#very interesting concept. my only long term narrative theory

[whitmore]

The island being alive is so!!! Rahhhh!! I love the concept so much!

The idea that it will give you everything, make you happy, and then take even more from you. It's so interesting! Always loved the sorta Neverland vibe that the island gives. A place you never have to leave and can be happy and explore every day...but watch out!

not to bring it back to tubbo’s wall street metaphors but the island really invests in its residents and generates entities and natural challenges that the players will enjoy just to keep them there, it really is such a give and take. the way it learns what each player desires, improving itself and going steps above every time to better the experience for the players and keep them around. it’s so very neverland it’s quite seahaven island too

if the island is alive my theory is that the federation is there to study it. the island is some paranormal being and the federation has been established on the island and prodding at it for much, much longer than the players have been there. i think it’s possible that the crashes in this case were not accidental (which. idk how hot that take is tbh) but instead the island causing them in some bermuda-triangle type maneuver to get somebody, anybody else looking at what the federation is doing. still incredibly possible that the federation caused every crash because they wanted to see how the island would interact with people— sidenote i saw this theory somewhere (i think on here pls let me know if it’s you i’ll link the post) that the ice block batch of players are actually the original players from the trailer because the island’s infrastructure looks so different between the trailer and when our initial sixteen batch joined which is delicious meta that’s so interesting, n makes it possible that the federation brought that first ice block batch and the island knows what happened to them and then crashed a train and a boat and a plane to rally up players to find them

[sugar-grigri]

Yes, see Swordman announces that certainly the other "hybrids" including Reze are alive, but his presence raises more questions than it answers. Even if I'd like to see the way this chapter is cut, i.e. in three parts, already an element of answer. 

The first part was a little confusing and contradictory, with the new bodyguard Fumiko, appointed by Yoshida to watch over and "protect Denji". But what really stands out for me is the line "you're the one and only Chainsaw Man!". 

It's an answer that's already important, as it fits into a context in which Denji is increasingly stripped of his own identity as CSM, whether because of this impostor who represents the church, the church itself, the fans or the detractors. I had already analyzed the fact that CSM had become a collective essence rather than an individual identity. So to tell Denji YOU are Chainsaw Man is to give him back the link he has with himself. 

But this line would be interesting in another context, and here we're getting into pure theory and personal speculation. To explain, let's break the chapter down into three parts. First, Denji and his relationship with Chainsaw Man, as we've just seen. Then, Asa, who is beginning to come to terms (positively) with her own popularity as the new heroine. And finally, Swordman, who appears at the end of the chapter and introduces himself as such. 

My theory came from a single question: why did you present the chapter in this way? Why the ellipsis with Asa? Then continue with Swordman? I mean, Fujimoto did decide to bring these three elements together in a single chapter, so they must necessarily have some as-yet ungraspable narrative link. 

I've been thinking about it, and there's a lot of mystery surrounding the "hybrids". We don't even know what they're called, since their names have been erased by Pochita, according to Makima. Which means that they represent a very special concept that Fujimoto intends to exploit. A concept surely more complicated than a human fused with a demon. 

I've been thinking about this, and two main theories come to mind when I put together what little we know about them. Hybrids are immortal, or more precisely, they can be resurrected as long as they are given enough blood. There's something vampiric about that. Vampire in the sense that they're human-looking demons who need blood, literally. Another theory is more contextual, and that's the one I'm going to bring out today. 

Have you noticed that all hybrid demons represent weapons, machines. Never a fear of a broad concept like the demons of the apocalypse, or of an animal like Beam, or stemming from natural reflexes like the fear of blood and the fear of falling? 

My theory is that they are deeply artificial demons. This was more or less confirmed with Reze, who was a laboratory rat for the USSR, or Katanaman, who became what he is thanks to Akane Sawatari. What's more, hybrids are always more or less connected with the state, Reze with Russia, Quanxi with China, or Denji, whose public hunters are trying to get their hands on him. 

I can't speculate any further, but the only thing I'm sure of is that "hybrids" have something to do with the evolution of the world. And when I mean "evolution of the world", I mean technological evolution, particularly of weapons. 

Which brings me to my theory about chapter 138. There was always something I found unexploited about Chainsaw Man. Exploiting the relationship between mankind and demons, but in a different era, in the past. 

When we return to the chapter, Denji and Chainsaw Man represent the heroes of the present, who threaten to be eclipsed by a new heroine, Asa, associated with the demon of war. Yoru would represent the future, which is why for me she refers so much to nuclear weapons, which remain the most advanced and dangerous weapon at the moment (along with hydrogen bombs, but you get the idea). Swordman, on the other hand, may represent the past, a hero from the past. I mean, people in the past weren't afraid of chainsaws or bombs, they were afraid of swords and crossbows. 

Imagine how old immortal beings could be, representing traditional, ancient weapons? I think it's Quanxi aka the first devil hunter, or Swordman.  

With this context, what Swordman says resonates even more, doesn't it? Who knows better the feeling of being forgotten than a hero of the past like Swordman? Hybrids are doomed to feel this sense of obsolescence. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Swordman knows anything about this. He may have a few points from his past still fresh in his mind, but having been brainwashed by Makima, his memories are surely muddled. The fact remains that this link with the past and technological evolutions: hybrid demons are still those who have a direct relationship with the state and governments.

An important point, given that the Japanese government is the main antagonist in this story.

[shatcey]

Victor theories. His curse and cursed ability.

After I posted my thoughts on the possible curse of Vivi, I had a very interesting conversation with @.ethereal-blossom, and she gave me some more ideas that I would like to share. Our conversation was quite long (I think we both like to talk), so I decided to start a new post. This doesn't mean that I think my previous thoughts are wrong. I just like to think about other options. They have every right to be at least considered. This time, they were mostly based on his cursed ability and the most significant aspects of his personality, which were quite difficult to not notice.

After my random joke about the poison apple, Michelle came up with another idea - the tower. And she speculated how much this concept corresponded to Vivi. I would like to continue, because it seems to me that this may be even closer to the truth than Rumplestiltskin.

Rapunzel

The tower is quite fit into the concept of a villain. There is no entrance or exit, except for the window, which is far from the ground. It takes away the freedom of a poor girl, and it's just an awful place. Yes, I'm terrible at making stupid excuses. But why can the briar and the mirror be villains, but the tower is not. This is discrimination against the towers' right to be villains!

But… let's talk about the real villain in this story. I don't remember the original…

...

...

I read it, nothing interesting.

Let's based on the animated film "Tangled" (2010). Another good movie from this year? I think it was a good year… In this movie, the villain was the greedy woman Gothel, who used Rapunzel to stay young and beautiful. Greedy. So… Vivi can be Gothel. In fact, he mentioned that he was greedy back at the first event.

I have no idea how his appearance can indicate that he is NOT greedy or greedy if that is matter. I somehow don't understand the concept that an appearance can tell you something, it's just an appearance. Whatever.

The theme of restriction of freedom was very strong in this story. And for Vivi, freedom is everything. In this fairy tale, there is a strong desire to get rid of responsibility and the inability to do so. And we all feel this in Vivi. This is a contradiction. The desire to be free and the inability to be free because he is bound… by something. Maybe it's some kind of guilt, or a promise, or something entirely different. I really try not to think about the Black Butler, I really do.

Michelle also mentioned that devs like to mix villains with the protagonist in this game. As it was with Elbert. Who is both the greedy queen and Snow white. Based on this concept… Vivi's long hair may also indicate that he is Rapunzel.

How can this be reflected in his story? He's so obsessed with freedom… maybe he just wants to fix his previous mistake. He deprived someone of their freedom, and this awakened his curse. Maybe… or maybe it was his freedom that was taken away from him… and that's why he's so desperate to protect others from the same fate.

And just to try to defend this theory within the terms of the oldest history… The concept of "Maiden in the Tower" is actually quite old. From the Wiki:

I became curious about when the Greek myths actually originated, and I got this answer:

And… that again gave us 5,000 years at most.

But if we talk only about the concept of a woman with long hair. Again from the Rapunzel article

1000 years ago. Yes, it's not that much, but for me it's still a lot.

His cursed ability

Another thing what bothers me is… his curse. I shouldn't talk about it now… it will only be in his birthday story in February. Oh well…

In the 1st birthday story translated by @.archiveikemen

He didn't tell them to do it, as William usually does. At first I thought the phrase "succumb to my wickedness" was some kind of order, but in the next part he didn't say anything, and it still works. Maybe, for the sake of the quality of the narrative, the author did not repeat his words many times, maybe not… It annoys me that I can't fully understand how his ability works.

If we go back a little bit… The Black Wedding event.

Victor chose Kate's lipstick as a weapon (from her lips) and just drew a line on the guy's throat, nothing else, and the guy was scared… Did Vivi's touch just scare the person? Did it make him remember something? Maybe he imagined himself in the place of his victims? Back then I thought maybe he had some kind of hypnosis… or poison… to change a person's perception… But it's more Ally's thing. But he won't do it anyway.

But Vivi's last remark was quite frightening.

He talks about death as if it were a living being.

Let's take a look at the latest Halloween event, "Chaotic night", translated by @.reccyls. In this event, all the boys' abilities were significantly increased.

If his increased ability causes everything around him to age faster than usual and die immediately if he touches them. What can it tell us about his abilities? Maybe he can control it better. Maybe it's activated by some words, like it was on his birthday event? Or just from a simple touch of his with a mental order, as it was at the Black Wedding?

Just a random thought. Perhaps, as a child, he couldn't control his abilities and literally killed everyone around him. Terrifying… but the image is so vivid that I think it's more than possible.

This ability of his seems to be the exact opposite of the Rapunzel flower's power, which prolongs life. Could it be the same thing? Who knows. Even poison in small doses can become a cure…And the other way around, a large dose of medicine turns into poison.

And in Rumplestiltskin, there was no mention of Rumplestiltskin's other abilities other than making gold. The only thing that connects this story with death is that in the beginning he saved a woman, and in the end he had to die himself. It's a pretty weak connection.

On the other hand, the story about a man who sold his soul to the Devil… it can correspond to both his desire for freedom and his abilities. But what could Vivi ask for that? What will he gain from this?

This is from the very beginning of the "Love and Death" event, which will be released pretty soon on EN, translated by @.reccyls

So it involves making some kind of decision. But the curse doesn't give an opportunity to deside something. It just gets stuck in a person. Perhaps @.reccyls was right, and Vivi is the first cursed one and a kind of ancestor of each of boys.

And back to his cursed ability. This is what I talked about in my previous post. He wanted something to grow in his life, because his cursed ability kills everything. It's so fitting. His flower garden… his hair… his children… It's pretty obvious when you think about it…

In addition, I would like to talk about other things that I did not mention in the first post, and what it could give us.

Small details

It took me a while to find... Here.

So… butterfly, fish and scorpion. Sky, water and earth. There is only fire left, and we've got all the elements. Did they just miss it? Does that mean something? Why there is no fire?..

On the other hand… In my first post, when I mentioned the god of death… there was a line saying that a butterfly means a soul. And scorpio is quite often associated with Ancient Egypt. I probably watch The Mummy too much (1999 and 2002).

No, I was right.

So… Most likely, these two symbols were used in his design simply to indicate his occupation… The god of death, who collects souls. After all, that's why they call him the grim reaper.

Children

By a very odd coincidence, in both fairy tales, I am still considering the most possible variants of his curse, children are mentioned one way or another.

Rapunzel was literally kidnapped as a baby and raised in a tower.

And Rumplestiltskin wanted to get a child for all he had done for these ungrateful people. I'm still mad at them.

And Victor loves all his cute cursed boys very much, as if they were his children.

That's all, there's nothing to add.

And again… to complicate things

I took a screenshot from the description of the character and to compare Willy (he was just next to him, I was too lazy to look for other options).

Do you see? I'll show it closer.

And I put William's description on top.

This is a fake page!

All the pages for boys look like this:

Cursed by (name of the curse) from (name of the fairy tale)

But here… they just erase the space in the first line (which by definition should be empty), erase the place where his curse should be, and… there is no place for the fairy tale from which he comes. Even on Harrison's page, there is only a question mark, there was still room for a curse.

The second thing that makes me think so… all names of curses begin right under the word "Cursed"… but the blur on Victor's page starts from the middle… Perhaps this was done specifically for aesthetic reasons… the name is too short… but why is there no place for a fairy tale here???

And FINALLY after reading one of Michelle's posts… I caught the word "worship", and for some reason it got me hooked, and I decided to turn to Google…

This can't be! Right?

I was joking about Nico's decoration, which looks like Cthulhu… Vivi can't be Cthulhu…

But it all fits together. The god of death, who makes people worship him and follow him with joy, which is supposed to kill all of humanity… The only thing that doesn't add up is a fairly new story… from the first half of the 20th century. But the concept of the God of Death is not new. We return to the myths.

Damn you, Victor! You're a mummy. And I don't care that it has nothing to do with anything. At least it fits your curse!

(joyful exhalation)

Now I can think of something else. For example, how old he is, about his relationship with the queen, about his past, about his true identity…

Ally, save me, I'm going to drown in this man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🔝 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕋 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 🔝

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[liketwoswansinbalance]

Update and More Facts about The One True School Master of Vault 41

The Update:

I've finally been doing more transferring of my notes and partly-written, unordered scenes into one document, so things are in chronological order. Thus far, draft zero of TOTSMOV41 has reached approximately 151 pages, or, by its word count, 48,042 words. Although, a lot of the document is made up of my extraneous notes, so it's not all actually story.

⸻

The Facts:

The fic will have various epigraphs, and one of them is a Japeth quote.

There will be no true epilogue because I'm leaving room for sequel potential.

After the Wizard Tree business unfolds at the Bank of Putsi, the vast majority of the fic is set at the Schools.

I haven't exactly decided on a structure for TOTSMOV41 yet, so it might either consist of a triumvirate of "parts," with each section being exceptionally long, working like a triptych of sorts, or it will be broken up into more traditional chapters, possibly of varying lengths. My plan, once the whole fic is done, would be to post a section per week or so.

Does anyone have an opinion on the structure? At the moment, I'm leaning toward having three, massive sections because it makes the most sense narratively, especially with regards to time and settings, and could flow better.

That said, unless anything changes drastically, the title of part one or chapter one will be: "Of Solipsism, Sophistry, and Storians."

Originally, it was "Of Sophistry and Storians," which I thought was more compact, and it had a better ring to it while more directly featuring the "balance" between "Sophie" and "Storian" that may be present. Yet, ultimately, the longer title proved more accurate to the contents of that part.

The other two parts are tentatively titled: "Great Mistake II and Great Mistake III" and "Phantoms, Prescience, and the Pen."

Also, for your reference, if needed, I've synthesized definitions from various sources:

Solipsism (n) = the quality of being very self-centered or selfish, or, in philosophy, the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist, that what's in your mind is the only reality that can be known and verified. Solipsism comes from the Latin words for alone (sol) and self (ipse), and means that only the self is real. Alternatively, it implies excessive regard for oneself and one's own interests, to the exclusion of others; preoccupation with oneself; extreme selfishness, centeredness, or self-absorption. Also in a neutral sense: isolation, solitude.

Sophistry (n) =

-The use of specious but fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

-The deliberate use of fallacious reasoning, intellectual charlatanism, and moral unscrupulousness.

-Subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation.

-Reasoning or arguments that sound correct but are actually false.

-Cunning, trickery, craft.

The entire fic technically takes place over the span of approximately one day, or less than a day, really. It's more like several hours have passed, not days or weeks. Though, it's not as insane as you'd think, probably. Well, the plot itself is insane, admittedly.

Although, perception-wise, to the characters, and experientially, to readers, it will feel as if it all takes place over weeks, instead of a single day. Time flows differently within the crystal, and the broken crystal ball condenses time, and so, whilst in the crystal, Agatha, Sophie, and Rafal experience far more than what several hours would allow in reality.

And, it's not quite time travel, even if that's how it may appear. For a particular, currently undisclosed reason, I'm going to call it "psyche travel," by the term I remember Soman using for ACOT.

Lastly, Rafal will come to dread the prospect of nonexistence, which I intend to treat as a concept distinctly separate from death. Not to worry though! It'll be explained eventually.

[monsteracademia]

If this blog's user is still active... thoughts on the conciet of heroic-aligned magician figures whomst are effectively borne of demons, animals, or monsters? Merlin's father being an incubus in some tellings, the legends that Abe no Seimei's mother was a fox-wife, etc. What is the relationship between wise-men, shamans, wizards, etc and monsters?

Hi!

This is interesting, because it depends heavily on your working definition of monstrosity, and it's also incredibly intersectional in terms of research areas. Though quite luckily, my supervisor actually specialises in medievalism and fantasy, so we've discussed some of this sort of thing.

Personally, in my work, my definition of monstrosity always requires the presence of the supernatural. But equally so, a core tenant of monster theory is the dynamic of the norm/the other. That's what the monster is: the embodiment of that which a society has deemed 'other', wrong, outcast.

A concept I've been writing on for the past few months in my thesis relates to the perception of monstrosity; is a monster only a monster because we perceive it to be one? That's a very long conversation, but the perception of monstrosity is key. So in a sense, it depends on both the author intention and the audience understanding of a particular character in a work.

There's a thin line between characters who may have supernatural abilities or origins and monsters; and that comes down to whether or not they are presented to the audience as a monster.

A good example of this would be...Damien from The Omen vs Adam Young in Good Omens.

The narrative of The Omen presents Damien to us as a monster. He's devil spawn, he's the antichrist, he's a monster. We go into that with the preconceived notion of him as a monster, even before the character actually does anything 'evil'.

Adam Young in Good Omens is a direct parallel to Damien. He is, fundamentally, the same character. He's the antichrist, he's the spawn of Satan. But Adam isn't presented by the author and to the audience as a monster. Even though he is, objectively, the antichrist, literally the spawn of the devil.

All of this to say that in essence, with folkloric characters like Merlin especially, it depends on the individual depiction of the character. For instance, while some versions of Merlin depict him as being half-demon, others claim he was an immaculate conception ala Jesus Christ.

Personally, I think there's a fair few depictions of him as a character that someone could argue as being monstrous. In fact I would go so far as to say most; because despite his role as advisor to the king, his inherent 'supernatural' abilities position him as 'other' in his society. The same could probably be argued for a lot of those kinds of wizards, sages, magic users and so forth--because inherently their abilities place them external to the norm of their society.

I don't know if I actually answered your question but I hope it helped a little!

[go-go-devil]

Top 5 autistic headcanons and top 5 aroace headcanons?

TRIPLE A LET'S GOOO!!!

Autism:

Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks): One of the most obviously autistic characters to ever grace television. The allistics just didn't get it probably because he was "too social" or whatever other slight deviation from what's stereotypical in autistic characters

Kris (Deltarune): I genuinely believe Kris is deliberately autistic-coded, mostly due to that "How to Care for a Human" book you find in the library in Chapter 2 but even beyond that all of their described behaviors are SUPER relatable to me as an autistic person (and bring me back to how I felt about it in my youth...)

Daniil Dankovsky & Various Other Characters (Pathologic): Thank you once again for showing me the light in how truly autistic Daniil is at his very core <3 Besides him though I'm also in agreement with the very code of Classic HD that Peter Stamatin and Grace are on the spectrum (tortured savant and death-obsessed weird girl rep respectively), but I would also argue that Yulia Lyuricheva is autistic as well. I mean the woman is described as someone who "sits in the corner and quietly observes others" and invented an entire philosophical theory in an attempt to explain the pattern of random events invisibly triggered by people. That's what we in the business call STEM-influenced autism :)

The Lodger (Knock-Knock): Yet another video game character that is so intensely autistic. Willingly living in isolation, simultaneously longing for and hating the presence of guests in your house, talking to yourself while pacing through the hallways & infodumping about the most niche scientific field imaginable? It's so relatable 🕯

Diane Nguyen (Bojack Horseman): This one maybe doesn't have the most "evidence" compared to the others per say, but I honestly found myself relating to a lot of Diane's personality quirks and struggles AS an autistic person (ex: hating surprises, trouble regulating her emotions/prone to emotional outbursts, having the most specific overly-convoluted Halloween costume ever). With her I think I'm more in the minority for this hc since her other mental illnesses overshadow her autistic traits, plus her's aren't nearly as obvious as Juda's (who as far as I'm concerned IS canonically autistic even if it's not outright stated by the characters)

Aroace:

Patches (Soulsborne Series): There is no fucking way this man has ANY desire for sex and romance. The only hole he's interested in are the enemy-infested ones he can kick you down! Plus I do know of that one famous line he says in Dark Souls 3 which he claims to be "devoid of all worldly wants" so this might as well be canon

Artemy Burakh (Pathologic): I don't care what the shippers think, I just love the idea of Artemy having a narrative revolving around the concept of "love" while being alienated and eventually coming to terms with how he himself doesn't experience this emotion in a socially conventional way. Besides just 'cause he's aroace in my mind doesn't mean he can't form QPR's ;)

Death of the Endless (The Sandman): ABSOLUTE AROACE ICON! She's a being who loves humanity, but keeps a reasonable distance between any individual person due to her role in taking their souls upon their death. Though instead of being all moping and "oh I can never allow myself to truly be close to those I love T_T" she's instead endlessly jovial and enjoys every second of spending time with other humans in a platonic fashion, brief as those seconds are in the grand scheme of her job. If that ain't actually positive aroace rep I don't know what is 🖤

Every Character in Hylics: All of them are aroace. They're functionally immortal clay aliens who probably don't even need to procreate in traditional means to produce new life, and besides they're more interested in prog rock than romance anyway 🌙 🎸🌯

Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye): A very personal hc for me. Reading that book was one of my earliest instances of me relating to a character for their lack of desire for sex and romance; in particular the whole story about Holden losing his best friend Jane due to her no longer valuing him as a friend and wanting a boyfriend instead, to which he couldn't find himself filling that role. It's just such a vivid portrayal of THE aroace experience of having your platonic connections become "lesser" in the eyes of society, and it really pisses me off that so many contribute this character trait of his as something "he refuses to grow out of" because no it fucking isn't! But then again most analyses of this book are godawful ableist pieces of shit so I'm not exactly surprised there's a lack of meaningful analysis on the main character being sexually deviant alongside his mental disorders

[gleamingtempest]

Eden Tobisa & Arei Nageishi - Narrative Foil Trait Compilation #3

How does this series work?

This is my narrative foil disection series for Danganronpa Despair Time based on my post Danganronpa: Depsair Time foils theory. The presented theory is that the CH1 recap shows off all narrative foils in DR:DT based on how the pairings in said recap video are paired. This series will go through all 8(?) of these foil pairings and disect the dichotomy present in them in a more in depth manner. I will do this primarily by comparing and contrasting Backstory, Motive, Flaws & Character Arc. (Credit to Barbieronpa for that compliation of concepts.) All of these posts will contain heavy spoilers and will be updated as the series goes on and more information on the characters is presented. If you are interested in the those updates please return to each of these posts after the end of an episode batch. This will only look at presented content within the series;outside of the foil theory itself it will not take into account theories & speculation.

Backstory

Eden (Note - Very little is known): -> She is aware of how cruel the world can be -> She was self conscious about her sexuality after kissing a girl -> Her mother is from the states while her father is japanese -> Her mother named her Eden (And kept the english spelling because she was fond of it) Arei: -> She grew up in a household where she was mentally, physically and emotionally abused by her older sisters -> This abuse spread to her peers, who she was relentlessly bullied by in at least up to middle school -> She combated this abuse by framing her sister's for several crimes in order to get them unlwafully sent to reform school Compare/Contract: -> Not enough material

Personality

Eden: -> Positive -> Kind -> Caring -> Social -> Genuine Arei: -> Cynical -> Cruel -> Apathetic -> Abrasive -> Deceptive

Motive

Eden: -> Dream unknown. -> Eden chooses to be kind because she wants to not because she wants anything out of it. -> Eden believes that sharing grief and trusting in others is the way to beat the killing game Arei: -> Arei wants to be liked by others without having to be cruel to do it -> Arei believes (believed) that the only way to get by in the world was to step on others -> Her worldview was 'kill or be killed' -> Arei was surrounded by cruel people for her whole life and didn't know what it was like to be around those who truly care about her Compare/Contract: -> Arei believed that the way to beat the killing game is to be the cruelest person there while Eden believes that sharing grief and trusting in others is the way to combat it. -> Both Eden and Arei seek the love of others.

Flaws

Eden: -> Eden can be slightly too trusting at times, to the point where she puts her own life at risk. -> Eden puts on a 'happy face' for others and herself so that it's easier to remain positive;this may be damaging to her psyche, especially as those she rely on dwindle. Arei: -> Arei's abrasive and cruel disposition may help in her the short term but in the long run it isolated her and made her more miserable. -> Her inability to truly share her grief resulted in a trauma induced mental breakdown in which she relived some of her worst memories. Compare/Contract: -> Arei does not express her hurt because she's scared others will use it against her while Eden doesn't share hers because she believes it will help others. -> Eden is too trusting while Arei doesn't trust enough

Narrative Arc

Eden: -> Eden starts off by keeping a positive attitude towards the killing game and trying to organize an event to socialize with the others -> This event results in a murder and the death of one of the participants of the event -> Eden is the only person to believe in Teruko during the trial -> Eden is devastated by the deaths but pushes forward and keeps trying to get others to open up for most of chapter 2 -> This culminates in her being verbally berated and abused by a mentally unstable Arei. -> Eden and Arei then make up after Arei defends Eden from Arturo's murder attempt -> Eden is then devastated again when Arei dies shortly thereafter Arei: -> Arei begins the killing game as an abrasive bully who pushes others away -> She lashes out when not invited to Eden's even because she sees it as a form of bullying -> Her worldview is confirmed after the deaths of Xander and Min -> She lashes out even more when Eden tries to invite her to a new event and blames her for the death of Min -> She then has a mental breakdown and shares the truth behind her world view to David -> Arei defends Eden and promises to become a better person -> Arei confronts David about the truth behind his secret -> Undisclosed events occur -> Arei dies. Compare/Contract: -> Both Eden and Arei desire the love of others;they go about this is completely opposed ways. -> While Eden continually blames the deaths of the others on herself, Arei blames everyone but herself for the state of the killing game Note - Eden's character trajectory is somewhat unclear at the moment so this will almost certainly be updated at the end of chapter 2.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

biiiiiiiig oofbaboof

first: 65 is an upcoming movie in which people get lost in space butt hey end up on earth 65 million years ago, aka "right before the asteroid". the movie's dinosaurs are worse than those of jurassic world in terms of accuracy - significantly worse.

second:

we're touching on "Meig's Theory of Everything" which, a) all theories of everything are oversimplifications and b) I am not important enough to have a theory of everything, I'm just a schmuck who reads too many books and thinks too much for too long of the day. so that's the disclaimer, here you go:

We currently have a situation in much of the world - not only the United States, but I am from the states and as such my perspective is very biased to here - where people are ignoring things that cannot be changed or avoided, mainly so they can turn a profit

the classic example is climate change, right? climate change is happening. that is the reality. that is what has been shown in paper after paper and study after study. And we've known about it for a while. But rather than acknowledge and face that reality - that we have to do something about it - oil and gas companies actively worked to suppress that reality, and even now, we careen towards a point of no return. Climate change isn't going anywhere, no matter how much you just hope real hard it will so you can dig up more oil.

but there's more than that. There's the fact that covid-19 is horrifying, has significant long-term repercussions, and hasn't gone anywhere - and yet we don't have mask mandates. It's like if people just stopped using condoms just a few years after the peak of HIV. No one wants to stop raw dogging the air. And as such, the disease keeps mutating, people keep getting sick, and repeated infections repeatedly cause long term disability. But no one acknowledges this, because masks are unpopular, and, well, everyone just wants power and profit at the expense of people.

there's the fact that there are very very very few differences between biosex-males and biosex-females in humans (insert all the asterisks that sex is a made up concept, gender is based in personal experience and thus should be prioritized, etc) and those differences are decreasing with each generation, and yet, swathes of people believe that biosex-males are naturally smarter and stronger just because they had to for some made up pseudoscientific reason.

And these things just feed into bigotry, right? Fox News actively lies week to week and misrepresents information to keep their viewers scared and, thus, willing to vote against their own self-interest - mainly, by keeping them scared of minorities. The reality is that the uber-rich - billionaires, oil ceos, most politicians - continue to take away our rights and safety in order to consolidate their own power, creating a techno-feudalist society. But they lie and they lie and they lie in order to prevent people from realizing this, so they can keep their power.

But reality doesn't go away just because you want it to. You can scream and scream and scream but blaming everything on minorities isn't actually fixing anything, everything's getting worse, and that's why you can't base policy on lies. Fiction doesn't become real because you want it to. The problems I listed above keep getting worse because we keep not fixing them, because the terrible want power and the mediocre hate change.

And the media is an arm of all of this. All of it is connected. Billionaires also have the power in what we see in our stories and our art - we know this, we know that's why AO3 and fanwork exists. Indie things that prioritize reality and equity don't get far, more often than not. Those that do almost always have some sort of caveat that renders the message within hollow (here's how in Andor). Of course this applies to dinosaur media.

The old narrative, the one that suits the powers that be, is that dinosaurs were a failed group of behemoth monsters that were stupid and lucky that they got the megafaunal spot before mammals could take their rightful place. This points to humans being the ultimate heirs and owners of nature, of the world. The rightful rulers, the divinely righted kings. We are at the top of nature's hierarchy - the mammals, better than the dinosaurs, took over because of their superiority, and then we were the most superior of them all.

But truth is, that's not the truth. Science shows over and over again that nature is non hierarchical, that every facet of the food web is important to every other, that we all have our part to play to keep nature balanced. We are many and we are one. A carnivore eating prey is not enmity or war or competition, but a necessary flow of energy. humans don't rule nature, but we also aren't separate from it - we are nature, we are a part of it. And the evidence shows that nonavian dinosaurs would not have disappeared if it wasn't for a freak accident from space. And, with the knowledge that it is not who is at the top - since there is no top - there is an argument to be made that dinosaurs are doing better than mammals today: birds are more speciose and more numerous than mammals by far.

But that goes against our narrative

The one that helps the powers that be keep their power

So we can't have it. We can't have the nuanced picture of the well adapted, birdlike dinosaurs that actually were hit the screens. We can't have them portrayed seriously and realistically. If we do, it has to be in educational media, because people rarely watch that stuff anyway, and those that do already know.

this leads us to 65. Despite being a new dinosaur related fictional piece with absolutely no ties to jurassic park, it didn't actually go for depicting the past correctly. The damn TITLE isn't right! We now know the extinction happened 66 million years ago! 65 mya was in the Paleocene! Never mind the unrealistic abominations that are the dinosaurs and the portrayal of nature (ie, no herbivores because they aren't scary, even though herbivorous animals are almost always more violent and dangerous than carnivorous ones) - the title is itself a falsehood.

Even if not intentional, it reflects the lack of education and knowledge about our collective past in society, which is not good. Only by understanding where we've been can we know how to go forward. Imagine making a movie about, I don't know, going to space, and your title is about how the earth is flat, but you sincerely think the world is flat. That's ridiculous, right? Well, this is just as ridiculous, but we're okay with it, because we aren't properly educated on it because learning the nuance of nature breaks down society's foundational myths.

Like, yeah, not every bit of inaccurate dinosaur art is bad. Individuals should not be held uniquely responsible for the ills of society, and ffs, obviously people with power and money have more reach and are more responsible. But like, don't act like your choices exist in a vacuum either - we have to commit to reality when it is necessary which, for now, with dinosaurs? It is. They aren't monsters. They aren't fictional. Draw dragons and fictitious creatures if you want, but dinosaurs ARE real animals and deserve to be treated with respect.

And that is why 65 is very much related to our rapidly decaying society.

Thanks for humoring me.

Thoughts on new movie 65? It looks awful but im glad someone other than jurassic tried to make a dino movie.

meh, it's somehow worse than JW, and I'm tired of people ignoring and denying reality, so I'm honestly pissed it exists

[khmemeries]

Why Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has Depth: Storytelling with Meaning

It’s not very often that a video game tells a complete and compelling story. But when I played 358/2 Days, I immediately thought it was a “Grand Argument Story”—a type of story that explores a problem and argues for the correct way to solve it, described by the Dramatica Theory of Story. 

If you’re unfamiliar: Dramatica is a framework to understand and construct narratives. Its central idea is “the story mind”:

The Story Mind The one unique concept that sets Dramatica apart from all other theories is the concept that every complete story is a model of the mind's problem solving process. To fully explore any issue, an author has to examine all possible solutions to that issue and make an argument to prove to an audience that the author's way is best. (1)

These stories tend to feel meaningful—you know instinctively that they want to communicate a message to you, even if you can’t verbalize what it is. You learn something alongside the characters. This is the sense I get from 358/2 Days; compare that to Kingdom Hearts III, which is not a Grand Argument Story and has no appreciable message. It feels emptier.

Character Elements

There’s a lot to Dramatica, but we’ll focus on one specific aspect of character in story.

Under Dramatica, characters are the tools used to make the story’s argument as they each take on specific points of view or approaches that your own mind takes while trying to solve a problem. You can argue with yourself: “Do I follow my heart, or my brain? Do I take the easy way out, or think long-term and avoid distractions?” Dramatica takes these possible approaches and spreads them out among characters so they argue among themselves how to approach the problem in a story, just like your mind would.

These approaches are called “elements,” and ALL of them have to be represented in a story for the problem to be fully explored. There are 16 elements that can motivate a character (2):

Dramatica considers characters who have at least one of these elements to fulfill a “dramatic function” in the story—that is, they participate in the argument the story is making. That’s not to say that other characters aren’t important—they can flesh out a world, for example. This is the case in 358/2 Days, which has a large cast, but the consistent dramatic characters are basically only Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Saïx.

The interesting thing about these elements is that they have conflict built straight into them. You can tell immediately that a character representing “control” is going to have a hard time dealing with the character representing “uncontrolled.” Or “faith” and “disbelief,” “pursue” and “prevent,” etc. The diagram below arranges these characteristics into quadrants. Pairs of elements diagonal to each other within each quad have the most potential to generate conflict (2).

The elements can (but don’t have to) combine in complementary pairs to make what are called “archetypal characters.” They’ll sound familiar as characters that pop up in stories all the time. These archetypes each have one specific decision-making element and one specific action-taking element. They will both either be “driver” elements, which serve to drive the story forward, or “passenger” elements, which are more passive.

Protagonist Action Characteristic (Pursue): Pursues the goal. The traditional Protagonist is the driver of the story: the one who forces the action. Decision Characteristic (Consideration): Urges the other characters to consider the necessity of achieving the goal.

Antagonist Action Characteristic (Prevent): The Antagonist physically tries to prevent or avoid the successful achievement of the goal by the Protagonist. Decision Characteristic (Reconsideration): The Antagonist urges the other characters to reconsider the attempt to achieve the goal.

Guardian Action Characteristic (Help): The Guardian is a helper who aids the efforts to achieve the story goal. Decision Characteristic Conscience): It represents conscience in the mind, based upon the Author’s view of morality.

Contagonist Action Characteristic (Hinder): The Contagonist hinders the efforts to achieve the story goal. Decision Characteristic (Temptation): It represents temptation to take the wrong course or approach.

Reason Action Characteristic (Control): This character is very calm or controlled in its actions. Decision Characteristic (Logic): It makes its decisions on the basis of logic, never letting emotion get in the way of a rational course.

Emotion Action Characteristic (Uncontrolled): The Emotional character is frenzied or uncontrolled in its actions. Decision Characteristic (Feeling): It responds with its feelings with disregard for practicality.

Sidekick Action Characteristic (Support): The Sidekick supports, playing a kind of cheering section. Decision Characteristic (Faith): It is almost gullible in the extent of its faith—in the goal, in the Protagonist, in success, etc.

Skeptic Action Characteristic (Oppose): The Skeptic opposes—everything. Decision Characteristic (Disbelief): It disbelieves everything, doubting courses of action, sincerity, truth—whatever. (2)

Plenty of stories don’t use these specific element combinations to make the archetypal characters above; instead, they combine the elements in different ways to make more complex characters. You can pile as many elements as you want into a character, or only have one.

Now, there aren’t eight archetypal dramatic characters in 358/2 Days. We have only four characters to work with. Which is where things get interesting. All of these motivation elements ARE present in the story, but they’re distributed among Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Saïx to make some complex characters.

Axel

Pursue Axel pursues the story goal by making plans to keep the group together and survive in the Organization. He’s the one who makes the plan to cover for Xion when she can’t summon her Keyblade, despite not really wanting to get involved. He also proposes the plan to Roxas to look for Xion after their missions.

“C’mon, Axel, think of something!” Roxas insisted. Why can’t you think of something? The retort nearly left Axel’s mouth, but he gulped it back down. Roxas was the only one of them who could use the Keyblade. It wasn’t like Xion could take it… “Like I said, there’s just no way to— Wait.” Axel paused, looking back at Roxas. He noticed the look and blurted in excitement, “You thought of something?” Beside him, Xion was still hunched over, hidden under her hood. “Roxas, what if you worked double duty?” Axel suggested.

Temptation Axel almost always takes the path of immediate benefit. A natural improviser, his approach is to solve the problem now and deal with the consequences later—even when he is well aware the consequences will be serious, as in this scene.

“This is right,” Xion said firmly. “It’s better this way.” Axel hated that argument. Nothing was better any which way. All it came down to was what you wanted to do and what you didn’t.

Uncontrolled Axel agonizes over what to do, but ultimately, he acts impulsively and outside the rules to solve his problems. My favorite way this is shown is in his relationship with Saïx.

Axel kept pace with him. “Nah, this is about Riku. There’s something I want to look into. So I figured I should probably ask you first.” “Hmph. I’m sure you’ll look into whatever you want with or without my permission.”

Also, Axel is constantly being pulled in all directions, so his focus is all over the place. Xion and Roxas need him. The organization needs him. Saïx needs him. He needs a nap.

Feeling Axel is absolutely driven by his emotions. He does a whole lot of justifying his actions to himself, and it invariably comes down to his heart.

I just did what I thought was the best thing at the time. For Roxas, for Xion, for the Organization—and for Isa. But most of all for me.

He acts directly against the logical course of action, and even acknowledges it.

”Xion, what are you gonna do?” She answered plainly. “I’m going back to where I belong. That’s all.” ”You know, I always thought that’d be for the best. But it still bugs me. Something about this is just wrong.”

“You both think you can do whatever you want!” He summoned his flame-wreathed chakrams to his hands. “I’m sick of it. Go on, you just keep running. But I’ll always be there to bring you back!” It was a plea, a cry, a bitter lament, and a vow. No matter how many times you leave, I’ll bring you back. Every time. Both of you. For my sake and for yours.

Disbelief Axel is suspicious by default. He questions Saïx all the time.

There was no one else in the vicinity. Why was Saïx delivering his message so evasively? Axel’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

He also counters Roxas’ naïve optimism.

“Relax. We’ll be fine,” Roxas encouraged, but she didn’t look up. Sensing her anxiety, Axel turned away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. They’re not that stupid.”

And, most importantly, he doesn’t believe that he, Roxas, and Xion can stay together forever. To him, their separation is inevitable.

“Well, nothing lasts forever,” Axel mumbled, looking off to the side again. “Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies.”

Roxas

Help Roxas participates in achieving the goal of staying together by implementing Axel’s plans, like when he teams up with Xion. He doesn’t take initiative himself.

Consider Roxas is the character who makes the case for staying together.

“I hope we’re always together like this,” said Roxas. Xion nodded. “Yeah… Me too.” Axel scratched the back of his head. “What’s gotten into you two?” “I just…want these days to last forever,” Roxas murmured, slow and pensive. “Hanging out after the job’s done, eating ice cream, watching the sunset…”

He sticks to his guns when he’s faced with the reconsider element.

Support A lot of times, Roxas is more of a cheerleader and emotional support for Axel than he is useful in terms of actual help. I think if 358/2 Days were told from Axel’s point of view, it would be pretty easy to see Roxas as the sidekick. Or like... pet.

Even in his mission with Demyx in the manga, Demyx is the one who steps up to the plate to solve the problem while Roxas just rolls with it.

And he’s got so many “thanks, Axel”’s. Lots of appreciation and support!

“The two of you are friends, right? Tell you what—I’ll pick Saïx’s brain and see what I can find out.” Roxas nodded eagerly. “Thanks, Axel.”

Faith Roxas is the only character who actually believes their group can always be together. Xion even says that Roxas isn’t ready to know the truth, and Naminé then muses about his childishness.

“I know. I’m ready. I just don’t know how. That’s why I came to see you.” Xion exhaled. “And Roxas should be going back with me, shouldn’t he?”

She looked away, as if that was the only part that upset her.

“But I don’t think he’d understand that... not yet,” she went on.

Xion seemed to reflect all the best parts of Sora. And maybe Roxas carried the more childish parts of his nature—so Naminé suspected, although she had yet to meet Roxas.

This panel is late in the game, but Axel never believed they would be together forever, and Xion doesn’t either pretty early on. Roxas keeps believing loooooong after it’s clear that it’s only a dream.

Xion

Hinder Xion is constantly in the way of keeping the group together. Constantly. She’s always a problem Axel has to solve to get everyone together again, whether she’s passed out, lost the ability to use her Keyblade (thus putting herself in danger), running away, learning the truth about herself, or hiding from Axel and Roxas because of her problems. Of course, it’s never her intention to do this, but it happens nonetheless.

Conscience Conscience is about putting more weight on long-term consequences over immediate benefit. This is at the center of Xion’s major decisions in the story. She loves her friends, but she can’t be with them anymore.

She heard Roxas pleading, “No, wait!” I’m sorry, Roxas. Axel knows what I am, and he’s going to tell me to come back. Riku gave me this chance, but…I can’t take it. Not like this.

She even acknowledges her conscience element is going to cause conflict with Axel’s temptation. Conscience is what drives her to run away and also to fight Roxas at the end, once Axel has exhausted her other options.

Saïx

Prevent Saïx (and the Organization, really) makes it impossible for the trio to stay together. He doesn’t just hinder, like Xion does.  He’s involved in the plan to have Roxas and Xion fight and destroy each other. He’s specifically driven to prevent to them being together, permanently.  

Reconsider Saïx argues with Axel about him spending time with Roxas and Xion, urging him to reconsider his goal on multiple occasions.

“Or put it this way,” Saïx said, as if he’d heard himself. “Which one would you rather suffer the loss of? Some idiotic charade of friendship or Roxas himself?”

Saïx had no response for that. A moment went by before he spoke again. “You’re letting yourself get too attached to them.” “Right, sir, of course, sir.”

Oppose Saïx opposes everything, all the time. He makes sooooo many oppositional comments.

“You have your own mission, Roxas,” Saïx told him before Xion could answer.
 “I can’t trade with Xigbar or something?” “What an extraordinarily childish notion. Do you need Axel to walk you everywhere now?”

Logic Saïx is cold and logical in everything he does, to an extreme. He delivers some very cold lines that reflect his reliance on logic.

“Look at you…” Saïx shook his head faintly. “All up in arms over a creature that shouldn’t exist.” “What, like a Nobody? We’re all Nobodies!” Why won’t Saïx understand? Is it because he’s a Nobody? But so am I! “You have nothing to worry about,” said Saïx. “Xion may be beyond repair, but that does not affect your standing with us.” “My sta—? Argh, you’re like a broken record!” Roxas fumed. “I’ll do my mission later.”

Icy. Like he has trouble understanding emotion at all.

Controlled

Saïx is quite robotic in his focus.

“Things are finally right again,” Saïx went on. “Of course, we’re better off this way.” Axel had no retort for that. Maybe because he didn’t want to alienate Saïx anymore. “Xemnas is exasperated from all the ‘fixing’ we’ve had to do. We have to set things right. There is too much on the line…Lea.”

He’s also depicted as calm and expressionless. It’s intentionally in contrast to his berserk state, where he temporarily embodies “uncontrolled.”

Depth from Complexity

The combination of elements that each character has is complex (as opposed to archetypal), giving depth. One reason that Axel is so fascinating in 358/2 Days is that he has both the pursue and disbelief elements. He doesn’t even believe the goal he’s pursuing is possible! It’s such a powerful way to communicate his emotional desperation. Mixed with feeling, uncontrolled, and temptation, he’s a total spiraling disaster.

Roxas’s elements sum up his character: help, consider, support, and faith. He is naïve (faith), but that’s why he’s the only character who can argue with Axel to find ways to keep everyone together (consider). Despite this, he takes no initiative himself, only supporting Axel’s plans like a cheerleader (support) or by following his directions (help). He’s immature, but earnest. Because he has both consider and support, he has this childish dynamic where he asks Axel for help and then cheers him on while Axel solves all his life problems. But it’s cute. No wonder Axel adopts him.

Xion comes off as much more mature than Roxas with the conscience element. She knows that she knows the right thing to do. And that’s why it makes narrative sense for her to have the hinder element—the “right thing” is in conflict with pursuing the goal to keep everyone together. She should get in the way. I love how she is constantly a problem for Axel throughout the story because of the interplay between these elements. She is regularly more of an obstacle than Saïx himself. It’s quite a refreshing combination since she’s taken elements from the helpful “guardian” archetype as well as the subversive “contagonist” archetype.

Saïx has both of the classic antagonist elements (prevent and reconsider) as well as the reason characteristics (logic and controlled). He’s a cold and calculating bad guy, turned up to the max with his literal lack of emotion, as well as his perfectly composed demeanor that’s contrasted with his wild berserk state. He gets extra stubborn jerk points for having the oppose element as well—he’s constantly an obstacle for everyone all the time, doesn’t matter what it is. It elevates him from villain to complete bastard. You love to hate him.

Interpersonal Conflict

Besides character complexity, the multiple, diametrically-opposed purposes between each character weave a spiderweb of conflict.

Of course, Saïx is the main villain of the story and naturally there’s conflict with him. He has three elements opposed to Axel. Most of this conflict occurs with Axel in a surprisingly subdued fashion, however. For example, Axel is constantly approaching Saïx from an emotional angle, getting a detached logical response, and absorbing the impact (feeling vs logic).

“Can’t you just let things run their course?” Saïx complained. “What course? Whose plans am I ruining, exactly?” Axel retorted, still staring at the empty space where Roxas’s portal swirled into nothing. “The Organization’s. I trust you.” Axel let out a low chuckle. “Yeah? Because your heart tells you to?” “Just the memory of it. But if you continue to interfere, I’ll have to overwrite that memory with everything I’ve learned as a Nobody.” “…Should I take that as a threat?” “More or less. Keep it in mind.” Finished with the conversation, Saïx walked away. Axel didn’t move for a while.

He might only snap once?

And this short interaction illustrates the subtle conflict between Axel’s uncontrolled and Saïx’s control:

Axel kept pace with him. “Nah, this is about Riku. There’s something I want to look into. So I figured I should probably ask you first.” “Hmph. I’m sure you’ll look into whatever you want with or without my permission.”

Axel and Saïx’s prevent and pursue elements come into conflict through actions, such as when Axel stops Roxas and Xion from fighting each other in Halloween Town. 

Saïx’s other two elements conflict with Roxas. For example, Roxas’s confrontation with Saïx is a physical fight as much as it is a battle between consideration and reconsideration. This feels like the most “traditional” conflict in the game to me—the fight where the villain and hero argue about what’s right and wrong. It’s because consideration and reconsideration are elements in stereotypical roles here (those being the main character and the villain, respectively).  

Xion faces so much trouble in the story because (in addition to having her hinder element mercilessly employed), the most active character, Axel, who has the pursue element, also has temptation that’s in conflict with Xion’s conscience. The conflict between those two elements is the obvious driving force behind this confrontation:

“This is right,” Xion said firmly. “It’s better this way.” Axel hated that argument. Nothing was better any which way. All it came down to was what you wanted to do and what you didn’t.

Her hinder element also creates conflict with Roxas’s help element. That’s what “flipping the switch”/“the wrong button” was.

Roxas and Axel come into conflict because Roxas’s faith that they can always be together opposes Axel’s disbelief. Axel avoids confronting Roxas with the truth about Xion for so long to delay this very conflict. 

Many of the clock tower conversations also involve this tension between faith and disbelief.  

“I just…want these days to last forever,” Roxas murmured, slow and pensive. “Hanging out after the job’s done, eating ice cream, watching the sunset…” Axel peered at his profile as he did just that. The sunset’s glow touched Roxas’s face and Xion’s with warm red. “Well, nothing lasts forever,” Axel mumbled, looking off to the side again. “Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies.” At that, both of their expressions fell.

I think this conflict is part of why Axel is so difficult for Roxas to understand. Axel seems like he cares, because he’s pursuing the goal of keeping everyone together… but Roxas is the one who believes in it, not Axel, and Roxas interprets this as indifference. They never reconcile over this difference in the end.

“You can’t turn on the Organization!” Axel cried. “You get on their bad side, and they’ll destroy you!” Now Axel was upset—nothing like before. Roxas smiled thinly and paused a moment. “No one would miss me.”

In short, the conflict that emerges is so natural and interesting because the characters represent all the problem-solving approaches, giving them depth. This full exploration of all possible sources of conflict between the characters’ motivation elements makes stories meaningful. The tension within the sea-salt trio is part of what makes 358/2 Days so emotional compared to simpler stories where conflict is reserved for heroes vs. villains only. Hopefully, future entries return to this approach to storytelling to successfully communicate the beliefs about love and friendship that Kingdom Hearts has at its core in a sincere way.

(1) https://dramatica.com/about (2) https://dramatica.com/theory/book/characters

[actualbird]

Oh my god help I tried to submit this ask before and I got told a tumblrbeast ate it was it that long kjsfhjdshf. I'm so sorry if this is the second time you got this ask from me.

Me & my friend actually came up with a not-so-insane sounding theory: Marius is not from the in-game timeline. (This has basis in Marius third solo SSR, but I won't say anything you don't already know. You've seen that illustration, I can tell you it's seriously related to that!)

I'm thinking Madoka Magica here. Due to various events, Marius loses both Giann and Rosa. Unable to take the loss of both of them, he builds a time travel machine (only able to go to another timeline, not the past in his timeline), and sets out to save them both.

I'd like to imagine Marius at the start, so optimistic and eager, so helpful and open. He practically wore his heart on his sleeve around the first few Rosa, then gradually forced himself to close it off because he kept on failing. (As my friend pointed out, he feels like he doesnt deserve the love a Rosa in a timeline gives him because he's failed her too many times)

Also as my friend pointed out, this is why Marius doesn't open up as much to Rosa. He doesn't really like dumping so much about himself on her because he doesn't wanna get too attached to that Rosa in THAT timeline. Cause if he does, and he fails to save her- he'll be more broken than before.

The reason he seems emotionally detached while talking about the bad memories is because he experienced this in the first timeline, as the original Marius. The one that fell in love with Rosa and didn't know about the tragedy that would happen and didn't see the need to save her and Giann.

And can I add another layer of angst on top. He's stuck in a choose one situation. He can't save both, and he doesn't know that. Even if he does know that, he'd keep going to different timelines, in hopes of success, even if it's impossible.

omg jshdvfkj im glad this ask got through!! it's the only one that i got that looks like it, so hurray! u were successful!

that being said, u were successful in making me very emotional whHHHYYYYYYYY

im personally not too big on theorizing about canon (my go-to is just to make an au HAHKJSHVFKJS), but it's interesting cuz i have played around with like, a madoka magica-esque au in terms of timeline jumping and immense angst, but it's always luke who im casting as the pseudo role of homura, since hes so very much intertwined with the concept of time and self destruction through self sacrifice

however, hearing ur rationale for marius is SO GOOD cuz i can see the connections and motivations, especially with how guarded and detached he is and oh god why wHY HE'LL BE SO DESTROYED, HE ALREADY IS, WHATS THE WAY OUUUUTTT

overuse of crying memes aside, thank u for sharing this! if anything, im now immensely interested in applying some of the time-narrative concepts i usually apply to luke to marius too, cuz it fits him as well, what with how heavy his past is and also how he brings up the concept of memory a lot (like, his memories of giann, how he wants to be remembered always by mc, past anecdotes, etc). it fits, just in a different way and different angle

ah, subjecting faves to the Horrors <3 jhvVKJSHDF

[phoneybeatlemania-bit-the-dust]

do you have any theories about the india trip ?? personally, im not sure what to think about it, but i’d love to hear your thoughts !!

(Sorry its taken me so long to answer this - it just got lost in my drafts cause im an idiot lmao 🤦‍♀️)

Im not entirely certain on what I believe happened in India, if in fact anything did happen at all - but more on that later! I guess though that these are the main theories (though if you have any differing opinions/theories, feel free to discuss them!):

1. Paul rejected John’s advancements

2. John wanted to further their relationship, and Paul wanted to maintain the ‘friends with benefits’ situation they already had

3. Nothing significant happened between the two (yet something still changed in John)

I’ll try to discuss which theories I find the most convincing, compelling and substantiated - as well as offering my own opinions and hypothesis’s ^^ (discussion bellow the cut)

1. Paul rejected John’s advancements

The theory I would say im most drawn to - not the theory that im necessarily most convinced by though - is that John made a move on Paul, after a few years of pining for him, and was subsequently rejected. Its a theory that I tend to be compelled by, but I have to admit that its one I struggle to justify entirely. The problem with this theory, for me, is that this is a conclusion ive drawn based mostly off of what their relationship appeared to look like after India. It seems as though something must have happened between them to have ruptured their relationship as profoundly as it did - and because they were on relatively good terms before India*, combined with certain inferences we could draw from comments John made regarding his feelings towards Paul and their relationship, it feels as though it’s possible that he made an advance on Paul, which was rejected and thus caused the ultimate disintegration of the Lennon/McCartney relationship.

(*I mean, their relationship was always complicated and difficult - but it seems that it was okay-ish prior to India, and then just inexplicably plummeted after the trip)

But nobody (as far as im aware) has confirmed, or even really alluded to, this advancement or rejection ever having happened. And the lack of evidence substantiating the claim is a major draw back for me!

However, I do also feel as though nobody’s really come out about anything that happened in India - all ive heard is that they meditated, wrote songs, John and Cyn fought, and Ringo ate baked beans. But like, more must have happened on the trip, surely? Im not saying the absence of information regarding the trip is proof that there was a big “lovers quarrel” between John and Paul, and that everyone involved in that trip is now just sworn to secrecy or something - but like, id just like to see a biographer really investigate the holiday, and try to conclude what events might have occurred during the trip, because as of right now, with the information we have, it seems to have been, bizarrely, both a lacklustre and uneventful, yet still hugely impactful event. If the narrative of the “India trip” were to be shifted in the future in light of new information, the same way the narrative of “Let It Be/Get Back” is being changed, I wouldn’t be surprised!

2. John wanted more, but Paul didn’t

Another popular theory is that John and Paul were engaged in something of a physical affair, but in India John proposed (or perhaps demanded even) that they take their relationship further, and Paul just wasn’t compelled to do so.

Beliefs vary regarding this, based on how far you personally think their relationship went: some might say they only ever did a little drunken experimenting with one another, and that it was just a fun fling until John suggested they take it further. Others might argue that they were in fact in a committed relationship, and John wanted to go public with it - or at the very least, demanded exclusivity between him and Paul.

In entertaining this theory, im most compelled to believe that John and Paul were engaged in occasional “flings”, and perhaps by ‘68 were even acknowledging that there was some deeper and more sincere between them - but ultimately, I don’t think Paul would have ever been inclined to fully commit to John, because I think he always wanted children and a family. In addition to this, though its clear John and Paul were passionate about one another, it isn’t clear how compatible they were in the long term - and with Paul being the more grounded of the too, I suspect he would have recognised this incompatibility, which John (the idealist) might not have.

Though I admit that John could certainly be unrealistic and irrational, im not convinced that he suggested to Paul they go public with their relationship, because I think John still had a fairly strong sense of his place in popular culture, and would have still been able to recognise that if they were to “come out”, it would probably deeply and irreparably damage both their careers - as well as George and Ringo’s too - at least amongst the general public. They’d still have some ardent fans, but their following overall would have become far more niche, and the “beatlemania” would’ve worn off swiftly. Im not sure if either of them would’ve been willing to take that heat in ‘68, especially not Paul, who as I mentioned earlier, I think might have recognised the futility and incompatibility inherent in their relationship.

Then again though, John was always a little “cocky”* when it came to his sexuality - I think if an interviewer were to genuinely have enquired into his sexuality, straight up asking him “Are you bi? Gay?” I get the sense that he would have told us! Sure he’d probably have dressed the response up with a dozen quick quips and jokes, but ultimately, I think he would have given a sincere response. And so, perhaps he did feel he had the confidence, at least in India, to actually “come out”, but if Paul wasn’t willing to make this official with him, perhaps this confidence dissipated.

(*No pun intended you pervs🤦‍♂️)

Another thing to note about India is that they’d have been relatively secluded, as well as off the drugs/drinks for the most part - and this would have forced them to really reflect upon their relationship. Perhaps John saw that he wasn’t contented with Cynthia, and recognised his desire for more from Paul - and so in such a raw state of mind, I can see how he’d become so shattered if Paul were to have rejected him (that statement could relate both to the first and second theory, I feel). Perhaps John made an advance upon Paul whilst they were both sober for the first time, and that changed their relationship somehow? Just thinking out loud here!

But again, this theory overall has the same problem as the first in that, though it appears to make sense, it still lacks proof; it ultimately isn’t a substantiated claim.

3. Nothing happened between J&P, but something changed

This is probably the theory that everybody is least interested in hearing, but I still think its a pretty valid one, albeit the least dramatic (In my opinion though its still a really interesting perspective to explore though!).

Its possible that nothing of particular significance happened in India, but something still shifted in John, causing him to vilify and reject Paul. The issue with this though, is that it begs the question: why did John undergo such a significant change in India then?

Id argue that perhaps John was making very subtle and slight moves towards Paul, that Paul either ignored or didn't pick up on. Id assume that perhaps John had been hinting at this desire for awhile now, and maybe he got it into his head that in India, where him and Paul would have a lot of time to be alone and intimate, his feelings would finally be reciprocated. But then, Paul never picked up on these hints, and never made any advancements - and this broke something within John. It would fit neatly within the Yoko narrative, because it offers reasoning to the abrupt but intense attachment John formed towards her almost immediately after India - as well as explaining the sudden vilification of Paul. But I suppose that the first two theories also fit pretty neatly within the Yoko narrative, because they all relate to the same basic concept that John wanted more from Paul, and Paul didn’t - and so he tried to replace him with Yoko.

I suppose though, that the this theory overall could also be countered by making the argument that Paul also began to spiral after India, and so some occurrence presumably must have happened to Paul too. I wonder though if its possible that maybe Pauls spiralling was kind of a result of Johns? I get the sense though that Paul would need a change in his life to cause his mental health to seriously deteriorate, but I don’t feel like the same is necessarily true for John - I think John is sort of the type to spiral, irregardless of whether his life undergoes a significant change or not, because I think John was the force driving a lot of the drama and troubles throughout his lifetime. So if Johns mental well-being started seriously deteriorating, I can see this being a cause of panic and anxiety for Paul.

But something that further inclines me to believe that an actual event occurred between John and Paul is this extract from Geoff Emmericks memoir (x)(id recommend reading the entire extract, its interesting!):

‘I glanced in Paul’s direction. He was staring straight ahead, expressionless and weary. He didn’t have much to say about India that day, or any other. I sensed at that moment that something fundamental in them had changed.”’

It just really feels as though there was some confrontation between John and Paul that had to have happened to perpetuate the miscommunication later seen between them. Like if there hadn’t been some kind of confrontation, then I can’t really understand why Paul would be reluctant to speak about India, or harbour any regrets or dismay regarding the journey. Perhaps you could drill it down to the betrayal they appeared to have felt by Maharishi allegedly hitting on girls - but I feel like this was a “betrayal” mostly felt by John, I never really got the sense that Paul was deeply effected by it.

But yeah - those are the main theories I think.

Overall, I think that the third theory is probably the most substantiated claim, but I think it leaves a lot to desired. It just doesn’t feel like it totally fits together, as though theres more to the story - but I guess relationships and peoples psyches aren’t puzzles, and so not everything is always going to piece together perfectly; but I dunno.

Like I said though, the theory im most compelled by is the first. I acknowledge that it lacks evidence, but it just seems to make a lot of sense to me! But really, who knows what the hell happened in India?

If anyone else has an opinion on all this, or wants to expand upon or even suggest a new theory, feel free to! I always like hearing from you guys!

[fermented-writers-block]

Lus and the Human Portal Clone Theory

Even before Keeping Up A-fear-ances aired, I have been working for almost a year now on running through all the possible various suspects with wonderful folks like @sepublic​ , @anistarrose​ , and @elementalist-kdj​ . Like the post title indicates, from sheer process of elimination, the only conclusion that made sense to me was a clone made of Luz by the portal door, and I’ve been working on refining and reworking said conclusion up to the version I will lay out here.

Now, as @safetayy​ , @theowlhouseheadcanons , and @50shades-of-blue have heard from me before, the portal I've long suspected was not made to go from the Demon Realm to the Human Realm, but rather to go from the Human Realm to the Demon Realm by humans, for humans. This is because it then could tie into the hypothetical existence of a Luz clone without having the issue of asking where Eda, Lilith, and King's clones are, as the clone in this case is the result of a function of the door to create a basic level duplicate of any human that passes through it rather than it happening for just anyone that passes through.

With this, it's because the suitcase form of the portal looks as thought it indicates it was used for temporary trips to the Demon Realm, much like how suitcases were used when railways and international boats made travel more accessible for the middle and lower classes. For example:

Going by the way the door “faces” and the way it swings open, the ergonomics of the portal makes it look an awful lot like a right handed out swing door, with the Human Realm on the “inside” and the Demon Realm on the “outside.” And the arrow in the diagram depicts the general direction of traffic that such right handed, out swing doors are typically design with in mind - ergo, showing what way the portal appears to facilitate travel in.

Now, before you ask, the reason why I think the portal could have been created in the human realm in the first place is that it might require an extra component/bit of help or two from the Owl Deity which I’ve discussed before in the past as hinted by these connected designs:

I’ll explore how I feel the revelation that such a twist about the portal’s origins could play into the themes and narrative of the show under the cut, but overall, I feel these are potential significant details to keep in mind for the rest of this arc of building a new door and handling the idea of Lus having initially been made as a temporary-duration clone, hence how "Luz" comes off so uncannily in the letters as she wasn't meant for long term impersonations.

That, and why I named this the Human Portal Clone theory, for those wondering about the name.

Alongside this, my thought has been that walking back through the portal to the Human Realm basically makes the portal send a recall signal to tell the clone to return to it, where the clone would be reabsorbed into the portal and its memories are given to the original. However, with Luz going back into the Demon Realm for a brief time in YBOS, I am of the mind that it doesn’t just make another clone, but rather that doing so merely made the door turn off the recall signal and allowed "Lus" to resume the impersonation.

And as for the clone itself and why they’re writing letters to Camila, well, imagine it from Lus' perspective. To her at the time of creation, the last thing she probably knew was that she had been chasing the cute little owl that took her Azura book into the woods, and right when the bus to Reality Check Camp was about to arrive.

Also, if you think about it, Lus being the work of someone we/don’t know yet raises way more plot threads/questions than answers compared to being the work of the portal, as outlined below:

TLDR at end of post for those wondering

Belos? How and why before YBOS where he actually started paying attention to Luz for the first time and actually got his hands on a portal? 

Eda? Why would she do all this and not tell Luz she can goof around without needing to worry about her mom or the camp/in time to fool the camp, especially when it took a good amount of time for Eda to even start feeling that close to Luz? 

Hooty got ruled out from the getgo since he can’t hold pencils, King just isn’t that subtle, and everyone else that Luz knows has the major issues of just straight up not knowing about the camp in the first place. Well, that and a lack of another known method of getting to the Human Realm in the first place.

The camp? Why would they worry about a missing camper whose disappearance is all HER fault and thus would more logically result in a call to her parent than some convoluted clone conspiracy? 

And finally, some currently completely unknown third party?

If we’re talking a Changeling, A) it’d be easy for Luz to dismiss them and B) that just makes all the ominous portrayal of Lus super straightforward instead of a subversion like is the show’s shtick.

If we’re talking dimensional counterparts, A) they have to REALLY have led a very similar life to Luz’s in order for there to be enough common ground for Luz to listen, and B) dimensional counterparts aren’t even a confirmed or likely thing that people cooked up from Episode 1 side characters influenced by Amity’s concept art.

And if we’re talking some complete surprise third party group or another, it doesn’t make sense to introduce a third party and their motives and plans to the show this late in when Belos is already taking up the bulk of it all.

Hell, if anything, the continued existence of the duplicate in of itself would indicate that the target of the conspiracy is none other than Camila Noceda than anything to do with Luz or Eda, especially with the complete lack of anyone taking advantage of Luz and or Eda. 

From the getgo, Witches Before Wizards already hard-baked into the show the idea that Luz is NOT inherently special or anything into the foundations of the show from the getgo - ergo, Camila likely just is an absolutely regular human being, someone who has no justification for such a convoluted conspiracy to surround them.

That said, I believe that the idea of the portal having originated from the Human Realm could potentially play into some interesting stories to be had with Camila and Lus here, especially as the conspiracy board shot from the promo was confirmed by Dana to apparently be from S2A, not from the episodes past Yesterday’s Lie:

After all, with Luz searching the library for a way home this coming episodes, perhaps she might figure out something the next couple of episodes that allows her texts to send through, which would logically lead to the above picture. That, and Camila and Lus being confused by and trying to figure out what’s going on there.

I mean, the cabin in the woods likely has a very close connection to the portal and it’s origins given how closely tied the two structures seem to be, and as far as we can tell, Luz never mentioned the cabin in her videos to Camila, but if Lus tries to retrace her steps, that would be a natural vector to lead Camila to the cabin and thus allow us a chance to actually investigate it.

That said, all following the trail would do is lead her and Lus to a dead end at the abandoned cabin, where they would have nothing else to do except discuss their complicated relationship concerning Luz and twiddle their thumbs while waiting for Luz to finish things on her end - which while something I think would be interesting to see, I just don’t see how much of a way to keep them in the greater picture of the show without some kind of project or activity that the two of them could work together on on screen. 

And that’s what leads me to a particular train of thought here, starting with the question of what if Luz FAILS to make a working portal over the course of S2A and such?

With the possible in-universe mystery over what the heck is going on with Lus, perhaps the cabin might hold some notes from the original last human owner - if not potentially the creator - of Eda’s portal as well as potentially some of the same materials and such from previous trips.

Cue CAMILA building a working portal, following in the footsteps of the original creator and such and thus finding a reason to stay on screen, all the while potentially demonstrating both why Belos wanted the portal instead of making his own, as well as diving into the Owl Deity’s connection with the original portal. Heck, maybe the Owl Deity is only accessible in the Human Realm and that plays a part in Belos wanting to get to the Human Realm, which would bring Camila directly into contact with the magic her daughter has been interacting with.

Also, just imagine the internal conflict going on here with Lus. After all, helping Camila build a portal to get the original Luz -and hoo boy would that be a tough thing to grapple with- would most definitely do that and make both Lus AND Camila question how much the latter likes Lus vs Luz.

Like, just imagine it. There would be major chances for Lus and Camila to discuss what would happen if and when they’re finished with the portal, and what will happen to Lus’ relationship with Camila if and when Luz gets back.

Does Camila really prefer her daughter to be all more “normal” like Lus, or does she prefer the old, “weird” daughter from before the summer with Luz?

Perhaps she might be able to figure out how to strike a nuanced balance between the two, and all on a metaphorical journey to truly build a better connection between her and her daughter(s?). 

TLDR: Or in short, I can’t help but feel it would be fitting to see Camila building a bridge WITH Lus TO Luz. 

Particularly, by being the one to craft an actual working portal in the Human Realm instead of Luz in the Demon Realm, showing a parent putting in an active effort to get down to their child’s level rather than waiting for said child to try to get up to their parent’s level even if they can’t or find it incredibly hard to do so.

[jackoshadows]

The ASoIaF fandom can be so frustrating sometimes.

It’s okay to admit that one doesn’t like this or that character. There’s nothing wrong in disliking a character.

I am pretty open on my blog about my indifference towards or dislike for Sansa because of her stans. I don’t make disclaimers about how much I love the character before proceeding to criticize Sansa. I am not a Sansa stan and that’s okay. My blog is a place for me to jot down my thoughts and celebrate characters, books and shows I do like. If you love Sansa as a character, block me, don’t follow me etc.

What’s obnoxiously annoying are the folks who claim to love all the characters the same and then give their ‘unbiased’ opinions which are held up as canon facts because they came from neutral book reader experts. To hell with that nonsense.

These posts reek of hypocrisy and double standards. It often tears down some characters while subtly propping up others - and it’s gobbled up by the wider fandom as unbiased interpretation of the text.

One example is pushing forth the notion that calling Arya pretty (Something that both her father and brother tell her she is in the books) is wrong, it’s sexualizing her, it’s okay for Arya to be ugly, she’s canonically not pretty because Cat/Sansa said so and no other interpretation is allowed etc. And then the same person who says all this celebrates Sansa’s beauty and ships her with a 27 year old man who falls in lust with Sansa.

Or when they say that the Arya-Lyanna (and Sansa/Lyanna parallels, because it’s always important to mention Sansa with respect to Lyanna even if said person claims to not care about Lyanna as a character) parallels are overrated and not important and they don’t care about Robert’s Rebellion characters but on their blogs there’s all these posts, fanarts and meta about Elia Martell - a Robert’s Rebellion character.

A so called book expert would note that GRRM has several characters outright compare Arya to Lyanna or mistake Lyanna for Arya in the books while Sansa has no such comparison. But no, the unbiased book expert thinks that the Arya-Lyanna and Sansa-Lyanna parallels are equivalent and are both overrated.That post just annoyed me excessively into writing this long ass rant post.

Why are these neutral, unbiased folks so interested in stripping away from Arya’s story?

In the books Jeyne Poole is masquerading as Arya Stark - but that story is only Jeyne’s, has nothing to do with Arya or Arya’s importance to the North. 

Arya is a strong warg, Nymeria and her wolf pack are a ‘Chekov’s wolf pack’ that GRRM has hung on the wall  -  Our expert opinion is that Direwolves are not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

Arya is pretty - why needlessly call Arya pretty, it adds nothing to Arya’s story and is all about sexualizing a child.

Arya-Lyanna parallels - why do we need these parallels, Arya is distinct and interesting without them.

These aspects are all important parts of the character’s story. There are so many very well written essays exploring these concepts with respect to Arya’s journey of self discovery in the books, the narrative significance of her parallels to Lyanna, her bond with Nymeria and her warging talents. For those who are interested, here are two bloggers who actually like Arya and have written about her character and character arc.

https://donewithwoodenteeth.tumblr.com/meta-masterlist

https://ashotofjac.tumblr.com/tagged/arya-stark

Some of these same people will rush to condemn any reading of the books that does not have Sansa wielding power at the end as being ‘Sansa hate’. But they will have no issues to undermine and devalue Arya’s actual book story, the relationships she has, the parallels she has, the skillsets she has, her appearance, her importance to the current story happening in the North.

There is a whole ass plot currently in the books of Northerners rallying for Arya Stark and preparing for battle against the Boltons for Arya Stark. But that’s not important because it’s actually Jeyne Poole and Arya’s story is about sailing off west of westeros.  But hey, Sansa will definitely go North and hold power and that’s like 100% happening because we are the unbiased book experts and we say it is so.

Or when all else fails - Arya is a Mary Sue, she’s a fantasy character, she’s a ‘strong female character’ because she fights with a sword, people like her because she’s a tomboy who fights. Sansa is realistic, Sansa is complex - but here are all the essays that basically transfer Arya’s complexity and story to Sansa - because it fits more with their fave, because these aspects would fit better with the traditionally feminine character even though they never tire of talking about how GRRM is deconstructing tropes. Because the trope deconstruction is only applied to Arya, Jon and Dany. Never Sansa.

And honestly, why are these people reading a high fantasy series if they hate fantasy and fantasy characters so much? We love Sansa because she’s so non-magical! Then go read non-fiction books. They also twist Jon, Arya and Dany into ‘fantasy’ characters - despite these characters going through some very real and human experiences. What’s fantasy about Arya’s experiences in war torn Westeros, Jon dealing with bigotry at the wall, Dany trying to rebuild Meereen, while dealing with famine, disease and insurgency?

Or how Jon and Dany getting any kind of happy ending or becoming rulers would be so boring, sweet, predictable, conforming to tropes, a happy ending etc. But Sansa getting love, romance, going home, becoming the Stark in Winterfell, getting her fairy tale ending - that’s totally what GRRM is going to do! No trope deconstruction there!  In may ways, Benioff and Weiss’ ending is not all that surprising -  Mad Queen Dany, Jon remaining a bastard with the freefolk, Sansa having power as a leader - are all popular theories among bnfs in the fandom. D&D wanting to wind up the show quickly with easily found fan theories is not that much of a stretch.

ASoIaF reddit is equally frustrating. Instead of Sansa stan bnfs on tumblr who pretend to like Arya and Dany while subtly undermining their story and importance, on Asoiaf reddit it’s Stannis stans who dislike Jon and Dany because these characters present a challenge to Stannis. The mere suggestion that Jon may play a role in the battle against Ramsay sends them into frothing at the mouth rage. They hate Jon, Jon is a Gary Sue because he dared advice Stannis - the greatest general ever - on Northern military strategy. Never mind that Jon grew up in the North and learned from Ned, how dare Jon Snow know more than Stannis! Unacceptable!

And I love Stannis Baratheon. I want Stannis to crush and defeat the Boltons. But unlike reddit dudebros, I can see that he is a secondary character, a tragic character who is most probably going to perish and Jon takes over because Jon Snow is a central protagonist in the story.

I feel it’s the same with Sansa. IMO, GRRM clearly doesn’t see Sansa in the same way as he does Arya, Jon, Dany, Tyrion and Bran. Whenever he is asked questions about the books, book plots, long term arcs, endings, age gaps etc it’s these characters he often brings up and references. It’s these characters who are important to him.

And that’s why there’s a lot of undermining and undervaluing of these character’s and their stories, them being described as fantasy characters, tropes, Mary Sues and Gary Sues, ableist rhetoric about Tyrion and Bran to undermine them.

I am damned certain that if it was Sansa who had all the parallels to Lyanna, or if she was the warg, or Jeyne Poole was impersonating her, this would all be ‘VERY IMPORTANT’ and on all the gifsets and essays. But she isn’t. So fandom bnfs are reduced to talking about how these aspects are not all that important anyway.

It’s like how this quote - ‘You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts’ turns up on gifsets every other day on the Arya tag but this quote - ‘Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier of Arya had been a bastard, like her half brother Jon. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered’ very rarely does and will not get reblogged when it does.

Or when Sansa sees Joffrey trying to kill Arya and sides with Joffrey or when Sansa throws Arya under the bus and tells the Lannisters that it’s Arya who is the traitor - just sisters being sisters y’all!

It’s all about maintaining a certain narrative about Sansa - and when others point out her actual relationship with Arya in the books, we are accused of hating and wanting Sansa dead and how we should be criticizing Tywin and the Mountain instead. This is nonsensical whataboutism and ignores that people talk about  these aspects of the books because sometimes bullying, getting mocked for one’s appearance, abuse and neglect from parental figures etc. can resonate with certain readers unlike getting one’s head smashed in by Frankenstein.

At the end of the day, I wish these people would be honest about the characters they like and relate to. We are all biased. That’s why our opinions and interpretations are subjective. There’s nothing wrong in saying, hey, I like Sansa more than Arya or Dany, I relate to her character more.

I relate to Jon Snow a lot, I see things from his POV, I would disagree with the characters who disagree with Jon,  I enjoy his story at the Wall and the North. My interpretations of the text are therefore colored by my bias towards Jon. 

For others, it’s Dany or Sansa or Arya or Tyrion or Jaime. And that’s okay because these are fictional characters and liking one more than the other is not going to earn anyone woke points and lead to women’s rights.

And finally, there’s nothing edgy or cool about disparaging the central protagonists of a high fantasy series as being fantasy characters - go read other books if one is not into fantasy.

[theangryjikooker]

ah the anon you just posted asking about the bts timeline, I hope you don't mind me jumping in a little. Going to preface really fast that I do, 95% (I agree with you that nothing is certain) think that jikook are like... a Thing. A long-term significant thing, even. But that's not the reason for my ask. I'm someone who loves ALL the ships, and OT7 dynamics and I really really enjoy reading shipping blogs for other non-jikook ships that go into theories and details and timelines because I think it really helps me to not only get a handle on out of control shipper narratives, but also get a fun vibe for OT7 dynamics and it means my TL and dash are always full of cute moments. I may think jikook are real, but I have no emotional attachment to them being real, so someone on their own platform talking about jinkook real or vmin real or whatever doesn't bother me at all, we love a diversity of opinions in this house. But back to the reason I'm in your anons, an interesting thing ppl will notice if they're in a lot of various bts shipping spaces is that almost. Every. Single. Ship. Claims that their ship got "serious" or "more real" in 2015/2016. This is fascinating to me. Jikookers do it. Vminies do it. Yoonminers do it. Namjinists do it. I could continue. What I actually thing happened is that OT7 as a whole had a pretty big shift during those 2 years. The success, the growth, all of them finally getting into early adulthood instead of late teens. I would say all of their dynamics changed (and continue to change, because they're people and not stagnant robots) and it's always interesting to me how those things are viewed through the lens of shipping.

Oh, I love this ask.

I don't know if someone else can corroborate this because I don't really read other ship narratives enough (even though I like them) to know that 2015/2016 is "the" year. I can say that I've seen those years floated around in the Jkkr community but with a lot of emphasis on 2017, but I get what you mean.

If this is actually the case for all ships, I would agree with your reasoning about why those years are the perceived turning points; it's very sensible.

At any rate, this is why I value looking at things from a wider perspective. While little things like this may seem irrelevant to Jikook (or your preferred ship), it does say something about shippers fandom-wide and this whole concept of perception that I keep pushing on here.

I may think jikook are real, but I have no emotional attachment to them being real, so someone on their own platform talking about jinkook real or vmin real or whatever doesn't bother me at all, we love a diversity of opinions in this house.

Highlighting this because yes.

[ll-underestimated-ll]

Lachlan’s deeper than he seems, you say? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Most certainly more-so than his original base concept of : 'heheh I'ma make a generic urban legend spooky black eyed child for the lols' at the very least!

On the decision to keep him around as a side-muse/ensemble member it meant thinking about him a little more.

Why would anyone embrace this kid in the first place - would not put the Sword of Caine above the use of manipulatable child soldiers but the risk...? Why would they seemingly abandon their childer so soon - Lasombra typically cull flawed childer? How is a mere fledgling so powerful - beyond justification of a child having the capacity to jump into using magic without being at a point in life where they'd subconciously be trying to rationalise how such powers worked?

Then as I drafted him a backstory that's only led to more questions...

How did the pack he was left with treat him - Sabbat packs aren't known for their kindness? How would this of impacted him as a person - did he have to grow up quickly, what of his morals? What would he of learnt from what he saw surrounded while Sabbat - does he know any secrets? What survival strategies and general skills would of developed from this life - does that make for any quirks in his behaviour, any special skills?

Why would he so willingly land himself in the hands of a Camarilla Prince? - That's the question that Leo most certainly chews upon the most.

With all of these factors taken into account - how does he then link into the everything going on Auckland wise? If I were to ever revive my campaign with a group in the future and I kept him included what would be the plot there? How would I make a group of players care about, sympathize with, and simultaneously see him as a threat?

If there is one thing for sure, the flip side to his crack character concept is one of tragedy. Reflect on it for more than a moment and any vtm character with the child flaw is a victim of horrifying circumstances. To be ripped away from one's parents, to be rejected by them out of fear when you do see them again, at such a young age as well... I made the character and I'm angry about the circumstances I've made up.

Admittedly, I lack a lot of the detailing on my own answers, I keep tossing up different options wondering what would be the most reasonable yet narratively interesting. I feel like as a character concept he has a lot of potential and I'm doomed to waste it. I do find I'm often much better at drafting up the concept of a character and talking about them in theory than I am at writing them (Leo serves as an example of this I believe). For in the moment I'm always more focused on just having fun rather than the specifics of characterisation.

---

Meanwhile in DnDAU! he's stripped of all that. He's a tiefling-halfing rouge that due to associating with the other boys keeps being mistaken as a kid. In the long term wants to find the chance to settle down in a stable life, yet due to abandonment earlier in life has the mental block where he can't let go of travelling with the group out of fear he'll be rejected from anywhere he attempts to settle and that therefore it's safer to stay with them. Something no at all helped by Leo's manipulation for him to stay. On the upside at least it's still a far less tragic life than his vtm verse.

[pumpkinpaix]

HI! I'm new to the MDZS fandom and I fell in love with Suibian, but you don't see it that much. I seen somewhere that it would burn out a weaker core and I cried cause I wanted to see that, and as far as I know it doesn't happen anywhere. I'm wondering if you could tell me anything and everything you know about Suibian. I'm starving for anything about it

hi anon! ahahah, it’s always a dangerous thing to ask me about “anything and everything” on a topic because I usually have too many thoughts, most of which are unorganized. but! if you’re interested in that, then here we go!

First, re: your comment about Suibian burning out a weaker core: I am not aware of this theory (or is it something from an interview?? if someone knows, please say so!), but if it brings you joy, then it’s certainly an interesting one to consider! Unfortunately, I don’t have much more to say on it because I’m unfamiliar with it, but I do have quite a lot to say on some other Suibian concepts!

ask and ye shall receive (a very jumbled heap of thoughts as i spiral further and further out of control):

[all rough translations are mine, and thus all mistakes are mine. I am using the version of the novel that is available on luoxia because I can’t be bothered to go flipping through my print edition ahaha.]

the questions about Suibian that interest me the most are why it sealed, when it sealed, when Wei Wuxian began to wield it again, and what that might all mean. I’m going to be talking about novel, CQL, and audio drama canon all together, because I think looking at each canon alone and in combination can raise a lot of very different points!! (I have not watched the donghua or read the manhua yet, so forgive me, I have nothing to say about them. /o\)

So! the one piece of information that we’re given consistently throughout all three of the canons is that Suibian was sealed after Wei Wuxian’s death and that no one but Wei Wuxian himself (and Jiang Cheng, by proxy) could draw it from its sheathe. Thus, Wei Wuxian’s identity is revealed and the golden core swap comes to light. Wei Wuxian is surprised by this, and asks Lan Wangji, “Did it really seal itself?” (novel, chapter 63; CQL, ep 42; audio drama, S2E15).

The novel and audio drama both include a line from Wei Wuxian that emphasizes Wei Wuxian’s surprise, implying that sword-sealing is very uncommon:

万中无一的大好事竟然让我给撞上了

Something incredible that happens less than once per ten thousand times, and I actually encountered it.

the irony, of course, is that this incredible thing is what ended up blowing his cover. rip Wei Wuxian.

but what I think gets really interesting is comparing different points at which Suibian sealed itself and what that might imply in conjunction with other information. Jin Guangyao says “shortly after” his death, but CQL includes a scene in episode 19 that implies that Suibian actually sealed itself much earlier.

[ID: Gif from episode 19 of the untamed drama. Lan Wangji attempts to draw Suibian after he and Jiang Cheng storm the Nightless City and retrieve their swords. He cannot pull it from the sheathe. /end ID]

(in case anyone is curious, it’s about 30 minutes in. I spent the effort to make the gif, so I might as well give you the timestamp lol)

this scene takes place during the period of time when Wei Wuxian is in the Mass Graves (aka the Burial Mounds) after Wen Chao cast him down and left him for dead, right near the beginning of Sunshot. I’m fairly certain it’s not mentioned in either the novel or the audio drama, so this is a CQL-only detail. (please correct me if I’m wrong; I get my canons muddled all the time //hides face)

CQL basically does nothing narratively with this scene other than giving us some sad shots of Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng (honestly, valid ;A;) but!! if we decide to accept this scene as our jumping off point, we can get to some interpretations about Wei Wuxian using information from the other canons!

take this exchange from chapter 57 of the novel (immediately prior to the massacre at lotus cove):

江澄道：“还不是又为咱们的剑的事去温家了。一想到我的三毒现在说不定被哪只温狗握在手里，真是……”

他面露嫌恶之色，魏无羡道：“可惜咱们的剑还不够灵，要是能自动封剑，那就谁也别想用了。”

江澄道：“你再修炼个八十年，说不定可以。”

Jiang Cheng said, “He’s gone to the Wen sect regarding our swords again, hasn’t he. Whenever I think that my Sandu might even now be in some Wen-dog’s hands, ugh…”

His face filled with loathing, Wei Wuxian said, “What a pity our swords don’t have enough spirit. If they could seal themselves, then no one could even think about using them.”

Jiang Cheng said, “If you kept cultivating for another eighty years, maybe.”

from the novel, it seems clear that sword-sealing is something that only happens when a person’s cultivation level is exceptionally high. if this is true, and we go with the CQL timeline of Suibian sealing itself long before Wei Wuxian’s death, it means that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation level wasn’t just high, it was leagues above pretty much anyone else when he was still a teenager. (In fact, Suibian had most likely already sealed by the time this conversation takes place.)

If we don’t go with CQL’s timeline, however, I think we could make a very different argument. It’s a bit of a reach, but I think it’s a lot of fun, if you’re willing to come with me on this journey!

Jin Guangyao says Suibian sealed itself “shortly after” Wei Wuxian’s death, but we don’t really have external confirmation of that. For all we know, someone only bothered to test it sometime after his death, and Suibian had been sealed for some indefinite amount of time. All we can say for sure is that by some point shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian was already sealed and resisted being drawn by anyone who tried it.

We’re told over and over that one can only wield a spiritual sword effectively if you have a golden core/the spiritual energy to match it. Wei Wuxian stops carrying/using Suibian because he knows that in his hands, it will act as nothing more than an ordinary sword. His method of cultivation is no longer suitable for the sword. Suibian is tied to both Wei Wuxian’s soul and his golden core.

If sword-sealing only happens when the cultivator’s level is unbelievably high, then I think we can make the argument here that by the time of his death, Wei Wuxian’s core was likewise unbelievably strong – but Wei Wuxian is no longer the one developing his core. Jiang Cheng is.

I know it’s a ridiculous reach. To be clear, I don’t think the text actually intends this or supports this in any meaningful way, but I do think that it gives us some very tasty potential!! If Suibian sealed itself sometime after the core transfer (which, honestly, we wouldn’t know – after all, who’s been trying to draw Wei Wuxian’s sword?), but just if, I think we can plausibly make the argument that Jiang Cheng’s cultivation is truly extraordinary.

:DDDDDDDD

It’s fun right?? It’s a fun concept!!! Even if it’s nonsense, even if it’s not that deep, even if this was an unintentional coincidence, I think it would be interesting to look at this as being some kind of measure of Jiang Cheng’s accomplishments. On the flip side, I also think it’s very important thematically that Jiang Cheng’s value as a person has nothing to do with his cultivation, that he is, in fact, always second-best, but that doesn’t make him any less worthwhile or deserving of love. Maybe I’m just projecting lmao. Of course, being extraordinary doesn’t preclude him from still lagging behind Wei Wuxian–Wei Wuxian might have just been more extraordinary ahahah. We can have both!!

Now for a totally different thing! Interestingly, this conversation about cultivation levels and sword-sealing (the one with Jiang Cheng) also happens in the audio drama, S2E12 (about 15 minutes in, since I just checked), but Wei Wuxian adds an additional comment:

(don’t have the transcription of the original chinese, I’m just going to translate it as I hear it)

“But maybe you don’t need to cultivate to a certain level to have your sword seal itself. What if there were some other way?”

these two versions of the conversation actually imply pretty different things, I think! this addition opens the possibility to the audience that sword-sealing is possible even without an extraordinary level of cultivation, and I think lends credence to the idea that Suibian is just an unusually loyal sword, regardless of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation level. Whether that’s something inherent to Suibian’s “personality”, or whether this says something about how Wei Wuxian inspires loyalty wherever he goes, or whether it just speaks to the strength of their bond remains to be seen.

(obviously, this could imply any number of other things as well, but I find this to be the interpretation that makes me happiest.)

If we go with “Suibian seals itself after Wei Wuxian’s death” in this canon, I think this emphasizes the loyalty aspect with a touch of grief.

If we combine this with CQL and have “Suibian has been loyal since he was a teenager”, that also emphasizes the loyalty aspect – just in a different way.

Of course, doing meta combining unique details from different canons is largely pointless in terms of crafting any real “analysis”, so I’m mostly saying all of this because I enjoy the process of building the supercanon in my head that brings me the most joy! To summarize the varied interpretations I’ve brought up in this post:

CQL-only: Suibian sealed itself when Wei Wuxian was a teenager, at latest, by the time he was thrown into the Mass Graves.

Novel-only: Sword-sealing is very rare and achievable only through extraordinarily high cultivation. Shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian is discovered to have sealed itself, so Wei Wuxian’s core, by the time of his death, was extraordinarily powerful.

Audio drama-only: Sword-sealing is considered very rare and achievable only through extraordinarily high cultivation, but might also be accomplished by other methods. Shortly after Wei Wuxian’s death, Suibian is discovered to have sealed itself. If Wei Wuxian’s core is not wildly and improbably powerful, this implies that Suibian has become an exceptionally loyal sword by the time of his death.

CQL/novel: Wei Wuxian was already incredibly powerful by the time he was a teenager.

CQL/audio drama: Suibian has been exceptionally loyal to Wei Wuxian since at least his teenage years.

Novel and audio drama-only have a much wider range of when Suibian could have sealed itself, as mentioned, so there are further variances within those interpretations.

there’s a lot of potential here!! with my personal feelings regarding the story, I like novel-only with Suibian sealing post-core transfer, audio drama-only with Suibian sealing post-Wei Wuxian’s death, or CQL/audio drama with Suibian sealing as a teenager pretty much all equally. I think the CQL/novel interpretation gets too close to casting Wei Wuxian as a hyper-special and innately noble individual in a way that undercuts the strength of his character arc, but that’s my opinion. (As an aside, this is actually one of my major complaints about CQL in general, independent from what I’m talking about here. But that is a topic for another day ahahaha. To be clear, I still love CQL very much, despite my many frustrations!)

As for what I think is the most “likely” to be the “right” interpretation (whatever that’s worth), I would probably say the one that emphasizes Suibian’s loyalty with Suibian sealing post-death, because I think it’s the most thematically cohesive and has the textual support to back it. (I think it’s a valid interpretation even using novel-only text; it’s just slightly less explicit without the additional comment from Wei Wuxian.)

A final detail:

We don’t get anything from either CQL or the novel that explicitly addresses when/if Wei Wuxian is able to wield Suibian again, but the audio drama’s rendition of the “Yunmeng” extra very subtly indicates that by the time that extra takes place, Wei Wuxian has cultivated a golden core and is carrying his sword once more. You only get it at a couple of moments, but Suibian sometimes clinks when Wei Wuxian moves or when he bumps into something. The two instances I can remember specifically are when Lan Wangji tosses the ring onto him (the ring hits Suibian), and when he’s rowing the little boat onto the lotus pond and the motion makes a sound. It’s!!! Extremely good!!! It makes my heart very full!!!!!

ANYWAYS, if all of my scattered rambling didn’t fill the Suibian-shaped hole in your heart, I would also like to recommend @zeldacw‘s wonderful WangQingSuiChen series of comics, featuring anthropomorphized versions of Wangji guqin, Chenqing, Suibian, and Bichen. I believe the most recent comic is here, and there are links to the rest of the comics in the post. If you just want her general tag for the AU (which is more than just the comics), it’s here!

If you have interest in listening to the audio drama yourself, you can purchase it through the MissEvan app (Mao’er FM). There are buying instructions linked in this post! If you need English subtitles, @suibiansubs is the group that does them. :)

I really can’t recommend the audio drama enough, tbh, it’s really really dear to my heart, and the team clearly worked so hard and cared so deeply for the story they were trying to tell. Consider this my regularly scheduled plug for the audio drama ahaha.

As always, my meta is my meta and if you don’t vibe with it, that’s chill! I change my opinions constantly (I think I changed them like three times in the course of writing this ahahaha), and I know some of my older meta has been making the rounds and every time I see it I think about all the ways my views have shifted since I wrote it rip. For this post moreso than usual, I want to emphasize that pretty much all of the meta included in this is meant to explore intriguing what-if possibilities, not for serious literary analysis purposes. I am aware that a lot of this is reaching/overinterpreting into implications that probably aren’t there. I just think they’re fun to consider!

so this was a mess, but I hope you or someone out there enjoyed it anon!!

(ko-fi, if you’re so moved)