#which holy shit holy SHIT you guys /pos

[vellichorom]

EVEN IF I CAN’T RESPOND TO YOU ALL, I’LL TRY MY BEST TO REBLOG & SEE ALL OF YOUR ADDITIONS!

[accirax]

Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 13 Dissection

Jesus CHRIST, the hits keep on coming (/pos). I don't think anyone could have predicted everything that came to light in this episode. But, hey, at least we're finally cooking on the murder method a bit more...?

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time though Chapter 2 Episode 13! Also, CW: discussions of suicide.

Similarly to last time, I tried not to look at too many other people's major reactions/theories as to not influence my opinions as they were when I watched the episode. (Although I think I failed to do that more than last week...) Here's what this episode got me thinking about!

Genocide Jack, Junko, Mukuro, Peko, and Korekiyo:

On that note, though, this is... debatably relevant lore about Hope's Peak as it exists in DRDT? We know from Chapter 2 Episode 2 that Veronika (and likely all of the non-Terukos as well) don't remember Trigger Happy Havoc, and, based on this, it's likely that they don't remember much of the history of the old HPA either. Ace being so adamant that HPA wouldn't scout a murderer implies that the new HPA has fully regained its spotless reputation, potentially even more than the Tokyo school ever had.

I want you all to know that I tried to write out a little theory about whether or not Levi could have killed any plot-relevant characters here, but I came to a dead end at every venture. Levi killed Mai? No, he has no motive, and the murder happened before everyone attended Hope's Peak. Levi killed Elliot? No, Ellie was probably killed by dogs, and the timing is all wrong. Levi killed someone at the North C and Chariton incident? That didn't even happen. I was just getting that confused with my theories about what Xander might have done at that incident in FF's DRDT Milgram AU. Not even what actually happened in the AU. Just my theories on what might happen.

The only option I couldn't fully rule out was the idea that Levi killed some of the ~5 missing members of the altDRDT cast, but, holy shit, can you imagine how funny that would be? Teacher and the gang get to the sixth Class Trial and ask all dramatically, "so, what happened to the rest of our class that didn't make it to the killing game...?" and Monowhatever is just like "actually, Levi Fontana just straight up merced those dudes years ago." Hilarious.

Anyways. That goes to show that I do think these were just random guys, and the only specific relevance they would have is in the realm of Levi's backstory specifically.

RIP to the "Levi used to be an assassin" theory. I actually kinda liked that one myself.

(Also, hijacking this image to point out the background music here. You hear the ticking clock motif? Very suspicious indeed...)

Yup, even more confirmation that HPA highly valued having an incredibly pure and righteous image. Of course this HPA was also corrupt. Is it even possible to make an HPA without some level of corruption?

(Levi. My guy. I need you to use a different sprite; the quadruple image combo is starting to look ridiculous.)

What I find really interesting here is that, even in the realm of forgetting about murders, Levi remembers the three random guys before his father. Like, I know that Levi says that he kinda equally doesn't care about everyone (and I believe him to be telling the truth on that), but you would think that, just by virtue of having spent more time with his dad or the people around him's reactions, Levi would have remembered killing his father before offing three random thugs.

I don't know if this is meant to A) really drive the point home that Levi sees no difference between those he "knows" and those he doesn't; B) imply that Levi might have sustained some greater amount of trauma from killing his father that caused him to block that memory out more; C) suggest that killing the guys was more recent than killing his dad, which might lead him to remember it with more clarity; or D) some combination of the former three. However, I think it's an interesting detail to note.

The foils are foiling........

This was hilarious. And lowkey evidence that Nico was the one who tried to kill Ace.

You know, I actually almost made a theory once that the clauses "you're a murderer" and "you have no remorse" could be read as two separate secret statements! Not to say that Levi didn't have no remorse for the killing part, but that having no remorse was a state of being not solely tied to the murdering.

Alsoooo... just gonna say, Levi on Drawing Pins is looking better and better all the time...

Eden: But you're a good person. Why are you saying these things when it's clearly not true? You're so kind to everyone. You're always helping others out, even when it'd be easier not to. Like that time Ace almost died. You kept trying to help him, even if he always pushed you away. Isn't that what "a good person" does?

WE ARE BACK AT IT AGAIN!!! "GOOD PERSON" SPECIFICALLY IN THE LEVI/EDEN CONTEXT AAAAAAAAA

Beyond the further "good person" jumpscare, I found this line interesting due to how Eden describes Ace. Someone who "always pushed [Levi] away." Sounds a lot like Arei, huh? In fact, a lot of it sounds like Eden is applying it to herself.

"But I'm a good person. Why am I thinking these things when it's clearly not true? I'm so kind to everyone. I'm always helping others out, even when it'd be easier not to. Like that time Arei yelled at me. I kept trying to help her, even if she always pushed me away. Isn't that what "a good person" does?"

Obviously, I'm reading into this in the "Eden is the blackened" context, but I think that it's still an interesting read of Eden's mental state even if she isn't the blackened. We know that, to some extent, Eden blames herself for both Min and Arei's deaths. Therefore, despite likely feeling like she's fucked up, she wants to cling onto the idea that she's a good person so she doesn't lose faith in herself.

That leads into some super interesting parallels when it comes to this speech versus what Arei said, but I'll talk about that more once we get to the Arei monologue.

This week, acevi shippers take the L. Really, Levi x anyone shippers, but I think acevi shippers got the worst of it.

Except, they also took the W. "Ace lowkey confirms he once had feelings for Levi" was NOT on my bingo card. Or Star's.

(Also I LOVE this new sprite)

I saw some people talking about Ace's friend (Taylor?) but I do not remember and cannot find any information about this character (so I can't even tell if they're just fanmade :( ). If anyone knows what I'm talking about and has a link, please send it to me. Anyways, "insult to his memory" definitely makes it sound like Ace's friend is dead. I wonder if the way in which he died has anything to do with Ace's fear of horses/cowardice in general.

I want to see more Levi and Veronika interactions so bad. It's no surprise that Veronika was the first to pick up what Levi was putting down. Both of them don't have the "normal" way of processing their feelings and interacting with others, but while Levi has decided to try to be what society deems as "good" anyways, Veronika has decided to fully live by her own creed. I wonder if Levi could be at all convinced by Veronika to go back to his old ways.

Veronika: You're always guessing as to what a normal human would do in your situation. You're so awkward in social settings because you can't tell what other people want.

I'm excited to see Levi and Nico interact too, obviously. I suppose Nico is kinda like the midpoint of Veronika and Levi-- doesn't understand people and wants the world to work the way they perceive it, but also has been bullied enough to feel forced to play along with how others want them to be. Characters like these have become some of my favorite archetypes to discuss. I'm so glad that DRDT has so many of them!!!

The foils are foiling AGAIN...

Why the fuck are you so pressed about the secrets now??? I thought you were all about privacy?????

Well, thank you for "confirming" that swap, ladies! This talk of a pact is very interesting, though. I guess Hu must have gone to Veronika pretty early to ensure that her secret wouldn't get out-- makes sense, as without that there's a good chance Hu could believe that Veronika would reveal her secret at the most unflattering time to create drama.

It does slightly recontextualize Veronika's "A little mystery makes this Trial more exciting, don't you think?", though. I wonder if that was just straight up a lie, or if that was the rationale Hu used to appeal to Veronika. I doubt we'll get a flashback of this scene now that this moment's passed, but I'd love to see it. FTEs...? 👀

David you have to stop this right now or you're going to become my new favorite character. Dude's been dying to don the mantle of the comic relief character, apparently.

Is The Motive Scoreboard Accurate?

I'm including this because I've seen some other people say that it is, specifically on Teruko's front. I strongly believe that this motive board is incorrect, and Teruko and Xander's secrets are swapped.

The blaming yourself secret mentions parentS and siblingS. Back in Chapter 1 Episode 4, Teruko says that she never knew her parents (and therefore may even just be assuming that she has two), and she only had one biological brother. Furthermore, she has no idea if they're dead or not. On the parents front, she could assume that being sent to an orphanage is confirmation enough that her parents are dead instead of just not wanting her. Being sent there with her older biological brother is a further implication of that.

However, Teruko specifically says that her brother "left with some other family." She makes no mention of believing he's dead at all. Therefore, for Teruko to have the secret she claims to have, Teruko would have to be constantly mourning parents and an additional sibling that she never knew, and to believe that all of them are dead despite having no reason to believe that her known brother died.

Obviously, all of these things were said aloud to Charles and Whit, so there is a possibility that Teruko lied about or concealed parts of her past to keep her walls up around those two. However, what does this face from David mean if not "I've caught you in my trap?"

(DRDT sprites are SO GOOD--)

To me, this sprite clearly indicates that David knows that Teruko is lying about something, but has chosen not to bring it up to save it for later purposes. I don't know if he has something specific in mind or just wants to hold the potential blackmail over her head, but I strongly suspect that we'll come back to this someday-- either in later daily life or a post-Trial scene in this chapter.

It's also interesting to note that, while David knows that this is Teruko's for sure, Charles and Whit also have the opportunity to recognize the discrepancy. I definitely wouldn't be surprised if Charles kept notes about what he knows about everyone somewhere. We'll have to see if either of them ask her about it down the road as well.

Eden: I know that she's dead!! I know that she's dead and that she's never coming back. I know that I'll never be able to talk to her ever again. But even then... I have to know that when she was alive, she was still trying to become a good person. That if she lived, then maybe there'd be a world in which we would both be friends. If you really say that you lied about making Arei kill herself, then tell me the truth. Tell me that you didn't make her lose hope. Please! Tell me what happened last night between you and Arei!

Oh boy.

Can Eden Still Be the Culprit?

Look. I understand if you look at this and believe that Eden couldn't possibly be the culprit-- or at least, not without being a completely different character than we know her to be. Because I almost did. Zel's performance did a really good job of selling Eden's heartbreak in a way that makes it feel like she couldn't have possibly been the one to end Arei's life. However, upon further review, I do think that Eden's words could be that of the killer, with minimal levels of intentional manipulation thrown in.

If it would cause you emotional distress to listen to me continue to accuse Eden, I'll write the rest of this section in purple so that you can skip it if you'd like. I don't want to make anyone sad, so I fully understand if you want to avoid these bad vibes. However, for those of you who are still on the fence, and those who have stuck with Eden!culprit all along, here's my justification. I think it'll be easiest to break it down block by block.

Eden: I know that she's dead!!

Okay, well, maybe skipping this section a bit. More points for Arei truly being the one who's dead, I guess?

Eden: I know that she's dead and that she's never coming back. I know that I'll never be able to talk to her ever again.

Alright, so, this can fairly easily be read as the same thing as what Eden was doing back when she was talking to Levi: reassuring herself.

Well, maybe "reassuring" is the wrong word. Basically, she's repeating the same mantra that she told herself when she was trying to justify her decision to kill Arei. When making the decision to kill anyone, the killer (if they care) has to process that they will have to kill every other person in the game if they want to escape for themselves. Therefore, if Eden is the killer, she already had to grapple with the fact that she can't turn back time. ("You can't go back, no matter how hard you try.")

I think that Eden might have it in her head that, even if it wouldn't fully erase her wrongdoings, as long as she doesn't just forgive and forget the whole affair, it makes things slightly better. That's why she was yelling things like "You forgot about all the things you did just because you didn't face any consequences for them? That's incredibly selfish!" at Levi.

Feeling bad about things is her punishment to make sure that Arei is never fully forgotten. She knows that, if she goes through with killing, she'll never be able to talk with any of these people again. However, if there's something more important to her than these 13 lives that she has to escape the killing game to reach, it's a consequence she'll have to accept. She knows it's selfish-- but she at least won't be so selfish as to also forget everyone else's sacrifice.

Eden: But even then... I have to know that when she was alive, she was still trying to become a good person. That if she lived, then maybe there'd be a world in which we would both be friends.

This is probably the part that feels the most damning. Why would Eden care about whether or not Arei was trying to become a good person if Eden is the one who killed her? Wouldn't it be better for Eden if she wasn't?

Well, that's what Eden is trying to figure out, too. In Venus' Narrative Defense of Eden Culprit Theory, Venus says that Eden didn't believe that Arei actually changed and wanted to be her friend. And, it really makes complete sense if she didn't-- Eden had no idea that David and Teruko continued to talk so seriously with Arei after her departure, and Arei saving Eden from Arturo literally happened the same day that Arei had her breakdown. It had probably been, like, 4 hours since Arei chewed her out for her worldview being stupid, and then Arei's suddenly turning around and declaring that she wants to protect Eden at all costs. Of course Eden might just believe that Arei was setting her up for a fall! (Murder pun not intended.)

Venus also adds that, at this point in the Trial, David knew something that Eden didn't: namely, that Arei actually wanted to change, and saw Eden as her inspiration for doing so. Under the assumption that that revelation has been bothering Eden the whole time, it makes perfect sense that Eden would want to know more about what David knew about Arei. She needs to know exactly how terrible she needs to feel for doing this terrible thing.

I think the quote becomes a lot less defendable if you just swap out the "that" for an "if."

"But even then... I have to know if when she was alive, she was still trying to become a good person. That if she lived, then maybe there'd be a world in which we would both be friends."

Now, obviously, you could say that this is an unfair point-- Eden didn't say "if," she said, "that"! How can you excuse Eden based off of evidence that isn't actually real?

My point is that, even if DRDTdev didn't have Eden phrase it that way, it would be an incredibly easy swap to make. Thus, the only way in which Eden would have to be lying is to swap out one word. With that one word, "if," we see how she's still doubting whether Arei really was trying to be a good person, and can read into why she's bringing that up at this time. To disguise it, all Eden has to do is trade "if" for "that"-- she doesn't have to be some masterful lying manipulator to pull off a quick exchange that makes her look more innocent.

Eden: If you really say that you lied about making Arei kill herself, then tell me the truth. Tell me that you didn't make her lose hope.

Eden needs the truth so that she can know how despicable she actually is (in her opinion). She needs to know how bad she needs to feel for taking Arei's life, so that she won't wind up as "inhuman" as Levi.

I also think that "tell me that you didn't make Arei lose hope" could be interpreted in a killer-ish way. There is a rhetorical device in English that sorta turns words like that on their head. Like, if I said, "don't tell me you spoiled DRDT for all of your followers!," it's often interpreted as "I know that you did spoil DRDT for all of your followers, but I don't want to hear it." In this case, Eden might not want David to tell her that he made Arei lose hope because she doesn't want to believe that Arei had any hope in the first place. It's better than if Eden was the one to directly crush those hopes, sure, but if Arei approached David talking about wanting to be a better person mere hours before her death, that still means that Eden was killing a hopeful Arei. She doesn't want David to confirm her worst fears.

I don't know if I phrased that section exactly how I imagined it in my mind, but hopefully you understand what I'm getting at.

Eden: Please! Tell me what happened last night between you and Arei!

In the end, though, Eden knows that she has to face the music to figure out how she wants to proceed with this trial, whether that's sinking the cost of her fallacy or owning up to her crime. And that's how I think you can justify this outburst of Eden's within the context of her being the blackened, without having to fully corrupt her character.

What Arei Meant

This part isn't a theory, exactly; it's more of an analysis of the point I think Arei was trying to convey in this section. I've seen some people be sad about the new note that Arei's character is "going out" on, but I actually think that this is a pretty realistic, thematic ending for where Arei's story and the themes of the chapter are headed. Time to praise DRDTdev's writing for a bit!

Arei: I'm a manipulative, two-faced bitch. I pretend to be cute so that I can treat others like trash. I only care about myself, and I always hurt others for selfish and stupid reasons. Of course I wanted to change myself. [...] Still, for the longest time, I thought it was stupid to even try. I'm rotten to the core, and I might as well be a different species from saints like you and Eden. [...] No matter what, I'll never be a good person. And yet, despite all that... David, you... It turns out that you might be a total piece of shit after all. If even a perfect inspirational speaker like you turns out to be an asshole, then there's no such thing as "a good person." [...] And that makes me relieved, because it means I'm not too far gone. It's okay that I'll never be a good person, because no one else can be either.

I don't think that Arei is saying that the world is a lost cause.

Instead, she's saying that no one is a lost cause. She's applying that Syndrome logic: "if everyone is a bad person, no one will be." Arei thought that, because of her upbringing, there was no possibility that she could ever Be Good, because she'd already done too much wrong. Good People are perfect, unerring gods who do nothing but help others and reach out to wayward souls. However, David's manipulations proved that that wasn't true.

Good People fuck up. Good People do good things for bad reasons, and bad things for good reasons, and, hell, if David is a Good Person, then Good People do bad things for bad reasons sometimes, too! Arei confessed to us that she felt like her life was over because she was given an unfair start. However, now she knows that the bar has been lowered, and that being a good person can be done by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Perfection doesn't exist. Now that she knows that there was never any need to be perfect, the chance she sought for so long has finally been granted.

(Dipping back into purple for a sec to talk about Eden culprit stuff)

After this, I feel like the theme of this chapter has to be about deconstructing the myth of "The Good Person." You think that Nico is just a soft and shy bullying victim? No, they're just as willing to kill as anyone else. You think that Hu is a gracious motherly figure? No, she has an angry streak and talks over other people. You think that Levi is a softhearted giant who just struggles with what to say sometimes? His kill count is higher than everyone who's died to the killing game so far, and he doesn't really care that that's the case. You think that Whit is just a silly guy who cares about others? Fuck, even he's willing to stall out the trial in an attempt to fulfill his own agenda.

The main person who hasn't yet been proven so be not as good as they seem so far is Eden, who in this episode has been clinging to the idea of being a good person harder than ever. I know that some people believe that Eden needs to survive to fulfill the role of the optimist, but I feel like this episode proves that that isn't true. We don't need A Hopeful Person because anyone can step up to the plate and believe in hope if they want to do so. Eden isn't A Good Person, but a real person, who's just as capable of laughing and crying and living and dying as anyone else.

A good person is not gold. That's why everyone who tried to cling to the idea that they were being A Good Person-- Xander, David, Levi-- has always wound up hurting others in the end. Xander believed his actions were morally justified, and thus decided to kill Teruko, causing Min's death and lots of anguish for Teruko. David wanted to follow in his footsteps, and beyond his inspirational speaker persona causing damage to himself, he was also about to kill everyone else to do "what's right." Levi (Arei pending) hasn't killed anyone since trying to become A Good Person, but pretending to follow those guidelines without actually wanting to change anything about himself emotionally hurt Ace, who was set up with false expectations.

If Eden is so convinced that she's a good person, she's only blinding herself to the ways that she's inevitably not.

Back to Arei, while it is sad that her development was cut off just as she made this revelation, I believe that clarifying this additional bit of content is a way to allow her to rest in peace. Even if she didn't get to transform as much as she wanted to, she at least got to die knowing that she wasn't as wretched as she convinced herself that she was all these years, and having done at least one good thing-- saving Eden from Arturo-- before she passed. It's an amazing character arc to squeeze in for your second victim.

Phew, finally, a chance to talk about objective lore instead of heavy and divisive character themes! Except, uh...

WHAT THE FUCK???

Remember when, at the beginning, I said that no one could have predicted everything that came to light in this episode? This was the main point I was talking about. I don't think anyone saw this reveal coming, especially in this moment.

For starters, even though this CG does appear in David's memories, I don't think that he or Arei actually remembers whatever this was taking place. Beyond me attempting to debunk the idea that David had additional memories of Hope's Peak last week, Arei or David specifically referring to this moment means that they had to... be there? When whatever this was happened?

I say "whatever this was" to briefly create suspense before connecting the dots everyone's already talked about: that Eden was probably the one to scratch out Xander's eye. This would make Eden the "she" that Xander (er, I mean, "the guy with the bloody hands") talks about in the intro scene.

It also gives some more context to the clock with the fork stabbed into it depicted in LGI.

I don't know if "non-functional" and "I didn't expect her to" mean that Eden could have been brainwashed or otherwise broken down into not acting like herself when this happened, but it certainly seems out of character for what we know of Eden. Even her facial expression seems to suggest that she might not have wanted or intended to attack anyone with that fork.

Anyways, for Arei or David to know about the contents of that CG, they would've had to both be there when Eden attacked Xander and then also have regained/had their memories of it, which seems unlikely given how both of them treat Eden. Like, even if Arei is sure that Eden "did something to hurt someone in the past," this seems a bit extreme, and David probably wouldn't be so neutral on her if he knew that she attacked his man.

Another really clever point that I saw someone make (AND THEN COULDN'T TRACK DOWN WHO OR IN WHICH POST IT WAS--) was that Eden is wearing her current outfit in this CG. Interestingly, I looked back at A History of Hope's Peak and Visiting Graves to see what Min and Xander were wearing, and while Min was wearing her typical killing game uniform, Xander was wearing something different. Given that Min's scene takes place in HPA and Xander's doesn't, this could imply that Min was wearing the HPA uniform? That's fitting, for her.

We also know that the DRDT cast were all wearing these outfits believing that they were headed for the HPA entrance ceremony. Therefore, we know that Eden would wear this getup to school, but we don't know if she'd wear it elsewhere. Once again, assuming it was Xander who got forked, we can place this CG some time between Visiting Graves and the start of the killing game. I have a hunch that Visiting Graves might have taken place during HPA's spring break-- in A History, Min and Mai (er, I mean, "Unnamed Student") are at school studying for a test with "Spring Break next week" on the chalkboard, while in Visiting Graves, Mai and Xander have traveled elsewhere-- but that's not confirmed, so we can't lock it down.

Maybe we can get more information about this in Eden's bonus episode! Because, well, I at least do think that most of the mysteries of this CG could be solved within a bonus episode and/or other characters talking about her posthumously in later chapters. Again, I understand if you want to use this CG as evidence that Eden is important enough to need to stick around, though.

AREI I MISS YOUUUUUUUUUU

Also, I didn't catch this at all, but credit to everyone who noticed how similar this scene is to the "Diana Chiem" scene in LGI! Fascinating implications that I have no additional thoughts on at the moment. Mostly because we don't know shit about Diana, if that even is her who's portrayed in that CG. I'm sure I'll come back to this someday, just not right now.

Oh, and I don't think you can really argue that Ace made up this conversation anymore. Idk how much of it he stuck around to listen to, though.

See like why is she so pressed about it???

I'd like to say that this is a win for Whit not being the mastermind (because he doesn't seem to know what MonoTV is talking about), but he could probably just be going "why are you saying that at this time?" or something like that. Sigh (/j)

Why Does Whit Know So Much About Hanging?

Alright, so, obviously, this could be a super-suspect hint that Whit knows all of this stuff about hanging and therefore decided to use that knowledge to kill Arei. But, I don't care about that! What I don't understand is how Whit came to know all of this in the first place!

Well, after a quick review, there's one option that stands out more than all the others: Whit's mom was killed by hanging, likely self-inflicted. The only thing we "know" about Whit's mom dying (assuming that secret really is his) is that she is dead, and Whit omits it. It's phrased pretty vaguely. We also know that Whit thinks his mom is awesome, but that doesn't tell us anything about how she saw herself. Sadly, I think this lines up all too well.

Whit's main character flaw, as we've seen throughout the story so far, is ignoring things that stress him out or make him sad. He represses, and chooses not to get involved in others' fights because it's "not his business." It would make sense if the same extended to what he was like before the killing game. If Whit always chooses to ignore things that worry him, there's a possibility he blames himself for his mom's death via not paying enough attention to any warning signs that her mental state might have gotten so dire. Of course, if repression runs in the family, she might have been doing her best to not make it obvious as well.

So, even though he hates himself for not giving his mom enough support in her darkest hour, he still can't (yet) make any changes in his life because ignorance is the only way he knows how to cope. Yet, he still won't let himself pass up on helping another soul in clear need of support, like Charles panicking over the blood, or Eden suffering over seeing Arei's body. He can push himself to help others that are sad, as long as he never focuses on himself.

Or, he's the time loop mastermind who's heard Class Trials discuss hanging a billion times before. You never know with this guy.

CONGRATS TO FF AND BADJOE FOR BEING THE SMARTEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 Man, even seeing Teruko explain this mechanism as the truth, I still don't know if I would've been able to come up with it myself. This fandom is so smart :D

(Also, why was Whit a dog? Goddammit, is this more MonoTV coding?! /lh)

FUCK YES, WE'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO GET ANSWERS ABOUT THE GYM MURDER IN THIS TRIAL? HALLELUJAH! IT'S ABOUT TO BE T A P E T I M E, MOTHERFUCKERS! (/j)

Phew, barely squeaked it within 30 images! I'm impressed and amazed that DRDTdev keeps managing to make such gripping episodes week after week.

Get it? Gripping? Like grippy tape?

I'd apologize, but you're almost certainly going to hear more of that from me next week. Until then!

[wackytheorist]

A love letter to qsmpblr because everyone's making one and I think appreciating your favorite pages is wonderful.

(I'm not the best at introductions but you guys really do mean a lot for me, so here's my story)

I never used to care about tumblr, I only had an account to check out the funny posts and maybe reblog them on my sideblog but this account was colorless. I was just wead(random text spam that I can't remember).

Why? Because socializing was(and still is) quite hard and handling a community online was way to much stress for me, an overthinker. Of course I made occasional vague posts in the heat of the moment but I never wanted to be considered a qsmpblrian.

But then came the qsmp reset, and wayyy to many thoughts in brain I began posting. Then came the ghosties arc and so I began liveblogging and theorizing and ignoring my overthinker thoughts because qsmpblr was a big community and no one cared for little ol' me right?

I was so wrong, and happy to be wrong because now, I regret nothing and this community is the 9th most important thing of my life.

You see I love appreciating people inside but when I try to talk about it, I stumble hence the weird wording

PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO THANK UNDER CUT

@ultra-raging-ghost You used to be my primary source of badboyhalo vlogging, thank you for catching me up to date. It was so fun go insane over badboyhalo with you, even if it was for a short time.

@kadextra I'm devouring your art oml, also loved to liveblog with your so cool omg.(I'm so so so honoured to be your mutual)

@alchemicaladarna Holy shit your brain please keep yapping if alchemicaladarna made a lecture on badboyhalo lore, you bet your ass I'd be there.

@q-starhalo , @rhiaarrow , @imferns , @pomme--bleuet and all the other bbh vloggers I couldn't mention for various reasons, thank you for your services o7

@iminyourbookshelf I loved chomping the heads of federation workers with you, your amazing and cool :D

@semifontos I've said everything I wanted to say everything in your reblogs but omg your writing is insane/pos

@tubborucho I didn't expect you follow back, your sosososososo very cool :D

@pommunist Thank you for your services to bringing us information about the qadmin situation(and for being the based af)

@ethertheaether The fanfiction on Omelete made my shitty month 2000x better.

@itsbebebrainrotting @faffodil @imnotasweetie @dotterelly @annimator @artistnerd24

@theroseyhues @lilghostlettuce @qsmp-extraordinaire Your reblogs make my day pippipipipipipipipipipipipipipipipi

@qsmpcryptid @insanitybl00m @adreamoverlife @etoilesbienne @sarcastictissy and a lot of blogs I can't all capture thank you!

@qsmpincorrect @qsmp-where-they-shouldnt-be @which-qsmp-egg-would and all the events that kept us entertained.

AND @YOU QSMPBLR USER!!

[sugarpasteltmnt]

First of all, I gotta say that I absolutely LOVE your fic. I read the first chapter and just... didn't stop reading lol. It was so compelling and the way you describe emotions and depict Leo's mental state is so good!!!! I can't get enough of it. I love how you write his manic thought process and the way that his thoughts jump around in a very 'word association' type way! (That's super accurate to manic episodes!) I also really like the way that his awareness ebbs and flows and how you are able to indicate that to the reader while also maintaining the narrative. For real, kudos to you, that's a super difficult thing to do and you've pulled it off so well! It's absolutely stunning!

Question (and feel free not to answer if this is a spoiler or if you aren't sure), did Leo age in the Prison Dimension? Cause obviously the five years was FIVE YEARS, he didn't just time skip or anything, and he's definitely five years older mentally (for better or for worse, poor guy) but if the Prison Dimension essentially 'stops' bodily functions like hunger, thirst, exhaustion and.. dying, was his aging paused as well?

I'm low-key dying over the idea of Leo still being a kid physically. Like, the mental image of his brothers coming face-to-face with a visibly teenaged Leo who is more scar tissue than skin, it's just, ugghhgg. It's one thing to know 'oh he was a kid, he shouldn't have had to deal with this. He shouldn't have had to have been in that position, this is all so fucked up' but it's another thing entirely to see it, y'know?

Anyway, again feel free to ignore the question if it's spoiler territory or completely off the mark or if you don't have the spoons to answer. I mainly just wanted to say that I'm obsessed with your fic and it has me completely unhinged (pos). Was literally sobbing at 3AM while reading it. 10/10. Would recommend.

(also how the fuck do you write Leo so scary and threatening and yet also so adorable and charming and 'wet meow-meow stuck in the rain'. I'm frothing at the mouth wtf. The whiplash of being all 'oh no he's gonna kill- oh he's purring now, he's baby' is so fantastic holy shit)

THANK YOU THAT'S SO NICE WAAAAAAH 😭😭😭 i'm so glad people seem to enjoy it because i can always go a little TOO in depth at times and i hope it's never like, too boring or repetitious

and yes, Leo did age!! while the idea of Leo being a time capsule of his teenage self but now so warped is DELICIOUS... I love the idea he aged for several reasons. It was one (or maybe the only) way Leo knew time was passing for him-- which adds to the mental strain of knowing he was stuck there. Forever. And the emotional damage it would inflict on his family because it makes it just more transparent and painful how much time had passed. How long they left Leo there. As well as prove the point that time in the Prison Dimension passed at the same rate as it did on Earth.

Plus, I feel like there's another, dark, angsty edge to it that I couldn't resist. I feel like when the Prison Dimension was made, the primary goal was to trap the Krang for eternity. Whether intentional or not, the Mystic Warriors had practically made a place you could age. Where you can get hungry. Where you can get thirsty. Where you have to face all those painful needs of the body you just can't satisfy... But you just couldn't escape it. Ever.

That might make it a bit TOO dark to think about, but ultimately I just loved the idea of the brothers seeing Leo older like them and knowing that they had left him behind for so long. (toot-toot all aboard the angst train)

but omg i'm so glad you like it 😭 thank you for the ask it was super sweet 🩵

also

My Brother in Christ Pizza Supreme I wish i knew

[mourninglamby]

I have been drifting away from dsmp content for a while— It hurt so much to interact with the fanbase, coming from someone who was once in a similar situation to c!tommy. Just seeing abuse (It went to the point of also including any kind of abuse) being taken so, so unserious by the writers themselves and fandom. I have been a fan of your art for years and daily check up this blog or your twitter to see your pieces. And one of these days, I saw mouthwashing fanart, and decided to check it out.

Holy shit it feels so freeing seing a media take abuse seriously. Even if the fanbase has its big problems (those "toxic yaoi fans" and their weird ways with curly and jimmy... Like seriously?).

I still havent fully experienced the game since I can't really afford it rn and I just. refuse to go through the pain of swimming through all the playthroughs of dumb cishet men trying to find a good one if you get what i mean LMAO

This is becoming a funny ramble but basically what i want to say is that i love your art. You brought fresh air into the can of worms that was the dsmp fanbase. I will cherish ctommy forever and i believe your ways of seeing him are the ones that have brought the most justice to what his character was and what his character could have been. And now you have infected me with mouthwashing and im becoming so ill its in my brain and its rotting it /pos Finally something that does take abuse seriously, ESPECIALLY in horror where assault and any kind of women-suffering is used as just shitty shock horror.

I hope you can heal from the hellhole of dsmp and that you are happy with whatever route you take from now on. I will keep following you if you keep posting art because its just so fucking good. Hope you my silly wall of text is understandable <3

This means a whole lot to me, holy moly 🩷🩷🩷🩷 I feel the same way about mouthwashing. I’m lucky to have been shown this game when I did, it is a refreshing and intelligent story not just about abusers, but enablers, and accountability. Which is something that media like DSMP sorely lacks, making it feel much more exploitative, and easier to be insanely off base about if you’re new or uninformed on those topics.

Mouthwashing is one of the most thoughtful stories about abuse (mainly sexual) I’ve ever seen and I cannot reccomend it enough.

I’m so grateful to get messages like these and talk to likeminded ppl who aren’t fandom brain poisoned … thank you for sticking around so long and continuing to like my stuff 🩷🩷🩷 guys life is lowkey so beautiful

[trafficblrpositivityproject]

Ok time for a bunch of positivity!!!

@ingapotejtoo - such an iconic artist. Holy shit. You’re THE Captain Sparklez guy. I love how you draw Etho, I’m infatuated with him actually. This is a formal request to be friends bc I think ur cool and I’m v shy

@silverskye13 - somehow every chapter of RnS kills me and then revives me just to kill me again. Your work has made me want to write fight scenes which is a thing that I have never cared for. You’ve unlocked a part of my brain I don’t understand with your silly little blorbos and I love them so much. Your art is FANTASTIC and I enjoy it greatly!!

@amethystfairy1 - if someone can get me to stop everything I’m doing and read fic for three days straight I think that makes them an excellent writer. Amethyst has done this. Also how are you posting nearly every day????? Are you god???? Holy shit

@waveridden - I actually know you from Blaseball before I knew u from mcytblr so it’s very funny we ended up hopping on the same boat!! Your writing never ceases to amaze and impress me and the ranchers fic you wrote took me the FUCK out /pos. Imagine me dead on the floor bc that’s what I was after reading it. Then again that’s what happens after I read any of your fics so hey I guess it’s normal

@hiding-under-the-willow - Excellent artist that is on my fucking wavelength about blorbos. I am So Normal about your watcher RT headcanons but you know this already. Never before have I been so moved by a piece of art that I ended up writing over 900 words for it until I saw your art of RT playing cards in the void and now I’m a changed man. Anyways. AUGh

TL;DR: all of you are wonderful people and I love your work!

@ingapotejtoo + @silverskye13 + @amethystfairy1 + @waveridden + @hiding-under-the-willow !!!

[webslingerofthegalaxy]

RANT TIME

Okay, unpopular opinion that no one asked for but I have nowhere else to vent it so you're stuck with it time. I HATE the animated trolls shows, The Beat Goes On and Trollstopia. With a burning passion. I will admit, TBGO wasn't as bad as Trollstopia imo, but it was still bad. Why, you may ask?

Allow me to explain.

First off, let's start with TBGO. Now, since this comes after the first movie and we don't have a lot of context beyond it, I let a lot slide. But the main transgression I have is that this show brought Creek back. CREEK. Of all the MISERABLE LOUSY PATHETIC COWARDS to resurrect, they picked CREEK. WHY. Why was this necessary???? He adds nothing to the story beyond an annoying presence that makes me want to hurl my device like Captain America's shield. AND THEN, they make Branch the bad guy for not trusting him immediately. OF COURSE HE DIDN'T TRUST CREEK, THE SLIMY POS SOLD EVERYONE OUT TO SAVE HIS OWN SKIN. DID EVERYONE FORGET THAT!?!?! And then this leads to Branch having to APOLOGIZE to Creek and then eventually to them sort of becoming friends. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. Every episode he was in I could feel myself losing braincells.

If you thought that was alot, stick around for my rant on Trollstopia because holy shit, where do I begin?

Now, the idea behind Trollstopia is actually a good one. Like hey, everyone is so spread out, how about a group from every tribe comes to live in the middle which happens to be Pop Village? Genius! And I will admit, in the beginning it seemed promising! And then, they fucked it up.

How, you may ask?

Simple. My point can be simplified to 2 main subjects:

They put WAAAYYYY too much effort into Poppy's relationships with literally EVERYONE ELSE and nowhere near enough into her relationship with Branch, HER BOYFRIEND.

They absolutely, totally, 110,000% DESTROYED Branch's character.

I shall now explain my stance. First off, we have point #1. Now, don't get me wrong. Poppy should absolutely have relationships with other trolls! She's the queen, for hair's sake! And I really did enjoy the fact that she made new friends and got really close with them. As someone who has eternally struggled with making and maintaining friendships, I loved seeing her do what I usually cannot. HOWEVER, this is no excuse to neglect her relationship with her actual fucking BOYFRIEND. Trollstopia takes place after TWT, after Branch and Poppy confessed and entered a relationship (if you wanna argue with me, look at the official Trolls Wiki, it'll back me up). But if you watch the show, you can barely tell they LIKE each other, let alone that they're dating. The show ran for 7 seasons and, out of those seasons, can anyone tell me a single episode where they were the focus? I won't even ask about them as a couple, just them interacting together being the focus! Poppy and her friends repeatedly bulldozed over Branch, his feelings, and his boundaries, constantly mocked him, and shit on anything he wanted to do. I swear at times it was like watching Trolls 1 Branch and Poppy interact.

Finally, my second point: Branch's character. They absolutely fucking took all of Branch's hard earned character development from 2 movies and a holiday special and went:

Wanna know how I know? What does Branch actually DO in Trollstopia? About every 10th episode, he shows up to offer a crappy sarcastic remark that pales in comparison to his usual ones and does one of 3 things:

Gets hurt

Gets made fun of

Acts like a total moron, and not in a cute way.

He's basically turned into Jay from the later seasons of Ninjago (my apologies Jay, I love you but you know it's true). I mean, in one episode he got his ass absolutely HANDED to him when he tried the rodeo! COME ON. The dude who caught a stick fired at him without looking and jumped in front of a death bolt to save Poppy got served by a fucking bull thing? Bullshit (no pun intended). To add onto this, when he's not being trampled and beaten for no fucking reason, he's being used for the most CRINGEWORTHY comedic relief. I mean really, there was a whole episode about how he wanted to be called a "cool nickname" by Lownote. Really? We really think that's in character? And to top it off, he gets stuck with "Skippy Two-Shoes". WHAT. THE. FUCK??? I almost had an aneurysm when I heard that. And everyone was fine with it!!!! Which leads into my last point, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT HIM DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE SAVED POPPY AND IS HER FUCKING BOYFRIEND. There was a whole fucking episode about him getting all pissed off at the Techno Trolls for taking over his lagoon in his bunker (which I have to say I'm jealous he has) to have "raves" at like 4am. WHO WOULDN'T BE PISSED OFF??? My upstairs neighbors bang around at all fucking hours of the day and it drives me insane so I get why Branch is mad! BUT WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE? Why is it when he complains he gets told that he's being "unfair" and has to "share"? Fuck that, he was there first! It's not like Trollstopia isn't huge, they can find somewhere else to infest at 4am!

In conclusion, I hate the animated shows because they destroy the relationship between Branch and Poppy and demolish all of Branch's character development, reducing him to the annoying sidekick that always gets cheered at when they get hurt or die tragically.

End of rant. Thank you for sticking with me, I needed to get that off my shoulders. Branch is my favorite character and it infuriates me that he gets the short end of the stick all the time. Enjoy this as a reward:

[strange-calathea]

GUYS OMG EVERYONE PLEASE WATCH CHIMP CRAZY IM BEGGING YOU IT IS SO FUCKING FUNNY. LIKE ITS ALSO VERY EDUCATIONAL BUT HOLY SHIT IM IN HYSTERICS OVER THIS /POS

However I should give a warning, there is a lot of horrific imagery & animals being mistreated. That part is not funny.

(SPOILERS BELOW. UVE BEEN WARNED)

So these chimps are not being taken care of properly and peta gets involved and has them taken away from the bad situation, but one is missing when they take them. And the missing chimp is also a famous actor, so they really really gotta find this animal! Naturally eyes go to the woman who has an unhealthy bond with this animal (she has said MULTILE TIMES that she loves the chimp more than her kids.) but she claims that he died before they came & she had him cremated (btw the certificate of his cremation said the body was burned at 170 degrees,,, um okay sure lmao(ALSO she shows the ashes to the documentary crew and it's so obviously chocolate cake mix!)) and obviously this sounds like bullshit. So they go to court n the judge asks if the animal is alive or dead, cue the waterworks. At this point she starts stumbling over her words (which she was not doing at all previously!) and coughs up some fake story about finding the animal dead. They have to take MULTIPLE RECESSES because of her crocodile tears, but eventually we get to the judges ruling! And she just says it as it is, that she is CLEARLY lying & making things up and there's really no way to prove that the animal is dead or alive at this point. That's that, she closes her laptop (it was a digital court session), declares that "WE WON" to her friends, and then brings the documentary crew to her basement, where there is an ENCLOSURE WITH THE FAMOUS ALLEGEDLY DEAD CHIMPANZEE IN IT. I AM NOT KIDDING OR BEING DRAMATIC. THIS CARTOON VILLAIN ASS WOMAN ABDUCTED A CHIMP AND HID IT IN HER BASEMENT ONLY TO SHOW IT ALL ON CAMERA AND GIVE THE COURT THE PROOF THEY NEED TO GET HER. I cannot fucking wait for the next episode. This is my reality tv I'm so invested

[lovelyrotter]

I read your thing about stridercest. I didn’t super like the ship (I’m more of a lalondecest girlie) but I respect the hell out of the textual analysis you did. Anyway do you have any good fic recommendations? I want to see what you see in it.

oh fuck yeah i love sharing ship stuff especially with ppl who dont usually go here and vice versa for me. its like hell yeah im digging in sand and its fun i love my sand and then i turn around and woah i had no idea there was even MORE sand just behind me ya dig? that might not have made any sense hahaha. its the joy of trading pokemon cards except with ships

but okay heres some of my current faves. bear in mind i read mostly M and E rated stuff but ive got a sprinklin of lower ratings in here too. im also gonna categorize this list by stridercest flavour. theres a lot so this turned out like ridiculously long

anyone else goin through this feel free to link yalls faves in the replies too cause im ravenous. especially if its haldirk. im constantly craving haldirk

guardiancest

doku line terminus & two steps away from the county line by lildogie these first cause theyre my ultra faves rn and i cant get enough of this au. set in the same universe but county line is the prequel. a/b/o verse with lotsa interesting political stuff and also interpersonal dynamics. dave & dirk are there too and are real cute. its also got mysterious time travelling. i really cant sell these two enough like i am not doin these justice

davedirk / dirkdave

if i woke up next to you by bumbly | G, ~2,700 words, complete. SUPER sweet relationship study, made me fuckin melt. this author has really good stuff for other ships too but mind the archive warnings

dont joke about hentai face broctopus transplants im eating cheese n onion pringles here by smrtnik | M, ~1k words, complete. this one made me fuckin melt its so tender. it truly feels like were peeking into their life together. also great title

Stasis State by Caeslin | T, ~3k words, complete. another really intimate feeling one. its so fuckin sweet. mind the tags for typical dirk suicide attempt but its not on screen its moreso the recovery and how dave is affected by it

“stupid fucking bullshit” ad nauseam by anon | T, 13.7k words, complete. REALLY GOOD AU. trans striders, fade to black sex scene. the boys are cute and you can feel how much theyre drawn to each other immediately. wish there was more of this

sometimes the bad guy wins by nutrimercenary | E, ~7.5k words, ongoing. wow. oh wow. ive been looking for a davedirk fic like this for a long time. PLEASE read the warnings and tags but its so fuckin good. a crossdimentional narrative tug-o-war between dave and ult dirk i fuckin love it

got it goin on by bumbly | E, 7.5k words, complete. dirk indulges daves mommy kink after prying it outta him. its cute and funny and sexy it made me smile. their dynamic is sooo sweet

helping hands by ghostlyAnarchist | E, 5.1k words, complete. THIS IS SO GOOD. its got trans man dave and is genuinely one of the hottest transmasc fics ive read so far and boy howdy ive read a lot. slight warning for dysphoria discussion but its not too bad its all just hot af a dick-sucking venn diagram by Elendraug | E, 10k words, complete. first off domestic af. very established relationship and you can tell. its so fuckin sweet. i looove this one. its like the best kind of silly realistic smut its one of my faves of all time

STILL WITH ME by egbert | E, 8k words, complete. dave and dirk strife and then fuck in the bathroom. holy shit this is hot. their want is like tangible in this one

brodave and a!brodirk

hardware by orphan_account | E, ~8k words, complete. dave gets some dick piercings and bro goes insane about them. hot as hell and also features bottom bro which is my fave. its got a couple uses of the r-slur but its also from 2011 so i take it w/ a grain of salt. 2011 and earlier fics are like internet artifacts (/pos)

but you better never pull it by hapaxlegomena | E, 5k words, complete. wow. WOW. sub top bro and dom bottom dave need i say more. this sub bro activates my cute aggression the power play is great mars & murrie's by orphan_account | E, 6.8k words, complete. a!brodirk, omorashi. super hot!!!! alpha dave is sooo embarrassed about his piss kink but dirk wins in the end hahaha. really intriguing which i know sounds funny on an omo fic but read it and youll know. i love this alpha dave

temporal sunset by Plajus | M, 19.5k over 5 chapters, complete. a!brodirk. holy shit what a ride. this one held me hostage and now lives in my brain rent free (bdum tiss sorry). dirk is terminally ill so i know it wont be for everyone but give it a try and goddamn you wont be disappointed. trust me

a swinging pendulum by ghostlyAnarchist | T, ~900 words, complete. a!brodirk time/dream bubble encounter. wow just wow. the want. the yearning immaterial by LPSunnyBunny | E, 1k words, complete. a!brodirk, trans dirk. holy shit!!!!!! holy shit!!!!! hot hot hot!!!!!!! shower sex sensation control!!!!

haldirk

singular by 2x2verse | E, 6.8k words, complete. hal has an existential crisis dirk catches him and then they fuck tenderly about it. genuinely so romantic. im addicted to this kind of haldirk. honestly i just recommend the entire series diagnostics by 2x2verse | E, 2.9k words, complete. i know i just linked this authors whole collection of haldirk fics but holy crap this one in particular. dom/sub electrostim with sensory deprivation, hal is the dom. i LOVE how hes written here. very attentive domming, great details

A Fatal Error Has Occurred by Mortior | E, 42k words, 4/5 chapters. oh mortior my haldirk regent. really fuckin good character writing in an au where hal has an android body before the alpha session is started. read the tags for warnings. the tension between them is insane endangered by Mortior | E, 100k+ words, complete multichapter. holy fuck where to begin with this one. this is a haldirk sensation. post apocalyptic au where androids won the human-robot war. dirk runs into AR. AR takes an interest in him. dirk takes even more of an interest in AR. if youre gonna read any haldirk read this one

"im basically fucking him" series by Elendraug | T & E, all complete. so!!!!! fucking!!!!! tender!!!!! really cute haldirk progressing through their relationship

ridiculously late by cinnamonfreak | E, 21k, completed multichapter. a/b/o au where dirk suddenly presents. REALLY intriguing hal in this one i fuckin love the power play

roboporn by smrtnik | E, 3.9k words, complete. really fun power play in this one. hal is waterproofed externally but not internally. he gives dirk a handie over his open chassis torso. theres also really sweet snuggling afterwards

[chryza]

I’ve had a day to process so

Final Thoughts on Dawntrail (with pictures)

Rating: man.jpeg/10 (/pos)

Those who follow me know post Endwalker was a massive fucking letdown. I still hold by that. They could have communicated what they needed to for Dawntrail in a way that wasn’t FF4 wank. But still, I tried to go into it with open eyes.

And holy shit I was blessed with the most beautiful FFXIV we’ve ever seen. Everything was dripping with light and color and the worldbuilding was spot on. It felt so Azem, exploring Tural, meeting and learning about people and their way of life. Carmine over @unionizedwizard drew the connection to the WoL guiding Wuk Lamat in the same way Venat chose to become a mentor for the people of the Etheirys. And yeah that came through so clearly. It was heartfelt and kind and clearly done with a lot of love.

They just were showing off tbh. Look at how fucking gorgeous this is.

Sometimes though…well, sometimes it couldn’t quite escape the shackles of the power of friendship. I found myself growing irritated at the lack of conflict—I liked that the stakes were personal to each character, and really enjoyed the start of the story. But over time, it became clear those stakes weren’t developing. There were no new conflicts arising to take the place of the ones we’d resolved. But it wasn’t until Mamook that I got really upset with the story.

It seems so obvious to me that the narrative was supposed to be that the Mamool Ja were sacrificing their children to bring forth a blessed sibling—the way the narrative frames this as disastrous to the people, the way that Bakool Ja Ja blames himself for it and is determined to uphold the legacy of those dead children, the way it’s all framed as so….dark. And then the story waffles around it, claiming that it was just high infant mortality rate, which removes the vast majority of the…well…blame. It becomes less a conscious decision to do something horrible and more a negative consequence that they can’t be held at fault for. The paste over is so sloppy it’s clear to me it was rewritten as to not be so dark.

And the story spiraled from there. The lack of conflict meant the cracks in the storytelling started to show. The characters were driven forward by the Gather the Chaos Emeralds rather than personal stakes and when you finally get to the skydeep cenote there’s…nothing waiting for you. No reward. Just a weird ass room with a weird ass gate.

Wuk Lamat tax.

You go back to Tuliyollal. Wuk Lamat and Koana become the Dawnservants. Everyone is happy. Everything is resolved. Zoraal Ja goes off to the golden city by himself but because the game has refused to tell us anything about it, this means nothing to us. I hate Smile, I think it’s called? That shitty Disney channel sounding song? I fucking hate that song. It’s so cheap to paste it over a montage of everyone happy and great that’s fun we’re at LEVEL 95. WHERE IS THE PLOT.

I was tired of feeling like I wasn't doing anything. I needed personal stakes that weren't entirely tied to helping Wuk Lamat. Sure, I love her, I think she's great, but the WoL's role up to that point had entirely been wander around and kill local wildlife while other people solve problems, which is massively problematic for an RPG!

We got so bored we invented a new guy. This is Foreel Ja, the sentry atop the second floor of the palace. He is a single father who is dedicated to his job as Landsguard and we love him.

And this is the story’s greatest failing—not letting the other shoe drop right away. Instead, we go hang out with Erenville who was just interesting enough to be excited about traveling with that I was willing to forego banging my head against my desk.

Unfortunately, the entire Shaaoloni section WHIFFED. The world building was sloppy, the story direction was lazy and predictable in the worst way, we weren’t given time to properly care about any of the people we were meeting (I still don’t know their names) and meanwhile there is no overarching plot happening! We’re just wandering around with Erenville doing ARR shit!

The funniest part to me was the train guys, where the story was trying to leverage our emotions from Twine in the first to care about these NPCs we haven’t been given a reason to love. Because Twine was objectively the weakest part of Shadowbringers, so calling back to it was not the play. I was so disappointed with Dawntrail I wanted to cry and it put me in a really foul mood.

And then the dome appears.

the exact moment I sat up in my chair for the first time in hours.

Oh my holy jesus fuck the whiplash of the tone shift. The Alexandrian invasion was so brutal in comparison to the cheeriness of everything else. Cutting down that old woman, going after a kid, no one was safe, no one was spared, it was a GLORIOUS disaster

When Zoraal Ja and Gulool Ja Ja were fighting i half expected the game to just beat Zoraal Ja like that and have that be the end of it but luckily they COMMITTED. There was BLOOD. Sena Bryer’s wail of pure agony in the scene where Gulool Ja Ja died brought me to tears. God that shit was good.

Immediately intrigued we leapt back into the story with reckless abandon because finally something was HAPPENING. Something dark and interesting and I didn’t even care about the tonal whiplash or the Shitty Disney Channel music playing over a half baked montage of characters we don’t care about easily resolving all of their issues through the ~power of friendship~. Let me into that FUCKING DOME BABEYYYYY

and instantly Heritage Found was the most interesting section of the story. Everything was put together so beautifully it made wonderful sense and Sphene. What a character. You know you’ve done a character right when you aren’t sure whether or not you can trust her but you want to so bad you’re willing to look past the warning signs. The fact that Queen Sphene rhymes took me out of it but whatever.

SOLUTION NINE. AAAAAHHHHHHHH I think we spent a full two hours just wandering around and looking at everything. As an avid Cyberpunk 2077 fan I was ENRAPTURED by everything. Definite highlight of the game for me.

I did not care about Zoraal Ja. Lame ass villain with weak ass motives and an unclear plot relevance, his saving grace as a villain was the introduction of Gulool Ja. After my initial reaction of “Ew Zoraal Ja Canonically Fucked” and the followup “Ew who did Zoraal Ja Canonically Fuck” my response was twofold. Firstly, to protect Gulool ja with my life. That is my child now. Secondly, I was fueled with the rage of a thousand suns towards Zoraal Ja for daring to abandon this perfect specimen of adorableness.

FUCK Zoraal ja and his daddy issues. I was rolling my eyes through that. Whatever. Gulool Ja is Love Gulool Ja Is Life.

(child support collection, 2024, colorized)

And then. Living Memory.

Oh my god they could have fucked it up so bad. It could have been cheesy and cutesy and overly done.

It was perfect.

The deeply dystopian nature of all of it contrasted perfectly with the beautiful golden sidewalks and the bittersweet happiness of the Endless. Knowing you were going to end it for them. Knowing that you have to let go. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed as that city went dark and keenly felt aware of grief I hadn’t felt in years.

Like G’raha said. Above all, I wish they had lived. It was so true and raw and honest in the way that FFXIV, when it excels, really excels at. The final boss fight with Sphene was tragic and I wish the fight was harder but by that point I was already sniffly so I don’t know if I could have dealt with an Endsinger lol.

The end…was too abrupt. We needed more. Just a little more to resolve things and put things back. Jumping straight to the credits was not the way to do it. But the emotion still came through.

That’s kind of my final takeaway. Dawntrail had some major stumbles. There were narrative choices I cannot possibly understand. But the heart of it is honest and genuine and it shines through in the sections that are weaker. It banked a little too hard on Endwalker in some sections, it lacked the necessary conviction to drive home some of its points, but the message was loud and clear. I loved it. It was an exhilarating ride and overall a fantastic addition to the game. Truly a job well done for an expac that had so much riding on it.

[inkydiamonds]

THANK YOU FOR PUTTING SULLY ON YOUR ARTFIGHT I CAN NOW DRAW HER YAYYYYY

also any updates bout the fate of tirazia !!!! I am invested

YAYAY NP!!! I'm so excited to see your art! (Edit: I took so long to answer this that I have seen it!!!!!)

I also really gotta add more characters to my art fight- including more FOT NPCs maybe ?? Maybe ??? I have one in particular I wanna do but I'm not sure how to do it bc I don't want Blue to see him bc he hasn't shown up in the campaign yet lol

For the actual campaign itself! I'm not sure where I left off lol. [Looks at that one long post] Ah! Session 7 it seems, then Blue sent some memes about session 8.

We haven't done any over the summer bc now we're 8 people total and also. Timezones. But! We ended on session 9, and holy shit were these some crazy last two sessions.

Brief session 7 recap:

Sadly, Hans's player couldn't come, so he canonically spends the entire session digging holes in the ground (... long story) and inspecting the mysterious magical skull he got after we raided the Order of the Five castle (where Sully buried that one person alive). However! For the first time, we have a new player who takes over playing Paul. Through this, the rest of the party goes on a wild goose chase to get a magical artifact with him except Anawrete, who visits her parents' place, and we get lore there. At the end of the session, Alloces goes off to investigate mysterious smuggler's den with ties to Anawrete at the Order of the Five castle and Silen follows him. It ends up having a tunnel leading off into the Underdark, and Silen loses sight of Alloces and starts walking down there.

That's session 7!

Now, session 8:

Sully, Paul, Mal, and after a minute Alloces go and reunite with Hans. Hans is outside the Shipbuilder's Guild, having dug a bunch of holes without finding what he wanted to (a lead brick we buried in like session 4ish) This is very concerning, bc it was supposed to be a message to a demon to kill this one guy (we were trying to solve a mystery and didn't know what else to do..... so we did that. Then we tried to unearth it bc we finished the mystery). Also, it wasn't supposed to disappear, even if it did work! So. Um?

However, the party decides that it's not that important, bc we're preoccupied with something else: the skull. Turns out Hans figured out that it's "locked" and that he can brute force unlock whatever magic it has inside it by blasting it with all four types of elemental magic at once. We figure out that between Hans, Alloces, Paul, and Sully, we have the needed elemental magic to do this. Unfortunately, Sully has suddenly become very up-in-arms, saying that combining elemental magic is against everything she believes in, and that she could never help with this. Hans refuses to listen, however, but he's stuck bc Sully is the only one with Earth magic in the party (and Earth magic is hard to obtain as a spell lol). Therefore, he decides to do something... not the greatest. He whispers to Alloces to use Suggest on her, and bc Alloces likes chaos, he complies. (Fun fact: ooc, I was actually the one to propose the Suggest idea. I thought it would be silly. <3) It works, and Sully now has to participate in this ritual against her will.

Meanwhile, Mal is watching all of this go down. She sees Sully rapidly change character, and realizes that something is up. She pulls Sully aside, asking if Sully is okay. Sully, unable to say otherwise, says yes, she's okay, she's just decided to do the ritual now. Mal fails her insight check, and decides that Sully must be okay if she says she is. Mal's player then does something which makes me go CRAZY insane and makes me want to chew on glass (/pos) and decides that NOW is the time to do a scene which she's been thinking about for a while. The Context: back in session 6 during our big fight, Sully got Mal out of death saves with a healing potion. Healing potions are a bit expensive, and Mal had her own which she didn't use before she got downed (overestimating her abilities), but Sully probs didn't even think twice and used her own on Mal. However, Mal obviously has been thinking about it, because she gives Sully that potion, then. Mal, very obviously very nervous, apologizes for "letting Sully down" and for being a burden during the fight, and not being strong enough to stay up herself. AND SULLY CAN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING BC SHE'S PREOCCUPIED WORRYING ABOUT THE RITUAL + BEING UNDER SUGGESTION. Mal then leaves very quickly, and Sully is left there, speechless.

Then the fucking ritual happens and we all unlock the Skull, and Sully snaps out of her Suggestion. The Skull has some kind of spirit inside it, and is filled with Aetheric energy (which......... happens to be something Sully ALSO is very against). Sully then starts yelling at Hans, telling him to drop the Skull and berating him for getting Alloces to possess her (she also hates Alloces but like. She's always hated Alloces. She really liked Hans. This is a betrayal of literally everything she believes in). The spirit of the skull starts speaking and reveals himself to be Logan Mortem, the original founder of the Order of the Five, and with that name Paul freezes as well. Apparently Paul somehow knows him- and is horrified. Then we fight bc Hans still refuses to drop it: Hans and Alloces versus Sully and Paul. Sully and Paul lose as we both roll very low lol (also Sully was mostly trying to knock the skull out of Hans's hand), and Sully, fuming, injured and panicking, decides to leave. Hans and Alloces have a conversation with the skull where it reveals some of its goals. Alloces apparently knows Logan, and Logan is maybe his dad/creator (????). Hans has been chosen to be the next heir of the Order of the Five apparently. Logan wants to "bring order to chaos". Hans is like. "hm. btw, you're not evil, right?" and Logan is like "........no." Hans is like "seems legit 👍". Paul tries to attack Hans one more time, this time with his moon staff (the artifact we were looking for session 7), but it backfires and hurts him somehow. After Alloces and Hans leave, its revealed that when it backfired, Paul got some of his memories taken from him and forgot what he was doing and where he was. He also leaves for the Shipbuilder's hall.

MEANWHILE. Silen is in the fuckin UHHHH Underdark.

When he's walking down, he hears a thunk behind him and ends up running further in. He keeps going down, and down, and down, until he ends up in the Underdark. Honestly, nothing really happens here except him hearing some Drow or Duergar and realizing that he's in the Underdark, and heading back up the way he came. However, when he comes back up, he hears voices in Common (rather than Undercommon). The group of people hear/see him, and they're wearing colorful robes of some kind and have a huge piece of stone in the shape of a body with them. He's like "haha hiiiii". The people, ofc, ask wtf he's doing here, and with his very poorly made excuses, they decide to take him with them. He tries to escape, and they stop him- and when they use elemental magic to stop him, he finally realizes that their robes look quite similar to Sully's.

They take Silen and the rock with them underwater with water magic, and they go into a cliff face opened to show another tunnel in the earth.

Switching over to Sully's perspective, she decides to head over to the Monastery, for the first time as shown in this campaign (tho I think somewhere she goes there and leaves a note about Ansa after session 6 before session 7 for continuity). The party knows nothing about it other than it existing. Even though she's shaken about the fight, she was planning to go here anyways, and talks to Jenevra, a water-aligned monk, saying she's here about the "Anatheme". Jenevra leads her to a secret passageway she's never been in before, and there, she sees, against all odds- fucking Silen.

Adreyão, the lead figure in the party of monks, says that Silen claims to know Sully. Sully, ofc, confirms it, but asks wtf Silen was up to. He really doesn't have a good reason, but Sully takes it as Silen being Silen (which it is), and she says that they can let him go. But before they do, she explains what happened with the fight, and warns Silen not to trust Hans or Alloces, saying that they've been corrupted and don't have his interests at heart. (Kind of unreliable narrator- Sully is very very biased, close-minded, and is actively working to split the party against the two of them). Silen... kind of believes her, but ofc refuses to acknowledge that Alloces is bad bc bro is head over heals in love (why).

Silen is led out by Jenevra, and Adreyão guides Sully through a ritual of their own. She drinks a mysterious liquid, and is suddenly able to change the stone into orange-tinted quartz, revealing what was inside the rock that they transported- Ansa. Chained and cast in crystal, Ansa is transported into a larger room, where many many others like her sit. Surrounded by countless Anathemes cast in ice or crystal, Sully feels much more calm than before.

For the rest of the session, it's a lot of character interactions as we all try to deal with all the shit which just went down (and PAUL LORE). Unfortunately, Anawrete missed all of it (sorry Blue :((( ) so a lot of it is catching her up as she's like I WAS GONE FOR TWO MINUTES.....

When we take a long rest, some people hear weird rustling and chaos coming from Paul's room, and Sully (+unbeknownst to her, Alloces's shadow) investigate and find papers everywhere and a weird blue stone, which the shadow takes.

Meanwhile, Paul sees Anawrete on his morning walk, and tells her a bit about his moon rod, then about the fight and shit which happened the other day. Then he tells her to go touch the rock up in his room, saying he's "not been quite honest".

All the party starts meeting up and chatting in the common room. Mal is chatting with Anawrete about her new fit, Silen is trying to dissuade Hans from the skull (telling him about it possessing him earlier and saying "abomination") (end of session 6 idk if I mentioned this lol), Sully walks in and tries to talk to Mal, but is distracted by the conversation of what the skull is where Alloces says some ominous shit. It's very tense, but Paul walks in, interrupting the conversation by saying "who wants scoOOOOnes :D" (LMFAO)

We briefly talk about the stone, which Alloces gives up. Apparently Paul is losing his memories and says that we can access them through the stone- but that he doesn't want to be there for it. Sully take the stone, and says she'll do it in a bit, then takes Mal to talk to her. (Honestly even tho it was in character I felt bad about being like NO LORE NOW but I'm glad we saved it for the next session bc it was a long sequence of events lol).

Sully and Mal have a conversation, where Sully first says the same thing she did to Silen- explaining the fight, saying that Hans and Alloces don't have their interests at heart, etc. She says that Mal was correct that Sully was not herself at the time, and thanks her for being there, and also says that... Mal never let her down. But Mal has been slowly getting more panicked as Sully has been talking, and says "but now I've let you down twice now! Because I didn't even realize you were influenced by them!!" and Sully doesn't even know what to say to that. She tries to reassure Mal, but it doesn't really work, and they. AUGH THEMMM PIX I'M SO UNWELL ABOUT THEM...... THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE FOR SHIT..................

Anyways, Silen and Anawrete talk, because she figured out that he was at the smuggler's den (tbh I forget how lol, maybs Alloces said it or just Silen himself). She interrogates him, and although he was VERY scared of her, he somehow doesn't mention that Sully's people were there, but he definitely throws Alloces under the bus. He then immediately runs to Sully and says that Anawrete lives there at the den (???) (she does not. bro was confused and scared out of his mind). Anawrete sees him talking to Sully (who mostly ignores him) and I think guesses that Sully was somehow related to all this.

However, at that moment Paul decides he wants to talk to Sully. They go off on their own, and have a very interesting conversation, where it's revealed that Paul definitely has a (negative) history with Logan and he's on her side. He says a lot of other ominous things ("you might have to become a demon to fight one" and "if I start feeling the effects of the skull, finish me off" are notable), and it's pretty obvious that they're against the skull for different reasons, but that they're on the same team.

Anawrete, with so much new info, goes back to her family complex briefly and talks to her mom about it. Her family has been tracking the Order of the Five and their movements, and found that the remaining troops have been heading up to Nortepont (a northern dwarf city), which is very interesting.

Finally, Alloces and Silen have a hilarious talk where Alloces tries to do a deal with him (favor for crossbow Alloces found in the den bc Silen is a ranger) and Silen's like "sure :D. As long as you take me to lunch again" and Alloces, done with this shit, decides against it.

AND THAT'S SESSION 8! SO MUCH SHIT WENT DOWN !!

But uhhhhh we've gone up to session 9. So. There's still more to talk about, though sadly I do not have the time rn. I will get to it later, and I hope you like this very long update!!!!

(I also got a lot of analyses and theories and art AND a whole ass cipher puzzle thing I gave to my campaign so there's. That too)

Also @blue-rhapsody feel free to add on anything! (Or even summarize session 9 I would be so happy if you did that lol)

[comfymoth]

do you have any silly one-offs or ideas for Quackity’s werewolf manifestation because it seems pretty silly/pos

OH DO I— listennnn listen. werewolf quackity, he is my little guy, and so naturally i have to spend every minute of every day thinking about how i could make his life worse <3

so roier turns him in high school, right? on accident, because he genuinely thought it didn’t count if you bite somebody while you’re human (five years are taken off of spreen’s life when he sheepishly explains this later). but it’s a few days before the full moon when he bites him, so they get to spend a few days in blissful ignorance— quackity just also spends those few days very moody. he’s tired, sore, his appetite’s insane, and he swears he’s grown more hair, but like. that could all just be puberty, it’s not that weird

not that weird until he actually turns into a wolf, and then he freaks the fuck out. firstly because holy shit holy shit holy shit that can’t be possible, and secondly because he still has to get up at 6:30 for school the next day. what the fuck.

and it is a very bad next day for quackity. he’s got an algebra test. and p.e. class. and debate. all of which he is just way too fucked up for. roier has to give him the world’s most awkward explanation/apology while he’s throwing up after the pacer test, it’s miserable

also throws a horrifying wrench in their already very confusing and under defined relationship, but, well, that’s it’s own issue

being a teenage werewolf in general is a miserable experience, but especially for one who’s had no time to get used to it. the growing pains suck, the appetite sucks, the instincts suck, the shapeshifting sucks— the shapeshifting really sucks, because it’s partially triggered by strong emotions/stress hormones, and ohhh my god. oh my god yeah puberty is having bad fucking effects on that. there’s a good chunk of time where quackity takes to wearing a beanie over his ears whenever he leaves the house, because it is Bad, He Cannot Live Like This. he’s an embarrassment to himself and to spreen and roier. still, they do their best to coach him through it (mostly roier, spreen is very clear that this is his fault), and they establish from pretty much the get-go that they Are adopting him into their little pack. so maybe lycanthropy sucks, but at least he gets to be in a cool club about it? a questionably cool club? ….a club? at least one of the guys there is cute, so whatever, he’ll just have to suck it up and deal

eventually, eventually he’s got to get the hang of things, but he does just spend most of high school being the world’s most pathetic werewolf. and i, for one, love that for him <3

[worldsbiggestnerd101]

Heya!!

Idk why I was thinking abt this but I was, so figured I’d share it with ya!!

Basically it’s uh an idea if you wanted to have Helluva boss be apart of your Hazbin High School AU?

Basically the idea is that IMP is like, something high school students (sinners) basically pay IMP (which would probably be college students) for like.. ig answers and shit? Stolas would probably like be a tutor guy on like a special student board (Are Goetia) and the Deadly Sin would probably be like… Professors or Senior Students (probably seniors bc like… Clown Cock would be like Teacher/student the other way and uh 😰😰)

Loona could still be Blitzø’s Daughter maybe, maybe he adopted her fresh out of high school?

That or like.. Someone he helped when she was in high school and now she (obligingly) hangs w him in college? And they’re like roommates now?

Octavia could possibly be either the result of teen pregnancy or like.. A little sister or smth to Stolas then?

and uh.. Verosika is still a Popstar Blitz dated, but she’s graduated now?

The cherubs would probably just be instead, like tutors which is like the opposite of IMP who gets cheat sheets n shit?

Uh and Strikers probably just like.. uh similar to IMP but like.. Collects blackmail too?? Idk I’m trying to figure this shit out.

Wait or maybe uh imp gets blackmail and Striker also does Cheat sheet kinda shit, and then the cherubs like.. will spread good (made up) shit abt high schools??

But uh yeah. This is just an idea tho and you don’t have to do it :)

honestly hell, I might wanna write this myself if u don’t :)

oh my fucking god JAY. ily. holy shit. this is peakkkkk!!! i wasn’t sure if i wanted to make HB a thing bc like i didn’t know how i’d do it but i’m loving all of this omfg

i am currently maybe just trying to step back from my au a bit (after about a month of just not getting anything done only to try and return to it and ending up frustrated) but this is getting me inspired!!! honestly if you wrote it that’d be peak bc like. idk the idea of you writing a fic that goes along with my au is just so fhskdjksdk (/pos) to me

i am so so so keeping this for future reference bc i may decide to include this in the hs au!!

[justa-moth]

THE FUCKING FNAF MOVIE !!!!!

ALRIGHT SO HUGE MASSIVE FNAF MOVIE SPOILERS, I JUST WANNA RANT ABT THE MOVIE BECAUSE I LITERALLY JUST GOT HOME FROM WATCHING IT, ALR YOUVE BEEN WARNED, ENJOY <3

general funny theatre moments:

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD /POS

alright so first thing i wanna say is that there were several moments where the theatre LOST THEIR SHIT

the first moment was when matpat. basically you here his voice before you see him, and the SECOND his face was showed everyone was just yelling "OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD" and then he said the "its just a theory" line is everyone lost it again JHKFSD

and then the second moment was when they played the FUCKING LIVING TOMBSTONE FNAF SONG. LIKE THE SONG

THE WHOLE THEATRE LITERALLY CHEERED AND CLAPPED AND FUCKING LOST IT THAT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD

LITERALLY I HEARD AND FUCKING INTRO FREDDY LAUGH AND ME AND MY BROTHER WENT APESHIT

also during the scene where the babysitter gets bit

when she was investigating freddys teeth

my brother joking leaned over and was like "was that the bite of 87 :OOOOOO"

AND THEN HER ASS GOT CHOMPED

AND WE BOTH JUST STARTED LAUGHING OUR ASSES OFF CAUSE HE WAS LIKE "OH SHIT I WAS JOKING JKFHSDJKH"

Positives !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OKAY MY LIKE MY FAVORITE THING EVER

WAS THE FACT THAT THEY LEANED INTO THE CHILDISH GHOST ASPECT

like this is the first time in canon material we really see them delving more into the fact that they really are just lost and scared Dead Children

like the fact that they showed how they truly were just robo children, like building a huge blanket fort, tickling abby, the fact that they brought up how the ghosts understand pictures more, like the end scene where mike is like "show them what really happened" and abby draws a little crayon scene of afton killing the kids

like in alot of fanon stuff people love going into that

but this is the first time in canon shit that we see them just. being kids

and i thought that was genuinely so fucking cool

like the blanket fort scene was honestly adorable, if a little out of place

THE FUCKING ANIMATRONICS WERE GORGEOUS

LIKE HOLY FUCKING THEY WERE AMAZING

THEY WERE SO FUCKING SMOOTH

WE GET SO MANY CLOSEUPS ON THEM YET THEY LOOK NOTHING BUT PERFECT

THEIR MOVEMENTS WERE VERY SMOOTH AND FLOWY

AND THEY JUST LOOKED FUCKING MAGNIFICIENT

LITERALLY ANYTIME THEY WERE IN DEPTH ON SCREEN I WAS JUST BOGGLED BY HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY WERE

ALSO EVERYONES ACTING WAS SO GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!

ik some people were a little on edge with fucking PEETA MELLARK being mike

but MAN did he pop his pussy during this movie omfg

AND THE KIDS WERE ALL AMAZING AS WELL

abby and the freddy ghost kid were WONDERFUL

plus matthew lillard obviously played insane Very Well

I HONESTLY LOVED THE REOCCURING BB TOY BIT FHJKSDJHK

where like it kept showing up in places and then mike would just like turn it around and put it in timeout

AND THEN THE END CREDIT SCENE WHERE IT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF CORY KENSHINS CHARACTER SDFJKHJHKFLS

THE SCENE WHEN THE ASSHOLES BREAK IN WAS D O P E DUDE

LIKE THE DUDE GETTIN KILLED BY CUPCAKE IN THE FRIDGE

AND THEN THE OTHER DUDE RUNNING AND DYING BY BONNIE IN THE CLOSET

AND ALSO JFHSDKHJKFSD

the part where the main guy watches them on the cams and sees bonnie and chica just chillin by the vent

and then chica just leeaaaannsssssss down and puts cupcake in the vent

and then just both just >:( at the camera

AND THE RED EYES !!!!!!!!!!!

IDK IF THEY JUST. FIXED THEM AFTER THE TRAILER, OR IF SMTH ABT THE TRAILER JUST MADE THEM LOOK WORSE

BUT ACTUALLY IN PRACTICE THEY WERE GREAT

VERY mild negatives

i only really have two Actual gripes with certain choices

the anti-climatic springlock scene, and the choice to make vanessa the afton and not mike

like for the springlock failure scene, in all iterations of it, its always an instant thing

like in that one minigame scene, you hear them creak for a sec, and then they ALL chomp at once and he screams

but in the movie it was just kinda gradual which ig they had to do??

like how all the major death scenes were either off screen or like,,,,, shadows

which ig i understand bc they didnt wanna make it too exclusive by going all the way to r rated

but yeah in like all iterations of the springlock failure scene its always smth wet triggers in, and then bam they all go off, like theres springlocks EVERYWHERE like those fuckers puncture EVERYTHING

i mean we get like some close ups of them cutting into his stomach but like

still wouldve liked a more Instantaneous springlock scene

my only other real gripe with it was the choice to make vanessa the afton and not mike

really the choice to include her at All was odd to me like ever since the cast list came out

like just,,,,,,, chronologically why is she here (but hey when has fnaf ever liked its timelines

ANYWAY

the choice to COMPLETELY change mikes story by giving him the like dead little brother and alive little sister and like

someone actually pointed out a really good point where it was like

why did afton kidnap a kid from some random ass family at a campsite????

like the whole point was that stealing kids from the pizzeria was convenient, so why go all the way out to some forest in nebraska to kill a kid

but back to vanessa, like i understand how in the books there was the vanessa a., so obviously everyone thought that stood for afton, and even when she was in security breach people thought she was an afton

i just think the choice to make Her aftons kid, and make MIKE FUCKIGN SCHMIDT have zero relation to him was just Very Odd

---------

BUT ANYWAY. STRANGE STORY DECISIONS ASIDE THIS WAS SUCH A GREAT FUCKING MOVIE. THIS WAS MY FIRST EVER THEATRE HORROR EXPERIENCE, AND GODDAMN WAS IT WORTH IT. FNAF HAS BEEN SUCH A GENUINELY HUGE PART OF MY LIFE SINCE PROBABLY WAY YOUNGER THAN IT SHOULDVE BEEN, BUT SO MUCH OF IT HAS BROUGHT ME TO BE WHO I AM TODAY AND JUST. HGRHGHRGHGRHGHGRHGRGHHGRGHRGH

ANYWAY THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK :D

[grayzeppelin281]

Kung Fu Panda 4 Review, by GrayZeppelin

Eight years later. 

2016 to 2024

It is so good to see the Dragon Warrior again after eight years, willing to anticipate what Po has been up to after General Kai's defeat. This review contains spoilers, so I hope most of the audience watched the film like me, and I would like to share my opinions about Kung Fu Panda 4. For those who have not seen it, I suggest you look away immediately! Otherwise, if you want to know what the big deal is about, then knock yourself out.

Now, depending on the taste of what I watched, I will list the likes and flaws that caught my eye. Okay, here it goes. 

— It's so good to be home.

The first thirty minutes of it feel like you have returned to the Valley of Peace, seeing your old friends again. From there, with a slight disappointment, that would have had the film include the tale with old school side characters who are now absent — The Furious Five. After Po clarifies with the fans in the Valley of Peace, we understand that the Five began to do their missions (each one) despite the film needing to expand new characters in the play. 

Okay. New characters! I'll mention the fox Zhen and the sorceress villain, the Chameleon. 

— First things first. The Hall of Heroes update.

The corsac fox blending in the Jade Palace is an interesting one, which she was from being a thief as Zhen could do the stealing skills for a living. We get to see her in the Jade Palace stealing the antiques at the Hall of Heroes, where you can see a few statues you remember old characters from the past three films (my favorite one is Master Storming Ox). One of the items that I did not leave my eyes on is the weapon I recognized from the first film, where Tai Lung kicked the sword, and Shifu caught it and sent the blade to the marble floor — the Dagger of Deng Wa. 

(Drags! There's our favorite weapon right in front of our noses the whole damn time! Holy shit!)

I wrote my fanfic about the blade that, in my version, served with evil creatures past by the badger sorcerer whom I named Deng Wa, using the ancient weapon (dagger-ax) from the old dynasty as if the blade passed through generations forged into different ones before a wielder before the last made one character that turned on his brother to despise Oogway — my favorite villain General Kai, who deserves more attention than Tai Lung and Lord Shen. 

— My favorite pot is there! The Urn of Whispering Warriors!

(And for the love of spirits, guys! Give Tenshu and his pack a break, will you?! Gosh dang it!)

Okay. I wrote lore from my fic series about the wolves who served with the warlord Tenshu before he and his army of a thousand men defeated the horde of darkness before many fell. All of whom they died fighting returned with a vengeance to vanquish every foe before the rest of the souls were freed and went to the Spirit Realm; only nine wolves stayed with their souls cremated in the pot that Tenshu wished for him and his pack to be summoned once more when needed. The rest of the tale will be put to the side as I am off-topic and should write about KFP 4.

— Now, where was I? Oh, yes! Zhen.

The fox looked great, indeed, but the character would have gotten much more into deep complexities. The story briefly shows her past life as a thief for years because Zhen had no other choice but to starve or steal yuans for food to survive. Zhen's background story needs to explain further what caused her to be the only child without her parents. What exactly happened to them? What made her obey with the Chameleon? 

Alright. I have too many thoughts about the new villain. Amanda Waller! I mean. . . The Chameleon! Oh, my. A shape-shifting sorceress who can turn into any form, like the old bad guys from the past three movies? Whoa. . . This shape-shifting trick sounds like Po would have been scared to see the old enemies again when the sorceress could have gotten her advantage and terrorized him. 

— Three villains (The Trinity)

I loved seeing Tai Lung, Lord Shen, and General Kai return, so I witnessed their arrival before the Spirit Warriors. (To be honest, I praised the Jade Slayer's return because he remains the underrated character throughout the franchise.) Now, if you hope villains will have a reunion, your expectations will not be that hopeful, even if you want to anticipate the impacts with familiar characters. Let me explain. 

Did you expect Tai Lung to come back? That's good for you because his appearance is nostalgic, which, in my experience, being an old KFP fan for years, has made me miss Tai Lung since 2008. There is a slight redemption for him as if you would like to know if he admitted that Oogway was right about Po as the Dragon Warrior. It was good to see him again, but his redemption arc was not satisfying after the film. Shifu would have known about his son's arrival at that time but often stayed at Jade Palace and waited for Po to choose his new successor. Quite a bummer if you would have loved to see them two reunited, but those damages will occur to them after Tai Lung was rejected, fragmenting Tai Lung's core into a thousand pieces. But I am sure he now lives in the Spirit Realm and no longer mind the title.

Did you expect Lord Shen and General Kai's return? Great, but there are significant disappointments. One: They don't speak. And two: They briefly appear like a minute or more. These two would have gotten more meaning when Lord Shen could have spoken to Po about the last time the panda mentioned the past to let go, and Kai would have talked before seeing Po as a respectable warrior. I would have wished the three dead villains to do something for Po by defeating the Chameleon as a team. Otherwise, I am certain a few of you would like me to see what they could do — similar to the No Way Home reference. 

— Bow controversy.

The bow part could have been better for the three villains to speak with Po. With this scene, knowing that there is much fuss about only one thing that bothers many, I am concerned about what many of you thought about Shen, who "bowed" him. How could Li Shan celebrate his son's victory while the peacock was down there? Why did the scene not show Li's reaction to seeing Lord Shen alive (but still dead)? As an old KFP fan, this felt strangely like an insult because many pandas were taken and executed, but most of them, like Li, survived the genocide. This part must explain why the late Lord Shen bestowed Po for a good reason. Could Oogway or other dead masters like Master Thundering Rhino prove him about Po? What exactly did Shen become the "Spirit Warrior" after being crushed to death by his cannon — the Kung Fu killer? How could the honorable dead warriors allow the genocidal peacock lord to be in the Spirit Realm after he murdered Master Thundering Rhino?

If, by any means, wanting to bring back Shen (which a few people loved, but not for everyone), DreamWorks better have a good reason for him to be there. If it were redemption, that would be a big no-no after what he did to the pandas. Us fanfic writers love bringing him back (I am hoping to decide what to do with Shen finishing his arc from my series in the meantime), but as the same goes for whatever reason you want him in your story, ask yourself about it. If it is before or during KFP 2, you could do it. If he is dead, and you plan to resurrect him from the dead, writing his next arc is tricky and beyond complications.

Most of his former army of wolves would know if Shen appeared but thank the heavens because neither emerged. I would have wanted to see Wolf Boss in Juniper City for whatever he could do for work or a change of heart if Po recognized him right away somewhere in one of the alleyways. Or Soothsayer, because she only appeared in Gongmen City the last time. A little reunion thing for Shen could have been shown, but that would never have happened either way because I think, in my theory, Soothsayer is in the Spirit Realm with him and his late parents. 

— Okay. About the new villain.

I liked the Chameleon. Her appearance is marvelous, her size being "small" before she could shift to any form. I have to spill the beans about her villainous role, which most of you know about the character's lack of depth. Compared to what General Kai was capable of, to claim qi from all the masters, we know she wanted to steal their skills to dominate the Realm as she did to the old foes before the Spirit Warriors. There's a major downside to that one. Tai Lung, Lord Shen, and General Kai have their tragic backstories; she does not have one. The only lack of writing is where Chameleon talks to Po about temples. She tried to be a student, but no one wanted her because she was small.

Small? Are you effing kidding me? Would you like to have a therapy and talk with Mantis about it? Because I do not doubt that anyone can become a kung fu master of any size. Where in the heck did that lazy writing come from?

If she was that small but refused to be a kung fu master, where is her backstory? Where did it end her from a curious character to a villainous sorceress? This story could have shown what exactly happened to the Chameleon; her reason for not being accepted made her turn against those who did not want her in the first place before advancing her way to steal every master's skill. A villain without a background story is a red flag right there.

I found a video for the Chameleon to fix her character as a tragic one. She deserves more screen time and digging into her past. Write this writing lesson suggestion. 

Every villain needs a background story. PERIOD. 

Look at what happened to three baddies. And hey! Look at what happened to Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender (animation one)! I would really love to write about that, but it will take thousands of words for me to convince you why you should care about Zuko. Mostly, everyone knows about him, and we feel bad to see Zuko as a broken prince!

— Fathers!!

Oh yes. Mr. Ping and Li Shan! The good old-timers who look after their son Po. Every parent's job is to ensure nothing happens to the child, and we all see what Li and Ping are worried about Po. They go to him because it is the right thing for fathers to protect their son. While many try to kill off Po, Mr. Ping and Li Shan will be the ones who die while protecting him. Talk about the fathers of the year! 

They did not die, so good heavens. Li Shan remains improving as a fighter but still has much time to enhance. As for Mr. Ping, you know he would do better to ensure Po is safe and always be there with him and Li Shan. They would have gotten a Double-Dad Defense scenario when dressing up the armor.

— Kung Fu fighting.

I like it a lot. Lots of flows we saw. There is no further explanation after we saw the awesomeness and Chameleon's shape-shifting abilities to mimic every master's skills. Wolf bite! OWW! That's gonna leave a mark. Now, Po is a victim of his butt being bitten. Ask Marty from Madagascar. He has a story about it.

— Peach seed.

Oh, my. I had high expectations to see what would happen to Grandmaster Shifu. I almost predicted it as far as many of us would see him disappear as Oogway did. I remember feeling nostalgic when I saw Shifu give Po a peach seed, which reminded me of Oogway's farewell. Well. . . Maybe KFP 5 will happen to Shifu? Who knows?

If only DreamWorks leads in the right direction where Po will be in charge of defending the Realm as the Spiritual Leader while Zhen takes the role as the new Dragon Warrior, The Furious Five deserve more screentime because we care about side characters, not wasteful, not ignored. Since you made Puss in Boots doing his thing, why won't you create a story about the Furious Five if they are absent from KFP 4? If you are making another villain, please create the background story to make more sense instead of plot holes one stone at a time. Do better. Returning old villains was good, but it felt like bait to see Tai Lung speak and fight back, and Lord Shen and General Kai did not, especially not doing anything at all.

Sighs.

The Valley of Peace had more buildings. What exactly happened to not replicating those in the past three films? Budget wise.

Last but not least!

— Stingray!

I am concerned about what comes next to see dolphins in the future (which I hope not) after the Stingray becomes the first aqua mammal to appear. I'll give it an average. It's likable, but I am confused at the same time.

A few jokes are great, but does comedy need to be there? 70 percent comedy? There are good ones and some flaws, and a few serious scenes don't need to put laughing moments to lighten up. Since KFP 2, there has been comedy halfway through, and dark moments have taken over, thanks to Shen. KFP 4 should have gotten that opportunity for Chameleon to be the serious one instead of pushing someone to the stairs. She would have done something worse instead of being a joke. I love the Chameleon, but the writing is. . .

I am lost at it.

I will give the film a fair 6/10.

KFP 4 should have used 2 to 3 hours if you are fleshing out most possibilities. Like dead old foes to do something rather than doing nothing and wasting their arc (Tai Lung deserves redemption because he believes Oogway is right about Po. Kai should deserve more after accepting his defeat and would have hung out with Oogway in the Spirit Realm, teasing each other like in the old times. What about Shen? Perhaps not, but he would do some favors for Po. The peacock's redemption arc is unnecessary). The Chameleon would have gotten her background story to expand because it was a crime not to show her beginning before she became a sorceress. Put a 2-D reference to fill her tragic story about her. Make the audience care more about the characters and the story instead of rushing and leaving plot holes. Zhen? Of course. Show us why we care about her when she becomes Po's friend.

One last thing. As if the film has changed for children and the new generation to like it, Kung Fu Panda remains for all ages, old and young. As an old fan of Kung Fu Panda since 2008, I will unveil my first feeling after the first time I saw Kung Fu Panda 4, with all the high expectations going downhill to the grave.

"Disappointed."

That is all I have to write about that.

(I'll be turning off the notifications, so don't bother nudging me because I am mostly inactive here on Tumblr.)

[its-to-the-death]

Bracket F thoughts:

Jesus flipping crisis, those fucking elephant calls in "Prowler's theme" are so terrifying. Also I really like how it's basically Miles' theme in reverse, both because of how it emphasizes the relationship between Miles and Aaron and because of...certain events in Across the Spiderverse.

"Candy Store" has that bitchy confidence, but "Mother Knows Best" is the emotional abuser's anthem par excellence. Like I could do a whole ask dissecting all the shit Gothel pulls in that one song to undermine and manipulate Rapunzel.

(She'd be one of my favorite Disney villains if she wasn't also a heaping pile of antisemitic stereotypes...)

I was liking "The Music of the Night," but then it tried to murder my ears with that organ(?) at the end, so I'll give this one to "What's Up Duloc?", which is also admittedly quite good.

One of these won the 1994 Razzie for Worst Original Song. The other is Rachel L Hughes playing a megalomaniacal dictator crooning about her space train (which she fucks) that definitely is not going to unleash Yog Sogoth ;). Vote for "Odin" right now.

"Dressed to Oppress" is delightful, but oh my god that reprise of "Good Kid" in "The Last Day of Summer" hits like a truck.

As people have discussed in the notes, "The Convoluted Reasons We Pretend to Be Divorced" is not that villainous--and frankly I didn't find it as much of a bop as some other PnF songs I've listened to. "We Both Reached For the Gun" is a masterclass is manipulation as Billy plays the press for suckers so completely he doesn't even need Roxy to speak for him by the end. Also the fucking puppet acting, wow.

...Ok it might not be the best villain song, but "Penny battle theme" goes so hard I had to support it. Sue me.

I voted "Someone Gets Hurt," but they're both great. That one was close.

"One-Winged Angel" is iconic and intimidating, but I personally prefer the energy of "Cell-Block Tango." The dancing is amazing, the lyrics are witty, and the chorus is an earworm and a half. I also like the use of visual symbolism with the red handkerchiefs to symbolize how each murderess killed her victim(s)--except the innocent Hungarian woman, who dances angelic ballet to their aggressive tango and is the only one with a white handkerchief.

Who doesn't love an unabashed villainess who destroys worlds in battle armor and sneakers? "I'm the Bad Guy" is a bop.

"Pieces of You" is a goofy and terrifying fever dream of a song, holy fuck. The visuals give this one the edge for me. Also, don't you want to support The Substitute? He's just a little guy :)

"A Freak Like Me Needs Company" ultimately just got kind of lost for me--it focused too much on villains in general and not on Norman himself, while "The Only Thing I Know For Real" is both a kickass rock song and a great piece of characterization for Jetstream Sam.

...I don't know, I like Zelena's actress' singing and I think it's funny that she's not cursed to sing in this episode and she's just doing this for shits and giggles. I voted "Wicked Always Wins."

To quote someone in the comments of the "Bloody Party/Welcome to Cake Island" video, "This is the most Disney-like bulshit [sic] I have ever seen in an anime, and I fucking love it." What the fuck is happening. Why are these people committing casual mass murder for cake ingredients. Why are inanimate objects singing along with this pirate lady. I don't know but it scares me.

"The Smell of Rebellion" really picks up in the end, and "Love For Peasants" felt a little too unfocused musically. Also, @thatsluttytiefling mentioned that the song gave them "war flashbacks to the choreo," so it is villainous IRL as well.

Oh my god how the fuck did "This is the Thanks I Get" get released in this state. The lyrics don't rhyme properly and are exceedingly awkward to boot. The chorus is bland as shit. The visuals are boring. There's no buildup from "I'm an underappreciated hero doing my best for the kingdom and nobody respects me enough :(" to "I want ULTIMATE POWAH through DAAAAAARK MAGIC" and then it suddenly just switches back to how it was before??? It's not intimidating and scary, it's silly for all the wrong reasons, it's not even particularly sympathetic, and it is reeking of trying to be hip and cool and/or being written by people with too little time and too few fucks to give. "Heaven on Their Minds" is very good in its own right, but I kind of already knew which one was better before I even heard it, because this song just...doesn't do its job.

I agree that the villain Phineas and Ferb songs aren't among the best the show has to offer.