#I actually think this is a pretty interesting question in spite of the fact I'm going to tag it as shitposting

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

#I actually think this is a pretty interesting question in spite of the fact I'm going to tag it as shitposting #because these characters do have some similarities #I think Carla's magic is more versatile #but I'd put my money on Zhongli #because I think with Endzeit in play he'd outlast Carla in fight #shitposting #don't mind me I'm just procrastinating on a not fun lab job

[slayfics]

is it possible for you to make any sort of shinsou related fics? I think it would be really cute to see him take the reader on a date or maybe a valentines special eventually?

Valentine’s Day with Hitoshi.

1,700 words~

"Isn't it so cute!" Mina exclaimed hugging a teddy bear to her chest. You both were walking back to the dorms after the conclusion of classes.

"Yeah, it's a pretty fluffy guy," you said smiling back at her. Mina was overjoyed to show off the teddy bear Eijiro had gifted her earlier in the day as a Valentine's gift.

"Do you have any plans for today?" she asked, releasing the teddy bear from his suffocating hug.

"Yeah, I do...," You answered already prepared for the several questions that were bound to come next.

"WHAT!?! WITH WHO?! DOING WHAT!?! WHEN?! TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Mina demanded.

You laughed at her predictable behavior, "I'm supposed to meet Shinso in about an hour," You answered.

"HU?! Shinso?! Wait- the purple-haired boy from general studies?! NO WAY! He asked you out?! You can't just leave me hanging without any details! When did you two even talk?!" Mian asked surprised.

The truth was you were surprised too. Hitoshi was in the general studies course, so you hadn't really crossed paths with him during your time at U.A., despite that you found a letter stuffed into your locker a few days before Valentine's Day.

You unraveled the letter from your pocket and handed it to Mina who took the liberty of reading it out loud.

I apologize for doing this informally. However, I am unsure if we will cross paths in time for me to ask you directly. I've been interested in getting to know you better for some time now and was hoping you'd be interested in meeting me after class this Wednesday. If you are, meet me at the stairs of the main entrance of the school at 7 pm. -Shinso

Mina cried out loud after finishing the letter, "This is so romantic! The dork could have left his phone number though."

"Yeah, I thought that too- it would have been nice to confirm with him but- that's all right. I'll get ready and, meet him over there," You answered.

"You have to text me right away after! He seems so mysterious- such an interesting quirk. I wonder what he's like. OMG! What if he brainwashes you, good thing you told me! If I don't hear from you by 9 pm I'm calling Aizawa.," Mina spoke, causing you to laugh.

"You're always so dramatic," You laughed as you both entered the dorms.

"You can never be too careful!" She spoke before giving you a wink. "Good luck! I'm off to meet up with Kirishima!"

You gave her a wave and made your way to your room.

Once you finished getting ready you made your way back to the school. You were shocked to see Hitoshi was actually waiting on the school steps, hands in his sweater pockets and backpack at his feet. His eyes lit up as soon as he spotted you.

"Hey," You greeted him nervously unsure of what to expect. You had never talked to him one-on-one before.

"Hi!" He greeted you back, unable to keep the smile that erupted on his face. It excited him to see you had come- and that you weren't afraid to talk to him in spite of his quirk. "I uh- apologize for asking you out in such an informal way- I would have liked to ask you in person but, I hadn't run into you at all the last few days," He explained.

Truth be told you don't ever remember running into him. Were you crossing paths with him before without noticing? He certainly seemed to be noticing you.

"Informal? What do you mean? A letter is as formal as it gets," You laughed, hoping to lighten the awkwardness and break the ice. "I didn't mind it at all, in fact, it was pretty thoughtful."

"I'm glad you think so, and I'm glad you came... you didn't have any other plans?" he asked, hoping he wasn't prying too much too soon.

"Mm no-," you said glancing to the side, slightly embarrassed that no one else had taken any interest in making plans with you this Valentine's Day.

Hitoshi tried to hide the smile that threatened to break through on his lips at hearing you weren't seeing anybody. "Well, I uh- got you something," he said leaning down to pick up his backpack and search inside. He pulled out a purple plushie cat with a pink bow tied around its neck. "Hope it's not too dumb," he said holding it out to you.

A squeak escaped you at seeing the adorable stuffed cat, "This is so cute!" you exclaimed, grabbing it eagerly and squeezing it.

"I'm glad you think so," He spoke, blush tinting his face at your excitement.

"I got you something too," you said reaching into your bag.

"Hu? You didn't have to-," he replied, a stunned look on his face.

"Of course I did, it's Valentine's Day and you were sweet enough to want to spend time with me so- here," you said handing him the chocolate bar you had picked out at the store.

"That's really nice of you," he spoke a full blush on his face now as he grabbed the bar from your hand. Hitoshi cleared his throat trying to get his composure back, "I uh- wasn't sure what you'd be interested in, so I had a few ideas but- are you ok with walking to the cafe to get something to drink?" He asked.

"That sounds fine to me," You smiled hugging the stuffed cat in your arms and you both started the walk to the cafe.

"I've uh- been admiring you for some time now," Hitoshi disclosed, as you both walked down the street.

Your face flushed, you'd never met a boy to be so honest and straightforward before. "Really?" You manage to squeak out.

"Mhm-" He nodded. "You work so hard in your courses- I know you'll be an admirable hero one day."

"Oh, thank you- I'm not really sure how to take that compliment," You laughed nervously. "You're in the general studies course, right? What is that like?"

"It's fine I suppose- but I'm working hard training with Aizawa to transfer into the hero course," He answered.

"You're training with Aizawa!?" You asked shocked.

"Yeah- he's your teacher, right?" he asked, as you both approached the cafe, and he held the door open for you.

"Yup!" You nodded happily, entering the cafe. "If he is training you, I have no doubts you'll be transferring to the hero course in no time!"

Hitoshi smiled and glanced at the floor flustered by your praise. "Thank you for that- it's nice to have the approval of someone like you," He spoke causing you to fluster slightly.

Hitoshi ordered your drinks and you both started the walk back to the dorms.

"What do you mean someone like me?" You asked curiously, still taken aback by his comment.

"Hm? Well- I suppose I put a great deal of importance on the hero course so... hearing that a strong hero student like you thinks I have what it takes to make it... It's nice. I'm not used to that. Most people are scared to talk to me because of my quirk or say it's a perfect quirk for a villain," He explained.

"Oh- well don't pay too much attention to those people. Your quirk is amazing and could definitely make for a powerful pro hero. So- just stay focused on your training and maybe I'll see you in my class before I know it," you said encouragingly.

Hitoshi smiled, "I would like that... to be in the hero course but also, to see you more often."

"Oh-," You exclaimed feeling your face get hot again. "I've never met someone so blunt as you- it's refreshing," You spoke hoping your cheeks weren't too obvious.

You both approached the dorms and came to a slower pace. "I don't have any problems expressing my true feelings- if I wasn't training so much with Aizawa I would have liked to ask you out sooner. These are your dorms correct?" He asked.

"Yeah..." You said a little downcast that you were back and already going to part ways.

"If it's ok with you- I would like to take you to eat after classes on Friday," he said. Hitoshi felt his stomach flutter at the way your eyes lit up at his invention. He had admired you from afar for so long that it was overwhelming to see how much you appreciated his attention.

"Yeah! That sounds good," you said excitedly, the stuffed cat bouncing in your arms due to your excited rocking on your heels. "Oh! Why don't you let me give you my number-" You offered holding your hand out.

Hitoshi fished for his phone in his pocket and handed it over. He couldn't help but grin at the careful way you kept the stuffed cat in your arms as you typed out your number.

"Here you go!" You said handing it back to him. "I uh- thank you this was really nice."

Hitoshi nodded in agreement.

"I guess I'll see you Friday then," You spoke feeling hesitant to walk away. You wanted to spend more time with him and get to know him more. You stared at the floor waiting for him to give his farewell and walk away.

"Mhm- I'll see you then. You can let me know wherever you want to go...," he said, and you both silently waited for the other to make the first move to leave.

Hitoshi let out a small chuckle, "I guess neither of us want to go do we?" He observed.

You blushed slightly and looked at the stuffed cat giving it another squeeze, "This was nice- I uh feel calm being around you." You spoke, giving a Hitoshi another flutter in his stomach. He was used to hearing he put everyone on edge because of his quirk. It was intoxicating to hear you felt the opposite.

"Friday will come soon," He spoke and stepped closer to you closing some of the distance. You stared at him with doe eyes, as he moved closer placing a kiss on your cheek. "See you then," he smiled and left making his way back to the general studies dorms.

Tags: @unofficialmuilover @maddietries @fiannee @derangedmango

#hitoshi shinso x y/n #hitoshi x reader #hitoshi shinsou #bnha shinso hitoshi #hitoshi shinso x reader #shinsou hitoshi #shinso x reader #mha shinsou #shinsou x reader #bnha shinsou #shinso x y/n #bnha fanfiction #bnha x self insert #bnha x y/n #bnha x gender neutral reader #bnha x you #bnha x reader #mha x y/n #mha x gender neutral reader #mha x you #mha x reader #my hero x reader #my hero academy fanfiction

[squgs]

"Alicent resents Rhaenyra having the freedom that she never did." This is a pretty common hotd take which is complicated by the fact that Rhaenyra doesn't actually really have that much more freedom (she also has to marry and have children, and also ends up in an abusive marriage). So I'm wondering what if Alicent knows that? What if her resentment isn't that Rhaenyra never has to pay the price for her transgressions/freedoms, but that Alicent and her family are the ones who pay for Rhaenyra's freedom. When Rhaenyra goes out with Daemon, putting her reputation and marriage prospects in jeopardy, it's Otto who loses his job (after he saves her from likely having to marry Daemon). When Rhaenyra has obvious bastards that will create multiple succession crisis's, it's Aemond who loses an eye and is threatened with torture, and Vaemond who gets murdered. Alicent spends most of the series under the assumption that if Rhaenyra has to choose between giving up being queen and murdering her half brothers she'll choose the latter, gaining her freedom by harming Alicent. In this context her resentment makes a lot of sense and is more than just spite and jealousy (though I'm not saying those aren't present).

This also has me thinking what if Alicent is the more self aware one of the two of them? I think she knows how shit her situation is in a way that Rhaenyra might not until episode 10 when Daemon chokes her. Alicent at least by episode 9 recognizes her father for what he is and in her own small way able to fight for what she wants (Rhaenyra's survival and peace). She at least knows she's in a prison and is able to build a window in it, as Rhaenys condescendingly described. Rhaenyra on the other hand might truly believe that she's the exception to all the sexism in Westeros. That her name, her dragon and her father mean that she isn't like all the other girls. And for a while that's true. She gets to do things that no other woman in Westeros could get away with. She either doesn't see the cost to Alicent and Criston and Otto and Aemond and Vaemond, or she see their fates as their own faults. That all collapses in episode ten when she sees how completely alone she is. The men who are supposed to be obeying her seem more inclined to listen to Daemon and Daemon will not place her needs above his own or at least won't without first assaulting her.

This then allows for an interesting thesis of the show if it was intentional. We're given two women who have very different responses to patriarchy, but neither approach can save them. Obedience won't save them, promiscuity won't save them, a dragon won't save them, the right husband won't save them, the right father won't save them. The only thing that could have maybe saved them is solidarity, something that we see Alicent give up on in episode 5 (whether Rhaenyra has ever considered using her position or privilege to help another woman is an open question).

Obviously there's no definitive proof of this idea, but I find it interesting and that it adds depth to the tension and bitterness between Rhaenyra and Alicent.

#hotd #alicent hightower #rhaenyra targaryen #pro alicent hightower

[dogtoling]

Hey so I'm trying to figure out some stuff about the Inkadian government and needless to say there's a lot of rampant Cnidarian corruption - but I had a question about jellies

Opinions on what Nogami said about the Jellyfish having a hivemind? Is there any sort of biological fact it's based in? (All I can think of is how some jellyfish like the Portuguese Man 'O War is actually a collection of polyps cooperating to find food)

Sorry if someone's already asked this, but it's appreciated!

i have literally no idea. I know next to nothing about jellyfish and the jellyfish in splatoon have so many random tidbits of lore and culture that we only get random lore drops of in interviews. Like the fact they're a hivemind WHATEVER THAT MEANS, most of them don't speak, they just split parts of themselves off and clone to reproduce, one of them just started glowing one day and magically every other jellyfish could glow too after that (what), a lot of them Do Things just because they're mimicking things other people do et cetera.

i have no idea what the "correct" way to interpret the hivemind thing in canon terms would be, but I do have some thoughts on it. i feel it's more likely that jellyfish in general are a hivemind in the way that they can sense each other's thoughts and emotions and intent to some form, and their behavior and communication just greatly mystifies other species who can't read their body language at all and mainly communicate by speech, which jellyfish learn to do solely if they want to communicate with non-jellyfish, pretty much. I'd assume it's less of a hivemind in the "they all literally have the same brain" but more of a hivemind in the sense of they have extremely refined and detailed ways of probably chemical communication or something, so other species can't predict or understand their trains of thoughts at all and thus find it mystifying and confusing when jellyfish will randomly do things in perfect unison despite the fact that they didnt communicate about it whatsoever.

The main problem i have with jellyfish is that it makes it REALLY HARD to make jellyfish OCs because we literally don't know how they work. i like jellyfish and want to make ocs so badly and I will, but what the fuck man. Also jellyfish give me so many additional questions. HOW do birth certificates and IDs work in splatoon when people can just randomly clone themselves? Are the jellyfish recognized citizens? I'd hope so. They supposedly have money but do they get paid for all the work the NPCs do in spite of the game saying a lot of jellyfish just do things that they've seen other jellyfish and people do? i'd hope so. Do they have like, housing? Like what is going on. We know from Jelonzo and Jelfonzo and the like that jellyfish at least have their own individual will instead of just being a cog in a hypotethical singularity that every jellyfish is a part of. Or, well...

There's actually quite a lot of this in this interview. yeah, not something that's easy or clear to work with at all really. Interesting yes, but god help me

#mailbox #sorry for incoherent thought my brain is a mess lately but. jelly fish

[stardestroyer81]

My first post of 2024 may have been cited to be the first look at Star Tower, my arcade-centric Pizza Tower AU, though consider this post to be your first real look at both the AU! This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time, and I am simply overjoyed to finally reveal the first set of characters for Star Tower!!! ⭐👾✨

This is a long post packed to the brim with art— some of which aren't featured in the above image— so if you're interested, I highly suggest you read on underneath the cut! 💙✨

As an AU, Star Tower dates back to March 3rd of 2023, which is when I first drew the logo for it. A sprite of myself drawn in the Pizza Tower artstyle predates Star Tower as an AU by about a month, so I think it goes without question that the stand-in for Peppino is Star Tower is a representation of myself!

It's just another day for Star Splitscreen at the local arcade, when all of a sudden, the multicade cabinet bugs out and sucks her inside! It's within the cabinet's confines where she meets the omnipotent Sinistar, who claims it'll set her free if she can best its '20-in-1 Supercade Challenge'.

What follows is an arduous adventure that sees Star venturing through arcade games familiar and obscure, and learning Sinistar's secret identity as well as escaping back into the real world all depends on her success... it's a good thing a seasoned arcade expert like her has what it takes!

I knew going into designing for Star Tower that I wanted each floor boss (I.E. Pepperman, The Noise, etc.) to be represented with an actual character from an established arcade game (With one exception...) and trust me when I say that I spent a fair amount of time carefully going through every arcade game I knew of and selecting a character appropriate for each boss's role.

Ultimately, I'm quite proud of the selection of characters I settled with, so let's jump right in and discuss Pepperman's stand-in...

Goro from 1983's Mappy! I find that, in terms of appearance, Goro was a perfect fit to replace Pepperman. Both are predominantly large red characters who are often depicted with wide, toothy grins— it was the perfect match!

Unlike both his canon personality and his personality in the animated ShiftyLook series, Goro in Star Tower is a lot more nefarious and self-centered, and sends out the Meowkies to do his dirty work when his own efforts don't cut it. I wanted to include sprites of the three Meowkies for this post originally, but I decided to save them for a future post (That's tech talk for 'I'm still trying to figure out how to stylize them').

I think of the four main bosses, Goro was the hardest to sprite in the Pizza Tower artstyle solely for the way his head is drawn. There's something about his face that was extremely difficult to draw at such a small scale, but after drawing pretty much every other sprite featured in this post, he was the final character in this lineup that I drew a sprite for, and I'm quite happy with it!

While Goro is certainly an iconic character, the same can't be said for The Vigilante's stand-in who, in spite of starring in one of the earliest known arcade games, is all the more obscure. Enter...

Mr. Jack from 1979's Sheriff! The Vigilante is the only boss of the main four who originally was going to be represented by an entirely different character, that being Kinzo from 1996's Pac-Man Arrangement.

It was when I remembered about Sheriff that I realized that Mr. Jack was the perfect candidate to replace The Vigilante. I mean, both are represented as mostly yellow cowboys armed with guns and a fashionable cowboy hat. How much closer could you get than that?

The real challenge was finding a good image of Mr. Jack to base his appearance in Star Tower off of. For those who don't know, Mr. Jack only has three known images of him that exist despite the fact that the game he hails from is over forty years old, so it wasn't exactly the easiest task.

I decided to base his appearance off of how he looks on Sheriff's bezel as that's the only full-body look we've ever gotten of him. The guy already looks like a Pizza Tower character as it is (A long lost cousin of Burton, perhaps?), and I find that his sprite looks the most like something you would actually see in Pizza Tower!

On the topic of arcade characters that are perfect fits for stand-ins of certain Pizza Tower characters...

Charley Chuck from 1983's Food Fight was, without question, the ideal choice to replace The Noise. One look at this flyer for Food Fight should perfectly encapsulate as to why. He's a little brat who's primary objective is to make the lives of the local chefs miserable. Sound familiar? It should!

Charley has had numerous different designs drawn for him around the time his game debuted, and it was pretty difficult settling on just the right one. I decided to give him a white and red striped shirt which he wears on the Food Fight arcade cabinet, and draw him as similar to the Noise as I could— I even sized him so that he stands smaller than Star, which took a lot more time than I'm willing to admit.

What's particularly interesting is that, fairly recently, Atari announced a Splatoon-like game for their VCS console, and you'll never believe who's the poster boy and what the game is a sequel to. I'm fairly certain that just before the announcement of Food Fight: Culinary Combat, I was the only person who was doing anything with Charley Chuck, and here he is starring in a brand new game some forty years after his initial debut. Not bad, kid!

One must wonder if I was the one who manifested Charley's return into existence...

With Charley Chuck properly introduced, I can move onto who may just be my favorite of this post's lineup...

Crazy Star.

With the success of 1981's Donkey Kong, an officially licensed clone was created for use in Japan only, though found its way outside of the country without the license to do so from Nintendo. This clone's name is Crazy Kong, and to say it's uncanny wouldn't be doing it justice.

Originally, I was a bit hesitant on just designing a 'fake Star' and calling it a day. I wanted there to be some arcade theming to it, and when the idea of a 'bootleg Star' came to mind, I quickly turned to Crazy Kong as a point of reference and Crazy Star is what came out of it (I should also mention that Crazy Kong released in 1981... now that's what I call meant to be)!

Out of everyone featured in this post, I've definitely drawn Crazy Star the absolute most because, as I mentioned before, it's just about my favorite of the Star Tower bunch! My favorite detail about it is that its color palette is made up of colors hand-picked from Crazy Kong itself!

Originally, I had screen-picked its colors from a YouTube video of the clone, resulting in a slightly different color scheme, but once I found a sprite sheet for Crazy Kong, it resulted in the Crazy Star you see in this post! Crazy Star may look unsettling, but in reality it's just as welcoming as Star, and all it wants is to be just like her.

Just like her... just like her... just like her...

Beware... Sinistar from the 1983 arcade game of the same name lives! Yet another instance of the perfect replacement, both Pizzaface and Sinistar are giant evil floating circles, and it was clear to me from the get-go that Sinistar would make a perfect stand-in for the former, especially since half of its name is 'Star'!

Drawing a sprite for Sinistar was both a cakewalk and a challenge. For one, seeing as its sprite is on the larger side, that meant I had a lot more detail to work with. On the other hand, however, I struggled for a while to get a good design drawn for Sinistar. Eventually, my good friend @panurei-derogatory suggested that it would be funny if Sinistar was hyper-realistically detailed compared to the other sprites, and that was something I had a lot of fun with when drawing its sprite!

Anyone who's played Pizza Tower knows that Pizzaface himself is merely a facade, as the true mastermind behind Peppino's misery has been hidden in plain sight since the very start— the comically villainous Pizzahead! I think out of every 'arcade stand-in' I chose for Star Tower, coming up with one for Pizzahead was the absolute hardest, because none of my ideas really seemed to stick the landing.

But then, I thought "What if it was a completely original character?"

And that's where Richard Benito Townsend (More commonly known by his alias 'Richie T.'), the self-proclaimed 'king of video games', enters the scene!

Richie T., who is absolutely not based off of any notorious cheaters in the arcade world record scene, is a washed-up video game master has-been, once highly regarded in his heyday for being an icon in the world of video games before his supposed 'unbeatable world records' were discovered to be fraudulent.

Shunned to a life of seclusion, the ever boisterous Richie T. now pilots Sinistar within a multicade cabinet where he's free to call the shots, daring to go toe-to-toe with Star once she proves herself worthy of being a Supercade Superstar. After all, she's just some girl— she can't possibly trounce the Richie T., can she?

Spoilers: He has no idea.

And with that out of the way, that's just about everything I wanted to touch base on in pertains to this first set of Star Tower characters! As I said before, this post has been a long time coming, and it's ever so wonderful to finally get this out onto tumblr!

You can expect a part two of sorts to this post sometime in the coming months, as there are still more stand-ins I've yet to post... this time, replacements of the supporting characters, such as Gustavo, Mr. Stick, and a couple of others! For now, I hope that you've enjoyed your first real look at the world of Star Tower! 💙✨

#⭐ Star's Art ⭐ #Star Tower #Pizza Tower #Pizza Tower AU #Arcade Games #Star Splitscreen #Goro Mappy #Mr. Jack #Charley Chuck #Crazy Star #Sinistar #Richie T. #Aseprite #Sprite Art #Coolness #STAR TOWER WILL BE REAL IN ZERO SECONDS!!! #I spent a solid two or three hours writing everything for this post from the write-ups to the image IDs #I was simply THAT determined to get this post up as soon as I had finished every sprite featured in this post. #For those who have read the entire post I realize I keep repeating how nice it feels to have these sprites out there now... #And I truly mean it! Now I can post all the miscellaneous stuff I've made for Star Tower I wouldn't have been able to post before! #Such as the OODLES of Crazy Star content I've drawn XD #I'm considering on drawing a render for some of the other bosses like I did with Richie T. and Crazy Star #I think it would look particularly cool to have full-sized renders of Goro and Charley Chuck in particular! #Hopefully this post properly illustrates just how big of a love letter Star Tower is to arcade game fans the world over #My best friend Kintsu knows full well of just how many arcade references I've packed into ideas for Star Tower #I again want to give her a shout-out for encouraging me to go all in on this AU— it wouldn't be where it is now without her 💛

[i-heart-hxh]

I'm sure you've gotten this question before but the needle question got me thinking: do you have any idea how the Zoldyck heir situation even works? I'm guessing it's based on a talent and performance base (and having anime protag hair lol), but it's interesting that it's not simply "the eldest child is the heir to the family business." And if so, when was Killua deemed the heir? Love to hear your thoughts!

Hello! Actually, nobody's asked me this before, so it's a fun topic to dig into!

Canon doesn't provide much detail on this topic, so I'll do my best to convey what we do/don't know and then make some guesses based off that.

There's a popular belief I've seen in the fandom that Killua was chosen as the heir because of his hair color (and/or potentially nen type that may or may not come along with this), however this has never been confirmed by anything in the series. I do think when Togashi designed the Zoldyck siblings with Killua being the only one to inherit the white/silver hair like Silva and Zeno, it was almost certainly with the intention of making the fact that he's "special" among the family even clearer, but as far as we know currently, the heir is chosen based on perceived talent/potential.

I'm guessing this might include physical prowess and skill as an assassin, leadership ability, and mental stability. Killua is said to be the most talented Zoldyck in the entire history of the family, so I'm sure that heavily weights the decision towards him (in spite of the elements that make him "unsuitable," which the family seems to believe they can push out of him in various ways).

(Unofficial translation, but it was worded in a more straightforward way than the official one.)

We're never told how or when the heir is decided--perhaps they evaluate the children at a certain age with regards to this, or it's simply an ongoing discussion among the heads of the household until they come to a decision. There may be some formal process or ritual to determine who becomes the heir that we just haven't been given info on. It wouldn't surprise me with how complex the Zoldyck family's traditions, rules, and ways of operating are. I do think it makes sense that the heir isn't just the first born son, because assassination is an intense, multifaceted trade and leaving that business in the hands of just anyone doesn't seem wise.

Here's a bit that implies there's some sort of timeline by which the heir is prepared to take over the family, because Killua is apparently at the most crucial stage of this:

Looking at the other siblings, I think it's pretty clear why Killua is the best choice (in the view of Silva and Kikyo)--Illumi is unstable, power hungry, and has no qualms about killing innocent people to achieve his goals; Milluki is a shut-in who seems more focused on his hobbies than "work" and lacks common sense; Alluka has the Nanika issue and is barely even considered a member of the family to begin with. I don't know if Kalluto has anything in particular that disqualifies him, but it's not as though it's easy to compete with Killua, the most talented Zoldyck in the history of the family...

It wouldn't surprise me if we get a little more detail on the heir situation later in the series, seeing as Killua is still considered the heir as far as we know, and I think that's an issue that's going to have to be dealt with eventually in some way or another.

That's about all the insight I can give on this topic for now because we've only been given little tidbits on how it works, but I hope this was helpful or interesting nonetheless. Thank you for asking!

#hxh #hunter x hunter #killua #zoldyck family #meta #asks #ive-bean-boozled #my posts #if anyone finds any other references to the heir situation and how it works I'd be curious to see! #I don't think I missed any but there's a lot of detail in hxh and I can't re-read the entire manga to be sure

[icharchivist]

oh shit wait, dgm250 reactions up

-this is such a cool design from the mind of the problem twins i love it

-I've been saying for YEARS that i didn't believe Allen to be the heart, even when Apo started to obsess with him and everyone started saying he had to be the heart to justify why Apo was after him so bad. Tyki you and i share the same mind. thank you so much for putting it into words i'm going to start yelling. wanna hear my heart theory ag--

Though for equivalency sake i do have to mention that if Allen was the heart, i think Apocryphos would see Tyki say Allen couldn't be the heart and actually roll with it to protect the heart. so i don't think the fact Apo "confirms" Allen isn't the heart actually confirms anything, since on the contrary it's giving him an opportunity to protect the heart by agreeing.

I still think Allen isn't the heart, but Apocryphos's confirmation isn't actually one until we know for sure.

-"You're also obsessed with My Allen" "he's not Your Allen" TELL HIM TYKI, BUT ALSO WTF APO GET THE FUCK AWAY. CREEP.

-So it's attachement that provoked it? bc ngl i kept expecting Joyd took this face out of spite. but does it mean Joyd and Nea used to be close??? Oh the mystery thickens.

-this reaction is so fun lmao

-you're trying to hide something Wisely. I feel that.

SLFHJDLKFJDKLJFDKLFJKLDJFKLDJF

-So Allen not the heart, Tyki wonders why he's so obsessed with him....

but if Joyd and Nea used to be close, wouldn't it make sense of Joyd used to know Past!Allen? So Tyki could have become obsessed with Allen due to vague memories of the past?

and besides of Past!Allen was actually the ex Bookman Apprentice it would also explain why Tyki has been challenging Lavi in particular during fights. NO i'm not letting my ten years old theory dies i have a point i swear (have no point)

-So Wisely is to blame for it??? Makes sense then that the innocence was the thing that more or less broke the lock on Tyki when Allen poisoned him. BUT THEY'RE REMOVING THE LOCK? HELLO???

-wet.

-oh my god Kanda ALREADY reached Mana's grave?!

SHITTT THEY REALLY DIDNT WASTE ANY TIME HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHITTTT.

WE'RE GETTING THERE.

tho seeing baby Allen near Mana's corpse like this is destroying me.

Also add "their loved ones who became akuma are associated to flowers who found their ways down in the mud" to the similitude between Kanda and Allen.

Also never has grave robbing looked this pretty.

God this is gorgeous and stunning.

Final thoughts:

the chapter was so good wtf.

Beautiful art as always, some interesting things regarding the lore. Heart Theory is back on track, we have progress with the Noa memory and how Joyd apparently was affectionate to Nea?? god does Joyd know past!Allen is now the question....

But yeah more questions than not and more recentering some old theories back in topic.

i'm looking forward to see where it's going. dgm amazing as always, incredible chapter.

#ichablogging dgm #dgm spoilers #dgm250

[toushindai]

I finished reading your latest fic and I have to say your character study of both Rauru and Ganondorf and their relationship to themselves and power made for a very interesting read! My question: what parts of Rauru do you enjoy studying and elaborating on the most? What parts of his character endear you to him?

Thank you anon!! And thank you for the question as well. Rauru is my favorite character in the sense that my brain will NOT stop chewing on him but I don’t know if I have ever felt endeared to him, per se. My firstest reaction to him—when the final trailer dropped—was one of suspicion. “Did you kidnap my princess so that I would solve your problems?!” This was mildly unfair. He didn’t kidnap Zelda. He sure does want me to solve his problems, though? So the feeling somewhat persisted.

He’s just sssooooo. Infuriating. In a way that I’m maybe 70% sure the devs didn’t intend? I’m almost but not quite certain that the game’s writers just want me to perceive him as a noble king whose justly founded kingdom was threatened by a scary evil man who had no real reason for his violence against Hyrule, whose courageous sacrifice of his own life is to be admired and emulated (never mind that Zelda doesn’t need to be told that it’s a ruler’s duty to sacrifice themself for their people, she already did that for a century). Almost, but not quite, and 30% is not a small amount of uncertainty, actually. And that uncertainty comes from:

The specifically called-out fact that he repeatedly reached out to the Gerudo in spite of a lack of positive response, whatever that looked like. Buddy that is ✨coercive✨

His cold, superior treatment of Ganondorf in the Show of Fealty cutscene. Which is even more potent linguistically in Japanese and, I am told, in French. There’s something very twisted IMO about treating Ganondorf as a technical equal whose rightful place is beneath Rauru. It makes my brain go brrrrrrrrr real hard (this is known) and it is too apparent for me to think I’m not supposed to find it a little sick. s-sorry I'm just thinking about it and my brain is going brrrrrrr again. give me a second. ok

And—shifting away from that cutscene even though I live there—I have been thinking recently about how much of the game’s message is that you are not alone and yet how heavily Rauru’s instinct is that he must face the Demon King alone. How he sets up Link, only, as Ganondorf’s eventual doom. It’s Zelda and Mineru who build the framework for the future sages to fight at Link’s side. Rauru’s not fully aligned with the theme of the game, and he grunts at his sister, miffed, when she points that out to him.

So was this intended? He is arrogant—the game names this as his fatal flaw, he names this as his fatal flaw—but how much of his arrogance does the game criticize and how much does it treat as his right? My brain will not stop chewing on this question so I make it the central question of his characterization.

What do I like about him. As a person? Not very much. He is kind and supportive to Zelda. He loves his wife. His ears are very expressive and that’s cute. List ends here, I think. I don’t even respect as a person his desire to be a good and just king because it is far too wrapped up in that “king” part.

But as a character, I like him as someone who showcases—if unintentionally on the game’s part—how ultimately insufficient good intentions are. And how solipsistic it is to think that good intentions are everything. I like writing him as someone who truly wants to be a good person, as good as he can possibly be, and who suddenly finds that he has desires and instincts that don’t support that self-perception at all. I think that happens to all of us, sometimes. We all have moments where our instincts are crueler or more selfish than our ideals. It’s how we chose to react to those instincts that matters, and part of that process is to look at them honestly and admit to them. But Rauru, as I write him, fails this step pretty hard. And what happens as a result? He is left in this morass of inner conflict, he is not able to deal honestly with his own desires. They keep building, and he keeps blaming Ganondorf for provoking them. He faces them for just long enough to act on the worst of them and then, horrified by what he has done, he looks away from them again. Not ideal! Not a desirable outcome! But not, I hope, outside the realm of his characterization. (Zelda tells him he will sacrifice himself and he says well that’s my duty but (A) of all you weren’t here before so things will be different! dw about it! And then when he realizes that no, to sacrifice himself is the only option, there is heartbreak on his face. My guy, you were warned. Did you convince yourself this wasn’t coming?)

He’s complex. Maybe on purpose or maybe because the game doesn’t realize how insidious the evils of empire and monarchy are--I think probably the former greatly exacerbated by the latter. I have made up so much about him but he would not be nearly as interesting if exported into an OC because I'd be starting with the premise "ooooh he's a lil fucked up actually" as opposed to my making this point about the game writing about a character the game (mostly, I think) wants us to think of as purely good.

gnaws on him some more. puts him back in the terrarium. gives the terrarium a good solid shake. what a guy

#thanks for the ask! #anonymous #and we were both kings 😳 #bad and imperialist zonai get put in the goat wiggler #tou and the tearful kingdom

[the-girl-in-the-high-castle]

I wanna talk about "The Calling"

That episode is pretty much my favorite, but there is something that's been bugging me a lot. Something I haven't really thought about much earlier, and that is the reaction certain characters have to it that differs from everyone else. Those characters are Maura, Eyk, Angel, Krester, and, believe it or not, Wilhelm (mustached German Adam Driver). So, correct me if I'm wrong:

Yes, we have all the characters that survived the calling and seemed to be unaffected, but most of them knew what was going on, and as soon as everyone started jumping off the ship, they started locking themselves up or tying up their own hands in an attempt to control themselves from doing the same. Well, everyone except Iben, who was affected like everyone else, but stopped by Anker, Tove and Franz.

We don't count Daniel, Elliot and Sebastian cause they're insiders and wouldn't be affected in any case. But that very fact makes Maura and Eyk's reactions weirder. Also, Wilhelm's partially.

Maura and Eyk don't react to it at all. Yes, they are scared of what is happening and weirded out by people jumping overboard, but the calling has zero effect on them. They don't lock or tie themselves like the others. They look for each other while it's happening. They find each other and end up in Eyk's cabin. Maura is explaining everything she's been hiding from Eyk while they just casually watch through the portholes as the bodies fall into the water. So, why aren't they at least affected like everyone else who was immune to it, but still doubted their own actions?

Wilhelm seems unaffected, too. He looks scared shitless watching people just drop, but unlike the rest of the crew, he's not hearing the tik-tok, and he is aware of everything. Until Sebastian deactivates him. There was no reason for him to turn Wilhelm off at all unless he knew he would question things and realize something others couldn't. We knew Franz was a lot more than an unimportant crew member, but Wilhelm seems to be of more importance, too.

Then we have Krester. Yes, Krester jumped off, but I think a lot of people noticed that he actually did it on purpose and was aware of what he was doing, unlike everyone else. It was like he simply gave up and used the chance to die when no one questions it. Was it cause he couldn't face everything that was going on in his life anymore? Or was it something else?

And maybe the most interesting case, Angel. He looks affected by it, just like everyone else who jumped, but he seems to be the only one who actually fights it. He hears the calling and he knows what it is, so he goes to his room, sits on the floor, covers his ears, and starts singing a children's song in order to fight the noise away. Like a child afraid of the dark. This is completely opposite of Krester, who surrenders to his weakness in spite of being able to escape it.

I don't know what all this means, but it's very interesting to try and analyze it.

#1899 netflix #1899 #1899 theories #maura franklin #eyk larsen #krester 1899 #angel 1899 #wilhelm 1899 #yep i will not stop thinking or talking about it #the calling

[moonshine-nightlight]

Hi, I'm always very impressed by your world building skills, even in shorter stories! Do you have any advice for aspiring writers on how to build their fantasy world?

So i drafted a response to this in between working just far too much and then my computer crashed and i lost it. Then i was even busier so i never got around to writing it again but i am making some time this weekend, so worldbuilding post - take 2

My main, high level worldbuilding tips are:

Rule of Cool: worldbuild things you think are fun and interesting. not only is that the best way to get ideas you like and are motivated to write about, but other people will also think they're interesting too. have fun with it.

Iceberg theory: know more about the world than ever makes it into the story. people can sense when worldbuilding is shallow, so even if they never see the true depths of the world they can often sense it's there. plus if u know the whole picture, everything the readers do see will seem more coherent

Integration: i heavily integrate the world i'm building into the story i'm telling--so dig into the plot and characters and make sure that the world and the story serve each other well. your world is there to contribute to the story so make sure its fulfilling that purpose

For more specifics about how i personally world build and for some examples from my stories of the above guidelines, see below.

So firstly, i love worldbuilding. i just think its a ton of fun and could easily spend hours just thinking about worlds in my head. (i mean what else is there to do when ur commuting to work, amiright?) i think that does make it easier for me to take the time to do it right and makes the world come through more vividly in my writing. it can get annoying or tedious or be more challenging at times, but since i like it/find world building interesting, i'm more willing to put in the time and effort to whip it into shape and i get less frustrated with that part of the process in general.

i'm also always thinking about world building to some degree in the back of my mind. picking up interesting information, facts, snatches of cool ideas or images or whatever. then i throw all that in like a junk drawer in my brain so when i sit down to more officially write or flesh out a world, i already have spare parts at my finger tips to use or drawn on.

Reading and consuming other art and worlds also makes it easier to make your own, just lik reading is a key part of writing practice. i don't just mean fiction, but just anything about the actual world makes it much easier to make up your own--that can manifest as awe at the fireflies that actually exist or spite that dragons dont. Whether that's random youtube video essays about the history of musicals or drinks or fashion to books and articles and documentaries or just my friend's niche interests (or their regular jobs). i'm always taking worldbuilding notes in the back of my mind.

For a more writing specific example, i read this short guide '50 Ways to Kill a Mermaid' (its locked for AO3 so u hav to sign in to read it) and it was super fun and cool to read that info from a writer who had studied marine biology. then when i was fleshing out Don't Shoot the Messenger a year later, the problem of Satrasi being a sea demon in a fresh water pool and bloating came to my mind because i'd stored that tidbit from the article away for later use.

My personal method for worldbuilding and plot outlining is sort a brainstorming/Q&A i have with myself (i hope this makes sense when i'm done writing this all out lol).

I've mentioned this before but the prompt that inspired Dale was: "You’re pretty sure your boyfriend was replaced by an eldritch being that can barely emulate being human. Weirdly, you enjoy a better relationship with them than your actual boyfriend."

So when that idea grabbed me, i started brainstorming about the world and asking myself questions. Why is the reader with the boyfriend if they don't really like them? What would make someone stay in a relationship like that? Do i want to make this a dark story? And i did not, i wanted it to be fun, so the arranged marriage angle came to mind. And if that's the premise then when is the story? is this our 'past' or another world entirely? diff world means more freedom so i automatically leaned in that direction.

Can the reader tell the 'boyfriend' has been replaced? Are demons a thing people know about? does the reader know that's an option? which is more fun? if the reader is worried about Dale getting caught, that's more room for hijinks so then yes, demons are known, but not common otherwise too many people would notice.

So my plot and worldbuilding are evolving in tandem and informing each other, based on the type of story i want to tell and how the characters i have in mind will react etc.

i run through a lot of ideas and turn them over in my head--trying out diff pieces to see if they fit--and am always willing to drop an idea or save it for another story if i don't think its working for the current one

For iceberg theory, i mentioned above for Dale would be the religions in that world. When i decided to introduce a priest like character (for discovery danger) i knew i needed to focus more on the religions than i previously had noted. the majority of what i came up with isn't int he story, but i think the fact that i know it helps me write when did end up in there, helped make it consistent, and means i can more easily work in allusions to it without having to work so hard those singular times.

For example, i'd decided to call the demon realm "the Depths" early on, which to me already invokes deep water and darkness, so i followed that through to sort height and air and light as being perceived more positively. fire and light are important symbols in this world and they primarily burn their dead--to bury someone below ground would be seen as almost condemning them and someone drowning is also seen as like, not good for their soul because what if it is 'pulled down' rather than 'ascending'. some of this was alluded to in the chapter, but most of it is not. this also helped me come up with the various "by the light" "dawn's ire" and other similar little 'religious' phrases and exclamations different characters use at times.

Meanwhile, in Sacrifice, the people living their are relatively non-religious--thats why they both don't pray to any other deities and it takes 5 years of problems to even bother trying an old god. it's not sacrilege because they're desperate people trying a long shot, not violating or abandoning a different belief. because i wanted the reader's main problem with it all to just be that they didn't think it work.

And why is she a translator? because i wanted to use the idea from that one post that goes around about how ridiculous it is in movies when their translated prophecies rhyme in english. why are they arguing about the translation? because its a dead language so no one really speaks it, that means the people who came up with it were here a century ago or longer. why aren't they here anymore? nomadic so they left and ended up staying away because of a natural disaster elsewhere. why is this town here now? a particular export/resource in this area became valuable enough for people to try to live here. the fact that its a lumber town due to some rare wood native to the area doesn't come up in the story, but i know it and i think that i know that about the town helps it feel more real, makes it easier for me to reach for new details when i need them

and going back to anything can be inspiration, let's talk about the doorlock in the very beginning of Finally Woken. its literally just a magical keypad/number pad but with different colored tiles instead of numbers because i wanted the reader to be able to get in, but i felt it didnt make sense for them to hav a physical key. and i thought it would look cool in Heshi's door and it went well with the fact that he's a glassblower . also, why is Heshi a glassblower? because i frickin' lov blown glass - i just think its so cool and pretty. that helped lead into the sort of artisan economy feel that world has.

Each of these stories has an outline and notes doc at a minimum. the notes doc is where i throw lik pics, inspiration posts, random worldbuilding ideas etc. only much shorter stories or stories that are heavily based in 'modern' world don't hav extensive random notes.

my Dale folder has subfolders for characters and the setting, as well as random worldbuilding files such as "demon summoning/magic" "spiritual belief and org" "fashion - feminine" and so on. Even excluding the plot outline and chapter notes (and not counting pics) i've got like, over 4k of random notes saved. dale is the one i hav the most of that for, but all my fics have some little section with stuff like that jotted down

in the end, i think the best way to sum up all that is with my three original rules of: put stuff u think is cool in your world, known more than you tell to help everything fit together and seem deep, and build your world around your plot and characters because they should all be working together to tell the story you want to tell.

honestly, i could ramble about worldbuilding all day so if anyone has any questions or wants more examples, just let me know ^^

#asks #writing asks #story asks #man did i apparently really want to talk about anything that isn't work or what? #this is why 'rambling' is in my other tumblr username #worldbuilding #fantasy world building #world building #i really do enjoy world building a lot #writing #i rly hope this made some sense #sorry for the delay in answering #i'm still kinda salty my original answer got eaten by my computer #look sometimes ur worldbuilding is because you learned a lot about operetta in a documentary #sometimes its because the idea of a secret corset busk knife is cool #ur guess as to what's gonna show up in dale next #but one of them will and yes that is a threat

[radfemfox5]

LOL that guy you were arguing with a few days ago changed his entire blog. i think you radicalized him LMFAOOO

here's him still malding about your argument: https://www.tumblr.com/mommabearlaciii/732929534465359873

It's been 3 days, honey. Why are you acting like a martyr? Please move on. Get a job. Or a hobby.

This is doubly hilarious to me because he warns others not to waste their time speaking to radfems while wasting multiple days seething about our conversation, to the point that he changed his whole blog...

Guess I have to address this in its entirety since he won't shut the fuck up about it. Buckle up, gyns.

For some added context as to why I immediately assumed this was a troll when I saw his post, this is what his blog looked like:

Jeez, I thought, what a terrible troll. It was so on the nose as to be comical. I soon realized that he was anything but a troll.

I was incredibly tame in my response to his insanely misogynistic post, to the point where I chided myself afterwards for not going harder on him.

In retrospect, being "civil" with him was the best way to go, as my reblog is simple, concise and clear: woman = female. That's literally it.

In spite of how simple my comment was, he still went on an unhinged rant mere minutes after I pressed reblog. It's honestly not worth reading, but for the sake of transparency I'll include screenshots.

Honestly, I was shocked to see how quickly he typed this whole thing out. Rage must increase your typing speed.

It's pretty funny to me that someone whose blog name used to be "adult human female" got so incredibly mad at me for stating that women are female. Shouldn't you agree with me, if you think trans women are female? Hm.

Following this, I wasn't planning on interacting with him again. I left a one word reply and thought that would be it. He kept replying with questions, which devolved into an extremely long exchange in the replies that had some interesting moments. Like him elaborating on why he believes trans women become female, which boils down to "amalgamation of female-approximate traits = female."

Source for his claim that sex is a bimodal distribution between two poles? No clue.

Basically this:

The graph he provided in lieu of a source:

I'm confused about this graph for multiple reasons, namely, the fact that it conflates sex and gender. Mostly, I'm confused about the extremities. Are the people on the far left of the graph "ultra female", and people on the far right "ultra male"? It's complete nonsense, not to mention that he doesn't provide a link to the source this graph is from, it's a commentated screenshot of a tweet with the graph.

Looking into it, the graph comes from a blog post by a transgender real estate agent. I would not consider this a reliable or credible source whatsoever, especially when the post goes on to say this:

You heard it here first, folks, having a small penis means you're less male, and a larger clitoris means you're less female. That makes total sense. I was half expecting them to include this image:

Back to the post: I attempted to explain to him that being in the female range of a specific trait doesn't mean you're female, without much success.

Speaking with him felt like trying to capture a feral cat. It was like I kept having to appease him with treats to keep him from hissing and scampering off. I've never had this feeling when speaking to any other trans person on this webbed site, they usually either block me immediately or have a conversation and then block me when they realize I actually have valid arguments to make. It was definitely a new experience for me. I have screenshots if anyone cares enough to see the full thing.

He did end up realizing I wasn't as complacent as he thought, and blocked me after leaving another beautiful essay in my DMs. The post that pushed him over the edge? The one where I made fun of the breastfeeding fetishist nominal.naomi. Why? Because I implied that males are ugly slobs that can't take pictures. Lol.

It's funny that this interaction seemingly got him to reconsider his time on Tumblr, to the point that he did a complete 180.

You know what, I'll take it. Some of his posts unintentionally call for gender abolition and acknowledge gendered labour inequalities. Sure, he reinforces gendered stereotypes while doing so, but at least he's saying something.

If I can get a misogynistic lesbian fetishist to change his entire blog to regurgitate basic feminist talking points and think he's owning Le TERFs... That's probably the funniest thing to happen to me here.

To be clear, that doesn't make him any less violent towards women he disagrees with.

To conclude: This entire exchange has made me realize that I don't have that many serious posts on this blog compared to my previous blogs. I'll start working on some more serious posts. If you gyns have any suggestions for subjects I could discuss in more of a serious or analytical tone, feel free to shoot me an ask or a DM.

#radfem #radfemfox #tim moment #male entitlement #trans exclusionary radical feminist #radblr #radfem safe #radfems #radical feminism #radical feminist community #radical feminist safe #radical feminists do interact #radical feminists do touch #radical feminists please interact #radical feminists please touch #radical feminst #rad fem #peak trans #gender critical #trans cult #terf #terfblr #terfs #terf safe #terfsafe #sex not gender #radical feminist #anon #mommabearlaciii #intersex

[howlsmovinglibrary]

You mentioned in the tags of a recent post what you’d change about Funny Story to make it a different book. Would you mind elaborating on what you meant by that? I’m curious!

hey anon, thank you for being a massive enabler bc this has in fact been my special topic for the last 48hrs.

I want to state off the bat that I still gave this book 4.75 stars. I really, really enjoyed it. That being said, I'd literally rewrite the entire thing to get it to 5.

Answer under the cut to avoid spoilers! (also shout out to @eldritchcow bc these ideas are not formed alone but through a series of ranting voice notes lmfao)

The premise of Funny Story is that two exes move in with each other after their partners run away together - the main character, Daphne, has her wedding cancelled as a result, and Miles, the love interest, also gets a pretty crap deal bc his girlfriend literally breaks up with him via A NOTE ON THE KITCHEN COUNTERTOP, before running off on holiday with another man (after they hook up AT HIS BACHELOR PARTY. DAPHNE AND MILES DESERVED TO DO VIOLENCE). Miles and Daphne move in together, a series of circumstances means that Daphne tells her ex they are now dating, and that Miles will be her plus to the NEW WEDDING that they have been INVITED TO.

Personally, I think this - two exes move in, fake date, develop feelings - is such a juicy set up for a novel, that it could carry the whole plot. But at about the halfway mark, a bunch of other stuff - family drama, friendship drama - is bought in for the third act conflict. The exes and all their drama fades to the background, and its no longer about this Very Juicy Set Up, which I think is a shame. I think that the premise could've carried the entire plot and that there was no need to bring in additional conflict... except that Emily Henry is known for adding conflicts outside of romance to her novels (creating well-rounded, 'feminist' characters - I'm not being mean, that is just the perception of it and what she is known for) and that this is thus more brand appropriate. By the same logic, it is 'less feminist' of me to argue that the book should've been more about the romance.

But it should've been more about the romance.

If I rewrote/re-edited this book, I would do the following.

Make Daphne and Miles be messier people. These two characters behave like FUCKING SAINTS, while their exes are awfully and affably evil. I've had multiple friends say that Daphne should've hit Peter (her ex) with a car. I don't necessarily think that would've been the way, but I think she should've made much more spiteful decisions. I think Henry is very concerned in stressing that these are Two Very Goody and Utterly Blameless main characters, but I think they should've gotten a little spite as a treat, actually.

And the spite they should've gotten as a treat is - fucking each other.

As is the way with romance books, there are certain 'acceptable thresholds' for smut/romance scenes. So I get it, I really do. But Daphne and Miles only bang once it's a healthy decision... and I'll be honest, it would've been sexier if they had had sex in an unhealthy place. (for the people who've read the book: kiss at the drunk night out with Gil, sex at the truck or before the truck, then Sex With Real Feelings at the point where they actually have sex)

If they had had sex out of spite/petty revenge first, then the entire plot of the book could've been around 'catching feelings' and this would still have been a totally valid character arc. I would've liked to have seen more questionable decisions that are still somewhat about the exes - more of the 'are we doing this for them or for ourselves?' conflict which is microdosed at the midway point - and then feelings developing, and then making the 'no I actually really like you so we can't do this for the wrong reasons anymore' be the final sex scene before the third act conflict

Two things would be vastly improved by this change: 1. a weird scene where Miles sees Daphne in her former wedding dress, and they really should've fucked? but they don't? because that would be the tiniest bit weird??? (like, slightly weird and messy, in such the smallest way, but I think it was sanitised down for that reason) 2. the fact that their exes break up and call-off their wedding off screen. Have them break up at the rehearsal dinner that Miles/Daphne are attending, actually. Then you have your third act conflict.

The third act conflict of Funny Story is insane, convoluted, and unrelated to the story, IMO. Is it still well written? YES. Emily Henry, you will always be famous. But my favourite parts of it were 1. both Miles and Daphne get caught in their exes' orbit as they break up, and this causes them both to doubt their relationship (shout out to Miles having such low self esteem that he automatically thinks they're back together, I understand you king) 2. Daphne fucks up a promise she made to a friend (but bc she's not allowed to be a bad person - see the first point - it's for totally understandable reasons), leading her to wonder if she's just become part of another couple, where she's swapped one man and his house for another man, and his house. I personally think that these VERY MINOR FOOTNOTES in what is ACTUALLY the third act conflict... are a third act conflict in and of themselves. And... if we go back to what I said about Emily Henry being known for Feminism™, the second part of that is a totally valid trope/feminist critique to dig into in depth that would, if given time to breathe, be 'on brand'.

In this book, Miles drives 2hrs to try and get Daphne's shitty dad to come back to her. Where is this energy, for Peter? I think, Miles should've punched Peter, as a treat. And Petra should've had more scenes, so that she actually had a personality beyond 'being hot'.

I think we should've had a messy wedding scene. Daphne and Miles are each others plus ones, but they never get to attend bc the wedding is called off. But that wedding?!!! or that rehearsal dinner?!!! IS THAT NOT THE STUFF THAT THIRD AT CONFLICTS DREAM OF???

TLDR - I think Funny Story should've had more sex, and been more about the romance premise and the kind of fucked up, messy choices and weird feelings that premise engendered. I think the third act should've been connected to pre-existing conflicts, instead of creating new ones. I think Miles and Daphne could've had a little revenge, as a treat. They should've allowed to be sexy and weird about it.

#asks #anons #funny story #and again! I gave this book 4.75 stars!! a very well written book but the more distance i get from it the more i'm confused by the editing. #also let emily henry write more sex!! i know she's good at yearning but do you know what's she's also good at!! writing sex!!! #booklr #book review #(I guess????)

[td-frog]

thoughts on dcas e5

villains alliance

i like that the notes at the end was just a reveal from miriam and not like an advantage thing for connor. that adds an interesting new layer to the whole thing.

i also really appreciate that only half the villain's alliance is actually being allies and that it's the original villain trio from s1. granted fiore and ellie are more motivated by being the only villains on their teams, but alec clearly meant it when he said they'd work together in spite of that and the rest of yellow team absolutely didn't. which like. obviously.

gonna be honest i assumed grett voted for yul because i saw people quoting it as fact (including the fandom wiki) and checking the handwriting seemed like a lot of work. but i was also surprised because literally in the last episode during their argument he said connoriya would probably vote him out because of his beef with riya and he hasn't even considered her as an option? esp when one vote wasn't revealed so they literally could have both voted for him.

i'm sooo curious what emily wanted to talk to him about. i'm still expecting yellow team villain alliance implosion of sorts but idk that i see yul going first anymore- it seems like they're planning more for him what with the cliffhanger here, his being shitty to grett, and his rivalry with riya. in terms of "who would vote for who" he has more things against him, but in terms of narrative i think he'll stick around. which might just mean yellow wins more for a bit.

magenta team

the hunter / tess conversation was really funny to me because it reads to me like hunter is just the absolute worst at a) situational awareness and b) effective communication. the way he presents the situation to her comes across as "i care and worry about ally because i love her but she's hard to approach when she's stressed" which i do believe.

but in pretty much every interaction he and ally have had this season she's been like "please work with me to help us get through this game and minimize hate" and his response is "why do you care so much what other people think?" like dude. read the room

like it does shift the perspective in that i think some of his shitty boyfriend moments were him (badly) trying to help address the source of her stress (like, in a "you can't control how other people feel so it's helpful to learn how to let go of it" way), but like. of fucking course she responds badly to that, you're essentially responding to "i care about this" with "stop caring" and being surprised when she takes that badly.

anyways i do like where it went. it seems like ally and tess might reconnect soon and i'm looking forward to that.

i also like the decision to get hunter out; i'm obviously biased because i love fiore but also from a drama perspective it makes more sense. his and ally's relationship is in a place where him leaving doesn't get rid of the drama, and the drama of fiore sticking around is better than the predicted 2v2 if she left.

it raises the question of how magenta alliances shake out next. i don't expect jake and ashley to stick with fiore bc they only voted out hunter because it was strategic here. it would make more sense for them to team up with ally now that she's alone (and she and ashley had a brief moment). but ally might not trust that because she'd be in danger later. also we don't know when the merge is and what would change then.

also shoutout to jake playing strategically here, i like the idea that miriam getting out pushed him to think harder about how to actually play.

cyan team

i mentioned in my last predictions that gabby hadn't really gotten to do anything plotwise and that's still sort of true but i can see how it changes- "if ellie were in a villains' alliance she would have told me"

like i love ellie in her bitch era but i think it runs the risk of getting old- she's not trying to be likable at all and that's bound to cause problems eventually, and this is fucking perfect. the thing she said to tess about how you can't trust friends in this game- ellie and gabby have never been directly pitted against each other and i bet that happens here.

i think their relationship is one of the strongest in the game right now, only really behind jaiden but james is out so that's irrelevant. but this raises the question of what ellie would choose between gabby and winning. she'd obviously choose winning over most everyone, but gabby? and i expect that to be painful even if it works out in the end.

also tom!! first off shoutout to aiden for bringing up the drama, he has no idea what's going on but is trying his best. but tom finally admitting to avoiding jake- and the reason is soooo funny.

like it makes sense. their relationship on s1 was tumultuous at best and neither handled it well. it genuinely makes sense that once he was off-camera he would worry that all the drama would continue to follow them and want to cut ties completely. it was shitty to ghost, but like. i get it.

but dude. you came back on the show together!!! you knew he would be here!!

(again i think this is great, i totally get why he's still avoiding jake, it's because he doesn't know how to communicate like an adult and hopes that avoiding all of his problems will make them go away)

i do think it's interesting in light of him being overly hostile to jake last episode? like i wonder how much of that is genuine resentment over stuff from s1 that's built-up unaddressed vs trying to push him away in advance because he's scared of them getting close again.

also he told aiden he was planning to talk to jake. i'll believe it when i see it buddy.

predictions

i think magenta team is safe, barring team change shenanigans.

i think yellow team could be in danger, because they have a lot of plot ready to explode, but they're probably also safe.

if it is them... i think it could be a lot of them. connor for being outside the alliance, yul for everything, alec for the villains alliance betrayal thing?, potentially riya although i'm less confident. i think grett is safe unless specifically sabotaged. but i don't think they'll lose.

i'm expecting cyan team. they're due for drama with the ellie villain thing, at the very least i think they'll be more focused in the plot of the episode.

i think tom and aiden are safe because i don't see the love triangle plot wrapping up so soon. it could be tess because she doesn't have an alliance, but i think she's more likely to be tiebreaker than targeted. i'm leaning one of gabby and ellie, depending on how the ellie villain thing shakes out. narratively it feels like sending ellie home here resolves a bit much, but idk why it'd be gabby. maybe an immunity idol type situation where ellie protects herself and it screws over gabby? or protects gabby and screws over herself? unsure.

aside from elimination

ally's gonna have some fallout from hunter leaving- probably talking to tess and maybe teaming up with either fiore or jake and ashley. but since i don't expect elimination the alliance part probably won't be a huge focus.

whatever happened with emily and yul- idk what it is so no idea how it will affect things.

i'm expecting drama on the cyan team, mainly related to ellie but idk exactly what it'll look like.

maybe tom will actually talk to jake??

#frog.txt #disventure camp #disventure camp spoilers

[quikyu]

How would you rank all the Ultra Beasts? Like, from most to least favorite?

Oooh.... very inch-resting question. I've vaguely thought about this before, but never actually thought to put my favorite ultra beasts in order!

Just a disclaimer first, though-- I don't actually *dislike* any of the UBs. At most I'm pretty neutral ;D

Rankings below :)

Nihilego

My absolute FAVORITE genre of pokemon generally tends to be the eerie-but-cute (and-maybe-dangerous-too) Creature. Nihilego is a faceless, incomprehensibly ominous head-crab-type parasite... that makes cute little sounds and twirls when it's happy and acts so so innocent!!! I love it!!! What a simple yet appealing design (being a cloudy, pastel blue with a bell that looks quite like a sun-hat), conveying a sense of uneasiness within it. It almost looks like a harmless little girl, but.. somethings still not right...? Maybe its the fact that its a parasitic glass jellyfish leaping For Your Face

It's appearance also makes me think about what it predates on in its home-world!?!

Anyways, she's my adorable, freaky little daughter. 10/10

2. Pheromosa

That being said, my second favorite genre of pokemon is pretty much just 'Girl,' and, Yes, the cockroach applies. I personally enjoy the idea of this little girlboss of a pokemon getting haphazardly Dropped into an entirely different galaxy, and just going "Ok" about it... How calm...

Very odd proportions, too-- I do wish the pokemon company had gone further with Bug Traits in the design, but I also personally love the eyes and crown, so I would miss those if they had changed it to be something less humanoid XD And while I love the distant, spiteful attitude it had in the anime, I also enjoy the idea of a more curious and playful buggy, who's just trying to make sense of a new world

I also keep on forgetting that Pheromosa's FAST!!! Very amazing quality to have. Much speed.

3. Kartana

I didn't know whether I liked Kartana or Stakataka more, so just pretend they're the same in terms of rank.

How is this a pokemon!?! A tiny origami samurai!?! CUTE!!! In my opinion, I think Kartana is one of the more peculiar UBs-- especially judging from how it acts in Pokemon Refresh in the SM games. I'd love to go more in depth about Kartana, really, but I don't know what to say XD It's a slicey, dicey, little guy. And I like it lots!

Paper-cut is an understatement!

4. Stakataka

Before I had much interest in Ultra Beasts, I probably would've said Stakataka is my favorite of the group. It's a real big block, is what it is, but I think it's rather endearing... it's a bunch of little giblets, coming together to make... a bigger giblet. Awesome!! It also reminds me of Guardians from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I really love those guys

I kind of want to ride it like a horse...

5. Buzzwole

Buzzwole is an INCREDIBLE pokemon. With the same strangeness as Pheromosa, it's a BUG, but rather than being elegant and graceful, it's... completely JACKED!?!? A mosquito on 'roids!! What kind of creature is this thing sucking the blood out of, anyway!?!

I picture Buzzwole as a typical nice jock-- very wholesome, but also very very dense. And also it's a huge mosquito-- did I mention that? Crazy. I want to be its friend.

6. Poipole

From here on out I don't feel as strongly on any of the Ultra Beasts. No problem, though-- I still have opinions!

I like Poipole's position as the "starter pokemon" of Ultra Space. Fun, in how, unlike a normal starter, it's still just as dangerous as the rest of the Ultra Beasts XD ("While spraying opponents with this venom, it laughs wildly!") It's a very cute, almost techno-looking pokemon, and once more the odd, vibrant colorations and body shape really sell it as an Alien. The concept art for it is also adorable, too!!

Ah.. wait... I think I'm starting to like Poipole more just from talking about it...

7. Blacephalon

Blacephalon has a very cool name! Asides from that, while I do like its colors, and the fact that its Head Explodes (which is VERY cool,) I've never really felt much for clown pokemon... It seems like a silly little goober, though-- It has eyes that can emote each side of its head! That's adorable!

Also it's as tall as Pheromosa, at 5'11". I did not know this. I am now terrified.

8. Celesteela

I can safely say that Celesteela is the kindest rocket I have ever seen. XD Just look at that sweet little smile! Of course, it's not really noticeable, when one zooms out to view the rest of the body. I want to like Celesteela more but... it doesn't really... move much? I can't detect much of a personality from it-- it's kind of just there. Sort of to be expected, though. Baby Celesteela, as portrayed in the anime, is very adorable though, and I would like 5 of them.

9. Xurkitree

Xurkitree sort of falls under the same category as Blacephalon for me, just in terms of vibes, I suppose. I appreciate its very joyful, carefree saunter, but nothing else really sticks out to me in terms of what I might like about it...

10. Naganadel

Poipole's evolution! I simply don't like it quite as much, though. It's a little hard to look at right, and I've always thought it looked a little stiff. It's lost all of Poipole's personality :(

However, it has an amazing shiny!

11. Guzzlord

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH"

... That's it XD I never cared much for Guzzlord at all. Big hungry guy.

Anyways, that was a lot longer than I expected it to be XD Thank you for asking!

#quikyu ask #ultra beasts #pokemon

[beauceronn]

I saw you want to talk about dogs... Here is your invitation to talk about dogs with some random questions if you need inspiration.

What breeds (aside from the obvious) do you like best from each breed group?

Are you interested in showing or working or doing sports with a future dog?

What is your favorite/most interesting/most impressive trick or task you've come across?

What do you think of Tibetan Terriers? (Obviously the best breed of dog, I'm not biased at all.)

🥺❤️ thank you so much.. for enabling me lol

The obvious?? What on earth could you be talking about?? 🤣 - besides Beaucerons, I assume:

Herding - Rough Collies. They're not what I'm looking for Right Now but I know I want one down the road a little more. My friend breeds the most fantastic Collies and I 🥺 keep dropping hints like hey... when is your next litter planned for... etc. I also like Bergamascos.

Hound - Cirneco Dell'Etna. They're so so so so cute I cannot exaggerate how cute these little guys are. They're spunky and fun and they're the sweetest, happiest little dogs. I also like Borzoi, Afghan Hounds, Pharaohs, and Ibizans.

Toy - English Toy Spaniel. I'm literally obsessed with them. They're adorable and sweet and are always in such a pleasant mood. I also like Chis and Pugs.

Non-Sporting - Schipperke. They're so funny. They're so violent and spiteful I love it. They are little demon dogs and I love them. I don't think I want one but they're always such a blast to hang out with. I also like Finnish Spitzes.

Sporting - Chesapeake Bay or Curly-Coated Retriever. I don't really like the sporting group (they're fun, but not even remotely for me). These two seem to have the sharpest brains in them. I also really love Clumbers, despite having maybe 1.5 brain cells on average, because they're ridiculously cute and kissable.

Terrier - Rat Terrier. They are such awesome dogs. Super fun, super versatile, and so loving. They're not like other terriers (lol) in my experience. I also like Bull Terriers despite the fact that they are always intent on breaking my nose and Border Terriers for the same reasons I love Ratties.

Working - Dogo Argentino. They are such gorgeous dogs with such big hearts. I love them so much, I just wish the breed were in a better place. The working group is my second favourite... I also really love German Pinschers, Dogues de Bordeaux, and all manner of LGDs.

I'm interested in showing and sports. I want to do confo mainly, but I also really love herding and want to get involved there. Obedience and rally seem super fun, and Beaucerons tend to excel at weight pull, nose work, and other sports that seem like a ton of fun to try out. Herding and conformation are definitely my top two, though!

Um, hm. Most people I know don't train their dogs to do much beyond what's required for the sports they do or basic manners. I'm a sucker for "sit pretty" and a solid heel.

I STILL HAVEN'T MET A TIBETAN TERRIER which is such a shame because I realised too late that they had a specialty? Supported entry? Something and there were like 20 entered at a recent show... I just missed them because that happened to be the weekend I was running around actually doing things 😅 I think they're adorable and awesome and that a lot of people really, really, REALLY seem to love them lol

What about you???

#asks

[shihalyfie]

so i had an interesting idea about sam lately and your posts about sam and the dark spore made me want to reach out (if you don’t want to reply that’s fine it’s pretty random) but i was thinking for a what if fanfic kind of thing that sam’s soul was brought into the digital world (probably by the necromancy king myotismon) at the moment of his death like koichi. and after the series he’s basically externalized all the rage he had and pointed it towards becoming another emperor (trying to one up ken out of spite, kinda like trying to steal his life back).

basically i wrote this to ask if you had any thoughts on it, i know it’s random lmao (and i’m trying to think if he should have a partner or not)

It's an interesting idea! I don't mind giving thoughts on fanfic ideas -- there is a certain point I worry I'd be writing their fanfic for them, but I'm a fanfic writer myself (or at least I was, I haven't been able to write much of anything since work got hectic) so I'm all for helping people out with this kind of thing.

I covered this a little more extensively in an earlier post about Osamu, but with what little we got I think it's safe to assume that Osamu was self-aware that he was falling into a very bad place and had regrets about it (that is to say, he did want to be a kinder person, but his mental health was collapsing and things came out very badly). And as much as Ken modeled his Kaiser persona after his image of Osamu, I personally (this might just be my impression) that the Dark Seed pushed Ken to a far more extreme degree than Osamu would have ever been naturally. So if you were to just yank Osamu's soul "as it is" I doubt it would get that extreme, and you'd probably have to do some kind of Cherubimon or Vamdemon-esque level manipulation, like you said, in which case it might be feasible.

But in terms of Osamu's own true feelings on the situation, his statement that unlike Ken, he can't blow bubbles gently (i.e. is incapable of being kind) sounds more like self-hatred more than it sounds like this is actually the case, so if anything it seems like while Osamu was the one who started cracking under the pressure earlier than Ken did, he was also simultaneously really starting to hate what he was becoming, and what he was "jealous" of Ken for was the fact he got to have a more easygoing and fun life than him.

Also, here's a tiny thing that is only tangentially related and may or may not be useful depending on what you want to do with it: Adventure and 02's Digital World and its adjacent concepts are consistently depicted as one that's in tune with the spiritual world (especially that as known in Shinto terms), meaning that even without necromancy involved, some connection to the world of the departed isn't completely out of the question. I'm not necessarily saying that Ken seeing a vision of his brother telling him that he's forgiven isn't primarily Vamdemon's vision showing him what he wants to see, but what I mean is that it happens to be a great place for the boundaries to get at least a little blurred...

#quadpen #shiha's ask box