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lousymoonwalker · 1 year

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Why you (probably) didn't like Spider from Avatar TWOW

Social media is ruining the film industry in so many ways I couldn't begin to cover them all. I don't think this is a profound statement, but I want to explore my point in the context of Avatar The Way of Water, specifically with the character, Spider.

A few things that is becoming more apparent, due to social media:

1) General audiences can't tolerate cliff-hangers anymore. They're referred to as "plot holes" now. (Yes, I know lots of movies include actual plot holes, but actual cliff-hangers are getting called plot holes when they're two different things) (and sometimes, the writer of a story will specifically include unanswered questions, because our imaginations can be more intriguing and allows us to play "detective" and discuss, unanswered questions are not inherently bad, sometimes they're quite interesting). This leads to people wanting answers now, right now. We have a question, we search it and can get an answer basically immediately. When we can't find the answer immediately, we get upset.

2) Cancel Culture. - need I say more? (no, but I will anyway). This leads to one giant problem within the context of how social media is changing the film industry. People are actively trying to "cancel" characters, fictional characters or the authors of those characters for not aligning themselves as either a "good" or a "bad" character. Cancel culture is actively morphing our brains to think that if you make a mistake, you can never come back from it. That if you did something wrong, you are "toxic" and irredeemable. I can rant all day about cancel culture, but for now, just think about how it is shaping our tolerance of people. (Also, keep in mind that within the world of literature, film, art, etc. this topic comes up all the time about "morally grey characters" and is never something that is condemned, the only time this is a problem is when it makes its way onto social media sites)

So looking at these two points, we see that audiences don't like unanswered questions and they don't like morally grey characters.

I think Spider from Avatar TWOW is the most perfect example of a morally grey character out of the entire series. At least up to this point.

Everyone, even in the first movie ranges somewhere from either "Good" or "Bad" but, none of them are directly in the middle. I could argue that Mo'at, Norm, Neytiri, and Max are very good. Their intentions are always to be good. Quaritch and Selfridge are very bad. Their intentions are always to be bad. Jake is the most "grey" of all the characters in the original because of his internal conflict between wanting to fit in with the military again by spying on the Na'vi and slowly realizing he loves Pandora and the people and wants to help them. Even though he actively tries to help Quaritch in the beginning, I'd argue that his intentions are always "alright" I don't think he is ever on the "bad" side of the spectrum, although he starts off close to it, by the end, he solidifies himself as "good".

Then we have Spider.

My boy Spider is at the butt of everyone's jokes, all over TikTok and Instagram. The comments section is full of people just absolutely bashing him, hating him, making fun of him calling him a "Tarzan wannabe" and saying that he probably "sheds and smells like a wet dog". People have no sympathy for him, even some of those comments saying how they'll "never forgive him" or simply "hate him".

:Spoilers:

Spider is introduced as this lone human kid on Pandora, who hangs out with Jake and Neytiri's kids and has grown up with them. However, Neytiri has never accepted him. (A lot of people are mad at her about this because they say that he's just like Jake, which I would argue is not entirely correct because Neytiri was going to kill Jake (because she hates and distrusts humans) but Eywa chooses him for some reason and she's compelled to save him).

Spider is absolutely enthralled with the Na'vi culture. He speaks the language perfectly and paints himself with blue stripes. He genuinely loves and cares for the Na'vi despite being human.

Then, he gets captured and meets his dad, Quaritch. While it isn't entirely Quaritch, it is kind of his dad and he only agrees to leave with them on their mission because he doesn't want to be actively tortured by the scientists anymore. (I think that decision is understandable). Then, he gets to be the cultural ambassador of the Na'vi, translator, teacher, and guide as he spends more and more time with the military avatars and gets to be important to them. Then when all hell breaks loose, and he has to translate to a Metkayina village asking for Jake, he is visibly scared and desperately trying to help them and begs for Quaritch to stop terrorizing them. Then they burn down the village and take Spider with them, against his will.

Later, he gets the chance to fight and help in the end battle and he helps to wreck the ship, runs away like twice (?) before being successful thanks to Neteyam. Then is used as a pawn by Neytiri who threatens to kill him if Quaritch doesn't release Kiri. (This whole time, Spider is begging Quaritch to let Kiri go and to not hurt her).

But, for many viewers the nail in the coffin was when he saves Quaritch from drowning. He has seen the destruction caused by Quaritch, even if he doesn't know Quaritch's full history, he knows he burned down villages, staged the killing of a Tulkun, was willing to kill Lo'ak, Tuk, and Kiri all in an effort to hunt down and kill Jake.

But, I think the key moment was during the stand-off between Quaritch and Neytiri. For the first time in Spider's entire life (keep in mind he's like 16), an adult (a parental figure) stood up for him and showed genuine concern for him. Whether you like it or not, Neytiri has never liked him and Jake has never went out of his way to make him feel welcome. But now, in the heat of the moment, Quaritch, this big bad military man, stops what he's doing for fear of Spider's well-being.

Between the wreckage, Spider and Lo'ak were trying to find Jake. But, Spider happens upon Quaritch, who is at the edge of death. Then this, sixteen-year-old kid, sees this man just went out of his way to save Spider's life a few minutes before and now this man is about to die. Spider had to make a split-second decision and he made it. He saved Quaritch from drowning, then immediately leaves him and joins the Sully's.

I think Spider's intentions change from "I love the Na'vi, I basically am Na'vi" to "This father figure isn't too bad" to "I get to be helpful and important to someone" "oh no, what are you doing?" to "you saved my life, I'll save yours"

I CANNOT, overstate how much I love morally grey characters, they are so much fun to analyze and there's nothing worse than a plain "static" character. Give me a dynamic character with conflicting motivations. The reason I think Jake never went into the "bad" intentions side was because he genuinely was blind to the Na'vi at the beginning, but the more he learns, the more his actions reflect the newfound love and respect. Whereas Spider knows all about the Na'vi, and he loves and looks up to them, he was basically raised by the Sully family. I'm sure he is smart enough to understand that the humans and military avatars are "bad" with bad intentions. So when he starts to give into that side those intentions start to shift and his character becomes more and more grey.

And people on social media simply cannot compute. Cancel him! people cry. Screw him! He's the worst character ever! I can smell him through the screen!

People don't like that he did some bad things so the masses cry out, "bad! Bad! He's a bad character"

I'm not saying that I absolutely loved him, but I did like his character and I think he'll play a bigger role in the next film. He's a conflicted 16 year old, dynamic, character. I'm excited to see where his character goes from here.

But please, stop letting social media trick you into thinking that people are "good" or "bad". Not a single person on this planet can be accurately described as simply "good" or "bad". People are dynamic.

And for the love of everything, just because you don't have all the answers handed to you on a little silver plate, doesn't mean that the story had plot holes and is objectively bad. Unanswered questions and cliff-hangers can be very effective if done well.

People are fighting to not have to think on their own and form their own thoughts and opinions, because what if my opinion isn't a popular one or is the wrong one????

We don't know what is going to happen with Spider, but now, we can theorize and discuss until the next film comes out.

Anyways, I won't tolerate Spider slander anymore unless you can formulate an actual genuine reason to not like him besides, "he's bad", "he sucks", or "I bet he stinks".

#leave my boy alone #avatar #avatar way of water #avatar twow #jake sully #spider #spider socorro #quaritch #na'vi #morally grey characters #james cameron #social media is ruining y'all #avatar 2009 #avatar 2

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gynandromorph · 6 months

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Ideltry is such an interesting story to me. I just read through the whole idletry story tag. Question i dont know if it was answered, what made you decide to write this kind of story?

i wanted to involve myself more in the jewish community near me. i was also writing a story where the protagonist was adopted by a now-estranged mormon family. i spent a lot of time consuming various forms of theological philosophy, debates, apologetics, midrash, etc. for research on the character and as a form of social study. it became an interest of mine. a common form of biblical criticism is direct criticism of the moral system of the bible and outlining the necessary moral beliefs of a god who enforces such a moral system. another common form of apologetics is to (controversially) choose that the god in the bible must not be all-powerful or must not be all-knowing, as being all-loving was the most critical trait to maintain a desire to worship. i eventually wanted to write a story about a character who destroys god by no longer believing in it and ripping it apart as one does in a typical Atheist Awakening, ultimately deciding they are their own god in order to explore the moral choices of a supposed infinite being interacting with finite beings while also exploring the crushing depression that can come with knowing that there is no intrinsic meaning to being alive or suffering and there is nothing that comes after it's over. this story was actually supposed to be set in the same universe as the story "good grief" which i wrote for an anthology. the protagonist would learn how to destroy god by researching complicated topics that were considered highly taboo in their magic world, similar to learning more about the natural world and history when your religious family is warning you not to question the beliefs.

a related subject of interest that i found much harder to read about and research was how humans differentiate reality and play, or "pretend" -- ie. the difference between pretending to believe in god, or entertaining the idea that one may exist, and actually believing in it. i wanted to know why one cannot just choose to believe in something, even if they really want to. the easiest access to this subject in some form is to fiction, and how the brain reacts to a scenario that someone knows is fictional vs one that is real. while describing the concept of the god story to friends, i was reminded of a story concept that i'd made in my early 20s (if i was even 20 yet), where the protagonist knew they were in a fictional story, but it was labeled as a delusion (despite the audience knowing it was true) because of the proximity of the two topics in my brain, and because of a comic i'd drawn recently where i "talked" to one of my characters directly as their creator. i ended up deciding to fuse them because they fit so well together. so idletry was born.

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k-s-morgan · 8 months

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Thanks a lot for the update!! It's amazing to read Tom and Harry's interactions, the different way they see the world and how they complement each other!! I have a few questions, is that ok? Tom had said in previous chapters that he didn't see much in Harry as a person, does he still think that way? Does Tom realize that Harry is someone who cares about others and will never fully belong to anyone or does he still see him as a pet? And that slap, man, that was personal, Tom wants to be Harry's only family but he still doesn't think of Harry as family, right? I think the Tom of now just wants to take everything he can out of Harry, the thought of reprocity must not even have come to his mind yet lol And Harry.. oh man, I don't know if he noticed but I don't think he treats Tom like a friend, it seems to be something between enemy and a lover, oh I don't know! maybe I'm rushing but the way Harry took Tom's hand (TWICE AAAAA) gave me an "I'm with you" vibe I still get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it!! I wonder what Tom was thinking when Harry took his hand in front of Dumbledore and then when it was just the two of them!! Aa Katrin, you are certainly my favorite author!!🙇‍♀️❤️❤️ and again thanks you so much!!!

Thank you for such an amazing review, I'm so happy you liked this new chapter! I really enjoy writing about these versions of Tom and Harry. They are so drawn to each other, I can barely keep them apart, lol.

And sure, I love questions! Tom's opinion on Harry has certainly evolved. Harry brought something uniquely new into his life, so he finds himself appreciating the banter, the kind of devotion where Harry supports him but still criticizes him, even his own possessiveness. Tom is still not sure about it, but he likes doing small things to take care of Harry. I'd say that this enjoyment has a pretty condescending nature for now, but it's progress nonetheless. Tom considers Harry his person and he likes exploring the nuances and limits of this new relationship and dynamic. So at this point, he does see something in Harry. He understands that Harry is a potential leader and a threat, but he's too immersed in their bond for it to take precedence.

It's not that he considers Harry a pet, but he doesn't acknowledge him as an actual individual either, not entirely. Tom is just not used to people being what Harry is supposed to be to him. He considers everyone either a tool, someone worthless, or an enemy. Harry got into a separate new category, and Tom doesn't know what to do or how to feel about him yet. It's obvious in the scene where he tries to comfort Harry by stroking his hair. It's awkward and weird, and Tom is never awkward with others. On the contrary, other people know him as charming and smooth. That's because he's constantly manipulating and pretending with everyone - with Harry, he's stuck somewhere in the middle. He's trying on a new role and he's not very good at it yet. Their bond is so new that he's only starting to figure it out.

With reciprocation, it's pretty complex. Tom understands that if he wants Harry to feel something for him, he needs to reciprocate. So he's been trying to do it in some ways, like by helping Harry re-discover his appetite. Tom thinks Harry could be his potential family because he believes this occured in another universe. He's determined to make it happen again, to recreate it, and he acknowledges that he has to make an effort, too. But the majority of the things he does come from his logic. He realizes that Harry is looking for mutuality, so he's making conscious and calculated choices to give it to him. Very little of it is instinctive and emotionally genuine. But these moments will be increasing with every chapter.

It's funny because Harry and Tom are basically playing a game. Harry created a setting with fictional characters and now they both work to correspond to it and to become someone they never were. Harry is playing someone who loved Tom, who considered him the focus of everything, and he's gradually buying into his own lies. Tom is also playing, trying to recreate something that never really happened, not knowing that what he strives for, what he's prepared to change himself for bit by bit is a complete and total lie.

I honestly thought canon Harry felt vague, distant attraction to Tom Riddle, with how obsessed he seemed to be with his beauty, so I'm playing it up in this story, where Harry spends so much time with him and is determined to get close to him. I think he's attracted to Tom already, even though he doesn't realize it, and since his own lies get to him, a part of him started to believe in the universe where only the two of them mattered - emotionally, at least. Harry begins to treat Tom like someone he loves, even though he doesn't love him yet, and I find it fascinating to describe and explore it.

In a scene where Harry grabbed Tom's hand in front of Dumbledore, Tom felt reassured, and because it's a new and strange feeling, he promptly felt curious and wary. Later, when Harry took his hand again in the Room of Requirement, Tom felt complete. Like he wasn't alone now, like he wouldn't be alone ever again. He never thought that Harry might want to come with him. It's one thing for Harry to love and care about his (made-up) Tom, but to be willing to risk his life and sanity for this new version? Tom cannot comprehend it - he's stunned, captivated, amazed. It means a huge deal to him.

He'd be even more stunned if he knew that Harry's story is bullshit and that Harry is willing to risk his safety for someone who was always his enemy :D That's typical Harry, though.

#my fics #tomarry #tom riddle #harry potter

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libraryofjoy · 1 year

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Books I read in March 2023

When I Spoke in Tongues by Jessica Wilbanks. This is a memoir about the author's deconstruction from her Pentecostal childhood faith. It also includes details of her recovery process from an eating disorder and her journey to become a writer. I was really interested in her travel to Nigeria in order to explore Yoruba influence on Pentecostal worship. This was interesting to me because one of my grad school classes involved studying Yoruba religion in Cuba, which also has a large emerging neo-Pentecostal demographic. Although some of my views and experiences with Pentecostalism were very different from Wilbanks's, I appreciated the chance to think carefully about how to approach my experiences through writing and academia intentionally and fruitfully.

Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr is nonfiction arguing that biblical womanhood as understood by American evangelicals today is not a straightforward reading of the Bible but developed over a long and complicated history, driven by men's desire for power over women. Some of the history was new for me but as a New Testament student I liked her exegesis.

Leftover in China by Roseann Lake is nonfiction about women in China who remain unmarried over age 30-35. There's a lot of detail here about Chinese marriage norms historically and in the present, the impact of the one-child policy meaning that there were fewer girls in China and the girls who were born suddenly had unprecedented attention and access to educational and financial opportunity. I was really interested in the interviews with various women--it offered a personal glimpse into the challenges, privileges, and priorities of these unmarried women.

The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is historical fiction about the life of Maharani Jindan. This book has romance, politics, trauma of war, and ends with a very moving parent-child tragedy of assimilation and colonization. (Spoilers: you can blame a whole lot of problems on the British.)

The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley. Nonfiction about handwritten manuscripts, mostly centered on medieval England. Wellesley is interested in what the manuscripts reveal about the people who wrote them by hand: marginalia, errata, other traces of everyday life. This book wove in neatly with Biblical Womanhood's discussion of Margery of Kempe. I was also really interested in all the detail it gave about the ascetic lives of anchoresses.

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot. This memoir follows the author through her struggle as an Indigenous woman to leave an abusive relationship, learn how to live with bipolar disorder, and parent her two sons. Mailhot makes a conscious effort not to write an auto-hagiography, showing her worst moments in full detail that earns the audience's sympathies even more effectively. I love reading authors' memoirs because at some point they turn into books about writing books. It was really cool to see Mailhot's success after how hard she worked to earn it.

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. Dystopian middle grade scifi. When Earth becomes unliveable, Petra Peña, along with her parents and younger brother, are supposed to be part of a privileged few cryogenically frozen to be woken up 300 years in the future on a new colony planet. When things go wrong Petra stays conscious through her stasis and wakes in a world where no one else remembers stories of Earth. This book was really intense for middle grade fiction! It's a very thoughtful look at grief, love, stories as a means of continuing culture, environmentalism, critique of censorship, and at its heart an argument that conflict comes not from differences between people but from unwillingness to embrace those differences. I appreciated how this book approached its protagonist's disability in a eugenicist dystopia. I'd recommend this book for fans of Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series (particularly if you liked the John chapters in NtN).

The Preacher's Wife by Kate Bowler. This book was already on my list but then Beth Allison Barr talked about Kate Bowler in Biblical Womanhood, which made me even more interested. Bowler looks at celibrity women within evangelicalism, arguing that even the most conservative church spaces offer these spotlit women subtle but significant power, and even the most egalitarian-seeming liberal church spaces still embrace social norms that uphold patriarchal power over women. Fun fact: this book also cites one of my religion professors from undergrad!

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Impler. This book is a collection of memoir essays in which various marine animals are used to illustrate the author's life. The Chinese sturgeon illuminates immigrant familiy history, an octopus watching her eggs pairs with the author's relationship with their mother in regards to disordered eating, and life in high temp, and high pressure volcanic vents are paired with the persistence of a queer community in Seattle. From a craft perspective I'm so impressed by the structure of this work, and it was a real pleasure to read.

Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi. Realistic fiction in which an immigrant university student remembers and traces the life of her Omani pseudo-grandmother, who dies just as the narrator is leaving for Britain. There's a lot of love and grief and memory and love again in this book, and the writing is just beautiful.

Bible and Sword by Barbara W. Tuchman explores the historical relationship between Britain and Palestine, particularly the history of Zionism in Britain. (Spoilers: you can blame a whole lot of problems on the British.)

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin. Realistic fiction about the family of a woman who goes missing after she gets separated from her husband at a subway station in Seul. The book switches between the woman's children and husband as narrators, as they search for her and remember her. This book made me think a lot about my own aging parents as I read how easily the children overlook their mother's health issues and failing memory.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. Historical fantasy about a notorious pirate coming out of retirement to rescue the daughter of her old crewmate, in part motivated by love for her own daughter. This book is a bit sweary and has PG-13 level sexual content. We've got ruffians and scallywags, sea monsters, rigorous hospitality, legendary treasures, magic and scholars of magic, and some really thoughtful depictions of religious characters whose faiths inform their difficult decisions. Amina wrestles with her nostalgia for her pirate days in light of her post-retirement efforts to be a devout Muslim. I love how Chakraborty writes interactions between characters of different religions.

Nonfiction:8

Fiction:5

Total nonfiction for 2023 so far:18

Total fiction for 2023 so far:10

Total books read for 2023 so far:28

I'd love to chat about any of these books and I'm always happy to provide content warnings on request! What are y'all reading lately? Anything you really love or really hate? Any recommendations?

#books read in 2023 #gab tag #long post

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yourlocaldisneyvillain · 6 months

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(Not hate) okay so about that one controversial fic. I’m not gonna say anything bad about but I’m actually just genuinely curious why you decided to write something like that? Considering that there’s way less controversial things to write about, why did you decide to write that?

i think i answered something similar a while ago, but it got lost on my blog bc i am incapable of tagging things properly lol i can never find anything

i am a person that likes to be challenged. i like taking an unusual or controversial concept and exploring it (one of the reasons i invented and did kink!week, where i challenged myself to write abt unusual/odd/misunderstood kinks and tried to make it genuinely hot, even if i personally wasn't necessarily into it). truth is, i got bored with the fanfic community and the type of content that was preferred, and i was honestly bored with it for a while before writing this fic. no hate to fandom writers -- i think there is a place and an audience for everyone, but i craved a different type of content, both to read and to write. i felt like i was expected to throw out fics that are basically all a variation on the same concept, and i felt i'd go nuts if i read one more larissa x teacher!reader self-insert fic. i felt like the content was just used for self-insert gratification and porn with little to no plot or actual character exploration/development. and honestly, nothing wrong with that, but i was hungry for stories with substance, or even slightly more imaginative smut, if we're talking smut (and let's be real this is a very horny fandom lol).

so one morning i was scrolling through the Webbed Site, as one does, and i stumbled upon a larissa x wednesday fic by a person whose username i honestly don't even remember, but they were not a popular or a known creator. and i was like, what the hell, let's see if this is cringe and if it is i can be Outraged with my wife later. and while Some of it was cringe, i felt like there was actual substance to the story and that their dynamic made sense, even if there were bits that i disliked and the grammar was very poor. and i was like, wow, that actually felt refreshing to read, even with its many flaws. at least it was original.

so i started to wonder -> under which circumstances would these two characters actually make sense? how do i create a world in which that relationship would work? i love to challenge myself as a writer, and i thought about it until i came up with a narrative that could support my idea!

i am honestly surprised by how many people are appalled by the concept of ageing up a character? that has been around for as long as fandom exists. i didn't think it would be *that* controversial, and if you read my story i honestly don't think there is anything Outrageous in it. in fact, i think it's much, much tamer than MANY popular fandom works. i expected some backlash bc people are generally close-minded online and have very Specific ideas abt what is Moral and what is Not, but i didn't expect people to go *this* nuts lol. i am better prepared for next time, i guess

and even if my work was like. Immoral and Horrible, it's fiction. if you don't like it, don't read it. i feel we encounter a genuine problem when people try to control and police other people and the type of content that gets written and posted -- a lot like young people trying to erase "problematic tags" from ao3. i am not saying certain things aren't problematic, but there is a distinction to be made between fiction and real life. people are allowed to write about whatever they want to write about, and it doesn't make them criminals, murderers, pedophiles, or morally corrupt and evil.

i honestly think most people who have accused me of promoting pedophilia wouldn't recognise sexual abuse if it was happening before their eyes irl lol. and besides, i never said oh go fuck your former teacher, that's a great idea!!! (i know fandom people who have bragged abt doing that though lol) i have simply written a story about two characters that are both consenting adults, and you can take it or leave it.

i am, in fact, writing a new fic that does deal with pedophilia, ephebophilia to be precise with my terminology, sexual assault and cycles of abuse -- how and why they happen and whether they can be broken and how. it's a very personal story and i pull a lot from my own life experience with sexual abuse as a minor. it's, obviously, not a romance or a ship story, but it *is* set in the wednesday universe -- and i am SURE i will get another bout of "kill yourself" messages, to which i say, i don't give a shit. i think people who send that type of shit are sad and deranged -- and tbh, you can send me those day in and day out and i would still i post whatever the fuck i wanted. i got angry with all the ignorance and hate that i witnessed after i published "particular" and i now feel the need to write what people think they witnessed in my story.

all that being said, i am also a person that likes to poke at the status quo. my answer to "why" is "why not?" so you can take that as you will. i am not harming anybody and i don't see why i should be apologetic about writing a fic that i wanted to write.

i appreciate you asking a genuine question and not hiding behind anon! this is my genuine answer, and i hope it's somewhat satisfying -- if not, that's too bad bc it's the only one i've got.

#i got an ask!#particular tag

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ent-maiden · 8 months

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Explore my bookshelf!

I was inspired by @warrioreowynofrohan

An estimate of how many physical books I own: By my guess, 150. I have some fiction but most of them are either field guides, poultry books or just old American Poultry Association and old American Bantam Association Yearbooks. And I have a few bibles and devotionals and stuff.

Favourite author: Tolkien! My favorite standalone book is The Hobbit and my favorite trilogy is LOTR (yes I am counting it as a trilogy because then I don't have to pick between them.) I never enjoyed the Silmarillon I'm afraid, there are no hobbits. I only read half of it. And equally, Cressida Cowell which is why I have a second HTTYD blog called common-or-garden-blog. The How To Train Your Dragon books are definitely my favorite series. I never got into the Wizards of Once. I'm sure the characters were great but I was already invested in the HTTYD trio so it was weird when I saw two characters that looked just like Hiccup and Camicazi but with their personalities swapped and the cognitive dissonance was just too much for me to get invested. I think I just struggle to not compare new media with the old.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Twilight. *shrugs*

A popular book I thought was just meh: "Eragon." I read the whole 1st book of the series and more of the second and I still don't know why my uncle recommended it to me. I just thought it was bad writing.

Longest book I own: The Holy Bible. I am a proud Christian. It did take me a year but I have read all of it (okay I will be honest I did skim a lot of Leviticus though.)

Longest series I own all the books to: How To Train Your Dragon. Actually, that's the only series I own all the books to.

Prettiest book I own: I had a beautiful light blue leatherbound Bible with a flower on it but it got so worn out it can hardly be called the prettiest. Okay maybe it still can. The prettiest book I don't own is the anniversary edition The Hobbit that I got for my brother just so I could gaze at Tolkien's drawings.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Apart from HTTYD which is something totally different from the movies and very underappreciated, I wish more people knew about The Great Turkey Walk by Kathlene Karr. It is an antebellum era historical fiction story with some characters you will love and root for disguised as a brisk, rollicking cattle turkey drive. I actually made fan art for it once and was super disappointed that there was literally no content for it on Tumblr at all like not even a mention. I'd say I'm biased because turkeys are my fav animal but 1. when I found out it existed I checked it out because it had turkeys only to discover it was a book that I had enjoyed in elementary school, I just totally forgot the turkeys were in it (even though they drove the plot.) I only remembered the other parts of the plot! 2. I gave it to my history teacher while we studied the antebellum in APUSH and she loved it.

For non-fiction, some recs are:

The Holy Bible seriously it's nonfiction fite me

Character Sketches Volume 1

Why Did The Chicken Cross the World sadly this is not a book that I own but I have read it twice. It's a fascinating examination of the history of chickens and how they spread all over the planet. (There are more chickens than humans, did you know that?

everything else is very specific to my little chicken and genetics obsession or a field guide, lol

Book I'm reading now: I've been trying to read Wheel of Time because a friend gave it to me. But it is chapter 11 or 12. At that point in The Fellowship we would be past Rivendale. In book 1 of this series (I don't even remember what it is called) we are traveling and have had 1 (one) event of interest happen so far. Also, I only tolerate the characters. Also this book is one of the biggest I've ever read and there are 12 more in the series. If I am ever to leave the stagnation and start reading again I need to give up.

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it: *looks at goodreads* ew those are the books I was interested in reading? No wonder I haven't read any they all look like they suck (except Catcher in the Rye, I actually read it and it was a real banger.) I guess Dealing With Dragons is a book on there that actually still looks appealing.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: I.. I've written a book short story in English and then translated and illustrated it into Spanish in a tiny sketchbook (and left the rest of the pages blank) does that count? (I would share the video but I don't want people to mock my Spanish I'm trying okay?)

Paperback, hardcover, or ebook? Hardback and softcover. I prefer hardcover since the ones that are softcover are looking a little worse for the wear. BUT to combat my worn out LOTR I bought a single edition hardcover because it was cheaper than 3 separate books but it turns out it is really hard and intimidating to read because it is so big and heavy so that was a fail.

#i really need to start reading again #it's just whenever I start a new book and its not HTTYD or LOTR it's like #why bother #the most recent book I've actually enjoyed was #character sketches

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entropyblog · 11 months

Text

What Your Capital of a United World Says About You

In science fiction it's tempting to unite the world. Sure this scenario is a nightmare to the nationalists of the world, but to the rest of us humanity united in exploring the cosmos and building global solidarity is the good ending to the human story. This united world would be a government that can exert actual control and monopolized state violence, unlike the UN, thus it'd have a hierarchy, and the functionaries of this superstate need a place to put their offices and homes, as well as alien worlds needing a place for their embassies, hence a global capital city. As a writer, here's what your capital city says about you, plus some pros and cons to help all others decide where they want their capital.

New York City

You set the world capital where the UN and the largest financial companies in the world are based, in your world humanity united under the broad liberal ideas of freeish markets and democracy. Either the UN took over the world in aide of a global catastrophe, or some other global congress decided to set up shop where the financial and political infrastructure already exists. You're a bit basic for choosing New York City, but I can't fault that.

Pros - Big city feel, surprisingly clean water for a city its size, and half of your American audience will love how you choose their biggest and most important city for the honor.

Cons - It's smelly, NIMBY's will destroy any chance at badass cyberpunk skyscrapers, and the other half of your American audience made being "rural" over 33% of their entire personality and see New Yorkers as a weird fucked up fungus people.

Washington DC

You're an American imperialist pig-dog and you're proud of it, there's no shame in being a pig-dog if you're coming out on top. America's immense military budget was a good investment after all, despite what most economists and philosophers (read, fucking nerds) would say. The flag of your united world has thirteen stripes and just the most stars you can imagine. They say the sky's the limit, but really the limit is the damn moon for you good ol' boy. The world unified after realizing that a life mostly spent in gridlock or turnpike traffic and subsisting on corn products shaped like other foods is the best way to live.

Pros: DC actually has nice monuments and architecture.

Cons: The congress building will have to be megalithic to fit the thousands of senators you'll have to house. Given how herayclean it is to change the constitution at least the House of Representatives keep their size.

Any California (or in the 2020's, Texas, city)

This is the refrain of Cyberpunk rules, where you live in a desert, or as nerds would correct me, something close to the desert (that's still way too dry to support the population to be frank). With the ideal being gleaming skyscrapers, glass towers, and an underground underclass of shanty-dwellers just trying to survive this cruel and unforgiving world. However, in reality, in California and Texas NIMBY's are more organized and militant than some militaries so it's more like endless cookie-cutter HOA dominated suburbs and the underground underclass of shanty-dwellers. I know Texas only became associated with its tech industry in the 1990's, but let's face it in 2023 the only real difference between Texas and Cali is the accent and how annoying the locals are about being from Texas. In your world megacorporations and technocrats rule with a steel fist (literally, because they have scary robot hands) and humanity is united not by government intervention, but by ruthless capitalist expansionism.

Pros - It's sunny, the beaches are perfect in the summer, plenty of desert and farmland for shootin' and ridin', great music scenes, and you can make very fun parodies of Elon.

Cons - You have to live in California or Texas, there are at least two layers of Hell I'd prefer.

Panama City

Hear me out, I know it's rare (I'm sure I just made this up), but can you genuinely name a more "central" place in humanity? It's along the intersections of north and South America, and sailing the canal is the fastest pre-airline way to travel from Asia to Europe or west Africa. Panama, like most of Latin America, is a very diverse country, and Panama gets very few natural disasters. Sure the heat and mosquitos are a lot to deal with, but this country was literally built to connect the world. If you ignore the actually complex history of Panama, that basic meaningless phrase can be treated as a beautiful sentiment.

Pros - Global shipping and a very central location for everyone to meet and cooperate.

Cons - Panama City is small and doesn't have much physical space to expand.

Rio De Janeiro/and Brazilian city

I know Sao Paulo is the biggest city in Brazil, and Brasilia is the capital, but Rio de Janeiro is the most fun to say so I'm just using it as the base template. If you use Rio as your world capital, it means you're Brazilian. I can't think of that many benefits per say of using Rio aside from just wanting a South American or Brazilian world capital, but honestly do we need a reason? Rio is simultaneously a colorful and playful place, but it also holds incredible inequality and a severe violence epidemic. If you want to criticize Brazilian society, as well as show off how fun and lovely it can be, it's a very great setting. Also, realistically any world government would incorporate multiple capitals from all over the world and Rio makes sense as the South American/Latin American capital.

Pros - The fun things I said

Cons - The not-fun things I said.

London

God save the king. Like the DC guy you're an imperialist pig-dog and you wear that label with pride, in OTL Britain's empire fell and the "glory" of the empire is often seen as a propaganda tool to distract from the horrific abuses committed in the name of her majesty's empire. However, if Britain could just unite the world, spay and neuter the French, and convince EVERYONE of her majesty's glory, London would hold the distinction as the home of the world's greatest minds, generals, and politicians. Wouldn't make haggis taste good, but at least Britain will rule the waves.

Pros - Britain will, by default, always bring the World Cup home.

Cons - There's a reason most countries CELEBRATE leaving the British Empire.

Rome

There are two types of people that want Rome to be the global capital. Fundamentalist Catholics and even more fundamentalist Rome or Byzantine nerds. All roads lead to Rome, and it's your philosophy that the Empire shall rise again to unify humanity and harness our spirit to its full potential. Either an ascended Pope to lead the empire of Heaven or a new Augustus

Pros - The "all roads" thing is almost literal if you live in Afro-Euroasia. It's also just badass to imagine yourself as a Roman, but without he whole slavery thing.

Cons - You're limited in the city's cool sci-fi shit when archeologists and UNESCO hogs every dig site. I know Lazio's ground has more artifacts than dirt but it makes building things for the now a Kafkaesque ordeal.

Moscow

The heart of the revolution, Moscow is the natural home to a socialist world where a supreme Soviet ensures housing and work for the "liberated" peoples of the world. In this world the Soviet Union (or Reunion) spreads its tentacles far and wide, overwhelming the capitalist machine and waving the red flag of liberty above every factory and barrack. In your world communism is humanity's goal, space travel is its most ambitious mission, comrade is the go-to gender-neutral pronoun, and there are no rules against steroids at the olympics.

Pros - Pays homage to Lenin's dreams

Cons - It's cold as shit

Istanbul

I'm putting this one on here because it makes sense. Istanbul has many historic and modern marvels and is located exactly where the Muslim and Western worlds border. While many people love to say Istanbul is a "central" location it really isn't in the grand scheme of things. Sure if you mean central in relation to the Middle East and Europe, but as a global capital we need to think of a place that's either historically significant or located where a lot of people are. Istanbul is very historically significant, but I think Istanbul is just a good very big city rather than a place everything should be central to.

Pros - It's a very nice place

Cons - I just don't feel it's "capital of humanity" worthy.

Jerusalem

Home to the Jewish temples, the Temple Mound, and some of the most grade temples in the world, this city is basically THE religion city. Regardless of what Abrahamic religion you choose, if it unified the world as one it'd likely be based here. It's not known for much else, aside from being central in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but I'm sure your world government can solve this conflict with the power of God, patience, and probably extreme violence.

Pros - Very religiously significant

Cons - If you think Israel/Palestine is controversial now...

Shanghai

Picking Beijing is too on-the-nose. You choose a Chinese city because you're either a Chinese patriot or you really buy into the idea of BRICS multipolarity. You want a more blue-collar and humble capital. While Shanghai has plenty of glass towers and cool spots, it's the influencer city in China after all, Shanghai is also the biggest city in China so most Shanghaiers are very average. A lot of factory and dock workers, a lot of service jobs, and a lot of everything really. Even if it is "the big city" there's not much of a reputation for Shanghai, it does practically everything as a large and powerful Chinese megapolis.

Pros - It's a massive and beautiful city.

Cons - It's in China so people on Reddit will call you a fascist if the setting isn't just a giant LiveLeak video. Because Shanghai has so many reputations it can seem generic.

Tokyo

You're probably a weeaboo. Okay, Tokyo is a great city for a retroist cyberpunk setting. Okay, Tokyo is the largest city in the world with loads of economic and diplomatic institutions that makes it one of the most globally important cities on Earth. Okay Tokyo is a beautiful place with amazing cityscapes, historic districts, castles, shinto shrines, and even beautiful mountains outside the city. But we both know you picked Tokyo because you JUST want to be a Mangaka. Besides, if any population would hate being a global capital it'd be the Japanese one.

Pros - Yeah it's a nice place and all.

Cons - You just look like a Dorn, assuming you're not Japanese. If you are Japanese, this choice just says you're basic. Try Osaka as a capital instead, it's just a slightly smaller Tokyo to everyone outside Japan.

New City

As Dante said, the darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality. Granted, he meant that in the context of moral decisions, but the fact that you had to make up a city instead of using one of the great ones that exist for your project shows a lack of commitment and a need to be inoffensive. While someone will always be mad at you when you pick one of these cities, no one will be happy that you pulled one out of your anal cavity to be as perfect and neutral as you want.

Pros - You don't offend anyone

Cons - You don't impress anyone

Any other city

You're a special unicorn who I am too basic and uninformed to fully understand or appreciate.

Pros - All the pros

Cons - All the cons

#science fiction #worldbuilding #entropy #satire #WORLD CAPITAL #humanity #geography

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tench · 2 years

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If you could get one fic of any pairing/fandom ever, which one would it be and how it would play out? Like if it would be tailored just for you.

(Sorry I did two. Also I may or may not just wrote a mimi esse)

I have several ideas I would LOVE to see made good because I don't believe in me getting these stories right.

Anyway, I would probably go with my latest "the Owl House but it is a rather bleak and serious regime change political drama" idea but there is also aladarius happening very slowly in the background (I'd outsource it only because I didn't think I'd manage to do the political intrigue correct myself). There would be conflicts between one's ambitions, trauma and desires, the shitty people from the dictator's government transfering into the new system, the power struggle, the intrigues, the good stuff. And Alador would punch someone at least once.

My second close one is a tmnt crossover where various Splinters meet Draxum. While the boys are having their own adventure in the background, the old rats would be coming to terms with the fact that they have "a co-parent" in the lousiest of terms, but tbh "we absolutely could do better, but actually he's a good bean". You know "Where's the beef?" picture? That kind of energy. And they'd be having their own adventure on the side with lowkey trying to get Draxum and Lou-Splinter to get their shit together. And I think this one should be done by someone with thorough knowledge of tmnt universe to put as many little jokes and references as possible. I just think it'd be very entertaining to watch these (_lighthearted_) shenanigans.

As you can see, I have a very high demands not only for the canonically complaint characterisation, there's also a need for a strong story supporting the relationship. The amount of investment in the world building of at least awareness of the canon is too high of a demand even for the official writers. And honestly, a lot of fiction is too american for me (I know it is stupid to complain about stories like Venom or TMNT because they are very much rooted in the reality of that country) but cultural awareness of a rock, oversanitisation and the bluntness with which it is applied in pop culture and transformative fiction is too much for me.

And I have a feeling that I should clarify. It is what I need, and not what I think fics should be like? Different people have different needs, to explore as a writer and a reader. And sometimes people just need pwp or put their faves in maid outfits and rail them into oblivion, or hardcore project your 15yo experience on a middle-aged man and it is fine. It is what the fanfics are for.

#one day i will have energy enough to do fun stuff for myself and i write these stories #one day #:')

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malk1ns · 2 years

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6 and 20 for the meta asks!

hello and thank you!! <3

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

oh, it's my best guy geno, for sure. one of the side effects of having the same guy be your favorite player for 10+ years is you get to 'know' them, a little bit, or at least you get to know what they put out as their public persona. geno's so interesting to me because of how he portrays himself vs how the media tends to characterize him (xenophobia is alive and well, and i also find it so fascinating that so many decided that since sid was the golden boy geno HAD to be the scapegoat; it's like there wasn't room for two princes in this kingdom, and why that happens is fascinating), plus what we know of him through others. he also has the extra facet of having a whole other life in russia, where he's comfortable with the language and the culture and the customs, and does a lot more in the community in a visible fashion than he does in pittsburgh (he tends to keep his charitable contributions a little more quiet when they're stateside, including stuff he was doing during the pandemic), and being able to explore that in fiction, alongside his huge, huge heart, his unprecedented-in-pro-sports loyalty to sid, and the volatility of his emotions....well, it's catnip! even when i'm writing from sid's POV i think i spend a lot of time fleshing out geno's backstory, just because there's so much to be done with it.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

alright i answered this one a little bit over here, but...

for the fic trope mashup challenge, the little snippet i was most intrigued by and most wanted to make something grander out of was this one. i LOVE modern royalty stuff, and i don't think there's enough of it in this fandom, so even doing a little drabble of it was deeply satisfying to me. i will likely never blow this out into a full story, but if i did there would be: more to make it obvious to the reader that sid thought geno and ovi were involved, and that's why he kept his distance when ovi was visiting; more interactions between geno and sid's parents, who are DYING for one of these two idiots to wisen up and make a move because they are perfect for each other and everyone can see it; more villains in the form of potential suitors who are proprietary with sid in a way they haven't earned and unkind to geno because he's not high-born enough for them; and i'm sure i'd spend much, much more time than anyone was interested in reading on building out the dynamics of this world, and what the governments look like, and what sid's goals as a ruler would be, and what the differences are from where geno came from.

ask game here!

#my writing #fic asks #ask game

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gealach-in-a-misty-world · 9 months

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Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

"Amaranthines had no choice but to speak the truth, so they lied with honest words". C.L. Polk's Witchmark is a cozy fantasy mystery with a steampunk feel that delves into PTSD and classism. It's the first book in a trilogy, but it works well enough as a stand-alone novel; the protagonists fade into the background in the two sequels, that focus on different characters seen here. This is a debut, and it shows in the writing.

The plot follows the protagonist's attempts to find out what is happening in his country and to escape the clutches of his family, while also having a cute romance with a gentleman that is more than he seems. The most engaging part was the conflict with the system of the families of mages, that control the weather at the cost of enslaving less powerful witches in their families, while low-born witches are committed to asylums while the general public seems to have no clue that magic does exist. This conflict meshed well with the mystery that was set up, and the struggles of soldiers coming home took also center stage in the narrative. But the world isn't really well-developed, and the conflict with another nation is never explained well, until we get to a rushed finale that sets up bigger things with very little preparation.

While matters unfold, Miles also has the time to pursue a relationship with the mysterious man helping him. The romance is very cute and sweet and charming; it feels a bit like insta-love, but it works well in the context of the story. This book however seems very focused on the aesthetic, more than anything else. There's bikes and waistcoats and carriages and it feels more like they're there for the vibes, than for some actual world-building. There is character development, and an interesting journey, but the only character who is explored with any depth is the protagonist, and while he really is explored well, his sister and his romantic interest are more like cardboard figures.

Having also recently read Polk's most recent story, I'd say the author hasn't changed much over the years. The ideas are fascinating, but the execution feels lacking. While I'm mildly intrigued to know how the trilogy continues, I might wait a while before tackling it.

Witchmark is a cozy fantasy mystery for a quick, easy read.

✨ 3.5 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

#witchmark #cl polk #queer books #lgbtq books #queer lit #queer #sff #book reviews #books #reading #gealach reads #gealach writes

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doberbutts · 2 years

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Hey Jazi, Hope you can give some insight here. I am a cis bisexual girl and I think very happy like thi

But every time I play dnd I can only feel truly part of the game and happy lwhile playing as a gay man.

I have two dms, a cis straight man and a cis lesbian girl, and no matter how they build their worlds it just seems right to be a cis gay man in those fictional worlds. Our games always have a bit of romance so it’s not just a thing to put in the character bio so, I get to really roleplay as a gay man and it feels so right

Do you think it’s worth to examine further my own relationship with gender? Or this is just a gaming preference?

I had an ask that was something like this last year and I can't find it now but basically:

Enjoying a roleplay scenario is not the same as gender euphoria- though it certainly can be, not everyone who roleplays a certain way wants that in real life. It's just a fun game. This can be as innocuous as my sister who called me mid-panic because she was struck with the thought that she really enjoys pegging her husband (thank you sis that was more information about you than I needed) and thus she must be transgender and oh god did that mean she had to go on testosterone and chop her boobs off she loves her body as-is she just also likes giving her husband the strap etcetcetc. Once I'd calmed her down she was able to see that her enjoyment of a specific roleplay scenario was- well, not completely disconnected from her gender, she likes being a dominant woman and lbr I don't think I have a single submissive woman in any of my immediate or extended family lmao. But she felt no overwhelming desire to be a man, she just likes wearing a strap and giving it good to her husband.

(hey that ties into the conversation from yesterday/last night- she felt a wave of gender euphoria having once again pegged her husband and then when she guessed incorrectly- does this mean I'm a man?- she immediately had an intense wave of dysphoria because she's happy in her gender as a strong and dominant woman and to be forced to choose between "be a man" which she felt was wrong for her (because she was conflating having a penis and being the penetrating partner with manhood) vs "be a woman" which she felt was right for her but "wrong" for the actions she was enjoying would really upset her. She had to hear, from someone who is transgender and someone she trusted, that she could be a woman that enjoys topping men and remain as a woman, regardless of whether her penis is made of silicone or flesh. That brought back the euphoria she felt, and she was much happier and more content in her role in her relationship after that)

A lot of drag queens are gay men and trans women, it's true. But some drag queens are cisgender, heterosexual men who just like to play dress up and roleplay for a bit. That doesn't mean they're secretly desiring to be women or that they're secretly gay, it just means they enjoy the roleplay.

Actors who play roles that are different sexuality than they are likewise are not secretly that sexuality. I don't think NPH is secretly a straight pervert that sexually harasses every woman he sees- dude's a gay man married to another gay man. But he enjoyed the role of Barney all the same, because he found it interesting and the energy and chemistry of the cast made the role feel "right" for him.

All of these can be ways people figure out that they are actually transgender, but do not unanimously mean for sure that someone is transgender. If you are happy with who you are and how you're read outside of the game, then continue enjoying your fantasy roleplays. It's made up! It's meant to explore things that aren't real.

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pastelslytherin · 2 years

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hey there :DD saw your blog and was wondering if i could plsz request a jujutsu kaisen match up hehe :>>

i'm 18+ (sorry, not really comfortable with sharing that information explicitly on the internet), cis-female with brown eyes (behind my glasses lmao) and hair of the same colour that reaches my waist. on the shorter end of the spectrum whoops; am 5'2 hehe

personality... hm- i guess for starters i'm somewhere in between infj and intj, and maybe that's got to do with how soft i am towards other people, but hard on myself when no one's around to see. probably bc i can't take confrontation, and i'd just much rather listen to others and speak only when spoken to, but also bc i think the world j needs to be a bit kinder, so i tend to kinda try to be a decent person even on my bad days. it's a different story with myself tho, bc i have pretty high standards i will set out to achieve no matter what stands in my way, unless it's really that immovable of a force (i'm too stubborn for my own good sometimes, but... perseverence points !!!)

as for what i like... tangibly it would be music (listening and playing; i'm a classical pianist, though that's more of a hobby) and reading/spending time around stem. that could come off as a little snobbish, sorry, though that's really not my intent !! i just really like reading non-fiction and the discoveries that come with science that help make human lives a little better. in terms of interaction, i like spending time with my family and close friends when i have nothing better to do, chill tgt and all that. spending time w myself is also another v good option tho :D

my love language (giving) is physical touch and acts of service! stems from my wish to have people feel comfotable around me, though the former would prob drive people away HAHAH i do like hugging my friends/fam tho <33 i'm generally open with my affections (platonic) but a lot more reserved if i have a partner. receiving is a lil harder—probably physical touch as well, and quality time bc i'm usually p busy, and i'd like if i could section part of my day just to spend time w my s/o

that's p much it !! thank you so much for talong the time to read through my request :)) please take care of yourself and stay happy and hydrated !!

Hi anon, I hope you’re having a lovely day! No worries about sharing what you’re not comfortable with, it’s perfectly fine. Your privacy is your business :)

I match you with..

SUGURU GETO

Geto is quite the complicated and problematic curse user, but he can relate to you in a sense. He works himself to the bone for his achievements and for what he believes in, whether it's to save or destroy humanity. He has grown hateful and bitter as he has continued to live this way, pressured to fulfill his own expectations. Yet, unlike him, you continue to be kind to the world around you. He wonders why you make such an effort. Maybe that is why he’s drawn to you.

You two can have such long intellectual conversations, exploring topics relating to medicine, science, and philosophy. Ideas and theories would be brimming between the two of you. He’s magnetized by the way you connect certain scientific discoveries to the betterment of humanity. It’s so different to how he views humans so he’s fascinated by your thoughts. Slowly, he begins to feel at ease with you, gradually accepting your affections while he expresses his own feelings for you. Overall, your relationship is insightful, thoughtful, and introspective.

Headcanons:

You might not like speaking a whole lot, but Geto wants to hear your thoughts and opinions. He thinks what you have on your mind is important.

His physical affections are subtle and experimental. A brush of his fingers as he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. Maybe run his fingers through your hair. The lingering touch of his hand as it brushes against yours. It’s as if he’s testing your boundaries as well as his own. This eventually evolves into holding hands and leaving fleeting butterfly kisses here and there.

Geto can be romantic when he wants to. He’ll set aside a time to schedule a romantic date with you, complete with champagne and roses. With classical music playing in the background, he’ll whisk you off your feet and slow dance with you.

It’s become a relationship habit for the two of you to send each other academic articles and say something ironic like “I thought of you <3”

One of his safe places is lying down and listening to you play piano while he holds a book in his hands. It’s one of the most peaceful things he’s experienced, almost as if he doesn’t have to worry about anything at all.

A lot of times, he thinks you’re too kind to him. He sees you with your friends and family, and he feels like he doesn’t belong, considering everything he has done. He’s too far gone at this point, but you still treat him with such gentleness as if he was any other human being. He doesn’t think it’s fair to you.

Other potential match:

Satoru Gojo

Gojo might be an odd person to be matched with, but his contrasting eccentricities could compliment your personality and interests. You’re kind, friendly, and helpful while Gojo is cocky, arrogant, and annoying to most people. He often comes off as childish and rude, but even he has a dream. And that dream is to make the jujutsu world better, not dissimilar to how you try in your own efforts to make the world a little better. He watches you with curiosity, wondering what buttons he can push to make you snap at him. But you’re stubborn and firm in your disposition, so it kind of becomes a game for Gojo.

As much as he might annoy you, there’s something familiar and nostalgic about his relationship with you. Because of this, he treasures you and wants to see you thrive. To see you be more self-indulgent and softer on yourself.

———

I hope this was alright!

Please look over this post before submitting a matchup request :) Thanks!

#jjk matchups #jjk x reader #suguru geto x reader #satoru gojo x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen matchups

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alittlefrenchtree · 3 years

Text

Hiii, it's me again! I actually want to quickly move forward in my reading and not fall behind with notes. Because it makes less sense to write them if I already know what's going on 7 chapters ahead. So let's get started.

SPOILERS DUNE BOOK II : MUAD'DIB (Chapters 5-9)

Chapter 5:

*happy sigh 😌😌😌*

(learn silence, people. It's important.)

You already know how much I love this litany and if there's more in it, I'd be delighted.

Ok, I actually have a nerdy not really funny story about moving dunes. When the worm pops a bit later, Paul describes it at mound-in-motion and there's actually some truth about that. I've recently read an article (and I want to read more about it) about dunes and some scientist thinking that dunes are moving and communicating with each other (in their own mineral, sandy way of course). It sounds fascinating so I let you know if I learn more stuff more or less related to Dune.

This both hurt and feels relatable somehow, even if I don't know how exactly. I like the idea of things approaching from a different angle, of Paul being the only motionless point in a world that keeps spinning around him. The key then wouldn't be to change the world or even to do anything but only to adjust his own position in the universe so he ends up what he meant to be. And the sentence is pretty. The vision appeared to have shifted and approached him from a different angle while he remained motionless.

I still wonder how it works though. The visions and their changes. Do they significantly shift every time he comes close to death? Or say the litany of fear and survive? Or is it more realistic, the smallest details and decisions becoming the biggest changes? I wish Duncan would have been there with them and yet I like this journey through sand and survival just between Paul and Jessica. He probably would have been killed soon after anyway. Unless he's not really dead. Ok, moving on.

Remember when I said that Paul could have/find a way to control sand worms? And now he's saying this:

There are a lot of cues in these few chapters about worms, about riding (or whatever it's called) them with the hooks, about how they're in all likelihood the ones creating the Spice? That's why they're called makers? And that's what the Fremen who died with Hawat was about to called them? I kind of hope there is more to it though, other than only being respected because they're making the spice. There is another quote at the end of the chapter that intrigued me about the relation between Paul and the worms:

He looked at his hand. How inadequate it appeared when measured against such creatures as that worm.

I really like this chapter a lot. Firstly because I love scenes with only two characters so this is delicious for me. Secondly, I love reading about walks through endless lands with nothing but nature, so double yummy. Thirdly, there is a lot of informations. About the worms, and about how Paul is evolving in the desert. There is the rescue of his Mom but, even more importantly, how he rescues the pack. I think it's a very important scene both literally and metaphorically. It doesn't seem like an important scene but it really is in the building of the Paul's character. I hope to see it address in some way in the movie. Because not only he uses the Spice for another purpose than money and getting stronger or smarter or higher, but he uses it to take back what's necessary for his survival in the desert. If that's not adapting to Dune, I don't know what it is.

Chapter 6:

This is going to cause some trouble at some point, isn't it? Halleck and his people teaming up with smugglers, thinking the Atreides are dead. He's going to end up fighting against them without knowing it, right? 😔

Chapter 7:

Moooom, I love him so much 😭😭😭

But, I hate not knowing what's going on exactly and I hate it even more when it's about Paul and Paul's power so we're all going to sit here together, read this again and again util we've rambled enough to come up with AT LEAST five theories about something.

Like why. Why does he cross a time barrier at this precise moment? How does it work? He came close to death again so has he defeated another timeline where he was supposed to die? Hence the unknown territory, the darkness? Or are there defined blindspots? Around the worms maybe? Because of their spice maker job? Or is he just exploring and developing his new abilities? Learning to not rely only on his inner eye but on all of his powers and abilities? I need answers. I need to finish reading this book (books) and reading the theories of someone who's been thinking about every detail of them for the past 50 years.

I really liked this couple of chapters about Paul and Jessica's journey through the desert. You can really see Paul coming to terms with it. Fighting it, using it, accepting it, welcoming it. Seeing its beauty and his future in it. I'm looking forward this symbiosis. It looks beautiful.

Chapitre 8:

Ok, that was painful. Firstly, because I wasn't expecting to see Kynes die at this moment and secondly, because it was a very slow agony to witness. To be honest, I'm getting a bit tired to see characters die? It denies so much of the potential for characters development and for relationships development. The lack of it is going to become a bit sad for the whole story.

And it's heartbreaking to understand that Liet gave up his only chance of survival to save Paul and Jessica. I don't know how much he knew before, if he already knew he was going to die or if he thought he had a real chance but it's going to give so much power to Paul with the Fremen? If it becomes known that Liet died to save him and his mother, believing in them.

I supposed there is some kind of parallel to see here, between the previous chapter and this one, with Paul practically arising from the desert and Liet dying in it at the same time/shortly after? Like how Paul is supposed to take Liet's position of influence with the Fremen?

The chapter is also heavy on... social/political/ecological talks. Or one-sided conversation since the other side is dying. Not saying they shouldn't be there since they are the actual themes of the book but maybe it could have been made in a more natural way? Or not all at once?

But it made me think of Caladan. Which I could have done earlier, I agree. But Caladan is the planet of water, right? Water. The very thing Arrakis is lacking of and wants/needs. I would have like to see a bit more of Caladan, actually. How it was. How Paul was on it, actually. If he was as adapted as Caladan's environment than he seems to be to Arrakis'.

Chapter 9:

There it is. Paul as an outcast Duke finally facing Fremen forces for the first time.

This is a good chapter but I think the key point here is this:

I scrolled past a post the other day (without reading it entirely because of fear of spoilers), that was saying how people thinking Dune was about religion hadn't understand it because it was a story about propaganda. But, at the risk of sounding blasphemous and as a non-religious person... Isn't it kind of the same? Religion, propaganda, fandom,... At some point, there was someone with high powers of influence who comes to make people believe in something (whatever it's true, partially true, partially false or entirely false) to make them adopt a specific behavior, most likely a form of submissiveness? (@ tumblr porn bots, i'm not talking about you). What people make of that belief, it's what really matters.

What interested me more here is to consider this in relation to the opening chapter quote.

It's the eternal question with prophecies. Would a prophecy become true even if nobody knew about it or believe in it? Or do people, by acting according to it because they heard and believed it, make it real and effective? Did the Missionaria Protectiva create its own Kwisatz Haderach or would Paul would have been born with the same abilities and the destiny if they hadn't existed?

We see the future isn't set in stone in Paul's visions, but does his actions and decisions influence the shape of the future or is he just bumped from one predefined timeline to another? And are there really that much differences between the two? How many metaphysical questions can you write in one post?

Quick word about Chani before wrapping this one up. I think I'm going to like her? She seems cool at least. I'm not sure about Paul's reaction to her though. Yes, he supposed to be 15 but he's also something like half of a divinity so. *snorts*. Or maybe I'm just every day more tired of seeing romance being put everywhere and romanticized to the point of 99% people still thinking it's the ultimate form of love and relationship and the ultimate thing to achieve in life. OR maybe it's because everybody engaged in a classic couple-relationship immediately lost 12 points of esteem in my eyes. Don't know. Will see. I imagine I have to brace myself for Paul x Chani babies at some point, since it's 1964? If they survive that long. Very not looking forward to it. The babies, not the survival.

Anyway gotta go before I start wishing bad things to hypothetical fictional babies. Tschüss! 🌔💛

#DUNE FIRST READ

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bookenders · 4 years

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For Thanksgiving Celebration, I'd love a short! You can use "roselinproductions" or "avalon roselin" depending on what works better for you. Poem or prose is fine! No mentions of pregnancy/birth, please. Thank you!!!!

Happy Giving Thanks Day!

I’d love to write you a short, friend! It got totally out of hand and ended up way longer than I intended it to be! Yay! I really try to keep these short, but sometimes the story grabs me and demands to be written.

I haven’t written this legend before, so I had to do a little bit of research for it, which was fun.

Now, a worthy story for a worthy friend:

Title: “The Northern Garden”

Word Count: 1,537

[CW: brief mention of blood, mention of mortal wound]

There was a bit of a flurry by the shore, but it was probably nothing. The island received guests rarely, usually the odd lost traveler who had food shoved into his hands and was quickly turned back whence he came. All for the better, really. Her people were kind and powerful, and all to vulnerable to being used (the last thing they sent out into the world never returned, which was a right shame — it was a beautiful weapon). Hence the mystery they crafted to hide themselves from the rest of the world. Descending into legend wasn’t very difficult. All it took was one wayward sailor and all of a sudden, they were a myth told round the fire.

Turning her back to the black ship docking at the small pier, Gwenese continued along the worn dirt path to her favorite garden. There were several around the island, each with a different purpose. The western garden held herbs and spices for cooking, fruits and vegetables from all regions of the world grew and ripened in the eastern gardens, ritual plants took root in the southern gardens, and the northern gardens were home to all manner of floral blooms. Including Gwenese’s favorite flowers — the roses. One of the seers once predicted a war would take place about them, or over them, or including them in some manner, and Gwenese could understand that. She would wage war for them, too.

In all honesty, Gwenese could walk the path to the rose bushes with her eyes closed. And so she did, holding her hands a little ways from her hips to brush aside new reaching growths and vines that swallowed more than their fair share of sun. She even reached the garden faster than usual.

She set about her task with a calm mind and careful hands, grasping the stems around the thorns and snipping the blooms one by one. They dared not prick her anymore. Especially the white roses. It wouldn’t do to have their petals stained by an avoidable accident. Maybe she’d pick more damask roses this time. That might add a new twist to her enchantments.

“Excuse me, miss?”

Gwenese turned, reluctant as she could physically show, and raised an eyebrow at the intruder.

“Yes, m’lord?”

He bowed his head and dipped down in deference. “Pardon the interruption, but might you be available to aid the healers in a most important task?”

Gwenese sighed. “Sir, I am no healer. It is well known on this island that I am no healer. I am rather surprised, actually, that you do not know that I am not a healer. Please leave me to my daily task and carry on with whatever fool’s errand those ninnies have sent you on.” And she plucked another rose from its stem.

The man blustered for a moment before leaving in a poorly disguised rush.

Will they ever learn?

Four days later, Gwenese suffered another interruption, this time from a small group of people wandering the gardens. Usually, these kinds of groups never bothered her, for as one of the enchantresses of the island, it was known that one should not impede the progress of her magicks. However, the excitement of recent events seemed to have blinded these folks to reason.

One of them tapped her on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, m’lady, as you are an enchantress, would you perhaps know about the man whom the healers have been aiding these past few days?”

Gwenese stood and surveyed the small gaggle of individuals. A mix of men and women, all dressed comfortably in blues and greens and tans, cloaks draped over their shoulders to protect them from the chill, with wide expectant smiles on their faces.

“Do I maintain the appearance of a healer?” she asked, gesturing to her grass-stained dress, satchel of flowers, and purple silk cape.

The young lady stepped back. “Um, no, m’lady, you do not.”

Gwenese rolled her eyes. “And you do have the knowledge that enchantresses and healers are no more one I the same than apples and stalks of wheat?”

“Yes, m’lady.”

“Then why do you ask an enchantress questions pertaining to the healers’ business?”

The young lady’s eyes went wide in guilt and shame and she fell into a rushed curtsy.

“I do apologize, m’lady, I allowed my curiosity to get the best of me. We were only wondering if the man who has recently arrived here is who they say he is.”

“What reason would you have to believe otherwise?”

“I know not, m’lady.”

“Then carry on with your business, and I shall carry on with mine. Good day,” Gwenese said with a curt nod, and knelt to examine the petals of a yellow rose.

The small group of young people rushed out of the garden, tittering and gossiping all the way.

Gwenese pinched the bridge of her nose. What was the point of living in paradise if you never got any peace?

The final straw fell on the sixth day. Gwenese had her nose pressed to a flourishing red rose, petals soft against the tips of her fingers, when she heard footsteps crunching louder and louder in her direction. Leaning back, she brushed the dirt from her hands and stood, ready to confront this interloper, when the man walked right past her.

Gwenese’s eyebrows rose of their own accord. “Hm,” she tutted, and peered at the man from over her shoulder.

He was tall in the way that leaders seemed to be, with flaxen hair and a thick beard. Bandages bulged underneath his shirt, right over his heart and lungs, and a cut was freshly scabbed over across his brow. He leaned down to fit a rose into his palm and winced, his other hand coming up to grasp at the wound.

“Are you all right, m’lord?” Gwenese asked. She may not be a healer, but she wasn’t unnecessarily cruel.

The man started and turned to look at her, as though he just noticed she was there.

“Ah,” he said, “my apologies, I did not know this place was occupied.” And he smiled, its happiness lightly dulled by pain.

“Not fully. There is room enough for far more than two in these gardens.”

The man breathed out a laugh. “I have received nothing but kind welcomes on this island, and aid beyond reasonable measure, even when it is not my home. Your people’s hospitality is boundless.”

Gwenese smiled, catching herself actually starting to like the man.

“It is the way of Avalon, m’lord. If there is a need, it will be met.”

“And is it true that the trees grow without a farmer’s aid and guidance?”

“It is,” Gwenese said, and snipped another rose.

The man stood straight, posture loose yet commanding, and swept his eyes across the garden. “Marvelous.” He then turned his eyes on Gwenese. “It seems I’ve forgotten to ask your name.”

“Gwenese,” she said, and curtsied.

His eyes locked onto hers and went distant, falling away from time, dulling ever so slightly. No longer was he standing before her, but instead in the fields of days gone by.

“Your name,” he said, taking a steadying breath, calling his mind back from whatever precipice it escaped to, “is very familiar to me. It reminds me of someone.”

“Someone great, I hope,” Gwenese said.

“Great, indeed.” A grim look passed over his face, and his hand twitched toward the sword at his hip.

Gwenese glanced between him and her flowers, hesitant. “You must be the one they’ve all been speaking of.”

“Must I?”

“I can think of no reason why you would not be.”

He set a hand on the pommel of his sword. “Have I given myself away?” he asked, nodding down toward the blade.

“Not in the slightest.” How would a weapon give away one’s identity? “Your injuries, on the other hand,” she said, and waved a hand at his chest.

The man smiled. “Word travels fast.”

“Annoyingly so,” Gwenese replied, scowling.

“Are all enchantresses on this island like you? I have only met the healers.”

Even an outsider was capable of noting the difference. There truly was no hope for her people, after all.

“No, m’lord. I’m afraid I’m rather singular in my attitudes.”

“I feel the same about myself, as of late,” he replied, and turned back to the roses. Gripping one stem, he twisted a red, red bloom free and held it in his open palm. A tiny bead of blood traced his heart line.

“At any rate,” he continued, “I thank you for sparing the time to keep me company.”

Gwenese stood and traced her fingertip over the rose in his hand. “It was no trouble at all, m’lord. But I must ask, what is your name? For I have given you mine, but know not yours.”

“With the speed at which news travels on this island, you will know soon enough.” The man smiled and dipped his head in a short bow. “Farewell.”

And he walked out of the garden.

A single bead of blood remained on the dirt before the rose bush.

Gwenese glanced down at the droplet, grinned, then snipped another rose from its stem.

Maybe some interruptions were worthwhile.

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synthient · 6 years

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Could you elaborate on what you mean about Death T re stanning and fairness? It sounds interesting and I'd love to hear about it if you don't mind sharing.

ajhfakj hoo boy. Okay.

So some time around the summer before last (judging by the point where the first baffled and frustrated readmores start showing up on this blog), I read Death-T. It made me feel…some kind of way. An…unpleasant kind of way.

Here’s the thing about me: I can’t just let myself have an emotional reaction to a piece of fiction. I have to, first, pick apart my own emotions to figure out why I had that reaction, and second, pick apart the story to figure out how it works and how it made me feel that way.

On the Feelings Front, I’ve isolated two main causes:

1. I have a brain that Needs Things To Be Fair. That doesn’t mean I can’t handle unfairness in a piece of fiction. Unfairness creates conflict, and conflict is what makes for good storytelling. But it does mean that I need the story to be aware of its own unfairness. I need the unfairness to be the point. Otherwise I start vibrating at high speeds and shaking my fist at clouds.

2. I’m a Kaiba stan. I accidentally got emotionally attached to the Funny Card Game Boy from the Funny Card Game Show.

There’s the feelings part. That leaves the “picking apart the story” side of the equation. And I’ve been trying to do that in nice punchy little one-or-two-paragraph text posts for the past year or so, but I don’t think I’ve ever really done the argument justice that way. So I guess that leaves only one option: writing a giant wordvomit essay on Yugioh (1996-2004).

Why This Is A Death-T Hateblog: The Masterpost

An important note: I like being able to back up my thoughts with Evidence From The Text, but I’m specifically working off the (Viz translated) manga. You can read Cards with Teeth here, Capumon here, and Death-T starting here if you want to check any of my facts or draw your own conclusions. Keep in mind that the Toei anime made pretty huge changes to the s0 Kaiba storyline, and the DM anime skipped most of it entirely–if you’re more familiar with those continuities, there’re some major differences in the manga.

(Also this thing probably reads better on desktop. I think the formatting got screwed up on mobile)

How We Got Here

Before we can actually dig into Death-T, we need to start at the very beginning (♫a very good place to start♫). So that means taking a look at “The Cards with Teeth (Part 1)” and “The Cards with Teeth (Part 2).”

For its first 8 chapters, the Yugioh manga chugs blissfully (if repetitively) along with an episodic, conflict-of-the-week formula. No overarching plot. Next to no sense of continuity. No trading cards in sight.

Then this asshole shows up.

His name is Seto Kaiba (or “Kaiba,” at least–not sure if this is just a Viz thing, but my copy of CwT never mentions his given name). Not that he bears a whole lot of resemblance to the Seto Kaiba we later come to know and love (and/or love to hate).

Almost none of his most defining traits are there yet. There’s no mention of Mokuba, no mention of Kaibacorp, no indicationthat he’s especially rich (besides the fact that he’s carrying around a wholebriefcase of trading cards), no reason to believe he has a specific obsession with Blue Eyes (he just thinks it’s a strong card and it’d help him win tournaments), and no sign of any special hacking/strategy/hand-to-hand-combat/etc. skills (the kid is hilariously incompetent).

This dude was never supposed to be a recurring character, and it shows.

But anyway, let’s run through the basic series of events:

- Kaiba wanders into the game shop looking forbooster packs. Yugi recognizes him as an acquaintance from school (not as a famous kid CEO, and not as a recent transfer student)

- Kaiba happens to notice the Blue Eyes card lying out onGrandpa’s counter (in this version of events, he hasn’t been stealing rare cards for months before this, he didn’t creep on Yugi’s conversation and followhim home, he had no idea going in that the Blue Eyes was there, and he didn’t already have the other three)

- He offers to trade all the cards in his briefcasefor the Blue Eyes (although he doesn’t tell Grandpa to name his price—again,the millionaire CEO element isn’t a thing yet)

- Grandpa refuses, so the next day Kaiba comes up with alaughably badly thought-out plan to steal the card

- Shockingly, Yugi notices that the “color copy from the catalog” isn’t the real deal. He gently tries to confront Kaiba about it in private

- Kaiba (without showing an ounce of the cool head you’d think you’d need to take over and run a company) panics, starts stammering and unconvincingly denying it, and then smacks Yugi with his briefcase

Annnd then Part 2 plays out like a standard s0 chapter.

“Yami Yugi” takes over. They play a shadow game. Kaiba cheats by slipping the stolen Blue Eyes out of his sleeve (Atem’s like “That’s my Grandpa’s card!” and Kaiba straight up goes “Whaaat, nooo, that’s my card that I, uh, found on the street just now.” A teen genius criminal mastermind, everybody). The shadow magic gives him a spritz from its metaphorical Karmic Cat-Training Spray Bottle and makes his Blue Eyes dissolve (I’d like to think that was Kisara going “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” and Memory World tries to retroactively make that connection, but it’s pretty abundantly clear that nothing about this series was planned that far ahead). He loses. Yadda yadda yadda.

And then Atem goes in for the penalty game.

To recap:

Some random 10th grader from Yugi’s school stole a trading card, hit someone, and was generally kind of a jerk. As punishment, he was trapped in a hyper-realistic illusion of being ripped apart and slaughtered by half a dozen monsters at once.

Y…ay…?

Let’s Stop and Reflect for a Sec

In theory, I shouldn’t be that much more upset about Cards with Teeth than I am about any other part of s0, right? It’s not like the manga framed it as horrific and wrong when Atem set off an explosion in some teenage bully’s face a couple chapters ago. Giving us the vicarious pleasure of punishing our bullies in over-the-top, Carrie-style ways without actually exploring any of the consequences is, like, the early manga’s whole thing.

But even taking into account the fact that I already had an attachment to this Nasty Bowl Cut Boy thanks to the anime, I do actually think that there are at least two factors that set CwT apart.

The first is that Atem’s karmic punishments are usually…well, karmic. If he inflicts physical harm on someone, it’s because they already inflicted or tried to inflict roughly the same amount of harm on Yugi & co. If the crime was relatively minor, then he only gives out a minor punishment–like, say, when the homeroom teacher was Just Kinda Mean, all he did was allow the class to see her without her makeup on (…setting aside the Let’s Get Into Gender Politics-ness of that chapter).

There’s even a few cases where you could argue that the punishment is too light to fit the crime. Ushio beat Jonouchi and Honda half to death and tried to murder Yugi with a knife, and all he got was this lousy t-shirt an illusion that made the trash on the ground look like money.

In another chapter, the villain of the week tried to rape Anzu, and the only punishment he faced was having his side business exposed as a scam (Let’s Get Into Gender Politics).

Yet in CwT, we see one of the most harmless villains in all of s0 (no prolonged beatings or attempted murder? unheard of!) receive what’s arguably the most horrifying penalty game in the whole manga. At least when that guy got set on fire, it was over fast.

And that brings us to factor number two: Kaiba is the first penalty game victim in s0 who comes back.

Capumon: Gotta Catch ‘em All!

Well, technically he doesn’t come back in person, at first. Someone else shows up to fight in his name.

Oh hey Mokie. How’s it going?

Rather understandably (imo), Mokuba wants the guy who tortured his brother last week to face some actual consequences for it.

Now here’s an interesting opportunity that the manga has set up for itself. Is it going to dig deep into the balance between defending yourself vs lashing out and causing undue harm? Is it going to remind us that most of the penalty game victims so far, whatever their crimes,have been children? Is it going to demonstrate that when you take out your anger on someone, you don’t just hurt your immediate target, but their loved ones as well?

Nah, who am I kidding.

Hurting or inconveniencing the Good Guys in any way is Bad. Anything the Good Guys do is Good and Justified. Using magic to stick an already-hurting eleven-year-old in his own personalized hell? Good and Justified.

Before he’s shoved screaming into the Giant Vending Machine Capsule Where Bad And Naughty Elementary Schoolers Go To Atone For Their Crimes, Mokuba mentions that the other penalty game he heard about “made my brother go crazy!”

He also drops a hint of things to come with all the subtlety of an anvil. So I guess by this point, the numbers had come in and the card game chapter had proved unexpectedly popular enough that a sequel was in the works.

Death-Twink? Death-Tastic?Death-Two: Electric Boogaloo?

I’ve been pretty hard on Cards with Teeth and Capsule Monsters Chess so far. But you want to know the truth?

On their own, they aren’t necessarily that bad.

What really matters in a story isn’t the literal events: it’s how those events are framed. At the moment, we’re only midway through an incomplete storyline. Maybe we’re supposed to be horrified. Maybe we’re supposed to be questioning whether or not the hero is really in the right. It all hangs on what these chapters are building to.

As it turns out–as Mokuba just helpfully clued us in on–they were building to Death-T.

And that’s where the shit hits the fan.

Over a dozen chapters after we first met Kaiba, a whole bunch of completely-unforeshadowed facts about him are suddenly dumped on us all at once. He’s rich! The kind of rich that allows for limo rides, a giant mansion, and flouncing around in a fur-lined cape like feudal European nobility! And he’s the president of a company, even though “Whaa?!! But he’s still in high school!” Speaking of which, apparently Kaiba “hasn’t been at school recently.”

The Death-T arc opens with Yugi and Jonouchi attending the world’s most awkward sleepover–the host never shows up, and they don’t even get to paint each others’ nails or watch movies. Also Mokuba tries to murder them in the night, but you know what? If someone tortured my brother, “made him go crazy,” and left him huddled in the house feverishly working on a bizarre project and refusing to go to school for the next few weeks, I’d probably poison them too.

The morning after the sleepover, we learn another new Kaiba Fact…

Ever since the Experience of Death happened, he’s been having horrible recurring PTSD nightmares about it. As you do. When you get tortured.

(This is why, even though I know intellectually that it’s Not That Deep and people arejust having fun, I still get a little skeeved out when I see jokes about howDeath-T happened “just” because Kaiba was that mad about losing a card game or “just”because he had a crush on Yugi and he didn’t know how to deal with it. I’malways internally like “Nnno, I’m pretty sure it was the torture?”)

So far we’ve been shown in pretty brutal detail that our “hero” psychologically broke a fifteen-year-old for no good reason. The manga’s going to have its work cut out for it if it really wants to do a convincing redemption arc for its protagonist. And there’s no way it could possibly try to spin that random act of torture as an acceptable thing, right?

…right?

Crime and Punishment

That’s one of my first big problems with Death-T: to me, it reads as a way of trying to retroactively justify the Experience of Death.

That seems to be the purpose of suddenly giving Kaiba all this wealth and power that was never hinted at in Cards with Teeth. See, he wasn’t just some random high school kid who had the bad luck of crossing someone with magic powers; he was (however improbable that is, as the story lampshades) a high school-aged CEO. He’s so ludicrously powerful that he can torture an old man in front of a live audience and get away with it. Punching up looks a lot better than punching down, doesn’t it?

And you can’t really fault the hero for torturing someone evil, can you? Kaiba used Grandpa’s sanity as a blackmail chip! He ran experiments on human test subjects! He wants to kill Yugi and everyone he loves! Surely a little torture is no worse than he deserved.

There’s only one one problem with that: the Experience of Death happened before Death-T. There’s no way Atem could have known any of this was coming. The audience couldn’t have known it was coming. Takahashi didn’t know. Chronologically speaking, the Experience of Death wasn’t revenge for Death-T. It’s the other way around.

Best Served Cold

So Death-T is a form of eye-for-an-eye vengeance: “Yugi” beat Kaiba at Duel Monsters and tortured him, so now Kaiba’s gonna beat Yugi and torture him, using his own perfect virtual recreation of “Yugi’s” penalty game (oh yeah, that whole “the average person goes insane in about 10 minutes” thing? Kaiba was able to program that detail from personal experience).

But wait! This isn’t really eye-for-an-eye! Kaiba’s going after Yugi’s loved ones, not just Yugi, and that’s worse than what Yugi did to him! And even if it was proportionate, revenge is bad and wrong. That’s how you get endless back-and-forth chains of vengeance and generational blood feuds and stuff. Two wrongs don’t make a right!

And those could all be reasonable points, except…

This entire story is about how great and badass eye-for-an-eye justice is.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could take everyone who ever hurt you and make them suffer even worse” is practically the thesis of Season 0. You can’t make something look awesome when the protagonist does it and then turn around and make it seem evil and inexcusable coming from anyone else.

And while Kaiba does wind up targeting Yugi’s friends, that wasn’t part of his original plan. He’s surprised when random people start jumping out of the bleachers/the Kaibacorp employee roster and insisting that they won’t let Yugi do this alone. The writing uses his surprise as proof that he just doesn’t understand The Power of Friendship, but it’s also evidence that his original target was just Yugi.

“If you’re gonna side with my torturer, then you can have the same fate as him, I guess.” It’s not even that far outside the logic Atem’s been using all this time. Just because there’s only one main gang member who personally hurt his friend, that doesn’t mean that Atem won’t rope every random mook who gets in his way into the death game too. (Granted, this doesn’t really apply to Kaiba’s treatment of Grandpa. Or the offscreen experimentation/blackmailing. Or Mokuba, but…we’ll get to that).

…But like I said before, the big issue isn’t the events. It’s the framing. Maybe the point will ultimately be that if penalty games are wrong when the bad guy does them, then they’re wrong when the hero does them too. Maybe this is all leading up to a big reexamination of Atem’s moral code and some much-needed character development.

Maybe. Let’s keep going and see.

*Great Gatsby comic voice* Baby? What Baby

Death-T runs for 14 chapters, but Kaiba isn’t actually there for, like…half of them.

I mean, he’s technically there? Occasionally? He’ll show up long enough to dramatically play chess for a panel or so, or to stick his head on a TV monitor and provide some Helpful Death Game Hints. But for all practical purposes, he’s pretty much absent for the entire middle section of the story arc.

And, uh…let’s just say I 100% understand and respect the DM anime’s decisionto go straight from Grandpa’s heart attack to the final duel and skipeverything in between.

If Kaiba’s real goal is to beat Yugi at Duel Monsters, then all the death games leading up to that one are basically filler. And they manage to be just as contrived and nonsensical as any anime filler arc, without a fraction of the fun.

It’s largely a tonal issue. The writing swings wildly between grimdark dramatics, sentimental conversations about friendship where everyone hugs and cries (tbh that’s one of the few redeeming qualities of the arc), and “comic relief” where the “““comedy””” is all either bodily function jokes or sexual assault jokes (L̠̤̯͍̦e̮̪͎̞t's̞̮̳̱̰̦̲ ̲G͖͉̹̻̯͉͖e̜̝̗͓̟͚t̖͚ ͚̰̞̮̝̫͎I͓̜̦̳̭͚͎n̪̪͈t͍̥̰̼o͚͎͇̣̘̝ ̪̼̜̣̳G͈̠̫e̳̝̗̪ṋ͚̞͎ͅd͔̙͓̯̹e̯̺̯̩r͔̣̲͔̳̗ ̘͙P̖̦o̩̺͖͎̞̬l͎̺͕̹i͇̣̼̦t̰i̬̰̝͙̗̝c̜̼̺̪̲̞s).

Honestly, in terms of the “stanning and fairness” argument, there’s not much to talk about here. It just adds insult to injury that not only does Death-T throw my fave under the bus, but it’s really badly written.

The Mokuba Thing

Okay, let’s fast-forward through the filler zone and stoppp…here.

In the context of the anime, where we know (and see multiple flashbacks demonstrating) that their whole life has been an “us against the world” story, this scene is tragic. Seto’s trust in people has been eroded so much that he even thinks Mokuba is conspiring against him? Their love and support for each other, which has survived through so much hardship, has finally cracked under the weight of this latest trauma? There’s a lot of dramatic and tearjerking potential there.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of us bring our baggage from the anime with us when we read the manga. The vast majority of the western Yugioh fandom did start with DM.

But if we look at this purely in the context of the manga–if we can pretend, for a second, that none of us have ever heard of the anime–this is the first time we see the two of them interacting onscreen. And none of those touching flashbacks of Seto comforting Mokuba and defending him from bullies and promising to be his father exist here. All we ever really learn about their relationship before this point is “They used to be a little closer when they were younger. Source: one (1) photo of them playing chess.”

So instead of serving as the tragic lowpoint of their relationship, this scene sets the baseline for it: Mokuba desperately wants to make his brother happy and earn his approval, while Seto responds with dismissal and cruelty.

In the anime (and to a certain extent in the later manga), Mokuba’s purpose in the narrative is to humanize Seto. But in Death-T, he serves the opposite function. Every interaction they have is an opportunity for Seto to kick the dog and prove what a monster he is.

And it’s all downhill from here.

………………

…So.

I have…mixed feelings about this.

On one level–a meta level–I think this scene serves the same purpose as taking that random high schooler from CwT and suddenly giving him ridiculous amounts of money and power and mustache-twirling levels of villainy. It’s a way of making the Experience of Death seem retroactively justified (and also a way of making the upcoming penalty game look fair).

On the other hand. It’s.

Horrific.

This scene is supposed to make us hate Kaiba, and it does it’s job really really well.

Personally speaking? I’m of the opinion that trying to hurt the child under your care as badly as you conceivably can is a “don’t pass go, don’t collect $100″ kind of deal. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no fixing or salvaging this relationship.

(God, this whole thing is wrapped in so many layers of fantasy that I’m not even sure what the real-world equivalent would be. Trying to beat your child not quite to death?)

Mokuba should not have had to continue living with his brother after this, any more than the Ishtars should have had to stay with their dad or Seto should have had to stay with Gozaburo. Mokuba forgiving Seto for this isn’t touching to me, it’s gut-wrenching. Every “heartwarming” brotherly moment in the later manga (all, like…2 and a half of them) feels hollow and sad.

As far as I’m concerned, this scene doesn’t “complicate” their relationship in any interesting or meaningful way. Their anime relationship already has plenty of complications–their sometimes unhealthy co-dependence, the fact that Seto is still a kid himself and he’s not really equipped to be a parent,Mokuba’s difficulty understanding that Seto can’t just “go back to who he was” before his trauma, the times when Seto is too caught up in his own pain to really be there for Mokuba, the manipulation involved in Seto’s takeover plan, etc. This just makes their relationship outright child abuse.

But hey, they hugged that one time in Duelist Kingdom, so it’s fine, right?

ExODiA iiiIIIIT’s not pAHsible

The final duel happens. The big Blue Eyes vs Exodia showdown.

*Bill Wurtz voice* So that’s pretty nifty, I would say.

It’s..? A genuinely cool and dramatic duel. There’s a reason it’s one of the, like, three Death-T elements the DM anime actually bothered to keep. Not much to say about it.

Sure was a whole lot of buildup just to end things with one (1) deus ex machina instawin card, tho.

The Tragic Backstory

So if all this happened because of a penalty game, what do you think the solution could be?

Did you say “another, even harsher penalty game”?

Ding ding ding!

This time, instead of torturing the fifteen-year-old, our hero puts the fifteen-year-old in a vegetative state as he begs for mercy.

Yaaaayy!

Some fun facts about the Mind Crush that we don’t actually learn until Duelist Kingdom:

1. It lasted for 6 months

2. Mokuba spent that entire time alone, in the big empty mansion, with no parental guidance or adult supervision except the butlers and maids, caring for his brother’s comatose body 24/7

3. When Atem put Kaiba in that coma, he had absolutely no idea if he’d ever be able to wake up or not. He thought he could, maybe–Kaiba’s pretty strong, right? But he also finds the idea that Kaiba died in his coma and came back to haunt him perfectly believable. “Fixed,” dead…eh, it was kind of a coin toss.

But wait, the story’s not over yet! First we have to find out Why Kaiba Is The Way He Is (“Because your buddy tortured him last month” isn’t enough of an answer, apparently).

This is communicated in the most natural way possible: Mokuba just starts monologuing about all his brother’s deepest darkest traumas to a bunch of strangers his brother hates.

The claim that Kaiba’s backstory is “more complex” in the manga than it is in the anime has always confused me, because this is…it. These three pages are the whole backstory. I mean, in Battle City we do get one more passing line of dialog about how Kaibacorp used to be a weapons manufacturer and Gozaburo “sold Seto’s soul to the military industrial complex,” but other than that… The anime took these bare bones and fleshed them out significantly, but from a pure manga canon standpoint, it’s not a whole lot to work with.

But there’s still enough here to rub me the wrong way.

For one thing, this sequence is almost an exact parallel to two later moments in the manga: Pegasus’s backstory dump at the end of Duelist Kingdom, and Malik’s backstory dump mid-Battle City. In both of those cases, the purpose of the scene is to take a villain whose motives seemed cruel and inexplicable and finally reveal the reasons behind his actions. We’re supposed to be seeing these characters in a sympathetic light for the very first time.

But Kaiba’s motives in Death-T, uh, weren’t exactly a mystery. He already made it pretty explicitly clear that this was about the torture. So as a narrative tool, Mokuba’s monologue:

1. seems a little superfluous

2. seems like a way of taking any responsibility out of the protagonist’s hands. Kaiba didn’t snap because of anything Atem did, he just had a bunch of fucked up baggage that Atem couldn’t possibly have known about or accounted for. Who knew some people take it badly when you torture them??

3. seems to suggest that we weren’t supposed to be sympathizing with Kaiba before this point. If this is the big “oh, now that I know why he did it, I guess I feel a little bad for him :(” moment, then that means the part where he got tortured…wasn’t?

And, as always, there’s the issue of the framing.

The grace note of the monologue–the thought it leaves us with, the intended takeaway–isn’t “If only he hadn’t gone through years of abuse, in circumstances he had no real control over because he was a child.” It’s “If only he hadn’t brought all this upon himself by cheating.”

Even if we ignore the fact that it’s physically impossible to cheat at chess (which seems like kind of a big oversight for a gaming manga, but oh well, That’s Yugioh Babe)…

How can you possibly present a ten-year-old cheating at a board game in a desperate gambit to get himself and his brother out of an orphanage as his start of darkness?

Yet that’s exactly what the writing does. This is a story about how games “reveal the true hearts” of their players and bring karmic retribution down on anyone who doesn’t respect the game and follow the rules. The implication is that the child abuse Seto suffered was karma. He rightfully earned it by cheating at chess, just like he brought the Experience of Death upon himself by cheating at Duel Monsters.

Oh yeah, speaking of which…

Wheel of Morality, Turn Turn Turn, Tell Us The Lesson We Should Learn

What was the outcome of Death-T? What impact did it actually have?

Did it bring about any big moral reckoning? Any questioning of the heroes’ values? Did Atem learn the difficult but important lesson “torture bad”?

Nnnnope!

Death-T is immediately followed by a series of episodic chapters that take us right back to the status quo like nothing happened. Atem keeps merrily handing out penalty games all the way up to the very end of Duelist Kingdom. When he does finally stop doing them, his decision has nothing to do with Death-T. It takes a comment from Pegasus about the Millennium Items having an “evil intelligence” to make him wonder “wait…I’m from a Millennium Item…I’m an intelligence…could evil…maybe include…torture????”

And even after the manga lukewarmly reverses its position to “torture sort of bad I guess,” it never really does anything with that revelation. None of the past penalty games are ever reexamined. No apologies are made. The Experience of Death is quietly swept under the rug, and the Mind Crush, when it’s brought up at all, is framed as noble act that “fixed” Kaiba (because “if you make someone suffer badly enough, you can hurt them into being a better person” is a great message).

Basically, we learned nothing from Death-T, nothing changed, and our takeaway is supposed to be “Atem was 100% in the right and Kaiba was 100% in the wrong, and also he’s an evil monster who deserved everything he got.”

Guess I Need A Satisfying Conclusion of Some Kind Even Through Death-T Didn’t Really Have One, Huh

Wow.

That was…a whole lot of words of Death-T rage that I apparently had in me zjkghzkkf.

I tend to feel less justified about constantly harping on Death-T then I do when it comes to, like, the racism in Memory World, or the series’ general Miss O’Gyny. It’s not like “magical vigilantism” is exactly a real-word social issue that’s being reflected in this piece of fiction. I realize a lot of my anger pretty much boils down to “hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(”

But I also feel like the issues in Death-T aren’t limited to Death-T.

The manga has this…this thing where it wants to be able to pinpoint a few clear, unchanging moral rules (“cheating is bad!” “graverobbing is bad!” “patricide is bad!”) and just apply them neatly to every situation, without having to take into account any of that inconvenient stuff like “what were the circumstances of this specific situation,” or “how many choices were actually open to this person,” or “how much harm was done by this choice compared to its benefits in terms of basic human well-being.” Yet at the same time, that moral absolutism is somehow coupled with a reluctance to apply any moral judgement to its protagonists at all.

The two points where that becomes clearest are Death-T and Memory World. And I feel like even when people acknowledge the issues with those arcs, they still want to be able to write it off as “oh, that was just a problem with the early chapters, it was fixed as the writing matured,” or “oh, that was just a problem at the end because of the mad rush to finish the story before it got canceled, it was never a thing before then.” But it’s not an isolated problem. It’s there at the beginning of the story, it’s there at the end, and it’s baked into everything in the middle.

…but anyhow.

hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(

#'i like atem too and i ignore most of s0 bc of what it did to both their characters' disclaimer #long post #r...real long...#i am so sorry if the readmore doesn't work on mobile

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