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cy-cyborg · 9 months

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Tips for Writing and Drawing Amputees: Bandaged Stumps

When writing and drawing amputee characters, unless your character only just lost their limb, they don't need to wear a bandage over their stumps.

to be clear, eda's depiction in the show was fine, since she'd only just lost her arm and went (presumably) without any medical attention, but because the show didn't have much time to show her afterwards, I've noticed a tendency of the fandom to draw her wearing the bandage permanently, so that's why I'm picking on her for my example lol.

It's a bit of a trope at this point, and I think it comes from one of a few different places:

Amputees do wear bandages on their stumps, but usually only for the first 6-12 weeks post-amputation, sometimes longer if the amputation was a result of a burn. It's possible people saw this though and assumed it was permanent.

Most amputees wear a sock made of either cotton or silicone under their prosthetics to provide them with some extra padding. These socks, called liners, often stick out from the top of the prosthetic socket and could possibly be mistaken for a bandage from a distance.

Some amputees will wear compression garments for a few months to a few years after their amputations which could also be mistaken for a bandage from a distance. These garments are designed to stop swelling and reduce phantom pain, but they aren't bandages.

Stumps get cold easier because their circulation typically isn't as good as the rest of the body, so some amputees will wear socks over them even if they aren't wearing a prosthetic to keep warm, which again could be mistaken for a bandage from a distance.

This one is funny, but in my experience unfortunately, it's the most common: people think the end of an amputee's stump is just a perpetual open wound that never heals. Meaning to avoid "gore" it needs to be covered. I've met fully grown adults who believed this until I showed up to work/uni without my prosthetics or socks on.

People are uncomfortable with seeing an uncovered stump and so put bandages over it to avoid confronting their biases.

Some combination of these points.

But yeah, unless your amputee has only just lost their limb in the last few weeks, they don't need a bandage.

The ironic thing too, is that for most amputees, bandaging a stump is nearly impossible. I've been in and out of hospital since I was 1 year old and only ever met 3 nurses and no doctors/surgeons who could successfully bandage my stump in a way that the bandage would even stay on. This is because stumps are usually tapered in shape (meaning they are wider at the top, closer to the body, and thinner at the bottom), so gravity will pull the bandage off 9 times out of 10.

On a final note: it's ok to show your amputee's stump, it's not gore, there's no blood, it just looks like a regular limb that just stops early. In fact, if you are writing/creating anything for kids or that is likely to be seen by kids, I encourage you to show your amputee's stumps at least once. I used to work on a disability awareness program for kids, and I lost count of the amount of times kids were terrified of me, because they all expected my leg to be bloody and gory. For a lot of kids, I was their first real-life exposure to an amputee, meaning they'd never even heard of people like me, or they had seen an amputee on TV, but because the show went out of its way to avoid showing the person's stump, they assumed it must have been because there was "something scary at the end" that they weren't supposed to see (kids are surprisingly perceptive, they will pick up on stuff like that without you realising). And scared kids aren't good at articulating why they're scared, and would often say really mean or hurtful things to me. I knew not to take it personally and learned how to handle those situations, but not everyone is used to dealing with kids. For a new amputee (or anyone who's less confident in their disability), the kinds of things those kids would say could be absolutely confidence destroying. I never blame the kids, it's not their fault, but the whole situation could have been avoided if they had seen people like us before they had the chance to hear the wrong info. Good representation like this can be the difference between a kid crying, making throw-up sounds and calling an amputee "disgusting monsters" (all things I've had kids do/say) and them just being like "oh ok, cool."

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meanbossart · 16 days

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Another much overdue ask compilation! Some short-ish lore asks (Gale, Gort, DU drow relationships and pet-companion preferences) and a couple of art/advice ones sprinkled in. THIS IS BY NO MEANS ALL OF MY ASKS so as usual I appreciate everyone's patience!

I actually think he'd give them a pass entirely as soon as he noticed. Correct me if I'm mistaken but half-drow get No love from underdark drow and are usually surface babies right? So that fruit is miles away from the tree lol. I think he generally has a bit of a soft spot for mixed kinds since he himself feels like an amalgamation of sorts.

Thank you! They're kind of a pain in the ass to draw at times for that very reason but man I do like the look 😩if other people like it too then that makes it all worth it!

THAT'S TRICKY TO ANSWER BECAUSE OFTEN TIMES I'M NOT... REALLY TRYING. I've draw a ton of horror comics for mine and my partner's series' SAD SACK and SORTIE, so I think it just comes naturally to me 😅 also I do genuinely find expressive and, uh, rugged faces more attractive? (I think they look rugged, again that's what people tell me at least.)

I think the secret might be adding bits of realism in there. I get a lot of comments about the wrinkles and eyelashes I add to my art, as well as the way I draw individual teeth (though I've lately been making an effort to simplify my style in favor of drawing faster, so I haven't done that as much or in as much detail.)

Both symmetry and the lack of it can also add to that effect. I have employed both facial unevenness and almost point-perfect symmetry to achieve something a little frightening or otherworldly in my work. [MORE UNDER THE CUT]

Thank you so much!!! The contrast is very much intentional, that's what DU drow's character is all about ;)

Hahah well I somewhat doubt Bhaal would care that his spawn gets named, but either way he stripped himself of his name as soon as he killed his foster parents and abandoned the Underdark. He had a drow name that I jotted down somewhere but it's completely irrelevant because nobody has used it since he was a child, and he doesn't remember it (even pre-tadpole/having his brain scrambled.) Here's a little write up about his origins that might shed some more light on that: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/739688837431836672/did-drow-ever-have-a-childhood-before-the-temple

And about his original drow-given name and the reason behind it: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/741350986692591616/drow-had-to-have-been-given-a-name-by-his-adoptive

Everyone just referred to him as his supposed race, or as Bhaalspawn or Bhaal's child, and any other similar titles. Orin called him "kin" and "brother" and Gortash likely called him his associate. Post-tadpole the camp grows entirely used to calling him "the drow" and he has no desire to change that or to choose a proper name.

THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH😭 no reason to be intimidated, I'm just some rando drawing BG3 fan art LOL I've been drawing since I was a child, and started taking it semi-seriously when I was 16 years old, so twelve years ago! That's around the time where I got my first non-display tabled and used that well into my twenties, prior to that I only did stuff on paper and liked to do inks color with pencils. I never really ventured into traditional painting at all except for a little bit of water-coloring in college.

Traditional and Digital art are very much different beasts. Which one you want to start with is, in my opinion, just dependent on what you want to do. Digital art gives you a lot of tools that makes learning easier, but you might find yourself having much steeper of a learning curve if you ever decide to do traditional art instead. If you want to be good at both, you need to practice both, since the skill doesn't entirely translate from one medium to the other.

Naturally you will be able to draw well on either, it's just... Different. I will say though, that I think if you're still learning you should use whatever allows you to look directly at what your hand is doing, so either traditional or display tablet/Ipad. I have no idea what a non-display tablet would do to a beginner, but remembering my experience with it I feel like it might be a huge detriment to developing the skill (feel free to share your experiences in the replies if you disagree, as I would definitely be curious to read them!)

YOU KNOW ME BABY IT WAS MESSY AND COMPLICATED the tldr.: is that they were "buddies", absolutely no romance intended there on either mine or DU drow's part, but due to his nature the friendship was extremely weird.

Here's a couple of replies where I go into more detail about it: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/739191190871818240/i-dont-have-a-particular-question-in-mind-sorry

https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/744952815768764416/so-not-sure-if-youve-covered-this-but-i-thought

That's definitely reserved for the vamp LOL DU drow very much enjoys when Astarion teases and fusses over him, and while Astarion probably got a kick out of acting that way around such a big and scary looking guy at first, I think by "now" (later and post-game) he's pretty much immune to DU drow's looks and just enjoys doing it in earnest.

He's not at all averse to being touched (even rather intimately) by close friends, but he wouldn't be quite THAT vulnerable with anyone else.

HE REALLY DISLIKED GALE... He irked him out by seemingly fostering a rather persistent romantic interest in him for at least half the time they spent together (very much based on my interpretation of their in-game interactions at the time, though my Gale might have been a little bugged.)

But also they had a... Fairly in depth relationship still? Gale was a staple in my party, and even though I antagonized him constantly by the end of the game it still felt like they had so much weight in each other's lives, if that makes sense. I might need to do a bit of an "update" on the DU Drow/Gale lore sometime, I feel like I've had some thoughts since that warrant more exploration of their dynamic (you can find a lot of old asks about it if you just search the Gale Dekarios tag in my blog though).

The gist of it is that DU drow found him arrogant and duplicitous, his constant optimist irritated him to no end and felt like it veiled a stream of self-pity (two things DU drow despises) Gale's attempts to get through to him only added insult to injury. By the end of the game he decided to pursue the crown of Karsus and this only lost him even more respect in Drow's eyes, seeing as he doesn't value godly power at all.

I was pretty overwhelmed by the game at the start so I actually missed a lot LOL including Scratch. I did get the owlbear cub though, which DU drow gladly welcomed into camp since it was injured - but I think he would have wished for it to remain a wild animal and to return back to it's home after it had grown up a bit. He didn't really make a "pet" out of it more than he just looked after the little guy in the way it's mother might have, probably with Shadowheart's help.

He wouldn't be opposed to proper pets though if one were to stumble into his life. He'd definitely be more of a cat guy because of their independence and strong little attitudes.

It is very hard to build proper rapport with him. He will be "friendly" to most people who have a good sense of humor about them, but friendSHIP is another thing entirely.

I think it's kind of circumstantial. He's very economical in his relationships and doesn't really seek them out at all - so a situation where he's forced to be in someone's company might be the only way to develop a bond with him, as he doesn't appreciate insistence either and that's more likely to push him away. He doesn't value status or titles either (kind of looks down on them really) so that won't help.

I think he just likes people who are true to themselves and their nature, sometimes even if the nature is one he disagrees with at it's core. This is why he liked Gortash, why he and Shadowheart got along so well, and why him and Astarion fit together so seamlessly despite seeming so different. Likewise I think it's why he didn't jive with people like Gale or Wyll, because they seemed to be rather... Dishonest with themselves and their own end-goals.

#ask compilation #DU drow lore #ask

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theminecraftbee · 1 year

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"Alright. Cub. What lessons have we learned from this?" Scar asks, tapping a ruler he's gotten from who-knows-where against a mostly incomprehensibly spelled array of signs he's probably been reading for the past twenty minutes.

Cub wouldn't know. He hasn't been listening.

Still, he knows where to go with this. "I don't know, man. I'm still just saying. You, of all people, lecturing me on -"

"I know, I know, but I'm a changed Scar!" Scar says, putting a hand over his heart. "Powers beyond our understanding? Totally over that! Or at least, I totally know when not to mess with them!"

"Uhuh," Cub says.

"You don't have to sound so skeptical," Scar says.

"If I remember right, didn't you get to this season by falling through your weird hole that eats people?"

"It worked perfectly well! And you used llama-powered moon rockets, so really, Cub, let's not get started on moon-induced bad decision making. I have pictures of Moon McGee!"

"Different guy."

"Oh, I see, I see. So, hypothetically, if I hotguy you now -"

"Hotguy? Where's he? I only see Scar here."

The conversation pauses. Scar smirks. "Oh, I see. You know, you really are one of my very good friends. Why, if you said you didn't see me at the scene of the crime, it must be a case of mistaken identity!"

"Exactly, my friend. Exactly," Cub says.

"Ah, we should do more things like - hey, what were we talking about?"

"You were scolding me for the sculk incident," Cub helpfully clarifies.

"Oh, thanks," Scar says. "You know how it is sometimes. It's so easy to lose track of which bad decision we're talking about now."

"I mean. Bad decision to you," Cub says.

"...Cub. What lesson have you learned from this?" Scar asks.

"Next time I tell the fog to let me remember it, because man, the expressions on your faces had to have been hilarious. Like, large-scale sculk attack? Gotta hand it to me, that's a good one."

Scar thinks about it for a moment.

"You know what? Good enough," he says. "Help me tear down these signs. I can't tell what I wrote either."

"Yeah, you've gotta work on that one, buddy," Cub says, taking out an axe.

"I have a very good excuse!" Scar says, throwing up his hands, and Cub laughs as he starts tearing down the scolding signs.

#hermitcraft #empires smp #cubfan135 #goodtimeswithscar #a bee fic #i'm just saying like. you COULD go the angsty direction #but lets be real. cub would have done this even if he HADNT been possessed #and scar would be. vaguely encouraging probably #this is the best that conversation would get

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anghraine · 9 months

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Long, rambling, general post (with some detours into Austen + SW):

I find the academic obsession with novelty (at least in my field) rather irritating and in some ways actively harmful. But I've been thinking about it as I work on my dissertation, and there is an underlying concept I do find important.

Over here, I'm pretty content to scream my opinions at no one in particular, and have fun if people end up (courteously) answering back. But while there are commonalities between fandom meta practices and academia, a major difference (again, at least in my field) is that in academia, you essentially have to familiarize yourself with the wider community and discourse, and engage with it.

In literature, at least, it's important that you're not just reaching interpretations in a functional vacuum—interpretations that may well have been reached and argued thoroughly and well before. If you've got something fresh to contribute to the overall conversation, okay—maybe you basically agree with another interpretation but feel it could be expanded upon or there are some nuances that got missed. But the conversation doesn't particularly benefit from people just echoing the exact some interpretations over and over without adding or modifying them at all.

To put it another way, not everyone needs to (or should) cover every interpretation they agree with. This is not exactly literary criticism's reputation, but it's fundamentally social. Not everyone needs to do everything. Different people can and should cover different ground, and the general discussion benefits from this.

But this post isn't really about academia.

I think there's some real value in this idea that not everyone needs to be seen to repeat every correct take, or every take they agree with. Sometimes you're not really equipped to add anything. Sometimes you're not the best judge of a particular issue because it's not in your ballpark. Sometimes the ground has been so thoroughly covered in wider social discourse that you don't really need to add to it.

And I think this is especially important when it comes to the Internet firehose. People essentially repeating the same thing over and over and over without adding anything significant is a major way that ideas—including mistaken ideas—spread so quickly. Sometimes it's fairly inane jokes that become inescapable for an OP or within a fandom or whatever (book Isildur fans unite!). Sometimes it's mistaken or irrelevant corrections that someone/some people get bombarded with because no one bothers to check if the corrections have been made already. Sometimes it's the same reply ad nauseam, which quickly becomes intensely irritating while adding nothing. Sometimes it's worse than that—wrongheaded or exaggerated attacks on someone's character that get launched at the person incessantly, or active disinformation.

But basically, I think it's worth considering the shape of the overall discussion when you're considering what you specifically are going to contribute to it, if anything. Sometimes this is very serious. Sometimes it's a minimal consideration for others and for your impact on the general atmosphere in a fandom or some other social context.

For instance: back in 2005, when the Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen Pride and Prejudice came out, my part of Austen fandom was having absolute conniptions over it. Some of this was over literally any adaptation of P&P ever being made after the 1995 mini-series (especially anyone else ever playing Darcy). Some of this was over claims that the 2005 P&P was generally more Brontë than Austen. Some of it had to do with particular contractions, or certain depictions of characters, jokes, aesthetics, dialogue, etc. I remember very serious articles about how it was a flash in the pan that would soon disappear from cultural consciousness (lol).

I actually share a number of the criticisms, as it happens! But I thought (and still think) that the collective outrage was ... excessive, at best. So I mostly didn't talk about my personal gripes because they already seemed to disproportionately dominate the conversation (to me, etc), and I didn't want to add to it. But it interests me that people have sometimes assumed that not personally adding to the griping about it means that I love it (and often, that I need to be corrected from doing so!). The same thing happens with particular ships or dynamics I don't like but don't want to add to discourse about.

I've definitely erred in the other direction. I used to talk quite a bit more about my criticisms of the Star Wars prequels, for instance, which I later regretted despite still having those criticisms. The fandom rage was just so over the top and everything covered so exhaustively and excessively by others that it (very belatedly) started to feel like adding to it was kind of like kicking a dog.

On the flipside, sometimes the firehose is pointed the opposite way from my personal opinion, and even if that opinion is just a mousy little cheep amidst the roar of approval/disapproval, voicing it seems more appropriate to me than joining a stampede of disproportionate hatred. Or sometimes the general discourse is pretty mixed and you just have to exercise judgment about your role in it (I've definitely gone for "I see a lot of debate on this point and hell with it, I get a place in the ring, too").

But in any case, I think that the pressure to be seen to have a take all the time and the assumptions made about people if they don't individually weigh in on ... basically everything is really misguided. We're social creatures! Sometimes ground has already been thoroughly covered. Sometimes it's been covered far too much. And I think stopping to think of what we're really adding, even when we're not plodding through reviews of the literature in academia, can be worth attempting.

#anghraine babbles #ivory tower blogging #general fanwank #austen blogging #austen fanwank #sw fanwank #long post

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sunhazeheart · 1 month

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While I understand that they had a lot of ground to cover in the show, I really wish they'd just lengthened the season so we could get move covered in the years between them. I could do this for so many characters, but one person that fascinates me is Alicent in the spaces between time skips.

For example, one thing would be thinking about what basically surrounded her in the days, weeks and months after Viserys announced that he intended to marry her. While I'm sure lots of superficial courtiers flocked to her looking to cozy up to the Queen-To-Be, but there's no way there wasn't also a lot of scorn from others, particularly other girls in court and power-hungry fathers, brothers, etc.

Before this, Alicent is of not practicular importance in court besides the fact that she is the close personal friend of the princess. Her father is Hand, yes, which garners lots of respect, but as far as I know he doesn't have much else besides the station that he's worked for. He's an unlanded second son, and with him having at least one son of his own, while the Hightowers are obviously one of the wealthiest families in Westeros, there would be limitations to her dowery and what else she brings to the table besides prestige and the general good graces of being a young pretty girl supposedly able to provide children. She's slightly removed from the main branch of the Hightower family which will continue down her cousin's line. I'm not saying she doesn't have prospects, BUT she's not exactly worth a King.

So I could see rumors quickly spreading around her about why the King chose her over a Velaryon, or another sister or daughter of a great lord. Honestly, I don't think anyone was thinking there even could be another option besides Laena. Maybe we just didn't see it, but I didn't get the impression of noble families trying to parade their women in front of him. Even with the knowledge Viserys basically has to marry again. If I'm not mistaken, up to this point, no Targaryen King or prince had married outside of the Targaryen or Velaryon families (besides Jocelyn Baratheon who was half Velaryon, and of course Maegor, but he's an outlier is several ways). So imagine the surprise of lords and ladies that young Alicent Hightower, of all people, managed to snag the King. 100% Servants and guards or other people in the Keep saw her in or entering/leaving the King's chambers. In episode 2, the second scene of them together it looks like they're sharing a meal. I would imagine rumors could swirl about her visits to the Viserys being more salacious than they were, and an interesting take could be almost like the reverse of Alicent and Larys talking about Rhaenyra years later in the gardens.

There's the cut scene of Rhaenyra appearing to scream and rage at Alicent directly after the announcement of Viserys' intent to marry her, which imo, completely understandable with the limited information and surprise that Rhaenyra was just dealt. And of course the next episodes showcases Rhaenyra's isolation from both her father and Alicent as her stepmother. But there are the stills of a scene of Rhaenyra helping Alicent dress for her royal wedding and appearing to wipe the blood from around her nails. A few different scenarios could have culminated in this happened, whether Viserys forced her to, as an attempt to reconnect the girls, or this was the first instance of Alicent reluctantly using her soon-to-be rank over Rhaenyra to force her to talk to her, or if Rhaenyra simply chose to etc etc.

But the reason why I bring this up is that in those two poor-ass quality screen caps, Rhaenyra doesn't seem overly angry or hostile. So many the girls had a slight reconciliation at that point? Maybe Alicent tried to explain to Rhaenyra that it was on her father's commands that she became close to the King? Who knows. But then things could turn back very angry and hurt on Rhaenyra's side if, lets say at the feast and celebrations after the wedding, Rhaenyra, who no longer has any friends in court and likely already began to keep to herself, were to begin to overhear the scandalous rumors that Alicent seduced Viserys and visited him in pretty finery as soon as the very night after Aemma's funeral. That could be what broke down again the tentative bridge they may have built and results in Rhaenyra rebuffing Alicent again and again like we see in Episode 3.

Also, how was Alicent when she first found out she was pregnant? She has no mother or really any female figure in her life to speak with her about such things and what to expect, besides the probably very misinformed and clinical maesters. She's very much a child forced to go through the strain and pain of pregnancy, as if the sad truth for most girls in this world. She would have witnessed time and time again Aemma's miscarriages and stillbirths, while not likely physically present at them, seeing the toil of the aftermath on her best friend and her parents would have been terrifying enough.

On top of that, no matter how much remorse and guilt Viserys expresses over what was done to Aemma, I don't think she or anyone could ever 100% believe that he would never put his desire to have children, specifically a son, over her life.

And while I picture her father putting a whole lot of pointless pressure on her for her child to be a boy, and no doubt Viserys as well, I could see her almost wanting it to be a girl. While they're apart, Alicent's personal loyalty and love I would think it still reaching out to Rhaenyra. She wants her friend back, she wants the only person that I believe ever truly loved her for her, besides maybe her own mother. I think that Alicent wouldn't want to take that last thing for Rhaenyra, which she knows how much it means to her.

I wonder how Alicent felt when Aegon was born, a boy and given the name of a conquerer. How she watched Viserys fawn and preen over his new son, while she felt disconnected by the child she never even wanted to have yet. Maybe she expects to feel the mother's love that all women are meant to feel when they first see their child, but when he's laid in her arms she just sees a screaming little babe who is just a point blank reminder of her girlhood being gone and all the different expectations being mounted on her and any child that she has. Like she says later, she'd like to be Lady Alicent, but everyone only sees her at the Queen and now as the Prince's mother.

#Maybe one day I'll actually write out a thing #god I wish we got more time between the time jumps #house of the dragon #alicent hightower #rhaenyra targaryen #hotd

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dingbatnix · 3 months

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Slime

Who's ready for some angst?

So anyway I have a different fic (the snippet I posted just a second ago) I wanted to do for valentine's, but that one is nowhere near finished, and this one is, so. Y'know.

It's kinda badly written, buuuut I don't care. I'm so very tired o~0

Anyway, enjoy!

Warnings:: Fear of death, dehumanization, ect.

Word Count: 3,070

Karl can't speak in his gummy/true form—which I've decided to use for angst.

He is a relative of the slime family, kinda like Slimecicle, but Karl can’t really control his form when he’s stressed/has lost too much mass. He mostly violet/purple, but his limbs do have a slight gradient to blue/teal. He is much younger than Slimecicle, and has not lived in a hole for centuries, so he has a much, much better understanding of retaining a human form and shape than Charlie does.

So anyway, he gets stuck in his true form for some reason, like exhaustion or stress.

It's equated to damage, like slime hybrids in osmp. He gets attacked by a mob of zombies, loses his ability to retain human-ish shape, and loses enough mass to be small, like a foot tall small. If he had enough to eat, and wasn't super stressed, maybe he'd be able to gain back enough mass to become his human self again, but, as it is, he can't.

And he can't speak, either. His two fiancés, Sap and Q, don't know about his true form, and he's scared of what they might do to him if they catch him (while Sap and Q are very kind to him, in his human form, he didn't want to risk it. Quackity had a mean streak twenty miles wide, and Sapnap did enjoy killing things. Especially pets. What if he got mistaken for a hostile mob? He was a slime, after all) so, he tries to hide in Kinoko.

But! After a few too many close calls, he decides that it would be better for him to go somewhere else, so he travels out of Kinoko into the main Smp. This leads to him getting caught by some curious people (Tubbo, Ranboo, and Michael) who think that Karl's just a strange, somewhat intelligent, mob. They end up keeping him in a cage as a cool new pet, and poor Karl doesn't have anything to write with or signify that he's not an animal, dangit. A pencil wouldn't really be much use, because he didn't actually have fingers in his slime form, but still. He could have worked it out.

The teens weren't so bad, he supposed, but they treat him like he’s a cat or a dog or something, and it just feels demeaning. So, he devises a plan to escape. It’s really not that hard, actually, he just has to squish his malleable body through the bars of his kennel and make his way out the door. The snow outside poses a bit of a problem for his semi-liquid body, but he is the consistency of jello. It helps him a little bit, but some of his body mass freezes off, leaving him even smaller. Eventually, though, he manages to get out of the tundra and starts making his way back to Kinoko, because even if he gets caught and treated like a pet by Sap, Q and Goggy, at least it'd be safer. At least it'd be by people he trusted. At least it'd be by the people he loved. And even if they kill him, at least he wouldn’t have to live as somebody’s pet anymore.

Meanwhile, Sap and Q are freaking out, cause they can't find Karl anywhere, and it's bordering on four weeks that he's been missing. They’ve nearly turned the Smp upside-down looking for him, and unfortunately, nobody else has seen Karl, either.

So when Karl finally makes it out of the tundra, he still can't change back. He's just so stressed with everything going on, so when he eventually gets to Kinoko, he's faced with a choice: hide again, or show himself to try and communicate with the other residents of Kinoko.

He made the easy choice. He decides to find his fiancés.

The two were in the courtyard, Quackity reading through some documents piled next to him and Sapnap sparring against a training dummy. He approached them carefully, hiding behind barrels and building fixtures until he was close enough to reveal himself to Quackity. (He was not going near Sapnap with a sword, not when he looked like this. That was a good way to get cleaved in half.

He finally revealed himself to Quackity, stepping out from the shadows and tugging on the avian’s pant leg. Quackity shrieked, flailing enough to tip his wicker chair over and scatter his papers across the stones of the courtyard. Sapnap heard Quackity scream and was running in a flash, brandishing his sword towards Karl as he sprinted over.

Karl’s heart stopped. He had the opportunity to run, in the short time before Sanap arrived and speared him through, but…this was the first time he had seen either of his fiancés since he first got stuck like this. It had been nearly a month. And now, Sapnap was about to kill him, and they’d. They’d never know. They’d never know that it was him.

Karl’s legs wobbled, and then all but melted beneath his body. He threw his arms over his head and curled in on himself, his entire being quivering in fear and despair. He didn’t want to see Sapnap kill him, didn’t want to see one of the loves of his life deliver the final blow.

Sapnap skidded to a stop just as he reached them, head cocking in confusion as the little purple slime folded in on itself upon his arrival. The entire mass was wiggling, almost like it was afraid of him. Curiously, he poked it with the tip of his sword and was rewarded by it unfurling and trying to scramble away on its back. Beady little dot eyes blinked at him, wide and glimmering in the morning light.

"Hey! It's colored like one of Karl's hoodies! Like, y'know, the blue and purple one?" Sapanp realized, a grin spreading across his face as he shot a glance at Quackity. The avian, who had been crouched behind his overturned wicker chair, peeked over it at the slime's splayed out body. Sapnap was right. It did look like one of Karl’s hoodies.

“So it does,” he agreed, climbing to his feet and approaching Karl. “It…it seems more scared than hostile.” Karl nodded frantically at the avian’s words, scooching backwards as Quackity grew closer. Quackity paused in surprise and shared a look with Sapnap. He waved at the fireborn to put away his sword and turned back to the shivering slime on the ground.

“Hey,” he murmured, crouching slowly down to inspect the little slime. “Can you understand us?” At Karl’s hurried nod, a pensive frown stretched across his face. “...can you speak?”

Karl slowly shook his head, feeling strangely ashamed.

After some contemplation, he turned back to Sapnap with a curious expression on his face. “I think it’s like Charlie. Just…not quite as developed, maybe? Cause Charlie can talk, even when he’s small.”

Sapnap snorted out a small laugh. “Don’t let Charlie hear you say that. He’ll freak out over his ‘cover’ being blown.” All the same, he joined Quackity in inspecting Karl.

Karl deflated at the remark. While it wasn’t meant to hurt him, it still smarted. Charlie was older than he was! By several centuries! Of course he’d have better control over his body!

He waved his arms furiously, gesturing towards himself, and then towards Sapnap and Quackity. He was trying to tell them that it was him, that he was Karl, but they just didn’t seem to understand!

He couldn't sign either, he didn't. Have. Fingers.

He was still himself! He was still Karl…he guessed the others didn't realize that. He guessed they couldn't tell. They wouldn't have any reason to think that he, the strange little slime creature that wandered up to them, was their fiancé.

Unbidden, his eyes started to burn, and tears sprung to his eyes. Karl scrubbed at his eyes furiously. He didn't want to cry! Of all the things he couldn't do in his slime form, why wasn't crying one of them?!

"It's crying! Dude, I think you hurt its feelings! What do we do?" Sapnap exclaimed, tail twitching and flicking anxiously. Quackity shrugged, eyes guilty. “I dunno, man! I didn’t know slimes could cry! Charlie never has!”

Sapnap bit his lip, thinking, then scooped Karl up into his arms. “Hey, it’s okay, little guy. I know Quackity can be a dick sometimes, but don’t take it to heart. It’ll be okay, okay?” Sapnap ignored the affronted noise that the avian made and gently stroked his fingers over Karl’s head while making cooing noises. Karl took the gesture of comfort for what it was, burying his head against Sapnap’s chest and sobbing into the fireborn’s shirt. He poured the pent-up emotions of being trapped in a cage for days and treated like an animal, of being half frozen, of being afraid and unable to speak for weeks into Sapnap’s shirt, soaking it through with fluids he probably couldn’t afford to lose. If he kept crying like he was, he'd start losing more mass. He didn’t want that. Not when it was so hard to gain back.

Karl cries for a long, long while. Sapnap and Quackity don’t really know what to do, because that’s obviously not because of Quackity’s remark, but something that had built up over time.

They decide to take in the little slime, letting it live with them as long as it wanted to.

For Karl, their decision was a godsend, because he could rest and recover in a familiar place, with people he loved. He was allowed to roam wherever he wanted (which is a step up from the cage Tubbo had him in) and he stayed with at least one of his fiancés every day. Unfortunately, he was still stuck in his slime form, no matter what he tried.

Despite everything, Sapnap was rather…dense. And most of the time, Quackity was either busy with his affairs with Las Nevadas, or he was looking for Karl. Neither of them ever realized that he was with them, nearly all of the time.

And no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get his hands on an inked quill and a piece of paper. The frustration had reduced him to stinging tears, and it took him a while more before he gave up and accepted that he'd probably never get to tell his fiancés who he was.

It was fine. He would be fine.

He would.

_______

Quackity found himself becoming rather fond of the little slime over the few weeks it had been with them, and he was absolutely delighted on the days it decided to hang around with him. It usually alternated between himself and Sapnap, and sometimes didn’t go with either of them, but today it had decided to spend its time with him.

Right now, it was hanging from his neck like a sloth, or perhaps a koala would, as he made his way along one of the many paths of Las Nevadas. He was headed to the casino today, needing to do a checkup on the slot machines and make sure that nobody had tampered with anything.

A green, semi-translucent figure bounced towards Quackity, and a fond smile grew across his face as Charlie barreled closer. He raised a hand in preparation to greet the slime. Charlie’s face lit up, and he sped towards Quackity at a much more rapid pace, his own gelatinous arm raised to meet the avian’s.

"Hello, Quackity from Las Nevadas! Hello, Karl from Kinoko Kingdom!" A green palm slapped his own, but Quackity was too startled to respond to the slime’s exuberant greeting. Karl was here?!

Quackity jerked ramrod straight, and his head whipped from side to side, wildly searching the surrounding buildings. "Karl?"

The little purple slime frantically patted Quackity's chest, nearly losing its one-armed grip around the avian's neck. Quackity looked down at it with sad eyes, confusion clear in his face.

Karl slapped his own chest, staring imploringly at the big avian. To his utter disappointment, Quackity looked away from him and back up at Charlie.

"Wh–where's Karl, Charlie? Where did you see him?" The avian sounded desperate, and it hurt, to hear Quackity call for him when he was right there. Karl’s eyes stung, and he sent a pleading look Charlie’s way. The bigger slime met his gaze, and a small, sympathetic grin formed over his face.

Very gently, the bigger slime leaned forward and patted one green hand on top of Karl's head. "Karl from Kinoko Kingdom." The green slime said plainly, moving his gaze from Karl up to Quackity’s.

Karl nodded frantically, twisting his hand-nubs into Quackity's rumpled dress shirt and bracing his legs against the avian’s sternum. He pulled himself up, high enough that he was face-to-nose with Quackity, and waved frantically between himself and Charlie. His movements were so violent that he lost his grip, and panic strummed though his body when he tipped backwards and fell.

His back smacked against something oddly lumpy, and he realized that Quackity had brought his hands up to catch him, even while he was staring at him as if he was in some kind of daze.

Finally, Quackity blinked several times and hesitantly brushed his thumb along Karl’s arm, almost as if he thought the slime would disappear at a moment's notice.

“Y-You’re Karl?!” His voice was shaking, and his eyes were watering. Karl nodded frantically, curling one of his hand-nubs around Quackity’s thumb. The line of the avian’s mouth wavered, and he wiped his eyes on his shoulder before turning to Charlie.

"Charlie, why can't he talk?"

"He's been de-gooped, Quackity from Las Nevadas. He doesn't have enough of himself to form properly." Charlie paused for a long moment, then. "Not that I know anything about that, seeing as I am a perfectly normal human being with perfectly normal human bones."

Quackity didn’t bother answering, instead staring down at the little purple slime draped over his hands. Karl had been with them the entire time…? Karl had been with them while they were looking for him…

An incredulous laugh escaped from his lips, and soon, he found himself doubled over, Karl clutched to his chest, cackling like a madman as a wave of emotion overcame him.

Karl found himself squished against a layer of smoky cotton as he was squeezed to Quackity’s chest in a desperate hug, the scent of cigarettes and the dusty smell of sand pervading his senses from the tight embrace.

After what felt like too much time and not enough, Quackity loosened his grip on Karl’s body, and his laughter petered out. A doofy grin still decorated his face, and his eyes were scanning over Karl like he’d never seen him before.

Seconds later, his eyes widened, and his grin grew. “I gotta tell Sapnap! Holy fuck he’s gonna be so happy!”

Quackity shifted Karl to one arm and pulled his communicator out with the other. It took him a few seconds to do it one handed, but Karl saw him pull up Sapnap’s contact and hit call. It rang for a few moments, before their third picked up. “Yea–”

“Sapnap, Sapnap, I fucking found Karl.” Quackity didn’t even pause to let Sapnap get a word in, bowling over anything the other man had to say. “Sapnap, he’s the fucking slime, he’s fucking been here the whole goddamn time!”

“Oh my fucking god.”

“I fucking know!” Quackity grinned down at Karl, cradled in the crook of his left arm. Karl waved back up at him, eyes scrunched up in joy.

“I’m headed over there right now. Don’t you two fucking move, got it?”

Quackity laughed and planted himself on a bench on the side of the road, pulling Karl into his lap and hugging the little slime to his chest. “We won’t, we won’t. We’ll be here, dude.”

Quackity hung up and shoved his communicator back into his pocket. His other arm circled around Karl’s pliable body, and he looked down at the slime, eyes wide with wonder.

“Dude, what the fuck,” he whispered, and all Karl could do was shrug, chest feeling lighter than it had in a long, long while.

Charlie wandered away while they waited, stating that he needed to go check his holes (Quackity needed to fill some of those in, he’d nearly broken his ankle about eight times) leaving the two of them to wait for their third.

When Sapnap finally arrived, he made a beeline for the little purple slime resting in Quackity’s lap, sprinting through town and skidding to a stop right in front of them.

He immediately reached for Karl, his warm hands surrounding his torso and his thumbs pressing against Karl's chest. He was plucked up from Quackity’s arms before he could blink, and then he was brought towards Sapnap’s face.

The huge fireborn pressed a kiss against Karl’s face, lips as big as his head smothering against his face. He leaned into it, wrapping his arms around Sapnap's cheeks and jawline in an awkward hug. It was a good thing he didn't technically breathe through his nonexistent mouth, because he'd be suffocating from how long his face was being squashed into Sapnap's lips.

Then he was being squished against the fireborn's stubbled cheek, a deep, elated purr jiggling his entire body. Karl leaned into it, burying his face into Sapnap's cheek and wrapping himself in the familiar, comforting scent of charcoal and dirt. It felt different now, now that they knew.

Sapnap held him at arms length, hands still wrapped firmly around his chest. Karl’s legs dangled limply below, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sapnap asked earnestly. Karl shot him a flat look and getsured first at his mouthless face, then at his fingerless hand-nubs, and then finally over his whole body in general. The fireborn winced, realizing that Karl physically couldn’t.

It was fine now, though, because they finally knew.

When they finally went to bed that night, he was cocooned between their chests, in a warm embrace formed by the blanket and the two bodies of his fiancés. He wasn’t a pet, he wasn’t dead, and they. Knew.

He still couldn’t build up enough body mass to grow back to normal size and retain his human shape, but it was more bearable now, now that his fiancés knew who he was.

Taglist!

@brick-a-doodle-do @i-am-beckyu @da3dm @kayla-crazy-stuffs @local-squishmallow @skullsnbruises @munchkin1156 @gt-daboss

#mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #writing #g/t #g/t writing #tiny!karl #giant!sapnap #giant!quackity #giant!charlie #giant!slimecicle #gummy karl #gummy!karl #slime!karl #slime karl #bat's writing #happy valentines have some sappy angst #karlnapity #g/t karlnapity #karlnapity g/t

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hanzajesthanza · 6 months

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Happy birthday!! Just wanna say while I'm here that you are truly the no.1 Witcher scholar and I love your work, and also I actually find it very moving that even though you are not Polish and don't speak Polish, you treat the books with such respect and deep understanding of the culture and language!! I wish everyone engaged with the works that they love in this way. I'm Polish but I'd since moved away and have a lot of bitterness towards the social environments I grew up in, but the Witcher is the one thing from Poland I truly love and makes me feel connected to my heritage and idk I just love your work sorry for the long message!

oh thank you!! i am so flattered by your words 😅 all i can say is, i try my best, of course! and a short essay response incoming...

the witcher is not only a translated work, but a multilingual and multicultural/national community, fanbase, and the american fanbase from which i'm coming is a relatively new development in the broader fanbase, especially as it relates to the books. it's more complex than how i'll phrase it here, but, essentially when you're in the fandom of the witcher books, you're in a predominantly polish other slavic language speaking space, even if you only speak english, because the books were created in polish and the whole thing has had over 30 years to gain traction and fans in poland and other slavic language speaking countries.

(i think there tends to be a certain level of entitlement from people, alright, americans whose primary language is english, where it is expected that everything be in english - you hear it all the time, stories of tourists going to a different country and demand english be spoken for everything for them. while english is indeed commonly spoken in poland, i think it would be a bit ridiculous, bringing it back to the witcher fandom, to expect every online interaction and material you come across to be in english, and expect to never use polish sources or look at the original text in polish. it may not be something you're skilled in or know about, but it's an opportunity for you to learn and ask questions. just embrace that, strive for understanding, even if you don't have any which you're beginning with. being prepared to be wrong and mistaken, being willing and open to being corrected. so, treating with respect and striving to better understand cultures which one doesn't belong to should be step one, i hope, at least in this community!)

i don't believe that there is such a thing as an english side of the fanbase which stands on its own separate from the original polish (and czech and russian, the first two languages witcher was translated into) fanbase(s), because the english fanbase was seeded and encouraged by these fans, a good portion of whom were bilingual and helped the fanbase grow by posting in english, gaining visibility and encouraging others to join and read the books. so you can't really have the english fandom without the polish fandom, it's like a branch off of a tree. and, with the majority of lifelong, or in other capacity dedicated and passionate, fans, coming from poland, and some of these fans also engaging in english-speaking places online, we're going to share ideas and end up admiring each other and becoming friends! and there's, again as always, a lot you can learn from your friends.

addressing the witcher as a work specifically, its identity is inseparable from its written language. with translations to other slavic languages, there's not an exceptional amount lost, but when it comes to english... well... though the story is there (except for a few glaring errors), there's not only lot of language-specific word choice, wordplay, and jokes that are lost in the english language and especially in the the official translation (which was crafted, i think to be as much of an "easy read" for an english reader as possible, and not to preserve sapkowski's style, character, and vocabulary), but also because a lot of the cultural phenomenon, celebration, element, described in the books, simply doesn't exist for the english reader and is untranslatable without an explanation of the context and history. sapkowski, who speaks italian, has mentioned the saying "traduttore, traditore," (translator, traitor) in interviews.

for just a few examples, torque at the end of the short story "edge of the world" saying "goodnight" being the perfect end to the story, because of the saying where the devil says goodnight. or the saovine tradition of burning straw falka dolls resembling the burning (or drowning) of marzanna effigies. and, also related to saovine, the offerings of honey, groats, and vodka for spirits being a mirror image of dziady. all of this is something that's not common knowledge for the english reader, it's stuff i learned about by looking it up, or having a conversation about, or reading a forum page online, or learned however, but learning about it made my enjoyment of the story a lot richer because i could (in part) go back and appreciate the depth of realism and familiarity woven into the world. and the act of seeking that out, or having that conversation, the act of learning itself was rewarding, to satisfy curiosity and engage my mind and social brain.

also just, a lot of the time, i'm trying to figure out where sapkowski's mind was at when he wrote some of this stuff, or who are these characters and what are these characters feeling, and all we have of them, to understand them, is their words. and the official translation isn't able to translate word for word. so looking at the polish edition and working through the sentence to translate (and looking into the nuances in definitions of words and phrases), i've found, can really help my reading comprehension and interpretation of the scene or character.

of course, sapkowski was taking "paneuropean" inspiration from multiple different cultures, not all of them slavic, a lot of them western european, weaving all these different fantasy and folktale sources together to create something diversely culturally rich. but as an english reader, i was motivated to seek out, "how does that line originally go in polish?" or "what's the original folktale sapkowski is referencing here?" because it just makes it that much more fun! it's part of the fun! of course an english reader could just pick up the books, breeze through them, and get a lot of enjoyment out of that, but without investigating any of the language or culture, it remains surface-level enjoyment. it's so rewarding to be able to exist in a community and friend circles that are positive towards learning and teaching in a casual way, it has made the witcher a lot more than just books for me. and all i'm doing personally is just having fun and learning as i go!

#ask #araneapeixes #analysis

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squidbiology · 1 year

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Besides the obvious tentacles and swim form, are they any differences between inklings and octolings?

Oh yeah, plenty.

This got a little long, so I'm gonna stick it under a cut!

For starters, they're so genetically different, they haven't been able to crossbreed for thousands, if not millions of years; since back before they were even faintly sapient.

The reason they're so similar is that they're essentially... mimics. When early inklings evolved social packs, sometimes octolings would be mistaken for inklings, and get adopted into the group... which was a HUGE advantage for previously loner cephalopods. So they leaned into it heavily, and evolved to look (and act) even more similarly to inklings, to become essentially social parasites, which is fascinating!

Of course, many people consider the word parasite to be harsh, but they weren't harming inklings. If anything, having greater numbers was beneficial for the group, even if octolings couldn't benefit inklings in a reproductive sense.

However, they are still mimics at heart, and there are a lot of visual and behavioral differences.

The first, as you mentioned, are the tentacles. Aside from having more suckers and suckers on the topsides; octolings tentacles are also prehensile. Inkling tentacles are full of fat and have little to no nerves or muscle, while octoling tentacles are full of nerves, blood vessels, and muscles; and can be moved and feel pain.

There's also a difference in the structure of the beaks. Inkling beaks tend to be more towards gripping, which means they're thicker at the points, while octoling beaks tend to be thicker near the back for crushing and crunching things.

This also leads into a behavioral difference- Inklings were a bit more of a grappling and stealth/pursuit predator, similar to felines and active hunting snakes, though they hunted in packs. This makes inklings a lot more speedy, flighty, and most of all, bitey and prone to chase.

Octolings, on the other hand, evolved to be ambush predators, or to use their smarts to gather and hunt more sedentary creatures such as mussels and crabs. Because of that, they prefer to run or hide, and aren't quite as social in a fight.

Octolings also love to use that instinctual puzzle-solving brain! Jigsaw puzzles, puzzle boxes, food where you have to work for it (like crab or pomegranate), and even mechanics are popular hobbies and activities, while inklings tend to be more flippant "i want it now and easy" in their hobbies.

If anything, it was probably octarians in their early packs that helped inklings evolve into a more intelligent, sapient species so quickly, along with their cousins.

Which meant that after the great turf wars, there's now a noticeable gap between inkling and octarian technology- as they were meant to function together, and now octarians are at least 15 years ahead of inklings in terms of technology, which as only started to be resolved in the past three years.

This isn't to say inklings are stupid- they're actually quite smart, in their own way. Octolings just have a knack for technology specifically that inkling brains tend to lack.

Some other visual differences include ears, and masks. Octolings actually had masks until relatively recently on the evolutionary tree. This is theorized to have been when they were estranged from Inklings and forced down into the domes- those masks that protected them from sunlight now made them struggle to see in the dark, and weren't necessary, so they began to lose them rather quickly. They also can be lighter colors, such as purples, blues, and greens rather than only pure black.

(This also means that now, on the surface, a lot of octolings are experiencing eye issues).

Another thing to point out about the eyes is pupil shape. Inklings have a horizontally slit pupil- which can expand into a circle, and that is the most common shape. Octolings, on the other hand, have a "peanut shaped" pupil, which expands into a large square shape.

You may also notice that some octarians have green scleras, which is a side effect of genetic cloning.

There's also claws and hooks. While inklings have chitinous hooks that are retractable, octolings do not. Instead, they have much larger, thicker claws at the ends of their fingertips that can't retract. This is because they're actually made of hardened skin, rather than chitin.

This, combined with the fact they can't retract, mean that their claws are often rather dull unless consistently filed and maintained.

There's also their patterning. Inklings almost exclusively have spotted patterning- though they can make shapes with their chromatophores, they tend to struggle making details instead of changing to a single color.

Octarians, on the other hand, have a much finer motor control of their color-changing, able to make detailed patterns on their skin. Their chromatophores actually much more comfortable rest in "ring" or "striped" patterns instead of simple dots.

Lastly, as mentioned here, octolings never stop growing. At older ages, octolings will be much, much larger than inklings.

I feel like I might be missing something, but this is the basics.

#mod olive #/#//#///#////#inkling #octoling #biology

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lichfucker · 2 years

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re: the daylight between Silver and Flint. On re-watch I realize how not of one mind they are. Silver repeatedly voices concerns and objects to Flint plans in s4. Flint either steamrolls over them (trading himself to Eleanor over Silver's "no") or dismissing them citing the "we are one mind" idea until whether flints means it to or not, it starts to sound less like "we are unstoppable together" and more like "your concerns aren't valid, and if my plan fails its because you didn't believe enough"

there is a STARK contrast between silver in 401 saying to madi "when flint and I are of one mind there is no obstacle we have not yet been able to surmount" and him saying to flint in 408 "you think so much of what you and I can achieve together."

I'm not sure they ever really WERE of one mind, but I do think silver believed it, for a while, through the back half of s3 especially. shark date is where it begins, I think, but in the cage with "the man who convinced me to give a shit about this crew could talk those men out there into anything" it crystalizes, and "there's one element of this journey into the dark that I'm only now beginning to appreciate" is the point at which they both recognize it. like, I don't think it's far-fetched to say that untill this point silver has been... if not impressed by then at least acknowledging of flint's results despite being wary of his methods (silver is neither as bloodthirsty nor as passionate in his dedication as flint), so to admit that it feels good is a way of saying: I get it. I'm here now. I'm down here with you. we have an accord and an understanding now that we did not have before.

and then... they get separated. somewhere in between the invention of long john silver and his capture by hands is when he has that conversation with madi, when he still has faith in his and flint's partnership. unless I'm mistaken, the time silver is in hands' custody is the longest he and flint have been apart since the day they met. he'd been working towards flint's ends for so long. and now he has to claim his own power independent of flint, independent of madi, independent of billy, independent of the crew, in order to survive. and he does. and we see time and time again through seasons 2 and 3 that people's loyalty to silver supersedes their loyalty to flint, but because silver is loyal to flint (and because their loyalty to silver is through the avenue of flint's crew) it's easy enough to couch their disloyalty to flint. but now... now silver has hands who is loyal to him and ONLY to him, who makes no attempt even to feign loyalty to flint. and so the geography shifts. the relative positioning of flint and silver to each other is different now. there are obvious distinctions to be drawn between them now, even if they don't want to admit it.

I think silver really lays it out in the "I've followed you blindly" speech. he says to flint, who has believed this whole time that they had an understanding and an agreement, that actually he DIDN'T understand and he DIDN'T agree, he just went along with flint's plans anyway. I think it's been very easy for flint to say, 'well, I've explained why I want to do what I want to do, and if silver is agreeing to do what I want to do then it must be because he sees my reasoning and is thinking about it the same way.' and I think it's very difficult for flint to accept that that's not the case, that that potentially has never been the case, that the mental paradigm under which he's been working is a false one. the bitterness and the dismissal and the condescension comes because, well, none of this would be a problem if silver could just... keep being there in the darkness with him. when did he change his mind?

I don't know where I'm going with this. I've had three glasses of wine. I think the time they spend apart, when silver is with hands and flint and madi think he's dead, changes their dynamic and changes silver's priorities. I think they believed themselves to be of the same mind when in truth it was simply that agreeable ends justified disagreeable means. so when the ends, too, become disagreeable, the entire foundation crumbles, and suddenly they're left with the knowledge that they've been looking at the same stars and seeing different constellations.

#anonymous #bluh bluh #black sails #john silver #james flint #long post #daylight

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pricechecktranslations · 1 year

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I was wondering if you knew any more misconceptions or fan theories that were going around in the Evillious fandom? I’m looking to make a video on it so I wanted to see what kind of stuff the fandom came up during it’s peak. Also, thank you for your hard work. You’re one of my inspirations of getting into translating

Oh, anon, there are TONS of misconceptions that have gone around the Evillious fandom. It might not be as big an issue as it used to be, but misinformation has always plagued it.

Here's a few more noteworthy bits from what I and a friend of mine can remember (and dig up) under the cut, though bear in mind many of these are from before my time. You should be able to verify these for your video by looking at very early versions of character/location/etc pages on the Story of Evil and Evillious wikis (the Story of Evil wiki was one made for the Daughter of Evil series specifically, and was abandoned very early on) as well as old forum posts and user articles. Focus on things dated to 2013 or earlier, as most of (not all) the worst misconceptions were cleared up after that point:

People thought Clarith was a Venomania descendant. I assume you already saw the discussion on this, but in short, it was people jumping to conclusions based on some poorly worded translations.

It was believed for a while that the girl in Blood-stained Switch was named IR, and that she was split into two halves--one half becoming Elluka, and the other half becoming Irina. From what I could gather, this misconception was almost entirely based on some off-the-wall theorizing by a person on NicoNico Douga, which was mistaken for being mothy's own commentary based on a misunderstanding of how NicoNico Douga comments work (the splitting in half bit, at least; people thought her name was IR because a different commenter mistook her for IR, and I guess at the time the wiki didn't know that was Irina's name in the Lust novel).

It was believed, back when "Levianta Catastrophe" was called "Levianta Fire Disaster", that Full Moon Laboratory was about Elluka. Specifically, it was believed that she had killed Irina (this bit at least I don't blame them for because I think Irina killing Elluka was supposed to be a minor twist), and then became ruler of Levianta as Ma. As ruler, she created the Department of National Research, and performed a bunch of illegal experiments. She cast the Clockwork Secret Art as a "cleansing" spell, which backfired and blew up the country.

People thought Levianta was a Japanese inspired country, and that it was where Tailor of Enbizaka took place.

People thought Irina was using a variant of the body swap to control bodies (specifically that it was an "incomplete" version of the spell). This was based on a mistranslation.

Before fans really understood the presence of actual, literal demons in the series, it was believed that the voice talking to Kyle through his hand mirror in Praeludium was Prim, feeding his ego or brainwashing him or something.

Due to some slightly more understandable confusion, people thought The Last Revolver was about Gumillia, and (less understandably) that Julia had tasked her with retrieving the Venom Sword from her assassination target (who they thought, for no reason I can discern, worked for the Freezis Foundation).

Note that there are some misconceptions that are, genuinely, a result of mothy retconning (a lot of albums, for example, give false information, though they're often told from the perspective of characters who are lying or misinformed) or pulling twists that people didn't see coming. However, I'm pretty sure the examples I gave above are your garden variety "someone mistranslated and someone else leapt to weird assumptions".

#i'm flattered to be your inspiration #i do what i can #though i don't work as hard at translating nowadays i will admit #other things keep me busy

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anotherhumaninthisworld · 9 months

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Hello!

I am a newbie to the FRev so I'd like to thank you for having the most amazingly detailed posts here that are, most importantly, as accurate as possible. Your blog is awesome!

Now to my questions: I read your answer to an ask about Camille and Annette's relationship and was left wondering, why did the family become so hostile towards him to the point of refusing him entry into their home?

Why did Lucille's father not want them to get married? Was it just about Camille's financial success? I saw a link to a letter in the post but my French is horrible so I have no idea what was written.

And, I'm not sure how this was seen at the time, of course times were different, but the way he talks about Annette though he claimed to be platonic, it seems that he found her attractive?? Or maybe he was "buttering" her up (he seemed to be a bit of a womanizer though maybe most men were like that at that time and frequently complimented many women at once)? When he met Lucille she was still quite young (especially compared to his age), so I got the impression (just an impression) that he liked the mother, but she was already taken so he went for the daughter instead? Though this couldve been normal at the time.

That post gave me a whole different perspective on Desmoulins and his love story, thank you so much and I apologise for the lenghty ask and if my questions sound ignorant.

Thank you so much for your compliments. So happy I can be of use to people who are new to this mess. 😊

I agree, the idea that Camille was really in love with Annette and just had to go for the second best is one that is really easy to make when reading his letters and poems to her. I don’t really have anything that goes against it being true other than the fact that Camille, as stated, once refers to his and Annette’s relationship as being just platonic (and how much truth there actually was to that I will leave unsaid…). It doesn’t particulary help that most 18th century people writing letters by today’s standards sound like they want to jump into bed with the receiver, no matter who that person might be… I don’t know if there’s anything in particular (besides words like ”my beloved”) you should look at to help determine if two people are/want to be more than just friends.

As for why Lucile’s parents didn’t want to let Camille have her in 1787, that is actually quite easy to discover through the letter Camille wrote to the father in March the following year, published by Jules Claretie on April 26 1879 within the paper Journal officiel de la République française. The letter Camille’s responding to here has unfortunately gone missing, but as can be seen, Camille still lays out and combats its arguments in a very clear way (apologies if there’s any translation errors in here):

Monsieur, I am not mistaken and I am forced to agree that your letter is worthy of a father and full of wisdom. The first moments of pain that I experienced were followed by the calm of reason, and I take advantage of this calm to allow myself a few observations regarding your letter and putting them before your eyes.

Don't let my probity scare you. The reflections that M. Duplessis made me make on your [sic] uncertain state. My uncertain state is not uncertain. I am a lawyer in the parliament of Paris and what makes your state certain in this profession is not to be on the board, but talent and work. I am certain morally of being in charge of all the appeals of the sentences of Guise, which alone will compose for me an honest cabinet and an income of 7 or 8,000 livres at least; I cannot believe that there exists anyone who, after having read the memoir that is printed about me at this moment, tells you that my condition is uncertain. The letters I have from MM. Lorget and Linguet would prove to you, if you read them, that my condition is not uncertain. Already I have a flow of business which can only grow and I will have won a hundred louis this year, supposing that I lose the lawsuit which is about to be judged and whose gain would be worth more than two thousand écus to me.

On future events which may call me back to the provinces. I took a vow to stability in the bar of the capital, this vow is expressed clearly in the epistle and the printed memorandum which I gave to you. There exists only one thing that could make me detach from Paris and make a stay in the provinces bearable, it would be if I met Mlle Duplessis there, to what oaths must I bind myself in order to take away this fear that I will leave Paris? I see very well that you do not know how much I love your daughter, since you suppose that I would be able to sadden her by taking her away from a father to whom she is so tenderly dear.

On the impossibility for me to have a house where your daughter, like at your place, could find the softnesses and charms of life. There is something touching about this paternal fear that would have made me reproach myself for my premature research. But did you believe that Mlle Duplessis is less dear to me than to you and that I wanted a happiness that would have cost her the sacrifice of the comforts of life? As for me, the sweetness and pleasures of life would have been to live with her and with you, and these pleasures would have made all the others insipid to me. There are two things here that I cannot believe, first off the fact that this fear so natural to a father that his daughter would be less happy did not alarm you from the first moment you found out about my goal; second off, that your answer here would have been the one I had the pleasure of seeing. If you had thought that Mademoiselle Duplessis' change of lodging would deprive her of the pleasures of life, it would not have been with me that she could find those pleasures. I had not concealed my lack of fortune, nor sought to surprise your avowal by magnifying my hopes, in order to have the satisfaction of showing you that I had brought into this affair all the frankness and delicacy which befits my profession; I almost decried my father's fortune and succeeded so well that you then said to me: ”With the help of your fortune, I could wait until some brilliant affair had rescued me from obscurity.” You said this to me in much stronger terms, for your expressions were that, no longer being forced to run after an écu, I could devote myself without distraction to studies which would later make me known later as a jurisconsult, if the embarrassment of my stammer was an insurmountable obstacle which prevented me from succeeding in my pleading. It is clear that you did not flatter yourself then that I could put together a home for Mlle Duplessis. However, this beloved child was still not less dear to you at the moment and you surely didn’t think that she would lose the comforts of life, but you understood that there was a way to arrange it so that she would not have to make any sacrifice until the time which is not far off, when my condition would bring me 10 to 12 thousand livres. Did Mlle. Duplessis need a house other than yours for a few years? I would even have liked her to continue to live together with you, and for the change in her adress, while at the same time making me the happiest of all men, only to have added to the sweetnesses of life without it costing her any deprivation. Although the dowry I propose to give her is of a certain consistency, you may remember that when you mentioned this section, I kept silent. Surely, to wait until my estate was enough I did not need to find a dowry. At the present moment, I am able to count only on 3 or 4 thousand livres that I would get this year from my work or from my father. But wouldn’t these 4 thousand livres, joined to the 3 or 4 that you would give to mademoiselle your daughter, be enough for a house worthy of her? Of you I wouldn’t ask for anything more. She would have brought a thousand amiable qualities into the household; as for me, I would have put my estate there and I dare say some talents. It would have been a marriage without a dowry like that of the laborers, but those of that time are well worth those of ours. I never made mine a business, the only dowry I would have asked for was that one loves me, not as much as I do (in return), that is impossible, but I am sure that mademoiselle your daughter would have been touched to see me solely occupied with the care of paying her the debt of happiness that I would have contracted.

You urged me to overcome my affection. If it were only an affection, it could be overcome, but the wound is deeper. Remember, monsieur, in what dejection I appeared before you, my state had become so violent that whatever you might have said to me, it was impossible for my pain to wring my heart more on leaving your house compared to what fear had caused it upon entering. That is why, even though it cost me, I begged you to tear off the blindfold and uproot my hope. But how much you have decreased it instead. I only asked for a distant hope and you gave me a near hope. Fortune, you told me, would not determine your choice and you did not make happiness consist of fortune. I exercised an honorable profession that it was not even necessary to fulfill with a certain brilliance in order to appear to you worthy of belonging to you; it was enough for you that your daughter was loved tenderly and constantly and that second to her your son-in-law loved only work. Who would have believed in my place that this son-in-law was really me. You did more: you invited me to spend holidays and Sundays at your countryhouse and you allowed me, you even warned me to let my father know about this interview. At this moment my father has probably written to you and part of my joy was to think about he who does not care about the dowry (that of my mother, who is still whole despite our misfortunes because it has always been sacred in his eyes, was more important) but who loves me with tenderness and is no doubt delighted that I have finally obtained this demoiselle Duplessis of whom I have been speaking to him incessantly for five years and whom he wanted me to show him when he spent a few days in Paris two years ago. In my letter from March 22, it was no longer vain conjectures and equivocal walks in the Luxembourg that I entertained, it was speeches that a father of a family had given me, hadn't I had to base myself entirely on his answer?

It would be deceiving my honesty to make any promises to me at this time, considering the young age of your daughter. If you only wish to postpone the term of my happiness, I have already waited five years, and I can still wait another two and even more, but since I above all make happiness consist in this thought that we love each other for life, I only beg you to tell me if after two years and when my heart has perhaps been consumed by these attachments, I will not have to renounce the sweet habit of loving her. My age was no more advanced four days ago when you gave me such imminent hopes. Also this reason that you bring is not the real one and you yourself do not disguise it from me. An even more essential point to observe to you, is that it for me would be putting up a barrier against the parties which within two years could present themselves and to make you give yourself up to opportunities which fulfill your views. As for what concerns me in this article, what occasion, what views can you tell me about? What purpose can I have but to be happy, and I can only be so, monsieur, with you. Where can I find another family that I love so much? I have gone too far with mademoiselle Duplessis to ever retrace my steps, and if you come to take away from me the hope that you have made me conceive, you will have unwittingly caused the misfortune of my life. I come to the great reason, that it would be to put up a barrier against the parties which could present themselves within two years. If, when you did me the honor of granting me an interview, you had said that to me, everything would have been very clear and I would have had nothing to respond to. But, since then, you declared to me that fortune would not decide your choice for mademoiselle your daughter, and that you would seek for her only a husband who would love her with tenderness; so you mean that in two years from now there may come people who like her better than me. If so, let it be. All of them will undoubtedly love her positively, but to love her more desperately than me will be difficult. And I will always have been five years ahead.

You told me enough that you had not changed your mind in regards to me, and that, if I succeeded in destroying the motives that you were good enough to explain to me in detail, you would return to your first feelings. It seems to me that I have replied in a satisfactory manner to the objections of M. Duplessis; I therefore conjure you to come back to your first favorable dispositions and return for me the heart of a father. I would very much like you and Madame Duplessis to grant me an interview. I would remove all of your doubts, and I would come down to details that cannot enter into a letter: do not push me away from your bosom but allow me to give you both names to which my heart would refuse if I had to give them to others. It is with these feelings that I have the honor to be, monsieur, your very humble and very obedient servant. DESMOULINS Lawyer in parliament.

According to Hervé Leuwers’ Desmoulins biography, Claretie did for some reason leave out the following part when transcribing the letter: ”D’allieurs, ai-je donc demandé Mlle Duplessis pour le moment? J’ai demandé seulement si je pourrais obtenir un jour sa main, quand mon état serait pleinement fait.” which suggests Camille wasn’t actually asking if he could marry Lucile right away, just if he could call dibs on her for the future.

As for why the family fell out with Camille a year after the letter was penned down, to the extent that they asked him to stop visiting them, that is hard to know for sure considering we don’t have their letters on their issue (and those of Camille are both vague and bias in his favor). My best guess is that he simply wouldn’t shut up about the engagement and they kicked him out for that reason.

#desmoulins #camille desmoulins #lucile desmoulins #a bigger question for me is what exactly made the family change their mind about camille?#a broke lawyer is a no go zone but a broke journalist who many people want dead isn’t?#but camille literally goes from ”everyone in this family is so hard on me”#to ”lucile and her mother were both crying of joy when i finally got permission to marry her” within half a year #wonder what happened in between that we Will never know about…#annette duplessis #ask

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omgkalyppso · 3 months

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21. Does a partner in the ship have a favorite [something] that their partner(s) had never considered before? Like a constellation, rock formation, or hair ribbon material, for example. Do they start to develop opinions that agree with, or contrast, or compliment, their partner's or do they remain indifferent?

for etoile and their partners!

(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ thank you for the ask!

I think that most people have preferences like this even if they're unaware of them (I am unaware of my own), so I tried to come up with something for each partner.

Since I am from the northern hemisphere, for Étoile I am picking a constellation, either in modern au or some fantasy equivalent of Orion and Canis Major. They're only visible in winter, and only at certain times of the night / nightly walks would let one watch how they traverse across the sky. Their legends of hunter and companion are iconic, their patterns are eye-catching, and the brightest star in the sky is contained within. So their partners may realize that they prefer a constellation associated with a legend more familiar to them, or their deity if their deity has a constellation; or with Astarion, I think he would go back and forth between resentment for the night sky and renewed appreciation for the light of the stars, and a preference for the north star, for its consistency and for its purpose.

Halsin, as we know, favors ducks, and while I'm not sure that he'd have a favorite duck, if asked why he preferred ducks to other water birds that he'd mention their waddles, their bills and expressive faces, and that they mate for a season, taking on each year anew against the challenges and blessings that nature sets for them. I've selected the Spectacled Eider as a duck that might have a fantasy equivalent in the Earthfast Mountains, where Étoile is from that Halsin might one day want to see / meet (an interesting concept for druids). Astarion has the strongest (contrary?) opinion, far preferring colorful ducks like the wood duck or the mandarin duck; when ducks all have predators anyway, he feels that they should at least awe with bright plumage, and they are nice to look at, even in the dark. Étoile confesses to having little preference between water birds, liking birds more when they have claws like hawks, eagles and owls.

Astarion being gifted something with a embroidery of inferior stitch — or worse, having his own work mistaken for the same, brings attention to his odd favorite thing, which is split stitch. The threads are neat and clean and lend well to legibility, and they're fun to sew though he'd probably not admit to the last bit in so many words. I think Astarion's preference feeds into his partners', who otherwise might not have noticed a difference or given it much thought.

He Who Was has a favorite fake haunting. Stories told of a mansion with little to no spiritual associations but tales that claim horrific things of nightmares and visions and vanishing horrors. If something untrue is worth a ghost story, his opinion is that it should be exaggerated and magnanimous in its own falsehoods and contradictions; or else it's untrue AND boring. I think Halsin, Komira and Locke are not yet ready for ghost stories after his time with the shadow-curse, but Astarion is easily swayed to this opinion, if someone tells a ghost story of a woman who stalks a hallway that even if He Who Was wasn't present that Astarion would be prompting the storyteller with variants of "And then?" Because what does it matter if there is a ghost, real or otherwise, moving about doing absolutely nothing. If there isn't a curse involved, it's irrelevant. Étoile meanwhile can't bring themself to have any enthusiasm for fake hauntings at all, having been so close to true ones in their youth.

Locke has a favorite type of flooring, wood. I imagine he's lived in places where the floor was nothing but packed earth, and where stone flooring has caused both death and serious injury as a result of a fall, especially with tiefling horns. Wood has an appropriate amount of bounce and give, while still being refined and suitably easy to clean, while stick clacking underfoot to the tune of fine heeled shoes. This doesn't come up a lot, but if someone were moving into a new residence, I think he'd ask after the flooring. I don't know how many partners would agree with him, I think most would dismiss his concerns out of hand, only changing their mind if they had a living senior or babe in their care. In a relevant AU Étoile would be sooo cognizant of this when the vampire settlement in the Underdark is using Stone Shape and drow masonry techniques to cut out their homes in the rock.

Komira has a favorite type of shoes — open-toed footwear. She finds them comfortable and pretty, and she can often tell a lot of her neighbours, tiefling and otherwise, about how they feel about the presence / visibility of clawed tiefling feet. They weren't good for travelling, but for occupying a house or working a shop, or attending a party, having one or two pairs of open shoes or sandals to choose from would suit her. Étoile would joke about wearing sandals in winter if no one would balk (Astarion would be outraged, proving their point). Astarion wouldn't have a preference, too much variety / spoiled for choice. Halsin would agree, closest to being barefoot as is acceptable. He Who Was would prefer a closed boot, to wade through the despicable places of the world in more comfort; Wyll is the same, but with more of a heel and any style one can manage. Locke and Zevlor would each have a preference for more sensible shoes that bring no more attention to themselves than necessary.

Wyll has favorite types of dip pen, with preferences for wide feeds and flexible nibs. I can picture him drawing in the margins and writing his perspective on his own adventures and those of his friends, as well as the practised slog of his paperwork. Astarion definitely prefers thinner feeds. I don't think Étoile or their other partners used dip pens with enough frequency to develop an opinion prior. If it became more common then they and Zevlor would agree with Wyll. They all dislike scroll nibs.

Zevlor has a favorite type of window curtain — patterned with flowers. He finds it uplifting to see the sunlight filter through bright colors and that the curtains might be a little bit more unique than a solid grey or another color. Astarion might've agreed under some circumstances, as it is he requires black out curtains, and at least if they're red they have some class. Halsin, Wyll and Komira agree with Zevlor. Locke would take it a step further and appreciate curtains with even more individuality or sense of home, if they were stitched with specific imagery, like a tale or an interesting creature. Étoile likes curtains with patterns, but not florals.

#long post #oc tag: étoile #halsin bg3 #astarion

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quickhacked · 1 year

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>> oc tragic horror trope quiz

was tagged by @strafethesesinners, @shellibisshe, @jillvalcntines, @aceghosts and @swordcoasts to take this test for my ocs, thank you so much!! tagging @reaperkiller, @steelport, @arklay, @aartyom, @cultistbase, @morvaris, @brujah, @aelyosos, @faarkas, @druidgroves, @devilbrakers, @dickytwister, @adelaidedrubman, @henbased, @florbelles and anyone else who wants to do this :D <3

– THE ONE WHO OPENED THE DOOR.

you turn the door handle. you call out, "who's there?" and the crowd has the audacity to groan, to get frustrated with you. as if the gift of hindsight was something you had. how the hell were you supposed to know you were born into a horror movie? no one bothered to tell you. say, if instead this was an action film, or a fantasy, would they still be telling you how silly of a mistake it was to press further on your quest? they would've commended you for your bravery. you thought you were going to be saving a princess in a tower, not getting stabbed in the back by a killer in the shadows. how is that fair? it isn't, and none of that was ever your fault. it is not wrong to believe things are good. your trust, your optimism, it shouldn't ever be mistaken for ignorance or stupidity. we need more people who open doors. how else are any of us gonna move forward?

director's commentary: i know i haven't talked all that much about aubrey yet but this result is killing me because in the story he's part of he is LITERALLY the one who opens the door :D aha :D it luckily doesn't kill him but there's something insane about how an accident turns into literally his worst nightmare and every time he asks himself "how could this have happened?" the answer is very simple. you opened the door babygirl

– THE GHOST.

it's an odd thing, to feel so far from grounded and yet trapped, tethered, unable to escape. there's more you have to do! so why can't you move? i'm sure you have an answer to that, at the very least in the back of your mind. people love to say that ghosts hold grudges or haunt for revenge but they always get it wrong; you're stuck because something or someone chained you down and left you there. you try and reach out to all those bright people who pass through your life, but it rarely feels like it does much more than knock a cup off the table, blow some papers into the air. i need you to trust me- they see it. they're listening. they'll keep looking for you and, eventually, they'll be able to see you too

director's commentary: cassidy was basically on autopilot for some years and his desperate attempts at connecting with people never worked out for him which is. exactly what this result describes and i'm not normal about it <3 for years he literally was just a ghost moving through life. i'm in hell

– FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER.

this plight is the simplest of them all: you did not ask for this. you were never given a choice. no part of yourself feels human, just a collection of traits you've picked up from mirroring anyone you could, even the people you meet through a television screen. it's alienating to live that way- yet someone has called you the alienating one. maybe too many people to count. maybe they treated you so uncomfortably inhuman that it's all you can understand now, or you've dug yourself into such a deep hole in an attempt to keep safe that you can't remember a person living in the home of your body at all. being alive is confusing and painful and lonely and loud but living is all there is to being human- you're already there. just take air into your lungs and breathe. close your eyes and picture a beautiful sky. you made that. you painted that yourself

director's commentary: yet another result that's already painful on its own but hits different when you keep the whole relic thing with johnny in mind aha xoxo the way the whole incident just alienated vincent from his own body is insane to me especially considering he's also trans. there's a lot going on there. much to think about

#tag games #ask:aubrey #ask:cassidy #ask:vincent #no longer annoying in the tags i'm annoying in the text post now sorry #i want to make out with this quiz sloppy style i'm not kidding this is so facking good #the way the results fit so perfectly with their stories and their already established personalities. i'm fine #also i'm so distracted today i have done a lousy job at tagging people if i forgot you or you already did this feel free to kill me <3

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mittensmorgul · 1 year

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I'm curious about how Sam was originally supposed to be the "main" character, but (imo) Dean always kinda felt like the main character, or at least carried the emotional weight of the show more often than Sam. Am I mistaken? Do you know why that is, or have any meta written about that already?

hi hi! I know there's already a bunch written about this, and a lot of it is in my kripke tag right here.

Maybe a good place to start is Kripke's original idea for the show. If you haven't read what I call the Harrison Draft, his original concept for the show, I think it goes a long way toward explaining it. Real quick, it opens on Dean discovering their father dead in the cold open, and then going to find Sam at his graduation from Stanford. The two of them had been raised "normal" by an aunt and uncle, and had always been told their father was insane, and may have even killed their mother. They weren't raised hunting, so Sam believes Dean is also insane for coming back with stories about demons and such. Sam was the audience pov character of "normal person learning about this whole world of monsters" while Dean was the gateway into that world for Sam/the audience.

And that is 100% NOT the show we watched. lol!

I think some of it is leftovers from Kripke's original pitch for the show, too (which you can read right here, and I highly recommend it, it's only 4 pages long), that posits STAR WARS IN TRUCK STOP AMERICA, with Sam as a reluctant Luke Skywalker and Dean as the swaggery Han Solo. And just... lol.

But then the concept of the show evolved into the pilot we did end up getting, and Kripke hired a bunch of other writers to help flesh out the blank slates of these characters, and Jensen and Jared were hired and the writers were like... heck... this Dean chap... he's got unplumbed depths... And he was just so compelling and took us all by the hand and showed us his world. While Sam's early seasons goal was repeatedly attempting to run away from that world.

I mean, granted Sam hated what that world put on him from the start, but honestly so did Dean so like... why did Sam want to escape it while Dean was so determined to keep on saving people and hunting things? It made him compelling. It made him the hero by choice.

And I mean, so much of the early seasons Bad Stuff happened TO Sam, leaving it on Dean to be our connection to it, you know? Sam was the one having visions and feeling less-than-human, and we the audience instead of seeing Sam as "the normal one" and therefore the audience POV character, we were asked to instead stand in Dean's shoes, protective older brother to Sam who was left to try and figure out how to save his brother from all of it.

And that might not be the story Kripke originally set out to tell, but it's what became the foundation of the show from like... episode 2. Definitely by episode 3. Obviously by "main" character here I'm speaking of the audience POV character, which doesn't always fall on Dean's shoulders to carry. They definitely tried to balance that, especially in later seasons by foisting the MoC on Dean, and then the whole possessed-by-Michael arc, making Dean the "problem" that Sam had to solve.

The show is very obviously about both of them, in different ways, and neither of them is "The Main Character" in a way that the show would work if you just, say, killed one of them off, you know? But Dean very quickly became "the more relatable one" to the audience pov. He was Just A Guy™ against Sam's "psychic visions coming true oh gosh am I a Supernatural?!" And one of those things is far more relatable to most viewers, you know?

The show happens TO Sam, and Dean reacts to that by choice.

heck I'm running out of ways to express what's essentially one thought :'D

#kripke

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