#there are a lot of things left unexplored that i would like to read about

[michameinmicha]

That feeling when you just finished a book and you want to stay in that world just a little longer...

[womanofwords]

Audience Participation (Part 5)

Neglected!fourthwall!reader x yandere!batfam

The next thing on the agenda was making sure they definitely couldn't find you. You went through every single piece of clothing you had and sorted them by least to most distinctive. While doing so, you found a small amount of strange, flashing tags on your favourite clothes. Trackers. Considering how much you were warned about your folks being nuts, this wasn't as many as you had been expecting, but was still a shock to see.

Your family really was crazy.

You weren't going to go too crazy with the false hints. If your family really was as smart as they said they were, then they'd probably catch up with the hints pretty quickly. The chat wasn't calling you smart for nothing.

First, the bouquet of dahlias that you got for yourself from the florist. Dahlias being Mexico's official flower, someone had to get the hint about this. You made sure to mention it to Alfred. "Aren't they pretty, Alfred?" you said, showing the British butler the flowers you'd obtained.

"Very pretty," Alfred admitted. "I'll send you a vase to put them in."

"Thank you, Alfred." You scooped up the flowers and skipped up to your room.

The chat had suggested that you use some fake hobbies to throw you off the trail you'd leave, so you went to the library. Some books about Mexican food and pottery were sure to entice them. You read in front of them at every opportunity, occasionally turning pages so they wouldn't be confused about why your eyes never actually looked at the book. In secret, you learned French and searched up how to apply for Canadian citizenship on your secret second phone that you sequestered away in the pocket of a coat you never actually wore.

But the real strokes of genius came with the trinkets. Bruce forgot your birthday without fail, but would buy you expensive jewellery that you never wore about two weeks later without fail. You sold these trinkets one by one at different pawn shops. Thank goodness he never got you anything personalised.

After you came back from trading a pendant for cash, you checked the comments section again. The little people were saying lots of stuff since the last time you'd checked. They were congratulating the alliance you'd made with Clayface while telling you to save it for later. They were also telling you to change your appearance when going as 'Alex Mass', which you were already doing. You attached a fake mole to your chin every time you went to work, a notable difference that Y/N Wayne didn't have. In case that didn't deter police, you also clipped fake bangs to the front of your hair after you left the house and took them off just before the security cameras saw you.

Since you had some time to kill, and nobody went near the part of the house where your room was (you bet that only Alfred even knew where it was), you decided to answer the questions that the comments section had.

"Why marine biology? I picked marine biology because I just love the sea. It was so peaceful and at the same time, it could be so violent. And so much of it's unexplored while at the same time, it's closer to us than the stars and galaxies. Marine life looked so much more mysterious and fun than life on land, so I wanted to get as close to it as possible."

Another comment asked you what your favourite part of the day was. "Leaving the house. I feel like such a weight has come off once I'm out of Wayne Manor. Other than that, showering is one of my favourite things to do. I just love being clean and I often feel so dirty around my family."

The chat wanted to know what your hobbies were. "Water colours. I just love them. I make water colour paintings of sea creatures, although they are straight up terrible. I do it because I like it. My fake hobbies include basket weaving, pottery, and conspiracy theories. Send them down some really weird rabbit holes just for the hell of it."

"Oh, and by the way, Alfred doesn't go into my room because I clean it myself. I have successfully raised to $10,000 I needed to escape this hell. Thanks for your support. Now, I'm going to be cashing some stuff in and making plans."

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Taglist: @bunniotomia, @hai-there-how-are-you, @crystal-freak24, @maskedvoyance, @cupid73, @lettucel0ver, @wisefuncherryblossom, @lineakazuh16, @leeiasure, @itsberrydreemurstuff, @ee-1ovelifedownthedrain.

[fragmentdecosmos]

Ok, so. I know this is far-fetched, but stay with me now. I’ve scrolled through numerous Duke Thomas fanfics as his #1 fan, and I have yet to see his potential for behavioral attachment and obsessive tendencies being used as a key part of a plot. So I decided I’ll do it myself.

A mutual of mine made me read—though I didn’t want to at first—Batman: Urban Legends, and the Smile Drops drug derived from Scarecrow’s fear gas storyline really opened a door into a lot of previously unexplored terrain regarding the long-term consequences of fear gas/Smile Drops.

What fear gas does is trick your psyche by rearranging your neurological pathways into whatever the component of the formula wants. It’s never been in a solid form before, only as gas, and the transformation from gas to solid for the creation of Smile Drops is revolutionary. Pair that with ith the power vacuum left from Two-Face retiring (Batman: Detective Comics #1042–#1064) and the disappearance of Scarecrow, it makes it more than likely that someone was smart enough to take it apart, recreate it, and make more of it—with different purposes.

But what does it have to do with Duke? You may ask. Well, as I stated before, one of the most interesting aspects of Duke as a character is his obsessive nature—obsessive nature that’s only intensified by the void left behind by the loss of his parents. Obsessive nature within which lies my main point: what happens if a mutated version of fear gas—or Smile Drops—hits Duke? What happens when the drug hijacks his brain’s attachment mechanisms? What if his obsession— this means to fill the void— doesn't attach to a thing—like the idea of justice or protecting the Narrows—but instead latches onto a person?

There’s compelling science behind this. In times of crisis or trauma, the human brain goes into survival mode. If someone is present in that state—especially someone who offers safety or relief—the brain anchors to them.

It’s a form of trauma bonding.

The prefrontal cortex is compromised, the amygdala overfires, and oxytocin (the bonding hormone) is dumped into the system. To put it simply, when in a state of heightened vulnerability, the person who’s present when your brain is unraveling and re-forming becomes ingrained—wired into the architecture of your mind as something internal, essential, inescapable.

I thought about who the most interesting character would be to tie into this plot— to be there when Duke loses his mind. At first, I considered Cassandra Cain anx then Stephanie Brown. But ultimately, I chose Jason Todd and here's why;

They’re the most similar members of the Batfam: both from lower-class backgrounds, raised in similar, neighboring areas; both lost their parents and went through the foster system, only to run away from it; both were eventually adopted by a wealthy man who—regardless of intentions��forced them to give up part of their independence. A man who holds, in many ways, the power to shape or break the futures they’ve been fighting to build. Long story short, they're the same in the ways that matters; kids who never had a choice but were expected to rise anyway.

I think Jason would see himself in Duke, in that way. He’d be sympathetic, patient, maybe even protective sometimes.

And, do I think this could be one of the few genuine chances Duke has at building a healthy relationship with someone during this timeframe (without his parents in his life)? Absolutely.

But would Duke see it that way, especially so soon?

Absolutely not.

Because, Duke lives in the Manor he watches Bruce and Jason argue constantly. Jason cuts off contact with the family over and over. There is no time for them to bond. And for Duke, that doesn’t matter—because this has nothing to do with him.

But then, picture this; Jason operates in Crime alley and Duke the Narrows so they are in proximity when Duke gets this new lesser than version fear gaz. And Jason saves Duke. Is there when he unravels.

And in the aftermaths, Duke internalizes an obsession with Jason without even realizing it, at first. And it's true to say that Jason wouldn't be weirded out, if Duke got attached to him, especially after Red Hood And The Outlaws #25 and in the light of the events that have taken place in Heroes In Crisis—but this is Gotham and thats excuse enough to spoil something that could have been good, given time— but here's the tragedy: Duke doesn’t fully recognize it as a real connection, let alone attachment. His mind, altered by the drug and shaped by loss, dehumanizes Jason. He doesn’t view him as a person but as a subject—something to analyze, to observe. This pattern fits Duke’s psychological profile; he has a tendency to step back from things to view them clearly. That detachment makes it easier to cope, but harder to connect. (He did this with Riddler—treating Nygma as a puzzle instead of a person who creates them.)

So what does that mean for their non-existent relationship? It becomes… strange. Complicated. Duke keeps Jason at a distance emotionally even more now, all the while being mentally obsessed with him. And it all roots back to a single moment: while under the effects of Fear Drops, and completely blind of senses, Duke confused Jason for his mom—and clung to him like he once did her. And now, the lines between those attachments have blurred. Every time he thinks of her, he thinks of him.

What could have been the foundation for a healthy bond becomes something distorted—not out of malice, but because the trauma left Duke unable to tell the difference between love and survival.

Here are the tags, dropping this sometime next month!

[rayclubs]

Which tf2 merc do you think gets mischaracterized the least?

Good question! Let's do a rating.

In my opinion, there are three aspects to characterizing someone.

Facts - you have to get basic character backstory right. This includes all objective canon truths, events, and, well, facts about said character.

Behavior - you need to understand how the character acts, how their interpersonal relationships function, what they're like in their day-to-day life. This is the nitty-gritty of fanfic and fanart, this is dialogue, line-to-line characterization.

Integrity - you need to understand the character's core beliefs and principles, what their values are and how they view the world around them. This isn't something you can easily quote or point to as a mistake in fanfic, it's more of an overall idea of a character.

Each of these is going to be worth up to three points, with zero for terrible characterization that gets everything wrong. This would ideally total to nine points. I'll be awarding an additional bonus point for character interpretation that doesn't make me scream "he would not fucking say that". Let's go.

Scout:

His backstory is fairly simple. He has an absent father, half a dozen siblings, and a crush on his boss who doesn't reciprocate. People mostly get this right, except they also call him a virgin despite the fact he canonically lands the fried chicken queen, and seems to do it with ease. 2/3.

His behavior is also mostly portrayed accurately, in that he's loud, obnoxious, self-absorbed, and can be kind of a dick, though not completely without endearing qualities. The fandom is, admittedly, guilty of making him more insecure and self-conscious than he actually is, to amp up the drama. 2/3.

His core values, however, are completely off. The main interpretations I see of him are "depressed Scout", "homophobic Scout", and "baby Scout", neither of which is true to his character. This is a grown man with a force-a-nature complex. The homophobia is just projection and internalized prejudice, but that phenomena is too complicated for me to dissect here. I talked about it before and might make another post later. Anyway, 0/3.

Scout does not get a bonus point. He would not fucking say "poggers" but he would say "daddy-o".

Overall characterization score: 4/10

Soldier:

Very little is known about Soldier's backstory so there isn't really any room to be wrong about it. What we do know is also vague and unreliable, so it's open to interpretation. Given how little room for error there is, I'll give him a 3/3.

His behavior is completely off in most cases, often shown to either be overly aggressive or so dumb you start to question how this man functions in his day-to-day life. Canon Soldier has plenty of endearingly stupid moments but a lot of them can be read as deadpan jokes on the character's part, and many turn out to be secretly clever moments, such as him infiltrating the robot base with a goofy cardboard disguise. Likewise, canon Soldier has plenty of aggressive and mean moments, but he's not cruel and very clearly not a threat to his teammates, which isn't captured at all in fanworks that decide to go that way. 0/3.

Soldier's core ideals are mostly captured well, as in - yeah, he calls people communist as an insult in fanfics. I feel like he should mention God more often than he does in fanon, it's, like, one of the two ideologically meaningful things he ever talks about. The importance of "America" as a concept to him is mostly preserved but left unexplored. 2/3.

Soldier does not get a bonus point, he would not fucking say [homophobic slur] yet here we fucking are.

Overall characterization score: 5/10

Pyro:

His backstory is nonexistent yet people still fuck it up. His technical knowledge is clearly extensive and impressive, as shown by the complexity of his weaponry - which, mind you, looks HAND MADE - but people treat him as if he's altogether incompetent and maniacally stupid all the time always. He also ran an engineering company for hell knows how long and people just forget about it because they're allergic to adults or something. God this pisses me off so much. I mean for fuck's sake, people act like his full job description is "Pyromaniac" and not "Pyrotechnician". I'm so tired. 0/3.

His day-to-day characterization and dialogue is also completely off. People treat him as if he's INCAPABLE of communication, make him obsess over childish things he's only shown a moderate liking to in a manner that's borderline creepy and insulting, and take away his whole entire agency in everything he ever does. I will literally not give y'all a single point, you do my man Pyro so dirty. 0/3.

His ideology is complex and vague in canon, and I don't blame people for getting confused by such things as Pyrovision, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. In my time on Ao3 I've seen animal Pyro, cryptid Pyro, monster Pyro, alien Pyro, evil mindless maniac Pyro, incompetent baby Pyro, nonbinary Pyro (HENCE MY PROBLEM WITH THE HEADCANON, do you see how it looks next to all these other interpretations?) but I've rarely, if ever, seen competent adult Pyro with actual hopes and dreams and agency. 0/3.

Pyro does not get a bonus point because he would not fucking say "uwu" but he would say "fuck", let Pyro say fuck.

Overall characterization score: 0/10 are you fucking surprised

Demoman:

Oh poor lad what have they done to you. So, Demo's backstory is arguably the most detailed and fleshed-out in the entire canon. Too bad nobody fucking read it. Admittedly, in the recent years I've seen people mostly manage to remember he has several jobs and is overall a competent and successful man, but it's rarely - if ever - explored, I've seen exactly one fic where the author bothered to explore what one of his other jobs might be (and it was not a good fic for many other reasons, don't ask me for a link), and it honestly feels like people don't want to dwell on it? Like, they mostly mention it to fill a quota, y'know? Here, I'm not racist, I've acknowledged one of this character's achievements, leave me alone. Also the subject of him being fucking adopted as a kid never comes up. 0/3.

His day-to-day characterization suffers a lot because people think alcoholism is the most morally repugnant thing that can ever happen to a human being. This man honestly barely even has a presence in the fics he's in. Are you wondering where Demo is? Well, he wasn't there! He was BUSY! He couldn't come! There is a handful of writers who bother to write his actual inner monologue and point of view, and this point goes out to them only. Also there was a pretty good Boots and Bombs fic in which Demo was a dick to Soldier but then got better, and it stuck with me. 1/3.

His core character is fucked up by fandom because he's either all flaws or not allowed to have any flaws, and there's no in-between. Ever since I joined the fandom I've seen a lot of critique floating around, and people mostly seem to listen and realize they've been mistreating the man for long enough, but it created a whole separate problem of Perfect Demoman which is bland and boring. People don't want to write an offensive caricature but don't feel like fleshing him out either, so they just make him great at everything and never let him fail and grown in ways that are meaningful. Except that one fic I mentioned earlier, but I've already awarded a point for that. 0/3.

Demo does not get a bonus point. I couldn't find a meaningful example of bad dialogue because, like I said, he has no presence in any of the fics he's in. He would fucking say something.

Overall characterization score: 1/10 and honestly it's too generous on my part.

Heavy:

Okay so Heavy's backstory really confuses people. I've got like a dozen asks in my inbox when I called his father a revolutionary AND a counter-revolutionary. Wait till I call him a royalist, it'll blow your tits clean off. I don't feel like explaining the history of the communist regime in the USSR on this post, let's just say people are mostly faithful to canon but don't really "get" Heavy. 2/3.

His day-to-day characterization is plain bad. He's treated like a mother hen to the mercs when he's more of a stoic friend with a mean streak and a crude sense of humor. I think the main problem is the dialogue, people just can't give him the dignity of speaking in an intelligent manner. It's honestly also pretty bad in the comics. 1/3.

His core ideals are fine, if oversimplified. He's not a complicated man, he loves his family, his guns and his doctor. People rarely give him any more depth than that but it's not offensive to his character or anything. I feel like he should have more political opinions than people give him. I also feel like people make him way more protective of Zhanna's romantic pursuits, to a creepy degree. I mean, yes, he's annoyed by her marrying Soldier, and seems horrified for a brief second, but it's not like he's against it or anything, he's just kinda surprised? Anyway, 2/3.

Heavy does not get a bonus point because he would not fucking say "da". Pizda.

Overall characterization score: 5/10

Engineer:

Yeah people mostly get him. He's got 11 Ph. Ds. Some treat him like he grew up as an actual cowboy or something but most remember he's a nerd. I'd actually give all the points here because Engie's backstory is NOT complicated. 3/3.

His dialogue and day-to-day characterization is also okay, though people really mellow him down a lot. I had a bit in one of my fics where he said something like "let's teach those sumbitches how the real killin' is done" and like three different people commented on it saying they liked or were surprised by his mean energy. It's not even that mean, I think it kinda shows my problem with his interpretation. 2/3.

I asked about mischaracterization once and a lot of people replied "Engie is the most mischaracterized because people treat him like he's good but he's actually evil" which I think pretty much covers it? It's hard to write someone who is not implicitly strictly good or strictly evil. Engie treads this balance really well, I'm actually convinced his demeanor is not a facade, he is nice at times and mean when he wants to be. Fanon Engie can only be one of two things and neither is right. 0/3.

Engie gets a bonus point as an exception. I actually can't tell why, people just have his voice on-point. Is his accent and manner of speaking really that easy for you? I struggle to write him a lot. I think he should say "bitch" more.

Overall characterization score: 6/10

Medic:

People focus on the fact he lost his medical license more than on the fact he HAD a medical license in the first place. Other than that he really doesn't have a backstory. I dislike that people try to give him a sad one, I think he grew up loved and maybe even a little spoiled, but I can't fault others for not following my headcanons, so. 2/3.

His dialogue is the WORST because it's written phonetically. His goofy yet self-confident energy isn't captured well at all. The best I can put this is "people wife him" but it sounds kinda mysogynistic so really I'm at a loss. Submissivepilled breedablemaxxer. 0/3.

His core values are also all over the place. The complicated thing about writing Medic is that he actually doesn't come with pre-packaged drama. His backstory is vague, his demeanor is optimistic, his vibes are fun, and the worst thing that happened to him in canon was working with the classics for a bit - people amp it up to squeeze hurt out of it, which is fine, but not many people actually like going there. Thing is, fanfic writers aren't that good at writing drama when it hasn't been established before. They have to warp his character, make him edgy, self-conscious, or plain mad evil without redeeming qualities. I remember really struggling with my big Medic fic because I wanted it to be dramatic but had to put a lot of work into actually building up the emotion, because Medic is fine. He's fine. He's alright. He's fine. He's doing well. 0/3.

Medic does NOT get a bonus point, he would not fucking say "babygirl" and I'm not even sure if he would say "yass queen slay" I'm SORRY

Overall characterization score: 2/10

Sniper:

People mostly get his backstory right, probably because it's the most well-explained in the comics and it gets the most "screentime". It's also literally a Superman parody which is funny and memorable in concept. 3/3.

People can't find a good balance between stoic professionalism and social anxiety. I think Sniper is actually pretty simple, in that he's a little self-conscious which pushes him to actively better himself as a professional, but also makes him a little awkward so he comes across as standoffish and a little mean. He's a solid bloke that's balanced and feels real. Fandom has to go for the extreme every goddamn time with him. It sucks. 0/3.

People kind of get his drama, his relationship with his family and whatnot - mostly because a lot of us losers can relate, I bet - but, again, go for the extreme in making him anxious, whiny, and sad as a wet kitten. Unless it's a porn fic in which case he's an absolute freak that growls at people. I don't know what it is about Sniper that makes him so difficult to characterize. Manic pixie dream boy. Dark and moody lover love me like no other. 0/3.

Sniper does NOT get a bonus point because he doesn't say "cunt" nearly as often as he should. Also send me asks about my Sniper takes I want to stir up some shit.

Overall characterization score: 3/10.

Spy:

The only piece of his backstory we actually know is that he fathered the blight of the earth that is Scout TF2. 3/3.

His obnoxious and insufferable demeanor is mostly captured well. A lot of his portrayals aren't nearly as classy as people think they are, but that's because most authors are themselves proletarian, myself included, which is fine. Not many make the effort to pepper his speech with French words it would actually be natural for him to say, and blame it on the nonsensical complexity of the French language, but I'm not buying it as an excuse. 2/3.

His core values are off in regards to Scout - he's often portrayed as soft, mellow, overbearing, and critical of Scout's love life to either a comical or an uncomfortable degree. His fandom portrayal often also lacks the self-confidence he's demonstrated in the comics. Spy is not above strangling a man with a chain that holds the shackles around his ankles, he wouldn't consider it a blow to his dignity to fuck any of his coworkers either, come on. He's also funny and goofy but the fandom tends to neglect that. 1/3.

Spy does not get a bonus point because he would not say "perchance" but he would say "your mother".

Overall characterization score: 6/10

The final scores are:

Spy - 6/10

Engineer - 6/10

Heavy - 5/10

Soldier - 5/10

Scout - 4/10

Sniper - 3/10

Medic - 2/10

Demoman - 1/10

Pyro - 0/10

There we go! Pyro is the most mischaracterized, Demoman is a close second, and nobody is characterized well. Cheers!

[watermelonsloth]

Hope (aka the most important thing to understanding the Naruto story)

There’s a lot that I like about the world, characters, and story of Naruto and I’ll be the first to admit that most of them are completely accidental on Kishimoto’s part. The fact that even bad people fall into a gray area, the idea that a country will prioritize its own survival over the health of its people, the different ways that characters are shown to cope with disillusionment and trauma, the humanity and dignity given to the majority of its cast, and that, even though most of its characters aren’t that deep, the story has the illusion that any member of its cast—if the camera lingered on them for long enough—has a-whole-nother 700 chapters worth of story to tell are all just the unintentional result of how he explored (what I interpret to be) the main idea of Naruto.

I’m not trying to say he’s an incompetent writer, quite the opposite. I think the fact that so many of the things I like are left mostly unexplored is evidence that they were accidental additions. The reason I think this is because of how Kishimoto handled the idea at the core of all this: maintaining hope and inspiring it in others.

It’s pretty difficult to fully explain my thought process here in just a few snappy sentences (I promise I would’ve written a shorter post if I could), but this idea is infused in so many aspects of the series that going over all of them here would be ridiculous to both read and write. Especially since this is just a tumblr post. So, with the understanding that there is much more to talk about here, we’re just gonna focus on the largest parts of this. Namely: talk-no-jutsu, the curse of hatred, and the ending.

Talk-No-Jutsu

Talk-no-jutsu (TNJ) is fundamental to the Naruto series, but I’m not confident that too many people know why it’s so fundamental. To refresh, TNJ is whenever Naruto wins a battle simply by talking to his opponent, usually after beating them up enough to get them to listen (this is still a shounen action). It seems like a writing cop-out at first glance, mostly because Naruto isn’t actually consistent in disproving his opponents ideology. This is because TNJ is not about proving his opponents wrong, it’s about restoring the hope that they’d lost.

As an example, let’s look at my favorite TNJ scene: the Neji vs Naruto fight.

First, some context. The Chunin Exams arc is about rejecting the labels other people try to place and enforce on you. Both Shikamaru and Ino prove themselves to be smarter than people assume based on their lazy and superficial exteriors, Hinata tries to prove that she is more than the failure she was a dubbed, Rock Lee is out to prove that he can become a great ninja despite what he’s been told his whole life, Sakura cuts off the symbol of her conformity to the opinions of others to protect her teammates, and Sasuke fights to be more than Itachi said he was against Orochimaru then only wins his preliminary fight after rejecting what Orochimaru tries to turn him into.

Neji is the most obvious example of this; being branded with the label placed on him that can be enforced through physical pain. He was told it was his destiny to be labeled this way and, unlike the characters listed above, he believed it. I won’t say that looking at this as a fight about Hard Work vs Natural Talent or if great people are born or raised is an invalid reading, but I do think it’s a surface level one. After all, the Hyuga believe in destiny, not just Neji. Destiny is used as a weapon of suppression. Neji going on about destiny isn’t him expressing a life philosophy, it’s him taking what his abusers said to heart—that his abuse was a force of nature that he could only futilely fight—and using that to abuse others. He attempts to shame Hinata and Naruto into submission just as he was.

Because Neji gave up. He gave up on proving the clan wrong and he gave up on himself.

But Naruto didn’t.

In their fight, Naruto doesn’t buy Neji’s bullshit. He hears Neji’s sob story and essentially says that Neji wasn’t a victim of a force of nature, he was a victim of people. People that could be fought. Naruto didn’t offer Neji a solution, but he did offer Neji the hope that he had other options. And if Naruto, the supposed ostracized failure, was able to beat Neji in a fight and get the crowd to cheer for him, maybe he had a point.

As I’ve said, Naruto doesn’t really give people solutions to their problems nor does he have a perfect counter to their ideology (you can decide if that’s a good or a bad thing); all he really tells them is that despite everything they’ve gone through, they still have the option to hope that things could be different. Inari doesn’t have to reject the very concept of heroism, Zabuza doesn’t have to view himself or others a tools to be used and thrown away, Gaara doesn't have to believe that no one will ever love him, and Tsunade doesn't have to look at hope and dreams as things only the naive partake in before they either die or become as jaded as her (etc.). That might seem like cold comfort, but to people who were repeatedly beaten down by life then told cynicism and acceptance were their only options, maybe it’s enough to try again.

The Curse of Hatred

Where hopelessness was explored and countered in classic Naruto, shippuden takes a look at what hatred can do to people and the world and asks what can be done about it.

The concepts of resentment, anger, and vengeance—all referred to as “hatred”—are explored primarily through Sasuke. He’s, of course, not the only one—Deidara, Nagato, and Obito all also come to mind. Deidara resented Itachi for forcing him to join the Akatsuki just as Sasuke resented Itachi for getting all their father’s attention and Naruto for progressing faster than him. Nagato was angry at the five great nations for all that they’d done just as Sasuke was angry at Itachi and Konoha for all that they didn’t. Obito swore vengeance against the world for taking Rin from him and Sasuke swore vengeance against anyone he deemed responsible for his pain.

That’s not even talking about how Black Zetsu and Danzo sowed hatred between people to make them more vulnerable to manipulation and maintain power respectively. Or how Orochimaru fed into people’s—primarily vulnerable children’s—anger for personal gain.

Throughout the series, hatred is framed as a very human but very corrosive emotion. Literally in the case of it eating away at the seal holding the nine tails (I know it’s technically the nine tails chakra being released that’s eating at the seal, but save for the Neji vs Naruto fight, that only happens when he’s intensely angry). Naruto giving himself over to hatred and the nine tails burns through his skin, Deidara blows himself up out of pride and hatred, Kaguya, Madara, Obito, and Nagato all try to destroy the world out of their hatred, and the mangekyou sharingan—often directly tied to the memory that brought the Uchiha great hatred—makes its user go blind. The warring states era isn't a part of the series to add to the world building, it’s a demonstration that a world led by hatred only results in an endless cycle of violence.

The corrosive nature of hatred is very much shown through Sasuke’s development throughout shippuden. He gets progressively more hateful and more mentally unstable. His target goes from one person to a group of people to the whole of Konoha and at the same time he goes from putting his life on the line to protect his teammates to completely disregarding their wellbeing to actively attacking them, practically on a whim. At the start of shippuden, Sasuke only fights people he deems it necessary to and by the five kage summit arc, he’s actively picking fights just for the hell of it. His hatred makes him a shell of who he once was.

His hatred is tempered somewhat by his conversations with Itachi and the Hokage, and he’s distracted from it during the fights against Obito, Madara, and Kaguya, but it isn’t until his fight against Naruto that it’s truly resolved.

By the time of their final fight, Sasuke embodies all that Naruto has been fighting against. Sasuke has given up both on connecting with the world and the world willingly coming together, and he fully hates all the people who’ve caused him pain and all the people who didn’t protect him from it. But Sasuke’s not the only one who’s changed. Naruto’s felt the hopelessness of his sensei dying, of his home being destroyed, of his friend dying in his arms. Naruto’s faced his hatred for the father that abandoned him with the consequences of his actions, his hatred for the village that ostracized him then did a 180 like it never happened, the history of hatred passed down through both the Ashura reincarnations and the nine tails jinchuuriki. He’s fully prepared to fight all of Sasuke’s demons and win. And he does.

Not because Naruto gives him a solution or has an ironclad counter to his ideology, just because, despite everything that happened, Naruto never gave up hope that Sasuke would come home and he never gave up hope that the world could come together. And that unshaking belief was enough to give Sasuke the hope to try again.

The Ending

Apparently Kishimoto said in an interview at one point that he’s had the ending of Naruto planned from the beginning. I’m always skeptical of quotes like this when it comes to long running series, but I do think there is some amount of truth to this. I’m perfectly ready and willing to believe that two parts of the ending were set in stone earlier in the writing process: the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke and the final exchange between Naruto and Sasuke in 699.

The final exchange is of Naruto handing Sasuke back his headband to keep until they get a chance to properly see who’s stronger with future Sasuke reminiscing on their relationship and how he’s changed thanks to Naruto as the narration. The final line is what I really wanted to talk about though:

“To keep enduring until it comes to be, no matter what. And to those whom that task falls on… perhaps that’s what it means… to be a ninja.”

The word that’s used is “enduring” but I still fully believe this to be a quote about the theme of hope in Naruto. After all, hope is shown to be the greatest force of resistance. More than that though, this scene leaves the story off on a vague but hopeful note. It leaves the audience with the implication that Sasuke spends the foreseeable future exploring the world and finding himself in his own image after so many people spent the series trying to mold him to fit theirs while Naruto continues working to become Hokage, with the promise that Naruto and Sasuke, despite diverting paths, will reunite again, and with the statement that the true purpose of ninja is to cultivate and maintain hope.

I personally like this ending—so much so that I kind of wish we never got an epilogue or sequel—but I know that’s not the most popular opinion. An opinion that seems much more popular is that people wanted the series to end with Naruto and/or Sasuke and/or Team 7 changing the shinobi system in one way or another. But I don’t personally see it that way. As I think I’ve made pretty clear, this series wasn’t ever really about giving solutions. It was about endurance, resilience, and hope. It wasn’t necessarily about fixing problems, it was about facing them.

[haunted-radishes]

Hey, you seem to be a Wen Ning enjoyer, can you tell me what you like best about him? I feel like he has a lot of potential that isn’t really explored enough for him to be a fave so I’d like to hear your POV on him!

Honestly, right from the beginning he has always just made me happy :D

But to delve into it, the first thing that struck me about him was how kind he is. He's a sweet guy! I started with The Untamed, only reading the novel later, so my primary impression of him is the version that sneaks down to the dungeons to take out the evil dog and give Wei Wuxian some medicine, so he's going behind his sect's back to do what's right as soon as he has the opportunity to do so. I love how he's timid and gentle, but has the backbone of steel to risk it all to do the right thing.

But he's also kind of. Odd. Sometimes it ties into his hidden nerves of steel, like when he drugs the entire cohort at Lotus Pier to help Wei Wuxian and co. Like, it was an incredible act, but he just. Fucking. Drugged them. No hesitation. Absolutely wild behavior. Especially in the novel where he had only met Wei Wuxian once before this! I do prefer the drama version where his actions make more sense, but his devotion is at least a little unhinged no matter the version. But also, even besides the obsessive devotion, his energy is just. Endearingly strange and off-putting. Like when he decides that the best way to quietly contact Wei Wuxian is to dangle upside down outside his window. Or feels absolutely no need to make himself less terrifying when he power walks towards the tied-up juniors with a sword.

And then! The unexplored depths and unexamined tragedy! You're left to wonder so much about him! How DOES he feel about the whole fierce corpse thing? About his compromised autonomy? Would he have turned against his sect even if Wei Wuxian hadn't charmed him? Does he regret any of his actions before killing Jin Zixuan? How deep do his grudges run? Is there anyone from the Wen sect outside his established circle of family and cultivators who he misses or secretly mourns? What does he think about the other great sect members, especially the leaders? Plus so many more questions we'll never truly know the answers to, because he tucks his problems away and never speaks of them! The closest glimpse we get of his inner turmoil is his verbal evisceration of Jiang Cheng with the core reveal, and that does show us some interesting things about his character! For the first time, we see him choosing to be as hurtful as possible, showing how much he clearly resents Jiang Cheng, but how much of that is personal dislike, how much is anger on Wei Wuxian's behalf, how much is blame for the deaths of his family, and how much is gall at him benefiting from dear late Wen Qing's genius and service without even knowing it? Also, what is he going to do after canon? What is left for him?

Also he's relatable, lol. That awkward uncertainty he always carries with him is very endearing in an "oh, me too buddy" kind of way. He has so much going on inside his head, but all that comes out is, "oh! Excuse me >.<" People are having massive emotional moments right in front of him, and he's just..... There.

Anyway, Wen Ning! Love that guy! Makes my brain go "brrrr"

[twilightmalachite]

Wish - Spinning Thread 6

Characters: Tsumugi, Natsume, Sora

Translation: Mika Enstars

"HiHi~! This place is like a treasure box of memories for Shisho~ and Senpai~!"

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Summer

Location: Dilapidated Building

A couple hours later, at the dilapidated former idol training school…

Sora: Ooh, so this is Senpai’s place with precious memories?

HaHa~! It looks like an abandoned building stage from a game! No corner must be left unexplored~!

Tsumugi: Ah, don’t go running around, Sora-kun! The floor is littered with rubble and broken glass. You could get hurt if you fall, okay?

Natsume: You’re the one saying thAT, Senpai? I can’t believe you spent the night at a place like thIS.

Tsumugi: Ahaha, I had surprised even myself a little with it. It’s no wonder my entire body ached when I woke up.

Natsume: That’s not the problem heRE. Does hygiene and safety mean nothing to you anymoRE?

Tsumugi: Ah, please don’t worry! The first thing I did when I got back to the dorms was take a bath!

Natsume: Well that’s great and aLL, but right now that doesn’t mattER.

Senpai, why is it you stayed in a place with nothing in it for so lONG?

Tsumugi: Huh? Do you still not remember, Natsume-kun?!

I’m a little shocked! I thought you would’ve remembered the moment I told you it was a place with precious memories for the both of us…

Natsume: Even if you call it a place with precious memorIES, just because that’s true for you doesn’t mean it’s true for mE, you knOW.

Tsumugi: Come on, come on! Doesn’t this area over here take you back, “Natsume-chan”?

Natsume: « Die. »

Tsumugi: Owch?! Why does it feel like your violent side has resurfaced as of late, Natsume-kun?!

Natsume: Because you’ve been digging up people’s dark pasTS. You wanted something nostalgIC, didn’t yOU? So I figured I'd give you some skinshIP, just like the old dAYS.

But weLL, thanks to you calling me by that naME, I have been able to vaguely remember what this place iS.

This is the idol training school that your no-good mother rAN, isn’t iT?

Tsumugi: That’s correct. Actually, after the business went bankrupt, strange rumors began to spread about this place being tied to religion…

And because of that, it was pretty difficult to find new tenants, and eventually the building fell into disrepair.

Natsume: It took me some time to remember this plACE, because back then it wasn’t this run-doWN.

There’s also a lot more ridiculous graffiti and the like heRE, tOO. Don’t blame me for not remembering right awAY, okAY?

Tsumugi: Fufu, how run-down it’s become came as a surprise to me, too.

But, doesn’t this area around the counter still have some remnants of back then left?

Natsume: Hmm, does iT? I do seem to have a vague memory of “Tsumugi-oniisan” falling off his chair…

Tsumugi: So you do remember that, Natsume-kun!

I used to stand on a chair to watch the other kids over the counter as they practiced, right here. I used to slip and fall off it a lot.

Sora: HiHi~! This place is like a treasure box of memories for Shisho~ and Senpai~!

Sora wants to hear about Shisho~ and Senpai’s memories, too! What was it that Shisho~ would do here?

Natsume: Well, it’s not like I remember it all that weLL. If I had to sAY, you remember better than I dO, Senpai.

Tsumugi: Yes, I remembered quite a lot of things about that time while I was here yesterday, after all.

For example… There used to be a standing mirror around over here. Natsume-kun and I would practice our poses together in front of it.

Natsume: I seriously have no clue how you remember all of thAT, Senpai. I’ve completely forgotten details like thAT.

Tsumugi: Fufu. Well, that’s because the time I spent here with you here are irreplaceable memories for me.

You might have forgotten about it by now, but… You made a promise to me here, Natsume-kun.

“Let’s become idols together, and find happiness”. Then, we tied our hair together, and made it our red string of fate…

Natsume: Tying your hair together would just make for a hard-to-mOVE, tangled meSS.

Tsumugi: Ahaha, you made the same complaint back then, too.

But, because we tied our hair together, the dream we wished for has come true.

Natsume: WeLL, yES. But both of us had already cut off the hair we had tied togethER, hadn’t wE?

I eventually forgot about our promISE, and cut my haIR. And by the time I saw you again at the acadeMY, your hair was even shorter than it is nOW.

That would mean any power that wish could have held would’ve long since been goNE.

Tsumugi: Yeah. That’s why I thought to re-tie it again, a second time.

I made a wish that our red string of fate would not be cut again.

[ ☆ ]

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[yuseirra]

Thanks for keeping quiet about the spoilers if you've been aware of them~ it (being spoiled)had been happening for me over and over for the past month and it had been getting painful, I'd have blocked people who sent that to me at this rate. I was able to.. see it for myself in peace this time hehe

I've seen the full...spoilers (like the whole ch 162)

here's my raw thoughts on that.

I'm honestly not amused... not so surprised either though...

I do hope there's something more to this because there are things that I feel are SO left unexplored, there's a lot I don't like, but if this is all there is to it, it could be, I guess.

I still think.. Fatal is Kamiki's song. That song's vibes IS TRULY what he does feel about Ai, but in a pretty obsessive way I guess... it's not what Aqua would hold towards Ai (or others, like Ruby), that much is made clear in this chapter I feel? and?? Mephisto too?? That HAS to be his song? because it's about wanting to reach out to someone and wanting to meet that person who's already deceased, rather than drifting further apart by sacrificing for their sake. Ruby is alive, and Aqua's in this for her sake, right? And if Kamiki wants to do something about Ai, it should be about him trying to "feel her" or "get closer to her". Aqua and Kamiki's doing the opposite thing here and I feel what Kamiki's doing matches that song more.

at least, that's how I feel about it.

The rest is in the read more:

(I jotted this down as soon as I saw the chapter, in another language~)

I saw spoilers, and seriously???

How do you even "help" someone like this…

I don’t really understand this kind of thought structure or logic…

Wouldn't it be better without the movie arc? If so, I wouldn’t have been so confused either…

If it’s any comfort, I was right about Aqua’s emotions—Aqua really does live for Ruby. I wrote that in an analysis I made earlier(JUST A SINGLE DAY AGO)

(I wrote: Back to the title topic—It’s really obvious that Fatal is Kamiki’s song because,

Though Ai is someone very special and important to Aqua, I think at this point, Ruby is even more precious to him. Aqua still has people around him who are alive, and he has to live for them. Living for the dead is exhausting and hard. There’s so much for him to look forward to (which is, in a way, the essence of what Kamiki says to Aqua in chapter 161). Aqua has Ruby. Ruby is incredibly important to him. He also has Kana and Akane. He’s not at the point where he lives solely for Ai, nor should he be.

Kamiki doesn’t have people like that. Ai is his only reason. To die, to live- whatever he's doing, I feel he's in it for what he THINKS is for her sake.)

I got this part EXACTLY right, didn't I?

For Aqua, Ruby is definitely the most precious person. It’s true that the balance of his life has shifted from Ai to Ruby…

But this is kind of funny… even though it’s a pretty common trope!! I seriously already drew a scene just like this??? The context is different, but still.

In this comic!

What the heck? LOL, so now I feel weird.

THOSE ARE HANDS. IT'S SKETCHY, BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GOING FOR WHEN I DREW HIM BEING DRAGGED AWAY

I was honestly surprised. I drew this back in September 21st? LOL.

Right now, the story feels a bit disconnected,

Because it makes me feel like Ai’s video or her request… wasn’t really necessary.

If the twins’ reincarnation was really just for Ruby, then Ai was just… there to play the role of the mother? To carry Aqua and Ruby as a vessel..?;

Did it really need to be Ai’s child?

Also, does that mean Aqua’s mission was just to die in Ruby’s place?;;?

It could’ve been phrased like 'Take down Kamiki who's grown evil.' It seems like he’s really deteriorated. How does someone end up like that…

Doesn’t Kamiki need some sort of exorcism at this point? The way he talks, it’s like he’s possessed by an evil spirit.

If in this chapter, there was a scene where he says he wants to see or feel Ai and then manipulates people and kills them, I would’ve accepted it immediately, like, 'Yeah, this guy has to die here.' But there’s still nothing about what happened with Yura or if he killed anyone… there’s no clear image. It's about him saying he can’t die yet, and it’s still just about him wanting to see Ai forever. (And that phrase—doesn’t it overlap with the song IDOL, TV VER, where someone in the chorus goes:

(You're my savior)

(My true savior)

(My saving grace)

(I'm with you forever)

(By your side, forever)?

He's the guy who talks about forever when it comes to Ai, I guess?

The glitch effect and the white star turning into a black star… It really looks like he’s the black star. Or maybe a corrupted white star.

So, what’s he been doing all this time?

If he’s this wicked, why don’t they show us any evidence to back it up? Even as background material, wouldn’t that make sense? It feels like it’s not just laziness in drawing… we should be shown what he’s been up to during this time.

I guess it’s true he tried to kill Ruby oh my god…what kind of guy did Ai date.. I can't believe it. If he dies here, he won’t be able to go to the same place as Ai, but he should at least get smacked by her in hell for what he’s done. What was that even supposed to be…

The story is hard to understand because, when he looked at Ruby and his eyes lit up, why was it a white star? Does killing Ruby mean he can see Ai forever?

Honestly… I still don’t really understand the whole 'shine forever' thing, so it doesn’t emotionally resonate with me.

It feels like this isn’t everything.

Is he really just split between two personalities? What is this guy’s deal? If he’s broken this badly, when did it start? Did he deteriorate right after they broke up and then turn into this person obsessed with Ai being the most important thing in the world?

Aqua won’t die.

If Ai’s will has even the slightest meaning, Kamiki shouldn’t end here, either.

If he’s truly irredeemable, then sure, it makes sense for him to die now. But if the songs are some kind of foreshadowing in ANY way, something might have driven him to become this twisted.

I just don’t see the point of turning him into a completely senseless madman…;;

He really seems to have fallen, but shouldn’t there be more to him having become this way than just having been dumped? Being dumped can turn a "noble" soul into this mess? I don't think so.

I feel like something's gotten him to become this way but who knows? If the author wants to explore it, they will, if they want to wrap it up like this, they would..

well, for Kamiki fans, I bet this will be the LOWEST point he'll ever be (or maybe that we find more dead bodies he hid on the news and go 'wow.. so he DID that' and it'd get even worse) so on the bright side, there's only something..you'll feel you can look forward to. Ai's wish is our only hope, why IS that thrown in there? They didn't have to make her say that, so I'm still bothered because i feel that arc somehow.. is a buildup that's led us to recognize saving him is what Ai's wanted.

It's not too long ago since that was addressed, so would they really make it go to waste, I wonder. Because if this guy isn't helped, it's not just about Kamiki as a character but; it's about leaving what Ai wanted as a lost cause.

That guy has seriously gone nuts though, I'm kind of worried not for the manga's sake but for his... what made him like that?? Is it really only him that's brought that upon himself because, I feel he used to be a really kind soul? Or did I just misinterpret him all along? He doesn't seem sane now... I wonder if I'll be able to pity him or not, it'll really depend - whether if he's what he's chosen to be or was possessed/against his will that he became like this.

is it hiatus next week? I hope not, right?

I guess I can.. just sit down and watch whatever they throw at me now. The art was pretty good! I don't like the chapter! but I also feel like regardless of where the story heads (may this chapter be all there is to it or having more twists to it later), this chapter WAS something that was planned. That's why I'm not that surprised.

[katyspersonal]

sorry if the "use later" meant you weren't taking them now, but if you are : 6, 10, 25, 44, and maybe 50 ? (i don't remember you talking about a hunter of your own, so if not, general hcs about the protag ?)

Ahhh don't worry about this! I AM taking the asks, I am just stacking them for later because my ask answering habits are chaotic x)

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

6) League or Vilebloods?

This question gave me flashback on having made a reasonable point about why if Valtr and Bloody Crow have met, they'd experience the strongest wish to kill the other in their lives fhsdhfs I have a lot to say about the philosophy and goal of both covenants! To condense it as much as possible, I say Vilebloods, because they at least have the reasonable goal! They are a split from Pthumerians that felt entitled to crown a female monarch and carry the Child of Blood (who is a Great One on "their" terms)! Yes, they seek, consume and maybe even cultivate Human Dregs, but they have the vision of the new era... even if drenched in blood and sin.

League guys are battling the thing that can't be ultimately defeated - the evil within men, so their end goal would be destruction of life itself! I do feel bad for what the poor idiots took upon themselves, this is a twisted trap of existence, and they are sadly smarter. Burdened with something you are not SUPPOSED to get a glimpse of! But, Vilebloods have THE plan, I respect this more. (I also respect the ask meme's creator for pitting these covenants against each other, this is a very deep observation!)

10) Sexiest boss?

I am not so sure ;-; When it comes to sexual attraction, most of my preferences fall on NPCs and not bosses! I think Amygdala is the closest one to the definition! Maria, Micolash and Ebrietas are definitely up here, but in this case "sexyness" comes from the sense of "knowing" the character! With Amygdala I think it is more genuine in terms of appreciating the boss through this lence. It is not 'omg I am fighting THIS person 😳' but it is 'omg all these arms and tendrills 😳'!

25) Upper Cathedral Ward Y/N

I never, ever, ever, EVER want to see that STUPID fucking bitchass fucker Brainsucker in the long narrow hallway that keeps STUNLOCKING ME WITH its STUPID fucking spell EVER, EVER, EVER AGAIN.

YEAH YEAH WHATEVER fshfhdsfs I always do this area anyways and I love its atmosphere and the sound, but it HURTS. I am also probably the only person alive who is struggling with Celestial fucking Emissary!!!! It is a love-hate relationship with this area, but I say yes because I physically can't bring myself to skip it!

^ Love the way it looks through sequence breaking, too!

44) Have you read any of the comics?

No, and I don't think I ever will be able to :') My country has some.... """issues""" with overseas merch to say the least fsdhfghfsd Granted, from what I've seen the comics IS awesome! It is exactly the way I want licensed products to be: instead of giving you lore on unexplored canon characters they add original characters, instead of shoving the lore answers onto you they respect the vagueness of the original and continue it... I always dreaded stuff for my previous fandoms such as official comics, infodrops through official Twitters, spin-offs etc that gave too much information because I don't like to cOnSuMe MoRe CoNtEnT uwu, I like enough space for speculation and imagination left! With Bloodborne comics, I could tell this is the case!

( x ) ^ This alone I respect very much! I love it when the writer has their own idea but doesn't hammer it down and leaves it up to the audience to figure it OR not. This IS how Miyazaki writes his own stories - he knows what the story IS, but won't straight up tell us XD This is what I loved about original Matrix trilogy - creators have had a certain idea in mind but the story was crafted in such a way that it was up to the audience to find it out, or even find their own interpretations! And this is why I refused to watch Owl House - I heard that the creator got super controlling and defensive about how audience """should""" read and feel towards the villain. I've sidetracked but I can tell from a mile that if I ever lay my hands on these comics it must be worth my time all things considered!

50) Tell me about your hunters!

Oh boy... I am a total 'Paleblood Hunter is not loreless' truther x) There IS a "canon" Paleblood Hunter character, unlike in the case of other Soulsborne games, and it doesn't let me get creative XD There is a guy with white hair and grey eyes that is probably a reincarnation of Laurence ( x ) , having ties with Cainhurst but also coming from the 'foreign country' that was a home of Brador ( x ) and like 80% of the Healing Church's staff!

This is tormenting me. This is eating me. I have such deeply-rooted insecurity about "bringing in something from myself" that @val-of-the-north has had to FIGHT me to keep my """irrelevant""" OCs for the fandom. xD And stuff like this perfectly nurtures that side of me, as I jealously watch every normal fan have fun with THEIR version of protag like:

Nonetheless, I actually DO have a Hunter that I love to use and recreate at any lost safe or restarted game! This is Rin!

Or Rena, or Rina.... something along these lines fhfhds I've first shared about her here ( x ), and since then not much about her changed! I still like the worst fucking backstory where her overly cautiousness at first made her kill one of like three sane people in the setting, the developing sense of justice and killing a person full of shit on the spot, the worst bloodtinge and absence of guns use etc!

The thing that changed is weaponry style! Now I got fixation on having every variant of Ludwig's Holy Blade (normal/arcane, bolt, fire, poisoned). So picture her having collection of the same sword but with different "element" XD I'll take more screenshots of her! Currently she has clouded eyes effect (fell victim of my experiments with Save Editing), I probably should fix it fdfdsfds But, yeah... I like playing as her! I tried to create 'default Paleblood Hunter' for male playable character and it didn't feel as satisfying as I thought it would!

[wheredostarsgowhenyoudie]

Finally finished Moonlight Mystique :)

Here's my honest review, if you'd care to read.

Good casting of beautiful actresses and actors

Let it be said that I love the ML, and truth be told, this role showed Ao Ruipeng in a better light than previous shows (not that I've watched many, so can't say much). I've just always found him adorable in A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College in his role as Yan-yan.

Bai Lu has always been beautiful. Her acting is the same in all shows but it always helps to see a beautiful FL. She does that well.

And Dai Lu Wa, I was really excited for her role here. I thought she was epic as An Yan in Lost You Forever. She's even more epic as Fu Ling and Bai Xi.

Cang Shan was adorable. Tian Huo was badass.

Muji was so sweet and the wolf trio were really interesting.

A'chi is handsome and on the same level as Fan Yue.

Great outfit and creative design

I'm honestly awed by the costume design and the creativity involved in the show. The gowns, the hair accessories, the robes, the make-up, like wow.

Promising plot, but the possibilities are untouched.

Given that it's supposedly the third part after Ancient Love Poetry and The Last Immortal, I truly expected a lot more. It just didn't feel right nor enough. And yes, I've watched both.

Script writing and choices of scene cuts wise, the possibilities remained unexplored. They could have added more awe effect to give the storyline more justice and life. It's a love story of different relationships. Family. Friends. Found family. Love for the people and the world. A battle of eternals and demons and deities and then the humans. It already has depth, but in the end, the potential just felt unexplored and untouched.

For instance, the excitement of waiting for Jing Yuan to appear was a letdown given the shortness of his appearance. For someone who supposedly divided his divine mantle to spend 60,000 yrs looking for Xing Yue, was that really the only ending he could have had? And where was the consciousness of Xing Yue?

Fan Yue's character as someone revered and respected by the Polar Region was a tale told but limited scenes were shown. There was no scene where he interacted directly with the little demons that showed how he earned their appreciation and respect. How do the little demons react to him roaming around? There were minimal scenes for that and most were overpowered by his interaction with Bai Shuo.

Also, why was Fan Yue always sleeping? This one, I found amusing lol. For someone so powerful and who lived for long, where is the wisdom of thinking outside the box? Why does his every move have to be a sacrifice?

Bai Shuo became a supreme deity. The first and only human supreme deity in the story. So how did the humans react to this news? Do they know of her? What was the reaction of the demons and the humans to what happened? What was the reaction of the citizens of Ningan City who once thought of her as spoiled and unruly?

The number of deaths reminded me of Hamlet.

There were a lot of sacrifices from each side. And it started with the wolf clan. So when the time comes, will the last of the wolf trio also take her own life? What becomes of A'wu?

I've always thought that the love that stays behind is bittersweet. It's a sad fate to be the one left behind, no matter how much others call it honorable. Bai Shuo was a badass for choosing to live on. Unless you live it, most people would not realize the strength that living takes when you feel you're the only one left. She recited lines about exploring the world to keep her promise to Fan Yue. But not one scene of that was shown.

The story is about love. I love romance, no doubt, but what I love even more is the love that transcends beyond the two people in love. When love becomes a pay it forward kind of thing, and people all around learn to show kindness and love and offer a hand and forgiveness without expectations. That is supposedly the plotline of this story and the 3 books it's supposedly based on, or so it looked to me. So why wasn't that explored in the ending and the extra episode? A sacrifice supposedly for the world. So how did the so called world react and live on?

I could say a lot more. But that's the point. So much potential. Unexplored possibilities.

Villains are a bit weird.

The serpent became the master of the Cold Spring Palace. Only near the end, did we learn his whys and in the end, he died and for what and for who? For Mo Li to comeback. The thing is, Mo Li is a character who is supposedly the third deity but who did not receive love so he does not know how to give it. He was and is literally alone with just the serpent for company. He doesn't even have other minions. He is like this lost soul, a child who takes what he thinks is good for him. But even if he gets it, where is the satisfaction? He does not know of love, does not understand the warmth of having someone care for him. Even if Chong Zao lived his life, his consciousness is different from Mo Li's.

In a way, Mo Li's character is even more pitiful than Tan Tai Jin in Till the End of the Moon.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the drama. :) As a fan and viewer, it's always a delightful pastime for me to watch beautiful people play good roles in dramas. I was always looking forward to the next eps. Nice acting too.

But as a writer...well, yeah, you get the gist. I still wanna ask the writer why. Just why.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 16- Part 4

I remember, we go back up north and to the right and then-

OOOOH!~ Further proof of how blessed this area is! And I have a Net Ball, this is perfect!

First, some precautions. Paralysis!

And then damage it with Decibel and Bite!

And now we deploy the Net Ball!

Now, as for what to name it…oh, I know!

Monarch! Mostly for Vivillon, not only because butterflies, but because I’m sure those Shiny-colored wings are going to look magnificent.

So now, we continue onwards…

Yes…at last, we meet again! And this time, you’re not avoiding me!

Now let’s see what this next PULSE is going to be-

Oh my gosh, this process is literally killing the poor thing! That’s what happens when your organs stop, because they’re not supposed to do that! It’s practically a zombie at this point!

…Wait- if this is the end of the purification process, why is this Tangrowth labeled with “A”, and the early-stage one was “C”? Shouldn't it be the other way around if it’s a sequence? Not only are they trying to co-opt Team Rocket’s motto, but the Meteors also don’t know the alphabet! Outrageous!

But as for how to actually fight this thing…well, its Defense is already really good, and Stamina will make it even better. So what I’m getting from this is that we wanna attack it with Special moves instead of Physical. It’s typing also reminds me of Cradily…but unlike back then, we’ve got a Pokémon that won’t immediately die to Grass or Rock attacks! And uses Special moves! So Crater’s gonna be key for this.

Anyways, heading back and continuing to the right to find anything still unexplored, and…well, it’s the same dead end as before, but here’s something I didn’t notice last time.

Standing right up to the vine or root like this, and if you look all the way to the upper right, you can actually see the PULSE machine, somewhat. So close, yet so far…

But now…well, I really am kinda at a loss for what to do now, or at least where to go next. I’ve been everywhere I could go, and everywhere else is blocked off in some way. But that can’t be all there is to this place, there’s still that one tree we need to cut down! So what’s next? Maybe I really do need to go to that one house…? But it’s nowhere near the PULSE or the tree, so how would that help? Do I actually need to look at the Rhodochrine Jungle map to find out where to go next???

No, no- maybe if I just look at my screenshots and commentary from the last part, maybe I’ll spot something I missed. Lemme see- 

(A few moments later…)

So, there is one place I didn’t actually look at yet, and I sorta forgot about it until now. Another staircase in the Underroot- this one, by the white Poké Ball item!

So this has to lead to the Cut tree, right? There’s literally no other place to look, as far as I’ve been able to tell.

Is that…an alternate exit from the jungle? I mean…it’s not exactly what I was looking for, but it’s still something new, so there’s no use ignoring it.

Oh- this must be the half of Beryl Ward we couldn’t get to before because the roads were all blocked by vines. Hello, new street sign!

“Little Poe”? Man, they’re really stretching for some of these street names now- 

So it looks like there’s really only two places to see, this one pink building and something to the left.

And this rock with a bottle of vitamins.

I’ll check out this pink building first, assuming we can even go inside of it.

We can! Fancy-looking building, lots of bookshelves…is this a library?

But speaking of the bookshelves, I see a TM up there- there must be a way to parkour up on the shelves then, right?

OH HECK! Field Effect Read-Out! Now I really wanna parkour on the bookshelves! Can’t really do that from down here, though- but there are some stairs over there!

Yeeeah, broken railings save the day! This is definitely a safe thing to do!

Incredible. Now we use the stairs on the other side to get on the bookshelves on that side, and then…!

I’m sorry- “Corrosive Field”? I…greatly dislike the sound of that! But it sounds very similar to that Corrosive Mist field I remember being mentioned with regards to Misty Terrain, so…are they related? Corrosive Field, Corrosive Mist…still don’t like the sound of either of those.

But anyways, there are a few doorways too, so…well, we’re on the right side, so might as well investigate the one on the right first.

Oh, hello Growlithe! What’s this guy doing here? Is there a police officer nearby? There’s still one more to find, after all.

Well, we’ll interact with it after I pick up this item here.

A WHAT NOW?? Pardon me??

WHAT. What purpose could this possibly serve?? Okay!! I guess we just…have this now!! That’s cool!

Okay, that’s…interesting. I swear, if Xera ends up falling down this hole just like she got sent down the Nuzleaf pitfalls, I’m going to throw myself into a centrifuge-

Previous

Next

[doorplays]

Door Reviews: The Gostak (2001)

Ah, here we are. In a game review about a text adventure, ready to talk about its nuances. A special little text adventure that feels like you got dropped into a foreign land… and tragically, you don’t understand the local language! A text adventure that asks you: how will you play a game that you can’t understand?

This is what The Gostak is all about. And I’m excited to talk about it with you. Let’s get to it!

Keep in mind by the way that the magic of playing this game might be lost once you read this review. So… I’m gonna slap a big fat SPOILER WARNING here. Read at your own risk!

My Foray into Text Adventures

The Gostak has been in my radar for a while, starting when I saw one of the substacks I followed talk about it. It felt interesting: a text adventure that forces you to think what the heck is happening. What’s a delcot? What’s a dosh? And… glauds??

I looked for it online, seeing it’s archived in the Interactive Fiction Database. And in seeing it, I discover the site itself: a treasure trove of a genre of games unexplored. The closest I’ve played a similar game is from a quest in Kingdom of Loathing: a browser game that parodies so many things. It was kind of funny and okay when I was young (I played it when I was in high school and all of 13 years old), but now that I’m playing a different text adventure, I feel like maybe I’m skipping a few steps in the genre. Nonetheless, so far it is an interesting look into it.

It’s a genre that is completely based on text. No graphics, just a command input and some words to describe where you are. Your imagination is the engine that turns the text on the screen into a running game. You input commands like go left, go right, pick up object, talk to person, then let the text engine churn out the response to your actions, then let your own imagination parse that into a dynamic scene.

I love it. I like letting my imagination run wild with these things. It makes me want to explore more text adventures.

Which makes me feel kind of weird that The Gostak is one of my first of these games, as I feel like such a game would be better appreciated if you have played a few text adventures beforehand. This specific game subverts the expectations of the genre, throwing you into it blind and forcing you to reorient itself. The very words you rely upon are no longer usable here, and you must scramble for purchase as you reckon with yourself how to chip away at this game.

Distimming the Doshes

I’m gonna peel back the curtain here with the game. Final warning! You might enjoy it less if you read on!

The game has a lot of nonsensical words. And it doesn’t give you much in the way of help right out of the gate. So here’s what the game is: the game is figuring out what the words mean, so that you may find out what’s going on and eventually win the game!

But then you have to ask yourself: how exactly do you win the game? When going left or going right doesn’t work, what should you do? What you should do is understand the language the game speaks in, and speak it back! What is a Gostak? What is a dosh? How do you distim? Slowly, you will understand as you put commands into the client: some will give you nothing, but some will give you more insight into the world in the game.

It’s a nice linguistics game of sorts. Having played Heaven’s Vault, a similar game involving understanding a long dead language, I think this game is more direct in its approach to translation and understanding. I like it a lot! I love the eureka moments in discovering which word does what, which words are commands, which words help me explore more of the game.

In Closing

I enjoyed this game!! Though you may want to play some other text-based games first, so that you may be able to appreciate the genre better. I encourage you, reader, to explore the Interactive Fiction Database so that you may be able to find more games to play in this genre!

JUDGMENT: A text adventure that will tickle your brain once you understand it. It creatively uses the medium and makes you work for the win.

[ginger-snaps014]

This is why fandom cannon and show cannon are NOT considered the same thing hahaha! Like imagine if you somehow avoided Harry Potter your entire life, then meet the only the fandom versions haha! The fandom lets

Trans/gender fluid characters be accepted and magically express themselves b/c they are a Metamorphmagus (and can change their body at will) by using polyjuice potion. She-who-must-not-be-named would never permit that. There are loads of actual gay characters. Not just called gay after the fact. There is a million stories with the marauders that non-cannon people would not realize we only met as adults/dead. Sympathetic slytherins in general and great Draco redemption arcs. More characters have melanin, disabilities, etc.

In my opinion fandoms aren’t annoying, they are adding something that is lacking from the the original. Usually representation. Most rainbow stories I have read are fanfics. Being exposed to those stories allowed me to be more aware, accepting and empathetic towards real people. That’s important. If certain fandom tropes become super popular, you can see exactly where traditional media failed, needs to be updated, or left unexplored. When the mainstream media fails, the fans step up.

Plus, a ton of respected media is in fact a fanfic - usually an AU - of an older piece. West side story is Romeo and Juliet in 1950s America. Paradise Lost is Genesis from the Bible but with character depth. Clueless is Emma in the 90s. She’s the Man and 10 things I hate about you are Shakespeare 90 AU. Hook is Peter pan but adult. So forth and so on. Not to mention Disney. Whether it’s backed by a budget and done by professionals or done in someone’s basement, retelling and changing a preexisting story with popular recognition, characters, plot, etc. is creating a new version on the back of existing media. Negating the value of one makes little sense. They are doing the same thing. You just wade through a lot more bad/unfinished fanfic to find the jewels.

So ya some of the changes can confuse those who never interacted with the original. But there is a reason they engage with the fandom and not the original.

[43501]

Hello again! This is the same annon that mentioned the Kira/Near AU idea and THANK YOU SO MUCH! You made so many valid points that embarrassingly enough I hadn’t even picked up on initially, but considering this has only been on my mind for the past I’d sayyy 4 days??? I still have A LOT of fun brainstorming I can do :))

I think the whole more playful spin on things could make the storyline really interesting, his motive would still be lacking though as you’ve mentioned. Of course we could base it off his ‘rivalry’ with Mello, but I can’t see Near ever punishing others for his beef with him, which yeah I think you agree on. Of course, I could just throw in some more depth to his character, more than we’ve gotten already with How to Read and the manga. Like, basically taking what we know already about him but also adding in some more main MAIN character attributes like how Light has. I’m thinking of just writing this out honestly. This AU is of course Near centered so he needs to have depth,

And as for his shinigami, NOW HEAR ME OUT. Gook.

Not only is he a gambler but he’s also apparently EXTREMELY lazy/sleeps most the time. NOW! I see him working most with Near because as I was reading through his info I seen that yeah, man likes to gamble, but he also sucks ass at it. So I kinda see that being his motive to drop his Death Note in the hopes Near picks it up? It’s already shown him KINDA seeming interested with the human world as he messed around with Ryuk a bit after Ryuk had dropped his. I can see hmmm maybe Gook being the asshat he is at gambling, sees this young man, (Near) whose very playful but also intelligent which no offense Gook but you aren’t. I feel like it would be alluring to him and very easy for Near to control Gook. (We kinda seen this with Ryuk and Light, but it always seemed like Ryuk was somewhat aware and willing to do it simply for the apples.) I think Gook would just genuinely follow Nears orders in hope to whiteness his creativity.

And also them both not really liking to move around a lot I think would call for some silly back and fourth moments,

Near asking Gook to do something,

Gook being asleep/ not feeling like it

Near asking if all shinigami’s bums

Gook saying ‘yeah pretty much’ or some shit

Them sitting in silence for like 11 minutes until Gook eventually gets drama hungry

(help this is so sloppy I apologize if its overwhelming)

Oh and no i wasn’t exactly pushing at Near and Matt being necessarily ‘partners’. I feel like theres maybe a chance they’d all be close? Best example I got is The L, Misa, Light trio during the Yostuba arc where not everyone was getting along but they were getting along in their own dysfunctional way. I never really thought about there being a second kira now that you mention it, do you think there should be one?

Oh, man. Using Gook/Gukku for a Kira!Near AU is such a genius move. Near with the wooly, yak-like shinigami beside him is such a compelling image that I suddenly want to draw something for it. I adore the little fragments you threw in here, imagining some of the ways they might interact. I hope the motive/starting point for Kira!Near materializes as you consider it more, because I think there's a strong, fresh concept here and I think this should exist.

(In a fandom that's been around for approximately 17 years and has always been massive, there are very few stones that've been left unturned, but this is genuinely unexplored territory.)

With regard to the last part, I get your clarification now and "getting along in their own dysfunctional way" (to describe the Light/L/Misa trio and what you want to emulate here) is both true and really funny. I was just curious if you were also going to go for the Natebit angle. Since it's roleswap, there's a lot of potential to play around in different ways.

[someonespsyche]

absence - reflections a day after my first breakup

the presence of someone is easy to describe. he made boorish jokes, did things that hurt me, yet inspired me to be a kinder person and was cause to some of the best moments of my life. but now i am left to express the absence. and the way to go about doing so is to describe the matter of everything around him, the markings he left on my life, the memories he created. from negative space of those imprints you can start to discern his silhouette.

today was the day after the breakup. i woke up and in one fell swoop, cancelled my alarm and checked my messages, knowing there were none, not from the person who mattered. i went to our chat history and read the remnants of our separation. though the fires were put out, embers remained of his presence and i combed through one last time, with the hunger of a rabid scavenger, savoring the last bit of warmth i could squeeze from his words.

i showered, using the body wash we shared. wiped my hair with the towel left unwashed from his last visit. i did the laundry, noticing the turtleneck i wore to our valentines lunch in the bottom of the basket. the lunch exactly a week ago from the breakup.

i pulled open my fridge. i saw the groceries we bought together at costco, the celery and carrots in heavy bags he helped carry back to my place. i let the fridge door swing close without retrieving any food. i wasn't hungry.

it was high time i went outside for fresh air. i walked down main mall. to my right was the grass lawn i waited at for him to pick me up, august 31st. we went to kits beach that day, ate corndogs and fried chicken, ending off the day with mango bubble tea. it was such a bright moment in my life. back then, it was crystal clear that his only goal was to make me happy. I went to the gym and tried not to think about it, but ended up crying during chest presses.

in a way, i also became a silhouette of my normal self. i had no urges to eat, no energy to distract myself. the only thing keeping my body moving was my own verbal command, repeated like a mantra. "go to the gym, do the practice exams for your midterms, journal your feelings later." but in midst of practice exams, the familiar pang settled in my chest and the tears started welling. i cried at the library two more times and decided to go somewhere isolated and write this.

i feel like i dwell on things longer than he does. i just spent a few minutes reading through our joint journal. it stung to see how closely he resembled my dream partner during that time. but now he's different and i can't look back.

a few years back i read paper towns. one one quote that stuck with me, by the lovestruck quentin, was "the way I saw time and my life was divided into before and after Margo Roth Spiegelman."

with him, my time seemed to punctuated by our activities: a date, dinner, or uh... depravity (our combined iq seemed to be in the single digits). its embarrassing to admit this co-dependence but i would mentally measure time by our activities together: it wasn't friday 10am, but rather "48 hours before i see him on our skating date". it wasn't January 4th, but "two weeks after we beat the ender dragon together".

i was ruminating a lot about the words left unsaid, the plotlines unexplored. these plans cant help but spring up as i muddle through my quotidian routines, like how we were supposed to buy groceries together this weekend, make lunches together during school days. we were supposed to do a road trip, and after i graduated, move in together. but without a co-author, this story can't be continued any longer. the i's have been dotted, the t's crossed, and the last period of the last sentence placed.

time will pass. his profile in my chat history will sink below conversations with friends and newly added acquaintances. the groceries we bought together will be eaten, the valentines flowers will decompose. the seasons will spin and come back to resemble the summer we met and i'm hopeful that with each cycle, the wound will fade. every memory i make from now on will help me fill that void, until his silhouette becomes less a gash and more a scar, a reminder of healing rather than loss.

[annimator-ocblog]

OC Story: Fall from Grace

(Happy Birthday Mercy! And also while where at it, Happy belated birthday to Geno too!)

Fallen Angels were a cautionary tale to Mercy as she grew up; angels that denounced the very same gods they worshiped and were kicked out of their homeland.

Nowadays, not so much. And the fact that they could feel themselves turning into one isn’t even the main factor to that.

She was practically raised on lies about demons being in an endless war with her kind. And even with that, they were constantly forced to learn and read about biblical scriptures and teachings when all they wanted the most was to learn more about the magic they’ve heard about from those fantastical stories they heard about from those old books.

Mercy began to realize this when she decided to sneak out onto the middle ground of Gaea, where humans and other fantastical species co-exited. She met a demon named Geno during her time there, and over the course of a mere couple of minutes, the both of them became friends.

And after years worth of sneaking out to play, hangout, and fly amongst the meadow they met in, the two of them decided to make their stay in the middle grounds permanent.

———

It was surprisingly easy for Mercy to sneak out from her home during the night. They even managed to snatch one of their mom’s scythe as a necessity, not that they didn’t forget to get other things like spell books & other resources.

Mercy took a deep breath as they looked back to see her “home” whilst the portal towards the middle grounds stood infront of her, whispering a farewell,

“You felt like a home, but in all honesty, you were just a measly house. I’ll be sure to NOT send any postcards from the middle grounds”

———

Mercy spotted Geno running towards them with her own scythe in hand as she similarly left her own home to be with them.

They immediately embraced each other, with Geno pulling away as they noticed something “different” with their angelic friend,

“Your wings… your halo…. they…”

Mercy sighed as Geno pointed them out, “Yeah I know. It didn’t hurt when they changed anyways. Plus they look pretty freakin’ cool. And look at you! Ya actually look pretty great with shorter hair.”

Geno chuckled as she played with her hair, “Thanks. My Dad actually helped with it. He… gave me his blessing to leave home to be with you. Even gave me a new scythe all for myself and directed us to head to some place called “Arcana Academy”. It’s apparently a place to learn magic so it seems up our alley.”

Mercy smiled as she held Geno’s hands with her own, “Well in the mean time, we got a lot of time to ourselves now, don’t we?”

Geno smiled back, “Yeah, guess we do Mercy.”

And just like that, with no worry about what their parents would think of them, the two ran into the unexplored world together, hand in hand.

A fallen angel, & the demon they called their closest friend.