#while in this game the overall tone is everything is shit and theres no hope in anything

[imadhatt3r]

This is going to sound really weird, I know, but I seriously feel like there's a number of like, British communists who desperately wish they were Eastern European??? Like they think that by being into political side of communism (usually not the kind that existed in Eastern Europe), they can be chummy with people who actually grew up in Eastern Europe and were raised with the communist era somewhere in the background their whole life, usually without knowing the nitty gritty of theory but with a lot of cultural herritage from that time...

Like no, there's a big difference between being British, being raised in British culture, with cultural institutions, history, traditions, then getting into communist theory and just assuming that you know everything about life in communist Eastern Europe, and then pulling a "how do you do fellow commies" to people from Eastern Europe whose associations with communism are much different, and they will see you as detached and insensitive at best.

[kalemakar]

theres a zoenne and sobbe fic under the cut 

Senne pushes Zoe against the wall next to their flatshare door and presses his lips against hers urgently. Zoe smiles before kissing him back and her arms slide up from Senne’s waist to his neck and they wrap around it, pulling him closer to her. Senne’s hand sneaks up under Zoe’s shirt and rubs her soft skin there. Their lips move in unison, leading to something more. Senne's hand flies away from Zoe’s waist and blindly reaches for the doorknob. Without moving his lips away from Zoe’s, he pushes the door open and pulls them inside. 

“You fucking cheated!”

The harsh yell forces Zoe and Senne to jump away from each other. Senne, with his eyes wide open, looks for the cause of the commotion, realizing it came from Robbe, who is standing on the couch looking down at Sander with his hands on his hips. His eyebrows are pulled down together, framing his angry, glaring eyes, while his lips are being pulled down into a frown. 

“I saw you! How could you fucking do that?!” Robbe cries. 

“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t Robbe!” Sander yells back. 

Senne is very confused. He stares at the two lovers who usually kiss whenever they can, cuddle on the couch while watching a movie, and overall just be sickeningly in love, arguing. 

Sander reaches for his bag and jacket and shoves on his shoes “If you can’t believe me then I'm leaving!” 

Robbe glares at him, “Fine by me” and stomps over to his room and slams the door so hard Senne hears the cups rattling in the kitchen cupboards.

Senne just stands in the middle of the living room shocked. He has no idea what just happened and is too afraid to find out. ‘Cheating?’ Sander would never cheat on Robbe; he's too in love with him. But Robbe did seem sure. 

He turns to Zoe, “Wanna keep making out?” he asks, wanting to resume what they were doing before. 

Zoe purses her lips and stares at Robbe‘s closed-door before whipping her head to door Sander just exited through. “Senne, you go talk to Robbe and I’ll catch up with Sander,” she says as she runs out the door. 

Senne sighs and walks over to Robbe’s room and knocks on the door. He hears the bed covers ruffling and a loud sad sigh. 

“Come in.”

Senne opens the door to see Robbe laying on his bed with his face shoved into his pillow. 

Senne sighs wondering why his friend was this upset and was truly wondering if Sander really has done something wrong to upset him like this. 

He walks over and sits on the bed to rub Robbe’s back, “What happened?”

He hears a muffled reply, “He cheated.” 

Senne raises his eyebrow in shock, “Are you sure?? With who?”

“Yeah I am and I can’t believe he did it.”

“Okay but with who?” Senne asks again.

But Robbe doesn’t reply. Senne moves Robbe over to see that the boy has fallen asleep. Senne smiles softly and pulls up the covers over Robbe. He walks out of the room to see Zoe out of breath in the living room.

He rushes over and asks, “What did Sander say?”

Zoe manages to wheeze out, “He said…he didn’t...cheat at all,” Zoe manages to catch her breath, “I asked him what happened but he said he’s too angry to talk about it and left. I ran all the way back here to tell Robbe.”

Senne chuckles dryly, “Robbe has fallen asleep. And I don’t know if what Sander said is true. Robbe was pretty upset and is so sure that Sander cheated on him?!”

Zoe spits out a laugh, “What?! Sander would never do that! Let’s be real, he is too whipped for Robbe to do anything like that.”

Senne shakes his head in agreement, knowing that both the two are so in love, “Then what’s happening, Zoe?”

Zoe pouts and runs her hand through her hair, “I don’t know, but we have to do something.”

Senne gazes off into contemplation, trying to figure out how to get Sander and Robbe to talk out their issues. Suddenly, he’s hit with an idea he knows will work. If it works in American tv shows, it has to work for them too.

“Zoe! What if we just lock Sander and Robbe in a closet and don’t open the door until both of them talk out their issues?!” Senne asks Zoe excitedly.

Zoe just looks confused, “Why would we force them into a closet? And Robbe just came out of the closet. Why do we want to put him back in?”

Senne lets out a surprised laugh and shakes his head, “No, no, no. That’s not- no. When we force the two into a room and don’t let them out they’ll be forced to talk about their feelings.”

Zoe sighs but a small smirk start growing on her face, “It’s so stupid it might actually work.”

Senne feels like the statement should offend him but he doesn’t care; he’s so excited to see his plan work and have both of his boys happy together again.

The two plan for Zoe to get Sander and Senne to get Robbe and lock them in the bathroom. ‘Since the closet is not an ideal place Senne!’ Senne mocks in his head, upset that they didn’t stick to his original plan. The plan is set for tomorrow and the two go off to their bedroom, sharing lazy kisses, too tired to do anything else, before eventually falling asleep.

The two walk up the next day, groggy and tired, but excited to try and help their friends. Zoe hops out of bed, throwing on some clothes, while Senne brushes his teeth. The two smile at each other, rushing to make their plan a reality. 

Senne walks Senne to their flat door, “Remember, try to come at exactly 14:30, That's 15 minutes from now.”

Zoe rolls her eyes, “Yes, yes I know now let me go get him.”

Senne pampers Zoe’s face with a bunch of small butterfly kisses making Zoe giggle before finally letting her go out the door. Senne closes the flat door and rests his head against it. He sighs, knowing that he’s going to have to talk to Robbe and make him forgo his video game. He grabs his cup of coffee and shuffles over to the living room. He sees Robbe violent playing his game, cursing at the tv screen, swinging his controller over while yelling into his mic. Ever since he woke up, he has been showing his angry side by slamming doors and being impatient at everything and everyone, even the coffee maker. 

“Shit, shit, shit move you, idiot!” Robbe curses loudly. 

Senne nervously bites his lips and stands directly in front of the tv. Robbe looks appalled, “Senne! Move!”

Senne raises his eyebrows at the tone of Robbe’s voice and Robbe sheepishly says sorry. He smiles, “Robbe, why don’t we hang out and talk?”

Robbe looks confused, “Uhh? Sure?”

Senne’s face lights up and he pulls Robbe up by the arm, leading him to the wall adjacent to the bathroom. With Robbe’s back towards the wall, he won't be able to see anyone walking in through the flat door, meaning that he won't see Zoe dragging in Sander. Just then Senne hears the flat door open. Robbe turns his head to look over, but Senne quickly turns his head back and shoves his phone into his face, showing Robbe a meme he found the other day. With Robbe successfully distracted, he peeks over the corner of the wall and sees a groaning Sander being pulled by Zoe. Zoe quickly shoves Sander into the bathroom, letting Senne know that it is his queue. He grabs Robbe’s hand and drags him; Robbe protests, wondering what the hell was going on. He pushes Robbe into the bathroom and Robbe’s shocked to see Sander whipping his head to stare at Zoe and Senne. Before either of them could get out, Zoe closes the door shut and the two lean against it, putting all their weight on it. 

Robbe pounds their fists against the door, “Let us out!”

“Not until you two talk about what is happening right now! Clear up the supposed Sander cheating now!” Zoe yells back. 

“I already know Sander cheated, we don't have to talk about anything” Robbe retorts angrily. 

“Oh my god, Robbe I didn’t!”

Zoe and Senne look at each other nervously. Senne presses his ear against the door hoping to catch more of their conversation; even though that wasn't necessary since both were yelling at each other. 

“Oh my god, I saw your hand reaching towards the bank when you were kissing me! Oh. My. God. Did you distract me by kissing me so you could steal the money?!!!” Robbe cries out. 

Senne lifts his head up from the door and whispers, “Bank?”

Zoe looks just as confused. Bank? Money? What? 

“Oh my god, I was moving the money so I could move you there to make it more comfortable!” Sander retorts exasperated. 

“How can I trust you?!”

Senne sees a look of realization crosses Zoe’s face and she backs away from the door and buries her face into her hand. Senne however, is still so fricking confused. What is happening, he thinks.

Zoe starts laughing; she laughs so hard she’s bending over and holding her stomach. Senne is finally fed up with being confused, “What? What is happening?”

“Senne” Zoe gasps out, “They were playing Monopoly”

Senne finally gets it, slamming his head on the bathroom door, startling the two inside, making them stop bickering. Zoe and Senne had done all this just to find out this? This?

Senne yanks open the bathroom door, “Robbe, Sander, is Monopoly really the thing the two of you should be fighting about? Especially to this degree?!” he says to the now sheepish looking boys. 

Senne pivots on his heel and pulls Zoe to their room. 

“Where are you two going?” Robbe asks. 

“To finish what you interrupted yesterday,” he replies. Zoe giggles and hugs Senne sideways after realizing what Senne means. 

He pushes Zoe inside their room and puts his hands on the door to close it. Before the door fully closes, he can hear Sander ask Robbe, “Are they going to have sex now?”

Later that day in the evening, Senne, Zoe, Robbe, and Sander are spread out on the living room couches watching a random artsy movie that Sander put on. Senne was running his hand through Zoe’s hair since she is sleeping with her head down on his lap. He looks over to his side and sees Sander and Robbe cuddled up in a bunch of blankets whispering to each other. They look very happy and Senne is very relieved that they had gotten over their petty squabble after Zoe and Senne had come out of their room. Senne smiles when he realizes that the room is calm, peaceful, and quiet other than the movie playing in the background. 

He hears the flat door open so he swivels his head over and sees Milan coming back from his job!

“Hey, Milan!” Senne says smiling. 

“Hey, Senne! Hey Robbe, Sander.” Milan replies. 

Both Sander and Robbe let out a few quick hellos before going back to their own conversation. 

As Milan takes off his jacket he whines, “Guys we always watch a movie and chill. We should do something else! We should play Monopoly!”

Senne’s eyes widen and a scared look grows on his face.

“NO!”

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!