#this is very not researched well i do not remember the contents of other theory posts on the subject

[rencatuive]

What's your favourite drdt theory? :0

Doesn't have to one you consider to be canon, just one you out like :)

(sorry if this doesn't make sense)

The time travel stuff is what intrigues me the most. It's so disconnected to what we know of the DRDTverse, which right now is maybe the canon danganronpaverse, which apart from the luck stuff is pretty grounded in terms of magic. But then again, luck stuff *is* real so maybe timelooping isn't far fetched.

If it weren't for the 'Teacher' mention, with altdrdt literally being about a man who was trying to become the "perfect teacher", I'd speculate that maybe the text could be an in-universe fictional text, an excerpt of "Forever Dead", since that is, at least, meant to be connected with how they line up storywise. Maybe that text is meant to parallel the real events in the killing game, with it's themes of repetition and televisation, somehow. I don't really believe it, just throwing ideas out there. We've got years to go, after all

As of right now, I suppose it could be an altdrdt related thing, which means maybe altdrdt will be at least a mentioned plot point in the future? Maybe that's the time looping one and drdt is somehow meant to be a recreation of it??

It's all very fun to think about but in the end yeah no i have no concrete ideas. Would love to hear other peoples though!!

[crazy-pages]

I'm going to throw my two cents in to the conversation about why James Somerton didn't get caught earlier. Part of the answer is of course that he did get caught, he just bullied and lied to get away with it for a while, but I know a lot of people still express confusion. And of course he went out of his way to make sure his audience didn't know about other queer history sources other than himself. But still. How could he have so many viewers of his videos and none of them had seen X source material?

Well. To be blunt, most of his videos were pretty basic. He tended to copy the highlights of what he was plagiarizing, not the really advanced stuff. And insofar as he copied the advanced stuff, he had a tendency to chop it up and serve it out of context alongside other plagiarized work. The material he was presenting was revolutionary to an audience unfamiliar with queer history, but like. I'm guessing 'Disney villains are queer coded' is not exactly a new concept to the kind of people who read multiple books about queer coding in film.

Now I'm not a film studies person, I'm a physicist. But you know what I do when I get a video in my YouTube recommendations about some fairly basic physics concept?

I skip it. No shade to the creator, but like. I hit that topic a decade ago and I've added literally thousands of hours of studying and research to my brain since. I'm just going to give it a pass, all right?

These kinds of videos self-select for an audience which isn't going to be familiar with the source material. The people who know it are unlikely to keep listening after the first minute or so.

And you've got to remember how much of this content the experts have consumed! With very few exceptions for weird little things that stuck in my head after all these years, I would probably not notice a physics explanation plagiarized from one of my textbooks! Not because I wasn't intimately acquainted with the textbook, but because I was intimately acquainted with many such textbooks. Spend enough time learning this stuff and it all blurs together a little bit. Does this explanation sound familiar because you've heard it before, or because you've just read books which cover this specific topic seven different times? And does that wording or that example ring a bell because it's plagiarized, or because it's common to the field?

Catching this kind of plagiarism requires having the kind of people who are already familiar with these sources, and therefore uninterested in video summaries on the topic, to watch the video. And among those people who do, it requires them to match Somerton's words to one specific source on the topic out of many, that they probably read quite some time ago. And then you have the filter of how many of those subject matter experts have the source on hand to check, to turn a vague "...hmm" into something solid.

If you know enough about queer history to say that some of his plagiarism was obvious, now that you've watched the video, then you should remember that there is a reason you probably weren't one of the people watching his videos! And because YouTube promotes videos through algorithmic engagement, none of this stuff has to pass the sniff test for any other expert in the field before it gets released. No experts have to like it for it to get published or for it to get good reviews or for it to get a recommendation in, I don't know, the New York Times.

The only people who have to like the videos for them to get traction are people who are just trying to learn introductory queer history and film theory. The exact people who aren't going to notice this. And for those of you who to whom it is obvious, ask yourself. When was the last time you watched a basic level queer history introduction on YouTube?

[directdogman]

Hey dogman, idk if you answered this

Who, out of both DSAF and Dialtown, was your favourite to write and/or create?

It's very hard for me to pick favourites with my characters because I don't tend to give characters a lot of screen-time unless I find a character interesting or fun to write. You've caught me in a talkative mood, so warning, there's an onslaught of text coming!

DSaF: Dave was the most fun to write for, as I remember it. I mean, the guy is the walking personification of chaos and even when he's being constructive (eg, rigging robots to do insane stuff), it's usually in a destructive capacity. Dave will do LITERALLY ANYTHING but contribute to society in meaningful/valuable ways.

In terms of what character-writing I was most 'proud' of, I was also pretty happy with Dr Henry Miller, as a villain. Namely the research he embarked on, described in his logs in DSaF 3 (which the fandom evidently agreed with, as I got really strong feedback on those logs.)

One issue a lot of people (including myself) have with canon William Afton is that he's this kind of mad scientist character but his research doesn't really seem to be... idk, going anywhere? Other than using remnant (soul nectar?) to make kids possess robots, it's kind of a mystery how he got to this point he did from running a bad fast food restaurant. William gets fleshed out motivations in TSE and even then, it mainly revolves around his relationship with Henry Emily, iirc. It's actually pretty accurate to how real serial killers think, imo, but there's a pretty wide berth between this kind of serial killer and becoming a sci-fi fast-food mad scientist... So, I decided to try to bridge that gap.

DSaF Henry's logs actually mention where the idea for his research came from, namely the fact that he existed in a world with normal scientific rules just like ours and seemingly discovered something supernatural, and he approaches it like an amoral scientist would - trying to figure out how to figure out more about the fabric of reality using the newly discovered phenomenon of possession. The 'joy of creation' phrase people pulled from Golden Freddy's phone call in FNaF 1 is given context - Henry is trying to find out what's on the other side (and eventually, how existence itself formed.)

There's other aspects to his character that make him more interesting too, like the implication that his research is partially an excuse for him to act on an underlying sadism (with scenes implying that he inflicts damage on others than can't be justified as assisting with his research.) His background as a dissident/quack laughing-stock scientist (thanks to pushing his soul theory in a best-selling book, which is considered pseudoscience) BEFORE he embarked on his journey to become a fast food tycoon also makes it less farfetch'd that he'd be capable of y'know, harvesting human souls intentionally to continue his research?

I had more for the character on paper that people haven't seen but some of it wasn't revealed due to it feeling a bit too disturbing to publish. None of the contents would've been all that controversial, more just too tonally disturbing when written about in detail (like a omitted part from his backstory/lore post where he managed to pick up a hazy audio of his wife + son's crying from the radio of the car his wife/son drowned in and reacted with genuine elation upon realizing he'd discovered a new scientific phenomenon (as this was the first time Henry witnessed soul-possession.)) Yeah.

I don't feel much of a need to revisit Henry as a character because as a series villain, he was pretty thoroughly-written and he did his job effectively... And his fate was well earned! (He even got an epilogue short-story a few years back, further cementing his fate!)

Dialtown: From the characters/writing that the fandom has seen? Tough to say. I genuinely really like every DT character. Gingi and Mayor Mingus are two of my favourite characters to write for because they're both really insistent and react to adversity in a really comically indignant way. Mingus is more like Gingi than she cares to admit in very specific ways, which is the core hypocrisy of her character - she's one of the most abnormal things IN Dialtown, and spends the game on a quest opposing abnormality that she, herself, can't stand.

Many absolute rulers have debilitating physical and/or mental cruxes and despite that, usually have the final say on what is/isn't okay, often guided by arbitrary preferences. It's funny to remember all of the ancient kings and emperors who dictated how others should act, talk and even think, when very many of them themselves were anything except a good reflection of their own subjects! It's an irony I quite enjoy and leads to a fun character to write for!

My favourite DT writing is probably some of my Callum Crown speech drafts. I have a definite bias here since Crown's character is based on many figures I've encountered in my own reading (and his story relates to topics I enjoy reading about.) A lot of that is real nerd shit that wouldn't be interesting to 99.9% of DT fans (like a long conversation where Crown + Milt discuss a campaign speech Milt wrote for Crown and they bicker about if the wording/arguments used are truly honest.) Again, not super relevant to Dialtown-proper, but it explains a lot about why the world of DT ended up the way it did.

Realistically, the story of Dialtown itself is basically a weird little epilogue to a story that ended decades upon decades ago, centered around a bunch of small-town nobodies circling around the carcass of the last surviving main character of the old story.

I'm also very happy with Gingi's character partially because I know more about Gingi's past/future than you guys do. Gingi has such rotten memory that Gingi's backstory before DT's story begins is basically a complete mystery. Thanks to Gingi never getting close enough to any humans before laying its eggs, there's nobody in Gingi's life that can fill in the gaps. Companionship means so much to Gingi because prior to meeting The Gang, Gingi is aware of a massive and unknown block of time that's a complete mystery precisely because Gingi had nobody in its life. To Gingi, this time was basically akin to being non-sentient or dead, and Gingi would never go back.

While I was making DSaF, I drafted a ton of other stories on paper. I considered making most of them, but decided not to for various reasons, despite getting some solid feedback from collaborators. Bits of almost all of those project ideas made it into DT, with Gingi having traits from several other main characters I prototyped years and years ago. This includes where Gingi came from and what exactly Gingi is. I don't want to mislead people into thinking Gingi is more important than it is, like Gingi is the key to unlocking DT lore (I promise there's a LOT of aimless scuttling/devouring in Gingi's past and relatively little else!) BUT: Of everything from those old scrapped projects, Gingi is what I decided deserved to survive the most. And that has to count for something.

One day I'd love to make sequels to DT and perhaps explore some of the stuff I've described above, like why the hell the world of DT is the way it is or maybe where the hell Gingi spawned from. Thanks

[ravelights]

head canon/ theories for who Hisashi is and role he'll play in the story

With DFO resting in the grave, I thought I'd give a few of my other theories I have come up with for Hisashi over the years.

He's the person the Deku narrating everything too. IDK why but for Some reason I always liked this theory. Although there no evidence that Deku is telling the story to anyone, I can't help but think it's neat.

He studies quirks, like that his job. Considering 80% of the world has a quirk I think it's fair to say there would be people studying them for many different reasons. I think he be this strange mash up of a doctor, scientist and academic. His job would make him travel around the world and study bizarre, amazing and dangerous quirks. It also be a great tie in stories wise to the quirk doomsday theory, if it turns out he was really away studying to see if that theory is actually true. (I also think that where Deku pick up his hobby for studying quirks as well) his job would make him have to be away from home for long period's of time and not easy to contact sometimes. Despite how interesting his job sounds, it actually involves a lot of paperwork and reviewing and research.

When he's home he's usually home for a good six months or more, and typically the three would do things together when he's home. Inko doesn't mind Hisashi job because he was doing it long before he met her and didn't want him to quit doing it just because they got together. And like most Japanese housewives she controls the finances he just makes the money that give them all comfortable lives.

I think he's a quite, charming guy who keeps to himself, unlike Izuku and Inko he's much more calm and never cries. He very much like's his life, he has no dreams or goal to become a hero or be out on some battle field. He's a passive guy who isn't big on violence, and see's the value in a ordinary life. I wouldn't think of him as a pushover, but like Izuku he's nice to everyone he meets. Also like Izuku he is the person you do not fuck with, he seems like a guy that vaguely feels like he's been through some stuff, it take a lot to get him mad but when he is, you run for the hills.

Izuku doesn't think of him much because he knows his dad doing just fine and is used to him going away on long trips. But also because as much as he hate to admit it, Izuku does not want to end up like his dad when he grows up. As much as he loves and respects Hisashi and think he's a good man with a stable job, he feared that if he grew up to be his dad then it's an admission to giving up on his hero dream, and just being content with ' an ordinary life'. Something he does not what to think about now that he had a real shot at being a hero. That being said, If Hisashi where to come home at anytime Izuku would absolutely be happy he's home and they go do something together.

Hisashi is the person who introduced heroes and heroics to Izuku, and arguably shaped how Izuku viewed them, and how Izuku would believe a hero would act. Hisashi like Izuku is an All Might fan, just not to Izuku level. Izuku only vaguely remembers, but Hisashi was the one installed a lot of values that is ingrained in to Izuku being, of being a good person. One of them being to never give up on saving a person and that everyone deserve a seconded chance. (I think he'll show up at some point in the flash backs that are happening)

His is neither supportive of Izuku hero dream nor is he dismissive, ultimately he just believes that Izuku life is his own and Izuku can do what he wants. Hisashi just there to provide Izuku with every possible pathway he can get, no matter how impossible they may seem.

He's AFO son, because can you imagine how hilarious that would be.

[aurae-rori]

AVENTURINE TRAILER ANALYSIS - THE GOLDEN TOUCH

SPOILERS FOR 2.1 CONTENT & AVENTURINE’S TRAILER! 

TW FOR VERY VAGUE SUICIDE MENTIONS. 

Hey girlies, hold still. On another note, hello again! I will be going through visual analysis, symbolism, and talking about how this trailer ties multiple aspects of Aventurine’s character together. Some of the things covered here I will be covering in my full analysis of Aventurine himself, so feel free to give that a shot. 

My disclaimer! Although I have been researching psychology personally for about six years, I am NOT a professional. (Yet. When I do, Tumblr Will Know.) Any conclusions I come to are because of my own deductions, personal interpretations, analysis, and logic. You are free to disagree with what I say! 

I also do NOT know card numbers and symbols – what they mean and symbolize and all that jazz. Sorry guys. :( 

Now, let’s get into it. 

First of all, let’s fucking go, let this man ENJOY himself (well. A little. This trailer is not as happy silly as it seems, just like the character himself.) He gets to have a silly boogie woogie! Look at you go!! (He is not boogie woogie-ing.)

Second of all, time for game theories.  

The first scene is really pretty. It’s a coin falling down, toppling against a few stray objects before we flash to the next panel, the ground, as it rolls to the feet of a young boy. Gently, he reaches down, before picking it up, and then, in true Aventurine fashion, proceeds to flip the coin in his hand. However, this gesture actually holds more meaning than I originally thought it did. The coin that Aventurine has seems to transcend his definition of ‘time’ – his inherent ‘value’, or his ‘roots’, never changing. It also shows his connection to his younger self – how he’s still holding onto that child, still connecting to that child, and showing that this child is still a part of him, even if it’s only his past self. 

I believe that the coin that he always has flipping around actually represents Aventurine himself – it represents his ‘value’ as a gambling chip. In Aventurine’s eyes, interpersonal relationships are just like that – they are gambles, where people take advantage of one another and backstab each other. However, it also represents how little he seems to care for his own life – he tosses the coin around, does tricks with it, and is overly flamboyant – just like how he presents himself to the outside world. This single gambling chip is actually the presentation of how Aventurine sees himself and presents himself to everyone else, as well as encompasses his worldview – bet himself, going ‘all in’ with his own worth, or doing nothing. That worth has been with him his entire life – the worth of being a child blessed by a God from his home, being blessed with good fortune. 

Also, sick ass transition. Love that shit. 

Pay attention to the next scene – there’s a brief moment where it shows him walking through a hallway… through the lens of a camera. This could definitely be alluding to the idea of always being watched – I mean, he’s the last of his own race, of course there’s going to be eyes on him. People are going to be asking questions - how is he still alive? Why is he with the IPC? Can he be trusted, considering his race was known for scheming and plotting? 

And then, he tosses open the door in a grand display – a grand display of his fake persona. He opens the room to a whole bunch of robots, who are all gambling, and they stare at him in surprise. That’s Aventurine – flamboyant, showy, confident. He holds a captive audience and all of the others move to the side as he strides towards the slots machine – and as predicted, due to his good luck, he gets three in a row. However, what I think is important to note is that he slides his coin into the machine – and remember what I said about the coin representing his worth? This is what I mean by he bets himself. He is just another gambling chip that he will use to achieve victory no matter what. He is another pawn on the table who has made his way this far, and it’s all or nothing – his whole worth, or not worth the gamble at all. 

Also, at 0:42, we see a briefcase open up to reveal a gem – definitely a callback to the 2.1 trailblaze quest with his moment with Ratio. Damn, gay people. 

Then, after that, he slides many chips towards the table – and interestingly enough, they’re all copies of his one singular chip. This, your honour, is what we call a ‘bluff’. Pretending to be more than you are in order to appear more confident so that your enemies will fear you. Pretty good strategy, honestly. 

Also, cool editing with the machines falling into the Void of Cards. Maybe symbolism for how people fall into his persona easily and fall for his schemes? 

Epic ahh pose, 0:54. Love that for you, my silly homosexual lad. 

Also, him in the elevator going to the top at around 1:02? That means more than you think it does. Probably most likely a representation of how he had to crawl his way from the bottom to the top, and yet, now, it’s showing that he is at the top now. He takes an elevator instead of having to climb – he’s gotten higher, he’s gotten more status. His ‘all or nothing’ mentality pays off. 

And then, he’s set into an arena. Representation of life, honestly. His whole life is a stage, a play, something to be watched. He’s here to put on a good show. He’s being watched, which is a callback to my note about the camera at the start. 

Then, the horrors are set loose. He does his gambling stuff with the cup in his hand while he dodges the monsters. That’s him, alright – taking gambles in dangerous situations, relying on his luck, smiling through what should be terrifying. 

“The wager will be life and death,” but oh, that’s your usual wager, Aventurine. We all know how you have self-destructive tendencies. 

1:42. Hand behind his back. Oh lord, we all died. We all know what the hand behind his back means. We all know how much emotional damage that caused. 

1:46. The dice cracks. Just like his cornerstone, eh? Just like his façade, right…? :) 

And then, everything is drowned in gold coins. Yay! 

And then, he’s standing on a ledge. Possibly a callback to how he said that he had “tested death” in the dreamscape. What better way to test it than jumping? 

And then his enemies are drowning in coins. Probably a metaphor for his win against them. 

And then, here is where things get interesting at the two minute mark. He tosses his coin down, again, like at the beginning of the trailer. Kakvasha flipped the coin up, trying to get higher, and then, Aventurine tosses the coin down, keeping his connection with his younger self. It falls down to the ground, and Kakavasha picks it up with awe in his eyes. He’s still keeping in mind his younger self, still keeping him with him, even to this day. Holding onto his past like a lifeline. 

Aventurine’s trailer… while it does seem on the surface that you’re having fun, you’re really not, when everything is a show and a gamble, right? 

Alright, thanks for reading, everyone! :) 

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

i love thinking about apollos anatolian origins 😵‍💫

It stews in the back of my head too :3

There was this really good podcast on Spotify I found about Ancient Greece, and I listened to his Apollo episode first (because I honestly can't stomach the ones who paint him as 'terrible assaulter'/'epitome of the patriarchy'. Can't stand it. Seriously, there was this so-called 'feminist' mythology podcast i found and I Noped out of there as fast as I could - she didn't even mention Eros's involvement in the Daphne myth! She immediately went 'Apollo: the man who doesn't know the meaning of No' and I was like I'M OUTTA HERE.)

(It's very hard to find good Apollo content out there when you have educated yourself on what he's actually like :( )

(At least you immediately know those people didn't do their research shrug)

Thankfully, this one had a really good, really in-depth discussion about Apollo; his origins, his domains, his myths, ect!

COMPLETELY FREE OF BIAS TOO! HE JUST GIVES YOU THE FACTS, THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYTHS, HOW THE CULTURE INFLUENCED THEM, ECT!

On my first (and only rn) listen I was like "damn i need to take notes on this sometime" that's how in-depth it is!

Here's the episode link if anybody is interested, btw!

What's cool is that he said that before Apollo came along, oracles and the like weren't as common in Greece - they existed, because Gaea was a thing - however, when he was imported in (possibly also with Leto! She has Anatolian origins too!), oracles became more of a thing as Apollo's popularity skyrocketed!

If you look at the number of Oracles Apollo had, you'd also notice that a lot of them are in Anatolia (Turkey today)!. Didyma, Miletus, Claros, ect ect! I think this just adds to the theory that Apollo's main origins come from Anatolia! When he moved to Greece, oracles came with him!

Which is so cool because in my drafts I currently have a picture of a webchart I made of Apollo's (many) domains, and I narrowed down the ones I think are his Big Ones - and Prophecy is one of them.

Very cool that Prophecy has always been part of him <3

Also, Apollo has many cities he is the patron of in Anatolia - Troy is obvious, but the island of Tenedos was his too (his son Tenes founded the city there), and he was the patron of Miletus (the city where he met Branchus btw for my Branchus fans out there)!

And going to Leto real quick, her migration from Anatolia religion to Greece's is probably represented in the Hymn to Apollo! Sometimes myths about wandering from place to place were meant to symbolize the importation of a god (Aphrodite floating ashore of Cythera, for example), and Leto...well, she was doing a lot more than the typical wandering in the hymn, but it still fits!

Some versions say she was guided to Delos by wolves from Hyperborea, others say Boreas helped her escape Python, still others claim a rooster was present when she finally was able to give birth and thus became her sacred animal (also she apparently gave birth to Apollo as a wolf? I don't quite remember which version says that but it's something I've heard XD).

Also Delos was very self-conscious about Apollo being born on it because it was afraid he would judge it for not being up to typical island standards XD

Moving to Apaliunas now! He's a Hittite god, but I haven't been able to find out of what :( The main piece of evidence we have of his relation with Apollo is Troy - Apaliunas was the god of Wilusa, who has been found out to be another name for Troy! There was a treaty signed between Wilusa and another city, and the representative of Wilusa's name was commonly translated to "Of Ilios" - and Ilios was another name for Illium, aka Troy.

(Fun fact: The son Apollo had with Ourea was named Ileus, after Troy! They are but a footnote in mythology but I made them Important in my Troy fic XD)

Plus, Apaliunas's name was connected to the Hittite reflex of Apeljōn, which scholars have theorized to be an early form of Apollo's name - remember Apollon? :D

Apollo also has connections to various other deities - the Italian Etruscan god Apulu (Aplu), the Celtic god Grannus, his Egyptian equivalent is Horus and his Phoenician one is Resheph! He's also been identified with Baldur from Norse mythology.

Apollo be wearing that trenchcoat, and he is wearing it well XD

[lilyofporcelain]

DWC - 23 Nov - Day 7 - Peculiar / Theory

Lady Laeynna Emberflame, In the past, your knowledge and research has been an undeniable asset to some of us within the Society. Many years have come and gone since our paths last crossed, and I trust this letter finds you well. An opportunity has presented once more, if you find yourself with idle hands and the time in which to use them. Research is being conducted on soil along the Lordaeronian coastline. Rumours of potential contamination as we investigate further. The Society would benefit from your assistance and you will be well-compensated, as you have been in the past for your invaluable efforts. We encourage you to bring your research and make use of our laboratory in return for your assistance. If you are able to pry yourself away from the gruelling day-to-day affairs of elven society, make way for the Sepulcher. You will be welcomed here. Sincerely, Renferrel Apothecary, R.A.S.

Laeynna’s face pulled as she studied the contents of the missive she received and she poised a corner idly along her bottom lip in thought. She couldn’t quite remember when she’d last received one. For a period of time after she’d found herself removed from the lands she was so familiar with, her talents had been put to use with the Society. On occasion. Never really aware of what their aims might have been, she’d consider it a more pleasant way to spend some of her free time and to line her satchels with coin. Given she faced a very uncertain future with a very unstable income as she watched her life change before her eyes, it was, in fact, an opportunity.

Nerves fluttered along the deeper parts of her person, however. Ever since Zaihne had seen her back from the City of Threads, she had largely hidden herself in really only two places. Neither of which were hers and as a result, left her feeling uneasy. The nightmares had somewhat stopped. Sort of. Some nights were better than other ones. She had learnt to better keep herself composed, regardless.

In truth, she needed to get away. The red and gold was stifling. It didn’t have to be forever, but she knew that leaving for at least a few days, breathing air that was elsewhere, having space that didn’t leave her obsessing over every little detail on how she might approach the future and what she was going to do would have likely done her heart and mind a great deal of good. Not an escape. Just enough time to put her thoughts elsewhere because banging her head against the proverbial wall had done nothing beneficial. It had only upset her and chipped away at her ordinarily rather rigid and stone-like composure.

The wanting to leave part was easy. The actual action of leaving was harder. What if something happened? Eyeing her free hand and studying the palm, pensive, Laeynna wondered if it would be more worth it to consider hiring escort. Not simply for this trip, but for any others. Something to guarantee her safety. Where once she had not been concerned about travelling anywhere on her own, memories of her experiences beneath the earth changed that. Drastically. Every time she’d thought about resuming her studies, her stomach knotted up, and not even the most pleasantly warm cup of tea did anything about it.

No. An escort would be needed. How many? Not a group. Laeynna did not like travelling with groups. Too many people to keep an eye on. Too many people to be looking over her shoulder for. One could satisfy if they were capable enough. Could carry her things for her, even. The trip was a decent one in length if she took the route she cared to. But that also meant spending days with a person she likely didn’t know. What if she found she couldn’t stand them?

Laeynna’s eyebrows knit thoughtfully. I suppose I could ignore them if it came to that. It was not as though she was looking for a conversation companion. She was perfectly content to travel in silence. It would give her time to work on her own research along the way.

Freeing a quiet sigh, she carefully folded up the parchment and slowly nodded. Yes. It was a good idea. Yes, she wanted to do it. Yes, she would need to work out some of the details. And at least a couple of conversations would need to be had.

…It would be fine.

Probably.

— @daily-writing-challenge

[amateurvoltaire]

In one of your last posts you mentioned you were studying the civil war in Vandée. Have you ever seen the rather new movie "Vaincre ou Mourir" on the topic? If yes, what do you think of it? I was very curious to give it a try, hoping it's not the usual demonisation of the revolutionary government. Not that I expect it to be portrayed positively in a movie focused on the Vendéean insurgents pov, of course...

Thanks a lot for your question! It’s the first one I've ever received, and I’m really excited to dive into it. (I might have gone a bit overboard, so grab a coffee or a drink before you tackle this beast… TLDR at the bottom…)

I watched "Vaincre ou Mourir" a couple of months ago. Before I dive into my thoughts, the man himself would like a word:

All jokes aside, have you ever been to one of those medieval theme parks where they offer a "realistic" medieval show with dinner? As a kid, every summer, my parents took me to a jousting show at an Italian theme park. We'd watch two knights fight each other for an hour while being “medieval” and munching on chicken legs without any cutlery.

That's pretty much how I felt watching this movie: it’s flashy and fun but doesn’t have much going on underneath. It makes more sense when you discover that the film was funded by Puy du Feu, a large historical theme park in Vendée.

The context

And this is the thing: despite the Canal+ distribution, most of the production is local. The Vendée itself is often defined as a memory space (1), which can lead to a community feeling a special connection to their past. This is often reflected in local traditions, commemorations, and even political leanings. I remember watching an interview from the bicentenary where some locals said they don’t celebrate the 14th of July as a matter of principle—200 years later!

It’s also worth noting that the Vendée has a history of conservative and right-leaning political preferences, and Canal+ is also a right-leaning media outlet.

The Experts

Is it a documentary? Is it a fictional film? It's hard to say in the first few minutes.

The movie attempts to project historical accuracy by introducing four experts right at the start. If a film opens with such a direct appeal to authority, I tend to scrutinise who these experts are. So, who are they?

Reynald Secher: a historian who has been a massive proponent of the Vandean genocide theory. He is very anti-Republican, and his research methodologies are rather sketchy…

Nicolas Delahaye: I don’t know much about him, but I see he publishes primarily regionally in a Vendean publishing house. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s particularly biased, but it does mean his audience is very limited to people with specific views.

Anne Rolland-Boulestreau: a historian at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest specialising in the Vendée counter-revolution. Her articles in the Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française seem unbiased and well-researched. I own one of her books but haven't read it yet, so I can't speak to her longer-form content.

Armand Bernand: if you google de la Rochejaquelein, you will find this guy everywhere. He owns a publishing house, loves the Château de la Durbelière (2), and wrote a series of books set there. He clearly has a historical crush on M. Henri. I think he cosplayed him during some re-enactments and wrote a book about Henri’s brother Auguste.

It’s worth mentioning they either hail from Vendée or work exclusively within the region. This is my bias speaking because I’ve pretty much read all his work, but if you make a movie about the Vendee and can’t get Jean-Clément Martin to say something on camera about it, you should probably not feature any experts…

The Story

After an awkward three minutes of experts telling us how important the revolution was and introducing Charette, we get to the actual movie, which opens with a pile of bodies, burnings, a hanged person, and an awkward first-person voiceover of Charette saying that they made the Vendee into an inferno. This will be a theme for the next hour or so.

If I were to describe this film in two words, "tragedy porn" would fit. What occurred in Vendée was horrific, and its rightly violent portrayal should help viewers understand and appreciate the human and historical impact. However, the film often prioritises shock value over explaining the underlying reasons.

Charette is, by all accounts, a very compelling subject. The guy was a libertine with bucket-loads of courage and style who had a woman as an aide de camp in 1793! Despite spending 1.5 hours with him, narrated from his perspective, I would be hard-pressed to tell you what he’s actually fighting for. Is it honour? Is it revenge? Is it stubbornness? Your guess is as good as mine!

There is absolutely no character growth whatsoever. The film presents as a sequence of battles and shocking scenes narrated by a somewhat detached Charette. Remember what I said about the medieval show? This shock-value approach might work for a short performance during dinner but falls flat when stretched across an entire film.

Despite the weak script, the actors are quite good. Nothing Oscar-worthy, but they can act. The guy that plays Charette does a very good job and is quite charismatic.

The Historical Accuracy

On the whole, I can’t see glaring historical errors. It is fairly historically accurate with some minor issues. This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but there are things I noticed and jotted down:

The main one is the bizarre theory that Charette agreed to the peace of 1795 because he was promised that Louis XVII would be handed to him. This has absolutely no credible historical basis whatsoever. It’s a myth that has been propagated for over 200 years.

I’m pretty sure Charette didn’t sign the treaty of La Jaunaye. In fact, as far as I remember, no one from the insurgent side signed it.

While not a historical inaccuracy per se, it's a missed opportunity that the film often portrays Charette as the sole leader of the Vendean army. Though he mentions being one chief among many, this aspect is quickly glossed over. His historical relationship with the Catholic and Royal Army and its leaders was complex and would have been interesting to explore further. It's a shame the film likely didn't have the budget to delve into this, as it could have also demonstrated that Vendée wasn't a monolith.

The depiction of the republican army as well-equipped is somewhat exaggerated. If they were as well-appointed as shown, Carnot and Prieur (Cote D’or) would be out of a job, and Saint-Just wouldn't have needed to requisition shoes for the army.

Lastly, the film underexplains the context of why the counter-revolution started. In my opinion, it manipulatively emphasises the king's execution more than warranted, suggesting it triggered the popular uprising when it really did not. The conflict in Vendée began as a peasant revolt, where the local population was far more concerned with religious issues than royal politics. Most Vendean peasants likely couldn't name the king—they probably knew he was a Louis since there had been a Louis on the throne for 200 years, but that's about it. Their concerns were local: when parish priests who had taken the civic oath replaced their traditional priests, and the Levée en masse was decreed, forcing them to fight random Germans 600 km away for a regime threatening their way of life, they rebelled.

Is the movie anti-Republican propaganda?

To wrap up, is the film anti-Republican? Frankly, I don’t believe it is overtly so. It adopts a somewhat clichéd stance: the revolution's ideals were noble, but things eventually went too far. While I have plenty of thoughts on this—which I'll keep to myself for now—I wouldn’t say this perspective is inherently anti-Republican.

Charette is depicted as initially supportive of the revolution, which is accurate for many aristocrats, especially the minor nobility. The portrayal of Republican soldiers is balanced, with General Jean-Pierre Travot sometimes appearing more honourable than Charette. As the main character, Charette is shown as lazy, indecisive, and sometimes brutal, so the film does not attempt to heroise him. The princes, especially Artois, are also depicted negatively. So, the film isn’t overtly royalist.

Is there a specific stance against the Government (aka the CSP)? I don’t recall them being mentioned, which, again, is accurate since most Vendeeans, including the nobility, were not deeply involved in Parisian politics.

That being said, Carrier and Turreau are portrayed very negatively, and rightfully so. Republican generals are also shown as less likely to spare the "brigands" when captured, which aligns with historical accounts. The movie leans heavily on shock value, featuring hard-to-watch scenes of executions, guillotines, and drownings. Unfortunately, even the staunchest republican historians would be hard-pressed to find the evidence to call those scenes revisionists.

Beyond that, the only thing that stood out to me about the Republicans is that they made Kleber look about 60 years old.

In conclusion, is this the most accurate film ever? Certainly not. Is it counter-revolutionary propaganda? I genuinely don’t think so, and if someone claims otherwise, they’re likely being disingenuous.

TLDR:

Watched the movie "Vaincre ou Mourir," which felt like a medieval theme park show—entertaining but lacking depth, probably due to its funding by an actual historical theme park. Despite its attempt to appear historically accurate with expert interviews, the film fails to deeply explore its characters or the complexities of the Vendée region's history. While it doesn't contain major historical inaccuracies, it oversimplifies the causes and events of the Vendée uprising, focusing more on visual shock than factual explanation. Not outright anti-Republican or counter-revolutionary, but doesn't offer new insights into anything. Overall, flashy but not as informative as it could be.

Notes

A memory space is defined as a location (physical or otherwise) where memories, histories, and narratives are preserved, shared, and understood within a society or culture. Things like museums, monuments, rituals, stories and in this case a region can be memory spaces

Château de la Durbelière was the home of La Rochejaquelein

PS: Thank you again for your question! I had a lot of fun answering it.

[onepiecereactions]

Marine Academy chapter 8

Note: Chapter 8 on 28. Akainu X OC. OS is called Murphy.

THIS CHAPTER IS NSFW ! It's soft but still NSFW.

Please, do not forget, English is not my mother language and translate this kind of scene is pretty hard for me, sorry !

Marine Academy Part 1 Chapter 8

"Left on a mission, no return date".

Murphy reread for the hundredth time the letter written in hurry by Sakazuki an hour after his second departure. It was not planned at all.

She was supposed to take her physical exam at the end of the third semester and spend the evening with him to tell him how catastrophic her sword handling was.

The blonde had nearly failed her exam, within one point, allowing her to validate her semester, only thanks to the intense training session the previous weekend with Sakazuki.

Murphy still remembered how, the next morning, before she started the exam, a soldier she had once seen around Sakazuki, had discreetly gave her this letter. She had learned later that indeed, about ten second years had been called on a mission with the third years. This choice had been made at the last minute. Sakazuki had no choice but to write this letter in hurry during the night before leaving, to inform her.

It had been five long months since he had left. Once again, no letter or call but she now understood why.

But the moment had been particularly badly chosen given the events of the day before he left, when they had exchanged their kiss after training. And as usual, she had smiled at him and left , leaving him under the stars on the training ground. But when she remembered that he had responded vigorously to her kiss after a few seconds, it reassured her.

She stuffed the letter in her pocket, took a deep breath and pushed open the doors.

The jury was waiting for her, sitting on a bench. Murphy took a seat behind the desk, took out her thesis and began reading it.

Once the physical and theorical exams were over, she had entered the fourth semester where she was beginning scientific research.

Her semester had focused mainly on the theory of the various medical specialties and she had to select a topic from one of the specialties to develop a second-year dissertation. It was obviously only the first steps of real scientific research, but the blonde had invested herself body and soul in this file. She had obviously chosen a problem related to emergencies.

"Emergency care in patients with a Logia-type devil fruit, approach and particularities." Murphy began in front of the particularly attentive jury.

Her presentation lasted half an hour, as requested. Her file was clear, supported by scientific data and her experience during her various internships since entering the Academy.

"Thank you." Concluded one of the jury members whom she recognized as the head doctor of traumatology at the Marineford's Grand Hospital Marineford. She left the room in silence, letting the jury fill out their evaluation form discreetly.

When she closed the doors behind her, Claire, and Emma who had already made her presentation the day before, were waiting for her impatiently.

[...]

"Another bottle!" Emma yelled throughout the tavern.

The waiter arrived immediately, placing a bottle of sake in the center of the table, skillfully picking up the other empty bottles.

The brunette's descent was now known to the entire Academy, she was unbeatable. Claire, however, remained close to her, ready to grab her hair in case of an emergency exit... Murphy, for her part, was content to watch the scene, laughing, her yellow cocktail in her hand.

"Well, ladies." The brunette began in a brief moment of lucidity, as she tried to open the bottle with her bare hand.

"I want to congratulate us all on our exams! And good luck to our brilliant friend Claire, who is going to start her very last semester and cowardly abandon us."

The redhead had also finished her fifth semester exams and was going to start the final semester of the third year before finishing her studies at the Marine Academy.

The dorm would seem particularly empty without Claire's wisdom and calm.

As they were clinking glasses together, enjoying these last moments together, a soldier invited himself to the table of the three students. Emma had already grabbed her new bottle, ready to smash it on the soldier's skull, but was held back by Claire.

"Good evening Murphy. I was asked to warn you of Sakazuki's return. They arrived at the port half an hour ago."

Emma's eyes lit up, a psychopathic smile on her lips. "Murphy, do you hear that? It's time to wrap things up, my dear! Otherwise he'll slip through your fingers as soon as he finds another pretty blonde at the port!" The brunette yelled, drinking her glass of sake in one go.

The blonde, embarrassed by her friend's yelling throughout the tavern, hid her face in her hands. But she couldn't hide the smile that had just appeared on her lips at the announcement of Sakazuki's return.

"Murphy! Murphy! Murphy!" The brunette continued to yell throughout the tavern, quickly followed by complete strangers who were just as drunk as she was. Claire rolled her eyes at the whole mess and made discreet signs to the blonde to invite her to leave through the back before things got completely out of hand.

Murphy didn't need asking twice. She took her bag and slipped discreetly out of the tavern. The cold of the night bit her skin, she had forgotten her jacket in the bar. She jogged down the streets to warm up and stopped in front of the window of a store that was strangely still open at this hour.

She widened her eyes when she recognized the storefront.

"Jackpot!" The blonde said as she slipped inside. Her heart warmed in an instant when she smelled the aroma of cakes. Murphy bought two slices of cake, thanked the vendor and set off again at full speed through the streets. The snow was starting to fall. After a good ten minutes of running, which for her was an achievement despite the intensive training she had received from Sakazuki, she slipped through the back door of the large building.

She knew this parallel and discreet path from sneaking up with Sakazuki. She finally arrived in front of his bedroom door, a few snowflakes still in her hair, her dress slightly soaked with alcohol or snow, she wasn't sure.

Her hand hit the door twice, trying not to drop the box of cakes. She hoped that the man had come back directly from the port and hadn't been delayed, so that she could take refuge near her radiator.

No response. Murphy pressed her ear to the door and heard the shower water running. He probably hadn't heard it. The young woman tried to operate the handle and miraculously, it wasn't locked. The blonde slipped into the room, announcing her arrival anyway.

"Sakazuki! It's Murphy! I'm coming, I'm freezing!" The blonde said, putting the box of cakes on the coffee table. She heard the shower water turn off.

In the meantime, she curled up in front of the radiator, sighing with relief when the gentle heat warmed her frozen hands. "I hope you don't mind me coming in, but it's freezing outside and we're not all made of magma..." She continued, laughing.

She felt the man behind her approaching. Murphy turned to greet him but stopped short. He was half-naked, a simple towel around his hips, soaking wet. One of his legs was covered with a scar that had barely healed. His face was closed, no emotion appeared.

This cold face was no longer familiar to her. As they spent time together his features had softened, he had lowered his guard little by little and she no longer felt like she was facing a robot. But that cold face transported the blonde two years back to their first meeting.

She hesitated for a moment. Maybe she had crossed the line? Like Emma had told her, maybe he had met another pretty blonde on a port and their whole story (which was not that long after all) was already in the past for him after these five long months of absence…

"If I bother you I can come back later". Murphy whispered as she slowly got up. She felt like a hummingbird facing a cat ready to jump on her.

"I brought you a cake for your birthday." She continued, pointing at the snow-covered box on the coffee table. Smoke was coming out of Sakazuki's soaked chest, who still hadn't moved.

"I know your birthday was last month but since you weren't there I thought we could still..." The blonde didn't have time to finish before the soldier jumped on her.

She reflexively stepped back, her back lightly hitting the radiator. She felt the man's torso fall on top of her. The young woman found herself completely lying on her back on the carpet, at the foot of the sofa. She felt soldier's body envelop her, his warmth covering every inch of her skin, his right arm sliding down her back to press their two bodies together, his left hand getting lost in her blonde hair. And finally his lips pressed to hers, ardently asking for the right of entry. The man's burning body warmed her frozen body.

She responded in a few seconds to the man's burning kiss, her hips sticking to those of Sakazuki, her back arching under his caresses.

Her heart exploded at this mixture of emotions. Fear and surprise had given way to a burning pleasure of finding the man again and the desire to stay glued to his skin for hours. His kisses migrated to her neck, allowing her to breathe briefly. His left hand went down to her chest, passing under her dress. She shivered as she felt the man's powerful and warm hand caress her while he devoured her neck. As she felt herself completely weak and giving herself body and soul to the man, she stopped for a second, her forehead pressing against his.

"On the bed." She ordered.

She then felt her body take off from the ground quickly. She found herself almost standing, still in the arms of the man who continued to devour her, going from her lips to her neck. She wrapped her legs around his hips. He put his right arm on the woman's buttocks to better support her. He carried her to her room and did not let go of her for a single second as he laid her down on the bed, their lips remaining sealed. She took advantage of the fact that he was above her to lower her hands to her towel which she untied in a second. The proximity of the blonde's hands made him shiver. He hurried to take off the woman's dress for good, admiring the blonde's immaculate skin for a moment. His face went down to her chest while his hand went down to the woman's intimacy. Another burst of heat invaded the young woman when he caressed her. She buried her hands in his hair, her body burned with pleasure.

"Saka..." She whispered.

The blonde's murmur of pleasure excited the man who could not wait any longer. She was perfect, offered in front of him, and begging him. He could not hold back any longer and entered her slowly, his excitement at its peak as she screamed his name with pleasure with each of his thrusts. He felt all control leave him as she screamed his name, arching under him.

She obsessed him, he had dreamed of this moment since she left, his needs guiding him further and further into his fantasies. Holding out for so long without being able to touch her had been a real battle, he had to manage alone all this time, and this night was going to be the realization of all his fantasies. He gave one last thrust, releasing himself inside her at the same time as her as she screamed his name in a final orgasm. He collapsed on top of her carefully, pulled the covers up over them, taking her in his arms so she wouldn't get cold and let sleep take them.

[divorcedfiddleford]

anyway. moving on from the show itself. so possibly my hottest take is that i think journal 3 should not have been published KJSHDFLGKHSDFGUIWEHRGJSDF. basically i think instead of trying to write the actual journal 3 they should have picked a handful of stories from his research era that they wanted to tell and made a graphic novel about that. i got WAAAAAAAYYYY off topic and wrote PARAGRAPHS about this but it's not related to the question you asked so i'll just summarize by saying i think it would play more to their strengths as writers, leave more to the imagination, and they could leave out all those fucking retcons that i hate

^ excerpt from this post i made a couple weeks ago. i wanted to post those paragraphs i spoke of teehee so in case anyone is curious here they are

aside from all the retcons that i hate, i think the biggest weakness of journal 3 is that it limits the imagination. with the publishing of journal 3, they had to establish a set timeline and list of events that happened. there's no way they would have been able to construct a chronological narrative otherwise. however this is actually quite stifling to a creative audience. before it was published, the timeline was largely left open to interpretation, with only the biggest plot points being cemented. and while i'm not going to act like this was some sort of golden age of fanworks (there were a LOT of stupid theories and objectively bad content), i do think it lent itself a lot more to creativity. i distinctly remember several authors in the middle of writing having to make disclaimers that their works were no longer "canon compliant" after the release of the journal, as though that meant they were inherently of lesser value, and i think that's really too bad.

i want to be very clear here. the issue is not that alex hirsch and rob renzetti wrote stories about what happened when ford was young. the issue is that they chose the journal as the means by which to tell those stories. they had to pull a LOT of retcons just to make that even possible - some of which i'll talk about later, others (like the fact that they were DESTROYED before the end of the series) are self-evident and/or have been bemoaned by me ad nauseam - when a graphic novel would have sufficed and probably played more to their strengths as tv writers. hell, they did this later! the only reason they chose to do it as journal 3 itself is because it's like The Symbol of the show and they knew everybody would buy it and it'd be a really cool collector's item.

but the problem with turning the journal into a chronological narrative (which it wasn't originally, i'll get into that) is that you have to decide everything that happened, and by extension, everything that didn't happen. creatively, this is torture. they made a book and said "this is it, the whole book, with all of the torn pages restored magically". therefore if you come up with a scenario you think is fun for ford to be in, you have to come up with a reason why it isn't in the journal. this isn't just a problem for fans. alex and rob wrote themselves into a corner with this. the book of bobos hasn't even been released yet and we've already seen that it features "lost journal pages". they thought of other things after the fact which would be cool to include! do you understand? they now have to legitimize the fact that they weren't there in the first place, which wouldn't be an issue if they just hadn't published journal 3 in the first place! i have no idea if this makes any sense i didn't take my adderall this morning but so many of these stories would have functioned just as well as a graphic novel.

another (more nitpicky) thing is that the journals are introduced to us as scientific research. field journals. ford measures the heights of organisms, rock formations, etc. the text blocks to the side of them are scribbles in the tv show, but you are meant to infer that they are more detailed notes about each of the entries.

(image descriptions in alt text)

this stuff is SERIOUSLY LACKING in the published journal. and i get why! it's easy to imply the science in the tv show when you can just scribble to represent a block of text, but when you're publishing a book, you have to actually write all those words. alex and rob are NOT scientists, and writing realistic scientific descriptions of each anomaly is an unreasonable request, especially given the fact that they were so pressed for time and had a page limit. so i understand why they leaned into the diary angle instead - it's more narrative-based, it's in their wheelhouse, and it makes for better reading. but as an amateur scientist myself i was just very disappointed (the "hawktopus: too stupid to study" gag made me so sad. come on ford. i know you. i know you observed that hawktopus for like five months and took in-depth notes on its diet and behavior). again, i think this would not be a problem if the actual contents of the journal were limited to just what we're shown in the tv show and the audience's imagination. but i doubt very many fans care about this as much as i do shldjfkglskdfhgk

in the show, ford also seems to jump between journals as needed, implying that they were not separated chronologically - that is to say, he did not simply write in one book until it was full and then move on to the next one. this makes a lot of sense for scientific journals. you don't close the book after one encounter with an organism or phenomenon. you observe it multiple times, returning to it again and again, sometimes months or years after the initial sighting. you need to leave yourself space for future notes, which is precisely what we see ford doing here! it also made sense given the fact that he was able to go back and put part of his portal plans into each journal. if he waited until each journal was filled up before starting a new one then this would be a lot harder (he would have to add more pages to each book, which would mean redoing the binding. that's a lot of work! also he opens up journal 1 and almost immediately starts writing in it after coming out of the portal so unless there were empty pages in it beforehand when would he have time to add more pages? checkmate atheists). however this had to be changed for the book they wrote. again, i don't begrudge them for this. non-linear storytelling is HARD and, again, TIME CONSUMING! time is NOT something the writers had. but again i just think that this would not have been a problem if there wasn't a physical journal.

thank you for making it to the end of my post. as consolation here is a link to a doodle i did of ford in the portal 2 jumpsuit

[uncloseted]

wait is GwenTheMilkmaid gwengwiz asmr?? i used to listen to her ASMR like wayyyy back in 2018 is it the same person? Also what is it with ASMRtists/ people with OF doing such a hard 180 cos I remember AngelicaASMR also did a very hard pivot towards Christianity, not that there's anything wrong with turning to God but there is something about so vehemently denouncing EVERYTHING about your former life and demonising it

Yes!!! This is another one of my favorite topics. GwenTheMilkmaid, notorious tradwife, is Gwen Swinarton, formerly ASMR and OnlyFans creator GwenGwizASMR. To my knowledge, Gwen and Angelica are the only people in the ASMR community who have made such a drastic switch, but in general, the crunchy leftist to alt-right pipeline is super real and something people need to be wary of falling into.

Gwen is someone who's content I've watched since probably 2015/2016, when she still had a girlfriend and before her cosmetic surgeries, so I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what happened there. She's always struck me as someone who's easily influenced and who doesn't really have the tools to distinguish between things that are true and things that sound true. She's someone who I think has always been kind of anti-institution and anti-intellectual because those types of environments make her feel insecure, and so she's always been a believer that the mainstream is lying to you and that you need to "do your own research". She's also someone that's dealt with social anxiety and other mental health issues for the majority of her life, to the point where, iirc, she was agoraphobic for a bit, and so I think she puts a lot of value in fitting in and other people liking her.

All of that makes her super susceptible to products and worldviews that sell a simple answer. Before she converted to Christianity, she was a socially awkward girl in a relationship with a girl and who was 100% dedicated to veganism as a lifestyle and wanted to have a farm to rescue animals. Then she also adopted a bunch of kind of new age beliefs and really leaned into this persona as someone who's "crunchy" and into "holistic medicine". After that she realized that people were using her ASMR videos for porn and her nudes got leaked. So she began doing OF as a "one quick fix" for her debt from an Instagram influenced shopping addiction, as well as (I think) to reclaim ownership over her body after the leak. Being on OF meant that she switched to a very male gaze-y, empowered woman kind of persona. That meant that her content started centering men as the main audience, and I think she began to get more comfortable with the idea of catering to the desires of men.

After the move to OF, I think a few things happened. I think she realized that sex work isn't as easy as she thought it would be, but she made a ton of money doing it, which led her to support more fiscally conservative political policy because she wanted to keep more of her money. As she said in one of her videos, “the government is good at stealing your money and then ‘losing it’ and wasting it." Then she got into a relationship with someone who's politically moderate, and the COVID lockdowns happened. From there, I think her boyfriend introduced her to some "moderate" or "just asking questions" kind of podcasts, which led her to fall into anti COVID vaccine rhetoric (which makes sense because her previous "crunchy" persona was also distrustful of medicine), and as a result of that, she fell into an anti COVID lockdown rabbit hole. This led her to "question the liberal agenda", which led to other conspiracy theories, like the 15-minute cities conspiracy theory. The further she got into those, I think the more she realized the people who agreed with her politically were far-right Christians. And from there, I think hopping to this belief that women should cater to the desires of men in every aspect of life felt natural, because her OF content was already doing that in a sexual sense. And because of all of that, by the time the lockdowns ended, she was interested in converting to Christianity and she'd started consuming a lot of tradwife content. And because she had previously done sex work and ultimately found that it made her feel exploited, maybe combined with being embarrassed about the person she used to be, I think she started feeling called to "protect" other women from following that same path, which led her to committing to this Christian tradwife persona and creating that kind of content. Unlike what some other people have said, I actually don't think this is a grift to try and make more money. I think she genuinely believes, at this stage of her life, that this lifestyle will make her feel happy and fulfilled, and so like everything else she's done, she's dedicated to it 100%. There's also a pretty good rundown of what happened to her here if you're interested.

Angelica is a different story, and I'm not totally sure what happened there, although I do think that, like Gwen, she's always had a kind of easily influenceable, anti-institution, anti-academic, "I do my own research" edge to her. She's always made content that's kind of weird, and she's always had a contrarian and kind of edge-lordy personality. From what I've seen people say online (so take this with a grain of salt, I don't know if it's true), she was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, so in her case I think it's less of a personality switch and more of a reversion to an older personality. The trigger seems to be that her mother died and she started reaching to religion for comfort, but in an ironic, contrarian, Dasha Nekrasova kind of way. Grief does weird things to even the most neurologically and psychologically healthy people. For people who have a predisposition to mental illness, grief can trigger depressive, manic, or psychotic episodes. I'm not saying that's necessarily what's going on with Angelica, but some of the things she's been saying suggest to me that there might be something else going on besides just a newfound dedication to religion.

In general, I think there's actually a lot of crossover between people who are "crunchy liberals" and people who are alt-right. There's generally a shared belief that the mainstream media and mainstream science are lying to us, a rejection of institutions such as government and universities, and a desires to be one of the special few that's smart enough to have discovered the truth. With people who are "crunchy" the beliefs tend to be about food, medicine, and education. But the more you believe that food and medication and education are poisoning the population, the easier it is to believe that the government is doing that on purpose, and once you've accepted that, the easier is is to believe that the government is evil in other ways. Maybe they're sexually abusing children, or forcing the children to be trans, or they're going to force you to live in a 15 minute city, or whatever else the conspiracy might be. And if you believe that, it's really easy to fall into the idea that the world has reached a point of out of control degeneracy, and that we have to return to the "good old days" when those things weren't happening. And of course, the "good old days" were when there weren't any POC or people in the LGBTQIA community, and when women knew their place... and all of a sudden you've gone from being a mom who's nervous about Red dye 40 in their kid's food to being someone who believes that the US needs to return to its traditional values as a white Christian nation.

And that's what's so scary about this. People don't just wake up radicalized one day, and they're not born people who believe that people of color and the queer community are bad. They're slowly eased into these beliefs through irony, shock humor ("you're not supposed to take it seriously, it's just a joke"), and a rejection of political correctness ("you can't even say anything these days!"), until the person becomes normalized to hearing that kind of rhetoric. Then they start being fed more and more extreme content in small steps, where each step allows them to acclimate before being pushed just a little bit further down the pipeline. If a person makes it far enough down the pipeline, they ultimately are taught to dehumanize certain groups of people, especially those who disagree with alt-right beliefs, and, at the end of the pipeline, attempts are made to eliminate those groups of people entirely. That's also one of the reasons why media literacy is so important. Without the tools to evaluate whether a source is providing reliable, true information or the tools to critically think about the media we're being presented and whether it's trying to convince us of something, it's really easy to fall down these kinds of pipelines and get stuck there.

[weirdversethestrange]

More cut content (and unreleased content) for Nova’s story on TikTok

General cut content (Can go for all Chapters/ Old and unused ideas)

Originally for the first season, Nova was going to hug Polterglitch at him appearing, but instead go through him since Polterglitch was well…a ghost. I did not add this in since at the time, I did not have to skill to really draw that. (If Nova’s series was ever remade, then maybe.)

There were going to be more dream sequences throughout the series, meaning more interactions with Nightmare and Nova, possibly Dream at some point. This was once again, a very early draft and never published or drawn, just more of a simple idea that I thought would have been fun but decided not to include since there were already 2 dream sequences including Nightmare and I wanted to save future ones for more impactful bits of the story like Nova talking with Destiny of Dream discovering Nova’s true identity through the other’s mind.

This is a very and I mean VERY old concept for Nova’s series. Nova was originally going to have more orange and green than yellow and purple. Yeah, it was…a very strange combination that did not look very good when testing it out, especially mixing it with other colors that I wanted to be on him. When purple and yellow finally were chosen, I was very happy about it. Hilariously enough, I did not realize he had printer ink colors as his pallet until I started doing research into color theory.

More cut bits from Before Polterglitch existed

So, this would still be around the time Nightmare would have been considered Nova’s main lover interest. The story itself was more melancholy and slow paced. Originally I wanted the audience to feel the slow progression of Nova’s glitching and him slowly forgetting things from his timeline before things would be erased and have him as the new destroyer. Nightmare would originally have him to feed off of the sadness but of course, seeing that even in his glitchy state, Nova/Outer was still willing to listen to his problems, heck he even would listen to the qualms and struggles his team would often go through. He was still Outer despite everything…despite him slowly forgetting himself. (This can still be used as a storyline, it’s just very much a more darker and sadder storyline than what we are familiar with for the version of Nova we know.)

Nova was originally going to be the same height as a typical sans, (so around 4’3 or taller). But I wanted to make things a little funny for Ink and have an enemy of his be at least one inch taller, so that is why Nova is 3’9.

When coming up with Polterglitch’s name and design, I basically started going through a bunch of old drawings I had of ghosts and spirits I did, most were cartoonish of course, but eventually I just drew Error with torn clothing and went off from there before finally creating what Polterglitch looks like now. I wanted him to have a look that made it look like he was a real struggle for Fate to take down while at the same time have that fatigued and battle worn look for Error. I contemplated about putting ink smears on him to represent Ink’s participation in Error’s defeat but decided against it since it would’ve added too many small details and may look a little odd to have little blocks of pixels while also having Ink blobs float around him.

Cut Content Regarding Blue

Blue was originally going to join Nova and Polterglitch after he left the star sanses for similar reasons in the series, but slight differences. One difference being that he had been noticing more red strings oddly appearing around the Star Sanses base.

Blue actually would have gotten his injured eye socket from Dream as an accident by the other firing an arrow meaning to hit Nova instead.

There would have definitely been a lot more bickering between Polterglitch and Blue while Nova was usually going to be the peacemaker. I remember I had a scene planned in my head where Blue and Polterglitch were going to argue when Blue would bring up his time in the anti void when Error took him and how he nearly became a glitch in the process, (referencing Blueberror’s story a bit) of course this would have caused Nova to be very confused and start asking Polterglitch all sorts of questions about what Blue was talking about. I remember the script or idea going something like this

(Blue= Blue, Purple= Polterglitch, Pink= Nova)

“Oh of course you avoid the blame for that! You never say you’re sorry for shit you caused!”

“Because I didn’t have a choice! Fate made me do it! I didn’t want to cause that damage!”

“Guys please- can we not?”

“Fate this, Fate that. It’s always Fate’s fault to you! What about that time you kidnapped me from my home?! Was that Fate’s doing as well?!”

A small pause would occur between the three, Nova would look over to Polterglitch to his left, confused by Blue’s accusation. Polterglitch’s expression would have been darkened or covered in shadow.

“What is he…talking about?”

“…”

“Error…?”

Polterglitch would be shown flinching or curling his hands into fists, still not making direct eye contact with Blue or Nova. Blue on the other hand would become baffled before anger would cross his face again.

“You haven’t told him? He doesn’t know?! GO ON! TELL HIM THE FUCKING TRUTH!”

(End of script from what I can recall)

Cut Content from Star Bound and Void Embrace

Bird was originally going to be the one to be killed instead of Razz.

Nova was going to be trapped in Nightmare’s castle for longer than what is shown in the series. He was basically gonna go through Hell in the dreamscape due to Nightmare. Didn’t include that since that may have been too much for the series and also the fact that Polterglitch and Wine knows where the castle is located.

Originally, Polterglitch may have actually (and probably accidentally) Killed Horror or Killer. Decided not to do that cause then Dust would have probably turned against the group. It was just going to show that despite Polterglitch being a ghost, he is still a lethal and deadly foe.

404 was going to tell more of Fate and Destiny’s past, showing flashbacks and his own multiverse before it was destroyed by his own hands under Fate’s control. I decided not to since it was too much exposition in one scene. I wanted that to be revealed slowly or at least have it revealed once Destiny came into play or towards the end of the series.

Nova was going to have one more design change, but I never drew it, so it got cut. Later on I did draw it and that became Canon Nova’s design.

Romance scene between Polterglitch and Nova during Swapfell. We were going to spend more time in that universe, kind of a way to allow the two to rest and also build more up around their relationship from it going from friendship to relationship. This again would’ve taken up a lot of time and also I wanted the audience to kind of have fun or fill in the blanks of how Outer and Errro first became friends with little sprinkles and tidbits of information here and there.

More funny moments were going to be shown between Blue, Fatal, and Fresh. I really wanted to work with those three a lot more as a group since they seemed so silly, but at the time, I couldn’t think of anything for them. If I ever do rewrite (or possibly animate) Nova’s story, I would probably show more of that group’s dynamic.

Cut content for Nebula Tranquility

404 was originally going to help Bird and Dust with the strings after noticing that there were more of them. I decided against the idea once the thought occurred to me that Nova needed a way to stop a Fate possessed Polterglitch. Thought it would have been fitting for the mentor to help his two students.

Razz was going to make a small appearance to Mal, kinda like a motivation or flashback sequence for him. Fate probably would have used that against Mal while he was tied up in strings for that short period of time. I thought it might’ve been better to just use the bandanna though that Mal got from Razz to kind of portray that even after death, Razz was still helping his fellow universe, even if it was to block an amputated limb from bleeding.

I was considering putting Destiny as another ghost or voice Nova would hear during his final battle.

I was going to have OuterTale stay originally and just have Nova gone, but then I thought it would have been interesting for the whole au to disappear because of Fate’s imprisonment. Almost like it’s the multiverse’s natural way of making sure if a powerful entity is trapped, they remain trapped. I had 404 mention this as to partly what happened to his multiverse once Destiny was trapped, that a very important timeline to him had vanished due to Destiny being trapped by Fate there.

I originally wanted Nova’s final battle to be animated, but after some mulling over the last animated project I did on the series and how long that took, once again, I decided not to.

Upcoming ideas for Cosmic Epilogue (Don’t read if you don’t want spoilers)

Error will be visited by Destiny in a dream. They will take on Nova’s form, much like how they took on Error’s form when visiting Nova in a dream.

Once Error wakes up from his sleep, he will be getting a call from 404 about something in Swapfell that he needs to see. (Brining back why Mal needed to talk to Error)

Error starts roaming the multiverse quickly after seeing what was going on in Swapfell.

He finds…OuterTale…

(That will be all for this post. I will update more once the series is completed. I’m excited to be finally done with this nearly four year project)

[lehhoh7822]

asking about the legally blonde fics 🙄 (JOKING i actually really want to hear about them. please?)

THANK YOU its not letting me add a cut guys..... i would if i could..... long post??

alright hi i write legally blonde fanfics after being involved in a production of it earlier this year and. well.

like i think my fanfic is very ehhhh for most people because i like essentially getting to write completely different songs and then having to integrate them into canon if that makes sense?? based solely off the musical, like, none of pilar margot serena really have ANY established backstory and i havent seen the movie or read the book in such a long time. so what i mean is that i get to write this horrifying piece about someone experiencing parentifcation in an abusive environment and then try to integrate that character into the more canonised characterisation.

i guess the reason is like. of musicals, legally blonde is very.... i don't know, its pretty solid in terms of content for the musical. its absurd like most musicals which kind of facilitated me and my friend (im gonna @ their dead blog from when they were like 12 @kittykatturtles-blog) to make crack theories and then give me things that i wanted to extrapolate from it. I guess the other thing about these fics is that i want to write about how. fucked a lot of rich people are. i think part of this is coming out of the dsmp fandom or engaging with it more critically in terms of a fandom and being able to recognise the kind of repetitiveness of a lot of fanfictions in a very... trope esque way? like there are so many fics which are basically the same and a lot of those feel like they didn't have anything to say or think about in terms of the characters.

i think the other part of it which matters to me is being able to write about themes which are genuinely really serious, and at times intimately familiar to me; exploitative religious groups, familial abuse, dissociative identity disorder, and more, without the worry of too heavy scruntiny. like i remember when i was writing for dsmp i always got kind of scared of writing something too serious and having people like like. oh my god. hes a MINOR. YOURE KILLING ME. the whole point of the stories aren't just that bad things are happening or that these characters are justified or whatever, it's about. how do you keep going? how do you keep loving? how do you explain yourself.

i think something thats super important to be is character autonomy. it rings pretty bad for me when a traumatised or disabled is given no action on their end at all for anything, making them a hollow slate for the abled characters to support and research and worry about and lie to. to me, as someone who is traumatised and is disabled, that kind of dynamic is gross to read about. so its important to me to be able to write about, even if it cant exist in real life, the idea of supportive people who are also kind of fucked up and having to acknowledge the real hopelessness of complex issues is something i want to depict in my writing.

for a lot of people, for most i think, when terrible things happen they can't just stop and they somehow have to keep on going despite the world feeling like its stopped turning for them. and i think a lot of bad things do happen to people when they are still young. one of the worst years of my life was when i was 12 and its genuinely quite hard to top it. trying to write the spiky complex feelings of self hatred and confusion and injustice you can't place and hopelessness is cathartic to me and i think its important for me that it exists.

the other thing is that. like by the nature of my writing, this is leading to a better future. im a pretty slow writer, and i can't be hyperfixated on the story i need to just be continually trying to think and work on it. but because we know; we know they make it to college, we know they have friends, and in this i know that they can make it to adulthood, its an assertion, from me as a writer and from me as a traumatised disabled person that i will make a better future and the worst parts of your life will not definte them. idk.

this is the link to the first two fics and im writing a new one as we speak

if you want to hear more about ttolt characters (we have pilar, serena, margot, elle, serenas parents and brother, pilars infinite fucking siblings and parents, and a few others) then send me asks about it. PLEASE dear god

[savebylou]

as someone who’s been here since 1d and has stuck through louis since the start of his solo career (shoutout 2017/18 louies we were in the trenches) im just so very happy that he gets to do music and perform

i get its inevitable that ppl will have opinions (e.g. his setlist) and thats well and fine. but i just find it amusing that ppl are really strongly affected with these kinds of things. like we get music and content from louis and he gets to do what he loves its a win win and im not gonna take the fun out of that by finding problems and complaining in every little thing

Hi anon, thank you for sharing your perspective. Honestly I really don't know how all of you did it, I'm only read what happened all those years and saw videos and I can barely deal with it. Louis and all the boys had deal with so much, I always said they all deserved so much better.

I agree with you is wonderful to see Louis perform, you can se how much he loves it and shines on stage. Did you see the videos of the crowd? They were so many people and he just needs that exposure to other audiences. Festivals are the perfect way to reach different people with different tastes in music. I really think Louis can get so many new fans, after each festival people that listen to him could research the rest of his music and find so many good songs.

About the setlist. I think is because they don't like 1D and his association with it, that is my theory. They want to see him just like this artist that started after 1D. But he is very proud of 1D and what he achieved in that stage of his life and will always be part of him. I really hope this comments of fan criticizing his setlist ends soon. This is a new era for Louis and we know that he lurks on the Internet, I don't want him to see those comments, I hope he only sees comments of how proud we are of him.

"like we get music and content from louis and he gets to do what he loves its a win win and im not gonna take the fun out of that by finding problems and complaining in every little thing"

Thank you anon. I wish every fan read that. I will remember that quote for the future and not just related for this festival, this can be applied for a lot of things related to Louis.

I hope you have a lovely day, thank you for sharing this with me.

[kastle-thrones]

I love the fact that I was like, “ah, a blog, for me to be angelic on” and then I haven’t done a thing to be angelic on it 💀

My apologies to those of us who followed for angel content but I also like being human

Anyways, i guess I could make an introduction post-

Hi.

I’m Cassian/Kastle. Call me Cas (Or Kas). 💕

I’m an angelkin, this is an angelkin blog. It will have non-kin content on it, though. Both because I’m bad at remembering to switch back to my main, and because I like things and have interests.

And sometimes that means reblogging 7 shitposts in a row on my Big Fancy Angel Account™️

(I tried so hard to be cool and professional as if we were getting graded on being the Most Angelic and now I simply don’t care so you get wing posts and me screaming at unhinged levels about fiction and how divinity feels like hot water on your hands and how normal I am about fnaf and also spirituality.)

I’m an angel and therefore anything I post is technically angel content. I stand by this. /lh

Some things you may need to know!

I don’t have a DNI! All I ask is that if you interact, you’re courteous. If you don’t like me for some reason, I’m happy to talk about it, but if we can’t come to an agreement, the block button is at the top of the screen to your right. <3

If it wasn’t obvious, this is an alterhuman friendly blog. All kintypes are welcome here, no matter what.

I’m a scribe! I will likely post a lot of unrelated rambles, and it’s because my job is basically to write. I’m here to keep track of the earth. I write songs, poems, theories, fanfic, books, and, if you ask, I’ll happily write about you or subject matter you like! Research is the love of my life, and I’m always looking to learn. If you drop an anon fact in my box I’ll love you forever. <3

I tend to switch between an overly formal, stylized version of writing, and just incoherent key smashes. Both of these are me, one is just what I lovingly refer to as Information Dispensing Voice, the other of which are my casual blabbers. Information dispensing is usually very well thought out, and flows, whereas blabbers are just me taking a moment to make the words go, regardless of whether they fit together or not. Information dispensing tends to be fact, whereas blabbers stem more from feelings.

I’m an angelkin of the first triad. I have a connection to both seraphim and ophanim, but I’m not positive as to which I am. Seraph in looks, ophanim in personality? I guess? But then again can you really assign a ‘look’ to an entity of energy-

I have special interests in cryptozoology (study of cryptids/demons/angels, a la supernatural entities), psychology, writing (obviously), music, digital art, and certain indie video games, and this is just off the top of my head.

I have memories, and am more than happy to discuss them, whether they’re lighthearted or serious in nature. I love pursuing knowledge and would never discourage others to do the same!

Occasionally, I use tone indicators. I really don’t need them, but they’re fun! If you’re struggling to read my tone, please ask. I will always clarify. 💕

My asks and anon asks are open! Please come talk to me, I definitely do not bite.

Enjoy your stay, and if you need clarification on anything, feel free to say hi! <3

- Cas 💕

I will eventually come up with an organizational tag method for this blog, but for right now, it is messy. Ty for understanding. <3.

Edit:

#introductions are other kin blogs I know of. I reblog their introduction posts so that we have a chance of seeing more of each other and meeting more otherkin through their posts!

#casposting is posts that I specifically have things to say on! Not just reblogs, but things I actually talk about or make. :>

[altneuland]

The Israeli Empire

hellooooo

I am not sure if it is the right time to introduce you to ancient Israel yet, but I prefer to do it asap because high amount of the content I make of Daniel is from ancient Israel.

before I continue, please remember that the term "ancient Israel" is an umbrella term for few eras that I will elaborate on.

in this piece you are seeing Empire of Israel, and the king was Omri, which surprisingly isn't one of the eras I like to talk about much. not because I don't like this era or anything, only because my favorite era for Daniel is Kingdom Of Hashmonai, which I can sit and ramble on and on about.

in the empire era, Daniel was 15. in the Hashmonai era, Daniel was 18. so chronically, I think introducing ancient Israel would make sense starting here, the earliest I have content on. (tho I do have even earlier years of Daniel, but that includes his parents, which I would like to introduce later.

so, this is a post about the empire now, please enjoy this half assed text I wrote to my friends about him, hope you like it lmao

The Crybaby Empire

This empire has no specific time frame, but I’ll go with what I got now ; 1021 bc - 922 bc,

The empire ended in a huge civil war between all the tribes (more like Judea and Benjamin vs everyone else) and that’s how the empire kinda died, but later the second Israeli kingdom was a great empire as well, and some researchers even say that the empire never actually fell, until the rise of Judea, which is that’s why I tend to disagree with the dates above, but until any further knowledge I’ll use those.

If the theory of second and first Israeli empires being one big continuous empire, which btw I kinda agree with, I’ll go with what’s currently considered as canon. I’ll go with Israel being an empire, fall, and become an empire once again without Judea. So this is the kingdom with.

Daniel in his age 15 was pretty bad teenager and annoying. He wanted everyone to do whatever he does. He wanted his neighbors, Sidon, Edom (his twin) Moab and Amon, as well as bashan and Amalek to practice in his religion, which wasn’t called Judaism at that time, it was called Israelism. Daniel took over their places and israelized them, first by, you know… cutting their pps. Then forcing them to not touch any pigs (kosherizing their asses), maybe even forcing them to pay 10% of their income to the holy temple, and not work on Shabbat.

Maybe , just maybe, the israelism is what made all of the nations around have a very similar gods. Remember, israelism wasn’t a monotheistic religion at this point, it was yet polytheistic, with Elohim, the Jewish god nowadays, being the main god in the Israeli pantheon.

The era in history is called “the Israeli era” which is the ofc, era where all cities around were Israeli.

A lot of information about this empire is either missing or contradicting so take it with a grain of salt, but countries around did mentioned king Omri and his Empire, as well as his deeds as I mentioned.

everyone agrees though that Daniel was a little b everyone found annoying but also loved him because compared to other empires around he was a sweetheart smarty pants