#which gives me terrible lore ideas... lmao

[obeyme-lilium]

too lazy to make a fancy sounding lore post (and inspired by a RB on my lilirot blog) but like they don't use "sunrise/sunset" but instead "Moonrise/moonset" because days/nights are determined by the position of the devildom's moon in the sky. So at night it's advanced darkness pitch black with only the lights of the city streets and if you're out in the wild the natural bioluminescence of various plants and animals.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE Design Dive

Wow this has been sitting in my drafts, mostly finished for ages now. Anyways, time to release it to the wilds.

A few weeks ago I released a new game (editor's note: it has now been more than a few weeks), DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE for the Together We Go Jam over on itch. Together We Go is a design guide/SRD based on Down We Go, which itself is under the often nebulous umbrella of "OSR" gaming. In this case, it's the snappy mechanics, emphasis on anti-canon, relatively high lethality, and emphasis on the table's creativity is what puts it under that umbrella, imo. I'd consider it part of the maybe post-osr or N(ew)SR but that's a discussion for another time and for people who understand that scene better than me. I was drawn to TWG b/c it's a pretty simple framework with a cool twist on the typical OSR style of classes.

Rather than picking a class, you invest levels into multiple classes as you progress, with each class having its own set of cool abilities and more importantly, bonuses. One class might give you a bonus to hit things, another increases your defense. Stuff like that. It's pretty fun! A full breakdown on DWG/TWG could be fun sometime.

Now, time for the DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE stuff beneath the cut! It's long!

WRITING AND DESIGN

Anyway, DGMS. Originally I had the brain-blast of a title for the eventual game; Hyperpop Megastructure. Which honestly, could be very fun to revisit, but I scrapped that angle because I didn't want to do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things (editor's note; he did in fact do too much on the layout/graphic design side of things) and a hyperpop inspired game should have a wild layout. Also I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to really do it service -lmao.

I stuck with the Megastructure part for the time being and started brainstorming the potential classes (since those make the mechanical core of the game). Below are the early versions straight from my notes;

These were the initial outlines for the classes (a 4th was added later) and really set the tone for the rest of the game (and it marks the first appearance of the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE). By that point, I knew I wanted to do something inspired by BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. Its the first thing I always think of when the word "megastructure" comes up. Honestly, it's a very formative piece of sci-fi for me.

I wanted to push DGMS weirder. Just go all out on the nonsense. Together We Go games don't rely on a lot of setting exposition. The information of the world is found within the mechanics, random tables, gear, and factions that are presented.

This is what forms the central idea of an "anti-canon". You (the writer) give just enough info on the world and setting for the table to get started, but the details, the lore and truths about that world emerge at the table as the Referee/GM and players explore and interact with what is on the paper.

The FRACTALDEATHMACHINE is the biggest example of this anti-canon in practice. All the table gets is a brief description of a few general things. The FDM is hungry, it is ancient, and it is always pursuing the TOWER. A few other places in the text provide more spaces for the table to explore by prompting the players and GM to come up with "terrible truths" about the nature of the FDM.

What is this insight? Why is it considered terrible? Go find out!

For DGMS I wrote a relatively short bit relaying the premise of the game to readers; you play as POST_human remnants within the ancient megastructure the TOWER which is constantly under threat by the ravenous FRACTALDEATHMACHINE.

Side note, I absolutely went bananas with funky proper nouns and formatting. Small things like that can really help convey the tone of the game!

And that's really about it for the setting assumptions. More details are tucked into descriptions of the factions, gear, classes, and locations you get to explore, but there aren't any answers out there. Its all up to the table to find those answers for themselves! What is the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE, why is it devouring the TOWER, can you stop it? Who knows!

Go find out!

MECHANICS

The core game mechanics fit onto a single page, and aren't really changed too much from the base TWG system. In general, its a straightforward "roll over a difficulty value" using a d20.

Three of the four classes give a special bonus either to hit things, defense, or "hacking" - the undefined "magic" of the game. The fourth class, the DLVR, gets a special situational bonus that implies something about their place in the world - a special bonus against ARCHITECT relics - something which furthers the potential for the table to explore the anti-canon. What exactly is their link to the ARCHITECTS?

Outside of the core mechanics and classes, there are two major parts of the game (and two slightly more minor-ish parts). The LAYERS of the TOWER and the CTY_enclave. LAYERS are effectively unmapped "dungeons". They are dangerous sections of the world where the "outside" adventures happen.

DWG uses mapped dungeons as its, well, dungeons. I've never been hugely into running or playing through mapped dungeons (though I appreciate a well thought out dungeon!) And also I'm lazy. So unmapped it is. LAYERS are essentially a compact list of hazards, hostiles, and interesting tid-bits for the referee to use to whip up something fun and dangerous.

TWG games have a punchy, fast-paced, high-lethality action, so in DGMS, I was far more concerned with providing refs a general template and list of Interesting Things, than complex maps or complicated enemies. The ref does far more responding to player actions than they do planning out complicated encounters. It is perfectly easy, in this sort of game, to just toss something at the players and see what happens!

Couple that with mechanics such as "reaction rolls" (randomly determining how NPCs react to players) and the ref's job starts to become plugging a few random variables into a mechanical procedure, seeing what gets spit out, and then asking players what they do next, and then continuing the whole loop! I love procedural gameplay, and could, and probably will, write more on that another time.

Aside from being the places where most of the adventures happen, LAYERS are also another way to package Interesting World bits. One of my favorite parts about writing for/designing this style of game, is that you rarely need justification for putting something in. I can say that in one LAYER, players will face a "MACHINE!!GOD blastula". And that's it! Everything about the nature of that thing is going to emerge at the table, and will almost always be way cooler than whatever deep lore I could have written for it! (Now, this doesn't mean that I don't enjoy writing some Dense Exposition, but time and place and all that).

The other half to the LAYERS is the CTY_enclave; the players homebase and secondary adventure site. I whipped up a quick mapping procedure for creating your CTY_enclave, and it shifts every time the players return to it from their adventures. There are different modules within the CTY. In some you can buy stuff, others you can get information and recover health. Some hide valuable resources but also equally hidden danger.

Just like LAYERS, I wanted to embed story-potential, that delicious anti-canon, into the CTY. Little nuggets of Ideas like, Conduit Riders in the middle of a death race, machine monks transporting a metal sarcophagus (that has a small chance of containing a copy of one player!), or gaining the ability to commune with the FRACTALDEATHMACHINE itself, are breadcrumbs that could turn into larger story beats and adventures if the players and table invest their own interpretation and meaning into them!

Aside from that, the main Design Bit I did for the CTY is the mapping method. A hub location is part of the TWG vibe, but I felt that one, mapping using dice is fun, and two, a constantly, randomly shifting hub really suited the tone and setting of the game.

The last two main parts of the game are the gear and hostile lists. Again, they have surface purposes - cool stuff to Get, cool stuff to Fight (and get killed by) - but also help provide more of that anti-canon scaffolding (I am really going to need to do a whole thing on anti-canon at some point).

LAYOUT AND GRAPHIC DESIGN

And here's where my hubris caught up with me. What initially was going to be a nice, simple, streamlined layout, ended up being over the top. But it was super fun to make, so no need for me to learn any lessons here.

When designing layout, I tend to start with some cover ideas and mockups. Since BLAME! was such a large thematic inspiration, I also looked at its covers (specifically the Master Edition versions). I love the brutalist inspired graphic design, and wanted to carry that into DGMS, and then add a layer of grunge and wear and tear to it as well.

I played around a lot with masks and textures (there's literally a picture of concrete that I turned into a texture) before eventually landing on the looks you can see on the cover. Then it was also a matter of perusing fonts for text, headers, etc, etc.

For the interior, I made heavy use of Lone Archivist's Graphic Archive asset packs. They rule. Buy them here.

I made my life infinitely more difficult by making every single page different and unique, but it was also a fun art project, so I don't regret that. I didn't spend too much time on typesetting, because this was technically a game jam entry (though I did clean it up later when the game ended up getting printed).

And honestly, that takes us to the end. My process was kind of all over the place for making the final version, a lot of jumping between the text and layout. But it ended up being a very fun project with one of my favorite final results.

If you're interested in picking up the game yourself, you can snag the digital version off my itch page HERE (there's currently a handful of free community copies if you wanna try before you buy) and if you're interested in print copies, Plus One EXP has you covered over HERE.

Spencer of Gila RPGs also made a fantastic 5-minute overview of the game you can watch;

And! Tony hosted a stream that I GMed if you want to see how the game is in action;

But yeah, DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE. It's one of my favorite games I've made!

[ruthlesslistener]

Do you think, that in a world where pk did get rid of the radience in the beginning, he would've had a "normal child with his wife? And would his kingdom have an eventually downfall?

Lmao, no way. Two immortals have no need for an heir, and siring a likewise immortal child would have just been a means of creating his own downfall. We also know from his actions that when choosing between Hallownest and family, the Pale King would always choose Hallownest (and keeping control over it), so the risk just wouldn't be worth it. Even Hornet was sired for the benefit of Hallownest rather than a desire for a child, and the White Lady mentioning her fondness for her does not necessarily mean that she wanted children of her own. Fun as it is to speculate, we know nothing about the Pale King's thoughts on her creation, and him locking the Abyss/killing the weaker and impure vessels seems to imply that they were some sort of liability to him. If I had to guess, him imprinting on the Hollow Knight was something that hit him completely out of left field, and that he had no desire for an actual living child until the results of his experiments involving his genetics was staring him right in the face. And even then, he treats the information as something terrible that must be sealed away with the greatest security and punished for remembering, which gives me very strong vibes of a guy who had very little qualms about starting the vessel project bc the idea of having kids meant nothing to him up until reality came and smacked him right in the face. Like, he probably had some regret for it- WL's whole horny jail thing is also a form of punishment for what she did to her children, and she's just as cold as he was, if not moreso- but I don't think the full extent of the horrors hit him until then. And someone who wanted kids wouldn't have gone through with growing brainless bodies with their genes to begin with.

Or, well, maybe I shouldn't say 'no way'. We know from his dialogue at the Abyss lore marker that he deeply regretted what he did, we know from his workshop notes that he believed void to be a thing utterly and inherently without mind and emotion (thus making the vessel experiments ethical in theory), and that he grew to love the Hollow Knight despite genuinely believing that they were empty. And the White Lady starts off talking to Ghost with a very matter-of-fact tone about how she believes that the Hollow Knight failed because they were 'tarnished by an idea instilled', which means that she herself thought that they, as a void being, were incapable of emotion or thought, and that an outside influence must have tampered with them. It's not until Ghost- a vessel who very clearly does not give a shit about appearing empty- visits her more and does things like creating the Voidheart that she starts to soften up, and to reconsider their nature. So it may be possible that both of the gods had some vague streak of parental instincts and longings within them, but that their logical minds completely overwhelmed those desires. It would make sense, seeing as both of the Pale Gods were written to counter the Radiance, who is mostly ruled by emotion with very little logic. So while they had the ability to love their children, and they canonically have the ability to grieve/feel guilt for what they did, they still wouldn't have actually gone out and had a kid out of their own desires to begin with. That would be too much of a risk to them and Hallownest.

But yeah, Hallownest would have fallen anyways. There probably wouldn't be a dead baby pit driven by the necessity for a void-infused host body that could trap a malevolent dream deity for eternity, but it still would have had some form of a downfall eventually, be it a gory mess like in canon, or a slow fade like Unn's. Nothing ever lasts forever, not even in the realm of gods.

[sunset-mp4]

Fun Facts about the TAOAE characters;

(mostly design wise)

Lanyon has poliosis, which is why he has patches of grey in his hair . its a reference to how in the original book his hair was white.

Utterson's freckles on his left cheek (our right) are meant to look like the big dipper. It's hard to tell with his glasses covering some up most of the time though.

I wanted to give someone the bisexual color pallet... it turned out to be Jekyll.

Poole's multicolored eyes were just on a whim but I enjoy them so much.

Poole and Utterson are the only ones who's color palettes I stuck too. I have a ton of prepared color pallets laying around for typically clothing usage. and I only used them with those two. the other three I just made as I went.

Uttersons clothes that are not his usual clothes tend to look similar too lanyon or jekyll's. this is because they remind him of his friends and its a form of showing his friendship- I can't really put it into words but I hope you know what I mean.

Hyde would absolutely wear more feminine clothes if most of them weren't so "big and frilly". He likes to be able to run around and do things in his clothes and dresses don't really allow for that much. and also Jekyll protesting this idea very strongly.

Hyde was going to have lighter hair with dark at the bottom, but I changed it out.

every day I remember that "Poole" was suppose to be Pooles last name. and not his first name. and I messed up terribly. but its sort of too late. I want to eat glass.

i made the playlist for the story as I was making it up. this helped me create certain character dynamics and lore- my friends have heard it all the moment it happened TTwTT

With layon's hair, its like "okay so exactly four hair things with the fringe, and then the stripes go like this" and I'm very precise.. but then on the left side I'm like "it does this thing." and that's all- whatever isn't the hair covering side I just let it do what it wants.

Utterson and Jekyll are both hand talkers whereas lanyon doesn't tend to use his hands much for gesturing. or gestures that much at all, its all in his face.

just like in the book, Hyde just feels naturally uncanny. the sharp teeth and white pupils don't help this lmao.

thats all for now ::]

[guardianbee]

reading into the gwenverse and spider-gwen: shadow clones back-to-back was such a bad idea because now I can clearly see they keep rehashing the same shit over and over and OVER again, ideas and character beats that were already done and done BETTER in the earlier runs.

Gwen wants to be normal but she can't be normal. She and her dad fight about her being Ghost Spider. She and MJ fight about her commitment to the band. She contacts Reed about technology to advance the arc's plot. And these are literally the ONLY relationships they commit to continuing (and in terribly superficial ways) that are not 616!Peter. She hasn't interacted with Miles in any meaningful way in ages! She thought about calling Harry ONCE about 15 issues ago and hasn't thought about him since! Glory (who was actually her closest friend on The Mary Janes) hasn't spoken a word in issues, and forget Betty lmao. Her world is so empty because every writer refuses to expand it AND continues to just create alternate copies of Gwen and "develop" the relationships between them that it feels borderline masturbatory.

You can't claim that Gwen lives in this "low-super" world and then continue to put her in these very "high-super" situations, such as the debacle with the 616!Jackal, the King in Black arc, everything related to the Spider-Verse and her pretty sizeable appearances in those issues, the GWENVERSE (which had another terrible villain based on influencer culture that they gave a half-assed sympathetic backstory to, FYI), and now the Shadow Clones. Over half the time she's not even on her earth anymore! If the writers can't find a way to make earth-65 interesting because they either don't know how to deal with Gwen's public identity OR they're bad at writing any decent character introspection or building up relationships readers actually WANT to read about, then either retcon that shit or just abandon earth-65 altogether and have Gwen become a permanent transplant to 616 (not my ideal scenario but better than them pussyfooting around with cloning or multiverse hijinks while giving Gwen the same problems without resolving shit).

Spider-Gwen worked when she was grounded in HER world. When there were consequences to every act she committed as Spider-Woman. And sometimes those consequences were very steep. She went to jail! She developed feelings for her best friend and she couldn't date him because half the general public hated her! A local gang tried to kill said best friend and her bandmates while she tried to let loose for ONE fucking night! While Gwen's fate as a superhero was and is still fantastic, the problems she faced were relatable and made her endearing, problems tied to themes of responsibility, guilt, rejection, acceptance, and balance. But ever since her constant back-and-forth between earth-65 and earth-616, she's lost that relatability, and the problems she currently faces are so divorced from reality and tied up in meta-commentary that unless you're insane like me and have deep knowledge of Spider-Man lore, you're gonna be lost practically all the time. Hell, even WITH my knowledge, I'm just baffled by these creative choices! While I acknowledge that the Gwenverse and Shadow Clones arcs are committing to this idea that Gwen could have been anything on earth-616 but her death ultimately upended her possibilities, that's not the only idea worth a damn. AND (and), that idea was ALREADY done and done better in the original Spider-Gwen run, making these series feel redundant and self-indulgent.

anyway make Spider-Gwen relatable again and develop an interpersonal relationship that's not her dad, MJ, or fucking Peter Parker 2k23

[writingforfishes]

(this is woodworks lmao idk why it's not giving me the option to ask under that blog name 💔)

anyways AHHHH YOU WATCHED H//ZBIN!!!!! thoughts?????? i've had another scenario pop into my head in addition to what i've already posted but haven't had time to finalize and write out the idea yet asdfghjkl

i don't have any reqs/suggestions for that show currently but figured i'd ask this if i do later or someone else does: any further specifications/boundaries for that show and its characters if you do write anything? like the cast is all adults but ik some ppl have personal guidelines for creating fan content in terms of character pairing (e.g. nothing that goes against canon ships etc) and, for this show specifically, putting the Canon Ace™ character into situations of *gestures at the concept of kink content* this nature, so just thought it'd be good to put out there how...err...broad(?) of a range you're comfy with writing for those characters lastly (sorry for the length and terrible coherency ehe) concepts to explore that i just thought of that would probably be interesting for lore and character mechanics stuff: atticus' first realizing of their k/nk and any sort of role swapping in which atticus has a case (unless they're the type to just never get any, if so disregard the rest of this paragraph), such as atti and otto both having them at the same time, atti getting them before having told otto about the k/nk and idk trying to hide it or somethin, or after having told otto and getting teased, etc 🤷

and also can i just compliment how frickin creative and skilled you are honestly?? i wish i had a fraction of the time and energy you must be putting into all of these posts /lh

Hello, @hic-etc-kink-blog! (Hope it's okay if I tagged your blog to make up for the odd technical glitch.)

I really, really look forward to reading what your next fic is going to be! I enjoyed the last one a lot. It was so sweet and now that I know the characters I can appreciate it more.

I'll be using pseudonyms that are synonymous to the fandom and characters so I don't have to keep trying to filter them out. (Also, it's just more fun)

I really enjoyed the Redemption Inn cartoon once I got past the first episode. For some reason, the first episode just didn't grab me. But as I had very little else to do (as I was recovering from an injury at the time) I gave it another shot.

I was really surprised how much I loved the Heckin' Manager show, too! The Tragic Jester Cyborg character and his pairing with the Sexy Chicken God is by far my favorite. But Devil Agent Bad Ass Girl and Devil Agent Smart Boy are a close second.

The most popular ship and relationship with Devil Manager and Royal Feathered Sad Boy is interesting, but not something I want to explore more than to watch.

But back to the Redemption Inn!

Obviously I'm partial to Jumping Spider Dancer and Feline Wing Bartender. I would love to write anything with them! (And when I do I'll use their real names and filter them appropriately.)

The cannon sapphic relationship is adorable, of course.

At any rate, long summary short, I've been really enjoying watching the shows and the music on them! Love a musical cartoon!

any further specifications/boundaries for that show and its characters if you do write anything? like the cast is all adults but ik some ppl have personal guidelines for creating fan content in terms of character pairing (e.g. nothing that goes against canon ships etc) and, for this show specifically, putting the Canon Ace™ character into situations of *gestures at the concept of kink content* this nature, so just thought it'd be good to put out there how...err...broad(?) of a range you're comfy with writing for those characters

Ooh. Valid question that I hadn't considered!

So, Atticus is Ace, but does experience intimacy, arousal, and self-pleasure. I wanted to start with that because I think every asexual (me included) experiences asexuality differently. So, translating a cannon asexual character can be tricky. I also understand that Murderous Hart Boy has been a topic of controversy in how others represent him in fiction. So, I understand where that part of the question comes from. Instead of answering that specifically I'll just make a blanket statement of boundaries.

Character preference ships for Redemption Inn are:

Jumping Spider Dancer/Cat Wing Bartender (Have an idea for these losers.)

Happy Child of Evil/Unhappy Soldier of Good

But, also! Characters hiccuping with no relationship or sexual/arousal content are fine! Any character simply hiccuping is fine! Murderous Hart Boy can get the hiccups and it's just a hurt/comfort fiction instead of a sexy kinky one.

Only real boundary is that I will not write Abusive Moth with ANYONE. Great character design, great voice actor, but I do not wish to be in that demon's head.

I don't see any other ships to be problematic, I don't think. While I'll be up for writing arousal and self-pleasuring scenes, outright sex scenes that don't fade to black won't be something I'll do. (Likes, yes I've been pretty saucy with my Otto and Atticus fics, but sex is just not something I'm interested in writing. Cuddling and hugging and watching and helping, yes. But not sex. I dunno. I'm confused, too!)

(Though I do think the only thing that excites/arouses Murderous Hart Boy is murder and power.)

Heckin' Manager:

I think sky's the limit on this show. Though I do have a preference for current cannon ships.

Um...:scrolls up:

atticus' first realizing of their k/nk and any sort of role swapping in which atticus has a case (unless they're the type to just never get any, if so disregard the rest of this paragraph), such as atti and otto both having them at the same time, atti getting them before having told otto about the k/nk and idk trying to hide it or somethin, or after having told otto and getting teased, etc 🤷

As Atticus is extremely based on me (to an embarrassing degree), my frustrating inability to induce has been passed on to them. It is not for a lack of trying. So, if I ever DO get the hiccups successfully, I will reflect that onto Atticus and there WILL be a story about it!

I think it would be very in character if Atticus had gotten them before sharing their kink with Otto to either get rid of them quickly or try to hide them. We're both on the same page with that characterization. And I really love the thought of both of them getting them at the same time! It's so cute!

If Atticus were to get them in the most recent timeline Otto would find their hiccups adorable and coo at how cute they were. He would most definitely compare them and how they differ to his own. He would be very sensitive to Atticus' possible embarrassment and if Atty had been trying to get them up until that point, he would be supportive to being present to help them explore having the hiccups.

I also think Otto would be surprised to find himself getting just a little aroused at Atticus' hiccups. Something about the role reversal would move and excite him in some kind of way, no doubt (even if not sexually).

He would probably tease them a little bit. "Now you know how I feel!" But not too much.

and also can i just compliment how frickin creative and skilled you are honestly?? i wish i had a fraction of the time and energy you must be putting into all of these posts /lh

You're so sweet. I really appreciate you saying that. I wish I could give this much to non-kink related hobbies. That being said, I never assumed anything what I created would be marketable, necessarily, regardless of the inspiration.

The fact is, writing these silly fictions is helping me. I accept the fact that I am, for the most part, writing into a void. It takes me around 3 days - a week to get out most of these stories. This includes doing sloppy editing to make sure there are no glaring errors. I'm very fortunate to live alone and have space and time to explore my fantasies outside of work and other commitments. I don't take that for granted.

From one overly wordy person to another, I think we've created a novel in this entry. I appreciate you reaching out and sharing your feedback with me. I really do quite enjoy touching base with others who experience this odd hiccup kink phenomenon. Humanizing and connecting beyond the carnal nature of it all is always refreshing.

[adhduskull]

Bro danny phantom is so cool n stuff, infodump man!!!! Just,, yeet ur feelings about it. I love fanart n stuff of danny so gimy ur thoughts on it!!!

!!!!

Well, so first off I have a whole sideblog for it @superphlyduskull :3c if ur interested

Second this is straight up like. The most invested I've ever been in a fandom tbh, it's the first time I've posted anything and the first time I've attempted fanfiction!! (tho I haven't finished or posted anything yet) I recently thought up a headcanon that ghosts see more of the light spectrum than we do and that thats also how they become invisible, by only reflecting light humans can't see. I'd like to make a little fic abt it I think! Maybe one where a bunch of bugs follow him around bc I think it'd be cute

I think what really gets me about this fandom is the potential for worldbuilding. The show did close to fuck all in terms of exploring its own lore, but there were hints everywhere of how the world might work, and it's SO FUN to play with!! It leads to so many interpretations that are all equally plausible! Plus the huge amount of AUs inspired just by the source material... the way it lends itself to crossovers super easily as well, considering Clockwork has sent Danny into a different universe in the show (yknow, to stop the timeline where his family and friends and teacher die because he cheated on a test, eventually leading to him destroying the world...... there are some interesting morals in the show)

The angst potential is also insane, and I'm actually interacting with angst a lot more in this fandom than I usually would bc its so beautifully handled a lot of the time. Between identity reveals going wrong and the Guys in White getting a hold of him and Vlad being a shitbag to Danny being the GHOST KING

Ghost King Danny is probably one of my favorite AUs, I think partially bc its really fun to explore how insane it is for poor Danny to be saddled with this huge responsibility, and also to see how much power that gives him? Like on the one hand thats too much for a kid his age to handle and I feel like I might be projecting a bit since I was responsible for more than I would've liked from a young age, but also it reeeally spices up identity reveal scenarios and can save him too much grief in others bc depending on the take, a huge amount of the ghost zone has his back!! Like uhhh No, you are NOT going to mess with our King, [insert possible antagonist here]

It's also super fun to think of what ghost culture might be like, as well as just how ghosts work! We see glimpses in the show, but again, nothing is explored much? I love the universally accepted headcanon that ghosts have a vital organ called a core (though how it works varies greatly from person to person), and the idea that there are multiple ways a ghost forms (like from a being dying, or just forming from ectoplasm and strong emotions or big concepts, or being straight up born??). I've also seen the idea that a lot of ghosts don't really mean harm to Danny and that ghost culture is generally more violent bc they're not as squishy as humans!

Also!! There's gonna be a new graphic novel which is sick as hell! We don't know much more than that, but hopefully Nickolodeon doesn't mess too much with the creative team, because I'm really interested to see where they take it (especially since I think bitch fartman doesn't have any say in decisions? I'm not sure on that tho). Either way it's new content and I'm excited to see where the fandom goes with it too!

I have also realized the reason I don't infodump much is because I'm terrible at explaining things and trip over my words and am hard to follow lmao, particularly in person. You'd think that as an actor I'd be a little better with words but naaah lmao. I need to rehearse them for them to come out right apparently

Anyway idk how coherent that was but if u ever want to hear me ramble about dp feel free to send me more asks! Esp on my sideblog, I'm Always down down yell abt it!! Thank u for sending me that ask btw, it was really nice to do a bit of infodumping!!!💜💜💜

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. you know whats also bad about the red eyes? not only do they look awful on persephone's pink color, they're not even a unique feature? like we've seen hades' eyes go red, we've seen eros' eyes go red, and ares' eyes are ALWAYS red, so even this idea its her "unique queenly trait" doesnt even hold up?? because we've seen it on other characters before?like at least the blue glowing eyes looked unique and even gave her a possessed, otherworldly look, something with the red eyes just dont have.

2. The faces in the latest ep (not fastpass).... Ew

3. I saw someone praise lore olympus art, specifically the ones where Apollo is playing his lyre and Daphne is covering her ears while her hair is split in two (yuck! Bad decision looks awful) so we can see Apollo, the one where she transforms into her hibernation state (weird perspective, chin and neck, I think, also what the hell was that supposed to be?) and the last one before cutting to Thanatos (which, I admit looks a little better that the other but I still got distracted Apollo's arm among other things).

Now, Rachel is a professional artist like 15-25 years older than me (I dunno her age) drawing one of the most liked webtoons.

I feel like I'm nitpicking or being too harsh or crazy because I think it is a little terrible and this person thinks it's amazing and I know art is subjective and all but like the difference of opinion is jarring. I am by no means a professional and my art leaves a lot to be desired and I guess I don't have incredibly high standards (or do I? I'm second guessing). Is it really that good?

Because I know that Smythe commits more than a few anatomy atrocities. I wanted to redraw a few panels two years ago and I noticed a few things that Don't Work Like That.

4. ok but that other anon is right. we shouldnt have to go off old tumblr asks or random tweets to understand what's going on and who the characters are. rachel doesnt realize you have to actually write whats going on, not putting the readers on a scavenger hunt trying to figure out what they're even reading.

5. im honestly surprised LO hasnt ruined more mother figures at this point. maybe maia will be next and depicted as neglectful and hermes is only the way he is because hes acting out to be noticed by her, maybe dione will slut shame aphrodite, who knows, the possibilities are endless when its about ruining every mother figure to prop persephone and hera up and to avoid giving the characters actual personalities that isnt dependent on mommy/daddy issues.

6. I hate the clothing choice for Daphne in run for your life. It felt like she was drawn in a sexualized manner when she shouldn’t have been because she was running away from a r*pist. Like she almost had a nip slip, we almost got her ass, it was like Rachel was trying to fit her butt and chest in a lot of the frames like some video game with the token woman character. Like if a different dress was choosen or how she made Daphne tie the dress, I just feel like Rachel can’t draw outside of pinup sexy that well. Like sexy is fine for sexy scenes but running away from a r*pist is not sexy. (I probably sounded really lame, but the way Rachel presents the story in a feminist way but can only draw one way in not even the same style is annoying)

7. Things I think would have been better for the story instead of focusing so much on HXP

-Expanding on Minthe’s and Hades beginning of their relationship (he couldn’t of fallen for her since she didn’t laugh at him and when she yelled at him said it’s not your fault but you have the hat I think that would have added to his character more to see him more than a 40 year old who hits on barely legal)

-Leto’s kidnapping of Demeter. Both we/are close with Hera, and probably know or each other or may have been friends. Like I wanna know how Leto kidnapped her but also how are they interacting since they probably know each other and Demeter probably had Hera’s back when Hera ended their friendship.

-Ares return to Aphrodite. We don’t get to see much of her character but we know this is something she’s wanted, but they way it was handled was so flat, We assume Aphrodite told Ares that his gf slept with his father to save their son but we don’t actual read any words between the couple. And then they’re living together. I wanna see how they actually interact and stay together like their better moments. Like how well did he settle in, did they talk about how long he left for or is he mad like come on that’s something interesting but I feel like RS can’t write outside of HXP

-the deal with Echo. Why do people think Echo could possibly be Hera’s gf if she’s her assistant. Yeah they do dirty work together BUT I didn’t get a wiff or sexual tension or anything. Was it that she was there with the doctor? It just seems like Hera is that CEO trope who has the assistant always by her now.

-a little more of Pysche and Aphrodite friendship. Like Pysche says Aphrodite is lonely (and we can assume a part of that is Ares) but also because she “doesn’t have many friends” so why not a solo scene of just the two of them being actual friends. Like what did Aphrodite say when she brought back a purple nymph that was gonna help them with their work.

-Hermes not talking about Persephone. I feel like that 99% of what his character is and then just a little bit of himbo. 

-Maybe Thantos and Minthe started flirting/hooking up. We’re they friends first or flirts first? Was it after Hades and Minthe got into a fight or something else? What did Thantos like about Minthe and what does she like about him? Why did she stay with Hades with Thantos was there (it’s not like she wanted to be queen of the underworld) How did Thantoas and Thetis meet and become friends? Idk if I was seeing two guys and one of them actually liked my friend I might consider leaving Hades for him. But again hades did have the power to control everything in Minthe’s life (job, home, everything) I do like Daphne and Thantos But I feel like the transition could have been better if we knew more, but again RS can only focus on one thing and that’s HXP.

------FP Spoiler/Mention------

8. FP SPOILERS— I’m done. I’m really done. We called it. We FKN called it. They got married behind the readers back, Demeter didn’t respond to the question as she actively avoided it and time was up, Apollo is somehow involved in the trial- THIS WHOLE THING IS A MESS AND IM TIRED OF HOPING THAT IT GETS BETTER. Four FKN years of this??? I’m done with this Webtoon even though I’m FKN stuck in it. I’m so FKN done.

9. Fast Pass spoiler (kinda) OH MY GOD, I JUST REALIZED THE POMEGRANATE PIN IS JUST PASTED ON EVERY FRAME, NOT EVEN RE DRAWN FOR PERSPECTIVE, NO, JUST COPIED AND PASTED, REGARDLESS THE OUTFIT ANGLE AND LIGHTING, IT'S HILARIOUS!!!I mean, I knew the art was decaying, but this just made me laugh out loud of how bad it looked.

10. persephone’s pomegranate pin just looks like a giant fly that landed on her and won’t leave LMAO

[butwhatifidothis]

I'm not trying to police what you do. Its your damn blog, do what you want. I'm not your dad/mom/creator, I hold no power over you.

I get that the fic is garbage. But at the end of the day its FANfiction. It doesn't hold any weight. More to the point, yes you COULD ignore it. Rather easily! I didn't even know the damn fic existed before you brought it to my attention. And PLEASE tell me how Captain is a "cornerstone" outside of the fact they write a shitty fanfiction thats sort of popular among ao3 fanfic people.

More to the point...have your posts actually affected the fic outside of getting people to read it out of curiousity.

I mean not to be mean or nothin' but you literally came over to me and told me to stop reading the fic, kinda sounds like you were tryna police me lmao

But to get to your point, sure, I could ignore it, but that's not the issue. It's not "The specific words that appear in this fic are what I and others can't get away from," it's "The horrible meta commentary and character portrayals in this fic are what I and others can't get away from." This author is where Teacher Theory comes from. He's where the idea that Rhea and Dimitri are these angry crazy people who can't be reasoned with comes from. He's where the "Edelgard is a poor broken victim and everyone else is wrong" idea comes from. He's where the idea of Fodlan only gaining true peace on CF comes from. He's where the idea of Faerghus being an allegory for toxic masculinity comes from, and from that where the idea that Dimitri's arc is "really" about overcoming said toxic masculinity. These takes - that have gotten people harassed for not agreeing with, mind - and plenty of others either originate from him and this fic or are popularized by him and this fic.

And ya want me to tell ya how Cap'n's a cornerstone? Sure.

This is from a document that was made by someone who has made semi-popular meta posts, for the specific purpose of compiling meta posts for people to gain an easy "understanding" of the game. Here is this person straight up saying that yes, Cap'n is a large inspiration for how many others view Edelgard, and by proxy the other characters who interact with her as well as the story, plot, lore, and themes of 3H.

For this fic specifically, which does appear in this document:

This fanfiction is being shown off as genuine analysis while having all the shit I listed off in that other post in it. Cap'n's analysis is widely known and popular, getting hundreds of upvotes and comments agreeing with his inaccurate, shitty version of 3H and with his inaccurate and shitty takes being known across large portions of the fandom. Like I said, he of course ain't the only one, but he's a damn big influence in the 3H fandom, with his takes still being held as canon despite them being wrong as fuck.

And I dunno! Probably fuckin' not! I wasn't out here in some selfless mission trying to right Cap'n's wrongs and have him see the error of his ways or some shit, I just wanted to go over this influential fic to see how bad it is since it's impacted the fandom so much. I just ended up with shit that was way worse than I thought it'd be, hence me still criticizing it. The most I personally know that my notes have done is have me and others realize just how genuinely terrible Cap'n's takes are/fic is and how troubling it is that this has what has gotten popular in the 3H fandom. It's one to think know that this shit is bad, and another entirely to actually see just how bad it is.

Like, Rhea being creepy? Shown as the objective, unambiguous villain? Portrayed as unreasonable? That is not easily escapable - that is rampant all across 3H fanfiction as well as all over the fandom itself. You will have fics just randomly shit on Rhea for no reason, write her as this evil witch with no good in her, in fics that don't have her as an important character. You will have fanartists draw her executing poor thieves who just wanted bread, to give one well-known example of Rhea being portrayed as a purely evil asshole. The idea that Edelgard is right and that everyone should listen to her? Also in a shit ton of places. Teacher Theory? All over the damn place. This isn't just contained in one fanfic, or even just the Edelstan corner of the fandom - it's everywhere.

It's gotten to the point where a racist, imperialist conqueror who is willing to sacrifice her citizens, help spread the lie about a minority race's involvement in regicide to help her allies, and kill her classmates who have done nothing wrong, who will starve her citizens and blatantly lie to her soldiers about how bad their enemies are, topped with the cute little quirk of wanting to finish a genocide against an already endangered race... is who is widely considered not just as good as the two lords that don't do any of those things (though that too is still a very common idea), but way better, the best choice, the one good ruler. And it's in large part due to people like Cap'n who write away all of her flaws and demonize everyone else.

If this fic is going to be treated as this long-form meta post of Edelgard and 3H, then I'm going to go over it and see what all if anything is wrong with it like I would do and have done with any other meta post. That it's in fanfiction format means nothing since it's literally not being treated as fanfiction, but as a genuine analysis that people will base their interpretation of the game off of. All good if that ticks you off, but I consistently tag posts going over Cap'n specifically so that others who don't want to see it can blacklist the tag (o captain my captain) and ignore it, so if it bugs you that much, there ya go

[autisticcassandracain]

Alright finished Tom King's Mister Miracle yesterday and unpopular opinion but I fucking hate it lmao.

I'm not terribly comfortable doing an objective (or at least as objective as literary analysis can ever be) analysis of the book, so this'll be my subjective opinion. The reason I'm not comfortable doing an onjective analysis is because. Well. I honestly can barely tell wtf is going on in the book.

I am HORRIBLE at visual metaphor; written metaphor I'm able to catch just fine (at least 95% of the time) but visual metaphor has approximately a 100% chance of tripping me up. I can never tell it's a metaphor; I'll always take it as literally happening. (It's probably the autism.) This means that then they kept showing me glitch effects, I. Assumed something was actually glitching. Which, combined with the blacked out panels with just the text 'Darkseid is.' and the fact that the content in this book is so much darker than anything that's ever been done with Scott, lead me to the conclusion that nothing was real. As in, the events took place in a simulation of some kind, with the intent of either breaking Scott's will or convincing him to join Darkseid. Which. Obviously. Was WILDLY off base lmao. You can see why I don't feel qualified to actually analyse this book.

Even with my obvious inability to analyse this run objectively, I can see that a very large part of my distate for it stems from personal preference. This simply isn't the kind of story I want to read for Scott. To me, the point of Scott has always been to escape the concept of the Darkseid/New Genesis conflict. Despite verious writers' attempts to integrate him, he's always been kind of separate from the lore of the New Gods, and while I think he could be a little more connected to it, for the most part, this is simply because Scott doesn't WANT to be involved with the New Gods. Scott's stories are always about him trying to create a life on Earth away from Apokolips and New Genesis, and clinging to it as much as he can. This is a large part of what I LIKE about him! I enjoy stories of people escaping horrible situations and/or a pre-determined role to create their own life, especially if it's mundane compared to their supposed 'destined role'. It's why I dislike the endings of Mister Miracle volumes 1 & 2 as well; I think moving Scott to New Genesis because he just can't seem to live on Earth is a mistake, and essentially reads to me as Scott giving up.

So what I REALLY don't want to read is a story about Scott getting dragged into the New Genesis/Apokolips war and eventually becoming the leader of New Genesis. I have a very hard time believing Scott would ever even... do that. He's repeatedly given up his position as New Genesis' heir/ruler, and has also repeatedly avoided godhood in general. Darkseid having the complete anti-life equation is a scenario desperate enough that Scott MIGHT agree to fight for New Genesis, but that raises another problem to me.

We've seen the complete anti-life equation in action before. If Darkseid had it. There'd be no war. There would be no way to fight against him. There just wouldn't. I get that they made the anti-life equation a metaphor for trauma/hate/etc (or at least I THINK they did, again, I'm not good at analysing this book), but it's still an actual existing thing? I really don't feel like King read Orion before writing this, because this book doesn't really seem to understand how the equation works.

Anyway, you could argue the entire comic is about Scott fighting to maintain his life on Earth, which, fair enough, but even so, I simply do not want to see him be this heavily involved with the war against Apokolips, at least not in this way. It defeats the point of Scott's character to me. I do really like the idea of exploring Scott's trauma from Apokolips, which in my opinion has never been done satisfactorily, but I want him to have space to heal from it. Not be repeatedly re-traumatized. If you want a story about someone's mental health deteriorating as a result from being stuck in a perpetual war, Orion and Lightray are right there.

(Also, gonna be frank here, I do not want a story about a perpetual war written by an ex-CIA agent. It has Connotations that are hard to ignore.)

Speaking of Orion and Lightray. The one bit of objective criticism I AM comfortable laying against this book is the horrible portrayal of Orion and Lightray, but especially Orion.

Once again, CONVINCED King didn't read Orion's solo, because if he had, I doubt he would've had the nerve to call that character of his Orion. King's Orion is a bloodthirsty, underhanded, selfish egomaniac, which is a WILD misunderstanding of who Orion is. I haven't read as much of Orion as I've read of Scott, but I feel like I have a decent understanding of his character. Orion is the noble monster, NOBLE being the keyword here. He enjoys fighting, yes, and he struggles against anger and bloodthirsty impulses, but he's honorable to the bone. Honor in battle is an EXTREMELY important concept to Orion; yes, if necessary, he CAN play dirty, but he never does so unprovoked. The idea that he'd betray Scott and Barda and deliberately lead them into a trap with the intent to kill them is simply ludicrous. WHY is Granny Goodness portrayed more sympathetically than Orion??

In addition, Orion fights for peace. He genuinely just wants people to live in peace and harmony. He wouldn't needlessly slaughter 6 million of New Genesis' Bugs, then send Lightray to kill Forager for telling Scott. Even during Orion's solo, when he had a corruption arc, gained control of the complete anti-life equation, and used it to effectively become a tyrant, his goals never changed: he wanted everyone to live in peace and harmony. He wanted to protect others, and have them be happy. He doesn't fight for power; power is a tool he uses to protect others. He became the leader of Apokolips not because he craved the power, but because he wanted to make Apokolips a better place to live; he used the anti-life equation not to crown himself king of everything, but to force others to do good. He would never exhibit the tyrannical, egocentric control over New Genesis the way he does in this series. He just wouldn't.

And Lightray is portrayed as Orion's lackey, following him without question, doing his bidding without much opinions of his own, which is, again, ludicrous. Lightray has never had a problem calling Orion out when he's going too far or making the wrong choices. Lightray is an extremely moral, dutiful person, and would never allow Orion to misuse his power over New Genesis the way he does in this series. Lightray is forgiving of Orion, yes, because he loves him, but that doesn't translate to mindlessly following his orders or making excuses for inexcusable actions.

In addition. Does King know that Orion is supposed to be the frontline fighter, and Lightray the schemer? It's not that Orion can't plan or that Lightray can't do things without thinking, but their methods of fighting are very important to their characters. In this series, Orion is shown scheming much more than Lightray is, which, all things considered, is a minor problem, but it still points to a misunderstanding of the characters.

Other, shorter/more minor problems I have with the series:

Tom King's dialogue has a particular cadence to it that's impossible to ignore once you noticed it, and it drives me nuts. He writes like this. All the time. Every single piece of dialogue... is written like this. It ends up sounding. Very stilted. Especially in the... longer monologues. I hate it.

Barda feels kinda sexualized. You can tell thet were trying to disguise it behind 'realism', but she's shown naked, in her underwear, or undressing much more often than Scott.

The fact that they removed the scene where Orion drops the knife from his backstory is SO telling.

Love the part where a cashier spouts the textbook definition of utalitarianism. Like seriously?

Why would Darkseid's Omega Beams affect the anti-life equation. What.

STOP PUTTING CHRISTIAN ALLEGORIES IN SCOTT'S STORIES IF I HAVE TO SEE JESUS!SCOTT ONE MORE TIME I'LL LOOSE IT!!

But hey at least the art's good?

[pfreadsandwrites]

Prompt Idea 💡

So reader has a short life span due to their... chakra ability? (I haven’t watched Naruto so plz forgive me in advance) and they do all that they can to make Kakashi hate them but it failed miserably.

y/n: I can’t do this.

Kakashi: You can’t do what?

y/n: I try to make you hate me so when I die, you’ll forget about me.

Kakashi knew that reader wasn’t being themselves... and he’s like “I’ve known you since we were kids. I can tell you’re not being yourself. I know who you are” and stuff like that.

(honestly Naruto lore can be complex and convoluted and gives you a lot to work with so I'm sure it's totally within the realm of canon possibility that there's some terminal chakra disease lol also i'm so impressed you're out here coming up with prompts for shows you haven't even seen!! i cant even do it for shows i love most of the time)

Ohhh okay so this is an interesting idea, I take it to mean that the reader probably finds out about their condition after they're already close with Kakashi, and then acts distant after an already established relationship/friendship?

Because given Kakashi's tendency to push people away, especially throughout his childhood/teen/young adult years, it would be hard if Y/N was trying to push them away from the beginning, you know? So I see them as knowing each other and being friends and all first, but later on as adults Kakashi detects a change in Y/N. Which I think from what you said that's kind of what you were going for, that Y/N begins to act differently after finding this information out. It's interesting, because, pushing someone away because you don't want them to get hurt, or you don't want to cause them pain, is such a Kakashi thing to do. So it's interesting to think about what the reaction would be if someone treats him that way.

As for Kakashi's reaction? Well... he has a bad habit of just letting things be, to be honest. When it comes to himself and how much suffering he can put himself through, at least. He just doesn't think he deserves good things. Like, if something shitty happens to him or if someone treats him badly he might just accept it. But I do think Kakashi has a tendency that, when someone seems to dislike him or doesn't wanna be around him anymore he's just inclined to let that be and not really fight to change their mind.

However, if he suspects something's wrong, and he's smart, he probably does - then he would probably investigate further, especially if he cares about someone, rather than just taking them at face value and letting them go. He's one to step back and assess a situation rather than be really pushy from the get-go.

So his reaction would be a combination of the two - he'd give them their space and also try to get to the bottom of the situation. They'd have to be really close for Kakashi to be openly insistent that they don't pull away right from the get go. But once Kakashi does figure it out - and he's not above doing some sleuthing on his own - I think you could expect him to show up to confront Y/N about it and you would get an exchange like the one you've outlined here.

As a lil writing exercise and one of my many attempts to get over my writer's block, I'm gonna write a tiny tiny unedited drabble under the cut (another reason it's tiny is because I've been seeing other writers do lots of cool things with this prompt and I'm incapable of that at the moment lmao).

mild angst under cut (0.27k words):

Even a fool would notice.

Even a fool would have noticed the way your fingers trembled before you clenched your first, the way your eyes failed to meet his even as you narrowed them, even as your voice broke before you scathed at him.

Even the way you turned away before you had finished, just so he wouldn't notice the tears in your eyes (something that had never worked before, mind).

And Kakashi Hatake, for all the impossible, contradictory things that he was, was no fool.

So why?

Why had he just quietly agreed when you'd told him, in no uncertain terms, that you wanted nothing to do with him anymore?

Especially if he knew - and he knew, he knew better than anybody else - what an unabashedly terrible liar you were?

His voice had been gruff - like it was still thick from sleep - and resigned. You had never expected him to put up much of a fight, but you had never expected the passivity to sting this much.

You want to turn around, to meet his gaze even though it terrified you, to glean any kind of meaning or emotion in that one visible eye of his. But your doubt stopped you - wasn't this what you wanted?

What you had to do, for his sake?

So why did it matter that it seemed like this was easy for him?

Had you got it all wrong? Had you really meant so little to him that he didn't even care for an explanation?

Your doubt takes over your discipline, and you turn around, calling out for him -

Kakashi is gone.

[astroninaaa]

Another blessed day to preach for the hatred for c! Foolish so it have came to my attention that Foolish the ancient god have also committed mass murder on the occupants on one of the episode of the Tales of the SMP : The Village went mad. Also this only confirmed my suspicision and boiled my hatred more on the totem god. He's a cold handed murdered and it was canon. And they let this criminal running around freely on the land of the SMP. Oh I just hope one of the characters decided to do a Background check on Foolish to bring this criminal swiftly on the court system of Justice. But then again it was the dsmp lands so it was an useless proposed idea.

Sincerely

Moralist Anon.

k moralist anon i'm gonna have to stop you there

c!foolish was not a part of the "the village that went mad" tales episode. he wasn't there. i'm not even sure if the mass murder incident was in that village, but i might just be remembering it wrong. either way, that's not the point

that whole thing was an accident. it was "a heist gone wrong", "an easy job with a terrible ending", and it was the final straw before c!foolish swore to never use violence again and to become a pacifist. this was talked about during a quackity lore stream and during many of foolish's semi lore streams. boiling that down to "cold handed murder" is not only unfair and a disservice to his character, it's also just wrong, because it's not what happened.

on another completely unrelated note, it's naive to talk about a "court system of justice" when we've had executions and imprisonment with no trial lmaooo that shouldn't even be a point of discussion, there's no functioning law system in the smp. besides, he's not the only "murderer" running around free. c!techno is right there, as is c!punz, and c!sapnap, and c!antfrost, and many others. what's going on, do they have pretty privilege or something? come on

y'all know i'm always willing to discuss and criticize characters of the dsmp, specially since this fandom has a tendency to put some characters on pedestals and just pretend they are completely moral and have never done anything wrong. however, when you guys come to me to criticize someone, be them characters i love or characters i despise, i expect you to talk about things that actually happened and not a distorted version you came up with. there's a reason i never give my opinions about or do analysis of characters like c!eret or c!antfrost or even c!puffy - i don't think ive ever watched an entire lore stream from any of them, since our timezones don't match, and i'm not going to criticize characters i don't really know about.

there's nothing wrong with disliking a character just because. you don't need reasons to dislike a character, sometimes you just do and that's valid. but when doing analysis and criticism, you can't just say random things that didn't even happen but that match what you want to believe so you can hate a certain character and think that that's an argument.

moralist anon, you can hate c!foolish as much as you want. he used to be one of my favorites but then he did a bunch of stuff that i thought was bullshit (like betraying c!beeduo and just being a dick in general, something you haven't even mentioned, which only makes me believe you have literally Never Watched a Foolish Lore Stream Ever since that's a great point of criticism to his character) and, to be honest, i don't like him that much anymore, but if you want to actually criticize him and his morals, you should actually learn about his character.

important note: i'm not mad!!!!!! LMAO JUST TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW OKAY I'M NOT MAD IT'S ALRIGHT IT'S OKAY

[anklesalltheway]

The Gibbs Family Backstory [Draft / Version 1]

Continuation of this question about that turned into a thrown together retelling of the Gibbs family drama backstory! (mostly focusing on Charles). 

This post is sort of a thrown together duct taped info dump of me rambling about Charles plus what I sort of have so far as the Gibbs family backstory that somehow ties in: Charles’ story, Julia being the family glue, Margaret marrying Swann, and the aftermath of Joshamee becoming a pirate. 

This story is unfinished, but I think I have mostly a gist of it now so excited to finally publish something! :D

also pls I would love feedback + constructive crit. and any mention of plot holes cuz I’m dealing with those like whack-a-mole. lmao.

anyways enjoy!

tw: family drama ? 

Once upon a time in Bristol…

(continuation from the ask) In Charles & Julia's youth, they were very involved and hands-on with their children's upbringing. They didn't have a lot of money, but they had enough to support themselves between Charles' long trips at sea. Joshamee & Margaret had a very happy childhood, and the siblings were inseparable. Charles would tell them stories of nautical lore, he would teach them geography and share his personal adventures of sailing around the world, and regularly took his family out sailing.

And then the war happened the Admiralty called Charles to sea. Charles left Bristol and returned a medaled war hero. And everything changed. Dazzling in the Admiralty spotlight, his ambition only grew uncontrollably... which started to take a turn for not exactly the wiser. He started getting bigger ideas for his family's future.

===

To ramble on him a little bit on Papa Gibbs - Captain Charles Gibbs - is an interesting character. and I hope a complex character between lawful good and lawful neutral.

He's a good man, a great leader, and carried high honour and respect. He worked hard, and was proud and determined. He came from a self-made family, and was highly ambitious to attain greatness to (cue Hamilton soundtrack) blow them all away. He worked ruthlessly to rise in the Royal Navy ranks in a dog-eat-dog environment where he could only look out for himself (and those closest to him).

Perhaps what is his fatal flaw was not knowing when to stop and look at all what was achieved, and his obsession to achieve greater and greater led to tragic decisions and consequences. Later in life he makes some terrible choices and faces some tragedies when he becomes too blinded by his own growing ambitions and trying to keep said ambitions going.

Back to Charles as a father... Charles only wanted the best for his children, and to give his family the best life he could. His had his struggles with being years away at sea, and with his post-battle traumas as a soldier. But he used it to fuel his drive to achieve glory while still trying to be a good dad.

He was definitely strict on his children, and accepted nothing less than their best. His word would not be questioned, because he knew what was best for his children and would take no objections. To some extent, Margaret’s success is an example of the success of this.

===

Time later Charles learned that his son didn't want to follow the same aspiring path in the Navy (& compete with his father's ascension) and was content to sail as a Boatswain without the responsibility of a leadership position. Friction arose between them.

To the point Charles left Joshamee mostly to his own devices with his Naval career, and begun 'investing' more into his daughter (who by then was blossoming into a young lady). Her success would equally mutually benefit his own. She was to be presented in fashionable society, and as her chaperone he would find both a smart match for her, but also network for his progress.

Margaret was always her father's daughter, and his pride & joy, and she shared his ambitious streak in wanting to make her family proud. Even if it meant undergoing a transformation (down to her own speech) from years of rigorous education fit for an upper-class debutante. At the same time she was becoming an accomplished musician on the harp and harpsichord, and the opportunity to travel to London to be introduced to high society and dazzle them all with her musical performances was beyond exciting. 

But as their spotlights grew brighter, Julia & Joshamee began to obscure into their shadow. Not that they minded. The extra funds for refineries and keeping a housekeeper was lovely. They were both cheerful people who enjoyed life’s simpler gifts, Bristolian to the core, and didn’t feel as much at home with the upper crust. (Margaret took after Charles while Joshamee took after Julia.) However they would still cheer for Charles & Margaret from the background, look forward to receiving their letters, their gifts, and toast and drink to their success. 

Julia did her best to support her son on her own. It wasn’t so different when Charles would be away at sea, only this time he was in London. She would see Joshamee off to sea, using her own funds to give him additional supplies and requesting her side of the family to put in a good word for her son to crew aboard the majestic ship the HMS Dauntless, then commanded by Admiral Lawrence Norrington. 

But still she saw the chip he carried on his shoulder, his sad eyes amidst his bright smile. Joshamee - who was always inseparable with his little sister - was starting to feel a divide between them thanks to their growing class divide. For all this there was an unspoken sadness that started forming as both Julia & Joshamee were being 'left behind' simply for not as strongly desiring to keep up. 

And Margaret couldn’t see this until after it was too late.

===

Not long after, Margaret was courted & betrothed & married to Weatherby Swann, Esq. A very smart match indeed. The newlywed couple’s happiness was contagious. 

And as the Gibbs welcomed their new son-in-law and his family and eventually newborn Elizabeth, joy was restored. Thanks to Julia also insisting their family grow closer together again, like the old days. And they did.

The Gibbs household was full of celebration. 

Charles couldn’t be prouder, and took the united families sailing, for both new memories and old time’s sake. Julia loved being a grandmother, and was Margaret’s lifesaver as a new mother. Joshamee liked his brother-in-law and adored his little niece, and would tell his grandest stories at all hours to anyone who’d listen. And Margaret couldn’t be happier.

Years pass. All is well again.

===

And then, Joshamee is discovered to be affiliated with pirates in the rum running business. Betrayed by both the Navy and the Pirates. 

And threatened by the East India Trading Company to be marked a pirate, were it not for his sister’s timely intervention.

Charles was enraged. In his mind, the only way to keep scandal from unraveling was by disowning Joshamee.

The Gibbs family was now divided more than ever.

Julia came to her son’s defense. As did Margaret. But Charles would hear none of it.

He argued if any of them defend Joshamee, they would all be condemned for aiding a person convicted of piracy, or associating with a person convicted of piracy. There was no way out of it but to let the chips fall.

And yet what no one knew at the time was that Charles had also begun to secretly affiliate with pirates, only he was better able to keep that a secret to his grave.

Margaret was thrown into a difficult position where if she didn’t stand by her father’s decision, she would extend scandal to the distinguished Swann family, and worst case scenario leave her daughter Elizabeth motherless.

“Father! My husband is both a lawyer and friend of the king! Then I shall ask him to request the King’s signature for a pardon, a Letter of the Marque!!”

“And further shame both our families by siding with a pirate?! Yes, Margaret, why not, go ahead and draw even more unnecessary attention! To the king, no less! To pardon a disgrace to the admiralty!”

“He’s my brother and your son!!”

“You turn your back on your brother, or you turn your back on me, your mother, your husband and your child, your place in society I worked my lifetime to give you, and even yourself. You will be seen a pirate and a disgrace to society, no different from him. And do you know the penalty for aiding and abetting a person convicted of piracy?! The gallows. You side with your brother, your child will be motherless.”

“How dare you bring my daughter into this!”

“Make your choice Margaret. Now.”

“Mother, please!”

“Charles, Margaret. I don’t want --”

“You leave your mother out of this -- her mind has already been made!!”

“You left mother no choice in the matter, and you are doing the same to me!”

“SILENCE!!” Charles roared in rage, the fierce voice of a seasoned captain against an insubordinate, raising his trembling hand as though to strike it, before lowering it. “Enough. There will be no further discussion.” 

Margaret glares tearstained back at her father, whom she once idolized. But the damage is done. She will try to do what she can for her brother on her own. “I will never forgive you for this. You give me no choice but to turn my back on the both of you.” 

She gives her heartbroken mother a long and sorrowful look, ‘she doesn’t deserve this...’ before turning and leaving the Gibbs residence, gently slamming the door behind her.

And so Julia & Margaret were strong-armed into silence, and could only help Joshamee secretly from the sidelines. Margaret did her best to support her mother & brother from afar, and vowed to not repeat her father’s mistakes with her own family. 

But still it was a decision that haunts Margaret, and one she forever deeply regrets. She, who recalled how close she was to her brother, how could she leave him like this? She could never endanger her husband and daughter, but could she ever leave her brother behind?

When she tried to find her brother again, however, he was already gone.

After frantically searching again, Margaret stood at the furthest docks. Feeling like she could walk into the ocean if she wished. But at the same time, the docks meant she’d reached a dead end. Did he take it upon himself to leave by his own will to end their suffering? 

To this day she still checks the Fort Charles records (in addition to checking the Harbormaster’s ships logs) if any ‘Gibbs’ have visited, been arrested or face an appointment at dawn with the gallows. And regardless of the cost, she would rescue him in an instant.

Still, she hopes he’s well. She senses he’s still alive. Somewhere. Out there. Staying elusive, but not staying out of trouble. Sailing free on the seas. Smiling brightly in a tavern with a drink, and telling the grandest stories one will ever hear in their lifetime. 

How she misses him.

===

So where did that leave Charles & Julia?

Julia stood by Charles, but emotionally she distanced herself. She still loved him, but silently found it impossible to forgive his actions. What she would do to return to the past, to their happier days.

Charles was immovable. He made the decisions he thought best.

===

And then the Admiralty called Captain Charles to go to sea again.

Captain Charles achieved one of his greatest victories in a defying-all-odds battle against three enemy ships.

But the victory was short-lived. His ship the HMS La Perla (The Pearl, named after his daughter) was caught in a shipwreck. Charles cried out for Davy Jones, and bartered his 100 year service aboard the dutchman in 10 years time to save his ship. And by extent his life, his reputation, and his crew aboard it.

The deal was done. La Perla was refitted to sail again, all the crew were safe, and in 10 years time Davy Jones would have Captain Charles Gibbs to serve aboard the Flying Dutchman.

Charles returned to shore, only to learn that his wife had passed away. Had he not cheated death, perhaps he would have reunited with her.

His wife no longer in this world. His son who-knows-where. His daughter across the Atlantic Ocean living her own life.

And now Charles was the one left behind in the once-lively home.

Now in his old age, he was awarded the promotion of Rear Admiral for his bravery in the 3-against-1 victory and his rescuing La Perla. Little did anyone know what he did to rescue that ship. Little did anyone know where that would leave him now.

A scattered home. Heavy debts. Secret piracy. Trauma and losing part of his sanity. The Black Spot.

Was this where all his once-noble ambitions got him?

===

Epilogue I.

Over a decade later on his deathbed, Admiral Charles Gibbs held onto his daughter’s hand. He bestowed his entire inheritance to her. He did right with her. At least he did right by her, and his son-in-law, and his granddaughter. 

“Have you heard word from your brother?”

“Joshie?”

“I -- I tried writing to him. I heard from some -- ” pirates “friends. Of his whereabouts with a certain Captain Jack Sparrow.”

“...”

“I’m deeply sorry, Margaret.”

“-- father...?”

“Your mother was right all along. -- I should have --” he continued in a lengthy and regretful confession, of his errs, of what he wished he would have done differently, what can be done posthumously to make amends.  “... forgive me.” 

Margaret looked away, wiping away tears. Some was too late, some was what she was longing to hear. Empathetically she returned a sad smile and grasped both his hands. 

Her father looked at her with a weak grin, the flawed hero within him still glimmered brighter than his medals. But as he looked to her hand holding his that beared the Black Spot hidden behind a cloth wrap, a dreading gnawing concern came over him, as he looked up at her.

No, perhaps there were still a few secrets best to take with him to his grave.

But she could not live on without warning.

“Promise me, Margaret... When I am gone, you shall never go to sea.”

Epilogue. II.

As though witnessing her brother at the stand being tried for piracy wasn’t enough of a living nightmare, worse, that she couldn’t speak a word in his defense, else she be publicly accused of associating with a pirate… but worse than worse she could never live with herself at the mere thought of having to watch own her dearest brother face imprisonment or walk to the gallows.

In the dead of night a cloaked figure approached the lonely prison cell, key clasped in a delicate gloved hand unlocking it, “Hush! C’mon, we ‘aven’t got anoth’r moment t’ lose...” opening the cell door, the moonlight revealed Margaret’s noble face weakly smiling at him, “...Joshie.”

[like-rain-or-confetti]

Can you do a little text with your opinion about the Volturi members? What you like and dislike, they personality, they story... Would be interesting! Kissessss and have a great day! 💜

Imma have a little fun and throw the very young me into the mix to. Let's see child me vs adult me's opinions on the Volturiiii.

Fun fact: I wasn't team Volturi until I was like fifteen. Before that I was team edward... I don't want to talk about that 🤔😒

Also I'm a sucker for villains. If it isn't obvious already, I like the villains more than the heroes. (We all love a bad boy though, don't we?--- TIK TOK NOW IS NOT THE TIMEE.)

So everything i say is just my opinion and should be taken just as that.

Aro: Younger me was like "this...is a terrible person. There really is no need to expand on this." However adult me has been like "GUYS this guy is possibly the SCARIEST character. This man rips off heads AND SMILES ABOUT IT." He gives me child snatcher vibes (from the movies in particular). I thoroughly enjoy the power hungry persona. He's really fitting to be the puppeteer behind the Volturi. Even if he makes it seem it's a group effort with himself, Marcus and Caius. Realistically, Aro gets what he wants and isn't afraid to do what it takes to get it...sorry Didyme. What's even darker about it, WHICH I LOVE, is that he isn't heartless. Smeyer wrote that Aro genuinely loved his sister. It's all good to have a character that's a evil heartless monster but what's more terrifying to me is the ability for someone to do evil despite their love and emotions. It doesn't hold them back and that's what I find particularly frightening now that child me didn't comprehend. Micheal Sheen, from what I remember of his interview years ago, played on the idea that vampires of Aro's age kinda begin to lose their mind. Which, hell freaking yes. However there is one thing I hate for Aro's character that happened in the movies. Breaking dawn part 2. That fucking laugh. Don't get me wrong, hilarious. I can't not laugh but for his character I felt it was too 'hey hey I'm a crazy man hehe'. It was a but too much, even for an eccentric Aro. However, I'm not to mad at it because again, it was funny to watch. I thoroughly enjoy the ‘friendship’ Aro and Carlisle share and i love that it is ‘maintained’ throughout the books. I think it’s just a really nice detail. (I love lore. I am a sucker for it.) The one thing that didnt sit right with me is Aro marrying someone so that he wasnt the alone one whilst his co-leaders were very much in love? Was a little off for me but i suppose that just adds to the character.

Caius: child me would shrink into the seat because what did I do to this man? High key still think I wouldn't want to be Caius' child because imagine doing something wrong and you get that glare? No thank you! Scary angry man. As an adult... "He's an angry boi but...DAYUM WHY IS HE SUDDENLY SO HOT?" Just...don't get angry with me. You'll get annoying real quick and you're too pretty for that. I enjoy the taking-no-shit attitude he has but felt it could have been a little more prominent in BDP2 where Aro asks if Caius' is challenging him. I full believe Caius to an extend would be like "yes, yes I am. Don't be an idiot Aro. Use that braincell!" Which is why I adore the meme vibes I see every now and then of Caius hating Carlisle because why does Aro love that blonde so much? CAIUS HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT LOYAL-- Anyways, I can totally get why Aro wants him on his team. Caius is so angry and has so much hatred that he’s a good asset to the coven, even if not having a special ability.I do find it hard to imagine that Caius is a century older than Aro though. Although I cant picture him over forty years old lol. Although i do personally enjoy the whole Caius x Athenodora route. IT’S TRUE LOVE! Okay so maybe thats a little dramatic but its better than Aro’s lmao.

Marcus: movie Marcus is absolutely not nineteen years old and that's just a fact. If anything, he's the forty year old one lmao. Child me couldn't care about this man. He was the man who said nothing and slumped on a throne. That was Marcus. That was his character summed up. Then adult me rolled in and OMG NO DON'T DO THIS TO THIS SWEET MAN. LET HIM BE IN LOVE. As an adult i definitely became more attached. I feel like i was too young back then to get why Marcus was in the Volturi. He seemed very out of place and like a filler co-leader more than anything. However as i’ve gotten older (and written for him), I recognised that's the point. That’s Marcus’ evident grief. He isn’t there by choice and losing Didyme caused him to fall out of line with the coven. He’s lost point or purpose. Almost like its become meaningless because the love of his life was gone and he couldn't save her.So what was the aims of the Volturi to protect vampire kind when they couldn’t protect their own? He couldnt protect her. I had never heard of anything like bond identification and once i had- i was shook, like it became clear why he had been so necessary in the first place. That really is handy to understand everyones bonds in a coven, he could direct Chelsea and the two alone could destroy covens by bonds alone. Marcus makes the Volturi more realistic in a lot of ways. Like in a family, there is the happy times, goofy people like Felix, the twins representing a close bond. Afton and Chelsea, love that cant be divided. The list really goes on. Marcus represents love and heartbreak, pain, loss grief, the sad moments every family goes through. In that way he makes the coven seem less invincible, a group of people who at the end of the day, have their own weaknesses and immortality doesn’t mean a perfect existence. Especially when, in my opinion, Bella fantasized about immortality and how perfect it would be. Even after her change, she waited for her happy ending because that was somehow guaranteed in some level. Which in the end, she got but not everyone gets that happy ending we all want. I also personally think Marcus is the most feeling of the Volturi, despite being apathetic. A result of heartbreak. It’s shown he can still feel more in his own ways when he voted against Renesmee being destroyed. Furthermore, he advocated that vampire hybrids were a lot like vampires. He made that relation openly before anyone. Its almost as though losing Didyme helped him value a life?

Jane and Alec: Child me thought these two were  badass...and that still remains in my adult life. It’s always been uncomfortable to me that someone so young is so sadistic and powerful. Jane is the older twin with the ability of pain illusion...yikes. Her ability was evident in her human life along with Alec’s. His gift is sensory deprivation and these two were my favourites in the whole Saga. Still kind of are if im honest. I thoroughly enjoy the twins backstory. It has the most detail. I have a tag for the twins. Canon!twins is the tag for the twins in their book age. Unless this tag is present, the twins have been aged up :). They are very much canon but I put a bit more emphasis on tantrums. If they get angry, they both have tantrums. So whilst (unless tagged) they aren't children they can be very childish and these tantrums are pretty deadly. They’re also very possessive? I dont even know if thats the right word i’m looking for in all honesty. Lets say they get very attached if they like you. These two are probably the most secluded out of the whole Volturi.

Felix: Felix! High ranking guard due to strength and speed. I am a major supporter of Felix being a gladiator when he was human. He as a lighter grey cloak meaning he isn’t as high ranked but is so good at what he does that he’s been kept for centuries...and a lot of them. Personality? FINALLY, WE’VE GOT ONE WITH PERSONALITY!! (Im writing these out of order and i’ve just finished a chunk of Volturi members who have personalities as invisible as Afton.) Flirtatious and Light hearted, we love flirtatious and light hearted! Basically a comedian! Helllll yes, keep it going! Extremely vicious and highly aggressive? You know what? I still like it. He wouldn’t be a Volturi without a dark side. Cold blooded murderer. Yes. 10/10. Finally, someone Smeyer seems to actually care about. He flirted with Bella a couple of times in the books and i was FOR IT ALL THE WAY. I was very sad i saw none of it in the movies but im used to heartbreak by now. Im in this fandom after all. We were robbed of a lot. Strongest vampire in the world? I believe you, he’s also a hecking treeeeee. HE DO BE A TALL BOI. He actually makes Demetri look small and that’s still hilarious to me. Demetri is actually tall. However, if it isnt obvious we clearly traded backstory for personality. I cant get both smh. So...as i said before I fully believe Felix was a gladiator back in the day, hence his physique and height and excellent fighting abilities he has even as a vampire but then it kind of ends. I will say from the dawn of time, i don’t think Felix is the most academic man, just because of his era. I also think majority of the Volturi couldn’t read of write in their human lives and had to learn much older, most learning as vampires. Felix was one of these vampires, Although even now he isnt the most great at it. Then a wonderful writer known as @wallwriterstuff included it and now it’s canon in my eyes. I fully believe Felix is a slow reader and writing isn’t his strong suit either. Wallwriter also includes the possibility that Felix could be dyslexic which im all for too. For a very long time i’ve considered writing a dyslexic reader with the Volturi but have always hesitated because i don’t have it and wouldn’t want to upset someone for any misunderstandings or inaccuracies. However what i will say is that i think vampires would be the most understanding to humans with dyslexia. Learning things like that in later development or as an adult is difficult and they wouldnt think any less of you for struggling with reading, writing, numeracy- you name it. You’ll probably find they’re with you in the struggle at least half of the time. He’s also the goofball of the Volturi, even though he’s not really a goofball in our eyes, he’s the closest to a goofball out of the whole Volturi ...Emmett beats him in the Goofball wars.

Demetri: Oh yeah, it's Demetri's turn! So Demetri was previously in Amun's coven. When Chelsea gave him the old razzle dazzle...I've said Chelsea's gift so many times at this point it's getting old. I have two characters left after Demetri 😂😂 Anyway, with that Demetri was like "welp, I'm in the Volturi now." And now that they had a better tracker the previous one was kicked out. He isn’t much of a talker, polite and formal. He’s elegant (more graceful than i could ever be) and charming...yeah he is, you can say that AGAIN. He is also very calm, when next to Felix, i think everyone is calm but you know, we’ll say he’s a very calm person. I like how he was originally in the Egyptian coven with Amun. Given Amun’s goals this a pretty nice detail. NOW LETS GO TO MY VERSION. He’s very charming, calm, polite, formal and even a lil’ but quiet, i kept him pretty canon because he actually had a description to go on :))))))))))  Moving on. Demetri can be a very successful flirt when he wants to be and does have a Casanova reputation. However beyond the charming Volturi guard who has a brutal side like the rest of them, he has a chewy centre, deep down. I added that he had a child in his human life, one he doesn’t remember and very few people know about. He remembers that they died of an illness very young (around six?) but can’t remember what they look like. For that reason he doesn’t like talking about his child, he feels awful he doesn’t remember them and the loss still hits a pang in his chest. 

Heidi: Alright im ready for this one! Child me didn’t necessarily enjoy Heidi? I was rather passive about her. It was all ‘pretty vampire used for her looks’ in my eyes back then and i was never comfortable with that. I’ll get into my take on Heidi in a moment, roll on the backstory!  So Heidi knew Victoria as they used to be coven mates and we’re going to continue on as though Heidi didn’t care when she was killed? Like...its genuinely a burning question in my mind! If she didn't care, could that show the extent of Chelsea’s power in action!? (can we tell im enthusiastic about this coven yet?) It’s quite smart to have someone lure in prey. I wont lie, Heidi has quite the badass role in the coven. I wouldn't have thought about that I reckon. I’ve always thought that showed a kind of superiority. Oh you guys need to hunt your prey? pfft, ours literally comes to us. Her backstory really starts with Heidi being mistreated in her human life...a common theme Smeyer has. It can get old- i wont lie but when i give it some thought it kind of makes sense. Rosalie said it herself in eclipse, if any one of them had their happy ending, they’d be six feet under but i’d love a little bit more creativity. I could go on about how male vampires ended up being changed in comparison to female vampires but i’ll swiftly move on because that’s a whole other thing alone. Heidi was changed out of pity. (Which kinda infuriates me just to type, a pity change? Really? Really Hilda? we’ll see why it annoys me when i explain my take on Heidi.) Heidi was happy in her coven with Hilda, Victoria etc, which is hell yes. We love that. This is around the time she discovered her gift. Vampires were attracted to her and humans fell prey to her easily. Yup okay. I’ll take that. After a newborn vampire caused ‘too much attention’ Aro spared Heidi and Chelsea used her gift on Heidi. Nice, very nice aaaaand that’s where it stops and im left hanging.  Personality time with Smeyer! Lets goooo.  From what i remember and can find- she didn’t fucking have one. Apparently being pretty is enough for everyone.  Which in hindsight, fair enough on a human Bella’s perspective, its literally Heidi’s gift to lure you in no matter what. She could tell you she’s a serial killer (and technically is lmao) and is about to sell your kidneys on the black market as to which you’ll be like ‘sign me the fuck up, want my liver too? Here, let me lie on the table for you. I’m down.’ without even realising what just happened. But even beyond that...Heidi has no personality traits mentioned. In New Moon she appears to be a little flirty which im all for, why the hell not? But...thats it? Thats all I get? Then we get into fanfictions, because i read them growing up. Heidi was depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous and then it varied between manipulative or she wasnt very smart. Which i’m knocking absolutely no one for. I think you can get a badass character who is incredibly dumb. I think all characters are actually valid whether they’re a genius or flat out dumb. I love them all. However it never really sat with me. I was never quite satisfied which i was fine with until i started writing for myself. That’s when i knew i’d have to really think about what my version of Heidi would be or i’d never be happy with my work. That and you also begin to fill in the blanks? The more you write the more you flesh out a character for yourself and so that rolls into my version of Heidi! So for my Heidi, she often gets the same trope of ‘she’s pretty and rich, those types of girls have easy lives who always had everything given to them.’ Then when it’s discovered she didn’t have a good human life. It turns to the next assumption of ‘oh she’s pretty and stupid enough to be used and manipulated’. In a lot of ways, that’s what Heidi wants everyone to think. Underestimate her, please, its all the easier to manipulate you if you do.  She’s actually very smart and her rough human life made her more tough and intelligent. She’s very manipulative and yes she’s very flirty. You can look but you cant touch! She enjoys the attention her beauty gets her but if only these people would care more about what she’s like as a person. She’s not a barbie doll she will play you if she needs to. The only one who’s actually gotten far enough to sleep with Heidi is Demetri and even then the two don’t see each other romantically. They’re good friends who thinks the other is very attractive but that's where it ends. They’re basically friends with benefits some times lmao. However, Demetri got that far because he see’s the intellect Heidi actually has and acknowledges it. He thinks shes a queen who should be treated as such. She could take anything she wanted, a storm that people can only hope to survive in one piece.  Secretly she enjoys a family setting. Whilst she never really wanted children (especially when she was expected to when human), she couldn't help but melt inside seeing little human children with their loving parents. She wants that for all children. Whether that's because she lacked such affection growing up, no one knows. She’s also a really good friend, you bet she’ll have your back. Crappy ex? Well we’ll show them, wont we (Y/N)? She’ll be a bitch and enjoy every second of it. She also loves the single life, believe it or not, you’ll have more difficulty getting Heidi to settle down than you would Demetri which speaks volumes.  So yeah, move past her gift and really get to know her and you might have a very good friend.  I also don’t see Heidi having a preference between male or females and that’s in all honesty. Times have changed and if she is attracted to another female then she wont be ashamed of it. She never has been (Demetri was the first to figure that out, Felix may be the last.) Even when the times weren’t approving of different sexualities, she didn't care. She will flirt with you and find it ridiculously cute if you get flustered.

Sulpicia: Sulpicia was an orphan which i used to develop my own version of her. Sulpicia grew to love Aro which im on the fence about but yup, i’ll take it. You’ll see what happens with my version in a bit lmao. and that’s where it stops. I get no personality again but do you know what we do in this fandom? We create one and fill in the blanks baby! So i write Sulpicia very materialistic and vain, she’s most snobbish of the wives and due to the other two, also considered the meaner one. She didnt have such things as a child being an orphan so when she got the opportunity to have it-she jumped. She isnt easily impressed and married Aro not for love but for immortality, money and status. (He’s only married you for your money, princess Jasmine! HE ONLY MARRIED YOU FOR YOUR MONEY! Damn it tik tok, but make it princess Aro) Which works well, because Aro doesnt necessarily love her either, he just wanted a mate so he wasnt the odd one out.He literally created her because he was like “Yup, you’ll do.” The two recognised they made a great team and image so they kinda grew to love each other? A little bit? Sure we’ll say its love...sorta. ANYWAY, It’s a highlight to Sulpicia being locked in that tower where she doesnt need to see Aro every little moment, it’s better than having a husband who she’d need to see everyday. ...Yeah my Sulpicia is something else lmao.

Athenodora:  Athenodora is one of the oldest vampires in existence which kinda has me shook but I'll take it. She met Caius when he was fleeing from the Romanians, the two travelled together until they met Aro. Whilst on their nomadic travels they seemingly became mates. That's all we know about that. As to which the Volturi coven was made. Athenodora is completely loyal to Caius as well as highly dependent on him and I think that's very realistic given her circumstances. That's where their story ends...maybe for Smeyer but not for me! 😁 So I picture Caius and Athenodora being different sides of the same coin. Athenodora really mellows Caius, she is no where near is violent and sadistic as he is but due to her unwavering loyalty and dependency, she doesn't feel inclination to go against him...also because of Chelsea and Corin but I've said that so many times in this post I think we get the point. I think she's actually more gentle and soft spoken but that being said. She is very reserved and if she were to be angered she'd very much change. She could cut you down with words alone. Caius loves it. However beyond this is someone who is very maternal. Caius would appreciate it more if the two had children but instead it has created empathy. Caius doesn't want that when he can rip their head off. She struggles a little more with the 'no second chances' and that's another reason why Caius keeps her locked away and away from it. These two love each other more than words can describe. After being through so much with someone, the love can only grow. The two would happily risk their life for the other. Caius is saddened that he could never give her the family she wanted. He knows that to this day, Athenodora tries to reign in that side of her. He's a very supportive husband who's very different around his wife. He's much more tolerant, and angry. Simply more at ease. If anything happened to Athenodora, to put it simply...there would be hell to pay.

Didyme: Married to Marcus and Aro’s biological sister. Cute, me likely, keepy going. Her gift was happiness induction. VERY ADORABLE- Dont be as menacing as your brother...please. She was born several years after Aro and was changed by Aro ten and a half years after he was turned. (Dont tease me with all this lore Smeyer, I know what you’re gonna do) Aro was deeply disappointed her gift was just to make people happy- its okay Didyme, we love you. Aro is just...Aro. Her gift made many fall in love with her and its so freaking cute i CANT- but she only felt the same feelings for Marcus. MY HEART IS SO WARMMMM. Unfortunately they were so happy together that they lost interest in anything Volturi and were ready to leave. (Uh oh.) Aro, being the sneaky fellow he is, was like “I’m really happy for y’all of course you can leave. I love you my babies. My best friend and my sisterrrrrrr, I am the captain of this SHIP.” but was actually like “wait, no, no, no, not my Marcus. D-D-Did-Didyme I NEED him.” Think Sid the Sloth from ice age in the first movie when Sid really wants the baby. So this man is like...gonna have to do it to em and murder. He killed Didyme secretly (dunno how he pulled the secret part off- like i know how he did it but how did no one hear or see anything or even suspect anything IT WAS LITERAL FRIENDLY FIRE but we love the drama so continue.) Ironically enough she was very close with Aro and the two actually did love each other, Aro is just...murderous apparently, to the extent that even his sister isnt safe. And that’s it. That’s Didyme. Which im like...alright Smeyer i see you. I like this and expanded on this with my Didyme.  i get the vibes that Didyme is the most innocent and kind of all the Volturi. Losing her meant losing the consciousness within the Volturi making them all the more ruthless because there was no one to say. “Guys, maybe lets rethink this? and quickly because i cant get Caius to put down the torch thats currently on fire.” Losing Didyme made Marcus mostly become passive and would rarely stop anything that happened. I often wonder if that provoked a lot of guilt for Marcus later on. (However thats a spoiler for something im currently writing...;) ) I also think of her as a major daydreamer and the most soft, gentle person anyone will ever meet. Like its difficult not to like her despite being in the Volturi, even the Romanians would have struggled if they met her. So in the long run...i hate nothing about Didyme, only find more and more love lmao.

Corin: So im going to be honest and tell you i have no idea what Corin would look like. I’ve got nothing and when i was younger i wasnt even sure if Corin was male or female. Like a lot of these names, i had never heard of the name ‘Corin’. I dont write for her as of yet because im still trying to figure her out. I think she’s quite quiet, she lets her gift do most of the work for her in keeping the wives, Chelsea and Caius when he doesnt get to go on a rampage, content. She was brought in also after Didyme died but Marcus refused her gift.That’s all i’ve got for her. Her gift is amazing, pretty underrated in my personal opinion since like Chelsea, she really helps keep the Volturi unified but other than that, I dont have much to say about her. :(

Afton:  Another character i basically filled the blanks in for myself. So what we’re told is that he’s Chelsea’s mate and has the ability to disappear . Whilst thats a pretty cool trick...the volturi dont necessarily need it but they have to keep Chelsea happy and she demands that Afton stays so welcome to the family Afton! I also recently learned that if you hide behind Afton and he goes invisible infront of an opponent, you too will also be invisible. I figure that is until the opponent moves and basically changes their perspective but i could be wrong with that last part. That’s all we get so time for my unnecessary input!  SO AFTON IS A TOTAL SWEETHEART. He’s very shy but polite. This is a complete opposite to his mate Chelsea. It’s actually what she liked about him. At first is was just be flirtatious to the shy vampire but when she actually got to know him... she fell hard. It was also Chelsea who had made the first move since Afton was so shy. Of course she’d never say so and Afton would never want to embarrass her so that was never really disclosed to anyone who wasn’t around at that time. She brings Afton out of his shell a lot and it wasn’t long before the two were mates. Chelsea is the light of his life. Hands down. He puts up with a lot for her and is happy to do so. She could ask anything of him and he’d do it and she doesn’t even need to use her gift. He buys are anything she wants almost instantly. He cant help but adore her passionate personality, like how hooked she can get on era’s such as the 1920′s, her love for jazz music and her ability to gush on and on about anything. The two had what the other lacked and that made them an excellent team. I love their relationship. I cant help it. However, as i said before Afton is very shy and tends to keep to himself. Sadly that, paired with Chelsea’s demand to keep him in the Volturi has left Afton a little bit outcasted. All the other permanent guards were wanted and considered important whilst Afton...not so much. Although that isn’t to say the other guards are mean to him or anything. They aren’t! (Except the twins who are...the twins.) Felix and Demetri tried to include him a lot but it was very difficult to break him out of his shell. That doesn’t mean to say they wont invite Afton when he’s around. Chelsea always appreciates their efforts. Afton is notably good friends with Santiago, who often preferred solitude as well. 

(Guard to the left is who I imagine Afton is)

Chelsea: So supposedly Chelsea’s original name is Charmion? When i was younger i didnt really care much about her. I only really knew her gift and that she was the reason Afton was kept in the Volturi, since they were mates. From what im aware Chelsea basically wasnt in the movies/not identified. There wasnt much said about her in the books either. So since then i’ve kind of developed my own persona of Chelsea that could be completely inaccurate to canon but canon was my foundations with characters like these. She was always a red head in my eyes with ringlets, a copper kind of red head. I also pictured her to be small. However the newest addition to her character would have to be the mid-Atlantic accent. I blame Poppy Hill for this one. That character screamed Chelsea to me. She was very close to how i imagine Chelsea to be. So now Chelsea has an accent that i have no clue how she managed to maintain being in Italy so long and being born in Greece. LMAO. We’ll say she was very attached to that time. However, I think the time she joined the Volturi was actually very good for the story. She first came around just after Marcus had lost Didyme and Aro had her use her ability to keep Marcus in the coven. it’s really cool how she could really make or break the coven. Although, Aro was smart enough to not fully rely on her, using Corin’s ability on Chelsea to make sure she’d be happy and stay within the Volturi. Thats where the information on Chelsea really ends Over the years Chelsea has appeared in my writing and so beyond this point, Chelsea’s character is only my depiction.  I figure Chelsea is a talker, like she can talk her way in and out of situations with ease. She enjoys being manipulated and even more so, being needed.Much like her gift, she gets under people’s skin- not in terms that she’s annoying but more so she can figure out people very well. Her mate is the complete opposite and so she often speaks on the behalf of them. Chelsea is very social and charismatic. She along with Heidi are the only two Volturi members who will be out and interacting with humans if necessary. Heidi for her ability but Chelsea purely for her social skills. She’s also the most interested in human culture. She loves the parties- the 1920′s being her favourite era in terms of fashion. She has no issue changing her name and has done so multiple times when the names run out of fashion.It’s like playing dress up! I’d actually love to write more about her. I’ve really grown to love her character, even if i filled in some blanks for myself. I think she and Afton’s relationship is one of the best, up there with Carlisle and Esme- despite the two being very different. It’s a part of their dynamic!

(I always imagined Chelsea to be a red head but Poppy Hill from THOHH is a very close depiction to Chelsea in my eyes)

Renata: A stressed little bean that lives on stress. I remember thinking when i was younger she was the big threat since she was Aro’s shield but now that im older i see...a stressed little five foot bean. I have no idea what she looks like but always imagine her dark hair tied in a tight bun, looking almost painful. Another who wears heels, like Heidi but she is very rigid just as she has been described. Her uncle is a bit of an ass considering he begged her to go with the Volturi so there wouldn’t be a threat. Dude, can you not just...hand over your niece? At least hesitate! Just like that, thanks to Chelsea, she’d give her life to protect Aro and...I have nothing else. Yes it does drive me mad that there are two named guards i know next to nothing about.

Santiago:So what’s known about Santiago is that he doesn’t actually have an ability. He’s just very good at battle techniques and fighting which is why he’s kept around. If they need fighters, they’re top three are Felix, Demetri and Santiago...in that order. Santiago is also much faster than a regular vampire (as shown in breaking dawn part 2- he caught up to Jacob and Renesmee quite fast despite the two having a running start and wolves supposedly being very fast- much like a vampire) That’s all we know of him so then i got in there and this is how I write Santiago. I gave him the background of coming from a superstitious family. Like he would be told tales of demons and witches growing up as well as things like voodoo. He knew an awful lot of urban legends and whilst he stopped believing in the bad luck his family taught him, he still held interest and couldn’t help the instinct of unease when witnessing such things as rituals. It’s ironic really. However Santiago always deems that humans have it all wrong. These forces are beyond human understanding and shouldn’t be played with. In that way, perhaps Santiago still has some belief in things such as superstition. He’s very secretive about it and would never clarify it for you. Santiago keeps to himself and can be quite standoffish. He can also be blunt even if it’s insulting- he doesn’t tend to care. Although he and Afton became quite good friends since the Afton was an outcast and Santiago didn’t enjoy large groups, or most people in general.

[transsexualhamlet]

tg anime vs manga *sighs*

i have the power of hyperfixation and anime on my side! AAAAAAAA

Ok now that we’ve gotten the sins of re post out of the way we need to discuss this. And I just feel that this needs to be covered because I can’t ever get away from constant discourse on this, mostly fueled by manga readers who feel entitled to always think they’re superior for reading the manga, that the manga is the only real canon, that it’s more complex or better, I’m so fucking tired of it. I am also a manga reader, and I tend to get like that sometimes too with many series (for example no. 6 and the promised neverland.) I get it. It can be really annoying to see something butchered on screen to what the original is, changed or represented differently or given a different message or simplified. But just. Some people like the anime and it’s not a goddamn holy war for y’all to fight. It only makes anime fans not want to read the thing even more yknow cause manga readers are pretentious assholes, and I am aware of this as one of them.

(again ok i’d like to mention i know this fandom is basically dead but a certain p*nterest is always like 4 years behind on fandoms so i keep fucking running into Discourse that’s like, still current, whenever i want old random ass content) (and youtube, why do i look at youtube comments, because I personally enjoy being offended? yeah probably)

And that brings me to the point of this anime vs manga. 

This is a lot harder to compare than a lot of other series, because there are just... so many more differences not just in the style and vibe but the story itself.

Disclaimer, I’ve never watched the anime for :re and i don’t intend to, because I honestly have no earthly clue how tf you can get from the highly diverged tokyo ghoul root A to re and make it make sense, and I don’t really want A ruined for me. So you can call me biased towards the manga in the case of re, i guess (which makes my eventual conclusion even more strong I’d say) Honestly I just see them as two completely different stories, the manga’s version connecting with re and A just like... ending there. So how we’re drawing the lines is basically tokyo ghoul A versus the manga and :re. God, I know this isn’t a fair fight because I already hate re so much, but I feel like the manga’s story is much more intertwined with :re than the anime’s is, so that’s what we’re going with.

oh god also another disclaimer this opinion is coming from the biggest fucking kanehide whore, you can disregard anything i say if you ship The Straights and/or do not care for my boi hide

To be honest, if I can take my own conclusions and liberties to the story, I like both versions, each have their pros and cons and kind of a conflicting message. They can’t really coexist. Usually I’d consume all versions and then create one consistent canon in my head for what I accept as the true events (for example my main owari no seraph, first season of the anime is canon but after that we only follow the manga since those can come together and make sense.) but it’s very hard to do that in tokyo ghoul, since I must confess... I really like root A. Like of course, it’s a lot different from the manga, but tbh I think it’s super valid. (unlike most Fans TM like this Fan TM who i’m sending this post to just to spite their singular Youtube Comment Section Discourse, yes I did write this post for you and many others like you) But the ideas that make up root A conflict a lot with the ones of the manga, so I just have to accept that they’re separate things and treat them as such.

Now to break it down so people can understand where I’m coming from I guess? God this is already so long here’s a read more

The Case for The Manga (including :re manga)

More Lore + Plot Shit: One of the main reasons that manga readers are pretentious little bitches is a valid reason, namely that, as is the case with most manga, there’s simply more to it than people can fit into an anime. (Although people need to understand that’s because,,, it’s simply a different medium, so it will have different pluses and minuses, such as for example a soundtrack, color, moving pictures,,, you know, all that. Anime onlys don’t say that the anime is better by stating these things that a manga won’t have... because they’re fucking obvious. So manga readers should stop acting like an anime is inherently sub-par for being less in depth, but we digress.) I can understand that reading the manga is kind of important for wanting to understand the lore (though there are like so many other reasons ppl might want to watch it other than to get the lore) and without the explanation of how all this came to be and how it works, everything tends to be really mysterious, confusing, and seemingly random. It’s really nice to know what’s all going on, of course, and stuff like the washuus, rize’s backstory, the explanation for like, kaneki in general, all that- if you’re looking for like, plot shit, manga is definitely your go to. But like, sometimes, you like, don’t actually care about those things.

Haise: Of course one of the most important things about well, including re is that I fucking love Haise. Like he is my favorite Kaneki. He’s just so wonderful, look at him in he glasses and he floofy hair and he striped pants and he energy boxers and he s p i c e and he MOM. And I really like how they took Kaneki’s character and developed it more with Haise, you can see his turnaround from innocent--> Emo--> Trying To Be Innocent Again But Failing and I think that’s really sweet tbh. I rejected that at first because I didn’t understand it but once I actually read re I thought it made a lot of sense and was a logical thing to do with his character. (though, uh, moving forward, after his hair changes again i disagree with it, haise 1.0 is a good take and i love him and i want the best for him) I could go on I’ve already written a post of what I think is wrong with :re so if you want to hear my take on kaneki’s 37 pokemon evolutions that’s in there

Good New Characters: And of course there are my favorite bitches such as quinx squad, oh my god, there was a terminal lack of dumbass squad vibes in the original and ishida fucking gave it to us, I love them, I love them with all my heart and I think that if I wasn’t attached to them I’d probably just cancel all of :re but like this is just my personal problem. God I love them. Ishida always pulls through with characters I’m now too attached to.

Vore Lmao:Ok like hear me out. I just get a laugh out of it every time the manga has to remind me of this little fucking fact. Like ok I just. Cannot get over it. It’s so serious about it too and like I realize it’s a serious deal but o h  m y  g o d

Ok and now that we’ve got that little rant over I do want to say that it is like actually really important past the “lmao that’s pretty gay” bit, like??? In some ways it’s more fitting than the anime because well, ishida’s point always seems to be “what would mentally and physically hurt kaneki the most right now” and does it because that’s who this bitch is. But it just?? Kind of makes a bit more sense for the storyline if we’re being picky here, it’s so,,, painfully on point? Like the entire reason he gave in to Being A Ghoul and all was so he could save his friends and shit (i actually do not remember if this was a thing in the manga but like? when he was being tortured and he like imagined hide being really mad at him and getting killed by jason and shit?) LIKE AND THEN HE GOES AND HAS TO BASICALLY BE THE PERPETRATOR OF THAT HIMSELF, FUCK, it’s a lose/lose situation of “don’t do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer” or “do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer but like, later” ishida please

The meaning of Hide being alive: Ok this is just me crying over chapter 75 still but like. Instead of in the anime, where hide’s point seems to be that instead of letting kaneki sacrifice anything more he’d be the one to give his life up and such, and save kaneki, in the anime tbh he just really wanted to be with kaneki right then?? and like ouch but understanding that in the manga he wasn’t just planning on dying and leaving kaneki to deal with it afterward he wanted to go on and continue to try to help the guy no matter the shit he had to go through, no matter if the dude just like forgot that he existed for two years and all- LIKE UH CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HIDE DOESN’T EVEN EXPECT ANY APOLOGY? like kaneki’s like “OH MY GOD I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON” and hide’s like lmao nah it’s cool i’m thriving- that his big motto was “live” rather than “peace out motherfuckers it’s been fun”. Cause. Fucking. Ishida. Can’t kill off characters well but like at least he made keeping this one alive justified. 

The D e t a i l s: Ok well I feel like this is something everyone knows but the anime is missing a lot of really,,, crunchy details that the manga throws in there, like, well, kaneki’s fucking,,, bones thing, and other assorted details, g o d like those are missable if you want to never understand half the memes but also like,,, sometimes you just gotta read that shit. It also like, makes more sense when you do but sometimes it’s just stupid things that aren’t important but are fucking hilarious.

The Flavor: In general I’d say the greatest difference between the anime and the manga is the general flavor of the thing, the vibe in the manga is a lot, to be frank, darker and grosser and bloodier than the anime, which is a lot more focused on being pretty and Tragic than “HOLY SHIT WTF” but like. That’s valid. With that comes it being a lot more, real, and although the art may not be as polished as the anime’s, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and the really gritty sketchy shit that’s in the manga sometimes is exactly what it’s supposed to be for the manga. (in the anime, i’d say that the colored and polished style fits it better, so we’re good there.) It’s a lot more real, in the manga, when the anime hesitates to “go there” a lot (and well, sometimes that’s welcome, but sometimes it’s like y o u  g u y s  c o m e  o n  r e a l l y maybe i DID want to see that did you ever think of that)

So like, to sum it up i’d just like to say it’s more detailed, sharper and darker and is simply So Much. There is just More Content

The Case for Root A

ON THE OTHER HAND, (buckle up fuckers)

Depth of Emotion (that Ishida was too much of a pissbaby for): God like you know what I mean if you read the last post, we spent a whole episode on these gay fucks in root A, with backstory and dreams and drawn out suspense and emotion and GUYS LOOK AT THEM NO REALLY OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS whereas hide’s limelight in the manga is a whole... two pages, oh whoopee, and that’s mostly due to the fact of ishida putting himself in a spot of “oh fuck goddamn if i drew that in i’d get flagged for gay porn” but that’s his own fault, so he downplays the whole scene and really keeps it in the dark, whereas in this anime it’s understandably a lot less,,, like that, but how it plays out here is simply... really nice and makes you cry and shit, whereas in the manga I’d go “oh god oh damn oh fuck” *laughs my ass off because i really can’t take this seriously*. You get just... more here.

To elaborate on this, in the anime, as a gay fucking bastard, I can get practically an endless amount of content from episode twelve, and endlessly stew over all Those Things about it, every hard hitting line, the expressions, the music making it even sadder, the ways the VAs say the words, the cinematic beauty of the blood dripping on the floor and like how it’s supposed to make you think it’s kaneki’s, GOD I COULD FUCKING GO ON, but if we want to get that in the manga... 

we get three incredibly basic lines, a blackout, and then a “QUICK LET’S MOVE ON TO SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAHA”

So if we want to have more, we need to write it. (sadly) None of it is ever played out canonically so like,,, all we can do is infer and make shit up. It’s like, I am a writer so like that’s my whole job but I really would rather have more content, and have the content that’s there get to be emotional instead of *blank face* “this is plot that is happening, sadly” but like maybe it’s just bc i’m gay

Really Fucking Beautiful (aesthetically as well as story-wise): This kind of just goes hand in hand with the depth of emotion bit, and I think it can’t really compared to the manga here because I’m gay so I see pretty colors and cry so the anime is understandably appealing for me, but I’m also talking emotionally, yeah. There’s a lot of plotlines and implications of the story that are really well played out, I always love to watch the original because it does a very good job handling a lot of the harder topics and stuff that makes the whole thing worthwhile- like the whole point you’re supposed to see that the ghouls and humans are both just as monstrous when you break it down, that there are good and bad people on both sides, everyone just wants to live and feel good in their own life and perspective, everyone has reasons that justify their behaviour in their mind, sometimes you just can’t win no matter what, all that... they’re all really important messages and make the whole story, and they were handled much more delicately and with more expertise in the anime. 

It’s hard to pin down, but I feel like the manga was just based more on Fight Scenes Characters OoH Fake Science and kind of just gave kaneki infinite power ups after Trying Harder no offense, obviously those things were there and they were still very good in the manga it’s just sometimes they were cheapened a lot by ishida really not keeping track of what he’s trying to say with his story and sacrificing it a lot for “BUT WHAT IF KANEKI’S HAIR AND IDEALS CHANGED AGAIN” instead of making it a whole cohesive work. (and yes, I am VERY aware of your “well aCtuAlLy the hair represents his sanity” thing i know i know and i’m about to rip it to fucking shreds so)

Understandable Character Development And Staying True To It: Which brings me to this point, character development. This was another thing that was just... handled with more expertise in the anime, whoever was in charge of it. Mostly this has to do with Kaneki, since like, no offense but he’s the only one who ever gets much character development other than like, juuzou (asmr you only get character development if your hair color changes) oh and i guess there’s tsukiyama but he’s someone who shouldn’t have gotten character development. Touka gets character development only before re for some reason, and like tbh that’s kind of it. I do think Juuzou’s character development was valid, because well... it made sense? I complained about it before because I was like “well he just turns into spicy L” but i’ve since changed my opinion, he’s best boy. But Kaneki? They went way overboard with him in the manga, and generally? Calm tf down ishida.

Breaking it down, one of the main things that most of the tried and true manga stans seem to hate about the anime the most is Kaneki going over to Aogiri in root A. Since they’re much more acclimated to the manga, they don’t understand why he would do that (quoting a particular ‘probably made sense in the manga!’ yes i know that whole thing was poking fun at the show and i felt it lmao) and they just pin it to “ahaha he has now become Edgy for the fans ehehe time to make fun of him” and TO BE FAIR YOU’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I love to make fun of Kaneki when he does his edgy bitch thing because that’s what he is. A basic edgy bitch who is just,,, such a main character. But like. He does actually have his reasons despite popular opinion and to be honest I think they’re a bit more valid than in the manga, where he’s just like “well I’ve been tortured, that was not pleasant and i kinda did a bad thing, let’s go back to anteiku but i’m just gonna Try Harder To Fight this time”. I can understand that, but like, it seems like in the manga every Character Development of kaneki is some form of “i will now be stronger” except for the singular “I will now be a different person” which, well, we’ll get to that. 

In the anime though, even if it seems like more of a basic edgy bitch move, it’s like?? It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest more than the manga does? Obviously he doesn’t wanna be best bros with Aogiri, he realizes they’re all bad people who have done really terrible things, but the fact is he now sees himself as the same thing, he now understands their motives because in his mind he is also now Bad TM. His whole character development of being tortured was that peace wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t live being a pacifist and the world was forcing him to give the “i am the only one that understands! we need to stop fighting!” bullshit up because there was no way to achieve it. He realized if he kept himself the way he was more people he loved would be hurt like they already had because he couldn’t, so he doesn’t just Decide To Become Stronger, he gives up his humanity. And that includes basically letting himself defend his own actions and try to do “the right thing”. 

Him then joining aogiri makes sense because well. They’re the people who are the strongest, who have the power, who are the same as he sees himself. He still wants to protect the people he loves, he just also realizes he can’t do it by working with them since he now understands that their more peaceful ways will by definition get them fucking killed. His understanding is flawed, of course. He’s not really right. But this is his understanding and from that it makes perfect sense for him to join up with aogiri and try to still do as much as possible from that standpoint, realizing that most likely the people he’s trying to protect will hate him for it. I think that makes sense to me, what do you not understand about it? (I also understand that may make some people mad because he’d Doing Bad Things but I point to you he’s so soft, remember when he was really nice to naki when he was literally the one who killed the guy naki was crying about? remember when he was doing a raid and he saw that guy hiding and he never mentioned it? remember like the seventy times he Cried TM, yeah he’s problematic obviously but if you want problematic I’ll point you to a certain fucking black reaper. Shironeki has nothing on that asshole.)

I think what Kaneki did in the manga was fine, but in general the anime (again) had more depth of understanding and emotion versus a steady Try Harder Get Stronger shonen deal, which, well, fair, but like, nah. Continuing why I think the anime dealt it better is the ending of A, which was a lot more well rounded then *kaneki gets stabbed and then there’s a lot of random plot shit going on in the background*. Here Kaneki then got to round out the end of his character development by realizing slowly through the second half of this season, him becoming a kakuja and then basically deciding like, not to

((kakuja kaneki was dealt with again different in the anime and manga because he basically stopped trying to use it in the anime bc he realized it was a bad fucking idea but this goes along with the ‘his character development of “i’m gonna do bad things for good reasons” --> “actually no wait that was a bad idea” was actually done in root A instead of being dragged out into :re and it’s appropriate for its own medium and the messages it’s trying to get across so manga loyalists hate it’ but we digress))

So in root A we got to see him actually develop and realize himself through the second half of the season starting with cochlea, his interactions with Amon, and ultimately through Hide, that he’d been doing the wrong thing by becoming more monstrous/fighting harder because what he did was ended up forgetting the most important thing, *smiles in gay* HIDE.(well, his humanity. yeah. i cite the terrible opening for root A with the fun ‘the hands taking off kaneki’s mask are hide’s’ bit.) He then remembered again why he wanted so bad to stop the war between humans and ghouls, he wanted to be able to live in peace and not have to be a monster- something that was not dealt with in the manga (though for understandable reasons of We Need To Fuck With Him In Re More, they then didn’t deliver on creating something like that later so I take this.)

That’s most of the difference between the original manga and anime, but I’d also like to discuss (briefly, I’ve already yelled about them) the ridiculous amount of hurdles ishida went through to fuck with kaneki in the manga, Of course there is the fact that well, the slower transition of his character does make some more sense for the manga because if you take :re into consideration, his eight billion character changes are more tolerable when they haven’t like, already happened before in the manga (just the anime). It makes more sense there for Haise to be tormented by past kaneki telling him He’s Too Weak because in the manga he hasn’t already had that development prior to “dying”, and he lost his memories still believing he had to be strong even if he did bad things, whereas in the anime it doesn’t track because at the end like i just said he kind of gives up his ghoulhood on purpose because he realizes that joining aogiri and fighting and shit was really wrong because, hide. So I can see why those character decisions were not made in the original when planning for :re, but... the fact remains that those previous decisions do not make up for how absolutely weak :re’s game ended up being with kaneki. 

So tldr this entire section, All the manga’s defense of how they handled Kaneki’s development is basically void because all those choices were buildup for development in :re which ishida then COMPLETELY fell down on. So the alternative is better.

And now comes my yelling about how exactly Ishida fucked it up: hair colors and kaneki’s 80 kanekis. If black is supposed to represent sane and white is supposed to represent insane or, whatever, i dunno, who tf thought black reaper kaneki was sane? Who tf would think kaneki in the end isn’t? I haven’t looked into this really, and I’d really love it if someone explained it to me the way ishida was going for bc I do not understand it. Like that tracks with Juuzou, and with Kaneki up to Haise Original, but they don’t really make a cohesive sense seeing as after Haise’s hair color changed again that whole deal kind of goes to shit. Not to mention... I just... they completely failed to make those character changes actually part of the story, I’m mostly complaining about black reaper haise, none of him makes any sense. What’s his deal? He wants to protect who he loves? Tracks with the ghouls but fun fact he abandoned his kids? He actually cared for them? What then, he wants to be the strongest as possible? Sure but then?? Why?? I don’t understand his motives at all.

We also didn’t get to see him get his memories back either, which I was actually very much looking forward to, it just,,, like all of a sudden he’s talking with eto about yoshimura and i’m like bruh when tf did that happen? It’s bad, and although chapter 74-76 is super valid, and his change back into white hair kaneki makes sense, I also have the complaint about how haise basically disappeared just like he was worried he would. I think that was bad and I’ve said that already, it doesn’t make sense, he just literally throws those entire two years away to go back to the way he was before he was with the CCG and just forgets everything he’s wanted for the last few years? Fiction logic test fucking failed, and you’ve also broken my heart. Love Haise. You got rid of him. I love kaneki too but like. Why don’t they just. Like. Merge. He is one whole complex person, not one and an imposter, god. 

This is a big negative for re and the manga, so automatically a positive for root A where I simply Do Not Have To Deal With That Bullshit and the character development actually makes sense. I can understand the decisions in the original manga could have set up for good development in :re, but they completely failed to deliver.

root a didn’t fast forward to re at the end god damn let us process this shit first before you try to connect it to something else: The thing with this point is that it’s really difficult to separate the original manga from the continuing story in :re because the thing intertwines so much and immediately moves us forward with a ton of plot points for the next part of the story before we’re done with this climax and the end of this story. Sometimes that’s ok and I can see doing that from an author’s perspective because you want people to continue reading your story instead of taking that as the end but it’s really annoying on a reader’s end, because I’m picky and I want to be able to just be able to enjoy my original canon without it like, metaphorically touching :re on a plate. It’s something that I don’t even do with my own longer stories, like for example I have like a trilogy of >100k fics that like, well i’m technically not done with them but like. 

People really like the first one because it’s more focused on a more popular ship and basic elements people like about the thing, and then by the second book it moves on to talk more about the plot and lore and brings in more secondary characters. And so I knew that a lot of the readers of the first one wouldn’t want to have to deal with a lot of the “oh well stuff is happening elsewhere that will effect stuff later!!!” random plot shit that none of my readers actually cared about. So I kept it to wrapping up the points of the first book and then leaving the introduction of new characters and plot for the people who actually wanted to read it. Ishida didn’t do that, and of course it’s within his right to like?? Want to promote the next series but I’d have enjoyed it more if we ended it at kaneki’s “death” and wrapping up the deals with the rest of the characters instead of quickly shoving in the beginning of seventy more plotlines before the book ends. Like honey I simply do not have the reading comprehension for that. In the anime we get something that... makes sense.

In the anime, however, it’s quite the opposite, for example the reveals like Eto=owl=takatsuki sen were pushed before that and they saved episode twelve for, well, the end bit. Like what was actually the ending. There were detriments to this I had to say (LIKE GUYS I GET IT HE’S CARRYING HIDE HE’S CARRYING HIM I GET IT YOU’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR HALF THE EPISODE NOW OK I UNDERSTAND CAN WE MOVE ON) But like, I prefer the concept of a simple idea with as much emotion squeezed out of it as possible to a ton of confusing and contradicting ideas that are touched on for a second before moving on. So the *cries for half an hour* ending was much more appealing to me, and I can keep that separate in my head from any of the ideas that :re creates, letting me pretend it doesnt exist and imagine that’s the end and there’s nothing else to worry about. If we want to move forward and hear more, then we can, but it isn’t necessary like it is with the manga.

No Bad Takes that are hard to pry apart from good plot and characters:This is basically the downsides of the new characters, which is well, if I had to make a whole ~keep reading~ post about how problematic everything in re was that does have to count as a downside. I love the new characters, but they also come intertwined with a thousand really bad takes on like, everything, and of course I can ignore it and just act as though they were written in like, to be perfectly honest, a non transphobic way, it’s a real downside when the original anime was pretty pain-free in the way of their takes on their characters. They fucked everyone up in re and I will not elaborate, we’ve talked about this, it’s just the anime, and which i mean season 1 and root A, don’t really have any bad takes I need to try to get rid of, it’s surprisingly something I have little complaint about at all and I ALWAYS have complaints.

Hide!!!!: Obviously, you can tell that a lot of my opinions are going to be hide based because he’s the only thing I ever think about. But we have to take into account just how... hide???? This goes a lot into the depth of emotion bit but it also offers the other side of the argument for Hide’s part in the :re manga, which well. Was mostly chapter 75 if we’re going to be perfectly honest here. He doesn’t get any other limelight. Even in the chapter where Kaneki meets him again he gets a whole what, three pages? In the manga, he has an extremely valid deal about basically, living, keeping going no matter what, and that is a fitting part for the manga, considering the rest of the points there ride more on Keep Fighting instead of Think About Your Emotions And Morals, but honestly chapter 75 was really valid. So why do I still think the anime’s version where he like (ok I don’t know about the re anime we’ve discussed this, i don’t even know how they choose to explain that) he like, dies in kaneki’s arms is better overall? Again, I would have totally accepted that deal if it was made a part of the story because it made me cry, it was super valid, and if they’d continued in that way I would have agreed with it completely over that. But the fact is again that they failed to deliver, and Hide got largely ignored, suffered so much with so little outcome. There was so much buildup and it was incredibly valid, but when the time came for them to meet again and basically show... why it was important that Hide lived in the end? 

They didn’t. They straight up didn’t. Kaneki’s like “oh sorry bro... glad you’re alive and all...” *goes off and fights* and like? Honestly? @everlastingspiral is right, if that’s all they’re gonna do with him what’s the point of keeping him alive? I love every single panel of him and I wouldn’t have read re if he didn’t, but hide gets absolutely NO payoff. For letting kaneki literally vore his entire mouth off, leaving him disfigured and unable to talk, then kind of disappearing for two years and doing seemingly nothing but trying to help kaneki even though he’d forgotten the guy existed, risks his life like a thousand fucking times, eventually gets back to him and the dude’s running a fucking anti-human organization, helps him like Not Be A Volitile Pile Of Flesh Anymore and then what should have been a very important moment of them meeting again gets completely overshadowed by touka and random plot shit and more fights and they barely interact, they don’t even hug or anything, they barely talk, and at the end hide is still there but to be honest he’s gotten absolutely no thanks for all he did and ishida acts at the end as though he’s done very well with hide and gives him a tiny bit at the end throwing in a tragic backstory for fun (which hot take he really didn’t fucking need on top of it all) and... there’s no real hint that Kaneki is better off with Hide there, even though there should be. In 75, in his dream, kaneki is sobbing and crying and all like i’m so lonely without you but when they actually meet each other again? “yo” “hey” “uh sorry about,,, the thing,,, you know” “nah man it’s ok” “let me talk about myself for a bit” “yes you always do do you want to hear what I’ve been up to” “not really” “that’s fine i’m only here to support you”

...So you can understand why I’ve gone a bit sour on that. If that’s all you’re going to give him? Hot take? Let him die. Hide deserves better. (and i will deliver that in writing, but for the purposes of canon.)

In the anime, however (not counting re again... although he still gets the short end of the stick just in the original manga too compared to the anime) he’s properly dealt with! he gets his proper limelight and he gets acknowledged for what he’s done thusfar in the story, which is already so much. Kaneki then realizes that, but it’s already too late (or it isn’t, and they like negotiate with the ccg and then they get to live happily ever after) either way he gets appreciated and he gets hurt, but it’s properly acknowledged. And after all that, after saving kaneki and getting him to the cafe and doing it all while bleeding the fuck out, he gets to spend that time with kaneki and die in kaneki’s arms. And frankly? That’s all I think he’s ever needed. It’s really poetic and pretty and brings kaneki’s character around full circle, and even if it’s overly sappy, cliche, drawn out... he gets the attention he’s due and he gets a fucking break. He wanted to show Kaneki he wanted to do something for him and save him instead of the other way around, but then HE GOT ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THAT, instead of just well, tirelessly working towards it forever and having to be content to be a background character with practically no value to Kaneki anymore.

Keeps The Same Vibe: The big thing about this is that with the manga and with re, shit just goes all over the place, and I feel like I’ve amply showed that already through this essay or whatever this is. Again about the consistency and the professionalism, It’s a concise story that makes more sense than the manga while also being simply neater and more deep, making sure all the points, themes and messages work together and make sense to create a cohesive deal even if it’s not as long. (the manga is like ishida had a TON of good ideas for an essay but then fleshed out the thing ten minutes before deadline and managed to completely lose what his original thesis was even if the thing was 10 pages long.) Basically. yeah. That kind of sums it up, my last point concerns the ending.

Not Cheap Ending: If you want to hear my take about how absolutely terrible re’s ending was, check out my The Many Sins Of Tokyo Ghoul :Re post, and we’ve discussed how the original’s manga ending was bad and well not really an ending, it just leaves you unfulfilled and takes you into “well I guess I have to start a whole nother sequel series ig...” but root A like? Actually ends it? If a reader didn’t know that there was any content after that, they could pretty much infer that hide’s death or almost death whatever you inferred out of that ending (again we’re ignoring re) allowed Kaneki to finish his character development and realize they needed to stop the war, which basically tracks with what’s going on in everyone else’s perspective- eto’s problem with the world because of what happened with everything, is basically like, all of aogiri, juuzou and shinohara, amon and akira and kaneki and they can realize all they have to do is just sit down and fucking stop it because none of them want to be fighting, hide is the catalyst for that because the CCG can see how Kaneki cares for him? And it’s so open ended that you could just like literally believe that and there’d be no way for that canon to tell you otherwise, or you could go onto re and whatever if you wanted to. I think that’s the best thing. 

In conclusion, both have valid points, and in general I’d say that the manga goes better with :re and the anime is better as a stand alone but if I had to choose overall, this particular anime is better (taking into account only seasons 1 and 2), for mostly the reasons of favoring a simpler story taken with much more care and depth versus a more complex story with many, MANY imperfect elements, and I am aware I will get shot on sight for this opinion. So sue me.

[tomonari-nue]

Y U K I for the fic asks :)

IS THIS A HIDDEN MESSAGE??

Y: A character you want to protect.

I’m sure everybody on this bloody blog knows this but [yells into a megaphone] ITADORI YUUJI, MY BABY BOY, I’LL COME SAVE YOU!

Yuuji is just such an incredibly pleasant and heartfelt protagonist, I typically don’t like/am indifferent to many shonen protags, but Yuuji is a wonderful character. He’s so genuine in what he does and what he believes in, but he’s also incredibly human and I thank Gege daily for creating such a good character. Also, I just like characters with pink hair. PEAK CHARACTER DESIGN!

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

Christ, there are a few! I’m very partial to Junpei & Yuuji, Nobara & Maki, Gojo & Geto – I think it would be fun to write for them, but also I know my brain likes to have a single laser-focus on one thing only, so let’s see if I can actually bring myself to write something for them, lmao.

If we’re speaking platonically, I had this insane idea of making Yuuji and Mai friends KJDJFK– I don’t know, it would be cute, since Yuuji probably gives off similar vibes to Todo, just. A lot more subdued.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

My new current ficlet – Itafushikugi, but Megumi had to execute Yuuji, and then him and Nobara cursed Yuuji as a way to bring him back because they can’t stand the thought of living a long life without him.

The others were personal ones with my two JJK OCs, Kiba and Airi; Kiba has an extensive background involving Gojo’s backstory and I got the terrible idea of a potential ending for her, in which she ultimately dies at the hand of someone she adores. Airi is technically already dead, but the circumstances of her death is what made it a punch to the gut. Kiyoko still yells at me for it, she keeps threatening me with adoption papers.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I love writing OC ficlets. I have dozens of them, all involving either Kiba or Airi. I should be working of my WIP List of JJK fics but no, I have to write whatever new AU came to my mind with my OCs. I just think they’re neat! All of it is literally self-indulgent, I don’t bother posting them because they are just stuffed full with OC lore lmao.