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mdhwrites · 8 months

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Thank you for defending Amphibia S3A!!! You don't know how many times I've had to read people saying that Anne should've had an angst arc like Luz did in TOH over what happened in True Colors. That kind of take completely ignores that a.) Anne is her own character who responds to things differently (by compartmentalizing and trying to fix what she can), b.) Amphibia was trying to preserve its essential Amphibia-ness and not become a dreary angst-fest, and c.) Luz's arc wasn't even good lol so why compare it to that? I think there are a couple story things that could've been streamlined in 3A but overall it is a perfectly good entry into Amphibia canon and it wasn't "filler" or "pointless" by any means. (P.S. I would love to hear your thoughts on Commander Anne since I also think that's a really strong episode!)🦎

Send me another ask about Commander Anne because that is one of the episode fragments in Amphibia actually dense enough for me to talk about on its own. For now, I'm actually carjacking this ask to talk about trauma reaction in fiction using Anne, Sasha, HOP POP and Luz with Hop Pop and Luz being the extremes you need to avoid and then talking about both where Anne falls and why she's so good.

Though with any discussion of this, I do actually just want to quickly mention that I did a whole teaching blog a good long while back about Fantasy Trauma and why Luz's just plain sucks. I'm not going to talk about the event here but more the reaction but I still think it's worth mentioning that fantasy trauma like what happens to these characters is a trope in and of itself.

Also, welcome Amphibia fans, I like to use asks as a way to teach and your show lets me be POSITIVE while teaching for once which is a nice change of pace... But let's start with the bad.

Or let's start with some defining. See whenever you have a major event happen in your story, there's a pendulum of reaction. On both ends of the pendulum, you have equally bad reactions to it but in different ways. Those ends where either:

A: You don't react at all. Despite the fact that the event should have had an effect on you, you're seeming to be mostly fine and yourself. It often can make the character come off as callous or stunted in some way if they just don't even seem to be needing to cope with it in someway. Stuff like Sprig focusing on being a part of the family and Polly focusing on Frobo stop them from quite getting to this extreme because they're more genuinely interacting with the new world they're in and their problems. Hop Pop is the problem one here but we'll get to it.

B: You ONLY react to the ONE event. The rest of the story and your character DON'T MATTER now. You are only your angst arc. This actually works well for VILLAINS because the single minded obsession and refusal of logic is actually usually useful for justifying them going to such extremes. The problem comes when a character should theoretically know better, the level of reaction is unwarranted or you can point out that they're just wangsting (whine/angsting) because they have sunshine and rainbows around them they're blatantly ignoring. This is Luz's side of the problem.

This is technically an Amphibia ask though so let's start with Hop Pop. For some very, very minor proof I'm not a contrarian: Hollywood Hop Pop is easily the worst half episode in S3A. There's something to be said about there being about two episodes before the mid-season finale that are kind of janky. The problem isn't just with Hollywood Hop Pop.

Hop Pop has a lot of internal issues with danger, change and worry. A new world should panic him in some way. This is actually the greatest sin of Hollywood Hop Pop because the lesson from that one feels at best like an over correction to... The majority of S2A's characterization of Hop Pop. Similarly goes to him just enjoying being a house guest. Even if yes, this is his adopted daughter, he should have an episode segment dedicated to being worried about the new world they're in, trying to protect Polly and Spring, etc. like that, especially since his old world just turned inside out. SOME sort of reaction would be warranted... And we don't get it.

Instead we get him being overly trusting and thus getting scammed, his stuff about making the Boonchuys hating him is good but it's entirely disconnected from the trauma you would expect of the character and then he honestly takes the BIGGEST risk of them all, even using his actual name instead of a codename like Sprig does for Spider Sprig.

It genuinely feels like he is treating coming here like a vacation, not helped by that explicitly being a part of one of his episode segments and that's bad.

So what's the good version of this side of the pendulum? Well, if this side represents underselling the reaction to trauma, the good version is subtlety and that's what we get with Anne and it's done really well. It mostly is in the first couple episodes in S3A when the wounds are most fresh which makes sense. As she processes it privately, she can return more and more to who she was.

The biggest thing here is that Anne is overloading herself. She is burning out from the second Andrias stabs Marcy. Not even once she's home, but even by the final trauma having just been overloaded. She's 13 after all. 15 if you want to go off of what seems to have been the original intent for her and the rumors that Disney forced the trio to be younger.

A 13 year old CAN handle death. They CAN'T handle seeing one of their BEST FRIENDS die and the other one likely doing so too, let alone right after she assumed her third best friend also died, even if he didn't. True Colors is a TIME for Anne. Anne is a very simple girl after all. Stakes like these are not what she is capable of even processing at that point. She's never seen anything that bad.

And her trying to recap and summarize it shows it EXPERTLY. Even trying to actually think about what just happened tires her out and has her constantly having to correct herself because she doesn't want to admit that not only is she powerless, it's also too much for her to handle on her own. And that's WITHOUT acknowledging the high probability of her friends being dead, something that was on her mind since her reaction to seeing Sasha is disbelief/relief that she's ALIVE.

Then there's the other elements where Anne is the one pushing research the hardest, the fact that she's brushing other things off to find answers that will make her less powerless, her protectiveness of those around her and then yeah, the one episode segment that has her burnt out and dead tired because she's working herself to the bone.

And this is all in character with Anne's arc. She's grown to do things. To want to help. To not just coast through life and just as she was getting used to the idea of that... She now can't do anything. So we see her doing what she can which is just not a lot.

Alright, let's move on to the other side of the pendulum though. I often talk about Luz in the second half of The Owl House as "In her angst arc" because that's how it feels. She may as well have put on a dark brown hoodie, flattened her hair and declared everything sucked. None of her optimism, none of her enthusiasm, little of her care and complete distrust of EVERYONE.

OH WAIT THEY DID THAT! They made her as close to her BETA design for S3 Ep1 as possible to finish out that miserable attitude for her. And I'm not going to say all of it is unwarranted. Just like Hop Pop caring about being a good house guest is in character, Luz getting more serious to match the stakes of the show is theoretically a good thing. It needed more of a real transition (Hi Commander Anne as a good example of this) but there is a nugget of a good concept in it.

One that's stabbed repeatedly by never letting it end or be affected by anything. Stuff she'll say to Eda and King she will act like will kill her if she tells literally anyone else no matter how much more justified it is for her to be honest to them, she CONSTANTLY lies to the point where she breaks her word several times and part of why Amity theoretically likes her is just GONE and then we get the theoretical conclusion to it which is "I want to be understood."

When the fuck haven't you been? This is the true crime of this side of the pendulum. Part of the reaction requires the character to entirely forget and actively ignore the actions around her. Those friends who have constantly forgiven you and backed you up? Didn't understand. That supposed found family who constantly told you you weren't at fault and to take care of yourself? Didn't understand. Your mom, who supported your interested until you backed her into a corner by accidentally assaulting people, including your principal, with wild animals? Never. Understood. You.

And even then, she still doesn't break out of it after the first TWO times in S3 where she is forgiven and she makes a statement about moving on. She just throws a dreamstate pity party and doubts herself until GOD tells her she has never done anything wrong in her life.

It's too long, the resolutions are too contrite or eye rolling for the amount of time and pain spent with it and they also rarely have anything to actually do with the trauma itself. It feels like the character is reacting to something BAD rather than something SPECIFIC which robs it of its bite just as badly as not reacting to it at all. And that's if it even feels like the character and Luz in the second half of TOH, especially S3, just doesn't feel like Luz. Period.

You know who does feel like herself? Sasha. By the time S3B comes around, she's had to deal with too much to really still be dealing with the trauma (and she still is to some extent with her constantly worrying about her relationship with Anne, obsession with second chances, etc. like that but that's more rounding out her arc to me) so it's really just her one segment in S3A that needs to be examined.

Except we actually have to roll back first. All the way back to Reunion. Sasha's reaction to this all starts with the end of Reunion. That moment when, just for a second, she decides Anne is worth more than herself. That "maybe you'd be better off without me," and letting go. S2 handles the fact that Sasha dying actually made a REALLY bad inner conflict for her, let alone once news of Marcy being fine without her too got to her, but that's the fun of character arcs. They SHOULDN'T be a smooth curve. *coughs at Amity and Hunter*

Keeping on track though, we have Sasha not only facing the end of her at her most powerful but also the potential end of her friendships. She betrayed Anne again and while they fought together, that was for survival, where are they now? Worse yet, Marcy almost died in front of her and she was POWERLESS. All that talk of trying to do things so they all could be happy, that she knew best... It was all ash.

So she at first doesn't know what she's doing. She emotional and ready to lash out but she doesn't know what her target is. She just knows part of it is her fault and unlike in S2, she can't ignore it now. It haunts her until Anne shows Sasha what having been a good friend could have gotten her. What they could have been.

And so now, it's time to make good on her word. To become a protector and try to see a bit more in people than she assumes. This is ALL a reaction to True Colors primarily. It is addressing it all VERY bluntly minus Marcy's lie (I have complicated feelings on Marcy at this point) but it's still working within the frame of the character. This is still Sasha and we know enough about her to genuinely follow her train of thought while also getting to enjoy the character we have grown attached to. She isn't gone... But she's changing and if this side of the pendulum represents replacement as its bad extreme, change and introspection like what Sasha goes through is the good medium ground.

I want to finish this by saying that you CAN use the extremes well. Someone reacting to a teammate's death with indifference can genuinely turn a character who seemed a little cold to being seen as callous or like they believe the ends justify the means, no matter the sacrifice. Someone letting an event consume them can actually be a great start to an arc where the point is to criticize their reaction, instead of trying to invoke sympathy through it. That they are going too far and letting this be too much of who they and they need to find balance. They need to properly introspect. These are not hard rules by any means but there is a spectrum. A pendulum.

And as always, the best thing a writer can do is recognize where on that pendulum they're writing and use it as best as they can.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #luz #amphibia critical #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #hop pop plantar

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yutaleks · 1 month

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i have a genuine question, this is just pure curiosity, no judgement lol

what's the appeal behind incest? :o also i'm assuming it's specific kind of incest, like sibling x sibling, and not parent x child??

i mean i know it's a kink so maybe there's no explanation, i'm just curious xD it's totally fine if you (or others) don't wanna answer ofc!!

well your assumption is incorrect LMAO I’ve written and read parent/child incest fics just as often as sibling/sibling. Familial relationships have different contexts and implications, not limited to just sibling/sibling.

I don’t necessarily think any kind of kink has to be appealing in order to have the right to exist, so I don’t think trying to justify it will actually mean anything or give it any kind of standing that it doesn’t already have. If that makes sense. Like you don’t necessarily have to understand it to make it any more or less of a valid thing to read or write about.

That aside, I can tell you personally what I feel gives it appeal to me:

Sibling/sibling:

It is a balance of a relationship that is inherently taboo but the characters feeling so much for each other that they overcome that hesitation and go for it anyway. Like a “despite all odds” taken to an extreme. A level of devotion and kinship that not only transcends physicality (the two characters are blood related, made from the same flesh and bone. So to speak) but also morality (despite inherently how “wrong” it is for them both to be together, they don’t care).

Taking away the “incest” and looking at it strictly from those two reasons (a character who is cut from the same cloth, who loves me above all and against all odds) I think it is psychologically some form of self-love and acceptance that you cannot achieve by thinking of the character as a random stranger. I’m not a psychologist so idk if that makes sense, but I think to me it fulfills this basic desire: two people who are made of the same flesh finding themselves desirable.

Like irl i hate myself right. But like. Someone who came from the same flesh as me. Who lives the same life as me. They are lovable. And they love me. Does that make sense? I’m saying this as love not as something sexual btw. I’ll touch more on this later.

And I have to tack on that even in the cases of step-siblings/adopted siblings or “pseudocest” as some people call it, I still think the same logic applies. It’s still incestuous. Blood or not, you’re still in the same familial “role” in which you are designated to be siblings. The “kink” still exists in the very same fashion, in which you treat each other as siblings or are raised as siblings. The same makings of a blood-related siblings fic exist in a “psuedocest” fic so if you’re running circles trying to make up some difference between the two, you perhaps are just making excuses to yourself lol. Because the fics are exactly the same, minus the “they aren’t actually related” disclaimer. lol

A sibling/sibling relationship (blood or “pseudo”), if done in a manner which is more closely paired to real life instances of incest, will probably feature abusive or abhorrent situations for the involved characters. That is the nature of incestuous relationships in real life. It is probably a different topic entirely on the appeal of fiction which depicts abusive or traumatic incidents but thats for another post I think. Just as with incest itself I don’t think anyone needs a reason to justify why they would want to read traumatic/horrific situations in fiction and I don’t think there is any correlation between this and personal morals/values but yeah. Anyway

Parent/child:

I think in the case of parent/child usually that kind of relationship is paired with an insane amount of trauma. Something like that would not occur without either something terrible happening, or abuse happening. And again I don’t think anyone needs to justify why they enjoy those tropes in fiction.

I do think there is more of an element of gender roles in a parent/child incest fic vs a sibling/sibling scenario. A fic which is father/daughter is going to be entirely different from father/son or mother/son, mother/daughter. Each one of those has different psychological implications, I feel like. Because the role of “mother” “father” “son” “daughter” all have ingrained societal roles that we are typically expected to follow.

I think when you read a fic which features parent/child incest, there’s a LOT happening psychologically between the characters. It’s usually subversive of what typical nuclear family roles are, in ways that inspire disgust in readers. Like the role of “son” typically has such a barrier from the role of “father” than when the son steps in and takes the role of father (being his mothers sexual or romantic partner) it typically makes people very uncomfortable. And even within the fic one party of the relationship may be uncomfortable.

Some readers perhaps find appeal in that exact feeling of being uncomfortable—the same way you squirm in your seat at a horror movie or when things are unnatural to you. Do you ask people why they enjoy horror movies or why they enjoy murder mysteries? The things that happen there are unnatural as well, and inspire feelings of disgust, but it is because incest is an affront to nature and the gender/familiar roles that are so ingrained in us? Is it because the thought of your father or mother taking on the role of your lover disgusts you? Why? I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but I’m asking you to think about why they do?

Like I’ve written personally many fics of the sibling/sibling variety. But I’ve only ever once written mother/son and once have written father/daughter. And I find it intresting how different the responses are to those. People are very disgusted by parent/child incest in ways that they are not disgusted by sibling/sibling incest. And I wonder why. Deep down they are all immoral. What is it about parent/child that pulls out the most abhorrent disgust from readers? Anyway. I find that reaction just as intresting as the trope itself. Like what does it say about the human psyche that we have such reverence of the relationship to our parents. Is it because I personally do not have such strong feelings about my parents that I don’t feel particularly strongly about parent/child vs sibling/sibling?

I don’t think I know enough about psychology to offer an answer to that question. But I find all aspects of the parent/child topic fascinating. I think maybe because I particularly feel very unloved by my parents that I also find a scenario in which parents feel so strongly for their children to be different to me. I personally grew up in an environment where my mother openly told me many times how much she hated me and how I ruined her life. And my father never said anything to me at all to really indicate that he felt differently. So in particular when I come across fics in which parents want to have a relationship with their child it feels very foreign to me. I think I approach it wanting to understand it or wanting to feel wanted? Not the sexual aspect of it obviously (put down the keyboard, morality police). I think there is a difference between reading a fic with the desire of being wanted as a person vs reading for sexual gratification. NOT THAT ONE IS ABOVE THE OTHER. It’s perfectly fine to feel sexual gratification from reading immoral fiction. But I don’t actually get sexual gratification from reading smut fics, it (For Me) is about being desirable above morals and above what is acceptable in real life.

I think there is an entire different conversation to be had about why people cannot see the distinction between love and sexual desire. I know what you’re thinking reading this: but aleks, the incest fics you read and write have sex in them, so wtf are you talking about? Well. When I read a fanfic that feature incest I usually do not care for “porn without plot” fics. I think incest fiction and pwp do not go together very well. Like I said earlier, incest is usually the product of trauma or abusive scenarios, or unhealthy/unestablished familial roles. These things take time to build up in a fic, and require backstory. In order for an incest fic to reach the point where the two characters will engage in romance, there will have to be backstory to justify why they love or want each other. And this comes before the sexual part. I think, for me, that is where the appeal of an incest fic lies. In that part of the story where they take a “bad” relationship (estranged relatives, or abusive situations, or traumatic situations) and then sort of “fill it” with love/nurturing/etc in the culmination or romantic feelings/feeling of admiration. Idk if I’m getting my point across. But the base need of “fixing” a bad situation with romantic love is what I’m talking about here, not about “fixing” the bad relationship with sex. To me sex is the product of a romantic relationship or feelings of desire, not the product of the damaged relationship itself. Does that make sense?

Anyway. In my mind the smut is not the cause of the incestuous relationship, but the feelings of attraction/desire are.

Incest kink in situations where they aren’t actually related:

This does not pop up as often in fiction explicitly. but I think this version of the incest kink is actually hands down the most intresting to me. I think it is hard to do in a fic so it is not done often. But I think someone who is a stranger doing a roleplay, or taking on functionally the role of a relative, I think that is like… a dynamic I want to study under a microscope. Something about being nurtured and loved by a stranger in a way that you were missing from a relative or on purpose to enact a sexually gratifying taboo… phew.

I haven’t posted it yet but I do have one part of the series I’m working on where the character will choose to pretend to take on the role of your brother. And there’s a reason for that, given earlier in the story. It is to fill in a role that you find lacking. I think it’s intresting to think about…

I think this may in some ways link to more popular kinks like mommy kinks or daddy kinks (WHEN THEY ARE DONE WITH NUANCE/when it is less about the spoken “mommy” or “daddy” and more about the ROLE of “mommy” or “daddy”) because that is a person taking on a role that may have not been done “correctly” the first time. What I mean by that is, putting it simply, like when someone says they have “daddy issues” so they look towards a fatherly partner who, unspokenly, or maybe even spokenly and more obviously, takes on a fatherly role in their personal life (does things for them that are typically reserved for the familial role of a father). Same for someone with “mommy issues” who looks towards a nurturing partner who “mothers” them. This is probably not what you think of when you think of incest kink, but I think in some ways the tropes are the same. I think a lot of this is to fill a role that was not done correctly during the child-rearing portion of your life, and you look to self-soothing through these dynamics in adulthood. Or something to that effect. (This is my own thinking of it and not psychological advice or fact LOL)

Anyway.

TLDR: I think for me a lot of these incestuous dynamics fulfill a need for me that I did not have as a result of various traumatic circumstances that don’t need explanation. I personally have never really found sexual gratification in fanfiction (aka I don’t “get off” to it, but more like, it stimulates/fulfills this inherent desire to be wanted). Aka I should seek therapy but instead read fanfiction to cope with self loathing. 😁

But as a general rule of thumb I do not believe that people inherently need to experience trauma to find these things either appealing or at the very least intresting, or sexually gratifying. People have always been attracted to something taboo, the same way people enjoy horror or people rubberneck on the highway. Things that are “wrong” are just intresting because they are different. The mind is stimulated by things that are different to us. I don’t think it has to be any deeper than that… though in many cases it is. But it doesn’t matter. People don’t have to have a reason! Enjoy your taboo fiction or don’t if you don’t like it! Every kink is valid even if it’s not for you in particular. 😊

#wow all this to say: shrug who cares let people have fun!#but also I’m a traumatized individual and find comfort in the inherent wrongness of being desired!#nbd or anything…#HAHAHAHA #ϟ asking aleksandria #fwb anon #cw.incest #I hope all this long talk doesn’t offend you or anything I just started rambling and diving down the hole of self reflection…

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juneviews · 6 months

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Wanted to start this by saying that I usually agree with your opinions (or even when I don't, I can at least see where you're coming from) but that's not the case when it comes to your opinion on Only Friends because I completely disagree and just wanted to add my two cents. You said that it wasn't relatable to the queer community but I'm sorry, the queer community isn't a monolith, there isn't one universal way that every single queer friendship group functions. Just because it wasn't relatable to your experience, it doesn't mean that it wasn't relatable to many other queer people's experiences. For example, one of my friend groups consists of gay men and the stories they've told me (and some of which I witnessed with myself)? Not that far off from OF (aka everyone getting with everyone, behind people's backs as well, and most of them are still on friendly terms now). It's perfectly fine that you didn't personally relate but you can't say no queer person/community did.

I also saw depth to a lot of characters and I could relate to several of them in different ways and everything in the finale made sense to me for those characters. For me it achieved what it set out to do: entertain, while also make me connect/care about some of the characters. It didn't do that for everyone (you included) but please don't claim it's a "bad show" as a general statement just because you didn't get anything out of it because a lot of people did. (My friend who struggles with depression and is currently going through a depressive slump found comfort in seeing Ray progress to a point where he's much happier at the end of the series because it gives her hope that she can get to that point soon too.)

Is Only Friends a brilliant, amazing, showstopping, incredible show? No. But it's not bad, far from it. It certainly has its flaws but the sudden hate it's getting is not warranted imo.

hi, first of all, it's fine to disagree lol, though it's always a bit jarring to me when people feel the need to let me know they disagree with me bc clearly we simply have a different taste & opinion. when I share my opinion about a show, I do it on my blog but never go on others' blogs to either defend a show I liked or trash a show I didn't like, but anyways. I have NEVER, EVER said that the queer community is a monolith & that all queer representation needs to be relatable to ME. in fact, a lot of my favorite queer media are HIGHLY UN-relatable to me lol. I never implied that only friends' flaws comes from it being unrelatable or unrealistic? in fact I believe it to be realistic since it's made by queer men & has recurring topics that p'jojo especially has used in previous shows of his, especially since the story of only friends is inspired by real-life events. in fact I said that I WISH they'd have leaned into the queer community aspect of it even more bc it was the one point in which this show differentiates itself from friend zone, so yeah. don't really know where you got that notion from. secondly, like it or not, I can claim any shows I've watched are bad in my opinion. once again, media is subjective & I did not like only friends so for me it IS a bad show. is it the worst? no. did I HATE it? no. did I have a good time in front of it? also no. also from a writing standpoint I'm sorry it IS objectively bad and FAILED at what it set out to do, especially considering the show itself doesn't seem to know what it set out to do in the first place. moreover, sudden hate? I've been criticizing only friends since it started airing lol, I'm not jumping on any bandwagon, and in fact it's more so the fandom that's catching up to the fact that this show is not very good. now, I'm genuinely glad that this show helped you & your friend and that you liked it! that's great, of COURSE this show is gonna have its fans, and in fact it has a lot of them! however it seems to me as if you've taken my (justified) criticism of the show to heart for a reason that only you fully know, and I hope you can investigate why that is. I truly value you as a long time follower of mine & I hope you can agree to disagree with me on that one even though I must admit this ask seems a bit jarring & personal to me. wish you all the best :)

xxx

#answers #only friends #only friends the series

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tamelee · 9 months

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Hello Tame! 💚🧡

Something so weird just happened. I was defending SNS by saying that what people might call "toxic" about their relationship was the violent aspect of their relationship, but that in the story it was shown that there’s a reason behind Naruto and Sasuke’s violent dynamic. They’re rivals, but their rivality is portrayed as healthy. Sometimes when they fight the story shows us that it’s because they don’t know better, and that they don’t properly know how to express themselves in another way.

So, all was good, until someone commented that they agreed with me because I "understood that there were times in a story were problematic subjects were considered healthy when the story tells us it’s normal. So it’s stupid when antishippers complain about a story containing big age gape, incest or lollies when it’s said it’s normal in this story’s universe. Same thing with violence in Naruto"

I was so confused. Like, did they seriously compared Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship to inc*st and lollies??

I feel like this kind of person is just insecure with reading stories containing big age gape, inc*st, r*pe etc… So they need the story to tell them "It’s okay in my universe, so you don’t have to feel guilty about it". But Naruto doesn’t just say "Violence is good and completely normalized in my world :)". On the contrary, it tries to make the readers ask question about the violence in the story, to reflects how they can understand violence IRL. Is violence necessary? Is violence justified in some cases? Isn’t talking with your opponents instead of fighting them better?

On the other hand, I don’t see how you can make your readers ask themselves anything about stuff like lollies or p*do couples. Isn’t that obvious tha

I just don’t understand how they compared Sasuke and Naruto’s relationship to lollies and big age gape.

The story doesn’t just tell us "Naruto and Sasuke fight but who cares, in my world violence is sexy". It even shows us that Naruto and Sasuke can properly understand each other when talking with each other…

Sorry for the rant lol, I hope I didn’t bother you to much… I just needed to express all of that. Have a good day, I hope you will get better soon ❤️‍🩹

Hello Nonee! 🧡🫶

To me it sounds like that person is talking about other things entirely and it has nothing to do with ‘Naruto’. Perhaps they personally are annoyed by said ‘anti shippers’ that don’t support their preferences and experienced arguments surrounding those topics... Keep Naruto and Sasuke out of it though...

Yeah, it makes no sense to compare the Narutoverse to a story that obeys other internal rules of causality (and says certain things are okay). Those aren’t the same thing and shouldn’t be compared then. It is fine to make comparisons when it matters, but with a consistent reality like the Narutoverse (which means the Setting lets the characters interact with the world consistently like Chakra control and values) Kishimoto created discipline and is true to itself. It (story) is a metaphor to reality but not the same thing therefore you can’t really judge it all the same from a realistic standpoint... because it’s not. And if done well, an audience can absorb themselves into a character, their world and decide from their point of view what is best at any given time. Not their own.

When someone favors one character over the other they decide from that character’s perspective- that’s usually what happens and it is proven by neuroscience. With that, everyone has their own internal framing that happened before that though. (Read: they lived life.) That’s probably why that person made a connection themselves surrounding these topics even though to the rest of humanity... that doesn’t make sense :’) There are of course the people who passive-aggressively comment under everything SNS-related thing something along the lines of: “oh wow look they are soooooo cute, like brothers!! 🥰” And don’t mean it at all apart from wanting to push the brother-narrative that doesn’t exist.

Then it really isn’t a question whether something is ‘healthy/normal’ or not unless that was the story's intention, but whether a character’s next course of action makes sense, is believable and is something that is supported. Tbh, it is up to the creator to make its world as believable as possible. Combine 'Naruto' with its heavy Shonen-framing where actually the most violent things like child-trafficking, human-testing and mass-murder get glossed over... did any of you remember the thousands of people who died during that first day of war? Or are we all focussed on Neji only? (That’s fair. And makes sense but is not realistic.)

What did get challenged in ‘Naruto’ over and over again, as you say too, is whether violence was necessary and how do we overcome these struggles? (Shinobi society.) Indeed, what is justified and accepted in that world/what is not? Naruto’s entire quest later is to find ‘peace’ because of it and so is Sasuke. He doesn’t even know how but he tries his best, Sasuke has a plan but it requires sacrifce. Naruto and Sasuke weren’t going to figure anything out by sharing a lemonade and trauma’s on a sunny day and negotiate their intentions moving forward. That’s out of character and doesn’t fit the world. You’ll have to look at the emotional aspect of it and their (Naruto/Sasuke’s) battles always are emotional first. And these emotions are just as, if not more, prominent than the physical battle. Because it matters why they fight.

“On the other hand, I don’t see how you can make your readers ask themselves anything about stuff like lollies or p*do couples. Isn’t that obvious tha”

Did this get cut off :(?

Anyway, that is indeed weird, I’m sorry you had to experience that :’) thankyou for sharing though 🧡 and the health-wish! I hope it’ll get better soon too and that you are also! Have a nice day too 💕

#asktamelee #naruto talk #fandom talk

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licncourt · 1 year

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Ok I really need to know how you would make an IWTV movie adaption in 2023

“I’ll explain how I would make a iwtv 2023 movie” all your meta and fics slaps so yes please lol

Okay so. I have a couple different options here based on the desired approach, both of which I personally like. Disclaimer that some of this stuff was already done by the movie and/or show! It's just also what I would do.

The first thing I would want stylistically is a merging of objectivity with Louis' POV. I think it would be interesting if sometimes Louis' narration conflicts with what we're seeing on-screen. Maybe he, like in the book, doesn't explicitly admit to anything romantic between himself and Lestat, but we see them kissing and having sex, or Louis describes Lestat being cruel but when we see it it's obvious that Louis' memory has clouded the events or that he missed something that we as an audience are being shown.

For other logistics, we have a couple options I'm willing to explore. The first would be following along with the AMC casting of Louis as a black man (his personal struggles with race could run along the lines that show took in eps 1-4), but I would keep the original Antebellum setting. I think keeping him a brothel owner is fine, although I also think a storyline with him as a black slaveowner could be really interesting if done well.

The insane hypocrisy of Louis' stance on the value of human life can be highlighted in either scenario, though the slaveowner narrative pushes the Louis Exceptionalism Factor which allows him to follow along with his book counterpart in thinking he's a very special boy who is not like others of his same minority. Regardless though, I thought the show made him too self-aware. This Louis would not understand the gravity of human exploitation. As God intended.

The other option would be to keep a "book accurate" Louis and either go the brothel route or keep him as a slaveowner and really lean into his book characterization here. He very crucially is NOT framed in the simple "good" vampire light he is in the movie, but has his hypocrisy around exploitation and the value of human life highlighted. In order to go that route, he has to be definitively bad, even if he thinks he's trying to be good. He's a moral philosopher who's laughably bad at practicing what he preaches, crying about his soul being damned for all the wrong reasons.

I think this would also be a good opportunity to use vampirism as an allegory for the concept of slavery and exploitation itself, the rich and privileged subsisting off the suffering of others. Again, in order to make the slavery aspect worthwhile, it would need to be treated with care and justify its inclusion. Just tossing it in like the movie did is not it

Lestat's characterization would remain largely true to the book, but the format I talked about before could help give the audience glimpses into a more sympathetic and complex Lestat, one that's not filtered purely through Louis' anger and grief. Even things like body language and facial expressions can say so much. We still only see what Louis saw, but without his bias. I would also want a young actor playing him, something that's important for his character.

Some bullet points:

- The circumstances of Claudia’s turning are pivotal imo, so it stays true to the book, including the chronology of events (it's subtle, but the movie flips it) and the events themselves (unlike the show)

- Claudia is as close to Kirsten Dunst's performance as possible. No notes

- Louis is explicitly portrayed as gay, Lestat as bisexual

- Short and sweet Babette storyline. No more than ten minutes, just establishing Louis' sexuality and his desire to be "good" and "normal"

- Louis' religious trauma and specifically Catholic guilt are emphasized (PAUL AND PRIEST SCENE)

- Any incestuous feelings Claudia has for Louis are either left out or portrayed with more purpose and internal narrative than in the book

- Explicit parallels between Louis' desire for blood and his sexuality/between vampirism and illicit sexual desire

- A Hispanic (preferably Latino) actor plays Armand in the Antonio Banderas tradition

- Paul and the Marquis both have the same role as in the books. The Marquis in particular would be great for rounding out Lestat's character

- Emphasis on Lestat's love for Claudia!!

- Night one coffin sharing, the body horror of turning, Lestat in Paris, the priest scene, and all the weird, funny shit we meme on (dark comedy is definitely a part of IWTV) is kept in

- The vampires can fuck

- Lestat's backstory is lightly hinted at, but NOTHING definitive besides the fact that he was turned against his will (with the clear suggestion of the SA parallel)

- Antoine can be male or female. Both work I think (male pushes the idea that Lestat is feeling rejected and alone and trying to "replace" Louis to avoid more hurt. Female highlights the tension that Louis' internalized homophobia, especially with the gay vs bi dynamic and his potential insecurity there)

If I think of more to add to any of this, I'll reblog later!

#answered #vc

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herelivesahobbit · 10 months

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contemplating a 100% social media break, including Tumblr and all fanfictions I follow. lot of things going on in my personal life and the main couple of fandoms I am active on at the moment are not...reaaaaaly best suited to promoting the mental health of any person not willing to budge on the abuse-isn’t-romantic stance.

the source material itself, which I am of course unabashedly a huge fan of (otherwise i wouldn’t spend so much time talking and thinking about it lol), has several problematic aspects, but not so much that i can’t process and analyze it for what it is, keep it aside, and continue loving the show as a whole.

first of all, i have to say, a handful of beautiful people do elevate the fandom experience, using their creative skills and analytical abilities to bring out the best of canon WITHOUT glossing over the terrible aspects of it, and often creating wonderful tributes and fanfics that improve on the writing of the source material, bring out further nuances, make me understand it better. i will forever be glad to have encountered these people who made the fandom experience amazing for me. most of them are right here on tumblr. tumblr is an oasis of rationality in this fandom tbh lol.

but a lot of discourse surrounding these show/s reflects a general fan base even MORE problematic in their thinking than the OG material itself. its not just that they see no issues with the abusive/toxic aspects, but that they further glorify these via their writings, and take the time to even expand on these aspects in the fanfiction they write, read, and then defend to the death. many are also pretty toxic in the way they talk about the cast, crew, writers etc apparently forgetting that those are REAL ALIVE PEOPLE with feelings, families, and concerns of their own. the more i have gotten into some fandoms, the more I realize this type of thinking isn’t a tiny minority. might even be the majority. its really depressing to think there are so many real people in 2023 who truly think this way about traditional vs “modern” women, women’s role in marriage, abuse being justified, etc etc.

the thing is, i admit that this is fully a personal issue, its my problem more so than anybody else’s. i’ve gone through certain stressful patches in the last 1.5 years, and i always tend to latch on to a particular piece of media that happens to be totally opposite to my daily reality, as a coping mechanism. and that’s fine, except when the thing i use to escape stress itself causes even more stress then perhaps its no longer a harmless hobby. and that’s maybe starting to happen now.

i’ve had this moment with a lot of fandoms in the past, being, as i said, an unabashed fan of many things, i have delved deep into discourse and fanfic and what not with different franchises and stories, and i always recognize a time comes when i need to take a step back, bc maybe hi, im the problem its me and therefore i need to develop a thicker skin and curate my fandom experience better for my own mental health.

a total social media break would probably help with detoxing a bit and then i’ll hopefully get back with a healthier state of mind 💜

#me.txt #personal

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bourbon-ontherocks · 2 months

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Don’t really know anyone else that watches this show lol but I fell like I need to rant. Honestly “The Art of Crime” is a good show, I like how well they incorporate the art and the artist and they have an array of suspects to choose from. My only gripe is how they’re writing Antoine and Florence relationship, especially Florence.

I got that she’s quirky and she’s got issues she’s working through and I like how often she goes to therapy for that. But I have no idea why they portray her as a child when it comes to Antoine. It was bad enough when they introduced Juliette and he’s already hooking up with her at the end of the episode. But she’s still pining after him, even going so far as to wear the wedding ring, pretending she’s in a relationship with Pardo, and then twice kissing Antoine even though she knows he’s with Juliette and she saw it! I mean, it’s just so childish!

I’m sure you see it differently, how do you explain her behavior?

... Well, those season 6 links escalated quickly! 😂

Look, anon, I'm gonna be honest here and say that I don't really see your point. You're mentioning wildly different things that, even if they connect to each other on some level, have radically different causes, and I see no childishness in any.

Pining after someone isn't a childish thing to do, unless adults can control their heart and feelings now and nobody thought to inform me.

The first kiss was an undercover one. Also Juliette did the exact same thing with her target two episodes before. I don't see the issue here.

Wearing the ring was the consequence of an impulsive decision to live a fantasy just for a minute, and pretending to date Pardo the only way out of the unintended catastrophe that ensued (which, incidentally, remains one of the most hilarious trainwreck I've ever seen on TV)

And so on.

And of course, the bigger picture depicts someone with HUGE issues to address, and a chronic walking disaster, but to me it doesn't mean that Florence is a child, in fact she's a grown woman with a very adult approach to many of her relationships. It's just that in her case, her inner child (we all have one by the way) takes over a little more often than average. That she loves living in a fantasy. That she's impulsive. That she's a dreamer.

And sure, she's completely neurotic and I love that she's seeing a therapist but it's mostly because for me the only thing that's superior to the "walking disaster who should see a therapist" kind of character is the "actually sees a therapist and manages to STILL be a walking disaster" type.

Obviously you are totally entitled to your opinion on her actions, but pardon my bluntness here, I genuinely don't think The art of crime is a show for you if you're seeing it that way. And that's fine, not everything is for everyone! But the whole show is about the way reality and imagination interlace in our lives, it's about how art bleeds through real life, it's about fantasy, hell why do you think there are so many dreams/hallucinations/imaginary conversations/magical realism sequences?? The entire show is about Florence and the way she sees the world, actually, and stating "I like the show but I dislike Antoine and Florence's relationship and/or Florence's actions" sounds like a total oxymoron to me, because that's the point of the show.

Besides, it looks like you're assessing her actions according to a "real life" moral compass which sure, why not (although it's never proven itself to be a good idea), but I think this is missing the point entirely. The show is supposed to be goofy!! This is not something that should be taken seriously.

Also, this might be unintentional, but the way you phrased your ask suggests that you're asking me to justify myself for enjoying Florence's character, which is something I do not appreciate. I do not owe you anything, and frankly I have better things to do than trying to "convince" you or whatever. I'm glad that you got to rant if you needed to, but I'm not gonna write a full-length essay defending Florence's behaviour and explaining the essence of her character as I see it (in case you were wondering this was not an essay, we barely grazed the surface of the beginning here 😂).

I'm sorry that this reply probably won't meet your expectations, and I apologize if I misinterpreted some of the stuff you said in your ask, but I sincerely don't know what else to say, and I'm not interested in getting into an argument over whether Florence is childish or not.

That being said, feel free to come back anytime, and maybe I'll have more interesting insights then... 🥺

#l'art du crime #the art of crime #anon #ask #julia's adventures with the ADC anon #look when I said nature was healing new tag etc this was not what I meant lol #I seriously considered turning this ask into a love letter to Florence #but I don't have the energy rn to descend into a passionate rant about why she's acting the way she does and why I love her so much #especially not as a response to a more hostile interpretation #but hey maybe one day?

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askfallenroyalty · 2 years

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For the dark world design things, I like the sprite where they all become kids but like, did this take place earlier or they all just be like Chara and tranform into their younger self?

Because both didn't really make sense since if it's the first, the story would ended earlier and you have to redraw the arc after to make them younger which probably isn't good for uhh, time probably, or Chara thought after this adventure like, few years later after it ended which isn't realistic, if it's the latter then that mean all of them want to be younger... which probabpy isn't that unrealistic but it would make Chara's situation not unique or special to their situation or whatever, or it mean the dark world work different... which is possible actually but why would G man make a world that make everyone that get in it become superpowered children, what if younger kid or adult get in?

Or maybe they all got in before as a kid and this is the sprite for that, or you just make the younger design as a joke or because you want and I overthink it

Or it's secret and you are not gonna tell me which is ok I just like being a conspiracy theorist lol

NAH you're fine lmao sorry i should of clarified this. i'm still unsure about it.

my logic was chara made the darkworld so it's influenced by their desire -but you're right, the outfits themselves seem separate from that. it's more customized to the individual, same as how Ralsei's castle and Queen's mansions become personalized. The world itself is influenced by Noelle (I assume she accidently made it? but also Kris could of been the one to do so... the world fits Noelle more) And becoming a kid is A Thing with Noelle for like, 1 second, so this isn't even out of the realm of possiblities.

And ALSO yeah, this world is (probably) made from a gaster fragment or at least houses one, it's separate from Deltarune the game and it's canon. I'm not even sure this IS a darkworld or if it's a simulation of one. (maybe the CORE secretly powers a pocket universe that Gaster made? that Chara accidently connects to and drags the gang into)

[has alt id]

Actually i was about to do a write up of pros/cons but i realized making them all kids is a bad idea. it just doesn't work.

cause like, I wanted them all to be kids to keep it consistent between them, but you're right it makes it less special/shocking when chara is Baby. (thinking this time around, we follow Frisk first and then meet with Chara.) anyway i wanted this because the main conflict is that Chara is wanting to force everyone to relive the past, so making Frisk a Baby and relieve their memories isn't a happy thing like it is to Chara.

BUT that happens when Chara True Resets anyway! I feel that'd lose a LOT of significance because we get used to Frisk being a teenager by the time we get to that story point. Also like, the reverse makes a fun effect of "oh YEAH Chara is a teenager! I got used to baby chara again!"

so yeah. i can't justify it and it lessens plot/thematic elements. Plus, its too repetive, even if I think it'd make it more clear what Frisk's problem with reliving the past is like

actually, I can do that with the reset thign too. Cause Frisk HATED being attacked by monsters and Chara's kinda forgotten about that since. So I'm gonna show them fight a lil before they confront Flowey.

Frisk's bard aspect (which like, is based on how I introduced teenage frisk with Vocaloid, this outfit is loosely inspired by that)

Anyway I need to establish more of their story BUT I think the designs should reflect them more (like you pointed out!) like, originally, Frisk was going to have this side plot over befriending Suzy (their universe version of Susie) that was, sadly, dropped because Susie was stuck with Kris and it made more sense for Chara to stay away from Frisk after the DW adventure (cause Chara broke their promise)

BUT now i have the chance to actually explore that! So now, Frisk takes the adventure with MK to be a fun game and a chance to befriend Suzy. I really want Frisk's adventure to be separate from Chara's journey, because Frisk being mopey was Defs over done in the OG, and it makes it more impactful when Frisk gets upset if they're more happy the rest of the time.

Frisk still hates fighting (god. i'm gonna have to design a bunch of enemies...) but since they're not alone (and being haunted by chara), they don't mind it nearly as much. the Vibes of Deltarune (where most enemies just want to capture you) vs. UT (where most enemies are trying to kill you) are so drastically different. Frisk would be SO happy about this change.

#doodles #dark world

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prettyboysdontlookatexplosions · 2 years

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i think we should all be blaming corporations less and feeling uncomfortable about our lifestyles more climate-wise and every little bit counts and also that private jets should like probably be banned and it’s fine to cyberbully celebrities about their private jets. however! this post bugs me partly because i think it’s an unfair characterization of OP’s thread (which you can agree with or not but came across pretty clearly to me as being about their climate opinions and not a defense of taylor swift), but mostly because i think it shows kind of a failure to grapple with scale. like, it can both be true that taylor swift is responsible for 2000 times the emissions of the average american… and that 2000 times the emissions of the average american is also actually by itself in the absence of other factors a borderline meaningless drop in the bucket re: emissions overall. here are two math situations to illustrate this:

(1) i’m using stats from different years and varied sources because whatever this isn’t a paper and also i’m not linking anything because it’s a fucking pain to do it on a tablet but if anyone cares about my sources i will provide them but also this is unrebloggable because that stupid medieval peasants post is STILL haunting my notes so like whatever. but. in the US aircraft are responsible for ~3% of total emissions. private jets as per one study are responsible for ~4% of all aviation emissions. putting those together, private jets are responsible for (approximately) 0.12% of US emissions. just over a tenth of one percent. i mean, that’s a lot for a thing that no one actually needs and that is stupid and should be illegal. but it is absolutely not on the scale of “meaningfully move the needle on climate change in either direction,” except insofar as every little bit counts, which it does.

(2) a new york times article from 2016 posited that if americans as a whole drove 10% fewer miles per year (assuming of course we are not replacing driving with private jets, lol), we could save 110 million tons of emissions. this would take, as per their estimate, an average reduction per american driver of 1350 miles per year. if taylor swift’s jet has produced ~8000 tons of emissions so far this year let’s say we’re about halfway through the year and it therefore produces ~16,000 tons fo emissions a year. i ran the numbers (and, again, will justify this mathematically for anyone who cares, but like, i doubt anyone does), and taylor swift abandoning all private jet usage for a year would save the equivalent emissions of the average american driver reducing their mileage that year by….. two tenths of one single mile. across the entire year. like. think about that. if you saw a headline that was like “we can meaningfully impact climate change by parking a block earlier than we arrive at our destination for a single week,” you’d be like, well that sounds fucking stupid. but that’s the max capacity of climate-improvement lying in the potential of taylor swift not using her jet.

and like, it’s totally bananas that an individual could theoretically make a choice that would be equivalent to something undertaken by ALL AMERICAN DRIVERS, no matter how small, and, again, private jets are bad, rich people are bad, they are excessively harmful to the planet and that’s bad, etc. but again: all that can be true, and it can still be absoutely 100% the case that “rich people doing dumb rich people shit” is in no way a major force propelling forward anthropogenic climate change, because there are numerically actually very few rich people. if all rich people tomorrow started living like average middle class americans and nothing else changed ever, we would still be completely and totally fucked! that’s what “taylor swift and kylie jenner are not driving climate change” means. it means that even if they got their act together, environmentally speaking, that would not be enough to set us firmly on the course to a less catastrophic future. which is like… true!

#i feel weird about this post bc again like. typically i am on the side of 'actually individual choices do kinda matter'#and also 'most policy decicsions that could make an impact would make an impact by changing the incentive structures for individual choices'#like one person's meatless mondays are whatever #but the government taxing beef such that it costs as much as lobster #that's a different story #but like #to say 'celebrity culture is a structural issue' is to like... misunderstand what a structural issue is and why climate change is happening

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harocat · 2 years

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Do you like Yurio? I saw some of your posts about him and I was just curious.

(Please don't take this as an attack or something in case you don't like him. In my case I always try to avoid him because he's not pleasant for me and everyone loves him but honestly you seem to have interesting views of him but that's only my opinion)

I have kind of complex feelings on him, because like, as a foil in the series itself I think he's fine, but the ending and how it seemed to reinforce his worst traits was a big turnoff for me, and I very dislike the way he's played in fandom, ESPECIALLY wrt to his relationship to Victuuri.

Like Yurio does spend 90% of the series shitting on my favorite character, when said favorite character has done nothing to deserve it, so that on its own is kind of enough reason for me to not really want to engage with him? But I am okay with him for most of the series itself.

And I get that yes he's a teenager, but 'teenagers are just like that' doesn't really fly for me, because they're not. Teenagers can be rude and mean, but the level at which Yurio behaves and everyone just brushes it off as funny or cute is not it. And can you imagine someone acting like this in international competitive sports? Like why is this allowed lol. I get that it's supposed to be funny, and some of it is slapstick, because YOI is a silly show at times, but when he doesn't seem to grow past it at all, and like I said in that previous post, the ending reinforces his worst traits, it kind of stops being funny. Like I'm supposed to be happy Yurio won when he's screaming about how there's no gold medals for pigs to feed on in his fs? Because he had one internal monologue about agape in the previous episode. The scene in episode eleven where he makes fun of Yuuri to his face after his SP, which happens after he apparently discovers his agape? It was so mean. It was not at all funny.

And in fandom, this is exacerbated. So many people act like Yurio's behavior toward Victor and Yuuri for just like... existing, is justifiable. Yuuri especially is just existing (and is always extremely nice to Yurio), but in fics, even Victuuri fics, it feels like I'm supposed to buy that he's so annoying. Victor and Yuuri act like the couple they are and sometimes engage in PDA, and it's endless comments about how gross it is from Yurio. I don't actually think that's funny. I know kids sometimes get weird about PDA, but Yurio is fifteen, and reading over and over about how gross a gay couple is while enjoying my fluffy gay fanfic escapism is not fun to me. I don't see how using that joke over and over is funny, and it does not endear me to Yurio at all (though obvs I don't hold it against his canon self).

I do think people super over exaggerate their closeness. Yurio has a family. He has family who loves him. Victor and Yuuri don't need to be his parents, nor should they be because they are like... ten years older than him. IF Yurio chills out and they become close (if, because as is, in the series itself, they're not close and they have a long way to go), maybe he could be like a little brother figure, but he's not going to supplant all the other people in their life like I see so often in fandom (shoutout to how many fics I've seen where Phichit is totally erased and replaced with Yurio). And sometimes I'd just like to enjoy some Victuuri content without Yurio being shoved in* just to be rude for no reason to my fave characters. It's just not enjoyable.

*unfortunately official art is guilty of this as well, but imo this is probably due to the homophobic censorship more than anything else. :(

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mysticssum · 2 years

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I need to get this out somewhere and idk if its just me or whatever.. but I am seeing a LOT of mystic messenger related stuff and comments in TheSsum.. which is fine but I feel like its kinda rude..

Half of the comments are like "Zenny, my only love <3" "Teo's cool but Saerannnn" "I hope Teo has a dark side like Jumin" "mystic messenger >>>>" just constant comparisons all the time. and while I get it, yes, I miss mystic messenger too. You have got to be respectful and let it go. at least for this new game.

Im pretty sure Cheritz already said they won't be making anymore content for MM so can we just leave it be and not force this completely new game down this comparison rabbit hole?

Of course its not going to be MM, its a different game. There's a different storyline, romance route, even the layout is different. Because its a Different. Game. Stop trying to look for a MM copy in it. Of course, there will be similarities and references, here and there. (It's made by the same company after all.) But that doesn't justify robbing Teo of the chance to be seen as his own character, when you're constantly comparing him to Yoosung and Seven??

Had The Ssum been marketed as a sequel or really anything related to MM at all, I'd maybe understand. But it wasn't. The game is its own thing.

I'm sorry for the semi-tangent, its just somewhat upsetting to see this game that Cheritz has impressively been working on for years get constantly compared and overshadowed by its predecessor.

I just wish people would respect that instead if trying to act like it's a rip off Mystic Messenger.

Hello Anon!

I understand what you mean. I was quite surprised by the comments in the free emotion study of the day mentioning the mysme characters. Personally I don’t mind it either, but I see how that can be off-putting as the mystic messenger characters have their own game and if you want them you can download mysme.

I want to say that since the Ssum’s in its infancy, the game hasn’t established itself yet and so comparison’s will be made to what the Ssum’s users are used to. Due to the influx of Ssum players orginially finding out about Cheritz through mysme, combined with Mystic Messenger’s popularity- it seems only logical that the game would be mentioned. Yet, I can see how that’s frustrating and your feelings are valid, anon! Hopefully the comparison’s will decrease onwards as the Ssum establishes more of its own identity. We’re only a few days into the game after all lol.

I’ve seen many people compare Teo to a bland character, however, we are still learning about him and the game is 200+ days long so we can’t say for certain who he is most like for certain. To play devil’s advocate though, I will say that the Ssum is meant to be spiritual successor to Mystic Messenger and not to mention there is Mysme Easter eggs inside the game so it does feel inevitable.

Also, no worries! I’m totally chill with you venting! :) It’s important to express yourself and I’m happy to listen! It’s great that you don’t want Cheritz’s hard work to be overshadowed by their previous game and its highly considerate of you. In retrospect, Mysme had saved Cheritz as a company when they were struggling to make money. So while it’s important that the Ssum and Teo are popular as to ensure the longevity of the Ssum, having Cheritz’s previous game be mentioned is free advertising which could be good for the company. As for fans though wanting to move on from Mysme and just focus on Teo, yeah, it’s tough seeing the Mysme boys be mentioned. You’re definitely right that The ssum isn’t a ripoff but rather part of the same type of game as Mysme.

I understand what you mean. I was quite surprised by the many comments mentioning the mysme characters. Personally I don’t mind it either, but I see how that can be off-putting as the mystic messenger characters have their own game and if you want them you can download mysme.

I want to say that since the Ssum’s in its infancy, the game hasn’t established itself yet and so comparison’s will be made based off what the Ssum’s users are used to. Due to the influx of Ssum players originally finding out about Cheritz through mysme (myself included), combined with Mystic Messenger’s popularity- it seems only logical that the game would be mentioned. Yet, I can see how that’s frustrating and your feelings are valid, anon! Hopefully the comparison’s will decrease onwards as the Ssum establishes more of its own identity and Teo reveals more about himself. We’re only a few days into a game with 200+ days worth of content after all lol. To play devil’s advocate though, I will say that the Ssum is meant to be a spiritual successor to Mystic Messenger and not to mention there is Mysme Easter eggs inside the game, so comparison’s do feel inevitable.

In retrospect, Mysme had saved Cheritz as a company when they were struggling to make money. So while it’s important that the Ssum and Teo are popular as to ensure the longevity of the Ssum, having Cheritz’s previous game be mentioned is free advertising which could be good for the company. As for fans though wanting to move on from Mysme and just focus on Teo, yeah, it’s tough seeing the Mysme boys be mentioned. You’re definitely right that The Ssum isn’t a ripoff but rather part of the same type of game as Mysme.

If you’re seeking advice at all, the best I can say is that we’ll have to wait it out to see if the comparisons will become a daily thing. Cheritz has implied to have big plans for the Ssum and hopes to add more characters, so hopefully Mysme will be just an afterthought in the far future as the Ssum creates its identity. Speaking in practical terms, if possible I would recommend trying to ignore mentions of mysme in game and telling Cheritz you enjoy the Ssum when you can. We don’t know how much exactly they listen to us, as frankly they have had a terrible track record communicating with us 😅 But letting them know you enjoy the game goes a long way, even if all you do is comment on their latest post on tumblr or twitter. While the Ssum’s four year journey has been wild, its important to be positive and tell Cheritz we like their game as to express our gratitude for their hard work and to see more Teo in the future :)

Regardless, I hope you’re having fun with the Ssum, anon! Hopefully, my replies here could provide some solace.

#my post #jihyun answers

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nicnacsnonsense · 2 years

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loved your most recent meta; well presented and thought out as always, and it hit on something for me i've been thinking about a lot, which is that certain bad-faith readings of stede's actions have become sort of a game of telephone in this fandom lol. sometimes i'll be reading a meta and i'm thinking, hmm okay fine sure! and (ref to domestic abuse here) then they hit me with something wild like 'stede behaves violently toward mary' and...hm. huh? it feels even worse to see it come from people who are primarily interested in ed/stede and their development as a couple; i am at least not surprised to see izzy fans who dislike or hate stede, that's relatively common place and i sort of expect it as much as i disagree, but when i see someone who ships ed/stede say something out of the blue like that i'm left wondering what they're hoping to achieve with such an interpretation and how it could possibly benefit the narrative at all, nevermind his relationship with ed. sometimes i'll read meta like this and i'll end it thinking 'do you even like this character?' (i once saw someone low-key imply stede shouldn't be headcanoned as being trans or neurodivergent because that would make him...more sympathetic?); which, to be clear, it's fine if they don't, i just would prefer people would be transparent about what they're trying to imply or accomplish when putting forth some of the most extreme readings of the text i could even hope to imagine. if they're going to beef up his flaws in order to attempt to erase or excuse the flaws of other characters (ed, izzy, mary) then fine, sure, whatever, this is fandom, people can do what they want, but the implication that this is an objective reading of the text is what irks me so badly, because it's...not. truly, i would love to be able to discuss stede's flaws with people in this fandom, because i think they make him more interesting, but i worry if i attempt to do that it would only open the door to 'stede is the human version of the evil boss from the monopoly game' or 'stede was a violent and angry husband' or 'stede should be stabbed for leaving ed' takes, which i am truly and thoroughly sick of. i still genuinely love mary, and i'm reminded of this whenever i watch the show, but whatever version of her the fandom has concocted makes me automatically think 'fuck, not mary again' whenever someone brings her up in meta now, which i absolutely hate; especially because most readings of her are usually fine, but i always need to prepare myself to be hit with the most out of the blue take i've ever read whenever she's mentioned, now. i feel like stede has somewhat become the fandom punching bag and it's just genuinely not much fun to watch that happen at all.

With reference to this post.

Hello, hello, and welcome back. I’m glad you enjoyed the meta!

'stede is the human version of the evil boss from the monopoly game' or 'stede was a violent and angry husband' or 'stede should be stabbed for leaving ed'

Yikes, Anon. Those sure are some fucking takes, huh? I’ve definitely seen stuff along the lines of Stede being the bad oppressive rich man -- I’m sorry, I’m still losing it over, “he pays them a salary, just like they do in the Navy >:(.” I’ve not seen Stede is violent toward Mary itself, though I have seen what I assume is the precursor, where Mary tries to kill Stede because she’s worried he might do something violent to her or the kids after what he did to Doug at the art show. I have to assume you start there, but you realize it doesn’t make sense for Mary to be afraid to the point of killing Stede after just that incident, but instead of then acknowledging maybe she wasn’t acting out of justified fear, you double done and assume there must have been other violent incidents in the past to justify that fear. “Stede should be stabbed for leaving Ed...” we’ll get to that.

But this:

stede shouldn't be headcanoned as being trans or neurodivergent because that would make him...more sympathetic?

This broke me. Does this person not understand how fandom works? What the hell is that even supposed to mean??? Like, if it was just talking about not headcanonning him as ND I could almost follow the logic. Because, yeah, there are times where neurodivergent headcanons cans be used to excuse bad behavior, which is shitty to both real life people who are victims of that kind of behavior and real life ND people with that particular condition. But the problem there is the excusing of the behavior, not the headcanon. And more importantly, none of that would explain the part about trans headcanons.

My best guess without reading what was said for myself, is this person has noticed a correlation between well-liked characters and queer & ND headcanons, but has assumed causation to occur backward of how it typically does. I.E., they’ve assumed that characters having a lot of queer & ND headcanons makes fandom like them more, rather than fandom being more likely to give queer & ND headcanons to characters they already like.

Anyway, my response to that person is Stede is autistic actually. Because I say so and because quite frankly there is no allistic explanation for Stede Bonnet.

but when i see someone who ships ed/stede say something out of the blue like that i'm left wondering what they're hoping to achieve with such an interpretation

Now circling back to the bit about Stede should be stabbed for leaving Ed. The sad truth of fandom is there has long (always?) been a tendency for the fandom to look at a relationship (and it doesn’t even have to be a romantic relationship as my Gravity Falls fam can attest) and decide one character is the bad guy and one character is the victim. The bad guy will end up getting punished for what they did to the victim – sometimes literally, sometimes karmically, sometimes just through emotional self-flagellation – and then have to grovel for the victim’s forgiveness before the two can have their happy ending.

Honestly, I have neither the expertise nor the energy to unpack what’s going on with that psychologically, and I’m certainly not going to tell people they can’t approach things in a way that gives them emotional catharsis or fulfillment. But as someone who really likes stories with deep, healing conversations full of complex emotions and characters on both sides having to face the ways in which they hurt each other and then both seeking ways to repair their relationship together, it is very frustrating to see this trend play out again and again.

sometimes i'll read meta like this and i'll end it thinking 'do you even like this character?'

God, you and me both.

i still genuinely love mary, and i'm reminded of this whenever i watch the show, but whatever version of her the fandom has concocted makes me automatically think 'fuck, not mary again' whenever someone brings her up in meta now

Yep. It’s pushed me away from her character over time. The more I see people putting all the blame on Stede for the problems in their relationship, the more defensive of Stede my emotions get and the more I end up wanting to put the blame on her.

#asks and answers #ofmd #stede bonnet

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solomonish · 3 years

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Way To Go MC, You’ve Allowed Yourself to be Poisoned (Demon Brothers)

CW for: descriptions of food and eating, brief descriptions of choking-like symptoms. (mainly in the intro, though the individual stories mention coughing, (light) blood and fainting). there will be talk of food and keeping an eye on what is being eaten in the individual character stories as well.

Ahh thank you nonnie! I got tired and stopped at the demon brothers but I’ll finish the nowdateables later if you want! Which let’s be real, I’ll probably do soon because I wanna write for Solomon lol

I hope you like it!

---

It started off like any other night, with you grabbing a seat at the dinner table as the last of the food was placed in the middle. Someone beside you took your plate and gave you your portion for you, smiling at your murmur of thanks as they set it down. You waited until the last person, Levi, sat down, smiling at him as he muttered something about finishing a level to nobody in particular.

The moment you ate your first bite of food, something felt...off. Your tongue was tingling the slightest bit and you swore you could feel an uncomfortable heat follow the food as it slid down your throat. Thinking it was just a weird Devildom spice - after all, you’ve been here for how long? and nothing has happened yet? - you take another bite and immediately regret it.

Though such a food was no big deal for demons, it was powerful enough to knock you out of your chair and hunch over, grabbing your stomach as you cough forcefully in a desperate attempt to get the food out. Your insides were burning, your airways closing in and your chest crying out in pain the more you coughed. Soon enough, tears clouded your vision, and though you could hear the chaos around you, the only thing you could focus on was what felt like fire burning you from the inside out.

When you start coughing:

The moment you let out a little cough, his eyes are on you curiously. It’s just a remnant of the days when you were still so new to it all: the fragile little human makes a strange noise, be prepared to save a life.

He almost let his eyes fall from you, but he noticed that you weren’t stopping. It wasn’t the first time you had caused a scene at dinner, saying something afterwards about it “going down the wrong tube.” Still, this seemed...different.

When you fall off of your chair, he’s out of his before you even hit the ground. He’s kneeling by your side a second later, trying to tilt your head towards him so he can fully understand what is happening.

He finally realizes that you aren’t just choking and this is much more urgent when the blood starts coming out of your mouth.

He takes his attention away from you for a moment to ask who cooked dinner, and the brothers promptly rat out Mammon.

Though Lucifer is clearly agitated at that, he decides to lecture later and instead ask what Mammon put in the dish. Everyone erupts at once about halfway through because “How could you have forgotten what that will do to a human??”

That’s the last thing you remember for yourself - whether from the poison itself or being unable to breath through all your coughing, you passed out fairly quickly afterwards

Taking care of you afterwards:

Lucifer isn’t the type to panic in the moment. He’s very accustomed to taking the lead and having everything under control.

That’s in the moment, though. When he has Satan mix up the remedial potion, he’s fine, checking over you and keeping his brothers a safe distance away while he makes sure you’re still breathing. Once you’re safely in bed, brothers having been banned from your room until at least morning, and he’s the only one left lingering in the doorway, that’s when it all begins to set in.

There’s less regret and more general uncertainty in these moments - it starts with him wondering if he should really leave you alone, and soon enough it spirals into him reminding himself just how careful he needs to be with you in the Devildom. (And really, after taking charge of seven demon lords on accident, isn’t it just like you to get killed by a spicy leaf? Honestly, he should’ve known better.)

Once you finally do wake up, he tries to act like his normal “down to business” self - “I’ve told my brothers they are not to overwhelm you today, though we both know how that will go. I’ve made Leviathan figure out what bland foods are safe for humans, you’ll have to take it easy for now as your stomach is still irritated. Let me know immediately if you feel woozy or nauseous for any reason-” He prattles on and on, and though you’ve stopped paying attention you can still feel the softness in his tone

He tries to be gentle with you, and you have to remind him that you were just poisoned, not bedridden for months. Sometimes he’ll shoot you a glare and try to justify himself by saying it’s just like you to make another foolish mistake, but others he just won’t say anything and will keep the hand he has placed on your lower back “for safety”

Firmly believes in establishing as many preventative measures to keep this from happening again, so the next few weeks are going to be....a lot.

Sets up an alarm so he can remind you every lunch not to pick any of the “not safe for humans” options. Probably also gets you a seat in a class that goes over poisonous plants in the Devildom.

Do not try to skip this. It’s easier for everyone if you just let him ease his mind how he likes.

When you start coughing:

At first, Mammon assumes that you just heard the joke he made and (naturally) started laughing so hard your weird little human body couldn’t take it

So essentially, you start choking and he starts laughing at you thinking you’re laughing together

That all stops the moment you fall out of your chair and double over, suddenly dry heaving on the floor.

He sort of short-circuits for a second, not entirely sure what to do until one of the more knowledgeable brothers stoops down beside you

They tell him to just keep your airways clear and make sure you’re still breathing while they go to get the elixir they need, and he does. It’s one of the few times they see him so serious - he just doesn’t want to mess up, so he doesn’t focus on any of their comments or bite back

(”Gee, Mammon’s actually stepping up for once” “Yeah, too bad he was the one that poisoned them in the first place”)

(Lucifer: he WHAT)

Taking care of you afterwards:

Mammon is usually the first thing you see in the morning, so that doesn’t come as a surprise. What does surprise you is how quiet he’s being.

When you sit up and groggily ask, “Is something wrong?” (barely getting the words through your swollen lips) he is torn between trying to say something smooth (”N-not now that you’re okay!! not that i care....”) or calling you a dumb human. So instead he just stares at you

Eventually you can get it out of him what happened, and it explains why your face feels like it had been burned and your stomach feels gross

Mammon says he’s going to come up with a surefire way to protect you so nothing like this ever happens again, but his version of protecting you is sticking by your side 24/7 and he already does that so?

You’re the one that’s going to have to take the lead. Make a list of common ingredients that are SUPER deadly to humans and make sure you both have one for reference

Soon enough, though, he figures out how he can help you without your guidance and you catch him pointing out what’s safe without you having to ask

He follows you to the lunch line and examines the clear plastic boxes until he can point out a few human-safe options. He’ll bend to whisper in your ear in line at some fast-food joint. If you’re not sure, he’ll be the first to ask before you even remember that’s something you should be doing anyway.

He’ll even try to make dishes he thinks you’ll like without the poisonous ingredient! Sometimes it takes a few tries but if he wants you to try something with him, he WILL make it himself

When it comes to you, Mammon really will give you the best care he can. Sometimes he just needs that extra push to think things through.

(And if this wasn’t a push. a hard shove. over a cliff. into shark infested waters)

(don’t do this again, mc. his demon heart can’t take it)

When you start coughing:

Levi has never mentioned how his brother don’t normally speak much to him at dinner and he’s just learned to be highly attuned to you. He notices a lot of little things you do, and is normally the first to realize when you’re choking or something.

That’s why, when you start coughing this time, he is the first one to panic. He knows that that isn’t a normal cough, he just doesn’t know what to do about it.

He looks down at his plate and realizes what’s on it, something he cries out right when you fall to the ground, clutching your stomach. You’re on the other side of the table and his brothers are already crowding around you, so Levi doesn’t get to see the blood and can only hear your coughing.

When your coughing gets weaker as you faint, he freaks. the. fuck. out. Did you die?? Even as he tries to look over his brother’s shoulders, he can’t get a good grasp of what happened until somebody tells him.

(It doesn’t matter much though. He’s still stuck in a loop of wondering what he could’ve done if he had gotten to dinner sooner, if he had managed to score a coveted seat next to you, if he had just looked at his plate or offered to take over for Mammon...)

Taking care of you afterwards:

You wake up in your bed and Lucifer is the one who comes in, asking you how you feel and if you’re up to classes to die.

Being poisoned sure does take a lot out of you, so you ask to stay. Lucifer gives a quick nod and warns you not to shirk your duties, wishing you a fast recovery and letting you know that (human safe) food has been set aside specifically for you.

You doze off soon after (hey, a sick day may as well be spent sleeping in, right?) and when you wake up, somebody else is there, looking at you with inquisitive orange eyes and nearly scaring you half to death.

When you scream, he screams, backing up into your dresser and knocking some of the things off of it.

“I-I’m sorry-! I was just- told to check up on you- just in c-case....I’ll leave now!”

Boy’s gonna make you chase after him when you’re basically sick smh

If you go to his room and demand to be let in, he will - and he’ll let you stay under the guise of “well if you have to check on me every hour it’ll be less of a hassle if I just stay here...”

You won’t be able to get him to say he feels guilty for letting this happen, but when you pick up on the signs ensure him that he’s doing fine taking care of you. HIs cool room helps soothe your mouth (which is still a little irritated), and you’re honored he has an alarm set to check up on you

You know he’s feeling better about it all when an alarm goes off and he just asks “Hey you good?” and he chuckles a little bit when you respond “Hold on I gotta check my own pulse....... yeah i think i’m good”

Overall he is worried but he doesn’t know how to communicate it? So it’s a lot of quick, worried glances and double checking nutrition facts on packages before he hands them to you.

He kind of leaves you to your own devices, but he does send you worried glances every now and then until you’re recovered. He also makes it a point, when Mammon’s on dinner duty, to tell him exactly how he prepared the meal, though you don’t know if it’s for your sake or just to bother him. Probably both.

When you start coughing:

Satan has taken to leaving his books in his room for most dinner and talks to you in their place, so he notices what’s in the dish pretty quickly.

However, the second step of realizing what it could do to a human doesn’t quite hit him until you’re already on your second bite.

He reaches out to grab your wrist anyway, watching you cough while also staring at him in confusion. As he watches your face redden and your mouth swell, you take your wrist from his grasp and cover your mouth with your hand.

He’s the one who knows what to do, so he appoints someone to keep and eye on you while he runs (yes, runs, but he’ll act all cool about it if his brothers bring it up later) to his room to get some potion that’ll (hopefully) negate the effects

(Don’t let him hear me say this but) he’s similar to Lucifer in that he’s very level-headed when it happens - somebody needs to be focused on the cure when some of his more dramatic brothers are screaming (looking at you, Mammon and Asmo)

Taking care of you afterwards:

Satan might be the best at taking care of you, but he’s probably also the least fun.

Once he realized a while ago how fragile a human could be (and that he was interested in actually keeping you alive rather than just watching how long it takes for something to hurt you), he put in an effort to read up on how to help a poisoned human in the Devildom.

He knows how you must be feeling, and he offers you soothing teas or even a (human safe!) numbing lip balm to help you out.

(He finds great pleasure in how ridiculous you look, now that the danger’s passed - though he won’t tell you outright, you can tell it by the amused grin he isn’t even trying to hide)

Don’t be surprised if you catch him eyeing your plates of food for a while after the incident, and any time you catch him in the act he’ll look at you, take a drink out of the nearest cup and lift his eyebrows in a weird little acknowledgment that he’s been caught before saying “It looks tasty.”

Overall, he’s the standard amount of worried? Even though he will take every opportunity to tease you about how you looked afterwards or how feeble you are to be taken down by something so small (jokingly), he won’t ever get out of the habit of double checking your food to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

When you start coughing:

Asmodeus eyes you warily when you start coughing, but continues with his entertaining until you hit the ground.

He’s by your side in an instant, hands hovering over you as if he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself (he doesn’t).

He doesn’t remember calling for Satan, but Satan is the one who kneels by you, so maybe he does? His focus is on you and deciding on something he can do to help.

This ends up shielding your face, puffy and a mess from your tears and retching, from the others who are all peering over at you in concern. He knows it’s not the most pressing detail, but he figures that maybe he can preserve your dignity a little bit, no?

He follows the action with his hands covering his mouth nervously, watching as they have to force a potion down your throat now that you’re unconscious. He’s allowed to stay by you once they determine that you’re safe since he normally doesn’t cause too much of a fuss - not when he looks as pale and miserable as he does now, anyway.

Taking care of you afterwards:

He’s not too experienced in the healthcare field, but boy does he know self care! He knows how to get your skin feeling less gross after the rather...irritable reaction it had and the best way to rest is if you feel totally physically relaxed, right?

For a while, if your stomach still feels like it’s churning or you’re otherwise unfocused, he’s the first to defend you from anybody who thinks you’re overreacting.

Also makes sure nobody outside of the house knows how...unsightly of an ordeal it was. He isn’t shaming you internally or anything, but he’d loathe to have such an unpretty picture in people’s heads when you’ve been nothing but showstopping the whole time beforehand!

Will make sure to grab a seat across from you juuust before you take a bite for a while. It doesn’t matter if he’s across the room in the middle of a story or if you’re at a cafe with someone else and he’s still home. You’ll find him sliding in wordlessly to the seat across from you and watching you intently, making sure you’re eating something that isn’t going to burn you from the inside out.

Has multiple websites bookmarked on his D.D.D. that tell him what is poisonous to you and makes sure YOU are aware of what you’re putting inside your body before you eat it. He seems to genuinely think you’ll forget to save yourself from such a life-threatening situation, but the pout he gives you when you try to get him to stop is enough to convince you to live with it.

When you start coughing:

When you start coughing, he reaches over and starts patting your back absently in the way that usually helps.

He notices the way you grasp onto the table in an attempt to keep yourself up, coughing into your other hand as it gets worse by the second. When you almost slip off, he reaches out to catch you before you hit to floor

Is ready to do the Heimlich when one of his brothers stops him because 1) he’d probably snap you in half, and 2) that’s not what’s happening

He watches blankly as Satan approaches him, laying you down gently as instructed. That’s probably worse, watching you writhe on the floor like that.

He’s the one instructed to help hold you down so they can feed you the potion cure. He wants to hold your hand but it’s covered in blood, and he doesn’t want to risk loosening his grip on you and you somehow spilling it.

Taking care of you afterwards:

He’s the one most shaken up about the whole ordeal, I’d think? While the others are definitely worried he’s the one that has the BIGGEST problem with the feeling of helplessness so I think it would bring back some memories

He definitely keeps a watchful eye over you until you can tell him coherently that you’re okay, and even then he’s still treating you like porcelain for a short while

He can’t help it! Any time he’s reminded of just how frail you can be (and how unexpectedly something horrible can happen) he just...needs a few gentle moments to collect his thoughts.

Does NOT want you even looking at anything that has that plant in it (or anything else poisonous for that matter). Will straight up eat an entire dish from the pan if you give it a glance that he thinks means you’re thinking about eating it. He can usually get away with it since that’s similar to what he already does, but every now and then you see the look in his eyes and wonder if there’s something more to it

He’ll warn you in the future if he knows something is poisonous, but if you’re trying something new he’ll automatically ask you “Can you eat that?” If he doesn’t know, he can at least remind you to check for yourself.

When you start coughing:

Very few things can snap Belphegor out of a drowsy dinner stupor. You suddenly falling on the floor and coughing your insides out is one of the things that can.

If his brothers weren’t so concerned with you, they’d have a few quips about how quickly he startled awake

The first thing he does is dart his eyes back to the table, where he quickly realizes that they just inadvertently poisoned you. When he turns back, it seems the others have already come to that conclusion and someone is running off to help you

He knows that he doesn’t have much to offer in terms of help, but he will tear somebody (Mammon) away from you and kneel next to Beel.

He keeps himself under control by comforting Beel as he holds you down.

There’s definitely a sick feeling in his stomach, something familiar about you lying on the floor and bleeding that he doesn’t like. He pretends to be averting his eyes at the sight of them forcing a potion down your throat and not some regrettable memory.

Taking care of you afterwards:

You wake up and Belphie is curled up next to you in your bed. Nobody else is in the house and it’s 3 PM. You feel gross and you can’t reach your phone to actually confirm what time it is and you have no idea what the fuck is going on until he wakes up

Which he does, after you poke and prod him enough and he’s very grumpy about it

“yeesh, you get poisoned and suddenly you think you’re the princess of the devildom”

“I get WHAT”

Definitely is planning to get Mammon back tenfold

He tries to act nonchalant about it but he does keep waking up ever few hours and lifts his head to like. check that you’re good for the first day or so.

Sometimes he gets this sad look in his eyes and you have to smooth his hair back and reassure him that everything’s okay. It works a little but if he thinks he can trick you by pretending to sleep and then steal a few moments where he can Brood on his own while STILL cuddled up next to you, he will.

Suddenly takes an interest in what you’re eating. Every day. Every meal.

He doesn’t go to check on you but he does text you a few minutes before lunch or if you’re getting dinner somewhere other than the house “What are you planning on eating?”

Gets real huffy if you don’t give him a straight answer. Usually will respond with a “Whatever don’t get yourself almost killed again”

If you decide to get cheeky and answer “Probably straight poison, like right out of the mysterious bottle with a skull on it” he will just say “ugh, sounds like you. have fun.”

“...”

“...seriously, don’t do that mc.”

he sets alarms to wake up so he can make sure you don’t ingest literal poison be a little nice to him please

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openheart12 · 3 years

Text

Tales of the Heart

A/N: I was so stoked when I found out TC was filmed in NC because it’s finally good for something dihgjkdgjls I’m trying to keep this as gender neutral as I can since I don’t tend to write fics with real people because I try to respect them, but I had this idea and wanted to write it. I’m not completely sure how I feel about it yet though lol but it should be a couple parts!!

Summary: During filming for The Conjuring, reader is living their dream of being an actor. They didn’t think life could get much better, but then again, they never expected they would fall in love.

WC: 1,314

Pairing: GN reader x Vera

You were in Wilmington, North Carolina for the filming of The Conjuring that you were just casted in. It was a movie based on the paranormal investigator couple Ed and Lorraine Warren. The movie itself was actually based on one of their real life cases that you had spent hours researching on to prepare for your role, however minor it was.

Acting has been a dream of yours since you were little. The red carpet had always excited you and now you were just that much closer to achieving your dream.

It was late February and a cold chill was raising goose bumps on your arms. You were on the way to EUE/Screen Gems Studios where the first day of filming was taking place. You were told filming would take just a little over a month and you had planned accordingly, bringing almost your entire wardrobe, but it was better to be prepared than sorry.

At least that’s how you justified it.

This was your first time in the state and you were taking in your surroundings. The window was down, your hair blowing in the wind as you did some last minute research on your phone. You pulled up the first article you found;

The movie was based on the Perron family case, a family of seven who lived in Harrisville, Rhode Island. In January 1971, they moved into a farmhouse where they began to notice strange things happening. It started small, Carolyn, the mother, would notice that the broom went missing or seemed to move by itself, she’d hear something scraping against the kettle, and she’d find small piles of dirt in the center of the floor after cleaning it.

It wasn’t long before the children started to notice spirits around the house.

Carolyn researched the history of the house and discovered that it had been in the same family for eight generations and that many of them had died under mysterious and horrible circumstances.

She found a woman by the name of Bathsheba Sherman who lived on the property in the mid-1800s. She was rumored to have been a Satanist and there was evidence that she was involved in the death of a neighbor’s child, though no trial ever took place. She was buried in a nearby Baptist cemetery in downtown Harrisville.

The Perron’s believed it was Bathsheba’s spirit tormenting them.

The Warren’s made multiple trips to investigate. At one point, Lorraine conducted a seance to contact the spirits that were possessing the family. However, during the seance, Carolyn became possessed, speaking in tongues and rising from the ground in her chair. After the seance, Roger kicked the Warren’s out worried about his wife’s mental stability.

The family continued to live in the house until they were able to move in 1980, at which point the spirits were silenced and the hauntings ceased.

You let out an involuntary shudder. As excited as you were, you were also nervous. You didn’t think that a horror movie would be the start of your career, not that you were complaining.

The car pulled up in front of the studio and you got out, looking at the building standing before you. You thanked the driver and gave him the information of the hotel you would be staying at.

You straightened your shoulders and took a deep breath before making your way inside. The first thing you noticed was the noise and the chaos. There were hundreds of video equipment scattered around and more people than you’ve ever seen before cramped together. You weren’t exactly sure of what to do so you stood off to the side, in a private little corner.

You took in everything, from the people to the millions of lights that were already beginning to make your head hurt. And for a moment, just a moment, you began to doubt if you could do this or not.

“Hey, you okay?” A soft voice called out to you.

“I’m fine,” you replied, turning to look at the person and stopping in your tracks. The voice belonged to no one other than Vera Farmiga, the star of the movie you were here to film, your idol, and the woman you had a slight crush on. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a slight crush, but nonetheless, you stood there in shock.

“I’m Vera,” she said, offering her hand to you. You took it with a shaky hand. Her hand was so much softer than you expected.

“I’m Y/N.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” she smiled and you returned it, still standing there completely awestruck. You had seen every single movie she’s been in, she was one of the big reasons you wanted to go into acting and standing in front of her, you were speechless.

“Vera?” A male voice called and the two of you turned your head to see James Wan, the director, walking towards you. Yet again, you were awestruck. You loved his directing and Saw was a favorite of yours. “I need you and Patrick to start getting ready. We’re going to start the opening scene of the Warren’s.”

“Okay, perfect. James, this is Y/N,” Vera introduced you and you gave a small smile.

“Hey,” you offered.

“Hey, you’re playing the student at the university, right?”

You nodded, surprised he remembered your role.

“I don’t think we’re going to film your scene today, so if you just want to hang out and get to know the other cast members, that’s fine,” he said before going back to work, leaving you and Vera alone again.

“Maybe we can get together for dinner later?” She asked and you swear you heard her voice waver just a bit, but you played it off as your ears playing tricks on you.

“That’d be great!” You exclaimed, a wide grin on your face.

“It’s a date,” she winked, walking away. A slight blush adjourned your cheeks and you felt very hot. The chilly air from earlier was now gone.

The rest of the day passed by rather quickly, you had stayed on set getting to know the gist of things and of course watching Vera.

She was captivating while in her element, doing what she loved. You were entranced by her beauty. You didn’t think that there were many people who could pull off clothes from the 70s quite like she did. She even caught you staring a couple times, smiling at you when she met your eyes.

You also saw Patrick Wilson, the other star and other half of the Warren couple. You noticed their chemistry right away and couldn’t help but think of how you wished it was you playing Vera’s significant other.

When filming finished for the day, you headed to your hotel room to get ready for your “date.” You were giddy with excitement and bouncing with nerves. A million questions were going through your head: what would you wear? What would you two talk about? Would it be awkward? Where were you going to go?

You weren’t familiar with the area and you didn’t know if she was or not. Dinner on the beach sounded nice to you, but maybe she didn’t like the beach or maybe she would change her mind. There were too many things unknown and your nerves were starting to get the better of you.

Just then a knock sounded at your door and you went to look through the peephole to find Vera outside. You opened it and she smiled, leaning in to give you a hug.

“You ready?” She asked.

“Ready,” you responded confidently. She held her hand out to you and you took it, heading downstairs to the waiting car. “Where are we going?” You asked once getting seated.

“You’ll see,” she smirked.

You smiled at the things you still had to learn about her as you got settled in for the drive.

#the conjuring universe #vera farmiga #vera farmiga x reader #vera x reader #lorraine warren #the conjuring

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tvitr · 3 years

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uwu I don’t make the ruwules

(Okay fine, reasons/opinions below the cut but be warned! I won’t be holding back on game or book spoilers. Or rambling. This got longer than I anticipated lol)

BETTER IN THE BOOK

Eis “Fireman Sam” Glover: I don’t know what the game was trying to do with this one. I guess he gets overwhelmed by the fire and loses his composure or gets scared or... something? Also why did he not bring a hose. Or a mask. This is why so many reviewers thought Wonderworld was a metaphor for purgatory and all the inhabitants are dead I swear. Who cares, the book handled it a lot better. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but there’s definitely a good idea here with some interesting themes. The gist is that he feels ashamed following his captain’s orders to retreat during a serious blaze, which his colleagues disobeyed, and his colleagues are later hailed as heroes by the press. Is Balan the Book trying to take on toxic masculinity...? How brave. Tl;dr, the book conveyed the story a Hell of lot better than the game. Honestly I’m surprised this is the only one.

BETTER IN THE GAME

Haoyu “Airplane Boi” Chang: So the book tried waaaay too hard to draw a parallel between Haoyu and Fiona (aka, Dolphin Girl) to the point that they both share a similar backstory, in that they had a hobby which led to a near-fatal accident and now they’re too traumatised to resume said hobby. And that’s not a bad thing per se but... “near fatal accident” was already Fiona’s backstory. We didn’t need a duplicate. And this is more personal preference, but I kinda liked Haoyu’s story in the game anyway. His failure at building a functioning aeroplane out of crap he found in his garage is endearingly funny in the game, and the resolution of him taking time out to sit down and study before building anything is a nice spin on the whole “if at first you don’t succeed” theme the chapter wanted.

Sana “Bird Lady” Hudson: So the book decided they didn’t want to make Cal an angry sore loser so guess what? They made Sana an angry misanthrope. Wonderful. Okay maybe that’s harsh, but she definitely came off as very bitter and unsympathetic in the book. Like there’s a scene at the end where she harasses a firefighter and tries to steal a fire engine because they’re working on a building fire and not supervising her park. That’s not a character you wanna root for. That’s a Karen. The game had a better plot thread and resolution to her story rather than a boring cookie-cutter “humans vs. nature grrrr humans are so evil” story, like the game story here had a bit more depth to it and approached the topic more maturely than the book did. Which is ironic considering how hilariously edgy the book gets sometimes, but I guess throwing a few smashed eggs and frozen bird skeletons into your story doesn’t mean anything if you’re still going to paint such a black-and-white narrative.

Iben “Frozen Elsa” Bia: This story didn’t need dialogue. Like... we don’t need her to justify why she’s upset her parents are dead because we’d already assume that. They’re her parents! Of course we’d assume she’d be upset! They died! Simultaneously! That’s horrible! WE DON’T NEED HER TO EXPLAIN THIS! Also her dialogue in the book was... pretty terrible, not gonna lie. Like if you’re gonna insist on dialogue at least make it gOOD. I’m actually planning on just reviewing her book scene so I can fully articulate just how bad it is anyway, so stay tuned for that mess lol.

FINE IN BOTH

I mean there’s not really too much to say here but anyways:

Jose/”The Farmer” having a family in the book gives him a bit more depth, even if we never hear from them again after his backstory dump.

Fiona/”Dolphin Girl” almost drowns in a slightly different way, with a dolphin straight up pulling her mask off rather than knocking it out of her mouth, and the book also goes more into detail about her love for diving and dolphins. Also the book ships her and Haoyu like. So hard. Like they never shut up about how similar they are or what they other’s doing or if the other’s okay or not. By the end of it I was expecting them to just start making out in front of everyone, they’re that obsessed with each other. And it would be funny if they didn’t use this to wreck Haoyu’s backstory like I mentioned earlier.

Yuri/”Bug Kid”/”Is that a Pokémon reference?” is now being kinda bullied for liking bugs, which yeah gives her more depth and reason to be upset but I also kinda related to her just being that One Kid with interests that nobody else had. But it’s not as bad as some of the other changes, so I can let it slide.

Atillio/Clown and Bruce/Old Man are the same, nothing to say here.

Lucy/”The Artist” is a total drama queen but then again so are Art People so I can let it slide. I did like them changing her problem from “artist’s block” (seriously?) to her feeling too under pressure to create masterpieces, unless that’s what the game was aiming for? Oh who cares.

JUST A BIG MESS

Cass “Dead Cat Girl” Milligan: This is a weird one because the story is the same between the game and book (though the book mentions she witnessed a more severe car accident rather than a speeding car which she assumes kills the cat, and the cat isn’t even her cat, it’s a stray) but the story itself is... flawed. According to the book, they wanted to convey the idea that running away from the accident was irresponsible, and she just needed to look back and she’d see her cat is okay, but the game kind of makes it look more like Balan turned back time to save her cat, and the book mentions a serious car crash which I don’t think anyone would willingly return to. I feel there’s a better way to convey this idea of being responsible for your pets, like say her cat escapes from the house and gets lost, and her resolution is going out and properly looking for it. That’s a more effective (and natural) way to relay that message, especially as they weren’t going to commit to the idea of grieving a lost pet.

I’M CONFLICTED

Cal “Chess Daddy” Suresh: God this was a tough call. On one hand Cal’s game backstory is one of the ones most YouTube players single out as the weakest backstory in the game. He’s just “that guy who lost one game of chess”. Being right before Iben’s level certainly doesn’t help. I could honestly write a separate post about how bad the story placements are in this game but that’s too long for here. On the other hand, I still... kinda like it? Like I like this idea of him being a sore loser with a bad temper who needs to learn some humility, sure it’s not as serious as “I almost drowned” or “my parents are dead” but one of the few good things about the game is that it balanced “serious” stories with “benign” ones, if that makes sense. HOWEVER His book scene is... probably one of the best written in the whole book. Which isn’t saying much, but it felt like it hit the intended degree of darkness that the rest of the book was trying to hit. One of my main issues with the book is how much it edged up everyone’s backstory, which doesn’t sound bad but when you have 12 characters with edgy backstories to sit through, it starts to feel like a 14 year old's first attempt at writing an angsty fanfiction very quickly. And yes, Cal’s story is dark and angsty but it felt like the perfect balance of dark and angsty. Or as perfect as the book can get. Like even Balan’s annoying rhyming dialogue sounded good for the tone of the scene. Man maybe I should just do a review of both his backstories in a bigger post. Obviously I could be biased because I’m a sucker for chess aesthetics and dark skinned men with long permed hair so I’m just putting more thought into him but still.

#at the end of the say i'm just some schmuck who talks too much lmao #balan wonderworld

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