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juhbebbie · 10 months

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Okayyyyy so City of the Dead thoughts for anyone who cares

Was I disappointed? My expectations weren't super high so I guess not, but the super overdramatic self pitying narration threw me off quite a bit. Like okay man chill out a bit. Kind of expected to not see Layla until the end so I guess there I was disappointed but not surprised. Fingers crossed she will be a central character from here on out and not a one and done thing in the series.

Okay elephant in the room time. I know a lot of people have been saying they REALLY did not like it and I really cannot blame them, but also I'm trying to stay hopeful because it just the first issue. I'm hesitant to get pissed off over the total lack of Jake and Steven just yet, when in Mackay's series neither made an appearance until like a year into the run. Yes this series isn't going to be nearly as long, but still. That being said, no I definitely don't expect Moon Knight to really be shown as a system, but I'm gonna give Prepose a couple more issues to prove me wrong (the bar is on the floor). Mainly just because I feel like it would be hypocritical of me to denounce Prepose for not including them and then praise Mackay when it took him 12 issues to really acknowledge that they are a system. I'm going to give Prepose a chance since he wrote a pretty good Black, White, and Blood story that did have them shown as a system in a pretty cool way imo.

All this to say that I'm not trying to undermine anyone else's concerns, this is just my own opinion and trust me, based on what little interviews I've read I fully expect Jake and Steven to be completely ignored and if (and when) that happens I will be right there with the rest of yall lol. I will say that it's already very clear that the set up so far was not written with the intention of having a place for Steven or Jake, which is very disappointing.

Okay positive things! I enjoyed seeing Dr Badr a lot and i didn't have much of an issue with how he and Marc's relationship was portrayed. Yes in the main run they're closer now, but they are still very much at odds but willing to work together towards a common goal, which is exactly what we see here in this issue.

I also liked where the thing with the kid is going. The detail of him being kicked out after his brother's death definitely makes me think he's going to be a reflection of Marc, which would be a cool parallel to have.

And the art for the most part was really gorgeous! I don't know what the hell was going on with Layla there at the end (otherwise great male artists not knowing how to draw women), but other than that I REALLY loved how the actual city looked.

And the Egyptian mythology was actually a lot more accurate than it usually is, which, as someone who has always been a total nerd about that stuff, actually made me really happy. There are several specific things I wanted to point out but this post is long enough as is.

Also. "I don't care if I burn" that was badass as shit come on. One of the (admittedly several!) moments of overdramatic writing that came off very well kind of like how it does in the Mackay run (don't wanna compare this too much to the Mackay run though because I understand it's obviously going to be different and that's fine)

But yeah. The overall feel and tone was very... off. I was on board with the general plot and Marc's motivations but everything around the basic plot structure just seemed like Prepose was trying to do a weird Huston run thing and it wasn't working (I don't think it worked in the Huston run either but I digress).

I've seen people saying that they didn't like how Marc was an enthusiastic follower of Khonshu, but that wasn't really the vibe I got at all? If anything it was pretty clear how much he hated everything he was doing. Which also kinda felt off. Having him say that everything was "punishment" over and over just kind of felt like I was getting hit on the head with a theme that didn't even make sense for the character, at least not at this point. Don't get me wrong, self punishment is absolutely a big part of Marc Spector's character, but there is an important distinction between doing things to right your past wrongs and doing them because you feel like you deserve it. And it seemed like Prepose understood that at first, but then later into the issue I was like Marc PLEASE shut the fuck up about punishment lol.

People more knowledgeable than myself have said things about how this looks from the standpoint that this is also a Jewish character, but all I'm going to say as a general statement for all of Moon Knight's runs is that I wish they would let him be explicitly Jewish more often. It's mentioned in Mackay's run the clash between Marc's service to Khonshu and his Judaism, but I think that that is such an interesting part of his character that needs to be discussed WAY more!

Anyway, to make a long story short, definitely not the strongest first issue, but it absolutely had some great moments and I'm going to go forward with my expectations still pretty low, but willing to give it a shot for Layla's sake. But the fact that a run featuring Layla is already not turning out to be very good is a little bit heartbreaking for me I'm not gonna lie lol. I was going to go and buy myself a copy of this issue, but after actually reading it I didn't really want it anymore. So 😬 fingers crossed for the next issue I guess?

#and i cannot stress enough that this is just my opinion #and really not liking it or not wanting to continue reading the series is a very justified view to have in my opinion #im interested enough that i want to see where it goes and i didnt HATE reading it but i also didnt enjoy it nearly as much as i wanted to #moon knight #moon knight comics #moon knight: city of the dead #moon knight city of the dead #marvel #marvel comics

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kairiscorner · 10 months

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HI ATE!! (idk if ur older LMAO) im planning to write a fanfic! slayyyy, ive never wrote anything before, im an artist, i draw stuff, but my artworks arent that entertaining to post i guess? so i wanted to know if you had any writing tips that you could give! ty if you ever decide to reply to this!

HI OMG I'M SO PROUD <:DDD i'm looking forward to your fics, and as for tips, here's some i hope would be helpful :DD

write what you know/are familiar with most to start. writing can start to feel more fun, in my experience, when you're writing about things you understand or (also like me) are delulu and imagine a lot about :D

don't hinder your imagination if it serves the plot. fantasizing about where your plot will go is actually super helpful, and very fun! i do recommend not to add fillers though if they don't have any impact on the story, like side plots that go nowhere or random dialogue that doesn't serve any purpose to further the story or the characters' motivations ^^

liven your vocabulary. like many other authors here, i find it generally more pleasing to have more unique and plentiful ways on how to describe a characters' actions or thoughts, even describing parts on a character can be worded in longer or more unique ways! don't confuse it too much though, and i suggest not to use the same word twice when it's just been mentioned--maybe after a paragraph or two can you mention it again ^^

develop your style. like in art, writers have their own styles of writing, for example, mine is usually very descriptive and thought-provoking (wow ang yabang ni ate girl) and usually, i'll focus on the dialogue and description of the situation and story, so generally, my works are a little longer than i expect them to be ^^ you don't have to copy other writers' styles to get better though, what you can do is draw inspiration from them and ask yourself 'what is it i want my story to have?' you can try experimenting with dialogue, scenery descriptions, character descriptions, flashbacks, narration--keep trying, and you'll get to where you want to be eventually :DD

ask for feedback. this is one of the most important tips i have, because reaching out to a bigger audience about your work will help you see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. getting opinions from other people can help you accommodate many others into your works, too, through their suggestions and criticisms ^^

take breaks. this, i struggle with, so i'm kind of hypocritical for suggesting this :'D but if you ever feel like you're stuck in a certain point in the story or that you have to rush to post a story, please don't force yourself to finish it and rush, you might have a lot of regrets about the final product 😭😭😭take time to think about yourself first, then your story <:)

that's all i can think of right now, i'm really hoping your fic comes out well! i'm sure it will >:)) good luck !!

#꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱kairi answers !

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bonesandthebees · 1 year

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So guess who just finished the newest Stars chapter? You weren’t kidding when you said we would have a field day. Where the fuck am I supposed to start, Bee?!? There’s so much. And it was so satisfying to read. I’m gonna start by gushing about the unreliable narration. Because it’s been such a wild ride and you finally pulled back the curtain a little.

Because technically we should know right? Of course Ranboo is reporting back to Techno. Wilbur spends most of his time there believing it. And you lead us along this road of believing Tommy is being dumb by giving him the benefit of the doubt and thinking Ranboo is his friend and just a kid.

And then Wilbur gets more and more paranoid to the point of not trusting Tommy or himself. And Tommy is fighting his paranoia at every turn so you think maybe it is just paranoia, maybe there’s nothing there. And Wilbur starts to trust more and Aimsey calls him out and Ranboo said he just wanted to be friends while he’s still so damn noisy.

But you think maybe, just maybe, it’s just that, especially last chapter cuz this chapter he’s being noisy again and a little more suspicious which is part of the foreshadowing. Learning that Tommy also thinks he’s noisy and tells him off makes him more suspicious because if he’s trying to figure Wilbur out, why is he still pushing Tommy?

Jack fits in great with this too btw. Because he’s a guard and Wilbur knows he has orders and reports back. But then Jack reveals that he doesn’t and Wilbur trusts him. And there’s transparency there. And Jack and Wilbur are friend so I do still think Jack genuinely doesn’t report back but congrats on having me doubt it anyway. So if Jack has the order Ranboo might also have the order, but he’s not a guard. And if Jack can decide not to do it because of his friendship with Wilbur, Ranboo could do the same with Tommy.

But he didn’t.

-🌲

Okay spruce my flight boards in 6 min so I’m not gonna get through nearly as many of your asks as I thought lol but I’ll try to get through at least 1-2!

Unreliable narration my beloved <3 I feel like so many writers don’t realize how far they can go with it unless they’re going extreme with unreliable narration. If you’re in a single characters head, the perspective is gonna be skewed. But as readers we forget that because that one voice is our only insight into the world.

From the beginning, Wilbur suspected Ranboo. But then Wilbur’s POV gets questioned, and he starts second guessing himself so his POV changes to reflect that. Signs of suspicious from Ranboo are ignored or downplayed in the narration because that’s Wilbur tamping down on his inner paranoia.

I wanted to try and make Ranboo’s nosiness something that could almost just be seen as a character trait of his. Because in the dsmp, c!Ranboo is a centrist who likes hearing all sides of things. And I wanted to use the readers impressions of c!Ranboo against them, but not in a way that was ooc for c!ranboo. In my opinion, this is still fairly in character with c!ranboo’s people pleasing tendencies and his spineless, hypocritical nature. He’s not tricking Tommy out of malice. It’s because he wants to prove himself and make sure Techno likes him. But a lot of the fandom I think has a skewed view of c!ranboo and perceives him as a lot nicer or more genuine than he really is, so I wanted to take advantage of that and make readers think stars!Ranboo was like that. Genuine, sweet, if a bit awkward. So unreliable narration plus the medium of this being fanfic itself really helped with my trickery :)

Exactly! Jack can find a way around his orders, so Ranboo 100% could too. With the reveal, I wanted to emphasize that Ranboo has a CHOICE. He doesn’t have to do this. Techno even gives him an out! But he insists. This wasn’t something he was bullied into. It’s something he just doesn’t view as that bad because he’s a hypocritical lil guy

#ask #the stars and their children #spruce anon

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diavolosdaddymilkers · 2 years

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The Demon Bros finding out you're trans (ftm)

Lucifer

Very educated on the topic

Supports you 99.999%

Like he supports you, but doesnt see it as a big deal

He sees it as something natural

(probably expected it)

Whatever you need he will buy

ALWAYS makes time to comfort you when that dysphoria be kicking ur ass-

Respects your pronouns the most out of all the brothers (besides Satan)

Takes him the least amount of time to get accustomed

Just doesn't really care

He respects you either way

Still thinks your fucking hot and completely simps although he won't admit it

If your voice gets deeper, you get more masculine, hes probably gonna wanna make out with you.

You have to initiate it though-

Long story short, he loves you either way :)

Mammon

Makes a big deal out of it for nothing-

Tries to play it cool but ends up stuttering

"O-Oh wow- I mean uh o-okay uhm cool I gu-guess yknow? Heh-"

Misgenders you a little too often-

Poor baby doesn't mean to, he's just not used to it

Will hurt ANYONE who misgenders you (purposely)

Little hypocrite

Would 100% buy you unnecessary things

You have WAY too much expensive cologne from this man-

Will comfort you in the strangest way possible

Will probably say something along the lines of

"What do you MEAN you aren't a real man?? You smell like one! And you uhh, you identify as one.. and... YOURE A MAN OKAY??? Now man up and let's go shopping!"

He loves you tho <3

Will get a little jealous if you start getting more muscular than him-

Overall a 7/10 with this

Leviathan

Doesn't really care much

As long as you still watch anime and play games with him, he's happy :)

"Oh yeah! It reminds me of that one anime "I woke up a girl and didn't like it so now I identify as a man"! That's so cool!"

Tries not to misgender you a lot but still makes little mistakes here and there

Thinks you're even cooler than before

Admires your bravery to come out about it

Once he realized you TRUSTED him with this, he melted in the middle of his game-

Doesn't know how to comfort you, but he still tries his best :)

Offers to watch anime with you when dysphoria plays peek-a-boo with your sanity-

"Uh hey... Wanna watch a new anime I found? It's called "This Conveniently Placed Anime For When Your Dysphoria Is A Bully."

If you have muscles, PLEASE hold him in your arms-

Low-key respects you

Satan

Like his father brother, very educated on said topic

"As expected."

Like okay Expresso cookie

Just like Lucifer, he most likely saw it coming

Will help you with anything you need, want, or desire.

simp

Doesn't react much, he loves you either way :)

Okay but if your voice gets deeper, you are now his personal narrator.

It's your part-time job.

Read every book to him. Please. He craves it.

Probably suggests getting top surgery, just because he doesn't like to see you dysphoric :(

But when you do get dysphoric, he will tell you about all his favorite trans male characters and how he admires you

See now if someone decides to make a negative comment...

Blood. Need I say more?

Asmodeus

Your #1 supporter

Wayyy too excited but he means well

"..."

"EEEEEEE!!!! COME ON!!! WE HAVE TO REDO YOUR ENTIRE WARDROBE!!!"

Makes a really big deal out of it, in the best way possible

WILL show you off

"Hey look at my boyfriend! Isn't he handsome? Of course he is! I can only be seen with the best of the best!"

Is the one to help you transition in every way possible

You want cologne? Already got some

You wanna change your style? He already redid your wardrobe

You wanna cut your hair? Said and done.

You want-

NEVER misgenders you. Like ever.

Very prominent with your pronouns.

Absolutely adores it when you become more masculine

It kinda turns him on-

Then again what doesn't.

Beelzebub

I hate it when people act like Beel is oblivious to everything

It reminds me of fanon hinata

He knows what it is and is actually pretty damn happy if you came to him first about it

In the scenario you're bigger than him, he loves it so much-

Other than Diavolo, nobody has ever reached his height

Low-key finds it hot-

He doesn't care what you are, as long as you can still eat snacks with him :D

Supports you 100%

Rarely ever misgenders you

In the scenario that he does, he is not above begging for forgiveness

Loves cuddles, no matter what.

Especially if its you, him, and belphie-

"Uh hey MC, I got you a pride cupcake :)"

*pulls up with a trans themed cupcake*

Besides Asmo, the best at dealing with dysphoria

There is no such thing as dysphoria with him around :)

"It doesn't matter what you are MC, I still love you."

Belphegor

Definitely comes off as transphobic

"That's what you interrupted my nap for? I don't care."

Only realizes what he sounded like when you give him that "wtf..." Look

"I didn't mean it like that. I love you either way, I don't care what you identify as."

As long as your his cuddle buddy for life, y'know?

Death stares at anyone who dares look at you the wrong way

If looks could kill, they'd be long dead.

Doesn't necessarily know how to comfort you, but naps are the best comfort in his opinion :)

There's not much to it

He acts like it's been this way forever

It's like second nature to him to refer to you as a male

--------------------------------------------------

Sorry belphies was so short, I just don't think much would change with him lol I don't think he'd make a big deal out of it

Anyways, hope you liked it, I'm trans myself so I kinda wrote this for myself lmao- but I hope it makes anyone feel better about themselves :D

Until next time my friends!

#gaming #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #trans mc #trans male reader

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blueteller · 2 years

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“Trash of the Count’s Family” Review Series: Chapter 8

Trash of the Count’s Family Manhwa: Chapter 8

(This is actually the second time I'm writing this chapter's review, because Tumblr glitched out on me at the last second and deleted all of my work before I could post it. I tried to replicate it but I'm sure I missed some things – so this is the shorter, less detailed version. Sorry about that.)

We start off with Cale noticing how Ron apparently has been feeding Choi Han well (suuure Cale, you don't care at all about the well-being of this protagonist, you're just using him… uhuh, I totally believe you), and how apparently Choi Han, Beacrox/Vicross – depending on translation – and Ron are all getting along (suuure Cale 🤣).

Then we get an adorable, sincere face of Choi Han who wants to repay Cale for his kindness. I honestly adore Choi Han's design, it's simple but it's just so cute.

Cale notices how the events are gradually diverting from "The Birth of a Hero" (TBOAH) story-line, and how much more they will change when he goes to the capital. He puts a page on the table and starts "interviewing" Choi Han: he asks him whether he can protect. Choi Han is surprised at the question.

Cale thinks on how he can profit from the current situation and we get the first "no-eyes" shot of this chapter – only 1/5 awkwardness rating, since I barely caught it. Cale is planning on taking the "Ancient Powers" before Choi Han and his companions from TBOAH can get them. Honestly speaking, when I first read this part, it made me think Cale really isn't a selfless person, just like his inner narrator kept insisting. However, we will soon find out that despite Cale framing it in such a selfish manner – coming in and stealing other people's good luck before they can get it – he admits to the audience that "they won't need them anyway". Turns out Ancient Powers really are supposed to be minor power-ups, which didn't serve a larger purpose in the original story-line. In retrospection, Cale really has a tendency of framing his "misdeeds" as if they're the ultimate proof that he absolutely cannot be a good person, while downplaying all of his acts of charity and selflessness as if they didn't matter. What a charming hypocrite you are, Cale…

Anyway, Cale continues the interview. Choi Han doubts himself, because of course he does – he just failed to save the entire village of people who were like family to him. Then Cale asks him if he can kill. Choi Han naturally responds yes. He did kill all the assassins, after all. Cale tells him that he can protect as well, then. Choi Han says that would be difficult. But Cale responds that "difficult doesn't mean impossible".

We are reminded about Kim Rok Soo's backstory of a difficult past as a poor orphan. It's the reason he's so happy that he got transmigrated as a rich trash/lout like OG Cale. But now Cale faces an obstacle to his desired peaceful life, so he needs Choi Han to get through it – naturally ignoring the fact that by doing so, he's helping Choi Han with his problems as well.

(...And getting involved in the very plot he didn't want to get involved with from the start – but as we've established by now, our MC's self-awareness is equal to that of a potato sometimes 😂)

Choi Han smiles as he agrees with Cale and ahhh, why is he so cute?? I wanna squish that over-century-old teenager's cheeks! 🤗

Then Cale finishes off the interview by asking Choi Han his name. He knows it by now, obviously, but he wants to hear it from Choi Han himself. I'm not 100% sure how to interpret Cale gesture here – if maybe that's some Korean culture aspect that I'm missing – but if I had to guess… I think that's his way of showing respect? Like, accepting Choi Han as a proper employee. Which is just so wholesome of Cale. He really has no idea what a nice guy he is.

When Choi Han asks "You don't know my name?", we get a long-distance image where we can still clearly see Choi Han and Cale's expression. So that's very nice. Unfortunately, we get another "no-eyes" shot from Cale in the very next panel, and it's reaaally noticeable and obvious, so I'm giving it a 4/5.

But Choi Han's happy smile as he reaches out to Cale is great. And the way the hands are drawn is fantastic, as always. So an awkward panel here and there is a small price to pay, I think.

Now that our main heroes finally introduced themselves and Cale officially hired Choi Han, Cale passes him the page we saw at the beginning. Choi Han reads two names on it: Rosalyn and Lock/Lark – once again, depends on translation.

We get some exposition on the new characters (whose eyes are covered, but since they count as "mysterious, yet-to-be-revealed characters", I'm giving it a pass): Rosalyn is a princess who survived an assassination attempt, as well as an incredible mage who would lead the strongest Magic Tower in the future. Lock/Lark is the heir and only survivor of the Blue Wolf Tribe, who can transform into a powerful beastman through "berserk transformation".

Cale get chills as he remembers how TBOAH, Beacrox/Vicross would torture those who tried to assassinate Rosalyn. That panel is surprisingly bloody, considering how earlier all violent scenes got significantly censored… I'm really impressed! It looks scary and gory, but it's amazing. Such a minor scene got so much detail, the artist is really someone special.

(Also, Cale's disturbed expression is quite hilarious, not gonna lie 😏)

With another "no-eyes" shot (let's give it a 2/5) Cale says it's a good thing Choi Han can read, and before anyone can accuse him of being patronizing – that's a valid concern, since education doesn't seem to be a requirement among peasantry in this world. Cale is actually being very clever by staying in-character as a noble – from that point of view, Choi Han's ability to read wasn't guaranteed at all.

Next, Cale pulls out a map and – wait… seriously? The map of the continent? Cale, wasn't there any smaller-scale maps?? I'm pretty sure a country map would be enough! Or is this "subtle" exposition for the audience? ...Or maybe since this map will be used more in the future, the artist just didn't bother with a country-sized map, since they would have to make up a lot of towns or something.

Either way – we get what I think is our first close look at this world's layout. Cale points at the right middle side, so this is where this country (yet unnamed at this point, I believe) is located on the continent. The castle in the middle apparently symbolizes the capital, where Cale is going. The buildings at the North-East stand for the Henituse territory, their journey's starting point. Cale plans on taking Choi Han with him part of the way, before splitting up. There is a reason for that.

We get some more exposition: in TBOAH, there was a villain Marquis/Marquess – again, depending on translation. Both are accurate nobility titles, one rank before the Duke position. That person served as an antagonist to Choi Han and the crown prince. He also raised a "crazy dragon".

Then we get more TBOAH story content: a dragon, less than 5 years old, was tortured in an attempt to tame it. However, it broke free and went berserk (or more accurately, into "mana explosion state", since the "berserk state" is solely for the Beast People), killing innocent villagers. Choi Han fought the dragon and killed it out of mercy.

Now lets get into the most interesting topic to discuss this chapter: the visual representation of the dragon's rampage.

I admit, the first time I read this I totally missed the part about the dragon being only 4. The way this sequence was shown in the Manhwa made me believe this was an adult dragon. It isn't a spoiler to say that wasn't the case since the age is right there: also, at the beginning we were told that Choi Han has been gifted "the lifespan of a dragon, making him pretty much never age". Based on that information, it's obvious that dragons are VERY long lived, so less than 5 years makes it a kid, if not an infant. In the novel we get even more information: the dragon was small, about 1 meter (about 3.3 feet) in length and described as very cute.

So here's the question: why was this dragon drawn like an adult?

When I started writing this review, I thought perhaps it was hidden for a future twist: the Manhwa-only readers would expect a huge, scary beast, and would get a surprise in the form of a small adorable baby later on – just like I did, when I read it for the first time.

I even came up with a theory how such a thing could canonically make sense – the dragon growing in size so much while going berserk. In some lore we will get much, much later, we find out that dragons go through sudden growth phases, instead of growing gradually. If the dragon broke free by cutting through some of its life force… that means it could have forcefully sped up its growth, with potentially very deadly consequences. So this change isn't necessarily a plot-hole or anything.

However, the more I thought about it… I realized what was likely the true reason.

The reason I'm content with this representation of the scene, is that aside from being very well-drawn and dramatic... I didn't want to see a baby get murdered on screen. But what if the artist's reason was the same? It is a form of censorship, in a way – just like drawing less blood in a village massacre.

...Or maybe it's because it's all Cale's imagination and he just thinks dragons are scary 😅 Who knows!

Back to the chapter – Cale knows he can't avoid the village where that event took place, since it's on his way to the capital. He plans on either having Choi Han take care of the dragon again, or releasing it before it can go crazy. I think we all know where this is going… 😏

Cale tells Choi Han to bring Rosalyn and Lock/Lark to the capital as repayment. Choi Han asks if his job is to protect them. Cale tells him to "do whatever he wants", which is especially sweet since it's 100% sincere sentiment from Cale that will repeat a lot in the future. Cale believes in the freedom of choice for his allies; so even though he manipulates people and lies sometimes, he never forces them to act against their will or judgment. He's sending Choi Han to meet Rosalyn and Lock/Lark like he did in TBOAH, but he doesn't force him to form a relationship with them – they don't need his protection, they're powerful and capable people in their own right. (And Cale's unconditional belief in their abilities will cause a lot of beautiful misunderstandings in the future… 😂)

Cale also tells Choi Han to come to the capital uninjured – because he needs him healthy for the plan, of course! It's not like he cares for his well-being or anything… 🤣

Once Choi Han confirms that he can protect himself, Cale finally dismisses him (with a beautifully-drawn hand btw) and tells him to keep their discussion a secret. Choi Han says "I know" and leaves.

After a lovely transition of a starry night with a full moon above the Henituse mansion… we see Cale speaking with the Count, requesting money (because of course he is, lol). Deruth agrees without hesitation, showing once more he is a very generous father. We get 3 "no-eyes" shots one after another: Deruth, Cale & Ron, and separately I'd give them 1, 3 & 2, maybe... but together like that… mm… I'm giving those the first 5/5 awkwardness rating. That was just too many in too little space, you can't just not notice it.

We see Cale chilling in bed with his money check, with Ron serving him lemon tea, "made especially for him, for a good night's sleep". Allow me to remind you that Cale shares taste with OG Cale and dislikes sour things and likes sweet things instead. Also, Ron absolutely knows about that. He's just being a jerk on purpose 😂

Before he leaves, Ron also tells Cale to "remember that he is always right beside him", and I'm not sure he intends it to sound like a threat… but Cale sure hears it that way, judging from his expression! The relationship between this two really is comedy gold.

Now Cale is really set on sending off that sly assassin and his son with Choi Han in the future. Good thing they're all getting along well... Riiiight, Cale?? 🤣

And thats the chapter! Despite those "no-eyes" shots, there were so many beautiful panels with amazing expressions and detailed imagery, I really enjoyed it. Not to mention the humor. And my favorite dragon finally showing up! I really love this story.

Feel free to leave comments!

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#tcf #trash of the count's family #lcf #lout of the count’s family #tcf manhwa #review #manhwa review #tcf manhwa review series #tcf manhwa chapter 8

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facepalming-since-chernobyl · 2 years

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I have been thinking for years about it and I’m going to share it. I think we talked about it in a way, mentiuoning it in other comments and posts, but I after s6 it’s became clearer.

Hope and compassion for all - is the main theme of Supergirl, repeated in all seasons, probably like 20 times if not more. Kara is the Paragon of Hope (btw, it always makes me laugh, because ‘paragon’ in Polish means ‘receipt’, so it’s like pray to Kara so your paragon won’t be high, but whatever) and made gazillion erm, inspiring speeches about it and yet, it’s teh shittiest and most hypocritical part of the show.

Because the hope, help and compassion for ALL are for the superfriends or their friends. And well, for the good guys. And Usamericans. The rest can basically, go to hell.

There is not ALL in it. And never was.

Because that all should goes for example, for Lex, Lockwood, Nyxly, Edge, Rhea, Mr Alienphobe President and any other asshole of the series. For example the security guy who was doing his job for not allowing Kara entering the event she was not invented and ended with broken arm and what was cheered becasue girl power.

I get why Lex, as a notorious murderer and threat that can’t change for better, simply deserve to rot in Phanton Zone and that’s simply obvious.

But then we have Lockwood and Lobotomizer.

Lockwood started as a normal guy, the thing that pushed him into becoming the Agent Liberty were circumstances such as losing factory, losing father, losing his house and watching his family being in danger and meeting wrong people. Remember how got hurt by the panicking alien and Deo came and Alex treated him like an alienphobe, assuming he was among the humans who attacked the alien?

The point is, I see a logic in his path of becoming a villain and he deserved what he got in the end aka rotting in hell, that’s justice. His actions were wrong. I can understand why he became like that, still murderer.

But. Not a single character, not Kara, not Alex, not Lena (who ignored his father’s financial probelms and simply treated them as liability, but sure she went for a funeral and was hurt because he told her to fuck off) - no one showed him compassion, tried to understand, tried to help and show him there is hope. No one. I guess because he was a white dude and that’s the perfect storyline for white dudes in Supergirl’s narration?

Just compare his story to Manchester Black. I don’t remember the shit, but I’m pretty sure J’onn tried to understand him and Kara was not so against him.

Because, I guess, he was INVITED FOR CHRISTMAS SO THEY WERE FRIENDS UWU.

And there, we have Lobotomizer. Who violated every human right you can imagine, broke law more times I can count and hurt Kara *copy/paste here every argument against her* and yet, every time she got compassion, help, undersatnding and hope. Multiple times. Before she tortured Kara and after. Her EVERY shitty idea and horrible deed she did was excused and showed in a good light and in the end she didn’t pay consequecnes for her actions. Because you know, hope, help and compassion for all.

All means Superfriends’ friends. Who are also white privileged wealthy bitch, I guess?

And I absolutely get that you have double standards for people you like and are friends with. I get you help your friends and cover their shit, but that’s not for what Supergirl and Co should stand for. Not when they claim it’s for ALL.

And don’t even let me start like seriously Kara is Usamerican and stands for everything what is Usamerican. I get it too. But once again, hope, help and compassion are universal and the show clearly claimed they are not. I get it was Usamerican show,. made for Usamerican audience but for me, agian, being a hero is also universal. And what we got were Usamerican perfect girl and her Usamerican friends (sorry, Usamerican people who read it, but I hope you get my point). It was all too clear in s4 and the horrible crap that was Red Daughter’s storyline.

I just don’t get at all what the showed tried to tell or teach us. They contradicted themsleves in so many things and I don’t see the whole picture.

Hope, help and ocmpassion for people we choose. White privileged bitches who are our friends are ok, even when they do shit. Fuck white males, even if we are the reason their lives went to hell. Sisterhood is amazing even when toxic shit happened and it all is ignored. Girlpower means breaking security dudes arms when they do their jobs. You can magically heal alcoholism by not talking about it. Breaking law is ok as long as you wanted to do good and feel bad about it. Blinded by feelings is an excuse for tortures and brainwashing. No one needs therapy. True friendship is torturing your friends and hurting them. You can’t keep secrets from your friends. Scientists don’t need to being keep in check and can do whatever they want. Being an idiot is ok.Doing things you don’t like is ok as long as you are successful. Protecting your beloved people and family while keeping secrets is wrong, just tell the shit to whole world. Taking off your glasses can fix all your problems.

Whatever.

#anti sg #my shit

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pocketramblr · 3 years

Text

other main character meta- Ochako, pt 1

“Could you send me there?” you ask, while i blink, confused. “The world where someone else is the main character? not because i have any hypocritical biases against the one i got, just curious how the fandom meta changes.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” I nod, thinking, before tapping my wand against your forehead. “Let’s start with Ochako.”

"I'm going to warn you now- I will have to slightly adjust the plot like I did with Mirio, just to actually let her be the main character."

"Yeah, that checks out." You nod, thinking about certain arcs where the female fighting teams get no coverage while the dudes get four different backstory reveals and full fight focus.

"Very well."

The show begins with a brief narration by the girl of quirks and super hero fights- all flashy. Then it zooms out to show the destruction, and a small construction team moving in as Ochako explains that just as there are new careers in society for heroes, there's also a bigger market for construction companies, one of which her own family runs.

"I've always wanted to help them with it, and my quirk would be useful"- a tiny, adorable Ochako finally appears, making rocks in a park float- "but to get a work license like that is expensive and selective- you've got to make a lot of court appearances and convince them why is a good idea and won't destroy the economy. It's much easier to get a hero license."

Then she explains: "Of course, once you have a hero license, you can make a lot more money than just by helping the company. Especially if... Your family company isn't doing very well." A series of tired but loving parents are shown working all hours to make ends meet.

"I want to help them- my parents. They've done everything for me, and they deserve a break. So that's why I'm going to be a hero- their hero."

The training montage is quick, using her quirk during school in training, after school in secret, around the house. She saves up money too, and studies, aiming for a scholarship.

She applies and tests for many hero schools, and the exams all vary widely.

The first episode ends with her looking up at UA, her final one, the one she really hopes to get into.

"Oh, that's nice." You nod. "And we even get to know her parents' quirks here."

"Yep." I agree. "In general, there's a lot more of a look at the financial side. It's pretty interesting."

"And the fandom?"

"Well, certain people get praised for the bare minimum, but I'll admit having a female lead is super uncommon for shonen jump." It's an improvement, though it's up in the air how much of one it will be. "There's also, because we saw a lot more hero schools, a ton of "students at different school" fics, either because they were expelled or because of the danger UA gets into."

"I do kinda feel like this universe is lucky for that sort of world building." You nod.

"It's very cool to see the takes on the aus. But, I will say there's a cost for this world building- the AfO stuff reeeeally comes out of nowhere and tends to not be popular with fans."

The next episode starts, and Ochako helps a boy from falling. "Love interest alert!" The fans notice quickly when the cute boy blushes and doesn't manage to say much before she walks away.

"They caught on quick." You note.

"And they aren't wrong." Not that it's any real feat to be right.

The exam starts, and Ochako is off in a flash. You see a few glimpses of future classmates- Iida, Aoyama, Kirishima.

She does well, racking up villain points and rescue points, until she's a little too ambitious and falls into the rubble. Her nausea is well established by now, everyone knows she's at her limit.

She can't get up.

The green haired boy comes back and stops the zero pointer.

And breaks every bone in the process.

Ochako saves him in return, lifting up the rubble and stopping his fall.

And then vomits violently afterwards.

"You know, I think quirks suck, actually." The fandom tends to agree on this after that episode/chapter. "But it is interesting that there's such a price for the powers, balances it really well."

"Ha." You shake your head. "They caught onto that, quicker."

"Yep." I can't even say it's more highlighted here, it's the exact same way it was shown in our universe- down to the sparkling rainbow puke.

"Though..." You can't quite imagine that's the only thing the fandom is saying isn't actually that great.

"Ding ding ding." I nod. "Did our own main character get treated just like a damsel in distress? Sure, she saved him back, but that just meant she could have floated away on her own in that time, even if it made her sick. Better that than dead. Is it the sexism?" I shrug. "Most decide to wait and see a bit, and by the time they work together in the first battle exercise figure it's a pretty even split between them saving each other."

"So no sexism?" You get happy at that thought.

I cough. "Ah, no. Both in the show and the fandom. You wouldn't believe how many grown men complain about the lady mc, even as they keep watching."

"And have her body pillow."

"Please don't make me think about that." I cover my eyes, but don't deny that it's true. "Anyway, yeah. Get ready for a lot of people to point out that even though the main character is a girl, every single other girl is flat as cardboard so far and that she only has developed friends that are guys."

"Hey, they aren't flat-"

"In the first season? Yeah they are. Unless you meant, physically, in which case..."

"I didn't." You protest. "But I guess I can see your point, at the start."

"Right. Let's continue on."

Uraraka goes to Present Mic to offer her points. The man pats her on the head, and skyrockets to the position of fandom dad.

"It's all about Dadmic and then Dadzawa here," I explain. "The fans were very disappointed to learn Mic wasn't her homeroom teacher, but yeah... He got a huge head start before Dadzawa fics got going."

"Nice. And it's all fanon?"

"Yeah, it may be a good thing he's not actually in it much, or they might realize how much they just made up on their own."

Then she gets accepted in, on hero and rescue points- she's third place overall, and she gets the scholarship.

On the first day of school, she actually gets to know her love interest's name- Midoriya!

There's also the quirk assessment, which really leads to the "expelled to another school" au and the "fire Aizawa and replace him with better Mic" aus, the first of which lasts much longer in the fandom use, but the second one was just as passionate for a while.

Iida becomes the second friend, and gives her the "Infinity Girl" nickname- which actually is the fandom assumption of what her hero name will be for quite a while, a la 'ground zero'.

Then it's time for All Might's first appearance on screen, to much applause of the students, and the announcement that they get their costumes.

During the first battle exercise, there's a lot more lingering camera work in the changing rooms. Ochako gets to expand a lot more on how she didn't want her costume to be that tight. It's uncomfortable, especially when she thinks about wearing it in front of everyone.

"Oh, I forgot she didn't like it at first... Does she just, get used to it here?" It sounds horrible for the plot to just say 'get used to it' to the main character being sexualized by costume makers outside of her control, especially as a child.

"Not on my watch." I mumble, waving the wand. "Don't worry, she'll actually get more costume changes each time, like some other characters."

"Oh good."

Mineta, regrettably, still exists. You find the fandom manages to be even more violent in his removal.

The battle does even out the opinions on Midoriya, as well as lead to a boost in Iida's with his charming little attempt at thinking villainously.

And cements Bakugo as rather hated. No one has really liked him, when the first thing he did was blow up at Midoriya, then get revealed to have called him a cruel nickname all this time. And then specifically hunt him down because all he cares about it beating him up.

"Yeah he's not gonna get a lot of fans here huh."

"He sure never gets first place in the popularity poll." I agree. "Most consider him the subversion of the rival trope to show is just stupid and violent and in real life, people like that don't go anywhere."

"Most?"

I look away. "How dumb of a discourse do you think you could see today?"

"Oh please, show me." You lean in. "It's nice to not have to deal with it in my universe, so I don't care."

The discourse is such.

Bakugo is gay-coded for Midoriya, the violence is a result of him being shoved off for a girl's love interest when she should be single and independent, and the homophobic creator is vilifying all gay people by saying they are predatory to poor straight boys with refused.

"They............... What."

"If it makes you feel better, that's a very brief minority of the fandom. My favorite response to it was "he's not gay-coded, he's bully coded you sanctimonious sumph of a shmuck.""

"Oh good," you sigh. "I'm glad we don't have to deal with actual queerphobic tropes like that."

I stare at you.

"What?"

I sigh. "Nothing, put a pin in that until I bring up the predatory bi thing with Toga."

Your eyes widen, and you start to have some regrets.

"Anyway, we can talk shipping later. Time for more."

The 'exit sign Iida' gives him a boost in being shipped with Ochako, (as well as Yaoyorozu) and also the general idea that "Ochako has two hands."

That one hand can have a boyfriend with a lot of cash to spare for her and the other is also played with.

"I missed the main trio, like this." You smile as they walk off into the sunset after school.

"Yeah." I agree. "Anyway, time for some near death experiences."

The USJ marks the start of the gradual, gradual growth of Dadzawa fics. It also focuses far more on Ochako, Mina, Sero, and Iida having to think strategically to get around Kurogiri. It's only after Iida escapes that we cut back to a slightly abridged version of how Midoriya was doing, then the other kids, before help arrives.

He does still through his first non bone breaking punch though, which makes the audience happy.

All Might saves the day. Aizawa is battered afterwards. Many fans start out by saying they were disappointed, since this was supposed to be the first big fight, and the kids didn't do much. Many others say in response that's the point- we're looking at first years, they had to think and help each other, but in the end they had to rely on adults.

And then the sports festival is announced. They want to do well, because this is how they get work-week placements, which could become internship offers.

Ochako thinks about Hado Nejire, the only intern of a top ten hero, and senior at UA, along with a few others who are on the up and up. She's determined.

"Really? You're bringing in the big three early?" You ask, glancing at my wand.

It's not sparkling.

I cross my arms with a huff. "Look. Nejire is at this point the only intern in the top ten, she would have been recognizable to the students for that, even if they didn't recognize the big three (which really means that they aren't actually called the Big Three by everyone, or at least not a wide enough group for it to be as big a deal as it's treated. Anyway.) But she wasn't, even if she should have been the most famous of the bunch, considering the coverage the first years got in just their first night. That's because a certain someone doesn't actually think of his female characters much, but he has to in this universe, so."

"Ok, yeah, that's fair. So does that change the sports festival?"

"Not... Much." I admit.

“What?”

“Well, keep in mind in the first universe, our main character didn’t make it past the second round in the one-on-one’s. So she’s not exactly guaranteed a win here either.”

You have to nod, admitting that is true.

“And the conflict isn’t so much about having to live up to any predecessor or breaking down some people’s walls via breaking bones.” I tap my wand against my chin, thinking. “There really is two- one about Midoriya, and one about Ochako’s parents.”

“Oh?”

“One, there’s been the Uraraka’s not happy about how much danger Ochako’s been in. Its been hinted at in the phone calls, but really shows up when we get to see them at home before the SF for the first time since she moved for school. They aren’t sure if she can stay there herself, or if the right thing to do would be to pull her out and maybe try a smaller school.”

“I suppose that's fair, if they haven't been able to actually see her or her progress.”

“Right. The second one is- well. in this, Izuku’s win of the first round, and then breaking out of brainwashing, is more about really piling on how good his mind is- all that brain power. This adds more pressure when we see Ochako being offered a plan from him to beat Bakugo.”

“Oh that does sound neat.”

“Yep- but of course, she still refuses. It’s held up as a worse thing, strategically, initially- but then she comes up with a plan that Midoriya confirms in the stands is better than his, and proves to her parents that she’s smart and skilled enough to handle continuing at the school.”

You smile. “That is a cool arc to do, i guess, if very not traditional. But what about all the character setup and growth with Shinsou and Todoroki?”

“Oh, Shinsou’s largely gets delegated all the way later for the joint training arc, where Ochako’s team is directly against him. Todoroki...” I begin to giggle.

You wait for me to answer, getting more concerned the longer i laugh.

“Pocket?”

“Sorry, sorry, yeah. He actually tells her himself in this canon, a bit after stain. Oh! right, i forgot- the cheerleader incident.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes. of course they need this merch opportunity! But yes, it happens. The... shall we say, non-body-pillow portion of the fandom, generally saw it as the end of any goodwill to Kaminari, who had previously been seen as a tertiary possible love interest, since he’d flirted with her on the first day. Flirt, but harmless, and unlikely to be important. Then there was that breach of trust and international embarrassment, and anyway he’s basically the second least likely in 1a to be shipped with her now.”

“Wow. So none of that changed?”

“Well, the setup wasn’t under narration from Todoroki about how his mother was bought for her body and how much that sucked and impacted her and the family while on screen we see multiple girls tricked into barring their bodies and its treated as a laugh instead?”

You stare at me. “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”

“Neither am I.”

“So, the Todoroki reveal?”

“Right. So, first you need to know the Stain thing- the claims he has against ‘false’ heroes focusing on money is better spotlighted. After Stain’s arrest, Ochako hears a couple of sidekicks at Gunhead’s agency-”

“Wait!” you interrupt. “She still interned with Gunhead? Then what was the point of showing Nejire and Ryukyuu earlier?”

I try not to massage my forehead. “To build up to it. She only made it to the first of the final round, she couldn’t get an internship with a top tenner yet. She’s also got to learn how to disarm someone who fights with a knife. These things build up over more time, small steps.”

“Ah.” You’re satisfied, and let me continue.

“Right, so, Overhears a couple of them talking about Stain’s philosophy and ends up just feeling really bad about it for a bit, trying to figure out if she’s actually being selfish or a bad hero for, you know, wanting her family to not be crushed due to capitalism.”

“Poor girl.” You shake your head in sympathy, the freeze. “Oh. did not intend that pun.”

“It’s alright, i know what you mean. And yeah, she bottles it up for a bit, until the second day back at school. Then Iida reminds her that him bottling things up last week got several kids in mortal danger, and she begrudgingly admits that he has a point and tells them about what has been bugging her.”

“And they comfort her?”

“Well, Todoroki also offers to tell off Kaminari because at this point his mention of stain upset both her and iida, but yes, A lot of reassurances.”

You squint. “I feel like shippers.”

“You’re learning! Yes, Todoroki is just a bit behind Iida in terms of popularity shipping with her. and she does basically get shipped A Lot with each girl in her class too, like imagine double to triple the amount with each girl now, and for the minor guys- but yeah. There’s a lottttt of ships. This was basically called ‘todoroki’s introduction into ochako’s harem’ in the fandom.”

Shipping. fandom just can’t escape it.

“So, then she learns about Todoroki’s past? oh, and what about Hosu? Does she- and everyone else- actually think Endeavor saved the three??”

I snort. “Oh, no. Todoroki’s flat ‘yeah my father totally helped us, as you read on the official report’ basically tipped the fandom off that something else had. But nothing confirmed either, you know? Filling in the hosu gap is another trope in fics that is pretty common.”

“Neat.”

“Yep. But yeah Todoroki tells her his backstory a bit after his introduction into her ‘harem’ of friends. It’s really played up more to caution Ochako- its alright for her to want to help her family, and to work for money to do that. But Rei accepted the marriage offer for money for her family too, and it ended up breaking her. Ochako has to accept a balance- she can work to help her family, and its good, but there are some things she cannot morally do to help them, and other things that she shouldn’t do because she has to take care of her own health first.”

“Ohhhh.” You hadn’t quite expected that, but you sorta liked it, now that you thought about it.

I smile. “It is pretty neat, yeah.” I glance at my watch. “Look, i hate to cut you off, but this post is gonna end up thrice the length of Mirio’s and i think tumblr might stop me, so we’re gonna have to do a two-parter.”

“That’s fine.” You are gracious for what you’ve gotten so far, and do have questions that you’re excited to see answered for the rest of the series. “It’s been fun.”

“It has been.” I agree. “Lets take a break, but you can ask me any questions too, before I return for part two.”

#other main characters meta series #seriously u may send questions i will try to adress in part two #but yeah wow that got long #see you in part two

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rein-ette · 3 years

Note

If you still fancy a drabble prompt, I've always seen Canada and England having a very warm and comfortable relationship- if it interests you, maybe a prompt could be one going to the other for advice about something?

It does indeed interest me, thank you for the prompt! I've had a bunch of Mattie-Arthur scenarios swimming around in my mind for a long time, so I'm glad to have a chance to put one of them down on paper. As always, this was supposed to be a "drabble" but magically lengthened itself the more I thought about it -- I don't think drabbles are supposed to have historical notes.

"Come in."

Matthew shifted his pile of papers to his other arm and pushed through the door of Arthur's office. Inside, the fading afternoon light illuminated the rich mahogony floor and danced on the spines of the hundreds of books that lined each wall. Remembering the excitement he felt when he was first allowed to peruse these shelves, Matthew couldn't help but smile softly to himself.

Arthur himself sat at his desk, one ankle propped up on his knee as he stared idly out the window. Matthew could just barely see a white trim of bandages that peeked out from underneath his collar. That dimmed his smile. It had been more than two years now since the war had ended in Europe, but Arthur still looked as gaunt as he did during the days when engines still roared over London and — though Matthew had not thought it possible — even more exhausted. The worn smile Arthur offered him said as much, and Matthew pushed away a twinge of guilt.

Arthur jerked his chin at the seat in front of his desk and Matthew sat, stacking his documents in a neat pile in front of him. Instead of immediately going through them, however, he gazed worriedly at his old guardian.

"How are you feeling?"

Arthur sighed and shifted in his seat, dropping his leg and turning to face Matthew. He stared at the ancient, ink-stained wood of his desk for a while, and Matthew could almost see the warring emotions on Arthur's face as his desire to be honest fought with his lingering instinct to conceal and protect Matthew from the worries that plagued him. But because they were past such pretenses, he finally murmured, "Tired."

Matthew hummed sympathetically in response. There wasn't much he could do or say to change that, and he expected the reports he brought would only exhaust Arthur further. So he merely asked, "Are you remembering to apply the salve twice a day?"

Matthew flushed a little when Arthur rolled his eyes at him good-naturedly, realizing he was fussing like Arthur was his child, instead of the other way around. Thankfully, Arthur spared him further embarrasment by only answering a tad dryly that yes, he was actually capable of following simple instructions. Matthew mumbled out a reply before deciding that he might as well get on with what he was actually here for, knowing Arthur had never been one for small talk. Clearing his throat, he slid the top half of his stack of papers across the desk.

"They sent you a copy of Lord Mountbatten's plan, I think with annotations, though I haven't gone through the whole thing. And this part is the proposal for the national flag. Also," he pulled a cream letter from the pile and passed that over as well, "India asked that you be there personally, in August," he finished.

Arthur hummed and rifled through the papers. Matthew couldn't quite read his expression. After a few moments, he stacked them again and placed them to the side, with the letter on top. "Thanks. I'll go through them later."

Matthew nodded. "And here I just summarized the letters and stuff from the others. I've left them back in the box, in case you wanted to read them yourself. There's not too much going on really. That you don't already know."

"Yes. Thank you. This is a great help, Matthew, truly."

"You're welcome," Matthew murmured, and watched Arthur scan the notes before setting them aside as well. His eyes traced the shadows underneath the other nation's eyes, before dropping back down to the cotton bandages around his neck. He wondered if Arthur was sleeping at all.

"Is there anything else I can do? I'm heading back to Ottawa next week, but if you need me to take over some stuff for a bit, I can stay longer —"

"No, no, it's fine," Arthur cut him off. "Like I said, I'm just a little tired, that's all. But all this," he waved a hand at the documents , "isn't anything new."

Matthew frowned. "Isn't it?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, I know the paperwork isn't new, but, these," he drew a breath, "reforms, and the war, of course. That's — I mean. No one's, you know, had to deal with that, before."

Arthur frowned, and traced a finger along the edge of his desk, before sighing, "No, I guess not." He turned again to look out the window behind him. After several long moments, he said, quietly, "But it's not entirely unexpected, either. I just—" The corner of his lips jerked down, and for a moment it seemed as if he was almost in pain. He drew in a breath, and said, "It's just. Difficult. That's all. To—but." He stopped again, grimaced, as if at his own ineloquence. Finally, he said, slowly, as carefully as if he was embroidering the words onto the air between them, "The world is changing. Let us not stand in the way, lest they make us out to be fools."

Watching him struggle, Matthew found himself at a loss as well. Never had he imagined that Arthur — sharp-tongued, quick-witted Arthur, who could neither be bullied nor silenced, who could quote from more books than Matthew had ever read — would be scrambling for words. But then, as he watched Arthur's shoulders curve in towards himself like Matthew had seen a thousand times before in another stubborn, sandy-haired nation who also seemed to have endless words but never quite the right ones, he knew what he needed to do.

Smiling again, Matthew stood, drawing on Arthur's arm so he would turn to face him and said, "I think you need a hug."

Unnecessarily Long Notes are Unnecessarily Long

I didn't state the specific setting of this scene, but the timing of the historical events mentioned means it has to have been sometime between June and August of 1947. Despite the fact that Mattie says "not much is going on", my lord, a lot was going on in 1947; hence why Artie is doing his best impression of the walking dead. Besides the Indian and Pakistan independence movement, officially achieved in August 1947 which is alluded to (Mountbatten, or 3 June Plan, was the precursor to the Indian Independence Act of 1947), Europe was also going through complete social upheaval. To mention just a couple highlights: Germany was in such ruin it was said to have returned to the Roman ages, Britain was rationing harder than ever despite the war having ended, and of course Mr. Truman and Mr. Stalin were gearing up for the Great Showdown. A quote I like which captures the feeling of the time is from H.G. Wells: "[where] other civilizations rolled and crumbled down, the European civilization was, as it were, blown up." [quoted by Tony Judt, Postwar]. Also directly concerning Arthur was the issue of Palestine, which as we all know was and is contentious, to say the very least.

Arthur's attitude to decolonisation is...complicated. Clearly I went with a softer view here, but certainly not all (or even many) British held the view in 1947 that the Empire should be decolonized at all. Hence Arthur during this time was probably a raging hypocrite and, if he wasn't already, at least 50% psychologically unstable. However, I allowed Arthur a little dignity here, in part because he's 2000 years old and as such should have a tiny more perspective than us humans, and also because the weakness of the Empire was much more evident to those in government and the army. Even if it wasn't popular opinion yet, anyone with half a braincell could see that every day Britian didn't decolonize was costing them more than they could afford. Additionally, Britain did decolonise much, much faster than all the other powers and in a relatively peaceful and orderly manner, though what ensued in the countries they left behind was neither. I should also add that Matthew is not the most objective of narrators either -- Canada, despite being a former colony, was still strongly Anglophilic, especially right after WWII. Still, I hope ya'll won't begrudge Arthur a hug.

#hws england #hws canada #fic #ask #rainbowfruitpastilles #needcake i'm working on urs next #ngl urs is kinda hard #but thats what practice is about #in the meantime send more asks :D #this is fun #fun times with the commonwealth

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snicketstrange · 3 years

Text

Chapter 8:

Lemony apparently really has something against museums ... I think I can say that The End connects with ATWQ by making references to the invasion of museums, like the introduction to chapter 8.

I also want to highlight again the narration involving the thoughts of the Baudelaires. The way Lemony narrates such thoughts shows that he had access to those thoughts. This is not a guess or a trick, as he does not repeat this ability with other characters. Lemony certainly read what the Baudelaires themselves wrote about their own thoughts and feelings.

Kit confirms that sooner or later everything appears on the island. The number of people who claim this is so great that it cannot be denied.

Kit's associates talked about how the island was a very fun place before. Kit's description is very much like the reception Lemony claims to have had when he was shipwrecked. I hope this indicates that the island was once again inhabited by nice people after the Baudelaires left, although it may indicate that Lemony was shipwrecked twice ... once before Ish's arrival and once after Ish's departure. .

Kit claims that she had been informed by Thursday that the colony had suffered a schism as VFD suffered. This increases our understanding of what happened on the island a few years earlier. Shortly after Beatrice and Bertrand left, the island continued to be a fun place for some time. If Friday is about 8 years old, and Violet is 14 years old, over a 6 year period, the island was a fun place until there was the island schism. On the island's schism, Thursday parted ways with Miranda. He met Kit, and was able to describe the island as a fun place, but one that had gone through a recent schism. It is true that Miranda and Thursday may have arrived on the island just before Cisma happened, but it was enough time for Thursday to have good memories of the time he spent there.

I found it interesting that Kit also claims that the story of VFD is not the only story in the world ... She uses a phraseology very similar to what Olaf used to refer to the story of the Baudelaires.

"The telegram device fell on my legs when the submarine was attacked. I need your help, Baudelaires. I need to be someplace safe."

Kit said her foot injuries were caused by the telegraph that fell on her feet when the sub was attacked. But then, if I'm not mistaken, she explains that the submarine was not attacked, but by accident the Hector House plummeted in the submarine. So why did she say the sub was attacked? When and how did it happen? Did this really happen?

Kit is a really enigmatic character. As I already explained, Kit was part of a VFD faction that was not entirely pacifist but at the same time was not in favor of using weapons of mass destruction to kill enemies (like the deadly fungus MM). But we have clear evidence of Kit's gray view of peace in the following excerpts:

"Mrs. Caliban?" said Kit, in the darkness. "Miranda Caliban is here?" "Yes," Finn said. "Do you know her?" "I know her husband," Kit said. "He and I stood together in a time of great struggle, and we're still very good friends."

...

"Absolutely not!" cried Kit, from the top of the raft. "I won't hear of you putting your talents to such nefarious use, Baudelaires. I'm sure the island can solve its difficulties without resorting to violence."

"Did you solve your difficulties without resorting to violence?" Erewhon asked sharply. "Is that how you survived the great struggle you mentioned, and ended up shipwrecked on a raft of books?"

"My history is not important," Kit replied. "I'm worried about the Baudelaires."

Kit Snicket was on the defensive. She really seemed to be a hypocrite at this point: she defended pacifism but she herself had admittedly participated in violent battles. I am not judging Kit, but I want to highlight the fact that Kit continued to demonstrate the same attitude of years before: she agreed that violence is necessary from time to time, but she does not like it. Kit demonstrates the same attitude as Lemony Snicket on ATWQ in book 4.

The question is to what extent Kit speaks the truth: she did not speak about Dewey to the Baudelaires when she met them the first time. Then she said the submarine was attacked. And now it was understood (through her defensive attitude) that what brought her to the island was in fact the participation in some violent activity. It is interesting that she gives an excuse similar to what Captain W gave Fiona about her mother, and the excuse that Miranda gave Friday about her father: a marine entity devoured them. I wonder to what extent the story about what happened to the W family and the Quagmires is real and not an attempt to romanticize a possible schism.

The shine of the flashlight reminded Klaus of all of the nights he spent reading under the covers in the Baudelaire mansion, while outside the night made mysterious noises his parents always insisted were nothing more than the wind, even on windless evenings."

This is a clear reference to the recruitment procedures for VFD as shown in LSTUA. Beatrice and Bertrand refused to allow their children to enter VFD. Evidently, they preferred a type of home education for children. They tried to educate their children in skills (similar to skills that would be developed in VFD schools) in their own home.

The riot is quite representative: The Baudelaires were put in a situation where they had no choice but to support one side of the schism. This certainly made her think that many of the volunteers were placed in similar situations, and ended up being forced into a war that they did not even want to enter. This time it was all very explicit: those who planned the riot were willing to fight (and probably kill their neighbors). They wanted weapons and allies. This was exactly the opposite philosophy to that taught by Ish, who preached total pacifism. We can see the Great Schism of VFD represented here: one side preached that the world should be quiet while the other preached that fire is fought with fire.

"The children traveled in the dark, just as so many other people had done before them, from the nomadic travels of the Cimmerians to the desperate voyages of the Quagmire triplets, who at that very moment were in circumstances just as dark although quite a bit damper than the Baudelaires', and as the children drew closer and closer to the island that had abandoned them, their thoughts made them heavier and heavier, and the Baudelaire orphans wished things were very different indeed."

This stretch is really interesting. As I said, when Lemony narrates his story, he is trying to narrate what he believes to be true. This means that Lemony was able to synchronize the history of the Baudelaires with the history of the Quagmires. If what Kit said about the end of the Quagmires meant that they did indeed die, it would be impossible for Lemony to know the Quagmires were at that very moment. Lemony manages to synchronize the stories because the Quagmires survived and were able to narrate their own story to Lemony directly or indirectly about what really happened.

Lemony talks about desperate voyages (in the plural). They did more than one voyage, they felt desperate while doing them. Although Kit spoke the truth about the gigantic entity in the form of a question mark, the fact is that they survived, made several trips and felt desperate while traveling. There is a possibility that submarine Q has been attacked, however, as the first version of Kit's story seems to indicate, and that led the Quagmires to be taken, and so the voyages were desperate

#asoue #asoue theory #a series of unfortunate events #lemony snicket #asoue theories #snicketverse

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astroninaaa · 3 years

Note

You do realize that ranboos character is hypocritical? Right? Even though a person is on a side, hes still chosing that person over anything else.

/rp

yes!!! and that is the point!!! he is hypocritical!!! but you can’t choose a person without choosing a side. if he chooses tubbo (which is what he’s been doing rn, he’s choosing tubbo and michael and his family and all that which is completely valid of him i’m absolutely in love with that whole dynamic found family is my jam), he has to choose snowchester. because if he doesn’t protect snowchester, it makes it a million times harder to protect tubbo. which is what is happening rn!!! he explicitly became a part of the syndicate to protect tubbo, and that’s why he was protective of snowchester when they discussed it on their meeting.

ranboo, himself, chooses sides when he actually chooses people. and that’s not a problem. that’s normal. that’s how relationships with others work.

you probably didn’t see the post i made before that got me that ask, but what i was saying is exactly that: ranboo is hypocritical, and the fandom thinks he is the perfect example of morality, when he’s not. that was,,,, the point of that whole essay i guess LMAOOOO but yeah i’m not shitting on his character or anything, just the fandom’s view of him LMAO my man is an unreliable narrator just like everyone else

#ranboo critical #dsmp analysis #just gonna keep those two #ranboo #dsmp #dream smp

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lachlann-macnab · 3 years

Text

BDRP 2020 QUESTIONNAIRE

Your Name: Jean

Characters: Lachlann “Launchpad” MacNab

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth. What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

Well, Launchpad is relatively new so he’s still pretty much the same as I envisioned him from the start-

-though I’ll admit that the idea of him having an enormous crush on Seamus/Scrooge was a surprise. I think it only took a couple of little chats with Sav and familiarizing myself with Seamus’ story for him to go “yes!! that’s the one I love!! let me at him!!”.

The funny thing is that it just kind of happened but also has a degree of canonicity to it; Granted, Ducktales ‘17 (the canon that got me into the Duckverse) didn’t delve a whole lot on the relationship those two have...but Ducktales ‘87 does and it’s fucking beautiful.

But I didn’t know that! I was just familiar with the newest canon -exploring the relationship led me to the older canon and I absolutely love it! I love the way the older version of LP is equal parts silly and capable and I try my best to express that nice balance on my interpretation.

And I wouldn’t have found that sweet spot if it hadn’t been for Sav and Seamus!

Pick another character (or the same character if you only have one) and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year?

Oooh man, this is probably going to sound rude of me, but I want someone to call Launchpad out on his shit.

He is a happy-go-lucky man, he is positive, he does think the best of everyone right from the start, he is honest with that, but there’s also a degree of performativity to the way he interacts with people: he is a people pleaser and he’s also someone who avoids problems/confrotation when possible.

That leads to him having a hard time actually voicing what he thinks when things were serious. Launchpad will default to what he thinks is the most noble/the best option even if he actually hates it. He tries his best to be a reliable dude, but that pushes him to his limits every now and then -and he hates it, but will do it anyways.

I’d love for someone to notice that and point out his marthyr complex to him, or how hypocritical he can actually be when noone is looking.

Jun did an amazing job at that, with the whole Moon Market incident and that is part of why I love his characterization and- I could rant about how Jun and LP are actually similar, yet different, but I won’t.

Someone please bitchslap my idiot son and tell him to be honest with his feelings, maybe get him to confront his feelings of inadequacy, maybe get him to actually face his problems instead of running away from them, kthanxs.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it.

I have three threads I absolutely love, each for different reasons:

*Cleanliness is next to... with Jun: Jun called my idiot son out on his ‘noble man’ act. Jun was not impressed with his efforts and pushed him to an actual mini-meltdown because Launchpad didn’t know what to do or say to try and make things better: Launchpad is so used to having his way around people that the moment someone was inmune to all his tricks he...lost it. Big time. And I loved it.

*Untitled with Eilonwy: Both of them clicked instantly and- oh, man, I can’t really express what I feel about it, but:

Launchpad feels an actual, honest, connection to Eilonwy in various ways: both of them are a little bit weird, both of them are learning, both of them were kind of kicked out their comfort zones, both of them love adventure, both of them are fearless (in different ways), but there’s also a curious father-daughter dynamic to them. Eilonwy lacked not only a father figure but also a general actual caring adult one and I guess that’s part of what draws her to LP, while LP is a naturally caring man who also, (betweem the two of us), loves feeling like a good-ish role model instead of the dude people tell you to avoid because he’s an idiot, he loves looking out for people, he loves being understood -and Eilonwy, surprisingly, understands him without even trying.

They are so very sweet, they just clicked and both of them learn new things with the other: both about themselves and the world. And I love it.

*Dressed to the nines with Seamus: a.k.a “the one in which Sav let me go absolutely fucking ham”: It began with a chat about the need of gratious fanservice involving Seamus wearing (and getting out of) a suit -but soon became something else thanks to the Halloween task.

We soon got the ball rolling and Black Annis happened in a stupidly organic way (her very modus operandi, I discovered kind of late during the creation, ties way too well with the thread’s title itself and I’ll never get over it), and the mix of terror and action just naturally pushed the rest of the plot into the catharsis Seamus needed after all the stuff he’s been through.

The thread gave us the opportunity to write some mindless comedy, some yearning, some tenderness, plenty of gore, blood, trauma, legit PTSD, then back to tenderness and silliness -while also mentioning and showing a good deal of the things that have made Seamus the man he currently is, with the pretty and the ugly of it.

I just think it was an amazing character exploration for both Seamus and Lachlann, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I love Sav’s writing, I love Seamus’ characterization, I love how naturally it all evolved, I love how Sav can casually bring something up while plotting and the thing just clicks into place, I love how we just kind of understand where things are going or where we want them to go. Sav’s just amazing at brainstorming and general writing and I feel really, really lucky to have the chance to write with her.

I have no choice but to stan, really.

And I could go on and on about how the thread pushed both Seamus and Lachlann towards some big character development, but I really don’t want to rant -so I’ll leave it like this.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Gee, that’s a difficult one. I guess my strongest suit as of now would be Launchpad’s voice as a character -and I’m not only talking about dialogue.

I think everyone that has read any of my threads has noticed by now that the flow of the narration is an extension of how Launchpad himself feels and thinks: it’s chaotic and emotional, it can get self-conscious and snarky when he, himself, can’t, it brings some exposition while not breaking the simple, chaotic rythm of Launchpad per-se.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

This is way easier for me to pinpoint, hah! I definitely need to work on the length of my posts: I know seeing paragraphs upon paragraphs upon paragraphs can make people tired or make them feel intimidated to interact.

I also need to work on organizing Launchpad’s chaotic thoughts. The narration does get long-winded and sometimes the progression from point A to point B is way too chaotic -so much so that actually erasing it all would make no impact on the overall narration.

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts.

Not texts per-se, but I think a good way to get a feel of Launchpad’s general vibe is to watch “Top Duck” from Ducktales ‘87 and/or “The Duck Knight Returns” and “Double-o-duck in: You only crash twice”; Those episodes do an amazing job in expressing his insecurities and passions.

Now, leaving the source material behind, I think a book he resonates with is “Oh, the Places You'll Go!” by Dr. Seuss -it’s fun, it’s simple and it has an overall heartwarming message: It kind of captures that sense of wonder, discovery and positivity Launchpad both has and wishes to offer other people.

Another inspiration of sorts for Launchpad is Ferry’s “Parties are for losers” series: First of all, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for the Strugatsky brothers and СТАЛКЕР, so it’s no surprise I’m in love with Ferry’s interpretation of the story; I see a little bit of LP in KT’s story, but also in Yura’s and, surprisingly, in Olga’s.

PAFL’s setting is different, yet similar, to the Soviet sci-fi original: it deals with some disenchantment, it’s far from idealistic, it’s rough, but it’s also full of wonder and adventure: there’s big risks, but there’s also a good deal of things that make things, if not better, a little bit less miserable for the characters -and sometimes that something that keeps them going is other’s presence. PAFL is, for me, the inspiration for adventures that aren’t always glamourous, simple, or happy, taken by characters that are far from perfect, that have the odds against them, that carry a whole lot of baggage and, yet, prevail.

And, finally, a last inspiration for Launchpad, my lovable idiot son, comes from probably the place one would expect the least: God of War (2018).

I’m also a sucker for God of War, sue me.

I know it may seem bizare, but the message of the game just clicks with LP -and before you start wondering how in hell Kratos could possibly inspire Launchpad just let me tell you: he doesn’t. Because it’s not about Kratos I’m refering to when I talk about that story! I’m actually thinking of Mimir!

I love him so much.

Mimir’s role on the game is multifacetic: he brings exposition and ocasional comedic relief, sure, but I see him as the heart of the interactions between Kratos and Atreus (Kratos’ son, for those who may not know). Kratos is emotionally repressed and keeps to himself a lot while Atreus is a bundle of joy, energy, curiosity and someone that doesn’t think ‘because I say so’ is a valid answer to things; Kratos and Atreus clash during the first part of the game even when they love one another in their very particular ways.

In comes Mimir.

Mimir(’s head) joins the party and takes upon himself to act as a bridge between emotional distant father and young naive fearless son and...things start working for the three of them! Kratos starts understanding Atreus! Atreus slowly understands his father’s worries and needs! They begin the story as (almost) complete strangers but by the end they have an actual bond thanks to Mimir’s constant pushing and interventions: Mimir is soft with Atreus but bold with Kratos, the man knows when to joke and throw some riské comments for the chaos of it, but he’s also the first to offer words of comfort and understanding.

The man becomes part of the family even when he isn’t related to them by blood, even going so far as to give a ‘no, take me instead!’ when presented with the opportunity by a pair of enemies, even when his whole story tells us that he thinks of the idea of dealing with those people (won’t say who, because spoilers) as worse than death -the man hates the mere idea of going back but doesn’t hesitate a second to offer himself as a sacrifice for his new family.

And, damn, that’s what I base my interpretation of Launchpad on. He’s not a part of the family per-se but he constantly acts as a bridge between the youngest and more idealistic parts of it and the jaded, older, tired one; He’s happy to be comedic relief but will also sit and give anyone a pep talk when absolutely necessary -he knows his limitations but keeps trying and offering his best for those he cares about. He tries to be the heart.

I’m emotional about a disembodied head, don’t touch me. Play God of War (2018), it’s fucking amazing.

And now, a wishlist!:

I’m...actually up for everything and anything, really. I’d love some adventures, but I also love the more mundane interactions, I love the heavier topics but also the silly moments.

I guess, as I said before, the one thing I’d really love is for someone to push Launchpad to be honest about his feelings. Also a plot about him either considering to or actually flying again -those, however, will happen in due time and I have no rush to make ‘em.

Why do you RP?

Short explanation?: I love writing and reading.

Longer explanation?: I love writing and reading, I love complex characterizations, I love exploring new ideas and seeing how little plot bunnies become full fledged plots and/or character explorations or bring some character development, I love how that creates a domino effect with the rest of the cast. I love to see things happen: I love watching from afar as other’s characters learn lessons, create and conect-

-also, I write and read all day, everyday: that’s my job. I do script revisionism and organizational comunication. During work hours I have to check the flow of words, tones, and overall intentions; I have to do my best to make sure someone’s idea fits the box, but RPing gives me the opportunity to take the box and toss it out of the window. RPing gives me the chance to write freely, to write silly, to be imperfect and not worry about going from A to B or dealing with a checklist or tones, intentions or other’s ideas.

It’s just freeing. And that’s why I do (and love) it.

#bdrptask #/warning: long read ahead #/80% of this is me fanboying about other's writing; tbh

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karliahs · 4 years

Text

fic notes: swim or drown

another thing where i ramble about a fic i did! think i’m gonna go reverse-chronological with these

the research nedzu is talking about here wrt people changing their own minds for the most part is real! as in it’s real studies i read multiple years ago for a philosophy of psychology course and barely remember. still, it obviously stuck with me in some way - love anything about how far from the idea of Rational Beings ppl are deep down

there’s a very funny bookmarker’s comment on this one that just says “i don’t think it is finished” and i will take that drag, but also it reminded me that like…this fic starts establishing that ppl are trying to tell aizawa he can’t keep going like this but there’s not that much they can rly do for him unless he admits that. and it ends when he…admits that

this one follows a similar-ish thread to one of my first bnha fics, swan dive, in that it’s characters laying out the rational reasons for and against self-destruction. that theme is one of my fave things about bnha so i guess it’s understandable that i keep coming back to it. i’ve now had both midoriya and aizawa try and make a case for why it’s logically fine to throw their lives away in service of others (midoriya with aizawa arguing against him. bc he’s a hypocrite). i just really like thinking about...hm, the intersection of logic and core beliefs. specifically core beliefs about your own lack of worth. i feel like even for people who see themselves as very rational, when it comes to self-loathing, the deeper you go trying to justify your behaviours and justify the justifications, eventually you get to something that can’t really be expressed or understood logically. it just is. i guess what i’m trying to write about is this spiral down through reasons into that place beyond reasons, where it’s just you and this strange nugget of Belief that runs so much of your life

it is very important to me that even when i’m writing someone being challenged about their self-destructive behaviour, there needs to still be some element of kindness. like i remember editing swan dive a little because it was veering too much into scolding midoriya for having self-destructive thoughts, which is the last thing you need when you’re in that place. tried to have nedzu be a little nice here. like hizashi says later, they’re saying this stuff because they love him and he’s worth saving

interpreting aizawa as kind of pessimistic and disillusioned, even about heroics/the way hero society is structured, is always fun, especially in comparison to the series’ usual hero-worshipping narrator

bc of that interpretation, aizawa is the character i project most of my feelings that come from my job onto. it’s just medical admin, but the department/specialty means i come across a lot of sad stories that make you intensely aware of how fragile life is and how fast things fall apart. weird to think how different my writing would probably be without those experiences

have i mentioned lately that i hate plot? i don’t like having to make things happen. hello one paragraph roof-fight villain, you are a plot device because i’m fucking sleepy and i need to throw aizawa off a roof

despite watching a show about hero students in a hero school, i don’t understand what they even do in class, so here is first aid because i do know about that and also heroes are at least ¼ first responders. i also just had to make the point here that CPR is extremely hard and strenuous to do.

studies suggest i will never get tired of writing about how everything you do in a body has consequences.

i love 1-A as just always-dialed-up-to-11 weirdos even when they’re doing normal domestic stuff. there’s 20 of them, they’re full of determination and their school motto is essentially “no, do that but EVEN MORE.” when they stress cook, they go hard

hizashi’s voice was harder for me to find this time but i love writing his space so much. he used to smoke and now he has an ashtray full of rings. he loved mood rings as a Youth bc of course he did. i could spend all day writing about this stuff. i might do...drabbles? about the 1-A kids’ dorm rooms at some point? just love to write rooms

it’s always....hard....to write someone behaving not super well because they’re going through a very, very hard time. especially as aizawa kind of...knows he’s being unfair, knows he’s lashing out, and that just adds fuel to the fire (bc the problem is self-loathing)

i also think too much about Performing Yourself literally every time i write hizashi

i feel like when i first got into bnha i was very into erasermic as quietly, happily married by the time canon rolls around, and now i still dig that but i’m also very into erasermic who have been some level of In Love for years, but also they’re changing and life is so hard and the idea of risking losing each other as friends by changing the status quo is petrifying, and they still love each other but also every time they hang out now and it’s good there’s a voice in the back of one of their heads going “huh, it’s been a long time since we connected like this, how did we let it slip so much.” just extremely specific, adult life and neuroses and past trauma keeping you juuuuust too far from someone you love so much

#fic notes #swim or drown

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thewebcomicsreview · 4 years

Photo

Homestuck 2 Liveblog, Part 3

(See older parts here or on Tumblr here)

Chapter 3: How Are your feelings

We’ve got a new ship, which appears to have sails for some reason, and it’s either rocketing forward with determination, or crashing. Presumably, this is the ship containing the Meatworld Crew, who set out to rescue Rose from Dirk’s mind control. God, this plot is so complicated.

In anyone else’s hands, this is just a microphone. In my hands it’s a pipe boat.

The one spoiler I had for this chapter was that the ship design was stupid, and...yes. That says “Grandpa Harley” a lot more than the Theseus did, though I don’t think Canon Jake ever smoked.

Oh boy, the narration text is in the first person. It’s also lowercase, so one presumes this is Calliope, in Jade’s body? I thought Calliope was trying to maintain the role of invisible narrator, though, and she’s calling attention to herself more obviously than any of the other narrators.

Me on my way to steal your girl by possessing her and floating around all creepy for three years

JADE: the prince’s power grows.

KARKAT: JESUS CHRIST!

Heh. This art is really nice. Jade’s speaking in Calliope’s red text, so she is indeed possessed by Calliope. Poor Jade. Homestuck proper is 8,192 pages. The epilogue is 100,000 words, and we’re 100 pages into Homestuck 2. Jade has been stuck on a boat, possessed, unconscious, dead,possessed again, or otherwise out of the story since Cascade, all the way back on page 4,109. No wonder she became a hedonist. Of course, who’s fault is it that Jade missed the final battle.

(From Homestuck 1).

I always read this as foreshadowing that Jade would get a big moment, and it never happened. Hopefully someone on the writing team remembers that Jade is supposed to roar to life and show everyone who’s the real master. But for now, alas, the real master is Calliope, hypocritically fighting for the free will of all by taking Jade out of the story again. Anyway, that was a long tangent and a lot of search (give me back the .txt file of the whole comic, Viz!) back to Homestuck 2.

Oh hey, DaveKat is canon now, I forgot. It’s mildly annoying that Dave and Calliope are in the same scene with the same text color, but whatev.

Aww, Karkat’s wearing Dave’s shirt. How cute. Less cute: Calliope’s added her red to Jade’s outfit, including her logo. She’s really just as evil as Dirk, isn’t she?

Also, I don’t know if this sprite style quite works for a “leaning up in bed pose”

This just looks odd. Probably doesn’t help that we’re see Dave without shades for I believe the first time ever.

KARKAT: OH, PARDON THE FUCK OUT OF ME FOR OVERREACTING A LITTLE WHEN MY GOOD FRIEND "POSSESSED JADE" BUSTS INTO MY RESPITEBLOCK AT 5 AM!

Aw, I missed this, a Karkat tantrum.

I like this dynamic. But if they’ve been on this boat as long as Dirk has been on his, Jade’s been possessed for three years.

Why are Dirk and Calliope’s powers growing, though? Especially Calliope, shouldn’t she be maxed out by now? She literally ate Lord Engl-

....

Calliope is powerful enough to escape Candyland because she ate Lord English, and Lord English is partially comprised of Dirk, so there’s quite literally a little bit of Dirk inside Calliope right now. That’s maybe something to keep in the back of our minds, but now I’m theorycrafting.

The only way twenty-somethings can afford an apartment this night is if they live somewhere with a killer commute, which is why it takes three years to get anywhere

Okay, phew. So this Roxy is trans, but the Roxy on Candyland isn’t. That’s something I’m going to have to be careful to remember lest I use the wrong pronoun for the wrong one and everyone gets mad at me.

Dirk, like the coffee, getting roasted here

So, has this crew not been chasing Dirk for three years, or has Dave just been all “I sure am comfortable with you being trans now” incessantly from age 23 to age 26? I guess that’s pretty in-character for him. Everyone seems to not be used to a situation they should be used to be now so far, but maybe that’s just for our benefit as readers who can’t remember all this nonsense?

I love how Kanaya the Fashion Troll is basically the only character in the entire franchise to go “Fuck I haven’t been onscreen in over ten years I should change my look”. The big bow is Rose’s from way back when her and Kanaya first met, which is a cute nod.

Okay I get that they want to remind these things to the reader, but Dave. Dude. She’s your sister-in-law. She’s been your sister-in-law for 7 to 10 years depending on how long you’ve been on that boat and she’s been a vampire that whole time. Someone give this boy a set of flash cards, Jesus Christ!

OBVIOUS FORESHADOWING ALERT: This story is about a “young prince”, and this is going to be a metaphor. The young prince is Dirk, the Prince of Time, and the Rose is....Rose.

Aww, this is cute. I should have put on Kanaya’s Theme while reading this, it fits the mood of the scene really well.

Oh man, none of these people know John’s dead

fffffffffffffffff

Okay, so that’s 7 years between the end of Homestuck 1 and the Homestuck Epilogues. Dirk’s been on his boat for three years, but we’re with the Meat Crew at the start of their journey, (which means Roxy only recently came out as trans, which I guess makes it less weird that Dave is still processing it).

But god, this is a lot of timelines to keep track of. I guess it’s fun in a way, being intensely convoluted was part of the fun of trying to piece together Homestuck 1′s plot, but I think I’m this close to busting out a white board where and how old everyone is actually fuck it

God as my witness, I will one day have a vague understanding of what the fuck is going on in Homestuck and I will die trying!

This seems metatextual, in that the characters are more complete when they have like a goal and stuff. Or it might be the Homestuck 2 writers taking a subtle jab at the Epilogue writers, that everyone’s better off having left the epilogues behind and moving on to Homestuck 2. That might be reading too much into it.

Of course, as soon as I say that we cut from Dave talking about how everything’s better to Karkat talking about how everything’s worse.

Wait, non-god Calliope is on the ship? UGH, the whiteboard already needs to be updated! The epilogues implied she was too scared of god-Calliope to leave her room, so I’d assumed she’d stayed behind. Damn it.

Heh. Also: Huh? Karkat is making a lot of assumptions here, given that Terezi, Sollux, and Aradia are all alive, he never saw Gamzee die, and Vriska dying just made her more powerful.

And that’s the update! I like these character interactions, even though they’re mostly just sitting around and naval-gazing like in Act 6 and the epilogues, because at least it’s got some jokes it feels like it’s all going somewhere. And starting next month, it’s going to be going there twice as fast

#Homestuck #Homestuck 2 #Homestuck 2 Liveblog

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mst3kproject · 5 years

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Miami Connection

From the title you have probably already guessed that this is an 80’s drug movie, and you are mostly right, but Miami Connection is so much more. The director was Woo-Sang ‘Richard’ Park, a South Korean film-maker who wanted to break into the Western market despite not speaking any English. Those of us who know anything about bad movies are already going oh no, because that’s how Troll 2 happened. Park’s American buddy who was gonna help him do it was Young-Kun Kim, a taekwondo-instructor-slash-motivational-speaker who decided to write, produce, and star in the movie himself because hey, he’d seen movies and it didn’t look that hard. Oh no, that’s what Hal Warren thought when he set out to make Manos! And since these guys couldn’t afford actual actors or stuntmen, they cast a bunch of Kim’s taekwondo students, who thought the movie would be great publicity for their band! Oh no!

The movie opens with a drug deal in a junkyard being interrupted by biker ninjas, who kill everybody, steal the cocaine, and run. Just a Tuesday night in 80’s Miami, really. Having thus introduced the villains, we now meet the heroes, a fantastically talentless 80’s rock band called Dragon Sound. Their newest member is Jane, the new girlfriend of lead guitarist John. Jane’s overprotective brother Jeff does not approve of John, and he hangs out with the coke-stealing ninja bikers from the opening, so he could easily make good on his threats… what he doesn’t know is that the members of Dragon Sound are all training together in taekwondo, and they’re more than ready to take on him, the entire dojo, and a rival band!

Miami Connection is the Starcrash of martial arts movies. It is completely, irredeemably terrible and yet it never stops being entertaining. The ‘plot’ is mainly a series of ass-kickings, strung together with dialogue scenes that discuss the consequences of the previous fight and set up the motivations for the next one. I am in no position to judge anybody’s skill at taekwondo, since I can’t tell Karate from Kung-Fu (of course, neither could the people who made the Karate Kid remake), but very nearly everything else in the film is absolutely awful and funny as hell. I could list hilarious moments for several pages.

The dialogue is stunningly banal, especially when it’s expository. Both Jane and keyboardist Jim narrate their own tragic backstories and both are bad but in very different ways: Jane doesn’t sound like she particularly cares about the deaths of her parents or her brother’s gang involvement, while Jim weeps like a baby while he whimpers about his mother telling him to find her lost husband. Later when Jeff is killed in a brawl, Jane doesn’t sound too cut-up about that, either. She’s certainly not nearly as upset as Ninja Biker Dojo Master Yoshida, who gets a flashback that makes it look like Jeff might have been his boyfriend. My favourite line in the whole movie is when another member of the band, Jack, complains about Jeff and “his darn gang, selling their stupid cocaine!” like a six-year-old who wants his turn on the X Box.

Because nobody can emote, the ‘acting’ in the movie mainly consists of a lot of yelling, and their favourite thing to yell is “son of a bitch!” They don’t use it as an exclamation the way Reb Brown did in Space Mutiny, it just seems to be the only insult the writers could think of. It gets funnier every time you hear it.

Costumes seem to consist of whatever everybody wore to set that day, with the exception of the black ninja pajamas (ridiculous-looking as always) and the t-shirts Dragon Sound wear when they perform. The latter feature the name of the band in ‘Vote for Pedro’ font, and nothing else. I own one of these. You can buy them at teepublic.

The plot is an absolute mess. Why does Yoshida think eliminating Dragon Sound is the key to controlling the drug trade in that area? They haven’t done any vigilante stuff at that point – they just react when Jeff attacks them. I get why the rival band, who were fired from the nightclub so Dragon Sound could play instead, would want them out of the picture, but the ninja bikers seem to have no reason to care. Meanwhile, said rival band just kind of falls out of the movie and is never seen again.

I don’t know who the main character is supposed to be. The story starts out being about John and Jane’s star-crossed relationship, which could have had a Romeo and Juliet angle with Jeff’s death but doesn’t. Then they slide out of the way as we focus on Jim’s search for his missing father, which keeps us busy a while, but then the final showdown is between Mark and Yoshida, who have so far been secondary characters. Jane isn’t even present at the ending, although Jim’s father does show up to recite some more utterly terrible dialogue as he reconciles with his son.

Jim, John, Jack, Jane, and Jeff. Did Kim just think all American names start with J?

I’m not sure how old Y. K. Kim��s character Mark is supposed to be. He and the other bandmembers are room-mates, and he dresses like them and rides around in their convertible with his feet up on the dashboard. He talks and acts like them and tells people that his bandmates are ‘like brothers’. But whereas they’re all in their twenties, Kim was forty-one when this movie was made and there is no attempt to hide that. Is he just supposed to be hip with the younger generations? Or did they actually expect us to believe he was fifteen years younger than he looks?

There are long sequences in which nothing happens. We see the band play a whole song at the club, twice, and then one of those songs is re-used for a montage sequence of characters at the beach. The latter does not further the plot but it does show us a lot of women’s butts with wet bathing suits clinging to them, as well as the world’s best-dressed nudist. There’s a sequence of taekwondo training that runs several minutes, and which does nothing but set up a single finishing move that will recur at the climax. There’s a biker company picnic like the one in The Hellcats but without the interesting parts.

Literally everybody in this movie practices some kind of martial art, including the nightclub owner and the drug dealers… but I figure that was just the 80’s. Also, this movie taught me that men in the 80’s took their sunglasses off as a sign of respect, much like removing the hat in earlier decades.

What the fuck is up with the dancing crop-top dude? Even the guy who’s about to fight him looks confused by him. He was so weird I thought he’d be a good stinger, until we arrived at Miami Connection’s ultimate stinger moment – a car turns a corner, revealing a bunch of motorcycles on a collision course with it, and John, in the driver’s seat, says, “ugh, ninjas.”

On a slightly more serious note, the movie does have an ostensible message, which is spelled out between the last shot and the closing credits: only through the elimination of violence can we achieve world peace. This is kind of a silly statement because, yeah, that’s what peace is, but also because we’ve just spent this entire movie watching people beat the shit out of each other with hands, feet, and whatever they can grab. The script is aware of this contradiction, though, and stops at several points to remind us that taekwondo and other martial arts are not merely fighting techniques but ways of life that promote discipline of the body and mind and strong bonds between people. This is the side of taekwondo that Dragon Sound plans to promote during their world peace tour, and the message seems heartfelt enough even if the delivery is lacking.

In that light its interesting to note that this disciplined martial arts lifestyle seems very much at odds with the hedonistic biker one that Yoshida and his followers also participate in. The two stereotypes conflict on every possible level, right down to ninjas being quiet while motorcycles are loud. I think this might be an attempt to paint the baddies as hypocrites, but I honestly don’t know. It’s equally possible that ‘biker ninjas’ were just the coolest-sounding thing Kim could think of.

After that list of suckage, I do have to say that there are two or three things Miami Connection does astonishingly well. Both the night shots and the gore effects are pretty good – especially the night shots. You can always see enough to tell what’s going on, but it’s not so bright that you don’t believe it’s night-time. I’ve seen way worse in movies with way higher budgets. The fight choreography is also shockingly effective sometimes. It never turns taekwondo or any of its other martial arts into some kind of artsy dance performance. The fight scenes are brutal, and you believe that the people in them are fighting for their lives. Maybe not the best thing for their message that taekwondo is the key to world peace, but pretty effective if you’re just here to enjoy the chop-socky.

Being so terrible and yet so much fun, it’s no surprise that Miami Connection showed up on Rifftrax Live in 2015. Y. K. Kim was a pretty good sport about it, too – apparently he’s happy his film has finally found an audience, even an ironic one. That puts him much higher on the dignity ladder than Joe Don Baker or Sandy Frank, and even if he seems like a bit of a huckster I have to hand it to him for that.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #miami connection #80s #magic voice recommends

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beneaththetangles · 4 years

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Mr. Gorbachev, Tearmoon Down This Wall!

I’ve always been plagued by endlessly recurring thoughts about how I’m a bad stupid sinful selfish lazy arrogant rude useless ugly fat disrespectful hardhearted unlovable disgusting et cetera person. The name for this phenomenon is shame, and for me and many others, it’s a result of having been abused. I previously discussed how I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!, vol. 1, contained a profound depiction of an abuse victim. That post has a fuller discussion of what shame is, but in brief, shame is a distorted worldview that says “I’m bad,” and tells me badness is endemic to my identity. Shame isn’t about doing bad things; it’s about believing oneself to be a fundamentally bad person. Well, a mere two days after I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! released, J-Novel Club published a second new series that intersects with the same topic. The hilarious and thought-provoking narrator of Tearmoon Empire, vol 1, proved surprisingly helpful in my struggles with shame.

The book opens with protagonist Mia Luna Tearmoon’s execution on the guillotine. Deposed crown princess of the eponymous empire, she clearly evokes the historical Marie Antoinette (even making a comment reminiscent of the spurious “Let them eat cake” line incorrectly attributed to the French queen). Likewise, her nation has experienced a series of tragedies plainly inspired by the real French Revolution. So when Mia mysteriously wakes up back at twelve years old, with full memories of everything she experienced in the revolution, it becomes apparent that the prologue is essentially setting up a tale of time-traveling Marie Antoinette trying to avert the French Revolution. It’s great and you should check it out.

There is much to appreciate about this book, and the unusually snarky narrator is one of Tearmoon Empire’s outstanding elements. It’s uncommon to find a story where the narrator is one of those seemingly omniscient outside observers not at all present within the story, yet has a distinct voice that practically makes the narrator a character in his own right anyway. The narrator’s sardonic opinions regarding the characters and events of the story provide a lot of levity. But for me, the narrator became much more than just a source of comedy.

For as long as I can remember, shame has been the inner narrator of my life, dispensing harsh and (in hindsight) unfair and even nonsensical commentary about myself. Seriously, if there’s a way to put oneself down, I’ve done it: I found fault with anything and everything I did. I blamed myself for things that weren’t even my responsibility. I dismissed the value of my successes and minimized whatever talents I might possess. Instead, I exaggerated my flaws. I treated real instances of failure as proof that my entire character was corrupt, rather than as individual mistakes. I worried that I was a hypocrite who accidentally deceived other people into thinking I’m a better person than I really was. If others said complimentary things about me, sometimes I assumed they were exaggerating. Other times, I decided they were sincerely mistaken due to not knowing the true me; obviously if they knew how wicked I really am, they wouldn’t say such nice things. I’d just ignore any evidence that didn’t fit my preconceptions about my own worthlessness. In my head, believing the teeniest little positive thing about myself equaled pride, so I stringently stifled any thoughts that I ever did anything good or had any good qualities. Sometimes, if circumstances forced it, I might internally concede that I committed a superficially good action, but then tell myself it didn’t count because I must have done it out of evil motives. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Unbeknownst to me, shame was leading me to lie to myself on a daily basis. Long before I knew what it was, or I understood that I’d been abused, or ever saw a psychologist, I was dealing with shame that came from the emotional abuse I experienced growing up. Even after learning that my pervasive sense of self-loathing had a name and that it comes from abuse, shame’s lies remained persuasive and constant. I did start to question these self-attacks, but the accusations continued to sound incredibly reasonable in my head. I didn’t really want to believe these cruel thoughts about myself, and knew that I had justification for doubting whether they were true. I also had learned that genuine guilt is tied to specific acts, so if I found myself feeling badly, but couldn’t identify anything I’d done wrong, chances were good that I was feeling shame and not guilt. However, I was also paranoid that I might use shame as an excuse to ignore my sins. “What if some of the self-judgment is true and I’m just using this business about shame and abuse to salve my conscience as I go on living wickedly?” I worried.

Enter the snarky narrator of Tearmoon Empire. The narrator is scathingly critical of Mia and those around her. If Mia does anything “good,” the narrator is quick to jump in and insist that it doesn’t count because Mia really had a selfish or stupid motive and the positive effect she had was a complete accident. If she manages to succeed at something to such a degree that even the narrator must grudgingly concede Mia was “good” in some sense, he quickly dismisses the whole incident as trivial, insignificant, hardly worth paying attention to. Her seemingly good deeds must never be construed as evidence of any virtue on Mia’s part. If characters around Mia witness her behavior and regard it in a positive light, the narrator denounces them as delusional fools who pathetically misunderstand her. They only think well of Mia as person, the narrator says, because they don’t know the truth about her. Does any of that remind you of something? Like, maybe something you read, oh, in the two paragraphs before this one?

The narration’s snide disparagement is certainly funny, but it also challenges readers to consider whether Mia is as bad as the narrator insists she is, as good as the other characters believe her to be, or perhaps something in between. As I read Tearmoon Empire, vol. 1, and pondered this question, I had a stunning epiphany. I don’t have an exact quote from when I made this realization, but it sounded something like this:

“There is an uncanny resemblance between the shame-fueled self-narration in my head and the comically derisive narrator of this light novel.”

It was eerie seeing how much this hypercritical light novel narrator’s attacks on the protagonist echoed the things I’d tell myself on an almost daily basis. Minimizing good things, dismissing positive perspectives from other people as ignorant accidents, suspecting wicked motives behind everything one does… The narrator’s tactics were all too familiar to me. However, there was one very important difference between my self-judging inner monologues and the narrator’s charges against Mia: I treated the former totally seriously, while I found the latter obviously ridiculous.

Though the narrator’s critiques of Mia occasionally contain an element of truth, much of the time it’s laughable how different the narrator’s scornful remarks are from what Mia explicitly says and does, or from the conclusions witnesses draw about Mia. The narrator’s snarky commentary is humorous in itself, and it gains a second level of humor as one starts comparing the narrator’s claims with how Mia actually acts and how other characters react to her. It’s literally unbelievable that Mia could really be the moronic evildoer that the narrator makes her out to be. Keep in mind, not once does the narrator suggest Mia is trying to deceive people: according to him, she just bumbles around trying to be a jerk but inadvertently giving people delusions that she’s a good person. The longer the book goes on, the more silly it becomes how much over-the-top stupidity it would take for all the other characters to misinterpret the princess so thoroughly.

Thanks to Tearmoon Empire’s narrator, I could see numerous lies that I’d told myself placed in a different context that made it unmistakable how absurd and untrue they were. Cruel indictments that sounded plausible in my head became far less compelling when spoken by another voice about another person. Since reading this book a couple months ago, it’s been easier than ever for me to recognize when I’m starting to tell myself lies, and to fight back against that tendency. I’ve done so much better at telling shame to just shut up when it starts trying to spew more of its familiar falsehoods, instead of getting wrapped up in self-deception and spending hours mired in tearful self-recrimination. The gap between the narrator’s view of Mia versus the other characters view of her enabled me to see more clearly how wrong I’ve been for dismissing outside evidence of my worth and trusting only the philippics of my own thoughts. This wasn’t a light bulb switching on—this was a whole array of massive sports stadium lights flaring up all together and drowning me in their radiance. To put it another way, you could say that I found Tearmoon Empire to be a truly light novel in more ways than one.

I never would have guessed that I’d end up praising a light novel for helping me deal with psychological trauma, but life is full of surprises. “Now let me be clear,” I’m not claiming that reading a good book is sufficient to solve serious mental health issues. If you or those you love are struggling, seek professional help. It works! I’m certain that my years of prior psychological and psychiatric care were essential for helping me grow to the point where I could benefit from reading Tearmoon Empire. This book is only one step in a long journey that’s not over yet. But the fact remains that reading a Japanese novel about a time-traveling Marie Antoinette analogue was a life-changing experience that has helped me in dealing with the shame from my childhood emotional abuse. Thank you, Nozomu Mochitsuki, for writing this book, and thank you, J-Novel Club, for translating and publishing it. I’ll keep fighting not to let shame narrate my life anymore.

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Tearmoon Empire can be purchased through J-Novel Club or Amazon. We’ll be discussing volume one is our next Light Novel Club meeting, so please pick up a copy and join us then, on May 31st.

#Light Novels #Christianity #Tearmoon Empire #Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari #Shame #Self deception #Trauma #Truth #Articles #Author: JeskaiAngel

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