#you can probably infer from context at least like. some of them.

[musical-chick-13]

I love being nit-picky about canon until it's a character I hate. Then I love intentionally interpreting every single thing about them through the absolute worst lens possible. Because I hate them. And I love hating. Hope this helps.

[cecilysass]

Scully the ice queen?

I often see people talking about the “ice queen” trope in XF fanfic from the 90s as an example of fanon becoming ubiquitous in fanfic. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is it in a nutshell: basically, fanfic in the 1990s began to make reference to Scully as a perceived “ice queen,” both at work and in her personal life, meaning that she didn’t express her emotions, that she was repressed and cold. And then that became a thing, a standard trope that other fanfic writers drew on.

My theory is that the “ice queen” / Scully association didn’t actually come from specific works of fic or from specific individuals.  I also don’t think it necessarily originated in fic and then crossed over into fan perceptions of Scully. I think it’s easy for 21st century fans to get the causal arrows mixed up on this because we're missing some historical context. I believe many viewers in the 1990s—not just fanfic writers—actually interpreted Scully differently than viewers now because they interpreted female characters differently. I think people in the 1990s were simply much more likely to interpret women serious about their professional lives as “ice queens.” Especially if their professional lives involved science.

Consider the below female scientist (P.K. Newby) writing about her graduate school experience in the 1990s.

Of course this still happens today, and of course it didn’t always happen in the 1990s. But I think it’s important that this impacted actual women living their lives in the same time period, because it’s reasonable that this also affected TV audiences’ perception of a character. 

I give you this message from the Usenet discussion group alt.tv.x-files, the first season of the show, from before the fanfic Usenet group was even created. This user characterizes Scully as an “ice queen,” claiming to notice a change after Darkness Falls, and even associating it with her skepticism specifically.

(This is me showing you the whole message with the date, then showing you parts close up because it's so tiny. I'm very dedicated.)

So in this (very early online fandom) conversation, we have a fan who already read her as an “ice queen” on their own without the filter of fanfic to sway them.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Fanfic definitely took hold of the Scully / ice queen thing and ran with it. There are many examples in the Usenet group during the 1990s of people asking, “Hey, which episode was Scully called ‘ice queen’ again? and people saying, ‘Oh never, ha, that’s just a fanfic thing.’” It was a well-established trope by at least 1997. See below.

I just want people to consider that it didn’t have to be one writer, one fic, or one incident that led to the popularization of this piece of fanon. This would have been something people understood right away because it already was culturally out there in the interpretation of the character and in associations with professional women. And like the person asking the question in the above message infers, it probably did come organically from several people at once. 

That said, some 1990s fans actively questioned it, observing it didn’t seem to fit with their interpretation of the show.

Notice that in the below conversation, Scully as ice queen is mixed up in perceptions of GA as ice queen, too. 

(Side note: I mean, you can totally get where that person was coming from, right? Gillian Anderson was TOTALLY giving repressed, cold, virginal saint in 1997.)

As a prolific reader of fanfic, old and new, I think it’s also important to add this: it seems to me that fanfic writers more often made “Ice Queen” a hurtful nickname that Scully was called by other people (like Mulder being called “Spooky”), not an actual characterization of her personality. And actually, especially given her mostly-male workplace, this seems not unrealistic in the 1990s? Some fanfic writers may even have been writing from experience. (At least, I think I'm right in saying that tendency was true. I'd be curious to know if other readers of old fanfic think Scully herself is characterized as an "ice queen" more often than I'm saying.)

I’m an Old Person. I’m ashamed to admit that in the same time period, I had a high school friend who always studied really hard in school and prioritized grades over social life, and sometimes we jokingly called her an “ice queen.” There was no male equivalent term. So unfortunately, I know this was most definitely a thing outside of Scully and the XF fandom. Fortunately, it does seem to be something we see less of in the 2020s. (At least I think?)  I just want to point it out because it’s one of those things you could think was just a little fanon quirk concerning this character or this show when really I do think it’s about gender perceptions overall. 

Very interested to know, though, if others think I'm wrong.

(actual Ice queen)

[jacqcrisis]

Hello! Sorry if you're tired of talking about your older writing instead of the current works which I also love, but I wanted to say I love your characterization(s) of Charon throughout your work and I was wondering if you had any tips on understanding his character's core/just how to write him true to form?

Listen. Listen. I can talk about Charon all day. I love him. I have other hades AUs I haven’t even talked about on here that I think about often to this day and if I ever get the itch, they will be written.

And that’s very kind of you to say. Idk if I write him true to any form, but I am extremely anal about keeping characters as in character as possible. Or at the very least, as believably in character as I can. When I plan on writing a character for a longer fic, whether AU or not, I usually try to find out everything about them and break them down to the bone before building it back up. What is in canon that I can use to build back a believable skeleton that is fleshed by what I can infer from the bones underneath?

So core character concepts for Charon that are in canon that I use:

Greedy - he likes him gold and him stuff. No matter what universe you are writing in, this is one of, if not, the biggest driving factor for any job or hobby he has. He wants money, he likes money, and he knows how to make money.

Protective - of his things, his lifestyle, and the people he cares about. He’ll fight Zagreus, who he likes, if he touches his shit. One of the few emotions you can get out of him in game is anger at possibly uncovering his ‘thing’ with Hermes. He keeps Persephone’s location a secret (thereby protecting her) because either he cares for her or because Nyx does and Charon cares about his mom.

Difficult to discern - in part because he’s a big spooky skull man whose face you can’t see and who doesn’t talk, but it also seems to be mostly on purpose. Charon can communicate, given what other characters know more about him, but he specifically chooses not to. What you come to know about him, you find out through context clues, what other people say, and your own sleuthing which leads to-

Extremely private and disinterested in other people’s opinions about him - to the point, he doesn’t care what the GODS THEMSELVES think. All of them think he’s vile and nasty (save for Hermes). The people he’s close with know the kind of person he is, and that’s what matters. On top of that, he has his secrets, and he keeps them hidden, one of these secrets being who he is as a person. 

Independent - Nyx states she doesn’t worry about him because he’s extremely good at doing his own thing and he likes it that way, unlike her other failsons. His intentions are all on his own, and he doesn’t answer to anyone; not her, not Hades, not the gods, only himself. If he is helping someone, it is for his own reasons (maybe because he cares, probably because of money, possibly because Hermes asked).

Clever - He’s literally the head of an underground smuggling ring in game. Like this man knows how to do shit, make money, and get away with it. He’s capable of thinking many steps ahead, and able to plan for the long con.

Methodical - He's got his routine. He rows his boat. He counts his coin. He's mans his shops. He does things his way. He has his methods and he sticks to them.

Patient - that one's a gimme. He’s older than most of the gods and paddles a ferry around at the pace of molasses and doesn’t speak and does nothing to really speed Zagreus’ plight along. Clearly he understands and practices patience. 

Good Fighter - he’ll beat your ass.

Asexual (of some kind) - Aphrodite directly states she can’t get to Charon as he only ‘lusts after coin’. He is immune to machinations of the goddess of sex and beauty. But not the god of merchants, clearly.

A Gentleman - by Hermes’ opinion. Hermes really likes Charon. Please say hi to him for Hermes because- 

Charon Really Likes Hermes - no matter what you think is going on between them, if it’s just friendship, or professional associates, or he’s in love, this is canon. He ignores everyone at the party for Hermes and vice versa. He’s very protective of the thing they have going on. He specifically lets Hermes into the Underworld far enough that Zeus can’t sense him anymore. Hermes hangs out in his shop. Hermes boon is THE MOST EXPENSIVE ONE AT HIS LAST SHOP NO MATTER WHAT. I cannot stress how much Charon gives Hermes a pass and how much Hermes seemingly knows about him despite the other core concepts listed above I just- I- AH

Anyways, from those bones, you can start to infer and build back a believable version of the character for whatever you are writing. Is he kind and thoughtful? Probably, given how the people who know him talk about him. Is he loyal? Given how he acts in regards to his inner circle, you could say yes. Does he have a temper? Probably not, given he doesn’t care much about other people’s opinions nor reacts very much to anything in canon save for very specific circumstances. Is he lonely? Probably, on some level considering he’s alone all the time and how protective he is of his buddy, etc, etc, etc. 

The bones justify what you are putting on top of them and with that, for whatever thing you're writing, you can build up a believable version of a character. Even in the most extreme of AUs, like in the 70’s and on a beach in America or maybe in a dnd type universe where a character might be a lich for…reasons, as long as the core concepts are in place and every decision or authorial deviation from canon the characters make stem from those, it will be fine.

[roguephenon]

Hi, I started planning my own KND fic, and started with figuring out the ages and birthdates, and I have to ask. 1. How was it for you the process of coming up with a chronology of a show that doesn't really have a set and consistent timeline? 2. In what year does your fic takes place?

My process and answer is long so have it at under the cut

The first part of my process was deciding if I wanted a set timeline or just to go with what worked for me from fic to fic. Over the years (and after watching the series hundreds of times and taking novels worth of notes and screenshots), I’ve settled on a set timeline that works for me and what I like to do.

(Fun fact: I have 3 different timelines! 1 is the main one I use, and the other two are bit more loose depending on the AU I wrote. In one, the GKND doesn’t exist.)

First, I would decide how religiously you want to try and make sense of the timeline the show tries to give us. There aren’t many, but there are a few events that have specific years that can be pinned down. For example, one is the Great Junior High Rebellion of ‘99 where the recommissioning module was allegedly “damaged beyond repair” (maybe they didn’t try turning it off and back on again?). The next one is 1969 where the KND faked the moon landing so adults wouldn’t discover the Moonbase. They’re small throwaway mentions, but important if you need some dates to anchor to.

Also consider that (probably almost) everything in season 6 that’s not a flashback happens AFTER Op. ZERO due to the shots of the Moonbase being the rebuilt Moonbase Zero.

Now, saying all that, my next piece of advice may be weird, but honestly, I think it’s important: don’t stress too much about it! Details are essential, but getting hung up on them can be a headache and stop the process. As you mentioned, the show doesn’t have a consistent timeline, so trying to make sense of everything will run you up a wall.

Just breathe and pick any year or era you want that makes sense or resonates with you! Wanna set it in 2018 or even in 2024? Go for it!

But why aren't kids/teens seen using smartphones? Maybe there’s super duper strict regulation that keeps anyone under 13 (perhaps even 18 because Father apparently controls the Teen Ninjas) from not having smartphones, and the KND uses 2x4 tech as a way to get around it. There’s already legislation in the works in the US that does this already to ban kids from using social media.

How come sector V are all in the same grade yet are different ages? Again, maybe in this world, there’s some super weird law the adult villains lobbied for that keeps kids in certain grades for extended times. There was literally an episode that ended with a 4th Grade President going to City Hall and coming out and saying, “by the way, school day ends at 8:25pm now. Sucks to suck, also Father is the best.”

Let the show's lack of a consistent timeline be an unexpected strength! Besides one or two cultural nods as the show evolves, there's not too much to date it. For example, they make up corporations and franchises to parody real ones and never give the name of a sitting world leader.

Also, it’s a cartoon, and their world is not bound to the same laws as ours. It’s not real life! Be silly and stretch things if you need to! If trying to take the show and make it more realistic is your goal, then, of course, do that as well! Just for me personally, I try not to get bogged down with “this event or timeline doesn’t exactly match up or happen how it would in real life” because I’m not writing real life: I’m writing Kids Next Door fighting candy monsters or the living avatars of puberty.

I’m getting off-topic. Anyway, the last piece of help I offer is just (if you can) rewatching the show and paying attention to context clues in the background! In season 5, two shots of a gravestone end with 2005. So, with that in mind, we can infer a few things:

1. From wherever you put that episode in timeline, it at least happens during or after the year 2005.

2. The same gravestone appears again in IT, so everything that has happened up to Rachel deciding to call a game of tag, again, happens either during or after the year 2005.

Take that as you will!

For the next part of your question! If you’re talking about Cold Reception SPOILER AHEAD BECAUSE IT WILL NEVER BE DIRECTLY STATED IN THE FIC! ....

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you really wanna know?

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The year Cold Reception takes place is 2011.

Hope this helps! If not, let me know and maybe I can give more specifics! Good luck on your fic! Writing is fun.

[galactic-johnny]

It's ya boi here, I watched the new Gundam Requiem for Vengeance. I wanted to hate it but it was actually kind of good (with some gripes). I would rather die than make a reddit post/comment about my opinion on media so I'm posting it here. I will be talking about spoilers and a non exhaustive list of thoughts.

I'll start with the bad.

So there's the character (not mecha) animation that many people poiinted out looks bad from all the traielrs. It's still not that good but I got used to it. If you look closely you can notice some animation errors that people have been posting screenshots of, but personally I didn't notice them mid watch so I wasn't bothered. The thing that did bother me was some of the sound design/mixing, like a Gouf is shooting the weakest sounding gatling gun ever. The voice acting is okay but there are parts in every episode where I was like "wow that was kind of a bad delivery". From my understanding the original script/voice recording is in english, and then theres a japanese dub translated back to japanese which I'm told from a japanese speaker also sounds weird.

The main thing I've seen people on reddit complain about, and the thing i have the most thoughts on, is it coming off as too much of a pro zeon stance and making gundam fans pro-titans. I'm mixed on this. So the director is a french guy who was wearing a zeon t-shirt in a promo video and said something like "we're excited to show you a story from the Zeon side of the war" which gave me bad vibes but I wanted to wait and see. The first episode has a part where it's trying to evoke the nazi parallels while a guy is giving a speech, but it doesn't have much more of that after the first episode.

Many redditors have pointed to the "the zaku has saved a lot of lives" line. My issue is: What happened a few hours earlier in context? Why do you think he would have positive feelings toward a Zaku? Discuss with your partner what we can infer about this character's background. My issues with people pointing to scenes like that and zeon soldiers talking about their war for independence is that do you think it makes sense for them to be like "btw our side is pretty fucked up, our guys have committed a bunch of atrocities" "oh yeah Loum, where we completely destroyed Side 5 and killed like 2 billion civilians". Basically I think it makes sense in context for Zeon characters to talk about the war like it's patriotic war for independence.

The problem is that the show doesn't really explain the context of the war that well, and it would probably help some people to mention it. Like mention that thing at Loum, explain the start of the war and the 3 second warning and how they've destroyed a bunch of civilian colonies, or that half the human population has died in this war, why the zeon soldiers hate the federation and the conditions that led to them starting the war, and most importantly at least mention the colony drop. I kind of wonder if they wanted to show the colony drop but they wanted to animate it and at some point in production an exec said "yeah no that's too time consuming and expensive, just skip that", but they really should mention that, its like the opening shot of the original Gundam 79.

The show is trying to be a One Year War side story from the perspective of Zeon soldiers, while also wanting to be an introduction for people have not watched Gundam that should be able to explain the context of the war and not glorify zeon too much while still making people care about the characters, doing so in a span of six 20 minute episodes. It's a difficult task and the creators did not seem up to it. I've watched most gundam TV shows, including all Gundam UC timeline stuff and read some of the manga, so I'm decently informed on Gundam, but if I were to show this to a friend that has never seen Gundam and want this to be their introduction I would probably let them know a few important things (like the colony drop). To be fair it has some things that are probably good for introducing someone to the setting, but yeah its leaving out some important stuff.

That's my take that no one asked for on that particular criticism.

There's also some obligatory newtype mentioned stuff because they want to introduce it to new people, but it doesn't play that much into the story and I'm just glad they didn't make newtypes that are basically jedi (cough cough thunderbolt).

So here's the good stuff.

The best part is easily the mecha battle animation. It's cool. I have a goblin brain which demands violence and likes giant robots fighting. The Ex Gundam is truly a menace every time it appears. The mobile suits weighty and there's a good amount of giant robot gore. The design is divisive but personally I was into it and seeing it may convince more people to be into it. The only thing I'm not into is the weird head and eyes on the model kit, but thought it looked much better in the show. There are some technical aspects of the fights that are a head scratcher but honestly I didn't care that much because goblin brain. Like the Gundam is getting circled by three Dopps, and leaps up and slices one with its beam saber, and like yeah imagine cutting down a super fast jet with your sword but also it was so cool and thats what matters. I also really liked the Zaku, Gouf, and GM. I really hope the Gouf and GM get model kits (not pbandai plz) and I would be the first to buy them. The only mobile suit design I didn't like was the Guntank but that's it. Basically the mobile suit fights are a visual treat and that's what I really wanted to see.

I don't have too much to say about most of the characters, but I thought the protagonist Iria Solarii was interesting as far as gundam protagonists go. She's a mother with a ~10 year old son, she had a husband who died a few months into the war and they were both musicians that were drafted(?) into the war but had a good thing going on before it started. The people around her have grown more bitter and vengeful the more they lose while her goal is to follow orders and survive the war so she can see her son again (I'll get back to this). 6 episodes probably isn't enough for the amount of characters they had but I liked Iria.

It accomplishes being a gritty OYW Gundam war story with cool battles and evoking emotions about the tragedy of war, which is basically the best I could have expected.

The thing I'm most mixed on is the ending/last 5 minutes. So far I've seen people saying they don't like it all. On one hand it's so anti climatic the way the random Gouf pilot, and they quickly show the Ex Gundam pilot was a teenager without much time, and Iria just changes her goal from "i want to see my son again" to "a federation child soldier died before my eyes, therefore I will keep fighting against the federation" and these things are sort of ungraceful.

But to me it also kind of works. Like the Ex Gundam pilot dies so suddenly and without fanfare, he won't be remembered or celebrated, and he's one of many teenage pilots in the federation, almost as though for every amuro and other gundam protagonists, there's another of this kid who's skills and accomplishments didn't matter and died as a cog in the machine. The Gouf pilot can't even comprehend that Solari was upset, all he say was the drone that killed the person he cares about. Solari saw the federation send a child to the front lines to help them shoot down the fleeing Zeons, she sees them as the monsters her friends saw and now feels more righteous killing them than she did before, because there is nothing that below them. The Ex Gundam pilot was just a kid, he felt he was righteous in slaughtering all the Zeons because they started this war and have killed many more of his own side. But his mercy is not rewarded because for everyone else the war has dehumanized and driven a wedge between these people. After the war ends the problems that caused it still aren't addressed which is why for decades it keeps repeating. It made Solari more vengeful than she was at the start so she believes she's righteous in staying with zeon remnants after the war ended.

So I think that a tragic, ungraceful, anticlimactic ending kind of worked with what it's going for. Like yeah it's a pretty bleak note and I think Gundam is better when it's both bleak and hopeful, but overall I'm more for the ending than against it.

[sco07ut]

i’ve got like 20 mins until my bus shows up and i’m bored so, at risk of being mobbed by that specific brand of over-30-cishet-female-mat-baynton-stans, i would like to talk about why i think transfem thomas thorne could actually be a good route for his character growth !

(but it’s below the cut bc it’s long discussion </3)

so obviously being infatuated with alison is an integral part to thomas’ character, aside from being a terrible poet it’s one of his most identifying traits. even in episodes where he’s tried to ‘grow out of it’ (see: s4e2) he’s still back to his original state at the end of the episode (and while this could be chalked up to the fact that you stays how you dies and therefore can’t grow as a person i would like to raise you this: he obviously was not obsessed with alison when he died, therefore i think there’s still some hope for him yet) anyway ! got off track a bit there,

thomas can’t ‘grow out of’ loving alison until he recognises why he loves alison - or perhaps, the idea of alison (now this could lead onto a talk abt why i also think and hc that tom is aromantic but people have covered that before)

let’s backtrack for a moment and review what exactly we know and/or can infer about thomas: he’s unlike the other men we see in the thomas thorne affair, his interests, opinions on romance and accumulated skills aren’t particularly masculine.

he’s very creative (just because he’s bad at it doesn’t mean the drive isn’t there), adores the arts (written word, paintings, songs), he clearly values women for who they are as people (and to a degree, their looks) and bases his affections on that, as opposed to financial gain (squints at francis button), and he clearly hasn’t had any experience when it comes to duels or fights in general and his general ‘layabout’ personality would definitely reflect the fact that rich women in the 1800s had very few responsibilities and obviously weren’t expected to work.

now, all of these aren’t inherently feminine traits, this is obvious, we all know this, i’m not saying that men can’t do these things. kindly don’t take my words out of context, but in the case of a man who lived in the 1800s, they can be seen as pretty feminine. this also isn’t the basis for my argument, i just want to point out a few things before i get into the meat of it !

and slightly less solid reasoning: mat baynton just plays him really fruitily. if you asked me to explain it i don’t think i could, but cmon just look at him

anywa, it’s pretty much an accepted part of the fanbase by now that thomas is bad at recognising what sort of love he’s feeling, and i raise you this: what if the desire he’s feeling for alison isn’t romantic, but is instead, desiring to be her.

(if you’re a lesbian, this is a familiar concept: do i want to date her or be her?)

he could potentially see elements of himself in alison, her own appreciation for art, and maybe even traces of the physical self (slim, white, dark haired? - this could also support the reasons why he was such a strong interest in lucy, who also shares these features, but hasn’t expressed any canon interest in fanny or kitty. mary is a bit of an outlier here but it’s whatever, my hc just has pockets ig). and when we have a great appreciation for someone we can tend to idolise them a little. in thomas’ mind, alison could potentially just be an idealised version of who he wants to be, and in his own confusion when it comes to recognising that fact, he could be mistaking admiration for adoration.

thomas is very clearly an idiot, the entire series is proof of that, and generally unless the facts are laid out right in front of him he doesn’t Get things. when we consider the fact that transgenderism was extremely uncommon and likely incredibly underground, thomas probably doesn’t even know it’s an option outside of the way that literally everyone ponders what it would’ve been like to have been born the opposite sex at least once in their life.

so why do i think this would be an effective way to fix thomas’s weird infatuation with alison?

well, at this point in the series it’s obvious that thomas isn’t just going to stop ‘loving’ her, there needs to be some big wake-up call that makes him stop. however, i feel that the longer ThemThere keep dragging out this part of his character, the harder it’ll be to bounce back from it. right now we’re lucky that thomas is such an avidly romantic character, his obsession with alison is uncomfortable enough as it currently stands but at least we know it’s innocent and emotional. but as the series goes on i just worry that that line could start to blur.

at this point, thomas suddenly moving on from alison seems entirely unfeasible and he would definitely need to have some element of identity rocked to really consider what it is about alison that he’s obsessed with. of course i’d be completely happy if that happened to be the fact that he’s aromantic or aroace but i just think thomas ending up transfem would be an interesting route to go down as an alternative (bc i know some people are very much ride and die when it comes to certain ships. and i’ll admit, i do appreciate a bit of romance between tom n different characters)

i feel like it would also be a better justification for his infatuation with her aside from just ‘too much love’ (thomas thorne=ashfur.?), obviously all obsessions are a bit iffy but i feel like if it came from a place of ‘i really want to be her and don’t know how to express that’ instead of just ‘i want her’ it would be a bit less weird. less creepy i think? and it’s an issue that can actually be worked through and addressed properly with ways of helping thomas transition instead of telling him to simply stop loving alison.

plus it would make all their interactions just so much sweeter !! whenever they talk i’m always on the edge of my seat waiting for thomas to make some weird remark but augh!!!!! they could b girl best friends !!!!

and it’s not like the cast is adverse to playing trans women ! gabriel and ho-tan are such beloved characters, gabriel gets her happy ending and even though ho-tan’s wish is reversed it’s still very much implied that they respect her identity (i do wish they had explored or at least addressed this more though) (however, ho-tan’s femininity is never the subject of a joke like gabriel’s is, so i suppose they even each other out)

anyway my final reason for tom being transfem is that dear god i’m jsut a simple lesbian please please let me have this i won’t ask for anything else i swear

[bluestringpudding]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @silently--here and @uncannycerulean for the tags!

How many works do you have on AO3?

19 (+ 1 that's waiting to be revealed for a fest)

What's your total AO3 word count?

329,661 😳

What fandoms do you write for?

Just Harry Potter. Maybe I should diversify?

What are your top 5 fics by Kudos?

Live like common people Dramione/Draco pretending to be a muggle (88,794 words)

How did we get here? The sequel to the above, aka Draco wishing he could still just pretend he was a muggle. (153,536 words)

Dragons Only The Draco/Charlie drabble (289 words)

A Song of Ice and Fire and Awkward Ex Boyfriends The other Dramione, this time with dragons. 🐉(20,272 words)

Just a Minerva in time The MinMione time travel one (6,460 words)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Unless you're an absolute arsehole, and even then, I would rather reply (but only if I can come up with an appropriate retort). Why? Because I love the interaction. Getting a comment, no matter how small, will always make my day. So, it feels right to at least say thanks. Also, I met one of my now good friends through us chatting in our fics' comments. So who knows what might come of it.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, probably One Last Cup.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I've not written the ending yet, but it's going to be How Did We Get Here? If only because I have become waaayyy too attached to all of the characters to give them anything but.

Do you get hate on fics?

It's not quite hate, and I know it could be worse, but How Did we get here? garners some pretty strong reactions. They're a downer.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I've only published very mild smut, but I have written more explicit stuff since, and some of it is in the next chapter I'm publishing, and I'm scared.

Do you write crossovers?

No, I struggle enough with one fandom. Huge respect to the people who manage it

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah. They're not good enough for that.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes! Three actually. Idle in Kangaroo Court W1, for the mixed up writer fest. We ran out of steam, so it's unfinished, but I keep promising myself I'm going to finish it one day. Then two more with some friends, one short one for the rare pairs fest, that will be revealed soonish. Then one long fic that 3 of us a writing, which is err... in progress.

What's your all time favourite ship?

Call me a basic bitch, but I will always be such a sucker for Dramione.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I have a really unhealthy stubborn streak that won't let me leave things unfinished, so hopefully none. Though Idle in Kangaroo Court is most at risk, because its been so long (and I feel I have to reach out to my co-author to check they don't mind, and my social anxiety is one of the few things that trumps my stubbornness).

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I keep thinking I should try writing something as a script.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions and flowery language. I have to work hard at imagining visuals, so a lot of the time I don't. And I'm too literal to do well with metaphors.

Thoughts in writing dialogue in another language?

I've never really had any before. I guess I don't mind it in small amounts, if the meaning can be inferred from context or reactions. It's annoying if you miss something by not understanding what it means.

First Fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

Favourite fic you've written?

Oh god, that's like asking me to chose between my children! Live Like Common People will always have a special place in my heart, as it was my first and the characters will forever live rent free in my head.

But also, I'm most proud of Tattletail, because I think it is technically my best piece of writing.

Tagging anyone who wants to play, as I suspect I'm one of the last of my mutuals to get round to this.

[number1villainstan]

AtLA Analysis Rewatch: S1E8: Winter Solstice Part 2, Avatar Roku

Intro: I've given up on trying to do this specific episode, at least, all in one day. I'll probably lose some of the overarching plot stuff this way but at least I'll actually do it.

Lot of spiritual, Avatar-specific stuff in the Previously section--talking about the Avatar's past lives, and how to connect with them. Also some crucial details about Crescent Island. Perfectly natural for this episode. I expect to pick out a lot of details about the Fire Sages and religion. (Did you know that Agni is a fanon deity, not a canon one?)

Opening scene is Aang trying to drag Appa into flying, without Sokka or Katara. Stubbornness and a sense of protectiveness over his friends; but also, in the same breath, a feeling of invincibility. Although he considers the possibility of his friends dying, he doesn't seem to understand that he could also die. Katara's line "The world can't afford to lose you to the Fire Nation. Neither can I." might foreshadow their later romance, but it also might be taken as purely platonic here.

Mayor (?) guy from last episode says that it's a "long journey to Crescent Island." a) How does he know that? b) How fast can Appa fly? c) How tiring would the journey be for Appa? The geography/pacing of these episodes are weird. Speed of plot and all. I also wonder exactly what's in the pack Mayor gives Aang, and why it's got a stick on top. What fabric is it using and where did they get it from? Is it just big leaves? But where did they get the leaves? Why is it tied like that?

Why was Zuko just...waiting outside Mayor guy's house? Why did he think shoving him back inside would be a good idea?? Also, he jumped straight from "Having trouble sleeping?" to "Seen the Avatar lately?" That's hardly impactful dialogue. Your mother would be so disappointed that you can't even think up proper villainous dialogue. ...Also, naked Iroh riding a Komodo rhino to the side. I had to go back to last episode's analysis to remember the context of that. :P Zuko's shove, I noticed, looks similar to a firebending move, with him drawing his arms back and placing his hands so that the palms face the 'opponent' (using that word pretty loosely here) and the fingers point up and down. Firebending training showing up here?

The sun seems to rise real quick in the Avatar world. Much quicker than in our own. It also seems to come with an already day-blue sky, rather than the red/orange/pink colors that come with sunrises and sunsets in our world. ...yet another case of astronomical inaccuracy.

Iroh actually gets mad at Zuko for daring to sail in FN waters--enough to raise his voice to a yell when he reminds Zuko that "the Fire Lord" banished him. Why is Iroh talking about his brother so impersonally? (I know why, but that's the Doylist explanation. I want the in-universe one, the Watsonian one.) I also believe that this is the first time in the series that someone has said that Zuko was outright banished, and not just dishonored. Right after Iroh yells, he softens his voice and indirectly asks about Zuko's welfare--"What if you're caught?" Zuko says he has no choice (he does, he could plan/strategize and try to predict where the Gaang would exit FN waters without actually entering them, this is just his impulsivity) and that his father will understand. (Zuko, you poor naive little boy.) (Iroh agrees with me here in this scene.) Iroh also refers to Ozai as 'my brother,' and I can't remember if this is another first time or not.

Fire Lord Ozai casts a large shadow over these two characters, even as he hasn't shown up in the show yet in any real capacity, not even as the shadowy figure of the Big Bad Villain. (I checked the wiki; apparently his first appearance is in this episode.) He casts a large shadow on the whole show. But we don't get a lot of canon characterization for him beyond Big Bad Villain, and what we do get we have to infer and debate based on tiny scenes and scraps.

So, Zuko is at the telescope himself during this talk, trying to look for the Avatar. Lack of trust in his crew? Self-initiative? A combo of both, probably, knowing both Zuko's bull-in-a-china-shop character and his royal (classist) upbringing.

So, the flaming ammo for that catapult. And the catapult itself. Are all FN ships outfitted with one? It came up from under the deck--where is it stored? How is it maintained? Who maintains it? Also, for the ammo--we know that the gray flammable gunk smells bad, thanks to Iroh (does he not know how this works, with his preference for 'something more fragrant'?) and we know that the brown fabric-tied stuff underneath is also flammable, but what's in the bundle? And what's the gray gunk supposed to be, oil or something? (Also, on another note, what sort of cultural details can we glean from Iroh using a fan, even a plain red one? I thought that was a feminine thing in Japanese or Chinese cultures, although I may be wrong.

It looks like the smell/fumes of that 'hot stinker,' as Katara calls it, are also a part of the attack. I wonder if the Gaang's eyes are watering?

What's up with the blockade? Why there? Is it specifically around Crescent Island? How much manpower is it using? I wonder what life is like for the soldiers on that blockade.

So, both the Gaang and Zuko decide to run the blockade. How late in the day is it? How far away is Crescent Island? How long would that detour to the North have taken?

And Zhao's back, in all his oily, awful glory. What is he doing on/at the blockade, though? The captain(?) he's talking to is concerned about Zuko's ship, although he doesn't seem to realize that it's Zuko's. Also, why is Zhao calling Zuko a traitor? Is it because he's about to run a FN blockade, or does it relate to The Scar Backstory? (What even was the official public explanation for that? Who even knows about that?? What kind of gossip is going around about Zuko while he's gone?)

(Okay, going to go through the blockade scene and then stop for the night.)

Zhao's ships, which look to be the blockade itself (again, what is he doing there? Inspections? Trying to guess where Aang's going? Does he know about the solstice and Avatar cycles and Crescent Island and whatnot? He does seem to mess with the spirits a lot.) seem to have more than one catapult per ship (three, it seems?); an upgrade to weaponry in the years Zuko's been gone?

Appa's real good at dodging those hot stinkers. (Also, I wonder how much of Appa's grunts Aang can understand, and how much of Aang's commands Appa can understand.)

Zuko's warned by an engineer(? Could just be an experienced crewmember, he looks pretty old) that they need to stop because the engines are damaged, and he still says "Do not stop this ship." Makes me think of Azula's "Do the tides command this ship?" Maybe it's a royal thing, being entitled jackasses even in the face of uncircumventable realities. Also, if the engines are damaged, shouldn't they be slowing down or stopping or turning?

Appa pulled off some serious speed skills to save Sokka. Also, Aang seems to be trying to 'drive' Appa the same way someone would drive a car; dude, Appa's an animal. He can see that Flaming Balls Bad. Appa can dodge on his own.

So, when Aang burst apart that flaming ball it broke into chunks. No fabric, and it looked like dirt? Dirt's not flammable. Although maybe it doesn't need to be? But where are they getting dirt in the middle of the ocean? (Unless...it's not dirt? Solid human waste isn't exactly in short supply. Gross, though.)

Okay, so Zhao's not on the blockade because he knows Aang's headed to Crescent Island.

So it did look like Zuko's engines were stalling, or his ship was slowing down. Although just cutting the engines for Zhao's ships wouldn't immediately stop the ship, would it? I can only imagine what's going through Zuko's head as he's looking up at Zhao. (Zuko's ship is a whole lot smaller than other FN ships, yet again.)

Finished blockade scene. Got 8 min 21 seconds in. Current word count, including this paragraph, is 1458 words. Jesus, this is going to be another long one.

Starting this again, a few days later. I hope I'll finish the rest of it today. That's probably not going to happen, though.

So, it seems the passage of time is being measured by the tint of the sky, not too bad of a choice, and Appa seems to grow more tired--head and legs hanging down. How many hours was that? Where was the blockade supposed to be? What the hell is AtLA geography, anyways?

"I was talking to Appa." "Well I was talking to Momo." God, they're such siblings. Also, does Momo's reaction mean that he can recognize his own name?

That's a long way up. Also, was that balcony constructed? Why? Also, if FN officials knew the Avatar was back, why didn't they put any guards at the temple?

Why specifically five fire sages? I know that Chinese(?) mythology held 5 elements, but this world has four elements and this is a temple dedicated to one element. Also, how exactly did they know that Aang was the Avatar? Did they get a drawing? Did they have some sort of vision during that scene when all of the temples lit up when Aang went into the Avatar state for the first time in the show?

Only three of the sages threw fireballs (too large a chance of hurting another sage if the two in the back fired?) and Aang is apparently so fast in escaping that neither the sages nor the viewer see him go. Impressive.

What on earth is the floor plan for the temple? Because it looks like it's a grid pattern but also a massive maze?? And the walls are made out of metal like it's a military construction?? Or is it wood/paper/actual building materials that I can't tell because the animation didn't put those details in??? Probably the second one tbh

"Firebenders aren't our friends." It's kind of an odd/simplistic way to phrase that, since potentially nonbenders from the Fire Nation/loyal to the Fire Nation cause would also not be their friends--indicative of a simplistic worldview from living in the South Pole and having little contact with the rest of the world?

Okay, the walls sound like metal. Also, how does the mechanism for that secret door work? And why does it lead into the mountain? Again, what is the floor plan here??

The sage says his grandfather knew Avatar Roku, and that he formed passages out of the magma, and that he once called the temple his home. But if Roku was a traitor to the Fire Nation, why would a temple be built on his home? Unless it wasn't? Questions for S3. Also, what was the grandfather's relationship with Roku? Because I'm not sure the timeline works if they were the same age. Also, why did Roku make those magma passages? But if 'many generations of Fire Sages' attended to the temple, that would mean that the temple was built before Roku, so it must have been that Roku lived in the temple for at least some period of time?? And then what about Sozin? There's no way this sage was alive when Sozin declared war on the Air Nomads. NOTHING ABOUT THIS MAN'S TIMELINE MAKES ANY GODDAMN SENSE. FUCK.

How long did they spend inside the temple? It feels like it has to be after sunset by now, but maybe that's just me pausing and unpausing to write this.

Is there any other way into the chamber than the secret passage (or the windows)? IIRC later in the episode Zuko and Zhao will both get into the chamber outside Roku's chamber, likely through other entrances.

Okay, so Friendly Sage's name is Shaiyu. (I think that's how it's spelled? Shy-you, if we're using words.)

"The sanctuary doors! They're closed!" Uh...duh? Why would they be open?

Ended at 12:55, through finding out the sanctuary doors are closed. Not including this paragraph, word count is 2079 words. And I'm only a little over halfway done with this episode.

What's up with those pillars in the background, with the dragons? I mean, I know what's up, they're there for structural support and probably decoration, but who put them there, how did they think up the design, etc etc.

What's the design/functionality of that firebending lock? Also, is there really no firebender powerful enough to create five separate fire blasts? Two feet, two arms and a mouth, that seems enough to me. Would hardly be a dignified move, but if you're alone and/or desperate, it could probably work. Unless a regular firebender couldn't make all five fire blasts powerful enough? (What's the trigger for the locking mechanism dependent on?)

...I bet Ozai could unlock the door alone. Or Azula, with a bit of practice/more and specific training.

The little 'ding' and the zoom out to the lantern above Sokka's head was hilarious. Loved it.

Speaking of lanterns, how did it get that red glow? Probably just through red paper, but what's inside? Is it just a candle flame? Wouldn't that snuff out after a while? Because that lantern looks pretty airtight.

Okay, so I thought Zuko was just being stupid when he decided to let Zhao follow his smoke trail, but no, apparently he's got an actual decent plan. Where did that mini boat come from? What's its capabilities? Is it supposed to be a life boat, a tug boat, a boarding boat? Probably the third, given that this is a military ship. When did the crew find the time to put in the upkeep for that ship?

Lamp oil in an animal skin. It's a good idea (and probably what the lamp shot was referencing before), but I think if they want the fire to go into the lock it's facing the wrong way--it should have the opening going into the hole. Although maybe then the fire wouldn't get enough air?

Would lamp oil really explode like that? (At least now we know how the lamps work.) Seems dangerous for a lamp to have exploding oil. Also, would the twin/rope they tied the bags with really have that sparkler effect? I know they're supposed to be bombs, but the components seem wrong for that.

"Did the definition of genius change in the last hundred years?" lol

I saw from one of the shots that Crescent Island is legit basically erupting. Lava flowing, smoke pouring out. That's...that's not how real volcanoes work, is it? I'm pretty sure we went over that in our geography unit. Generally lava is supposed to stop flowing once an eruption has stopped, since an eruption is from the buildup of pressure in the magma. Like one of Earth's pimples. Anyways.

Aang's tantrum here is...interesting. I don't think we often see Aang angry in the show, but he still reacts with yelling and throwing blasts of air at a door (although, thankfully, not at any person). Clear frustration, one of the few times we see it from Aang in the show iirc.

Sokka is the one to come up with the fake firebending idea, but Katara's the one that realizes what effect the fake firebending's effects on the lock would have. So it's not just Sokka that has ideas. But also, does this imply a difference between the way they both think? Sokka with engineering and things, Katara with people?

...Seriously, with all of those moving parts--how the hell does that lock work??

"Crawled through the pipes?" There are pipes connecting the chamber to the outside, where the doors are?

Those Sages are agile for a bunch of (presumably) old men. Also, how and where did Zuko get in? Is he familiar with the temple and its layout? He'd presumably have the right to be, but it's been three years since he was in the Fire Nation and had access to the temple, and to a sixteen-year-old three years is a long fucking time. When did he arrive on the island? He had to have had time to navigate the temple and get to the chamber.

...speaking of time, when the fuck is the sun going to set? I swear the AtLA planet is rotating at the speed of plot.

So, the Sages are helping Zuko? The banished and disgraced prince? Why? What motivation do they have for that? They're probably pretty high up, socially speaking, unless Ozai and Azulon and Sozin all started discrediting them, as part of the propaganda FN citizens are put through as part of schooling. Even so, why would they not hear about Zuko being banished and disgraced? On the surface, you could say it's because he's a royal, but like...Zhao's actively competing with him, and he gets promoted. What's going on inside their heads? Also, when did they even talk to each other?

Patience, Aang, the sun is (finally) setting. Just wait for a few seconds for the light to match up. Although--why sunset, and why on the solstice (winter, I'm guessing)? As well as the murals on the floor--where are those from, and what do they symbolize? On the other hand, there's kind of the question of why there's a temple at all, much less such a massive and ornate room dedicated specifically to Avatar Roku, when Roku was, what, declared a traitor to the FN by Sozin for not being gay back saying that he couldn't do an imperialism? Possibly it was at first to keep the Avatar sympathizers/more spiritual side of the nation calm, and then possibly it was forgotten about? God only knows.

So, Shaiyu invokes duty as a moral, as in the duty of the Fire Sages. Part of me wants to pick that morality apart and compare it to Zuko's honor. And then Zhao comes in, having somehow spotted and followed Zuko's tiny tugboat, and applauds the guy for his 'heartfelt speech' (that was two sentences long, that's not a speech!). So Zhao at least professes a plan to take Shaiyu to Fire Lord Ozai (although who really knows what's going on in that conniving head of his). Shyu, actually, I looked it up.

I remember one of the character pages a friend shared on a discord saying something about Zhao having the feel of a slimy sycophantic corporate ladder-climber, and...yea. His 'two traitors in one day, the Fire Lord will be pleased' bit really plays into that.

"Sooner or later he has to come out." a) So Zhao is patient when he wants/needs to be in order to achieve his goals. b) There are so many gay jokes you could make with this.

Why the mountainous and foggy setting for the vision? Why that specifically? Is it because it's familiar/like home to Aang?

Oh! Yes! This is the very first appearance of Ozai in the series! Shadowed face, surrounded by fire (even if the lighting would realistically let us see his face), and shirtless. Why is your waist so small, Ozai? So that other men (Zhao and also Hakoda) can grab it? Gayboy. And a drama queen with that mouth fire blast. Now we know where Zuko got it from (if it isn't like...the entire nation).

"Finish the war once and for all" is really fucking vague, my dude.

So Roku outright warns him that if Ozai succeeds (in using the comet) balance will be un-restorable, and yet I remember that at the beginning of the finale the Gaang minus Zuko decide to just wait until after the comet. So did Aang forget that warning? Did he never tell the others?

I believe this is the episode where the time limit is set (summer's end, when Sozin's Comet comes). Also, that (mastering all four elements) is a hell of a task to ask of a twelve-year-old.

I wonder what the choir-chant music is supposed to be (scene switching back to Zhao awaiting Aang outside the door). Zhao commands his soldiers to go full throttle--does he anticipate the Avatar State? More importantly, why do I ask questions that I know will be answered if I just hit play and wait a couple seconds?

Damn, Zuko got chained up too? Rip. Also, spikes on the door. Ouch. On the other hand, with the light, Zuko looks away and I think so do many others, but Zhao doesn't, and the soldiers don't. Wouldn't that hurt their eyes?

Okay, so the chamber is at the top of the temple. And the wall was fucking destroyed apparently. Also, how did Roku heat up those chains without burning anyone severely?

Katara refuses to leave without Aang. I think Aang's going to be fine...although it would be disheartening if he woke up and was alone.

Oh dang, Katara was right to be worried. Also. How the fuck is no one fainting from heat stroke? Did anyone get caught in the lava? This should have a lot more casualties than it does.

Okay, so apparently I was wrong before about the Sages having a high social status, if a commander (which is canonically lower than an admiral) can arrest all of them so easily and with such confidence.

And that's all! Final word count, including this paragraph, is 3,684 words.

[amazing-spiderling]

What’s some of your favorite characters to write and what’s some of your least favorite?

Friendo, please know that I have been staring at this ask in my inbox for a while and always going "HUH." because it feels like such a big question, sometimes I don't know how to answer it. skfdjs

I think, broadly, my favorite characters to write are going to be the ones who have some attribute I've managed to zero in on with some amount of personal understanding. It doesn't have to be a character I think is "just like me", (I don't know that I've felt that about many if any fictional characters) so much as one that I think I have one or two things in common with that I can focus on in a story. I guess the trick is remembering to focus on lots of aspects of their character so I don't reduce them to just that, though.

As for favorites...

From Metal Gear, I really liked writing from Otacon's POV. While he is brilliant and talented in his own right, in a lot of ways he is the best person to have an outside perspective on the crazy things that are happening in his world. Yes, he's an unparalleled engineer and hacker, but he's surrounded by genetically altered super soldiers pumped full of nanomachines, and it tends to put things in perspective. I think that's why Project Itoh chose to write the MGS4 novelization from his POV. Since I often feel like an observer around people who seem to lead more dramatic and interesting lives, I think I find it enjoyable to write stories with a "friendly outsider" perspective.

For Marvel... I think it's *easier* for me to write for Peter Parker, again, some similarities between us I feel I can tap into with ease, but I think its more *fun* to write Wade. He does get to have all the best banter, and if I want to write a joke that isn't actually that funny, well, then it's just that much more in character. I think I prefer writing Foggy to Matt, again, because of that "involved outsider" thing he has going on. He's emotionally involved in a lot of the goings on, even if he isn't in the middle of things (and then sometimes he is in the middle of things, but that's another issue). I also like writing Foggy in Earth-65 contexts because I think a lot of Murderdock comes from what he isn't saying. If we're inside his head and seeing the reasons behind his actions, some of the mystique is ruined. But if we are sitting on Foggy's shoulders, and only seeing the external (albeit, from someone who has a better understanding of Matt than most) we have to piece things together and make more inferences, and that gives me the chance to drop little breadcrumbs and easter eggs and I LIVE for that.

On the flip side, characters I've had little luck with... ugh. Hm. That's really tricky. I think I don't tend to write the characters I don't have fun with, life is too short. Sometimes it's required though, especially when I'm writing with a partner and we're splitting up the side characters, but even then... it can be fun to write characters I hate and go, UGH, THEY'RE AWFUL. (See: Huey from MGSV)

I guess the most difficult would be characters like Elektra, not because I don't like her- but because I think that we haven't got much in the way of real, solid characterization and motivation for her that doesn't revolve around Matt Murdock. (Well, not counting the Elektra movie, so maybe I should just use that as her model from now on lol.) If I'm totally honest, I feel like a lot of the meta I read about Elektra is from people who have pinged some characteristic within her (like I have for my faves) that doesn't ping for me, so I don't find it relatable or interesting to explore. But I also don't want to throw her into a fic just to make her a bad guy so my ship can kiss, you know? And it's just... bleh, it's a lot of homework, so that's probably why I've avoided it. Does that make me a bad fan? Maybe. I never claimed to be a good one.

[pazodetrasalba]

ἰδέα

Dear Caroline:

This was very illuminating, but as you say, not that surprising. My naive Venn Diagram for EA sees it as the intersection of Behavioral Economics and Utilitarian Philosophy (alternatively, it could also be portrayed as the friendly, charity-focused front of the Rationalist movement), so your economics background would clearly predispose you to it at least partially. Beyond that, I get the feel that Consequentialism is the philosophy of choice amongst economists: it goes well with a positive evaluation of capitalism, expected value calculations and 'the most good for the biggest number'.

More intriguing is what you say about 'taking ideas seriously', which requires a certain type of mentality - very intellectual, very logical, a bit self-centered, and not too pragmatic or accommodating. I suspected, probably wrongly and extrapolating badly from myself, that teenagers would go along this a lot, the context being them still retaining black-and-white mind frames while having lost their religious beliefs. It definitely did with me, and the danger here is that any reasonably good and plausible memeplex that you pick up has the power to latch on to you like barnacles to a rock; you are very unlikely to go and read other visions and counterarguments, and it will take you ages to purge yourself of dogmatic beliefs.

But by taking ideas seriously I think you mean not only questions of belief and acting out, but of exploring the logical consequences and paths they lead to. I see this making a lot of sentence when you're talking of logic and mathematics, where you can follow the thread of theorems derived from the axioms, and check for contradiction or unlikeable results. I kind of don't see it working that well in real life, though, because of the massive degree of uncertainty, and the way in which a lot of what you'd call Bayesian inference just feels like cooking up bs numbers without sufficient evidence, or even the perspective of having it. The AI risks debate has flared up quite a lot since you wrote this post. I will be reading a couple of books on the topic next year, but it is difficult not to feel two vibes about it which lead to -in cases of doubt- to some degree of flippancy:

AGI doom scenarios look such a distillation of sci-fi uber-nerd cultish, dystopian fantasies that it feels difficult to even start to take them seriously

Then again, lots of people I consider really smart do take them seriously, including some that seem to have started from the opposite side of the fence. But heck, they can all still be nerd-biased one kind or another. And it is all ultimately a castle built on speculations and what ifs.

Quote:

To take ideas seriously means that you intend to live by, to practice, any idea you accept as true.

Ayn Rand

[eristic-kaleidoscope]

Revealing Secrets or Something || Arakiel || Trial 2:4 || RE: Ae-ra || ATTN: Erika Y, Just Erika

Listening to the others’ refutations and acknowledgement for his theory, he decided as he grew more sure that somehow both of them were involved he’d reveal the further information he had. He originally had planned not to share anything too personal, but with information that could make or break a case he figured he’d open up about two things specifically. 

Crossing his arms he narrowed his gaze somewhat, slightly unhappy to feel like he had to share any of this. An apologetic look to Eri for a moment in the chance he was wrong.

“If we’re looking for somebody who could fake handwriting, I think Eri might be it. I don’t have proof but I have good reason the believe their an identity thief based on a conversation I had with them and some items I showed them.” He paused. “Eri is a scam artist, and I also know they probably aren’t a photographer, i will admit I’m only basing this off of context clues but it’s the best guess I got.” He kind of kept his eyes away from Eri as he spoke. “I might be wrong but I think it’s what’s most likely. Unless somebody can confirm otherwise, Eri themself for instance.”

This felt awkward but he had to continue to really drill his point home. Especially why he thought they were at least friends in the vaguest of terms.

“That conversation started because Eri wanted advice on how to be mean to somebody without feeling guilty. Claiming that somebody was getting too close and that they wanted to push them away. Through inference and past interactions I assumed that person must be Erika. Especially when they insisted that after I suggested just being mean, even if they did call said person mean names or anything else the person would be persistently nice, she’s supposedly very stubborn and would assume something was wrong if Eri started pushing them away.”

He shrugged. 

“Based on my interactions with Erika, I felt that was a rather fitting descriptor.” There was a moment of pause as he sighed again, not wanting to get too into theories but he figured it was all they had. “Hence why I claimed they were friends. Eri admitted that despite not wanting to feel attached to this person they couldn’t help it.”

He had already opened up about something that wasn’t his information to tell and if he was wrong about this he’d feel pretty shitty about it afterwards. But if it allows the two to somehow clear their own name then that would be best.

“The others have gone through quite a lot of good points but there is one thing I believe is worth asking, if not Erika then who were you talking about?” He stares. “Keep in mind I’m not accusing you of murder, you could rather easily throw Erika under the bus here, I am quite confident in my opinion that she administered the poison, not you, making her the true killer. I also don’t think Erika would necessarily confess to a crime right away, not if it was to protect somebody else. You for instance. Even if you’re not friends, does that not sound like something she’d do?" 

It was true that Erika didn’t want anybody to kill each other, but Arakiel felt more strongly that Erika probably valued friendships and close relationships than the right thing to do.

"Sure it’d be best to confess, but not at the risk of seeing a friend killed. After all, what if everybody voted for Eri, or we discover some reason to believe that the poison was administered by them.”

He crossed his arms looking down for a moment, contemplating if there’s anything he missed mentioning. Everything else so far that he could imagine being useful to say has already been said, so he decided to free up one more piece of information.

“My crime on the list was curfew breaking, if it helps narrow down a killer I’m willing to open up now, but not past that, I ain’t giving you fuckers details. Sorry it wasn’t earlier I guess Erika, since I know you wanted us to.” He sighed. 

“Sorry for revealing all of that Eri, even if you’re a killer I don’t particularly enjoy sharing shit people trust me with.”

He then moved on to briefly address something that Ae-ra had mentioned, shrugging slightly.

“Oh the ash trail was me, I stole some from your destruction to test the papers in the office for any writing that may have been imprinted onto them, sorry about that.”

Ah so that was him.

[mofsblog]

I mean if I had to articulate it more, I'd say it's just that (especially as someone who rematched season 1 a few days ago) season 1 was very good at giving characters "room to breath" and providing extra context behind character's decision making. While there was subtext, you could still reasonably figure out the whys behind every decision a character made fairly easily and I think that made everything feel more immersive (at least to me it did). For example: Marcus is a secondary character that doesn't get much screentime but in the short time we have, we learn his motivations (his daughter), his struggles (the way he slowly becomes disillusioned with the corruption he's participated in by making deals with silco) and we even get a kind of mini arc with him over the season (he does eventually try to stand up to silco even if it fails). We didn't need to know he had a daughter that he cared for but knowing so really helped us understand his character better and made him more engaging in my opinion

I actually think Act 1 of season 2's fine and so is episode 4 for the most part. But I think the root of my issue began when we didn't get to see Jinx's reaction to Vander being Warwick on screen. Like yes logically, I can assume she felt emotional and probably cried and it really impacted her (enough to see Vi) but I think having a scene where we actually see that, plus maybe a bit of internal conflict from her at the prospect of reaching out to Vi would've really made the character decision flow more organically to me? Like maybe we see that she's apprehensive and hesitant at the idea at first because of how their last meeting went but idk seeing Isha, she gets reminded of her old bond with Vi and reflects and ultimately decides to let go of her previous grudge and actually try to reach out because Vander's her dad too or something. A scene like that would've really made their reunion feel more impactful to me

I know we get some verbal justification from Jinx and we can infer that its a combination of Vi probably being in a desperate dark place, the possiblity of seeing Vander again emotionally hitting her and the idea that maybe seeing what Caitlyn did making her a lot more desensitised to the crimes Jinx did, all could've lead her to giving Jinx a chance and agreeing to come with her. But again we didn't really see any of that and I feel like an exploration of some of those ideas or internal conflicts on screen could've been really interesting

For me personally, I can see the outline the writers were going for and I do find it interesting but the way it's communicated so quickly and directly frustrates me because I feel like a deeper on screen exploration of some of the reasoning that led to these decisions (like they would've done in season 1) would've really made some of the scenes more impactful and made them feel more developed and coherent (<- I think that's another thing. To me, season 1 felt very linear and consistent and akin to a very long essay. While season 2 act 2 feels like a bunch of key points noted on a list. There may be a lot of points and I may find the points interesting individually but they haven't been developed into full paragraphs and so they're not really developed enough for me to find personally that compelling). That being said I do still have some hope for Act 3 and again, I'm glad this act landed for you

They really used all of season 1 and season 2 act 1 to hammer in the inherent tragedy of Vi and Jinx's relationship and how, despite the love they had and still partially hold for eachother, several factors out of their control (the majority of which can be seen as the direct and indirect consequences of them and other lower class being actively oppressed and treated like second class citizens by their own government and larger richer society at large) have lead to them both being traumatised repeatedly at an early age and drastically changing as a result and now they're past the breaking point and they've hurt eachother too much to probably ever be sisters again and theres nothing that can be done about it and youre left wondering what could've been.

and then two episodes and a nebulous timeskip after they try to kill eachother again, they reunite and have two scenes of arguing before being like. super chill and a family now. okay 👍

[basiltonpitch]

Devi vs. David: aka a comprehensive list of every single time ben gross has referred to devi as one or the other (season one edition)

okay, first things first, i am linking this post and this one, both by @catty-words, because they're so well-worded and honestly, probably explain a lot better than i can about the whole devi vs. david thing (even though those are about s2 and this one is about s1). seriously. go read those, then come back. this post is just going to be cataloging every instance in season one where ben calls her one or the other, with context + insight but i'm likely not going to be going super in-depth. i mainly wanted to document this for my own purposes. i will also be creating a separate post for season 2, so expect that sometime in the near future.

ANYWAYS. here we go, i guess.

"...was just about the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”

here we have the first instance of ben referring to her as david. they're still nemeses, obviously — this is in 1x01, they're not close, they know each other but still only really see the other in the negative sense. (or so we're told, at least; i have a whole theory about how ben has been crushing on devi the whole damn time but we'll get into that at a later date) he calls her david here because it's part of their banter, and we can infer that he has likely been calling her that prior to 1x01. this is also the same instance he refers to the un, which she calls him out for, as she should! but you know what she doesn't call him out for? david. from this very first instance we can infer that she does not give a shit that he calls her david.

"...because you went straight-up psycho and couldn't walk for three months.”

okay, so bear with me here, this might be reaching, as well as a few others down the line. but i think his tone is softer here than it tends to be when they banter pre-friendship. he knows he's hitting close to her trauma, to the cause of her paralyzation and reason for seeing a therapist. calling her david while referencing to her biggest trauma just would not be in good taste, imo.

"...I know how hard it is to memorize seven facts.” / "Yeah, Devi, please share your mumble with the rest of the class.”

ok, so they're in a classroom setting, and he has just, in his own words, "pwned" her as her "intellectual superior" (way to be humble, benjamin). he's got this hoity-toity air about him in this scene, calling her devi because it's more mature of him and as her "intellectual superior" he should appear that way. also, they're in a classroom setting and shapiro is paying attention to them (not that anyone else in the class is lol)

okay, so he doesn't refer to her as either devi or david after 1x02 until we get to 1x05. here, he's on the defensive, obviously. she is threatening to nuke him. literally. no time for banter or nicknames when your entire country is about to be wiped out, am i right?

he doesn't know why she's mad at him yet. he's trying to slip back into their banter, to worm his way back into that sliver of not-quite-nemeses-anymore-but-still-not-quite-friends that they had going on for all of two seconds in 1x05. he wants to go back to normal, or at least some version of normal, where she only hates him because of their academic rivalry and not whatever it is she’s holding against him now. (which of course he immediately learns is the whole sleeping-with-pax thing, but he still doesn't know why she's upset about that.)

this is obvious i feel like i don't have to explain that he calls her devi here because he's having dinner with her family lmao anyways moving on

"...I actually think I am going to have a party tonight.”

boy is crushing HARD. he is SO JEALOUS. speaking up immediately after pax makes the "you look great here" comment? having a party just so devi will come? ok, jay gatsby jr, i see you. ANYWAYS. imo he calls here david here to take back some of the control he just lost after pax showed up. because "david" belongs to ben and devi and nobody else.

the smile on her face in this scene when he greets her. the smile on his face when he sees her. they are in love, your honor. anyways. this is, imo, the first time we see david being used as a term of endearment. their friendship has been solidified after the events at the end of 1x06, and it shows. she is excited to see him and he is, very obviously, excited to see her.

"...Um, did something kinda weird happen? Or did I do something dumb at my party?”

aaand we are on the defensive again lol. david once again being used as a means to control the situation and deflect away from that horrifying failed kiss attempt back in 1x08.  dude is freeeaaaking the fuck out, because he knows now that he has this stupid big crush on devi (that he’s probably had the whole damn time, even prior to 1x01, if we’re being real here), but he just got her as his friend and doesn’t want to screw it up. so. blame it on the booze. throw in a friendly nickname. hope for the best.

obv i don't have like, concrete evidence for this because we only see the literal last day she stays with ben, but i have this theory that during her stay, he defaults to calling her david to keep his guard up. because again. he knows he has this stupid huge fucking crush on her. so, keeping up with the old nickname helps establish those boundaries in his head. (this is also the last time we see him refer to her as david in season one.)

but then there's this, immediately after he refers to her as david in front of his father. because he is worried about her. because she is making rash, dumb decisions without thinking anything through (you know, like trying to get emancipated from her mom and refusing to spread her dad’s ashes)

again, he is going for serious, worried as fuck, for the same reasons listed above. hoping that her friends will see reason for concern just like he does, because his friendship with her is so new and if she’s going to listen to anyone, it's going to be them. this is the first time we ever see ben refer to devi to other people without her being present, and this is also the last time we see him refer to her as devi in season one.

[nostalgebraist]

it bothers me a little bit that people consistently mistake Frank for being a person, despite how often and how clearly you explain that this isn't the case. I guess that LaMDA makes more sense in the context of Frank, though, sad as it is; my most immediate reason for disbelieving claims about LaMDA's sentience was that the chat logs, even after editing, weren't half as interesting as Frank, but the fact is, there are people who can be convinced by LaMDA, & Frank is many times more convincing.

A few points...

First, there are different kinds of "mistaking Frank for being a person."

The most common one is the one where people say something like "haha, this almost got me! I thought a person wrote this post until I checked the bio." This seems innocuous -- like, out of context, plenty of individual Frank posts really are indistinguishable from regular tumblr posts. (Regular tumblr posts are often really weird.)

I assume you're talking instead about the thing where people say Frank "might be sentient," or similar.

I wouldn't be too hard on people for this. Consider:

People often seem to be at least half joking when they say this stuff.

Lots of people follow Frank without following me. (More people follow Frank in total than follow me.) I don't think people can (or should) be expected to read my posts about the bot before reacting to it.

I don't think most people have a clear idea in their head what it would mean for a machine to be "sentient." (I don't either.) So I don't think these people are making some precise, but wrong, philosophical claim; I think they're just talking in a vague, casual, bantering manner.

It's a standard sci-fi trope for characters to talk about an AI "gaining sentience." Even in sci-fi, it's often not totally clear what this is supposed to mean, and usually just seems to connote "self-aware in some vague sense" and/or "advanced, intelligent, capable." People are much more likely to have picked up the term from this source than from serious philosophical attempts to define it.

So I think these people are really just saying some version of "wow, this bot is impressive," in the terms they've picked up from sci-fi.

It's probable that they've been misled by sci-fi to think that "advanced, intelligent AI" naturally goes together with "AI that is self-aware in some vague sense." So when they see Frank improving over time as I develop, they (wrongly) infer that Frank must also be gaining some kind of self-awareness property.

But here, I think Frank provides useful education! People can see the bot impressing them, and doing new things over time. And they can also notice, over time, that there are some really fundamental limits that don't just go away with increased capabilities, like they do in bad sci-fi.

My hope is that going through this process with a neat, but not-state-of-the-art, chatbot can "inoculate" people against reacting the way Blake Lemoine did to a more capable (but similarly limited) chatbot like LaMDA.

And to be fully clear -- this is probably the most important point -- I have not seen anyone react to Frank in a way that was near as wrong-headed as the way Blake Lemoine reacted to LaMDA.

Blake Lemoine wasn't just making a tumblr post saying "ha ha, what if the bot is sentient." He really was (attempting to) make a philosophical claim, and he went straight to the press with it -- without, as far as I can tell, thinking as hard about LaMDA's potential limitations as most Frank users do about Frank's.

(Blake Lemoine is a super weird guy in general, as will become clear if you look into his background. I think the LaMDA sentience story is best read as a story about a particular weird and very abnormally gullible guy, who isn't representative of how most people will react to these systems.)

[blacktobackmesa]

Why SpeedrunStreamer!Bubby?

So, if you’ve read the Streamman series or seen my posts, you’ll know that I decided that after being extracted from the game and starting a new life in a custom program, Bubby starts doing speedrun streams on Twitch. This may seem like a strange character choice, especially when Bubby’s not exactly the character most closely tied to video games. As such, I thought I’d share some details about where this concept came from and how this goes down.

Canon Basis

Bubby may not talk about games and game culture all the time, but he's not completely tech illiterate. He's one of the few characters in HLVRAI who uses the term "pog" in its modern context (though both characters do so incorrectly)

Pertaining to speedrunning: the Rocket Launch scene. We don't know exactly what Bubby sees when he takes the rocket into "outer space", but given the outcome of Coomer clearing the skybox earlier, it can be inferred that Bubby catches a glimpse of what's outside of the map. Unlike Coomer, however, Bubby doesn't respond to this with outward fear. In fact, he's fascinated, and chooses to "go back" for another look. Game breakage does not upset him, it just makes him curious.

"I need to perfect my run."

Extrapolation

After living in the facility for ?? years with a constant schedule and job to do, Bubby's going to need to occupy his time now that he's more or less retired. He loves trains, so he's probably one of those guys with a model railway in his basement, but he's also got a hunger for learning new things and accomplishing great tasks.

One of the ways he's coming to terms with being an AI is by taking advantage of what he can do that someone not living in a computer can't. It doesn't come as naturally to him as it does to Benrey and G-Man, who can more or less warp reality, and he doesn't have the same knack with computers as Darnold.

Then one night when they're all watching shit together Gordon shows them the notorious Super Mario 64 Watch Out for Rolling Rocks 1/2 A-Press explanation video. The flood of technical terms and methods makes Bubby feel like he did when he was on the rocket, and he needs to see more. New Obsession Unlocked

Bubby is used to attention. He doesn't need to be the center of the world all the time (though he definitely did when he was younger) but he's accustomed to being in groups. Now he's living in a neighborhood with a small handful of people. He needs interaction with other people, but there just aren't really other people around. Joining an online community lets him talk to people, and doing so by setting up a twitch channel means he can interact with people on his own terms by showing off doing things he likes.

Gotta make money to buy new games somehow. Plus he wants to feel like he's living independently and making his own living for once

Results

Depending on the game Bubby will do his runs either playing traditionally or by physically inserting himself into the game ACAB Stream-style. Both require very different skillsets and a lot of practice! He gets the best viewership for the physical ones, but they're a lot more taxing on him so he chooses them carefully.

Darnold does producer work for him. Look he's the Computers Guy and it's neat work.

He's set a couple WRs in various categories. Unfortunately, he does not qualify for most leaderboards, as it's up for debate if his runs count as scripted or tool assisted. Since, y'know. He's a program.

"Tool assisted? The fuck did you call me?"

As a workaround he made his own category, Bubby%. This has not been accepted by many leaderboards since competition is nonexistent.

He recognizes that many of his viewers are there for the novelty of watching someone they don't perceive as human play video games. Sadly, he's used to that sort of perception, but at least that means it's not a deal breaker.

For every person who sees him as a curiosity for being an AI, there's at least one other who sees him as a curiosity for being over 65 and playing, like, Super Metroid and Spelunky. And another viewer who thinks he's a vtuber hoax but likes the content.

Not all of his streams are speedruns, he does some casual stuff too. Sometimes he'll fuck around with party games with Coomer or do gmod stuff with Benrey.

He didn't tell Gordon about his channel for several months. Not for any personal reasons, he just likes to have secrets.

His chat has a running joke of speculating when he'll finally stream Half Life. He cracks a lot of jokes about it, but he's never going to do it. That experience is something extremely personal, and he's not going through it for someone's entertainment. Not again.

[stygiusfic]

what I mean by 'the specter of multiplayer', in a nutshell:

dialogue lacks subtlety. everything is blunt and artless: "This is who I am and what I want you to do." so you don't need to think too hard or infer anything from context, and can get back to why you're here (combat).

unfortunately this extends even to many companion quests of a reflective nature: everyone knows what their character flaws are, and they WILL tell you outright. this is unrealistic and (worse) very boring

every bit of plot info is recapped a dozen times, sometimes even right after it happens, so you can catch up if you weren't paying attention to the plot scene (because you're here for combat). if you WERE paying attention, this is insufferable. so many scenes feel like a pitch from a writer delivered through a character's mouth

btw there is no action/reaction scene structure, because the "reaction" scenes (sitting with the team in the Lighthouse) are just a recap of what happened, again

the tasty potatos of ye olde Dragon Age lore are mashed into a homogeneous purée that is easily digestible to even the pickiest eaters! here's all you will ever need to know to play through this game: gods scary and Venatori bad, go kill them! (combat. which is what you're here for, remember?)

this makes SO many battles feel meaningless, like they needed to populate the map with combat encounters (since you're here for combat) and for combat they need enemies, and those enemies gotta have models to appear on screen, so... just toss some Antaam brutes or Venatori on there, whatever! they're essentially interchangeable.

related to this: can these enemies please shut the fuck up during combat. can they stop reading their lines from Villainy for Dummies, published and edited by Stereotypes Press

speaking of lore: for a game with so many lore drops and reveals, it's insane how boring it is. it's kind of impressive. the reason, I think, is that nothing is reacted to with the weight it should have.

to clarify: we care about a story only when characters in the story care. when the impact of events is felt in its characters, we feel it too. if a person drops dead on screen, I feel emotion not when I see the body, but when their loved one beside them wails in horror and despair. the elven gods are back and we don't see the elves react: are they horrified that the Creators were not the kindly benefactors they believed? are some of them joining the gods, because at least it's THEIR history and since the world has treated elves like shit, it's time for elves to return the favor? are there schisms happening within the Dalish? we don't see any of that. Davrin says he's concerned the gods' rise will result in racist backlash against the elves, but we never see that either.

because the lore is flattened, and nothing has the weight it should have if lore were followed to its natural conclusion, they constantly have to make up Bigger Problems, in an attempt to make them weighty. But again, because ramifications aren't fully explored, I just can't take those problems seriously as real threats.

it's like when the later seasons of game of thrones were coming out and people complained it was dull because they knew the surviving characters were safe, they couldn't drop dead at any moment like in previous seasons, because the show would end. a threat isn't a threat if I know it'll never be paid off

also? despite the reddit bros' outrage at having a "woke" game, this is probably the bioware game in recent memory that is whitest and least concerned with social justice, just by virtue of how it refuses to engage meaningfully with any of the real life societal issues that dragon age used to honor in its worldbuilding. there is no racism in Ba Sing Se, no slavery (except by the old gods who were naughty) and an armed group couping a civil government is ok if they look hot doing it!

also I should be allowed to turn around and kiss Davrin square on the lips

the more I write the more it feels like I could be here all night, so let's just call it here. goodnight!!

dragon age: the veilguard is like being put into a race car that could break the sound barrier but then they only drive it at a speed appropriate for a school zone

it's like being put on a great sea voyage and told fearsome tales of the kraken and then one day the kraken comes out of the water and it just waves hi at your ship and then leaves

it's chekhov's gun on the wall in act 1 but it's never fired, and since the lack of gunshots does make you lose your fear of the gun, they tell you: but wait!! there's a bigger badder gun out there!! (and that won't be fired either. not in any way that matters. if it's ever fired it will be so late in the story that it's impossible to give a shit anymore)

there is so much wasted potential and so many times they say "no" to the world they're supposedly playing in, it makes me feel insane