#theres also a lot of context needed to explain that question

[pendwelling]

Helloo,sorry for the trouble but could you tell me a bit about the ending of twsb? Is it a happy ending? Do all the main 3 get to live together? I am still in 170s as there is no other eng translation out there to read ahead... 🥺. I would really appreciate your help as the curiosity is killing me.

//SPOILERS FOR TWSB ENDING!!!!!!//

I answered a similar question on twt/x so I'll just elaborate on my answer from there haha:

It's a very VERY happy ending!!!!! Think of all the struggles and desires of the main characters and imagine them finally getting peace, solace, and happiness. TWSB at its core had always been a very character-driven story where the goals and desires of the characters were what largely push the plot forward, and after all their struggles, you can tell the ending was lovingly crafted over a careful build-up of 920 chapters. They all get their resolution, and character who have went through tragedies get their second chances at living a kinder life, and the villains get their comeuppance in the fair way that TWSB tends to treat its antagonists (there's also proper trial investigations being done and etc etc, politics and court affairs in this novel is actually so interesting.)

All the characters have obtained their perfect endings in their fitting respective ways! It's a super gratifying conclusion for readers, and the thing about Sookym is that they also do a great job in making us care (or feel strong emotions towards) their large cast of characters.

In a more meta sense (since TWSB, for its genre, is surprisingly very meta)(and this is also a spoiler in regards to the universe's God), the "God" wishes for the main characters to be happy, and so the story has shifted itself so that a happy ending is something that our beloved characters are finally able to achieve for themselves without outside interference of original narrative structure forces (think of it a bit like ORV's Probability, TWSB has something similar to that). And in fact, for both the TWSB universe, AND the original QPB universe, as well. I can also confirm that the original Jesse Venetiaan gets his well-deserved happy ending, too! 🥹

Yeseo does indeed get to reunite with his siblings, too, and he ALSO gets to live with Cédric and Ham Ga-in Christelle on the weekends! (Despite pretty much being "married" into the Imperial Family and becoming Pope, this guy still chooses to work his usual 9-to-5 in the modern world LMAO.....)

There is an inter-world arrangement going on that is a bit hard to explain because there's a lot of context behind how it came to be haha, but basically Yeseo is essentially a bride that moves between households after getting married (LMAO). Everyone is very happy! Cédric especially, is very very smug that he gets to keep his beloved partner close by—he even safely escorts Yeseo back home like a dutiful partner whenever he needs to go back to his family home HAHAHA. Jung Hyunseo and him kinda have some beef over it, actually (Hyunseo: "this is his home?? why does he need an escort...." *insert smug Cédric face*). Hyunseo is really the older brother who has to deal with the antics of eccentric otherworldly in-laws and a model-student younger brother who has now grown up to be a bit of a troublemaker..... (There's a scene where Yeseo shows up and goes "Here's our baby!" while holding pretty-much-their-baby(DONT ASK WKDJKD)(AND NO THERES NO MPREG) and gives Hyunseo a near heart attack while Cédric looks so so so smug and self-fulfilled, he's such a brat..... (affectionate)).

All in all, after the war between the Riester Empire (with the allied forces of other countries + Crown Princess Elise) and the Sneijders of Venetiaan, there are award ceremonies (several characters get promoted or given new titled ranks), memorials and eulogies for those fallen in the war, and a very well wrapped-up conclusion to this huge conflict (again politics in TWSB are actually very interesting and really well done imo). It largely has to do with the Almighty God, as well, but I won't say much about that because 1.) It's a revelation that is best made while reading yourself, and 2.) It's a bit complicated to understand without the proper context anyway hahajah....

(I can also confirm that future emperor Cédric probably won't have to worry about siring an heir. Congratulations to Yeseo for essentially being the queerplatonic mother to his two partners' "children".....)(this sounds absolutely crazy but it makes sense OK trust me, but anyway, CYC are partners and I trust that they will continue to support each other for a long, long time hehe)

It's super, super satisfying, and a very happy ending for Yeseo and friends! :')

[redyarns]

Hi!, really love your Megop fic, I was wondering if I can ask if the fic plot or at least the idea of it is the same as the movie? Or something entirely new and just lightly biased off of it? Can’t help but think of it for days now with how good it is, thank you so much for blessing us with amazing writing <33

hi anon! of course, let me sit down and explain it because this might be a bit of a long explanation.

so in the transformers business (so to speak!), there are different continuities. aka a continuity is a universe that's separate from other universes but is still considered canon! you can google all the different continuities, but the transformers one movie is considered as the newest one, since its story doesnt align with any other continuity.

in each universe, things are at least slightly different even with similarities. if you look through ao3 youll realize that a lot of authors actually do something called a continuity soup, which is when they kind of cherry pick things from certain continuities! this works because like i said, although each universe is different, they still all have similarities. some similarities include things like how optimus and megatron used to be friends (at least in most of them), sentinel prime is always a traitor, and starscream is always trying to kill megatron and overtake the decepticons lmao.

for me, caught in the undertow is considered a continuity soup as well as a whole new world that i built on my own. the biggest influence is still tf1, so you can imagine all the characters look like their tf1 versions, but of course youre free to envision them as different versions if you want! it's just that a good chunk of context is built from tf1, but theres also quite a few things i took from other continuities.

for example, ultra magnus wasnt mentioned in the movie, nor was a central government. i also went into hot rod, mentioned drift, mentioned other cities, and all these other things that i took from other universes! even small stuff like hot rod being an archivist is a nod to how in some continuities, when optimus was orion pax, he was an archivist.

there were, however, things i didnt take from anywhere, but made up. one example would be titan's hold. its not an actual building in any continuity, just something i made up so that i had a setting for megatron and orion. the corruption of the council is also made up, though there are definitely a few universes that allude to something similar.

so all in all! the universe that undertow is set in is both a soup as well as my own thing. thats why i encourage anyone to read it even if theyve only just dipped their toe into the fandom, since i try to worldbuild in a way thats not super confusing or weird. that being said definitely do not reference my work for canon information lol

i know you probably know all this anon so i just wanted to explain in depth in case anyone else also had the same question! but if you need any more clarification please let me know, im happy to answer. i hope that cleared up everything you were asking about 🩷

[psihawaii]

ive finishied green vs red and i have no idea what i just watched. i know you said you dont need to watch any of the others but does it help?

but i did think it was funny and interesting, it has that fullmetal alchemist property where all the main characters are men but my favorite characters are the women. my favorite joke in the whole thing was the zoom in on lupins goofy ass grin in a mugshot with the subtitle ‘he’s always smart and cool’

I will say that me going ‘you dont have to know anything abt lupin iii at all going in 👍’ is moreso a personal thing abt me wanting to make the experience as confusing as possible, mostly if not entirely bc 1. I think it’s funny and 2. The film Also wants to make the experience of watching it as confusing as possible for plot reasons what with scenes being deliberately out of order + the movie never really explaining it’s main… Concept. I guess? I definitely don’t think it was the intended viewing experience (it was supposed to be a 40th anniversary special LMAO it is supposed to be a celebration of the franchise) but I just think it’s interesting to gauge ppls thoughts about what it could mean bc. In my opinion, green vs red’s larger Themes aren’t specific to lupin as much as they are abt any popular ‘morally grey’ male character/real. actual person/the effect media and fiction has on our real lives.

But to answer your question, i think knowing anything abt lupin iii only rlly helps with figuring out the preexisting characters relationship to lupin (which, sounds like a Big Thing, and i definitely do think knowing them a little makes for some Crazy implications with the concept of the film, but i think you get Enough context from what’s shown in the film + the thoughts and feelings of the gvr exclusive characters are more important, which do get explored thoroughly (or as thoroughly as the film can explain it)) and with all the lupin iii references (which are… obviously gonna be superfluous. theyre cute!! and i like em. but theyre not Needed to completely enjoy the flim). I feel like i’d be putting ‘Who Lupin Is. Like As A Person’ on this list, but again i feel like theres enough context within the film where you can figure it/what you Need to to watch it out. But of course im biased bc i watched green vs red pretty late into my lupin phase + i’ve watched it like five times in the past year.

BUT IM GLAD YOU LIKED IT!! It genuinely is one of my favorite movies of all time despite its problems. I think the idea of a really popular anime doing a non-linear metacommentary on itself as an anniversary film is Insane and whether or not you (the royal you. not you specifically syl) think it was executed well or a good celebration of the franchise its at least INTERESTING its a lot to think about… I really do like it as a commentary about legacy and idolizing problematic figures and how the media you consume/what you’re shown affects you as a person good and bad its… gaaahhhhhhh. I love media thats abt media.

And the thing abt lupin As A Whole really is that. It has really good women with crazy stories and roles and implications and it treats them HORRIBLYYYYYYYY like 85% of the time. the woman called fujiko mine (another artsy divisive examination of the franchise) is SUPPOSED to be more focused on its women (or woman. Singular.) and her role in the series and its…… interesting. good and bad. i would not say it centers women in a way thats tasteful or uhm… good as a narrative (at least towards the end) (and i feel like all of the Good interesting things it has to say that hold up by the end all have to do with the men!!!!!) (i almost wanna recommend twcfm to ppl as well but i have supremely Less authority on it and claim Less responsibility on the feelings anyone may or may not have abt it)

[its-callum-everybody]

I CANNOT DRAW. Thats how I’ve started every single part of this series and it’s how I’m going to end it. Hi. I’m Cal. In case you’ve never seen this before lemme explain. I can’t draw. But I really wanna show off my twst OC. So, I decided to make a 4 part series of me making her in-depth character analysis.

Part 1 — Basic Character Information / Relationships

Part 2 — Everything about her Unique Magic

Part 3 — Lore

Part 4 — Appearance

Part 4 ➤

Appearance!

A character’s appearance is incredibly important, even if their like invisible and you can see straight through them because there’s some type of reason or lore as to why they’re invisible!

It’s a whole bunch of things to consider; how are they built? What are their facial features? How is their hair styled? Is it clean? What color is their eyes? Is there any reason they dress a certain style?

All important questions, all things I had to ask while trying to curate Cyrielle. So let’s break down on what I decided to do with her appearance, shall we?

Hair

A characters hair is often used to symbolize their development. One great example of this in ATLA where Zuko’s hair gradually gets longer and longer the more he heals from his trauma as well as his growth as a person. It’s also symbolic in Sokka’s sides growing out and Katara’s hair getting fuller, softer. You’ve also probably seem the trope of a girl cutting her hair to make a statement, maybe she’s running away or trying to prove herself.

Well, for Cyrielle’s hair I wanted to play on the phrase ‘hair holds memories’ because she has amnesia. Cyrielle’s hair is going to start out short but as each Book and Chapter goes by it gets gradually longer to symbolize her getting back her memories. It also will help because, just like with Zuko, I want it to symbolize her growth.

NRC is a place full of villain kids, most of which have their own traumatic past or quells their trying to deal with like Cyrielle who is trying to break away from the villainous past of her grandfather entirely. So as Cyrielle’s hair grows she’s coming to realize the world is less black and white. Yes. These kids are messed up, but so is she in some context and if anything she should help them try to move on with her. It symbolizes passion for the future, for moving forward.

But for now, in book one, it’s short.

Eyes

Eyes. There almost a whole different story from hair. Almost. Eye colors can mostly be framed around genetics, but if your characters have special colored eyes theres usually a reason for it. Something which can easily be tied into their lore. Same with abnormal pupil shapes like stars or hearts.

Luckily, I’m not doing anything crazy for Cyrielle’s eye color. We’re sticking with gray. However, I will be focusing on eye shape.

For Cyrielle’s eyes I want them to sort of narrow, kind of almond shaped. As most characters with those type of eyes can be perceived as calm natured. Perhaps even stoic. Also, it gives her a masculine touch. As its to be noted maturer, mainly masculine presenting characteristics in most media. Especially anime. Have narrower eye shapes. While girls have bigger, rounder eyes.

They also need to be narrow to represent something I just mentioned; maturity. Most Kids have small, but usually bright and rounder eyes in media representation because it helps give them a feel of childhood innocence and whimsy. Something which Cyrielle never really got the chance of having. Go read the lore part to understand why.

Body

Body shape and type! These are very important, especially if you want diverse characters. After all, you can represent someone with different backgrounds and cultures but those people will look different. Say if they didn’t eat a lot growing up, have some medical disabilities, had or have a healthy diet, maybe they were encouraged to work out, experienced or are experiencing a change in their body.

It’s all very natural and it’s awesome when properly represented so make sure to research first kids!

Now, lets examine what Cyrielle is right? Well she stands at 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighs 146 lbs. I want most of that weight to come from muscle but she of course is still going to have a little bit of fat because girl is not a work out monster. She is more like a pilates princess who occasionally lifts weights.

So thats going to give her a thicker, rounder structure. Which will be good because if she was all skin and bones she wouldn’t have much muscle, so she would be physically weaker which isn’t something she wants.

Her Scar

Now, given her unique magic she can’t really get or sustain injury as 99.9 percent of the time she’ll be able to just heal it herself without leaving behind a scar at all.

So whats so special about this one? Well, it’s the one scar she’ll never be able to get rid of. The one where it seemed as though she had been pierced through the heart with a sword.

Outfits

Character outfits! Now, in most shows and such characters will be primarily seen in the same outfits except for maybe the occasional change. These are often true for most anime and cartoons especially. Something which I don’t want. But its best for practically in this sense.

And TWST and other games like it do it so well. Especially with special cards and events. Plus, we’re also given, dorm outfits, school outfits, gym outfits. Its *chefs kiss* perfect. Sadly, we won’t be talking about any of her event outfits for today. Just the basic ones plus a few extra just for funsies.

Dorm Uniform —

The dorm uniform is fun because Ramshackle doesn’t have one so you can do whatever you want with it! Of course, I’m going to tie in on the ghostly, victorian sort of vibe. Because who would I be if I didn’t?

For starters! I think it is well established that Ramshackle is inspired by the Haunted Mansion. Something which I already liked to incorporate into Cyrielle’s fashion alongside academia and fantasia sort of themes.

Now, once more, I can’t draw. So I had two options, Pinterest until I can Pinterest no longer. Or Picrew.

So you can obviously tell which I chose. Credits to @seep_999 of course. Now. None of her main features were featured in this picture. Just the outfit.

School Uniform —

Her school uniform is fully black as Ramshackle isn’t given much of an official school color. Though later on it would be established as a sort of Blue Yonder shade.

Which would change the color of her vest.

The actual component of her uniform consist of the regular vest; regular over coat; a white shirt with a ruffle neck; a black & white striped bow tie; black tights; and low black heels.

Sprite

Now, as I mentioned I cannot draw. So. I have resorted to a common method I’ve found, which is this lovely picrew made by @lxnya728.

And here she is! Cyrielle is completed at long last. Of course, I’ll be doing more works and drabbles with her later on. Maybe even dive into some event lore and outfits, but for now here she is!

[vividaway]

when i was little i couldnt grasp/fathom what an autistic person experienced the world like. (read: i was autistic and couldnt put myself in somebody elses shoes). i also had really shitty adults who'd shrug off my question about it with "oh, well, you know. it's in the same grouping as down syndrome and what not!" (its really not but they meant that they both may require special needs) and this did nothing to paint a picture on what it meant to be autistic.

obviously the neurotypical adults around me likely couldn't explain it back then (nor could they accurately do so now) but it feels kinda...vindicating to know/be autistic. to look at that moment in my childhood and go "hah! you silly child! look in the mirror! you ARE autistic!". but also to know that every time they used 'autistic' as an insult...they werent correct?

at least, for me and a lot of my peers, our autistic traits can mirror and mimic so many disorders that neurotypical people experience such as anxiety, depression, and even ADHD (though thats not NT but u get my point!!). whenever they used autism as an insult, they usually meant dumb. stupid. slow. all of the above. "what are you, autistic?" is almost never used in the context of speaking to a person having a panic attack, yet thats how a lot of peoples autism presents itself. and i dont know why... but theres something beyond vindicating about knowing this when my educators and guardians failed to understand it. it's like harboring a little secret that the world just doesn't grasp.

[cheylouwho]

i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and i want to hear someone from SPHS’s thoughts.

i know you’ve noticed the “tiktok” fan base- the ones that only watch clips of the show and then say they’re fans. i read one of your posts talking about these types of fans and making blatantly incorrect headcanons. that’s something that bugs me, but another thing that bugs me is the fact i do not believe south park is tiktokable. i’ll use family guy as a comparison for my points.

first of all, compared to family guy, the humor is different, pretty much everything they explained in the cartoon wars two parter explains what i mean, m&t are not fans of interchangeable jokes and are able to give characters emotional progression throughout the episode. that’s one huge factor, i hope you get what i’m trying to imply with that. m&t are passionate about their story telling and it pays off in their episodes. i know not EVERY SINGLE joke follows this, but there are jokes made better by understanding the characters and the circumstance of the episode. the episodes work best in their entirety. (that was difficult to explain so i fear it can be misinterpreted easily)

the characters are another thing i want to mention. i watched the episode TSST with two friends awhile ago, one of which who had never seen an episode and didn’t understand cartmans character. she kept asking questions about him, or said how weird his hitler obsession was. the other friend hadn’t finished south park and said he hated cartmans character and it’s hes one of the bad pieces of the show. i believe even if you don’t like cartman as a personal preference thing, you should at least appreciate him as a character and his placement, it’s hard to understand him (despite us watching an episode that really dives into him, they still didn’t know much about him before). with family guy, one episode is enough to grasp the character, hell, even a single scene is i’d say, while m&t are very good at developing and fleshing out character personalities over time. it’s why they can pull off making sad episodes (like kenny dies and assburgers), heartwarming episodes (like tweek x craig and even bits of episodes like in raisins) all while still being a comedy show. they understand how to make the characters react in a way that can make you feel something while maintaining a good amount of jokes in the episode.

i dont know, theres more i could add but i’m just writing whatever comes to mind first so it might make no sense or it might be wrong. also, i’m by no means an old fan. i’ve rewatched the series quite a few times, watched commentaries, researched through wiki pages and am constantly trying to better my knowledge of the show, but i know i’m not quite there yet and could just be making a mistake GAHAH

No anon, I actually totally get this and agree 100%. SP as a show is not something that works well with out of context clips (and even then, the ones that do work are usually from very early in an episode before the plot fully gets established and stakes as drawn). Until pre s18 when they started soft continuity (and then s19-21s full continuity, after that is a whole other discussion entirely), the shows syndicated nature did make it easier to hop into any episode and watch it in its entirety and enjoy it without much prior knowledge of the show or it's characters. However, even then, you really needed to watch the *whole* episode to get the big picture of it's message.

And I get it, SP full length episodes are not as accessible as they once were. People these days don't know how or aren't willing to pirate things if they don't have the streaming service SP is hosted on, and beyond that, south park used to be free to watch on their website. Like, that's how I ended up catching up on the show when I finally decided to take it all in other than a handful of episodes and scenes I'd seen during my childhood back in 2013. It was all entirely available (save for Super Best Friends, 200 and 201, which I had to go track down on other websites) for free, with ads unless you used an ad blocker, right at your fingertips. And that's how M+T wanted SP to be consumed, because they explicitly noted that they didn't care about making money on streamed episodes, they cared about getting their show out there. (I will have to go find that interview, I know it's somewhere).

But still, regardless of that, you're right. SP is not something that you can consume short form as a brief tiktok video, and that's why I think we have newer fans with such big gaps in knowledge that seem like they would be easy to fill in. It's not that they're being willfully ignorant, they're just being fed a very piecemeal version of the show through social media, which is how we get people thinking Pip is a he//llpa//rk OC (augh!!! dont get me started) instead of realizing this dude was actually in the fucking show, or headcanons that are very easy to contradict with canon itself by watching like 3 episodes. That's not me knocking HCs btw, go wild and do whatever you want, but these people don't even know it's ooc, and that's a little troublesome. I've made some outlandish character decisions in the past but I at least KNEW they were not evidence based.

What that means for the fandom down the road I don't know, and its made a lot of discussion and analysis more shallow-- it's so hard outside of my SPHS friend group to find good breakdowns these days. I'm hoping maybe something will change, but who knows.

TLDR fuck tiktok and its watering down of media

[chalkeater]

guys im sorry if whenever anyone asks me a question i sound pretentious. I DONT MEAN TO. i just like being thorough and giving as much context as possible in case you need it

also i dont know how to explain being a fictive without defending myself a little. fictives are known to be the parts of systems that people will use to fakeclaim. harass. etc. being a fictive for some fictives comes with a lot of shame or embarrassment. EVEN if theres literally nothing to be ashamed of

[sigmashuffle]

I have a question!! So I’m a long-time BSD enjoyer but I haven’t read nearly as much of the manga as I would like. I’ve seen all of the anime though, most of it multiple times through. I didn’t realize until looking at the comments on Danny Motta’s video at how much people fucking hate Fukuchi and his sword. Up until this point I’ve thought it’s cool as hell and he, along with the sword, bring something kinda new and fun to the series.

HOWEVER, I know BSD is FAR from perfect and there’s a lot of dumb shit that faithful manga readers have a better perspective on. Would you mind explaining why Fukuchi and the sword are such a sore point? I hope this isn’t too much to ask. I just really want to know.

Hi anon! Its not too much to ask at all!

Unfortunately the answer to that is best explained in the context of ALL the issues I have with the manga/show so... this is going to be v long... and im done giving this show more credit than it deserves but don't take it that seriously lol I hesitate to even consider my pov to be on par with the average manga reader but ig we'll see how my opinions hold up after i post

And disclaimer: I don't mind answering this but ONLY with the context that this is 100% my opinion (as of late, bsd as a whole has just been REALLY bugging me so im just gonna take this opportunity to explain my gripes since most of them apply to or tie greatly into fukuchi's character/design/motivations/development)

I simply don't want anyone to come for my head bc of anything I say here tho, bc I feel like I may disagree with a large portion of the fanbase but WITH THAT SAID...

***from this point forward there will be a few spoilers from s5e11***

Here are my gripes with BSD...

1. BSD and its "magic system"?

bsd powers suffer from what i like to call a "lack of scope"

granted this could be due to the fact the story isnt complete HOWEVER im sure any anime fan can tell you this story doesnt feel like it is leading anywhere its just... going... (ill get to the awful pacing later)

for comparison sake im going to also talk about The Case Study of Vanitas since it is the world I have the most experience in

what does BSD not have that VNC does?

simply put, the magic system doesnt reinvent itself character to character

in VNC if you have an ability it is EXCLUSIVELY connected to "manipulations of the world formula" which is essentially elemental control (fire, ice, gravity, etc.) based on a sci fi version of chemistry (alchemy, if you will) and this rule applies to EVERY CHARACTER in VNC

its a structure that starts developing from the beginning

BSD however introduces a WHOLE NEW magic system for each character

some character abilities are similar, yes, and can be classified as such, but many cannot be classified

again a magic system doesnt NEED to have strict rules (its actually more boring that way if the rules are too simple) but it DOES need RULES... and solid ones

otherwise its tempting to use the MAGIC system to fill in PLOT RELATED gaps

and if that system isnt defined, well, to me that looks like lazy/sloppy/illogical writing

if you like the whiplash of not knowing whats gonna happen next, fine, (i did for awhile too!) up until the unpredictability started to come from powers that as a whole look like an authors way of trying to write themselves out of their own plot hole

ie: time travel

specifically time travel that isnt introduced FROM THE BEGINNING...

2. Fukuchi and his "deus ex machina" sword

time travel is NOTORIOUSLY difficult to pull off and especially by my standards

I have watched Doctor Who since 2008, before I even knew what tumblr was I was doing my own solo fandom stuff (basically just watching a LOT of youtube video essays) but basically I have high standards when it comes to time travel in stories

Amenogozen has the POTENTIAL to be a great weapon if used in a logical context... but theres one thing the sword (and BSD as a whole) does not follow

RULES

time travel is TRICKY mostly bc it has consequences... in BSD fukuchi gives nothing in exchange for his powers

lets even toss time travel aside for the moment

what is Fukuchi's innate special ability? Mirror Lion... (read below)

its essentially an attack multiplier of x100 at CLOSE RANGE

lets say your average untrained human punch is 150psi (pounds per square inch) which is the pressure equivalent of a point 100m below the surface of the ocean...

with Mirror Lion's multiplier you get 15,000psi which would be 10,000m or 10 kilometers

a pressure equivalent to the deepest part of the ocean (i dont need to remind you how powerful water is... we all know about oceangate)

MY POINT IS HE'S OVERPOWERED AS FUCK

dont even get me started on his motivations too

im glad we got backstory for him in ep 11 and im sure we are just supposed to sum up his motivations into "he was willing to pay the high price for world peace" but tbh royally fuck that

dont TELL me thats what he believes

PROVE to me how you made that conclusion

also the only reason he even dies is becasue he wants fukuzawa to kill him... we dont have any sense of accomplishment for stopping his scheme because NOW the scheme has been PLOPPED right into fukuzawa's lap which fukuchi intended to do from the start... apparently

and this seemingly retroactive decision-making is a problem A LOT of bsd characters have, especially the one and only character i hate THE MOST... *drumroll*

3. Osamu fucking Dazai

oh boy...

I have thought long and hard about Dazai... im not going to lie, after ch109 and ep10 I was about to admit Dazai might actually have grown on me BUT

this was all erased after 6 minutes into ep11 when he was confirmed to indeed NOT be dead

Dazai just *knows* everything thats gonna happen

Chuuya was never a vamp... he knew this... and somehow his ENTIRE escape plan was just hinging on that? bc yknow... hE kNeW fRoM tHe bEgiNniNg

OSAMU DAZAI IS A PLOT DEVICE USED *ONLY* TO FILL IN NARRATIVE HOLES

HE IS A WAY TO FORCE PROGRESS ON A STORY WITHOUT EVER GIVING A REAL EXPLANATION

HIS CHARACTER IS AN INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE

His character is paper thin, with motivations that do not translate to his actions

and frankly... im tired of it...

additionally... if sigma doesn't survive, all of Meursault was literally useless... so why pick him for nikolai's prison break game?

even if he does, it means the ONLY thing we get out of the arc is information about fyodor... as to WHAT information, who knows... but regardless, a villain arc that has been going on for TOO GODDAMN LONG (40 chapters?) should have a resolution that isnt "i knew what was gonna happen all along"

we spent the whole time being SHOWN that fyodor and dazai were of equal intelligence levels... or at least higher than what dazai was used to dealing with

if dazai could just predict shit like this from the beginning why was fyodor a villain for so long? makes ZERO sense, dazai would've defeated him AGES ago... what makes THIS time any different?

also... why is he even suicidal? yeah ok the author was... but like... why make it such a present character trait?... so we can fake kill him over and over? idk

can you tell i dislike him?

4. THEORY vs PRACTICE

I am a "show dont tell" girlie

ALL BSD DOES IS "TELL TELL TELL" ...its infuriating

almost every power/special ability has an element of "trust me bro" ok SOME OF THEM DONT but most of them do

ie: atsushi is a tiger (what does that even mean), kenji gets strong when he's angry (ok hulk?), and THIS JUST IN we STILL don't know how fyodor's ability works... and now he's DEAD?... we also dont know almost any detail about sigma's ability and he might ALSO be dead

but thats only regarding abilities...

when it comes to writing stories using people of high intelligence it is VERY difficult to not get into the aforementioned "trust me bro" mindset which BSD does REPEATEDLY

im not listing off every example but off the top of my head is one scene from s4...

ranpo explains his plan for saving yosano loosely involved "replacing the engine [of an armored vehicle] with an electric motor and playing engine sounds over the speakers so no one noticed" ...and only i can pick this claim to shreds lol (i engineer electric vehicles for a living) but this is so wrong on so many levels...

Internal combustion engines and Electric motors are IN NO WAY EQUIVALENT

ranpo would never be able to power a vehicle the size of an armored truck with a motor that he installed an hour before the truck was put to use... he just wouldnt... the vehicle is too big... ugh *facepalm*

and dont even get me started on batteries...

MY POINT IS

if you want to write some *genius move* at least TRY to do some research to make the action believable

thats like saying "oh yeah i ran out of gas so a threw a couple AA batteries into my gas tank until i could make it to the station"

BUT THAT WOULDNT FLY BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE KNOW THATS NOT HOW CARS WORK

*sigh*

5. Manga Readers' POV

the.chapters.are.too.short

especially for a monthly released manga

i am relatively new to anime and manga... like late 2020, so I am part of the "new gen" I guess you could say so i know i dont have any right to complain about pacing in comparison to like... the dressrosa arc of One Piece

with that said, not enough in bsd BUILDS on itself

it all feels like a self "one-up"

its been too long since any of my large questions have been answered

honestly its rare that any of my questions are ever answered because the narrative rarely follows logical progression anyway and any scenes thats ARE useful are cut from the anime

characters do not *develop* their powers, they just simply ARE

whatever ability you are born with limits what you can do and thats that... which leads me to...

6. Types of Ability Users

the most coherent thing i think i can speak on so this will be short lol

there are 3 types... i think (excluding lightnovels, i have not read 15, Stormbringer, or any others)

(1) natural abilities (ones that can be nullified by dazai or stolen like in Dead Apple)

(2) human/god fusions (chuuya) -> but this can ALSO be nullified???

(3) when an ability isnt an ability (it CANT be nullified) -> ie: whatever the fuck Lovecraft is

Sigma -> ??? (he could be part of the natural ability category but like... it feels weird to put him there)

but... there is never a comparison between these types so im not even sure of this "list" is exhaustive

this is just another way the story is leaving open ways to dig itself out of a plot hole... which isnt fun... bc now there are no stakes... there are no rules... its disorganized chaos where anything can happen

everyone will always be fine because there is a way out of everything

and thats BORING... and for me, downright infuriating

fukuchi likely falls into the first category... but then again he's also using a tool from another ancient ability user... so does he even fit there?

7. Anime Adaptation

rushed

rushed

RUSHED

and i know why...

BSD is so thin on STABLE plot the story would feel like its dragging if Bones wasn't animating at the pace they are (see Manga Readers' POV)

so to try and counteract the feeling that nothing is happening they are cutting "irrelevant" scenes BUT ALSO important portions relevant ones (ie: aku's death)

do all the plot points from the manga happen? by definition, yes... but the nuance the manga has is lost almost entirely

Atsushi doesn't physically throw an injured Aku's arm over his shoulders... Aku doesn't smile upon his demise... Aku doesn't reach out through the fog of the fire extinguisher (the adaptation of this scene was personally my last straw)

and then we have the new anime content...

why did we tack on an additional fight? zero context... didn't even tie up loose ends from fukuchi like...

is sigma alive?

are chuuya/dazai/nikoali still in france? europe?

is fyodor going to return in some way? (we know nothing of his motives, ability, or MOST importantly, what information did he learn from Sigma??? his ability is an EXCHANGE so why even have that happen if they are both dead anyway?) why would you fucking kill off a character like this

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS ENTIRE ARC??? The mere reason I'm asking this question is, in and of itself, unacceptable

we MAY get an answer later... but its been 20 episodes... why the fuck dont we know anything about the arc we just completed? ...ludicrous

Final Thoughts

BSD does not have enough reliable rules in its magic system to form a solid foundation of... anything

Fukuchi is a disjointed character trying to do too many things at once, he doesn't have solid motivations, and his arc provides more questions than it answers

Osamu Dazai is not a character... he is a plot device used like a saving throw in DND

BSD frequently insults my intelligence to cover it's ass in its storytelling

being a manga reader is like taking 30 days to rip off a tiny band aid... the pacing is unbearable

even with the end of fukuchi's arc now known, there was no sense of accomplishment in defeating him bc technically we didnt… he gave himself up... so the sword was just to make him overpowered... it was pointless

the anime adaptation was rushed, scenes cherry picked, and plot narratively thinned into water... there was no depth this season

In my opinion...

There are very few redeeming characteristics about BSD now

The few meaningful scenes we do get in the manga are overwritten by later context that negates any emotion initially associated with the scene

even with the end of fukuchi's arc now known, there was no sense of accomplishment in defeating him bc technically we didnt... he gave himself up

Dazai is the worst written character I have ever read

It is very likely i drop this story entirely

If I seem salty/upset/etc. its because I am. However is NOT directed at you, it is simply a manifestation of my disappointment in this story.

...

And there you have my opinion... in way too many words... thanks for sticking around if you made it this far im impressed bc i am salty as hell lol

fin

[hodgepodgequack]

Emio demo 2: The cab driver, motorcycle and autosave.

There are three things to note about the cab driver

There is a purple charm with flower motifs in his car. Considering that the next chapter is called language of flowers and starts at Yukariko village, I wonder if both the cab driver and the culprit hail from that area.

His company gets ghost calls every now and then for the bus stop the protagonist is picked up at. There’s a few possibilities for what is going on here. One: They are getting legitimate calls from the deceased. Again ghosts are canon. Two: Someone actually needs a cab but finds an alternate way to get home and they don’t call to cancel the ride. Three: it’s just a prank bro. Ayumis section mentions that there are junior high students who use that bus stop to get to school. Who’s to say that they aren’t messing with the cab company?

The day of the murder, a motorcycle is spotted at 10pm near the water pump station. Theres a lot of potential for why this bike was there. So let’s talk about that

The Motorcycle

So before I start talking about this, I’m going to assume something about the pump station.

the gate surrounding the pump station that night is either never locked or it was only unlocked for this particular night. (As for why people never leave trash on both sides of the fence assuming it’s never locked, maybe they’re just nice or I’m reading too much into this, see one of my previous posts to get more context for the trash bit). It would explain why the jogger managed to find the body (I would love to get their testimony on how exactly they found the body, because whenever we get the bikers testimony it might clear up a few things) and why the biker is not seen by the driver.

Cab driver thinks the dude was taking a leak (hence why he only saw the bike and not the dude and also why he was pulled over). If that’s the case, there’s no way in hell someone would walk into a dark area at night without a flashlight to take a pee. I would also assume that said biker would want privacy and would travel pretty far into the station area. Granted we dont know how far back S’s body is from the road so the biker could have entirely missed him. Additionally we have no idea how the jogger found the body either (there’s a back path leading to the pump station itself that the jogger could have taken)

so there’s a few possibilities here. Option 1: biker saw the body and doesn’t report it out of fear. It’s 10pm, killer could still be here and might have saw me. I need to leave and not snitch or he’ll come after me. Option 2: Biker doesn’t see a body. You know what that means? S is killed at a separate location and brought there sometime after 10pm. The killer brings his bike and plants it outside the front gate to make it appear that he drove there himself. Or maybe he sees the bike but not the body meaning s is killed somewhere in the vicinity and then moved later. Option 3: S’s death has nothing to do with the smiling man, but the biker has a lot to do with it. He sees the body and for some reason sticks a paper bag on him. (He also might be friends with the person who killed S and the killer is panicking and the biker says I’ll buy you time) and boom whips out a bag that he’s carried with him for some dumb reason. Killer is like I’m not going to question why you have that, but I’m leaving.

All of this is going to depend on the joggers and bikers testimony. And I have a nasty feeling that we are not getting the bikers until closer to the end of the game. If that’s the case, watch that the biker is the original suspect who went missing 18 years ago.

Now when I was reading replies to my original posts I had to check some things on my demo file. Unless you manually save after each time you move location (which I didn’t mind you) you would have to rely on auto save. Interestingly enough, there is an auto save file created every time you move location. Pair this with the fact that at multiple points during the demo thus far you can say that you know something. I’m thinking of that one scene where you can say “I got lucky and saw …”, or that “you overheard something damning” or you can give the neutral response that you don’t have enough evidence to draw any conclusions. This implies the game might be multi ended/have multiple paths before you can reach the truth (like ai the sommnium files) and you can’t go down those paths until you have info you gain later in the story. The auto save might be a feature to use to make it easier to jump around from point to point.

[banditllamas]

Chismest Dialogue (Part 1)

Chapter 4 has a lot of missable dialogue. I'm mostly brainrotting over Elara but if people are interested I can try making a schedule for everyone in Chismest. For now, heres a bunch of dialogue from and concerning Elara. (I have many screenshots so I've only put snippets in, the full conversations are typed up below.)

You can catch Elara as shes walking to and from Beth's diner. Before entering:

You can pester her while shes walking to the diner.

“Hi, sorry…” “I can’t talk right now…” “I’m…” “Starving…” “I must be at the diner right away…”

If you keep trying to talk to her she will ignore you then repeat herself.

"..."

"Please excuse me…" "I'm going to the diner." After leaving:

As she's leaving you can also pester her. This dialogue plays out much like the previous one.

“Hi, sorry.” “I can’t talk right now…” “I need…” “To get back to my research…” “But, if you want to talk,” “Find me in the diner between midnight and 5AM.”

“...” “I have important research to conduct now.” “Find me in the diner after midnight.”

Questioning:

I'm sure most people know about this, but if you're like me you immediately agreed to help Elara and missed all the stuff she had to say when questioned.

(Included Bard's prompts for context.)

Bard: “A cohort?” Elara: “Uhm… An accomplice.” Bard: “Why an accomplice?” Elara: “I can explain if you’re interested in doing it.” Bard: “Why should I?” Elara: “Hmmm.” Elara: “Maybe you shouldn’t. It could be dangerous.” Bard: “Sounds like a bad idea.” Elara: “I’m acting in the best interest of the town.” Elara: “Danger sometimes is an unfortunate necessity.” Bard: “How dangerous?” Elara: “OK, not really very dangerous.” Elara: “I was trying to make it sound exciting.” Bard: “Oh?” Elara: “All we really need are people on the inside.” Bard: “Like secret agents???” Elara: “Yes, just like that.” Bard: “Secret agents are exciting!” Elara: “Hmm. I suppose they are.” Bard: “But where do we find them?” Elara: “Well, that's the thing,” Elara: “I need someone to help me find them.” Bard: “How do you find secret agents?” Elara: “We’d need to focus our search on certain individuals.” Elara: “I.e. People who are awake during the day but unemployed.” Bard: “Perfect recruits…”

She also has a different response if you agree at any point where she mentions danger.

"Whoah." "Seems reverse psychology works, after all."

If you accept at any other point she will simply say "Excellent." then continue as normal.

Recruit intelligence:

She has two hints for winston; theres the standard one:

“There’s a man who is constantly crying around the town during the day.” “He seems to have no direction in life…” “So he would probably be willing to help us.” “Find out what he wants.” And one for if you help him out before meeting her:

“Have you seen the man who used to always cry around town?” “He has a dog now…” “He seems emotionally susceptible…” “Seek him out.” Peter only gets one tip cause he's always sad even if you help him beforehand:

“There's a sad man who plays music from a rooftop at all hours.” “Since he’s so sad and hopeless,” “He almost certainly could be convinced to help us.” She also has a tip for recruiting Mirriam. This happens if you fail to find Mirriam by the time you've recruited Winston:

“There’s a girl standing in the field outside town.” “I pass her every night on my way to and from here.” “I don’t believe she’s from here…” “But, maybe she could be an ally.”

On the flipside, if you completely ignore Elara and go to Mirriam first (+ attempt the overseer song) She will give you hints on finding Elara.

Mirriam hints:

“Apparently there's an astronomer outside of town.” “They have a big telescope.” “Who knows what kinda stuff they know, right?”

“Nobody knows much about the astronomer.” “They just research stuff at their telescope all day.” “But… they have to eat sometime, right?”

“Sounds hokey, but grandma Saphy always said…” “Look to the stars for answers…” “That’s what makes me think the astronomer might know something.”

Part 2 here.

[troph4eum]

hey ik its been a while since ive posted but i like that this is always here for when i have something i wanna talk about.

anyways so a while ago i released a song called do you see your god in me and i wanted to talk about the whole concept of the "god" within someone.

just a warning for those who r reading this: this is going to be a more personal post with me talking about more specific things going on in my life as this involves explaining my music which is one of if not the most personal thing to me. if youre not interested in that then youre free to move on. also this is probably gonna be long as fuck just like my other posts on here.

before getting back to the main subject let me give some context.

do you see your god in me was written about shinji and kaworu from evangelion. if you havent seen it then its fine ill be explaining the relevant stuff with them in this post. heres the link to the song if you want to listen to it and heres the genius page if you just want to read the lyrics

okay now on to what i wanted to talk about

so being completely honest i never truly knew what i meant by the "god in someone" until like half an hour ago when i really started to think about it. it was always something i knew like the idea of but could never put it into words so i just always assumed i would understand when im older. which is now proving to be true. i began really asking myself the question of what it means after i released another song called "overcoming toxicity" where theres an interpolation of the chorus from do you see your god in me at the end. ill talk more about that song in another post because it has its own history that requires its own explanation but my point is that it all came to a conclusion not tonight while i was walking around thinking of what i want to eat.

i always knew the god in someone would likely need to be revealed through their death. most likely suicide. that was the idea i had when writing the song at least. this is because in nge kaworu is an angel and he was only truly freed from his fate and was truly able to be himself when he died on his own terms at the hands of shinji. or at least thats how im interpreting those events evangelions symbolism leaves a lot of room for interpretation and tbh idk whats commonly agreed upon i just know how i perceive aspects of the story. anyways a major point in evangelion is humans not being able to understand one another when theyre alive. thats what the third impact is all about where all of humanity essentially dies and forms one collective consciousness with nothing held back. and i think this concept of the "god in someone" has a lot to do with that. but the question the title of the song asks didnt make a lot of sense. because if the god in you is revealed through death what would it mean for someone to see their god in you? thats what i always had trouble understanding and the explanation i have is subject to change and if you have your own explanation of it id love to hear it. but the conclusion i came to revolves around the lies that we tell. humans are liars. now im not saying this in a cynical way i think a lot of the lies we tell are subconscious and mostly harmless. but they do accumulate over time. and its not just the lies we tell others but the lies we tell ourselves whether we know were lying or not. ive always felt like the person inside my head is different than the person whos living my life and i think thats the god in me. the person who exists not as a result of all the lies that they tell and have been told but the person who simply exists.

the reason why i said the god in you is revealed in death and more specifically suicide is because of how brutally honest death is and how vulnerable and honest suicide is. now this isnt me glorifying death or suicide just to be completely clear this is coming from someone whos struggled with suicidal thoughts and contemplation. its because ive dealt with those thoughts that ik how honest it is. its honest to the point its almost scary its like its too real. but my point is the actions you take when approaching death are likely going to be as close as to the real you as possible. any last words or actions will be as genuine as possible because you know you wont have a chance to do anything else. now of course this isnt universal whatever exceptions to what im saying are valid contradictions im not saying this is law im just explaining my thoughts that have already filtered those possibilities out and this is already long enough without me explaining every exception to everything i say.

now the term "god" is used because of the connection to nge with kaworu being an angel but i thought ab it and decided that this definition can be helpful in coming to another conclusion

"the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being."

the world only exists to us how we perceive it so our minds are actively creating (being used in a loose sense) the universe by experiencing it through our senses and because we can be aware of this our minds dont really exist within the universe as we experience it. so in a way we are our own gods as we can choose (to a certain extent) how to perceive the world around us.

now getting back to the question of "do you see your god in me" i think it all comes down to truly being able to relate to another person and fell comfortable and understood by them and for you to also be relatable, comforting, and able to understand them. its a mutual connection the 2 of you share when theres nothing holding you back. it seems so simple but i think its such a unique and beautiful experience.

tbh thats really all ive figured out about that aspect of it so far. like i said i only really came to understand it recently and everything else i have to say has more to do with overcoming toxicity which honestly deserves its own post bc there are a lot of strong thoughts and feelings involving that song that doesnt just include this topic. so i think im just gonna end it here.

as always if u read all this bullshit ty ik im a generational yapper but it helps alleviate the stress of having it all in my head.

[strifesolution]

The last chapter was so good!! And since you were talking about the fic's details, I was wondering about the playlist (I am listening to the main one on a daily basis) and I imagine that every songs were carefully chosen. I can guess what some songs mean about 5r6c. Like, From Eden is probably about Eden and Callie. You also mentioned that Genghis Khan is Dan and Wilbur's song.

Would you mind explaining how did you choose these songs and how some of them are related to the fic ?

(If this is too bothersome or would spoil too much of the fic, feel free to ignore the question)

LET’S GOOOO we’re so happy you like the playlist :D you’d be correct, most of the songs are chosen pretty deliberately, though a handful are more just there for the “vibe” of the AU rather than specific lyrics.

Link for anyone who hasn’t seen it; we update pretty often! I added Flu Game last night actually. Expect... a lot of art for this AU with the new Fall Out Boy songs LOL

Since there’s… a lot of songs, and a good amount of them would be kinda spoilery, we’ve both chosen one of our favs and wrote up a little analysis.

Here’s Van’s (@irished-lads) of Neon Moon by Brooks and Dun copied straight from our DM’s

~~~

fun fact, this is one of the songs i listened to on repeat while writing the earlier chapters. this is the ideal chapter 16 song in terms of story and vibe, and while an early 90's country song may have not intended to talk abt the intricacies of gay cowboy polyamory, I Sure Can Make It Do That.

peep the beginning;

There's a rundown bar 'cross the railroad track / I got a table for two way in the back / Where I sit alone, and think of losing you

thinks about kevin and sean having their degrees of feeling alone at this point. sean's always had a little bit of a thing for dan (not to mention kevin flirting with sean nigh all the time- note that kevin's only had to pay for one drink), and while kevin may be. erm. Physically Intimate (this is a pg-13 blog) with dan,he also wants more. its that disconnect that him and dan has that feels a mile long. Now. see the chorus:

Now if you lose your one and only, / There's always room here for the lonely

well hey. look at that. some of the loneliest guys in aurora sitting next to each other in a bar sharing a bottle of whiskey. they're friends, sure, but in that moment (ch 16), they recognize that they both can be more than that. to each other, and to dan. theres always room here for the lonely.

~~~~

And here’s mine (Emma here!) of STRIKE 3 by Ferry

This song is where the lyric in the fic's description comes from; it’s one from the PMV series Parties Are For Losers. You don’t need to watch the series to get the gist of the song (it is really good though!) but within the context of the narrative, the singer is voicing their frustrations as they desperately try to help those they care about who keep putting themselves in harms way. “You spin the barrel of a fully loaded gun” is just a fancy way of saying “STOP BEING RECKLESS!!!” because, y’know, it’d be a literal death sentence to play roulette if the gun is fully loaded...

In terms of 5r6c… well, one of the fics' central themes IS protecting the people you love. Dan continuously worries about what life Daithi and Brian had before this that made them criminals, and Sean and Kevin are protective of Dan, thinking Daithi and Brian are dangerous in arc 1, and suspicious of Spiff in arc 2. Here’s a bit from the first chorus…

"If there's no winning, might as well just have some fun." I want to scream, when will you get it through your skull that I will not let you drown? "The light is gone, the thought keeps running through your mind, but fearing life is easier than fighting, right?" Oh please, just hide behind this back of mine and save your helpless spite.

Which is peak sheriff’s office argument back in chapter 7...

I also really like the first verse relating to Daithi and Brian in the gang.

Channeling love through the fear of being torn apart by crowds of your barbarian peers. The human filth around us wants to trample all that is dear under the guise of watchful reason.

We learn from…pretty much every time one of them brings up Evan that it is NOT a very happy place to be, particularly in Brian’s POV of chapter 9.

Lastly, we have the pre-chorus.

A thousand years ago, it was a tepid autumn day. A lock has sealed this door— But no more.

If you recall in chapter 16, we learn the raid on the farm where Dan’s family died was in the fall (not directly, Dan always visits the bar on the anniversary and Sean makes the connection himself…but anyway)

...this is because ding ding ding of this song!

Unfortunately I can’t really talk about the last chorus and outro without SPOILING EVERYTHING so you’ll just have to guess from there ;>

~~~

Hopefully that's some food for thought! Honestly we COULD go over every song on the playlist but then this ask would be WAY too long. Just really quick: Hell's Comin' With Me is a HUUUUGE full story song but I really can’t say who it's about without giving away everything, Ambrosia Wine is the Kiwo/Mango dynamic, and Devil's Train (not on Spotify but would be on the playlist if it was) is gonna fit really well for the next few chapters!

[the-ghost-king]

abt your question jp at least theres lots of people who get away with just knowing the word, a good example is masai from the youtube channel fischers whos pretty well known for not knowing how to write words. you can see it in their videos if you look theres even english subs. chinese keyboards have 3 types, one is using spelling it out phonetically with english alphabet (usually foreigners use this), one is like a handwriting kind (i know natives that use this), and the 3rd most commonly seen one uses the strokes as a keyboard (? idk how to explain this so id say that u do need to actually know the word to write this. this 3rd one is on computer keyboards too.

(continued): also even with the phonetic types or etc tbh many words with the same particle? parts of the word can be said kind of similarly, so you could probably still make typos in that regard

Idk how Chinese works but I have a basic Japanese understanding and it's similar; hiragana (phonetic) is for native speakers and katakana (also phonetic) are used by foreign speakers (or more accurately foreign words/names) as two alphabets and then you have kanji which is like the "proper" character not the phonetic spelling. (And then romaji is Japanese pinyin... I think is the Chinese equivalent?)

For outsider context, kun'yomi looks like hiragana and on'yomi looks like katakana, and then kanji is kanji.

I'm assuming with the last section the "continued" bit you mean two words which are different but spelled the same like "there" and "their" in English? Like the character for tree 木 (ki) being similar to the character used in the spelling of Japan 日本 (Ni-Hon) but someone could accidentally write 日木 and use ki instead of hon and create the word day tree on accident? Or do you mean as in how 4 is 四 (shi) but death is 死 (shi) and those are different symbols but the similar sound? So someone could accidentally do like 二 (2) 死 (death) 六 (6) in their counting when they meant 二 (2) 四 (4) 六 (6)? Therefore you can make either sort of typo like in English with record vs record but also just straight up a typo like sweep instead of sleep?

[adorakau]

You have shown Adorak's interaction with some of the main characters, but what about the others? More importantly Mara. How would the past/present (or is it present/future?) conversation between Adorak and Mara go?

That! 

Is an amazing question!

We’re gonna get into some lore for this one so buckle up.

So. Adorak was created through DNA fusion. 

Half of it was Hordaks, as he was still attempting to create a new host body for himself to escape his defect. How he thought that would work by using the same exact DNA is anyones guess but it’s not like he had many options.

Now the second half of her DNA is where things get interesting.

As we all know, only a First One can use the Sword to turn into She-Ra. So you may ask: How is this Clone able to transform into Etheria’s Protector?

It’s because she’s a Hybrid between First Ones and Clone DNA.

One very specific First One, in fact. 

After all, just like Hordak, Light Hope did not have a lot of options to get DNA from, in case she ever needed a sample. They both worked with what they had.

Light Hope does have a plan in this AU:

Pull a First One through a portal and have them become the new She-Ra and use the Heart.

Only that plan fails immediately. Instead she ends up with a lonely Clone and an out of juice Portal Machine. So, with Portal Capabilities deactivated, she has to get creative:

Realize the Clone has started a planetary war to fuel his efforts of cloning himself a healthy body and open another portal.

Lure the Clone to the Crystal Castle with a fake Portal Signal.

Offer him Mara’s DNA sample to clone a First One with, for which she would reward him with the technology needed to cure his defect.

Wait for results.

Hordak, of course, doesn’t trust an old First Ones AI. He uses the DNA to hybridize it with his own, creating a- well, a Hybrid, thinking the provided DNA could counter act and nullify his condition in the new body.

The cloning process fails, as most of them do, but the Hybrid survives. He can’t put it back in the vat now that it’s out. It’s a failure but, like with most things around the Fright Zone, he keeps it anyway.

Light Hope doesnt mind as much as she probably should. There’s enough First Ones Blood flowing through that child to satisfy her needs. She’ll just have to wait a few more years to finally use it. The Clone DNA can only help in controlling its mind.

Now, to get back to the original question, using this context.

The conversation on the ship (which we assume is the one you mean) would be a lot less “You can save our world and stop the Horde” and a lot more “You can bring out people together”.

Adorak is the link between First Ones and Horde. 

Given, there’s not a lot of First Ones around anymore. But her role would stay the same. Her goal would be to destroy Prime and free her people, using technology the First Ones left behind. Beyond that, the First Ones Culture and Machinery strewn all over Etheria could be used to streamline the integration of Clones into Society. She takes both of these ancient, warring factions and just. Fixes them as much as anyone could, really.

On a less prophetic note, she would also have learned how she was related to Mara by that point, so watching the person that is technically her Biological Mother die on what amounts to a very futuristic VHS tape would be. Pretty hard.

A lot of mixed emotions, you can imagine.

Adorak did gain a brandnew Grandma tho. Razz has always been suspiciously fond of her, despite how she never much liked Hordak. 

Basically, it would hit Adorak a lot harder. If Adora felt like getting hit by a truck during that scene then Adorak is gonna feel the entire weight of the Ever Given ram into her heart and lodge itself there for several weeks at a time. She’s got friends and family to help her work through it, but it’s gonna be on her mind for a while.

[ot3]

Hello! I was watching the PLvsAA stream yesterday, and you said to ask after the stream to elaborate on your thoughts on Phoenix having, I think it was attachment issues vs abandonment issues? Would you be able to explain your thoughts on that? I'm very curious, and I figured Tumblr was a decent place to ask. Only if you want to, of course!

ok i just Scoured shu takumi's interviews on gyakuten saiban library to try and find the quote i was looking for and could not find it. which is disappointing to me personally because now i feel insane because i know it exists somewhere, i don't believe I imagined this one because it stuck with me very immediately and very specifically. but at the end of the day the specific quote doesn't really provide any too necessary context.

at the end of the day 'attachment issues' vs 'abandonment issues' is probably really granular and nitpicky, but i mean. well. i love being granular and nitpicky about characterization. i definitely thought of phoenix as having abandonment issues for a long time but flipping the script to 'attachment issues' cleared up a lot about my interpretation of his character for me, so im going to type some paragraphs at you now

like to me the critical differences between the two are that 1. when you think of someone who has 'abandonment issues' you probably assume a certain amount of baggage regarding past experiences contributing to those feelings. or at least, i do. but as i've said plenty in the past i really don't think phoenix has any significant shit going on in his backstory. i don't think he has ever Been abandoned by anyone, really. and 2. you can be attached to things that aren't people, but abandonment is a purely interpersonal phenomenon.

here's this other takumi quote about phoenix that everyone is probably familiar with by this point:

Interviewer: It’s surprising to learn he wanted to become an actor. Perhaps he’s actually really susceptible to fads and things like that?

Takumi: I think he’s just the type who’ll go straight for something and stick to it once he’s convinced of something. Like the type of person he falls for (laugh).

obviously everyone focuses on this for being pretty gay. and like it is. lets make no mistakes about that but it's also just a generally really interesting little tidbit. when phoenix stumbles upon something or someone he likes or wants he will pretty much pursue it unquestioningly and then maintain that emotional attachment to it. and that's really the only place any of his drive comes from. when phoenix doesn't have, like someone or something to be providing this external motivation he just sort of stops doing things. not because he doesn't feel capable of doing anything, or feels unsafe or scared, like how you might feel if you were abandoned, but because he just doesnt Want to do anything

like. with abandonment issues theres a sort of reciprocal nature to that kind of interpersonal dynamic. the other party's behavior has a lot of influence over the feelings of the character in question, for better or worse. but phoenix's attachment issues are at the end of the day kind of an inherently one-sided thing. phoenix is the one bringing any and all emotional baggage into these situations. it's on him. he's obsessive about stuff, and he doesn't really need to be getting anything back from the other side to maintain that. probably indicated most clearly with just everything about his relationship to edgeworth in aa1. dude was truly insane for that shit. i love it for him specifically because it was such a wild and bizarre thing to do.

so like as much as phoenix was obsessed with/attached to edgeworth he was also super attached to doing it in one very specific way. he HAD to become a lawyer. and his attachment to that idea of being a lawyer and what specifically that means for him is a pretty significant throughline for the rest of the series. i think it would also be reasonable to extrapolate that indulging in these obsessive tendencies is how phoenix was able to work on the jurist system. doing that kind of slow, tedious, academic work is pretty atypical of phoenix who by his own admission wont even read any law books. but we know with the right motivation and investment phoenix was able to go from ditzy law student to practicing attorney in just a few years.

imo something else thats super interesting with this lens on his behavior is his relationship with kristoph. theres a lot of different takes on this character dynamic but i think we can all agree that theyre obsessed with each other. whereas you Could read the way phoenix interacts with edgeworth or maya or trucy or even iris as relating to a desire for companionship and a fear of losing that, resulting in a willingness to go out on a limb for people and believe in people, that all falls apart with kristoph. it doesnt make sense to view phoenix's attachment to kristoph as being rooted in a fear of abandonment in a way you could argue for the other characters. it kind of only makes sense if you view phoenix's attachment to kristoph as sort of arbitrarily intense and existing for its own sake, rather than related to any specific desires or outcomes.

a scene i constantly find myself rereading because i'm so obsessed with it is the bit in turnabout succession where phoenix visits kristoph in solitary. kristoph has already admitted to and been convicted of zak's murder, after trying to frame phoenix to it and ruining his reputation. their business is pretty much concluded. everything is already in place for phoenix to get his name cleared. but phoenix still isn't willing to let it go. he is desperate to understand kristoph's motivations on a personal level just because of the investment he has in this relationship regardless of the fact that its a fucked up and bad relationship. he's decided this is something important to him and there's not much of a way for any outside factors to change that.

so. yeah. thats it. kind of. i genuinely dont know if anyone else is going to vibe with this particular interpretation but this is how i see phoenix at the very least.

[lavender-town-radio]

i assumed this was abt the fundrasiers to get out of gaza from context, my bad if thats incorrect!

asking questions of the person to try and soothe the alarm bells set off/catch them out if they are a scammer, is the usual first thing, cuz that one doesnt involve contacting whoever verified it on the off chance theyre lying abt being verified

but as much as like, it sucks cuz ik the people doing verification are swamped, double checking verification doesnt necessarily seem like a bad call? i know there are a lot of docs ppl can cross check and stuff, but if someone is scamming that seems like a very easy way to establish one way or another. some people are taking advantage of the situation, thats a fact, its a thing we need to take into account and work around sorta thing? i realize that considering how horrificly a bunch of people have responded to this situation it might feel or seem inappropriate but if this is a known thing (people acting badly and scamming) and you are having alarm bells, theres grace here. even just making sure that person and the person who is asking for a boost interacted can be a good indicator of if its a scam or not based on what i read about verification.

and there have been posts going around from people who know what they're talking abt explaining how to recognize scams & what is and is not an indicator, i dont have them on hand or id include links but looking over them and comparing it to what is setting off your alarm bells might also help? sorry for the suggestion when i cant like, actually provide the posts i know finding things on this website is a nightmare.

ultimately my advice is either talk to this person further or reach out to a third party who has a better idea on how to establish one way or another than you if you dont feel qaulified? thats what ive told other people who are concerned abt this too.

I am concerned that someone is scamming and I do not know what to do about it