#but within the confines of canon it doesnt actually work like that

[floralovebot]

Hope you don’t mind me asking but…What do you think Riven is supposed to be in terms of coded Race or ethnicity?

When it comes to winx club and what race each character is supposed to be (or at least be coded as), its genrrally not very hard to guess. Like the winx are obvious because they’re directly modeled after real celebrities, but the specialists are a little less obvious, though still fairly easy to guess. Sky and Timmy are generally assumed to be white, it’s fairly certain amongst fans that Helia is supposed to be Asian, Nabu is South Asian, and Brandon…well he’s a little on the ambiguous side but I’ve seen a good amount of people headcanon him as Latino….and y’know what…as a latina, I’ll take it along with the canon rep that Flora (and MAYBE Stella??? I say that cause Cameron Diaz is of Cuban descent on one side, so it’s possible Stella could be read as a white passing/half Hispanic/Latina) gives us.

However with all that, Riven is really unclear to me. I see headcanons vary from him being asian, latino, white, or a mix of at least two of those…and Idk what to think tbh.

LOVE THIS

And honestly, this might be a disappointing answer, but the truth is that his race is fully ambiguous in every way possible. Sometimes fans say "ambiguous", but what they really mean is "definitely true, but not explicitly canon". For example, Nabu is South Asian in that kind of ambiguous way, where it is very, very clear, but not explicitly stated. (And let's be honest, the only reason some fans consider Nabu ambiguous is because he's dating Aisha, a black woman, and they can't imagine a non-black dark-skinned man dating a black woman, but I digress...)

Riven's race, however, is actually ambiguous in its true definition.

We don't know what planet Riven is from. It's never stated or even implied. We don't know where his family is from. It's never stated or implied. We don't know anything about his culture, how he was raised (outside of likely poor and single-parented), where he lived, if he had any friends, etcetc. Compared to other characters, we really don't know much about Riven's background other than his mom left him.

Sometimes people try to figure it out. Some people use his eye shape as evidence for him being Asian, despite the fact that other canonically non-Asian characters also have more narrow eyes (Flora being the best example). Some people use his hair color as evidence that he's from Zenith, but that really means nothing when it comes to his race, and Tecna being white isn't a good defense for that. Some people use his eye color being purple and Musa's eye color being purple as evidence that he is Asian, but considering Helia's eye color is blue and there are most definitely non-Asian characters with purple eyes too, that also means nothing. He never wears culturally significant or identifiable clothing. And no, I don't think his British flag shirt is anything more than Rainbow trying to make them look fashionable and trendy.

Riven's race is truly ambiguous. His racial identity can actually be read in more than one way. And honestly, I think this lends itself to a very impactful reading on his character as a whole. We know that Riven didn't have the best childhood. We know that he doesn't have a relationship with his mother, and he never brings up his father or anyone else in his family. It's very heavily implied that Riven's relationship with his family is rocky at best and nonexistent at worst.

Now obviously, in real life, someone having a bad relationship with their family doesn't just erase their genetics. That's true even in winx club - Musa has a fraught relationship with her father for the better part of season 1, but we can still tell she's East Asian. That being said, winx club is a fictional, animated show with drawn and intentionally designed characters. Just like Flora is designed to look sweet and girly, Riven is designed to look mysterious and angsty.

I truly believe that as an audience, we're not supposed to know much about his past, and in winx club, that includes his family, his planet, and subsequently, his race and ethnicity. Riven can be seen as Asian, White, mixed, Latino, Hispanic, mostly whatever you want, and that's on purpose. Whether or not that decision is Good is debatable, but I truly do think that was Rainbow's intention with him. He's meant to be seen as mysterious in season 1, and for Rainbow, that typically translates to knowing as little about a character's true self as possible.

Personally, I do prefer asian!Riven, but that is fully just a headcanon, and any "implication" I could find in canon is going to be dubious and easy to interpret differently. To bring back a previous point, I could say his eye shape is proof that he's Asian, and many people have, but that would mean that Flora, Palladium a la glow up design, Lucy, and Thoren are all also Asian. I could try to say that him having purple eyes is proof that he's Asian, but that would mean that Roxy is also Asian (which I would actually love but considering both of her parents are canonically white, she isn't). And tbh, these are the only solid, consistent things about his character that could be seen as proof of him being Asian coded, and that's not great in comparison to characters like Musa, Nabu, or Helia. Like,, there's a reason people make entire essays on Nabu's hair, clothing, parents, class, magic, etc, and not just one-off posts about the shape of his eyes. There's a lot to work with and a lot about him that actually correlates to being South Asian. Only being able to cite Riven's eye shape is pretty shoddy when you compare him to all the other "ambiguous" characters who have a lot more evidence supporting their coded race.

Trying to make any I'm Right statement about his race or ethnicity is always going to fail, at least regarding the first three seasons, because he doesn't have any significant or consistent racial coding. Even his characterization doesn't mean much when most, if not all, of the tropes he fits into are not race-specific, and any racial stereotype he could have can all be written off as him filling the angsty/minor antagonist/redeemed character tropes.

Anyway, again I realize this probably isn't the answer you wanted. I would love to do a full meta explaining the intricacies of his racial/ethnic coding, but he really just,,, doesn't have that. And again, we could totally have a discussion on whether or not this is even Okay; if Rainbow making his race ambiguous so he seems more mysterious is Wrong or Offensive in some way. But the truth is that Riven's race is ambiguous, and that's on purpose.

#answered #long post #again Personally i prefer and love asian riven #but im also asian myself and i used to think tecna and brandon were asian too #and tbh i still love asian tecna i can headcanon her as a little treat aldhg #but anyway #its very easy for me to see asian coding since ive gotten used to figuring it out #being a kid with little representation does wonders for coding interpretations aldg #but because of that i can say with ease that riven's asian coding isnt really... all that there #literally the ONLY thing people use as evidence is his eye shape #and for some people (like me) thats enough to consider him asian #but within the confines of canon it doesnt actually work like that #again other non-asian characters have that same eye shape #and the other actually asian characters have a lot more evidence going for them and fans dont have to rely on Just eye shape #riven's asian coding is very much an outlier and doesn't match up with the coding that other canonically/ambiguously asian characters have #and again i really do think this is on purpose

[beesmygod]

hey, listen. if you're a person who creates scary stories, videos, or art around the idea of SCARY TECHNOLOGY FROM THE PAST. i want you to find a trusted adult whose opinion you value who is over the age of 30 and show them your creation at various points of the creation process so they can tell you what does or doesnt work. because i am the one who is sorry to inform you that if your project is technologically impossible, rather than improbable, you lose a chunk of your audience who will be...its kind of hard to describe, actually. it's a combination of being so taken out of the narrative that i can no longer envision myself as the person experiencing ____ because i can't picture what fucking system what im experiencing is supposed to be on. or what age i am; this is absolutely very different from the experience of teens (it would be interesting to know more about what draws them to it, i suspect its the alien and less predictable nature of it), but as an adult, the draw of so called "analog horror" or "retro horror" is that a successful aesthetic recreation can draw me back emotionally to a time of greater vulnerability. to be honest, being scared within the technological confines of what retro horror is "canonically" limited to is more effective than breaking those bounds ever could be.

but like, in the same vein, this video im watching is trying to use the iconic opening to the pink floyd song "money" to unnerve me and this realization was way, way too funny lol. you needed a grown ass person to be like "you cant scare people with that one the bass is too fucking funky fresh"

[luxwing]

a common theory that the new trailer seems to also maybe hint at is that tears of the kingdom is the last game in the timeline as it may be the last rebirth cycle and its connected to skyward sword, maybe through time travel they break the cycle. doesnt mean there wont be zelda games but this far point in the future is the last point in the timeline, bookending the legend of zelda

I think that would actually be really cool. Like it could just be the end of the Hylia/Demise era and then the series can take off with different heroes and new legends. The more I think about it the more excited I am for that possibility. The series kinda gets more and more forced to work within the confines of its own canon (more by the fans than anything else) so finding a way to finally break off from that would be interesting to see! This game might be to the end of the timeline what Skyward Sword was to the beginning.

[another-dra-anew]

Higa (- definitely someone you don't know yes yes)

I GENUINELY HOPE CANON HIGA EXPLODES I NEED TO PUT THIS DISCLAIMER UP. AAAA

anyways. nothing i can think to cw for/have been asked to cw for iirc? mentions of higas favorite hobby (committing hate crimes) but that’s abt all.

- My identity hc for them

homophobic homosexual. there’s nothing more to say- wait. sorry. he took the wrong red pill noooo higa no!!! okay now there’s nothing else to say

- Thoughts on their home life/family

now we start the fun game of how do i chat about my kids without spoiling things… ya know. okay. i think his paternal grandparents are actually p chill they’re just not even remotely involved bc they live vv far away. they’re a bit upset with tatsunori for never updating them. higa used to send them tickets to all his Big games but then he overheard them joking with tatsunori about how they were always traveling home just to travel back out again. so. he doesn’t send them tickets as often now

- How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

i think in a lot of early posts i wasn’t confident enough in my writing to make higa more of… a actual Issue? he was kinda just a dick who got shut down quick by everyone. so i need to go back and fix that. need to show his actions are like. Very Bad, and he def faces consequences.

- The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

uhh. well. u see. im kinda writing beta so. the only thing i can really think of is like… making canon “if (x) had happened to higa instead of (y), then he would’ve turned out like (z)”, since i can’t reallyyy… get into backstory changes like that? 

- My number one favorite ship for them

i think non despair red pill is fun!! (specify non despair because the kg isn’t really the best time for higas personal growth, which is smthn red pill kinda hinges on)- SORRY PEOPLE WHO ARENT IN THE SERVER? i don’t remember if this joke has breached contamination or not. red pill is yamaguchi/higa. 

especially in non despair (since side stepping away from others isn’t really a option in the game + kinda makes people feel homicidal), they both wind up kinda isolated/on the fringes of group interactions because they’re not just. abrasive but they say shit that actually feeds into negative stereotypes. so people r a bit. steps away from them. so should they both get the chance to grow and change they can bond over how hard it is to try and integrate into a group u were excluded from because of like. ur own decisions hurting people in the group. 

- …Now everyone else i ship with them

higa keeps hate criming people it’s kinda. hard to ship him with people. that being said i think it’s silly to say he has a bit of a crush on maeda. cuz i promise u all maeda, at best, is 😐 at higa. i don’t ship them together but i think the idea of higa having a crush on maeda is funny. it’s definitely not canon tho i don’t write beta with that in mind

- The thing i will NEVER ship

see above. god damn it higa. (not that u can’t hurt people and genuinely change and grow. but like. yeah i think a lot of those ships have kinda sunk). 

- a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

hmmmmm…. i’d honestly like to talk more about kobas feelings on higa? specifically within the context of the game where it’s like. obviously koba doesn’t want higa to FUCKING DIE but while he understands the situation and knows if he felt uncomfortable or unsafe, he could say so and higa would get booted out. i think he’s just not very happy with the fact that they have to tip toe around higas general evil-ness so that he doesnt go off the rails and like. try to work with monokuma. he’s choosing so much mercy and so much emotional maturity. and that’s what sucks about being confined to one pov character!!!

- thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

maybe if i stopped giving higa fits that are so easy to clown on, he’d leave his villain era. hm. anyways!! lol sweater vest lol. i do genuinely like his design (been gently working on kobas fit recently and giving them more distinctive color palettes, so that’s fun), buuut yeah! tbh i don’t see it changing i don’t know where i’d go from here. i think it works v well ! :D

- A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

had to Hunt to find one. but animal - sir chloe makes me think like. a song higa would listen to, then close out of halfway through and never listen to it again but be haunted by the Thoughts it made him Think. im not good at interpreting songs the way they’re meant to be interpreted. :(. sorry to everyone behind sir chloe. 

#higa mitsuhiro #ask meme

[grain-my-beloved]

For real though watching yhs has lead me to the conclusion that despite Grian seemingly has such an active fight instinct....most of the time he actually doesnt respond to situations with half the fight attributed to him.

When faced with a traumatic situation Grian will absolutely bare his teeth at the nearest threat. He's absolutely vitriolic towards Sam at all times without fail and has even initiated physical violence in their confrontations once or twice. He's often on edge, often quick to angry outbursts, just overall rather hostile when faced with a dangerous/frightening/harmful situation. Which definitely indicates his main response to these scenarios is to fight. Hard.

However the more I engaged with fanon the more I faltered. A lot of fanon does portray him as very hostile in the face of trouble. Which should make sense. Canonically Grian knows when to say no, when to argue, and even sometimes when to physically fight back. Any episode with Grian present will likely have examples of him pushing back against harmful situations. And yet something always feels very Off about that being the start and end of it in a lot of fanon. Which led me down an interesting line of thinking.

I honestly suspect that Grian's volatility and will to fight back isn't nearly as strong as one would believe from observing him on surface level. In fact, his on the surface hostility feels like it's borderline a facade altogether to be honest.

I mean look at examples throughout canon of Grian in distressing situations.

Yhs halloween episode. The one where Taurtis got stabbed. And the following situation where Grian is famously forced to dress up like Taurtis. Grian would later be very upset about Sam stabbing Taurtis, however his initial response was to nervously laugh and even give Sam appeasing praise. I mean, Grian says "you weren't supposed to stab him" pretty clearly, but he anxiously laughs before and afterwards and even tells Sam he's proud of him when prompted. Obviously Grian was very upset about the whole thing later on after taking Taurtis to the hospital however in the moment he's mostly silent and when he's not he's just nervously laughing throughout, even agreeing with whatever *Sam* says when he's outright prompted by name for an opinion, then when everyone else tries to play it off casually Grian actually goes along with it almost entirely, even agreeing to let Taurtis drive him home for some reason. Then, according to his own story, he had an opportunity to talk to police at the hospital and he didn't incriminate Sam. He knew they were supicious of *him* but he still didn't incriminate the actual killer. "I told them I found him like that" Grian alleged. Honestly it sounds like he didn't tell them much of *anything* before being released and making the walk back to meet Sam. The next morning Grian was significantly more vocally upset about Taurtis being stabbed and expressed being upset with Sam however he seemed significantly more anxious than he was angry throughout the interaction. Then Grian immediately pretty readily agreed to go with Sam and Yuki to school and willingly put on the Taurtis outfit before the other's even started with the threats in the name of making things 'less awkward'. He certainly objected, however he was once again a lot more anxious than angry, nervously laughing, coming up with really weak unimportant excuses, and agreeing within ten seconds of being asked. Pretty much the rest of his time dressed as Taurtis goes very similarly. He objects to most things he's told to do and brings up Sam stabbing Taurtis multiple times despite the other's not wanting him to but is primarily nervous rather than hostile and he never actuslly puts up enough resistence for it to stick. Even when the other's were stuffing plastic down his throat and he told them he thought it may kill him Grian still did it and told the other's he *liked* it when pushed. Eventually he got out of it by running on Rowan's command and no sooner than being told to get out of there. When Sam found him again Grian immediately even reverted back to doing as he was told and cowering away from him in obvious fear up until Okami and Rowan showed up and shoved Grian behind them. Then he *still went home that night* knowing Sam would be there. When they found Taurtis it was pretty clear that Grian was hoping Taurtis would help him once he got his memory back however when instructed to stop telling Taurtis who he was Grian for the most part did aside from subtle pushing about the familiarity of certain things and then later when Taurtis got his memory back and made it pretty clear he wasn't going to help Grian? Grian conceded. He spent a good few minutes arguing about everything he'd gone through- everything they both had- and insisting it wasn't okay but when Taurtis made it pretty clear he wasn't going to do anything and they collectively agreed Grian was the real problem? Grian kinda...stopped. When Taurtis made it clear he wasn't going to be helping, Grian just kinda fell back into their normal routine with the other's, and when Sam demanded an 'apology soda' from Grian for what he'd apparently done, Grian bought it for him saying "If that's what it takes for things to go back to normal".

Let's also look at Grian's involvement with the law during/shortly-after the Halloween situation. When Sam and Yuki dragged him to join the Yakuza he was upset and objected anxiously but caved as soon as he got pushback. When Sam wanted to steak from the Yakuza he once again got objections from Grian who nervously insisted that it was a terrible idea but once again Sam shoved aside Grian's complaints and once again Grian just kinda fell into place despite being upset. When the police also started threatening the trio's lives to work for them, Grian objected. He questioned if they were allowed to do that and was very openly not happy about any of it, however he very quickly submitted under pressure. Both times Grian was locked in solitary confinement he loudly protested his sanity and both times he voiced how disturbing it was on a really deep level being locked up like that but both times when he was let out he just went with the other two again and let them brush it all off- even knowing full well they let him out to be *death fodder*. He just went with them relatively quietly save for maybe a token remark or two. Honestly the large majority of this bs Grian was involved with was under physical threat and he almost always bent under it. Even down to his fight with Pie over Ellen. Pie showed up and started challenging their relationship. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki insisted they have a knife fight. Grian said *no*. Pie said yes. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki affirmed there would be a knife fight. Grian objects more. Everyone else present discusses how the knife fight will work. Grian gets stabbed. Grian suggests they just ask Ellen who they want to date *obviously*. Ellen chooses nobody and leaves. Grian was upset but then just kinda accepts it and goes on with what the whole group was doing before.

And just to round this out with one more example. The Starwars Cosplay Incident. Apparently Sam burst into Grian's room, undressed him, shoved him into Leia Cosplay complete with fake boobs, and locked him in the basement for three days. Grian sits there for three days until Taurtis rescues him.  Grian has a moment of being rightfully very angry and finally even tries to physically attack Sam, demanding to know if Taurtis is aware of what Sam did to him and insisting that they can't expect everything to be fine now. Except it kinda...was. Taurtis stopped Grian from attacking Sam, they both brushed it off as a joke and not a big deal, and then they went to school. And Grian just *went*. He walked with the other two, he wore the outfit Sam put him in, and he just kinda moved on. Grian would later object when the clones tried to pull him out of class, snapping that he just wants to learn and get an education like a normal person and demanding to know why he's not allowed to. But he goes! And when he's released he walks right back to Sam and Taurtis, makes some bitter remarks to them, and let's them shove it all aside as if it's unimportant. Later when it's Grian, Sam, and a member of school staff alone in the closet, some innapropriate remarks are made to Grian. He very quickly says he's reporting the remarks made by school staff but Sam tells him not to be rude and it doesn't seem Grian ever does. Later on when Geode makes a comment about Grian's outfit as well Sam and Taurtis start pondering *giving* Grian to them. Grian repeatedly said *no* but with a lot more despair than defiance and we don't even know if he'd have actually followed through with fighting back if they'd tried to actually give him away because they were interrupted before the situation got to that point. Grian once again just let the other's move on as if that didn't happen and continued following them around, though! And he wore that damn outfit he was very explicitly uncomfortable with. All day.

Which is kinda all to say that when it comes to fighting back Grian is a lot more bark than bite.

Grian throws out a lot of bitter remarks, makes his objections very apparent in most things, and even has more than one vitriolic rant to his abuser(s) throughout the series. But that layer of his responses to things is so fragile that it tends to fall away within minutes- if that, sometimes *seconds*.

Of course ive seen other people take note of this and argue that it means Grian actually *wants* to do these thingd he's objecting to but I think that's silly. If it were just things like group crime or violent acts then id possibly see it but Grian puts up the same kind of response to having plastic shoved down his throat and to being locked in the basement for days which there's no way in hell he was any kind of okay with. The more likely scenario here isn't that he secretly wanted to do any of these things and made his resistence weak so he could pretend he tried while still doing it.

The likely scenario here is that his fight response is much more for show than one would think. Because Grian's strongest most influential response to things really never seems to be to fight. Aggression is really hardly Grian's overall stance on handling a distressing situation.

Much more frequently you see the most influence coming from completely other instinctive responses.

Looking for outside help in adults, friends, and classmates like when Okami and Rowan protected him during his time dressed as Taurtis or when Grian tried desperately to get Taurtis to be on his side and help him after Sam seriously hurt him both when Taurtis first got his memory back after Halloween and when Taurtis found Grian in the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident, hell, even during his fight with Pie it can be argued that Grian calling for them to just ask Ellen was an appeal to outside help as he hoped Ellen would agree to end the fight and save him from the situation as a result.

Running away- or trying to at least- from the threat. Most notably seen back during the halloween incident when he quite literally ran out the back of the gym and hid from Sam+Yuki then hiding behind Okami and Rowan when they showed up in an attempt to flee from Sam which is how he got away from the other's at all during that situation. Grian's consistent need to exclaim every so often how much he wants to go back to Europe is a subtler example of this, though, of Grian's urge to get away.

Honestly though being quiet and moving as he's directed seems to be the most common winning response. You see little sparks of reaction from him but most of the time Grian is just quiet, nervously laughing, following Taurtis and Sam around in what they ask of him, and even outright appeasement strategies to maintain a calm environment. This is So common from Grian. This is what usually wins out. His quiet nervous laughter and agreeing with Sam when Taurtis is first stabbed. The fact that he didn't tell the police what Sam did when alone with them during questioning and then immediately walked to meet up with Sam and went to school with Sam+Yuki with literally no objections. The fact that he didn't say no like *at all* to putting on the Taurtis outfit in the name of not making things awkward and complied within seconds of first being asked. How he proceeded to do what he was asked all day and didn't make any move to get away until Rowan outright instructed him to run. The fact that he went back! The fact that he went along with it when they joined the Yakuza and when they stole from the Yakuza and when they joined up with the cops and when they *forced him into a knife fight*. How Grian eventually just lost his spark of defiance after Taurtis first got his memories back and made it clear he wasn't helping Grian, with Grian agreeing to buy Sam a fucking *apology soda* if it meant things would go back to normal after hearing everyone else agree that *he* was the problem in all he'd been put through. The way he just goes back to following Sam and Taurtis after they got him locked in solitary confinement on blatant lies because they *wanted* to. The way he walks around school with the other two while wearing cosplay that made him feel gross and uncomfortable that Sam had literally physically forced onto him and just went along with what he was told in the end.

Grian always puts up a fight but not a good one. He makes side comments, he makes objections, he even has more than one emotional rant about the hell he's put through, however this never wins out in the end and this presenting fight is very frequently just barely holding down much stronger freeze and fawn instincts that usually win out pretty damn quick.

Which!!! In a situation like Grian's it actually makes significantly more sense to have strong freeze and fawn responses than to have a strong fight response! I mean, think about it. A fight response is primarily useful in scenarios in which it's possible to take strong action to remove the threat. You're attacked by a dog so you throw stuff at it till it backs away. You're picked on by an upperclassman so you punch em' in the nose expecting fully that they'll leave you be after. Someone attacks you while you're walking home so you try and stab them with your key. Fighting is an incredibly good response for random/one time attacks. If you're ever kidnapped you wanna scream and punch and kick and make a scene so they can't take you to a secondary location. You fight. Fighting is optimal for unexpected stranger conflicts. That's not the situation Grian's in though. Grian suffers from serious long term physical, emotional, and financial abuse. He's in a country he doesn't have residency or family in, he doesn't have a readily available source of income, he doesn't have his own mode of transportation, it seems that most of the time he doesnt have a clear way home, he's often dealing with long term friends of his and seemingly his biggest source of support prior to this situation, even back in Europe he doesn't have much support system to run to given his parents canonically left him, he's frequently under threat of physical danger, etc. This is not the kind of situation in which an intense primary fight response helps. This is the type of situation in which an intense primary fight response either gets you seriously hurt or wandering the streets with no way to provide for yourself. It would likely be similar if he presented an intense primary flight response to be honest. In long term abuse situations where there's no rational way of escaping safely or no rational place to escape to? Often the primary responses that promote survival are fawn and freeze. Appeasing the aggressor or sinking into the background. Those are your ways to stay alive when you can't expect to 'win' or escape. It absolutely makes more sense for Grian to have primary fawn and freeze responses than a primary fight response.

But then why does he present so much hostility? What's with all the bitter remarks and the attempts to voice objections and the occasional overt insults/screaming? How does a fawn/freeze response present as fight when first pressed at?? Well fun fact, I have experience with that kind of presentation because I *was* that kind of presentation. Oh boy did I try to push strong fight responses towards my abusive father with token resistences and petty remarks even though most of the time I crumpled under the slightest pressure and spent my time ignoring the problem or dissociating or trying very hard to avoid future conflicts. You put up a token front of fight even if that's never going to be your primary response for the sake of your own mental health, really. To assure the world- and *you*- knows that you don't *want* this situation. So you can say you tried. Out of some misguided hope that your attempted bravado won't be seen through and that maybe this time they'll just stop pushing instead of calling the bluff. Which. Makes sense with Grian as well. I mean looking at the times he really truly goes off before reverting back to a more appeasing stance, most notably his rants from when Taurtis first got his memory back as well as from when he got out of the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident. Most of those rants were taken up by Grian loudly and passionately reiterating what he'd been through, insisting he was the victim, and calling Sam an awful person before the defiance fades out and he becomes more willing to just go about their day. It's one attempted push hoping the other parties present will vie in his favour and a reassertion that he's not okay with this and that *he* is being hurt which gives way within minutes to a much duller attitude. That's just a painfully familiar format. Adding on Grian's token objections/passive aggressive remarks to many situations that distress him and how quickly those objections give way as dismissed by others. That kind of behaviour feels strongly like an attempt to preserve your own mental wellbeing as much as possible with the knowledge that you tried to some extent and with just generally hearing out loud that you are the victim even if from yourself. Grian's behaviour just really feels like a facade of defiance to cover up general helplessness which makes a Lot of sense for the scenario. Probably more than just plain defiance would.

#yhs #yandere highschool #yhs grian #long post

[simpirals]

Sweet Rot

Chapter 1 Home.

(Read on AO3)

So this is a collab with my good friend @stellarwhaleshark in which we wrote about corruption Martin. If you liked it,please let us know in the comments!

❤️Reblogs are encouraged ! ❤️

Characters: Martin,Michael, Jon, Tim,Daisy

Relationship:Martin/Michael (even if not main focus)

Warnings: Body horror,canon typical worms,trypophobia,insects being gross in general

How long has it been?

Martin lost his sense of time when Jane Prentiss had trapped him in his own home. The first few days were not too bad. Yes, the power was, and still is, cut, but it was bearable. He carefully rationed his food for the first few days so hunger wasn't really a problem; but he had underestimated how long he'd be confined in there. Without any power, and the loss of his phone, there was no way he could contact the outside. Still, after all this time, he hoped someone would have realized he hasn't showed up in so long and would check up on him.

Perhaps they did.

Perhaps they did and got infected with… whatever was standing in front of his door right now. Martin had gone through any books and writings he owned twice. Or more. He lost the exact count. He even resorted to reading his old poems, which he would usually cringe at when reading. He was desperate to have any sort of distraction while Prentiss was trapping him there. It has been impossible to tell how long the days have been. After barricading his window with towels and furniture just in case to keep the worms at bay, (never mind the fact that his flat was on the third story), it was impossible to gauge the time. He was starting to question his own sanity. He guessed it was around the third week that he had run out of food. Even those dreaded canned peaches he got sick of eating were now gone. The final scrape at the bottom of the last can of peaches he had been avoiding back then was more soul shattering than he anticipated. With a frustrated grunt, the tin was tossed aside and left to clatter on the ground. Martin slumped to the ground and cried. Oddly enough, he never heard her trying to break the door down. He wondered if she truly was an empty husk, with no muscles or nerves, so fragile she would just break if she tried forcing the door. Martin does not like how he's starting to keep thinking about her recently. Sometimes, he swears he hears a voice coming from his door. Sometimes a call, other times like a melody being hummed. Was it the song of the hive she originally referred to in her statement? He does his best to dive back into the pamphlets he had already read, almost memorizing them by heart by now. But he feels himself getting more and more exhausted. It’s getting harder for him to not fall asleep when he hears her knocking. This is getting to his brain.  Now all Martin could do was divide the days up as best as he could by his horrid sleep schedule.

Two days later (he assumed), Martin began to write. It distracted him from the pangs of hunger, and god knew that he was desperate to vent. But the more he scribbled down his unfiltered thoughts, the more he realized how pitiful this all was. What was he even doing? He knew he was doomed. So why was he still determined to live... Especially like this? What reason could he possibly have to keep going? Would anyone even miss him?

Before his mind could supply him with a cold "no", something else interrupted his thoughts. Michael. Michael was out there still. Probably in the hospital still, sure, but he was still out there . Martin knew he wasn't a smart man, contrary to his CV, but he was willing to entertain the thought that there was at least one person out there that actually cared about him. When the knocking came again, followed by a gentle hum of a song, Martin forced his mind to wander to him being with his friend again.

He had to make it out.

With a heavy sigh, he tosses his head back to press against the wall and waits for a miracle. Instead, he gets a knock at his door.

Each time this woman knocks, it feels like an echoing headache. How he wished she would just stop-- this is making him insane.

How easy would it be to just..end this if he simply opened the door?

Martin mentally slapped himself when he realized what the hell he just started to ponder about.

There was absolutely no bloody way he'd let that thing in. No way.

At least, not willingly. Martin tried his best to block his ears whenever he heard that dreadful knock again. He tried his best to miserably keep his mind busy ,anything that could, even briefly, make him forget about the monster waiting to pounce on him outside his door.

He started to think about Michael again. How they'd always spend their break time together. Exchanging tips for how to make the best tea. Venting to each other about Gertrude and Jon respectively. Michael was always so sweet. Out of the others,he always felt like he was the best at understanding him. He remembered he even offered him a sweater for his birthday. Said he knitted it himself. He remembers keeping it safe in his wardrobe.

He wondered if he should wear it.

Perhaps that will be his sole source of comfort knowing ultimately how he was going to end. Eaten by worms before he could starve to death, perhaps--

Before his thoughts spiralled any further, Martin decided to get up and splash his face with water.

He wondered what was worse, dying of hunger or by dehydration.

Feeling the cold water did not have the desired effect of keeping his mind mostly awake,he realized how tired he was and decided to go to bed, not caring anymore if it was 3 in the morning or even noon. It's not like it mattered at this point. With a dejected look on his face,he headed over to his bed and laid down on it.

Martin doesnt remember when he fell asleep.

He felt something slimy squirm on his legs and arms. He started to stir, but an oddly familiar tune kept pulling him in his  dream world .

A world where he was not trapped inside his own home.

But the feeling of the growing mass writhing on his limbs grew, and his eyes suddenly shot wide open, his half awake brain suddenly registering the possible danger.

Martin wished he had kept his eyes closed.Or that the sickeningly sweet tune he kept hearing lulled him back to a deeper sleep.

The monster he spent several days,weeks to keep at bay had straddled him. And she was hunched over his face,with her pierced hands cradling his face in a strange softness he never felt before. Not even his own mother would tenderly hold his face like that when he was a child.

Martin doesn't know what he wants to do.

Scream?

His throat felt like it closed on itself.

Struggle?

He can't feel his limbs anymore.

Martin suddenly started to sob,a half choked gasp escaping his throat.

It was pathetic,he knew,but he didn't care anymore. if he was going to die,then he might as well do it humanely.

Tears rolled down his cheeks,and Prentiss brushed a tear away with her thumb.

The sensation of a skin full of holes against his soft, still warm flesh felt entirely too wrong.

"It's all over now. You won't have to be in pain anymore. You had friends, but they've abandoned you. The Hive has pity for you. And so much Love, too."

Her... voice scrapes at his ears. He cries more, his nerves from his limbs probably too damaged from the worms to even feel the pain. He does not dare to look at them.

Instead, he finds himself unable to turn his gaze away from Prentiss's face. Covered in holes.Too many to count. So many.

Worms started pouring down her face.

" You won't ever have to feel alone now. The Hive has so much love for Her children. It sensed the mark of the Lonely within you. Let Her consume you. " The worms kept falling,and black liquid oozed from her hollow eyes.

Martin started to gag and choke,his throat obstructed and his chest spasming uncontrollably. His survival instincts suddenly started to kick in,and he tried to shake Prentiss off.

But it was way too late for that.

A scream was forced out of him as he felt something dig into his stomach. Well, it would've been a scream, but it came out more of a wet gargle as something tasting of rot and iron pooled in his mouth. He felt it dribble down his mouth, soaking into his now worm-eaten clothes. Jane's pitted hands tilted his face to get a better look at her work. She hummed in admiration, and Martin wished that he didn't find that comforting.

"It always escapes my memory, you know. How disgusting it is to witness someone be embraced by Her love for the first time. How beautiful it is to watch and listen to someone be overwhelmed by their rotten souls."

Martin felt something grubby drag itself across the tear tracks on his face before digging into his cheek.

His skin crawled, and Christ, did it itch. He wished so desperately that he could move, but the most he could do was squirm and writhe in agony.

...Squirm.

Why did that- why did that awful word sit so well with him? Why did it make sense?

"You can feel it now, can't you? The thrum of hundreds of organs and veins within you? They are swarming. Dancing and filling you with a new, diseased purpose. You are horribly broken and imperfect, and so worthy of Her love."

Martin could barely register his body shaking... he wasn't sure if it was actually him doing so or if it was simply the worms inside him, claiming him as their new home.

All he could do was gurgle out a "S-stop, please..." Before choking and spluttering once more.

He cringed as some of the dark liquid splattered across her face due to the proximity. But what was even more disturbing was the fact that Prentiss seemed to be happy about it. "Can you hear their song?" She asked slowly.

His heart stuttered at the question, and Martin was confused by what she meant.

His eyes scanned his attacker wildly, desperate to find anything that would help him understand Jane's cryptic inquisition.

Martin's vision became impaired by dozens of small bodies crawling on and over the lenses of his crooked glasses. He screwed his eyes shut, though he was well aware that his eyelids would do little to save him from this torture.

That's when he encountered a moment of clarity.

Though the rest of his senses were swarmed with discomfort, Martin was able to pinpoint one thing: A beautiful crescendo of buzzing. And it demanded his full attention. It was… beautiful.

Familiar, even.

Martin let himself focus on the song that thrummed within his skull, finding relief in the fact that it almost distracted him from the dull pain. Almost. It was loving and welcoming and... terrifying.

The wriggling harmonized wonderfully with it, and he snapped back into the realization that no, he should not feel loved. He should feel afraid, he should be afraid of- of...  

...Afraid of never hearing it again.

But somehow, Martin knew their music wouldn't leave him for a long while. The sound soothed every twitching limb and hammering blood vessel until Martin blearily registered how painfully tired he was. Somewhere in his mind, he heard thousands of sweet voices encouraging him to rest.

As he felt his consciousness finally leave him, he felt those cold hands trail down his arms to gently take his own and squeeze them. His skin writhed beneath her grip. Her question echoed in his mind, and his throat itched to answer. Martin Blackwood uttered out his last word. Much like him, it was simple. Pitiful.

His new friends were delighted to hear it.

"Yes." ---------------------------------------------- Please let us know if you enjoyed that fic so we can write more about this au <3

#tma #the magnus archives #magpodfic #martin blackwood #magpod #michael shelley #martinmichael #michael hasnt appeared yet but im using the tag anyway #and the martinmichael tag is starving so i'll just use this tag anyway cuz next chapter will have more of these bois we prommy #tai's stories #Honeymoon serie #simpirals #taikeero-lecoredier #body horror #worms #insect #the corruption #corruption!martin #trypophobia

[shanastoryteller]

okay some of you are like. really missing the point here, so we're just going get real basic.

I changed the house elf system to give it nuance. on purpose.

the canon system is just straight up "house elves love working for no pay, who cares if they're beaten for it, let's all mock Hermione for trying to change it"

that's not nuanced, or complicated, or interesting. if anything is slavery apologism, it's that. the thing about canon is that it's terrible. I've said this before, but if you're going to address house elves and not just hand wave their plight away, your options are just straight up revolution because slavery is uh fucking terrible and intolerable at every level, or you have to change it to make canon slightly less awful. so that's what I did.

house elves now directly benefit from the servant bond when they didnt before. magic is their equivalent to money, and they can use it to get anything they desire except clothes, and the only reason that clothes restriction exists is because I'm working somewhat within the confines of the rules jkr has set up. they used to be forest keepers, but less forest meant more house elves who needed somewhere else to go and some other source of magic.

but it's not all sunshine and puppies. it's not designed to be. because house elves can hurt the people they're bound to and those people are powerless to stop them, they resort to physical punishments. because firing a house elf for being disloyal is a death sentence, it's not done lightly, and it's illegal to do so if theres no family to take their bond specifically for that reason. and people abuse their power over house elves, just like bosses abuse their power over their employees, employees who's just can't quit because they live paycheck to paycheck and without money theyll starve. just like a house elf who doesnt have access to magic.

wizards don't like being bound to house elves. it's a servant in return for being extremely vulnerable and literally having them feed off your energy. the ultra rich are usually the only ones with house elves, and i think they'd really rather just pay a few gallons a week than be vulnerable.

what do you do then? what's the solution? it's a flawed, exploitative system, but it's not the black and white easy "this is terrible" of slavery. its modeled after capitalism. terrible, of course, but not so terrible that most of us just dont carry on living with it, and hey. it's really working out to the benefit of some of us, even if a lot of other people are a pay cut away from death.

characters realizing that the house elf system and flawed and needs to change is a journey, because part of growing up is realizing that complicated things are more messed up than you thought.

this isn't me, a white person, wringing my hands and clutching my pearls because how dare someone accuse me, a liberal, of slavery apologism

this is me, an author, saying that by calling the house elf system slavery, you take all that nuance and complications and grey area that I put in so much effort to include, and you throw it away. slavery isnt nuanced or complicated or justifiable in any way. it's just terrible. you turn characters growing up and realizing things arent as easy and straightforward as they seemed when they were younger, and turn it into "they approve of slavery, actually"

this most recent chapter we have draco apologizing to dobby, saying the system is wrong, and going "Hermione was right about house elves, I should talk to her about the research shes been doing to help and offer to help her"

I put a lot of set up into that. it took us a long time to get there. and by calling an exploitive system where creatures are compensated for their labor and not considered property and calling it slavery, all that effort and character growth and nuance is just ... destroyed

and i, unsurprisingly, take issue with that

#house elf discourse

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

So obviously alot of people (wrongly) didnt like Woody’s decision in Toy Story 4 and i’m here to tell you why you are wrong (and maybe why you should feel bad about it)

TS4 Spoilers, obviously

With the story being about toys its likely alot of us missed out on the major theme of the genre, which really only came to me recently.

Yes they are cute movies about toys with puns and gag humor.

alot of people try to play up the existential horror of being a toy, whos existence is at the whim of giants who will destroy you themselves or throw you away , blah blah blah.

But really the whole thing is a giant metaphor. its like a Black Mirror/Twilight Zone episode where the concept is “What if adults entire lives revolved around their kids”

See, the toys exist because of kids, are brought into their lives, get fulfillment out of helping the kids grow up and be happy, and while often fearing losing their kids overall accept the inevitability.

lots of people have tried to do some weird fanfictiony thing regarding woody and andy. especially with the heavy implication that Woody was inherited from his father. But i’m here to say Woody is Andy’s father.

No not his biological father, he’s not the reincarnated soul of his father. I’m saying within the confines of this story and metaphore he is Andy’s father. his step father, his father figure. Its, within canon BECAUSE he is an heirloom FROM his father that he’s so attatched to the Woody Doll.

Because each toy has their role. RC is Andy’s first car, Ham and Potatoe head are like Andy’s uncles. Bo Peep his Woody’s girlfiend.

See its cus of this relationship that Woody’s role is so important. What are fathers for? inspiring you. Playing games with you. being heroic. Being kind. protecting others. even falling in love. Andy doesnt have a father and for the sake of the story his mother is barely shown. He gets his fulfillment and plays with the values of heroism, emotion, and becoming a good person through his toys like so many kids. And woody is there to teach him, love him, be there for him and be someone to look up to.

but because of the Black mirrorness, his step dad (woody) and uncles and aunts and all that are objects , that while they exist outside of his perview, dont exist to HIM. To any of the kids in this world. Thats how parents and adults are to kids in the real world...only more literal. Kids dont think about their teachers outside of school. have a hard time comprehending the billions of adults doing things like having lives, working jobs, speaking other languages and doing adult things across the world. Even their own parents are easily forgotten until the kid has been away for awhile, or needs the parent the do somehting or comfort them. Thats JUST like these toys. kids are inspired by and love their toys but are easily distracted, or like with many kids and their parents, grow to dislike playing with those toys/adults. And similarly the toys and adults do have their OWN lives , thats both a good and bad thing. When not being played with the toys still exist and have lives of their own. but ultimately their lives REVOLVE around a kid.

So imagine in real life in Adults werent allowed to move (far), to travel, without their kids. That they COULD but they had to return to their positions by the time the kids got back. The thing you might have been wondering is that ALL the toys cant be parents but they arent they are adults. Look at all of andy’s toys there are some he never plays with and others he barely does. So like...Bo Peep being a toy he only plays with when he needs  a damsel in distress is like him going to his step dad’s girlfriend when he needs advice about girls or buying a gift for one. Ham is the weird nerdy uncle that only exists when you need to ask em weird facts on messenger or borrow money from.

So imagine in this black mirror world if like...the barista didnt make coffee all day, have breaks and made money. If they had to stay in their uniform in the coffee shop all day doing nothing but playing solitair and waiting for a kid to show up so they could play their small part.

And of course the major issue in toy story is the growing up and losing your kids.

In toy story 1 Woody gets upset when another step dad comes into Andy’s life. maybe metaphorical for his mom’s new boyfriend. like many kids ANdy is smitten by having the cool new dad who has lasers and takes him to put put and Pizza planet. Andy loved going to the ranche and horseback riding with Woody but all this NEW stuff is Amazing!. And like many adults Woody was sidelined for the new shiny stuff. If you live for your kids it can be heartbreaking when a new friend or hobby or adult comes into their life and they dont have time for you anymore. Heck every sitcome has like 5 episodes dedicated to the adults getting used to the idea that with growing up the kids dont have time for them anymore. And woody grows to accept the new adult in Andy’s life because him being an asshole about it made it so he almost LOST andy completely. Imagine a movie or sitcom where andy’s dad and his mom’s new boyfriend keep bickering and then the wife tells them if they cant stop yelling at each other in front of andy that neither of them can see him. (andy moving away)

In toy story 2 they are dealing with andy growing up. He’s grown out of most of his toys. just like how kids who are preteen spend most of their time with their family. going to friends house, playing with cousins, that as they grow older they dont want to go on 6 hour car rides to see grandma anymore. they arent interested in playing leggos with toddlers, or grow to dislike cousins. So andy’s likes and dislikes have shifted and he only has some of his favorite toys now, just like how a teenager will often be less involved with their parents, lose some friends, gain others and might interact less with extended relatives.

And then fearing losing andy himself, woody risks himself to keep another relative from losing andy. and he ends up in a new world, playing with the concept of moving on from his kid. See Jessie has already gone through this. Her kid grew into a teenager and like many mothers, was promptly forgotten about. her mom (jessie)  wasnt even embarrassing, she just wasnt on her radar, she was talking with friends, doing makeup , doing extra curriculars. She didnt have time for jessie and when she finally found her, immediately put her away. She’d grown up and her ‘mom’ wasnt in her life anymore, she still had the good memories, but sadly Jessie realized that all that time she waited for her daughter to come back to her so they could bond again, that her kid lost interest in ever being her friend a LONG time ago.

And woody saw that as his future. So when the entire reason you are alive is to help your kid, what do you do when your kid isnt gone, because they dont want you anymore? thats the problem he had to face. And the movie focuses on this. on extra bonus material we see the Prospector was happy now that he finally had his first kid, Woody talks to buzz not about NEVER losing andy, but that its STILL GOING TO HAPPEN. but its WORTH IT. THats just like what so many parents say. That its hard dealing wiht kids that are stressful and take up money and eventually they rebel and you lose them for the most part. but its WORTH IT to see them grow up and become amazing people.

And thats part of Toy Story 3. Andy’s all grown up and since parents/toys only exist for kids to play with then there is no reason for them. their lives are unfullfulling and pointless but they dredge on none the less because thought heir lives are dedicated to kids they dont immediately disappear when they dont have them. though its implied they do eventually fade away.

but some of these toys find an alternative. such a preschool. infinite kids forever. the connection isnt as strong but its something. just like adults who babysit or become teachers or caretakers. In this Bonnie is Woody’s and other toys second chance. their second child. the “we arent that old, maybe we can have another one?” and So they try again.

however, Toy story 4

in this extended metaphor kids dont NEED their parents/toys. the story doestn focus on real life for people. its just assumed that kids are taken care of , that they have food and a place to live. So its actually the ‘adults whos ENTIRE EXISTENCE revolves around being loved by a child” allegory that is at risk here

And see. in real life you have to accept like woody and andy that eventually even your most beloved kid will outgrow you. You have to accept like jessie that even before they grow up a child you love will no longer need you as much as you feel for them. That while you are important to a child if you get deployed, if you have to move away , if you are just at work all the time your child is home you can end up being ‘repalced’ by someone IN their lives.

 and Woody...thats whats happened to him. He’s there for Bonnie, bonnie cares about him but hes not her favorite toy. shes got this HUGE extended family and she gets enough love from her parents and her surogate parents (like dollie) and Woody is just one of dozens of ‘relatives” that help her out.

and So this LAST movie is about him finally learning that though loving a child is precious. that trying again is admirable. that when you love a child its about the CHILD not you, and that you WILL get hurt, but its WORTH IT. “this is what its all about” that helping create and nurture this kid is worth any heartbreak, of the kid outgrowing you, even the kid forgetting you.

BUT That its a choice and you can and SHOULD at some point CHOOSE to LIVE FOR YOURSELF. Woody has presumably spent all of Andy’s dad’s childhood, all of Andy’s childhood and a few years with Bonnie, raising kids, inspiring them. he’s existed for like 50 years. and He wouldnt trade those memories for the world. but He cant get that back. he cant relive the past. Its the past.

and so he decided to do what all parents should do, move on and find a fulfilling life for HIMSELF.

YOU DESERVE A HAPPY LIFE FOR YOURSELF.

and thats why it pisses me off that people are like “woody would never leave bonnie”

raising kids is great but you cant have a LIFE if you live only for that. You have to be your own person and EVENTUALLY even if you decide to dedicate your life to kids, EVENTUALLY you have to live for yourself

#toy story 4 spoilers #toy story 4 #toy story #parenthood

[overanalyzing-homestuck]

So, Marvus’ friendsim is interesting because Marvus seems to be aware of timelines, which points to the idea that he’s likely a time player (I’m very tempted to say he’s a Lord of Time), indicating that his sign is either Capries or Caprist depending on whether he’s a prospit or derse dreamer (personally, I’m leaning towards prospit, but I’m doubtful only because that was the sign on his hat in his troll call, which we were told was a trick, but that in of itself could have been a trick)

But I’m not here to classpect Marvus. I’m here to analyze all the time shit he says and make the nonsense he said make sense to all of you.

Long post, so everything is under the cut. rip mobile users

Alright, I can’t do jack shit w/o evidence, so here’s the evidence we’ll be using for this portion of the essay post. I’ll be reviewing two scenes in particular, so buckle up

“Oh well it wasn’t really much fo a stunt, you were just going along with your friend’s ludicrous plan to try to scam him into a friendship under false pretenses. But it was a really bad plan, and your friend was killed on the spot immediately, and now you’re pretty sure you’re cosmically fated to die due to making a non-canonical decision.”

“wat u mean non-canon

“all dis b non-canon fam

“wat can it even mean 2 be non-canonical w/in da context of an inherently extracanonical framework? skeet skeet brrrap!”

“You’re not sure. But you definitely have the sense that some of the decisions within the simulation carry greater values of truth and relevance than others, and that the linear progression of events is rigorously enforced by an obligate narrative flow that privileges those actions which most smoothly facilitate the designs of the story’s architect.”

“sure u can hear dat noize dat way

“but i say u the architeckt of ya own f8!”

Convo w/o Marvus’ quirk bc his quirk is sometimes hard to read:

“Oh well it wasn’t really much fo a stunt, you were just going along with your friend’s ludicrous plan to try to scam him into a friendship under false pretenses. But it was a really bad plan, and your friend was killed on the spot immediately, and now you’re pretty sure you’re cosmically fated to die due to making a non-canonical decision.”

“What do you mean non-canon? All of this is non-canon, fam. What can it even mean to be non-caonical within the context of an inherently extracanonical framework? Skeet skeet brrap!”

“You’re not sure. But you definitely have the sense that some of the decisions within the simulation carry greater values of truth and relevance than others, and that the linear progression of events is rigorously enforced by an obligate narrative flow that privileges those actions which most smoothly facilitate the designs of the story’s architect.”

“Sure you can hear that noise that way, but I say you’re the architect of your own fate!”

So the first scene I wanted to analyze was this one, particularly because of Marvus’ comment on how “all dis b non-canon,” which indicates an awareness that the timeline they are currently in isn’t the alpha timeline, if we consider the alpha timeline as being “canon” and the other timelines to be “non-canon.” The following line adds onto the idea that Marvus is aware that he’s not in the alpha timeline, but in a more meta way, and we know this because of his description of “extracanonical.”

Extracanonical: being outside the body of officially accepted writings: not included in a list of authorized books specifically: being outside a canon of books held to be sacred an extracanonical writing.

This essentially describes what Hiveswap Friendsim as a game-a non-canonical work that is outside the “alpha timeline” of Homestuck and Hiveswap. In other words, everything that happens in Hiveswap Friendsim, even the “correct” timelines, are all, ultimately, offshoot timelines that are doomed. MC even mentions it themselves:

“But now, for some reason, you have a hunch that you’re near the ened of your Alternian travels.”

This, of course, is true. There are only two friendsims left-only five more trolls to meet, and I have a feeling that all the timelines are going to be cleaned up by the end-with the implication being that everyone is going to die, and it’s going to be official that the entirety of Hiveswap Friendsim is a doomed timeline, so none of your choices matter in the end anyway because it doesn’t affect the main timeline at all.

But... that’s not what it’s really about, is it? A large theme in Homestuck is the idea that your choices matter regardless of whether or not you’re part of the alpha timeline because what you do works towards making the alpha timeline happen, and this same theme is being reflected in what Marvus says: “u the architeckt of ya own f8!”

But, this also sounds familiar. Who else talked about fate in a doomed timeline?

Boldir.

In response to MC asking if she truly believes in fate, and believes that fate brought the two of them together, she says “that would imply that none of our choices matter, and that causality is inevitable,” which is a line more indicative of the fact that causality is inevitable for those whose deaths are required for the alpha timeline and those whose deaths happen because they don’t belong to the alpha timeline.

But, then, Boldir follows up that statement with “but that disregards our choices. fate dictates that all possibilities are, by their very nature, necessities.” The necessities part is important-it’s what I spoke about earlier, isn’t it? That doomed timelines are required to help the alpha timeline on their journey?

What’s interesting here is how different Marvus and Boldir’s thoughts about fate are. They both have similar viewpoints, but the way they’re phrased offers them different meanings that may give us a good viewpoint on how Muses and Lords (If Marvus is a Lord) see fate differently due to their, respectively, passive or active nature.

Boldir finds fate to be something that dictates all that is necessary-a more passive viewpoint, with everything that happens in alternate timelimes indirectly affecting the alpha timeline.

Marvus finds fate to be something you control-a more active viewpoint, with everything that happens being the result of your own actions.

But that’s enough of that. Let’s go onto the next scene:

“depending on how u look at it evry branch in the timeline b fundamental 2 da metatextual structure of da essence of existence itself

“even an incident dat faliz outside a the strict confines of canonical continuity contributez 2 a metaconsciousness dat b built by & could even b said 2 b at its most essential level defined primarily by the extratextual xxxchange of interpretation by those who observe it

“each path a tranzlucent fragment dat via mirrorin or distortin or magnifyin certain aspectz of the ‘ultimate reality’ foldz itself invisibly into da fabric of dat reality

“itzelf immeasurable & intangible but da space it once occupied indelible

“da observation of irreality can still inform how reality iz 2 b interpreted even if dat irreality doesnt satisfy even a cursory standard of legitimacy

“and the act of contravening continuity can in itself provide definition to dat very integrity it defilez

“even if watz goin down here cant b said 2 b ‘true’ dat doesnt mean we r meaningless”

Also this monologue w/o the quirk: “Depending on how you look at it, every branch in the timeline is fundamental to the metatextual structure of the essence of existence itself. Even an incident that falls outside of the strict confines of canonical continuity contributes to a metaconsciousness that is built by and could even be said to be at its most essential level defined primarily by the extratextual exchange of interpretation by those who observe it. Each path a translucent fragment that via mirroring or distorting or magnifying certain aspects of the ‘ultimate reality’ folds itself invisibly into the fabric of that reality, itself immeasurable and intangible but the space it once occupied indelible. The observation of irreality can still inform how reality is to be interpreted even if that irreality doesn’t satisfy even a cursory standard of legitimacy, and the act of contravening continuity can in itself provide definition to that very integrity it defiles (defines?). Even if what is going down here can’t be said to be ‘true,’ that doesn’t mean we are meaningless.”

To put this monologue simply, it’s the same thing Boldir said-that all possibilities and timelines are necessary to the continuation and implementation of the alpha timeline.

To go into more detail, each timeline that occurs has a specific job to do. Marvus describes it as “mirrorin or distortin or magnifying certain aspects of the ‘ultimate reality,’” which means that each timeline serves a purpose to enhance and understand a certain part of the alpha timeline or a certain fundamental theme of the alpha timeline.

This actually might be a kind of mockery of those who claim the game doesn’t matter and is just silly because it’s not actually canon, but the game does serve a purpose, and that’s to learn about all the trolls on the troll call. These friendsims serve as a way to understand not only the trolls, but also the society they live in, and possibly how that society is controlled and manipulated by outside forces in order to achieve a certain goal (but this is a topic that would be better supported by Fozzer’s route, a theory which is kind of addressed here)

Ultimately, the friendsims serve as a way for us to understand how Alternian society shapes and oppresses trolls in order to make an environment where the Homestuck Alternian trolls can have a chance to beat SGRUB.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. Send me asks or tag me in stuff if you’re interested in this sort of thing or have your own two cents to add or feel like I missed anything. I’d be happy to here from y’all!

#hiveswap friendsim #hiveswap friendsim spoilers #marvus xoloto #spoilers #homestuck #hiveswap #meta #boldir lamati #long post #analysis #hiveswap analysis #hiveswap friendsim analysis #homestuck analysis #overanalyzing homestuck #overanalyzing hiveswap

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What do you think the best and worst case scenario would be for the Trio having to reveal their true identities, time travel and all?

My best case scenario reveal is the war is over, the countries are at peace, everyone is happy, and the Trio just decides to go ahead and tell everyone because they want the mages to work on possibly connecting their worlds… worst case scenario: They’re at the final battle, everyone is injured or dead, and Anonkos remembers and calls those yhree put before summoning a revived Grima, who has a major grudge against them for the parts they played in his defeat

This is a super difficult question because there are so many different scenarios for this to happen, and they all can definitely go one way or another! I would say your best case scenario is pretty neat! Your worst case scenario, I’m not so sure about Grima literally coming back to life realistically in-game (Unless it was a post Awakening timeline where Chrom struck the final blow on Grima instead of Robin and the two worlds are connected somehow, which actually!! Would be the absolute Worst Ending for sure!! So I think you win there!)

Hmm. Best case scenario… Probably exactly what you said? The war is over, everyone is accepted, truth is revealed (and also believed!), and maybe there’s a chance the Trio can return to Nohr some day even though dimension travel is pretty difficult/the crystal the Trio has only works once. I like that a lot! I’m weak for happy endings with no real complications, lol

Worst case scenario! Again, I feel like there are way more scenarios were things could go very wrong than I can list here. And some of them would probably definitely be worse than anything I say here. But within the confines of canon, I think… Probably a scenario were the war is going badly/everyone is very injured, like you said. Or at the very least, they’re all in a tight spot. And the truth comes out one way or another, and it doesn’t go well! As in, Xander and Camilla are very upset, and perhaps Leo straight up doesn’t believe anything without evidence?

Because in canon, when Laslow implies that “Laslow” is not his real name, he’s not from Nohr, has no past, etc. Xander does not like that at all.

Laslow: Well, you may have a hard time of it then. There are very few footprints of mine in this world, and none of them are old. Besides, I don’t know where you’d start with a false name and fake appearance.

Xander: What?

Laslow: …

Xander: Laslow… Are you…

Laslow: … Just kidding! I got you, didn’t I?

Xander: So, you think it’s fun to play pranks, do you? Very well. It appears as though you require stricter disciplinary action.

Laslow: What?!

Xander: I had planned to end your confinement today, but I think a change is in order. You are to report to my chambers at dawn tomorrow morning.

Laslow: What?! Please, no!

Xander: The more you protest, the longer your confinement will be. Understood?

Laslow: Yes, milord…

Keep in mind Xander is using the Distressed Character Portrait during this part of the exchange. And these supports are basically all about Xander punishing Laslow for disobeying him/making Xander come across as foolish via Laslow’s behavior. So there’s a good chance if the truth was exposed poorly, Xander would not be very understanding of it. Especially if theoretically this information could have helped Nohr/Hoshido fight against Anankos in the Revelations timeline! That’s technically valuable information they kept secret. (Even if we, the player, know the Trio would really know next to nothing and it’s mostly only their origins they’re keeping a secret). At the very least, he could argue, the Trio should have revealed Valla’s existence sooner since they’ve had a few years pre-war to do so. (Which! There are a lot of reasons why they wouldn’t be able to do that! But I imagine these things are said in anger)

Same with Camilla! She’s very possessive of her loved ones, and again, if the truth were revealed poorly, she might not take very well to being lied to for so long. Camilla has a slightly similar exchange with Selena in her A-Support, though not quite as obvious:

Selena: Of course, Lady Camilla. I would never leave you without fair warning.

Camilla: And I can hold you to that, yes?

Selena: What a question! Do you think I’d lie to you about this? About anything?!

Camilla: Ohohoho…no, never.

Earlier in the support, Camilla makes comments about how devoted Selena is and how good of a retainer she is for Camilla. So Selena’s “Do you think I’d ever lie to you about this? About anything?” vs Camilla’s “No, never” is a double edged sword. Because though Selena probably isn’t lying about telling Camilla if she had to leave and is always working for Camilla’s best interests, Selena definitely is lying about her origins, appearance, etc. So combined with the inevitable hurt of being lied to + the strategic reasons Camilla might be upset listed in Xander/Laslow’s example, Camilla might react very much in line with Xander here!

Leo is a bit of a strange case in that he very specifically doesn’t care about his retainer’s pasts? I tried to find the exact dialogue for that, but I know it’s been said before that Leo couldn’t care less about who Odin or Niles were before they met him.

If Niles or Odin bring something up first (for example, Odin mentioning Risen, Niles talking about his own vague memories), Leo may ask something out of curiosity based on what they’re saying. But he never pushes and straight up doesn’t seem to care in the slightest so long as Niles and Odin do their current jobs well. So this puts him in a slightly different position than Camilla and Xander in terms of how he views Odin not telling him the whole truth/using a fake name and appearance.

However, keeping information about your past is one thing and keeping information about an unknown but real enemy/ways to conquer that enemy are two separate things. I’m sure Leo could be swayed by his own sibling’s feelings, plus the general frustration of the situation they’re in if it’s going badly.

My happy ending loving heart wants to say given a little while to cool off, everyone would eventually understand why the Trio did what they did and how they really couldn’t say anything/reveal to the sibs anything about anything for so long. But! If they were separated at all or things took a turn for the worse before any reconciliation could be had, the friction between the Trio and their lieges could definitely worsen the situation/make everyone feel like real shit all around. Especially if they straight up aren’t believed about some things! “You lied about your name, so how can I trust anything you say?” Even Leo may be in disbelief because Odin is already known for exaggeration and stories. So the humiliation of not being believed even after the anger subsides would definitely bite too!

tl;dr My Worst Case Scenario in canon is the Trio being faced with anger and disbelief at the truth inadvertently coming out

#my text #asks #fe14 #long post #worst case scenario #best case scenario