#what's even the motivation for these changes?

[undreaming-fanfiction]

Steve is a one hit wonder, or at least that's what most of the world thinks.

You'd assume that he peaked in high school, and his claim to fame was a kegstand record or something, but no, that's not it. He was the "king", sure, but one day he just happened to sit on a bench in his uni's campus, and because his lips felt really dry from the windy autumn weather, he re-applied some lipgloss. A photographer taking pictures of the campus for a promotional brochure saw him, approched him, and voila! The biggest success (or maybe a mistake) of Steve's life was born.

He starred in a lipgloss commercial.

Look, in his defense, he needed the money. His parents cut him off, he was finally finding himself in his new major, and he was passionate about being able to afford rent and groceries. So he went to the studio, let them powder his face to oblivion and apply some lipgloss. They also gave him a shirt two sizes too small, which was really uncomfortable, but apparently made his shoulders look nice. He tried his best to recall wooing girls in high school, put on a hopefully seductive face, repeated some silly lines, and that was it.

He bought a new mattress with what he called the "lipgloss money" and thought that he could get back to his life with no change.

Except that didn't happen. Because the ad took off. Really, really took off. It got sold out almost immediately. The restocks were so sought after, there were lines forming in front of drugstores. The lipgloss was nice, thought Steve, non-sticky and with a nice flavor, long-lasting as per the ad, but he failed to see the mass appeal.

As it turned out, the appeal was himself. People recognized him on the street. They asked him to repeat that stupid line he said for the commercial. Somehow it got him more modelling gigs, all good and well-paid, but sometimes he thought he'd forever be the lipgloss guy.

As he's now standing in front of his class of students as their new PE teacher, he realizes it's not that much of a curse. Not if they consider it insanely cool that their teacher is famous, and if he can use the famous catchphrase as a motivator. "Alright, alright," he laughs and tosses a basket ball to one of his students. Score at least twice in this game and I'll say it.

He's never seen a game so competitive.

In the end, the students fulfill his condition. He grabs the lipgloss that one of the girls hands him, applies it to his lips, and assumes the well-practiced pose. He's so deep into his lipgloss model persona he doesn't realize the door to the gym opens.

"Just try kissing it off," he whispers in the most exaggerated, seductive voice he can muster.

His class explodes in laughter and clapping, but there's also an unfamiliar sound - a guitar case being dropped on the ground. Eddie Munson, the new music teacher who is supposed to prepare the gym for a students' concert that evening, stares at Steve as if he's a snack. A sweaty, lipgloss-covered snack.

In the awkward silence that follows, Steve rushes to pick up the guitar case, apologizes for shocking his new colleague and tries to explain the situation."

Eddie chuckles with him and assures him that no, it's all good, at least their first meeting was memorable. Steve sends his students to tidy the gym, and has to laugh when Eddie asks - "Sorry, what was that phrase again?"

"The lipgloss is supposed to be long-lasting, that's why," he explains. It's "Just try kissing it off."

And Eddie doesn't laugh at him, he just smirks and whispers:

"Well, don't mind if I do!"

[olderthannetfic]

Question. Possibly naive question at that. So I totally understand and respect why ao3 doesn’t allow any mentions of monetization of fanwork. But I am wondering — how do we feel about fanfic commissions as a concept? Obviously I would never dare mention it on Ao3, 99% bc of the TOS and 1% cuz it seems gimmicky, but also, like, it’s very much a thing I do. . . Are fandoms opposed to fanfic commissions? Or is it more of a “legally I can’t endorse this but you do you”?

--

In the kind of LJ culture that built AO3, people did that for charity, like Fandom Trumps Hate now. Making actual money from your fic just wasn't done in those circles. In older zine circles, people "covered costs" only, but sometimes, those "costs" included a hell of a lot more than other fans approved of. On one end, it meant the literal printer's bill; on the other, it meant some pay for the editor's time and the gas to get to a con on top of the table fee, registration, and hotel room. In the 2020s, different parts of fandom are all over the place in attitudes towards selling fic in various ways.

Personally, I find it weird and distasteful. If I needed to earn money fast, I'd do original fetish commissions. If I want to write for money overall, I'll do what I do now: original novels with some of the same vibe my fanfic has.

When too much profit motive enters hobby spaces, the social atmosphere changes. A knitting meetup at a yarn store works okay, but someone trying to sell their hand dyed yarn at a meetup in the park tends to mess with the vibes. Someone else's dinner party is not an appropriate place for mlm shit. etc. etc.

Fanfic spaces are even more vulnerable to having the social scene ruined. There is already, inherently, a certain amount of pressure to write what is popular. Adding a direct profit motive exaggerates that even more.

[muli-wam]

404 File Error

background info: You have been working for Zenin Industries for 2 years now. You started off working as an errand girl, getting coffee for people around the office and whatnot. But one day you suddenly got promoted to being Toji's assistant. And he just happened to be the founder and CEO of the company. You never even met the guy but suddenly you started working right alongside him. Toji had seen you though, unbeknownst to you, and he wanted you by him for some unknown reason. You were oblivious to his motives and he didn't want to reavel his true intentions until now...

Pairings: CEO!Toji x Assistant!Fem!Reader

Cw: slight suggestive behavior (kissing), "we shouldn't be doing this" vibes, reader is a nervous wreck, almost getting caught, reader has a pet bunny, Im pretty sure thats all

Wc: 2.7k

A/n: okay reader is kind of a nervous wreck in this chapter so thats why shes acting the way she does, just forewarning. She WILL NOT be like this throughout the entirety of the series.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 chapter 3 (coming soon!)

・.°˙★༚｡・.°˙★༚｡・.°˙★༚｡・.°˙★༚｡・.°˙★

The sound of heels clicking across tiled floors echo throughout the narrow hallway.

Try and focus on your breathing, y/n, You say to yourself.

You grip the to-go bag harder, paper crinkling in your hand as you inch closer to Toji's office. Your breath hitches slightly as you take a deep breath in, before slowly exhaling.

You feel sweaty, and for a moment you wonder why you're feeling this way. Toji always called you to his office so what made this time different?

You ponder on that thought and recall your previous conversation with him over text. He seemed so desperate to see you, which was unusual of him. Especially him.

The heel-clicking stops as you arrive in front of Toji's office door.

You knock once. twice.

Silence.

Until a booming voice sounds through the door.

"Come in," Toji says.

You take a deep breath in before opening it

"Mr. Zenin, I have your lunch," you say, voice cracking in the process.

You make your way to his desk that was situated in front of monsterous tinted floor to ceiling windows.

Plastic plants and abstract nude portraits fill in empty space in his office along with papers and old coffee cups from earlier this morning. The rest of it is taken up by guns still in their casing and knives displayed on empty shelves.

You make a mental note to throw away the cups before you leave.

You set his bag of food onto the glass desk and step back slightly, wiping your clammy palms on your pencil skirt.

"Sit," Toji gestures to the black couch chair that sat in front of his desk. You hesitate for a moment before finally sitting down.

"Did'ya bring lunch or were ya just lying ta me?" Toji questions while taking the contents of food out of the bag.

"I uh... I already ate," you mumble. You slightly wince in pain from rawness on your thumbs due to the amount of skin you picked off the sides of them.

Toji looks at you knowingly before rolling his eyes and pushes over his last onigiri.

"Eat." He demands, and you can't help but comply.

A tense silence fills the room as you chew on your food slower than normal. Your eyes roam anywhere but his as you feel his intense gaze on you.

Toji clears his throat, "So how've you been recently?"

"Seemed pretty backed up with that project you were working on," he says.

"Uh... yeah it was pretty time consuming..." you mumble.

Jesus why did you agree to this. And why were you being so awkward? You're pretty lively around the office any other day but Toji's behavior recently has kind of thrown you off.

"So do you have any pets?" He says after a brief moment.

Your lift your gaze to him and your eyebrows raise slightly, confused by the random question. "Yeah, actually I do. I have a bunny."

Toji seemed to notice your change in behavior and decided to keep going on the topic.

"Hm...whats their name?" He asks while fiddling with a pen. You were about to answer, your rabbits name sitting right on your tounge but your mouth stops in its tracks when your eyes fix your gaze on Tojis attire.

Yeah, you saw his face and yeah its stupidly pretty but you didn't look at him look at him. You didn't take the time to admire him in those suits that were definitely two sizes too small like you usually do- what who said that?

your eyes fix on the sleeves of his button up. They're rolled up to his forearm and damn was that look sexy on him. His muscles looked like they would tear the fabric with even a slight movement.

Your eyes trace the vein that makes its journey down his arm all the way to his hands. You think your drooling at this point.

"Like what you see ma?" Oh shit. He caught you staring. Your eyes widen as you look up at his face to be met with a glowing light that framed his face, making him look ethereal, and his hair was... wait, where did the wind come from?

"Come get a closer look, dollface," Toji says slowly in an over exaggerated, dreamy tone.

"Come on," he prods.

"Come on,"

"Come on,"

"Come-" the light and sparkles dissapear.

"L/n?"

"Y/n." Toji says while waving a hand in your face.

"Hey, ya there?" He questions, smirking slightly.

"What?" You snap out of your daydream of...whatever that was. Did you really just hallucinate that?

"Lost ya there for a sec. What were you thinkin' about, huh?" he asks while manspreading on his chair.

"Uh.. just uh- you know.." you stutter, eyes frantically searching the room but all you see is Toji, Toji, Toji.

He raises an eyebrow. "Me?"

Your eyes widen.

"Wh-what? No what are you talking about...?" You look down, fiddling with the corners of your skirt, until you notice that Toji is standing up and making his way over to you.

He leans against the front of the desk, his leg brushing yours as you peer up at him.

His looming figure leans down, cupping your chin in his hands and tilting your head up.

"Don't be shy, doll." He whispers. Your face heats up and your head feels dizzy and your thumbs are probably bleeding now and you're sweating profusely and You hate sweating.

Your eyes quickly dart from toji's lips, to his eyes, and back to his lips. I should not be doing this, you think to yourself, your mind already thinking of what would happen if you two were caught like this.

Those thoughts get interrupted by Toji's voice.

"Y'gonna answer my question?" he whispers, his face mere inches from yours.

Your body seems frozen in its place as you look at Toji like a deer caught in headlights. But your mind was racing at a mile a minute.

"I-I uh... I wasn't-" you don't even hear sound coming out of your mouth when you speak.

"Were you thinkin' about me, doll?" He rasps.

"Thinkin' about me kissing you?" No, you were not thinking about him kissing you, you were thinking about the fate of your job and future if you give into his seduction, but same thing right?

his thumb moves to your bottom lip, dragging it down and letting go as he watches the way it flicks back into place.

He moves his face closer, his other hand coming to cradle your cheek. Your heart rate picks up and your eyes close, expecting a kiss, and then it happens.

He kisses you.

His soft lips move against yours at a tantalizingly slow pace. Passion, want, and lust fueling Toji's mindless actions.

His large hands come down to grip your blazer, pushing it off your shoulders and onto the floor.

Your head feels dizzy as you hum into the kiss and your lips move in sync with his. Your eyelashes flutter against his cheeks from your close proximity.

Two trembling hands come to wrap around his neck, about to pull him deeper into the kiss as your tongue chases that addicting taste of his lips but-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

You quickly get sucked out of your trance when you hear the knock. Swiftly, you pull away from Toji and stand up, smoothing out your skirt and trying to fix your slightly disheveled appearance.

Before Toji even gets the chance to react you are quickly walking towards his door to leave. When you open the door you're met with-

"Hey sweets."

-

Taglist: @lavenderdaydream97 @itsmisspoopie @cottonlemonade @tojiswife007 @the-fignewts-ate-aria @ourfinalisation @esmedelacroix @phantomremi

[papysanzonew]

It can't be Christmas without Merlin content, am I right????

Read it an AO3 My general idea of this story is this:

Gwen and Merlin are together at the beginning of it all, they are a happy, smiling, warm couple and everything Arthur would ever have wanted in life. Arthur knew Gwen by sight and had a crush on her but in the end between his father pestering him and his various work commitments and Morgana teasing him he never did anything to hit on her, then Gwen changed companies and the two never saw each other again, at least until many years later when Morgana invited Gwen to a Christmas party and Gwen showed up with Merlin, her boyfriend.

Arthur was even more defeated.

But at the party, relations were re-established, even though it was not his intention, Arthur got on well with Merlin and his small talk, and the three of them started to see each other from time to time outside work. One thing led to another, and at one point it was Gwen and Merlin who asked Arthur to become an item.

Arthur wouldn't let them say it twice.

It was not easy with Uther spouting venomous comments passing them off as (almost) compliments but everyone knew what Uther was like and, for Arthur's sake, left the subject alone.

In the meantime Morgana got involved with Gwaine and there Uther couldn't shut his mouth and tell her how unsuitable Gwaine is for her, that he's a loser, that he's a scoundrel who doesn't even know what he wants to do with his life, and Morgana, in response, left without ever looking back, leaving the company and the house she was living in to go and stay in Gwaine's mini-apartment and talk about their future.

Uther didn't take it well and started to lash out even more at Arthur.

Until Gwen became pregnant.

All three were at the height of joy at the idea of having a child and Arthur thought that nothing could spoil such a beautiful moment.

Obviously he was wrong.

Uther started railing and telling him that everything was perfect until it became serious, until Arthur still had the chance to leave that depraved couple and finally find himself a decent girl and get married and have a family with this hypothetical girl.

Then the racist and homophobic invectives began and for the first time Uther openly said what he thought of Gwen and Merlin.

As a result, Arthur was at his wits' end and for the first time in his life raised his hands against his father.

Fortunately Gwen and Merlin were there for him when he returned home.

The two did not speak to each other for years.

In the end it was Uther himself who came crawling back to both his children and asked for forgiveness. After spending birthdays and Christmases alone, without receiving a single call and being left in a huge house completely alone, he realised what the really important things in life are.

That wasn't easy either.

It wasn't easy to accept an apology from such a man because there was always this anxiety that Uther had ulterior motives or, God forbid, wanted to put strange ideas into his grandchildren's heads.

Grandchildren he was not allowed to see even when he apologised and Morgana and Arthur made an effort to talk to him again.

However, when he was allowed to see the grandchildren, both Morgana and Arthur were amazed because Uther literally cried tears of joy (even though he tried to hide them), he had no preference for one or the other and showered them with love (Morgana and Arthur still find it hard to accept this because "UGH who is this man who is good with children?") and after many years they are all happy and celebrate all holidays together.

Uther gets along very well with Hunith (and Merlin is very worried about this) and the house is always full of people coming and going.

Uther no longer lives in a house that is too big and too quiet.

Anyway, Merry Xmas/Happy Holiday everyone ❤️❤️❤️

[baphometsss]

The only way I can accept the bullshit they pulled with her in this game is if she's manipulating Solas into maintaining the Veil for now because she has something else up her sleeve and the Veil needs to stay up for that to happen. It would be more in keeping with her character since she has basically been using Solas like a tool since the moment she met him as a spirit in the Fade. She has a propensity for using men, as you pointed out, and he also stole her power and tried to destroy a part of her (as well as rebelling against her and pissing her off in a number of ways we probably don't even know about). Tinfoil hat time here but what if Solas was someone she wanted revenge on too? Sending him to the Fade to fix their mistakes would be one way of going about it.

I know it's a long shot and with the way things are going, DA5 will probably titled Dragon Age: Gotham Knights or something and feature Neve battling some Joker knock-off in an even more watered-down Thedas. We won't get to see how Thedas has changed since the Blight, but just the end products of it. No more slavery, the Crows are good guys now, Ferelden somehow rebuilt itself, Mages are happy, the Dales belong to the Elves once more, etc. It'll just be done in a blank period.

But!! If they get their shit together and actually deliver a decent game that isn't horribly derivative of Marvel/DC, I can see Mythal being either a Big Bad or the Big Deus Ex Machina saviour like she has been in the last couple of games. I'm kind of torn if I want that though, because I think they've overused both her and Morrigan somewhat. There can, in fact, be several great women in Thedas's story, but it seems like they're dead set on there being one single woman at the root of all of them. (This is kinda why I hate the Mythal is Andraste theory. Sorry, but no. It can't all be Mythal.)

I think the bottom line is that they were planning on having Mythal be much more of a villain in this game, but it ultimately became Solas-centric instead. She becomes a figurehead for all his motivations, even though, in the end, it boils down to him being unable to accept the weight of his own failures. However, she and Solas were plotting separately for thousands of years, too. She wouldn't have waited around for him to do it for her. Him bringing down the Veil might have disrupted the plans she was making too.

Tbh though I'm being too generous to this studio and they probably just watered her down bc Woman Good Man Bad and don't want to follow through on the story they built up about a morally complex woman. Still, it doesn't hurt to theorise.

Sorry, but I just don’t buy the whole “actually Mythal decided after centuries of wandering Thedas as Flemeth that modern people deserve a chance��� thing. Because the fragment of Mythal we’re talking about is the jaded old swamp witch who

-Inhabited the body of a woman betrayed by her lover(s) because they found common ground in their suffering and the injustices done to them. (“Once I was but a woman, crying out in the lonely darkness for justice.” - DAI)

-Resents that betrayal to the point she views men as disposable playthings that she can lure back to her hut, have her way with, and then… murder? I think? (Based on Morrigan’s own account in DAO)

-Abused her daughter under the guise of tough love in an attempt to prepare her for a cruel uncaring world. (Again, Morrigan’s account, DAO)

-Says during her appearance in Inquisition that she will have her reckoning.

-Spent centuries consolidating her power as well as cycling through different human women’s bodies via questionable means for the sake of bringing about said reckoning. (“I have carried Mythal through the ages ever since, seeking the justice denied to her.” and about the Inquisitor: “A Herald indeed. Shouting to the heavens, harbinger of a new age.” - DAI)

-During her scene with Solas at the end of Inquisition does NOT say ANYTHING about disagreeing with Solas’s plans, just that she considers him and old friend and is sorry things are going the way they are. (Seriously, is the dialogue in that regret scene in Veilguard supposed to be from a mental connection they had? Because that dialogue just isn’t in the Inquisition scene.)

And I’m supposed to believe that in her last moments, Flemythal backed off and went “actually I think we need to maintain the status quo”????

None of this paints a picture of someone who has gone soft over time. At least not to the degree that is presented in that regret scene in Veilguard. Sure Flemeth wasn’t all bad, she had some tenderness to her. She shows some genuine care for Morrigan and Kieran (if present) and seems hurt when Morrigan implies she was trying not to be the kind of mother Flemeth was to her.

At the end of Inquisition, we can’t tell for certain to what degree she approves of Solas’s methods. But it seems like a step in said methods was to absorb her power and doom her, an embodiment of Justice, to take a passive role once more. And we know what happens when a spirit is denied its purpose. Justice denied its purpose could turn to Vengeance. Which, to me, feels like it would better echo the themes of Solas’s pride/wisdom duality, inquisition’s themes around what it means to become a god-like force of nature, DA2’s question of whether violence is necessary for revolution (which literally has the Justice/Vengeance duality in it with Anders), and DAO’s theme of sacrifice for the greater good.

[wikiangela]

Hi, a bit late but joining in on the @alliwantforchristmasislou project 🫶

I decided to donate to a polish organisation called the stonewall group (which is why the pic is in polish lol)

chose this one just because im the most familiar with this one, and they do amazing work in support of lgbt+ people and fighting for our rights in this... not so queer-friendly country 🫶

now, ive been in the 911 fandom for almost 4 years now (gonna be 4 in i think February), and i only started after the episode Buck actually bc it was allll over my dash. i binged the whole show in a week, before the next episode is even aired, I loved it SO much.

as most of y'all know, I initially shipped buddie - it was the big ship, ofc i did, i wrote so much fic for them and i had so much fun and met so many moots i still love seeing on my dash 🫶❤️ but it might've been obvious (or not, idk) i was kinda getting bored and losing enjoyment, more and more of my fics and snippets were focusing on other characters with buck or eddie, i wasnt really as into it anymore - but i still loved it and wanted to enjoy it (which ironically was killed dead later on by the buddie fandom itself lmao)

and then came bucktommy and everything changed. initially i tried not to give in but within a few days i had two fics and more ideas lol they completely took over my thoughts. ive never been this inspired to write, to create, I even learned how to make gifs for them (with lots of help from amazing talented friends 🫶🤣) during fall and winter I always get so depressed and sad and having very dark and depressing thoughts (last year my buck driving fic was a result of that lol), and its so hard to find motivation to do anything, even write. but this year, even tho I had a lil crisis moment, i wrote through it and im as inspired as always - i havent stopped writing since april. they're literally the most inspiring ship ever - and fun fact, usually i prefer writing about fanon ships, so this was a huge change and surprise

I always related to buck a lot, and especially once we got his bisexuality canon - checking out and appreciating hot people of the same sex and not realizing what it means is too real lol - and Tommy is so compelling and theres so much potential for so many stories there, I wish the show would do something interesting with him 😭 despite being so confident and cool, he feels like he's holding back some sad, maybe (probably) traumatic backstory that could be so good and interesting - and lou is such a good actor and itd be amazing to see more from him in this role

they wrote tommy as the perfect love interest for buck, and it was amazing to see it on screen, it was such a breath of fresh air to see this kind of queer representation on a network show, it was so gentle and adorable, and they initially handled it with so much care, and id love to see where they'd go from there 😭 the break up broke my heart not only because it happened, but because it felt ooc and abrupt and not at all like that's where the story was going. wish they'd fix it and give us tommy back 😭🙏

and lastly but most importantly - thanks to bucktommy, i met so many amazing friends ❤️😭 even when I was writing fics and interacting with mutuals on here, i was never really talking to a lot of mutuals, not for longer than a few messages, and now i got this wonderful community that i feel so comfortable in, everyone is so nice and friendly, and I love y'all so much, this is the best fandom experience ive ever had ❤️

thank you all, ive been having so much fun since april, i love y'all. here's to more bucktommy in 2025 ❤️

[goddessinnerglow]

Become Your Best Version Before 2025 - Day 24

Setting Up Progress Tracking Systems

Hey Goddesses! After exploring personal style yesterday, let's talk about something that can really amplify our growth journey, tracking our progress. But don't worry, we're not going to turn this into a complicated spreadsheet situation (unless that's your thing!).

That satisfying feeling when you can actually see how far you've come? That's what we're aiming for. Let's create a tracking system that feels natural and motivating, not like another chore on your to-do list.

Think about it, we've covered everything from confidence to personal style in this series, and you've probably made more progress than you realize. That's exactly why tracking matters, it helps us celebrate those wins we might otherwise miss.

Let's explore some simple but effective ways to track your growth:

The "One Line a Day" Method:

Keep a small notebook or digital note where you write just one line about your progress each day. It could be anything – "Spoke up in meeting today" or "Chose outfit that felt truly me." Simple, quick, but powerful when you look back.

Visual Progress Maps:

Create a simple chart or calendar where you mark days you took action toward your goals. Use different colors or symbols for different types of progress. Seeing those marks add up over time is incredibly motivating.

The Weekly Check-in:

Set aside 10 minutes every Sunday (or any day that works for you) to reflect on three things:

What went well this week?

What did I learn?

What do I want to focus on next week?

The Progress Photo Approach:

Not just for fitness goals! Take photos of your workspace as you organize it, screenshot positive feedback you receive, or document other visible signs of growth. Create an album called "Growth Journey 2025" on your phone.

Voice Memos:

Sometimes writing feels like too much. Try recording quick voice notes about your progress. "Hey future me, today I finally..." These can be incredibly powerful to listen back to.

Don't Forget these key principles:

Track what matters to you, not what others measure

Make it easy enough to stick with

Focus on progress, not perfection

Include both tangible and intangible wins

Keep it flexible, adjust your system as needed

Quick tip:

Link your tracking to something you already do daily. Maybe you check your progress while having your morning coffee or before your evening skincare routine (remember our self-care conversation?).

Today's Challenge:

Take 5 minutes to write down where you are now in any area you want to track. This becomes your baseline. In a month, you'll be amazed at the changes you notice.

See you tomorrow for Day 25! Remember, you can't manage what you don't measure, but keep it simple enough to stick with.

♡ ☆:.｡ Keep glowing, babes! ♡ ☆:.｡ With love, Goddess Inner Glow.

[stellocchia]

I have become kind of obsessed with Color, Killer, and Lust as a trio...

Like, not even necessarily the ship, just them.

Color has a type when it comes to his besties, they gotta be specifically cat coded, have their soul tampered with against their will (with Killer by the player and with Lust by their government. Btw, Underlust doesn't get enough credit for how horrifying of a concept it is. Imagine growing up knowing that, as soon as you become of age, you will be injected with a soul trait that doesn't belong to you and that will inevitably change you forever. Imagine being told that it's 'for the greater good' because your whole species is going extinct. The level of propaganda and lack of bodily autonomy those guys are subjected to should be acknowledged), and have lived in highly abusive environments for the big majority of their lives.

Everyone keeps wondering why such a seemingly normal guy is so determined to keep spending time with what they see as sex crazed freaks. No part of that belief is correct.

Color's type also extends to all of his besties being aroace. With Lust, that's a very unfortunate predicament, and Killer probably is unlabeled more than anything because he refuses to do any introspection lest he actually learns who he is and comes to hate it even more. But really, they are very aroace.

Whether this trio is platonic or not, they frequently go on dates to Ccino's cafe because they do love cats. And they go on nature hikes together. And shopping. And maybe they don't all share each others' hobbies, but seeing the other two happy and safe, and passionate about something is all the motivation they need to go along anyway.

[koifishhies]

Yess you’re so right about her perception of him changing after the dinner!! Don’t mind me I’m gonna yap about this now.

The way I see it, his job is a kind of special interest / hyperfocus for him, so while he’s working he’s completely locked in, and past the point of caring about masking and forcing himself to appear friendly. The thing with autism is that, for me at least, socializing and connecting with people isn’t something you can casually do on the side; you have to put in active effort into “acting normal” enough to do that. And that’s really fucking exhausting. For Alec, pairing that reality with the fact that he fumbled his last case partly BECAUSE of his personal relationship with Tess getting in the way, I can totally see how he forgoes even trying to put in that effort at all. He drops the mask and completely zeroes in on the task at hand.

Because of this, he’s direct and blunt and disregarding of social etiquette, and it comes across as cold and rude. Paired with all the trauma he went through with Sandbrooke making him a generally pessimistic, depressed person, the people in Broadchurch end up disliking him (if “shitface” is anything to go off of).

But then you take him out of work���and not only that, but put him in a position where he actually has to try and connect with these strangers, and socialize just for the sake of socializing—and he’s immediately awkward and unsure and doesn’t know what to say. It’s the horrifying moment where you realize, oh shit, I am in a Situation, and I have to try and Act Like A Human. And you’re all tense and frozen up and a little too hyperaware of your every action, and next thing you know you’re going on a rant about how unnecessary first names are and your coworker and her husband are looking at you like 😃😃

I feel like seeing this completely other side of Alec gave Ellie more perspective about him, and made her realize that the earlier actions that ticked her off didn’t come from a place of rudeness and entitlement. It was just cuz he’s not very good at socializing, and prefers to get straight to the point. In reality his motivations are quite sincere.

And she’s just kind of like, oh, okay. And adjusts accordingly. Simple as that. Which is so fucking cool!!

Mind you, this doesn’t mean she doesn’t voice her opinion when something he does outright bothers her. She’s quite vocal about that, and that’s fantastic. She’s open and understanding about his perspective while also setting boundaries.

Their interactions are rough at first, misunderstanding and butting heads, but they keep compromising and bouncing off each other enough until they find a balance. And if you notice, even out of work, Alec is never the level of awkward and tense again like he was during that first dinner. Because he’s not masking around her anymore. They’ve genuinely connected on a level that works for them.

And it doesn’t really go much deeper than that, because it doesn’t have to. And I just really like that.

I just love how broadchurch (unintentionally) made an autistic-coded detective, but instead of going the sherlock route they made him just. a guy. he’s not special in any way, he’s not a savant, he’s just kinda There and Traumatized About It the entire time.

like alec hardy wants one thing in life and it’s to do his job, but he’s also constantly faced with the unfortunate reality that his job Sucks. he’s also actively dying half the time. and that’s it that’s his character.

also he’s not a twink like most autistic coded savants in media, and I may not be a middle aged dad but that’s the kind of representation I can get behind

[sludgekludge]

what even was the point of wanting to make helluva about 'messy romance and complex characters' if they can't commit to that at even the most basic level. the narrative will just decide that a character has done wrong without explaining what or how, it'll completely ignore or justify legitimately dubious things, it's so desperate to tell you exactly how to feel about certain characters...

stella's dialogue is so cartoonishly on-the-nose evil and she has no actual motivations. none of stolas' mistakes are acknowledged until now, 2 seasons in (and even then, they're trying to justify them), half the stolitz-related conflicts are almost comically childish. blitz yelled at stolas, which is mean. instead of looking at this with nuance, blitz is in the wrong, and stolas is not. there is a wrong party and a right party, every time. there are no shades of grey.

where's the complexity? these characters range from cardboard to slightly thicker cardboard with maybe a drawing of a frowny face on it, except the frowny face changes colours every time you look at it because the writers worship inconsistencies.

[mjbarrosart]

My Dragon Prince Boards season 7, episode 705, part 1

It's time to talk about my boards for episode 705 of the last season of The Dragon Prince. I did a lot of stuff in this episode, so instead of going in order, I'll divide my work differently for this one, we will talk by group of sequences and not in order of appearance.

Let's start with the sunfire elf side of the plot. As a lot of you know, most of my work in this show was related to the Sunfire elves, and to be honest Janai and Amaya are two of my favorite characters of the show, so every chance to work with them is always a bless.

I did all the scenes of Karim talking with Amaya in this episode. It is hard to explain how I feel about Karim, he is such an idiot, but I am also kinda fond of him because I spent so many hours working on him thinking about his mannerism and motivations. I am fond of him, but I also hate him, hahahaha.

There is not a lot to say about this sequences, they are pretty straight forward. While I can understand why Karim hates humans so much, that doesn't mean he is right about it, and this hate is starting to feel like pettiness, and well fits him, he is a really petty man.

Let! Green! Say! Ass! hahahaha. Its always funny to board this kind of little jokes. I love Green and Amaya dynamics, they are such good friends, and I love how Green is always making sure that Amaya's bluntness is not coming out as "rude". But sometimes I feel he should just translate directly what Amaya is saying, because I don't think Karim deserves special considerations, haha.

That little speech Karim does about how he and Amaya are not the same was interesting to board for me. I wanted him to feel aggressive and menacing, even if his hands were tied. Like he was trying to intimidate Amaya, but she will not bend, she can see thru his BS. I wanted him to trespass into Amaya's personal space, portrait him as the bully he is. He says that his faith comes from knowledge, while the truth is that he leads using fear. Such a pathetic little man.

Another instance where is wish the rigs where able to translate between the expressions from the boards. I wanted him to spit his words trough his teeth when he says "humans are vermin, a plague", like his mouth is full of poison and hate.

But the Amaya, who is mostly motivated by making sure that Janai doesn't regrets the decision of killing her brother, does the right thing and reminds him of the fact that Miyana is pregnant, that there is a future worth to live for. Karim shows some doubts, so Amaya leaves and Miyana enters the stage.

I feel kinda bad for Miyana. I mean she deserves the punishment she got, at the end of the day she betrayed her people. But I feel bad for her, because I think that she honestly loves Karim. Imagine loving such a foolish man. And Karim can not learn a lesson, he keeps being an idiot. He is offered a second chance to be with his family, but the only thing he can see in Miyana is that she is carrying "his heir", and Miyana is right of being offended by that. But she wants to believe that he will made the right choice. And maybe for a minute Karim ponders it. I wanted him to loot vulnerable and maybe open in the final shot, so I made him kneel close to Miyana, laying his head on her belly, close to his child. We know how this will end for him, but for a moment there is maybe hope that he will change... no?

My next scene in this episode is one I am really fond of. Is the one when Terry says that the only person who can stop Claudia is her mom, and Soren is really against that idea.

First, is always fun to have a moment with Terry. I have really small ones during my work in the show, so this one was a blast. Second, I got to have another emotional Soren moment, and that is always nice, because Sores in my boy.

The back and forth of this conversation is pretty straight forward too. What was important for me was what will be the moment that will make Soren change his mind, and support the idea. So I decided to use Corvus for this.

Soren is struggling with the idea of bringing her mother back, even if that means they will have a real shot making Claudia stop. Corvus see his pain, and touch his shoulder. We talked before on how touching is a love language between this two, they don't need tons of words. Corvus is saying "I know that it's hard, but I am here with you". On my boards I had him giving Soren a little nod, they removed that for the final shot, and I think is ok. The nod is not necessary, Soren understand what Corvus means. With his support Soren can do it.

So he gathers strength and gives the drawing to Ezran. I like that in the animation stage they kept Corvus hand all the time on his shoulder. For Soren the idea of facing his mom is one full of pain and conflicted feelings, but he doesn't need to face it alone, he has Corvus at his side (as a partner, friend, soulmate, brother, whatever you see them being).

I love them so much...

The second part of this post is about the last sequence I did for this episode, it is a small one, but one that you could say... brings a "surprise"!

I will posted right away, so stay tuned!

[malk1ns]

i read a fic recently with rookie sid and 2010 geno and i’ve been thinking of that a lot so… for your prompt maybe baby sid being enamored by an older geno? nsfw or pg is up to you :P merry christmas to you too btw!!

ok so once upon a time i wrote this fic which is pretty much exactly that premise! and i really loved writing it and it's still one of my personal favorites of mine, so i'm going to take your prompt and use it as an excuse to write a wee little follow-up, from sid's point of view...no smut or anything in this one, just a cranky 22 year old with a massive (reciprocated) crush on his captain. you'll have to read the first one for this to make sense!

Sid thought it would get easier when his dad retired.

Well, really, he expected that after a couple of months he wouldn't feel so desperate for Geno all the time. Not that he wouldn't still want him, of course not, Geno was the defining catalyst of Sid's sexual awakening and the star of 90% of his fantasies from adolescence onwards, but Sid thought that maybe after the first few times, when Geno didn't get sick of him or tell him they needed to stop, he'd be able to be a little more mature about the whole thing.

As it happens, though, he spent the rest of his rookie year in single-minded pursuit of two things: 100 points, and Geno's dick.

It's a good thing he had his dad's example to make sure he stayed focused on his game. If his work ethic and internal motivation weren't already firmly ingrained, Sid might have let his head be turned so far by getting what he wanted after so much time that he let his game slip.

Geno probably wouldn't have let that happen, though. He takes hockey more seriously than Sid does, even, and for as much time as they spent sneaking around to be together, Sid thinks they probably doubled that in extra ice time after practice, practicing one-timers and head-fakes and set plays to try out on the man advantage.

Sid's dad was always there too, is the thing. Sid lives at home still, his mom won't let him buy his own place until he signs his first real contract and isn't blowing an entire season's worth of income on a house, and Sid very quickly ran out of reasons to get his dad to head home early and let Geno drive him back. It made the time with Geno he managed to steal all the better.

Sid, maybe stupidly, thought that once his rookie year was over, when his dad officially retired and wasn't on the team anymore, he'd have a little more separation from his parents at the rink.

His dad barely stayed retired two months before his mom practically pushed him out the door directly into the goalie development role the Penguins offered him, though, and Sid's sophomore season starts the same way his rookie year did—sitting in the passenger seat of his Dad's truck, glaring out the window on the way to practice.

He must be making quite a face, because Geno's already there and half-changed into his gear when Sid walks into the locker room, and when he sees Sid's expression he does that thing with his jaw where he's trying not to laugh out loud.

Sid only scowls harder. Even Geno in his hockey pants and nothing else isn't enough to cheer him up.

It ends up turning out okay, though. Sid's mom stops asking so many questions about where he's going at night when his dad isn't around to give her the exact run-down of official team activities. Sid isn't sharing a hotel room on roadies anymore, so if he sneaks out after curfew and tiptoes down the hall to Geno's room, there's nobody to tattle, and no chance that he'll run into his dad out looking for the ice machine. And his dad gets so wrapped up in working with the goalies that they never finish practice at the same time, so if Sid makes some vague excuse about reviewing tape with the power play unit and he'll catch a ride, his dad waves him off without protest.

His schedule opens up, just like that. And Geno's more than happy to fill his time, tumbling Sid into bed and blowing his mind at every available opportunity. Their first California road trip, the one with built-in off-days for recreation, had been a revelation—after figuring out that yes, Geno really can eat someone out until they cry, Sid spent their beach day so distracted he was forced out of the volleyball game for bringing his team down.

There's a contract waiting for him on July 1, Sid knows. Pat hasn't sent him the details yet, but Sid knows it's good, something that will set him up for life pretty much, with signing bonuses to protect his earnings in case of another lockout and full trade protection as soon as he's eligible.

He's already talked to the realtor most of the guys use. She'd offered a few options in Cranberry, close to the practice facilities and where he grew up, but Sid told her he wants to get a little distance from his folks, somewhere he can set up his own house and not have his mom tempted to walk down the block and redecorate every other week.

And if the neighborhood he told her to focus on is Geno's, well, Sid's favorite breakfast place is there too, and he's always liked older parts of the city, with big trees and historic homes.

The fact that he could be within a ten-minute drive of Geno's house is just an extra perk.

[kilowog-appreciation]

The interesting thing about comparing Claudia, Aaravos, and Callum is that they're like the bell curve meme w/ Aaravos in the middle saying "existence is full of suffering. Life is an impenetrable quagmire so there's no empirical good or bad just different shades of grey".

Then Callum is on one end saying "yes there is objective good and evil in the world, and even if the right thing to do seems wrong in the moment it doesn't change the nature of the action" but Claudia says "the outcome is what makes the action good or bad not the nature of the action itself". That's why she goes from calling Ezran and Callum her friends to trying to kill Ezran because, to her, all her actions taken to save her dad are justified. She's a living walking "ends justify the means". She doesn't understand why Callum and Ezran don't like her anymore when she's tried to kidnap them and/or kill them lol.

Claudia doesn't have a moral center in the way Callum does; she knows some actions are seen as "bad" but since she believes the outcome of an action determines its moral quality she literally believes "cool motive so it's NOT murder not really".

I feel like most people kinda get the point of the season, but it does seem that there are a handful of people that are either ideologically committed to either seeing dark magic as always evil or seeing Callum as morally corrupt or compromised in a way that Rayla and Ezran are not (not sure how the latter is even remotely possible at this point), so maybe it might be good to spell out season 7's theme for everyone's benefit:

This season's theme is first and foremost about the loss of childhood innocence, a necessary step to becoming a fully-rounded adult. When Aaravos talks about losing childhood innocence, he's referring to the moment when someone realizes the world isn't as simple as they once believed - that good and evil aren't always clear-cut, that sometimes difficult choices must be made. His perspective seems to be that losing this innocence inevitably leads to moral compromise, that understanding complexity means abandoning simple principles.

And he's...actually not wrong. Ezran wasn't pure because he was such a moral paragon, but because he was innocent. He was able to position himself around ethical lines (such as refraining from violence) because he was always protected from the consequences that moral complexity brings. But once that was taken away - Katolis destroyed, facing his father's killer, witnessing Callum's supposed betrayal - it forced Ez into a situation where he couldn't take the same morally rigid stances he once did. 

Complexity invites challenges. Challenges invites compromise. 

Much like Aaravos, Callum is a character who understands all too well what this means. He lost his innocence at a much younger age when both his biological parents had died and he was forced to grow up too fast. When Aaravos says that there is "great affinity" between them, he's right in a certain way - he's recognizing their shared ability to perceive moral complexity - to understand that situations aren't always simple black and white choices. Both characters demonstrate this understanding. Aaravos sees beyond simple good and evil, recognizing that sometimes difficult choices must be made. Similarly, Callum understands that situations can be "complicated," as he says about the Runaan situation, acknowledging that justice and mercy can conflict.

However, Aaravos is also very wrong about Callum because he fundamentally misunderstands what he does with this knowledge. 

When Aaravos talks about "compromise," he means compromising moral principles to achieve desired ends. His view is that since the world is morally complex, we're justified in doing whatever serves our purposes. This is where he's wrong about Callum.

Callum's recognition of moral complexity actually leads him to become more principled, not less. When he understands a situation is complicated, he doesn't use that as justification for moral compromise. Instead, he looks for solutions that acknowledge the complexity while maintaining clear principles about who should bear the costs of difficult choices. His final plan with Aaravos demonstrates this perfectly - he recognizes the need to use dark magic (showing he understands complexity) but ensures he bears the cost himself through sacrifice (maintaining his principles).

The situation with Runaan foreshadows how he handles Aaravos - Callum's recognition of complexity leads him to find more creative ways to do what's right, while maintaining principles about who should bear the costs. Whereas Viren/Claudia would sacrifice others (i.e. creatures, people, etc.) to achieve their ends, Callum's main sacrifice is himself - he will block Aanya's arrow with his body, or resign as High Mage the second he think it would be necessary to do the right thing.

This explains why Aaravos becomes so furious when Callum reveals his sacrifice plan. Aaravos believed their shared understanding of complexity meant Callum would eventually follow his path of moral compromise. Instead, Callum shows that understanding complexity just motivated him to find other ways to stay true to his principles, even at the cost of his own life. He proves that recognizing the world isn't black and white doesn't have to lead to corruption.

By the end, he demonstrates a simple truth that forms the core of this season - the loss of one's innocence is inevitable, but the loss of one's character is not.

[watercolorsam-arts]

Saw Sonic 3 tonight…. Holy Shit

I have a lot of thoughts, and a lot are really good, I had a blast watching it and I will be going to see it again.

I do however have one “complaint” I guess? Spoilers under break

I need to talk about Maria. But I want to start my little rant with *I did not dislike how Maria was handled in the movie* I quite enjoyed everything she was in. As a stand alone story in the movies, it was awesome (and personally seeing the movies as a sort of au makes the most sense for me). But I want to talk about how one character decision changed a significant amount of Maria and Shadow’s story. (Among other thoughts and things I noticed)

Maria was not explicitly stated to be sick,

It actually seems like she wasn’t sick at all.

Which I feel takes away a lot from Shadow’s creation/discovery.

Shadow in the games was created to be a cure for Maria’s N.I.D.S (Neuro-Immune Disorder Syndrome) his excess chaos energy was a byproduct of being created using Black Arms dna. He was never meant to be a weapon, he was meant to heal.

Maria cared for Shadow beyond just “this will cure me” she and Gerald saw him as himself. He might have been just a cure to Gerald at first, but Maria saw Shadow, not a weapon, or a cure, or an alien, she saw Shadow.

G.U.N saw a weapon, which is why they had to take him, and cut down anyone in their way.

By removing Maria’s sickness, you don’t have any reason for the Ark to exist, and you also don’t need to “create” Shadow. Shadow had to be dropped into the story (kinda literally as he fell from the sky) for him to have a reason to be there.

Maira and Shadow’s relationship in the movie doesn’t have quite the same impact. It even feels kind of… generic? I guess? That the “child” character doesn’t see the “monster/weapon” as one and befriends them. Maria being there isn’t nearly as justified as in the games. “Her grandfather brings her everywhere” and I get why, but still. Even if there was one line of “she gets sick easy, so the professor wants to keep an eye on her.” Instead of just “yeah they go everywhere together”. (Once again, I didn’t hate the version of their relationship in the movie, this is just a comparison to the games)

Maria not being off world also takes away from Shadow’s motivations. Maria wanted to see the world, she wanted to meet the people, and experience everything! She cared so much about a place that would cause her harm just by existing there. No matter what happened, she believed with all her heart that the people of earth deserved to live life to the fullest, even if she couldn’t. So when Shadow gets reminded that he was meant to protect and heal, he chooses to save the world Maria cared so much about.

Movie Maria’s death feels like she was caught in the crossfire for no reason, which, in its own way, has a big impact on Shadow’s arc. She had so much life to live, she was his sister, she didn’t have to die, which fueled Shadow’s hate.

Movie Shadow’s motivations for saving the day are different from game Shadow’s. His motivation is fueled by hate, and hurt, and by love. He hesitates when he hurts Tom after mistaking him for the General. He hurts watching Sonic live a similar horror to what he did. Just like Sonic has to learn, no one wins with revenge, everyone just keeps getting hurt, and he might have wanted to hurt them, make them pay for what they did, he doesn’t want to hurt. He still chooses to heal, and to protect. Maria haunts him in the way a dead star still shines for us, guiding him even though she’s gone, to show love instead of hate and hurt.

They’re both executed phenomenally, and both work in their respective stories, personally, I prefer how the game handled it, but that’s just me. And it’s so interesting to see how different yet similar the two are. The main take away is that all movie Shadow knew was that he was a weapon and chose to actively go against that, while game Shadow knew he could heal as well as hurt.

I will forever cry over the “they’re children!” Line, because… yeah… Shadow and Maria were children, who should have never gone through what they did, I need to hug them and put them back in their blanket fort with a new movie and some snacks.

And this is less of a movie/game comparison, but more so the representation of Maria’s illness. A lot of the time, we see Maria as full of life and energy, but various media like Gerald’s journal, dark beginnings, and the Shadow Campaign in generation has told us she doesn’t always have it that good. She has days where she can barely move, or she’ll need a mobility aid, or she’ll be incredibly sick even with the Arks gravity and atmosphere. Chronic illness’ don’t always impact you the same every day, but you’re still ill, even if you can’t see it, and Maria has become pretty good representation for that, which makes me kinda sad that it was dropped for the movie.

(I feel like my ramblings don’t make sense towards the end? So I think it’s a bit more just, thoughts about the movie and the game. Thanks for reading this far btw :) )

[ilikekidsshows]

I've seen people said Adrien doesn't have motivation to be a hero but Marinette does, which is weird because I feel like it's Marinette who doesn't have a motivation to be hero beyond "people listen to Ladybug". Her lack of motivation is what confused me because as a protagonist, she's inevitably become a role model for the young audience and I find nothing about her is likeable, even more so after she become a guardian. It's as if being a guardian inflate her ego and she forgot that everyone else is a human with feelings, not just a pawn or a doll for her to play and ordered around.

Recently I found out a website that contain the concept plot and it confused me more because I feel like concept Marinette is a more grounded character than she is in the show.

Marinette's goal isn't just to be Adrien/Felix's girlfriend but she also need to collect the kwamis that she accidentally releases and she become a guardian not because of luck or favoritism like how it is in the show, it's because her grandfather is the guardian. Adrien/Felix doesn't even become Chat Noir because he's chosen by the guardian, it's Plagg who chose him. It's actually much better than the whole "I choose you but also I'm not going to do anything with you" that Fu pulls in the show.

i don't understand why the higher up/the sponsor reject this plot because I think this much better than whatever we have now. If they have a problem with Chat Noir being an anti-hero, then why do they accept Marinette being written like one while also hailing her as a hero?

---

“Adrien isn't motivated to be a hero” he actually likes being a hero, unlike our role model protagonist, who’d rather do anything than be Ladybug even when she's being lauded for her heroic deeds. Is this based on Adrien trying to quit when Fu or Marinette is making his job needlessly more difficult to do? Because, like, that's the only thing that he seems to dislike about being a hero, which, like, makes Marinette an even worse hero. She’s so bad at her job, she makes otherwise eager heroes lose their motivation.

I’m gonna be very honest here; Marinette becoming Ladybug because she accidentally released a bunch of magical creatures and Adrien/Félix being more of an anti-hero rival than a full-on ally would have been copied straight from Cardcaptor Sakura’s starting setup. Like, I’m not surprised that even the rejected ideas for Miraculous are copied from other properties, but it just proves that regardless of any other variables, Astruc’s creation was always going to be highly derivative. Regardless, I do feel that Fu being her grandfather instead of a stranger would have gone a long way in justifying Marinette’s special treatment both in-universe and to the audience, but that’s probably why it was rejected.

Like, we can mock the fact that Marinette isn’t actually within spitting distance of being a “normal girl with a normal life” all we like, but that doesn’t change the fact that, from a purely on-paper angle, she is pretty average. She’s a middle-schooler with pretty average hobbies who deals with normal teen problems like bullies and a crush on a boy she doesn’t know how to deal with. There’s a reason it’s the opening line for the show’s opening. It's marketable. A special chosen one from the start wouldn’t have been as marketable in the same way. Especially when we take into account how hypersensitive Astruc is to Marinette being less liked than he’d want. He’d do whatever he can think of to make sure Marinette isn’t immediately judged a “Mary Sue”.

The thing with executives is that they don't watch the shows they fund. They read the pitch, synopses, and maybe the scripts if they can find the time. And even then, they might not want to put in the money to get a script revised even if they paid enough attention to tell it was dogshit. They wouldn't be interested as long as the different Miraculous bedsheets and shampoos keep selling and as long as the show isn’t too gay to sell to other countries. Like, the show bible that Gloob leaked? The one full of inaccuracies because it was outdated? That was what the executives were most likely given when the retool went into development. In addition, corporate oversight on the show has actually decreased the longer it’s gone on, because the show’s proven itself to be a success. I’m pretty sure the higher-ups were not asked: “hey, is it okay if we make Marinette an entitled jerk who gets validated at every turn while she starts treating people worse and worse?” I’m pretty sure no one okayed Marinette’s “villain arc”, it was just allowed to pass because it didn’t make the show less marketable.

That’s the thing with any property that becomes “too big to fail”. Less oversight means less quality control. It’s like one anonymous Gamefreak employee said about making Pokémon games: “It’ll sell anyway, so it doesn’t matter if it’s bad.”

[windcarvedlyre]

I've been following @druidposting's DR2 playthrough on discord and we just had a really good discussion about DR's Closing Arguments. Specifically the way the murderer is depicted as grey and featureless, which until now I found a bit annoying.

In Danganronpa it's repeatedly the case that we don't have the full picture until the talking actually stops- which always goes beyond the end of the trial. We generally vote first and come to understand what the murderer's actual motive was, sometimes filling in important pieces of the timeline in the process, afterwards.

But none of that matters for the killing game because characters' emotions aren't directly relevant to who was the 'blackened'- the only thing that matters to Monokuma- so it comes out afterwards and does nothing to change their execution. It doesn't matter how sympathetic they are (basically everyone) or whether other people share responsibility for the situation (eg. Hanamura, Pekoyama, Momota) or whether they intended to murder at all (Nanami). They objectively pulled the trigger and nothing else matters. Nothing about them as a person matters.

The Closing Argument mechanic might illustrate that problem- literally. They're a dramatic, conclusive summary of the entire case... constructed before the vote even happens, before we know if we're actually right, and they're missing something really important:

The actual perpetrator.

We quite literally don't even begin to see the real person behind the crime, any real exploration of their mental state, anything besides the cold, hard facts of the murder that are necessary to convict them, until the comic finishes and the protagonist makes their final accusation- replacing the grey figure with their real appearance in a shot that's often intensely emotional.

And these comics lack crucial parts of the case's timeline and sometimes important parts of the very scenes they depict that we only find out about afterwards. And those are what we know; characters may die with some pieces of the truth and prevent us from ever learning them. These aren't objective depictions of the murder, they're the protagonist's subjective attempt to connect the facts they have. A join-the-dots portrait of someone with missing dots and no colour.

Even characters' expressions may not match how they truly feel, with the grey placeholder potentially looking way more confident and sinister than they were in reality. Pasting Falter's commentary here since they put it well.

For obvious reasons this could especially be a problem for characters that die before the trial- the ones we never get a post-vote testimony from. DR1 chapter 4 really highlighted that in the way Asahina's huge misinterpretation of Oogami's feelings took up a lot of the post-trial discussion, only for Monokuma to reveal Oogami's real suicide note and recontextualise everything.

It might really be a problem for how Komaeda's depicted in DR2 chapter 5. While he isn't greyed out, we get panel after panel where he's either level-headed or maniacally evil, and even the depictions of his self-torture and death don't humanise him:

But we know that his real feelings were more complicated than that. We have his actual corpse to compare the last page to.

He died afraid.

If we approach the comic as Hinata's mental image of him instead of reality, he died without anyone truly understanding him. He was alarming, very hard to relate to, actively fought against people doing so, ensured even the killer didn't watch him die, and the survivors couldn't begin to understand his motive until a chapter later. The Closing Argument reflects that.

Early in DR1 Togami calls out the rest of his class for judging others by their own standards. However, he, too, is doing this, maybe more so than many other characters; his inability to view other people through anything but the cold, brutal logic of the killing game bites him in the ass in chapter 4. In DR2 chapter 2 voting without a good understanding of Pekoyama's motive or Kuzuryuu's involvement nearly got everyone killed. Komaeda's a walking embodiment of the problems with flattening people into caricatures and not empathising with them, suffered from people doing that back to him, and his case- the Closing Argument for which turned everyone else into grey placeholders- was impossible to solve with objective facts. It was only survivable because the survivors cooperated and one person tried to analyse things the way he would.

The games have always been a critique of the justice system and Japanese society and push us to care about others as individuals, not reduce them to- and judge their right to exist by- something they've done or their net impact on society. There are always consequences when someone neglects to do that, and the above might be yet another way the games explore that theme.