#theories are fun and games but knowledge is superior

[goldenpinof]

i don't want to be negative, ignore me if you don't agree but i am the only one thinking something is not right with dnp? that last video has me worried a bit about how far they will go for a paycheck? while a few months ago dan expressed why he quit youtube and why he doesn't want to get his channel another chance, him doing all of this with phil feels a little weird? i don't hate it, just find it contradictary

theory brought to you by @cardsagainstdnpg (and me): he is funding the wad production. so technically, dnpg sponsors are to get money to minimise all the expenses for wad taping (venue booking, staff, editing, equipment, promo, etc.). we will see if they slow down by April-May with sponsorships (or just gonna start choosing them wiser).

but on the other hand, Dan did say that there would be sponsorships on dnpg. he warned us when they came back. i wonder if he already realistically knew/suspected some wad stuff. but until someone buys the rights and Dan gets that fucking cheque for wad, we will have to witness a lot of contradictions, i'm afraid.

(p.s. are we funding dinok by clicking these spon links as well? who knows)

[roxannepolice]

So I was thinking of the answer for one of the ask games (which is coming!) but soon realised my reflections are both too long and slightly too salty to include in a fun ask, so here we are.

Because yeah what is below is hands down my favourite Delgado!Master quote, and one of my favourites from any regenerations. Hell, it may be one of my favourites in the entire show.

Gifs by cleowho and I'm sorry I ended up including them this way but I gave up trying to find the exact moment via gif searcher when my phone started smelling of burnt plastic.

So why do I love this so much and why should this result in saltiness? Because this is a very clear statement: there's actual philosophical outlook on the universe behind the Master's villainy. A deeply nietzschean one, but ironically enough underlying much of contemporary critical theories, usually of the progressive vibe. The Master apparently sees power relations as the inherent, fundamental aspect of all sentient relations, and acts accordingly, doing onto others before they do onto them (And that [a self-defence in advance] is how the Master started). And I don't even see it as a neurotic reaction to direct abuse! No, this is something much more intellectual, frozen and abstract. The salt lies therein that there is nothing "just..." to the outlook the Master presents here. Those aren't daddy issues, or the drums (which I love and think can be reconciled with classic Who canon with a bit of timey wimey cause and effect grandfather paradox shenanigans, but fundamentally don't see as the source of Master's villainy, unless they are a metaphor of permanent unsatisfaction and indeed neurotic need for more which is on the one hand awfully difficult for one and everyone around them but on the other perhaps underlie everything you are and you don't know what you'd be without it but you actually like at least a bit of what you are and this is very narcissistic and yes I have OCD), or getaway of insanity, there is no cheap psychologizing, no never heard the music, no Doctor complex that just needs to be talked through, only actual outlook presumably built on decades if not centuries of experience. That is not to say those psychological elements aren't essential to the Master's choices, just that there is no simple obstacle to overcome, no freudian complex to solve for them to see the light. This is something much more conscious.

And I can't express how fitting it is that this nietzscheanism should be the "dark twin" of the Doctor's philosophy of fixing everything they can - in its extreme taking on the form of prometheanism. Frankly, probably the reason Thoschei gives me such a brainrot is the idea of two people with very similar backgrounds (compare and contrast with Professor X and Magneto's backgrounds) arriving at universal outlooks that are at the same time so morally opposing yet in a way fundamentally similar. Because is not overcoming all possible pains of the universe an expression of will?

And the best part? The Doctor does not refute the Master's philosophy! He rejects it morally, but does not point to any single fallacy, does not overthrow it intellectually! And then...

... And then there's the reason I see Tensimm as Goethe's Faust to Threegado Marlowe's (that is not in terms of one being superior or sth only one being a logical development and discussion with the other). At a first glance, Ten is simply repeating what Three said all those episodes ago. But there's more, and there's no way I'm risking my phone again, so a quote will have to suffice.

To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough.

Ownership. As in having discretion to dispose of something as pleased? As in a very simple power relation?

Like. Wow. This here is indeed a Prometheus whose desire to make people better and literal knowledge of all possible pasts and futures pushed him to call some people more important than others and superimpose his will and knowledge of good and evil disregarding anyone else's choices. This here is indeed the Time Lord Victorious. And yes, knowing when to stop was much easier when there was an external shadow to judge.

The thing is, the Doctor here concedes to the Master's outlook on the universe. Indeed, power relations are unavoidable in sentient life. This is a moment of deep understanding between them because the Doctor now knows what it feels like to wield all that knowledge and perceive no powers saying no. Except, regardless of what poststructuralism might say, there is a fundamental moral difference between power imbalance of seeing vs being seen and y'know, forcing people to build you statues and conquering all other civivlizations and humiliating them in the process. As such, the difference becomes much harder to delineate, forcing one to always reflect instead of following a set of simple guidelines.

The question is, would it still be remembered if the walking counterpoint ceased to exist not physically but intellectually and morally?

[thecloudstan]

I totally get your point about the original, and I didn’t mean to criticize the game itself because I know it’s practically ancient, at least in terms of videogame standards. It’s just that I’ve seen so many old fans saying how the original is superior in every way and it pretty much discredits everything added to the remakes. Like I get that they have their nostalgia, but it gets annoying after a while if you genuinely enjoyed the new stuff and you just have a bunch of people complaining about everything. I’ll go on Reddit to see if anyone has theories about the ending or what they thought about the game in general and I’ll run into a good amount of people on every post complaining about something- even if it’s inconsequential- and it’ll feel like they’re doing it just because they’re grumpy it’s not a one to one remake.

Again it’s not meant to be criticism against the original which is like three decades old by now, but rather of the people who just refuse to accept change. I do agree though that people on both sides need to calm down. There’s so much anger for nothing. If you’re going to get mad about something can’t you find something better to take your frustrations out on? Like is all the complaining about time shenanigans and slightly altered plot points really worth all the energy?

I agree, My People (oldies) are way too fucking precious about the original. Devs were in this rock and hard place of "don't change my thing but remake it and make it perfectly." Girl, what? It's not possible. Open your mind. Massage your ego a bit, take the nostalgia glasses off. YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON THIS. I just want to shake them!!

My husband was one of these types and we had HEATED arguments between 2015 and the release of Remake in 2020 about this very subject. I'm happy to say he's 100% reformed. LOL.

And if I sounded touchy, it's only because I'm old and tired. I actually avoid Reddits and tags about the game for the same reason you stated. I'm either going to see new fans confused and misinterpreting things or old assed fans who just won't accept any changes. Remake is a SEQUEL. It is literally Sephiroth trying to RE MAKE the events of the original so he can win. Everything that happens is inconsequential to the original game, so if they want their precious baby intact, it very much still is. And tbqh with you, the new fans are a lot more fun lmfao. Which honestly just makes me sad for my people because I'm like...guys, relax. You of all people should be enjoying this because of your knowledge of the Deep Lore. That's a layer of added interest, not something to get all babyish about.

As far as the original being SUPERIOR, ignore those fools. They're literally robbing themselves of a great experience over an apples and oranges argument.

Actually!! This happened wayyy back in the 90s, too. I got a lot of grief from people for loving the original so much. Back then it was mostly male Nintendo fans that I was surrounded by, so I was that sole bitch straight up defending Cloud's honor on the battlefield (the schoolyard). And then by the time I was in high school, all those guys had played FF7 and loved it.

They'll come around. Just laugh at them for now.

[bongaboi]

A Genshin Finally Could Rant by Cyrus John

Before all this "Genshin finally could" dies down before their irredeemable community creates a new mess and all players forget about Liu Wei's crying apology and promise in the livestream...

Let this miserable, stinky yapping post reflect a mirror to the history of Genshin and Honkai past from a guy who likes to pretend that someone actually cares that he's been playing MiHoYo games for 11 years and have a superiority complex thinking he has a better knowledge of Honkai story simply because he's old that he deserves to be patronized (because I am.)

Genshin was a game that was supposed to have a relation with Honkai lore from that one Weibo post MiHoYo had made when asking the Honkai community what name is suited for this new game. Which in turn they had agreed all upon to name it Original God. Which probably a decision of the devs, and the comments are just inspiration.

At the beginning, all of their beta testers are of course their community that they built, and when it was released, the best supporters of their game are the Honkai community who are happy to point out references that are similar to them, theory craft during those years where Honkai lore is too fragmented and scarce to connect so they try to make sense something in Genshin to apply it in Honkaiverse, which can be found in Nagazora arc with Dvalin as easter egg.

Honkai community are very welcoming at the beginning for new players and new community since it's the first large game to be outside Honkai IP yet seem to have similar elements in Honkai in terms of writing (Venti is the very first to be an obvious reference)

That's until the landslide success of MiHoYo in Genshin that 10cent had negotiate of trying to buy MiHoYo. They refused a behemoth company that swallows every indie developers or aspiring game companies into their company and those who don't want their IP to be bought will be tormented by their best keyboard puppies filling their hate comment qouta until they are forced to shut their company, be bought or sue 10cent which 10cent are willing to entertain with how huge they are and their CCP as backing to punish them with massive compensation loss so they can't dare to fight anymore.

And unfortunately for them, MiHoYo had already secured a success that 10cent can't no longer afford to chew. MiHoYo can now challenge their reign so if they can't buy them any longer, it's time to use their arsenal for the better.

Tencent keyboard puppies did their job when they made HI3 players hate Genshin with that stupid youtube bait war that even involves Arknights, and with that, MiHoYo and their other games had been subjected to hate all because of 10cent dogs inside Genshin.

Instead of a uniform and shared community filled with pointing references and enjoyment, things shifted for the worse and the old fanbase from MiHoYo became annoyed from the ignorance and pointless repetition of misinformation from Genshin.

With something so simple misunderstanding that they try to keep correcting and boast until it reaches the snapping point.

[Insert Genshin reference "from Genshin Impact?"]

[Genshin reference but "insert a characteristic or color difference]

[OMG a Genshin character but insert different characteristics]

[Archons>Herrschers]

These silly little comments that the Honkai community tried to keep correcting are enough to set them into a seething rage against the obnoxious normies who can't correct their information. It wasn't instant, it was a gradual change until they realized that there's no point arguing with people who keep repeating the same things, same power arguments endlessly.

At first those comments are actually from ignorants, until some saw that it triggers Honkai community, until it turned into fun, until it turned to full bloodbath YouTube, with all the discussions of who's stronger, who's referenced who, to the point that the triggered Honkai community are just being lead to ridiculous idiotic comments that Genshin was released first and Honkai copied them.

Added with the unfortunate year of 2020 where westoids in twitter brought their attitude and idiocracy, that's all the reason they need on why the Honkai community should hate Genshin and changed their attitude towards it.

10cent bots successfully weaponized hate make rift between the close community before.

But it wasn't enough, it's good to involve other communities such as Arknights as well, the youtube account named "Laurent" becomes a massive troll master that also successfully baited Arknights community into hating Genshin.

But the effect instead is Honkai community having the closest relationship with Genshin was subjected to ridicule and hate from other communities as well while also trying to separate themselves from the heights and lights that the obnoxious Genshin community reached.

As long as they are made by the same company, they both deserve getting hate.

The hot shit mess of Inazuma, justifying the content leak culture, Cai Haoyu's stingy handling of Genshin in terms of rewarding it's players turned their hate to Honkai for receiving better rewards and them treating the company as an investment under the argument of: "We made your company successful and earn millions so we should be treated better than your dead game"

Which in turn Honkai players retaliated for their demanding attitude, and then turned into them being called white knights which triggers them again.

Until the fated day of 1st anniversary, which cemented themselves as the punching bag and the most hated and toxic gacha community to ever exist.

It's that day where the relationship between the two could never be mended again. All because they refused to gatekeep and ignore.

It's easier to hate than to gatekeep or to ignore.

Gatekeeping in their arguments means that people just don't want to bring new players to MiHoYo for them to profit if that's their attitude. They don't want that, so instead, they endured this massive ridicule.

Ignoring in their arguments means that if no one gives them attention, they will stop all their misinformations. Tough luck, people cares about the game's reputation as a fan, people's patience and pretend ignore have limits. Once it reaches the maximum endurance, people will snap to defend and clean their game's name as those misinformation will only be used by content creators to create dramas, and give the game a bad perspective which in turn will trigger the community again because of the false knowledge a newbie said.

Few good apples in the Genshin community are hard to pick, it's easy to generalize the hate than to nitpick defiining what's a good Genshin player or not.

10cent was not successful in their plan, but the damage they left was irreversible, and even becomes worse when they brought CCP into gaming.

MiHoYo being forced to be part of CCP.

CCP forever changing their videogames with "chinese representation", "no Japanese VA in their CN server", "time limit in the game screen" and so on.

The longer they keep hating, the Honkai community ultimately changes and becomes as toxic and as idiot as the thing they hated the most.

As I said repeatedly years ago, 2021 until early 2023 is the most toxic, garbage, and retarded the Honkai community had become. Elysian Realm which is a masterful great arc has been ruined by misinformation and hatred brought by the same people who would look at CN spoilers with MTL translations and think they already knew the full story and hate the shit out of it and completely silent when their story is completely wrong.

The Honkai community who were before, filled with old school otakus that can outBlue the Archives with how much lolis there are in the game (Sin Mal supremacy)

From Honkai community that enhance their immersion by lore crafting and having PhD in scifi and philosophy to make the scene more impactful and depressing, hating the writers gor making them cry and hostage them with sweet rewards each episodes.

From depressed and proud community seeing the peak growth of their protagonist from Everlasting Flames and funding a academy in China to horny brainlets after Elysia and Morbius was released.

And now, to pretentious, legally blind, media illiterates. Zero logic and rationality in the things they hate.

It's also only at this quarantine frame that Honkai community ruined themselves and got divided from the inside.

CN servers from being well respected and the most active in making efforts to make great contents to share to others, until people realized they are just a bunch of cry babies crying over playable males and being such an incel cucks that they tried to assassinate MiHoYo CEOs by going at their entrance (no one got hurt as they saw him immediately) simply because their supposed Chinese figure character twerked towards the westerners and not to them.

Global servers from being absolute normal fucking people who understands internet media culture nuances to being absolute retarded, including the fact that the westoid twitter attitude (of putting rights over pixels than actually to real victims suffering) infected the otaku culture and them sucking the cock of CN when the discussion is about playable males despite hating them for taking their anniversary rewards like a bunch of cucks.

SEA server from... Having full of great artists dating their Seele Dakimuras inside cafes while their fans keep reusing their arts and memes for decades like a recycled condom even if it's no longer relevant at the course of the current story to... Still the same attitude I guess?

When HSR was revealed, it brought massive hypes, albeit lowkey hate since it is a turn based game.

But when most saw in CBT that their gacha and equipments follows Genshin's constellation and relics, having "Honkai" in it's name no longer matters as it is just a damn Genshin to them.

And during the release, you already know the game's own drama with Genshin.

Dr. Ratio is one and the one that popularized "Genshin could never"

Honkai community nowadays, their hate are no longer as intense as before since everything about it became a part of the community subculture to hate towards them and stereotype against them which turns it from big deal to hate from before, to normal thing to hate. But their idiocracy, pretentiousness, and illiteracy had become so common that discussing actual lores and power scaling no longer holds value with how much they overestimate their favorite Honkai characters that they even force it here in HSR.

Evidently with Welt. Welt is very humble, smart, heroic yet blindly follows someone's legacy that he doesn't even care if the people besides him cry after he's gone as long as the world is safe. But the community gives him ridiculous claims that the memes about him being "Gojo" is just a reflection of how the community wants to see him and not how he actually is.

And with that, concludes the relationship of Honkai and Genshin and how Genshin changed the 11 year old game community within just 4 years.

I've been a watcher, since the beginning of times and until now, I've seen shits that shits and hits that hits.

I religiously love Honkai from the games and community or else, I won't sacrifice half of my life that I lived, playing this game.

I love the game

I love the unbelievable philosophy of the story

I love the discussions made in the community

I love the company's visions towards this series

I love the pioneers that visions the game

I love the improvements it took in it's journey

I have something that I hated in the game

I hate the lackluster writing they made towards the end

I hate the community so much

I hate some of the choices the company had made

I hated the direction of their choices that leads to this point

I dislike the changes they made that took things more tedious

Yet here I am still, loving the game. Knowing it's best and absolute worst and disgusting qualities yet can't help to still keep playing it.

If that isn't love, then I'm just an idiot. Which I am.

I have superiority complex forged by time, I am as idiot as rabid dog if I see stupid and pretentious little shits that talks about things they don't have the full knowledge about and be smug about it.

Genshin lives in the house of my mind that pays the rent with my hatred.

Yet I yearn for great conversations to find the feel of joy seeing others appreciate my thoughts from the discussions I made, from the clever writings in the game that the writers cooked. Old thematic writings of MiHoYo spilling in their new stories as a thought foundation that could never be remove in the game's ultimate nature and message that some people might not realized but I do.

And I want the people to keep remembering the roots and origin of this game even with the countless change of the people that played it.

Penacony might be a philosophy yapping fest for others, but for a old idiot like me, it's like a love letter sent from Taisho era that collected all of the reference as much as they can to complete a brief story reimagining their masterful themes and the convey the same messages I cried back in days with new faces to love and follow.

"As long as you remember, this story will forever remain."

Sorry about that, just ignore this attention seeker idiot with his cringe writing and obviously triggered post.

[swan2swan]

....I also just realized why Sammy wasn't the one handling the tranq gun in the finale (besides the no-fun "wELL hE's tHe mAiN ChARacteR" explanation): she's exhausted and still trying not to tear her sides open. Probably feels like her stomach is on fire, even after she gobbled down half a bottle of painkillers on the boat.

By this logic, we can thus conclude that Darius is probably the second-best shot on the team (assuming sometime during the six months of hiding, Sammy taught them all how to use a salvaged gun). This is not an unreasonable assumption, either! Darius got to the island for his gaming skills, so he's got steady hands--and before you say "Gaming skills don't translate to real life!"--

Darius also has great aim in real life. Even under pressure, he can keep a steady hand and has good aim. Remember when he blew up Toro?

And while it hasn't happened yet, he also manages to almost bullseye Rexy in the dark and the rain in order to save Yaz from getting toilet-lawyered. The kid knows how to aim!

"Yes, but just because he can aim doesn't necessarily qualify him for the spot of Number Two Marksman on the team!" (heck, he might even be Number One, just because Sammy has definitely learned how to clean, handle, and shoot a gun doesn't mean she's good at it, let alone an Expert); that's a fair consideration, but we can look at the others to see why we can weed them out:

-Kenji is a slacker. Regardless of his development, his "Finally step up and show responsibility" episode happened the day prior. Sammy probably saw how he was handling the gun when she started training and immediately realized "No, I like us all havin' an even number of eyes and hands" and promptly moved to the next one in line.

-If the training took place in the first two months, Yaz's leg would still be healing and Ben would be MIA. As for two-to-six-month Yaz, we'll, she's not necessarily a biathlete. I mean, she's a bi athlete, but maybe her aim isn't great. Maybe she gets impatient on the trigger, maybe she waits too long, maybe she overcompensates, who knows? She hits things with rocks and sticks, that's what Yazes do.

-Why would you ever give Ben a gun?

-This, of course, leaves our other most viable candidate. Little Miss Do-It-All, the Jill of All Trades, Brooklynn! Who, even if she never Unboxed Duck Dynasty or Self-Defense With Firearms, should still be a capable student! She has steady hands and has physical capabilities, girl punched a hammerhead and worked with seamstresses. Which is all well and good! Save for one problem...

Her vision ain't 20/20. And while, yes, Kenji knows nothing about her here and is playing the con...

...Chaos Theory concepts considered giving her the spectacles. And maybe it was the brain damage! The girl had multiple huge falls and filled her lungs with toxic gas until she passed out! But it's also possible that she's legally blind in one eye, or partially nearsighted, or farsighted. There could have been a whole deleted episode about the kids getting contacts and eyedrops for her, or getting her to be comfortable with glasses that the studio realized they didn't have the budget to animate.

Bringing it back to Darius one final time, then: it is not only logical to assume that he's the best marksman in the CampFam, but it also further rationalizes his career path in Chaos Theory: he could have gone into Paleocare or behavioral studies, but he went and interned with the DPW at 17, and presumably hit the field. Natural aiming ability and good reflexes would have definitely helped impress his superiors beyond his wealth of knowledge: kid knows his way around the field AND has a steady hand? He's a keeper.

Darius Bowman, if Sammy Texas Gutierrez wasn't running on Emergency Power because her liver overheated six hours ago, she would lecture you so viciously you'd wish Scorpios had you in its claws.

[vethbrenatto]

What is your opinion on this discourse/discussion on how Sam is playing FCG? Some of the talks I have seen just seems like they just don’t like Sam and want an excuse to shit on him. And some have actual valid criticism.

I'll give this a go, but just prefacing that I'm sure I haven't seen all the discussions, so I can only comment on what I've happened to scroll past. If you have something specifically you'd want me to touch on, let me know, but my here's my general response:

As I've mentioned, I'm not particularly drawn to FCG as a character in comparison to other characters Sam has played, at least so far, but I have still genuinely enjoyed FCG.

I've seen some dissection of mechanics and its intersection with roleplay and I responded a bit to that here. I've also seen doubt that Sam can play a good healer, which I think is premature to say. I have full faith in Sam to play a healer just as good as anyone else in the cast could. I don't think Sam is some sort of D&D god that is The Best Strategist and Player in the cast, but I think he understands the game and plays it well and always has some really fun, gagworthy moments playing it, like Veth's Phantasmal Force in the Lucien+Tombtakers Battle. Particularly, I think he excels in spellcasting and using spells at the right time.

And look, I'd say I'm a lot like Sam in my level of D&D knowledge. He seems like the type of person who learns via experience and observation- that is, he knows a good deal about classes he's played and he's watched his friends play, but probably hasn't read the PHB front to back (and I doubt he's the only one, I'd be surprised if Ashley had, and then on the other hand, I'm positive Liam has.). And I'm the same! I'm not an encyclopedia for D&D spells, classes, and races- I know what I've played and what I've watched others play and I don't think you need to be a walking encyclopedia of D&D knowledge to play the game well. So, I have faith in Sam to play cleric just as well as anyone else.

The major discussion I've seen, though, isn't actually a new one to CR, it's just new to FCG. And that is: The conceit of a character who fancies themselves a therapist. I get why that's polarizing. If not being professionally treated, people in everyday contexts by their friends, generally should not be therapized. But there's the rub- the highly negative critiques fail to take into account player intention.

As I said, this isn't new! In fact, this is ridiculously similar to the main critique people had with Caduceus's character- that he therapized his friends and thought he knew better than them. I'm not sure if Taliesin ever commented on this as I didn't watch Talks regularly until late, late campaign, but my guess from watching Taliesin as a player is that it was intentional. That that was an intentional character flaw that Caduceus had- an inherent superiority complex where he thought he knew the psyches of his friends better than they did. Taliesin weaves complex characters, and Caduceus was similarly complex. He wasn't a two-dimensional tea-drinking hippie.

Now, Caduceus frustrated people at times because of this. But I think he was meant to? The same way any character has character flaws. Keyleth's rigid morality, Vex's greed, Percy's also-superior-but-different superiority complex, Caleb's guilt- I could go on. And it's the same with FCG, and I'd argue, more clearly than Caduceus that this is a character flaw. FCG is a non-human character trying to understand human emotion with a core function to "help others" and they think they can reach that goal by therapizing them- therapy, which will in theory, ease their souls, will bring people to a "happy" state they should be in, in FCG's mind. They’re copy-paste recommending strategies out of a psychology textbooks. I don't think it's supposed to be good therapy and I don't think Sam (or Taliesin, back when Caduceus was doing it) is endorsing the behavior as "good." I think it's a character flaw, an intentional flaw.

So, then it comes down to being uncomfortable with the concept of using therapizing friends as a character flaw. And if that makes you uncomfortable, that's completely valid. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, personally, Critical Role has always played through vast arrays of theming containing heavy content at times. C2 has deep dives into mental health and trauma with certain characters. If it's something that makes you uncomfortable, FCG's narrative simply may not be for you. That doesn't make it wrong, though.

Overall, I haven't seen anything outright shitting on Sam, at least pertaining to FCG. I do weirdly get a non-zero amount of tags on some of my gifsets some times that feel the need to preface "I don't like Sam, but..." which. Maybe just don't do that, guys. I think there are certainly people who don't like his playstyle, and you know what, that's just the way it is. Playstyles can be polarizing. Liam, who is one of my favorite cast members and plays one of my favorite CR characters ever (Caleb) has certain roleplay quirks that make me want to tear my hair out.

I personally don't feel the need to document in posts the specifics of player things that I don't like, I'd much rather comment on the things I do, but that's a personal preference. If people want to use their blogs to say why can't stand that Player X roleplays like Y, they're in their right to do so and as long as they're tagging properly, they're not bothering me, so that's just the way of the wind.

Despite not having seen posts like you seem to be referencing, I do totally understand what you mean, anon. So much so that I went on about it for too long and it really became tangential to FCG, so I’m putting that rant under the cut if anyone wants to read it.***

Like I said, if there's something in specific you'd want me to discuss, lmk in my inbox, but those are the two main critiques I've seen with FCG: the core conceipt of the character and Sam as a mechanical player.

***I think in general that phenomenon of “wanting an excuse” comes down to people being extremely reluctant to just dislike things.

Relating it back to the concept of ship wars, we often get this dynamic of a person liking Ship A, and because they like Ship A, not caring for Ship B. And what started as I like Ship A because they’re cute and I like the dynamic for XYZ reasons, whereas I don’t like ship B for HJK reasons turns weirdly moral into I am right to like Ship A, and you are wrong to like Ship B, because actually Ship A is morally or ethically superior to Ship B. People stop wanting to relate it to personal preference and turn it into right and wrong.

I think this is sort of a toned down version of that in terms of player styles. It stops being (using fake names) “I like Jeffrey because I prefer dramatic roleplay styles and Jeffrey excels in that” and “I don’t like Corey because Corey tends toward a comedic roleplay styles and I feel that offputs the dramatic tension of the story” and instead becomes “I am right that Jeffrey is a better/good player because...” and “Corey is a bad player because...” which tends just not to be true unless Corey is doing something D&D egregious like shouting over all his fellow RP-ers or refusing to follow the narrative set up by the DM at all. 

And I’ve seen those types of comments with a variety of the CR cast, but probably most frequently with Marisha, Liam, and Sam. People just feel extremely uncomfortable expressing dislike without qualification, justification, or being validated by others about their dislike. 

This is very much not limited to actual plays, this is a tumblr-wide phenomenon I have noticed and commented on for years. One of my favorite ever posts for this fandom in particular (and I can’t remember who made it) was someone responding to an ask about whether they liked Dimension 20 and they just said, essentially, it’s too jokey for my tastes and I find it too short to get invested (aka they prefer epics, like CR). And that was it. No “Dimension 20 is bad because” or more likely to be seen, “Critical Role is better because...” but just. Here’s a thing that is not for me, and it doesn’t align with my tastes. I prefer Thing B because it aligns with my tastes. The End. 

[neshai-esper]

What would you do if you'd find yourself in van helsing daddy's factory and getting caught later on?

Not sure what was your expectation from me, as a member of the "I'm wet for Karl Heisenberg" camp, but the first things what are came into my mind had nothing to do with horny/NSFW 🔞 things, for some reasons. (EDIT: Ok it ended up being a Karl Heisenberg short-analysis)

Yes-yes, I know... I should probably drop myself on the knees before him, embracing his thighs tightly, rubbing and scratching his more sensitive inner thigh to stimulate his senses and awake his desire, and with obsessed, pleading and desperate gaze, begging for him to "release the beast", to let his pants off from his belt's rough grip, since my blazing lips and wet, restless tongue can't find it's place in existence (what the fuck am I actually doing?💦 I'm not supposed a +18 fanfic writer) but... but nothing like this.

The plot would be quite important, and the details. Knowing myself, I'd do my best to observe not only the environment (which would also tell a lot about Heisenberg himself), but Karl too. His behaviour, his personality, his smallest movements; so I can make my own movements.

Is he ruthless? - More likely. His life was ruthless, and this past have taught him that for the sake of survival and freedom, he must be ruthless too. He definitely have a serious priority, and he obviously put himself at the top. He had no one else in his life for him, than himself.

Is he power-hungry? - It was never a question. He had to face with the painful truth that how much damage power can cause, and how much inpact it can put on living beings. The strong will feed on the weak. He have the abilities, the intelligence to be better, stronger, in every way, and he is just fucking proud of himself, but he also knows that there are no limits, and that "being satisfied with anything" wont motivates you to push and grow further. His first milestone would be obviously when he manages to destroy that fucking bitch, Miranda.

Is he a narcissistic person? - It is quite obvious. These kind of people can be very charming, charismatic, and his intelligence, his will can make him more dangerous. Yes, he is still a victim, and I think that he sees himself in the same way, even if he tend to act like the "Showman", the Master of the circus floor, the head of the scene, who rules over everything around him - ironically, he just can't control his emotions, which makes it obvious that he have serious struggle inside.

I could talk about him a LOT (and boy, I didn't even play the game yet, to observe him more better), but I think we can safely say that these are already indicates the fact that he would push me hard to make me feel his "superiority", his many "advantages" in strenght and mind, knowledge, and he'd be obsessed with controling me. Ordering me what to do, how to do, and he'd be pretty much hard to satisfy when things come to performance/achievement, results and work.

II WHY AM I TELLING THIS? It's because I'd try to do my best to support him after I hopefully managed to understand and get know his situaton and himself, despite that it can be quite dangerous for me to trust in him (he'd probably feel that I don't have full trust in him), and that he could use me ANY fucking time/and in way as a tool, which can be discarded as a junk, if needed. I would safely say that at the beginning,

I'd be nothing more but a tool for him, ast most of us - let me blow away the pink cloud over your heads, sweeties -.

I mean this support in different ways. Knowing myself:

I'd do my best to learn technical stuffs both in in practice and theory, to become a better assistant, if needed, even increasing my physical strenght and stamina to become better and more useful

I'd try to be "his eye" and "ear" too, telling to him everything I hear, see or figure out - even if it requires a certain level of trust from his side.

I'd help to get / find new "victims" for his upcoming "masterpieces", which may sound cruel, but if I'd be in this situation, I'd be also trapped there - and yes, I'm a huge-enough asshole to do such a things if needed - so there would be no place from my side to be "understanding" or overly sensitive neither

I'd be his emotional support in many ways. Be a parter whom he can talk - despite that he obviously don't like to get into deep, emotional convos because of his traumas and mindset, but usually this isn't impossible that the "victim" actually want to talk about his problems, simply just can't find a person whom he can actually trust enough to do so - , someone who try to make him laugh, cause him happy moments (I'm quite toxic person, cinical and a real bwitch, so this should mean even more fun, right?), being a "partner" in his dirty games, whatever it actually means (*sigh* you are so... pathetic!), or being an emotional punchbag - he'd usually find out when he gets too far, and since he knows how does it feel like being alone, having nightmares and Earthly terror, he'd obviously try his best to "fix" those things he cause because of his uncontrollable outbursts; in his OWN way of course.

So yes, all I want is to understand him, and learn how to give him happy, warm moments, the sense of safety and release, and company, but also, trust. Since he have no one whom he could actually trust.

[sleepy-aletheas]

It's probably multiple things at play that make theories (or media analyses, really) so messy, and it could be narrowed down to 1) pure plot reliance, 2) shallow understanding or overlooking of themes, 3) overreliance on tropes/archetypes, and probably the biggest cause 4) someone having fun tossing ideas around however outlandish and incomprehensive they are, and someone less (if at all) knowledgeable about the topic takes and runs with it.

Since we're talking about Ratio, we can go point by point, and try to see where these ideas come from, even on a broader shape.

Pure Plot Reliance:

The game brought up the precedence of Aeons being ascended (depending on how we categorize everyone) mortal beings that follow certain Paths of the universe and have their own motives/ambitions to do so. Naturally, this makes people point at characters of any noteworthy ability, personality, or story relevance, because the game established that it's possible. Basically the game is held hostage by Chekhov's Gun, and people will hyperfixate on every detail, regardless of actual in-game logic or the storytelling.

And since we got Ruan Mei, who is the more tied to Aeons character from the Genius Society and thematically as a whole, of course Ratio will be put into the same musings, because as you pointed out, they're narrative foils, and a lot of the time that's enough to toss one character into the box of another and label them the same. (I'll get to this in the archetypes point)

Shallow understanding of themes:

Since HSR's plot can be convoluted if one focuses on the point-by-point replay of what happened, it's easy to overlook themes, or throwing one theme across a large part of the game (and the characters), which usually can distract or even blind to the individual stories told.

So Ratio first appearing on Herta's Space Station and be involved with the Geniuses, and then be a partner-in-crime with Aventurine in Penacony...it's never really about him (which kinda is the point. he's there to help from the sidelines or teach a lesson, but not solve it for everyone else), and that just makes it easier to latch onto 'the big theme' instead of 'his theme'. It's not about Ratio and his values and philosophy, it's about Ratio being smart around smart characters, who seek meaning and acknowledgement of divinity, so of course he must too (sounds familiar?).

Since he's so mysterious, where we don't actually know much about him, unless it's something he himself deliberately shows, it's easier to assign him a theme that was blatantly told the game deals with, than try to piece together from the context of his plot, the subtext of his ambitions, name the themes he encompasses by ourselves, because we could still misunderstand, until the game finally spills more about him.

Simply put, in the wait for clarification, people get impatient and just slap a close enough label and go on.

Overreliance on archetypes:

Which just brings me to his archetype -- the genius. And oh boy, there are many different things to unpack, but I'm already rambling a lot, so, this is just a shallow gripe I got.

As a character that clearly reaches the brilliance as the in-game established Genius Society, it's easy to just take the decades of tropes, archetype variants, and a certain assumption of irl 'geniuses' create an unpleasant, dehumanizing portrayal of smart characters. And in Ratio's case, it's really the assumption that he wants to reach godhood, sees anyone outside the GS as lesser, that he must have a superiority complex / that he got an inferiority complex for not being acknowledged by Nous; and this is an assumption established in-game and reflected irl.

It doesn't matter how much the writers give him humanity, how passionate he is, how gentle he can be, how thoughtful and bratty and compassionate; it will be swept under the waves of '"oh, he's a Smart Character, so This is his personality and goals" regardless of how obvious it's portrayed. It really doesn't help that him and all the GS members are narrative foils, so people would need to care to separate them into individuals and not one hivemind of Smartasses.

Fun times:

This point is probably the least important one, but somehow way more damaging with the reach it can have for the dumbest reason. And it's simply by misunderstanding the source.

Ex.: Someone heard someone else make a lighthearted joke (and took it seriously), or someone put out a crack theory and the person didn't know that was what it was.

Sometimes (a lot of the time, personally) it's just fun to take some building blocks of this game and reshape it, play with the colors, the themes, the characters, the possibilities. That's the beauty of theory crafting, we can read too deeply into something or add explanations that most likely will be false and debunked later down the line. We are operating with a growing story that doesn't have everything set in stone

But this is an active game that can attract new people at any moment, and they'll blindly look for more information and most likely not double check the validity, taking the fun fanon ideas and ramblings and think it's canon. And that's ultimately the burden the game (and by proxy us) have to live with.

It's no one's fault, really, just an unfortunate way how this works (unless the theory was made by a follower of Mythus or Aha, then that's purposeful and diabolic, 10/10).

So..yeah? I rambled on and on again, I'm so sorry. But this is an interesting topic that has more layers and different branches to follow, depending on the goal of the conversation.

Ratio being a mischaracterized, misunderstood, mysterious character just takes the more obvious brunt of this, since we do care about the game version of him.

My reaction (or rather rebuttal) to this amazing theory by Lalody’s lore; and how I think it exposes a problem with theory making in general

Now disclaimer, I would like to start off by saying that this is not an attack on the creator of this video in the slightest. This is a very well researched and thought out theory and I 100% understand why she came to the conclusions she did, even if admittedly I believe they are a bit of a stretch. I also am not here to debunk anything, lore is not my speciality or something I really care about in general, and admittedly I’m not very well versed in it even if I know the basics.

Rather, this post is going to be discussing this theory from a thematic/charaterization perspective, and why I think it’s wrong because of that- as well as how it exposes problems with theory making in general.

This is going to be mostly a stream of consciousness-style rant, and although I recommend you watch that video before reading this (both because it’s a) very good, and b) obviously relevant to the conversation), I’m going to be speaking very generally about the content in it, so you don’t necessarily have to watch it.

Alright, on with my major problem with this theory: ie, never in a million goddamn years would it make THEMATICALLY make for our dear Veritas Ratio to willingly become an aeon

His whole character is about being human and humanity man

Ratio, in essence, is the most human character in Honkai Star Rail, and I don’t mean that literally, as there’s reason to believe he isn’t.

Rather, him (as well as Aventurine and Acheron) are characters that embody the human spirit/what it means to be human.

I could talk about them at length later, but in Ratio’s case, the story makes a point that despite how remarkable his life and achievements are, he is still at his core, human, mundane, and not unique in the face of the universe- that is what makes him INTERESTING.

He objectively has amazing accomplishments- ones which by far qualify him to be a member of the Genius Society- Lalody mentions it herself (and thank god for that).

However, every step Ratio takes, he reaffirms his humanity and mundanity- LITERALLY

He calls himself a Mundanite constantly- hell he made a whole secret society of them, he believes that any person, fool or genius is capable of living their life to the fullest, and he dedicates his time trying to help them rather than chasing the stars himself. Ratio is very self aware, admitting he’s not good with people and can be rather abrasive, admitting he knows how he comes off to others, but refusing to change despite that because that’s who he is. His opening a chest voiceline has him saying that he accepts the material offer it values- like any man would. Never in Ratio’s life has he distanced himself or put himself above others, and the quest introducing him is called the MUNDANE and the Divine for a reason.

At his core, Ratio is no different from any other person and that’s what makes his objective exceptionality meaningful. He’s a character that smacks you in the face with how even the average person can achieve great things in live- that creativity and intelligence aren’t limited to Geniuses- aren’t limited to those acknowledged by Nous, by the divine.

Hell, that’s something I ripped straight out of his first character story because at his core this is who Ratio IS

He is a rejection of the divine- not an embrace of it

To make Ratio an Aeon would take everything he stands for away, and be a direct spit in the face to how inspiring he is both in universe and for the players.

Making a character whose whole thing is saying “you do not need to be extraordinary to do great things,” and then going “hah psych he’s a god actually and this is unachiveable for normal people, just like every other genius- you know, the people he stands against!” would just suck. It would suck. I don’t have more intelligent words for this other than saying that doing THAT would suck ass.

It’s not that Ratio couldn’t become an Aeon, it’s that he would never WANT to be one. It would be the most tragic thing ever to do to him, and would hurt him in every way possible to do so. Tearing him away from the thing he cares about the most, from what defines him as a person would be worse than killing him off in my opinion, and in universe he would hate that more too.

There’s several reasons why he doesn’t like the Genius Society, and their disconnect from humanity is one of them. Hell, when Screwllum invited him to work together, Ratio instead of centering the project in aeons, chooses to focus on people instead. Screwllum likens them to both ends of the spectrum- with himself and the rest of the Genius’s exploring Divinity, and Ratio Humanity- or rather Mediocrity.

That’s also why me and my Screwllum loving friend believe that in “The Mundane and the Divine,” Ratio is the Mundane and Screwllum the Divine, so to make both of them divine would ruin that dichotomy, and the whole opposites thing he currently has going on with Screwllum, Ruan Mei, and the Genius Society in general.

If he’s an aeon- if he’s divine too, then who is left to be the mundane?

2) Why is he stealing Ruan Mei’s and Acheron’s nachos

If any of our playable characters are going to become an Aeon, it’s her for obvious reasons. From a meta perspective, pulling that same shit twice or robbing Ruan Mei of the plot line she deserves and slapping it onto Ratio is cheap and stupid, especially considering he’s her narrative foil which only again goes to prove that it wouldn’t make sense for him.

As for Acheron, the reason I mention her is because the only Aeon I can actually see Ratio becoming is the Existence- who a) probably already exists b) finding them is her storyline anyways, and if anyone is going to become them, it will be her c) although I absolutely believe Ratio’s personal philosophy is incredibly similar to Acherons, they’d actually have to interact on screen once before it would make sense for that to happen.

Either way, the theory itself is an interesting premise, but there are far better characters to ascribe it to, which leads into my final point.

3) Why the hell would the writers do this?

Just because they can doesn’t mean they should, and from a thematic and character perspective, I have already gone over why if they care to actually do his character justice, they would never ever consider making Ratio an aeon, unless it’s against his will or something.

Which is why I think this video is actually an exemplar of the problem with theory making in all fandoms now a days- ie; people don’t actually stop to consider whether their theories make sense in the story.

And I don’t mean logically. Honestly I’m going to call this the Game Theory Effect because they do it better than anyone- just because something can happen in a story doesn’t mean it should.

The writers could make Ratio an Aeon, they could go “oops it was all a dream” again in Penacony and local astrophysicists could theorize on how I managed to throw a brick at my computer at light speed. They could do literally anything and justify it in the process because HSR is a work of fiction, but that does not mean the story itself would be good.

This is more of a criticism of how people approach storytelling in general, seeing media only for their plots and not for their themes, which is frustrating beyond words, because at least in my opinion, the most interesting parts of stories are their themes. Also, I feel that when debunking theories, people should focus less about the logic behind them, and more about whether they would actually make sense or not to be involved.

Moreover, Lalody’s video raises some very interesting ideas, and it’s caused me to think of a storyline involving similar elements- but in an opposite direction.

What if Ratio was initially Divine- but willingly became Mundane. Maybe it wasn’t willing and he was forced to be this way, but either way, it would make far more sense- and be far more interesting- if we see him reject divinity rather than embracing it.

It’s no secret Ratio’s lore is sort of a black hole at the moment, which is half the reason why so many crazy theories about him exist- we barely know anything about the guy personally. However, I’d liked to see it filled in a way that doesn’t completely demolish his current character, or who he literally is currently, as I rather like Ratio in his present form, and a bait and switch might actually drive me a bit nuts, just saying.

There’s plenty of speculation to be had, especially considering that one Cosmodyssey occurrence that haunts my every waking hour game please explain, but I’d like the hsr community to move away from the “Ratio is super special and extraordinary” direction, because what makes him interesting is the fact that he ISN’T

[wisteria-lodge]

snake primary + snake secondary (bird model)

Hello! I recently discovered your blog and really love the thought you’ve put into the nuances of the SHC system. I’m super into these kinds of personality analysis systems (I’ve probably been through them all at this point) because I think it’s interesting to know how people tick - I also think self-awareness is important so that you know why you do what you do, essentially. I took the SHC quiz and it told me I was a Snake Primary with a Bird Model, and a Bird Secondary with a Snake Model. I agree that I’m probably a (somewhat petrified) Snake Primary with a strong Bird Model, but I’m not sure which is my true secondary and which is the model. Maybe you can help?

I can sure try :)

Some things about me: I’m an oldest daughter, and I’m almost 100% sure my dad is a Bird Snake and I *idolized* him as a child - I thought he had it all figured out. He was the Zeus to my Athena in my child’s eyes, and I think I got my Bird primary model very early from copying him.

I mean, I know what you mean in a “sole creator” sense, but there is no *way* Athena thought Zeus had it all figured out.

My two younger brothers are a Lion Snake and a Lion Badger, and my mother is possibly a Double Badger, though I’m not as sure about her - maybe she just thinks that she *should* be a Double Badger. I think all that is important to help illustrate that I didn’t really feel *at home* when I was with my family, though I loved them, since I was the only Snake. My parents also had a terrible relationship and are now divorced, so there’s that as well. I think the only time I have ever been truly morally outraged was the revelation that my dad had engaged in infidelity against my mom, and then again when he started dragging his feet over a promise the he had made my youngest brother. We didn’t speak for a long time after that incident, but I was really cut up over dropping him.

Oh yeah. That’s very Snake primary. Morally outraged because your People are getting hurt.

We eventually started to reconcile, and the only reason we did was because he called and said he was driving through my city one day, and even after all of that, I said yes to meeting up because I felt sad that I had dropped him. I think this family dynamic, plus some other childhood stuff, led to me sort of “checking out” and petrifying pretty early.

Just a theory - I think it’s possible that this hit your secondary more than it hit your primary. You seem pretty strong and confident in your Snake primary so far. Even the fact that you can identify it coming from such a non-Snake environment, and don’t feel guilty about it, is big.

I had a lot of trouble making friends in school.

I’m thinking this might be more of a secondary thing.

and generally ended up with like one friend who was the other weird girl, and who I always sort of kept at arm’s length emotionally. I moved schools several times as a kid and after the first best friend (who was the daughter of my mom’s best friend and was like a sister to me until she moved away), I really didn’t try too hard to make new “best” friends.

Hmm. See, this reads like a *default* friend to me, not a friend of choice. The other weird girl. The daughter of your mom’s friend. That’s an easy friend to have… and not one that you necessarily sought out. I’m not surprised that your primary didn’t latch onto her with that Snake intensity.

Even now, though I definitely have concentric circles of loyalty and a significant other who is my “top person”, I’m not sure I have that blind Snake I-would-literally-die-for-you loyalty toward anyone - I’d kill or hide a body for my top circles

That *is* Snake loyalty. Snakes aren’t going to die for someone else, are you kidding? That’s a sucker’s game. They value themselves too much.

I would give up a lot of my own comfort for my significant other. Maybe I’m just afraid to let myself feel that unquestioning loyalty, though I want to feel it, or maybe I’m really a Bird and just want to be a Snake because that would mean I could be un-broken eventually.

Let’s talk about your secondary, I want to hear about how you think you’re broken, because so far you seem fine. Congrats on the SO!

I don’t think I’m an Idealist though - I’m surrounded by them and I know I don’t care about “principles” the way they do. Then again, maybe I’m a Bird whose truth is that moral relativism is the truth lol. Anyway, I think for my primary, I’m probably a petrified Snake with a Bird model unless I’m totally wrong about myself.

I think you’re just a Snake who… is a Snake.

(you’ve got that Birdy influence though, from your dad, and they do like to complicate things.)

As for my secondary, I loved to read (everything - all kinds of fiction, especially sci-fi/fantasy/mystery and, like, Victorian sci-fi/horror adventures, nature books, medical texts, etc. Wikipedia was a revelation when it came out), and I was smart and good at taking tests and knowing the answers in school, so at a certain point I think I just defaulted to being “the smart one” and used that as armor to help keep people from getting too close.

yep yep yep, welcome to the ‘fun Bird model’ club, we have snacks

I do genuinely love to learn, and I’ve always been known among friends and family as the one who either knows the answer or will look it up. I love pop culture trivia and nature facts. I also love and am good at debate, but not really when real feelings are involved - I more love the “battle of wits” aspect, where I can match up against a person to see if my knowledge and ability to adapt my argument on the fly can stump them. 

I also would argue the unpopular point, or the point I didn’t agree with, just for sport. Fun Bird secondary model.

I developed terrible anxiety and probably some depression as well in high school.

Okay, now I’m seeing the problem.

and now that I’m older, I suspect that I may have ADHD, though I haven’t been officially assessed. I didn’t discover my executive function issues really until college, when suddenly being smart and being able to figure out the test answers through context clues and what I remembered from lectures and readings + whatever trivia I had gathered about the topic wasn’t enough anymore.

I suspect you’re right about being ADHD. Or at least being neruodivergent.

I am horrible at studying! I would plan out my study sessions and make these nice little cheat sheets (these were allowed on exams) and they didn’t work at all! I did very well in my literature minor though, because all the graded assignments were papers rather than open-answer tests, and I could get my thoughts out better and with more resources at my disposal if I forgot something and needed to go back to the book to check.

Oh ouch. Yeah, I’m not even relating this back to a secondary, because I’m reading this as a working memory thing? Like ugh tests are such a terrible way access knowledge. What is even the *point* of memorization anymore? You should have been able to have a college career that was completely writing papers, like I did.

I was at one point very jealous of my Lion Snake brother, who I felt could do “whatever he wanted” with minimal consequences, while I always felt constrained by being “good” and not rocking the boat too much with my family.

Yep. That’s being an oldest daughter.

I couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to care about being considerate to everyone else in the household (especially my chronically overworked, can’t-say-no Badger mom lol).

It’s because he’s the youngest. Mine’s the same.

This attitude was definitely influenced by my anxiety issues at that time, since I had (and still have) a lot of trouble asking for anything - help, permission, whatever. I’d rather do things and explore on my own, without anyone watching, so I don’t have to ask and don’t have to explain.

Did you low-key raise your younger siblings? Because it sounds like you raised your siblings.

I feel better with a little bit of distance, and definitely wear masks in most situations. I’d say my masks are half conscious and half reactive - I do have some idea of how I’d like to be perceived, but it’s only kind of systematic.

That makes me think Snake or Badger secondary.

I have a few “characters” that I use as touchpoints when I’m going into a new situation, but once I’m there I mostly just act nice and funny and see what happens.

So far I’m going with Badger secondary (be nice and and assume it’ll be fine is very badger) with a fun Bird secondary model, that you can do an Actor Bird thing with. Although liking to “just see what happens” is pretty snake.

The characters are really just costumes I use to give off a certain first impression, although I do really like the costumes and find them fun. I love clothes, makeup, and perfume too, because I enjoy the idea of making multidimensional costumes for different settings. I actually enjoy the mask a lot of the time - I have tattoos that are purposefully in places that I can cover easily, because I enjoy the idea that there’s something under the professional mask that people only know about if I show them. I’m a bit socially awkward I think (I repeat myself and talk a lot), but most people tend to either like me or tolerate me, and I don’t get into a lot of interpersonal conflicts. 

Hm. Either Courtier Badger or Snake secondary, fun Bird secondary model. However. Especially after talking about your Actor Bird in such fun, positive, happy language… I am going to call you out for “socially awkward” and “people tolerate me.” Which tells me you don’t have as much faith in your social skill set, and it’s *maybe* a little burnt.

(Also, not to get too armchair psychologist tell-me-about-your-mother, but if your mom has a  “chronically overworked, can’t-say-no” Badger secondary… that’s going to affect how you see Badger secondaries.)

Right now I work in a very Badger/Bird workplace, and it’s really a terrible fit, even though I can squeak by enough to fool my superiors into thinking I’m doing a good job. 

oh we’ve got some imposter syndrome, that can also be a burnt secondary thing.

It’s all long-term planning and daily maintenance tasks, and I really don’t like it. I change most of my plans partway through, but I’m not sure if it’s because I’m really an improvisational secondary at heart, or if I’m truly a Bird that’s just bad at planning for all of the variables.

I’m going to say you’re not a Bird. Making cheat-sheets (which is a very Bird secondary strategy) also did not work, and you feel confined by, not comforted by plans. You’re not a Lion, you enjoy keeping your true self to yourself too much. You could be either a Badger or Snake. And if you really hate daily maintenance tasks… that could be coming from a few places, but it makes me lean Snake. 

I love being in situations where I can iterate on a plan, or make a new plan on the fly. I love escape rooms and am pretty good at them; I still get stumped and need hints sometimes, but when I *get* a puzzle, it sort of just clicks for me? I don’t think in a very linear way and am not a good chess player, but I also have never studied chess so perhaps I just am at a knowledge disadvantage in that game. 

This is also you using Bird to have fun, and we know you *love* using Bird to have fun.

One of my proudest moments

okay this is definitely going to be helpful

was when I was on a day trip with my significant other, and we needed to find a place to buy food quickly so we wouldn’t miss a specific ferry and then a specific bus - we were on an island, and near the ferry station the restaurants were all too expensive and we were worried they would take too long anyway. He was starting to get frazzled, but I was able to think on my feet, and we just grabbed a calming beer (lol) at a creepy neighborhood bar, then got on the ferry and bought microwave meals at a 7-Eleven by the bus station. It was awesome and I was very proud of myself for staying calm and looking around myself for options.

Well that is VERY Snake secondary.

I generally take a long time making decisions when it’s not a crisis situation, because I have to *weigh all the options*, but I often end up in analysis paralysis. Crunch time is where I really shine as a decision-maker.

Snake again. From what I’m seeing, your Bird is a fantastic toy, but actually kind of makes you miserable when you have to depend on it for the important stuff. (studying, your job, making important decisions)

All of this long post is to say, I’m not sure whether my Bird secondary is a fun model that got repurposed into an executive dysfunction compensation tool and anxiety/depression soother to supplement my Snake secondary

I think you hit the nail straight on the head right there. 

 or if Bird is my true secondary and Snake is a model that I learned from my dad and brother + characters I admire in media 

oh your favorite characters are Snake secondaries are they? That’s a big tell.

and that I use when I fail to plan adequately given my executive dysfunction. 

Executive dysfunction is a whole thing, but you don’t have to “”plan adequately”” for everything.

I find both fun and both useful, but I’m not sure which is innate and which is the model! 

My money is on snake secondary, Bird secondary model. 

[ebficnotes]

Black soul lore is a f*cking mess.

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/lfih39/written_in_uncertainty_asks_who_is_mannimarco/

One thing I never see get mentioned is that the Mannimarco in ESO cannot be the same person as the Mannimarco in Oblivion or the King of Worms in Daggerfall.This is simply because ESO's guild memo on soul trapping mentions that Mannimarco's minions had knowledge of a soul trap spell that could trap black souls in white gems, and details Vanus Galerion's dumb plan to make the world forget that spell by creating a new soul trap spell that could only trap white souls in white gems.And the whole plot of the Mage's Guild in Oblivion is about how Mannimarco and the Worm Moon are working together to bypass Arkay's divine intervention in order to create Black Soul Gems, which can catch black souls even using Galerion's version of the soul trap spell.But, like, if either Daggerfall Manni or Oblivion Manni were the same person as ESO Manni, why would they bother to invent black soul gems at all?? Why wouldn't they just teach their followers the Soul Trap spell that works on black souls, a spell that the ESO Mannimarco canonically knows? Then your followers could just use white soul gems to trap and manipulate black souls. Isn't that easier than ascending to godhood to eclipse Arkay so your followers can do a spoopy ritual to convert regular soul gems into black ones?Ergo the only rational explanation: ESO Manni is not the same as the other two. Further complicating the "Who is Mannimarco?" question. (I mean I guess there's one other rational explanation: that this is a colossal plot hole and fuck-up on behalf of the lore-writers, but that explanation isn't really as fun as tinfoil theories about multiple Mannimarcos)I guess the answer to the "Who is Mannimarco?" question is that he isn't a person, he's an identity, periodically adopted by different necromancers all throughout history. And I suppose the concept of Mantling plugs into this idea somehow, since it's TES lore and all.

The assertion that all souls and gems are the same and that it is solely the power of the soul itself, the size of the gem, and the type of spell that matters, really does completely overwrite the purpose of black gems even existing, even with Vastarie's note on the matter.

If a human can be trapped in a grand gem with the right spell, then black gems serve exactly no purpose. And the soul gems in ESO that we trap everyone with are technically grand gems, despite them not being the big spiky types you see in Skyrim (but are interestingly enough, similar to Oblivion's grand gems.)

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Grand_Soul_Gem_(Oblivion)

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Grand_Soul_Gem_(Skyrim)

And yet in both skyrim and oblivion you must use a black soul gem to capture npcs. This might make sense for oblivion, where the mages guild's strictures reign supreme, but not in skyirm, where it's stated by Phinis Gestor that those policies were never a thing to begin with, and so no neutered soul trap spell would have been taught period. And even in oblivion, you use the same damn spell to do both. How hard would it have been to put a "forbidden soul trap" tome in Mannimarco's lair to complement his shiny new black gems?

And what's worse is gameplay-wise, black gems are not even recognizably better than grand ones. Black gems are actually heavier in Skyrim even, so technically they are worse. It would have been nothing for the devs to give black gems a few extra points of oomph just to demonstrate their raw soul superiority without breaking game balance, but they don’t. Literally the only thing they have going for them is their ability to capture npcs that can talk, which even if you have zero moral qualms about it, isn't even a real benefit without cheats, given how rare the black gems are.

I repeat: the designation of NPC vs Creature is the only demonstratable difference between souls that work with grand gems and black gem-only ones.

Yeah yeah game mechanics, but even without the in-game experience, why the fuck would our supposedly devious and calculating worm guy go through all that trouble for nothing, given that in (new) lore he could just use his own ungimped soul trap and a regular old grand gem to torture the normies all he wants, as stated above?

Some Ideas:

1. Black gems are only special because they are god-keyed. The use of one is meant as an offering to your daedra/deity of choice, and are not generally seen outside of cults for this very reason. Oblivion Mannimarco's altar is meant to make offering-stones for his own faithful, not to replace grand gems as a wholesale thing. The fact that you can enchant with them also is either because the mechanics of offering are similar and we are just stealing it, or because he allows it, similar to how real life religions who use animal sacrifice still eat the animal they dedicate. This doesn’t actually explain anything, but it sounds cool.

2. Vanus in his guild note has no idea what the fuck he is talking about regarding who fits into what gem, and his getting laughed out of his own guild for positing such nonsense is one of the low points of his career. Which is especially sad because in another life he was a pioneer in the field of enchantment and thus presumably soul-study.**

3. The gems we use in eso are not normal grand gems like everyone thinks, but are actually a new black-like gem that is both popular and common due to Mannimarco's doings, but because of later Mages guild shenanigans, is eventually lost to everyone but the worm cult, which is why they can trap anything, up to and including Arkay's favorite races, as what seemed to be implied as their true purpose in Oblivion (via reddit anyway). This doesn’t explain why they look different in oblivion and skyrim, but whatever.***

4. Vanus's insistence on classifying souls into who is and is not acceptable to kill/soul trap is the catalyst for future powerful guild mages to literally god-bend the world to it's own take on morality, which by the time of Daggerfall, makes even certain clearly people-races/beings like orcs not actually count as people anymore. Ie, it's not Arkay's fault orcs in Daggerfall are considered white souls and thus can be trapped with a non-special gem/neutered soul trap spell, it's the mages guild's.

5. There *is* something about the "black-souled" races/peoples that doesn’t make black gems completely stupid and redundant, its just soul research is so damn stigmatized that no one knows what that something really is. So every inconsistency we see is actually part of some greater whole that we just can't see through to yet because of all the bullshit. aka idfk.

**Something even sillier about Vanus's note: the old soul system in ESO apparently was based on player level, with petty gems only being able to revive low level players and the like, which makes good sense with the idea of soul size being the only real thing, like they corrected earlier game inconsistency or something. But then Vanus goes and says that smaller souls are not sapient/sentient and larger ones are, which is just not true even in ESO's world. Does this mean he wouldn’t consider low-level us as a real person? O.O

I however have never played eso pre-tamriel unlimited and hardly play even now, so if there are any nuances of soul collection in that game that I missed here, please let me know, yeah?

***I forgot, dremora in both Skyrim and Oblivion are black soul gem only too, so if it is Arkay's fault, why does he care about dremora?

My head...

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2cowhz/eso_guild_memo_on_soul_trapping_describes_the/

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/lfih39/written_in_uncertainty_asks_who_is_mannimarco/

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/lfih39/written_in_uncertainty_asks_who_is_mannimarco/gmr3c28/

[fansideblogtocjcherryth]

okay , so I have a rather odd theory about this and I have not read all the books yet but please hear me out. So you know how the original humans came from a not fun situation. They were not in a good spot , they were practically seen as nothing more but laborers or poeple who were not worthy of being listened to . You know what also is kind of tied to laborers that give those same poeple an excuse to not listen to them?

They have no collage education because why should some one who just carry stuff possibly be worthy of listening to for intellectual ideas? Because labor is never there for the brain , its for the heavy work to carry the "important ones" who probably did have maybe a more decorative diploma then anything , so not only did these poeple get treated badly but they had to deal with a bunch of hypocrites who treated them unfairly. I get this kind of from the beginning of the first book when that guy gets the idea to go on the planet due to how the guild were disrespectful and also wanted to get the hell off the station.

So when these poeple came down there , not only they were humiliated by the treatment of those who were their superiors but when they did succeeded on getting down there they probably like "see , we don't need to listen to those guys who left use on that station, we can do everything fine"

Another way this could have influenced this is that 2 other reasons . One it may have given the mospheirans a weird kind of generational truma that comes out maybe ether Dunning-Kruger effect , illusory superiority, self serving bias , ultracrepidarin or maybe just Superiority complex. I kind of lack knowledge in that psychology but the complaints bren has towords the humans kind of back that area up.

The second thing is that it might be the reason why not only has psychology has not only not been developed on the planet but why they did not learn from the past, not only did they poeple come from those who were laborers but trying to get education to the planet would have been a nightmare. So not only were these poeple starting from literal scratch but they were also in the negative of the board before getting to square 1 of the game board.

This kind of it why one of the fanfic ideas I have is a bunch of human psychologists going to the planet to try to figure out how to apply psychology to the planet . I also call this little idea the "everyone in Foreigner attempts therapy" . If i said anything I missed then please let me know.

the more i think about the atevi the more i’m like i don’t get it, what about their behavior is inexplicable to these humans? i keep eyerolling at the concept that the war of the landing was about a misunderstanding about “friendship” because it keeps sounding to me that it was about a bunch of atevi being pissed off that humans just showed up and claimed land that belonged to them. And when told “hey that’s our land you bulldozed” the humans were like “okay sorry we didn’t know. but we’re here now whatcha gonna do ‘bout it hmmmm” like the only way the atevi response is surprising is if you’re expecting it to be like, an imperialist narrative where your technologically advanced white people are going to go in and civilize the dark natives in their colonization process, where by civilize they mean get them to be their servants and have them produce all the luxuries for the comfortable lives of their white colonizers. like, even when the humans lose the war and make a treaty that says they will piece by piece hand over all their technological knowledge, they have this SECRET PLAN which STILL supports the colonial idea, where they’re going to coax the atevi into producing all the things that THEY THEMSELVES need for their own technological happiness. has anyone on mospheira done any deep soul-searching about their own race history and internalized race narratives and thought about why they expected the black aliens to bow down and welcome white colonists? Like that’s not even the way earth’s colonial history actually went, it’s just the sanitized version white people like to tell themselves, the myth of the white man’s burden and shit like that

[anchormain]

    INTERACTIONS GUIDE    /    detective constable morse

    here’s a guide to some opportunities for different muses to interact with morse. these can work for first encounters, or if you’d like to plot one of these as a first encounter and use it to brainstorm a dynamic and pre-establish something, that’s fine too! 

    if you’d like to use one of these to interact with me, pls just let me know! you could send a meme that would work for it and put context in brackets, or dm me to plot, or honestly just feel free to tag me in a starter or ask me to write one. 

    i may add to this over time as i think of more ideas. 

MUSES WORKING IN LAW ENFORCEMENT     morse has a reputation for being difficult to work with. he prefers to work alone. he is, however, very useful at times. he’s clever. he’s got obscure knowledge and it’s helped him solve cases more than once. he’s dedicated, passionate, and intelligent. he’s a detective constable, which means although he reports to inspector thursday and mr bright, he can also be ‘borrowed’ by those of a higher rank than him, as mr bright is often keen to get rid of him for a while so he can’t cause problems for him by asking too many questions of important people. morse doesn’t care about ‘playing the game’ of office politics --- he can and will inconvenience his superiors by choosing not to do so. for him, solving the case is the most important thing, not staying on the good side of people more powerful than him.      morse expects people to be as reluctant to work with him as he is with them. he expects to be criticised and shut down for his ideas despite his intelligence. he expects to be made fun of or excluded for his interests ( opera, crosswords ) and his past ( he went to oxford university, so he’s made fun of for being a college boy, but he also didn’t finish his degree due to being heartbroken, so he’s criticised for that, too ).      alternatively, i have a photographer-morse verse! ( ask me about him or more info here! ) he solves crimes unprofessionally and mails his photos to the police, along with his theories ( written up on a typewriter and signed ‘snappy jenkins’ ). he could be annoying or useful, depending on your muse’s perspective. he’s hard to track down, though. 

SPY MUSES     morse has probably been told to stop investigating if some crime has happened and it’s spy-related, but he may carry on anyway. he might make a nuisance of himself. he’ll be asking questions and trying to find answers, and your muse could want to help or hinder him. up to you. he’s persistent, though, and clever. he probably doesn’t need much help finding answers, but he might get into some trouble in doing so. 

CRIMINAL MUSES     this could go very differently depending on how they meet. if morse meets them via his job, knowing they’re a criminal, he will be icy and closed off, difficult, standoffish. if he meets them via his job and knows they’re a criminal but believes they were forced into it or are a victim in some way, he will try to help them. he wants to help, desperately. he feels a sense of responsibility. he also might accidentally fall in love. he does that, sometimes.     if he meets them not knowing they’re a criminal, he might also fall in love. he’s got a type, and a blind spot a mile wide. morse falling in love with them is probably the easiest way for them to evade being caught, because he’s so smart, and yet he’s such an idiot when he likes someone. he won’t see it, won’t make the connections, for a very long time. when he does, though, he’ll be heartbroken. he falls easily and he falls hard. it’s similar for platonic friendships - morse has very few friends, so those he does have are important, and he’ll let it blind him to signs he would’ve otherwise picked up.      alternatively, photographer-morse ( ask me about him or more info here! ) might be investigating them unprofessionally, so your muse may have some thoughts on that, if they catch him! 

JOURNALIST MUSES     writing about a case morse is investigating. he’s a bit cagey with journalists unless they’re dorothea frazil, but his friendship with her proves he can have good relationships with them. it might just be difficult. he’s had some bad experiences with journalists.      alternatively, i could use photographer-morse verse ( ask me about him or more info here! ), in which case they can be colleagues, or one might approach the other wanting to collaborate. 

MUSES WORKING IN HEALTHCARE     it’s pretty easy to find morse in a hospital. he gets hurt on the job a lot. he constantly needs patching up and looking after, even though he tries to avoid it at all costs. he hates blood, including his own, so he’ll be panicky and stressed, and could probably do with a reassuring face. or a stern one, honestly. he’s an interesting and difficult patient.      he might also be there to interview someone or protect someone, if they’ve been involved in anything he’s investigating.      photographer-morse ( ask me about him or more info here! ) might be there following being caught by some criminal he’s been investigating, and he may be jumpy and worried about someone coming after him while he’s getting his injury looked at. 

MUSES WORKING IN BARS     morse can be found drinking frequently. this is more evident later in his timeline, but it can work to provide opportunities for interactions. interactions with morse in this setting come with an automatic trigger warning for alcoholism, though, so please be aware of that.      morse might go there to avoid sitting at home with his feelings. he might be there with colleages for lunch, too, or after work, but he does try to avoid this sometimes. 

OTHER MUSES ( more general opportunities )      victim of a crime.    this one’s always easy, but it’s harder to form long-lasting interactions here. morse can always interview them and try to look after them, but he’ll need a reason to form a more meaningful bond. unless he falls in love, of course. because again, he falls easily and he falls hard. it’s unprofessional, but it happens anyway. no pressure for any of his feelings to be requited.      neighbour.    morse has to move flat a lot, so if your muse would live in a cheap flat, this one’s quite easy. he might need to ask to borrow something, or you might hear him pacing. you’ll also hear his opera. he plays it all the time, and at annoying times. knock on his door and tell him to shut up and go to sleep.      witness / source of information related to a crime.    morse will also need to talk to witnesses or people who might’ve known the victim or are linked to them in some way. perhaps they take an extra interest in the case, or are upset by what they saw ( he will feel the need to comfort them, but might be awkward about it ).     passerby.    honestly, you might find him injured, or collapsed. morse has some severe phobias ( blood, heights ) so you might find him feeling faint or shaky, or entirely unconscious, if he’s unlucky. he’ll pursue his inquiries despite any fear, so he often gets into situations he then struggles to get back out of as easily, because the adrenaline that got him there has gone.      experts.    if your muse is an expert on something, we can invent a crime related to that thing, so morse may need to seek their expertise to solve it.      chance encounter.    drinking in the same bar, shopping at the same time, customer of a place morse is investigating, employee of a place morse is investigating. 

[muwi-translates]

Collar x Malice Short Story: Inside the Box

Christmas Shiraishi-centric short story.

HEAVY SPOILERS. Only read this AFTER you have finished the first game.

**Please don’t move this translation or claim it as your own.**

Generally speaking, the thing called ‘Memories’ is not clear.

Unlike memory as information, it has no fixed form. Its content can depend on the person.

Sometimes sad memories turn into hatred, and happy memories sometimes turn into delusions.

The human brain can't be trusted. It can automatically rewrite itself for its own benefit.

I, who did not require ‘Memories’ —— surely it is the same for Shiraishi Kageyuki the human.

◇ ◇ ◇

This was when I lived in the ‘Facility’.

Every day, every minute and every second, I lived like a machine.

For me, who knew how to suppress pain and happiness as soon as I understood how, all I had was ‘Curiosity’.

The vast amount of knowledge grew with each passing day. Memories of the outside world were written in letters. Like events of a distant world, even the difficult to read special books were simply ‘Unknown Stories’ to me.

I thought that my desire to know things defined my personality. However, when I think about it now, it may have been a desire planted in me as part of my training. Training to become a perfect doll.

"Christmas. The festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, coming from the word "Christ mass", it takes the form of many activities in Japan—...”

Inputting information was simple. However, I was also trained how to ‘Use Memory’. If a huge amount of information stayed on the surface of the brain, it will become confused, so if it is not necessary, there was no need to take out the memory sealed in the deeper layers.

(Gifts are put under a tree, and you gather with your family around the dinner table…)

Perhaps this information will also be stored in a box that is rarely retrieved from.

Of course I knew the basics, it was only carefully investigated because it was related to other information.

(Giving love to each other...for what...?)

The outside world is full of as many far-fetched, mysterious customs as mountains. If you had questions about everything, it would only make the processing slower. But this time, I was not sure why I was so interested in this subject.

"Are you interested in Christmas?"

——Suddenly hearing a sound coming from behind, my shoulders moved unconsciously.

Points are deducted if you are seen reacting. I immediately pretended to be calm and looked back, only to see an unfamiliar face.

“Your hand, it’s been paused on this page for a while now.” 

What peered at me was a pair of eyes full of serenity, transparent no matter where you looked — like glass balls.

"No, I'm very sorry. I memorised it without any problems."

"I’m not blaming you for anything. I know you have good scores here."

He was a high-ranking person who has inspected this ‘Facility’ many times. 

But his appearance did not match his position, with his youthful face. He appeared to be younger than me.

I remembered his name, because it was necessary for me to do so.  —Mikuni Rei. He was a human who worked with those who ‘control’ us.

“I’m interested why you, someone that’s like a precision machine, showed interest in ‘that’, that’s all.”

"I didn't become interested... I just had questions."

"Like?"

“......”

What was the meaning of his response? Was I being tested, or was he being whimsical? Either way, I had no right to not reply.

"Why do humans, who aren’t related to that religion, choose to give each other love on that day? What for?”

"...I think there are many other things similar to it but..."

"Yes. But... after reading this information, I think for the average person, this part seems to be more special than others."

As I finished speaking, he— Mikuni Rei’s eyes became slightly dim for some reason. Careful observation of the facial expression can lead to an answer.

【Pity】

A boy in the ruling class felt compassion for a stray cat trapped in a box.

A sense of superiority, a desire for control, and empathy. There were many times where I wanted to give it a name, but it was difficult to understand because I was immature.

"Human feelings... cannot be explained by theory alone. If you feel special, it must be because it touches your heart.... If the other person is the object of your envy and admiration, they are not bound by rights or wrongs."

Thoughts continued to sound as the words continued.

If ‘we’ have feelings for a particular thing, in his viewpoint, it is not a good thing. However, he agreed.

“Why do you treat me like a human?”

“Eh?”

Asking questions is normally prohibited. But now my curiosity had prevailed. This was a serious error. There should be no more curiosity beyond the rules.

"You said these things about a pawn, things impossible to explain with theory."

"...You are right. I don't know why. It's just..."

 After speaking, his bewildered gaze stayed on me, and then he spoke unwaveringly.

 "Number 14. I... don't want you to be unhappy."

...At that time, he smiled.

But what kind of smile it was— I can’t remember.

Pitiful? Loathing? Hateful? Kindly? 

I don’t remember. I can't remember.

Because it's stored in a box that can't be taken out, deep and deep inside.

◇ ◇ ◇

In my dream, someone is calling my name.

 “————Shiraishi-san.”

Did I always have this human-sounding name? I want to lie and tell myself that this is true.

But it's impossible. Even my name, which was supposed to be just a code, has become so dear to me.

“Oi, Okazaki! There’s no room for you here for dinner!”

"How mean. But it's okay, I'll eat some from Mineo-san’s.”

“It’s NOT okay! No one told you to come!”

“I’m sorry, Enomoto. ...I was the one who called Okazaki here today.”

“Geh! Yanagi-senpai?! When did you fall this guy’s wily ways—!?”

"His voice was so loud we heard it from inside, obviously he’ll attract attention. Yanagi-san probably didn’t want to disturb the neighbors."

“Yanagi-san let me in when I kept saying ‘I’m so cold… I’m so lonely…’, fufu, he’s so nice.”

“So you just left Yoshinari outside? Talk about pitiful…”

“I'll bring him a souvenir later. It's food that Yanagi-san and Ichika-chan made together. It'll definitely be delicious."

“I don’t know if it’ll suit your tastes but… Ah, but Yanagi-san’s food, I promise it’ll move you! It’s definitely not inferior to food you’ll find at high-end restaurants.”

"Why does the stupid cat look so proud?"

"It looks good thanks to Hoshino being particular about the arrangement."

“Yanagi-senpai…! I’m getting a little jealous watching you two compliment each other, please stop it!!”

Ah, so noisy. Completely unproductive dialogue. There’s no calculation and no falsity, the boring everyday that I like.

When did I get used to this warmth and treat it as part of my everyday?

While I was thinking in a daze, Ichika-chan reached out to me.

“Shiraishi-san, come here. The party has already begun."

——Party?  ……Is that so? Has it started?

"These were all made with everything we had. Let's have a good meal today."

 ——Fufu, as usual, Yanagi-san takes care of others like this.

“......Though I really don’t understand what’s so good about a bunch of us adults coming together.”

 ——Although that was what Sasazuka said, he also stayed behind to join in.

"Hey, don't stand there in a daze! You’re the protagonist today!"

 ——Hm? Did Enomoto-kun just call me ‘you’?

“I heard Ichika-chan is giving you a present, right?” 

——Even Okazaki is here… Fufu, he must have come in by force.

"Yes. It’s a wonderful gift I prepared with everyone."

I took a box from Ichika-chan who was smiling as she spoke.

I felt strange rather than happy. I was looking right at Ichika-chan, instead of looking down.

Yanagi-kun patted my head, and it also seemed to feel very big. No, maybe it's because I have shrunk.

Thin limbs, short hair. I am the same age as when I talked to ‘Him’ about Christmas.

(Ah. Is this… a dream?)

It seems I dream too much at Christmas.

"But Ichika-chan. I haven't prepared a gift."

"No, Shiraishi-san. We’re...returning you what you gave us."

“...? What I gave you?”

 "Yes. You gave us… a lot. It's only natural that we want to return the favour."

“I see… so this is what it means… to exchange gifts…”

"Yes. We want to share it, because we cherish each other. Please open it, and take a look."

“Okay.”

I slowly opened the box, and inside was——、

 ◇ ◇ ◇

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar scenery.

This was their base, called the ‘Detective Agency’. It also became a place I could feel comfortable as well. 

“Ah, Shiraishi-san, you’re awake?”

A pair of eyes I seem to always see somewhere, someplace, were looking at me. Crystal clear—like glass balls. 

“Ichika-chan…? Ah, huh? Where’s... the present box…?” 

"? Fufu, it's rare to see you half-awake. If you sleep in a place like this, you’ll catch a cold. Are you going to the office to stay overnight?"

I realized the reality as my consciousness gradually returned from my awakening. 

That’s right. The collar—in order to protect herself from those who had declared to ‘pick her up’, she had taken refuge here with her brother.

The deadline announced by Adonis was approaching soon. In order to make her forget this fact temporarily, I had been talking to them about Christmas. When I thought about the gift she gave—and the only gift I could make, I fell asleep.

(Truly... the ‘Heart’ is so difficult to understand. I… must have been scared to have a dream like that.)

 —Everything will end soon.

That smile of his I had gently stored away was blacked out. 

The contents of the boxes I had received from her and everyone had been badly damaged and dirtied.

But I decided not to regret it, even if I was scared or in pain.

Because I got the most precious gift in the world.

"Ichika-chan...Thank you."

"Eh?"

"You taught me my first Christmas, right? So, thank you."

"What are you talking about? The real fun starts from now on."

"...Fufu, yeah."

In a few days, we won’t be able to greet Christmas as we promised. Regardless of what happens, it will only make you sad.

Even if I understand that, I want to see it. I don't want to give up. I want to make my wish come true.

 This is certainly not a sad story.

I, who had received such a present, could not be unhappy. 

Even if I get it dirty with my own hands, this warmth will not disappear.

There’s no reasoning. It’s because I’m human. ...Because I am special.

A shining, sparkling gift for me, who was supposed to be called Number 14.

An opened box filled to the brim with tender memories.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Um, I saw an argument about this and.... is Animorphs a kids or young adult series? It's really got me confused

Animorphs is a children’s book series.  It’s written for children, marketed to children, adopts a childist perspective, and primarily discusses the concerns of children.  It is not a young adult series, nor is it even a marginal case like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

Why is my stance on this so firm?

First of all, Young Adult as a marketing category (for fiction aimed at teens) didn’t even exist in the mid-1990s when Animorphs first came out.  It wasn’t developed until the mid-2000s with works such as Twilight, Hunger Games, and Mortal Instruments.  But even if we’re willing to go back and classify pre-YA works as being precursors (e.g. Eragon, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), then Animorphs still doesn’t fit the bill, because Animorphs too clearly is about childhood rather than adolescence.

The protagonists of Animorphs have non-alien goals that revolve around getting their homework done, living up to their families’ expectations, avoiding bullies, and figuring out their own genders and orientations.  They’re scared of being separated from their parents (#7), of losing their sense of fun (#19), and of never being able to have lives outside of the war (MM1).  These aren’t the hopes and fears of mid-adolescence; they’re the hopes and fears of late childhood.  They’re not motivated by adolescent concerns like sex, rebellion, drugs like alcohol, independence from authority, or personal privacy.  They don’t have adolescent worries about crossing the thresholds of adulthood, maintaining their ability to travel, choosing colleges or career paths, or being respected as independent adults.  They’re child characters.

The Animorphs are children, and thus also don’t have the rights and freedoms of adolescents.  They don’t drive, they don’t go on unsupervised dates, they don’t hold jobs, they have chores but don’t maintain households, they don’t plan their own futures more than a few weeks in advance, and they don’t have money beyond a few dollars here and there.  Marco is a partial exception to all of those, but he’s the first one to admit that he lacks the skills to shop for food more filling than Peanut M&Ms (#5), to drive more than a mile without crashing (#28), or to manage money long-term (#14).  Marco is cooking and shopping for his household out of necessity, and he’s doing it as an untrained child would rather than as an emerging adult would.  Because he, like all the other Animorphs, has the knowledge and abilities of a child rather than a young adult.

The Animorphs come off like kids, with kids’ level of experience.  None of them have heard of the Battle of Agincourt or the Battle of Trafalgar (MM3), all of them are more inclined to go “eew” than “ooh” on the rare occasions when talk turns to sex (#13, #43), and most of them are pretty terrible at electronics operations (#16, #20).  Most of their battle strategies come from cartoons and video games, not formal martial theory.  Nevertheless, the kids are treated as complex and valid individuals capable of both great good and great evil.  That’s my oversimplified understanding of the childist perspective: that it focuses on the ways that society restricts and dismisses children, and takes the radical stance that children can be fully human members of society while still being fundamentally children at heart, without having them be mini-adults in all but name.  Animorphs has a firmly childist perspective toward its own protagonists, and emphasizes that with the minor characters.

Because most adults treat the Animorphs like kids, refusing to respect their superior experience even when confronted with overwhelming evidence that these kids know what they’re doing.  The Animorphs, by contrast, never stop respecting adults and adult authority.  Most notably, the protagonists never ever stop referring to adults as “Mr. Tidwell,” “General Doubedday, sir,” “Aunt Naomi,” etc., even on occasions when they’re telling those adults what to do.  The kids operate outside traditional power structures sometimes, but still view themselves as being subject to those power structures.

As a quick point of contrast, think about an in-between series like Harry Potter.  The protagonists don’t just date but make out and have intense sexuality crises.  They travel long distances without adults and are trusted to provide for themselves, especially in Deathly Hallows.  They pivot away from “Professor Lupin” toward “Remus” in later books, and they tell off headmasters and Ministers for Magic alike.  They make career choices, and lead social justice movements.  They’re arguably more child than young adult when the series starts, but they’re also pretty clearly more young adult than child when the series ends.

One last point of order:

[Image description: the spine and part of both covers of Animorphs #9.  The Scholastic logo, a white book on a red background, is visible on the spine and front cover.  The name “Scholastic” is visible on the front and back covers.]

The Scholastic name or logo appears — by my count — no less than eight times on a standard Animorphs book, including twice on the spine alone.  That’s not just a marketing tactic.  It’s a signal to librarians, teachers, and other children’s book curators that these books being listed under the “ages 8 to 12″ label isn’t arbitrary or accidental.  These books have been evaluated by experts in the field, and deemed not only appropriate but engaging and also educational for children in that age bracket.  These books use simple language, except when they occasionally use and then immediately define more complex terms like “thermal” or “singularity.”  Their educational content focuses primarily on animal facts, with a moderate dash of history and good ol’ fashioned ethics, and that content is present in every book.  A young adult series would be under no obligation to explain how gravity affects whales’ organ structure in the middle of an adventure (#27).  I’m no expert, but I wholeheartedly agree: these books are appropriate, enjoyable, educational, and meaningful for kids to read.

These books have a lot of extreme content, which is probably the source of the confusion about the target audience.  Because we live in a culture that simultaneously holds up the myth of children as innocent beings unaffected by violence, and devalues children’s culture through suggesting that any serious or impactful work MUST be meant for adults like us.  But Animorphs is so good because it’s a series for kids, never in spite of that.

[vincent-g-writer]

The Silver Screen Savant, pt 2- the Meh, the Bad and The yikes.

Hello Writers!

Last time here on Starry Starry Write, I talked a little about Autism in the media and my personal experiences therein. Today, I’d like to go a little broader, and tackle the topic from a macro perspective.

In recent times, you’ve probably heard “Representation Matters” oft repeated. Especially in prominent talking spaces like social media. But what does that mean, exactly?

Why “Representation Matters,” and how.

The short answer:

Diverse representation in media tells us that everyone has a place in the world. That everyone’s story matters.

The long answer:

It’s no secret that we begin engaging with media at a young age. When I was growing up in the 90’s and 00’s, TV and video games were often the babysitters of my peers. I was one of the few kids in my neighborhood whose parents weren’t divorced. The kids I knew? Not so much. Most of them were raised by single parents, grandparents and of course-the boob tube. I personally prefered books, when my mom wasn’t yelling “it’s too nice out to be holed up in that dark bedroom!”

Now, don’t mistake my preference for some kind of intellectual superiority. I watched plenty of TV too. Besides, books aren’t magically out of the equation. Printed material is our oldest form of media. And- often just as problematic. Though I will say- I saw a much broader range of people on covers adoring library shelves than I ever did titles on a TV roster. But, I digress. The point is: for many of us, consuming media begins at an early time of our life. And that’s where the problem starts. Even in my childhood, where The Magic School Bus, Hey Arnold, and Sesame Street showed people of all kinds, I can point to many that did not. Especially not people like me. Which did me a grave disservice. I didn’t know I was on the spectrum for a long time, and when I finally found out, I was horrified, thanks to what I had seen on TV.

Because media is not only a wonderful way to learn about people that don’t look, act or sound like us. It also informs our ideas of who we are, and what we can be. Whether we like it or not: it shapes how we understand the world. And it doesn’t stop with Childhood.

Time Changes Much, but not all.

Things are better now. Well, a little bit, anyway.

As an adult, I see more people like me on the screen nowadays. Which is nice.

Ish.

Why “ish?” Well…

Frequently, these “noticeably different” characters (read: Autistically coded) are branded “NOT AUTISTIC!” You heard it here first, folks! That one character (insert your favorite) is Totally Not Autistic. Despite being written in a way that gives every indication otherwise.

*Facepalm*

Now for some examples, which we’ll call the “Meh,” “The Bad” and the “Yikes.” For “fun,” we’ll also go into the off-air perceptions of the characters.

The “Meh.”

First on the list is Dr. Spencer Reid, from CBS’s “Criminal Minds.”

Dr. Reid is the youngest member of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, having joined at the age of 22. He holds three B.A degrees in Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy, as well as three Ph.D’s in Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

He also has the social skills of a limp dishrag. Wait, what’s that? High Intelligence + Low Social Awareness? Hmmm…Then there’s his restrictive behavioral patterns, obsessive interests, and general “quirkiness!” that we could talk about. But let’s hear a quote from the actor who plays him, Matthew Gray Gubler:

“..an eccentric genius, with hints of schizophrenia and minor autism, Asperger’s Syndrome. Reid is 24, 25 years old with three PH.D.s and one can’t usually achieve that without some form of autism.”

Hoooo-boy. I could go into all the things wrong with this, including why the term “Asperger’s” is both horrific (TW: Eugenics,Ableism, N*zis) and harmful. However, today we’ll simply leave it with the fact that this term is no longer applicable, having been reclassified in 2013 as part of Autism Spectrum disorder.

The “Bad.”

Next up, we have Will Graham, from NBC’s Hannibal.

Like our first example, Will works for the FBI. He’s a gifted criminal profiler with “special” abilities, namely hyper empathy, which allows him to reconstruct the actions and fantasies of the killers he hunts. He’s intellectually gifted, hates eye contact, socializing, and prefers to spend…most of his time…alone.

Oh dear. Haven’t we been here before? But, I mean, he doesn’t have Autism! The show runner says so!

For Will Graham, there’s a line in the pilot about him being on the spectrum of autism or Asperger’s, and he’s neither of those things. He actually has an empathy disorder where he feels way too much and that’s relatable in some way. There’s something about people who connect more to animals than they do to other people because it’s too intense for whatever reason.

You can’t see me right now, but I’m cringing. A lot. This is just…ugh. I mean, for starters, I know a handful of autistic people who struggle with hyper empathy, which can make social situations overwhelming and hard to navigate. In fact, I happen to be one of them. Plus, there’s a cool little thing about how, frequently, people on the spectrum more readily identify with animals. But, y’know. Who am I to say? I’m just someone, one of many, who’s dealt with this my whole life.

Now, onto the “Yikes.”

*sigh*

And finally, we have BBC’s Sherlock, a modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned “consulting” detective, and probably the most famous fictional character of all time.

Now, I’ll start by saying that the BBC incarnation is not the first to be Spectrum labeled. In fact, Sherlock was my childhood hero, and the first “person” I saw referred to this way. My aunt, an avid reader herself, casually remarked to a friend “I’ve always wondered if Holmes is Autistic,” after I came yammering on about how fantastic the books were. Had I not been champing at the bit to get back to my reading, I might have asked her what that meant.

I also believe this fandom driven speculation is why many detective type characters (see above) are often coded as Autistic, intentionally or otherwise.

In this New York Times article, Lisa Sanders, M.D. describes Holmes traits:

He appears oblivious to the rhythms and courtesies of normal social intercourse — he doesn’t converse so much as lecture. His interests and knowledge are deep but narrow. He is strangely “coldblooded,” and perhaps as a consequence, he is also alone in the world.

Now, before we go any father, let me take a moment to defend his creator. During the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first created his most famous work, Autism was not known. That isn’t to say it didn’t exist. We’ve always existed. In fact, it’s now believed that the Changeling Myth, a common European folk story, was a way to explain Autism. In one telling (there are a few) children displaying “intelligence beyond their years” and “uncanny knowledge” were imposters, traded out by Fae creatures for offspring of their own. Children believed to be “Changlings,” regretfully, often came to a bad end. A chilling reminder that the stories we tell impact our real lives.

So while Autism was at least somewhat recognized, it did not become its own official diagnosis until 1943.

Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes was first published in 1892. Now, as a writer who often draws from my personal reality, I imagine Doyle probably “wrote what he knew,” which is to say, acquainted with one or more Autistic people, he used them as inspiration.

On the other hand…

BBC’s Sherlock first aired in 2010. And while one might argue that the writers simply capitalized on the Autistic fan-theory, or took already available traits and exaggerated them for their version… they left a lot to be desired. Autism aside, this new Sherlock is…well…an asshole. Narcissistic, abusive and egocentric (to name a few) he sweeps his caustic behavior under the rug of “high functioning sociopath,” and blytly ignores the consequences.

Which is a major problem. Because while doing this, he’s still “obviously” (at least in the Hollywood sense) Autistic. In my previous post, where I said some characters are “too smart™, and logical© to ever have feelings, friends or empathy,” this is what I meant.

This is bad. We’re looping right back to Representation Matters. Bad representation, and the navigating of such, is just as important for writers to think about as good representation. Maybe even moreso. Because bad representation paints real people into cardboard, stereotyped people-shaped things. It otherizes. And it’s harmful. You would not believe the people I’ve met assume I’m not Autistic because I’m not an egotistical jerk. Why? Because they watched, you guessed it, BBC Sherlock.

Confession time:

Now here’s my little secret:

I love all of these characters. They are some of my favorite on tv. Why? Because for good or ill, I recognize myself in them. Finally, I can turn on the TV, and see myself. Or, somewhat, anyway.

My favorite character out of this list? Loath though I am to admit it… Is Sherlock. See, what those well meaning folks didn’t know (the ones who say I’m I’m “too nice,” to be Autistic) is… well, if we’re being honest, I wasn’t always nice. A few years ago, I was that guy. I was a jerk because I thought I was the smartest person in the room. Which is really not a good look. In fact, sitting down and watching the first season of sherlock, (around three or four years after it came out) made me realize how much of a jerk I actually was.

There are other things there too. Things that tie me to all these characters, that I didn’t list. But that’s for another today.

For now, I’d like to add a caveat or two:

1) I’ve watched all the shows listed above, and adore them. As I mentioned, Sherlock is my favorite. He’s also the one I’ve watched the most (Repeatedly, in fact. Whoops.) and I recognize it’s not all bad. In the end, he learned to treat people better (somewhat) and certainly became more human over time. And, there are other deeply problematic elements of the show I’d like to tackle, eventually.

*cough* Queerbating! *cough*

2) I’m well aware that the above cases are all thin, white, able bodied, “straight” males. But I chose these characters for a couple of reasons. One, they’re the most prominent type on TV. Again, we loop back around to representation, and why we need more positive, diverse examples of it.

And finally-

3) In my last post, I mentioned I’d give some “good” instances of Hollywood Autism trope. But I didn’t exactly do that. Partially, because half way through, I thought…perhaps…I’m not the best to judge what might be a good Autistic character. I mean, I’m sure someone will read this and think my current aforementioned characters are fine. Heck! They might even argue my perception here, and say the characters are just fine. I accept that. In my life, both on and off the page, I recognize that I cannot, should not (and don’t want to) speak for an entire community.

Because of this, I cannot tell you how to write a “good” Autistic character, or what media is “acceptable.” I can’t even really tell you what a bad character is. Sure, I have a lot of opinions about it. But- if you’re on the spectrum and like and identify with the above? That’s fine. I mean, even with all the problems I noted (and some I didn’t) I certainly do.

On the other hand, if you’re a writer, and you want to write a character from this (or any, for that matter) community you aren’t part of, I caution you.

Do your research. Preferably from multiple credible sources.

Talk to people on the spectrum about what it’s really like. (Though try to steer clear of asking for emotional labor.You could, say, hop on reddit and ask the community there, for instance, which is a no pressure way to obtain potentially decent info.)

Finally, whatever you do, remember this-

Autistic people can look like anyone. We can act, and think and be different, like anyone. We are real, living, breathing people. Not robots, not sob stories, not tropes. People. So if you write about us, write us like people. And your work will be all the better for it.

-Your Loving Vincent

[gilmesc1]

Do you have any thoughts on fictional portrayals of DID, like danganronpa, spl!t, and others?

Yes, I usually would take time to do research but lucky for you I already did XD

I looked into Danganronpa a while ago since we have 1 or 2 system mates from it, and in that case, prepare yourselves for a hot mess of my opinion and facts I got from a google fest.

So, to start out, I guess I might share spoilers?? So you hath been warned. Additionally I’m not going to sit here and rephrase the entire story so, honestly why am I even explaining this. Anon at least knows what’s going on XDD

So Danganronpa is a psychological mystery anime that focuses heavily on the themes of hope and despair, where in most versions of the story characters are forced into a killing game where they have to kill each other. Bet you couldn’t have figured that one out on your own XD

One thing I like about it is that the characters overall are written fairly well. Many of them are complex multi layered gems of writing with good development and story arcs. One thing that I found interesting is the semi accurate portrayals of mental illness and how it impacts the characters in this insane situation.

So, let’s break into that. I focused on the portrayals of NPD and DID specifically, and I could go back and look into others, but we’ll focus on those for this post. And just going to throw this out now, I think it’s interesting and also kind of a bold move to tackle those kinds of things in an anime.

So let’s look at the DID portrayal. The character’s name is Toko Fukawa, and she is a fucking wreck. Confirmed emotional abuse gives a lot into her character, and we see her as this timid, deflective, honestly broken shell. Later in the series we are introduced to her alternate personality, I know, exciting.

However it’s a literal serial killer. So like. Yeah.

I don’t love that part. I mean, out of all of the portrayals for this alter, you had to go with serial killer? And not only that, but a really famous, generally acknowledged as insane serial killer. Thaaaanks writer.

To recap what a lot of tumblr says, this kind of portrayal is dangerous because the majority of DID portrayals are of crazy violent stereotypes. It was quite honestly disappointing, and I wish that the writers hadn’t used this as their big reveal.

But hey, neutral standing here, let’s look at why he did do that from a different perspective. Since the theme of the game/anime is killing, it does make sense plot wise to have a serial killer. Additionally, it’s a clever way to get said serial killer into the game in the first place. Plot wise and with a few things I’ll mention in a second, it does make sense in a twisted way.

But let’s get the bad out of the way first. One thing I really don’t love is her appearance. It’s like someone took the original character design of fukawa, took some drugs, and then drew a nightmare creature. Seriously, there’s crazy eyes, hair flying everywhere, and this freaky inhuman tongue that the alter has out no matter what she’s doing. Like whaaaaaat the fuck.

Firstly this spreads misinformation that we can change appearance at will. Like don’t get me wrong, I wish I could, but the best I got is changing clothes if I have the time. Also the tongue I really hate because it gives the impression of the alter being this inhuman monster. Also again with the impression that we can morph stuff when we switch. I mean, if I had that, I’d be having a lot more fun in my day to day life than I do now.

Do what you will with that information.

Additionally we do see Fukawa’s tongue, and it’s not a weird demogorgon kind of thing, so, yeah, the tongue thing is weird.

Finally her name. It’s Genocider Syo/Jack/Jill. Not a normal name, no the only name we have for her is her serial killer name which I feel serves to continue to show her as this inhuman thing where we all go, Oh god oh fuck time to be afraaaaid.

But hey, let’s look at what they did right.

The backstory of how genocider came to be is really accurate to how it works. Fukawa has a history of abuse at a young age, and genocider eventually comes into the picture to protect her.

Let me explain: So this is a theory on my part (Check out Weeby Newz’s youtube video, that’s where I got this) but Fukawa was revealed to have suffered massive emotional abuse at the hands of a boy who she had romantic interest in. Since he was moving away, she decided to confess her love to him in a letter before this happened. Turns out the boy pinned the letter in her classroom so everyone would make fun of her. Dick move.

I think genocider formed after this specific event, firstly because this is a huge defining experience for Fukawa. Additionally, the way genocider acts serves to prove this. Her target victims are boys, and her first victim was the boy who hurt Fukawa. I mean yeah, killing was waaaay extreme, but bear with me on this next part:

I’d say that genocider is a protector. A lot of her initial actions were to protect Fukawa from getting hurt in the same way, and protectors do have a history of going to the extreme to protect their hosts and systems. Even though she seems like a persecutor, I don’t think any of her actions have been directed at herself and Fukawa, they actually seem to have a decent relationship, and to end this theory that is completely non canon and just me pretending I’m smart, I’d call her a protector.

Next, looking at the relationship they have. Genocider at one point tells the protagonist that they have a “non disclosure policy” when they switch when the other is in the middle of something. (like murder??) And I personally really liked this, as it was a kind of realistic DID humor in my eyes. Take it or leave it, that’s my opinion.

And that’s really all I have on that behalf. Genocider really isn’t shown as a “normal person” often, which I guess is the point but also leaves me with nothing to evaluate. (Side note, this is only V1 of the series and I’m aware she changes but dear god go easy on me)

Finally, here are a few things that I find a little weird tbh.

At first glance when they switch, it’s a touch accurate, if over dramatic. Losing consciousness and coming to as a different alter is possible so I do like that, however they also have her constantly switching when sneezing, which is a little out there.

I mean, I think I’ve done that before, but for it to be a consistent theme, idk. Maybe overdramatized again.

Secondly, there is a voice change, which is accurate, but it really just serves to fit the crazy image, so I’m conflicted on that.

So that is really all I can say on that specifically, to end things I’m going to talk about one other character Fukawa has interactions with, Togami. (He has a first name but I can’t spell/remember it.)

So I gravitated towards him while watching the series because he reminds me of me, hence me saying that he seems to be a dead ringer for npd. Let me explain.

He’s very cold and distant from others and obviously feels superior, additionally he is willing to fight tooth and nail to consistently be on top and win in any situation, leading to him doing some fucked up things.

But like I feel for him. It’s like watching me XD

His past was a very competitive cuthroat environment, where he was taught that losing is worse than death. Additionally he was almost groomed to be this untouchable figure so it’s no surprise that he believes that. I might make a second post about him because there’s a lot more I can say, but I’m going to double back to Fukawa now.

So Fukawa gains a very unhealthy obsession with Togami, despite him wanting literally nothing to do with her. He’s verbally abusive to her and does go out of his way to attack her, but she thinks it’s a sign of love. Poor Fukawa.

This also kind of fits with NPD, because we can have some pretty gravitating personalities. I think the attraction has a lot to do with Fukawa’s mental state, but I just found it interesting that the emotional abuse victim gravitates to Togami of all people.

So I brought him up for that above thought I had, and also to compare this last point. So Fukawa was confirmed to have DID, like it was specifically stated. To my knowledge it was never stated that Togami has NPD, but I strongly assume that he does. (key word assume, I could be wrong.)

So I found it interesting that Togami has this very accurate portrayal of NPD without ever confirming that he has NPD, while Fukawa is specifically confirmed to have DID while having a semi accurate portrayal. I think the writer really wanted to include mental illness in his story line and I doubt he intended anything to be intentionally harmful.

Writing mental illness into a story is very very very tricky, and it’s practically impossible to satisfy everyone, but the fact that he did do it is in my opinion, very bold.

He made good and less good choices, but overall he did make very compelling characters. Genocider admittedly fits better in this plotline as a crazy killer than she would as a realistic alter, but this is fiction.

So final statements: Toko Fukawa is not a bad character. I like a lot about her and overall I think she is very well written. Genocider is very less developed and more of a surprise plot twist than a character, which is unrealistic. The writer made some very awkward choices from a realistic standpoint despite it fitting well with his story.

So overall, she really isn’t a good portrayal of DID. You can enjoy her character like I did, but the main takeaway here is to not take her as a realistic portrayal. I know it seems obvious but this is the kind of thing that forms unhealthy ideas in viewers.

I’m not hating on Danganronpa or Toko, I actually really loved both. I’ve tried to stop ranting about fictional works that I hate. I used to be a loose fucking canon but I realized that I had been bashing a few autistic friend’s special interests, so now I try to be hyper aware that a fictional work might mean everything to someone even if I personally disliked it.

But that isn’t the case here because again I loved Danganronpa XD

So friends, that about does it for me. I liked doing this kind of analysis so if you want me to do more, send them my way XD

My next post will probably be the syscourse analysis if I can get that done before I get an easier topic. So thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, thank you for the ask anon.

And I’m now out of words. You all should be happy. XD