Nimona the Movie: queer love is beautiful and powerful and restorative! the question of how to defeat an authoritarian state is not gonna be addressed in our 90 minutes of runtime. We're keeping it PG today. 😉

Nimona the Comic: queer love is beautiful and powerful and restorative! jsyk you cannot defeat an authoritarian state through the power of love alone, you are also going to need the power of incredible violence 😃

the thing about emma vs amy is they’re literally not comparable at all really!! one HAS KILLED PEOPLE WITHOUT REMORSE (arguably, it’s been a while since i’ve seen the episode) and the other… HAS NOT! a comparison i have never seen people make that is actually so much better, so much more interesting? emma and that dude in metamorphosis, the rugaru. both are supposedly “monsters” who will inevitably kill somebody and thus deserve to be killed as a preemptive measure (even though they haven’t actually hurt anybody yet), as argued by sam about emma and dean/the other hunter about the rugaru. the difference? DEAN DECIDES TO TRUST SAM AND TRY TO HELP THE DUDE. sam on the other hand disregards dean’s wishes and any possibility of emma making the right choice.

i’m convinced that the only reason people compare emma and amy is because “dean admits he was wrong to kill her” (which isn’t actually what he says but people don’t really care about the exacts). if they were to look at any other episode where the definition of monster is argued, they’d see that sam is usually on the side of “give them a chance” (and ftr dean is too almost all of the time) UNLESS it’s a “monster” associated with dean… why are sam’s morals different for these people? for emma?

sorry i know that’s a long rant, but every time i see the emma vs amy debates it boggles me that metamorphosis dude is never brought up too! also i hope this all makes sense haha

Emma and Amy aren't even remotely comparable. In any way. Emma and Amy's son who Dean didn't kill? Yep. They are directly comparable. But Amy and Emma? Get outta here! Jack Montgomery (Metamorphosis) and Jack Kline (two Jack's!) can both be interesting Emma parallels. Especially when comparing how desperate fans are to coddle Jack Kline from so much as experiencing a negative emotion when he's brainwashing people from the womb, bursting out of his mom's body like something out of Alien, and actively strangling innocent black store clerks to death.

Contrary to the belief of people who don't watch the show but are always making wide-sweeping claims about what happens in it, Sam and Dean have a long history of trying to protect "good" monsters (including from other hunters!) from 2.03 "Bloodlust" and onwards (2.03, 2.17, 4.04, 5.06, 6.02, 8.04, 12.04, 12.16). There's a weird disk horse that's opened up in the last several years that Sam and Dean are always indiscriminately killing monsters who don't deserve it all of the time because "supernatural power bad" and that just isn't true. Like. Actually look at the cases they go on? Sam and Dean kill murderers whose crimes are committed supernaturally which is going to allow them to get away with it and/or continue doing it. They don't kill people just because they're "different"—in fact, the entirety of season 2 is about not killing people just because they're different, or because of some alleged inescapable dark destiny.

I've spoken before about how "Bloodlust" is treated by fandom as an episode where Sam stands on some sort of moral high ground from the beginning about the existence of good monsters, but that isn't what actually happens in the episode. Sam ends the episode with zero remorse about any previous hunts John ever took them on while Dean thinks back and wonders if they hurt people who didn't deserve it at some point (no questionable hunts in season 1 FYI—and the majority of them are ghost-related).

The way that Sam can compartmentalize/let go of his past actions and move on is useful in their field of work, but in contrast with Dean's tendency to feel eaten alive by guilt, it often results in fandom disk horse where fans follow Sam's lead by compartmentalizing and burying and excusing his actions as if they never happened, while putting everything Dean does under a microscope because his visible guilt implicates him in the eyes of fans. Because Dean spends several episodes feeling bad after 7.03, he must have done something super duper bad and horrible and is the worst person alive, and Amy didn't deserve to die. But because Sam doesn't ever show a single shred of remorse after 7.13 and Dean doesn't ever talk about it again, Sam must have been in the right. It's actually bizarre when you think about it—Sam's lack of guilt ought to be chilling to fans, but instead, it's often used to absolve him of wrongdoing... and for all their flaws that everyone is always harping on, I do think Bucklemming intended Sam's actions and his attitude after to be chilling. They don't intend him to be seen as "in the right".

Dean buries what happens with Emma down deep, and it's obvious why. He can't take another hit like this in season 7. Not after Cas and Bobby. He buries it deep down like he buried Lisa and Ben deep down. In addition... if Dean wanted to bring Emma up, who the actual fuck would or could he have talked to about her? Bobby's dead. Cas is dead. The only person left in Dean's life is the person who killed his daughter, and Sam made it very clear that he didn't give a shit how Dean felt about her being dead. In fact, he lectured Dean for hesitating to kill his own biological child, and said she "wasn't really his". Then when Dean disputed that claim, Sam immediately called him crazy and acted like Dean's actions (trying to push a monster kid who hasn't hurt anyone off a terrible path) are out of character when they ARE NOT (2.03, ALL OF SEASON 2, 4.04, 5.06). Even 7.03 itself supports Dean's actions with Emma as in character, because the ACTUAL Emma analogue, Amy's son, is not killed by Dean. So yeah. Who the FUCK was Dean going to talk with this about? Given Sam's long and storied history of behaving as the thought police, if Dean had so much as looked too sad in his presence, Sam would have lit into him all over again, and what fucking good was that going to do?

And yeah teehee Sam doesn't want Dean to have too many friends. More than one often-dead close friend is too many.

12, 17, and 18 for the asks!

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

uhhh... no one in my particular circle of people with Taste, but Jyn. not even in terms of immediate fandom disk horse, but that in the wider-off tumblr star wars cultural reception, I think that even if rogue one is remembered as that That Time SW managed to Make Another Film That Was Good, the individual characters have been kind of... swallowed up. and that's why i love her. she's such a fucking mess. she's kind of petty and mean but in the space of things feels really human and fragile and somewhere outside the sw Strong Female Character Warrior Queen thing. her introduction scene as an adult where she takes the fucking shovel and just starts swinging is one of my favorite things in sw.

i think the same could be said of a bunch of the individual characters in andor, who i deeply adore, especially cinta, vel, bix, and kleya. not that they're unpopular in the I Hate These Women Way fandom sometimes does but that you just don't really see much... about them. (i do wish things about bix's writing were different, but i am fascinated by her as a CHARACTER and the fact that not only was she part of the extremely nascent rebellion before cassian, before almost everyone we know, if you draw the lines she's probably REALLY central to the axis circuit which is.. fascinating. like because she has no reason to tell Anyone the Truth of her secret dealings, we actually know extremely little about her, and that fascinates me. also she's this woman stuck in a small town she's tied into the fabric of and that's this source of complex ennui and pain i really love seeing in genre fiction and would love to root around in some more.)

vel and cinta... HELLO... vel and cinta.... cinta and vel... my brain is always thinking about them. just a lil.

also! i think leida mothma is second only to dark vader in greatest villains of the star wars universe. she's annoying as hell and she's this generational ticking time bomb about what happens when the kids born into the empire swallow it, when they /aren't/ leia organa.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

instead of twitter misogyny i would like to see jyn/bix also jyn/bix/cassian. nothing will save us but bi threesomes.

AU's where cassian drove the van for the aldhani rock group's cringe death metal band (or, if we're placing SW into the 1970's, the aldhani group's 60's scottish folk band.)

honestly extremely attached to any kind of thing where jyn and cassian have a deep connection to each other that isn't laterally a hallmark greeting card. like i actually really find the extremely close FWB vibe with them during the rebellion era to be tremendously interesting, and i don't think fandom does enough with the whole fact that maybe a 70's space-futuristic leftist army /might/ not have the same ideas around social organisation and intimacy as a a netflix rom com OMG ARE YOU GUYS LIKE TOGETHER TOGETHER???? (like i'm sure the goss on echo base was insane but i'm also not sure it might have been That.)

Anything which recognises the Real Fact that Rogue One AU's should be set in the 1970's and everyone should be wearing 70's fashions and there should be way more oblique mentions of bellbottoms and paisley. except arguably andor might be set in the 60's. in which case they should be wearing 60's fashions.

This might be summoning snakes into my house but... you know all the stuff i said about kidfic aus? turns out what i really dislike are bad kidfic aus! because they thing is is that i think jyn and cassian's narratives are profoundly focused on the question of What It Is to be Someone's Child, and sw in general is really interested in the questions about what it is to be someone's parent and someoen's child in extremity (how well they carry this out ESPECIALLy with women is debatable) and there's a lot of room to do some seriously interesting character study work and post-war How Do We Break These Cycles work if it's something aside from the kind of bioessentialist hey guys woman's purpose Fulfilled because she's had biological children/ narrative OR the you can tell how Healed jyn and cassian are and how Over the War is cause they have two (2) biological children in space!suburbia called lyra and galen scenario, which proliferates in fandom. basically what i'm saying is there's no weird indie movie about rey climbing into cassian's car at the Jack-Q service station to steal his potato chips and him being like WHOSE KID IS THIS i have to RETURN you so this isn't KIDNAPPING [terrible flashbacks] and rey being like nooo mister and then they go on a loopy roadtrip to find her parents when of course the answer is in the journey. also nobody's written the scenario of Ye Classic Space!Road Trip to The Beach and the kids in the back seat are like BISCUIT BARON BISCUIT BARON and cassian is squinting over the top of the steering wheel because he thinks he missed the turnoff and pulling ye old Hay Comida En La Casaaaaa but Jyn's just like actually every single Biscuit Baron in the galaxy is closed, just for today, and the only thing they sell is black coffee.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

not to be like people would Care if they were white men BUT the amount of press and buzz and fics there would be if velcinta were white men like literally shut up about white war criminal superhero x white war criminal superhero when there's antifascist lesbian guerillas shooting fascists AND wearing twee hats in the highlands while they feed sheep in their lil space!scottish brokeback moutain moments. i think they're slept on as individual characters and as a ship especially when Cinta is one of the only women of color in the modern star wars and vel's story is on some level literally about queerness, being a queer woman in a conservative society (always hiding, always changing.)

jyn and cassian's matching magical girl anime moment soulmate chrystal kyber necklaces

still boggling over the fact that cassian and jyn's Rebellion Kidnappers/Dads canonically are people with History, c'mon guys, there's an infinite amount of stuff to do with saw and luthen accidentally setting their kidnapping victims/adoptees/proteges up together. (also i'm just extremely fascinated by saw and luthen as characters, up there with Guys Fandom Sleeps on.)

My priorities might be skewed, but my first thought after seeing that post addressing crazy musical disk-horse was, 'oh no, i'm gonna have to stop going in the Great Comet tag for a while.' I simply refuse to perceive discourse, i will make it wash over my brain like water off a ducks back.

My second thought was that ppl really gloss over 2020 as thee tony's musical snub year. the percy jackson musical probably wasn't good (haven't listened), but like. they refused to nominate it for leading role even though it was one of two musicals that qualified that year, giving it to the other by default. They changed the definition of best original score just so they could avoid nominating it. legitimately hilarious levels of haterism.

it's Unserious to approach some media analysis (like that one musical of an awards season was the objective worthiest one for any given category, much less Best overall, the vaguest) as though one theory is the Definitively Correct one. versus that it's an argument that could be backed up and hold up to figurative peer review, and even then, it'll always have limits and not be like "objectively" all-encompassingly accurate

it's also Unserious to say some shit like "great comet should've won best musical or gotten as many awards or swept or something....because dear / evan hansen is basically trump"

imo thee tony awards? are pretty much Unserious too. it Is enjoyable when any awards institutions recognize anyone or anything in ways that seem to reflect some actual value, and that would always be arguable / subjective / up for debate, but the major awards groups especially do not seem "good" at doing this, or "trying" to be. as a deh enjoyer and deh [head in hands wishing it was different b/c xyz criticisms &/or disagreements with concepts they were trying to execute, and executions of concepts....but i'm doing it better & differently than like "deh is bad, evan is evil" or "pretty much any of the movie criticism"]er, i'm not like, mad that it was tony-acclaimed. i also would not be mad if they hadn't really won stuff, i also wasn't following the show at that time lol. i also believe great comet had to close not long afterward, didn't it? after some kind of casting shakeups that many people did not really see as It? i don't know about the show; i don't like, disagree with anyone who likes it more than deh, and/or thinks it was Better, b/c i have no info of my own, and i would not have Serious arguments in saying "no, deh is better, factually, nobody should think otherwise"

like, first of all like you're saying, to have Lost to deh in the tonys is to have been nominated at all. nothing got tlt's treatment, ever, and that was just more ridiculously out in the open than any snub in any other season could have been....but second of all, i also have to imagine some of the beef w/deh winning so many tonys instead is that the main thing the tonys do is give featured / awarded shows boosts; it's always talked about as that important Commercial event for broadway, when getting to broadway & staying on broadway is incredibly difficult, incredibly complex, incredibly expensive....reminded of it in that it seems the televised tonys getting a waiver so they could happen at all was at all for the sake of supporting the performers' careers by extension of the tonys being that commercial for broadway & a potential box office boost. probably having your show close not long after the tonys were largely about deh was unfortunate for said show & fans of it. but it's also not like winning even Best Musical has meant that that show will remain open for even another full year; afaik deh was also really buzzy Before the tonys, even if that solidified that further / was indeed another boost. and it's like....deh didn't make them make them win lol. much less did the material in deh....somehow result in a tonys win in Any Way comparable to a US presidential election candidate??? It's Fully Unserious

the only time i paid attention to a tony season while it was happening was in 2019, as a bmc enjoyer, so that was a real illuminating crash course, and ofc i have that Unamused Emoticon perspective about like. a situation in which it's very evident that that wasn't just like oh this one other musical which is its Nemesis (fr i don't even remember what all won / was nominated instead) but rather deliberately being shut out. the One nomination was, aptly, nominal, like "well you see, you've been acknowledged at all;" the off the shits unasked unwarned mitb parody that didn't give credit while the show couldn't actually do any performance is like....idk what that was, or who it was for, Everyone Hated That. again, the show having to close not long after was also not fun for anyone; even if in retrospect it's somewhat tempered by like, that was august of 2019, so they only could've had so many more months of it anyways, but that doesn't change things At The Time. i also don't need to believe bmc was inarguably thee best most successful show of the season, i can't do that, nobody can. i think it's a way stronger piece than deh, i like it more, i like the concepts & execution more. i don't need it to have won awards, i don't even need to think any given show "deserved" more than any others to have a longer run when it's all so expensive and difficult and precarious at the best of times. like, here we are, after bway phantom of the opera had to close.

which, i never saw beetlejuice in any iteration, much less the musical. i may not ever, b/c i have never been interested in other iterations lol. but it was like, nodding respectfully re: it being another show that season that the nyt (also a vastly Unserious realm of critical media analysis) hated, that evidently the tonys also barely wanted to acknowledge....that then had the added layer of like, what do you mean hugh jackman music man. great for them that they got to reopen anyways, i do not need to love the show myself or think that this is all Art Meritocracy out here re: who gets to stay open for how long, or close. i don't know anything about the lightning thief, i don't need to think "well it wasn't that good" nor "well it was amazing so this is an Objective outrage," i think that the tonys are Unserious for evidently being unwilling to ""consider"" (for as much as i think that the Consideration of various awards voting bodies is, itself, that Serious either (i don't)), much less platform, the show, even if i thought it was Bad or Disliked it. there were like 0.8 damn musicals that season. aaron tveit default win. no original scores nominated thusly. tony voters/producers and nyt criticasters going "idk i don't think i personally liked it, might've assumed going in what it was Like or About and didn't engage with it, maybe didn't bother seeing it or paying attention while i did" and that gets to be a cue for who gets money; it's about their institutional power transferring their Arbitrary stances into material impacts, versus their Supposed efforts of Arbiters Of "Taste"....while also like, broken clocks and [only so many musicals any given year], many people will Like many of the musicals up for nominations lol and be mad or glad at any winners/losers/completely ignored eligible shows

oh have to shoutout another instance of the tonys Unseriousness: bitching and moaning about how they just caaan't change their rules rn to make All categories nongendered. great stuff.

anyways just like, nothing new in people trying to posit their preferences as Objectively Superior based on an argument of morality? and it's like, i'm sure there are people who are like "wow yeah uh evan hansen is as bad as a fascist politician. he's lying and manipulating, and that is close enough" and earnest about it but like, is it close enough, and is that an Serious analysis of the actual material? No....and like, sure, have opinions and preferences based on an Ethical Stance, god i hope you do, but like, you have to be able to communicate that stance in a way that actually is based on shit and holds up at all, versus just vibes or making shit up to obfuscate what you Really think. which can just be "i'm mad that this show closed and didn't win tonys and didn't become this hypey breakout cultural phenomenon in ways that many broadway shows generally Do Not anyways" without like, legitimizing anger and even show grief by making it a stance like "and deh is basically trump >:(" lmfao like, it's already legitimate to have a preference or emotional investment in something you enjoy / has significance for you

i am not here for / don't seek out or absorb any & all rando Takes anyways, but in being here alongside [bmc bway is happening] like even peripherally i was aware of people also having preferences / feelings that had a shit basis lol like. that basically they're pissed that will roland was cast and this is because of thinking that in various ways his body was Worse than will connolly's (i honestly forget if it's one or two L's in his last name....yeah two right) and really what made this very clear is that nobody was actually willing to Say That, and instead would make up stuff about how this was a Serious And Objective Stance they were taking based on Artistic Merit. suddenly it was an urgent issue of newly saying that will roland is bad at singing (or the backhanded constant comments like "wow will r's so much better at singing now" on videos and Only re: will like, yeah his skill levels are only giving more cunt as time goes on, that's effort, increased experience, etc, applies to any & everyone else generally too...?) or suddenly bmc was stuntcasting b/c will roland was in deh (lol) or like this is the only time a role has been recast between productions, or even During....god knows that "someone who originated the role didn't stay with it forever," as is especially & often relevant w/indefinitely-running (over)demanding bway productions, is an eternal source of people who have preemptively decided that whoever replaces them is Objectively Worse, and will just make up whatever story serves that purpose. some anon once tried to hate on sky lakota-lynch to me, presumably as a will roland aficionado, b/c he was the next jared kleinman principal actor....like, what, you want Nobody in that role?? as, after Years as jared, an actor chooses to leave to be a lead in another show (that they personally like more as an audience member / preexisting fan lol)....also, they were racist about it. like absolutely you can prefer Whatever. you can be like "haha yeah i'm just always going to prefer This and it's not necessarily about like making sure i couldn't Possibly like another version as much or more" like, you don't have to. better for anyone to embrace that they just think [xyz] is neatest to them personally. i have no reason to think will connolly was "bad" as jeremy, i hear it was a different approach too in being a bit more fragile(tm) / Sad, great if you like that, i'm sure he can sing well, i heard a few pre obcr tracks, etc etc, i'm not interested lol like i've showed up via this one actor for these couple productions and That Is My Domain. i think it's shitty to be fatphobic & biased against people's bodies which does include their voices, and it's bullshitting to make up some narrative to cover for it where oh suddenly this person is just unskilled or an Unworthy Stuntcast. it's Unserious, it's also like just some real life shittiness, whereas fictional character evan hansen is not affected by "lying? an extremely broad phenomenon that is actually All 'being a lil too fashy for my tastes imo...'" and it is more difficult to imagine such a stance being relevant in ppl's lives in other applications, but that is also Unserious. if people have a serious thought out idea, they should be able to express that rather than expressing some deflection about "deh should've lost b/c that was like the 2016 US presidential election" or "will connolly should be jeremy in all iterations b/c this other guy i'm seething at now has only existed as: in deh"

anyways like point is that yeah like sure entirely possible great comet was the best musical on broadway that season (even though i don't think there can be any Definitive conclusion thusly. how do we assess that....and do we want to have to like, pit all shows in a medium/genre together? with inevitable limitations &/or restrictions on who gets to choose winners?) but you don't even have to be mad at deh or make it about being mad about something else entirely for no reason. can be mad that the tonys get to make or break shows, that putting on shows is so expensive, that [capitalism], can even just be mad b/c you really liked it and you don't have to put on some more ""legitimate"" argument; it's its own argument lol, it's also an outright subjective & individual one and we can be individuals with preferences and likes even without having studied every other possibly comparable work to make sure it's superior, and Not be like "actually any & everyone else could Also only possibly think / feel the same, so really my having a fave musical lately Transcends being the opinion of one person." we can indeed even pick any two shows or whatever else and compare them, or have a critical lens and do anything but believe something is so univerally Perfect that there's not even anything to say or even question. meanwhile it's also definitely rough that live theatre is all Ephemeral and limited in distribution, but if there's enough out there about a show to be the basis of knowing that you like it, you still have that. bmc trt loyalists can stick with the ocr / relevant boots lol.

and yeah the realest Most Wronged show is the lightning thief lol truly. not even b/c you have to feel You love it or it Deserved to run for years or make it to Broadway in the first place, but like, just evidently the tonys are some nonsense, let's make That argument together, as well as the nyt, and in my Onion the overall format of "one individual critic expounding" is also not our best most serious effort at thorough consideration of some material, nor what makes it most useful for people who want to know about that material Through you....it's mostly entertainment, and it's also bad at being entertainment. we can all enjoy a good Disrespecting The Tonys B/c They Earned That together, wherein if they really don't want to recognize your show they Will just refuse to give it nominations no matter what. you can go "i think great comet > deh" or "i think great comet's awards-worthiness in comparison to all other shows that season > deh's" and not go "deh <<<< because when characters lie that makes them like an irl fascist" b/c what?? and no it does not lol

like gotta shoutout that i definitely disagree on points w/other Deh Likers and Deh Haters b/c of course i would. i have no inherent disagreement w/great comet likers b/c of course i wouldn't. and even if i'm sure by now "can you believe that (the 2017 tonys)" is a bit old, it's like, how is that gonna be Enriching to hear discussed some more if it's not saying (a) anything at all or (b) essentially not saying anything b/c saying "characters shouldn't lie, and if they do, it's like being authoritarian in real life" is truly too Unserious to bother entertaining as a [this is why i think this other show should've won] stance here, much less absorbing

Interview with Seepran 1/4

Arguably the most important part of PaperDemon is community. In support of our members, each month we will showcase an artist or writer from the PaperDemon community via an interview. For December's showcase, we have interviewed a long-standing patron and active community member, seepran.

"My heart... melts... as soon as someone shows interest towards the things I do."

Ok! Let’s start with the basics. How would you describe yourself to the art and writing community?

Of course the toughest one is the first one dghjdsfg. I think I'd say I'm a reserved person, who's used to doing things on my own, in my own way. And then my heart immediately melts into a puddle, my whole being with it, as soon as someone shows interest towards the things I do.

Which did you get into first, art or writing?

Art, if we start from the very beginning. I doodled stick figures of my mother before learning how to write, haha. But even afterwards, drawing was something I did a lot more. I think I started to write stories and stuff only after I discovered the miracle that was Windows XP and floppy disks.

Ah, floppy disks. Interesting tidbit - my first computer was an 8088 when I was 5, and I used to write 'stories' on DOS. Usually about ponies...

What got you inspired to start with your art? Or go further with it?

What inspired me to start - I have no idea. Art is one of those things I feel like I did even before forming my first memories, so I can't say. I just remember drawing, head empty, pencils swinging. If there was an inspiration to start, I sure as heck can't remember it.

What comes to going further with it, I feel like there has always been the pressure of being perfect. I don't really know where that comes from, if it is just my personality, or assumption of what I should be. Though, I can't really see how that would make me want to go further with my art, because I remember being paralyzed by the fear of not being perfect about many things I wanted to draw. I remember horses being one, and the tallest, and longest standing obstacle being humans and humanoids. Maybe it's a combination of things I can't pinpoint, really. But spite is definitely one of the driving forces, as a teacher once told me I draw like a child in kindergarten, when I was maybe in fourth grade. I loved that teacher, I still do, but ma'am, I'm not swallowing that one.

(To be continued December 18th!)

im saying it. ikimaru is bad at art

ATTACHMENTS ARE THE THEME/DRIVING FORCE OF DSMP

okokok... so I was randomly thinking about DSMP motivations in the shower, as one does and came to this conclusion. I am still rambling in my own head about this so I apologize for abhorrently this will be written. This will be biased due to my own understanding of the characters. If I don’t write about someone, it is because I do not understand/know their character enough.

C!’s I talk about: Dream, Tommy, TechnoBlade, Ranboo, Wilbur, Tubbo, Fundy (a little)

List of attachment/driving force.

Dream ---- At first: friends/stability, Now: Control. Ok, hear me out. Why did the disk war start? Because one of Dream’s friends was griefed. His friend. Not him. And why was he so hard against Tommy at the beginning? He was breaking the rules.... against Dream’s friends’. Dream went after Tommy’s disks in order to RESTORE stability. To go back to the status quo!!!! And if Tommy had left it there, it would never had escalated!!! (Most likely.... at least not as quickly...) The problem is that Tommy kept going against the status quo, threatening the stability, so Dream realized that to keep the status quo, he would need to CONTROL Tommy. This began to grow until he became obsessed with it, to the point where Dream forgot his earlier goal, which led to his downfall as there was no one to stand with him. It started as a selfless/neutral goal, and became a wholly selfish one.

Tommy --- Primary: People,  Secondary: Possessions (namely disks). I think this is pretty obvious. Wars have been started over Tommy’s disks and cow (RIP Henry). Despite his obvious attachment to the disks in particular, as soon as his people are threatened (Tubbo several times, Wilbur/L’manburg during the revolution.) This is why exile was so damaging to Tommy. His possession are destroyed near daily, and he is separated from his friends, and believes that his friends had abandoned him. Exile was to Tommy as Loosing the election was to Wilbur. (see the Wilbur section for the explanation on that). Something interesting to see is that post exile, Tommy TRIES to make his possessions his primary, but fails in every way possible, abandoning Techno to stand with Tubbo instead.

Techno --- Primary: Ideology (freedom)  Secondary: People/pets (Is harmed by the primary). Again, this one is very clear. Techno has alright stated his motivations at several times, this is even clear in when he leaves people. He was loyal to Tommy until Tommy threatened his ideology. You may notice that I put freedom as his ideology, rather than anarchy. The major reason for this is Techno’s (aborted) retirement. As long as Techno was left alone, as long as he kept the freedom to do whatever he wanted. As soon as that was threatened, he dipped into anarchy once more in order to protect his ideology. Now with the syndicate, he is being proactive in his defense of his ideology. Something more interesting is that Techno seems to be inherently... selfless... I admit I never considered this until I started writing all of this, but all of Techno’s actions are driven by his ideology, or his attachment to people/pets. Pogtopia: Attachment to Wilbur and Tommy (either his brothers or his best friend’s sons), with the bonus of furthering his ideology. And that is right, ideology was a bonus at least in his joining the revolution. Even when he went against Tommy, it was to further his ideology, and he was still loyal to Wilbur. Butcher army arc: Techno was found/caught due to his attachment to Philza and his horse, Carl.  Doomsday: Fighting for his ideology, and revenge for Philza. I can not think of a selfish motivator for any of Techno’s major cannon actions. Note: when I say freedom, I most closely mean the Libertaian ideal. In it, people do whatever. As proved from his retirement, he wants the freedom side of Anarchy. He does not seek the chaos caused from it (although he may enjoy it.) Hmmm Theory: Techno’s ideology may stem from the voices in his head. We know he is susceptible to peer pressor, and the voices (chat) are a strong factor in his blood lust. However unconscious, his desire for freedom from those pressures may be the driving force for his wider ideology.

Ranboo --- Primary: People  Secondary: Ideology (freedom.)(feeds into the primary). Again, one that is outright said. What is most interesting is here is Ranboo’s parallels to Techno as well as his growing ideology. Ranboo’s ideology is not always clear as it is heavily shadowed by his primary motivation of people (which in and off itself is a form of ideology). Hints, even early on, that Ranboo had a strong ideology is that he was running for president before Doomsday. I am not very sure what this ideology is, but looking at his present desires, it likely centers around well, people. This is rather repetitive, but Ranboo’s ideology is freedom, like Techno, but more focused on people. I almost wonder how similar a younger, less pessimistic Techno would be to Ranboo. Both have a ideology based in freedom. The major difference between the two, is their trust in people. Ranboo is much more willing to blindly trust. While neither are optimists, Ranboo has shown much more willing to trust in forgive, particularly as shown by his continued attachment to the L’manburg crew after his accusation by those living in L’manburg. RANBOO TRUSTS OTHERS MORE THAN HIMSELF. TECHNO TRUSTS HIMSELF MORE THAN OTHERS. And based on their experiences in the DSMP, both are justified. Honestly may make another post just about the similarities between Ranboo and Techno.

Wilbur --- Concepts. (the IDEA of L’manburg) Wilbur loved the idea behind L’manburg, the reality of it did not matter. He was willing to allow his people to be hurt, sacrifice, even die in chase of the concept of his nation. This attachment to the idea behind the country is most strongly seen in the election arc and the Pogtopia rebellion. In Wilbur’s idea of L’manburg, he is the head of a democratic nation. Which is why he NEEDED to be elected. He didn’t give a shit about other candidates, because in his idea of L’manburg, there is only one option. I think Wilbur would have spiraled, at least a little, as long as he lost, but then he not only lost, he lost in the worst way possible. Shlatt won, then exiled him. This shattered Wilbur’s view of L’manburg, eventually leading him to destroy what he had fought to hard to protect. Wilbur told Philza that he had died a while ago, and this reflects his view of L’manburg. To him it died as soon as he lost the election.

Tubbo --- Primary: people   Secondary: groups. (He tries to make groups his primary motivation, but he generally fails to at least emotionally. He is always trying to do what he thinks he should do, rather than what he wants to. In that way he is one of the most responsible people on the server(at least on this list). Tubbo joined Tommy in the early arcs, because Tommy was his friend. Tubbo spied because he is supposed to help Pogtopia/Wilbur (it is his responsibility) and because his friend (Tommy) needs his help. After he became president, is where the shift begins. Tubbo now has a major amount of responsibility. He is a TEENAGER in charge of a COUNTRY that had just gotten out of civil war, and had, not only this country and friends’ biggest enemy (Dream) watching his move, he also had no idea what the other biggest danger in the SMP (Techno) is doing. Techno is such a big threat, to Tubbo AND the country. He proved that he is willing and capable of mass murder and distraction. He proved to be uncontrollably. He is Tubbo’s killer. From Tubbo’s point of view, the Butcher army is the most clear solution to send a message to both of L’Manburg’s biggest enemies. Taking Techno’s first cannon life would be a clear message to to everyone on the server that L’manburg is safe and not to be threatened. I can even see reflections of this in Snowchester, with Michael in particular. As I am not completely caught up with all of Tubbo’s newer lore, I am not going to delve to far into it.

Fundy --- Groups/Ideas. Fundy gets heavily attached to groups and the idea behind it. This feeds into, and is driven by his desire for acknowledgment. I really liked scrawls’ analysis of his character, and I see this feeding into it. This also reflects his father’s attachment. They are both more connected to ideas than the material world/people.

I have some ideas for others, they are just not fleshed out.

Categories (in no particular order)

Material attachments (people count):  Tommy, Techno (secondary), Ranboo , Tubbo

Ideological attachments: Wilbur, Techno, Fundy, Dream,  Ranboo (secondary)

Inherently selfish/selfless desire (something selfless can be done fore selfish reasons and vice versa)

Selfish: Dream (present), Wilbur, Fundy

Selfless: Techno, Ranboo, Tubbo, Tommy (while he can be selfish, his tendency to choose others make him on the selfless ranking.) Arguably: Dream (past)

The Princess Bride: The Characters, Part 2: The Sicilian Crowd, the Villains, and Conclusion

When we are first introduced to Inigo, he’s not exactly a glowing example of heroism.  A former alcoholic, Inigo is a Master Swordsman, working as a mercenary, he is one of the trio who first kidnaps Buttercup (under Humperdinck’s orders).  He’s fine with the abduction itself, but shows a few of his true colors when he objects to murdering her, already proving himself a little more decent than Vizzini, the leader of the band.

A little later, during the duel with Westley, much is revealed about Inigo, more in fact than you ever learn about the backstories of either Westley or Buttercup: the story of his father’s murder and his own desire for revenge, so strong that it has encouraged him to dedicate his life to mastering the art of fencing.  The duel, exciting enough from an action and comedy standpoint, also clues the audience in on a few other key details: Inigo isn’t really all that bad of a guy, just a man on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, again demonstrating the same duality (just reversed) that Westley does.

Despite not having as much screen time and focus as Buttercup and Westley, Inigo is the Breakout Character of The Princess Bride, a Determinator, the Lancer of the film.  As I mentioned, he’s also the character we receive the most information about, learning that he is a man of honor, good hearted, and loyal through his interactions with other characters, notably Westley and Fezzik.  Thanks to his sympathetic backstory and one-track mind, he’s understandable to the audience: we know everything about him and why he is doing everything.  He’s totally transparent in the best way, he makes sense, and the audience roots for him.  They care about him, even when he’s initially introduced as a more villainous character (albeit one with truly hilarious lines).  The audience arguably has a stronger attachment to him than they do to Westley and Buttercup, which is very unusual, especially when Inigo disappears for a while after Westley defeats him in battle.

In a way, Inigo would seem to have the qualities very necessary to carry a film: tragic backstory, sympathetic motivation, understandable actions rooted in very clear character traits, and indeed, a lot of elements that put him in the Hero camp.  And yet, like Buttercup and Westley, while some things fit him into this mold, others don’t.

Although he doesn’t have a connection to Humperdinck (aside from him being a distant employer), he does have a very strong tie to the main villains of the story in Count Rugen.

Rugen is, of course, the six-fingered man who murdered Inigo’s father so many years ago, and scarred Inigo himself.  It is he that Inigo is out to get throughout the entire film (and his entire life), a much stronger tie to an individual character in a personal way than Westley’s nemesis: Humperdinck.  Rugen is much more of an arch-nemesis, representing a very personal loss to Inigo, something that cuts much deeper, even, than true love.  While Westley never seems particularly worried about himself or Buttercup because he just knows that True Love will keep them together, Inigo reacts very strongly to Rugen and his own emotional journey, traits more typically associated with a protagonist than a cool confidence in how everything will turn out.

As a direct result to this personal stake in the story, Inigo, being at full strength and in full health, is the one who is given the final climactic battle at the end of the movie.

Where Westley has a rather anticlimactic confrontation with Humperdinck, Inigo gets a huge duel with Rugen, the climax centerpiece, the scene most memorable and most quoted in the entire film, ending in Inigo actually achieving his goal: getting revenge.  Afterwards, he even muses that after having gotten his revenge, now he no longer knows what to do with his life, with the film implying that he will become the next Dread Pirate Roberts in Westley’s place.  

Unlike Westley, and even unlike Buttercup, Inigo has an arc, pursuing what he wants actively, achieving it, and moving on.  He makes choices that have huge consequences in the plot: pursuing revenge, leaving Vizzini, finding Westley and bringing him to Miracle Max.  In a way, a huge part of the story is Inigo’s, just as much as it is Buttercup and Westley’s.  

Westley has the Heroic qualities, Buttercup has most of the focus (and her title in the movie’s name), and Inigo has the dramatic arc and climactic battle.  On their own, no one character manages to pull off the full requirements for being a fantasy protagonist, or even a protagonist at all, but together, they manage to make one complete protagonist between them.  While the story of The Princess Bride, in plot beats and story elements, seems very much like your very traditional fairy-tale story, in terms of protagonist, the execution is actually very complex.  By taking the traits of a protagonist and dividing them equally between three characters with varying levels of screen-time and activism within a story (not always at the same time), the story manages to get the audience’s interest invested in not one, but three characters equally, weaving the major threads for each of their stories in amongst each other to keep it all tied together.  And in the end, both the characters and the audience (even the Grandson!) feel closure and satisfaction.

But Inigo, Westley and Buttercup aren’t the only characters in the film.  Every story needs their supporting cast, and none are quite as supportive as Fezzik.

Fezzik is a Gentle Giant.  He’s big and strong, for sure, but he’s also very kind, the Big Guy with a heart of gold who, while not exactly being a pushover, isn’t out to hurt anybody who doesn’t deserve it.  He’s the Brute of Vizzini’s Beauty, Brains, and Brawn trio, and manages to subvert the Dumb Muscle stereotype.  He’s not terribly clever, but he does have a wit and intelligence to him that isn’t typical of most fairy-tale giants.

He and Inigo are borderline inseparable, and much like Inigo, Fezzik is somewhat okay with kidnapping Buttercup for money, but he’s considerably less approving of killing her.  Like Inigo, he is a man of honor, preferring to fight Westley in a ‘sportsmanlike’ way instead of clubbing him over the head with a rock like Vizzini first suggests.  He’s a good, loyal friend, rescuing Inigo from the palace guards, sobering him up, and then accompanying him throughout the rest of the story in finding and reviving Westley and then storming the castle.

Unlike Inigo, Westley and Buttercup, Fezzik has no stake in this story.  He has no goal to achieve here, no personal mission.  After Vizzini, his ‘boss’, is killed, there’s nothing keeping Fezzik in the story except his own will, like the Chewbacca to Inigo’s Han Solo.  He’s here because of his loyalty and concern for his friends.  He just wants to help, and help he does, turning his back on his mercenary ways pretty easily and without any real convincing.  He’s along for the ride, a supporting character that manages to be more than just ‘the comic relief’.  (In a way, one of the smartest things The Princess Bride did in terms of its characters was to make everyone funny, so no one is relegated to ‘just’ the comic relief.)

With that said, Fezzik still remains an active character in the story, helping with the storming of the castle and providing the Muscle (and the heart!) for the mission, and providing the escape by finding Humperdinck’s four white horses in his stable.

Starting out as a Minion with an F in Evil, Fezzik ends The Princess Bride as one of its most memorable and loved heroes, a kindly figure of support who’s anything but minor.

Which is more than we can say for the deceased leader of the trio of kidnappers: Vizzini.

Vizzini is the smartest of the trio sent to abduct Buttercup, but despite his bragging, he demonstrates hints that he’s not half as smart as he thinks he is.  The brains to Inigo’s beauty and Fezzik’s brawn, Vizzini is merely a Big Bad Wannabe, the final obstacle for Westley’s initial reunion with Buttercup, a Disk One Final Boss before the plot kicks off with portraying Humperdinck as the real villain.  However, while the film points out that Fezzik and Inigo fight Westley with honor, and he leaves them respectful of their talents (defeating them in the process), Westley shows no such respect for Vizzini’s ‘talents’, and simply Out-Gambits him, despite Vizzini’s Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo.  In the end, Vizzini is Too Clever by Half, and is the only one of the Sicilian Crowd to be killed, most likely due to his arrogance.

Despite his death being one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film, Vizzini doesn’t receive much screen time, or even narrative weight, in comparison to the true villains of the movie.  After all, Vizzini is only a hired stooge, a pawn in Humperdinck’s evil plan.

Humperdinck, as far as fairy-tale villains go, isn’t terribly impressive.  He’s no great dragon or emperor, or evil wizard.  He’s just a prince, a man with a lot of power who’s used to getting his own way.  He does plenty of rotten things along the way (torture Westley and kill him, order Buttercup’s kidnapping, attempt to kill her) but in the end, his goal isn’t world-domination, or wealth, or anything like that: he’s just after an excuse to go to war with the neighboring country.  He’s not after Buttercup for her beauty, like many other fairy-tale villains before him, he’s just after her to use as a political figure, aiming to kill her after their wedding night and pin it on Guilder.

Arguably, this makes him worse.

There’s no great, over-the-top explanation for his villany.  He’s not cartoonish or after traditional fairy-tale things, he’s actually after something that we’d see in the real world.  He is the true Big Bad, the Chessmaster, The Evil Prince obsessed with war, who, ironically, happens to be a Dirty Coward.

Oddly enough, throughout the film, although Humperdinck is presented as the Archenemy of Westley, there’s no real personal connection between them.  This isn’t like Beauty and the Beast, where both men are vying (in their own way) for Buttercup’s affection.  Humperdinck honestly couldn’t care less about Buttercup, viewing her as a tool to get what he really wants.  In the end, he rushes through a marriage ceremony in order to murder Buttercup after the wedding, again, nothing personal, just business.  His only connection to Westley is happening to choose the wrong girl to murder.

As such, as opposed to Count Rugen’s thematically resonant demise, Humperdinck is actually allowed to live, and go free at the end of the story, which seems to be a big-time rule-breaker in terms of fairy-tale storytelling.  The Grandson himself expresses irritation and disbelief at this fact, after all, villains should be punished, not sternly talked-down by a paralyzed hero.

Yet, that’s what happens.  Considering that the most Humperdinck managed to do was temporarily kill Westley, he gets very little ‘revenge’ in return.  Like I said in the Story article:

Westley couldn’t care less about Humperdinck other than the fact that he���s getting in the way of his and Buttercup’s storybook love.  Humperdinck is an obstacle to his true goal and drive, and he’s not worth the killing.  Once he’s out of the way and Westley and Buttercup are reunited, Humperdinck ceases to matter to Westley.  If the story had been from Miracle Max’s point of view, Humperdinck would have died or at least, have something more horrible happen to him, but since Humperdinck never really succeeded in doing much of anything throughout the story, he’s actually so pathetic that he’s not worth Westley’s time.

So, yeah, Humperdinck is left to live with his cowardice because his death wouldn’t have provided the characters anything except maybe catharsis, and honestly, that’s not really a good enough reason to off your villain

He’s such a coward, he doesn’t even have a chance to take part in a climatic duel.  He’s so unimpressive as a fantasy villain that he even strips the audience of their chance to see another sword fight, without diminishing his hatefulness and narrative weight as a villain.

Thankfully, the audience does get their climactic battle: thanks to Count Rugen.

Rugen is Inigo’s archenemy, rather than Westley’s, and unlike the rivalry between the main protagonist and antagonist, Rugen’s relationship with Inigo is very personal indeed.  Rugen, the six-fingered man that Inigo wants to hunt down and kill so badly, is the man who killed Inigo’s father, and left him scarred as a little boy.  Rugen is the Dragon, a Soft-Spoken Sadist who serves as Humperdinck’s Right Hand Man and Torture Technician.  He is the inventor of the torture machine that ends up taking Westley’s life, and throughout the film, serves as co-conspirator to Humperdinck.

He’s pretty rotten, and just like Humperdinck, proves himself to be a Dirty Coward too.

However, while Westley let Humperdinck live with that knowledge, Inigo offers Rugen no such mercy.

The final duel between Inigo and Rugen is one of the show-stopping setpieces of the film, paying off a considerable amount of buildup foreshadowed with much of Inigo’s dialogue and character.  Like I said in the ‘Story’ article:

On the other hand, Inigo’s villain, Count Rugen, is killed, for a very simple reason: that’s the logical end to fulfill Inigo’s story.

In order for Inigo to feel fulfilled and gain satisfaction, to lay his father’s spirit to rest, Rugen has to die, knowing why he’s dying, and who it is who killed him.  In a sense, the antagonists fit the ‘antagonist’ bill much the same way the protagonists do: by splitting the roles, from Humperdinck having the main plot being responsible for most of the obstacles, where Rugen fills in for the emotional punch instead.

There are other characters too, of course: Miracle Max and his wife Valerie, offering a comedic look at a few other residents of Florin, The Albino, Rugen’s assistant, The Impressive Clergyman, and even Yellin, the captain of the guard, but for the most part, these characters (aside from Miracle Max and Valerie being responsible for resurrecting Westley) serve as comedic filler, without much actual narrative weight.

As fairy-tale archetypes with surprising amounts of dimension, the characters of The Princess Bride all do their jobs with ease, falling into natural roles in an organic fashion, despite the unconventional structuring of the characters’ parts to play.

The beauty of all of these characters is that none of them are in the slightest bit realistic.  These are very clearly ‘fairy-tale’ characters, who don’t think about things in the way that we do, and yet, the audience still relates to them, is entertained by them, is concerned for them.  Even though characters don’t act in terribly realistic ways, they are motivated by things that we understand: love, revenge, etc.  The audience feels and understands their emotions, and therefore understands where characters are coming from, even if the actions taken by the characters are primarily ‘fantasy based’, superhuman, incredibly skilled and heroic or villainous in the context of the story that the Grandfather is reading to the Grandson.  

The Princess Bride’s characters are not portrayed as ‘people’, instead being played as simple characters typical of traditional ‘fairy-tale’ stories.  Each character, whether hero or villain, behaves almost as though they know what part they inhabit, playing the ‘fairy-tale’ aspect straight, with a comedic edge to the archetypes found in a book, a familiar-feeling, simple, but emotional story that people have loved and laughed with for decades.

The characters of The Princess Bride serve their purpose incredibly well: making the audience care about what happens to them.  Every role is memorable, unique, distinct, with plenty of quotes and character tics to be referenced and replicated decades later.  They perfectly match the film they belong to: a fantasy classic that has finally been Vindicated by History, gaining it’s rightful place among fantasy greats.  

Thank you guys so much for reading!  If you have something you’d like to add or say, don’t forget that the ask box is always open!  I hope to see you all in the next article.

Spicy take time (costarring Sugar): The Bros rated by how well I think their arcs/character development/relationship with MC was written and how much it makes sense. (Disclaimer: Our affection for these characters and how interesting, compelling, and lovable we find them has ZERO bearing on this list. ALSO, beware, here there be salt, IE, this is critical of the writing. It’s also long as fuck, so if you just wanna skim and read the bold parts, that’s okay too. You are also free to disagree with us as this is just an opinion, and keep in mind that we have only read to chapter 24 so if there are elements of the story we are unaware of... please be understanding of that and don’t spoil it.) Let’s get started, shall we?

1) Starting at the top is BEST BOI IMO: Beelzebub. So, yeah, in terms of character development and growth, he really doesn’t change all that much, aside from starting off not trusting MC to slowly opening up to them about his trauma. But putting that to the side, his relationship with them makes the most sense. After sharing a bedroom and helping him open up, as well as having the mutual goal of protecting Luke, and then even later going on to save his beloved little brother, it follows that he absolutely adores you afterward. Also, he doesn’t start off disliking you like some of the others. So, all around, he makes the most sense. He’s also one of the deeper characters with his backstory, even if I wish they’d give him other flaws than just being hongry (and playing his unhealthy eating habits/coping mechanism as a joke. Disordered eating should be taken more seriously, especially binge eating but that’s a can of worms for another day)

2) Second best is probably going to shock you, but Satan takes this spot. Why? Well, strictly in terms of arc progression, his relationship with MC starting out as one of manipulation and growing into something more genuine when they go on a heartwarming and wacky adventure together with his hated older brother which causes him to open up makes a lot of sense, at least more so than some of the others. While I wish they gave him more meat characterization wise, I think his arc was pretty well done in terms of story structure.

Okay, so, Sugar here. While I agree with Spice that Satan could use some more meat (and that we should be able to have some more information on Baby Satan because we all need that in our lives), I think that the progression of him and LUCI’S bond (not MC’s) could have done with more subtlety. While I appreciate him softening up, and see that progress, we don’t really get to see the tension of the newfound change and how he settles into letting things go/mellow out and I get it-- it’s a dating sim and the secondary relationships are well, secondary, but it would be interesting to see him and MC bond more through time.

3) Third place probably won’t be all that shocking, because this is where I’m placing Lucifer. He’s arguably one of the characters in the series who’s gotten the most love from the writers, having the most screentime, the most affectionate scenes with MC, and the most fleshed out backstory and characterization as well as fleshed out relationships with each of the characters. His relationship progression with MC also takes a nice, even pace, with him slowly learning to trust them and respect them, culminating in an almost-confession (I THINK. Unless I’m reading that part wrong) and then being shattered at MC’s betrayal, and then earned back in true Pixar-movie fashion by them teaming up for a common goal. HOWEVER. And this is a big however. I would love to see his unhealthy tendencies addressed and NOT fetishized. (Don’t come at me with that “BUT THEY’RE DEMONS THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE EVILLLLL” dude. If a demon being in a healthy relationship is where you draw the line in terms of believability, then why are you playing a fantasy demon dating sim anyway?) I love him, I stan him, I simp for him, but I wish he had at least apologized for his not-subtle threats of physical violence toward MC rather than jumping straight into the ALSO kinda violent “You’re mine and nobody else’s” gimmick.

Unlike some men (SPICE), I am actually not a Luci stan and while I do have a soft spot, and understanding of his place as an eldest sibling... I would also like to see the writer’s unravel the unhealthiness/coping Lucifer has in place and why/how it came to be. I feel like we get a sense that Luci has thawed since coming to the Devildom but we don’t really see how Lucifer in the Celestial Realm (and how his friendship with Simeon) has progressed. Luci has a lot of love from the writers but from a story stand-point, he is never really allowed to be weak and own up to his own flaws and how that has impacted/hurt MC.

4) Sharing fourth place is Leviathan and Mammon! I’m putting them in the same spot because the issues I have with them are the same, though I plan on addressing their good points individually. But since my beef is simpler, I’m going to start off with the bad. IMO, a good rivals to friends to lovers romance happens in STEPS. You start off from not getting along, to then finding some things in common, and gradually coming to respect each other, and then like each other, and finally love each other. This... doesn’t really happen with these two, and while we see the change from both tsundere boys starting off disliking you and eventually coming to love you, we don’t really get that inbetween that makes the payoff so much worth it. And if those inbetweens are there, the story doesn’t really tell us that, and it doesn’t show us their thought processes. Like, how much would it suck if in pokemon, your charmander evolved immediately into Charizard upon beating your first few gyms? It’s like that.

But as for the good, Levi’s arc makes sense because you’re the first person to really let him be himself and not shame him for the things he loves. You let him ramble about his interests and show interest in them yourself (AT LEAST IF YOU’RE NOT A FUCKING MONSTER. I’ll let Sugar talk more on him, that’s their boy.)

Whoo, boy. Here we go! For whatever reason, the otaku became my favorite and I love him, but as far as arcs go... He could have gotten a bit more screentime and progress. It makes sense that he would become attached to MC as his brothers are very, very... critical and patronizing about his interests. He is also by far the most skittish and introverted of the bunch, coupled with his sin and seeing all the ways he falls short (in his eyes) is a recipe for loneliness and desire for companionship/friendship. While I am not happy with the progression, for me, it makes sense and I would also have loved to see some breaking/softening of how much his Sin influences him when it comes to MC. I’m not saying erase it because demons are meant to give in to temptation but some reassurance and acceptance of that would be good.

(I also know that there is some disk horse about him guilt-tripping you about spending time with his brothers and while I agree it can be hard... It definitely isn’t on a painful level. Like, say... Ray’s in Jihyun’s route in Mystic Messenger. This also is a difference for players who are interested in one love route versus the many route and different strokes, but I digress.)

As far as Mammon goes, well, you’re his first. And he’s not only glad that there’s someone who’s kind to him instead of making fun of him, but also takes pride in having someone to protect. His puppy crush going to full blown love is adorable.

This blog is all about spicy takes, yeah? Well, here’s mine (Sugar): Mammon is lovable but not as lovable as he could be and before all the Mammon stans, come for me- let it be known I like Mammon but his introduction and how he comes to be soft is NOT an easy, or believable transition. There are ways to write a good tsundere and the writers just missed the mark by having Mammon be too callous and then slipping to lovable without that sweet slide into the other end. I will not deny he is very cute, and a good character, and a good brother (and also the most human, according to Satan’s home screen interaction) but... The progression and endearment factor is lacking because of the structure of the narrative.

5) Is another unsurprising one, but this spot is Belphegor’s. Solmare. My dude. Why did you do this. We could have had it ALL. It could have been great. But you screwed the pooch. You took anything good about this relationship out behind the shed and shot it like a lame horse. Let it be known that I LIKED Belphie and MC’s alliance to get him out of gay baby jail, and I adored that love he still holds for Beel... I thought he was going to be a fav of mine, in fact. But how they handled the... uhm... murder ruined it for me. I’m sorry, I just cannot believe that I’m supposed to suddenly be besties with the man who manipulated me and crushed me to death like, a week after it happened. What if I have PTSD from that??? Also... he claims that he loves MC for who they are and not because of Lilith, but that’s not believable when his whole turning point is finding out that they’re Lilith’s descendant. The change needed to be more gradual, and having a subtle, gradual forgiveness arc would have been AWESOME but we were robbed. ROBBED I TELL YOU!!!!!

Annnd... Belphie is actually one of my favorites FOR SOME REASON. I DON’T KNOW MAN. I agree that we could have had it and I’m like (Insert Hades red flaming hair gif here). The decision to not have a redemption arc ruined it for me and while I love Belphie and his softness/brattiness mixture with handling MC... It is underscored by a lack of believable affection and the payoff of struggle on both Belphie’s part and MC’s. Also, there is a lot of ‘You are not who I want you to be, but it’s good enough’ with MC regarding their lineage and connections to the brothers and how that plays out/color the relationships with maybe the exception of Satan and surprisingly, Mammon that irks me but again, another thought for another time.

6) Aaaaand last and also the least... Asmodeus. “YOU GET NOTHING!!! YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY SIR.” --Solmare to Asmo. The writers neglected him SO much, I like him but what the hell are they doing? There’s so much that could be explored here, and with anything involving Asmo they’re like “I do not see it”. His love for MC also isn’t really that believable when his turning point is realizing that they’re powerful. It doesn’t even fit with any of his potential conflicts. The Diavolo’s castle arc set us up to think that Asmo would have some deep seated insecurities with not being able to be loved or desired by everyone, or maybe some insecurities about not being an angel anymore, or some vulnerability issues or something, and they were just like NOPE. It doesn’t make any gotdamn sense! I just... Grrr. Asmo, I’m so sorry, sweetie. You deserve better.

Asmodeus definitely deserves better and I will stand by that until the day I stop playing this damn game. While I, personally, think that his intrigue with MC makes sense (because he is lusty-- probably not just for sex but in general), it makes sense he would want someone with power but while the set up is there, his character falls flat because there is no bonding moment, or turning point for him at all. His affection for MC is still that playful, carefree, flirty persona he carries and I would love to see it dropped and how his fall from the Celestial Realm really weighs on him and an arc where he and MC talk about vulnerability and the power behind being seen as someone attractive and the way it dehumanizes you at the same time. It could be good-- hell, it could be great-- but it was killed before it started and I will never not think that Asmo could have had some KILLER growth. As it stands, he has more connection/romantic potential with Solomon than MC.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks! Feel free to yell at us in the replies, you know you want to. If this post blows up enough, maybe we can rate the undatables (though they don’t have any story arcs so... that would be a challenge.)

About the postal codes discourse (lmaooo) I’m not American and for example in Italy postal codes are just numbers as well

Of all the things to have disk horse about this is arguably the most hilarious. Also, love that for Italy lmao y’all stay funky

that thread bothered me but I don’t feel like disk horsing so I’ll just talk here

I mean...I’ve never been a pwp type of smut writer so the idea that ppl write “skippable” smut scenes into fic just does not compute to me. if something is in my fic it’s there for a purpose and cutting it out or quarantining it or what have you just disrupts the whole narrative and you’re not getting what I intended

so I really hope that’s not a common expectation bc...nah lol

even the kinktober fics I managed to get out had character/relationship building stuff during the actual scenes and the smut I like most always reveals something about the characters involved beyond what their preferences are when smashing

I think of the smut-containing fics I’m most proud of and none of them are nearly as powerful if you take it out. Even the sole arguably superfluous one in a Warmer Hearth, toward the end, was put there to show the sense of desperation they felt, clinging to each other as long as they could because they didn’t want to leave each other

okay not to get into warrior cats disk horse in the year of our good lord 2020 but when people say bluestar was a selfish, power-hungry villain... i don’t trust like that, man. idk. like. yes she does a lot of bad things. yes she’s often selfish + she was possessive of snowfur + unfair to thistleclaw. but, like... i feel like those theories ignore 1) that bluefur was a warrior shaped by grief. her mother’s death absolutely shattered her family, and snowfur had thistleclaw, but bluefur had no one. so, like, i’m not saying it’s VALID of her to be possessive of her sister, but it’s UNDERSTANDABLE because snowfur is basically all she has left. and 2) depending on your interpretation of her character, she’s arguably been mentally ill all her life, like... ppl are like “bluefur was so PARANOID and made RECKLESS DECISIONS” and like... yeah... she’s mentally ill... she’s not a perfect cat but she’s not SUPPOSED to be. i’m not saying u have to like her i’m just saying she has a LOT more nuance than “stupid selfish evil lady” and it rubs me. the wrong way when ppl cite those kinds of things to tear the shit out of her idk

SpaceTime 20190626 Series 22 Episode 47 is now out SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences. The show is available as a free twice weekly podcast through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, Audio Boom, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com SpaceTime is also broadcast coast to coast across the United States on Science360 Radio by the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. and around the world on Tune-In Radio. SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/ SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary SpaceTime YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpaceTimewithStuartGary Today’s stories... New Mission to intercept a comet The European Space Agency has announced a new mission to study a comet. The new Comet Interceptor mission will visit a pristine comet or interstellar asteroid making its first orbit around the Sun. The warm glow of Uranus’ rings A new study of the rings of Uranus have found them to have a temperature of just 77 degrees above absolute zero -- the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen. Celebrating 50 years since the Apollo 11 lunar landing The world is gearing up to celebrate what is arguably the most significant date in human history – the day man set foot on the surface of another world for the first time. Plate tectonics may have driven Cambrian Explosion The quest to discover what drove one of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth has taken a new, fascinating twist. Ariane 5’s second launch of 2019 An Ariane 5 rocket has carried two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit. The Science Report Eating yoghurt could help men avoid bowel cancer. A new study claims sexually active high school kids tend to engage in responsible sexual behaviour. Permafrost across the Canadian arctic thawing much faster than predicted due to climate change. Largest plant survey ever undertaken has revealed alarming extinction rates. How honest are you when it comes to finding a lost wallet? Apple’s new iOS13 iPhone operating system -- expected to be launched in September. Last Saturday’s show…. Hunting for dark Galaxies An ancient collision with a newly discovered dark dwarf galaxy may be responsible for the Milky Way’s characteristic outer disk ripples. Massive Martian ice discovery opens a window into red planet's history Scientists say newly discovered layers of ice buried almost two kilometres beneath the Martian north pole are the remnants of ancient polar ice sheets -- and could be one of the largest water reservoirs on the planet. Earth's mantle is far more intricate than thought A new study has revealed the Earth’s mantle to be a far more geochemically diverse mosaic than previously thought. The ticking time bomb of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse is a massive ticking time bomb – destined to explode as one of the nearest supernovae to Earth – and it could happen any time now. Russia launches new military navigation satellite Russian space forces have launched a new military navigation satellite. Moscow’s most powerful communications satellite A Russian proton rocket has launched the nation’s most powerful ever telecommunications satellite. India launches a new Earth observation satellite India has successfully launched its new RISAT-2B Earth observation radar imaging satellite. The Science Report Increasing red meat intake -- especially processed meats -- may be leading you closer to the grave. A new study warns that if your teen is sexting they’re probably having sex. The Internet found to produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of the brain. Scientists confirm when it comes to dating -- people really do have a type. The biomarkers which influence male sexual orientation. Iran has increased its production of enriched uranium. The fantasy some people are condemned to live. SpaceTime Background SpaceTime is Australia’s most respected astronomy and space science news program. The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, spaceflight, and general science. SpaceTime features interviews with leading Australian scientists about their latest research. The show is broadcast coast to coast across the United States by the National Science Foundation on Science360 Radio and around the world on Tune in Radio. SpaceTime is available in Australia as a twice weekly podcast which averages around three million downloads annually. It’s hosted on line through Bitez.com on all major podcast platforms. SpaceTime began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on ABC NewsRadio. Stuart Gary created the show during his 17 years as NewsRadio’s Science Editor, evening presenter, and news anchor. Gary wrote, produced and hosted StarStuff, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the Australian radio audience share - according to Neilsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, & Perth). The StarStuff podcast was hosted by ABC Science on line achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually. The popular program was axed in 2015 due to ABC budget cuts and following an increased focus on sport and horse racing coverage. Rather than accept another on air position with the ABC, Gary resigned to continue producing the show independently, rebranding it as SpaceTime. The first episode of SpaceTime was broadcast on February 8th 2016 and the show has been in continuous production ever since. SpaceTime now reaches an audience almost three times greater that it achieved as StarStuff.

Thoughts on the latest round of disk horse, because I’ve been trying to reconcile my thoughts on it with the usual vocabulary of the conversation for a long time and finally took Occam’s Razor to it:

When I was a child, I encountered some online content that, though relatively mild, shocked and disgusted me. What followed were years of minefields that have never quite ended: I know what I do and do not want to see, and block and follow accordingly. This content was never on AO3 or FFN: it was on Amazon reviews, or those banner ads for free browser games, or on forums where, when I said I didn’t want to see it, people gleefully asked whether I was a nun.  Partially as a result of this, I often worry whether my content shocks unwary travelers. It is not so much “think of today’s children” as “think of who I/you used to be.” It’s a lot easier to be wary on AO3 or Tumblr, as long as the content creator tags properly. There have been people I’ve blocked and reported because their immoral and arguably illegal fan work was presented enthusiastically and without tags. There are people I do not trust because I know what type of work fascinates them.  I suppose this could be considered an argument for why AO3′s tagging works, but I’m not dying on that hill; AO3′s nature makes the “you know it when you see it” axiom about p/orn into a half-lie. Are we to remove work that is by nature motivated by cruelty? Will we employ a team of wranglers and their therapists to tell the difference? Sometimes you can tell when a story is a revenge story or sexually violent to shock, as opposed to a horror story or erotica written for pleasure, and sometimes you can’t. And meanwhile, books in libraries contain all of these things, age gaps and assault and vindictiveness, and the conversation doesn’t usually come around to a discussion of how to tag them, although I would actually like it to, if it were possible to do in an objective way. I was a fast learner (many of us were fast learners) and read books too adult for me, fiction with scenes that shocked me and also, if certain worries of mine can be believed, may have nudged me toward writing the fiction I do today. No one was having conversations with me about whether it was right for that content to exist, because I did not tell my evangelical-leaning social group, and no one seems to be having a conversation about whether Game of Thrones should have warnings on the back of the books, although we are all, thankfully, very quick to reveal whether we are comfortable with its content or not.  I once spent a considerable amount of time arguing against a fan’s content I found disgusting, and that content has not disappeared.  The question of whether fiction affects reality always seemed ancillary to me, an exercise performed by many very smart and very distractible people. We could talk about that for centuries and never come to a conclusion that satisfied people, or perhaps even one that put a practical framework in place to satisfy most of the people. On the other hand, as my friend says in many discussions of the intricacies of fandom, some people have wars in their countries. We could do more work at soup kitchens or crisis centers, but those are not, at the moment of reading this, where we are. (Unless you are, in which case, go you! I should be more like you.)  Here are the things I can control: My blog is safe for work. I tag to avoid, absolutely encouraging you to hide any ship content which makes you uncomfortable. I post M-rated stories extremely rarely (namely, once). 

I trust you to be decisive, and wish you efficient tags and working filters in your travels. That, realistically, is the way which works right now. And if you do find a forum for liberal-leaning nuns who like science fiction, let me know. It’s probably a fun place. 

competing access needs in yoi fandom: a quick rant

since i’m not done wanking i’ll add this thing which i briefly touched on in an article i’m writing for the transformative works and cultures journal: i really suspect half of the current wank in yoi fandom is due to competing access needs and definitions about what fandom is, some of which is generational. 

a lot of the older fans (or, like myself, older-in-fandom-years fans) have lived through active censorship of slash fanfiction prior to ao3′s creation, including purges on livejournal and fanfiction.net. these fans also tend to see fandom more as a hobby, something they do for fun on the side without profit which they may have had to hide from their family when they were younger.

fans that enter fandom with the rise of tumblr and social media don’t necessarily have that background, and are engaging with fandom in a time when slash has become more accepted in fandom culture, and people are (in part thanks to racefail 09) successfully pushing for more diversity in media. this leads to a sense, especially with the growing success of many fanwriters who ascend into content creators, that fan culture is part of the mainstream, and that engaging in fandom is a way of life and a potential vehicle to future success. 

so with this difference in mind it’s not surprising that some newer fans are quicker to equate shipping with activism (having never been in a fandom environment where contacting the creator with your gay ships -- or any fanworks at all -- could get you sued) and attempt to critique fanworks with the same amount of scrutiny -- or, arguably, more scrutiny -- paid towards mainstream media. it’s just the current environment, where the common perception is that fanfiction is a lot more accepted and widespread than it really is. (it’s also possible this acceptance of pop culture/fandom into existing cultural studies in academia could be why “wank” is now “discourse” though i could’ve sworn “the discourse” started as a meme -- but i digress)

so when two different though not diametrically opposed fandom cultures collide -- old fandom with its squicks and wanks and its kinktomatoes and “don’t like don’t read”, versus new fandom with its willingness to critique media for greater diversity and representation and its sincere belief that fandom can be a brewing ground for all of that -- it’s not that surprising that the current wank exists. that new fandomers are trying to push out old fandomers on the basis of “being creepy predatory adults” who “clearly condone problematic shit”, when it’s really just old fandomers following their old fandom rules and mores. 

that’s why it may seem impossible to bridge the gap, because most of the “let people write what they want” camp is of the opinion that fandom is a hobby done for free on the internet where at most a couple thousand people will read your fic and like it. in the grand scheme of things, no criminal will claim that a dark viktor fic inspired them to commit their crime -- and even then it’s the criminal’s fault they did that, not the author of the dark viktor fic, but i digress again. i’m sure i’m really generalising the demographics of both camps, but that’s the general trend i’ve seen. most of this wank boils down to culture clash between old and new fandom: old fandom ignores things it doesn’t like, new fandom is aspirational and seeks to eradicate things it doesn’t like. 

so perhaps it would be in all of our best interests to step back and say that there are competing access needs here. someone venting about their perception of how popular dark viktor is in fandom clearly has a different need out of fandom than someone who doesn’t understand why yoi fandom is ridiculously light and fluffy compared to other fandoms they’ve been in (i’d hate to see everyone reacting to my next fic collab when y’all are insistent that the siren au is angst, for the record). someone who wonders why anyone would write viktor and/or yuuri in pairings with other characters when they can be together clearly has a different need out of fandom than someone starved for rarepair fics. 

anyway that’s my wank and hopefully the last i’ll say about this before my article comes out so yeah. sorry this is long, feel free to discuss or rebut or whatever, though i might not respond.

tl;dr: old fandom and new fandom culture clash in yoi fandom leads to competing access needs out of fandom and subsequent piles of disk horse on my dash. 

Yugioh dm for fandom thing

How I entered/learned about the said game/show/movie/etc of that fandom

Ironically--given how much I despise TAS these days--one of my friends showed it to me in college. This was at the very beginning of the Great Hiatus, before we knew it was going to be a Great Hiatus. So there I sat with, what, 30 episodes? We’d barely gotten through Duelist Kingdom, at any rate, and there was just. NOTHING. Coming out. I was hooked on how fucking ridiculous this premise was, and also thought Ryou was precious. One of my other friends was like “it’s a manga, you know” and I went “I DID NOT” and proceeded to borrow most of the series from her. What I didn’t borrow, I read at Borders. And the library. And in fanslation, when none of my other sources had the volumes I needed. And eventually started buying myself. I’ve been in this goddamned fandom for slightly over ten years and only just started actually watching the DM anime last week. To date, the DM manga is the only YGO canon I’ve ever finished in its entirety, even though I love GX and 5Ds (and dear god Season Zero let me tell you about our lord and savior Megumi Ogata).

Fave character

MAHA’AD. Like, I don’t know what the fuck it is with me and minor characters, but goddamn this overdramatic sinnamon roll, I love him. He’s only in, what, two volumes of the manga, and when I hit the chapter with him and TKB in Akhenemkanon’s tomb and realized what was going to happen I legit just stopped reading and whimpered out this little “ . . . no.”

And I happened to read that chapter in fanslation, which means I also got one of the most shipping-agenda-fueled probably-mistranslations of Maha’ad ever. I still have no fucking idea what he actually yells before he throws himself into those swinging axes, although I sincerely doubt it’s what I actually read. I really don’t give a shit what the official translation says, either. In my heart it’s always going to be MY LIFE FOR THE LOVE OF MY PHARAOH, sorry about it.

Least fave character

...mmph. I mean, I really don’t like most of the one-off duelists. I’ve never really liked quirky gimmick duelists in YGO, regardless of the specific YGO in question. Sometimes a random one will charm me, like the quiz kid in Arc-V, but on the whole I find them kind of annoying. So if we’re counting “least favorites, completely, including EVERYBODY,” it’s probably like . . . Insector Haga or something. But if we’re just talking mains/secondaries, I’d probably go with Malik. I know, I know, I should cover myself in shame now. But so much of his character development (at least in the manga) is driven by the other Ishtar siblings telling us about him, and I have so many issues with how Yami no Malik was resolved.

OTP(s)

Jesus wept. I think this was the fandom that first led me to “I don’t have ships, I have an armada.” DSOD definitely sold me on Atem/Kaiba, but outside of that there’s Yuugi/Ryou, Kaiba/Anzu, Kaiba/Kisara, Atem/Maha’ad, and obviously puzzleshipping/blindshipping is Baby’s First Ship. I also used to hang out on the kinkmeme on LiveJournal and I’d write anything that intrigued me just to see if I could, so I’ve also read, written, and enjoyed Atem/Ryou, and I have a whole laundry list of shit I wrote in an attempt to see just how far I could push the envelope because I was nineteen and thought it was fun. Said list includes but is not limited to Pegasus/Pandora, Yami no Bakura/Yuugi AU, Kaiba/random Mafia mook (it’s from the Season Zero part of the manga guys), Yuugi/Black Magician, and, do not shoot me, Kaiba/BEWD. Yeah. All these people doing “Kaiba’s new mind-controlled holographic system is causing his inner furry to create all new uses for Black Magician and BEWD sprites” fic right now should’ve been around in 2009. *crotchety fandom grandma voice* In MY day, nobody just handed us  convenient plot bullshit in a beautifully-animated movie to write smut with. We had to come up with our own convenient plot bullshit.

Pairing that everyone likes but I don’t get

Violetshipping. I mean, aesthetically I can kind of see why Kaiba/Jyonouchi is popular, but like . . . Jyonouchi hates Kaiba, Kaiba could not give half a fuck if Jyonouchi exists?

Fave thing about the fandom

It’s gotten so much friendlier and open since I was in it for the first time.

The most despised thing

The Disk Horse continues.

If there is something I would change from said game/show/movie/etc., what would it be

Oh, man. Hm. Well, I’d really like a Konami-animated version that actually stuck with the manga more closely, but in-manga, which is what I’m more familiar with, I’d say “give Anzu a more active role earlier in the game.” She is, arguably, second only to Yuugi in her importance; without her Atem would never have learned his name. But it sort of comes out of nowhere. She doesn’t duel; she’s used as bait in a few Shadow Games, but that’s about it. And then holy shit she has the best idea in the entire goddamn manga, follows through on it, and like fuck yes Anzu I love you, but we really need that to be more obvious earlier.

. . . . also, literally fuck that dude whose name I can’t remember who’s a living Millennium Tablet or whatever. Everything about that is so wrong and needs to not exist.