#there are a lot of similar tropes floating around

[ghost-bxrd]

Hi! I ran into some of your fanfic ideas and I was wodnering if your ok with fics inspired by them? With credit given of course!!

Hi!

Yes of course! Every post on this blog labeled “Prompt” is free to use by anyone who feels inspired by it 💚 and while I’m totally okay with and very honored when people credit me with the idea, that’s absolutely not a necessity if you don’t want to! But of course I’d love to know if you or anybody else writes something for a prompt so I can read it and give it all the love, but no pressure 💚💚💚💚

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Fear No Mort" was constant whiplash. In fact, I struggled to evaluate this episode at first because it was one twist after another. Throughout the episode, I had flashbacks to "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" (the rap scene might've been a direct reference) and the Rickbot reveal in "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation."

For better or worse, season seven's had a lot of callbacks and episodes that mirrored previous ones: "That's Amorte" played out like "Mortynight Run"; "Air Force Wong" brought together Dr. Wong, the president and Unity; "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" was a "Get Schwifty" sequel.

Seasons six and seven have also piled on the fanservice. The first four seasons stubbornly refused to give us what we want, dangling fan theories or a gentler Rick in our faces before yanking it away. Rick started to change in season five, but it's another ten episodes before you get Rick in a suit and tie, Rick announcing that Rickcest is canon, Rick regularly going to therapy, Space Beth joining the family and other content that's floated around the fandom since 2017.

And let's not forget the big one: C-137 Rick and Morty, Prime Rick and Evil Morty in one episode, fighting and teaming up after we saw Evil Morty's once-forbidden backstory.

Some call it cheap thrills, but I call it a gift to the fandom that's patiently waited for the fakeouts to end. And now that I've said that: "Fear No Mort" was one giant fakeout.

But was it, though?

This is the most unpopular opinion in the world, but I'm not invested in Rick and Diane's relationship. As a gay woman, I just don't connect with opposite-gender couples. Also, I dislike the trope of the idolized dead wife that the audience only learns about through her widower. She's not her own character, just an extension of the male protagonist.

When the fake Rick and Diane reconnected, I thought "Oh boy, this is getting cheesy." They're falling for each other again: check. Rick feels guilty about her death: check. We see how similar they are: check. Rick doesn't want to leave: aaaand, check.

I'm also a little lost after the ending. Morty was the only one in the hole, so why did we see all these scenes from fake Rick's perspective? Was an NPC really that busy?

How much we learned about Diane is debatable, too, since Morty never met her. I guess his ideas came from whatever Rick's told him and maybe the ship's voice since she's based on Diane.

I did like how the episode kept reminding us that Morty's still in the Fear Hole. I mean, we didn't know that, but we knew that. No "Are they in the Fear Hole or not??" until all the twists in the third act.

Aside from that, I don't want the show to revisit the past too much because Rick needs to let go. If you're a Marvel fan, you saw the backlash to Steve Rogers traveling back in time to spend a lifetime with Peggy in "Endgame." He had a life in the present, but he refused to move on.

Nostalgia makes us yearn for earlier years, but if Rick abandoned his family to live with Diane in another reality, I wouldn't call that a sweet ending. I'd call that a disappointment and a waste of his character.

Turns out, Rick never had that option at all.

Well...in a way, he did. And when Morty told him what he saw in the Fear Hole, Rick ran back to the restroom. He looked into the hole. He thought about it. And then he did what I wanted him to do, which was walk away. In this moment, he chose the present.

Admittedly, Morty's fear came true: Rick didn't jump in the hole after him, he did just sit there and watch, and he didn't want to say that Morty's irreplaceable out loud. Plus, Rick was bewildered when Morty hugged him. But for the first time, instead of standing stiffly or gently pushing him away, Rick started to hug him back.

We also saw what Morty didn't: Rick smiling to himself after hanging up the picture of Morty that he kept in his wallet. He had the chance to wallow in shadows of the past, but he didn't take it. Rick chose him.

"Fear No Mort" could've ended with Rick just saying "Let's go" and leaving, but it didn't. Seasons one and two Rick would've bitched and moaned about Morty taking so long. Season three Rick would've left him there for a while to torment him. Season four Rick would've found a way to take advantage of this.

But seasons five, six, seven? That's real character development. That's what all the Twitter users saying "Wow, Rick and Morty is actually good" have been missing out on.

And for the first time in the series, a season didn't end with Rick relapsing or getting a (well-deserved) ass kicking. Is Morty going to get the grandfather that he deserves? Or will he move on, too, now that Rick's releasing his iron grip? Speculating is fun, but for now, let's focus on today.

[cosmerelists]

The Rules of the Cosmere

And by “rules,” I mean tropes that crop up repeatedly in Sanderson’s books, that one could consider “rules” in a nonserious, please-don’t-take-this-too-seriously type way. 

Spoilers for pretty much all of the Cosmere!

1. Don’t feed the children

As seen in: Elantris, Oathbringer, Warbreaker

If you see a hungry, homeless child in a Sanderson book and you’re tempted to, say, give them food--don’t! Raoden tried that. And the poor child was horribly mangled by the men who wanted that food. Shallan tried it. And it turned out the child was being coerced into accepting the food by gang leaders--who ended up killing the child. Vivenna didn’t exactly feed them willingly, but the urchins did, like, beat her and steal her food while she was living on the street. So that wasn’t great.

Exception that proves the rule: Stump. She fed lots of orphaned children, and she was only almost killed. So the message is: if you want to feed the children, have a Lift around to protect you.

2. Once Marriage is On The Table, Breakups Don’t Really Happen

As seen in: Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Stormlight Achives, Elantris, Warbreaker

Once characters get to the point of marriage, be they engaged or in an arranged marriage or just solidly A Thing, it is rare for them to break up. Sometimes a breakup is floated--like when Adolin told Shallan she could go ahead and leave him for Kaladin or when there was Wax/Steris tension or when Zane tried to break up Vin and Elend--but in the end, the original relationship tends to hold strong. Siri and Susebron were married before they had even met, but they ended up happy together. Even “death” couldn’t stop Sarene and Raoden’s engagement--Sarene did try to marry someone else, to be fair, but that second marriage did not actually happen and the original marriage reigned supreme.

Exception that proves the rule: Elend’s first engagement did not work out. Vin killed the fiancée. So it is slightly riskier to be engaged if you’re not a viewpoint character, if you’re secretly evil...or if you’re in Vin’s way.

Although...did Elend and Shan actually break up, or was their engagement only canceled by Shan’s death? I guess either way, it didn’t work out!

3. Your enemy will save you...if the sexual tension is high enough

As seen in: Elantris, Rhythm of War

Perhaps appearing in two books isn’t quite enough to call this a rule...but if I had a nickel, etc. Hrathen was Sarene’s enemy...but in the end, he kinda fell for her and ended up killing himself to save her. And in a strangely similar manner, Raboniel used her dying moments to save Navani...after Navani was the one to kill her. Then there’s Lewshi and Kaladin--neither sacrificed themselves to save the other, thank goodness, but Lewshi does help save Kaladin and/or his men on several occasions and their romantic tension is off the charts.

Exception that proves the rule: Even sexual tension doesn’t seem to be enough for Moash to not try to drive Kaladin to suicide. 

4. Your fave is (accidentally) queer

As seen in: Stormlight Archive, Mistborn

Sanderson has a tendency to write characters that he innocently believes to be straight...until readers point out how incredibly not-straight they are. Take Shallan, who is as bi as the day is long--which Sanderson admitted, I believe, once it was pointed out to him. Veil is canonically into women, at any rate. And Sanderson has said that both Shallan & Adolin would be open to adding Kaladin as a third, so Adolin is presumably bi as well, to no one’s surprise. Many readers--me included--read Kaladin as some flavor of ace, although again, that seems to be unintentional, canonically speaking. There’s also Lewshi, a woman inhabiting a male body, whose transness is not really talked about as such but is very present. And in Mistborn, there’s Wayne and his gender-fluid SO MeLaan, a queer relationship that I don’t think is ever really identified as such. 

And yes, there are also canonical queer characters in actual queer relationships, but so many more seem to be accidentally queer.

Exception that proves the rule: Sanderson insists that Moash is canonically straight...somehow.

5. Don’t trust the underling priest!

As seen in: Way of Kings, Warbreaker, Elantris

If there are suspicious things going on, look no further than your nearest, seemingly loyal underling priest. In Way of Kings it was Kabsal, who turned out to be an assassin. In Warbreaker, the seemingly helpful and awkward Bluefingers tried to sacrifice Siri on an altar. And in Elantris, while Hrathen never exactly trusted Dilaf, he did believe that he had him handled...which turned out to be a mistake, and Dilaf ended up being one of the big bads. The big bad? It’s been a while since I read Elantris.

Exception that prove the rule: Kadash seems like a good dude. I will be genuinely shocked if he tries to, like, murder Dalinar or something.

6. Hoid is there

As seen in: All of them.

Hoid has a supernatural ability to be present at all important moments in the Cosmere, so he can expect to find him in whatever book you’re reading. If there actually are Cosmere Rules, this would have to be one of them.

Exception that proves the rule: I don’t think he’s in all of the Arcanum Unbounded stories--like Shadow for Silence or Sixth of Dusk. So maybe if your story is short enough, you can escape Hoid?

It could be the only way.

[quibbs126]

So I saw some stuff floating around with the new developer commentary, which seems to be Korean only (hopefully it gets translated and put on the English channel, because I have trouble with YouTube subtitles), specifically about our next Beast, which leaks have said is Mystic Flour

(I stole these from @snail-noodle)

So Mystic Flour has their own angst that presumably ended up turning them to the dark side

So I just want to give my personal little theory before we get the update, and this is mostly based on them paralleling Dark Cacao

This being that Mystic Flour had a child of their own, but they ended up dying and presumably Mystic Flour wasn’t able to save them, and this ended up changing Mystic Flour into the Beast well end up meeting

A lot of Dark Cacao’s story revolves around his relationship with his son, so having Mystic Flour also have drama dealing with their kid would be an easy parallel between them

And also, if Dark Cacao is the one facing off against Mystic Flour, I wonder if learning that could lead to him having a more grey opinion of Mystic Flour than Pure Vanilla’s opinion of Shadow Milk, since he does seem more sympathetic to people who have struggled in a similar way to him. I think that’d just be interesting

And also, if Dark Choco is also involved in this story, then perhaps it could lead to more evolution of his and Dark Cacao’s relationship, again after he learns about Mystic Flour’s situation and compares it to his own experiences. Or alternatively, Dark Choco’s in the story and Dark Cacao isn’t (instead it’s the Brave gang since they’re here), and Mystic Flour takes an interest in him specifically because of the fact that he’s the son of their Soul Jam’s current wielder and/or because they remind them of their own kid. Whether that’s for better or worse depends

I don’t know, I’m getting carried away, I just think this would be a cool thing to happen and I want it to (also parent/child angst is like my favorite trope)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I remember you mentioning A court of Thorns and roses in your posts once when talking about malleus character archetype. Have you read acotar series? If so I really want to know what you think about it. Your post is how I found out this series. It's pretty meh 😕 to me but I would really like to read your thoughts on it 😊. Also are non twst related ask allowed? If not I'm truly sorry😥. You can just ignore this ask

Oh god 😅 That was such a long time ago that I can’t even locate the original post where I made that comment…

To summarize what I said then, I had expressed that the way Malleus is presented to us reminds me of the bad boy supernatural love interests in romantasy novels.I believe the online book community colloquially refers to these characters as “Shadow Daddies” and I find that hilarious. To clarify, I do NOT mean to say that Malleus is Yuu’s “canon” love interest or anything like that. When I say that Malleus is “like” a Shadow Daddy, it’s just in the tropes they share. (For example, being overpowered, brooding, and misunderstood as a “bad guy” when, in actuality, he has a heart of gold and is just lonely.)

… I’ve actually seen multiple posts comparing Malleus and Rhysand, if you can believe that 💀

The rest of my response isn’t really TWST related, so I’ll put it under the cut for ya ^^ I tried to keep my thoughts concise and free of spoilers.

But to your question! Yes, I actually have read the first three books of ACOTAR but not the novella (A Court of Frost and Starlight) or the sequel, A Court of Silver Flames. I got into the series because it was highly recommended within its genre, but I came out of it really disappointed. I continued reading hoping that it would get better, but it really did not.

Maas has this really melodramatic and yet simultaneously juvenile way of writing dialogue that does not mesh well with what I’m looking for in a romantasy read. She’ll have characters give exposition or speeches that go on for like 10 pages straight and also have supposedly wise ancient fae cracking potty jokes like a middle schooler trying to impress their friends. It makes the books a lot longer than they have to be. In actuality, the plot involves a lot of running around and having all the right questions answered by conveniently placed chess pieces. I also did not enjoy the vague world building (like several side characters are never given proper names and instead are always referred to by title) and the near-constant mention of mating bonds. What I did like was how Maas wrote action scenes and descriptions (even if they often veer into purple prose). She also comes up with some unique concepts—but the execution of those concepts isn’t great, so the ideas are left sort of shallow and floating there waiting to be fully realized.

Romantasy and fairy tale retellings are some of my favorite things to read, so I was sad that I didn’t think that highly of this beloved series. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book I’ve been able to seriously get immersed in 😔 ACOTAR’s explosive popularity has led to many other authors trying to replicate Maas’s success, which has flooded the market with horni fae books and even similar titles (“A [noun] of [nouns] and [nouns]”). (And as someone who does NOT find Malleus attractive at all, you can imagine I’m not thrilled.) I have really mixed feelings about that… While of course I don’t mind if people enjoy ACOTAR or ACOTAR-adjacent books, I dislike that it makes up the bulk of what is marketed to me. It makes it a lot harder to find something that’s more suited to my tastes.

If anyone seeing this post is interested in trying out ACOTAR, I caution you that it is a “new adult” book, meaning it is intended for older teens (I would recommend 18+, honestly). There is a lot of violence and… explicit intimate scenes… in the series.

[petrichor-idyllic]

Hi Petri, I would want to request a Minho x fem! reader where they know each other since before the mazes, when where just some simple tests in wckd, they were really close but were sent out to different mazes, reader's maze was in the edge of a river (who was the maze btw) and she manages to get out and get to the safe haven, and she have this glimpses of her past, dreams of things that happened, memories, but to her they're just stupid dreams, that's until she sees Minho again and everything seems to click cause she knows she knows him, and he has this feeling she's familiar too and then te friendship they had transition to love. (I saw your post about oc's and tried my best to be kinda of creative with this request, hope it went well 😅)

Ooo, I really like the idea of a water-based Maze. I can imagine little floating shacks held up by sticks and a rowing boat needed to traverse the Maze- definitely a good idea.

Also, I'm a sucker for the dream trope in this universe.

LIFE BEFORE DROWNING

MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. Movie based fic because of the different Mazes.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, awkward teenagers, mention of Newt's suicide attempt, I've made up a monster for your Maze that is the equivalent of the Grievers, some mild suggestive themes, WICKED being WCKD because movie.

After hearing the experiences of other WCKD Subjects, you're starting to realise that your Maze was a little weird.

There was a Maze full of boys, one full of girls, another with mixed, some with monsters, some without- all nearly impossible to solve.

And yours was full of water.

For a few years, your life was like waking up and forgetting there's not ground beneath your feet, walking off your little wooden platform, and nearly drowning. You disliked the water.

It meant you also has to explore your Maze in a poorly constructed boat and had to deal with a half-metal half-serpent monster that roamed your Maze.

It was terrifying.

But that's not the only thing that strikes you as different to the others.

You remember things. Well, kind of.

Whilst you were in your Maze, you used to have memories- well, dreams -of your life before the Maze.

And most of them consisted of the same boy.

Asian. Dark-haired. Well-built. Taller than you. Handsome. Sarcastic. Passionate. And he cared about you, clearly.

You had dreams of playing card games together, sneaking around a lab, exchanging glances and pulling faces at each other whilst men in lab coats probe you, and staying up late in a cafeteria area when you weren't meant to.

It was all simple and meaningless- none of it ever held any significance. But it meant a lot to you. You didn't understand it, but it feels like you know this boy and that your friends with him.

You used to tell your friends in the Maze about it, and none of then experienced anything similar. So, you're really on your own with this one.

Though, one of your friends- your best friend, actually; a girl called Emmy, said something that stuck with you. And maybe even made you think it's true.

"Maybe WCKD couldn't take away the people we loved the most, no matter how hard they tried."

That doesn't matter, though. The survival rate of the Maze and WCKD in general is low.

But you're not in the Maze, anymore.

You were one of the first groups to be taken away from WCKD and put in the Safe Haven. You pretty much went straight from the Maze to paradise.

It was about sixish months later that the Gladers showed up. They'd been through hell and back, so Vince told everyone to give them space apart from the few people they actually knew.

You didn't really care for new arrivals. There has been a few since you got there, so it kind of became normal. But since Vince is back now, you doubt you'll get anymore.

Because of your simple lack of care, and the assumption the guy in your dreams is dead, it took you an embarrassingly long time to actually notice Minho.

A couple of weeks into the Gladers arrival, you stopped dead in your tracks, causing Emmy to walk straight into the back of you and drop soil absolutely everywhere.

"Bro? What the hell?" Emmy hisses. You don't respond, staring straight ahead. "(Y/N)?"

"It's him," you say.

"What?" She follows your line of sight, her gaze landing on the boy.

"The boy from my dream-memories - that's him."

"Holy shit. Are you sure?"

Minho is sitting at one of the dining tables with Gally, Thomas and Frypan, whilst you stand there like a deer in the headlights.

"Uh, dude," Thomas says to Minho as he takes a swig of the alcohol that Gally's made. Some things never change and the Gladers have got into the habit of finishing their jobs as soon as possible and day drinking to cope. "That girl is totally staring at you."

"Huh?" Minho looks at his friend, who points at you.

And then he looks at you.

"Oh, fuck, he's looking." You immediately avert your gaze. "Shit, Emmy, move. Go, go." You awkwardly push your friend away.

"My soil-"

"We can get more damn soil!" And with that, you flee.

Well, that was probably the most embarrassing thing you've done. That you can remember, at least.

Minho's blood ran cold, however.

You met his eyes for only a couple of seconds and it felt like he'd known you his whole life. You feel... familiar.

Minho didn't experience the same constant dreams you did- mainly because he's plagued by nightmares of Grievers and that day he found Newt out there. But he's had a couple. He can't remember them very well, but the parts he does remember have your face in it.

You go on acting a bit weird. Every chance you have to look at Minho, you take it.

Which also goes on for a couple of weeks.

"Haven't spoken to him, then?"

"'Course I haven't," you grumble to Emmy as you do your work in the garden. "And I'm not going to."

"What? Why not?"

"Because how would I go about that? 'Hey, dude, you don't know me but I've been having dreams about you for as long as I can remember- wanna be pals?'"

She chuckles, shaking her head. "I mean, why not?"

"What?"

"Why not go and say that to him? I mean, people have probably experienced weirder things 'causea WCKD- and those bastards from Group A had it the worst. I'm sure he'll understand."

"We don't know him," you groan, throwing your head back.

"But you do-"

"No, I don't." You sigh. "Maybe- maybe I used to, but I don't now. This is dumb." You pick up the empty water bucket and start walking backwards. "I'm not gonna speak to him- there's no point-! Shit!"

You back up into someone, the bucket clattering to the floor and the slight splash of water left in spilling out.

"Shit, sorry-" you turn around, meeting Minho's eyes. You blink, steeping back to lengthen the short distance between you. "Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I-I wasn't looking-"

"It's cool. All good," he holds his hands up.

Little did you know, Minho was actually on his way over to talk to you.

You let out a breath of relief, giving him an awkward smiles. "So, who aren't you going to talk to?"

He grins at you, playfully, and you look to Emmy for help. Who simply shrugs.

"Uh, nobody- doesn't matter."

"Alright," he clicks his tongue, "you guys are from a Maze, right? That weird, like, river one?"

"You been asking people about us?" Emmy pipes up and you glare at her.

"Just heard a couple of things," he puts his hands in his pockets, rocking in his heels. He looks at the bucket on the floor. "You need water?"

"Uh, yeah, we use it for the watering can. I was just about to get some more."

"Ah, it's fine," he bends over and picks it up, "I'll get it for ya."

"Oh, uh, don't you have a job to do?"

"I'm already done, besides, can't have a pretty girl wasting her energy, can I?" He smirks at you before turning and walking away, leaving you flustered.

You turn to Emmy, who is grinning from ear to ear.

"Don't."

Minho returns and insists on helping you out on the gardens. Emmy feigns illness to give you some alone time.

That you don't want.

Though, Minho is a shit gardener.

"It's obvious you didn't work with plants in your Maze," you chuckle.

"Really? I thought I was impressing you," he says sarcastically, and you roll your eyes. "I was a Runner, if you're interested."

"A Runner?" You lean on a plant support beam as Minho picks at some vegetables.

"Yeah, exactly what it says in the tin- I ran the Maze. Day in, day out. I was Keeper- uh, Leader of the Runners."

"Wow, musta been pretty good at it."

"I wasn't half bad," he chuckles. "What did you do? You have a job in your Maze?"

You shake your head. "Everyone kinda did a bit of everything. We worked on rotation since groups had to go out in boats, exploring the Maze was hard- so we all took it in turns. Fresh eyes also meant someone could spot something we didn't. Everyone was on the same field in my home."

"You didn't have a Leader?"

"Well, we all just respected the first guy that got there, but I wouldn't say he was in charge."

"So, you had guys and girls in your Maze?"

"Mhm, you didn't? Oh, shit yeah, you're Group A." You recall Emmy saying.

"Mhm- just dudes."

"Must've sucked. I can't imagine being stuck with just a buncha guys- gross."

He barks a laugh, standing up and shaking his had. "We had one girl- she was only there for a couple of days. But I'm pretty sure we did gross her out the brief time she was there."

"What was she like?"

"Total bitch-"

"Hey," you snap, "watch your mouth, man, you shouldn't talk about women like that."

He holds his hands up again. "Sorry. I just mean..." He trails off, the memory clearly becoming painful. "She betrayed us. Told WCKD our location and had me- well she- I was... shuck it."

"You don't have to tell me about it," you reassure him, "shit happens; I'm not entitled to know about it."

"No, uh," he hesitates. "It's weird, I wanna tell you. Kinda feels like I know you."

"We've never spoken before-" you try to brush off the comment, not wanting this awkward conversation. You figured once you came here, awkward conversations and relationship drama would be over.

"That's not what I mean," he sighs. "I know it's forward, but there are a lot of people I wish I woulda told klunk to before I lost 'em. So, I'm just sayin' it. You feel familiar. Like I know you before I lost my memories. You feel it too, right?"

You pause, but nod. "Yeah, I know you."

"Then we should be friends, right? If we know each other?"

You smile, feeling butterflies in your stomach. "Yeah, I'd like that."

And from then on, you became friends with Minho.

You eat with him, stay up late talking to him, get introduced to the Gladers, drink with them, and just generally have fun with him and his friends. Even Emmy joins in- and you're pretty sure she has a thing for Frypan.

But the problem is that you have a thing for Minho. He's effortlessly attractive, and he's funny and attentive. He makes it known he cares about you and likes making you laugh.

And it's starting to make your heart skip a beat, especially when he jokingly flirts with you. It did start off as a dumb inside joke, but now you're starting to hope it's genuine.

Your friendship grows closers and your wants grow bigger.

"What the hell are you doing?" You shout as you watch the Gladers splash water at each other and frolic in the ocean under the moonlight. They've all stripped down into their underwear in what was originally a dare from Emmy, but now they're enjoying it.

"Come on!" Minho shouts, standing up straight as he waves you towards him. You swallow as you watch salt water dribble down his abs.

Yanno, if he wasn't so fine, this crush would be less of a problem.

"The water feels shuckin' great! Aha! Oi! Gally! Stop it! You goddamn slinthead!" He shouts as he gets attacked.

"C'mon, (Y/N), it'll be fun." Emmy giggles, kicking her shoes off and walking towards the water.

Then she freezes. Just before her toes hit the water.

Due to the nature of your Maze, most people got attacked by the fresh-water monster you called the Serpent. You only had the one, but it's shadow lurked under the boat and it's full form was never seen because of it's size.

Either you got bit when it jumped out the water and it dragged you with it until you drowned, or it injected you with venom. It wouldn't kill you, but it left you seething with agony for days.

You got biten twice. Emmy three times.

You don't like big bodies of water now- especially when you can't see the bottom.

"Emmy?" You step towards your friend, putting your hand on her shoulder.

"I-I can't- what if something's in there?"

"There's nothing in there; we're safe here. But you don't have to go in. I'm not."

"C-can we get a drink?"

"Sure," you give her a soft smile. "Hey, guys!" You shout, getting the boys' attention. "We're calling it a night- see you tomorrow."

They group hollars their goodbyes and you both leave to have a couple of drinks before bed.

You watch Emmy sleep, hands in your pockets as she lightly snores in her pocket.

"Hey," Minho makes you jump and you immediately shush him. "Hey," he repeats, in a whisper this time. "You okay? You kinda ran off before."

He's fully clothed now, but his hair's still damp.

"Yeah," you clear your throat, "just... Maze shit, you know?"

He raises his head up a bit. "Dare I ask?"

You sigh, nodding for him to follow you. He does as you sit on once of the benches on the sand.

He gingerly sits next to you.

"You ever wonder why Emmy and I don't really talk to anyone else?"

"Kinda, just figured you didn't like many people."

"It's because we're the only two people that survived our Maze." He shifts slightly, his jaw tensing. "You had your Grievers, we had our Serpent. It was Lovecraftian big, and we had to get through the last part of our Maze on foot because getting the boats over the circular doorframes was taking too long. It was a bloodbath- let that thing pick us off one by one until me and Emmy were the last men standing. She doesn't like- we don't like water anymore." You pause.

"I always think the Serpent is going to dive out and drag me under or tear me shreds." You look at him. "I know it's dumb and we're safe here but I-" your voice breaks. "I can't- I lost everyone, I can't-"

"Hey, hey," he throws his arm around you, pulling you into a hug. "It's okay, I get it. You know, whenever anyone's building anything around here with those tools we stole from WCKD, I can't be anywhere near it. It sounds exactly like the noises the Grievers used to make- I don't know how Gally works with that klunk all day."

"We're fucked up, huh?" You chuckle between sniffs and he grins at you.

"Yeah, we are. Thanks WCKD."

You both chuckle. But you stop when your eyes land on his lips, flickering up to his eyes and his lips again.

"What do you think we used to be? Before the Maze?" You mumble.

He smiles faintly. "What do you mean?"

Maybe it's the buzz from the alcohol from your drinking game that's making you so bold, or maybe it's how close he is. It doesn't matter- you're drunk in some sense.

"Well, we know each other, do you reckon we were just friends or..?"

He tilts his head. "Why? What did you want us to be?"

"I used to have dreams about you- in the Maze. All the time. Emmy used to tease me about my 'old boyfriend'," you smile fondly, "it was so dumb, but... I don't know."

"Do you wonder if she was right?"

You don't speak, just giving a simple nod. "Do you want her to be?"

"Do you?"

You lock eyes with him. His eyelids are heavy and his body is now completely facing you. "Shuck it," he mumbles, leaning in a kissing you.

You gasp into his lips for a second, and it feels like something bursts in your chest.

You kiss him back immediately, fire sparking along your skin and the world feeling lighter. You run your fingers through his hair, his pulling you closer by your waist.

He pulls away, sucking in air. He goes to speak but as his eyes flicker open, it's like something overwhelms him and he kisses you again, deeper this time. His tongue brushes over your lower lip and he pulls on the belt straps of your jeans.

You hum into his mouth, egging him on further. But he suddenly breaks away.

"I gotta stop," he mumbles, pretty much into you, "or I'm gonna get carried away."

You snicker, the thought making more butterflies form in your stomach.

"Yanno," he continues, breathing laboured. "It doesn't really matter what we used to be- it matters what we are now."

"And?" You raise your eyebrow. "What do you want that to be?"

He grins. "Haven't I made that obvious?" He says before he kisses you again.

Yo yo, I really liked this one, and I got to be creative with making my own WCKD creation.

I hope you enjoyed :))

[slimeboiss]

I'm bored and with more Hundred Line news slowly dripping out I figured that I'd give my impressions on all the characters we've seen so far.

TAKUMI SUMINO

The protagonist himself, and probably the one guy we know the most about, even if most of that is just standard protagonist stuff. Kodaka's protagonists pretty must just follow the same archetype - relatively normal character among a cast of far more talented and impressive psychopaths, which usually leads to him developing a complex about it. And from what we've seen so far... Takumi seems to pretty much fit the bill to a T. Will he probably subvert expectations? Most likely - we've seen it with Hajime and Yuma from Rain Code before. There's definitely more to him than meets the eye, but I highly doubt that he's gonna be anything more than an average guy at the beginning, the straight man for the more unhinged characters around him.

He *does* seem to have an edgier look than every other protag we've seen so far. The rest of his look is pretty background character coded, which fits, but his hair makes him a dead ringer for Yomi from Rain Code. Which if you still remember that game, is a pretty far cry from "just an average guy". 50 percent chance that this is some sort of stylistic choice or if it actually means something about his personality - maybe he's a lot more rebellious than he seems from a first glance? Hard to say.

From the earlier promo art from before we knew what this game was supposed to be, the two "protagonist" characters had the same red hair and black color scheme, plus the katana that Takumi uses in battle. It looks like these traits were carried over to the final design at least - an interesting tidbit, even if it meant that we lost another potential female protagonist. This time with glasses, even!

DARUMI AMEMIYA

The second character we know the most about so far, and she's gotta be one that sticks out the most. When the trailer first dropped in June I swear like half of all discussion was just talking about her - more specifically, her design.

On first appearances, she very much reminds me of like a Kokichi-esque character, you know the one character in every game that just exists to make trouble and make the game more interesting when Monokuma's not around. She's a murder game fanatic, she has a bunch of crazy sprites, and also fights with floating knives. She's like if you asked an AI image generator to create THE danganronpa character.

She's not the first female character to be like *this* in Kodaka's works - Junko, Genocider Syo, Shinigami, etc, etc. - but exactly WHAT her role is is hard to pin down. She's been a lot more prominently advertised than other characters, so part of me believes that she has to have a significant participant in the game. Whether or not she's THE designated problems clown that every Danganronpa game, 90 percent chance she's going to be like top five most popular characters to come out of this game. hundred percent guarantee.

As a bonus note, I wonder if she was based on this character from the old promo art before the game was retooled entirely? I have nothing else to go off besides similar vibes - but it was a thought I had nonetheless. Probably the only other character from these early images that I can see carrying over to the final game besides Takumi, so this is the last time I'll bring it up, promise.

EITO AOTSUKI

TV Tropes says that he's supposed to be an apprentice astronaut - I have no idea where they got this from, but it would make him design make more sense. Plus his last name also means "blue moon", for what it's worth.

On the surface this guy seems like a coolheaded nerd. That was my first impression anyway. Someone said early on that he had Nagito vibes, and well... yeah I can definitely see that. Pretty boys in Danganronpa are hardly ever sane, and aside from his massive forehead he is definitively a pretty boy. Of course, this was before Tokyo Game Show came and went and...

Well, you've all seen that screenshot by now lmao

So yeah he's definitely gay. And gay for Takumi, no less. And if we know anything about characters that gay homoerotic tension for each other in Kodaka games (and Uchikoshi games to some extent), is that they're NEVER unproblematic. Just look at his face in that CG - he's definitely a freak.

As a side note, when the trailer first dropped I was under the impression that his weapon was a huge ass wizard staff, which fit with his whole nerdy vibe. I then realized it's actually supposed to be a big ass scythe - so make of that what you will.

HIRUKO SHIZUHARA

I fucking love tall women with long hair and glasses. Anyway, she's the cold, serious type with a penchant for bloodlust. She has a giant axe and admits to getting excited cutting down monsters. She's a freak yeah, but at least she does that while looking hot.

A lot of people have compared her to Peko for obvious reasons, but honestly, she's like a pretty direct copy of Martina Electro from Rain Code to a T. A statuesque woman with glasses with a lust for blood? Yeah that sounds familiar. For how much of a clone she is, the one thing that differentiates the two is that, for all her presence, Martina was ultimately submissive towards the far more problematic Yomi (the guy I said is identical to Takumi, ironically) - while Hiruko hasn't really given off those vibes so far. Wouldn't be surprised if Kodaka doesn't somehow work that in though. Disappointed, but not surprised.

TAKEMARU YAKUSHIJI

I don't have good quality shots of him on hand so enjoy this crusty cropped screenshot of grumpy Takemaru.

Not much to say about this guy so far. From what I've gathered from his intro, he's a rough and tumble type of guy, a delinquent who still believes in justice. And he used a motorcycle in battle. Sound familiar?

I can see him being a standard "jerk with a heart of gold" - he doesn't seem to be quite as violent as a certain other motorcycle riding delinquent, but who knows. He's one of your starting party members, so I'm guessing he has some early prominence in the game.

KAKO TSUKUMO AND HER BROTHER

Putting these two together since they seem to be a package deal - and to be honest we're reaching the point where I don't have a lot to say about most of them.

Kodaka has NOT had a great track record with brother sister relationships - yes, not every brother sister relationship he's written has devolved into incest, but when Kako is saying "dearest brother" and seems to practically joined at the hip... can you really blame me for being a bit hesitant? There are of course ways that this doesn't end up being gross, and I sure as hope this doesn't turn out to be another Junko/Mukuro in DR3/Kiyo Chapter 3 situation.

OKAY, my fear from first impressions aside, Kako seems to be the meeker, quieter of the two, while her brother acts as her assertive protector. I don't think there's a scene where they've been apart so far... take that as you will.

Kako mentions that the two of them havent graduated junior high yet (im assuming that means theyre ninth graders, around 15 years old) - so they're presumably in the same grade. Maybe they're twins? It's hard to tell with same-face syndrome and all, but hair style aside they do have similar faces. Which does lead me to wonder... what if they're identical twins, but Kako's brother is transmasculine. This is just my pipe dream honestly - Kodaka hasn't been great with LGBT rep before, buuuuut he's improved... somewhat? Uchikoshi, on the other, is pretty good on LGBT issues - famously good even, especially in Somnium Files. It's hard to tell what influence Uchikoshi has had on the game aside from the branching paths approach to storytelling, but I have a little bit more confidence in the LGBT rep in this game if Uchikoshi is on the team.

Don't have much else to say about them, other than I'm CROSSING my fingers that they don't turn out to be weird. On my knees even.

ANGIE YONAGA TALENT SWAP

I know it's kinda cheap to do the whole "this character looks like this character" shtick because Komatsuzaki's style has had sameface syndrome since the very beginning, but coome ooooon, if you're going to give her the same skin tone-hair color combo then it's going to be impossible not to notice.

Anyway that aside, I can't really say much else about her. We hit the point where these character's dont have names yet so I'm going in blinder than blind. Out of all the characters, she seems like she could be a Danganronpa character the most - her outfit very clearly communicates a "talent", I'm guessing mechanics.

She gives me tomboy vibes. Like, she's also one of the only girls in the entirety of Kodaka's games to wear full-length pants as far as I'm aware.

THE TOKEN THING

Im still not sure whether or not this is a boy or girl. I'm leaning towards boy, but I'm only like 80 percent sure that's right.

He's the token character with the cartoony design that's inevitably going to rank at the bottom of every popularity poll regardless of whether they're actually a good character or not. Character-wise, they come off as a shy fifth grader - Chihiro level shy, not whatever Mikan had going on.

not much else to contribute to my opinion other than that their design is definitely just a retooled beta ryoma

THIS GUY

Exaggerated screaming sprite? Cartoon character on shirt? Fuckass hair cut? Yeah this guy's a fucking nerd. He's going to be Takumi's annoying "best male friend" character who you either love despite his eccentricities or want to shove off a building. Or both depending on which day you're on.

Flip of a coin that he's also the token pervert character.

-

Aaaaand those are the first ten characters. There are still five more characters to go through (plus the mascots), but I wanted to ask why the characters were split up this way. Why don't the other five guys show up at the beginning? My current working theory is that they're part of a separate class, perhaps one that gets the rest of their students massacred, leaving these five as their sole survivors. There is ONE character that could be an exception to this, but we'll get to her when we get to her.

GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE HE SELLS KNIVES

Yeah you can probably find better higher quality images somewhere else.

This dude... he's edgy. He's like someone's Tokyo Ghoul OC. He gives me Korekiyo vibes, but like, in the first impressions kind of way. He seems like a laidback kinda guy that would still stab you in the throat when you look away. And it looks like he's threatening the bowl cut nerd with a knife in at least one route, so that's not far off the mark.

His design also feels kinda traditional japanese mixed with modern gothic elements - the blue hair and eyepatch. The eyepatch also has an eye symbol on it, so symbolism yay.

SAMURAI GIRL

A real prim and proper girl. Highly traditional. Nothing much else to say, she has a cool design. That's not always an indicator of a "good" character in these types of games, but one can hope.

GREEN TOMATO GIRL

Hard to imagine this character isn't going to be a chuunibyou. Or at least, very difficult to take seriously. The creepy smile reminds me of a jack-o-lantern... wait is that the intent?

Not a lot to go off on rn, but she's definitely one of the characters I'm more interested in finding out about, if only to learn why she wears a mask with a smile for hours at a time. What's the mask for? What is the point of the mask?

ABSOLUTE UNIT

When I first saw this character from behind on the cover art, I thought she was chubby. Turns out she's actually just jacked. She's cute! She looks like a jolly character, just a ray of sunshine. It's nice to get female characters that don't just fall into the same body type.

As a side note - this isn't as blatant as Ryoma's design, but she does remind me a bit of one Sakura's beta designs, which gave her a more traditionally cute face to contrast with the rest of her body.

Her more cartoony face also reminds me of Ibuki's beta design too, although hers doesn't look *quite* as stylized based on the few brief glimpses we've gotten of her.

KARUA KASHIWA

One of the more mysterious characters so far - Takumi's childhood friends that Takumi tried to protect from the monster invasion. We don't actually know what happened to her after that - she;s not with Takumi when he wakes up, but she appears alongside the rest of the cast with a different outfit.

I know danganronpa same face syndrome is insane, but its hard to imagine that we're not at least meant to assume that these two are the same character

Theres zero chance that there isnt a huge twist regarding her, but what exactly she is or what role she plays is anyones guess because there hasnt even been an english trailer since what? June? Oh, speaking of June-

Both Kodaka and Uchikoshi have a habit of introducing female characters to be pseudo-love interests/close confidants. Think Kyoko, Chiaki, Kaede in Kodaka's case, and June, Phi, Iris, Mizuki in Uchikoshi's case. As far as characters we've seen so far, she fits the bill the most so far. She's the childhood best friend with a ton of mysterious circumstances surrounding her! She has white hair and purple eyes!

However because she's so obviously suspicious and close to the main protagonist, that also means that the likelihood of her actually being the "mastermind" is close to zero. So congrats Karua fans!

SIREI

Serves the same basic role as Monokuma but instead of Monokuma's gimmick of having the voice of a children's mascot, he instead has a deep sexy voice. I don't know whether or not he's supposed to be the antagonist or moreso a morally unhinged mascot character ala Shinigami, but idk both seem just as likely.

I would have a plushie of him.

NIGOU

ninety percent chance this thing is literally just comic relief who cares

IN CONCLUSION

I spent an hour typing this out and embarassed myself in front of my mutuals by revealing that im invested in how danganronpa 4 turns out.

[scrumpyfan43]

A weird trope I really like is Space Platforms

My working definition of a Space Platform is something that satisfies all of these criteria:

Artificial

Terrain (used primarily as a surface to stand and/or build on )

Suspended in space or high in the sky

Despite objective local gravity such that you could fall “down” off the side

Some things that are and aren’t Space Platforms

Stacraft’s Space Platform terrain, probably the purest example of it:

You walk on them, you build buildings on them, and there’s ice cream shops built into the walls (also they’re literally called space platforms):

Wube had planned on but eventually abandoned space platforms for Factorio that are very clearly inspired by Starcraft:

Gryphon Station in Tyrian has standing water and jungles exposed to the Space Air:

Motos I’m pretty sure explicitly refers to the environment as a series of space platforms; there’s no buildings (unless you count Nabicons) but the platforms are clearly artificial, they’re thin enough that the only thing you can do is stand (and jump) on them, and the objective of the game is to shove enemies off the platform and into the void:

Skyroads consists of driving and jumping a space car along treacherous space platforms:

Final Destination in Smash Bros.:

They seem to be a lot more common in games than in other media, but they’re out there. Most famously probably is The Jetsons:

The truck stop in Spaceballs is a fantastic space platform:

The Wander Over Yonder episode “The Box” has people milling about on space platforms (but contrast with “Duck Dodgers In The 24½th Century” later):

The ring city from Treasure Planet is a weird one because it’s the only one I’ve encountered that doesn’t have a uniform up and down, but unlike the rotating space stations it’s meant to evoke, you still experience objective gravity while standing on your ship next to it

And last, close to my heart is the floating platform “Cool Lightning” from the lost comic Monster Killers (which was heavily influenced by video games):

Now for some things that are not Space Platforms, even though they’re great in their own ways.

1) Floating Islands (they’re terrain, but not artificial terrain):

2) The RLS Legacy from Treasure Planet and other tall ships in space (vehicles, not terrain):

3) Buildings with lots of interior volume and no walkable surfaces, such as these buildings in The Jetsons:

and the Cloud City in Star Wars:

4) Artificial terrain that relies on centrifugal artificial gravity, such as Ringworld, the Halo Installations, O’Neill Cylinder, Stanford Torus, etc. These more or less obey real world physics and aren’t magically levitating, and while you could “fall off” one, you aren’t affected by gravity unless you’re standing on the surface:

And now for some borderline cases.

Neverhood. Hoborg constructed it, but does his divinity mean that it’s natural rather than artificial? Aesthetics are more “floating island” than “space platform” but the lore points the other way:

Death Egg and Doomsday Zones in Sonic & Knuckles. The interior seems to contain most of the important stuff, but Sonic spends most of the time running around on the exterior:

The walkways in Duck Dodgers In The 24½th Century. They’re very similar to the Wander Over Yonder platforms, but they’re not extensive enough that I’m happy calling them “terrain.” Space Balconies maybe.

[thestrangestthing89]

Inversion of Tropes - Part 2

The mercy kill trope/trauma porn trope This typically happens just as a character heals from trauma or when they aren't in a romantic relationship because they can't seem to figure out what to do with a character who is single. There will probably be more to say about this next season with regard to El's arc. I suspect she will be going on an independent journey and worrying more about reclaiming her childhood than any adult or teenager appropriate things. She missed a huge part of her life and her recovery from this is an important part of her story. So I don't expect them to suddenly kill her off just as she's getting to the point where she can have the life she wants. It's honestly so awful and frustrating when shows do this. I will probably write more about this post S5. This show has also never been unnecessarily violent. Any of the violence actually serves the plot and none of the characters have ignored any of the trauma they've gone through and pretended it didn't happen. Shows like Walking Dead and Game of Thrones like to do this. Everything is brutal and excessively violent in the name of "realism" but they never show the aftermath of what it does to the characters. It's trauma porn. It's for people who have become so desensitized to violence that they can't recognize that this isn't actually realistic or sophisticated storytelling. Stranger Things hasn't gone to an extreme with this and they have started to show ways that all of this trauma have impacted everyone - bad grades, attitude problems, etc. They don't unnecessarily torture their characters in the name of entertainment.

Unnecessary exploitative shots This isn't exactly a trope but it's so prevalent in tv and movies that I thought I'd add it here. Often, with male directors especially, there are so many creepy, lingering shots on the female characters in particular that end up being exploitative. We don't see that here. Even with Nancy in S1 who takes her shirt off. We don't get lingering shots of her in a bra that feel violating. The camera focuses on Steve most of the time and through most of the scene she is shot from the shoulders up. In the hands of a lot of male directors, there would have been more shots of El floating in her bath that could have easily been exploitative and many wouldn't have hesitated even though she's young. The scene that sticks out the most to me is the scene in S4 when she's in the freezer. She is fully covered and even though she's in white it's not see through or cringy in anyway. I am so relieved to see things like this because most directors wouldn't have hesitated to take advantage of her here. It's not just with the female characters either. Steve takes his shirt off and the focus isn't on him or lingering. It's on Nancy, Max, Lucas, and Dustins reactions. And Steve is an adult so it wouldn't have felt as creepy but it still would have been unnecessary. Same with Billy. We mainly see the reactions of the moms at the pool and the camera doesn't stay on him.

1d villain/villian who gets a redemption arch trope Billy, Henry, and Brenner could fit this and none of them are one dimensional. I don't think we are going to see a redemption arc for Henry. We saw one for Billy in S3. He's an abusive, bully but he "redeemed" himself by sacrificing himself for everyone. However S4 flips this around. We see Max's side of things and she doesn't forgive him. That one good act doesn't erase what he did to her. This is where she starts to get closure and heal. Forgiving him isn't forced on her in the name of healing. It's done in a realistic way where she has complex feeling about her relationship with him. We see her re-write their relationship into a more sibling dynamic that wasn't true. But she acknowledges that it wasn't and that it was just the grief talking. El goes through a similar thing with Brenner. She doesn't give him her forgiveness but she gets closure. She is ready to move on from this part of her life. But what he did to her was unforgivable and even though he called it love and called himself her father she knows better now.

The ugly girl turned beauty queen trope Makeovers on this show have been done for character development, particularly with El. But she never gets turned into the "hot girl". The closest they come to this is in S1 when she is wearing the pink dress with the blonde wig. The boys pick this out for her so she can look "normal". She is referred to as "pretty" and this is clearly something she wants - to be like everyone else. But she finds throughout the season that this isn't her. Her dress gets dirty and she loses her wig but she is still reassured the she is "pretty" (I'm pretty sure they use this here to mean normal and not attractive). El also goes through other makeovers to find herself and never once does she get dressed up to be "hot". None of the other female characters do either.

The antagonistic siblings trope For whatever reason this trope is prevalent in a lot of 80s movies. But we see the opposite happening with Will and Jonathan. Jonathan loves Will and takes care of him and supports him. He's never resentful of the role he plays in his life. We do see this trope play out a bit with Mike and Nancy. They have a typical sibling dynamic. The younger brother is annoying and bugs the older sister. Which is why I think they are going to invert this next season. They gave us what's familiar and now they will twist it.

The manic pixie dream girl trope This person is quirky and not like other girls. She is usually one dimensional and there for male character development and doesn't get a story of her own. Robin seems like she will fit this when she's first introduced. But then we see she isn't there for Steve's development and wasn't introduced to be his girlfriend. Instead we see them develop a friendship and she has her own storyline that isn't dependent on Steve - with Vicky and Nancy - and she helps the group out with the supernatural stuff and the Russians. She is smart and useful to the group.

The girls hate each other and are enemies for no reason trope This is usually done because the (usually) male writers can't figure out that girls actually get along IRL. So when we were first presented with this trope in S2, it seems like El and Max will hate each other. But El's jealousy is related to her trauma and isn't random. It was a realistic way to show that this girl was isolated and clingy with Mike. But she gets to know Max and they are BFFs now. They have such a great relationship that is beneficial for both of them. I am so glad they inverted this.

The cool guy gets the girl and wins trope I'm obviously talking about Steve. He isn't getting the girl at the end of this. I think this makes people angry because they don't know what to do with his character. I see a lot of criticisms directed at the writers for sidelining him or treating him badly but they aren't. He just simply isn't the star of the show. And that's ok. It's not his story. But people are so used to the straight, white, conventionally attractive male being the center of the narrative that they often place him here when he doesn't belong. (I wrote about his here). His role is as a secondary character. He is there for support and this doesn't mean that he's being sidelined. The audience gets resentful about it because they've never seen someone like him not be the center of attention so they fixate on him and complain he's being mistreated when he isn't. It's not his role to play the hero here. But it's not surprising that the part of the audience that doesn't relate to the nerds ends up fixating on him. They are used to being the lead and they think that's where someone like him/them belongs. So they overinflated his relationships and role within the group (he is not a mentor or a goddamn babysitter). It's hard for people to see something different. So they lash out at the writing and make HC's "correcting" things. But the actual narrative isn't going to change here. He's not the hero of this story.

I honestly wasn't expecting this to be so long. My point is this - this show has always, always done the unexpected thing. They give you what you what's familiar and then flip it upside down. So when I see people saying things like "they'll never break up Mike and El" it's entirely based on those people being so used to that narrative they don't know what other story to expect. It's the one that we are "supposed" to get. But they won't give this trope for the same reason they haven't given any of the others. This isn't a superficial story. It's not meant as casual, escapist tv. They are calling out storytelling as we've seen it. They are flipping the script and giving us something new.

[subliminalbo]

Mind Control In the Wild #2: Prince of Darkness

Hotness: 2 Context: 4 Creativity: 3 Final Score: 2.78

Watch this scene here. You can rent or buy Prince of Darkness on Amazon.

You might have seen a clip from this one floating around Youtube as a 240p video with a name like "Female Posession 11" (searching random clips of mind control scenes is a rite of passage for hypnofetishists around the world). Prince of Darkness is a profoundly strange and creepy movie that stands out as one of the more underrated films in John Carpenter's filmography. Since Carpenter is the namesake for my own Carpenter State University, it felt appropriate to cover this one.

In Prince of Darkness, Carpenter blends science fiction themes into biblical myth and the product is a cosmic horror story where Jesus Christ was an alien, Satan is a tank of mind controlling goo, and its followers seek to summon an even more powerful apocalypse god from a mirror dimension. Also Alice Cooper commands an army of zombie homeless people. Carpenter is absolutely cooking here.

All of the action takes place in a Catholic monastery in Los Angeles. For Carpenter, it's a return to smaller, less studio-supported filmmaking. The closed setting kind of gives it an "Assault on Precinct 13 but with zombies" vibe. A group of scientists go to the monastery to research a mysterious tank of seemingly sentient goo that a priest discovered in the basement. The scientists quickly learn that the goo is the literal anti-Christ. While alone in the basement, Susan (played by character actor Anne Marie Howard) is summoned before the tank of goo. A jet of liquid suddenly sprays from the tank into her mouth, making her its first convert.

After that, Susan stalks through the monastery converting her fellow scientists in a stretch that includes some absolute hall of fame mind control acting from Howard. If you dig cosmic horror in your mind control stories, there's great content here.

The next to be converted is Lisa, who awakens to find Susan crawling over her in bed with wide, empty eyes. Lisa seems to misinterpret this as a sexual advance, but before she can protest, another jet of liquid shoots out of Susan's mouth and slides down Lisa's throat.

There's this great moment where another scientist finds Lisa repeatedly typing, "I Live!" before Susan pounces from the corner.

The thing is that these scenes are better mind control fetish content as short clips on Youtube than within the greater context of the film. It's not like Ghostbusters where the possession is deliberately sexy and is ultimately a weird detour in a random week of Dana's life. In Prince of Darkness, the converted are essentially zombies, there's quite a bit of gore, and it's unambiguous that they die when the anti-Christ does, which is a bummer if you watch your movies based on how hot the mind control is. You probably shouldn't though, right?

Despite its mid score on the Subliminalbo Scale, this one has actually been really influential for my own smut which is why it was the second thing I thought of when I started this series. The transmission of a sentient mind controlling goo as a fluid from one person to another was a huge inspiration when I was developing Assimilation.

Carpenter explores mind control in quite a few of his movies (some even less sexy than here, like The Thing, which is not mind control but plays with similar tropes that at least makes it mind control adjacent). If you're looking for hot mind control in a John Carpenter movie, Big Trouble In Little China probably has the best example. Though it wasn't a direct influence on my manips, it features whitewash eyes which is pretty cool. The reason I'm talking about Prince of Darkness instead of Big Trouble In Little China is because the former's had a bigger impact on me as a writer (and the mind control in Big Trouble is comparatively brief and less impactful to the story).

It looks like a lot of Prince of Darkness clips have been taken down from Youtube since I was a weird kid starving for mind control content, but you can find the full scene of Susan's possession on there right now. If you're into cosmic horror, I definitely recommend the movie, but I wouldn't call it essential for someone who wants to see some hot mind control.

[kyberrebel]

Things that went through my mind during The Acolyte episode 2

This new Jedi Temple needs better security. 

This OP floating Jedi dude is just kicking Mae’s ass without even doing anything. I can’t help but stan.

Off topic, but I hope we see Yaddle in this series. There’s no reason why we would, really, I just think it would be fun since she is alive during this time. Like imagine, we see a little green Jedi with big ears, unfocused in the background and we all automatically assume it’s Yoda. But then it focuses on the Jedi and BOOM, it’s Yaddle. I’d die of happiness if that happens, since she’s my favorite glup shitto character.

Yord needs to get the stick out of his ass. They have good evidence now that it’s Mae doing the killing, not Osha. So he can chill now.

Also, does Yord’s Padawan not go on every mission with him? Isn’t that standard for Masters and Padawans?

Hey, it’s Jason from The Good Place!! I forgot he was in this show! And I will proceed to only see him as Jason from The Good Place, and not whoever he is supposed to be.

IT’S CALLED A TATTOO, MASTER, YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND.

I don’t know why, but Sol and Qui-Gon have similar vibes.

Of course Osha just happens to be found next to the dead Jedi’s body. 

Never mind, Yord came through!

I wonder if Mae had an influence on Osha leaving the Order is some way.

I like how Jason from TGP doesn’t actually fall for Osha pretending to be Mae. It’s such a cliche trope thing at this point for twin characters to do that. It also makes me like his character more. Too bad I can’t remember his name.

The chronologically first “I have a bad feeling about this” in Star Wars, at least on screen.

“You attack me without a weapon. Why?” Did her throwing knives not count as a weapon?

Mae’s really physical way of fighting is really cool. I think it’s inspired by martial arts more than other fighting styles in Star Wars. It also for some reason reminds me a lot like how Darth Maul fights in TPM, for some reason.

Kelnacca having an undercut is so funny to me. Like, it’s one thing for humans to have an undercut. But seeing it on someone who is completely covered in hair except for that one strip around his head looks really weird.

Him having a different voice than other Wookies is also nice to see. A lot of times, most Wookies sound like Chewbacca, with maybe a tiny difference. It just shows the effort the show creators are putting into Kelnacca’s character, making him have a deeper and raspier voice.

Already, the show is subverting my expectations. After Episode 1, I was predicting that Osha and Sol wouldn’t confront Mae until later in the season. I also was under the assumption that Mae was killing Jedi, knowing people who think it was Osha. I didn’t expect her not even to know her sister was alive.

It may be recency bias, but I am really loving the show so far, though I do like the first episode slightly more. I can’t wait to see where things go!

[nanistar]

How did you go about making your story Saltburn's Clan? I really love how fleshed out and interconnected things are, it's really good! I want to make my own story, too, but I'm struggling to know what steps to take to get there and where to start. So, how did you go about it?

this one is really hard. i get a decent amount of people asking me how to start/how to write a comic, but never how to start/write a story.

truthfully, i don't really know. i have always been a more oc oriented person rather than fandom oriented. when i was in middle school i tried writing fanfiction but was never as attached to the canon character as i was with ocs. now oc x canon, however, i could roll with. all this to say, i have always had oc stories floating around in my head, so starting a story itself is easy for me. following through is not, i have to really hit a vein early on.

so when it comes to story, what do you like? i like 70s and 80s grungy sci-fi and gory/campy horror (alien, event horizon, the thing, evil dead) niche and hostile biomes with highly adapted creatures (like deep sea or deep desert) and i love specbio, even if i'm far from an actual scientist. i also love bastardizing Christianity because the themes and motifs are. (chef kiss) Delicious. (a lot of these inspirations don't come into play for SBC but since i was 15 or so i've been working on another story, starting the comic, cancelling it, rewriting it, completely wiping everything but the core characters. most of these themes are more appropriate for them)

and what sort of character tropes do you like/don't like? i personally am uninterested in writing stories of younger people discovering the world around them and discovering who they are. i love to read them, but i've already lived through that situation and don't want to have to work through it again. another thing i'm personally bad at writing is will they/wont they romance stuff. that's why i like established adult characters with established relationships. Saltburn and hollowspur are both 5 years old and have been dating for about 4 of those years. we know that they love each other, as they visit and play around, and sleep over often, but we also know that they are independent and self-sufficient without each othersince we know that they live apart and have no interest in moving in together. (this is all shown, not told, in chapter 1) i did not start saltburn's story and setting with the intention of making it into a comic, or even to share it with tumblr or anyone other than my friends, outside of drawings that i did for myself and posted. she was just a little kitty cat who lived in my head for a while. i talk a bit more about it here, but basically when it came to actually coming up with the setting, i knew i wanted it in the desert so i researched biomes and found ones that would be good for clans.

warrior cats in particular lends itself to a really good jumping off point for stories, as it already has an established hierarchy and society so you dont have to think TOO hard about it. but also you can modify it to your own discretion. i'm personally sick of starclan's interference so i didn't want them to have anything to do with the story, plus there are a lot of better "starclan is evil/fucked up/has bad intentions" stories out there than i could do (@the-exiled-comic, the dog star, ect) . i also didnt want any clan v clan drama because weve had enough in canon. from there i established that cross clan relationships are fine and joining a clan that fits you better is okay too. then i filled out the clans, i started with sunclan and did marshclan last. through drawing that huge list of characters i was able to set them up with families and histories along the way because i could look at similar coat patterns and stuff and assign them as family. briskwater and hollowspur were always siblings, but hawkwasp being from briskwater's litter came a bit later. i knew i wanted flickerstar to have exes and a lot of kids so i came up with a bunch of names first and figured the rest out later. having these established histories that go back helps make the world feel lived in.

saltburn's unusual design came before the creation of moonclan, though i knew i wanted a 4th clan at this point. i decided there would be a clan that lived in the mines and came out at night, and then eventually worked them back so that they were instead banished away deep into the mines. there is a lot of moonclan lore that i have not revealed yet (we will learn all about them this upcoming chapter) and most of it has stemmed from the question: If life is so bad for them down there, why hasn't anyone left yet? because a major plot point form moonclan is that nobody knows they exist. SO there has to be something, physical or otherwise, keeping them down there. when you build a world you gotta ask yourself WHY a lot, and figure that out too. why are the surface clans so friendly with each other? because they don't need to compete for resources and are able to spare some. why hasn't anyone left moonclan? well...

anyway a lot of these things will come naturally the more you think about it. and tbqh, i did not go into the comic with all this lore and stuff planned. it has come to me as i work. moonclan's [Redacted] has been rewritten like a dozen times as i come up with cooler ideas. when i plan a scene, i usually wrote a short kinda vague script for it, and then work through it as i do the pages. an 8 page scene takes a month to do, so I have a lot of time to mull over the dialogue, so i don't worry about writing it all down ahead of time.

but beyond all that. i personally can't go "i want to write a story" and then do it. i have to work it over in my head and as doodles for a long time before i get anywhere that i'm happy with it. it comes naturally to me i just sorta zone in and focus on stuff.

[thepenultimateword]

You know what flavor of hero x villain we've all been sleeping on? Magical Girl x Villain! Or Magical Girl x Villain's Sidekick. Or heck, even Magical Girl x Other Magical Girl Rival!

You got any prompt ideas for things like that?

I’m actually not a big fan of magical girls (I’m not against them, they just don’t draw me in), but i know some of the tropes, so I can attempt to rustle something up! If I get anything wrong, forgive me. I also know that in a lot of magical girl stories the villain is an older man, but for the sake of these prompts, just imagine them close in age, either the villain as a teenager or both the Magical Girl and Villain as adults.

(I’ll just abbreviate Magical Girl it MG for the sake of convenience)

1. When the source of MG’s powers is corrupted, she must turn to Villain, the only person she knows of with knowledge on dark artifacts and magic, for help. Everything they say might be a trap or a low, but the more time they spend together, the more MG hopes it’s not.

2. MG was all sparkles and bubbles when she was a teen, but as she’s grown up, her tastes have changed. One day she comes to battle with a completely new transformation style, and Villain is not sure how they feel about it.

3. Villain really likes MG’s transformation sequence. They may keep picking fights with her simply so that they can see it every day.

4. Villain’s Sidekick begins doubting Villain’s plans, but they’re scared to back out. There’s only one person who may be powerful enough to protect them, but they doubt MG will want anything to do with them, let alone protect them.

5. After an exhausting day of civilian life, MG shows up to her fight with villain and begins venting about the cons to being a magical girl: There’s never an up awkward place to fit her wand, she doesn’t ever transform back into a civilian at the right time, transformation got extremely tiring, and on top of it all, the clothes aren’t even her style. Villain is surprised at first but then he explodes with complaints too. Turns out he has a lot of similar problems.

6. MG finds out Villain Sidekick’s Civilian identity and decides to get close to them in order to learn more about Villain’s plans. However, hiding her MG identity proves harder than she thought, especially when she starts actually falling in love.

7. When MG is transformed, her powers have the unfortunate side effect of showing exactly what she’s feeling: sparkles when she’s happy, dark clouds when she’s upset, etc. It was a little annoying, but never too bothersome until she started radiating little floating hearts every time she was around Villain.

8. MG goes back in time and accidentally brings a young Villain back to her own time period. Teen Villain is not like his current self at all, but MG is wary that whatever flipped the switch for adult Villain’s evil will happen to young Villain too. She decides she needs to keep a close eye on him until she can send him back, but as weird as it may seem, she may be starting to like who Villain used to be.

9. Villain is evil and MG is good, but they ended up with wands that give off opposite vibes. Villain is always colorful and sparkly and light, and MG is darkness, black clothing, and ominous spells.

10. Villain ends up saving and caring for MG’s animal companion when they get separated. When they next see each other, Villain tells her she can come pick it up. MG is shocked and desperately wants her pet back, but she also doesn’t know if she can trust Villain’s kindness.

[jadethest0ne]

You say you don’t like AU tropes but enjoy the fan arts of it. Which would you say are your personal favourites?

Oh yeah! I tend to gravitate towards AU art and comics more. I think it's largely because I enjoy the character design aspect. Like, I've seen some pretty cool ones that I just think look neat, even if I don't know a lot about the non-tmnt aspect of them. For instance:

Horizon Zero Dawn AU by @dovelydraws

Genshin AU by @tomiyeee

and these cool Star Wars designs I saw floating around by @urfavvcaleb

Those ones I don't know much about story-wise, but I just like how they look. I like the details and thought that goes into the design! It's less "I like this concept" and more "ooh pretty art!"

Then there's these AUs that I enjoyed for a bit, and even liked some of the comics and stories that came out of them:

Avatar AU by @dovelydraws and @eternalglitch

Species Swapped AU by @almguav, @taytei, and @void-inked-pen

And this one Separated Mikey AU by @taytei

And finally some current, ongoing comic AUs that I've been following lately:

Hamato Wanderers AU by @thegunnsara - a very gorgeously drawn comic of the Rise boys in ancient Japan. I adore the designs and just how alive the world feels. The vibe reminds me of the original Mirage comics, but still Rise, somehow. I like it! :3

Separated AU by @cupcakeslushie - the main thing I like about separated AUs is more about their reunions than the separation. While the subject matter in this one is quite dark, the creator somehow manages to make the story incredibly wholesome and heartwarming, and that's why I like this one a lot. It also has excellent balance between all of the characters (most separated AUs focus on one turtle, but this one gives pretty equal weight to them all)

Rise of the Parallel by @indieyuugure - technically a crossover, but I'd consider that AU-adjacent. The 2012 boys land in the Rise world and they both have to deal with the Kraang from both of their worlds. Pretty much the only crossover story I've found that I like, largely because it gives equal weight and screentime to both iterations, its goal isn't to vilify either version (for once), and it doesn't fall into unnecessary interpersonal drama. Instead it feels like a good-faith crossover between the two versions, has some angsty fight scenes, and is interspersed with in-character comedic relief

Cass Apocalyptic Series by @somerandomdudelmao - not sure if it counts as an AU if it is a canonically confirmed AU, but I'm counting it haha! So I tend to not like a lot of art/comics/stories of the future turtles. I also am not a big fan of future boy Casey. But THIS ONE has grabbed my attention. And I think it's because, similar to why I like cupcakeslushie's Separated AU, it takes dark material and makes it wholesome and laden with some much-needed fluff. I feel like making something sad is easy. But taking something that is sad and infusing it with hope and love and heartwarming moments is hard, and this series does it so well!

So those are a bunch of the more visually represented AUs that I have enjoyed. I got a little bit wordy with those last ones, but they've been on my mind, mostly because they managed to make me interested in something I tend to not be interested in, and media that can surprise me like that often sticks with me.

Thanks for the ask and for giving me a chance to give a shout-out to some artists and creators that I appreciate!

[horseshoemybeloved]

wait i am really intrigued with your versions of the suitehearts i love the designs and seeing your take on them so please infodump about them to me about this obscure fob au that i’ve been insane about for years

It is now time for my long ass ( my version of the ) suitehearts masterpost * wiggles fingers *

Keep in mind!!!

So basically first things first, my versions of ‘em are Completely different characters. Some draw/view the suitehearts as fob in silly costumes ( which is super chill ) but my versions are very different. So when I say “ Benzedrine is a repressed gay wizard obsessed with abba“ I am in no ways implying that Patrick is a repressed gay wizard obsessed with abba. There are some similarities between people but it is never intentional. ( also I’m constantly changing stuff nothings set in stone lol )

Da world!

The world is kinda like a purgatory, everyone there has died but could move to another plane. Thusly there are people from all different decades. Magic is very common here, a lot of people can do small basic spells. But it takes years of practice to become a wizard, and decades to become a good one. There are 5 main,,, species? Races? I’m not quite sure how to label em. But we have:

your average human, nothing really of note here

elemental benders ( they are born with a cavity in their chest relating to what “ element “ they control. Some control water some Disco music! )

Pixies/sprites, they usually have abnormal colored skin, pointy ears, and the ability to float around. They naturally have good connection with spirits and can summon them when needed ( if they’re good at it )

Angels, they’re naturally fun colors, have magical hair, and vaguely cow like ears?. Angles can use their magic to make themselves look like normal humans tho. They usually live together and provide comfort for people. But there has been a rebellion happening and now a lot of angels try and live life not for the sole service of others but now for themselves ( is allegory 4 womanhood moment )

And then of course furries xoxo

Now the reason you even started reading this, info about the suitehearts!

Dr. benzedrine is vaguely narcissistic and full of himself, but in an oddly charming way. Personality wise hes a mixture of howl ( hmc ) without Any of the swauve, mostly just the dramatics, and aziraphale ( good omens ). Hes a middle aged man who Will Not admit hes gay, he is Incredibly repressed. He was apart of the huge royal academy of wizards, best one they’d ever had. But had a falling out with the leader in charge and now just has his own little wizard store. He befriended Donnie at a little diner because he made a reference to a Kate bush or Fiona apple song, or something or other. Him and sandman do Not get along, sandman often visits the store just to annoy him. But they have more similarities than they know, they just need to stop bitching at eachother!

( also he was born like 5’ something but the spirits in charge of transferring people to this plane were like “ I’d be mad funny if we made him really short he’d be so mad “ )

He is my autistic little meow meow 😔🙏

Horseshoe has a regal flowyness to him, semi-oblivious to his own charm, and loves to dance the night away. When everyone around him is disheveled and falling apart, he still manages to look fantastic. He appears to be the dumb blonde of the group, which he definitely doesn't mind and loves to indulged in the trope. ( he may not know where or even what Sweden is but at least hes pretty ) But he is a deeply creative person, and that in its own special way shows an intelligence. He works at a small local craft store ( bcus then he gets first dibs on all the cool new art supplies :D ) he is an angel, but chooses to focus his little magical power on constantly disguising himself cus he doesn’t wanna be bothered lol.

Donnie is very nurturing and kind, yet extremely energetic and bubbly, think kinda like,,, super sweet valleygirl. He’s slightly based off YouTuber Garret watts. He is very big solid guy. He has a bit of a problem with feeling like he Needs to take care of everyone, like it’s job ( he’s workin through it in therapy ) Like I mentioned there are people who are like elemental benders, Donnie is one of them. He has a little terrarium with either a mushroom or a daisy, and can make vines grow from his hands and legs. Donnie is also autistic ( heavily based on my experiences with it, he’s also just kinda heavily based off of me ) He's from da 60s, during the whole hippy thing.

Sandman is your typical bitchy mallgoth, who goes around calling everyone a " poser" and everything " poser shit " they put up a bitchy angry front but deep down theyre an insecure sensitive little guy. Sandman is a Pixie so that means they can summon these ( usless ) spirit guys ( they’re not very good at it ) shes also kinda Super into typical """ cringey """ stuff from 2015 ( ie undertale, fnaf, the lving tombstone, mlp ) Sandman is semi kinda not really it’s complicated openly non-binary, but still seems to repress quite a bit and just push away all deeper feelings. I thought it would be interesting to experiment with a character who is a trans femme gay guy, kinda like a reverse trans masc lesbian I guess. Idk lol don’t get mad at me

Anything else kiddo?

The format id choose to express this story would def be a movie. Uhhh… I can’t really think of much else right now, but feel free to ask questions I luv talking about em :3

[mushiemellows]

OP ask game: 1 and 4?

1. Which major character do you think is most likely to die before the end of the series?

So I don’t actually know if it’s clear, but this is actually the origin story of how Franky of all fucking characters became Blorbo #1 for me. I genuinely think he sits in the Prime Killability Zone, so I’m trying to stake my territory early. If I had to compare his position to anyone it would be Wash from Firefly/Serenity. Like the Joss Whedon that haunts my brain VERY MUCH against my will says that Franky is supremely killable. Right at the start of the end. 1) he is liked in general enough that people will go aw that’s sad maybe the stakes are real for everyone else (a tension bar that will need to be established for the last fight to have teeth) but he’s not SO well liked that there will be a backlash if he dies (I know that like. Sanji’s not getting killed off. They don’t have the guts). 2) his dream’s just to like. Physically get them to Laugh Tale. So once they’re at Laugh Tale he’s kind of got no where to like, go? He did what he set out to do, which means they can totally kill him off in style. 3) he really hasn’t had much of a character arc since the timeskip, though I do still hold out that egghead’s got one more trick up it’s sleeve for him. But I think that the culmination of his character being fully self-sacrificial would be like, the last big turn in his development. 4) oh my god I just had something huge written out and then this app glitched in the formatting and I lost it all ACK. Okay. So this is going to sound biased from like, a shipping perspective, but I do genuinely mean this more neutrally. Killing off Franky helps oda to dodge the Frobin bullet in a way that still feels emotional. I know Ods’s rules on ships. He knows them. But also, he’s definitely injected quite a lot of his own heteronormative social biases onto this character. They’re “Mom and Dad” for a reason (even if I myself argue with that interpretation of both characters, it still seems to be the dominant reading of how they interact with their sphere)(but clearly a lot of the “frobin proof” is like, Oda’s subconscious utilization of the little world around him. He does not leave his house much, and he goes for easy to reach tropes, generally. The whole “if any ship has a chance at becoming canon it’s frobin” idea I see floating around stems from a similar place). And how do you develop a slightly older male character in your Gender Propaganda Text that’s always One Man Step ahead of everyone else? Where is he to go developmentally in his mid-to-late-30s? You pair him off, you put him in a relationship. But oda can’t do that because it breaks his rule. So the one major Quick and Easy way to develop this guy any further is off the table. But if they leave things wink wink vague and then kill him off, they don’t need to address that grey area. Not to go on a whole ship tangent lol. But I do genuinely think that’s the easiest path to the corner he’s written himself into with this character. Just kill him!

4. What do you think the One Piece itself actually is?

Real. Hahah no but I’m of the opinion that it’s going to be something fairly simple. My bet is like, a cool looking coin thing, something that Shueisha Entertainment can mass produce in plastic once OP is over. Like, this whole thing is about toy/merch sales at the end of the day, so it makes sense to me that the function of the one piece is to be infinitely merchandisable. Small, simple design, keychainable, printable for a sweatshirt, could even make a plushie. A single sort of gold coin thing opens up quite a lot of easy possibilities, even if I myself find it kind of…boring.

That, or it’s got something to do with the hat. A second, smaller straw hate to put on the first. Hahaha.