#theres only one i dont have a source for bc i saved it on my phone back in june & its been deleted since

[steampoweredskeleton]

.

Ignore

[red-dyed-sarumane]

to give u an idea of how disproportionately popular marshall maximizer is from literally everything else ive gone thru all of the aru sekai bijutsuten & hiiragima tags, up to april 2022 of the hiiragi magnetite tag (bc twitter died violently at that point so i couldnt go farther), & both the magu & marshall maximizer tags on pixiv ive collected a total of 179 images, none of them my own, and 76 of them are marshall maximizer. the next most popular is shuuen touhikou which is 27/179.

[andromeddog]

hi! love your art :) i just wanted to ask if you have any resources you’d recommend for WWI uniform/gear references for art purposes? i’ve been struggling to find good refs (especially for officers/anything beyond just the basic infantry uniforms) so i thought i’d ask what you tend to use! thanks & have a great day!

hello hey hi!!! ty for the message i love talking about uniforms and spend way too many hours of the day looking for reference of them

so i talked a bit about this before in this post! i stand by a lot of what was said there aka pinterest, google searching/scouring, and that book i linked........ these are all good for officers too! looking for officer ref is often very similar to infantry stuff, tho there may just be less of it depending on what specifically you're looking for. if you are looking for very specific references and want to get insane about it i can talk about that too.... tho i would like to say i dont have like one specific website to link bc i use so many different ones only like once or twice

if you're willing to spend money i'd recommend looking for books on the subject- there is always one strange book from like 1970 about the helmets of ww1 on ebay or something. the nice thing about that is they will typically name the different parts of a uniform, which allows you to google that specific thing to get a closer look. learning about the makeup of a uniform/everything's specific use helps when its time to draw them. ofc this isnt a super sustainable option but investing in a good encyclopedia once has saved me so much time. that guide to ww1 has been well loved

if youre not looking to spend money there are still a lot of options. stuff i like in no particular order:

reenactment pictures- action shots, higher quality pictures than something from 1918. you can find whole galleries of people's reenactment battles (?? is that what theyre called??) if you do a little clicking around.

stock photo websites- be really careful here bc you dont want to get into trouble with usage rights. i only rly use these if im desperate and then very sparingly and piecemeal bc i dont want to get in trouble lol

websites where they sell reproduction/reenactment uniforms- here is an example. reproduction stuff is great bc u can usually find every little bit of the uniform being sold somewhere by someone. ebay has also been surprisingly helpful.

& the thing i would like to stress the most is that i rly dig for references. i literally have 21 tabs open with different searches for super specific things on my phone at this very moment. i use google image search extensively and scroll through literally so many jpegs, pngs, pdfs, webps, etc etc etc. the unfortunate truth is that the more specific you get the harder it is to find stuff. i recently drew a ussr female fighter pilot and had to get ref for her uniform from about 5 different sources (and that was one drawing!!!!!) sometimes i find a reference for the exact thing i need on a website that has nothing else of use to me. the best advice i have here is just keep scouring and clicking and you will eventually find something. i wish this was more helpful but once you know what you are looking for you can search for that thing specifically and that's a big help

this did not need to be so long but if theres one thing about me i will go on and on and on given the chance. im insane can you tell

[dubacheryking]

It seems like you really like the IT book( it 1986), so do you remember Eddie Corcoran’s story from chapter 6. Because like his chapter is for real one of the most heartbreaking chapters in the whole book and he’s like so underrated for no reason. Soooo like what’s your opinions on him and other little interesting thing like that lol.

:)

oh my GOG tbh i think eddie corcoran's death is straight up the most horrifying part of the book. like if u put a gun to my head and said "what part of IT 86 do u find the most stomach churning" THATS IT RIGHT THERE. no one ever really talks abt it by 90% of the fandom on here is movie based and they dont FUCKING include it for some godawful reason (i can understand the 1990 ver not including it specifically for censorship reasons, since it was the 90s and also made for tv and ALSO cut to 3hrs lol) but like. the fact that it wasnt in the movies is criminal tbh.

but i digress.

as for opinions and such regarding the corcoran boy.... i mean, we get next to nothing abt him. what we know is a) his stepdad is an abusive piece of shit b) he had a younger brother that he seemingly cared about deeply (SOBS) c) his pos stepdad killed his baby brother (LIKE ACTUAL BABY. A 4YO???? FR????) d) his death was horrific. theres a little bit more but but but i havent reread that chapter recently so some of it is certainly escaping me. i wish there was more about him as an actual person, but i also understand that w the book already being a billion pages long there is only so much small details that could actually be included, and the history of derry and main story obvs will trump this specific smaller story--but like, fr, i want to know more abt eddie. we know he was terrified of the thing from the black lagoon (fair) and obvs holds a lot of fear and anger and guilt regarding dorsey's death, we know hes abused, we know how he dies. its a weird paradox of being very close to this character (in terms of his pov at the time, being in his head and all just like w any of the main losers) and being extremely removed (we know nothing abt his internal life beyond what his abuse brings out). which. frankly it's somewhat genius bc, yeah, abuse DOES tend to stifle the actual personality/interests of the person being abused and DOES like literally fuck w the brain chemistry and processessing of a child (source: happened to me lolololol), but its also heartbreaking that all we know him as is One of The Missing. he can never be more. its fucked.

soooo . this got away from me. sorry if it makes little to no sense ill just do a small bit on my thoughts summarized HERE:

i wholeheartedly agree that eddie corcoran's death is like. the worst part of the story. listening to it makes me legit sick to my stomach in a way NO OTHER PART OF THE BOOK DOES. LEGIT. and i think the main reason for that is while cosmic horror space clown spider thing is fake, duh, and more obviously used as a stand in for trauma and specifically for childhood trauma and the lasting effects that it has on our psyche, eddie's death is REAL. dorsey's death is REAL. we see, in grusome, up close detail, the actual consequences of abuse and how it destroys people's lives--specifically children's. we see how the complacency of those around such families (eddie's mom, the teachers, the principal, the town of derry at large) contributes to the horrific mistreatment of the most vulnerable, and how NONE OF THEM suffer any consequences for their lack of action. the section ends with eddie's mother getting access to his savings, which amount to less than 20$. to do so, she has to have him legally declared dead, EVEN THOUGH THEY DO NOT HAVE A BODY. AND THAT'S FUCKED. SHE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO MAKE SURE HE'S FUCKING DEAD BEFORE SHE DOES THIS, DOESN'T WANT THE CLOSURE, DOESN'T WANT TO LAY HIM TO REST, DOESN'T WANT A PLACE TO VISIT. I CAN'T. like obviously we see themes of abuse and neglect in the whole book, that's the whole point, but eddie's story is different. there is no winning. there is no escape. you can't spin it into a better life.

he's a kid, just like any of the losers, but to the universe, he's not 'special,' so his death doesn't matter. he could have been swapped in with any of the other characters--fuck, he literally shares the name of one of them!! and yet he's not, and because of that, he doesn't matter. his death effects no one. the only positive is that it reopens dorsey's case, and even then, the reopening of his brother's death almost entirely sweeps eddie under the rug. the town of derry turns away, and when the truth of dorsey corcoran's death is revealed, the shrug, go so very sad, and wipe their hands of it. just another child death at the hands of an adult monster, just another day.

[zeltqz]

niyaaaa do u have any tips for people who wanna get into fic writing? 👀

i don’t really get how the whole posting format for fics works on here tbh 😭 and like your info area it’s so cool

YEAH OFC!! btw dm me your username so i can follow and support you <3

tip 1- the posting format isnt that hard to get used to actually its just you create a tumblr text post and then copy and paste your fic onto it, add the tags and stuff then post it. if you want to add banners, headers and stuff to make it look better then go ahead, just add images to the text post

tip 2- the info area is the same as above, just add pictures of your choice etc to the text post, add your information, name, age, fav things etc and then to link posts to your post, highlight where u want the link to go, then copy the link of the post u want linked then press the hyperlink that looks like two chains linked together when you highlight the text if that makes sense? sounds like a lot but its rlly not i promise haha

tip 3- always type your fics on other apps like word or google docs since they have an auto save feature!! i dont reccomend typing your fics on tumblr since one if the app crashes, it doesn't automatically save your work so everything you wrote will get deleted (some versions of tumblr do have autosave, my laptop has it but my phone and iPad doesn't, so i dont rely on it)

tip 4- idk if you want tips on actual fic writing or just how to get your fics onto tumblr but ill help you with that anyway. with me when i write fics i always imagine it out in my head. theres some of my fics where i just went with the flow and wrote wgatever came to mind and those are the fics i hate the most because they dont rlly make sense to me. theyre always so random and it just seems rushed and bad.

i picture my fics like a scene in my head and whatever i want the character to do, think, say or feel i write that shit down asap. i use other online sources to help get more descriptive like the emotion theasurus <- honestly one of my favourite things to use ever, they have so much body language to use for every emotion in the damn book

dialogue is also something i find difficult. i've improved i personally feel like but its still hard for me especially if im writing a new character. i never want to make the character seem OOC so i do lots of research before hand. i normally use the wiki to read up on a characters personality.

for example i'll use ran for this since he's like 99% of my account lmao. in the wiki, he's described as "naturally whimsical toward others which makes him inscrutable" though ran doesnt have many scenes in the manga (which i hate bc i love him sm) its impossible to actually write him down to a tee so i use that naturally whimsical description to make him playful, charismatic, carefree etc, going off what little information i have with him.

getting a characters personality down is what can make or break a dialogue. for me when im reading a fic of a character and their dialogue is so OOC it puts me off and i dont even wanna read. so i apply my same fic icks to myself and think if I don't like seeing this and that in a fic, why would I incorporate those in my fics and have ppl get put off it if they have the same fic icks as me?

hope that makes sense!!

tip 5- dont rush yourself at all. i used to rush a few of my fics and i just ended up hating it so much after and fought bck the urge to delete them so many times but then i'd see people's comments and realise i was being too harsh on myself. i'd keep them up but i'd just hate seeing them get attention.

rushing only makes you hate your work and the quality of your work will decline if you are not in the right headspace.

thats also why i have the don't rush me thing in my rules because not only is it annoying to see people constantly asking for updates, it also makes me mad because i know i'll just put out a piece of garbage if i did rush.

also another tip don't give yourself deadlines!! if you know your writing consistency can be a little sloppy, don't tell your followers that you're going to upload every so and so day. if something happens and you miss the deadline, you'll feel bad and rush something out and most times out of ten, a rushed fic doesn't do well. so take your time and don't rush.

tip 6- dont listen to what other people say or feel obligated to write something you don't wanna. establish your boundaries!! for example, from day one i started this blog i said im accepting requests but i will not write anything to do with non-con, incest or minors. i made sure that was out there so i wouldn't feel uncomforable writing anything i wasn't comfy with.

there are people on this app that may like your writing and request you to write something for them. you are not obligated to write anything for anyone! don't feel like you have to just because they asked nicely.

if you want to accept requests you can im not saying you shouldn't, im saying don't feel like you have to. you always have a choice. its your blog.

tip 7- remember this isn't a job. you're allowed to take breaks, allowed to have a personal life. don't feel like you need to be updating every day. i used to think i was obligated to be uploading consistently at least every week because i was obsesssed with engagement and seeing peoples comments and was scared if i took a break ppl will unfollow. now i honestly don't care. i'm not active as much as i used to because of school and that's fine! if ppl want to leave, let them. don't feel like you're forced to keep being active in order to keep your follower count stable.

tip 8- this app can get really toxic sometimes. luckily enough i've only had one toxic anon in my inbox and i've been on this app for a year. some people have so many, some ppl get harrassed etc. if that happens to you just be prepared since there's no actual way to find out who's behind anons. you can turn off your anon options which means if ppl want to inbox you something then their account will be showing. some people arent comfortable with that and that's fine! i keep mine on because i want people to feel comfortable on my page.

just remember though if you ever feel like this app is getting overwhelming take breaks! for the sake of your mental health take breaks. i know so many writers on here that took breaks and came back healthier and stronger.

i feel like this tip goes for social media in general. as much as i love social media im aware how unhealthy it is. breaks are so important for you. remember that.

i can't think of anymore tips right now but if i have some more i will edit the post and add it on.

if u have anymore questions about the tumblr posting format dm me and ill help you out :))

[ranidspace]

mentioned it in my last post but after trying out a bunch of different search engines to replace google i believe my favourite is SearXNG.

it's more of a meta search engine, it doesnt have it's own index and rather indexes from other search engines. out of the box it just just uses google, so you wont miss any websites that you would have before, but you can enable more search engines like brave or duckduckgo in the settings.

there's also bangs, if you dont have a search engine turned on you can quickly go to it by doing !duckduckgo (they often have short ones like !ddg) but they've got a lot more, like !wa (wolfram alpha), !bc (bandcamp), !wt (wiktionary, basically anything wikimedia related has a bang but this one's the one i used the most), !aa (annas archive), !nt (nyaa.si) and more, check them out.

it's got a bunch of preferences to change and you can set it to ur default on chromium and firefox browsers

If you're having problems with not being able to back into a search after exiting a page, you can set "Results on new tabs" on, or HTTP Method from "POST" to "GET" (less private, but fine if you have HTTPS only mode in your browser, which you SHOULD have on already)

if you're getting like really awful results from google, set the language to a more broad one, mine was [en-CA] and i got much better results when i just set it to [en] or [all]

do the settings first and then save it as a search engine on ur browser

it's open source and can be self hosted, but theres many instances of it here:

https://searx.space/

pick any one, it doesn't matter which one as long as it has good uptime and is updated, and is faster for you, i use searxng.ca

[shadeslayer]

i will have to come back to this post w the source because it was from one of the ~18th century records from colonizers surveying north america that id read last year or so and they all blended a bit together but i have them all saved so i can find it when i go back through them

but really. really. obsessed with this guy and his snake phobia and his terribly bad drawings of snakes

the text portion uses the old style S, (the ſ, called the intial s or median s) which looks like a long f, so ive just made it a modern day s to make it way easier to read:

This country is prodigiously pestered and infested with many different kinds of serpents, by the inhabitants called Snakes, which I shall by and by come to describe distinctly and separately, in their proper places, by giving the reader a distinct delineation and description of the various kinds and species of these detestable monsters, so obnoxious, not only to mankind in particular, but likeways to the whole brute creation, birds as well as beasts, in general. The bite of some of these snakes will destroy either man or beast, in a minute or two's time. They, in my opinion, must certainly be derived from the devil; for, no man, at the first sight of them, can behold them, without being terrified and struck both with horror and read, although at the time he may be placed in such an advantageous situation as to be in no danger of receiving any hurt of harm from them; yet such is the natural antipathy that the whole creation have at them, particularly, mankind, that we cannot encounter with them, except we first [image ends]

hes illustrated "the rattlesnake," "the black viper," "small rattlesnake," "cockatrice," and "the horn snake." the cockatrice he illustrates as a snake with a crown. lol. and he says in his notes with it that hes only illustrating it because hes heard stories of it but he doesnt really believe it but hes including it Just In Case - bc hes trying to record all snakes so theres a complete record of these Terrifying Creatures

saying "the inhabitants callled snake" - because i was reading works that interacted with the chickasaw (and often choctaw) tribe(s), assumedly he means the chikasha+chahta word "sinti" which means snake. bc he wouldve been traveling in the SE woodlands area, and a lot of the local tribes i wouldve seen mentioned dont have words like snake at all (cherokee "indadu," muscogee "cetto/chitto," natchez "ulah," etc) - though if im wrong this is just a guess from my exp so id love to learn more :D

[softness-and-shattering]

Just for a small example about how posting online isnt activism. This is my personal experience.

I started a gofundme a while back to fund top surgery and help with poverty. I dont share it here bc theres too much personal info for my tumblr account. Not the important part.

The important part is this. People everywhere were happy, thrilled even to share the link. I was on a few different platforms then and people would share and boost and hundreds of people would see. If I was lucky a few people might give me $10 each. The people who sent me money were all already my friends, and plenty said $10 here and there it was all appreciated, and sometimes someone was putting away a percentage for tzedakah or they'd been gifted money they didnt need and they would send some my way. And tbh that money more or less saved my life more than once, and Im not talking about surgery.

All those people who shared the link, ok some of them, were convinced they were Doing An Activism and Being Trans Allies, and here's the important part, only people who donated actually helped me, and the vast majority of donaters were people I already knew. Those hundreds to thousands of shares got me probably less than $100 total. Dont get me wrong Im not ungrateful. Im saying that its ineffective.

I also know some people survive off begging for help here on tumblr and I dont know what their experiences are re shares vs donations.

But my point is that, Im not super well read, but Im pretty sure this is the exact reason we have a word for praxis. Its not just doing things. Its taking literal action that makes a real measurable difference. That might be sending emails to people in power, or visiting your grandmother, or picking up litter. What its not is arguing with people online and stressing yourself to pieces with traumatic news from all over the world in a constant feed. Guilt is not praxis. Guilting other people into pain and stress is not praxis. Literally go take a nap and have some decent to eat so that you'll have energy and capacity to do real good. Youre not Katniss, nobody really can be. You cant yourself overthrow a government or tear down society, but you can build and keep rebuilding society into what you want it to be. Thats how change is made. One tiny little action and decision at a time. As close to home as possible. Dont worry about far off war and the politics of celebrities you will never meet. Worry about your own house your own neighbourhood your own town. Save yourself first and work outwards. Live in hope and action, not despair.

And if youre too young or too disabled etc, start with just looking after yourself. Lower your sources of stress. Rest. Let yourself just be. Its ok if the person youre saving is yourself, its just as noble as saving a stranger. You dont have to shoulder all the worlds ills, make sure you can carry your own struggled before adding extra.

I feel like. Part of the reason we're seeing hot takes like "video games like Stardew Valley are bourgeoisie and you should feel bad for playing them" and "if any actor in a TV show even hints at supporting any part of Israel then we need to boycott that entire show" and stuff like that is.

Online activism does virtually nothing. It does virtually nothing, guys. You can reblog and repost stuff all day and it does nothing. And so there's this desperate need in people's minds to Do Something, but social media platforms have so thoroughly trapped us into the idea that This Is How You Connect With People, that we think blogging = activism.

But nothing we've reblogged thus far has made a significant difference in the world. So we keep reblogging, desperately, convinced that if we root out the real evil in our media consumption or if we pare down our beliefs to the One True Ideal and force everyone around us to share that ideal, then finally Something Will Change For The Better.

Log off. Go give blood; there's a critical shortage right now. Help someone in your community; it might not fix wars that are thousands of miles away but it'll help that person. Call or email your local representative about issues that matter to you. Fucking vote. Do something in the not-online space. It'll matter more than 100 posts in a row about Important Things.

[aro-attorneys]

i made this for no one else but myself. im not even sure how to archive this post??

(the jon art is by user bunnysnail)

[noctiilio]

I just wanna say I don't know much at all about Touhou but my friend shows me your art sometimes and I think the way you draw flandre is very good she's so small and so kiddy and it's nice to not see her drawn like a murder-crazy monster keep up the great work

Ohoho! then if you're new around these parts i am absolutely DELIGHTED to inform you that the "murder crazy monster" flandre is one hundred percent a fanon fabrication! (which by the way i loathe with every fiber of my being) now i'll rant to you a little bc i never miss a chance to show Flandre's good character charms sorry its my autistic brain going supercharged, critical mass even, whenever flan is mentioned, shes been a character ive held very dear to me since i was barely 13 (almost twelve years ago!) so you have to imagine my brain sizzling like soda with mentos as i'm typing this

Y'see, this uh. portrayal dates back from when our only source of flandres character was her introduction in touhou 6: EoSD (2002). Now. she DID flex about being strong and scary and threatening etc etc but what people dont get is that it was just for show! yknow! like a kid in their ebony dementia raven way phase. You cant tell me you'd see a kid in their edgy mary sue phase who blasts nightcore evanescence from the shared family computer all day and take them seriously.

after you defeat her you find out that the child is absolutely clueless on what shes doing, knows ABSOLUTELY nothing about socialization 101 and thought scaring the hell out of you was how you make pals, but if you play the reimu route she offers to give you a cake to thank you for playing with her (which has blood as an ingredient so reimu refuses but flan doesnt KNOW that humans dont drink their own blood. also she doesnt hunt her own food like remi does so thats actually sakuya's cooking)

so she DOES try to be your friend. basically the kids confused to an absurd degree but shes absolutely got the spirit

My second point: there are little character sheets written from the PoV of Akyuu which serve as official references (called Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, 2007! I always recommend this as a must-read for new fans!), and it was the first clue, a little nudge, a little trail of breadcrumbs leading to the fact that Maybe the rumors that remilia locked up her sister are actually just rumors.

But then it got confirmed in Cheating Detective Satori (2019-ongoing official manga written by ZUN w guest artists for each chapter) which portrays flan and not only is she super excited about showing off her collection of dolls and stuffed animals to sakuya but also she says this.

Flan is actually very introverted and CHOOSES to stay in the basement. None of that "remilia locked her up" bs, it's officially debunked!

(and the day i stop showing this panel of CDS to defend her characterization, you can assume that i am deceased)

ALSO. LITTLE RASCAL SAVED GENSOKYO T W I C E. First, she used her destruction powers to disintegrate a METEOR that was headed for the scarlet devil mansion and would have an impact radius that would reach all the way to youkai mountain. She made it explode and went back to her basement to take a nap (and Remilia tried to take the credit for that but failed horribly)

AND THEN theres touhou 17.5 where she's the ONLY playable character that actually solves the incident. Again, her power to destroy anything made her the ONLY gensokyo resident able to face Yuuma without her eating Flan's bullet for lunch.

So yeah! her reputation is atrocious but the gal's not even closely as bad as people make her seem.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk i am here every day same hour and i will talk your hear off about Flandre Scarlet and i will defend her portrayal until my last breath.

PS: little headcanon moment yeah woo yeah but uhh in my head i always pictured her voiced by Ikue Otani, best known as the voice of pikachu, but specifically >her role as Hana from Ojamajo Doremi&lt;

PPS: if you're new around here; despite everything, flandre is not actually my favorite touhou. no, nononono she is only second. Nah, the honor of the gold medal goes to ✨Her✨. do NOT get me started. I will talk for days without taking a breath between sentences.

[theskyexists]

scholomance 2

The first half of this book was a bit slow and not so crunchy, the second was very very crunchy, and the twist worked out pretty well.

things that don’t make a whole lot of sense:

1. why is there a weight limit (this could be explained by saying it takes gallons of mana to bring mass in that way thus weight capped)

2. why does failing the exams literally maim or kill you. i would protest that shit if i were a fucking parent.

3. why the fuck would you need to reach some damn gates to get out when the kids get IN via induction spell and the way out is via unspooling that same spell

4. why didn’t they use the goddamn COMPLETELY FREE healing spell again

5. why not use a reviser to phase mals (MAWMOUTHS) out of the graduation hall.

6. so why exactly does the school KEEP good spells from students and fuck them over so much with exams and languages if it actually IS aiming to keep them all alive. what a weird twist. would have made much more sense if it was simply the biggest mal yet. like why the fuck would it have encouraged El NOT to go after the mawmouth going after the freshmen if it was trying to keep students safe???

7. i still dont understand where mana comes from and why it comes from horror terror annoyance pain

things that don’t make sense to me narratively:

1. why have El go on and on about enclaves and reading and studying and the scholomance is in essence an enclave and not capitalise on that (maybe next book but like...)

2. why was Precious such a bitch about El getting together with Orion? like jezus, they were just dating, just kissing and having sex and falling in love and shit. whats wrong with that my god. yeah shes gonna be devastated and everything bc he lied. he doesn’t love her more than killing mals (a very late dramatic twist bc for the longest time El didn’t even understand he genuinely loves it)

steps forward now:

just keep doing this shit ey? make an enclave type thing as a trap, lure em all in and boot the bit of matter into the void. BAM. exterminator supreme, El!

Like i was like, well now the chances are 50/50 for wizard kids, let’s build a new scholomance, and have the kids come down the maintenance shaft every week to burn the new ones out in teams (new freshman handbook rules, seniors do this so graduation goes way smoother) and especially kill the agglos and re-ward the mortal flame machines. if a mawmouth shows up just revise it out of existence with the revisers you put under everybody’s pillows. since this was never said to cost too much mana - why not.

but now theres a much better option. just boot em out into the void. just do that shit! hope the debris doesn’t bump into some enclave also out in the void.

incomprehensible liveblog:

is she gonna be a teacher???? to these freshman kids?

scholomance is so damn hard on these kids but it does also sometimes act in their best interests....probably to keep them coming

ok so the scholomance is trying to kill her even more desperately. by playing on her protective instinct, by assigning her the worst ever seminars and classrooms

why doesn’t she ASK CHLOE OR ORION FOR MANA OH MY GOD. WHY DOESN’T ORION OFFER IT TO HER

‘Sure, the story is, the enclaves put in some mana, and our parents all put in some mana if they can afford it, and we put in mana with our work, but we all know that’s a story. The single biggest source of the school’s mana is us. We’re all trying to save mana for graduation; everyone’s working on it all the time. The mana we grudgingly put into our schoolwork and our maintenance shifts is nothing compared with the amounts we put away for that rainiest of rainy days. And when the mals tear us apart, of course we grab for all that nice juicy power we’ve desperately been saving up, and they suck it out of us, only built up more by all our terror and final agony and struggles to live. The Scholomance gets the spillover, and then thanks to all those wards, it kills off a good healthy number of the mals, too, and it all ends up in the school’s mana stores—where it goes to keep the rest of us luckier ones alive’

So when an enthusiastic hero—read, Orion—shows up and starts saving lives, and the mals start to starve, the school starts to starve, too. And at the same time, has more of us alive in here, breathing and drinking et cetera. It’s all a pyramid scheme, and if there aren’t enough of us on the bottom being eaten, there’s not enough for the ones at the top.

an explanation!

so in other words, the only thing that comes into this closed system is the kids, and teh mals. and teh scholomance can only grab teh spillover of mana when the mals or kids are killed, or the kids deliberately put mana into maintenance/schoolwork. somehow. i guess there’s a huge loss on the energy when it’s used to kill though. somehow. i guess because the mana is transformed into something else by spells. thus it cannot be sucked up by the school. but it’s happy with Orion killing teh small mals. won’t it be happy with El doing the same?

EXACTLY. ASK CHLOE. REMIND HER WHAT EL CAN DO. FOR GOOD OR BAD.

YES!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY SOMEBODY GOT THEIR WITS TOGETHER AND REALISED THAT EL IS THE ONE TO GIVE THE RESOURCES

NOW THE WHOLE SCHOOL’S GOT A POWERHOUSE

won’t the new york enclave be upset with Chloe’s alliance?

pretty sad to have el’s work always (still!) be attributed to orion

AAHH there’s a freshman handbook.... which el read ofc but orion didn’t.

Well fucking finally people realised that El’s a catch. I mean - jezus christ. She really could have shown everbody from the start.

what i dont get is if her mother had 7 spellbooks why doesnt she know more of her spells

why the fuck aren’t they inviting orion on their team

Why the FUCK would they stop working on the honeypot if the lute plan mostly worked and apparently Orion has just found the key component of wizard blood. It's essential that Orion pours in more mana into the pool!!! Wtf???

Why think it normal that's 1. Scholomance has it out for El 2. THUS the mals come after her. Just cos the school lets them through or what?

The finals literally main students. SURELY wizards didn't think of that part???? Surely thats the scholomance operating as much within its parameters to weaken the weak further?

Why the hell would El consider all the killing spells she gets useless? The whole point is to kill mals. She could become a literal exterminator outside too.

It really does seem like the wizards have lost control of the school. Why else couldn't they sneak in adults with induction?

How the fuck can I ship Orion and El if he doesn't even get anything ever about her. But I guess his dumbness strengthens her

What are the mouse familiars about...

You're telling me that there's NO magic to keep you from getting pregnant???? Hello??? Aha. The spell gets confused....that doesn't make any sense lol. It's not like a shield spell gets confused when you walk into a gout of flame deliberately to get to the other side of the graduation hall, now does it?

The obstacle course stuff implies that wizards can still adjust things inside the scholomance. So why would they allow the Scholomance to maim those who fail their exams.

I thought seniors got access to way better spells? But El's gotten nothing. Also that reviser trick is great. Why not dump patience and fortitude out into the void like that? And reading so much about enclave spells, I feel like that should give her a way with the reality and unreality of the scholomance.

Why the fuck would El say that mature wizards are the real apex predators. In what sense. What do they hunt

Oh only NOW does El ask the invincible hero in love with her to join her team. What the fuck. And he doesn't say yes? And she was asking him for his safety?

What I don't understand is why they don't share spells. I understand keeping mana for yourself but why not spells??

They actually use the spells they're gonna use at graduation? I mean...isn't that wasting mana. And the obstacle course can kill you. I mean....that's only going to lower everybody's chances right

They're all bloodied up. So let's do a circle spell again? THEY DONT DO THE COMPLETELY FREE HEALING SPELL

Right - ok that explains the casting. If the course fakes the effect then either it's an illusion and illusions are cheaper or the ffect comes out of the general mana pool and we know why the scholomance is always so hungry

Why the fuck would her wither spells not work but khamis firepotion would? Lol

Ahhh now she realises that she must save them all. But! How can she save them all - right?

She should take everybody with her on this course. Yep she is. But she should do it all together maybe.

El is so FUCKING stupid. She never tells people anything. 'oh they won't believe I'm powerful without proof :(' 'oh they won't believe I'll help people :('

Just TELL THEM. Ok just going for it was effective. And now ALL the teams are becoming more and more tightly knit.....

It's funny. El's got the INSTINCTS for bringing people together but she hasn't got the rational thinking for it. That's gotta be her friends dealing with her.

AND she keeps thinking : yeah I'm not doing that, but then doing it anyway. MAWMOUTH here she comes.

Orion is such a dumb brick Jezus Christ. He's really gone down in attractiveness

The SECOND half of this book is actually picking up

El keeps yammering on about how unfairly Orion was treated in the enclave but I genuinely do not see it. She makes deals all the time and thinks them fair. All the wizards do all their lives - and the enclave made the deal with Orion that he'd kill mals - which he instinctively loves to do - and they'd give him whatever. Which I think is pretty damn fair. Just because Orion is SO extremely lucky that he doesn't need any protection and wouldn't have had to come to the scholomance at all to survive - well, that's HIS EXTREME LUCK - which El used to despise in anyone. But if it's natural not social it's fine apparently.

YES!!! LIESEL!!!! ARMY GENERAL!!!!

Since they can't keep more than 300 alive, they're gonna somehow have to go one after the other. But how?

God theyre good. Kept their whole generation from getting eaten much. And now they're tackling graduation like no one else. What about the kids who come after...?

Liesel is so fucking right and El is almost as much an idiot as Orion. Idiot could have told and shown everyone and they could have prepared for FOUR years together.

What's up with this mouse trying to force El to stay away from Orion like she's the manifestation of Gwen's message.

LOOK AT WHAT THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH TOGETHER!!!!!!!!

And look how enormously useful El's death spells are. Should have written some more

EXACTLY. HAH. HERE IT COMES. Thanks sudarat. She's getting them all out. Alllll of em. Yep. All of the seniors. But what about those poor freshmen.....

The title is a bit of a hint. Her friends are gonna pissed when she stays behind.

'im so stupid' yeah El you're smarter than Orion but stupider than most others.

El my dear - you could make it better. You could improve the wards, burn out the mals, teach the children, defend defend defend, for as long as you stay

What would happen on the outside... More and more wizard kids. The lucky ones all survive in scholomance. The others die outside. And the wizard population grows... There really was something to the throwaway comment about wizards being the predators. Ecology ecology.

Maybe.....yeah the scholomance does want to be better. So.... It was nice to Orion because he was protecting kids. And it was hard on El to attempt prod her into action... After all....it gave her the sutra book, and kept her in the aisle. Not to keep her from helping Orion but to allow her to get the book. And it tried to get her out of the aisle when the mawmouth was there. Because it wasnt sure she could kill it. It put her with freshmen and led mals there to test her and to prepare her.

Thing is, if what's in the graduation hall is just so horrible - then them repairing the burners probably didn't work, and all those seniors died.

Oh right. It probably did work, and that's why the mawmouths are now desperately hungry.

Oh what. Oh no. Oh what the fuck. Where are they.

If the induction spell can drop you into your new room, and graduation is actually the reverse. WHY EVEN HAVE GATES.

'what do you want me to do?' she asks. And precious thinks it's obvious?

So the school made her care about everybody and told her look: you can.

Hmmm. But this is a very strange narrative twist. I was really getting into the whole army preparing to survive together by helping each other. And now there's nothing?

why the FUCK would the narrative go this way wtf.

I thought she would get everybody out, have to heroically fight patience and fortitude and then push Orion and Aadhya and Liu out with the sweep spell bc she'd stay forever to keep every generation safe.

But I guess that's....not it.

Ok but this is inconsistent because last year they were very much afraid of a full grown agglo coming through the doors down to graduation. (edit: that was an argonet apparently)

Ok I understand that a mawmouth is bad news but uhhhh El and Orion went down there and fixed stuff and didn't come across a single one. Like. Yeah yeah the little ones are faster but like...

But seriously why is there a graduation hall and not just a reverse on the induction spell

What WOULD work as a plan apart from dropping the whole school in the void is creating things that eat the agglos but which have a destruct button from a distance. Also simply reverse the induction spell to make graduation unnecessary. That having been built in really makes me feel like there's a hidden "lure all the mals to scholomance so they don't overwhelm all of wizard kind' agenda behind it secretly maybe perhaps.

So now I understand why the honeypot shit was in there. Don't understand why the narrative made it fail on small scale though.

Why make graduation only half an hour?

Also. Orion Lake leaking some sort of eldritch stuff out of his eyes certainly should have made an alarm bell go off in El's head perhaps.

OK SO. I think it's silly that a new mawmouth is given as an excuse that they can't keep killing the agglo's and repairing the mortal flame machine. Especially because the mortal flame took whole layers off of fortitude and patience. If you just dodged around the mawmouth /shielded enough - whichever came in in a couple of years, and you've got lots of space now - then you could easily keep it down if not kill it. Also - if the whole point was that Agglos are destroying the flame machine - specifically agglos - then I'm pretty sure that the narrative should have had El notice them chewing on the flame machine in the graduation hall when she was there. And a mawmouth is only a long term risk, they could improve odds for 5 years at least by regularly taking the maintenance shaft down and blasting any new mals to bits. Like every month. Or am I underestimating the presence of a single mawmouth? They really instantly want only a permanent solution.

More importantly, I'm a bit sad that instead of this development giving them space to create a whole new culture, one of all for one and and all for one, which will improve all of their odds enormously and make the experience hugely more pleasant - a culture they could pass on to the freshmen etc if they continue to root out mals together, perhaps hey, in teams from the start, patrolling,etc. but maybe the culture shift will happen outside as their whole generation is now in serious solidarity with each other.

This is one way I can see the prophecy working out in an unexpected positive way. El casts down the enclaves through true solidarity and reducing the desperate dependence that indie wizards have on enclaves. Also makes a mass killing in mals.

One more thing though is why don't they just let their kids get adopted by mundanes. Or idk invited mundanes into their house at all times? Whystick to the nuclear family. Grab your mundanes - grab homeless people off the streets and make them babysitters! Get a mundane nanny bodyguard! Jeeze. get four!

Two other ways I can see this plan go horribly wrong though and fulfilling the prophecy:

1. patience and fortitude are loose. Where did they go? More importantly - where did the Bangkok enclave go.... Can mawmouths traverse the void? Or...did the mawmouths simply roll out and go back hunting in the real world? Two huge impossible to kill mawmouths? Because Orion and El managed to deprive them?

2. There's a lot of ecosystem-type talk - reproductive rates, survival rates and predator Vs. prey. What if it was a good thing that all these wizard kids died? That is to say - it kept balance. This ties into one of my questions: how did wizards survive at all when 6 in 7 kids are normally eaten? It is said that mals used to be less powerful and hungry.... What changed so rapidly ? Or were wizards simply having loads and loads of kids to beat the odds? (seems unlikely to me)

El has often misinterpreted the Scholomance, and I think it's wrong to think it would evenhandedly keep kids safe. I'd say it absolutely does not - and picks off the weak to power itself so the strong can survive.

Im not into this romance anymore. El is so constantly worried about Orion - and yes he's shown himself dumb as a brick, dumb enough to get himself killed almost a dozen times. But! He's so completely blasé. He's never ever shown himself to align with her sense of injustice about his serious desire to simply kill kill kill them mals.

They're literally going to escape like tomorrow. So just fuck already! Jesus! Ok finally.

EXACTLY. Jezus did they really need to have sex first for Orion to set El straight on how he's not been damaged by his parents and enclave? He's just LIKE THIS. he loves to kill and slurp up mana. That's who he is. Lol - but she really can't deal with it. She kept trying to blame the enclave but ITS JUST WHO HE IS.

SHE REALLY STILL THINKS THAT ORION HAS SIMPLY BEEN TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?????

Please do NOT die Liu. DO NOT DIE.

Oh right ok that's the crux. He thinks he's weird. But he IS weird. But that doesn't mean he can't pursue happiness.

I do wonder.... HAVE THEY ACTUALLY TESTED THAT THE SONG WILL LURE THE MALS AWAY FROM THE WIZARDS ACTUALLY LITERALLY STANDING THERE IN LINE

Also I wonder.....whether she's gonna have to kill another mawmouth

An obstruction eh.....might....that....be...a....mawmouth....

Ok but if the induction point is where the kids go back, and it is ringed by adult wizards, and ringed by hungry mals, how are the mals getting past the wizards. And also...if they've lured lots of hungry mals to the induction points and the kids are going back there........

Are they expecting a mawmouth tho. Like there's two still HERE!!!!!

Lol finally El understands and BELIEVES Orion. Jezus when he tells you something El - LISTEN. STOP THINKING HES NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD. now she understands.

Please tell me that the kids going out didn't all get eaten. This isn't that kind of book right.

Why did they not expect a mawmouth. And why was it able to get through the fucking refusalshield??? That doesn't make any sense???? Was Alfie already out???? Oh it wasn't UP to the gate.

Liesel is so damn smart lol. She's so much smarter than El. TAKE THE DAMN MINDPHONE EL OR YOULL NEVER BE ABLE TO CALL ORION THROUGH THE FUCKING GATE

What the FUCK Orion.

Jezus Christ. He can't even fucking kill it! Oh my god.

[vampkomori]

the TMGB theory

i think theres a bit more to Shinjukus “destruction” if we shift our attention to its most iconic landmark, the tokyo metropolitan government building. 

Note: this theory is just for fun. but I think it has a good shot at estimating the future higher plane storyline

Before we get into the details of the TMGB, lets first establish something about the purification of Shinjuku

This dialogue from w2d4 is about much detail as we’ll get about what happened to Shinjuku, and what effect its “destruction” had on the RG. It was “wiped out” “erased” and “vanished”; nobody in the RG remembers it, except for the people that had been in the UG before.

Well “how can a whole city just vanish?” the answer is: it cant. But lets first bring this visual aid into play

Shinjuku used to be just north of Shibuya, but its not gone in the sense that it left a hole in reality and people just black out whenever they pass through. No, it seems like Shinjuku as an established district is gone, meaning its borders were never drawn, and all its space was instead given to all the other districts.

Basically, instead of “vanishing”, its more like memories and history were rewritten so that Shinjuku was just never a thing. Instead, the other districts just expanded their reach and parts of formerly-Shinjuku are now parts of other cities.

I believe this has to be the case because the alternative brings more trouble than its worth: If it was truly erased to a point where the space it formerly occupied is just empty, people would notice. But as we see with rindo and the others, they dont! rindo had no idea there was even a city up there. Itd also make no sense if people just blacked out and suddenly ended up on the other side of Tokyo, itd mess with measurements bc theres just a bunch of space unaccounted for. people with a 6th sense would also have picked up on the area being iffy, but none of this seems to be the case

Now we can get to the tokyo metropolitan government building! Its pretty important considering its uh. The government. And also shinjukus most iconic landmark. If the city had actually been destroyed, then thered be severe consequences in the RG because their government building is suddenly just gone. A simple memory wipe could not make up for it not existing, and it definitely couldnt just magically conjur up a new building within moments. (I mean, whose jurisdiction would this even fall under? The other Composers would fight over whod get to have the literal government in their city)

Suffice to say “Shinjuku” still exists in the RG. Its just broken up into pieces and those are considered part of the other cities now.

So, if Shinjukus RG is fine, what about its UG?

What we see in A New Day may actually just be Shinjukus UG slowly fading into another plane. 

To backtrack a little, theres a reason the Shibuya UG we’re in during neo doesnt include its newly gained parts of shinjuku, its because Shinjukus UG also still exists, and as neku says “it’s still there, but it’s been cut off from both the RG and the UG.” so its inaccessible. Also meaning, it cant be broken up and added to the expansion of the other UGs. if someone were to, theoretically, die in the RG of the areas that were formerly part of shinjuku, theyd simply go to the UG of whichever district claimed that area, and just wouldnt be able to access that other area in that UG

Now that thats out of the way we can go back to the actual star of the show: the tokyo metropolitan government building! Needless to say, whichever district has the literal government within its borders is bound to be incredibly influential.

And it just so happens

That the TMGB now falls into Shibuyas borders!

I believe this may be the key to the future relevance of Shibuya. The city is already extremely influential, as joshua himself said

Shibuyas influence is too strong.

So strong in fact, it could potentially “poison” the other districts. Now imagine how powerful Shibuya would be if you added the Government into the mix.

Additionally, Shibuya is already considered special by the Higher Plane due to the Shibuya River.

The Shibuya River is a particularly unique place, though we dont know which exact properties make it so unique, the fact that it started flowing into its own plane even after its source was destroyed already marks it as incredibly powerful.

So Shibuya as a place is impressively influential, so itd be no surprise if the Higher Plane kept an eye out for it, but if there was any doubt about this,

Due to the events of og twewy, the city is also considered to have reached its ideal state. Without a doubt this only adds to its already impressive level of power, and basically assures that the Angels keep an eye out for the city even after the Game between Joshua and Megumi was over.

But then why were they suddenly so insistent on seeing Shibuya purified in neo? Well, we dont know. Despite mentioning purification so often and the fact that Angels seem to encourage it, we dont actually know why the Higher Plane wants to see Shibuya purified. By all means, it should be an optimal parallel world now, so why would they suddenly want to see it gone?

The key may actually be Joshua himself. After all, he intended to stop Shinjukus purification. Though we dont know why he interfered, whether it was out of a newfound appreciation for humanity that went beyond his own city, or if he actually wanted to prevent the TMGB from falling into his borders, he was actively going against what the Higher Plane wanted, which would automatically mark him as a nuisance in their plans. Surely by purifying Shibuya, its entire area and also the area it claimed from Shinjuku, would once again fall into the borders of another district, and thus another Composer. 

Its difficult to say whether this is an overarching plan from the Higher Plan that has spanned across both games. If youve read my post about Composers, which is about how Hazuki may actually be a demoted Angel from the Higher Plane, it could be possible that his demotion was on purpose, and that they intended for Haz to purify Shinjuku, therefore making Shibuya more powerful due to the TMGB falling into its borders. He would be the ideal candidate for this, as hes considered unsympathetic and lacks knowledge about the lower planes (and thus doesnt know about the TMGB), making it extremely easy to influence him to erase his city. (though you could also claim he was in on it, but then later changed his mind about it and decided to intervene with Shibuya’s destruction, once again due to Joshua’s influence)

Either way, Shibuya was saved! (again!) and now its more influential and powerful than ever. No doubt even more people would want to come after Shibuya’s seat of Composer, just to govern this massively important city. 

And who else still desires this seat other than our favourite math guy

The fact that his plotline about still wanting to go after the Composer is tucked away in the Secret Ending of Another Day, means that this still has to be followed up on in a potential next game. 

And what better scenario to bring this up than Shibuya being highly sought after due to its recently acquired influence-boost in the form of the government

and to summarize everything once more for extra clarity

Shinjuku wasnt destroyed so much as history was just overwritten so that Shinjuku as a district was never established, causing its area to be split up amongst the other districts. the TMGB now falls into the borders of Shibuya, and with it comes even more power and influence. Shibuya as a city already had an intense amount of influence over tokyo, and even the Shibuya River is so unique that it catches the attention of the Higher Plane. Despite Shibuya having reached its ideal state of being an optimal parallel world, the Higher Plane still wants to see it purified for some reason. Though we dont know why yet, it may be because of Joshua, the fact that hes Shibuyas Composer, and that he willfully goes against the Higher Plane, most notably when he interfered to prevent Shinjukus Inversion. Whether Hazuki is aware of an overarching plan or not, Joshua still influenced him to a point where he also decided to go against the Higher Plane by saving Shibuya. With Minamimoto still wanting the Composer’s seat, it sets the tone of Shibuya’s throne being more sought-after than ever. And the Higher Plane may be more relevant than ever to make sure this influential district falls into the hands of one of their own

this concludes my case

[wickedpact]

i feel like we’ve absolutely had this conversation before but i can’t be bothered to actually check if we have- but there’s So Much “nicky isn’t good with words” content (and like, i don’t completely hate it in uses of maybe aus where nicky hasn’t been alive for nearly 1,000 years) but the thing is is that canonically, we’ve seen nicky be scary good with words. like i will die on the nicolò “acts of service to show love” di genova hill. but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to use his words!! he might not say as much but when he does speak there is a certain... weight behind his words? he says things with a purpose and a meaning. even if it may seem he’s saying something casually, there’s so much behind it??? but again, i’m just working with the movie as my source, and we only saw a very uhh?? brief bit of their lives so really we need a sequel to explore all this more. - 2ta

you 🤝 the same fucking braincell 🤝 me

when we were talking about nicky being both reserved and Not Reserved like.. idk a couple weeks ago i Almost made another post that i typed up at like 3 in the morning and then saved as a draft (bc it was three in the morning ofc)

i never posted it but it was like the same fucking thing you just said. like. nicky is not only good with words and good at expressing himself, but i also think of him as pretty social

like tldr

1. nicky is, like you said, Good at talking 2 ppl. Scary good. there are multiple instances through the movie of nicky shutting someone The Fuck Up via just talking to them a little. i mean in the train scene he gets andy (ANDY!!! stubborn andy!!) and book (BOOK!!! the guy who greatly benefits if they dont go after another immortal!!) to concede to his point abt nile after saying like 3 sentences to them. he strikes kozak speechless. he makes merrick run scared from his own lab. nickys GOOD with words and good at expressing himself and good at talking to people & good at making people agree with him, even if they wont admit it

2. i think its kind of pointed that in the scene where he says hello to the little girl in s. sudan, hes in the back of the group? like, we’re shown andy, book, and joe all passing the sudanese people without saying a word. nicky is the only one who greets them, despite the fact that it wouldve been hardly rude to not to.

so hes not only good with words, but hes also social. he says hi to strangers he passes in the street. tho a lot of interpretations of joe and nicky have joe being the social one and nicky being the introverted/awkward/shy one, i actually think of nicky as the more social between the two, and honestly maybe even the most social of the group. book and andy dont exactly strike me as gushing extroverts

altho i have to admit i think of them all at least slightly extroverted (i mean joe at least was a merchant. theres no way he could be Bad with people). i just think of nicky as just a little Bit More social

like. consider a diagram i made like 3 weeks ago

theyre both social. nickys just. a little more.

3. ik weve all talked endlessly abt nicky being a priest but like... being a priest is a social job. idk how Priesthood(TM) has changed between now and the 1000s but i doubt that particular facet has changed. priests are involved in their community. the whole point of being a priest is talking to people. i assume nicky chose to be a priest, thus his chosen career was a social one that involves talking to people as a core aspect.

& i agree that its definitely up in the air regarding whether younger nicky/ au nicky would be social/good at expression or not. However it always feels silly when joe is like.. the same exact guy circa 1100 as he is in 2020 but nicky is radically different in terms of how he expresses himself and his social habits. same goes for aus.

i mean. at the end of the day, im not the fandom police, and i dont ever wanna give off the impression that im like.. trying to tell fic authors what to write bc i get thats annoying as hell.

(and i mean i get it. nicky talks softly, doesnt have Marwan Kenzari’s Expressive Eyebrows, and is shown to be a bit of a bookworm. shy/introvert!nicky is a easy conclusion 2 come to. i simply Dont agree with it)

[constellaj]

16

Please talk more about your reboot!

16: If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

okay so how i would re-do CANON is completely different from how i would talk abt a reboot so im gonna touch on a couple things in both contexts! the reason for the difference is canon rewrites imply i can go back in time and introduce dp fresh and new, before anyone knows what it is; but for a reboot, id be working with an audience that has a better understanding of the source material, so i dont need to spend as much time explaining, but i also need to keep everything recognizable

Valerie

REWRITE: i would def make it more danny's fault that her dad lost his job, like danny was intentionally being reckless and shattered some security stuff, and he has a whole mini lesson about learning to not just run in guns blazing. i would probably remove the dating stuff with her and danny (and tuckers crush) too, I think them wanting to be good friends is good enough for freshman year

REBOOT: the fandom already knows valerie exists, so i would actually skip the whole shades-of-gray introductory episode and have her be present as the huntress from day 1-- probably even before danny got his powers. cujo is also HER dog, and her backstory-- we'd find out in like, season 1, that a natural ghost portal (maybe one wulf opened) ripped open on her dog and killed him, and since then shes had a vendetta against ghosts cause of how reckless they are and their disregard for life-- of course, cujo isnt actually dead. cujo is a halfa. a puby halfa. anyway instead of a hoverboard she actually rides cujo around cause he can fly and its big and epic. valerie has BEEN amity parks ghost-eradicating superhero for at least a year (tho shes been in the shadows abt it) and her hatred towards danny actually just becomes really petty, like them flying next to each other chasing skulker just going "I got this. no I got this. no I got this" and they just get in each others' way and its a mutual grudge.

BOTH: i am NOT keeping in vlad giving her the suit to watch danny under any circumstances. it was only utilized half assedly in canon (when vlad couldve just had an invisible duplicate watching him instead) anyway, and I dont have any reason to keep it in a reboot either. instead i want her tech to be a combination of half-stolen and half-gerryrigged stuff and she slowly slowly learns how to build her own.

I also dont want anyone knowing her secret identity, except maybe her dad, and sam or tucker. i think it works better if danny isnt privy to this magic info

Freakshow

REWRITE: i would honestly just remove him. the episodes hes in arent particularly interesting, theyre just generic "we need a plot about x" filler and he's not compelling enough a character (at least in writing) to carry a better plot that another antagonist couldnt. i'm serious

REBOOT: unfortunately in a reboot he's gonna have to pop up somewhere or else ppl will be like "where IS HE" so I'm going to stick with running some kind of ghost circus, maybe a few occult things, but cut out a lot of the spooky magical knowledge and mcguffin stuff. maybe i could make him like, someone from vlad/jack/maddies college who always felt pushed around by them and so he has a vendetta? and theyd be the only reason he even learned abt ghosts in the first place. idk in either way I want to force him into being irredeemable but also include LYDIA (the tattoo girl ghost) way more-- I want to give her an arc that ends in her tossing freakshow aside and running off to be a ghost vigilante.

BOTH: dear god the infinity gauntlet is stupid that needs to GO AWAY. especially for the reboot cause it would exist in a post-mcu world and way too many people would complain about it

Vlad

REWRITE: amp him up to a far more sinister and villainous character. the crushing on maddie isnt enough, I want to show him on-screen performing experiments on ghosts and himself, dismissing everyone else cause he thinks hes smarter than them. i want him to be actively sabotaging the fentons at every turn. i would also clarify that he doesnt actually want danny as a son, but as a trophy-- a line where danny says something along the lines of "you don't want a son. you want a slave". i want to make him a character who wants to destroy the entire planet and put it in the ghost zone so he can be the true ghost king and i want to make this all evident from day one. if i'm writing a series villain you can bet i'm going to write a GOOD one. less petty drama here and more actual stakes.

REBOOT: it seems silly but sense with reboot we have the benefit of hindsight and recognizing that vlad wasn't a big series villain, theres no way i'd actually go back and write him to be such. for starters, of course, theres the fact that anything he does would really be an exaggerated part of the original, and it would bore an audience to see the same story again-- theres also the fact that it doesnt seem right to take a character who was treated as a joke half the time and suddenly make them big and important. no, instead for my reboot i want to lean into the petty gay uncle vibe. he had a crush on jack and now just casually insults him. he moves mansions every now and again by just haunting the family who lives in the one he wants, and taking over-- i mean, who is gonna believe that an actual ghost haunted you. he dislikes danny not because he has some concept of 'evil' and 'good' but bc danny is just too damn active. of course he actually does care about danny and his safety deep down, it's just on the surface they have very conflicting motivations-- not to mention that danny has been raised on legends from his parents of the villainous Wisconsin Ghost, who has to be stopped at all costs.

BOTH: i want jack and maddie to KNOW he's a half ghost and to actively be hunting him down for it, maybe bc they think hes possessed, or been a ghost tricking them this whole time, or the victim of a tragic lab accident who needs to be put to rest, etc. whatever the case it will give vlad actual tangible reason to despise them and genuinely suspect they dont have dannys best interests at heart. i think it would be neat if vlad was cynical and every time danny hit him with the "I'll expose us both. at least theyll still love ME" vlad could be like in the back of his head "oh god theyre going to kill this child"

Dani

REWRITE: cut her out. we don't need her character at all. maybe replace her with a more ominous shadow duplicate / clone that actually looks like danny himself and doesnt really have a name? you could probably combine her and dark dans characters for their arcs

REBOOT: instead of a clone from vlad, she's a guys in white creation using some of dannys dna after he was captured (and vlad broke him out bc he was like "ugh i guess i have to save this child")

BOTH: vlad actually cares abt her (duh), shes nonbinary (double duh), she gets the funny dissolve into goo powers

i had more i thought i was gonna write but this post is already very long and also im running out of coherency for this LUL

[ladysophiebeckett]

i feel like everyone who liked eternals saw a different movie than me bc that shit sucked. 

ppl stanning druig is so confusing to me bc right after he said ‘hey we should save these ppl’ he was like ‘okay i will be their god lol’. and ppl are like ‘he’s so cute’. am i missing something??? 

having salma hayek play ajax was supposed to be seen as progressive but they literally had a mexican woman play a character who saw spain invade mexico before it was mexico. and everybody was okay with this?? i was sitting in the theater with my sister and we were like ‘uhh is this really happening?? did they really play salma like this??’ 

yes, they did. 

the sex scene was so awkwardly placed. im pro sex scenes but this was just the studio saying ‘look we’re not prudes’. (yes you are)

convinced that chloe zhao rec’ed styles as a joke. 

angelina jolie is this movie’s saving grace and i know she hates that bc she only wanted a bit part and no doubt is going to be in the next one. 

the whole time watching this i just kept thinking about the x men. ex. every time i saw madden i said ‘oh look its cyclops’.(eternals IS a wannabe xmen movie, lbh). 

(sersi is jean gray what with all her drama--like, girl can u pls get it together?? ‘im not sure about xyz’. you’re like a level 5 mutant. just do it. it’s been 2 and half hours and im out of popcorn). 

sprite should have died, she was annoying. fuck them kids. 

i dont understand why they made kumail nanjiani work out like that when he was fine as is before filming and his character did not have as much screentime as anticipated + he was comic relief\sprite’s like, fake dad. like?? what?? why??

while yes, it was visually stunning it was still a bad movie. they did too much and yet nothing bc they had no idea how to adapt such big source material. that’s why theres so much weird flashbacks and 1 character explaining everything in certain scenes.

anyway, this movie sucked and the important thing is that i feel better saying all of this bc it has been burdening me since i saw it. 

[bionic-penis]

Here it is! Before we get into it I'd just like to say that I sent this all in discord and so i dont use the most academic language and i also had to cut out some bits where I was speaking/replying to friends :)

Okay so maybe Yang and Blake are just good friends, I can see that, but the storyline and all their major character events are so intertwined that it wouldnt make sense not to make them a couple

Spoilers for literally everything

But in my defense its been seven years

Anyway Yang and Blake's stories dont start getting seriously interconnected until around volume 3, but we do see them being closer to eachother than the rest of team rwby (save for Yang and Ruby but they're sisters so it doesnt count)

When Blake is stressed out over the White Fang in Volume 2, it takes Yang to snap her out of it

Also a lot of people have mentioned this but I'm gonna say it again for those who havent heard it but colours and weapons matter in rwby. They're a key element in the show

ahem

Colours play a big part in the design and storytelling aspect and rwby and its no coincidence that Yang eyes are purple and Blakes are yellow, which are eachothers like signature colours outside of Blakes black

But even more than that is weapons

As we learn from Ruby in the first Volume, a lot of students make their own weapons and, as it is constantly reiterated, weapons are an extension of the self in RWBY. They're not just a tool to be tossed around

In the show we see little instances of people interacting with and using other peoples weapons. There's that one scene where Ruby uses one of Penny's swords to defend Pyrrah, but that was out of necessity. however, over and over again we see Yang interacting with Blake's weapon, Gambol Shroud

As someones mentioned before, an entire moveset of theirs is dependent on it

So it's clear that these two characters are incredibly close

Moving on from that point, Id like to analyze the incidents thst occur in volume 3 and following events that further Yang and Blakes connection

In volume 3 after Yang "breaks" Mercurys leg due to Emeralds illusion, she sits in the dorm room surrounded by her teammates, yet the scene singles out Yang and Blake. When Yang asked if they (her team) believed her, Ruby and Weiss are ready to say yes, but Blake hesitates. Yang and Blake then share a moment where Blake explains that shes trusted people before who turned out to be cruel. She asks Yang to look her in the eyes and tell her that she (Yang) is telling the truth. Yang does so and Blake believes her this level of affirmation from one another is so unlike the rest of Team RWBY and even Team JNPR

Ofc in the dorm scene the person Blake is talking about is Adam, her abusive and possessive ex. Obviously your relationship with an abusive person effects any and all interactions/relationships, regardless of their extent, but I think it bears mentioning

Continuing on in the events of volume 3 when Beacon is being attacked and Blake is confronted by Adam, he has her pinned down and says something along the lines of "I am going to destroy everything that you love". Unfortunately this is when Yang happens to stumble into the scene. Horror is prominent on Blakes face. Yang sees Adam over Blake and yells at him before charging forward, which is when Adam cuts her arm off. It's a very emotional scene imo. Blake then uses her semblance to get her and Yang to safety

So let's analyze this

Adam specifically singled Yang out

Ofc yang was the only one there at the time but Adam didnt say "starting with your little teammates" he said "starting with her". Ofc this could just be me cherrypicking but I think that word choice has meaning

Regardless, this is an intense moment for Yang and Blake that really welds their stories together, romantic or not

In volume 4 Yang and Blake take a break from one another-- Jk but theyre separated. After the events at Beacon, and especially after what happened to Yang, Blake runs. And we get to see both women dealing with this and trying to come to terms with it. Yang is bitter. She's angry that Blake, specifically, left her. And Blake feels like she had to run away to keep everyone, specifically Yang, safe

In Volume 5 we dont get much interaction at all between Yang and Blake aside from the same feelings represented in Volume 4, but these are put on the back burner for Blakes White Fang arc

However these feelings take a forward play in Yangs mind and she even voices these feelings to Weiss and Ruby

I take a deep breath

Volume 6, Blake and Yang are together again but tensions are high. They have to learn how to be together again. When Blake and Yang finally have alone time in the shed, Blake expresses how she won't leave, which comforts Yang. However, Blake continues on to say how she will protect Yang to which Yang gets mad and the moment is ruined.

Despite this, Yang and Blake are still going strong and trying to make things work by being there and supporting each other

Yang and Blake's arc for Volume 6 reaches its peak in the fight against Adam. In this fight we see both women fighting the actual source of their trauma. One thing id like to note about this fight is that Blake starts it alone but is joined by Yang, who tells her to catch her breath. This fight is the first major fight Blake and Yang have fought together in a long time. And its amazing. During the fight, Adam screams at Yang in anger and jealousy, asking "WHAT DOES SHE SEE IN YOU?" And saying that she (Blake) cant protect Yang to which Blake replies "I'm not protecting her. And she's not protecting me." MIRRORING the conversation in the shed

the fight ends with Yang and Blake stabbing Adam through with Gambol Shroud, killing him

Now theres some little things id like to point out with this fight, aside from the amazing chemistry between Blake and Yang and the awesome choreography

Its during this fight that we learn about Adams semblance (magic power basically), which is that any hit he absorbs with his sword, he can return with greater force. This is a corruption of Yang's semblance, where any hit she takes herself she can return with greater force

Now why do I think this is significant? Because rwby is all about symbolism. I think Adam's semblance was specifically chosen to mirror Yangs. Adam doesnt have to deal with pain, he just deflects it, which is how his relationship with Blake plays out. She tries to let him off easy, she tells him to leave her alone, but he just can't take the hint, just like he can't take a hit. However, Yang does take the hits. Yang takes them all and it makes her stronger. She empathizes with Blake and works with her. Adam doesnt have to deal with the pain his actions cause because he doesnt care. This reflects Yangs extremely empathetic personality. Yang knows what consequences her actions can have. She can take the pain

Another thing id like to point out is Adam's behaviour during the fight. He lashes out as Yang for getting in between Blake and him, blaming her for his flaws. He targets her just like in Volume 3. I think this was done purposefully

Another thing is Yang runs Bumblebee off the cliff to help Blake! Her bike! I think this is important bc yang loved her bike. It was part of her brand for the longest time. Perhaps running it off the cliff in the fight vs Adam is a nod to growing by letting things go? Idk I just feel like its an important beat

In Volume 7 we see Yang and Blake working together more regularly again with even a few flustered glances (maybe). Marrow even mentions that they never pair up with anyone else to which they respond with a cool fight scene this feels like the extent of their interaction since Volume 7 focuses more on ruby

Volume 8 isnt finished but there is one line that I think is important which is when Yang asked Jaune if "she'll think bad of me if we fail?" To which Jaune responds "Ruby's your sister" and Yang says "yeah... Ruby..." LIKE EXCUSE ME?

[I take some time to riff with my friends and partner before continuing]

ANOTHER THING

Adam BREAKS Gambol Shroud during their fight, mirroring how Yang, once again, works with Blake and Gambol Shroud. This is yet another example of Adam being violent and abusive towards Blake where Yang is sympathetic and kind. Theyre set up to be narrative opposites

Even though both Adam and Yang are both hot heads, utilize a similar semblance, and both have a deep connection with Blake, they are not the same bc Yang trusts and appreciates Blake while Adam does not

Also Adam and Yang both share the same sentiment of "Blake left me" but whereas Adam lashes out at Blake, Yang is mostly frustrated. Unlike Yang, Adam never attempts to work it out with Blake, which is where the two differ greatly. Yang is willing to listen whilst Adam is not

TLDR: uh give me Bmblb content right now Roosterteeth or I will suck the marrow from ur bones