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justfangirlstuffs · 2 years

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FNAF DCA QUESTIONNAIRE I decided to fill out for funsies. Link to the original is here.

1. How did you get here?

That is a great question. Honestly I feel like I stumbled ass first into this fandom and now I'm just kind of here to stay for a while.

2. Why these characters in particular? What was the hook for you?

I think the hook for me personally was the fact that the DCA is, in essence, a caretaker, which oddly enough called out to the inner child in me.

3. How long have you been here?

In this fandom specifically? Only a few months at this point.

4. Have you actually played FNAF sb?

Yes and it was a frustrating ordeal. I got lost multiple times because the map was absolutely useless and at times I got confused as to what my next objective was. But I did manage to eventually get to 6am.

5. If you make content what is your favorite piece you've contributed?

My favorite so far that I've contributed personally is my AO3 fic, The Daycare Attendant's Little Assistant, where you the reader are a kid who befriends the DCA. It takes place before the events of Security Breach and just has a lot of wholesome fun as well as some hurt/comfort.

6. What's your favorite sort of art or fic? What genre/flavor/style?

I love me some wholesome content. Give me all of the hurt/comfort and warm fuzzies.

7. What's your favorite au?

There is this one Cowboy Au that looks like a lot of fun. I believe it's by @castercassette .

8. Do you have any OCs, or have OCs that you are fond of?

This may be a little biased but I'm rather attached to my y/n from TDALA. They are just so grumpy and salty about life (for reasons) and they do not start off on the right foot with Sun and Moon at first.

9. What do you think of the dca's Canon appearance? Scary? Cute? Something else?

I know I'm probably in the minority on this but I absolutely love Sun and Moon's canonical appearance. It's the perfect blend of creepy and whimsical, a combination I enjoy playing with when writing them.

10. What keeps you in this fandom despite the small amount of Canon content the DCA had?

A combination of things. One of which being the there are a lot of fun and awesome people I've met through this fandom in just the short time that I've been here, but there's also a lot of fun and creative stuff to he had here. And there are no shortages of lore and theories revolving around these two.

11. Be honest: if you had to pick only one, sun or moon?

I cannot put into words how much I hate being asked this. But fine, gun to my head I would probably pick Sun because he's the one least likely to kill me.

12. Thoughts on eclipse?

Again, I feel like I'm in the minority on this when I say that I really don't have strong feelings towards Eclipse. Cool concept, the art surrounding him is pretty neat, but that's about it.

13. Thoughts on pre-glitch sun?

So many. And the fun part is I get to explore them in my fic. Before the glitch, Sun is a lot more put together. He still has his overly zealous tendencies but a lot less of the anxiety and clingyness we see in game.

14. Thoughts on pre-glitch Moon?

Another fun concept that gets explored in my story. Moon has always been a bit of a gremlin, but he plays into it for fun. He's fully aware that kids find him slightly more unsettling than Sun but he tries not to let it bother him and instead uses that to his advantage.

15. Do you interpret sun and moon as two sides of the same person, or truly two separate beings in one body? Does it matter?

Oh I absolutely believe that Sun and Moon are two different personalities in one body and good luck trying to convince me otherwise. I don't know, I just think it's more fun that way.

16. What's something in the fandom you like to see more of?

I always love seeing new theories, not just about the DCA but security breach as a whole. The FNAF franchise is fun but dang do they just love to leave things vague and leave it to the fans to pick apart everything.

17. What's something in the fandom you'd like to see less of?

NSFW content. This is merely a personal preference and no judgment to those who do enjoy it.

18. Anything you're looking forward to?

The DLC as well as the upcoming series of books featuring The Pizza Plex.

19. Do you think you'd actually get along with the DCA if you met them irl?

Oh, absolutely. I would probably have to take Sun in small doses because I'm just eternally tired, although who knows maybe he could just spot me a few Sundrop candies and I'd be fine. And if Moon is willing to help me sleep (like just night time sleep and not the eternal kind) then we'll be best friends forever.

20. Free space! Talk about whatever is on your mind!

I'm really glad I joined this fandom. I've been having a lot of fun so far and it's gotten me back into writing and drawing two things that I both agonize over and find a lot of joy and comfort in. I hope to make more friends and fun times while I'm here.

Tagging: @lovelymoonmagic @thewordofm @yes---but---no @theohnocorral @jess-themess05 @jaythejokerfan @sharpmarble76 @certified-handler @feralmoonlight @sleepyjuniper and anyone else who wants to fill this out! I'm curious to know what y'all will answer.

#fnaf dca #fnaf security breach #fnaf sundrop #fnaf moondrop #the daycare attendant #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #dca lore

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starlitangels · 9 months

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Okay, so I'm not sure if my first ask went through or not. There seemed to be a lil glitch, so I'm sending this again. If there are two asks from me in your box, please ignore one of them!

I'm going to ask a few, but feel free to pick and choose. Thank you!

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

and... dealer's choice! What's one ask you want to answer but haven't yet?

Hello my friend! I did not receive your original ask so there's no worries!

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Literally anything from anything Avior I've written (like Avior washing Starlight's hair after Starlight took a tumble) but specifically the moment in "You're Mine (I Don't Share)" where Avior is losing control of his magic and his eyes are glowing like small suns and the magic cloaking his horns is wavering. I always imagined them shimmering like the heat mirage on a hot road I live in a desert it's normal to see on the highway in summer

That would look super cool.

Also just about any of the interactions between Elliott and Aaron that I've written.

Or or or! Hang on! I would love to see someone's interpretations of the (no powers) rockstar!AU I've dabbled in. That would be amazing!

I am also always enamored when people draw the Pups AU kiddos even though I haven't written anything for them for a long time just because of how touched I am that someone liked what I wrote enough to make art of it even though the characters are original, so more of that would be adored.

There are so many others but this is already long so I'm gonna move on

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

This is gonna sound kinda dumb, but genuinely, leave the house. When I stay inside for too long I stagnate creatively. And I find inspiration in all the little things. A good long walk is great. Going grocery shopping, even. But other excursions are also a massive help.

I also think a lot in the shower. Great idea generator there.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

I'd hope the variety in it. I try different things a lot. I'm usually a "Fluff" writer but I love good angst and I like trying other framing devices. Like sometimes writing from the Redacted voiced character POVs (which I've only done like twice but it was fun both times). I like trying different things.

I also hope my attempts at humor in the narration is distinct for me. I love using humorous lines to show internal emotions without actually having to spell out their thoughts in italics. Outwardly everything is one way but the internal monologue of the character is the exact opposite. I think that's fun

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Yes! I write about the same kinds of stuff all the time. I use the word "just" way too much. I start a lot of sentences with some form of "Honestly" or "To be honest."

In my normal not-fanfiction writing I write a lot of the same things in different attempts at plots. Lots of abandoned WIPs featuring mermaids, princesses, magic, people with wings, some pirates, werewolves and vampires... yeah. My most common settings on those kinds of things is either Contemporary/Normal Earth But With Fun Stuff Going On (IE Mermaids or Werewolves) or Generic Fantasy-Land #38459886

I think my most common theme since getting married has been "the healthiest relationship I can feasibly portray while also letting it be A Teensy Bit Spicy™"

Dealer's Choice! 51. What’s your total AO3 word count?

This one I'm doing just to flex /j

This is my total Audio RP AO3 word count. As in, the Redacted and Good Boy Audios stuff I have on AO3 under the StarlitAngels pseud. Nothing from my other works (which are all short and bad and old), and not including a handful of GBA stuff I haven't posted to AO3

Ready?

As of right now, with everything newly updated:

574,538

... Yup.

#romi sweetheart #answered #Get to know the writer ask game

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volterran-wine · 2 years

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It's always super interesting to see the different versions of Aro people have in their heads. While I do not have a fancast I always imagined him like vampirehusbandry has drawn Aro.

I saw him as really short like 5.3 feet or 161 cm at most. Slightly feminine figure and face with soft features. A big radiant smile which can bring anyone to their knees. His hair is deep black almost like a void, very soft lookin and goes all the way down to his behind and falls in very big waves. In contrast to that his bright red eyes who always seem to glow when he gets excited.

All of that pared with a his proud and royal aura makes Aro Aro.

I loved the way Sheen portrayed him ( especially the scene with the immortal child cause his clothes and hair looked freaking awesome ) but that was never how I imagined him in the books and its so cool to see other versions of him.

The reason I wrote you this is that I really like your fancast of King Aro and I kinda wanted to let you know that for some reason. :D

Good morning darling Anonymous, and thank you so much for your sweet and interesting message to me; The Author.

The thing that endlessly fascinates me about The Volturi is that you can write so many different versions of them. Are they good? Are they morally grey? Are they a necessary evil? Are they dictators? Are they absolute tyrants? The truth is; all of these interpretations can exist at the same time. It is up to us content creators to carve out our own stories and headcanons.

And Aro is the most complex character of them all in my opinion. Where did he come from? Why did he lust for immortality? Who sired him? Why did he want to change the world so bad? Why did he want to be king? How did he convince Marcus, Caius and Athenodora to join forces with him? How did he kill his sister and cover it up? Does his gift have any drawbacks? What is his mental state really like? What is his ultimate goal? Is he truly a power hungry monster? — And even more. In other words; there are a plethora of questions we as writers and content creators can ponder about when it comes to Aro.

I quite like @vampirehusbandry 's interpretation of Aro. Their art in general is wonderful to look at, and I am forever jealous of Aro's hair if I can be completely honest. I am also quite fond of @alilaro 's art depicting Aro as well.

For what it's worth; I like the movies. Are they perfect? No. But they were a phenomenon. Fondly I look back to the times I would see the movies at the cinema with my friends. And Michael Sheen most definitely played out a version of Aro, is it what I see in my head? No. But goddamn it if he is not entertaining.

Thank you for enjoying my fancast, and while Vlahos is not one hundred percent how I see Aro in my head; he is damn near close.

#Questions for The Author #Other Peoples Amazing Ideas #Aro Volturi

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 2 years

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Miss Raven, you don't know what I would give and sacrifice to have you review my twst OC's because your judgement is one of the best I know and your constructive criticism is always so well thought-out 😭 (It can be a Twst OC's Got Talent show and you'll get an infinite pass to be our one and only Simon Cowell at the judge table ✨ /j)

To be honest, I think that the concept of making OC's a very broad outlet to express creativity, especially since we're provided with unused/underrated Disney inspirations that don't have an official design in the game (although this does cause discourse among certain people who like to 'place dibs' on Disney inspirations and attack others because of it 😓). It's always so cool to see how everyone has different takes and their own imagination when creating OC's, even if they are based on the same Disney inspiration as someone else's — it just goes to show how truly wide and unique our minds are and it amazes me all the time!

Also, I'm taking this opportunity to say that Miss Raven (the OC) is in the process of being adopted by me, I'm now negotiating with Crowley about the adoption papers 😂😇 But seriously, I am in awe with her lore and she just fits so, so, so well and naturally in the settings of the game??? Oui, absolutely magnifique! 🙏

I'd love to have my silly little OC's interact with her jfkskdkkdj But before that, what are your thoughts on OC interactions, Miss Raven? Is it open all of the time or is there a specific time when we can interact with our beloved somewhat emo Shakespeare-like nerd birb? I am praying for the state of your inbox right now, thank you for your hard work! 🤧

… Isn’t Simon Cowell notoriously the asshole judge??? 😂 But thank you for the compliment! I’ve actually been asked to review/give my thoughts on an OC before as part of a proofreading commission I took on! Besides commissions, I’ll sometimes comment on a friend or a mutual’s OC—but I’m only comfortable doing that because it’s someone that I know 😅 I generally don’t give OC critique outside of these contexts because I figure if people are having fun with it, it’s none of my business to get involved (and it’s not like I’m any particular authority on OCs anyway).

OCs can be really personal, so I think it’s more important that you, the maker, be happy and have fun with your creations rather than seek my approval. Of course, if you’re actively seeking ways to improve your OCs, then there’s nothing wrong with asking around for advice or direction. It’s a very situational thing—but at the end of the day, it’s you that has the final decision on what changes! Others’ opinions can influence and guide you, but don’t let them rule your creativity! Just do what feels best to you~

Yes, the way TWST is set up definitely opens up a lot of possibilities, whether its OCs twisted from Disney properties or not. There will inevitably be OCs that take the inspiration from the same characters and/or concepts, but I don’t think that should be a reason to get upset and be nasty to each other 😔 I personally really enjoy seeing different people’s interpretations of the same Disney character, or how those interpretations end up comparing to the canon versions that TWST character (such as Snow White-based OCs vs Neige Leblanche). It’s interesting seeing how differently everyone processes and translates traits of the original into their own versions, and it’s just as fun seeing what kinds of completely original works come from people’s minds too!

I once again apologize for going by the same name as my OC 💦 It makes things confusing at times cksvwuevxkwmsk Nuuuuu, I wouldn’t give my birb dotter up for adoption 😭 I’m happy you like her lore though!! It’s something I’ve been planning for a long time, but it actually never occurred to me how well (or not well, I guess?) her lore would actually “fit” in the world of Twisted Wonderland. Now that I think about it, she’s… kind of written like an OB boy??? Like, Raven has the sad backstory, obvious negative traits on display that have been unregulated and left to fester, too much pride to seek help from friends or family… Yup, sounds like a recipe for a potential Overblot to me 🤔 OB Raven… with an outfit made of shredded pages and globs of ink, hair all twisted, a birdcage locking her head inside of it, a hovering crown of feathers, a monstrous Phantom raven looming behind her… Hey, if she can’t get a “happy ending”, then she’ll decide that no one gets a happy ending 💕/j dndbsvJbeksw ANYWAY I definitely wanted to write her as the type of character that slowly changes and grows over time—just like the TWST boys! I’m really proud of myself for being able to nail that feeling.

I don’t mind if like... you, the reader/Anon, want to say something to or interact with, Miss Raven. I’m also fine if people roleplay canon TWST characters interacting with her just to see how she’d react! It gets kind of complicated when people want their OCs to do the same though 💦 The TWST fandom has a LOT of OCs, meaning that I’d have to go hunting for information or research into every OC that wants to engage (and I don’t always have the time nor the energy for that). OC-OC interactions also have a tendency to turn into lengthy reblog chains, and I try to avoid those as much as possible since it makes blog navigation difficult. I guess I generally judge on a case-by-case basis? I’m fine with my close friends’ OCs interacting with Miss Raven, but I’d like anyone else considering it to first reach out and get my permission! ^^

#twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #Raven Crowley #Neige Leblanche #notes from the writing raven #feedback for the writing raven

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gayairbud · 7 months

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amazing to see people who are still dedicated to the endverse cause ;___; truly the best television of the last 25 years. question: what's a fic concept involving endverse cas that you haven't encountered yet but would love to see more/any of?

the brainrot is permanent im afraid HRNVSDKJGH

sorry for letting this one sit in my inbox for a bit but its genuinely such a good question i had to take some time to think abt it!! to be honest i dont read a lot of fic (i tend to get "the itch" and consume as much fic as i can in the span of like 2 weeks and then dont touch it again for months idk) so its tough to answer this as something i havent encountered yet/a new idea, but i WILL say im always on the hunt for fresh takes on "old" ideas.

obviously this isnt a new concept and is the basis of a lot of endverse fics, but i always love to see fic exploring how things progressed into what we see in endverse, specifically regarding the breakdown of power and/or the fallout between more characters than just dean and cas. i think a lot of fics tend to cover the same root idea but just a different interpretation of how it would play out in terms of dialogue etc, and im more interested to see unique ways that this power dynamic couldve broken down that havent been explored as much. i dont think every fic has to go the extreme route either, like not every concept has to be as intense as something like first church at the end of the world (not being a hater, just what i would consider an extreme example). but it would be cool to see the cult idea handled in other ways, like maybe with a little more subtle nuance than is presented in canon.

obviously the bias there is strong since that idea of "HOW DID WE GET HERE???" is also what i personally like to explore in my own endverse stuff RHGSDNKJGH

alternatively as a complete wild card, i think someone should put ishim in there. like why not. love a little ishim dynamic lets just get crazy with it

#the guy who made a shitty infographic breaking down the angel hierarchy wants to see more angel hierarchy in endverse....shocking.....#im hes #i hope this was anything i feel like i didnt answer your question At All RHGHSDKJG #anyway thank u for the ask its always a pleasant & welcome surprise :]#asks

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castawavy · 1 year

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so I came back after finishing house of the dragon and- what was that finale?! there's gotta be another episode bc it's too open-ended! and ohmygod how do I even sum it up? death, incest, brutality, did I mention incest? there's a lot of it. and then, unexpectedly, a foot fetish. so um. I think compared to got it was more focused on the family arrangements (marriage knows no boundaries for them) than on external conflict. kinda makes sense tho. & could you tell me what's different in the book?

AHAH I think it was the best place to end the season mainly cuz well what happens next will require AT LEAST another 10 episodes, but I KNOW massive cliffhanger. And yeah it very much is a family drama but the next part (part 2 I will call it) is very war centric SO be ready

NOW I will attempt to answer about book stuff since I read it recent-ish, however I am a goldfish so I probably forgot some things!!

Spoilers for House of The Dragon ahead (you have been warned) I will try my best not to spoil the events that I know will happen in S2 tho!!!

Let's start with the obvious, Laenor doesn't actually live he dies.

Rhaenerya's husband does not sail away with his lover and live happy ever after </3 his lover actually kills him during an argument OOF but I can see why they didn't want to kill the only LGBT character in the show so that does make sense. Lore wise though, if he is alive I don't think hus dragon should be able to bond to anyone else? But in the story I can confirm his dragon does accept a new rider so I don't know how they will get around that? Even so it's nice that they gave him a kiiiiiiind of happy ending (even though he's been exiled pretty much). Daemon and Rhaenerya do also marry one another EUGH, and I think it is a little soon after Laenor's death so:

Brings me onto my next point, Laena actually dies before Laenor.

I might be remembering this COMPLETELY wrong but I am pretty sure in the book, Laena dies before he does (OK I just reread this and I am right BOOYAH). Rhaenerya is also present during this time, as she is really good friends with Laena (they agree to marry their kids to one another at this point whilst Laena still lives). To be honest I think the show does a real injustice to Laena and her character and doesn't spend enough time on her, which is a shame especially also because the actress playing her was WOC, and they should have given her the same love and attention they did to Rhaenerya imo!!!!

Daemon was also very VERY in love with Laena.

The maester in the book does say that Daemon potentially married Laena to secure his own place in the lineage (with a powerful family closely linked to the Velaryons) BUT Daemon goes out of his way to marry Laena, he basically duels and kills the man she is previously engaged to, to win her heart. When Laena is dying he ensures they fetch her a more competent Maester with more experience, and he doesn't shack up with Rhaenerya at his wife's funeral?? (They actual get married 6 months later) AHAHA. As well as this, they also travel across the sea together and honeymoon for years SO YEAH I don't understand why the show didn't dedicate time to Daemon X Laena, they were very much in love and it's sad to see they glossed over it.

The child fight where Aemond loses his eye:

This part pissed me off, as it made Aemond seem so much more, idk, EVIL. I know they wanted to set him up as a villain, and make no mistake HE IS a villain, but at this point in the book he is actually just a child, who wants a cool ass dragon?? And Vhagar just happens to be the baddest bitch of them all. (This is my interpretation of it of course) but always in history Targaryan who can tame a dragon, has right to become a rider. There's never been any sentiment in the book like 'nooo that dragon belongs to me' the dragon always goes to who ever is brave enough to ride it. And that's exactly what Aemond does. Laena's daughters ARE NOT EVEN THERE during the child fight, & Joff starts the fight tbh. Joff spots Aemond trying to ride Vhagar, he tells him to stay away (and like why... it's not his dragon either??? He rides Tyraxes), and Aemond flies off. BY THE TIME AEMOND lands, Joff has gathered his brothers Luke and Jace and THEY JUMP HIM

(like wtf???)

They pummel him with wooden swords appantly (Aemond IS older by the way but there's three of them and I THEY DID START IT) and then Aemond makes a joke about them being Strongs (lmao) then Jace and Aemond fight (Aemond IS whaling on Jace tbf) but then LUKE FUCKING PULLS OUT A REAL ASS DAGGER AND CUTS OUT AEMONDS EYE OUT??? I'm sorry but, they make Aemond out to be such a bad kid over this and I don't even know why?? He only gets super evil later if I'm perfectly honest with you.

Aegon does marry Heleana, and he allegedly fathers bastards

You know that scene where Alicent confronts him about him assaulting a maid? That doesn't happen in the book, but I can see why they added it, mainly because Aegon is also a villain yeah. Also seems like something Alicent would have covered up.

Now for what annoys me, The show made Alicent seem unaware.

Alicent is VERY much aware of the fight for the throne, and she is very much involved. She does not attempt to fix the relationship of her and Rhaenerya at all. She does not misinterpret Viserys last words (she isn't even there to hear them, he dies alone and a servant finds his body) she has been plotting to overthrow Rhaenerya for months. THE MOMENT Viserys dies, this bitch is ready to GO and I think it is very much her idea. The show doesn't seem to want her to have accountability at all. They make it seem like an innocent mistake she made but that's not the case. After that, her meeting the Council all happens and stuff so that part is true at least in the show, but make no mistake book Alicent is guilty <3

One kid, Daeron, just doesn't appear at all in the show?

I don't know why they don't even at least mention him (or maybe I missed it?) But Alicent and Viserys have a fourth son named Daeron and he is kind of a big deal later (more so in part 2 tbf but yeah I think their audience for Season 2 will get confused because of this).

BONUS: To prove I'm not a complete Aemond apologist:

HE DOES start the fight later when he sees Luke at Storm's End, and he does ask to have Luke's eye out in revenge <3 LMAO The show inteprets Aemond as not having control over Vhagar... but I don't agree with that. He controls that dragon perfectly well in every battle he's in LOL, so I think they should have shown Aemond killing Luke maybe not INTENTIONALLY but also like him taking it too far and purposefully killing Luke yeah. In fact in the book I think we can even interpret it as him pruposefully killing them (but also no one knows for sure what took place during that battle so it's kind of open). It is a really important scene though, as it's the first bloodshed and it's a child </3 I won't say what happens next though... as it might come up in Season 2 but Daemon and Rhaenerya get revenge for this.

EDIT: minor things:

- Rhaenys should have black hair, she has Baratheon blood.

- Viserys in the show is SO MUCH BETTER and way more fleshed out.

- Daemon isn’t actually confirmed to have killed his previous wife.

- the foot fetish doesn’t happen but honestly I liked that AHAHA it was funny

I PROBABLY MISSED STUFF BTW BUT THAT'S ALL I CAN RECALL

#raesponses #anonymous #nonsims #hotd #hotd spoilers #ermmm also #tw incest #:worried:#tw murder #tw violence #all the usual game of thrones tw's #gif warning

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wexhappyxfew · 2 years

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🍈 🍌🍍🥭 (love you🥰)

HI FRANCY!!!! thanks so much for stopping by ah!!! i saw these asks and they looked mega cool so i *had* to reblog :) thank you so much for sending these in and enjoy! (ILY!!)

🍈 which oc is most like you? Why?

I think the OC that is *most* like me and who I am in real life is Catherine McCown from The Soldier of Stars if I'm being honest. Each OC I create does have a small bit of who I am in real life there, but if it were to be any of the characters I've created, it would most definitely be Catherine. Catherine's entire personality is one I have always adored, and there are many similar qualities we share with one another that make us who we are! Her motherly-nature, her humor levels, a sort of tough, but can soften at times exterior and a strong-willed mind is something that comes to mind when I think of her and I feel I hold some of those qualities as well.

🍌if you could live in one of your stories, which would it be and why?

Oh man, I really don't know haha! If I'm being honest, I wrote a short one-shot back in February that centered around a new and fresh-faced young woman named Winnie Chapman who lives in Aldbourne and recently volunteered with the Land Girls. In this, she meets Pat Christenson and they entire vibe of sort of 'love-at-first-sight', or 'instant connection' with a whimsical youthfulness and utter joy about it, is something I really loved with that short fic (and it's also not sad either compared to my long fics lol!) and so if anything, definitely that. [It's called Apple Pies and Paratroopers I believe!] Plus, Winnie was a *joy* to write and an absolute angel!

🍍 do you enjoy writing villains?

.....YES.....

I LOVE writing villains. Of course, the typical villain is beyond fun to write. But villains with a backstory and who appear morally-grey all at once and seem to dance that line of good and bad are some of my favorites too. By far, Bachrach from Landslide sort of plays the role of 'typical villain', but Agent Mortem from the same fic appears morally-grey and dances on that good/bad line far too often. There's just so much free space to write in both those directions and even more of those directions combined. Which makes Agent Mortem so much fun to write, because once his backstory is explained; you see where he's coming from, even if it gives him no right to let him get away with treating Natia as he did. So...YES, I enjoy writing villains very, very much!!! :) [I could go on, but I *shall* contain myself haha.]

🥭 what are your favorite tropes to write?

FAV TROPES!!! By far, friends-to-lovers. That's definitely my top with found family being a close second. I'm a sucker for enemies-to-lovers too and have yet to really test that in writing (though I hope in the future to tackle it). Platonic besties is another; besties who would die for each other and do anything for each other are just....that's the bread and butter truly. I also like enemies-to-besties hehe (even though I just made that up lol). Those are my goes to's and I don't think I'll ever get sick of them, there's just so much room to write with them and so many different ways and interpretations and AHHHH, they're just so fun! :)

#thank you sm francy omg!!!#these were such FANTASTIC ones AHHHH!!!!#thank you again!#writing ask game #ask game #writing #natia filipska #agent mortem #bachrach #catherine mccown #landslide #the solider of stars

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bloodanddiscoballs · 2 years

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Aaaaa I chose too many, so choose:

4; 5; 6; 8; 12 and 26 (this one probably encompasses all questions)

I could literally talk about this game all day so sjfjd

Disco Elysium Asks!

4.) What is one thing you don’t like about the story or that could have been done better?

This is a hard one for me. To be honest, I feel like I would have wanted more interaction with Ruby. I completely understand why we didn't get it but it's always odd when you hear about a person from other people without really getting an opportunity to get to know them yourself. She, like a lot of the characters, made me sad because she got the finger pointed at her when she was just trying to help someone she cared about. Whether you agree with what she did or not, she loved Klaasje enough to act quickly and attempt to solve the problem. It spoke to the rest of the story about community and the choices we make. I think I would have wanted to have the opportunity to extend kindness more than just the choice to let her go or not. Plus her machine is just incredible to me. She's clearly so smart and thinks on her feet. Ruby if you're out there....

5.) What is a popular fan interpretation that you don’t like?

I am not sure where the whole Jean-can't-get-a-boner came from but it isn't that I don't like it I just think it's funny. Same with him being a horse girl. All the dude said was that he was clinically depressed and instantly people were like "He's on our world's equivalent of antidepressants and those make you lose your sex drive." Also he made a passing comment about he was fine being an equestrian cop but Harry wanted the vehicles. I think it's fine to extrapolate I have fun doing that but I've met people who think it's law and thats just funny cause like we no near nothing about the dude skfbdk

6.) What do you love about the game?

What DON'T I love about it omfg. I think one of the biggest things for me is just how hopeful it is. I know if you're following me you know this but I deal with a lot of chronic pain and have gone through 6 reconstructive back surgeries. Sometimes it's really really hard for me but I'm a pretty hopeful person. So to have the message of this game be Love ANYWAY, Care ANYWAY, Keep Going ANYWAY was overwhelming. It helped me categorize my own thoughts in the way the Skills are represented as well as the Thought Cabinet. I loved how it gave space for joy and sorrow and anger and fun and allowed you time to feel all of those before moving you into the next. Life is worth living and fighting for and Disco Elysium makes you feel that every step of the way.

8.) What is your favourite line from the game?

Oh MAN where do I begin!

Volition: You can do it. It's nothing. Do it for the city. Go.

Shivers: Do it for the wind.

Logic: Do it for the picture puzzle. Solve the world. One conversation at a time.

That entire Shivers convo in the church

AFTER LIFE - DEATH. AFTER DEATH; LIFE AGAIN. AFTER THE WORLD, THE PALE; AFTER THE PALE, THE WORLD AGAIN.

Volition: This is somewhere to be. This is all you have, but it's still something. Streets and sodium lights. The sky, the world. You're still alive.

"We ourselves may be loved only for a brief time. Even so, that will suffice. There is a city for the living and there is a city for the dead."

God I could go on and on

12.) What are your headcanons for pre-Martinaise Harry?

I think he was one of those homophobic closeted guys. You know the ones. Like Izzy from OFMD haha. Like he probably did cheat on Dora with men but then drowned that away with booze because he thought it was shameful. I think he was one of those guys who maybe put on the whole macho facade but really he's very sensitive. He has that air of being raised with that whole "Don't be a pussy!" gross mindset that you see in older generations, especially cause Harry really does seem like someone who wants desperately to be wanted and loved and seen as Cool. So maybe he tried to be a chameleon and put on different faces but couldn't maintain it. It's probably what brought him back to disco tbh cause it's all about liberation. But then the people in his life that he wanted to love him didn't like the real him so he drank and drank and did drugs. Him forgetting aaaaall the stuff that gave him that baggage is a good thing.

26.) Just ramble freely about the game and let me know your thoughts

I'm so massively impressed eith the scale of this game. Like seriously it's astounding. This game has conversations in a way that I wish everyone could have them with an openness to get into the good and the bad about everything. Humanity is so complicated and you cannot ignore the people's impact on government ideologies. I appreciate that you get faced with a lot of different facets of different political alignments which really opens up the conversation for each of them and shows how one might find themselves agreeing with one or the other. Noid is a good example imo of how younger people could become swayed by fascism and the game allows you to really work through that conversation which I find fascinating. I think sometimes we become too afraid to have those complicated talks and then we don't talk about them at all which doesn't benefit anyone. In order to avoid harming people we have to be able to have very real conversations so that we can identify how harmful ideologies can masquerade as positive or passive. I also appreciate how the game challenges you when you are going with a route that hurts people (like with the Moralist route and that moment when you come across where those people were executed). I think the fact that the game is set up in a way that allows you to choose soooo much is incredible. There really isn't a lot like Disco Elysium and I'm endlessly impressed by it.

#thanks for the ask!

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scandalsavagefanfic · 3 years

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Hello! I am a huge fan of ur writing. I've loved everything I've read of yours. I've read alot of what you've posted, except for a couple of the tags that are squicky for me (so I'm very thankful you tag very thoroughly). No judgement for the squick, it's just not for me. & when I'm having a bad day, I usually just go thru ur ao3 and find something to reread. I think about Therapy's Bruce & Jason every damn day. While I obvs appreciate ur darker more "problematic" content (I really vibe with some of the themes you write about bc of my own trauma, & so it's very cathartic to read about in a fictional setting), I am truly a sucker for ur more happy content. The Happily Ever After verse also lives in my head rent free. Idk more wholesome stuff just seems more special when you write it. Anyways. I would die for you. But the point of this ask is cause I'm curious as to why you don't like Urban Legends? I'm sorry if you already talked about it here or on twitter and I missed it. I was just wondering because I really enjoy your take on things and would love to hear why you dislike it. I've been enjoying it so far personally, but I am always open to DC comics criticism.

Aw thank you so much! I'm so flattered by everything you just said. You're so sweet ❤❤❤❤❤

I haven't talked about Urban Legends here or twitter (I haven't been very active in either place lately. Just a lot going on and no energy 😔) but I'm happy to do it here.

Before I start though, I just want to add a standard disclaimer and make it clear that if you like it, there's nothing wrong with that and you don't have to let me ruin it for you lol. Like what you like.

That said, since you asked...

I said this when I was talking about it on discord, that there is a difference between hope and expectation. I always hope that a new story centered on Jason (or anyone really, but things have been especially egregious for Jay for 15 years) will be good or at least treat the character with a minimal level of respect (to be honest, the bar is super fucking low). But my expectations always temper my hope, to keep it from getting unrealistic. Because my expectations are based on experience.

The long history of Jason Todd, since even before his resurrection, has been one of retroactively trying to make him "a bad seed" in order to absolve Bruce of any responsibility in his death.

I don't even expect DC or their writers to start honoring the fact that Jason was not an angry, reckless Robin (and less of the later than Dick or Tim and definitely Damian). There plenty of ways that retcon can be folded into his history and be compelling and sympathetic. And if they're going to stick with that retcon, I'm only asking that they do it in one of those compelling and sympathetic ways because Jason was 15 when he died, heroically, in one of the most selfless acts in comics, to save a woman who literally handed him over to be brutally murdered. He was 12 when Bruce plucked him off the streets, he'd been homeless and fending for himself for at least two years. I personally think that Jason's story hits harder for him and Bruce if their original, canon relationship, of Jason as starry-eyed and eager to learn and absolutely devoted to Bruce and Bruce to Jason, is preserved. But Jason's origins does leave room for a meaningful interpretation of him as angry and frustrated at the lack of meaningful results of Bruce's methods.

And that's really where my irritation at stories like Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer and Batman The Adventure Continues has it's roots.

Every time one of these stories comes out, I think (or hope, rather) that this will be the one that remembers and respects the origins of the Jason and the Red Hood, that takes into account the changed sensibilities of comics readers in the 30 years since Jason's death and the subtle, 20 year, retroactive campaign to make him the "bad Robin". The "born bad" trope is played out and literally no one likes the message it implies. That some kids are just bad eggs and there's nothing parents or the adults around them can do. Especially when it's played as the kid's fault. If Jason's time as Robin is going to be characterized by anger, then it should be rooted in anger at the social injustices he witnessed as he grew up in an impoverished, crime-ridden, area and the horrors he faced raising himself when every day was a battle for survival. There are topical, meaningful, stories to tell with that backdrop.

But those are never the stories we get.

⚠⚠ Spoilers for Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer ⚠⚠

I'm particularly disappointed in Urban Legends because for the first issue, it looked like that was the kind of story we were going to get. I was put off by the first flashback of Jason being mesmerized by Bruce's guns, and I got that feeling in my gut that it was a bad sign. Jason depicted as impatient and overconfident and the scene with the guns is heavy-handed foreshadowing that got my spidey-sense tingling. I had a inkling then (in the first three pages) of how this story was going to play out, but it was early and I could still see many narrative paths that could lead to a satisfying story. My concerns were soothed somewhat and the little flame of my hope fanned, with the flashback of Alfred scolding Bruce, with Barbara's concern for Jason. A bit of worry returned with the way Jason ruthlessly pursued an addict who didn't appear to be a dealer and with the ending of the issue. The stuff with the addict sat wrong with me but the ending was tempered some by how despicable Tyler's dad was written. The scene was clearly set so that the reader could sympathize with Jason's decision and the scene with the addict could be brushed aside as a side-effect of comics over-the-top need for constant action, so I still held hope.

Issue 2 made me uncomfortable and it's where my hope starts to take a backseat to my expectations. I can dismiss Jason's self-deprecating internal monologue as unreliable narration, except that the flashback reinforces his thought process to explicitly show that it's not unreliable narration, and should be taken at face value. Jason faces physical abuse at the hands of his mother's drug dealer and when the flashback continues later, Jason kills the drug dealer. To be clear, this is a pre-Bruce Jason. His mom is still alive. He's like... 10. He kills this guy for shoving his head into a wall and implying Jason's mother paid for her drugs with sex. This is a scene that serves a single purpose. To show that Jason has always been prone to violence.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there is the small chance the drug dealer might not be dead. But the story obviously wants the reader to think he is, and it hasn't done anything to change that yet.

Starlin already did this story with The Diplomat’s Son in 1988 and he did it infinitely better. AND that’s still technically canon. So now I’m supposed to believe that Jason lost his cool bad enough to kill two douche bags before his sweet 16? Like it’s totally normal for abused kids raised in poverty, who’ve led hard and heartbreaking lives to just... haul off and kill people? That’s bullshit, and when taken with the Jason in the third issue, who is little more than an idiot thug, this story is really doubling down on some fucked up stereotypes.

Which brings us to the most recent issue. I went into this installment with very low expectations. I thought this story was going to be about Jason, through this experience with Tyler, a young boy with a similar background to Jason's, coming to the realization that Bruce's way is the best way and that Bruce did his best by Jason.

That would be annoying (in no small part because it takes increasingly absurd levels of plot armor to keep Bruce's no kill rule relevant, let alone irrefutably right). But I can probably live with that, if only because maybe if Jason officially falls back into line with the Bats crusade, maybe I'll get stories that treat him with respect, stories that don't relegate him to comic relief, dumb brute, or a background body with no lines in a story about the Joker burning Gotham (like Jason would just fucking stand there quietly for that).

And that may still be where the story is going, Jason realizing Bruce is right.

But holy shit do I not have the right words to describe how fucking insulting and gross issue three is.

From start to finish--including the flashback--Jason is written as cruel and fucking stupid. Like straight up dumb.

The entire issue is Bruce explaining the fucking basics to Jason like it's his first day. And Jason flies off the fucking handle and terrorizes a doctor he knows isn't a part of making the Cheerdrops, beats the shit out of some random addicts, and finally, when he can't accomplish anything on his own because he's a dumb brute he calls Barbara for help and rushes in with no information where he's promptly incapacitated and must now wait to be rescued by Batman.

This panel is the least of the issues sins but I can’t screenshot the entire story but it’s representative of the tone for the whole issue (and retroactively tainted the prior two issues).

This is beyond insulting. The only conclusions Jason comes to in this issue are the ones Bruce leads him to by talking to him like he can’t make the simplest connections. And like... in this story Jason can’t make the simplest connections.

This (and the Jason throughout the entirety of this issue) is a far cry from the Jason we fell in love with in Under the Red Hood, who was competent and strategic and intelligent enough to seize control of Gotham’s underworld from Black Mask (who’s no fucking slouch, he’s the first and only person to unify organized crime in Gotham) AND elude and manipulate Bruce until the time and place of his choosing.

This is a far cry from even the Red Hood and the Outlaws Jason who is competent enough to fight the League of Shadows and Ra’s al Ghul (among very dangerous and skilled others) and smart enough to create antidotes for mind control nanotech viruses.

As he should be, by the way. Jason Todd is one of the best, most comprehensively trained fighters in DC’s stable of non powered vigilantes. He’s not irrational or hot headed. He’s pragmatic, tactically minded, and patient. He’s a detective. Right now. Has been since he was 12. Bruce doesn’t have to make him one because he already is.

Jason is not a stupid thug who uses his fists because his brain doesn’t work. And I can’t tell you how so very exhausted I am by this narrative.

This is actually the most egregious example of Jason’s skills and intelligence being not just undermined but dismissed entirely. Even Morrison’s Jason had some degree of competency.

The one, single redeeming factor of this story is the art. It’s beautiful. And Marcus To is a godsend he seems to be one of only a couple of artists who remember that Jason was a child when he was Robin and I’m literally only buying this book because of him.

Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t want that to come out so... um... passionately lol. I’m just very very tired. My intention with this isn’t to ruin it for you, if you like it, that’s fine.

But this issue shot this story to the top of my "Vehemently Despise” list. 1) Batman: Urban Legends (Cheer), 2) Battle for the Cowl/Morrison’s Batman and Robin, 3) Batman The Adventure Continues.

I hope the next issues somehow salvage this dumpster fire. But I’m not expecting it.

(Damnit. That sounded harsh again. To reiterate, I’m not trying to judge anyone who enjoys it, I just personally hate it and you asked me why lol 😅)

#Batman #red hood #batman: urban legends #nice art #shit story #or at least shit characterization #jason todd deserves better #this response got long and I didn't edit it #please forgive any errors #and/or unclear spots #spoilers

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years

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UPDATED: Top 20 Captain Hooks

So, I discovered that this year marks the 110th Anniversary of J.M. Barrie’s classic story, Peter Pan. While Barrie’s original stage play of Peter Pan, or “Peter and Wendy,” was first put on in 1904, Barrie’s novel adaptation of his own script - which is what most people have likely read or taken inspiration from, to be honest, and is largely responsible for the story’s immortal status - was published in 1911. This has always been one of my favorite stories, and I love seeing how different books, movies, TV shows, and so on like to reimagine the characters...most especially, Peter’s eternal arch-nemesis, the nefarious Captain James Hook.

In the story, there’s this big deal made about how “no little children love Hook,” and that when children play Peter Pan, “the strongest always chooses to be Peter; they force the BABY to be Hook!” I’ve always felt these statements are absolute rubbish: while Peter Pan certainly has great appeal as a character and concept, even as a kid, I always liked Captain Hook more! And I tend to find that, with most people, a common thread is that, as they grow older and more jaded, they tend to feel the same, if they didn’t already. It actually makes a fair bit of sense, when you look at things: Peter’s appeal is the same as a sort of Superman character. He can fly, he can fight, he never has to grow up, he has help from magical friends...he’s kind of an ultimate childhood fantasy. Hook, however, has a lot of his own fantastical elements: there’s always been something appealing about pirates, and in a way, Hook is the ultimate underdog of the story. You can understand why he’s so obsessed with vengeance, and even Barrie himself seemed to recognize him as a “not wholly unheroic figure.” His anger, jealousy, melancholy, and personal dilemnas - mixed with his sense of style and dramatic flair - make him a wonderful villain, as he can be more humorous or more serious depending on interpretation, while always still having core elements the same. In celebration of the 110th anniversary of this tale, and, in turn, the literary exploits of Captain Hook, I’ve decided to do a quick rundown of some of my favorite reimaginings of the great pirate. This will be a description-less list, for the record, so once again, this is just a bunch of names and images, with maybe a footnote here and there where needed. There’s not much more to say, so let’s waste no more time: that ol’ Croc’s belly is a-tickin’. Swoggle me eyes and split me infinitives (wow, those are such weird sayings to type out), these are My Top 20 Favorite Captain Hooks!

20. Boris Karloff, from the 1950 Musical.

19. Henry Shields, from Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

18. Anthony Head, from Children’s Party at the Palace. (Apparently, Head has played Hook several times, including one really cool-looking version where he has a SCYTHE for a hand instead of a normal hook...but this is the only performance of him as Hook I’ve actually seen.)

17. The Version from “A Villain’s Twisted Heart.”

16. Kelsey Grammer, from Finding Neverland: The Musical.

15. Anthony Warlow, ALSO from Finding Neverland: The Musical. (Grammer is terrific - hard to top Sideshow Bob as Hook - but I actually thought Warlow was even better, despite having far less press and a MUCH shorter run.)

14. Ernest Torrence, from the 1924 Film.

13. Colin O’Donoghue, from Once Upon a Time.

12. Jude Law, from Peter Pan & Wendy (2023).

11. Tom Hiddleston, from The Pirate Fairy. (Okay, so he’s technically just the Disney version, when he was younger, but I felt I needed to give this one some attention on its own.)

10. The Version from Alias Hook.

9. Paul Schoeffler. (A lot of you may know him for being the voice of Katz from Courage the Cowardly Dog! He’s been playing Hook off-and-on for years in various productions of the Styne-Charlap musical - the most popular stage musical version of the story - including a 1990 TV production. )

8. The Version from Peter and the Starcatchers. (I’m talking about the book series, specifically; there’s a stage play version, which stars Christian Borle as Hook, but I haven’t actually seen it yet, for several reasons.)

7. Danny Kaye, from the 1976 TV Musical.

6. Cyril Ritchard. (The original actor for Hook in the Styne-Charlap musical; appeared in two TV productions of the same, first in 1954, then a more popular color version in 1960, which still has occasional reruns and can easily be found online.)

5. Rhys Ifans, from Neverland.

4. Tim Curry, from Peter Pan and the Pirates.

3. The Disney Version. (And yes, TW fans, I’m making an OC of him. AND the Crocodile. ;) )

2. Dustin Hoffman, from Hook.

1. Jason Isaacs, from the 2003 Film. (I know that Isaacs has...mixed feelings about how this film turned out, but I’m glad he took it on: this man was BORN to play Captain Hook.)

#countdown #list #top 20 #favorite #best #captain hook #james hook #hook #peter pan #peter and wendy #actors #acting #movies #film #tv #theatre #musical theatre #literature #television

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theregoesmylurkerstatus · 3 years

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So... I have a lot of thoughts on the finale. I've deliberately kept my mouth shut, more or less, on the campaign overall because I'm a firm believer that you can't pass judgement -- at least not complete judgement -- on stories until they're over and done with.

Well, it's done! Kind of crazy. I've been watching Critical Role with almost insane consistency, viewing almost every single episode live, with maybe five-ish exceptions, since episode 19, and I've been blogging it for, what, two and a half years?

It's a weird feeling. It's been such a constant thing for me that I'm always gonna have love for it and remember with a lot of fondness.

...Which is in spite of the fact that I can now comfortably say I'm pretty eh on the ending. I know not being positive about something most of us have loved a lot for a very long time can sting a bit, but I personally think it also stings when people relentlessly crow over how good they think it is or want it to be, to the point where you feel you can't voice your absolutely valid upsets or dissatisfactions. So, here goes, if anyone's interested! I'd be curious to see other opinions, too!

I actually drafted a post talking about my overall frustrations with the campaign a whole two weeks ago, and then scrapped most of it when 140 blew me out of the water. I was really touched, and really happy. I hadn't expected it, but it shockingly felt right, you know?

Unfortunately 141 robbed me of most of that satisfaction and brought me right back to neutral.

The blanket statement you have to make, of course, is that you can’t criticise this as a DnD game, and you can’t be mad at the cast for playing it in a way they think is best for them. They’re the players, Matt’s the DM, and in the end it makes no sense for them to try to make themselves act how they think the audience wants them to, and I’m sure most of the audience wouldn’t like the result anyway.

That said, there is an audience. And that’s where I see this clash coming in. As a DnD game, as long as the players and DM have all enjoyed it and been satisfied, it’s a successful game! But for us, it’s not a DnD game. For us, we’re watching a story be written in real time through the medium of an RPG. And while as a DnD game you can’t fault it, as a piece of media, I completely get why the way things have gone has sat weirdly for a lot of people.

It's not satisfying to see so many character hooks dealt with so quickly or left as an offscreen "and then you do it." If they don't want to keep playing to dive into it, absolutely, but for us who have been watching this as a story with all these character elements get so built up, it's a huge anti-climax.

Which is a lot of what this campaign has been, really.

Oh, Nott’s cursed! But through a really cool character moment that problem is completely taken care of with no consequences we see. Yay, I want her to be Veth and that was an iconic move from Jester! Still, it kind of feels like this was built up to be a big problem and at the first success it was let go... Caleb's got a really intense frightening past he tries to hide, I wonder how the Mighty Nein will respond? Oh, they found out, but it's not a difficult revelation for anyone. Looks like it's easy for them to move past it and forgive. Yeah, that's healthiest for the characters, but huh, kinda undercuts it as a storyline or point of interest. Oooh, Avantika’s back! Ah, they’ve killed her and grabbed the eye again. I mean I don’t want them to die or for Uk’otoa to be free, but I’m starting to feel like that’s not much of a threat anyway. The Traveler’s been kidnapped! Nah he hasn’t, he tried to save Jester so he was let go with no further issue, and also he wasn’t actually in any danger anyway. Oh... Cool. So... Why should I care or be worried?

And these are just the biggest ones I remember being kind of let down by. I wanted to see them STRUGGLE for the successes to have meaning. To my view, threats of failure -- real failure -- really decreased the more the campaign went on, with a few exceptions.

Because don't get me wrong, we've definitely had struggles, and those have made for some of the best moments! Molly’s death, Yasha’s kidnapping, Yeza’s imprisonment. When failures that were threatened are allowed to occur, it’s far more gratifying when it’s followed by success, because you understand that that success was actually necessary. It shows us that what they do really means something.

Honestly, that's why the final battle really shut me up, because nothing makes you quite feel stakes and failure like having two PCs die, and having a resurrection ritual fail -- AND knowing that failure would be delivered on, had it not been for a seemingly miraculous roll of the dice to turn it around. One of the greatest failure's -- Molly's death -- made the success of his resurrection put a lot of my other issues to rest immediately, because to be honest? Molly's resurrection was the biggest success of the campaign, exactly because it was originally the biggest failure.

But this episode, we got to see the other side of making threats and successes feel disappointing -- when you get the impression that success was robbed from you. Again, their characters, their choices, but to have them roll an intervention to get Molly's soul, to convince Molly to come back with his own possessions they've so loved, after so long and so many struggles... only to apparently not get Molly at all?

Changed, of course. Memories, maybe he'd never get them back, though that seems inconsistent to how the initial resurrection was played and Matt's hints. It even makes sense that not having his memories and being a bit different, he might forge a new identity, but insisting Molly was a different person entirely after such a supposed hard won success to get Molly back, especially after what his death meant to the audience and potentially healing that old wound? It robs the narrative of a LOT of catharsis, at least for me and I know many others.

Trent, too, I'm very up and down on. He was so built up -- and what fun that build up had -- and I very much disagreed with the idea that the best story would be dealing with him offscreen.

It's true that you don’t need to explicitly address, confront, or explore every big aspect of character's story hooks and background ties for PCs to move past them and grow healthily. But that does not make it a satisfying viewing experience. People quietly healing in real life is healthy. People quietly healing in an explosive fantasy setting is frustrating for the audience.

What on earth is the point of a story if you don’t get to SEE THE ESTABLISHED CONFLICTS go anywhere? A lot of the characters got distant, quiet resolutions, if that, to everything we wanted to see.

Except, we did get to see Trent. It was a really fun, inventive battle, from opening to conclusion, but much like Travelercon, much like Nott's/Veth's problem with the hag, these were things that the audience in general wanted to see be really dug into and explored, and every single one of them got, in my opinion, quickly tidied up instead. Trent got beaten in the first and only proper battle they had with him, which, after all his build up, is pretty disappointing for a villain many of us wanted to see be a big deal. It really just felt like they were trying to tidy up to get on with the epilogue, which is not what a lot of us were looking for with Trent especially.

And that's how most of their endings felt to me. It didn't feel like any of them had reached a comfortable conclusion. Literally all of them, bar Veth and Caduceus, continued on their character journey threads, without each other and very quickly. Meeting Yasha's tribe and Vandran, Caleb finally openly debating changing time for his parents, Trent and Zeenoth's trials and the changing of the guard at the Assembly... All were things it would have been so fun to have all the PCs react to and explore together, and instead they were fleeting encounters in the latter half of a seven hour finale.

Is all this, from Molly not really coming back to Trent being a finale side plot to the Nein continuing on their individual journeys, potentially realistic to how these fantastical things might go down in real life? Sure! But that's not necessarily a good thing.

Stories THRIVE on conflict and resolution. That’s what makes them FUN! Conflict isn’t nearly so fun in real life and resolutions are often frustrating question marks, so no, past a certain point I don’t WANT stories to be realistic. I want stories to be SATISFYING.

And campaign 2 has fallen far short of the mark.

I haven’t spoken... Basically a word of this for most of the campaign, because as I said I’m a firm believer that you can’t necessarily judge something until it’s over, and because I ALSO firmly believe that being negative WHILE trying to enjoy something is counterproductive. I have had no interest in spoiling or naysaying the fun of the campaign for anyone, least of all myself.

But it's done now, and all I can say is... I really have had fun. I love the characters. I love their relationships. I’m pretty okay with where they’ve ended up. I’m not mad, really, and I’m still going to think of this campaign with a lot of affection. But it hasn’t been a satisfying story, even though for a week following episode 140 I thought, despite all the brushed over story threads, it might be.

So... to try and reclaim some of that satisfaction for myself, I might ignore some aspects of the finale proper. Namely Kingsley specifically. Taliesin's choice -- but to me, it's pretty clear that who we saw at the end of 140 was Molly, and the tags on my posts will reflect that, just as my 141 tags will be for both Kingsley and Molly, for clarity's sake. I personally want to believe Molly did come back, however others might want to interpret it. The victory in 140 that meant so much to me is hollow otherwise, and it just kind of hurts that we would lose Molly after everything. I was okay with him being dead -- I'm not so okay with his resurrection being stolen.

Kingsley will always be canon, but Molly is what I choose to acknowledge. I get if you don't like that take, and that's okay! I didn't care for canon's in the end. That's the good thing about storytelling, is that no one can stop you from making your own versions.

For the people who are hopefully hyped for campaign 3, heck yeah have fun! I’m on the fence. My investment, which... I think I can objectively say was pretty substantive as this blog will attest, doesn't feel rewarded, so I’m not convinced I can faithfully keep up for over three years all over again with a strong possibility that I will once again be left disappointed. It's been a huge chunk of my life, and... yeah!

I’ll take a break, probably, view (and liveblog, if people want!) campaign 1 when I’ve had a mental stretch and vacation, and then... I might start campaign 3. I definitely won’t be able to put the same time in it I did campaign 2 (my first love no matter what), knowing that it’s likely to not be so vindicated, in the end.

I swear I’m actually writing this in fairly good humour, but I totally get its always disappointing when the people you come to for fandom enjoyment just aren't sharing your fun. Honestly I’m half tempted to write all those frigging AUs I have sitting around! But I wanted to say my piece, and try and logically outline why this ending has been lacklustre for so many people, ultimately myself included.

Episode 140 felt right because it felt like a natural conclusion -- these disparate people coming together and finally being whole, finally soothing the hurt that MADE them so long ago. Episode 141 spat on that sentiment -- they all scattered to the winds, not as happy people to live out their dreams, but as confused people chasing up loose threads towards an unknown future, with the friend they thought returned still lost to them, ultimately.

It doesn't feel like the ending we should have gotten for the Mighty Nine, who were finally, finally all together. Until they weren't. So to me? I choose to acknowledge that they were, even if I have to force it to happen post-epilogue in my head.

#critical role #cr spoilers #c2e141 #c2e140 #ramblings #long post #first time i've used that tag but i figure people should be able to block this if they want to!#molly #kingsley #trent ikithon #the mighty nein

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aeempress · 3 years

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Apritello Express Evidences, part 2

Khem-khem, ladies and gentlemen, we shall continue out praising Apritello's episodes. And yeah, this part will be dedicated, in entirety just one episode.

Purple jacket. April and Donnie's episode.

I really love this piece of masterpiece, because it show April and Dee relationship, better reveals them as characters, and demonstrates their connection. (My previous points at this whole situation)

The episode begins with Donnie sneaking into April's school under the pretext of helping her. Soon, April stated the reason why she called D - her science computer project. Actually, she could take a photo of the code and sent it to Donatello, and I'm sure, he would send her the correct one right away, he's coder, he's prodigy, no probbles.

But still, April just asked him to come over and help her without stating any reasons. And he, indeed, came at speed of the light.

I want you to understand what exactly does that mean.

First: April is aware how much Donnie is into human culture. He wants to study in normal human school, do some average teen stuff. Especially, he is loving school and science-related stuff, all these science school projects, visits to botanical gardens, experiments and laboratory work. Because it's his field. It's exactly his domain, where he's good at. His family does not share his interest in science, and April is only one who can understand him. Probably.

Also, April know, how badly Donnie wants to go to school, which gives him an excuse, even if not the most solid one, but an excuse, nevertheless, to visit her school again.

Why again?

Because he has no problem navigating there. Donnie went directly to April's computer class.

He loves this place. And he'd already helped April with her projects.

Even so, knowing that every time she asked guys, especially Don, for help, it turned into a cataclysm, April still called him to help.

It's just a weird, indirect way to say, " Let's hang out, I know how much you like this whole situation with science, school and etc. Here ya go, buddy"

It seems like April did that to make something pleasant to him, something small, but nice to make him feel better. Because, as I state before - he likes to help April (praise, doing something useful for April - still counts as a motivation) and he likes school.

Second: khem-khem, D came at her school, as it seems, right away she called/texted. He didn't even know the proper reason, but c'mon: April ask for help, plus, her school. Sounds legit, don't you think?

Anyway, April has always been being the reason and excuse for teetles, but especially for Donnie. Clear? Clear. Good.

Donnie also tends to not think things through when he is excited. Because he went at the daylight in place, full of people just to help April.

ROTTMNT shows us how turtles were really afraid of human reaction and possible consequences. They have plan "H" to pretend they are going to Galaxy Con, brothers have explanation why they look weird and it's definitely not because boys are mutants, uh-huh, no, plus, guys go on surface at evening or night hours, when there are not so many people, and it's dark, obviously, to cover them and keep unseen.

Yeah, of course, Donnie seems more capable then his brothers to handle the surface (he has cash, D's dressed up as old ladies more than once, according to Leo, he was in April's school before, so yeah, no big deal) and I suspect that his friendship with April is one of the reasons.

Third: do you remember how April worried about looking "normal" when she was finally invited to a school party? She even forbade Mayham to appear nearby, just not to look like the lizard boy. Because cool kids don't bring pets to school. April doesn't have many friends, or rather, there are none at school, and she's been trying to solve this problem by getting close to Taylor Martin, the coolest girl in school.

And April O'Neil just calls Donatello, an objectively strange guy (since when is it normal to be a fan of school? Pretty questionable) in place, where her reputation is hanging in a balance. Our girl does not try to hide Dee, as it usually shown in shows for kids, and April do not pretend that she sees him for the first time in her life because, you know, Donnie will catch everyone's attention being himself and may embarrass her in front of her classmates. But no - April says with all her actions: "Yes, I know him. Yes, that dork is with me. And I don't give a damn about your opinion. Your problems, not mine. And yeah, I'm fine with him being here."

I mean it, guys. The devil is always in the tiny details.

The way they behave around each other.

Donatello is way more, MORE relaxed and just being himself: dramatic dorky nerdy ninja with current obsessions. The way he sneaked in school and April's classroom, the way he behaves alone with her is contrasting the way of his attitude while his brothers are near.

Don has a specific way to shown up. Instead of texting her, Donnie used shurekens. Yes, he almost fell off the lamp, but still, that's... quite an entrance he makes there.

April worries about him, when he fell from ceiling.

Our girl feel relaxed enough around Donnie, so she winks at him.

A wink is a fairly casual gesture that shows some expression of sympathy, trust, and togetherness. It's both good for saying "We're in same boat, we're team" and show the playful attitude towards someone. Isn't that an indicator?

Ironically, that being the best friends April and Donnie do not have any secret handshake/brofist/special greeting, as it usually the besties have at kid's series. Like Kendra and Jeremy have.

I can do only one possible logical conclusion: their relationship is far beyond "friends," "best friends," and "family".

Btw, about this certain phrase about secret five.

- Nay, fair April. A secret five[...].

Once again, nice wording, Donatello. Fair April? Maybe I'm too critical, but often when someone wants to convince their interlocutor and at the same time show one's condescension to them, it's usually uses "my dear ..." or something like that. I understand that semantically the difference is not very big, but in the first case, you can feel Donnie's personal attitude, even though he uses a book word. The second is just formal politeness, which emphasizes the difference between the rightness of the disputants.

This phrase were interpreted on official Russian dub as (okay, it's really hard to choose the correct word, because there's a lot of synonyms in English that sits quite well, while on Russian it's just one word, damn) "Нет, милая (No, honey/sweetheart )". Actually, a strange choice of wording, 'cause this is not what usually friends use to say to each other. We prefer use words like " my darling", "my dear", to demonstrate leniency. And again, most often this prerogative belongs to the older generation. Russians rarely throw around such words as "honey", "dear", "sunshine", because this deprives these endearments of any meaning, and a person using them, as a rule, is familiar. Of course, there are people who use them on a regular basis, but I HIGHLY doubt that Donatello is one of them. It's not his style.

But still, maybe I just too critical at this point.

April, as it is shown, have some kind of power to cool and calm him down and bring Donnie back to life reality.

1. Don awakes from his daze while heard April's voice

2. He's literally coming back to life, when April said about his broken jetpack.

3. Dee obediently interrupts his touching farewell to the jacket when April yells at him.

Oh, and his face. I remind you, fellas, we're talking about Donatello, "I really do not like to express emotions"-guy and "I will die if someone broke my bAbEyS"-guy.

And what do we see? Donnie's emoting. And feels free to do that. He's even drooling. (What seems kinda interesting without context, if you're understand what I'm talking about ;))

Dee doesn't seem angry about broken jetpack. And his wide smile, while he's assuring April he can fix it? A few minutes ago, he was steamed when his stuff was stolen, but when the jetpack was broken, he doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Very eloquent.

April is his support

April also supports Donnie whatever he's up to. Yes, she hadn't been excited when Othello had expressed a desire to join the club. However, she also introduced him to Kendra and company. Yes, she showed by her whole appearance that she did not share his joy, but nevertheless, our loyal captain O'Neil was there for him, by his side all this time.

And her sweet facial expression. From "Srsly? Join this jerks?" to "If you dare to even think about to hurt him, I'll smash you".

And one more cute detail about Dee. Even if he does whatever he wanted so badly, Don constantly looks around at April, looking for her approval.

- Be honest, April, do I look fantastic, or SUPERBLY fantastic?

- You look like you drop a juice box in a laundry. (Play nice, April, don't be mean)

He cherishes her opinion.

April had even called him late at night just to, technically speaking, say that his tech were stolen. And what's the big deal with all his outfit? It's late night, they can just sneak out into Nakamura in their usual form. But noooo, April give a special ride on her bicycle. Just. You know. Our girl carried her own weight and his all the way without stopping. And then she went up 53 + floors running non-stop because Donnie's equipment was stolen. And then she had to chase the her classmates, dodge and jump out of the window. Because Purple dragons stole Dee's tech. Like shooting fish in a barrel, no big deal at all.

And it's definitely not because he will be totally crashed or he'll do stupid things during his anger, which will then come out sideways.

And April comes along with him to very end.

By the way, their phone conversations.

Donnie is the very case when "Call at any time of the day or night and I will pick up the phone".

When April called him when he needs D's help with Albearto, when something is definitely going on behind.

As it says in transcript of the episode:

[April takes out her phone, scrolls to Donnie’s listing and calls him. Donatello appears on screen. Behind him a flying microwave wearing boxing gloves shoots lasers at his brothers.]

Don: "You are conversing with Donatello."

April

[Crouched on floor in hiding.]

Dude, I need your help."

Don: "For you, anything. As long as it does not involve bees, or spiders, or beach balls.

[There’s an explosion behind him and his brothers cry out, which he ignores.]

And yeah, he took her incoming immediately, he ignores absolutely and totally everything around him, because... April? Expositions, bloody flying microwave bot turned to destroy mode, his brothers screaming and being in life-threatening situation? Naaah, it can wait.

Donatello was at Todd's, building "the puppiest place on Earth" and was very enthusiastic about to finish this thing. But he paused anyway to answer April.

We already know how obsessive with work Don can be: if something interesting gets into his field of view, he begins to do it all day long. Remember "The Purple Game" - a very revealing case. Yeah, we weren't shown how much Donnie is into engineering, but I can guess that point remains the same.

April called him at late night and Donnie picked up the phone.

April, unlike Donatello, is a teenager who is burdened with social relationship such as family, school, and work periodically, which implies a more or less strict schedule to follow and some conventions, such as " April, you can't go out late at night to catch robbers, you are underage and you have to go to school/work tomorrow). However, she was watching the news late at night, so she called Dee. ( I have a lot of questions, but I'll never get answers, as it seems)

D, in turn, doesn't have so many contacts with the outside world. I highly doubt that anyone else outside of the family and April has his number. And yet, when he hears the call late at night he takes it. Yes, he had awaken from the nightmare, but still.

And what's up with his usual "You're conversing with Donatello"? He didn't even understand what's going on, as it seems, he's too sleepy to play his usual image and playfully attitude as we could see in "Hypno Part Deux" and "War and Pizza".

Adorable couple-like D&A arguing

April very rarely uses "I told you so" against anybody, or rather, this is almost the only case. This phrase is more suitable for Leo or Donnie, and you know," I told you so! " we usually use on people we know well, and we want to tease 'em about them being wrong. Which, in fact, once again highlights and proves how close D&A are. And I don't even get started about the fact that this is more like a couple's quarrel, not a friend's.

And one more time - in the end, when April suggests using the jacket to stop Kendra.

Their teamwork

I stated that before, I'll tell it one more and more times. The chemistry of their team interaction is incredible. It's as if they can feel each other, and each knows what the other is capable of doing in the next moment. April easily adapts to Donnie's attack, realizing his plan.

Donnie also throws them both out of the window in order to continue the pursuiting Kendra on the jetpack. Don is one hundred percent sure of April, that she will understand what he wants to do, Dee trusts her with his life without hesitation, and she has never used his jetpack. He just puts her before the fact: April will be using the tech.

Up for Donnie!

I really like how this scene was made. Donatello struggles with his own tech, somewhat he made by himself, having invested almost whole himself and his soul, but what "betrayed" him in end. When Dee finally managed to shake one of his battleshell, which almost choked him, Donnie feel so scared and unsecured. We can see his anxiety - Dee's coaching position with covering his head with his hands and tucking his knees.

Defenseless, helpless, and mostly lost, and then, just in time - hero comes to save his life. She uses Donnie's name as battlecry, look how furious she is.

Funny fact: on Russian dub April yells "Don't touch Donnie! (how dare you, madafaka)

April fits in Donnie's type of girls. She's cute (obvious) and mean (not so obvious).

I can't say that meanness is the main feature of April's character, as we can say about Kendra. But this personality trait is still present in her and sometimes it does not manifest itself so widely. April's meanness is not so pronounced, it is much softer and smoother, and it is not exposed.

But April becomes really mean when someone messes up with Donnie.

She's his support and prop. Literally. Just look at first frame, okay-okay, jokes aside

She's genuinely enjoying of kicking bad guys ' asses, even letting go of witticisms and barbs.

Last scenes

Don survived a rough night: he was used, his tech was stolen, so he and April had to chase the satin robed punks. Donnie was hit in the head with a hammer, he fell from a bird's-eye view, passed out and then his battleshell tried to strangle him. And April is here to comfort him, to cheer him up.

Yes, we don't get any hugs (because it's kids show, bleh), the tactility is kept to a minimum, except for April's comforting hand on his shoulder, but they don't even look at each other. But the softness of her voice, the intonation with which she utters a phrase (that is usually sent to the friend zone, but "pal" is really neutral word, and the most important how she said that) turn the scene upside down. It is not what April did to comfort him matter, it's how she did this.

I said "yes" to you way too often

April mirrors Donnie with his "Anything for you". Yes, of course, she said this with a certain amount of grumbling, but her voice and her demeanor suggest otherwise - she is not at all averse to going to giving in him.

And the way they're look at each other.

This one

And one more detail

It's really tiny, it's hard to catch from the first watching the episode, but still, it's possible. I'm talking about graffiti on the walls of the alley where April and Don had landed.

This one

Yeah, if we speak about reality it's quite normal to see graffiti like this. But we talking about TV-series, where everything has its own place and meaning. And if there something, it must be there, it's not just whim of artist who put it in there. But this little graffiti changes the mood of scene.

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demonslayedher · 3 years

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Dream Analysis of Mugen Ressha

Spoilers for the movie, while it does not depart from the plot of the manga, they made adaptational choices which I may refer to within.

While Enmu has control over what kind of dream his victims see, ultimately, he would have no way of knowing all of the details of his victims' lives, so we can assume that he is prompting his victims to fill in a lot of the details themselves. These are the worlds they surround themselves with consciously, but their untouchable unconscious spaces say just as much.

I've said some of this before, but these dream sequences give us so much to say about Inosuke, Zenitsu, Kyojuro, and Tanjiro.

Into the dream: Did that "Rengoku-aniki" thing really happen???? It's animated like a fever dream (or drawn like a typical Gotouge-being-Gotouge panel), but both the movie and the manga leave this inconclusive. It can be interpreted two ways: 1. The two other demons were there all along as decoys, set to appear only when Enmu's blood technique slowly started to take effect so that they'd let their guard down. In this way, we'd know that the boys had a true way of witnessing Kyojuro's prowess and a true bonding moment, thereby making his death hit all the harder later. This would also mean that one of the cars was totally unusable for passengers, and many of the passengers were already thoroughly spooked before falling into sleep. It would also imply that they were all super excited, thoroughly relieved, returned to their seats, and then just passed out.

2. The moment the tickets were clipped, Enmu's very, very, very realistic dreams took immediate effect, but he still needed time before it took effect enough that their guards would go down. If this is the case, then it implies the following: 1. Enmu's illusions can be shared 2. Everyone syncs extremely well together to have all been sucked in by the same illusion (it's possible it was only Tanjiro's, but since we get in everyone's heads a little in this part, I believe they all experienced the same thing). Reacting in ways so true to how they would in waking like, they learned as much about each other as truthfully as they would have if they were fighting while awake. 3. The "Rengoku-aniki" thing is the moment they're falling into a deeper stage of sleep, when any bizarre thing will make sense. They've lost any sense of holding back and are embracing the emotions as they hit them. Even if that was all a dream, the bond formed was very real. But then, as they fall deep, they fall into their own headspaces. Inosuke: I love how bombastic this dream is. It moves at a very fast pace, and everything revolves around Inosuke. He is physically much larger than Ponjiro, Chuuitsu, and Pyonko, who clearly follow him as their leader, the most powerful person in this cave exploring world full of wonder and excitement. True to life, these underlings can at times be frustrating or stupid, but there is no one else Inosuke would rather have at his side to take on a hugely impressive foe. It's a relatively simplistic world, what Inosuke really cares about is his place in it, and who is there.

Taking it a step deeper, he should not be able to manifest in his self-conscious space, but Gotouge attributes his and Zenitsu's ability to do this and protect their cores from intruders to their strong senses of self. What's telling is that his subconscious space is practically identical to his conscious dream space; like there is no breakage between one stage of reality and the next. In its Zen-like simplicity Inosuke's mind is never at odds with itself, its interpretation of reality is fluid and seamless. However, being at this deeper state brings us to a deeper state of self actualization, with Inosuke manifesting closer to the ideal beast he views himself as.

Now, with Inosuke being so fully invested in what he sees as reality, he's still got a carry-over effect from dream after waking up, which one could interpret as not having fully shaken the effects of Enmu's blood technique. After all, Zenitsu simply never broke out of it, Tanjiro had to kill himself in his dreams each time to fully snap out of it, and Kyojuro was the only one powerful enough to have broken through its effects through his own willpower. When Tanjiro says the train is a demon, he buzzes with "I was right!" (a conviction that only got stronger in his dream), and Inosuke's declarations of being the boss and Tanjiro being his underling are indignantly plentiful and he fully believes what he is saying every time he brings it up, even if he's aware that he's no longer in the cave exploring dream. But, given that Inosuke is so at peace with his own version of reality, it's also just as likely that his conviction of being The Boss was also only compounded by the dream, and all that dream did was give him a more fun setting in which to play around in. But, what was so fun about the dream, what made him sleep-giggle with pleasure, was that everyone else was finally getting with the program and recognizing him as the boss, as they should. Finally. It's so frustrating in real life that he has to keep reminding them to get it right. Get it, Santaro?? GOOD. Zenitsu: What I love here is the contrast between subconscious and conscious space. Both of them have the same theme melody, but played in very, very different ways. They also both play with the same core desire in very different ways as well. Is it so much to ask that he can just spend some time alone with the girl he loves?? If we jump straight to the pitch black unconscious space, he specifies to the intruder that only Nezuko is allowed there. Not just girls in general, not a close friend like Tanjiro, only the one girl he loves, and even then, you'd have to love someone a lot to invite them into the deepest, darkest corners of your soul. And it is a very, very, very, very dark corner. Zenitsu's spent most of his life building that dark, pessimistic personality, compounded by the treatment he's always received throughout his life and what he believes about himself at his core. He's ugly and depraved there, and very defensive. Because he holds himself in such darkness, that makes him desire the bright, happy, completely idealistic world of his conscious dream world. It's rich with detail and warm and he knows it well, that places is the first place he ever felt someone have hope for him; it's Jiichan's home, that sunny place with delicious peaches and full of clovers and lush greenery and a charming stream. Of course he'd want to show it all to Nezuko, she deserves to see such a happy, pretty place! And, while the world is idealized and happy, Nezuko is e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y cute and actually wants to hang out with him too. She's willing no hold his hand, none of the girls who dated (read: used) Zenitsu in the past were ever willing to hold his hand. He even gets to show her that he can be cool, and she likes it!! She looks him in the eyes and is totally honest about enjoying his company!!

He just wants someone to want him back. He wants to belong in the sunshine too. So, even if he had it in him to wake up from Enmu's blood technique, who can blame him for staying there? (You know, besides Tanjiro, who has been desperately screaming for them all to wake up and help him protect the passengers. Zzzzz, five more minutes, Tanjiro, zzzzzzz----) Kyojuro: This... isn't really a happy dream. Kyojuro has accepted a lot of sad parts of his reality so wholeheartedly that he doesn't seek the comfort of a dream in which his mother is still alive, or a dream in which his father is proud of him. Instead, what Kyojuro was looking for was the chance to go back and say more to Senjuro. This implies that on the real day he knelt in that room, while his father faced away and read the book* while Kyojuro told him all about how he defeated Lower Moon Two and became a Pillar, and was met with his father's heartbreakingly unenthusiastic reply, he later went outside and...

...didn't say any words of comfort to Senjuro.

This regret, that he didn't do more for his brother whom he knew was hurting in his own silent ways this whole time, was what sat most bothersomely in Kyojuro's otherwise peacefully self-assured psyche (or fired-up psyche, if you go by his subconscious space) . It makes sense that in his dying wishes, the first thing he requests is that Tanjiro do this in his stead. *Speaking of that book, Kyojuro had forgotten about it until his memories pulled together to create the details of the dream, which was why he thought to mention it to Tanjiro later. This shows that Enmu is not an architect of people's dreams, he only sets them in motion. How believable they are depends on each victim. (Totally unrelated, I love the design of the Rengoku estate's garden??? It's primarily evergreen and unflowering trees, meaning it stays relatively steadfast throughout the year, a garden designed in samurai villa taste. Plus the details of the house also fit really well, I think??? Would need to review research of buke-yashiki architecture to say more.) Tanjiro: ...*deep breath* This boy really, really wants to go home. Like, the climax of the movie is amazing and all, but it's the scenes with Tanjiro's family that make me cry. Ugh, where do I start. Enmu probably just grabs on to whatever thread of a desire a person has, and then he just tugs on it and says "this way, let's go really far in this direction, show me where it goes, hmm, okay, nice, lovely. Have fun here, I've now seen enough to write my own angsty version for later." So... so I'm just going to work backwards a moment. Enmu screwed up here, thinking he could really read the depth of Tanjiro's family and his feelings for them. He thought he could make a convincing version of these "characters" cry and shove Tanjiro around and speak meanly to him and make him feel shame. And the cut to that dream, OH MY GOSH, truly horrific sound and color change. But Tanjiro's sees through it so fast that he wakes up immediately and uses that anger at how Enmu wrote them to cut off his "head." You screwed up, Enmu, you blew it, maybe other people would very so blown down by the shock that they wouldn't question how unreal that dream sequence is, but Tanjiro has honed his fighting spirit so much that it's been nagging him even throughout his happy dream. And he really, really, really wants to stay in that happy dream. Like, even though he's on guard at the beginning, so much so that he only focuses on the familiar feeling of a demon being around and does not notice the familiar landscape AT ALL. But the moment Hanako and Shigeru step in, convincingly made from Tanjiro's memories and unedited by Enmu, Tanjiro throws that all away in an instant. As he says when he's trying, after trying and trying and trying to rip himself away from the dream, he was never even supposed to had left this world. He was never supposed to had touched anything like a sword, they were all supposed to stay there together, living their simple life. If things hadn't gone wrong that one night. Tanjiro cares deeply about his mission, he's adopted his training deeply, he has serious desire to improve, which is why his subconsciously keeps trying to call himself back to reality, but it's so hard, because this is where he wants to be, and it's even harder because it feels so real. It's a little peeve of mine when families with lots of little siblings are written to be too angelic and idealistic, and there is some of that with the "let's make sembei, yaaaay" scene, but... but that's actually pretty true. I'm giving myself away with how close this hits to home, but it's a dynamic in a lot of large families, especially large families pretty happy to stay to themselves and people who live the same sort of conservative, traditional lifestyle, to foster in the older siblings some pride in taking care of the little ones and helping create that happy world for them, even if taking care of little kids can be rough. It's not to say that things are always happy and fluffy, they're not, and that's not to say even

happy kids don't resent being in a large family sometimes. But there's plenty of moments in daily life, especially in the presence of small children, that you get swept up into a sillier, happy, caretaker side of yourself, and since you all grow up with these silly moments together, you're going to naturally fall into into some silly, scripted-feeling moments of "then I'll be in charge of eating the sembei!" "no faaaaair!". So, I'll give the sembei scene a pass because that IS a moment that happens in years of moments with the same posse of kiddos around you all the time. But it's also so striking to me how each of Tanjiro's siblings, however idealized, has their own personality. The traits are so subtle but consistent and Tanjiro knows all of them. They pick up on things about each other, they grow realistically annoyed and surprised and concerned and scared like they would if they were real instead of only Tanjiro's memories of them. Those kids feel so real to me, even if they are annoyingly overidealized in some parts as Tanjiro is letting himself get swept away. And just when he's managing to part from it to go face reality, Enmu makes more attack: he brings in Nezuko, trying to make it feel like there's no point in Tanjiro running at all. She's fine. There's nothing left for him to fight for. Everything's fine. And all over again, Tanjiro just stops. He KNOWS it's not real, but he's hurting so much to hear her voice again that he just sto-o-o-o-ps. And his desire to stay with the others catches up to him all over again, and he's tempted all over again to stay, EVEN KNOWING IT'S NOT REAL and there are very, very, very pressing matters to attend to. Even if it was all a little happy and idealized, more than anything, it felt like life always did. It's telling that when Tanjiro finally, FINALLY pulls away from that that time, he doesn't look back, and the family stops chasing him. This is Tanjiro accepting reality, however much it hurts. He's already had a couple years to accept this, but it was all overwhelming to get such a vivid taste of it again.

Tanjiro wants to do well to his organization and honor Urokodaki's training and avenge the fallen and prevent anyone else from being hurt and see an end to Kibutsuji Muzan and make Nezuko human again, but more than anything, he wants that simple life. And it's so, so heartwarming that at the end of the manga, he gets it.

It's not the same. It'll never be the same.

He never wanted a life with a sword, but he's been working so hard at it anyway.

#my heart is broken and it's Kamado Tanjiro's fault #KnY Fandom Theories and Meta #Mugen Ressha Hen #Kamado Tanjiro #Kamado Tanjirou #Agatsuma Zenitsu #Hashibira Inosuke #Rengoku Kyoujurou #Rengoku Kyojuro

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