#which isnt true for the early early stuff

[judeharoldvich]

just found out there are people who hate channel awesome and think that the nostalgia critic videos are 'substitutes' for watching movies and don't fall under fair use. don't let them see subway surfers tiktok they'll have an anuerysm

[tealfruit]

totk has flaws like any game but tbh it has easily met and perhaps exceeded my expectations. BOTW was like my fav game ever but totk is EXCELLENT and has so much more to do in it too

[seriousbrat]

im asking this because you made a james one but can you make a jily meta if you have time🙈🙈

Anon I'm sorry for the delay in replying, I was thinking it through!! But it's nice to have something positive to talk about haha.

The loves of my life tbh. I really really like jily even though I think my snapeishness means I'm not as involved in mainstream jily fandom. I mean enemies to lovers always has its appeal and to me james and lily are a realistic, imperfect- but all the more compelling for it- appealing dynamic.

Obviously we don't get to see a lot of their actual relationship in canon, but I think that's why it's so fun to fill in the blanks. Personally I think it's pretty normal that they were drawn to each other and ended up in a relationship from what we know- they're both pretty big personalities, intelligent and charming and brave, they have similar goals and beliefs about the world, there was attraction early on (obviously in james's case, more or less confirmed by jkr in lily's- and b4 anyone starts in on lily for being attracted to him that's not something one can control, and she probs wasn't aware anyway).

Lily basically hated his guts, with good reason, so to go from that to dating there had to be a pretty big shift in both james and in their relationship (and likely lily too, or that's my belief). Honestly what I think is that in their final years at Hogwarts, the encroaching war brought on this new seriousness, and as lines were more clearly drawn in the sand it became obvious that lily and the marauders were on the same side of it. Things like sports, popularity, rivalries cease to matter in the face of a life-or-death conflict, you're forced to grow up and deal with it, and while for Severus this brought out the worst in him, for James it brought out the best.

People talk about James changing but I think a post SWM-lily was also changing. She set a very clear boundary with Sev and I think that was an important character development moment for her. Again, the war was on the horizon, their priorities were becoming clear, and I see Lily as becoming more sure of herself and her beliefs, less tolerant of bullshit from those around her. James was becoming more circumspect, more open-minded, more responsible, so when lily and the marauders were thrown together in natural alliance the two of them were just at a point where they were compatible.

I don't think their relationship was perfect and idyllic and all that, that would be less interesting anyway. It was probably hard sometimes. One thing I love when fics explore is the class differences between James and Lily; not only is he pureblood while she's muggleborn, but he comes from wealth where she comes from a humble little working-class family in the mids. There was probably a lot of stuff James didn't understand about her life; I feel like he probably tried his best anyway. Lily probably felt intimidated or defensive about her own background at times.

I don't doubt that they argued; in fact they got off on it probably enjoyed arguing with each other, given their personalities. Both of them were intelligent, opinionated, had an arguing kink, fiery people. Like I don't think it was this exaggerated screaming match sort of thing but I'm sure they loved a healthy spirited debate which maybe got a little out of hand sometimes.

I have touched on this previously but I see James as deep down pretty insecure (who isnt in this world apart from sirius black) and I think initially he was probably pretty insecure about Lily too. I do see him regretting his previous behaviour and thinking he isn't good enough for her and that he's incredibly lucky to be with her. which is true and he should suffer. but I have an upcoming scene (lily's first time at the potters') where james is like "i feel like i'm not good enough for you" and lily's like "shut up i'm the one who's not good enough for you" and they're like "great. i guess we're not good enough for each other. sorted i guess." My point being James actively tried to be a better man, Lily saw that and admired it. because she's good and wonderful like that.

Idk I guess I see it kind of as a realistic, flawed, but ultimately loving relationship. I'm sure there was a lot of stuff they had to work on over the few years they got :( but I'm also sure they had a lot of fun together because to me they just seem really compatible in so many ways as humans.

My belief is that they got married quickly because of the war (I also believe this about frank and alice, even though i see them as older) but it's likely they would have ended up married anyway, or at least in a long term, healthy, happy relationship.

Also the pottermore entry about Vernon and Petunia is my absolute fave for many reasons (love the vertunia of it all ofc) but also the little snippet about jily is golden. The double date between vertunia and jily is perhaps one of my favourite scenes I've ever written haha it's just such a good moment, basically the only canon info we do get about while they were dating.

[liquidstar]

speaking of greece and also oc side projects, i was trying to do worldbuilding on the "godless" ocverse. still in the concept stage but heres what i got

what i've already established is that this is a fantasy world where all of greek mythology is real, but the gods have abandoned the earth for a long time. after almost 2000 years, we're in the equivalent of the 1800s/early 1900s. the general conditions (as well as designs) are based on real life greece during that era. the main difference is that its much more peaceful- part of the reason im setting this in an alternate world is because im not doing this to tackle ottoman occupation, the pontic genocide, or world wars 1 and 2. a lot of that stuff is heavier than what i wanna do.

but i am still trying to tackle one thing about greek culture, specifically in relation to the gods. the history of hellenism is still something very deeply ingrained into the country's culture, and yet... idk if you guys have noticed, but the country has been christianized (the fact that the gods absence lines up w the anno domini era is on purpose). my goal isnt to romanticize ancient greece by any means, there was a lot wrong with it and im not one of those "roman empire" guys lol. but what i wanna do is get into that weird "gap" in greece's modern identity vs its ancient one, via the feelings of the characters and being abandoned by the gods and the bygone age of heroes. (and im aware ofc that a big part of that IS the heavier side of the country's history, even if i wont directly be tacking the aforementioned real world events)

MOSTLY i want it to be a fun romp though, i wanna pay homage to the adventures of heroes like odysseus, jason and the argonauts, perseus, heracles, etc., who would all be REAL historical figures in-universe! (well, heracles is a demigod) most likely ones the protagonists would idolize in their own adventures. im referencing the cambelion monomyth/hero's journey as a format for that, but i don't intend to lean too heavily on it either.

all that being said, i made a map :)

i chose the name "ilia" from the ancient greek name for troy- "ilion," which is also the namesake of homer's iliad.

the region is split up into different territories. all the territories still worship the gods equally, but they each have one main major sanctuary to focus on the olympians+hades (and i included both hestia and dyonisis, i think it would be funny if both region didnt consider the other one a true part of the lineup). the position of the symbols shows you where the major sanctuary is located.

again, all regions worship all the gods and have different temples throughout (smaller towns and villages may have their own temples dedicated to more specific deities) however, the major sanctuary in each area is what defines it because the hiereus or hiereia of these temples acts as a head of state (of course, a world where gods are real is a theocracy). the requirements for a hiereus/hiereia are to be gifted by the god of the temple, and be a dedicated scholar of their domain. theyre selected from a large group, through a democratic processes, usually leading for life.

i have names for each reason but theyre not set in stone so ill keep those on the back burner

i dont have a lot of specifics plot-wise figured out anyway, but wanted something to visualize the idea. itll put me on the path to figuring out exactly what that could entail! after all, even with the gods gone, plenty of supernatural things remain. enchanted/cursed relics, hallowed ruins, ancient monsters, the underworld, olympus, oracles, and, of course, the gifts!

[spatio-rift]

the only part of the karin filler episode that i strongly disagree with is what her life was like in oto. in my opinion the episode focuses too much on her healing abilities which wasnt why orochimaru valued her at all. its something kusa horribly took advantage of because they didnt see karin as a person but orochimaru had no need for that when he already had kabuto. karins sensory abilities are much more valuable to him since only one of her can guard an entire prison (efficient). which is why she was the warden of the southern hideout.

and that responsibility implies a certain level of trust. we know karin doesnt Fear orochimaru the way suigetsu does, so i really dont think she was treated the same way she was in kusa. and i do really believe orochimaru keeps his promises to an extent. he is genuinely charismatic and a LOT of people worked under him willingly. so other than some early testing to understand this ability that would have been explained to her and that she would have given consent to*, i really do believe he would have kept his promise to not let anyone else touch her and give her a safe place to exist in.

now of course we also know karin is not that loyal to orochimaru. that kind of background and protection from him could be enough for her to worship him the way kimimaro does. but well ultimately karin is just not that important to orochimaru that he would put on as much of a show for her as he did for kimimaro. and we cant forget that 1) orochimarus chakra is crazy disgusting and oppressive, and thats the first thing karin feels. its how she identifies people. no matter how good he could be to her she knows instinctively that his true nature is completely wicked, so it would be hard to truly let down her guard around someone like that, and 2) he did very much involve her in human experiments lol. she is not into that stuff like kabuto is. its traumatizing. that kind of thing sours a relationship pretty quickly.

all in all. i just think its nuanced. oto isnt just "prisoner going through hell" and "loyal followers who worship orochimaru like a god and see him as a savior and parent". shes just one of the many people in oto who are there to survive. i think its a choice everyone in oto who isnt blinded by orochimarus charisma (or into the whole vibe) makes at some point. to turn a blind eye to everything going on there and not make waves for their own safety or personal gain. to participate in it because outside would be worse, or they dont want it to happen to them

[ilatians]

I love Miles Edgeworth and his brain sososo much but like…. he’s so much sillier than people give him credit for and I feel like we need to appreciate this… like sure he dresses and speaks like a Victorian man but he’s also just a BIG SILLY NERD. Miles Edgeworth canonically doesn’t know anything about flowers, the music he listens to ISNT classical, it’s more like Japanese early disco, and he probably writes OERs on law for fun (and bc he’s a nice person). Not to mention ofc the whole Steel Samurai obsession, which btw I BET he was a huge Doctor Who fan and goes crazy over sci-fi stuff in general. Yes yes yes he’s super smart but he’s not PRETENTIOUS he’s just a closeted autistic nerd who likes cows and reading up on evidence law. I just feel like I see a lot of fics with Edgeworth being knowledgeable about everything and being in general very upper-class in his knowledge and preferences but I just believe that’s Not True; at home he snuggles with his dog and rewatches his favorite Steel Samurai episode for the 200th time that night while studying up on his case for tomorrow.

[muirneach]

fuck it uncle tupelo toxic yaoi. a brief overview

to set the scene, early 80s, jay farrar (et al) is a high schooler in a band with his brothers and they invite another student in (jeff tweedy) so they can play more gigs. within two months jeff and one of the farrar brothers start beefing and the brother leaves. off to a great start. but its all good they keep playing for the rest of the decade getting their music career going as uncle tupelo.

in 1990 they release no depression, heralding the true beginning of the alt country scene. 1991 there’s already beef with jay and jeff. meanwhile alt rock suddenly shows up but they keep doing country music so they don’t ever really get big commercial success. altho they do get good hits with the march 1992 album. also wikipedia tells me they kicked out a guy in the band for being gay because they (in hindsight) ‘couldn’t emotionally deal with being close friends with a gay person’. could mean nothing. anyways that isnt relevant. more guys enter the band and jay and jeff cannot stop arguing. i haven’t read all the stuff on the topic so don’t take this as gospel but i’ve always gotten a definite vibe of jay a) being really jealous of jeff for no reason and also b) lowkey manipulating and gaslighting him into him thinking he was like. a terrible person. at some point during this jay calls him a mamas boy which is relevant later (see linked song) and is fair he was kind of a sad wet cat of a guy at the time. anyways so jay quits the band and doesn’t even tell jeff he has to hear it from the manager!! but they do a farewell tour which immediately implodes because jay refuses to sing with jeff. insane. but that’s uncle tupelo done and dusted.

here comes my favourite part. all of the people in the band follow jeff into his new band, wilco. wilco releases their first album a.m., which is basically the same sound as the tupelo sound and it kind of flops at the time. it was kind of just jeff releasing something as soon as possible. meanwhile jay goes into his new band, son volt, releases trace which leans more country and it does really well in the scene. critics, as invested in this drama as me, immediately herald jay as the winner of the fight and jeff as a flop.

then wilco releases being there, a hell of a double album in a new musical direction that is also definitely one hundred percent about the implosion of tupelo. and it does sooo much better even though they didn’t even try to make a hit. meanwhile son volt releases THEIR second album, straightaways, and it does okay but not as well as trace. since then wilco has had enormous commercial success (guess who won a grammy!) and son volt went on hiatus a few times and jay farrar has bounced through a few bands.

so that’s the life and times of those two illinois white boys. i just really am enamoured with the tupelo implosion to a.m. -> being there vs trace -> lack of continued success narratives. like look who cannot escape the guy he fucking hates even though said guy is doing just fine without him!! lets all stream misunderstood 😁

[matoitech]

the thing abt gurren lagann is that there’s a lot of really intense and typical early 2000s homophobia in it that sucks ass but it feels a little easier to get past nowadays bcuz the director and writer team that made gurren lagann made promare ten years later. which has some things that feel like they exist to directly contrast against gurren lagann and show a much better version of what couldve been. i mean most obviously u have galos entire existence w his appearance and his behavior/the way he talks is kind of this juxtaposition against kamina. where kamina can be this embodiment of toxic masculinity (some of it u can argue is intentional and meant to be read as him being in the wrong, but a lot of it is bcuz it was 2007 and they thought it was funny) galo is a lot more intentional with combatting a lot of that ten years later as another over the top masculine action movie hero kinda guy. but he has shit like 'being normal to women' baked in2 his character so foundationally you only even think about it if youve Seen a gainaxtrigger production with an adult male lead before and you say 'wow, unfortunately that isnt typical.' his attraction to men also isnt treated like a joke, his relationship with lio is another foundational block in promare and taken rly seriously as a huge part of the narrative.

however trigger did not apparently learn anything actually about women (or race but thats a seperate post) in the last decade bcuz that shits still very present in promare. galo being respectful to women isnt a sentiment shared with the people who made the actual movie, probably more bcuz they thought people wouldnt like galo or recognize him as a good person in 2019 if he was weird to women (true but also why didnt it occur to them beyond writing their oc) (its also possible he was 'allowed' to be written as respectful to women bcuz trigger was writing him with the assumption he wasnt attracted to them so surely he would have no 'reason' to be a creep to women which is its own can of worms but thats just a possible branch of speculation based on how fiction written by misogynistic men often views misogyny and gay men)

*this post also doesnt get into the specifics of gurren laganns homophobia and particularly egregious bits of playing into both predatory and transmisogynistic stereotypes at times, particularly with leeroy (good god leeroy is awful), but since promare is a lot better abt this stuff in the first place its not really relevant w comparisons, unless you want to talk about lio and gender nonconformity in 2019 vs 2007 but they’re just not rly on the same league at all

[teammelodies]

New animation, and NPCs

SO! Stuff has happened.

I've been sort of hyper-focused on the astrea mod

I now know why padding exists

The yellow shader refuses to change colour

the player's talk animations now work correctly when not in a cutscene

And I need to stop procrastinating on getting started adding new dialogue to the dark ruins and snowdin instead of just the wild east.

More under cut

~~~

So anyway, I've been working on changing the first wild east mission

My current plan is to have it change depending on the player's current level (Much like the martlet neutral roof cutscene)

Any level over 3 gives something similar to the base game cutscene

But if you're on true pasifist or at least below level 3

You get treated to this little animation

This is the most current version of the animation, I will improve upon it to make it look alot better.

Won't say anything else about that to avoid spoilers ;)

Moving on to a more ambitious idea

If you played UTY (which, if you havent go play it, it's free), you'll know that Clover went underground to find the other humans. However, it isnt exactly expanded upon other than people telling us they're dead.

We know they're dead, and clover sort of pieces that together early on, but we don't know HOW they died, which is where I introduce the first new NPC, i'll be adding to the mod, and who will be part of that project i talked about.

This is Elsie Salvia

She's a sheep monster based on the Valias Blacknose

She's the one who ends up finding Hope in the Ruins instead of Toriel.

But I'll talk more about her role in Hope's story in detail later

For now...

This is what she's going to look like in the astrea mod

You're probably asking questions about how big a time gap it was between Hope falling and Astrea falling for Elsie to be an adult... the answer to that is, it's ambiguous!

A thing of note about Elsie is that she's a boss monster, and boss monsters stop aging after a certain point until they have kids themselves.

So Elsie's age is left a mystery.

You'll meet Elsie somewhere in snowdin (I haven't decided yet). The player will be able to talk with her and, at some point, will be able to ask about the fallen humans.

I'm considering adding a new room for Elsie's home where the player can hang out and learn more about what happened to Hope.

The plan is to have something similar for the other humans, too, and the dialogue in the endings change depending on if you talked to all the new NPCs or not.

But I'm still yet to design NPCs for the rest of them.

There's also the issue of integrity having attacked monsters, that I'll need to translate to Olive (my integrity soul oc) somehow in a way that doesn't change up the general story with chujin and kanako too much.

My first thought is that it was a misunderstanding, but that wouldn't explain why Olive had an impure soul.

Then I thought, "Maybe it was an accident," or "Maybe they were protecting kanako" or something, but that last one doesn't make much sense.

I'll have to figure that out later.

[possiblylando]

another not so early analysis on Chainsaw Man Chapter 141

I was busy killing people with my mind okayy

The Chainsaw Man Curry Buns are a pretty interesting double edged metaphor. The primary being that Chainsaw Man is starting to lose stock as a person and protector in favor of elevating him toe this godly status. Half is 1/2th, There are two Chainsaw Men now, Only one of which is active now. The Fake one, Who is basically a half off knock off copy. Additionally Denji's life has been split in half as he's no longer able to become Chainsaw Man, Making him Half off aswell. Really cool stuff.

Its interesting that Denji has specifically chosen to wear a different shirt. His usual ones have a hole cut into them so that he can put the ripcord through it and easily turn into chainsaw man without any issue. But now that part of himself is physically blocked off. His muscle memory is to pull it when he sees a devil, So he's done this to stop himself from doing it out of reflex.

The choice to make these first pages entirely devoid of dialog is a neat touch which reflects denji's current attitude. He still has to go about life, The life he wants. But it still feels empty. There's nothing interesting going on that would even require dialog.

Denji's maturity is commendable but still very sad. He's willing to give up his own happiness for the good of others. He's still able to find some joy in it but he's not able to find happiness through fulfillment anymore. Also Fujimoto just drew Nayuta once and called it a day lmao.

So we've got; Flamethrower, Sword, Spear, Whip here. Which is interesting because they're the only ones here that we see. Meaning Quanxi, Reze, And Katana Man are all absent. It could mean they aren't apart of the church. It would make sense of Quanxi to have fucked off. Katana Man hates Denji so obviously he's never join the church. Reze is an interesting case. There are two possibilities. 1. Reze isn't in the church 2. Fujimoto is saving her for a big reveal in the coming chapters

We will absolutely be seeing Miri begin to act for himself in the coming chapters. His arc is pretty clearly being set up. >Only Weapon who isnt a total psycho or pawn >Wants to be friends with Denji and doesn't gaslight him like the others >Doesn't want to kill people for no reason >Doubting the church's doings. He's deep into indoctrination but he's still showing is true self. I hope he actually gets to survive this arc.

Gay people can't spell stereotype.

Barem is going to get kicked in the nuts so hard. It'll be so fucking funny. Just you watch. Everytime there's an absolutely insane evil guy for denji to fight he kicks them in the nuts. He only hasn't done it in awhile because the big bads of part 1's latter half were all women.

[rivalkieran]

hi. this is the post where I talk about sordward and shielbert.

ok so basically their goal is to get famous and powerful and boost the family name even further by riding off the legacy of the hero of galar that saved galar from the first darkest day. which isnt really That bad except for. well. the legend of the "hero of galar" is also a completely false narrative woven in order for them to gain fame as the descendants of that "hero". (sonia's subplot is now uncovering their alterations of history instead of just Vague darkest day stuff)

the legendary dogs are what originally saved galar from the first darkest day but for obvious reasons they cant exactly use that story to their advantage and be able to take all the credit so they just. changed the story. they covered up evidence of the dogs' existence and used their rich people influence over the media to plant the idea of a human hero into the public conscious instead. they even got a statue built of the false hero! this obfuscation of the legendary dogs' origin story is also why theyre so weak at the beginning of the story and barely holding onto the physical plane

they also manipulate rose and push him deeper into the idea that he HAS to awaken eternatus because they need eternatus to act as the villain in their reenactment of the false hero's story (rose probably wouldve awakened eternatus unnecessarily early anyway the twins just. pushed the date forward a few years). so basically theyre the true big bad of galars story. and by they I mean SORDWARD IS THE BIG BAD OF GALARS STORY!!!!!!

sordward plans to throw shielbert to the side and take all of the recognition for himself at the last second. he's a foil for victor who is also manipulating his sibling for his own gain and also both of them are very aware of the others' schemes (well sordward doesnt know about the fate-seeing stuff he just knows victor is setting up gloria to become the hero and he cant have that because He's going to be the hero) and theyre actively playing unspoken mind chess with eachother throughout the story

[kirk]

hiiii i’d love to hear your thoughts on the hiatus revisionist history if you feel comfortable sharing :^)

ouhhh yeah ofc ill try not make this too long cause its not like groundbreaking nor like complicated yk i honestly just think both when they say they were still friends AND never spoke are both true statements like... 3-ish years IS a long time, especially for two guys who spent. nearly 10 years together almost Constantly yknow? so...

a lot can change and shift in those 3 years. if we look at like... the lead up to the hiatus you can definitely see patrick be a lot more distant with pete (except for a few examples that are like... oh ok you weirdos made up for a week huh) and its obviously from all the tension and just, natural drifting cause of that tension and then the start of the hiatus i really think they did not speak much at all, both because of the grieving of the "loss" of the band and the anger that grieving would fuel, etc. like even if they always thought it was always an hiatus, theyre dramatic, if they dont do it anymore for any length of time its like the end of the fucking world <3 so start of hiatus i feel like, they did not speak and that was when patrick would like... not return calls to pete, or talk to him much, he probably was fully in like... trying to gather together stuff to make his solo projects and we all know patricks just MIA when hes in creating mode, and he was 100% using that to deal with the "loss" of fob, we then get to pete's divorce and i feel like around this time they wouldve reconnected a bit again but maybe after a bit of back and forth (eg the "what do u want" text bit), a good example of them reconnecting in some form would be pete suddenly bringing out his stump club shirt in 2011 like a month after his divorce

i feel like because of his divorce and ofc patrick being around for all of his relationship with ashlee, they would have reconnected in a time that pete wouldve needed comfort and familiarity and it had been over a year since the hiatus started so the initial grief and anger wouldve 100% died down and i feel like this is when pete would have said like. you dont even know my son, etc, like patrck was also at petes place for a good chunk of time in april 2011 which is only shortly after pete brings out that shirt, however, some shit happened after this that we literally have no clue What and they kinda fall out again, maybe not fully like what happened at the start of the hiatus but definitely a falling out again (eg patrick saying in zane lowe "i thought we were [fine] but then you--") and fast forward then to all THAT stuff with SP being redone and redone way more angrily and then we get to death of a pariah and it kinda really makes them reconnect but like... less to do with familiarity (repeating the cycle of how they got into a tension-filled mess that resulted in the hiatus in the first place) and more to do with, lets rebuild, lets do this different, lets go back to our roots and do it to create again, lets go back and relearn what made us best friends in the first place and we can really... really see that, i wont show it but the leaked picture of pete and patrick at patricks wedding in 2012 really shows the like, rebuilt relationship i think, the youthful joy again that just wasnt there on the lead up to the hiatus nor in patricks depression-filled frenzy with SP and then. well. it kinda just never broke after that, amen. so basically. yeah they both WERE still friends/considered the other their friend but also they probably didnt like each other much/didnt want to see the other for at least TWO chunks of time during the hiatus until the Actual Healthy Reconnection circa early 2012-ish where they dont just reconnect in a way they were used to but instead in a way that was to rebuild from the ground up. this part is a little speculation cause im not pete nor patrick but i feel like because patrick normally isnt that explosive and open about his mental health, pariah just kinda forced the both of them to REALLY talk, because, patrick had put it all out there, there was no taking it back, pete now knew how patrick felt and well. as patricks biggest hypeman he couldnt let that go and it just forced patrick to just fucking talk about how he felt for once, which allowed pete to recontextualise shit and also heal from shit which in turn let him help patrick heal a bit, esp with those early songwriting hang outs p2 had, which then in turn made patrick more open to asking how joe felt which allowed joe to feel happy to come back to fob which in turn rebuilt fall out boy. etc. yeah. anyway hi. i love to ramble

[johnniestheme]

simon and stellas lore

heavily based off the hawaii pt ii album by miracle musical

(early summer) 

determined to impress his deadbeat father, simon sails off to hawaii on a fishing trip. he finds himself caught in a storm which destroys his ship and leaves him washed up on the beach with nothing but the clothes on his back. stella finds him and gets him help. the octangulas offer simon a place to stay, in return for working on the small family orchard.

(late summer now, simon and stella have established a relationship together)

the city holds a yearly ball to celebrate the end of summer. simon asks stella to go with him and she agrees. after a while they sneak out the back and run off to "their spot" 

(an abandoned stone lookout on a cliff, with a view of the ocean)

as they jog through the forest together, simon catches his foot on a small branch. not realizing her date is currently on the ground, stella keeps running. simon scrambles up and immediately starts yelling out her name. his shouts grow more frantic as he hears a scream in the distance. blood seeps from her chest as he finds her collapsed on the stairs of the lookout, a knife sitting not far from her body. he gives her one last quiet goodbye before running off to the local police station for help. the group of men follow him to the spot of her murder, and simon is detained as one of the officers notices the blood on his hands. 

uuruurgghhh the court stuff is boring but basically the evidence is stacked so high against simon that he decides to plead insanity for what he assumes will be a lighter punishment. he is sentenced to electro shock therapy (before anesthesia was common) and is to be shipped off back to the mainland of the states to spend the rest of his life in an institution. 

(mid/late winter)

simon escapes after months of enduring the torture of the asylum. by the time he got out, the electro shock therapy had done a number on him. he forgot almost everything about him or his life, including stellas death. he only knows that he longs for someone, and that someone is in hawaii. determined to find her, he steals a small wooden rowboat, planning to sail off back to hawaii to find her. 

with absolutely no plan or preparations, simon takes off in the dead of the night. his mental health worsens the longer he is alone at sea, considering hes slowly starving to death. 

(this next part is planned to dsism, down to the very second, but ill try not to be too wrapped up in their every move)

in the middle of the third night, simon hears the sound of the water stirring. lifting his head, he sees stella standing over the water, looking no different than the night of the ball. she reaches out her hand, and as he grabs it, he is suddenly in his suit. the feelings of hunger and worry wash from his body. he doesnt feel tired anymore, just at ease. they dance on the water, and slowly up into the clouds, where they reside happy in heaven together

the end :3

and just to clear a few things up:

-the story is set in the 1960s

(in the original ref sheet drawings it says 1940s but my dumbass forgot hawaii wasnt a state until 1959)

-i have 2 versions of my hpii story. the first one (this one) is less realistic and has a few unnecessary changes because i just decided i wanted to

the second one is my hpii movie concept ideas. the movie concept is pretty similar with 2 exceptions. 

1: its more realistic (stellas last name isnt octangula, the court system is more true to life ect ect)

2: it sticks to the album better 

-last thing to know is im dyslexic so pretty please ignore the grammar mistakes. because of the built in spell check, spelling isnt usually a problem, but i do sometimes overcompensate with my punctuation, so theres probably a few out of place commas out there.

[astronnova]

Okay but I wouldn't purely blame LMK for the flanderization of Tripitaka. All the flanderized depictions in fan works I've seen are from people who actually read the book and made fan art of the original source. And both versions of Trip develop into better people, anyways. Also, it's a little hurtful to say that most people don't analyze what they read, no? Granted, it's a kids show so much of the fanbase are minors, but like...kids will be kids.

my bad that it came across as hurtful! thats not my intention, i meant it as more of an objective viewpoint on something that's become widespread online and irl then just an insult to people.

unfortunately, a lot of people within the uhhh lets say 15-early 20s range dont... dive as deep into literature as they should. you ever heard of that one meme about "the door is blue because the author liked the color blue" ?

this is just one of many, and you couldnt go anywhere online without seeing somebody make this kind of joke. schools dont even really teach deep analysis of literature recently (i should know, ive been in multiple english lit classes and most of them don't dive as deep as you could and should. the only one that does that is with my most recent professor), and this stuff happens in highschool. yknow, during students most formative years of learnin stuff.

kids shouldnt just get a free pass on choosing to ignore the main point of a piece of literature because "kids will be kids". literature is the backbone of critical thinking, most people develop that skill through reading, and stories have a greater purpose, especially classical ones, than just "heres a show that provides constant stimulation with no reason".

i probably sound a little crazy or something, and im not articulating this as well as i could due to me taking *checks notes* two melatonin like 30 minutes ago BUT anyway tldr for that section is that a lot of people just dont dive deep into literature and its true meaning. a lot of folks like only looking at the surface level bits because its so much easier and simplier than writing an 1000 word essay about the importance of a certain theme within a piece of classical literature or something

steering this back to monkie kid,

the thing i explained above i think is one of the sources as to tripitaka, and sun wukong's, flanderization within the monkie kid fandom. instead of looking at the characters with the original intent of the religious text, its looked at as more of a "well he did X so he's a bad person". its too literal for a religious allegory. trying to apply strict "real world black & white morals" onto characters like this just wont work and will end with every character from the original jttw with the label of "bad person".

i could go onto a whole rant about how the recent decline of deep analysis of literature is the reason so many people seem to prefer "childrens cartoons" (because of the easier to understand morality/lessons) over, say, classical work or hell even some modern classics. this isnt an insult towards ppl that like "kids cartoons" btw, like look at my whole blog its just about cartoons LOL . i think theres more than just that one reason as to why people, at least online, gravitate towards childrens cartoons (likely because theyre more fantastical rather than trying to cater towards "adult gritty realism" and are animated, which is hard to find nowadays with all this "live action remake" junk), but i do think its one reason.

again, my bad if i sound like an ass or something or if i dont make sense, its like 12 am and i shouldve been asleep like an hour ago but im easily distracted LOLOL . but yeah, i think the source of the flanderization is just people misunderstanding the point of the original text and trying to apply modern storytelling conventions to something thats meant to be a big ass metaphor for enlightenment

[princess-of-the-corner]

So after a surprize illness, a bit of energy building and realising both that i forgot to justify a kwami swap and that i probably dont need to worry about that in a tumblr ask later, here is the promised ramble/explanation of the Theatre Kids AU, this time fully corporeal!

The basic gist of the AU is that Kagami is the Ladybug holder and Lila is the Black Cat, yet somehow Paris isnt dead.

Yes, this does mean that they have no idea what the deal is with a seasons worth of the akumas since they probably werent there, but i consider that part of the charm ('sides, I think the heroes having to go from thinking of the Akumas as the occasional nuisence to as actual people they know sounds fun)

To be perfectly honest the title of the AU doesnt mean too much for the story, it just happened to be the only common denominator between the two of them. I guess i could stretch it with some " /acting/ properly vs true to yourself" thing but that doesnt feel too good.

Lila mostly gets to be a hero early on because Plagg has domain over bad luck which prevents her from abusing her powers + some public goofs during Stoneheart getting her to decide to play up the whole "Goofy approachable girl" angle.

Kagami's main thing of the AU is just learning to open up and trust others on both sides of her mask because Tikki and Tomoe together arent too good at noticing that kind of problem. She doesnt even really /like/ heroing for the most part, she just genuinely believes there is no better person for the job

I made Lila Aro/Ace here so no love square between the heroes, but Kagami has a crush on Marinette who still has her /thing/ with Adrien to keep the spirit of it alive

And for our last part, some misc stuff!

-I got a bit tired of there being just the one villain so I made Pharaoh, Darkblade and Bugfighter permanent (i might have the guys from the paris special stick around too, depends on how it goes)

-I made Lila's multimom situation a mix of messed up adoption papers and a polycule. Canon gives me stupid plot points, i give them stupid explanations

-I decided to fix the whole incident with the Bee-Bugfighter by just having Chloe speedrun the Queen Wasp incident and is only given the Pig afterwards as a less dangerous/mentally healthier alternative (and Daizzy was told not to reveal the transformation phrase until she thinks the situarion is bad enough. Sometimes a found family is a girl, a mech and the god of joy)

-Zoé is the tiger and is basically she-Rath. I didnt even do that it just appeared in the doc/j

-I didnt know what to do with Felix so I made it a gag that he's basically living out a copyright-evading version of canon. Then i started tweaking the events on his end so now he's basically in Hero Chat. Sorry for the theft there, if its a problem i can just make it straight canon.

Oh fuckin dope!

[loverofallthingssmart]

PLEASE UNLEASH your hadestown demons!!!!!

unleash my hadestown demons is right this is a BEAST thank you very much ive satisfied the brain worms by dumping all my thoughts under the cut

first off. the beauty of live theatre allows for so much nuance and beauty to demonstrated so i cant even begin to cover all the things that could make me insane its so wonderful i love live theatre everyone should watch at least one live theatre production i believe it will solve at least one problem they have

the tragedy of it all!! its a sad song but we sing it anyway, in hopes that we hope that orpheus doesn't turn. but he will. bc he loves eurydice so much so he went down to the underworld to save her.

guys. the repeated, cyclical nature of everything. its an old tale from way back when and its a sad song but they sing it anyway. the point of hadestown is the HOPE of it all wait theres an article (https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/anais-mitchell-hadestown-west-end-broadway-b1134613.html) regarding mitchell's thoughts on orpheus that make me insane im gonna paste a quote here:

"If Hadestown has a moral, she says, then it’s “you have to try, you have to have hope, not because success is a given – it’s not. Orpheus fails. We heroicise” – here she breaks off to apologise that jet lag has led to her making up words – “we heroicise Orpheus not because he succeeds but because he tries, and that endeavour alone is worthwhile. How to live, and not merely survive, is to believe things could change.” ARE U KIDDING ME OURGHH

which brings me to the topics of like. climate change and capitalism that the play discusses its so good. the fact that there's no spring or fall, only summers and winter because of persephone's absences, how "is it true" is just a song abt labor protests red carnations are a symbol of love and passion yes, but in germany theyre a symbol of the working class protest. its SO important hades has just created an industrial revolution, has built a wall, has workers work forever, "why we build the wall" is soooo incredible "hey little songbird" "chant" all the songs that take place IN hadestown itself are sooo gritty so despondent in a way its insane.

theres another article that discusses sm of it AND discusses like portrayals of persephone that i REALLY like. im gonna paste it here PLEASE read it it has so much good stuff from a classics person regarding it and OURGH too good

orpheus's "to the world we dream about" but then also "the one we live in now" like oh.okay. im NORMAL….

if u noted every single lalala in hadestown it would be 6 min long. the leitmotif oh i am so normal actually.

okay im not rlly a music person i call myself music adjacent bc my two closest friends r music ppl LMAOJDHJS but like. the first time u hear eurydice say "i do" i.e what you say to seal a marriage is after she tells orpheus she signed the papers. she does not say "i do" in the entireity of wedding song, where they talk abt their nuptials. she says "i do" in informing orpheus she cant come up with him. that she chose this life (or death i guess) of her own doing. isnt that vile….

in wedding song she goes "is he always like this" and hermes responds but then in "a gathering storm" she asks the same question to no response.. idk what's there but something is there.

hermes being the narrator thats involved in the play is SOOOO delicious for my brain, the way he switches between a character involved in orpheus and eurydice getting together, invested in their relationship to a all-knowing narrator who knows the end bc he sees this every time.

there's this sense that only orpheus and eurydice do not know they r in a repeated play. which heightens their love at first sight, the "i feel like i know u but ive just met you" OHHHHH my god.

the original nytw script having orpheus say "ur early. i missed u." directly paralleling hades and persephone but in a different context because OHHHHMYGOD and not even that but the fact that mitchell took it out bc she believed it engaged the brain when the moment should only directly engage the heart. so she had the lovers say each other's name. one last time. im soooo normal

also this is bc one time i was thinking abt hadestown and mitski's remember my name played so . just that song in the context of hadestown is SOOOO bc like. like. how eurydice couldn't rmbr herself when she became a worker but orpheus went down to save her and she remembered.

when he turns back and says.

"it's you" "it's me"

^ are you fucking kidding me. the sort of disbelief the happiness the love the incoming grief im inconsolable.

when orpheus turns back, eurydice says his name w so much joy SO MUCH JOY she is not upset at him. "what was there to complain of, except that she'd been loved?" <- quote from metamorphoses

like yes we wish orpheus doesnt turn around but at the end of the day, orpheus is still the trusting guy he was in the beginning. EURYDICE on the other hand KNOWS how cruel the world is and chooses to trust orpheus anyway. but. "it's a tragedy" and doubt creeps in. part of the tragedy lies in the fact that eurydice, "all ive ever known is to hold my own" eurydice runs after him w open arms, chooses to trust him, chooses to follow the trial, and he still turns around. BECAUSE he loves her ohhhmygod im so normal

obligatory mention to the fact that orpheus could never finish the song he was working on because it was a duet. like okay lol. im fine im normal hahahahaha are u fucking kidding me.

hades and orpheus are mirrors, there r two relationships in the musical obviously and it is clear theyre mirrors of each other even w/o the original script line but like.

hades gives orpheus the test that he himself goes through every spring. hades is the villain of the story yes but he is not evil. he gives orpheus the same trial, sees that if orpheus can judge him for losing faith in his wife through the course of their relationship, let's put his romantic nature to the test. let's see if he can feel the absence of his love and keep going. and he cant. bc orpheus has never had to learn how to fend for himself. so when u take away his support system, when u take anyone's support system, how is he, how r we supposed to succeed?

just. the song "how long" encapsulates hades and persephone's relationship SO WELL. "the girl means nothing to me." "i know. but she means EVERYTHING to him" the fact that this is the first time we persephone REFUSE a drink bc shes had enough oh were SOMBER somber the way the whole song just parallels itself and every verse GOD.

the love was there. the hope was there. its a sad song. its a love song.

every single time before they leave. every time they're on stage, eurydice is in front of orpheus. he trusts that she is before him and she never doubts that he is there. it is when their positions change, him in front and her behind that he bends. it is then that doubt comes in.

those r just the like the thoughst of the music and themes itself we can talk abt the ppl and the live play now:

so first. can we talk abt this we need to talk abt for reeve carney's last show the original orpheus his last show he didnt turn back. he and eurydice lived they passed the trial. sorry that makes me so insane bc like. imagine u play orpheus. doomed to a lifetime of looking back at ur lover and your final show, u finally get to stay. oh im very normal i just love the nuances of live theatre!!! what a send off!!!!

THEN we can talk abt how eva and solea play PERFECT eurydices, full of grit and used to the cruel nature of the world. and how lola tung i feel is a DECENT singer but shes not a eurydice shes so light and soft but idk. who am i to say.

also the soundtrack is just SO incredible so is the set design there's not a single ounce of stage space that is wasted like there are so many nuances like i cant even talk abt all that there is my FAVORITE musical for SOOO many reasons ough.

yeah i think that's it. this took me MULTIPLE hours and i feel drained abt talking abt all this. WOW i love hadestown not normal amounts. i can't die before i see this live its one of my goals i just need to see it live on broadway.