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fishyfishyfishtimes · 6 months

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What Is and Isn't a Fish: an Essay and Guide by Fishyfishyfishtimes

A simplified list of the animals I discuss can be found here!

Hello folks! I created this post to have a kind of definitive essay/explanation of what is and isn't a "fish", starting with defining the term and going over animals that fit and don't fit the bill. As other fishblr artists, writers and educators must know too well, some people are confused about where this term begins and ends, mistaking other aquatic animals for fish. I have my fair share of arthropods and cnidarians as fish fact requests in my own askbox, heck, some years back a friend of mine asked me if clams were fish. The event that finally made me decide to write this was someone requesting that a fish-only account draw a crustacean, pondering to themselves if they count as fish.

I don't want to hold it against these people. It's impossible to know something when you've never been taught! So that's what I'm here to do, hopefully achieving a pretty correct and universal view ^^' If I make any mistakes please correct me. I'm learning all the same as everyone else is.

Definition of fish

Immediately, we run into a bit of a problem with the definition of fish. See, what the term "fish" means has fluctuated for centuries! For a long time, pretty much any animal that lived in water was a "fish" — I say "pretty much any" instead of "every" animal because for a long time sessile animals like sponges or corals were thought to be plants. This is why we have such remnants in our language like shellFISH, starFISH and jellyFISH, they lived in water so they were called such!

Occasionally these definitions would be changed for cultural convenience too. Many Christian churches take part in Lent, and in the Catholic church red and white meat is forbidden on Fridays and Ash Wednesday. In the Middle Ages, in my own country, Finland, this abstinence of red and white meat could last up to 140 days! To make fasting easier, many animals were labelled fish for convenience so they could be eaten as well. These newfound "fish" included seals, beavers and swans, pretty much just anything that was aquatic or semiaquatic in nature.

Nowadays just going off of looks or behaviour won't do, though. There has been much more of an effort to define fishes coherently based on their anatomy and phylogeny, which is great! Problem is, that's easier said than done: fishes are an extremely diverse group, and uh.. not really a single group, either. I'll show you:

As you can see from this heavily simplified phylogenic tree, fishes are not a singular group like, say, mammals are! The animals that we group under "fish" are actually a part of several distinct lineages of animals, some more closely related to us than each other. Heck, tetrapods, which include amphibians, reptiles*, and mammals, are fish themselves! Phylogenetically speaking. Our ancestors were lobe-finned fish, and, well, you never stop being the previous taxon even when you evolve into something else. If you try to exclude tetrapods, no such unified group as "fish" exists. Still, when discussing fish, we tend to want to avoid talking about every vertebrate ever and instead focus on the very specific aquatic ones we mean when we say "fish". This is why many definitions of the term "fish" still exclude tetrapods, even if we share a common fishy ancestor. "Fish" describes more of a lifeform than it does a clade, much like the term "worm"!

(*birds are reptiles! This could be a whole post in and of itself, but I'm not here to write about that. Someone else has most likely taken up the task!)

Hooray, it's definition time! As stated previously, fishes are an extremely diverse group of thousands of species, and what terms might apply to the Atlantic cod may not apply to the yellowfin tuna or giant mudskipper, let alone a Pacific lamprey! Encyclopedia.com defines a fish as "an ectothermic chordate that lives primarily in water and possesses a cranium*, gills that are useful virtually throughout life, and appendages (if present) in the form of fins". Encyclopedia Britannica notes that "the term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines", instead highlighting five classes. These five classes are left partly unspecified, but ones that are mentioned are jawless fish, cartilaginous fish and bony fish (which still includes tetrapods, however), and the two classes left can be assumed to be two classes of extinct fish. Wikipedia defines a fish as "an aquatic, craniate**, gill-bearing animal that lacks limbs with digits". Tim M. Berra, an academy professor and ichtyologist, defines fish as "poikilothermic***, aquatic chordate with appendages (when present) developed as fins, whose chief respiratory organs are gills and whose body is usually covered with scales".

(*cranium=upper part of the skull **craniate=an animal with a skull ***poikilothermic=an animal whose internal temperature varies considerably)

From these more or less detailed definitions we can gather many defining features for fish: a cranium-having chordate, primarily aquatic, gill-bearing and uses gills as their main respiratory organ, lacking any limbs with digits, instead having their limbs be in paired and unpaired fins when present. Most fish are also ectothermic, meaning their body temperature is determined by their environment, but some can heat up parts of their body or their entire body in the case of the opah. Most fish also have scales, but not all, just like how most fish are fully aquatic, but some like lungfish or mudskippers can spend considerable time out of the water. Such is the way of these magnificent and diverse animals!

Finally, with all this out of the way, we can get into...

What is a fish!

Here, I will be detailing animals that are fish! Well, at least the broadest strokes; there are more than 30 000 fish species and if I listed them all we'd be here all life. I shall instead go over the major classes and list, in short, some groups that belong in them.

Jawless fish (Superclass Cyclostomi)

Jawless fish are often a topic of debate, especially in matters of their relation to each other and to jawed vertebrates. Evidence seems to point to hagfish and lampreys being closest related to one another and to lampreys being more closely related to jawed vertebrates than to hagfish (which would make hagfish craniates but not vertebrates). In the phylogeny tree above I decided to portray hagfish and lampreys as a monophyletic group, as molecular studies and microRNA analysis seems to point to a monophylegic superclass. Please note that this could go either way, though.

Jawless fish is a group containing two extant fishes, hagfish (class Myxini) and lampreys (order Petromyzontiformes)! Jawless fish are more "primitive" than other groups, for example both lack true vertebrae and scales. Still, they both have craniums and gills and they are aquatic, and so they have earned their place among fish!

Cartilaginous fish (class Chondrichthyes)

Surprisingly, I've found that this group has a lot of confusion surrounding it. I have received many a request confirming if sharks are fish, or asking if I'd cover a shark "even if it's not a fish". So I'll say it now: good news, sharks are indeed fish! So are their cousins, rays, skates and chimaeras, also known as ghost sharks! All of these fish have a primarily cartilaginous skeleton, tooth-like dermal denticles and lack gill covers and a swim bladder. Out of all the sharks, I also want to highlight that the whale shark, despite its confusing name, is a shark and not a whale. So, it is a fish!

Ray-finned fish (class Actinopterygii)

Name any fish, and there's a 96% chance the species name you said belongs to a ray-finned fish. Unless, like, you really like sharks. But this isn't about them.

Ray-finned fish are the biggest group of fish and incredibly diverse! It has your seahorse, your pufferfish, your bass, your tuna, your anglerfish, your clownfish, your salmon, your sturgeon, your lanternfish, your perch, your oarfish, your gar, your sardine, your moray eel... and this is only a tiny, tiny fraction of the groups that belong to this class! Defining features of ray-finned fish are that they tend to have a swim bladder and a bony skeleton (some exceptions though. Sturgeons, for one, have evolved a cartilaginous skeleton but they're still ray-finned fish). The largest group of ray-fins, the teleosts, also have leptoid scales, which are thinner and more flexible and grow with growth rings.

I want to bring special attention to some members of the ray-finned fish which tend to have a lot of confusion surrounding them and their heritage: eels and seahorses. Many people think these two are not fish due to their strange anatomy, like lack of scales or (many) fins and their elongated bodies, and I wouldn't blame them! Seahorses belong to family Syngnathidae, which also includes seadragons and pipefish. Eels, meanwhile, make up the order Anguilliformes. All of these long friends of ours are fish!

Lobe-finned fish (clade Sarcopterygii)

I shall merely focus on the fishy fishy fish individuals of this class, which excludes tetrapods. Lobe-finned fish house the two extant species of coelacanths, and six extant species of lungfish! These fish are bony and their fins are placed at the tips of fleshy, lobelike stalks, resembling the limbs of tetrapods. It is thought that the common ancestor of coelacanths and lungfish and tetrapods had similar structures that then became the four limbs the members of our clade typically have. Coelacanths and lungfish are wonderful fishes and deserve a lot of love and respect, not only because they're our closest cousins but because they're unique and we have so much to learn about them!

So, these are the fishes! There are also extinct groups of fish, namely class Placodermi (armoured fish) and class Acanthodii (spiny "sharks"). I'm moreso an extant fish account however, and so I shall move onto...

What isn't a fish?

Now we get into the real meat of this post. Without further ado, here are some aquatic friends of ours that can be mixed up with fish very often!

Crustaceans (subphylum Crustacea)

Many of our hard-shelled many-legged friends belong here! Crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, isopods, triops, barnacles, copepods, you name it! Even though many crustaceans are aquatic or semiaquatic and have gills, you'll find that they're invertebrates that lack an internal skeleton (so no cranium, not even vertebrae)! We still love them though!

Mollusks (phylum Mollusca)

Creatures both soft and hard-shelled! Cephalopods like octopuses, squid, nautilus and cuttlefish, bivalves like clams, mussels, oysters or scallops, gastropods like sea slugs and snails and chitons go here! These friends of ours are also aquatic and have gills, some even have the suffix -fish (cephalopods used to be called inkfish, even!), but their lack of an endoskeleton is even more obvious than the crustaceans'. They're invertebrates, and therefore not fish!

Chelicerates (subphylum Chelicerata)

This group has many animals that are very hard to mistake for fish, namely spiders and scorpions, but horseshoe crabs and sea spiders are two groups of extant marine chelicerates! Both groups are aquatic, and horseshoe crabs have gills. However, they're both invertebrates, lacking a cranium or vertebrae. Other aquatic chelicerates exist, but they're usually very small, like water mites.

Cnidarians (phylum Cnidaria)

This phylum has the sessile corals and sea anemones and the usually more mobile jellyfish and siphonophores (includes the infamous Portugese man o' war!). I imagine corals and sea anemones are mistaken for fish less due to their sessile nature, but they're good to bring up nevertheless. None of these animals have a backbone, or, any bones really. They lack gills, they lack fins, they even lack the bilateral shape of fish. Jellyfish, despite the name, are indeed not fish! Some people suggest the name sea jellies be used for them instead, and I think it's much cuter.

Echinoderms (phylum Echinodermata)

Animals like starfish, sea urchins, brittle stars, sand dollars, sea cucumbers and feather stars go here. It seems that this pesky "-fish" -suffix is hard to shake off, as now we have the starfish. Once again, all of these slow-moving bottom-dwelling friends of ours are invertebrates, as they lack vertebrae or a cranium. Interestingly though, they are among our closest invertebrate relatives! So we ought to give them some props for that. I also want to mention that starfish can also be called sea stars, which ought to lessen confusion about their being too.

Comb jellies (phylum Ctenophora)

Comb jellies look a lot like jellyfish, but they belong in their own unique phylum! They have the same deal going on; they are invertebrates, they lack gills, they lack a cranium, they are simply aquatic.

Lancelets (subphylum Cephalocordata) and tunicates (subphylum Tunicata)

A double feature, because I wanted to save space didn't want these guys to be all alone! Lancelets and Tunicates, like sea squirts and salps, are chordates, which you can find in the phylogenic tree I drew all the way in the definitions section. They share many a feature with vertebrates, like a bilateral bodyplan, a notochord at some stage of life and a post-anal tail, but I'm afraid they're still not fish. They lack a cranium and their notochord does not develop into a vertebral column! Sorry friends, you tried. We can still hang out at the chordate convention.

Annelids (phylum Annelida)

The infamous bobbit worm, bone-eating worms, sea mice, giant tube worms, feather duster worms, spoon worms, bristleworms in general, leeches... many, many worms go here! Pretty self-explanatory: they are invertebrates, even when they live in water. They're extremely cool invertebrates too! I suggest taking a look at some of them, there's many interesting species.

Flatworms (phylum Platyhelminthes)

Flatworms are another very diverse group of worms, having many species both terrestrial and aquatic, however mostly I want to put attention into the free-swimming marine flatworms. They may swim beautifully (and fence with grace), but they are nevertheless invertebrates! Flatworms can live a variety of different lifestyles, from predators to parasites.

Amphibians (class Amphibia)

We've made it into vertebrates now! Amphibians include frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. While they have limbs with digits in their adulthood*, they can be easily confused for fish in their larval stages! This is no surprise, as they use gills to breathe underwater and tadpoles lack any limbs at all for a while. Many amphibians later transition into a terrestrial or semiaquatic way of life and lose their gills, not to mention gain their digit-having limbs.

(*excluding caecilians)

...Well, many amphibians do this, but not all. It's important to mention there are also species of aquatic salamanders which can bear great resemblance to fish with their elongated bodies! Amphiumas, which are sometimes mistakenly called "conger eels" (which is an actual species of fish), are aquatic salamanders with small residual limbs and both working gills and lungs. Giant salamanders and mudpuppies/waterdogs have lungs and gills as well, and lead an aquatic lifestyle — olms are close relatives of mudpuppies. Sirens, meanwhile, lack hind limbs and only have small front limbs, along with retaining their gills in adulthood. Among aquatic salamanders I also want to bring up one most often talked about species: the axolotl! They remain in their larval form, have external gills and lead an aquatic lifestyle. It can be hard to tell with aquatic salamanders sometimes, but these friends of ours are amphibians and not fish, even if they've rejected the land life.

Caecilians are a bit less known overall, but they can also cause a lot of confusion due to their long, limbless body. While most caecilians live underground, some are aquatic in nature, and can therefore be mistaken for fish! However, caecilians breathe via the use of their lungs and through the skin and don't have any gills at all.

Reptiles (class Reptilia)

Most commonly mistaken for fish in this group are sea snakes, sea kraits and water snakes, sea turtles, turtles, penguins, and other (semi)aquatic birds. Sea snakes and water snakes bear a very strong resemblance to eels, but they are indeed just snakes adapted to an aquatic or a semiaquatic lifestyle! The same goes for sea turtles, turtles overall, and penguins. They all need to breathe air and they lack fins, even if their flippers, webbed feet and built-in paddles may look like fins! They also have wholly different types of scales (or feathers!!) than what fish have, even if they share the feature. I assume that other aquatic reptiles, like the marine iguana and crocodilians are better read as reptiles thanks to their limbs with digits, but I want to give them a reptile shoutout anyway. They’re aquatic or semiaquatic, but they are air-breathers and fin-lackers all the same!

I also want to mention one specific extinct group of reptiles, ichtyosaurs! These marine reptiles were rather shark- or dolphin-like in appearance, which is actually a really good example of convergent evolution! Like all other reptiles, they also needed to breathe air and they had... erm... well, I'm not sure if I can call the bones in their flippers digits, but, that's what they used to be, so...? They were cool reptiles and among my favourites! There were many other aquatic reptiles too, but I will only mention just the ones now. A paleontology account would be better-suited to list you allll the marine reptiles.

Mammals (class Mammalia)

Our home class! Some of the aquatic friends we have in this class include whales like baleen and beaked whales, dolphins (orcas go here), porpoises, belugas, narwhals and sperm whales, pinnipeds like seals, sea lions, walruses, and sirenians like manatees, (occasionally known as sea cows) and dugongs! We also have some semiaquatic buddies like hippopotamids, otters, beavers and platypuses! Whales and pinnipeds especially often cause a lot of confusion due to their very streamlined, fishy appearance. They are, however, air breathers that feed their young with milk (some dolphin calves are even born with some hair), and their ancestors were land mammals! The same goes for pinnipeds and sirenians too. True seals, fur seals and sea lions still have fur even! Hippos, otters, beavers and platypuses are a bit more obvious as mammals with their fur and.. distinct air-breathing.. but I wanted to mention them anyway. Their adaptations to aquatic life are just one example of how fascinating evolution can be!

And here we are! A hopefully comprehensive list of fishes and non-fishes, beginning with the ever-shifting story of the term "fish", phylogeny, and why some animals are called fish when they really aren't. I hope you have found useful and interesting information in this post, and perhaps learned something new! I bid you a farewell! :D

#fish guide #fish essay #fish #fish facts #fishfact #marine biology #biology #zoology #long post #jawless fish #cartilaginous fish #ray-finned fish #lobe-finned fish

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kaladinkholins · 2 months

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I was wondering, what do u think Taigen reaction to finding out about Mizu being a woman will be? Although I don’t think he will have a bad reaction I wanted to know what u thought about it?

OOH I like this question because the thoughts on this have been swirling around in my brain for a while and I don't think I ever properly talked about this, outside of maybe this post (which is barely coherent imo). There, I compared Mizu/Taigen to Mizu/Mikio, as well as to the main romantic couple in the movie Yentl. Then from both those comparisons, I tried to speculate on Taigen's reaction to Mizu's gender reveal, based on what would make the most narrative sense.

However, I didn't really analyse Taigen himself in that post, and neither did I ever come up with a concrete conclusion to what his reaction may be. So this ask gives me a good chance to speculate even further and hopefully come up with a proper and more in-depth answer.

Similar to you, anon, I don't think Taigen will have a bad reaction per se, though I guess it depends on what you'd define by bad.

Because this is Taigen we're talking about, I don't think he'd exactly be chill about it. He's very much a drama queen, especially around Mizu, as he's never afraid of stepping on her toes, and thus will vocalise his feelings to her whenever he's feeling them. That, combined with his short temper and his brashness, means that there's almost certainly going to be conflict when he finds out the truth. He will be shocked, and because he's immature, he'll be angry and upset because of this shock. Simply because he doesn't know, and hasn't yet learned, how to deal with his emotions in any other way besides getting angry.

So I think that will definitely be his first instinct. To get upset.

I don't think he'd immediately know why he's upset. Maybe only after a few minutes of angry questioning (think something along the lines of "Why are you telling me this now?!" and "You've been hiding this all this time?!"), he'd finally come up with some tangible cause for his anger.

What would the cause for his anger be then? Well, it could be several things.

Possible Reason #1

He feels "betrayed" because Mizu didn't trust him enough with the truth even after the two have grown close, and after Taigen has put his life on the line for her numerous times.

Possible Reason #2

He feels "cheated" because Mizu is not the man he'd believed she was, thus making it feel like their entire friendship was a sham. This is because the basis for their relationship, in the way he'd related to her, bullied her, envied her, admired her, allied himself with her, and eventually grown attracted to her, had been entirely based off the premise and belief that Mizu is his fellow man, his peer, comrade, and fellow samurai. Thus, discovering that Mizu is not a man would, initially, feel like all of that has been ripped away from him. And this is actually related to the third possible reason.

Possible Reason #3

This is a big one, and the reason everyone, including myself, is putting their bets on: misogyny.

Essentially, Taigen would find out that this whole time, the person he'd been envious of and struggling to beat in every single fight, is not a man, but a woman. And as far as he knows, even if women in feudal Japan could once be warriors (see: the Onna-musha), perceptions have since changed by the time of the Edo period. Furthermore, even if women could fight, men were still expected to be stronger, because men are supposed to protect women.

However, I believe that Taigen's particular flavour of misogyny is a little different, in that he does not view women as "inferior." Because remember, his fiancee was Akemi. This was a woman who took no shits! She was snarky and playful and intelligent, and moreover she was a princess, superior to him in every way, and he knew and respected all of that, and respected her as an individual who could make her own choices. When she'd told him the news of their engagement, Taigen asked her, "He's [your father] sure? You're sure?" And then, when she tried to seduce him in Ep 2, he asked her, "Akemi, are you sure?"

His respect for her is the only reason why Akemi had been so desperate to marry him in the first place. She did not love him, but knew he would be good to her. Because she could not guarantee that any other man would treat her nicely as he would.

Thus, with that being said, I don't think Taigen is some "alpha male dudebro" who thinks women belong in the kitchen etc. Instead, I think Taigen simply believes women are just... different from men. So it's not that women can't or shouldn't fight, it's that they just don't. It's not that women can't or shouldn't be friends with men on equal footing, it's just that they aren't. You get what I'm saying?

It's like, imagine your whole life, you're told, and fully led to believe, that a lamp can't light up. They're just meant to be in your house as decoration. And then suddenly, you find out that your lamp lights up! And you're like, "OMG a lamp is lighting up! How is it doing that?! I thought light only comes from candles and the sun! This can't be right, I thought lamps never light up! Isn't that a fundamental part of their design?"

Now, put aside that this is a pretty bad analogy because it's 1am as I'm writing this and I can't think of a better one atm, but I hope the point comes across, in that this is clear-cut misogyny (I'm comparing women to a piece of furniture here on purpose), but the lucky thing about this particular flavour of misogyny is that it's rooted in ignorance, and is not inherently malicious. It can be, but it isn't necessarily.

Ignorance can be undone through learning and educating oneself. And luckily for us, my friends, educating oneself out of ignorance is the entire point of Taigen's character! He represents the uneducated masses who blindly follow the flow of the fucked up system. This is in contrast to Mizu who has never had a place within the system to begin with, Akemi who has spent her whole life struggling to go against the grain of the system, and Ringo who has always tried to follow the system, but due to his disability, is denied full access to it.

Thus, we've already seen him take the first steps to unlearn his xenophobic and racial prejudice, and we've also seen him start shedding his massive ego and desire for glory, which are both used to mask his own insecurities. If Netflix gives us all 4 planned seasons, then we have 3 more seasons for Taigen to fully grow out these backwards mindsets and finally reach his full potential to become—not a good man—but a great one.

THEREFORE, whatever the reason for his upset at discovering Mizu's gender, I firmly believe that Taigen will get over himself in the end, regardless of whether his anger stemmed from his misogyny, hurt, confusion, or whatever else.

Because Taigen's short temper and emotional immaturity is born from him spending his whole life on the move. Unlike Mizu, who is always alone with her thoughts and meditates constantly to try to cleanse herself of her restless emotions, Taigen is used to surrounding himself with people (see:him in the Shindo Dojo) and ignoring his emotions completely (see:him trying to forget Kohama). Which is why, when he does feel anything, it's overwhelming, and he doesn't know what else to do with it except let it out, usually in an angry outburst. Only when given the proper chance to reflect in Kohama in Ep7, does Taigen finally go through some substantial growth and start feeling remorse over how he'd treated Mizu.

Hence, I suspect something similar will happen when he discovers Mizu's gender, in which he will get upset and shocked and confused first, but then he'll reflect and regret and try to make up for his past behaviour.

And this is what I meant earlier when I said that I don't think he'll 't have a "bad reaction."

Essentially, it is my belief that his reaction will not follow in the footsteps of Mikio's, but instead, directly oppose and subvert that. This is related to the points I referenced in the post I linked above, but also, more importantly, because Taigen and Mikio are narrative foils.

Thus, where Mikio had betrayed Mizu and left her for dead, I believe Taigen will, at the end of the day, remain loyal and continue to fight by her side until the very end.

Because the thing about Taigen, as a person, outside of all the attitudes and prejudices that have been ingrained into him, is his relentless devotion. He gives himself into everything he does, puts in his all, and does not do things halfway. That's what makes him such a good soldier. He does not lead, but follows. He is inherently self-sacrificing and driven by a desire to protect, and we see this in how protective he is of Mizu to the point of enduring torture for her and telling her to use him as a human shield; how his first instinct upon hearing Akemi had been dragged off to get married against her will, is to get up and try to go to her; and how, when hearing the shogunate is in danger, he immediately goes straight to Edo palace to try to warn the shogun, even if it might get him killed in the process.

I could go on about why I think this is what makes him so good for Mizu (because Mizu's arc, especially in Season 1, is literally about accepting help and opening herself up to others) but this post is already atrociously long, so I'll just leave it at that.

So, anon, I hope I answered your question! I'm sorry I can never give short answers though, but I think at this point, it's to be expected from me lol. Thank you for the ask btw! And on that note, my inbox is always open for more 👀

#blue eye samurai meta #taigen blue eye samurai #taigen x mizu #mizu x taigen #taimizu #letters.doc #meta dissertations.pdf #<- i have a new tagging system for my fandom posts! the rest are listed in my pinned <3 #anon #blue eye samurai #fandom.rtf

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cosmicjoke · 2 months

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Hi again,

I haven't had time to organize my thoughts coherently so this might be a bit disorganized, apologies in advance lol.

We all know that Levi takes it upon himself in the AOT universe to be responsible for the lives of others, probably because he's the only one who has the strength he does. But does Levi ever expect others to want to care about their fellow humans' lives (especially those in power)? His own value of life might be so obvious to him, so would he expect others to share his value of life? Whether in AOT universe or in the modern world (if he did live in our modern world and didn't have the superhuman strength he does). I mean, in AOT universe, it's clear he can singlehandedly make significant contributions to saving the lives of others, but in the modern world, most of us obviously just aren't that physically strong and/or have very little actual power or authority on our own to help those who are oppressed, victimized, killed even...in the modern world, it's really a collective effort. Our strength is in numbers. So i guess my question is, would Levi hold that expectation of others in the modern world? Like, what if he was placed in a situation where he didn't have the superhuman strength he does, and has to rely on the goodwill and cooperation and *desire to help* of others in order to help people. He values life immensely, but it's also clear that he realizes that perfect peace in humanity is an unachievable ideal, right? Like human violence against other humans has always been and will always be a thing, both in his universe and ours. So while he probably expects that there will always be people who just want to harm their fellow humans, does he also always expect there to be people who want the opposite?

If he *does* hold that expectation for others, do you think he feels disappointment when he is inevitably let down, and he comes face to face over and over again with the fact that some other people simply do not care for fellow human lives? Or does he just set his expectations for others so low that he thinks it's a default for people to behave in that way? And whenever he does meet someone else who values life as much as he does, it's more like just a pleasant bonus rather than a given?

hopefully any of that word vomit made sense lol

These are great questions you're asking me, haha! So first, let me just say thank you. I really enjoy this sort of conversation about Levi.

It's interesting about Levi, because while he has this great strength, and he utilizes it the best he can to help others, he's still faced, more often than not, with sort of his own sense of helplessness. He often isn't able to save as many lives as he wants to, or make as much change as he hopes. He said something along those lines to Hitch, during the Uprising arc, when she was criticizing the SC for getting so many people killed in Trost while trying to capture Annie. He said "Hmph... It makes me sick. We're all in the dark when it comes to how this world works. Other than the ones in the very center, of course..." So I think, even within the setting of the AoT universe, Levi still feels pretty powerless, the same as he would if he lived in a modern world and didn't have his Ackerman powers. I think that's also pretty evident post time skip, after they've lost Erwin. Levi sees himself as a tool, as a weapon to be wielded by others. That's what he views his strength as good for. For Levi, Erwin was the person he sort of relied on to utilize that strength to its maximum potential, and when he lost Erwin, I think Levi felt a definite sense of directionlessness. He wasn't sure anymore how to use his strength to help others, even as the desire to do so remained just as strong. I think it was similar to how Levi felt when he was living in the Underground. He wanted to help people, but there wasn't much he could actually do. He was trapped in poverty and desperation with everyone else down there, and being physically powerful, while it can help in some things, isn't going to do much when we're talking about social inequality or oppression. Isayama said that Levi came to the surface because he wanted to help people, something he realized he was able to do after Furlan and Isabel came into his life; but his circumstances and status Underground limited his options. He didn't have citizenship, for one thing, so he couldn't officially join any sort of service branch, like the military. So I think Levi was always very familiar, even with his exceptional physical strength, with this feeling of helplessness and powerlessness, and a sense of being unable to do much to help others, despite his desperate wish to.

So, going into what you asked about Levi's expectations of others in that regard, I think Levi definitely WANTS people to care about others and to have the same level of respect and sense of value for life that he does. But that doesn't necessarily mean he expects them to be able to protect life or help others in the same capacity that he does. In fact, I think Levi understands and is sympathetic toward people not being able to do much to improve theirs or others circumstances. During his speech to the 104th during the Uprising arc, he speaks about choosing the hell of people killing each other over the hell of being eaten by titans. What he means by that is that he wants people to have a choice. As things stood then, the people of the walls were essentially living in a giant prison. They were trapped and had no options, no freedom, no choice in how they lived or where they went, and through no fault of their own, through no action on their part. It was just how they were born, the circumstances they were born into. So, yes, while Levi definitely understands and is accepting of human nature, of the violence inherent to human nature, and while I think he understands more keenly than anyone the tragedy and inescapability of that reality, he also believes the way people live should be up to them, and he prefers them having that choice, even if it manifests in violence and killing each other, to them having no choice at all and still dying. He calls both realities hell, but the hell in which people get to at least have a say in what happens to them is better than things happening to them which they have no control over.

Levi himself grew up in an environment which left him with no option but to rely on violence in order to survive. So yeah, I think he definitely understands that sometimes people just don't have a choice and that they can't always do the "good" or "right" thing, according to society, depending on the circumstances. He understands that sometimes you need to kill in order to protect yourself or others. He understands that sometimes you need to steal in order to survive. A lot of the characters in AoT look at morality as a static concept, through a black and white lends. They categorize things in two ways, good and bad, and there is no in between. Levi is one of the only characters that understands the fallacy of that premise. Morality isn't static. It's on a sliding scale and it's complex. What's good and bad, what's right and wrong, depends on the circumstances, depends on the situation. It's not always wrong to kill someone. It's not always wrong to steal. It's not always wrong to use violence. It doesn't always define a person's morality or reflect on their worth as a person if they do something which, within normal society, would be considered "bad" or "illegal". I always talk about how Levi is probably the least judgmental character in AoT, along with probably Armin. Levi never tries to tell anyone what to do or what they should think or believe. He always lets other people come to their own conclusions and choices.

With that said, what I do think Levi wouldn't be accepting of and what would really disgust him in another person is a total disregard for life. And that's why Levi hates Zeke as much as he does. Because Zeke shows, repeatedly, not just a deliberate disregard for life, but he also repeatedly expresses actual pleasure in the taking of it. We see Levi express similar disdain for Eren after the raid on Liberio, when he compares Eren's actions to the scum he grew up with in the Underground. What we know from this is that Levi no doubt witnessed a lot of blatant disregard for life while growing up, a lot of people treating the lives of others as worthless, taking life without needing to, just because they felt like it or because they simply didn't care and were apathetic toward other people's lives, and we also know it's something Levi has always felt disgusted by. So while I think Levi is both sympathetic and empathetic toward people not always being able to act and help others, and also toward them sometimes having to engage in certain types of behavior and actions that society would generally frown upon, what I think he wouldn't forgive and would be extremely judgmental toward is deliberate cruelty, dismissiveness and a contempt shown toward life and what he believes is its inherent value. I think, to Levi, that's unforgivable. So while Levi understands the reality that there will always be people who deliberately want to harm others, and who take pleasure in harming others, that doesn't mean he has to like it or forgive it. He accepts that violence is just a part of the world and a part of human nature, and he accepts and even forgives that people are sometimes forced to violence. What he won't forgive is intentional cruelty and disregard shown toward life.

So I think Levi probably is disappointed in the sense that he wishes things could be better, that people could be better in general, while at the same time acknowledging that this is just the way people are and there's nothing he can really do about it. I don't think he necessarily has low expectations, but I think he's always ready to be faced with the ugly side of human behavior. But still, he'll determine the worth of a person's character based on how much respect they have toward life, I think. Again, if someone shows a blatant disregard for life, or shows they don't value life in a truly meaningful way, Levi's not going to think very much of that person. We see that demonstrated in his disgust, also, for the nobility and their greed and selfishness in how they treat the general populace.

#Levi Ackerman #attack on titan #shingkei no kyojin #analysis #meta #commentary

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mongeese · 2 years

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TMA Meta: Jon’s Ego and Martin’s Lack Thereof

Summary: This is my brain dump about Jon and Martin’s ideas on their own self-importance (i.e. Jon being self-centered and Martin having zero self esteem) and how they contribute to the plot/tragedy of The Magnus Archives, organized into a hopefully coherent essay. I didn’t come up with this all by myself; it was inspired by a meta I read over a year ago about Jon’s ego specifically, but unfortunately op has deactivated so I can no longer access the whole thing. Still, it was a very good post, and definitely made these ideas crystalize for me.

Be warned, this meta is about 2700 words, so it’s a hefty one. And yes, I do know this podcast ended almost 16 months ago, and yes, I do still care enough about it to write 2700 words. What can I say, it rewrote my brain chemistry.

Also I’m tagging @jonnywaistcoat, on the off-chance he sees this and has any interest in reading essays about something he wrote years ago. If you do read this, hi Jonny, love your work!

Now without further ado, the essay, underneath the read more :)

The Magnus Archives is primarily a horror podcast, but as I’m sure we all remember, it is also a deeply tragic story. I believe one of the signs of a great tragedy is a story in which the tragic outcome is technically avoidable, but is actually inevitable when you consider the personalities, ideologies, and behaviors of the characters that inhabit the story. This is true for The Magnus Archives in countless ways, but one that I think is largely overlooked is the egos of the various characters. More specifically, the respective egos of Jon and Martin are hugely influential in the story. Despite having practically opposite perspectives on their own self-importance, each of their egos feeds into the apocalypse and the tragic ending in their own ways.

Jonathan Sims is egotistical and self-centered. That might be a controversial take, and if it is, that would be understandable: he’s up to his eyeballs (pun kind of intended) in self-loathing and sacrificial tendencies. He burns himself out constantly trying to help other people. However, the reason he does that is because he’s self-centered. When I say self-centered, I don’t mean selfish, and I don’t mean vain. I mean the most basic definition of the word, which is that he centers himself in his view of the world. He is egotistical not in that he thinks himself better than other people, but in that he believes, maybe subconsciously, that he is more important and influential they are.

The biggest example of this behavior is the Unknowing. Elias/Jonah tells Jon the world is going to end, and that Jon specifically needs to stop it. Jon is told that he must use his powers to save the world, that he alone has what it takes to see through the Unknowing and destroy it. And Jon does not question this at all. He does recognize that he can’t do it alone, that he needs people to support him, but he never argues the fact that he is uniquely responsible for the safety of literally everyone alive. Now, it’s not an entirely unreasonable conclusion to draw, considering he does have supernatural abilities, he does work for a supernatural institution, and he was being told repeatedly that he was uniquely responsible. But it’s not an inevitable conclusion. He did not have to believe that narrative, exemplified by the fact that when put in a similar situation, Martin rejected the idea that he would be some kind of chosen one (which I’ll get to later). The most logical explanation for Jon wholeheartedly believing he was the only one who could stop the Unknowing is if he already believed himself to be special and unique in some way, even before he knew about it.

It’s not just the Unknowing, either. Jon has massive amounts of trust issues and is very unwilling to confide in others or ask for help. Some of those trust issues were supernaturally induced in season 2, but I believe they existed even before that. Even in season 1, Jon thinks he is alone in his problems, he’s alone in the work he has to do. That is an egotistical perspective. He does not recognize that maybe other people do understand, that they do want to help, that he doesn’t have to be alone in this world. I imagine much of this perspective comes from being an orphan who was bullied as a child; if you spend your whole childhood relatively isolated, it stands to reason that you’d believe yourself to be unique in a way the people around you are not, alone in your situation. It could also be some twisted form of survivor’s guilt from Mr. Spider, because someone died in Jon’s place. Therefore he must be important, otherwise that kid died for nothing. It’s impossible to say for sure what caused it, but what I can say for sure is that Jon has a pretty self-centered outlook on life.

The last bit of evidence in support of Jon being self-centered comes from seasons 4 and 5. This is when he is at his most self-sacrificial and his most guilty, and the reason for that is because of his ego. In season 4, he believes himself to be responsible for all the trauma and death that’s been going on in the archives during and after the Unknowing. In season 5, he blames himself almost exclusively for the apocalypse. And while I can understand to some extent why he believes those things – most of the other characters blame him for it too, for starters – when you look at the actual events, there’s really no reason for him to shoulder all the responsibility. Daisy says so in episode 136, and the rest of the (living) main characters say so in episode 199. With regard to the Unknowing, Jonah was the one who pushed them to stop it, and everyone involved agreed to the plan. After the Unknowing, he was in a literal coma, making it impossible for him to help with any of the Archive’s problems. The apocalypse was planned by the Web, embodiment of manipulation, plus all the characters contributed to the ritual succeeding in their own way. Jon’s conviction that somehow, he alone could have stopped things and so he alone should bear the burden of sacrifice to set things right is hugely egotistical, not to mention entirely false. He’s setting himself on a pedestal, holding himself to a higher standard than the people around him. It’s ironic and tragic, but it’s unavoidable given who Jon is and what he has been through.

So. If Jon is self-centered, where does that leave Martin? Well, he’s pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum. If I wanted to be mean about it, I could say Martin considers himself to be maybe one step above worthless. And that would probably be an exaggeration, but it’s true that Martin prioritizes and considers almost everyone else before himself, and does not consider himself influential or important in any capacity. There is of course his infamous line in 198, “I didn’t really think I was important enough to kill.” There’s also the fact that Peter’s attempt to convert him to the Lonely failed explicitly because Peter placed too much importance on Martin specifically, as is revealed in 158 inside the Panopticon.

The situation with Peter in season 4 is especially notable, because as I mentioned earlier, it directly parallel’s Jon’s position in season 3 with the Unknowing. Peter has told Martin that there is an existential threat to humanity, and that he, Martin, is the only person equipped to stop it. That’s almost exactly what Elias/Jonah told Jon about the Unknowing. Unlike Jon, though, Martin rejects this. He rejects the idea that he could be important enough to save the world by himself, that he could be a “chosen one” in any capacity, and in doing so destroys Peter’s plan. And he was right! Unlike Jon, who was wrong in season 3. There’s something to be said here about how The Magnus Archives simultaneously rejects and embraces the idea of fate: there are no true “saviors”, destined to save the world, but the characters still cannot avoid the final, tragic outcome of the story. But that’s a topic for another essay. The more relevant point to make here is that despite Martin being right, he made this choice because of his low self-esteem and his tendency to de-center himself. It is once again a moment of tragic irony, that the decision Martin makes because he believes himself to be unimportant turned out to be one of the most important decisions of the whole podcast. It’s what led to Jon’s final mark, putting the last nail in the coffin of the world.

(Author’s Note: It’s interesting that despite feeling personally insignificant in the grand scheme of things, Martin’s the one who says “I think our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever.” It’s sort of like, the “everyone matters and is important except for me” outlook on life that is depressingly common. That’s not super relevant to this essay, but it makes me emotional, so I’m including it.)

Those are the most explicit examples of Martin’s low self-worth, but they are not the only ones. He spends most of the first three seasons trying to help other people, whether that’s by making tea, being a sympathetic ear, trying to play mediator, or whatever else he’s doing. He is pathologically incapable of putting himself first until season 4 at the earliest. As Alex said in the season 4 Q&A, he sets himself on fire trying to keep other people warm, and unlike Jon’s self-sacrificial tendencies in later seasons, he’s not doing it out of a misguided guilt or feeling of responsibility. He just genuinely believes other people’s wellbeing is more important than his own. This almost certainly comes from his relationship with his mother, both due to her being abusive and because he had to become her primary caretaker at a young age. He was never given space to have needs or wants of his own, so as an adult he only knows how to cater to other people’s needs and wants. It takes several years of additional trauma for him to learn how to take care of himself first.

I want to make it very clear that I’m not trying to paint Martin as some sort of soft “uwu” character, which I know some people in the fandom try and do. For starters, he’s a total bitch (affectionate). But more importantly, he’s also a very proactive character. I mean, his first introduction is him bringing supernatural parasitic worms into his workplace to prove a point, and the reason he encountered those worms is because he illegally broke into an apartment building. He willingly (well, sort of willingly) throws himself into the action – but he does so for other people, typically to protect or take care of them. It isn’t until season 4, at the height of his loneliness and depression, that he stops caring for others, and even then he doesn’t replace that with caring about himself. He just stops caring about everything altogether. Season 5 is when he finally starts expressing his own needs, after his character arc is mostly completed.

Jon and Martin’s respective egos also bleed into the way they interact and align themselves with the entities. Jon is egotistical, and Jon is an avatar of the Eye. In order to properly inspire the right kind of fear, Jon has to insert himself into experiences that aren’t remotely about him. The primary example of this is the nightmares: before giving a statement, someone might have nightmares about the experience itself, and be frightened of whatever entity was involved. After giving a statement, however, Jon, the Archivist, is inserted into those nightmares, so that now instead of being afraid of the original experience, the statement giver is afraid of being watched during that experience. The Eye, and Jon by extension (however unwillingly), has taken someone’s trauma and made itself the focal point. The center, if you will.

On the other hand, Martin’s experience with the Lonely is largely an exercise in fading away. He can make himself go somewhere else when other people are around. He’s trying to be as peripheral as possible, avoiding everyone and making sure he is not an important feature in their lives. This is most intense in episode 170, where Martin loses all sense of self in the Lonely domain that he became a victim of and all memory of who he is. I don’t know if there’s an opposite to being self-centered, but “having no self at all” is probably a strong contender.

Also, Martin is not directly Web-aligned, but he is definitely good at manipulation, which I think also comes from his tendency to center other people. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of manipulators who are self-centered, but Martin’s specific brand of manipulation mostly involves telling people what they want to hear, playing into their expectations, using their own preconceptions against them, etc. His methods all require pretty good insight into other people, and they require Martin to step out of his own head and determine what other people will expect or think. He has to de-center himself in order to effectively predict, and thus effectively manipulate, other people. And once again, this is definitely a skill he learned growing up in abusive household. I imagine he had to tell his mother what she wanted to hear a lot, in an attempt avoid the worst of her cruelty. That’s straying into the realm of headcanon though, so take it with a grain of salt. I just harbor a lot of hate for Martin’s mom, and I simultaneously love making myself hurt thinking about them, so I mention their relationship whenever I can.

Anyways. My main point is that Jon and Martin’s egos shape much of the story, and both of them contribute to the apocalypse in their own way. It’d be impossible to list all the concrete examples of this, simply because every decision they make in the podcast leads in part to the apocalypse, and each one of these decisions is informed by their respective egos. Still, I’ll try to summarize the most important moments. First of all, had Jon not believed himself solely responsible for stopping the rituals, had he rejected Elias/Jonah’s assertion that he was some kind of hero, he likely would not have played along with Jonah’s game for so long, and the apocalypse would not have happened. On the other hand, if Martin had believed Peter telling him he could be a hero, he would have joined the Lonely and ended Jonah’s plan. Going back to Jon, if he hadn’t been so insistent on taking all the blame for the trauma and death and disaster that occurs, he probably wouldn’t have been so eager to sacrifice himself. He wouldn’t have jumped into the coffin, most likely, and though this is after the apocalypse, he wouldn’t have become the Pupil (which, btw, Jon becoming the Pupil was quite literally him making himself the center of the ruined world and thus a very self-centered action) and tried to doom himself and the world. And hell, if Martin had a bit more self-esteem he might not have fallen for Jon at all! Because let’s be honest, Jon was pretty shitty to Martin for almost two years. And obviously if they hadn’t fallen in love, the whole course of the show would have been radically different, so who knows what that outcome would have been. Their personal views on their own self-importance are thus massively influential.

Before I close, I want to say this is not me condemning either Jon or Martin. They are both a product of their circumstances; they both make good and bad decisions repeatedly. I especially want to make it clear, once again, that I’m not calling Jon selfish, and I’m not calling Martin a pushover. These are two extremely complex, well-written characters, and I tried my best to acknowledge that in this essay. Also, self-centered does not equal selfish, and low self-esteem does not equal a pushover. And though the extremity of their egos are personal flaws, no character is perfect and no character should be perfect, so really I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And now for a last bit of heartache: in the end, their love for each other is what allows them to overcome their ego or lack thereof. In general, Martin prioritizes himself and his desires more than ever before in season 5, not just because of Jon. But his final decision – voting to pass the Fears to other worlds in order to save their own – was primarily motivated by a selfish desire to save Jon, a desire to build a life with the man he loved without pursued by terror-monsters. And Jon made his final decision to step down from being the final hero (or villain, depending on your perspective), to set aside his guilt and sense of responsibility, to remove himself from the center of the world, because he couldn’t bear to watch Martin die, and he couldn’t bear to doom the world with Martin still in it. It’s poetry. Terrible, tragic, heartbreakingly romantic poetry.

#hihi im back with another 2k+ word meta :)#feel free to add on or even to disagree! i love hearing peoples thoughts #just dont be dumb and dont be rude. thanks #tma #tma meta #the magnus archives #jonmartin #jmart

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fakeosirian · 1 year

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"house of anubis has bad writing"

so i have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to critical discussions about tv, and i'm going to use house of anubis as a vehicle through which to talk about it since i think it's a very good case study of this particular problem.

it's pretty simple: "x has bad writing"

saying something has "good writing" in passing is fine -- not every conversation needs MLA citations -- but for the sake of this post not being a million words long to account for every nuance possible, let's discount those situations and suppose that this is in the context of an extended critical discussion about something, and specifically calling out the "writing" as the culprit.

the funny thing about "writing" is a lot of the time, that...isn't what's being identified in a statement like this. this is where i'm going to start talking about house of anubis so i can give you an actual example

house of anubis has what i would call strong writing for most of its run, with a few notable exceptions (that i'd like to note are localized, specific problems!). when i say this, i'm thinking about specific parameters: the coherency and structure of the story, the pacing, the tone, the consistency and fidelity of the characterization, the quality of the dialogue (doing everything possible to only consider the words themselves, not the performances from the actors), and bells and whistles/creative choices that elevate it past functional narrative and into a piece of art. that is writing.

things that aren't writing that have a huge impact on how the writing/story is digested and are heavily influential creative choices in their own right BUT are literally just. not writing. that get commonly conflated with writing: ACTOR PERFORMANCES (i would write this one 100 times if it made a difference), shot composition, editing (both cut-to-cut and structural editing), and in some cases production design (so sets/props/costumes).

house of anubis is a great case study for this because oftentimes (especially in this VERY cynical phase of pop culture we're in) people conflate things that are earnest, low budget, or camp (especially when talking about elements in the "not writing" category) with "badness" when, while you don't have to like it, if you changed the lens through which you observed them, "bad" would be...not apt as a description. that being said, house of anubis isn't a great case study just because it's camp, but because, as the strongest example here, sometimes the performances are just Not Good. i will not name names (especially since everyone has their moments/odd line reads AND you can see clear improvement over time). but hopefully you know what i mean. it CAN affect your opinion of the story as a whole in a way that like...okay if you were watching season one for the first time as an adult, i wouldn't blame you for being turned off by the pilot, or hell, even a solid 80% of the entire first season.

i've attempted hoa watches with rl friends 3 times now, very recently finished s1 with someone actually, and noticed that more often than not, it was the acting (either because it's a very characteristic/camp/borderline theatrical style that takes getting used to or because it's...roughest at the beginning) that was turning them off. sometimes that was highlighting existing writing issues, but especially during arcs like the play/patricia's kidnapping that are structurally sound, perceived "cheesiness" in the acting would leach into the perception of the writing. we actually skipped the first 5 episodes entirely to try and mitigate the parts that are a bit hard to sit through without prior investment (i showed them the recap portion of the video essay i'm working on instead because they'd seen the pilot before and quote "could not handle that again" LMAO) but i noticed something interesting: while it took them a while to come around to fully enjoying the show, there was a period before that where i could tell that something shifted -- they were invested in the story, but they were still reacting like we were watching a neil breen movie. once the acting picked up, "oh this is garbage" (affectionate) turned to "wait a minute this is good."

that is the difference between bad writing and bad [something else].

this is a post about how house of anubis has good writing more than anything, but i do have to talk about the actual bad writing to make this point. early s1 has a particular type of writing flaw that's both INCREDIBLY interesting to break down, requires good writing ability to make in the first place, and unfortunately, is a KILLER for interest in a show like house of anubis, especially when it's taken out of its original context of being released every couple weeks in runs of 4 days of a new episode each night (which side note: COOLEST release schedule i've ever seen a show do. BRING THIS BACK) and binged instead.

quick interjection because i realized that how i define the plots in this show is not at all universal and i haven't talked about it before/released that damn video yet so you won't know what i'm talking about: until episode 9, season 1 has TWO A plots -- whatever nina/fabian/amber are doing (A1), and whatever patricia's doing (A2). at episode 9, they converge, so it's a more conventional singular A plot, but the reason i insist on it being 2 A plots before that instead of the show having an A/B/C/D plot and then A/B/C is a) for clarity's sake since the other plots don't change at all so why shift their categorization b) calling patricia's plot the D plot so you don't have to do that would imply it's the least important when it's easily the MOST important (it gets all the coolest reveals let's be real) + the C plot usually changes every episode/couple of episodes so putting a long-running plot after what is usually just a runner in the hierarchy makes things needlessly complicated c) they DIRECTLY converge in a way that's well telegraphed from the start. you KNOW whatever nina's doing is related to what patricia's doing from the pilot, and that's good.

so let's be real here: the A1 plot kinda sucks. not because the content itself is bad on its face -- that part of the writing is fine -- but because the individual scenes and what information they drip-feed the audience are poorly paced. the most egregious scene is the one in episode 5(!!!! FIVE) where fabian finally notices the eye of horus in the stair railing (by getting his shoelace caught on the doorknob somehow -- don't get me started), shows nina, and they come to the EARTH-SHATTERING realization that robert frobisher-smythe was really interested in egypt! 💀 it's not so much about them...coming to an obvious conclusion...even if that was what caused my ??? kneejerk reaction, but more that we spent an entire scene on this information (that even to a kid wouldnt bear stating), and it's not the first (nor the last) time that something like this happens in the A1 plot. meanwhile, in the A2 plot, patricia is learning something LEGITIMATELY earth-shattering once or twice a scene, and with multiple scenes in an episode for her, it's difficult for the A1 plot to keep up in terms of intrigue/information weight. the audience can tell that nina's the main character and that whatever she's doing is the "main point," but it gets increasingly difficult to make that case when patricia is getting gangstalked while they're visiting sarah over and over without learning anything new.

the real rub here isn't even in the comparison itself but in the fact that they're still, ultimately, both the A plot, and the characters in each need to get to specific places in the information they have/things they've experienced before their plots can converge properly at victor kidnapping rufus. when you compare them, there's a discrepancy pretty quick: patricia has way more things she has to piece together than sibuna do. thus, the sibuna plotline is artificially sandbagged with repetitive scenes, reveals that don't deserve the fanfare they get relative to the actual content of the reveal, and contrivances (see: fabian shoelace doorknob scenario) so it won't outpace things going on in patricia's plot and undermine the reveals there. when you add in how the B/C plots tie in and have impacts on the A plots or vice versa, it makes sense that something would end up being sacrificed in the pacing department. it seems kinda nuts that it'd be A1, but at a certain point of fiddling with events/moving stuff around, i can see why it had to be A1 that got this treatment.

i'll add that while it was airing, i didn't mind that and even liked how things felt ""sort of normal"/not that supernatural relative to where it was going to end up for a WHILE so when, say, the elixir is introduced and alfie gets trapped in the cellar and they REALLY start using their effects budget, it feels like a considerable shift in the setting. a mystery story that lets you get used to some sense of normal first before yanking the rug out from under you is the best kind, but striking a balance between "something weird is going on here that needs my urgent attention" and "but it's still not THAT weird" so the reveal is both shocking but entirely appropriate and satisfying is VERY difficult. (it's also a move that improves the rewatch at the expense of the initial watch, which i can't help but have a soft spot for as a certified Pretentious Bitch.) that's what i mean by it being a problem that comes from a good writer -- they're trying something! it might not be working perfectly but they're trying and to me, that's far more interesting than technically "clean" but very unambitious writing! but i digress lol

something neat that scene i ragged on early does do is the presentation of the information, though, and it makes me trust this was a particularly thorny structural issue and not amateurish writing. it seems to us that the takeaway is that they need to look into egyptian mythological sources for further information, and that the rollers likely belonged to the frobisher-smythe family. what ends up actually being relevant, though, is a) the naming of the eye of horus for the scene later where rufus asks patricia to look for them (specifically the locket, as we find out later, but he doesn't give that away, same as the scene not giving away why it used the eye of horus in the railing to clarify ^ the above dubiously useful information) and b) the subversion of the audience's attention. i'm not sure if this was intentional, but there's something magical about the way it primes the audience to be dismissive of nina and fabian's discoveries and investigative ability early on. for one, it makes the scenes where nina makes fun of amber for investigating every nook and cranny extra ironic in a way that i love (yes! giving your prototypical blank slate audience insert main character hints of a personality that ends up commenting on the nature of blank slate characters/how their behavior would actually come off if they were real people later down the line!), it makes the audience more likely to get invested in making connections/speculation independent of the characters solving the mystery (audience engagement is critical in a good mystery!), and by hiding the "most important information" in plain sight, it reinforces the illusion that this is a living, breathing world where everything is interconnected in unexpected ways. sure, it's cheesy and may feel cheap, but through that, it hits something real.

to sum up, i can see why if you're just turning this show on expecting a straightforward supernatural teen drama you wouldn't see this stuff first (especially since that genre is predominately cynical in tone right now and house of anubis is reminiscient at first blush of the type of show that a lot of other shows in the genre are...making up a guy like and parodying (badly)) and feel inclined to call it bad, especially without watching season 2. if you're someone new to the show, hi! i hope i haven't scared you off! if you don't mind spoilers, i did a writeup about a scene in late s2 that's an example of both good acting and EXCELLENT writing, both in dialogue but most importantly on a structural level. while it is a standout phenomenal scene, it's only that good because of the writing around it supporting that level of subtext in the first place, and the bones of that are present even in early s1.

i'm holding myself back from writing about cynical vs. earnest media because that's better saved for another post (specifically the fabled s3 writeup i will do someday i promise), but i cannot overstate how much of an impact that has on this, too. to state that conclusion as concisely as my verbose ass can manage: you need both cynical and earnest media in your media diet, elsewise your taste and critical skills will just Be Bad. too much cynical media, in particular, can trend towards a lack of appreciation for the earnest media it needs as reference material to respond to, and at that point, you're just adulating hatred ("intelligence") over loving, y'know, love. earnest media can suck, but at the very least, it's less insufferable to argue with.

(also, sidebar that's been said a million times, but these are TEENAGERS!! so many teenagers on tv are written like adults who make bad decisions, but there's an inherent corniness to being a teen that IS sorta "cringe," and you can't take that out without ruining the experience. i'm a super risk-averse person, but i'd be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that if you wrote up some early-ish s1 dialogue in script format (incl. action lines, etc.) of a scene with all kids and compared that to a scene of just adults, so stripping out the performances/keeping those from interfering in your interpretation, the dialogue that comes off "cringe" would read like perfectly fine, age appropriate language/cadence. i HEAVILY respect a show that doesn't pretty that up, even at the risk of coming off "amateurish.")

in conclusion, i asked my friend when their opinion of the show shifted from essentially "well i'm having fun watching it with you at least" to "ok wait a minute this is actually good," and they said the last four episodes of s1. while i'd place the "officially Good" marker for myself somewhere around episode 9, maybe a little later, i can see exactly why it'd be far later (and at that point specifically) for someone else, particularly someone that hasn't taken...extensive notes on every single moment of s1 and poured over them like it was my job for a solid couple years.

episode 23 and onward has: jerome and alfie getting more complex material to work with AND get to play off one another (and thus two of the show's best actors get to show us that), the rube-goldberg-machineification of the plotlines is setting in (the scene where mick and mara are playfighting while doing the dishes (as a result of their relationship turmoil up to this point??) and spill water on victor right when jerome chases alfie into the kitchen with the drawings of the ankh pieces?!?!?!??!?! LIKE!!! YOU CAN'T CALL THAT BAD WRITING...); reveals are paying off; stakes are high without spiraling out of control; actors in general are refining what elements of their characters work the best/need highlighting; beyond that the characters have weathered enough conflicts that their choices are cropping up to be consistent and solid characterization with a direction; it's clear that this is a campy endeavor with writing chops to back up the cheese.

the way that manifested in my friend's reaction was "wow, that was a good scene." "wait, that was acted really well. everyone did a good job there." "oh my god, they're not. theyre not doing this. oh my god, they are."

that is the essence of house of anubis, i think. it's not for everyone, but "bad writing?" a bit unfair, if you ask me.

#house of anubis #house of anubis meta #hoa meta #hoa #my writing #i feel like this is too vague and soupy so i might write a sequel to this at some point lmao

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yousta · 3 months

Text

(Sigh) I know I don't normally make posts that express my raw thoughts but I'd really like to start talking more personal. So this is my first attempt.

I'd like to say hello to members of the obsessive love, IRL yandere/lovesick community. I'm like hyper-fixated on you guys as I feel like I can empathize with so many, which was a unique experience for me.

If you've posted in the last couple months chances are I've probably went through your account. That's how I met my girlfriend, I know you're reading, Hiii honey bunny I love you so much.

Sure I have my own defined idea of the concept and what I like about it like everyone else does I'm sure. I'm sometimes selective with what I'll interact with. Which is part of what I wanted to talk to you about today. What I personally see, the good the bad the ugly, just the whole thing.

I'll start with the potential...

In my life, I isolated myself for many years because I couldn't find anyone who wanted to pay attention to me long enough to understand me, let alone care enough to actually love me. Which I more or less assumed was a trend of people identifying as lovesick, no one will know what you need better than yourself after all.

Obsessive love is making a point of love being a major focus in your life. Which is great you would think, until the rest of the world sees you as just another fish in the sea. They wouldn't recognize you for it as anything real, because not many people value upfront love. Everyone excepts liars and cheaters because that's all people seem to do without intention.

The act of being needy isn't attractive, it's why not everyone's giving money to a homeless person you have no connection to. Well I wanted to take a moment and say this is not that for me.

I read you guys everyday, I'm convinced a lot of you are seemingly inherently obsessive about a lot of the things you do, because given the platform you communicate yourself so coherently, so open and in touch with what you know you need. To the point when I first started reading people here. I was confused, feeling like I knew them even though it was parasocial.

Well that's because I relate to your struggle better than my own irl friends in those ways. I just wanted to say you're my favorite fish. I know I could never give you that love you desire as I'm taken, but I really want to extend the offer of friendship to each and every one of you, because I want to create a place for you to be recognized for all the love you've given. It may be platonic but I love you as the light of this world.

Of course nothing is all sunshine and rainbows.

There's people who'd intentionally ignore the warning signs or have such low self awareness, they won't or can't see what they're representing certainly has the potential to be or become toxic. Whether if it's for yourself or others.

Possessing but recognizing violent thoughts as intrusive is one thing, but identifying yourself by having those thoughts. I can't help but to acknowledge how you're building yourself up, creating momentum in a direction I don't think you or anyone truly wants. My question to you is why?

Hopefully you're just being very far removed from your words and the reality of you're saying, hopefully you're too deep into some strange character or persona you've invented and can separate yourself from it. Yet it seems to me that this is not always the case... Some members of the community are really struggling.

I mean I understand, people I knew growing up didn't have any real defined idea about love or stepped with any firm intention. So I understand why something like you see in these yan tropes could be appealing.

I grew up in a city where everyone is really cold to one another. Honestly I've lived here all my life and never felt like I truly know or trust anyone. Which when I was younger lead to a lot of moments I lacked insight I needed, to get my desired out come. I don't think you're barking up the wrong tree entirely however.

Which is why with this post and in future ones. I really want to help you guys with some general advice to set your intention, get your perspective and mindset right for loving in this style. I think I'd be a good person to ask, as I'm currently very sucuessful and happy in my current relationship. If any of you ever need to talk more personally though, my DMs are open for anyone who needs to vent.

#lovesick #actually obsessive #obslove #obsessive love #yandere #irl yandere #i love you #yandere community #yousta thoughts

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bibiana112 · 5 months

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Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

#oh to be miraposting on a sunday evening instead of catching up on schoolwork #I love how you can see the exact moment while writing this that I had a brain blast akdhks #me: sorry I can't elaborate also me: types out. three paragraphs #also if you're comfortable with that I'm curious what you could have possibly said that it'd be considered fumbling #dms are open if you send it into an ask I'll answer privately and again only if you want to share #cause like I want to see different perspectives on this so bad even if they're not eloquent #especially since it's not really something that ever got to me much? but that I can kinda see why it'd be upsetting #my suspension of disbelief is just too tanked for it to get an emotional reaction of me especially with the rest of the cast for contrast #I'm too busy being annoyed at everyone else's portrayal in that game not to mention idk it feels like #like schlocky hollywood no thoughts character archetype go brr type ableism #not the really insidious woven into the narrative stuff that I usually want to rant about cough cough youtube video I'll probably never mak #like pretty sure it's stated somewhere that the idea for her character was uchikoshi going hm. there's been femme fatales in these games #but none of them have been Really “Fatale” you know? he literally just wanted the big booba character to also be the stabby character #zero escape #ztd #mira ztd #if this should be under a readmore. let me know #zero escape spoilers

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quodekash · 1 year

Text

OKAY it's now the morning so it's time for me to share all of my thoughts from this episode. prepare yourselves, its gonna be a lot. also a lot of it isnt gonna be very coherent. you have been warned.

tinn calling gun 'darling' over the phone 🥺

photjanee why must you be heteronormative and assume tinn likes a girl

istg pat calling yo 'bro' was the funniest thing ever (maybe i was just tired lmao)

look at this style gay man. this icon. this king. i love him with all my soul.

this man's face is one of the most precious things on this planet

i thought we were ten minutes in and already getting a soundwin moment, but then sound freaking rejected win's offered seat and sits at the front???

poor win is so confused

why was tiw getting in the bus van thing with the pool toy still around his waist

sir what are you doing

WE FINALLY GOT THE FREAKING BEACH SCENES OMG

THEY ALL LOOK SO HAPPY IN THAT GROUP PHOTO (por can you send me that group photo pls?)

YEAAAAAHHH WE FINALLY GOT THE TIWPOR PHOTO TAKING. AND ALONG WITH THAT WE GOT THEY SMILING AND LAUGHING TOGETHER, AND TIW TAKING A PHOTO OF POR WHILE HE POSED AND LOOKED CUTE AND THIS IS NOT STRAIGHT BEHAVIOUR

i deeply appreciate the tiwpor crumbs

i do not, however, appreciate being catfished bY A CUTE SOUNDWIN BEACH MOMENT

yay for cute tinngun beach scene tho

even if it is ruined multiple times by people

THE OISHII ICE TEA IS HERE, YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

ITS TIME FOR A CUTE GAY MOMENT

(i cant explain how much i want this ice tea)

(i love ice tea)

why is tinn making out with the ice tea

and then gun made out with the ice tea so that they indirectly kissed and this is not at all what i was expecting from this product placement but honestly i love it

naturally yak had to destroy everyone's hope and happiness and freedom

he is, however, deeply iconic.

tinn: how did my honeymoon turn into a music practice camp? tiw: my situation is worse tiw:

tiw, i love you, but that's not worse.

TIW CHOKING ON HIS DRINK WHEN YAK ASKED THEM IF THEYRE CRUSHING ON HIS JUNIORS AND HE IS IN FACT SECRETLY DATING ONE OF THEM (well, hopefully. maybe. if hes not yet then he will be eventually. he has to be. i need canonical tiwpor in my life)

i understand the cover dancing. but why must you make music kids run and do squats and stuff. music kids dont want to exercise. leave the music kids alone. (i feel personally attacked from this. most of my friends are music kids. i dont want to be hanging out with them and relaxing on the beach and then suddenly forced to *terrified shudder* exercise)

yak telling por and pat and win and yo that theyre lacking something. idk about the others, but i know what win's lacking

he's lacking a boyfriend

i have the not-yet-disproven understanding that por has a magical gift in the art of somehow-becoming-gayer-every-single-time-he-comes-on-screen (ill make this its own individual post one day with evidence and stuff)

TIWPOR CRUMBS WHILE TIW IS TEACHING THEM TO DANCE

SOUND-TINN RIVALRY CRUMBS, YES, THEY BETTER FLIPPING EXPLAIN IT SOON. THEY DONT IN THIS EPISODE. BUT IF THEY DONT EXPLAIN IT BEFORE THE END OF THE SHOW IM GONNA PUNCH SOMEONE

"Dont you want to try a love song?" "Oh, please. A love song?" "i'm just saying. if youre not into it, thats okay." "its not that im not into it. but im more afraid our members wont be into it. look at them. none of them is romantic. none, none at all" "But there are many types of love. let's say puppy love or sweet love, im not into them either. i prefer the tough kind of love *he's smiling and thinking fondly now*" "right. i like that too. in the beginning, we just didnt stop fighting. in the end, i blushed for him without knowing it."

SOUND MAKES A FACE OF REALISATION

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

"Gun." GUN IS CONFUSED. HE LOOKS OVER. HE READS SOUND'S EXPRESSION. "hey!" "you just said… don't tell me…" "wait, no-"

"DID YOU KNOW I LIKE WIN?"

HE ADMITTED IT. HE SAID IT OUT LOUD. AND TO GUN OF ALL PEOPLE. GUN NOW KNOWS. HE KNOWS ABOUT SOUNDWIN.

"HUHH????? YOU LIKE WIN???" "keep it down! people can hear" "you like win?" "i do." "ah! youve been avoiding him lately because of this?" "…yes. when im close to him, i just dont know how to act. when im near him, i feel so freaking awkward." sound, babes, its okay. you're allowed to have feelings

"should i just tell him honestly?" UMM??? YES????? ABSOLUTELY YOU SHOULD, YES PLEASE

gun why are you changing the subject. sound is asking for advice. dont just leave.

TINN ALSO KNOWS NOW

i love the way they were hiding behind a rock and spying on sound omg

side note: tinngun's height difference may kill me one day

sound and gun are sitting on the side watching the dance that the others practiced, and sound cant stop looking up at win he's so whipped i love him

"something im really into?" *proceeds to stare directly at win for a number of seconds*

THOU POOR LITTLE PINING GAY OH HOW I PITY THEE AND WISH TO GIVETH THEE A BIG OL' HUG

3/4 THROUGH THE EPISODE, YK WHAT THAT MEANS? THE SOUNDWIN PART

WIN IS APPROACHING SOUND WHILE SOUND IS WRITING

I REPEAT, WIN IS APPROACHING SOUND WHILE HE'S WRITING, WE GOT A COTE RED, CODE RED EVERYONE

win is asking whats up with sound recently

sound is aggressively avoiding eye contact

"im on mars looking back at earth and can still see you're mad. what are you mad at me about?" sounds thoughts: for being so bloODY HOT WHY MUST YOU BE LIKE THIS

"i said nothing. you should go now. im continuing to write the song" SOUND BBY DONT PUSH HIM AWAY HES ALSO IN LOVE I JUST DONT THINK HES REALISED IT YET

WIN STOLE THE SONG BOOK THING, I REPEAT, WIN STOLE THE SONG BOOK THING

SOUND IS VERY TENTATIVE AND KINDA SCARED

"you said you would write a song about chasing a dream. why did it turn into a sweet love song?" "well- im- exploring different types." suuuuuuuurrreeee. nice cover up story there, sound. subtle. he'll never figure it out.

"...do you feel anything after reading that??" POOR BBY IS DESPERATE HE NEEDS A HUG (i volunteer as tribute to give sound a hug)

win looks down at it. reads it again. looks back up at sound.

"i do"

WE'RE GOING FERAL AT THIS POINT

THEYRE SMILING AT EACH OTHER

WE'RE TEARING OUT HOUSES TO SHREDS

BUT THEN--

"i feel like this doesnt suit you at all"

WIN.

HE WAS TALKING ABOUT FEELINGS.

LIKE THAT FLUTTERY THING YOU GET IN YOUR CHEST EVERY TIME YOU SEE HIM?

YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT WIN

I KNOW YOU'VE FELT IT

"it gives me goosebumps" WIN THIS IS SO VAGUE, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?? DO YOU MEAN GOOSEBUMPS WITH A NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE CONNOTATION?? IM NEURODIVERGENT AND SLEEP DEPRIVED I NEED TONE INDICATORS

"give it back. a dumba** like you will never understand" :[[[[

"what a waste of time" excuse me sir. the last time you said that you kissed him. now you're walking away.

(thats probably a thing i can analyse at some point. sound and his usage of 'what a waste of time' and an insight into his thoughts and his character. ill do that at some point)

FREAKING GO AFTER HIM, WIN. BLOODY EXPLAIN YOURSELF

sound is now sitting on the beach. he is sad. that makes us sad.

look at this sad boi, he nEEDS A FREAKING HUG

tinngun are approaching him to provide words of comfort

"i saw everything. its okay. if i were you, id be ticked off too. dam it. you wrote a song for him, and he badmouthed you back." and sound has this tiny sad smile on his face "actually, i wasnt that surprised. even if i told him directly, he wouldve turned me down anyway. you saw it. we're too different." HES TRYING NOT TO CRY DANG IT "it's good we ended it this way" SOUND- PLS- STOP- NO- WIN DIDNT KNOW WHAT YOU WERE SAYING, HE DIDNT REJECT YOU, HE LOVES YOU

"you can put your mind at ease now. no one is breaking the club rule." tinn is literally standing like three metres behind them. sound trusted gun enough to tell him that he likes win. i swear, if gun doesnt tell sound about tinn RIGHT NOW (or at least soon) IM GONNA TELEPORT INTO THE UNIVERSE AND SMACK HIM

"im sorry. im the first to break the club rule." YES. GOOD GOOD GOOD

"what??" "actually, im seeing tinn" G O O D. YOU SAID IT. WELL DONE.

sound is like rly confused and he looked behind at tinn and tinn kinda shrugged and nodded and sound says "how's that possible? when??" "my couple is no different than yours. tinn and i have nothing in common." YES YES YES YES BRING HIS HOPE BACK PLS TY GUN "but our dissimilarities got us to this point. just because you and win are so different, doesnt mean you two cant be together" YESSSSSSSSSS comforting hand on shoulder "trust me"

AND SOUND IS LOOKING AT THE SAND AND I THINK HES TRYING NOT TO SMILE BUT ALSO TRYING NOT TO CRY AT THE SAME TIME, HE NEEDS A HUG, ITS OKAY TO CRY, DONT WORRY SOUND

okie now hes smiling and nodding yayyyyyyyyyyyy

(btw im getting all this from constant commentary i messaged to my friend (who hasnt seen the show but basically has through my bad explanations and screenshots and screen recordings) and i started watching the episode as soon as it was out, and at this point through the episode id been watching for an hour and a half. i have too many thoughts and comments grbhbrhbrhb)

"i changed my mind. i will finish this song." YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

excuse me gun??

im sorry, i love you, but that position is TAKEN

by TIW

he smelt it before either of them even KNEW

gun can be, like. the guy that hoists the mainsail or something

this next scene killed me

win knows sound's favourite bread

win's apology is to give bread

that's so in character for reasons i cant explain

and he bought the gay-moment water

and win unscrews the lid and it's mirroring that scene from last time and my HEART

GRABBING HIS HAND AND THE DRINK AND STEPPING CLOSER?????

WHAT IS THIS

THIS IS SOME WEIRD FLIRTING

SOUND DRINKING WATER WHILE MAINTAINING EYE CONTACT

SOUND WHY DID YOU STEP EVEN CLOSER

WHAT ARE YOU DOING

E Y E T O L I P F L I C K E R

GUYS JUST KISS PLS

TINN IS ASKING IF HE CAN KISS GUN

I REPEAT

TINN IS ASKING GUN IF HE CAN KISS HIM

WE GOT A CODE BLUE, CODE BLUE

and gun didnt let him, but thankfully tinn is a walking green flag and isnt getting mad or forcing himself upon gun. i love these two so much.

Gim. please. rest. you dont need to work every hour of every day. you're over-exerting yourself

OMG TINN'S MUM AND GUN'S MUM SCENE?? YES PLEASE, SIGN ME UP. THEYRE BOTH QUEENS

many more of gim's little accidental clues and photjanee's gonna figure out who it is that tinn likes

gotta love that perfectly-timed phone call tho, dam

HOW IS POR STYLISH EVEN WHEN DOING WEIRD EXERCISES

HOW DOES HE DO IT???

also LOOK AT THE GENDER ON THIS MAN

I WANT IT

pat's shirt is the mood of the week

they all look so Normal™️

and then there's freaking por with his freaking rich-kid-twink-ness i love him

OHHHH THE DANCING PERFORMANCE IS WHERE THIS CLIP IS FROM (the one of pat doing the worm. i kept vaguely wondering what it was from. and now i know)

I CANT EVEN RN-- THIS IS SO FUNNY

IM LITERALLY CRYING FROM LAUGHTER

look at this little happy proud gay man

i know i probably shouldnt call him little cos he's 20cm (nearly 8 inches) taller than me, but idc, that's not the point

look at this little happy proud gay man

i know i probably shouldnt call him little cos he's 20cm (nearly 8 inches) taller than me, but idc, that's not the point

theyre gonna do so goooooood

also satang is probably grateful to the ends of the earth that he didnt have to do this dance lmao

omg he managed to un-twink for 0.5 seconds

my gender is win's poofy sleeves

also if you're familair with @ashedddaisy's red-yellow soundwin theory, win is wearing orange here. orange is literally the middle of red and yellow. he's getting there.

DON'T WORRY, TIW, THEY DID IN FACT SLAY IT (boys)

HE'S SO PROUD

IT'S SO FUNNY TO ME

the first to approach him was por. i repeat, tiwpor crumb alert, we got a code violet, code violet

AND NOW FOR THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

SOUND PERFORMING HIS SONG. BY HIMSELF. ON STAGE. IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE. AND THAT AUDIENCE HAPPENS TO CONTAIN WIN.

I PROMISE, I WILL CRY (again)

"im not much of a talked, so im using this song to represent my feelings for someone" you know, im surprised yak didn't pick up on that. youd think he'd like, try and stop that, cos that's a love-related distraction

AHA I KNEW IT

I FREAKING KNEW IT

I CALLED IT I CALLED IT I CALLED IT

THE FREAKING TRACK THAT KEEPS PLAYING BEHIND SOUNDWIN SCENES

IT'S FREAKING EVERYWHERE

IT'S THERE WHEN THEY BADMINTON

IT'S THERE WHEN THEY "KISS"

IT'S THERE WHEN WIN PUTS THE HELMET ON

IT'S THERE WHEN SOUND IS THINKING ABOUT 'what im really into'

IT'S THERE WHEN SOUND WALKS AWAY AFTER SAYING 'what a waste of time'

IT'S THERE WHEN SOUND DRINKS THE WATER

AND NOW SOUND PRESSES PLAY ON THE MUSIC

AND IT'S THAT FREAKING TRACK

AND I KNEW IT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i cant even describe my thoughts on the song

i made an earlier prediction that this would kill me

i was right. i might currently be dead. the song killed me.

SOUND WALKING ALONE AFTER THE SHOW THING AND WIN CALLING HIS NAME, PREPARE YOURSELVES FRIENDS

"why do i feel like you just yelled at me through that song" BECAUSE HE DID

"how do you know i wrote it for you?" "it's so obvious. i can see that from mars" MY FREAKING HEART-

"why did you ask then?" "seriously, since when?" "remember when we practiced badminton together?" and win has this tiny smile and sound has this tiny relaxed smile and theyre actually killing me

YOU'RE KIDDING

THERES AN ENTIRE SCENE AFTER THE BADMINTON AND WE'RE ONLY GETTING IT NOW AND WE WERE NEVER TOLD???

YOU'RE. FREAKING. KIDDING.

THIS SCENE IS THE DEATH OF ME

also the track is behind the umbrella scene too

THEYRE LITERALLY BOYFRIENDS

THEYRE DOING IT ON PURPOSE

THEY W A N T US TO GO INTO CARDIAC ARREST

i refuse to believe that win doesnt actually like sound yet

he just hasnt identified/confronted the feelings yet

and sound's reaction was the saddest thing ever, like i could smell the tears he was holding back when he said 'then we stay as friends'

BUT THEN WIN FREAKING SAYS "for something i dont know, im willing to try"

and if you're thinking 'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN????' then you would be correct

"c a n y o u c o a c h m e" i am dead

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

GUYS YOU'RE LITERALLY TWO CENTIMETRES FROM KISSING

AND THEN THE SCENE FREAKING ENDS

I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK???

I CANT BE PATIENT

PATIENCE IS NOT IN MY BLOOD

AAAAAAAAAA

also side note: win is now wearing a yellow shirt under a yellowish-orange jacket thing. back to the red-yellow soundwin theory, he has feelings for sound, he's got the yellow shirt. and on the outside, he's still kind of hiding it, still trying to figure it out. the jacket is almost like it's been stained more and more yellow over time, and win wants sound to turn it pure yellow, he just cant figure out how to get there, which is why hes asking sound to coach him. over time, he'll wear colours that get closer and closer to sound's shade of yellow, to show him finally realising his feelings more and more. :]

"no pressure or anything, but our club's future is in your hands" jeez yak, that's a little intense dont you reckon???

omg gemini finally gets to do music-related things

i can see him jumping for joy in his mind

he gets to sing and play guitar

OMG WE GOT TWO NEW SONGS TODAY

probably cos last week we didnt get any songs

but WOW

"wow. did you write that?" "no. you wrote it. you wrote it in here *tinn points to his own heart* i just sang it out loud." WHEN I SAY THAT THESE TWO ARE LIFE GOALS, I FREAKING MEAN IT

and now tinngun are kissing with a notebook between them

WHY do they have to ALWAYS get SO FREAKING CLOSE and then DONT??????

theyre really cute tho so i cant rly get mad

OH MY GOSH FREAKING HOT WAVE IS NEXT WEEK???????

THE FINAL FREAKING COMPETITION IS N E X T W E E K

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FUNCTION FOR SEVEN DAYS WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE IN MY BRAIN

ALSO NEXT EP WE'RE GONNA GET SOME SOLID CONTENT OF SOUND ATTEMPTING TO FLIRT AND WIN FALLING FOR HIM SO YAY

it's not quite what i was hoping for, but they're definitely aiming towards getting soundwin together, so its okay, theyll get there eventually

final thought/conclusion: this is my new favourite episode cos its like 50% soundwin

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xiaq · 1 year

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Long ago someone once told me that “Harry Potter is the ‘little black dress’ of [fan fic/crossover fic]”. I never really cared for HP as a story, and more (less?) so now because of the hate hole the author cannot dig herself out of. As someone still writing HP fic in the modern age, would you be able to explain the above adage? What exactly is it about HP mythos that’s so attractive for crossover fic?

Thank you for your insight.

I'm very tired so I apologize for what will likely not be a super coherent response but here we go:

I've never heard it expressed this way, but I think the sentiment is accurate. I can't answer for everyone, obviously, but the appeal of HP for me (despite JK Rowling's awfulness and the inherent problematic aspects of the material itself) is A. nostalgia and B. the HP world's ability to work as a foundation for a plethora of genres/tropes that can easily be adapted by writers while still being recognized by readers.

The A. is pretty self-explanatory. I read the first HP book when I was 12 and a new one was released pretty much every year after that. I grew up with Harry Potter and the HP fandom. I know a lot of queer folks my age have a similar attachment, and JK's terfness has actually encouraged us to write/create more fandom content as a way of reclaiming the material (I said in another post, we don't just believe in Death of the Author in this house, we believe in Murdering the Author and then rifling through her stuff to keep the good things and toss the bad). The B, which is more what you're referring to, I think, is the foundational aspect. HP is a cultural phenomenon. Most people in the US over the age of 10 at least have a basic knowledge of the world/characters, which means it's a great anchor point for people creating media. It also encompasses, or can support, a really diverse breadth and depth of genres/tropes. The world is large, which means the sandbox for transformative fans to play in is also large. And a lot of the sandbox is gestured to but unexplored in canon. The possibilities are endless. You can write a fantasy, a mystery, a romance, a sports romance, a buddy cop narrative, a kidfic, a coffee shop au, etc. and it's all, more or less, in-universe. Because the universe contains multitudes. The HP fandom is also VERY forgiving/supportive of diversions from canon within "canon" worldbuilding. It's probably the most supportive I've seen. I mean, the majority of fic I've read is proudly tagged as canon non-compliant and/or epilogue? what epilogue? Most fic falls into two camps, I think: "I love this, so I'm writing more" and "This thing has promise but you fucked it up and I'm going fix it." I feel like a good portion of HP fandom, at least today, is doing the latter. The first HP fic I wrote, and the one I'm working on now, play very fast and loose with the magical dynamics Rowling set up, completely throw out her shitty werewolf rhetoric, and are focused on trauma and creature politics--something Rowling didn't really address in any depth (and what little she did I'm ignoring). But I can do all of that while still being anchored in a familiar environment that folks feel comfortable in.

Hopefully, that makes sense. And if anyone wants to add to (or disagree with!) my thoughts, go for it.

#hp #harry potter #meta #fandom #transformative work

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therealslimsanji · 4 months

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I’m sorry for the incredibly long ask, but this is pretty much the only place I can voice my thoughts on the matter without getting attacked by those who now hate the OPLA cast!

I genuinely don’t understand how Taz, Iñaki, and Jacob are getting cancelled and sent death threats for what they’ve said (part of me feels like people have been ITCHING to cancel Jacob for something because he’s black)

Iñaki’s post was about the earthquake in Mexico and NOWHERE in Jacob’s post did it say anything that was pro-Israel! All Jacob said was “Just because someone is Jewish, doesn’t mean they support what the Israeli government is doing. Just because someone is Palestinian, doesn’t mean you should label them as a terrorist. This conflict is putting innocent lives at risk, so let’s continue to speak up against violence while also having compassion for both Palestinian and Jewish people!”

WANTING INNOCENT PEOPLE (no matter where they are from) TO NOT DIE ISN’T A BAD THING and I don’t get how people got “I support Israel and I’m pro-IDF” out of Jacob’s statement???

Now with Taz, he definitely could’ve handled the situation better after getting called out, but I’m not going to cancel him or wish death on him for simply sharing a link that supports THE INNOCENT CIVILIANS of both Palestine and Israel! The British Red Cross has been helping Palestine for years and I’ve heard that sometimes TBRC is the only way they can get more help! I wish Taz would’ve just deleted the link from his bio and not said anything because not everything you do needs an explanation or a Twitter post made about it. Sometimes, moving in silence is the best option. Or if he felt the need to post about it, he definitely should’ve worded it better, but the death threats being sent to him are uncalled for!

I’m sorry if this seems out of line, but I feel like some people are so hung up on rooting for one side that they don’t see those who need help on the other. I’m all for “Free Palestine”, but that doesn’t mean I want every single person from Israel to never ever get help and die right where they stand (now the ones participating in all the violence against Palestine and making fun of their suffering, they can choke)

People on Twitter labeling Taz, Iñaki, and Jacob as Zionists are REACHING! It’s like that “any Kpop star that watches Made in Abyss and anime in general is a pedophile” situation all over again! These keyboard warriors need to realize that words have meaning and those are two labels that someone could never come back from if this had spread to those outside of the OPLA fandom! Now if they were voicing their full support of the IDF, THEN WE’D HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM ON OUR HANDS, but all of this over Taz running a marathon for an organization and a badly worded tweet???

Also, I’ve seen so many people saying OPLA should be cancelled or they will boycott it from now on, but I bet this whole situation will blow over by next month (hopefully sooner if Taz puts the Twitter fingers away) and those same ones will be right there when a trailer for season 2 comes out!

Honestly I'm so mentally tired of this right now and can't form a coherent thought on the matter outside of what I've already said on other posts and what not. I'm just so incredibly disappointed with people. And thinking about them tryna come back to the OPLA Fandom and go back to being fans of the cast after the bullshit they pulled pisses me off. I know that's petty but idc at this point.

Taz has said himself that he tries to be the peacekeeper so I'm sure the tweet was meant to try and soothe things but he didn't accomplish that goal. I think if he had slept on it more then he would've been able to word things better. He reacted just like everyone else did.

But right now, I'm just so fed up with Twitter warriors who act all righteous online but probably don't actually do shit for a cause in real life.

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thelustybraavosimaid · 1 year

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Hi there! I sent the ask you screenshotted about Sansa and Arya. Your post popped up in my recommended! I wanted to clear things up: I have come up with this kinder interpretation of the underlying source of Sansa’s atrocious treatment of Arya because I love Arya and it makes me sad to think that one of her only living family members really truly hates her. I think the way Sansa treated her is just awful and really inexcusable for a girl her age. I have a little sister and thought I “hated” her for the first few years of her life (when I 3-5) but I didn’t hate her. I was scared because I had separation anxiety my sister took up so much of my parents’ time and energy because she never slept and cried all the time. Of course I didn’t treat her anything like Sansa treated Arya, but I took these feelings I had as a very young child, this misplaced false “hatred” and tried to look for an explanation for Sansa’s behavior that wasn’t just true hatred. Because I’d love for them to reunite and eventually develop a healthy sibling relationship.

It’s not like I think she’s CONSCIOUSLY concerned for Arya. She’s never expressed concern for Arya and her whereabouts and safety in her chapters. But we’re hardwired to care for our family. I think she just struggles to reconcile her family love and her conformist nature because she’s a kid who doesn’t have the emotional maturity or self awareness to resolve these feelings. It’s like how Arya has occasionally expressed frustration with her struggles to perform in “ladylike” activities. Arya doesn’t truly wish she was more ladylike. What she really wants is to be accepted, loved, and praised. She sees Sansa being praised for these things and envies this praise. Thankfully, her desire to be herself outweighs her desire for praise, so doesn’t try to force herself to conform. Just another example of how kids sometimes misidentify their feelings.

I never meant to try to excuse Sansa’s behavior. I do not relate to her as a character at all. I relate mostly to Daenerys but also a lot to Arya, especially my childhood self. As we got older, my sister became a strict conformist whereas I’m a non-conformist and for most of our lives she’s been pretty cruel to me for being different. I guess in a way I project Sansa into her, if that makes sense, because that’s how I’ve come to understand my sister’s treatment of me. She does what she thinks she needs to do be treated well, and it stresses her out that I don’t conform. I think people do have a right to hate Sansa and criticize her treatment of Arya. I guess my only point is that I wish people gave her a little more sympathy and tried to see that her actions, though inexcusable, may have some more complications roots than just Sansa hates her sister.

If you’re going to like, accuse me of secretly being a Sansa stan, know that I have a replica of needle displayed on my wall. I truly wholly love Arya almost as much as I love Dany. Hopefully this is coherent!

I'm stopping at the part where you admit that your reasoning is based on a headcanon of yours.

That is quite literally the problem here and what I was addressing—you are minimising what is being said and mentioned in the text. You agree that it is horrendous how much Sansa does not care, nor would I say she actually holds much love in general for her. So what is the purpose of this exchange?

Not everyone in your family is going to like you. That's fine. The approach that Sansa has in regards to anything Arya does or says is not. It's deliberately abnormal on the author's part. That is why Sansa was created in the first place—as a means of discourse amongst the family.

Arya was one of the first characters created. Sansa came about as a total opposite b/c too many of the Stark family members were getting along and familes aren't like that. Thus, Sansa was created; he ended by saying they have deep issues to work out.

[Source]

Trying to excuse any part of their antagonistic dynamic in favour of a headcanon is not what the author intended.

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luckyshotwrites · 1 year

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Eyo! Forgive me if this is an odd question, but how did you make friends?

Hey hey! I don't consider this an odd question! If you are talking about friends on here? The vore discord chat that's in my feed helped me connect to a lot of them that I recognized or some that I hadn't. That's one of the biggest ways that I started interacting with everyone. While before that...it was kinda taking a "lucky shot." Ha-get it. I'm sorry!

Randomly sending messages to others/making a comment on their stuff/doing funny meme responses. And sometimes that one interaction could lead you to talking more with someone, sometimes it doesn't and that's okay! I am not an expert by any means with making peeps, but this is how a lot of mine went. I put myself out there to interact and a lot of people on here from what I discovered are just shy and or have anxiety with interactions, among other things. And that's perfectly fine, it's them and I love them. It honestly only makes me want to hug them all more. I know the pressures of anxiety and stuff too, but my drive to want to tell someone how amazing their stuff is, is far greater than my fears of all the bad that could happen from it.

Then from there, I popped a message to their DM when I felt comfortable enough. For example one of my friends now, I was worried about a post they made so I DM'ed them with support. Another we just exchanged songs. One I called out on Kate's Vore discord. And my first started out with me randomly messaging them a pepe meme where if they tilt their phone a certain way it says, "your doing great and I'm glad you exist." (They know who they are!...hopefully xD). This has been my experience. I kinda threw myself out there and sometimes I tried to interact with people and they never responded, or ignored me. Which is fine too, it can take a while before ya make a friend. I know it's scary and you might not want to be hurt, but sometimes you gotta dive in. At least that's my motto with everything I do. HOPEFULLY THIS HELPS YOU OUT AND THAT I SOMEWHAT ANSWERED IT COHERENTLY. I WISH YOU TO HAVE A WONDERFUL REST OF YOUR DAY! NONNEGOTIABLE.

#luckyshotwrites #ask answered #You got this though and don't feel pressured to take my advice!#WORK AT YOUR OWN PACE #I LOVE YA (PLATONICALLY)

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cloudofash · 1 year

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Kingdom Hearts 4 - Thoughts, Predictions and Ramblings

I've had a mountain of thoughts collecting in my brain since Melody of Memory but I never could find a way to express them properly. Before I knew it UX had ended, Dark Road came and ended and now Missing Link is on it's way and the only thing I can think is how this all ties together and will lead into Kingdom Hearts 4 and the series going forward. I decided not to wait any longer, sorry if I can't present a coherent post here but I'd rather get all these thoughts out than let them fester any longer! 😆

Melody of Memory

Thanks to MoM's ending we know Riku ventures to Quadratum alone to find Sora, Kairi stays behind to train with Aqua and Donald and Goofy head to the Underworld to most likely ask Hades about Sora's whereabouts.

With Riku, I predict we'll get a Dream Drop style in KH4 where we switch back and forth between him and Sora, though I doubt they'll drop this time and will be very much awake. (Soriku stans we in there ayeee!! DDD 2!!).

If Yozora stands in Sora's way (whether initually or eventually) and traps him in crystal as the bad ending of Limit Cut suggested, that means Riku will most likely be the one to free him. And booooy the implications that has, especially when you consider Disney films like Atlantis the Lost Empire and Frozen where the main character had to fight for their loved one to free them from their frozen state. It would be a glorious parallel and would make for a tender moment between the two, something I believe is much needed after Riku was left out of sharing the Paopu Fruit and his rescue was forgotten by Sora. Not to mention Riku himself believed nothing he did was enough for Sora, not becoming a Keyblade Master, nor becoming a leader amongst his peers or even connecting himself to Sora and dreaming of his exact location for a year after being lost. Riku needs affirmation that he's needed by Sora, and Sora needs a reminder of who his Light is.

I love the idea of Kairi making potential friends outside the trio, thus I love the idea of her spending time with and possibly bonding with Aqua. Hopefully after their training sessions, Kairi will finally become a Team Player no longer dumped to the side. I think this will give her character the desperate boost it needs.

And finally, thanks to context from Dark Road we now know the dead can be contacted from the Underworld. However, I feel only those whose hearts are in The Final World can be contacted, not those whose hearts transferred to the other side of reality. I'd be surprised if Hades could reach hearts even on the opposite side of reality, but I won't completely rule it out. The Underworld could become useful for contacting Nameless Star in the future so they don't have to keep traveling to The Final World, and her human form may be revealed here (as we saw in Dark Road, the dead reappear in their original human forms rather than in the Final World's transparent stars). I expect that her human form won't look the same as her Quadratum form since it appears the "Somebody" who unalived her took "everything about her" which may include her original body, similarly to how Yozora's body was also taken and his heart was replaced.

Only time will tell and I can't wait for KH4 to come! When the next trailer drops I'll probably melt into a bowl of ice cream.🫠

Dark Road / Missing Link

Dark Road had a LOT of content in it but what I want to take away most from it for future titles is reincarnation (player character) and family lineages (Xehanort being Ephemer's great-great grandson or so) which we know will be touched upon in Missing Link (per an interview with Nomura). This can lead to an interesting dynamic between all the characters as we discover who comes from what lineage and which characters may even be distant relatives.

Aside from Xehanort, everyone else's lineage is up in the air aside from one other character, Riku. If the Crown Necklace Theory proves true then that means Riku, who had the Crown Necklace since he was a baby, is of royal blood through one of his parents or at least a descendant of a prestigious family. Given his silver hair and blue eyes, the only line I can imagine he comes from is Ephemer's. And this is also shown through Xehanort who descends from Ephemer and is also constantly represented with a crown.

If Ephemer's line are represented by crowns it's fair to assume he and his descendants are considered "royalty". And what could this mean for Riku in KH4 and the future? As Kingdom Hearts characters are constantly represented by Chess Pieces, the Ephemer descendants are the King pieces of the story so to speak. It all adds up when you consider Riku was not only initially the Keyblade's Chosen and the initial bearer of the Crown Necklace but now Yozora has seemingly come into the series as the opposite King on the chest board from the dimension of fantasy. And who does Yozora resemble most? Riku. Learning Riku's lineage is important as it could very well further point to Riku being the "True King" of the Kingdom Hearts dimension. It'd all tie together. But I have a theory on the Verum Rex, Falsus Rex discussion that I will save for a future time.

Aside from Riku, there aren't any other characters with even a hint about who they might be.

The only other candidate for Royalty is Kairi, not only being a Princess of Heart but she was raised in a castle by her Grandmother who may have been Queen of Radiant Garden, or they were at least of a high social class. If Kairi also comes from Royalty, is it the same Royal line as Ephemer's descendants? Her relationship with Xehanort seems to have started when she was only 4, he chose her as the vessel who would find and connect with the Keyblade Wielder for a reason. It would be interesting if he chose Kairi due to her being from his family line. The only evidence I have that points Kairi to being a Descendant lf Ephemer aside from possibly being royalty is that her Grandmother is the one who retells the story of how the Dandelions scattered across the worlds in search of light. Her Grandmother may have learned that from her ancestors, one being Ephemer, but it's also possible it was just a common children's story told to everyone regardless of lineage. But all of this assumes she descends from Ephemer and not a potential secondary Royal line. Her family is only from Radiant Garden as far as we know not Scala ad Caelum/Daybreak Town so it's very possible she has nothing to do any of the Dandelions and simply descends from the (speculated) Radiant Garden Royal family. Only time will tell and I'm very excited to learn more about her and her family.

As for Sora, there are no hints about his family lineage at all, aside from one line from his mother far back in KH1 we don't know anything about his father or any other family members (if we don't focus on the manga which mentions his uncle). He doesn't have a crown necklace of his own like Riku, he doesn't come from a castle like Kairi so we can assume he doesn't come from any Royalty. For Sora, I can only make an educated guess and I think he may come from Brain's line. If Xehanort and Riku come from Ephemer's line and Eraqus is rumored to have come from Brain's line, then I would expect Sora to also come from Brain's line since Eraqus is to Xehanort what Sora is to Riku, in a sense.

Also in learning which characters descend from which line, we can discover who is related to who. If Riku does in fact also directly descend from Ephemer then that would mean he and Xehanort are relatives - distant cousins. And the same would be true for Eraqus and Sora if they both descend from Brain. And if Kairi descends from either of these lines, that would make her a distant relative of either Sora or Riku. Her being distant cousins with Riku would be very interesting to their relationship, but her being distant cousins with Sora...well, talk about awkward.

But I'm jumping way ahead here. We'll have to wait for Missing Link to come out to see who comes from what family and I absolutely can't wait to see how it all plays out and how it ties to the plot of Kingdom Hearts 4 and the series' future!

#kingdom hearts #sora #riku #kairi #missing link #kh missing link #kingdom hearts heritage #kingdom hearts family lines

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narukoibito · 1 year

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Wrapped 2022

Thank you @nuatthebeach for the tag! 💛 I was tagged in 2023, so...

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular)

Well, considering I only posted 2 (3 if you count each chapter) things, this will be short!

Unravel Me, Chapter 6: I am sincerely floored all the time by the readers who have continued to read (and reread apparently) this story, especially considering this was my first foray into smut and how long it is taking. Your support means everything to me. 💛

since feeling is first who pays any attention: Me?! Writing canon-compliant?! I have surprised myself in what I've written, wanting to choose the most underrated missed moments and make Ginny her own person. It's stretching my abilities as a writer, and I am excited where the next chapters and Ginny take me.

i'm sure of it by @takearisk-ao3: to be clear I DID NOT WRITE THIS, but since Hannah decided to make me a co-creator, so I wanted to take a moment to thank Hannah for this incredibly thoughtful gift of a missed moment within the Unravel Me universe. It and everyone's warm birthday wishes (@wackus-bonkus-maximus @nuatthebeach @fairsquare16 to highlight a few) led to the best birthday I've had since covid started. 🥹

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year

As always no promises on actually releasing but...

Unravel Me: I have a clear vision of what happens in chapters 7-9, and over 5k words for chapter 7 (they are ROUGH) and some words for chapters 8 and 9. I know I'll release chapter 7 in 2023, but I really hope I get to all three.

since feeling is first who pays any attention: Hopefully I'll be able to release the rest of this missed moments series in the new year.

unnamed Muggle AU FWB story: Another FWB, Naru? Why, yes. But a very different vibe from Unravel Me - this is college au, slow burn, learning how to smut sloooooowly, Harry trying to teach Ginny how to feel good and, maybe, hopefully, dare to love too.

cat!Harry: Thanks to @annerbhp's encouragement during Nanowrimo to write my most self-indulgent idea ever, I got 12k words of the most ridiculous thing ever. I have no idea how to string it into something coherent, haha but maybe one day I will!

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year

Changing Unravel Me's original outline from one that would match a more conventional romance story to one that requires the characters to dig deeper than if they only communicated (but yes, if only they would). While it's deterred my completing new chapters, I do believe it will make the finished product better than originally imagined.

Writing Ginny as her own person during missed moments in canon has been a real stretch for me, the AU writer who likes the safety of not having to get things "just right." Ginny has surprised me with her tenacity, and I have surprised myself with writing reader dramatic irony and creepy scenes.

Writing words. Nanowrimo was awful, but I did get 50k words out. That took a lot of pushing forward even when I didn't like the words instead of letting myself get stuck on a scene. For that reason, I have (bad) drafts of multiple wips, but editing will (hopefully) be much less painful.

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year

To take my writing seriously

To continue to learn and practice the craft

and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year

From since feeling is first who pays any attention, the Dementor on the train:

But as a darkly hooded figure appears at the door, the smell of decay intensifies. It draws a long, slow, and rattling breath, as if to suck in more than air from the environment.

An intense cold overtakes her. It penetrates deeper than her skin, straight to her core. It’s so cold, it radiates from within her. To her horror, she recognizes this feeling.

It’s the painful drawing of a soul from her body.

It's no longer 2022, and I don't know who has or hasn't done this, but tagging @fightfortherightsofhouseelves @twentysevensummers @wackus-bonkus-maximus @gryffindorhealer and anyone else who hasn't done it and wants to play!

#wrapped 2022 #unravel me #since feeling is first who pays any attention #hoping 2023 will have more words

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ari-stash · 1 year

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Ari’s Anti trio

I hope you guys are ready for me to dump the nonsense I’ve had about these boys, because this is finally the day that I’m sharing it publicly. There’s no story tied to them (yet) but those three Antis have plagued my mind for a few years already so I’ve had PLENTY of time to think about them. What I’ll be posting isn’t the whole picture I have of them but just the most coherent descriptions I could manage to put into words. I’d gladly share any more specific details about them if asked :]

(Quick heads up before the rambles begin! Each versions of Anti have different names and/or title. They don’t really go by them but it’s what I usually call them to differentiate between them. Hopefully it make sense.)

Aiden/ The fae:

Very narcissistic, egotistical, cocky, and confident. There’s very few people that he respects or even considers close to his equal. I don’t think there’s anyone that he sees as being above him. In his own perspective, almost everyone is beneath him, and being treated as an equal is the biggest honor he can give to someone. This isn’t to say that he’s a total pompous ass toward others, he’s actually fairly amiable! Charming even, to some at least. He very rarely makes his disdain known when it is warranted, preferring to conceal it under a condescending smile.

He’s very fae-like in his ways. He doesn’t straight up lie; sure, he’ll embellish, diminish and omit certain details from the truth but he’ll never tell a full barefaced lie. There’s always a good chunk of truth and honesty even in his worst deceit. And if someone can get him to say or promise something he will stick to his words to the very end, the issue is to bring him to that point though. He also sticks to the rules of hospitality very thoroughly. If someone is a guest of his, it basically means that they’re at his mercy if they do anything that Anti deems rude or offensive. But it also works both ways.

He adores bets and wagers over everything else, even if he loses. All that matters to him is the entertainment it can bring to him, although if he doesn’t deem someone worthy of that type of attention he won’t bother with it. If he considers someone to be too dull, it’s pretty much a death sentence for the person’s life. If you have nothing to give him, why bother being nice? On the other hand though, if he finds someone to be interesting to him… well there’s still a great risk for their well being but he’ll never purposefully take it to the point of death. He’ll actually make sure that it doesn’t happen. He’s very playful with those types of persons, even if it often turns sadistic, but he can also sometimes be close to nice too. If he actually Likes someone though… that person can be guaranteed assistance and free favors from him. The only person in that category is Marvin.

He likes changing his appearance, never staying in one skin for too long. He alternates between the other egos’ forms like how one decides which shirt to wear for the day. (His favorite one is Marvin’s though) He can do it pretty quickly too, all it takes is a second of being unobserved and he’ll be someone else. It can be somewhat jarring to witness… And also uncanny to see if the face he wears happens to be a person that someone intimately knows.

He can offer people deals and favors, but he’ll always demand for something in return. It can be something as simple as a valuable material possession, or something of emotional value, it can also be a promise of returning a future favor to him. But it can also be body parts or memories… He’ll never accept money as a form of payment though, he takes it as a personal affront to himself if anyone tries to. It never ends well for those people.

#ari talk #antisepticeye #anti (the fae)#my ego stuff

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