#these stories are not as universal as people say they are i guess

[alltheboysandgirlsiloved]

Okay, okay, hold my hand through this.

Since apparently season 3 of jwct will be the final one, and we know that with Jurassic Wold Chaos Theory they weren't allowed to go beyond Jurassic World Dominion what is – WHAT IF – they are actually wrapping this part of the story up, to start a new segment aka the bridge between Dominion and Rebirth? It would make sense... since from the summary of Rebirth we know that mankind is going to face new challenges, so it would make sense for the campers to face new challenges too?

So like, jwct season 3 final episode is just the Nublar Six chatting, one of them (Kenji?) says "I think this is finally over now", and then we get yet another time skip (just like at the jwcc finale), let's say one or two years, and it's Nublar Six again sitting together, faces grim and Darius says "I guess it will never be completely over"????

cue dramatic music

this series is so successful they could be making spinoff after spinoff and people would still watch it... every single season the fandom grows and the characters are so adored... like come on universal...

[deusvervewrites]

Regarding "The Villain must Die"

That made me think about the "Talk No Jutsu" Meme and how many people still make fun of Steven Universe and Naruto because the respective MCs don't just mow down every opponent they meet.

And like, sure, SU was intended for younger audiences and acceptance and friendship is very much the core message so its kind of expected, but that's also why I think its even more impressive how consistent Naruto nails this part:

Naruto is a classic Shounen, an absolute mess of retcons, plotholes, and unreliable narrators that don't even know that they are unreliable, its a brutal and bloody battle-manga that's ostensibly about Ninjas but actually wants to be about Kaiju, and YET!

Naruto talking with his opponents and seeing them as humans and making them his allies is a unshakeable constant that runs through the entire series. No matter how much worse or powerful the villain, no matter what they might have, done, Naruto refuses to see them as less than human, he will ALWAYS try to reach out to them.

This gets to the point where one of the final villains actively mocks him for this, makes fun of how many of the previous villains were actually manipulated by him, how he has seen Naruto do this dozens of times so it wont work on him, and guess what?

Naruto does it anyway.

And it fucking works.

They still kill (or seal/lock away forever) the occasional villain (though often in battles in which Naruto himself is absent), but for how chaotic and messy this story sometimes got, it is really impressive that they kept this part up and did it so well.

That manga is an absolute mess, but god damn, do I ever love it for it!

One of the essays I was thinking of when I wrote that was based around the Diamonds from SU and how SU takes the stance that killing is wrong and then pushes it to the logical conclusion and says, "Yes, even now."

[homestuckreplay]

In Another Timeline, I Found A Good Title For This Post

(page 1196-1219; timeline theories)

The pacing of this intermission is kind of unbelievable – double digit pages for the past five days in a row. With that, all four members of the Midnight Crew have been introduced, so I’ve put together this quick table showing some of the patterns we’ve seen so far. About 75% of the time I spent making this was researching hat styles.

Page 1211 was the moment I really bought into this intermission. Up til now it’s been fun, but I have been missing the beta kids. But ‘You're gonna jump to a timeline where he's dead’ has really grabbed me, because this is new – as far as we know, Acts 1-3 took place in a single timeline, where loops are closed and everything’s stable. Now, the possibilities are anything. Calling it now that we’ll learn in Act 4 that a critical earlier event actually happened in a different timeline to everything else.

Also the two of spades turning into Slick’s licorice scottie dogs between panels is a really good bit. It ALMOST makes up for the ‘jack king off’ joke on page 1197, which is probably the worst joke in Homestuck so far.

This page is another highlight! Slick literally did build this town, and it looks totally different from the green-tinged complex architecture of now. I guess this is the flaw in Die’s powers – he can travel to a timeline where somebody is dead, but he can’t choose which one. He’s equally likely to get a timeline where Slick died today as one where Slick died before ever building the town. And maybe more importantly… this page looks kind of like a color switched version of page 248, another wasteland with a city in the distance (although this new one has other planets circling overhead).

So, most likely, Spades Slick and Jack Noir are versions of the same character from different timelines, and that’s why they’re not aware of each other. In the HS timeline, the character becomes a prominent agent of the dark kingdom, while in the MC timeline, he becomes an underground criminal/architect/construction worker on a planet that probably isn’t Earth, and might not even be in the Incipisphere. A city planner would fit right in with WV, PM and AR’s civic infrastructure theme. So the question is, what determines if a NPC leaves the game and returns to the outside universe? And does this mean Jack Noir could also leave, go to Earth, and be the future character who starts off in Dave’s location and flies to join the other three?

It does seem significant that on what’s apparently an alien planet, there is so much human paraphernalia. As well as the Crosbytop and Foxworthy photo, Deuce has a Stretch Armstrong doll. Surely this planet has its own celebrities to draw from. Alchemy still seems likely – Dave definitely has the components in this house to alchemize this doll. And there is a strong suggestion that appearification and sendification could work between planets or into/out of the Incipisphere – page 733 gives a good look at the screen on WV’s appearifier, which could be adjusted to the Incipisphere with the right key. That key isn’t Slick’s spade key, but someone has it. Maybe Snowman or Lord English or Diamonds Droog (who seems a fair bit more competent than Slick). And obviously we know there’s lots of Skaian technology on Earth, but it’s now possible there could be items from this other alien planet, too. Say, rocket boards.

And as a final red string theory (‘Red Strings’ title of DD’s magazine??), Boxcars hypothesizes that ‘you've got to alter the flow of time itself’ to open the Felt’s safe (p.1218). This is a story where one specific time of day has been really important, and has come up over and over again, and now there’s a whole mansion and group of previously unknown characters whose whole deal is controlling and changing time – among other things, these people can decide when it is 4:13 and when it isn’t. Clock faces are the same on this planet as they are on Earth, and the current time is 12:13pm – also the time on Jade’s island at the start of Act 3, for what it’s worth – and Boxcars’ plan to blow up this very important clock feels significant when we know that some places are outside the flow of time of the universe, AND there’s multiple timelines here, which could potentially converge if time is otherwise stopped.

I’m out here getting my head all tangled over this timeline stuff, but the Midnight Crew are not at all. Droog, especially, has this ‘just another day at the office’ familiarity with time travel. He and his crew don’t engage in it at all, but they know what’s up, and it’s no different to knowing what type of disguise or getaway car a rival gang uses. What a fucking idiot, they’ve totally given themself away with this ‘punching me from the future’ move yet again. This moment on page 1203 looks like a stable loop, even if nothing else is – Deuce has arrived after being radioed for backup, and Droog’s trail leads up the stairs, where we know he went after being punched.

Droog and Deuce are both great characters. Droog is like the second in command who’s actually way more competent than the leader. He has clear parallels with Dad Egbert, sort of Dad’s dark mirror, with the same attention to suits and to backup versions of his clothes. Dad also has multiple backup hats, although some are in different styles (p.72), multiple backup pipes, and lots of identical shoes and ties (p.948). We haven’t actually seen a DD analog on the ominous planet – only SS (p.953) and HB (p.957) – so either Dad is going to meet this DD analog, befriend him and be sheltered by him now that he’s escaped prison, OR (more compelling), he’s going to disguise himself as an ominous citizen and BECOME the DD analog in the HS timeline.

As for CD, I just think he’s neat. I love that he’s wearing two hats and one of them is a bomb.

[starlightwayfinder]

All right, here’s round two of me trying to prove my point 😂 I promise I’ll get there.

So first of all, let’s look at this scene:

KHDR started setting us up for a premise of “True Light vs False Light”, and presumably, “True Darkness vs False Darkness”. In this example, false light is more or less described as treating someone you love in a bad or harmful way. So if love is the definition of light, how can that be the basis for “good”? Well, it isn't, because that’s not really a true form of love, is it? If you’re hurting someone, it’s darkness—even if it might be outwardly perceived as light.

No one has outright said “false darkness” yet, but it’s implied here. Clearly not all negative emotions manifest as darkness—again it relates to your relationship with other people and attempting to have power over them.

Larxene creates a perfect metaphor with Elsa’s completely neutral ice powers. Elsa fears her powers, and that fear is what leads to her hurting Anna and her kingdom. But she’s able to accept her magic thanks to Anna’s love and selfless sacrifice, which results in both becoming true lights.

Riku also has control of his fear and darkness due to his love for Sora:

So yes, KH says darkness is born from negative emotions:

But it always has to do with how they’re handled and how they lead someone to treat others, not merely their existence.

Here Sora embraces negative emotions and hurt with empathy & compassion, using them as an opportunity to connect with others. So again, negative emotions, even if they’re typically perceived as darkness, can’t directly equal true darkness. When used to help others, it’s still light.

Light encompasses more than just positive emotions, there’s more to it than meets the eye:

So if friendship is a form of light, it makes sense that darkness is out to divide people.

If it connects people and brings them together for good, it’s light. If it drives people apart and makes them harm each other, it’s darkness.

So I’m not at all saying “negative” emotions don’t play an important role—especially in regard to empathy and connecting people’s hearts with love. But light is necessary for that to happen, in order to keep those emotions from getting out of proportion and leading people to hurt others.

Additionally , if you’re just not convinced that “true light=goodness”, I guess that’s up to personal interpretation. But that’s at least the impression I get from the games. Even though he’s asking sarcastically here, Xehanort indicates pure light is what defines ‘right’.

And considering that this is a Disney story, it makes sense to me that true love/true light is the ‘order’ that guides the KH universe.

You know, your post saying Ven can’t wrap his head around why people would use the darkness is getting me thinking again about its nature and place in the setting. I hope it doesn’t end up being as evil as the narrative makes it out to be.

This is a super interesting ask, and I think to answer it honestly—I have to disagree a little, but I also do agree? Let me explain my thoughts.

Personally, I do think the narrative works best when “light” and “darkness” are literally interpreted as good and evil, creation and destruction, love and hatred, etc. The thing is, KH is clever and has made a point to specify that *true* light and darkness are a little different from what people might initially assume to be good and evil. 

Of all the games, KHDR looks most deeply into what actually defines darkness. The best example off the top of my head is when they’re comparing the residents of Wonderland. Even though they all seem to harbor a negative emotion of ‘fear’, only the Queen manifests it as darkness in her heart. The difference being that she harms and executes others to maintain her power. We see how she is consumed by ire and lashes out at everyone. Xehanort argues that maybe her darkness is necessary to maintain order… but it’s not a good kind of order to make people live in fear, is it?

Conversely, what defines light? Some ‘light’ sided characters like Eraqus go around seeking to obliterate the darkness out of a hatred for it. (He justifies this by mentally separating darkness from people, but khdr confirmed that hearts and darkness are basically entangled in the modern era.) This sort of behavior doesn’t align with ‘true’ light though, as harming others is still what defines darkness. Of course, there are situations where fighting is required to protect people from harm—but even then, it’s not ideal to have to hurt anyone. When people have been hurt, it can be accepted and transformed into light / something ‘good’, or it can continue to manifest as darkness and become something cyclical that hurts others too.

The best understanding of light in KH is found in actions that stem from a desire to help and heal others. Take Kairi helping Sora come back from being a Heartless, for example. Even though he had fallen to darkness, she revived him with the power of her faith and love. Sora himself says that ‘deep down there’s a light that never goes out’ in every heart, and that ‘Kingdom Hearts is light’. This makes logical sense to me, if life and light are the same, you can’t be alive without light. And if that light never really goes out, neither does a person’s life. Hence why the heart is ‘never really gone’.

A lot of what KH asks comes down to—“what is a perfect world?” In the lore and fairytales of the series, light was a freely given gift from Kingdom Hearts—presumably in the form of hearts. What gave way to darkness was people attempting to selfishly claim that light for themselves and take it from others. This turns the world from order to chaos, and Kingdom Hearts disappears. Until it can truly return, there will still be darkness and suffering in the now-divided worlds. Coexistence and peace would be the ideal world order, but the conflict between light and darkness prevents it. Note that the real conflict between light and darkness is “darkness tries to possess light”, not “they both try to destroy each other”. I don’t think that true light, the kind that has ‘more than meets the eye’, is out to destroy darkness so much as to return it to light.

We don’t know everything about the True Darknesses yet, but Khux implies that they cast away their forms to conquer light, only to realize that their will would be lost without  bodies. This is why they seek to ‘infect�� people’s hearts and stay alive through expansion, claiming more worlds and lights along the way. The Master of Masters claims they are entirely different from people, and yet we see Vanitas gain a heart—which by my logic before, wouldn’t even be alive without possessing at least some light, right? 

So to answer your question, I do think darkness is “evil”, but only in the sense of being an absence or willful rejection of goodness / light. I think there’s a real chance the KH ending will be one of reconciliation and restoration. It would be pretty wonderful to see all of the true darknesses get their own forms and hearts again, especially if that puts an end to the conflict once and for all. Darkness isn’t completely bad to the extent of being irredeemable, but it is completely bad in that—on its own—it only causes an endless cycle of cruelty and pain to be inflicted on people. Just like you can’t fight fire with fire, you can’t fight darkness with darkness; light is the key necessary to make things right again. 

So to explain my headcanon about Ven, we have to get into his mind as a pure-hearted person. He’s selfless and aims to share light rather than possess it for himself (or fight over it with others.) That’s how the ideal world is supposed to work, and it benefits everyone. So he doesn’t see the logic in hurting others to benefit only yourself. That will just make people hate you, right? Where’s the harmony in that?  He values friendship above all else, so that’s why he can’t wrap his mind around people valuing other things (power) more and justifying harming others to gain them. That’s why ‘his friends are his power’. Because if you have the light of friendship, you don’t need to take power from others or use the power of darkness to feel fulfilled.

Thanks for the ask!! I hope this explanation makes sense 😅

[no-wings-no-angel]

not to shit on a whole legacy of literature analysis….. but im really tired of every time clarice lispector comes up the point ends up being ‘the inherent quality of Woman is that of Suffering’. im sorry but maybe not??? can you take the essencialism away??? please???? like women can be happy actually. no one is bound to suffering eternally.

[marypsue]

Man, it's cool and all if you see a metaphor for marginalisation in the monstrous, and if you want the power fantasy of 'what if you could just eat anybody who threatened you/pissed you off'. Me too.

However, as soon as you start saying 'no, these monsters are a 1:1 on Specific Marginalised Group, and you have to treat them in the fiction like they are directly representative of real human members of the marginalised group', BUT you also, in the fiction, make them hurt/kill/eat humans? And then try to shame me, your audience, for noticing or engaging with the bit where they kill people, because you made them directly representative of a real-world marginalised group? You have lost me, and also, I think, the plot.

[jerreeeeeee]

i don’t know if i’m ever gonna write the fic but i’ve been thinking abt like. the eternal stockade. the implications. lup, a lich who was trapped in a dark featureless cell for a decade completely isolated with nothing to keep her sanity but her own mind. she has to put people in the eternal stockade. how many liches does she see herself in. how many liches started out just like her. how many liches are truly too far gone. and the only liches we ever see other than her and barry are edward and lydia. they’re certainly evil, but mad? they seem pretty sane. they’re not, like, tattered echoes of souls, they’re definitely still people. even as much of a grudge as lup surely has against them, wouldn’t they remind her incredibly strongly of herself? do they deserve to be trapped just like she was? for eternity? isn’t eternity what turned john to existential despair in the first place?

[rmbunnie]

I'm reading A Lonely Place of Dying and Alfred latching immediately onto Tim is NASTY work. Tim shows up and is like "I never aimed to be Robin! I mean I did karate my whole life to emulate Robin and just so happen to have sought you out and grabbed this costume in my size out from that case and really you should be calling me Robin just for now and let me come with you as Robin but I never dreamed it would specifically be ME being Robin. You have a lovely house and home btw :) Now go back to being 10." And Dick's understandably like "No I am a grown man now who are you" and Bruce is not here for this one, but later on is like "You aren't Robin, you're some kid dressed up like my dead son." But Alfred?

IMMEDIATELY Alfred is implying Dick was trying to subtly ask Tim to be Robin (simply not true in in NTT 61, when the implication is made, although he changes his mind in Batman 442) and that Bruce should be grateful for this young man's profound bravery and immense natural skill and maybe show him a few pointers or something idk we'll see :) Like let's be clear, the idea that Tim didn't want to be Robin is simply not part of this story outside of like two lines of dialogue where he's like "oh I didn't consider it could be me!" after which he immediately goes "Wow so you ARE gonna let me be Robin right?" the second he sees the opportunity. The guy essentially makes himself Robin once Dick makes it clear he isn't gonna be. Dick tells Tim nobody should be at first (until he changes his mind) but is ignored because Tim doesn't get why and goes with what he understands, his own stance.

I'm of the opinion that the whole "Tim understands that being Robin is an arduous task full of suffering from the start and chooses to bravely yet sadly martyr himself for the cause" thing I see sometimes is strongly disproven, at least in the beginning of his Robin career, by his "Batman NEEDS a Robin (to love and care for and to watch out for him in return :) )" line of reasoning, his subsequent willingness for Anybody to be Robin whether or not it was him (unless he was consciously okay with other children suffering for his benefit which I find really hard to believe,) and his active glee at anything involving being Robin and persistent smiling pursuit of Doing So against Batman's strong disapproval, because he hasn't officially said no (he did several times, but you can't blame a kid for being excited.) Like, I think he said he never dreamed of being Robin just because having a kid come in begging to replace Batman's dead son because it was a personal aspiration would be extraordinarily rude and arrogant and they wanted people to like this one. He was NOT in any way adverse they just couldn't make him THAT presumptuous, and he is by nature of what he's doing already moderately so.

But say it was true, that Tim was actively opposed to being Robin? Alfred would be pushing this shit HARD onto this thirteen year old kid like what the fuck bro. And "From what Master Richard said, he follows your orders." is HEINOUS but let's not get into that.

[firestorm09890]

probably deleting this later and it's not like anyone following me actually gives a shit but most of the characters I grow obsessed with end up being men because the archetype and character traits I'm obsessed with are more often than not applied to men in the fiction that ends up infecting my brain, and not because I. hate women. sometimes you can rightly say people unfairly make up backstories and shit for underdeveloped male characters and ignore the underdeveloped female characters but I promise it has nothing to do with internalized misogyny for me, it's just me chasing after whichever character fits my favored description the most, even if it's grains of sand I have to work with. genuinely if you know of media with women who are.... hm... idk if I can describe this. cold, competent, and rational and are care way too much about the rules and have a deeply fucked up relationship with an authority figure in their lives that heavily affects their actions PLEASE let me know so I can read/watch it

[alastyr-not-alastair]

Hhhungryyyyyyyyyyy

[mcybree]

Im doing a lot of thinking abt why roleplaying feels different/less natural for me in beastlife s4 in comparison to s3, and i think it’s because there’s ways i know i should be feeling (based on the perception of my character— when i was fresh out of s2 nobody knew enough about my guy to have opinions) vs how i am feeling. I’m catching myself thinking, “it wouldn’t make sense for my character to [blank],” and it’s like… what do i mean by that. what do i mean that this feeling im having in-session “wouldnt make sense for my character” to feel? It might be surprising to other beasts who know me for one thing and expect consistency, i guess?? but in s3 i just acted on feelings and then shit happened. what. why am i trying to enforce a character that does not exist when the strength of mcrp lies in its improvisational nature. I didn’t write this guy on purpose, why am i trying to write him now

[loverboybrightsideghost]

imma be honest i enjoy arcane and i have my favorite characters but im really not obsessed tbh, its just convenient to be into rn since its About and Around so much. and the art is so pretty, and the memes and jokes are funny!

[insignificantstrawberry]

I’m better than the astronauts from the I.S.S. horror movie on amazon prime because I didn’t NEED to be blasted up a billion centimetres into orbit and see the planet turn to know that borders aren’t real and governments won’t save you and we просто нужно помнить о том, что нужно держаться вместе.

[troublesomecousin]

♘ - a memory of their sibling(s)

♘ - a memory of their sibling(s)

It had been years, nearly a whole lifetime it felt like since he'd last seen Orin. But well, Kevin had been living in England for longer now than he had New York, so it made some sense that it felt that way. The wide-eyed kid he had been when he and his mother had moved to be closer to her family had been replaced with a moderately surly teenager, but standing here now with his brother he still felt small. A decade and change difference in age would do that, but Kevin was still disappointed by the fact that he still felt like a baby even now that they were nearly the same size. Plus, he knew how to swear properly now! That made him an adult! "Mum's gonna flip if she finds out you got me these. I think she might kill you first then me," Kevin said, unsure of what else to say as he stuck the pack of cigarettes into his pocket and stuffed the dirty magazines inside his coat. He'd only asked for the cigarettes, but Orin had been grinning ear to ear when he'd practically shoved the paper bag into his little brother's hands. Kevin had almost thought to say something about them not exactly being his taste, but he didn't want to seem ungrateful. That and he wasn't sure he was ready to tell anyone about his "preferences". "S'don't tell her," Orin replied with a shrug as he started back toward the house. Kevin quickly followed after him, his hands sweating a bit as he carried his contraband with him. "You do know how to lie I hope. Woulda figured you'd have inherited that skill from our dad...and besides, your ma loves me. She'd just kill you." Kevin rolled his eyes. "Yea, yeah...I know. She's got a thing for dumbass Americans." "Don't be such a little snot, Kevvy," Orin retorted, reaching over and ruffling the other's hair, much to his displeasure. But Kevin kept his irritation silent, frowning instead before turning his gaze toward the ground. "It's unbecoming of a young man...shit, when'd you get tall? Baby brothers aren't supposed to get tall." Stopping dead in his tracks, Kevin couldn't hide his agitation this time. He glowered at Orin from behind a now disheveled lock of dark hair. "It's been eight years. You stopped writing. What? Did you think I stop growing when you're not around? Think I'm still a kid?" "Kevin..." Orin's voice was uncharacteristically soft, all jocularity lost as he stood there staring. His lips curled slightly as if he was going to say something nasty, and Kevin braced himself, but nothing angry came. "I don't know...I don't think any of that. I just...I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean anything by it." Kevin let his shoulders relax, having until just then not realized how much he had hunched them. He sniffled, trying to contain any further embarrassing displays of emotion. "Fine..." he replied, starting up walking again, this time Orin was the one lagging a few steps behind. "Just...don't do that again. Don't forget about me, okay? Promise you won't." Orin placed a hand on Kevin's shoulder, and despite himself, Kevin did find the warmth and the weight soothing. He didn't get this sort of feeling from anyone else. Not his mother, his step-dad...he'd missed feeling protected by someone outside of himself. "I won't, kiddo. I didn't...I promise." "And promise not to call me 'kiddo'." "No."

[riddlerosehearts]

finally getting back to my majora's mask playthrough (that i've been doing with my dad, and pretty much totally stopped a couple months ago when i got obsessed with xenoblade 3 instead) and tbh. i think i can say for certain at this point that this game is deeply, thoroughly unfun and frustrating to both me and my dad and i don't get why most zelda fans seem to laud it as the greatest one ever that nobody could possibly dislike.

[erythristicbones]

i feel like my biggest hypocritical trait is that i will make fun of the fans of superhero movies/the state of MCU and DC and all that jazz as much as the next person, but i WILL also lose my mind over every one of those movies that i watch. not because they're good(they aren't), or well written(they aren't), or even that funny(usually they aren't). it's just that the very second i start watching a movie with superheroes i lose every single one of my braincells and i have the time of my life. i will rewatch so many of these dogshit movies just so i can see people kickass with funky powers