#like yeah badass femme fatale is a thing she can do well

[linderosse]

I LOVE YOUR WIELDERS OF WISDOM COMIC!!!! i think its wonderful and so absolutely necessary (if u will excuse my feminism)... the art style is GORGEOUS and im just so grateful someone is giving love to all the zeldas <33

sorry that this is anon but. i dislike being perceived lmao

Thank you so much!!

And heck yeah on the representation front! I’m doing my best to write a variety of interesting characters that will help me tell the stories I want to tell. To me, the fact that they’re mostly women is both incidental and vitally important at the same time.

Tetra was my first Zelda, and I always loved her pirate captain badassery and no-nonsense attitude. I was a bit of a ‘tomboy’ (used in the non-insulting sense, simply referring to a girl who liked traditionally boyish hobbies/clothing) growing up, so I identified with Tetra real hard <3. Heckin’ loved her practical, forthright nature— and the way the games don’t hesitate to show her wackier side and how her actions sometimes get her in trouble— and how she gets out of it, with or without help.

And of course, girls can also be girly and get things done! Love the more traditionally feminine Zeldas as well; shirking feminine mannerisms definitely isn’t a requirement for a well-written female character. You can have a character wear a tiara, battle in a dress, and still be cool. Heck, you can have ’em don a soft gown, not fight at all, and still be an awesome character: maybe she genuinely wants good for the world, or maybe she controls the board with gentle magic and soft “feminine” persuasion to achieve her goals, turning foes into friends— or her pawns.

And characters don’t always have to succeed! Sometimes persuasion fails. Sometimes they argue with someone they know is right. Sometimes her sword falters. But that’s fine! That’s what makes for a good, realistic, fun character— that’s how humans are.

(continued under the cut)

See, I feel like some popular media is trending towards forcing women to be *exclusively* badass, almost flawless in their physical skill yet boyish in their mannerisms.

Like, as a random example: Peach in the Mario movie. Movie Peach no longer giggles and blows kisses, because that would be too girly. And Movie Peach is a perfect platformer and politician, because female empowerment. Same thing with Galadriel in RoP (and it’s honestly a bit different and way worse with RoP Galadriel, because her mother-name is Nerwen which translates to man-maiden and she is canonically a tomboy, but they write it so badly in RoP that not even the rest of the characters in the show respect her for her over-the-top ‘female badassery.’) And as a huge, longtime fan of both the Mario series and the Silmarillion, it kinda hurt to see those Mary Sue-esque, somewhat shallow depictions of what should be complex characters.

Now, the thing is: one or two perfect characters like that are just fine! The problem lies in the fact that many of these shows have only a few female characters to begin with, and they’re all like that. Peach is kinda alright, but Galadriel’s major flaws are barely even shown because the writing has to try to make her look badass even when she’s making objectively terrible decisions.

Because here’s the thing— depicting only perfect women and minimizing flaws isn’t supporting female empowerment. Girls have flaws too, folks. Popular media relying only on the immaculate femme fatale badass just makes for a more cliche story, and imposes higher standards on young girls who look up to these characters. And the forced boyishness forces standards as well.

Why can’t Peach flutter her eyelashes, giggle, and still knock bad guys on their asses? Or, better yet, why can’t Peach flutter her eyelashes, giggle, knock bad guys on their asses, help Mario out, also get helped by Mario, and maybe admit that it took practice for her to get to where she is now?

That’s how she used to be in the middle Mario era, like Super Mario RPG, Thousand Year Door, and Super Paper Mario. Peach was feminine and still relatable to a young tomboy like myself.

I’ve rambled on for far too long, but anyways, that’s what I’m gonna try to do here with the Wisdomverse: tell stories of a bunch of different types of people, where each of them has their own take on what it means to be Zelda.

I can’t promise I’ll be perfect at writing this either, honestly. Perhaps I’ll fall into some of the same traps— I’m sure it’s hard to avoid them.

And perhaps my thoughts on this will evolve over time as well, and I’ll later have an even better understanding of how to write the characters I want to write.

Either way, I’ll certainly do my best!

Tl;dr: I got really sidetracked, but thank you for the kind message! Glad to hear you’re enjoying Wielders of Wisdom; hope to keep building my characters into interesting and at least somewhat complex women as things progress :)

#wielders of wisdom #linked universe #tetra #princess peach #galadriel #lin responds #wisdomverse #wis tetra #paper mario #rings of power #lu wielders of wisdom #lin rambles #lin writes #lin thinks #lu tetra #lu wisdomverse #loz #zelda

[teaveetamer]

I know 0 about Warriors games but I am genuinely interested to hear your comparison to 3H characters.

Ok I'm doing my best but honestly the girls are murder to figure out because KT's track record for writing women is absolutely abysmal. There's only, like, five female characters in the entire series that have anything going on for them besides "is girl" and "has husband"

And the interesting ones seem to map onto male 3H characters much better than female 3H characters, and most of the male DW characters don't map that well onto female 3H characters either.

Disclaimer: This is comparing their fictionalized depictions as presented in the Dynasty Warriors games. This has nothing to do with the actual historical figures.

But here's what I got so far:

Edelgard - Cao Cao (Wei). They're just the most obvious leader parallel here. Associated with conquest. Cao Cao almost always takes the stance of unifier in DW games, with his ultimate end goal being to bring all of China under his rule.

Hubert - Sima Yi (Wei/Jin). The smartest MFer in the room. Adores his leader (Edelgard/Cao Cao), but will probably tell Edelgard’s grandkids to pound sand and take it all for himself in a few decades. Yes, that's why Sima Yi is associated with two factions. He gets his own faction when he says "yea I'm sick of this shit, I'll just do it myself".

Caspar - Ma Chao (Shu). JUSTICE!!!!!!!! But also has some extremely questionable morals and actions when you look under the hood.

Petra - Zhurong (Other). Badass queen of an autonomous tribe dragged into your bullshit. Will cut you.

Dimitri - Liu Bei, Wang Yi mashup (Shu/Wei). This pains me because I hate Liu Bei, but Dimitri definitely tracks onto Liu Bei’s more idealistic, man of the people schtick. Wang Yi for the revengeful edge (she's obsessed with killing the man who murdered her entire family). I was actually just going to go for pure Wang Yi at first (and no it wasn't lost on me how fascinating it is that Dimitri maps best onto a female character) but since she's mostly a side character not focused on a lot, she's too one-note to really encompass all of Dimtiri.

Dedue - Zhou Tai (Wu). Quiet retainer type. Not really much to say here.

Sylvain - Guo Jia with a little Jia Xu (Wei). Guo Jia to allude to his intelligent and into women characterizations. Jia Xu to allude to his cunning side.

Ingrid - Zhang Xingcai (Shu). I am grasping for straws a bit here, but they both have the sort of duty driven bent, and take protecting their homelands very seriously.

Claude - Fa Zheng and Liu Bei as well (Shu). Probably the closest I can get at least. Fa Zheng hits the crafty schemer opportunist thing. Liu Bei hits on his idealism a little better, though (in 3H at least).

Lorenz - Zhang He (Wei). Kind of flamboyant. Intelligent, well mannered, etc.

Raphael - Xu Chu (Wei). Likes food. Yes, there is also a Dynasty Warriors character whose entire personality is just "likes food". I hate both of their stupid faces as well, so there's that.

Lysithea - Also a bit of Guo Jia (Wei). The intelligence again, but also the frailness of their health.

Yuri - Fa Zheng and Diao Chan (Shu/Other) Again, Fa Zheng for the crafty schemer thing. He hits a little more on Yuri’s willingness to do shady stuff to get ahead, though. For Diao Chan... he has the femme fatale thing going on a bit.

Balthus - Gan Ning (Wu). Meathead who likes to fight. Declares himself king of the something or other. Often shirtless. Bad hair.

Rodrigue - Lu Meng (Wu): Honestly like yeah they have some surface personality stuff in common, but I just think y’all should google “Lu Meng Dynasty Warriors” so we can talk about how he deadass just looks like brunette Rodrigue. Y'know what, no. I've been holding onto this for too long I'll do it for you.

Literally "what if we made Rodrigue in 1080p graphics" (Or I guess more like "what if we made Lu Meng in 360p graphics" since Lu Meng came first)

[booasaur]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

#eeaaoedit #everything everywhere all at once #evelyn wang #michelle yeoh #flashing images tw #this looks so interesting and cool #and I'm so happy for michelle yeoh #like yeah badass femme fatale is a thing she can do well #even just stoic and wise #but this kind of role where she can play all the things as well as this hapless everywoman? #yessss #like she can act #let her

[whitherliliesbloom]

Hilda, Hien, and Haurchefant :3c

[send me a character - accepting]

OHHHHHHHHHH BOY THIS BE LONG THANK YOU. Answers will be under the cut!

Favorite thing about them

She’s badass without feeling like a forced femme fatale type. Lots of female characters her type from other series go way too over the top and I feel like Hilda is the more down to earth, realistic version of that type of character. 

Least favorite thing about them

It’s not really much to do with Hilda herself but.. I kind of wish they explored the controversy behind interracial relationships and children more. Instead it feels like they just glossed over the whole ‘half race children are taboo’ subject and it was never addressed again. It could have been potentially interesting to see them actually address the issue and maybe have an arc about the Ishgardians being more accepting of interracial relationships which would tie into the other issues they have that were given more time to be addressed like their racism, the bad attitude the nobles have towards peasants in general. 

Or maybe I’m just saying this because I still see people arguing that interracial relationships / children are impossible when that clearly isn’t true. 

Favorite line

Uhh god I’m bad at remembering lines I’m sorry.

brOTP

Spoilers for the machinist storyline but brotp with her actual brother Muscadain. He was a bit of an ass at first but I really really liked how they made up in the end and even acknowledged each other as siblings. I love sibling rivalry relationships like that.

OTP

Barring ships with some wols I’ve seen, nobody.

nOTP

None so far

Random headcanon

Hilda is the person who came closest to being able to eat Illya’s black blossom stew. She couldn’t quite finish the whole bowl but the fact she ate more than few spoonfuls of the thing makes her head and heels better than anyone else who has tried Illya’s stew. 

Song i associate with them

Favorite picture of them

This fanart of her.

Favorite thing about them

He’s the bro character we never knew we needed. I feel like the Hien really made the trio between Yugiri, him and Gosetsu complete and balanced with his relaxed, confident but also responsible personality that compliments Yugiri’s more stoic personality and Gosetsu’s goofier sides. He was just such a refreshing character that made Stormblood a lot more enjoyable in general. Also helps that he’s a far better big brother figure to Alphinaud than Estinien...

Least favorite thing about them

I don’t think it’s the fault of Hien himself.. or even that the writers intended for it to come off this way but.. I’ve always felt something was strange about how he seemed to refer to the Xaela that lived in the Azim Steppe as nothing but tools.. or at best just potential soldiers for his army to fight off the imperials. I really don’t think Hien is meant to be the sort of character who thinks of others as disposable but I do remember being iffy about some of his dialogues.

Favorite line

Not a line but I liked the part where Alphinaud comes up with a plan for them to take Doma castle and Hien just casually comes up with “yeah let’s flood the castle while we’re at it”. It shows off his wit and his guts at being able to sacrifice what was meant to be his home for the greater good of the people. 

brOTP

YUGIRI AND GOSETSU

OTP

Aside from the obvious =)))))))))) Nobody

nOTP

Uhhhhhh nobody. At least not any I can think off the top of my head.

Random headcanon

I really wanna think outside of his traditional clothes Hien is actually really fashionable. Introduce him to western clothes and trends long enough and he’d actually put together his own wardrobe rather well. He’s no trendsetter or influencer but he’d still look good in just about anything he chooses to put on. 

Unpopular opinion

Hien should’ve stabbed Asahi before it was too late.

I think it’s weird that they reduced Hien to being something of a derpy bystander when it came to that whole Tsuyu arc, from him basically doing nothing while Asahi was clearly up to no good to him leaving Yotsuyu unattended multiple times. He’s clearly better than that.

Song I associate with them

Favorite picture of them

This isn’t even fanart but wow look at that man

Favorite thing about them

God after the mess that was the end of ARR, Haurchefant was just... a gift. His supportive, kind and joyful demeanor was much needed levity we needed after everything felt so bleak and helpless. He honestly genuinely felt like our sole ally and source of comfort in that moment and I think that’s why so many people grew so attached to him. He was there for the wol when nobody else was.

Least favorite thing about them

We don’t talk about Japanese dub Haurchefant.

Favorite line

“Are you content to remain a broken blade? Is there no flame hot enough to reforge you?”

I could have gone for the easy “a smile better suits a hero” but you know..

brOTP

Francel!! I really wish we could’ve seen these two interact more...

OTP

The obvious.... looking at a certain pink miqo...other than that, nobody.

nOTP

Nobody I can think of?

Random Headcanon

Haurchefant 100% is the type who would roast people with a full smile. He doesn’t often do it because he’s just an absolute angel and he’s so nice but.. anyone he thinks is awful enough would just get told off with his full smile = ))))).. and he’d even add a “have a nice day” at the end of it. Also I headcanon that the pixies all adore Haurchefant.

Unpopular opinion

Totally not unpopular but I’m still gonna say it. I miss him and want him back.

Song I associate with them

Favorite picture of them

Not that valid but I still have feelings from this comic

#ask #out of mana #send me a character #THANK YOU FOR THE ASK THIS TOOK A WHILE TO FILL OUT #windup-dragoon

[beyond-far-horizons]

BFH watches LoK Epi 4/S1

Spoilers obv!

Wow this is an action packed episode!

We get introduced to two major characters, a new romance starts, there’s a date, a gala and two fights! Plus a ton of character development for Korra.

Let’s talk about this sweet girl, I’m really liking her more and more. Talk about a waterbender out of water. She’s in a completely new environment and trying her best, not just at airbending (which she still can’t do) but at socialising and shouldering the huge burden of being the Avatar. What I love about Korra is her enthusiasm, her joy in her powers and her willingness to do her best for people.

Sadly given the introduction of smarmy politician Tarlok and full villain mode!Amon all of those things are under threat. I’m usually able to separate my fiction from RL quite well, even while critiquing for sociological storytelling and problematic tropes etc. I also have a confession to make - I’m a huge heroine x villain/anti hero shipper/enemies to lovers enthusiast and having seen some great Amorra content I was fully onboard with the ship despite knowing his behaviour was dark and unacceptable in the main story (he is a villain after all!). Still having watched this episode, it’s getting a little too close to RL. Seeing a confident, powerful young woman, full of life, not only manipulated by a much more savvy, older male politician and then overpowered and terrorised by a masked man and his gang was really hard to watch in some ways. 

I know, I know, it’s fiction and and all, but seeing her lose her spark and cry childlike in Tenzin’s arms afterwards is heartbreaking. (BTW Tenzin and Korra’s mentor relationship continues to grow and delight me.) I just want a cut scene where she goes Avatar mode, bypassing Aang and Roku and goes full Kyoshi on Amon’s ass, then we’ll see who’s going to be destroyed!

Speaking of Amon, does he practice his villain speeches in front of mirror? Also how long was he and his crew lying in wait in the dark? I always wonder about this trope - Character A waiting for hours in the dark for Character B to turn on the light and be shocked, like Bond to M in Skyfall. It’s a bit ridiculous when you think about it. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Amon and he’s intimidating as hell but yeah not cool, Phantom, I mean Amon, not cool. (”I received your invitation, young Avatar...” “Yeah well you’re late aren’t you?”)

The animation sequence of the ambush was amazing, great use of light, dark and fire effects, not to mention music. Also while I’m not a fan of the Statue of Liberty!Aang and the whole Americanisation of the Avatar world (see this blog by author Jeannette Ng for more), it was really powerful to see Korra psyching herself up for the showdown in Aang’s shadow, both a comfort and a burden to live up to. 

The concept of the Avatar is one I’m fascinated with and have been even since learning about the Dalai Lama and various Eastern spiritual traditions as a child. Rebirth as a spiritual notion is what captured me, but here we are starting to explore it as a character development tool. This was always fascinating in A:TLA with Aang having to deal with the fallout of Roku’s epoch and Roku being a reaction to the strictness of Kyoshi etc. But also because most of us start the series having bonded with the previous characters of A:TLA it actually mostly reminds me of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and the character of Jadzia Dax who is one in a long line of hosts to a benevolent symbiote and retains its previous hosts’ memories including a previous friendship with Commander Sisko (now I’m also thinking about the Tokra from Stargate too.) 

Jadzia Dax in DS9

Korra dealing with the feelings of inadequacy compared to her predecessor and trying to find her own place in the world are feelings we can all relate to esp young women and I continue to love Korra being allowed to have these feelings whilst still being a badass and looking gorgeous at the gala in her traditional dress and having awkward crushes. The fact that no-one brings up ‘bUT you’RE JusT A gIrl AvaTar’ is so refreshing. The lack of sexism and the presence of empowered multi-faceted women throughout the world so far is wonderful (apart from Katara, shakes fist endlessly!)

Talking about looking gorgeous and awkward crushes...I guess I better mention the entry of Asami and the start of the love triangle.

Now frankly I can’t blame Mako, every time I see Asami I feel like I’ve been hit by a moped too. The woman is one of the most gorgeous characters I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen ALOT of anime. Plus she’s got the femme fatale and kooky sweetness with the cool motorbike fashion and I ugh, wow! The romance is too fast and it would make me suspicious if (spoilers) but damn if Asami asked me on a date I would go with her 100%. So Mako got himself a super hot rich girlfriend AND met Henry Ford  her dad who’s gonna pay for them to enter the tournament - good for him... probably.

Sigh, Korra’s jealous and I get it, I would be too if I was her. I think I’d be into this dynamic a lot more if I was younger but also given (spoilers) how we know things are going to go I just want Mako and Asami to declare themselves ‘Unicorn hunters’ right now and ask Korra to join them - Makorrasami FTW. Not usually a fan of that sort of relationship but I’m totally on board this time and it would be a completely balanced mutual love fest (even though Korra likely should be a bit older though before things get too intense) 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Finally I’m sorry but when Korra launched into a rant and challenged Amon to a duel all I could think of was - 

Like imagine if Amon turned up like - 

“You’re a third rate Avatar, Korra, with a fourth rate gaang!” (Kaibaman’s a fanboy of the original series, clearly!)

#legend of korra #lok #korra #amon #asami #mako #tenzin #kaibaman #jadzia dax #BFH watches LoK #flashing gif #tw epilepsy #slight trigger warning for implications of potential assault #tarlok #yugioh #makorrasami

[arsnovacadenza]

So I finally played The Wolf Among Us

 Being the big bad wolf fan that I am, I’d been dying to get my hands on the game after seeing images of Bigby floating around pinterest. Then I found out it was discounted around 50% yesterday and I knew I GOTTA have it.

Here’s a not-so-short rundown of my thoughts since no one’d read my full review anyway. Also, bear in mind that I never read the graphic novels so I’ll be judging the characters and plot solely on the first and (currently) only game. Spoilers under the cut!

The good:

Bigby. God I ENJOYED playing as him. There was great satisfaction being able to play this rough, potentially dangerous character and see him grow into this person that Fabletown finally grows to accept. During my first playthrough, I wasn’t able to play him as a brutal, full blown anti-hero because I need to keep him on the community’s good side. I’m definitely gonna replay the chapters and choose the more violent options and see him go full badass wolf on everyone. Speaking of badass, I constantly kept thinking to myself “Wow, I’d LOVE to play as him in an action game.” That one big fight scene against Bloody Mary made me go “You’re doing great, sweetie! Keep it up!” 

The story definitely got me hooked. There wasn’t a time when I wished a speed button was available unlike Hashihime in the Old Book Town where I got bored during a sex scene.

It didn’t remind me of Happily N’ever After and its forced self-awareness that borders on annoying. Mini rant: I love when stories are set in a world where fairy tale characters meet and interact with each other, but that doesn’t mean every work that does it interests me because the handling of  the theme may not quite work (for me at least). I haven’t rewatched Shrek, but I never rolled my eyes every time they make a joke about a fairytale character. I never watched Once Upon a Time but I feel it’s gonna be a pretty mixed bag? It’s just weird seeing all these adult characters taking the whole thing seriously and not in an endearingly self-aware kind of way. The Wolf Among Us kinda did it nicely in that yeah, these were fairy tale characters. Let’s see them work their way as poor people living in New York. I like how they take on the poverty angle because it kinda reminds me of my country, sorta. 

To my surprise, the fight scenes DID IT for me. It’s satisfying to be able to beat the shit outta people I wanted to punch from the very beginning of the game (the Tweedles and Mary. Boy I wanted to see them banged up real badly). To be honest, I never played these Telltale games and I had my doubts about the combat mechanics. Turns out they were done pretty well. Also, I can’t shut up about the final brawl against Mary because....Big Bad Boi.

The meh:

Most of the character designs didn’t wow me. I could name the characters whose design I liked: Bigby, Georgie, Flycatcher, Bluebeard. The rest? Not so much. Some characters like Nerissa were a hit-or-miss while the rest are predictable (Bufkin, Crane, etc) or completely forgettable (Faith and Vivian’s design. Faith’s was at least memorable because her introduction was). The worst one, to me, was Bloody freakin’ Mary. Her design was simply underwhelming. I absolutely adored her true form, but her glamored form was simply...not there. I understand they don’t  want to play the edgy up to eleven which was probably why they didn’t make her tattoo-ed up like Georgie (which is a shame because her emblem has a cool design. Imagine the cool tattoos she could’ve had), but her design was just half-assed (to me anyway). Not gonna lie, I actually was hooked up by her first appearance  —a tough looking enemy with big butch energy  —and then she opened her mouth and she sounds like fucking Bayonetta. This is probably just my personal taste, but I hate the femme fatale villain trope to death and I hate seeing this masculine lady sounding like a generic seductive villainess. Plus, I didn’t see her much during my playthrough so she ended up NOT coming across a real threat or a worthy opponent to Bigby, just a violent bully I need to get through. 

The love interest character’s development was a mixed bag. I didn’t hate Snow White (like some people seem to do), but I was disappointed that she drifted away from Bigby before she gets the chance to solidify herself as his equal and partner. I know she marries him in the graphic novels, but I didn’t quite root for them to be together in the game. Mostly because of the boss-employee dynamic they had towards the end of the game, but it’s also because I also started to see how she didn’t grow to be somebody who understands Bigby and the plight of the non-human characters of Fabletown (case in point being Mr. Toad and TJ). She keeps saying that she does understand what life is like for people like Holly and I did sympathize with her when she talks to Bigby about her wanting to make Fabletown a better place, but the plot cuts her development once she has to act as Deputy Major in Crane’s place. She eventually becomes affixed as a cog in the machine. Sure, she’s needed to keep the system running, but her insisting on going by the (outdated) book just didn’t work I kept getting reminded of Louis from Beastars and how got his character development was. In Louis’ case, he started out as an covert bigot who strongarms his way to obtain authority, thinking he’d be able to make the world a better place. He does make good out of it, but we also see him coming to terms with his vulnerability which leads him to reach out towards other people with the same goals. Simply put, he changed from a know-it-all who wants to change the world so they’d suit his own views better to someone who genuinely wants to make a difference for other people. This....kinda doesn’t happen with Snow White. It’s probably because the POV (who stays on Bigby the entire time) or they’re saving  her character development for the sequel; we can’t really tell until Season 2 comes out.

Speaking of which, how does being a giant, fearsome wolf in disguise reflect on Bigby’s relationship with other animal characters like Mr. Toad? I thought there was some potential in contrasting Mr Toad’s inability to afford glamor and Bigby having his lycantrophy knife handed to him by Snow. I imagine the animal townsfolk would take jabs at him having the privilege to remain constantly human without having to constantly return to the 13th floor but it never happened. 

The resolution of the Crooked Man’s plot felt rushed and I was disappointed with how they handled the organized crime plot. It was built to be a grand scheme beyond Crane and the murder of the girls, but they resolved it way too quickly. It’s probably just me, but when you have organized crime and financial exploitation by (persumedly) a mafia, do you expect the villain to have their ass handed back to them in two chapters after their buildup?I  mean, during Bigby and Crooked Man’s confrontation at the factory,  I kept expecting the  Crooked Man to make his escape after the battle against Mary  — him being immediately dragged to court was anti-climatic. Does it really take that short a time to take down a big, magical mafia boss? Shouldn’t he have other witches at his beck and call (the secret lab at Johann’s place definitely hinted at that!)

I won’t refute if somebody brings up the lack of diversity in the entire cast. As far as I know, there was only one black person and they didn’t do anything with her character. I thought It would be nice if we get to see POC characters like Aladdin or Yeh-Shen (or replace Aladdin with Sinbad or Ali Baba if we want to go for total accuracy). It doesn’t help that the predominantly white characters look generic. Heck, some of the girls could have some variety in body shapes. For example, why not make Holly be a big beautiful woman? If you don’t want to make her morbidly obese, at least make her look heavier. You know, because she’s a troll. No, her wanting to look beautiful by concealing her troll form doesn’t work. Her wanting to be her own kind of beautiful (especially according to Troll standards) can be contrasted nicely to Lily having to wear her human skin because she needs to cater to her clientele, thus further emphasizing her lack of choice in her employment to Guido (and by extent the Crooked Man). 

How long has it been since the exodus? Why is the Fabletown government still this terrible? I really want to be able to see the demographic at a bigger scope. For example, I’d like to see more of the dynamic between people like Bluebeard and the people at the Business Office. Also, what’s up with people with various problems going straight up to the Business Office? Do they not have accountants? How do they handle the legal stuff with the mundies? Who’s handling legal? The organization at the Business Office is just...weird. I thought they’d have some sort of higher council since I thought they’d need a bigger power to keep more powerful magic beings (like the witches) in place. Are things done better in the graphic novel?

Some of the animation lagged/look really janky on my Envy 13 laptop. Also, I encountered a bug at the beginning of some chapters where choices show up when they don’t need to, as well as some weird cuts during scene. Had to exit and reboot the game to proceed. 

That’s all I can think of now. Feel free to send an ask so we can gush about the husbando material that is Bigby Wolf if you have other opinions!

#the wolf among us #snow white (twau) #bigby wolf #the crooked man (twau) #twau spoilers #the wolf among us spoilers #by the way hashihime isn't that bad check it out if you like lgbtq+ visual novels #or just yaoi #because it still handles stuff like consent issues wrong #also #where is red riding hood #is she going to be a boss or something #like jeanne was to bayonetta in the first game?

[sweetdejun]

coterie: the black leather bracelet (1/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: lee hangyul and y/n

a/n: sexual themes, cursing, mentions of alcohol and drugs, so proceed with caution. 

the thin black leather weaved around your hand like it’s known the accessory for years now. as you showed the group, your cheeks reddened and your eyes widened, as the guy who flirtatiously introduced himself to you stepped up. ugh, you should have known. “oh, yeah!” he yelps, stepping forward, and hope over to give you a high five, which you timidly reciprocate. “you’re freaking her out, hangyul,” seungwoo scolds the boy, who pouts in response. “thanks for being a party pooper, hyung. anyways, y/n, meet me at the terrace tonight at 7. sharp. I’ll be waiting.” and with one more wink and a smirk, hangyul slips off down another hallway. pretty soon, you leave the group of boys, heading back into your own room. hangyul, you think. the name’s quite nice if it weren’t for the fact that his glare felt like a predator watching its prey. you only know what that look can lead to because as surprised as people usually get when you talk about it, you’re not a virgin. when you tell people that, the first thing they say is, “really?”, as if you admitted to something crazy. you’re in college, and your parents aren’t on your ass 24/7, and you’re also a functioning teen with raging hormones; it was going to happen eventually. but, just because you’ve lost your virginity, you definitely weren’t a sex-crazed person. you knew your limits, and in short, didn’t get much sex because, well, school and your future’s also been a more important priority (“as it should be,” you recall telling soobin when she tried to drag you to the club one Friday night... of course, you won that night and were binge-watching shows whilst she was out and about.) but even so, you’re very aware of what that look can lead to, and you don’t want to smash someone you will be working with, especially since you’ve just met. yeah, he was a good-looking guy, and you’re damn sure he knows it. his piercing gaze is what you see when you bounce onto your bed and shut your eyes and you let out a frustrated groan before you check the time. it was almost 7; the dark hours of the night came much faster than you liked. you took the leather bracelet with you, which you had tightly clenched in your palm when you returned to your room, as you left to the terrace. you wanted to return the piece of jewelry in case he’d wanted it back or something- you certainly didn’t want to keep it. you reached the terrace a few minutes after 7 and found hangyul standing with his back facing you, and his hands in his pocket. at the sound of your footsteps, he turned around. the wind blew threw his grey-dyed locks, and the moonlight reflected upon them, creating a halo-like effect. “ah, y/n, you’re late. but I guess better late than never, am I right?” he chuckles and shuffles closer to you until his face is inches away from yours. your eyes flutter at his sudden proximity and he scoffs, “why’re you nervous, princess? never been this close to a guy before?” who does he think he is, you think and you step back, squinting at him, irked. “no, I just like to keep my distance, that’s all,” you start. your outburst catches hangyul off guard but you continue anyway. “here’s your bracelet, pal,” you give it to him and he slips it back on right away, before saying, “it’s a shame you picked me, then.”

your eyebrows scrunch up at his remark. “what do you mean?” hangyul gives you one final smile before turning back towards the sky and replacing his hands back into his pockets. “you don’t know what I do, do you?” you shook your head, and responded, “no, I don’t, but the way you said that... makes me curious.” “I’m sure you are familiar with a... femme fatale, right?” he says. “a female who seduces people and fucks them up, for lack of better words,” you explain and his eyebrows go up. “wow, you know your stuff,” he praised, and you relaxed a bit. “yeah, I’ve seen a few characters like that in movies and stuff, so I am familiar with it.” hangyul’s smile is small as he says, “well, my job on this team is similar, to say the least. I’m the homme fatale of this team; the goal of this job is to get as close I can get to my targets, just so I can get enough information out of them, to hand over to our clients to use against them. how I get close to them, well, I’ll leave that to your imagination,” the wind picks up in temperature and speed, and you shiver. seeing this, hangyul, who was clad in a leather jacket, slid said article of clothing off his shoulders and draped it over you instinctively. “thanks,” you mumble, and you’re so glad it’s dark out because you feel your face getting a bit hot. “no problem. listen, if you don’t want to do this job, I get it. I won’t force you into doing anything you don’t want to do. I can talk to seungwoo and maybe he can find something else for you to do if you’re not comfortable with the idea. so before you make any sort of decision, I wanna give you some time. I understand that working with me, especially with the job I have, you may get uncomfortable easily. I mean, it’s not hard to notice how you’ve kind of tensed up since I mentioned the details. forget that, you look uncomfortable around me, and we haven’t even seen each other for a day.” you bite the inside of your cheek and keep your gaze on the ground. you sigh, before looking back at him, “it’s nothing, honestly. I just... it takes me time to warm up to someone. I guess you can say I never really act like myself around someone until I’ve had a better understanding of who they are, and I think they have a better understanding of who I am. so, if I made it seem like I don’t like you, that’s not the case at all. yeah, I’m slightly uncomfortable, but I’m genuinely like that with most people I meet for the first time.” hearing you speak up, the corner of hangyul’s mouth lifts up slightly. “that’s good. at least now I know you don’t hate me. but, regardless of what you say I’ll give you a few days. sleep on it, come to a decision and then let me know. and until then, stay warm, sugar.” his tongue runs along his lower lip before he leaves you in the terrace, his jacket still resting warmly against your body. 

you go back to your room and shut the door. god, you think, you must’ve made a wrong first impression on him. well, to be fair, you did find his actions, uhh, violating. maybe it showed on your face. you feel your heart drop slightly and you feel the anxiety rise in you. great, now you feel bad. “why do things have to be so complicated?” your voice becomes muffled in your pillow, as you press it against your face and exaggerate a whine. it takes you a few moments to think about it. seungwoo told you that who you used to be won’t matter in this job. nor will whatever you do in this job affect your future life. confusion fogged your head, and you didn’t know what to do. the only thing you could hear was hangyul telling you to think about it before coming to a decision. then, your vision started to blur before everything went completely black. 

you saw a nightclub; neon lights and the smell of booze quite fresh in the air, and sounds of people around you mixed terribly with the bass of the music. through the dancing drunken youth, against the bar counter sat two familiar figures. one of them was hangyul, who had taken down a shot of tequila, with a pretty girl securely wrapped in his free arm, his hand how caressing her waist and next to him, was you. you looked almost unrecognizable, but you knew it was you, it had to be. your hair was done all nice, and you were in a shimmery, gold mini dress, and heels. you seemed to be drunk, by the way your head was moving, struggling to stay steady. then you turned around and saw your gaze fixated in your direction, and a small smirk painted your red lips. you got out of your seat and walked through the sweaty crowds of people, only to balance yourself on the shoulders of some guy, and before anything could be done, you kissed him square on the lips. one thing led to another, and you managed to drag the boy into a corner, where you climbed on top of him, your lips now on his neck. things were getting hot and heavy, and before anyone could take it a step further, the boy froze. why? because the girl who was giving him a good time stopped to press a gun against his abdomen. “give me the syringes you have in your pockets, like a good boy,” you whispered against his ear. his shaky hands reached into his pockets and pulled out the drug-filled instruments then placed them in your free hand. “very good, baby. now that I have evidence against you, and there is a video recording of this being made, I’m going to make this very clear,” you start off, your thumb running across his quivering bottom lip. “you don’t want to ruin daddy’s reputation when he finds out this is what you’ve been using the tuition money for, right? he thinks he’s sent his son to a fine, foreign university, when really, he’s here blowing that money on prostitutes and drugs.” the boy shakes his head no, and the smirk appears once again on your smeared red mouth. “then take this pretty little face of yours, and move away to a different city. or country, I don’t give a fuck. but step away from mr. park’s daughter. he’s caught on to your little act, and if he finds you around his daughter again, remember the gun is only here, but I won’t hesitate to shoot next time. got it?” the boy stutters out a response before you give him a sickeningly sweet smile and then whisper, “now, shoo.” 

you sit up, breathing heavily in the room. you blink rapidly and realize it was all a dream, but man, were you a badass or what? you feel this adrenaline rush through your veins, and it feels so fucking good. this is all it took? a dream to convince you that you wanted to take this job? apparently, it was more than enough because when the next day rolls around, and you’re looking for hangyul, you find him once again on the terrace the next night. you clear your throat, and hangyul turns around, a quizzical look in his eyes. taking a deep breath before  releasing it, your gaze meets his before you say, “I’ve come to a decision, and yes, I’ll take the job.” hangyul’s eyebrows go up in surprise, and before he has a chance to express anything, you say, “I made this decision on my own, and yeah, I’m aware of any danger it could put me in, but I’m willing to try it out. for the fun of it.” hangyul laughs at this, before nodding, “alright, princess. welcome aboard.” 

#coterie by sweetdejun #coterie #hangyul #lee hangyul #x1 hangyul #x1 lee hangyul #x1 #x1 series #x1 au #x1 aus #비상: QUANTUM LEAP #x1 quantum leap #quantum leap au #quantum leap #sweetdejun #kpop writing #kpop series #kpop au #kpop aus

[ofevies-blog]

[JEON SOYEON, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER] — i wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve seen [SONG YEEUN] around century records, though most people tend to call them [EVIE]. perhaps you’ve noticed the [TWENTY] year old with the rest of CHERRY KISS as a [RAPPER], but if you want to get official they’re technically the [MAIN RAPPER] of the group. on stage people always say they’re [JOCULAR] & [SELF-RELIANT], but off the stage you might notice they’re also [UNPERTURBED] & [OBNOXIOUS]. — [m, 21, she/her, gmt]

overly-glossed lips, high-waisted fishnets, addicting variety appearances, designer labels all over — and overflowing charisma ? that’s evie, main rapper of cherry kiss. if u wanna plot tap the heart or im me ! and check her pinterest out : x !

tw : slight mentions of sexual harassment 

these are gonna be real rough points until i finish all of her pages and flesh her out fully ! i have some driving to do today so i can’t be on my laptop for much longer ... so these might be all over the place ?

so the first thing you have to know ( and the first thing the public sees ) is that evie has a magnetic personality ... call her a siren, a femme fatale, an it-girl ... all of the labels fit her just right ... even without trying, she has charisma that naturally flows out of her ... 

think of lee mijoo’s posing outside of music shows ? those dramatic modelling poses she does ? ( here, here, here, ) that’s literally what i envision evie being like ... 

i also imagine her being as popular for variety shows as jennie and jooe ( from momoland ) are ... she’s loud and charismatic and isn’t afraid to act a fool ! i can really see her having viral moments and fancams just due to how she oozes charismas and charm ... very very into fanservice and in general just has so much confidence that nothing phases her ? doesn’t care if her skirts or shorts are too short like she’d dance her heart out anyway and oWN it

anyway so she was born in busan but her parents moved to canada ( quebec specifically ) when she was about two ? so she wasn’t in sk for that long

though she did visit in the summer and her parents did speak to her in korean so she is pretty on par with her korean, but she does struggle w it sometimes bc she was in a french/english speaking country for 14 yrs so she can get rough

her mom actually is a professor and has been dedicating her career to teaching korean to students all over the world and also teaching cultural studies so evie is very well-cultured and well-educated uwu

her dad is a lawyer

anyway growing up in canada left her very well-educated because she was exposed to a much more open and liberal country, so she is verykeen on feminism and sociopolitical issues and girl power - to the point century sometimes has to tell her to shut up about it to avoid scandals, but that.. badass female in charge persona is just something she exudes well, so cherry kiss was a perfect fit for her to ... show it without ... losing fans or pissing off too many people !!

but that being said she has a high potential to get into a scandal bc of it ... she’s very loud and opinionated and it’s hard for her to keep her mouth shut

she actually experienced some sexual harassment by male students and teachers at her school - not long-term abuse or an assault, just some really gross objectifying comments and unwanted touches. experiencing that for so long, she got very passionate about women’s rights so she puts her foot down whenever she’s asked to do shit she’s not ok with !! and she will always protect other idols who are asked to do the same kinda objectifying shit

and also she is so ... so persistent on OWNING her own body and her own sexuality so she does fanservice and acts sexy on her own time in her own way, she isnt afraid to be very sexual 

also is a hoe

very much a hoe

plot hoe shit with her

so she can be... a handful for century, a scandal waiting to happen fr but she is so damn talented it’s hard to let go of her

she is also super rebellious and breaks the rules a lot heh

she actually attended a professional dance and music training school in montreal from 4 and a half to 16, per her mother’s love of dance and the arts, so she is an extremely good dancer as well as an amazing rapper / vocalist. just very well-trained ?

that being said because of her Training and her education she can be very judgmental and nitpicky about ... everything. she won’t hesistate to comment on your lines and form, on your technique, your use of your head voice and resonance ... 

again just so fucking opinionated shut her up PLS

so yeah she can sometimes have a very obnoxious, know it all... better than u attitude heh ... 

she’s just very proud of herself shemeans well

also a cheerleader at the high school she attended outside the music school uwu ... veryflexible

very much an it girl all her lifeee

anyway she ended up finishing her music and dance training earlier at 16 due to her education and her talents, and her parents had always planned to bring her back to korea once she’d finished the school

so she came back to korea in the summer of 2014 and has been brushing up on her korean ever since, but she’s doing quite well due to her parents actively speaking to her. she finished her last years of school in busan upon returning

immediately upon coming to busan, she participated in a dance cover group and posted rap covers online ( having actively been watching them and the kpop scene in canada ) she was scouted off the videos, really, due to her talents and charisma

while she absolutely loves being an idol and adores the chance to dance and rap to her hearts’ content, she is constantly torn up about ... being in such an antagonizing, sexist, homophobic industry ? so she is constantly battling with that ... always kind of feeling like shes letting her mom, who is soooooo active in women’s rights, down - as well as other women

and yEA i need to flesh her out more but thats the basics heh

#centuryintro #just saw iput eston my app idk why... #must have been half-asleep?orreadinganother app #plot w me pls!

[vera-invenire]

VnC Liveblog - Chapter 4

.All chapter liveblogs are linked HERE.

The Case Study of Vanitas, aka, It’s Probably A Really Bad Idea To Get Into  Fights With People Called ‘Hellfire Witch’, Boys, I’m Just Saying

Not much to note in the cover art this time -- we’ve got Vanitas’ standard imagery in blues and blacks, with emphasis on the hourglass earring and his eyes. And the gears, through after the airship we haven’t really had much else that was very steampunk-ish in the story. Maybe that’ll change in later chapters.

Re: the eyes -- we know that most vampires have eyes that glow red when they drink or use their powers (I think that’s how it works?) and they have a link to the crimson moon, but Vanitas is human, so even though he’s got a connection to the Vampire of the Blue Moon, his blue eyes might just be a coincidence. (re: for the  a e s t h e t i c) (though the color matching with that hourglass is a bit suspect on the symbolic level, so who knows)

We get a bit of a peak at the dynamics in Dante’s crew before we jump back into the action --

Johann is very camp. I wonder if the matching suits were his idea. I like his relationship with Dante, though. Riche seems to be their junior member -- at least Johann is looking out for her.

Uh-oh. Luca’s heading back into the fray.

Chapter title: Memoire 4 Love Femme Fatale

Well, ‘femme fatale’ is Jeanne, that’s pretty clear. But ‘love’? Eh? Are we introducing a romance? Or is this the protective love between Jeanne and Luca?

So, Jeanne’s chasing Noé down the back-alleys of the -- was it the riverfront district? Warehouses, we’re surrounded by warehouses.

She catches his foot!

Noé intercepts! \o/

(’may i throw you back’, pfff)

But Vanitas is no slouch himself, even if he is back to being carried like a kitten.

We already knew that Vanitas was aware of Jeanne’s reputation, but this exchange makes me think he knows a bit more than surface level rumors. But he doesn’t seem up-to-date with the no-killing influence Luca has on her.

Vanitas tells Noé to follow the plan (which we are not privy to) as Jeanne finds them again.

'No’, ‘I refuse’, must be Noé‘s favorite words, he says them so much.

(Can you imagine baby Noé just constantly saying ‘i refuse. i refuse.’ all serious-like whenever someone tried to make him put down his blankie, cuz I’m imagining it, lmao.)

Note: Noé‘s teacher is a scary badass. (also what’s he holding? a cane? a switch?? oi, what was Noé‘s training like)

Meanwhile, Noé feels like he’s finally getting the upper-hand --

Uh-oh.

Pride goeth, etc etc

*sports announcer voice* That’s gotta hurt.

But why’s he looking at his hand? I didn’t notice him holding anything before.

“Now... let’s see.” He and Vanitas still have a plan to enact. Also, hi Riche!

So we haven’t had much time with these three yet, but I’m starting to get a feel for their priorities. Dante would never, ever in a million years admit to anything like fondness for Vanitas, or vice versa, but underneath all the mutual sniping I think there’s a small bond there. A teeny tiny one.

Whereas with Johann -- he honestly doesn’t care about Vanitas one way or another. If V were to be killed in front of them, I think Dante would be shocked and frozen for at least a second while Johann would say, ‘welp, it’s been a lark, toodle-loo’, grab his Two People, and get them all the hell out of there, not bothering to look back.

Riche, I don’t know enough about yet. She mostly registers to me as the rookie of this trio, tbh.

Yes, antagonize the massively powerful warrior who just threw Noé through a brick wall. That’s a good plan. (is this the plan, that would be a terrible plan)

Ooo, history, I love history. I especially love MochiJun’s history and how layered and batshit it can get once the reveals start to hit.

So the vampire-human war happened a long time ago -- how long ago, we don’t know. We know that BlueVampire!Vanitas was alive during that time. We know that Jeanne was alive during that time, but was then put asleep.

(Why? Some thoughts: she was a weapon of war and put away when peace came; she went off the rails and had to be subdued; her being put asleep was a condition of some kind; she wanted to be put under, etc. There’s no way to know what really happened yet, but it’s interesting to think about.)

We also now know that BlueVampire!Vanitas used to tell Vanitas stories about the war that clearly didn’t leave out many details. But that wording...honestly, it sounds like maybe Vanitas was a kid when he heard this? Telling stories is something you usually do with a kid, which might make sense because.human!Vanitas doesn’t look that old. Anything that happened more than a few years ago would slide into ‘kid’ territory.

Which makes me wonder...did BlueVampire!Vanitas raise human!Vanitas? Or teach him, at least? I’d be a neat parallel to Noé and his teacher.

(what if they’re the same person, bwahahaha)

Anyway, back to Vanitas taunting the highly aggravated weapon of mass destruction.

Oooo, he’s about to pull out a special move. And he -- dropped the book?

is that thing really there, or is it, like, symbolic

oh shi-

The gloves are literally about to come off...!

That kid’s got horrible timing.

Ohoho, someone woke up from their nap. Was this part of the plan or is it an interesting complication?

Ow.

...IT WAS A TRICK, you sly dog.

also vampires are monsters, huh? or just curse-bearers and bourreaus? i think this distinction may be a biiiiit important. (is this why you’re always so shocked when Noé does/says something decent, oh boy)

LMAO, oh god, I hope this Greek chorus follows Vanitas around all the time just to drag him, wouldn’t that be amazing

Damn, boy -- he really knows how to work the superior disdain, doesn’t he?

I’m still shaky on how these true names work. Do vampires just fall into types, and that’s what gets warped? You’d think something called a ‘true name’ would be more individual than that.

Oi, Jeanne, you aren’t watching? Though I like Dante being all, ‘whatever, I’ve seen this show before.’

ahahaha, OOPS.

That’s what happens when you let your grandstanding get away from you, bb.

oh hey, look who was lurking nearby and NOT HELPING AT ALL.

“...you must be joking.” in this kind of context is like, one of my favorite lines.

Also damn, Jeanne is a badass.

Yeah, saw that coming.

She really shouldn’t have let Vanitas see how distracted she became when Luca wandered into danger.

*snorts* The Greek chorus doesn’t lie.

It’s a bluff, though; no way would Noé agree to harming the kid.

oh my god.

(”don’t forget to cover his mouth as you would a hostage, like so” akfdsajkfhkjf)

Noé, you are too innocent, too pure.

And she folds like a house of cards.

I don’t think even Vanitas expected this plan to work so well.

Oh, a little bit of crazy eyes there. This is gonna be a Thing, isn’t it? Vanitas, who, as far as we know, owes his loyalty to nothing and no one uses this to kick Jeanne while she’s down.

Heh, wonder what’s gonna happen when Vanitas finds something he wants to protect.

That is definitely a plotting look in his eye. He just saw how to use this to his advantage.

1. um what

2. hey, is this the first time we’ve seen him bare handed? It’s nice to know he doesn’t have actual claws under those gloves.

3. speaking of which, is that ‘my strength is suddenly gone’ bit because there IS something magic-related about his hands, or is she just in shock?

4. that is a very unnerving look. Vanitas, what are you doing

...holy crap, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??

Vanitas what are you doing

Shit, this is why the chapter was called “Love Femme Fatale”, oh geez.

dante, why do you look the most freaked out out of everyone?

Alright, I know Vanitas has been set up as being utterly unscrupulous, what with the lying and taking a little boy as a hostage and using a bloodthirsty monster to do his dirty work, etc, but seriously, someone needs to introduce him to the tenants of the #metoo campaign. Sure, fine, she tried to kill him two minutes ago, but this feels like a line too far.

...

Yeah, this ain’t real. The disdain, the fear, the calculation from before -- that was genuine. This is another bluff.

And I think I know why he’s doing it. Fighting Jeanne made it very clear that she is waaaaay out of his league, strength-wise. He only won through guile, and it’s a trick that might not work again. This woman has a well-earned, blood-soaked reputation, and she was gonna walk away from this fight seeing Vanitas as an enemy to herself and Luca.

But Vanitas saw her weakness -- she lets her bonds with those she cares about distract her. She’s a killer, but she’s sentimental. Emotional.

So, if you’re Vanitas, how do you deal with this, knowing that Jeanne the Hellfire Witch might become a problem for you down the line? How do you plan to defeat a potential foe who is so much stronger than you, someone you could never hope to defeat in a fair fight?

Apparently, if you’re Vanitas, you try to seduce them.

Even if the actual seduction part doesn’t work, you can still mess with her head just enough to make her confused, maybe make her a little more likely to hesitate when it’s time for the gauntlet to finally come down.

And a split-second’s hesitation could be all Vanitas would need to make his counter.

(sidenote: i still think it’s  h i l a r i o u s  that Dante is the most outraged about all this kissing and love declaration stuff. Noé apparently can’t hear any of this at all, which I think is very convenient. We don’t get to see his reaction to this kind of game until later, apparently.)

Uh-oh. Looks like this kid is powerful and very, very pissed.

“A large-scale “formula” revision” mmhmm, okay, what’s that supposed to mean? Am I getting an explanation for the magic system yet?

Looks like it’s not just Luca keeping Jeanne from going off the rails -- she does the same for him.

Look at that. She’s throwing death threats but now she’s blushing, she sure as hell wouldn’t have been blushing before he kissed her, the stupid plan is working.

And honestly, aggravation and confusion are probably going to work better than actual tender feelings in this seduction. He’s going to play this role to the goddamn hilt.

Look at that face, the jerk.

Alright, that’s a better face.

Noé has no idea what he’s getting into, the poor soul.

(he didn’t have much of a presence in this chapter, did he. maybe Jeanne is mostly going to be a Vanitas subplot instead of a Vanitas-and-Noé subplot)

Apparently we’ve traded one killer on the streets for another. And even more intriguing -- he recognized this killer. ‘Course, now he’s dead, so I don’t know how useful that’s gonna be.

Whimsical creature of darkness! I did not miss you.

The true threat is revealed with a name -- “Charlatan”. But, you know --

(Charlatan: a person who falsely pretends to know or be something.)

-- which makes me think there’s proooobably something else behind this guy. He is a fake, after all. (Though, hey, ‘charlatan’ is a nice contrast with Vanitas the doctor, don’t you think.)

That’s all for chapter 4! What a night, eh?

Next, CHAPTER 5.

#vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #noe #vanitas #vanitas liveblog #someone needs to call vanitas a poseur please it's all i want

[marchtwelfththousandyears]

15 childhood crushes that embarrassingly ushered me into puberty EXPLAINED! (Pt. 2)

(Click here for Pt. 1)

10) Jenny Blake from The Rocketeer (1991)

I have weird memories of The Rocketeer in that my family owned it on VHS and I watched it several times as a kid, but for the life of me I can barely remember the plot of the film (something about Nazis, the mafia, and Howard Hughes?) But damn do I remember Jennifer Connelly, going from playing the bratty teen heroine in The Labyrinth to playing this role, which she is so unfathomably stunning to the point where she looks like a painting of a pin-up girl on a B-52 bomber come to life. Connelly as most of us know would go on to have a successful Oscar-winning Hollywood career, which she undoubtedly deserves for being a fantastic actor...but she’s also adopted the Hollywood waifishly thin lifestyle. I’m probably not alone in preferring a full-figured Jennifer over the 0% body fat A-Lister she’s become. I’m not shallow, I just grew up with hearts in my eyes for a sexy full-figured woman with more curves than Mulholland Drive. Va-va-va-vroom!

9) Lola Bunny from Space Jam (1996)

Ooooooook. Oh boy--where do we begin on this one?

It’s one thing to crush on the fictional cartoon characters I’ve previously mentioned. Sure, Jessica Rabbit and Jasmine aren’t real but they’re animated representations of female human beings, with Jessica being created specifically as a caricature which you’re supposed to be sexually aroused by. There are other animated ladies on this list I’ll get to, but none is more confusing and rather inexplicable as Lola Bunny from Space Jam. And when I say “inexplicable,” I mean it -- I don’t know WHY I was attracted to this non-humanoid anthropomorphic rabbit who most of us recall was created as a love interest for Bugs Bunny despite having never appeared in any Looney Tunes related content prior to the movie and, as far as I know, hasn’t become a mainstay since then. She’s also good at basketball...and apparently has been adopted as feminist icon for her “don’t ever call me doll” persona and athletic ability. I supposed that explains the attraction I had to her, along with her breathy baby voice and her Toon Squad jersey that was pretty much a sports bra and athletic boy shorts that accentuated her rather voluptuous curves--UM, WOW, let’s just move on?!

(it also doesn’t help that cosplayers are now “humanizing” her at comic conventions...)

8) Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Heeey, speaking of implied beastiality...

(shut up, I know)

While Ariel was the first Disney princess I became fond out in my early childhood, Belle was definitely my first crush. If you were to take all the character traits I talked about Ariel and Jasmine having that made them such endearing characters and combine them into one character, you would get Belle. She’s intelligent, independent, inquisitive, and rejects societal expectations in lieu of wanting more than some provincial life. More importantly, she’s selfless, empathetic, and lacks shallowness, all which plays in her favor when the film’s title finally pays off. There is, of course, her other attributes which help her live up to the film’s eponymous title: Belle’s unique look makes her not only one of the most beautiful Disney princesses, but also one of the hottest. If you’re puzzled about what’s so “unique” about her look, Belle was the first DP to have brunette hair and brown/hazel eyes. That’s right, after fifty-four goddamn years of showing blue-eyed/blonde-hair Aryan damsels in constant distress, Disney added some color to their characters--er, WELL, um, at least Belle was not a passive victim like her predecessors who just waited for Prince Charming to show up. 

Also, seriously, just scroll back up and watch that GIF a couple times. HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE BELLE??

7) Dr. Chase Meridian from Batman Forever (1995)

So does anybody even remember Batman Forever? It seems to be the one Batman movie nobody seems to have a definitive opinion regarding. Then again, Batman movies seem to be judged on a binary system; they’re either the brilliant, near flawless The Dark Knight -- or the total nuclear meltdown shitshow of Batman & Robin. And right smack dab in the middle of this scale is Batman Forever, a movie that is awful in every sense of the word but is vastly more competent and enjoyable that its successor. One of the subplots deals with Bruce Wayne finally acting like a responsible human being and not the raging billionaire psychopath who beats up criminals from Gotham’s lower-socioeconomic class which he thinks makes him better than the villains and visits psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian. 

Like Lola Bunny, Dr. Meridian is a character who has never existed in any Batman/DC Comics medium, with her sole purpose being love interest to both Bruce Wayne *AND* Batman because tension(?) Then the movie ends and Chase is never seen, heard, or spoken of ever again in anything Batman related. Nevertheless, this was my first exposure to Nicole Kidman and I was quickly enamored by her beauty and seductive charm, which while was undeniably sexy coming from her breathy voice and Veronica Lake hair, it also makes for a confusing narrative. See, Chase isn’t a villain, but acts like a femme fatale looking to ruin Wayne with lust and psychology.    

6) Janet...Miss Jackson, If Ya Nasty*

*yeah, I went there

Being born in the mid-80’s and growing up during the 90’s — where before the term “Millennial” was uttered, my generation was referred to as “Reagan Babies” — you bet your ass I was raised on a steady pop culture diet of Michael Jackson. By the time I was old enough to start listening to music that wasn’t Raffi or Disney sing-alongs on cassette tapes (jfgi, kids), MJ had already reigned as the King of Pop for over a decade with the albums Thriller and Bad. Sure, I was aware of the Jackson Family, but if you rattled off the names Jermaine, Randy, Jackie, Marlon, La Toya, and Tito to me, I’d give you a deer-staring-at-another-deer-staring-in-headlights look. Far as I know, there were only two Jacksons: Michael, and his little sister Janet...Miss Jackso--NOPE, not gonna milk it.

Contrary to my lame-ass dated reference, I got into Janet much later than the Control / Rhythm Nation era. Oh I knew her music fairly well, from her duet with brother Michael on the song “Scream”, to the mid-90′s pop/House/dance track “Together Again”, but it wasn’t until her 2001 comeback as a pop superstar with the album All For You did I go from viewing Janet as the “cool and badass sister of MJ” to “daaaaaaaamn, girl!” She could dance like no other, sing infectiously catchy tunes, and showed off a bubbly, fun personality. Oh yeah, she also had an impossibly perfect body, managing to be in better shape than most (if not all) of the teenybopper pop stars of the time nearly half her age. And that was all before I listened to her song “Would You Mind” off the album...wooooo [*wipes sweat off forehead*]       

(Cont’d)

#childhood crush #puberty #slave leia #return of the jedi #star wars #carrie fisher #jessica rabbit #catwoman #michelle pfeiffer #ariel #the little mermaid #disney #jennifer connelly #megara #hercules #janet jackson #demi moore #disclosure #film #nicole kidman #poison ivy #batman the animated series #britney spears #lola bunny #space jam #beauty and the beast #belle #sexy #hot #fap material

[jessejostark]

Meet Jesse Jo Stark, the Seductive Star of New Rock’n’Roll

Every week, we ask one artist a set of quick-fire questions that all start with ‘the first’, from their first shows and paycheques to the first time they fell in love and got drunk. Here, LA cool-girl turned rock femme fatale Jesse Jo Stark talks making it in music, loving hard and why self-belief is still a daily struggle.

Jesse Jo Stark was destined to be rock royalty and she’s got the tour bus to prove it. I meet her on an unseasonably – even by our new global warming standards – windy day in London, where she’s parked up outside around the back of Camden Roundhouse. She’s been supporting The Vaccines on their UK tour, captivating audiences across the country with her punk-chic meets LA-infused indie sound and style. As these glorified coaches go, this one’s got some serious, badass personality. Metallic pink tassels, leopard-print cushions, mirrors on the ceiling and a rhinestone megaphone (Stark says bedazzling it herself has helped soothe her through a breakup) all contribute to the crazy cowgirl theme. Little surprise, then, that she describes her vibe as “hillbilly horror”.

As the daughter of Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark, the founders of ultra-cool rocker brand Chrome Hearts, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter has been around musicians since her earliest years. Raised on a diet of David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac, Stark boasts Cher as her godmother, Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses a family friend and her first EP, Down The Drain, was produced by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.

There’s no doubt that Stark is well-connected (Bella Hadid is her BFF), but it’s sheer talent that’s really taking her places. Stark is a seriously good songwriter and a captivating performer. She’s also bringing a much-needed female voice to the indie rock scene, like a Patti Smith or Viv Albertine for the Instagram generation (she has a very healthy 212,000 followers of her own). Here, the indie darling speaks to GQ about everything from to self-belief and stage fright to heartbreak and media misperceptions.

The first time you realised you wanted to be a musician...

"Straight from the womb, I came out singing. Honestly, I don’t think I knew what that meant, but, yeah. I wrote my first song when I was seven. It was about a boy who didn’t like me."

The first time you played in front of a live audience...

"I was, like, 17 or 18 and I’d done a million little things before, but my first real big show was when I did a collaboration with Vans. We threw a huge party at the Troubadour in LA. It was a full show and we set up the collaboration like a merch booth. That was horrifying. My band wasn’t my band now, I didn’t know how to move my body, it was so scary and there was a ton of people there."

The first time you got silly drunk...

"I remember stoned. Drunk? OK. It was Santa Margarita, bottle of wine, in my friend Lily’s car, by the beach. There was a bonfire. And I threw up a lot. I was about 13 or 14."

The first time you fell properly in love...

"Oh, my God, like, seriously, out of the womb. I have to tell you, this is really hard to talk about, but I loved this Chinese boy at my kindergarten. I have a really bad memory, but I’ll always remember we were on the swing set. I loved him. It was deep. It was passionate. I’m not kidding. My best friend, Sorcha – he liked her and he asked her to go on the swings and not me. I was traumatized. Heartbroken. I love hard."

The first record you ever bought...

"I bought a lot of CDs at one particular store in Malibu. It was probably Ricky Martin or the Spice Girls."

The first time you put together a stage outfit...

"The one that I remember is when my godmother [Cher] let me design my 'Shoop Shoop' costume – she let me perform in one of her shows. And I still have it, it’s tiny. It’s a brown vest with a ‘P’ sign, fringe and fur. Then the pants were denim with leather ‘P’ sign patches on them. I was really little, like seven. It was horrifyingly scary: I remember the whole front row staring at me."

The first time you made money out of being a musician...

"I’m not making that much money even now. I would say when I did my Vans collaboration, that really incorporated my music, that was the first thing that I did alone. I saved that money and put it towards house stuff."

The first time you won at anything...

"OK, you’re making me really go down memory lane. I just got an award last week during this British tour – it's not an actual award, but it’s like a plaque from a man who owns a venue I played at and he wrote my name and my lyrics on it. I seriously was so touched, because I never won anything, not sports or a spelling bee, nothing, so I felt like that was my moment. I want to send it to my volleyball teacher, like, ‘Look’. It says 'burning in the fire of love, alright'. He was really cute to me and I love him."

The first time you got stage fright...

"I still get it. It’s like a formula every time, I have to center. I love being around the guys - my band - I feel like the fact that they believe in me allows me to do what I’m doing. So I’m really lucky to have such a cool family. To prepare, I say a little prayer, take a really big breath and then just switch my mood. I like to be angry rather than happy when I go on stage."

The first time you threw a punch and meant it...

"I punched my ex-boyfriend – he let me, though. I punched him, like, ten times. It wasn’t a joke, but he let me."

The first time you realized your friendship circle was famous...

“I don’t think of me like that. I think Bella is famous. It’s interesting because I’ve known Bella for such a long time. She’s younger than me and we’re both from Malibu and we got close before she blew up… I’m so proud of her, she’s my number one babe. I pick her over all the babes. The only thing that’s weird is the awkward pictures of me bending over and fixing her bikini. She looks amazing. I look awful.”

The first time you read a piece of fake news about yourself...

"That I’m a drug addict, a party animal who is always out. I’m really not. I love being at home and I love my family. I mean, everybody has their moments when they go out, but I don’t think that’s cool in any way."

The first thing you'd do if you became president...

"I’d say funding. There are so many major things going on right now that are important, and I don’t know what the first thing to tackle would be because it’s so tragic seeing the suffering that’s going on, the mess we’ve made. I think they all go hand in hand. I can just say that I do think it’s time for someone to sort the crap out and it’s not going to be the president right now."

The first person you'd call if you were in real trouble...

"At the moment, I’d say my guitar player Thomas. We’re sharing the same space emotionally right now. He helps me anywhere, from styling me to making me coffee to saving me from a burning building."

#jesse jo stark #gq magazine #interview #2019

[stardewpastel]

I’ve decided I’m taking the direction of this project into my own hands and analyze the main cast of Persona 5. I’ve decided to do this as Persona 5 has a track record of being extremely hit or miss with it’s characters. While this is a problem with the entire series, never has it been this even with well written and poorly written characters. So without further ado, let’s get started!

Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya/Joker

So, this isn’t the best lead we could have, honestly. It’s inherently difficult to discuss Akira’s character, because, well…

He’s not.

As true as he is to his fellow Persona protagonists, he doesn’t actually have a personality to discuss and dissect. We could go off the dialogue choices the player is given, yeah, but there’s just too many variables to be able to settle with one defining personality.

On the other hand, Akira’s personas are actually a nice little nugget of fridge brilliance. Considering that Akira has what the game calls the ability of the wild card, he can wield multiple personas, ranging to about 210 in total. In a way, this is genius. Because of the inherently customizable format of the personas through fusion, no two personas made by different players would be the exact same, reflecting how no two Joker’s will be the same.

I mean unless you’re the type to make an invincible Satanael but c’mon, you’re better than that. Ryuji Sakamoto

Ryuji establishes a trend present with a lot of characters in the early game seem to suffer from, which is backpedaling on their characters arcs not long after they’re established. Although, Ryuji himself works with said trend… strangely. He doesn’t exactly do said backpedaling because there wasn’t actually anything to backpedal from. He storms in, yells about how much he hates the first boss of the game and storms back out until he becomes a party member. The only actual ‘development’ he gets is to learn to stop giving a shit if the outside world views him as a delinquent.

Which just…Isn’t good enough?

That’s not to say Ryuji isn’t a good character, save for one arc, he serves as a good way to lighten the mood when necessary and serves well as the protagonists best friend, but other than that, there isn’t much to him. Ann Takamaki

Ann falls the worst for the pitfall I was talking about when going over Ryuji. The entire first arc of the game is about her and her detestment for just being seen as a sexual object, which would be a really good direction for her character to go, especially since the rejection on an older man’s advances resulted in the sexual assault and suicide attempt of her best friend, so clearly it’s not something she’d tolerate... but at the end of the day she serves as the game’s main source of fanservice, which….

Well, it sends mixed messages, no?

Not to mention, Ann’s Persona Carmen is often depicted as a femme fatale who would seduce men and then scrap them to the side when she had been bored with them. Again, mixed messages are all abound with Ann.

Yusuke Kitagawa

Oh, good, finally, someone I can say good things about. The best word that could be used to describe Yusuke is… Interesting. I feel like the best way to describe him as a person would always being about five steps out of step. Still, no matter how strange his outward behaviour is, he dedicates himself to his craft of art pretty much no matter what.

His entire in-game confidant is about his art being criticized by a professional critic and his journey to find out what exactly he needs for inspiration to improve it. This consists of mistaking a brother and sister for a romantic couple and demanding to draw them, and ordering the protagonist to strip in church, among other things. Of course, this isn’t even mentioning his place in the actual story of the game.

Y’know, like, the required stuff.

You encounter Yusuke when investigating the rumors of an artist who uses his artist’s work for his own gain, however he chooses to deny this whenever it’s brought up during the arc due to said artist raising him like his own son since his mother died when he was a baby, however his trust in his mentor and father figure becomes crushed when it’s revealed he simply stood by and watched Yusuke’s mother die due to a seizure. This has lead to many people speculating why Yusuke was taken in in the first place, considering he couldn’t validate his artistic talents to warrant staying around, but I personally feel better off not knowing. After all, the point was to make it so that Yusuke would have no reason to believe in the Phantom Thieves ideals until his psyche had pushed to form his Persona and join them himself. Makoto Niijima

To put things lightly, Makoto is… Complicated, and not in a good way. The biggest problem Makoto has is that it feels like they wanted to write like, two different characters, but the director couldn’t decide which one they wanted to do and just said ‘ehhhh… do ‘em both?’. 

She’s either a stuffy mom friend Student Council President, to badass biker chick strategist, but they didn’t blend it together in the way they wanted (at the very least, I hope it didn’t). On the other hand, people seem to deem her as Best Girl because she’s kinda smart and it’s implied she has an abusive homelife with her older sister; something that is touched on once and never again.

Of course, they could’ve fixed this with her confidant, maybe give more insight into her hobbies, or maybe her relationship with her sister, but uhh….But no, though.

Her confidant starts with her talking about her father who worked in the police force and then proceeded to die, because we needed less fathers in this game, clearly. But she also talked about how much of an inspiration her father was to her, which, is honestly really cool.

Except then it delays itself after rank one with Makoto’s first ever actual friend, because screw the Phantom Thieves, I guess, and it goes on about how she, who is genuinely just unpleasant, is dating a man from a host club, which Makoto believes is super shady, it is, but that isn’t the point, the point is this goes on for seven whole ranks. I can’t fathom why they thought this was a good idea, but ranks 1, 9 and 10 are the only ones where Makoto is the actual focus. She had the opportunity to be really good, but they just did not care. There’s more I could say about her incorporation into the plot, but I think I’ll detail it more in Akechi’s section. Futaba Sakura

Futaba actually gets to hold the position of the best written Phantom Thief we got, which is probably mostly because we get a good look inside her head. Unlike most dungeons, or rather, palaces, where you’re attempting to change the heart of some foul scum of society, you’re changing the heart of a girl so she won’t kill herself.

It’s established that for the past two years or so, Futaba had been struck deep to her core with guilt and regret after her mother had thrown herself into traffic, presumably in an act of suicide. She had been blamed from every adult that she was the reason that her mother, Wakaba, did what she did, so ever since she had locked herself up in her adoptive father’s basement, that is, until she learns that the suicide note she had been presented with way back when was a simple forgery, and her death was, as it turns out, a murder. This is what persuades her to join the Phantom Thieves, to find out about the people responsible for her mother’s death and get the revenge she deserves.

Not to mention, Futaba’s confidant is primarily about her trying to get her shit together, which is honestly far beyond her fellow Phantom Thieves. Her goal within her confidant is to try to get better about the outside world again, using a method that she used to do with her mother, promise lists. While she isn’t able to complete it, as part of her still feels uncomfortable out and about when Joker isn’t around, she still makes an honest effort to do everything else, even helping out an old friend of hers from an unhealthy situation with her family.

Overall, Futaba is just, real damn good. Haru Okumura

Haru can also be described as complicated, but not in the same way as Makoto was. The main problem that Haru has in the main story is that, well, she’s barely in it. She’s only introduced in September-October, and the last playable month in the game is December, so as a result, she barely has any required screentime with the player. The most we get is her desire to be seen as more as an object to be married off by her father, but other than that, not much.

In exchange, however, Haru has one of the best confidants in the game. After her father dies, she’s left in charge of an entire company, an entire company worth millions of dollars, so as is expected, many other higher ups attempt to be in good graces just to be able to essentially run the place themselves. Haru mentions repeatedly to the player that she doesn’t really want either outcome the situation could have, simply preferring to look after her own garden and open up a small cafe, not unlike her grandfather before her.

It’s nothing super deep or complicated, but it knows what it wants to do, it has focus. Not to mention Haru herself has a rather calming vibe about her.

Goro Akechi

Oh boy.

I could keep this short and brief by simply saying ‘Goro can’t Akechi a break’ but, we aren’t here for short and brief, are we?

While Goro only joins the party for one dungeon near the end of the game, he’s present most of the way through, behaving mostly as an opposing force to the Phantom Thieves, believing they should be imprisoned for their crimes, or, as it turns out, ‘killing’ their leader works too.

Although, as it turns out, Goro needed to shuffle his way into the trauma conga line somehow, and boy oh boy, does he take the crown for it. Being a bastard child in Japan is a big no-no, but however, this is what he just so happened to be, which is already a setback. This was only to be followed up with his mother killing herself when he was young, which resulted in him being passed around from foster home to foster home for just about the rest of his life until he could live on his own, eventually culminating in discovering the powers of his Persona far earlier than the rest of the cast. This leads to him being taken in by his scumbag of a biological father to serve as a pawn for his plans to become a political power, using his power to assassinate any… problematic people in the way, including but not limited to the previously mentioned Wakaba Isshiki. All the while, Goro simply doing his best to be the best he can be, impressing and surpassing all of his peers, until he is killed and presumably forgotten, considering that he’s never brought up again afterward.

To bring up what I was going to talk about in question of Makoto and Goro’s writing is that many people come to the consensus that they should have switched when they joined the party, as not only would the target at the time make more sense for either to be involved in, (An Ace Detective going after a mafia boss, a student council president worried about the state of her sister,) but it’s eventually revealed that Goro is, in fact, a traitor amongst your party. Having him join in the third dungeon, rather than the sixth, not only would this make the player less suspicious of him, but also make his claims of having a Persona for ‘a couple of months’ more believable.

Simply put, Goro Akechi is rather well written, but the fact that he has blood on his hands results in the fandom discarding him to the wayside so hard that even Akechi cosplayers had to suffer verbal abuse and harassment at conventions due to their cosplay choice.

While people can claim what they want, overall, Goro was dealt a shitty lot in life, and he even lampshades this himself, by saying that if he and Joker had met just a few years earlier, things would have been different.

#I don't have a good way of justifying this #Uh #Atlus is my favourite company #Atlus made Persona 5 #bam #perfect

[tumblunni]

MAN I tried messing around starting newgame plus on Digimon Cyber Sleuth, even though I’ve played more than enough already so I’m not really gonna play again so soon after finishing. And... WHAT THE HELL?? Seriously this is like a one game microcosm of how you don’t realise how much you’re being mistreated until you see how the other side lives. Specifically on the subject of weird minority stereotypes... The difference between the designs/animations/general presentation of the two gender options is REALLY BIZARRE?? I had no clue! Playing as the girl you just kinda think ‘yeah thats weird maybe’ but you dont realise the dude doesnt have the same problems. Like... she VERY MUCH suffers from the ‘miss male character’ trope. She’s the weird sort of ‘lol sexy genderswap deviantart fanfiction’ version of a female option. I thought I was just reading too much into it with how the girl is posed like a supporting character on the boxart and literally never appeared in any of the promotional material until the game came out... Its just so... ODD! Everything EVERYTHING about her is defined to be this overthetop stereotypical idea of ‘we have to let them know she’s the girl version’. She’s far more sexualized, she always does these ‘girly’ or ‘hot’ poses for LITERALLY EVERYTHING! Like, the dude’s animation is just running but she has to run with her arms wide out to the sides, skipping like a five year old and swaying her hips. And her standing pose also has the hands out, her toes inturned, her chest thrust forwards and this general sort of ‘tee hee hee’ thing?? It really REALLY started to bug me how her chest is ALWAYS thrust forwards, I started to get super anxious about ‘holy shit am I ever doing that when I walk and i dont know it? is this really how female bodies are supposed to work??’. Its like her resting pose is this thing and its extremely painful for her to fold her joints back into a normal mode. And she’s always always posing when the dude isnt posing AT ALL, even her selection screen image is her doing the ‘one leg bounces back while you kiss someone’ type pose, contorted into a wild accordion while he’s just looking at the camera. I jsut... didnt even realise what was bothering me so much about playing as this character, til i saw the total absence of it on the dude... SERIOUSLY! He doesnt have some overstereotypical super huge macho animation set, his design isnt made to yell ‘I’M MALE’, he isnt sexualized, he isnt the ‘one body type everyone in this gender has to have’. He’s a scrawny androgenous waif that could have worked equally well if you slapped the label female on that design, somehow to make him female they decided they had to scoop out holes in his waist and hips and shove them on his chest. While also adding a bazillion extra animations that make her walk around everywhere like that one damn gif of terrible ragdoll physics as some guy walks down a road. I did not understand that whole assassins creed controversy about ‘but women need more animations, it’d be too much work to add them’. NOW I UNDERSTAND. Why on EARTH do they think they need these animations?? Women dont have to do everything differently to men to prove theyre women, in real life literally nobody worries about accentuating stereotypical gender roles while doing COMPLETELY NORMAL THINGS. Women dont put huge effort into looking cute or sexy while they’re just frickin walking down the street or standing alone in the privacy of their own home. Its like these people know so little about women outside of hollywood femme fatale movies that they legit think that sort of walk cycle is biologically ingrained into one gender???? The fact nobody ever acts like macho bodybuilder walk cycles should be given to normal tiny teenagers in every situation makes it pretty clear the difference here... And seriously, what is even this universal THING that ‘male are default, you need to mark a character as different to show she’s female’? Which usually means making her more feminine than the real female actor playing her, like that even makes a damn lick of sense :P I mean seriously if we’re gonna talk actual biology, men are the ‘different’. A species cannot exist with only men, the only one sex species are all female. Or lack a sex, or contain both sets of genitals. Also there is at least one bird species that has two male genders as well as female. And male seahorses get pregnant, and male clownfish can physically transition into females as part of their natural life cycle. And all sorts of far more diverse things we humans can barely understand! And like... you can say ‘women are the different and men are the blank, because women have boobs and men don’t’. But you can also say that women are the default because men are the same thing with penises added. And seriously, boobs are just nipples that actually serve their intended purpose. Women have this extra function compared to men because MALE BREASTS ARE VESTIGAL! The organ still exists, it just sits there doing nothing and never changes at puberty. (Though even that is more fluid that you’d expect, there are ways to induce lactation even if you’re a cis man. i dont really know why anyone would want to do that, it wouldnt exactly work as well, but whatever.) Aaaaand OF COURSE this entire thing is a stupid argument anyway because it only talks about biology, which is not the same thing as gender. Not to mention that biological sex isn’t all cut and dry either, the human species has A LOT of different intersex conditions. You can even have people who don’t have significant enough outward symptoms to be recognised as intersex at birth, who go their whole life thinking they’re a cis male only to suddenly find out they had an undiagnosed hormone condition and are technically a trans man. There is most definately no magical biological guideline for how men and women act. Especially frickin stupid nonsense like overspecific cultural guidelines on what’s cute for a woman to do while running, geez. You really can;t just ‘tell’ that someone is ‘really a woman’ or ‘really a man’ cos of how they act, and thats why this stuff pisses me off even when the story isnt saying anything about trans people. I’m so used to seeing this overexaggerated japanese concept of feminine/masculine mannerisms being used on trans stereotypes, it bugs me even seeing it being done to cis women... gahh this has gone wildly offtopic and I’m just venting Everything Bad About Stereotypes rather than the specific thing about this specific game I need to logoff and go cheer myself up. OH BUT yeah this game also literally has a friggin ‘we can tell this man is really a woman because mannerisms’ scene :P which also dissappointed the hell out of me cos it seemed like a trans character and instead it was the cliche I Had Some Reason To Pretend To Be A Man thing... Also apparantly instead of acting like that male persona, the male persona was magical brainwashing virtual reality stuff. What a wasted opportunity! You could have told us a lot of stuff about her personality from comparing how she acted while under this other fake personality, and what it implies she hides from other people. Like ‘hey, maybe she actually can be confident as long as she’s wearing a mask!’ Nah, everything badass or tough or sassy she did was just mind control. And she’s not trans. And blehh being outed by ‘acting like a girl’... Its so weird cos the game actually does have one trans npc in a sidequest, and has trans themes with a few major digimon. In the sense that they were male in previous seasons and have designs considered ‘masculine’ but take female forms when disguising themselves as humans. (and the player-controlled versions of these digivolutions even have different masculine voices matching earlier seasons!) Gahhhh at least I can sit here hugging my ambiguously genderqueer alphamon headcanons and nobody can tell me those arent canon cos the question was never answered either way! I hate the cliche answer that ‘yes all alphamons are male cos they ‘look male’, this one was just a man disguised as a woman’, but still even if that was the intent, it means the character is trans coded! EITHER OPTION IS TRANS TIME protect me, alphamon protect me from super gender essentialist game how do you even EXIST in this game?? seriously even your human disguise was super fanservicey weird female stereotypes mannnnnn i guess I had a few problems with this game aside from the one stupid rape scene :P aaaaand the problem of the game clearly being written assuming nobody would play the female option, so characters still constantly call you ‘he’ and such the only good consolation being that the game accidentally becomes Hella Gay, though I would have preferred canon lesbians instead of this weirdness WHY CANT FEI AND YUUKO BE CANON IT GOT SO CLOSE TO BEING CANON THEN FEI DISSAPPEARED FROM THE PLOT FOREVER only reappearing as a postgame newgame plus bonus boss that makes it impossible to complete the damn Masters Cup damn you fei damn you awesome amazing hella gay fei whom i love you deserved to be in a better game you deserved to be the matt-esque rival, i will never forget that you started off teasing that role and then just vanished... HELL, CAN SHE BE THE PROTAGONIST OF A SEQUEL OR SOMETHING game entirely about her and yuuko’s amazing story of love! also alphamon wandering in just to yell ‘I AM CANONICALLY TRANSGENDER’, make everyone a cup of coffee, and leave aaaaa why did i spend so long rambling every single complaint about this game, games in general, gender stereotypes in gender, life in general... its weird how just realizing ONE THING about a stupid walk cycle animation made me realise my general nebulous feeling of uncomfortableness that I could never explain about this game :P I am really excited for digimon world next order being better than this!

#long post #sorryyyy #bunni is a bit tired and sad and venty