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jemmo · 4 months

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Making sense of love for love's sake: the game

Despite all the things i absolutely adore about how the plot unravels and expands in love by love's sake, upon first watch, there's some things i couldn't piece together, which @lurkingshan echoes in their post:

'The way the author was messing with Myungha and forcing cruel choices on him really does not track with a desire to help him find happiness.'

And to preface, this is not something i fully get yet either. I think i'll need a good month and a sizeable reading list of relevant resources to understand just what/who this author/sunbae is and what his role is and how he is associated with myungha. But as always with the best shows for meta (aka bad buddy), as a plot unfolds, you can always find a better understanding by looking backwards and re-contextualising what you've already seen. so i watched ep 1, specifically the scene between myungha and his sunbae at the bar. And i will talk about how everything said in this scene has a whole new meaning now we know the full story, but for now i wanna focus on that question that they keep coming back to; "Then... will you change it for him?".

When you watch the show for the first time, your brain follows the simplest, most obvious version of the story you're being told, one where myungha has been pulled into the world of his sunbae's novel that's being turned into a game and given the opportunity to fix the thing he didn't like about it; making yeowoon happy, and thus you just think the rules of the game are imposed by the author, and so when these cruel choices first come up, you see them as the difficult roadblocks that are nevertheless necessary to any kind of game, forcing the player to make an impossible choice so that the game can continue in a certain direction and its only after that you learn whether it was the right choice or not, or there is no right choice, it simply changes the game you are playing.

And when its revealed what this game actually is, at first i tried to interpret these cruel choices, namely the choice between yeonwoon and myungha's grandma, and at best i could come up with the concept of this being a choice between staying stuck to the past aka choosing his grandma, even though he knows that choice doesn't mean she's safe bc he knows the future where he loses here, its an inevitability, but thats the small happiness he knew before it was taken away and thus that happiness is known and safe, theres no risk, versus choosing to pursue a new happiness, a love of yeowoon and thus himself, which he doesn't know, he hasn't experienced yet, and could be risky. Its a happiness that isn't guaranteed like his grandma, but its a happiness that looks to the future and has hope in it that he can find a new happiness to pursue despite what has happened in his past.

And that fits nice, okayish. But then i watched ep 1 and heard that question "Then... will you change it for him?" And watching through the rest of the eps, we come back to this scene at the bar and each time we get a new run up to the author asking this question, either new dialogue is added or we hear a different piece of the conversation entirely. It starts at the beginning of ep 1 as:

"Because Cha Yeowoon is the only one who's miserable." "It can't be helped that some people's lives are like that" "The fact that some people are destined to live that kind of life is what's vile."

Then a bit later in ep 1 we go back and its expanded.

"It can't be helped that some people's lives are like that" "The fact that some people are destined to live that kind of life is what's vile." "Why? Do you think you'd write it differently?" "Yes, definately. Someone like Cha Yeowoon, or someone like me with an awful life, can also be happy."

And then all the way on in ep 6, we get this new dialogue.

"I don't like talking about destiny." "Why?" "Because it means everything is predestined." "Then do you not believe in fate?" "Fate and destiny are the same. My grandma likes to say that. She said life is like a written book, and how you'll live and die are written in it. (...)I don't like things like this. Even if fate is already destined, I think it can still be changed. Otherwise, there's no point in trying." "Really? Then Myungha..."

And while we don't hear the author ask the same question, I feel like him getting cut off like that insinuates that the conversation leads to that same ending point. All that is to say, every time we hear this question being asked, its like we learn more and more about what this whole thing is, what the game is, what myungha is saying he will do by agreeing to do what the author asks. And every time, we see myungha being more defiant against the idea of yeowoon being resigned to his miserable ending. He starts off thinking that kind of life is destined, and while it's miserable, its not something he can fight. Then he says he'd want to write the story differently, bc yeowoon, or even him, could be happy. He challenges the idea that yeowoon, and thus himself, is fated to be miserable, and opens up the possibility for happiness for them both, but doesn't yet have the means or resolve to do it, its like he knows its possible on a fundamental level, but doesn't see it as something he can actually achieve. But then we circle back to the idea of destiny and books, both of which came up in the previous quote, and seems incredibly pertinent seen as this whole thing is about a novel this author has written. Myungha talks about how he hates the idea that life is a book where everything written is predestined to happen, from the moment you live to the moment you die. He says "Even if fate is already destined, I think it can still be changed. Otherwise, there's no point in trying." That vile way of life he described before that he said was destined, he is now saying it can be changed, and that possibility is now something he's holding onto, its what he sees hope in so that he can keep trying, bc now he finally is trying, he has the resolve, he's trying to realise this thing, this impossibility of rewriting the life he thought was destined through the way he loves yeowoon.

And coming back to those cruel choices, given this fresh context, it made me think. bc this isn't actually a game that myungha has been put into where the rules are dictated by an author completely separate from him. He said himself, he'd rewrite it, he'd change things for yeowoon. And when you start to think of it less as him fighting against a rigid, removed system and more like him being a character in a story he is trying to rewrite himself, that has both the author and his own limitations, or just his own if you're in the school of thought that the author is some figment or part of myungha himself or his conciousness, then you can start to see where these cruel choices might come from. They could be myungha, the author making edits to this new story, imposing his own doubts and limitations on himself. When he says he has to pick between Yeowoon and his grandma, what if that's the new author myungha seeing this story unfold and thinking no this isn't right, he can't have it all, i'm not deserving of this much happiness.

And what makes me like this idea even more is that when we get that second choice between ending after 14 days or getting 100 days back at the cost of resetting Yeowoon's affection to 0, that whole conversation happens in what I think the bar actually is which is this frozen moment in time where myungha is in the water with this extension of a voice in his head that is talking through these things. That conversation in itself needs its own post, but when you look at it both as a decision to break up or not or a decision to hold onto life or not, you can see how the author is just this soundboard relaying the decisions myungha is going through in his head. The author's voice is his own, weighing up his decisions. And if he is the author here, it only reinforces that the person making the rules of this game is him. You can even extend it further to the idea of the debuffs, where he puts in place this thing that makes it so he causes harm to yeowoon when he's around, and its only by garnering affection that he can prevent it. He gives himself a reason from the get go to stay away from yeowoon and reason it as him doing it for yeowoon's safety, when in fact the only way to make yeowoon safe is to increase his affection, which he can only do by being near him. Its a system that at first gives myungha a reason to stay away aka not like himself, but ultimately says the only way you're going to make yeowoon like you, or the only way you can like yourself, is if you accept risk. And that in itself screams to me of a myungha writing in these game systems that are trying to encourage his own-self love while falling at the hurdle of his own lack of self-worth.

The idea is still messy in my head even for me, but i just really like the idea that myungha could be trying to fix this thing both as a character and game master, and that both these versions of him have these flaws that manifest in their different ways to cause the events we see. It kinda is the definition of being your own worst enemy, the idea that in order to work towards loving yourself, the biggest obstacle you have to encounter is yourself, bc we are the ones holding ourselves back, making all these rules that make it harder to like ourselves and pursue our own happiness. The voices in our head telling us that we aren't good enough and aren't deserving are our own, and while the things that happen to us can inform what they say, we're the one's reinforcing those words. And what this show teaches us is that, if we're the one holding that pen all along, we can choose to change what those words are. If we make the rules, you don't have to create a game with concrete ultimatums, you can create a game where rules don't control you. Instead, you make the decisions, and you can make the ones that make you happy.

#wow look at me writing actual kinda thought out meta #also something something about how the pen being in his pocket wasnt a pen given to him by the author its a pen that was his the whole time #look even if this isnt the right interpretation as intended by the author i just kinda adore this headcanon ive come up with and i cant wai #to rewatch the show again through this lens and see if it holds up #i just adore the idea of this whole thing being this manifestation of a flawed doubtful person trying to navigate through their own messy #nonsensical thoughts to find their own happiness #bc yes thats what triggered me thinking of this whole thing. me seeing that post and thinking yeah that doesnt make sense7 #but then again when you tell yourself things an put your own mental blocks in the way they dont make sense either but you still have to fin #the ways to work around them in order to find happiness #like those things dont go away we just find the loopholes or the ways to overcome them that mean we can be happy #the game is your own mind - deal with your own existential crisis as you wish #anyway this is only part 1 in what i hope will be a very extensive meta analysis of this show - stay tuned #love for love's sake

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evilwomanlover420 · 1 month

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💜🕷

#minthara baenre #baldur's gate 3 #digital art #this is supposed to be her at a party thrown by her house before the events of the game IDK. idk all her lore yet but shes like on oc to me #i have my own version of her in my mind before all the absolute nonsense ❤ and my bg3 character fits into it idk #also this was a warmup doodle thing that i ended up getting carried away with so #idk. like part of me thinks i shouldve abandoned the sketch bc i had a lot of challenges with it but. thats how u learn #there are things that really bother me abt it that i couldn't figure out how to fix bc no references used really so thats upsetting but #i dont feel like continuing on this drawing. okay stop yapping #i cant think of a caption idk

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seawherethesunsets · 1 year

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Worship me.

#my liberation notes #kdramaedit #kdramadaily #asiandramanet #userdramas #dailyasiandramas #kdrama #bysya #mlnedit #ep 2 #dont mind me #this is just a nonsensical post #i miss mln and i have pickachu in mind #lmao #also i forgot how dark and red this scene was i died coloring #it's ugly but hey shocked pikachu

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kurim-chis · 9 months

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"Never a Choice" — Kafka

AKA Elio offered Kafka a choice to spare the Trailblazer of their fate, and she turned it down.

This is also how I slingshot myself into the abyss of "overthinking on some random thing"

Something that just occured me is, WHY did Silver Wolf say that Kafka could choose between "two receptacles"?

There are several fanon interpretations as a result of having this at the start of the game: 1) Ppl joke that it makes Kafka our Mom. 2) It means that Trailblazer never had a gender to begin with because Kafka could've always chosen to have them be female or male. 3) Test tube baby Trailblazer! 4) Everything is fake THE SKY IS FAKE EVERYONE /bonk and it's just a game mechanic.

However, as it turns out, this was more likely just point 4. It isn't meant to have any relevance to the story, and is just there to make it convenient for new players to choose their preferred Main Character at the start point. I say this because Blade remembers Trailblazer from BEFORE the Prologue and seeing them tagging along Kafka for a long, long while. Whatever receptacle player chooses, they have always been that receptacle. Caelus and Stelle are VASTLY different from each other despite similarities, so he wouldn't be confusing Caelus for Stelle and vice versa.

However, because my brain wanted to think too much about it, what if we were to take this into a SERIOUS context:

Kafka's choice didn't matter. It was a predetermined fate in the "story" of Honkai Star Rail. Why?

Well, Blade remembers seeing the Trailblazer before. The Trailblazer had already existed prior to the prologue as "Stelle" if you chose Stelle or as "Caelus" if you chose Caelus, it's unlikely he would've said he recognized them if they were Stelle in the past but then Caelus in the future because, as I said, Caelus and Stelle look, well, different.

So why did Elio tell Kafka and SIlver Wolf that Kafka could choose? And it was only Kafka. Silver Wolf knew the Trailblazer but not as anything more than perhaps the Receptacle or an existence that Kafka knew, since she is indifferent to the choice of Receptacle X or Y, but then says that the Trailblazer will remember Kafka at least.

Kafka: Elio said this decision will bring about lots of changes. Silver Wolf: He also said it must be you who makes it.

After Kafka's companion quest and how the Trailblazer has ALWAYS been the Trailblazer you choose, so "making a choice" doesn't make sense or matter. (Unless well, gender change shenagians... But that is an another whole can of worms.)

BUT this made me think. To us, it's just a convenient game set up for us to choose a preferred MC. In the story however, perhaps the choice Elio was giving Kafka was to choose the "protagonist" of the story. Say for example that I chose Stelle, so Stelle is the person that used to travel with Kafka and was glimpsed occassionally by Blade in the past. Something happened to Stelle, maybe she died or her role was always to become a Stellaron vessel, and that's the deal she made with Elio; so, she willingly resets most - if not all - of her memories and becomes the Stellaron vessel in exchange for something. So the time came, she vanished, the Stellaron Hunters set up everything to steal Herta's Stellaron and house it inside Stelle, and so on.

Which brings us to The Choice. In this brainstorming (and totally WRONG IT'S ONLY FOR FUN!!!) interpretation of the scene where Kafka is choosing the receptacle, it could be that at the start of the game is Elio basically telling Kafka:

"You have a choice. Choose if you want the person you have travelled with to be the main character of this script. She will be the hero of this tale, the centerpiece to this plot, the protagonist of this story; but she will suffer. I will continue to use her as per my deal with her, just like I use all of you."

"However, you can also choose to give her fate to another. To an all-new vessel. Stelle will continue to be dead, but she will no longer be the pawn in this game, and she will not need to go through what the script entails. Instead of Stelle, another Receptacle will take her place."

"The choice you make will decide the future, and it will be the right one."

And Kafka will choose Stelle anyway (the same applies if the player chooses Caelus and Caelus is the predetermined MC).

Because she is Kafka and she does not understand many emotions, but most importantly she does not know fear, and thus cannot fear for Stelle's unknown destiny. She subconsciously loves Stelle, but she does not fear for Stelle's future. She regards Stelle very preciously, but she also trusts in Stelle. She knows that destiny will not be kind, but she will choose for Stelle to undergo destiny's trials anyways.

Becaue—

Because...!

Kafka: Listen. In the future, you will encounter all kinds of perils and hardships, but you will also have many wonderful experiences. You will meet companions who treat you like family, and embark on surreal adventures with them. Kafka: At the end of your jouney, all that perplexes you and troubles you will resolve. This is your future that Elio has forseen. Do you like it?

Elio says that if Kafka chooses Stelle, then Stelle - despite her hardships and suffering - will get the ending that she deserves.

Happiness. Family. All her troubles and woes, resolved.

Stelle's ending will be a happy ending.

And well, it's known that of the Stellaron Hunters, Kafka is probably the one who most zealously believes in Elio's abilities to see the many branches of the future.

However, perhaps it could be argued that the ending does not validate the process. Too much suffering would make ending too bitter to swallow. So much lost in the name of the greater good tends to make for a bitter victory. Moreover, this is only IF everything goes well, there's always the possibility that they will not be able to script the future in the best direction and everything will have been for naught. Like how in Kafka's Companion Quest if we refuse to help her, the future will go in the direction of Sam and Silver Wolf needing to bail both of them from Xianzhou, Blade being gravely injured, and relations with Xianzhou broken beyond repair probably as a result of Sam and Silver Wolf's less than peaceful methods.

The future is uncertain, but destiny will never be kind, and they both know it. That's why Elio still gave Kafka the choice to spare Stelle, and somehow, her choice will always be the right one.

Kafka chooses Stelle anyways.

Kafka believes in Stelle their destiny, and that's why she made that decision to not spare her on that day in Herta's Space Station.

(Because Stelle is her destiny. Hers.)

(Subconsciously most likely, even if Elio were to present her with the choice, Kafka will not accept anyone or anything else as her destiny.)

And perhaps, this is something that Elio had forseen anyways.

Anyhow, I chose to write Trailblazer as Stelle just to make it easier to explain my thoughts AND because I love Stelle and am unabashedly biased towards her. But like I said, this is a brainstorming that is in relation to the Trailblazer, and also applies to Caelus if player chose Caelus at the beginning.

AKA me making shit up. Thanks for reading all that brain vomit.

#kurim writes hsr #dont mind me it's just my brain vomitting nonsense at /checks time/ five a.m.#kafka #trailblazer #hsr #honkai star rail #kafka x trailblazer #kafka x stelle #kafka x caelus #just another hsr fan spouting shit out of her mouth #humu humu how to make brain shut tHE FUCK UP AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH #anyways I love kafka very much #I also love stelle very very much #ofc blade my darling i also love him very much uwu #BTW GILF YINGXING IS VERY HOT SOMEHOW!#aaaaahhhhhhhhhh the tragedy of the highcloud quintet it smells delicious :)

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peanutblowandjobsandwich · 6 months

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the cruel of cycle of feeling overwhelming disgust for self inflicted scars and dealing with the guilt shame and disappointment by self inflicting more scars. but also the beautiful cycle of kind hearted admiration for self inflicted scars and creating more in hopes they will be equally as pretty.

#bestie you're almost 22 that's 11 years do you really still live like this #lmao losercore for real #tw sh related #cloud nonsense #it's the most fucked up when it's not doing it bc negative emotions or hypomanic like emotions or even mind numbing boredom n ennui #but just bc genuine oh i wonder what wil happen if i did this or tried this how wld it look hmm #lol idk it was just an experiment #now my arm's fucked up lol #sigh pwease dont let me get in trouble

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waywardsalt · 2 months

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Hi! I hope you’re doing good in life.

What do you think of a phantom hourglass remake? Tbh I don’t know how they could remake it without basically remaking it from the ground-up. It would probably play more like windwaker, which I see as a both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, if it was more like windwaker a lot more people would probably play and it would be more popular since I know the touch controls were a turn off for most people for both Spirit Tracks and Phantom hourglass. But on the other hand, remaking it to be more like windwaker would make the game lose some of it’s previous identity. Like, Phantom hourglass was so unique because of the touch controls and the puzzles you can make and solve by having two screens and touch controls. And it was so nifty and handy to be able to write notes on your map. Idk, I still would like it to be remade in general even if it ends up a basically different game, but I wouldn’t change the story or the characters, especially Linebeck. The only other change I would make is the music. Phantom hourglass had rather weak themes, mainly because they re-used the same theme for the islands and the dungeons. The only songs that were really good were the few orginal tracks made for the game, so Linebeck’s theme, Oshus’s theme, both Bellum boss battle themes and the and that music that plays when you first follow the Ghost Ship. But what would you want out of a phantom hourglass remake?

Hey, I’m doing good, and I hope you are too!

I’ve thought a bit about a possible Phantom Hourglass remake, but not too much recently. I don’t really know if I’d want one, since you’d lose a lot of what really makes it special, and you can still play it through other means. I’m personally fond of the graphics and the music- yes, even the dungeon theme has grown on me- so I don’t really want a remake too badly, especially since I fear any additions/changes they might make with story or characters in a remake. The touch controls make it, and playing it on pc recreates that feeling decently well, but I don't think it'll be just the same if you had to control it with joysticks or anything.

Not to mention, there's so much emphasis on having the two screens, too, not just for map stuff, but almost every single boss had a mechanic related to the top screen! I have no fucking clue how you'd replicate that very well on something like the switch without just fucking with the mechanics altogether.

I would kill to hear some of Phantom Hourglasses tracks be orchestrated or otherwise rearranged in a higher quality. I wouldn't want any of the more notable themes altered in any way, no adding or removing of melodies and only very very small changes to the instrumentation, but I think it'd be neat to see what could be done with dungeon themes. I think a while back I had a fleeting desire to write some short tracks for each dungeon, with some ideas like mostly using instruments heard in Bellum's themes for the dungeons while each individual one gets a leading instrument unique to and reflective of the dungeon, while the Ghost Ship maybe gets a song that's a bit of a expanded version of the fog theme, while the Temple of the Ocean King could have slightly different themes the further in you got, starting with instruments more common to Oshus's theme or the great sea theme, while the further in you got the more instruments from Bellum's theme would be heard, plus some harpsichord thrown in for the hell of it.

Leave the original dungeon theme for stuff like the minor pyramids and some larger cave areas, idk. It's grown on me.

I think the only story rearranging I'd want is mayyyyybe unfridging Tetra? You could very easily shuffle some things around with her and just not damsel her for the whole game and honestly it'd still go off perfectly without a hitch. But you'd still have to deal with the World of the Ocean King being a whole other world, so either bring her and her crew in and have them as wandering ship npcs (the better idea) or just leave them out (not a good idea) but either way it's better than what they actually did. I just don't think I'd want it to switch to Tetra being a major reoccurring character tbh, the main character dynamics in PH are good as they are.

I think I like Phantom Hourglass too much as it is to really want a remake at all. I'd rather we get something like an anime adaptation. That's what I think about more. Give me animated Phantom Hourglass with some fun takes on the dungeons and fights and some fun slice of life stuff with the group between the islands what I want is a Phantom Hourglass anime

#asks #zeldanamikaze #salty talks #loz #legend of zelda #phantom hourglass #kinda just boils down to like. i kinda want it to remain untouched with nothing added or removed if that makes sense #different themes for the dungeons would be rlly cool. harpsichord for deeper ocean king temple floors bc its where you meet linebeck #also vague foreshadowing? as an aside how many other loz songs have harpsichord in it im very curious to know #also. i say i dont mind the dungeon theme while also not really minding my tinnitus so also take that in mind maybe. brain go brrrrrr #i think adding tetra in to the main crew of ph would kinda be a bit much and also maybe not add very much. fyi i have not played ww #but i feel like it'd almost be adding another ciela cuz shed support link and be more barbed and bold with a side of less morally upstandin #so i dont really think she'd being much new to the ph crew table and i wouldnt want her there in a remake cuz they might pull the #goddess blood card and i really really like how ph has fuck all to do with hyrule or any of that nonsense #sorry this took so long btw. i dont think much abt a ph remake so i dont have a lot of notes #additions? idk add more rooms to linebecks ship. let us poke around in a few areas. maybe potion storage. give link a room #let us poke around in linebeck's room when possible. put smth fun in there. pull a wilds era and give him a journal for us to check out #what they did with tetra kills me (but not too much since i dont rlly have thoughts on tetra) bc you could just remove her entirely #and the story would still work really well anyways. holy character fridging batman #idfk. give us a silly loz dating game. make linebeck an option. thats what i wanna see

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always-a-joyful-note · 8 months

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may I also bring this contribution as you wander down the enstars rabbit hole (it's enstars characters and their supposed crimes)

OP I appreciate you so much, but I fear that you are trying to kill me? Just -

Just a few questions.....

- Why are Switch and the seniors of Ryuseitai and Wataru??? on kidnapping?? (wait, did he kidnap Hokuto is that it?) - Wait, what did Tetora and Sora DO? - Midori's in attempted murder?????? WHY??? - What's with forgery?? Why's that on there? Why am I questioning forgery when sexual harassment and murder are RIGHT there??? - Yeah, I still can't believe there's a literal idol duo who is also a mob group.... - "tried to break the windows with an iron pipe" what - of course Hokuto has the ultra specific one (I love him so much. Rich airhead princess to me, so far anyway). - Bullying for Subaru NO what have you DONE starshine boy??? - and at this point I've given up on getting mentally tortured by the others

I am eternally grateful for this list. Why did it have to exist? OP, come back here and let's just talk - actually. No, I desperately want to sit down with the writers and ask what they've experienced to do this.

#look i know the idol industry is not sunshine and starlight #but whats with it becoming a literal conglomerate and yazuka series?#the more i learn about this game the more im convinced that the writers really just spun a crazy roulette of any genres tropes #you have urban fantasy portal fantasy rpglit steampunk victorians nonsense literature historical fiction drama poetry etc etc #also detective fiction and war fiction and thats just the roulette of genres #stars i want to write like them #you guys in the fandom arent okay are you....you guys are all so nice giving me all this #but to let this get to my head youre also doing this to torture me specifically arent you?#my mind is already lost i dont know how i can lose it further #enstars #ensemble stars #fandom spamdom #things i find funny #stuff i say #this reminds me of my bsd starting days #i was so in denial that i was into bsd because it was so insane and unreal #and somehow a slice-of-life idol media is equally as unhinged and deranged i hate and love it here #(but in all honesty thank you for the ask op! it's SO fun to see people engage with each other in this fandom)#coincidentally i am pretty sure ive also blocked the most tags in this fandom because youre all insane (affectionate...i think?)

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kyistell · 3 months

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Headcanon time because my tag paragraphs get shorted to nada and I didn't realize

Okay I'm a dumbass and didn't ever realize or notice that tumblr has a tag cap, because at least to my knowledge it does not tell you that you've hit a limit. So I shall rant about a kinda dumb headcanon I have for the states.

Warning: This bitch is longer than I thought it would be, you have been warned!!

ALRIGHT SO. The way I tend to draw the height for states is based off of two things, their state size and vibes, this is however excluded for the OG13 and then some.

This rule-ish not applying to them is because they all have actual families. Now you may be thinking "What the hell does that mean" and I am so glad you asked.

I haven't really talked about outside of the headcanon things but both New Jersey and New York have families, NJ his moms and technically the devil from the bible, NY his grandparents.

This also goes for the rest of the OG13, they all have families that while those who raised them aren't around anymore that family line still is. This is to the exception of Maryland because he is somehow even farther from being human than states normally are.

Anyway because of this, the OG13 heights are not based in state size, instead it is technically a strange mix between family genes and land size, only technically because those like Mass and Virginia are both taller(mass) and shorter(ginny) than one would assume based on state size. It's basically a ruelette on whether or not you get genes over state size and somehow Rhode STILL managed to be short as hell, bro rolled wrong TWICE XD.

Now it should be interesting to note that it's pretty much only the OG13 that have weird height despite the few other states who have family are locked to their state size. This would include Texas, Louisiana, both the Dakotas, Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Minnesota Wisconsin and Michigan- I see these three at least somewhat related in some way shape or form so thats why they are together like that.

So despite states out side of the OG13 having actual human families they are related to, it's only the OG13 that aren't state size locked and there could be some reasons for this.

For one it could be that colonies more or less aren't locked to their size, mainly because colonies can mix and it's shown quite a lot in history that there were no firm lines between colonies. So it would make sense that when the states (then colonies) were growing up they weren't locked to the size of the colony and rather just their family genes.

It could also be that because they were already adult age (or close to it) it was too far for weird border magic to effect them since they were too old and such. This would make sense and work well with this idea that the other states with families outside of the OG13 are sized locked because their borders were a lot clearer by the time they were older.

Another reason could be because they all have families, which yes doesn't make much sense but here me out. All of them excluding NJ and Maryland had normal human families, it could be that because they had families they were only labeled as personified states once the country became a country. This doesn't mean that they weren't already personifications, just that you have to be labeled a state for border size to take effect, however once again since they were all already adults or almost adults, it wouldn't take effect.

And the final reason I can think of could just be that they were a special case, considering the fact that (if I'm remembering correctly) there aren't personification of the Canadian provinces in canon. It very well could be that yes normally states whether they have family or not are state sized locked, but since they would have been a special case in that there weren't personification like them before that the magic creating state personifications was newly born and didn't have rules yet. This would also explain why they would have families to begin with, the magic had to pick those who lived there to be those personifications, meaning they originally human. The only real problem with this one is the fact that states outside of them have families, however this could be explained, it could have been a lack of people in the area to build a personification from, it also could have been in the southern states case that because family is pretty important there, it made sense to chose those from families instead while still keeping the rules in place.

Now this is a whole lot and it kind of sounds like I've gone insane thinking about this but honestly this is mainly just me typing before I think lol. Is it clear that I needed a reason as to why some states are not close to their state size, because I feel like it is.

I do want to say that the states do have some control over their height, Texas could get taller but it would feel wrong and that goes for most already tall states, it's vice versa for the smaller states who may already be at their height cap by default. I'm not super sure if the OG13 should be able to change their height slightly, mainly because they are all more human to an extent than the other states, of course ignoring whatever the hell Mary is and the fact that NJ is related to the devil from the bible because lord knows those two are not as close (or close at all in Mary's case) to being human like their fellow states with families.

Now height isn't super important but I feel it can explain some dynamics people may have. If you have a tall friend and a short friend, theres gonna be a lot of short jokes. Two short friends and it's a whole lot of complaining about not being able to reach anything. Two tall friends and it's either complaining about feeling claustrophobic in lower ceilings or feeling like your god because your taller than everyone. Two friends of the exact same height and it will always be a competition to see who is truly taller (it's neither but their in denial).

You have to think about these things when making characters because it can effect the dynamic, obviously not by much but still, it's important to know. So while this might seem like far to much thinking when it's literally just a funny internet series that was the only way you knew the news during covid, I find it important. Sure I may never actually write a proper fic and I will probably really only stick to my funny lil drawings, it feels important.

My drawings are like snippets to what happens in the day to day crazy-ness in either the Statehouse or just with the states, thus it is important to me that I have their heights to how I have my headcanons set up when drawing. It's small details like that, that convey a story when drawing without doing an actual comic, it brings life when I know my drawings can be a little stiff, it's about the story and maybe that's just the writer within me talking but I don't care XD.

Basically I just like having some sort of reason as to why the heights for the OG13 aren't consistent with their state size when I draw them. What can I say, I'm a dork :D.

#welcome to the table #wttt headcanons #just a big ol rant #i am so sorry for how long this is #i dont normally write stuff like this #where its just me speaking my mind about something #i hope that this isnt all as nonsensical as it feels #and i hope yall can understand it #because its important to me that yall know my weird headcanons that technically dont matter in the long run #but eh #its fun to think about ya know #just stuff about the world building rather than the characters themselves #idk i just love world building like this #it gives it a certain life that you wouldnt immediately assume it would #like how can something as stupid as heights be important #or the fact that some states with families are still effected by their state size for height #if maybe a bit loser rather than what normal spawned out of no where states have #its just interesting to me i suppose #yes im weird #but yall follow and like my stuff anyway #so whose fault is it really

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