theres so much abt me / some of the others thats like. lol the second any of us says shit online were getting dogpiled

Okay, all you aspiring writers out there following my blog listen up, I’m about to lore drop something y’all may need to hear.

Now, I’m a Writer, capital letter and everything. It’s not my profession, it’s just what I am, simple as that. I’m thirty-five as I type this, and I’ve been writing for twenty-three of those years. Made the shift from someone who just does essays and stories and stuff for school to someone who Writes when I was twelve and decided, “I am going to write a Novel.”

Which I did.

Took me four years to finish, a hundred pages on Microsoft Word, single space, because that’s how long I thought it needed to be if it was going to be a novel.

And, y’all.

It’s bad.

Like, so bad.

Like, “I’m not even going to tell you what it’s about, only that it exists, this is a chapter of my life to be mentioned in passing, you will see no more, the way is shut, it was made by the dead and the dead keep it” levels of bad.

While I was doing this, I also wrote a lot of poetry. Some of that was okay. One of my ADHD powers is having a very good ear for both rhyme and rhythm, which is enough to get you labeled as the class poet in 5th  grade.

You won’t be seeing any of that either.

It’s not on par with the novel, but like... no one needs to be exposed to my teen-years poetry with the knowledge that that’s what it is.

Being a 1988 model, I didn’t discover fanfiction until about 2006. I was eighteen. The first thing I wrote was an absolute crack!fic that people enjoyed at the time, but which none of you will ever see without accessing the dark web or something similar because I’ve removed it from the legitimate internet. In fact, maybe just kind of treat anything of mine that I wrote before 2010 with extreme caution. And, even then, it’s not until 2014 that we get to my works that are still online which I look back at and go, “That? I’m still really proud of.”

It wasn’t until 2015/2016 that I started seeing myself not as someone who wanted to be a writer, but who already was one.

And it wasn’t until I was a decent start into writing my second mega!fic in 2020 that I looked down and realized that I might be writing something really special. Something that I was so proud of that I didn’t care that it was fanfiction, I was willing to talk to random people about it, because I felt so good and confident about what I was writing.

And that’s actually the point I’m trying to make. When people like me say, “Oh yeah, I’ve been writing for twenty-three years,” it’s not a statement of “Lol, I’m better than you, I’ve been at the top of my game forever, you’ll never catch up.” It’s a statement of, “Writing is a cumulative activity. If I’m good now, it’s because I’ve been doing this for a very long time, maybe longer than you’ve been alive. Look at where twenty-three years of work and practice have gotten me. And, much more importantly... think about where you are right now, and where twenty-three years of work, practice, and life experience will get you.”

Because there are a lot of young writers who I would absolutely consider my equals, don’t think I don’t see you there on AO3 and other places! And that’s what I always wonder when I think of how old you are compared to how old I am. Many of you are so much farther along the path of honing your skills than I was at your age... how much farther along will you be when you’re my age? Keep working at it and you’ll only get better, gain more polish, shine brighter. So many of you are already gems, and it’s my very dear hope that I’ll get to watch you become stars.

Not me deciding that I wanna figure out how does Macaques dojo work, cuz I couldnt seem to find any ideas of it on the internet lol

Okay so long long LONG rant:

Ik that in canon the whole place looks kinda-- moldy and shit and I get the lot of hc about how Macaque probably doesnt even live there since its in a very industrial outer neighborhood of Megaplois, and also it probably isnt really decorated or looks like someone is living in there at all, but I like to think that he has standards and they put like 272636373 nois cancelation seals on their bedroom so he can sleep camly when he actually can sleep (since in my hc Macaque suffers from insomnia (its a pretty common hc tho, but you get it)) and I think the outer circle of Megaplois is even tho industral and under constructuion on most parts, its probably more quiet than downtown

And I also like to imagine, Macaque even tho if not commited to a place will make it more homy. But looking at my reference pictures, in the dojo there were also a lot of posters and paintings (and in MKAGC Macaque did mention he might have a poster of wukong soooo~~)

For the layout I went after whatever felt right, since I had like 4 pictures to piece together a two-story house with a gallery(??) so its actually just me deciding what I want and where I wanna put it

(Here are the screenshots from lmk s1ep9 I used:)

Okay Okay if you couldnt tell, for some reason im really hyped about this stuff so im going to lead you trough my thougtprocess, when imagining this whole thing, in order from ground level to gallery

1. Ground level:

Ahh yes ground level: the problem child

(Im going to keep it somewhat brief here cuz I wrote a shit ton of explanations for it, but that somehow got deleted which I am super pissed about btw)

So I saw that a lot of hc with Macaques place are mostly that first floor is the dojo and the second floor is the living area, buuut~~ based on the screenshots of the series that doesnt make any sense. My reasoning? Simple really, its bc you can see the ceiling If you are standing in the dojo. This could lead to the conclusion that:

"Okay maybe then there is no second floor just a gallery in there somewhere and thats it".

Sure we can say that, but then you would ignore the fact that you cant see the front door of the building when Macaque slams Mk into a weaponstand.

"Okay then its on the other side of the room that we never got to see in the episode"

I mean maybe sure but to me from an animation point of view it just doesnt make sense, just why would they flipp the camera angle like that (I mean anyone can think whatever they want, everyones opinion is valid, its not like anyone would ever argue me on this one ((or read this whole brainrot trough in the first place lol)))

Haha anyways regardless of anything, let's go back to talking about the first floor, shall we?

Everything is pretty self explenatory: when you come in on the front door youll see a little shoe rack where you can but your shoes, and one stair to seperate the ante-room from the rest of the house

Then theres a long hall that leads to the enterence of the storageroom, the random room and the staircase that leads to the second floor

I couldnt decide on what to put in that big room-- I had no clue -- I was thinking maybe Macaque could let other people rent it for a few days of maybe theres a shop with an owner whos ranting the place from Macaque (I think thats an interasting concept, but I didnt explore any of them) oh well thats that tho

"""somewhat brief""""

Second floor:

This was probably the easiest, since 90% of it is the dojo

But before that when you walk up to the second floor you can see a big boubel door that opens to the dojo, and a normal door that opens to the bathroom, which is strategicly placed there by yours truely. There is big brain logic behind it,, it might be inconvinient for Macaque to walk down the stairs from his bedroom trough the dojo to the bathroom (but also he can just shadow portal there--), but when ocasionally he mentors Mk, he might have to go to the bathroom while hes at Macaques place and I dont think Macaque would apritiate someone stomping trough his personal area, and thats why the bathroom is conviniently placed next to the dojo and not that far from the bathroom I know im a genius (**read everything in the bathroom part with a lot of sarcasm**)

Anyways, we couldnt even see all four of the dojos walls so that was also a 'gamble', but I went with a simple bouble door that I mentioned before and two weapon stands (yes those are weapon stands) and other than that you can see the rest of the room on the screenshots, theres also the staircase and that has some closet underneath it, but thats about it

The gallery (my personal favorit):

Looking at my reference pictures i could see that the dojo took up a lot of space almost taking up the 1/2 of the building, which I think is reasonable and kinda cool, but that means small living area which I think is even cooler (I am a huge fan of small practical spaces, they feel so so cozy)

So Yeah the living space: mostly two rooms that I also illustrated on top of this post, (you probably saw it) with a balkony thingy before the enterence of the rooms, where you can look down and see the entirety of the dojo, good for observing.

When you go in the door (actually havent decided if I want to put a door there or curtains for style but meh who knows who cares), youll enter the small but spacious kitchen. I dont see the Six Eared Macaque as a homecook, more of a fake cooking guy (only making basic foods like eggs or toast, maybe ocasionally pancake), hints there is no built in stove or owen just a portable stove, a kettle and a toaster and a small fridge that has MKs drawing (that he drew for them at the end of season 3) magneted there :]

Other than that theres a sink and an old television, he got from the randomest place ever, maybe he fished it out of the trash idk, but he put it on top of the cabinets (rarely watches anything on it)

On the baseplan you can see that there was supposed to be a small table next to the sink with a chair, but it didn't make it to the final drawing cuz let's be honest: drawing interior in correct perspective without a reference picture is just not my strongest artskill I posess, so I got pissed and put a trashcan in there, Macaque can eat in his bed

Talking about bed, let's move on to the Six Eared Macaques room:

It is very small but pretty comfortable with a small bed but a shit ton of pillows for a good nights sleep, other than that there are a nightstand that has the Lantern on it (I know it sorta got lost/destroyed after defeating LBD but I wanted to put it there) and a drawer.

The nightstand probably doesnt have a lot innit, just some nick-nacks and tissues and maybe snacks, or a book or something, the drawer stores some of his clothes, but since I like to think that Macaque is a fashion icon that wont be able to fit most of their clothes, so maybe he stores them in a pocket dimension of shadows, and only has some esentials there when he needs to get ready quickly.

And we could talk about the posters plastered around the room, but most of them are kinda self-explanatory, but there are the poster of his shadowplaly of the hero and the warrior, some drawing, a "Hang in there babygirl!" Poster with a cat on it hanging in there, a poster of the monkey king (heh), phantom of the opera poster and a-- well--- that ones for my bestie hope she'll notice it, its a spies are forever poster (really fun musical a of spies, go watch it its on youtube), and a drawing he brought( maybe)

And thats about the bedroom

And we are still not done, how are we feeling about that?? Huh?? (You dont have to answert, this shit took me about 2 hours to write :] )

LAST PLACE: the corner of the windows opposit the kitchen and the bedroom. Its just a chill little place with pillows and blankets, where someone can bundle up and enjoy some tea or read a book or brood, whatever the monkey prefers. The special thing about it, is that you cant access the place without knowing how to levitate, fly, jump high, or use portals, not that much of a game changer since more than half of the lmk cast could get up there, but still a bit of a barrier in my opinion

AAAAAND~~~ thats it omg

Hi hello if you read this trough could you please comment or reblog with this: "🐵" cuz I wanna know about the brave soilders who went trough this immense amount of clownery,,, holly mother---

If you read this all 👏👏👏 you are amazing thank you for appreciating my work this much, have an amazing day or night ✨🪲

BEEFLEAF THOUGHT (Mainly He Xuan thought but fuck it he's intertwined with Shi Qingxuan and therefore all He Xuan thoughts are beefleaf thoughts)

So so so, in my readings of tgcf and the wonderful mess that is all of the internet thoughts on it I've come to the personal conclusion that to become a supreme you have to have *big* feelings. Very big and very deep feelings.

Our big-brained, obvious example of this is Hua Cheng. Man's big feeling is devotion, love. He is absolutely besotted for Xie Lian. Would do anything for his God. We're so proud of him for it too.

But He Xuan? He's the only other real supreme we have aside from Hua Cheng (Jun Wu, I'm sorry, you're wonderful but Godhood fucks with a man) and the idea that his big feeling that turned him into a supreme was rage and hatred never sat quite right with me. It's not that hatred and rage aren't powerful enough emotions to make a supreme, and those being his emotions on the surface make him a wonderful parallel to Hua Cheng. But rage isn't really what fuels him. If it was, he'd have dissipated after the Blackwater arc. Taken his revenge and called it a day.

Yet, he sticks around. He *never* dissipates. He just sits at the bottom of the ocean for all eternity. Which doesn't sound like rage or hatred. I mean, you'd assume a calamity built on hate would continue his revenge path until all of heaven is gone and no one can have godhood because he couldn't. But he doesn't. He just... waits.

This isn't to say he wasn't angry, btw. He was absolutely angry, and he had every right to be. His desire for revenge had to come from somewhere, let alone the emotional payment to actually planning and pulling it off. I just don't think that was his greatest regret/feeling/desire at death. I mean, He Xuan had his whole life taken from him. All of it. His family, his fiancee, his passions, his work. Everything he worked towards and for got stolen from him by others. And while it's clearly very rage inducing for him (I mean he has a mental breakdown and kills everyone who's ever wronged him), the underlying feeling through it all was probably despair. He probably just wanted things to go back to how they were when his whole family was around and alive.

And this despair and longing doesn't just go away when he learns the truth of what's been done to him. He's still a person. He can't just throw away those emotions because new ones have taken center stage. But rage is a way easier feeling to work with than misery, so He Xuan defers to it. He jumps on the bandwagon of revenge against the people who wronged him once again and goes with it. And it gets him through Mt. Tonglu and up into heaven and right where he says he wants to be. Right up until he can execute his revenge. And then he just stops? And decides that he's going to be best friends with Shi Qingxuan for a few hundred years first? I'm no rage expert, but that doesn't sound very revenge like to me. Which leads very neatly into the point of this post, took me a while I know.

He Xuan's reason for sticking around is he wants to be loved.

I mean, look at it. He says he hates Shi Qingxuan's guts and wants him and his brother dead more than anything, but also spends hundreds of years hanging out with this person he hates so much when revenge is right there? He could have done it whenever. There was no logical reason I could wait to wait as long as he did. Unless he was enjoying Shi Qingxuan's companionship. And Shi Qingxuan clearly loved him (even just platonically. We love our friends in this house). And He Xuan hadn't had someone care about him that much since his death. It was probably insanely overwhelming and equally as wonderful.

And then he fucks it all by actually going through with the revenge but feelings are hard and he's clearly not great with them so oops. But but but, his great famous line during the Blackwater Arc is him telling Shi Qingxuan that they've used the wrong name. He, even if it's just subconsciously, wants Shi Qingxuan to see him as He Xuan, not Ming Yi. He, in some capacity, wants Shi Qingxuan to see and love He Xuan, not the mask he had on.

But then, after the revenge, he doesn't disappear. He straight up goes out of his way to return Shi Qingxuan's fan to them. To make something right. To return something to how it was before.

Except this time, he can't blame the people around him for the change. He can't turn his rage at the rest of the world because he's the one who ruined the only thing he wanted for himself. So he finally, *finally*, has to face this sadness and longing that's been plaguing him from the start. He got his revenge, he got all the anger out, and it still wasn't what he wanted. Because from the beginning, all he wanted was to be appreciated and loved and wanted and not have that torn away from him.

And he fucked it for himself in the end because lets be honest if he had a civil fucking conversation with Shi Qingxuan and didn't literally threaten their brothers life things would have gone SO MUCH BETTER.

Anyway, I'm crying now. If you read through my jumbled 2 AM thoughts all the way, thank you. I will edit this when it's not 3 am. and post it.

---

Editing me: wtf was I on? I don't remember half of these thoughts??? I'm posting it because somewhere in this hot mess is a point I'm trying to make, and I'm not going to deny 2 AM Elian the chance to share it.

Wally Darling x Feral!Reader

I haven't seen too many fics on the reader being an absolute little shit and I think it's a hilarious thought, so here we go

TW: Swear words are used, rape is mentioned briefly (just one word)

🔥 You used to be known as the gremlin child in your friend group. Slept all day, stayed up all night, blasted whatever music matched your vibe, and was known for being a downright degenerate

🔥 You'd often end up in the deep, dark corners of the web after your hours of surfing the internet, and, eventually, you stumbled across a blog about an estranged children's show called Welcome Home!

🔥 You thought it was cute, but grew especially fascinated with the show's main character, Wally Darling

🔥 He grew fascinated with you too. A lot

🔥 So he nabbed your ass and took you Home

🔥 When you woke up on his living room floor, you didn't freak out like you thought he would. In fact, you were eerily calm. You sat up and looked at him with a blank expression on your face that he couldn't possibly hope to match

🔥 "If you don't tell me where I am in the next three seconds, I'm running out the door and screaming rape." Wally didn't know what that was, but he knew his friends would be concerned if a stranger ran out of his house screaming anything, so he explained the situation

🔥 You just nodded along as he spoke until he was done. "So, like, I'm stuck here? With no hope of getting out?"

🔥 "Yes, but it's okay, Neighbor.. Your dear friend, Wally will help you settle in..." He cocked his head and smiled.

🔥 "... Yeah, no, fuck that mess. I'm gonna find someone that actually has an ounce of sanity." You tried to walk out but Home wouldn't let open the front door.

🔥 "Open the door before I break a window and get out that way." Home opened the door.

🔥 You met the neighbors and despite the fact that they probably deserved to know that Wally was actually fucking crazy, you wanted to preserve their innocence, so you just acted like you just moved in.

🔥 There was actually a new house on the block, completely suited to your personality, so it wasn't a lie.

🔥 You settled in quickly and made friends with your neighbors (except for Wally), often doing activities with them and hanging out.

🔥 Meanwhile, Wally was distraught! This wasn't going how he wanted at all! Every time he tries to talk to you and explain himself, or apologize, you act like he's a fly @:(

🔥 "Shoo, shoo fly. Bye bye, now." "But.." "Go away 👹."

🔥 You found a boom box in your house and used that to annoy the shit out of him as payback. You tried different genres of music so find which he disliked the most, and then stood outside Home and blasted it at night.

🔥 Turns out, he strongly dislikes rap. He finds most of it distasteful. So, of course, that's what you always play. Your favorite was Short Dick Man by Gillette, you thought it suited him so well 😍🥰

🔥 Yeah, no, he fucking hated that song. He didn't quite understand the lyrics but he could take a guess that you were poking fun at him. He'd poke his head out the window with an uncharacteristic frown. "Would you please.. turn that off.. I can't sleep."

🔥 "Bruh, we both know you literally can't sleep, bffr." You'd turn it up louder.

🔥 Julie would sometimes join in on the fun too. She thought it was such a fun game! You'd just snicker and pass her the boom box.

🔥 Wally decided he'd had enough and marched up to you. "Neighbor, I'm very tired of your games.. You've been acting very unneighborly..."

🔥 "Ok boomer lol"

🔥 At this point, even if he did find a way to send you home, you'd refuse. It's become your life goal to harass him until the day you die. And you don't think you can die in this world, so you get to haunt him forever, isn't that fun? ❤️

tsugumichi kaneshiro is a weak little bitch. here's why!

↑ if you don't know who tsugumichi is, that's him! he's the serial killer from kotoko's narrative, and who i will focus on. this post is 99% just overanalyzing subtext and extrapolating from (seemingly) unrelated information, so please bear with me. also its really messyyy

first thing i'd like to point towards is the nature of his crime. he is a 24 year old man who kills elementary school girls -> his victims are always inherently weaker than him. the question becomes: why the fuck did he do this. why are they his victims specifically. it seems very likely he was targeting them, after all.

it can't be because he thinks he can get away with it more easily; his father has enough power to get him out of any legal consequence. even his neighbors knew about his crimes, but he still didn't get arrested ever!! he might just like killing them, that is true. he might just like killing them specifically. but! i think it'd be more interesting if those are his victims because those are the only type of people he can kill. only elementary schoolers are weaker than him, so those are the only ones he can and will kill.

he tried to fight back against kotoko, by the way, he did try! he was just really bad at it and apparently ended up getting mutilated so so badly, meanwhile kotoko seemingly suffered zero severe injuries.

additionally, please look at this quote from YONAH:

K: How ridiculous... It's always like this... All of you weaklings always act like this... All of you enjoy seeing someone getting hurt... [...] All of you enjoy seeing a bad person falling down... [...] You keep asking for it, but as soon as it happens near you by your own choice, you all start complaining and evading your responsibility... You're always like this... Always such idiots!

of course, this could just be her talking about everything everyone ever. even herself, if you believe she's projecting. however i do think this was, in some way, referring to tsugumichi.

her generalizing weaklings, saying “it’s always like this, all of you weaklings always act like this,” as if she has personal experience with it... saying it towards someone she thinks likes when people get hurt, when it can be very easily assumed that tsugumichi also enjoyed seeing people in pain? i like to think this means she saw him as weak, at least a little bit

now whether she saw him as weak prior to or after killing him is a mystery! one that i won't really get into... both are possible options with their own merits and there's too little info to actually decide on one scenario over the other... i will say that i am more inclined towards her seeing him as weak prior to killing him, but that is mostly bias and such

there's also this one interrogation that could also be a vague at him, even if unintentional

yes i think he has a weak will (more literally a "weak heart") yes i also think it could be a vague at herself but this post is primarily about tsugumichi being weak... he is a weak little bitch and it's what led to him turning to evil, down the inferior path and such.

whether the thing that caused him to turn to evil was external influences (i really like the internet theory for kotoko so this could also be applied here, but that has less basis to it for him) or just him having some sort of power trip where he really really just wanted to feel some sense of power and does it by killing elementary schoolers... we dont know LOL. there's very little info on him and i am just extrapolating from as much as i can.

i think that's all i can cover that relates to this. some of it probably makes zero sense so feel free to ask me things if you feel so inclined and such.

The game Doomed in danny phantom has insane implications.

Before you go typing stuff, I am aware it's the result of needing a video game to have stakes and the writers needing a plot. I understand watsonian and doylist reasoning, im a writer myself. this is purely for the in-universe implications which I believe are crazy.

In episode 12: Teacher of the Year, danny and his friends are playing some kind of online game where the grand prize for beating it is full access to the World Wide Web. I re watched this episode prior to writing this, though it has been a hot minute since ive seen the other episodes, so i don't know exactly if they've actually used the internet prior to that episode. But i do remember technus escaping because Danny deleted his old save of Doomed so i guess that does imply he beat it at some point after episode 12.

The mere fact they can even play an online game in the first place would imply they have some access but not as much as they could. Kind of like how when you have a learners permit you can only drive in the daytime with an adult in the passenger seat. Can you imagine getting online and only being able to access wikipedia and facebook? Thats what I'm seeing from this.

So as far as we know, anyone who wants to get full access to the internet has to play and beat this game. We see danny and tucker make it to the final level multiple times, it takes them all night but that assumes even an average player can make it far if they keep at it. So the game itself couldn't be too difficult.

But what bewilders me the most is what Sam's doing. Why does this game have PVP? Sam hasn't beat the game either, she was likely doing it just to fuck with danny and tucker but she also blasts some random dude at the beginning. The trio seemed to all be able to win the game together at the very end, meaning there isn't any actual reason for pvp since there's no need to claim the prize solely for yourself.

Then there's Lancer. He's already beating the goddamn game! Yet he comes back just to beat it again and fight people! Is he gaining anything from this? Probably not. But why would this be an option for returning players? It's like someone who gets a doctorate degree and then goes around a middle school with a baseball bat bashing any student they see trying to learn and the school staff do nothing about it.

Why is the world set up like this? Did the government decide full internet access is something someone should have to take a test for? Did everyone have to take the test or were they grandfathered into keeping full access? I dunno how old Lancer is but unless we assume he was only playing the game for fun, he had to have beat Doomed when he was younger. so that implies his generation and the one after were all subject to this rule.

Is Doomed the only game like this? are there other games for other kinds of people since not everyone is good at FPS games? Could there be other things like make a character on the sims live for a whole year on max difficulty and then you win? Beat halo on legendary with all skulls on? speedrun mario 64 below the allowed time limit? Whose idea was this!? Not everyone is going to want full access when they're teens like danny, but what about when you get a job? Do you need to put "I beat Doomed" on your resume? this whole this is just fucking bizzare,

It's a minor detail never really brought up again, but the wider implications of it are immense. Anyway, im using this episode as inspiration to write a story because I cannot let this idea just get swept under the ecto-rug.

👽AITA for telling kids that aliens are real?👽

this is a bit of a goofy one, maybe not THAT serious, i just want to know the internet’s thoughts.

i (20sM) have a friend (20sF) who is a nanny for a family of 3 kids, and has one kid of her own. i won’t give the kids’ ages but they’re all younger than 10. she often brings her own kid to work so they can hang out, and on this one particular day this summer she invited me to come hang out, getting ice cream and going to a nearby park.

i have a decent amount of tattoos, and since the weather was warm, this was the first time these kids got a good look at them. of course, they’re really into it, and start asking me questions like “did this one hurt?” “will they go away?” yknow, things like that. as they find different ones, i tell them little stories about what they mean: the flower behind my ear is our state flower, the skeleton just looked cool, that one’s for a band you probably shouldn’t listen to until you’re older, etc. at one point we arrive at the one on my upper arm, which is an alien spaceship.

here’s the thing. i’m not very good at talking to kids, and never have been. i was kinda using this ice cream date as my chance to practice and watch how my friend does it. i also do wholeheartedly believe in aliens, and got this tattoo as a way of getting silly with it and feeling less embarrassed when i tell someone i believe in aliens (not that it’s something TO be embarrassed about, i’ve just been talked down to about it a lot by people who disagree so that instilled a bit of shame. but you can’t be embarrassed about something you got permanently etched into your skin!).

so when i get the “what’s this one?” question about the alien ship, i decided i’d have a little fun with it, so i answered: “it’s an alien spaceship. aliens are REAL, you know!”

here’s how i see it: these are kids. i didn’t want to beat around the bush and give a long-winded “i really like aliens a lot, some of my favorite media is about aliens, and i think they actually exist.” i feel like that’s a lot for a kid to grasp, plus with the added concept of “i think this is real, but others might not.” the debate on extraterrestrials echoes a lot of ideas one might have debating the existence of god or an afterlife, and while i’m all for questioning the beliefs you were raised with, these kids are a bit too young for that, and they’re not my kids anyway. plus, believing in aliens is relatively harmless, right? i wanted to give them a little sense of wonder and encourage them to do some research if it’s something they liked the idea of.

after the kids weren’t around, my friend kinda told me off for it a bit. she didn’t want the kids she nannies for to go to their parents and tell them that “[name]s friend with a bunch of tattoos told me aliens are real.” and in that sense… i can see where i might’ve fucked up.

fast forward a couple months, and lo and behold, these kids are now obsessed with aliens. on the one hand, i do feel a little bad for it. but on the other hand, i kinda feel like aliens are a fairly common childhood obsession? lots of kids cartoons are about aliens, and in my mind it seems no different from an obsession with dinosaurs or greek mythology or something. it doesn’t seem like the parents are actively trying to discourage it, either. at the same time tho, i can see how telling the kids something like that could’ve cost my friend her job.

i’m more than happy to talk to the kids about alien stuff more if they want, but i’m still not fully sure if i should’ve said anything at all. is that something i should’ve let them discover on their own?

What are these acronyms?

aggretsuko s5 was the best and the worst at the same time, and here's why.

so, the last season of aggretsuko is here, huh. it's one of my favorite shows ever and i just really want to discuss all that happened in s5 with someone. it's totally okay if you disagree with some of the stuff below, i'd love to hear your views and opinions!

so, obviously, it wasn't perfect. it was fun, but it had some issues. luckily it was better than s4 and had some really good moments, but the 2nd half of the season was a big misunderstanding. i decided to make a list out of all the stuff that bothers me:

retsuko literally got forced into politics. saying she's a people pleaser is not enough to justify it. i'm not saying "you can't do politics in aggretsuko", i'm saying that it would be better if she went "maybe i can make lives of regular office workers like me better?". and what was the politics arc for, anyway? there was no point but if you have to do it then just don't force her into that? give her a reason that would make her go "maybe it's not that bad of an idea".

why were retsuko and haida always going to a grocery store that was far away? plot hole! you see, after the stalker incident in s3 retsuko moved and i remember haida literally saying something along the lines of "the shop below keeps it safe and light at night". in additon, the building retsy lives in was shown several times and there really is a shop below her house.

remember when retsuko dreamed of being a lil blushy bride with a big smile in a beautiful dress all the way back in season 1? it was important for her, it was her dream. and in the end, haida and retsy just went with the civil marriage thing and? why?? honestly, why...

one of the biggest issues is obviously the fact that we didn't get enough about retsuko's and haida's relationship. since when were they even together?? i might've missed this part, but my point still stands - we really didn't enough about them. 5 seasons of waiting and this is what we get?? i just didn't get the feeling that haida and retsuko are actually happy and in love with each other, so them getting married so suddenly was a big suprise to me. and it's not like there weren't any opportunities for them to show affection to one another! i'm not saying they should act lovey dovey all of the time, but take for example retsuko's visit in haida's house. when they went out for a walk to the garden, he could say something like "i know it's hard, but deal with them just for today, okay?" or "sorry that i'm making you go through this. you really shouldn't have went here with me." stuff like that is what would make it feel a bit more like a real relationship and this exactly what their relationship lacks.

in the end we didn't get a single bit of info abt whether haida have found a job or not. he was supossed to get into IT and? after visiting retsuko's parents it was never mentioned again?? did netflix really just forget about it?

this isn't really an issue, but i still wonder who have hit haida with that truck. his brother said that he didn't do it but how did he even know that happened? not like haida would've told him about that considering their relationship... is, yknow.

and now, to the good stuff!! i have to admit, the 1st half of s5 was good, great even. those honestly were the best aggretsuko eps after the stalker incident in s3.

SHIKABANE ABSJSJSJ (no explanation needed) <33

haida deserved that. bro was being miserable and i loved every second of it. now he knows how tough life can be!! and that's a good thing.

as always, tadano never fails to make the show better, no matter what season is it. the thing where he bought the whole internet cafe? hilarious.

i'm bad at explaining why a show is good i was born to be toxic so that's about it haha. would love to hear others' opinions! <33

SAMS & MAFS Incorrect quotes because... I don't know at this point

Old Moon: cocks gun and points it at Sun Go to Bed. This is no longer a request, This is now a Threat.

Old Moon: You spent money on THIS?? Old Sun, putting tiny raincoats on ducklings: They live outside. They need this.

Earth: Words ending in 'ie' just sound so adorable. Like cutie, sweetie, cookie- Moon: Eyy, homie! Eclipse: But then there's cootie… Monty: Die.

Harvest: Treat spiders the way you want to be treated! Bloody: Killed without hesitation.

Lunar: Kinda sad* Are you a cuddler? Bloody: We a machine of death and destruction. Lunar: Harvest: …Yeah, we cuddle.

Harvest: What if Cinderella was a baking slave instead of a cleaning slave, and her name was Mozzarella? Bloody: Don't ever speak to me again.

Puppet: Don't have a bookmark? Try ketchup instead!! Lunar: What makes you think I read?

Earth: Are you coming to bed? Monty: I can't. This is important. Earth: What? Monty: Someone is wrong on the internet.

Harvest: Bloody! This soup is flaccid! Bloody: LITERALLY WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN?!

Lunar: Is anyone going to tell me what's going on in here?! Eclipse: It's kind of complicated, but Monty- Lunar: Got it. Forget I asked.

Sun: About to do something incredibly stupid Moon: I know I can't stop you, but I won't let you go by yourself.

Monty: What if mayonnaise came in cans? Foxy: Well, that would suck because you can't microwave metal. Lunar: Good morning to everyone except these two people.

Sun: Well Moon, I have to say, I'm really disappointed. Moon: Well, you didn't HAVE to say it. You could've just thought it.

Earth: We’re all in this together. If one of us falls, we all fall. Nobody is expendable on this team. Harvest: Sounds fake but ok.

Foxy: Good morning! Sun: Is it? Is it really?

Harvest: Everything will be ok. You can not stop it. Harvest: Everything will be fine. You have no choice. Sun: What the fuck kind of pep talk is that? Harvest: Ominous positivity.

Eclipse: I think I mostly want to see what happens when this whole place breaks apart.

KC, pointing a camera at Rays: There they are, our sweet baby. Rays, holding a cigarette and a beer: What-?

Eclipse: Don’t weep for the stupid. You’ll be crying all day.

Bloody: is throwing stones at KC's window KC: You have a phone for a reason, Bloody! THUD KC: DID YOU JUST THROW YOUR PHONE AT MY WINDOW?!

Rays: Where are you going? Monty: To either get ice cream or commit a felony. I'll decide on the way.

Lunar: Do you have any skeletons in your closet? Old Moon: Literally or figuratively? Lunar: I have to specify?

Lunar: working in a flower shop and minding their own business Bloody, storming into the store and slapping $20 on the counter: HOW DO I PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVELY SAY “FUCK YOU” IN FLOWER???

KC: Answers phone. Hello? Moon: It's Moon. KC: What did they do this time? Moon: No, it's me, KC. It's actually me. KC: What did you do this time?

Lunar: .. .----. -- / … --- .-. .-. -.-- (translation: I'M SORRY) Sun: What's that? Lunar: Remorse code. Sun: I'm even angrier now.

Harvest: Next time I'm at the pet store, I'm gonna take a hamster and drop it in the scorpion cage. I wanna see what a hamster's face looks like when it goes, "oh, fuck."

Moon, hungover: Please tell me I'm imagining that I claimed I was king of the ducks. KC: I would, but then I would be lying to the King of All Ducks.

Monty: Dom or sub? Sun: I guess Domino's, since I don't go to Subway that much. Don't see why you'd put them in the same category though.

Foxy, gardening: Hey, can you bring me the hoe? Sun: Yeah, sure. A few minutes later Sun: Here you go. Foxy: Sun: Monty: Why am I here?

Sun: is effectively running on 5% battery* Is the pink panther a lion? Moon: Say that again but slower. Sun: I don’t get it. Moon: He’s a PANTHER. Sun: Is that a type of lion? Moon: No, it’s a fucking panther. Sun: googles panther They aren’t pink? Moon: AND LIONS ARE?!

Sun: You really put aside everything and came all this way for me? How did you even get here so fast? Earth: Several traffic violations. Lunar: Three counts of resisting arrest. Monty: Roughly thirteen cans of energy drinks. Moon: Also, that’s not our car.

you can tell you work in academia with how much patience you have for some of these asks...."I don't know what is and isn't true anymore" is such an indefensible cop out of a way to exist in the modern world. morally clean "Leftists" could at least have the decency to learn the history of the people and places they pretend to care about for internet points, but hey, it's way easier to take the Opressor Approved route and give into despair and recycle repurposed right wing propaganda like the TERF version of geopolitics. a lot of people need to ask themselves, if there were no internet asspats involved, would you actually still care?? anyway thank you for your patience and willingness to engage, you're a better person than me :')

So far as the other anon goes, they have apologized and taken responsibility that it was a dumb thing to do, I have accepted that apology, and I think that matter is now closed. And yes, I do actually appreciate (as discussed in many other posts and asks) that it is difficult to always and automatically find reliable information, that it has been made deliberately even more difficult to do so by various bad actors, and that this results in a big ol' Bad Take Sea even by people who are genuinely otherwise well-meaning or want to make a positive contribution. So I really do have sympathy for that. Perhaps the previous anon did not put that sentiment across in the best of ways, but as I said, we should all have a bit more grace in remembering that we are real people behind the computer/phone screen and are dealing with different stressful things, and therefore sometimes make mistakes and do or say things we don't mean. (You know, for those of us who aren't pornbots. Oh tumblr.)

Where you and I absolutely agree, however, is that just because it is sometimes difficult to acquire that information, or that systemic and deliberate barriers/misinformation has been put in place to increase the difficulty, it does not excuse people from the responsibility of doing so, especially if they want to put themselves in the position of being the Perfectly Correct Social Media Oracle who will judge and criticize everyone else's responses and act as if that has some real-world impact or is a real marker of someone's "personal morality." And there are for sure plenty of people who are doing that with literally no self-awareness or other critical tools, because as you say, they want the Internet Asspats for being seen as a "Good Person" according to a very narrow and limited definition. But they can't think about what that entails, how to challenge it or correct it, or otherwise apply it carefully, so, yeah.

As I said, I am generally willing to answer asks that are made in good faith and show a real willingness to learn, because (as noted and which is doubtless visible again here) I am an academic and I enjoy having these kinds of discussions. But this topic in particular, and modern social media in general, is really not made for it, and it's easy to get sucked down the Discourse Black Hole that doesn't do anything for anyone, and I try to avoid that. So I answer only when I think I can contribute something useful to the discussion, which results in those kinds of long and careful responses where I do always worry that I haven't said enough or said it the right way, especially with the bad-faith reading police eager to leap on any small misstatement or sentence taken out of context. That is of course a hazard of being a person on the Internet in 2024, and since I am still here and still answering questions generally, I have clearly decided to accept it. But I also don't have an obligation to respond to *everything,* and I don't. It is a fine line to walk and again, I am a middle-aged tired academic and ordinary person doing my best. I appreciate your support. :)

I am going to take a break from milgramblr

[important please read]

ok now how do I start. Im going to take a break from tumblr for about a week. Things have been absolutely awful for me here since the very beginning of 2024, even if it may not look that way at times.

to retell the situation it happened with the new years gartic phone game, where someone made a prompt about a ship that made me heavily uncomfortable. To put it loosely it reminded me of an extremely bad experience with a fandom a few years ago when I called out a ship for being creepy and having a huge age gap but I was constantly dogpiled and harassed. It was probably the worst experience I’ve had on the internet and to this day I get really scared of people hating on me and I apologise for everything likely stemming back from the situation.

I tried to persist with the game but I got really upset and left. I expressed on my blog how uncomfortable I felt about the whole situation. Then this one person, who’s a prominent figure in the Milgramblr community, I won’t name them but I think you’ll know who, replied on my post saying that “it’s ok because…” in such an awful tone. It’s hard to explain but basically it felt really bad as they completely dismissed my feelings about the situation just to justify their creepy ship. And even worse, they way they responded was EXACTLY the same way that everyone else responded back in to at old fandom. At the point to I’d much prefer hate and harassment over that false positive attitude.

I freaked out and immediately blocked them and basically went into a panic attack. I was freaking out on my blog and just to make things worse I saw a post praising them and things got so bad. It was the start of the new year and I was on holiday and was supposed to do a bunch of things but because of that situation I was bedridden and couldn’t stop crying. I had so many nightmares about everyone here turning on me and the original incident and I still have them.

the way the person reacted to my situation was absolutely awful. After my breakdown they immediately went to their blog and started posting about how the ships good and you should praise it completely disregarding everything that happened. I’ve always been uncomfortable with them but this pushed me over the edge. And later on I got in contact with someone who was (presumably) trying to help me and we decided to see if that person could make an apology. But they took way to long to even think they gave any attention to the situation and the apology itself didn’t feel that genuine.

This person was still posting about it and didn’t change their pfp and title despite how bad it was to me and they did not do anything at all. Again I’m not naming anyone but I highly recommend you do not support them anymore. I said I’m going to be leaving for a while but if you want clarification on who it is you can just ask, I’ll check my stuff tomorrow morning before I completely shut off for the week.

I don’t know who it was but there was even a throwaway account hating on me and saying awful things. I didn’t care that much as things had already gotten so bad for me that I didn’t care about the opinion of an anon. But like I said, the sickly positive response that person gave was way worse than actual hate.

and that’s only one part of the story. Another thing happened much more recently with the person I mentioned who was trying to help me. They were the first person I followed on Milgramblr and the person who inspired me to join and make all these theories, so with this and them helping me I really looked up to them. It was a few days ago I think but they posted something on their account about that person and wanting attention to them. I expressed my uncomfortable feelings about the situation and they didn’t do anything about it. Instead they decided to KEEP POSTING about it, like constantly and me getting more upset at the situation and how they responded made it clear that they didn’t care at all. I blocked them and we were mutuals for a while.

It’s been a month and I’m still suffering very badly. I’m not constantly crying as I was when it first happened but it still pains me. I’ve been feeling incredibly distressed on this sight knowing that the original person hasn’t done anything about it and they’re still very close. No matter how much I block them or blog tags I still see them in reblogs or bought up. I had to exclude anything relating to the earbuds collab from my milgram archives as it gives me back really bad memories to the pfps involved. I just can’t feel safe in this place anymore and especially that no matter how I feel, nothing has changed since when it happened and no one’s even actually trying to help me or change things.

I’ve just been feeling so bad that I’ve been going days without eating. Just because I can’t be bothered to get out of bed. The only solace for me is sleep but even that’s not good enough as I might have nightmares and I often feel much more tired afterwards. Things are changing for me as I actually have to get up and do something now and it’s surprisingly going kinda well, but that has nothing to do with this situation.

just to note I will be continuing my milgram archives series, I’ve scheduled quite a few posts for this week so they’ll keep going. For me I’ll completely cut off all activity for this week, and may return on Wednesday.

it’s just. I hate how nothings changed. I want something to happen but no one’s helping

Oh hey! Another note about the highly clinical language thing:

So we have a really hard time explaining our symptoms to doctors. But we sometimes come across descriptions that match up perfectly with our experiences. So we start to use those descriptions to give an explanation. And often enough, we will forget the specifics of what led us to find that explanation so good. So we will rely more on the clinical description.

For example, executive dysfunction. We have really bad times where we just can't get up and do something. Some sort of mental block or feeling exhausted without lacking energy. But when we simply try to describe this to a doc in our own words, they just hear depression.

Which, is like the point of clinical language right? To be precise? Especially with how it take folks an average of 6 years to get diagnosed, I imagine a lot of folks using clinical language do so because they've had a lot of time to refine their words for their symptoms and struggles into that precise language.

-Faye

Yeah, I totally get that. I imagine a lot of people use clinical language for that reason.

I do kind of see the perspective of the psychiatrists on this too though. I think it's reasonable to want people to describe their experiences themselves instead of relying entirely on the jargon.

I was doing a write-up on another Imitated DID article. Overall, the paper has a lot of misinformation, a lot of bad practices for determining who is or isn't a system. And is really only better than its predecessor in the way that it wasn't actively sexist in shaming its subjects, or trying to paint patients as monsters out to slap malpractice suits on innocent therapists. 🙄

There were some nuggets of wisdom hidden in there though...

I think this is actually valid, even if I have other problems with the above lines.

While patients shouldn't be dismissed for using clinical jargon, if I were a psychiatrist, I think I would want to make sure that they were using that jargon correctly.

Heck, I'm not a psychiatrist, but still think it's important when talking to people and explaining different experiences that we're on the same page on what different words mean. Especially when those words are complicated and meanings change based on context.

Way too many psychiatrists will take this too far and decide to completely dismiss someone for using clinical language, which is gross and actually ableist.

But you also want to make sure that when someone is identifying with PTSD and describes having "flashbacks" that they're using the word the same way you do, and aren't referring, for instance, to pleasant memories.

...

Okay, now I'm going to comment on the quoted lines, and how I think it's indicative of the psychiatrists failing in the reverse way.

Because I can't simply post the screenshots without calling that out.

In the case of someone using clinical jargon, they expect elaboration because they understand that someone may not understand how jargon is used by clinicians.

But with Mary who clearly describes people in her head talking to her... they dismiss her because she denies hearing voices.

To me, it sounds like Mary simply didn't realize that voice hearing in psychiatry could include mindvoices.

So while Mary is dismissed in one instance for not using the clinical jargon correctly (flashbacks) they also dismiss her described experiences in another when she likely simply misunderstood their jargon. (Voice hearing.)

...

And so I think currently there's a huge problem where if you describe experiences without knowing the clinical jargon to accurately illustrate them, you'll be dismissed or misdiagnosed. (As with your own problem with doctors interpreting your executive dysfunction as depression or Mary's voice hearing being dismissed because she didn't call it voice hearing.)

But then knowing too much makes doctors think you're faking and just reading your symptoms off of the internet.

It makes this ridiculous paradox where you need to jump through hoops just to get doctors to believe you.

There's no way to win. At least not reliably. And it all sucks.

Okay I was planning on staying out of it but this is painful to watch.

To be clear, OP was being very weird and didnt at all need to say that. But it seems like hald the people since then have just been trying to explain what OP mewnt and doing it horribly, because I do in fact get ehat thry were saying.

Theres been a bug movement with online fascists thats like "modern society is too urban (see: diverse). Weve gotten too far from how we traditionally lived, and were so out of touch with nature. Kids spend all their time inside or in the suburbs and never get to see real nature." And its all a recruitment tactic.

The Start of that pipeline is often just "huh modern scoiety is extremely out of touch with nature. Kids grow up without the experiences I had as a kid running around in creeks and stuff. Kids cant recognize plants." And most of that is true and it Is bad, but they then often make a very quick leap to "this is a problem with Society." And from there to fascist talking points.

And like, if you squint, you can very easily draw similarities between the very start of that pipeline and your recent posting.

Again, this is Obviously incredibly stupid and anyone who actually reads anything you post can see that. But like, I can at least see how, if someone is primed to always look only for fascist dog whistles, and one of your recent posts crossed their dash, if theyre not smart, they could arrive at that anxiety.

Everyone since then has just been dumb about it.

...Okay I'm thinking the "cottagecore" discourse has just rotted people's brains out here. I didn't realize it until now but "posting pictures of a basket of freshly picked strawberries is a fascist dogwhistle" really was a Thing on here a while back. Okay. That makes sense now.

I know about the "trad"/fascist-adjacent 'homesteading'/off-the-grid doomsday prepper attitudes. Where I live, being a 'homesteader' often goes along with stockpiling guns.

But these people's attitudes are individualistic, it's all about personally escaping the "Modern" world and living in The Wilderness(tm) somewhere and being "self-sufficient" (lmao). Kind of a manifest-destiny adjacent fantasy (gross)

This is where the "cottagecore" discourse brain worms did immense damage—no one wanted to explain why the individualistic, intrepid settler homesteader fantasy was a problem, so all the well meaning people on the margins of the discourse went "oh, okay, wanting to reconnect with your natural world and consciously participate in your local ecosystems is a fascist/colonialist thing."

I have multiple posts buried deep in my drafts about this somewhere that I was afraid to post, because I was met with the "google is free" stuff when I tried to figure out what was going on, and Google was entirely empty of any material explaining the (alleged?) fascist and colonialist roots of cottagecore.

It makes my brain hurt because yes, actually, I *see* how "homesteading" is sometimes related to white supremacist and colonialist shit, and the fascist and "cottagecore" communities do have an overlap that is not purely coincidental. That's real. It's not made up. But. A lot of people on the internet have learned to recognize fascist "dogwhistles" instead of learning to recognize fascist ideas.

A lot of the work of recognizing fascist-adjacent stuff in the wild does rely on developing a sensitivity to such "red flags." I've talked about things that I consider to be red flags, and I sometimes respond strongly to them. But—it's crucial that you understand that the red flags themselves are not what fascism is. You have to be able to see and recognize the actual harmful components of an ideology instead of deciding that any similarity, no matter how superficial, Is Fascism.

A lot of colonialist and fascist systems of thought have "relationships with nature and growing plants is good" somewhere in there, but the actual poison here comes in a few forms:

unquestioned romanticization of settling/colonizing an Untouched Wilderness

deciding that some kind of stable, inherent 'natural' state of human existence is always good, and 'unnatural' things are bad

modern society is decaying and degenerate, "traditional" values and lifestyles are better (enter romanticizing the past as a paradise of moral and racial purity)

Yes, there were statements in my post that looked superficially similar to some of these. No, those statements were not even remotely close to communicating the same things.

And "dogwhistles" are not about superficial similarity. If you learn about 'homesteading' as a white supremacist fantasy being a thing, and you jump onto a post talking about growing native species like "Oh look I've found a fascist dogwhistle!" You've misunderstood the assignment.

Hello! Thanks for the quick response. Sorry that the link didn't seem to work. If you're still interested, the YouTube video is titled: "When Art Becomes an Obligation: a Critique of Fire Emblem Engage"

Thanks. So I did watched the video and thanks for asking my point of view.

Under the cut

I must say they do make good arguments and I found their retelling interesting. I appreciate that someone tried to voice what they dislike in Engage. That she also never used 3H as an example. And what she did around Lumera's death. I was impressed by how they took this scene to make it the center of the story.

However, when it comes to the critique itself, there are point were I agree, but I disagree with her on a whole. Allow me to explain.

First thing ... the summary she made is full of mistakes. She said that Alear learned from Lumera they were a Divine dragon when it's from Vander, said we "get rewarded with 2 rings" when in reality Alear and co have to get the second one from Bandits, forgot to mention that Alear in chapter 10 commited a grave strategical mistake and didn't knew Sombron was in until Marth warned them etc.

I agree that " a simple story that isn't mean to be taken seriously" is a bad argument to defend Engage... because it's literaly showing an insecure fan not capable of handling this sort of criticism even though a deep reading into the game story can give any fan actual arguments to answer to video essays like the one you quote me. So I'll try my best to stay as polite as possible.

So about Showing and not telling in Engage.... it's false but I'll come back on this as I actually express my point of view on them thinking the story just tell us that Alear is scared/coward and not showing. I also have a problem with her quoting how Nintendo had to intervene with Alear's writing subduing their fear and not taking that as an important piece of info because it is. It is. Anyway, currtently. Her first example is the first scene were we fight the Corrupted with the famous "let's run". I agree that this scene is weak because it was played for laugh rather then treating what turns out to be a deep trauma for what it is. The manga does a better job at showing Alear's fears and cowardice.

game :

Manga :

However, in both manga and game Alear "bravely fight the Corrupted anyway" because.. what did you wanted Alear to do ? Framme and Clanne were in danger. At the begining of the game, Framme has weaker stats then Clanne and he lost his weapon. Vander would not have been able to save them alone. The map cinematic shows Alear rejoining Vander, meaning that unlike Vander who was already on the map, Alear was left behind and decide to join them. Vander even warn them. In the manga too, despite being literaly to the point of fainting and being dragged by followers of Lumera to safety, Alear still fight to help a little girl that would have been killed by the Corrupted. With the difference that in the manga he gets his as beaten up. And in the game, it's a regular fight. I do think that maybe having added a dialogue of injuried Alear to remind us that they were asleep and thus weaker could have intensified the scene but calling it a contrivance when it was Alear having to put up a face to help people in need is... not a good arguments at all.

Also "if it was a side of his character, we would see him fail at least one at being brave"... while SHOWING clips of Chapter 10... you know chapter 10 ? That one time where Alear committed a GRAVE mistake ? Yes... this one time. That's WHY I disagree so strongly and have a bit of a problem taking this entire critique seriously. This is where Alear learns a lesson. Because this entire thing was a disaster and it's surprising she missed that when the entire Internet made fun of Alear's reaction. For context, Alear did not listen to Marth's advice and went into the Cathedral too confident. What happened ? Not only do they fail to save King Morion, but Veyle managed to steal their rings. ALL OF THEM. They lost all of their rings, and it's been shown multiple times that Alear is stronger with the Emblem, that's even what is giving them courage. In that scene, Alear is livid. They are literally having a mental breakdown. I though they were going to break into tears. And that's no wonder : Sombron literaly had half of the necessary ring to have his plan fufilled and Sombron is a threat to this world. Imagine that the big villain just managed to steal all the mac guffin you spend hours collecting and that are half the ammount of the number necessary to destroy the world. And I am surprised she did not realized how much of a mistake this was considering that the following maps without Emblems rings are brutal. I still recal that map in chapter 11, that was painful. And this shows that the gameplay took this incident seriously because it is. It's also on this occassion that Alear learns that while they do have to put a face and being brave, there is limit to being brave since it can lead to disaster like that. Lyn and Lucina even have a talk with Alear where Alear says that Lumera taught them to never run away, and Lyn and Lucina teach Alear there is a difference between running away in front of the enemy and retreating. That shows that Alear has consequences and does makes terrible mistakes and they do try to grow on it because, gets what ? Several maps later, when they return to Elusia... they say the EXACT same words Marth told them before the Cathedral flop. In chapter 20. The same words that Alear took lightly in chapter 10, they are now the one saying them, 10 chapters later. If that is not learning from a grave mistake, I don't know what it is. You can argue however you want that the game did not insisted enough on this, fact is that it is still there.

And again, this point is about Alear not growing. They do grow and they are actually failing at being mature once they lost the rings.

Moreover, speaking of Alear being scared of the Corrupted, the reason why it comes often is because of Alear's trauma. She herself acknowledge later in the video that Alear has a subconsious memory, and that's it. It's when playing the chapter 24 that we learn why Alear was so scared of the Corrupted and it's indeed shown. People will say "it's a support conversation and it's told" but no. Support conversation in Fire emblem are part of the storytelling and characterization. Alear and Diamant support. I have to say it but show don't tell in media doesn't manifest itself the same way depending on which media. The difference between the manga and the game is speaking on that. In a video game like Fire Emblem, you have to use dialogue and rely on the voice acting, whle keeping in mind that most of the earlier game were NOT FULLY VOICED leaving it to the dialogue to show. And yes, you can show through dialogue. How do you show that someone is scared ? easy, have them scream for help and run away. Which is what Alear did in the C support with Diamant.

Besides, when bringing up the Diamant and Alear support.... did she not realize it was precisely about how Alear doesn''t show sign of fear on the battlefield and that they explained to Diamant they mentally prepare themselves for it hence why it doesn't show ? The first moment of the story were about establishing that Alear is scared of the Corrupted, there are tons of dialogue about it. But in the rest of the story this support shows that Alear is actually pushing themselves in order to be able to fight as the Divine dragon to honor the promise they made with Lumera. Take it as this. Imagine you are very tired but you have a big essays to write. Even if you are tired, you are going to pull yourself along and write it. Alear does the same : even though they are scared, they push themselves so that they can actually help others as expected of them.

That side of them also appears in the cutscene, in the Veyle introduction, Alear was paralyzed by a Corrupted surprised attack and was getting on their guard when Veyle helped them. When they meet Lumera's creature, their first reaction is to scream "The Corrupted" indicating fear. I get that having Alear only says that they are scared doesnt give the impression that they show this but in Fire Emblem that's how things are. Cutscene and CG art are precious ressources that have to be used cleverly, they cannot do this for the entire game. The only ressort is to tell or to show through telling. Another problem is that they don't seem to take into account Alear's past live as a Fell child and while I get it due to Alear not regaining their entire memory... it still not a good arguments since Alear's body still remember the Corrupted. In fact, the music theme for the Corrupted being this unsettling and threatning is showing how Alear feals facing them. What's more, Alear's "cowardice" is even more striking when you compare their attitude to Veyle's. veyle openly defy Sombron many times and even fight the Corrupted. Alear was so emotionally broken that they could not defy Sombron. At all. Until they meet Lumera. They are also the only Fell child to fear them. Veyle fight them no problem. Rafal can make hundred of those and Nel even have them as a snack. Alear however ? They are scared to death.

Also, Timera in chapter 15 teases Alear with the story of the woman that talks in the ruin and they are so scared they don't even think "oh ! it must be the Emblem ring" instead they say "You did not needed to make sounds so real !!" indicating they were scared.

She also showed clips of Alear and Veyle's drama in chapter 15 and insist that Alear doesnt learn anything ? Really ? The one chapter where the player as the impression that Alear learns from their mistakes of having trust Veyle ? Because it is a character growth moment. Alear used to bound with Veyle, then they discover she is their mother's murderer, and the anger is vissible on their face which is a rare occassion fo the regualr model looking good for once and not bland. That's also a moment striking into the Veyle conflict since it reminds us that Alear has complicated feeling for Veyle when in chapter 17, they learn that she was manipulated and with the xenologue out, this makes the whole Rafal deal worse when you know that the xenologue is implied to take place somewhere after chapter 17. Yes, no.

I'll give you a bright example of the game showing and not telling and using telling as a form of showing. Past Alear. When we meet them in chapter 24, and in the jpn version, Past Alear speaks in hiragana. This is a speech used by child character. In the Fell xenologue, Young Nil and Nel speaks in hiragana too. They are like 10. Past Alear, a 17 year old teenager, speaks like they are 10. While delivering the lines emotionlessly, it creates an unsettling feeling as the hiragana makes them even more devoided of emotion but implies that Alear's mind is broken and was broken to a young state. When they meet our Alear, they mentioned their dead siblings. Past Alear knowing how each one died is a proof that they SAW their siblings dying and the fact they have the same speeches as a 10 year old child indicates it must have happened when they were very young and that it's the moment they got broken. Compare this to the cutscene in chapter 21-22. Alear greats Lumera with a bright smile, their voice is full of expression, their tone is tender, their eyes are sparkling, here the use of the hiragana shows Alear as the innocent child that was hidden behind the cold facaed they put. As a matter of fact, Alear was always forced into the story as well to put a facade since they had to help Alfred without having had the time to properly mourn her. In fact, they kept their head lowered until Alfred said something that caught their attention, if you recall. And it's also this one scene that is used to show how much Lumera was important to Alear, that makes the tears of chapter 3 make sense. Similarily, the fear of the Corrupted makes sense when you unlock chapter 24 (sadly). This is also what makes Alear accepting to become a Corrupted to safe the world striking. It's when you learn about that in chapter 24 that this decision in chapter 22 becomes, in retrospective, a sign of growth and a major character developpement on Alear's part. I don't care if someone goes "but they were amnesica so it doesn't count'. IT. DOES. Alear's past live is part of them, that's why in the game it's explored unlike Robin whose past live did not mattered compared to the new identity they forged. That's something that cannot be ignored when speaking of Alear. That's why they remain with red hair and red eyes. Their past is still an important part of their identity. Heck if chapter 24 occurs after the reviving as a Corrupted and Emblem it's for us and Alear to realize how far they have come by literaly seeing how they were before.

As for the Sombron child conflict, it's not resolved right on the spot. What ? I am not sure what she mean exactly but let's put thing back into context. Alear spend 10 chapter struggling to find rings and try to be worth as Divine dragon to honor Lumera and protect the world despite being amnesiac and a scared cat that is afraid of ghost stories. Alfred told them that they finally seemed to have achieved what they were looking for. They are confident and then what happens ? Griss bombed them with the nuke that they are Sombron's child and even provided an evidence. The invocations. And if you recall, in chapter 2, Lumera mentions that too, and her silence after that was telling as the reason why. It was a foreshadowing. REPLAYING the game 's story makes it clear that being Sombron's child was an important part of Alear's character, from the concept design to the little foreshadowing at the begining of the game. It's not there just to decoy, it was there from the START. That's why it felt like a natural progression to learn about it. As for the "yeah but it's resolved right away" yea... Alear was literaly gonna leave because they thought they were an impostor. The momen Sigurd told them they still had the power of Divine dragon, they face got lighted up like someone losing a heavy weight place on their chest. And when they ask the others if they will still follow Alear after learning the truth, all others still follows Alear but not because they are the Divine dragon unlike in the begining, but because they are Alear. And that Alear gained their trust and become what connected them, heck it's even a foreshadowing for the ring of the Connector !!!!!!

I can agree on that scene could have hit much harder but... that twist was always a thing (look at Alear's concept art, again)

Other point. The first cinematics. I repeat. In my full review, I mentionned how in this scene, Alear was fighting Sombron alone and that this was an idealized version of the same cutscene that occures later in chapter 22 with Alear fighting Sombron. @bluescreenl has observed that Alear was fighting Sombron all alone, @fayesdiary as observed that Alear's past self was stronger then our Alear because they had to rely all alone and on strengh alone to survive whereas our Alear has to gain their strengh from their allies, a strengh through bound. Past Alear live with Sombron's philosphoy vs Alear living thorugh their own philosophy. This cause Past Alear to commit a terrible mistake that would have taken their live. Whereas our Alear thorught the power of bound, becomes stronger then relying on strengh alone, and defeat Sombron successfully this time. I honestly think that the DLC shows this too since IsekaiAlear committed the same mistake as Past Alear, in a world where they died and could not come back. The tutorial fight is meant to parallel with the boss final fight with Alear fighting alone with Marth vs Alear fighting with all their friends and allies. This shows that Alear has learn the meaning of strengh through bound being stronger then strengh alone and the fact that this resonated through the gameplay yet that not once this video seems to adress it and is a missed opportunity.

Also, I know she jokes about not knowing why Zephia helped Alear and Veyle... she was joking right ? Zephia told Griss why she did it... to get back at Lord Sombron....that's it. Zephia also never "dropped the nuke" that she can control time. She nevers says what is the power of the crystal she gave Alear and Veyle. Just that it would help them get to the shard. It's only in playing chapter 24 of the hell that we discover that our teams traveled back 1 000 ago. That is inaccurate. She also did not seemed to realize that there is a difference between Hortensia's mind manipulation and Veyle's. Hortensia manipulated has no agency, deprived of her own free will. In Mauvier and Rosado's support, Mauvier reveals that the follower of Sombron would ressort to brainwashing, and in Hortensia's case, she is just using that technique. Veyle however, is victim of a spell that is amplifying her dragonic pulse in order to create a "fitting personality" for her since her current personality makes her disobeying Sombron. The difference lies into the fact that Veyle is meant to be used on a long term whereas Hortensia was momentary. From what is said about that spell when it comes to Veyle is that those dragonic impulse are from her Mage dragon side as Veyle is part mage dragon and that Zelestia and Mauvier's support revealed that Zephia destroyed her home because of her dragonic impulse being too poweful, like Veyle, and Zephia claim that she is using part of Sombron's power in chapter 17 to achieve this result. I do think that if the game could have explained a bit more the magic Zephia used, it would be more clear however there is no occasion plot wise to do that since Zephia never joins our part and that Zelestia's magic is weak... oh boi is it weak. She also acts like she doesn't know the difference between time rewind and time travel. To put it short, Time rewind is the same power as Byleth's Divine impulse and in Engage too, it is limited whereas Time travel allows the person's body to travel too and that' where the whole past double thing come in play. Why would Zephia use it knowing that even if she time traveled, she would still be bleeding ? To warn her past double while dying on the spot ? Moreover, it's obvious that Zephia wanted to die since to quote Griss, she could have turned her back on Sombron sooner but she did not, she choose to give up on her life and to die here since she would not have her baby, and therfore the undeying love and how am I suppose to take this seriously when it's yet another person that thinks Zephia is being redeemed here ? Her death scene insist on how she messed up and Alear and Veyle are not here which is pointed out so how am I supposed to think Zephia is being redeemed just because she realize she had the family she dreamed of right under her nose ? God, it's fire emblem. Only when it turns out that the female villain was brainwashed and manipulated and end up shoehorning her way into joining your party can you say they are being redeemed.

Also, it's from there that the "why didn't Alear killed Sombron criticism" comes from and many others bad takes !!! Well, because if Alear kills Sombron then their past self will never meet Lumera and therefore Alear will never become a Divine/Fell dragon hybrid and therfore our Alear will disappear nullifying the entire story ? Isn't that chanigng too much of history ??? No just me ?? Never heard of time paradox ?! ok.

Just saying : the entire reason why Awakening, other FE title that involved time travel had to rely on the multiverse was because they knew that logical conclusion of the grandfather paradox : Lucina and friends killing Grima would result in the destruction of their future and lead them to disappear because butterfly effect (lucina's animal spirit). Other example in Pandora Hearts, the hero have to stop the main antagonist from going back in time and changing one event else it will rewrite the entirety of history.

Well anyway, while I hate time loops and I hate that it's how they explained Alear and Lumera's meeting, Alear killing Sombron in going back in time is actually dumb since they would erase their current existence in the process seeing how changing past rewrites future. Besides that's completely useless to kill him in the past since Sombron is supposed to be killed in the past either way and is brough back to life at the begining of the game! So all it would cause is Alear to destroy their own past while Sombron would still come back to life later on !

On the Sombron bringing back Gradlon, i had to ask myself the question so I replayed the game and... yeah, he needed it to open the portals to other world.

Throwing the Emblems ... are you kidding me ? Sombron killed Alear, the only person that could summon Emblems to purge them of the evil power. Sombron also think her absorbed all of the Emblem power since no one knew that they had the Miracle power even though the game foreshadowed it and then explicitely told about it. But Sombron though he had absorbed their millenia power so once he had that, there was no utility for the rings. Alear dead, rings having no more power and then Veyle becoming evil again. Why do you think Sombron pulls a pikachu face upon seeing that not only Alear came back to life but that they became an Emblem ? That was a mistake on Sombron's part due to him being arrogant but also due to him seeing no reason to do so. He had what he wanted, Alear is dead and Veyle would get rid of Alear's friend even if Sombron still tasked Zephia, a guardian and a barried just in case.... but clearly, it's not like the game proved him wrong since when Alear came back as a Corrupted, they vanish due to having lost their life energy in the process, so if it were not for the miracle, Alear would have wasted their life just to summon Emblem again and that's it... Heck, when Sombron threw them, not only did we had to summon them again while fighting Veyle's Corrupted army, but we also had to collect them since they were scattered around and that the Emblems need to be reunited on the same spot to perform the Miracle. It was reckless of Sombron, but ... if I were in his shoes, I kinda get why I would have acted the same. The fact that the scene explain itself is....*sight* this really doesn't need to be rationalize because it was obvious. Alear dead, what could humans that can't summon Emblems do with it anyway, especially when Sombron got to absorb their powers ? His only mistake was to not know that the Miracle, a secret power, would be used to save Alear and Alear had to came back so summon Emblems for them to do it anyway

She also complains about the Emblem not being summoned outside of Elyos but the game does acknowledge this ? Marth, upon hearing about 0Emblem, says that they are surprised to hear about an Emblem being summoned in another world, because of how strange it is. But that's the point. That 0 Emblem was able to do that... what's confusing exactly ? And the Alear can summon Emblem anyway is explained... Marth said that when the portal would close, Emblems would disappear. When Alear tried to summon back the Emblems, they said that the portal is still open meaning that they are still opened enough to give them the possibility to do this. Sombron even opens more portal to summon dark Emblems for the others world like... pay attention to what the game says ?

And I am being frank but when she said "I didn't knew we could drive this thing" that where I stopped taking anything from this video seriously. Vander literaly explained it. Why do you think we can return to the Somniel at any moment. Divine Dragon control the Somniel. Pay attention to what the game says please.

The putting the ring in the Somniel is a weird point. It's invalidated by the fact that Lumera mentions how this was done for centuries by Divine dragon before her, so you could say it's just a tradition that is perpetuated an was never proven to be flawed. In short, since it always worked up until the game's event, Lumera saw no reason why in particular, this year, it would turn out to be a bad idea. It's like people assuming all swans are white until they meet a black swan. Lumera wa used to it and there was no problem when the other dragons did it, so how could she expect that someone woul try to attack her ... in a surprised attack that took place at night and was the first one Lythos castle had to face, dear God....also Lumera spend like 5 minutes explaining that the castle is safe and there was peace for like 1000 years so really, why putting them in the Somniel when Lythos castle is just as safe ? Maybe you'll know that...if you didn't bragged about how her exposition dump was boring

And that's this video that is the origins of "Why doesn't Veyle ressurect Marni or other character as Corrupted huh ?" BECAUSE HAVE YOU SEEN KING MORION?! Moreover Veyle has been crystal clear that the Corrupted all ends up fading anyway. Alear fasten the process of losing life energy due to the sumoning Emblem session. If Veyle were to bring back Marni as a Corrupted, she might not last long. As a matter of fact, Sombron having to make kids rather then relying on the Corrupted alone to have solider should prove it. When they are killed, they disappear right away. If they waste too much energy, they disappear right away. She also seems to forget that the Emblems, many times, discuss about ressurecting Lumera throught the Miracle but don't agree and could not do it anyway since only after Alear proved Corrupted don't last long when they do thing that waste life energy after summoning the 12 Emblems finally reunited for the first time ever during the entire game. You could argue the DLC contradicts that but I remind you we don't know how much time gap there is between Alear's death and Alear' arrival. We don't know if the Corrupted Roylas were there for days or weeks. Even then, Rafal is more powerful then Veyle and our Sombron since he can corrupt animal. I do think trying to explain more about how the Corrupted works would help, but the part about them disapperaing when they use too much energy was stated by Veyle and Veyle even states that the Emblem summoning only fastened the process.

Also... the peak performance about Veyle is just... *sight*. Veyle can already make Corrupted in a sophisticated way yk ? That's how she is able to bring back Alear as themselves. Rafal can do so too as a matter of fact. The reason why Sombron turned Morion into a lower grade Corrupted is because he just recovered. Remember ? Half of the game, he could not move because he had to feed on blood. Once he regained full energy and with the power of Emblems, he was able to make them better then when we see him in the game and the fact I am literaly quoting the game script to type this answer is all you need to know about it. The whole dragonic pulse isn't there to explain the Corrupted, but is at the core of Veyle's storyline into accomplishing herself in what she wants to be. The Helmet isn't there to make her being at her peak perfomance, but to kill her personality permanetly. That's why she ended up in the after life, and that if she decided to give up, she would have stayed there permantely. Only her consiousness was dying, not her soul so she could fight back since there was still time. I am wondering how can you manage to miss something this obvious, and the fact it's not the only obvious thing she missed is...depressing to say the least.

"The only reason why alear died again was because he summoned all the Emblem--" NO, precisley NO. Corrupted all ends up dying again if they waste their life energy, this was establsihed by Veyle herself in this very scene. Alear summoning the Emblem only fastened the process. God.... tell me it's not true.

SO THAT IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR MOCKING ALEAR'S DENIAL IN CHAPTER 10 WITH THE VEYLE TWIST!!! Cinemasins ways of saying you ignore the context of the scene... Alear is in denial and I already explained in this post that it was a localization thing. In this scene, in jpn, Veyle speaks differently. Usual Veyle speaks in a rather immature way although she uses kanji. Evil Veyle's speech makes her sound more dignified and ressembles that of Nel and Céline. It's more obvious in japanese due to the difference in language. I repeat but how a character speak is part of characterization. I already adressed this when mentioning Marni using boku or Rafal changing prounons. And I really feel bad for M!Alear's Eng VA for being this harsly criticized when he literaly reached peak performance in chapter 10. Poor guy

AND NO WAIT IT'S THERE THAT COMES FROM THE WHY NO ONE KNOWS ALEAR ?! Oh my God... BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T WORSHIP ALEAR BUT DIVINE DRAGONS AS A WHOLE... It's been established several times. Zephia's surprise upon learning that Lumera had a child or Hortensia's dialogue... because when you learn that Alear was adopted, of course it makes sense that no one knows what they look like since they aren't a divine dragon, but a fell one and stayed asleep into the Somniel for 1 000 years. Was any member of our cast around 1 000 ago ? I don't think so. Lumera was busy watching over them as they sleep what ceremony do you want them to have ? Divine dragons are all worshipped because of their species, not because of their person. So it does makes sense that even if they don't know Alear, they would rever them anyway, because to them Alear is a divine dragon. That's it. In 3H, people have the exact same relationship to Sothis, where despite having portraits, no one knows how she looks like.. that's.. really not a good point at all, and Alear isn't even a god. Vander explained it : Dragon are revered as such because of their power but they are treated like the royalty that they are. Except people can make offering to them or pray to them and I already addressed that... The game is clear on who knew how Alear looked like and who didn't. Those who lived in Lythos and visited knows, those who didn't ignore how Alear lookd like, heck Elusian didn't even knew there were 2 Divine dragon and for good reasons. Alcryst didn't because he never went into Lythos. Firene is a pious country so both Royals would go. But in Brodia, only Diamant went to visit Alear as the First Prince. Alcryst did not. Why ? idk. The game doesn't explain why some characters did not visited, it only speficied those who had the occasion to do that and those who did not and we decuded that if they don't know Alear, they did not get to visit them. It's easier to specify which one visited into Lythos rather then the opposite because there isn't much of Engage cast who got the opportunity vs the few that could. It's likely that Alcryst was too young since Diamant said he went vist when he was a child. And also.. why does Alcryst not know what the neighboring prince looks like.. because Alfred took some time to recognize Alcryst as well ??? It's been established several times that the kingdom have little communication between each other. Alcryst and Alfred must have met like twice or thrice, it's not like they were best friends and Alfred said it was some time ago, Céline for instance said she was a child when this happen.... Why didn't Queen Eve told Alear how they look like... hm... because... who does that ? Just... this.. this argument is so ... bizare ??? Queen Eve had no idea that Alear and Alfred would took a delay and that Alcryst would get attacked by bandits and monster in the mean time but who who makes a detailled portrailed of someone who is supposed to be a guest ? Alear isn't a war prisonner or a criminal ?! Why aren't they walking with guards ?! Fire Emblemness aside, because Alfred and Alear were in allied territory, they didn't expected to be attacked by Alcryst

Also... my favorite part of the video was that she asked why Alcryst attacked them and did not checked first... while showing minutes ago a piece of dialogue of Alcryst explaining why. Because he was tensed from waiting and having crossed only bandits and beast to be honest Alcryst's reaction made more sense then people believing Alear right away when claming that they are the Divine dragon but welp, let that sink. And again, they were miles away when Alcryst shooted. And I really like how she says it's OOC of Alcryst even though many supports established that when necessary he has to act as the prince he is and knowing Alcryst, even if he did not shoot Alear (nearly) but simply asked them in a rather threatning way to identify themselves, Alcryst would have apologized anyway for having being too rude... And the next scene on the bridge, Alcryst is literaly standing against Hortensia and saying he will protect everyone

I could see on Alear's support being too repetetive but disagree with the take that because Alear is amnesiac they should not have a moral ground. Robin is all evidence needed. Amnesia is also part of memory loss, not entirely else I might ask myself why Alear can speaks. Besides some of those support takes place long after Alear already experienced quite a lot of events, such as the Hortensia one taking place after chapter 10. Great moment of grow from them. Moreover, Nel's support with Timerra (and seeing the video date, it's after the DLC so) establish as well as Zephia's dying moments that dragon due to their long live forgets stuff almost naturally. A little like us who cannot remember what happened before we were 3, and even then it's hard. Alear simply forget about what happened 1 000 ago but remained the same person, sole difference is that unlike 1 000 they are allowed to express it. About worshipp, what the game is saying... is that the character are heeds over Alear because they are a divine dragon but that they end up liking them and treating them as a friend after learning that Alear is normal because else, people would not appreciate Alear for who they are. And choosing Lindon who is the SOLE recruitable map ennemy when we know Lindon isn't happy with how Elusia become and wanted to rejoin Ivy and Hortensia to make a point is really a bad idea to so many level. It's dismissing Lindon's character. And what does that mean by "giving other character the spotlight" that already the case ?? Alear and Alfred's support shows Alfred's reckless side when it comes to helping his friends, with Framme we learn that faith is an important part of her life that helped her in sad moments, Hortensia did learn something since she genuinely thinks that cute stuff are important due to being spoiled, Citrinne is a rich kid and you even quote the one line showcasing that in the main story I...

(Slight edit on my part, but after checking ALL of Alear's support turns out that only 4 of them in reality involves worshipp. 2 if you consider that Merrin, Chloé and Citrinne acts like this with everyone)

Hnng, my head is starting to spin....

And the mercenary thing confuse me ? In their support with Yunaka didn't Alear ask them if she was a mercenary too ? Writers wat ?

Ahh, anyway, about Alear not knowing some things and knowing others, I would not blame it only on the amnesia.

I mean, when you realize that Alear was a Fell child, you might as well ask yourself if the actual reason why Alear was so ignorant about the world whereas only Fell world related things seems familiar might be that they were never taught anything in the first place. After all, Past Alear speak like a child. And Nel herself even though she comes from a different world mention several time that she isn't familiar with the humans, even in her world with comments such as in her gym session or when eating... so I don't see why I would blame it on Alear's amnesia in particular when addtional data seems to infer that Alear did not knew a lot of things even before memory loss.

Besides I don't recall us ever meeting a merc in the main story

I also have an impression that the author of the video doesn't accept the writing à rebours as a valid method of narration even though it's at the core of the thing. Bragging about Lumera's exposition being boring when it's full of foreshadowing showing the game knew it's ending and who is also an example of showing through telling is an example of that. I repeat. How a character speaks is part of showing and of their characterization. Despite the little time we have to know Lumera, she speaks and say those expostion dumping like a MOTHER so it does make me care which is why Engage is considered to have handled better the knowing mama then Fates and they are right because Mikoto got really easily forgotten when Lumera and Alear never having had to spend time together when they reunited is made more tragic by the later revelations. What happens after shows that Lumera was this important for Alear. The manga may not kill lumera but it still gave Alear a literal depression ... over a woman he doesn't know, confirming what I said about the writers intending for those moments to hit with full context. But God, for once we will agree that Lumera's first death should not be so long.

Also I haven't played Octopath Traveler 2, nor any of the series so I would not be able to give my thought but given that my searches lead me to a traditional RPG game a la Bravely Default... bad comparision. Really bad. Engage and Fire Emblem are SRPG. The gameplay is important in the story. Classic standards fire Emblem uses everthing they have to convey the story including the gameplay since the major part of FE is on the chess battlefield and not doing world hub even if Engage managed to balance it compared to 3H....brrr.... I get monastery flashback I HATE IT. But yeah, comparing game who have different gameplay is not good at all, because it's not taking into account that Units are here to expand the story to the battlefield. In my Engage analysis, I had to analyse not only support and story moments, but class choice, name of personal skills, the stats, the name of the freaking weapon and the fact that not once this video tackled on Engage's localization is also a problem, because at least THRICE I had to point out that thing that fans complained did not existed into the japanese text and just to give an example of how localization can ruin this. Rafal's weapon is Revanche, but the french localization decide to name it Vengeance even though those are different thing. Revanche is the act of giving back what someone did to you to the exact same amount by wining, for example, you lost a battle against an enemy and win against same enemy, which is part of his characterization as trying to take his revenge against the world that mocked him then against Sombron when he switched sides. Vengeance means that you are actively making someone pay for the bad that was done to a degree that is not proportional to that offense, but is more intense. For someone giving you a slap, you puch them 20 times. Which is complely missing out his character arc.

And oh boi she does mention the dream cutscense but fail to notice it is meant to parallel with the boss fight in order to show Alear's evolution ???? I... but she does say clever thing, however, it feels like she did not replay the game enough time nor tried to immerse herself into the story to get that....when the answer is just under your nose...

For the design... Well, I already shared my thoughts on it and I do wish I could redesign some but the fact that some of them do their job at communicating is even more saddening as to the design being a missed opportunity. Alfred and Celine's palette works but Celine's design isn't Fire emblem. So people are going to focus on that rather then the fact it makes sense in narrative. Like her being a princess from a rich country that has little experienence for war = rococo desgin. And impractical outfit on purpose. However, Engage does uses visual symbolism to get it's point across. Alear's story is felt in the design for Lythos vs Gradlon and in the music. For instance, I made that in one of my draft post, but the complentary between white for Lumera and Dark for Sombron also shows Alear's psyche of seeing Lumera has an angelic mother and Sombron as his worst fear and trauma.

I swear that if the author of the video had to force themselves into going through the story, I had to force myself for 4 hours (again, I watched it twice to make SURE I wouldn't miss any of her points) into hearing things that are either subjective, either blantalty showing they did not payed attention even if the last minutes about the rewriting was very refreshing but also showed that they missed some point about why some scene don't happen with Alear here or that the thematic of the game was already there...

I also have a problem with them complaining about contrivance and pointing things that aren't contrivance since game itself explains it. I can give you an example of actual plot hole in Engage. Elusia. Why did Lumera gave a ring to a country that worship her worst ennemy ? Seeing what the game says, it can only be attributed to the background of how Sombron became Gradlon's king and Elusia's deity, which is saddly never explained. That was right there, the FIRST THING I asked myself when Alfred told us about Elusia being Engage's Plegia and not ONCE DOES THIS VIDEO MENTIONS IT ??? Instead it nitcpicks stuff that can already be explained reasonably enough. And it started a trend of people repeating the thing she said without even thinking twice about it. God. And it's not even one that destroys the story since Elusia steals Byleth, Lucina and the Renais twins ring anyway, so them having other ring from the start felt just like an uncessary contradicting info.

( Edit : After checking the interviews for Engage's release turns out that it's explained Elusia got a ring because it used to worship the Divine dragon tribe)

And I am gonna be honest, as the video went on I started to doubt on their genuinety... I replayed the game enough time to knows how to answer to any of those critics because they base themselves on things that seems obvious. Sombron letting the rings because Alear is dead ? Obvious ! The game only mentioning the rare people that got to meet Alear and not those who never did because they are more of them ? Obvious ! And not even taking into account that design like Veyle and Alear are plot relevant and part of the characterization to generalize aroung the design that feels off or blatantly ignoring the music when gems like the Hound theme and the Corrupted theme exist, showing how those people feels to our character is just unbelievable.

Sorry if it took long... I really wrote all that. Thanks for asking me my thoughts. But honestly, even if Engage does need a bit of polish, there is really few thing in that video that would be relevant. It seems like there is a bad understanding of everything in the story like... saying that the dream cutscene never happened when this scene and the custscene in chapter 3 are actually 2 different vision from the same individual of the Chapter 22 scene that was cut out of it's context and seeing how the author admitted liking 3H's story, I am surprised she did not recognized that it was the same narrative tool as the main one used in 3H. I won't repeat myself. Engage is not a master piece, it has flaws, a clumsy writing, and a lot of things that need poilishing but really, no ammount of video critique will manage to convice me into thinking that this story is SO bad when it's at worst, mediocre and I strees that I mean it as in generic. Really. And probably too generic to be this bad.

Engage's story can be improved but every story can.

And also, there is nothing wrong with liking a game whose story is bad. I like Fates and sheet on it's story everyday. Same with Awakening and I did the same with Engage but there is no denying Engage does a better job at telling it's story then the last game we had and as more assets to it. I'll go deeper into all of this but I already made a too long answer for tumblr standards and I could still do it later or already did it in my previous posts. I am not even trying to say Engage is a well written*pasterpiece, because it's not... but it still does a good job a telling it's stories and is funnier to analyze.

But you should not feel ashamed of liking the game just because some people will make a point into explaining why they dislike it and other people enjoyed its story too. Anyway, I hope I did not sounded rude towards the author of the video (I also like to make the disclaim that i am a ESL so I might have expressed myself in a clusmy way) but there is just too many elements that feels like a superificial reading into the story and as someone who always ends up making deep dive into Engage trust me...there is reason why I named it "Fire Emblem Emotional damage" and even if it's a silly looking game with heavy handed writing at some parts, I loved it and enjoyed it's story a lot and I'll always maintain it's actually much deeper and passionate then this "obligation" nonsense. You can clearly feel that were was a ton of love put into that story.

So you reblogged a post recently about how you should never give unsolicited cc on ao3 fics and I 100% agree but I want to hear your thoughts on something.

Once several months ago I read a fic where the main characters were very misogynistic and the narrative was justifying their misogyny. I went into the comments and there were a few other people who pointed out the misogyny in the work. I replied agreeing and said it was kind of uncomfortable. The author replied basically saying "don't like don't read".

Ever since then I've wondered if I was being a jerk for making that comment. Is unsolicited cc justified if the author is misogynistic? Or should I have just ignored it and moved on to a different story? I've been wanting to ask someone else for a while now but I've felt kind of guilty about it

Hey anon!!

I don’t know if I’m an authority on this topic, but I’ve actually been in similar situations, and here are my few thoughts.

1) I don’t think the rules are different when I come across stories that don’t agree with my values. And I think that criticism will still come off as rude. And I think it’s up to YOU to decide if it’s something you care about enough to not care if it’s rude or not. And if it’s something you care about then, I don’t think you need to worry about hurting that author’s feelings. It’s definitely not worth your guilt for days or longer after the fact. Like it’s a can I live with being rude? Can I live with myself for NOT saying something even if it is rude?

2) on the other hand, saying something in the comments is not really going to change anything. There’s lots of people who are prejudice in some way and that’s always going to come out in their artwork. That’s the world they live in in their head. And hearing from a stranger on the internet is not likely going to change their minds or make this person suddenly reflective and self aware.

I have learned (by making a lot of mistakes! Haha!) usually that if I’m reading a story that I don’t like because the author and I clearly have very very different values, that I’m better off just not engaging. I hit that back button. Because if I do say something, and the author responds we usually just get in a back and forth and I get all worked up and angry, and they get all worked up and angry and double down, and it’s just not worth it.

Now I have made an exception before when it felt like the writer wasn’t aware of how it was coming across, and would want to know. But even then, I don’t phrase it as criticism! I usually say something like, “omg! This is so good! I have so many feelings! I can’t believe character x didn’t respect character Y’s no!! I can’t wait for Y to kick them into the sun!” And this works because a lot of the time the author DID mean to write it that way and this comes across as me engaging with their story instead of criticizing the story! And if they didn’t intend for x to be unlikeable in that scene, well, now they know that it landed that way anyway!

I will tell you that if someone has already commented about my issue, and the author has responded defensively or reflectively, I don’t need to say anything.

It also helps me to remember that stuff I find awful is always going to exist! Always! And it being awful is not a reason for it not to exist! Because there’s someone out there who is going to find some of my stuff just as awful! (I’ve even heard from some of them!). My comments and values are not going to stop that kind of stuff from existing. I respond by creating stuff that I wish existed instead. I call that spite fic! Haha!

I also want you to know that I’ve messed up before, I’ve been rude on purpose before (usually in defense of writers, but not always), I’ve apologized for my impact before when something didn’t land as positively as intended, and I’ve not commented on stuff that I abhored before. I’ve done it all! And from that, I’ve learned how I want to engage with fic and fandom. And I have gotten to a point where I almost never comment criticism to a writer I don’t know. But it wasn’t always this way. I LEARNED that by doing it other ways and it blowing up in my face. Mistakes are awesome like that because they are the biggest opportunities to learn.

So if you take one thing from this, I hope it’s this - your guilt is not needed. If it was a mistake, learn from it and move on. But only you can decide if it was actually a mistake or not.