#because even if you DO see chara as a self insert then they are a self insert for EVERYONE. women men genderqueer people | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pupmkincake2000 · 2 months

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Funny how I keep getting comments like this

And it's not that it's harmful,it's that it's just not right whatsoever 💀 all your reasons for them being together are faulty and are things shared between friends aswell.

So, the dude called me and my ship weird while (and I'll keep saying it nonstop) HankCon is the most harmless ship in this fandom.

Okay, we are not saying that people can't ship whoever they want, are we? Especially in this particular fandom? In which most of the ships have no logic behind them at all, yet people are quite fine with those just because they fit into people's standards of beauty and how guy x guy ships have to look like, in their opinion.

So my questions are like those I've seen on twitter: "why do people find it so hard to be silent haters? like genuinely? why is it so hard to see something you don't like and think "ew weird" without feeling the need to tell the person who likes it that you think its weird/bad/gross/wrong ??"

And here's the answer: It's because they need to feel like they have the moral high ground. Actual virtue signalling. Ewww you like this, here's why you're wrong.

And nobody was able to give me an open answer why HankCon seems so offensive to them. And we do not talk about age gap here, it is too ridiculous to bring this up as an argument even. We are not talking anbout father & son issue because canon relationship is still friends, any father & son as well as romance are headcanons. So why those who like father & son are supported and those who love romance and fucking between the character are hated?

In a fandom (with no canon ships, except maybe Kara x Luther) where people literally ship characters with everyone they want?

Someone on twitter also said that the massive increase in self-insert, kinning etc. has created parasocial relationships with fictional charas. It's always happened but it's more now. Any perceived attack (moral or otherwise) on the chara equals an attack on that person's identity.

But I doubt that's the only issue. Although the theory has its place, given the general infantilization of Connor, which, however, is immediately forgotten when people need him to be an adult.

If haters are here to spread morality and justice, why aren't they doing it in other fandoms? After all, as I've mentioned before, there is the Rick and Morty fandom where people ship a grandpa and a grandson and I've never heard of people hating on this ship. Why these people are not among those discussing, for example, the laws of Japan, where a man over forty can marry a sixteen-year-old (correct me if I'm mistaken) if it is really an age gap that bothers the haters so much? But for some reason they chose as a victim a harmless pairing that does not harm anyone and is not even as popular as it was before? Or the goal is to errase it from the fandom spaces completely? If so, I'd suggest those to go outside and touch the grass.

#dbh hank #dbh rk800 #hank anderson #dbh connor #dbh #connor x hank #detroit: become human #hankcon #detroitbecomehuman #detroit become human #rk800 #rk800connor #connor rk800 #pumkin says

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prettyboykatsuki · 3 months

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would you be comfortable sharing your bg3 ocs with us? i LOVE hearing and seeing other peoples ocs so much it inspires me to make them too

u always write reader personalities so amazing so ik ur ocs are just as good <3

WAH. YES. THANK U FOR ASKING. a lot of my ocs start out as fun self-inserts and then become... Something else. for bg3 in particular i normally play as my insert so they have the same face HEKJSDKJ. but they are ocs and they look diff in my brain i just dont care to change the face

oh my good GOD this is so long im so sorry. i guess this is my intro post for them now.thank u for asking me.. i love you... humbly presenting my little guys

CW FOR IMPLICATIONS OF INCEST (?) sort of in nyx's story. its complicated!! other than that just canon typical angst + drug use.

i have two main charas i consider more oc than insert. THE FIRST ONE IS MY BELOVED DARLING GIRLTHING SOULIKHA

goes by soul in camp, mid/late twenties, she/they pronoun haver, true neutral alignment, istj + 5w4

motifs ; black oleander, darkness and shadow, bones but not blood / decay, teals and purples and blues.

close with marisol, lae'zel and wyll. thinks astarion is a little sad and gets annoyed at mystra trying to demand death of gale.

she is a cleric of kelemvor and sacrificial survivor of a myrkul death cult. she escaped nearly dying at the age of 7 bc kelemvor saved her from near death.

she is not from baldurs gate!! she is from the outskirts of omorath but after escaping she lives on the streets.

the second time kelemvor comes to get her (nearly died in an alley) she becomes a cleric and returns to the city. joins the tower of skulls in omorath and does most of her work taking care of the diseased and guiding people in the fugue plane.

a Doomguide and part of a doom clergy.

she is originally darker skinned / tan but turns grey using her powers. when she blushes she becomes her original color lol

she ends up closer to baldurs gate on pilgrimage. she meets marisol (lambs oc) her best friend there.

she is a cleric of kelemvor, the god or judge of death. she tends to wear like a plague doctor sort of uniform and is very attached to a necklace she has that she prays over!! in general she prefers to be covered because she normally is response for helping the diseased as well as the deceased.

always wearing gloves for the same reason ^ special gloves that she has with her even after the kidnapping on the ship.

her personality is very blunt 😭and straightforward but never mean. she is just super direct and a little clueless about social cues... VERY HONEST LOL.

her main story arc is around her parents! like i mentioned she is a cleric of kelemvor but she spent her childhood in a death cult. in act one she hears rumor of a tiefling couple who worshipped myrkul being seen kidnapped on the towers to moonrise. in act two, her major scene, you have the choice on whether or not to kill or rescue her parents.

soulikha as a character puts her duty as a cleric above all else, even herself. she never expresses her feelings, never complains, just does as she believes is of expected to her. it gives her identity. up until this point, it's very rare to see her break down. this is the first scene where she makes a decision for herself

she also believes part of her job is assuring the people suffering die with the dignity and honor they deserve. part of this is because of her upbringing.

she also believes admantly in people dying when they are supposed to. as a cleric of kelemvor with particular favor of her god, she can hear whispers and regrets of death. the shadowfell lands are hard on her.

her main romance partner is karlach

her main romance with karlach has to do with touch and intimacy.

soulikha normally has her face covered and her body so if she were an origin and romance companion chara they'd be surrounding them but in her story she is dating karlach

karlach is soulikhas first love. they are tragic to me. soulikha is constantly telling karlach it's not her time and they often talk about death. she has a line to karlach:

"i will be there. when your soul burns brightest in the fugue plane, i will lead you. till the end of your life and in mine. my hand will find you. you will know its me."

she is shorter than karlach a bit. their whole romance is soulikha saying over and over that she knows karlach is bound to die, and comforting her through that.

but after the actual end of the game, soulikha cries for the very first time and begs karlach to live. it's the first time she ever says the words "i want you to live.) very heartbreaking

their ending is opening. ultimately soulikha wants to stay with karlach. they promise each other to live. the ending varies depending on other stuff but YEAH.

her bad ending is letting herself become myrkuls new chosen so karlach can have her heart back. fucking AWFUL ending gkdjsd theyre so sad.

OKAY. NEXT. IS MY OC NYX SORRY ABOUT THIS MOUTAIN OF TEXT.

this is nyx! no last name, he/him pronouns preferred, any fine. neutral evil allignment, late twenties. entp + 7w8

close with astarion + minthara. fond of jaehira. thinks wyll is fun and likes karlach. neutral to shadowheart and halsin.

nyx is not from baldurs gate either, explicitly from the city of calimshan, in manshaka. son of a common whore, born in a pleasure house.

tiefling with the blood graz'zt. this is relevant later. fdkjsdk.

learns music from the musicians in the pleasure house. naturally gifted. starts composing his own music at ten when one of this mothers regular customers gifts him a cli' lyre, enchanted with magic

has a complicated relationship with his mother. his mother is a prostitute but also very addicted to drugs. she wasn't motherly and often made advances on him when he grew up into puberty. his only family. when she was coming down the high, he would play her music to fall asleep.

practiced a lot on his own, other musicians taught him other instruments. very talented. most of his music and songs were about his one true love, roxana

roxana was another child of the house. they grew up together. she wasn't particularly talented but she was soft, kind, and beautiful. they both knew she would end up staying in the house, but nyx did try to protect her from customers when they were both underage.

roxana is full blooded human. she has a tattoo of roses down her spine that nyx dedicated one of his songs too and got matching trellis tattoos for. his most popular song.

his composition reached far and wide and he was offered many times to leave the pleasure house to perform. but he loved roxana and she often begged to say with him - so he never went. for her he'd do pretty much anything.

spent most of their lives together as lovers. first kiss at 13, lost their virginity to each other at 16/17, when they are in their early 20's nyx saves up to propose.

nyx is betrayed by roxana, though nyx by default does not care if Rrxana were to take lovers.

because of nyx’s upbringing and roxana’s work, all nyx had ever asked Roxana for was to keep no secrets between them

(growing up, roxana was naturally meek and often was in dangerous situations. Both because of this and because of his mothers commentary after she’d invited him for sex (“let’s keep this a secret between us,”). nyx had asked Roxana to never keep things from him, if she could.)

roxana ultimately chooses another man over nyx, one she’d kept a secret. she’d told nyx that she couldn’t be with him anymore. That she wanted more from life, and that she would go with her new lover to see greater sights.

“I loved her. Beautiful like a rosebed. I was a fool, of course. Only a fool forgets that the first rule to pick roses is dethorning them, lest they make you bleed.”

nyx sets off for college the same night. packs his belongings, says by to the pleasure house. his mother kisses on the cheek. he doesn't tell roxana about this

after that he commits to a life of debauchery at the college of swords. many flings and makes more music but never gets tied down despite peoples offers and efforts.

very charismatic in general and good at behaving in slimy and manipulative ways fhfksd. acts in self-interest.

very weak to soft and gentle women (hung up on his ex.... rip)

never ever mentions roxana by name even as an origin character. a lot of his story is about getting him to open up. he has a confrontation with his ex in act 3. his story is similar to astarion

in act one he hears rumor of a beautiful prostitute in the city who works the cities leaders and follows this. his main decision is meeting roxana again and deciding whether or not to forgive or save her

(you learn through the course of his story that roxana was never particularly good or honest to him, though it's not easy to figure out. the best ending to for him to save her but not take her back, the worst is dying for he)

his primary love interest is lae'zel !!

they have a silly and funny relationship at first. it starts as a sex thing but their tent is next to each other. lae'zel likes calling him a jester but loves his voice too.

he likes that she's very different from the women he dates. she's very harsh towards him but he also trusts she would never lie to him. he comforts her through the situation with vlaaktih and she in his story helps him realize that not everyone is out to betray him. he wants to love her and does.

he is SO affectionate towards her act three. she is constantly pissed she has romantic feelings for local emo clown

lae'zel having no propensity for manipulation and also being very honest is really refreshing for nyx. they have a minor age gap fdkfskjd

at the end of the story - nyx encourages lae'zel to travel and save their people. he makes a life for them in the city and writes hundreds of songs about her in her absence. they raise a gith child together

I HAVE MORE TO SAY BUT THIS IS PAINFULLY LONG. SHOWS YOU THIS ANDRUNS AWAY. PLEASE ASK ME QUESITONS IF U LIKE I LOVE ANSWERING Q'S FOR THEM. THANK U

#return to sender #oc: nyx #oc: soulikha #incest mention #KIND OF ITS COMPLIATED!!! BUT SAFETYT

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theriverdraws · 2 years

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I know most people can agree the interpretation of "chara being a merciless killer and true villain of the no-mercy route" really damages their character and purpose etc, but I would also add that interpreting Chara as the player, or even interpreting Frisk as the player in some ways, also ruins the point of the ENTIRE GAME.

Undertale works in this meta story where YOUR actions matter, and YOU are in control. You can reset and go back AT ANY POINT in the no-mercy route, which really wouldn't be consistent if Chara was in control (no matter what their intentions are). Saying that the player isn't in control of their actions and putting the blame on "x" character really just damages the entire point of this route and themes. Chara says the player isn't the one in control because by that point there's nothing you can do anymore.

But you could beforehand. You and Chara are partners, they only reincarnated and chased power because of YOU and YOUR actions. And if you do the route again, they even recommend that YOU try something different, because they can't do that for you. Well, what if Chara and the player are the same person? I don't believe that works.

Even though they have the name you choose for them, they already have their own backstory and personality despite what we do. Naming them serves the purpose of the cool plot twist with the name, and also serves to validate Asriel/Flowey's projection which is my third point - Asriel/Flowey is projecting hard.

No they're never talking to Chara in the final battle in the pacifist route, they're talking to Frisk. Even when you've done the pacifist route and Flowey warns you to not reset anymore and says "let Frisk live their life, see you later Chara", if you keep checking with him to see what he's gonna say next, he realizes that he is not talking to Chara neither and his whole demeanor changes (or maybe that dialogue only appears after neutral routes where he lives, gonna check later). So, who is the player? Frisk? Well, yes but no.

Frisk is a self-insert to the player, their arc is the same as the player's in the genocide route (them losing their empathy). But they are their own character, it's literally one of the plot twists of the game when they reveal their own name to really make the point that they are NOT us, not entirely. It's hard to see Frisk's personality shine through, but it's still there. They're an empathetic person, they hug Asriel to comfort him. They don't insult Snowy's mother in the true lab, however they know some MEAN insults based on acts in other battles. There's the interesting description of the "Abandoned Quiche" item which hints that Frisk was an abandoned child (not many people know that I imagine, you guys should look it up). And they seem to know some sickass poses and flirt really well.

What I think is happening is that Frisk is in a position that is similar to Kris' but they aren't self-aware like they are, perhaps because Frisk's soul is truly theirs? But if we think about it in that way, then the player must be a character in the game somewhat. So who is the player?

Well, they are: The Anomaly.

Sans mentions the anomaly as the one who is controlling the timelines, resetting and restarting. Flowey must have been the anomaly before the player showed up since they resetted often and it's hinted he fought sans in some timelines. We are the ones that control the timelines now though, we're the ones that control Frisk, that don't let them be happy. The player is the anomaly.

TL;DR The player is not Chara, and is not Frisk (entirely). The Player is the "Anomaly", the one who controls the timelines and Frisk. Which makes us an actual character in the game, without ruining the Meta-Meaning of it's story. Interpreting the player as any other character ruins the message of the game about the player's empathy and consequences of our choices.

(Sorry if I sound like an asshole, you can interpret the game as you like msjskj. Make that comic, draw that fanart, be happy bud).

#sorry just had to get this out of my head for a second snshsj #im very passionate about this game snhsnsjsj #at the end of the day there is no TRULY right way to see the game unless Toby says otherwise which he never will so lol #there is also no right way to play the game so people can kill and torturr whatever they want if thats what they wish #LETS NOT HARASS PEOPLE OK #undertale #chara dreemurr #chara #frisk #chara ut #frisk dreemurr #frisk ut #flowey #asriel #asriel dreemurr

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canadiancryptid · 5 months

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So I started thinking about the game on Asriel's computer, and now I can't stop thinking about the possibility of Asriel and/or Kris being the ones to create Undertale. I mean, if Gaster might have created Deltarune, why couldn't they have made Undertale?

I mean, its clearly supposed to be a reference to the Asriel fight, but I started questioning if there might be more to it, and here I am.

They way this has been piecing together in my brain, I see it as more Kris picking up what Asriel started and never finished some time after the events of Deltarune, with every intention of having it played by the same entity that controlled them.

All of the similarities between the games can easily be things that were based of their actual adventures and people from Hometown. What I'm interested in are the major differences.

- Most of the magic used by monsters could be based on what little magic they can use in the Light World, as well as magic used by both Lightners and Darkners in Dark Worlds.

- Frisk and Chara being so similar to Kris makes perfect sense if they were inspired by them. They both share a ton of traits with Kris, but Chara seems to have the most. Frisk is the player character based on their experience while under the player's control, and Chara is the self-insert that fills their role in the Dreemurr family, but is also one of two characters in the game who directly speak to you as the player.

- Gaster and all his mysteries could be based on whatever entity we've been assuming IS Gaster in Deltarune. They never fully found out what was going on there, but they knew putting in references to it would drive the curious players insane.

There's something about the idea of Kris creating Undertale because of the events with the player in Deltarune, only for most of us to find Deltarune in the first place because of Undertale.

The one major part of this theory is how Asriel is depicted in Undertale. I guess it could be explained as Asriel's edgy OC from when he was working on it getting reworked for the story, but that might be stretching it a bit.

Do I think any of this is even close to canon? Not for a second. Pure crack theory. But I can't stop thinking about it and it makes a concerning amount of sense. There are a bunch of other smaller things I can think of that could be looped in, but these are most of the main ones. I don't like how deeply this has infected my brain.

#deltarune #undertale #kris dreemurr #deltarune theory #crack theory #cryptid says stuff

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randomnameless · 10 months

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I’m surprised at the amount of billy asks you get. Does it mean that they’re popular? All i know for sure is that they certainly seem to interest a lot of people. And i agree that they really do have the bones for a fascinating character, but the developers couldn’t be bothered to build something from those bones because 1) sim shenanigans, you can’t have your self insert react strongly if you’re meant to project 100% onto them, but billy does have traits that keep getting mentioned by more than one person plus the few actions they do choose and a backstory, which doesn’t seem like cardboard to me imho, but also 2) earl gray, and what invader added is the most damning detail of them all. Or rather, not a detail, but the anchor that sank billy. I know we’re meant to keep flamey and edelgard separate in our minds because edelgard is marketed as a poor sad waifu you must feel compelled to rescue, but it doesn’t erase her actions or flamey. When we have evidence saying that silver snow is meant to be the primary marketed canon route and so much of the conflicts across two games come down to the actions of one person plus a poorly thought out loptous stand in, all it tells me is that the main character was doomed to fail because the developers could not decide how to write a school mystery + romance of the three kingdoms sympathetic to cao cao so they tried to “fix” that or make it “gray” by turning it into a dating sim to artificially raise the emotional stakes. At least to me it says they didn’t have confidence in billy as a main character at all because so much of it hinges on centering edelgard and the players picking faves out of the rest of the cast, and to make it more insulting the compensation is being able to kill billy in the spin off? I myself don’t really have any big faves in the games because i only play them casually and read your blog, but what i do know is that it makes me hate edelgard for essentially being the gravitational center of the games like a narrative black hole and the developers being too cowardly to really cement her as a villain, and it doesn’t make me like warriors either because it doubles down on trying to explain her position instead of telling a story and because shez fans are extremely annoying and rude online, no surprise that many are also edelgard fans.

I'd say it's a cumulation of everything!

I think the fandom (myself included!) might have been a bit harsh on Billy because of their avatar status, even if I still think Rhea's S-support "aloneb4u" is shit and Seteth not giving any fucks about her and centering his support and convos on "we must find her so she will reveal da truth 2 u" is bonkers and both of those instances can't be only attributed to Hresvelg Grey but to "only the player is important", like the theory i came up with the self-insert scissors.

But yeah, I feel like at one point, Supreme Leader hijacked the "main character" or "character at the center of the plot we want to tell" spot, all gravitas went to "can u kill the student who loves u and bear with the sad uwus for the rest of your run ??" instead of, you know, the greater plot Nopes teased us with a Larva vs Sothis that never happened?

I compared FE16's story to many things earlier on, but the general thing is "why are we talking and following the least interesting parts of Fodlan", Supreme Leader's war of unification is meh, bias or no bias, I would have loved to see a War of Heroes game, or even a game set during the Sothis vs Agartha era (or the two why not) - but here we just have Ashnard lite with an uwu glazing, without even tackling a traditional or underlaying issue from the FE series about coexistence between people and acceptance and whatnot.

(the reason why AM is still, imo, a letdown because it ignores the dragon in the room)

What was Billy supposed to be? Supreme Leader's luf interest? A character that can conceptually fall (if they pick Tru Piss) thus can ascend in other routes? A self insert? The character you're supposed to navigate the world with?

I think Billy being a silent protag was a disservice to them - despite all of its faults, Nopes at least gives more light to Billy and it's refreshing, even if the game will never add 1+1 because Hresvelg Grey.

TBH I think Fodlan has its own share of fans being annoying regardless of the character they support - and while Barney is pretty chatty, ultimately Barney is the deviant art OC with two swords because why not, a sekrit past that is never explained and somehow stronger than everyone who is actually as empty as an oyster shell. We don't know what Barney wants, to be a merc? Yeah, but why? Is it because Barney is searching for somewhere to belong - just like Billy in a way - ?

As for the cardboard mention, it's most likely again in relation to Hresvelg Grey and Fe Fodlan's writing - the games don't spend enough time to build a sense of friendship and camaraderie between the cast to make the "betrayal" hurt or even the "y must we kill people we knew :'( " meaningful, so we only have the "wah sensei why didn't you pick me :(" or the general "i'm sad to fight against you" but like, mate, who are you? Why are you lamenting having to fight against Billy - someone who is opposing/invading your country and everything you stand for - like Billy and 12 months in Rhea's rocky mansion meant so much to you, much more than the 17 years of life (with acquaintances, friends, family, etc) you had?

But it's also in relation to Hresvelg Grey and the silent protag - why no one can give a reason - save for Supreme Leader "lizards BaD + MAGA" - to join this route, heck, not even Billy can say why they joined this route...

In French we have a saying that goes "comparaison n'est pas raison" more or less meaning you can't always compare things bcs context and all, but after TS's protag Serenor - who also has Gary Stu moments! - Billy not saying a thing about Supreme Leader's nonsense, frowning at Dimitri and being silent during Claude's monologues is... annoying.

But when Billy isn't in Fodlan games, they can talk and there's still the forbidden rule of not adding numbers - never ! - but they shine more.

#anon #replies #Billy stuff #TS's Serenor was annoying at times like the Fred ending was uhhh a thing #self-insert scissors are sadly what IS seems to come up with recently #I don't think Elibe Echoes will cut off Pent from Louise's life so she will be able to marry the self insert #maybe it's just a shipping thing you'd say #but for Seteth not to mention Flayn at all in his supports nor his sister who is being zumba'd in Enbarr like their siblings #it's just wtf #is this why Cat and Cyril and to a lesser extent Dedue weren't loved by the fandom? because they have someone else that is more important #to them than Billy?#or maybe it's bcs Rhea BaD and Dimitri BaD #FE16 #3 Nopes #sort of #I game about Billy being like Alear #discovering who they are and chosing what they want to do would have been much more interesting #than i wanted to walk with u :(#imagine a billy who decides to stand by humanity even if they're dumb because they luf them #or a billy who thinks they're better off dead because they will never accept anyone being different and #a billy who stands by humanity but refuses to accept they'll forever be dumb thus accepts to guide them #something weird like that #with zanado fruits and more focus on Sothis and Nemesis's party

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twst-drabbles · 1 year

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I dislike the immediate assumption that the reader insert is Female and this goes for all sorts of media that have their mc as ambiguous. I have seen people completely disregard and harrass others because their mc-insert doesn't their own idea of who the mc is (which is usually female).

It's none of their business what other people do with their insert. Really, it's as simple as leaving things well enough alone. One can be angry and frustrated but express that to one's self, either in the pillow or the bathroom. Don't care for the justification or the long reaches they'll do to prove that they're right, keep that to the little bubble.

Happens in Arknights as well with many people assuming the Doctor has to be male, cause all the biggest gacha's have the main character be male by default. I remember trying to get into Alchemy Stars cause I liked the characters designs and the gameplay seems serviceable. Got to name my chara and all that. And then the character was referred to with he/him pronouns and I bounced. If I get to name the character, then you better make fucking sure this character isn't referred to with he/him or she/her.

Arknights doesn't do that. The Doctor is only ever referred to with they/them and I love it. So to see these far reaches to justify that this doctor is, in fact, male is just, sad. Hell, even the anime it got made the doctor ambiguous and people were trying to see if the doctor was male or female, automatically ruling out the option of non-binary. You can only be one or the other, not anything else.

"Prefect has to be female, Prefect has to be male!" How about we leave it the fuck alone cause it really doesn't matter??

"They're in a boys school, they have to be male!" Well Prefect doesn't have a speck of magic in them and yet they were called by the mirror anyway, so why does the Prefect have to follow that specific gender rule like it's somehow more important than the magic rule?

"They have to be female cause this game was obviously made with girls in mind!" It is a common troupe, the whole girl in a boys school kind of thing but then the Prefect would be referred to with she/her pronouns rather than the ambiguous ones we get. Not much of a leg to stand on.

Preferences are fine. You can write exclusively for female readers or male readers, the problem comes with assuming that what you have in your head is actually fact cause you know the minds of the creators somehow. Once again, scream into your pillow when those irrational feelings arise. I promise you, you will get used to it eventually. That knee jerk reaction to "correct" will fade out.

#admin

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averysexyleon · 1 year

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What is your thoughts about canon x reader fics? I genuinely wonder what you think of it fully, because it seems like we're kinda same about it as fanfic writers? Tho I'm sometimes positive, because there are really some good ones where reader characters are treated like an oc; mostly neutral but it is true that it (y/n) overrides classic fanfics where people created ocs like actual people who fitted and bonded with canon in their own ways...

oh man this is probably gonna make some people really mad but I've actually been wanting to rant about it so here I go. I agree with everything you said, but I'll expand to my full opinion: I think "y/n" has one GOOD actual purpose, and that's putting the reader into a smut scene with a character they like. No shame when people do that. I love to see it. That's just creating a fantasy sexual situation and sharing it with people which is dope. LITERATURE wise, I think Y/N heralds the end of seriously great fanfiction. It's ridiculous. If you characterize Y/N and give them a personality, motives, background....then guess what…you have created a character. Go the rest of the way and give them dignity of a character. It doesn't matter if the character is you, it doesn't matter if it's a very Mary Sue thing…we've been bitching about those, and seeing them, since fanfiction was created, it's not a big deal. But to me, I can't take Y/N characters seriously because it shows a lack of commitment on the writer's part as well as the readers. On the writer, like I said--just make the character a goddamn named, breathing, character and let readers self insert if that's the point. On the reader's part it's halfassed because IN MY OPINION you're not really able to appreciate the world of the canon and honor it as you would if you were immersed with complete, complex NAMED charas inside of that world, outrageous as they might be. (And not all custom characters are ridiculous, PLENTY of them are welcome additions to the canon that fit in better than some canon characters.)

I'm old and cranky and tired of Y/N. Can't wait for it to die out (will it? God I hope) and be replaced with custom characters and even the mary sues of the olden days.

#spicy opinion time #y/n #y/n fanfic #resident evil fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic

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gabrioblu · 11 months

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breaks through wall

Y'ALL ARE STILL ARGUING ABOUT KRIS BEING NON-BINARY???

Now, I know there's no point in doing this because:

A. It's already a big argument and this likely won't do anything, and

B. There's no convincing some of you people.

HOWEVER: I feel the need to weigh in on this because that's what my brain is telling me to do right now, at this ungodly hour.

SO: I am going to go through all reasonable arguments I can find, and debunk them.

Ambiguity vs. Characterization

"They/Them is used when you don't know someone's gender."

While this is true, it also... isn't the only use? And why would Kris' friends not know their gender? That's generally something you'd want people to know.

"Frisk's gender was ambiguous in Undertale to allow the player to put themselves in their shoes. It's the same in Deltarune."

This one is... complicated. Frisk (and Chara's) gender is an entirely different and much larger can of worms that I don't want to get into here. Technically, Chara is your reflection, but again, moving on. While that may be true in Undertale, Deltarune is a very different game, and it is EXPLICITLY STATED... A LOT OF TIMES that Kris is not a self-insert. They are their own person. There are many times the game throws you off to, in a way, prevent you from putting yourself in their shoes. That is one of the main concepts of Deltarune.

"It's like Link not having a voice, so you can imagine whatever voice you want."

Now, I don't play LOZ, but again, Kris' gender isn't meant to be ambiguous. Also, here's proof from @suzyundertale on the Link voice thing, showing that that's not even true, either. sucks to suck huh

"Kris has a neutral name and design."

Maybe that isn't to be ambiguous but actually because they ARE NEUTRAL??

Why the other characters would know their pronouns

Like I said above, it seems like something you'd want people to know. But apparently that's not true??

"Ralsei wouldn't know Kris' pronouns, because he didn't even know their NAME when they first met."

And yet he learned Kris' name. (🤯) Same goes for gender. You don't continue knowing nothing about someone forever. That's just dumb.

"Susie wouldn't know either because she's been bullying Kris and they wouldn't want to tell either of them their gender."

I... what?

Okay, there's a lot to go through here, and it's all faulty logic. By the same logic as the last point, relationships between characters change. Susie and Kris are pretty good friends at this point, and it's implied that Kris looks up to Susie due to her rebellious nature. yknow cause Kris wants to get rid of our control

And on that second idea, it makes no sense for Kris to simply "not want to tel them their gender." Why? It makes no sense.

And what about Toriel, or Noelle? Why would Kris' mother use gender-neutral pronouns if Kris wasn't non-binary?

Kris is NOT a self-insert character

"Kris has no independent dialogue and doesn't emote."

Yeah, because they're being CONTROLLED THE WHOLE TIME

The whole point of the intro sequence is to hammer in the idea that Kris is separate from you. If you still genuinely think that Kris is meant to be a blank slate, you have NOT played the game (just like the goof who thought suselle was one sided lmao)

It's not a headcanon

In addition, I see a lot of people calling it a headcanon. No. You really can't just headcanon someone's gender. It's like thinking Mario is actually female. The term would be 'crappy, unfaithful AU'.

Assorted weird stuff

"Siblings of opposite genders usually don't share rooms"

I mean... maybe. But... your point? That's also a really weird thing to say, because, again why would that be the case?

"But- but the shampoo! It says 'for the boys'!!"

No. That is simply not how it works.

holy jalapeno wait until these people find out that i (a guy) wear female slippers they'll lose their flippin minds

Why gender matters

"You never get to choose a gender for your vessel. Why? It doesn't matter."

But y'know what does matter? The fact that the vessel is discarded and replaced with AN EXISTING PERSON WITH THEIR OWN TRAITS.

"Alphys doesn't say 'I'm bisexual'. But, she has crushes on Undyne and Asgore, making her canonically bisexual."

"But that is explicit, unlike the humans' genders."

<rant>

IT IS CALLED "SHOW, DON'T TELL" AND IT IS AN IMPORTANT CONCEPT FOR CHARACTERIZATION IN WRITING. JESUS FRUITCAKE CHRIST. As stated, Toby is very good at this. Which is why, at the beginning of Undertale, we didn't need to have:

"Hi, my name is Toriel, and I'm female, and cisgender, and I like snails and snail pie, and I want to be a teacher, " ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA. It's bulky, and boring, and unnecessary. Instead, sprinkle in characterization through inference and details. Not everything has to be stated. Far from it.

</rant>

Conclusion

Alright. This post has taken well over two hours, but I now have to summarize all of that.

To put it simply, it's asinine to assume that everybody is referring to Kris using gender-neutral pronouns because they don't know their real gender, especially Toriel. She would refer to Kris by their birth gender UNLESS EXPRESSLY ASKED TO BY KRIS THEMSELVES. She would have no other reason to do so.

Toby doesn't have to explicitly state that Kris is non-binary. Did he ever explicitly state that Papyrus is male? No, but he has Sans refer to him as his brother, and with male pronouns.

aw crap i need a good closing sentence uh uhhh

So why is Kris such a special case? Maybe take time to reflect on that.

#deltarune #kris #nonbinary #rebuttal #kris is nonbinary #nailed that closing sentence #all hail bill cipher

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averageundertaleblog · 7 months

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i kinda had this empty account since 2019 and never did anything with it but now im just gonna use this to talk about my undertale aus and stuff, even if people don't really get to see any of this it's still cool to log my stuff

anyways uhh lemme just list my aus rq and give them each a short explanation

Dusttale: A Different Approach

- Basically a combination of Something New & Dusttale, the player finishes a genocide route and wants to take a different approach to the game. They rewrite and alter majority of the game's code until they managed to control Sans and play as him, however Sans is still conscious and becomes the narrator instead of Chara. The player attempts to do a pacifist route but Frisk was seen moving around and basically starts doing a genocide route on their own, oooooo. Spooky. So the player decided that the best course of action was to kill everyone and become stronger while also preventing Frisk to get any more LV.

Storyshift: A Tale Amongst Legends

- Several neutral routes takes place and Chara gets pissed off so they meet Shifty at around Waterfall and start battling. Eventually Chara gets tired of Shifty trying to toy with their world so they attempt to reset but Shifty also tries to as well. Causing a massive collision between the two resets and changed their world drastically, Asriel now has mental breakdowns, King Sans is over 10 feet tall now, and the barrier never existed in the first place, basically everyone became different whether it was little or significant. Chara couldn't find Shifty anywhere so they just accepted this changed world of theirs and lived their life as normal, until a blond "drama queen" was brought into the story.

(This AU is actually my friend's instead of mine but I kinda work like the co-owner and writer of it so eh, plus my friend said it was cool to talk about it here so here we are)

OVERTURN

- Story is still WIP but basically the barrier was shattered long ago thanks to W.D Gaster Skeleton and the rest of his team and monsterkind decided to keep living in Mount Ebott. Due to this, the seven previous children weren't killed and instead taken cared of. They're also kind-of in another war in some way idk me and my pals have to think about that.

(Recently made AU me and my two best friends are cooking up rn, kinda inspired by EPICTALE)

A DIFFERENT TALE

- Basically an AU where me and my friend's OCs were just self-inserted into the UNDERTALE universe in a way. A bunch of races had a world war and humanity won, the humans locked the war prisoners and experimented on some of them and treated them very harshly, studying them into getting more power. However this formed an uprising and created an entire united army known as the Resistance, some humans joined this army while the rest of humanity stayed together and fought against the Resistance in this second war. Humanity once again won and sent their strongest "heroes" to banish the Resistance army into a pocket dimension, which was basically an island on a neverending ocean.

yeah uhh you can criticize or whatever idrc im just showing off because i can lol, maybe if i get enough followers i can do some ask blog thingy within one of my aus, that would be nice

#undertale #dusttale #storyshift #undertale au

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the-nysh · 2 years

Note

Did you see shiro ripping reddit a new one btw? Probably the only person in the fanbase brave enough to vocalise that Saitama’s be-all and end-all savior chara concept is problematic and other cast members have to suffer to maintain that image. Garou being the latest and most egregious example.

Oh yeah. :') Somebody over there has to do it. Ever since the redraw I've shared their same concerns (as in: willing to see the manga commit to its own thing, provided Garou’s core characterization & agency remain intact that is), and I'm pretty sure I've received several of their messages in concerned outraged solidarity too (so hi there), because I recognize the same strong language, and many of my own words from posts I've written, in support of their reddit arguments. They’re one of the rare few users over there who's always read Garou 100% in good faith over the years, so I know their care, trust, and dedication to his character and the understanding of his nuanced, beneficial narrative themes run deep. That's respect from me. However, holding back any shred of patience or pretend courtesy anymore vs reddit's continued bad faith idiocy (or blissful illiteracy) towards Garou's character, when now there's morally no excuse to try and defend the cruelty he's been made to suffer, is a completely different battle (that I don’t have the patience to engage), so godspeed there! :'D

In their unfiltered words:

Garou is the best character this series has by far and large. The only properly fleshed out character period. Robbing him of his agency by using a cosmic device to wank Saitama’s OP-and-so-heroic self shows that OPM at its core is just another isekaishit for self-inserters, with a rapidly forming MC stalker harem even. And that is not a Garou problem, that’s a fucking pattern already and a Saitama problem. He can only exist as a protagonist if the efforts and desires of other characters are constantly undermined. In the manga everyone is a victim of an absurd and explicitly evil cosmic parasite and only fucking Saitama is allowed to solve that shit with his magical punches. Garou is robbed of his agency and turned a damsel to wank Saitama, and S classes are just overdramatic punching bags also primed to start wanking their savior Saitama.

Which...I understand. Because on one hand of looking at it, it's true. In terms of the story's expanded real estate and narrative focus, imo Garou is best boy, no disagreement there.

In my words, his manga self is someone too fundamentally good and inherently heroic, that he literally had to be mindraped into corruption against his will for any of this to happen. (For him to 'go evil' as reddit dudes ~wanted~ simply for the surface 'edgy,' or for the sake of a flashier 'good fight' vs Saitama, at Garou's entire 100+chs of established core character's expense.) Because it was otherwise impossible for Garou to ever willingly lose his key humanity or put on a believable 'evil' performance to test the heroes anymore, unless some other Literally True Evil being ('god') forcibly did it FOR him. Trapped into a corner even after he refused, but still mindraped into a corrupted faceless void of his former real self, involuntarily turned into a victim to god's cruel agenda against humanity - its eradication, and now everyone has to unfairly suffer from that violation. Congratulations. (Where it's essentially become Saitama vs god’s agenda now, while throwing everything else of value and even the nuance to question what’s beyond ‘good vs evil’ anymore out the window~) And I can't believe some fans still have the gall to say that this was ever something 'good' for Garou to deserve. That this is ‘cool.’ To completely lose the best parts of what make him Him without his consent, and corrupted into enacting overkill nuclear wrath on the world (where it's no joke or pretense anymore) which had never aligned with what he ever actually wanted to achieve in the first place (fixing the biased injustice of the world, towards saving it). So please fuck right off with that abhorrently vile victim blaming bullshit towards him, or believing any of this 'god' stuff is a true reflection of Garou's inner will/desires, or you've proven you never cared for or had faith in Garou's actual character at all.

...But things are destroyed only IF the manga is actually going for that type of arc ending with Saitama solving everything for him though, which would yes, be terrible for all other characters involved (or well, unless Saitama has magic defenses vs radiation damage I'm unaware of, he's fine so there’s no need to worry about him) since then everyone else (but especially Garou) would essentially be sacrificed only to make Saitama ‘look good.’ (Which in my opinion of his performance as a good effective hero this time, he’s.....alarmingly come up short to properly earn the heroic title of ‘one punch man’ yet. Just as King’s lectured he’s not anywhere close to the ideal of ‘greatest hero.’ Pre-redraw he was much better and considerate, but not this route.)

Because remember how many posts I made expressing wariness and warning the danger of Saitama's (problematic) approach to essentially 'bully' and push Garou further? How I knew (from personal experience with a mentally unwell -bipolar- family member who was driven to....) how none of this would be helpful. It would only make things worse. Now we see why. Because if Saitama had taken Tareo's promise seriously without messing around, under oath/obligation -on the job even- as a reliable hero to actually help & save Garou, then all of this could have been prevented. But now? After indirectly pushing it to this point of no return, the same detached Saitama swooping in to simply 'punch' god's corruption out of Garou FOR him, would just feel foully unearned. Hell no. And again, doing all the work for him still wouldn't actually help Garou's psychological problems with his identity at all. So...thanks for nothing, I guess?

No actual Garou fan wants to see that happen, or made to feel like all their time and emotional investment in his story thus far has either been wasted by the author or suddenly thrown away in the trash, where nothing else but Saitama matters, as I said here. Because doing that, by elevating one character just to put down another - at the entire other’s expense even, only fosters resentment and spiteful dislike towards the former. So it’s surely made us Garou fans hate ‘god’!!! 8′D But under no circumstances do I want to start disliking Saitama out of spite either, as that would only unpleasantly lead towards the manga’s dropability. So is ONE sure he wants to do that to the Garou fanbase? By losing a huge portion of his most dedicated (eastern) readers? Esp if that’s all there is to look forward to at the climax of his arc? Really? There has to be more to it.

Where there’s some meaning or reason why, that ultimately works in service of Garou’s hero journey - where he can finally discover/realize/accept his real self’s potential, after discerning and rejecting the indiscriminate mass destruction he never intended, to assert what he’s always truly wanted instead (but could never fully believe in) deep down, towards his decision to become the type of hero he’s always denied himself. Not determined by the rules or expectations set by anyone, beyond even those controlled by ‘god.’ In which the ‘magic’ solution to this whole crisis also lies within himself, to somehow mentally overcome, overrule, or reverse. If there is any faith still left in Garou’s strength of character at all, to help him save himself. (Tareo, I’m counting on you~) Because Saitama can certainly punch things, but he narratively can’t solve something this integral to his character for him (esp if there’s any weird callback to Child Emperor’s mental ‘win’ over Phoenix Man’s corruption attempt, with Saitama’s ‘assistance.’) ...Otherwise where’s the catharsis? Then there’s really No Point for this ‘god’ development to happen to Garou at all. Beyond pointless physical fight escalation in which we already know the winner anyway.

So what else is there? It’s why I’ve made speculative posts like this. Where in all my highest hopium, if Saitama’s punch can’t directly solve Garou’s problems for him or save everyone from the effects of radiation damage, or even if Blast & friends have no magic solutions to it either (esp if they’re too busy trying to fix god’s dimensional seal)....then who else has the impossible magic power right now to change things? Garou. :) Especially if he succeeds in taking back his agency and turns that power around, from destruction into...? His own. To defy god and save the world. (Oh it’d be a miracle.) But by his own assertive choice of will this time. When saving lives (and the day) is a choice fully on purpose (just like he’s already done for Tareo & Bang), not by accident. He’d be just that good at it.

#opm #garou #manga spoilers #anonymous #replies #long text post #i can certainly RIP into it too #but perhaps in a different way #as SOMEONE still has to believe in garou around here

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aikoiya · 2 years

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Hello I saw a post you made about you hating sans and saw that you shipped Fran’s before. No hate but yea, Frisk is a child because they are apart of the fallen children. Frisk is also their own character because at the end of the pacifist, they reveal their real name, Frisk, and Flowey even asks you to let Frisk live their life once you complete it. Also, Frisk is controlled by the player like Kris is in deltarune and if you played, Kris is a child who’s adopted by toriel and can rip out their soul whenever they want control of their body. So just like Kris, this happens to frisk who is not a self insert but their own character. Also, Toby has never once called Frisk him or her. He always refers Frisk as they/them.

Okay. This is certainly more like the evidence I was looking for, but I suppose that I meant that Frisk was a self-insert in a similar way to how all silent protagonists are self-insert.

You see, silent protagonists are silent to make it easier for the player to insert themselves into the protag's place. The whole point is for immersion. Now, I'll concede that Frisk is probably a child in canon because you're actually going through the effort to not be rude about it.

Now, if Fox really did design Frisk & Kris & Chara to be non-binary, specifically, & they aren't referred to that way as some sort of next-level immersion idea, then fine, sure. I'm all for it.

At the same time, even if you are right, that won't stop anyone from deciding they'd rather have a boy Frisk or a girl Frisk or a trans Frisk or an intersex Frisk because that's just what fandoms do.

It doesn't stop them from doing it with other characters from other franchises & it won't stop them from doing it to Frisk here.

Why? Because these characters aren't real. Never were & never will be. They are malleable.

Now, I agree to a certain extent. If something is canon, then you should acknowledge it as such. Hartman & J.K. Rowling say their characters aren't trans, so, canonically, they're not & I don't like it when people say that they are as if it were canon.

Because it's one thing to headcanon something, it's another to disregard the creator's intent in favor of your own wants & beliefs & push them as canon. That's disrespectful & it shouldn't happen.

However, in fanon, everything is free real estate. You can do whatever you want so long as you say it's just your headcanon.

As for aging characters up. People age, unless you're saying that characters should always stay the age they were in the source material as unageing dolls even inside fanfiction? If so, then there better be a good explanation as to why.

Not to mention, monsters I bet, age very slowly.

Listen, I'm not advocating for freaking toddlers to date full-grown men. The hell kinda shit is that?!

Nor am I okay with grooming. It's part of why I'm Not Okay(TM) with SessRin. She's literally still 14 when she gives birth in the Yashahime series! No! Yuck! Absolutely not!

If the storywriters had instead waited till she was 18 & they hadn't seen each other in a few years, then sure. Fine. I'd still feel a bit squicky because I always saw them as father/daughter, but that's a me problem.

All I'm saying is, time is a thing & if you want to make believable stories, you include it. Time does this magical thing called aging people. Some like it, some hate it, but it happens regardless.

Also, what about characters that fans create to replace Frisk? Or when a fan makes it so Frisk was an adult from the very beginning? In such a situation, Frisk might as well be a different character that's just using the name 'Frisk.'

I'm just saying. Don't try to limit the fandom's creativity. Some truly amazing stories & aus have come out because fans were able to personalize Frisk as a character they could use. And those stories wouldn't have been as good or had the same plot points if they conformed strictly to canon.

Also, even if Frisk is nb, all that is is pronouns, which are subjective by nature of design according to the current woke culture of today. Despite what some might want you to think, nbs do still conform to a binary, just not a gender binary. It's the biological sex binary.

You see, gender is a social construct & is therefore malleable according to some. However, if that is the case, then sex is a biological construct & is thusly concrete & can’t be changed regardless of gender identity or transaction due to it literally being written in your chromosomes. It is something you develop even before birth & when you die, hundreds of years from now, when people dig your bones up, guess what, they’re gonna look at those bones & analyze what dna is left & you’ll still be the sex you were born as.

As such, you can be nb & also be female or male because that's how human, & mammalian biology in-general, works.

Thing is, because Fox is so consistent with making Frisk, Chara, & Kris all theys, we have zero clue as to their canon biological sexes if he even gave them any (unless they're literally just supposed to be living mannequins under there) & that allows fans the freedom of choosing their sex & still have nb gender pronouns. So, that doesn't go against canon at all.

#ut #frisk #non binary #aging #characters #fiction vs reality #canon vs fanon #gender vs sex #anti-pedophilia

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 years

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#5: The One With Astruc's Self-Insert

In my introductory post, I said the main inspiration for this blog was @hypocrisyofandrewdobson. For those who don't know, Andrew Dobson is an infamous webcomic artist known for drawing webcomics that tend to demonize people he's come across in public or people who disagree with him online (either critical of his art or his political views), while portraying himself as the victim or wise man calling them out on their differing beliefs.

If you want to learn more about this guy who I consider to be far worse than Astruc, check out the blog in question. And no, I don't know why he draws himself as a blue bear.

Why am I talking about this? It's one thing for some schmuck on the internet to use his work to respond to criticism, but the creator of a popular animated series dedicating an entire episode to attacking his critics and trying to get others to feel bad for him is another story.

The second episode of Miraculous Ladybug's third season, “Animaestro” served as a wake-up call for fans (myself included) to make them realize how immature Astruc could be. The plot centers around the premiere of a movie about Ladybug and Cat Noir directed by Thomas Astruc, who voices himself in the original French dub.

And this isn't just a brief cameo like what Stan Lee did in the MCU. Astruc is the Akumatized person this episode, so there's naturally a lot of focus on him. Throughout the first half of the episode, Astruc portrays himself as this timid man who nobody recognizes or respects, like this idiot who doesn't know what animation is.

Doorman: This is a private event, sir.

Astruc: Huh? Excuse me? I'm Thomas Astruc, the movie director.

Doorman: You filmed Cat Noir and Ladybug? What are they like in real life?

Astruc: Er, it's an animated movie. It's all cartoon characters. We don't actually film anyone. See, there's this whole team that draw the chara—

Doorman: Whatever. Who would want to see Ladybug and Cat Noir as cartoon characters?

Get it? Wasn't that meta joke hilarious? This is how much I was laughing:

youtube

And Astruc continues to get about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield when he interacts with other characters like Jagged Stone and Chloe.

Jagged Stone: Ladybug is one of my best buds! I can't wait to see her movie!

Astruc: Well I—I'm the director, so actually it's more my movie, so to speak.

Jagged Stone: Oh, so you're the one who created the story?

Astruc: Well, technically the screen writers wrote the story, inspired by Ladybug's exploits.

Jagged Stone: Oh, okay. So you did all the drawings?

Thomas: No, no. The animators do all the drawings.

Jagged Stone: So what do you do then?

(Later on...)

Chloe: So you're the one responsible for this movie?

Astruc: Yes, yes! Exactly! That's me!

Chloe: Then you were the one who left Queen Bee out of the trailer. You're lame, utterly lame.

I can't believe Astruc had a scene where he interacted with Chloe and didn't insult her at all.

The episode is determined to make the audience feel bad for Astruc. Nobody respects him and what he does. Isn't that saaaaaad? Nobody cares about animated film directors like Walt Disney or Tex Avery anyway. Not even these stupid children understand how hard Astruc works.

Several Children: Ladybug! Where's Ladybug?

Astruc: Hey there, kids!

Teacher: Ladybug isn't here children. We came here to meet the director of the movie. Children: (frowning in disappointment) Aww.

(Astruc looks visibly disappointed.)

Way to insult your primary demographic, Astruc. I thought you said kids have a better understanding of these stories when people criticized the writing of a certain episode (It's that scene in “Puppeteer 2” if you're curious/don't value your sanity).

It's almost like you're using that as an excuse to half-ass your work while still getting to claim this show is so groundbreaking.

In case you can't tell, “Animaestro” is one of those episodes. The ones where the showrunners decide to dedicate an entire episode to attacking critics of the show in a blunt fashion. Whenever a show addresses criticism, they either create an obvious strawman character to parrot the opinions of fans who don't like their work, or have someone defend the show and insult the critics directly.

youtube

The problem isn't that they're ignoring criticism. It's their show, and they aren't obligated to listen to critics or fans who don't like the direction the show is taking. On the other hand, they aren't obligated to fight back like this and treat their audience like crap. Any show that does something like the three clips I showed you usually comes off as petty and immature because they dedicate so much time to insulting the critics.

Even during the Akuma fight, Astruc has to call out Ladybug for having problems with his movie in-universe, obviously representing critics of the show Astruc claims have no right to criticize the show while it's still airing.

Ladybug: What's with that trailer too? I am not scared of cats, at all.

Astruc/Animaestro: You haven't even seen the movie and you're already slamming it?

Cat Noir: He does have a point, you know.

Ladybug: I wasn't slamming it. It's called constructive criticism!

Yeah, how dare Ladybug be angry that this movie is portraying her as a powerless coward dependent on Cat Noir as opposed to a confident and brave superhero. She just doesn't understand the genius of Thomas Astruc!

And of course the character Astruc claims is “perfect” is the one to take his side.

And that's another problem with this episode, the metatextual references. Before he gets akumatized, Astuc says he spent three years of his life working on his movie. I get that time in this show is weird (we somehow had episodes taking place on the first day of school, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the first day of Summer), but how did Astruc's self-insert work on a movie based on a superhero who has only been active for a year? Meta-wise, it's an obvious reference to the scorn Astruc has gotten from fans after working so hard on his show, but the only people who would get that reference are the ones who are aware of Astruc's reputation online.

Self-Insert aside, I actually think the titular Animaestro is one of the more visually impressive Akumas featured on the show. Animaestro takes on several forms based off several different forms and eras of animation, like flash, anime, rubber hose, and they all stand out. Granted, some of them are obvious parodies of other characters like Goku or Sailor Moon, but the actual Akuma fight is fun to watch. According to the Mexican Miraculous Ladybug Twitter account, this episode took two and a half years to create, and it shows. It's too bad the story behind it is completely insufferable, almost like the cartoon equidistant to Pixels.

But then comes the part that honestly makes the episode worth it, mainly for how unintentionally hilarious it is. Do you want to know what Animaestro's weakness is? Do you really want to know?

Animaestro is physically incapable of moving unless someone is watching him. I am not making this up.

Ladybug and Cat Noir literally defeat Animaestro by getting everyone to stop paying attention to him.

I could make so many jokes with this, but I can guarantee you're already thinking of something just as good, if not better, than whatever I write.

And there's the end where Astruc gives Marinette his ticket to the movie, which prompts Marinette to kiss up to him for no real reason.

Astruc: Sorry, I guess you don't know who I am either.

Marinette: Of course do. You're Thomas Astruc, the movie director!

Astruc: She recognized me. Somebody actually recognized me!

Nothing happened to make her change her opinion on the Ladybug movie, she didn't really say anything to him earlier in the episode that connects to this exchange, and outside of a few lines Animaestro said, she doesn't even know why he got akumatized (even though ironically she and Chloe accidentally contributed to it because of the awful subplot involving Kagami I talked about last time). If anything, it comes off less like she actually appreciates Astruc's work, and more like she's stroking his ego just to keep him from getting akumatized again.

So yeah, this episode is awful, and the fact that it came out right after the controversial “Chameleon” only proved to show what kind of direction the show was taking this season.

But honestly, even if Astruc still wanted to make about how he doesn't get enough respect the episode could have potentially. All he had to do was make a simple change: Instead of making it about validation for Astruc as a creator, make it about validation for animation in general.

It's a common misconception that animation is only used for shows and movies aimed at children, so the episode could reflect it. Instead of the huge turnout where several celebrities appear at the premiere, instead, the turnout could be a lot smaller, with the media dismissing it as some stupid kiddie flick. Instead of getting akumatized because he gets humiliated in public/getting no respect from anyone else, Astruc gets akumatized because he sees the audience didn't go wild for the movie after the premiere. All he can hear them say is that it's just “kids stuff”.

So when Astruc is Animaestro, he goes on about how important animation is. How it's helped produce propaganda since World War II. How it helped improve special effects in big blockbusters. How the medium is used to create movies that simply can't be filmed on a physical set.

After defeating Animaestro, Ladybug shows up to talk to him. She had seen the movie earlier, and actually enjoyed it. She had a few problems with the story, but they were just minor nitpicks and inaccuracies Astruc wouldn't know about, and she was blown away by the animation. She tells Astruc not to be deterred by his critics, and continue to do what he does. As a designer in her civilian life, Ladybug knows the joy creating brings her, and both she and Astruc want to spread that joy through their work.

Back at the premiere, Astruc thinks about what Ladybug said to him when he sees some kids reenacting a scene from the movie. Astruc walks over to them and asks what they thought of the movie. They said they loved it and how energetic it was. When he tells them he is the director, the kids' faces light up and they say they want to do what he does when they grow up, bringing a smile to Astruc's face.

Isn't that a much more humble approach instead of what we got? It would have helped Astruc come across as more sympathetic, especially with animation fans. But instead, we got an entire episode of Astruc whining about how misunderstood he is.

And you know the footage used for the movie at the beginning? Remember that, because I have a huge rant about it saved for a later post.

For now, here’s an example of a creator appearing in his work done right.

youtube

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myrfing · 2 years

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Sorry for anon I just feel like we're playing jenga with a hornet's nest with this topic but my personal opinion on some of the aged up stuff is when the character's age is major to how they're acting, ie. Immature characters, etc. So if it were someone like the twins from XIV, it freaks me out because a lot of their character and development IS around the fact that they are young and can still be pretty naive about things. It's really important to them specifically and, while I'm positive quite a few of those traits CAN be divorced from the childish nature of them and still carried into adulthood (Alisaie's snark, Alphi's diplomatic nature), it just really freaks me out that whoever is doing the aged up shit still, at some point or another, was like "I like these characters a little too much even though they're kids" and it rubs me all the wrong ways. Granted, I'm also a person that gets really disgusted by anime where every character IS 18+ but still look like. middle schoolers. So idk

oh absolutely for the twins, it’s weird territory in video games with self-insert/avatar charas because…our relationship to the twins is that of knowing them as kids as an adult (if you and your wol are grown lol) & yep that sort of falls into the category of oh damn you got weird about these adolescent characters to me. People arguing that “they’re 18 now” are like…bro you dont think that actually works out like that for you do you.

I think age ups are just one of those things where it can veer from harmless creative idea to genuinely creepy just depending on how you go about it and who is involved in it. You and I are the same in thinking that behavior and dynamics in combination with looks and intent are the most important thing, hence why the 90000 year old dragon in a kid’s body drawing every creep from 749383 leagues around horseshit is horseshit.

I can see the “why were you horny about these chars anyway 💀” angle but I honestly feel like a lot of the less weird/obsessive age-ups are people just doing a throwback to their childhood crushes/faves. i.e. red/blue pkmn is an official one and I don’t think people are weird at all being like hey that dude I loved as a kid grew up with me and he’s handsome now or w/e. I do think it’s weird for grown people to get into kids media specifically to find jerkoff material though lol

#thank you 4 your thoughtz

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renardtrickster · 3 years

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Ya know, there's something bothering me about how many people refer to Kris from Deltarune and that is despite Kris having their own name (which you don't get to choose), family (who are either shown or mentioned in-game), and that ending in chapter 1, a lot of people use binary pronouns (usually he/him) for them. This doesn't seem to happen to silent protagonists with she/her or he/him pronouns.

To be fair, this doesn't happen to silent protagonists with she/her or he/him pronouns because most silent protagonists tend to obviously be male or female (I don't think we're going to see "what gender is Yu Narukami" discourse anytime soon) and "they're nonbinary" usually isn't an option or even to be considered as an option. This is a uniquely "non-gendered/nonbinary protagonist" problem.

And to be fairer, I keep accidentally referring to Kris as "he" because their dark world form looks pretty masc. But once again, accidentally.

But with Kris this situation is pretty interesting. I know there was a large amount of discourse over whether or not Frisk or Chara were nonbinary or "do whatever you want". Because on one hand they're both referred to as "they" in-game, but on the other hand Chara is the player's self-insert and you're led to believe that Frisk is your self-insert until the last minute of a True Pacifist run, so that could have been done to avoid alienation vis a vis "I thought of this character as a girl but the game keeps calling them 'he'" (in Chara's case, and in Frisk's case it's to avoid giving away the game). There's room for ambiguity is what I'm saying.

Meanwhile, Kris lacks this ambiguity. I don't know when Frisk or Chara get called "they" but I know it happens at least once, meanwhile I remember Kris getting called "they" multiple times (and this is weird but I really like that they did it and how they did it, very neat). By design Kris is much harder to project onto or think of as a self-insert (due to their established past and relationship with other characters, moody character design, and multiple instances of their "implied personality" showing up). And while Chapter 1's ending was a small but striking bone for the "Kris isn't actually the player's self-insert and is in fact their own person (horrifying implications included!)" theory, Chapter 2 was much more overt about it to the point where we can hardly even call it a theory anymore. In fact, I wonder how much "people referring to Kris with masculine pronouns" went down with Chapter 2, due to the aforementioned heavy implications, spike in Kris explicitly referred to with they/them pronouns, and Toby Fox correcting one of his co-hosts on the Fangamer anniversary stream when one of them accidentally called Kris "he".

Either way, I get it but I don't think I've seen too much of it, and I think it'll only decrease with time.

EDIT: Apparently Kris wasn’t referred to with any pronouns in the first chapter and it’s only in chapter two that people in-game started using they??? I don’t remember that, wild. But if it’s true, that might explain some things in relation to what I said.

#oh no renardie is posting

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mxdreemurr · 2 years

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Player-as-entity is only so popular as it is b/c nobody wants to consider that frisk has culpability in NM's story, imo. Even self-proclaimed chara stans will assume chara is somehow *inherently* more violent than frisk. Because you can't wave away chara's presence (and chara is more explicitly a troubled individual), but everyone wants to assume NM is just so horrible for frisk that they black out and never wake up, or are totally bodyjacked by the player and/or chara, etc...

Oh goodness yeah, I sometimes forget there are people who think that since I haven't had to see any in so long. There really is nothing suggesting that Chara is inherently more violent than Frisk, and the text does show that they are both Kids Who Struggle And Have Difficulties. I think of people don't want to consider that Frisk could have any culpability in no mercy because they're attached to the characterization they got of Frisk through a true pacifist run of them being unerringly Good and kind and can't consider the possibility of that happening. I personally think it's a lot more interesting to think about what characterization and character arcs implied by the game could lead to Frisk doing something like no mercy, because there is lots to work with there that creates satisfying narrative parallels and story arc, and leaves lots of space for whatever is to come next in Undertale and Deltarune's story.

(And also, the game's text does explicitly disprove that interpretation, Chara at the end of no mercy does say that it was thanks to Frisk's guidance that they learned the pursuit of power above all else. This may not be a perfectly reliable account of what happened, but it is communicating that Chara isn't instigating or controlling anything. And the person Chara is addressing there is definitely Frisk because the soul deal is for the red soul which is Frisks, and there's no evidence of a player entity being involved.)

As an aside, I think one of the factors in player-entity resurgence is the fact that Gaster at the beginning of Deltarune asks for the creator of the vessel's name, and then that name has already come into play in the story so far through the save points and Ralsei's dark world town. Which, yeah, I get what that looks like. But when has the first surface level reading of what something looks like in these games been the exact truth? It's like when Undertale asks you to enter a name for the fallen child and you might think it's a self insert or at least think you're naming the player character, but then surprise that was the name for a completely different character AND the player character is entirely their own person and not a self insert! What the whole goner vessel thing implies to me is that there is a character who Gaster asks to create a vessel, Chara throws out the vessel, that mystery character is important to the story somehow, and the red soul belongs to a character in the fiction of the game just like in Undertale.

There's always the chance that I'm completely wrong about this, but that's my take on it so far. Thanks a bunch for the ask and have a good day!

#asks #anonymous #Deltarune chapter 2 spoilers #Deltarune analysis

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