#when. to my knowledge. secondhand mentioning is the only thing we have.

[natjennie]

ok I have such a bad memory istg this is just because I don't remember but. is riz canonically aro/ace? I know his whole conversation with his dad was pointing there, but I only vaguely remember that it being "canon" came from.. an adventuring party? of the seven? I don't know if it was officially said somewhere other than that. and not to rain on anyone's parade! but brennan mentioning it out of game without murph even there kind of feels like. not canon. idk something about it always tickles my brain wrong when people talk about it, but I don't remember the specifics of the adventuring party. please someone refer me to more information.

[ckret2]

(I haven't watched sj so forgive me if I contradict something, just going off secondhand knowlege) you ever think jack, after being fooled twice, secretly suspected ashi of being aku; And was low key relieved when it turns out she was actually his daughter and not him

joke answer? that would be hilarious. "oh thank goodness you're his daughter." "what do you mean 'thank goodness'?! that's HORRIBLE!" "look. i've been through some stuff, okay"

serious answer? I doubt it, mainly because of stuff you wouldn't know about due to the secondhand knowledge thing:

the first time Jack met Aku in disguise (Ikra) he was fooled.

the "second time" that I've mentioned on my blog (Jill) is technically non-canon due to appearing in the comics, and not even the good comic line, it's the weird OOC comics that get the whole vibe of the setting wrong. so jill is good for fanfic, but not for serious media analysis of jack

the CANON second time Jack met Aku in disguise (the hermit) Jack saw through him immediately. so by then he'd gotten good at picking out aku

and there's a pattern to all Aku's disguises that Jack probably would've picked up on by the time he ran into Ashi:

he's stuck with the same color scheme: black and green, a bit of red and white. (if we decide to count jill, aku disguised himself further with makeup.)

and more applicable to Ashi's situation: whenever Aku disguises himself, it's to pretend to be a helper to Jack, acting sympathetic to his cause, usually to trick him into doing Aku's dirty work.

that does NOT apply to Ashi. When Jack met her, she was one of seven ninja assassins from an aku-worshiping cult wearing aku-ish masks. he killed one of them before realizing they were human. (woulda been physically impossible to kill aku.)

jack's previously fought aku "in human form" and aku could NOT resist the urge to cheat and use his superpowers—and that was when he'd agreed to restrain himself. if the cultists were aku—or one of them was aku—they wouldn't have restrained themselves to human powers while trying to kill jack, they would've pulled out the laser eyes from the get go.

so: ashi was an enemy, with human capabilities. jack only befriended her because he got lucky enough to knock her out and tied her up, and even then while tied up she spent a whole episode trying to kill him before he began to convince her that she'd been brainwashed since birth and actually aku was the bad guy. if she were aku, either 1) he would've pretended to be on jack's side from the start (rather than antagonizing him by singing aku's praises right after he'd killed all six of the other cultists), or 2) he would've just shapeshifted out of the chains and tried to kill jack.

and most importantly: at this point, jack had lost The One Sword Capable Of Killing Aku. the ONLY reason he hasn't seen aku in years is because aku thinks he still has it. aku's been exclusively sending assassins after jack—assassins that jack's been very good at stabbing—so he doesn't put himself within stabbing range. he wouldn't approach jack while he thinks he still has the sword... and even if he did, the moment he realized it was gone, he would've dropped the disguise and killed jack on the spot.

so ironically, ashi—all dressed up like aku, wearing her little aku cultist mask, hollering about how great aku is, trying to kill him in aku's name—was just about the LEAST likely person in the world to be aku in disguise.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hey have you broken down Marinette's crush on Adrien and the ways in which it

A) misrepresents how teen girls get crushes on people they actually know and

B) sets Marinette up to seem really weird in a way the show literally cannot address because the universe thinks it's fine?

I know you can't prevent people from misinterpreting your show, but i think at the point where a significant portion of your audience and people with secondhand knowledge think of your main character as a stalker, that's a breakdown of communication on the writers part.

I've mentioned it offhand a few times, but I can go into it in more depth because it is a pretty massive writing flaw for reasons we're about to get into.

Marinette is not written like a teenager with a crush on her friend. She's not even written like a stalker. She's written like a teenager with a celebrity crush or a crush on a fictional character. In fact, if you go read fics from when the show first started airing, then you'll find that a lot of people assumed that Marinette's crush came from before she met Adrien or that it was rooted in a love of his professional work. That she was a fan who suddenly got to meet her idol and didn't know how to handle that.

I completely understand why that read was so popular. It's the only thing that makes sense! I assumed that was the case, too, until we got to Origins and her crush suddenly went from "obvious celebrity crush" to "crush with actual depth that's just been badly written."

While I'm ace, most of my friends are not, so I am very familiar with the experience of teenage girls getting crushes. I'm also deeply familiar with the experience of teenage girls getting crushes on celebrities and fictional characters. I, unfortunately, also know quite a bit about stalking. The three experiences are wildly different. For now, let's focus on the first two.

Celebrity crushes and crushes on fictional characters are experiences rooted in fantasy. You can be as over the top as you want because you know that nothing will come of this. You can go to a concert and scream the cute boy's name or have his posters all over your walls or publicly squeal about him with your friends without caring if people overhear because you don't expect him to ever care or even learn about your behavior. You know that you will never actually date him. He's a dream. A fantasy. A thing that will never be. That's the fun of this kind of crush. There's freedom in it. (This isn't unique to hetero crushes, btw, this was just an example based on my lived experience.)

I have strong memories of my best friend acting like Marinette, but only when it came to fictional men. When she was crushing on guys that she actually knew? The experience was wildly different because it was real. This could actually be a thing. She's not the only woman that I can say that about, either. I had many friends who had a celebrity or fictional crush and none of them ever carried that behavior over to their "real world" crushes. The stakes with the "real world" crushes were far too high for that sort of freedom.

Writing Marinette like someone with a celebrity crush is a terrible call on multiple levels. The most obvious issue is that it makes her look unhinged and creepy. While I don't agree with this take, I'm not surprised that people label her a stalker because celebrity crush behavior feels really creepy when it's applied to a person that you actually know. Whenever stories do the thing where someone meets their celebrity crush and actually gets to know them, there's normally a noticeable shift in their behavior as the character mentally goes, "Oh shit, you're real now." They lose the freedom that came with this being a mere fantasy.

The other issue with this writing choice is that it makes Marinette's crush feel superficial. The show spends hours letting her fantasize and obsess over Adrien, but rarely lets her actually spend time with the poor guy! It's incredibly awkward writing. You could have Adrien be a celebrity that Marinette never met and a lot of the episodes wouldn't change. That's not a great choice if your goal is to write an actual romance. Romances generally let the romantic leads interact.

As creepy and awkward as Marinette's writing can be, I will stand by my statement that she's not a stalker. She's nowhere near that unhinged. She's not stealing Adrien's things or following him home every day or breaking into his private spaces because she knows that they have a "special connection". We're never once made to feel like she's making him uncomfortable or harassed. Those are the kinds of things that stalkers do. They're delusional and divorced from reality. Do any of you really believe that Marinette would keep pursuing Adrien if he told her to back off? Hopefully the answer is "no" and, if so, then she's really not written like a "true" stalker because true stalkers just get dangerous when you say "no." They don't respect things like firm boundaries or restraining orders.

Watching Adrien's public appearances isn't violating his privacy and that's mostly what Marinette does. The rare occasions where she follows him somewhere private mostly revolve around someone else doing something questionable first, making Marinette's actions less "I want to see Adrien" and more "I'm worried for Adrien's safety and I'm doing something questionable because of that". The first is the behavior of a stalker, the second is... well, I'm not going to call it good behavior, but it's certainly not straight up bad behavior because the show isn't treating these moments as wrong so it's less Marinette being wrong and more the writers making really questionable writing choice. I mean, one of her break-ins was literally forced on her and orchestrated by her friend group! (See: Gabriel Agreste)

In fact, most of Marinette's creepiest behaviors fall under the "questionable writing choice" category as they're often just very obvious jokes of questionable quality. For example, I've seen people freak out about her having Adrien's schedule and it's like, guys, you do realize that was literally impossible, right? She claimed it was his schedule for the next three years! Nathalie doesn't even have that! You don't schedule things that far in advance unless it's a major event. It's impossible to take this claim seriously if you think about it for five seconds.

If you wanted to treat this schedule claim seriously and have it match the show's tone, then you'd have to tone Marinette's claim down, too. It would go from having his schedule for the next three years to just being aware of what he does on a weekly basis because they're friends and in the same class and you just sort of learn this stuff if you pay attention. How does Marinette know that Adrien has fencing on Wednesday? Because he has fencing every Wednesday. That's how this stuff tends to work.

I don't blame anyone for disliking the way that Marinette's crush was written. I don't like it either! It leaves a lot to be desired! The show would have been much better if they scrapped using Marinette's crush as the main source of comedy, but then they would have had to let Marinette and Adrien become close and we can't have that because it breaks the formula. The simple truth of the matter is that Marinette is written the way she is as a stalling tactic, which the episode Simpleman straight up admits:

Marinette: What am I doing, honestly? The truth is, I'm scared that Adrien will reject me if I tell him how I feel about him. That's why I over complicate everything, so that moment never comes.

In this scene, Marinette is claiming that this is a her thing, but it's really more of a writing thing. Miraculous is a formula show. Part of the formula is the akuma/sentimonster of the week and part of the formula is Marinette trying and failing to confess her crush. The show makes this pretty obvious, but if you want a more official source that this is what's going on, then here you go:

[The writing director] sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show.... [This is why] Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.

They made Marinette's failure to confess part of the weekly formula which means that there can never be any romantic progress, thus Marinette being written like a fan obsessed with her idol instead of a teenage girl with very real feelings for her kind sweet friend. The first makes for an easy formula, the second won't work in that model. It requires there to be progress and a planned endgame. I'm not against formula shows, but this is a terrible element to make part of the formula!

The same issue plagues Adrien, too. It's the main reason why Chat Noir can come across as overly pushy. He's not allowed to move on just like Marinette isn't allowed to confess her feelings because they're the endgame couple. But we keep pushing back the endgame by adding seasons and so it's all become a total mess with terrible pacing and awkward, unhealthy relationships dynamics that really aren't suited to the genres or audience that Miraculous is clearly aiming for.

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

I was going through my blog for the past few months when SUDDENLY

Truly I love when one of my posts ages like fine wine. Gourmet cheese, even. I have never felt more validated in my entire life XD Literally the only thing that was possibly disproven here was that, as @baldwinboy5ive has pointed out, Yasmine never confirms she actually likes bleunamis and we can't say for sure that that wasn't just Demetri assuming she did ^^;

"Ohhhhh it makes no sense Demetri cheated on Yasmine! He's obsessed with her! He worships her! Like I don't even like the ship but this is how he acts in canon!" Besties how do I explain to you that Demetri is not obsessed with Yasmine, not even a little bit. He's not even obsessed with the idea of her, although he might have been at some point. He SAYS he's obsessed with Yasmine, and he clearly wants the people around him to THINK he's obsessed with Yasmine. But his actions do not remotely indicate that, and never have.

If Demetri was actually obsessed with Yasmine at any point, we would know such things as what her hobbies are, what her hopes and dreams in life are, where she wants to go to college, what kind of job she wants to have, which school subjects she's okay at and which ones she struggles with, or literally like. Anything else that makes her a person. We as the audience don't know any of these things because Demetri, who should know a good chunk of this information if not all of it, has never made a single mention of anything Yasmine-related beyond the most obvious and surface-level details.

Unfortunately, throughout S6, Demetri forgets Yasmine's existence every time she walks offscreen. And even when there would be a natural opportunity to bring her up, i.e. when the kids are talking about college, Demetri does not make a single peep about her or how she factors into his post-high-school plans. Even in S4 and S5, Demetri only brings up Yasmine's existence a couple of times (once when talking to Eli about how karate helped him land a hot girl, and once when trying to give Miguel relationship advice for his own girlfriend). Neither of these are Yasmine-specific--Demetri talks about her like she fills the "girlfriend" role in his life and has no importance in of herself. Eli should get back into karate because karate got Demetri a hot girlfriend! Demetri is justified in giving Miguel girl tips because he has a hot girlfriend! It could literally be anyone and the way Demetri treats her and talks about her wouldn't change.

Moreover, if Demetri was as obsessed with Yasmine as he claims, they would maybe have one (1) conversation that wasn't about Demetri and his shit. Their relationship is all about him, and Yasmine revolving herself around him and his needs. She cares about karate because of him! She cares about nerd shit because of him! He plans their dates and orders food he assumes she will like without her actually indicating she will! And when, pray tell, has Demetri ever embraced, asked about, or indicated even minimal knowledge of Yasmine's interests???

Not. One. Fucking. Time. He barely ever talks about her and we have no proof he knows anything about her. That is literally the farthest thing from obsession. I can tell you as an ex middle school girl who was not immune to intensive and all-consuming crushes, I could probably write biographies for all my objects of affection solely based off of info they had mentioned to me or things I found out secondhand. I retained all of it, and I fixated on it. I talked about their lives nonstop and bored the shit out of all my friends. THAT is obsession. THAT is worship.

"But he calls her queen! He calls her goddess!" These are...not uncommon pet names for people who are dating. And in any case, pet names do not mean shit. Guys will call girls "baby" or "sweetheart" or "honey" and then abuse them and treat them like garbage. If anything, lavish, extra-ass pet names like "my goddess" can actually be used as a subtle manipulation tactic. Because hey, if I'm calling you something that implies I kiss the ground you walk upon, then maybe you won't notice that I never ask a single question or remember a single thing of substance about you, right? If I TALK like you're my whole world and then some, then maybe you won't notice that I am meeting your emotional needs at all because I do not actually know or understand you at all!

Now, I don't think Demetri is truly so much of a piece of shit that he's manipulating Yasmine intentionally. I think the over-the-top pet names are just one more thing he's using to sell the image that he is a Totally Normal Guy Who Is Thrilled To Be With This Hot Girl and cover up the fact he is not actually into or interested in her at all. More on this later.

"But it's because Demetri and Yasmine barely get any screentime! Demetri hasn't brought up any details about Yasmine because it's not relevant to the story!" And let's stop to think about why that is, eh? Demetri doesn't consider his partner to be worth a mention or even a passing thought in regard to...literally everything else in his life. And in S3, S4, and S6, Demetri gets plenty of screentime to maybe like. Say one (1) substantial thing about Yasmine. And the crazy thing is that it could incorporate seamlessly into the "comic relief side guy" role they are often determined to keep Demetri in. Imagine Demetri yapping at karate practice about designer fashion or nail salons or something else Yasmine talks to him about, and Johnny overhears and is like "ha! I knew he was a weird sissyboy!"Only to find out he got into these things by proxy via his incredibly hot girlfriend. Like it would NOT be hard to use this relationship for one-off jokes that would be on-brand for this show's humor, and yet. They don't. Instead of seeming even mildly interested in his girlfriend's existence, the showrunners have Demetri make pop culture references and situational snarky comments.

Now, you're probably wondering why someone like Demetri, who usually unapologetically does what he wants and doesn't give a shit if people don't like it, would initiate and stay in a relationship that he does not actually want to be in. And the reason, to me, is simple: He wants to fit in.

Demetri, from the beginning, has struck me as someone who doesn't have much interest in girls and dating, but wants people to think he does to appear "normal." Admitting he doesn't care about something most teenage boys obsess over would instantly "other" him and make him an even bigger target for bullying, which we know he's been dealing with for some time. And then, when Miguel and Eli both show overt interest in girls and get girlfriends, the pressure only increases. At this point, he's already worried they're going to leave him behind because of karate. The last thing he needs is something to cement to the two best friends embracing traditional masculinity that he's some kind of abnormal freak, and something they need to shed so as not to ALSO be seen as freaks.

(The why of Demetri's disinterest in girls and dating is irrelevant here, but for what it's worth, I think the simplest and most straightforward answer is that he's closeted and gay. If you don't see that, however, it's also possible he's acearospec. OR he just...is not impressed by any of the people he meets as dating prospects and maybe wants to wait until college to find a more meaningful connection with someone than just "they're hot and we have spicy make-out sessions." But in the world of high school boys--especially the toxic masculinity-obsessed world of Cobra Kai--this is NOT something you can ever outright say if you want people to respect you.)

Flash forward to Demetri getting with Yasmine, and attaining the safely unattainable. What is he supposed to do here that won't expose the "otherness" he's been trying to hide all along? He still has no real interest in her--he never did, and now he has to worry that might become apparent. Even when he (presumably) gets to know her, it's clear he's not too engaged or captivated, considering how he never demonstrates knowing any more about her than he did in S1. And he can't break up with her, considering all the unwanted attention that would bring. Because WHY WHY WHY would he give up every sane, NORMAL guy's dream??? Demetri's life may be in a more stable place--Miguel and Eli are his best friends again and he has a wider friend circle on the whole--but for all he knows, the only reason he was able to achieve this kind of happiness was BECAUSE he conformed. He got a hot girlfriend--the apparent ULTIMATE mark of social status in this dudebro-run universe--and if he willingly gives that up, he could lose everything. If he admits he doesn't want a girlfriend just for "having a girlfriend's sake," maybe Miguel and Eli will reject him. Maybe the rest of his friends and support system will, too. After all, so many of the people in Demetri's network are in relationships--Sam, Miguel, Robby, Tory, Eli, Moon. Hell, even his senseis! Johnny is dating Carmen, and Daniel is happily married. Being single by choice would make Demetri the odd one out. And after the abandonment issues he developed in S2, no way in HELL is he doing anything to jeopardize his support network.

And that brings us to Barcelona. Demetri got a significant confidence boost from beating Eli in the flag fight, and is starting to realize that he's more desirable to girls than he thought. Maybe he doesn't have to settle for Yasmine as a cover-up if there are other girls out there who could fill that role. Because that is all it is--a role. We have every reason to believe Demetri doesn't value romantic entanglements with girls for their own sake; to him, they're just a tool for showing off his coolness via "look! I get bitches!" as well as a means of fitting in with his peers.

So here comes Maria, offering Demetri a chance to show off just how cool and baller he is to his peers via giving him the ultimate thing men should strive for in this universe--girl attention. Demetri doesn't need Yasmine anymore. She's thousands of miles away, and there's a girl right in front of him who will help him project the image he wants. Why should he be concerned with a girl he only ever pretended to like to maintain appearances? Hell, maybe there's even some resentment there, if Demetri legitimately felt like he couldn't break up with Yasmine without subjecting himself to social scrutiny.

Add this to Demetri's falling out with Eli, and it gives him even more motivation to dance with Maria. Note how Eli is the one initially checking out Maria--enough so that Demetri slaps him like "you have a girlfriend!" And when Maria comes over, Eli feels like he has to say no out of principle. Demetri sees an opportunity to get under Eli's skin via dancing with a girl he's attracted to, and hey--it works, doesn't it?

Worth noting that Eli is ALSO a pretty shit boyfriend who knows basically nothing about Moon, but unlike Demetri, he has a more clear-cut feeling of "I shouldn't do this because it would be wrong." Demetri, meanwhile, is either so numbed out from the guilt of using Yasmine for his image that he wouldn't have any left to feel for cheating OR he knew what he was doing from the jump, in which case...why the hell would he feel even an iota of guilt for cheating, or hesitance to do so?

I suspect it's the former, since Demetri isn't like...a sociopath. But I do think he has been using Yasmine for quite some time now, whether he actively feels bad about it or not. And that's so clearly and obviously wrong that, in Demetri's mind, it dwarfs any "wrongness" of dancing with someone else when you're technically in a relationship. So might as well have some fun and make Eli mad, right?

"But you're biased because you ship Eli and Demetri!" Bizarrely enough, a lot of the complaints about the cheating plotline are coming from...other Elimetri shippers. At first I thought it was kind of funny (like...can't we just take the win and be happy, guys? Can't we celebrate the fact we've been saying Demetri doesn't give a rat's ass about his performative het relationship, and we were proven correct?), but now it's starting to get on my nerves. I feel like a lot of people in this fandom like Demetri not for what he is, but this like...kooky goofy funny wholesome comic relief guy they've built up in their head. Or people SAY they love his Villain Arc and want him to be a horrible cunt in Part 2, and then they flip tf out and claim he's OOC when he actually DOES do morally questionable things. The Demetri fandom apparently can't handle him being flawed if it's not in like...a safe and sanitized way where he doesn't act like thaaaaaaaat much of a jerk.

And what's even MORE frustrating is the way people are spazzing out over Demetri being flawed in a way that is VERY MUCH supported by what we have seen of his character for the rest of the show. Yes, he WOULD cheat, actually! Yes, it DOES make sense for him to cheat on a woman with another woman as a closeted gay boy (or something else significantly outside the cishet norm)--he has no real investment in his romantic relationships with women! the people around him seem to indicate that "getting chicks" is the ultimate mark of prowess, badassery, and success. Demetri figures "Hey, as long as I'm doing that, it doesn't matter who the fuck the chicks actually are. I just need to meet my Normal Heterosexual Quota before I go do something I actually give a shit about, like playing Dungeon Lord."

All this can be true, by the way, without Demetri being an absolute steaming shitpile of a person. We KNOW he has redeeming traits! He's incredibly loyal to and protective of his friends, and has been especially ride-or-die for Miguel, Eli, and Sam. He loves playing the entertainer, and he clearly eats it up whenever he makes Eli or one of his other friends laugh. He's sweet and loving with his female friends like Moon and Sam (which makes it all the more apparent to me that he...doesn't really care about Yasmine tbh. He has far healthier relationships with his platonic friends than his own partner!). He found it in him to forgive his best friend for some truly heinous shit, and probably would have been content for it all to be water under the bridge if not for the college debacle. Demetri is not unilaterally a bad person because he caved to the pressure to have a girlfriend and then...dealt with it poorly when he realized he didn't actually want her. His flaws and shortcomings are what make him interesting!

So often people see him in this really black and white way that really does his character a disservice. It's always "my Demetri is the bestest kindest gentlest most caring boy in the world and would NEVER cheat!" or "Demetri is absolute TRASH because he cheated on his girlfriend even though Miguel did too and we forgave he ass, and now nothing else about him or the context he did it in matters!" It's like no one wants to engage with his complexity, or stop and put some thought into his motivations and mindset before going "IT'S BAD WRITING BECAUSE I WANTED HIM TO BE A GOOD BOY AND HE'S A GOOD MORAL BOY IN MY HEAD AND THEY MADE HIM AN ASSHOLE >:(" Demetri can deeply love and fight for his platonic friends while treating the women he gets romantically involved with as interchangeable and unimportant. Both can be true. And if that makes you uncomfortable--GOOD! People are complicated, and characters that show that and force audiences to reckon with the multifaceted, messy, and often contradictory aspects of human nature are a positive thing. Especially in the age of purity culture writing characters off as The Epitome of Goodness or Pure Evil, I think approaching character analysis with nuance is more important than ever.

And finally...friends, I'm going to be so real with you for a second. I, the person behind this account, am a woman. I have dated and been in relationships with men. And frankly, it concerns me that it took cheating for a good chunk of this fandom to recognize Demetri is a shit boyfriend. And even now, with pretty infallible proof he's a bad boyfriend, I still see people in denial, saying "he wouldn't fucking do that to Yasmine! It was OOC! Why did they randomly have him decide to treat his girlfriend badly!" Ladies and gentlemen, have we been watching the same show??? He has never ever treated his girlfriend well, swinging back and forth between othering her as this larger-than-life Concept™️ and showing their relationship off like a prize. He uses her as a vessel to project what he wants onto and tell all his problems to. Just because Demetri isn't outright abusive and insulting Yasmine every 5 minutes doesn't mean he isn't toxic as hell. Their relationship has always been all about Demetri, and he only values Yasmine insofar as she can stroke his ego and fit the nebulous "dream girl" mold he's cooked up.

And I am pleading for women who like men to demand better than what Demetri Alexopoulos has to give. I mean, first of all, please get a better gaydar, because I have met an astounding number of irl gay men that remind me of that boy XD So if you meet a guy who's Demetri-coded to an above average degree...definitely double and triple-check he hasn't got you lined up to be his next beard before you get your heart broke ^^;

In all seriousness though, ladies. I know society is always telling us shit like "ohhhhh find a guy who's OBSESSED with you and WORSHIPS you and calls you a QUEEN!", but none of that means jack shit if a man doesn't want to actually learn anything about you and humanize you as more than an ideal. It's hard to be able to have good, thoughtful conversations with someone and be silly and goofy and relaxed and your most authentic self when you're constantly yelling down from the pedestal they put you on ^^; And please, for the love of god!!! I don't care HOW much you like a guy, you get the hell out of there if every single one of your conversations is about him. Romance is meant to be a partnership, not a girl erasing her entire personality and then some to cheer on a boy who does not even know where she's going to fucking college. Know your worth, seek better, demand better. Never settle for some dipshit who forgets about you every time you walk out the room because he called you "golden goddess."

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk 🩵 TL;DR I fully support the Demetri cheating plot and hope it will eventually be the wake-up call people need to see this man was NEVER a good boyfriend to Yasmine Nolastname. I'm so happy she finally realized she deserves better than being some gayboy's beard cheerleader coolness trophy, and I wish her the best of luck in pursuing people who actually want to fuck women ♀️

[randomthefox]

This has got to be my favorite part of the thread because it's the same flavor of willful obtuseness as "OH SO YOU THINK SONIC SHOULD MURDER HIS ENEMIES IN COLD BLOOD???"

"It's just annoying how you guys force everyone to admit that you know everything when you don't even know arguably the most important part of what makes your favorite character's central narrative so interesting" - To quote Sai on Lily Orchard, "Lily, that's yoooou! That's yooooou, Lily."

The counterarguments are wrong. Straight-up. They can be proven wrong with just a few screenshots from the games. You don't need to be The Elitest Sonic Fan Ever to see these counterarguments are hollow, just a basic working knowledge of the games.

The argument isn't necessarily that Sonic doesn't care about right or wrong, although that's technically true. Rather, it's that he doesn't care about being perceived as a good or bad person.

He does what he wants, which so happens to be the right thing, because his heart is pure. And he hates people who are all talk. That's why IDW Sonic is so OOC---he's nothing but talk. He basks in accolades and jerks himself off about he's such a hero for offering his enemies unlimited slaps on the wrist for paragraphs at a time.

"Show me an instance of Sonic actively choosing to do something that's objectively morally wrong."

Sonic was told he would be reviled as the "worst of knights" if he went through with slaying King Arthur and shrugged it off as "Guess I can't be the hero every time." He also tells Merlina "I don't mind playing the bad guy once in a while" in response to her accusation that his selfishness "is going to be the end of it all":

You can't get any more unambiguous than that. Once more I must stress how this ties into Sonic's schtick about not caring about how people perceive him.

"But Sonic magically knew King Arthur was evil!" - All he had to go off of was Merlina's word before his first confrontation with King Arthur, where he honestly seemed more pissed that he couldn't land a hit due to Caliburn's poor instruction.

And actually I'm kinda wrong: he saw Arthur on his horse and made a snap judgment. He went "Oh, I get it" and proceeded to open up a can of whoopass, only stopping when Merlina whisked him away.

Also, that's worse. Deciding this dude needs to die despite admitting he "seemed way different in the stories," based on secondhand information offered by someone he doesn't know and who may have had an agenda herself, is worse.

You do get how that's worse, right.

Moreover, Knight of the Wind contains the lyrics "I know I will bring you pain and fear." Personally I think that has more to do with Sonic bringing death and decay to the kingdom by stopping Merlina's plans than anything else, but still, it's worth mentioning.

I love how the counterexample OP provides is purely hypothetical. "If Sonic came across an immortal kingdom that was chilling and thriving he'd go home because obviously he has nothing to do there." Okay, but that's not what happened, and that's not the point of the story. The point is that we must come to terms with the fact that all things come to an end, including our own lives, and that's why we should make the most of our time.

Besides, you don't need to have ironclad morals to see how a world where nothing ends is probably a bad idea. (The other example of Sonic's pragmatic stance on Chaos is an example of Sonic's common sense being whitewashed into a moral argument.)

Also, they seem to have missed Sonic's initial reaction to Merlina's description of the Underworld. He didn't clutch his pearls like "le gasp, I must put a stop to this immediately!" Nah, he expressed glee that it'd be like "Halloween all year long":

The "Sonic believes in freedom for everyone" thing is actually the claim these folks can't produce solid evidence for. Sonic never says anything of the sort in the games. The most I can think of is when he tells Emerl to live his life to the fullest, which isn't the same thing as "I'm willing to give everyone a second chance no matter how bad their crimes are."

He certainly didn't say "freedom for all" when he sealed the Erazor Djinn in his lamp, did he?

Really think about this scene within the context the game provides and you'll see it's actually pretty cold on Sonic's part. Understandable and justified, even, but cold nevertheless.

When the Erazor Djinn was first imprisoned in the lamp as punishment for his misdeeds, he was offered a chance for pardon if he granted the wishes of a thousand people. In fact, giving him a second chance set the stage for SatSR's conflict:

Sonic offers him no such out.

Imprisoning the djinn inside the lamp as he was "in days of old" with little hope for escape, and then diminishing that slim hope even further by chucking it down a furnace where no one would ever be willing to fish for it is kind of a fucked-up thing to do if you really think about it, especially if Sonic really is about unlimited breadsticks at Olive Garden second chances for all, why does he apparently have a point of no return? Why would he essentially condemn the djinn to suffer in an inescapable prison for "the rest of time"?

Oh, you mean to tell me Sonic is the moral arbiter of this world? The jury that determines who receives a second chance or not based on his own personal snap judgments? Well, that's worse. You do get how that's worse, right?

Sonic did that because he cared more about Shahra than the Erazor Djinn's freedom. If he acted anything like IDW!Sonic, he would have let the djinn go with a slap on the wrist and a pinkie promise not to abuse Shahra again.

lmao why are these guys always xenophobic towards ST

"IDW critics" aka people who actually like and have played the video games lol.

Note once again that his inane rambling does not include any screenshots from the video games to demonstrate as proof. It's always just nonsense they're making the fuck up. Like I said: they invent this idea of what they think Sonic should be in their own imagination, and it is always easily disproven by simply pointing to the video games. Every single time.

They're never talking about Sonic the Hedgehog. They're talking about a character they've invented in their own imagination and dressed up in blue hedgehog costumes. It's always just ranting about their headcanons, and never analysis of the text of the video games.

And when people point out who Sonic is in the video games, and that discredits their imagined ideas about Sonic, they have a mental breakdown.

As always: I don't need to refute this person's argument. The VIDEO GAMES already DO THAT themselves.

IT'S LITERALLY HIS FUCKING THEME SONG THAT IT DOES NOT MATTER TO HIM WHAT IS WRONG AND WHAT IS RIGHT, HE DOESN'T NEED A REASON, HE'S JUST GONNA DO THINGS HIS OWN WAY.

But of course that never sways people like this. You can literally just post material from the video games all day. And they'll just say "nope, doesn't count, because that's not what I think Sonic is/should be." To them Sonic is not a character from a series of video games with 34 years of consistent characterization. To them Sonic is just a mascot that they can coopt like a parasite and turn into whatever character they want him to be for the sake of coasting off his pre-established popularity and fame. They don't care about Sonic. They hate Sonic. They make that clear with every word they type about him.

[hervygervy]

Are there any noteworthy differences for Medusa? Or anyone else from the nes game for that matter? I’m curious if Palutena offering to spare Medusa is different at all, and if the one Hewdraw head being proud of Pit is too.

Alright! I'll try to squeeze in as much as possible. Coincidentally, Medusa and Hewdraw are probably the only NES characters worth talking about. I'll get to them after some filler though... plunge in below... 🙏

Speaking of the NES, one interesting difference actually comes from the fact that the original Kid Icarus itself had quite the different release in Japan. It's common knowledge by now, but whereas we westerners got the NES, Japan had the Famicom, or "Family Computer." A couple years into its life, it received an add-on in the form of the Disk System. This allowed for the console to read games on floppy disks, which had more efficient data storage and better sound quality. This was actually how Kid Icarus was released over there. Here's a secondhand copy of the game I found while I was in Akihabara:

All of that preface to say that, thanks to being on a floppy disk, the game has significantly better audio quality when it comes to the sound effects. In Kid Icarus Uprising, the reapers and the brief moment in which 8-bit Hewdraw appears on the bottom screen sound completely different between versions! I uhh... don't have audio files for those. So let's move onto characters...

There isn't anything different about Twinbellows (both versions even have the same Nintendogs joke). The most I could say for Pandora is, at least to me, the contrast in her personalities seem far more extreme in the Japanese version (like she's all the more dour in chapter 5 and all the more peppy in chapter 22). Thanatos is also shockingly similar between versions, the only thing to note is that obviously the bit about the name change doesn't exist in the Japanese version. Instead Thanatos just exposes the fact that Pit does not remember him at all. He also ends almost all of his sentences with デス (desu) which is a pun on both the polite ending particle です (desu) and English "death." Get it?

But let's get on with the specific characters you mentioned, starting with Medusa. As I've discussed dozens of times before, Japanese speech is very flexible in terms of sentence enders and pronoun choice. Her speech style is kinda masculine, as she ends most of her sentences with masculine ending particles like ぜ (ze), ぞ (zo), and な (na). She also uses the masculine おまえ (omae) to refer to others (it's really informal since it's literally referencing that which is in front of one's face, so it would only be used among close friends). Despite all this gruffness, she still refers to herself as わたし (watashi), which although gender neutral in most scenarios, it can have a feminine feel to it, especially in casual contexts, as women are socialized to use it.

To answer your question, Palutena's request that Medusa withdraw goes about the same in both versions, even down to the terms being to stay within the castle.

The only real difference is Palutena gives a little bit more preface in the Japanese version:

"While we're at it, how about we deal with this quietly?"

"Withdraw the Underworld army, and if you can promise not to take a single step from this castle, I shall give you mercy at last."

In this same conversation, one thing to note is in the Japanese version, Medusa explicitly describes herself as a doll, making the twist that someone else is pulling the strings a little more obvious. Here's the exchange in English:

And in Japanese:

"I feel like I've become a doll. My head's in a daze."

"Indeed, your vitality is weak. Perhaps those are the side effects of resurrection..."

But these are ultimately minor, I think. Just about all of her dialogue goes about the same. Even that one discussion in the ground section of chapter 6 about how humans perceive the gods is about the same. The only conversation with any significant change is this one brief interaction she and Pit share in the flight segment of chapter 9 when Pit crosses into the Underworld:

I always found this bit interesting because it gives some incidental details on how the power of flight works... leading to my personal theory Pit's issue might be that he's unable to generate any kind of lift. But none of that is present in the Japanese version:

It's pretty mundane. I'll translate:

Medusa: So you've made it this far.

Pit: Medusa!

Medusa: Palutena's spear, Pit. The demon who stands in my way. I welcome you. Come at me anytime.

Pit: I'm not a demon! I'm an angel! In the name of the goddess Palutena, I will punish you!

I really have no guesses as to why this was changed.

As for Hewdraw... they're all pretty different! The left and middle heads (the blue and purple ones respectively) have similar characteristics between versions, while the right head (the pink one) is like, psychotic in the Japanese version. Even with any similarities, the dialogue is overall pretty different. I can only upload so many images and audio files so I'll just cover what I think are the highlights.

In the initial bickering between the heads, it's all mostly the same aside from this line:

"To hell with the Underworld," he says. He must really be going through it.

If you leave the right head for last, the exchanges are different:

The actor gives an entertaining performance, I think. Well, so does the English one. Anyway, I'll translate:

Hewdraw: Gyah! The other heads!

Pit: Now for the finishing blow!

Hewdraw: How dare you?! I'll defeat you, I'll defeat you, I'll defeat you, I'll defeat you, I'll absolutely defeat you!!

Told you he was crazy. The middle head also has different dialogue if you leave him for last, in English he'll be nonchalant about it while in the Japanese version he'll get fired up. Anyway, once the level transitions to the ground portion, Palutena uses a special power to lure a head from its rampage. In the English version it's simply a "monster pheromone" but in the Japanese version it's called the "Palutena pheromone." ...I'm not discussing the implications of that. As a result, all the conversations have different dialogue that plays into that. They occur if the fight goes on for long enough (I evidently finish these fights too quickly because this is my first time hearing any of these), so I'll include those as audio files. I'll rapid-fire through 'em all.

"Stop it, quit it, stop it, quit it!"

French is the language of love, after all. No French in the Japanese version though.

Hewdraw: Oh oh oh, I can't stop my body!

Pit: You're a melting pot of excitement, aren't you?

Hewdraw: Calm down, calm down! Beans! Count beans!

Maybe counting beans is like counting sheep? I don't really know what it means but it's definitely what he said.

"Whoa!! I've fallen in love!"

Pit's line keeps the portrait used in the Japanese version (the fist pump one) which does not at all match what he says here in English, lol.

Hewdraw: Ugh! Crap! I can't control these urges!

Pit: While I'm at it, I think I'll defeat you!

Hewdraw: Shut it! I won't bear to be done in by these feelings!

"It's unbearable, it's unbearable! You smell unbearable!"

Hewdraw: Ugyah! This is the best! I'll trounce you!

Palutena: Quite the heavy metal vibe, huh?

Hewdraw: Wow wow! I'll send everything flying, baby!

As you can see and hear... they're all considerably different. Next is the regenerated Hewdraw fight, and not to worry, the middle head still pays his respects to Pit:

"You've become strong, Pit..."

"What was that about, saying something like a father would."

I dunno man, when's my dad ever gonna tell me I've gotten strong? Huh?

The right Hewdraw head will actually pay some respects too, crazily enough. As is the pattern with this head, the whole interaction is actually quite different:

And the Japanese:

"I got so tired of waiting I fell asleep!"

"Prepare yourself!"

"Hyahahahaha! I'll tear you apart!"

"You were quite strong, heh..."

"This was quite tough, heh...!"

Ah so that's what this Hewdraw wanted to say! Teehee. Oh, and Pit's mimicking Hewdraw's style of speech here. I tried to make that come through in my translation...

As for the left head, in the English version he says something like "I'm too pretty to die" while in Japanese he just says something like "I've been defeated" but he uses the humble speech variant which is really interesting? Because otherwise they speak very informally.

Well, this became more of a Hewdraw post than anything, huh? I got a bit all over the place here, but I hope fun was had nonetheless.

I will now make like the right head and go to sleep. Until next time...

[visiblenostalgia]

🥱The POST-Aries Eclipse…😑✨

月曜日。8日4月2024年

19° Aries: (Libra Degree) from [Sabian Symbologist],

“Only Your Soul Knows For Sure”

“…a symbol of periodic expansion of man’s freedom of spirit and soul through his widely winging interest far removed from his normal promise,” What comes from this understanding yourself before understanding others. Being YOURSELF in the CROWD. A standout.

However, they even state that detaching too much (dissociation) may lead to “scorn” from responsibilities. Healthy detachment is okay. Just be careful to dissociate yourself from everything. Feeling too much of nothing can STILL be feeling something.

(More of my experiences under the cut)

It’s like ever since this eclipse on Monday the 8th, the energy around me has been much more light and open to my energy. Like I can move on and get stuff done. I no longer feel hunkered down as I feel like I can let grudges, bygones, fucked interactions with people (mind the Aries Mercury retrograde) and forgetfulness go.

Not to mention that when I just look forward and keep on keeping on, do I “breathe in” revitalizing energy. I feel like I can take in something new as my friends and career shift to both of what’s needed of me and what are my desires.

Another thing to note was the Eclipse occurred right on my 11th house cusp. If I could call it my Secondhand Midhaven I would. My SM. Cause that’s made my work and creative life so much more passionate and enjoyable. All because of letting things, emotions, and people that did not suit me at all….go.

It feels like that first rainy day after a long brutal heatwave. I can finally feel at ease and hop onto my work.

Extra little notes of what my latest experiences were like:

I started roleplays that go episode by episode in a show and we’ve been doing our own spins on it (creative juices a’flowing babyyyyy)

Spiritual downloads of ideologies that currently don’t exist but may come these next few decades. Something aligned with (again,) Creativity, Chaos, Common Knowledge, Sensibility, Laughter, Understanding divine timing…. TRUE Healing too (not running away or asking too much from therapy. Cause if you’re not growing yourself day by day (of course with a little advice but not too much to over rely) there’s no way).

Just being around friends who understand me. Being around people who are just here for a good time. Fighting only takes so much out of the human spirit. Gotta remember that night will hit and the hay needs someone to rest against it.

Some music I found that matched what it feels like coming out of that eclipse.

This one mainly being the sole reason why I love my state (and how lucky we are to get totality even if it was cloudy as fuck. PEOPLE STILL GOT TOGETHER TO HANG OUT)

I salute to you Texas. May the lone star state shine forever in our proud favor.

I’ve also dabbled in more Nu Metal because of the crazy war vibes from Aries alone.

Another song from Cowboy Carter that just makes me feel so ready to jump out there and smile:

😵‍💫Pre-Solar: in between…🤬

金曜日。5日4月2024年

Now that I think more on some stuff:

This is a side track where it was IN-BETWEEN the two eclipses from Libra Lunar and Aries Solar.

I saw The First Omen and good god did it make me feel the uncomfortableness of it all within that eclipse cycle. It scared me five times not gonna lie. And I haven’t cringed harder than I have since then.

What surprised me was that the Astrology for WHEN EXACTLY I went also lined up with something.

Moon (Emotions/Feelings) conjunct with Mars (Intensity/Drive) and Saturn (Structure/Discipline + Nihilism/Realism). Saturn tends to put pressure on systems it seems unfit or not suitable for the others around. A “YOU BEST GIT YOUR ACT TOGETHER” energy. ESPECIALLY WITH MARS. Not to mention Pisces rules religious beliefs and ideologies that are overwhelmingly large and complex. Combining all four……also added onto the fact that said movie watched was The First Omen…

It made me understand something….

That movie was about Religious Dogmatism and you couldn’t tell me otherwise! (Do tell me otherwise LMAO)

🐟🔥🪐

Much love to the astrology community guys. Hope you guys have been eating well and doing your best to protect your energy cause the world wants to bring yours down every day no matter what form.

🫶

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2025-02-10

I do make the rules and I also enforce them

Listening: Two songs have been stuck in my head all week, #1 is I Got My Tooth Removed from 10,000 gecs by 100 gecs.

If I'm honest I've primarily had this sequence stuck in my head

My head's like a ton of bricks, but this dumb bitch still learns new tricks I fuck with fire, burn my dick, play violin on sinking ships I woke up and was down, horrendous, think I need to see the dentist

#2 and I think the theme here is "attractive use of rhythm and rhyme" because it's Vampire State off Your Majesty by Michael Guy Bowman

I know this one has featured already. As mentioned, I make and enforce the rules. I like a lot of the stupid puns in here! It's a very smug song, very self-satisfied. Also making me so badly want to get a bass guitar.

Watching: Busy week! First up Macbeth, the 2024 West End performance film release.

It has been a hot second since I have seen Macbeth although I pregamed this with the Ian McKellen and Judi Dench one from the 70's which I kind of half-listened to while making dinner.

Macbeth is not as dense with like Good Lines as Hamlet but it is tied for like, how fun it is to watch. Relies very heavily on your Lady Macbeth driving everything forward.

There's a lot of gender in here! Everyone is constantly saying whether they're a man or a woman and they're totally not lying they promise.

Also, at Bad Movie Night: Flash Gordon, which. Is not like Macbeth.

Flash Gordon has some really killer outfits! My only knowledge of Flash Gordon is secondhand through parody and I was not prepared for how all out the sets and costumes went, thank you movies.

Multiple lost technologies on display here. We don't make t-shirts that tight anymore, and we also lost this kind of big semi-earnest comedy sci-fi technology. The closest thing to this is I guess Jupiter Ascending, which is Very Tropey in a similar way but that's like, ten years old now?

Reading: Going back and forth between Pale Fire and other things, mostly the little Nabokov collection I picked up. Little to say, Pale Fire continues to be fun but in the same way as before.

Making: Printing around the house, more design stuff around the TV. Starting to work on a lapboard-ish thing. Currently I use the steam desktop mode which is very good, like, genuinely quite handy, which combined with being able to send links from my phone to the handheld is pretty much complete, but it would be nice to be able to a) type and b) play 3D games without having to learn how to use a controller. I am not a picky gamer when it comes to my keyboard and mouse, I've beaten Star Wars Republic Commando on a trackpad more than once, but I do want a mouse.

This involves figuring out what I want to do with Galena. I've run into problems! Galena suffers from "not the same kind of layout as the keyboard I type on all day at work", a problem that has two possible solutions, 1) build a Galena copy for work, or 2) build a work copy for home. I kind of like my work layout (Logitech K860) more than the strict ortho of Galena so it's possible I'm going to tear her down and rebuild her. If I do do this what I might do is figure out how to get time on the makerspace CNC mill so that I can build a swoopy complicated case out of wood, I do like having a wooden keyboard, but it'll probably at least start out as a printed project. It's also possible that much of Galena will become the lapboard and I'll build something new for the desktop.

Additionally: remembered I have that whole LED project. Got save slots working on the API and backend side of things.

Playing: Cyberpunk, I am presently in Phantom Liberty which is a very sharp change of pace, much more focussed, it feels almost like a linear campaign in many ways. Enjoying it but hoo boy that division feels artificial. It doesn't help that I basically waited until everything else was wrapped up to go there, although I am enjoying having some latitude to deploy my top level skill tree in the wild.

Tools and Equipment: I got a really really long wool coat the other day and I cannot overstate how good it is for cold weather because it covers your legs. Combined with my ridiculous chaps this is perhaps the most comfortable I've been outside all winter.

[heartbeatbookclub]

I absolutely adore all of your analysis so far, they are so indepth and it feels like you’re able to explain stuff that I’m only able to vaguely think in an abstract sense when it comes to ddlc and dhdhdj so so good

I do wanna say that for you mc analysis, there’s one thing missing. I’m someone who got into ddlc cause of plus so I have hyperfixated on all the lore. While the employees imply that Monika made MC, I don’t think that’s actually true based on what we know about Monika. If she could make a whole character then why couldn’t she make herself a route? Heck in one of her act 3 convos, she can barely change the music before saying “well I just break everything anyway”.

So I believe based on other emails, that it was Ive Laster who made MC since they were the one who wanted to make ddlc a game. In the first meeting notes, we are told that Ive tends to ramble a lot. But in the next one when MC is mentioned in a meeting, they are silent. Another thing is that in one of the ddlc plus trailers, ive is the name of the MC.

It could be said that Ive based it on the stuff in the control group, but the control group was made AFTER the main vm (That’s not how a science experiment should work but ya know, I don’t think they are smart). So really the control group is based on main game first. Honestly so much of the issue of the plus lore is how it’s so convoluted to get, but reading it all on the wiki helped me alot.

Plus seemed to add a new sense of horror to the og, the horror of knowledge that one plagued Monika is now plaguing the player as we have all this information but can do nothing to help them. I think the idea of MC being made by someone else adds this new layer to him along with this new layer of horror. But that’s more just my own thoughts on it that I thought you may find interesting along with all the lore from above.

Anyway, I hope you have a good day! Your post are great and I’ll make sure to keep up with coil more!

aw, thanks anon! i often find it difficult to find the exact way to explain what i'm thinking when i do analysis like i have on this blog, so i'm glad i can at least help to put it into words for other people who have even more trouble with it than i do.

as for the rest of your statement...i think you make a compelling point. full disclaimer; a lot of my knowledge on what's presented in + outside of the full text of the side stories is secondhand, and when talking about the original game, i think it's important to keep in mind that my reference for most of this is my playthrough with my friends back in like...2017-18ish a little after the game came out...? aheh, i won't lie, though i am rather obsessive in the course of scouring information i remember via the wiki/elsewhere to verify i'm not just making it up, putting off my replay of the og game has not been helpful for me.

i think it's very much up in the air as to how much influence that Monika actually has over the game, which is something i talked about in my analysis of Natsuki in the Side Stories. in my opinion, what + demonstrates more than anything is that in whatever she DID do in the main game, she mostly worked with material that was already there to make things easier on her. one of the things i based that claim on was the reference of the Protagonist in the Side Stories, but it's not a necessary claim, and in fact, i think you do make a good point in how it's unlikely that she'd be able to do this (at the very least, by herself) based on what's been shown of her ability in the game.

i think, in regards to your comment on the reference to MC in the Side Stories, it's important to consider the wider conceit of DDLC--i have a deeper analysis i'm tinkering around with on terms of it as an exploration of fiction vs the concept within the "universe", but that's another story--namely, all of the girls aren't (or at least, are heavily implied not to be) just static fictional characters following a pre-written script, they're genuine artificial intelligence!

this is part of what i meant when i said that the Side Stories demonstrate the raw character of each of the girls independently of any 4th wall shenanigans--within the world of Doki Doki Literature Club, they're essentially just people living in the confines of a computer, and therefore have essential, largely immutable character traits which exist within some fundamental essence of what makes them who they are. i think there are a shitload of really, really terrifying things this opens the door to if you really think about its nature (independently of DDLC, i've personally had longform discussions with a friend about the morality and potential horrors which would exist within a similar universe concept, and it's somewhat ubiquitous in a lot of sci-fi universes), but like i said, that's a different discussion entirely!

what i'm trying to suggest here is that it's likely that Sayori's relationship to the Protagonist is something inherent to her character, so it doesn't necessarily have to be something gleaned entirely from the Side Stories.

of course, this is all post hoc reasoning with what we're given! occam's razor suggests that it's actually just likely that (given that DDLC was written and released a long while prior to the Side Stories) they didn't necessarily plan every part of this from the outset, so some things just naturally seem to fit together a little weirdly, with little details added here and there just for flavor! i think that given the nature of the entire thing (and how Dan Salvato has talked about DDLC and the statements he's given with about in universe details in the past), it's unlikely that every single element of this was planned out from the word go.

this might be a bit of a controversial opinion, but there's a lot about how + handles the lore of ddlc that i didn't really like, just because it adds a whole new layer of lore and context, which soured a lot of my impressions, because the original game really flourished in its simplicity. that said, with all that's been given in the Side Stories and the deeper layers to the actual horror which are now visible in the original game, i think it pretty well makes up for it!

awa, i didn't plan for this to become an entire essay in itself...but i do appreciate this kind of thing! i really like digging deep into what's explicitly provided in canon to get a deeper understanding of the characters and universe as it's actually been shown, so any encouragement and correspondence related to either my analysis or my opinions in general are welcome! honestly, i'm also welcome to read others' analysis like this, because i like to see when people read deep into it like i do! typically it ends up reshaping how i see the entire thing, and it sorta just makes my heart happy to get people thinking about this stuff!

i think, as a last thought, if MC is actually conscious in any way similar to the other girls (which I think is a definite possibility, given his ability to respond in contexts impacted by Monika's manipulation, even if barebones), it actually makes him a very interesting character in his simplicity. i know that Dan Salvato doesn't see him as one, but i think it'd make for an interesting study in a fanfic or something.

i hope you also have a good day anon (even though it's 2 am here as i'm writing this...) and you BETTER KEEP UP W/IT I PUT MY HEART N SOUUL INTO THAT BABY (/lh /hj i'm just glad other people are liking it, even if it's just silent kudos :))

[faerywhimsy]

Vamptember Day 12 - "Love never dies a natural death"

Today I'm back to my nonsense about my beloved Bianca Solderini.

Here is a chronology of our girl Bianca: Marius' briefly human companion after Santino abducts Amadeo, burning down the Palazzo and leaving Marius a blackened shadow of his former self. Marius brings Bianca into the blood. They occasionally argue to the point where Marius cloud gifts her to a place she can't return to him again, before he feels really bad about it and brings her back again—

While there's an argument to be made that—just as The Vampire Armand was Armand's burn book—Blood and Gold was Marius' maudlin self pity after seeing Armand in Queen of the Damned, I'm still sore about that.

Bianca accepts his temper is just a part of Marius and stands loyal by him for centuries. But they come to a permanent separation after Bianca overhears the way Marius throws her aside for the possibility of being with Pandora again. Like, does Bianca comfort him on the night Pandora rejects, bringing Marius to her cold grave. "It is early for you, but I must go and I can't leave you this way." <3

Less than a page later, as soon as Marius is himself again, my girl, like a boss, informs him in no uncertain terms that she's finally put up with enough and is leaving.

"I heard the things you said to her. And I'm leaving you."

This is around the mid-17th century.

So it's not impossible Bianca goes immediately from Marius in Dresden to Armand in Paris in that brief, possible interaction in TVA before Armand comes across Louis for the first time. Likely she's licking her wounds and building her courage. But then Armand scares her away.

This actually does make a great deal of sense from Bianca's PoV. Marius had regularly been utilising the Telamasca to keep tabs not just on Pandora, but also on Amadeo (now of course Armand). Through Marius, Bianca understands Armand has spent the last hundred years making himself coven master to the Children of Darkness. At his worst, he has completely eschewed any softer feelings or the lessons Marius left him with over only killing the evil doer. In fact, the more innocent the mortal, the more pleasure Armand seems to take in the killing.

Secondhand knowledge is confirmed by reality at the dawn of the 20th century: Armand has changed from the Amadeo she loved into a man Bianca has no ability to recognise.

And then... We don't see Bianca chronologically in canon until Lestat finds her and Allesandra in Paris in Prince Lestat.

It's the century between that visitation at the turn of the 20th century and the end of it that captivates me. Bianca isn't at all present or mentioned by the time we have Queen of the Damned in 1988. Other characters that she's later seen with in Prince Lestat are present for Akasha's Burnings.

And so my investigation begins.

Maybe Bianca had not forgiven Marius by the time Pandora and Santino (🙃) were searching for Marius at the beginning of Akasha's reign of terror. And that's why Bianca did not come to his aid. (It's not like Armand pulled himself away from Daniel either.)

That explanation suffices, or else more simply: The first burning passed over Bianca and her still relatively new fledgling. They were grateful and saw no need to involve themselves in happenings that were by majority occurring on the other side of the world. It's just... they were not so lucky when it came to the second Burning.

"But I'll tell you that, why I am suffering," Bianca said, drawing near but talking in a normal and not a confidential voice, her arm slipping around me [Lestat]. "I lost one I loved in the attack in Paris, a young one, one I'd made and lived with for decades. But this was the Voice at work, not the one he'd brought out of the earth to do his bidding."

This moment where Bianca is just... comfortable enough to slip her arm around Lestat? It's so incredibly maddening to me because the two of them have never before had an interaction on the page before Paris.

How does this moment between Lestat and Bianca come about? There are two obvious options that immediately come to mind for an explanation, then, of the affection evident between Bianca and Lestat (outside of the love every vampire in this universe has for Lestat).

1) more happened between Armand and Bianca directly in the years between 1998 (TVA) and 2013 (PL) when Lestat and Armand were on better terms (??)

2) Armand told Lestat of his beloved Bianca Solderini before Lestat went into the ground

Picture this: Lestat is weakened from Louis' and Claudia's attack on him. He asks and is refused healing blood from Armand. Fair enough. Maybe Armand makes a throwaway line, "I wouldn't give my healing blood to even my beloved Bianca Solderini if she had treated me as you have!"

It's entirely possible Armand would have mentioned her here, after all. Remember he thinks he sighted Bianca in Paris earlier in the decade.

And so Lestat, hurting and humbled, wanders back towards New Orleans. But it just so happens that Bianca has also found herself in this part of the world at the same time. She has come across the occasional immortal on her travels up till now but, with them, a quick scan of the mind always shows little more than whether or not there is an intention to harm.

Lestat's mind is different in two ways: He is clearly far from his best but, also, there are familiar figures in this immortal's mind. Marius, and Armand.

They stare at each other in shock, hardly able to parse that they have two such influential figures on each of their lives in common - yet they have never before met. Bianca immediately offers him aid, and Lestat's mind throws up the memory of the words Armand threw at him.

She doesn't completely recoil. Bianca's used to Marius' temper. She knows how unkind men can be and does not jump to assume either Lestat or Armand must be the right. She's just tired, so tired of being alone. So she asks Lestat to give her stories of Armand and, in exchange, she will offer him a little of her blood that is almost as powerful as Armand's.

Lestat accepts this deal, and Bianca hears about Armand from someone other than Marius for the first time in almost 400 years. She ends up in tears with it. Lestat cannot stand the idea of yet another blood drinker flying into a rage over what is only truth to him. He knows he will not survive it, even with the small amount of blood she has granted him.

That will be just enough to get him safely the rest of the way back to New Orleans.

And so, while Bianca mourns, Lestat takes his leave from her, apologising, thanking her for her kindness, but asking her not to follow him.

She doesn't. Bianca wishes Lestat well and thinks on him often while he sleeps.

Because he is the last blood drinker she holds company with for several decades. By the 1950s, she finds herself in California, at which point the mind of a human girl captivates her. She is strong, this girl, recently sent away from her family to give birth to a baby she was forced to then give up for adoption.

But this girl refuses to fall down to depression despite the current isolation from her family, her younger brother, her old friends. She's getting her diploma in night classes, and Bianca finds herself quietly stalking her, curious at her thoughts and her resilience.

She's not as subtle as she thinks she is, and the girl confronts her one night, telling her that if she's going to be appearing out of nowhere every night, the very least she can do is buy her a soda.

The first time Bianca reaches for her hand, the girl pulls it away, before realising she doesn't need to worry anymore about what others might think of her holding another woman's hand. Bianca asks her where she would like to go in the world if she could go anywhere. Her eyes light up at the idea of being able to leave California behind her.

And this is the fledgling Bianca mentions in passing. The reason Bianca does not appear in Queen of the Damned is explained: Bbecause her fledgling refused to go back to California, and Bianca wouldn't make her. Lestat gave her the highlights after it was all over. He even visited the two of them on one of his visits to France.

The hug Bianca gives to Lestat in that moment of Prince Lestat, then, gets to be a quiet moment of recognition between them. Bianca is glad to know Lestat is okay because she can't help but think of their first meeting, and this time it is Bianca who's the one that's utterly bereft, while Lestat is as fit and healthy as Bianca was on their first meeting.

Their roles have quite reversed.

@vamptember

[reaching-ruchnius]

Since we started eating kosher we order and do takeout food from out much much less (like twice a month down from 1-2x per week.) so our groceries bill naturally has gone up quite a bit, and it isn’t the cost of the kosher food because the only thing that’s really a significant increase is meat and we have only had 1 meat meal per month at our house the past 2 months (it just isn’t something we feel we need more often. We eat fish a lot now. And it’s easier this way) so it isn’t that we’re buying more expensive food items, I’m pretty sure. I didn’t grow up with any type of budgeting knowledge, education or experience. I kinda thought of food as something that was always a “justifiable” expense so not something to worry about the budget, cus you can always be frugal elsewhere like buying secondhand clothes and not buying expensive cosmetics or other luxury items. I realize that’s a privileged outlook. Tbh I do have ADHD in the way that, just getting everything into the house that I need to create cohesive, nutritious, enjoyable, kosher meals feels like a miraculous accomplishment for me. Like it’s a lot for me I know it sounds basic. But I have recently been struggling with huge guilt over the price/cost of groceries. Idk if we are spending more or the same or less on food overall cus as I said, I never had the wherewithal to budget for that. I always just figured we’d be ok and so far we have been but that’s kinda a scary way to go about things. I’m always questioning what I can afford. And the fact that I don’t contribute financially really makes me worry because it’s so much all on my husband and Ideally I want to do everything I can to negate the stress. But I haven’t honestly done much work toward that in this specific regard (I have been successful in saving money in other arenas, such as not buying many new items and making do w what we have, mending things when they break instead of replacing)

Idk it’s a combination of things. When I was growing up, I remember buying normal sized packages of food items for like less than $2 and now it feels like no single package of food is less than $4.75 at the store (I’m exaggerating there but really, when did bread become $6? When did a box of Oreos become more than $5? Maybe I just didn’t pay attention until recently but everything feels too expensive..)

Not to mention the time expense of cooking, but of course I’m so so happy to do it. But it is something I cannot help but to factor in because whenever I’m doing a sustained task like that, my kids are likely missing out on my attention for a bit and it can be distressing for all involved. I’m just trying my best and I’m pretty sure we are doing ok but how do people afford to do all this and also have lots of kids and then send them all to the Hebrew day schools 😭 when I first started having kids I was determined I would homeschool them but more and more I’m realizing Hebrew day school would be ideal in many ways. But like, how on earth to afford such a thing? And camp? And yeshiva and college? Like. Where is this money coming from … and when I do go back to the workforce how am I going to manage the household to the standard I want …? Just how 😭 idk idk. I’m having a lack of faith moment I guess because it has all worked out in the past so , I should just do my best and realize that things will be ok.

I’m having like these racing guilt and anxious thoughts. Idk why…

It is for sure time (overdue acrually) for me to make a groceries budget. I know that.

[lillysbitchfest]

Right, I see what’s going on here. Black Stan

I am not a stan. Of anything, I can like something and evaluate it's flaws. I favor Team Black over Team Green, because I like the characters better and think their reasons for fighting are better- at the same time I think monarchy is fundamentally wrong. Revenge is fundamentally wrong and not justice. I can understand a character's motivation while still thinking they are doing the wrong thing.

loves Daemon

Yup I love Daemon. He is an entertaining chaos beasty.

everyone else is wrong.

Generally I think my beliefs/opinions/takes are correct, that's why they are my opinions. If I didn't think they were correct I would change them? I don't understand this argument. Who has beliefs and opinions they don't think are correct?? I am willing, when confronted with sufficient evidence to change my mind though.

Makes sense why you felt the need to call out my post, but since we are on B&C, how about I point out how much of a coward he was for it?

He received notice of Luke’s death, not the party. For all they knew, it was just a welcome home feast. DAEMON WAS NOT PRESENT AND WOULD HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THE FEAST WAS FOR. Any information he received was secondhand.

The whole having spies in King's Landing thing just went totally over your head I guess. There is no way that in communicating with Mysaria he didn't find out what happened to Aemond after he came back having killed Luce- now imagining even that it was just a welcome home feast and he didn't get word of Aegon's "Good start" line- then it was obvious to Daemon that Aemond wasn't punished in any way for breaking the rules about messengers and kinslaying, Aegon, acting as the leader, would be seen as either ordering or supporting Aemond's actions. The end.

Also, grieving parent? Yeah, Luke’s days were numbered the second Aegon the younger was born. No way Daemon would let bastards sit the iron throne before his ‘trueborn’ (his wedding to Rhaenyra isn’t valid as her husband was still alive when it took place. Oops) sons.

Pure speculation on your part, and I'm guessing some projection about your feelings about "bastards" to top it off... Gross my dude. Gross. (His wedding to Rhaenyra, in the TV show the version where her husband was still alive, was Valyrian- who are known to have poly-marriages. Try again. Or actually don't because this whole legitimacy stuff is supper gross.) Provide any evidence that Daemon was planning to kill his wife's sons, the children his daughters were engaged to. That he waited through ten peaceful years, in the book, eight in the show, without making any move on? Receipts. Provide them. Explain this plan he had and provide evidence from the show or book to support it. My evidence is B&C itself and stabbing Aemond through his false eye- niether act making sense unless they were vengeance for someone he loved.

Daemon literally mentions he is looking for an excuse to rile Aegon into action. He sees him as rash and thinks he can be goaded. Luke’s death gave him the opportunity to do something horrible and he took it.

Why a son for a son then? Why not all his kids? Why not kill Helaena? Why not everyone they could get their hands on? Why such a strike at a single son? If Daemon just wanted to do something horrible, why this limited horrible thing? If he wanted someone to report it- why not just Alicent? Kill Aegon's whole family and all the dragon riders they could get their hands on. It doesn't follow. It isn't a logical choice. It might have backfired and roused Helaena and got another dragon in the war- the only logic to it was that it wasn't logical. It was an emotional reaction. The reaction of a parent wanting the one he felt responsible for his pain to feel the same.

No man that sends two assassins to kill an innocent child while their mother and siblings look on is anything less than a coward.

Cool.

B&C and Helaena discourse is on a rise and yall know that's my roman empire so i WILL be giving my two cents (for the thousandth time😼)

First off, B&C

I see a lot of people claiming B&C was the Greens fault, but when you take a second to think you will see that nothing the Greens did as a whole caused B&C. It simply would not have happened if Aemond (1 singular green) had not killed Lucerys for taking his eye. (i believe this excuse comes more from a "well you reap what you sow this is what you get for usurping rhaenyra" mindset rather than thinking ALL the greens are directly to blame for B&C but whatevs) People argue it was Aegon's fault, too, because he celebrated Luke's death with a feast, but that's actually a headcanon. F&B states Aegon celebrated Luke's death, but it skips over any offense it caused Rhaenyra and Daemon. It only says that after learning of Luke's DEATH (not the feast) Daemon sends a letter telling Rhaenyra Luke would be avenged. It was not the feast it was the boy's death that led to B&C.

People also have been saying B&C was necessary and it simply wasn't. Jaehaerys was entirely unrelated to any issue regarding Luke, therefore it wasn't even really avenging him. Luke wasn't actually avenged until Aemond (his killer) died. B&C was not necessary to avenge Luke—it was more of an intimidation tactic on Daemon's behalf.

As for Helaena, people are saying she should've taken her kids, flown to Dragonstone, and bent the knee as per Rhaenyra's peace terms.

That's kind of just dumb lol. Rhaenyra's terms were not individual, she wanted ALL of her siblings to go to her and bend the knee, not just one. If Helaena went to Dragonstone by herself, Aegon would still be Rhaenyra's enemy. Helaena and her children, Aegon's heirs, would become high profile hostages.

Also, Helaena is the queen of the Green Faction. She was crowned by Alicent alongside Aegon. Nothing in F&B implies she's NOT in support of Aegon. If anything, she's passive. She councils him against his stupidity, but that doesn't mean she's a secret supporter of Rhaenyra.

The Greens also happen to be her closest family. Her mom and brothers—people she grew up with. If I remember correctly, she used to visit Alicent in the Tower of the Hand with her children every night. She and Aegon shared a bed until her son was killed. She was described as a happy girl, and if she was miserable, she still clearly held love for her family.

Rhaenyra, however, is a stranger to her. Not just a stranger, but also someone that would mock her mother and her siblings at court.

She had no reason to go to Rhaenyra when the war began.

People are also quite weird about the topic of her suicide, but seeing as suicide is a real issue in a way that usurping, sending assassins after a child, and feeding a boy to a dragon are NOT I won't address that. You are weird if you be laughing about suicide tho ngl.

FINAL PSA: A lot of yall like to go "I love Helaena, she so sweet and gentle and innocent and kind and cute and she's the only green I love BUT..." Yall dont like Helaena and yall CAN admit it. She's a fictional character you dont have to pretend to like her just because you have a moral superiority complex.

[blueskittlesart]

I know you're not fond of Twilight Princess, but what would you think if they brought back worldbuilding elements from it (the Twilight world and Midna, mainly) to a newer game? I'm not familiar enough with the series to know a whole lot, but that stuff at least seems really neat to me from my secondhand knowledge, but if Twilight Princess was as bad as you say... I would love to see them revisit it somehow with the BotW/TotK continuity.

i have this. thing about twilight princess. we know this. but genuinely even looking at the lore from an objective standpoint i think trying to pull any of it into other games is a bad decision at best and actively detrimental to the new game in question at worst. there are two main reasons for this:

the first is that mainline, non-sequel zelda games have a general rule about standing alone. in order for the games to remain accessible to players of all ages and backgrounds, every original (non-sequel) zelda title has to be able to function as an introduction to the franchise, meaning any lore required to understand the story must be exposited WITHIN the story of that game. the few lore-points that HAVE been adapted from other games (sacred realm, oot ganondorf, talking sword) are generic enough that they can be explained briefly within the story without taking too much time away from the player's journey. while those of us who ARE versed in the lore might have a deeper understanding of the overarching implications of these elements, NOT understanding the history behind them isn't going to impede your understanding or enjoyment of the game. for example, this is likely the practical reason why fi was never named or appeared in botw beyond her generic sound effect and the glowing of the sword, because even players who don't KNOW fi are able to tell from context that the sword is magical and is speaking. not knowing who fi is doesn't impede your ability to understand how and why the sword is speaking, given the rest of the context of botw's story. the two elements of tp that you mentioned, the twilight realm and midna, are VERY difficult from a writer's standpoint to work into a game without requiring the player to understand the plot of twilight princess. neither element easily fits into a new cycle's story without requiring a ton of expositional explanation which will inevitably take players out of the story, and relying on convoluted lore that new players won't even be familiar with to drive your story just sets you up for failure.

the second reason is that, from a writer's standpoint, neither midna nor the twilight realm were well-written enough in TP to be compelling. lmao. If you're going to adapt world-altering lore like the twilight realm into consistent canon, you need to have a firm grasp on the implications of adapting it. even the writers of TP had no fucking clue what the twilight realm was or where it came from or how it tied into the existing world of hyrule at all. literally the first sentence on the zelda wiki for twilight realm history is "The Twilight Realm's full history is incomplete." adding something like a new dimension to your consistent canon is world-altering. when you do something like that, it HAS to be thought-out and for good reason, or you're just confusing your audience unnecessarily. IF the twilight realm was to be brought back, it would HAVE to be with explicit knowledge of of how it effects the narrative and theming of the story its being written into, something that wasn't even present in the game where it was introduced. the same goes for midna; if you bring her back, she needs a reason to be there. she needs narrative weight and thematic consistency with the entire rest of the game, things that were barely present in her original story. ripping these elements out of their own game and tossing them into another only makes them more likely to feel out-of-place and confusing to players. And to be completely honest, almost anything that writers wanted to accomplish with the twilight realm could be done just as easily utilizing the sacred realm, an element which is already in consistent canon and is much easier to write into a given story than something as mysterious and confusing as the twilight realm. with midna, almost anything that she would accomplish could be accomplished by a game-specific guide character, which is already staple of loz anyway. using a game-specific guide character would also remove any potential confusion for new players who lack the context of midna's past appearances. the only reason you might NEED midna as a character is if you ALSO have the twilight realm and specifically require a twili guide character to explain it, but. for all the reasons stated above. you shouldn't have the twilight realm. lol

[solomons-poison]

i would like you to study satan under a microscope. what are your feelings on him and his character and ect.

I love the way this is worded lol

Oh boy I have a lot of feelings about Satan. He is one of my favorite characters tbh, for many reasons, and I am so so happy for how the writing has expanded on him in Obey Me Nightbringer. My thoughts are just a ramble so it's going under the cut ✂️

(Also at the time I'm posting this, I have made it to lesson 12 so there are spoilers about that marked in red)

So Satan's already one of my favorite types, a somewhat serious-seeming scholar who is quite a goofball when you least expect it. He earns points with me for being a cat lover, and he's such a romantic on top of that. I've had so many thoughts about him writing poetry for the one he loves, maybe even as a confession.

Comparing him from present-Satan versus past-Satan is really cool to me, I really love seeing the contrast of what he was like in the beginning to how we know him now, in the original Obey Me. Like changes in personality, speech, his views on the world and the people around him, everything.

Although it is partly comedic, Satan being practically a feral child is so important to me at this point in time in Obey Me Nightbringer. Even though he has been watching everything through Lucifer's eyes since in the Celestial Realm (which I love that detail, because then we know from that that Lucifer had issues with the Celestial Realm and Father long enough to bring Satan to life), he has had no chance to socialize and be brought up normally like the others.

All he knows is the rage that was delivered unto him by Lucifer, rage against humans (or more specifically anyone harming his family) and them dealing with the Fall. Not to mention, after leaving the Celestial Realm, now they all had to deal with the racism?? Prejudice???? Idk what to call it, but the people of the Devildom refusing to accept them and disrespecting them.

On top of that, he's now tethered to these almost unknown people, people that are seemingly already a family unit and he's just. Existing somewhere alongside it?? So he's doubly misplaced, not quite having a set place or category to exist in and feeling alienated. (I can't help but laugh at Lucifer putting a curse/spell on Satan so that he couldn't just run off, but eventually ended it because Satan would just growl at him the whole time 💀)

As I'm typing this, I've made it to lesson 12. I honestly wasn't sure how Satan would feel towards finding out MC is a human, as we didn't get a clear answer compared to some of the others. But I'm glad he acknowledges that, had MC confronted him directly about it and confessed, he would have gone into a rage, and the only thing that maybe saved them was the fact that he heard it secondhand.

But after considering the facts, that MC still tried to help and protect the brothers during their time as attendant, and (of course depending on your dialogue choices) mostly treated him pretty equally to the others, he needed to rethink how he felt. Satan realizes that MC being a human isn't automatically a bad thing, and that there's more to consider than that.

It's especially very sweet to me how he says that he will dedicate his time reading to researching the curse on MC and how to lift it, when previously, he was mostly focused on things for himself, simply learning and gathering knowledge, along with the occasional mischief in how to defeat Lucifer. It's such a difference seeing everyone so serious and how their separation from the Celestial Realm really seriously affected them.

I am very glad to see Satan start to be accepted by the brothers. Honestly the whole situation is just a lot to think about, and it's understandable why both parties were so discombobulated, suddenly having this new brother to learn about while Satan is dealing with his inherited rage. It's heartwarming to see the brothers acknowledge that Satan does have a space with them. He even gets along with Luke in lesson 12, albeit briefly, but it's interesting to see him learn to interact with someone more rationally and calmly lol.

I'm OK with everyone being a little more silly in the original Obey Me, as this is thousands(?) of years after the Fall and they've had the chance to grow into their sins and powers. But it's just nice to see how this sudden change affected them, and especially Satan who was born from such a traumatic and major event.

This feels like a lot of word vomit and probably doesn't make much sense, but tl;dr, I love Satan's character and I have a lot of feelings for him. I'm very interested to see his continued development from here

[purpleturtle9000]

What's your opinion about the take that say:"all turtles in rise are mikeys and have same personalities"?also what you liked/disliked the most about they they ate written?

All turtles are Mikeys? I have no idea what that means, but hard disagree that they all have the same personalities. There's times where they're similar (they all love Jupiter Jim and Lou Jitsu movies, for example) but idk that you could live with someone your entire life and not have some things in common. Plus I think if characters are all 100% different, it would be so hard to find common ground that the plot wouldn't work.

Raph falling apart when he's alone and talking in third person, Mikey's interest in cooking and art, Leo's sense of humour and need to prove himself, Donnie's favourite music and tech knowledge - there's a lot of ways they differ from each other. They approach things differently and have interests that don't overlap! Like how Mikey is the only one to recognise Meat Sweats, and it seems like the others' knowledge of wrestling comes secondhand from Raph talking about it.

I love how autistic Donnie is in Rise, it's the thing that got me to watch it in the first place. I've always headcannoned him as autistic so it's really fantastic to see that being expanded on 'officially' and to see so many things about him that I recognise as The Tism. I also really love 'why would you guys need me if mystic powers can do everything I can do' and everything between him and Shelldon. Not to mention him and Leo putting the 'disaster' in disaster twins, and how affectionate he is with Mikey. Though I maintain it's a crime that he stopped wearing glasses as a kid cause Bayverse Donnie having glasses was my favourite part of his design (they're tortoiseshell do you get it they're tortoiseshell).

This is also the first time I've actually liked Leo? Other versions didn't really capture my interest, and I didn't really see much to him besides him being 'the leader' (though it's also been forever since I watched any of the other series so I'm probably forgetting a lot). I think not giving him the leadership role opened up a lot of avenues for development and characterisation that couldn't be there in versions where he was preoccupied with leadership. Totally normal about Mr Daddy Issues being the one most similar to Splinter. And the all the character development in the movie that blew me away. He has horrible puns, he's insecure, he's gay, he hates Jersey, he's a dad after a timeskip. What more do you need in a character, right?

Mikey's love for cooking is so near and dear to my heart. Also I really like that he's an optimistic character, and that does get him in trouble personally sometimes like in that moon truffle episode, but it doesn't screw up things for everyone else. I think the Draxum redemption thing was too rushed and made Mikey seem too innocent, but I vaguely remember seeing that a lot of content was cut from that arc? There's a couple times where he seems too careless, like yelling 'echo' in the library, but tbh it's nothing I wouldn't expect of a character his age. Also he had a hand in a lot of character changes, especially regarding Draxum and Donnie-and-Shelldon, and was the only reason the time travel and Leo's rescue happened in the movie, so like, there's a lot of power and knowledge at play there.

I love how excited Raph gets about wrestling and that bit about him mimicking the pirate accent from Jupiter Jim movies. Also him eating that salami paper is iconic, let the boy snack. Kinda wish we could've gotten more of a look at his anger issues and how that affected the team/family dynamics sometimes but I really love that it's still clear in canon that his anger doesn't make him love them any less, or make them afraid of him. It's wild that it's canon that he goes insane when he's left alone but that was never mentioned again after that one ep??? And I loathe how Raph had leadership taken away from him with a throwaway line, I'm gonna stay mad about it forever, thank you very much.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Going Postal in Soul Society

I just spent an entire hour talking a 70-year old woman through how to print/mail a newsletter, and a few weeks ago spent half an hour explaining to 19-year olds how to format a postcard, which leads me to believe that absolutely no one, no matter their generation, knows how use snail mail. But anyway, as I was staring into the middle distance on this phone call I kept myself alive by thinking about the Gotei 13′s “how the mail works” onboarding workshops, explaining how all the communications systems in Soul Society work, and what each is supposed to be being used for.

Kidou Mail: There appear to be multiple forms of kidou that can beam messages out, though not every seems to know how/have the capability to use them (if you’re really pro you can cc: ryoka!) -- but I guess these would be the equivalent of like, your national/regional emergency phone alerts. And butterflies can also do a version of this, maybe more regularly? Here’s an emergency butterfly SMS from Chapter 231:

Walking Mail: But we also know the standard for Gotei reports is handwritten paper communication. These are also notably, often not mail; they are a bunch of people walking reports to different places. (A bunch of captain/VC-level people, often, walking reports to different places, no less.) Maybe this is a chain of custody issue? 

I was going to use Episode 317 as my example, but going back it sounds like this was actually an oral report. I’m still keeping this in here because I suppose that’s another form of standard Gotei communication:

^ That’s Hitsugaya talking to Ukitake and Kyouraku at 1st, because they’re all hanging out there, and Hitsugaya has just finished giving an oral report on something it sounds like he only has... secondhand knowledge of? So I’m not sure why that would need to be in-person, and definitely seems like a “well, this could have been an email” moment, but--

Anyway, here are Hinamori AND Isane--so, TWO vice-captain-level shinigami!--personally handing out extremely non-confidential mail (notice of a VC meeting) in Episode 230:

And we know the SWA has the budget for mailers if they wanted!

Mass mail does exist, re: that Oriental Trading catalog that they have that you can buy stuff from -- it has a name! The Rengoku Shoukai catalog. Though I guess who’s to say catalog distribution isn’t handled privately by the catalog company, and there are various newsstand drop locations across the Seireitei. edit: Hisagi is to say! Apparently they just slide it into the SC, lol. You can also mail goods back to the Rengoku Shoukai is you pay the return postage, so there’s at least a mail system for goods:

(This ad also seems to insinuate that you can place orders on a website? At least an Intranet-type deal. Or via SMS/page.)

The SC also has postcards it wants people to send in, which suggests that those might be able to be mailed, though IDK MAYBE THEY WANT THEM TO BE HAND-DELIVERED. The SC claims to have a subscription service, but that might just be... Hisagi walking around? As in Chapter 230:

Not that I would reject the idea that the usual SC subs go out via mass mailing, but Hisagi cherry-picked Ukitake’s to hand-deliver, because he wanted to go on a perambulation and talk to Ukitake, rather than be sad and lonely in his stressed out, captainless Division for once. D:

There’s also Denreishinki, as mentioned re: placing Rengoku Shoukai orders, so they don’t seem to be a purely “on assignment in the Living World” thing (and they use them fairly prolifically in Soul Society in one of the light novels, right?). But again, given how much walking around happens it also seems like they mostly forget about them when in Soul Society. Or maybe the denreishinki have a garbage coverage map in Soul Society, so it is literally less frustrating to just find someone in person to talk to them.

Butterfly Mail: Mostly I think it’s amusing that using butterflies to send letters to the SC is explicitly DISallowed (at least for surveys). From Colorful Bleach pp. 46:

In my mind this rule came about for two reasons:

1) Upon arrival, the butterflies would need to be stabled somewhere before being sent back to their original locations, and the SC was just like “wtf, we need a budget line for a ROOKERY now? for food and water for these butterflies???” And it was a whole Thing, because they tried to use a portion of the 9th division butterfly enclosure but then the butterflies got territorial and then they started cross-breeding and it was a whole butterfly civil war. Also maybe like one person could tell which ones were the 9th’s butterflies and which ones were guests and it was all very frustrating.

2) The butterflies serve the primary purpose of safe interdimensional travel; the idea to use them for (“important”) messages is more of an afterthought/added bonus/questionable second act. But really, they’re intended for messages that are 140 syllables or fewer (haiku-length = best transmission quality), so a lot of the stuff the SC was getting from these appropriated butterflies was either unusable, OR the senders would compensate by sending MULTIPLE butterflies, each with a portion of the letter they wanted to send, like the equivalent of a (1/157) Tweet thread. Which only made the problems in #1 worse and was also just a nightmare for the scriveners to work through.

And that’s why the SC offices are now a strictly no-butterfly zone!

This is all to say, it seems like the mail system in Soul Society kind of sucks, and I hope that now that they are more openly trading with Urahara Shouten, Yoruichi takes it upon herself to open a Kuroneko branch in Soul Society and revolutionize their world.