#which malice categorically does not

[hellenhighwater]

Is your face ok? Flying cats and phones hurt

yeah I'm fine, the noise was mostly because she managed to get me in the mouth and also I was wearing a tank top, so lots of claw-to-skin contact.

No bloodshed. This time.

Also, you know how when you meet a person who has the same name as you and you immediately have to mentally determine which of you would win in a fight to the death, either physically or psychologically? For the first time in my life I met a potentially Superior Hell. This was a couple weeks ago now, and Potentially Superior Hell has sent tribute in the form of several entire cowhides, which I assume is so that we can be friends forever instead of eternal nemeses. Either would be lovely, honestly.

I think I'm gonna need to take some of that leather and work on making some kind of shoulder armor so Malice doesn't maul my left arm entirely off. Her balance is not always to be trusted.

[gaylordscooter]

Say Goodbye to Your Name

Ever since the twins fought, the guardian of negativity made it his goal to ruin the balance. He didn't care which way it went at first, but he was feeling awfully sluggish recently as it tipped in favor of positivity. 

His brother was giving it his all to make everyone happy. Everyone but him.

He was always like that.

Figures that they would be programmed to feel the need to keep the balance, but he had a thought: if he powered himself using only a few people, how would that affect the balance?

He's noticed how proximity affects their energy. Being physically near someone who’s feeling happy or sad affects him more than the infinite multiverse does. He presumed proximity gives them easier access, therefore more energy.

Still, one person wouldn't be enough to fulfill the quota. Besides, one person could only give so much negativity before running out, and it would be hard to give them a break without companionship. Maybe if he got multiple that disliked each other he wouldn't even need to do anything.

Three sounded like a good number. It was odd and meant they couldn't split up into pairs. Pairs would be annoying to keep track of. He would want them all to stick together when he puts them through…

Put them through what? Torture? Torment?

Nightmares.

Now that was a nice word. He remembered his brother explaining to him what those were after helping people get over a particularly bad one.

He didn't know that he was the one that caused them.

It wasn't out of malice, he was keeping the balance like he wanted him to. Like the multiverse wanted him to.

Besides, without a nightmare every once in a while, they wouldn't be able to fully appreciate good dreams.

But of course, even when he was doing his job, he was doing something wrong.

As for which people to power himself with…He already had a vague idea.

There were three prominent sources of negativity coming from different universes. Not once have they faltered even with all of his brother’s meddling.

They’d need a place to stay. A big building where all of them can live. Perhaps a mansion or castle.

As for where it would be located, he already stayed in a pocket of the Antivoid which was far away from Error’s.

With a wave of the hand he created a forest and a castle. It was more of an illusion than an actual building, but when it felt and looked like a building, what difference did it make if it wasn't “real”?

And now for actually rounding them up.

Something New was the first universe he went to. He wasn't sure how the naming schemes of the universes worked, he assumed that the Ink guy was the one naming them all, maybe for categorizing.

The world was empty save for one lone skeleton.

He always hated the feeling of loneliness.

It didn’t take long for him to find him, with only one person in the universe he might as well have a target over his head.

He was, predictably, in his room at Snowdin, currently playing a game on his computer.

He was talking aloud, whether to himself or to someone, he wasn't sure but he bet on the former.

“sans, turn around there's some weird octopus thing behind you,” he read the text on his screen aloud. He chuckled and continued tapping away at his keyboard. “you’re not distracting me that easily.” He frowned as he scanned over the words on the screen. “chat, you’ve tried doing this before you're not gonna get me…” he trailed off as the guardian entered his peripheral vision. He choked out a nervous laugh, tearing off his LED cat-eared headphones as he swiveled his chair towards the being.

“Hello,” it said.

Was this some fun event no one’s ever documented before? No, there was something off about this code, it didn’t match with the rest of the game. The coding language wasn’t anything familiar.

Great, not even the anomaly was familiar with whatever this thing was.

“hey,” he greeted.

The creature scanned the room, its many tentacles flicked around the floor like they had brains of their own. He wasn’t sure where the thing’s cloak started and tentacles began, or maybe they were the same thing. Its singular cyan eye looked akin to a human’s eye flipped vertically. At first glance it looks pitch black, but the tar surrounding it has a slight blue-green tinge to it. Its hands, however, were bright cyan like its eye and looked skeletal.

“You’re all alone,” it said.

“yup.”

“Your world is of no use to you anymore,” it said.

“uh.”

Its head leaned closer with its eye piercing at his empty sockets. Some of the tar on its face melted away, revealing a sharp grin of cyan teeth.

Funnily enough, he couldn’t feel the presence of the anomaly right now.

He decided to place his elbow on the arm of his chair and leaned his head against his hand. He exaggeratedly moved his head up and down to show that he was looking it over. 

“you’re kinda hot.”

As expected, the thing reeled back.

It looked to the side, hiding its mouth once more and clasping its hands together. All its tentacles curled against its body. Was it flustered?

A moment later it composed itself, moving its hands to its back and straightening its body to full height.

He had to move his head up to make eye contact.

“You can leave this world, if you come with me,” it offered.

“wait, actually?” He perked up, believing he heard wrong. Wait, what did “leave this world” mean? Like, die? Is this thing Death?

“I have a place for you to stay, in another universe. It’ll have all things vital for a mortal like you, shelter, food, water.”

Freedom from this hell? It was highly likely the anomaly wouldn’t be able to follow him. That sounded too good to be true.

He quirked a brow bone. “what’s the catch?”

“There will be two others living with you. You will not be able to return here. I will be feeding off your negativity.”

Well he didn’t mind those first two—What was that last one?

“huh?”

“Oh, and I forgot to mention,” its arm reached out. Suddenly, it held him up by the collar of his shirt. “You don’t have a choice.”

It tossed him backwards. His back hit the ground roughly, but the texture was all different. The ground was vaguely pointy. When he opened his eye sockets he realized he was lying down on grass.

The sky was blue. He could see the sky.

Was this the surface?

“No, this is not the surface,” the thing said as if it read his mind. Could it read his mind? “But you are not underground either.” A tentacle pointed towards a castle in the distance. “That is where you’ll be staying.”

The castle looked exactly like its owner, dark and imposing. It was like it had it custom made and gave the architects a picture of itself for reference.

He whistled, impressed.

“You’ll have to walk there yourself. I need to get the other two residents you’ll be staying with.” It opened a portal, so that’s how they got here, and stepped through before he could respond.

The next universe he went to was similar in concept to Something New, Dusttale. Like the other one, it was empty and it was easy to locate who he needed. Unlike the other one, he wasn’t sitting around in his room, but aimlessly wandering around the Snowdin forest.

Something was off, he thought. He would walk here everyday. This time he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

YOU’VE LOST IT.

He lost it a long time ago, but he's never felt like this.

YOU CAN ALWAYS BREAK SHARDS INTO SMALLER PIECES.

True, but he was inclined to believe something was there. So of course he was on guard.

I WOULDN’T EXPECT YOU TO ACT RATIONALLY ANYWAY.

He stepped over a branch on the ground to avoid tripping. It was habitual, maybe he should move that branch to the side, or change his path, but he's never been good at change.

He was reaching the end of the forest.

Snap.

The branch broke.

He turned around, summoning two gaster blasters by his side and a wave of bones at the direction of the noise.

He heard the bones hit something. It made a squelch noise as if it pierced through viscous mud. 

And then he saw what it hit.

YOU’VE LOST IT.

He was inclined to believe that.

“Rude, aren’t we?” Its voice caught him off guard. Really, hearing any voice other than his or Papyrus’s would've caught him off guard but on top of that, this one sounded otherworldly.

He refused to speak. The sound of his own voice reminded him too much of who he used to be, of what he lost.

The being melted into the ground. He almost thought he killed it, and then it rose up by his side a moment later.

“Quiet too,” it hummed in acknowledgment. “I’ll just get this over with, then.” It opened a portal next to them.

Before he could move away, one of its tentacles grabbed him by the shin.

“I am taking you to a different universe. There will be another person there and he is not as hardy as I am. Do not attack him.” It squeezed his shin tightly as a warning.

A different universe?

He was dragged through the portal. The thing didn't follow him, however. The sight of grass and a blue sky threw him for a loop and the other skeleton that looked like him did not help.

The third and last universe was much different than the other two, Horrortale. It was still populated, unlike the others. It was harder to locate who he needed, but again, he was in Snowdin. This time he was at one of his sentry stations.

The spike in his fear when he saw him gave him a rush.

“Hello there.”

The Sans immediately attacked like the one before. A row of sharpened bones burst out of the ground and impaled him, but much to his dismay, it didn't stop him at all from getting closer.

In fact, the bones impaling him were dissolved by the slime covering him.

“Your life here is so drab, isn't that right?”

“you gonna kill me?” he grumbled.

“Quite the contrary. I’m here to give you a new life. It's not like you'll miss the old one, anyway.”

His sockets widened in terror. There was sweat beading on his forehead as his hand scratched at the counter of his stand. “what the hell are you talking about? that's not—”

“—possible?” he cut him off, mimicking the other skeleton’s voice. He laughed, his voice gradually changing back to his own. “Don’t believe me? That's okay, it'll happen regardless.”

A portal opened behind the Sans.

“you can't. i can't just leave my friends—”

Another laugh cut him off. “Friends?! What friends? Oh, the people that you manipulated? Or the people who are the reason why you have that gaping hole in your skull?”

“how the fuck do you know about that?” he snarled.

“Your guilty conscience is so loud, it told me itself,” he sneered. “Come on, don't you want to leave this hell? You’ll have food—of good quality too. You won’t have to worry about going hungry ever again, and it won't be human meat. Doesn't that sound nice? Don't you miss eating?” To give him an example, he summoned a plate of freshly cooked steak on the counter.

Sans’s attention immediately snapped to the food in front of him. The smell was intoxicating. He couldn't help but drool. He could feel his metaphorical stomach screaming at him as his persistent hunger wrenched at his soul.

When's the last time he’s seen steak like this?

His body moved on his own. He lunged. He tore at the steak like a fucking animal. The second he swallowed the first bite, the logical part of his mind took over and he stopped as soon as he started.

“You have more willpower than I thought you did. Stopping yourself after having one bite? I expected you to down the whole thing.”

He gripped at the counter with both of his stained hands, cracking the wood beneath his phalanges. “i’m not some mindless animal,” he retorted.

“Yes, perhaps, but you're a moment away from becoming one. If I left and came back a few years later, would you even be able to hold a conversation with me?”

He didn't reply. He tapped on the counter, irritated.

“You don’t know.”

He gritted his teeth. His smile was strained and stained red.

“And that terrifies you.”

He was trembling.

The guardian shoved him into the portal before he could say anything.

The Sans landed on his back on the grass. The blue sky was as startling as it was to the other two.

Speaking of the other two, they were currently at each other's throats. Scorch marks from gaster blasters and broken pieces of bones littered the grass.

He looked down at the third one. “Welcome to your new home.”

He said nothing, as if he was in shock like a bird that crashed into a window.

Two of his tentacles lashed out to grab and lift the other two by their necks. He brought them closer to him. “I told you not to attack him,” he said to the hooded one.

The third one watched nervously, staying completely still as if moving meant joining those two up there.

The other one laughed, filling the hooded one’s silence. “what nice company we have here. sans one two and three.”

The guardian hummed at his comment. He put the skeletons down before they ran out of breath—could they even run out of breath? Perhaps not. “I will need to give you new names,” he concluded.

The one from Something New, scoffed, “nah, i’m not letting you name me. just call me…killer.”

“Killer,” he repeated. “How fitting.”

Killer shrugged, “if it works, it works.”

“new names. new names?!”

“now red-eye over there should be called crack-head.”

“very creative,” Crack-head deadpanned.

No, that was a dumb name.

“Horror,” he decided. He pointed at the hooded one, “Dust.”

Naming them off of their universes was basic, yes, but they didn't need a name with any thought put into it. In fact, it was better to put as little thought as possible into them.

“great, i’m yanked outta home, surrounded by alternate versions of myself, and now i’m being stripped of my identity. what’s next, you gonna torture us?” Horror complained.

The guardian smiled impossibly wide. “Funny you say that.”

Horror looked unimpressed.

“and what’s your name, huh?” Killer questioned, looking the guardian in the eye.

His name? He didn't recall having one. There was no one to give him a name, but as Killer demonstrated, one could name themself.

He decided to go with the most pleasing word to him.

“Refer to me—as Nightmare.”

“ok, edgelord,” Killer snickered.

He impaled Killer through the chest, narrowly missing his soul, with a sharpened tentacle.

He choked out and staggered, only being kept upright by the tendril impaling him.

The other two's wariness shot up.

Killer fully expected to die right there, but he had a fraction of HP left. It was a calculated hit. If he wanted him dead he would be.

“what the fuck?” he hissed out.

“That's not my name,” Nightmare growled.

“ok ok, sheesh, nightmare!” he shouted with desperation.

The tentacle withdrew. Killer couldn't suppress his scream in pain as he collapsed to his knees.

Horror had a clear grimace, while Dust’s expression was obscured by his hood.

Killer’s breathing was labored and sporadic.

“You can be as insufferable as you want to be, Killer. Just be prepared to live with the consequences,” he said coldly. “Let me make this clear for you all, your old lives are forfeit, your new home is here at the castle, I will provide you with all the necessities, and I will put you through horrible scenarios for my entertainment.”

If it wasn't for the fact he just impaled Killer mercilessly, that last sentence would make them laugh at the ridiculousness of it.

“The first scenario—starts right now.” He raised his arms up and lurid black fog overtook the area, obscuring their vision.

It didn't take long for the fog to do its job. He felt their misery rise in mere moments. The fog in question was a party trick of his; it allowed him to send people into a nightmare of their own making while awake.

He watched as the three struggled and fought against nothing. He could hear one of them arguing, saying something about his eye. The other two were completely silent, blindly throwing attacks at the fog.

He dispelled the fog once he got bored, which didn't take that long. The three passed out once the area was clear. He rolled his eye and opened portals beneath them to send them straight to their new rooms.

This would work, he thought. He already felt better, but he wanted to make this more fun. Using his fog was too cheap and would get old quickly. He’ll brainstorm ideas while they get accustomed to the place.

Horror awoke. He was in an unfamiliar room that was fancifully decorated. He was currently on a bed that seemed like it was worth more than his entire house.

Oh, and he also felt awful. He had a painful headache from whatever the fuck Nightmare did to them. In a way, this was like a personal hell for him. Was this the world’s way of making him repent for all he's done? He wasn't remotely a religious person, but at this point he didn't doubt it.

He caught sight of a slice of pie on the floor. It almost reminded him of one of Toriel’s. He knew better than to eat it, despite his nonexistent stomach’s complaints.

He took the risk of exploring, exiting the room cautiously.

He entered a long hallway. There were five doors in total, three along one of the walls and two at each end. It was relatively dark with the lack of windows. The dim blue flames from the candles along the wall were the only light source.

Killer was also in the hall, currently eating a slice of pie.

“are you crazy?!” Horror blurted, startling the skeleton.

“fuck man!” he jumped, “warn a guy before shouting.” He took another bite of the pie with no regards to if it was poisoned or wherever the hell it came from.

“you're just eating random food on the ground? who knows what it'll do.”

“bud, i was at low HP and saw a delicious slice of pie. of course i’m gonna eat it, poison be damned,” Killer replied without a care.

“you were at low HP because of the one supplying you the pie.”

“if he wanted me dead, i’d be dead. he’s givin’ me pie, i’m eating the pie it's simple.” He took another bite as if to support his point.

Horror muttered something Killer couldn't hear. He sighed, “where's the other guy?”

“you mean dust?” He quirked his head.

“you're not actually going to use the names he gave us, are you?” he questioned.

“well, what else? call us all sans and get all confused? or are you jealous i got to name myself while you're stuck with ‘horror’,” he said with his mouth full.

Horror scrunched his face in disgust. He already hated this guy. “as if ‘killer’ is a good name.”

“it's not a good name, it's a killer name,” he smirked.

“that sucked.”

Killer pouted and finished the last of his pie.

The door in between the two opened, and Dust stepped out.

“good morning sleeping beau—”

He shoved Killer against the wall using blue magic.

“woah!” Horror exclaimed and backed up.

The impact knocked the wind out of him. “ok, damn, bad morning, i guess.” Thankfully the plate in his hands was still intact.

“what's your problem?” Horror said.

Dust glared at Horror, his mismatched eyelights catching the other off guard.

Horror realized how high his LV was and realized why Nightmare named him Dust. He raised his hands in defense. “chill out, dude, we ain’t the enemy.”

Killer summoned a bone in his hand and tossed it at Dust, hitting him in the back of the skull. “yeah, dude, chill.”

Dust slammed him into the ground with a loud shatter before releasing the hold on his soul. He tucked his hands into his pockets and walked towards the end of the hall without a word.

Killer pushed himself up to his feet once Dust exited the hall. “that guy’s a dick.” He brushed the broken shards of the plate off his clothes.

In all honesty, Horror could see where Dust was coming from. Killer's proven to be nothing but annoying so far.

Killer looked down at the broken pieces of the plate on the floor. “it wasn't poisoned, by the way. so hah!” He looked in the direction of each end of the hall. “i’m gonna see if this place has a kitchen.” He decided to go to the door opposite of the one Dust went through.

Horror sighed and pinched the bridge of his nasal bone once he was alone in the hallway. There was a lot to process here, but Killer and Dust seemed unfazed by their new predicament. Weren't they going to miss their friends? Or at the very least, their brother?

He was trying his best to keep calm, or at least appear that way. He decided the best course of action now—was to go back to that room and eat that pie.

[fuedalreesespieces]

litany

ao3 summary:

If Inuyasha had to describe how he fell in love with Kagome, it would be this: as though water had been dripping onto his parched skin slowly, droplet by droplet so that he couldn’t quite yet tell if he’d dreamt it, and then, suddenly, an endless, sweet downpour - a realization impossible to ignore.

or: inuyasha and the confusion that is Kagome Higurashi.

read on ao3!!

snippet:

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He didn’t know what to think of her. 

He tried, at first, to categorize her by feature. It would keep him from fostering any attachments, he thought. She had long, dark hair, strands flaying every which way. She wore strange clothes and smelt of a fragrant aroma he had yet to put a name on. She had fair skin, but when she ran for just a little bit her cheeks would flush the color of flower buds, and it would spread through her face when her lips split to smile up at him, breathless.  

Feh, he would mutter. Hurry up, slow woman.   

Her eyebrows would dip and she’d shoot something out at him, a verbal remark, stinging like a wasp. And, naturally, he would have no other choice but to respond with worse, until they were at each other’s necks and the redness in her cheeks had become a sort of fire burning through her veins. He would seize her wrist and she would tug harshly on one of his silver side-bangs and they fought until they swore they hated the other, then, in solitude, ached for the other’s company. 

Though Inuyasha refused to admit something like that. He hadn’t ached for company since he had first been cast out into the forest, hadn’t quite ached for anything. Yearning was a privilege for those who had wishes in reach. He’d weaned himself on untrust. Ever since waking up at the base of that damned tree with an arrow still pulsing in his chest, he’d declared that would ever be led astray by hope again. Hoping was for humans, and there was never such a thing as half a hope.  

And so it was inevitable that he wouldn’t understand this girl. 

Kagome tucked her head into the slope of his neck and wrapped her arms around his shoulders like she’d done it all her life. She didn’t sleep with one eye open, like the villagers. Her fingers skirted over his claws without so much as a flinch. She smiled at him. He’d forgotten what that was like, to be smiled at without malice.  

The villagers had their opinions of her, and they ebbed and flowed in tidal waves of gossip. Inuyasha heard them whether he wanted to or not: a spy, no, a deity. But she was too immodest to be a deity, what with the garments that hiked up in the wind and hardly covered the expanse of her thigh. Does she not know shame? Does she not value her sanctity? From where does she hail, that she would be so careless? 

Inuyasha was beginning to think that it had less to do with where Kagome came from and more to do with Kagome herself. And, he thought she was far from careless. She cared more than any being ought to.  

She cradled flowers gently, and devoured the night sky as though she’d never seen it before, and helped the villagers who would praise and scorn her in the same breath. She packed strange medicines from her time and took pains to bring everything she could; did her schoolwork under the lithe branches of the trees he slept in even when dirt soiled her books and ink stained her hands from nights spent writing. They would be riding in her pink, iron cart, and she would see a man hobbling down the road and simply insist that they stop everything and help him.  

He looks so tired, she’d say, disregarding her own exhaustion. Just a second, okay?

Kagome would drag him off to help someone or another, and she would smile at his irked mumblings, somehow laughing at it all; a laugh that would echo into his dreams when the night was silent and thawing. 

She made him feel like his existence wasn’t a tragedy. With her, he felt that there was something worth hoping for. 

full thing!

[sad-eyed-lady-of-the-paperbacks]

Thoughts on 1.3

Ok, I’m still devastated over Sofia Ivanovna but I’m finally able to put that aside just enough to belatedly type up my thoughts.

But first, I wanted to acknowledge the antisemitism in the room, because it appears briefly in this chapter, comes in even stronger in 1.4, and will unfortunately continue to crop up throughout the book. I love Dostoevsky’s writing and find it to generally be very compassionate and humanising, but there are unfortunately antisemitic tropes present. Jewish people are more often mentioned than actually depicted or included as characters, which means these tropes occur as passing nods, but it is still noticeable. I do not know enough about the man’s personal views to know how much of this was done consciously or intentionally on his part, and how much was a consequence of the general climate of Europe and Russia at the time, but to be blunt, I don’t care to know. Intentional or unintentional, it is wrong and has a harmful effect. And it feels irresponsible of me to be posting about this book without pointing out and categorically disavowing that aspect of it. These tropes are disgusting and evil. They have zero basis in reality, but they do have an immense damaging impact on the lived reality of Jewish people down to this day. This bookclub will have zero tolerance for antisemitism.

Now onto my thoughts.

It seems that Fyodor not only has a constant eye for opportunities to invest his capital, but also for opportunities to prey on vulnerable women

Sofia is the orphaned daughter of “some obscure deacon.” Interestingly, she will not be the last woman in the novel who meets that description, which makes it feel like a significant detail

The only detail the narrator is able to give us about Sofia's childhood (the fact that she made an attempt to hang herself and had to be cut down) is the only detail we need in order to create an absolutely horrific and gut-wrenching picture of what this girl suffered. And there's just something so real about it? The fact that this old benefactress lady is not evil or motivated by any real malice. She isn't a Bad Person, she isn't Cinderella's wicked stepmother. I doubt she truly even hates Sofia. She does seem to be almost resentful of her own decision to take the orphan in, and takes that out on her, as though Sofia is the one who asked to be orphaned and then taken in by this woman. But it's not really about Sofia at all. Her constant picking at and criticising of Sofia comes from sheer idleness and boredom (and let's be real, probably some generational stuff from the way she herself was raised). This is how it so often is in real life. The fact that bullies and abusers of this kind are not necessarily bad or malicious people just makes it even worse. It's so pointless and petty, but the damage is real, as we can see for poor Sofya Ivanovna.

On a stylistic note, I again love the limitations of our narrator. He can’t tell us everything, he’s just reporting to us what he himself has heard or been able to uncover. It imbues the whole thing with so much reality

“What could a sixteen-year-old girl possibly make of it all beyond realizing that she would be better off throwing herself in the river than staying with her benefactress?” (McDuff) - <\3 ouch, my heart.

It’s a small comfort, but I’m glad that he at least didn’t benefit financially from this marriage. Although that seems to have possibly worsened his treatment of Sofia Ivanovna. I do think that he did have—perhaps not respect, but something like it, for the fact that his first wife was from a better family than him and brought so much wealth to the table. (The fact that she was fully capable of beating him up probably helped too.) But with Sofia Ivanovna, “he even trampled with both feet on the ordinary decencies of marriage.” (P&V)

Grigory standing up for Sofia is a little glimmer of something heartwarming and beautiful in such a dark and sordid and deeply sad chapter

This is the first mention of the klikushi, which is translated numerous different ways. I talk about it in this post and provide a good resource to learn more

The benefactress equates Sofia’s absolutely horrendous circumstances as having been sent by God. As punishment for her “ingratitude.” When she eventually took charge of the children, one wonders if she ever voiced this opinion to them. Was Ivan ever told that: that God caused his mother’s suffering?

I wish we knew more about Yefim Petrovich Polenov. He sounds like such an excellent person.

Ivan appears to be pretty much the polar opposite of Mitya. He works hard at his studies, and then works hard to support himself, loathing the thought of being dependent on others and not banking on any inheritance. He’s resourceful and creative about it too

I love his little alter ego as “Eyewitness”

Ivan managed to write an article in such a way that people of completely polarised views all read it and thought the author was on their side. Honestly, this isn’t that dissimilar from how Dostoevsky’s own work gets picked up today.

Are the “one or two astute men” who conclude that Ivan is basically the 19th century equivalent of a troll the correct ones here?

Why did Ivan show up in his hometown when he had been preparing to go abroad? What business could have possibly made Mitya decide to summon the help of his brother that he’s never met before? Whatever it is, apparently even this will not serve to make his arrival completely explicable.

Why does the arrival almost immediately give our narrator an uneasy feeling? What is this sense of looming catastrophe that continues to haunt these pages?

Ok. Now I’m off to delve into chapter 1.4, and then I’ll be caught up!

[filmnoirsbian]

hi! your last response made me think; i think that categorical disregard for YA comes from a place of malice/snobbery btw, but how would you actually define YA as a genre? is it just anything that caters to that specific audience? i have recently seen an author saying on tik tok that they were asked to "rewrite their fantasy novel as YA instead" and i find myself confused about what it even means...? no pressure to reply to it, i get if a discussion about the genre requirements is of no interest for you!

"Young adult" as a genre does kind of frustrate me because it is SO vague and all-encompassing, so I think of it more as an audience demographic, with dozens of genres within (ya horror, ya romance, ya sci fi, etc). It refers to any book whose target audience is a teenager (13 to 19). Other ages can read and enjoy them, of course, just as kids can read and enjoy adult lit, and adults can read and enjoy kid lit. But ultimately ya books are written, published and marketed with teenagers in mind. I do think there are plenty of valid criticisms of the ya lit publishing industry--and publishing industry as a whole, but as someone within that community, the ya lit agents and publishers are guilty of these things at a much higher rate--like the importance placed on selling above all else, which results in an overwhelming amount of sameness, and dismisses a lot of good, creative authors because their books are seen as "too different." I also understand not reading ya as an adult, simply because you don't really relate to or care for it (I am once such adult). But complaining that "ALL books/authors writing in this genre/demographic are xyz" will never hold any water, because of the vast and diverse nature of literature, expansive in both quanitity and quality.

[1800duckhotline]

madonna 2, 5, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16 !!!

GET TO KNOW THE OC ASKS

YAYY Madonna time!

Sorry it took me a bit to get to this. I've been busy but here we go. Madonna lore just for you. You know the drill, this is gonna get long.

2. Is your OC a loner or a social butterfly? Are they satisfied with how they come across to other people?

Madonna is like if an extrovert and an introvert had a baby (unfunny joke but it explains sort of). Due to her past job as a pharmacist and having been part of a corporate environment, being a social butterfly was more or less a requisite, which means through the years she's built up a "social stamina" strong enough to withstand social events that last well over 3 hours. This carries over as Kindred, however, her unlife also warrants a very much welcomed sense of tranquility since she decides when she wants to be social, usually in the context of feeding from willing blood dolls she meets in clubs or with fellow vampires she has an alliance with.

I think you could categorize Madonna as an extroverted introvert, since she definitely treasures her time alone and enjoys distancing herself from socializing for the sake of her own interests.

5. Does your OC have a signature weapon and/or attack? How long did they train to master it?

As Tremere, Madonna has a vast array of Thaumaturgy skills that can aid her in battle - her favorite spell to use is Blood Theft as it is extremely convenient in situations where a lot of spells need to be cast. That said, she tends to make sure she uses as less Thaumaturgy as possible in context where the supernatural isn't involved - and thus relies on her marksmanship skills, which are fairly impressive.

She didn't know a lick of fighting before becoming kindred, so go figure - she has always been a fast learner, so it no doubt helped her in this case.

9. Is your OC laid back or do they thrive on drama? What role do they play in their group of friends/associates?

Madonna is 35 years old in body and spirit and to be fair, she is a woman with a job, even if undead, so she really does not care about drama at all. She's got other shit to do!

Even before the embrace she kept the same kind of attitude whenever it came to her associates at work and outside; people generally regarded her as the aloof cool girl that wouldn't be phased by anything... when, truthfully, Madonna just prefers minding her own business rather than gossip... Like, unless the gossip is necessary for her to complete an important task, she tends to skip it entirely.

10. Is your OC sentimental or pragmatic? Do they keep mementos or only what they need to survive? Have they always been this way or did something happen to make them change?

Before the embrace, Madonna used to be extremely pragmatic. Not entirely to the point of lacking any whatsoever sentimentality but a corporate job will do that to you - it was sucking away at any energy she could dedicate to her feelings, and it really showed in how she behaved whenever something factually exciting or mortifying happened (not necessarily to her, but something like maybe one of her co-workers having a baby, or one of them losing a family member... she used to react very matter-of-factly, not out of malice but because she didn't really have it in her to commit to her full emotions). Her job tended to come first and it was also something of a problem in her familial life, as before becoming a corporate pharmacist she used to be very family-oriented, that with having 3 siblings and elderly parents.

Becoming Kindred turned her way more sentimental. Free of the shackles of her old job, Madonna regained the range of emotions she'd closed herself away from for about the last decade or so... which makes for some fun situations where she reacts immaturely for her age, but makes complete sense when you consider that for her this is like a second adolescence!

Unfortunately, though, even though she truly desires it, she feels like she cannot go back to connect with her family as Kindred. She fears of putting their lives at risk, and especially of compromising the Masquerade since some of the changes that come with being Tremere wouldn't go unnoticed by her family; not to say that they are fairly religious people at heart, and she doesn't wish to destroy the image they have of her as a darling hard-working angel who can do no wrong. This makes her sad, but this is where her pragmatism comes in clutch and reassures her there is simply no way to go around this. Which isn't wrong... though there could be ways, if she put her mind to it!

12. Is your OC cynical or optimistic? Who or what shaped their outlook on life?

I would say she's right inbetween, with a healthy sway towards optimistic. You would think studying medicine would've made her more cynical, which it did at the time, but as a vampire she found things much less grim than she thought they were before.

In general she's always been taught by her family not to look at things with rose-tinted glasses, and it is something she stood by for most of her human life. While they didn't outright encourage her to look at things negatively, they tried to remind her to be objective when it came to most things, especially as she studied medicine. Desmond somewhat reminds her of them in that way, with her special interests revolving around algorithms, mathematics and chess; and while Madonna doesn't think this belief system is wrong, she's found now that being a little more optimistic and carefree never hurts as long as you don't slip into excessive naiveté.

15. What places hold significant meaning or memories for your OC? Do they have a positive or negative association with those places?

So I haven't gone in exact detail in my exploration of Madonna's past yet, though I know she's based in LA originally (as she was made for the VTMB setting), and I would say that besides obvious important places she's likely been with with her family, a specific place that holds significant importance to her as Kindred is probably Confession, the club, because that is where she started seeing Desmond and becoming acquainted with her. They may have differing opinions on some stuff but, well, they kind of still have somewhat of a 'whirlind' kind of romance-not-romance going on, so it's definitely a positive association... LOL

16. How does your OC make money? Do they have a respectible profession or work a series of odd jobs? Are they a criminal? Or do they get creative in the pursuit of coin?

I wouldn't say Madonna is a criminal but the legality of some of her operations as an underground pharmacist can be dubious at best. She sells black market pharmaceutical drugs and also substances that aren't for the usual... public use. She also sells concoctions she came up with for other Kindred, as a way to make use of her Thaumaturgy in a similar context to her old pharmaceutical job. So it's... kind of... shady but not straight-up illegal most of the time?

Desmond 100% helps her keep a front so she doesn't have to deal with most legalities even though her chantry likely prohibited her from interacting with Madonna too much (this is Desmond we're talking about though... she has many of her fingers in various different pies).

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Host (2006)

You’d think hilarious and horrifying would be far apart, but under the steady hand of director Bong Joon-ho, you’re never sure whether you should be laughing or trembling in fear. The Host is a unique monster movie with great re-watch value due to its sharp satirical themes, well-developed characters, numerous surprises and unexpected scares.

In 2006, slow-witted Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) runs a snack bar near the river with his father, Hee-bong (Byun Hee-bong). Suddenly, his daughter Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung) is attacked and kidnapped by a large tadpole-like creature. While attempting to rescue her, Gang-du is sprayed with the monster’s blood, which government agents suspect contains a deadly, unknown virus. As Gang-du’s underachieving brother, Nam-il (Park Hae-il) and national medalist archer sister Nam-joo (Bae Doona) join the search for the missing girl, the government begins panicking.

What makes this film so funny is that nearly every character is a complete idiot. Gang-du is an ambulant disaster. He's always saying the wrong thing, always making the worst mistake you could make, always the last one to catch on. Even his father knows the man’s a half-dozen parts short of a set, and this is best demonstrated in a scene in which he tries to explain that Gang-du showed so much promise as a child. The story he tells is such a “what does that even mean?” kind of tale it would be heartbreaking if it weren’t so awful. It also shows the apple might not fall so far from the tree. Gang-du's siblings fare a little better but they also have a knack for screwing things up and when there’s a great big mutated tadpole gobbling people up, you can’t afford to make the kind of mistakes they make.

What makes this film so scary isn't only the monster; it's that nearly every government agent or authority figure is an idiot. It’s hard to tell if the constant failure to track down the monster, misunderstanding of the situation, inability to contain the Park family and knack for making things worse is done on purpose or not. Considering it would take a lot of people to work in perfect unison to orchestrate this thing, you lean towards overwhelming idiocy on everyone’s part. If Gang-du is exploring the river shore while infected with a deadly disease, they’re putting everyone at risk by doing such a poor job containing him. If he isn’t infected, then they’re wasting time and resources chasing a non-threat while a real-live monster is on the prowl. If this creature was as tall as a skyscraper and crushing bridges under its feet they would be able to get their ducks in a row right away but because it's only eating people one at a time, they can’t get anything done.

Beneath all the comedy and horrifying incompetence, there’s a lot of great material to chew on. Bong Joon-ho (who co-writes with Ha Won-jun and Baek Chul-hyun) has something to say about uncaring governments (both domestic and foreign), ineffective youth protesters, the repercussions and cause of pollution, family and social structure. That’s fun if you want to dig deep but you don’t have to. The family dynamics and main story are plenty on their own. The satirical material and terrific screenplay make up for the low budget and then some. It isn’t so much that you’d watch this movie again and realize “oh! when they said this, THAT’S what they meant!” it’s that you’ll be looking for clues to figure out if this thing that was said was meant to be sinister, or if it was just another brick to the head in this tornado of I.Q.-dropping head injuries. The line is so thin it’s nearly impossible to tell where the malice begins and the incompetence ends.

From fart jokes to tense scenes of danger, heartbreaking betrayals to well-established quirks coming in to save the day, The Host is so many things it’s hard to categorize it as belonging to any single genre. Or maybe that’s because I’ve only seen it once. I’ll let you know if I figure out where it belongs the next time I see it - and there will be a next time. (Original Korean version with English Subtitles, On DVD, October 24, 2021)

[fandomspacenqueue]

Oh no worries at all about taking time to reply, life's been getting pretty busy for me too. I am definitely enjoying our discussion, so thank you for replying as well!

I have nothing more to add to your comment on LBH/Bingqiu vs Moshang except that I completely agree. We may be in the minority but we are definitely not alone.

And yes to what you said about Liujiu! I love that aspect of them, that they could've certainly forged a strong relationship under different circumstances that could've helped them both grow. But hmm, I will admit that my enjoyment of the ship is hindered just a little by how fans tend to treat YQY in response. I've certainly seen that accusation floating around, that YQY's attempts at protecting SJ are more harmful than helpful, but I can't seem to recall what it's specifically referring to exactly. I'll speculate on what I think people mean by it (with the disclaimer that I also haven't reread the novel in a while), but please correct me if you have better insight!

Warning: copious unsolicited YQY apologism ahead XD

The main thing I think would be YQY's "cover up" of LQG's death. I think I've seen people argue that YQY should've investigated properly so that it would've cleared SJ's name. But, crucially, YQY himself thought there was a good chance that SJ really did kill LQG. And given SJ's prior reaction to LQG's accusation of attempted murder during the demon well incident, the chances of SJ not going "why should I bother defending myself if you all think I did it" are rather low, which doesn't exactly scream that he's innocent. Given that, there's no reason for YQY to believe that an investigation wouldn't result in SJ being condemned. And there's also no reason to think that YQY wouldn't have investigated to clear SJ's name if SJ himself wished it.

There's also the "YQY's dogged pursuit of SJ's attention even though SJ wants nothing to do with him makes other people think of SJ as ungrateful" angle. But...that's just YQY genuinely wanting to have a positive relationship with someone he cares about, which I would hesitate to call selfish. Is he meant to give that up because SJ's own reaction makes SJ look bad? Or the "YQY fails to suppress rumors of SJ being a lecher" angle, which again, SJ himself categorically refuses to debunk the rumors, so what more can YQY do besides tell people not to gossip when everyone knows about it already? How can YQY know that there's more to the story when SJ refuses to confide in him?

Just, I think for me it boils down to how much is YQY meant to take on faith alone? SJ gives him nothing to work with and in fact goes out of his way to let YQY specifically believe the worst of him because he spitefully thinks there's no point defending himself if even YQY assumes the worst. I can understand SJ's hurt by that...but it still does nothing good for SJ. How exactly is YQY meant to defend him more effectively when SJ gives literally no one any reason to think he's not exactly what they assume about him or worse? And sure, it can be said that YQY doesn't trust SJ in the end. But neither does SJ trust YQY, and in fact he believes the worst of YQY too. The miscommunication from YQY refusing to tell SJ why he "failed" to come back for him is on YQY, sure, but SJ didn't have to just assume malice either. And even if YQY is a sect leader, he can't force their martial siblings to defend SJ if they refuse to. He also can't exactly forsake the world to rescue and run away with SJ if SJ won't have him, but even still his own death in PIDW happens because in the end he still refuses to give up on SJ.

I just think it's a little unfair to unfavorably compare YQY's very real efforts to protect SJ with LQG's entirely hypothetical support of SJ. This is just my interpretation, but I personally don't believe that LQG's ride-or-die loyalty is purely due to SY saving his life, but more who SY!SQQ is as a person. And while it's certainly possible that he could've forged a similar relationship with SJ, it's also possible that LQG's loyalty to him could be affected by the conflict between LQG's honorable nature and SJ's nastier tendencies even if LQG had a better understanding of SJ and why he's the way he is.

But sorry for that long tangent. I appreciate the fic rec and will add it to my list! Thanks again for your reply! :)

one reason i think liu qingge has such great potential is that he's one of the only characters entirely free from the PIDM narrative. because he dies early in PIDM, sqq isn't coming into every conversation and interaction expecting lqg to adhere to a preconceived script. this allows sqq to actually see lqg as a person and for his words and actions to be taken at face value.

i just think this is great potential for sqq to still be completely oblivious or in denial about lbh and yqy's attentions (because he's so fixated on how bad/complicated PIDM!sqq's relationships are with them) whilst also catching wind of lqg's growing feelings for him because he isn't hampered by any preconceived notions of what they're dynamic "should" be.

so give me sqq noticing the way lqg's mannerism soften around him, how his gruffness changes, how he spends more time just having tea with sqq even after his meridians have been cleansed as they start to have civil conversation about sect business. recognising lqg's care in returning his fans; seeking common ground over their shared love of monster hunting (even if lqg just cares about fighting them, can he maybe smash them in such a way that shixiong can study them afterwards?) and discussions on cultivation techniques and the differences between bai zhan and qing jing styles.

sqq who is so just so grateful to have someone in his corner, someone he feels safe with, who he doesn't have to second guess during every conversation. someone who was never supposed to be around by this point in the narrative, and so is entirely shen qingqui's.

[heylinfanclub]

Me, unable to just focus on one thing ever: IM JUST GONNA IDEA DUNP

common physical disabilities among Gloreals like misaligned spines, colorblindness, split pupils, bone fusions—- ;

vertical & hydroponic agriculture—- oouuu;

a planet with buffed defense (+stealth) & intelligence stats but pretty shit everything else (attack, mobility (+speed), size/longevity—- everything needs to take root and multiply quickly/biologically prepare before the quarterly floods—-) ; gloreals got the lions share of mobility truly,,, and Clantrees and Old Flora are the only Macroflora that could thrive Postlunar— New Flora is smaller but complex (and plenty thriving off the old flora).

Calling castes Chromes now. Since. They gots metal in their integument. Chromes largely effect the job they’re expected to have (for ARBOREALS MOSTLY,,,) you can request otherwise, but there’s no guarantee you’ll find what you’re looking for outside your Chrome.

Rootwalkers; masters of the land far below. Dark as night and otherworldly enigmatic. Necessary to the safe transport between clans. Part of the clans and yet, separate. As many parts of the clan are. Rare be one walks above their station. (Though all may mingle inside). | Vinevillas string up between the branches, full of the Branchfolk. Bright and colorful, loud and limber, they take care of trade and entertainment. | Insiders band about any chrome, their job does not necessitate a coat of refined specification, but it is a title scarcely desired. They archive and transmit information, connect individuals and generally act as catch-all clan servicemen. They are not treated poorly by any means, but many believe the other chromes to live more Exciting lives. || Canopykin the ever ejected chrome of unseemly pale feathers, which never stood a chance to disguise themselves in the forest of dark and light. Called a Nonchrome sometimes, since they don’t have Any Color. Not really out of malice, but out of transliteration really. Once pale hatchlings were hidden in the trunks of trees while their kin hunted, but as their kin increasingly inhabited the trees, they were pushed higher. Eventually they inhabited the canopy, and became clan essentials. Keepers of the sky and speakers of the tree, they inhabit some of the most conscious parts of the tree. They act as meteorologists, time keepers, and caretakers for the most vulnerable of the clan: The Tree, the Hatchlings and the Elders. Canopykin accept Elders into the canopy as a sort of hospice, and take care of the young alongside them. This way young learn from the elders, face death, and form an intimate bond with the tree before they trickle down into their expected chromes. The visage of a Nonchrome is akin to that of both the first person to raise you and the reaper taking you to your final rest. A keeper of life and death. But they’re really just people so time goes to show that not everyone was suited for it, but they of all chromes, get the most attention beneath the canopy. Within the tree perhaps, you may see them in passing. But among the vines? THE ROOTS? Anyone would have a visceral reaction. Like seeing a ghost.

Ofc the other gloreal civilizations have other categorization processes. Southern plains use height to structure their mobile formation, and eventually, hierarchy of duties (tallest go out and hunt, smallest keep to internal work). ; coastals are more impressed by actual feats of merit / challenges / duels / competitions / clout ; Northern Plains also recognize merit with status, but primarily try to live equally and protect their vulnerable and respect their elders ; Tunnel Folk are entirely distributist and complicated cause uh, very isolated population with internal politics that Hurt.; AND THE DISTANT LANDERS HOOO. they think everyone ion the mainland is just Weird. But the feeling is mutual….

Distant landers,,,, closest part of their land seen gets called the Ash Beach cause ya know. Volcanos. But I really do wanna expand on them. And their distinctness. But also that m yes familiarity. They don’t hide from the storms. Even the plains folk hide, southern taking refuge with other populations (or in dryland clantrees) and northern moving to a heated mountain far in the north. But the DLanders got methods. Methods similar to ways that coastals take advantage of the floods probably. There’s never much of a ‘colonization’ era, just Arboreals pushing their culture on everyone for a short while before getting SETTLED TF DOWN. So Dlanders form a rather distinct culture across the sea. They don’t even have big trees and their mountains contain multiple volcanos. They got boiling lakes and basalt columns, amphibious plants and unique fauna. Truly the australiwaii of my story. *wheeze* I hope that comparison is not off base somehow. Just that Volcano-Islands + Incredibly Alien Ecosystem.

[sailormoonandme]

Usagi’s Evolution as a Healer Goddess

The other day I saw a post discussing the evolution of Usagi’s fuku and it occurred to me how Eternal Sailor Moon’s costume was her first Senshi uniform to ditch the tiara. 

That in turn led me to consider how that kind of makes Usagi weaker as it removes a very useful weapon for her. After all, if you include the movies, Usagi uses some variant of Moon Tiara Action in practically every season prior to Stars.

However, dwelling more upon it I realized how this tiny change was all too appropriate for Usagi’s character development.

Firstly, by supplanting the Tiara with her Moon planetary symbol, Eternal Sailor Moon more closely resembles both Queen Serenity, her own Princess Serenity form and her future self as Neo-Queen Serenity. 

Since all three are objectively more powerful than Usagi typically is as Sailor Moon I think the change emphasises how she has ‘levelled up’ in her Eternal form. When combined with the angel wings, Eternal Sailor Moon shifts Usagi visually closer to her future self as NQS, which in the anime is implied to be her most powerful incarnation.* It is almost as though the visual was communicating that the Divine Miracle Magic that she’d previously drawn upon as Princess Serenity in Classic-SuperS had now become ingrained in her standard Senshi form and thus was more accessible to her. 

It was in thinking of her previous efforts as Princess Serenity that I inevitably recalled her duel with Metalia/Beryl in episode 46 and realized that Eternal Sailor Moon was the first time since Classic that Usagi’s default attack was a healing  technique not a destructive one. 

Moon Healing Escalation was Usagi’s first healing technique but until Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss (and it’s later upgrade, Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss) it was also her only healing technique. 

Between regaining healing techniques and ditching her tiara/other destructive attacks/weapons, I think this represents her subtle growth in both her power and status. After all, it is a sad fact of life that it is easier to destroy something rather than fix it, thereby making the latter far more impressive.**

This skewing towards healing power rather than destructive power is also (arguably) thematically appropriate given the nature of Sailor Moon as a female power fantasy as (rightly or wrongly) the act of healing is typically coded as feminine. 

We can even take this further by examining things from the ‘opposite direction’ as it were.

Consider that in the climactic final episodes of Sailor Stars, Eternal Sailor Moon’s healing technique actually fails her when used against Galaxia. In later episodes, upon adopting her Princess Serenity form (complete with larger and more obviously angelic wings), she uses a sword to duel Galaxia.

Obviously a sword is, at least predominantly, an offensive weapon and can therefore be viewed as symbolic of aggression; let’s leave any Freudian or gendered interpretations alone for today. Her use of the sword is highly uncharacteristic (in the anime). Even her explicitly offencive weapons (like the Cutie Moon Rod or Spiral Moon Heart Rod) weren’t as clearly aggressive nor obviously violent. Desperate times calling for desperate measures? Perhaps, but we might also speculate it was her subconsciously reacting to grief. Not only can grief make you act in ways you wouldn’t normally, but a sword after all was a weapon wielded by her lover in his Prince Endymion incarnation. Her lover whom Usagi had just learned Galaxia had murdered. In other words, amidst her grief she reacts by going too hard in the other direction after healing her enemy proves ineffective.

However, when all is said and done the sword fails her.*** Ultimately is simply escalates the conflict by prompting Galaxia to become Chaos Galaxia and thereby make Usagi’s chances of victory all the slimmer. If we wished to stretch things, you could perhaps say that this is a commentary about how war and violence ultimately begets yet more war and violence.

Even if that is an over extrapolation though, it still served to emphasis the point that a sword is not befitting of Usagi, that she was doomed to lose if she continued to battle with destroying her enemy as the end goal.

In fact, her road to real victory begins when she not doesn’t attack Galaxia but makes it easier for herself to be attacked. In the end, Usagi doesn’t confront her most powerful enemy as the God-Queen of the future, the demi-goddess Princess of the distant past, the sailor-suited soldier of love and justice in the present, nor even a humble school girl.

She does it by literally stripping herself of all those things, of stripping herself of everything in fact.

Her weapons? Gone.

Her other items, like her Tiare? Gone.

Her comrades? Gone, and they’d be powerless against Galaxia anyway.

And finally, even her clothes? Gone!

Beyond the Silver Crystal (an outward visualization of her heart/soul) and the angel wings (symbolic of her role as a saviour) she is completely (but tastefully) naked.

Usagi visually and quite literally is more vulnerable  than she’s ever been, even more so than on her first night as Sailor Moon.

And yet this is Usagi at her actual most powerful.

It is her distilled to her absolute essence as a person, all other trappings removed. She’d just one person showing another they will categorically not harm them, that they bear them no malice and they have nothing to hide. That openness and compassion is what ultimately enables her to connect to the good within Galaxia and pull her away from the darkness that had corrupted her.

Usagi in this moment completely fulfilled her character arc.

·      In the Dark Kingdom arc Usagi destroys (or seals away depending upon your POV) Beryl/Metalia.

·      In the Hell Tree arc, Usagi resolves the over all plot via a healing technique (although it is functionally similar to a destructive attack). However, that only happens because the Hell Tree both instructs Usagi to do that and because it lets her. It is the equivalent of a sickly doctor instructing a nurse on what to do to make them better. The nurse might have the power but their agency as a healer is limited.

·      In the Black Moon arc, Usagi, with help, destroys Wiseman/Death Phantom. 

·      In the Death Busters arc, Usagi does save Hotaru and ‘purify’ her. However, like the Hell Tree, that was something Hotaru wanted. Additionally, her purification functioned as a way to heal the body of someone sick and who wanted to sacrifice themselves, not someone actually evil. The evil in question was Pharaoh 90 and it is presumed that Usagi destroyed him (although it might’ve been Hotaru or the pair of them together). 

·      Forgive me for skipping the Dead Moon Circus arc as Chibiusa is the real protagonist there, and Usagi’s role is chiefly as a rescuer. It therefore doesn’t really apply, although the Nehelenia mini-arc from Stars is a different story. There, Usagi was a healer again, but she did it with the help of her loved ones and with the aid of her Tiare device. Nevertheless, we can see by this point Usagi’s capacity as a healer heroine had been gradually growing until we get to the battle with Galaxia.

By the end of series, Usagi has successfully healed Galaxia and it is neither with the aid of her comrades, nor with the power of a weapon or device, nor with any instructions from her ‘patient’ or any other third party.

Additionally, Galaxia (unlike Hotaru) wasn’t someone’s who was saved from a noble self-sacrifice or had a physical ailment that needs to be addressed. In Galaxia’s case, her very soul had lost it’s way and become corrupted. She had lost who she was supposed to be and her purpose in life had been perverted.****

When combined with how powerful Galaxia always was, how Chaos and the Star Seeds empowered her further, Usagi’s victory here cannot be understated.

Her ‘patient’ was more powerful than all her other adversaries, was in need of more healing than her other ‘patients’ and was more resistant to being healed. Not to mention, since she’d directly murdered her beloved friends (and indirectly aborted her future daughter), Usagi would’ve been forgiven for not  even trying to salvage Galaxia 

And yet, with no weapons, no backup and just the power of her heart and soul basically, Usagi succeeded. 

After Stars the idea that Usagi could heal the entire planet after a global catastrophe and reshape it into a fairy tale crystalline utopia was all too believable.

What’s healing one planet when her ability to empathise had already healed a whole galaxy?

Who needs a tiara to reduce evil to dust when you can simply convince evil to be good?

*This is arguably symbolized by baby Hotaru’s vision of NQS transforming into Eternal Sailor Moon in episode 1 of Stars.

In fact, we might argue that a low-key subplot running through all of Stars (both the Nehelenia and Galaxia portions of it) is gradually transitioning Usagi closer to the person she is destined to become as Neo-Queen Serenity, hence why the first episode features the most explicit reference to her fate as Queen since R. 

**Personally I am an atheist, but nevertheless I and others like me can grasp why  deities in most major religions through history weren’t simply capable of mass scale destruction, but also of essentially manipulating reality to create  things too.

By that same token, it’s little surprise that perhaps the widest spread religious figure in history was Jesus Christ who rarely (if ever) engaged in aggression or destructive acts, predominantly employing divine healing powers.

I suspect the attraction of such figures to human beings lies in the fact that on some level we know that, given the right time and resources, we mere mortals would be capable of destroying anything. Given time it’s all but certain we will develop the technology to even destroy planetary bodies. On the flipside, I think we also intuitively grasp that  reversing  such damage, of reattaching a limb, of stanching bleeding, etc, is far more difficult if not impossible. Hence we attributed the ability to do such things to larger than life Divine Entities.

*** Now that I think of it, it’s also poignant that Usagi tries and fails to defeat Galaxia with a sword when we take Sailor Uranus into consideration. 

Uranus is of course associated with her weapon, the Space Sword and, like Usagi, tried and failed to use such a weapon against Galaxia.

Giving Uranus a sword is symbolically appropriate given her role as the leader of the more aggressive branch of the Sailor Team. Having her fail against Galaxia and Usagi consequently fail by in some way ‘mimicking her tactics’ is equally symbolically appropriate. Not only because of their ideological conflict in Sailor Moon S but also their tensions in Sailor Stars itself. In both situations Usagi’s more open, less aggressive, ideology was ultimately proven correct. 

Thus in using a sword against Galaxia it represented how Usagi was always doomed to fail by taking the aggressive/destructive route and how she was arguably not being true to herself in that moment. 

****It’s not to dissimilar to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker now that I think about it. 

[eroticfriendfictions]

Do you think you could make an updated list of the episodes where Jimmy Jr was mean to Tina as well as the episodes where he was nice to her? I need to make sure I have my facts straight when I defend them 😮‍💨 whenever you have the time of course!

So heres the thing. I know the post you're talking about where I had the lists, but I cannot find it now (thanks, tumblr search). I'm pretty sure I made it pre-Valentinedetta. I know my memory of the last few seasons isn't great, but has there really been much change aside from that episode and then a few more good ones?

And honestly, for some episodes I don't really know how to categorize them. Does Presto count for or against him? He was mean to her, but then he apologized and they had they great on-stage chemistry. What about an episode like The Gene Mile where they argued a lot but there didn't seem to be any real malice there? Or even this most recent episode, where he wasn't mean but he didn't really do anything for Tina except invite her to watch him dance?

The real truth is, if T/JJ is someone's NOTP, then they'll twist even his good moments into something bad. I've seen people argue that Bob Actually is proof Jimmy Jr. is a jerk. They find a way. And on the flip side, someone like me sees the good in the bad. I only have 3 mean episodes listed here (did I have more in the original?) and I feel like I could argue some of them off.

So I tried to remake these lists. They're not perfect, but maybe they help you in some way. Keep spreading the T/JJ joy!

Nice Jimmy Jr.:

Sheesh! Cab, Bob?

Bad Tina

My Fuzzy Valentine

Gene It On

The Gene and Courtney Show

The Quirkducers

Ex Mach Tina

Bob Actually

Every Which Way But Goose

Pig Trouble In Little Tina

Romancing the Beef

The Movie

Mean Jimmy Jr.:

Two For Tina

Presto Tina-o

V for Valentine-detta

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

Said this before will say it again. Aren't labels meant to be clarifying?

I have no issue whatsoever with anyone being anything or attracted to anyone ( as long as they are consenting adults ofc )

Where I get lost as a non-queer person is that the labels are now more confusing than they are denominating.

Based on what you tell me your sexuality is I have noooo clue whatsover who you like.

Which does not affect me in the slightest, but it IS confusing. Using no label when you have what appear to be conflicting or unclear sexualities is much easier, I would think.

Calling yourself a lesbian bisexual means I have no clue who you like.

Calling yourself "lesbian" "bisexual" or even" queer" is just much more CLEAR. That gives information. It's not the identity I have trouble understanding, it's using a label -any label- that is contradictory. Labels are to categorize. If you don't want to be categorized, or want a new category, it seems easier to do that without labels, no?

Or at least labels that do not contradict

I am genuinely, non-malicously, asking for someone to explain this to me.

There’s still debate about split attraction on my dash why do you people even care

[incorrect-alignment-grids]

Right, okay. So.

The difference between neutrality and chaos when it comes to good alignments is entirely a matter of excess and coordination. It is impossible to be chaotic good with fewer than two eggs, and it is impossible not to be chaotic good when hungry.

It is inherently lawful to make more dishes for yourself than necessary. No one would ever dispute this, because as we all know, the fundamental property of law is wastefulness.

Chaotic neutral is, as we are all aware, defined by one's decision to, upon learning that they have succeeded in their goals with absolutely no issue, ruin everything for no other reason than to adhere to their alignment in a dogmatic zeal for "chaos."

All evil alignments are inherently chaotic, including lawful evil and neutral evil, which is why they all involve simply breaking the eggs and shells together in as messy and unpleasant a way as possible. Evil has never consumed eggs in a way that was not simultaneously scrambled and full of shell. This is an axiom explored heavily by Nietzsche in his rebuttal of Kantian ethics.

If someone makes breakfast in a way that does not include egg shells, know that that person would never do anything wrong to you out of malice. It is categorically impossible, as proven by this helpful video, for evil to exist without eggshells, but not all who would feed you eggshells are evil. Those who consider themselves chaotic neutral will feed you eggshells for no reason other than to validate their own identity, which is an action divorced from morality and immorality entirely.

[af1899]

So, about the New Heroes of Oct/2021

Pretty sure they've been posted around here by now but I wanted to share some thoughts and plans on what I'll do, first of, le trailer:

As for my thoughts (as well as some insight and results when pulling for Erinys and Jill), since they usually get quite lengthy, I'll just hide them below, feel free to read on if you like, and I hope there's anything you could find useful!

As a bonus, there's an analysis on how I understood [Hardy Fighter 3]!

About the banner

This update will add the guys that once served Hardin (a.k.a.: Coyote) in the Akaneia sub-series (the Wolfguard), you first see them as a playable squad in the very first installment of the series, which would later be remade for the SNES as the first book of Mystery of the Emblem, then in book 2, they make a comeback as enemies, when Marth is leading his army to defeat Hardin, the Wolfguard surprises him and tries to defend Hardin, but they're eventually swayed to join Marth once again.

Malice is kind of random since she doesn't have anything to do with the Wolfguard, but it's good to see her here and someone had to fill the fifth spot if not Turbant Hardin (but this banner is based on New Mystery of the Emblem, so it makes sense he's not here), regardless, I do hope Malice's quotes will feel in character, you can read more about her here, there's no need to worry about spoilers since there's hardly any information about her.

And yes, I generalized this as "the update" because Sedgar (the remaining member of the Wolfguard not in the banner) will also be added but as a [Grand Hero Battle] unit, he'll be available in two days.

Then, there's Vyland, he's not in the banner but his sprite appears at 2:01 in the trailer, revealing he's an axe cavalry unit, pretty weird if you ask me since he's not even able to use axes originally, unless reclassed to certain clases (but none is mounted), but that's I.S. for you: "InconSistency", anyway...

Fjorm introduces herself as an "Ascended Hero"... well, I didn't see that categorization coming, but interesting I guess.

I'm suppossing we'll see those in limited amounts, as they seem to be upgraded versions of existing characters (probably only the OCs of the game for now, next would likely be Laegjarn) that were granted power from the Gods (Nifl granted power to Fjorm so that she fights Múspell and his champion warrior (Laegjarn) as we could see in the [Ice & Flame] series of events).

I wouldn't blame you if you're confused on what her B-skill does, I'm not fan of long paragraphs of text either.

Anyway, a breakdown of what this does:

It'll always ensure your foe can't make the guaranteed follow-up attacks from skills that grant those under a certain condition.

On turn 1, if the user is hit with an special skill then the user gets a cooldown reductions to theirs by -2.

On any turn, if the foe hits the user and this makes the user trigger their defensive special skill (i.e. [Escutcheon] and any that reduces damage by a set percentage) its damage reduction effect will be improved.

For example, Ascendant Fjorm has [Ice Mirror] which reduces damage taken from foe's next ranged strike by 30% when activated, then the remaining potential damage (the other 70%) would be reduced by another 30% as [Ice Mirror] would activate twice on a foe's ranged strike, when it's ready, this makes up for a reduction of 50%.

Let's take a look at a simulated attack from some random {Blade} weapon user, let's pretend they would normally deal 40 damage in an attack and Ascendant Fjorm will activate [Ice Mirror]:

Even if the numbers aren't accurrate, I'm fairly certain this is how [Hardy Fighter 3] is going to work more or less.

Would this affect the damage boost for the retaliation attack? I think so, but they said that the special skill activations are calculated separately, so chances are the special skill will only take the base 30% it reduces or the whole damage reduction [Hardy Fighter 3] adds, we'll see after some testing tomorrow, if I can do it, or thanks to someone else testing it for us.

Anyway, holy crap... this is a long paragraph and such a gimmicky effect, it's probably going to be quite useful but I'm probably going to prefer good ol' [Special Fighter 3] or one of the older skills in the family, [Hardy Fighter 3] is great to make your unit even beefier, but it might be slightly hard to use, and requires your unit uses a defensive special, which can come at cost of using others like [Aether] or [Sol].

The new upgrade material

Right... we're talking about the [Ascendant Florets], these will allow your unit to have up to two stat boons (meaning you can only use them once per unit), every player will get a free one plus the second one will come through if you can secure one Ascendant Fjorm (we can get one [Ascendant Floret] the first time we get a new Ascended Hero, and no more are given if you get more copies of that Ascended Hero).

As you can already infer, this resource is going to be extremely scarce and valuable, so exercise additional caution and tought when using those, give it to the unit you're sure use often and think could use two stat boons. Personally, I'm torn between Idoun and Legendary Julia getting an speed boon, both could use it somehow, or I could give it to someone else, but I'm completely uncertain myself, so it'll take me some time to come up with who will receive it, we'll see.

Also, it's worth noting that Ascended Heroes can get a second boon for free, so you won't need to spent [Ascendant Florets] on them.

After knowing this, what we can infer about Ascended Heroes?

They're likely going to be based on characters originary to Fire Emblem Heroes (OC = original character).

Whether or not this is true, they'd be versions of Heroes who were granted great power, most likely from a deity.

They can get a second stat boon for free.

They're going to be part of the regular pool.

This status is moreso related to lore than anything, the only benefit in a gameplay standpoint is the free second stat boon and that they're not going to be summonable only when they're focus units.

So, what do I think of all this?

Well... this sure is all a welcome surprise, for once, I'm glad I.S. remembered the Wolfguard, I'm not attached to any of them, so I could skip them easily if I wanted to.

Malice, however, could be interesting, I love purple in general and she's pretty, but I'm not sure how to feel about her, since she doesn't get much interaction in New Mystery of the Emblem, but I do hope the quotes will give me a good idea of what's she like, either way, I feel hopeful she'll be a project of mine.

I'm also relieved that Ascendant Heroes will have their own classification, we can expect them to not to hog the spot of a Legendary/Mythic Hero.

With how the story on [Ice & Flame 4] went by, and the fact we're again getting first Special Heroes then New Heroes the next month, it's most safe to assume the next episode will focus on Laegjarn, and have her become an Ascendant Hero that'll be advertised the same way and made playable around mid-November.

However, my brain can never accept how I.S. chooses to name banners even if that will not change, I simply can't stand how they name those like... "New Heroes & Ascended Fjorm", but it's well-known to me they want to advertise the OCs and disregard the rest of the newly added characters, and it's no news to me this practice still goes on for at least a year and a half. Oh well... just a little molested about this but I eventually forget it and move on.

Onto a positive point, we're getting some celebrational stuff for the addition of the new hero type, including two free 5★ copies of Vyland with [Unbound Axe+], double [SP] and [EXP] multipliers, rewards from quests (3 [Orbs] and 300 of each {Dragonflower} kind, plus some more other unnamed rewards that'll be known later) and twelve reruns for banners and some of the more recent [Grand Hero Battles] (twelve of them too), you can find every detail about the celebrational events in this archived notification. Anyway, these are all appreciated rewards, nice!

And overall, this banner doesn't feel like the units will be really broken, some are strong, but not gamebreaking, Fjorm is still an armored axe user with some interesting skills to take on all sorts of magical units and some other ranged threats, but ultimately, she falls prey to melee red units, I know Idoun will be an example of an easy counter (high DEF and effectiveness).

And I liked the choices for sure! Even though I'm not personally attached to anyone at the Wolfguard.

Also, it's worth nothing Roshea has a reskinned version of [Courtly Candle+].

I rate this update: 9/10

Plans and summoning results

First of, I almost recklessly throw everything at the {Rein} skills banner, I really adore Erinys and Jill and was hoping I could get merges on both, but things didn't go too well for the cost:

Prior to the trailer, I pulled on three blue stones, totalling 8 [Orbs], when it dropped, I had thought (after some time) that I'd divide my [Orb] savings between this banner and the New Heroes one if I end up sparking for Ascendant Fjorm or Malice since I'd pull on every color, this was a good plan and would probably give me some great fodder along the way.

So, I went with pulling for Jill and Erinys, the former came in the sole green stone when I started to pull after I saw the trailer, this means she came after 13 [Orbs], and with okay IVs too. I got quite some appreciation for Jill and love her design, so I want to make of her a project.

Then, my rate was going up to 4.5%, but before it got to raise again, a Lugh appeared and lowered it to 3.5%, so I bailed out and thought who could get his fodder, eventually I decided that my favorite tactician would use it better:

And besides, I never could get much fodder for her, so it makes me happy to be able to revamp her kit with new stuff, even if she won't use everything she gets, I just want to treat her to something nice.

But I've come to regret deeply pulling past getting Jill, since I saw the news about the celebrational stuff on a random visit to Reddit to look for fanart after I pulled (including the schedule of banners here), and this came to attention:

This is really a bummer, since I have 133 [Orbs] as of this post, with most of the ones I had previously used on the {Rein} skills banner now gone, but since this banner is only going to be live for 24 hours and considering what I have left, I'll just summon in all available red stones in the first round (otherwise just free summon on whatever color), then back to saving it'd be.

The short duration kind of mitigates the damage since pulling at a banner lasting this little unprepared is most unwise ― it still hurts to skip a rerun of my best girl, but I can move on with ease.

So, if I end up feeling interested for Malice, I'll proceed to spark on the Wolfguard banner for either her or Ascendant Fjorm, otherwise I'll just keep saving for later!

And my free summon today was on red, didn't get anything but Idc.

This turned out to be longer than initially expected

However, there has been a lot of content to put into the table I wanted to talk about, I really like writing about the topics I like and I feel like I don't always have what it takes to convey a message in fewer words, so I apologize if you find this all too much to read, even though some parts are of course optional.

Still, if you took some time to read even some parts of this post, I'm definitely grateful for it, thanks so much! And regardless, I hope you'll get lucky in the coming banners.

Also, as a side note, I've reached 100 posts! (But some of them are reblogs)

[hellsbellschime]

Can you do a meta on Severus Snape? He was always one of my favorite HP characters.

Within the wizarding world of Harry Potter, Severus Snape is undoubtedly the most controversial character of the series. And it’s not particularly difficult to see why, because in a world that is almost entirely populated with straightforward, uncomplicated heroes and obvious vicious villains, Severus Snape is arguably the lone character that undeniably fits into both of those categorizations and neither of them.

Regardless of the popularity or enjoyability of the Harry Potter series, it’s difficult to avoid the fact that author JK Rowling doesn’t typically write these characters or stories with an enormous amount of complexity. Most characters fit into classic archetypes and do exactly what is expected of them throughout the books, and even the twists and turns that are meant to be surprises are typically the kind of surprises that the audience has become completely accustomed to after a lifetime of mainstream media consumption.

But, what makes Severus such an interesting character is that he is unquestionably and irrefutably a villain, and he is unquestionably and irrefutably a hero. Thus, it’s not particularly shocking that he is the most divisive character in the story itself.

Nearly every major character in the series is distinctively villainous or heroic, and although there are occasions where they might seemingly cross a line that takes them outside of their chosen character archetype, it’s never anything severe or intense enough for the audience to question everything that they know about that individual or about the moral structures of the entire story itself. But that isn’t so with Snape.

It’s actually incredibly interesting, because clearly Snape’s true allegiance and intentions are meant to be one of the biggest mysteries throughout the story. Both sides of the wizarding war genuinely believe that Severus is working with them, and the question regarding whose beliefs are actually correct aren't even answered until the very last moments of Snape's life.

And, given that the Harry Potter saga follows a pretty stereotypical storyline with the plucky heroes winning out against the fascistic villains just in time for summer break each year, the question of who Severus Snape is and why he does what he does is truly one of the few big enigmas within the novel series. And surprisingly, the answer is almost more compelling and complex than the question itself.

Severus is clearly a character who isn't naturally prone to sharing his feelings, so it's entirely unclear why he's doing what he does until he finally reveals his ultimate motivation at the very end of his character arc. And the fact that his primary motivation is Lily is actually genuinely shocking, largely because while Snape doesn't share his emotions, his feelings are really the driving force behind all of his decisions.

Plenty of Harry Potter fans who have no love for Snape have pointed out that a lot of his behavior towards Lily is classic "nice guy" bullshit. And that is a completely fair critique. But, it's still vital to his character arc and the value of his character within the narrative specifically because it is so self-centered. Snape's attitude towards Lily and the world at large is extremely selfish, which makes him stick out from the crowd in the Harry Potter world but also makes his story more interesting and relatable.

The characters in Harry Potter are all wonderful in their own way, but one thing that the cast of characters is largely lacking are people who aren't doing something because of some grander design or belief system. Most of the people who follow Voldemort are doing so because they sincerely believe in their own supremacy and think that they have a right to power over others, and most of the people who fight for Harry are doing so because they sincerely believe in the rights of non-purebloods. Or, because their lives literally depend on Voldemort not seizing power.

Ergo, Severus is truly a deviation from the norm. Obviously that could never excuse or explain his terrible choices, but it is actually emotionally resonant and relatable specifically because of how mundane it is. Snape didn't become drawn to the dark arts because of some ideological devotion to evil, he did it simply because he was a bullied kid with no friends who finally found acceptance through dark magic. And, he didn't start fighting to take down Voldemort because he suddenly realized that it was the morally upright thing to do, he did it because he lost someone that he loved as a result of following Voldemort in the first place.

Every one of Snape's choices is deeply personal and driven by his own feelings, and he often doesn't understand the gravity of those choices until it's too late. But in a story that is built within a framework of good versus evil, it has never been about good versus evil for Severus.

Unsurprisingly, this duality makes Snape more appealing to some fans and less appealing to others. A character who seems to have little interest in broader philosophical ideas of right and wrong and whose actions seem to be purely driven by their own passions and prejudices is not what most readers expect from fantasy characters, but the banality of Snape's choices also makes him undeniably more understandable than many of the other players in the Harry Potter universe.

The reality is, most people in the real world can likely relate to Severus more than nearly any other character in the series, purely because his actions are so self-motivated. Most people certainly have their own morals and beliefs, but Snape's decisions to do what he wants when he wants for his own reasons are far more understandable than characters who are constantly putting their lives on the line for some larger purpose.

Snape is also sympathetic in a more frightening and unsettling sense too, because his character arc is a perfect example of the reality that most people don't know they're making the biggest decisions of their lives when they're actually making them. Severus did nearly everything he did simply because it made him feel better or because he thought he could get something he wanted out of it, but the ripple effects of those choices were completely cataclysmic. He told Voldemort about a prophecy, which was a decision that got the only person that Severus ever truly loved killed. And although his decision to switch sides was primarily driven by a desire to avenge Lily and provide some penance for his horrendous mistake, that choice may have literally saved the entire wizarding world.

It's interesting how that selfish motivation dovetails with the larger themes of the Harry Potter series as well. Because while love is meant to be the greatest and most powerful magic of all, Snape is an ironic insight into the fact that the magic of love doesn't always yield beneficial results. Lily's love for Harry may have saved his life, but Snape's unrequited love for Lily is what inadvertently ended hers. It's not even clear whether or not that irony was intentional, but Snape's entire story is a poignant example that while love is powerful, that power doesn't always end in happiness and rainbows.

Severus Snape is an incredibly divisive character because he's a genuine villain and a genuine hero, despite the fact that he never intended to be either. That notion in itself is terrifying but also feels very real, as it's frighteningly believable that the fate of the world could rest in the hands of someone who isn't acting on behalf of some higher purpose or duty, but is simply doing what they want or what feels right for them at the time. And whether Harry Potter fans love him or hate him, there is no denying that Severus Snape's feelings irrevocably altered the wizarding world.

The nature of Severus Snape was one of the biggest questions in the Harry Potter saga, and while the answer to that question was straightforward, it wasn't simple. His character development exemplified the fact that one person can be capable of genuine good and genuine evil, and it's entirely possible that these benevolent or malevolent acts can sometimes be driven by neither kindness or malice.

Considering the end of the Harry Potter story, it seems safe to say that JK Rowling always intended for Severus to be a hero. And while he was a good guy, he was irrefutably a bad guy too, and that is truly what made him an interesting and dimensional character.

[ectonurites]

a very very genuine question: so its bad to repost art but no one says anything when people repost things from the source material/creator's sketches.....why?like sure everyone who likes it may recognize the style but there are plenty of fan artists i recognize immediately, new or old art, with or without. to me it just feels the same, like either dont repost art or people should be able to repost stuff, i dont see how they can work at the same time. and this isnt me saying people should be allowed to repost and all that bc i do understand the theory of why reposting hurts artists, just that the logic doesnt seem to fit once it extends to famous artists/creators. just bc its official and easily recognizable makes it okay? how does that work? again, there are plenty of fanartists who are easily recognizable and lose no money when people repost their work (bc they posted it for free) and from my own observation, it seems it just, somehow, makes them want to do art less (from what i have read from artists themselves). why do we not consider that when it comes to official creators? wouldnt they also feasibly be less motivated seeing their hard work plastered across the internet for free when thats the sole way they make their income? and its not a system where its solely sticking it to the man bc it hurts the artists income, as well. but if it makes them happy to see people enjoying and sharing their work with others, drawing interest, why isnt it the same with fan artists? people often repost art, not out of malice or intent to claim credit, but bc they enjoy it + want to share it, esp on social media where sharing isnt a feature (instagram, for example) again im not trying to justify reposting, just confused about the contradiction

First of all instagram does have a form of sharing posts- stories. Which yes they are temporary by default, but you can use the highlight feature to collect your favorite things you’ve shared from people right there on your own profile AND it links back to the original post and can permanently be on your profile as long as you keep it there. You can even label them and everything! But then moving on to answering more of your actual questions

To start: this is a very complicated thing. And I feel everyone trying to answer it might have slightly varied opinions. 

I personally see a pretty clear distinction between ‘Officially published/released’ works (like comic book [as like you’ve probably seen I frequently post comic panels] or other materials that may have been released in creator guides, official video game art, promotional art for things, etc etc) as opposed to like, personal work and fanart. Because with official works:

There’s usually a source to buy it and you should if you’re referencing it a ton (while I don’t own every comic I’ve ever read I do have a lot and if I did read something first through illegal means [because some comics are just straight up hard to find due to age/being out of print] and enjoyed it I try to seek out a physical copy after if possible)

There is a level of far wider recognition (I know you personally might find fanartists’ styles recognizable but like, things that are in mainstream media.. have just such a higher profile. it’s not really comparable) 

If you’re not supporting the official release you’re harming the big company that published it far more than the individual artist (like, the individual artist probably also wouldn’t appreciate it, because it can effect them for sure as well, but they’re not gonna be taking the brunt of the damage unless it was entirely self-published work, which I’d definitely categorize differently from what I’m mainly talking about here.)  

Often fanartists/professional artists who aren’t that well known, in addition to wanting to just create work for the sake of it, also want to build their own platform, to have an audience that they interact with. Or like, if they’re offering commissions, a bigger platform puts you in a position where people will actually see the art and want to commission you. When you say reposts of smaller artists’ fanart doesn’t ‘loose them money’ because they didn’t charge to post it, you’re missing the fact that it makes them loose out on proper linked-back-to-them exposure. Especially like, when a repost account on insta or something says ‘ah yes credit to [username] on tumblr’ the vast majority of people who see it aren’t going to then open up a whole different website and look for the artist. Some people might! but if there’s anything i’ve learned from working professionally in arts marketing it’s that people want things that are convenient and directly in front of them. Someone who wants to see more works because they liked one is significantly more likely to click on the username of someone who posted it rather than opening up a browser or a different app and searching a separate name put in the caption. 

Then honestly, I do feel weird about reposts of professional artists’ more personal works unless the artist has stated they’re fine with people reposting with credit. It should be about the comfort level of the artist. I think a lot of professional artists who aren’t in a position where they’re as worried about building a platform, because they already have one and might have professional connections/opportunities already lined up, might not really care about reposts especially on a website they don’t use. (Like tumblr. I’m coming at this mostly from a comics artist perspective here, but most professional artists I see are waaaay more active on twitter and instagram than tumblr) If it’s a website they don’t use, it’s not taking away from the platform they had been building there for themselves. And also, some artists really just don’t give a shit, which is their choice they can make with their work! But that’s not a universal thing. One artist being fine with their personal art being reposted =/= all artists being fine with it. 

In my own experience as a fanartist, when I see my art reposted without credit, especially when it’s art I’ve also already posted on the same platform... it’s definitely disheartening. Even worse is when the repost gets even more attention than my original post. (something that has happened to me multiple times!) Like, it can get so upsetting!  Because it lets me know that someone else was using my art to build their platform and I got exactly zero benefit out of it. Then when it’s reposted with credit it’s a little less annoying, but I still don’t... get much out of it. Especially if it’s an instagram repost and they credit my tumblr not my account on there, since insta captions don’t actually do links unless it’s to other insta accounts. Also with insta for example, I have a 'business’ account set up so I can look at and track popularity of my posts and see how they’re doing as something to keep in mind when considering posting times, etc etc. When other people repost my art there I have no control over it. That sucks a lot! Also, when I quite literally ask people not to repost my art (it is IN! MY! DESCRIPTION!) and they still do, it’s just straight up disrespectful. I asked for a boundary to be respected with my work and people have just completely ignored it. That doesn’t feel good at all.

But, conversely, I’m gonna talk about my more professional irl work for a sec. I’m a graphic designer, so I do things like posters, logos, etc, When I design a poster for a client that is meant to be advertising something, even if it’s got my own original illustration or something as part of it, I know my name isn’t necessarily going to be attached to it the same way as it is with my personal work. I get a credit line somewhere, but that’s in a fine print probably not even on the poster itself at all, but that’s like, part of what I signed up for. I already get paid separately, I am giving permission for my work to be out of my own hands in that way. Professional work for a client is often setup in some way similar to this. I don’t get mad when I walk down the street and see a poster I made up somewhere without it directly ‘linking’/referencing back to me (aside from maybe my signature if it had an illustration), in fact I go ‘OMG ITS THERE ugh wait i see one pixel is off oh noooooo” and then move on with my day. It’s just an entirely different situation because that kind of work has a different arrangement from the start, where you know it’s going to be put in a different type of circulation.

So yeah, my word isn’t god here, but I definitely see official releases as having a different set of permissions based on the fact that they are published in an entirely different situation. And I think reposts of personal art aren’t cool if the artist isn’t okay with them, no matter how big a platform they have. Other people probably approach this with a slightly different perspective, but that’s mine!