#and change is the foundation of story

[good-to-drive]

there are a lot of good character arcs in fiction but my personal favorite is “insecure existentially tormented quiet beatle” to “hare krishna plant dad ukulele hoarder” 

#george harrison #the beatles #hot take but george's life would make the most interesting novel because he experienced the most growth/change #and change is the foundation of story #actually tbh ringo might be better #either/or #not saying paul and john are static btw just that it isn't as pronounced or as narratively satisfying #i'm just rambling now but a youtuber i like was going to do a deep dive on paul's psychology (he's a psychology professor) #but had to scrap it because there wasn't enough to discuss #which I think speaks to how paul despite his weirdness is basically well adjustex #of course he's had his moments but he's basically a straightforward down to earth family man who also happens to be a musical genius #and honestly bless him for that #this guy's video on john was over two and half hours by the way #for comparison

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo as a character is deeply tied to the very concept of identity that it is deeply ingrained into every aspect of his character and in this essay I will-

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt headcanons #rise leo #rottmnt leo #no but I’m being so serious Leo and his struggles with identity are so prevalent in his story throughout the series #he’s a liar and a schemer and masks 24/7 and thinks he’s nothing without his family all while failing to establish himself outside of them #and it’s SO INTERESTING #like some of his main characteristics are his PERSONA and his SUBTERFUGE #pretty much the one interest he has that is not related to his family is magic tricks aka more persona and deception #one of the only times he goes off on his own is to get some rest and relaxation #and even then he HAPPILY changes a part of himself to even be allowed that #this is all also interesting in how he interacts with his family #he knows people and he’s good with words #his pep talks his goading they go hand in hand #and he’d rather people be annoyed or angry at him than be allowed to see the nothing he believes himself to be #Leo struggles with his identity because deception is the backbone of such a large part of it #and the other part is just him being a part of a whole #one part of a package set #his ego is built by putting on airs and is every bit as fragile as its foundation #I’ll probably add more tags later lbr I’m just so tied to Leo and Identity I could go on and on #AND ANOTHER THING but I also think for as much as Leo wants to prove himself an individual he is also TERRIFED at the thought of being known #Leo is a self sabotaging character who lowers people’s expectations as best he can on purpose

[petr1kov]

i do like berserk as a whole, but i'll be honest, part of me does sort of wish that the series had started and ended just with golden age. there is a reason why this part of the story is the most well known and it's not just because it's the one that got the most adaptations; it's because it just stands so well on its own. if you watch the movies or even the 1997 anime, infamous for its abrupt ending, you do get a complete, self-contained, coherent story - a complete tragedy, yes, but complete nonetheless. and given how we will never truly get the full, unadulterated ending miura had planned for the series, despite his crew's best efforts in completing what's left of it with what they have, i think that really means something

#seeing guts and casca and griffith (femto) after the eclipse. still alive but forever irrevocably changed #that almost felt like watching ghosts clinging to life. like HOW are you still here how are you still going how is that possible #and that's what's the most interesting about berserk i think. how guts still keeps going. what do you do after experiencing hell #it's why i expect the ending to the series won't be full bleak because if so then what's the point of finding hope again #but yeah the reason why it hits so hard was because the golden age (which is the foundation of the whole story) is that much of a gut punch #berserk

[queer-reader-07]

it is so vitally important to me that aziraphale and crowley not only love each other but choose to love each other.

i don’t want it to be fate. i don’t want it to be god’s will. i want it to be a conscious and continuous choice.

i want aziraphale choosing every day of his goddamn existence to love crowley and all that he is. i want aziraphale choosing to love crowley not in spite of being a demon, but because he is a demon. i want aziraphale choosing to love crowley’s curiosity and creative wonder. i want aziraphale choosing to love crowley’s love of plants and gardening.

i want crowley choosing to love aziraphale’s passion for books. i want crowley choosing to love aziraphale’s desire to do things the human way even if he could just miracle it. i want crowley choosing to love aziraphale’s angel-ness because it is a fundamental part of him.

i want aziraphale choosing to love everything about crowley and vise versa. and i want it to be a very conscious and intentional choice.

it being fate negates the entire point of the story. good omens is a love story between an angel and a demon, yes. but that’s not all that it is. it’s a story about two occult/ethereal beings who choose humanity over the great plan. two beings who choose the world over armageddon. and they make those choices because despite it all they have chosen to fall in love with the world and with humanity.

it only makes sense that they choose each other. that they choose their love. it being fate or god’s will ruins the foundational pillar of their relationship. that they choose each other over and over and over again. year after year, century after century, time and time again. they always choose. they choose the arrangement, they choose saving the other from harm, they choose lying to protect the other.

it is always a choice. and it better stay a choice or i am going to be so devastated.

#look i’m good with most anything for s3 #as long as they end up in the south downs & hug at least once i will be happy #but this is one thing that isn’t necessarily a need but more like a deep rooted desire that will break me if not met #like if it’s all ‘haha this was god’s plan all along’ i will be so upset #disappointed even #because neil can do better than that #he’s a better writer than that #not to mention it makes absolutely no sense in the context of the story #like i understand how it’s fun to play around with ‘they were made for each other’ #but i really want them to choose each other despite everything #because if i’m being honest it’s one of the things about aziracrow that feels fundamentally queer #to say ‘yeah fuck that’ to what the systems in power tell you you should act like #or who you should love and care for #and instead say ‘i choose this’ ‘i choose you’ to the people and things that actually fulfill you #that is powerful and that is foundational to queerness and queer liberation in my opinion #it’s not about fate or being made for whatever #it’s saying ‘i don’t care if it’s fate or the divine plan or not. it just is and you can’t change the fact that it simply /is/.’ #and maybe that’s just me #but it sure as hell makes sense in my mind #good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #good omens 2 #ineffable wives #neil gaiman #good omens meta #aziracrow meta #gomens meta

[denkies]

"Mob's not autistic!!!" my brother in christ he literally has a book titled "How To Read Social Cues"

#the ''reigen'' book on the far left lol 😭 #but fr saying mob isn't autistic is just bragging that you understand none of the story or it's foundation #Mob was written as the most autistic middle schooler ever on purpose #if ONE just wanted to write about a psychic kid who can't control his emotions‚ Teru is right there #but mob is written to specifically struggle with processing AND showing emotion #and not being able to read social cues to the point where it causes a meltdown (''get a clue'' scene in s1) #like the series is ABOUT an autistic esper child who's autism literally changes the way his powers work #if you don't think he's autistic you are not understanding the core foundation of the entire series #neurodivergency runs the show! you're just mad that an autistic kid is allowed to have the spotlight #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #kageyama shigeo #mob mp100

[dullahandyke]

and like sidenote if i can make a post with a target audience of zero. i feel like fhsy was to d20 what aa3 was to ace attorney but aa3 pulled it off better for reasons i cannot explain

#it is. the amatonormativity #^ guy who was REALLY pissed about the sandra lynn stuff #like yknow that bit in the first ep where brennan is like 'oh this drama is going down' and so like the pcs investigate it #probs bcos they think itll like kick off their new quest #and then it turns out to be like. petty romantic drama. #thats kind of a microcosm of the entire season for me #not to say there werent parts i liked (looks at the picture of baron i printed out and hung on my wall) #(and most of the leviathan stuff was brilliant and ayda is a role model for me) #but its all so tied up in the rest of that shit that i dont rlly wanna rewatch it the way ive rewatched fy 6+ times #likening this to aa3 bcos of the rlly noticeable uptick in romantic content in it compared to the rest of the trilogy #like prior to that all that rlly comes to mind is like. 2-3 and pearl's shipping shenanigans and larry existing #but in aa3 both mia and phoenix have past lovers who play big parts #theres a married couple theres tigre and viola (who sidenote i ENTIRELY missed as romantic my first playthru. i am dense) #there's the business with fawles #like it felt like romance played a large part in every case in aa3 #where even when it came up in 1 + 2 it was usually ancillary (2-3 excepted but like. ppl regard that case as a fluke in most regards) #you COULD argue that maggey and adrian also inject some romantic presence in the story #but idk it just doesnt feel as central or prevalent as in aa3 #like i saw a post abt adrian and celeste being cousins in the aa anime being not just the sailor moon 'best cousins' thing #but like. reinforcing the themes of familiar devotion as aa2's core. and that was rlly foundational to my understanding of the game #even tho its a change that comes from an adaptation #whereas you Couldnt make that change in aa3 without it changing A Lot of shit #where was i going with this. shrug. #the zelda and tracker relationship drama was entirely manufactured as punishing the pcs for not centering npcs #whose relationship issues were ancillary to the overarching plot they were focused on and which hadnt rlly been brought up beforehand #'why didnt gorgug call zelda :/' do u want zac to pause the kalina mystery to roleplay good relationship communication with the dm?? #like its one thing looking at sy as a narrative but looking at it as a ttrpg campaign with limited time and a need to split character focus #i dont see what it did for the story besides give gorgug something to angst abt. didnt rlly feel like there was character growth or an arc #sigh. MANDATORY DISCLAIMER its been at least a year since i watched sy and longer before that since ive played aa3 #but at the time my feelings were strong and have only calcified. romance as a theme in something not generally abt romance

[laufire]

I really can't overstate my lack of interest in AUs where dick or jason weren't taken in by bruce tbh.

#like. not even as a ''what would it have been'' intellectual scenario tbh #i'm not interested in *reading* stuff centering the other kids where they weren't adopted either #but their dynamic with bruce are built upon a series of previous events happening and if your premise already changes them #that feels different to me (i.e. in an au where jason doesn't die or bruce reacts differently enough afterwards... #it makes sense that tim wouldn't enter the picture at that moment in time in the same manner) #(and figuring out HOW it could happen could be interesting) #but dick&bruce and jason&bruce are- foundational to me #to their characters and to the narrative #in a way that; were it to be removed; i simply. wouldn't be too interested in exploring in a story tbh #talking to the void #my thoughts #dc thoughts #dc comics #fandom nonsense #dick grayson #jason todd #bruce wayne #favourites: you raise sons

[misshooman]

not me making a game in godot again nuh uh

we got:

movement

interaction prompt to let you know theres something interactable near by

interactable areas which do wacky things

dialogue system!!! i did that just now

silly lil guy for the player sprite (he's called glibby btw) (i love him is the thing about it)

and all of the interaction and dialogue systems are actually easy for me to use to implement new features, dialogue, npcs and whatever else i want!!!! and i've squashed many-a bug!!!!!!!!! fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#this is all foundations for a much bigger game btw #not too much bigger gameplay-wise (mainly just keeping track of variables and changing the story to fit) #but its gonna (hopefully) be not just a quick little silly wander to the story to buy milk #i want pain and suffering and joy and confusion and fun #video #video games #gamedev #godot engine #godot #text post #text

[widowshill]

sometimes I do just say things

#now that I’ve finished the show I need to go more long winded into why I actually care about this damn thing #➤ ooc. ┊ she’s nauseous，she’s hysterical，and she’s exhausted. #it’s so American. it’s SO about America; which makes it flavorfully distinct from the gothic lit that serves as a lot of its foundations. #(there’s also American lit I think being used but for the most part it’s English) #but it’s not a story you could transplant to England without changing the fundamental meaning. #it isss about what our ideals of a household are after the war; how the late 60’s are in resistance of that; how womanhood in the 60’s #is in resistance to that. #the atrocities that America is committing and burying while the show is on the air. #the disfigurement and deforming we were committing in the name of preserving these ideals of Normalcy (economic; political; gender; sexual) #the monsters that we make and inflict on each other #that barnabas is fed on the blood of the poor; the criminal; the sex worker; the itinerant; #(not a uniquely American horror; but still) #we repeat and repeat and repeat — the uselessness of the legal system and the way it condemns the innocent. #the violence of Christianity permeating the apparatuses of power. #the family — bastion of Normalcy; Christianity; capitalism — is liable to corrupt. #the family is violent; incestuous — the family lock each other up in the rooms of the domestic space to die. #god.

[birdmenmanga]

birdmen fans all over the world rejoicing because I've slowly stopped posting about the queer metaphor but little do they know edits of the manga with excerpts of the communist manifesto are just on the horizon

#just thinking thoughts... #stray bird thoughts #I feel like people have less of a right to frown upon this though like the communism is like. VERY prominent in-text. #like it is more explicitly discussed than the queer metaphor stuff. which I think is deeper in the foundations of the story but isn't SAID #prologue is very obviously eishi lamenting the fact that he is only going to school so he can become a laborer in a society #which doesn't actually care about him #and once again. barbara's castle speech. #like this makes barbara and guang feng's stance of 'destroy all humanity' make more sense #because what they're REALLY saying is 'destroy the bourgeoisie' #however because humanity also represents the cishetallos tanabe can't actually go through with the extermination #see I respect the effort and why bm is the way it is makes even more sense now #but like. now despite all the efforts to push for communism you have this milquetoast halfway stance of #well communism can coexist with the bourgeoisie actually <- I don't think this is true???? #but see that's why I think the queer metaphor thing is actually the number 1 thread tanabe wanted to follow #because the ending doesn't make sense from a bm are communists interpretation #'the bourgeoisie can choose to become proletariat at any time and if they choose to do so we will support them'???? #so you're still in the basic framework of capitalism then. your revolution changed nothing. am I crazy #oh my GOD is takayama saying 'let's go to a time where capitalism never happened' and eishi's saying 'nooo suck cock fallacy' #'we fought so hard for communism in this timeline and failed(?) but I don't want all this work to just vanish #'so no let's not remake the world with true communism' #what's wrong with you eishi #i get it now. arthur and takayama were right. #but also he's a middle class boy. what did we expect #(and also it's being published in shonen sunday. one more time what did we expect)

[moongothic]

Absolutely losing my fucking mind over the KSBD page like. Fuck. Fucking fuck. God. Fuck.

We’ve watched Allison go through absolute fucking hell, so much pain, suffering and heartbreak, and now we get to see a glimpse of her ASCENCION

And as if that wasn’t touching enough as it was, like

Like we’ve slowly over the course of the story met and gotten to know all Demiurges

We’ve seen all the dope ass introductions to them that I can not even fucking include here in full because there’s so many and they’re full page panels BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN

We’ve met the other Demiurges over the past 5 books, a process that has taken 8 years in real time

And like, all this time, we all thought this fucking comic, this god damn story, was about the task Zoss gave Allison back in Book 1, the reason he gave her the key, the mission he sent her on

We thought that’s what the title drop was

But no

Zoss was calling Allison by her true name

The name she has now claimed, with her ascencion

And I’m not fucking okay bro what the fuck

#Mine #Text post #KSBD #KSBD Spoilers #You know althought there's a lot of media I enjoy there's only a few pieces of media that I can genuinely say changed me as a person #(/is a foundational piece of media for me) (Those being Don Rosa- FFIX and One Piece) #((Which considdering the fact that most people would considder me a Digimon fan first and foremost says a lot)) #And here's fucking. KSBD. Crawling its way into that tiny fucking group of stories #About to fundamentally change me as a person and how I view storytelling #This fucking comic man god dammit #AND NO I KNOW THIS MOMENT ISN'T EVEN THAT REVOLUTIONARY OR ANYTHING #THIS IS BASIC STORY TELLING #BUT LIKE. I DUNNO MAN IT FUCKING SHATTERED MY KNEES ANYWAYS #I'm so fucking used being completely fucking NUMB to stories and never feeling a god damn thing about anything #Just let me have this man I'm experiencing the first emotion about a story in a long time JUST LET ME HAVE THIS #(Also I may be calling this basic storytelling but being basic is fine ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU DO IT THIS FUCKING GOOD)

[qasian-tech-support]

Please ignore if I clicked the wrong blog to respond to.

But I also want new Megas and Protomen :(

RIGHT?!?!

I mean, yeah, the Megas also have their takes on Skullman's theme ("Cracked Skulls"; inspired by MM4) and Chill Penguin's theme ("Chill XMas"; inspired by MMX), and I guess there's also one based on Storm Eagle's theme ("Rougmer Storm"; MMX), but I haven't listened to that one yet.

Like, I get that they have a good story arc to cover the first 3 classic games, but it would be so cool if they explored some of the themes of the following games, y'know? Or flesh out the MMX or other series music! Or hell, pick and choose some Robot Masters and make a new narrative, or like literally anything, please, people are starving over here! And it's not like they aren't still active. Don't get me wrong, I love their Castlevania stuff under the Belmonts label, but it would be nice to get Mega Man content outside of just remixes/remasters of their existing songs. Plus, they're still doing concerts, so like the audience is there for it!

And as for the Protomen, I hope that they actually end up releasing Act III at some point. Having listened to The Fight, it makes me crave it to an unhealthy degree. I love the grimdark kinda take on Mega Man that focuses more on the role that humanity takes in all of the conflict. I feel like that angle gets extremely neglected in Mega Man media.

Idk, as a fan, it's just kinda frustrating how neglected mega man gets. Like, it feels like the rare times whenever we do get content, it focuses on the first three or four games (if we're lucky), and then it just dies off! Or goes dormant for a decade or more. The franchise has so much creative potential that just isn't realized and it's so sad!

#hoping praying everyday for more #oh god and like just how foundational both bands have been for the creative efforts for the classic series #the archie comic even references The Megas a few times!! I GAVE YOU HAIR (ROBOTIC HAIR) #imagine the potential with a Bass focused narrative! or Quint! or Dr Cain!! #and Capcom themselves arent free from scorn here. if they encouraged more creative efforts a la the archie comic it could stimulate #even more interest in the series beyond just jumping and shooting. like that helps to build an evergreen fanbase #and i mean more than just XDiVE. like i find XDiVE charming yeah but like. Im not seeing the profits from being put back into mega man stuff #having friends that have gotten me back into transformers really makes me reflect on Mega Man. i get that transformers has toylines and MM #is more game focused and that def makes a difference but like. the amount of comic series and issues that help flesh out the transformers #universes. for MM we get like 55 issues for archie? 'indefinite hiatus'? bro we know the sonic stuff brought MM down with it just say 'dead' #let IDW take up the license and get Ian Flynn to come back. i know we likely wont get ArchieOCs like Tempo back but like #idk.... it hurts bc i know how good of a job the archie comics were. its hard to imagine a reboot that isnt basically identical in story to #archie. esp bc how much love was put into tying in with the side content like the hand held games. but surely something could be done #somehow it could be continued. find some kind of Genesis Wave-esque mcguffin to change the OCs out. retcon the sonic stuff out completely #i really dont want to see MM1—MM3 needing to be revisited *again*. its like a Dr.Wily/Sigma in their own right for how much it comes back #like thats prob what kills a lot of creative endeavors tbh. the themes and events are so foundational that theyre nigh inescapable #I'm just.... tired.. #i have so much love for mega man and so many chains holding that love down

[cirrus-grey]

Rusty Quill: We're going to make an announcement on the 30th that may effect how you perceive the post-200 Magnus world.

Me: Right. *Cracks knuckles* *Sits down in front of my laptop and cranks out the last five stories in the Castaways series in two weeks flat*

#whatever happens next this series is based on the original show and the original show only #nothing is going to change that now #the magnus archives #the castaway foundation #my magnus archives stuff #my writing #original post #theres going to be a total of 30 individual stories in the series #ill be keeping to my current once-every-three-weeks posting schedule for now #...i cant believe i really finished it #ive spent a year and a half writing this thing #ive never spent that long on a single story before #wow okay im surprisingly emotional about this #statement remains #writing milestones

[trashlie]

ILY FP 201 and 202

I never had a chance last week to getting around to talking about FP 201 even though I really wanted to, and I’m kind of glad for it, because it ties so neatly together with 202. I’m not sure if our flashback arc ends here or not, and part of me feels like I should wait until we finally return to the present, but I’m never good at that and I like to lay down my thoughts while they remain fresh, if I can, especially in regards to this flashback. For something that has spanned so many episodes, we really were thrown a lot of information in these last episodes. I mean, in general, I think this whole arch has been a ride, and it’s been full of details we either never knew or were wrong about all along, and I have really enjoyed that aspect. But I cannot lie: episodes 200 and 201 were SO, SO HARD for me to read. I was dreading coming up on episode 200, but to tell you the truth, 201 hit me even harder. 

Something about the way we opened, with Shinae laying so helpless and broken, with the bird we’ve seen before in her dream flying away from her and her empty eyes; her wish to be like a bird and take flight (PARALELLS!), the fact that no one had even called for help that her teacher had to come along and find her?!, the way even! after! a fall! she still apologized and tried to hold it together TRIED SO HARD TO BE THE PERSON SHE THOUGHT EVERYONE NEEDED HER TO BE! There’s something so well-done about the pacing - that moment of tranquil peace before the teacher’s appearance and the urgency, the shifting panels as Shinae is blacking out and the fear it instills, even knowing full well how it turns out. It’s SO well done to me! 

There was something that struck me so hard in that moment, that Shinae had yet to grow used to adults caring and respecting her feelings. It can’t have been an hour prior, in the timeline, that she was worried her homeroom teacher would get mad if she went to the math club meet and thought she had to sneak, was so stunned that the teacher apologized for her mistake. Coming from a place where she’d been bullied so badly the bully’s mom had attacked her, where no other teachers came forward or stepped in to stop it, and here she’s got two different teachers who all show concern for her and respect her, and how there’s something so very SAD about it being one such teacher who is the one to get her help, because no one else had.

What would have happened if she didn’t have a math meet to be at? What would have happened if she was just on cleaning duty? Who would have found her? 

The fragmented memories of Shinae in and out of consciousness, all of people who care about her, all jagged and out of focus. I absolutely lost it when Minhyuk burst in the way he did - Shinae came to this school in hopes of making friends, of fitting in, or at the very least not being bullied. She just wanted to have friends and not be seen as the weird kid or picked on and ostracized and in the end, it was only Minhyuk. Only he got to know her enough to care about her, only he was concerned about her. His savage, emotional outburst and that awful, true line: I’m the only damn kid in this entire school that cares about her. 

It’s no wonder present-day Minhyuk turned out the way he did. It’s something we knew already - that Minhyuk knew her back when it happened so yes he’s overprotective as a result, but it was still easy to take Dieter’s side, that Minhyuk needs to step back and let Shinae live her life. But the thing is, Minhyuk isn’t just overprotective in the way of a big brother who thinks he needs to fight a younger sister’s battles. Minhyuk is protective in the way of knowing that only HE cared about her, that only HE could see through the rumors and be the friend she needed, that only HE could see everything for what it was. It’s even worse when you consider that no one else knows of Alyssa’s involvement, or how Shinae even fell, what lead to it, that there are rumors everywhere that paint Shinae in the worst light, that at the end of the day no one else cared, except him. Minhyuk is overprotective in the way of a parent who thinks the only way to protect their child is to shield them, or to fight their battles for them. The day he was away, winning his competition, Shinae was left helpless with no one, not one single person, on her side, and given the fact that it seems like she never opened up about it, never once talked about it, it all makes perfect sense and puts everything into a better perspective.

Minhyuk finishing up classes early so he could take the first flight home he could because Shinae finally broke down and for presumably the first time, opened up about everything she was going through, all the struggles that were too heavy for her to bear, all the horrors she endured that she never should have. You can’t blame him for wanting her out of her job with the Hiraharas after everything that has happened, you can’t blame him for not trusting the people around her, you can’t blame him for knowing that she’s been here before and not wanting her to go through it again. I think that’s what’s especially interesting about Dieter’s interpretation of Minhyuk - he thinks that Minhyuk is infantilizing Shinae, that he can’t see how much she’s grown, but for Minhyuk, it’s that it’s such an aspect of who he is, something that’s become so deeply ingrained, it’s eclipsed his ability to even see when his protective nature is hurting his sister, when it’s causing strife. The weight of being the only person who would ever have defended and protected Shinae, of being the only person who could have protected her, and the guilt of not being there when she needed him the most formed at such a formative age. What else could he do but adopt this as part of his personality, a swear forged in guilt to never leave her defenseless again. When you consider it this way, it must have been one hell of a struggle for Minhyuk to decide to attend school in a country halfway across the world. For him to make the choice to leave Shinae’s side and trust that nothing horrifying would happen to her again - ONLY FOR IT TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN - must be heavy on his shoulders. 

Likewise, we’ve got some interesting insight into Maya, too. I’d always operated on the assumption that everyone knew about Alyssa’s involvement - that teachers and parents knew, that the Parks were aware, that it was a bigger affair than it ended up being, but it sounds now more like Alyssa probably went home that day and begged and begged her parents to remove her from school and I’m willing to bet she never said why. Maya had already left, had been given the opportunity to wait after school with Rika and instead chose to leave Shinae for tragedy, and knew only that Alyssa was not a good friend, that she didn’t defend Shinae when she wasn’t around. It’s funny - when Shinae comes face to face with an ad of Alyssa, Maya’s response had seemed awfully cavalier, to essentially write off Alyssa as Shinae’s sucky ex-bff, but, well, that’s all Maya knew, wasn’t it? She had no idea just how twisted all of the layering is. Like Minhyuk, Maya also operated out of guilt, but hers was combined with her feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. I don’t know if we can read into it deeper, but I wonder if part of why it was difficult for Maya to become friends with Shinae, besides their different personalities, is that she feels saddled with all that guilt and feelings of inadequacy. Not just the feeling like people look out for Shinae more than they do for her but the knowledge that she, too, once abandoned Shinae, and who is she to try to befriend her, even at her brother’s request? Obliging out of guilt - because once upon a time she could maybe have intervened, or been there to get help - but struggling to accept that she’s allowed to be friends with someone who she has begrudged and abandoned. I think there’s a lot of signs that Maya cares about Shinae but is very affected by the complexity of her dark and negative feelings. I don’t think Maya necessarily called Shinae to help at the bakery the day after the formal because Shinae is a yes girl or something, I think she called Shinae because she’s Shinae. 

Actually, again, this brings me back to what I love the most about this story - it’s all the shades of grey, the layers of complexity, how nothing is ever black or white, one way or another. 

Alyssa liked Shinae, but she was a terrible friend. She wanted her cake and to eat it, too, and she couldn’t make it work. She never managed to deal with confrontation, she couldn’t face her fear of ostracization. Even with all the hints that it could never work she still tried. 200 highlighted that so well - though to Shinae’s face she acted like their brief friendship meant nothing, when the other girls were messing with Shinae’s belongings, she still tried to get them to stop and leave her (and her stuff) be. And sure, we could easily say it’s because Alyssa was afraid of getting in trouble, but she still showed so much concern over Shinae crawling out on the window ledge to retrieve her backpack, SHARPLY contrasted with the absolute lack of concern the bully girls showed, and her pure horror when she accidentally knocks Shinae out the window. Alyssa is a mess and she’s not good at handling crisis and she rarely, if ever, chooses to do the right thing. The moment it all starts coming down, she buckles and folds under pressure. I know a lot of people are upset that she didn’t call 911, but frankly, I think she couldn’t. With what we know of Alyssa, it wouldn’t be the first time she froze and panicked in a situation of crisis. Compare her going home “feeling sick” because her attempt to make friends (selling their project) blew up in her face to the actual horror of shoving someone out the window and, yes, the trouble that would come from it? I assume Alyssa went into a panic attack or some kind of crisis and froze up, too afraid to deal with what happened. I’m not saying it’s right, but I also don’t think Alyssa’s lack of interaction is as malicious as people make it out to be. I think she’s a middle school child ensnared by intense guilt and horror and fear and didn’t know how to react. I imagine she went home and never breathed a word of this, only begged her parents to withdraw her, told them she changed her mind, she didn’t want to do public school, told them it was awful and she never ever wanted to return again. 

All the time I thought that Alyssa never had the therapy or closure that she needed was because I thought her parents and their obsession with image probably never gave her the opportunity, but now I realize it’s probably that Alyssa, much like Shinae, likely buried this deep, deep down where she could pretend it was something that never happened, something that happened to a person she no longer is. That’s probably how Alyssa is able to face Shinae at the formal - because she has to, because masking and putting on a show is her literal career, because if she gives that incident or her guilt even one moment to breathe, her entire carefully constructed facade would fall apart. 

Again, Alyssa is so much like Kousuke in the sense of denial - that they have to deliberately look away from things in order for their personal truths to hold value. The moment Alyssa has to face her past, to revisit what happened, how she treated Shinae, there’s a good chance for it all fall apart. Sure, she can dig her heels in the way she does with Nol and deflect, but we also know that for a brief period of time, Shinae was important to Alyssa, even if Alyssa couldn’t let it be true. How much would she be able to deflect? How much would she be able to shift blame? I think the only way for Alyssa to ever come to terms with what happened in the past is if she is confronted, if she and Shinae ever talk it out, but I also don’t think, at least certainly not at this stage, that Alyssa would ever be as honest as she needs to be. Maybe Shinae would be able to one day accept that this is the sum of Alyssa: a messy attempt at trying to be the impossible, that she never meant to hurt Shinae, but was still willing to throw her under the bus. 

And despite it, Alyssa left a get well soon present, with the most cavalier note in the world. I... can’t lie, I kind of laughed about it, because that note comes across so cold and empty, but also what else was she going to write? Sorry I pushed you out a window. Sorry I threw you under the bus. Sorry I was the most undeserving friend to you? Again, they are children, and frankly they are dealing with something bigger and darker than they are probably ready to. I think this is Alyssa’s weird way of trying to show care and concern, but so bogged down by guilt that she can’t truly face Shinae. Even if she knew the hospital Shinae was in, I don’t think she would have been able to do it, to face her in a hospital gown with a scar where her skull was literally cut open. To face her and know the role she played in this, who it all transpired because of her. Like Shinae, she buried it so deep down it felt like a whole other lifetime. But I think much like with Shinae, there’s only so far you can repress things before your past returns to haunt you.

This is something I’m now thinking about: the weight and impact of an Alyssa bullying reveal in the light of knowing how few people know of her involvement. We’ve talked before about how a bullying scandal could affect Shinae but that was under the assumption that everyone already knew Shinae was involved. Imagine a rumor coming to light, that Alyssa had been a bully in middle school, that she and another student ganged up against other students, and that she even pushed that student out a window before disappearing. Minhyuk and Maya would instantly know it was Shinae - something she’s kept from them for so long would be made public without her consent, possibly before she’s even ready to deal with it. Depending on the wording, it could be easy to accuse Shinae of making the accusation to take down her career, and given that Alyssa tends to mirror Kousuke, I wouldn’t be surprised by this, but I like to hope that Alyssa would have better sense to expect the other two girls if there was any other background information alluding to her and the “other bully girl” aka how they all saw Shinae.

I think it does also bring us back to the Other Bully Issue. When the bully girls tease Alyssa for defending Shinae, they pull the “if you care so much why don’t you marry her?” line, which in and of itself is not very nefarious, but Alyssa’s reaction to it still comes across as.... heated? It’s hard to read in the moment, since she’s trying to clear her name and make it seem like she has no lingering attachment towards Shine, but at the same time, it’s been a quiet, running theme, a thing that Alyssa so vehemently fears getting out that I feel like we still cannot definitively rule it out. I still think there could be a good chance that bullying accusations could possibly be entangled with potentially trying out to Alyssa (which I feel is frankly far too much). 

On a different note, tethering back to our current story, I am absolutely blown away by the reveal that the orange sweater Shinae has worn before was from Alyssa. Literally, this blew my mind so much! I think it’s some kind of testament to Shinae’s level of repression, too, that she can still wear it in the present without feeling any type of way about the person who gave it to her. Like, if she had any resentment towards Alyssa, that sweater would be burnt up or at least donated. Of course, this doesn’t tell us anything new, because numerous times throughout the story, we have seen that Shinae has mostly confusion towards that time of her life, and usually wishes Alyssa well.

In fact, as a “fun” (depressing) fact, in episode 16 we are shown a vague, blurry flashback of Alyssa pushing Shinae - and she is wearing this exact sweater as she thinks back on it. In fact, she was literally wearing a yellow tee-shirt at the end of the episode prior! The fact that she appears wearing it while thinking about the very incident that afforded her this sweater?! (The fact that she wonders how she is, well she hopes and the scene cuts to Nol trying to get in touch with Alyssa and her not answering the call? What a segue!)  

Actually, it’s kind of darkly funny that this is the sweater Shinae is wearing when Maya set her up to meet with Kousuke and Nol - the latter of whom has unearthed all this deeply buried trauma of not meaning something to the person you care about, of being abandoned and cooly tossed aside like trash. LISTEN YOU KNOW THIS IS MY SHIT. I cannot! Deal with this detail! 

(That said, after Shinae was splashed by that child’s mom, she thinks “this isn’t even my sweater”. The bird is also facing a different way on the shirt Shinae wears early in the series. I wonder if that’s an oversight of quimchee’s part or if there’s something more to reveal to us in time.) 

I also cannot deny the irony of Shinae falling and likening it to flying, of looking at that bird and wishing she, too, could take flight and and feel the freedom of the sky, and that being the design on the shirt Alyssa gives her. It just.... feels SO deeply ironic. 

I think we are at the end of the flashback - maybe another episode or two, but if it goes back now, I wouldn’t be surprised! I’m curious to see where this brings us in the present. I’d noted on reddit that I think there is a lot of room for Shinae to take a stumble, for this recollection to affect her and be a pushback on the growth she’s made, but narratively that would be SUCH a disappointment and frankly, anti-climatic, after the efforts she went through to bring Nol back. I think - or at least I hope - that reliving this nightmare in her past with given Shina renewed resolve, to face Nol, to embrace friendships, to dig her heels in on what she was saying - that things happen to them and maybe it’s not punishment, maybe the universe has no sense of rhyme or reason and they shouldn’t believe that they are being punished for things beyond their control, for things they could not affect. They did not choose to be born the people they are, but they can choose to defy what life has offered them. 

#I Love Yoo #ILY Spoilers #ILY FP #ILY Brainrot #Shinae Yoo #Alyssa Cho #Minhyuk Park #Maya Park #Nol #Nolan Oliver T. Lochlainn #i hate that tag lmao #GOD this one is long but i don't think anyone is surprised #i have a LOT of rambling going on under the cut about just idk the general DEPTH of everything and how it's all played into and affected the #story at this point and what i think is so important and vital that it had to be explored in such depth and scrutiny. i think this incident #was such a formative foundation not only for Shinae and Alyssa but for people close or involved. like i wouldn't say maya is a close party #but she's certainly tethered to the incident by way of her guilt and the opportunity she didn't take to invite Shinae to join and maybe wait #for her or something. idk! i just have a LOT of thoughts and finally was able to articulate them decently enough. i feel like it doesn't all #come across the way i want it to but this will have to do! idk i have enjoyed this arc - in the way that you can appreciate a trainwreck i #guess lol like it feels bad to say but seeing how everything played out and went down and the ramifications of it is satisfying in a really #upsetting way. getting to see the way this affected and changed everyone like how Minhyuk made this an entire part of his personality of #their whole relationship and the new perspective it gives towards how Dieter sees his interference #Dieter cannot begin to understand why Minhyuk is so overprotective of Shinae and why he goes out of the way like he does #I also cannot help but look forward to an inevitable day when this all comes out into the open because there's no way we went through all #this just for it to remain a quiet secret between Shinae and Alyssa. what happens when everyone finds out - not just Nol Dieter Soushi #but Minhyuk and Maya too? what happens when it's dragged into the open how Alyssa treated her how the fall happened? #Even though I don't think Shinae is telling Nol (or at least if she tells him anything she will omit Alyssa) I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE THINKS. #BECAUSE HE DID THIS TO HER TOO. BECAUSE HE MADE HER THINK THEY WERE FRIENDS ONLY TO CAST HER ASIDE AND MAKE HER FEEL WORTHLESS #and it was worse because he had to break down her walls in order to do it #will he finally understand why she chased him so hard why she's fighting so hard for him why she believes in him when he can't believe in #himself? will he understand the ways he hurt her when he never anticipated doing so?

[br1ghtestlight]

im looking through old oc doodles and damn jayden used to be a much better person LMAO he's such an asshole now

#i think i changed the way his character interacted with the world at some point which is Why #he was originally intended to be a character who was there very much for other people to learn from and interact with #vs being given his own story independant from other people #so i wasn't as focused on giving him like. negative traits but i think it makes him a much more interesting character #the foundation is still there he's just more manipulative and mean <3 i mean i would assume he gets better over time #im glad he has more character depth now but its crazy seeing art of him being NICE to people and spending time w/ kids #he would not fucking do that #txt #object ocs

[onewomancitadel]

B/S versus W/J paralleling anon again!

Sorry for the lack of line breaks last time. My worst vice is forgetting the return key exists. 😵‍💫 I appreciate the thoughtful response in any case!

And. Since you asked. (TL;DR It’s towers all the way down, to me. Also I have zero of the fandom-standard villain->hero / enemies-to-lovers hangups because I like when characters undergo foundational change.)

I don’t feel like I needed to be convinced, honestly? Except insofar as the narrative had to set the pieces up that way. Coming to the story fairly late (after V8 wrapped, so I watched all of that in one go) and being insulated from the people who are… weird… about Jaune probably helped rhghjk

My interest in RWBY is very thematically oriented—I actually wouldn’t quibble at all that the romantic arcs are key thematic centerpieces, I think that’s absolutely true. I’m just not very romantically inclined myself, in general, so fictional romance isn’t something I get the giddy, like, dollies kissing! kind of excited for normally. The flip side of that is as long as it’s narratively compelling and the characters are interesting I’m a pretty easy sell as far as willingness to believe a romantic arc.

What *grips* me in a story is like, emotional paradigm shifts, dynamic self-image—especially in relation to family identity and definition of the self apart from one’s family. V9 has been VERY FUN for me, lol.

So my focus, with RWBY, tilts more toward the breaking and healing of parent-child bonds, whether personal (Summer + Ruby) or narrative (creators + creations). I tend to read the romantic arcs in that context. I guess a succinct way to put it would be to say I’m thinking about Ozlem in terms of Salem’s eternal exile being a second tower Ozma has been unhappily conscripted into guarding? And the point of the story ultimately is to Get Her Out Of The Tower But For Real This Time, and in the same stroke save him from being her warden.

What twigged me to Jaune/Cinder is the fractal repetition of their family situations. He has this family legacy he feels quite burdened by and feels compelled to uphold it (imitate it) even as it runs contrary to his actual self—he is not a warrior—meanwhile Cinder has only ever known family as a means of control and intends to escape the control by emulating the means.

Then they’re connected by her killing of Pyrrha, who drew out the Arc stuff in the first place and facilitated his emulation of his forefathers by training him. Then Jaune vs Cinder in V5 foreshadows the Ozlem fight in V6 and suggests the shape of that connection. & Jaune has this baked-in empathy for the feeling of being in a tower (stuck in a tree, funny how that’s coming full circle right as he confronts the brittleness of his simulated heroism).It does rather announce itself.

What grips me in a story is like, emotional paradigm shifts, dynamic self-image

See, because what's interesting to me in this case is that this is exactly what I'd describe romance as, and I prefer it over genetic family relations because it's something which exists outside a given scenario you're born into. This is the Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre type shit for me. And no net ensares me. This is totally paradigm-shift type stuff because it's outside everything you thought you knew.

So basically you're saying you identified Jaune/Cinder like, on your own terms, and then you found my blog? Am I gathering that correctly? Because if so, first of all, well fucking done (not trying to gas myself up here, just most people who send asks on the matter have done so because they found my blog or my fanfic pre-Knightfall). Second of all, that's crazy, because you've approached it on your own terms, and third of all, I'm so interested to hear from someone not inoculated in the fandom. I've been in the trenches since Volume 1, so the show has really transformed for me over time.

I personally didn't twig Jaune/Cinder until the end of V7, when I was near-certain Cinder's redemption arc was set-up and the story was taking her character seriously. I had speculated upon it since the end of V3/beginning of V4, but never seriously considered it to be that emotionally sincere and thoughtful lol. As you say, the fandom was and is pretty inhospitable. Frankly you're probably lucky you missed out on it, but more importantly, I'm fascinated with your experience because you clearly have a textual grip on the matter.

I think what you're describing here about intergenerational inheritance is thematically critical to the story, but I think what's forgotten in a lot of fandom spaces is that romance is a building block of family too. People get married and have babies. Ozlem got married and had babies. Obviously I care about the marriage and babies bit, but it's not like a stork dropped Ruby out of the sky (and to be honest, I want to know what's up with the team STRQ love affairs). So I suppose I'm sort of like, curious about the false binary on the matter (and I'm for a model of romance which is like... reciprocal, unconditional, non-transactional and not forced, obviously). I do agree though, I'm a huge fan of the V9 development with Ruby in particular - I might be coming at it with a slightly different angle from you, in that Ruby's awakening to spiritual aridity (and basically outright confirmation this is her Heroine's Journey) is something I personally oscillate with, and the false image of her mother is one she actually needs to break. If we get Jungian here, Summer as Ruby's persona is very potent to me, especially if Grimm!Summer Rose theory proves true. (Your mummy comes back in the worst way possible, the truth of the situation is really painful as the illusion is broken, but that is the only way to grow up).

I think what you've outlined here with Jaune and Cinder's family backgrounds is influential to the pairing, but it's not all of it in my opinion, but it is interesting that it motivated your interest - I can definitely see what are the things you find valuable in storytelling influencing your interpretation here. I think what you've described with Jaune here is my exact issue with Jaune/Weiss, though. In the past I described what my issue is with a potential Weiss love interest; frankly the boy is simply not a good arranged match and is unmarriageable to another great house. The last thing his character needs is to join a different family weighted legacy. So in this way, I think Jaune and Cinder 'meet in the middle' on this matter, as they do with everything else. If the ideas here are intentional, it's actually quite clever. Because in this sense, Cinder needs to get out from her magical evil stepmother/godmother's thumb, and so does Jaune, and they need to get married and have babies.

I know what you mean though; I do think there is a difference between you and I in the sense that I can readily write tens of thousands of words about Jaune and Cinder falling in love with each other, which is a genuinely different experience from wanting to see Ruby's relationship with her mother evolve. But by the same stroke, I enjoy all that stuff too, especially in unusual places like with Raven (the Mother of the triple goddess cycle) in respect to Cinder (a well and proper Maiden) and Qrow and Winter. Anyway, I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, because really, you're fluffing up my ego with this 'I don't ship it but I see it' business.

I don't mean to sound weird but you said 'it's towers all the way down'; I tagged a Reverse Ozlem post this like, a year or so ago. So that's some interesting memetic repetition. (I'm not saying you're copying/referencing me, I mean this in a sort of vaguely mystical way lolololol). Because yes, I do feel the Ozlem story is basically fundamental to understanding the reincarnating/repeating pattern of the show, and this is even true outside of Jaune/Cinder itself and to do with the other canon romances. I really like how you've described the Ozlem relationship here, actually; I feel like you get it.

So that is... very interesting to me. My goodness. Very enlightening indeed.

Then they’re connected by her killing of Pyrrha, who drew out the Arc stuff in the first place and facilitated his emulation of his forefathers by training him.

Yes, yes that's exactly it. That's why Pyrrha is another persona (false self), and this is especially why the sequence of Penny -> Pyrrha -> Weiss all hurting him just in this past episode is puzzling me. These are all false images, attached to a false sense of who he is, which are assaulting him. Cinder killing Pyrrha symbolically frees Jaune of this weight but it's deeply and profoundly painful (and on a broader scale, the death of Pyrrha is the death of innocence and childhood, and then you've got the fact it makes the Fall of Beacon personal to one character who's meant to have a major connection to Cinder?). But then she forces him to kill Penny, which is even further brutal development, and now he's retreated to Weiss, which again he is dispelled away from.

The problem is that I want to analyse this on terms of character development and narrative consequences, but you can't really get past 'but she's evil for killing Pyrrha :( Jaune should kill Cinder :(', and it makes the matter rather boring. So I really enjoy the opportunity of getting to interact with someone who fuckinggggg getsssss it and I don't have to censor myself speaking about the narrative. Again: I've been in this fandom on and off for too long and I've seen it all. As bad as you think it was, imagine worse. Most of the fandom has been filled with 'Pyrrha is Jaune's tragic lost love and they should be together forever and ever' for years and years, if not 'Weiss is the replacement goldfish/Ruby is the replacement goldfish/something something', and so say, with the appearance of Pyrrha this volume my stomach's in the floor because eventually you start to wonder if the chorus is right.

But on textual terms that he is literally harmed by false images is pretty on the nose.

Regarding the V5/V6 Ozlem parallel, yeah that is the clincher for me personally with the ship. Reverse Ozlem itself is what I think to be the motivating factor (here's a recent post I made about the potential in which it can evolve as), so I'm glad you picked up on that bit too because as much as I care about all the other influences (see: my masterpost) I only take those as seriously as I do because of the Ozlem matter. Like, you know, Rhodopis (proto-Cinderella) marrying Sappho's (Sapphron's) brother. That one is so fucking weird, I really can't believe it.

I appreciate this follow-up a lot, it's really fascinating for me to hear your thoughts and I think you have a lot of interesting things to say. Really, a true joy. Also, thank you for the paragraph breaks, that really saved me and I appreciate it a lot. <3 I hope you have a good one, and please stop by again.

(Original post being referenced).

#seraphina's asks #user: anonymouse #knightfall #also yeah foundational change is awesome. I love when stories have things happen #you might like to peruse my #redemption arcs #tag #rwby9 #seraphina ruminates over V9