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leoserblog · 10 months

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Ok this might be an unpopular opinion but someones gotta say it...

Cassandra is a better Casey Jones than Casey Jr

Ive gotta be honest... i think casey jr is a kinda mid and i dont particularly think all the fanfare about him is warranted LOL

I want to note real quick that i dont DISLIKE him! He is a good character who only got as much development that a 2 hour movie could give him, and he filled and satisfied the role he needed to play in the movie, but the way the fandom latched onto him over the og casey... kinda makes me raise a brow

(Essay/rant about the prioritization of casey jr vs og casey under the cut :P)

Fandom spaces love a traumatized boy from the future, and believe me i do too! But the amount of attention given to casey jr after being revealed as casey is a wild amount compared to the amount of attention the original casey gets. Maybe its just me getting into rottmnt after the movie aired, but this seems a little baised?

Not only that, but the amount of... idk the best way i can think to describe it is infantilization of casey jrs character isnt helping my opinion of him. It feels like most content surrounding him babify him and reduce him only to his trauma post movie. I understand that it can be interesting to explore his trauma now that he no longer lives in the literal apocalypse, but it feels strange to see him reduced to someone who cant get around on his own and lives with the turtles when the original pitch for the movies ending has him leave to explore the world, which i feel is very appropriate for him and wish they had kept it in

In the movie when april shows us where the og casey has been and what shes been doing throughout the film, it tells us that casey is friends april which in theory, shouldve also shown us that she and the turtles are friends to some degree as well and should already have her place established within the group as this generations casey jones

However the final shot of the movie is a group shot of the family+casey jr, which subtlety implies that he's the new casey instead, and that this is the main cast moving forward (should it move forward *sob*). While both caseys being considered in the main cast could be true, it does strike me as a little odd that this was the final direction the rot team decided on for the official ending versus the scrapped ending, especially because it complicates the pre-established canon. It wouldve been one thing if our og casey was a different character, but that isnt the case.. y... (<_<)

Casey jr is an interesting character though! And i can understand why he appeals to fans, especially as his character post movie is fun to expand on aswell as developing his past involved with future versions of the main5, but one (me lol) could argue that the og casey is just as interesting of a character to delve into as she was involved, when you boil it down, a cult most of her life, and that concept, as well as the guilt she could hold for working with the foot and releasing the shredder, ontop of trying to befriend and gain the turtles and aprils trust are also intriguing concepts that could be explored, yet finding content that mentions her at all beyond her relation to casey jr is scarce

It feels as though shes been reduced to a background character within the fandom despite being a reoccuring character for the entire show.

For the two seasons of rottmnt that we did get, we are shown just what kind of character casey is and her possible dynamics with the turtles+april. Shes passionate and powerful and beyond determined to prove her worth and reach her goals. Shes also playful and reckless, a side that fits well with the main cast and their humor and, if the show was given more time, couldve developed naturally as the newest addition to the family as most caseys are. I could also argue that her characterization fits that of previous caseys more than casey jrs does (though i will admit that considering the plot of the movie, i cant positively say what hed be like outside of life or death scenarios, but i also cant imagine hes going to make a 180 in personality without it feeling jarring and ooc)

Now, i wont ignore the fact that her arc was cut horribly short and her involvement in the movie was quite literally a brief mention, both of which definitely play into how under appreciated she is. But at the same time it almost feels like everyone, including the show runners, have willingly pushed her aside for this new boy version to fill the role of casey jones. Hell, even when you look up rottmnt casey jones, cassandra barely shows up. Its casey jr which further proves my point

Idk, TLDR im pretty disappointed that despite being a consistent character for the entire show, no one seems to write or acknowledge her and if she is mentioned, its only relevant to push forward casey jrs character development or a brief cameo. As much as i do love casey jr (i can feel like hes mid and i can like him!) it seems like most people forget about the original casey, or favor casey jr in her place and she deserves more love and credit than shes given!

#rottmnt casey jones #rottmnt cassandra jones #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #leoserpost #sorry to get so passionate about her #shes my little meow meow you see #now OBVIOUSLY some people write about her and casey jr #and they do it well #and im well aware of the rushing of the show along with the strange gap btwn it and the movie #but i still feel its important to mention because shes so cool!!!!!#and the best!!!!!#and i love her very much!!!!!#(also i didnt get into how fandom prioritize male characters over female ones and how that also likely plays a role in her being overlooked #(but i didnt feel like starting an argument w ppl who refuse to examine their own internalized misogyny so :P #we'll leave it at this)#plz appreciate her!!!!!!!#she deserves so much more!!!!#i want in depth fics about her life post shredder!!!!!#*if u want it sm go make it urself* i hear some say #and listen bud #<<#im thinking about it so hard in my brain #maybe i will!#😤#ddjsjka ok im done #this is all very much my opinion #and maybe theres cassandra circles im missing out on #but this is also what ive observed #at the end of the day these are just silly cartoon characters and i just happen to feel strongly about this one!!

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weebsinstash · 10 months

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Okay this is probably gonna sound really weird but this specific scenario is stuck in the brain—

Thinking of that version of things where you helped YouTwo make friends, imagine if, in some subjective way, they’re better than you. Not in a “better spider person” way, but more like a slightly more appealing face kinda way? Like you barely look different but if you put your faces into one of those evaluator things they’d get a higher score. Maybe they just have good makeup out smth idk. It doesn’t necessarily have to be this but just some random way that YouTwo is thought of as “better”

But eventually, the spider people start actively treating the copy as the original, because they have it in their heads that the original one they love is the best, so the “better” of the two must be the original. Instead of confusing psychological warfare through mix-ups, reader is actively pushed down and away by the spider people, and at this point they simply move away to a normal part of Nueva York (or their home universe, depending on how we’re doing this) since the rest of the society is clearly happy to focus all their love on the other one.

The good bit comes whenever YouTwo slips up, whether by returning to their home universe if reader’s is supposed to be destroyed, making a bad comment, or just any other kind of mistake that makes the entire lobby pause and look like 👀

Because it’s not just the reveal that they’ve been believing this imposter for potentially months now, but also the fact that they now realise they pushed you away and made you feel like shit the entire time

After whatever punishment they see fit for the imposter is carried out, Miguel is rushing to find where you’re staying now so he can try to apologise or explain or try to make it right or something—

But when he’s standing at your door and running through all the events in his head, seeing how pissed you look at him, he’s wondering how he could ever convince you to love him again (he can’t help but default to kidnapping you and controlling you until you understand a fraction of how sorry he is)

Idk that’s just where brain took me— for me, at least, the best bit is the spoiling and smothering that would take place after, wanted or not!

I wrote this at midnight on my phone soo pls forgive if it’s incomprehensible lol

I'm always incomprehensible with weed or lust so you're good here lmao

Honestly I've been trying to sit and brainstorm 1. How does the Society start mistaking YouTwo for you and 2. How does this actually even work

You know how you can say "hey alexa" and she'll activate and then take further commands, but she's technically always listening to be able to receive the "hey Alexa" command? That's fucking Lyla, dude. I don't know if she's connected to every watch or just some of them but like, dude Lyla is an extremely powerful AI? How would you ever escape? It's not exactly clear how wide-ranging her abilities are, but as a program, she's not limited like you and I are. She can technically be listening and in some way processing and recording every single conversation that someone with a watch is having, or... maybe I'm thinking too much into it but sometimes I'm in the middle of brainstorming a you vs youtwo idea and my brain just goes "well wouldn't Lyla technically be there to set the record straight, wouldn't Lyla technically ALWAYS know who you are?"

And I think the answer to this problem... is to just say fuck it lmao! It's a fanfic and Lyla isn't always technically watching everything everywhere all at once even in canon right? She didn't immediately pipe up when Gwen reconnected with Miles in the beginning of ATSV, even though it technically would have been part of her prerogative to stop anything that would interfere with anomalies or the Spider Society. Technically speaking if I stayed completely 100% canon accurate this is how it would go:

YouTwo: --and they've just been pretending to be me this whole time! Please believe me Miguel, you KNOW it's me 🥺 uwu

Lyla within 5 seconds: heeeeey this is awkward but the electronic signature on your watch says you're the other one though lol? And the go home machine scans your dna and dimensional signature and the original doesnt even have a home dimension anymore? Plus here's some recorded audio from Reader's watch where you were threatening them and telling them no one will believe them if you replaced them, sooo.... awkward!

Like how fucking funny would it be if YouTwo is in HQ and is talking to Miguel and others and really playing their part and Spider Byte suddenly sees you log on this dimension's equivalent of Xbox lmao. Margo just looking back and forth and realizing holy shit. Or Reader deliberately ordering delivery food while YouTwo is out stealing their life or teaching their class and then when the delivery Spider shows up at your apartment that definitely only you have access to, that also helps kinda set things straight

I've even thought of like, you become depressed and start letting YouTwo do whatever they want and one day someone is banging on your front door and it's them "Hey you can't just COMPLETELY disappear, I don't want to work your fucking job everyday anymore, you have all these responsibilities and some of these people ALWAYS want to spend time with you" and you just smirk "oh no, guess that's your problem, 'real me'"

It's like. I'm trying to make it believable but if I ever do write the full fic (which I'm trying to but at this point I'm pulled between many different ideas) I want it to be believable? Like, for example, a lot of my dumb werewolf audiobooks have the protag being bullied and abused, and listening to those makes me MAD. I want readers to read this story and how you/Reader is being replaced and tricked and I want people to FEEL emotions about it, not just roll their eyes "this would never happen/this is so OOC"

But no definitely the yandere rose colored glasses start completely fucking you over, and I think another catalyst is, you seeing how "genuine" all your society friends act when they think it's not the real you you're talking to. Like here's an example i thought of. What if youtwo had the exact same hero name and real name as you and you're out and about one day and Miguel approaches you and he just CALLS YOU A NUMBER. Like say your home universe is 1217 and YouTwo's is 1712 and Miguel just walks up to you, "what are you doing here, 1712? You're supposed to be helping with construction in sector 6" and meanwhile you're just like holy shit do some people legitimately not even call YouTwo by an actual name, are these people more evil than I originally thought, holy shit no wonder YT wanted to steal my life" (and it's partially because depending on the person they either think of YouTwo as a Dollar Tree version of you and are nice to them as well but prefer you, OR they hate YouTwo outright for "daring to defile your image" and have the same voice and face as you, they think youtwo brings shane to you or whatever)

So not only are you starting to become upset about feeling replaced and feeling like you were never important to them to begin with, but then you're realizing that, either overall or with certain actions, that a lot of people are more outright mean and heartless than you originally thought?

And you're standing there "oh YouTwo has smaller pores and clearer skin than me, YouTwo actually knows how to dance at the clubs and parties,

BUT NO the shit where they suddenly start pointing out or criticizing things about you they've never commented on, just all of a sudden they have a LIST of things they dint like about you, when you're rhe same you've always been, SHIT HURTS, THAT'S THE DRAMA AND PAIN I'M LOOKING FOR

Miguel over here finally confronting YouTwo "and your little groveling for everyone's attention is so pathetic! Those empanadas you left on my desk weren't even good! They had all the wrong ingredients and they weren't crispy enough, i had to keep throwing them away--

You: a-actually, um, I was the one leaving you food so that you would eat. The first time came out really bad but i got better after the first time. You didn't like them, or did you not even eat them after the first time? 🥺

Miguel: --and they were fantastic, made me think of my Abuela, really took me back to my childhood, spectacular, outstanding, 5 stars

People start just "sounding off at YouTwo"

Pavitr: you wanted to try and make chai and it was so bitter my auntie poured it down the drain!

Porker: and when I introduced ya to him, you made Roger real uncomfortable with the "jokes" you made about him and his wife, which weren't that funny by the way!

Hobie: your style is conformist, it's like you have no real sense of self identity. Why did I see you at one of my concerts in a shitty leathet jacket and some brand new converse? You don't even know punk lace code, and you didn't even say hi, you just lurked like a creep

You: God DAMN that was ALL me, do you guys like ANYTHING about me????

And like, depending on what I choose or your personal preference I guess, the Spider Society has it rough too! Wait, so YouTwo WAS impersonating you, but it started when you LET THEM, and then there were times you could have came forward but didn't and basically "allowed" yourself to be treated like shit and have everything progress, so there's this, huge lingering doubt in tons of people of "wait so when was I actually spending time with Reader and when was I with the fake? Oh shit you're telling me those times the fake was rude as fuck to me, that WAS Reader, but they were rude because they were mad I didn't know who they were? But they didn't correct me and let me keep being mean to them????". Miguel is over here tearing his fucking hair out because UGH YOU'RE SO FRUSTRATING 😤 why did you let it get so bad, don't you know you could've came to him for help at any time?! (Except he totally lost your trust when YouTwo framed you for that elevator collapse from that one previous idea and he totally 100% thought you did it) but he still loves you and knows You're Going Through It, but, he definitely is. Relieved you're still ok but mad at you? Or disappointed? He's updating Lyla to keep a better eye on you, he's swapping out your watch for one that tracks and stores more information and is more personally customized, he may even decide, maybe he's got a little bit of an anxiety problem after everything that happened and he's paranoid "someone will try and take you away again"

It definitely is not your choice whether you return to the Spider Society or not, and I wouldn't put it past them to have you be "guarded" 24/7 from then on. Why is your Spidey Sense tingling when you're just out in the lobby getting some air? Because even if you can't see your loyal protectors, they sure can see you, from every visible surface, and next time you think you're alone in your apartment, well, some of your buddies CAN turn invisible. Maybe you were never really alone as you thought?

#yandere spiderverse #yandere x reader #sinprompts #yandere stuff

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serialadoptersbracket · 1 month

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Round 3, Match 7: Kim Dokja vs. Izumi Curtis

Submitted kids:

Kim Dokja: Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung are the commonly accepted ones but you can also make a case for Lee Jihye and Biyoo

Izumi Curtis: Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric

Propaganda under the cut!

Kim Dokja:

1. “In the first scenario (where you have to murder something alive) his first priority is to make sure Gilyoung makes it out alive (by giving him the grasshopper before letting others know about it), and when the future version of Yoosung (41st round) is going to cause havoc his first plan is to basically the past (his present) version of her so they would have her on her side (he takes her in as his incarnation- if that isn’t an adoption idk what is); Biyoo is literally the soul of 41st Yoosung that he WENT THROUGH AN UNDERWORLD TRIAL to get her back and she is legally his child. Lee Jihye is more like the older sister-teenager of the group be she’s still adopted by association and Han Donghoon is a kid who was hypnotized and exploited by the ‘prophets’ and Kim Dokja saved him and became someone he trusts in- which is basically adopting. Mia is YJH’s little sister but with the family dynamic all of KimCom has she’s basically adopted too. This man is someone who believes the worst in himself but gives all these kids someone they need and in return they are the family he’s never had.”

2. “He saved Lee Gilyoung on the subway when he was orphaned at the time the apocalypse started even when he didn't need to and kept him by his side and fed him at his own expense and believed in him and taught him to be strong when no one else had really done that for Lee Gilyoung before.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD (pretty vague):

Shin Yoosung was a character in the world of the apocalypse that occured (long story, won't explain here lol) and she was supposed to be destined to become a monster that would destroy Seoul and the two people other than Kim Dokja who knew this wanted to kill her when they found her to prevent her from becoming that but Kim Dokja refused to kill her and physically stood to protect her and then he later became her sponsor (uhhh it's a whole thing in-universe but basically pledged to back her and help her ig) and the stigma (a special power thing that can be gained through a sponsor) he gave her was based in him protecting everyone in their group and his love for all of them.

Both Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung are extremely attached to Kim Dokja and have on at least one canon occasion slept clinging to either side of him.

LESS MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD (though not terrible ig and still mostly vague at least):

Biyoo is. well she's Shin Yoosung actually but also not. So basically y'know that monster future Shin Yoosung was destined to become? so that monster version of her from a different timeline was sent backwards and sideways in time (idk how else to describe it jskdfs) and nearly did destroy Seoul as prophesied but Kim Dokja tried to save her—and he nearly did but then a shitty dokkaebi (they're like admin streamer people. idk would take a while to explain) did a shitty thing and forced her to be 'evil' and then she had to be killed ;-; but Kim Dokja promised to get revenge for her and after that he went and beat up the asshole dokkaebi who did that so badly that he gained a legendary Story. And then he traveled to the Underworld at risk of his own life to retrieve her soul and put that into a dokkaebi egg that he personally hatched. And she lost her memories for the most part but could still sense a bit what he'd done for her :') and so yeah she became Biyoo and is somehow both adopted and originally parented(?? idk saying biologically is. doesn't feel quite right lol) by him.”

3. “Bro is THE DAD of the group”

4. “Adopted his kids so hard that they’d do like anything for him they love him so much”

No propaganda has been submitted for Izumi Curtis

#kim dokja #izumi curtis #orv #fma #kdj #fullmetal alchemist #omniscient reader's viewpoint #full metal alchemist #serial adopters bracket #round 3 #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament

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chaifootsteps · 3 months

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Ok, I know She-ra reboot wasn't your fandom, but you allowed allows to rant about it in your ask box, which I thank you for.

So, we all come from different cultures and have different beliefs. We can't all collectively agree on what Adora and Catra are to each other. But we will take some facts. So, they were two orphans that grew up in a foster home environment and had the same foster mother, but we all know they saw Shadow Weaver was a literal mother, they just never explicitly called her mom. Now, one thing was is that Catra and Adora were very close as children and growing up, that Adora being the sweetheart she was always tried to include Catra even when Catra pushed her away. Catra is a cat girl so she slept by Adora's feet, they apparently even showered together? (Idk how true that is, I think someone who worked on the show said that, I don't remember it being in or mentioned in the show, if anyone wants to come enlighten me) ok, so we get it. They were very close growing up.

Ok, now here's my gripe with the trope. So ND Stevenson revealed early on that Catradora would be end game. A lot of people had their beef with that, especially since some felt the show didn't show any character growth for their romance. So they end up together at the end, they kiss and credits roll.

So, I looked it up. The trope doesn't exactly have a name? But it's "we were very close as children, got separated for a bit, but we reunited to date now", yeah a mouth full. I wouldn't call it childhood romance tbh. I've seen this trope used in other shows and media. I don't like that trope. More examples are star vs the forces of evil, but you know, we'd had to watch Star and Marco be with other people first. But it's different since they met at 14 and 15 and were roommates for a bit before Star returned to Mewni for a bit and they kissed before the finale.

There's a lot of animes with this trope too. Kizaiver, Your Lie in April, Blue Spring Ride, A Silent Voice. Sorry, just tried naming some popular animes from the top of my head.

Ok, I don't understand this trope. I'm sorry, I just don't find it realistic. When I've seen "real life" examples, turns out they just had history together in 8th grade and sat at different tables never speaking to each other, but met at 26 and got married later. Ok sorry, this is weirdly specific. Just I feel like this trope isn't real or applicable to real life. I feel like some people just want to emphasize and put importance to their relationship in a way that's not true or wasn't there.

So here's how it applies to HB. So Viv really saw some cute fanart and incorporated and changed the story up for it????

Ok???? But like....the ship is still so bad....

It just feels so forced and feels like she went this way cause she saw it a few times in other works.

Ok, sorry for the rant. I just truly feel like some creators pull stuff out of their ass to try making us ship bad ships.

Thanks for the insight into Catradora. I think regardless of how two characters meet, whether they knew each other as kids or not, it's not going to be a good ship if the writing isn't there.

Honestly I think Stolitz was never going to feel natural or sincere -- why none of her canon ships ever really do -- because Vivzie doesn't seem to get why one human being loves another. Her understanding of it stalled early on in her yaoi fic days and never went anywhere beyond that. They're gay, that's enough for Viv.

#Anonymous #actual blog post #viv stuff #stolitz critical

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sunshine-zenith · 6 months

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Aight, I’m invested I guess. Here’s my Far Fetched Probably Inaccurate More Speculation Than A Theory theory for Wish: Magnifico isn’t completely human or a shooting star like the Star we see — he’s either a manifestation of a wish Amaya made or Amaya once used a wish to save his life

Magnifico specifically says “it’s genetic, I got these genes from outer space!” about himself, which is very specific wording — either he’s completely from space, or magic from space warped his genes. He also has a magic book and I can’t think of a reason he would if magic is innate to his very being, down to a genetic level — maybe it belongs to his Not Innately Magic wife?

Amaya is a unique character in Disney canon in that she’s the Major Big Bad’s spouse — most classic Disney villains in their major animated movies are single or widows, while Amaya is very much alive and well. So she must be important, otherwise what’s the point of her character? Marketing also had super downplayed her, which tells me she has a major role in the story that they don’t want to give away

Amaya’s few lines in the trailer focus on Magnifico (surprise surprise, they have two minutes tops to market this thing and a focus on the hero and villain takes priority over showing rounded out characterization). Still, she seems big on praising him in a similar way he praises himself — calling him handsome and seeming impressed at what she thinks is his work. Yes, there’s being a supportive significant other, but there’s a strange vibe to her words, like she has a personal investment in his achievements beyond just being married to him. I also saw her giving Magnifico concerned/protective looks, like she’s specifically worried about his well-being. Idk I feel like someone finding a shooting star and not sharing it isn’t necessarily worth giving “who’s messing with my hubby” death glares — maybe she’s worried about this shooting star undoing the wish she used for him

She’s noted to be his sounding board/the person who keeps him in line in marketing, so she must know what he’s up to and helping him hide it from the people of Rosas

Magnifico is cocky and self obsessed, but I get the impression that this isn’t the reason he grants so few wishes. He gets super serious and even solemn when talking to Asha about it. He’s kinda a dick where his kingdom is concerned, but he takes wishes seriously. He genuinely doesn’t seem to be holding back granting wishes out of selfishness, because he does grant quite a few — fourteen in a year might be just a drop in the ocean, but that’s still a solid amount. Imagine fourteen people going viral during an internet challenge, or fourteen people on an organ registry getting transplants, or fourteen people getting their degrees, etc, etc. That’s genuinely not a nothing amount of people! Maybe being alive due to wish magic gives him a different perspective on it and what he deems necessary vs unnecessary (and whether or not he’s a hypocrite would make for a compelling character dimension)

Listen this isn’t “evidence,” I just want Amaya to have autonomy in this story, and the only other ways are if she’s a Plot Twist Villain working with/above Magnifico (badass, but I’m pretty sure this was specifically scrapped by the writers early on in the process) or if she hits him with a stack of divorce papers (iconic behavior, but imagine a theater full of five year olds with complicated family dynamics watching this — I don’t see them celebrating with the characters on screen like they might’ve when, say, Anna decked Hans in the face). Her specifically being the reason Magnifico exists and the complicated feelings all around that would result from this are amazing to imagine, plus it can go with both Good!Amaya or Evil!Amaya

Idk maybe Amaya had a cross between Aladdin and Encanto moment — she consciously or unconsciously wished for a handsome king to save her from whatever and since a king needs a kingdom Rosas was created. Or Amaya stumbled across a dying boy who wanted to create his own kingdom and made a wish for him to survive, with that wish giving him powers in the process

#wish disney #king magnifico #queen amaya #cy theory #cy meta #the sun shines

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monstersinthecosmos · 7 months

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I have no intention of watching the new IWTV show, but I was wondering why you think Armand's characterization was so bad. I kinda hated how Antonio Banderas played him in the 1994 movie (not on its own, just in comparison to the books - I feel like his personality/demeanor was totally different), so it's sad that they still haven't gotten him right... Judging from pictures alone, I did think the casting for him was more fitting this time. Anyway, just curious to hear your thoughts!

Oh man!!!!!!!!! I do wanna say up front, I think Antonio was NOT A GREAT ARMAND but I like those scenes in the movie so much because they feel SO RICEY to me. Like I LOVE Movie!Armand even though he isn't Book!Armand, and if you read IWTV in good faith it's the only book that doens't harp on Armand looking like a smol uwu cherub so like ! SURE. He definitely still brings the calm nurturing mentor vibe in a huge way and the scenes in his room feel the most like the books to me.

I also know from the director's commentary that they specifically wanted Armand to look like that so that the Europe vampires would feel like OLD WORLD SCARY vs like, another twink lol. So he's got a little more of a tropey Dracula vibe going on and I think like as a visual contrast it works really well.

As far as the show; I think Assad is EXCELLENT. And like the whole fandom was joking even when the credits hit IMDB that it was gonna be Armand because everyone was like "OHH ARRIGHT.. LOUIS'S """""ASSISTANT"""""" OKAY !" so like I was one of the conspiracy theorists looking for clues the whole time. And his MANNERISMS are dead on and gave him away before anything else did. I have zero issue with the actor, I think he's so spooky and a complete smokeshow which Armand DESERVES. And I wish I could like the show for him, I really do! But it's just NOT WORKING FOR ME.

I'll put the rest under a cut cause it got lengthy and I'm not trying to like be a downer on anyone's dashboard but TLDR the show is so completely unrecognizable to me and I think it would've been so much better as an original concept, and personally I'm not excited by randos who share names with the books I read. The show is a hit! People really like it! But idk like showing me these two random ass men and saying "Hey this is Daniel and Armand" doesn't excite me because the story they're showing me actually ISNT Daniel and Armand lol. I'm here for the story!!! I'm not here for Easter Eggs!

Here's my main few gripes with how they wrote Armand which I find mega disappointing:

He spends 6.9/7 episodes pretending to be Louis's assistant named Rashid. WHY! LOL. Why would he do that! DANIEL DOESN'T REMEMBER HIM ANYWAY SO WHY???????? I DONT UNDERSTAND. Like Armand is a weirdo but is he THIS WEIRD? idk. idk.

The show also (in my opinion!) horrifically botched Lestat, but there's like this grain of doubt because the show has a theme of memory being unreliable, so the speculation is that maybe Armand planted a skewed version of events in Louis's head? Even the show runner sort of hinted at this? LIKE I HATE THIS?? Because if we get to S2 and it turns out that Lestat's been misrepresented, it then turns the tables and makes it that ARMAND is the one who's horrifically botched????? Like I'm all for silly Armand jokes and memes and whatever but like. sigh idk i just looked really forward to this show and hoped to see Armand on screen and I didn't really want a meme version of him. ((Also as an aside I really dislike the unreliable memory themes on the show the way they're presented because like the books frame unreliable narration as like interpretive and emotional but the vampire lore canonically is that they have like mega supernatural photographic memory? idk. If memory is faulty because they still have that human fallibility it's one thing unless they're saying Armand planted memories in Louis's head??? idk idk.))

And like speaking towards whether or not Armand is a person who would plant false memories in Louis's head; I concede that he psychically influenced Louis to join him in IWTV but like. ARMAND IS A NUANCED CHARACTER WHO ACTS FROM A PLACE OF NEED AND HURT. And idk it's just so fucking clunky I can't imagine the manipulation taking this type of shape. There's just, to me LOL, a huge difference between the mental nudge of "You are lonely and you need guidance please come with me" and "Lestat was a horrific domestic abuser." And like. idk. Just within the package of the whole rest of the season, this team has the subtlety of dropping a fucking piano so I just have no trust in them to write him with any sense of nuance.

AND THE BIGGEST OFFENSE THAT I'M JUST COMPLETELY DISGUSTED BY IS THAT HE'S A DAYWALKER?????????????????????????????????????????????????

I just hate the daywalking shit so fucking much I can't even start. Like the show changes a lot of the lore which is fine whatever it's their show change lore if you feel like it whatever but like. ARMAND'S ENTIRE LIFE IS THEMATICALLY BOOKENDED BY DARKNESS. He grows up in a CAVE. He lives in a CULT BENEATH A CEMETARY. He tries to KILL HIMSELF by GOING INTO THE SUN.

Like. And he's only 500? That's like adolescent for a vampire LOL.

There were a couple times in the season where they had some continuity errors on the show!lore so I got the vibe that the writers didn't really care about all the VAMPIRE STUFF which is kinda disappointing to me bc I'm a nerd lol but it felt like they used Armand in the sun to just give the audience a red herring and it came across as really cheap to me. So I wouldn't put it past this team to kinda be like DAYWALKING SURE LOL and not really take it seriously or think about the larger picture of how that unfolds for the character over more seasons.

IT'S WHATEVER, I JUST. I know it wouldn't make good television but I like VC because it's like existential dread and consuming darkness, I want it to hurt me, I want it to feel bleak, I want Armand's entire arc to be about how much he struggles with the idea that there's no God. It just feels like if you can make it a few centuries and be able to withstand the sun, what's the fucking point? What sacrifice did you make for being immortal? Especially for a character like Armand who so fully believes himself to be damned and would never want to make another vampire, would never subject even an enemy to it.

Especially bc like in the show the vampires can like ? Smoke? And have sex? And they can eat food (even though it tastes like paste but they can eat food). IF YOU CAN SMOKE AND FUCK AND GO IN THE SUN YOU'RE JUST A GUY. Where's the fucking DAMNATION OF IT ALL? Also what's the fucking point of Those Who Must Be Kept if you can go in the sun lol. I just . Ugh what a clusterfuck.

The show turns vampirism into more of a power fantasy than the way the books treat it as damnation or a symbol of being othered so it doesn't really mesh with like, my idea of VC and what I want out of it.

So Armand being a daywalker = Instant Nope From Me. I'm not interested in whatever they're trying to sell me lol.

A few other things that are NOT confirmed but generally just giving me the ick that I worry about:

I really, really, deeply, truly, hated how they wrote Claudia's character and how they wrote about rape, and that gives me a really bad feeling about how they'd potentially tackle Armand's canon background. The two options are: They don't, and he's a completely different character with a different background, with completely different context for his personality/motivations/etc (in which case who the fuck cares he's just some guy who shares a name with the book I like, and not really Armand), or: They GO THERE and it's just extremely heavy handed and insensitive and not fun to watch. I think show!Claudia maybe has more in common with Armand than book!Claudia because they aged her up to be a teenager so it's just, yikes. THEN AGAIN ARMAND IS NO LONGER A TEENAGER ON THE SHOW?

And to that point like. I don't need a bunch of fucking conservatives getting in my face about how I want to see a teenager sexualized because that's not the point; logistically for TV it makes sense that he's older, but again, it changes his backstory so much. imho, Armand being turned as a teenager and looking like a teenager is a huge element of his character! It's important! It just is! And I'm sorry that the show decided that the vampires could have sex, because they invented this problem for themselves! If they kept the canon lore you wouldn't have to see them have sex anyway LOL.

I also was not a fan of the truncated timeline of the show; season 1 takes place in like 30 years I think? And covers from the beginning of the story until Lestat's murder. And I believe Louis will meet Armand in the 1940s; they have the original interview in the 70s and they're together then, and they're together in the present in 2022. Idk I'm just not impressed; humans can get divorced after 30 years too, what's the point of having immortal characters if you're not gonna stretch out the timeline? And so much happens for Armand and Louis in canon and I have no idea what's happened or not happened on the show yet, no one's really sure which events have happened yet in the present day segments of the show. So like idk there's just a lot of Armand/Louis stuff to be smushing into 70 years lol and I'm bummed that they're rushing through the timeline so much.

So I just. Sigh. There's a lot of themes in VC that I really adore that the show doesn't care about, like being VERY OLD and NEVER SEEING THE SUN AGAIN but. I'm in the minority on this one because people love the show LOL. I'm happy for everyone who likes it, but it's not for me.

And like. Just! I knew going in that it would be the Loustat Show, I think everyone knew that, I didn't have huge expectations for Armand/Daniel content but it's such a small part of the books that like it would've been nice to get a couple scenes or some gifs out of it or whatever. It just sucks that like they SET UP the series in a way that the Devil's Minion won't happen on screen. And it sucks that like, depending how long the show runs for or how long AMC retains the rights, this might be the only chance in my lifetime that I had to see Devil's Minion on screen and it's not going to happen.

It's just a bummer man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry to anyone who likes the show lol I just found it to be like mega disappointing and I don't think I'm going to watch S2, I'm too upset about Armand & Daniel LOL.

#vampire pajama party on amc #the rolin jonestown massacre #<- these are my AMC salt tags if you need to mute or peruse for other disgruntled takes LOL #sorry guys!#adding this tag later re antonio!armand bc i didnt think of it at the time #but i saw the 94 movie directly after reading the book but before reading the rest of the series #so i didnt really notice that he was very different bc i didnt have 17 year old auburn hair botticelli angel in my mind yet #so i always had a neutral/positive feeling about antonion bc my first impression didnt make it a big deal

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in-a-bucket · 1 year

Text

Whit character analysis because this dude makes my brain go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Uh spoilers for all of drdt i guess? Idk better safe then sorry

Ok, so it probably wouldn’t take much scrolling through my tumblr blog to figure out who my favorite despair time character is, can you blame me tho? I’ve always had a lot of thoughts about Whit floating around in my brain ever since I’ve gotten into drdt, but the amount of thoughts has exponentially increased since ch 2 part 1 finished a few days ago. I think we can all agree there’s something odd about Whit, The first time I really noticed it was right after Min’s execution. It was super gresome, probably one of the hardest to watch I’ve ever seen both in canon dr and fangans. This execution had Veronika of all people shook to their core, but Whit...

Uh, you are aware she literally got torn apart by wolves, right Whit? Hu even kinda calls him out on his comment immediately after this. Most people when they see a person die in front of them, they usually react with horror, fear, anger, sadness, you get the gist, but here Whit seems, mildly annoyed? I don’t really think that’s the best way to describe his reaction but either way, it’s too underwhelming for watching someone die right in front of you, especially in such a horrible way as Min’s execution was.

Ok then, does this mean Whit is some unfeeling asshole or something, well no, because earlier in this same trial he says this,

I mean this whole entire section shows that Whit isn’t some heartless monster, if he was just doing this for the sake of making sure they didn’t vote for the wrong person he didn’t have to add in stuff like this.

Ok so what’s his deal then, well remember how I said although chapter one got the brainworms started, but chapter 2 increased them exponentially. Well in chapter 2 it starts to become a lot more prevalent how odd Whit acts when it comes to death and the killing game as a whole.

He does this...

Making a joke about Min’s horrific death, having that kind of reaction to seeing Arei’s dead body, it’s not normal, at all if we take into consideration everything we’ve discussed so far, it just doesn’t make sense, especially cause he has moments like this,

Like the way I see this, he just seems to be really understanding of other people, and their feelings and circumstances, so it just seems super odd that he doesn’t really take death or the killing game itself for the matter all that seriously.

So basically, Whit’s a walking contradiction, why exactly is he like this? Well I believe it has to do with his secret.

His secret is worded exactly like this: “Your mother is dead, you always omit that truth”

I always found the way his secret was worded to be interesting, it’s extremely vague. Arturo’s secret also involves a dead family member, but that one specifies that the cause of death was suicide and that Arturo himself was involved somehow, now it’s highly likely this was worded in a way to make Arturo look as bad as possible, so what does this have to do with Whit’s secret? Well it’s a bit odd, his secret doesn’t make any mention of how or when his mom died, and the only way Whit is brought up is that he hides that truth, but it doesn’t imply that he was responsible in any way. It’s interesting that some secrets are more vague than others.

There’s also some other stuff you could analyze from it. Take the first part of Charles’s secret, “your older brother died” vs. “your mother is dead”, when you look at those two statements, don’t they mean the same thing? Why word them differently if they basically mean they same thing. Well Charles’s is worded in the past tense whereas Whit’s is worded in the present tense, why is that? Although this is more my personal opinion, Whit’s feels more like and intense statement, a fact that can not be ignored, this is what’s real here and now, which ties in to the latter part of Whit’s secret. He omits the truth, he denies it, but he can’t run away from it now that’s there written on paper, there for everyone to see.

So what does this all have to do with Whit’s contradictory behavior. Well I think it’s highly likely that Whit witnessed his mom’s death, whether it was an accident, a suicide, a murder or something else, he saw it all and, to put it bluntly, it broke him. He simply couldn’t handle the idea that his mom, someone he clearly loved a lot and cared about, as evidenced by what he said in chapter 1 with Teruko and Charles, was suddenly not there anymore. This was probably the absolute worse case scenario in Whit’s mind, and what do you do with a bad situation, you make it better of course! And that’s exactly what Whit did, even though his mom was dead he convinced himself that everything was completely fine in order to cope. If he remembers all of the good things about her, then she’s basically still here, and that means everything is fine, right?

Now I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and guess that Whit’s mom probably died around time Whit was in middle school (so like 13 or 14 yrs old), I don’t really think she died when he was like elementary school age, and based on the way Whit acts in the prologue it wasn’t like super recent either. Considering he is able to identify his own secret during the ch 2 trial, his mom didn’t die with in the years that got erased from the students. Now middle school up till freshman year of college is plenty of time to develop a terrible coping mechanism, especially because it seems to be implied that was a pretty lonely guy, his dad worked overseas a lot and according to his character page, he doesn’t have any luck with love either, it’s possible he did have friends growing up but maybe his relationship with them fell apart after his mom died. Either way, it’s inevitable something like that would fester without a good support system.

Now several years later, Whit is thrust into this killing game and he is faced with people dying in front of him again, so he does what he knows best, pretends that everything is completely fine and that they’re all gonna get out of this somehow. so he tries to focus on the positives and tries to make a generally more positive atmosphere by cracking jokes every chance he gets, since dealing with the positives is way easier than dealing with the negatives. Thus stuff like this happens,

No it’s not alright Whit there is a dead body in front of you.

His hidden quote fits with this idea too, “We tend to idolize the dead”. It’s an accurate statement in real life, when people die we try to remember the good things about them from when they were alive. This is what Whit does, just to an unhealthy extreme.

There’s even this line from the FTEs which technically aren’t canon, but it still gives you a pretty good idea of Whit’s thinking process

Ya know shove all of your negative emotions down and away and only focus on the positive ones, this will totally not backfire in any way.

It also makes sense why he has the talent he has, to enjoy making other people happy with fulfilling relationships as a way to distract himself from his own pain.

So, where exactly does Whit go from here as a character? Well first of all I’m like 99% sure he’ll survive chapter 2, there’s evidence that shows he’s unlikely to be the killer and from a writing standpoint, if Whit were to be killed off now, then the only purposes he would’ve served in the story was comic relief and to give Charles some character development, so basically it’d be a waste to kill him off in chapter 2. I will say this though, if both Charles and Whit are still alive by chapter 6 that is a huge red flag and that probably means Whit’s the MM, I think the most likely out come is one or the other dies. I used to be super confident on Charles living and Whit dying but honestly, Charles is developing faster than I thought he would, so it could go either way. But I get the feeling the the peak of their arc will happen in chapter 4 (maybe 3, but I feel more confident about 4).

Under the assumption I made previously, chapter 3 happens as normal (whatever that is lol), but once ch 3 ends and ch 4 starts a certain someone has noticed that Whit is the only person who has yet to crack in any way, shape or form. So motive or no, Veronika starts to craft a plan, in order to make this killing game as fun as possible and to finally break her stubborn classmate. I could see this going one of two ways. Either Veronika kills Charles and pins the crime on Whit or she creates an elaborate trap for Whit to accidentally set off killing her or one of the other students. Personally I prefer option (and not just because Whit get’s to live), but because it allows for his character development to be explored in later chapters. Basically once the body is discovered, you can tell Whit is barely holding it together and then like midway through the trial he finally starts to crack. Then in like the aftermath of the trial it asl comes crashing down for him, everything that he forced himself to believe to make life easier he can no longer believe and its just ajkldlkjdljdalkfhlkfahafkkdhfsklfslkhfsakhj.

Anyway I’m probably gonna post this, go to bed, and wake up tomorrow and realize there’s more I want to add but that’s life I guess. I’ll probably end up making more whit posts anyways once the people I talk to discord start get my brain going.

This probably sucks but idc I have so much Whit brainrot you people have no idea.

#drdt #drdt spoilers #danganronpa: despair time #whit young

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smartzelda · 9 months

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Might I have some of your finest beyondtsuda or mikamatsu (is that their ship name?) headcanons on this joyous day?

Oooooh hoo hoo

Anon I would be delighted

ㅤ

Beyondtsuda

Okay so when it comes to Beyond Birthday ships, one of my favorite things is him finding little pieces of A in the people he likes. However, with that all being said, I actually don't see Matsuda as being incredibly similar to A (personal A headcanons and all that), so I'd like to think that BB grasps on to some of those little things he can find that reminds him of A, but he also...actually has to get to know Matsuda

With that all being said, because of how far removed they are physically in canon, I generally headcanon their meeting to be something by chance. In a canon setting for example, perhaps they happen to cross paths on the street or in a shop or cafe because BB is tracking L and Matsuda is out (most likely to do something for L, or perhaps related to his brief manager duties). Or maybe they even meet in task force headquarters, because Matsuda just so happens to be the first person B runs into

Idk I guess to sum it up best, I think their first meeting would undoubtedly be one of chance (be at least somewhat L related), and I think while BB upon growing feelings would draw similarities between him and A he would ultimately realize how different they are

It's like the idea of "What if we were strangers? What if we didn't know each other because you aren't a mirror of me? What if we actually had to learn to know each other?" with a sprinkle of "I couldn't help but latch onto the ways you remind me of the person I once loved, but I know you are NOT them"

Okay okay perhaps I should add a silly headcanon in here for your enjoyment

Beyond and Matsuda would bond over mutual enjoyment of magical girl anime/manga. BB infodumps about Akazukin Chacha, Matsuda talks about Princess Tutu and Sailor Moon. They watch Madoka together.

ㅤ

MikaMatsu

Funnily enough, if I had to draw a thread between these two ships, it would be that Beyondtsuda share the capacity to bond over L and Mikamatsu share the capacity to bond over Light. Dunno why that trope has me in a chokehold. Anyhow

I like to think that Matsuda would have visited Mikami in prison (in the manga canon setting) before Mikami "mysteriously died"

The Kira reveal was a *lot* for the two of them in different ways, and given how they were narratively placed as opposites ("the man Light chooses as his most devoted pawn and could successfully rely on, who only knows Light as Kira the god" vs "The man Light thought would swing to his side, who he thought he may be able to rely on in the end, who knew Light as Light Yagami the man, son of Soichiro Yagami and L's only friend"), I quite like the idea of them...wondering what it was like for the other

I like the idea of Matsuda being curious despite everything, unwilling to really write the man he'd trusted off as wholly bad and seeking to know the man that Mikami knew. And Mikami, while yellow box and the shock of his "god"'s apparent humanity leads him to grapple over the idea of 'renouncing the false god' or possibly even twisting truth for the sake of his own mind (so he doesn’t have to contend with his actions possibly servicing "bad"), I think at heart he too would be curious as to the Light that Matsuda knew. Ultimately, I would headcanon their first real meeting, their getting to know each other, as a tragedy. No matter how close they manage to grow, whether they are open to or even can understand each other, in the end Mikami will die

Now, on a less angsty (but still a bit so) note. One of my favorite headcanons is the idea of them becoming roommates post L's death during the timeskip. It's just hilarious to me to imagine Gevanni investigating Matsuda's roommate, and it's fun to imagine how they would be as roommates. Ultimately, I actually headcanon that Matsuda can decently cook, so I think it would be interesting for them to start out as roommates who barely interact, but then become the kind of roommates who collaborate on dinner and teach each other different skills and air out some of their frustrations. I also think it adds even a tad bit more complexity to Matsuda's own feelings about Kira if he's stuck between a rock (Mikami clearly being a Kira supporter) and a hard place (being a part of the Kira task force, which is full of quite a lot of heavy anti Kira people). And while I think it's more realistic that they would grow some manner of feelings for each other (not necessarily ones they can pinpoint as romantic or sexual at this time, but not exactly platonic either) but any realization of feelings would be overshadowed by their current duties/goals and their separate devotion to Light (and their own feelings for him), I think it's also fun to imagine them as sort of a...roommates with benefits situation

Okay okay now for something a lil silly

I personally headcanon Mikami as aroaspec but also gay, but I think it would be insanely funny if Teru Mikami just found himself at a random time completely down bad for Touta Matsuda. Like, while he's not 100% sure of the nature of any of his feelings nor do I think he takes the time to think about this, at least him being down bad for kami-sama makes sense to him, but when it happens regarding Matsuda? I think he would just think in his head randomly "Why him? Kira is someone whom I respect and adore, someone who I feel a connection to. Why can't I stop thinking about this dude??"

ㅤ

Anyways, thank you very much, anon! Your ask has made this day much joyous for me!!

#anon asks #death note #beyondstuda #mikamatsu #ship headcanons #teru mikami #beyond birthday #touta matsuda #I uh I hope the headcanons please you anon! (even if most of it was me rambling about how I think they could be in canon or the appeal of #the ships to me😂💖)#Edit: For the record I have finished the anime but only have vague knowledge of the manga ending so take that as you will

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kim-ruzek · 1 year

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It pisses me off that people are mad at Matt because he went to see the young girl for Sylvie and saying Matt didn't do enough for Gabby. Even making it personal saying they're glad Monica stayed away.

One, Monica left the show. It was her decision. I'm sorry if you're mad that your ship didn't end up how you wanted but you have to understand it was because of the decision of the actor, this storyline happened because she left.

Secondly, Matt is at a different point in his life. He probably wasn't ready then but he's ready now. He was also there for Gabby in every way he could and loved her so much that he didn't want to see her die. She was the one who didn't want an adoption.

With Sylvie, she welcomes the help that anyone wants to provide.

I don't see how that fandom can differentiate that Matt loved/loves these two women differently and that he is going to support them anyway he can.

I really need to stay away from the bird app or else my blood pressure is going to go through the roof with some of these takes I'm reading.

LITERALLY it is so fucking maddening to see!

It already just drives me mad when people don't ever seem to respect the fact that these actors leave, because they wanted to, so it's to be expected that the end of that storyline will be a little shit. Like you can forever be sad d*wsey isn't canonically together anymore and that Matt moved on, because if d*wsey is The Ship for you that is sad but at the end of the day, the actress wanted out and the show continued.

I also hate the argument that he didn't do enough for Gabby... Because he did. He did so so much. She was the problem, she didn't want the help he gave her. That's fine, in some ways I get that attitude and it's fine to see it that way, but lord you cannot say he didn't try.

And it's not like Brettsey was rushed. It's been built up. It's been shown again and again that they love each other, how that is shown. And they've grown together. Also Matt has seen the whole development of this arc really, from helping Sylvie with Julia and then Amelia and all that and to now the decision to adopt baby Julia, he's the most qualified to speak on the matter honestly because he's seen all that.

I would generally recommend staying away from twitter atm at least. I am currently too lol. My blood pressure definitely couldn't handle it.

I'm just so fucking done with all the people who one) keep dragging Monica into this, like damn the woman left l can guarantee you the only thoughts she has is pride for her former co workers and two) people just needlessly hating on brettsey.

Idk if it's because I'm also having to deal with the same sort of idiocy when it comes to u*stead stans on twitter (which already is laughable to me bc the stans tend to be the same people as the d*wsey stans) so I'm already pretty damn tired of people not getting things and mixing up not personally liking a storyline direction Vs bad writing.

It's also tiring to see the hypocrisy (like adoption is Valid when d*wsey does it but not Sylvie or that Sigan is a brilliant writer/show runner until upstead has to be broken down because the actor left of his own choice 🙄) and like. Just ship and let ship. And if the show choices upset you... You don't need to watch. That's fine. But attacking other ships is just not on.

Ugh I'll stop now before this turns into a full on rant. I could bitch for days about d*wsey stans but especially as you only sent the ask about brettsey I should stop because I'll just also rant about u*stead and idk how you feel about them lol.

Thank you for asking!! 💖

#ree's asks #chicago fire #brettsey #ree has thoughts #thank you for asking!!! 💖#ree rants #i went a little bit into chicago pd in this but I'm not tagging that lol #cos it's only a touch #sylvie brett #matt casey

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laventadorn · 23 days

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Hi. Me again. In canon Umbridge finds out about Dumbledore's Army/Defense Club due to Umbridge giving Marietta Edgecombe (I think that was her name), Cho's friend, truth serum. But, I was speculating the nuance of actual betrayal, and forcing the younger generation to re-asses their house biases. Like, maybe b/c of the presence of a Slytherine, people just assume the worst of them. Harriet defends them. Only, for it to be a fellow Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw who sells them out to Umbridge. Whether you go there or not in your fanfic, I was just curious about what you think of the nuance of the positive/negative extremes of ALL the houses. I think it was confirmed Umbridge was in fact in Hufflepuff, which shows the fine line between loyalty and fanaticism. Pettigrew was Gryffindor; the fine line between bravery and ego. Ravenclaw can probably be so practical that they sometimes don't think about people's feelings. And through Snape (especially the way you write him ; chef's kiss) we see the nuance of Slytherine. And since you're keeping Cedric, I hope we get more POVs (however brief they may be) of the other house characters. I LOVE that you're expanding Harriet's circle of friends, slowly but surely. Hermione and Ron will always be her closest friends. But, I loved how we saw Cho, and even Fleur in 4th yr, Asteria - I hope we see more Millicent - so, I look forward to more of that goodness. I think that's one of the reasons why I keep coming back to your fics for re-reads. You've added nuance that I felt was lacking in canon. Anyway, thank you for writing such a beautiful story.

hello again! someone once said "JKR divided the human race into four groups and then ignored two of them," which i think is pretty accurate... and the older i get, the sillier the whole house system seems. my brain is not operating at its peak today, so some of this might be garbled nonsense or just repeating the obvious, but:

to me, the houses don't have any inherent value as a means of determining character. i think it would be more accurate to say that people are sorted based on how they want to appear to others or how they think of themselves. this isn't a bad thing per se -- i think it's neutral and natural. it might not even be conscious, especially when they're young.

we can read harry's experience this way, for example. dumbledore says "it's our choices that determine who we are" and cites the example of harry turning down slytherin and choosing gryffindor, but i would argue this is not because slytherin is inherently evil or gryffindor inherently good; harry made his choice based on how the houses were described to him. the sorting hat frames it differently than hagrid did (slytherin is the "way to greatness" vs. the bad people house). harry doesn't want to be bad*, so he just says "not the bad people house" until the sorting hat gives up. it's more like the house system reinforces beliefs or biases because you get 4 separate groups who establish what behavior is "the best," and then what could have been a minor inclination (or even a major one) gets reinforced into something bigger. hufflepuff seems to have the least issue with this, as helga is described in one of the songs as "tak[ing] all the rest," i.e. the kids that didn't sort into the other three houses with their prized qualities of courage, intelligence, and ambition. a person doesn't have to be smart to get into ravenclaw, they just have to prize intelligence (or want to be perceived as wise or intelligent). in her mind, umbridge could believe that she is very loyal to traditional wizard values, but in reality, she's just a sadist who loves control (fanaticism). peter probably wanted to be seen as brave because he was scared of everything all the time -- but then he wasn't actually brave, and this could've reinforced his inferiority, especially adding in james and sirius' bullying behavior and his own clearly mixed admiration and resentment.

idk, i'd like harriet to just realize the house system is so deeply flawed and largely based on pure perception as to be inherently meaningless. maybe she doesn't make a big platform out of it, but she's already pretty much decided this on a subconscious level from her interactions with asteria and snape. so if someone were to ask her, she'd say, "i dunno, it doesn't really seem to matter. just do what you think is right."

and: thank you! c:

ETA:

*it could be argued that harry doesn't want to go to the bad people house because the dursleys have always labeled him as a nasty, rotten boy etc. and he doesn't want to wind up in that position in the wizarding world. (plus, what child wants to be seen that way?) then he meets malfoy, who makes him feel small, and this reinforces his No Slytherin point of view. these are very child-appropriate concerns, so i'm not saying this is narrow-minded of the text; it feels quite honest, really. of course, this is just about Not Slytherin; the Hat puts harry in gryffindor based on what it senses in his personality. so maybe i'm undermining my own point :)

#laventadorn replies

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antimony-medusa · 8 months

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sorry if this is a dumb question but what would you say even qualifies something as kink? i get the whole consent between two adults thing but some of the stuff you mention being in sbi fics is making me a bit confused. i can see what you mean with the fear play and stuff (as an aroace i’ve been exploring non-sexual kink in other fandoms lately so i have definitely looked back at some sbi fics and went hmmm) but where do you draw the line? what’s the difference between a praise kink and someone who likes to get approval from people they look up to? why are using pet names sometimes kink and sometimes not? for the torture stuff: i’ve only ever seen hurt/comfort after a character gets tortured, how is that kinky at all? idk im just so lost rn

This is not a dumb question! Yeah! Unfortunately this is a thing, however, where there is no hard and fast answer for a lot of it, it's mostly down to tone. It's mostly down to vibes. It's the kind of thing where you are messaging your own beta reader like "okay I went hard on [subplot] do I need to tag this" and then they stare at it for you. (And thank you to the group chat for helping me with examples for this post.)

I'd say if you really start squinting at it, for a lot you can spot it if you go, what is the point of this scene, what is the beat being hit? What is the narrative here for? And in cases where like, someone is getting eaten by a giant, it's pretty clear that the point there is vore, and that's a kink, baby. Or like you say, with ones where the character is being pursued through the wood, the point is that Tommy (or whoever) is terrified and thinks he's about to die when he's caught, and that's fearplay with a side of predator/prey. Or ones where Tommy is pinned down against his will and forced to be cuddled by his new family, the point there is the pushing at Tommy's personal boundaries and the fact that he *likes* it anyways, and that's consent play/dubcon (ocassionally noncon, depending on the fic).

Anything with altered states of conciousness, whether that's through drugs, or "instincts", or magical mind control, or anything else, that starts to read as something where you go "what is the point of this scene"— is the point that Tommy's out of it and so floppy and gets manhandled? (I don't know the term for it but there's def a kink about being drugged). Is the point that Techno grabs at the back of Tommy's neck and growls at him and that puts him back in his proper dynamic place as his sub runt (yeah that's D/S right there).

You can also start to kind of spot the kink when you go, okay, how far from canon dynamics have we diverged to make this scene happen? I think that's why the nickname discourse happened, because we know what Wilbur calls Tommy in canon, and so "sunshine" starts to read as a different or extended dynamic from canon, and why is that dynamic there? What's Wilbur getting out of this scene, what's Tommy getting out of this scene, what is the reader supposed to get out of it? If someone who is normally in canon called "brat" or "child" is called "sunshine" or "darling" or "baby" or "mine", what's the reader supposed to get out that? Is the reader supposed to feel gratified by this, loved and affirmed and having that mental itch scratched, is that why the scene exists?

Or like, how is something set up by the narrative? Does it feel like an earned exception to the canon dynamic or is the point of the scene something else?— Do you see a difference between Wilbur hugging Tommy and speaking reassurances to him in a moment of vulnerability after he's been really hurt or something, and both of them are feeling horrible in the situation but are hoping for comfort, vs Wilbur gently cradling Tommy and cooing praises at him just because, and this makes Tommy's brain go all melty?

Like, if you imagine your own siblings or parents in these scenes, would it feel a bit weird? If you stumbled across this scene on TV, what would your first read be? If you genderswapped it and moved the slider on the ages, would it feel out of place in a YA novel?

With the praise kink thing, that's an extremely fuzzy line, but pushed to it I'd say, is the point of the scene that someone completed [task] and trusted person is proud of them for [task], with the focus on task completion, or is the point that someone has someone they trust and they're proud of them, and the focus is on how proud the person is of them and how worthwhile and good the person now feels because they've been affirmed by their trusted person?

And as for how torture can be kinky, uh, there's an entire field of types of kinks based on types of pain being committed— impact play, wax play, spanking, flogging, biting— and again it comes down to how the narrative treats it. Is the narrative expecting the audience to be really into a) watching this guy suffer b) getting in the head of this guy suffering? It isn't necessarily sexual, but it can definately get kinky to just— are you getting gratified by this, how much weight in the narritive is on the pain/helplessness/submission/mind break?

And that's not even getting into guro, which is eroticized gore— some people find torture sexy! Some people write snuff fics! How much does the narrative dwell on the gore, and how does it do it? How much does the story expect you to get out of this guy dying, are you supposed to be crying or are you supposed to be a bit wound tighter now?

And like, I want to reiterate that I'm not judging any of these kinks. Fiction is a safe place to explore a bunch of stuff you would find problematic or just straight up Very Bad in real life, and brains are weird. If you have been wired so that you get the good chemicals when specific story beats happen— look, I have to take so many brain meds to get the good chemicals, if you can hack your brain and get good chemicals off of platonic dubcon, i am applauding you.

Just a) keep it away from the creators, b) even if it's platonic, not everybody is into the same story beats or kinks. Please tag your shit.

#ask #long post #fandom meta #discourse #anon

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coolgoodandfine · 1 year

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Shhh... secret draft designs. Don't tell Twitter yet. Please give me any feedback, and feel free to read my many design thoughts under the cut. Also feel free to use the designs yourself.

Alright! The things right at the top that i wanted to keep in mind were things in the series that are distinct to mechanites vs things warforged have.

As far as I remember, there are only two notable ones. Mechanites have jaws that cannot move, instead they have face plates that can open up. And while the other isn't stated in canon, warforged have crystals in their eyes, and mechanites are never pictured or described in that way.

I almost broke the first rule on purpose with DX-TR, seeing as he's described as human-like and the negotiator, but as I was going through the series again, he was explicitly stated to have the same stiff jaw.

The only heights (I think) we have were that VR-LA got the haha funny meme number at 6'9", MR-SN was a few inches taller, and C-RA is at least as tall as Finbar (7'2"). From there, I wanted DX-TR to be nearly as tall as VR-LA, so he's around 6'6"/6'7". E-DN is about the same height as him because I feel like with her satyr legs, her being taller made sense. I put K-LB around 6'2" because I was originally going to have a slight joke that this height was after he'd already made mods to himself with heels and his mohawk. I didn't like how the heels came out, so I left it out. AS-TR is the shortest at the bare minimum height for warforged at 5'10". I'll get into that in the section discussing her design.

While it didn't really come up in these designs, since VR-LA has been pictured with yellow eyes, and described with blue, I've headcanoned that mechanites eyes change color based on how much processing they're doing. So the default would be blue, when they're calm and just hanging out. Their eyes switch to yellow when they're concentrating or focused on something specific. Orange is when they're flustered or upset. Red is the dramatic color for when they're really angy. I'd imagine someone like DX-TR can deliberately control it to avoid giving away some tell, but I don't think it's common for mechanites to do it.

The designs are mostly based on the same shapes and pieces that VR-LA has, rather than Vice/He-11, as those feel like they're kind of unusual in that regard. And even if they're not, I'd still chalk it up as a difference in their plane of origin. Onto individual character notes!

C-RA was described as being large, having a sort of knights templar, aesthetic, somewhat like living armor but more organic. Mostly what I referenced was plate armor, so pretty straight-forward. That being said, I feel like her design's a little plain. I wanted to add something to her head to help distinguish her head silhouette more. Plus I feel like her colors are too desaturated, and she just doesn't really have a shape that carries throughout her design. Idk, it's fine, but it just doesn't feel striking.

MR-SN was described as being slender, regal, and with a permanent smile in his eyes. I feel like I had a similar issue with him that I had with C-RA where there doesn't seem to be anything that carries through his design. I feel like I captured the face pretty well at least where he looks kind and kind of like a dad who's just proud of you. He's one I kind of feel like with clothes, his design might work better. I had no clue what color to go for, so it's just a color that I thought would be unique enough to the group.

VR-LA is just based on his season 1 art. The only thing I changed from how I drew him before, was mostly just proportions, like around the joints. I wanted him to be a thin, scrawny nerd, so he's also more narrow than before. My goal was half of C-RA's size, and I think C-RA's about 1 1/2 VR-LA's, so it's close enough.

DX-TR was described as human-like and bald with a flesh tone color. He was honestly really easy. As a joke, I referenced Seth Everman for his face sculpt, and I think it came out well. Mostly I referenced human muscles for his sculpt. I considered giving him tattoos, but didn't really have any ideas for that. He's got two notably unique traits from the rest of the group. He's the only one without shoulder pauldrons, which I kinda want to change, but idk there, and the light in his eyes is round rather than the cross design I treated as baseline. I wanted a less human saturation in skin, and I don't think I achieved that, but I'm not sure it'd look as good. I kinda want him more uncanny valley, but idk what to do there.

E-DN was described as a similar mechanite design as VR-LA, but with satyr legs. I gave her horns and horizontal pupils, mostly just for variety. I gave her a little more of just a round shape compared to VR-LA's more angular shapes. Her design I like over all. I like the colors, and I think the mint accents help her stand out. She's got good shapes and a good silhouette. And everything feels like it came out pretty well with her.

K-LB I'm torn on. I almost feel like he stands out too much. As far as what's described, I had the hardest time figuring out his design. He's described as a standard mechanite that's gold with fine gold filigree that looks like wire mesh, as well as a blue glow from his arms. I was going for somewhere around a punk-ish Rodney Copperbottom from Robots kind of idea. The filigree mesh I just used a nonsense text brush because i didn't have any specific ideas there. I like how the yellows/blues look together. I like the hexagon shape that carries throughout. His silhouette's mostly different enough from everyone else. I don't think he's too saturated. Yet I just don't feel like his design fits him, and I don't know what to do. He's the one I feel like scrapping and redoing the most.

AS-TR was described with long hair, and a slight glow, but didn't have much of a description as far as I remember otherwise. She had two notable design inspirations. Selûne and my cat who coincidentally has the same name (mostly my cat lol). One of Selûne's avatar's is described as long limbed (which is kind of how I just drew the mechanites), with pale hair, dusty skin, and green eyes. The pattern around her eyes is a less exaggerated version of some of her iconography. Her eyes are tinted green with her holy symbol as the shape of the lights. If I were smart, I'd actually have put all seven of the stars that are a part of Selûne's holy symbol (and I might change that later). Aster (my cat) is a tiny little black cat with a grey undercoat and two tiny lil white spots. So from there, I made AS-TR the smallest mechanite, she's two different shades of grey, and she has two little white spots on her chest in a similar size, shape, and location as Aster's. As a result of the name coincidence, and from what we've seen, similar personality, AS-TR is required to be my favorite, lol. Even excluding that though, I do like how her design came out too. Like I said, I might change the design slightly to have the seven stars across her, and I might change the greys to have more contrast because they're too similar, but the whole design came close to what I had in mind.

Over all, I'm pretty satisfied with all of these designs, and while there's things I'm going to change, I think these are all pretty solid.

#my cool sketches #my cool art #i didn't do clothes yet #ended up putting in a lot of effort into the colors #if you read all of the read more i'm sorry i typed so much lol #i needed to put my thoughts down so i know what i want to fix #rwd #rolling with difficulty #vr-la #c-ra #mr-sn #dx-tr #e-dn #k-lb #as-tr

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serialadoptersbracket · 2 months

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Round 2, Match 53: Kim Dokja vs. Roberto de Niro

Submitted kids:

Kim Dokja: Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung are the commonly accepted ones but you can also make a case for Lee Jihye and Biyoo

Roberto de Niro: Meryl Stryfe, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Propaganda under the cut!

Kim Dokja:

1. “In the first scenario (where you have to murder something alive) his first priority is to make sure Gilyoung makes it out alive (by giving him the grasshopper before letting others know about it), and when the future version of Yoosung (41st round) is going to cause havoc his first plan is to basically the past (his present) version of her so they would have her on her side (he takes her in as his incarnation- if that isn’t an adoption idk what is); Biyoo is literally the soul of 41st Yoosung that he WENT THROUGH AN UNDERWORLD TRIAL to get her back and she is legally his child. Lee Jihye is more like the older sister-teenager of the group be she’s still adopted by association and Han Donghoon is a kid who was hypnotized and exploited by the “prophets” and Kim Dokja saved him and became someone he trusts in- which is basically adopting. Mia is YJH’s little sister but with the family dynamic all of KimCom has she’s basically adopted too. This man is someone who believes the worst in himself but gives all these kids someone they need and in return they are the family he’s never had.”

2. "He saved Lee Gilyoung on the subway when he was orphaned at the time the apocalypse started even when he didn't need to and kept him by his side and fed him at his own expense and believed in him and taught him to be strong when no one else had really done that for Lee Gilyoung before.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD (pretty vague):

Both Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyoung are extremely attached to Kim Dokja and have on at least one canon occasion slept clinging to either side of him.

LESS MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD (though not terrible ig and still mostly vague at least):

3. “Bro is THE DAD of the group”

4. “Adopted his kids so hard that they’d do like anything for him they love him so much”

Roberto de Niro:

“he's my dad”

#orv #kdj #kim dokja #omniscient reader's viewpoint #trigun stampede #trigun #roberto de niro #serial adopters bracket #round 2 #tumblr tournament #tumblr polls

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roobylavender · 3 months

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i love how you hold in-depth and insightful discussions with your anons even if they might disagree with you, i feel like you're such an easy person to talk to 🥹 which is to say i wanted to ask you about something - if you don't mind - i'm always really surprised when you discuss bruce vs. ollie's parenting styles because i feel like the differences you mention weren't necessarily so clear-cut?

for instance i think the 70s were really when the "oh no how can we send our own kids out there to fight criminals and die" conundrum was first raised in superhero comics because of dennis o'neil, stan lee, etc starting to equate the concept of child sidekicks to child soldiers & abusive parenting (hence bucky's ~death~ around this time too), and as a result of that + o'neil wanting to take batman back to its darker solo-ish roots, bruce was written to carry even more immense guilt over sending dick out as robin. and certainly he's had moments like this before, where he worried that he had done dick more harm than good (and for ex., subsequently erasing his memories as robin and sending him back to an orphanage like in world finest's #153..) but for the most part he's very insistent on dick being robin and he understands and encourages the fact that dick wants to balance his civilian life with being robin very much (reason #489893 why i think marv wolfman having dick drop out of college was OOC but that's another subject). tbh that's why i'm so defensive of the original context of batman comics, the fact that children were working in sweatshops or factories or as garment workers etc back then definitely allowed people accept the idea of bruce gifting a bat-copter to dick for his birthday in batman #10 (which is implied to be his 8th birthday 😭) or dick performing shoulder surgery on bruce at age 7-8 or whatever in batman #2 - so in the same vein, i don't think the thought of "oh no dick's life is in real danger as robin" should ever seriously enter his mind (as opposed to in-the-moment anxiety, which i'm sure happens a gazillion times a week) until dick's college years imo?

and i know you've mentioned before that you don't take the golden age personalities/morals ascribed to bruce & dick too seriously because they vary greatly depending on whether the tone is comedic vs. serious - but i actually think they're pretty consistent! for instance for the first ~30 issues of detective comics, bruce is a lot more OK with the idea of killing criminals, but it's clear that after a child, dick grayson, comes into the picture he takes a much harder stance against killing (hence why his original vow with robin by candlelight says "WE two will…never swerve from the path of righteousness" - implying batman will now hold himself to a new high standard that he's also setting for robin). as you said, when batman and robin do mention just "finishing off" a guy or whatever it's definitely played off for comedy and i think the audience is meant to recognize that :]

and re: ollie, the 00s series has him grappling with the "child soldier" worry a hundred times for mia, connor, and roy, so i think this sort of realization should happen slowly and organically for him too (and not just bruce) and it kinda already started back in the 70s anyway with roy's drug overdose... idk i like to imagine that bruce and ollie are a lot more alike despite the surface-level differences in temperament or personality and that's really what causes the (one-sided, from ollie LOL) tension!!

anyway i'm so sorry for dumping this entire novel in your inbox, it comes across like i'm just trying to lecture you but i promise i'm very interested in what you think 😭 and thank you for reading and always providing such interesting replies/commentary in general! have a lovely day ♡

please never apologize for this omg i am always elated to talk about the vast expanse of canon and hear other perspectives on it! and i wholeheartedly agree with you actually, the impact of the 60s really cannot be understated in how it altered dc’s approach to certain topics going forward (and i would love to find scholarly articles about this if there are any). like it’s really interesting how cape comics reacted to wwii and the social welfare era in very distinct ways, because on one hand as you said it originally wasn’t too hard for a reader to wrap their head around the idea of kid sidekicks because there probably were a lot of kids at the time who were also working due to the wartime labor shortage. but the 60s was a huge moment for civil rights and social welfare of all kinds and this was particularly with respect to children. i’m actually in a class right now called children’s rights so we discussed some of that history and the shift at the time that caused legislators to begin to take abuse as a concept seriously. i guess the tricky part about comics and our engagement with these characters is trying to balance the evolving world against what we would like to be a consistent depiction of the characters even though that isn’t necessarily possible, because the politics and concerns of various writers obv filter through (like wolfman and his reagan era propaganda lol). i def want to get further in my ollie reading someday because i’ve heard so many good things about the sort of gravitas of his role as a parent increasing as time goes on. and it would be interesting if more than one character ever converged on that concept of sidekick-ery as child abuse. i think the problem really is that some writers adapted that mindset while others didn’t so you ended up with a lot of tonally dissonant books and characters even though addressing this issue collectively across the expanse of the canon could have been very interesting

#outbox #tangentially i think that’s why i like bruce’s despair being a gradual development #like i think it can totally make sense for him to feel confident about robin’s existence and it’s coexistence with civilian life #but that faltering over time and like you said esp as dick gets older and the weaponry grows more complex and the villains get weirder #i can see bruce doomscaping easily by that point

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adragonsfriend · 2 months

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Ryloth Social, Historical, Cultural, Ideas

Writing a story using mythology is really cool because it makes me expand on the available cannon data about the culture of any character whose perspective I write from. Writing a story using mythology is also really hard because it makes me expand on the available cannon data about the culture of any character whose perspective I write from. (Most of this is about Ryloth and requires no knowledge of fialleril's Amavikka stuff, it's just present in the beginning)

The latest was Syndulla, and therefore, Ryloth:

Hikka Redsun/Syndulla's Family

I've said that his family, aside from one of his grandparents, come from Rhovari, a city on Ryloth which canonically exists but which there's hardly any information about. I've placed it on the northern continent (same as Lessu, the capital), but toward the south, bordering the massive forest that rings the equator.

Hikka Redsun is Syndulla's grandmother on his mother's side. She escaped slavery on Tatooine as a teenager and traveled to Ryloth, settling in the city of Rhovari, where she had a rough time at first. She gave birth to the child she was already carrying (one of the reasons she took the risk of escaping), a daughter I haven't named as of yet. She eventually married another Twi'lek she met there, by the name of Jennah Enullah. Syndulla's other grandparents are Rhovari as far back as anyone can remember, idk they weren't important to what I was writing. Redsun is an analogue to Whitesun, eg Beru Whitesun. As Skywalker is to Ekkreth, Redsun is to Dereia, so in Amatakka, Hikka would be Hikka Dereia.

Over the course of her lifetime, Hikka blended Amavikka storytelling traditions with those of her new home, which resulted in the story I wrote for Tales of Ryloth. That story was one of only a few Ekkreth stories she told to any members of her family. She was only a teenager when she left, and in her first few years, she wasn't focused on remembering lots of stories, so by the time she reached a point where she realized she wanted to hang onto them, she was already fuzzy on quite a few details. Her family on Ryloth were all freeborn, and didn't necessarily have a need for Ekkreth stories from her own. Those she did tell them were ones she altered or created to tell her own life story.

The story from Tales is her artistic interpretation of leaving Tatooine and her first few rough years in Rhovari. It uses Ryloth's animals and plants, and the single-day structure of lots of Rhovari stories, but places Ekkreth alongside them. It has a bit of a different structure and feel to most Amavikkan stories I've written, hopefully reflecting the influence it takes from Rhovari tradition.

Now, onto everything else this made me learn/create:

Mythology

Symbolism

Specifically for the Rhovari Twi'lek people:

Reliable, trustworthy things: rock, ground, mountains, betnek trees, the sun

Treacherous, scary things: any animal or plant (except betnek trees), darkness, rain,

Good things/good signs: light and warmth underground

Bad things/bad signs: cold, dark, mud, too much rain, too little rain

Format

Chants, songs, I mention war songs, idk

Many traditional myth-stories from Rhovari have events all told in the course of single day, usually starting in the morning and going into the night.

Homes

Tunnel vs Shallow Homes

Some communities have shallow homes like we see in Nabat in Clone Wars (Nera's home that waxer and boil visit is in Nabat), and other communities live in fully underground tunnel systems (the community I describe Syndulla's family living in is one of these). There's probably some deep prejudices over which way of living is better, especially between warring clans. These prejudices are probably less present in places like Lessu, which combine the two.

Also, by the time of the clone wars, I imagine there's a small but significant group who advocates for abandoning underground homes and living entirely above ground, assimilating to be like more of the rest of the galaxy. Orn Free Ta is one of these, and he probably works to defund programs which help preserve traditional homes in between doing other heinous crap.

Cave-hearths

Cave-hearths are the lowest rooms in tunnel homes, which are also the warmest because they are made closer to underground magma flows. These are community gathering places, just like a campfire would be. There are probably old traditional roles surrounding finding good places to dig for these.

Lessu

Ancient city

Lessu is a very old city, there have been Twi'leks living in the mountain as far back as there's written and archeological history.

Interestingly, the visible buildings in Clone Wars Lessu are a different color from the surrounding stone (white vs light brown). I'm aware that the actual reason for this is probably that it's easier to animate and see if they're different colors, but we're extrapolating right now, shhh. This means the stone for the buildings has to have been mined and brought from somewhere else, and then somehow transported onto a literal island. All that instead of using the naturally available rock all around.

Outer wall

The outer wall surrounding the city is classified as a historical site, and has legal protections surrounding how it can be modified (alas, no turbo lifts can be installed). For Twi'lek's from some communities (not Rhovari), the wall itself is a pilgimage site. The Separatists using it as a military defense (which was its original use, but hasn't been relevant in several centuries) would've been highly unpopular. The walls aren't as old as Lessu itself, but the first versions of it date back to some of the earliest known clan wars.

Landscape

Thought the city has been disconnected from the main landscape as far back as written history goes, there are oral traditions and mythology which have been passed down which indicate that there was once a land connection. The stories talk about the land bridge falling as a result of moral decline of some kind, and for a long time it was considered to be just that that, a story. That is until geological research (which happened quite a long time ago as of star wars present day) showed that there was a land bridge there which lasted long after the surrounding rock eroded away, due to some unique rock deposits there (or something, I'm not a geologist). The confirmation of the land bridge dates these oral traditions to originating much earlier than previously thought. (I stole this idea from real life. The specific occurrence that inspired this was tree species and aboriginal Australian traditions, but considering indigenous stories as one source of information to guide archeology is a developing field.)

Water

Lessu has probably, at various times, been surrounded by water. The canyon behind it is significantly larger and deeper than the rift in front of it, and has probably been wearing down for millions of years (still not a geologist, guess based on the grand canyon in the US). At the points when this canyon was full of water, maybe there were Twi'leks who accessed Lessu by boat. Also, at times when the canyon was only partly full, there could've been tunnels which had entrances down at the water level, but which became flooded when the water rose, or inaccessible when it fell.

Bridges

Various bridges have been built and destroyed in the time since the land bridge eroded.

Religion

I don't have any detailed thoughts on this, but I think there's probably a bigger religion common in Lessu that is much less connected to the land than Rhovari traditions. It's more mainstream, and it's what most people not from Ryloth would think of as "Twi'lek religion."

Slavery

Indigenous slavery

With frequent clan wars, prisoners are war were common, and for many clans, slavery of this form was an accepted part of their culture, especially before Ryloth had contact with the wider galaxy.

Hutt slavery and general capitalistic forces

When Ryloth fell under hutt (or zygerian?) control, a fully chattel slavery system developed, but it would likely have started with clans on Ryloth selling the slaves they already had off planet.

Transport of enslaved Twi'leks off planet is probably a big part of why Twi'leks are so common across the galaxy.

Family Names

Because of Rythoth's complicated history with slavery, there is some controversy about family names. Traditions vary across clans, but most follow a matrilineal tradition. This is controversial for some because it originates from slave owners wanting to keep track of who is an isn't enslaved under Hutt, chattel systems (Before paternity tests, the only parent people could be absolutely sure of was the mother, so tracking lineage by the maternal side makes for more stable societal lines between free/enslaved people. Also other, arguably worse effects I won't get into here).

After joining the Republic and getting some protection from the Hutts, the matrilineal tradition remained, and came to include marriage as well, for many clans.

This origin makes maternal family names controversial for some, who instead choose patralineal or completely alternate naming traditions. This is present in Tales with Hikka's daughter noted as taking her husband's name, Syndulla.

Gender

We see some pretty clear gender roles on Ryloth in the Clone Wars episodes I've watched, and we see there are differences in how men and women dress. Twi'leks are noted as being similar enough to humans to produce fertile offspring together, so I figure that cultural and biological whatever are pretty similar about gender, eg the range of binary, queer, intersex, etc are all present in Twi'leks. Whether queer twi'leks are openly accepted probably varies clan to clan.

Male twi'leks are seen as fighters--all of the rebels who invaded Ryloth were male.

Female twi'leks are very much present in the Rebellion, seeming to take on support roles.

It's pretty boring trad gender role stuff, honestly just human writers projecting their ideas directly. Pretty meh.

I think Hera Syndulla gets a kind of cultural pass to be a fighter based on Cham Syndulla being her father, like the hollywood "my father was the great scientist blah blah and I must be as great as him" woman scientist trope. I also think Hera's pissed off about this being the only reason many people are okay with her fighting.

Language

I think Ryl/Twi'leki is a gendered language with a masculine bias, like the romance languages have.

In conclusion,

I gave myself a sandbox with Tales of Ryloth and really expected myself not to play in it. You'd think I would learn at some point.

#star wars #Biting His Own Tale #tatooine slave culture #twi'lek #ryloth #fanfiction #writing #the clone wars #world building #i will never learn #i cannot be stopped #star wars yeeteth

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