#this does then also imply that someone must draw the symbols which implies more fun things but i'll leave it here for now

[yeahdefnot]

The use of symbols so far is making me wonder if maybe the fears (to the extent they exist in this universe) need stronger ties to their victims/locations, that they're more restricted in their reach. They've been mentioned in two of the three incidents so far both at the (seemingly) trigger point/event

[transdemigod]

Cutting Yourself Off from the Entities: A Comprehensive Guide

I am once again overanalyzing the Magnus Archives for fun. This topic is super interesting to me, and I haven’t seen it explored as much as other theories, so here we go.

So, you’ve pledged yourself to one of the Dread Powers, but decided that you’ve had enough of terrorizing others. Not to worry, there is a way out. Melanie King did it and lived all the way to the end of the series!

Here is the summary, though I’m sure a full explanation will be more satisfying:

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness. To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you. To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight. To escape the Desolation, choose kindness. To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams. To escape the Eye, blind yourself. To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body. To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws. To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others. To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions. To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice. To escape the Stranger, make yourself known. To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place. To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

The rest is under the cut. Let me know if you have any ideas that you think I missed, I would love to discuss theories.

We know for sure that the way to escape the Eye is to gouge your own eyes out. The other entities have less information, but we get a few clues here and there. In the season 4 Q&A, Jonny and Alex joke about leaving the service of the Stranger by running naked through the streets. They also mention that the Desolation can be left by an act of true altruism. With these details, as well as other details in the rest of the canon, we can make a list of criteria that must be satisfied for an act that will cut someone off from each of the 14 Entities.

Firstly, it isn’t enough to just stop feeding your god. Daisy and Jon both tried to abstain and ended up wasting away, and it is implied that they would have died if they had continued. Dying is certainly one possible way to escape the service of a Fear, but we’re going for living out the rest of your natural life here.

Secondly, there has to be some sacrifice made that relates to the specific power. This is where the Desolation’s explanation kind of falls apart; doing one good act doesn’t stop you from just continuing to be destructive, so the act must also include giving up the thing that ties you to your Entity. In the Stranger’s case, one could argue that exposing yourself does count as giving up your anonymity, and there are several Stranger avatars that seem to thrive on being unknown. My theory is that each Entity has a draw of some kind, a power that it gives its followers, which you would have to completely give up if you are to leave it for good. Jon mentioned that the blinding has to be permanent, so I’m assuming this applies to the others as well. Basically, the avatar who wishes to leave must give up something that one who does not wish to leave would never want to.

Third, the change can be physical or symbolic. Obviously blinding yourself is a very physical change, while committing acts of altruism or making yourself known are less so. Some of the Entities will have pretty clear parts of the body that connect you to the power, others will need a bit more of an explanation. In special cases where a person gets their power from an artifact or a Leitner, destroying the thing would probably be enough to cut them off from that power. And of course, if you are as lucky as Georgie Barker and manage to completely get rid of your fear, that would probably be enough to cut you off from them as well.

So, here are my explanations for what you would have to do to cut yourself off from each of the 14. I’m basing it on examples we get in the series, the few rules I have decided to set, and what would seem thematically or symbolically appropriate. Realistically, each individual would have their own personal journey and each avatar is different, but it’s more fun this way.

The Buried- The draw of the Buried is a little difficult to narrow down, we’ve heard about restfulness, the comfort of enclosed spaces, the desire to be a part of the earth, etc. The thing Buried avatars seem to dislike the most is wide open spaces, though I don’t know how that would translate to something you can change about yourself. How would a person cut themselves off from the earth? You could move to a place that is very open, but you could also just leave. I’m not sure if there is a way a person could give up the concept of space, so I’m probably going to have this same problem when I get to the Vast. Probably the only thing you could give up that makes sense is the type of space the Buried is tied to, so you’d have to keep away from enclosed spaces. However you’re supposed to do that, I have no idea. This one is just going to have to be a less satisfying answer, unless I find another idea later.

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness.

The Corruption- Most people who get into the Corruption get filled with bugs, and we know from Jane that it is appealing because you have a sense of belonging and purpose. The Corruption focuses a lot on toxic love, and I think communities specifically because the things we think of as infections are multitudinous: insect hives, bacteria, fungal colonies, etc. Even in the case of that one guy with the beetle wife, it was implied that there would soon be many more beetles. So, I think to stop being fed by the Corruption, you have to get rid of the infection in whatever form it takes. The one woman in the statement about the cult ended up leaving, but she wasn’t a full avatar, so I think that would require a bit more drastic action. If Jane had wanted to leave, she would probably have had to kill every worm inside of her. Knowing what we know about her, she would never want to do that, but she also had no regrets about becoming the Hive. Someone like John Amherst would have to get rid of all the diseases inside of him, so it might be as simple as a hospital visit and getting pumped full of antibiotics. If you got hollowed out by bugs, you might have to fill in the space somehow to be able to move, but I’m sure you could find a way. Maybe some help from the Flesh? It does seems to be in opposition to the Corruption in many ways, so that would work thematically.

To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you.

The Dark- Another abstract one. What’s the opposite of blinding yourself? The Dark, aside from the literal definition, includes things like weird science and unknowable things that lurk in the dark. Seeking knowledge would be a good opposite to darkness, but that’s not making a sacrifice or a permanent change. It’s not very clear what avatars of the Dark would hate to lose. Manuela Dominguez describes hating the light, how traditional divinity and knowledge are unnatural as opposed to the dark state of the world. This might be another location based one. Apparently, the sunniest places in the world are in northern Africa and the southwest parts of America, so moving there might do it. There isn’t an easy permanent change to make, but committing yourself to being in the sunlight as much as possible would probably work. Change your sleep schedule, move somewhere sunny, just avoid the dark in general. Maybe even start worshipping the sun; that would be in opposition to the cult following the Dark has.

To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight.

The Desolation- We know it’s an act of altruism. I think it might need some adjusting, though, to make it more of a sacrifice by the person who serves the Desolation. This fear is all about sacrifice and loss, so it’s a bit tricky to think of something a Desolation avatar could give up when they’ve already committed to giving up everything. Well, everything except themselves. Many avatars, like Jude Perry, have shown themselves to be selfish, but I don’t think even they would be opposed to going out in a blaze of glory. No, the hardest thing for them would be to settle down and live a prosperous life. This one probably would have to be continuous effort instead of one grand sacrifice. It doesn’t fit with the others, but it does fit the theme of the Desolation. Yeah, I’ve just gone in a big circle. Altruism does make the most sense. Just make sure that selfless gesture counts. It’s not a real choice if you don’t mean it. I guess that would be really difficult if you’re used to burning everything around you, so maybe it’s more of a sacrifice than I thought.

To escape the Desolation, choose kindness.

The End- We actually already have a canon answer for this one: lobotomize yourself. Adelard Dekker found an End avatar that was killing people with carbon monoxide through their dreams, and he stopped him by cutting through his pre-frontal cortex- the part of the brain that lets you dream. It’s implied that this didn’t completely work, but I think the reason for that is that the avatar was not the one to make the choice. It’s emphasized again and again that serving the fears is all about personal choice, so it makes sense that any attempt to cut someone off wouldn’t take if the person hasn’t decided to give up their connection. The End is associated with dreams in most appearances, so I believe that a person who chooses not to dream would no longer be bound to it. Oliver Banks could see those whose deaths were coming in his dreams, which directly led to him becoming an avatar, so if he had decided to stop dreaming, that would be it. This procedure might be a bit difficult, I can’t imagine performing your own lobotomy would go very well, but I’m sure getting someone else to do it would count if you were the one to make the decision. Of course, Terminus would still have you in the end, but that will happen no matter what you do.

To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams.

The Eye- This one is already answered. The draw of the Eye is the power to watch, so you have to give that ability up. Simple, straightforward, and definitely fits the theme.

To escape the Eye, blind yourself.

The Flesh- Oh boy, this is a weird one. We have dysphoria, consumption, body horror, I can’t say this one sounds very appealing. But it must be, or else it wouldn’t have people serving it. A lot of the draw to serve the fears could be interpreted as dishing out what you can’t take. You don’t have to be afraid of being watched if you do the watching, you don’t have to fear harm if you harm them first. Maybe the appeal of Flesh is making others share that fear that you are nothing but meat. I don’t think it’s really possible for people to give up their corporeal form, unless it’s metaphorical but I have no idea what that could mean. I think those who serve the Flesh thrive on being “more” than others. More body parts, more mass in general. You could go on a diet or become a vegetarian, which I think the writers may have joked about once? I want a more concrete solution, though. Diets are easy to break. You can’t fully give up food without dying, so I guess you could give up the control of food. Giving up your sense of taste would be interesting, but I’m going to keep it more general. No easy answer for this one either.

To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body.

The Hunt- People are drawn to the Hunt by that deep, primal desire to chase and attack. Humans have both predator and prey instincts inside of us, so you would have to completely leave the predator behind to escape the Hunt. I think a good way to do this would be the get rid of your teeth, or nails, whichever you use to cause harm. Daisy was able to temporarily leave behind her power in the Buried, but as soon as she got out, she started starving. I think this is a good argument that you could partially cut off your power by using a power that opposes it in some way, but you would have to give up a part of yourself to make it stick. As soon as she had the freedom and ability to hunt again, that was when the urge came back, and she eventually succumbed to it. Getting rid of the parts of your body that do harm wouldn’t completely stop you if you were dedicated enough, but it’s the choice to do so that matters. This one is a bit more of a symbolic choice, and you could probably do something else to your body that would prevent it from hunting, but I am going with the cooler option.

To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws.

The Lonely- Probably all you have to do to escape the Lonely is just…be around other people. I’m sure this is easier said than done, but there are lots of ways to commit to other humans. Get married, join a club, make a blood pact and permanently bind yourself to another human. The possibilities are endless! This one, I think more than the others, would require a bit more of a continued effort. I know that the whole point is to make one drastic, permanent change, but the Lonely feels like something that’s easy to relapse into. Maybe it’s the depression metaphor, I don’t know, but I don’t think this one has as easy a solution as the others. It’s hard work forcing yourself to stay connected to others, and it’s something most people in real life struggle with. Giving up any of these powers is a difficult choice, which is the whole point. Life is hard, and we have to make tough decisions. Anyway, I’m okay letting this one be a bit more abstract.

To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others.

The Slaughter- This one is very similar to the Hunt in terms of actions, so I think the solution might be similar as well. Destroying your weapon would fit well, but it is just way too easy to pick up something else and continue hacking and slashing away. To give up violence entirely, you might have to destroy a significant part of your body. For the Slaughter, I think we should go with a less physical act. The opposite of violence is healing, so maybe become a doctor? You would have to really commit to helping others instead of hurting them, and that is too easy to go back on. I think the sacrifice made here would have to be emotion. Anger and the desire to hurt would go away if you couldn’t feel anymore. I don’t know how you would do this, except through drugs, but that isn’t permanent. There is probably a part of the brain you could destroy that causes emotion. It’s not the same as the prefrontal cortex, which we destroyed back in the End section, so at least it’s not the same solution twice. Honestly, the drugs could work if you did them long term, it’s about the choice anyway. However you do it:

To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions.

The Spiral- The draw of the Spiral is the power to lie and deceive. There are many ways to do this, and there are probably just as many ways to stop yourself from doing it. However, there is one way that I think fits very well and is absolutely a permanent change: destroy your voice. This is actually the first one I thought of because even though it’s not technically the only way to stop yourself from lying, it fits very well thematically. Michael as the Distortion calls itself the Throat of Delusion Incarnate, so what better way to break yourself off from the same power then by tearing out your throat? It’s not perfect, but I like it so much that I’m going to pick it. I don’t know how one would go about destroying one’s voice, except with very careful surgery. Or screaming for a very long time.

To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice.

The Stranger- We got our answer to this one in the Q&A. Run naked through the streets, and make sure to engage with everyone who talks to you so that you can’t hide. Utterly terrifying. It makes perfect sense though; we heard from the Not!Them that beings of the Stranger hate losing their anonymity. Whether by switching skins, tricking the mind, or looking so generic that no one can remember your face, being known is antithetical to the Stranger. There are probably other ways to go about losing your anonymity then running around naked. You could get up on a stage somewhere and pour your heart out, or publish an autobiography. Basically anything the Eye would like. As long as you are putting yourself out there in a way that you can’t take back, you should be able to successfully cut yourself off from that uncanny fear.

To escape the Stranger, make yourself known.

The Vast- This one might actually be easier than the Buried, because it’s not purely spatial. It includes things like longevity, our insignificance in the face of a massive universe, and large scary things in general. A Vast avatar would hate to be enclosed, but they would also hate to be made responsible. They enjoy making others afraid of their insignificance, but what if they were important to the universe? What if the world was actually very small, and they fit neatly into it instead of being lost? There’s a lot of different ways to go here, so narrowing down one sacrifice might not be the best answer. I can’t really think of any one action that makes a person feel as though the world is small and trapping them. Giving themselves to the Buried would, probably. A direct contrast is the easiest answer.

To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place.

The Web- Avatars of the Web are manipulators, through and through. There are so many ways to manipulate a person that no one action could prevent you from doing that, so this one would likely vary a lot between individuals. That movie director who had people puppet him in his own house comes to mind, I think giving up your freedom like that is a good way to do it. Being paralyzed wouldn’t stop you if you used your voice to control others, and giving up both would suck, but if that’s what you need to do, then I guess it’s your choice to make. Maybe all you would need to do is let someone else tell you what to do, and fully trust them. That would be difficult, coming from the Web where everything is tied together and you know how easy it is to manipulate you.

To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 2 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Kwami

Kwamis are a fun concept and one of the main draws of the series. They make sense story-wise because, firstly, our characters need some support system. And since a lot of conflicts are centred around secret identities, characters should be able to discuss their double life with someone. As magical beings they could also be used to expand the lore, introduce new concepts and drive forward both the plot and character development. It doesn't always happen but Kwamis are a good idea. Some people who write AU's think that Kwamis are redundant, but I have to disagree.

Origins and nature

Where do Kwamis come from? What are they? It's never explained. Oh wait, it was explained in a comic people can accidentally find. You decide to explain the origins and nature of magical beings who are one of the key elements in your magic system and worldbuilding IN A SIDE COMIC, which has zero effect on your main story. Sounds legit.

Here it is.

So, Kwamis are abstract creatures. They can become tangible and interact with the world because of the miraculous jewels. Essentially, each Miraculous acts as an anchor to the material world for Kwami. They existed since the beginning of time and were invisible observers of the universe. Until they settled on Earth and observed how humanity came to be. This is where things get interesting.

Kwamis are the embodiment of abstract concepts. But, some abstract concepts were created by people (like everything mentioned in the comic: beauty, math, love, etc).

Kwamis wanted to help humans. And then, a human, who couldn't see, hear or touch a Kwami creates miraculous jewels. And now these beings can interact with the world, use their powers and grant them to humans. Yet, they are completely under control of their holder. I'll discuss it later, but why did Kwamis accept this deal? They are practically enslaved. At the same time they care about people and generally love humanity.

According to the wiki Kwamis grant powers because of "the privilege of having the ability to be perceived by mortals". What? Did I read that right? Kwamis agreed to be enslaved and used as a power source, because they wanted to interact with material world. That's it, guys, end of the story.

We also know these things about nature and abilities of Kwamis from the show:

1) need food, but only to provide the power for the holder;

2) can't phase through precious metals (Chloe's bracelet in "Rogercop"), their own miraculous and humans;

3) they can control if they phase through things or not – meaning that if they want to, they can (this way Tikki can stay in Marinette’s purse without much trouble and Plagg sleeps on Adrien’s pillow);

4) they can perform magic without a holder but they don’t control it very well, there are certain types of things that they can’t do without a holder;

5) they are immortal but can get sick for some reason, a non-magical reason mind you;

6) technology can't detect them in any way, you can't film, photograph or record their voices (writers establish this many times, but promptly forget all about their own rules in "Optigami", where Marinette talks with Kwamis over the phone without any problems).

If I missed something important, then let me know.

Look, the questions related to origins and motivations of Kwamis might not be very prominent in your story right now, but you must answer them in case you might need to involve these facts in the plot down the line. It's important to avoid contradictions in the serialised story with liquid plot, that can't be set in stone. It's a made up world for the sake of everything sacred! You can make up explanations and rules, of course as long as they don't contradict common sense.

Plausible ideas for origins and nature of Kwamis:

1) Kwamis are immortal spirits, whom humans accidentally summoned and bound with spells to Miraculous stones. They remember their existence before this. This version doesn't really explain their desire to serve people and love for humanity, however. It would be more logical for Kwamis to resent people for enslaving them. It doesn't explain how humans could create those spells and Miraculous stones either.

2) Kwamis are physical manifestations of abstract concepts who existed simply as fragments of matter for a very long time without sentience, until they were accidentally summoned through the Miraculous stones and bound by humans to serve them. Kwamis do not remember their existence before Miraculous. In this version Kwamis serve humans and love them because they have never known a different kind of existence. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any explanation on the creation of Miraculous and spells.

3) Kwamis are gods, who created the universe with all its elements and concepts including humanity (similar to Valar and Maiar in Tolkien's Legendarium). They wanted to help their creations but discovered that their power was too wild and unpredictable for that. So, Kwamis decided to give up their free will and magical independence to help humanity. Together they created Miraculous stones for humans to use and sealed themselves inside. Kwamis as gods were abstract concepts, who didn't have a body. The act of sealing their power in the Miraculous gave them an opportunity to interact with outside world (an anchor) and each Kwami chose an small animal form (because humans easily formed bonds with animals, had animal companions (pets), small animals look non-threatening and familiar). Kwamis intentionally choose certain animal forms to suit the human symbolism. Humans later used magic that Kwamis discovered for them to place spells upon small gods (spells related to identity protection and so on). This version answers most questions, but if Kwamis are gods then powers they grant to people seem to be rather small.

Feel free to add more. I would be interested to hear your ideas.

Identity Protection

In "Origins" we learn that Wayzz can sense the aura of Butterfly Miraculous, a negative aura of activated Butterfly Miraculous, to be more precise. And yet, Tikki and Plagg are genuinely surprised to discover the identities of their holders in "Dark Owl". There are several things wrong with that.

Can Kwamis sense each other's presence? They shouldn't be able to do this to protect the identities of their holders. On the other hand, they are ancient spirits. So, their inability to sense each other seems weird. Unless it's the same situation as with the spell that does not allow them to speak the name of their holder aloud.

But if they can sense each other like Wayzz did, then it means that Plagg and Nooroo were living in the same house for over a year and nothing happened. I mean, Plagg could have just come upstairs, take off the brooch from Gabriel, while he is asleep and return it back to Fu.

This question lies right here, on the surface. And that's only one massive and very obvious plothole. How to fix it? Establish that Kwami can't sense each other for identity protection. In "Origins" Fu meditates on his balcony and Wayzz sees a charged Akuma flying by. That's how they discover that Butterfly is in Paris and the Miraculous is in the wrong hands. Perhaps, Gabriel akumatizes someone for the first time to survey the surroundings and general public is not aware of this. This works better in the narrative, giving Fu time to select holders for Ladybug and Black Cat. It also establishes whether Hawkmoth can remove the Akuma from someone without Ladybug and discharge it. Maybe it depends on the circumstances (sometimes he can, but if this person was akumatized many times or their emotions are too strong and their mind doesn't want to let Akuma go then Hawkmoth can't pull the butterfly out with his magic). This scenario allows for Volpina to happen on "Heroes' Day". Silly recurring Akumas like Gigantitan and Mr. Pigeon could still happen. In this case Gabriel didn't want to akumatize the guy more than 70 times on purpose. It just keeps happening against his better judgement because evil butterflies are automatically attracted to Mr. Ramier. This way repeated attacks of Mr. Pigeon annoy Hawkmoth just as much as they do the heroic duo of Paris (I did not sign up for this Nathalie!).

Let's come back to the spell mentioned earlier for a moment. Kwamis can't say the name of their current holder out loud, but apparently, they can exploit a loophole in the spell by confirming the identity of their holder in another way. The spell doesn't work with other holders. Kwami can say the names of other holders if they know their identity. That being said, can the holder order the Kwami to tell them the identities of other heroes if they know them?

Kwamis know how each Miraculous looks with or without camouflage. Can the holder order the Kwami to tell them how each Miraculous looks in disguise (I liked that Grimoire doesn't have pictures of camouflage for identity protection)? Guardians can recognise Miraculous in any mode (Su Han). Did Fu teach Marinette this? Does she know how each Miraculous looks like unactivated?

Oh! Since we are discussing camouflage, let's take a moment to appreciate the Mother Of All Plotholes. Plagg didn't recognise Peacock because of the plot.

Relationship with Holder

I absolutely loved the idea that Kwamis must obey their holder introduced in "Sandboy". This concept opens tons of plot opportunities. It's such a great idea that makes sense, has potential, can create conflict. Why, oh, why didn't writers develop it more?

Like, it was so good. It can be a great push for character development. This concept resolves so many existing inconsistencies within the plot. It's mind-blowing.

Why can't Nooroo simply leave Gabriel, so that he wouldn't be able to transform? Because Gabriel bound him with Miraculous to always stay near.

In "Sandboy" Tikki asks Marinette's permission before going to the meeting. Plagg lies to Adrien instead. This implies that usually Plagg's holders weren't kind to him or feared his power (Su Han's remark in "Furious Fu"). Perhaps, his holders were taught to keep the Kwami of destruction under constant control. So, Plagg in turn has learned not to ask, because if he doesn't ask permission then his holder can't deny him freedom with magic.

Can Kwami lie to their holder? Maybe they can't lie to their holder about their nature, origins and powers and other Miraculous (but Kwamis can't reveal the location of Miracle Box, Guardian's identity and can't confirm identities of other holders known to them in any way). Kwami would be forced to speak even if they don't want to. That's why Nooroo told Gabriel everything about the abilities of the Butterfly Miraculous and the wish secret of Ladybug and Black Cat.

But Kwamis can lie to their holder according to Plagg in "Sandboy". If Kwamis can lie about everything (including powers) then Nooroo didn't have any reason to be honest with Gabriel way back in "Origins".

Speaking of Gabriel and Nooroo. Can Kwamis harm their holder? Maybe doing so would harm the Kwami as well. Can they do it only when the holder is not wearing the Miraculous? Can Kwami take their Miraculous from their holder? Will they disappear if they try to do so? It seems like Kwami disappears only when the holder takes off the Miraculous with the intention of renouncing power, the words "I renounce you" are not necessary.

Other Kwamis can take the Miraculous from people if it's not their own (Wayzz in "Feast"). But what if it wasn't possible. Imagine what could happen if it's not possible to take the Miraculous by force from the transformed or untransformed hero. Just like Lady WiFi couldn't remove Ladybug's mask. A person has to willingly give up the Miraculous. Only in this case, it's possible to take it. For example, somewhere around the middle of season 3 Hawkmoth could have trapped Ladybug and Chat Noir and cut off any escape routes. His Akuma tries to take both Miraculous, but they don't budge. Then afterwards, every Akuma tries to manipulate the heroes using hostages, illusions or mind control. It's hard to say whether this version will be better than canon, but it's a fascinating theory.

You can use the idea of obedience to create more situations contrasting the relationship of Plagg and Adrien, Gabriel and Nooroo. I liked how canon created a storyline about Plagg learning to control his powers without a holder and Adrien helping him. However, why would you stop here? Give us some flashbacks about Plagg's previous holders, tell us what kind of people they were. Expand the lore and add some character development for Plagg and Adrien. The same thing goes for Marinette. What kind of battles did they have in the past? What kind of people past holders were? Did Ladybug and Black Cat heroes always get along well? Were they allies or enemies? Were they always lovers?

Give us more information about Butterfly and Peacock holders. Perhaps Nooroo has dreams about his past holders who were good people. Show us what kind of things a Butterfly holder with good intentions can do. Tell us more about Duusu and her past holders, sprinkle in a few bits of info about Emilie and Duusu's relationship, just a few vague hints to preserve the mystery. You have a lot of screentime each season and instead of doing filler episodes dedicated to love drama, you can use them for developing minor characters, relationships between them and lore.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Day Four

[This is the fifth part of a collected liveblog/analysis of Nona the Ninth! See here for the other parts.]

A short day for Nona means a shorter liveblog from me as well. Have some mid-book general opinions to make up for it!

Chapter 17

-Another new chapter image - a leaf or flower of some sort. I still don’t have any idea what that could mean, other than these symbols of life contrasting with the deathly skulls and barren Tomb.

-p231 Of course CamPal use the recorder to talk to each other. It’s still asynchronous, but must at least be better than text. Especially for difficult conversations, since it preserves facial expressions…

Another conversation of what the meaning of love and freedom are. Themes, ahoy!

And again bringing up the idea of Nona as a true gestalt. But even a gestalt couldn’t understand an RB’s speech, I imagine. Unless Nona is actually a THREE way gestalt…

-p240 Ah, so Angel isn’t House, just formerly shepherded. And as expected, she’s not a human doctor. I was thinking vet, I wasn’t expecting zoos to still be around!

-p246 Hmhm, so what did Nona draw that scared the Angel so badly? Noodle’s skeleton, maybe? Wake’s portrait?

-p246 As the narrative becomes more serious with Ianthe’s arrival, we deprioritize the comedy characters. In this case, that means gently escorting the kids offscreen. …Or in other words, the Knight of Cerberus has appeared, so it’s time to Shoo Out the Clowns. Because even after all these years TV Tropes has still ruined my vocabulary. 

-Speaking of Ianthe - did the Babs fusion make her immune to Herald madness? That seems to be what was implied.

Or perhaps - hm. We know that either the wrong body or the wrong soul can protect a person. The person sounds like Ianthe, but has Babs’ hair… therefore, Ianthe possessing Babs’ body to be able to get to the planet with her sister on it despite the RB?

Also on the subject of Ianthe, I’m really curious how Corona is taking all of this!

-p248 D’aww, it wouldn’t be this series without a little bit of gay romance implied! Beautiful Ruby together with Born in the Morning, good for them. Is this the first M/M pairing aside from Augustine/John and Cam’s two dads?

-p249 Hoo boy when Hot Sauce finds out what Nona and her family are, things will not be pretty…

Chapter 18

-p250 So that was definitely Pal checking Angel for something. I wonder what…

-p251 Ahh, Nona was drawing an Earth animal. Or even an ancient Earth animal? I’m not familiar with the term “cradle creature,” but it sounds like an early ancestor that other species in a group are descended from.

Alternatively: If the trillionaires didn’t just populate the galaxy with humans, but also other animals, perhaps this is one of those original animals they brought with them?

-Also, more planet names! First New Rho, now Lemuria and Miró.

[Later me: Lemuria is a mythical/hypothesized lost continent, and Miró might be a reference to an artist? There doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern or connection between planetary names that I can see. I wonder who named them? Settlers descended from the trillionaires?]

-p256 hmhm? Difficult to make out, but it seems like the Angel had a House implant, but was working for Eden and did know about the “Troia experiment” - Nona being a semi-Lyctor?

-p260 Ahh. So it’s inter-BOE fighting. And hey, we finally get to see Pash’s face! Fanart should have fun with the electric blue hair.

-Kind of hilarious/sad that no matter who they are or where they go, Gideon and Harrow and now Nona still end up being someone’s dubiously ethical science project baby.

-p262 Finally, someone does the obvious thing and calls the Lyctor a lich.

Now here’s a silly question: which is more of an accurate term, zombie or lich? As blatantly incorrect as zombie sounds, for BOE’s purposes it probably is more accurate - after all, to kill a Lyctor you want to target the brain, not waste time searching for a hidden soul container to break!

-p265 Okay, wow. Speaking of brains, it was suggested with the thumbs in HtN that Gideon-in-Harrow had healing powers beyond even normal Lyctors, but this is full confirmation. Lyctors can’t heal from a bullet to the brain, and Nona just did.

-p269 OOF. I thought Hot Sauce learning the truth of Nona would be bad, I didn’t think the kid would actually try to kill her! These books sure love making things as dramatic and tragic as possible!

John 5:1

-p252 The name being “Pan-Euro” rather than the “European Union” is yet another way the old Earth of these books is implied to be slightly to the left and/or slightly into the future compared to real life. (The most obvious difference being the presence of trillionaires instead of billionaires, of course.)

I’d be interested to see a compilation of all these differences that don’t just stem from John’s actions.

-p273 I do find it hard to believe anyone would really care about the cows that much. I think it would be more likely that everyone would harp on about the farmers who lost money because of losing so many cows, or about whoever’s bodies John has been using in his experiments. (Where DID he get all of those?) But then again, real life media fixations can get plenty strange…

-p274 Wonder which nation it was who wanted to puppet around their dead leader? The United States or Russia (or maybe even China?) all seem very plausible. Or maybe the big nuclear powers on this Earth are somewhat different from reality!

Also in light of this plot point, the fact that Nona came out right when the British queen having died is dominating the news cycles is just. Morbidly hilarious.

Also², this is now the third time corpse puppeting to hide an inconvenient death has been a major plot point. I wonder what John would have thought if he knew Harrow had been puppeting her parents since she was ten? …He would just have been even more “aw, she could have been my daughter :)” about it, wouldn’t he?

Chapter 19

-p276 Nona’s brain just got scrambled and she’s having a terrifying tantrum but what jumps out to me here is that she just thought of Crown as Corona in the narration.

I don’t think Nona even knew the name Corona. Are Nona’s memories coming back?

-p278 And now Nona is talking with not her own voice. Wonder who that was? Given how cold it sounds, if I had to say, I would guess Harrow. But Harrow being aware of all the Nona shenanigans and sitting passively by… that doesn’t seem right.

And who is the voice talking to? Harrow to Nona about Gideon? Gideon to Nona about Harrow’s body?

John 3:20

-p282 So John already had a necromancy cult in the old world. Pretty wild!

Also as usual we only have John’s word that the FTL guys were lying. I imagine that they will turn out to be lying, but again… John. Unreliable Narrator extraordinaire.

Quick Thoughts

-This seems as good a place as any to pause and do a few more general thoughts on the book so far.

-Hot Sauce just exited the narrative rather dramatically. Will she be back, or nah? I could see that going either way. On the one hand, she’s quite significant to Nona. On the other hand, so were characters like Aiglamene and Crux to Gideon and Harrow, and they exited from the narrative completely after the first act of GtN. In this space opera, the bit parts have rarely mattered… yet.

-Come to think of it, this book has fewer dogs than I expected. Noodle doesn’t even belong to Nona and we never see her interact with the other dogs on the guest list! 

0/10 Not Enough Dogs (Joking)

-On second thought, my current bet is that Harrow is still AWOL and that moment of Nona talking to herself was Gideon to Nona re:Harrowbod.

But if both Gideon and Harrow were present, that brings up another weird possibility: what if Nona’s dreams were Gideon and Harrow talking with each other in the River? I doubt that the narrative would have those two have their long-awaited meet up offpage, but it sure would be a bold choice!

HtN Redux?

Structurally, this book is very similar to HtN. Perhaps too similar. We’ve got a confused, amnesiatic protagonist. We’ve got dream interludes that recount past events spaced between the normal chapters, with the implication that these sections occur literally as the protagonist is sleeping.

And that moment of Nona hearing a second voice seems almost identical - in both placement and I suspect foreshadowing - to the HtN moment of Pal seeing Gideon in the River bubble, and the narration briefly going first-person. Given Gideon’s corpse showing up in the broadcast, I think it’s quite likely that we might also get Gideon herself making a surprise appearance in Act 5 as well.

All in all, it feels like NtN has the same shape as HtN but executed with less… sharpness? Impact? Unless the end of those John interludes can match the absolutely delightful sequence of AUs and then the Nonius vs the Sleeper duel (which would be very hard), then I suspect I’ll wind up feeling that NtN is a little bit like HtN’s less ambitious cousin.

I also absolutely loved HtN’s POV shenanigans, and I’m now far enough into NtN to regretfully conclude that it isn’t doing anything on nearly the same level at that. Ah well.

Which is not to say I’m not excited for NtN’s conclusion. On the contrary, I’m very invested!

Day Five, Part 1 >>

[deaddominionsofdolor]

Lecture 2

We’re back with the next IC lecture in the series! This time our GMPCs cover the basic powers that Sin-Eaters have. We’ll put it below the cut!

Hisaya: Alright. Well. Damien, explain.

Damien: What, again? Jeez. Okay, so...I guess let’s start with the, uh, somewhat obvious. You can’t die now, so….congrats!

Keiichi: Don’t get tooooo excited though, you can still get hurt. I mean, getting stabbed won’t be fun, you can bleed and all that, but if you bleed out, you just come back after a while.

Ori: But it is not very pleasant, I do not recommend dying... Oh. Dying again, sorry. But you can undergo a lot more than it seems. Limbs being ripped off, being peppered with bullet fire until your body is a bloody pulp, gaping holes in your abdominal-

Hisoka: We get the point. Aaaanyways, the plasm running through you makes up for a lot. You’re resistant to disease, for one. You can bring back missing body parts or patch up wounds that would kill anyone not-a-Bound before you know it.

Damien: You can run out of it though and then you’re just back to being...well, sort of human, not really since you’re still attached to your Geist, so be careful.

Keiichi: Soo-o. It doesn’t really replenish itself naturally since you aren’t a ghost, but there’s a few ways to do it. One, find something cast off into the Underworld and drain away its Plasm. It’ll disappear, but you’ll be full up.

Hisoka: Two, there’s a sort of, “break in case of emergency” thing. You know that when you die, there’s a sort of barrier you cross, an opening of the doors of death. Fancy way of sayin' that you’re assigned a key based on your very own manner of kicking the bucket.

Ori: Be more dignified!

Hisoka: How you croaked, your mode of transportation to Whitey Bulger’s Final Airbn-

Ori: What they’re trying to say is that you’re all granted powers- and we’ll get to that, abilities that take on the tinge of the Key. And unlocking the key, tapping into that energy, can also restore Plasm. This comes with a caveat! You’ll take on the Doom associated with it.

Damien: Ever seen the movie Final Destination? It’s like that. Basically, if we consider the Key as being what binds you to death, using it makes Death realize you’re supposed to be dead so it tries to kill you again. Not that it’ll work, but that doesn’t make it fun, you know.

Hisaya: And it’s always appropriate for that element. You died in a fire, you get hyperthermia for no reason. You got stabbed to death, and the next time violence can break out, it will. And so on. Point is, it’s not a literal, physical Key. The Underworld operates by Laws, just like the real one. And what goes up will come down.

Keiichi: Anyway! That stuff is all great, but you can use  ghost powers too. Don’t worry about the how, you just know-- or maybe your Geist does. Or both of you! The details aren’t important, it’s like an instinct thing.

Damien: It’s...y’know, most of it is typical horror movie ghost stuff? Turning intangible, poltergeist-ing things…

Hisoka: Ya get cool abilities, to cut it short. Just think of what ghosts can do in urban legends and you’ve got it. Even the name for ‘em’s kinda cliche. Haunts, exactly what it implies.

Keiichi: Orrrrrr that’s what we’ve been calling them at least. Heh. I think it’s a cool name.

Hisaya: That’s only most of it, though. Or what your Geist gives you. But being connected to death gives you other powers.

Damien: Right! The Old Laws. Well, we can kind of manipulate them. Or...at least something like them. It’s the same principle, you’re messing around with the metaphysics of death and drawing power from a...something else. It’s pretty interesting, because the powers they give imply that a lot of religious and ritual practice might have actually been able to accomplish some small-level miracles depending on who did it…

Hisaya: Miracle’s a strong word. Don’t get too excited.

Damien: It’s close enough. Banishing supernatural affliction, cursing people, summoning food a ghost can eat, things like that. We’ve all been able to pick up a thing or two that we can teach you, but there’s a catch.

Hisoka: Once you’re with your Krewe? You’re basically able to master a set of practices, but you’re kinda limited to those. It’s kinda like… fuck, Ori, explain. You’re the one into this metaphysical bullshit. Just keep it short.

Ori: Well, if you’re giving me the opportunity, thank you! So... Think of how we explained the Old Laws, where they are like laws of gravity. These rituals are similar. There are forces you are able to tap into when your own goals resonate with them, which means that our personal philosophies cause us to have affinities for specific rites.

Damien: Symbolism is important when it comes to the Underworld in general. So like, say you want to banish a curse. Well, crows are considered tricksters, they’re ill omens, they’re often considered witch familiars or magical in some way...so, you can take a feather, invoke a trickster story, and the crow-- uh, not a literal one, I guess the metaphysical power of the crow, steals the magic and puts it in the feather.

Hisaya: Yeah, look, I’ll be honest. I don’t get it, but we found some books in the library before it got raided that had instructions on this stuff. And it works. Somehow.

Ori: Well, if you’d ever need suggestions or assistance with symbolic elements, I would be glad to help! ...Any one of us, really, I suppose, but I do enjoy researching these sorts of things. But there is another caveat. The physical materials remain, but they lose their metaphysical resonance. Think of a battery losing all of its charge. The figurative crow has flown away and needs some new story to catch their interest. You cannot simply re-use the same components and do the ceremony again an unlimited amount of times. The materials used are consumable, and can be quite hard to come by.

Keiichi: Yeah, we have to go and scavenge for them on the Rivers, since stuff washes up there from the surface world. Which gets complicated, and that’s kind of why we haven’t had a chance to do this very often...buuuut with you guys this should be a lot easier!

Damien: So, back to that symbolism thing...it does matter what your intentions and philosophy are when it comes to doing these things, and that...should...theoretically, at least, bind us together and let us actually do this stuff. Working alone is a lot harder. So, let’s talk a little bit about ourselves, yeah?

Hisaya: Right. Well, your idea. You go first.

Damien: ...Fine. So, haven’t you ever wondered what was lost to death? Scientific advancements cut short by someone dying before their time, philosophy and religion lost because the person who spoke it was born in the wrong time and killed for it...that’s what we’re trying to recover. Think of how much further we could’ve advanced as a species if death weren’t an obstacle to discovery. There’s truth out there that’s been lost and we have the power to find it again. I’m not letting that power go to waste.

Hisaya: ...I don’t really have a fancy speech or whatever prepared. I just started out wanting to understand what the hell is going on with this place. The way I see it, the Underworld is as much a natural part of the world as...trees or the air or any other ecosystem. What is will always be. You can’t change it. It’s like trying to fight the desert or the mountains. We can’t make it go away so we have to figure out how to work within it. I’m still trying to figure out where to even start, so, I guess research is the first step if anyone wants to help or something.

Keiichi: Alright, well, my turn! In my line of work you kind of find out people don’t really care about the victims in these sorts of situations. Most people on the periphery of true crime remember the names of the killers but nobody they killed. It’s easy to talk about dealing out justice and revenge or changing the world-- uh, no offense to everyone-- but it’s hard to get down and do the dirty work of dealing with actual people one-on-one. Ghosts lead pretty miserable lives and we should do what we can to make it better until we can help them pass on again.

Hisoka: Hmph. Being afraid of death is a part of human nature, but why? Is it innately taboo? Painful? Hard to consider? Whatever it is, talkin’ about death is easy to avoid and all until you have to face it yourself head-on. It’s that kinda thinking, that it’s all pretty or poetic or something you’ll never face until you’re old, that keeps people from realizing it’s just another part of the cycle of life. And then, after you die? You have to contend with your new existence. Wouldn’t preparing others for that eventuality make more sense?

Ori: Ah… I suppose I’m last? And mm, no offense taken! Anyways... Death is a topic that’s hard to fathom for so many. When it is focused on, it is fraught with sensationalism and people prettying up the fact that it was a human being who died, not a statistical figure or memory, nor a euphemism. Lives are often cut short due to unjust or unsavoury circumstances, while others are content to stand by and do nothing if it means keeping the status quo. Some people are of the opinion it is better that skeletons are kept in the closet, but that is an insult to the victims. Coming to the Underworld is difficult enough as it is, and an existence as a former shadow of yourself who can only relive the motions of the injustices committed upon you in life is unfathomably painful. Countless wrongs go unanswered every day, brutal systems crush others underfoot, and it may feel easier to remain complacent and bury your head in the sand. But we cannot be complacent. Someone has to step in to ensure that the perpetrators of wrongs must answer for and learn from what they’ve done. Above all, justice for the victims remains our priority, not violence or vengeance.

Damien: Well, I guess we found out that letting us talk about philosophy is a bad idea because the tape’s almost--

[END OF RECORDING]

TL;DR

Motley Krewe

Each Krewe represents a philosophical outlook on the best way to help the dead rather than helping oneself move on.

Furies help the undead to take vengeance on those who wronged them and help settle scores through typically aggressive means.

Mourners bring back the knowledge and works of the undead to the living, so in the future no-one will have unfinished business.

Necropolitans try to create a comfortable existence for the undead to keep them from falling to the predatory structures of the Underworld.

Pilgrims explore the Underworld and try to help everyone to accept sometimes harsh realities of the worlds around them, letting go of what can’t be controlled or changed.

Undertakers seek to change the nature of perceptions of death to create a more peaceful passage from life to death. Most believe that removing the trauma from death will create a more peaceful Underworld.

Pomp and Ceremony

Ceremonies are ritualized practices that tap into the Old Laws of the Underworld to bestow minor benefits on the practitioners. Each Krewe specializes in different Ceremonies. Because they take time, effort, and concentration, it’s best to do them in a safe location like Dolor.

Haunt-ing Presences

Haunts are the innate powers granted by the synthesis of life and death only Sin-Eaters have. Sin-Eaters and Geists have an instinctive understanding of how to use them. They are divided up into general categories, with each giving a different type of problem. They can be used very quickly. Use your Haunts to solve problems on the go!

[bathroombreaks]

gg 1x02 rewatch

the questions are from @pynkhues, you can find them here.

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

that scene where ruby and stan are watching sara’s game. i love them so much!!! the look ruby gives him just ends me every time, it’s peak heart eyes. and sara answering back that no, they’re not winning is hilarious!!

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

no scene really missed the mark, i think?? but there’s some things that i thought were dumb and would like to talk about so i’ll just put them here: the girls should have just sold the collectibles themselves and given the gang the money. i know they didn’t remember for dumb plot related reasons but like... that’s no excuse, it’s stil dumb as hell. also the fact that annie took off her shoes because nancy wanted to keep the house clean and then immedeatly set them down on the dining room table!!!! that is not keeping things clean!!

3. This episode features Beth’s iconic! gamechanging! monologue! Do you think Rio was intending to kill the girls? And if so, at what point in Beth’s speech do you think he changed his mind?

yeah, absolutely, he was going to kill them. there was no reason not to?? i think he changed his mind when she talked about the hashtags?? it was completely dumb but also valid in a way. like, absolutely no one is going to start a hashtag because 3 women were murdered in a random home invasion but like it does bring up the point that at least the police would care about 3 suburban moms (especially when 2 are white) being murdered (way more than they would about someone who looks like him or one of his boys) and that’s more attention than he needs.

one note that doesn’t fit in anywhere else: i think maybe beth took the whole we have children thing she keeps doing from ruby?? ruby says it first when she decides they should ransom boomer and then again immediately when rio’s guys start breaking stuff. i think beth heard that and ran with it hahaha

4. This episode also introduces Marion to us! What do you think of her? And knowing how her story ends in 3.08, what do you think of her arc and her relationships with Boomer and Annie respectively?

uhhh i am conflicted. she’s a lonely old lady, i feel bad for her. but also she’s racist. i wouldn’t really condone robbing her. but also like they thought the options were rob her or die so i think beth should have taken the money. would they have gotten caught? probably, yes. but they would be alive!! but yeah coming back to marion, i really dislike the fact that annie was cool with eating with her and talking about her grandkids while ruby did all the work and then sought out a relationship with her all the while knowing she’s racist and only ended that friendship when marion personally betrayed her. it’s like that line from community, except modified, y’know: i can excuse racism, but i draw the line at lying to me. i don’t like it. and i don’t think they did enough to at least try to explore that side of it?? we got comments from ruby in 1x02 and then 3x08 but not much else, at least not that i remember. idk, i think at best it’s insensitive of annie not to consider that maybe her black best friend wouldn’t like that she’s friends with a racist woman, even if she’s a lonely old lady??

and when it comes to her dynamic with boomer. boomer really does like her and that’s sweet but he’s an asshole who was taking advantage of her and robbing her blind. it’s yet another case of a woman coddling a man. i like that in the end she stopped coddling him and forced him to do the right thing. i don’t really feel much one way or the other i guess?? we explore the mother figure coddles man-child dynamic with judith and dean too so i don’t think the show really loses anything by losing the boomer/marion dynamic.

5. Ruby has her only (so far at least) direct interaction with Rio in this episode! What do you think of that dynamic in this episode, and where would you like to see it go in the future?

first i wanna say that it’s very dumb that he and his boys somehow managed to walk in and sit down without her noticing. and i loved that she was so brave, going up to him. i guess i don’t have much to say?? she still seemed pretty scared of him in 2x10 and i don’t think that’s changed at all in season 3. i’d love to see how they’d interact now?? but i think it’ll probably be more of that. i would love for the girls to reach a point where they realise that he’s not going to murder them, because i’d love to see what kind of whacky, “no drugs up my butt“ type comments ruby would say then lolol

6. How do you think Beth and Annie got Boomer into the treehouse?

obviously magic. or one of them got up there, threw down some ropes, which they tied around his middle and then they pulled him up the slide with their amazing combined upper body strength. i know everyone emphasises that you can’t miss leg day, but beth and annie are all about arm day, clearly

7. This episode seems ambiguous about Greg and Nancy’s roles in Ben’s life up to this point. How long do you think Greg and Nancy have been together, and how close do you think Ben is with them at this point?

i have no idea. they did not explain this at all.  i guess they must have been married for at least like 2.5-3 years now?? because if she’s doing ivf then they must’ve tried before that. enough time needs to have passed since they married that they’d want kids, which i think would be at least like a year, maybe?? and then enough time for them to try and not be able to get pregnant and then do tests and start ivf. so yeah. 2.5-3 years.

edit: realised i didn’t talk about how close ben is with them. so... i have no idea what their custody agreement is like, but i assume annie is the primary caregiver and it’s more of a seeing each other on weekends and vacation type of thing?? either way, ben likes nancy and gregg. like i said, i think they’ve been together a good while so ben is used to nancy at this point, i think. and he probably thinks she’s sweet. because she is. and i think he probably does find annie’s scathing comments somewhat funny but he mostly goes along with it because he knows annie feels lonely without him, is jealous that gregg is much more put-together and has found himself a serious relationship and finds nancy’s comments off-putting and annoying. with season 2 in mind, i really don’t think nancy means anything by them, but i mean, it’s hard not to be annoyed when someone constantly accidentaly implies you’re not clean.

8. Do you think Beth ever went back (or thought about going back) for Dean’s grandmother’s ring?

uhmmm. no. maybe when he asked about it looking all sad and stuff but after that, no. it’s done, there’s no point thinking about it. “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” and all that jazz.

9. What do you think Stan was thinking when he woke up to Ruby making all those lasagnas? What do you think he was thinking when he, Sara and Harry ate so much of it?

i actually don’t think they ate that much of it tbh?? i don’t see them wasting food. and ruby did at least like 6 trays of lasagna. i didn’t count but she had a bunch already made and then was making more so at least 6. i think at most they ate 1 between them. they might’ve given the other trays to neighbours or something i guess?? but i kind of figured it was more like a symbolic thing and that they kept the rest of the trays in the freezer or something. and i think he probably figured she was back to freaking out and not believing that they were winning. you never know what happens, she could get sick or in a car accident or something. because what else could it be?? i mean if there wasn’t a gang wanting to kill them, i feel like the logical reason why you would do that would be if you were freaking out about your own mortality for non-gang related reasons

10. Has Beth ever seen a dick pic before?

maybe?? if annie got an unasked for dick pic i think she totally would show it to beth and ruby and make fun of the guy. but i don’t think she’s ever gotten one.

11. Is Greg still in love with Annie at this point in the series? Or does he fall in love with her again later in the season? Or not at all?

i have a hard time believing that gregg is love with annie at all?? he’s very in love with the idea of her, y’know the cute eyebrows and stuff, but i don’t really buy that he loves her. and like he needs to have been with nancy for years now at this point so if he’s still in love with annie that somehow makes him even more of an asshole in my eyes?? like i know he cheated. but it’s one thing if he cheated and fell back in love with annie (or thinks so, anyway) and then that didn’t workout and his wife has his kid so they decide to try and work through it, but it’s another thing entirely if he decided to marry nancy and start trying to have a kid with her while still (thinking he’s) in love with annie.

12. That! Hook! What do you think made Rio go back to Beth’s house? What do you think made him take a chance on her?

i think he decided to give her chance because she called him an idiot and he was intrigued by that (read, got a boner). and y’know all that stuff she said about p.f. chang’s and orange slices is true. and that is much easier to ignore than a guy who looks like him. and he figured he could take advantage of that and make that particular job a little easier this time.

[halfusek]

BATIM SPOILERS AHEAD

SECRET MESSAGES FROM CHAPTERS 1 - 5

With a sort of analysis/shitposting on my side? Yea.

Chapter 1

There is like two walls with these, that’s a lot. Is he... aware from the beginning now? I mean someone’s crossing this and Henry is implied to be leaving these messages so...?

Choose your fighter.

Ok wow harsh.  Haven’t you seen all these cool AUs in his house?

Also can I just point out how... Joey... literally... drew... the Studio...

Oh, my bad.

He drew STUDIOS. Because the damn thing keeps happening over and over again.

Oh fuck if that’s the case then that is clever. I made puns about him drawing the studio before, wish I did something with it before Chapter 5 dropped, that would be hilarious to look back at fvdfjkvnfkj

That’s just depressing. But like... yeah...

Wow Henry you must be a proud mom now

Hey remember when DAGames played Chapter 4 and was interrupting Alice Angel’s monologue by telling her to stop watch him poop

It spells “There never was a choice.” (never underlined)

Those messages are either hilarious or straight up depressing.

It’s... kinda sweet how Henry from the past (pasts) helps his future self (selfs). And encourages.

I’m pretty sure she’s got many hearts in her stock.

STOP WATCHING ME POOP

Henry what the fuck

The falling human made out of the two Ls, the Y and the splatters above it-

Fuck.

GASPS NO WAY

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He is not the creator of the cartoons. He is the creator OF THIS WHOLE FUCKING STUDIO AND EVERYONE IN IT. Like it’s maybe a sort of obvious thought but when you let it sink in... damn

Rest of the chapters under the cut because it’s really long

Chapter 2

ARE THOSE IRL BODIES? YES? NO? SYMBOLS OF THEIR SOULS BEING TRAPPED HERE? WHAT???

Do you remember that? Or only slightly? Oh man. “I should have warned him” thoughts and then you get a pissed off boy in Chapter 5.

COME ON NOW

Ok. How. How did you write anything there. When. The only time he’s aware would be right after Sammy hits him with the dustpan. So is he like fainting and writing it? So he wouldn’t be able to write anything else like SAMMY IS GOING TO KNOCK YOU OUT WITH A FUCKING DUST PAN because yeah he’s passing out so it’s just... OUCH! Also to confirm this he is facing the way he’s facing when he’s on the floor. God that’s both shitposty and depressing. Nice.

Henry don’t be a dick

So you do sing 👀

I wonder how Henry figured out walking backwards to not trigger the Demon here and write this specific message. Also is Joey behind those closed doors because there’s the whistling.

Is he cooking

Chapter 3

Oh, hi.

Excuse me what

Henry is a Jacksepticeye fan confirmed

Joey is a man of ideas... and only ideas.

Which is why he created a studio, an OC based on a person he has a one sided crush on (me) from who he stole and claimed their OC as his, also made that stolen OC a thing and then made both of the OCs fight in an infinite loop in the massive studio which is behind his kitchen.

This both has a literal meaning but is also like a deeper general thought Henry do you want Joey to create a therapist OC you seem to have some problems

Why do these coffins hurt so much

Who are you asking Henry because Alice sure won’t fucking read that And why won’t you just write it with regular ink why you gotta do it like this

Why does he keep this thing secret? Did he make it? Probably since he’s the one leaving the messages Hmm

I fucking wheezed.

But also imagine Alice just giving her speech and Henry writing something on the wall with his finger Unless he doesn’t write that in a literal sense but like... spiritually Huh

THEY HAD DRINKS TOGETHER AND JOEY WAS PAYING FOR THEM AWW

He’s so fucking gay I swear to fucking gods.

Let’s hop on the existential crisis train, choo, choo.

How can you be kind to people who try to murder you

But this. This. Is such a good fucking work/life thought like damn. I love this game for those.

But are those just some thoughts Henry wanted to get out of his head or does it have something to do with the game because I’m kinda getting pacifist/neutral/genocide route vibes from this. But it it’s not the case it’s still pretty neat, we do meet them, we just don’t have the choice to treat them in some way most of the times.

It’s on level 14 and damn you game damn you yet again. I guess it can also be applied to that moment when The Projectionist is reaching out for Henry who is hidden in the Miracle Station? Like we don’t know what to expect of him because he had that small moment of realisation of... something. And he is also one of Henry’s “old friends”.

Is Is Ink Demon killing The Projectionist a symbol of Joey’s jealousness like Norman: *reaching out in curiosity, maybe to help* Joey: >:( my fren

Chapter 4

Thanks. Roll credits. So Chapter 4 is intentionally pointless in the terms of Henry trying to save Boris. THAT’S FUCKING SAD STOP IT

NOT. MY. DOG. YOU. BITCH.

So Henry is catching up. Joey does regret all that shit he did. I wonder how exactly does it tie here, with Bertie. Maybe that theory I had about Bendy Land being Hell for Bendy? :0c I don’t really think so but that’s a thought.

I’m losing my shit.

Okay that seems like another woke thought.

Henry can’t change not being able to save Boris.

Joey can’t change all of his mistakes. But Joey is the one making it happen over and over again so it might be slightly pointed at him?

Like, pal. Stop dwelling on your mistakes. Move on. Let me the fuck out.

This game is really heavy with this problem:

Move towards your goal, hope, believe, dream, don’t give up. Well actually do if it’s like super hard.

????? This is such a deep uuhhh analysis of this like one of most basics functions of how we people fucking work and live, what keeps us going. Holy shit I am IN LOVE with that.

But oof yeah Henry was and IS the one good at pushing Joey to do the right thing. Man...

Instead of trying to cheer you up lemme just write this message you can’t read real quick.

THAT WHOLE FUCKING THING WAS POINTLESS AND I’M LOWKEY MAD

;_; holy lord sweet baby jesus

Can Henry like be fine fun concept Meatly please

I suggest giving this a read if you as I weren’t familiar with that expression https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/09/23/heels/

Of course it’s a pun on “Time heals all wounds” expression. The word “heels” there refers to contemptible people. Earliest citation: 1934 and it got more popular around that time till something around the 50s-60s according to that website at least. Neat.

That is interesting. I guess we can associate the door with Joey as well since Henry warns himself not to go through them? And the Demon drags Projectionist’s corpse through them. Sorta against his will, heeeeeeh.

They look like they could be interactive but I dunno :0c

Oh, yeah. That two-faced motherfucker. That’s my bitch.

HE GAVE THEM FUCKING NAMES

Chapter 5

I feel like it was kinda exaggerated. Henry they like saved your life twice or so, how salty can you be

OKAY LET ME TELL YOU ONE FUCKING THING

AT FIRST WHILE PLAYING I THOUGHT JOEY WROTE THOSE BECAUSE

I mean why the fuck would they drop this star outta nowhere AND HE IS EXTRA LIKE THIS

But then again there’s this “Don’t go through the door”

Unless Joey did contact him through this as well? But I’m assuming it only because of the stars vfnjksd Idk I like when symbols actualy uhhh symbolise something

ALSO YOU KNOW WHAT’S INTERESTING

This is pointing at ANOTHER way. Without the boat. Possibly the Valued Employee (take the long walk) achievement?

I would check it right fucking now but my saves are fucked and I would have to replay everything again and I’m just too tired hhhh

Also Valued Employee does sound like someone who listens to their boss right?

And I’m getting the impression it’s not all Henry’s writing because it seems as if there is a different personality present? Idk

That sounds like sort of both of them. Joey is cheering for Henry, even if he’s planning to make him go through all of this again. Does he... have to make him go through it? That’s a bit odd. Joey nani the fuck.

I like the idea of Joey saying this ok lemme dream vskjvnskjvs

But it could be Henry (past/present/whatever) trying to cheer himself up like he did with the “Don’t be scared” message (if that was also him)

Oh, Henry...

Once people That implies that real people got somehow affected, right?

I love the halo and the bone, also you can see the bone only if you give it to Boris in Chapter 3

Wait It is The whole fucking Ink Machine Is inside Holy

A cooking gay.

Ink Demon/Joey parallel implication. I don’t think he is Bendy in a straight up sense though. He is/was a soulless boss, just how soulless Bendy was/is. I wonder if there is a studio version of him or HHHHHH complicated stuff

Is it like When people create something good but they just don't know when to stop it eventually ends up really bad And the Demon took The End so his cartoon couldn't be finished and it all had to keep going, Joey had to keep going Hm?

So like there is no message on Henry’s second desk

But it does trigger the same dialogue AND IT HURTS

Actually a lot of people missed the arrows so just so you know

But I thought we don’t like doors

Also it’s the last hidden message so I do believe it has a special meaning

CONCLUSION get Henry outta here and give him loads of therapy

Is his fucking last name Stein because he made monsters via the Ink Machine by powering it goddamnit Joey don’t trick people into creating that shit

[arcanalogue]

ON TYRANNY - An Unsolicited Tarot Tour, pt. II

In my initial post groping for symbolic parallels between the Major Arcana and Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, we covered The Fool and The Magician. 

In the few days then (just to show how fast time seems to move during a budding oligarchy), video has surfaced of the President speaking to rich donors at one of his own hotels, in which he says: “The European Union is a group of countries that got together to screw the United States, it’s as simple as that.” He goes on to explain why this is surprising: “We’re all sort of from there, right?��

He also tweeted a thinly-veiled threat suggesting that Adam Schiff, the US rep who gave a rousing speech in the impeachment trial the other day, “has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

There’s also video of his pick for Special Advisor to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, Paula White, working this bit into a sermon: “We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now.” 

And just for fun, a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was detected near Los Angeles, and today officials are reporting that, as feared, the disease is contagious before the appearance of symptoms. There are still plenty of good folks left at the CDC, right? The lights are on, at least?

But if we let paroxysms of fear induced by bad headlines stop us from going about our day, pretty much none of us would have made it through 2017 — and yet here we are, two full years beyond that point, still rallying, still cracking jokes, still helping each other get things back on track. And sure, my beard and chest hair are suddenly growing in all white, but that’s fine! The sharper contrast will be dazzling against all of my goth attire. How’s that for a silver lining? 

Anyway, on to the cards.

The High Priestess represents everything we take for granted about our own awareness. She’s the source of our inspiration, the dream we awaken from that colors our perception of the day; she’s the vapors sighing from a crack in the earth, and she’s also the Pythia who hears and interprets those whispers. 

Most of us realize we’re more than just our cognition, or our memories, but it’s still quite easy to lose track of the various pillars our interior world is formed around... until one of them is suddenly swept away.

And it’s the same with our exterior life, because “interior” and “exterior” are only matters of scale, baby. Your mind is your own (for now), but how did it become what it became? What unseen protections was it afforded? 

Most people probably think of libraries, or organizations, or certain publications when they hear the word “institutions.” But so many different things fall under this category, it’s actually mind-boggling! It really makes you ponder about the particular framework of your community. Some are more fragile or less corporeal than others; to LGBTQ people, a bar can serve as an institution. Hell, in Brooklyn a taco restaurant can be described as a “mainstay” if it manages to last 15 years.

Some institutions are really only useful to those who created them, and others or who are well-adapted to them, and are bound to crumble naturally with time. A lot of what history has thought to provide will be useless to people in the coming century and beyond; their needs are evolving drastically, right in front of our eyes. This is why we also need to create safe and fertile territory for new institutions to be formed, and try not to take it too personally when the world just moves on. Memento mori, and all that.

But this entropy is not what Snyder’s talking about: he says DEFEND institutions, implying they are under attack. And some of this is very easy to watch for, because we think we know what an attack looks like. But as Snyder’s chapter points out:

“Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order, instead of resisting it. This is what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung.”

You know, like appointing industrial tycoons to manage the EPA and the Department of Education, or leaving countless government positions unfilled so that none of the departments can function quite as they used to.

No one can look after all of them, and none of us knows which we’ll depend on most in a key moment. That means we all have to fan out and each claim a different piece of the puzzle. But which one? And how?

Reflect on the mental architecture that contributed to the formation of your own mind, and then let the Priestess guide you. 

The tarot-ticklers of antiquity may have determined that The Emperor’s power trumps that of The Empress (as the cards are ordered so that each one “triumphs” over the one that preceded it), but he can’t exist without her, and everyone in the kingdom knows it. 

In this chapter Snyder invokes the popular saying “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” adding:

“When we think of this saying today, we imagine our own righteous vigilance directed outward, against misguided and hostile others... But the sense of the saying was entirely different: that human nature is such that American democracy must be defended from Americans who would exploit its freedoms to bring about its end.”

In readings I often explain to people that The Emperor represents the outward-looking ruler, the conqueror, the prospector, the warlord. The Empress is the inward looking ruler, tending to the needs of the people, governing, presiding over everything that gives life meaning. 

I mentioned above that the very concept of interior/exterior is only a matter of scale. Those terms are used very flexibly, aren’t they? There’s the interior of my body, and the interior of my home, and the interior of my apartment complex, and so on. At some point it stops being “my” anything. Suddenly we’re looking beyond my town, or my state, or my country. Sometimes others draw those lines for us, and other times we have to be The Emperor, pushing back against that line, drawing one of our own, defending what’s rightfully ours. 

Regarding our own interior as a nation: in case you hadn’t heard (HAHA!) we’re about to stagger through a series of important elections. The one thing we know for sure is that the results of these elections will be disputed, no matter what they happen to be. If we can no longer trust the outcome of an election — due to internal fiddling, not just foreign — then what’s the point of having them at all? You can already sense everyone’s fatigue, ripe to be exploited.

The GOP is already slavering for it, canceling primaries left and right so that Trump will run unopposed for reelection. A “one-party” election suits them just fine. Debates only raise questions, and give a platform to challengers. In order for Trump 2020 to seem like an inevitable choice, he has to be the only choice.

Ruining the public’s faith in American democracy is part of the strategy, because of course it is. Later in Chapter III, Snyder offers yet another popular saying: “Where annual elections end, tyranny begins.” 

The work required to protect the upcoming election, and make sure people still care about the outcome, can only be done by Americans organizing and working together on every level: personal, local, national. The fatalism and cynicism everyone’s feeling is understandable, but it ought to drive one toward active participation in preserving what little democracy we have left. 

Otherwise, what’s the point? If it’s more important to have your worst fears confirmed, to be able to say “I told you so,” to bargain with the inevitability of fascism, then you’re rooting against The Empress and the rest of us. You’re part of the rot in your own kingdom.

If you’re someone who does Empress-related work, this is your new practice: she is calling you to serve as guardian and minister of the interior. Whatever inspiration you manage to muster, your role is to imbue others with it, and resist whatever negativity you may encounter as you do so.

Are your friends and family registered to vote? Are they sure? Do your representatives in Congress have a plan in place for when Trump refuses to concede? What communities near you could use a leg up in terms of outreach? Ask questions. Get creative. Be a constructive part of the pressure. 

What you manage to accomplish on your own may seem meager, but pouring energy into these concerns will remind others why this fight still matters, and it will encourage those who never forgot. We need everyone in this fight.

Our last “real” election can’t already be behind us. The Empress is counting on us to make sure of it. 

This is Part II in a series of posts about Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, which can be purchased via your local bookstore, and also here. 

[fyrapartnersearch]

A sly return

Hello, it’s been a while…

 And I am back with a new request! This one will be more specific as it only targets certain fandoms. I have had plenty of amazing original roleplays in the past time but now my desire is slowly favouring canon universes once again. Btw, call me Gil ;) 
 I have a strong penchant for including original characters and ideas that can be added to the pre-existing plot. Also very happy to expand on the given worlds and open to AU’s. Okay so I am a really big nerd when it comes to the supernatural, mysterious, urban myth and fantasy. Love combining those given elements with organised crime, complex characters, cataclysmic events and dark schemes that all unravels as time goes on. 

 A little about me. You must be at least 18+ of age if you want to start a roleplay with this gal here. Since I am in my twenties, I prefer maturer partners. I accept anyone, regardless male or female. What I expect is a decent (if not very good) grasp on grammar, the ability and will to write creatively, shoulder a great part of the plotting and responsibility as well as passion for roleplaying. Of course this should be seen as a fun hobby but I really like to invest… I wish for my partner / friend to take equal initiative. 
 Here are my cravings and guidelines! Even though they are limited, I made sure to filter out the ones I know I wouldn’t role-play anytime soon. So if you are interested in something I didn't mention here, I am afraid I might not role-play this or decline. 

 Fandoms and cravings:

Castlevania ****

Devil May Cry ****

Game of Thrones ***

Witcher ***


Fate **


Star Wars ***


What it entails:
 Alright, so you are writing with some of a mature age. I have 11 years of writing experience when it comes to the game. This will be a fair warning that this request is not for the faint of heart. There will be violence, swearing, gore, intimate themes, uncomfortable subjects, drama, conflict and other dark matters included within the story. I have few limits but I will respect the boundaries of my partner, so do not shy away from telling me. Just so you know, I won’t fade to black or skip out on the nitty gritty. Go big or go home. Interests: My line of interests are very electric when it comes to genres. I love conceiving my own lore inside a stories, be it an original or a pre-existing story. Gothic fantasy among others are one of my favorites. I am not opposed to tapping into science fiction, action, romance, crime, action or thriller genres, in fact I encourage it. Inspirations for me are Lovecraft, Hellsing, Blade, Underworld, etc. As for the fandom inspired RPs, I am more than willing to bend some rules and be a little indulgent. Writing: 3rd person perspective. My writing is wide-ranging and flexible, which means that frequently, word count will go up 1000+ per reply - though it highly depends on the given situation and partner. Quality over quantity as they say - but why not both? I love detail in description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. My partner should have a basic grasp on grammar, punctuation and somewhat of an interest in knowledgeable writing. I also double! (preferably, but we can always discuss whether it makes sense for our roleplay our not.) World building and sharing the burden: You should be active and help me shape the world around our characters. Even if we discuss many things during and before the roleplay, how we wish for things to play out and take its course, I am always happy to be surprised with a secret of my partner’s character I didn’t know before. You don’t need to lay out all your cards on the table… keep it a little mysterious and suspenseful. Just enough so we can work with the ideas, but not completely kill off the suspense. Characters: I write canon as well as OC characters. Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely sufficient. Whatever floats your boat when it comes to visualising your character and their backstory, I’m on board. Characters should be written as opulent, flawed, unique, talented, heroic, villainous, spiteful, angry, and everything in-between figures. In other words, don’t be scared of making them ‘human’, even when they are non-human. Romance: Openly play and accept characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might be more savvy with this one. If the chemistry of two characters compel me, I will ship them no matter what! When it comes to sexual scenarios and intimacy (intercourse, foreplay, all that jazz). I encourage erotism, but in a tasteful manner (that goes for romance as well). The passion must be felt through the screen, even if it’s just a mere description of someone’s deep train of thought. Content: Drama, violence, sex, metamorphosis, symbolism, action, romance, pretty much everything is a-okay. I am unbothered by certain subjects that may or may not be uncomfortable for the general public. Roleplays are fictional stories and we best keep viewing them as such. If there are things you are uncomfortable with, name them and I shall respect those boundaries. But don’t be surprised when suddenly one of our characters bites the dust, or gets tortured. It may be difficult to write and read, but it is all part of the story and furthering the plot. My roleplays imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical torture as well as other things. But I also endorse beauty, serenity and placid moments, scenes or characters. I love it when it comes full circle… everyone- and everything has their beautiful and hideous side. Both should be embraced. Communication and friendship: OOC-chat friendly! I love meeting new people and making potential friends. Plus it strengthens the compatibility between us. Communication is the alpha and the omega. If there is something that bothers you, or if you think you are left out in some way (be it a mistake on my part or we’re both at fault here), don’t be scared of telling me. Really, it won’t be taken personally - since I know that we slip up every now and then, we’re only human after all. It is also completely sufficient if you only type out a few messages per week. I am super chill about it. It doesn’t bother me re-writing a scene to fit the narrative more. If there are mistakes, they can be corrected - just to get that out there. We can always exchange opinions and see what would benefit the story most. I will also voice my opinion should something arise that could be bothersome. World building and plotting: An active roleplayer is wanted without a doubt. Can’t do the thinking for two now. Let’s row this boat together. Limits: Subject matters I won’t touch are pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia, vore, scat, furries and some other bizarre fetishes. Also no one-liners or text-talk messages. The sentences have to be cohesive, coherent and decently structured. 
 
Now a little more information about myself. I live in CET central Europe. My response rate varies throughout the weeks, depending on my schedule. 
I study at a university full time and work a job on the side and both are keeping me fairly busy. My writing will increase most likely during the weekends. If I should hit a hiatus, I will inform you as soon as possible. I understand when you are busy as well and are not able to respond, though I prefer if my partner does not ghost me. At least let me know what’s going on so I can adjust and put the roleplay on hold if needed! 
Mediums I roleplay on are email and googledocs. Though I also have Discord in case for OOC chat! Preferably my partner would message me first on email, giving me a brief description of themselves, their cravings as well as ideas. That way I can see if we’re compatible or if this bears any potential. After that we can easily move to Discord and carry out our chats / conversation there. 

Message me here EMAIL: gilgameshmercur@gmail.com Hope to hear from you soon! Lots of love!



 Sincerely yours, -Gil

[anewfreind]

Hey so, you played DeltaRune right? What was your first impression on the main cast? i.e. raslei, lancer, Susie, Kris.

Oh fucketh yes thou kindeth basterd, let thine doith this.

Alright, so imma talk about the game and new characters, and if you would like, send asks on the undertale cast, and how they changed, because i would love to talk about that! I would also love to talk about theories for both Deltarune and Undertale! Do send asks! Now lets begin:

*ahem*

I was NOT expecting it to be this long for what I thought was a free demo

I loved ALL the characters this time. I didn't think I'd like Susie and Lancer much, but they grew to be my favourite characters of the story this time.

Also, I knew Deltarune was an anagram of Undertale, but I went through the entire goddamn game without realizing that Ralsei was an anagram for Asriel. Yes, I'm stupid.

I really like the new party battle mechanics! I didn't use the fight option, but still.

I wasn't able to find part B of the key that would unlock that mysterious cell in the prison. Did anyone else find it?

This was a very easy game to get a Pacifist run in, and I got the good ending straightaway! Seemingly.

SEEMINGLY.

WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?!?

Still here? Cool lets go

So, some interesting points and thoughts I had about the game and characters, and other things and tropes I noticed:

Ascended Meme: Toriel mentions that Kris and Asriel enjoy playing Super Smashing Fighters, a clear Shout-Out to the Super Smash Bros. franchise. At the time of the release of Deltarune Chapter 1, a popular meme was that Sans would be confirmed as a character for the then-upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Anti-Frustration Features: Should you make at least three unsuccessful attempts to clear either timed-tile puzzle, Ralsei will offer a hint on how to solve them

Attack! Attack! Attack!: Susie's main method of fighting: She'll keep attacking enemies and won't listen to Kris. Fortunately, she gets better during the final dungeon. Perhaps this is how she was raised?

Awesome, but Impractical: The Top Cake heals your entire party for 160 HP, but your entire party only has 90, 110 and 70 HP anyway and can't be increased at all. Furthermore, giving the Top Cake back to the Top Chef makes him give you the Spin Cake, which, while only restoring 80 HP, is unlimited and any encounter that isn't a Boss fight will probably not shave off your entire HP.

One thing that annoys me with the game is that Lv can’t increase, but we will get back to that later

Bait-and-Switch: A lot of the plot details are set up in a similar fashion to the previous game, only to subvert expectations.

Susie threatens Kris early on and is a berserker who attacks monsters on sight and doesn't care about the quest she's nominally on, much like a No Mercy run from the previous game, but she refrains from killing anyone and ultimately makes a Heel–Face Turn.

Lancer is similar in both a recurring antagonist role and has a skeletal appearance with a blue color scheme, which might lead players to believe he has a connection with Sans and Papyrus from the previous game; he and his father turn out to just be Darkners who resemble skeletons and have no apparent connection with Sans and Papyrus at all.

A mysterious doorframe appears early on and savvy players (or fandom nerds) might expect them to tie into Gaster as they did in the previous game. They end up being a fast travel system (which is lame).

Lastly, there's Lancer's dad, the King, who might look like a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Asgore, right down to one of the people close to him trying to persuade both you and him not to fight (Undyne for Asgore, Lancer for the King). However, when you actually encounter the King, not only does he threaten to throw Lancer off a roof if the Lighteners don't kneel before him, he also tricks Ralsei into bringing him to full health so he has them at their mercy again. He ends up being defeated by Ralsei putting him to sleep while Kris and Susie escape, or captured by Lancer when he turns his own troops on him.

Big Door: There's a large bunker-style door built into the landscape in the forest to the south of town. Locked, unfortunately.

One of the encounters can be resolved peacefully by getting Ralsei to sing a lullaby, which also puts Susie to sleep. This later turns out to be the key to peacefully resolving the fight with Susie and Lancer. It comes up again in the "bad" ending to the King fight, where Susie notes that while she can't take the King down, Ralsei can. Susie: “I'd never forget something I made fun of you for.”

Similarly, Susie attacks automatically during the first battle with Lancer (who can't be killed), which is an early hint to the player that Susie attacks on her own and you'll have to prevent her from doing damage if you want a pacifist run.

Cliffhanger: The chapter ends with Kris (most likely being controlled) pulling out their/the player's SOUL, shoving it in a cage, and drawing a knife, at which point Kris's eyes glow red like Frisk's do if Chara's permanently corrupted your save after a genocide playthrough back in Undertale. This ending felt like a punch to the gut, and gave me so many questions to ask. Also, in the final scene, you can control the SOUL while it's in the birdcage. It won't change the outcome.

Lancer appears to be this for most of the initially-bad guy cast of Undertale, possessing a Sans-like color scheme, Papyrus's kid-brother nature and general enthusiasm for "evil," and Alphys's emotional attachment to the Big Bad.

Kris seems to be a hybridization of Frisk and Chara: their face, skin color and silent nature lean more towards the former, while their clothes and relation to the Dreemurr family (especially Asriel) scream of the later. Of course, after what happens in the ending, who knows how the three are connected? But here is something people have forgotten about, since I haven’t seen anything on it, but Kris looks exactly like the unused Frisk sprite, besides the sweater

Even if you go out of your way to beat encounters by force, enemies just get knocked off-screen. Contrast with Undertale and its infamous Genocide/No Mercy route.

After you beat the game and it closes itself, restarting shows Ralsei's legend as the intro and provides a new background for the file select screen.

Susie's hair is wild and covers her eyes, symbolizing her wild and violent outcast vibe. After the fight with the King, it's cut to reveal her eyes, and she becomes a lot more expressive and open with her emotions from them on.

All main characters are this, or have a Face Framed in Shadow. Them revealing their faces is usually a big deal.

Kris and Susie's outfits change when they fall into the dark world. Kris also becomes more blue in appearance, while Susie becomes more pink.

On the walk home, talking to numerous characters heavily hints that something is up with Kris. Numerous people refer to them as "creepy", or "quiet", and Noelle notes that they're usually quite distant from others. The game implies that Kris was being possessed by the player ala the first game

Ralsei makes direct reference to interface elements and controls as part of his tutorial-giver role. This leads to an amusing moment in the first block puzzle, as this trope doesn't apply to Susie.

Susie: (Who the hell is "[Z]"?)

Susie's solo fight against Lancer parallels the first game's fight against Toriel in a number of ways. In both cases, the foe is a family member of the king that guards the protagonist's way back home, and they're trying to prevent the protagonist from meeting the king in order to avoid bloodshed. Once the fight goes on for long enough, the foe starts attacking exclusively by dropping projectiles from above that are guaranteed to miss, showing their reluctance to fight someone they'd started growing close to.

This chapter has a lighter tone than all of Undertale. The game mechanics are more focused on solving puzzles and befriending enemies than fighting, and no one can die, even if you DO decide to attack all your enemies.

After returning from the World of Darkness, talking to several of the NPCs imply that Kris isn't acting like themselves. Noelle comments on how Kris is really talkative compared to normal, Noelle's dad implies Kris has forgotten things that they should know, the hospital clerk comments on how Kris isn't normally so bad at playing piano, and Kris in general seems a lot less "creepy" to the townspeople.

After arriving at the fountain, Kris and Susie find themselves back at the school, in a room with a chess board, playing cards, and some toys that look like the characters they encountered. But both of them remember what happened, and it's left ambiguous as to whether it really was just a dream or not.

If you have the Spooky Sword equipped, your "weapon" upon leaving the dark world will be the Halloween Pencil, leading to more questions.

If you follow the Jevil sidequest plot to its conclusion, mentions of The Queen are made, as well as Seam describing the event that drove Jevil insane as "Dark yet Darker" adding even heavier implications to Gaster's presence in the future story.

If one talks to Rouxls Kaard after starting his first puzzle, he will verbatim quote I. M. Meen. (Also Rouxls Kaard, thou art must marrith me)

When Burgerpants talks about his fellow pizzeria employees, he mentions a "Purple Guy" and wonders if he even works there.

Ralsei removing his hat and hood at the end, revealing that he looks exactly like Asriel. Judging by Susie's reaction, this is one both in and out of universe.

Right at the end of Chapter 1. Kris is tossing and turning in the middle of the night, when they jump out of bed and start walking around very slowly. They then stop in the middle of the room and pull their own soul out of their body, before throwing it into the birdcage from earlier. They then turn their head around slowly, revealing Chara's trademark smile and glowing red eye, before materializing a knife out of nowhere. Anyone who's played Undertale (so most of people playing this game, as it was recommended to those who already played Undertale) should have some very horrific guesses about what this mean

The King grabs Lancer's throat when he finds out that they let the heroes get away

[ryouverua]

A Certain Lab, Reprised

lab get lab get lab get lab get LAB GET

Everything around us is either exploding or on fire so Sweetcheeks and I are going to retreat to our space safe, investigating

am I talking about the school exploding or tumblr

we just don’t know

Speak of the devil!

“I AM HERE!!!”

“K1-B0 THeRE WAS AN OPEN WINDOW OH MY GOD, THERE’S GLASS EVERYWHERE, OH NO -”

“OH YEAH!”

Didn’t really wait at all tbh 8′D

Actually all jokes aside Sweetcheeks is right, it was hella cool - and also thank god he was in the hallway and far away from the window! K1-b0 keeps asking if Shuichi is okay but is being incredibly reckless at the same time - what if Shuichi had been showered with that glass? He wouldn’t come out of that unscathed. Was that just K1-b0 taking more of his uncorked anger out on the school?

... Hm, though I guess calling it ‘anger’ isn’t quite right. Or, at least, K1-b0’s fluctuating between ‘anger’ and sort of... more... ‘grim determination’.

Yeah, he didn’t even flinch at being complimented. He��s got serious tunnel vision right now.

Damn.

LMAO SHUICHI’S SCREEN -

There’s only one other place I can think of that qualifies...

DON’T YOU DARE SHUICHI WE FINALLY GOT HERE AND I HAVE QUESTIONS

Oh thank god I want to satisfy my curiosity about the library as much as you do but RANTARO’S TALENT FIRST

Again - damn, K1-b0.

Whoa -

..... This has a very YGO Season 0 vibe. Sorry, that’s a weird comment. Maybe the better way to describe it is that the words ‘punishment game’ immediately come to mind? Some sorta wheel/puzzle thing in the back, cards hanging from the ceiling, some sort of... table...? Kinda reminds me of a poker table, though there’s no center to it... Maybe he... really did specialize in death games...?

Actually, if Celeste had an Ultimate Lab, I feel like it would have a similar aesthetic ~

IT’S HIS SOUL ROOM WE’RE IN RANTARO’S SOUL ROOM

“Yeah so I never shared with you all, but part of the Ultimate Detective status includes the ability to shoot spirit energy from your finger like a gun -”

I don’t think that’s completely wrong but I feel like the actual talent name is going to be x100 times more ominous. 8′D

MAN end-game Himiko is so different than early-game Himiko! Nice to have you onboard - wait, I just realized we’ve got a magician sidekick helping us in an investigation. Is this the right time to make an Ace Attorney reference, or -

Okay, huh. There’s actually way less to click on than I thought there would be. WHAT IS WITH THE MOST CRYPTIC PEOPLE HAVING THE LEAST INTERACTIVE ROOMS, COME ON DRV3 -

Okay, that laptop first:

Empty laptop.... okay, let’s set that aside for now.

Here’s the real question - what came first? The K1-b0 we knew for the first five chapters or this K1-b0? Which one should we consider to be the ‘true’ K1-b0? I think the game is implying that this is the real K1-b0, and the one who we knew up until now was a ‘controlled’ version of him - but at the same time, if the antenna was built in with him, could it be considered part of the original design and therefore part-and-parcel of K1-b0?

omfg I just realized the implications of a white-haired boy hearing a voice (that he literally calls ‘voice’) in his head who may or may not be controlling him behind the scenes be still my heart you’re getting distracted

WHELP THERE’S REALLY ONLY ONE OTHER THING TO CLICK HERE SO -

Like a safe?

......... Omfg it says ‘B’ and ‘A’ on them and it has pictograms on them. Is... this going where I think this is going...

Okay Himiko is being our in-game tutorial and noting that the zodiac is on one side and astrological signs are on the other but honestly I’m fine to skip all past it tbh because there it is, there’s our fucking ‘horse a’ and ‘twin b’ is gemini, Kokichi himself was a gemini, this was where we were going with those hints??? Rantaro’s lab?! idk I just don’t find puzzles like this hard I kinda thrive off of symbolism and mythology in general 8′D

Wait.... doesn’t that mean Kokichi couldn’t have been the one to leave those messages behind?!

Okay this was pretty cute so I left this in ~ but straight up two minutes later it was just a string of KACHUNK KACHUNK KACHUNK until I got it open immediately -

.... the symbols are weirdly cute though, hehe ~

Don’t worry Sweetcheeks, the only life-threatening time-waster we’ll spend all of our time on is fluff text!

Aaaaaaand done. Thanks Kokichi!

MAN I LOVE THESE TWO SPRITES TOGETHER FOR SOME REASON

Ah, so they’re talking about the stone with ‘horse a’ written on it - which... does make me curious, honestly. I think the existence of this safe pretty much confirms that he didn’t write the original message... right?

When did the letters start appearing aside from ‘horse a’? Chapter 3? Was that around the time he concocted that particular plan, then?

H-Hey now, he’s also the reason we found the second clue. 8′D I mean, it wouldn’t have been terrible to go through 12 different combinations with ‘horse a’ determined, but it wouldn’t have been ideal.

i bet you can buy that, that is literally perfect DR merch

IT’S

THE VIDEO

THE VIDEO!!!!

yeah I’m totally going to pull up my old post to see what matches and what doesn’t

“Oh god I forgot how absolutely stunning he was.”

OH I thought that was an abstract red background, silly me - 8′D well, that was probably the point. It might give away the game if we saw something more concrete behind him way back in... what, Chapter 4?

Anyway, more importantly, Rantaro shouldn’t have had access to this place... except he clearly did. So... he... must have been here before. And he knew more about the killing game, or seemed to intuitively know more, than anyone else. He... must have done this before. Except he had made it all the way here last time??? So there is a loop of some sort? Though it can’t be an outright time loop because otherwise there would be no need to record a video (unless like I considered it’s a ‘simulated’ time loop, aka VR-style like last game)...

This makes me wonder how we saw the video the first time. Was it just another flashback/tease like the meteorites were, before we saw the flashback lights?

I mean, I guess it’s kinda hard for recording!Rantaro to prove, but we’ll have to take him at his word here I suppose. 8′D

OH

OKAY

WE’RE JUST GOING STRAIGHT INTO IT THEN

are you telling me you were the protagonist in the last killing game

DIDN’T YOU HAVE LIKE, TWO AHOGES TOO

Man, what an asshole move??? Like, okay, Monokuma’s creating the puzzle of the safe which would unlock this video. Fine. But almost half of the class would have to be dead in order for him to get to it! There’s no way for him to even start the puzzle at this point, because he wouldn’t know it existed! What a huge handicap!

......... Something.... he had.... since the beginning............. Hm. I’m drawing a blank. I don’t remember anything in particular that stands out....

My dead boy, that is an understatement.

AHAHAHA ABOUT THAT....

Now this makes me wonder if he is the only one repeating it or if anyone else is? Well, maybe the mastermind - but like, maybe everyone is repeating it, but only those who ‘won’ were able to have better memories, or were just able to retain the memories of the last game better than the others?

Or, hell, if I want to go along with my previous theory about downloading the memories of students, maybe... Rantaro can remember more about his real self? Or something? But everyone else can’t?

And if he’s really someone who won the previous one (along with one other person, I suppose), then he knows that for a fact.

???!?! Aaaah this part got cut off last time too - so it was actually cut off in the video, and not just in our flashback?!

“You’re also dead, which may make things a little bit more difficult, but I still believe in you!”

That at least I expected -

WHAT

OH GOD THERE ARE SO MANY LAYERS TO THIS

like the dramatic irony I’m sure the fandom has done to death, for example

What about the second person??? Is there a second Ultimate Survivor???? I guess there can’t be since everyone else knows their talents but -

wait, if you’re the Ultimate Survivor because you won a killing game, who were you in the last game????

Does this really give him an advantage though??? I guess the information would have been nice but I mean, it obviously didn’t do him much good because he got taken out so quickly!

Man this makes me wonder if Kokichi had any inkling of this...

jsyk since I have the screenshots side to side, his expression is different in this video compared to the last one

~ fun facts ~

Yeah, see, the ‘he wanted’ part is throwing me off. He participated, sure, and he didn’t say he wanted the original one, but he came back for round two and said he wanted it.... but why???? That implies there’s a purpose to it, and he was okay to gamble his own life - but also, as a person without his memories of this, he wanted to stop the game. If the chip he bet is his own life, the reward must be huge, right? He won these supposed perks for this game, but what did he win for his life outside the game? .... Assuming there is anything outside the game? Is there anything for him outside the game?

HIMIKO DON’T BE RUDE

Yeah, she didn’t know the identity of her target. 8′\ Also I’d be sad if it was Kaede in the end. Second also! I know that she ended up being the first chapter killer and I’m one of the people got taken by surprise by that, but we were in her head for that whole chapter! Her motive made sense - but for her to end up being the mastermind now? That wouldn’t make sense, based on what we know of her, memory shenanigans aside!

That would require the mastermind to have knowledge of Shuichi and Kaede’s plan then, right? So they would have had to draw Rantaro to the library somehow, so he would get caught in Kaede’s trap...

It... should be one of a kind, considering the circumstances...

Yeah I’m still wracking my brain and not coming up with anything there. Could it have to do with his necklace? It did make me think of that ‘soldier tag’ present, about remembering someone who they lost. That would be an incredibly appropriate, if not cruel, ‘survivor’s perk’ present for someone who survived a killing game.

Man are we going to get a new flashback for every place we investigate???

OH SHIT IT’S BACK

FLASHBACK LIGHT!!!

you can pry the flashback light animation from my cold dead hands

?!?!?!

Immediate thoughts - generic students. But, are they? Is there any chance that they look generic on the face of it, but are actually representative of people in the class? I don’t see anything that could be an immediate match (Korekiyo = masked guy, Kokichi = small guy with similarly shaped hair/short stature/face, Kaito = tall guy, maybe), and they seem to have different VAs - hell, is that Jounouchi (or for the proper DR character, Munakata)’s seiyuu?

...... or the guy with the sick mask could just be sick lmao

Ah, so this is from when the virus began to ravage the population...

That seems like an understatement 8′D But at least we know for sure when in the timeline this takes place! Shuichi doesn’t seem to know they’re going to be the only survivors yet, but they’ve already been presumably screened for the Gopher Project which means it is well under way.

Calm down Sigma Klim -

Shuichi hasn’t told them he swings both ways, huh.

OH GOD RIGHT IN THE KAITO

DO YOU GET IT YET SHUICHI, YOU ARE THEIR HOPE

Don’t mind me, just wanted to make sure Shuichi didn’t miss the cryptic message left for him in these memories -

Not only that, but these aren’t memories meant to act as a reward for completing a stage like the other ones or even one they found - this was literally forced on them. It’s supposed to be Monokuma’s weapon against them. So... similar to the motive from the last trial, it’s trying to make them take action...?

And it’s clearly working!

... Maybe it isn’t the necklace then. I mean, he was wearing it when he died right??? And his body is gone...

Oh man unless just like everyone else there were copies of it along with the rest of it in his room - except there are 15, one for all the participants for the last game or something -

It might be 50/50 right now??? There’s something screwy going on, I just don’t know what.

[mrlenes]

“Downworlder,” the demon breathed, and touched his long, spidery fingers to Simon’s cheek. “You must have had a heart that beat so strong in you, when it still beat.”

marlene mckinnon is nineteen years old and she is a member of the order of the phoenix. the pureblood is a former gryffindor and was from the class of 1978. she is a dragonologist and looks like maría gabriela de faría.

welp it’s 6:19 am why am i this way but hello it is jane again !! marlene is someone i’ve played a bunch, but it’s been a while since i’ve played with a different history, so i’m still ironing out a few kinks but i’m v v excited!! (also despite what the quote up there may imply, a) i do not like cassandra clare as a person and b) marlene isn’t a vampire fhkjsahjkasfkhj i just like the sentiment of it for her very much)

marls is the same age as the marauders & lily, but she’s a july kid so she’s still to have her birthday —- july 21, 1960 (cancer-leo cusp, and we’re going to pretend that her moon is in sagittarius and her rising is in aries (truthfully i have no idea what her moon & rising would be factually so we’re just... gonna direct the stars fhjksfdhj))

the cusp is excellent for her, because the warring nature of the two signs makes a mess, which is a good description of this lil miss! 

x: Cancer is a water sign ruled by the moon, and possesses cardinal traits. On the other hand, Leo is a fire sign ruled by the sun and possesses fixed traits. The sun is associated with masculine energy and is symbolic of daytime, while the moon is associated with the feminine energy and represents nighttime. Fire and water, sun and moon, sensitivity and fierceness, masculine and feminine energies... it all builds into marlene mckinnon, a girl built of empathy & war, with a penchant for night time & wild things

also re: her bday, she’s due to die the day before she turns 21 bc we love smiling

sibling death tw // ok!! marlene was the youngest of five for almost all of her life, but about 5 years ago, when she was in fifth year (i think), her parents adopted a four year old boy named wren, who’s now nine. she had four older siblings: johnny (29), tommy (27), lorraine (24), matthew (22). johnny was in gryffindor, order member, died (possibly saving marlene & someone else on a mission) ; the others are tentatively still alive, though they slowly get killed off during the war, until it’s just marlene & wren & her parents that fateful night at the mckinnon residence (july 20 1981) of Death™. // end death tw

POTENTIAL CONNECTION/WANTED CHARACTERS: i would absolutely love her siblings around, any of them. i’m semi-flexible abt the names & fully flexible abt when or how they die (if we’re following canon, my only request is that some die before the 20th of july and nobody survives after it) —- all of her older siblings are adopted. i was thinking tommy (& johnny) were taken in after tragedy struck their parents, who were either sibling or cousin to one of marls’ parents (chants: sean teale! sean teale!), but that’s just an idea. i’m rly open to anything, and i’m down for some to have been biologically full-siblings to marls (preferably matty or lorraine, though) if you have a fitting fc in mind, but otherwise!! i would love any of them, and while i do have some ideas (mostly broad strokes —- johnny as the guidance, lorraine as the beating heart), i’m genuinely just really keen to have any of them around and am super open to talking abt anything that you might want to change!!

ok back to marls

youngest of five for most of her life, now scored a kid brother whom she’d do anything for (she thinks) (she hasn’t exactly had to test it) and four elder siblings whom she loves completely and who were instrumental in how she grew up —- surrounded with love and people who protected her even as they challenged her. ( who’s that back there, trailing after tommy and lorraine —? little marlene mckinnon, tiny fists balled up as she marches behind them — where’s she gone now, the little rascal —? oh, up that tree, get down from there, no not by jumping merlin fuck — ) 

her siblings are all pretty different from each other & johnny was the only one in gryffindor and he’s a completely different kind of gryffindor than marls. whilst both had that same good heart at their core, johnny was noble and brave and an excellent leader, and marlene has always preferred being a second, being there to back someone up (she’s never been good at letting people go in alone) & was something impulsive and daring. between her siblings, she learned how to fight, how to trust, how to land and, possibly most importantly, how to fly

hogwarts shenanigans

marlene was a chaser at hogwarts, but she’s always been a slightly better flier than player. she’s never been particularly focused on getting goals —- her talent and interest was always in setting up the goals, in the daring of diving for the quaffle, in the speed and risk of rocketing across the pitch to get the quaffle to one of her teammates to score. she likes racing to get the quaffle, and setting it up, like the gameplay dynamics of the chasers working in tandem to get the quaffle down to the other end of the pitch. she’s always been fast, that’s the thing about marlene mckinnon: on the ground or in the air, she’s always been quicker than you can believe. quite possibly was the fastest player in the school, but that in no way translates to the best — her personal vote for that is james, though she acknowledges the skill of others such as gwenog jones, lucinda talkalot, ludo bagman and emma vanity for the one year she saw her play. a good player, she thinks, tends to be a little better-rounded, and not only has good instincts, but also good insight, and an ability to both strategise and to take direction. marlene’s flying is often characterised by the risks she’ll take — as well as her creative moves, like the mckinnon flash — and under leadership she disliked, it probably wouldn’t end as well. however, she trusted, respected and loved james, and she was very happy to have him as a captain. 

appalling at herbology and potions

like, awful

in second year, she once had a situation with these magical vines that attacked her, and that pretty much sums up her entire herbology career & then potions is terrible because of the fiasco that is her focus

she managed to scrape a high enough grade to get into it at newt level, thanks purely to her wonderful friends who managed to get her studying on track enough, but then she dropped it in seventh year — she’d kept at it because it’s necessary for a few career paths, and many of her friends, she knew, focused on it because it was a requirement for aurordom, but she had an inkling that aurordom would actually be a poor choice for her, especially given how little she trusted the ministry, and by the time she was starting seventh year, she had decided to drop it (despite her father being a member of the wizengamot & one of her brothers being involved somewhat in the ministry, the trust was.... not present fdshjsdfahjk)

on the other hand, she loved comc

comc, dada and charms were her three best subjects, and she was v good at all three of them

dragons!!! she spent her time in history of magic classes drawing up schematics about how they could obtain dragons, manticores and other xxxxx creatures

she quite liked history of magic, though it’s v selective bc she can only focus on the elements which interest her

she’s got a lot of thoughts on the treatment of lycanthropes by the wizarding society (they’re not positive thoughts lmao bc the treatment of werewolves and other part-humans is so terrible; she has a lot of thoughts about the registration system, and its initial purpose and what it’s used for now, and also beyond werewolves, the treatment of vampires and other part-humans) and she had them prior to her discovery of remus’ “furry little problem” but they’ve certainly not subsided since

general (this is all over the place i’m sorry)

empathetic and it can be a real problem for her honestly?

also, she’s not very good at letting go emotionally? she’s absolutely capable of caring about someone and not endorsing or forgiving them, but she tends to carry people around in her heart and under her skin forever and that’s an immensely difficult thing for her to try shake or even address

bad at processing emotions, like,,, so bad LMAO

she really needs to talk things through to make sense of her emotions but does she? not that often! a good example of this is when johnny died & she didn’t rly process it well bc she considered it her fault & therefore didn’t want to waste people’s time talking abt it which.... marlene pls

a v tactile & physical person, so she’s often shown affection that way (when people are okay with that) but also means that when she wants a distraction, she often craves physical connection (but also like, in hogwarts and stuff, before the war Really Hit her day-to-day life, kissing and sex and the like were just kind of... a fun and good natured end to some shenanigans & she never considered it more than that & it wasn’t even really a distraction, it was just... a natural evolution to some of her nights —- whereas now, sometimes it’s a v genuine distraction) —- sometimes that just looks like sitting w a friend in their kitchen in the quiet of the night, drinking until they can’t see the reflection of people they couldn’t save in each others’ eyes anymore, but sometimes it’s Touch. truly just being in people’s presence, particularly the presence of her friends & people she trusts, just... rly helps her 

really really good for a fun time though!! hit her up for shenanigans always

loves sugar quills, like so much,,, eats sugar quills like most people breathe

does Not Like cats or birds

diehard for her friends

she’s very much led by emotions, and when those are conflicting, it can be a situation — but she tries, and she has a good heart, and when it comes down to it, she’ll always do what she thinks is right, even if it can be a messy road to getting there

she laughs a lot, idk, she’s not rly one to back down from a fight but her general state of being is probably more quips and laughter

and going off above abt how she’s a pretty physical person — she just always has been, running around the grounds when she was younger, being so involved with quidditch when she was older, and things being tangible are really grounding for her? it’s also sort of how her reflexes work best — she can duel, absolutely, but she’s also pretty good in a physical fight

not v good at defensive or healing magic though so if any of her friends want to help her out w/ that, hmu!! esp if your character wants to get more proficient at physical fighting as well, marls is defs down to help w/ that! i’m hoping like... it’s been a year and a half, i would hope she’s better now at defensive and healing magic, but she’s still never going to be Great so that’s always connections fodder

after graduating, she went into magizoology!! she just... rly fucking loves magical creatures

her focus is on dragons

she lived.... somewhere after hogwarts, and then some time later (6-12 months ago) she and mary moved in w alice after frank and her split up

marlene’s empathetic & angry abt it

v good at shades of grey, not so good at black and white —- you know when harry and ron save draco from fiendfyre, and it’s like... harry insists they have to save them, and then ron punches draco in the face later? marlene is Both. she’ll try save you — risk herself to save you, even if you don’t deserve it — but she’ll be Mad abt it & happily deck you later ( she’s not exactly mad about saving people, or trying to, she’s more mad at herself for it some days )

joined the order straight out of hogwarts

sits on benches at 2am eating cake batter

rly good at making breakfast food, less good at proper food

she will come to ur flat / ur always welcome wherever she’s living to pop in at 2am after an order mission and she’ll make you french toast

night owl

wanted connections

just... quickly

hello mckids // siblings!! 27, 24 & 22 (can be order or not)

god help the girl // i would love someone to have been appalled at her defensive/healing magic skills (lack thereof, rly) and forced her to accept their help, which might have been in the past or still going! marlene is v happy to help w physical fighting in return

we don’t talk about fight club // marlene is actually a good teacher in some ways, bc she’s p good at connecting to people, so going off the last point: if you want some physical fight training or you just want something to spar/rail against, mar is available. also, less friendly, but if you’re someone she doesn’t like, she’s also available for an actual fight

fwf // you know porn without plot? this is fuck without feelings. or maybe fuck w friends! which sounds like a bad tv show but there u go. anyway! people she’s hooked up with at hogwarts as generally a laugh / good time, people she’s hooked up with post hogwarts as both that & as a distraction

learn to process bench // i would... rly dig someone (possibly someone her age but could be older, cant be younger) who was on the mission w/ her where her brother died bc heck maaaaaybe they got her to talk (or maybe they’re both bad at processing & they just. Look At Each Other and don’t talk lmao) // MARY MACDONALD.

feelings are too hard // fwf but........ with feelings that she hasn’t rly given a moment to think abt. possibly does still hook up with & resolutely ignores that feelings are there, possibly hooked up with once & never has again bc wow she is not examining that, or perhaps she’s never actually hooked up w them and managed to get complicated feelings that she won’t address (which... is a double problem if they have feelings for her) regardless! either way, it’s v possible she’s somewhat aware there’s Something going on in her chest but hasn’t addressed it so doesn’t Fully Know bc she’s a fucking idiot (and it’s equally possible she does know and is just... Ignoring It)

more to come!!

[photo-art-w21]

Interpreting Images: Visual “Meaning” or “Symbolism”.

Hi Class,

How can an image have meaning? Let’s consider some ways. To begin the weekend and most likely continuing to think about your photos for Monday, here are some words of motivation to hopefully inspire your explorations.    

Creating meaning and symbolism is something that we seem to learn to do in various ways over time, and this gives us a good reason to practice the forming of symbolism, or at least considering the possibilities of symbolism in what we see, if we choose to do so. (Or not. We don’t have to.)

(2018)

In class we talked about the potential meaning of photos and how to possibly interpret images. I say “possible” because I recognize that there are multiple ways to interpret images as opposed to just one way. I asked you for this next week to start thinking about the idea of objects and meaning. For your assignment, try to make 10 photos that have a symbolism or meaning to you. These photos can be of objects or scenes, or even people. Mainly just think about this as a concept and see how it affects your photos, but overall I’m more interested in you having fun or being inspired while shooting your photos. So, do what you need to do to keep your head in that spirit of things. Don’t get too bogged down with this concept if you have no interest in it.  We’ll take a look on Monday.

Now let me speak some more about this concept and hopefully it will serve to motivate you to experiment with the idea. I’m about to get a little heady so bear with me...    

Maybe you remember the image below that I showed in class that I had made in 2007. The title in this photo does a lot to reveal some kind of potential meaning behind these things rather than just being empty objects, even though they could be. It really depends on how we choose to see them. The title implies a context that helps our imagination to think about the history of these objects more. We might start to relate to the image not by relating to the object but by relating to what they mean to someone else, the person who might have owned the objects. Simply understanding that they are significant objects to someone else might be enough.

(Dad's Work Boots on Swedish Horses and Joni. St. Paul, MN 2007)

While out photographing once in 2007, working on a photo project about some apartment buildings in Minneapolis, I met a woman named Linda who said that I could photograph her apartment. Without knowing anything specific, I noticed this stack of objects that just seemed like it had some kind of significance. I asked Linda if I could photograph the objects. She answered, you must be an artist. I think I smiled and didn’t know how to answer. She said, “I respect that.” She then told me about the objects but just to the point of describing them by name only, not going very much into the back story of each object. Her description was brief, mainly just as the title ended up:, “Those are my Dad's work boots, I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and that’s barn paint on his boots. I’m Swedish and involved in the Swedish heritage center. These are Swedish horses I used for something, and oh,.. Joni. with a sigh.” (a Joni Mitchell record cover). Even though she didn’t go into great detail, the way that she said what the objects were communicated that they were significant objects to her. Without knowing the back story, this is an example of an image where the meaning is mostly unknown to the viewer in terms of specific stories known only to Linda. However it’s still somewhat universal to understand that these object could be meaningful in general to someone. Thinking about the image and knowing that they are hers, I notice that my mind starts to imagine Linda in earlier points of her life, living within the significant moments of these objects. 

Sometimes we may not need a full story about a photo to form a sense of meaning. A few words or a title can often serve to lead us in a direction of thinking though.

(I wish that summer would last a little longer) September 2019

It seems that imagination is a key component involved in what we’re discussing. As we start to think more about the meaning of images and creating meaning ourselves, it seems like an interesting approach to explore would be to think about it in a less intimidating way by thinking in terms of “symbolism” rather than “meaning”. The two concepts are related but I believe “symbolism” is a little less lofty of a word or concept, at least to serve as a starting point. It seems to me that “symbolism” and “metaphor” are things that exist because of our willingness to allow for our imagination to be active, because “symbolism” or “meaning” usually involves the evocation of something that is not directly present in what we are seeing with our eyes. 

Symbolism is more related to what we see in our mind, that has been triggered or associated by initially seeing a referential object with our eyes. 

(October 2017)

In the photo above, you see the imprint of the leaf on the concrete but does it make you think about the actual leaf, a tree, or even just the changing of a season, the movement of time, the cycle of life?

Because our mind can follow tangents down infinite roads of thought, what we see with our eyes and what that reminds us of or represents doesn’t have to be obviously known by others, but the more we practice the skill of interpreting images with others the more common our understandings become and start to align or become more universal. We can come to a more common visual literacy together over time with practice and exposure to this idea together in conversation. 

(Andreas Gursky, Bahrain I, 2005)

It can be pretty confusing to try and dissect how meaning or symbolism through images actually works, and less fun to over-analyze it, but it’s interesting to at least consider the mechanics of what is possibly at work for at least a moment. Imagination is something that is probably working all of the time, allowing us to envision what we might do next in the day without having to actually be doing it, which basically lets us set tasks, plan, and make schedules for ourselves. So in this way it seems that imagination could be tied to our logic systems in general and we have the ability to use imagination for different purposes. We can use imagination in very practical and functional ways and it seems that we might also use our imagination to activate or acknowledge our emotions or have empathy for others.  

(Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954)

If we are thinking of imagination in terms of being something active and also passive, meaning that we can both choose to be open to it, running along with it, letting it guide our thinking, and yet also have imagination constantly working involuntarily like when we unconsciously breath air, it seems to leave a lot of room for interpreting how symbolism or meaning is actually operating in our lives. 

(Image by Lucas Zimmerman)

It seems that either way, “meaning” and “symbolism” are based on the building of knowledge and personal reference, built up through the experience of living our lives. We agree by a certain age that a green traffic light symbolizes that it is safe to go, and a red light symbolizes that we are supposed to stop. We learned that symbolism. Who first created this symbolism? This is one way that we create meaning even though it is not a particularly deeply sentimental form of meaning. What do you think about these theories?

I’ve just described symbolism in a very technical way in terms of how it might work as a process. To talk about it more simply, “symbolism” or “meaning” is something that you think of personally, naturally, and surely already do by your own nature. You just might not directly think about it or acknowledge it in those terms. 

An example of sentimental or personal meaning in an image that I can share is with this photo I have of my Mom that is probably the most meaningful photo I own. It has always been this way and I never had to decide that it was going to be meaningful. It just immediately was this way. But even so, I kind of did make a decision that it would be meaningful to me at some point when I saw it and I think it has become more meaningful to me over time.

In the photo she is probably 10 or 11 years of age. It’s a black and white photo. She’s is being photographed in a very soft light against a dark background and is staring right into the camera, as if she was asked to do so. I imagine that my grandfather, her father, took the photo. Who else would she look at with such trust and openness at that age? I believe my grandmother is slightly in the photo just out of frame to the left. The photo has a finger print that appears on the top left corner of the photo and I imagine this to be either of my grandparent’s accidental fingerprint, now permanently part of the image. The back of the photo says May 3rd, 1959, written in a handwriting that is probably my Grandmother’s.

This is a very special photo to me for a number of reasons that relate to being sentimental but I think there’s also a universal meaning or understanding of why it might be meaningful to me. I think you all could relate to it being meaningful to me even if you don’t know specifically why. It’s in this way that I think empathy is related to meaning. The viewer doesn’t need to know the entire specific story or all of the facts of an image to allow the image to be meaningful. In this way, it could be that an image is an open door to meaning waiting to be walked through if it draws the viewer in to do so. 

Think about your approaches to meaning in as open of a way as you want to. What is meaning when related to an image? 

(Minor White, Beginnings: Frosted Window, Rochester NY, 1962)

Less sentimental interpretations of meaning exist and its totally acceptable to approach it more visually open and undefined. For example, in class I used Elizabeth’s photo of the wet street and puddle as an example to explore my imagination through what I thought might be a common reading of the image. I thought that even though it was a wet road, it reminded me of a outer space and stars, and it seemed like others had a similar reaction. It then made me think of pushing that idea forward by finding a photo of the moon to be paired with it, making the symbolism of space more obvious even though it was probably not intended when Elizabeth made the photo. (photo below by: Elizabeth Blue, your classmate.)

This approach is an example of applying symbolism to images that are possibly less sentimental than the previous example of my Mom’s photo, or the photo of Linda’s items shown earlier. You could almost say that it is more of a visual association rather than meaning but it certainly could be meaningful to someone under the right view.

Finally, after all of this, just think about how the images that you make might be meaningful or symbolic to you, even if only after you’ve taken them, and be as open with the interpretation as you want to be. There are no real rules or expectations other than to think about it. Be as loose with the terms as you wish. Again, try not to get too bogged down by thinking you have to be very serious or dramatic with this. Alternatively, you can be simple and humorous if that’s how you see it. Remember the cat food cans on the watermelon photo that I showed in class? That is humorous I would say. It would seem that humor alone is just as meaningful as heavier topics might be meaningful. If you think about it, anything has the potential to be significant or hold meaning if you choose to acknowledge it in that way, either before or after the present moment. (Gabriel Orozco, Cats and Watermelons, 1992)

Finally, it is perfectly fine to take a photo without knowing if it means anything or not. Don’t let this conversation about meaning intimidate you out of the natural impulse to just shoot a photo when it feels right. It's ok if you don’t have a meaning for it. You might discover it later, or never at all. It's totally fine either way. Meaning is fluid.

(Alec Soth, Falls 26, 2005)

I just wanted to get your brains thinking. Overall, just make 10 photos of any kind and try to make them interesting. That is the main goal.

Have fun,

Phillip

[fyrapartnersearch]

So it is written

Hello and good day.

This will be probably my last post on FYRA for a longer period of time. But I hope to find at least one who would share my interest. Anyways back with a new request! This one will be more specific as it only targets one certain fandom. I have had plenty of amazing original roleplays in the past, but now my desire is slowly favoring canon universes once again. It makes character building (in my opinion) also a greater challenge which I also quite enjoy to be honest. I have a strong penchant for including original characters and ideas that can be added to the pre-existing plot. Also very happy to expand on the given worlds and open to AU’s. Okay so I am a really big nerd when it comes to the supernatural, mysterious, urban myth and fantasy. Love combining those given elements with organized crime, complex characters, cataclysmic events and dark schemes that all unravels as time goes on. 

Just so you know, a little about me.

You must be at least 18+ of age when you want to start original roleplay with this gal here. As I am in my twenties, I prefer maturer partners. I accept anyone, regardless if they are male or female. What I expect is a decent (if not very good) grasp on grammar, the ability and will to write creatively, shoulder a great part of the plotting and responsibility as well as passion for roleplaying. Of course this should be seen as a fun hobby but I really like to invest… I wish for my partner / friend to take equal initiative. 
 Here are my cravings and guidelines! Even though they are only limited to a few, I made sure to filter out the ones I know I wouldn’t role-play anytime soon. So if you are interested in something I didn't mention here, I am afraid I have to decline. Sorry. 

Btw, call me Gil ;) 
 The roleplay I have been wanting to do for such a long time is none other than Devil May Cry. 
Replaying the game brought back some really good and nostalgic feels - but the latest game one was one of the best in my opinion. Such creativity, especially with urban mythology, monsters and other interesting elements. Hence why this game is right up my alley and one of my favourites of all time. If this does not interest you as much, I am also keen on roleplaying Castlevania or next gen Harry Potter! But my main interest still remains with DMC, just so you know. :) 
What it entails:


Alright, so you are writing with some of mature age. I have 11 years of writing experience when it comes to the game. This will be a fair warning that this request is not for the faint of heart. There will be violence, swearing, gore, intimate scenes, uncomfortable subjects, drama, conflict and other dark themes included within the story. I have few limits but I will respect the boundaries of my partner, so do not shy away from telling me. Just so you know, I won’t fade to black or skip out on the nitty gritty. Go big or go home. Interests: My line of interests are very dynamic when it comes to genres. I love conceiving my own lore inside a stories, be it an original or a pre-existing story. Gothic fantasy among others are one of my favourites. I am not opposed to tapping into some science fiction, action, romance, crime, action or thriller genres, in fact I encourage it. Inspirations for me are Lovecraft, Hellsing, Blade, Underworld, etc. As for the fandom inspired RPs, I am more than willing to bend some rules and be a little indulgent. Writing: 3rd person perspective. My writing is wide-ranging and flexible, which means that frequently, word count will go up 1000+ per reply - though it highly depends on the given situation and partner. Quality over quantity as they say - but why not both? I love detail in description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. My partner should have a basic grasp on grammar, punctuation and somewhat of an interest in knowledgeable writing. I also double! (preferably, but we can always discuss whether it makes sense for our roleplay our not.) World building and sharing the burden: You should be active and help me shape the world around our characters. Even if we discuss many things during and before the roleplay, how we wish for things to play out and take its course, I am always happy to be surprised with a secret of my partner’s character I didn’t know before. You don’t need to lay out all your cards on the table… keep it a little mysterious and suspenseful. Just enough so we can work with the ideas, but not completely kill off the suspense. Characters: I write canon as well as OC characters. Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely sufficient. Whatever floats your boat when it comes to visualising your character and their backstory, I’m on board. Characters should be written as opulent, flawed, unique, talented, heroic, villainous, spiteful, angry, and everything in-between figures. In other words, don’t be scared of making them ‘human’, even when they are non-human. Romance: Openly play and accept characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might be more adept with this one. If the chemistry of two characters compel me, I will ship them no matter what! When it comes to sexual scenarios and intimacy (intercourse, foreplay, all that jazz). I encourage eroticism, but always in a tasteful, sensual manner (that goes for romance as well). The passion must be felt through the screen, even if it’s just a mere description of someone’s deep train of thought. Content: Drama, violence, sex, metamorphosis, symbolism, action, romance, pretty much everything is a-okay. I am unbothered by certain subjects that may or may not be uncomfortable for the general public. Roleplays are fictional stories and we best keep viewing them as such. If there are things you are uncomfortable with, name them and I shall respect those boundaries. But don’t be surprised when suddenly one of our characters bites the dust, or gets tortured. It may be difficult to write and read, but it is all part of the story and furthering the plot. My roleplays imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical torture as well as other things. But I also endorse beauty, serenity and placid moments, scenes or characters. I love it when it comes full circle… everyone- and everything has a beautiful and hideous side. Both should be embraced like Yin and Yang. Communication and friendship: OOC-chat friendly! I love meeting new people and making friends. Plus it strengthens the compatibility between us. Communication is the alpha and the omega. If there is anything that bothers you, or if you think you are left out in some way (be it a mistake on my part or we’re both at fault here), don’t be scared to tell me. Really, it won’t be taken personally - since I know that we slip up every now and then, we’re only human after all. It is also completely sufficient if you only type out a few messages per week. I am super chill about it. It doesn’t bother me re-writing a scene to fit the narrative more. If there are mistakes, they can be corrected - just to get that out there. We can always exchange opinions and see what would benefit the story most. I will also voice my opinion should something arise that could be bothersome. Partnership: An active roleplayer is wanted without a doubt. Can’t do the thinking for two now. Let’s row this boat together Limits: Subject matters I avoid are pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia, vore, scat, furries and various other bizarre fetishes. Also no one-liners or text-talk messages. The sentences have to be cohesive, coherent and decently structured. 
 
Now a little more information about myself.

I live in CET central Europe. My response rate varies throughout the weeks, depending on my schedule. 
I study at a university full time and work a job on the side and both are keeping me fairly busy. My writing will increase most likely during the weekends. If I should hit a hiatus, I will let you know as soon as possible. I understand when you are busy as well and won’t be able to respond, though I prefer if my partner does not ghost me. At least let me know what’s going on so I can adjust and put the roleplay on hold if needed! 
Mediums I roleplay on are email and googledocs. Though I also have Discord in case for OOC chat! 

I prefer if my partner messages me first on email, giving me a brief description of themselves, their cravings as well as ideas. That way I can see if we’re compatible and if it bears any potential. 

Message me here: EMAIL: gilgameshmercury@gmail.com Hope to hear from you soon! Lots of love!





Yours sincerely,

-Gil

[lcveball]

Go Yuuri Go!!! staff comments

Translated by the amazing aki_the_geek on Twitter!

Please visit her account for more!

Katsuki Yuuri

Yamamoto: Many of YoI's skaters were inspired by real-life people, and Yuuri is no exception. In Yuuri's case, I've heard about someone who is usually timid, lacks confidence and believes to be mentally weak, but once he steps on ice, turns into a competitive skater who wants the audience, the judges, and the viewers from all over the world to   look only at them. I found it to be a really interesting mentality and that's where I got my idea for Yuuri from. This Yuuri stands at the edge of the proverbial cliff - and then changes through his meeting with his hero and rival, Viktor. Thanks to this meeting, Yuuri himself starts reaching for more and more, grows stronger. I find relationships with labels like "lovers" or "family" to be stifling, so I came up with these two characters that are not bound by names like that, who hold each other dear and who share a bond that would be difficult to replace. As a skater Yuuri has an individual sense of rhythm, his steps his unique weapon, but even on a solid ground, he's a great dancer. When he was young, Minako-sensei taught Yuuri the basics of ballet, and, as Viktor praises him highly, his skating feels like he is creating music with his body - it moves into dance on its own as he charms his audience.

Kubo: Yuuri is the kinda type of a glass-wearing character I draw often. (laughs) Many skaters have bad eyesight, and Yuuri too skates without his glasses. I though people would love the narrow-eyed, uneasy face he makes when trying to read his score, so I added that element, too. I aimed for a design that would be easy for Hiramatsu to draw, so instead of deciding every detail, I drew a base that would later spring to life under Hiramatsu's hands. "Change" is an important aspect of Yuuri, so I gave him a seemingly ordinary appearance instead of making an easy-to-get pretty boy. Yuuri is slightly taller than a typical Japanese person - that's because both the director and I are around 165-170cm, and we though it'd be nice if he was taller than us. Yuuri's eyebrows are in a  slanted ハ shape, but turn sharp when he competes. Things that are easier to explain via animation, like Yuuri's hair growing longer as the show progresses, are also present.

Hiramatsu: I made sure he looks different during his chubby and slim phases. His best body shape would be right after "Onsen on Ice". We based Yuuri on a typical Japanese body: he doesn't have long legs, wide shoulders or a spectacular butt, but going with Kubo's drawings, I gave him long arms and bony hands. Yuuri grows about 10cm taller when he dons his skating shoes, which makes his legs look longer. Yuuri's Japanese silhouette was influenced by Yasuhiko's style, who was in charge of many of his scenes.

Viktor Nikiforov

Yamamoto: I think, surprisingly, there are many people like Viktor in the skating world (laughs). Viktor doesn't care about what people around him think of him, he thinks it’s obvious that he is the center of all the attention. Viktor acts as he pleases and through it, he believes he brings joy to others. I love it when characters like him appear out of the blue. In this case, Yuuri is the cause of Viktor's sudden appearance. Yuuri barged into Viktor's world that he closed himself in without noticing, believing he has to create all the new surprises. Yuuri offered Viktor a possibility he hadn't thought about - becoming someone's coach. Unconsciously, Viktor is lonely, without anyone of similar circumstances, without anyone he could empathize together with. Viktor didn't yearn for someone to understand him; he didn't see it as a problem, but also didn't realize how lonely he was. Yuuri is not the only one who became stronger by experiencing love - through Yuuri, Viktor learned new feelings and grew stronger.

Kubo: I challenged myself to create a character everyone would look at and find handsome, moreso than in my previous works. Viktor's hair is silver, with some lighter streaks. At first I also thought about giving him a hair that looks silver, but once you see it from up close, turns out to be blond hair with many streaks of white hair. However, I couldn't find enough information on how white hair grows on blondes so I gave up (laughs). Thinking of balancing his height with Yuuri's when they stand next to each other, I made Viktor slightly taller. I wanted Viktor's face to be recognizable in gag scenes and so gave him a heart-shaped mouth. This is something straight out of the shojo manga era of "Tokimeki Tonight" or "Ohayo! Spank" (laughs). I wanted there to be something unexpected in contrast to Viktor's usual handsomeness. That aspect of him where he worries about his receding hairline, you know, where it goes slightly above the sweet spot? I wanted the viewers to watch it with a beating heart and confuse that feeling with falling in love. A suspension bridge effect. (haha) I took heaps of inspiration for Viktor's sexiness from Stephane Lambiel.

Hiramatsu: I paid attention to the flow and quality of his hair - and same goes for Yurio. Viktor's eyebrows are straight, rarely ever turn into a mountain-like shape. Viktor's posture is beautiful and adds to his brilliance; he sports a magnificent butt and long limbs. Viktor has a confidence of an adult, but as someone still in his 20s, he can be quite childish. Viktor's heart-shaped mouth was there in Kubo's storyboards, which influenced the staff to emphasize that in the show.

Yuri Plisetsky

Yamamoto: Russia is a country where skating can change your life - the country supports its strong skaters. When I learned that some families bet on their children or grandchildren becoming famous and make them learn skating  I thought there must be many children with unrelenting spirit and a will to climb up - and created a deformed version of that in a form of a Russian badboy. Yurio has many lines with swears, but there's one in ep 10 that angered Viktor when Yurio implied he is now looking after a "pig". This line goes back to my 20s - whenever I saw a pair wearing matching rings I'd think, "A pair of pigs tied with rings" (laughs). When I mentioned it to Kubo, she was like "Pigs! That's good!" and we decided to put it in. Yurio is the only one with a potty mouth in the series, so coming up with his bad boy lines was fun. Many growing skaters probably understand what Yurio said when he mentioned his time in his current body grows short. Girls change a lot during that period, but boys too have their muscles grow - it's a big burden on the body that makes it impossible to perform some moves. We tried to put as many things that Yurio can only do now as we could into the show.

Kubo: There are many elements to Yurio's design that make him popular, such as blond hair and blue eyes. He really does stand out. Looks-wise Yurio is probably most similar to Rabi from Madō King Granzort. To quote the director, there are many elements from different skaters in Yurio. The base inspiration was Yulia Lipnitskaya. When I saw her at the rink, I realized there are many different kinds of skaters and that a more mischievous character could work too. Yurio's visuals were decided on early, earlier than Yuuri's, as he is very anime-like, easy to animate. As story progresses, Yurio's hair grows longer. I wanted to express how, when you haven't seen him for a while, Yurio grows more and  more beautiful. Is it Lilia who styles his hair, or is it Yurio himself?

Hiramatsu: Half of his face is covered with hair, which strengthens his expressions. It was fun to give emotions to that slightly visible eye. Yurio's body is slim, girlish, with long limbs and not much muscle. I draw him as I would draw a girl. His looks were heavily influenced by Tatenaka's style, who was in charge of many scenes as well as the skating of our model Honoka Kawanishi. Yurio has a potential to grow, outgrowing Yuuri and reaching 180cm or so.

Christophe Giacometti

Yamamoto: I wanted to create a character who would share popularity with Viktor, a character overflowing with masculine charm. I wanted Chris to have this showy sexiness in him like an ice dancer, so he's one of the taller single skaters in the series. It was so difficult to show a sexy man type of a character, as there aren't many visual symbols associated with it. I am hoping to one day establish a new frontier of male sexiness.

Hiramatsu: Chris has a sturdy body, and the most emphasized butt in the whole series. I poured all of my drawing skills into that scene where Chris grabs and lifts his butt while skating. (laughs) Until halfway both his arms and butt are raised, and then arms go up, butt goes down, which is how I showed the butt's bounciness.

Phichit Chulanont

Yamamoto: Yuuri is friends with Phichit because even if Yuuri doesn't go to him, Phichit will come to Yuuri on his own. Yuuri doesn't have to be suspicious of Phichit's motives and he doesn't show customary concern over him like Japanese people do which in turn is less stressful for Yuuri.

Jean-Jacques Leroy

Yamamoto: I created JJ because I wanted a character type that falls into a "mentally a musclehead" category. JJ entered Toronto University as a top student, off season participates in charity activities. His girlfriend is his HS classmate, but as a devout Christian, premarital sex is a no-no - they're in a pure relationship. He often says JJ this, JJ that in conversations and in general only talks about himself. Even if he nods with understanding as someone speaks, he soon butts in and changes the topic to himself. JJ talked to Otabek in ep10 because he found it sad that his old rinkmate was alone - couldn't leave him out of kindness of his heart. Even when people find him overbearing, JJ believes he is doing a good deed, so it doesn't bother him.

Hiramatsu: JJ could be considered a good catch if he just shut up. (laughs)

Otabek Altin

Yamamoto: First, I wanted a Kazakh skater to be a dark horse of the GPF and that's how Otabek was born. There are many Russians in Kazakhstan and Russian is the official language so I thought Otabek could easily be friends with Yurio. Some Kazakh skaters are known to train in Russia, so the bit where Otabek participated in Yakov's camp and became fascinated with Yurio came to me naturally. We created many qualities that Yurio finds cool in Otabek outside of skating  - such as riding a bike and DJing. 

Lee Seunggil

Yamamoto: All Seung-Gil does is training, and has no interest in things beyond skating. To create a contrast with his personality, for his SP, I went with a passionate mambo. The idea to have him count his score as he skates during competition came from Kubo.

Hiramatsu: Because of his personality, I always draw him alone in the back of group images, but he still looks into the camera. (laughs)

Michele Crispino

Yamamoto: To protect his sis, Michele tries to be threatening to scare off others. This doesn't work on Emil, so they're on good terms. 

Kubo: As an Italian who cares about appearance, I made him look like he visits a hairdresser once every two weeks. But I also wanted to add something non-Italian to him, hence the pretty dark personality.

Hiramatsu: Michele also would be a good catch if he shut up.

Emil Nekola

Yamamoto: Emil is rarely scared and there is nothing two-faced about his personality; he doesn't feel too down when he makes mistakes which means he can still grow and become strong.

Kubo: I googled "Czech, male" and based Emil on one of the first pictures I found. At the beginning Yamamoto was talking about making Emil the most handsome out of the European skaters, but I completely forgot. (haha)

[graciecatfamilyband]

To the reviewer of Just A Little of that Human Touch on AO3 who wrote:

YES YES YES to your portrayal of Alderaan as a liberal feminist society with sex education and Leia being a crusader of that! THIS feels real. THIS feels like the kind of society Breha Organa and Leia by extension would have cultivated. 

I already thanked you for your review, but I wanted to add (and the comment box on AO3 didn’t feel like it was the right place to do so)-

A lot of time we fanfic authors borrow from Earth and its history as we conceptualize societies in the GFFA. There's a lot of fun royal customs that people like to explore in relation to Alderaan. A lot of us grew up reading about the British monarchy and other European monarchies (what can I say, a lot of us are nerds! Raise your hands if you read those Royal Diaries books growing up? Other historical fiction dealing with this stuff? How many we got in the house?), and that seems to have inspired a lot of Alderaanian customs in fic, which is cool!  

Personally I'm interested in how Alderaan as a matriarchal planet with at least a traditionally female power structure (although I like headcanons that Alderaan moved long ago towards a real gender equality model rather than actually denying men opportunities, including to rule!) might differ from a lot of the patriarchal monarchies in our Western history. Virginity and female-centered sexual purity focus makes a lot more sense when the heir of the throne needs to be related to the King (and the heir of any given family needs to be related to the father); much less so when traditionally the heir needs to be related to the Queen (and the heir of any given family related to the mother- if Alderaan even has such a concept of family heirs!). And then of course with Leia's open adoption (in the sense that the people know about it- and I think they must because she is not the same ethnicity as her parents, although I've seen some takes on it where its like an open/fake secret that work well), that seems to indicate modern-day Alderaan may not give an F about biological lineage anyway. Which I think also says some things about the society and how it views sex and reproduction. 

That, combined with our knowledge of Alderaan as a place that puts such a high degree of value on education (and a good sexual education is an important part of ensuring people have access to all those other kinds of higher education, as babies too early really can make that so much harder) as well as the value the society places on art and, in my head canon at least, the well-being of children (parents having children too early is also associated with very poor outcomes for children; parents having unstable or abusive relationships also is associated with very poor outcomes for children)- well, it just makes sense to me that Alderaan would care deeply about good sexual education that involves, as Leia said, not just contraception but things like healthy relationship skills. Important elements that are too often left out of a discussion of practices that take place in the context of relationships! 

So yes, I agree that this approach seems to fit Bail and Breha’s personalities well (and Leia’s for that matter!), but also think that this is the kind of society that likely shaped those personalities, you know? 

And of course Leia never shies away from pushing envelopes galaxy-wide, and supporting such an organization would (hopefully- although fascist regimes get weird about this sort of thing!) be a way for her to advocate for something she believes in that is valuable, and, while pushing the envelope, actually do-able (as opposed to openly advocating for overthrowing the Empire).

I received an anon message about how I was ruining Star Wars and Star Wars fanfiction with my naked sociopolitical agenda, and how its absurd to apply Earth morality to Star Wars in- any? such a?- way. At the time I didn’t want to post it, but it seems relevant to mention here. Honestly, what “hurts”- other than the fact that someone felt the need to go out of their way to share this opinion with me without signing their name- is that it implies I have no “legitimate” thought process behind this choice for the story. I believe that I have sound reasons why I think Alderaan was this way. Sure, it’s in line with my own points of view- but that’s in part because I think Alderaan is intended by George Lucas to be a beacon of democratic values under a repressive regime, and a symbol of all that is nurturing in the Galaxy, and to me that fits with these ideas. Other people may disagree with my interpretation of Alderaan, as well as how democratic values and a value placed on life would translate into sexual mores. Other people do disagree, and write it differently! That’s fine. But I don’t feel that I’m drawing it out of nowhere. And as usual, this is only a critique when the Earth morality we’re drawing from is “progressive”- no one feels the need to go into the inbox of authors who wrIte about Alderaanian courtiers planning to check Leia’s hymen before her wedding night to tell them not to project specific Earth cultural practices onto the GFFA.  Their incorporation of Earth history is seen as well thought-out, valuable, and detailed world-building; mine is considered a cheap trick. 

And no one should go bother those writers either! Their stories have something to offer, just as I believe mine does. (And I know fanfiction is free, amateur authors, blah blah blah- but honestly, fanfiction being free isn’t the primary reason to behave supportively and decently toward people who make themselves available on the internet. Sure, you can post a negative review of Claudia Gray’s books on your own blog- and sure, you really should not do that with fanfiction, because its unnecessarily mean for people who hare having fun in their free time and doing what’s meaningful to them- but its still rude to go to Claudia Gray directly and tell her she’s ruining Han and Leia, or Star Wars, or how much you hated her stuff! Direct-to-author contact should always be polite, whatever the context.) I believe strongly that everyone should be able to bring whats interesting and meaningful to them to the stories they want to tell in fanfiction, and I personally think there should be room for both approaches!

From my perspective, there has been a lot of handwringing lately about fanfic being ruined by “overly political” agendas and about authors (mis?)using Han and Leia to work out “ideas about female empowerment.” (Although perhaps that perspective is colored by the anon message!) I’d be lying if I said that didn’t dull my enthusiasm about writing Han and Leia, period- no matter how light or fluffy or smutty or “divorced from real-life”. Because even if my past pieces are not considered to fall into that category, that atmosphere makes me feel stifled, like I’m no longer writing for me but like I’m writing to prove that I am still valuable in this community by coloring in the right lines. So while the entire bones of the story were written in August, as I “colored it in”, it did come to include more sociopolitical elements than I originally conceived of it having. I only did so in ways, however, that I felt enhanced the human story at the core, rather than took away from it. They came to me naturally, organically, as the story unfolded, rather than me sitting back and trying to find places to jam them in. Another kind reviewer whose words are etched in my heart noted that “it's all the details that really make it, that tell the story,” and while she was referring to things like body language, I like to think that these details were no less a part of that, and added to rather than drew from the story. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have included them. People may of disagree about whether or not I succeeded, and its possible that my own skill deficit was part of that! But, while I may have failed, I don’t like the idea that they couldn’t have been included in such a story in a way that was relevant. 

I do affectionately like to think of this- even if I am being somewhat tongue-in-cheek/ironic- as my “political screed” fic, because a) I recognized upfront that I was powerless to stop it from being taken that way, even if I took out every possibly “political” element, simply because it involved Leia having previous partners; b) it’s as “political” as I think I’m capable of getting, which is to say (to me)- not very!  its a story about the characters above everything, so it gave me a chuckle to call it political; c) it was a way to prepare myself for a comment like the one I received, which I thought was probably inevitable; and d) it was my way of proving to myself that I did not need to live in fear of writing a “wrong” fic and being tossed out on my ass. I can continue to write whatever is meaningful to me and take whatever response I get. If many people don't want to read it but are still down to read my other stuff, that’s great! If some people don’t want a voice like mine around at all, its better that I know that now rather than worrying about it for the next eight months before finally gathering the courage to publish a prompt I promised to write for a friend, and having my heart broken all over again after spending a lot of time and energy mending it.

And honestly, the overall response has just been so heartening. So many people have recognized it as fundamentally a story about Han and Leia connecting with each other and it just warms me to my toes to hear that it resonated. The recipient who it was for was thrilled to see some of her own headcanons included too, so I feel like I’ve done my job and gained a meaningful writing experience (that prompt- “and we never talked after that”- was really hard to right a nice, hopeful Han/Leia story for!).

So thanks, dear reviewer(s), and I hope I added something interesting to your comments about Alderaan!  💚💙💚💙