I decided to have a go at doing my own redesigns because these three are my favourites and I love them very much. further notes + sources under the readmore (warning: lots of text). I did my best with the research, but if there's anything I overlooked, I'd really appreciate people letting me know :)

Tighnari:

My main source for Tighnari was this excellent thread, from which I looked up each item of clothing individually. Since djellabas tend to be quite long, and Tighnari needs mobility for forest ranger activities, I figured he would cut and re-hem the lower half. He also has a lot of clothing pieces that are traditionally multicoloured, but to keep his design cohesive I decided to use the same colours across different items, but using a larger palette of colours than I would usually. I like the bright colours on him a lot though!

There are also some minor details I just changed because I wanted to. The flower on his chest is now a nilotpala lotus, because I thought it was nice to include his acension material/the material he asks you to help gather. The dirt stains/scuff marks are because rainforests are muddy and I wanted the design to emphasise Tighnari being very practical and hands-on with his work (see also, the specimen belt).

Finally, I shrunk the magnifying glass on his back (because I'm pretty sure it's meant to be his first magnifying glass toy and that thing is very large for a child to handle) and gave him an undercut because it seemed right. Also, I merged his front and back trailing cloths into a scarf type of thing that he could wrap around his nose and mouth to prevent inhaling spores from mushrooms.

Collei:

COLLEI my beloved. I had a mild nightmare trying to figure out a specific source culture for her design, but nobody seemed to know specifics and her outfit wasn't matching with any traditional dress I looked up, so in the end decided to keep the overall look the same. Just in case I assigned her something else, but then it turned out I missed her actual inspiration.

Anyway, I made her shoes simpler (no fur, heels, and open toes in the rainforest seemed reasonable to me), and gave her shorts. I liked the green colour because it's pretty unique under a dark dress, and pairs nicely with Nahida's white dress + green undersides. Amber's tie stays, but I made most of her jewellery smaller since it felt a little clunky for a trainee ranger.

Her earring and necklace(?) are allusions to the Evil Eye and the Khmissa/Hamsa, both symbols of protection. Especially considering the fact they're meant to ward off evil, and very common across multiple MENA cultures, it seemed fitting for Collei to have them. Also, she has Eleazar scars, and I used the design for her stockings as inspiration for the combination knee braces (similar to those used for arthritis, since Eleazar also causes stiff limbs and I HC that people affected would probably still need some recovery support)/knee pads (in the case of a fall). I like the idea that Kaveh would have helped make them for her (tangent but the fic Here is the House explores similar ideas; it's really really good, I heavily recommend it). Finally, she has curly hair because I thought it would be cute.

Cyno:

Here's the thread I found for Cyno. The main critique was to do with the eras from which each aspect of his clothing drew inspiration, but I admittedly wouldn't be able to do much about this without a lot of research. One thing I did try and verify was the small strip of cloth on the left of his chest, and I found a few wall murals where the people seem to be wearing similar strips of cloth? (example here; rightmost figure) Therefore, I didn't remove it, but if someone wants to explain Ancient Egyptian clothing history to me I'd be really interested to hear it 6.6

I might iterate on the design in the future, but for now the changes are mostly HC territory. Cyno wearing his hair in locs (a protective hairstyle) makes sense for someone who does a lot of hiking after rogue scholars, and I also gave him quite old and faded top surgery scars because healthcare is canonically free in Sumeru (thanks for that information, al-Haitham)(though tbf Cyno makes bank anyway). I also adjusted the colours a bit, since Genshin tends to use desaturated shades for metallic elements.

I also considered giving Cyno more scars, but figured that it could indicate Hermanubis' presence that someone you'd expect to get injured a lot is relatively scar-free (i.e. some sort of godly healing factor/resistance to damage). However, we know next to nothing about Hermanubis, so Cyno having a lot of scars also makes sense. This paragraph is mostly just a cry for help cyno story quest 2 literally any more elaboration about the nature of Hermanubis' pact and the Temple of Silence.

Conclusion

I wasn't intending to write one when I started the explanations but this got REALLY long so if you made it this far, thank you so so much ToT please check out the links; the threads especially were a great resource, and I'm grateful that people take the time to make them <3 genshin's character design department are cowards but I'm glad I learned some new things through the redesign process

rambling headcanons under readmore

After rebuilding the hotel Lucifer moves in, wanting to help Charlie in whatever way he can. For Charlie’s sake, he’s going to try and get along with her friends somehow. What starts out as a trial in ‘not raising to any of that fucker’s insults’ becomes ‘alright, I can tolerate the Radio Demon’ then ‘okay, maybe Alastor is not THAT bad’ and somewhere along the line he starts to develop feelings for him.

Lucifer panics. He’s never felt anything like this since Lilith. She’s been gone for years, and he didn’t think he’d feel anything like this again. He decides that this is crazy, and if he just ignores it and pushes all these new feelings as far down as possible, they will go away.

They don’t.

And soon the whole damn hotel seems to know. This is extremely embarrassing, but the only one who’s opinion really matters to him is Charlie. Lucifer thought she’s be disappointed that he’s moving on from her mom. Charlie is not; she’s seen how depressed her father has been, how much he’s been struggling these last years, so if he can find happiness again, he should go for it! When Charlie starts pushing for him to ask Alastor out, Lucifer almost wishes she’d disapproved.

But ... perhaps he should do it. He’ll probably get a no, but maybe a humiliating rejection is what will finally snap him out of it. Maybe he can somehow move on then.

It turns out there was one person in the hotel who had not picked up on Lucifer’s feelings:

Alastor had no clue.

So, when Lucifer asks him out, his first thought is ‘is this some sort of trap?’ and the second is ‘oh. how can I use this?’

... so he says yes.

actually, proper answer now that i'm awake and have had some time to percolate lol. best thing armand did!

i should say this is kind of a tie for me because the person armand becomes with daniel is always going to be up there -- he didn't let him die, he gave daniel what he wanted, but more importantly he told him, and showed him, that he loved him, and just in general in their time together he allowed daniel to see so much of his real genuine vulnerability and cared for him and worried about him so much and that fucks me up!!

but!! the thing i actually wanted to mention is his homes! (this is maybe cheating a little bit because it isn't something he did, it's something he does, but whatever.) one of the things i love most about armand is that he's always creating these stable places and central points for everybody to congregate on. while a lot of the others are sort of nomadic and don't stay in touch and you don't really know where they are, he is always (as he says) "a canker in the very eye of the world". he's easy to find, he stays in one place and he uses his resources and his power to create these stable, lasting home bases and then opens his doors to others. he creates stability and then shares it in a way that really nobody else does.

and i think it's very interesting because this sort of stability is a character trait that (i think!) maybe most people would first and foremost think to associate with elders like maharet, or marius, when in actual fact, the truth is that neither of them has ever done that -- for their own disparate reasons they've always been highly reclusive, and have protected their own stability by staying out of touch with the rest of the vampire world, not opening their doors, and for the most part not helping anyone or intervening in anything in any way.

there's something fascinating and honestly poignant about like... armand, maybe subconsciously, running a household according to an ideal which (imo!) is based on marius, except that marius has never actually done that. not for vampires. and so in actual fact, this is something that armand has innovated; this actually comes from him, and is coloured by his experience with the covens (which marius has never shown anything but disdain for), and perhaps even beyond that, by his experience with the sense of community in monastic life (which really ditto).

i personally suspect that rather than praiseworthy, he probably sees this as ultimately pretty self-serving on his own part, because he has this longing for community that drives him to create these places, so he probably just sees it as something he does so that he won't have to be alone. and also, from the way he talks in late canon you get the sense that he rather sees himself as trying to atone, and as trying to emulate those who are better than him. when in fact he's doing something that nobody else is doing, and in many ways (imo) behaving more like a leader of a community than any of the characters that everyone else thinks ought to lead, like marius or lestat. not because they couldn't, but because neither of them has ever had the resources, capabilities, patience, and willingness to create something like that and then open it up.

and for a character who's been so lost, and has spent so much of his life feeling lost, feeling abandoned (and i think, right up until present day, still feels that way really), and has spent so much of his life looking for something to anchor his life to, without ever having the luxury of truly finding it, and having to just sort of go on anyway, keep living anyway -- for that character to be a stable anchor point for everybody else is something that really really gets me about him, maybe especially because i think he isn't fully aware of it himself.

Some (scary, Huge) fake peppi sketches i managed to get out recently

Ramblings under the cut heehee

Wanted to emphasize his HUGE and Hulking body. Hes got Similar movesets to the ingame fake peppino, but theyre fundamentally very Peppino-esque; he is strength and speed based just like Peppino instead of being (primarily) unpredictable and speedy. Thinking of the grab still being one handed but its more like him grabbing Peppinos shirt/body, and immediately chucking him against the wall (similar to peppinos two-armed grab)

The shouldercheck that Peppino does is mimicked with Fake Peppino using his hand as a mace/heavy weighted head weapon.

Runs up the wall on all fours instead of the regular run he does ingame (similar to Peppino using his hands to help with wall climbing)

He is INCREDIBLY loud and shrill during this fight; his voice echoes over itself and its very fast and unintelligible. Hes got very loud and nervous laughter bubbling up alongside the shrill screaming so its just NOT a fun time for Peppino at all.

He is normally very docile, but bc of some hcs I have wrt to him and pizzahead (and the tower overall), he is EXTREMELY stressed out and out of control when Peppino goes through his boss gate. Once he gets his ass handed to him AND he exhausts himself w the chase sequence, Fake Peppino is calmed down enough to think rationally again. And he has decided that Fighting Sucks and he would much rather just keep making pizzas lmao

(yoinking this from discord bc i do Not want to paraphrase lmao)

[I make my peppino SO hulking despite being short so i wanted to convey that same kind of Hugeness but like, if he had the extra height to go along w it Like peppino throws his weight around so i wanted fake peppino to do the same; hes very fast but also incredibly destructive and brutish]

[Im trying to find the best way to put it but like. In the same way getting angry gets u worked up and ur face gets hot and ur heart starts pumpin, the same thing will happen to fake peppino, only it translates into his body starting to bubble up and boil. Which looks AWFUL and it FEELS awful and it further aggravates him when hes burning up and falling apart So he will escalate very fast and essentially go blind w rage until he either passes out or gets knocked out]

[I want him to be a somewhat close parallel to peppino; act first think later. Everything makes him emotional and just like peppino, it will build up out of control very fast, and make him blow up in anger before he can think of a better way to handle it]

[ALSO wrt to fake peppino fighting i want the direction to be less ‘oh that is a weird freaking thing’ and more like ‘that a scary huge monster what the fuck IS that’ Like he makes the ground shake in his own pizzeria when hes chasing after peppino like hes throwing his weight around in such a way that makes him feel like the tank from left 4 dead. Big mans. Charges after peppino, misses; and where peppino would just bonk the wall, fake peppino makes a crater in the wall before shaking off the debris]

[hes not really throwing temper tantrums hes like. JUST as emotional and unable to ‘mask’ as peppino is but he does not have the 40+ years that peppino had to at least have the awareness to be ‘im destroying my own home’]

[I feel like. He is just as fast and strong as peppino, the difference being that peppino has Self Restraint, even if its not Alot And body limitations like breaking limbs n such, but fake peppino does not have that hindrance]

[He and peppino arent like emotionally unstable they are just incredibly volatile when under immense stress. Like most people!! Peppino is just under maximum stress 24/7 and fake peppi is a brand spankin new peppino that finds everything raw and stressful

(From a tagentially related convo)

[hes got a weirdass hobbled together nervous system (since u always see those nervous system diagrams laid out w a floating brain lol)

Its very human like but also inconsistent in some places ie he can feel pain but not All the time. The human body is very VERY complex and theres so many things working together to make shit happen. A nervous system but no bones to help hold it up and send it through the body; its floating in doughy goop ALL the time. His skin isnt Real skin so it doesnt have the same kind of like. Setup to easily receive pain and touch overall. Stretching his body out makes it hard to actually access the nerves so hes often unaware of Pain. But he can Feel things happen. I dunno]

[(responding to the idea of Fake Peppino getting hit with something blunt vs getting impaled or stabbed and grazing his nervous system)

[YES its like literally hitting a raw exposed nerve. The same pain youd get from a fucked up tooth i think however, if u managed to do that his instinct to protect himself would go haywire and hed literally try to maim you or die trying. He has no built in shock response to extreme pain like a normal human does]

more survive!mine shit. refs n misc doodle stuff Also a lil bonus for Halloween under the readmore (...blood tw)

i am not interested in romance i am interested in characters that hate each other so much they want to fuck about it

trans femme/nb dedue

is a headcanon i hold close to my heart

he is at minimum strongly gender-nonconforming -- despite the protective shell (literal; it's made of steel plate and chain) he wears, his key interests are cooking, gardening, and sewing. this is not someone who aspires to be the big manly protector. moreover, he never talks about his relationship with his dad; if his bio page didn't mention that he was a blacksmith we would know nothing about the man. dedue only ever talks about his relationships with his mother and sister, and how that shaped his interests and the way he prefers to connect with people even now -- especially now that it serves as a way to preserve their memories. his mother taught him to cook.

in his ideal life, Dedue gets to stay home and make sure the people he loves can come home to good food and warm clothes and beautiful things ... but that life was severed at the root, right at the time where gender and sexuality start becoming increasingly unavoidable; there will always be the question of who Dedue would have been in that other, peaceful world, and it will never be answered

headcanon -- at fourteen Dedue was just starting to run into the mounting pressure to join his father as a blacksmith, and, correspondingly, running into his instinctive reluctance/resistance to do so. at the time Dedue didn't yet understand why, and couldn't verbalize what was wrong, and his dad is -- was -- even quieter by nature than Dedue, so it remained this unspoken but increasing tension. sooner or later it would have had to break, and they might have had a fight about it or it might have resolved more quietly; Dedue knows -- he thinks he's certain -- that his dad loved him, and that ultimately that would have mattered more than having A Son™ ...

... but he'll never get to know.

maybe in that other world he would have grown into a woman. maybe, with a version of masculinity he didn't find abhorrent, he could still have been a man. maybe he would have settled between, or two the side, or never been asked to define himself in that way at all.

but in the world-that-is, the world of the Tragedy, where he's the last surviving Molinaro and right hand to the crown prince of Faerghus, he's not exactly given time or space to think about his gender. in the aftermath, embedded in the heart of Faerghan power, still very much a grieving, terrified child, his preferred presentation is "whatever's safest," and he's trying his hardest not to have an identity at all. he's submerged in Faerghan masculinity -- in the standards of Faerghan masculinity applied to its nobles -- which is inextricable from Knighthood™ and which prizes violence, and that is absolutely not helping. it's hard to make any concrete statements about the version of masculinity Dedue was raised with, but I think it's safe to say it was very different. and Faerghan manhood is absolutely not something Dedue aspires to.

and that state of affairs holds until the timeskip, where he gets five years to finally reconnect with other Duscur people, other survivors, out of Dimitri's shadow and away from the constant crushing threat of Fódlan's nobility -- five years to reconstruct a sense of safety and a sense of self; to live as part of a community, in (relative) peace; to start thinking about who he wants to be, not just what.

& then ... ?

i think, if you asked him, and if he thought you were worth an honest answer, Dedue would say that he's not sure whether or not he's a man, but he did (does) want to be a wife.

in the world-that-is, rejecting manhood & claiming femininity is a private rejection of the world that assumes of him -- & thereby demands -- masculinity-as-violence, and stoicism, and sacrifice. it puts space between him and the outward-facing self he's constructed; it frees more space for the heart he keeps secret, separate and protected. the part of himself that is safe, and untouchable, and unassailably his own. it's a claim to the softness, warmth, and fragility that Faerghus denies not just him but everyone around him, that it refuses to acknowledge is necessary or absent. it asserts that he is not expendable; his duty is not to inflict and endure violence; he can be beautiful, and precious, and worthy and deserving of protection

i don't think he'd ever be 'out' to more than a handful of people -- his partner(s), his absolute closest friends. Maybe more amongst the people who saved him, but not many. Not so much out of fear or repression -- Dedue is just a private person by nature, which is unfortunate, given that he's found himself in an extremely public position. He prides himself on being a cipher to strangers (check his B-support with Sylvain); he prefers to keep very tight control over who knows anything personal about him, especially given how much of his life is in the public eye. He sure as hell does not want a whole continent's worth of people feeling entitled to an explanation of his gender which most of them won't get anyway. Knowing things about Dedue is a privilege and it is not one he grants lightly.

To whatever extent she's a woman -- i don't think she could define it herself; self-knowledge is not one of Dedue's strong suits -- it's reserved for the few people she feels truly safe with

miscommunication

WIP! Coming soon

how do ppl even post or talk abt their og loz and oc stuff without the Dread seeping in . you know what i mean

hi kiri What’s the deal with a3’s timeloop day. you shouldn’t be surprised that I am asking this. okay I love you bye

ok this is actually a pretty simple answer! but i got rambly so here's a readmore.

A3! (which stands for Act! Addict! Actors! <- don’t ask me why it’s this. idk) is a gacha game where you play as the manager, Izumi Tachibana (I’m doing first name, last name here) and you work to revive a dying theater company called Mankai. there’s 3 Acts, each with like, 4 big stories in them. and a bunchhhh of shorter event storiess which imo are crucial to experience. The first 2 acts, along with the interceding events, have been completely localized, and were run on the now-defunct English server. There is, however, an archive—if at any point in time you are ever interested, feel free to shoot me a message. And I’m serious. Even if it’s like two years later. It’s been like almost 3 years since I started going thru a3 and I haven’t even finished act 2. I’m slow

Anyways, Act 1 deals with establishing the company—in its former glory, there used to be four troupes that rotated by season. Izumi’s dad also used to run it, and he disappeared. So that’s why there’s four big stories each act: it’s one per season. In Act 1, each story deals with gathering the members for each season troupe together, and then pulling off their first play. And it also deals with like, the issues all the characters are facing. It is like, within the yumejoshi genre so there’s definitely that vibe of like. wow look at all these pretty boys who are kind of into me!? but I think it’s pretty mild on that point and like. something I enjoy is that I can see Izumi as like. an actual Character as opposed to just a self-insert. Which is nice. but the real selling point for me is that there’s a lot of like, found family and rich character dynamics within the cast. It is even homosexual sometimes.

One thing I find really interesting about a3 is that I think it has really strong character writing and development. And it’s really good at establishing different “moods” across each troupe, which works well in creating dynamics and also because each troupe specializes in something different. So spring is like, the “classic” troupe—they tend to do lots of reinterpretations of classic works, though that’s not exclusively their thing… but anyways. they do like. nice fantastical stories in my opinion. Summer does comedy, autumn does action, and winter does drama. and winter HAS drama.

Now up until winter there’s been some wackiness in a3 but it’s been like, pretty grounded in how it’s played out. and then winter rolls around and. see the issue with winter is that unlike some of the younger members they’re all composed of adults. so they’re bad at talking about their feelings, because instead of just shouting things out loud they will just shut down and like. Leave. I love this about them and I think it’s such a good writing choice.

Enter Tasuku Takato and Tsumugi Tsukioka. Tasuku and Tsumugi used to be like, the best of friends. they acted together and followed their passions together. and then they both auditioned for the God Troupe together, which is this prestigious famous troupe (it’s also evil.) and while tasuku got in and became one of the lead actors, tsumugi failed his audition. This left a deep scar on Tsumugi, who ended up kind of running away from acting as a vocation all together. now, Tasuku quit the God troupe because they were engaging in some shady stuff, and ended up joining Mankai along with Tsumugi, who coincidentally was inspired to try acting again. tsumugi’s been elected the leader of winter troupe, and therefore the person who’s meant to take the lead role in their first play. Tasuku is constantly snapping at him whenever he’s unconfident, and it’s just not great vibes. To top it all off, they’ve been issued a challenge by the God troupe, where they’ll both perform and the audience has to vote on which play they like better. Tsumugi is not really confident he can stand up to them for obvious reasons. Tasuku gets mad at him about it. Tsumugi runs into this weird doll, and the next day, they wake up in a time loop.

See, the thing is, they’re on such a tight deadline for the play, and winter is So Bad at talking about their feelings, that magic is real now. this is somewhat of an oversimplification, but it’s funny to say it like this. Anyways, there are like, seven mysteries in Mankai (have I mentioned they all dorm together! they all do! Each of them has a roommate and they all live in a big dorm that’s connected to their own theater and stage. It’s part of why they’re in such big debt and trouble at the beginning—its really hard to maintain those facilities) and one of them is about this doll that will put you in a time loop unless you become friends. essentially. And this is what happens… eventually they end up talking to each other for real due to the time loop, and each affirms just how much they respect the acting of the other. later on when Tsumugi slips back into being unconfident tasuku is able to resolve his past mistakes, because part of why he was so angry at Tsumugi was also because he was angry at himself for like. not reaching out. And telling him how much he loved him and his acting. Because their styles are very different—tasuku is loud and commanding, and Tsumugi is a more understated and subtle.

A3 is also very very cool in that parts of its plays mirror real life? so like. this play, sympathy for an angel, has two leads: Michael (Tsumugi) and Raphael (Tasuku). In it, Michael becomes interested in this woman on a list of people who are about to die, and ends up visiting the human world. He writes letters to her. His friend, Raphael, warns him against this, saying that he’s foolish for going so far for someone he can’t even meet. And each time he steps into the human world, his own soul gets weaker, and his wings begin to wither. Still, he persists against objections. Eventually, the woman recovers, gets a fiancé, and he returns to heaven. Thinking he’ll just wish for her happiness even with his unrequited love, he looks at the list and finds out that despite recovering, she’s still on the close to death list. Despite the danger to himself, he descends into the human world, and takes her place in a car accident. As he’s dying, his soul about to be obliterated because he’s been in the human world too often, Raphael descends and holds him in his arms. Michael says that he’s happy he got to do something for the person he loves, and he’s happy to be held by his best friend. Raphael says that though he’d called Michael the fool, it was him that truly was one: because he stood by, unable to protect both the person he loves and his best friend. Because he was in love with Michael the whole time of course. And then Michael dies in his arms. Now this makes me weepy as does the accompanying character song but what I really love most about it is like. Raphael’s regrets in that he didn’t protect Michael kind of directly mirror Tasuku’s own regrets in being unable to help Tsumugi when he was going through a tough time? only Tsumugi isn’t dead and so Tasuku has an actual chance to fix things, which is sweet.

It should be mentioned that one guy in the spring troupe WRITES all of these plays which is deeply funny to me bc it means that 1) he is probably gay and doesn’t know this and 2) he has precognitive abilities regarding the inner psyche of all of his castmates. and that’s a3 timeloop day. some of these a3 characters have me by the throat btw I just get beamed visions of them chatting and introspecting like constantly. I definitely haven’t explained everything but I think this is enough?

Is there anything that causes you lmk brainrot that you weren’t asked about yet? :o

Cause I absolutely love reading your analysis’ and/or your scattered thoughts. If so, this is a demand that you share with the class! No matter what it is!

I'm going to use this as an opportunity to go on a rant about 2x08! It's one of my favorite eps in the whole show and I'd love to talk about why that is.

I wanna talk about Sandy destroying the bear mountain. Can we talk about Sandy destroying the bear mountain? Let's start with Sandy destroying the Bear Mountain:

This alone contributes so much to not only the ep itself but to the hurt/pain motif (or theme) in the show as a whole. Sandy is the gentle giant who doesn't want to fight, mainly because he doesn't want to use his strength to hurt anyone or anything. We see this resolve all the way in the AHIB special:

Sandy: "That's a lot to take in. You know what I do to people who disrupt the peace? Serve them tea! [...] But I'm tellin' you now old friend: if things get hairy, I've changed. I don't go around picking fights no more!"

And it's the first thing he attempts with the Huntsman:

But, the Huntsman presses all the right buttons, Sandy snaps, and because he does so destruction follows (specifically the destruction of that beautiful Bear Mountain that brought him so much awe before, which he has now removed from the world), and it's proof of what Curse MK speaks of:

Curse MK: "Such pitiful creatures. Cowardly, reckless, monstrosities—all doomed to play a role in tearing this world apart, to cause nothing but chaos and destruction."

(4x07 Pitiful Creatures)

-

It's proof of what even MK speaks of:

MK: "No matter what I do, it's going to lead to pain. It's like the Lady Bone Demon said—it doesn't matter if I want to help people or not, everything I do just- it just makes things worse!"

(4x08 The Brotherhood)

-

BUT, the same "Better than we found it" s4 philosophy still applies here, and the first thing Sandy does is check on the surrounding animals and then the crimson jimsonweed:

Even if there was some destruction, the creatures of this forest all made it out okay. And ultimately, because Sandy was there he was able to get what he needed to save MK.

The 2x08 conflict also parallels two other fights in the show: Both Sha Wujing V Pigsy in 4x06 and Azure V MK in 4x13 (I think this flips towards the end of the fight, with it becoming more like MK V Azure). Each fight pushes one half of the conflict to the "breaking point" (Sandy, Pigsy, MK, then Azure) and in-turn revealing something quite monstrous within each of them. (("What's wrong, isn't this what you wanted?" - "You wanna see a monster, I can show you a monster!" - "Well alright then." - "No, this isn't what I wanted!")

The way Sandy explodes and destroys his own clothing in 2x08 reminds me of how MK does the exact same thing in 4x13 Rip and Tear:

And I think some of what Sha Wujing says is easily applicable to all 3 situations:

Sha Wujing: "But you were too weak to be who you truly are! I am a monster! That's what the world wants me to be, so that's what I'm gonna give 'em!" ((Curse MK: "You can't escape it. This thing, whatever you are, embrace it. Embrace your destiny.")) [[The Huntsman: "All it took to bring out the beast was smacking around some of your woodland friends ey?"]]

-

All 3 fights come down to what the attacker wants from the defender (who then turns into an attacker lol). The Huntsman wants Sandy to go berserk out of pure dark curiosity. Sha Wujing wants to "see a monster", want's Pigsy to give him a true fight. Azure wants MK to turn on Wukong and understand why Wukong isn't worth his loyalty. All attackers end up failing, in their own ways.

And I just think it's neat!

I especially think it's super neat that the Huntsman wanted Sandy to be a monster, ("What's wrong, isn't this what you wanted?") but ultimately Sandy proved he wasn't. Sha Wujing in contrast wanted to prove he was a monster, because "that's what the world [wanted him] to be", and almost did before Mo stepped in.

So next season (or just eventually), I really am hoping for some Sandy backstory! I have my OG Sandy is Current Sandy theory, but I'll love anything they give me. Sandy went through some pre-series character development, and I want to know what was and why it was! MK feels like he's currently following in Sandy's footsteps (in a way), so I'm thinkin' Sandy will be instrumental in helping MK with his current Monkey Form conundrums (or at least in my dreams he will be). Sandy's "No!" during 4x13 when MK explodes into his Monkey Form haunts me, and I'm always one to stand in front of my conspiracy board!

Bonus parallel:

Sandy: "Hurting others isn't a measure of one's strength—took me a really long time to realize that. As long as I'm doing something to help out a friend, I don't mind what it is! I just want to be there for 'em when they need me."

(2x08 To Catch A Leaf)

-

MK: “You don’t know! We’d risk it for sure! I won’t abandon them when they need us.”

(4x02 New Adventures)

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my brother sent me surprise box of a bunch of OP goodies!!!! 😭😭😭😭

The starting decks had alot of characters I like in em!! 😁😁😁😁 and he put a stack of cards under the E/nel leader one too!! its a bunch of my faves as well, like he put all the mink characters too!! 😭😭😭 I dont wanna spam the post since its alot but ahhhhh it's so cool!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 And those card sleeves are like custom!!! so he picked out that image of E/nel specifically for me 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

Also we have a inside/running joke about Marco so that's why he is there,, so him being the first thing when I opened the box killed me 😂😂😂

this is just me rambling mostly about myself sorry. but i hate how much it Sucks having a completely invisible and often totally unrecognized+dismissed disability 🥲 like i have non-24 hour sleep-wake disorder and it makes it impossible for me to keep a normal schedule (when ive had to - ie when i attended school, or if i were to work any regular job - id get so sleep deprived i couldnt wake myself up and/or would become too drained to function) but circadian rhythm disorders are full on seen as nonexistent by a majority of the population and those that do know of them often think its just "being a night owl" and you "can just work through it with a little discipline". so access to a diagnosis and/or accomodations is virtually nonexistent and i basically just have to either constantly deprive myself of sleep and permanently wreck my health or just put my entire life on hold for almost a third of every month. and im fortunate enough to have a job that (somewhat) allows me to work flexible hours and generally lets me work only the days im awake to, but because of my disorder being so invisible i know that from the perspective of everyone else there i just look like a guy with unpredictable attendance who comes in at inconsistent times and often only stays for like three hours, with nothing at all that makes it obvious that its because of a fucking disability. so to almost everyone that doesnt intimately know me, for the rest of my life, i will look like nothing but a profoundly lazy and unreliable individual. and it sucks!! and it makes me so mad!!! and its hard to face the fact that even what i CAN do still isnt enough so i constantly have to break my fucking back and put a lot of strain on my body just to meet like what are considered bare minimum standards. im constantly walking on thin ice because there is just no understanding from people of what things are like when you have a lifelong disabling condition that cant be fixed. and i still have it relatively easy! bcos during the times when im functional during the day i have pretty much no issues doing so. but for people with an invisible disability that affects their ability to function or work All The Time theyre Still often held to the same standards as everyone else because of perceptions of what "being disabled" is and basically i just really really hate how society treats invisible disabilities. fuck. its not fair or sustainable its literally killing people

"LOVE IS REAL AND MOTHMAN IS REAL ALSO"

[some discussion with @natdrinkstea yesterday has led to the imagining-up of a Quest For A Legendary Chuck Tingle-Related Artifact, and who am I but a guy who cannot resist a silly idea when they see one?]

Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

Spoilery stuff regarding Heine's past from vol. 14 look out below!!

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I love their different reactions to this dilemma. I vote for Licht's approach. You know what let's do a poll below the readmore

So you've found out your tutor might have been a criminal