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pruneunfair · 10 days ago

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Ranking all the OI and manhwa I've read part 2: the moderate.

The decent stories. Just a little better than average

The tyrants only perfumer

My favorite fast food webcomic to this very day. It's characters are tolerable and there's just something some satisfying looking at the perfume bottles, the little bottles remind me of those DIY kits they'd sell at target. That being said it's still a fast food manhwa, the characters are flat, the plot goes too quick and the villains are easily defeated so as much as I enjoy it when I just want to read something quick and light, it's not a good option for something more serious.

The empress wants to avoid the Emperor.

This was actually one of my very first manhwas I've ever read. I thought it was one of the greatest stories ever told when I was still in my revenge phase and it's definitely not terrible when I reread but it's not the greatest piece of literature either. Still for a basic revenge story at least Louise actually gets away her fuckass husband.

Tears of a withered flower

I like it, just not as much as everyone else likes it. I've already made a few posts on it and my current opinions still stay the same but besides all the self insert this and the predictable that the dialog definitely improves from cartoony to poetic. I'm just hoping the rampant misogyny problem in TOAWF is only a fandom problem and not something the author is planning on incorporating into every other woman that isn't Hae Soo

I will divorce the female leads brother

Okay I won't lie this one is kinda funny given how it calls out the absurdity of protagonist centered morality in a better way. Ethel as a protagonist is okay as protagonists go and while the villains are played off as stupid thats because the story actually plays into how idiotic they are instead of claiming they are the smartest around when they aren't, specifically the brothers and father. Also the Og fl of this one has by far the ugliest designs I've ever seen. It's the kind of design where you can tell the artist did not like her at all and gave her the Miku special with those unflattering color combos. I think the weirdest part is the implied incestuous feelings the family has for Reina but once again, it's meant to be seen as vile so it gets a little pass.

Into the light once again

The pain I went through when I realized the 14 year old Aisha was being paired up with guys way to old her with this one because it was so good before it just ruined what could've been 😔. Outside of the obvious I adore both Aisha and Marianne as polar opposites and characters that aren't immediately nice or honesty to Aisha aren't put to death, for the most part at least, they are allowed to grow as better people and get character development. The magic system is pretty easy to remember though I think Aisha can sometimes get too deep in her "super powerful nice girl" archetype but it's not to the point of being awful.

The empresses lipstick

more of a comedy than a traditional rofan but it works, it's one of the first I've seen to get the rococo style a little bit better than others. (It's still not the greatest accuracy but since it's meant to be silly it has more leeway) however it sadly is brought down by the fact that Jane is heavily implied to be on the younger side when her mom bugs her about school and implies that she'll be going INTO high-school implying she's 15-16 based on Korean school systems and she's already being paired up to marry male leads older than her.. damn you age gap trope and damn you 18th century for reminding me of gross yet true history. If it weren't for the fact that I can't remember anything about the ML's age this would be lower.

The villainess turns the hourglass.

What I think of when someone asks me to think of the OG era for manhwa. The concept of the hourglass is easy to follow and it actually comes with a drawback so Aria can't be too overpowered, the bright colors make it all pop and having an actual villain for the FL in a villainess story ties it all in, people can complain about how awful she is but villainess is literally in the title so..you get what you bargained for. There are still cons though about it I don't care for, first of all I wish Mielle could be an actual threat so there would be a fun ongoing mental battle between two evil women, Isis and Mielle could've been smarter as a duo, Asher could've had a little more personality and the twist that Aria was actually of noble descent all along really killed the charm of her being a commoner who could prove she was just as smart as the aristocracy.

Perks of being the villainess

Deborah's already climbing up the ranks of one of the prettiest FL in my opinion because that shade of purple is DIVINE! The plots rather basic as most villainess manhwa tend to go. Deborah is hated by everyone except instead of a backstory claiming she's misunderstood, the og Deborah was actually an asshole to everyone she met except for Pilav so it gave her an actual obstacle. I do think some of them went too fast but I'm just glad we actually got to see the effort being done at all. I'll admit this was better then I thought so it moved up on my tier list. My only complaints are that the chapters can sometimes drag on and on to the point of being bottle episodes.

I shall master this family

I would like this so much more but it drags on so much! Florentia was nice at first but as the chapters went on and on I was less impressed and just thinking "yeah this is just getting boring" with how many times you know she's gonna best her opponents, don't hate her but shes becoming a little too meh right now. That said I like reading it, definitely suffering from a overpowered MC that could use some work but when it comes to politics it's so much more interesting if you can get past that one major issue.

Pretty good: almost better then average but I either haven't read all of it to place it higher or if there's just better

I will become the villains poison taster

I love my underrated girlie's ✊️ the plot is certainly unique, Giselle has the strange of ability of being not only immune to poison but the poison also tastes like fruity snacks/drinks. It deserves a little more traction then what it gets, the ML Reniel actually has emotions instead of stoicism plus actual critical thinking skills because the FL acts nothing like the OG villainess and Giselle, despite how it may seem, isn't the born sexy yesterday trope, she's just allowed to be a sweet heart while still being a person. It's not much but it's still pretty good.

Serena

Fashion and character designs are absolute peak but plot comes before art. At first I was pretty harsh on Serena but when I actually read more of it to form a more concrete opinion I realized it's not the worst and actually got a little entertaining. As a FL Serena isn't bad, I like that she comes across as a nepo baby who needs to work hard to uphold her predecessors legacy so we have flaws to work with here and at the very least the story seems to be kinda self aware that Serena isn't a terrific person. It's also a drama not a romance so while I don't like either Eiser or Frederick as love interests at least Serena can say the romance isn't supposed to be the center of the plot.

Your throne

After so many people telling me how good it was I finally caved in and began reading last week but I already got spoiled so I know most of what happens. Obviously I like the fact that Medea and Psyche actually team up instead of hating eachother and even though it's through spoilers Psyche is my favorite. It's so dang long though it's probably gonna be a while before I make any your throne related posts. Only cons is it can sometimes get too boring to follow.

Seducing the villains father

Proof you can make a stereotypical rofan and it can still work. Yerenica is the perfect balance of girl failure and likeability where her flaws are very common for most people and yes while she is kinda dumb she's not so dumb it makes me wanna slam my head against the wall. Erudian is pretty good as ML's are concerned, just a tad basic and the villain Soleia isn't dumbed down either. Love the second half of the story which gives a little more focus on Yenis family instead of just her love life and while it does get cringe inducing and the plot tracks off from time to time, I still like it.

The crownless queen

The FL is a recently retired history expert who transmigrated in her daughters inaccurate novel and because of those inaccuracies, there are new problems to face while Delia has to survive in a world where Barons and Dukes are switched and she has to climb to social latter. There's little things that really prove how much thought was put into it (such as Delia not knowing the exact date in time shes set in since she's in a different world)

Beware of the villainess.

A little similar to your throne but it keeps my attention longer then the former. Once again women working together instead of being forced into enemies! Really like that! The Yuri baiting though? Boo 👎, don't tease the audience like that (especially considering the og fl is literally called Yuri) can be over the top but I think that's what makes it stand out, it means to be funny and in your face with Melissa's antics but the best character by far is Yona, home girl just wants that check and I can understand that feeling.

Another typical fantasy romance

I gotta stop procrastinating and finish this one!! 😭 first off, Pellus is my 2nd favorite ML with his design being my number 1 favorite in terms of character design. For once we have an actual cold duke who accurately looks intimidating instead of basic BTS member. Best part though: it is one of the greenest of green flag relationships to the point where Lithera and Pellus are worthy candidates to face off Pereshati and Therdeo in terms of who's the best manhwa couple. Actual communication instead of miscommunication that goes on for chapters, relationship actually has steady progression that's just in the middle of how they get to together and Lithera is a great FL. Then I found a bunch of other manhwa and forgot about this one until it came up in my head while I made my first tier list. It'll probably go up once I complete the story.

This one took longer then I expected but part 2 is finally out and now I have to start rereading for part 3.

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getvalentined · 7 months ago

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I love when folks ask me Fandom Old questions and I get to be like "Yeah, uh, that's from my old online RP group, no it's not canon at all, yes we just made it up, no we did not claim it was canon but the mid to late aughts were a strange time."

It's honestly a shock to realize how often this has happened. I mentioned earlier that Reno's fanon surname came from this same group, but that's not even the half of it. I once made a bunch of screenshot manips based on the most ridiculous ships anyone could think of—someone slapped a random line of text onto one of them and to this day it's used as a "cringe FF7 fandom" meme. I saw it on the twits a bit back and almost fell out of my goddamn chair.

If you've ever heard Scarlet referred to with the surname "West," read about Tseng fighting with metal fans, seen Elena's older sister being called Anna instead of Emma, come across Vincent portrayed as having a PhD in spite of being a Turk, or caught references somewhere to Grimoire experimenting on Vincent as a child, that started with this group. That was us.

One of the funniest examples of this, for me specifically, is that we don't actually know which arm Veld is missing? The fandom generally goes with his left because that's how I drew him in the first picture of the guy ever posted on devart way back in 2005, but it may very well be his right. I've seen people offer "proof" that it's his right based on a scene in the opening cutscene, but you can't tell there either, and with BC's graphics there's literally no way to tell on his sprite.

Hell, this year we found out everyone's assumed timeline of the Kalm fire is wrong, and that's our fault too because we made some assumptions about Felicia's age for an LJ RP that were entirely wrong. She's around Zack's age, not Sephiroth's! She's old enough to run with a terrorist group in BC, but she was a child when Kalm burned, and that happened in 1997—we know this because NPCs in Rebirth literally refer to the fire in Kalm having happened "just ten years ago." Veld has only had his prosthetic for three years when BC starts. (This also implies that, contrary to popular belief, Veld may actually be younger than Vincent. Vincent may have been the senior partner, and that's why he was sent to Nibelheim alone while Veld was left at headquarters.)

We were really wrong on this! But we were working with what we had. There's no canon evidence for the vast majority of these things (the most notable exclusion here is Vincent being educated) but we weren't claiming there was. We were filling gaps, and canon was so sparse that we had a lot of gaps to fill. So if it turns out that Veld lost his right arm, then I'll just have to start drawing him that way—because losing his left was never canon.

Tragically, there's nothing any of us can do to make people stop assuming these things are canon at this point; there aren't a lot of us still in the fandom, and it's not like any of us have those old chatlogs anymore. People from this RP group have DIED since those days. It's been over 20 years since most of us met, and around 15 since most of us were in a public fannish space together.

"Prove it," people say, and I literally can't. Do you know how many computers I've been through since then? 75% of the platforms we used no longer exist. This all started on a BBCode forum! There is no proof!

But...there's no evidence any of these things are canon, either, so maybe think about that? The Kalm fire, Tseng's weapon of choice, Veld's arm, character surnames—none of these are retcons because there was no lore there to retcon. We made it up for our specific purposes, and it escaped containment in an era when there was really no way to do online contact tracing.

It's just one of the weirdest feelings in the world to see younger folk arguing about A or B point in canon, about X or Y retcon—referencing something my friends and I thought up at like 10 o'clock at night on a now-defunct IM client in August of 2005, because we needed something to refer back to for a specific scene in an RP and the source material had nothing to offer.

Absolutely fucking bonkers.

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liesmyth · 3 months ago

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All your TLT posting is making me questioning if I should try it.. The only thing i'm worried is that I don't want to start a series and then finding out in the third bookthat the author made the antiheroic genderbent mao protagonist throw the metaphorical atomic bomb on the japanese because the author is an american descendent of a Chang Kai Shek general and wanted to absolve the yankees to grant herself a career (it worked greatly). So should i still try TLT as an olde commie? Love your blog btw, please continue reblog all those TLT fan art they look great! Thanks!

whew lowkey glad I couldn't get past the first book in that other series. anyway *clears throat*

If you like LESBIANS, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you. If you like BONES and FAILWOMEN and ARE ANGRY AT GOD, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you. If you like BAD JOKES and SHITTY MEMES, we have those in spades. If you love EXCELLENT FANART and DIVORCES that last TEN THOUSAND YEARS and LOCKED ROOM MURDER MYSTERIES, if you think EVIL COUGARS are SEXY, if you think PLUTO totally COUNTS as a PLANET, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you!!!!

[here's the rest of the tlt manifesto on ao3, podficced by @/wilfriede ]

On a serious note! I think TLT is definitely informed by leftist politics, and it has many themes that lend themselves to juicy interpretations on top of a really meaty worldbuilding and characterisation. Also the fanart SLAPS. And if you read the books you can check out my fics which, not to brag, are some of the weirdest I've ever written! featuring such tropes as: "bodyswapped man sucks his own dick" "vagina dentata" "ritual sex to have a baby during a mass death event" "in-universe academia" and "orphan girl meets her parents for the first time and they suck"

tldr please read the locked tomb <3

#leaving this in the tags bc it's minor but I am hesitant to recommend TLT if you're looking specifically for a “political” novel #many people in the fandom think of it as such & I think it speaks to the depth of the writing that there's room #to look at these books looking for themes of environmentalism anticolonialism gender etc #but EYE tend to think that it's a story driven by tropes and character-focused storylines first & foremost #& I'm just wary of ascribing Good Political Intent to a series that's still ongoing #e.g. in the end is the series going to address all the nuances of the relationship between the indentured servant / her cruel lady (main f/#in a Wholly Developed Leftist Way? I doubt it!#the worldbuilding takes a backseat to interpersonal relationship stuff imo. there's not gonna be a neat ending #but the books make an actual point of saying that nuclear bombs are bad!! btw!!! so there's that #ask #elle tlt posting

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confusedhummingbird · 16 days ago

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I feel a little alone liking Starfire straight hair, but then it strikes me it's the post og comics that is this way lol Perez is unmatched everything about his design is the best her outfit, her hair, her face it's the entirety of his work that's just the best so when someone else try to do it simply will never be the same. I think there's other artists that do good but for Starfire I think they are unable to replicate Perez greatness maybe straight hair is easier for them to make so maybe that's why i like it better in "modern" works I also miss her original outfits it makes sense to show more skin and tbh her color palette works way better with her original-like outfit, it is so sad to see how little effort dc puts on her dc is very petty but ofc they overuse their shittiest writters tomtaylor and tomking, i swear theres a comic where they make everyone with a normal face and put the weirdest face on her I remember thinking this was so lame and on purpose they are pressed... They did it for just few issues thankfully, because my girl is canon-wise the prettiest, but I felt like an attack against her honestly anyway I won't forgive dc for being that nasty with her they are very pressed about her beauty and uniqueness and the fact people still love her! besides they can't write or keep good artists they only can maintain their same old bat family slop and jl lacking stories the fact they put the titans team down... i swear they are petty and they hate the titans not just Starfire but i feel with Star it is beyond acceptable, it is so bad

I'm right there with you.

Also don't worry I do like straight haired Kory(I grew up on the Teen Titans show) but I must agree that George Perez's version is the best ever! I think to me what made other versions not as good as they played too much into making Kory "sexy" and they tried to give her sharper angles and eyes for example to do it. I've seen plenty of panels where she gives constant bedroom eyes. But I think one of the best things about Perez's Kory was she was very pretty and sexy but she also had a girl next door charm to her. She was cute and bubbly and so passionate about everything. And this is shown in the way she's drawn where she's very expressive in her face and body language and her face and other features were soft.

I also agree Kory is the prettiest woman and one of the best heroes and the way DC treats her and the rest of the Titans will never fail to just make me groan and rage.

#DC Comics #Asks #Koriand'r #Starfire

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angelofthepage · 9 months ago

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Thoughts on the "Updated" Bendy Employee Handbook

Before we go any further, let's make it very clear what kind of post this is: we're not here to hate on the book, and none of anything I'm about to say is said with ill intent. I am here for analysis, constructive criticism, and discussion. This post is a little more critical than what I would usually share, so viewer discretion is advised.

Today we're talking about the newly updated Bendy Employee Handbook, which just recently released as of this month at the time of this post. And I have a lot of questions about this entry, and really, game guides as a whole in our modern gaming world. This book appeared to advertise itself as a rerelease of the original handbook with additional content for Bendy and the Dark Revival, but upon comparing the two, I've noticed there's actually a number of changes they've made, some good, some bad, and some that I'm not sure what to make of. So come and join me under the cut, and if you have some thoughts of your own, feel free to comment or reblog and add to the discussion. Without further ado, here we go!

Part 1: The Baffling Amount of Cut Content

Our story begins where most stories do, the table of contents. So right off the bat, when comparing this book to the original, you'll notice something off.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, an entire section of the original book was cut, on top of making other sections shorter. And the weirdest part? Some of these things were exclusive to that original book, they didn't appear anywhere else in the Bendy franchise. So already we're off to a weird start. Some of these missing pages aren't so bad though. In some cases, they're just format changes to make the book flow a little better/take up less room. Sometimes they succeed in that, sometimes they end up feeling more cramped, it's pretty subjective whether or not this improved the book. But it certainly does cut down on pages. Case in point, the beginning of each chapter of BATIM.

Don't worry, Joey's letter hasn't been cut, but it has been moved to earlier in the book, so it's no longer in Chapter 1. This was a very odd change. Other things that are missing are character monologues, but it's inconsistent. Alice Angel's speech about the screaming well of voices and Joey's monologue right before the final boss were kept, but Sammy's "sheep sheep sheep" speech and Bertrum's audiolog right before his boss fight were inexplicably cut.

Here are a few cuts I found pretty significant.

These pages are all missing from the update. In the case of this newspaper article, what does that mean in regards to whether or not this is "canon" or "retconned"? Joey Drew, did you or did you not have plans to expand into a Bendy themed toothpaste? The people need to know! X''D But seriously, while some of this is inconsequential, some of it matters. The mascot costume in particular, that's the only sketch we get (that I'm assuming came from Bertrum or Joey regarding that part of the parks, no one is specifically credited for making it). It doesn't show up anywhere else in the series (to my knowledge). It's strange that it's just, gone now. The Bendyland spread is such an unfortunate loss, that's some of the closest we've ever gotten to seeing the map of the park. Yes you can see it in BATIM, but being able to get up close and personal with it without having to control Henry was really nice. It makes me wonder if they're trying to erase the past details so they can do more with Bendyland in the future, something that's different from the original vision. I don't think that's it, but it could be, though they'd also have to go back on The Illusion of Living too, given it’s discussed there with some really fun details.

Speaking of which, that's the weirdest piece of cut content: the missing section that ends the old book (that was reiterated in The Illusion of Living). It's Joey Drew's tips for making a cartoon. It's formatted differently and has no images in TIOL, but the basic information is still the same. What's not the same though, is the loss of the tutorial pages for drawing the toons. These are another thing that don’t show up anywhere else in the series, making them a much more permanent loss. And even though this section is cut, it’s still referenced on the back cover of the new book, which is a bit odd.

These were really cute and showed so much personality for not just the toons, but for Joey as he described them. Cutting this was genuinely disappointing for me. Same with the paperwork in Joey's apartment. Those were some of the highest quality images we had of what was on his desk and bulletin board, and I liked being able to see them clearer. The biggest loss of the cut content isn’t just the pages themselves, but the personality they gave to this book, and the Bendy world as a whole.

This was the very first Bendy book to be released, and therefore our first look into this world in this format. And while I don’t think it’s the greatest thing in the world in terms of being a game guide, I didn’t pick up the original for a game guide. I picked it up because I wanted to see if it provided more context for the world. And when it does that, it does a good job. The memos from characters we know, Joey’s financial records, the images from the desks of people like Joey and Bertrum, they give us insight into how things were going at the studio. Some of my favorite details from the original are Joey’s memo about how Susie was replaced by Allison, and the receipt for Joe’s Fine Dining. The fact that that memo was distributed to everyone but Susie enhanced what we already knew from BATIM, and it paints him as a much crueler character than we knew him to be. Not to mention the repeated use of “I have to say, I’m an instant fan”. Having Joey say those words makes the concept of him creating the cycle so much more interesting. Like did he script out every little action these characters take? Or is this something Susie picked up and recycled from him after potentially finding this memo in real life? Oh there are so many delicious possibilities. And the lunch date, oh my gosh. One, it started my quest to build the Joey Drew menu using all the things he eats in the books, because damn does he have good taste. And two, it was so cool to have a look into an interaction Susie told us about in that one tape. Like that was REALLY GOOD. Give me more like that! When you have other parts of the series back up things we’ve heard only one character say, it gives more credence to the idea that they actually happened that way, or gives us a clue that we need to check for character biases when they tell us their side of the story. And in a series where MOST characters are unreliable narrators, that is REALLY IMPORTANT for establishing timelines and figuring out what’s real versus what’s fabricated. That was my biggest hope for the update, for more flavortext and world building that expands on things we already know.

But um…the dark revival part of the book doesn’t do that.

Part 2: The Dark Revival’s Minimal Offerings

After an abrupt jump from Bendyland to BATDR, we get into the new stuff. The Bendy and the Dark Revival section of this book is alarmingly short and has very little substance. There is no new expansion of the worldbuilding or insight into these characters. I mean, the book describes Heidi as being a female lost one? So if you wanted a confirmation on her gender, there you go I guess? I guess that detail was never like, stated explicitly, but this is me stretching to find something new that it gives us. Actually, wait, it does give us one new thing, but I’m gonna be honest, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

The book refers to Allison having a “pet wolf” when we get her introduction in Chapter 1. It then later describes that Tom “likes being pet” when we get his introduction in Chapter 5. Which by the way, is the only image of Tom in this entire book, since his original render from the old version was cut. Now, I’ll be honest, I used to like that second detail, I thought it was cute that he doesn’t just tolerate Audrey, he actually LIKES being pet. Those are two different things, having some insights into Tom’s feelings and characterization would have been a breath of fresh air. But no, when I reread the book and saw that first detail, that made that really weird and uncomfortable actually. It would be one thing if in-universe, Tom called himself a pet, or Allison called him that with consent. Heck, if there was another character in-universe who wanted to purposely insult Allison and Tom by saying that, that would be fine too, then it’d be reiterating the narrative. But on its own? I take issue with taking Tom of all characters and calling him her pet. The Safehouse Boris never got treated that badly, hell, Buddy in the books never got dehumanized this badly when he became a Boris. But Tom, Tom gets to be the one that’s dehumanized? There is something that really rubs me the wrong way about that. Especially if he turns out to be Thomas Connor or has some connection to him. I can’t assume if he is or isn’t anymore given all the stuff BATDR pulled with Allison and Henry. But on the chance he IS Thomas Connor, do you have any idea how bad that looks, to have a character that, because of details written in Dreams Come to Life, many fans speculate to be a person of color, referring to him as Allison’s “pet”? And even if he ends up not being a person of color (I say as I groan about the inevitable discourse for the DCTL graphic novel that’s coming out), it’s still kind of awful to say that about anyone. Tom is a character that has repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick in this series. He’s relevant to BATDR for all of a couple of minutes, and he’s incredibly underutilized and lacking details or depth for most of the series. Thomas Connor, he gets a bit of depth as of The Lost Ones, that novel does great things for him. But Tom Wolf? Short end of the stick. And I’m sad to see that continue here.

The one positive thing I have to say about this section is that it’s really nice to have so many of the audiolog character transcripts here. Most of the notes and logs from BATDR are here with all their words typed out. The ones that in-game had a chiller styled font are transcribed a bit strangely, as now they’re written like the messages written on the walls in-game. But it’s not the worst. If anything, all of this gives me a great resource as a theorist. Having a record of all of these and what chapters they appear in makes my goal of constructing a timeline and cross checking information much easier.

Though from a graphic design standpoint, these pages frustrate me a little bit. They’re so cramped, and there’s several spots where the text isn’t centered properly within its text block. I get the sense on some parts, it’s because it’s placed so close to the spine of the book, so they don’t want any information getting cut off, but it still looks funky. And there are several spots where that explanation doesn’t really apply. There’s also some weird placement of fun facts. While I love that this book lets us in on some secrets, they’re not always placed in an area that makes sense? Like, there’s a note about how to get the Inkjets Concert, but the steps for how to get it are placed way after a point in the narrative where you’d be able to get it, and I’m kind of scratching my head as to why it was done that way. Is it to encourage a second playthrough? Or is it to not spoil the story? Why not split the information up? Or have a dedicated secrets page like they do with the achievements and theMeatly’s cutouts?

Though speaking of not spoiling things, this book is really odd about what it chooses to focus on. So, Henry’s model is in this book, right next to a passage about a “mysterious man” you can meet in the Cyclebreakers area. They showed his model but didn’t name him as Henry? I don’t quite get that choice. Also, despite the cyclebreakers being very important to this story, they aren’t really mentioned before this very brief section. However, Porter? The character shown for all of a few seconds? He’s got at least three images throughout this book. The balance feels off with what this book chooses to put emphasis on.

Also, this one really annoyed me: Allison. So for everyone who’s actually played BATIM, you would know that Allison Angel is never referred to as Allison within BATIM. We only know she’s called that because people dove into the game’s files and revealed her and Tom’s names upon the release of Chapter 4. And the book follows suit with this, it does not call her Allison in the original handbook whatsoever. HOWEVER, the BATDR section messes this up. When it introduces her, even though in-game she introduces herself as Alice, the book introduces her as Allison. But when we get to Chapter 5, the part where she’s actually named Allison by Audrey, it suddenly switches to calling her Nice Alice? It’s a weird choice and I don’t understand why this happened.

It leaves me wondering just how much the new author of this section and their editors know about the Bendy series before going into this project. What context were they given to write this thing? It makes the book feel unpolished to have so many mistakes in its formatting and information. I don’t know what the quality control team for this release looked like, but a part of me wonders how many editors this went through before making it to the final release. I don’t work in publishing to know what that looks like, but I’d genuinely love to learn more on this subject, it’s fascinating.

There’s also a very strong dissonance in the imagery. While I’m glad to see the renders from BATDR’s advertising so clearly and up close, the difference in their coloring looks strange when put next to the rest of Bendy’s usual color palette. It leaves me wondering what assets the book team was given for use in this release. There’s a lot I could say here about the importance of press kits and brand guidelines, especially in this day and age when so many fans are making just as high quality of content as the official releases of media. And that leads me to the most disappointing part of this book.

Part 3: Stolen Content

If you’re active in the Bendy fandom and know its many creative members, then you may already know what I’m about to dive into. MLSpence3D is an artist that enjoys 3D modeling, rigging, animating, and rendering. He can often be found engaging in all sorts of corners in the indie mascot horror community, such as playing a notable role in the production of SuperHorrorBro’s upcoming title, Glitched Out, as well as providing the renders used on the Bendy Wiki of the in-game characters. Spence has had his work mistaken for official renders before, and unfortunately, it’s not just fans making that mistake. The render of the Piper used in the BATIM portion of the original handbook is Spence’s, and it unfortunately hasn’t been removed in this update, nor has he been credited or asked for permission to have it used here. I’ll admit, his stuff looks so official that I’ve mistaken it as such too, and it speaks to a much needed conversation on assets, metadata, and protection for artists of all mediums.

Our fandom is not the only place where this happens. Back when FNAF: Help Wanted was in production, the cover art mistakenly used fan renders as a part of its photomanipulation. Developer Scott Cawthon was quick to apologize and make things right, removing the renders and replacing them with officially made FNAF models. Heck, we had something similar happen right here with Bendy back when the voice cast of BATDR started working with Streamily. The initial post that advertised their Streamily debut used renders from Spence and a few other artists that had to be tracked down, and they didn’t have the rights to use them, nor were they credited. It makes a lot of sense that this happens, when you don’t have sufficient resources and aren’t an active member of the fandom, if you’re a graphic designer trying to make a piece to advertise something, you’re going to need assets to make that. And if you’re not given sufficient assets by the people you’re designing for, you turn to other sources to get the job done. They may not know what on Google is official vs fan content. The fans are so skilled and passionate about what they do, and with the number of series that have fans steadily joining the official teams, it’s incredible what can result from being passionate. But it also makes for a much needed reminder to add metadata to your files so that they can be traced back as belonging to you. Watermark your stuff, clearly mark your work as fan content in the tags, captions, and descriptions, in an effort to protect yourself. Don’t use images you find online unless you have a very clear idea of where they came from, so you can direct people back to the source when they ask about it (or better yet, link the source in your description from the start). Give people another reason to pause and double check their work in the chain of command (they should be pausing to double check anyway, but let's be real, we don't live in a perfect world). In a world where credit and sources are more important than ever, remembering to give credit where it’s due from the start will save you all kinds of headaches in the future. Video game developers, especially those of you in the indie scene: please develop press kits to give to people your teams collaborate with. By giving them assets they can reliably use to advertise for you, you will save everyone a lot of hassle in the long run. And if this is still happening even with a press kit, it merits having some conversations to evaluate why and solve the problem. If there is no other takeaway anyone gets from this post, this is the big one I want to see some positive change on in the future.

Part 4: The Functionality as a Game Guide

This book works for your first time through BATDR, but not for any kind of sequential playthroughs. The way it directs you through the game uses the audiologs and notes as waypoints. Once you pick them up, they are removed from the environment, and so if you’re picking up the game after a long time away from it, you’re not gonna remember where those were, so it’s likely not going to be useful for navigating. It reminds me a lot of the way my parents talked about one of our old hometowns. We lived in Vermont for a little while, and there were two things about our area that we laughed about. One, never leave your car unlocked unless you want it filled with zucchini. Two, if you ask for directions, you’re not gonna have a clue unless you’re a local, because they word everything in a similar fashion to “you’re gonna drive past where the old barn used to be”. At least give me a landmark that still exists, or a map! The BATIM chapters aren’t much better, they sort of give you a layout map, but it’s not helpful. Especially in Chapter 3, the place where you arguably need a map the most, there is no kind of instruction for how to get through Alice’s fetch quests if you get lost.

In my mind, a game guide is something you turn to when you need help getting through a game. Now, mind you, I am not the target audience for a game guide. I don’t own game guides. There are a few in my household that my siblings own, for stuff like Super Mario Sunshine, and I guess technically my Pokedex for Pokemon Black and White 2 DOES double as a game guide. But like, we now live in the age of the internet. If you want to know how to get through something, there are a million articles and Let’s Plays that detail how to complete the base story, find secrets, and even suggest strategies for tackling difficult challenges. Some of these are designed to be informative, and some are more reactionary and built for entertainment, there’s lots of flavors to choose from!

And it makes me wonder, what does that mean for the medium of game guides as a whole? I think they still have their place. For one thing, different people benefit from different learning styles. Being able to read a guide may work better for someone than a video depending on their brain wiring. And for people who don’t have reliable or frankly any internet, or rely on a library for that, it’s nice to have a book so that you don’t have to wait to keep playing. I’ve never seen anyone get a game guide from a library, but I absolutely think it’s something a library could have. It’s also just really convenient to have all of that information available in one book, as opposed to having to search through multiple forums and sources and risk getting spoiled. And when they’re done well, sometimes they can have secrets not even the existing player base knew. Like I knew that there was this secret about a ghost train that appears if you set your system’s clock to 4:14, but I didn’t know if AM or PM mattered. Thanks to this book, now I know that it doesn’t matter, both work, which is really handy to know! But uh…most of the secrets that were revealed in this book were things I knew within the first month that BATDR came out. None of them were new to me as someone who’s plugged into the world of Bendy. There have been multiple videos detailing how to get these secrets, and how to play this game, by many different indie horror enthusiasts. It almost makes it feel like this book came out a bit too late, and it’s only released about a year or so after this game came out.

Which really begs the question, who was the target audience for this book? Was it for new fans who were struggling with these games? Was it for longtime fans who wanted a memento of the occasion and a record of all the stuff in these games? Was it for lore hunters hungry for new secrets and world building? Having read both versions of the employee handbook, I still can’t definitively say who the target audience is. That kind of frustrates me, that’s the first thing they taught us about back when I went to school for graphic design. It’s important to keep your audience in mind when designing something, that way it caters to their needs, appeals to them, and gets your message across effectively.

Part 5: Final Thoughts

I still can’t say for sure what I was supposed to get out of this.The parts of it that I found charming and appealing were not continued or built upon in this update. There is no new world building or lore. It doesn’t do an effective job as a game guide given its reliance on non-permanent elements of gameplay. It doesn’t give us tools to cross reference what we know from previous entries, nor does it expand upon details that lacked clarity within BATDR or BATIM. It removed some of its more charming content, and it still has stolen artwork from its previous iteration. By the time I got done reading this book, I was left feeling disappointed and kind of exhausted. No joke, I grabbed a friend, and we went through it all to compare it page by page to see what changed. It was something you could make a drinking game out of, not that I would recommend that.

I would struggle to recommend this book to any Bendy fan, unless you’re a completionist like me who wants to own every book as a physical copy. The original employee handbook was a far better read, and if you can find a copy secondhand or at your local library, you’re in for a small but tasty treat (quite literally if you decide to make the bacon soup recipe, which fun fact, originated in this book and was developed by the wife of Bookpast, one of the writers on this series!). The Dark Revival section feels tacked on and not as well thought out as the original book was. There is a very odd disconnect between the two. I’m genuinely confused as to why it was put in a rerelease of this book rather than making an entirely new book for Dark Revival. Dark Revival is a much longer and detailed game than Bendy and the Ink Machine. I would expect a book that describes how to play it and its world building to take up a lot more pages and go in depth on different details than this one did. So why was it done this way? Does this have to do with some sort of contract with Scholastic that we don’t know about? Was there a time constraint, or a page count that had to be met that they couldn’t meet with just BATDR? Did the people working on Bendy have too much on their plates to dedicate the time to a new book? What happened here? I wasn’t expecting to leave this book with more questions than answers, but here we are.

Overall, I don’t think it was worth what I paid for it, but it’s going to live on my shelf with the rest of my books. This will be handy for when I need to reference the audiologs and don’t want to look up a YouTube video to remember what was said. It’ll also be nice if I’m traveling. See, whenever I visit my grandparents, their wifi is pretty limited, so if I want to draw anything while I’m up there, I have to print out references or download images on my phone before I go so I can do that. Having some of the new renders in this book will be useful if I decide I want to draw Bendy stuff or theorize while on the road.

Now it's your turn. Tell me your thoughts on the Updated Edition of the Bendy Employee Handbook! Is this something you want to read? If you have read it, did you enjoy it? Were you left wanting more? If we ever get another book like this, what sort of things would you like to see? Let's talk about it. And remember, if you did enjoy it, that's not a bad thing, absolutely no judgement there. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it's not going to be enjoyable for someone else. Every work of fiction has its audience. <3 Here's wishing you a wonderful rest of the day, and happy reading!

#bendy employee handbook spoilers #bendy employee handbook #bendy spoilers #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #batim #bendy and the ink machine #bendy books #bendy book spoilers

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jadagul · 8 months ago

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So there's this idea I've seen circulating periodically of "don't tag your hate", that fandom tags are for being positive about the fandom and if you're going to say negative things about a work you shouldn't tag it and harsh the vibe of the fans.

And this is, like, utterly baffling to me. If I'm a fan of something I want to see critical analysis! And some of that will say good things and some will say bad things. Unmitigated positivity mostly just pisses me off for being shallow.

Like, the first thing I ever really did with the internet was join a Wheel of Time fan community. But I also spent time looking for negative comments about the books. (I just didn't find any that made sense! The two critiques were "it's too long", which like fair enough but I was a bored speedreader in high school; and "all the female characters are indistinguishable", which may be one of the most incorrect claims about a work of literature that I've read.)

If I post meta about a work of literature, I'd kinda like people to argue with me! That's fun and engaging. (As long as the things they're saying aren't stupid, obviously, but stupid responses are annoying regardless of whether they're positive or negative.) And when I search for commentary, I'd like both positive and negative commentary.

I kind of suspect that I just don't do "fandom" in the sense that people who are part of fandom think and talk about it.

Of course, the weirdest one is that in the early days of this blog, I did a lot of criticism of effective altruism, and I got asked not to tag it "effective altruism" because that tag was for positive stuff about EA. Which is why my tag for effective altruism discussion is still "ea cw".

#fandom #ea cw #litcrit #wheel of time

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jaysdoodlehell · 15 days ago

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3,9, 17, 22 and 27 for Starscream And 34, 16, 28 (about Soundwave) and 48 about your oc.

For 50 questions game.

Wooo thank you so much for the ask! It's gonna be the longest text post I've ever made, so buckle up!

>:3

For Starscream:

3. Obscure headcannon:

He is totally oblivious to any subtexts, thus often not being treated seriously. Now recall this scene when he tries to interogate Cliffjumper and Arcee. He thinks he's scary when he walks slowly next to the table filled with torture devices while touching them in the weirdest delicate/sensual way (cause he's like a sneak, right?) While it comes off a bit... well, I think there is a reason why most people on this hellsite call him per 'slut'... So yeah, he is just not aware of how you can interpret both his act and his looks. He genuinely thinks he's imposing and scary (it's also not as much a headcanon as my observation that no one else noticed. So either I'm delusional, or other ppl are purposefully ignoring it. But I don't have a lot headcanons cause I'm a canon connoisseur... so all my "headcanons" would be at best overanalysis of canon... with small exceptions)

9. Scene that made me love the character :

Oh, that will be hard, cause it was back in 2012/2013, so I would not remember exactly (I'm lost in the robo sauce for a long time). Over all, I'd say that it was not a specific scene, but the sum of all his appearances. But to narrow it down, I think that the rough path made me like him a lot more. The fact he was able to survive, kept going even when he got nothing, got robbed from essential organs, and still managed to prevail, and not only that, but actually succeeded in a task both factions with multiple well-trained and equipped personel just failed... I think his ability to manage stuff as well as his drive for survival and not giving up even on the shitiest task is what made me love him so much. Also, him being shown to be vulnerable in many ways. It gives the image of someone who went through a lot, and never gave up despite obvious traumas and harm that was done to him. I respect him for being so determined, and strong enough to push through in those moments. And as much as I think other characters may have even better mental strength, they were not shown in this exact way, and Starscream was, thus I think I like him so much.

17. Quotes, songs, poems I associate with them:

I'm not really a poetry or quotes guy, but I can deliver some tracks :3

For sure Icarus by Starset, Madona by Era, Pteryla and Co-pathetic by Novo Amor, Children of the Sky by Imagine Dragons, Heavy Is the Crown by Linkin Park... and many more but this post is long enough as it is ;-;

22. Best physical feature:

Claws and how they correspond with his character. From often looking softer, moving slowly and fluently to just striking out of nowhere and piercing someone to death in seconds >:3

27. Their guilty pleasure:

Probably roleplaying as a royalty when no one's looking XD

Or watching human media for entertainment, even tho he hates humans, and treats them and their culture as inferior (like when he laughs at the monkey gif)

For Shadowground:

So, a little disclaimer. Shadow is based in an alternative timeline, where certain things had to be rewritten prior to the moment of his creation (an explosion in Shockwave's cloning facility). Everything after that has been changed completely - half of the season 3 and the movie just don't exsist in his timeline.

16. Deepest darkest secret they won't even admit to themselves:

In some way he has a lot of dark secrets, but not many are his own. It's connected to his abilities (which he's not very familiar with) but he has a way of obtaining secrets of others, and retaining them (it creates a lot of problems for everyone later, especially when he cannot yet control himself or any of his abilities). But yeah... the worst ones are of others. In this stage of the development he had no time to yet commit some serious atrocities.

28. How do they feel about Soundwave:

Shadow in general has a complicated relationship with Soundwave. At the beggining of his life (when he's stuck in his beast mode and no one knows he's sentient) he is afraid of him. Mainly because of a big misunderstanding that somehow Soundwave is a creature living in the walls of Nemesis. It was the time when he understood close to nothing, and saw some defence systems of the ship moving. Someone then mentioned it was Soundwave, and poor beast just thought that Soundwave is a turret system, living in the walls. When in reality Soundwave just turned on the system... Later on, Shadow even thinks that Laserbeak alone is Soundwave! There is just a lot of confusion around Soundwave's person because nobody explains things to Shadow, and he needs to navigate a lot on his own. It takes some time before he realises that this scary system in the walls is actually a bot.

Later as he develops more, he reaches the point where he admires Soundwave's abilities, and would love to learn from him, but there aren't many opportunities for that. He respects the communication chief a lot, but keeps his distance because he doesn't really want to disturb Soundwave's work. At the same time there is this sort of hostile struggle between them, as they are both keepers of opposing powers in the Decepticon cause (meaning Megatron and Starscream). They are kin in many ways and if they'd work together they'd be a total overkill, but the situation, certain stances, ideals, and moral compasses (or lack there of) makes a rift between them. Still, Shadow highly respects and appreciates Soundwave, as he is the most effective member of the cause. He kinda just apreciates him from far away, while keeping some grudges to himself.

34. How they react when they are feeling X emotion (sad, angry, excited, scared, etc.— can specify as many as you like):

You didn't specify which one, so I'd explain the general way he reacts to emotions. At the start he's stuck in his beast mode for a long time, so all emotions he feels are not mirrored by others or reacted to in any way, as others just don't really care about the feelings of some random creature, and they cannot really understand them. Only Predaking can understand some. Because of this, he has a certain freedom of expression and interpretation. No one cares if he is overly happy or sad, because they treat him as an animal. This changes however, when he transforms to his bot mode for the first time. Besides everyone having a very bad déjà vu of the same happening with Predaking, he is now treated as a bot, and a certain behaviour is expected from him. He suffers, having to tune down all his saturated feelings to the standards of the Decepticon cause, while not understanting what value comes from that. He learns to analyse the emotions of others rather than focusing on his own, but his reactions tend to be more honest, and he doesn't push his feelings down that much, especially later in his story when he starts to build his own view on the world, and makes peace with that.

48. Scariest moment of their life:

It comes much later in the overall plot. Being stranded alone on dead Cybertron, thinking that all others are dead, derived from any kind of sustenance... Lost and delirious from starvation, getting hallucinations going from worst mistakes and horrors of the past to the worst possible outcomes for the future, caused by an intense rumination, and his brain melting with too much informations from the surroundings. Also, hostile scraplets and rot being on the planet's surface... after all Cybertron post war is just a dead body left to rot for a long, long time...

Thank you so so much for the ask! I hope that the monstrously long reply is not too much XD

Ask game

#ask #ask game #transformers #transformers prime #tfp starscream #starscream #decepticons #shadowground #tfp shadowground #tfp oc #my ocs #transformers oc #maccadam #maccadams

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aiyanakopa · 6 months ago

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hi! for the art asks:

2) 5 favourites of your own work?

21) Weirdest thing you've ever drawn?

and for the fun of it: 25)Based on your recent reference searches, what would the FBI assume about you?

thank you! 😊

thank you for sending these! 💕

2. 5 favourites of your own work?

they always change tbh! but right now I'll go with these:

specifically this sketch of hange and nifa from my hange squad post

mildly spicy levihan

veteran trio riding their horsies

my first levihan sketch page (which is looking a little rough now but I hadn't had so much fun drawing in ages so it's very dear to me)

and to break up the aot brainrot a bit, daisuga with the karasuno first years

there's also a bunch I really like that I haven't actually posted yet 👀

21. weirdest thing you've ever drawn?

oh I've got plenty of weird stuff hiding in the deep recesses of my old hard drives, but mostly just in the sense that I drew it when I was 12 and now I find it cringe 💀 the most fun one though is a ponysona of robin lord taylor (the actor) that I drew as a gift for a friend from DA who really liked him (and from memory I think they ended up getting a plushie made based on it?)

25. based on your recent reference searches, what would the FBI assume about you?

I wish I had actual examples but my browser likes to clear my history after a while and I've been BUSY 😭 based on the references I had to search for my last post they'd probably assume I'm having a kid or that I'm getting into gardening

also it's very fun to look at my search history on my ipad specifically bc I only use it for art, so it ends up being like. 20 searches in a row of the same fucking 3 anime characters (I'm sure you can guess which ones) and looking at that you might also think I'm a little unhinged

#asks #not art

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rosemaryreality · 1 year ago

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Sonic Prime Season 2 Spoilers

(credit to user bloorpeon for the footage of the new Sonic Prime episodes)

It really is, isn't it?

Before, i've made a post talking about the way Sonic talked about Nine. How what he lowkey contradicted himself, he would refer to Nine as someone like Tails, but not necesarilly as Tails, but then he'd talk about Ghost Hill been his dimension (despite the fact that Nine had never been there, and that he told Sonic the grim was his new home). I found this particular dialogue interesting because it felt significant for Sonic and Shadow's "are the people from the shatterspaces real" conflict.

Now, with the new season out, we have more information about what he thought about the people from the shatterspaces, what they were and what he thought would happen to it.

The answer was quite simple (and obvious in hindsight): He didn't. As in he barely, if at all, thought about that. Once Shadow gave Sonic a plan on how to fix their world, Sonic sprung into action, without thinking too deeply about what would happen once their mission was complete. Once he collected all the shards, everything would be smooth sailing from there. It would be just another crazy adventure.

He didn't even stop to think what it meant for the worlds he created by breaking the crystal, he got tunnel vision, only thinking of how he could fix his world.

Because of this, you'll hear him saying the weirdest things:

I remember watching this cene for the first time and freaking out lol. To me this was confirmation that Sonic did think about how the shatterspaces would combine to become his original world, the same happening with their variants. After all, how else would Sonic's friends remember this?, if their shatterversions and them were to exist independently, how would they obtain those memories? Also he says "you", once again reinforcing the idea that Sonic sees the shatterspace people as his original friends, to an extent, he told Shadow they were "real", yet contradicts himself just a few episodes later, by not seing them as their own people.

However, something about this felt...off, it just didn't feel in character (at least to me) for Sonic to be fine and dandy with essentially erasing all this people in order to get his friends back. And i was begining to worry if the show was just gonna pretend that was perfectly fine and not a moral dilema.

And the this happened

"Just wait 'til you meet Tails" To tell you i was flabbergasted would be an understandment. While the previous line of dialogue heavily implied that the "if the prism is fixed all the shatterspaces will stop existing, converging into one to become the original one" theory was true (btw did it ever get a name?), this line just contradicts it completely, otherwise how would Nine and Tails meet each other? Sonic's idea of "fixed" clearly included Nine in it, meeting his friends and going on adventures together.

And yet, it's clear that can't happen.

While he doesn't explicitly said so, this dialogue heavily implies that both Tails and Nine (and by extention, the shatterspaces and Sonic's world) can't exist at the same time. Sonic is presented with a choice, his world, his friends, or the shatterspaces, full of people with goals and dreams that look and sometimes even act similar to the originals, but could never be them.

And yet, Sonic doesn't listen.

Nine all but tells Sonic what will happen to him if they fix that prism, yet Sonic still talks about Nine meeting his friends, he doesn't stop to think about what Nine told him, about what will happen if they fix the prism. He just tells Nine that he would love green hill, that everything will be fine, that he just has to trust him and things will work out.

(actually that makes me wonder wtf did sonic think nine was talking about, did he just think he was talking about not being able to integrate in his friend group? or does he think nine is too blinded by the idea of a perfect world in the grim to see that he can be happy in green hill?)

But Nine doesn't, how could he, when he just realized that Sonic never saw him, that when he praised him, those praises weren't just for him, that Sonic's loyalty and trust weren't for him, but because he still though he was supposed to be like someone else? when he all but tells him he sees him as a fake version of that person?

How could he, when even now, as Nine tells him that fixing his world would be at Nine's expense, Sonic still refuses to stop and listen.

#sonic prime #listen i just had a lot of thoughts and they got all mixed together here #sonic the hedgehog #sonic prime spoilers #sonic prime season 2 #sonic prime s2 #nine the fox #miles nine prower #sonic prime thoughts #mine

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nocreativityfornames · 2 years ago

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The timing and occasion on which MC made the pacts with Lucifer and Belphegor should've been switched and here's why:

SPOILERS FROM LESSON 16 TO 20-14!!

I don't know if anyone has ever posted something similar to this but it's something I've been thinking about it for a while. I've never quite liked the way these two pacts were formed and to me, they were both timed weirdly and overall had little to no weight on the story, which sort of irritates me in a way.

I think our pact with Lucifer should've taken place at the party where MC was celebrated instead of the end of the season, it would've been much more meaningful that way and left way more impact than the disaster of a scene that lesson 20-14 was in my opinion. Because here's the thing:

Lucifer is the Avatar of Pride, one of the most powerful beings in all three realms, someone who's led an entire army through war and was maybe the first of his kind to rebel against its own creator. It's not easy to gain his respect, much less his trust, so for him to put his pride aside and offer a human the power to control his entire being, it's much more than a simple "possessive and horny confession", t's him placing his ultimate trust in someone, it's him showing just how much he's grown to care for you.

Because you deserve it. You were the human who put his dear family back together, who willingly ran head first into danger more than once just for the sake of protecting his brothers, who gave your life trying to help fix what he broke. You were much more than a simple exchange student, you were someone he had slowly come to cherish, who so gradually approached his heart that he didn't even notice you come in and before he knew it, all the irritation and distrust he felt towards you had turned into love and admiration. You were a precious presence in his life that he felt the need to protect but failed to do so.

So Lucifer offering to make a pact with you just shortly after all you had gone through was a way to let you know just how immensely grateful he was for all you had done for him and his family, to show you that you had not only earned his respect and trust but also his love. It was an apology for every time he had put you in harm's way and for not being there for you when you needed him the most. Lucifer offering you a pact it's him letting you know that he will never ever let anyone hurt you again and that he'll always be there for you from now on, it's him saying that you can lean on him as much as you need because you're now part of his family — the one thing he puts above all others and will do anything for.

Lucifer asking to make a pact with you it's him showing you mean the world to him while having no qualms about letting the whole three realms know you were remarkable enough to make the prideful Morning Star let go of his sin and give you all of him.

Now, let's talk about Belphegor. As I've seen many point out, the reaction to MC's death after lesson 16 as whole was terrible. There was barely any acknowledgment of what happened, no apology coming from Belphegor, and the weirdest thing of all: MC was not only completely okay with being close to Belphegor but also the only one trying to help him when all the brothers were more than rightfully being awkward around him. So let's just put it this way: the whole situation was beyond bizarre and we all like to pretend it wasn't canon.

But back to the matter at hand: Canonically, MC's pact with Belphegor is formed at Diavolo's birthday party. After he disappears from the main hall where everyone is and MC goes to find him on their own. That itself already seems wrong, I mean, I don't know about you personally but if I had just been murdered by someone a few days/weeks ago, I definitely wouldn't want to leave the side of those I'm safe with to go find that person alone. But Canon!MC is very dumb and we can't do anything about it so our only choice is to follow him.

We are also not given the choice to refuse the pact when it's proposed nor MC has the chance to speak a word about it. Now the way I see this, it's a clear sign that MC doesn't want a pact with him. They are scared and pressured into making a pact with Belphegor because they're not sure what could happen if they refused. Because then again, this is the guy that murdered them not that long ago and laughed at their dead body like he was having the time of his life. And the last time MC refused to make a pact didn't exactly go well either, with Satan shoving them into a bookshelf and threatening the hell out of them.

And if Satan reacted like that, imagine Belphegor. And there was no one around either, Canon!MC had made the stupid decision to go find Belphegor on their own and had no one to protect them at the moment. So they have no choice, they are frozen with fear and are ""forced"" to make a pact with him even though they dread the idea. It's just awful and I hate that scene so much I can't even put it into words.

MC's pact with Belphegor shouldn't have been formed so early. They should've had the time to heal from all the trauma, time to distance themselves from Belphegor, and to process everything they had been through. And then only later they would slowly start to warm up to him again, after they know for a fact he's truly sorry for what he did and deeply regrets it. After they are ready to face him.

And for Belphegor's pact with MC to be formed on their last day in the Devildom, it would've simply been beautiful. Because then Belphegor would've also had the time to learn to appreciate MC, to realize how special they truly were, for what he did to become one of the biggest regrets he's ever carried. Belphegor would've had the time to see right in front of him how you treated those you had a pact with, time to realize that to you, a pact wasn't about gaining power and status, but about forming a deeper connection with someone.

The pacts you shared were proof of your strong bond with his brothers and all the love you had for them. And honestly, it broke his heart to be the only one in the family who didn't have that kind of connection with you. But he wouldn't dare ask for it, he couldn't ask for it. He didn't have the right, not after what he did to you that day. You were nice enough to forgive him, to treat him with kindness when all he deserved was your hate and loathing. He couldn't ask for more, no matter much he wished to.

So when you come around and ask him for a pact on your last night in the Devildom, he couldn't have felt happier. To know that you had come to trust him like that again even after all he did, for you to love him enough to want his pact mark on you for the rest of your life, it felt nothing short of incredible. He wondered what he had done to deserve you, because someone as caring and sweet as you should have no business staying close to someone as rotten as him. But he gladly accepts the pact after you confirm to him that's truly what you want. Belphegor then hugs you as tight as he can, sobbing in your embrace as he is filled with both the happiness of your newly formed pact and the sadness that you have to leave.

MC being the one to ask for a pact with Belphegor shows that they've come to trust him just as much as his brothers. And the pact itself is a sign that they've both come to overcome their past traumas and now feel more than comfortable with each other. It's proof of the strong and unbreakable bond they have.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #omswd #obey me lucifer #obey me belphegor #obey me mc #obey me satan #obey me lesson 16 spoilers #omswd lesson 16 #//the thoughts #om lou #om belphie #om mc #om headcanons #om brothers #☙ no creativity for names ✾

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soldateins · 1 year ago

Text

Down with the Alien Sickness

Rick Sanchez x Female Reader Hurt/Comfort Oneshot

I deleted my account last year and I remember how much people loved this fanfic so, I'm posting it again <3

Summary:

Basically, I'm really sick. I can't talk or anything. So, I decided I'd write my first ever R&M fanfic! Where OC is sick but it gets worse in a way that you'd not expect (hopefully!) I hope I write Rick well. He can be slightly out of character but... He's nice sometimes in it which is MEGA OOC for Rick. I also hope it's pretty good anyway, I haven't written in about a year so, holy shit. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Sickness, OC gets ill with something, panicking, Rick bring Rick, it's also fluffy and cute at the end - Word count: 2,957

It had been a few days since I'd come home from college sick. Rick forced me to have the past 4 days off and despite my protest, the true look of concern on his face made me follow his advice. He even 'advised' (forced) me to stay at the Smith household, sharing his surprisingly comfortable but small camper-bed with him. Luckily, Beth and Jerry didn't seem to mind, due to Rick doing a 'good deed' in Beth's eyes. In my eyes, it was Rick finding any excuse to have me near him and by the looks Summer gives Rick, the smirk and raising of an eyebrow, she knew it too. I'll admit it, we have a.. 'thing', we just don't really talk about what the 'thing' is - And I find him more than good looking, but I just don't want Beth to find out, y'know, age gaps and all.

Anyway, I'd been sick for a few days, and it was only getting worse. Rick told me it was the common flu, but he had no idea how my stomach had felt, and today was the worst day, by far. I'd spent most of the day lying in his bed, groaning. Quickly, I rose from Rick's camper-bed, suddenly needing to cough something up. Wrapping the thin green duvet around my shoulders, I barged through the door with my shoulder and bolted it to the bathroom.

I slammed the door, threw the duvet to the floor and knelt over the toilet. Shuddering and retching, I heard a gentle knock on the wood of the door, "Uh, Y/N? You- You okay? You don't sound uhhh- okay." Morty's voice whined it's way through the wood. I gagged, and my eyes widened as I brought up the weirdest looking neon green goop that I'd ever seen. I immediately felt relief, gasping for breath, "Yeah.. Uh.. I'm okay now. I think. You can come in, Morty." I shivered as Morty slowly opened the door.

He emitted a slightly unsettled whine as we locked eyes, "I- Ho- Holy shit, Y/N. What the fuck ha- What happened to you? Did- Did Rick do something? Ar-Are you pregnant or?" Morty quickly grabbed the soft duvet and wrapped it around my shoulders tightly, helping me up to sit on the side of the bath. I pulled a disgusted face and scoffed, "I'm sick. I'm not pregnant, and no, Rick had nothing to do with this. Or at least, to me, it happened out of nowhere." Raising my hand with a pointing, shaky finger, I took a breath in, "Can- can you look at whatever the fuck I just hacked up into the toilet? It didn't look real."

Morty cautiously took a step toward the toilet bowl and leaned over a little to look, then immediately recoiled, eyes wide and hand over mouth, "OH! What the FUCK?! Oh, oh! What is- what is that- that green stuff?!" He leaned forward again for another look but looked away just as quickly. I began to panic, shifting as I shouted, "What?! You- What do you mean?! You should know! You sho- Should know, right?" Morty reluctantly took a photo, the first time was with flash, he cursed himself, then took another, flushed the toilet, and came back to me, a firm hand cupping my shoulder, "C'mon, Y/N, let me take you down to Rick."

We got to the garage door and that's when Morty patted my back and gave me his phone, "Here, don't let Rick look through my shit, okay? I've got homework to do." He waltzed his way back into the lounge. I sheepishly knocked on the door, hearing an annoyed grunt in response, "What now, Jerry? There's no serum that'll give you a *burp* a job." I smiled, shook my head, and took that as my cue to open the door, "It's actually me." I croaked, entering the cool garage, wrapping myself tighter in the duvet. Rick took a quick glance at me, "What's up, sweetie? You want some mo-eurgh cough sy- syrup?" His voice had immediately changed, he actually sounded nice, "I um.. Actually.. Morty said.." I trailed off, trying to keep my balance as a shocking pain wreaked havoc in my stomach, "Oh fuck, oh shit!" I pressed my hands into my stomach, falling to my knees with a painful thud, "Morty said you've gotta- gotta help me. He said- He said something's really wrong!" I strained as Rick turned so fast that he was right next to me as I hit the floor.

My breathing turned heavy as my eyesight went slightly fuzzy and green. Rick grabbed my waist, lifted me up like a baby, and held my face up to give it a good look, "Jesus Christ, what the fuck have you been doing, Y/N?! It was just a cold!" He dragged my almost completely limp body to his desk, pushed all of the stuff to the side and sat me on it, leaning me against the cold wall to which I jolted up and let out a horrific screech, "I don't like that! Too co- cold!" I fell forward, my head landing on his right shoulder, "OKAY! Okay, we won't uh- *burp* Won't do that then!" He lay me down on my side as he ran to get the duvet off of the floor and shut the door to the garage. I cried out in pain, "Rick! What's going on? I can't see! It- It- It's so painful!" I writhed on the desk, kicking my feet out violently.

"You can't see?! Oh my G-*burp*-od!" His voice was choked and high. I could hear Rick's shoes clicking around quickly as he came over, covered me in the blanket, and began searching for things around the garage. I rocked myself side to side, trying to settle myself until I felt Rick's arms wrap around my body, sitting me up and slipping me down onto his work stool. I felt the excruciating pain in my stomach as he set me down and emitted a loud scream, "Oh Jesus! Okay, Y/N! I'm gonna have to examine you, okay? You're gonna have to put up with this for a little longer!" Rick shouted over my raw yelling. I gritted my teeth as hard as I could, "Okay." I growled.

The garage door opened quickly, slamming against the wall, "What is going on in here?!" Beth shrieked. Rick didn't even turn around, "Beth. Honey. Not a good time." He spoke through a clamped jaw, I assume Beth looked at me because I heard her gasp "Oooookay.. Uh... Dinner will be on the table very uh.. Very soon." She left as quickly as she came. I began to lean into Rick's chest, losing consciousness, "No. Y/N. Stay with me. C'mon, sweetheart!" He slapped my face a few times and I felt him turn rigid as a deep aggressive growl erupted from my stomach and I began coughing that same sticky substance up onto his shirt, "Ohh shit." He shined a white light into each of my eyes, causing me to raspily howl, "Okay. Your eyes are all glazed over, red and bloodshot." I felt his fingers on my lips and he pried my mouth open, shining the light inside, "Eugh. Glowing sticky green mucus in the mouth. Mouth is also deep red in colour."

Suddenly a cold glass tube was scooped into my mouth and out again. I gave a guttural groan, "COLD!" Without thinking, my hand grabbed Rick's, tightly, he shouted out in pain, "Y/N. Let go.". I felt an inhumane scream ripple through my body as Rick grabbed me by the throat, "Let me go or I'll kill you." His breath was puffing against my face as he spoke and I felt my hand weaken, despite me not telling it to, "Thank you." He spat. His hands then returned to me, shining his light everywhere, "Your skin is grey. Each orifice is very dark and wet." His voice was calm as he poked and prodded, I, however, was becoming more frustrated, "Rick! I don't wan- wanna put up- up with this any- more!!" I sobbed, trying to tear myself away from him, unsuccessfully, "C'mon, shut up. Almost done."

I heard a lot of beeping and switches being flicked and buttons being pressed for a few minutes as Rick held one hand gently against my neck, just in case I tried to hurt him again. A few seconds later, Rick gave a quiet gasp, and made an almost guilty sounding 'damn it'. I then suddenly felt a very painful intrusion in my left thigh, "RICK!" I screamed, "It's for your own good, Y/N." He stated as I felt a thick string of aches flow through me.

Instantaneously, I started coughing and shaking, "Please let this work." I heard Rick mutter, as his arms wrapped around my body in a warm, tight embrace. My eyes moistened up and my sight slowly came back as I cried loudly, "Shh, c'mon now, it's okay, you're okay.." Rick whispered into my ear continuously until the shaking and coughing stopped and I was reduced to a heavy breathing, weak mess. Everything felt better. Well, my throat still killed and my nose was runny, but, everything else was completely gone.

I swallowed deeply, "Wh- What just happened?" I whispered. Rick didn't let go of me for a few minutes, "Rick?" I croaked, "I injected you with a serum that reduces what I think you had back down into the common cold. Luckily, it worked and I was right." His breathing was slow and heavy. With a sigh of relief and without a word, Rick took my right hand and hooked his arm around my waist. He helped me up and we left the garage.

"Hey Rick, Y/N! Wanna come an- an- an- and eat?" Morty called out from the dinner table that he and his family were sat at, "Uhh, we're good right now, Morty. Y/N needs time to recover from her si*burp*ckness." We continued walking to Rick's room. He carefully set me down on the bed, wrapping me in his duvet, "Wait here." He brought out his portal gun and left for another dimension, "Hmph. Okay then." I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth impatiently as I waited for him. After a few minutes, my phone dinged. It was a text from Rick: 'Hope ur OK, sweetie. Won't be long. R.'

I was leaned against the wall, peering around the most interesting room I would ever be in. After about 10 minutes, a portal opened up and Rick stepped out, with a small little blue person in a sort of delivery uniform, "This the place, Sir?" The person squeaked, "Uhp, Yeah. Ri*burp*ght over there." Rick pointed to the end of the camper-bed and a slightly odd, fleshy looking flat screen TV materialised in front of my eyes, "What the- the fuck? Rick?" I sat up, looking him right in the face, "Hey. Hey. Don't, don't say that around a Reeptipian, Y/N. They're one of the few alien races that actually understand those words." His voice was monotonous as he lifted his portal gun and it beeped twice, "Thank you, Sir." The little blue person hopped back on through the portal, but not before two giant boxes materialised on the floor, full of colourful packets of things that looked edible.

"I'm gonna say it again, what the fuck, Rick?" I tilted my head with raised brows, "Well excuuuuuse me for tryna surprise you and make you feel better!" He put his arms in the air, "What do you mean?" I asked, "Reeptipians have a thing for cinema and TV. They create the best TVs I've ever used, with interdimensional cable, and the best snack fooooods!" Rick opened the boxes and threw a load of stuff onto the bed before bouncing himself down onto it with me. I laughed at his enthusiasm and leaned my head against his chest as he pulled me close and turned on the TV.

"Oh, before I forget." Rick sat up, pulling a decently sized needle out of his coat, before taking off his mucus covered shirt and lab coat, "I- I- Please don't tell me that's for me!" I scrambled back against the wall at the top of the bed, "Nope. For me." Rick jabbed himself in the gut with it, letting out a rumbling growl, his legs kicking out slightly, "I seriously need to figure out how to vaccinate without injections." He pulled it out and threw it to the floor with a sigh. I watched him sit back, unsure of what happened, "Um, what was that?" I relaxed against the wall once again, "Didn't you hear me? It was a vaccination. Against that nasty shit that was all up in your system, sweetheart. Oh uh.. abo*burp*ut that." Rick's eyes were shifting from side to side.

My eyes narrowed, "What. What about it? That was the worst pain I've experienced so far." My voice was highly suspicious sounding as I stared at Rick, "Y'know that healthy alien cereal you had a few days back that uh.. You really liked and then had more of?" His lips pressed into a thin line and his demeanor was nervous, which is rare, "Yes. I do know it. The one you got me that tastes like strawberry. What about it? Spit it out." Rick scratched his head, "Funny thing. It's filled with alien bacteria that are beneficial for the aliens on the planet that I got it from. But.. It uh.. If a human ingests it.. It.. uh.. Tries to use your body as a host and kills and consumes you before moving on." He braced himself for me to kick off but, nothing came, and he opened his eyes, looking at me with trepidation. I blew a gust of air from my mouth that I was holding in, "Smartest man in the universe, huh? You get your girlfriend infected with some weird fucking alien bacteria?" I crossed my arms and then froze. Rick's eyes widened, "My what?" I began stuttering, "You're uh.. You- You're.." As I tried to search for a different word Rick interrupted me, "My girlfriend!" He laughed deeply, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me onto him, pressing his lips to mine.

I pulled away with a cough and Rick held my face in his big hands, tickling my jaw and making me giggle, "I'm sorry for not checking that cereal. It almost killed you." His eyebrows furrowed. I closed my eyes and inhaled his smell, I loved the muskiness mixed with a faint whiskey scent. I leaned into him, kissing his bare chest, "But it didn't. It fucking hurt, but it didn't kill me. Plus, aren't there other versions of me around? Do- do you know any?" Rick stiffened under me, "Well, yeah but.. They- they're not you. They're.. Different. In a bad way. I'd rather you not die no ma*burp*tter what, sweetie." He flipped through some crazy looking channels on the giant TV and settled on one, "I've checked over all of these candies by the way. They're safe. They won't try and eat you after you eat them." Rick gave a hoarse chuckle and wrapped his arms around my waist, his nails gently scratching the skin of my back under my shirt.

"Uh, Rick?" My voice came out very weak, "Hm?" He looked down at me, then back up to the TV, stuffing a few pink pieces of candy into his mouth. I hummed, "You uh- you wanna try some?" Rick lifted some of the candy up to my mouth, "Yeah, uh, sure." I smiled, letting him feed me some, "But uh, I have a question." I spoke with my mouth full, "Shoot." Rick shoveled more candy into his mouth, seemingly loving it, "Is this.. Is this thing we have.. More than a.. thing?" I looked toward the TV, not wanting to meet his intelligent eyes. He took a deep breath and I felt myself lift atop his chest.

Rick cleared his throat, "Uhm." I felt his fingertips tap against my skin whilst I began to internally panic, "Never mind. Shouldn't have asked." I quickly spoke but Rick shook his head, "Nononono! I- I- I didn't mean-! Fuck. I just.. You really- you really want that?" His voice wavered as he searched my face. I looked Rick straight in the eye and bit my lip, "Yes. I.. I want that. Do uhm.. Do you?" I lay my right leg over his thighs. Rick blinked a few times before answering, "I- Yeah. I want it too." I grinned, "Then I guess.. We're dating now?" Rick nodded with a smirk and gave my ass a squeeze, "I guess we are."

Rick filled his mouth with a different type of candy, it looked like glowing red rocks. I grabbed a handful and popped some into my mouth, they tasted very sweet, until they grated their way down my sore throat, I winced as the second piece of candy made my throat hot. I looked at the packet and there were flames all over it, "Ah! They're so hot!" I blew quick puffs of air out of my mouth, "It's okay, it only lasts until they're in your stomach." Rick patted my stomach with a smile. Rick's eyes shot toward the screen and he all of a sudden jolted, raising an arm, "Yes! Ball Fondlers, baby! This is the best TV show eveeer! Trust me, Y/N, you'll love this!"

And indeed I did love it. Well, until I fell into a deep sleep.

#rick sanchez #rick and morty #fanfic #words #fanfiction #rick sanchez x reader #rick and morty fanfic #fanfics #fanfic writing #rick and morty fandom #my writing #soldateins

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