#this isn't related to any of those stories but that's where the dads are from

[diamondcitydarlin]

Just fair warning- I said on my personal post about this that I wasn't going to talk about Neil Gaiman anymore, but as it's becoming clear that him and his publishers and anyone else who makes money off of him is circling the wagons and trying to bury these allegations, as well as some fans still defending and trying to 'rationalize' this information, I feel like, actually, we need to keep talking about him (as much as I cannot stand him and feel physically disgusted now when I so much as see his face somewhere). Specifically, the fact that he's a liar, master manipulator and should not, under any circumstances, be given access to his fans like he has in the past. At the very least. (And if you need to blacklist his name or even unfollow me so as to not be triggered, I completely understand, but I will always try to tag these posts accordingly and I think it's crucial right now that the truth be put where people can see)

This post specifically is in response to those 'rationalizations' I've seen, some that have gone as far as to blame the young fans/groupies that hooked up with him for being 'golddiggers' or just making a mountain out of a molehill for something they now regret. It's not that simple, yall. (And, again, this requires some amount of completely ignoring the story about him extorting his tenant for sex under threat of eviction of her and her three young children, I'm not sure how you 'rationalize' that under the best of circumstances)

So let's be clear here. What we know is that NG has routinely, for possibly an upwards of 30 years, pulled sexual 'partners' from his fan groups, most of whom are 18-22 year old young women (though possibly younger, accounts are coming forward of 16 year olds having allegedly been inappropriately touched/flirted/propositioned by him, which ig is the age of consent in the UK but still?? 16 year olds!!). This wasn't one or two times in the course of three decades, this was a constant pattern of behavior for him and for a very insidious reason.

This isn't to try to infantilize those fans or young women/young people in general or try to suggest that they couldn't have consented to sex with an older person or famous person. In fact, the onus isn't on them at all. This is about an older guy with a lot of fame, power and wealth choosing to sleep with people that he had already conditioned to idolize him and using that power imbalance to coerce them into doing things they didn't want to.

Regardless of one's age or gender identity, it can be difficult to impossible to say 'no' to someone like that. After all, you've been 'chosen' by the chosen one, you're special and not like everyone else, and if you don't do what the popular person everyone trusts is telling you to do you could end up ostracized. Alienated. Or worse. And you know what? Gaiman knew that! He knew it when he was crafting his 'approachable dad' persona on tumblr. He knew it when he was cultivating a fandom of personality. He knew it when he was having huge meetups to try to ensnare more victims. I hate to even think it, but I'm starting to believe he knew it when he was writing children's books too.

It's been talked about again and again in separate issues, but needless to say something not being strictly illegal does not make it inherently, morally okay. It does not erase the fact that this man has been essentially grooming his fandom to feel safe meeting/speaking with him so he can coerce those he can snare into sexual acts they're not comfortable with. That is predator behavior, whether strictly 'illegal' in the eyes of a court or not (but ofc I think he should be criminally punished even if I'm not naive enough to think he actually will be, because this IS rape and rape should be criminally punished)

I'm not personally advocating for anyone to give up being in his related fandoms, but what I am personally advocating for is that people don't forget who he is and what he's capable of, especially when he tries to crawl back to where he was (I'm almost certain he will eventually, as I've said).

Again, at the very least, we need to use what little influence we do have to keep him from infiltrating fan spaces again. He should not be on tumblr yukking it up with young people, he should not be at public appearances hitting on teenagers, he should not be given the unrestricted access to fans that he's 'enjoyed' for the past 30+ years because he is not a safe person. While I wish there was more in the way of restorative justice that could be done, I think at very, very least we should do what we can to limit his proximity to people he could hurt in the future. Make sure no one forgets, because sweeping this under the rug means Gaiman gets to hurt more people.

Lastly, no one is the wrong for having been manipulated by him. Let's make that very clear. What we're NOT gonna do is blame ourselves, each other, the victims, etc, for evil acts that Gaiman chose to do himself, time and time and time again. It doesn't help the situation and it certainly doesn't protect future potential victims. We were all duped because we're human and we attach and a lot of us want to believe there are good people out there, particularly those who make art that means so much to us.

And there are. But let's also use this a teaching/learning tool about how much faith we place in famous people in the future, regardless of how 'approachable' and 'safe' they might seem. Let's remember to have a healthy suspicion of creators/famous people that are oddly immersed in fandom spaces- yes, even the ones you still currently like that seem fine, as difficult as that may seem.

At the end of the day, we don't know them or what they're capable of doing or what they might be plotting to do to us. Support victims. Amplify their voices. Don't forget.

[mylight-png]

A while ago I was listening to Dara Horn's podcast relating to her book, People Love Dead Jews. Within this podcast she discussed the fact that Holocaust museums tend to center stories that highlight ways in which Jews were just like anyone else, putting secular Jews on a pedestal of sorts.

The podcast went on to make the point that we shouldn't have to be like them to be liked. A Jew in a kippah is just as worthy of being accepted as a Jew in a baseball cap, and to position one, the more assimilated one, as "better" is antisemitic.

This made me think of how movies and shows portray Jews, and I realized a similar pattern of idealizing assimilation is deeply prevalent.

There are two main ways Jews are portrayed in movies/shows that I've noticed that are problematic. (For a narrower scope I'll be discussing American media as I am more familiar with that than most other countries.)

The first kind of Jewish representation is the token Jew. This is the character that the viewer wouldn't even have known is Jewish had the show not casually mentioned them celebrating Hanukkah in passing. This is the character who is entirely the same as any other character. An example of this would be in Ginny and Georgia, where a few side characters are revealed to be Jewish. This reveal occurred only for the purpose of making a Hanukkah episode, and immediately one of the characters says the beginning words to most of our prayers, adding "bitch" at the end. This sort of absolutely blatant disrespect towards the words many of us wouldn't even speak fully in casual conversation is meant to indicate that it's okay to poke fun at our religion. (By the way, it isn't okay. Don't disrespect our religion, thanks.) (And no the actress wasn't Jewish.)

Then there's Ben Gross from Never Have I Ever, a similarly extremely assimilated Jewish character. Instead of making fun of Judaism, however, the show plays into Jewish stereotypes. Ben's dad is a wealthy influential lawyer who works with Hollywood. Come on, there's three in a row there. Ben himself is frequently made fun of for being very short (to an extent not befitting the actor's actual stature), and some of his mannerisms could be described as effeminate. All of these traits play into anti-Jewish stereotypes. The protagonist even says she wishes Ben was killed by Nazis and other than a scolding this isn't made to be the big deal that it is.

These sorts of characters are meant to show how Jews are "just like you!" and pokes cruel fun at the few remaining things that do occasionally set them apart. Yes, secular Jews exist, but the way these shows make fun of their Jewish identities is where the issue arises.

The second problematic representation is meant to make goyim feel good about being goyim. This is specifically done through how Judaism is portrayed in these movies.

A major example of this is the show Unorthodox, in which the plot centers a young girl trying to escape her very observant community. This show directly demonized the Jewish religion, making it appear inherently oppressive and twisted.

While some may argue that the show was merely trying to portray the social issues within the community, there are better ways to achieve this.

The book An Unorthodox Match takes on a similar task with a vastly different tone. The book centers a protagonist joining an equally observant community, but not for a moment does the book, author, or protagonist blame Judaism. The book is very clearly written by a Jew who loves Judaism, and yet it manages to highlight similar social issues to the show without blaming Judaism. In fact, Jewish traditions have a fair share of appreciation in the book!

This sort of media is meant to make the goyishe viewers be grateful they aren't part of those communities, but as a Jewish viewer I felt deeply uncomfortable with the positioning of religious Jews as a negative part of society. This media makes the characters seem like they have nothing at all in common with the goyim around them or the goyim watching the show. It's the polar opposite of the previous example.

The first example is showing Jews as "just like anyone else" until they aren't, while the second example portrays Jews as entirely other. Never have I seen an Orthodox Jewish character side by side with the non-Jewish characters in any other context than the Jewish character envying their non-Jewish peers.

Why is the choice either to be assimilated or othered? Why can we not have an observant Jewish character remind their friends that they can't hang out on Saturday, or maybe they bring their own kosher snacks? Maybe a Jewish character muttering a bracha over their food? Why not make being Jewish an important part of their character without making them self-loathe because of it?

Media almost only ever shows two extremes and neither of those extremes has a positive impact on the perception of Jews.

(There is also a pattern I've noticed with Jews and goyim being cast in Jewish roles and how that corresponds to the character, but that's probably another post for another time.)

[all-pacas]

random and very specific chase headcanons i will insist on secretly working into all my stories:

chase and his sister don't look much alike. not in a "they're not related" way, just he takes after their mother and she takes after their dad, lookswise: there's not a deep symbolic meaning for this, they just… don't look alike.

chase never considered himself a Rich Kid growing up, because yes, the big huge house and dad's fancy cars, but he went to one of those very fancy private schools where like. his best friend's father owned oil fields. his friends had superyachts. he was the poor kid in that school, which in turn greatly skewed his own self perception of his family money.

the novelty did wear off but he enjoyed searching people's houses at first, because he'd get to creep on people's houses and belongings and learn about poor people and normal people hobbies and just observe. like an anthropologist. chase wants desperately to Be Normal and has the sinking suspicion he isn't, but also doesn't realize how boring he truly is. (he comes from a Mental Health Is For Other People family)

he has fucked men and he does consider himself heterosexual. his sexuality is a rotisserie chicken of repression and catholicism and "if i don't look at it it will go away." he knows what bisexuality is he just truly believes it doesn't apply.

the reason he worked NICU to earn extra money was a) he actually did kind of mean it when he said he needed a break, but for chase a break is overworking myself and not sleeping because then i simply have no energy to think, and also his sister needed money for rehab. again. and she was cut out of dad's will too.

they talk maybe once a year, but chase has a huge guilt complex about his sister and whenever she asks him for anything (money) he just throws it at her. to her credit, she has only done this once or twice ever. he actually wishes she'd do it more, because then she'd need him, and he could be useful to her (in a way that didn't involve talking to her).

he has a fairly high alcohol tolerance, but is also very good at coming off completely sober even when he's totally drunk, which makes it seem like he has a superhuman alcohol tolerance.

chase has very specific rules for himself and drinking, because children of alcoholics is a constant mantra in his head, but he does still drink. part of it is just a… cultural/social thing, part of it is absolute self flagellation. for a long time the rule was don't drink at home, never drink alone, but after his divorce he started to drink more - at home, alone, whatever - in a sort of rotating self flagellation sort of mess of: what if i did.

cameron was absolutely his first serious relationship.

he genuinely liked and was close with his priest, his teachers in catholic school, he has never had any brushes with Catholic Church scandals, it was the one place in his childhood chase genuinely did find adults who cared about him. however, he does not go to church as an adult. maybe once a year or if he's very, very stressed. it's almost more of a nostalgic thing than a prayer thing. he feels safe in church. he lights candles for his parents and dibala and tries to convince himself he believes in it.

he still believes in god and does absolutely believe he's going to hell. so why not enjoy his life and sleep around and do whatever while he's still alive, you know? enjoy the time you have left because all you can look forward to in death is eternal torment and suffering!!

he thinks, incorrectly, that he can do a pretty good american accent when he tries

[gotstabbedbyapen]

Might be a bit obscure but I was wondering if you have any HCs about Harmonia?

Harmonia, goddess of harmony!

I started with a couple of random ideas but ended up with a whole story for her lmao

When Harmonia was born, Ares would hold her in his arms and cry the whole night for how adorable she was.

As the only daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, Harmonia grew up with four bothers (Eros, Anteros, Phobos, Deimos) and a bunch of adoptive brothers (the Erotes). She was rarely seen without at least one brother accompanying her.

Harmonia and Hebe had a complicated relationship. Not in a bad way but in a "I'm your brother's daughter but I was born around the same time as you so uh..." way.

Harmonia was the referee/peace-keeper in the house. She was the one settling disputes among her siblings and make them hug each other out after their fights.

But don't mistake Harmonia's preference for peace for her being weak. Peace isn't always achieved in a peaceful way, and with a father who is a war god and siblings being literal embodiments of fear and terror, Harmonia can and will throw hands if you were to disrespect her. Even her siblings don't get it easy.

And you know the rule: when the most pacifist person got pissed, things will get ugly fast.

Harmonia and Eris don't interact much due to their domains being literal opposites. But they absolutely have the "Are you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go ape shit?" dynamic.

When Cadmus came to serve Ares as atonement for slaying his serpent, Harmonia took one look at this mortal hero and got a big fat crush. But she only quietly admire Cadmus from afar and never dared to come close.

Why? Well in the godly society, apparently it's fine for gods to sleep with mortal women, but goddesses sleeping with mortal men is considered shameful (e.g. Clio chided Aphrodite for sleeping with Adonis and Merope hid in shame for marrying Sisyphus)

Ares knew about his daughter crushing on his servant but was too shy to approach him, so being the awesome father that he is, he became her wingman (or wing-dad)

Ares ordered Cadmus to run errands at places where Harmonia was often around so they would "accidentally" bump into each other. He'd nudged Cadmus like, "Hey, my little girl thought highly of you so I'll make this servitude easier for you. Also, what do you think about Harmonia?"

Aphrodite was also supportive of her daughter getting it on with Cadmus, giving her tips and tricks to win over the guy. "Goddesses being with mortal man is shameful my ass, you go get your man, dear daughter!"

Harmonia aso ried to flirt and court Cadmus with advices from Eros. Sometimes it works pretty well, other times... well, Eros got his ass beaten by his sister.

When Cadmus was done with his servitude and married Harmonia, you can imagine Ares being a shotgun father and the Erotes being shotgun brothers at the wedding.

As one of the beloved-by-all figure on Olympus, Harmonia received a lot of wedding gifts from the other gods. However, unbeknownst to all, Harmonia was given a cursed robe and necklace from Hephaestus (as revenge for her parents cheating when Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus)

It was believed that these cursed gifts were the reason why almost all children of Cadmus and Harmonia were doomed.

On an unrelated but also related note, because Hephaestus' gifts had caused Harmonia misery, Ares grew even more bitter and distant from his brother.

I'm not gonna go through all the things that happened with the House of Thebes. Let's just say all the horrors that took her children away take a toll on Harmonia. She fell into depression, beginning to doubt her own divinity and dreading over the fact that as a goddess herself, she couldn't protect all of her children from their demises.

But after everything, Harmonia held strong. She had her father's bravery and her mother's fierce love, and those two traits was what carried her through the darkest moments and made her the ever-faithful anchor for her husband.

Harmonia was the one advised Cadmus to leave the royalty life and settle for a more simpler but more peaceful one. She wouldn't mind having to live as a peasant if it meant this new life could bring peace of mind to her husband.

When Cadmus was turned into a snake, Harmonia was offered by her family to a choice to leave Cadmus and return to Olympus. She chose to stay with him, even let herself be turned into a snake to join her beloved. He was all the she had left, and she decided: if they had to go, they will go together.

And when Cadmus finally died, even if she couldn't die herself, Harmonia followed him to Elysium.

But since Harmonia is still a goddess with duties, time and time again she would have to go back to the living world to fulfill them or visit her godly family. Those parting trips weren't as long as Persephone's because Harmonia is still a minor goddess.

Anyways, it was an overall happy ending for them.

[avesgrayson]

Short little drabble heavily projecting onto Jason and ✨mental illness✨ ft. Post-lazarus memory issues and coping

It's terrifying, losing time. Especially when you don't realize it's happened. The pit rages had gotten better, but the memory issues had only seemed to become more obvious over time. Being told events that he couldn't remember, moments of awareness going in and out, sometimes even feeling a jolt of awareness as he processes where he is. It's not like he wasn't aware before, not necessarily, but it was still a shock. It was life he had been in a haze and suddenly snapped out of it and processed where he was.

None of the other bats noticed. He knew he hid it well enough. Sometimes he just felt… weird. Like he was just to the left of himself. A version who felt different and thought different, but still knew how to keep up the charade of being the same. But when he gets asked about events he experienced, stories others told, with no memory of what happened? He can feel the creeping anxiety of just how much he lost.

And the pit rage. He lied a bit when he told the others about not remembering what happened. He did, but in bits and pieces. To be fair, he didn't regret what was done. Those bastards deserved it, and the world was better off with them dead. But when the rage takes over it's not some brainless animal that's clawing and scratching at everything in anger. It's focused, pinpointed on something.

At first it was his family and the Joker. His brother missed his funeral, his killer was alive and allowed to get free anytime he wanted, his dad never saved him or served any kind of justice. Fuck what Batman does or doesn't do, he should have made the bastard pay. He'd kill those who disagreed with him, take over Crime Alley, and ensure the kids were safe.

It gradually shifted. He couldn't tell you when, just that it did. He cared less and less about the joker and more about himself and his brothers. Now? Now if he flies into a rage it's more… protective. It's still violent, and he never regrets what happens during the episodes (okay, well, the lectures from Bruce are always a pain but-). He isn't some crazed animal, though. The family knows he's violent, knows he still deals with the side effects of the Lazarus Pit. It gives him a good excuse for when he ends up blowing three warehouses to the sky because he found they were planning to kidnap and assault Robin.

He's considered going to a therapist, maybe see if they could figure out what was causing his memory issues. The idea was quickly thrown out the window, though. No one can exactly walk into their new therapist's office and say “Hi I have severe memory issues that I've managed to hide from everyone around me and I've also killed dozens of people, how are you today?” So, yeah, therapy was out of the question. Didn't mean he slacked on his research though.

While nothing was confirmed, he had a pretty good idea that it was something mental. Trauma related too, given everything around his childhood. Maybe it was a bad idea, but he looked into the common coping mechanism. What other people's therapists suggested, ways to get around the memory loss. The worst part? Some of it worked. So he confirmed he was definitely fucked in the head, even if he refused to slap a label on and call it good.

One of the first things he tried to do was connect to the pit rage. Or whatever it was that he was dealing with. Meditation was the easiest, but also the most annoying. It was as if he was fighting himself. He got worse before he got better, but self isolating helped keep the fall out from the others. Worsening memory, more rage episodes, the works. Worst one was coming to while covered in blood, surrounded by the destroyed body of a confirmed child rapist in the narrows. It had been months since he last killed someone. Let alone the brutality of the murder. He didn't leave his apartment for three days after that.

It took a few months to see any improvement. His friends got worried, brothers even more so. A few snappy words kept them out of his business walk enough, thankfully. But when it started to get better… It was like a whole knew world had opened up. Sure, the memory issues were still awful, but he was able to be more aware when the rage hit and he could follow the thought process easier. It felt less and less like someone else who thought and behaved differently, and more like himself-but-to-the-left.

He felt a bit crazy, talking to himself. Not outloud, god no, but internally. It helped to imagine the pit rage as a separate person he could talk to and reason with. And it was only after he got confirmation that they wouldn't hurt his family that he went back to regular patrols and collaborations with the Bats.

The most jarring part to come out of it, though, was rediscovering Robin. Or, well, the version of him who was Robin. As both him and him-to-the-left (he should find a better name for that guy) were more jaded and comfortable with the darker sides of society, it almost made him cry the first time he felt a small part of himself filled with pure joy and excitement at his brother's existence. He awkwardly had to excuse himself to the bathroom in the middle of fucking Mario kart because Robin decided to randomly overwhelm him with emotions.

Couldn't say anything to his brothers, though. His mental issues could stay his and his alone. Him and his two other versions of himself. That apparently exist. But it was both a blessing and a curse making progress towards healing. On one hand his memory issues were slowly getting better. On the other hand, he now has to deal with the random thoughts of the others being forced to the front of his mind in the middle of conversations. Random commentary, jokes, or even the most random pieces of information were sometimes shared and it made pretending nothing was going on a lot harder at times.

His family knew something changed. He also knew that no one was brave enough to ask what it was, they were just glad he was back and seemed to be doing decently okay. Sure he had his moments of snapping at them, but nothing was outright malicious. It was nice. But he refused to let Robin out around them. He could be out and about on his own or at their place, but he did not need to deal with the fall-out of such a sudden shift in behavior being perceived by his family. Maybe one day they'd get to be around Robin, even if they didn't know it, but not yet.

He was fine just dealing with this comfortable push-and-pull between him and his family. He was healing, and that's what mattered.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

hcs of how assorted fe8 characters play pokémon:

eirika

favourite game: BW1 and/or SM (likes the characters and story. was genuinely sad when n left at the end of bw1.)

unironically loves, and uses pokémon that are usually hated or otherwise ignored, such as simisear (she picked oshawott in her first playthrough of white), audino, zebstrika, drampa etc. though tbh she enjoys all pokémon in general and usually tries for 100% dex completion in every game.

completes every single sidequest she comes across, because she really wants to help the npcs. would prefer to play through the main story slowly and at her own pace, except her friend group is full of people who play for endgame content and/or competitive, and she more often than not is urged to complete the main story quickly so she can help them out with postgame (e.g. trading post-HOF version exclusives).

only occasionally dips her toes into battle facilities, usually because another friend (or her brother) is challenging multi battles and needs a partner. the one battle facility she actually grinds of her own accord is the battle subway, for character-related reasons.

doesn't battle much, really just her friends if they're up for it. prefers to do other co-op activities in multiplayer such as raids.

ephraim

favourite game: pokkén (loves beating the shit out of opponents in a fighting game. it's cathartic at least.)

doesn't really catch a lot of pokémon, just those he thinks looks cool / strong. the exception is when he's trying to help his sister complete the dex and needs to catch version exclusives.

in fact the twins always get opposite game versions (for mainline + old mystery dungeon) for that reason, to cover more ground, e.g. ephraim's first pokémon game was black, eirika's was white (which their dad bought for them when they were kids). they either play third versions (emerald, plat) / single titles (LA) concurrently, or only one of them plays while the other backseats the entire time.

rushes the main story to get to the battle facilities (and endgame items for competitive prep). was very disappointed when SV didn't have any sort of battle facility.

ladders a lot ingame and on battle sims. also fights innes every friday night, where he runs the risk of getting both of them banned from showdown over battle chat getting spicy.

lyon

favourite game: explorers of sky, poképark 2 or SM (he vibes with the more grim plot)

also a 100% dex completionist, though he usually tries to play third versions / transfer from other games to do so.

has memorised at least one dex entry for every pokémon. just knows all sorts of stats and lore off the top of his head.

actually knows how to datamine / modify game files. he will never admit it but he absolutely has used cheats ingame before.

doesn't do battle facilities beyond grinding for BP for items, or playing with friends. he prefers to explore the region to its fullest extent and learn about all the background lore.

he does play competitive, but isn't very good at it yet because he doesn't really have time to practise (actually studies irl).

may or may not also be making a horror romhack of his own with knoll's help.

joshua

favourite game: TCG (or masters) (gambling)

likes running risky strats such as (in mainline) multi-hit moves without skill link / loaded dice, serene grace + paraflinch etc. frequently also does these on challenge runs such as nuzlockes, because it's funny.

for the tcg pocket people: he mains celebi. 'nuff said.

actually pretty good at the game, he just can't resist the allure of 50/50 coinflips to decide a game.

.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Hello again! So it's always said that Luke had the right idea but the wrong execution...so what would an AU be like if Luke had the better execution??

Luke can't act like Percy. Percy's dad is a big three god who is willing to rock the boat for his son. Hermes is a 2nd gen god with none of the same backbone.

I was wondering...what if Luke worked with the minor gods and the other titans to overthrow Olympus instead? By taking Kronos out of the equation, it allows us to focus on the injustices instead of taking out the "greater evil". Of course, it would take the grooming part out too, but Luke could still be groomed somewhat by the other dieties - they are amoral divine beings after all. I think stories like these can be way more interesting if the antagonists are not truly evil and the protags have to truly confront their worldviews.

It's like everything relating to the minor gods and the titans was thrown in towards the end. I think Ethan is the first demigod of a minor god Percy interacts with and that's in book 4! And even in book 5, Percy truly doesn't give a damn about the minor gods. I feel if Kronos was removed from the picture, we could have focused more on these issues and the gods wouldn't get so much leeway.

While the idea is quite good, I do fear there is one major blockade in it's way.

It would never, ever logically happen. For this to work you'd have to ignore all facets of logic and realism.

I think people often forget that the main reason that minor gods joined Luke later on was that Kronos was on his side. Litteraly- the earliest we know off them joining with the TA was BotL or TTC (not sure which one rn)- that are 3 or 4 years into the army already.

Fact was that Luke as a mere demigod didn't have much of a powerbase alone in the mythical world. Sure- he was popular at camp. But a ragtag group of demigods from CHB would not have been enough to straight-up overthrow Olympus on their own. The only reason Luke had monsters under his control in the army was Kronos, and the only reason minor deities had enough trust to join up with the TA later on was because they had Kronos on his side.

The reason people seem to dislike Luke so much and talk about "better ways" for his revolution is that- at the end of the day, the TA was realistic. Revolutions and revolts are dirty affairs in which innocent people will get hurt no matter what. Even those revolutions that are considered "good" and "justified" irl had more than enough crimes committed during- and for them. The French Revolution saw horrible crimes against noblewomen and multiple lynch mobs, the Americans had to ally with the French (another monarchy violently suppressing their own ppl and colonies) to win against the British in their independence war.

Most people seem to have this hyper-romanticized imagination of what revolutions are like. That they are there noble and totally clean and good crusades against some evil overlord. Where our heroes will never have to make difficult choices or have to compromise their morals to win. When that simply isn't the case.

There is a reason the evil overlords are overlords. They are really strong and ready to use violence to keep control, and the revolutionists who want to work against them often just can't remain entirely free of blood if they wanna defeat them.

Luke needed Kronos because Kronos was his powerbase to begin with, if he doesn't have that might to throw behind him- why should anyone trust Luke? Why should the minor gods trust some random demigod of Hermes (who's not even a particularly powerful god like the Big Three, mind you) in something as major as an all out rebellion against Olympus? Something that, if it failed, would properly see them severely punished.

Friendly reminder that the only reason Olympus never really took any major retaliatory action after the battle due to Percy demanding a general amnesty. Name me one good reason for the minor gods to take that risk on the words of some random 19 y/o demigod.

Fact is that Luke simply didn't have any "better way" to do anything. I already explained why he needed to have Kronos, but even trying to do a peaceful protest is out the question. Peaceful protests work on the grounds that people will be able to politically pressure the evil overlord to treat you better after showcasing your mistreatment is morally wrong. There's no one to put pressure on the gods- literally, they are the highest instance and have shown time and time again in the books that words mean nothing to them.

And sure- the demigods could technically run away or try to refuse quests to get the gods to do what they want. But first off, A)It has been established that CHB is pretty much the only save place for demigods where they aren't constantly hunted to death by monsters. And B) What do you think would the gods do if demigods suddenly refused quests? You think they'd just let that sit on them? The angry and petty gods who see their kids and little more than cannon fodder? Who slaughtered the TA despite a general amnesty still?

Like- listen, in the nicest way possible. If you wanna talk to me about better ways Luke could have taken, I am the wrong person to do that with. Because that whole rhetoric is utter bullcrap produced by the fandom can't handle realism in my opinion. And I'm not even gonna entertain that idea even on a hypothetical purely on principle and because I am that petty.

[softantlers]

Seen one too many people on that clock app say Lottie is "white passing" & I need a palate cleanser. If you're comfortable sharing, do you have any headcanons about Lottie dealing with casual racism from her dad, classmates, doctors, rich white people society, etc?

oh white-passing rhetoric -takes a smoke with a thousand yard stare-

tbh i'll put this under a cut because it's a vulnerable topic and i would want it to be interacted with intentionally, more than most of my headcanons/metas wahhhhhh. also honestly because this became an absolute DISSERTATION on how i understand lottie as a character lmaoooo.

yeah so to start, i feel like it's important to mention i speak from a place of being korean/white or white/korean or mostly just tired lol. what that means is that i can relate to lottie's mixed identity in a general sense, as in i understand the baseline dynamics of having a white dad and a mom who isn't white. what i don't feel comfortable (and probably shouldn't be) talking about is lottie's relationship to being māori, only because i'm not native/indigenous & can't speak to that experience + i understand that there can be much different dynamics with being multiracial in a context that's inseparable from ongoing cultural genocide.

what i can speak to though is the experience of not looking "right" -- not looking correctly korean and not looking correctly white & perhaps not looking discernibly "this or that" to anyone about being fucking anything.

i think the weirdness of that might be something lottie would experience, alongside how whack it can feel to have a mixed identity when everyone wants you so desperately to be "this or that" but declaring either side of your identity to appease people feels inauthentic & dysphoric, like cutting off your own arm.

OKAY. that's my spiel. a bit goth of me lol. those are my disclaimers. but otherwise, let's fucking go!

first of all, i suppose there might be a context in the world SOMEWHERE with much different race relations and perspectives on colorism than the US/canada where lottie could (i guess?) be mistaken as only being white. BUT that's genuinely so profoundly out of the context of fuckin' new jersey or yellowjackets, so i think people on that shit are kinda being delusional. people (especially monoracial white people who tend to jump into this discourse like goddamn piranhas and should honestly stfu) need to understand that whiteness is not only a construct but a *moving target*, and within the realm of the white supremacist & western environment we are discussing, lottie would absolutely not experience the world as a white person.

sidebar: thanks for asking me if i was comfortable with this ask btw! one thing i hope you don't mind me pushing back on is that racism is often used as the defining metric of how people experience being "not white." while it's a huge part of it, i also like to think about the good stuff. <3

for one, i am so curious about lottie's relationship with her mom. it might be a complicated one, given that her mom apparently failed to protect her from the trauma of institutionalization but at the same time, my own mom is my absolute north star. i learn so much from her & appreciate her so profoundly, and i see lottie reaching for that relationship just the same. i imagine them having moments apart from her father that are really special, questions about their shared culture that lottie gets to ask. stories about her grandmother that her mom shares with a fond smile. looking at pictures of her mom's family, reconvening with that side of the family & maybe feeling strange and out of place but still a touch closer to being integrated. we don't get any details on this whatsoever in the show, but i also don't think we should assume lottie *isn't* integrated just because the writers don't explore this aspect of her experience.

beyond all this, i also think being mixed would give lottie a much different perspective on being rich than most assume. idk in a lot of fanon i see her characterized as being sort of head-in-the-clouds & not able to relate beyond her experience of wealth, and while that might genuinely be the case in some aspects, i don't really think it's that simple.

when you aren't white or you're mixed, wealth is a different experience imo bc you fundamentally have to face the fact that white people think you don't deserve what you have BECAUSE you aren't white. rather, they think you got where you are through some kind of backdoor and they are fucking pissed about it. (in my experience, while i am not wealthy lmao, i have received opportunities--some of them honestly exploiting my background--which have been written off as diversity tricks by jealous white people.) so like, having something is a bit different & makes you think of yourself differently when you get the message from white people that, actually, YOU--the you YOU are--shouldn't have it.

here's an excerpt from my longfic with what i sort of imagine being the dynamic here (it's a lottienat fic in s2 so more lucid!lottie but it captures how i think she might experience this):

Sensing she wasn��t doing a great job explaining, Lottie shrugged. “I don’t know if I have better words… Not having to worry was a big part of it. But I guess that’s not true either. It’s not like my life is perfect.” She bit her lip, wondering if Natalie would accept that. Or if the chasm between their experiences was too wide. “My dad’s kept a list of colleges and programs for me since I was a kid. You know, pre-law, pre-med, business. If I wanted to… I don’t know? Be a veterinarian or a teacher or an—” Lottie smiled sadly, “—art therapist? It wouldn’t be okay. It wouldn’t happen. I mean, if it did, he’d never talk to me again.”

[...]

Lottie hesitated, cutting a glance to Natalie before forging on with the same gritty determination that kept her trudging through the snow. She wasn’t sure why she was confessing all this… Maybe it was because no one had ever wanted to talk to her about it before. “And people have been… God, they’ve been so fucking racist to my mom. Ever since I was little, people would say the bitchiest things right to her face. Right in front of me.” At this, she avoided looking at Natalie. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see the probable flicker, the innate defensiveness, that sometimes came to a white person’s face when these topics were touched.

“Then, I got older, and they started saying the same things about me… My mom’s a lawyer. I mean, she didn’t have to marry Malcolm Matthews for a comfortable life.” Lottie grimaced, a familiar frustration turning in her stomach. “Maybe this is all bullshit, you know? Why do we have things other people don’t? I think about that. But the way we look? It’s not a good reason to have less. People just see what they want to see.”

“That fucking sucks, Lot.” When she turned to Natalie, she saw that the hunter’s eyes were downcast. Her jaw had tightened, and there was a familiar expression on her face. Lottie had last seen it when that bitch from the neighboring county hip-checked Nat right off the field during a game last year. Taissa and Shauna had sprung into action, holding the winger back as she hissed and spat so vehemently her opponent was startled all the way back to her own goal post. It was an expression Lottie had come to associate with seething rage. Honestly, she kind of liked seeing it now.

--

okay now i suppose to get into racism specifically?

there's the mixed staple of "what are you?" followed by people going "what's that?" or "oh, i wouldn't have guessed" or "oh, you actually look like [...]" or "wait, no, let me guess!" which i can't imagine lottie doesn't experience.

there's also the strangeness of having a parent and relatives who, in the grand scheme of colorism and white supremacy, may experience racism a lot differently than you. for my part, i get a lot of the "wasian" weirdness, sort of preferential (but also in the grand scheme, racist) comments that get across exoticism, being fetishized, but that also are jabs at your fucking family and where you come from that make you feel so fucking gross because--on the one hand, is this a privilege? yeah. on the other? you don't fucking want it. (my first tattoo person was a white lady gushing that i looked pretty, like "asian watercolor" whatever the FUCK that means lmaooo with my mom, darker than me, right there... uh, fuck you bitch.)

so i can see lottie experiencing some of that and feeling awful about it. another aspect to this is that when your family experiences racism differently than you, you can sometimes gaslight yourself into believing that you don't experience racism at all. there have been times in my own life where my partner has had to be like... "that sounds like racism" and my ass is like "huhhh? meeee????" but in the end, yeah. so i can see some imposter syndrome coming into play with lottie, maybe discounting how weird comments feel and overlooking her own experience when people say outright malicious shit

there's another aspect to being mixed (specifically with also being white) that could be touched on here i guess. all mixed people deal with the fact that our bodies are sort of public domain--open to be commented on, discussed, and debated by monoracial people. there's not use being bitter about it imo because it's a reflection of different layers of power, privilege, and colorism that needs to be talked about somehow. specific to the experience of also being white is that you often become a sort of confessional booth for white people, who see just enough of themselves in you to offload the weirdest fuckshit you've ever heard in your life. you're not quite enough of one race for them to be totally alienated about confessing their stupid racist thoughts & stereotypes to you. like you're this whispering well for them. it's weird, but it's a consistent dynamic when i talk to people with similar experiences to me...

i don't think i'll go into nastier headcanons on this because idk. we all basically know what racism is and how violent and confrontational and inhumane it is, so i'm sure we can imagine the more explicit stuff. but i do think it's interesting to consider the hopefully more nuanced above & again, this is honestly just my two cents and a healthy degree of projection. i don't claim to be the expert on how lottie might experience race, but i think it's a rich topic and i try to consider these concepts/headcanons/whatever when i'm writing her.

thanks for the ask! it helped me solidify some stuff i've been thinking about

[quantomeno]

Professor Layton and the Raiders of the Lost Legacy

aka "I've finally pinpointed exactly what's wrong with Azran Legacy and it's Indiana Jones"

(spoilers for all the layton games. Not many for Indiana Jones films but there are some mostly to do with the Last Crusade)

(also sorry this is such a long post I got carried away)

So, the other day I was rewatching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (it was new years eve and I had nothing better to do and it was on tv) and as a Layton fan I chuckled a little at the opening where Indy talks about how archaeology isn't about hunting for buried treasure etc because as we all know, Layton spends even less time being an archaeology professor than Indy and honestly even less time doing anything remotely related to archaeology.

And as the film progressed, I had Layton in the back of my mind. I was a massive Indiana Jones fan around the same time I was a massive Layton fan but since Layton in the original trilogy is hardly an archaeologist I don't think I ever really made the connection between the two series.

So, the problem I've always had with Azran Legacy is twofold. One is the story letting you do the different locations in any order, because it forces the overarching plot to stagnate and is what I think is a big factor in the rushed revelations at the ending (where we have like five different things going on and like everyone dies and comes back to life like woah, slow down). The other is that it just doesn't feel 'Laytonesque'. Now, Miracle Mask also has this issue, and in that case it's kind of the point because of the move to a new console and the new graphics and the series was getting repetitive by then. And some of the things I'll discuss later will be true of MM but I think they're more pronounced in AL.

The thing I realised watching the last crusade was that there's something else: AL is an 'Indiana Jones game' (in a sense).

OK there are a few key features of an IJ film for those who haven't seen them:

Indy meets someone who wants him to track down a valuable artefact that has some sort of mystical properties (e.g. the Holy Grail)

He discovers that some bad guys are after the treasure for evil purposes (it's often nazis)

What follows is an often violent chase across countries as he tries to piece together the mystery

In the end, Indy discovers the secret but just before he can get to the treasure, the bad guys get there first

He typically gets betrayed at a pivotal moment by someone he trusted

Indy has to help the bad guys under duress (e.g. his dad is shot and can only be saved by the Holy Grail)

The bad guys get the treasure but then do something stupid because of their greed/pride/ignorance and then they get killed by the magic power of the treasure (and the myths around it are thus proven true)

Indiana Jones rejects the allure of the treasure's power and either returns it to its rightful owners, leaves it alone or it ends up hidden away in a storage facility and forgotten (despite the fact much is made of his catchphrase 'it belongs in a museum', most of the major treasures don't actually end up in a museum)

Now, if we look at Azran Legacy:

Layton meets a guy (Sycamore) who has found a mysterious girl frozen in ice who is tied to some greater legend

He soon finds out Targent is after the girl and then they discover the second clue (the Azran eggs) and realise Targent want the 'Azran Legacy'

What follows is an occasionally violent chase around the world as Layton tries to piece together the mystery and find the eggs before Targent

Layton puts together the key from the Azran eggs but it gets stolen by Descole (his 'arch nemesis' who who was disguised as Sycamore)

Everyone chases Descole to the Azran sanctuary but then Layton gets betrayed by Emmy who was secretly working for Targent

Bronev (Targent's leader), in his desire to get the Azran legacy at all costs, sacrifices the frozen girl (Aurora) by stabbing her with the key

Laputa Castle in the Sky happens robots are unleashed on the world and to stop them everyone present must sacrifice themselves

Aurora (she got better) resurrects everyone with Azran magic science and then dies herself (she was a robot so she wasn't really alive anyway)

The Azran sanctuary and the robots crumble to dust and Layton, having rejected the allure of power and so on, returns home (after dealing with some family drama but that's a whole other story)

But you see the point? Azran Legacy is a stereotypical treasure hunting plot. Which is of course The Point, but it really shows just why it doesn't feel like a Layton game.

Compare Lost Future which is often the target of criticism for its over-the-top final act. Why is LF still a Layton game? Because we don't have the 'magic' elements Azrran Legacy has. Because the location is quite fixed and isolated. Because the evil guys aren't chasing us around the globe. Sure, they appear every time we go onto their turf, but 1) that's their turf and 2) they are no chase scenes. There isn't this final act where the villain wins the prize because there is no McGuffin.

And that is the other key thing: Layton games actually very rarely have McGuffins that are actual items.

CV's golden apple is really Flora.

PB has the box, obviously and that one I concede.

Last Specter has the flute? I guess. But the golden garden is the real treasure everyone's hunting for but that's not a 'thing'.

LF has the time machine? Maybe that counts?

Eternal Diva has Ambrosia/the secret to eternal life, but Ambrosia is again a place and the secret isn't a thing either.

MM has the mask (duh).

And AL has the eggs and later the key. The point being that there's an actual hunt for the eggs. Unlike in Last Specter where the flute never really changes hands.

The next point that then arises is why don't PB and MM suffer from this problem?

PB has only got Don Paolo as the 'villain' who wants the treasure. The other treasure seekers are either the real owner (Anton) or his brother who is kind of just hanging around grumpily and leaves after being told off by a hotel clerk. There's no 'chase' and the treasure doesn't physically appear until Don Paolo drops it and then leaves the plot entirely. Also its 'magic' is explained scientifically in a (somewhat) believable (or at least comprehensible) way.

MM avoids it because it is actually a Scooby Doo plot and not an Indiana Jones plot: the villain is a guy with a grudge in a costume, the magic item had no powers and was just a key to some weird contraption that lifts up the city (for reasons) and all the 'magic' was just circus tricks. The fact it mirrors the Last Crusade's "other hand" scene is hardly relevant. Even the ruins segment is decidedly not Indiana Jones since, again, there's no race against time aspect and there are no bad guys chasing them. MM definitely takes a lot of cues from IJ but overall the game is still Laytonesque. It is a character study more than an adventure.

And for people who complain about the weirdness of Last Specter. That's not that weird. Dinosaurs existed once it's not completely insane that a big aquatic animal was hiding in the town's reservoir.

I think this even ties into why I dislike the AL 'finger point' scene: all the other games build up to that moment because it answers an important mystery at the core of the story (or leads to it). Because a Layton game is a mystery game, but AL is hardly a mystery story, or it's really just a bunch of mini mysteries embedded in a treasure hunting chase story. Like, there is the 'what is the legacy' mystery, but that's not something you solve the same way you do the hallucinations of PB or the identity of LS's spectre. It just appears by itself at the end.

In trying to make a big, exciting, globe-trotting game, Level 5 overlooked the fundamental features of a Layton game, in particular the overarching mystery, and supplanted them with treasure-hunting tropes. AL is the least Laytonesque game of them all as a result and while this is not inherently a bad thing (we all know the original trilogy's twist was getting a little stale the fourth time they did it), it does change the flavour of the game to such a degree that I personally don't love it to the same degree as the other games.

Also the whole Layton I am your brother and also Bronev is our father bit was way too rushed and I can't forgive it for that. Honestly that's actually 75% of why AL is my lowest-ranked main series game but that's less fun to talk about than all this.

[yuri-is-online]

c-could we have some crumbs of what Yuu and Yutu’s life was like before Yuu died? any particular moments that Yutu may remember fondly for example? 👉👈

Of course my friend, let me see if I can make this less angsty than some of the other posts (challenge impossible)

notes: they/them used for Yuu, this is part of the fyuuture kid au which can be found here and here

I want to leave exactly where in the world Yuu and Yutu are from up to the reader, but I sort of see them as having lived in a small town. They moved at least once to get away from the rumor mill of the place Yuu went missing from, Yutu doesn't have a lot of fond memories of Yuu's og hometown. He remembers it as a place where people were constantly talking about where they thought Yuu went for all the years they went missing.

Even after they moved Yuu and Yutu were considered to be weird and seen as outcasts, something I think Yuu was more upset about it than Yutu was. Until the game explains the rules of Yuu's world, in my mind it is sort of functioning off of Kingdom Hearts logic where when traveling to a different world, your form changes to reflect that one so no merfolk forms for the Octotrio's kids, no beastmen traits for the Savanaclaw kids, and no ability to use Twisted Wonderland like magic for anyone. Yutu can still tell he should have those things and it bothered him a lot.

It was a wild experience to be taken through the mirror and have his ears change or learn he was part fish.

I like to think that Yuu had a job working nights so they could spend more time with Yutu during the day, in what field I leave up to you but they were a really hard worker who saved all their pto and vacation days to attend Yutu's school events and any extracurricular stuff he decided to do. That meant a lot to Yutu, his feelings about his dad change depending on a few things but he never felt like he was lacking in support from Yuu.

Little Yutu really liked making crafts for Yuu. He was really into origami flowers for a while and still knows how to make them, though he's a bit embarrassed by it now.

Yutu genuinely likes Yuu's cooking even if it isn't good. I like the idea of Yutu and Yuu baking cakes together on birthdays, picking out a box mix and fun frosting so they can decorate it the exact way Yutu wants to. A bit before they died Yutu surprised them by baking a cake all on his own the day before their birthday, Yuu was very proud of him and Yutu was just a tiny bit smug about it.

I like to think Yuu subconsciously bought Yutu a stuffed animal that related to Twisted Wonderland in some way. A black cat, a white rabbit, a lion, or maybe even an octopus. Yutu isn't very creative with names so he just named his animals after himself, which is something Yuu would have been able to tease him about because he is very sensitive about it.

Any holidays that are significantly important to Yuu are important to Yutu as well. If you have family traditions that you passed on to him he will think of those fondly and will have told his friends, both in your world and Twisted Wonderland, about them. I like to think that Yuu might have come up with someones unique to them and Yutu since their memories of their past weren't great, so the new ones they made with their son were very important to them.

He especially liked Halloween. It's easily his favorite holiday and he used to get really excited to dress up with Yuu.

Yuu used to read Yutu bedtime stories, and he did like those, but he has really strong memories of times when they would work together to make up a story. He could still repeat some of those back to you... if you knew to ask him about them.

I am interested in hearing what sort of things you would think about Yuu doing with Yutu, or hobbies you think would be fun for specific Yutus to pursue.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

On This Blank Canvas I Paint, Episode 3

Ena is worried she's not growing in her artistry in the ways Kanade and Mafuyu each are. While they're becoming more able to express themselves, Ena's art has stayed in the same place, because her technique stopped improving after she quit Mr. Yukihira's art classes after five years. Mizuki doesn't know what it is that's wrong but is moved to get to the bottom of it.

Mizuki picks up that something is wrong, and asks if this is more than an art block. This isn't too unusual for her; she isn't uncomfortable getting into the other member's personal issues, only when others might get into her own. She readily helped Kanade through Carnation Recollection and Mafuyu during Mirage of Light.

What happened with Ena after she got rejected by the art contest her father mocked her for submitting a piece for had snuck up on Mizuki. In fact, N25 being blindsided by Ena being in danger of disappearing then was part of Mizuki's motivation to get to know her bandmates better in Secret Distance.

So, unlike Kanade and Mafuyu, this is the first Ena is seeing of this side of Mizuki, the first time it's her on the receiving end. As with both of those times, Mizuki only shows this side of herself when she's alone with the other person. On the contrary, Ena's interaction with Mizuki has been one of chasing her down and forcing her to stop suffering in silence when she has friends who love her. She's surprised by this side of Mizuki.

Mizuki reminds Ena that something like this happened before, during Insatiable Pale Color, and in doing so, shows the progress she's made since then in picking up on the early warning signs of these sort of scares, since we know from Episodes 1 and 2 that Ena was heading there.

Mizuki has a little fun teasing Ena that, Why is Ena surprised; Mizuki is doing for Ena the exact same thing Ena spent an entire arc doing for Mizuki. Mizuki even reuses the same sort of things Ena had been the one telling to her in What Lies Behind / What Lies Ahead, in saying she's willing to wait for Ena to feel ready to confide in her as well as the reassurance that talking about it may make her feel better. Mizuki of course says this knowing she personally will not finally confide in Ena when she herself is ready, but that's another issue.

Ena recognizes that talking here, even if it's difficult and shares her burden with a friend, is what she asks of Mizuki, and tells her story.

Ena gives the full story and we see Mizuki's reaction to Ena is different from Mizuki's reaction to Kanade's story in Carnation Recollection. In that story, Mizuki reflected that she thought Kanade is being too hard on herself feeling like she must atone for what she did to her dad, but decided it'd be pointless to say that. But here, she does say to Ena that she's being too hard on herself.

As for why, the distinction may have something to do with Kanade and Ena being so different; everyone in N25 has seen how receptive to praise Ena is. Being told she's being too hard on herself could make her feel better, even though like Kanade she's convinced she deserves to feel that way.

But, this event is Ena's turning point. Not only did her dad and Mr. Yukihira lose faith in her as an artist after five years of high-end art classes, not only did she get rejected outright from entering that contest after having to grapple with the reality that none of the people who comment on N25 songs particular care for the art quality, and not only does her illustrations account get no interaction, she's now painfully aware she is unable to improve in any meaningful way where she is now. Ena rejects Mizuki's sympathy in the same way Mizuki had known Kanade would if she'd said the same to her.

After her halfhearted thanks, she insists she's dragging N25 down and that she needs to do something different in order to make good art. She talks about Mr. Yukihira's art class she quit two years ago, but also that she never liked it there.

Mizuki relates to how Ena's feeling from how she felt grappling with the impasse that she can't grow as a person without confiding who she is to her friends back in What Lies Behind / What Lies Ahead. Likewise, Mizuki knows Ena needs to be distracted right now.

Ena reads Mizuki's change in mood putting on her mask as Mizuki making fun of her; that, What? Ena's taken professional lessons for art?

Ena takes the bait and talks about art with Mizuki and all the little things those classes helped broaden her perspective as an artist with.

Mizuki keeps her talking and Ena finds her way back to music. Before she ever met Kanade or heard anything she wrote, she would get inspired to make art while listening to music. Mizuki seems to relate but what she actually says is she only draws inspiration for music videos from the song she's making the video for, and specifically as part of her work for N25. But Ena doesn't notice; she's talking and Mizuki knows how to keep the conversation going.

Ena mentions she included drawings of cosmetics in her scrapbook portfolio project and that Mr. Yukihira made fun of her for it. For whatever reason, Mizuki says he may have had a point, but very quickly moves the topic along.

As part of being an insta sensation, Ena is very good with makeup and is frequently shown in Area Conversations and interactions with Airi as being interested in trending makeup products. We see a bit of her insecurity with her appearance in her irritated reaction to learning Shizuku looks so beautiful without using any makeup, when they first met in What's On Your Mind - Exciting Picnic. And, of course, Ena's account she posts selfies on is one she uses in moments of distress when she needs to feel better about herself, the instant validation and shallow praise taking her mind off things.

If Mizuki were saying that she can see where Yukihira was coming from as part of teasing Ena, she would have dwelled on it, and if she thought it would be hurtful for Ena to hear, she's never had any problems simply lying about such small things. I think Mizuki's picked up on makeup being part of Ena's self-loathing.

Mizuki reveals to Ena that she did in fact enjoy those art classes, and has been happily reminiscing about them with Mizuki the whole time.

Ena goes silent as she reflects that she was wrong about hating Mr. Yukihira's art classes. Mizuki worries Ena's mood is dropping, but she had nothing to worry about.

Mizuki helps Ena take the step to revisiting the classes, and she makes plans to attend the Spring semester after a two-year absence. Mizuki remarks, What are friends for, but I think she actually means it; that Ena is her friend.

[hardworkandguts]

Weekly Catch-up #3

Well, that's one show less, this week, as a few of them are already completing the first third.

(last week post)

What was on?

Kowloon Generic Romance

(ep 4) So, we know Kujirai B is dead, and Kujirai seems still kind of stuck between being herself and still trying to cling to parts of B's life. What it all means, however, is going to depend heavily on the dynamite cliffhanger ending. Also, this isn't the original Kowloon, it was rebuilt after the original was torn down, which of course isn't going to draw parallels with whatever mystery is going on. And that face on the image? It was never intended to be on a 16:9 HD display, that's clearly a face from a 4:3 VHS and you can't convince me otherwise.

The Apothecary Diaries

(ep 2.16) Ah, right at the start we get to see where Maomao picked up her subtlety, as Luomen writes a caution on things to avoid during the concubine's pregnancies, using simple language so that the maids are able to understand it. Then, as she thinks of who could be behind much of the intrigue in the rear palace, she also discovers what curiosity does to cats, as finally putting all pieces together and watching the full picture come to life, an old friend reappears. This is maybe the highest stakes the series has been so far, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with that. On the other story, Lakan is getting to the end of the the assassination attempt, in true Lakan fashion, quietly showing Shishou might be connected to the imperial through a green wine ruse to who he thinks is the Emperor's younger brother. Maomao is truly a daughter of her two dads.

Gundam David Lynch Soundscape

(ep 3) After an episode showing where this continuity diverged, we're back to the main story, where Machu meets and immediately teams up with Shuji, the pilot of the red Gundam (who's not Char) in the very well animated clan battles. However, as much as we can put that to "Newtype things", the way Machu quickly convinced him into the illegal deathmatch feels more like a concession to fitting an whole story in 12 episodes, even if it's likely it will get more.

Witch Watch

(ep 3) It's maybe the weakest episode so far, but as it had to present the last of the three main characters, it needed to shift gears a bit instead of just another shambolic display of magic. And we got two, anyway. Kanshi has everything to be one of those really annoying characters, but Morihito plain not caring about his hate for Oni, and his attempts to move in with them to better protect Nico being immediately outed as a continuation of plots related to his terrible money management put him in the positive side.

Uchuujin MuuMuu

(ep 3) A few things to pick up from here, the aliens aren't cat shaped, they just picked that disguise (which explains the zipper tab in their back) because, worth reminding, only the dumb ones are left and thought cats are the true dominant species of earth, and the electricity cost of keeping an alien craft cloaked is almost $500 a month, if you are surprised, imagine Sakurako. Also love the true hater move by the club president of ratting out on some guys doing illegal trash dumping because their stuff was not fixable, still not so much the point of Tsurumi's girlfriend who only appears to get mad at Sakurako. On this week's lesson: automatic doors and how to replace an electrical plug.

Your Forma

(ep 4) Ah, the plot dump episode, and along with it the explanation of the mystery. With this arc out of the way, I do hope it improves, because this is the weakest shows of those I'm watching. Reading on the most trusted source on the internet, YouTube comments, apparently this adaptation not only skips the first part of the story, leading to these long boring scenes where someone has to infodump because you still need to make people aware of how this world works, and also did away with much of the personal relationships, making the end of the episode feel void of any meaning. On a slower season I'd probably give more attention to it, but now I'm considering watching it all at once once they drop the +4 hour video on YouTube.

Mono Weekend Animation

(ep 3) under the excuse what's certainly not Laid Back Camp getting an anime adaptation, Haruno is invited to make a Manga pilgrimage around the area and takes the club with her, with the usual adventures. You know, driving on mountain roads when you can barely drive in the city, going into spooky woods in the middle of the night, falling asleep holding the map saying when to turn, the usual stuff. Some great faces and really great background work in this episode. Maybe I should add Laid Back Camp to the list.

Food For the Soul

(ep 3) Also a road trip episode, this one starting with Shinon planning the while thing, then knowing she's spend the money she has left, hid it in the last place she would look for, leaving just as trail of hints. Or that was the idea, anyway. Second half is mostly a very regular cute girls going cute things on location (Mount Takao), but I feel the Photography club wins the comparison..

In other news:

AnimEigo released their third episode on their series of interviews with people in the industry, in this episode focused on the NYC con scene since the early 2000s featuring Peter Tatara.

Questions?

None. Lines are open.

[spotlightlowlife]

Helluva boss hates parents - no exceptions

Mothers in particular

We had the powerful, business minded and exploitative Paimon, Crimson and self proclaimed parent/stepparent/grandparent Mammon who see their 'children' as assets. We have Cash Buckzo who is no different to any mention only minus the power.

Where are the mothers?

What in the Disney is this?

Out of this screwed over bunch we get some parents. Blitzø adopts Loona one week before her 18th birthday part of of pity, where he's maybe just 30 years old, becoming the cool dad who spoils her rotten and is in no real place to correct her.

Stolas and Stella actually become teenage parents and their daughter a child of divorce who doesn't feel seen, but Stella is to blame for this, dispite the same sob story as Stolas and being the wrong party.

Who knows who Fizz and Loona's real parents are? Clearly nobody of importance since their kind are at the bottom of society. The only example we have of someone lifting themselves upwards in the world is Moxxie's mafia dad who probably killed his mother.

Though the main characters range from mid 20s to mid 30s and all characters are for the most part out on their own, all their trauma comes from childhood and horrible or lack of parents and yes, I know this as a basis accounts for a lot of people but still, we have parents as the fall guys to explain away any dirt bag behaviour from someone we are supposed to like.

Now on to a character who the creator seems to believe has it easy and isn't relatable as a result. Millie.

Her parents suck too!

It's more discreet and I don't understand how the creator could be blind to it?

They come across bigoted and the clues are there. First being Millie introducing Loona as Blitzø hellhound.

Millie has parents who look forward to seeing her and welcome her with open arms, they live a humble life and have a trans daughter so how bad could they be?

The country life is a subliminal message in itself of people stereotyped to be hostile to outsiders, stubborn, uncultured and uneducated.

What we get in Millie's parents are people who don't respect their daughters choice to move away, don't see her job as a real job and arguably worse of all, don't respect her choice of partner and will show this in passive aggression, making things awkward for this young happy couple as Moxxie tries to win them over and Millie tries to discourage him from so much as making small talk.

Though they don't respect Millie's job they warm to Blitzø who unlike nervous thespian Moxxie, has the brash and animated ways of a commoner of stereotype.

Millie's accomplishments and lack of are bought to our attention and though many criticise this episode for being a Millie episode turned Moxxie episode, I honestly think there was no other direction to go with her when her own parents lack any interest in her, they're stereotypes and we learn nothing new at her home.

The last thing may be a big of a stretch but here it is. In the episode where Striker abducted both Blitzø and Fizz, Blitzø (who kills for a living and criticised those at the top this episode) would refer to Striker as a 'supremacist', yet what episode do we first meet Stiker?

Again we get too many things to be a coincidence.

Parents suck, and if they don't appear to, they do so.

[chaggie-supporter]

Today is my birthday!

There's no alex special, because that will be for his own bday, (13/8), but here's a rundown of my character altogether! Without a further ado,

MAJOR CHARACTERS

* first and probably most important, Alex! Obviously. This guy is pretty much my mascot, and as you all know, my hazbin hotel oc. The main guy and the one that got me into writing, there are 20 Sunday specials in his POV. So far. Im not going into major detail, we all know who this is.

SOLOMON YEYZER

this is the second hazbin oc, and as some may know "the creator." He would take my place as the brand name, he shows up briefly in chapter 10 and chapter 15 is about him. He also writes the solomons diary series.

SAM PARKS

This here is Alex's supposed partner. She killed Alex's dad and was then hit by a car making a run away. She's yet to be introduced, but there are plans and her character design made!

LOUIS

This is a guy in a au I was writing, and basically it's lucifer disguised as a human. (Not hazbin related) he was meant to wreak havoc, but fell in love and now needs to keep a secret bigger than any other.

CSP

csp is a commander from an discontinued au I was writing, basically where she would go through some weird shit in her commanding times, ghosts and all that stuff.

ARYNN

This is a girl, in an upcoming story of two lesbians. She's small, cute, goofy and autistic, but a singer in a rock band. She's adored by many.

SAM

Ignore the double name use, I struggled. This isn't Sam parks. This is Arynn's girlfriend. She's tall, scary and intimidating, and she used to be in a gang. She then met Arynn who helped her realise she needed to get out of that life,and she is now a mechanic who runs her own repair shop. She'll do anything for her small, cutie patootie of a partner.

Now onto some minor characters!

First, Tós.

For those who remember hack to the first Sunday special chapter, he briefly appears fighting a clock guy.

CLOCK GUY

Literally not much to say, pretty much the same as tós.

AREN, TOMAS, AND LIS.

These are Alex's siblings. Aren was in college when alex killed his other two siblings, tomas (10) and lis (9).

ALEXS DAD

There is no design for him, though he plays a major part in the Sunday Specials. Without him alex wouldn't be in hell.

I don't think I missed anyone, but I'd like to give a shout out to my idol and inspiration, the one and only

PECCANTUM

This is @allykatsart 's oc, and what inspired me to make alex and do anything with my life in the first place. Thanks so much for the great comics and art since I had found them since last year, don't change!

That's all, enjoy your evening. There is no Sunday special this weekend (swimming gala), but I'm going to try and get a special poster done for my birthday.

[mer-acle]

i mean, if you wanted to have a convenient way for Greek mythology to still exist, you could just use the roman names of each god. The Romans liked to yoink gods from the religions of people they conquered cuz syncretism, and they were functionally the same people with slight changes to their myths and different names. (The planets were also named after the roman gods because being a nerd is basically a scientists job description, of course they're gonna give the planets nerdy names :]) So you just have the characters relating weirdly hard with their roman counterparts. Just "man, mars is just like me fr" coming from ares and whatever

Also, apollos favorite game should be dodgeball (totally not a reference to anything at all ;j)

Me reading the lore list and being like "that was my fault >:3c" on like an 8th of the lore.

Something you gotta know about me is that I go "hehe, let's give these characters a bad time because plot, huehue suffering >:∆c" and then immediately go "nooo they're so saddd :[[ I feel so bad for them :'7 if this guy isn't ok in the next 5 seconds I'm gonna be sad :c" which is why some of my asks inflict suffering and then others are full of joyous whimsy. Or chaos. I have ocs that I don't really talk about (I've wanted to make a blog for them and make refs for artfight, I just haven't gotten around to it cuz busy, rip -n-) and they suffer some stuff (one of them literally dies and then necromancy happens {they're also based upon a plushie that I have In a bookcase, it's a dinoglows stegosaurus and the reason for the necromancy is cuz they're reversible and one side has bones that glow in the dark, so yeah. Picture one of those but anthro and that's my girl petrichor]) but I give them a good time a lot of the time too, and I sometimes go "hmm, here's the 'everything is fine actually' au, where they don't have a bad time at all." Or just make aus for fun like a modern/human au :) I just microwave them in my brain constantly and imagine animatics to songs I like that I'll never make cuz I don't have time. (Honestly my characters are probably having a better time than I am for like 90% of the time, because I am having a bad time most of the time, and their world is escapism for me so I make things genuinely nice for them and go "gods I wish that was me". Honestly I spent more time worldbuilding and applying things to their character than actually thinking about any form of plot. I'm going, "so the land is laid out like this, and there's a city here with this kinda architecture. Here's a magic system. Here's how the afterlife works. Oo societal expectations and junk. Here's how the language would evolve because while the story is told in English canonically that doesn't exist. This character dresses in this style and their theme music would include the guitar because they play guitar. That character is very brave, and yet scared of bugs, but their partner likes bugs and rambles about them a lot, but they feel too awkward to say anything" kinda stuff. I started thinking about genetics {cuz I wanted to include dragons but my brain went, "they need to have a way to logically exist within the environment actually"} before I started thinking about a plot that made sense. If I ever wrote an actual story with my guys it would probably be a slice of life, just set in a fantasy world.)

Gods I rambled a lot and most of it isn't related to your blog in any way I'm sorry ':D. I'm going insane :∆ anyway have a nice day, go hydrate or something

-🌻

I thought about that too :D I like the idea of a scene where Athena is reading from a book about Roman Mythology and they just go "so he's like Dad", "Ath, that's literally just you"

hehehe

haha yeah you are very responsible for the lore XD

hahah you are nicer than me XD I have no remorse for my characters. (besides Pallas I felt genuinely bad for killing her off)

Genuinely, coming from a dinosaur plushie might just be the best OC origin story I have ever heard can we be friends? That is so fucking cool.

I just microwave them in my brain constantly and imagine animatics to songs I like that I'll never make cuz I don't have time. // ow stop too real. My brain's been playing a SilentWars Animatic to Citizen Soldier Let it burn for days now and i cannot make it actually.

Ooh you're very Tolkien coded /pos I do love worldbuilding too. You can put it in nice lil lore documents and tables and everything looks nice :D

No no that was super fun :D (also good day to answer this, it's like almost midnight and I drank like three cups of tea and one glass of water all day lol I am better at this usually i swear)

have a nice dayyy xx

[jentasticart]

ok but I'm actually starting to get pissed off and annoyed with this weird family dynamic stuff they're doing in mk1 just to try to stop the gay ships that's been around for a while now.

like subscorp (Kuai x Hanzo), bitomas, subsmoke (Kuai x Tomas. I'm not too much of a fan of this ship but I'll mention it anyway) and shaoko, idk if there's anything else but lmk if I missed anything I guess.

but Imma mainly talk about my main ship here; bitomas.

I would like to add that I'm not a proshipper in any way cus fuck that shit. so don't frame me as one.

this is the only recent game where they're both in it together but they make them step bros yet I've seen people make mk1 subscorp and no one is really complaining about it and it gets a bunch of likes, which is WORSE than mk1 bitomas because it's ACTUAL incest. mk1 bitomas isn't incest, they're not related to each other in any way. they're not even the same race.

but yk what's not fucking fair? THAT THE SUBSMOKE SHIP IS MORE ACCEPTED THAN BITOMAS THAT THE ACTUAL VOICE ACTORS SHIP IT FFS

BI FUCKING DISMISSES IT, HE DOESN'T SEE HIM AS A DAMN BROTHER

BUT IN SUBSMOKE THEY ACTUALLY DO ADDRESS EACH OTHER AS BROTHERS, HOW CAN ONE BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN THE OTHER WHEN IT'S THE SAME DAMN THING

this is literally how I'm feeling rn about this

two people who ARE NOT related to each other in any damn way is NOT incest, doesn't matter if they grew up together or not.

so if two people were dating before and their parents got together and married, then those two people shouldn't be together anymore cus they would be step siblings? that's fucking stupid and you guys know it.

in a way they're doing the stupid thing like how some people think liulao is, yk the whole "they're cousins/brothers" but they're not, it was confirmed they're not but people don't wanna do their damn research.

all nrs cares about is the straight pairings and lesbian ones cus they don't get as much backlash as two men being together.

===.._ _..===.._ _..===

so I got a little hc/story for y'all:

sometime after the brothers' dad takes Tomas in, Tomas falls for Bi and his whole idolization for Bi is a coverup to try to hide his crush on him from Bi and Kuai. yes he gets close with Kuai as in best friends but he feels this is something he should keep to himself for now.

Bi wasn't actually always mean to Tomas, at some points he might have been cold to him sometimes but that's just Bi, just cus he was cold to him, doesn't mean he didn't care for him.

but then at some point Bi-Han fell for Tomas, probably starting in his teen years, but since he didn't know how to express it or deal with it, he acts how he acts towards him like how he does in mk1. it's because he never felt this way before towards anyone, let alone a guy. so he pretty much acts kinda like a tsundere in a way. keep in mind, even before this, Bi still didn't see Tomas as his brother and Tomas obviously didn't see him that way either cus of his crush on him.

all those years their feelings for each other got stronger and stronger, which made Bi more cold to Tomas, which was the time he told him that line in that one scene in mk1 about him not being brothers or Lin Kuei.

but after the betrayal of Bi-Han, while Kuai and Tomas were making the Shirai Ryu, Tomas snuck back to the Lin Kuei at night to see Bi-Han.

they fought because Bi started it, he did think Tomas was there to kill him or was there for some revenge but all Tomas wanted to do was talk. after the fight, Tomas managed to get Bi to stop.

they talked for awhile, Tomas asking the question as to why Bi-Han did all of this in the first place, why he was cold to him, why he got so much colder after all the years. Bi was hesitant to tell him, especially now since he thinks its too late to let him know the truth, he probably ruined all chances he had with him now.

but he did tell him anyway, he told him the truth, everything. from the very beginning to now. Tomas wasn't expecting this, he didn't think Bi felt the same way towards him but was he really telling the truth about the other stuff?

Bi-Han backed away after he told him, he understood that he might not believe his words anymore. Tomas stayed silent on Bi's bed, thinking, before he spoke and told him that he should tell Kuai this truth even if Kuai might not believe it.

he paused for a moment before he spoke, agreeing with Tomas. he then called him to Bi's bed, Bi was hesitant because he wasn't sure of it, he didn't know if he should.

after a few minutes, Bi joined him in bed and Tomas held him, confessing his love to him too, even after everything, he still has the same love for him like the first time he fell for him.

they wind up being together in secret for months as Tomas helped Kuai with the clan. during that time, Bi did told the truth to Kuai too and apologized for it. Kuai is a bit hesitant to forgive him right now but he will consider it. he will still work on his own clan as it still feels like the right thing to do.

===.._ _..===.._ _..===

so ye if you don't like it, plz just block me, cus Imma ship them since others are shipping mk1 subsmoke with little problems, I'm starting to not care at this point because of it but I will put tags you can block in those posts to not see it