#which will effectively destroy the world- even if thats a good thing

[ghost-bard]

feeling unwell about solavellan

[steven-has-exploded]

ive yet to really see anyone else point this out but i think fyodor is going to end up being one of the most gut-wrenchingly unstable and sympathetic (to ME atleast) characters in bsd. what i perceive as foreshadowing for this has all been pretty vague, but thats really only further ammunition considering the way asagiri likes to write via throwing the wildest shit at us out of nowhere at 50mph and expecting us to deal with it. how did i first come to this conclusion? harukawas eye thing

this is going to be long please proceed with caution if you read slowly or just not at literal supersonic speed. rant under cut u know how this works

for those unaware or who have since forgotten the exact details, here is the image explaining harukawas thing with eyes, click to read;

so. fyodors eyes are usually very light, which a few other people have pointed out is probably due to the fact he genuinely believes his goal of ridding the world of abilities is following gods will; almost everything he does is a necessary evil to acheive the idealistic dream of a world without abilities. he understands his actions are wrong, but you cant go through with a goal such as that without doing morally reprehensible things in the process. anws so as user wildflowerteas pointed out his eyes are extremely dark after hes resurrected

now, could this just be signifying that fyodor can now continue doing his fucked up little deeds via his functional immortality? yes. but asagiri doesnt seem to write that way and i need an excuse to defend fyodor because im insane

asagiri generally doesnt write characters, especially important ones, as subscribing to one specific side of the moral compass. sure, there are characters that are more morally good or bad or gray than others, but not every one of their actions is as such. characters arent straight heroes or villains in their actions, and sometimes not even narratively; fitzgerald did everything for his wife to finally be happy and see her daughter again, dazai still trained akutagawa the way he did despite knowing it was abusive because his circumstances couldnt allow him to change before oda died, et cetera

so, lets interpret it another way. fyodors eyes being dark after resurrection may not be a reflection of his sinister personality, but rather the way he views and experiences his own countless deaths. he is purified in death and tainted when hes brought back; at peace in his last moments and destroyed when hes alive again. so what conclusion did this realization bring me to? fyodor is a suicidal maniac and hates his ability hear me out Please

in hindsight it seems really obvious to me now; what other reason could have spurred him on to try to desperately to erase abilities if not because he himself despises his own? his ability is truly the purest act of cruelty someone can experience when driven to the point he has been; it lets him bask in the calm of death, the comfort of everything finally ending, the solace that hes going to be finally rewarded for his actions by god. but only for a moment. once that moment is over, hes torn back into the world of the living, in the body of his own killer, the corpse of his last vessel staring him in the face as if to mock him for what he could never have. it deprives him of the human right to even die. what kind of person who claims to love all humanity wouldnt want to free the world of abilities, if others' have caused them as much pain as his has to him?

okok i apologize for making u hear me wax poetic about an anime twink version of fyodor dostoevsky but if youre still not convinced, which is ok i can see why this would be very insane to someone who isnt obsessed with this guy, i want you to just imagine for a moment how living with that kind of power would effect you. while we dont know fyodors exact age, we can assume that hes been alive for at least about 500 years due to his ability. fyodor isnt some kind of immortal being that has a conveniently human form, he is an actual human being who was first murdered presumably just in his twenties based on his appearance, who then had to slowly come to the realization that he will experience small spots of death before having to continue the same cycle of immortality for forever. human beings cant grasp the concept of infinity; our brains arent wired to deal with the idea, because everything in our own lives comes to an end. fyodor will never experience that. even if you view him as plain evil, pure and simple, no human being wishes to have their brain broken by the hands of infinity. and yet thats what fyodor is experiencing

[thevalleyoftriumph]

"He'll apologize after he's done here. Make it up to them somehow later, have a long talk with them about this." Assuming Dark did not execute cg/ they weren't there/ SOMETHING idk, and Dark was able to patch a very beaten and unconscious Chosen up and drag them back to the house, how would that conversation go? Would Beast take one look at Dark and attack him? Even if Killer or Chosen want to try diplomacy? Would They (one of the alters) wake up, realise their still in the house with the guy who is stronger than them and has harmed them, and book it? If so would Dark follow? Or let them leave Would they wake up to a note? Would one of them rip it up before the others have a chance to see it? Would they TRY diplomacy, only for the argument to immediately resume Theres so many possibilities, none of which can happen since Dark was blasted to kingdom come, BUT we can imagine for a moment

Oh man the convo would go so horribly so badly. Like let's be so honest Dark is the worst person to have a genuine and emotional conversation with he does NOT know what he's doing he's almost worse than Chosen 😭

I've never actually thought about this particular scenario before [as in it's actually like.. never crossed my mind somehow] so I can't really say for absolute certain what would happen, BUT . Let's indulge.

I think you're pretty right that if it were Beast still in front when they wake up, it'd probably immediately assume it was still in danger and attack Dark - that, or it'd absolutely book it the first chance it got, since it's not really looking for a repeat of the Virabot part of that whole thing. Sometimes it's just gotta do what's safest, and that doesn't always mean fighting back - sometimes it means retreat.

I think Chosen would still have some sort of faith in Dark and would like to stay and hear him out - and Killer by extension would, too, in a way. But both would be extremely hurt by everything and can be just as stubborn as Dark when they want to be, so it'd be pretty hard for them to not end up cutting him off a bunch to put their points in.

I think however, aside from Beast, Killer would also probably think about leaving. Maybe not forever, but definitely long enough to go sit outside and think about things for a while. They'd probably slip out when Dark is busy and he just comes back to them gone and briefly freaks out lol.

Honestly I'm certain the argument would just start back up eventually unless something changed REALLY fast you're totally right about that. These guys are sooo bad at emotions and Talking Things Out that it's almost comical if it wasn't borderline depressing.

HOWEVER ☝️ I think even during another argument, for Both of them their fight would just constantly be lingering in their minds - especially through Any Other Future Argument, the thought always rears itself back around. They're cautious of their actions, both of them - neither wants to get close during an argument anymore. If, say, Chosen instinctively tries to get closer - he stops, pulls back, then continues with what he was saying. It would do neither of them good if it got physical again, in fact thats the last thing EITHER of them want, so they do everything physically possible to remove even the possibility of an accident if they end up disagreeing about ANYTHING. No matter how small.

IDK THERES JUST SO MANY WAYS THIS COULD GO AND COULD EFFECT THEM ALL IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE TIME POST-SHOWDOWN TO HEAL FROM THEIR ISSUES. They love each other dearly and are each others best friend but they're also both so so so badly traumatized people and need a therapist SO much. So badly. Alas there's no therapists in the Outernet who work with cybercriminals who had a hand in nearly destroying their world unfortunately. 😔

[the-marxist-mash]

My "I think the fallout show is bad" post spoilers included

I watched the fallout show with low hopes and mostly for the purpose of annoying my friend whom I love and I'll be honest it was bad 👎

Gonna split this into 1: issues with writing 2: lore bs that i hated cuz im a new vegas girl 3: things i will begrudgingly admit that i liked

1: bad writing

For me the show confirmed for me that it was not going to be writen for me and my tastes was in the second episode when the enclave scientist gives the vault dweller an ominous speech about how the world is too dangerous to set a fire to camp on the road side at night whichbis something very inlone with the Bethesda style of writing the falloit universe. This show really has no interest in talking about how humanity overcomes the suffering of the post apocalypse it is focused on the power fantasy of being the strongest and most competent person who is capable of navigating a wasteland overflowing with mutants raiders and robots, community doesn't save you from the wasteland only big guns and strong walls (and even then the walls dont help as much as the guns)

Then of course there is the shows general failure in world building. For a show that is allegedly not for the long time fans of the series and instead for casual fans or new comers to the franchise just looking for a new scifi series it has a lot of things brought into the show and left entirely unexplained. The enclave a major faction of the series with a lot going on gets a montage of life in their base where we learn they have scientists doing research, use an offbrand american flag, and seem to be somewhat vaguely nefarious. Then there's moldaver a prewar human leading a cult in the post post apocalypse and the only surviver of the great war in the show who is not given a clear explination for living this long. And speaking of the post post apocalypse the new california republic being introduced as already having collapsed as a result of a second nuclear attack on California which while this does get explained is a wildly unnecessary amount of information to give in the first season of a show thats allegedly for new fans.

2 lore shit i hated

So as a new vegas girly i can only describe this show as feeling like if todd howard broke your toys infront of you so nobody could play with them anymore. From the addition of vault tech nuking the ncr in a wild attempt to have the exact same plan as the enclave in both fallout 2 and 3 but with much worse execution to ghouls now having a specific anti feral drug the lore changes are bad. And plenty of people have already pointed out the way the new timeline does not just make it so the ncr is destroyed but it is destroyed before the plot of new vegas is set with fall of shady sands occurring the same year as the 1st battle of the hoover dam which just feels like this was included for the express purpose of decannonizing new vegas because it honestly only makes the story more confusing and harder for new fans to navigate by looking up information about the existing games. Then there is the way in which the enclave is seemingly retconned out of being the shadow government (where it held effective control over vault tech as a way to experiment with human subjects for various reasons) and instead vault tech goes on to start the great war for effectively the same reason the eclave had for trying to exterminate everyone living in the wasteland. And i think the worst part is that most of these issues could have been avoided if the story was just set in a different time (between 1 and 2 or even before 1) or location (literally anywhere a major faction has not already been established existing in cannon) and the story would have benefited so much from that

3: okay i liked some of it

The prewar flashbacks did actually have good bits

The writers didn't go full liberty prime and understood the anticommunism in the series was satire

They made the brotherhood look like a facist techno cult and i had fun with the explicit religious ritual stuff going on in their base

The snake oil salesman who can heal you but also might mutate you was fun and feels very much like classic fallout

The axolotl abomination that i thought had sloghtly too human hands turning out to be a vault experiment was fun for me

4 secret section where i complain more

Yeah i know its already green lit for like 2 more seasons and has way more time to explain shit i dont care i dont think they are either capanle or interested in making this any better

Anyway the show was bad thanks for reading my rambling complaints or sorry for inflicting this on you if you actually liked it? But i put a cut on this one so thats on you. Im gonna go write my own fallout stoeies for ttrpg campaigns with my friends now since todd wont give me a story i like

[mdhwrites]

Ok, so i watched the finale, it was pretty predictable but enjoyable. But during the after cred scene, it really just solidified how aimless these characters are, Willow truly became just 'strong athlete' who serves as Hunters arm candy. She doesnt seem to give a shit about plants anymore ig? shes just 'buff' now.

Gus went straight back to 'guy who likes humans who has a group to celebrate said interest'. Amity is just... making abominations? i guess? Hunter is making palismen, which seems shoved in because caleb apparently carved.

Luz is... magic. yeah thats it. Eda is a headteacher, which feels widely out of place, but whatever. King Is. Other characters are rebuilding? i just- it feels like these characters have nowhere else to go because they just had no personal goals outside of very basic shit.

With amphibia, sasha became a child therapist, anne became a biologist who specialised in amphibians, marcy became a game designer. These are all goals that reflect their journey.

Now I want to start by saying that endings are hard and that character endings can be even harder than that. If you do a time skip epilogue, you have to somehow be able to show that all the characters are happy, successful and moving on in a way that makes sense and is narratively satisfying. You also usually have VERY little time to do this with because it's purposefully meant to be fluffy and sweet and disconnected from the rest in a way that isn't going to fit with the core of the show. The problem is that part of why this is hard is because characters are meant to be complex and their endings should reflect on the themes of the piece as well. Marcy's creativity and wonder about things blooming into a webcomic (I believe it's a webcomic and not games at least, though games works too) is great because she found a healthy way to share those passions with others and make connections through them. Anne's whole arc was learning to find the wonder in others and the strange world she was in and so her aquarium job is dead on the money. Sasha had to learn the hard way how to stop being controlling, angry and manipulative and passing those lessons on is far deeper and useful to others than anything her cheerleader base would have made you expect. It also makes it so when the show states the theme of the piece, about separation being a chance to grow and what you'll find coming back together is all the stronger, it hits SO. FUCKING. HARD. And comparing that to TOH... Well, we got effectively six character endings from what I've seen, seven if you count Lilith but hers is just more of what she was already doing as her job in the series, just now with a harpy form so I don't. Only six are meant to be any sort of final cap on their character/lives. And I'm just going to say this outright: They're not all bad. So from best to worst, with the name at the start of each in bold in case you don't care about someone, let's talk about: Hunter Amity Eda Willow Gus Luz Hunter: It's good. It's genuinely pretty damn good. That's not a joke or a setup or anything either. If Hunter's arc was about rejecting Belos to any extent, then this is a GREAT finish, even without Flapjack. After all, the part of the Isles that Belos himself most directly destroyed through his consumption, greed and wrath was the palistrom trees and palismen. Having it be that Hunter is now helping restore those elements is incredibly potent. Of course, there's also the obvious connection of Hunter and Flapjack but arguably the bird had more to do with his arc than any one character so him influencing Hunter's future just makes sense. I think it also just fits well with Hunter's character though. Watching out for people trying to steal palistrom wood uses his old soldier training but now in a constructive way, he's obviously not a very social person so the isolation is probably nice to him to get away from things and the boy has a LOT mentally to deal with. Working on regular wood while thinking about all of that is going to be a good place to release those anxieties and tensions in a good, creative manner. And for themes of identity, I think it's fine too. While Flapjack was Caleb's palisman, I don't think we ever get it confirmed that Caleb himself carved for a living or the like. That makes this genuinely something Hunter is doing himself and not because of someone else. That includes if he's doing it somewhat for Flapjack because honoring a friend is a very personal thing and very different from copying the dead. And again, frankly, the job feels very right for Hunter because it plays into his strengths rather than his weaknesses and gives him the peace he needs. No notes. Good job show. You got one. Amity: Okay, that's a little mean because Amity's is... Fine. It finally gives a point to her and her father's arc that you can't argue with through "X led to nothing" like angst about her father or the abomaton problem. There is a through line to this, especially with her abomatons. It makes narrative sense and functions.

...Except how much have those things actually mattered to her and in how long? She still rejected her father's hug in Reaching Out and didn't ask Em and Ed about him so their relationship by the end of the show still wasn't good. Escaping Expulsion explicitly said Amity was letting her grades slip so she's been at least distracted from magic for over a season at this point. Yes they claim her hair is abomination styled but it's WAY too light colored for that frankly, making it look way more pink than any sort of purple. Worse yet is that Amity's arc, besides becoming Luz's girlfriend, can be generously claimed as having a theme of becoming her own person instead of what others want of her. This technically works but clashes some by her still following in one of her parent's footsteps. She just swapped from her mother's dream to her father's passions. Now Alador never pushed her to copy him, he was neglectful after all so that would have been hard, so it still works. It is still theoretically a form of abominations that is characterized in the show by being about passion rather than simply performance with Odalia pushing the need for it to be commercial, something Amity theoretically won't care about. Frankly though, with how much her arc tries to push her caring about others, her reading to kids, there even being from what I've seen a sweet moment between her and the Collector... Why not make her a teacher or a caretaker of some sort? That's harder to portray than abomination mechanic but it fits as an ultimate capstone for going from someone who only cared about personal position, being the best and would throw away lives for her goals to someone who rejected all of that. To someone who spent their life now lifting others up and her knowledge empowered her to do that better than she otherwise could have. So Amity gets like a B. It works narratively and for the character but there's some improvement that could be done.

Eda: Oh look, a job that is going to make her absolutely miserable! That is my first thought hearing that she's a headmaster. After all, being the lead administrator is NOT the same as being a teacher. The paperwork alone is going to make her wish she was dead, much like when Tsunade became Hokage in Naruto. But that's not really what you're supposed to be thinking with it. It's supposed to be the ultimate extension of both Momma Eda in her students being her kids but also the fulfillment of Eda going from reluctant mentor to full on teacher. Which... If there were more than two episodes of the series where Eda was actually even attempting to be a mentor to Luz, that might actually mean more and that is EASILY the stronger thread being pulled here. You have to make the students into a more abstract concept for the Momma Eda theme to really fit here. What could you have done with her? I don't entirely know but I would probably have said enjoying retirement with Raine. Living a life finally at peace and without a need to hustle and bustle to fight against the curse or the system. She could have the freedom she always wanted without having to fear for her life. Having her partner by her side also makes it so you know she has family, something she spent so much of her life without. So essentially it's an ending that works from a more meta perspective but when you actually consider the events of the show and the character, it's questionable how much it fits or how 'happy' an ending it will be for her, especially when it ties her down so hard.

Willow: Okay, being fair here, from a setup perspective this actually works better than Eda's ending. Her strength is much of what defined her character, magically and physically, and she decided personally to want to go into sports in S2. Her becoming an athlete fits on both of those levels. For a character who is mostly a plot device, that's not bad.

Except it really doesn't play into anything about how she began and her resentment towards the name Half a Witch. It also has nothing to do with her plants. These elements that the show tried to claim had her seething resentment, that dominated her childhood, are ENTIRELY gone from her ending instead of reclaimed in any way. It's frustrating because it really paints that early stuff as pointless and genuinely just for Amity's sake, not Willow's and that's not great when the athletic stuff always felt tacked onto me in S2 just to give her SOMETHING to do with Hunter.

It also just continues pushing this feeling to me that despite setting up and wanting Willow to be the shy, plant girl archtype at times, S1 especially wanting her to just be willing to wilt away, SOMEONE on the writing team hates that archtype. Just wanted to surgically remove every last scrap of that from her character, regardless of if she was given the time to justify it or the like. That was frankly more okay to me with the shy element than the plant element seeing as she feels BORN to do plant magic by the fact that she was a master practically from the first time we see her use it without no training.

But here's the real reason it's below Eda: I hate her design. It's mostly fine but it's also UNFINISHED. She has one kneepad and ONE SOCK. You can make excuses for one of those but not the fucking sock and it drives me up a wall. I also don't like that the reformed Isles would still have a character like Willow having spikes on parts of her uniform for sports. Get rid of those and imply things have become gentler show. It's not like you've ever cared about keeping the Isles' identity intact before.

Gus: Here is where we go from "It functions but is maybe not good if you think about it" to "You're being way more honest than you're meaning to be show." After all, we have that cyclical aspect of Eda where Gus is returning to the start of the show but there is NO thought put into this.

If there was, if the show was willing to show that Gus had become wiser and more considerate, he wouldn't be studying humans. Not on the Isles. After all, how is he even going to do it on the Isles? Studying Luz? That feels weirdly like being friends with Bigfoot while saying you still need to find Sasquatch and prove the legends are true. Dude, maybe stop being... weird about this race you know exists properly now. It's kind of uncomfortable.

It's not even a hard thing to fix: Say he's here to see Luz off before going through the portal door with one of those glamour stones to cover his ears. He needs to go learn anthropology and the political sciences of our world in order to prepare to be a proper ambassador. That actually might have been neat.

But, you know, that would have taken any thought or care with Gus and we're lucky he was even remembered in the finale frankly. It's a flat failure though and really highlights how Gus hasn't grown and is still mostly a joke to the writers.

So then the question is... If Gus is this bad, can it really get worse with

Luz: *breathes in slowly*

*breathes out slowly*

I've been pretending to grade some of these and if that's the case, I don't even accept Luz's ending. I tell the student that they ignored what the assignment was and just copy and pasted the first paragraph of their wikipedia entry and tried to hand that in as their answer to how the MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW ENDS IT. Because that is exactly the vibe of this ending.

Luz didn't grow and she sure as shit didn't learn anything. Remember: Her theme for her character arc, the worst decision to me creatively, is the fantasy she wants to live versus the consequences of that fantasy. It doesn't even matter how bad that theme is ever handled in the show because this is theoretically the largest, explicit theme of the story outside of personal expression being all that matters.

And Luz literally ends the series chasing the same dream she had at the start.

I... I don't even entirely know how to respond to that. The show, which is a kid's show remember, legitimately said that her running away from her problems to play out one of her fantasy books was such a good choice, it should be the thing she does for the REST OF HER LIFE. That it is the final, definitive note for the character that Luz the Human is going to be Luz the Witch.

And you know what? If Luz's journey to being a witch actually meant anything in the show, this might have literally any justification. If during the course of the show she had genuinely learned a lot as a person over the course of becoming a witch, if magic itself had so many rules as to require you to be a functional human being in order to use it, it MIGHT work. It's not great but it might work. Except... Remember back when I was talking about Eda? About how Eda spends two episodes teaching Luz and that's it?

Remember: Luz is like 90% why the Selkidamus is beat while on the boat. By the beginning of S2, and explicitly with Escaping Expulsion, she is already closing in on the ceiling of her powers. She already outshines most other witches to the point where the Emperor is the only person to give her a real challenge combat wise so long as the series is actually remembering to let her cast spells. Half of her glyphs aren't even tried to be connected to anything but instead, as she puts it, are found from other witch's spells randomly. They're just... There and no one else noticed somehow.

And this is what you want to say her character was leading up to? A profession that in the human realm has no transferable skills because she can't just be spinning Stringbean all the time without it being obvious and glyphs don't work in the human realm. It's actually worse in the Boiling Isles because unless she's going to get employed as a glyph master or something, she still needs a job. Everyone has magic there after all and anyone can use glyph magic with ease. You don't even need to be confident in it. Thank you Gus and Looking Glass Ruins.

It is bizarrely revealing how little thought and care was put into Luz and the themes of the show with this being how it ends. It is just, top to bottom, a failure. The only way it functions is fans of the show being happy she's chasing her dreams into eternity. You cannot think about it for even a second without some sort of question coming up.

And what else would she do? Easy. I've been saying she should have become a counselor or a therapist literally even before S2. That was just the obvious way for her to grow to me. She learns that you need to balance reality and fantasy, your passions with the demands of the world and takes up a job that lets her help kids like her find happiness and a place in their world. Either world. It would imply she understands childhood fantasies are just that, it would highlight her empathy and understanding of others and also is an amazing culmination of the theme of Fantasy versus Reality.

And instead the show's response was probably as far from caring about any of those things as you can possibly get. I don't understand it and it blows my fucking mind.

But I mean... if you want to finally drop the pretenses and just admit that your show is nothing but basic, escapist fantasy... I guess there really isn't a better ending than this, is there? =======

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[mokadevs]

Recently finished fgo’s olympus so here are some bleary unorganized thoughts on it and my frustrations before i drift off to sleep

i think my biggest problem with olympus is that it over promises.

I think that the set up is amazing. Not referring to atlantis, though atlantis was great as everyone and their mother has said, but the whole sequence of a) entering olympus and b) exploring olympus is incredible. I think its one of the peak examples of fgo constantly being able to make you feel like their are Actual stakes in the narrative despite you as a player knowing that the tree will inevitably be cut and you’ll see the cosmos denied screen flash by again. Running through the city

Hell, Demeter’s entire entrance was bone chilling. I think she has the best mech design of the olympus gods in my biased opinion, and seeing her drop down before the animated screech she lets out that destroys the city was incredible. Truly the first time i saw it i went Holy Shit.

Then… i wont say the lostbelt flops after that but there were a few key areas that it left me wanting.

Personal preference out of the way, ill say the constant deus ex machinas - whether it be for the good guys or the bad guys (if the bad guy has a deus ex machina, is it called that?? Anyway) - started to get a little irritating after a while. The stakes were so, so high at the start, and demeters victory felt so barely clawed for with so many bits and pieces coming together that certain other fights felt like. “Well, okay then.” The twins revealing caligula and then saying “we didnt wanna say we had him for dramatic effect!” was really eye roll worthy, for example, and to be honest i dont really understand how we were able to shmoove our way out of aphrodites mind control hellscape, which was annoying after again i loved demeters fight So much

ill note there that these are things that didnt work for ME, in MY OPINION im sure other people feel other ways about it and i am happy for them for it :]

I think that parts of the lostbelt felt… rushed, and i didnt feel like the power scaling of chaldea matched narratively. With how much trouble we had for a single fighter at the start, i felt like in universe things got too easy with too little justification.

I was really disappointed with dioscuris writing, and also weirded out by the fact that there were twin humans and twin gods but very little was drawn about their connection…?? I was so certain that they would have some sort of relationship, or at least a cool narrative foil, but all we got was the twin humans hating the dioscuri because they killed their friends, and a cheap line about adele criticizing the girl twin for always following what her brother said.

I feel mixed about chaos, because in the moment i was emotionally moved but in retrospect it feels like a bit of a cheap non-foreshadowed reason for musashi to die epicly. Though maybe it was foreshadowed and i missed it; ill have to reread, but for now it just feels Too out of the blue to feel good.

But i think the thing that i think i disliked the most was “actually zeus was going to fuck off in the end and abandon the humans here letting them die so this lostbelt was evil from the start and gudako is objevtively right for this”

And like. Thats so AGGRAVATING for the lostbelt that was drummed up to be the one that would give us the most trouble, the lostbelt that was supposed to be the model one.

What i really wanted out of this lostbelt was a lostbelt that was objectively better than earth. That really? The only reason we could justify destroying it was for our own survival. Not because the lostbelt was in some way flawed, but because we have no other choice. With how sickly killing the first lostbelt felt, i really wanted lostbelt 5 to blow me out of the park with the emotional weight of killing a world and it just. didnt even try. It threw in some half assed line about why this lostbelt was well and truly evil

Which like! Honestly if it had been done well enough i couldve been fine with, couldve been happy with. But the twist that zeus actually was going to fuck off? That chaos was going to destroy all the humans anyway?? That zeus brainwashed the other gods to his side anyway????? I felt zero sympathy in destroying this lostbelt and i wanted to, SO badly

And i am All Here for a more in depth take on how humans have twisted robots into gods. How these ronots thought they could love humans but didnt hold the capacity for it!!! Honestly that concept is super cool!! I liked it!!! But like. The way it was delivered left a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted to care more about the tragedy it had wrought.

I wish that zeus’ defeat was something like… in attempting to defeat zeus, chaldea accidentally/maybe on purpose? Endangers the people of olympus. And through the motions of protecting them, zeus burns and falls to ruin. And as he lays there, he realizes that as much as he wants to care for these people hes protecting, he doesnt. And hes dying for what he feels is nothing.

If i put more thought to it i could come up with more ways the god plotline couldve been bettered on. But like. A third act twist where the reader is reassured that this lostbelt is undeniably evil is really one of the worst options they couldve taken at that point. Basically everything else i can forgive but that felt really sour in my mouth

And finally . I loved kirschtania and caenis i did cry. I could say more on them but itd be fairly incoherent especially when im this tired. Just know that i really really like them

[hypnofantasma-asks-and-doodles]

questions about wonder because leader of my fleet is wonder and i wonder (boooo) how some stuff works

Konrolo sits in a little warehouse underground and has monitors set up in various different places around the world- courtesty of the shadow vani, silohwu.

Does the wonder sembla have a radius? Could Konrolo look at the monitor of new york and go "hmm i would like that building to be eviscerated", and then an army of gators crawls out of the sewers and starts destroying the place--- or does she need to be in that area for it to take effect?

Does wonder have a timer? Does it happen at a random time after the user wishes it to be or does it happen instantaneously? How much control over this would the user have?

Can a wonder user just... wish for something to happen at any given time and place to anyone and have it happen? Like "i wish Ranodio would just fucking. Explode rn" while she's on the moon and he's on earth?

How much focus and willpower (as well as psionics) goes into that?? What's the limit for it (like how plasma users can't.. summon a star.)

ALSO SORRY THIS ASK IS FUCKING GARGANTUAN i just dont wanna mess up her writing cause shes such an important character and id hate to spread misinfo on a semi public project /gen

1) Radius - All psionic abilities have a ranged radius based upon visualization, which also means they can affect areas they see in live cameras. The absolute cutoff is anything on different celestial bodies- you cannot be on the moon and affect something on Earth. HOWEVER- even with the ability to affect things via camera visualization, it takes more Will strain. The effects will be weaker and/or cause more mental willpower on the user, and likewise anything that's closer and in a tangible proximity will be stronger and use less willpower.

2) Timer - This is down to energy vs matter manifestations. If psionics conjure something that requires constant application, like a fire, a bolt of lightning, or otherwise doing an effect that's an energy, it will have a "timer" in the sense that once it is cast, it is done and cannot be repeated. If Wonder conjures a physical object of matter, the object stays until someone else removes it- same goes for every other sembla that summons energy or matter

Wonder also can't fully control the effects. Whatever's summoned will be summoned and "aimed" towards the desired task, but after they've been conjured, anything can happen and they can't be redirected or controlled directly

3) Wishes - Wonder cannot control the means (only cause Some Thing to happen), and the more specific and extravagant the desired outcome, the more strain it causes the user and the more focus it'd require. also like above, the absolute range cutoff is celestial bodies, so you can't be on Big Rock 1 and affect someone on Big Rock 2

4) Willpower - The more willpower one has, the more Big Things their manifestations of wonder can be. Wonder is commonly cast in the form of sudden small weather events, animal swarms, some piece of the room warping, a freak yet realistic accident, a freak UNREALISTIC accident due to warping, clownish shenanigans (like pulling 30 fuckin miles of cloth from your pocket even though that shit wasnt there before), something in the room suddenly gushing water, etc. of course, they get WAY more dangerous and complex, but thats the general common gist

ACTUALLY for a good example of media using Wonder - think of Discord from MLP as a VERY VERY strong Wonder user! also maybe the entirety of Alice in Wonderland. that'd be a whole Wonder user get-together

Wonder is a VERY fickle and VERY hard to use sembla, which is why good Wonder users are an absolute force to be reckoned with. Average wonder users (good example of an average or bad wonder user, Shmendrick the Magician from The Last Unicorn) are just sorta seen as silly lil magicians, or are kwaiz who prefer brawn over fancy psionics; only using said psionics to give a good ol jumpscare when you least expect it

[haru-naechi]

Second Rant: The Villainess/Mob/Side Character/ Random Girl Who Wakes up in a Novel She Read

Whoopie! Reincarnated to a novel/game, an interesting concept really. Seeing how there is already a pre-determined story to follow, I do wonder how they'll go about this.

*Several reads later*

Oh boy. They can't really think of anything else can't they?

Okay so, one thing I really really like genuinely hate about these stories is how the mc always acts so dumb. Like, girl, come on, I think for the past few years you've been in this world you ought to think that things develop.. idk NaTurAlly? Why do you keep saying that "things are changing" like no shit things are changing, you've changed and that's practically gonna cause a ripple effect on everything.

Oh, oh, and I hate it when ml is like obv showing feeeeelingsss but mc is just: (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠). "No OmG tHaTs NoT PosSIblE, cu'Z he'S supPosEd to FalL foR ThE OrigINaL FL!"

Fuck it even when the ml admits his feelings the girl is just like "no".

It's frustrating to me because authors tend to develop these ladies as quick thinkers and determined, always trying to find ways to avoid death flags set to them. But then they do those aforementioned things and it kinda makes you think how shallow they are. It's like they don't see the relationships they build as real ones and are all just superficial for specific reasons.

I understand the concern when you feel like you're trying to fight against fate but most of these stories don't even actually have that. Things do change and usually nothing terrible happens, but mc acts like there will be even though the author clearly only puts "horrible" things as plot advancers and nothing too serious.

Also, for those mc that woke up in their new body with a shit reputation paired with what everyone knows has a shit personality, why is everyone just okay with her changing all of the sudden — like its just plain stupid. If I knew someone who is evil suddenly becomes good overnight, I would not only be sceptical but also assume that she's possessed (seeing how magic always exists in these worlds i don't that's too far from the realm of possibility right?). This one honestly is what bugs me the most.

Suspicion is removed cu'z mc does something heroic or wonderful (blegh), but that kinda undermines the suffering other people have gone through with the original character. Some authors have even shown fully blown flashbacks where the original character is violent, verbally abusive and typical in every possible way. And these people just, flips a damn switch and say "Oh! She's changed!" Which boggles my mind every time I read something like that.

Which puts me to my next complaint. There is no real villain or even when there is they aren't really appealing. The problems set by the "original" story already gets destroyed like a couple chapters in, so what next? There are quite a lot of stories that just turn the OG Female Lead into whatever the villainess is supposed to be like: delusional, fake, etc. Which to me is, fine, but if you're gonna turn someone else in that world into a villain for the sake of having a bad guy, then why not put the stakes higher? Or at least give them more of a reason than just them feeling entitled to have the boyz. They don't have any substance to them and are bland af. Its a story vying for a downfall you already know will come.

Overall these ladies think too much and too little at the same time. Istg their dialogue can be summarized into "That didn't happen" "This didn't happen in the original.." "Is there a bug in the game..?" or "Why are things not going as the orignal!?"

It burns my brain trying to see through their eyes and understand their logic, until you realize they don't have common sense at all. They are geniuses only when they need to be, but is dumb af everywhere else.

Also, as much as I love puffy, frilly dresses I'm tired of mc changing the og characters seemingly sexiness into this cutesy vibe doesn't sit well with me. They're obviously trying to put this as more of a visual dichotomy between the original character and the current mc, but its not much of a statement. (But honestly this just may be me because I want more sexy mc you know?)

Trust me when I say this post barely covers half of what I truly feel about these stories and this is just the general gist of it. Also couldn't be bothered to add specific titles like the last rant.

[loopy777]

Yeah thats kinda the problem with following genres. Because they are living, breathing things that change, follow trends, rebel against trends, deconstruct their mediums, reconstruct their mediums, and are vastly different from decade to decade.

Thats one of the reasons the movie superhero craze is effectively over at this point. Just like Westerns, the market became oversaturated, but it's also become almost impossible to just watch superhero movies just on the face of them anymore. There is never going to be another superhero movie that isnt going to be affected, in one way or another, and judge to the entire infinity saga.

Superhero movies will now always be judged whether they are trying to recapture the feel of the previous MCU, is it rebelling against that, is it doing its own thing? Is it trying to deconstruct the formula Marvel set up? Is it a throwback?

We'll see more cycles as time goes on, just like the superhero golden age gave way to the silly silver age, the bronze age followed after that trying to be more serious, the dark ages took that idea and ran it into the ground, the following age came as a response to that, which in turn ended at one more day, qfter which it all just eventually began to permanently fall apart as the years went on, and readers as a whole left the medium for other pastures.

And thats just one medium and genre, all built on top of what came before in one way or another.

But in regards to MHA, its actually an interesting study in how different people can take something completely different from the same medium, because not everyone has been following the same things.

For example, you yourself noted that you thought of MHA as a reconstruction of the superhero genre.

I however, can tell thats not quite the case... Oh it certainly does reconstruct the Superhero genre, that part is absolutely true... But MHA is pretty much a very thorough deconstruction of all the many, many shonen series that followed in One Piece and Naruto's wake, that tried to copy them.

I wont repeat what i said about how OP unfortunately destroyed the way shonen handled death and injuries, but thats hardly where it ends.

Bakugo was originally imagined as this nice guy rival... Because thats what the series that followed after One Piece and Naruto did. As such, the way he instead went the completely different direction was a direct respone/challenge that entire idea.

Izuku being nervous and shy, but also reliant on a massive intellect rather than just massive physical combat talent was also a direct response to the countless stupid but confident shonen heroes that Dragon ball began, One Piece perfected, and so many other series has just produced bland, and very bad leads trying to mimic what Oda and Toriyama did.

Inko's entire existence and the fact she's still a part of her son's life is pretty much alien to the way the vast, vast majority of shonen handles parents, especially female parents by for all intents and purposes not being part of their kids lives, or more commonly just dead.

The mentor All Might being a proactive and active part of the story, and not dying midway through is again, pretty much the opposite of how shonen series does things. Killing off the obi-van/big good, is so standard in shonen that even One Piece, champion of never killing anyone, did it. And what few series does not, eventually just makes them completely useless to the narrative, as it's clear they never had any plans for how to handle said character surviving.

World building, and in universe politics, and how the setting worked is brought up front and explained from day one, and having characters lives being directly affected by it, is a response to series such as One Piece, Fairy Tail, and many others that gives the premise, but takes a long time before it really explains the powers that rule the world, in favor of character development.

The tournament arc ultimately ended up being completely meaningless in terms of rewards, and the hero didn't even win it, nor tie fighting his big rival. Needless to say, that's not how shonen lately tends to do it.

I could go on, but you get the gist. A LOT of how MHA is built is deliberately because HORI structured it that way, having learned from his orevious works, Barrage and Oumagadoki zoo. Both were completely bog standard shonen manga that while not bad, didn't really manage to attain actual success.

Zoo was a more episodic comedy manga with a supernatural element, that changed over to being a battle manga when that didn't pan out, then got canceled. Meanwhile, Barrage was a far, far more competently put together battle manga, that took all the tropes One Piece had popularized and used them to tell a story... That completely flopped, because while it was genuinely good, there wasn't much that made it stand out amongst the crowd of other shonen.

And so, when crafting MHA he did so with the mind set of telling a good story, while also deconstructing and then reconstructing so many of the shonen tropes that was popular in shonen as MHA was released.

Izuku was a genuinely wimpy, but kindhearted kid who wanted to be the most inspiring hero in the world, not the worlds strongest "insert whatever profession here" in a genre where powerful, but idiotic, and supremely ambitious anti-heroes like luffy that though had a good heart, was not exactly a traditional hero, reigned supreme, that was genuinely fresh, and had solid foundations to built a good character off of.

All Might was the great power of his world, but unlike One Piece's Whitebeard, the shadowy and in the background strongest pirate in the world, who's role was effectively to have the entire political status quo of the world disintegrate after he died, All Might's role was to be the Main characters mentor and friend who gave him advice, wasn't alway right, and would go on to lose the power that defined him and his world. Again, a subversion, but one with well planned foundations.

The world of Heroes is explained in very huge detaol from day one, unlike One piece and fairy tail, and so many others, including Barrage, because Hori knew from personal experience that trying to take your time on explaining the world could very, very easily backfire if the readers didnt get invested in it from day one.

All of this came together to create a very good deconstruction and reconstruction of the entire Shonen genre, which as you pointed out, also worked great as a reconstruction of a lot of the aspects that the superhero genre that Hori decided to set his world in, had forgotten or left behind for such nonsense as deals with the devil, multiverses, massive crossovers, abandoning of true heroics, and so on.

Its also telling that the one place where hori decided to just follow the standard Shonen formula of the day, Izuku relationship with his love interest Uraraka, is far and away the most boring part of the entire series.

Overall though, it managed to hit the homerun that is the best of two worlds. It managed to hit the world wide appeal that so many modern series sacrifices everything to appeal to just by being a good story, and it managed to appeal to japanese manga fans who were hungry for something else that was not just following in One Piece's or Naruto's footsteps.

The huge backlash the arcs post the war arc has gotten, is very much a further response to that, as the series that once prided itself on NOT playing all the shonen tropes straight, began to do exactly that, and is now in the middle of a drawn out, slog of a final that so, so, so many other shonen series had fallen victim to over the years.

Heh, don't tell my brother that the Deku/Uraraka romance is the most boring part. It's one of his favorite parts. He think it's criminal what an Uraraka figma is going for on the secondary market.

You have a good analysis of the ways MHA builds on the shonen genre, and I didn't mean to imply that it was exclusively drawing from superhero genre. As you note, there's a good fusion going on there, and I think that speaks to a larger point about genre in general- it can be strengthened by blending it with other genres, or at least lessons learned from other genres.

I think it's notable how controversial you've revealed to me the final battle to be, given its context in the shonen genre, and there's no specific equivalent in the superhero genre for me to draw on as an example. Superhero comics don't end- at least not outside AU graphic novels, and those largely all draw on The Dark Knight Returns for their formula, so they're more like a dark epilogue to superhero's story rather than a culmination. Superheroes can have final confrontations with an enemy or two in movie adaptations, but there's no "Final Battle of the Justice League" where all their members fight all their villains. (The closest thing I know of is Kingdom Come, but again, that draws heavily from The Dark Knight Returns, and so we have the JL coming out of retirement in a post-modern world to make a statement about 90s comics.)

The only comic I can think that really tries to be a definitive ending for a superhero is 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?' for the Silver Age Superman. And, because it's Alan Moore, almost the entire cast dies. So that's not much help to MHA. And it struggles under the burden of those Silver Age Superman comics not having an ongoing story or links between its villains. As we all know, manga is a very different animal in terms of structure than Western comics because of being able to tell a single story with a singular creative vision, no matter how drawn out it may be.

Anyway, I guess I'm saying I hope MHA provides some lessons to the next work that tries to bridge Eastern and Western comics, on both sides of the Pacific.

[fictionkinfessions]

i miss... *everyone*

I miss MK and the way he got so excited every time we were training, especially after long breaks in between because of some end-of-the-world-we-gotta-save-everyone nonsense. Along with a million other things about the kid.

I miss Mei and how she would tease me all the time, ESPECIALLY after the samadhi fire incident, a few condescending "is that all?"s, the teasing "anything you want to share monkey king?"s, and i am looking at wasabi duo fanart missing one of my favorite white horse dragons

I miss Tang and happily he'd listen to all my stories. Yeah MK loved listening to them but only really the exciting ones. Tang listened to everything and anything, asked questions, compared details from stories (which he was heartbroken when I told him JTTW wasn't accurate)

I miss Pigsy and how we'd always banter. He'd point out something dumb I said or did and I'd point out something back or brush it off or crack a joke and it'd devolve into a light hearted argument. Then he would boldly and loudly state how annoying he found me to be while setting down a freshly made bowl of noodles for me.

I miss Sandy and in association, Mo. I miss how Sandy actually helped me *get help*. He wasn't a therapist so idk why fandom keeps thinking he was, he ran a cargo ship but thats beside the point. He helped me realize things I did were not healthy, not good, and the only reason it didn't effect me as heavily as it would others was because my immortal body didn't let it. He still got me help though, recommended me a good therapist that actually knew how to handle absurd traumas. He helped me attend the first dozen appointments and feel better afterwards along with actually be okay with contact again. Plus let me pet all his cats and set up a perch on his boat for my bird form.

I miss Macaque and how things with us healed. I still don't remember exactly what we were but we got better. I learned to listen better and so did he. We talked about things we apologized we both equally made a genuine effort to get better. I still remember pretty well when after my home on Flower Fruit Mountain was destroyed he revealed he's been basically living in my house this whole time and I invited him to my temple in the monkey village closer to the city and we roomed together for a while.

I miss even more people than that but I don't want this to go on forever. I just miss everyone.

-sun wukong, the monkey king, great sage all that stuff (lego monkie kid)

#🦂🩸

[dark-side-blog3]

It’s such a rare (in a good way ofc) thing to see a person who writes for food fantasy it just feels like I’m blessed every single time

If you don’t mind I’d like to request you to write about how you see Whisky as a yandere. Is he delusional? Is he lenient? Does he gets angry easily? Just any your thoughts about this. You can even use ddarker-dreams’ idea about yandere “mbti” (cruel vs reverent, aware vs delusional, manipulative vs honest, strict vs lenient) to be more specific.

Anyway feel free to ignore my ask if it makes you uncomfy or if you just don’t want to write anything about him! Have a good day 🫰

I categorize Whiskey as a CAMS yandere. He's exceptionally cruel, he appears to be aware of how normal people think or behave and why he's not normal, manipulative time and time again in canon, and having a strict schedule when it comes to poisoning is key to keeping the effects-- the only reason for which is so you don't wander off.

For a more in-depth and spoiler-filled analysis, click the readmore

+++++++++++++++++++++

Spoilers, but canonically the master attendant you play as in the game is either: the reincarnation of Whiskey's old master attendant to whom he was fiercely attached, or just so happens to look almost exactly like said former attendant he was so attached to. And whichever unconfirmed case it is, you're fucked, because Whiskey was obsessed with you before ever seeing you. And now that he knows where you are and is bound to you by contract once again, he's going to focus all that energy on you.

Whiskey was even attempting to master necromancy via alchemy just so he could see his master attendant again (and he used Pizza as a guinea pig).

It may be hard to imagine, but bear with me: Whiskey is a protective yandere. Thats right. The villain of many event stories, the abuser of Pizza and the tormenter of his friends Cassata and Cheese, Whiskey... Is an overprotective yandere.

Because if we take a look at his behaviour and reasoning from a different angle... He's doing all of this because he wanted to bring back his Master. He feels like he failed his last master, who never got anything from the world other than life, and lived a life of misery shackled to the walls because of her sister. And all of his actions after-the-fact, are so he can get them back, and this time, keep them safe from the maggots in every civil society.

Do not get it twisted: Whiskey is by no means a soft yandere. He's not above lying to get what he wants, and he is not above poisoning you to make you rely on him. Whiskey even strikes me as the kind of guy to withhold painkillers or antipsychotics until you amuse him with praise or a kiss... Maybe more, depending on how far he thinks he can make you sink to his whims.

Whiskey is possessive. His goals in finding his master attendant's soul again, regardless of if successful or delusion, were purely selfish. He wants you because you're his to have. Simple as is. And he will remind you constantly that you've lost your freedom the second he saw you.

The saving grace is that it's not purely for the sake of tormenting you-- his obsession with you does include making you happy, to some degree. If there is a material item you want, he will get it for you.

Whiskey even says himself that "If I could make your dreams come true, I would take everything and destroy it, rebuild it, and regrow it, until I've created the future you desire". He will do whatever it takes, kill whoever he needs to kill, and torture anyone he has to if it means your happiness is a possible outcome. He tortured Pizza for the chance it could further his research. He tortured and poisoned a man for years to get what he wanted. He held a princess against her will in the castle, her only friend and her captor's proxy, just because it would make someone he was loyal to happy.

And why would there be an exception now? Why should Whiskey care about the lives of others who aren't close to him? Why should Whiskey care if you don't want to be close to him?

He's a conman, after all. There is something you can't live without, and only he can provide it... At a very steep price.

[mr-kiwi-the-wizard]

A matter of faith or perhaps logic

“Belshamharoth is the demon of shame, ignorance and pride. Those who find themselves in shame often hide behind ignorance and pride to protect themselves from the evil of their fellow mortals. But such behaviour feeds Belshamharoth. Such a mind is an open hole from his world to ours, allowing the evil to pour into the soul of the fool and consume their soul. Replacing it with Balshamharoths evil and torment. But many scholars and students often ask, to what religion does the Demon Balshamharoth belong to? To what holy text did mortals read that brought such esoteric knowledge to this realm? None. I made him up.

Belshamharoth is the name given to the personification that is the force that is pride, ignorance and shame. Much to the effect of how we named gravity. The force that attracts matter to other matter. It is easier to put a name to imagine or fathom a force or power when it has a name. A name we say that brings all minds that listen to it to the subject at hand. The very strings and melodys of the universe all plucking notes and songs as we breathe out the magic words of conjuring that is that name. Like a program or script that you write out into a golems mind. Calling forth a function or folder containing files, facts and information. It holds in one word… everything

God, the creator or whatever some such you foolish mortals give to your perception of the supreme one. That name given to the personification of life, purpose and meaning also sits under this. The very same force that gives those formless abominations in the Abyss, the dungeon dimensions form and life and agency is also what gives form to your god. That is why every blasted religion has a “God” It simply means the same damn thing in every culture. That is why every race and creature on this missrible world worships and follows it in their own pathetic way. It is ther cultures own personification of life, purpose and meaning. In the old world of pandora. Before the creator of all split the world asunder. The gods were a little more obvious in their nature. God of the sea, of sky and of nature. The same god, the same force, the same bloody creature thats responsible for these powers. You mortals gave them names and form. Whenever a name some faith had given them is called it always calls on the same force. To blame the skys for lightning. To ask the sea for fish. To ask nature to not render the earth apart and spew ash and fire.

These forces you gave names like lightning or Akarus, like sea or neptune, like nature or gia, terra, mother earth. Did Akarus strike down your mortal friend when lightning struck them and electricity and heat surged through their body. Yes he did. You gave him that power and physicality. Your stupid silly God is a force that you breathed into being with your sacraligous calling of it by name mortal. It is neither Good nor Evil. No matter what your holy books and texts say so. For all your false claims do is hurt and kill your pathetic Gods.

You even take beings of supreme power like the atherians. Even that of my own father, even me i have seen and heard, and make them into gods through your foolish worship and reverence.

Balshamharoth; Demon of shame, pride and ignorance

Akarus; God of thunder and lighting

Friela; sharded Goddess of fire

Azriel; Angel of shadow

Auriel; Angel of light

Lune; God of madness and midnight

Luna; Goddess of the Moon and the undead

Sol; God of the sun

Fate; Destiny; Luck

Hope; Despair; Determination

Every name is a god and a being I once knew. Some of which were once mortal and some of which only exist because of your fools and your foolish power to pour your very souls into beings who you deem worthy upon your deaths.

I often wonder what force allows you fools to have such power and sway over use beings of supreme power. So much so that immortals would kill and destroy one another for such inferior beings. Is it a matter of Religion or perhaps logic that drives you to worship?”

The Undead Knight stood there and shrugged. He wasn't much of a talker. But he was a very good listener and didn't exactly know why he was so fond of his master either. His master was more or less the only being in the world who cared about him and his well being. And he still needed rescuing.

[chucksfavouriteprophet]

The Intrusion - Chapter 15

Back to The Intrusion masterlist

Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Our dysfunctional family come together to embrace a second chance at life together and take a more positive outlook on the future.

Word count: 1,119

Warnings: decapitation, body disposal

A/N: This is the final part of this series, which I've had a blast writing. I'm so grateful to those who have been following along, and I've loved reading your comments and reactions. I hope you're satisfied with the ending!

| SIX MONTHS LATER |

"Y/N, catch!" Dean hollered as he threw the machete across the room and you caught it effortlessly, using the momentum of the catch to swing it neatly across the vampire's neck. With a cry, its body fell like a sack of potatoes, while its head rolled to the side. You continued to thrash at the sister vamp, giving her a few punches before you had her pinned against the wall in a position to take her head off.

Glancing up, you noticed Sam getting swamped by the latest arrivals to the nest, so you lunged his direction, kicking the male vamp down and stamping on his back. This gave Sam the chance to break free, tearing the head off another animal before working with you to destroy the one tucked under your booted foot.

"Looks like thats it," the younger Winchester wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead and you nodded, looking around with a satisfied pout. Sure, the scene was messy; blood soaked the walls of the barn, and pieces of vamp were everywhere, but it was nice to know that was your doing.

"You good?" you glanced back at Dean, who was wiping spit off his face with a look of disgust that made you chuckle.

"Man those creatures are gross," he grumbled, and you turned back to the scene.

"Better get cleaning up," Sam raised an eyebrow and you rolled your eyes, scooping up the heads that were scattered around and leaving the boys to do the heavy lifting and haul the bodies outside. An hour later, a nice sized grave had been dug up behind some trees, and what remained of the creatures was tossed inside.

"You wanna do the honours?" Dean held out his zippo and you looked at him wide-eyed, not quite believing your luck. Before he could take it back, you snatched it off him, stepping forward to hover over the bodies. Sam finished dowsing them in petrol, and you flicked the lighter, taking a moment to admire the rippling flame before dropping it on the corpses. You couldn't help but grin down at them as they burned, the heat of the fire making you perspire.

"We go through way too many of those things," Dean grumbled, pissed at having to part with yet another lighter, but smiled once he saw the joy on your face.

"That was a good one," you were chuffed as you attempted to run a hand through your ruffled-up hair, eagerly accepting a beer and joining the brothers on the hood of the Impala. Warming yourselves with the fuel of burning vampires, you cheered to another successful hunt, one of many in the past few months. Any worry that three was a crowd no longer bothered you, as it was obvious the dynamic was untouchable.

Your fighting skills had really improved since you were given the all-clear from your injuries, Cas having healed you fully a week or so after you woke up, and Dean forcing you to stay on bedrest for a few days after that. Since then, you'd thrived in the hunting world, diving straight in and getting hands on. At first, Dean was hesitant and incredibly protective of you, constantly making sure you weren't injured. You knew the Demon fight had effected him bad - once he was no longer scared he might hurt your wounds even more, you'd moved into the same room together and more than often you were forced to wake him from nightmares about that night. There were times when you spent hours cradling him, rocking him back to sleep and reassuring him you were okay. It certainly wasn't an unfair exchange though, as it had taken a while for you to adjust as well, often jumping at any loud noise and becoming too scared to even go outside. You hadn't visited your mother and sister's graves in weeks, and when you finally did, you cried for hours on end in Dean's arms. Thankfully, he'd taken his time with you, encouraging you to go back to the place you'd almost died to reflect. Now, every week, he and sometimes Sam joined you to place flowers and update your family on what had happened in your lives over the past few days.

While on bedrest, you'd gone into research mode, and now you rivalled Sam with your knowledge of the lore. The boys were certainly more the muscle of the operation, but your brains were vital and you could for sure pack a mean punch. Together, you were a brilliant team and had been having great success on recent hunts. Crowley had gone into hiding, but that didn't bother you much. The less you heard from the guy the better as far as you were concerned.

"Hey, you alright?" Dean's arm snaking round your waist jogged you out of your thoughts, and you smiled at him, reaching up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm good, just thinking."

"Thinking about what?" you nuzzled into his shoulder as he pulled you in closer.

"This. Us. The future. How things have changed. How I love it."

He snorted and took a sip of beer. "I love it too. I think we compliment each other quite well on the field."

"And in the bedroom," you added under your breath and he chuckled.

"That too, of course."

The fire had died down and the air was crisp. As you finished the last of the beers, the three of you gave a nod that it was time to pack up and head back to the bunker. You gave Sam a hug before embracing Dean tightly.

"See you at home, sweetheart," he kissed you passionately, making your hairs stand on end. No matter how many times he did, it would always send sparks through your body.

"Drive safe boys," you called over your shoulder as you turned away, reaching for your helmet.

"I'll race ya," Dean winked as he climbed in Baby's drivers seat, and you smirked.

"If you dare." You spun around, pulling on your gloves as you settled into the seat of your newly refurbished Harley, giving the engine a loud rev for good measure. You paused for a second, closing your eyes and taking in the moment of bliss. Then, you kicked up the stand, spinning the bike round and zooming past your boyfriend and his brother, who beeped in protest. With a smile permanently planted on your face, you sped down the empty highway into a sunset that promised whisky and gunpowder dreams at your perfect home.

A home you shared with your new family whose intrusion had changed your life forever.

Tag list

@sexyvixen7 @stitchintimefan @tristanrosspada-ackles @globetrotter28 @hobby27 @dean-winchester-is-a-warrior @mxnsonsbabe @bluedragonflylady @mimaria420 @spnexploration @siospins2 @hellhound-whisperer @nancymcl @rinnie-rintarou @foxyjwls007 @imherefordeanandbones @elephants-bubbles-brachosauruses @craftytrashprincess @tiggytaylor @kye-the-nb @deans-baby-momma @flannellover67

(note: this is a forever tag list so if you’d like to be added/removed please let me know!)

[shititbe]

Anyway, Peter Parker is Bi, and I Won’t Be Convinced Otherwise.

Firstly, we have to get our bases covered. What exactly is Bi-sexuality? What is sexuality? 

Sexuality is defined as a persons identity in relation to gender(s) they are attracted to. Why is this important? Peter’s sexuality has never been specifically stated in the comics, nor in any other form of media. It’s assumed that he is straight because of his popular relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the comics, and the movies. 

Now that we have a bases for what exactly sexuality is and how it’s defined, let’s go over Peter’s partners. 

Obviously Peter and Mary Jane are a piece of comic book history. They eventually get married, though sadly, during the events of Civil War II (I think, don’t quote me) Peter and Mary Jane sell their marriage to Mephisto in order to save Aunt May

They later had their memories of their marriage restored, they have yet to get back together and it’s been a few issues if I remember correctly. Next we have Peter’s first, and most unfortunate love, Gwen Stacy. 

They dated in high school where she later died. Of course, Peter has dated other people (namely, Black Cat, Betty Brant, Carol Danvers, Anna Maria, Cindy Moon, Lian Tang, and so on). Since we have his known history of heterosexuality out there, we need to move onto another important part of Peter’s Bi-sexuality. An important implication in any media, especially queer media though, and that is the homoerotic subtext. 

Homoerotic subtext is important part of queer culture, a lot of the time it’s used to portray a characters queerness without saying it out (see: Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild or Great Gatsby By Fitz). In current decade, homoerotic subtext is often used for queer baiting or creating more realistic male friendships. 

So what’s the difference between someone creating a health male friendship (or a character comfortable in their heterosexuality) and implying a character is queer? 

Here are some examples of a healthy male character, both with himself and his friendships.  

Clearly he’s just taking the shit, and messing around with Reed. He’s comfortable enough (or as I like to see it, so traumatized because good god this guy has been Spider-Man since he was 15 good god that’s awful. He probably doesn’t care anymore). Here are some examples of Peter a little more than just a straight man shooting the shit. 

This has three meanings. Two of which I will take, one of which is just deeply embarrassing. Despite Peter’s history with humiliating events, I don’t think he would get his own spunk in his eyes. Leaving the other two options, he has experience getting spunk of - some kind - in his eyes, and/or he’s taking the shit again. Which is very likely. 

Kissing a cop? For....no reason? A little not so hetero of you Peter. 

You can practically hear his disappointment in his voice. Also could be read as taking the shit, but why would you. 

Making out with The Thing? Gay. 

This one is the most important. Peter is clearly tired, annoyed by his teammates (see wolverine being wolverine in the corner). Shits on fire, its mid battle, and Peter has the audacity to mutter “I hate men” to himself. The only people I have every heard say this in that was are lgbt and straight women, and lgbt men. This kind of expression only comes from people who date, or deal with men in a completely different world than straight men. Straight men use this phrase as an endearment, “Oh have you seen Bill today, I hate that guy.” “Man Jerry can do so many push-ups, I hate that guy.” Very different language, and implications (I also, obviously don’t know how straight men speak). 

 Now that we’ve gone over our bases, and homoerotic subtext. How else could we gather that Peter Parker is Bi? There are many tropes in media - queer media - that allure to a characters queerness. Like homoerotic subtext, there are ways to tell an audience something without specifically saying it. 

This is a gay wedding Peter went to in the recent comics. I don’t know if any of you have been to a gay wedding recently, but Peters face (the first panel above the wedding) is the same exact face I made at my first gay wedding. It’s the face of excitement for not only the couple, but for yourself. The hope that maybe, you too can actually be in a same-sex relationship. 

I’m also going to allure to queer tropes as stated previously. Such as the real, and fictional trope of lgbt people sticking together. Thousands of years of belittlement and oppression will make groups of people not want to wonder out, and subconsciously look for others like them. 

Johnny Storm (and Wade Wilson since he comes in later but I couldn’t find a picture of the confirmation) is cannon Bi-sexual (Pan-sexual). 

Their friendship is deeply homoerotic as most queer friendships in media and real life are. Johnny flirts with Peter on many occasions (saying his ideal women is a female version of Peter, inviting him over to watch is sex tape, and so on) and of course oh my god they were roommates. 

Some other popular queer tropes are: Found Family, Soulmates, and Enemies to lovers. Because it’s superhero related, this includes the Identity Porn tag as well.  

Peter Parker and Wade Wilson have a famous Love/Hate relationship. I mean, how could you expect anything less when your first meeting with this known mercenary is him throwing your civilian persona out the window of a car. Now, Wade still doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man in the current run of comics, but that doesn’t make anything about them any less gay. 

For the Found Family Trope: 

Because it’s Peter and Wade, their whole development can be read as Enemies to Friends to Lovers, so I wont bother backing that up because, uh, it speaks for itself. One panel really does to add that cause though 

I’m not going to explain what a free-pass list is.

The Soulmates part I know I have to back up. 

For SoulMates:  

Now this panel requires a little explanation. Wade kills Peter, not knowing he’s Spider-Man. Weasel takes over for Peter (they don’t know its him) so no one suspects he’s dead. Deadpool begins to feel guilty he killed his best buds best bud, so he tries to bring Peter back to life. Losing his stunning good looks (switching back to how he looked before Weapon X making his wife Shiklah estranged (then she married Dracula but thats beside the point)). Spider-Man is Peter’s “true self” or patronus for Harry Potter fans. Wade is stupid and hasn’t connected the dots yet, effectively making him the biggest simp in history. Seriously, who destroys their marriage for the c h a n c e for getting some with their idol? A Simp, that’s who.

Peter forgives Wade for killing him (and for saving him from killing their genetic daughter itsy-bitsy). If someone killed me they better be hot as fuck before I even thing about forgiving them. Ignoring Peter’s super sexy forgiving nature, uh, he’s kinda simping. 

Died in each others arms. Nothing else is needed. 

They’re heartmates. From what I read, the feeling has to be mutual in order for it to work. The witches (long story, comics are hard to explain) that captured deadpool were expecting his wife so they could get the headmistress back. Instead, they got Peter. Basically Heartmates = soulmates but chosen for you instead of chosen by you. 

To conclude my point: 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. 

[rise-my-angel]

It makes a lot more sense now that after episode 8 Neil made a comment about how both David and Ellie have a "violent heart".

When thats actually a scary misunderstanding of those events.

He does not understand the very character he created. Ellie is not violent. In fact, in the show its even more clear that she isn't beacuse her punching that girl was seen as out of character and its implied Riley usually did all the fighting for her. Ellie is forced into violence when Marlene essentially kidnapped her, and is thrown into the outside world which is very out of her usual bubble.

Her first major act was a terrified fear to protect Joel when he got jumped, and the second was with David. She's seeing for the first time what some people really are capable of and it scares her to the core. Her killing David was frantic and full of petrifying fear for her own safety and that fear can overtake you. (The show does well with this as to not have Joel pull her off him, and we see her first reaction to someone behind her is not to attack again its to scream and start crying).

Joel's violence was twofold about his unresolved trauma. How leaving that kind of trauma to fester can truly leave you angry and detached and he became a dangerous man because of the result of years and decades of that trauma just sitting inside him, and when we meet him Joels violence becomes only about protecing Ellie.

Hes only violent now to protect the girl who brought his heart back to life. Neither of them are violent because that's the world they live in. Their violent when pushed to the edge and violence is the only other option besides death.

The entire story was about healing trauma through love. Joel heals from his traumas about impending fatherhood because of his love for Ellie. And Ellie deserved a story where she understands that Joels choice is what saved her from this trauma survivor guilt induced martrydom of only she can save the world when its blatantly untrue.

Having a revenge narrative isn't necessarily bad, but Neil destroys his own game when he decides that revenge was the driving force. Not love. The game could have been about Joel and Ellie teaming up to stop Abby who wants revenge, and show that their teamwork and love for each other end up being far more powerful and effective then Abbys hate.

It felt like Neil wanted to make a different game, but he knew basing it off his magmum opus The Last of Us would draw in far more attention then an original game from scratch. So he bends the world and the characters to make this bleak tale of revenge work, in a universe the first game established, is only still standing, because of people like Joel and Ellie who do what they do for love and family.

The first game was never bleak. The entire point was showing the world had hope, but not from any vaccine, but hope derived from love. Most people in the orignal game and show are good people. Rarely are people so bad they make the world worse. In the show, Kathleen actually was shown she considered not doing these things, but she let her hate consume her and it only killed her before any revenge was taken. Whereas Jackson works and shows no signs of going anywhere beacuse its a community of respect and people who love each other. Even the native couple, Joel breaks into their home and holds them at gunpoint but it never actually is hateful or violent because all four of them recognize they are all just regular people trying to keep their loved ones safe. So they all part ways on peaceful terms.

Some may disagree, but if you think revenge, or hate, comeuppance, lies, or good vs bad morality was the takeaway of this story? I'm sorry you are wrong.

The world is not full of inherently bad or corrupt people out for themselves. Most people are good, loving, and want to protect the people they care about.

The second game is flawed from the start, because Neil wants me to believe Ellie would feel estranged from Joel when their love for each other was the entire point. Nothing else mattered to them as much as their love for the other person. Not even some cure.

Not hate. Not lies. Not revenge. Its love.

really feeling some kind of way abt ppl who defend tlou2 so fiercely lol. ‘that’s just real life’ ‘things catch up to you’ ‘it was dark but reality can be’ ‘hatred that strong is universal/normal’ etc etc cus it’s not reality at all lmao? and not only bcus it’s literally fiction and there’s no mushroom apocalypse but also bcus that level of hatred that leads to a brutal and bloody desire for revenge isn’t normal actually. it’s not indicative of real life whatsoever. most people don’t carry violent hatred around with them. most people don’t want to commit brutally violent actions for revenge. it’s not a universal thing at all. neil was trying to say it was, paralleling the themes in part 1 of love and hope that ARE actually universal, but he was wrong. and not only should we be questioning why the fuck neil thinks it is, you should also ask yourselves why you agree with him that revenge borne out of hatred that strong is universal and go to therapy or something idk cus it’s not at all. it’s a notion completely divorced from reality and humanity. like full offence but you’re all telling on yourselves.

[thekingofwinterblog]

It’s all for his sake - Endeavor and the Sunk Cost Fallacy

My hero academia 301 is a pretty interesting chapter, but for me, the most notable piece of it was how Endeavour reacted to the realization that Touya couldnt surpass All Might.

upon realizing that his son might not be able to do it because of inborn physical limitations, he immediatly stopped his training, which frankly was the responsible and adult thing to do. 

This stint of real parenthood did not last long however.

After taking the matter to a doctor, he is flat out told that not only cant Touya achive what endeavor wants, but it is a direct result of his incredibly selfish and irresponsible attempt to play god, by trying to breed the “perfect” hero into being.

It is how you react when you lose however, that shows who you really are, and endeavor illustrates that very, very well.

Upon being told in no uncertain terms that his attempts at Breeding an heir failed magnificently, producing a child that was not capable of resisting his own immense power, but also admonished by his doctor for even attempting it, and adviced not to try again, Endeavor instead doubled down, while focusing on the child he screwed over from the start with his attempt at genetic manipulation.

It was all for him you see. Endeavor doesnt use those words, but that is how he spins it here. it was all for Touya, all for his sake. if i stop now, then Touya was all for nothing, a mistake, im doing this for my son.

if im doing this for my son, then im not responsible for any of this.

his wife however, calls him out on it, as she understands Touya much, much more than endeavor does. or rather, she sees him fully as a human being, instead of as a thing, a weapon, a failed attempt at an heir.

Unlike Endeavor, Rei is able to see the way this all is affecting her son. She is able to see, and understand that Touya has fully accepted what Endeavor wanted him to be. a stronger, and better version of himself. however, unlike Endeavor, she only cares about him as a person.

Endeavour by comparison isnt completely uncaring about Touya. like most abusive parents, he does possess love for his offspring, but it is forever tainted by the fact that however much he might care, or not care about Touya, any familial love he has for his son is tainted by the fact that to Endeavor, he is a failed experiment, a failed heir, not his child. 

He is the golden child that Endeavor was building up as his true and only heir, who he breed, trained, and molded to for that single purpose, and now that he’s reached a point where he cant continue that legacy.

so, its time to abandon him, and start over new, despite literarily having just learned how stupid this plan was, and that it can, in fact, go completely wrong, with a quirk that will fuck over the person he brings into the world.

Of course, Endeavor doesnt use those words to frame it. there is no way to pretend to be a hero, if you phrase it like that after all. Intead, this is the words he uses.

this is a very important series of panels for a great number of reasons, some that can be debated, argued, and we will probably never know the full truth to the questions because this is a series published in 2020′s shonen jump, and there are things that probably wasnt gonna fly with Hori’s editors, if it was the case.

but lets start with what can not be debated. Endeavor’s words here.

“If we want him to give it up, then we have no choice... Touya... Cant surpass him.”

These are very telling words, and however you believe The third and fourth children of the Todoroki family was concieved, there is not denying the meaning of what he’s saying here.

The only way that my son will stop being an idiot and fall into line, is if we have another baby. that is the only Right way to move forward. it is morally right, because if we dont do this, then he’s going to destroy himself.

there are two ways to interpret this scene.

The charitable way is to read it as the fact that he used Rei’s oldest son’s mental state as a justification of guilting his wife to have a third child, to give this attempt at a superpowered breeding project another shot, despite the fact that they now know that this can lead to a child who is essentially born crippled from his own powers, and despite the fact that Rei obviously understands the effect of them continuing this insanity will have on their oldest son.

the uncharitable way to look at it, is that he used this as justification for flat out raping her, and forcing a third, and then later a fourth child on her.

I personally believe the last one, given a number of factors shown in this chapter(the way this page is framed, the fact Rei obviously didnt want a third child, given she predicted exactly how touya would react, the way her eyes would latet turn when she looks at who is presumably touya which really brings to mind how she would later react to her youngest son’s face after her mental breakdown, etc.), but i’ll frankly admitt that withouth a direct quote from Hori, its impossible to know for sure one way or another. 

either way however, this is a very good example of Endeavor both being influenced by, and using Sunk Cost Fallacy to justify bringing another potentially crippled child into the world for his own, selfish goals.

sunk cost Fallacy, is a mental reaction to when you invest more time and resources into a project, that you becomes so emotionally invested into said project that you will continue to invest into it, even if it reaches a point that it becomes clear that the resources you put into it, far, far outweighs the potential gains you can achieve.

because if you give up after having invested years, and years of effort to breed, raise, and train a kid, and then all that effort was absolutely wasted. hence he choose to keep going, despite having learned what a terrible idea this is.

He doesnt care about the fact that his next child might be even more crippled than his firstborn, he doesnt care about his son’s actual wellbeing. he cares about the fact that if he doesnt continue this insanity, then not only will he not achieve his dreams, but everything he did to get to this point was for absolutely nothing.

and endeavor cannot accept that. and so long as he can justify breeding more children into the world, and there being any chance they might inherit both quirks perfectly, he doesnt care about anything else.

and the moment he realised that this kid wasnt gonna cut it either, he did it again. it is not a coincidence, that the age gap between Endeavor’s second, third, and fourth children were all 3-4 years apart. because thats the age where you can usually tell when a quirk will manifest or not, as established earlier in the series.

While she isnt brought up directly by Endeavor as a justification, it is very telling that Endeavor decided on having a third child, only after his second child was old enough that he could tell that that there was no chance she could take the place as his heir instead.

So, he had his third child, and as time passed and it became obvious that he wasn’t gonna be able to fulfill Endeavor’s goals either, he dumped him, and instead breed a fourth child into existence.

and finally, he struck gold. he did it. he produced Shoto.

everything was finally worth it, and now, everything would be absolutely fine. the cost fallacy had reached its end, and it was now all full sails ahead.

except of course it wasnt.

His oldest son, now in middle school, had been raised from birth to believe he would surpass his father, only to be thrown away, and getting to see his father try to replace him, not once, but twice.

frankly, this scene is probably my favorite in the chapter, because it goes to show Endeavor’s mindset. Natsuo made a point that their father completely ignored his older children. and he did... from Natsuo’s perspective. however, having a more thourough picture of things, we can clearly see that this wasnt the case with Touya.

Endeavor genuinly cared for Touya, enough that once he got that child he tried to breed into existence 4 times, he genuinly wanted him to just abandon trying to be a hero. he genuinly thinks of himself as a good dad here, wanting his son to abandon the mission he set out for him before he was born. of course, with context, this heartwarming scene is incredibly sad and insidious, because we understand why Endeavor got so attached to his oldest child. because he WAS the golden child. he was the child Endeavor genuinly cared about, and invested in, and trained personally with great warmth and enthusiasm.

And not only did he abandon him as a failed project the moment he realized he wasnt gonna live up to his ridiculous standards, but he literarily created 2 more kids to try and replace him, just as his oldest son was old enough to understand what exactly his dad was doing. over the course of this chapter, we get to see Touya’s start as a 5-8 year old, his deteriorating mental state over the years, until he finally seemed to reach the breaking point with Shoto’s birth sometime in his middle school years 12-15. 

Endeavor is in this scene, just not capable of understanding why Touya so desperately wants to become a hero, when obviously he isnt physically able to do so. he isnt able to understand that he is 100% to blame for the fact that his son is having a full emotional breakdown after literaly being replaced by his siblings. 

In other words, Endeavor genuinly think’s he’s a good person. a person who has made a few mistakes along the way sure, but a person who was always justified in the end, and now that he’s having to face the fact that as dabi would later say “The past never dies” and has to face the aftermath of his inane attempt to play god for the pettiest of reasons, things simply arent going to work out.

He isnt going to have a happy family, who can now put the awful early years behind them, he put way too much effort, caused too much suffering and sacrificed too many years of his life for this not to work out as he wants.

after all, if he walks away from this project now, and lets Shoto have a normal childhood, and decide for himself, with no pressure from him, wheter or not to become a hero, then the sunk cost fallacy will have reached a negative end. it will all have been for nothing.

and we know he did eventually double down on this mentality, literarily beating into Shoto that he WAS going to become a hero, and there was not but’s or no’s about it.

there was no way that Endeavor was EVER going to let things be for nothing. His treatment of his older children could not be for nothing. His treatment of his wife could not be for nothing. His treatment of Shoto, and the way he beat him black and blue to train him, could not be for nothing.

Because if it all was for nothing, if everything he feels guilty about was for absolutely nothing, then he was in fact, a bad, bad person, who had no justification for anything he ever did.