#this was made with three separate screenshots as reference

[punkascas]

okay, so i don't want to, like, Start Something or whatever so we're doing a barely-tagged, separate post. i also realise this is mostly pointless because others have already said what i'm going to say, and did it better, with far more grace, and sound less like an asshole than i do.

but jesus louise helen christ, the weird fucked up ideas people have around abuse and personal responsibility and the effect of trauma. like as an abuse and csa survivor, it genuinely alarms me to read posts that use arguments i remember my dad making. like, i'm assuming most of this rhetoric comes from gen z — maybe that's inaccurate; maybe that's unfair. but right now i'm very much Having A Moment Here that the kids aren't alright.

no 22-year-old should be repeating the same awful, manipulative, logically and morally bankrupt justifications for violence and torture my dad says. like literally what's in the first two episodes of ofmd s2 is torture.

i love ed; he's an amazing character. taika is hella wowza top marks acting him. but like.

like.

torture, my dude. physical and psychological. trauma. harassment. that we see the lasting effects of through s2.

just. i. what??

so here we go, okay. have too many, zealously highlighted screenshots so i can dig into details.

cut to save your dashes. content warning for discussions of abuse and trauma (if that wasn't obvious), as well as spoilers for ofmd s2.

re: ed knew what he was doing was wrong and felt guilty about it at the time:

we have no on-screen, textual examples of this. not in the dialogue; not in the acting; not in the blocking; not in the cinematography or music. nothing.

knowing the crew are overworked and kind of traumatised by all the violence, ed bribes them with cake. because, as we know, cake like tea fixes everything. only ed wasn't even with them to share in the eating of the cake. he made izzy responsible for that. he doesn't give the crew a break; he doesn't choose less ethically-fraught prizes to hunt. there is not one scene of ed talking directly to the crew — until he points a gun at each of them.

we see ed crying (and drinking, and rhino horn-ing [way to help further extinction, man]) but it's always paired with shots or flashbacks that reference stede. ed is still all up in his feelings about stede, and ed confirms this when he tells frenchie the myth about albatrosses never needing to return to land. ed cannot go back, does not want to go back, because he was rejected. (like, stede is literally landed gentry, come on!) all he wants to do instead is stay at sea committing to this unhinged version of unstable, sadistic piracy.

but okay, okay. say we ignore all of that. let's say ed does feel sorry and guilty and ashamed of his actions. he knows what he's doing is wrong and unfair and cruel. that it's harming others. that it's particularly harming the dude that ed has, for better or worse, basically spent his life with (izzy; i mean izzy). ed… still continues to do the things! how far off are we at this point from the definition of malicious? you know action x hurts person b and then you do it anyway. is that honestly a better, happier, more ethically defensible reading of the character?

re: the crew didn't mutiny because they love ed despite his violent, sadistic actions.

mutinies were a thing, yes. but both historically and in the world rules established by the show, mutiny is disincentivised through threats, distraction via extra work, and corporeal punishment. we see both ed and izzy use all three of these to try to prevent the crew from disobeying orders. they didn't wait until the storm and izzy shooting ed to mutiny because they understood or sympathised with ed; they took the chance to kill him then because that was the first real opportunity they'd had. the reward finally out-weighed the risk given that ed was going to kill them all that night anyway.

again, we have no scenes, no dialogue, no visual or audio cues to tell us that the crew understands or loves ed — excluding izzy, obviously. fang could also be on that list, if you take into account his personality and his behaviour both in s1 and later in s2 in the fishing boat scene. but in the first two episodes, we only see the crew show trauma responses around ed. they talk about him but almost never to him. and when they do have a direct conversation with ed, it is either confrontation or head down, submissive, "of course, blackbeard; anything you say" placating. i'm so baffled where the show points to any sign of love from the crew towards ed before his "death".

re: ed can't be held responsible because he was suicidal.

uhm. no. hard no. a harder no than stede's brazilian cherry wood mast. fucked up people do fucked up things but part of being an adult is owning your fucked-upped-ness and not fucking up others while you work on unfucking yourself. children, children are not fully responsible for the impact of their actions on others when they're deep in their feelings, especially if they're feeling their feelings as a trauma response. this is because literally their brain cannot do that kind of control. it doesn't have that software pack installed yet. ed does have all the adult updates installed, even if he isn't running them at that moment. he has no right to take out his feelings on other people: to maim them, to psychologically torture them, to abuse them, to work them to exhaustion. to kill them. he does not get a free pass to do suicide by abused employees. (like suicide by cop but more indirect and passive and harmful.) talk about passive aggressive.

secondly, ed is not just passively suicidal and happy to find new risks that might end his life. he is very purposefully taking izzy with him (see: literally removing the bits of izzy that would help let him walk away from ed; the fact that ed becomes actively suicidal only once he thinks izzy is dead; the whole keeping izzy's corpse in front of his and stede's beach shack i mean inn — the codependence, she runs deep). ed is also putting the crew through the same risks, the same isolation, the same danger. both stede and izzy agreed that ed had gone full scorched earth policy. you don't get forgiven for the murder part of a murder-suicide pact just because of the suicide part. not to mention that no one (once again, you could potentially argue izzy as an exception) was good on a murder-suicide pact with blackbeard.

and then to say the crew felt guilty? i assume i'm misreading that. the crew. felt guilty. for ed's actions. that is, if not victim blaming and if not darvo, a very close inbred cousin of them. like hapsburg jaw inbred close.

re: ed healing and his view of himself as a monster.

to heal means, in part, to accept responsibility for the harm you've caused, whether it was intentional or not. it means making amends. it means building or rebuilding relationships where possible. it means putting the other person or persons' feelings and boundaries and need for safety above your desire for absolution or forgiveness. it means working through your own guilt and shame and anger (or whatever drove you to act the way you did) in a separate space, not with the people you hurt, but someone who can be a step removed, more impersonal and objective to help you reflect and face hard truths as needed. i say this as both someone involved in activism and community reparations and as an abuse survivor who has done nearly 30 years of therapy learning this in order to not hurt people. it's not ed's fault he's fucked up just like it isn't my fault i am. but it is on me, like it is on anyone, to make sure i limited as much as possible the harm i can cause to others because i learned some awful but very effective tricks at a young age to survive.

ed does not really do any of the above. he doesn't say "sorry". he speaks in generalised language. he complains about the cat bell (which he seems to wear only for one day, given the implied timeline with lucius and pete's engagement). i have a model ship on a stand that says "this is a safe space ship" as a joke because i work for the government and have written press releases that sound just like ed's "apology". where you take no responsibility and encourage "the culture" to move on.

so, really, my question becomes: ed sees himself as a monster. in s1, we had enough balance between ed's current actions and his referenced past actions to see this belief as likely untrue. in s2 though — i mean, is it? is that an unfair or inaccurate belief? i can understand how carrying that belief can get in the way of ed's growth and eventual healing but like. from an outside perspective of ed-the-fictional-character. he's not a "good" person. he's capable of and has done and continued to do horrible, cruel things. ethically, can you argue with that statement about him?

re: ed trying to destroy relationships because of his self-worth issues and instead the consequences of his actions proving that he's loved.

this is the point that made me go: right, no, i need to respond. i need to say my piece about this. izzy and the crew suffering ed's violent tyranny and then sticking around on the revenge anyway afterwards is not a sign of love. it is not showing love to bear pain for someone. it not showing love to let someone mistreat you, threaten you, hurt you, maim you. their actions are selfish and done to give them feelings of power and control over you. lying back and thinking of england to get through it is not love. it is absolutely a survival technique. but it is not love when you do it at the expense of yourself or others.

i also disagree that ed was trying to push people away or break his relationships with others. we know from s1 that ed is fairly blasé about whether crew members die. again, we don't see any friendly or intimate exchanges between ed and any of the crew to imply any kind of relationship there beyond "tools who accomplish ed's goals". the one exception, as always, is izzy. and as previously stated, ed seems bound and determined, in a very conscious way, to bring izzy into death with him. ed does everything in his power to make izzy want to kill ed, or at least agree that it's best if ed dies, and to want to kill himself so ed doesn't have to die alone. that isn't ed breaking that relationship; it's making it permanent in a really fucked up shakespearian way. the only relationship we see ed waffle between wanting to keep and wanting to push away is stede. after his corporate "apology" and the fishing trip with fang, all of ed's dialogue is with stede and a little bit with zheng until izzy's death scene. the crew loving ed just isn't a thing, at least not one we're shown. not from either side. ed's relationships are with stede and kind of, sort of with izzy (because he does manage to, if not fully break, do some major damage to that).

love did not save ed. ed wanting to live, because stede came back, because he didn't want to jump off hornigold's cliff in the first place, saved ed. izzy saved everyone else.

so yeah: that's it; that's the post. the rhetoric that abuse is love or that abuse can be "cured" with love or that trauma isn't lasting and serious and has impacts on people's daily lives is just. wild. wild.

and terrifying.

my dad was born in the 40s. why is anyone born in the 80s or later still defending this mindset? it honestly, truly freaks me out.

guess it's good i have a fucking therapy appointment on monday.

#ofmd critical #ptsd problems

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Ben Cohen

South African Jews reacted with outrage on Friday after the country’s governing body for the sport of cricket stripped the Jewish captain of the U-19 national team of his role, citing the “risk of conflict or even violence” as the reason.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced that David Teeger, who is Jewish, would no longer captain the side just one week before the opening of the U-19 Cricket World Cup, when teams from 16 nations will compete in South Africa for the sport’s top prize.

In a statement released on Friday, CSA said that its security team had advised “that protests related to the war in Gaza can be anticipated at the venues for the tournament.”

It added that such protests would likely focus on Teeger — an observant Jew and resident of Johannesburg who made his professional cricket debut in 2023, scoring an impressive 51 runs for the South Africa Emerging Players side against North Cape. Teeger was only appointed to the captaincy of the U-19 team last month.

The targeting of Teeger could result “in conflict or even violence between rival groups of protestors,” CSA said. Invoking its “duty to safeguard the interests and safety of all those involved in the World Cup,” it said that Teeger had been “relieved of the captaincy … in the best interests of the players, the U-19 team, and David himself.” Teeger would “remain an important and active member of the team and we wish him and the team every success in the tournament,” CSA concluded.

CSA’s decision — against the background of rising antisemitism in South Africa, widespread support for Hamas in the wake of its Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel, and the charge of “genocide” brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — provoked fury in South Africa’s Jewish community.

Prof. Karen Milner, chair of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), told The Algemeiner that CSA’s decision was “an outrageous act of antisemitism.”

“There is no basis for this decision, other than the fact that Teeger is Jewish,” Milner said. “It is shameful that CSA is embarking on a path that is dangerously reminiscent of Nazi Germany, when Jews were actively discriminated against, including among sporting clubs.” She stressed that the SAJBD “would do everything in its power to fight against this vicious prejudice.”

In a separate statement, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) said it would be calling on the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s global governing body, “to investigate the CSA’s blatant act of discrimination.”

“The ANC [ruling African National Congress] government’s political hostility to Israel and its friendship with Hamas has created a climate in which it is entirely acceptable to target a sportsman because he is proudly Jewish,” the SAZF stated.

Among those expressing sympathy for Teeger on social media was three-time MLB All-Star Kevin Youkilis. “Heart goes out to this young Jewish man,” Youkilis posted on X/Twitter. “The ‘security risk’ excuse is bullshit.”

Former Boston Red Sox star Youkilis also referred to a speech that Teeger made just weeks after the Hamas pogrom, delivered after he received the “Rising Star” Award at a Jewish community ceremony. Teeger paid tribute to the Israeli military, saying, “Yes, I’ve been [given] this award, and yes, I’m now the Rising Star, but the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel.” He went on to dedicate the award to “the State of Israel and every single soldier fighting so that we can live and thrive in the diaspora.”

Teeger was being “punished for showing gratitude to the State of Israel,” Youkilis commented.

#david teeger #cricket south africa #cricket #kevin youkilis

[lizzybeth1986]

Maxwell and Penelope: When You Like Your Side Character So Much, You Gift Her a Shiny New LI

Series - TRR's Alternative LIs: The Romances that Didn't Happen

Previous - Liam and Olivia: When You Prefer the Side Character to the Main

A/N: There won't be a lot of exploration on Maxwell x Penelope, as there is very little the pair gets in canon. I will be largely looking at their individual characterizations and the changes and retcons made there. There will be a lot of exploration on Penelope x Ezekiel.

CW: Mentions of Penelope's actions as part of Constantine's nefarious plot against the MC in TRR1 & 2, mentions of Penelope's social anxiety.

(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel, Drake playthrough)

Compared to the other three alternative romances, Maxwell x Penelope turned out to be a bit of a one-chapter wonder. It was extremely short-lived, and the only indication that it had ever happened was one conversation between Penelope and the MC in TRR2 Ch 6, after which there is no reference to it, ever again.

In my mind there are two major factors behind this pairing being left behind, which I will get into later in this essay. However, what I find even more interesting is what the narrative and the writing team did with Penelope after they set aside that subplot. What did TRR3 give her in lieu of this alternative romance, and why, and what does it tell us about the narrative that she alone got that?

But before we can get into that, we need to look (separately) at how Maxwell and Penelope were written in TRR1, and how it culminated in the characterizations they got by TRR2.

The Evolution of (White) Side Characters

One thing that fascinates me about TRR1 is the trajectory of some of the characters, when you observe them on rereads. We often go into those rereads with a strong impression of their character type (or stereotype), before we learn to our surprise that the initial writing doesn't always match the image we carried in our heads.

In the case of some side characters, we may find traces and hints of a totally different characterization, before the team zeroed in on a trope or characteristic that may have hit the right chord with the audience. When done right, this could result in a more rounded character. But in the wrong hands, the writer may keep falling back to that one trope that made the character click, and turn them into caricatures instead.

Maxwell and Penelope are representative of different tiers of side characters, at least in TRR1 - which means that what we may expect in terms of treatment will vary as well. Even before TRR2, Maxwell was more LI-tier adjacent; until he got his LI-upgrade in TRR2, he was a frequent presence in the story and the MC's life, enough that his fans started a "Make Maxwell an LI" campaign. Penelope (along with Kiara) was a far less important character with infrequent appearances.

So of course their trajectories wouldn't be the same. It's interesting, nonetheless, to see how the writing changed over the course of the series, what parallels or complementary traits made the team consider Penelope as an alternative for Maxwell by TRR2, and why they ultimately let go of the pair after one chapter.

As we go through these stories, I think I'd like my readers to keep one thing in mind throughout - Penelope is an anomaly as a character. There are very specific things she is given that at least one other character in the same position doesn't get. Why?

I might not be able to give the answer in this specific essay, but I do think it's a question we need to keep asking ourselves as we go through her story.

Maxwell and Penelope - TRR1

A truly interesting thing about Maxwell was that he was initially not even conceptualized as a prominent character in the books! In their promotional interview for TRR2, Kara mentioned this about the creation of his character:

Excerpt from The Royal Romance: Book 2 interview.

Maxwell was initially conceptualized as a fun foil for Bertrand, the MC's tentative guide for the social season - who the writers considered too stiff and boring to stand alone as a character. Owing to his proximity to both Liam (close friend) and the MC (sponsor), it made sense that Maxwell was a part of the group scenes from the jump.

Going by the interviews, clearly Maxwell's 'fun nature' was his main USP for the writers. TRR1 does try to balance this aspect of his personality with scenes where he shows perceptiveness (such as pointing out opportunities to ally with Kiara or Penelope), but as time goes on he is viewed more and more as the 'funny guy' of the group. He also has a side-story connected with his older brother, who isn't very impressed with his work during the social season (tbh, for good reason!). This side story allows us to view him with sympathy and perhaps overlook all his failures as a sponsor (and there are many examples of this throughout TRR1. Most of the opportunities to connect with the main LIs emerge from all the times Maxwell failed to adequately guide her - teaching her the Cordonian Waltz, explaining the significance of the Regatta Race, finding the right tents, telling the MC to get swimwear for a beach party!).

Of course, because TRR2 (where the Beaumonts are her staunch allies from the jump, even before the LIs return and pledge their support shortly after) and the "Make Maxwell an LI" campaign created such a strong impression on the fandom, people remember him most as the "person who was always there for the MC".

Though he doesn't become an LI in TRR1, we do get our first ever hint of the possibility midway through the book:

(Screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube Channel)

Most of the people I know joined the TRR fandom either in the middle of Book 1, or after Books 2 or 3 - therefore, much of what I'm about to say next is down to conjecture. It is possible that either some stans did pop up in the initial chapters, resulting in the hint in Ch 8, OR that the writers tentatively teased this pairing with the dialogue at the Lythikos Ball, and were gratified enough by the response to continue teasing it. By TRR1 Chs 10 and 11, there was already plenty fanfic on Maxwell x MC. The writers were clearly encouraged enough by the response to toss a few more hints (the MC asking Maxwell about taking his shirt off at the beach, the implications of the MC telling Maxwell she is falling for someone else). Before the fandom knew it, Maxwell had already become the beneficiary of two diamond scenes focused on him in TRR1 (a flashback scene that introduced Savannah, and having fun sliding down banisters in the finale).

Penelope's trajectory in Book 1 didn't experience as meteoric a rise in popularity, but there were changes made throughout the series until she did become somewhat popular. Her trajectory could be categorised in three parts:

1. A minor noble who was very poised and proper (snobbish, if you weren't fitting in well enough)

2. Adorable ditz

3. The lady with social anxiety (TRR2)

From their entrance in TRR1 Ch 3, both Penelope and Kiara were written as extremely minor characters compared to the three frontrunners (and one female LI) of the social season. They accept early on that they don't have much of a chance in the competition, and are the first contenders (barring Hana) that the MC can get on her side. They represent the opinions and mindsets of the royal court.

Because of this, Penelope and Kiara initially appeared almost indistinguishable from each other. The only thing that seems to set them apart is perhaps the introduction Olivia gives at the Masquerade, pointing to Penelope's lineage and Kiara's linguistic skills and diplomatic pedigree. She was the titled one, Kiara was the "smart" one.

(Penelope's scenes from my failplay, in order:

1 & 2: Ch 3, while speaking about Olivia's connection to the Prince, and if you ask her and Kiara why they allow Olivia to call them 'harpies'

3 & 4: Ch 4, Penelope's response to the MC saying, "Penelope, hands off my man"

5 & 6: Ch 6, if you don't fall in line behind the Queen and bump against her instead

7: Ch 6, when Olivia is shocked that Liam chose the MC

8: Ch 8, reaction to Olivia kissing Liam)

Penelope's early scenes in TRR1 didn't showcase the traits she is now so well-known for. She wasn't the "adorable ditz" until the Applewood chapters; in fact her scenes in the first half often showed her as poised and very proper. At the Masquerade she calmly points out to the MC that there is no reason to be offended, when Olivia bluntly declares that no one else has a chance with Liam. She expects decorum from the MC when she cuts in during her dance with Liam, and even comments on the inappropriateness of some of Olivia's behaviours and cautions her when she gets a chance. If your MC makes mistakes in public in certain scenes, Penelope doesn't hesitate to laugh at her.

Her allyship scene in Ch 10 hinges on the MC's ability to convince Penelope of the advantages of supporting her, and rescuing the lady from a crab bite. She is extremely rude in certain options, and ends their conversation with the sentence "I'm not nice" if she isn't convinced the MC is worth supporting. In fact, she is allowed to call the MC a commoner wench in a certain dialogue option!

(Screenshots from my failplay. The top half shows a response to one of the MC's dialogues (she is merely sad if you choose the second one). The second is the end of the conversation when the MC asks for her support)

In a failplay especially, she can be very, very mean-spirited, which is truly ironic given her later characterization as someone who is herself uncomfortable in court and makes more than her fair share of silly mistakes. Fortunately for most of the players, the more "positive" version of the scene sounds a bit more like she's scared and uncomfortable and not equipped to handle the rigors of court. Which makes the "adorable ditz" direction that PB takes, post Regatta, a bit more believable.

Once Penelope is no longer a contender, both she and Kiara recede to the background. You don't see much of her in Applewood and Ramsford, but the little you do see primes us to view her as "sweet and silly" with a bit of a poodle obsession. Two very good examples of this is the "cheating scene" at the pie competition (TRR1 Ch12) and the aftermath of the Beaumont Bash (Ch 16). At the pie competition, Olivia and the MC can team up to distract Penelope so they trick the rival team into adding salt in their pie instead of sugar, by getting her to talk more about her poodle obsession. At the end of the Beaumont Bash, she is shown exchanging drunken chatter with a horse. The book also makes her preoccupation with poodles way more obvious, where before it was brought up only once at the Masquerade Ball.

Discrepancies between portrayals in the first book vs the latter ones is par the course for TRR. Every character has those in some way or form. Maxwell's story in TRR1 and 2 at least could make sense with enough headcanons to fill in the gaps (for why he was inefficient in his support of the MC, for why his relationship with Drake was so fraught) and his characterization is a little bit more consistent. But Penelope's, on closer observation, is a complete mess and her story doesn't make any sense when put together.

Maxwell and Penelope - TRR2

Compared to the other three pairings, Maxwell x Penelope doesn't go beyond a single chapter.

(Screenshots from Skylia's YouTube channel)

This solitary hint pops up in TRR2 Ch 6, right after the Big Clue about Penelope's social anxiety. We're given the usual options one gets for alternative LIs - a "matchmaking" one, a gently discouraging one and an insulting one, the last two of which could be read as jealousy from the MC's end. In fact, the MC's third dialogue option in this scene is so mean spirited that Hana is required to soften the blow!

There's something interesting about the matchmaking response for this scene, and I think it says plenty about the writers and the lasting impression of these characters they wanted us to have.

"You're both a bit silly...but in a way that works." It's a reading of Maxwell and Penelope that leans very strongly into their potential as comic relief, that views the two characters as alike. Both "cute", both "silly", both there to give the characters (and readers) the occasional laugh.

Is this completely accurate to their characterizations in TRR1? Probably not. But it's clearly what the writers imagined would work well for those characters.

Interestingly, TRR2 is also where the team seems to experiment more with these two characters, and finds the characterizations they think would land with the audience. Maxwell's changes are related more to the belated buildup the narrative was giving him to be an LI, and most of Penelope's was related to her role in the plot against the MC. Maxwell is given more heroic traits (eg. the Savannah storyline and his involvement in the investigation) to beef up his story a bit, and plenty of hints are scattered specifically to tease a romantic route with the MC for more than half the book. The narrative also leans far more into his position as comic relief than TRR1 does, making it his most identifiable trait.

There are tiny nods to his "perceptiveness" (Liam mentions it twice in TRR2), but he does a lot of things that you wouldn't see a TRR1 Maxwell do, like tossing a bruschetta at a foreign dignitary or playing with food to get the forgiveness of his friend (btw the Drake Maxwell friendship reads very differently from the first book; they're remarkably chilly in their vibes towards each other initially. Of course, one could headcanon what caused a rift, but that's still us doing the work instead of the writers!!).

Because so much time has to be spent bringing Maxwell's romantic route up to speed with the rest, the progress of the relationship is different from the other three and his romantic scenes cost less (until TRR3 Ch 10, his first 30 diamond scene). Much of this is par for the course for an LI who has entered the game late. In addition, the narrative also tries in TRR2 and 3 to balance his role as the MC's sponsor with his new role as LI, and it doesn't always land (eg. his excitement for Liam's proposal to the MC two chapters after becoming an LI, or his weirdly impersonal reaction in the TRR3 Ch 11 Armory diamond scene in his playthrough, in response to Madeleine mocking Liam for the MC favouring Maxwell). In part this is a result of laziness from PB's end, and in part it's because navigating Maxwell's new role itself may have been a tricky business.

Penelope's TRR2 trajectory, in contrast, is the textbook definition for "throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks". Hints of her involvement in the plot don't even show up until Ch 6, just one chapter prior to the reveal. The reasoning given for Penelope's actions in TRR1 - social anxiety - also directly contradicts what is shown of her during the timeline when she was supposed to have been involved in the plot. TRR1 Ch 14 and the Coronation at the finale shows her acting calm, collected and enjoying herself. A lot of Penelope's actions in TRR1 and 2 - esp at the Coronation and in Fydelia - cast an extremely poor light on her when you take into account that she knew the MC was innocent, and that she'd played a part in framing her. From the way the reveal of her condition was done, and the way we're expected to brush her wrongdoing aside immediately, it's clear that Penelope's "social anxiety" was more about tossing in a last-minute Hail Mary to excuse her actions, rather than any real interest in exploring the subject.

Given the sloppy execution of this reveal, it is entirely possible that Madeleine could have been the "lady" in initial drafts (the strongest evidence of this is TRR2 Ch 1's "constitutional clause", which is never referenced again once Madeleine is no longer a suspect), and they made a switch in the nth hour.

It is also possible that writers in the team liked Penelope enough that they wanted readers to still like her after she'd betrayed their MCs. She hasn't been referenced or mentioned in any team interviews, but the writing speaks for itself. No matter what she's done, the narrative insists the MC center her, sympathize with her, and coddle her. I will speak more at length on how in the TRR3 section.

Why did Maxwell x Penelope Not Take Off?

(The first three screenshots are from the Abhirio YouTube Channel, and the rest are from the Radiance Guardians YouTube Channel)

Unlike in the case of the other pairings, not a lot was said in the fandom about this pair either way, even among Maxwell stans. You did have the occasional "hands off my man!" post from a Maxwell shipper, but not to a great extent. At this point many of them were still unsure whether a Maxwell route would be finalized, and even kept Liam as a standby in case all that teasing from the team came to nothing.

Again, most of the theories for why this pairing had just one scene are mere conjecture, since there isn't much evidence overall. But looking at the placement of this scene and what happens before and after it, I can think of two possible reasons why it was nipped in the bud:

1. Maxwell being a late-in-the-game LI could have made balancing an actual romance route and interactions with an alternative love interest tricky in the long run. As it is, his writing was subject to gaffes and mistakes in TRR3 even without this added storyline. It's possible they decided to just ensure that they got Maxwell to the point where he could have his own 30-diamond love scene (which happened in TRR3 Ch 9 btw (half a book after Drake and Hana got their first 30-diamond scenes), and not focus on anything else.

2. This teaser scene came up in Ch 6. Ch 7 is when Penelope is revealed to have tricked Tariq into coming to the MC's room, and paid the photographer to take intimate photos of her. Now to be fair, the narrative does insist she be sympathized with rather than judged. But I do think a subplot like that would automatically make her an unpopular candidate for any LI, much less one who hasn't even been clearly established as an LI yet! Having Maxwell fall for a woman who did the MC dirty wouldn't reflect very well on him, social anxiety or no. In fact, in Ch 8, Maxwell's reaction to the news is the strongest - he calls Penelope "a few dogs short of a pack", "downright diabolical" and even suspects she was lying about having poodles.

3. It is just as likely that Maxwell x Penelope was never a serious consideration for the writers in the first place. Possibly, Penelope's scene here was simply another hint in a rising pile that teased a Maxwell romance route. Players often do get an added pleasure from watching their MCs mouth a catty dialogue or two to a romantic rival, so this scene may have been more for the benefit of a Maxwell stan who wanted to "fight for her man" rather than an actual possibility if he wasn't getting picked.

Whatever their reasons, Maxwell and Penelope's chances as a couple ended pretty much in the same chapter that it began. It didn't create much of an impact, and no one really seemed to notice this pairing, or the lack of it. It basically started and finished with a whimper.

TRR3 and Beyond - Penelope and Ezekiel (ft. A Flanderized Maxwell)

Penelope is an anomaly among the side characters (and even among certain mains!) in both series'. She is the only person seriously involved in the plot against the MC, who needs massive coddling to even answer our questions about her betrayal (if not, Hana has to take over for you). She is the only lady-of-the-court who can refuse to attend your wedding. She is the only lady-of-the-court who can choose to travel with the entourage to another duchy, despite not being part of the Unity Tour. She is the only one among the three former ladies-in-waiting who can openly complain about Madeleine's bullying, and expect protection against her from the group. Until TRH2, Penelope was the only side character for whom massive divergences in the narrative would be made as well, to accommodate her comfort and mental health (More on that in this essay).

She is also the only alternative LI to be "rewarded" with a brand new character, crafted specially for her.

Until TRR3 Ch 7, the fandom didn't even know Kiara had an older brother. Even though the person we know best in Castelserraillan is Kiara, we actually spend less than a minute with her, and far more time with Ezekiel Theron. There is an entire diamond scene that's about pampering and complimenting him, making him comfortable around us, getting him to open to us - even though his sister was the one injured at Homecoming Ball. And of course, the entire reason for Penelope to even be present at Kiara's estate is so that she and Zeke can be paired up by default! Even at the Food and Art Festival, Kiara's only real default dialogue apart from winning over her mother (or not), is about moving Penelope and Ezekiel's romance along.

Both Penelope and Ezekiel join the Unity Tour only by option, so the narrative puts in a great deal of effort to get the romance going (by having Penelope only stop at Kiara's estate by default) and allowing the two to still have a fledgling courtship going on if they weren't together at the Unity Tour (Penelope still gets to meet people who inspire her into dog fashion and she and Zeke still show their interest in each other, propelling the parents to discuss their match).

The only thing we know about Ezekiel, and pretty much the only thing that really matters, is that he loves animals. In a court that views Penelope's love for dogs as an oddity, Ezekiel is a character tailormade to romance her. He rarely features in scenes that don't show her (the only exception is the menagerie scene in Ch 14), he rarely has dialogue outside of his scenes with her, he doesn't even have a personality beyond what would best suit Penelope. This character exists only to romance Penelope, which is depressing esp when you consider that she is a white woman, and he is a black man - and she is clearly the only one who even matters in this relationship!

There wasn't any real reason to give Penelope a partner. "Penzekiel" doesn't really do much for the story in general, and not a lot would change if you dropped them. But the narrative deems it essential to give her a "reward", which is ironic considering what she put the MC through and how much we had to coddle her for her to even consider cooperating, either in the investigation or during the Unity Tour. Presumably this "reward" is for her "niceness" and "sweetness", which only works because the narrative completely erases her misdeeds in the social season after TRR2. She never has to remember what she did, nor does anyone in the core group remind her.

With regards to Maxwell, by TRR3 he is a full-fledged LI who gets a wedding with his MC, in certain playthroughs. Much of his playthrough focuses on trying to catch up with the other 3 LIs - you can sleep with them if they're your fiancé/ée, but you have to wait until Ch 10 to sleep with Maxwell. The narrative mentions him taking up "responsibilities" for House Beaumont in lieu of Bertrand, but without any real scenes that show us what he is doing, nor any tangible results (we will not talk about Maxwell's book here!).

He doesn't have any alternative romances. In fact even his romantic playthrough is kinda bare - his only individual scene is the Armoury scene which isn't even about him, and there were glitches that were very noticable particularly in his and Hana's playthroughs. There are no references at all to the alternative romance Maxwell was given in TRR2; it's almost as if that option had never existed.

Penelope being a romantic option for Maxwell doesn't stop the two from having friendly exchanges in TRR3 though. Maxwell was not only allowed - but expected - to treat Penelope with sympathy and respect.

(First set of screenshots is mine, the second is from Skylia's YouTube Channel)

Not only Maxwell, even Drake - who hates most nobles - is shown being extremely protective of Penelope in both TRR3 (promising Penelope to protect her against Madeleine) and TRH3 (showing anger at Guy's blackmail of Penelope and her family). The narrative is very clear that we are expected to make Penelope feel safe, even if she has never made us feel anything but unsafe.

This relationship - and the level of coddling that Penelope has always received from TRR2 onwards - continues into TRH, where she and her beau Ezekiel are shown together, there are occasional updates on their relationship when either one appears in a chapter, and where they eventually marry and start a family. An interesting pattern begins to emerge once we get into TRH.

(Screenshots from Skylia and HIMEME's YouTube Channel)

As the only courtly lady in a relationship in TRH, Penelope gets a nicer, cleaner, more luxurious and more drama-free parallel to the MC's romantic journey. Like the MC, she finds a suitor who falls for her and wants to be with her. Like the LI, he eventually stages a grand proposal for her (TRH2 Ch 18), after they have spent a significant amount of time together. Like the MC, she has a widely publicized wedding (though tbh Penelope's was better customised to her tastes, and as the MC we put even more work into her wedding than we ever did our own!! (we were both her bridesmaid and her officiant, our daughter is the flower girl, we give her the perfect bachelorette, we rescue her from her asshole ex-husband, we help her select lingerie!!!)). And when the MC announces her second pregnancy, Penelope announces to us her first. Penelope's storyline has all the romantic trappings that the MC had with her LI, but without the tension, the conspiracies, the attacks and kidnappings, or the constant fear that someone is out to get her and her family.

Penelope is basically treated like MC-lite. Quite the upgrade for a mere side character who actually did us dirty at one point.

Does Maxwell - her potential LI for all of one chapter - suffer as a result of this upgrade? Apart from the Flanderization, I would say no, he actually didn't.

He doesn't get the lavish Drake treatment, true, but he is centered in the issues that bother him. The MC, by default, has always been expected to defend him to Bertrand from TRR1 onwards, and often argues that Maxwell tried as hard as he could to help her, even when he didn't. Her sympathy towards him whenever Bertrand justifiably berates him for his negligence is by default too. And while he improves in TRR2 and (somewhat) 3, in TRH3 the entire group is thrown into this position again. Even though Maxwell exaggerates events in his friends' lives to an insulting degree in his book and the subsequent movie adaptation, the group often brushes their discomfort aside and supports him instead. And even though his lies in said book about Bertrand (TRH2 Ch 11) indirectly cause the latter to give up his lands to their father (resulting in Bartie Sr's attempt to usurp the throne), the MC spends all of the next book comforting him, involving him in her investigations, and patting his hand sympathetically while he moans about the father who killed the former queen of the country, all while ignoring the son of the woman Bartie Sr. killed, and raging against the elder brother who is secretly supporting them (even after the reveal, the group judges Bertrand heavily and even suspects him of being part of Via Imperii in TRF). Very little is said - either by Maxwell himself or by anyone else - about his role in facilitating this awful takeover.

All in all, Maxwell may have not gotten an alternative LI at the end of the day, and his overall LI path was pretty messy - but there was some thought and consideration put into his writing. The focus on Penelope and her new romance never actually harmed Maxwell.

Fandom

As I've mentioned before, Maxwell wasn't an LI in the beginning, but rose to LI status in Book 2. While the writers did make claims once in their TRF finale livestream that they had planned to make him an LI all along, I find that a bit hard to believe. From the way the hints were dropped it's way more possible that this was a development that came up once enough people in the fandom found him attractive enough to be LI material.

As the Make Maxwell an LI campaign grew in popularity, the fandom often held a rosy view of him, calling him "the only valid white guy", celebrating his queerness (as they should! It was hinted that he was pansexual in TRR2 Ch 18), showered him with sympathy and called Bertrand names for berating him. None of the nitpicking that certain other LIs would get for not supporting her properly, ever touched Maxwell. Nor did the fandom - who did criticize him quite a bit for his trashy book, and protested his Flanderization - ever view him with anything besides sympathy when he struggled to believe his father was evil, after he'd encouraged his brother to make said father the head of Beaumont House. This was the same fandom that didn't hesitate to find the most nonsensical excuses to trash Liam.

The Maxwell-Penelope scene was a fun way for some Maxwell stans to allow their MCs to act a bit possessive of him, and they were very critical of Penelope's betrayal later. But the overall response to Penelope's storyline was overwhelmingly positive. Many related to what she said about suffering from social anxiety, and especially to the lines about her emotional support poodles (ironically in another book, Sloane Washington got scant sympathy or respect despite clear indicators that she suffered from social anxiety too), and were quick to forgive.

(I must confess I was among this portion of the fandom too, but with the belief that she would address it more strongly herself in TRR3)

Fandom didn't mind buying into the canon myths that Penelope was a "sweet, naive" girl, and part of this is understandable because not many got to see what she was like in the failplay. So it was easier to presume that she would still take a little responsibility and wholeheartedly regret her actions, without seeing the failplay scenes where she is shown expecting to be treated like royalty by the woman she screwed over. Penelope and Ezekiel were viewed by most as a cute pair, with some (justifiably) liking this interracial match initially. Many readers who were fond of Penelope even criticized Kiara for being "mean" to her or "joining in Madeleine's bullying of her", when Kiara's behaviour was clearly more protective than harmful.

There was a slight rise in a general negative attitude towards Penelope in TRH3, when she could prioritise her wedding over the looming terror of the MC's child being taken away from her, and only speak up when the MC encouraged her at the altar. But very often people who made these criticisms clubbed her and Kiara together, as if they were a single unit...as if their actions and choices throughout the series were the same. As if Kiara got the same concessions and pampering that Penelope did. In reality, the choices the two women made - and the narrative treatment the two women got - couldn't be any more different.

Individually, Maxwell's and Penelope's stories show us what happens when the writers of a story lean too much towards fandom adulation, and allow it to dictate the way their stories will go. In both cases PB found a beat that the readers liked and stuck with it, never expanding beyond that one trait and causing the two to be caricatures of themselves. In Penelope's case especially, once her anxiety story resonated, the narrative used that to encourage readers to pamper her ad nauseum, and justified her lack of genuine care for anyone but herself through constant reminders of her mental health condition.

I will repeat the question I'd asked at the beginning of this essay - What did TRR3 give her in lieu of this alternative romance, and why, and what does it tell us about the narrative that she alone got that? That's a question I hope you'll keep asking in the next two essays.

Next - Hana and Madeleine: When You Reward Your Favourite Bully with One of Her Victims

#maxwell beaumont #penelope ebrim #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #essay series: trr's alternative lis

[xieyaohuan]

Homelander's "bedroom"

I made a long two-part post (pt 1; pt 2) reconstructing the layout of Homelander's penthouse today. One of the things I had been suspecting and set out to either confirm or disprove was the idea that Homelander's bedroom is not separate but part of his large open plan space, behind his large TV wall.

And it totally is!!

Most of this was already posted in the longer penthouse post, but I wanted to make a separate post explaining just why I am now officially and 100% convinced that Homelander has no real "bedroom" per se and instead has his bed essentially in his living room (which has no door, so pretty much anyone can walk in).

Beyond the obvious implications this has for writing fic, it's another super fascinating insight into the character of Homelander.

We never get a full picture of his bed in the show. Instead, what we got were some additional promo pics of Homelander standing in front of his bed:

And of the mirror ceiling above his bed:

In the various episodes of season 3, we never get a full visual of Homelander's bed, BUT we do get glimpses of it:

In S3E7, there's this:

This is the weakest evidence, but this scene is what first made me think Homelander's bed was probably behind the wall with the large TV. I mean, that looks like a bed. Also note the mirror wall beside the bed:

In S3E6, we get another glimpse of the bed in the Mirrorlander scene, including the paintings and nightstand on the left hand side of the bed.

The visual is not super super clear, but:

However, the clearest evidence is in S3E1, when Homelander checks up on Stormfront, and we get this snapshot:

The bedroom corner is the left part of the picture, and both "Birth of our Nation's Flag" and "President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom" (see here for a more complete list of paintings) are clearly recognizable.

There are some additional paintings in the S3E1 scene/screenshot when compared to the promo pic on top, BUT those additional paintings also show up in the mirror ceiling still that was released separately (you can see the top of the frame of the additional painting in the bottom right hand corner):

These three scenes taken together allow us to place his bed pretty definitely here, on the opposite wall from the window:

Stormfront's bed was in the right-hand corner by the window, but she's dead, so it has been removed. What we can also see in this picture is another mirror wall, marked in orange. (On the other side of this mirror wall is Homelander's big TV).

So, tl;dr, his bed is placed inside the open space of his penthouse facing his large glass front and has large mirrors to the left, the right, and on the ceiling.

Here is where it is relative to everything else:

The bed is marked number 6, and the mirror walls to the left and right are marked as 14 and 14b. I'm not going to explain all the other numbers (they're all explained here and here), but a couple for reference are

1: The huge TV screen; 2: the doorless entrance area; 5: the ugly brown couch; 12: the staircase leading upstairs; 13: the large US flag on the wall; 15: where Stormfront's bed used to stand; and 17: the Mirrorlander mirror.

Happy fic writing and psycho-analysing, all!

#homelander's bed #homelander's bedroom #fandom resources #fic resources #homelander analysis #homelander #the boys

[gefdreamsofthesea]

Spot the lie: Shin Megami Tensei edition

Note: I'm including everything under the SMT label in English except the Persona games. No I don't care if they're technically part of another subseries in Japan. Also, these apply to the original releases. I know some have been updated but I haven't played them.

I especially want to hear from people who haven't played them because this feels too easy for a veteran.

Poll results are in and I'm very disappointed that only 3.7% of you got it right.

I will now reveal the correct answers:

1. TRUE - The first major boss in Devil Survivor, Beldr, can only be killed by mistletoe, a mistletoe-shaped cellphone strap is just as effective.

2. TRUE - Yggdrasil is sapient and steals time warping powers from the Disir. The protagonist has to go back in time to save themselves with the help of the Norns (who have evolved from the Disir who gave him the quest, you know like Pokemon)

3. TRUE - Dante made a guest appearance in the original release of SMT Nocturne. Later versions replaced him with Raidou Kuzunoha, the protagonist of two games in the Devil Summoner spinoff series

4. TRUE - It's ordinary literature, there's nothing wrong with it the citizens of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado are just that brainwashed

5. TRUE - The entry is in Strange Journey. "Originally, he looked like an abominable snowman, but perhaps he changed form to more efficiently freeze people."

6. TRUE - The bondage angel design debuted in SMT 2. Here's a screenshot of SMT 1 showing its original design.

7. TRUE - A lot of people voted for this one but it's actually true. Cerberus' single head is a reference to the original novel the series is based on (Digital Devil Story). He is depicted with three heads in SMT: IMAGINE, Soul Hackers, and Digital Devil Saga.

8. TRUE - I did not know the origin of David's name myself so I looked it up. His design is possibly a reference to the poem Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens.

9. FALSE (ish) - It's actually the reverse: Astaroth wishes to become the goddess Ishtar (technically to return to being Ishtar but in game terms Ishtar is treated as his "evolution"). He is usually required in order to fuse her. In some games, the two don't appear to be connected at all.

10. TRUE - As the accuser, Satan is part of the Law alignment (and therefore on YHVH's side) against Lucifer, who (usually) represents the Chaos alignment. His role in SMT IV Apocalypse is more complicated.

Anyways good job everyone. Everyone gets a cookie.

[boltedfruit]

How I Outline/Plot: Including Author Resources for Developing Characters and Self Publishing

First and foremost, everything I’ve included in this doc that references resources (such as the plot outline below), is also available for free on the authors’ respective websites. I just wanted to recreate the template Scrivener file I use when starting a new project as I’ve collected everything in one master file.

MASTER TEMPLATE GOOGLE DOC: https://tinyurl.com/boltemp

I recently posted the chapter count for my upcoming Mafia MM romance I'm writing for NaNoWriMo this year and was asked how I plot by @duckyreads

Below, I've included screenshots of the first couple beats of my process and how much detail I usually include when outlining. The template I'm working from is an edited one of Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes, who offers her beat sheet for free on her site and in a Scrivener Template.

Using Romancing the Beat, I first went through and made a separate page for each story beat for my protagonist, Zac. I can't do just normal three act structure as it's too vague for me. I need Too Much to work with, then I can whittle it down later. I then did the same for the love interest and Mafia boss, Joe. (name might be changed idk yet.)

The colored dots represent which act of the story I'm in. Light pink= Act 1: Set Up, Dark Pink= Act 2: Falling, Blue= Act 3: Retreating, and Purple= Act 4: Shake it Off.

I also want to note that even though the epilogue is written in for both characters' POV, I'm only writing it once, from Zac's POV. So not every single beat necessarily translates directly into its own chapter. A few from Joe's POV are definitely combined more than once.

So Chapter 1, Scene 1: Zac's sister Riley has made him a dating profile and set him up on a date with who will soon be revealed as a crime lord.

I'm repetitive, because I've gone back in at different points and added little notes here and there. But my basic points I want to convey right off the bat: Zac is a hot mess who drinks to excess at times, has a sister who loves him but he is always putting her in a hard position, and has issues with money and violence from his childhood.

I also like to include some dialogue or rough snippets for scenes because it helps make the scene feel more concrete to me. I don't always do this though.

This is Chapter 1, Scene 2. Very short and to the point. (This was something I originally started writing as a fic btw.)

This is Chapter 2, Scene 1 and is the first from Joe's perspective.

It's plotty compared to the first chapter. I haven't done any nitty gritty location research yet so I put stuff I don't know yet in asterisks or brackets or in something like "XXX", because XXX is easy to find and change with ctrl+f > replace.

This is from Chapter 3, Scene 1. Just vibes.

This is from Chapter 4, Scene 2, from Joe's POV after the date.

This is what I ended up with. I'm sure as I work through it, the chapter count will go down. I don't really want my romance book to be so long, but I saw recently that 50 Shades is apparently over 500 pgs, which is wild to me. I'm also doing alternating POV, so it'll be switching between my protag and the love interest.

My outlining/plotting steps:

Decide on genre and type of story structure I want to use.

Decide on my protagonist and lay out a new page/note for every story beat of whatever structure I'm using.

Go in order or jump around and write a little per beat based on how I want a scene to go. For me, feeling is more important than knowing exactly what's going to happen. I'm not naturally a plotter, so I still like to not be constrained when I'm actually writing. (ie I'm not adhering to some rigid word count per chapter.) And if I changed something or added a thing while writing, I go back to the outline after and add it in so it all lines up and I don't forget something I did.

If a beat doesn't fit its own chapter, I make it a scene. It's also okay for multiple beats to happen in one chapter too.

Do the same for any other POVs involved in the story. Try to make each character have their own arc as well, no matter how small.

Really my main advice is go with your gut first because you can always add on or retract later. Write what you want (with some awareness of genre tropes/audience wants if you're trying to write to market to some extent). All book publishing is fickle and mean a lot of the time. And honestly unless you're one of the few who gets picked up by traditional publishers and offered an amazing deal, you'll be expected to pay for all the things you'd be paying for with self publishing, except with fewer rights to your own work. I'd rather pay and manage my own website, ads, and ARC readers and retain total rights to my own creations than give my rights to a publisher who might hold my book up for years, and still expect me to fund my own advertising, book tours etc.

And besides, if you self publish, there is no rule you can't have another book (and then even your backlog) traditionally published later on. You can have both.

#self publishing #writing #indie authors #boltedfruit writes #guess that's a tag #boltedfruit fic #I get heated about how trad authors are treated especially new ones

[ithinktheygotthealias]

a (draft) list of every time Mr. Spock had an interaction that might be construed as romantic

*this version will be deleted when (if) i fix this list up with some gifs and screenshots*

so, i have decided to compile some independent evidence on a few points that have been in (more than usual) contention lately in the fandom. my focus, as always, is tos. this one is a bit more controversial in that while i very much understand and respect that many fans see Spock as gay and/or ace, i personally feel like there's canon evidence for his being bi/pan and interested on the segs even outside of Pon Farr.

my interpretation is that both spock and kirk are bi/pan, though kirk has a marked preference towards women (see the rodenberry footnote. the love of his life just turned out not to be one. and he wouldn't have it any other way) and spock leans towards men (an interpretation not backed up statistically by the list, but who cares). again, this is my opinion, and the beauty of fandom is that it's in the eye of the beholder.

previously i made a draft list of the evidence for kirk being into men (excepting spirk evidence) in tos. the goal is to have one on all of the references to chapel's feelings for spock too, but that will be more work so maybe in a few days? never trust any promises i make on this blog

three important disclaimers before we begin: kirk, chapel and uhura will not be featured.

the reasons being, in kirk's case... *gestures vaguely at the entirety of tos*; in chapel's because i intend to go into her feelings for spock and how he reacts to them on-screen separately; and in uhura's because iirc there's only one instance of her flirting with him outside of their duets (where it can be construed as part of the performance), and it's not only in the beginning of the series, where it might be seen as Early Installment Weirdness, but also in The Naked Time, the episode where everyone goes crazy. also, uhura flirts with Everyone in this show, and i say good for her.

but enough with the preambles and on with the list:

the what the fuck?!? ones:

Leila Kalomi (This Side of Paradise) - this episode is baffling to me -- did spock and leila have something going on in the past that he ended because logic and rejection of humanity and putting starfleet first? or was it one-sided? spock says it was the first time he ever felt happy, but he acts so antithetically to who and what spock is that i personally find it hard to believe. maybe he just thought that was how happiness felt, and later on he discovers he was wrong (moments like the end of Amok Time, "this simple feeling", the beginning of WoK etc.). anyways cool motive, still drug-facilitated s.a.. big fan of sex pollen fics and that quote spock says about self-made purgatories though

T'Pring (Amok Time) - going strictly by the episode, vulcan biology... the biology of vulcans made spock want her, but he feels humiliated by the loss of logic. her reasons for not wanting him are two-fold: she simply likes stonn better (in that roundabout way vulcans admit to feelings), and she doesn't want to marry an absentee living legend, which, fair. the fact that spock's not a full vulcan must play some part in it too. but there's plenty left for interpretation. they are distant at the moment, but have they always been? how long has she been into stonn? why did they not divorce more amicably previously? i could go on forever, but i this is already too long. point being, even if it doesn't gel with my personal headcanon, there's nothing really wrong with snw's interpretation of this relationship.

the lighter ones:

Romulan Commander (The Enterprise Incident) - this woman is My Commander. I would follow her to the ends of the galaxy for the imagery she has blessed my eyes with. this being said, i think the important bit here is their conversation in the turbolift at the end. spock is not one to lie out of politeness. he could have said nothing, but he used those contorted phrases of his to imply he was a willing participant, and liked it. and she picks up what he puts down. also at some point kirk complains spock is taking too long and it cuts to them in her quarters, implying that spock got kinda into it (also, jealous, jimmy?)

Kollos (Is There No Truth in Beauty?) - this one's debatable, but i'd argue there was some attraction there, in a brainy way. smart is sexy, and all. dr. jones certainly thought so, from her reactions

Adam (The Way to Eden) - Pacifist Discount Roger Daltrey Hippie Musician In A Monokini Seduces Rebellious Vulcan was the tabloid headline

Droxine (The Cloud Minders) - insert cringey line about extreme female beauty. how the seven-year cycle became public knowledge given the drama of amok time is a mystery to me. the attraction flew out of the window real quick when the planet's situation made itself know though. anyway i shipped her with vanna.

Zarabeth (All Our Yesterdays) - i... don't get how logic can be time-locked? is the st universe secretly like a civ game? takes me out of this episode way too much. anyways he almost went full warrior vulcan and stayed in the past with her

the meme ones:

The Computer (The Ultimate Computer) - mccoy said it best.

Surak (The Savage Curtain) - spock, he's your ancestor! and at this point any intellectual crush is pretty quickly superseded by how thirsty he is for That Human Booty Intuition

#again #please feel free to add to this #i'll put your additions in the final version if i get around to doing it #don't think i haven't noticed almost all of these are after amok time #specifically in season 3 too which might be related to the general s3 woes somehow #it became late while i looked into this i'm sleepy and had a rough day #does it show #star trek #star trek tos #spock #might tag more later

[autistic-sidon]

hii can i ask to hear the explanation of why you think sid/link is distasteful? i dislike the ship myself but i’ve never really met anyone else who isn’t super obsessed with it but likes sidon so this blog feels super relieving!!!

So I’m gonna have to word certain things weirdly to avoid the face eating leopards that might come after me when express my opinion on a fictional ship so bear with me here.

My distaste comes down to these three reasons:

1. Age

2. Context

3. Content

First one being age. Zoras age pretty weird. A lot of people somehow misunderstand how the aging works even though it’s simple despite being weird. They simply spend more time in each life stage, but some people for some reason think a 50~ year old Mipha is a pedophile for liking Link even though she’s also a teenager. I digress, as that’s a separate issue. There is dialogue in botw from the character Dunma that makes it clear that Zoras will be physically adults before the age of 100 (but 100 is a wisdom milestone!) The way you can equate this to human ages is the late teens and early 20s, where you’re grown for the most part, but your brain still has some developing to do. That is the age Dunma is at, and a reminder that she is under 100. I don’t have screenshots on what Dunma says on hand, but this post might, and it explains the aging overall as well.

Sidon is over 100, so my guys prefrontal cortex is already developed. The human prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until 25! Which means Sidon is probably the Zoran equivalent of his mid or even late 20. I’m hoping the issue with that is starting to become clear.

Link came out of the shrine of resurrection under the legal drinking age. Remember, in botw Link is not allowed to have a noble pursuit like he is in totk. So, he was probably 18 or 17, possibly 19 when he died to the calamity. He could not have been younger than 17, as he joined Zelda on Mount Lanayru.

So, even if Link was 18 when he met Sidon (met him again…we’ll get there…) I am telling you that dating what is the equivalent of a 25~ year old as an 18 year old is not only creepy, but incredibly dangerous and unbalanced in the real world. And if Link was 17 in botw then it’s pretty obvious why the ship sucks in respect to age.

And people more commonly point out that Link knew Sidon when he was a toddler. I agree this also makes it weird. They didn’t really remember each other, which people argue, however Sidon does remember the swordsman, he just didn’t remember the swordsman was Link.

To finish off the age issue, I know some will say that the totk time-skip makes it okay…except it really doesn’t because that’s like waiting until someone is legal until you hit on them…which is weird and looked down upon irl so I’m not sure why you guys think the King of the Zora would pull that shit.

Next is context. This refers to the story in botw, specifically the backstory. Link remembers nothing, but discovers that he was super close to being engaged to Mipha, who was his childhood friend. I’m not sure why more people don’t point this out, but I really really really don’t think Sidon is going to get in a romantic relationship with his dead sisters almost fiancé. This reason is particularly why I giggle when people say Sidon was queerbait…because the writing does not allow for si/dlink to be appropriate at all. Sidon values Mipha a lot, and certainly would not go after Link even if he did have feelings, because doing so would be disrespectful to her and also a bit gross. Like if I died and my sisters went after my partner I’d think it’s gross, and my family would probably think it’s gross, a lot of people would think that’s gross.

To continue with context, and this one is more of an opinion, I really really don’t think that Sidon and especially Link, have feelings for each other. People made the new statue in the domain sexual (You know…the statue that was probably commissioned by Dorephan aka Link and Sidon’s Dad basically…please use your brain and recognize why saying they’re “riding” each other is weird…) as well as Sidon’s sage vow to Link (the one that all the other sages make too, including Tulin who is literally a child are you saying Link got proposed to by a child…huh??) Honestly watching people pick up scraps and say it’s romantic is a little funny to me, as I feel like this is really just platonic or brotherly, especially since DLC dialogue in botw has Sidon almost call Link his brother. Also I think they’re easier to write good stories about when they’re not romantic.

That transitions into my final reason, which is content. Si/dlink content is objectively bad all around and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Even the most well written of fics have an underlying sense of, “What the fuck is Link doing at Zora’s domain for so long?” And make Sidon and Link’s development overly dependent on each other. Just a reminder, romance is kinda fucking boring if there are no steaks outside of the relationship, or the stakes only matter because of the relationship.

If it’s not a mediocrely written fic, it’s probably just straight up porn. Which I can’t speak too much on this, but I think it’d odd to sexualize mlm to the degree that people did in 2017 and are starting to do again now. Also, people tend to either infantilize either Sidon or Link, and one of the character has to be the other’s therapist. This should be more recognized as an issue because of the fact that Link and Sidon are completely and utterly neurodivergent coded.

The content also completely decimates Sidon’s character. He basically becomes this hollow shell who only talks about Link and only thinks about Link and holy fuck doesn’t this literal King have things to think about that are not Link?? It’s very painful, as a si/dlink hating Sidon fan, to never ever come across character analysis because people cannot detach Sidon’s character from Link for even two seconds. Like I get that it’s super easy to read Sidon’s friendliness to Link as something homoerotic, but have you also considered that Link is literally his best friend and basically his brother. Bonus points if you recognize Link and Sidon are both neurodivergent coded and probably have that type of alliance and understanding going on.

Like I genuinely think Sidon is easier to write as Link’s friend or like as a platonic/brotherly thing. Especially since Link has his whole thing going on with Zelda and Sidon has his whole thing going on with Yona. And for gods sake yes I know polyamory exists, but I know y’all don’t actually ship all those characters, Yona would get the short end of the stick in character because you just want your yaoi to not look misogynistic. And Zelda usually isn’t even taken into consideration even though all of Link’s time before the upheval was spent with her so it’s still a little bit misogynistic anyways. (Note that when I say it’s misogynistic, I do recognize that it’s typically not malicious or even intentional, you can still be misogynistic on accident.) That’s not even mentioning the fact that Yona barely knows Link, and I genuinely don’t think she’d be comfortable with a sudden poly relationship. Poly doesn’t mean zero boundaries…people yelling “Sidon has two hands!” Don’t really understand polyamory and how it works. People generally don’t get in a serious poly relationship with complete strangers.

I could say more, but if I do then it’ll get to the point where the face eating leopards will come after me, so I hope this is enough. I really just think the ship exists because people are attracted to Sidon (valid) and use Link as a sort of self insert (botw/totk Link is not completely a self insert, as he has his own story and character beyond the player.) Anyways that is pretty much my opinion, thank you for asking nicely anon and everyone else pretty please do not send nukes to my house.

#loz botw #loz totk #sidon #LC answers #anonymous #do I tag this as discussion?? idk

[maydayfireball]

Len model finished !! His video was suppose to be a black background like rin's was, but i got a little carried away.. Just like Rin, check below for the model progress timeline and video credits !!

Turning Rin into Len ! I'm lazy and i want these two to look very similar, so i just edited rins face and body. Time elapsed: 00:34:53 (his head isn't smaller i just didn't screenshot well.)

2. Struggled drawing Len's hair ! I wouldn't normally include this part in my time, but like. fuck len. tumblr helped pick which one i used of these two blue prints. Time elapsed: 01:07:00

3. Len hair finished ! Why does this man hate me ! Time elapsed: 02:46:44 (almost two hours, huh..)

4. Body rig ! Unlike rin, I decided to rig len from scratch. This is because his base is too different from anyone else's to get away with weight transferring. (significantly shorter than kaito / gackpo, but with a different body shape than rin.) So here's a gif of his silly little arm movin. Time elapsed: 04:08:32

5. Hair Rig / Physics. For all the models (except rin) I've done their hair rig / physics right after rigging the body. This is mostly so i can have a fully optimized base to work off of later when making outfits. For rin i just.. forgot to do her hair lol. anyway time elapsed: 04:34:30

6. Outfit Designing. I didn't time this for rin since that timing was more for commission reference sake, and more clients won't have me designing their stuff. so it wouldn't have made sense to include it. but here we are. Rough outfit sketch. Fuck drawing headphones. Time elapsed: 05:06:05 for all my original models, the concept was more or less blending their design aspects together. (with the exception of gackpo, who's only difference between updates is colors and slight hair changes.)

7. Outfit modeling ! He went pretty easy, since It was just a matter of making parts i already did for Rin. So anything I struggled with last time, i had practice for. Time Elapsed: 7:50:25

8. UV Mapping. I included this step into texturing last time, but I felt like separating it this time around. Basically, i unwrapped all the UVs for the model and laid them out on a texture sheet to draw over. From what i've seen, a lot of people do this differently / in different orders? like they might uv map and then immediately texture the shirt, before moving onto the next piece of clothing. But texturing (using my tablet in general) hurts my shoulders typically, so i try to get it all out of the way at once. So i uvmap before even pulling the tablet out. Time elapsed: 8:50:48

9. Texturing. My neck hurts ! Time Elapsed: 11:40:19

10. Extruding, triangulating, exporting.. and then spas / toons. i think last time i included the extruding / triangulating in meta under texturing? But i've decided to break it up this time. Basically, i add depth to parts of the outfit, manually turn quads into triangles on tricky sections (like shoulders and hips) so they're easier to rig. Basically getting it ready for pmx before i export it. Time elapsed : 12:45:23 (left is unextruded / mirrored, right is extruded with the mirroring fixed.)

11. Rigging adjustments and physics ! Basically, used the weight transfer plugin to transfer the weight onto the outfit to match the base. I then cleaned the rig up and added bones / physics for parts that needed them. Time elapsed: 13:40:25

12. Cleaned ! Honestly there wasn't much to do, since most of the cleaning (like renaming bones) carried over from Rin.

Total time elapsed: 13:41:56 !!

Significantly less time than Rin, but that's honestly to be expected. Overall three days worth of work? Since I didn't. actually work on him much the first day.

I've also discovered that my models shoulders tend to disagree with game rip motions (which is why they look so. sharp. in the video), though i've noticed other models doing this as well.. it occurs since most motion rips don't use the rotate bones, but mine are made with those in mind. Kind of annoying, but maybe i can find a work around.

Final thoughts??? He might be my favorite original model right now honestly. I really like him. I might even distribute him and Rin, with expressions to remove their headphones and arm warmers.

Video Credits: Song: My Love Is Hellfire by SLAVE.V-V-R Len Cover: XZenvii Motion: anonRipper, Colorful Palette Scripts: TearlessHen, thtrandomlurker, minmode, skyth effects: おたもん, soboro, beammanp, 化身バレッタ, 呉石

#kagamine Len #mmd #MikuMikuDance #vocaloid #valkris does shit #video #model progress timeline #tumblr literally REFUSED to upload this video and it's been. 2 hours. so i gave up and put it on youtube. #i am begging u to watch it at high quality

[erikiara80]

I think Bob's first scene is about Hopper and the prequel.

Agent Orange ruined Hopper's life, sot it's not even color theory. He is associated with that color in many scenes. Including this one.

The first thing Bob says in the show: 'I'm not a big fan of orange'. Back in 2017 we didn't know about Agent Orange, but now we do! This is hilarious

In this scene Bob mentions high school and says that he feels like a teenager. So, this is connected to 1959. Also, Hopper calls him Bob the Brain (old habit, he says) and I'm sure he started when they were kids. So I get that Bob is not a big fan of him.

By the way, it's curious that Bob is a main character in the prequel, but Jon and Will's father, who's still alive, is not. Who follows my blog knows my theory about Hopper and Lonnie. It's like there were three boys who liked Joyce, but the only one Joyce didn't date is the boy she actually loves. Unless... she did date Hopper at some point (original timeline?) and maybe even had two kids with him, but the lab and/or a time loop separated their family. And now we only know about her relationship with the other two guys.

But who knows, this could be a Lily and James Potter situation, in which Joyce didn't want to be with Hopper when she was young, but then fell in love with him.

Shippingfangirl013 and I also noticed that many details here are hints about S4.

California, Open Close, two Lady Victoria, Gas Lite (Gaslight), Christmas (It's like the christmas lights. When Will was in the UD lights came to life), the word Rich (probably a reference to Richard Brenner) and the number 100 (001)

Here Bob points to the pumpkin basket, but it seems that he's pointing to the two 10s. And there's also a 10 behind him. My theory is that 10, including the lab kid, actually represents 01.

There are so many references to dark reflections and mirrors in the show, so maybe 10 and 01 represent two timelines, and one is the dark reflection of the other. In another scene, when Bob mentions high school again, we see the number 40 on the door, but reverse: 04. Imo, a reference to the members of the Hopper family: Jim, Joyce, Will and Jane. Yeah, unfortunately, I think Jon is really Lonnie's kid. That's why they always says that he's good at taking care of himself. That he feels like he's alone

So yeah, I think that Ten represents 01 and that's why they've been mentioning that number since the very first episode, connecting it to 11 and 12. Because it's always been about Henry/Edward, Eleven and Will.

(screenshots by heroesbyler)

Even in the tweets

Maybe this is why Ten seemed so important in the trailers and in 4x01. For months I wondered why they focused so much on that kid.

He's not important, after the first scene he never speaks again. Then I remembered that this is what I thought about 13 and 12. They don't seem important, but for some reason they're included in many shots with El and Henry. So 13 could be a reference to Fringe's character Olivia, who is Subject 13 (here the post about 13 and Byler), 12 represents Will, and Ten represents 01. Another possible hint: the first thing Brenner says to Ten is that the Magic 8 Ball is his favorite toy. 8->Kali, who is mentioned by Henry, and made Axel see black spiders.

Working on this theory. There's a lot to say!

#st the first shadow #the first shadow #jopper #henry creel #willel twins #will byers #bob newby #el hopper #dr brenner #henry/vecna/001 #henry/vecna/one #st theory #stranger things

[zenodreemurr]

Red is NOT the true color of Determination? An investigation about Undertale lore (Part 3)

Greetings everyone. This is part three of my investigation of Undertale lore.

If, by any chance, this is the first part you stumble upon, here's a summary of what is happening. These posts are a full-on investigation about the color of Determination and how it may not be red. During the last part, I talked about the kind of well-known origin of SOUL names, as well as the relation of the red SOUL with this. Each part of this investigation, due to the full one being too long and to stay consistent with the separation of the parts of the investigation, is its own Tumblr post. It is recommended to read them in order. Here are PART 1, PART 2, PART 4 During the two last parts, it was proven that the appearance of red is more common that one would believe . This part will delve into this specific aspect of the investigation, since red is more present that it's said most of the time by fans. Analyses of the possible significances of red throughout the game and lack of red in specific situations related to Determination As I've stated before, red appears many, many times throughout the games, and each time people argue that it is related to Determination, yet, while some meanings are unclear, others are and are unrelated to Determination. People also tend to believe that red appears quite rarely, yet it is not the case. In fact, let me show you how you see it throughout the entire game.

While I had to take an Asgore genocide encounter to show it (since attacks aren't shown in the screenshots of the Undertale Text Project), all of your attacks throughout the game as well as all damage you see the Monsters taking are shown in red. Yet that is not the only time red appears. There are many other times. And since I have shown Asgore, let me show you one thing you known and one detail most people most to never notice.

Most people talk about how Asgore's trident is red. Now there may be an explanation for this. In popular culture, the Devil tends to be often represented as red, especially if its intended to be seen through child eyes. While not the only color commonly seen, and while the relation may not seem obvious, goats are, for Christians, related to Demons, and even more specifically, the Devil. Asgore's design in combat is made to look like the Devil, and the addition of red to the trident may be an aesthetic addition to help thinking such a thing. But that is not all. Do you see the red on the background? You know, at the bottom of the image. Most people do not see it, yet it exists. It's there. While I may be a bit too confident into what I'm saying, this looks like droplets of blood, possibly referencing the children that are dead, before Frisk. However, for it to work better, we need to assume that Asgore has killed them all, which, while it's very likely due to numerous texts, stays unconfirmed (or I haven't found it, hence why I take the time to talk about it). As such, red, on this image, could actually represent murder or evildoings, since red is also seen, to an extent, as a color of evil. The theme of murder isnearly omnipresent when it comes to Asgore. Even Dreemurr is an anagram of "Murderer", showing the omnipresence of the theme. There's also another thing.

Asgore is referred to in red text at least twice throughout the game (that I found). This more than likely signifies importance (which red may do other time, as seen with Chara's red texts) and no more. Also of course there is red in the background, most likely for the scenery, which is an aesthetic choice. In fact, it is not the only case of red being related to importance.

This is another case of using red to make something look important. The special attack is talked throughout Papyrus's fight, and even the way he talks about it makes it sound important. Now that we've talked about the red related to importance and to Asgore, let's go to other appearances that I know of.

Multiple instances of red can be seen throughout the Flowey fight in the Neutral route. First of all, while it applies to all fights, all lost HP is represented in red. Also, you can see some red on Flowey's design. Whether it is the red eyes on the television screen or the thorns on his body, it seems to be made to terrify the player. This boss is known to have scared many persons after all. Not only that, but when the warning appears, it appears in red. Of course this is a classical warning choice. Red is a color that easily catches attention, hence its uses for important signs, much like this warning one. Let's get to the next ones.

Those are the True Lab ones. I've identified red appearing four times at least. For the first two, the red, as proven by the second image, is there for the association of colors red/blue/green/yellow, an association of colors that is very common to see. As for the entries, the red is again there with the intent of scaring people, or at least creating a feeling of dread, as this is a darker shade of red.

By continuing, we can see that red also appears on Sans's telescope room. I'm not going to look through every room in Undertale. Tumblr limits the amount of images we can send in one past and it would be too long. I chose this one because we do not look at the room itself in the telescope. But to be fair, I feel like that was chosen at random, which may show a lack of meaning for the color red red in some occasions. I can't see any meaning in this, especially when Frisk's eye becomes purple, which makes it even more confusing. Let's also look at the dimensional box, that also has some red on it. It's probably that way to separate from the very blue, green, and white looks of Snowdin and Waterfall. The next one is the last appearance of red I will look into, and I kept this one for last intentionally.

The end of the Sans fight, the one everyone waiting. Well, first of all, thanks to these screenshots (and feel free to verify by fighting Sans in-game), we can actually see that the red only appears once Sans put his hand on his torso. You can also see the red thing on the hand on the third screenshot. We're not here to theorize about the true nature of this. In fact, this post assumes that no theory should be stated as correct. Sans in Undertale is intentionally left as mysterious, and we're not sure anything about Sans truly means anything. That is one of these instances, though one of the weirdest. Now, to continue, let's not forget that determination is relevant during some moments of Undertale. For fights, it's especially relevant for Undyne, Undyne the Undying, and the amalgamates, as Undyne calls herself determined and the amalgamates have been injected determination. Let's look at them.

As you can see, as proven with Sans and Asgore, some colorful details can appear, yet no red color appears on Undyne the Undying and the amalgamates themselves when you fight them, even though they're related to Determination. Interestingly enough, as you can see with the Memoryheads (which applies to all amalgamates by the way), red text appears when you attack them, telling some words. One may assume that it is because the amalgamates have determination. However, I would like to talk about another possible reason for this red text (plus I've kind of already talked in the first two parts how red doesn't mean determination). The True Lab is supposed to be that horror part of Undertale. This can be seen thanks to Alphys's unethical experiments, the amalgamated living beings, as well as the stressing atmosphere of the place in general accompanied by the music. Red text could also be a part of it. Red is the color that reminds people of blood, which can strike disgust and fear in some people, especially younger audiences. Red being there for being scary is one thing I've mentioned previously in this post, in one instance even relevant to the True Lab, though it was a darker red. Hence, due to that other possibility, among with a few possible others, I will not assume that the red text means Determination. This, much like a lot of the lore of Undertale, is ambiguous at best. The lore being ambiguous is one message I wanted to pass to the Undertale community. The ambiguous lore makes people easily have headcanons and think of them as facts since people repeat over and over that they are facts without even trying to do proper research. Yet when you think about it twice, there can be many explanations for many, many different things. Many things also aren't as obvious as they are talked about when you research the lore properly. But at this point, most people have been told from their very first introduction to the Undertale community that some interpretations of the lore are facts, and people try to just show correlations (sometimes very doubtful ones) just to prove their beliefs, while not admitting the flaws of their research process or of the theories themselves. I won't claim that my investigation is perfect. To be truly perfect, I would need to analyze every single bit of text in Undertale, even the one that could seem irrelevant. I do it to a certain extent, and I come up with unexpected ones, but looking at everything would take a way too long time. I doubt any analysis is perfect, but I also try to find the flaws in my own and this will easily be visible in part 4. As for now, have a good planetary rotation.

#undertale #undertale lore #undertale analysis #determination

[crtter]

Referencing your new spamton lore post: "Spamton made two separate references to being willing to be in a three-way relationship." could you post screenshots that might prove that? saying this bc i really dont remember seeing this on spamton sweepstakes. thank you!

Of course! I’ve screencapped and saved basically everything I could from the Sweepstakes event, heh. Those are found in the descriptions of the ‘Your Best [$#*]’ Heart Locket and the Spamton ‘Mr. And Mrs. And’ Throuple Cutting Board products:

As a little bonus, the very name of the cutting board calls it a product for throuples, as in, three way relationships, with Spamton himself implied to be the third!

#answers #anonymous #Spamton #Deltarune #Spamton Sweepstakes

[sephesisweek]

What is all this about?

Sephesis Week is an annual event to encourage the creation of works centered on pairing Sephiroth and Genesis Rhapsodos of Final Fantasy VII, a ship referred to throughout the fandom as Sephesis, SephGen, or GenSeph. This is an unofficial fan-run event and is neither representative of nor in affiliation with Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd., Tetsuya Nomura, Gackt, or any entities legally connected to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

What's the deal with the prompts?

There are a total of three prompts for any given day of the event, each following the same general concept from different perspectives. The two core prompts are single words, while the alternate prompt is a line from the official translation of Loveless as shown in the English release of Crisis Core, meant for creators who don't feel particularly inspired by single word prompts. You are free to use any prompt in any order or combination; you can use either (or both) core prompts one day, then an alternate prompt the next, or any other combination thereof.

Who can participate?

Anyone who wants to! Literally—although this comes with the caveat that participants or entries that violate the event guidelines will not be reblogged to the event account or added to the Archive collection.

Just because you won't get a reblog doesn't mean you can't participate! The guidelines are designed to keep the official Sephesis Week page(s) safe and accessible to all audiences, but the event itself is open to all regardless.

What do I get for participating?

This is a no-profit, voluntary event; participation is meant to be a matter of celebration and appreciation. However, as a thank-you for participation, a set of digital "badges" featuring custom artwork will be unveiled and made available for download following the close of the event!

"I Participated In Sephesis Week 2024" for creators who fill at least one prompt fill during the event;

"I Completed Sephesis Week 2024" for creators who fill a prompt all seven days of the event;

"I Did Sephesis Week 2024 (and I was super spicy about it)" especially for the 18+ creators who participate in the event.

These can be put in your profile, printed off for your joyboard, or used for (almost) anything else* that your heart desires.

*Distribution separate from Sephesis Week, editing without authorization (with the exclusion of resizing), commercial and/or other inappropriate uses of participant badges is prohibited.

What kind of work is allowed?

Sephesis Week accepts fanworks of any kind and any rating that don't violate the event guidelines. The event does not accept gifsets, moodboards, fanmixes, screenshots, official art, anything machine generated, or work that has been traced or copied from another source not created by the participant. Work hosted offsite must not be paywalled or locked behind a privacy filter.

Fanart, fanfiction, cosplay photos and most other fanworks created by the participant exclusively for the event are accepted. Fan animations and 3D renders are considered fanart, cosplay and custom dolls are considered photography, and poetry and song lyrics are considered fanfiction.

Is there an alternate hosting platform for the kind of NSFW artwork prohibited by tumblr community guidelines?

Pillowfort is recommended for hosting adult visual art! Just drop a non-anonymous ask to be provided* with an invite link. Secondary recommendations include Pixiv and Poipiku, but both require strict adherence to Japanese censorship laws.

Post a censored or cropped version of the piece here on tumblr with a link to the external host, and ping @sephesisweek so it can be reblogged to the event account!

*A finite number of Pillowfort invitations are available and will be provided on a "first come, first served" basis, but early preparation assures minimal risk of running out during the course of the event.

Can other ships be included in our work?

As long as monogamous Sephesis is the main focus of the piece, what goes on around it is open to anything! This means that you can have any other characters dating in the background or having unrequited feelings for someone in the main ship, but neither Sephiroth nor Genesis should be portrayed as in a relationship with them. This means Genesis and Angeal seeing each other on the side in the present tense shouldn't be included (unless they're breaking up or there's some other mitigating circumstance), but Genesis and Angeal having seen each other in the past or Angeal having unrequited feelings for Genesis in the present is fine.

For a highly specific note that's necessary based on the prevalence of this in the fandom, if your work is explicit and you don't consider it AGS because Angeal doesn't take part in the explicit portion of the piece, but is referred to or indicated to be in a relationship with either Sephiroth or Genesis outside the context of that scene, that is still AGS and is not permitted for the event. "Ship" is shortened from "relationship," not an acronym for "Sex Had In Proximity."

What does "characters must be recognizable" mean in reference to AUs?

Alternate universe renditions of characters are allowed and encouraged. However, if the alternate universe in question features Genesis recast as a white cisgender woman with brown eyes and blonde hair who answers exclusively to the nickname Essie and spends her weekends picketing with the Westboro Baptist Church, the character is no longer recognizable. Obviously this is an extreme example, but hopefully clarifies the rule a little better.

My work wasn't reblogged to the event account!

Oh no! There's always a chance of things slipping through the cracks with events like these, so if this happens to you please reach out! While it's likely that your work is in the queue, it's also possible that it didn't show up in the tag search, that the event account wasn't properly pinged, or that the post or work violated the event guidelines in some way. Drop an ask with a link to your post and we'll figure it out!

I saw someone bashing a character or ship in their work for the event.

First, keep in mind that criticism of a character or ship is not equivocal to bashing. Saying or illustration unpleasant things about a character or ship is not necessarily bashing. Context and intent is important.

Likewise, actually bashing a character in blog posts not meant for the event is absolutely not considered a violation of the event guidelines. Sephesis Week has neither the time nor the energy to police people for being nasty about a fictional character outside the bounds of the event.

If something was reblogged to the event account that you genuinely believe constitutes bashing, drop a non-anonymous ask with a link to the piece in question and an explanation of your reasoning, and it will be reviewed as soon as possible. Anonymous asks used to report content will be ignored, and any reports deemed malicious will result in the reporter being permanently blacklisted from this and all subsequent and related events.

What if I have "a history" of tracing / copying / something else prohibited in the guidelines, but I don't do those things anymore?

People make mistakes all the time, that doesn't mean they can't change! If you're worried about your work not being reblogged to the event account due to something that happened the past, drop a non-anonymous ask and we'll talk it over. Anonymous asks on this topic will be ignored due to the inability to respond in private.

How do I tag/flag sensitive content?

On the Archive of Our Own, participants must use the Archive's warning labels as is appropriate, and for this event may not use the "Creator Chose Not To Warn" option. These labels include: "Graphic Depictions Of Violence," "Major Character Death," "Rape/Non-Con," and "Underage." Ratings must also be applied appropriately, ranging from "General Audiences" to "Explicit." See the Archive's guides on ratings and warnings for more information.

All participants should also tag or warn for the following content as applicable:

Genderbending

Body Horror / Medical Horror

Pregnancy

A/B/O Dynamics / Omegaverse

Drug Use

Dubious Consent

BDSM / RACK

Abuse / Undernegotiated Kink

Bloodplay / Scat / Emetophilia / etc.

Ageplay / DDLG / DDLB / etc.

Incest*

Racism / Transphobia / Homophobia / etc.

(This list may be updated over time!)

*Both characters having Jenova cells does not make them related any more than two people contracting the same strain of the flu renders them related. Growing up together does not make two people related. Knowing one another as children does not make two people related. Please only use this tag if it is actually applicable in the context of your work.

This list is considered "boilerplate," assembled from known tropes and content in fandom as a whole, and reflects neither the support nor the opposition of Sephesis Week.

"Dead dove do not eat" is an acceptable tag only in conjunction with other warnings; if this is the only tag used to describe your creation, it will be assumed to exclusively feature deceased and inedible birds and it will not be reblogged to the event account. Likewise, without more detailed qualifiers, "whump" is a sound effect, not a content warning.

For posts hosted natively on tumblr, participants should not violate the community guidelines, are expected to tag their work with warnings in line with those used on the Archive (in order to make it easier for Sephesis Week to apply the right tags when reblogging to the event account), and must apply the correct community filter. Visual work hosted elsewhere and linked from tumblr via thumbnail or censored variant should have any sensitive content warnings applicable to the full version of the piece in tags or the body of the post, whether the tumblr post itself requires a community filter or not.

Sephesis Week welcomes all types of content, but work must be appropriately tagged in order to allow viewers to curate their online experience appropriately!

Does the event account have a tag structure that can be used for blacklisting certain content warnings or viewing specific types of work?

Yes! All rating and content-based tags are listed in this post to make it as easy as possible to filter things on the event account.

Fanworks reblogged to the main event account will be tagged for organization purposes as either #fanart, #fanfiction, or #photography, as well as with the year of the event and the prompt used for the entry. Check the directory for detailed tag reference (when available).

There's a warning missing from your list.

This is to be expected, as the list itself is "boilerplate" and can't possibly cover every single type of content that might warrant tagging in the course of an event like this. To have a tag added to the filter list, please drop an ask!

What does it mean that you encourage cross-posting and self-advertisement?

A lot of events like this discourage participants from linking to their other work or posting their work in places separate from the event host platform—Sephesis Week doesn't believe in that. If you link to your print shop or your Patreon in the body of your post, you'll get reblogged to the event account all the same. If you want to crosspost you work to Xitter or Pillowfort or bluesky, you should do it. You do good work and you deserve to have it showcased!

This is, of course, within reason; link-spamming is prohibited, but doing that will get you blacklisted from tag searches anyway, so maybe just…don't do that? Just in general? For the purposes of Sephesis Week, you should use simple text links in the body of the post. While links to crowdfunding campaigns are discouraged, they're not prohibited for the time being. This may change if bad actors take advantage of this allowance.

I'm organizing a fandom event myself, can I link it in my posts?

Absolutely! In fact, if you're putting together a fandom week, challenge, fanthology or zine, why not drop an ask so we can talk about it and see if your event belongs on our affiliate list?

Why isn't AGS or AZSGC allowed?

This event has been organized to celebrate Sephiroth and Genesis exclusively. Both Angeal/Genesis/Sephiroth and Crisis Core's big gay polycule have an enormous amount of fanworks dedicated to them, but there's very little overall featuring these two in a strictly monogamous romantic relationship.

I'm not interested in this pairing outside AGS.

That's fine! This event is not for you.

I hate Genesis.

This event is not for you.

I'm pretty sure both of these characters are straight.

Everyone's wrong sometimes! Also, this event is not for you.

Don't Sephiroth and Genesis hate each other?

I am begging you to actually play Crisis Core.

Wasn't there a Sephesis Week a while back? Is this run by the same people?

This event is unaffiliated with lilly-white's SephGen Week 2017 (tumblr tag); Sephesis Week has been organized and managed entirely by getvalentined.

Why do you have so many rules?

In order to make an event where everyone can enjoy themselves without worrying about stumbling over something that puts them off the event altogether, Sephesis Week is run similarly to old-school fandom events back on LiveJournal. This means that there are no limits on the kind of work that is accepted with regard to content, but tags are integral and warnings are required.

…Why does this post say it was made in 2008? Why does the Directory say it was posted in 1992?!

Dates are an illusion; the dates on blog entries, moreso.

Real answer: it keeps them from showing up on followers' dashboards, in searches, or from sitting above actual event entries in the blog view. The date on both this post and on the event guidelines was chosen because it's when Meteorfall happened! The date in 1992…it's relevant to at least one person.

I have a different question!

Awesome! Send in an ask so you can get an answer!

[sereneabyyss]

BSD Blind Watch - Season Four

This one was a Fucking Doozy. But @wafflesarecool and @animusmelodiam and I are back at it again with the queer anime authors. Fucking Hate It Here.

First off, as always, Animus numbers:

"what the fuck" count: 9 (half from Dazai!)

"fucking. russians." (and adjacent sayings) count: 13

Obligatory shout outs to all the fucking hallucinations this season.

Onto the nitty gritty.

Cat dad adopting Ranpo hours

Like these two looked at each other and went "son acquired." "Father acquired." at the same time

"I would be more excited about whatever Ranpo's doing than the play at that point."

"He got the lighting crew in on it."

"Yeah. For drama."

Color Symbolism!

Odasaku! Yippie! <3

Deus ex Machina Ranpo

Placebo'ed too close to the sun.

Ok Ok So like we're all fucking aware that the "Organic Solvent" was fucking chloroform. But why the fuck is it called Organic Solvent. Still boggled by this and it's been well over five hours by now. Are people even aware of how many organic solvents there are and how different they smell? Like you could have been referring to a combination of Ethyl Acetate and Hexanes and those smell like paint thinner when mixed. Nothing like Chloroform. Saying "oh you smell like organic solvent!" is like the same as saying "oh this is the color of a fruit!"

^ one of the mutuals despises me after that rant

No more Dazai and other dumb fucks give me an entire anime that is Just Ranpo And Cat Dad please and thanks.

obligatory screenshot of just shouting POE KARL RANPOE KARL KARL KARL POE!!!

Waffle dying again a la russians killing his wifi

Also he multiplied and at one point there were three waffles. Wild times i know

"Clown Core. I hate him already"

DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT FUCK THE POLICE VIVA LA REVOLUTION KILL THE RUSSIANS!!!!

CHUUYA! MORE IMPORTANTLY CHUUYA HAT!!!

"not a gun. just a box of bullets"

"Why is he so queer he turns dramatic"

"look at what their founding member did in episode 2 and ask where the dramatics come from"

"FRANCIS STOP BEING A USELESS SACK OF DEAD WIFE SYNDROME"

hey people, don't bring children into war

AND DON'T BLAME THE CHILDREN IN SAID WAR FOR THE ACTIONS OF THE ADULTS AROUND THEM! LOOKING AT YOU DEAD BROTHER SYNDROME!

I wish Mori a very unpleasant death.

"..."

"..."

"Hold"

"Holding"

"... HEY WHAT THE FUCK" (why the fuck did the random german translate to SIX STAMPS OF HORROR GO THROUGH MY BONES! very rough translation, it's been over a year since i've practiced german and it was like midnight. forgive any mistakes)

Ango only lives in my canonical fan fiction universe because he's the only bitch to not have dumbification used against him. (WHICH THAT IS A WHOLE SEPARATE ISSUE COMING UP IN THIS POST)

Inhales. Exhales.

THE EXPLANATION FOR DAZAI BEING ABLE TO SEND MESSAGES IS DUMB AS FUCK??? LIKE??? YOUR HEART IS MADE UP OF CARDIAC MUSCLE YOU CAN'T CONSCIOUSLY CONTROL IT IN ANY SENSE OTHER THAN SLOWLY IT DOWN AND SPEEDING IT UP! IN NO WAY WOULD THAT BE COMPLEX ENOUGH TO SEND THE MESSAGES HE'S APPARENTLY SENDING! YOU COULD HAVE USED SOMETHING FUCKING ELSE BUT NOOOO HE'S CONTROLLING HIS HEART BEATS? BULL SHIT!!!

I fucking hate the hunting dogs. I don't even CARE that the book apparently dumbified them. I fucking hate them. "We are fighting for the justice of this world!" you committed a fucking CRIME coming into the casino and blowing it up! That is literally an international crime or smth idk i'm not a law student! You can't claim to be on the side of justice and moral righteousness when you break the fucking law in pursuit of justice! That's vigilantism which in your sense of just ISN'T FUCKING RIGHT! FUCK OFF YOU DUMB WHORES!

Also i fucking hate the sheer dumbification plot point. Like ho ho ho actually none of us are smart because we're law enforcement and thus the page affected us and made us lose every critical thinking skill! I fucking hate it. It's so fucking stupid. Why why why why. I want the hunting dogs to have a fucking stroke and it's going to take dozens of fan fiction to make me even tolerate their asses after this. I fucking hate them right now because of that plot point. It's so fucking stupid.

Lucy <333 God I love Lucy.

#bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #bsd karl #bsd ranpo #bsd atsushi

[ingravinoveritas]

Posting by request: I’ve been asked by one of my followers to do an analysis of Georgia and Anna’s respective social media posts regarding the 2-year anniversary of Staged today. I’ll put some screenshots up so folks can see the posts if they haven’t already.

First, here is Georgia’s Twitter post:

And then we have AL’s Insta story:

Right off the bat, there were a few things that stood out to me. Both posts reference the show (of course), but Georgia specifically mentions the people involved (except for David, curiously) and tags them in her post. The focus, to me, seems to be more on “our,” on the fact that she was part of an ensemble and the team effort that was involved in making the show happen. AL’s post, by contrast, does not mention anyone, any member of the cast or crew, and is more focused on the show itself (as if it were just a credit on IMDb, for instance) rather than the people behind it.

What really caught my attention, however, is the choice of pictures in these two posts. I know Georgia’s is a QT, so she didn’t choose the picture that was used, as it was from the original tweet. But Georgia kept it at just the picture of Michael and David--she didn’t add any other pictures from Staged to her tweet, or post any in a separate tweet.

AL, again by sharp contrast, posted pictures of her and Michael, Georgia and David...but not one picture of just Michael and David. (As a note, I am operating under the assumption that AL made the photo collage chosen, but it certainly could have been made by someone else.) That being said, I thought this was peculiar for several reasons--one being that it makes her role look much bigger/more significant than it actually was--but also because, if you knew absolutely nothing about the show, you would have the impression that the plot of Staged is mainly centered around these two couples...except it’s not. So her post comes across as rather disingenuous to me because of that.

What makes this really interesting, though, is when we consider these posts in the larger context of whatever polyamorous arrangement is (probably, definitely) happening between Michael, David, and Georgia.

It’s become clear that, since the whole “other partner”/”other wife” thing started, AL has not been a part of it. She has never responded to any of the tweets Georgia or Michael have made, nor made jokes of her own, either on Twitter or Instagram. Not once. Nor has she ever publicly shared any opinion on this ongoing situation involving her own boyfriend that she is very much not a part of. So the absence of any picture in her post of Michael and David (who unarguably were the central focus of Staged, much to AL’s chagrin) is glaring, if not almost passive-aggressively deliberate.

It’s hard to think that there isn’t some reflection here of whatever is going on between the three/four of them, and what has been going on since both seasons of Staged came out. But what that is--and I think there is a lot more under the surface that we don’t know--and what we might learn about it in the days and weeks and months ahead remains to be seen. So we’ll see what happens... 

#michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #staged #or 'Brokeback Mount Him' which is what I am referring to Staged as from here on out #georgia tennant #anna lundberg #i actually probably could've written more because there is so much to unpack #but i didn't want to clog up everyone's dash #i think Michael has been telling us exactly who he is for a long time now #and David speaks volumes without saying a word #it's also weird how Georgia sometimes leans into playing up MS/DT as a couple #and other times seems jealous #throuples are totally cool now #or 'V style' as I now understand it #ineffable lovers #discourse

[phoenix-downer]

A Steady Wish Chapter 9

~1720 words. Sora/Kairi. Set during KH4. Memory Loss, Angst, Romance, Fluff, Longing, Pining, Hurt/Comfort. Updates Weekly on Fridays.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13

Summary: Kairi plans her promised date with Sora, but when he doesn’t show up, she senses something has gone terribly wrong. 

(The author’s note at the end has content warnings.)

Kairi’s eyes fluttered open, and sunlight streamed through the nearby window. Not the brilliant sunlight from back home, but a strange, alien sunlight that felt more cold than warm.

Quadratum. How much time had passed since she first came here? Three days? Four? It all seemed to run together. She rolled over and sat up, and the blankets bunched around her legs.

And yet, she couldn’t say her time here had been unpleasant. Tinged with melancholy, sure, but being around Sora after over a year of separation made everything warmer. Lighter. Reaching for her phone, she checked to see if he’d sent her any messages. Sure enough, there were a few new ones. The first said, Good morning, Kairi ❤️ and then the next couple were some of the pictures they’d taken together at the purikura booth.

She blushed at the one where she’d kissed him on the cheek, but then thought of the perfect way to tease him. Good morning, Sora ❤️ Have you changed your phone background yet?

A few moments later, he sent her a screenshot of his phone background, changed to the very image she was referring to. There, now everyone will know we’re a couple, he texted.

They will ❤️

You don’t mind?

Not at all. I hope today’s fights go well. I wish I could help Thanks. It’ll be over before you know it, and then we can go on that date like you promised

It’s a promise!

She didn’t want to distract him while he was fighting, so she focused instead on getting ready for the day, then ran to a nearby grocery store to get Strelitzia some groceries. While she was perusing the fruit, she noticed the same star fruit Sora had served her earlier. Smiling to herself, she grabbed a couple and put them in her basket.

Once the groceries were purchased and safely put away, she sat on the couch and got on her Gummiphone to research things to do here. Ueno Park looked nice, though most of the museums nearby would be about to close by the time she and Sora could get there. Searching for places near Ueno Park led her to the Asakusa area of Quadratum though, and her eyes lit up at all the places they could go: the ancient Sensoji Temple with Nakamise shopping street leading up to it, Sumida River and its accompanying park, and then Quadratum Skytree with its panoramic views of the entire city.

Sora had taken her on such a wonderful date yesterday that she wanted to make sure she did the same for him. So she carefully planned out an itinerary for them and picked a few recommended restaurants. A little shop in the area promised the most delicious-sounding chocolate by a company called Royce’, and given how much of a sweet tooth Sora had, she was sure he’d like it. Their nama chocolate sounded to die for: melt-in-your-mouth chocolate blocks infused with liquer and dusted with cocoa powder. Her mouth was watering just reading about it.

She figured they could buy several flavors, then come back here and share them. The star fruit too, if he was okay with that. A part of her hoped it would trigger his memory. It was a shame she handn’t brought any actual paopu fruit with her; that would probably be even more effective.

Her plans decided, she tidied up the apartment and got ready for their date, then waited patiently for Sora to finish for the day. Strelitzia wouldn’t be back till later tonight, so she had the apartment to herself.

But 4:00 happened and he didn’t show. Then it was 4:05 and still nothing. Frowning, she sent him a text. No response. Nothing from Riku either. A knock on their door proved useless too.

A deep sense of dread settled in her gut as she paced back and forth. It wasn’t like either of them to blow her off like this. She’d go looking for them, but Quadratum was so huge that she could search for days and might still never—

She gasped and clutched her chest. A strong sensation had just pulled at her heart, making her double over and knocking the wind out of her. Something was very, very wrong.

“Is Sora in danger?” she said weakly. He had to be for her stomach to be twisting into knots. The only other time she’d felt like this was in her dream when she’d faced off against Xehanort. He weakened her defenses and was about to strike a final blow against her when Sora came for her.

He always came for her. Maybe it was time she went to him. The paopu fruit was supposed to connect them, after all.

Straightening, she closed her eyes and focused on her bond with him. I have to go to him, I have to, he needs me and I promised, I swore I would keep him safe—

A strange tingling sensation traveled up and down her body, and then the safe walls of Strelitzia’s apartment faded away. Loud noises and blurry colors surrounded her, and for a disconcerting moment, Kairi existed neither in the apartment nor on this city street: she was in between two places, neither fully here nor there. Then a loud crackle sounded out and she fully materialized in the new location.

She was on a busy city street, but people were running away. A quick glance to the right told her why: a strange Heartless was attacking. It was enormous and like nothing Kairi had ever seen before. Pureblood, from the looks of it, with giant dark wings and a humanoid appearance. and darkness poured off of it and flooded the surrounding area. The Heartless moved quickly too, almost like it was warping around, and Kairi’s eyes struggled to track it.

And where was Sora? She couldn’t see him, couldn’t even hear him through all the noise—

There, on a nearby street corner. The darkness cleared long enough for her to spot him. His cheek was bleeding and his face was dirty and he was panting hard. Why wasn’t his fight over? It was supposed to be finished over an hour ago, and he had to be exhausted.

She raced towards him, her heart hammering in her chest. That sense of dread just kept building and building. Would she make it in time, or—

The Heartless appeared right in front of him. It knocked his Keyblade out of his hand, and Kairi’s heart froze. No. No. If he died here, he’d lose the game. And Riku’s words flashed through her mind: I’d hate to think what happens if we die in this world.

If Sora died here, he might die for real. Be lost to her for good. She couldn’t let that happen. Even if it cost her. Even if it killed her. At least this might not be the end for her. But it would be for him unless she intervened.

Her Keyblade appeared in her hand, and she threw it at the Heartless and warped after it. An instant later, she came between Sora and the Heartless. His eyes widened when he saw her there, and she smiled to reassure him.

But her Keyblade didn’t return to her in time. The swipe of the Heartless’s claw caught her full in the back, and she let out a choked cry. In an instant Sora’s expression morphed from surprise to horror, and she crumpled into his arms as his screams filled the air.

She was vaguely aware of Riku and Strelitzia’s voices floating in the background. That was good. They could take care of the Heartless for now. It was nice having friends so dependable.

She called on her light, but it didn’t respond. Panicking, she called on it again. Nothing. Why wasn’t her light working like it was supposed to? Well, this was a different reality. Her Keyblade worked, but maybe she’d given up the protection her light provided when she came here.

Ah well. Seeing Sora again… it was worth it. A hot tear landed on her cheek, and she looked up at his face. His eyes were rimmed with red, and his tears kept dripping on her cheek. She’d wanted to see him again, more than anything, but it broke her heart to see him like this.

“Don’t cry,” she said weakly, then cupped his cheek and wiped his tears away. “I never wanted…  to make you… cry.”

He just wept and brokenly said her name. And though he was shaking and trembling and sobbing his heart out, he leaned down and kissed her so sweetly and tenderly her pain faded a little.

Even in his pain he was so good to her. Before his memory loss had sheltered him from his trauma; in a single instant that protection was shattered. He knew, and how she wished he could go back to blissful ignorance. This wasn’t how she’d wanted him to remember her. All his pain over losing her before, all of his distress and suffering, it had descended on him all at once, and the hurt in Kairi’s heart for him rivaled the pain in her back. It was bad enough that he’d suffered through this before, and now he was suffering through it again. And yet, she was glad he did remember, glad he loved her so much that his thoughts were of comforting her, of letting her know he remembered.

She wanted to return to him even a fraction of the care he showed for her.

“Sora, listen to me, there’s—something—I need to tell you,” she managed between pants. She felt herself growing weaker by the instant, and she knew she didn’t have long. Whatever magic was at play here, she couldn’t hold out against it forever. So she smiled weakly and caressed his cheek. He needed to hear this, even if this hadn’t been exactly how she’d planned on telling him.

He rested his hand over hers and nodded. He was so warm and gentle, so kind and familiar.

“I love you,” she said softly, and his smile was bittersweet. Beautiful as always, but his eyes were filled with pain in spite of his joy.

“I love you too, Kairi,” he replied, his voice breaking, and with that, he faded from her vision.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Content warnings: Kairi takes a blow meant for Sora, and it triggers his memories due to past trauma. Kairi's fate is left ambiguous at the end of the chapter. 

#kingdom hearts #sokai #sora #kairi #kh4 #kingdom hearts 4 #sora x kairi #sora/kairi #kh fanfiction #phoenix writes #phoenix-downer #long post #memory loss #angst #romance #fluff #hurt/comfort #longing #pining #a steady wish #chapter 9