#The story is already written

[characteroulette]

Link is a conduit.

I love Link a lot. He's probably my favourite silent protagonist ever in every form he exists in.

But Link is simply a conduit.

Every action taken by Link is your own decision. You, the player, are using Link to your own ends.

Just as the plot uses him.

Just at the legends are using him.

(it must be tiring, to have no other choice than to allow yourself to be channeled by a hand not your own. It must be exhausting, to know that when you wake and have no control over your own body, that destruction is coming and there is nothing you can do but observe it all unravel around you.)

Link is a conduit.

But he has to fulfill his task. It's what the story demands.

#Tloz #The legend of zelda #Link #Momo writes stuff #Thanks Verse for putting this thought into my head #With that one AA fic you wrote #The inherent tragedy lies in the story of course #But it also lies in how there's nothing you can do to stop it #The story is already written #The story must play out #It is the same every single time #All you can do is watch it unfold #All you can do is hope your player will follow the path #(all you can hope is that the player will LEAVE)

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

#i literally JUST finished hill house a few days ago and i already want to reread. Badly. it's sooo so so soo sooooooooo good <33333!!!!! #also completely enamored by shirley jackson's writing style i NEED to read everything she has written ever like right now.. #opening lines of ALL TIME btw 👆❗❗❗ #r.txt #the haunting of hill house #ALSO i've seen commentary videos on the tv show they made of hill house but from what i remember of it it's SO different from the book??? #i think they were all siblings in the show which is??????? like why would you change that part?? i love sibling relationships as much as the #next guy but i feel like the fact that none of them knew each other was such an essential part of the story like why would u change it.... #also eleanor was like. an entirely different character who was also already dead in the show i believe??? and dr. montague doesn't exist?? #hill house could've been really good as a show idk why they changed it up like that...like was the original story not interesting enough for #you or something?? WHO decided to make that change i just wanna talk 🤨

[numbuh424]

I just love it when death note adaptations get meta. When they point out that this story has already been told before. Deep down, L and Light know they're bound to their roles, that they've done this all before, and that this story can only and will only ever go one way for them.

#death note #death note musical #death note drama #death note jdrama #light yagami #L lawliet #in the musical it works as light 'writing' their game to an end while also meaning their story already has a pre-written end #I know this is mostly the musical but “this is the only way we could have met” was such an atom bomb of a line from the jdrama #if they do this in any other adaptation too please let me know #I've watched a bunch of them but the musical and jdrama are my favorites so they're on my mind all the time I might be biased #musical and jdrama supremacy sorry (not really sorry)

[squirrelno2]

All right so I haven't been active in the Julie and the Phantoms fandom in a long time, and although I know there are definitely still people creating and reblogging in the fandom it tends to be a much smaller handful of people than it used to, which for me felt disheartening and was part of why I've backed off from it. I'd love to see new stuff more regularly and start recirculating older things just to remind myself and anyone else who needs it how much I love this silly little show.

All this to say, I am putting out feelers to see if anyone is interested in a blog that runs consistent, casual event-type things for the fandom to try and revitalize interest in jatp fanworks, like featured weeks for individual characters here, fic rec events, etc. I'm toying with ideas to inspire people to pick up their wips, spark new stories, and highlight older content that didn’t get much attention or would just be nice to see again. I’d like to create a community space to liven the fandom back up for people who miss the show or got into the fandom after the hype died down. Does that seem interesting to anyone?

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #I'm filled with both hubris and resolve and I feel like. with other people modding the blog as well. this would be doable #i already have a LOT of ideas about wip events to get stories written that have been sitting untouched i know i'm not the only one w/h thos #so i guess if that sounds good to you interact with this in some way? and if you're interested in being involved/have ideas #please share! if it's just me on a reblog spree it won't work but if we all pitch in to talk to each other #(and i know. if you know me you know i'm not always great at that. but having a Format for it makes me good at it so)

[intermundia]

the most amusing and heartbreaking aspect of obi-wan and anakin's relationship throughout the movies, shows, books, and comics is the perpetual vacillation between harmony and discord, praise and blame. they're always coming together with strong eye contact and affection and then breaking apart and arguing, this perpetual dance of pulling together and pushing away, never completely connecting when close but also always returning back together when ruptured apart. their relationship is such a strong bond (an attachment on both sides) but also so fraught with tension and friction, like there are enormous lies that anakin keeps from obi-wan (and obi-wan can sense the dishonesty), and so much masking from obi-wan about the true depth of his feelings (and anakin can't read him). these kind of misunderstandings they have will prove lethal, but they are also capable of such deep understanding. they are so similar, on such a wavelength, as partners capable of incredible things together, two halves of a whole. all of this in canon is entirely platonic, but it's still a messy relationship that breaks categories, like they're brothers but obi-wan is also a father, they're best friends but obi-wan is also a superior officer, they became men together, but obi-wan is also a teacher and guide. it's unstable but also long-enduring as love and hate for the entirety of both of their lives, with their identities formed in relation to each other and dependent on each other (anakin and obi-wan died together on mustafar, vader and ben were born). when vader kills ben, yoda can feel his pain and loneliness across the galaxy, when yet when obi-wan catches anakin in the afterlife and makes him a force ghost by his side it is perfectly understandable. they maim each other, kill each other, complete and compel each other. it's got to be one of the relationships of all time.

#luke's father but broken in the good and the bad halves #the rampant homoeroticism is just like an extra layer of an already insane relationship #greatest love story ever written by accident #obi-wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #obikin #sw #having a real one this morning lmao don't mind me

[frojdh-art]

”Then again, he was a pirate, and not only that, but a captain. And he was a lot older than her. This was probably all par for the course for him—a new port, and a new girl smitten out of her wits. It wasn't like he was oblivious to the effect he had on people.”

Inspired by @missmungoe’s story Heed the Siren's Call

#one piece #opfanart #shanks x makino #red haired shanks #akagami no shanks #haven’t read this one in ages #so glad I revisited this story #it’s a masterpiece #do check it out if you haven’t already #it’s not a direct take from the story #but I kept seeing this image in my head after reading this part #him confident and flirty #with a hint of uncertainty #and Makino a bit more reserved and observant #kudos to the writer 🍷 #a story so well written that you can read it over and over again #sorry for the ramble #😅 #just go read it

[ask-maddy-and-co]

- ?? -

((Little bit ahead of where the blog was at, but I might as well post it now rather than any more time later, it was drawn during last year's blog anniversary.))

#intermission post #celeste #celeste game #madeline celeste #badeline #theo celeste #its a very cute comic i still like it #but i dont want to redraw it #im on another another hyperfixation so i think im gonna give up and say yeah it has been a hiatus #but i think ill still be drawing celeste in the future because it is comfortable #I do have the end of the 'story' written out #if i havent said before #but no motivation to draw it at all over [current hyperfixation] #I MIGHT finish up the wips i have here already #like this one

[doodlefox2]

my ocs, if u guys care

#oc #original character #original #i hope to draw them more!! #i actually have a whole story written out for them already #will slowly reveal in the future #leila #mirri #leila/mirri #doodles

[aegagrusscholarship]

familiarity, the lack thereof, and the only way it could have ended.

the thing is, ultrakill is a very diegetic game. near everything, from the style meter to the bottomless arsenal to the shitass graphics themselves, are explained in some way by some in-universe fact.

so, what with violence and the implication that V1 was designed to counter earthmovers

what with 7-4 and the fact that it is a culmination of this implication

i wonder. when V1 looked up at that earthmover, did it know, with whatever passes for instinct in a machine, exactly what to do? and if it did, then, how is this conveyed to the player?

diegetic as the game is, how does it engineer a situation in which the player, themselves, knows exactly what they have to do?

the biggest factor, i think, is the fact that the earthmover's health bar appears the moment you lay eyes (or camera, or whatever) on it, and it does not leave until you have finally killed this colossus.

but this factor is much more subtle than it appears at first glance. yes, big honkin' boss healthbar on screen for the entire level, what more to it. there's a good deal more, it turns out.

first off- this is the shortest leadup by far to any bossfight in the game. you slide through a single vent, and you are greeted with benjamin right out in the open. even P-1, devoid of any other hazards as it is, gives you a long trek down the spinal staircase before you reach the flesh prison. 7-4 has none of it. you enter the level, you enter the stage, and there you have it. you know exactly what you are up against right from the outset, and it's not quite a feeling of familiarity but it tells you exactly what you have to do. which is the point of this all, isn't it?

7-4 is also... not a bossfight! it is a full level! it is a full level framed as a bossfight. the health bar frames this full complete level as a bossfight.

and on one hand, this is not new news. on the other hand, i think this is the crux of it. the thing is, most bossfights are near-to-entirely new. you do not know how the boss acts. you do not know their attack patterns. you do not know their capabilities. you are learning something new. levels, though, you have done a thousand times over and so the player knows how they need to play through this bossfight in a way that is not quite present with any other boss in the game.

the content of the level is new, of course, because that's how it goes. but you know the motions. you have done this for two acts prior, you know the motions. you know exactly what to do.

also! this level does not exist in a vacuum. what i am saying is this: the rest of violence layer shifts its storytelling and its tone and even its graphics. it is something completely new in contrast to the rest of the game. 7-4, though, returns to environments and graphics more akin to what you have experienced before, bringing you back to familiarity and again knowing what to do here in a way the rest of violence hasn't let the player experience.

one more thing about this level: it plays directly into expectations. which is something that the rest of the game actually does not tend to do.

the game, at base, is just not a typical FPS. it gives you movement like a roguelite or a platformer, it takes guns you expect to know the mechanics of and goes utterly wild with how far the archetype can be changed.

in a smaller scope, here is a comparison of the earthmover and the corpse of king minos as two separate colossal bosses foreshadowed in similar ways. and i mean, minos's bossfight isn't unprecedented in other works. but i think the thing that matters here is that you are not, in fact, the underdog as is the case with so many other bosses of its ilk. riven of many voices, destiny 2, similar bossfight similar scale. you are hiding from her you are a fireteam of many you are triumphing over a dragon larger than life. project gestalt, madness project nexus, you are pulling out every stop you can to take down something so far over your head (both literally and metaphorically). corpse of king minos- V1 looks up, stands its ground, and parries his god damn fist.

and the thing is, the earthmover plays into a different expectation, but it's playing into an expectation nonetheless. you look at this thing and you climb it and you dismantle it from within, like you have done in many games prior. you know what your goal is from the moment you see that healthbar and you hook onto the conspicuously placed hookpoints that tell you- you will climb this machine; you will fight your way up to whatever its core is and you will kill it. you play through the entire level with this expectation and you get exactly this expectation. you destroy its core and it begins a countdown, and so very many games have countdowns before the collapse of whatever level you have just beaten, and you know exactly what you have to do.

i don't know. i love diegetic storytelling. i love this level.

it's just familiarity, i think. this level runs off familiarity. it gives you, the player, things and tropes and designs you are familiar with. it signals to you that you should know what to do, and it lets you do exactly what you expect to do.

if i were any more cheesy i could absolutely end this by restating something about the only way it could've ended, but uh. i am not that cheesy. this time.

aw crud now i don't know how to end this oh well goodbye then

#ultrakill #ultrakill spoilers #idk dude i just saw someone say like. 'when v1 saw the earthmover do you think it knew what to do in a way itd never experienced before' #and i was like 'hmmmm ultrakill is a game that justifies a LOT of its story decisions in gameplay' #'i sure wonder how this one mighta been conveyed to the player' #and then i experienced a category 5 autism event in one of my friends' dms. thanks pory youre a real one #for listening to my giant fucking ramble while i was walkin down from the train station LMFAO #......also fuck i hope no one has written this before i amso sorry if i am just rehashing someone elses already written thoughts fffffuck.

[sunny12th]

dany was so broken in agot, physically and mentally. she was ready to kill herself to escape drogo. her childhood had been a long unfortunate series of running away from the alleged monsters that killed her family and left her exiled and desperately trying to appease her abusive brother/guardian.

but then, after she's resolved herself to suicide, she has a dream. and then, she starts to notice the beauty in the new world around her. how the dothraki grass sea swallowed her up, the new sights and sounds and smells all around. she found solace in the people, she ate with them, learned their language in a matter of months, enjoyed their food. felt freer in dothraki riding clothes than in the fine silks ilyrio had dressed her up in.

I'm still deeply touched everytime I read about dany giggling, joking around, moving forward, hugging her friends, leading, and fighting after enduring so much. it's not about her being right in everything she does or everything ending well for her. she went through hell, was already going through it before the series even started, and she kept going. she grows and fights and fucks and laughs and cries and rages. she falls and she gets right back up again.

dany is ready to end her own life. the next day, she notices how pretty the sky is. she learns a few more dothraki words everyday and starts to connect more with those around her. she tries some new foods and starts to feel more comfortable on her horse.

the dragon dream certainly did Something to dany - a scarlet and black dragon (drogon, balerion come again) baptizing her in flame. scouring her, tempering her, making her clean. after this, dany makes the quiet choice to live. there is no grand revelation, no "i want to live!" monologue. she simply starts to notice the beauty in the world she's traveling through, the loyalty and easy comradery in her companions, the tasty food and comfortable clothes. dothraki smells, horse smells. riding leather, painted vests, the gently singing bells braided through hair. dany chooses life everytime she giggles, everytime she tries a new food or convinces her friends to try one, everytime she stops to stare at a pretty sight.

she was ready to choose death and she chose life. when her entire world had narrowed to the scope of her pain, to the strength of her abusers, to the golden collar drogo had put around her neck - she still chose life. and just like that, her world expanded and she could see all that was worth living for.

#i dont see the fandom talk about this much. how dany was ready to kill herself and then chose life #in a story where choosing life - to live and fight is kinda the whole point #dany already did that! she already chose life #main character of all time. protag of all time #and then she just keeps choosing life. only this time it's not just for herself #her life is not just her own anymore. she chooses life for her people too #idk i just. love to see characters go thru absolute hell and then choose life anyways #mine #this is probably v badly written but i am exhausted and emotional #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #suicide mention

[spreadwardiard]

Hi my name is Ed and my favorite tfp trope is when orion pax and optimus are two entirely separate people with different motivations and desires. Whether they are housed together in the same frame or are entirely 2 separate mechs for whatever reason, i eat this trope up. Especially when theres megop in the mix omg.

#spreadwardiardthoughts #im like obsessed with this idea and have so many random thoughts on the whys and becauses #I wish i was able to actually write all these into full stories but my motivation js crap #like yes ive already written this trope a few times but like i got anothet one cooking in my brain too #megop #megaop #orion pax #optimus prime #tropes idk

[rhinocio]

NOW WITH PODFIC ACCOMPANIMENT!

#[sitting backwards in a chair] HELLO FELLOW KIDS CAN I INTEREST YOU IN A RISE USAGI WITH FLAVOUR #he's queer he's disabled he's written by a non-american #his story is chocked full of sick hidden city worldbuilding and a love for secondary characters #tokage are flying dragons #his sword does cool mystic shit #ANYWAY if you aren't already reading ela's work what are you DOING #I became so obsessed with it I started reading it aloud in bad accents and adding foley and music. viola podfic #ROTTMNT #TMNT #rottmnt fanfiction #usagi yuki #usagi yojimbo #yuichi usagi #leosagi #leoichi #ROTMRfic #RRCU #rhinociart #slutty nonsense hakama because. fashion #squinting at how this guy is drawn wow we've come a long way haven't we #yuki my darling beloved adopted special little son boy

[trensu]

Have an itty bitty tiny piece of stasis in darkness, just so you all have an idea of where the story is going after the godly reveal. and also have proof that i am, in fact, still toiling away at this (as well as hawkins halfway house.)

A week and a half later, Steve entered a town he’d never seen before. He wore simple traveling clothes and carried no weapons aside from a couple of carefully hidden knives. He’d left his armor and shield behind. His satchel held only the essentials one needed for travel and a single stone as large as his fist. The stone was wrapped in layers of cloth to keep it safe during the journey. 

I need you to find someone. 

He felt very bare but he hadn’t been given much of a choice. Speed was of the essence for his quest, and little no-name towns tended to be wary of strangers in plain clothes, even more so around strangers decked out for battle. Steve wasn’t sure this place could be called a town. It was so small it hadn’t been on any official map. It didn’t even have an inn. Hopefully, Steve wouldn’t be needing an inn once he found who he was looking for.

He’s too far from me to reach.

He asked around, laying on the charm generously. He explained he had been a friend of a friend and had been trusted to deliver something. Eventually, he was told where to go. The house he found far beyond the village’s boundary was small. It looked like it had once been well cared for but it was old and had fallen to disrepair. Steve took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A sallow old man opened the door. He was bald but had some scruff on his face still. His shoulders, stooped from age, trembled. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked so tired.

He’s my very last worshiper in all the world.

“Wayne Munson?” Steve asked.

“Who wants to know?” The man’s voice was phlegmy and rough. He coughed into the crook of his elbow almost before he could finish speaking. 

“I’m Steve. Ser Steve Harrington, pledged to the Lord of Night.”

Wayne’s eyes widened. His grip on the open door weakened and slipped. Steve caught the door before it could hit Wayne.

“He sent me to you,” Steve explained. “May I come in?”

yep, that's it for now. i told you it was small. i'm not even gonna bother with a read-more here.

#trensu tells stories #stasis in darkness #i technically have another 4.5k words written already #but it is very much still a rough draft #it's all clunky chunks of stone with all that i want to happen but has not been carved and smoothed out properly yet #also i have decided to include at least a couple of prayers #because i hate myself apparently and want to make myself suffer #a poet i am not #and i haven't stepped in a church or said prayers in literal decades #well #that's a lie #i did attend ONE mass in that time only because my mom asked me so she wouldn't have to go alone #the priest went off on the queers during his sermon and my mom never asked me to go with her again lol #so i remember none of the prayers #and even if i did #i learned all my prayers in spanish #i have no idea how they go in english #ughhhhhh why do i do these things to myself

[books4evermorr]

Wake up everybody

Another reason to live just dropped

#anything by her is always so good #but this especially sounds so so good!!?? #a standalone!!! #she said this is the most character driven story she has ever written #and I already know this is gonna break me #leigh bardugo #six of crows #soc #hell bent #ninth house #the familiar #my post

[inquisitor-apologist]

Out of all of the MANY missed opportunities and shit in the Ahsoka show, I think one of the biggest was not exploring the really unique time period that the galaxy is in at all.

Like, think about it. The Ahsoka series takes place in ~10 ABY. The Rebellion is gone. The Galactic Civil War is over. The New Republic has established itself. The last Imperial remnants have been driven all the way out into the Outer Rim. People are rebuilding. The First Order and Imperial resurgence is still pretty far off.

The galaxy in Ahsoka is about as peaceful as it ever gets in the main timeline. And they do nothing with it.

What does peace feel like for Ahsoka, who was forced to fight literally every war in the past ~35 years just for being force-sensitive? (Drafted into the Clone Wars, fighting for survival during the Imperial and Rebellion Years, probably returning to the fight in the Civil War because she’s one of the last Jedi/trained force-sensitives) How does she deal with not having a fight she needs to help with? How does she move on from an entire life of exhausting, terrifying war? How does she look at the Jedi coming back, knowing that they’ll never be the Order she chose to leave at 16? Does she want to come back, but not know how? Is she afraid of returning because she knows that there’s no one left to recognize her?

What about Hera, who dedicated her entire life to a war that’s won? The ongoing struggle that defined her childhood, her teenage years, the first two decades of her adulthood is… over. The Republic she fought for, the Republic she gave everything to restore, is restored. How does she adjust to serving in peace? Does the reality of the New Republic compare to the ideal she did it all for? How does she look back on a whole life as a soldier, knowing that it can be over now, if she wants it to be? Is she even able to accept that it’s over, or is she constantly looking for the next threat, the hidden, upcoming war?

And Sabine, who sacrificed her teenage years to the Rebellion, probably her 20s to the Civil War, how does she deal with living on a Lothal that’s long since moved past the need for a protector, in a galaxy that’s completely unrecognizable without a battle to fight? Does she look back at the Rebellion, the Rebels years, as the good old days? Does the rest of her life feel empty and dull without the constant rush of a desperate, uphill war? How does she reconcile a New Republic without Mandalore? How does she feel about the future she always envisioned missing the people she rebelled for in the first place?

But no, Felony was like: Ahsoka sad :( and unemotional bc Vader. Hera smart and 💯% justified about Thrawn. Everyone else just stupid and hates her. Sabine conflicted bc Not Jedi & misses Ezra. Whole family dead 💀 but let’s not focus on that.

Like, come on.

#haha besties no way totally not getting into an Ahsoka rewrite kick #haha just wiiiild speculation I don’t already have a character arc and early story half-written in my head no no of course not #star wars #rebels #star wars rebels #sw rebels #sabine wren #ahsoka show #ahsoka series #ahsoka tv #sw ahsoka #Ahsoka #ahsoka tano #hera syndulla #general hera syndulla #Ahsoka rewrite #is this the original post tag

[layzeal]

i absolutely eat it UP that one of the reasons wwx is so hesitant to believe lwj has feelings for him is that he can't tell if lwj treats him with so much goodness and kindness because he's simply that good of a person or if there's ~something more to it~

and!! here's what gets me: he's 100% right to question that. because from all we know, lan wangji would still have protected and done everything he did even if he wasn't in love with wwx. it all comes down to his beliefs, and standing up to them by protecting him. wwx is afraid to jump to conclusions because his fears are genuinely very well based!

#seriously take a shot everytime wwx muses about how good of a person lwj is #even at their worst moments wwx still held a tremendous amount of respect for him #he's under the belief that lwj is doing this not bc he's in love but because he believes in him #and he's not wrong! lwj's love isnt shown through the grand gestures! but through the small quiet ones #would lwj still protect wwx if he didn't have feelings for him? yes #would lwj have drank alcohol and eaten spicy food and kept the rabbits he gave him? nope #and wwx slowly comes to realize this!! it just takes him time and getting to know lwj better!!! #AND IT'S SO GOOD AUGHHHH i just love their love story #i love the grandiose acts among the many quiet ''i love you's'' #anyways y'all know it already but this is a ''wwx is oblivious to lwj's feelings'' hatehouse #he's not oblivious fandom just hates a well written slow-burn love story #modao #lace speaks