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superb-fox · 6 months

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I wanna talk about how Sousou no Frieren treats heroes and demons, because in my opinion it's masterfully done.

We really only learn about one hero, Himmel. Sure there's the Hero of the South but what do we really know about him besides he had future sight and he died? I'll focus on Himmel. I think what sets Himmel apart is how he acts, in typical hero stories they're portrayed as kind, strong, willing to do what's right, all that nice stuff and while I do think those are good traits for a hero, Himmel is shown differently. We almost never see him fight, every time we see him it is in relation to an action he took that influenced people for the better. He takes on countless detours and quests because he can't turn down people in need, every where he goes he's doing good, when people talk about him they never talk about how strong he was or how cool he was it's always about how his act(s) of kindness changed their lives. They're happier, better people because he came through their town. He changes everywhere he goes for the better because of who he is and how he acts. He quite literally changed the world not because he killed the demon king, but because everywhere he went he improved people's lives, and those people because they are better change more people's lives and it spreads and spreads and spreads until the world is better. From random towns people to our main characters, everyone is better because of him. Look at Frieren for example, a complete stoic who before Himmel just was living her life in the woods doing whatever. But after? She takes on an apprentice, travels from place to place continuing the good Himmel did, she learned so much kindness from him in the relatively short time they spent together. Pre-hero party Frieren would have gone to a town, blended into the background, and moved on. But now? She's taking on quests, helping people, and making lives brighter. Why? In her own words it's what Himmel would have done. Fern owes her life to Himmel despite never meeting him because Heiter took her in because that's what Himmel would have done. Frieren looks after her after Heiter's passing because that's what Himmel would have done. Think of all the good she's doing traveling with Frieren just because of that! It ripples outward forever because of a great hero's influence. In other words, he's not a hero because of his great feats or his power, it's because of who he was and that's how you write a truly great hero.

Now let's talk about demons. People with third grade reading comprehension have made the comparison to real life peoples. That the text is saying that demons being just an irredeemable evil race is racist and compare it to how in real life people do that to justify genocide, but this cannot be further from the truth. Demons in this world are an offshoot of humans like elves and dwarves are. They're similar enough to look like humans, speak like humans, their magic is something special to them but similar enough that with study humans can use it just as well. However demons are truly the farthest thing from humanity you could be. The best way to describe them is how when you see two animals that look so similar but they're in entirely different evolutionary families. How a rabbit and a hare look similar but are so SO very different. Demons are closer to animals in that they do what they can to survive. They trick, they deceive, they hunt. These are not evil things, this is nature. A lion is not evil for hunting in packs to eat one antelope, a bird is not evil for walking a certain way to imitate rain and attract a worm. However when it's applied to something that looks and acts so incredibly human it can be seen that way. The lion ganging up on someone is not a fair fight, the bird is lying to and tricking the worm, these are absurd statements. Demons are a divergent evolution of humanity that cannot comprehend the traits that make us human but will use them to hunt us. They do not understand malice or bonds or guilt or love, they are solitary beings that understand power and magic. They biologically cannot understand it, them learning these emotions is like if a cat suddenly sprouted tentacles, it just can't happen. But because they lack the very traits that make us human while looking so human, they appear evil to us. How could something so human-like act so inhuman? Perform such evil acts without a seconds thought? But they're not evil, they can't even understand evil. Them using maternal love to have someone drop their guard and become easy prey is such a basic thing like waking up in the morning they cannot comprehend why people think it's bad. The problem isn't that one is evil and one is good, it's that evolution set these two species on such polar opposite courses that they truly can never understand each other. Yet they're still so close that there's always that feeling of that things could be worked out, that these two peoples can co-exist, but it is just biologically impossible. And that's tragic, that's heart breaking, for one species to exist peacefully the other must die. These beings so close to us yet so far must die. There's no way around it, no negotiating, no compromise, evolution and nature have played this sick dance to pit these two brothers against each other and it absolutely should hurt your soul, but it must happen.

#sousou no frieren #frieren: beyond journey's end #frieren at the funeral #frieren the slayer

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lalalian · 1 month

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futuristic dr ideas pt.1 : jobs

date: march 24, 2024 (technically march 25, it's 2 AM rn)

If you're interested in more futuristic dr things, I posted a video on tiktok with more futuristic stuff

A lot of this stuff is inspired the things I've read in cyberprep books!

disclaimer: none of my ideas are made by AI, sometimes I may be aided by AI to get inspired (especially with civilizations). If I do use AI somewhere in my ideas I’ll be sure to let you guys know!

World Acclimatizer

Also known as an ‘Acclimaitzer’

These help people move to other planets by aiding them in adapting to either living in space or living on different planets. World Acclimatizers often work closely with primary care doctors, and are extremely well-versed in non-earthly sicknesses and the effects space has on the human body. Realtors from other planets will always refer their clients to an Acclimatizer if the house is located on another planet.

Planetary Humanitarian

Planetary Humanitarians promote natural and peaceful development in other planets. These people typically advocate for limited human interaction with other life, some even going as far as to never stepping off earth. Planetary Humanitarians tend to dislike Civilization Examiners.

Cybernaut

Cybernauts work with techspace (technology relating to space) engineers to test out products. These people are often pretty popular in the media sphere because, as I mentioned earlier, many engineers are inclined to sponsor them. Cybernauts can frequently be seen in AR Gaming hubs and Cyber parkour arenas (more about those in the tiktok linked to this post)

Cybernetic Designer

Cybernetic body parts are designed by these people. These parts are not designed to look realistic like the prosthetic parts we see today. Most designers specialize in a body part, the most popular one being the left arm. Cybernetic designers are not licensed in creating full body AI androids, but they can create parts for androids.

Android Engineer

Android Engineers obviously do have some sort of license to make androids, but there are different tiers to an android making license:

Limited 2D Design: Very similar to character ai or j.ai bots, these bots do not have a physical form and can only be spoken to through text. They may have voices or a 2D body.

AR Immersive Experience: Like love and deepspace but with AR, you can feel, hear, and taste the android only through AR goggles. Some android engineers make their own goggles to allow their customers to feel a more personalized experience with new features. Why is this a completely different tier from 2D design? There's more room for corruption both mentally and digitally (hacking). The AI that makes the bots act so human can make the bot become too sentient, which could make them want to break free from the simulation.

Small Non-Human Physical Design: Most people with this license make android pets. Dogs are obviously the most popular, but jelly fish and vampire squids are popular these days. This license requires more training than the AR experience degree because these androids exist in the physical world.

Non-Human Physical Design: Designers with this license are not always involved in the abstract or purely artistic sphere. Many make hyper realistic android animals to blend in with the environment to either monitor species development, observe other planet-life in a non-invasive way, or encourage certain behaviors in animals. Even if the creature is not considered large, designers who plan to enter this field of design must earn this license because of this job requires complex AI design and ultra realistic visuals.

Non-Interactive Human Design: Designers with this tier do not create androids with crazy complex AI models. These androids are often displayed in museums, and are no where near sentient enough to even speak outside of a few lines, if that.

Life-like Interactive Human Design: This is the highest tier. People with this license often advocate for equality amongst humans and androids. Anyone with this license should exercise caution when making their androids, as talented designers can make androids that are so indistinguishable from humans that they become acknowledged as civilians rather than 'product'. Reports against designers with these license are taken extremely seriously.

Civilization Examiners

I'm planning to have a DR with this job kekekeke. I'll tell y'all storytimes if I can get myself to focus on shifting instead of scripting 😞

There's two kinds of civilization examiners: public or non-public. Public examiners assist journalists and researchers after living for days, weeks, months, or even years on a different planet. They collect data like plants, animals, environmental samples, and most importantly, get as much information as possible about other civilizations. Civilization Examiners are required to be at least semi- decent artists because they need to be able to draw what they see. They are required to come back with information about the civilization's culture, religious customs, traditions, language, fashion, appearance, parenting style, government, and more importantly, alliance potential.

edit: I forgot to talk abt non-public examiners 😭 non-public examiners work for the government and are apart of the CIA. Public examiners research about alliance potential, but not nearly as intensely as gov examiners.

istg more shifters need to talk about their futuristic drs :(

#reality shifting #shiftblr #shifters #shifting blog #shifting community #shifting diary #scripting #desired reality #lalalian

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saltydkdan · 9 months

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Thoughts on Strohiem? (From Jojo)

It’s… rough. I have OPINIONS ABOUT HIM.

For those unaware, or have forgotten. This particular ask is about the character of Rudol von Stroheim from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. A Nazi Major that is introduced in Part 2 of the series. I have always wanted a proper moment to spotlight how much I dislike this character. And not just how I dislike him as a character, but how I dislike his general inclusion in the story as well.

Listen, I LOVE this series. But even I have my limits. It’s because I love it so much that I critique aspects like this in the first place.

Warning, I’m about to word vomit about this because I’ve been DYING to talk about this somewhere.

BIG DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and mine alone. I know there’s a lot of… interesting anime fans out there that might disagree. I’m not here to debate on stuff like this, I don’t want to hear your contradictory thoughts on the subject. If I see a single person say I’m “virtue signaling” by saying I don’t like the Jojo Nazi character, I am going to mail you a pipe bomb (in the hit game Minecraft for Windows PCs)

Stroheim’s existence (or at least, how he currently exists in the story) is not handled all that well in my opinion. Like… not at all. I like to poke fun at it, but I genuinely think Araki fumbled the bag so hard with Stroheim and it's more and more unbelievable the more I think about it over time.

No matter how you shake it, Araki fully wrote a historically accurate Nazi character into Battle Tendency and proceeded to give him a redemption arc and make him a member of the supporting cast. Now of course, I know that Japan has a fascination with a lot of German stuff, so within that context I can kind of get why he exists in the way that he does, but it just feels weird and in bad taste.

Contextually, it makes sense. Do I like it? No. No I do not.

To address the elephant in the room, I get it. Araki really loves to write evil villain characters, and then having them be redeemed, or switch over to the hero's side after a certain point. I actually really enjoy this trope especially in Jojo! It’s one of my favorites. Especially how it’s handled in Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable.

However, writing a redemption storyline for characters like Okuyasu and Rohan is fundamentally different from writing one for Stroheim.

First and most obviously, unlike other characters, Stroheim’s whole character is based on an actual real life totalitarian extremist hate group who committed horrible atrocities across history (and still does to this day).

As if that wasn’t enough, he quite LITERALLY commits horrible atrocities ON SCREEN. Sacrificing an entire room of innocent people to Santana (the first of the Pillar Men) so that the German’s can awaken and study him in their secret lab.

Everything about Stroheim feels like it’s very intentional at the start. He is clearly set as a villain from the beginning, and it works fine. However once he self-immolates and blows himself up to destroy Santana, the story seems to continuously frame him more and more as an ally/hero from that point onward.

After he returns with his cyborg body, the fact that he’s a Nazi suddenly takes a back seat and now he’s continuously just framed as a “patriotic” soldier. Legit, the moment after he shows back up, Joseph internally comments on how he’s “not exactly a bad guy”.

Some people will argue on how it’s a bit more complicated than that, since Joseph also thinks about how he dislikes that he’s a German Soldier. But directly after this, he also states how he’s still happy Stroheim isn’t dead. If anything, from this point onward Joseph acts towards Storheim in a similar way to how he acts towards Caeser. Even if they aren’t best friends, Joseph still has positive feelings towards Stroheim, and I hateeeee that.

In the anime, they even make sure to call him a “German Soldier” and not a Nazi. The avoidance of that word really struck me as them trying to avoid that subject because they knew the way the character was treated was strange.

So anyway, as I was trying to say. Redeeming villain characters is one thing, but redeeming a villain character that is straight up a literal Nazi is something else entirely. Especially when like, not to nitpick, but Stroheim never walks back the more extremist beliefs that he for sure subscribes to.

-And if you’re one of those weirdos who tries to make a point by saying “well, he never outright says what he actually believes in! Maybe he is just fighting for Germany for his own reasons.”

My dude, he’s literally described as a “Patrotic Nazi”. What the fuck do yoU THINK HE BELIEVES IN?

Also as a final addition to this rant, I also don’t quite like how weirdly normalized that Araki makes the existence of “german soldiers” in his story even outside of Stroheim. Nazi’s are weirdly commonplace throughout the plot, and while it contextually makes sense since they kicked off the main conflict, they are almost always weirdly painted as neutral or even straight up good guys (after the Santana fight). Which is just really strange to me.

Like bruh, you mean to tell me that Caeser fucking Zeppeli is casually frieNDS WITH ONE OF THEM? BE FUCKIN FR ARAKI LOL

It also sucks how Stroheim is so increasingly present leading up to the final act. Like MAN, GET THIS MOTHERFUCKER OFF THE SCREEN.

The only good thing about the inclusion of Nazi’s after Stroheim’s initial sacrifice, is that we get to see the Pillar Man murk a shit ton of them on screen. Like, fuck yeah dude. A great way to power scale and show how powerful the Pillar Men are as antagonists, without me feeling bad that they killed a bunch of people to do so.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents that nobody asked for. I still LOVE Jojo, I think it’s a masterpiece of its genre, but it’s because of my intense love for it that I criticize it’s missteps so heavily. I hope that my wording on this post is done well, I had to re-draft it a second time after accidentally deleting it once, so I have a feeling it’ll come off a bit scrambled.

That being said, thanks for the Ask!

#saltydkdan #salty asks #jojos bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre adventure #long boys

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preciouslittletoonette · 4 months

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I was just thinking about the Wish concept art and the whole worry of "Star being too similar/compared a lot to Genie". I was thinking about all the different ways they could've or even would've like, lessen the comparisons by just changing certain things.

Genie is a zany, verbally loud, fast-talking comedian type wish granter who can immediately summon things with a snap and a point of his finger. He's a cosmically powerful being bound to certain rules and the whims of his master (at least in the first film) along with the restraints the lamp has on him that only allows him to grant three wishes per master. This is the basic layer of what and who Genie is, this is what the least invested audience member would notice.

So with all of this in mind, we can now use this to both deconstruct and reconstruct Star as a character.

Starting with the established thing: Star is verbally mute, that already removes the verbally loud, fast-talking comedian edge Genie is known for. I can even push it and say on a surface level, that's a stark enough of a difference, seeing as Genie's draw was that he was such a zany fast-talker voiced by Robin Williams (RIP King). But I want to go all the way in so I will.

Now for their powers and wish-granting abilities.

Both Star and Genie should be/are cosmically powerful. They are both beings that grant wishes after all. That'll always be something they share as characters. So how do you make it different from each other?

I have a few things in mind. The biggest thing being: what are the limits of their abilities? How do their wish granting powers manifest? What is their attitude and general behavior like when they use magic?

I already mentioned Genie's limits above. I'll get to Star's soon but that's gonna be an entire talk I want to leave for later. For now, I will talk about how do their wish granting powers manifest.

When Genie grants wishes, it's a very instantaneous BOOM in your face kind of deal. He does things dramatically with comedic flair.

I think to make Star different from that, you can draw inspiration from another Disney wish granter that I'm really surprised Disney didn't do more to reference her or the movie she's from: the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio.

So the way Blue Fairy grants wishes for those who haven't seen Pinocchio in forever or haven't seen it at all: the Blue Fairy- rather than instantaneously granting your wish as Genie would- would give you the means and path towards your wish coming true, but in order for your wish to really come true, you yourself gotta have that drive, put in the effort and work towards your wish.

That's how Star's wish magic should work. While, he could still grant impossible, extraordinary wishes like make animals talk and give plants sentience, yeah. But I think it would be interesting along with being meaningful to see Star set up a path for someone's wish to come true. It could spark a small discussion between him and Asha about wishes and how one is to truly go about them. Star gets into the real truth of what his powers are like that basically comes down to:

"My powers will only go as far as the wish maker themselves are willing to go"

Which now brings us to what is Star's limit? Genie is limited by rules of the lamp and the whims of his master. Star has no such thing as he is a free being. He owes no one anything and he's bound to nothing, leaving him with no rules other than the ones he himself placed on himself. So, he's got to be possibly very powerful. And he probably could grant everyone's desires. But he won't/can't. Why?

Because it's your wish. And Star can only go as far as you yourself are willing to go. This isn't a meet half way type of thing either.

This is a "we are travelling to your destination TOGETHER. We are both gonna work on this TOGETHER. You are gonna put the work in from start to finish and I am going to help you get there no matter how long it takes or how much we'll lose along the way".

Because THIS is what classic Disney movies are about!!! THIS IS HOW WISHES WORKED IN THE CLASSIC MOVIES. YOU DIDN'T JUST WISH UPON A STAR AND YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE, YOU HAD TO GO ON JOURNEYS, PUT IN EFFORT AND MAKE SACRIFICES.

Star would be willing to go the mile to make your wish come true, but you got to be the one to lead him there.

Now for the more fun bit that'll lean in more to what Star's personality might be like. Their behavior as they do magic.

Genie is explosive in such a way that he is constantly buzzing with pent up energy that came from years of imprisonment and isolation and his magic reflects that. It is fast and wild and funny to watch.

I like to think Star's is a more relaxed, ethereal version of that. Not so ethereal, you would think of Blue Fairy when you see it though. But Star's magic gets released in a sparkly, dusty way (like pixie dust almost) as opposed to Genie's zap and puff of smoke.

Another way to differentiate Star from Genie, I think Star's gotta have lower energy than what Genie has. Genie's energy comes from years of imprisonment that bubbled and finally exploded once released. Star, I don't think would have that. Star is a star, it is very likely he could see what was happening in the world below but not really be able to interact with humans. Once he gets down to Rosas, he wants to see and touch everything. He's quietly curious with a child-like spark to him, who keeps dusting his magic with something to see what would happen.

Now for Star's shape-shifting, I think comparisons are more likely to happen with characters like Maui or Camilo because they're more recent. I think this one stands fine alone.

One lil detail I would add to Star is in regards as to how he flies. I've always been in love with how Disney went about Peter Pan flying. Sometimes when Peter lands, he does little pirouette spins which are so so so charming. And just in general, sometimes there's something oddly graceful about how Peter flies that I think would work super well for Star.

So this is my conclusion as to how to mitigate the Star & Genie comparisons by just changing bits of pieces of the surface level traits of him a little.

So Genie is as what I said above: a zany, verbally loud, fast-talking comedian type, shape-shifting wish granter who can immediately summon things with a snap and a point of his finger. He's a cosmically powerful being bound to certain rules and the whims of his master (at least in the first film) along with the restraints the lamp has on him that only allows him to grant three wishes per master.

Whereas Star would be: a verbally mute, gentle & curious type wish granter with a very relaxed, dreamy kind of magic meant to reflect his daydreamer tendencies. Star is a free cosmically powerful being with no limits to what his magic can do, with his only condition for his wish granting magic being that the wish maker themself must meet him from start to finish and put forth the effort and drive in order to make the wish come true with the help he has/will provide.

And those are my thoughts :)

#wish 2023 #disney wish #wish #the star #disney wish star #star boy #long post #wish star

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bethanydelleman · 3 months

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I've been thinking about Willoughby, Crawford and Wickham and how they play somewhat similar roles in their respective novels without being the same character.

Crawford is bored and his flirting is just meant to entertain him. He doesn't care about what this does to the woman or potential consequences (mainly for her, his behaviour seems to be based on plausible deniability. He never openly courtes the Bertram sisters so he can't get shunned for that). He's indifferent rather than malicious.

Wickham is a gold digger, he likes the attention but would never do anything to hurt his potenial prospects (running away with Lydia seems to contradict that but 1) he refused to marry her (until he was bribed by Darcy) because he was still betting on finding a rich heiress and said it was Lydia's own fault for coming with him and 2) even though it was a fairly public stunt I doubt it would be talked about outside of Hertfordshire or Meryton (and why would Lady Catherine tell her friends when they don't know the Bennets or Wickham? Then again, who knows with Lady Catherine?).)

Somehow Willoughby feels like the worst of them all. He seduces girls because he has nothing else to do like Crawford but when he gets Eliza pregnant he dips and abandons her which feels malicious or at the very least cowardly. The way he leaves Marianne, ignores her and then his marriage is even more spineless.

He really is the most detestable out of them all.

(John Thorpe would be on this list but he has neither the charm, looks nor brains to seduce anyone. He is playing this game completely alone but convinced he's winning big time.)

I agree with you!

The big difference with Willoughby in my mind is how far he'll go. Henry Crawford and his sister may joke about how he doesn't plunge girls too deep, but he walks a very careful line of plausible deniability, as you say, for both himself and the Bertram sisters (and we assume for other women he's flirted with in town).:

Everything returned into the same channel as before his absence; his manners being to each so animated and agreeable as to lose no ground with either, and just stopping short of the consistence, the steadiness, the solicitude, and the warmth which might excite general notice. (Ch 12)

He leaves both of the Miss Bertrams with their reputations intact when he departs from Mansfield for Bath.

This is very different from how Willoughby behaves, where everyone in his and Marianne's circle is pretty certain that they are engaged. Also, Henry Crawford pretty pointedly "dumps" Maria Bertram, while Willoughby ghosts Marianne and leaves their relationship open ended like a coward, as you pointed out.

Another despicable thing both Wickham and Willoughby do is prey on women who are of lower status: Eliza Williams and the tradesmen's daughters of Meryton. We are never told that Henry Crawford does anything like this, his game is played with social equals and we are never given any indication that the unmarried women he flirts with are in danger of physical ruin. His affair with Maria Rushworth at the end is awful, but Maria was a married adult and she knew what she was getting into, the narrator even confirms that it was her idea. It's on a different level from what Willoughby and Wickham did with younger women who had less ability to understand the consequences.

#question response #john willoughby #george wickham #henry crawford #pride and prejudice #jane austen #sense and sensibility #mansfield park

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shlubbyart · 1 month

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May I see the disabled rep lore?

Absolutely!

I'll keep this to disability rep in Suit-Nami specifically, but if you want my thoughts on canon Splatoon characters and disabled representation I'd be happy to delve into my headcanons in a separate post.

This is gonna be a long one so check under the cut if you wanna read my ramblings:

As someone who is disabled/neurodivergent myself, having disabled representation is pretty important to me. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that Suit-Nami has become a way for me to represent myself, as well as simply exploring the kinds of disabilities I could imagine existing in the Splatooniverse.

I'll start off by going into more detail about Tide's physical disability that I referenced in my previous post.

#1. Developmental Deformities in Inklings/Octolings

In short: Tide has a misshapen ear due to a hiccup in his ability to shapeshift.

I always thought it would be interesting to explore the idea of the squid to kid transformation not always working as intended, and for that to be used in the context of disability.

Here's a little graph to show what I mean:

For Tide, his left ear (or fin, however you want to define it) isn't able to fully morph in his human form, so he's left with a blueish translucent fin/ear malformation.

Being an idol, as well as previous experiences with ableist discrimination, Tide opts to cover his ear by hiding it between his two hair tentacles. He's quite sensitive to having his hair being lifted or his ear being touched without permission, so doing either of those things is a big no-no.

Tide could be partially deaf in his left ear as a result, but that would really depend if you think he'd be partially deaf in squid form too. I think either interpretation is interesting.

#2. Crash and Hereditary Mutations

Similar to exploring the hiccups of shapeshifting, I also found the concept of Inklings/Octolings having disorders that affect their abilities to change colour as something that would be worth diving into. It technically has already been explored in canon too! Yoko from Ink Theory/Gold Bazookas is implied to have some sort of mutation that makes her tentacles split into different colours.

On that note, have you ever noticed that the ends of Crash's tentacles are always red? It isn't just to look cool (even though it does look very cool), Crash can't actually physically change the ends of his tentacles to any colour outside of a red to dark pink pigment.

The reason? Well I'll have to briefly explain how adaptive camoflage in real life squids actually works:

In simple terms, squids and other animals have these special skin molecules called chromophores. They are able to control the pigments of these chromophores through special multicellular organs in their bodies. Think of it as like having a second nervous system for changing the colour of your skin.

So what if the chromophores or multicellular organs were to not function in the way that they should? Like for instance, chromophores not having enough pigments to shift to certain colours. What are the implications of inkfish being unable to change colour in the context of things like Turf War?

Crash's red ends serve as a sort of base-level exploration into the idea of inkfish having some kind of hereditary complication that effects their abilities to change colour. The reason why I chose hereditary specifically is because he has another mutation that is also genetic: his heterochromia.

I think instances of discolouration in the Splatooniverse could be easily explained through how heterochromia and vitiligo occur in the body. I know for certain there are other Splatoon fans who have OCs with vitiligo or other instances of unique colouration, so maybe it would be comforting for them to know that there is theoretically a grounded explanation as to why it would exist. Not that I think representation has to necessarily be grounded in reality to justify existing.

#3. Tide and the Autism Spectrum

While Tide's lucky ear has been a pretty recent addition, what hasn't been a recent addition is the fact that he is also canonically autistic. Just as a handful of examples, he...

Sometimes misunderstands or doesn't pick up on certain social cues (namely sarcasm and flirting)

Is very passionate and knowledgeable about cats (ie: a very common special interest for people on the spectrum; including me)

Did not start speaking until he was in his preschool years (a common sign of autism in young children; also including me :P)

Has a unique speech pattern and uses a lot of uncommon phrases and words.

Stamps his feet or plays with his hair when he is in a good mood (ie: stimming)

Tide being autistic is 100% a self-indulgent decision on my part, even if I don't completely relate to his experiences. I do play up some of his quirks for jokes, but he is nonetheless an earnest representation of the fun and frustrations that come from being on the spectrum.

#4. Tide and far-sightedness

I'll keep this one short. Tide wears glasses when reading, which while it may be pretty innocuous, is still technically a disability.

I also wanted to share Tide wearing his glasses because he looks like a dork (affectionate) when he has them on.

I'd love to keep exploring disability representation in Splatoon, be it through my fan characters or through headcanons. I think with such a weird and wacky world that Splatoon exists in, it serves as a great canvas for portraying disability in a positive light, and even in ways not fully applicable to humans. If nothing else it is a ton of fun to write about. :P

Sidenote, but despite my position as a disabled person, I don't consider myself an expert in disability. So if I got anything wrong or said something misleading or offensive please let me know!

Thank you for reading ☆

#ask shlubby #shlubb’s journal #long post (sorry)#splatoon #disability #Suit-Nami #squid scribbles

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ghostflowerhotpotch · 9 months

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Do you think that gwen stacy is trans?

Yes, yes I do.

Now, the last time I talked about this I also mentioned I didn't see a point in making a post about it, because nothing I was going to say was going to be different than what you had probably already seen everywhere else.

That being said-

I had seen SO MANY idiots on the internet, to which I haven't replied (because I am also trans I used to know when or not to bother with people like that,) which had made me want to discuss the matter in my own words, even if I can't truly add anything new to the table.

So, I will probably do the same reasoning everyone else had already said, if anyone is still interested in reading it feel free, if not you can scroll. I will also address some common criticism of the theory.

Before we start the actual arguments, a few things.

No, I don't think if you believe Gwen is cis you are transphobic or something, as long as you are respectful.

I can't say how people see her or not, and while for me the evidence feels obvious, I know unless we have Gwen saying it (or someone close to her at least,) it cannot be sure one way or another. Remember that, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

I am fine if someone doesn't think she is trans, but I do think believing is IMPOSSIBLE for her to be is when you are entering transphobic territory. The reason why I think this is dumb, aside of the evidence; is the fact that if a character doesn't need to say I'm cis at any point to believe so, Gwen shouldn't need to say I'm trans for people to HC her as such or similar.

With that out of the way, let's start.

Going back to this image, we see that Gwen has a flag that says "Protect trans kids." Which to me feels like says a lot.

I had seen people suggest that "Of course she is an ally, she is a hero!" And while I could get Gwen being interested in helping people who face discrimination, since she deals with crime and such; the idea has me cackling more than anything else.

Is not impossible, but seriously, WHEN had you seen an ally with a flag in their room? It feels like an excuse someone who is in the closet would say; allies could have trans stuff or displayed in certain situations, but those situations tend to be in public, you know? Since being an ally means being vocal when you need to; there is really no reason for an Ally to have a trans flag in their room as decoration.

To top it all off, is on top of her door, not a window or anything, is obviously this is more for her than anything else.

George Stacy has a trans flag on his uniform.

This...This a really big deal honestly.

In a vacuum is a small gesture, perhaps if you aren't part of the community you don't get why I think this is amazing. So let me say a couple of things.

He is supporting his trans daughter; maybe is because of my family, or because all of my current trans and non-gender conforming friends have parents who range from shitting to not very supportive in general. So having Gwen be trans, still be a teen, and her dad supporting her? FUCK that means the world to me, even if I think he isn't that good of a dad.

This is in his uniform, this isn't just supporting Gwen in front of her, but also when she isn't around. You would be surprised how many parents say to be supportive but be quiet while hearing about discrimination. This also can lead me to believe he will be supportive when other trans individuals are around.

He is a cop. In real life, I don't feel safe around cops for a multitude of reasons I will not get to because I don't want to get too political here. Regardless, the fact that he is the Police Captain of his department while having this shows that he can be supportive of trans people, is huge.

Now, I know the next piece of evidence has been debated A LOT, especially for people who honestly, have clearly no idea how cinema, animation, or art work at all.

You know? Coding can be so funny at times.

There have been multiple times, when things had been coded on purpose, to the point I thought it was as subtle as a brick hitting your face; and yet I still find people who don't get it and just baffled me to not end.

Examples: Norma in Dead End Paranormal is coded as autistic, but it is never explicitly said on the show, (I think is mentioned in the comics? I know the creator is autistic.) However I never felt it needed to, because Normal has so many signs and hints that I clock her in the first episode, and the representation is so point it feels as if she needed to state she is a woman of color.

Nimona is another example related to the trans experience; seriously almost word for word what Nimona says can be applied to trans people, with the creator also being trans; and yet I was baffled to see some people saw the movie and didn't clock that.

Now, is what Gwen is saying in this scene talking about her experience being Spider-woman? Yes. However, just like Nimona didn't explicitly say she was trans, their entire story revolves around a trans allegory (As well as being likely genderfluid,) feels like is trying to say something.

Not to mention that this is a story, an animated one at that; everything you see on screen was put there by someone and animation tends to have fewer coincidences because you are going to be staring at this screen for a LONG time most probably. It was also noted by the crunch situation (which is again, horrifying and I think Chris Miller needs to find another way to work rather than wasting time and resources like he did,) that the writers had a tendency to tweak to make sure everything was on point; this couldn't have been thrown carelessly.

With all of this preface, Gwen's speech in this section? This could be played WORD BY WORD on a come-out speech.

"And they can only know half of who I am!" -> Having your real gender identity in the closet a lot of times feels like you need to hide half of who you are, from likings to aesthetics to even how you behave socially, it can be a big toll.

"So I'm completely on my own!" -> This is a common sentiment for people who are in the closet without support, because you are carrying all these feelings alone and have no one to understand.

"And now, I don't- I don't even know what the right thing is, anymore!" -> People may be a bit confused about this one, but believe it or not, it happens more often than you think. Should you transition? Should you wait a few years? Should you try to have this conversation with your parents, cousins, etc?

"But I know...I can't lose, one more friend." -> I don't think, I need to talk about how often people aren't supportive of trans individuals. I could talk more about this, but frankly, I don't need to. It happens, even to this day and age, especially in the current political climate.

To top all of this off, the reason why I singling this part (Aside from this speech being as subtle as the Ruby Gillman movie having the antagonist be a parody of Ariel.) Is the background.

The colors are just like a trans flag.

Now, I had seen people suggest that pointing at this is dumb because "that's just an homage to the covers!"

To which I said, no, this is the homage.

And what the background is doing with Gwen in the speech scene is definitely not the same thing.

I find this argument really funny from an artistic point of view, but in case people are wondering why I don't think it counts, let me number a few things.

The covers do this lighting situation OUTSIDE, they normally depict Gwen being around the city on a landscape when things happen, not indoors. This is both the covers and the sky in Gwen's universe. But we don't see indoor places doing this really.

The colors blend, while you can see buildings and windows have their own colours, you can also see them going from orange, to pink and red on the exact same wall.

If you want even more proof of my support, let me show you what the artbook says about this (which includes the covers.)

My point is, even if we try to argue that the covers had something to do; do you think in a movie where they already have Gwen had a trans flag, her dad had a trans patch; would have a moment when the speech mimics exactly the trans experience (or a big chunk for many people,) with the colors in the background being EXACTLY like a trans a flag, with creators and creative that they have STATED, the importance of color in Gwen's world and in Gwen specifically, somehow just choose colors at random at a pivotal moment of the movie?

And I am somehow the crazy one?

Biases

I like to believe I am a fair person, for the most part. Every time I do these analyses I try to be as impartial as possible, and when I know there is a chance my biases and personal opinion will come into hand, I said that much.

As I said before, I am trans, anyone who has seen at least my master post can probably guess I like Gwen. Having a character I dearly love be trans (Even if our situations are wildly different) obviously means the world to me, and perhaps I would have had a similar headcanon even without any hints or evidence.

Regardless, I don't think what I am saying is purely biased; things are put in movies for a reason, especially animated movies, and let me tell you something, has this been another character, especially if it was a new character? I don't think people would be debating this.

If we have a new character having a trans flag in their room, their dad having a trans patch, this narrative; I doubt anyone would be saying this is coding. (Honestly, we would probably have more dudebros saying this is woke garbage than the ones I had seen lol.)

Alternative theories

Now, since I have addressed the theory and some of its criticism, I can't just ignore the number of people had rather than thinking Gwen is trans, believe someone else is.

Theory 1: Peter is Trans

This isn't odd. Honestly if you had been part of the Spiderman community while being queer, or aware of queer readings, you would have probably come around to the fact that a lot of people headcanon Peter Parker as trans, in multiple different variants in different mediums.

Partially because the spidey-hero situation really mimics the trans experience (there is a reason why you can put Gwen's speech on a come-out scene while simultaneously being about her hero identity without either way sounding forced,) and depending on what source materials, other clues can apply. This post isn't about that and it is already extremely long, so I will not dwell on this.

With this theory in mind, Gwen and her dad would be having trans flag and patch in memory of Peter, since with this theory it was likely that was the reason he was bullied, and probably another reason why to experiment to become the lizard; since being bullied could make him feel like he needs to find a way to be more masculine.

And look, do I have a problem with people thinking Peter is trans? Not really, I encourage it, I personally like the idea that both Gwen and Peter were trans and they bonded over it.

However, I wouldn't want this to be in canon, why?... It feels like it would fall into some harmful stereotypes.

Think about it this way; if we go with this route, a trans teen was bullied, after showing he looks like he is kind of isolated (Gwen seems to have the band at least, Peter looks like he was a loner, and then Gwen started to put distance between them because Spider-woman issues.) Get's so desperate that in an attempt to be "special" (maybe even "better" and "stronger," if he felt he wasn't enough as he was,) tries to experiment with things he shouldn't dying in the process; to which Gwen and her dad then would try to fight for trans rights in his memory, as this theory also heavily implies Peter was bullied because he was trans.

And look, angst narratives had their place, and a lot of people like this narrative, heck I remember a book that does something similar (More than Gold is the name, tho the character doesn't die,) and that was written by a trans person.

Nonetheless, the idea to suggest the only trans person in this narrative, dies after ostracization and bullying, and their purpose on the story as a whole would be to fuel Gwen's pain, with the "protect trans kids" idea only happening partially because of her guilt; feels a lot like "bury your gays (or trans in this case,)" something akin to frigging (while Peter would obviously still consider a boy in this theory, having a character from a minority die to hurt/inspire a protagonist, feels deeply concerning.) Is just a combination of too many things that I dislike.

Again, if someone likes this idea I will not say they are a bad person or anything; but I would have fewer issues if it wasn't because a SIGNIFICANT number of those who said this theory, had also shown to be deeply transphobic; insisting Gwen is obviously not trans with non-arguments. Doesn't need to be everyone, but it still annoys me.

2. Captain Stacy IS the trans one!

This one is...interesting, to say the least.

This one is less frequent than Peter's, but I had seen it pop around enough that I decided to address it.

Unlike Peter's, this one doesn't carry horrible connotations. Well it would have the "only" (if we go with this theory and with no other "canon" trans parent in the story,) trans parent be also the one that tries to point a gun at his daughter, to also be so extremely stubborn even when she finally comes back he acts kind of petulant- okay all of these things are bad, however, they wouldn't need to be related to each other; since none of these are really stereotypes of trans men. That's something?

Anyways, the big idea behind this theory is that aside from being more plausible for an adult to use a trans patch because they are trans rather than because their kid is trans, it could be a possible explanation as to why there is no mom or mention of a mom, since this child could be in vitro.

Which, okay, not that bad; I don't think a lot of trans men would like the idea of being pregnant, however, it has happened before so why not.

I don't think this is a bad theory overall, I just don't roll with it because it feels kind of, lazy? Again, do as you may; but it feels that the people who did it were more interested in again, having an explanation for Gwen not being trans, while also not actively being transphobic. Maybe some people just want more trans dad content I don't know.

There are technically instances of both the Peter theory and the Dad theory that could dethrone both of these, but the one related to Peter makes me feel a bit gross to think too hard about, and the other George one could imply something things that one way or other I don't like when the reality is that is a few frames on a scene where the patch isn't the focus. Another reason is that hey, if I don't have solid evidence on my own, I am not going to nitpick at other fan theories.

Speaking of which.

Is this Representation?

Short answer: No, no it's not.

I don't even want to discuss if is good representation, because it doesn't feel like it is to begin with. Yes, I do believe Gwen is trans, but all the things I have are background references, that are okay, however not having a confirmation does sting. It doesn't have to be the focus of her character, yet is not even off comments really, just some clues around.

Do I think it doesn't have Merit? No.

I remember during the first days this movie was out, I read a comment from someone who was in Florida, who said when they saw the "Protect Trans Kids" flag in Gwen's room, started crying.

I think of myself, almost a decade ago, in a country that wasn't really welcome to gay people, much less trans people; of the discrimination I faced because of it. I think when I was a teen, grappling with all these feelings; and how I would had feel seen the badass and cool, Gwen Stacy as Spider-woman, having that trans flag in their room. I know I would have cried too.

We cannot act like things are perfect currently; the United States, England, and other countries are becoming increasingly transphobic; having these things in a PG movie, from a big company, that is released to a worldwide level and is making bank. Not to mention that as small as these details are, the movie did end up getting banned for it, not even censored.

I think we can get better representation, but it doesn't mean this is less huge or less special; even if it didn't touch me like it would have in the past, it had touched many people, and that's something I appreciate one way or another.

This is in itself, another reason why to love this idea.

Gwen being trans fits the themes of the story better

Stan Lee is obviously, talking about Spider-MAN, but it gets the message across doesn't it?

Part of the reason Spiderman became so iconic, was the idea that ANYONE could be Spiderman, this ended up involved in these movies too.

In Across the Spider-verse, we see multiple types of spiders, people from the future, and past, children, women, men, animals, and a popsicle at one point (literally.) The movie also has Miguel, who is the antagonist, convinced what makes them Spiderman/Spiderwoman/you get the idea- is decided by a cosmic force, with Miles claiming that Spiderman is an idea, a responsibility, but something much more diverse than "you need these events to happen in order to be considered truly spiderman."

In Into the Spider-verse, this idea is also shown, by having spideys that are not just Peter Parker, and how Peter while important, isn't truly the protagonist of this tale, he doesn't need to be.

This franchise hinders the idea that being Spiderman is more than a name, a gender, or your background; is about someone that when given the possibility of using their powers for their own gain or ignoring the call, decides to risk it all, to handle a difficult life, to try to do their best despite the circumstances; because the essence of Spiderman, is being a hero, and anyone can be Spiderman. Anyone can be a hero.

Gwen being trans, elevates this idea.

While I think having more Spider-woman content is empowering on its own, cis woman or trans, the idea of having a trans hero obviously exemplifies this idea more than having her absence.

If Gwen is a trans girl, it would mean having a trans girl who is a tridimensional character, a trans teen that messes up, that doesn't know what to do, but is also a hero, and wants to do her best like everyone else. It means showing a trans girl as someone beautiful, badass, and having a guy who adores her with all his might.

If the idea of having her Peter be trans could be problematic, having her be trans means having a great role model, means a story about trans joy where we are free to be more than our identities, because the idea of Gwen casually being a hero and also trans is amazing in its own.

Is not perfect, but I ultimately love this idea, because it brings me hope. It means comfort for some trans and trans teens suffering out there, it means perhaps someone out there will try to offer more stories on the big screen with trans teens.

I want to believe this because Gwen being trans means more for us and the narrative than it would be otherwise. Let us have our dreams.

#ask #atsv files #gwen stacy #peter parker earth 65 #captain stacy #george stacy #across the spideverse #atsv

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memento-morri-writes · 9 months

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Do you have any advice or specific tips to writing a low/no empathy character? Or a resource to recommend?

Hi nonny! Thanks for asking! I'm going to try my best to answer your question, but keep in mind, this is all based on my own personal experience, and that varies vastly from person to person. (if anyone else experiences low/no empathy, please feel free to add on to this post!)

So, some things to keep in mind:

Why does your character experience low/no empathy? For me, it's a symptom of my autism, but there are multiple reasons a character could have low/no empathy. The most common is probably going to be some form of disability (autism), or disorder (psychopathy), etc. (Be careful while doing research though, especially on disorders like psychopathy! You're going to run into a lot of ableist bullshit. Make sure to look for sources written by people living with these disorders/disabilities.) (If anyone has any resources on other disabilities or disorders that cause low empathy that they personally recommend, please feel free to add links!!!) Whatever the reason, it's not going to only affect their empathy. It's going to affect every part of their life. So make sure to do your research, and write respectfully. If you know someone or follow someone who has a certain condition, ask if they'd feel comfortable answering questions for you. If they aren't, that's fine. If they are, they're going to be a great resource. (I'd also recommend getting a sensitivity reader, particularly when writing about mental disorders that are already frequently stigmatized. You want to make sure you're not promoting harmful stereotypes.) I should note, however, that neurotypical people can also have low/no empathy!!! It just happens to also be a common symptom of various mental disorders.

Consider what kind of empathy does your character lack. There are two kinds of empathy! Emotional (or affective) empathy, and cognitive empathy. Affective empathy is made up of three parts: Feeling the same emotion as someone else, feeling discomfort or stress in response to someone else's suffering, and feeling compassion for or understanding another's emotions. Cognitive empathy is the ability to recognize and understand the emotions of someone else. This includes being to "stand in someone else's shoes", or take another person's perspective, and generally understand what they're feeling. This one has been called more of a "skill", in that it's something people can "learn", where as affective empathy can't be taught or learned. When people talk about having low/no empathy, they are usually referring to lacking affective empathy, but a character might struggle with both!

Not everyone experiences empathy the same. Some people lack empathy in some circumstances, but have it in others. For example, I lack empathy when it comes to human beings, but I am much more empathetic when it comes to animals. A character might only be able to empathize with very specific scenarios or people. (For example, if someone else is going through a very similar scenario to one they have experienced in the past, it may be easier for them to feel empathy. But it might not!) Some people can empathize with certain emotions better than others. (I empathize better with anger, but can't empathize at all with grief.)

Understand that a lack of empathy does not equal a lack of caring. Just because a person doesn't feel the emotions someone else is feeling doesn't mean they don't care. A person with low or no empathy can still be kind and compassionate to others. They might go about trying to cheer people up in a slightly different way (I personally tend to try and go for distractions), but they still care about their friends and loved ones. Even seemingly "uncaring" things said by those who lack empathy do not come from a place of malice. (I can't tell you how many times I've said something well-meaning and had people assume I was being cruel. I wasn't, and I genuinely had good intentions.)

Keep in mind how your character reacts to other's emotions. People with empathy tend to feel similarly to those they empathize with, which generally creates a feeling of connection. (This is part of what leads to that sense of "coming together after tragedy".) A person with low/no empathy might instead feel alienated or uncomfortable when faced with large outpourings of emotions. They might be uncertain how to act or what to do, and they may try and avoid situations with strong negative emotions because of it. (In my case, people crying makes me very uncomfortable, because I don't know how to respond. So I try and keep my distance.)

Think about how your character processes their own emotions. Just because a character doesn't feel empathy for others doesn't mean that they are incapable of feeling those emotions on their own. A character who has no empathy for a grieving friend can still grieve! But chances are they will process that emotion differently than a person with "normal" empathy. They might try to push their emotions away and bottle them up. Or one emotion might transition into one they have an easier time processing. (For me, I don't experience sadness normally. It either transitions to anger, or it is replaced by different thoughts.)

Think about how their lack of empathy influences their life. A person who lacks empathy is not going to experience life the same way as a person with "normal" empathy. They might have a hard time making friends, or they might excel at a job that requires a logical mind. They might give great advice, or their friends might know to never ask them about relationships. They might be great at organizing people, even in times of stress, because their brain compartmentalizes and thinks pragmatically. They might totally shut down when faced with an emotional situation because they don't know how to process it.

Having no empathy can be very alienating. People expect empathy constantly. It's a big part of why people love emotional media, and it's the expected response when someone you know experiences suffering. Not having empathy can mean that you feel disconnected from your loved ones or community as a whole. It might mean biting your tongue and not saying what you think because people would read it as uncaring or cruel.

Remember: Having low or no empathy is not a bad thing. People with low/no empathy are often villainized in media, and the trait is often given to antagonists. But that's a harmful stereotype and harmful belief in general. That's not saying that your character with low empathy has to be "good", but don't use their low empathy as proof that they're a "bad person". Try thinking about situations in which having low/no empathy might be useful! I personally am reminded of the post I saw years ago where someone was saying that if not for their lack of empathy, they probably couldn't do their job. (iirc, they worked handling the bodies of organ donors, some of whom were quite young.)

Okay, that's all I can think of for now, but like I said before, anyone else who experiences low or no empathy is encouraged to reblog this post and add on to it! And if I made any mistakes here, please let me know so I can fix them!!! I tried to base this mostly off of my own experience, so take it all with a grain of salt.

#Anonymous #morrigan replies #writing autistic characters #writing low empathy characters #writing no empathy characters #character development #character inspo #no empathy #low empathy

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callmeklair · 4 months

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You did the most normal thing possible for a blogger and fan of the DL series by voicing, I emphasize YOUR OPINION, which is so ill-advised and stunted as a "way to foment hatred" towards the sweetest, most handsome possible boy, not only for DL but also for every past and future game (because everyone is copying Ayato's design so they can make a profit. Even in games older than DL where any of the characters have Ayato-like traits, they must have traveled to the future, that they saw Ayato and his success and finally decided to steal 😂).

However, in the eyes of his followers, he is unsurpassed, so if there is a better one than him, it is unforgivable, and there are such, and not in everything, but in different aspects such as beauty, kindness, big brain, etc. Of course, each of the boys possesses almost every one of these characteristics, but certain of them predominate.

That's how there's something for every fan, that's how diversity is created, and when you're already thinking about combining everything in just one of the characters - it's already the desperate need to add characteristics that he doesn't have at all just to do it perfectly.

Respect for writing the inconvenient truth about Ayato stans. Would you believe me if I told you that for years I was a part of this very toxic community? It might sound crazy and exaggerated, but I was one of Ayato's biggest fans when the games and anime were at their peak. That's also why I got on tumblr so I could look up more and more information about him, and here it was in abundance.

But when the first game came out I was in my teenage years and not very mature in terms of analyzing characters. That's why I relied on the blogs here without even trying to check if the information was true or not. At the time, I only played the routes of the guys I liked the most, and Ayato was my favorite of them.

And when I saw people praising and singling him out so much but at the same time saying things like "Shuu was much more abusive with Yui in terms of insults and embarrassment than Ayato". And guess what I said to myself without even checking for myself playing his route as well - “Wow, and people from other blogs are making so much mention that he's one of the best bros.” And whoops, I already had an opinion about Shu.

So, over time, I got involved with the routes of the other guys, I started contacting people who were genuinely excited about analyzing each of the characters as much as possible. People who have an objective opinion on absolutely the entire game and each of the guys as they don't hesitate to point out their flaws no matter how much they like any of the guys mentioned.

Then I realized how blindly I had believed every single word about Ayato, every single criticism of Shu and Kou, every single insult to Laito. And Ayato suddenly lost that favoritism in my eyes. No, I don't hate him at all, on the contrary, he will remain my favorite boy, but I have learned to accept him with all his faults, and they are not few at all.

However, something happened last year that almost completely cut me off from the DL fandom.It was an incident I will never forget and it really disgusted me with Ayato stans. It was about a blogger who expressed a similar opinion to yours - about Ayato's traumas and the torture he was subjected to by Cordelia. So this particular person just pointed out that Ayato's anguish as a child was a bit exaggerated compared to Laito's or Mukami's.

And indeed then there was a huge wave of pity for Ayato, it literally caused a tsunami on tumblr. Well, guess what followed next… Some ugly attacks, insults and copy-paste “opinions” and “facts” that didn't stop for a week. This disgusted me immensely.

I understand feeling sorry for your favorite character, but going and picking on people for voicing THEIR OPINION, which THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY ENTITLED to, because it's their blog and no one is forcing you to follow! This guy had pointed out actual facts from the game and justified why he thought so several times, but you can't argue with a bunch of angry teenagers who clearly haven't read any route other than Ayato's with self-proclaimed "facts" already hammered home by someone.

And I say that as someone who has been through it. Well, that still didn't stop me from following DL and being curious about the new stuff or posts from different people. But then it happened again. Some posts started in which again someone who apparently participated in the writing and inventing of the entire DL franchise categorically claimed that what he wrote were indisputable facts that could not be disputed because they were canon!

End, period, you have no right to an opinion and no one demands it from you! Oi! That was the most idiotic thing I have ever read in my entire life, seriously! For these Ayato stans, their word was law, their opinion, which they apparently considered the only true one, was pure and absolute, indisputable fact.

Anyone other than them who wants to express his opinion, no matter how objective and unbiased it may be, has no right, because they automatically stick a label on your forehead with the following words: "another one of those who don't understand anything, read through the lines, hate Ayato and with this they are trying to elevate their favorite, they are fanning the flames of hatred.”

I'm not kidding, I've come across these platitudes so many times that I already know them by heart. Finally, there was discrimination. Some ridiculous accusations started against the western fandom, it was very toxic, that they didn't understand Japanese culture and so on and so forth…

Am I to understand that being a fan of a Japanese game or anime means you speak perfect Japanese, grew up and lived in Japan to be able to enjoy or even constructively criticize anything related to Japanese works? By this logic, the Japanese also have no right to criticize Western movies and games, where there is a wide variety of things that are not specific to their culture, such as nudity, weapons, drugs, sexual activities, and so on.

I understand if you're so blinded by a fictional character who can't be affected in any way in real life because he literally DOESN'T EXIST, but I personally think you should take a nice break from this fandom, go to therapy, to help yourself. I say that for your own good because there were also many such posts where Yui was accused of being selfish for only accepting the sweet and idealized version of Ayato in her head. Pfff... This is probably some kind of irony 🤦‍♀️

Was I rude, yes! Was it necessary in my opinion, yes. I've been turning a blind eye to all this nonsense for almost 2 years now and haven't allowed myself to opine until now because it's perfectly acceptable for me to spew this nonsense on your own blogs, which I avoid.

But I don't know the last time I've witnessed these oh-so-toxic Ayato stans go around attacking and pushing their pathetic copy-paste excuses for "facts" trying to impose their own twisted views in an attempt to shut up the people who actually they want to enjoy the fandom and contribute something interesting to them.

People learn to accept other people's opinions! Yes, I know that when you like a character or a person it's harder to see their flaws, so you have to be open to a different opinion than ours, because the other person sees things differently. A fan who cannot discover, accept and embrace the flaws of his favorite cannot be called a true fan.

And I say this because in this way we cannot remain objective in a given situation. Understand that when two heroes are compared and one beats the other in a given category it is not done for the purpose of humiliation and praise. This is possibly one of the best ways to discover the strengths and weaknesses of both.

Sorry about all of this, if you wish you may not post it, but I am really sick of putting up with all of this for years. I love your blog and have been following it for a long time and I'm glad you're one of the few sane people left here.

Also, I'm sorry for any mistakes, but English is not my native language and I won't have the strength to edit everything because I just poured out this years old load.

dw I post every ask be it hate or appreciation because I love listening to your guys' opinions. and yeah reading your ask made me feel better, because I myself at start was manipulated by it, not in the sense I believed everything but like whenever I doubted anything they said about Ayato's perfect image, they would pull up their facts, and screenshots from the official contents because they are canon. this was also one of the reason that even though I was inactive for two years, yet I never checked any DL contents because it felt overwhelmed. It's not Ayato or Ayato stans we hate but people who just think it's right to "idolize" ayato yet say, we are just stating canon facts and overhype by throwing shade at other boys.

I get it they treated him like that, so did they to each other in respective routes??? like ayato is no saint even he did things to Yui and diaboys in other routes. also what Ayato did in Ruki's route is still questionable because MB came out a long time ago and youngblood came a just a few years ago. sometimes people come up with new plot even after something is released already. I hope you get what I'm saying because even for me english is my second language and I just came back from exams, sorry.

so yeah at that time there was no curse, only ayato being thirsty for you as a predator & seeing her nothing but food so yep that's some "ayato did this because he was cursed" delusional analysis just to not make Ayato look bad. And they say that the "haters" should learn to ✨read✨ ayato contents before spreading things, but I feel like it's you guys who need to read that we hate overhype and baseless assumptions of ayato as perfectionist not him as a "character." remember it's not all but some stans that we face unbearable because of unreasonable shade.

like you can't take it when people say something about Ayato, yet you are allowed to say something about other dia boys for treating ayato like this and that. like..? if for you, ayato, can have development, then so did other characters (and better).

we never said anything against rejet officially claiming ayato as the main hero, we don't like the overrated hype.

"he is so much hyped because he is the IT boy and deserves" and all is just some self-satisfaction

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randomwriteronline · 2 years

Text

"Emmet, why am I here."

"For winning those popularity polls."

"I'm not sure I understand what I'm supposed to do-"

"Don't worry about that. Go there. I'll cheer you on! Good luck!"

And so Ingo stood in line with a variety of different people he had never heard of before. To his right was a stout humanoid 3D thing that looked halfway between his twin and Speed Racer, which wasn't exactly a combination he wanted to deal with; to his left was a somewhat nervous man, him too clearly a 3D animated model, who didn't seem to be enjoying himself very much. Perhaps he could have helped clear up what would have gone down.

"Excuse me," he started very politely, making the man startle and a couple mice fall off of his ruana, "My name is Ingo - I'm afraid I don't quite know what all this is about, as my brother dragged me here with barely any explanation. Do you know what we are being judged for, by any chance?"

"Ah - er, I, well, it's--" the poor guy struggled a moment, quickly shaking his hand: "Bruno Madrigal, buenos días -- it's, eh, I'm not - not sure either, I think it's about, about handsome men? Something like that, my niece told me, something- something like that. Which, eh, makes little sense that I'm - that I'm here, I have-- my brothers-in-law, they're more - you know-"

Several voices shouted something in Spanish: a small squadron of variegated 3D characters (his family, Ingo assumed) whoo-ed and hollered from the sidelines to offer Bruno encouragement, including a pair of men very likely to be the aforementioned husbands of his sisters.

"It would seem they have great faith in your abilities and looks!" Ingo noted. Bruno tried to collapse inside his ruana a little bit, embarassed. "I'm certain you will thrive in this competition!"

The man gave a sort of nervous smile: "Eh, I'm afraid not," he chuckled vaguely (no need to tell him about that tiny vision he had coaxed out of himself which assured him he wasn't going to win, which was kind of a relief to be honest) "But I, I'll try my best."

"Bravo! That's the spirit!"

Este tío es lo más raro contra lo que podría enfrentarme, Bruno thought as he recoiled a bit from the loud volume. Pero bueno - and he looked with vivid terror at the pair of pixelated monstrosities at his left (some sort of lanky purple pole with a misshapen hand and pitch black eyes and a small clearly haunted toy screaming about selling something called a cungadero) - también me lo podría pasar mucho peor.

Oblivious to his opponent's thoughts Ingo scanned the horizon to see if something caught his eye; he perked up as he recognized a few traits towards the right end of the opposing line, and immediately put a hand to the side of his mouth to drive his voice further.

"HELLO, FELLOW POKÉMON CHARACTER!" he shouted.

Anybody wearing pants at that moment very nearly shat them.

A punk from the other side looked around, squinted his dark eyes, locked them on the conductor's figure and finally shouted back: "AYYY!"

"How, how did you-?" Bruno asked in disbelief, eyes going from his opponent to the other guy.

"We have a very similar art style," the Subway Boss explained at a slightly lower volume in order not to bust the poor man's hearing while he still had it good.

Bruno blinked, then compared their appearances once more: huh, yes, the definitely did. The more you know.

"WHO ARE YOU?" the punk hollered.

Ingo turned back to him: "MY NAME IS INGO, I AM A SUBWAY BOSS! PLEASURE TO MEET YOU! WHO ARE YOU ?"

"I'M YA BOY GUZMA, BABY!" the other replied. He hit his chest with both hands in a show of great power: "DESTRUCTION IN HUMAN FORM!"

"WE ARE SLIGHTLY CONFUSED BY THE PREMISE OF THIS COMPETITION!" Ingo continued, gesturing to himself and Bruno. "DO YOU PERHAPS HAVE A CLEARER IDEA OF WHAT IT ENTAILS?"

"YEAH, KIND OF," Guzma answered. "IT'S TO SEE WHO OUT OF US ALL WEIRD MEN IS THE SEXIEST!"

There was a bout of silence.

"YOU KNOW," he continued, "IN A RATATA KIND OF WAY."

"I DON'T BELIEVE I'M VERY FLATTERED BY THAT," Ingo honestly replied.

"YEAH I'M NOT SURE YOU SHOULD BE," Guzma admitted, "BUT HEY! WE'RE STILL CONSIDERED PRETTY DAMN SEXY! WHICH IS SOMETHING!"

"Ask him how we're, how we're going to, uh, decide that," Bruno whispered.

"DO YOU KNOW THE METHOD THROUGH WHICH THAT DECISION WILL BE EVENTUALLY MADE?"

"I MEAN, EVERYBODY ELSE IS GONNA VOTE I THINK! WE'RE JUST GONNA MAUL EACH OTHER LIKE, MENTALLY."

"SO NO PHYSICAL VIOLENCE?"

"NAH."

Bruno sighed in relief.

"I WISH IT WAS THROUGH POKÉMON BATTLE!" Guzma lamented. He glared at the yellow triangle staring right at him with its single eye: "BECAUSE I'M NOT GONNA LIE, YA BOY'S KINDA FUCKED!"

"DON'T GIVE UP SO SOON! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED!" Ingo encouraged him. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU WON'T MEASURE UP TO THE TASK?"

"MY FIRST FIGHT IS AGAINST BILL CIPHER, BRO! THEY'VE DONE SOME SERIOUS SHIT WITH HIM, I'M NEVER WINNING THIS!" was the answer, followed by: "THOUGH AT LEAST I'M NOT THAT HUMAN VOLTORB UP AGAINST THE SKELETON!"

"WHO YA CALLIN' A VOLT-ORB, YA CUNT?" a very dirty shirtless man with hair on fire and two not exactly well-made prosthetic limbs shrieked, hand going to throw one of the many hand-made bombs that had already been confiscated for the very reason that he wouldn't have hesitated to launch one at the slightest provocation.

"WHAT SKELETON?" Ingo asked instead.

"THAT ONE!"

"heya."

"HELLO! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"sans."

"A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU! GOOD LUCK!"

"thanks, you too."

"HEY!" Guzma hollered to get Ingo's attention back, "AFTER THIS YOU WANNA DO A POKÉMON BATTLE?"

Ingo's eyes lit up (very literally): "WITH PLEASURE!" he readily replied, "IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE HERE WITH A FRIEND OR A RELATIVE I'M CERTAIN MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE TO DO A MULTI BATTLE!"

A faint 'fuck yeah!' emphasized the last part of his sentence.

Speakers crackled blowing a couple lines of static sounding like a few coughs to warm up their throat.

"Pokémon sexymen, please stop yelling," they finally spoke: "Everybody please get ready, the first rounds will be taking place in a moment - uh, odd number participants turn to your left, even number participants turn to your right and, hm, yup, we're ready."

Satisfied enough with what they were seeing, the unseen announcer hit a little bell, the kind that sits at hotel counters in movies or on the table where restaurants leave the dishes ready to be taken to the tables.

"May the sexiest man win. Good luck!"

Bruno was very glad to have lost on the first round, immediately, Ingo sparing him the anxiety of having to go any further. The two gladly shook hands and bid their goodbyes before the 3D man returned to his family, who had been a little saddened to see him eliminated so soon.

The Subway Boss searched for Guzma in the opposite line: he found him laying face down on the ground, clearly upset and defeated, as the yellow triangle floated forward in a gloating manner.

He would have gladly yelled some words of comfort at him, but something bony and frozen cold snuck itself into his collar and on his neck and he jolted downwards with eyes wider than a Bronzor.

"Please do not touch the conductor!" he shrieked, stumbling on his own feet, "Sudden distractions like these may cause terrible incidents!"

"Oh! I do apologize, mister Conductor," said a surprisingly friendly-looking clay skeleton clad in the most goth pinstripe suit Ingo had ever laid eyes on: "I only wanted to tell you we're up next."

"We?" the Subway Boss repeated.

"Yes, the two of us winners," the skeleton nodded. A bony hand laid in the stilted yet elegant manner typical of stop motion on his clothed ribcage as he introduced himself: "Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King of the Town of Halloween, and I believe you screamed your name... Ingong?"

Royalty? This was certainly proving to be quite the contest!

Ingo quickly bowed, hoping not to have offended his opponent: "My name is Ingo, sir! Subway Boss Ingo, at your service. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"The pleasure is all mine," Jack assured him. His pitch black sockets fixed on the 2D man's coat: "I'll say, I believe you would be quite at home in the Town of Halloween! This is a delightfully dark get-up!"

"Oh, thank you! It's merely my uniform... Though I'm certain my partner Pokémon, Chandelure, would definitely enjoy the atmosphere of your home," Ingo mused, "She is a fiery ghost psychopomp, after all..."

"Why, she sounds like a dream!" the skeleton king cried out.

Eager to show off his darling soul-eater, the Subway Boss made a motion to reach onto a notch in his belt where her Pokéball should have sat - but he remembered only then that he had not been allowed to bring his team along, having to leave them instead in his brother's care.

"EMMET!" he shouted (causing another round of pants shatting) "COULD YOU PLEASE RELEASE CHANDELURE? I WOULD LIKE TO SHOW HER TO THE PUMPKIN KING!"

Emmet gave him thumbs up. Moments later, Chandelure chimed cheerfully and shined her flames to encourage her trainer.

To say Jack was smitten with her would have been an understatement.

"I must have her!" he almost sang. "I have to! Oh, Zero will adore her, I know it!"

"I could catch a Litwick for you-"

"No no no, it must be her! Let's make a deal, mister Conductor-" the pumpkin king proposed "-If I win, you will lend me your gorgeous Chandelier for a whole year!"

In the span of a single sentence, the stakes had risen vertiginously.

Ingo's pose stiffened as he readied himself to fight with tooth and nail, fingers clutched tightly on the brim of his cap: "I am sorry, but in that case I will be forced to stop you in your tracks," he sternly replied. "As her trainer, I cannot let Chandelure fall into someone else's hands!

From his seat on the sidelines, Emmet grew very interested.

"Oooh," he cooed, "This'll be good."

"How can you tell?" Plumeria (who was only here because Guzma didn't have a license and had to be driven over) asked.

"He's gotten serious. And when Ingo gets serious, it's always verrry fun."

The young woman looked at the lanky black figures squaring up for the next fight: "He better win then," she muttered.

Jack had been a good sport in the end, accepting defeat graciously. He was now talking to a similarly tall, lanky, black clad, white faced man who was particularly fucking terrifying; the two had eventually been joined by a lovely purple thumbnail for a poscast which spoke with a male voice, entertaining all together a conversation which featured a lot of static noise - incomprehensibly perfectly understood by both skeleton and thumbnail.

Ingo had not managed to listen in much, partially because he was not one for eavesdropping, partially because he was busy in his own next round against a teen boy in desperate need for therapy.

Said boy had gripped his arm when he had lost with a look in his eyes like madness.

"You must defeat him," he had hissed, probably talking about his next opponent. "He defeated my boyfriend as supreme twink... I couldn't avenge him then nor now... You're my Hope..."

"I will do my best," the Subway Boss had assured him rather nervously. "In the meantime please accept this phone number, call it and take care of yourself."

Unfortunately for the poor Nagito (who reacted to the news by wailing inconsolably for roughly fifteen minutes in the arms of a similarly aged boy who seemed to be very done with this sort of situation) Ingo did not pass the semifinals, bested at last after a discreet winning spree by one extremely desperate looking man by the name of Reigen Arataka, according to himself esper psychic extraordinaire.

"An excellent fight!" the conductor congratulated Reigen with genuine earnestness, energetically shaking his hand hard enough to make the guy wobble like a wacky wavy inflatable tube man in a hurricane, "You've fought valiantly and secured your road to the finals!"

The man wheezed out a thank you, trying to fix his tie as he gulped down a breath to make his daring request - but a shout interrupted him before he could began, making him crumple on himself.

"INGO!" Guzma yelled from the sidelines with a half drunk Tapu Cocoa in his hand: "DID YOU WIN?"

"HELLO GUZMA!" Ingo yelled back. "UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE LOST THIS MATCH BY 10 PERCENT!"

"FUCK!"

"THIS HOWEVER MEANS THAT WE CAN HAVE OUR POKÉMON BATTLE SOONER THAN SCHEDULED IF YOU'RE STILL INTERESTED IN HAVING ONE!"

"FUCK YEAH!"

Content with the response, Guzma took a sip of his drink and squinted a bit to recognize the guy next to Ingo.

He waited a moment, and then yelled again: "ISN'T THAT THE GUY WHO WON THE COMPETITIONS FOR NUMBER ONE TWINK, DILF, MILF, AND INTERNATIONAL SEX SYMBOL?"

Reigen felt himself crumble as the Subway Boss turned to repeat the question; he stopped the conductor in his tracks with a fulmineous hand gesture: "Yes," he admitted, "Yes it's me. I have... Acquired those titles through my undeniable talents and great strife in the past few day."

Even 'MILF'?, Ingo thought as he elected to completely ignore most of the acronym as well as the rest of the titles. I didn't know he was genderqueer! Good for him!

"You must have an incredible drive and strong fighting spirit! Bravo!" he simply said. Then, turning back to Guzma: "IT IS HIM!"

The punk nodded solemnly: "YOU FOUGHT AS WELL AS YOU COULD, MAN," he stated proudly. "THOUGH CAN WE KEEP THE BATTLE FOR AFTER THIS IS DONE LIKE WE PLANNED EARLIER? BECAUSE THE OTHER FINALIST IS THE SKELETON AND I'VE GOT TO SEE WHO WINS THIS ONE!"

"The what?" Reigen asked with palpable fear in his voice.

A lot closer than Guzma, standing in his pixelated glory near the flat on the ground remains of Bill Cipher, Sans Undertale waved at the two 2D men.

Ingo waved back politely and congratulated his victory.

Reigen began sweating.

"He seems to be a tough opponent!" Ingo commented in blissful unawareness of the fake psychic's fear, "I wish you good luck!"

"Well as a sign of sportsmanship and good faith in my chances to win--!!!" Reigen very quickly blocked him before he could leave and his chances of at least bribing one somewhat handsome guy into saying he was sexy (in a rodent kind of way but whatever) vanished in smoke: "As your last opponent, you should vote for me in this final round, don't you think? I can throw in a--"

"Oh certainly!" Ingo cut him off before any offer of spirit cleansings or massages could be made. "I'll be very glad to lend you my support in this final stretch of tracks before your last station!"

Blessing this altruistic and easily swayed man, Reigen thanked him with a thumbs up that exuded more confidence than what he actually had.

"Why'd he give you thumbs up?" Guzma asked once his fellow trainer had left the battlefield to join him on the quest to find his brother among the mess of people.

"Oh, he thanked me for promising to vote for him," the Subway Boss explained. "Will you also vote for him?"

"Nah - but it's nothing personal, y'know? 's a matter of principle," and he gently beat his chest with his fist, "Team Skull's gotta side with the bones."

"A code of honor among comrades... I understand very well."

Passing Komaeda, who was now attempting to climb up one of the speakers to shout encouragement at Sans, Guzma squinted at a figure in white: "That your brother near my girl Plumeria?"

"Why yes, that's him!"

"Damn, you two look really similar. It's like you're twins."

"We are!"

Emmet greeted his brother with a finger pointed right at his face, a toothy grin, and a chirpy: "You lost! Sweet revenge."

Ingo huffed a bit of a chuckle.

"But also-" his twin continued, and with a swift motion he plucked both their hats from their heads to place his own on top of Ingo's. "Third place crown! I am verrry proud of you. Yup!"

"Oh! Why thank you!" the elder brother laughed, "Now we match!"

"Yup, yup! Did you have fun?"

"I'd say so, yes! It was surprisingly intense at times. But I do believe I've made a couple friends across franchises, even."

"Nice! Me too!" and Emmet pointed at a large pixelated skeleton in a rather weird outfit and incredibly long straight teeth who was approaching them at concerning speeds: "He likes puzzles."

"GREETINGS, HUMAN!" the skeleton shrieked in a friendly manner.

Guzma looked at him.

"Is that fucking Papyrus from Deltarune," he asked flatly.

Papyrus looked at him.

"IS THAT FUCKING GUZMA FROM POKÉMON SWORD AND SHIELD?" he asked back.

They quickly shook hands with a sudden air of intense professionalism.

Plumeria's look assured the twins that she had no idea what was going on or what any of this meant.

"Excuse me," a young voice made Ingo turn around to see a fourteen-year-old boy in school uniform looking up at him with somewhat soulless eyes, "Did you compete against Reigen, my shinshou?"

"I did! My name is Ingo. You are?"

"They call me Mob. Do you think he has any chance of winning?"

"Well, he is certainly very determined," the Subway Boss mused, "And I've heard he has won several of these contests already."

"AT THE VERY LEAST HE IS PUTTING IN MORE EFFORT THAN MY BROTHER!" Papyrus butted in. Hearing himself being mentioned, Sans turned a little and waved at the group while his brother continued: "THAT LAZYBONES HAS BARELY DONE ANYTHING MORE THAN WALK TO THE NEXT POSITION AFTER WINNING SO FAR!"

"Ah, but perhaps that's the secret to victory," Ingo hummed. "Mr. Reigen seems to be taking this far too seriously."

"You weren't taking it seriously?" Mob asked.

"On the contrary, I was very serious about each individual match!" the man explained: "But I approached the competition as a whole rather lightly, as a fun activity. Your master on the other hand seems to concern himself far too much with it - to the point where he looks like a Mincinno in the rain."

"Wet and miserable," Emmet translated.

"Yeah, he does look kind of pathetic," Plumeria agreed mercilessly.

Mob looked back at the battlefield, where his employer was doing various increasingly weird poses as a way to warm up while his opponent took a nap.

Maybe he should follow his own advice, the kid thought, And not let other people dictate his self-worth...

"He's a good person," he stated solemnly. "Even if he pays me 300 yen."

A bout of vaguely horrified silence passed through the group without touching Papyrus, who had long ago decided to ignore the economy and all that stemmed from it.

"Like," Guzma finally braved to ask, "300 yen an hour?"

"In general."

Another pause.

"Bad," Emmet sentenced.

"Definitely illegal," Plumeria echoed.

"You need to immediately demand a significant wage increase," Ingo ordered.

In the end, Mob's last second vote had secured the victory.

Papyrus was now parading his newly crowned #1 sexyman brother on his shoulder with the pride and joy of a chef presenting his award winning plate of piping hot spaghetti with tomato sauce between the enthusiastic hollers and clapping of fans, while Reigen was sitting with a second place smoothie contemplating a very select few of his life choices, something which happened incredibly rarely despite being a man who pretended to have psychic powers and got in extremely dangerous situations because of it for a living.

Watching Komaeda being driven away by a large fish lady with a glowing blue lance after attempting to hail Sans like some sort of divine idol, the four Pokémon characters were having quite a ball.

Emmet's attention was suddenly caught by a bit of eavesdropped conversation to his left, between a blue man with an enormous head and a lady in a very similar 3D style - something about hating that someone was right this time.

He turned around very quickly and ran directly into the two of them too fast for Ingk to manage to stop him: "I am Emmet," he introduced himself, making the blue man jump, "I am verrry interested in your conversation! Please continue. Who is right about what this time?"

The woman gripped her man's shoulder tight enough to quell any instinctual murderous movement before he accidentally killed the strange guy.

"Uh - well, it's nothing really," she waved dismissively, "It's just an inside joke, a minor nemesis of ours once thought the queen of England was something made up and there was no such thing, and now he's, well, you know - right."

Emmet cocked his head to the side: "What do you mean?"

"WHAT!" the very dirty shirtless australian man with hair on fire who had called Guzma a cunt earlier screamed at that very moment, talking to an enormous friend of his who wore a gas mask somewhat reminiscent of a pig's face: "YA MEAN SHE'S BIT THE BULLET FOR REAL?!"

The kind of silence that precedes inordinate amounts of unbridled chaos fell for roughly fifteen seconds.

"That," the blue man replied.

"SANS!!" Papyrus turned to his brother as if he had played some kind of part in this.

(Mob, famed anime icon of both socialism and antifascism, who had released a beam of 100% relief in the vague direction of London at the news of his employer's defeat, saw it fit to remain quiet.)

"Oh no!" the Subway Bosses exclaimed.

Ingo then turned back to Guzma and Plumeria: "Would this be a bad moment to have that Multi Battle we had scheduled?"

"Nah, we can totally go for it," Plumeria reassured him.

"Very well then! All aboard!"

And the four of them left to find a quieter place to battle in peace.

#sexymen poll #submas ingo #submas emmet #guzma #sans #reigen arataka #bruno madrigal #jack skellington #nagito komaeda #mob #papyrus #plumeria #death tw #random writing #i caved in. whatever the fuck happened on thursday was too goddamn funny

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eternal-moss · 10 days

Text

Thoughts on Arlecchino’s animated short part 1

This will obviously have spoilers for the new animated short, and my thoughts on it. I’m fairly up to date on the lore, but without having certain 5* characters, there may be information I’m missing that’s already been explained more. Cw for child death

At the beginning I thought that what was obviously ‘water’ from the colour and sound effects moved quite weirdly, but when I looked back at it, they seemed more like flames, which is pretty fitting. Not only is the House of the Hearth in Fontaine, but it has Fontainian children, who were quite literally made from the primordial sea. The flames are also a reference for the ‘hearth’ part of the name.

So. The ‘bat’ on the left is 100% Dottore and no one can convince me otherwise (who’s on the right? No clue lol). I know he looked quite different in Nahida’s story about Scaramouche, where he was a strange bird thing wearing the skin of a fox. But seriously the stethoscope, the plaster, the half-half colouring like his webcomic mask and the deranged grin looks so much like him. I think there was a lot of illusions to deception in this short, and Dottore’s deception in Scarmouche’s story is similar to the ‘halo’ above Dottore’s head, where he’s pretending to be charitable as opposed to just using the children.

More on deception, presenting this whole thing as a children’s story is to make it seem more exciting to children while obscuring the truth, which is something I’m sure Arlecchino loathes. The false sense of joviality and kindness from the ‘Mother’ is probably why Arlecchino operates in a very honest but cold manner, explaining what will happen and how. Also, Arlecchino seems to have changed the entire function of the House of the Hearth, which I’ll talk about later.

But seriously, I don’t understand the Fatui at all, why do so many of their plans centre around slaughtering children?? They obviously see children (especially foreign children) as a disposable commodity which is depressing. With Dottore’s experiments being aimed at children like Collei, taking them en masse and killing many on the off chance that one might survive taking on god remnants. The House seems to be similar, but like a more hunger games style trial to create physically strong people, instead of magically enhanced people (although, there’s probably some overlap, which you can see with Arlecchino…)

Arle’s (or rather Peruere’s) curse appears to spread when she’s upset. I love this scene, our girl was emo from birth it seems. I completely understand the grief of loosing a pet spider, I was probably around the same age when it happened to me too coincidentally.

Look at these two. Their relationship is so cute, and Clervie seems to have a genuine appreciation for Arlecchino’s behaviour and quirks. I could write pages about Arle’s gender non-conformity, but the clothes she wears are much more similar to young boys’ clothing (and it’s super reminiscent of Freminet’s clothing too!).

I love Fontaine architecture man, and the waves here look super eerie and foreboding. We know that Arlecchino was *heavily* invested in preventing the prophecy, which is the main motivation we know of hers. I wonder if things have changed a lot in the House after the Fontaine archon quest ending. We know something is amiss from the trailer & Arlecchino’s discussion with Neuvillette but I have no idea what

This might be an animation error, but why did Arle’s doll have an earring before she did? These two shots are years apart, and Arlecchino clearly doesn’t have an earring in the first one but does in the next. Maybe she vicariously pierced the doll’s ear first before having permission to do it to herself?

“I’m sorry… thank you” seems ironically like something someone with a curse might say, who was looking to be killed (stares at Albedo), so what happened with Clervie?? The two seemed basically inseparable before, and even though the patching-up scene earlier could have been a fight between the two of them, I feel like it’s unlikely that they would have genuinely fought to the death without some serious compulsion. I don’t think that threats would have been enough to make something like this happen, so maybe the ‘Mother’ influenced Clervie’s mind somehow? The fact that Arlecchino had to kill her to fully subdue her & the flames in the background makes it seem like she exerted herself a lot, and so Clervie must have been a pretty good fighter too then.

Still trying to figure out exactly where tf the house of the Hearth is located. Is it in the new area that’s being released? Is it even technically in Fontaine boundaries if it’s beyond the ‘terrestrial sea’?

Metaphor time! The first quote with the Lumidouce Bell is “I should have pruned this flower long ago, not waited ‘till it wilts… how grotesque.” And the second is “a bird tied down will never fly the nest. You are no exception.” Both seem pretty vague to me to be honest- the Lumidouce Bell is Clervie’s symbol, and it could be about killing Clervie. But I also think it could refer to disciplining Arlecchino and making her conform (especially with the ‘grotesque’ comment and the fact that pruning isn’t supposed to kill a plant). Maybe it’s referring to all the children of the Hearth, and how she let them grow too old before setting them to fight each other, and as a group how they would have developed rebellious attitudes in that time. Who knows.

I’m wondering what the ‘ties’ are for the second one- are they physical restraints or emotional ones? The nest is very obviously the Hearth, and ‘flying’ presumably means leaving the House (like the expression to describe children reaching adulthood & leaving their family home), which the ‘Mother’ doesn’t want if she wants a ‘king’.

More of Arlecchino’s curse progressing in a time of stress. And also being motivated by the Lumidouce flower (again probably symbolising Clervie).

All this about becoming the one true ‘king’ confuses me so much because genuinely what is the point?? It seems that most of the children are dead now with a few exceptions, and if she wants a ‘king’ to stay in the House of the Hearth and not leave to go on missions, what purpose do they have? ‘Ruling’ over the few remaining children?

I presume we’ll have an explanation soon, but the fact that Arlecchino wants to emulate the practice of having a ‘king’ confuses me too, because she seems to want to be the opposite of the previous ‘Mother’.

What an icon lmao. Arlecchino’s fighting style is so satisfying and so was this kick. The way she didn’t say “Mother… my answer is no!” And then kick but just immediately kicked after saying ‘Mother’ is so hilarious to me. Girl did NOT hesitate.

‘DiDnT sHe kiLL a hArBiNgEr” Then why is she locked in this ridiculously low security cell 😭. If you look at the lines in the floor the bars of cell are quite literally wider than her body, and she isn’t even tied to that chair. I know it’s probably so they could get a good shot but still it’s slightly cartoonish

SPEAKING OF CARTOONISH. Scaramouche looks so so silly here, I love that for him. He quite literally looks like a preteen boy, complete with the hood. Signora looks incredible here, I wish we could see more of her outfits. I really don’t care much for the other two, Pierro could be interesting in the future but I’m not particularly drawn to him

Okay. I’ve reached the photo limit…. I’ll do a part two…

#Genshin impact #mossy rambles #long post #Arlecchino #Clervie #I won’t tag the others bc they’re kinda irrelevant #I’m not that big on Fontaine lore but I am pretty damn excited for this next version #The music was really good during the fight too

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onepiece-oc-archives · 28 days

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what's something you would not recommend when writing one piece ocs?

Hi, thanks for your question!

At first I thought it was a duplicate of the question I answered here but then I looked a little closer. So: In this post, I'll be focusing on the actual writing of OCs, as in fanfic stuff. If you're still in the creating phase, go here for my tips on what to avoid for that.

Alright, writing! My favourite activity on the world earth - I could literally write for entire weeks straight if I wasn't bound by the limits of my human body and mind lol

This list is probably going to be even shorter than the one for OC creation because I'm not about to mess with other people's writing style. Do what feels right for you. You should always be writing for yourself first and foremost because writing should be fun! That being said, there's one One Piece-specific tip I have for you:

Don't translate everything you see in the anime and/or manga directly into your writing. It won't work. Animation/manga and written stories are two very different mediums. I think the best way to explain this would be to look at the changes made between the animanga and the live action:

Changes had to be made because certain things just don't translate well into a live-action format.

For example, most characters don't yell out their attacks in the live action, because it comes off as very silly outside of the animanga format. They're real people after all. The characters who still shout out their attacks are either very silly (i.e. Luffy and Buggy) or... well... Sanji. He's very serious about it. I saw someone theorize once that shouting your finisher attacks is probably a pirate thing and Zeff taught Sanji that - so of course he'd take it seriously because he respects Zeff and takes his word as truth because Zeff used to be a pirate and he should know. Anyways, other example:

Sanji's heart eyes. We're sticking with my boy Sanji, simply because he works really well for tackling changes made to the live action made for genre/format/medium reasons. Why? Because Sanji, in the animanga, is a character who's very reliant on physical comedy. Don't know what I mean, maybe because you're an OPLA only fan (in which case: Welcome, glad to have you here <3)? Here, I'll show you:

That's animanga Sanji. Full-on heart eyes goof and noodle arms. As you can probably guess, this wouldn't work in a live action format. So, we went from literal heart eyes...

... to figurative heart eyes. Still very much head over heels for the ladies, still a hopeless romantic, still an idiot, but not so much of an idiot that it comes across as over-the-top and wildly unnatural.

I would highly recommend that you do something similar for writing One Piece fics, including OC fics. If you want to keep the over-the-top, physical comedy, cartoon logic elements from the animanga for your fic, I won't stop you. I've just noticed that, in my opinion, it's hard to pull off, because describing the absolute tomfoolery of the animanga can be very difficult, and I'm personally not too much of a fan of it. It works in specific situations (caught-up animanga fans might know what I'm hinting at), but I personally prefer my fics to feel more natural - like OPLA. Still silly, but silly in a way that works for a live action and/or written format. That might also have to do with my writing style as a whole, so, like I said, keep the animanga elements if you want or tone them down if you like.

One thing I love to do though is to drop hints to animanga tropes and elements without implimenting them fully. Best example? Sanji's heart eyes. Because look at him! Figurative heart eyes are a thing. Use metaphors and figures of speech, figurative words that imply something cartoony but don't have to be. It's really fun! I really don't know how to explain it better, but I hope you know what I mean.

So, now that I've talked about general things and canon characters and whatnot: What does that mean for OCs specifically?

Maybe try to make a rough separation between their drawn form and their written form - or between their animanga and live action version. This works especially well if you can draw (even just a little bit) but it's also just plain fun to think about without drawing anything. Think about what gags and animanga tropes your OC could have in that format and think about how those things translate to a live action or written format. Do they translate seamlessly? Do they have to be cut because they don't work at all? Would they be changed? Experiment with what works for your own writing style. How does your OC interact with your interpretation of canon characters? Generally: Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. The only way to start writing is to start writing and to try out what works for you and what doesn't.

And in case you don't know where you want to start with writing or want to try a few things out: Take a scene in canon that your OC would be participating in and write down your version of it. See what changes, try out the dynamics, get a feel for what works and what doesn't...

So yeah, I hope this helped! This feels pretty disorganized (I'm so sorry) but I hope I got my point across.

Hope you're having a lovely day!

#ask the archivist #topic: basics #topic: oc help #topic: writing #no spoilers

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dicknouget · 9 months

Text

A Response to Reviews and Certain Objections on Adam's Character Relevance Essay

Normally I like to keep this in PM's, but I'd rather use this as an addendum. I'm collecting responses from both FFNet and Tumblr into one document so I'm not running everywhere. On FFNet it will be added as a sixth chapter to the essay, on Tumblr as a separate post. My username is the same on both websites.

There is a point in one of the objections where it may come across as pro-Russian, I need to clarify I'm a staunch anti-imperialist, and reject all forms of imperialism. Every nation has its right to self determination.

I'm going to put the responses to the objections under a cut.

I want to thank everyone for the kind responses to this essay. This is something that I've worked on since April/May, and I am rather proud of it.

Tumblr Responses:

@fallentitan98:

I already responded to you in the notes of the original essay but I wanted to answer it here so I can centralize my responses.

He's was already enraged because Blake was with Yang. Who he saw her with fundamentally would not have changed the outcome of his fate. I mention this in one of the objections later on, but Adam doesn't add anything new to Weiss' story outside of reminding her what her families done to the faunus. I guess this is more of a subjective criticism, and kudos for acknowledging personal bias. A lot of critics fail to do so.

FF Net Responses:

Cryogony:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm working on my media analytical skills and I wanted to practice on one of my favourite shows

Oldest Guest on Chapter 5 review:

Adam did have potential early on, but he misplaced his anger at the wrong group. I agree with you this makes him a tragic character, and part of why I enjoy his character.

Second oldest guest on Chapter 5 review:

No comments. I agree with you on this. I think a lot of his fans misinterpret him as RWBY's version of Vergil. And while there are similarities, the biggest difference is battle wisdom, and it's painfully obvious that Adam lost a lot of it in Vol 6.

Essiter1987:

I am planning on writing more analytical essays, I have a couple pinned on my tumblr. The next big essay I have in progress is on character relationship growth using WhiteKnight as an example. I will admit that there is a bit of a personal bias to that one, but I try to stay objective to it.

I enjoy Adam's character, but I don't enjoy him as a person. I totally agree with you in terms of the writing and the power scaling issues. Monty was one hell of an animator, but I do agree that Adam's initial impression has led to misinterpretation of his character.

In terms of the Vol 6 fight, I'm also drafting an essay on why it made sense that Adam lost. It wasn't a moment where the story needed him to die, but one that if you pay attention to Blake and Yang's stories in the Mistral Arc, it starts to make sense. Again very early in the works, will probably have that one done before the WK analysis.

Keep reading for a response to Objections found on FFNet reviews.

Objections:

First Objection:

"If Jaune died, they could have avenged Jaune. Jaune dying works in the exact same manner as Pyrrha's death. The part with Pyrrha and Jaune here, comes across as you looking at their characters in a one dimensional view. Story point of view Jaune dying and Pyrrha living makes for a more interesting story."

There are several points within this objection and I’m going to attempt to address all of them.

First is the assertion that Pyrrha living makes for a more interesting story. Does it? Pyrrha was already at the peak of her physical prowess and was a living safety net for RWBY and JNR.

Even if she did manage to survive and continue on in the story, her heel is permanently damaged and would have to adapt to a new cybernetic limb, which already exists as Yang’s story.

The battle at Haven still would have taken place, the two biggest differences being the fight being ignited by another character and Weiss or another character kicking the bucket, due to the lack of a healing semblance from Jaune.

Then there’s the Vol 6 trip to Argus, which would have likely skipped Brunswick Farms and having a much more difficult time establishing a plan to Atlas once arriving at Argus.

Vol 7 likely would have panned out similarly, as Jaune was more background in that volume.

Vol 8 would have seen the team split on which objective to focus on as it was Jaune who decided the split.

When viewing Pyrrha from a design perspective it made sense that she died. Again referencing her allusion, and more specifically her name.

I am aware of the “JNPR dies theory”, but Pyrrha’s the only one who reached her full potential before the main plot began and her presence so far has been more effective with haunting the narrative.

Second Objection:

"Jaune's chance for growth came all the way back in Season 1 he wasn't interested in changing for the better, in all reality."

Throughout the Beacon Arc we see him move past his crush on Weiss to help her as a friend rather than as a love interest. He trains throughout Beacon alongside Pyrrha and is shown on screen to be training to videos that she recorded for him.

We see him grow into a greater tactician and strategist, first seen in V4 with the Geist and again with the Knucklevee, in vol 6 with the heist and in vol 8 with the 'divide and conquer' plan.

To ignore his growth is to ignore the reality of the show.

Third Objection:

"Adam Rwby's villain. Adam is the only character who can claim to be a villain to all of RWBY as a team."

Cinder Fall, Salem, and Neo apparently don't exist...

Adam has no narrative connection to Ruby outside of 'the guy who sliced off his sisters arm'. While, it you could argue it's a connection, it's not the same intensity as Yang and Adam's, and doesn't add anything new to Ruby's story. Ruby would likely see him as 'another enemy' rather than a personal threat, like she does Cinder.

Adam doesn't add anything new to Weiss' story outside of reminding her what her family has done to the faunus. Something she's already been aware of since meeting Blake back in volume 1, and reminded of when RWBYJNR went on the mission with the Ace Ops in V7.

Out of the main cast, Adam is the antagonist to Blake and Yang alone.

Fourth Objection:

"Adam's actual goal was actually 'change'. He also wanted to be in charge and hold the power but that came from all the abuse he suffered and witnessed."

The change he wanted was an oppressive change not a liberating change, one that required him to be self empowering. His end goal for 'change' required the deaths of civilians, as demonstrated in the Black trailer, the Fall of Beacon, and the Battle for Haven.

There is a quote by Paulo Freire that can summarize Adam's goal of change perfectly:

"The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors."

Rather than striving for liberation and emancipation through armed struggle (i.e. the American Revolution against the British (a historically progressive moment), the Russian Revolutions in 1917, the August revolution in Vietnam, the Haitian revolution and both coup's in Burkina Faso), he chose an oppressive change akin to how several of modern day far right groups in Eastern Europe want to treat Russians living in their country.

Fifth Objection:

"The fact you think Adam is a one dimensional character"

I don't. In the conclusion I literally say he had potential. He isn't a complex character, but there is nuance to him, much like Cinder. He had dimension to his character, but he wastes it by going down his destructive path. If he didn't continue down his path of chauvinism, he likely could have become an anti-hero or anti-villain.

Sixth Objection:

“Adam is just a wasted potential of a character. Conclusion you forgot about Ruby and Weiss.”

Again, Adam was largely irrelevant to Ruby’s story and didn’t add anything new to Weiss’. There was no reason to add them.

#rwby #adam taurus #nougets rants #nougets essays

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himboskywalker · 1 year

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SPEAKING of omegaverse Tag I’ve been wanting to ask you what it is about a/b/o that you like so much and are especially drawn to?im very picky for my a/b/o and you somehow always get it exactly right so I’m curious what you look for in your omegaverse content?

Oof this is a complicated question for me actually lol Keep in mind I’ve literally been reading a/b/o since it’s origin in the Supernatural fandom on LIVEJOURNAL. I read the first a/b/o fic,I was in the fandom space and on the forums when it emerged,so I have quite literally followed along with it since it’s inception,and have kept tabs on its various evolutions through the years and through the different fandoms I’ve been in.

Originally it was much more about the animal characteristics and what I was seeing was very coded into werewolf verses or other creature societies very similar. What drew me in originally was a lot of those animal instincts of dominance and submission,especially with the alpha biting to enforce submission. As everyone on here knows I really really like biting,it’s kind of intrinsically tied in with my views of eroticism,so anything that heavily features biting kink will have my full attention. It’s why I love vampire content so much,or a lot of creature content.

I also have a really strong sense of smell,and in the more creature focused a/b/o fics,and then in Teen Wolf when a/b/o was interwoven with werewolves,scent played a big part in their characteristics. I really really like scent based stuff,in real life the way a partner smells is a large part of my attraction to them,it’s usually one of the first things I notice. For a lot of people,even if they don’t realize it,scent and pheromones play an important role in attraction. I love universes where this is played up,and scents become,not just a more blatant form of attraction,but also a vehicle for characterization and even communication. In a lot of next generation a/b/o the scent component has veered away from the wolf stuff in the OG omegaverse,but it’s something I hold onto and love. Like the force in Star Wars,it offers an opportunity to me as a writer to explore an alternative form of communication and recognition between characters.

At its core a/b/o is a really fun way for me to explore dom/sub dynamics too and in fact the dom/sub universes you see in fanfic now stemmed from omegaverse. There’s something about these sexual preferences being instinctual in these verses that made my own exploration for these wants and preferences somehow safer for me to accept when I was younger. And being able to read stories where a submissive male partner isn’t mocked for wanting these things while also being able to be a strong and independent person helped me realize a lot of things about myself that I always found confusing.

And on that note when done right I thing a/b/o is a wonderfully subversive and unique way to explore gender and gender roles. When I wrote conceal me what I am it was intrinsically interwoven with trans and nonbinary themes and was a very safe way for me parse through my own emotions of how I perceive myself and how the world perceives me. In all,exploring a submissive male character with certain cis female sexual characteristics has been a decade long process of coming to terms with my own gender-fluid ness,and being very comfortable with it,when I think without certain fictional avenues,I would have had a much harder time wrapping my head around it and how I perceive myself.

I think maybe what you see in my a/b/o writing,and what others have seen in it,is my dislike for feminizing male characters that I use as a vehicle for gender and sexual exploitation. This is no hate in any way to writers who do,there’s nothing wrong with it,but it’s something I always found personally distressing without being able to articulate why. More recently I’ve been able to identify that I find being feminized distressing,even though I identify as a woman some of the time.And so I find reading a male character being feminized as distressing because of my own life and raising. I like a/b/o as a means to look into the other,into the liminal inbetween and the hard to identify and parse outside of the rigid gender structures society has given us. So when I go into an a/b/o story with a wanting for that exploration and then it’s a projection of typical heteronormative gender ideals onto a not typical heteronormative dynamic,I find it upsetting. So in my own writing I avoid that at all cost. Again this is not a judgement of anyone who creates or engages with content that does embrace that,I don’t view it as a moral failing in any way,it’s simply something I don’t like and so something I specifically try to circumnavigate in my own art. Or when I do explore the intervening of male and female and other,it’s in a way I understand and perceive the world,and so is a comforting navigation of things I myself am unsure about or don’t quite understand.

It doesn’t have to be this deep. All a/b/o doesn’t have to be a societal deconstruction of gender and sexuality and queer coding. Sometimes it’s as simple as mmmm inherent attraction because of instincts sexy. It can also be mmmm character smells good BITE BITE BITE. It’s what you make it and what you find meaning and/or pleasure from. There’s thousands of interpretations of a/b/o because it’s a wonderful vehicle for exploration of many things. This is just my own relationship with it.

#anons #fanfic stuff #a/b/o verse #a/b/o dynamics #a/b/o mention #blacklist for squick #tag times #long post #gender #gender issues

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