#they both sound really interesting and we don't have an equivalent here

[shiniestcrow]

Having food stuff from other countries is so much fun especially when you notice differences to things you're used to but never questioned before

[chernabogs]

I can see an entire bouquet matching Malleus 😭 Calla lily, Ivy, Red Salvia, NATSURIUM and White carnation with pecks of Daffodil and Fern

Don't feel obligated to use all of them! Chose whichever you find most suitable! I just could stop with one alone, the more prompts i read the more i had this idea for a story in my head

I think you and I had the same idea cooking LMAOOO I hope I did this well! <3 Thank you for the request!!

Sin Eater

Inc: Malleus, Reader, a sin eater, and one advisor WC: 3.4k Warnings: Heavy discussion of grief and coping with loss Flowers: Calla Lily (something at first sight), Ivy (we��ve always been friends but we were never just friends), Natsurium (I refuse to bury you), Daffodil (a god bows before a mortal), Fern (In a world of magic, the greatest miracle was you... subtly implied) Summary: A quiet conversation in a hall between a prince, a starving idol, and a body.

Their arrival is marked with the sombre chiming of Dragon City’s bells, which is the only reason Malleus knows they’re approaching Black Scale. The window of the bedroom you shared is wide open, letting in both the breeze and the song as he stands so still that one may consider him to be a mere statue on display. He feels equivalent to one; his breath is shallow, his body cold, and his expression far away enough that he hardly registers the carriage approaching. 

“Your highness?” A faint voice speaks by his right side. Malleus’ finger twitches at the sound as his emerald gaze slowly slides from the streets below to the advisor who is now anxiously twisting her sleeve. He can hardly remember her name—advisors come and go so often that they’ve become a blur in his mind—but he’s taken to calling her Scops due to the owlish stare that she always seems to wear around him. “The sin eater is here.”

Malleus stares for a moment before he looks back down to the courtyard. The carriage door is open, and a figure is now standing on the stone, speaking with one of the guards. The discussion is brief, ending with the guard walking to the doors and the figure looking upwards at the palace walls. A golden mask conceals their face, capturing the rays of the sun which battle through Briar Valley’s ever-present clouds, and they wear a simple black funeral suit. 

“I see that.” He replies curtly, his voice ungiving on how he’s really feeling. “They arrived quite quickly, didn’t they?” 

“I suppose they have,” Scops steps a bit closer to the window to look down at the sin eater. “Strange, really. It isn’t like their profession is a competitive market anymore.” 

Sin eaters used to be far more prominent in Briar Valley back when it was still Briar Nation, and old traditions were held to a greater esteem. Unfortunately, the changing of times meant the dismantling of old organizations and beliefs, rendering the sin eaters as nothing more than a token piece in a funeral party. Perhaps once they were esteemed in a religious fashion—but not anymore. Now they will sit for anyone, so long as they get their meal. 

You had always admired the old traditions, though. He remembers your avid interest in his family’s history, and the many nights you’d waste away in the library, reading tome after tome in delight. You had been the spearhead of a new age for old beliefs—revamping Briar Valley’s tourism through the demonstration of habits long dead—and you had made a difference. That’s why there is a sin eater here today. 

Malleus dislikes their presence, however. Them being here means that what he’s going through is not just a simple dream. He exhales through clenched teeth and forces his shoulders to relax as he turns on his heel and nods. 

“Regardless, it’s best not to keep guests waiting.”

_____________________________________________________________

The hallowed hall in which you lay is silent, even with the presence of the sin eater looming over your shrouded form. How they managed to move quickly enough that they arrived before Malleus did is something he decides not to question—nor does he question how they knew of the hall to begin with. Their profession is one that draws the most peculiar of magic users into it. Like a bloodhound, they caught your scent and followed it to the room. He’s surprised the guards who have been standing watch over you for a day now permitted them to enter. 

Malleus enters alone and waves for the room to be sealed. He notes the hesitation in his guard’s body language before they oblige, stepping away to pull the great wooden doors shut with a resounding boom that stirs a pair of birds residing in the rafters. Their wings flutter in distress as Malleus spares them a passing glance before returning his focus on the figure ahead. The sin eater has turned to look back at him, and he sees upon closer inspection that the mask they wear lacks a mouth. They incline their head in greeting before speaking in a surprisingly clear tone considering their facial obstruction. 

“Your grace. Forgive me for the intrusion before your arrival; I merely wished to prepare in advance.” Their voice is soft and low as they touch a hand to the place above their heart. Malleus hardly reacts to their words as he brushes past them to where you lay, body enshrouded in a white sheet with a torc affixed upon your neck. His fingers brush along its form; forged of mystium and gifted to you as a token by him. It was the closest he could get to a marriage declaration in the eyes of the Senate. 

“It’s hardly my place to prevent a sin eater from completing their role.” He replies languidly as his fingers skim off of the torc to rest on your chest. Stiff, still, and cold against his fingers. “I just wish you had not come to begin with.” 

He doesn’t wish to have you buried quite yet, but he knows he’s already pushing the limit of how long he can keep you. He kneels by the platform that holds your form as his fingers brush along the shroud that hides you. If he could, he would drag you off of this macabre display and back into the rooms you shared for so many decades together, to wrap you in his arms and pretend this isn’t happening. 

But that was foul. Utterly, utterly foul. Your body would putrefy and decay while he clung to a false hope of resurrection. 

No, the sin eater is here now. He just doesn’t want you out of sight quite yet. 

“Many do not welcome me, but I have never left without gratitude.” The sin eater replies softly. Like a god before a mortal, Malleus’ ethereal features are painted into a stony expression, his gaze still distant. He hardly feels a part of this world right now as he hums quietly in turn. 

“Perhaps.” He muses as his fingers toy with the shroud before he turns to look at the sin eater. Like his own face, their mask is a stony expression, their eyes concealed from his seeking gaze. If they were to not move and speak then they could easily be dismissed as one of the many statues adorning the hall. “How shall we proceed?” 

“Do you feel ready to proceed?” They posit as they gesture to your form. 

Malleus rises back to his feet but doesn’t remove his hand from your body. The pungent scent of flowers—used to disguise the sweetness of decay—wafts up with the abruptness of his motion. “The opportunity to refuse has long passed. I am aware that there is a feast to be had—that, they regaled me of this back when they were still alive.”

You had been enamoured by the concept of Briar Valley funerary rites throughout your time in life. He remembers thinking it to be grim when you would speak of them, and rather anxiety-inducing when you began to plan for your own. He always knew that your status as a human meant that you would join the stars long before he did—he had simply not wanted to think about it, though. In the end, your efforts to establish your own postmortem care had saved him a great deal of distress these past few days.

Your ability to think far ahead had been one of the many aspects he had loved about you. 

“Indeed, and I am delighted to see one is set for me.” The sin eater drifts off of the steps of the platform towards the far side of the room, where a table lay with an array of foods on it. Wine, dates, meats, and a variety of other luxuries decorate pristine plates and spotless cutlery. He had spared no expenses in the lavishness of your memoriam. “Sometimes I have served people who are still cooking the final meal by the time I arrive. But then again, I would expect a prince to have ample amounts of resources available to get things done.” 

“I give nothing but the finest when it comes to them.” Malleus retorts sharply as he goes to sit in the chair on the other side of the table. Before he can properly settle, the sin eater raises a hand and shakes their head. 

“Turn the chair around if you please. You are not meant to see my face when I eat—that honour is for the deceased, and the deceased alone.” 

Malleus pauses, his hand resting on the back of the chair before he obliges and twists it around to face the wall. He then sits down and crosses his legs patiently. Despite the fact that he knows the sin eater to be unarmed, he still feels a prickle of paranoia creep up his spine. Old habits die hard when one has been hunted for so many years. 

Eventually he hears the sound of the sin eater sitting down in their respective seat, followed by something heavy hitting the table. The sin eater clears their throat, and the sound is far clearer now than before. Their mask has been removed—which means the rite has officially begun. Malleus inhales and readies himself for what he recalls the next few steps to be. 

“Tell me about them. Call them to the table where we feast.” There’s a brief pause then before a fork scrapes against porcelain plates. Malleus’ eyes flutter shut as he gives a low sigh. 

“Mira calirh.” The affectionate term flows from his tongue easily as he touches upon memories long passed. How can he summarize you in a simple conversation? You had been a person of many complexities—of devotion, of will, of love as boundless as the sea. To boil all that you were down into a mere few lines felt sacrilegious in his heart. 

“Tell me of your first.” The sin eater prompts, and so he does. 

“I met them outside of their dorm. I thought the place was abandoned, but suddenly they were there before me, sleep-dazed and curious. I remember thinking how calm they were when facing me directly—only to find out they hadn’t a single clue about who I was.” Malleus’ lips curl into a faint grin as he pictures the moment so clearly. He can see you in your youth, eyes glassy with sleep and hair slightly dishevelled. You had not registered in his mind as someone of importance quite yet. 

Oh, how such a thing would change. 

“Tell me more.” The sin eater urges. He can hear the wine glass lifting and being set back down on the table. Malleus’ hands clasp tight as he feels his fingers begin to grow numb. In his peripheral vision, he thinks he sees movement from the pedestal. He resists the impulse to look its way as he considers his next words. 

“It made me feel… alive. For a moment. They would accompany me, speak with me. It was shortly after my overblot that I began to consider them as a friend—although I suspect we never were just that. It was two summers later that I began to consider them something more.” 

Malleus pauses for a moment to gather his thoughts. He remembers that summer—it had been warmer than usual in the Valley, and you had come to visit for a week. He recalls the smell of sunscreen and the sight of you with your hat on your head as you sat in a field of eternal green. The land was lush and abundant with life, but it had been you that had drawn his gaze the strongest. 

The sin eater pushes a plate away before grabbing another. It drags across the wooden table with a bitter screech. “Is that so?” 

“Quite. They stayed with me for a week, and I wished every night that the next day would never come, only so that I could hold onto them for just a bit longer. I kissed their cheek before they departed through the mirror back to NRC—I wanted to kiss their lips, but I panicked and missed.” He can’t help but laugh at that. His palms had been sweating and his mind had been in a panic when he clumsily pressed his lips to your cheek in a kiss of farewell. “Foolish I was. Fortunately, it didn’t turn them away from me. The next time we met, they made sure my aim was true.” 

“Young love has a habit of sending our hearts aflutter, no?” The sin eater muses as more scraping sounds out. “Tell me when you loved them.”

When? Malleus’ brow furrows as he considers the question. When did he not, really? 

“Every day. Every hour. Every minute. I think once they became mine there was not a moment I did not love them, even when we had our disagreements, or the obligations of my role drew me abroad. I loved them in the day, I loved them in the night. And in the sparse moments between, I loved them even more.” Malleus feels his jaw clench slightly. “We could not be married, and so I made sure they knew my devotion.”

“You could not marry because they were not fae. I remember that being a point of contention in the papers.” 

The sin eater must be a fae themself, then, if they can recall the tabloids from that time so easily while looking as young as they appeared. Malleus bristles at their comment. 

“Yes, that was a point of great contention, and one I had to swallow despite working to change the laws. Even my grandmother agreed that such outdated beliefs had no business in and amongst our courtiers.” 

He had fought viciously against nobility for the opportunity to keep you by his side. Eventually it had ended in a standoff, with the courtiers begrudgingly agreeing to permit you to live in Black Scale, so long as you never officially became his consort. Your body hasn’t even been cold for a day, and he’s already heard rumours from Scops that the Senate is hunting for a suitable replacement. 

The knowledge tastes like bitter fruit on his tongue.

He thinks he sees the flutter of white fabric moving at the pedestal again. His brow furrows as he rationalizes it away as a trick of the odd lighting in the hall. Still, the cold breeze that follows makes him shift in his seat uncomfortably.

“Tell me how you loved them.” The sin eater diverts his thoughts and the conversation once more as something heavy scrapes across the table. It may be the plate of quail he saw—or the pig's head. “What did you do to always let them know?” 

“Everything. Anything they wanted I would give to them. If they had asked me to move the mountains we rest on, I would do so. If they asked me to pluck the sun from the sky and fasten it into a brooch for them, I would make sure it was held by the finest of metals. If they wished for the rains to fall and the earth to turn green, then I would drag the clouds from across the world to where they stood.” Malleus shivers again as he feels an ache in his chest. It’s been there for days now. “Magic bends to my whims, but I bent to theirs.” 

“But you couldn’t give them time.” There’s a licking sound and a low hum of satisfaction from the sin eater. “Time will eat everyone in the end—much like how I feast on their memories now. You could give them every precious gem and flower in the world, but you could not give them a second more than what they were meant to have.” 

“If I could have, then I would.” He snarls back, his head turning slightly to glare at the blurred image of the sin eater. “I would have stolen the seconds from anything and everything and given it to them instead. The gods know they would have benefited from it. They had plans, ideas, to improve this nation and now? Now they’re already beginning to decay.” 

“As things do.” The sin eater tosses a bone onto a plate as Malleus looks back to the wall. He feels something cold brush against him again, and then the scraping of a chair to his right. His shoulders tense at the sound and he wonders if the sin eater has changed places. 

Until they speak. 

“How very kind of you to finally join us.” 

The comment is simple and one that draws confusion in Malleus until it finally clicks in place and his entire body plunges into freezing water. The world spins to a stop as he hears a whispering voice by his ear, its words indiscernible. Malleus’ eyes widen and dilate as any words he had to say stutter to a stop from his lips, drawn shut by a cold touch brushing up his arm—much like how his touch had brushed along yours moments ago. 

“One last bite, then.” The sin eater interjects once more as they push another plate away. “Tell me how you will keep them alive. The body may be rotting, but the soul does still linger. Within this hall, within this palace, within the memories stored in your mind. How will you honour that?” 

The words become clearer now. Your voice is soft as your breath brushes against the skin behind his ear, making him shiver as a small, painful sound escapes him. The scent of you lingers just beneath that of the roses your body was bathed in before being wrapped for your cremation. He can feel the brush of the shroud against him as phantom fingers touch his back. 

He wants to turn to see you as he once knew—but something tells him that doing so will merely send you away faster. 

“Their legacy.” He offers slowly, eyes fluttering shut again as he loses himself in your touch. “Their memory carries on through years upon generations of work. They brought life back to Briar Valley’s beliefs. They reshaped this old, rotting home—reshaped me—into something better. I may have portraits of them, and statues, and items that they loved dear stored in my rooms—but I think the only thing they would wish for me to do is continue the work they had started.” 

A sensation floods him then like that brought on by a lover’s kiss. It curls around his wounded heart and floods itself through his veins, warming his body in a way that it hasn’t been able to for days. Another pained sound leaves him, but it is not drawn out because of any agony. 

Then, as quickly as it arrived, the sensations are all gone. Your scent disappears, your touch disappears, and Malleus Draconia is left once more to sit in a stiff wooden chair in a large, desolate hall, with a body and a sin eater as his company. He wants to grasp for you and hold you in place like he did so dearly with your body—but the voice screams at him again that this is not the way it plays out. 

The sin eater sets the cutlery down before drawing their mask over their face. They push the chair back to stand, and only when they’re on their feet again does Malleus turn to them. He can feel wetness on his cheeks as he stares at their slender, frail form. He had managed to keep himself from crying so far—but now it’s become a battle he can no longer wage.

“What a delectable meal.” The sin eater sighs as they brush down their suit before stepping away from the table. They pause as they face the prince before bending at the waist in a low bow. The black pits that represent their eyes do not stray from his face as they do so. “They rest—as you should, too. I know you have at least another day of the wake to endure, so try to recover as much energy as you can. They would not want you to suffer on their behalf.”

Malleus doesn’t reply as his gaze drifts to your shrouded form on the pedestal. His love, his partner, his calirh. When the sin eater is already halfway to the door, he clears his throat, causing them to pause and look his way. Malleus stares at their masked face with an expression of neutrality once more. 

“... thank you.” He offers softly. The sin eater tilts their head, bows, and steps out of the silent hall.

[numberonetacostan]

I actually really like the idea of Taco speaking French.

I wanted to ask if you have any other headcanons for that, honestly not many people use that, I've seen here and in one fic where Taco's personality changes to her s1 self and she doesn't understand English.

The idea of Mephone watching movies with both French and British villains in them and mixing those ideas together is a interesting one.

HELLO THERE!!!!^^ WELCOME AND THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR SENDING IN AN ASK ABOUT TACO SPEAKING FRENCH. ESPECIALLY ONE ASKING FOR MY HEADCANONS ABOUT TACO SPEAKING FRENCH. I LOVE THINKING ABOUT TACO SPEAKING FRENCH <3<3<3<3 MY BILINGUAL QUEEN!!!!!!! ☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆

Taco occasionally forgets a word in English, but can remember it in French. No one else speaks French. This leads to an impromptu game of semi-charades as she tries to mime what she's talking about while saying the French term for it over and over again. It doesn't usually work but she tries.

When Taco is speaking English, her insults are often as refined as her diction (see: vile vial for Testy, tablet tabloid for Mepad). In French, this is not the case. Her insults in French are the equivalent of derogatory terms such as "raggedy bitch" and "ass muffin", but no one else can understand them, so they assume they're just as fancy as her English insults.

I'm not sure if this one counts, since it's not really a headcanon since it's very much not able to fit in canon, but if Taco had a place of origin that wasn't Inanimate Island, like if she wasn't made by Mephone, I like to think she'd be from one of the islands in the English Channel, off the coast of Normandy. Some of them are owned by France, some of them are owned by England. The English ones are significantly more populated though, so I'd say she'd be from either the Bailiwick of Jersey or the Bailiwick of Guernsey. She'd have grown up with both English and French. (And possibly Norman but that's not canon nor the point) Okay sorry onto more actual headcanons.

Someone at some point gifts her the flag of France and calls it a "French Pride Flag". If you want it to be a well-meaning misunderstanding, Goo gives it to her. If she's being mocked, it was Nickel. It could even be a joint gift from both of them, in which Goo had a nice little idea first and Nickel joined in to be a little shit.

Speaking of Goo, I think he'd find her being bilingual very cool and want to learn French himself!!! He tries, but silent letters end up deeply confusing him. Why are they there if you don't say them? Is French scrabble different from English scrabble because of this? Are the letters upset that they don't get pronounced? So many questions. Taco gives up on teaching him.

Post tacomic getting together (none of my posts are immune to propaganda sorry) Taco would say that she is Mic's little flea. "Ma puce", meaning "my flea" is a term of endearment in French that sounds a tad more... derogatory in English. Taco does not realize this and everyone agrees that she is indeed Mic's little flea.

I think shows and movies that Mephone watched while he was still at Meeple definitely influenced him making his own characters!!! As for who Taco might be based on? Hm. Well I don't watch the widest variety of things, I tend to find one thing I like and obsess over it, but maybe Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could be one character that inspired Taco's accent? She's a little British girl who wants and will makes sure she gets. Maybe Scar from The Lion King, another liar and betrayer? Even Frollo has a British accent, there are a lot of solid villains that could have inspired her. As for the French, we could continue with older Disney stuff and say Lumière, even though he's not a villain, with his proper attitude he could work. Even Gabriel Agreste from Miraculous Ladybug could work. Although he doesn't have a French accent, he is French and a terrible father just like Cobs, so he may come to mind when Mephone is making his "evil" original character.

Before you sent this ask I'd already been planning to make a post of Mic's adventures in learning French so that will be coming soon as well!!! Thank you for this request!!! :D

[yuurei20]

Trey Info Compilation part 2: EN Trey

Trey's past was rewritten for the EN adaptation of the game: in the original game Trey recounts a time that Riddle’s mother went over to his house and lectured his entire family for five hours straight.

While recreated faithfully in the manga, this was rewritten on EN so that Trey alone was lectured by his family, not by Riddle’s mother.

This is an interesting change made to Riddle and Trey’s history together as (on EN) Trey is no longer the one character who has personally experienced that part of Riddle's home life.

This also indirectly contributes to Riddle's overblot (in the original game), as having witnessed what Riddle suffers at the hands of his mother leads to Trey refusing to scold Riddle like she did, no matter what he does.

(The line "I just can't scold him" was changed to "I don't think the situation calls for it" on EN)

EN-Trey has also been rewritten into a family that will lecture him for five hours as punishment for playing with another child, which has never actually happened.

Trey has also never referred to Riddle’s unique magic as a weapon.

Original Trey: Doodle Suit (Paint the Roses)

EN Trey: Sleight of Hand

There are many rumors about where this mistake came from, and I have recently started wondering if it was a fluke of the localization process: Trey is the only character whose unique magic on EN was translated from the meaning behind his spell, but in the original screenshot the meaning isn’t written out, just the sound of it.

So maybe somewhere along the process of translation / proofreading / final checks someone decided that “Doodle Suit hasn’t been written anywhere on EN, so let’s come up with an EN-friendly equivalent” and they landed on “sleight of hand,” possibly forgetting that Doodle Suit = 薔薇を塗ろう = Let’s Paint the Roses?

We may never know, but for the curious this was, originally, not a new spell! Trey is using his usual “Paint the Roses” unique magic.

Original Cater: Your whole “not saying what you think” thing is really not good.

EN Cater: I should have learned by now that seeing your feelings on the DL is not a great idea.

While Cater is originally admonishing Trey for not saying what he thinks (which was a signifiant influence to Riddle’s overblot and thus the entire drama of Book 1), his line was rewritten for EN to Cater admonishing himself.

The EN adaptation will sometimes have people referring to Trey as “mom”, while originally the characters generally refer to him as “dad."

Cater never calls Trey a “nerd;” this insult was added to his dialogue in the EN adaptation.

Similarly, Trey never says that he is closer to Riddle than he is to Trey. His original line is closer to saying that he is close to both of them.

EN has some pronoun confusion where Trey says he made fun of Deuce for crying for his mother.

If you thought that this doesn't seem like something Trey would do, you are correct! He was talking about Sebek, in a scene we saw on screen.

Original Trey: I’m not doing so on purpose.

EN Trey: (removed)

Original Trey: Boys in particular are too embarrassed to...

EN Trey: A lot of people are too embarrassed to...

(It is insinuated that Trey may have hang-ups about gender roles, much like Epel, and much like Epel’s lines this was softened for EN)

More here:

・Trey Info Compilation part 1: Family and Glasses

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

not sure if anyone's asked you this before/yet, but so you have any opinions or thoughts of the relationship between all of the pantheons? general relationship and possibly some more personal ones?

I've read many different headcanons and fanfiction where people have mentioned their thoughts on it, but nothing they've ever gone into detail about.

there's nothing really preventing them from interacting *👀 I keep remembering the smallest tiniest hint of freypollo we got* but that doesn't mean they go out of their way doing it, yk?

OKAY SO-

The pantheons I'll be mainly focusing on are the Greek, Roman, Norse, & Egyptian ones. I'll probably make little nods to other ones too tho :3

Don't be surprised if this mainly centers on Apollo XD He's my guy <3

GREEK & ROMAN

Let's kick it off with these two!

"But aren't they the same-?"

Nope! The Roman pantheon started off as their own sets of gods - the thing is, they had very little myths written down so we don't know much about how they were characterized :(

Howmever. We do know that when they were synchronized with Greece's gods, you can see the little differences between them - for instance, the Roman gods were more Forces Of Nature than gods who went out and Did Stuff, like Greece's.

Jupiter for example! He didn't have the "fucks around" rep Zeus does! Jupiter from the Roman's perspective didn't go out and do much. He rooted on Aeneus, yes, but the myths of his children weren't quite as popular in Rome as they were in Greece (probably because they were. ya know. Greek heroes, and not Roman)

And Apollo. Oh, Apollo...the only major god who didn't have a Latin equivalent.

Rome loved you so much they adopted you and went "no. no. he was always here. no we aren't lying. see? he's in the Dii Consentes!" XD

Fun Fact: Apollo is basically multiple gods in a trench coat. Paion (Mycenean), Smitheus (Mycenean), Aplu (Etruscan), Apaulinus (Hittie), Grannus (Celtic), ect were all Apollo-equivalents who historians have concluded to be past incarnations of Apollo!

which is INTERESTING because...do those gods still exist in the RRverse? Are they connected to Apollo in some way? Are they little voices in his head? DO THEY HAVE DRINKS TOGETHER?

I have questions and I need answers.

Greek & Egyptian

Saving the Norse for last because we all wanna save Freypollo for last <3 the best for last lmao

RIGHT OFF THE BAT I'M GONNA SAY THAT ZEUS DOESN'T LIKE THE OTHER PANTHEONS! I BET HE DOESN'T!

Which sucks for him because Apollo has friends in Egypt XD

I do think Apollo and Horus would be friends! Not only are they both associated with the sun in some way, but they were actually identified with each other when Greece met Egypt!

Greece: Oh so you have a super-powerful son of the king of the gods associated with light? So do we! :D

Egypt: Oh my gosh we do! :D

You know the myth of Typhon? Apollo transformed into a hawk to escape, and you know who has a hawk head?

Horus. :D

also Horus took over the thrown from Osiris - sure, not in an overthrow way but still. he overthrew Set and claimed the throne

sounds like something we all want hmm...

Also, I headcanon that Helios and Ra go WAAAAYYYY back and Apollo only met Ra like. once. before Isis did her blackmailing and Ra disappeared.

SO WHEN RA CAME BACK, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN DURING HOO BTW, APOLLO HAS NO IDEA! HE'S ON DELOS AT THAT POINT! THEN HIS TRIALS!

So when he rolls up to the next sun god meeting he sees Ra and is like "wait what who are you- OH WAIT!"

And Ra's like; "WHO LET THIS CHILD BE PUT IN CHARGE OF THE SUN???"

Apollo: I'm over 4,000 years old-

Ra, pointing: BABY

(Headcanon that Ra & Amaterasu are like. the defacto sun god 'leaders' who keep the meetings rolling. Amaterasu was very tired when Ra disappeared and she had to wrangle these fiery gods together XD)

(Also Helios thought Horus was a lil' upstart XD)

Finally, I also saw someone else mention that Apollo could have learned some Egyptian magic and used it to create the border of CHB!

Headcanon Hecate snuck along with him and it's their little secret :3

Greek & Norse

HERE. WE. ARE.

LEMME GET MY MAP OUT

SO.

Green highlight is where Greece is. Blue is where Hyperborea is (see this post for details)

In that post, I came to the conclusion that Apollo Totally Definitely Has Met Norse Gods BECAUSE OF HIS WINTER VACATIONS!

AND IF YOU LOOK ACROSS THE BALTIC SEA-

STOCKHOLM.

AND WHERE DID APOLLO MEET THAT HOT GOD WITH A TALKING SWORD???

A TAVERN. IN. STOCKHOLM!

FREYPOLLO LIVES (<-knows very well it's basically already canon XD)

Fun fact: the people of Hyperborea were most likely the mythological avatars of the Norse people! :D

SO I CONCLUDE-

Apollo takes a trip across the Baltic Sea and flirts in the Stockholm tavern and that's how Freypollo happens <3

Other Pantheon Thoughts

Hindu: This thought came while I was creating my @underrated-lovers-of-apollo-poll - Apollo & Indra!

They shared an elephant ride that one time! Wouldn't it be fun if they also kissed? :3

also Indra is a storm god with thunder and lightning think of the angst-

Shinto: Amaterasu taught Apollo Japanese when he discovered the haiku for the first time - sadly, only Athena ever bothered to learn it to experience the haiku in its fullest. pushing my sibling agenda again haha

Because haikus always sound better in their native language <3

Hittie: This connects to the 'Apollo trenchcoat' thing earlier - if Apollo is like. the current form of Apaulinus, would the Hittie pantheon like. drop in from time to time like 'heyyyy we miss you <3'

Apollo: *trojan war flashbacks*

Apaulinus was heavily associated with Wilusa, whom historians have confirmed was Troy, and Apollo's first temple doesn't show up under AFTER the bronze age collapse and the war happened BEFORE that happened meaning HE WAS APAULINUS WHEN THE WAR HAPPENED MY HEART-

i need to look into more pantheons. it's so much fun making these connections and coming up with headcanons for the RRverse :3

[storkmuffin]

Hello! I literally just came back to Tumblr after a several year hiatus because of the tiktok drama, and stumbled across your posts. It's been really fun to see your thoughts, especially getting a bit of cultural context here and there has been wonderful! You've written a lot about what you like about each member, but I'm curious about how you feel about their relationships with each other, especially as a baby atiny. I find their interconnected friendships really interesting, even outside of a shipper context (and I am curious about how you feel about that as well!) I have always had a huge weakness for found families lol

Hi! Welcome back :D Thank you for reading and commenting!

TLDR for what follows: I take a much harder, colder stance on the 'found family' narrative they keep pushing with Boy Idols than perhaps befits an Atiny about Ateez, but I do have my reasons.

I take the view that first and foremost, Idol groups are business working groups. I'm a little bit (okay, a lot) skeptical of what's presented as 'family' and 'friendships' among these people, generally speaking, because Kpop Idols are just following Korean norms of social interaction for coworkers.

Hopefully this isn't boring but I need to just use myself as an example: I am the 'leader' of my working group of 5 people in my department that has about 70 people in my Korean company. I report to 3 levels of bosses but mostly they let me 'run' the group. My one group-mate is the same age as me, the other three are younger. The woman who's the youngest (our maknae, though not by a lot) - she's a baseball freak. The rest of us dgaf about baseball, but whenever we have our monthly 'bonding' lunch (obligatory, by the way - I'm given a monthly budget that I have to spend eating with this group, all together), all of us take turns indulgently asking her about baseball news, and ooh and ahh and pamper her in her baseball speeches. Do you see what I mean? This is just how we behave. It probably looks like family, to a Westerner, but truth be told, we are none of us actually friends.

The fact that Hwa and Wooyoung have both called their CEO Father freaks me out, by the way. Absolute heebie jeebies, though this too is a feminist, gendered thing. Sexual harassers pre-MeToo always said they'd 'forgotten themselves' because they felt like they were 'family' with the woman they raped or molested. It sounded just as insane in Korean as it does in English, but that was an accepted excuse until it totally wasn't.

In addition, one of the requirements of Boy Idols is that they provide emotional succor to their almost entirely female audience (I am organizing my thoughts and what I've learned through research about why this is for another post). Korea is an exceptionally family-focused society, but that is often exploitative and terrible for women. (Which is why so many women keep saying they don't want to marry and form families - the potential personal burden is ruinous.) So Boy Idols showing what a 'family' can look like when nobody is a woman - when even the 'mommy' or the 'bossy big sister' or the 'baby sister' is all men - and are shown to always, in the end, get along, is the non-sexual equivalent of BL fiction, which I think functions to let straight women 'escape' from misogynist heterosexuality and enjoy the concept of male sexuality in an ultimately quite straight way. Boy Idol groups being 'found famliy' gets you to enjoy the nice things about a voluntary family completely denuded of even the possibility of misogyny, because women just don't exist in the story at all.

Further, because so many megastar Idols have committed suicide in recent years, and because the people who were in training for years and ultimately didn't make it also tell nightmare stories about their lives, it's become necessary for Idol groups to advertise that they are not toxic workplaces. So I see the 'miraculous getting together of pairs of friends to make a successful kpop group!' mythos as part of that counter-narrative, as well. My bet is that the 연습생 world, like any sort of prep situation in Korea, is fucking hostile. It has to be. In the normie world of just college prep, people don't share notes or pretend to be civil or anything other than competitors. Your failure increases my chances of success, type of deal.

Part of the Ateez self-narrative about how they came together to me also just seem pretty typical of people who are in the performing arts in general, as well. The School of American Ballet takes in little kids to train them, and if they manage to make it through many cuts over a number of years, they then debut with the New York City Ballet or American Ballet Theater, where they will compete against and/or partner with each other until the end of their usually short (like 10 years or less) careers, trying to get to the 'top.' The kpop Idol industry follows this system of 'growing' its own artists, often in boarding schools or specialized institutions, just like ballet dancers. It looks different because the cultural context is different, but the essence is the same.

I've seen all the K-Atiny flutterings about, THIS IS FATE and stuff, but given that K-Pop Idol has really specific physical requirements, it makes sense to me that as they got older, the kids who were really determined to do this as a job and also were not kicked/ flunked out would eventually all meet and some to become friends.

The fact that Mingi followed Yunho, and Wooyoung followed Yeosang to this small venture that had never launched an Idol group before can be seen in two ways, I think. One is that they are best friends, in a pure, childhood way. It's so sweet and moving that it doesn't feel quite real, and doesn't fit with how you expect people who in essence wanted to be child stars and then rock stars to be like. It makes them very lovable.

But, just to be the ultimate cynical bitch about it, the paths Ateez took may have more to do with the fact that Mingi-Yunho and Yeosang-Wooyoung are the tall and short versions of being 2% Off the Idol Standard, to my Korean eyes. These two sets of friendships may have come from sharing the same problem - of being almost, but not quite, 'right' or 'ripe' for debut.

Mingi and Yunho, despite the fashion for tall Boy Idols, seem to have not made the cut to become 연습생 (prep students? how do kpop international fans call this?) at any of the big houses nor get recruited off the street. And that makes sense - Mingi is in the 짐승돌 (Beast-Idol) mode, which has fallen out of fashion for some time, and Yunho suffers from being too standard and initially appears indistinct as a result.

Yeosang and Wooyoung seem to have fallen into a different kind of 연습생 hell - good enough to get a spot, do well enough not to get kicked out, but not have enough of what it takes for a 'big house' to include you in an actual group that will debut. Yeosang often being a mild person who doesn't react in a lightening fast way would have disadvantaged him for sure. Wooyoung is so handsome but like, if you compare him to say, Felix of Stray Kids, he also looks just so manly, which would have made him difficult to place. To drop out of Hybe 연습생 to try out this thing with KQ, which had never done it before speaks of a certain desperation.

Other than HongJoong, who did a really weird and unusual thing of making a company build a program around him, the 99z were all up against a fast approaching deadline of aging out of being able to debut, since they have a hard stop at age 28 each, and one of the key ways to cultivate a hardcore Korean female fandom is to have them participate in 'raising' you. Can't do that if you debut at 25, you know?

Almost 7 years later? First, they've achieved wild success, together, when none of them were necessarily the most likely to succeed, and they definitely are NOT with the company most likely to successfully launch an Idol group. That's gotta be great for bonding. Second, only the eight of them can actually really understand wtf that life is like - the hardships or pains that come with what otherwise just looks glorious. Third, all the psych studies agree that singing together and dancing together with other humans makes you love them more, and feel more bonded and more belonging, and doing singing and dancing together is these people's full time job. Fourth (sorry the cynicism is back), if they can't make it work within this group, they will have a hard time pursuing show business careers in the future. You have to have 'good character' as an Idol to not be decimated by the anti-fans, and an essential element of 'good character' in the Korean style is knowing how to be a good member of a collective. And fifth, what KQ and Ateez are doing vis-a-vis each other (Company v Contractors) as well as inside Ateez is a sort of positive-reinforcement of Mutually Assured Destruction with all this family talk. They're family and brothers and the CEO is their DAD and their producer Eden is their big brother so ... when the 7 year contract deadline rolls around, KQ shouldn't stomp on Ateez, Ateez shouldn't stomp on KQ, and the members should not go for broke as individuals. I think that's part of it.

[chantylay]

Romania is getting a lot of hate this year, and I wanna say some things.

In terms of the song quality, Theodor Andrei is in his last year of whatever the Romanian equivalent of high school is, and not affiliated with a record label. He wrote the song himself and had it produced by a buddy of his, who (if I remember correctly is a couple years older and makes music semi-professionally). This was a 0 budget production, and it sounds like it. That said, there are some genuinely interesting things going on in both the lyrics and composition ("I'm Feeling Good" sample emulated on a keyboard not withstanding). There is a lot of talent here, but neither experience nor resources. A revamp that used real instruments or even just a higher quality emulator could have done a lot for the song, but Romania never revamps.

The national selection staging was also very clearly something he and his friends from the school drama club came up with. There were a lot of ideas, and not all of them were good. But it showed a lot of passion and creativity. It got people voting. But based on what we have seen from the rehearsals, the delegation said "we are not paying for transport for any props or dancers. We don't care that you are 18 and don't have the money to foot the bill yourself the way some previous acts have. Sucks to suck. Here's an ugly LED."

Like, I feel really bad for this kid. He really wanted to do Eurovision, and his delegation is doing him so dirty. I hope he gets to be more established and comes back sometime in like 15-20 years. Because there is good stuff here, he's just too young and too broke to make much out if it.

[crazykuroneko]

IWTV S2E5 Musings

Long ass note under the cut, but tl;dr Louis & Old Daniel is my new brotp. Armand can't take it away from me. And Armand has a PhD in gaslighting

• The impersonal statements Daniel pointing out. The implanted phrases Armand supposedly gave to Louis. Somehow my mind recalls the "vampire bond" explanation. The way Louis said it in S1 is like he's reading from a book.

• Current Louis knows Santiago's plotting

• Of course Armand is a lame crypto man 😭

• "His methodology is never violent" Oh, Louis

• "Armand preserves my happiness, even when I don't or can't" 🚨

• Louis still likes his coffin lined with a green silk 😭

• Young Daniel acts like a loser. I'm so sorry, I'm trying to take him seriously but he's funny lol

• "You're lonely. You're thrill seeking" Oh he reads him so bad. Why Louis stay with Armand tho?

• Louis and Young Daniel are just saying exactlyyyyy to one another lol

• Louis was agitated when Young Daniel pointed out the use of past tense on Claudia

• Louis is already in suicidal mind set even before Armand comes

• Interesting. The way Louis is reading his thoughts here. As in literal reading. He can't be in Daniel's mind (e.g. seeing what Daniel is seeing), his ability is limited to what Daniel's thinking. And Daniel is not thinking to himself, he just opens the Talamasca recordings right away. Thus Louis can only feel Hesitation from his mind, bu he doesn't know exactly what for

• "You don't have enough to fear from Paris?" On revealing their nature. I knew Louis had the man in the park an Roget. But why does this sound something bigger happened in Paris with the humans?

• "Is it the gremlin or good nurse tonight?" Well, he decided to be both tonight 💀

• "Throw pillow" "Use Claudia just to circle back to Lestat" So rich of him to shade Louis for his guilt over Claudia when he's the one who killed her.

• "It's all coming back" "Paris.." Louis forgets most of Paris?

• "She's calling me" I wonder if Louis is remembering Claudia calling him during her last moments

• No, I don't think Armand expected or waited for Louis to come into the sun like that. But he's definitely MAD because of that

• Armand is on mission to figure out what makes Young Daniel and Lestat interesting to Louis. Because Louis said he's dull

• "An instinct to self-efface" yes, both Daniel and Louis have that

• Armand kept Louis writhing in pain w/o blood for 4 days???

• Not @ Dubai Louis still giving excuses for Armand to Daniel 😭

• Armand calling Lestat. Lestat doesn't know where Louis is. Armand refuses to tell where they are.

• "You try! You were there!" Newfound friends found bickering lol

• "If you want insanity back, if you want to escape this prison of emphaty" Armand really says "Yes, I'm caging you, but you think this is bad? Well, you had it worse with him you wanna go back there??"

• Armand's tone during the coffin scene is very soft, but he's actually making himself clear he's mad MAD. Mad that Louis is trying to goad Lestat back to him again through the interview. Seeing how Louis always fast to reassure Armand with "all I said is trash" about Lestat, this is definitely an old problem to them. It makes me curious what made Louis stay with Armand post-Paris. What happened in Paris exactly? Lestat definitely knows Louis is alive and with Armand, unlike in the books. What has made him stay away? Did Louis pull a Nicki on him in Paris? Edit: wait, what if Armand reaches out to Lestat here is the equivalent of him going to NOLA in TVL and goes "news flash, Louis is actually alive. we were/are together"? Daniel doesn't hear Armand's first sentence to Lestat. and by that time, Louis does know lestat is alive but still numb 🤔 Armand mentions if Louis wants Lestat to chase him again, that's definitely about Lestat coming to Paris after the patricide.

• "All you had to do was ask" he says to the burnt Louis who is in need of his blood. A war flashback to "The silence is cruel. But you're never cruel" but in worse condition.

• Armand, making it clear he is extremely mad at Louis for trying to reach Lestat, that Louis is ungrateful cos he's been treating him better than Lestat, then dangling this channel of communication to Lestat in front of him, making Louis feels bad and coercing him to reassure him again. Armand has a PhD in gaslighting.

• The words from Armand afterwards. Louis certainly knows his answer but well, you can't answer that if you don't want Armand blowing up again.

• Armand only answers Louis back with Maitre once Louis assures him that he will stay with him.

• "I'm a bright young reporter with a point of view" Young Daniel is full of life and optimistic. Stubborn, refusing Armand's words, but they work. Then Louis came, saying it back to him, give him more words to re-find that motivation to live. Give him words to live on.

• Ngl I almost teared up to this scene with Louis and Old Daniel. They're precious as friends.

• To alter and surpress Daniel's memory, Daniel is already under a stage where he's very easy to be influenced and they give more drugs again.

• Old Daniel beeds to stay alive. I want Louis has one (1) friend that call out his and his boyfriend(s)' bullshits 😭

[thelostgirl21]

Well, here goes nothing! Wish me luck!

For those of you that are curious to see the articles I'm mentioning...

Collider article

Looper article

Screen Rant article #1

Screen Rant article #2

Screen Rant article #3

Dual Shockers article #1

Dual Shockers article #2

The worst (and most incendiary) of them is likely the "Looper" one, with claims things such as: Unlike Eskel's (Basil Eidenbenz) character, who had fans fuming during "The Witcher" Season 2, there is no point in introducing Radovid if we're not going to follow his villainous origin story. This is the man behind hateful anti-magic rhetoric that propels this universe to fight for magic users' safety.

Although the "Dual Shockers" one, starting with "Imagine if the cunning but despicable Cersei Lannister was made out to be a harmless love interest in HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones – the fans would riot – and something similar is happening in Netflix’s The Witcher" isn't bad, either, by making it sound like Sapkowski devoted as much ink to buidling up his villain as R.R. Martin did building up Cersei! And that both share a similar presence and importance in their respective books series.

And the image I sent them a link to:

Am I too optimistic hoping this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

Because, while the moderators (bureaucrats, administrators, specialists...) haven't been trying to necessarily imply that I was wrong with my edits (ex: adding a footnote specifying that Ciri was not officially engaged to Radovid in canon), there's been a lot of:

"This [picture making a compilation of everything Sapkowski wrote] isn't needed/we just cite books and page numbers."

"We generally don't put markers into the intros."

"The intro paragraphs generally will ref across lore particularly from well established chars but the first parts of his bio are from the books and the dynasty site."

"We don't really include a lot of quotes unless it's important."

Guys, I can fully acknowledge that this is how things have always been done.

But the way things have always been done is currently contributing to the spread of misinformation about the content of the source material, and making things very unpleasant for fans of the books and the TV show.

So, maybe we need to do things differently?

The dynasty site is not an issue itself because all of that extra information came from Andrzej Sapkowski himself.

An article stating "in the books, Radovid has two sisters" is technically talking about things that aren't directly stated in the books, true; but that are still featured in the extra information that was released to the public about those books by the author.

One would thus reasonably expect that such information be included in the introduction of the character on the Wiki, as it belongs to the same lore and the same universe as the books, and fully reflects the author's intent.

The videogames don't. They aren't a companion piece to Sapkowski's books. They simply use Sapdkowski's universe as a skeleton, upon which they built more material.

Having made sure to avoid contradicting (or not contradicting too much) what has already been written by the author in the books does not give you any license to appropriate his work, and then claim that what you've written exists in the same universe / belongs to the same lore as those books!!!

Especially when the author himself has already made his opinion very clear that the videogames can't be considered as being a prequel, sequel, or complement to his work.

And has had his own share of issues with the way the videogames rose to the level of popularity it has.

Full disclosure, the first time I heard about the books, I genuinely thought that Andrzej Sapkowki was the equivalent of David Gaider in North America (one of the lead writers for Bioware). I thought he'd written original material for the games and various books based on those characters, the same way David Gaider had written material for the "Dragon Age" videogames and extra books based on the videogame lore that he'd helped build and establish.

But Sapkowki's books were never written with videogames or TV shows in mind.

I'm a gamer. So, unlike Sapkowski, I do love when stories are told across a bunch of different mediums. I loved learning more about the relationship between Maric Theirin (Alistair's father) and Loghain Mac Tir in Gaider's book "The Stolen Throne".

But David Gaider is a writer that will collaborate with a whole team of writers to create characters and stories that populate that world across a variety of mediums.

It is normal and respectful for the Dragon Age wiki to integrate everything found in the books and the games together in the introduction the way they do on that page, as it is all part of the same world!

But not when they aren't.

I can fully understand that Sapkowski isn't a fan of that approach. I may not share his opinions about it making no sense and being idiotic, obviously; but I can understand and appreciate that he doesn't see any appeal to it, and has no desire or interest to participate in that kind of global world building.

And I especially don't think there's anything wrong with him wanting each adaptation of his work to be considered their very bown thing, rather than be all part the same lore / universe.

He's allowing other people to give him money to use characters and worlds he's built virtually any way they'd like, and enjoy themselves!

The least we could do should be to respect that "The Witcher" 's videogames and "The Witcher" 's books aren't tightly woven together the same way "Dragon Age" 's videogames and "Dragon Age" 's books are, and have it being reflected in the Wikipedia.

Or, at least, reflected enough that it doesn't end up generating such confusion that the actual content of Sapkowski's books series get substituted with CD Projekt Red's writings on entertainment websites articles, for frak's sake!

By the way, thanks @fishesfisher for having reminded me that there's literally no reason why one adaptation should be sharing the same page as the books, other than trying to pretend that they are both part of the same universe.

Not sure I'd be able to win that argument (about putting three different tabs rather than a single one: one for the books, one for the games, and one for the Netflix show), but I sure hope they (the mods, admins, specialists, etc.) should care enough that the situation is completely going against Sapkowski's wishes that his books and the videogames be considered as two different stories being told by different writers rather than part of a single universe; as well as causing needless harm to the fans of the books and the TV show.

And that they'll be willing to discuss potential ways we could use to fix this in order to allow the source material and its adaptations to coexist more respectfully on the main page, and avoid such confusion.

If they don't... Is there any way to ask for a divorce from the general wikipedia of the Witcher?

I mean the videogame also has its very own additional gaming wikipedia , on top of the one that was created for the books and its adaptations.

Can we create a "Books only Wikipedia" and a "Netflix only Wikipedia"?

Like seriously. Why should the game need its own wikipedia if they're going to be front and center on "The Witcher" 's general wiki anyway, and they don't give a damn about what Sapkowski wants?

I'd rather have each member of my Witcher family live in separate homes and go visit each one individually, than watch them constantly fighting each other and ignoring each other's needs!

If divorce is the only way to ensure that the books get accurate representation, and the media stops being confused about what goes where, sign me the fuck up!

Well, after I see if there's any opening in fixing things first. I mean, maybe they just don't know that Sapkowski doesn't consider the games as belonging to the same lore/universe as the books...

Like I said, this could actually be the start of a beautiful friendship!

[tainbocuailnge]

i tend to hone in on the dark knight questline when it comes to translation differences in ffxiv because it has perhaps the largest difference between languages in the game, at least as far as I've seen, and it's also one of the cases where the german script (generally known for sticking pretty close to jp) also does its own thing. I actually went over the entirety of both en and de versions of it again the other day because I'd been meaning to translate it for comparison and one thing I noticed this time is that en actually has more lines, as in, optional lines when you talk to characters after they gave you the next quest objective that in german would just repeat the last line they said, in english would say something different. the journal entries changing depending on whether you have the job crystal equipped or not is also unique to the english version.

it's interesting because to me it shows that they really felt incredibly strongly about their take on dark knight and put a lot of serious effort into pulling it off. it's actually improved my opinion of english drk a little because clearly someone really believed in what they were writing here and used absolutely everything they had available to try and make it work. but even with that extra text to work with I still think the german version delivered their concept better and had a clearer vision of what they wanted to say with these quests. because the english team are just not as good at writing as they seem to think they are.

in my recent replay of stormblood in german there were so many scenes that made me think "you know what, maybe stormblood isn't as bad as I remembered it being", and then when I went to double check the english version of that scene it actually was as stupid as i remember it being. and often the thing that makes it stupid is like, lyse displaying confidence and competence in de but talking herself down in en, or yotsuyu pointing out the systematic failures that brought her where she is in de but indulging in personal sadistic tendencies in en. and making your antagonists dumber and more evil is one thing but the fact that they also made lyse sound so insecure and incompetent at so many points when she's the main character of the expansion, it's just so baffling to me. are we supposed to believe she can lead the resistance movement or not?

so knowing that de will generally be closer to jp than en is but does occasionally have major deviations of its own, and seeing all these stormblood scenes where one of the big glaring differences between en and de is that en keeps dumbing down and vilifying (female) characters that have more nuance and with it more thematic consistency in de, that leaves basically two options. either the japanese script had that nuance and the english translators were so full of misogyny that they decided to remove it, or the japanese script didn't have it either and it's the german translators that decided to not hate women actually. and while i don't know enough japanese to be sure, listening to the jp voicelines does give me reason to believe that the jp script is harsher to yotsuyu than de at various points, so it's probably a bit of both.

so, yknow, I can't make a sweeping statement of being against major script changes in localisation in general without being a hypocrite because the de script has at multiple times done its own thing in a way that i consider either an improvement or at least an interesting alternative of roughly equivalent quality. but that's also exactly what my problem with ffxiv localisation is, that when the en script has major deviations it's almost always some stupid shit like adding gendered slurs (they love calling a woman a bitch or a whore in english it gets really glaring when you start putting individual lines next to each other) and transphobia (matoya does not make fun of alphinaud looking like a girl in german) and removing instances of characters openly saying they care about something (thancred calling ryne his daughter in every language but english) and generally destroying all character voice, and when de changes things it's like, well written and makes sense even if it's different. so the en team looking down on the script theyre translating and changing it is hubristic overconfidence but when the de team does it they actually have the writing chops to back it up

[aliliceswonderland]

The Answer differences - Keys discussion (Part 2)

You can find Part 1 here. I left it in the middle of Yukari and Akihiko's argument so that's where we start here.

So... There's a new dialogue in the Reload version that expands on Akihiko's point of view. I think it's kind of unneccesary, it just expands on what's already been said, and I don't think anyone ever had trouble understanding Aki's position or relating to him here, unlike with Yukari... It doesn't really matter, though. It doesn't make things worse either. The toning down continues. Omission of "You're just making excuses" makes Akihiko less confrontational. Interestingly, in Reload DLC Yukari rejects Akihiko's point of view (she already had a line on that track earlier too, see Part 1), while her silence in FES implies he hit the blank. Since the part about her feelings on MC's sacrifice was previously omitted, I wonder if they wanted to imply that she doesn't understand his sacrifice rather than that she understands it but still wants to go ahead with going to the past to see him, which is what happens in FES.

This is the point where things start to difer A LOT, so I have to stop doing line-by-line comparisons and think about a way to explain everything in a more or less orderly manner.

First at all, the sequence where Metis is explained that the main character died is gone. I don't know if maybe the Reload version told her in a different cutscene or if she just was left to deduce it for herself, but it's definitely not here.

Anyway, since Metis' pausing the discussion to ask in FES version, Junpei can start his reasoning pretty calmly. That's no longer the case in Reload's Episode Aigis, where Yukari is still angry from her discussion with Akihiko, and Junpei intervenes to try to scale the situation down. And fails, since she gets angrier.

Yukari repeats her argument here. She definitely sounds more logical and practical, even if she's still yelling. It's about taking a once in a lifetime chance, not as much about her own feelings. I do find a little disappointing that there's not much nuance in her take, though. She's basically repeating herself.

Back to side-by-side comparisons! This time, though, it's totally different text. But I think these pieces of dialogue are pointing to similar thought processes in Junpei's mind, so I think they are comparable. The line about Chidori is very, very interestingly missing in the Reload DLC. Kind of sad, given it's like... the only one point at which a party member other than Mitsuru expresses sympathy for Yukari's position. But when Atlus gives a decision to the player, they tend to let the result ambiguous, and this was the one exception... until now. Chidori's no longer canonically dead, but canonically in Schrödinger's box. It's equivalent in Reload is about the MC, of course. The reason I consider it doesn't express sympathy like the FES one, is because he says it without doubts. While FES!Junpei has doubts about Chidori, Reload!Junpei has fully accepted MC's dead, and therefore cannot see things the way she does. Although I kind of get this change (Junpei wouldn't care as much about his best friend as he did for the love of her life... Maybe. Go wild in the tags.), I think this is a bad choice when you'd want to make people understand Yukari. Because that sympathy is the way you'd do that without having to cut on her emotions and nuance. They're all in a similar situation, after all.

The second pair of lines is also interesting to me in that reflection upon Akihiko's words is totally bashed in favor of a "please, don't yell" thing that is not even a point. Why. I think they're trying to present Akihiko's point in a way that feels less objective? But was it needed when Junpei could see both sides here? Anyway, Junpei and Yukari's argument follows a similar structure as in FES for a while:

So, this is basically Junpei's main argument, which is that they'll have to battle Nyx again. Which Yukari answers by basically calling him a coward. The elimination of the comparison between Junpei's possible death and the MC's is significant. It shows Yukari hasn't fully accepted MC's death. But... no more nuanced feelings for Yukari, I guess. I don't completely understand why they switched Junpei's dialogue from a very compelling argument to basically nothing. They dumbed him down a lot. I think it's because they didn't know how to make Yukari respond to it rationally, but honestly it's very easy: "We can do it again, we've done it before!" Anyway, I'm not complaining about the toning down of Yukari in this particular scene, she really takes things too far here. In fact, she goes on in FES to insult Ken and Akihiko:

Instead, in Reload Ken interrupts the scene to ask Aigis what she thinks. FES doesn't do that until later, since Yukari suggests taking the keys by force now and Metis intervenes:

This is only a part of all of Metis' dialogue that was skipped, but the most significant part (I've reached the image limit... again... orz). Honestly, the point of "she might die since mc died and we don't know why" always sounded like BS to me, specially since Ken basically hit the bullseye with his interpretation of the events. Now I get why the previous Metis scene where she's explained the protagonist died is skipped. It's at that point when she arrives to this conclusion. I don't know, I think her becoming aware of a loved one's mortality is something that would add to the narrative, but I think this doesn't exactly accomplish that. You don't need to link the cause to the Journey's protagonist death. Aigis can die in battle! Also I think Metis still deserves to know. She could've had a little arc of herself about understanding what death entails and that would be part of what makes her realize it. Anyway, since I reached image limit again, I need to make a Part 3 now. Well, not now. Tomorrow.........

[recurring-polynya]

I'm on vacation, so here is a random grab-bag of Soul Society thoughts I had while staring into the sea today (this is mostly for @bleachbleachbleach but you can read it too)

One of my favorite conceits of B3's writing (I feel like things that appear in fanfiction are sort promoted from headcanons but I don't have a good word for it) is the notion that Rukongai has its own magic that is fundamentally different and, in fact, somewhat opposed to shinigami magic. This first shows up in Afar, Afar, where Momo loses her ability to see spirits in Junrinan (and perhaps even her memory that such a thing exists). There was also a notion of it in REVERSE THE BONE (the best Weird Rukongai fic ever written) about the train, which already exists in a sort of quantum state where it sometimes exists both forward and backward in time, but also that the journey depends on the passengers. There's a quote at the beginning, but nonetheless, has completely rewired my brain (it has been over a month, and I am still thinking about it):

Hisagi does not find this mollifying. “Yeah, but I don’t even think Captain Kuchiki gets the same train as the rest of us. Have you ever tried to use his restaurant reviews? Because I always print these things, and they sound great, then I go. And then they’ll look at me like—Well. It’s like I’m not even at the same restaurant. But hey, at least you’ll get to see a lot, right? I’ve heard East Rukongai these days is… fine!”

Within the context of the story, this is just hyperbole. Of course Byakuya experiences things differently, he's incredibly rich and powerful, etc, etc, but the thing that sticks in my head about this is that Byakuya is fundamentally different from Hisagi, and also Hitsugaya and Hinamori, who are the protagonists of this piece, because he is a creature of Soul Society and they are not.

The Rukon is a place for ghosts. For beings that lived a life on Earth and died. It is an afterlife. A thing I find incredibly interesting is that nearly all the Rukon-hailing shinigami we know of died as children. Additionally, they are all Really Good at being shinigami--captains and vice-captains, although this is a function of Bleach being a story about the more powerful members of Soul Society. Anyway, I think this is not a coincidence.

Two things that are true about Bleach are that: a) liminal things, hybrid things, things that exist at the boundaries of two other things, tend to be more powerful b) power is also achieved through transformation

It makes 100% sense to me that a child ghost has more potential to become in Soul Society. We also know that aging is non-linear, and that age changes tend to come in concert with increases in power. All of this feels very consistent and right to me.

In particular, consider Rukia, who died as a baby (and we don't know this for sure, but her sister, who died as an older child or teen did not seem to have the same potential). She was human, but only got to live a small fraction of the life she could have, and instead, went to Soul Society, and became such a creature of Soul Society, that she not only achieved bankai, but trained in the Royal Realm, a thing that few other shinigami get to do.

This reminded me of a line from my own fanfic, Hold On, Hold On, where I was trying to make sense of the "lieutenant is equivalent of nobility" thing (through the convenient mouthpieces of Kira and Hinamori):

“High ranking shinigami are basically considered to be nobility,” Izuru explains. “Or close enough for most purposes.” “The argument goes,” Momo elaborates, in a way that she knows will resonate with Renji, “that the reason nobles are noble is because their souls are so pure and strong, right? So how else can you explain the captains that come from Rukongai? You can’t, so you have to act like they’re noble, too, right? Noble logic.”

And while I don't think I'm wrong, what if there's more to it? What if there is something that is fundamental to one's nature that nobles and powerful shinigami have in common, something that also corresponds to the nature of the Seireitei.

There's one other thing that I think they may have in common, and that's the ability to reproduce. Fanon is split on this topic, but I've always been of the mind that having babies in Soul Society is something only people with strong spiritual energy are able to do. So, in that sense, if noble people see themselves as defined by having been born in the Soul Society, of being creatures who have never lived, it's not exactly the same, but a Rukongai wandering soul who gains the ability to reproduce is certainly a step closer, no?

(Is this the part where I talk about Soul Society nobility and their parallels to faeries, with their low birthrate and stealing babies and people of talent to join their underground magical kingdom?)

An interesting ramification of all of this, is that you've got Rukia and Renji, who represent one of the most successful cases of dead souls acclimating to Soul Society and reaching the highest echelons of power, but I strongly suspect that there are still some fundamentally Rukon things about them-- things they see, things they feel, things they remember. What makes this extra cool to me is the fact that they hang out with Byakuya, the product of dozens of generations of Soul Society lineage. In fact, the catalyst for all of this thinking was me thinking about Byakuya having an instinctive distrust of the sea, whereas Rukia and Renji and Hisana all love it. Now, I am generally not very interested in Ichika, but I am interested in the fact that she is something different than her parents. That on some level she has more in common with Byakuya. I mean, is this the origin stories for Soul Society's noble clans in the first place? Some souls made themselves powerful enough to make more of themselves?? That is a pretty interesting thought to me, not that I've come up with anything interesting to do with it. It's like, what if you were a changeling, and you got adopted by the king of the faeries and you had a baby with another human changeling, but your baby was a faery? (Polynya, this was the plot of Books of Magic. Kinda sorta. You have somehow achieved your life goal of six degrees of John Constantine-ing Tim Hunter and Kuchiki Rukia and it was entirely by accident.)

Anyway, that was my complete quota of interesting Ichika thoughts for today (I still think it would have been cooler if they got to conceive a baby in the Royal Realm but no one asked me).

The more interesting direction that these thoughts took goes back to B3's fic, in the sense of: do the nobles avoid the Rukon? What is it that they don't like about it? The implication is always just basically that it's poor and not as nice as the Seireitei, but what if there are things that are in opposition to the law and order that people like Yamamoto have imposed on the controlled area inside the city walls. Even the Shiba, the infamous rebel outcasts only live in District 1.

Consider Ukitake's backstory--his noble family were so desperate to save their sick child that they went out to District 76 and made a deal with a god/a piece of the Soul King (is there a difference? does it matter?), a thing which gave Ukitake the capability to become a vessel for a god. I feel like Mimihagi wouldn't/couldn't have made that deal with an ordinary soul. This happened a super long time ago and I bet there have been all kinds of cautionary tales, etc, to discourage this kind of behavior today. (Which also ties a little into Yhwach's "the Gotei used to be better, you suck now" comment)

I'm not really converging on any sort of conclusion, here, it's just sort of interesting to me. The Rukongai sort of represents wild lawlessness, I think, the loss of rules and sense. The TYBW is all about how the order of Soul Society (and Hueco Mundo and the Living World) is a thing that was invented for and by the shinigami for their own benefit, and I think they don't even really have control of their entire realm, just the central bit.

There's a constant fanon outcry of "why do the shinigami neglect Rukongai?" and it's always because "Soul Society sucks" and "Central 46 is dicks" etc, but I think it's interesting to think about the shinigami as a social order that truly has limited power, and that there is a lot of shit in the Rukon that is more than is dreamt of in their philosophy, if you get my drift, whether it's werewolf clans or trains that don't obey the laws of time and space. It's like the way in a horror movie, the cop or the army dude gets taken down by the monster in the woods who is eventually defeated by a teen or something. Shinigami are very powerful when it comes to dealing with the interface between the World of the Living and their personal World of the Dead, but they are less well equipped to deal with the things in their own backyard.

Regretfully, none of this cohered in my head into anything that I could spin into a good story (I'm not sure they even cohered into this essay), but maybe it will roll around in my head long enough to grow a pearl, who knows?

[loonavrsl]

KanStarpress Interview with Loossemble: "We'll charm with various concepts" [ENG TRANS]

Consisting of members of LOONA! Cool and cute K-POP female idol group Loossemble! Exuding coquettish charm with their 3rd mini album "TTYL"! "We'll charm with various concepts"

[English translation by gointosubbit]:

First coming together under the slogan of "meeting a new girl every month", with emotional songs that sing of a sensitive girl's feelings and loved globally for their high-grade visuals and performance, members Hyunjin, Yeojin, Vivi, Go Won and Hyeju (Olivia Hye) of the Korean girl group LOONA formed the Korean girl group Loossemble, having a comeback with their 3rd mini album "TTYL" on September 2nd, and have finished their promotions for the album.

They had their Japanese debut as LOONA, and also had huge success with their Japanese concert "LOONA 1st Live 'LOONA THE WORLD in TOKYO'". In their "TTYL" promotions this time, they have appeared in many Korean music shows, such as the Korean live broadcast show "Music Bank" on the Korean equivalent to Japan's NHK, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), and exuded coquettish charm with their performance that seems to lure in the person they are interested in. And so, here’s an email interview with Loossemble! Among the members, Hyunjin, Vivi, Go Won and Hyeju participated (in this interview).

-- The members of Loossemble have appeared in an interview with KanStar! before as LOONA members, but this is the first as Loossemble. Please first introduce yourselves to the KanStar! readers.

Hyujin: Hi! I'm the commander of Loossemble, Hyunjin! I'm happy to be able to meet you again! I look forward to today.

Vivi: Hi, I'm the Bambi of Loossemble, Vivi. I'm happy to be able to meet again. Please enjoy the interview!

Go Won: Hi! I'm in charge of cuteness in Loossemble, the cheese kitty Go Won! I'm happy to be able to meet again~!

Hyeju: Hi, I'm Hyeju, in charge of dancing in Loossemble! Please stay with us until the end of our interview!

-- There may be people in Japan who don't know about Loossemble, so please introduce what kind of group Loossemble is. Also, what sort of charms are specific to Loossemble?

Hyunjin: Firstly, with the group's name Loossemble, it's a compound word made by abbreviating LOONA ASSEMBLE, meaning it's a group that 5 members of LOONA came together to form. We've released 3 albums as Loossemble, with various genres and showing different concepts each time, so I think that sort of thing is what’s unique to Loosemble.

-- Then, what kind of album is your new mini album "TTYL"?

Go Won: Everyone that we meet is filled with different feelings and thoughts; "TTYL" is an album that contains the feelings of growing up by accepting how these people are different from yourself. Intro track "FANATICISM", title track "TTYL", twin sub-unit tracks "Cotton Candy" and "Confessions", "Hocus Pocus" with its light-hearted melody, and intense and captivating "Secret Diary", there's a total of 6 tracks included. It's an album with really good songs, so please listen to it a lot.

-- Then, what kind of song is the title track "TTYL"?

Go Won: "TTYL" is a pop dance song that leaves an impression with plug sound synthesizers, rhythmic up-tempo drums, and rich harmonies between Loossemble members. The addictive chorus and bouncy and lively melody has a bright and cheerful charm unique to us, and the lyrics express the cute and cold parts of the push-and-pull with the person you like.

-- I thought the vocals were refreshing for the summer, easy to listen to in the autumn; vocals you could trust in. How was the recording process?

Hyeju: It's a fun song with a fast beat, so we recorded being mindful of the rhythm. Just like you mentioned, I think it also fits with how the feeling of autumn is becoming stronger lately, so I hope you listen (to "TTYL") a lot.

-- What is the key point of the choreography?

Hyeju: Waving both hands in the "Talk to you later~" part of the chorus, or biting our fingers and twerking. I'd be happy if people in Japan were to do a dance challenge of these on SNS, etc.

-- I thought the music video was like a short-form movie. Please tell us about the key points of the music video.

Vivi: I also thought it was very interesting when watching the final music video! I think you can see the cold push-and-pull with someone you're interested in, as well as enjoy the members' unique charms in the music video. There's a scene on a rooftop in the music video, but it was really hot during filming. But I remember it being odd not feeling that when monitoring, and thinking it was good that it ended up beautifully shot lol.

-- I think there are many Japanese fans wishing for Loossemble to quickly come to Japan for activities. Is there anything you want to do in Japan?

Hyunjin: On top of wanting to hold a concert in Japan, I also want to travel around and film content. There are many good restaurants in Japan, so I think fans would be happy if Loossemble were to film something in those restaurants.

Vivi: It would be fun if we could also tour in Japan, and personally, I just want to go around the cities and travel lol.

Go Won: I want to try holding a concert and fansigning in Japan! Personally, I like Japanese food, so I want to go on a gourmet tour.

Hyeju: I want to hold a concert as Loossemble. Personally, I want to try going to Ghibli Studio lol.

-- Please share your TMI.

Vivi: I'm a sweet potato killer lol - I really like eating it. Grilled, boiled, even dried; it's so tasty that I can't stop lol. Everyone, please teach me about Japan's delicious sweet potatoes~!

Hyunjin: I break out in itchy, cracked skin (atopic dermatitis) if I eat too much of eggs, milk, flour or cheese (cry).

Go Won: I like the manga series "Atashin’chi", so I've read the entire series. And so, since I know the entire story, I'm reading the Japanese version. Hopefully it becomes a good way to study Japanese.

Hyeju: It's very random, but I am currently answering this interview's questions while lying sideways on the sofa. It's 8 am.

-- Lastly, a message to the fans in Japan

Hyunjin: Japanese C.Loos! I'm happy to meet you through this interview! Thank you for always supporting and loving us from so far away😍 We'll also work harder with that power! I love you🤎

Vivi: Japanese C.Loos~! Thank you for always supporting and loving us from far away. I want to go meet you soon! I miss you~

Go Won: Thank you for sending us so much support and love! I always receive a lot of energy because of it. I hope next time we can meet on stage in Japan!

Hyeju: Thank you for your continuous support. Please wait just a little more until the day we can meet~! Thanks for reading the interview until the end~

Translation by: gointosubbit / original article

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week? (Specially Ultimates, Action comics and Absolute Batman)

Absolute Batman #1 - This was entertaining! After years of the mainline Batman book constantly trying to one up itself, it's fun to read something as simple as Batman going up against a gang again. It's an issue that is very much in conversation with Snyder's New 52 #1, with both issues musing on the nature of Gotham. Difference here is that Bruce himself is the heart of the city, he grew up amidst his own Rogues Gallery, and he's trying to do good in his public identity by rebuilding what he breaks as Batman. Also did anyone else think that the reference to the Party Animals being multiple animals across the globe is setting up the reveal that the "Illuminati" Black Mask works for is the Absolute equivalent to the Court of Owls? Very excited to see Martha is still alive, she's always been underserved compared to Thomas, and I just realized, they've flipped Batman and Superman here. Batman loses his father but still has his mom while Superman has neither of his parents in this AU. I kinda think Batman is going to be the brightest of the Trinity while Superman will be the darkest. Only thing I'm unsure of... rich Joker. We all knew this was coming, no way was Snyder not going that route, but I wish he had held off on Joker for longer.

Great first issue regardless, this delivers the summer blockbuster energy Snyder delivered with the New 52, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Action Comics #1070 - At long last, Waid finally does a run on one of the main Superbooks and... it's boring? Ok it's only the first issue but still. Maybe reading this right after Snyder prejudiced me, but there's nothing here to draw you back. The body horror is fairly tame, Henry's style is too smooth to evoke the disgust this needs. Waid's take on the Superman/Jimmy relationship is pure Silver Age which I don't like, for a guy who hates Superdad, Waid sure does like writing Superman as paternal to everyone he meets. Supes and Jimmy should be brothers not father/son. Did appreciate Jimmy being useful and taking down the Kryptonian baddie with his signal watch, but we should've gotten more of a tease about what's going down in the Phantom Zone. Despite being on the cover, neither Xa nor Mon are actually in the issue. Good thing this is weekly and we won't have to wait long for the followup. Supergirl backup was pure setup too, nothing really to say yet about that either.

Batman & Robin #14 - Poor PKJ, his first issue of B&R is going to be completely overshadowed by Absolute Batman. Enjoyed this issue, new villain seems interesting, but Damian sounds off. I'm sure it would be even more egregious if I had been reading Williamson. Going to stick with this for now as my one mainline Batbook.

Ultimates #5 - I like the Ultimate Hawkeye, had thought he would be someone we knew from 616 but instead he's like She-Hulk, a new face for an old name. Commentary on how symbols and stories not meant for you can still end up inspiring you anyway was insightful, as seen through the prism of a Native American enjoying cowboy and Indian movies.

[synesindri]

lucifer gender symbolism essay part 7: daughters vs sons

(also briefly sisters vs brothers)

masterpost

supernatural is a lot about children’s relationship with their father; the main two characters are sons trying to navigate being good sons or bad sons. there is not an equivalent thing going on with daughters; that isn't of interest to the show in the same way that sons' dynamics with their fathers are. the archangels are good and bad sons, because the winchesters are sons, and that's how that is.

but. lucifer isn't like the winchesters in a lot of ways; would looking at him as a daughter change anything about how we interpret him? i don't know, but i'm intrigued by the concept so. this is an exploratory section to see what, if anything, is going on with daughters in spn, and if lucifer fits that category at all.

there aren’t a ton of examples of what daughters Are compared to what sons Are in supernatural, really — or, “daughter” is a less coherent role than “mother” within the show’s mythos, anyway. is that going to stop me from writing a section about this? no

jo is one point of contrast to sam and dean: she’s not supposed to hunt, but runs away to do it anyway, whereas sam and dean are raised to hunt (and sam runs away to not have to do it anymore). rebellion itself isn’t an especially daughter-y thing to do, since sam also does that, but i would say that hunting is closer to what lucifer’s plans are than not-hunting, so in a way jo is a better lucifer parallel than sam is, in this. hunting is about declaring oneself worthy of judging who gets to live or die, taking actions to eradicate types of entities that are “harmful” according to you; it feels like a good and worthy pursuit according to hunters themselves but it’s ethically questionable at best and it forces hunters to live at the fringes of society because it isn’t a normed, respected practice. sounds a lot like lucifer deciding humanity is harmful to the world and he is justified in removing them from it, doesn’t it? (i also have a post that discusses this in the context of lucifer-dean parallels here as well). 

the parallels to jo mostly stop there, i think. it isn’t a perfect comparison; lucifer isn’t supposed to avoid “hunting” out of anyone’s fear that lucifer will get hurt. it’s a little bit true that he’s not supposed to “hunt” while others are allowed to, since other angels are permitted to take human lives — huge numbers of human lives — into their own hands, but it’s different because lucifer’s intentions are different from michael’s/raphael’s/zachariah’s/castiel’s/etc, whereas jo’s are pretty much identical to sam and dean’s. still, the parallels are there, despite being limited. maybe not enough to say lucifer is doing Daughter Behaviors, but enough that jo feels like a reasonable parallel to consider.

on the other hand, mary is also a daughter, who was raised to hunt, who rebels against that expectation, and runs away. her story is very similar to sam’s — and both of these stories, i think, are more similar to gabriel’s than lucifer’s. mary and sam both have rebellion against the dictates of their family, similar to jo, so that IS a lucifer parallel, but it isn’t really a daughter thing.

other daughters get a little more “ehh” i think. lilith is maybe the most interesting one to look at: she’s very powerful, impressive, and terrifying — another woman in white, too, in her last appearance — but she’s also a source of shame and disdain for her “father,” since lucifer doesn’t like what she became. this is a pretty direct parallel to lucifer, who is also powerful, impressive, and terrifying, but is rejected by god, who made him the way that he is. 

meg and ruby are both daughters, but imo their daughterness isn’t very different from the behavior of any loyal child following orders in the show. i don’t have anything to say about this, really.

so basically, there is little coherent theory about what a daughter is vs what a son is in supernatural, as far as i can tell. lucifer has similarities to sons and similarities to daughters, and some other sons have some similarities to some daughters. 

the one thing daughters definitively are in comparison to a son in supernatural, though, is that daughters are not what sam and dean winchester are. not to be obnoxious but it’s “carry on my wayward son” — wayward daughters wasn’t even the spinoff; that was wayward sisters. sam and dean are the same in their son-ness, in whatever other ways they differ. michael is a son — A Good Son, in fact — and in that, michael is much, much more different from lucifer than dean is from sam. dean is the obedient son and sam the rebellious son, but sam returned to his family and cannot definitively be said NOT to be a good son — he maybe isn’t a good son in the way michael is, but still, he never isn’t john’s son. 

don’t get me wrong on this, i know that lucifer is never referred to as a daughter, and i am not claiming that sam (or dean) would have been any less john’s kid (or any less good) had he been a daughter instead of a son. the only thing i’m saying is that michael and lucifer are divided where dean and sam are united, and referring to lucifer as a daughter would hammer home that difference between them even more. lucifer being a daughter would otherize her relative to michael the Good Son, relative to sam, and relative to the overwhelming son-ness that is michael, dean, and sam (and adam) collectively. daughter!lucifer would break the parallels, for better or for worse (here’s a post on this subject, also)   

(i’m not doing a section on brothers vs sisters for this reason. i think othering lucifer in the context of fathers is more effective than othering lucifer in the context of siblings. i think it’s fine to have angels refer to lucifer as “sister” in fic; i have done that myself, but this is my thesis post on fem lucifer and if i’m going to get this into it: i think lucifer should be “brother” to michael. i don’t think it would be incorrect to have lucifer be “sister” to michael; certainly one of the things that is different between the michael-lucifer dynamic and the dean-sam dynamic is that michael and lucifer aren’t choosing each other the way dean and sam are, but to me that’s so much about god. by season 5, john is dead; dean and sam are making choices about each other because of each other — by season 5, god is gone, but michael and lucifer still act like he’s not, like he might come back, like they are still constantly being watched and evaluated by him, and so i think lucifer is othered relative to relevant characters specifically because of the son(/daughter) role, not the brother role.

(...that said, this only holds for lucifer being michael’s brother because of the winchester parallels. gabriel or raphael could have called lucifer their sister and it would have been cool and good, i think)

part 6: mothers vs fathers part 8: jarpad and mark p's acting styles masterpost

[devsgames]

I've Been Playing Postal 2 and I Have Some Thoughts

Since I am both trapped in COVID isolation and also incredibly timely and relevant to all things, I've been playing Postal 2 (2003) because it's something I've owned for a long time and only played once and also because my tiny notebook can't play much else.

I have some thoughts and reflections on it, don't expect anything groundbreaking or insightful here!

(cw: racism, homophobia, violence, abuse)

Recently I saw a post (that I am now failing to locate) that talked about how the punchline of South Park's comedy was largely pointed at one group of people: people who believe in something. It doesn't matter who they are or what they believe in, but if you believe in something strongly enough to have opinions or beliefs about them then you're worthy of derision.

I feel like Postal 2 - like many pieces of post-9/11 media - occupies exactly the same space as South Park does in this regard where the butt of the joke are really any people with strong beliefs, and also some racial minorities thrown in there for good measure.

(Side-bar: as someone who grew up in rural Canada in the post-9/11 era I can't help but notice that a lot of people who enjoyed this type of humor at the time the most tended to be of two categories:

Kids and teenagers who didn't have enough experience to know what they believed yet, but being rebellious teens anything edgy or shock-humory is inherently funny.

Centrists and Right moderates who enjoyed laughing at things like racial minorities and queer people. After all, when you're a member of the dominant social class who have the most power (i.e. white men) everything is much easier to shrug off as 'just a joke' when you have nothing actively threatened by this type of humor.

Inevitably kids who started in group 1 either grew out of this type of humor or turned into group 2 and made this humor their whole personality)

The game opens with some casual spousal abuse which I guess is supposed to be funny. The first enemies the game introduces to you are violent video game protestors, then book protestors, then 'al-Quaeda terrorists' (who all look exactly like Osama bin Laden)...you get the idea. There's an Asian man named "Cock Asian", an Indian man (I think he's supposed to be Arabic, but the assets they use surrounding him are definitely Indian as is his store's name) who runs a grocery store as a front for a terrorist organization, queer people, etc. Gary Coleman is in there for a bit. You can kill cats and dogs. It's all basically exactly what you'd expect from 'edgy 2003 game made by a group of white men'. It goes without saying that these people didn't even associate with any of these minorities when they made this game, because it's certainly not the kind of thing you make if you have any friends who are minorities - but that's just 2003 for you.

One thing that interests me is how apparently the developers and fans made a big deal about how "you don't need to do bad things in this game" and "any bad acts made in the game are by player choice".

Why this is interesting is because by the basic design of the game this is obviously misleading: you're constantly presented with guns, bladed weapons, explosives, ammo, hallways full of enemies... While sure okay **technically** all the objectives are gated by arriving at a certain location, the paths there are littered with violence and people trying to kill you; there's really zero player incentive to act non-violently, so it sounds like an argument a child tries to make to get out of trouble. The player is given about 1000x more incentive to murder minorities in this game than they are to leave them alone, much less learn to love them. It's like saying you don't HAVE to drive if you're playing a racing game, except for the fact you're given a car and nothing else to do. It's sort of the primordial equivalent of Spec. Ops.: The Line's "How could you kill all these innocent people (that we forced you to kill)" angle. When all you're given is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

The gameplay itself is.......fine I guess? Like it's honestly whatever. Sort of a really simplistic old-school GTA if all there was to do is fetch quests and kill people. The combat is by most accounts pretty substandard, and it doesn't do anything particularly well. I think there was maybe one joke that made me laugh only because it was so extreme and sterotypical that it came more from a place of "holy shit you actually thought this back then" as opposed to a place of comedy. I really wouldn't recommend it from a gameplay point of view even, there's really not much there and what is there is pretty thin.

In 2023 I don't know what I really gained from playing this. The reminder that the post-9/11 era was supremely fucked up and I'm glad that we're no longer making minorities the butt of every joke just because they exist, I guess? Yeah let's go with that.

The whole game just feels to me like something desperately fighting to prove its relevancy, and think if you made this game nowadays it would just be incredibly mediocre even by its own standards. Like it just wouldn't work by any stretch of the imagination.

Wait a minute...

Cool!