people’s lives to exploit them for personal gain, both manipulated young people by offering them jobs or protection in exchange for loyalty, both turned their violent environments into even more violent war zones, and both justified themselves by believing the world owed them something.

Silco commits truly horrific acts. He uses children, spreads a drug epidemic to make his environment easier to control, and his relationship with Jinx is deeply unhealthy and manipulative. I don’t doubt that he loved her, but he loved her badly. He projected all his traumas onto her, turning her into an unstable, self-loathing ticking time bomb—so much so that she ended up causing his death (poetically brilliant, top-tier storytelling). I always say that loving someone doesn’t mean loving them well, and Silco didn’t love Jinx well. He loved her selfishly; he loved her as someone to mold in his image. But you can’t expect someone raised in that environment to know how to do things right.

People simp for him by absolving him of everything and acting like he’s just a sad boy, but he wasn’t sad—he was a massive bastard and a piece of trash. But you can love that piece of trash anyway, and I love him a lot because deep down, he’s just a pathetic man—and I adore pathetic men.

Silco’s tragedy is that his fall to the dark side is the root cause of most of the misfortunes in the story. In an ideal world, he would never have fought with Vander, and they could have been good adoptive fathers to the girls—something we see in the AU, which breaks all our hearts because it shows us what could have been but never was.

But oh well, I love him anyway—even if he’s a drug lord, a manipulator, has zero anger management, and is a traitor to the revolution. And that’s important because I don’t forgive traitors to the revolution, but I’ll let it slide this time.

My opinions on Silco are always very contradictory, but that’s because I like making it clear that he’s a piece of crap, even if I like him a lot.

(And even if he turns me on, what can I say.)

[ambeer6]

Longer than expected yapping about case 2 of DRDT. (dated ep 14 of ch 2)

Some thoughts about the chapter 2 case. Warnings for all the obvious.

First of all, I think Teruko is right about how the pulley system was set up. Rope over the rafters on the ceiling, then through the seesaw and then around the carousel. Then tying the rope to the correct length before letting go, so there's no worry about stopping the carousel with your bare hands. This simply makes sense.

Something that confuses me, is the amount of people arguing against this idea? Not many people on tumblr thankfully, but I don't really see why this setup would be unbelievable.

Advantages of the pulley:

Using a pulley reduces weight. Arei would be far easier to lift using this method. Even a kid could lift her this way by simply leaning into the carousel.

Using the pulley means you don't have to pick up Arei and hook her into the noose. You can simply leave her unconscious on the ground and hook the noose around her instead, then push the carousel.

Even if you're okay with her dying of strangulation, it's easy to tie the rope to the right length and just let her drop to break her neck. It grants Arei a quick death. (and you'll be done quicker)

Even if the killer is strong enough to just lift Arei into the noose, using a pulley is much easier and means you'll spend less time holding her. I know not everyone would care, but I certainly wouldn't enjoy holding onto an unconscious girl and trying to lift her into a noose, let alone an awake girl trying to struggle. (if you believe she woke up)

Downsides of the pulley:

A lot more work to clean up afterwards. Especially since we know most of it wasn't actually cleaned up, all they did was hang Arei into a different place afterwards. (I wonder if they were in a hurry, or if they assumed that somehow people wouldn't realize Arei couldn't have broken her neck from the short rope on the swingset)

a lot more work to set up to begin with. You'll have to either get up very early, or set it up the night beforehand if you wanted to be completely prepared for the murder. Clearly this wasn't just a spur of the moment thing.

That's pretty much all I can think of, honestly. When talking about the advantages or downsides of the pulley at least.

Other stuff that's maybe a bit silly to bring up:

Those fish are a bit big to have fitted through the holes in the jerrycan handles.

How do we think those jerrycans were attached to Arei? Like, I know the handles are broken (also giggle at the size of the holes and the size of the fish), but my question is more like... did they use rope? It sounds logical to use rope, but they don't mention any rope burn on Arei's body.

Maybe the 'glove is for ropeburn' truthers meant the ropeburn on Arei herself? Did the killer place the glove on Arei's neck before hanging the rope with the jerrycans off her? If they got rid of the jerrycans afterwards, maybe they also took Arei's glove. (disclaimer: I don't think they used the glove this way, but I'm open to arguments in favour of it's usage)

Rose mentioned she memorized the trash. Do you think there's a chance the needle and thread will be brought up by her? I feel like if those are going to be important, then Rose will be the person to mention seeing them in the trash.

Clothes baul.

Something else I want to mention is that the way some people talk about this case makes me uncomfortable. I want to remind people that this is just a story that someone wanted to tell. I understand that the people saying they'll drop hang themselves if the killer is a specific person are just joking, but if I were the dev, I'd feel extremely uncomfortable from just how many people are talking about the case like this.

I understand not wanting a certain character to die and I can't stop you from making jokes about it, but saying that killing off your fave character is a horrible writing choice and you'll kill yourself over it, would put immense stress on the dev, as well as everyone who helped with the project.

Also on the topic of writing: people make illogical decisions sometimes, but especially when under stress. The case needs to make sense, but I don't want people arguing something is bad writing because the killer made one or two illogical decisions along the way.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of people are assuming what I call the "Ellery Queen case logic", which assumes that the reader (or viewer, in this case) should be able to solve the full murder based on the clues given during the investigation, before the confrontation (trial, in this case). While definitely understandable, it's great being able to solve things beforehand, we need to remember that this is not the only way to go about writing cases. Personally I've engaged more with what I call the "Arthur Conan Doyle case logic", which leaves the most vital piece(s) of evidence hidden from the reader (viewer) until the end of the final confrontation. This makes is either very difficult, or even impossible to solve the case beforehand, meaning you'll have to wait until the very end to even see the final piece of the puzzle.

Now, there's no saying whether Despair Time uses either one or the other case logic style (they could mix it up between every chapter if they want to), so because of that, I ask people to be polite about people's theories, even if they don't explain every single piece of evidence, or if they state that we need to wait for more evidence to be revealed even though the trial already started.

Nothing wrong with voicing your own ideas on people's theories, it can be helpful if they actually misremember something (I misremembered stuff too, so it was good to have it pointed out!) and can help people rework their theories with your arguments in mind, but I just ask that you're not condescending about it if you do.

THAT'S ALL! THANKS FOR READING!

[birdmitosis]

Voice of the Cold for the ask game, i hope I got here first D:

[ask game here]

OMG, you did! :D And I am so happy to answer about Cold.

First impression

Pretty sure my first impression was of him in the Spectre route, and I was curious, a bit positively inclined, mostly on the strengths of how well he fit how we got him and also how hot his voice was. 😔 Yeah, I'll admit it. I looked forward to seeing more from him and was intrigued by the seeming discrepancy between his "emotionless" claims and his blatant grudge against the Narrator.

Impression now

I LOVE COLD SO MUCH. Ohhh, he is as much of a trauma response as the rest of them and is both driven to keep himself safe and also experience something new (which is itself not safe) and also not care about safety... He is dismissive and deeply caring and he can't stand stagnancy and yet he feels at home when everything unravels into the Long Quiet. One of my Top 3 faves I think.

Favorite moment

There are a lot of moments I could choose here but I think I still have to give it to my bias: Cold in the Wraith chapter alongside Paranoid. Especially this sequence:

This has lived rent-free in my head since I first saw it, it just hits me so hard in a "none of them are fully wrong but none are fully right either" way and says so much about Cold in the context of other things... Especially the absolutely wild "If you can tolerate joy, you can tolerate pain" line, like UM EXCUSE ME?

(But the whole chapter is great, with Cheated as well as with Paranoid, but I have a bias for so many moments with the Paranoid version, like the "you think you are brave" line from Wraith and the fact that Cold must have helped with the efforts to toss the body into the void... Wraith is a severely underrated chapter, I feel!)

Idea for a story

Look, because of the way I fandom, all my ideas are for shipfic and ParaCold is 1000% my OTP, soooo...

That said, a specific idea I've actually had that I still kinda want to use with something, that I may have mentioned before, is Hunted making a point that they need each other (as a group) and at their best they cover each others' blind spots and shore up each others' weak points.

When Cold pulls something along the lines of his "I'm special" thing, Hunted ends up challenging him to a "play" fight (no actual wounds being left, "wounds" marked with something like chalk or berry juice or something, fake blade, etc.). And by the time Cold calls that he's "killed" Hunted (and so obviously he's right that he doesn't need help/he has no weak spots that actually matter), Hunted can point out that he's managed to land enough "minor" blows that Cold would be bleeding out by now too, because he doesn't guard himself at all.

(I also kinda want to look more into a super queer TTRPG called Moonlight on Roseville Beach because I wanna play around a bit with an AU for it where the six possible player character "origin stories" are filled by Hero, Contrarian, Cold, Paranoid, the Princess, and the Narrator... "[In] Moonlight on Roseville Beach, it's the summer of 1979 and you work in the village by day while protecting yourself, your housemates, and your neighbors from supernatural monstrosities and occult horrors by night," and it's in a queernorm setting where LGBTQIA+ characters are considered the norm, with a "focus on queer people succeeding at keeping themselves and their communities safe (at least for a time).")

Unpopular opinion

TBH I also agree that Cold isn't all that edgy. I think he's quite straightforward most of the time and definitely has some issues -- I think he likes prodding at some of the other characters more than some people realize but also less than some people act like, he really does jump to "we could stab" very quickly as a response, he seems happy to encourage potential violence against himself if he finds it interesting in some way, he has a surprisingly big ego -- but also blatantly cares despite how he often talks, is curious and wants new things, and seems to like connecting with the other voices and even, sometimes, the vessels.

I also think he isn't as hard to get along with as some people think, in the sense of, I think he has like three different "modes" when it comes to interacting with people:

He vibes with how you do things, in which case he goes along quite well, is agreeable and calm, and seems to like you. (Skeptic in the Drowned Grey chapter is a clear example, but so is Cheated in the Wraith I think; IMO Hero and Hunted would go here as well.)

There's enough push-and-pull there that he finds you interesting, in which case he can get a bit intense, prod you some just to see the push back, might sometimes go along just to see what you'll do, and it's a bit harder to tell if he likes you (but honestly he does). (IMO Paranoid would go here, and I do actually think Smitten goes here as well.)

Neither of the above apply, in which case he's just bored of you, and if forced into constant proximity with you, annoyed. (Stubborn in MOC is the most blatant example; IMO Broken would go here as well, ironically outside of if you somehow managed to get Cold alongside him in the Tower route.)

(The first two can be true simultaneously for some people; I feel like Contrarian would be in both. Weirdly, I feel like Opportunist is somehow in both #2 and #3? Stubborn could eventually go into #2, under better circumstances. And the Narrator fits a special category of "fuck you" where He doesn't quite fit #2 but there are some similarities, Cold just doesn't like Him.)

...This got a bit weird and long and out of Unpopular Opinion territory, huh. WELL, TL;DR Cold isn't edgy and actually likes a good number of the other voices.

Favorite relationship

I mean, y'all can guess this one, right? >_>

No, but honestly, as a ship it's definitely ParaCold. But in a totally platonic way, I also really love his dynamic with Hero in the Spectre route, especially if you free Her, and with Skeptic in the Drowned Grey chapter (okay, okay, I can see that one as either platonic or shippy). And his dynamic with the Narrator fascinates me but I can't ever see them getting along.

Favorite headcanon

I love the idea that Cold picks up new things all the time, and whether he sticks with them or not he gets surprisingly good at them first. Skills, hobbies, other languages. I can imagine his handwriting getting better more quickly than a lot of the other voices because of this, and him also managing to bond with the others over doing their hobbies with them.

[tyrantisterror]

Recently I'd been rewatching the No Small Feat campaign and I started wondering something during the Menagerie Arc (my favourite arc of the campaign so far btw). You've been pretty transparent about this campaign's fairy tale motif, from general archetypes such as Leonie being a take on the Disobedient Girl to characters and plots taken wholesale and placed into Midgaheim like Sir George and Jack and the Beanstalk. Even the one other arc I couldn't name a particular fairy tale equivalent, the Heartless Witch, feels enough like a fairy tale plot to fit, but the Menagerie arc, aside from the significant presence of Sir George, seems like the odd one as a fantasy flavoured Jurassic Park homage. So is there some fairy tale inspiration to that arc I'm missing, or did you really just decide to diverge from the rest of the campaign's theme for that one arc as an excuse to introduce more of Midgaheim's various fantasy beasties (this is valid btw, it is as said above mt fave so far)?

Ok, I could bullshit that Jurasisc Park is, in its own way, a fairy tale - a rich king commands the finest wizards in the land to bring dragons back from the dead and place them in his menagerie, defying the gods with his hubris, only for them to prove unruly and destroy the kingdom in the process, leaving the king humbled and destitute by his hubris. It's a morality play about folly and hubris and not breaking the rules of the world as much as, say, the story of Grandfather Death - is bringing dinosaurs back that much different from using Death's shotglass to subvert the natural rhyme and rhythm of the cycle of life?

I could do that. I could claim that bullshit is true.

But the fact is that @dinosaurana pitched a character who wants to build a pokedex of 100 monsters, and I was figuring out how to make sure we encountered at least 100 monsters (with some to spare in case my players missed some of them). And I've always been enamored with the idea of a medieval take on Jurassic Park - of finding some obscure rich weirdo who's captured a bunch of dangerous, rare mythic animals, and all hell breaks loose. I tried it out in a couple of my earliest D&D campaigns, in fact, but was never quite satisfied - and I ultimately realized this campaign would be a good fit.

It may break the pattern of the fairy tale homages that the other arcs have, but it's not like any of them were particularly bound by fairy tales - the story of Kaboldt's manor turned out quite differently than Bluebeard, after all, and so on with the others. And, well, to go back to that bullshit above, while a Jurassic Park homage may not fit the theming of the allusions in this campaign, it does fit the overall theme and structure of fairy tales if you think hard about it.

Plus, I got to throw in a shit ton of monsters.

[kurosagileo]

couple thoughts on the obscuary episode if anyone's interested

I keep thinking about doing this kinda post but keep putting it off lmao

if people are interested in My Thoughts i might reread the chapter and go more in depth on like analysis, but this is just general thoughts after reading

so first things first, lyca is absolutely hands down adorable, I love him so much he reminds me of my friend's dog who is so excited all the time about being a good boy but also has the most wistful stare uve ever seen. I love that lyca's kept naivety and hope for the future despite the fucked up shit that darkwick put him through, and was so scared when he mentioned his first friend because i Knew how that was gonna end and then.. it did like that

rui living up to the malewife allegations, doing all of the cooking and cleaning around the place, making sure lyca gets up for school in the morning. i remember @/danieyells (i think) made a post at one point about the quiz at the beginning mentioning not sleeping and i was like oh!! thats rui now! but also god i couldn't imagine not sleeping like that is my favorite hobby

ed reminds me of a guy from korra who got airbending and his mom was trying to force him to join the airbenders and he was like absolutely not i'm staying in the basement you cant make me do anything. i didn't realize at first with the img of him when you first meet him that he's barely got his vest buttoned at all lmao. my fave scene with him is at the end where cornelius and moby are like well but you guys lied on this report and ed is like oh yeah where and theyre like ed wouldn't sign this he's too lazy and ed is like wow thats so crazy look over this way for a second tho? and they're like ed????

overall, though i felt like this episode fell flat compared to the others

i think the other episodes had a better balance of action from the anomaly case, building character relations, and progressing the overarching story with regards to darkwick and mc's curse. this chapter definitely had the second two, but not so much the first one. the anomaly felt like it was just an afterthought, and without that driving the plot for the chapter, it didn't feel as strong. the other episodes felt more like they could stand strongly on their own while being part of the main story

it might be personal preference, but it just didn't feel as strong without the central focus on an anomalous mission. my favorite chapters so far have been jabberwock, vagastrom, and sinostra (but also like vagastrom bias lmao so take that with a grain of salt) and i think it really worked to have the interactions centered around the anomaly, while also opening things up with the main story and information about the curse and the Clash and the spy/traitor. in contrast, this chapter didn't have the central focus to work with and in my opinion felt more like something that would be a side story that fits between episodes

again though this is just my opinion and overall i did enjoy the chapter, I just didn't find it as strong or compelling as the other ones so far but if u got this far i'm curious to know your opinions !!

[queenoftsage]

I always see these ToP 10 KoReAn AcToRs ThAt ArE sO GrEAt [OmG] on... Fail Tube...

And to be honest, they always fail me. Come the F on peoples. Where are my faves?

Yeah yeah I know. I'm not general audiences. So.... Let's make my own.

Behind this read on, you will find my TOP 10 South Korean Actors of .... Well all time. Including NEWBIES, and Honorable Mentions.

P.S. this list is based on ACTING talent. Yes, most of these men or male presenting peoples I'm about to name may be good looking, but they have the TALENT to keep me entertained. ME, who is very picky for... pretty much anything, especially a whole ass show or movie I'm gonna give hours upon hours of my time to watch. If you can't act, your looks to me are gonna go down the drain. You can't be a bad actor and be good looking, because then I'll be like... yeah... that mofo is on that screen just cause of looks. They have no freakin' talent. GET ME OUTTA HERE. lol.

THIS SAID....

Ready to hate me cause I didn't include your faves? lol. READ ON, or forever hold your peas and carrots,. and MOVE ON. [aka- don't click 'keep reading'] [Warning: LONG ASS post.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#10

Park Hae Soo

Listen.... It took 'Narco Saints' for me to realize that... I do love watching him on screen. I have also seen him in other things, and I honestly have loved his performances.

He manages to hold my attention long enough to acknowledge that... Yeah, I like this guy, he is very good at his craft. Let's go see more stuff with him in it! So that's how I decided he's a fave. lol.

My nickname for him: Mr. Narco Saint.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#9

Kim Jae Wook

I have seen him in SO MANY series/dramas, and every single time, every SINGLE time, he makes me root for his characters. Yes, even when he's playing evil AF characters. I think high key, he fits the villain characters a little more. I don't know, it's something about his elegant looks that make it easy for him to play villains. His most memorable being in 'VOICE', and in 'DEATH'S GAME'.

ALSO, he has a very special place in my heart. Way back when, Tumblr used to be a fun place for online RP. I had an amazing RP partner that used his beautiful face as an FC for a very fun character. I don't remember his name too much. If I remember it, I'll come back and edit it in, but... still... That particular character was villain-ous. lol

My Nickname For Him: 'That Character's Name!' ... I'll find it...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#8

Park Hyung Sik

This man is just adorable AF. He's fun to watch in most of the series/dramas he's in, and my favorite performance of his was in the series 'Happiness'. Despite him being a favorite, a lot of the stuff he's in is ... not really a personal favorite, [save for 'Happiness' which I really liked.] but his acting is always a breath of fresh air. Like I said, he's fun to watch on screen, even when the writing is bad. lol

My Nicknames For Him: The Cute One

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#7

Yoo Seung Ho

Just like Park Hyung Sik, this man is adorable and very fun to watch, but sometimes the stuff he's in is... not so great. However, he is great, and I have yet to watch him in Warrior Baek Dong Soo. I hear that was a great performance of his. Honestly, all his performances are great. Also, his eyes are a thing that keeps me glued to the screen. He's just beautiful.

Anyway... Favorite. I always enjoy watching him on screen, even if the stuff he's in has insanely terrible writing.

My Nickname's For Him: Jingoo's Older Brother [yeah Yeo Jin Goo, no they're not related... but still.], Yesung part 2, Orange Blossom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#6

Yoo Ah In

Another top performer, and reason why I'll stay and watch something. Despite all that bullshit controversy going on about drugs and this man [I would go off tangent and explain why I don't give a fuck when actresses or actors end up being junkies. That's their choice and their body. It's something they have to fight with.] , I still find it very fulfilling to watch him on screen. He's very very good at what he does, and well... You know he's also very easy on MY EYES. lol

Whatever the case, I thank that lady Song Hye Kyo, for being his friend and sticking with him through thick and thin and helping him out as the friend that she is. I hope he gets the help he needs and is able to come back to acting. I know it won't be unscathed, because South Korean audiences are very harsh on drug accusations [in which they should be harsher on GRAPE accusations, but go figure. They're very ass backwards. I won't get into it. That's all I'm saying.] , but me personally, I'll be waiting patiently for him to return.

Hope to see him in more new performances. In the meantime, I'll continue to watch what he's been in.

My Nicknames For Him: Hottie, Mr. Chicago Typewriter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#5

Steven Yeun

GLENNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... you know... Because yes. Also, he's great, overall. He's got a charm that just keeps me watching every time he's in anything. He's one of the reasons I continued to watch 'The Walking Dead' for as long as I did. Him and Michone, but that's another story for another time.

Why is he in this list, if he's mostly in Western productions? Actually, no. He was in a few South Korean productions as well, and he was great in them. Hell, he even did a variety show in South Korea and was adorable in it. So... THERE. lol.

My Nicknames For Him: The only reason I liked 'The Walking Dead', lol... Well that's not a nickname, but that's what always comes to my mind when I see him. Him and Michone were EVERYTHING to me. Aka- GLENN.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#4

Lee Do Hyun

The first time I saw this dude was in 'Hotel Del Luna'. And I thought he was great, not gonna lie. Unfortunately, at that time, someone else had grabbed my attention. However, fastforward to a lot of performances later, including 'Exhuma' where he was superb! and I realized that this man is AMAZINg. Also, he played Shin Ha Kyun's younger self in 'Beyond Evil'. So technically he's Lee DongSik Too! How much better can we get?

That aside he's super talented. And of the new boys that are usually in Top 10s, he's the only one that made it on mine. Also, he will forever be Baby! Shin Ha Kyun to me, because I believe he can achieve such heights as an actor.

My Nicknames For Him: Baby!HaKyun [yeah... Shin Ha Kyun]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#3

Shin Ha Kyun

........... I don't think I need to explain WHY, this man is in this list? Or do I? If I do, just know this, he's nicknamed 'The GOD of Acting' by his fellow South Koreans. So.......... Yeah. Either way, and God of acting nickname aside, he lives up to that expectation all the time. No matter what character he's playing, he always puts his soul into it. I love that about him.

My Nicknames For Him: My Husband, The MOOD, My Twin [Gemini Twin]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#2

Doh Kyung Soo

.... Listen... Idol actors get a lot of shit when they decide to go into acting, because they're often accused of being BAD at acting. Kyungsoo, is one of those that has surprised audiences with his acting. And honestly, I feel it. I have seen most of everything he's been in [save for that one series with Zo In Sung], and I gotta say, I loved the performances through and through. Whether he was playing a high school kid with problems, and or a crazy prosecutor, and or an astronaut stranded on the moon. The feeling has been there the whole time, as well as the SOUL. This man, knows how to act, he was born for it. And of the many many MANY idol actors out there doing their thing, he's in my opinion, THE BEST of the BEST.

THE END...

Also helps that he's one of my top favorites, but that's another story for another time.

My Nicknames For Him: Baby Boy, el Ojon ['big eyes' this one from my mom too, cause that's what she calls him, and that's how she knows we're gonna see him on screen.] , Crayon Shin Chan, Baby! Ranier, itty bitty KyungSoo, [too many to be honest... I come up with nicknames every other Friday. Stay Tuned... lol.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honorable Mentions:

Ji Sung

This man came into my radar, thanks to 'The Devil Judge'. I have yet to sit down and see him in more things. The only other series I have seen him in is 'Adamas', and I gotta say, it was very fun time. I'm not gonna lie that I chose to watch him because I don't mind watching him on screen. He's absolute eye candy in every sense of the damn word.

However... I hope that as I keep trying to watch stuff he's been in or is in 'currently', I can appreciate his acting more.

My Nicknames For Him: Kang YoHan [I know that's a character he played, but that's all I see when I see him... I KNOW, I need to see more.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seo Ji Hoon

I'm not gonna lie... I had seen this kid in other series, and he did kind of grabbed my attention. However, the stories were so good, I was actually invested in the stories [ie. 'Revenge of Others', 'Meow The Secret Boy']. However, enter 'Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency' and... That was it. I immediately remembered his face from the previous stories/series and how in those series, he was the one that had caught my attention. Then here in this series Marriage Agency... I was SOLD.

This beautiful man is up and coming, true. So I'm waiting patiently for him to get more 'STARRING' roles. He's only gotten a few. He has yet to have that one HIT that catapults him to getting even more attention. However, with what he's done, he's done enough for me to pay attention. He's good, and he was so good, that in Marriage Agency, he managed to get my attention, when that series features some of the most beautiful men South Korea has to offer. Shout out to the other Jihoon, he's beautiful too.

Either way... This kid is on my radar. I can't wait to see more of him and determine WHERE in this list he fits. Will he be Top 10? or Top 20? We'll see.

My Nicknames For Him: Baby King! [he's a little itty bitty king... no of course he's not... he's way taller than probably most of the dudes I have here on this list. lol. But still... He's so baby faced. That's all I think about when I see him.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Park Ji Hoon

Ok, so the same thing that happened with Seo Jihoon, happened to me with this Jihoon. He's Park Jihoon. So the first time I saw him was in 'Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency'. I did take notice at how pretty and cute he was. I mean, this freakin series had some very beautiful people in it and I did notice. However, the Jihoon that caught my attention there was Seo Jihoon. Fastforward to a few months later and me watching 'Weak Hero Class 1' and I lost it. I remembered who this kid was, and I remembered where I had seen him. He is amazing in this series, so now I'm a little lost in the rabbit hole. I am currently going through his list of works. It's not that big, so I feel like I'm almost over. Currently and at the time I'm about to post this, I have started 'At a Distance Spring is Green', and I gotta say, he's adorable and he's entertaining to watch.

We'll see in the future, where he ends up in the list. Will he be Top 10? or Top 20? I will figure it out eventually. In the meantime, I also love watching him in variety shows and doing that cute gesture with his hands. You know the one....

My Nicknames For Him: THE EYES [no yeah for real. That's what comes to mind when I see him. lol.] , Tiny Boy [it fits him cause I believe he's the youngest in this list.] , Baby Tiger, My Son, and lately I realized he's 'LITTLE RED' my OC. Like seriously, fits like a glove.

KAI [Kim Jong In]

Just like the photo above, I've been sleeping on Kim JongIn as an actor. And I not only blame myself, but also blame my love for watching him as a performer/singer better than an actor. I have never given him a chance as an actor. I am aware that he has done a few series, and the bits and pieces I have seen I have liked a lot.

I feel I need to give myself the time to watch him in these and then figure out where in the list he will end up. Either way, he's an honorable mention because even when I'm not watching him in acting action, I am always watching him in dancing and performing action, so.... yeh...

My Nicknames For Him: Art In Motion, Baby Nini, Tedi Bear, El Sexy Boy, Bolita de Algodon [little ball of fluff], The CAT Boy[alternately 'Omi in RL']

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#1

YEO JIN GOO

You saw this coming, right? Either you did or didn't, but you should know by now. This man took me by the horns and hasn't let me go yet. Listen....Might as well be the devil here and say, yes this man makes me feel things every time I see him acting. Whether he's playing a robot, a hotel manager, a disgruntled king, it doesn't matter. He puts so much soul into whatever he does, that it makes me feel like I am there experiencing what the character is experiencing.

He has a long history, which has been amazing to look through. And honestly, up to this day, I still haven't watched everything he's ever been in. He has an extensive list of works that he's been part of, and his participation in each project has, honestly, always stood out to me. At least in the projects/series/dramas I've been able to see.

Thank you, Yeo Jin Goo, for sharing your insane acting talent with all of us. I consider myself lucky to be alive in this era, and to be able to witness this. Greatly appreciated. Hope to be able to live long enough to see you thrive for many many years.

His Best Characters [Top 5]:

Gu Chan Seong [Hotel Del Luna]

King YiHeon & Ha Sun [The Man Who Became King]

Han JooWon [Beyond Evil]

Hwayi [Hwayi: A Monster Boy]

King Gwanghae [Warriors of The Dawn]

My Nicknames For Him: Baby Child, Peach, and KaiSoo Love Child.

And that's it... Are any of your faves in this Top 10, or are they honorable mentions? Either way, these are MINE. If I made a video about it, these are the men it would feature.

Maybe later on I'll make the Female actress version. That one would be really hard, because I absolutely LOVE the female actresses more than I do the male actors. And I have tons of faves.

However... I'll try to make the effort to do it eventually. Don't know when.

Anyway... Hope you enjoyed this post, if you read it all.

[unreadablehandle]

How fanfic changed me as a writer

Since discovering fanfic, I feel like I realized so much about writing!

My awakening is probably the most significant on the field of characters - because the way they spring from what I know and love while writing fanfics (instead of how I always tried to make them out of scratch and build them from the dark)... it showed me I always did it wrong before.

And the secret is pretty simple, even. I just never saw it so clearly.

Because the key is not to make a sheet with their traits and spend hours thinking about their favourite drink and if they are the kind of person who pees in the shower or not. No.

And don't take me wrong, it can be very useful to do this. But if you lack the thing that matters, it's still useless. Because writing is definitely about the craft. But have you ever wondered why a painting that does not conform to the rules of perspective can blow you away more than the one that does?

It's because art is about heart, too. So to write a good character... the only thing you have to do... is to love them.

I know it sounds silly. But I really think it is the truth. To fit the character to a base that feels familiar helped me realize this.

Your characters can be horrible, despicable, unlovable. But if it's so, your goal when writing cannot be to depict it (as I often tended to do before). Your goal has to be to love them through that awfulness. So much that the readers can learn to love them, too.

That's it. That's the charm.

Also: writing characters whose traits were inspired by my faves (and reading hundreds of stories of the same two people who are somehow always different, though) helped me realize that people are very different but also very similar.

So when I write other stuff than fanfics now, I use the essence of people I've met in real life as a base for what I aim for in the "final product". It works like magic, really. Because with something to bounce back from, it's different than to pull something entirely out of thin air.

Changed the way I view character building.

...

Do you share the same experience? Do you disagree? What other things did you learn from fanfics? I'm curious!! ;)

[obsessioncollector]

haiiiii peyton ^_^ what were your favorite books this year?

Hiiii Lane!! 🤗💝 I hope you're having a lovely holiday or just a lovely day if you're not celebrating! I am so indecisive when it comes to picking faves so enjoy my non-answer 😊 I'm also going to tag you celia @symptomofloves bc you said you want to see my faves! ❤️

I would say the overarching theme of the year has been longing, desire, eroticism, and obsession, in many manifestations. So I'm going to list a cluster of excellent and often insanity-inducing (compliment!) books that fall into that category, in the order of when I read them (so unranked):

Dennis Cooper — George Miles cycle: THE obsessioncollector saga... Definitely not for everyone bc it's very graphic and upsetting, but he captures the desire for understanding and connection so well. I read it at the beginning of the year so it really set the tone for the year to come.

Mary Gaitskill — Bad Behavior: A story collection! She is one of those writers who articulates things I never realized I feel—reading her is such a revelation!

D.H. Lawrence — The Rainbow; Women in Love: Would transitioning have saved her? I'm kidding but truly he captures the experience of being a teen girl and young woman so well. (These two books are a diptych so I get to lump them together.)

Kathy Acker — In Memoriam to Identity: Read this so you can enjoy the sadly defunct @kathyack-blog-blog 😊 Like Mary Gaitskill in that she captures elements of myself I never knew existed.

Angela Carter — Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories and The Magic Toyshop: Her most famous work is the story collection The Bloody Chamber, so I also recommend starting there if you want something less daunting than the complete stories. I love Angela Carter! I think I reblogged a gifset of her talking about her work being self-indulgent but she is self-indulgent in the same ways as me! Gothic and elegant and she is such a master of the fairytale/folklore retelling, which I think is so often done in boring and predictable ways.

Edmund White — A Boy's Own Story: All bangers from the very first few pages! Such an eloquent examination of a self-conscious adolescent painfully dedicated to trying to understand himself and others. Reminiscient of that Mishima quote about how he thought he was more mature than the other boys but it was just because he thought about himself more bc he was so insecure </3

And then here are a handful of ones that don't fit into that theme but were nonetheless highlights:

Scholastique Mukasonga — Our Lady of the Nile: Celia is also a Mukasonga fan so you know she has to be good! 😊 This is a collection of interlinked short stories, all set at a Rwandan boarding school. Masterfully combines the more mundane tensions of adolescence with the leadup to the genocide.

Maya Binyam — Hangman: A 2023 release! I don't read many recent releases bc I find it difficult to sift through the hype but I'm so glad I read this one. A treasure and also quite distinctive in terms of the style and structure.

Mae M. Ngai — The Chinese Question: This was my only 5 star nonfiction of the year! Ngai is probably better known for her book about undocumented immigrants in US history, but I read this one bc it was available at my library and it's excellent. It focuses on restrictions on Chinese immigration, both in the US and also South Africa and Australia, around the time of the Gold Rush. Ties into contemporary issues, both in terms of immigration (unsurprisingly) but also in terms of questions of diaspora and cultural identity.

Jhumpa Lahiri — Interpreter of Maladies: I should have read this years ago but I think I unconsciously avoid contemporary writers from bourgeois New England backgrounds bc that's literally me 😭😭😭 Pretty much the platonic idea of a story collection though. All the characters seem so fully realized, in such a small amount of time!

Thomas Mann — Death in Venice and Other Tales: Sometimes people talk about reading to see themselves reflected but Mann is a writer to read if you want to see yourself reflected in the most unflattering light possible 😭 Another writer I'd been putting off for way too long.

Isabella Hammad — Enter Ghost: As I said wrt Angela Carter, I can be wary of anything marketed as a retelling or too intertextual/meta bc I think they're often done poorly, but this is an exception! To be clear, it's not a retelling, but it's centered on a British Palestinian theatre actress who impulsively joins a Palestinian production of Hamlet while visiting her sister. Very intriguing examination of the protagonist trying to understand her own Palestinian identity while also negotiating how to present herself to her family + friends and the world and resists simple dichotomies.

[goshdangronpa]

Dandadan x Tokomaru

Surprisingly not much would change than I expected. Komaru takes the role of Ayase and Toko takes the role of Okarun. It would start similarly with Komaru noticing Toko all alone and taking an interest in her after she noticed her reading an alien book that Hiro loaned to her.

Komaru already believes in ghosts so that fits. Toko doesn’t actually believe in aliens but she finds it so absurd to believe in ghosts she just has to prove this prep girl wrong. Komaru getting defensive makes the bet to prove whether or not Ghosts/Aliens are real.

Toko goes for the Turbo Granny that Komaru has been following sightings on. Meanwhile Komaru goes to find aliens based on what Hiro blabbed to Toko (something about aliens abducting his burger).

They’re both correct. Toko sees the Turbo Granny and faints as she about to possess her and Komaru gets abducted by aliens. Komaru awakens psychic powers and Toko gets Turbo Granny abilities. Similarly Komaru uses her ability to prevent Turbo Granny from fully possessing her and Syo comes out and helps defeat the aliens causing the ufo to crash.

After all that crazy stuff happens. They call Hiro first cause he must know something and he recommends asking his mom, Hiroko (who’ll be taking the role of Granny Seiko). With Hiroko’s help they defeat the Turbo Granny trap her in one of Komaru’s old plushie (Could be a Monokuma doll).

The duo also realizes something. Toko fainted before the Turbo Granny possessed her. it was actually Syo who got possessed and in turn now she retains the abilities of the Turbo Granny. So if Toko needs to use the Turbo Granny’s power she’ll switch to Syo instantly. Speed of the turbo granny with Syo’s scissors makes her quite a force.

Komaru’s psychic abilities are shown with her ahoge acting like a radio antenna. After being told to visualize it like truth bullets, She can “Move” grab or “knock back” things with her mind. Maybe with practice she can do more.

Hi, anon! Thanks for sharing this with me, I'm pleased that people feel they can share fun Danganronpa ideas with me like this.

Personally, a big part of the appeal of Dan Da Dan's central pair is that Okarun DOES believe in aliens. In that way, he and Ayase match each other's freak. Perhaps a different ship might be better for this scenario ... but that's not why we do these things. I'm lowkey developing a Little Shop of Horrors AU, and I'll be damned if it's not tsumioda!

Just gotta find a way to make it work, then. In that light, it's at least true to Toko's character that she'd make this claim just to stick it to someone she considers foolish. She makes this bet thinking she'll win either way, and she's dead wrong. Scenario saved!

It'd be interesting to have Hiroko in the Seiko role. For starters, she'd know more about aliens than ghosts instead. Maybe she's a longtime hippie, the kind who's visited UFO hotspots around the world and has dubious claims of experiences with aliens? Additionally, she has no relation to the Ayase analogue. She's the mom of a classmate whom Toko doesn't even consider a friend. Might be terribly funny if Komaru mistakes Yasuhiro as a rival for Toko's affections.

The ideas for Genocide Jack's possession and Komaru's psychic powers are my fave parts of this whole thing. Looking forward to the moment when Komaru makes the Loch Ness Monster dance. Now who'd take on the roles of Aira and Jin ... (Is Yasuhiro already the latter?)

[iamnmbr3]

For the unpopular opinion edition: ❤️💚💙💜

I don't see a red heart so I'm going to take a guess on which one you meant.

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I'm tempted to say Regulus, but I'm going to go with Sirius because there's a lot more canon content for Sirius and it just...all seems to go out the window in some corners of fandom. I mean, to each their own. I'm not the fun police here to say what people should and should not make. But I personally find fanon!Sirius to have nothing in common with canon!Sirius other than his name and to be vastly less interesting than his canon counterpart. I like Sirius flawed with sharp edges.

Also to me personally it feels a little uncomfortable when that fanon interpretation makes him queer and then reduces him to a bunch of queer stereotypes. It's not that a man can't be effeminate or present in a way that is traditionally hyper feminine and be super pretty and short and slight and physically weak and empty headed and also happen to be queer. It's just that Sirius was none of those things.

And so seeing him get turned into that just so that he can be the "girl" in a queer relationship feels heteronormative and uncomfortably reductive and stereotypical in a harmful way to me personally. But again. What is validating for some people is not validating for others. No one size fits all. Everyone is free to create and consume the content they like.

But I'll be over here in my corner with the version of Sirius that is brilliant and vicious and hypocritical and contradictory and deeply, deeply flawed and capable of great warmth and kindness to those he likes but also capable of tremendous callousness and outright cruelty not just in anger but for sport, a man with a true and terrible dark side, and someone who can be both reckless and emotional but also very perceptive and cold and calculating. He's deeply flawed and deeply complex and deeply interesting. I'll take content that expands on that over the shallow fanon version any day. But that's just me.

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

I have so many faves and I've been picking a different one every time I get this. This time I'll go with my take that Tom understands love more than Dumbledore might think. Maybe on the one hand it's something he finds hard to conceptualize since it's not something he's had much experience with. But he certainly understands that hurting Draco is an effective way to punish Lucius and Narcissa for example and that Harry will come running to save Sirius if he believes that he's in danger or even that Billy Stubbs would be hurt by the death of his rabbit etc. He uses love against people on several occasions.

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

Attractiveness is entirely subjective so that's really impossible to answer. I will say that Regulus is canonically not as attractive as Sirius though (at least according to Harry).

💜: Which character is way hotter than everyone else seems to think?

This is more of an in-universe thing. But I'll go with Harry Potter. I think Harry is a lot more attractive than he thinks but he doesn't realize due to his low self esteem. The Dursleys constantly made him feel bad about his physical appearance. It's why he always flattens his hair when he's nervous. James on the other hand tries to ruffle it up and seems to be pretty popular and to think that makes him look cooler. And Harry looks very similar to James. Tom Riddle is also canonically extremely attractive and Diary!Tom notes that he and Harry look something alike. Plus we know by book 6 Harry is pretty fit and strong given that he can pin Mundungus to a wall with one hand - something many people find attractive. So I think while he may not be as good looking as Cedric or Tom Riddle or young Sirius, he's a lot more attractive than he realizes and it's not just his fame that draws girls to him as he matures.

[anonymousewrites]

Of Two Worlds Special: Foreshadowing, Symbolism, and Goodbye

            Because I have no chill, I am going to write a brief essay about the symbolism and foreshadowing I put into Of Two Worlds, my Fushiguro Megumi x Reader. A lot of planning went into the series, and I want to ramble about it.

            For the purpose of clarity, I will refer to (Y/N) as “Silver.”

The Future

            I’m going to begin not with anything regarding Silver but addressing the ending of Book 3 and the suggestions about the future. So, obviously, Silver and Megumi get not necessarily a “happily ever after” since they have a lot of work to do in the world, but they’re going to be together and okay. However, I give the suggestion of reincarnation for other characters in the series—Gojo and Geto, and Ren, Uraume, and Sukuna. I could not give them an outright happy ending, but I believe that there is a possibility.

            In the “File Corrupted” chapter of Book 2, in fact, we’re given the story that ends up being Kuro and Nyx’s, but after Nyx’s death in it, we learn the Night “cursed Shiro to forever find tragedy in love.” Shiro is the myth name given to the Gojo of the past that killed Nyx, and Nox cursed him to lose people he loved—sounds like Gojo Satoru, right? But with Nox’s death and Nyx forgiving and accepting all that happened, that curse is lifted, so Geto and Gojo have a real chance. I think they deserve one, don’t you?

            As for Sukuna, Uraume, and Ren, they were never going to live. Sukuna was warned a thousand years ago by (L/N) Chie—in my “Of Pawns and Players” story of my fave poly relationship—that the “night brings both light and shadow.” She is trying to be useful and not get killed by Sukuna—it doesn’t work, of course—and so she is warning him of the danger approaching him. He is killed by the curses that represent those elements of the night—the Moon and the Shadows, Silver and Megumi.

            However, if Silver and Megumi’s souls can return and Geto and Gojo may, too, then why not Sukuna, Uraume, and Ren? Obviously, none of the reincarnations will remember anything, but that’s just another chance for a blank slate and being different people. Also, the end of Jujutsu Kaisen itself hints at Sukuna deciding to take a new path, so I’d say this fits pretty well.

Foreshadowing

            Before I even gave the “File Corrupted” chapter—which, did anyone realize that the narrator was obviously Ren? I’m curious—I planted the explanation from Nox that in this world, curses reform since certain fears remain prevalent among humanity. People will always fear storms, fire, nature, etc. This is the first hint that something with reincarnation would be important to Of Two Worlds—and it ends up being Silver and Megumi.

            However, Nox is getting it wrong due to his perspective. He sees Silver as a complete reincarnation of Nyx whereas, as Nyx realizes when she returns, her heart was torn out. She and Silver are two different curses that Nox as misconstrued as the same, but more on that symbolism later.

            As a brief side-tangent, I feel pity for Nox. He truly did not go looking to bring Nyx back. He truly fell in love with Silver’s mother. He truly loved the idea of having a new child. He was going to heal. But when Silver was born, he saw curse marks that reminded him of Nyx, and Nox lost it. Not much is known about half-curses, so he thought that this was how a curse reincarnated when he was with a human. Nox was delusional because of his grief, but I feel more pity than anything else for him.

            But speaking of parents, the prologue “Art” in Book 3 and “Chapter Thirteen: Club” of Book 2 showed art that Silver’s mother made. We never outright go through her technique, but it’s a type of future-sight—Foresight. In Chapter Thirteen: Club, we see art such as hands of shadow and light reaching for each other—what ends up being Megumi and Silver’s souls reaching for each other—and “a girl surrounded by white flames landing with poised perfection on a battlefield as hydra heads fell about her.” This second painting is the exact phrasing I used for Silver’s battle against Mahito during the battle of Shibuya.

            By showing that there were predictions about that, it makes the prologue “Art” in Book 3 all the more significant. Silver’s mother painted someone’s torso torn open to reveal “the hint of stars stared out, like the person held the sky itself inside their chest, making up for the lack of heart.” Again, this and the rest of the description is exactly what is described when Nox tears out Silver’s heart so he can put Nyx’s in. She literally predicted her own daughter’s death.

            Do I think she knew Nox would be involved? I’m not sure. That’s not something I ever completely decided on. I think there’s a very real possibility that Silver’s mother never saw more than glimpses of the future and didn’t know Nox would hurt Silver the way he did. Or, the more heartbreaking possibility, if she did know, then she allowed herself to die because she knew that her dying and Nox being incapacitated when sorcerers attacked them and took Silver would give Silver the best chance at overcoming what the future had in store for her. I never decided either way, so it’s up to the reader, but it’s an interesting notion I never fully set down.

            But getting back to the foreshadowing, some smaller moments setting things up were Silver healing Tsumiki and feeling that she was healing her soul—and hallucinating healing someone else. This is a moment of Silver feeling Nyx’s abilities. Despite them being separate people, they still have a kinship. They’re sisters. This was setting up that while Silver can use reverse cursed technique, it was Nyx’s specialty when she lived.

            In addition, when Megumi met Pothos the curse of love during the Culling Game, Pothos played a game with Megumi and other people. He had to answer questions about his heart honestly to be released. However, as fun as that was to write, Pothos’s reactions when they hear Megumi’s confession was another piece of foreshadowing. They freak out when Megumi says he loves (Y/N) and they recognize that as the name of the daughter of the Night. Megumi is left confused, but Pothos has to check and worry that if Megumi is a Zenin, then Nox will try to destroy them because love is their thing and a thousand years ago love went wrong between Nox’s daughter and a Zenin, and Pothos doesn’t want to get into trouble again. So, another small bit of foreshadowing there.

            Finally, the most obvious (and probably most overlooked) piece of foreshadowing was, of course, the File Corrupted chapter in Book 2. Not only do you get the story of Kuro and the Moon—Nyx—but at the end Ren, the narrator, says “Some stories are so familiar it seems like you’ve seen them before. Or you’re seeing them again.” She is setting up that the same story is appearing. A Gojo, Sukuna’s return, Nox, Nyx, Kuro, love, the moon, everything.

Symbolism

            First off, Megumi’s curse marks after he becomes a curse. Obviously, it’s cool for him to have black tattoos, but it’s also more than that—they’re a symbol of his love. He used one hand to cut out Nyx’s heart to give Silver’s a chance, and he got Silver’s blood all over his hand. Then he used the other to tear out his own heart to give to Silver. His own blood stained that hand. His curse marks are symbols of his sacrifice, of his heart, of his love for Silver and the Moon.

            Hearts are a very important symbol of Of Two Worlds. Silver is painted as emotionless by people, alienated already from humanity (and she is extremely autistic-coded). However, this becomes even more important the more of her story and who she is is revealed. She is the rebirth of the same curse concept as Nyx—not Nyx herself, not the same Moon, no the same heart, but a Moon nonetheless. She is the other side of the Moon. Whereas Nyx is the one with the silver heart, wore her heart on her sleeve, and had techniques revolving around protection, Silver was the opposite.

            Simply put, Nyx was the light side of the Moon. Silver is the dark side. Nyx is going to be full of warmth and gentleness and protection and have a bright heart, and Silver is going to be Silver. She’s going to have a black heart. She’s going to be cold. She has love but she is careful about who earns it while Nyx gave it freely. Silver’s techniques are also based on fighting, the opposite of Nyx’s. Even their respective curse forms are opposite. Nyx is white-haired, black-eyed, and has horns that curve forward. Silver’s hair is her own with only a bit white, her eyes are silver, and her horns curve back.

            Still, from the moment Nyx became even just a concept of a character in my mind, I knew she was the “other side of the same coin” to Silver. They share a curse nature—a soul—of the Moon, but they are separate people. In fact, them switching through the years is even more significant—a new phase of the moon has arrived. Time has passed. It’s a new era. The darkest form of the moon, the new moon, is even a symbol for rebirth and new beginnings. It’s Silver’s turn.

To Conclude

            I think it’s obvious with all my ramblings that I loved this series. I loved this book. I loved JJK. I loved these characters and all of you for reading and commenting. I’m going to miss it so very fun, and it’s been an honor to be on this journey with you all.

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@snowy-violet

@tsukikoxo

[vasito-de-leche]

i just realized something from each arcanist's voiceline, im not sure if u are ahead of me in this but anyways...

...their "monologue" segments, each of their monologue segments their most vulnerable they have ever been or the deepest they have ever opened up, at least for the ones that I have read.

for example:

- pavia admitting that every night it feels like he's still in piedmonte (by extension, that boarded up basement)

- blonney thinking why it's impossible for humans and arcanists to get along when they have similar interests like movies

- mesmer jr. screaming to stop being insane and leave her alone (poor girl is traumatized and a big F you to constantine and her family for being persistent in putting her in those situations)

- sotheby in yet another scene about how little she knows about distinguishing human things and arcane things (which is a problem for a young arcanist like her should she be unintentionally blatant about it)

- horropedia being glad that he is still himself despite the foundation's attempt to fit him in a mold

all in all, "monologue" segments are actually sad bits about our faves

A good chunk of the monologues are tragic, yeah - but I think that it's because we have the benefit of the full picture and we each have our own interpretations!

I just don't like to think of monologues as just exclusively sad bits for characters to show how sad they are or used to be in their lives? It takes away the nuance of how the character speaks about these things, if that makes sense!

I'll put the rest of my thoughts and ramblings under the cut so I don't keep clogging the main tag with nonsense <3

For example, Pavia's monologue - a popular interpretation of his character is that he's still traumatized by his past and the time he spent in the basement, therefore his monologue implies that no matter where he goes, he's still alone in that dark basement. From my personal reading on it, Pavia is a character who reclaimed the things that hurt him (the darkness, the isolation) and are now part of him (his wolves and shadow arcanum, his independence).

So to me, that monologue is a threat. I already explained this in detail in my first Pavia posts, so I'll spare y'all from the repetition lolol

Sotheby's monologue - you say that her lack of knowledge when it comes to differentiate human things from arcanist things is a problem. To me, this quote is just a highlight of her curiosity and her sheltered life, because she sounds chipper at the idea of learning new things. And I think it's a monologue meant to focus on her curiosity, because her Insight II is "World on the Other Side" which shows Sotheby inside a glass cage, looking outside to the real world.

The outside world is different from what I imagined. There are more arcane animals than I thought ... Humans are also more interesting!

And one can still continue to look deeper into this monologue and relate it to the full context of her situation to have a different reading!

Maybe someone else thinks this quote is extremely fucking tragic, because we're talking about a rich, privileged and sheltered girl who relied heavily on her caretaker, Mr. Karson, and now that he's gone, she's left to explore the world all on her own! Maybe it's a really lovely and happy quote, because it shows Sotheby's growth, still excited to learn about the outside world! Maybe it's all at once!

And Blonney's monologue, to me that's not a tragic voiceline at all but a rather hopeful moment for Blonney, a moment of thoughtful consideration which contrasts the "Blonde Bimbo" stereotype she's been cast in and shows how observant and attentive to detail she can be.

Is it true that humans and arcanists cannot live in harmony? We have so many things in common to share and enjoy, like the movies. As I learned about humans from the movies, so can humans learn about arcanists ... It's just that no one has made such a movie yet.

From my reading on this monologue, Blonney very clearly believes it's possible for humans and arcanists to live in harmony - it only takes for both sides to consider each other's perspectives. She's lived among humans, she's learned about humans through their movies. But she's ignorant about arcanists because of the way she was raised, because of the lack of exposure she's had to arcanists and their world.

No one has made such a movie, but maybe her, an arcanists that's experienced the duality of everything, a bimbo who is majoring in film, a major that everyone insists is wrong for her because it doesn't fit her image - maybe she can make such movie.

Yes, it's a sad monologue because of the context of subtle oppression towards arcanists, because of what we know about Blonney's life and all. But to me, it doesn't end on a sad note. Especially with how driven and outspoken Blonney is.

It's the same for Horropedia's monologue for me - yes, he's serious when talking about the way the Foundation and the way they continue to cut away all the unwanted parts of the arcanists they take in, but it also ends on a nice note. He's relieved to have survived being true to himself, he's relieved Vertin was able to do the same.

And then there's Mesmer Jr.'s monologue - this one is, without a doubt, an awful moment for her. Given what we know about her background and family, from either the main story or the Three Doors update, we can safely assume this is her having a panic attack of sorts, steming from her trauma and long-term internalized hatred/fear/disgust towards arcanists.

This is the most objectively sad and tragic monologue out of these. But what of the reading?

Is this Mesmer Jr. being comfortable enough around Vertin to let her see such a violent and vulnerable moment? Someone could easily read this as Mesmer Jr. and Vertin's relationship being repaired slowly to allow such display of vulnerability, the same way someone could easily read this as Vertin just stumbling upon Mesmer Jr. having the worst time of her life. Someone might also interpret this as Vertin doing something that caused Mesmer Jr. to react like this!

A few other examples I have at the top of my head that can differ greatly depending on the way you choose to read it...

Bette's monologue, for example!

 I've dreamt forever about my first character, not as a rich young man, a courageous adventurer, a fair or rich lady, but the first character starred by me, Bette with brown hair! I have noted them all in this notebook, which is called "My Script."

Is this voiceline sad? It can be, if you choose to intepret it as Bette's inability to get a starring role, while all of her dreams of being the protagonist are kept in a notebook that no one else will read or notice. It can also be inspiring, if you choose to interpret it as Bette holding on to the belief that she herself - not a character that she plays, but herself as a person - is important, even if no one else notices. Again, it can be this and that or both or none or all at once!

Or Baby Blue's monologue!

People at school once called me... Umm, how do you say that word? Ah... Crazy! Sad? I'm not sad... They told me that the most outstanding people were all crazy...

Yes, this can be sad, because we're talking about a 17 year old girl who was so disillusioned with her real life that she feels more comfortable in a world of illusion, while her real body remains comatose. And yes, this can be happy, because we're talking about a 17 year old girl who found a place that she truly feels alive in, where she finally has peope who understand and care for her.

I think I might've lost the point of the post somewhere through the rambling - but yeah! I don't like to think of these voicelines as just sad bits, especially with how much detail and attention the writing of R1999 has, all the love they put into all characters <3