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aihoshiino · 3 days

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chapter 147 thoughts

you guys ever hear the tale of the monkey's paw. grants your wish but you suffer dire consequences as a result? just felt relevant to this chapter for some reason. anyway.

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Completely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 4

I'm gonna be up front and say that while I really wanted to like this chapter and it has the bones of interesting ideas, so many of the existing issues with the Movie Arc just bring it crashing back down. I probably dislike it more than I necessarily should because knowing that this definitely is the end and seeing concretely in hindsight just how much time was wasted and how much excellent material has been squandered or flat out skipped over entirely just makes me want to put my head through a brick wall. And it just sucks because, like… man, I don't want to dislike Oshi no Ko! I really don't enjoy feeling like I'm just putting negativity out each chapter because when the story hits, it hits so fucking good!! The Movie Arc has been clunky but it's had some truly breathtaking individual moments and character beats that make me remember why I fell in love with the series so deeply but then chapters like this come along and I wonder why I'm even bothering to keep reading.

anyway. Anyway.

To my genuine shock and surprise, the RBHK conversation happens entirely onscreen and isn't needlessly dragged out which I will take as a W at this point. What is less of a W is how just… underwhelming this ended up being? This is Hikaru's first meeting (that we know of) with the child he fathered and then essentially orphaned… at least as far as Ruby is concerned. So her total lack of reaction to him is baffling. The question currently seems to be whether Ruby is only pretending not to recognize him in order to try and pry the answer she's looking for out of him or whether Akasaka really, genuinely wants me to believe that Ruby does not recognize her father, when Akane recognized him on sight, he looks identical to her twin brother she spent 18 years growing up with and she is in the middle of MAKING A MOVIE THAT STARS HIM. If the latter is the intent then all I can say is that I feel genuinely fucking insulted on Ruby's behalf at her being dumbed down this badly and for myself as a reader that Akasaka thinks I'm stupid enough to buy this. So I am very much hoping it's the former.

The talk they go onto have is also………………………….. man. I want to like it. I really want to pull it apart and analyze it because it is fascinating. It's a really important look into Ruby's feelings and I even myself said this was something I really wanted to see Ruby dealing with - being faced with the realization that the person who killed her mother isn't some ephemeral faceless force of uncomplicated evil, but a fucked up human being who was hurt and suffering and who faced horrific and monstrous abuse just like Ai did. The idea of Ruby wrestling with her conflicting feelings of empathy and resentment, similar to Kana trying to reconcile her lingering hurt with her love for Ruby as her friend, is super compelling.

But like… she didn't! Akasaka having Ruby look into the camera and having her say "uhhh i was totally having all these deep and complicated feelings this whole time trust me bro" is the first we have heard Ruby struggle with literally any of this. It's yet another example of what I've been saying this whole time of Akasaka both lacking enough respect for Ruby to seriously interrogate her as a character and rushing her to the endpoint of what should have been long term characterization in lieu of showing us the work it takes to get there. Rather than organically weaving any of this into the prior story and letting us actually see Ruby work through this, she just starts awkwardly monologing about it to a conveniently placed guy who is, depending on your interpretation of the chapter, either some rando with an umbrella or the guy she's pretty sure killed her mom.

There is no reason her struggling to reconcile these contrasting feelings of resentment and empathy couldn't have been explored as the movie was being filmed. There were countless opportunities for this to have come up while the movie was filming the scenes dealing with Hikaru's abuse - we even get this set up in 139 during the filming of their first meeting but it gets derailed by a dumb brocon joke because I guess that was more important to spend pagetime on than the arc Akasaka is trying to suddenly pretend Ruby was having.

And it's not like it even matters! Unless the next arc is also going to be about 15 Year Lie where we interrogate the content of the movie not shown to us, Ruby's struggle here comes to nothing. That overhanging question of "Will Ai('s actress) forgive her killer or not?" is cut short and goes unanswered. So what was the point of this?

I also just really can't get my head around this continued thread of Ruby wanting to be an idol who 'surpasses' Ai. I had a whole rant about it here I ended up deleting lol but the long and the short of it is it feels entirely incongruous with the series' broader portrayal and Ruby's own attitude about chasing Ai's light and what being an idol did to Ai but at this point I've given up.

The exchange with Kamiki that follows is like, the one part of this chapter I think is just uncomplicatedly interesting and worth interrogation. He actually gives Ruby a lot of genuinely good advice here - that she can only find an answer to that question by interrogating it herself and an answer from someone else won't solve the issue. Does she actually want suffering and revenge? Are those really at the core of who she is as a person?

The framing here is obviously and overtly sinister and suspicious and we're pretty clearly supposed to think he was about to shove Ruby down the stairs, but a few things jumped out to me. The first is that if you pay attention to the backgrounds, they seem to have actually already been close to if not at ground level by the time Akane caught up to them, so… what exactly was a push from that height going to do if he did, in fact, push her?

Not only that but uh… holy shit! His white hoshigan!!!!

Like, am I misremembering, or is this not the one and only time we have ever seen adult Hikaru - maybe even the real Hikaru full stop - without black hoshigans??? Given what we've seen of him so far and how the black hoshigans have been used as a symbol, if he really was about to kill Ruby… where did THAT come from?

Added together with the deeply sympathetic portrayal of his younger self in the movie, it continues to raise a lot of questions for me as to exactly what we're supposed to be thinking of Hikaru and how we're supposed to feel about him that I am finding very compelling. ambiguity enjoyers when the

NINO IS HERE!!!! MISS NINO I'M FREE THURSDAY NIGHT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HANG OUT

Joking aside, I'm really glad Nino is here because it implies her whatever the fuck is going on situationship with Kamiki is going to continue into the final arc(s?) of the series and that we'll get to see more of her as a result. Nino's been one of my favourite OnK characters since I first read 45510 so any more content of her in the main story is a treat.

Kamiki's words about the movie killing him via public opinion also lines up with what I was expecting to happen more or less… I'm curious to see how this is all going to play out and what this means for Aqua given that, if last chapter is anything to go by, he's still very much struggling with suicidal ideation. can someone PLEASE give my son a bone crushing hug.

akane stalking kamiki is up there as one of the funniest things ever in this manga btw. what is wrong w her <3

This is unfortunately where me having nice things to say about this chapter ends because the chapter - and therefore the Movie Arc as a whole - ends with this transparently rushed sequence absolutely mach speech blasting through the remaining material of the movie in one and a half's pages worth of silent single panels. Honestly, I really can't properly articulate how mad and frustrated I am about this lmao. It really just feels like Akasaka admitting to the reader that he's stopped giving a shit about what the movie was supposed to be about. The HKAI breakup that was given a huge amount of setup and weight at the start of filming? Ai's pregnancy? AI'S DEATH???? It's all skipped over and brushed aside as if it never mattered in the first place. Never mind any of the interesting characterization we could've gotten out of it. Never mind that the Movie Arc was promised to be about Ai and untangling her past. Never fucking mind Ruby having literally any interiority about having to act out the death of her beloved mother and reliving the event that destroyed her and her brother's lives. If Akasaka doesn't care, why should I?

It feels like a slap in the face for getting invested in the story's promises and trying to engage with it. But of course, I'm going to be back like a clown doing just that when the next chapter drops anyway.

at least we're finally moving on to a new arc but by god. at what fucking cost.

break next week……………………………………………..

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #chapter reviews

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beautifulpersonpeach · 4 months

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so just to confirm, jikookers genuinely believe that in an extremely homophobic military system and country that just reaffirmed the illegality of any form of homosexual interaction during enlistment (to the point that they can face a prison sentence), two queer individuals in a gay relationship would put themselves, their relationship, and their careers at risk by enlisting in the same camp together through the buddy system in which they will have to be together essentially at all times surrounded by other soldiers, supervisors etc for 18 months? there is no private time or sneaking off in the military so jikookers genuinely think that while already dealing with the stress and difficulty of enlistment within itself, jimin and jungkook would subject themselves to an extra stressor of controlling their emotions and actions with each other at all times for that long? like you all actually think they said “yeah fuck it we’d rather be by each others side while facing the risk of getting caught, sent to prison, and having our careers destroyed instead of being separated for just 18 months out of our whole lives”. like how do u think they’d even remotely survive those 18 months?

***

You know, when you put it that way I think you have a point. It's ludicrous to think two queer men can co-habit in the same unit without climbing all over each other and outing themselves. Jikookers must've been deaf, blind, all thinking faculties out to lunch when Jungkook talked about how Seven is autobiographical (the female subject in the song not being just a technicality). Expecting Jungkook of all people to go days, weeks, and months on end without fucking his main squeeze is kinda nuts ngl. Especially when everybody knows gay men are overly promiscuous, deviant, sex-addicted sons of Lucifer who just happen to look good in perms and eyeliner. One glance at all that cake Jimin got in the back and Jungkook will start keening like blue-balled bonobo before jumping him in broad daylight. Right? Perhaps it's a wonder jikook survived 10 years in the spotlight while being in the most hyper-visible group in a homophobic society, even representing their homophobic country in official capacities.

What good is a relationship if you cannot have sex for any period of time, after all? Can you even call that a relationship?

Also, your point about how there's no private time in the military is a godsend because it just reminded me of a curious phenomenon that happened this year. I noticed it happened maybe two or three times this year when ARMYs and even people tangentially related to ARMYs collectively hallucinated seeing Seokjin and Hoseok outside the military base. In fact, this is what's convinced me beyond all reasonable doubt that BTS's fandom is a cult.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

Jikookers must be dumb, high, or both to think it's a good thing for jikook to possibly mean more to each other and still choose to enlist together under the Buddy program. Clearly it's unthinkable for a couple to weigh the strength they could gain by being together, as more important than the risk of being caught in an explicitly compromising situation. It's silly of jikookers to think companionship can happen in all sorts of ways even while in the military; and flat out ridiculous of them to believe that jikook at the end of the day started out as friends, have been through some of their most life-defining moments together, and are still one of the closest pairings in BTS.

Thank you for taking the time to share such an enlightening opinion with me, Anon. Your ideas were persuasive and yes, you have me convinced. It is impossible for jikook to be jikooking in the military ergo jikook must not exist.

#jikook

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furinzii · 3 months

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oc infodump smiles

So. Before I can explain like...ho Jess

and Niko are, I need to talk about the "asylum" they grew up in. It was quite literally ran by some meth head dude who somehow managed to get the money required to start and set up everything, and there just happened to be a bunch of people in on it for gits and shiggles.

Anyway, the whole reason Niko and Jess were put into that-lab. Not even asylum dude-was because their parents were "murdered". Their dad's body was found mangled in the basement, but their mother was nowhere to be seen so her fate is left unknown. But that's unimportant.

Probably.

And that finally takes us to Jess and Niko. The two were essentially kidnapped and brought into the labs to be tested on due to their very unnatural abilities. Or very unnatural for the world they live in (it's like genshin but extremely fucked up)

blah blah blah they were experimented on (Niko's arm was removed and Jess was mutilated, but kept alive due to her very slow regeneration ability. She later died of infection and her regen didn't work fast enough to keep her completely alive. But, said infection kept her body as a puppet, and quite literally manifested it's own consciousness into existence. Nobody is aware of that until much much later though.

Back to Niko- sorry this is super unorganized- she came up with a plan to flee the facility (/ref) with Jess. Niko escaped, but "Jess" did not.

shit I probably gotta bring up the fact that Niko was also turned into a biomechanical eldritch horror from the inside out (literally. had to do with some parasitical bullshit I'm too tired to explain) that backfired HARD and turned her into an artificial archon (genshin terminology is more fun shhhh)

the artificial manifestation of Niko's "archon" form also created another thing. Nicknamed smile because....it smiles. Yeah. Idk. It's actual name is Scithe cuz it's cooler (that's literally why)

In the most simple way I can put it, Scithe is a being that can take the form of anyone and anything and use said form to manipulate others into doing whatever it wants them to. Reason being- for funsies, why the hell not? It has no reason to care if it has nothing to care about.

Since Niko is the reason for Scithe's existence, Niko (nicknamed IkoN for no reason in particular) is Scithe's favorite target. It uses her fragile mental stability against her, convincing Niko that nobody is really her friend but Scithe is.

If that doesn't give a pretty clear view of how fragile Niko actually is idk what will </3

#oc #oc stuff #infodump #oh my god i love ocs #ocs #infodumping #hyperfixation #niko yazuki #jessica yazuki #jess yazuki

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animehouse-moe · 6 months

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The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Episode 15: Needs Must When The Devil Drives I.

Perhaps a slower episode than usual in the front half, this one dives head first into our two caregiver pairings of Elias-Chise, and Alcyone-Philomela. It's really great to see how they approach each and how they interact with one another, so I have a lot to talk about.

Let's start off with Elias! I love his character progression in this episode once more. Just the subtle things like how he says to "reach out to him if anything happens". While he does justify it by the fact that humans are frail to him, the sentiment of Elias attempting to care about another person is absolutely there.

Even better is Simeon's comment about music. Elias shows interest in it, and then extrapolates it to relate it to Chise, and not in just a simple manner. It has him pondering the question "what does Chise like? What was she like before me?". It's an outstanding development for two reasons.

Firstly, it shows Elias' ability to look inwards in retrospect and apply the ideas that other people supply him with to other friends or people close to him. Secondly, during that introspection, it's not just "I wonder what kind of music Chise likes", rather, he uses the initial idea to further expand on Chise as a person, rather than something that comes to mind as an association. It's really really great stuff that shows how Elias is growing and developing as a person.

Similarly, but also somehow different, we get Alcyone in this really great sequence.

I really like the direction through this sequence because it accentuates Alcyone's purpose. Other people do exist, such as Philomela's parents, but all that Alcyone sees is Philomela herself. Is it because of her purpose as an artificial fairy, or is it the beginnings of something greater, similar to Elias? Personally I feel like it's the latter, which I'll explain in just a bit.

First though, this scene of Alcyone looking at Philomela. It's just really pretty, and the depth of field is a nice touch to help viewers understand that Alcyone is only looking at Philomela.

Anyways, why do I think that Alcyone is more like Elias than unlike? Well, it's Elias himself in their conversation. He himself states that he can't stop answering Alcyone's questions, and I think the reasoning is obvious as we begin a two part parallel. Elias sees a version of himself in Alcyone. I think it's a great idea to explore that comparison, especially because the two are currently isolated from the outside world.

And then there's the whole Philomela and Chise piece, which was great. Here though, they explicitly state (or I guess show?) that Chise sees herself in Philomela despite their differences, and that a lot of it is about finding a way to save her past self by helping Philomela. It's very interesting, and ties directly into Chise's struggle with selfishness in a way that might not directly present as that.

And then there's the whole Rian-Isaac breakdown which is really great. We could see glimpses of the tension here and there with Rian interacting with Philomela finally, but the breaking point was really well done. The idea of "two sides of the same coin" comes to mind with the pair, so I'm really excited to see what goes on now that Philomela has been properly added to the mix.

Though I should add, Rian's disposition towards Philomela is very interesting. It's childish, I would say. He's frustrated that the friend he once had is essentially no more, so he takes it out on the version of them that stands in front of him.

The latter half of this episode just brings a lot in terms of breakdowns as it prepares to build things up alongside the mystery of the book swirling around the college.

While the first half might be a touch dry, the second half is incredibly full and rich, sporting great sunset-dyed visuals and surprisingly solid character animation in some sequences.

The book might be the focus of this arc right now, but I'm nearly exclusively focused on the characters because they're just so damn well written.

#ancient magus' bride #ancient magus bride #mahoyome #mahou tsukai no yome #mahoutsukai no yome #magus bride #魔法使いの嫁 #chise hatori #elias ainsworth #studio kafka #wit studio #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #anime

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kennydvault · 7 months

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Renji Fight (BLEACH Chapters 95-98)

Chapter 95

Renji said he's going to kill Ichigo because he took Rukia's powers, implying some sort of friendship between them at some point. I'm assuming that him and Rukia worked together or grew up together? I really like this fight between them though where they're both fighting for Rukia in their own way. There's also these pages that make me think he's probably not really going to go all out and will end up being yet another enemy that has their own reasons to help Ichigo save Rukia:

Renji has a few cool panels at the end of the chapter where he explains his power is 5x stronger than it was last time they fought, and he changes his Zanpakuto to it's true form and strikes Ichigo through a wall. Renji's Zabimaru reminds me of those collapsible lightsabers you'd get from the store for like $10, just a really cool sword version lmao.

Chapter 96

After the single blow from Renji's Zabimaru Ichigo can barely stand, swaying in place and his head is bleeding quite a bit. I'm ngl I started feeling bad for my boy right here because as he tries to dodge Renji's next attack he gets slashed across his back and is leaking even more blood. And every attack Renji makes here is leveling whole buildings, this dude is not weak by any means.

While this fight is happening we cut to Renji's squad discussing him leaving his assistant captain's badge behind. I'm feeling pretty confident that he's trying to save Rukia as well here because immediately after this page Renji is asking Ichigo again about his intentions to save her. Ichigo remembers his training with Kisuke (I need to know who this man is, and why is he so strong that 5 days of training with him has Ichigo nearly at assistant captain level) and finds an opening to attack because of it, but Renji outspeeds him and cuts Ichigo deep in his chest.

Chapter 97

We start 97 off with a shonen classic, the Omae wa mou shindeiru. Flashback to Kisuke training Ichigo and it's nice to see how our mc got stronger instead of me just having to fill in the gaps. It starts with Kisuke attacking and Ichigo running from the attack. Kisuke tries to explain he won't get stronger by living in fear, and that he needs the resolve to win and push past his fear into having full faith in his abilities. But more than anything I was just blown away at these two panels. The first was the reveal of the aftermath from the attack Ichigo was dodging at the beginning of the chapter. Absolutely insane, just so so cool to see the earth split asunder from an attack especially when we can assume Kisuke is pulling his punches somewhat. And the second panel being the attacks they send at each other at the end when Ichigo finds his resolve.

We cut back to Ichigo fighting Renji, and Ichigo after finding his resolve decides to conquer his fear and is determined to beat Renji. He attacks Renji breaking his Zabimaru (and cutting his hairband? lmao), and finishes the fight there, landing his final blow.

Chapter 98 (End of Volume 11)

This was such a beautiful chapter and such a good ending to the fight between these two. So Renji and Rukia grew up as orphans in essentially the ghetto of Rukongai, stealing food and water for themselves and their friends to get by. The way that Renji talks about Rukia in this chapter is really sweet. He clearly admires her and looks up to her, and you can tell since he was a kid he's been trying to be good enough to equal her. What I just noticed this chapter is that Rukia probably was a human at some point, died and was in the Rukongai alone (like Yuichi is) and chose to become a Soul Reaper. I guess I just assumed for the most part that Soul Reapers have existed as Soul Reapers since birth.

Anyway Rukia decides to become Soul Reapers with Renji, and when Rukia becomes adopted into the Kuchiki family, Renji spends all of his time training to be good enough to beat Captain Kuchiki (and assumedly take his place? or possibly run away with Rukia, I'm not really sure). I really like the forced expression drawn by Kubo here, where Renji is telling Rukia how happy is for her while trying to hide that he's hurting, chasing her and trying to save her. He just isn't strong enough to do so, and so he stays quiet at a time when Rukia wanted him to help her. She moves his hand off of him and thanks him as she rushes past, hiding her emotions from him as well. And the chapter ends here, when Renji asks Ichigo if he can beat Captain Kuchuki for him, and Ichigo of course tells him he will.

#bleach #bleach chapter discussion #ichigo kurosaki #renji abarai #rukia kuchiki #soul society arc #manga #colored manga

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thesketchyheartist · 1 month

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03/20

Neon Genesis Evangelion (EP 8, 16, 24, 26)

I want to start off this post by talking about a new main character Asuka. It took me about 2 episodes to figure out she is Rei's opposite. Appearances: Blue hair and red hair. Long hair and short hair. Eye colors are different. One is soft-spoken, the other is vocal. One talks too little (from what I gather from the assigned episodes, I think Rei is supposed to be Eve or Lilith, but Asuka is like Shinji in that they are some descendants of the Evas or Angels or something that is not totally human, so this explains why she acts so cold), the other talks too much. Also the weird but true observation: one is indifferent to perverted accidents, the other is sensitive to perverted accidents; both may or may not [always] involve Shinji.

Asuka represents the tsundere stereotype, I think. I hear the "Baka, hentai!" comment from her a lot, but I can't tell if it's hormones or if she is actually attracted to Shinji. Shinji is a teenage boy, so I know he gets the classic red hand mark on his face, and it's rarely ever his fault. Those characters who are quick to anger and violence without listening to reason are often redheads, and I know it's a popular trope, but I realize as I am writing this the paradox of it all. Asuka is a young girl, and as a bit of a crazy anime watcher, I do believe violence is not always the answer, but it's wrong to assume violence is not an option. However, if every situation that triggers you is answered or resolved in violence, then it's rarely ever resolved. If Asuka even paused for a moment, she could tell Shinji probably did not even have the guts to pull harassment on any girl. To accuse him would make her the true culprit, not the victim. I know the children did not have parental figures to follow, but I guess their immaturity further proves they are really not qualified at all to be humanity's saviors. On the other hand, it is ironic that Asuka's hits can be overlooked so easily. Think about it, if a young boy suddenly had his p**is touched, accidentally or not, by a girl, he probably would just shove her off because if he hit her face, everyone would call him violent. Children who are used as child weapons are essentially taught that violence via their mecha skills is the ONLY solution to solve humanity's biggest problems, so quietly, it's the only solution for small misunderstandings.

Finally, the last episode was more philosophical than I thought. I didn't watch EP25 which I assume is the final battle because I don't think there is a sequel series. The ending didn't even explain what happened to humanity. But I think it's a good moral story to explain ego and self. The swap to 2D pencil drawings is a good way. Without depth, shadow, and background, a sketch exists limitless. I like how Shinji was always told what to do and how he should live. Even at his crisis, he asks people what he should do and how to live, they are the ones telling him the truth of how he should live. While I know the show is the one telling us the truth, to Shinji, it's still outsiders instructing him, even if they have his well-being in the best care possible. It was Shinji, experiencing the No Angels AU (that got to be an AO3 tag, if not, something like No Eva AU) or Middle/High School AU (love the silly shoujo reference with Rei, bread in mouth, "I'm going to be late on my first day of a school in this new city!", and headbumping ML, but not the accidental peeking), that he realizes the truth people have been trying to tell him this whole time. Funny how even his best friends care more about him than he does himself, and only when he really loves himself unconditionally, Eva or no Eva, even in a world where only he exists, that he can learn to actually love others, even his hated father becomes a person he can accept unconditionally. You realize after hearing all the voices, it's because they were people, not static faces with voices, that Shinji can compare his world and his self-image to everyone he meets in the show to find his true self.

It's such a roundabout way to explain everything. All anyone needs is a famous quote by a powerful warrior, one who transcended the mortal realm for his wisdom, bravery, and sheer popularity:

I never heard about ATLA until COVID-19. Funny because if I had heard of this show when it came out, I would have had a very different childhood.

My favorite post-spring break gift from my professors is an exam (it's not.)

-03/19/24

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donnerpartyofone · 10 months

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More notes on beauty:

1) I started feeling ugly from a very early age, really as far back as I can remember. There is something deeply revealing about being told you're pretty only by blood relatives, friends of the family who are trying to flatter your parents, and platonic friends who are not sexually attracted to your demographic; all those people are trying to make you feel better in some way, even though they might be accidentally pointing out a problem you didn't necessarily think you had.* But anyway, my parents never interfered with my sense of ugliness--even though I was extremely vocal about how worried and sad it made me. On one single occasion when I was probably around 12 and bemoaning how gross I felt, my father stoically offered up that beauty standards are just reflections of reproductive instincts, that the qualities men find attractive in women are markers of high quality breeding stock essentially. I now know that this is only true to a limited degree, and even at the time it wasn't hard to see that the average sex symbol wasn't necessarily "fertile-looking". Besides which, this knowledge wouldn't exempt me from continued rejection and alienation! It was just another way of viewing my natural reject-ness. But still, this shut me up somehow. It was like Oh OK, so even if I'm like exiled from society, at least there's a scientific reason. It's not "unfair", it's just rational.

2) My best friend is ugly. This is her own assessment based on her own experience of just being in society, dealing with strangers, trying to find a partner, etc. I don't know that she ENJOYS being ugly, but I don't think she's offended by the diagnosis; it just is what it is on some level, and it makes her incredibly enlightened about the complexities of embodied existence, but ANYWAY. I was talking one day with another friend about the general concept of looks, and when I mentioned this fact about my closest friend, my interlocutor got very prickly. She said something like "ugliness is a really important concept to me, I've seen pictures of your friend online and she's not it." To be clear this person was being more defensive of ugliness than of the stranger I was describing--but it put me in this corner where I had to go, "OK fine, her skin is like this, her hair is like this," etc, until it was like I had her whole physical person disarticulated on an operating table. Finally the person I was talking to conceded that she understood me, but it was an unpleasant experience and I wished I hadn't taken the bait. This person just had a fetishized version of what it means to be "ugly"; she meant, for instance, character actors with uniquely extreme appearances that amount to their own special aesthetic. She didn't want to include just general people who are routinely ignored and rejected in any circumstance where the key thing is visual attractiveness. And there I was, so desperate to defend my friend's inalienable right to be ugly (which is just one small feature of hers within an absolute treasure trove of amazingly great human qualities), that I carved her up into parts for this other person--I made myself think about my friend in a way that I absolutely never would do naturally, all because of my obsessive resistance of judging people by aesthetics, even the "ugliness" aesthetic. It left me feeling pretty awful.

*Actually I wonder if people, let's just say women who are very attractive are very often TOLD that they are attractive out loud by people other than sexual partners (and suitors who can't control themselves). I feel like people are so threatened by attractive women, in various ways, that they don't necessarily come right out and acknowledge this attractiveness in words. I think maybe people are more likely to express "you're extremely hot/beautiful" through behavior and action, than to be so vulnerable as to say the obvious to a beautiful woman. In fact I theorize that you might know if you face more challenges re: appearance from the fact that people TELL you you're attractive more often than they act like it. But this is all speculation about other people's lives, I really wouldn't know!

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speakyskelly-1999 · 8 months

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As I said anime

Also maybe some slight spoilers for the two anime I'm about to talk about sorry

I finally got round to watching sailor moon

I mean I did star it like errrr half a year ago but I only watched 5 episodes cos I wasn't in an anime nor a magical girl phase, but now I am and here we are on episode 20

Okay first things first it's, so far, a 7/10. It's aged pretty damn well all things considered and I'm having a lot of fun with it and my brains gone "wouldn't it be fun to draw your dnd party in sailor moon style"

I listened to my brain idk why. I'm like decent at drawing but this is errr a bit too far above my skill and attention span level but here we are. Illve literally set everything up now so woo

Anyway getting back on track

So I started watching cardcaptor sakura back in errrrr Fuck 2020, damn it's been a while. Anyway I chose that one over sailor moon initially because my friend, who really gets my tastes and raised me to be the big anime fan I am, preferred this one so I thought "hell why not it's shorter than sailor moon"

These too massive influences on the magical girl genre as a whole are really interesting to compare and contrast to another. Sailor moon, being the bigger phenomenon that it was obviously had a bigger influence on the genre as a whole than cardcaptor but you can ignore what sakura put into the genre

And so like you'd ask "well skelly which do you prefer"

Both do things that I really like and don't like

Pros of cardcaptor sakura:

• her power scaling compatency is really well highlighted by collecting the crow card

• the crow cards are useful from the minute she collects them and I really enjoy seeing her use them in different

• the fact that her magical girl outfit is different each episode and are made by her friend (they're related but I don't know the name of the relationship cos it's her mother's cousins daughter)

• the fact that clamp are insane JoJo fans (okay but like legit tho it's one of the reasons I started watching cardcaptor cos cos cos JoJo part 3)

• her and her magical rival both having a crush on her brother's best friendisy adorable (they're like 12 while the brother (16) 's friend is 15 and obviously is just being nice to his friends family and family friends) [I know the end results if the relationships so it's fine]

• it's does a really good job of balancing one magical girl

Pros I'd sailor moon:

• usagi feels 14. Like she feels like a 14 year old in the 90s. Shes the most a magical girl protagonist has felt their age

• the astetic if sailor moon is just too notch

• most of the filler episodes feel good and not wasted time

• well passed and not excessive magical girl transformations

• villains (these don't exist in cardcaptor per say)

• the author is married to the author of Hunter X Hunter and they couldn't be more night and day in terms of style

• the three sailor soldiers (so far) balance out really well with each other

• their powers don't all just do damage. Mercury has a mist bomb essentially. Mars has a fire gun that damages and sailor moon has seems to bind/trap/ kill the opponent which is really cool

However, there are certain things that each one does that I'm just like whyyyyyy. Since sailor moons 'offences' are ones that are mainly yet to come and could turn out to be okay I'll start there first

Cons of sailor moon:

• chibi moon. This child hasn't and won't turn up till episode 14 of season 2 but I already don't like her. I don't like child characters with powers in magical girl anime let alone considering her relationship to the other characters. They might do her well but I'm very much expecting her to be my least favourite

• usagi is 14 and tuxedo mask is 18 when they first meet. Granted usagi is the only one who has feelings for the other perosna at the minute but since I'm like 99% sure of where this relationship goes it's so weird in heinseight

• (okay this is the weirdest one but) so far... It's had the straightest vibes. Know I know what your thinking "But but it's so gay" and I know I'm desperate to see Neptune and Uranus (totally not mad that they get introduced after chibi moon but what ever) and that the filler has some good shopping potential but like both mars and usagi are so man hungry at the moment. Granted usagi did describe mars in a very sapphic way when they first met all with a blush on her face which I definitely appreciated but since then they're just both been fighting over tuxedo mask and other men. Mercury is my saving grace cos at the minute she just don't care, giving real ace aro vibes which I like

Cardcaptor sakura cons:

• I only really have one of these so far

• and it's a doozy

• technically it's two/three but it all falls under the same issue

• student teacher relationships. Sakuras mother was 16 when she met her husband to be... Who was her teacher.... This broke me when I first found this out. And this isn't great. Entirely not aged well. However is the show had played this off as normal maybe I could let it go. Oh what's that. Sakuras mother's family fucking hate the dad's guts for it. Oh oh so your telling me they tried to so everything in their power to get her to not marry him and they did it anyway and it's shown as a whole love conquers all thing. Okay errr let me just throw up for a bit. Oh oh oh what's this there's a new female teach. Mmh okay sakuras smitten but Li gets uncomfortable around her. Oh sakuras brother knows her. She was previously his teacher. He's also having a wired reaction to her being back. Eh what's this HIS WEIRD REACTION IS COS THEY USE TO DATE WHILE AHE WAS HIS TEACHER WHEN HE WAS 14 AND HIS FATHER WAS OKAY WITH THIS AND HE DOSNT LIKE HER COS SHE BROKE IS HEART NOT THAT YOU KNWO THIS IS A FULLY GROWN ADULT DATING YOUR 14 YEAR OLD SON OH WHAT YOU WOULD CARE COS YOU DID THE SAME THING.

• there's another relationship that's like this but that I ky exists in the manga so imma ignore it cos I don't think I can take much more if it... This time the child is 12... I think this show wants to kill me

• after I found this out it's taken me ages to pick up the show again and whenever I do I just can't shake the uncomfortable feeling

So yea

Both shows have their ups and downs to say the least

And I can't really form a verdic till I finish cardcaptor sakura, clear card, and all of sailor moon

Bruh I finally remembered the point of this post

#ill add it in the reblog dont worry

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vanilla-voyeur · 9 months

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So usually when I try to explain why I'm not a feminist I get really condescending because it's really frustrating to hear people assume that the only possible reason someone could be for gender equality but not also be a feminist is because the person must have a very ignorant misunderstanding of what true feminism is. But for the most part those folks are very earnest, and perhaps it's better for me to turn down the snark sometimes.

I feel pretty confident at this point that I am aware of feminism at least as much as the average feminist. I was a feminist for 7 years. I've taken gender studies classes, I've read academic feminist works, I've read belle hooks (much later than I should have), I used to frequent feminist blogs, I'm subscribed to a pro-feminist subreddit, I have feminist friends and partners, and my Tumblr dash is full of feminists. I've heard it all, I used to believe quite a bit of it, and I'm no longer convinced.

It's difficult to not make this sound incredibly defensive because, well it is. I've been told over and over again the same things by feminists who assume that they're the first one telling me it. I'm already familiar with these things mostly because I believed them back when I was a feminist and have since learned a more nuanced way of looking at gender. I'm trying to preempt as much of the rebuttals as possible.

That also makes this explanation exhaustingly long. There's a TLDR at the bottom. But if that's all you read then whatever your counterargument to it is probably already addressed in the rest of the post.

What is feminism?

Let's start with the definition of feminism. There are many feminist schools of thought. It makes it hard to talk about my disagreement with feminism as a whole because if I make a claim broad enough to include all feminists according to my understanding of what feminism really is, the assumption is that I am ignorant of the less distasteful schools of feminist thought because feminists don't consider other feminist schools of thought as true feminism. I genuinely think TERFs are a form of radical feminism, but that gets misunderstood to mean that I think all feminists are TERFs or are tolerant of TERFs. I don't buy the claim that TERFs aren't feminists because real feminism includes all women when the dominant online leftist narrative is white feminism. While I do think some feminists are for gender equality (asterisk) I don't agree with the feminists who define feminism to be nothing more than a fight for gender equality.

So what is the essential thing that is common to all people who call themselves feminists if it isn't gender equality? In my understanding, it is a belief in the patriarchy concept and that it must be dismantled. The difference between different schools of feminist thought is what the definition of patriarchy is and what is the best way to dismantle it.

This means TERFs are real feminists. They define patriarchy to be men existing and that trans women are a particularly henious type of man who have discovered a particularly insidious way to sneak into women's spaces. The fact that this is abhorrent to most feminists (and also decent people in general) does not stop it from being a patriarchy concept that people who self-identity as feminists believe.

Feminists for gender equality (asterisk) believe that the patriarchy is... well... it's uh... So every time I make a claim what the dominant narrative of the patriarchy is, if it doesn't match up word-for-word with the individual's specific views, then they take it as a sign that I'm ignorant of real feminism. Nevermind that when they explain the real definition of patriarchy, it's more-or-less what I just said in every way that is important to me. This still happens when I just straight up direct quote the last feminist who explained the real definition of patriarchy to me.

I will quote this definition:

Patriarchy is a system of relationships, beliefs, and values embedded in political, social, and economic systems that structure gender inequality between men and women. Attributes seen as “feminine” or pertaining to women are undervalued, while attributes regarded as “masculine” or pertaining to men are privileged.

The things that stick out to me in this dominant narrative that I don't believe in:

Patriarchy benefits all men

All gender inequality is due to societal structures that consistently favor men

If your personal definition of patriarchy does not include a belief that structural misandry exists, not as the patriarchy backfiring, but as a societal disadvantage that men have because they are men and not women, then it's not sufficiently different enough from previous definitions I've heard to be new to me.

Which is not to say that structural misogyny doesn't exist or male privilege doesn't exist. Both exist and also female privilege too. They are in effect in different contexts. I've made a previous more snarky post about how feminists use examples of misogyny to claim that misandry isn't real and MRAs use examples of misandry to claim that misogyny isn't real and all those examples prove is that both are real. (Shoutout to the TERF in my replies who did the exact thing I brought up in my post but worse because all the stuff she said was plainfacedly false. You think men can never be raped? Bruh.)

The prefix "fem" in the word "feminism" contains a clear indication that feminism is not any and all support for gender equality, but at best a specific belief that the only thing we need to advocate for to get gender equality is women's right.

If men's rights was part of feminism then it wouldn't be considered derailing to talk about men's issues in a feminist space. The frequent complaint that MRAs only bring up men's rights to derail a discussion of women's rights betrays a belief that any amount of talk about men's rights in a feminist space is derailing. (Or sometimes any amount of discussion in any space.) Nevermind that MRAs have created their own spaces to talk about men's rights, so it's not solely derailing. No, feminism is not "just gender equality". It has narrow assumptions about what counts as gender equality and what doesn't.

I don't believe in the patriarchy, so I don't consider myself a feminist. All people who self-id as feminist believe in the patriarchy, but not all people who self-id as feminists believe in gender equality. Furthermore, not all people who believe in gender equality self-id as feminists. (This is less surprising to leftists of color than white women.) The patriarchy concept is more essential to feminism than gender equality.

Instead I call myself an egalitarian. I like it, not just because it includes men's rights alongside women's rights, but also because it also signifies intersectionality of all justice movements: for PoC, for intersex people, for trans people, for queer people, for disabled people, for working class people, for sex workers, and for every marginalized group.

What I believe

Ok so how does I explain the existence of misogyny without believing it to be a result of the patriarchy? The same way I explain the existence of misandry without believing in a matriarchy.

(Side note: MRAs don't believe in a matriarchy. They believe misandry is a result of gynocentrism, which is a society that prioritizes the life, health, and welfare of women over that of men. They explain misogyny as a result of gynocentrism backfiring. Again, I don't think that's the full picture.)

In my understanding, misogyny, misandry, and transphobia are all a result of restrictive gender roles that put AFAB folks in one oppressive box and AMAB folks in a different analogous oppressive box. It really doesn't matter which box is worse because once something is sufficiently bad enough, it becomes abominable to compare it to another sufficiently bad thing. (Q: What's worse murder or rape? A: Thinking that's an appropriate question to ask) In some contexts women have it worse, in other contexts men have it worse, and in still some other contexts they both have it equally bad in complementary ways.

(To be clear, while I believe trans people of any gender can be a victim of both misandry and misogyny, that is not to say that binary trans women aren't fully women or that binary trans men aren't fully men. They are, but the people who hate them don't think that. If someone thinks you're a man and they hate men then they're going to be misandrist to you regardless of what your gender really is. It's like how anti-Sikh violence in the US is a result of Islamophobia despite Sikhs not actually being Muslim.)

Being a movement for women's rights and not men's rights (except for the few times when it can be twisted into the patriarchy backfiring explaination) feminism has over the decades done a lot of things to reduce the oppressive gender roles that marginalize women. I think that's great! I just don't think it's enough. We need an analogous movement that fights for men's rights and frees them from the oppressive gender roles society puts upon them.

Time to unpin the asterisk in the claim that "some feminists are for gender equality". I think that the patriarchy concept is misandrist. It is an obstruction to fully supporting men's rights. The feminists who do believe in gender equality end up devising some convoluted way to explain why a thing that disadvantages men is actually the patriarchy backfiring before they can decide that it's worthy of addressing. I would rather take Occam's Razor to it. Another issue with the patriarchy concept is that if a men's rights issue can't be explained by the patriarchy then it's dismissed as not important or not real. Also "the patriarchy backfiring" is often used as a thought-terminating cliche. If we focus exclusively on women's issues then all men's issues will be fixed because they're all secretly things that hurt women more. It ends up getting real victim-blaming real fast.

That said, I don't think all feminists hate men. (Though some feminists definitely do hate men. I know because I was one.) We live in a misandrist society (bottom text). While most feminists don't care about men's issues in the slightest, feminists are no more likely to hate men than anyone else from what I've seen. I don't think the feminists who do care about men's issues are misandrist, just that the one specific belief in the patriarchy concept is misandrist. There are certain ways that misandry manifests that is unique to feminism, but other ways that feminists generally avoid. If you want to talk about the real misandrist fucks, look no further than conservatives.

One could make an argument that because feminists claim to be fighting for gender equality, we should hold them to a higher standard than the rest of misandrist society. Imo it's leftist in-fighting. We need to build coalitions with people we don't 100% agree with. I consider anyone who supports both men's rights and women's rights my ally. That includes the feminists who do so even though they believe in the patriarchy concept. That also includes left wing antifeminists even though I don't personally consider myself an antifeminist.

On structural misandry

If I went into depth about examples of structural misandry and why they're not just the patriarchy backfiring, this post would be twice as long (leftist wall of text amirite). If y'all really care, then I can make a follow-up post. If Tumblr search wasn't absolute ass, you'd be able to search my blog for the misandry tag and see a little bit of what I'm talking about.

TLDR

I'm not a feminist because to be a feminist one must believe in the patriarchy and I don't. The patriarchy concept does not adequately explain all structural misandry. I identify as an egalitarian instead. I think that misandry, misogyny, and transphobia are all a result of restrictive gender roles that hurt everybody.

#Feminism #Non-feminism #TERFs #Transphobia tw #Patriarchy #Misogyny #Misandry #Egalitarianism #Gender equality #rape mention

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pkmn-nextgenadventures · 10 months

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regarding volo

I wrote most of this out in like, spring 2022 when I was still reeling from the Legends Arceus playthough and then just. Forgot to post it. But I feel like it’s about time I gave some context to the whole “Volo exists in the modern day and might be involved in the next gen plot” thing I keep not-so-subtly hinting at so... more info under the cut since this might get long!

The brief TL;DR regarding modern day Volo is that he’s essentially a Faller. After the events of the game plot, Rei/Lucas (the “canon” PLA protag in this timeline) slowly starts remembering details of his life back in future Sinnoh. He becomes depressed and incredibly homesick, to the point of desperately trying to come up with a plan to try and return to his original timeline. Eventually, he opens up about it to Ingo, who’s been experiencing something similar. They manage to piece together enough information to realise they came from the same timeline, and decide to team up to make it back there.

Volo ends up involved in this plan, as Lucas manages to track him down and persuade him to help them get back home, due to his knowledge and because he was the one who originally opened the spacetime rift. Although things are still frosty between them after the events at Spear Pillar, Volo agrees, in part because he initially thinks, well, maybe he’ll get something out of it on his end and at least those pesky sky-fallers will finally be out of his way if they leave Hisui… but in the midst of all this he ends up getting transported through space and time as well, winding up in the present day.

Separated from the others in the rift, Volo wakes up alone on a beach in the Alola region, having lost his Pokémon and most of his memories along the way. He’s briefly taken in and interviewed by Interpol’s UB task force and Aether Foundation, but Fallers from timelines as far-flung as Hisui are pretty much unheard of, and nobody’s quite sure what to do with a guy speaking in what sounds like an archaic Sinnohan or Johtonian dialect. However, Gladion gives him one of the Type:Null being cared for at the facility, as Volo currently has no Pokémon of his own and shows a fascination with the creatures for reasons he can’t explain.

As a Faller, Volo retains his interest in history and myths, and some snippets of lore that feel important for reasons he doesn’t understand. He also remembers he was some kind of merchant before, so he just… keeps doing that, travelling from place to place collecting and trading rare items and unusual artefacts, as well as studying whatever interesting historical sites he comes across on his journey. He’s a bit of an aimless drifter, travelling from place to place without staying anywhere long or getting to know many people too closely; he does make a few friends, but tends to be seen as a somewhat lonely, mysterious figure who never talks about himself much. Occasionally people will tell him he looks like the Champion of Sinnoh and ask if he’s her brother or something, but that doesn’t mean much to him… the name “Sinnoh” does ring a bell though, maybe he’ll have to pay the region a visit sometime…

I could probably say more about Volo (in terms of his true motivations in my PLA storyline, whether his “accidental” spacetime journey was really 100% an accident, where he originally came from/whether Hisui was even his original timeline, how whatever spacetime rift he, Lucas and Ingo fell through might have something to do with the next gen plot shenanigans I never talk about, and his relationships with other characters/how he factors into the next gen plot overall) but a lot of that is still WIP so I will save it for a future post… although if anyone wants to send me asks nagging me to talk more about it perhaps I will oblige :)))

#two things i want to make clear though #one - he is NOT a villain in the next gen plot we are not doing that here!!! faller volo is Complicated but ultimately not really a bad guy #two - he WILL return to sinnoh and get to know his descendants/surviving family #he's just lena's weird uncle who writes books about mythology :))#/#loreposting #volo #sinnoh #hisui #??#idk how to tag posts like this because i just never fucking post them usually

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writing-plurals · 2 years

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Hello, I just found this blog through a friend. I've crafted a story and I wanted to know if it was problematic or not, since I'm not plural and all I know is based around research on YouTube channels, plural friends, Google and basic human respect lol

So, essentially, it's sort of a play on DID in horror where, instead of being the monster, the characters are the paranormal investigators instead. I was thinking about making the narration happen through a diary, which would make the story epistolary like Dracula, because I heard that keeping a diary is a common thing amongst plurals and plus, since I planned these characters to live in the 19th century, they don't exactly have the best psychiatry in the world and are doing what they can to keep communication flowing. I don't have much planned about how the plot unravels, but I thought a lot about how and why some alters exist in this system, and as for now there are: 1) an archangel, because of religious trauma and the need to have a guardian, 2) a housewife, because parental issues, 3) a trying-to-be-protector-still-somewhat-persecutor alter who doesn't get along that well with the archangel because of his role in the system in the past, 4) a little that stays around the housewife and mostly stays away from the paranormal activities, 5) a factive of the system's first dog and it usually stays alert and shows up during emergencies. I also intended them to be low empathy, but still help the people around them, which is one of the reasons why they started with the paranormal investigation business.

Plus, I wanted the horror part of the story to be somewhat of a metaphor for trauma and generational trauma, so the plan was to have them slowly letting go of what they can not control (aka ghosts, entities and stuff) and also them getting a family. Don't worry, they're good parents, they're just really confused about this whole parenting world since they never had someone around them so they do have some moments where they don't know how to feel about this newfound responsibility/lets the child do whatever they want.

I guess I wanted to know if this would be problematic or disrespectful, since it all started as a "wouldn't it be funny if plural people were the heroes in horror stories for once" and I don't know how everyone feels about this? I talked to three systems about this and they seem to be fine with this story, and one of them even said that it was alright as it "makes fun" of the trope instead of agreeing with it, but I wanted to ask to more people that live with this just so I know the ratio? I don't know

Hi anon!

Before I inevitably go off on some kind of wicked tangent, I'm just going to say: concept? good stuff. I don't personally see anything wrong with what you've written here, but keep in mind I can't speak for the ENTIRE community here. We are just one DID system, but nothing here is inherently offensive or off-putting, and you can quote me on that.

I am not entirely sure what you meant in the third paragraph, where "they are good parents..." and such, so I will skip over that for now. An example case for this part would shed a lot of light on the subject.

Now, it's a GOOD thing for a pwDID to be the main protagonist of a media like this. It's good representation after all. With that in mind, make sure you do your research, you talk to systems, and all that. Make sure there is separation between the trauma the character has experienced and the trauma the character will inevitably face during the story— it's horror after all— and any other ideas that you might want to introduce. Bonus points if you can manage to describe dissociation in a meaningful and relatable manner.

Sorry for taking so long to write this. I'm actually one of the new mods, and the original admin of this blog had things they were doing, so it took a bit to get to. If you're still around, Anon, feel free to send in more asks to elaborate on how your story concept's going. We'd love to hear about it.

-Mod birdie

#long post #writing plural characters #plural representation #// mod birdie

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planet4546b · 2 years

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bennieeee new question for u. how would u describe the s/n cast but only using tvtropes. u can use as many tropes as u want and explain why u picked them but ur not allowed to add caveats <3

you are so cruel to me no caveats......i love caveats :(( but also how are there so many tropes in the world. like there are so many

sam gets fish out of temporal water (shes from directly after the resonance and is completely unfamiliar with the 200yr post resonance world, shes out of time in a very fun way), motivational lie (sam tells the other three from the start theyre trying to stop the end of the world and she also is very aware that its. not that possible. and does a LOT of just talking Around the issue to keep everyone motivated and with her), i did what i had to do (god i was gonna just say late game sam because its HUGEEEE post jackie and post ekp sam, but shes actually kind of like this from the start. her leaving her tower does kill tons of people and shes like well it was necessary. bestie??), jumping off the slippery slope (ekp sammieeeeee. she said you know what fuck it!), despair event horizon (she spends the last 1/2 or so of the story knowing full well shes on a doomed quest and not making it out) and a toned down version of mad oracle

jackie gets the poorly choosen one (this is essentially their whole backstory, their original universe made a Bad choice. oops), against the grain (oooooo they want not to be influenced by fate SO BAD. oooooo they want to make decisions outside of the existing narrative SO BAD.), obvious judas (jackie is so obviously a weirdo at the very least from the first time sam finds them wandering in a random forest covered in blood. constantly making it very clear theyre gonna do something terrible eventually), and spanner in the works (sam has this shit PLANNED OUT and jackie is in the background saying 'quit your job. join my emo band' at all times. does work in a comedy setting sometimes, which pairs with the previous one in a funny way because its like ok theyre CLEARLY up to something. but also are they just an idiot??)

emily has honor before reason (she can be incredibly stubborn about a perceived moral code thats often hard to parse but is clearly important to her. this also more often than not comes up in interpersonal relationships - she trusts people like sam and mel even after they do sort of horrible things because of this set of morals), ignored epiphany (happens a handful of times, she realizes that what theyre doing is maybe. not helping? a little before everyone else and keeps quiet about it, she has a parallel moment of clarity on the final journey that she does tryyyy to talk to sam about, it just doesnt go well), we used to be friends (for her and mel specifically, she gets this one instead of mel because thats just sort of how their weird unbalanced relationship shakes out. thats where the guilt is) and stranger in a familiar land (endgame emily :) )

mel has wide eyed idealist (this is a character trait she buries under several other layers and even she refuses to acknowledge it, but for fucks sake. someone she didnt know walked up to her and was like hey you can save the world maybe i guess and she was like yeah sure), jumped at the call (directly related to prev) which over the course of the story pivots to jade colored glasses (beginning of act 3 mel is kinda nasty. theres also a direct parallel between these two when sam comes back post act 2 and asks them to follow her again and shes like no i learned my lesson fuck off) and must make amends (endgame mel :) also a lot of act 3 mel but :) )

also, some assorted random ones: exemplar is mysterious watcher for most of the story, cynosure is self fulfilling prophecy, samira and em are the one that got away, em and mels beef is a lot of grey and gray morality, and grace is walking the earth!!!!

thank you as always muah muah muah

#asks #luna #signal to noise #i know im often late to reply but this one may be the worst yet im incredibly sorry hgdljags #its a really delightful question and SUPER fun to think about i just took a WHILE figuring out how to navigate that website lmao #a fun fact about me is i am scared to use search bars on websites. yes this is often a huge nuisance. i have no idea why

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whatsupzombie · 2 years

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what if! i post art to tumblr again? :o this is Hazard-13, my guardian from destiny 2, so i guess this is technically fanart? pff. anyway, @artnyarn asked me to tell her about them, so i guess i’m doing that hereeee.

there’s. a lot to talk about with destiny. but to start, Hazard-13 is an exo, which is the robot race in destiny. they were all once people who had a snapshot of their brains taken (a fatal process for the body) and uploaded into a metal chassis. the process was created by, tbh kind of a mad scientist some 600 years before game canon time, and afaik, the only exos left in the world are either those still functional since then (the process was meant to make people immortal, after all) or those raised as guardians.

guardians are the pcs of destiny. they are people (human, exo, or awoken, which is sometimes described as “neo-human”) who were raised by ghosts, the lil flying robot talking to Hazard. they’re generally shaped like this:

Hazard’s ghost is called Crowley and he’s got a little paper bat hat. the ghosts are lil machines created by the Traveler, which is a giant orb and may or may not be a god. it terraformed nearly every planet and moon in the solar system, allowing humanity to spread out and technology to advance wildly quickly.

the Traveler is currently hovering over the Last City, named so because it’s essentially where most of civilization on earth has gathered, under the Traveler’s protection. now. the Traveler uses/has/is made of (???) Light, which the ghosts use to find and raise their guardians. guardians weaponize Light to fight enemies with, basically, magic abilities (and also guns pff). the story is also moving less toward light is good and dark is bad, so guardians are now also making use of Darkness, which is neat.

anyhow, when a ghost raises a guardian to fight for the Traveler, that guardian is from then on effectively immortal, able to be revived by their ghost whenever they die. guardians end up forming very close bonds with their ghosts, and it goes both ways.

oh also! when guardians are raised, they don’t have any memories. the idea is kind of that being raised is a fresh start. tho, there are both ghosts and guardians that go rogue, so it does mean that anyone is incorruptible.

without getting too deep into that point, exos have numbers after their names to show how many times they’ve been reset. literally. there’s various reasons for resets, the main reason being that existing in a metal body is hard on the mind and exo would sometimes start to lose their minds. there are a multitude of reasons, but the first iteration of an exo is always Name-1. so Hazard has been reset 12 times before they were raised.

no one in current game canon has full access to the workings of exos (that mad scientist guy definitely died 600 years ago and took most of his work with him), so they’re pretty mysterious.

guardians are also forbidden from looking into who they used to be, based on the premise that they were raised to be given a second chance, so it no longer matters who they used to be. this is obvs frustrating, and hazard occasionally gets annoyed with how many mysteries plague their existence.

onto the magic part! Hazard is a warlock class guardian, so that means they’re abilities look more like what you would expect magic attacks to look like (mystical floating, summoning fire, that kind of thing). Hazard uses a lot of solar abilities, so that’s a lot of fire damage. those glowing gauntlets they have are called sunbracers, and they amplify their solar power.

there’s. a lot. that goes on in destiny, but Hazard themself is kind of aloof and annoyed most of the time. they like hanging out alone with Crowley, or with a few close friends. they don’t mind the chaos of the world so much, but the repeated deaths and mysteries do wear on them from time to time. and, there’s rarely a time they’ll turn down a request for help, even if they sound annoyed they whole time.

this is very long!!! tbh, it’s interesting to have a character with no actual backstory, so most of their story is the plot of the game or what they’re reactions would be.

#zombie draw #destiny 2

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anddreadful · 1 year

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claire's D&D campaigns

If i'm gonna be more active on tumblr for anything, it should be to talk about my D&D characters/ campaigns (the main thing I use twitter for anyway). So! An intro post! ft. my art

A World Torn

[Homebrew] WT is 2+ years deep and immensely complicated at this point, but the main conceit of the worldbuilding is that the material plane is unstable, and dangerous rifts to other planes will often open. Our main quest has been to collect essences from different planes (by defeating bosses on/ from them) in order to free a trapped god who will allegedly fix things.

My PC: Tailor, a cranky and deeply traumatized mid-30s weirdo hermit-slash-tinkerker (-slash onetime actual tailor). Fighter (gunslinger)/ rogue multiclass

Their backstory: 15ish years ago, Tailor (real name Silas, he goes by Tailor for reasons) co-founded what became a terrorist faction with his then-boyfriend and certified Hot Evil Wizard, Chess. Tailor invented guns for their group to use against enemy mages, but eventually dumped Chess for being evil, left the group and the city, and attempted redemption via essentially a whole second unrelated backstory which also ended terribly. Then he had a ten year depressive episode in a house in the woods somewhere and has only recently emerged to try to set his various fuckups right.

In the campaign: His new party members/ friends have been extremely good for him; he has a surrogate parental relationship with the young bard and our cleric has bullied him into some degree of emotional self-awareness. The party returned to the city and dunked on Chess to a sufficient degree that he's now our pet domesticated former villain and he and Tailor are tentatively back together. He's also reunited with a beloved friend from the second part of his backstory and is grappling with the effects their journey had on her. Our next quest arc is a fae masquerade ball ft. an assassination attempt against a pretender queen. Oh, also, he's got a ton of corruption magic going on that link him to a demon we need to kill. Sexy stuff!

Curse of Strahd

[Module] [BROAD COS SPOILERS] The base COS plot is that the party gets sucked from the standard high fantasy adventureland into Barovia, a claustrophobic demiplane of gothic horror bullshit ruled by store-brand Dracula Strahd von Zarovich. If you want to get out-- or just make living in Barovia a less miserable existence-- you have to kill him. We're nearly 2 years in (approaching the final phase of the adventure) on this one too!

My PC: Theodora/ Teddy, a lonely orphaned artificer and runaway ex-soldier in her early 20s

Their backstory: One of Teddy's inventions went south on the battlefield and literally blew up in her face, leaving her with gnarly black scarring (since healed) and an all-black eyeball. It also killed a bunch of people. So she ran away and had been taking refuge in a temple for a few months when a paladin and a druid walked in and started talking about forming a search party to look for missing kids in the woods...

We learned as the campaign progressed that Teddy is actually from Barovia originally, and was smuggled out as a baby because of a prophesy that Strahd would become obsessed with her. This has turned out to be because she's the latest reincarnation of a woman who dumped him a thousand years ago, hello vampire reincarnation romance bullshit

(she is also romancing Borakov, the party paladin)

In the campaign: the Teddy/ Strahd romance arc, due to obvious "we are actively plotting to kill him" reasons, came down to an ultimatum marriage proposal. Teddy sincerely accepted (and got laid, good for her), but just before the wedding, the party got the pieces of Strahd backstory they'd been missing, revealing that Strahd had lied about his relationship with Teddy's predecessor and her death. So Teddy left Strahd at the altar, hooked up with Borakov, and is now determined to either kill Strahd or disrupt the curse that keeps reincarnating her back into his grasp. Strahd, after failing to get her back, pivoted into "I'M TOTALLY OVER HER ANYWAY" and is trying to kill us all now. rip. it was fun while it lasted.

Overall, Teddy is Doing Bad. The curse means she's likely to die soon anyway, her relationship with a Dark PowerTM might be turning her into a monster, Borakov is doomed and also turning into an angel?, everyone in Barovia hates her, and her vampire boyfriend turned out to be trash. Barovia might be saved, but Teddy probably won't be.

Unearthed Remnants

[Homebrew] UR is new, but it's the first campaign in an original setting my fiance has been working on for ages called Vasara. ~1,600 years ago, in the midst of a massive war, the land cracked into pieces in a cataclysmic event called the Rend that banished magic from the world and left deep rifts in the continent that monsters tend to crawl out of. Civilization has built itself back up using technology rather than relying on magic, and though magic has slowly begun returning in the last few hundred years, it's considered dangerous and, at least in the main human kingdom, is highly regulated.

My PC: Aster, an outspoken tiefling grad student-turned-warlock. She has my best attempt at a slavic accent.

Their backstory: Aster is a nepo baby working in the historical archives in the capitol city of her kingdom. Her grandpa is on the board or something, and her parents are some of the kingdom's foremost archeologists excavating pre-Rend ruins. Aster carries on the family passion for history and is an insufferable, arrogant nerd about it. Recently she found a very strange book recovered from a ruin, and it talked to her, and maybe she wrote her name in it and did a magic ritual that required her to bleed out all over a ritual circle, and Oops! All Warlock (pact of the tome, natch)

In the campaign: At the book's behest, she traveled (*was yeeted) to a nearby farming town where she met a secretive human paladin named Clay and a friendly amnesiac pre-rend relic warforged named Sev. Investigating a strange explosion nearby, they stumbled onto an untouched pre-rend ruin with some truly wild magical shit going on that will definitely have consequences, but for now, they're headed back to the city. Clay and Aster both adore Sev but are at odds with each other-- he's basically a fantasy cop (unbeknownst to Aster, he's actually being trained by a secret mage-hunting paladin order), and she's got brand-new, super illegal, likely volatile magic she's figuring out on the fly that he clearly does not approve of. Aster's bringing "try to arrest me, I fucking dare you" energy.

#D&D #dungeons and dragons #5e #anddreadful art #unearthed remnants #curse of strahd #world torn

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havenpelt · 2 years

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