#I just think they get written badly a lot

[becauseimanicequeen]

I love Yak in Wandee Goodday so much. He's probably my all-time favorite GMMTV character and I think it has to do with how much I see of myself in him.

For one, he knows and respects boundaries (even when they're not clearly stated). I mean, he apologized for taking Dee's keycard to find out where Dee was living when Dee was passed out drunk by the trash. He apologized again as he grabbed Dee's phone to answer the call.

Yak was also the first to ask about the rules of their FWB relationship.

Setting up rules is another way to establish boundaries. And Yak is respecting those rules/boundaries even though he's clearly struggling with the no-kissing rule (considering he takes every opportunity he can to stare at Dee's luscious lips, which is also relatable).

(Obviously, let's be honest, the rules will be broken at some point. But I'm pretty sure it will be because both Yak and Dee want them to be broken.)

Yak's respect for boundaries also flows into his approach to consent. He needs consent to continue, otherwise he won't.

Additionally, he's written to be a character who has genuine respect and equal care for those he's interested in (regardless of gender) and he's shown to respect, care about, and listen to both Taem and Dee (and look at them both with heart eyes).

Yak clearly likes Taem (to the point where Cher knew about it) and was willing to further their relationship. At the same time, he didn't hesitate to hook up with Dee (when Dee had sobered up a bit) and he, evidently, likes Dee a lot as well.

(I can't remember the last time I saw a QL where a main male character genuinely felt as if he could end up with either the girl or the guy. And even though Taem has already said she wants to keep their relationship as is, it still has that feeling for me. But, since this is a BL, I'm 100% sure they won't end it in any other way than Yak and Wandee being together.)

Also, Yak is dedicated to what he does (boxing). (I'm honestly not sure if he actually wants to box and win as badly as his brother does or if he's just boxing because that's what his brother and dad did, and that he's expected to gain the same successes, but he's definitely putting in the effort regardless.) It takes a lot of discipline to be as good as you can be at what you do. And even though Yak's discipline might be wavering slightly since he met Dee (relatable, lol), the hard work and discipline he puts into it is relatable to me (it's the reason I get out of bed and paint every day).

And last, but definitely not least, Yak seems to have a soft spot for beautiful messes.

And who can blame him?

#yak #wandee goodday #wandee goodday the series #thai ql #thai bl #thai series

[farfromdaylight]

i try not to complain about heavensward. i really do. it's a beloved expansion. people love ishgard. i love ishgard.

however, heavensward FUCKING SUCKS.

listen. so much of heavensward's plot is either badly written or badly paced or both. if you play through it once and don't think about it further, it's a great game. if you even glance back at it, it falls apart like a house of cards.

Actual shit that happens in Heavensward (spoilers):

You fight against the Heavens Ward to prove you're not a heretic. Five minutes later you have to go back to Ul'dah to save Raubahn.

After several levels of exploring Dravania and reaching the Churning Mists, you finally find Nidhogg's lair. You can't get there. You turn around and go back to Ishgard.

While you're fucking about waiting for the manacutters to get done, you go get the sultana back. Literally the entire plot momentum built up from your big road trip across Dravania comes to a dead halt as you go back to Ul'dah.

You slay Nidhogg. You go back to Ishgard. You spend eight quests killing time until the Vault, learn that class warfare is a thing, and fight off one of the Heavens Ward, who BACKFLIPS AWAY FROM YOU.

Immediately after the Vault, you go fight a whale.

The Emperor of Garlemald shows up in the Sea of Clouds just to tell you that you suck.

At the exact moment Y'shtola would be convenient to the plot, she returns.

The archbishop gets to Azys Lla way before you, but helpfully waits until you get there before continuing the plot.

and so on. i'm sure there's more.

here's my problem with heavensward: individually, there are a lot of great plot elements in it. however, they are presented in such a fucking buckwild manner that a lot of them are diminished. let's take the Hilda section for example: it's great to learn about Ishgard's class struggles! Of course this is great worldbuilding! However the actual section where you learn about it feels like (and basically is) filler. You finish the Aery, learn a lot of important Dragon Lore, and come back to Ishgard. You then have to fuck about until you're a high enough level to do the Vault, and in that section you do some of the worst fetchquesting in the game. It is atrocious.

Are there things I like about Heavensward? Absolutely. I fucking love Ishgard. I think the overall worlbuilding is phenomenal. Dragon vs man is a compelling storyline. But my god, the plotting and pacing are SO BAD. You spend an unbelievable amount of 3.0 dealing with the Ul'dah plotlines of post-ARR when you should be fully immersed in Ishgardian politics. It would not have killed you to leave the sultana stuff for HW patch quests, guys.

The best comparison I can make is that it's like if in Shadowbringers, instead of seeing the Meanwhile In Garlemald sections, you instead had to just abandon the First and head back to deal with that shit right before fighting a Lightwarden. It brings the narrative to a dead halt. It just doesn't work.

And like, I get it. It's not easy to write a game like FF14. The fact that later expansions are as well-written as they are is frankly a miracle. This is a huge worldbuild with a ton of plot threads and it's incredible even half of them get wrapped up. But viewed in isloation, Heavensward is one of the most tonally inconsistent parts of the entire story.

#ffxiv #ishgardian salt mines #ffxiv meta #heavensward #this is all fresh off a ng+ rewatch i SWEAR TO YOU ALL THESE THINGS HAPPEN IN HEAVENSWARD #YOU REALLY GO FIGHT BISMARCK RIGHT AFTER THE VAULT #IT'S UNBELIEVABLE.

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

#The witcher #Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry #and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text #sorry about being bitter #but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation #I'm not saying you should never change anything #But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original #and to understand what the source material is about #we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too) #but central themes tropes and motifs #long post #it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here #people are welcome to interpret literature however they want #Nobody has a monopol on themes #I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding #and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore #meta

[journey-to-the-attic]

one thing i've noticed about obey me's story is that it generally delivers on big dramatic narrative moments, but often neglects the surrounding scenes and especially the fallout. there is of course, the oft-talked-about lesson 16, feat. mc's death that never gets brought up again, but then there's also s2's amnesia arc, which ends things with "mc has the ring so everything is completely fine forever"

om has a habit of doing this, where a realm-wide (or heck, universe-wide) problem is hand-waved away by the appearance of a convenient fix-it, which is usually either an object or just ~magic~ (magic as a plot device in om in general is handled poorly but that's a story for another day)

in some cases they just don't address the fallout at all. at least belphie talks about what he did in lesson 16 - but, see nb s2, wherein levi floods the entire devildom, submerging entire houses, and they don't bring it up again afterwards. as far as i remember too, belphie's mini-arc in this season wasn't really given room to breathe, either

but here's the main thing (spoilers for nb lessons 38 and 39)

i've just done these two lessons and in hindsight lucifer's mini-arc feels like a lot of missed potential

honestly they could have excluded diavolo entirely - his main purpose was to stall for time so that the brothers could show up. the moment where he kneels was cool (more on that moment later), but the way they've written him in means that the angels kinda. don't get to do anything? at all?

look - raphael has a gorgeous character moment at the end of 37 where he cries for the brothers' plight. like you don't understand this had so much potential!!! he didn't really do much in s1 (and might not have actually been himself??) so i was hoping this would be his chance to shine, but instead he's on the sidelines. simeon gets the most to do, and even then it's really not much. luke doesn't do anything, unless you count those blessings he and simeon give mc, but they don't really factor in at all??

what especially doesn't make sense about diavolo's role here is that lucifer turns on mc after they step in to protect him. this is meant to be a pay-off to diavolo's less savoury motivation for saving the brothers, revealed in his arc in nb s1, but all lucifer does is say it, get mad, then completely forgets about it once all is said and done

if that's all they were going to do with it, why bring it up at all? from a character standpoint, it makes more sense for mc to shield one of the angels - again, raphael this could've been your moment. (alternatively it could've been a call-back to the og s1 where mc shields luke in the underground tomb)

the appearance of the brothers was welcome, but at the same time i don't quite buy that they all got out of their respective predicaments completely fine. (also where did mephistopheles go??) lucifer also calms down very quickly, which is a great moment for the power of family, but at the same time i feel like he would've needed at least a few more dialogue boxes of him registering through his rage that his brothers were there. eh, this is more nitpicky than everything else

the brotherly moment was 10/10 though. love these guys <3

but i hated the final resolution so so much. sure, have god forgive him, whatever. but why would you end it all with a "papa loves you"???? if it had been raphael or simeon saying it, maybe i could get behind this as a symptom of the celestial realm's unhealthy society, but LUCIFER, whose greatest fear was revealed to be his father in s3 of the original story?

om has never made it seem like god's relationship with the angels was anything other than controlling and borderline abusive, and for some reason (if the poignant flashback is anything to go by) they've done a complete heel turn into "actually it's fine because he loves the angels". it could be read as representing how children often still cling to abusive/controlling parents, but i doubt it - especially coming from lucifer, who started a war and lost a sister in direct opposition to his father

and i get the whole deal with "lucifer was so beautiful as an angel" but it feels really disingenuous to the brothers' arc (about settling into the devildom and coming into their own as demons) to harp on about it. like, fuck that, have lucifer cast away the angel form, or at least have some pushback from him in the aftermath. have mc tell him "you're even more beautiful as a demon" or something

then in lesson 39 everything's back to normal. it's a very cute lesson and i had fun in the moment, but it feels off. there's no discussion of what happened, everyone's completely fine. there's got to be some psychological after-effects to all of that, no? for lucifer especially if not the brothers who got frozen as well???

though lucifer's dragon gift was very sweet. i can't stay mad at that old man

#i think a big issue is that om's juggling a lot of characters #even back when it was just the brothers they had trouble evenly distributing development and characterisation #(and beel's still constantly getting the short end of the stick) #nb is very good at delivering concepts but it's 50/50 whether they're executed well #am i being picky about this silly otome game? perhaps #but it's very much a character and story driven game so at the same time this is kinda the whole point #om is not badly written. otherwise i wouldn't have been stuck in the devildom for like 4 years now!! #but there are so many threads that could be so good #that the writers either miss or weave into the wrong knot entirely #obey me

[queerbting]

rewatching nuwho and i'm rlly.... why is human nature / family of blood just racist hit after racist hit after racist hit against martha . followed by a heavy dose of classist (+ misogynistic!!!!) behavior directed against her afterwards where the humans of 1913 england treat her like a weird alien from another world (the doctor in human form included!!!).

also, why do they have the doctor a) be actively bigoted and b) fall in love with a racist nurse who specifically speaks down to martha (someone who the doctor cares for). they create this "unassuming" white woman character and then have her be awful to martha but we're supposed to believe that she is kind and sympathetic worthy of being the human doctor's love interest, more than martha being treated as a human being. (and then that we should cry over her lost love/future in the end)

like why. genuinely why. what is the point .

also objectively what function does the nurse serve that martha jones could not have. she's even a medical student like !!!!!! going undercover as a nurse would not be that far off!! and plus, i'm not even a tenmartha shipper but it would fit more for the emotional arc of martha's character to get what she wanted all season in human nature / family of blood (the doctor falling in love with her!!! wish fulfillment !!!!!! ) only to realize the cruelty of what this would be like in reality if she were never to open the watch (despite her finally having what she "wants"), and finally understanding and having to give john smith up. it could've been a really tragic, but human moment (like a lot of other things in dw!).

then 10 and martha's relationship could actually be on some sort of equal footing. bc martha had a taste of what it would be liked to be loved by him (or someone similar to him, at least), and chose in the end to let it go. it would give her emotional closure, etc. and would show her choosing the /actual/ doctor (not human) and the friendship she has with him, rather than a lifetime with a human that she fell in love with who happens to look like him.

could've been a really cool moment of both character development and then bonding between the doctor and martha afterwards in their newfound partnership, so half of martha's character is no longer swallowed up by her pining for him.

but no. instead they go and hide in racistville and martha is a servant who experiences racism/misogyny/classism and microaggressions from white people + aliens over two episodes for nearly no reason .

#like it's crazy #i think a lot of this went over my head as a kid because i did not know much about british history or nuwho's environmental contexts #so i didn't understand a lot of the unspoken dialogue and class-race implications coming from MULTIPLE CHARACTERS in these episodes....... #but coming back to martha's arc and hn / fob especially as an adult is just..... genuinely so awful #there's no narrative reason it's just racist #so so weird and uncomfortable to watch #it can't be too much to ask to treat her like a human being #martha jones #dw s3 #dw criticism #doctor who #dewpost #also her being written half the time this season as a love sick puppy who doesn't get it depends on the doctor for almost everything #instead of a resourceful and emotionally intelligent young black woman who is studying to be a medical professional !!!! drives me insane #sometimes they write her well but it feels few and fare between sometimes bc they want martha to be in love with 10 sooooo badly #rather than them being a kickass medical student (a doctor) plus The Doctor duo !!!! could've been so much fun #and instead we are left with this #human racist john smith with no narrative repercussions for viewing/treating a companion of his in a derogatory fashion #super cool bbc thank you very much #human nature #family of blood

[ahatintimepieces]

Scully, you're not going to believe this... but remember that ahit pokemon au that's a mash-up of the coliseum games and detective pikachu where Snatcher is an Eevee that can see shadow pokemon and Hattie is going on a journey to find her missing father, Luka Andersen, while rescuing shadow pokemon from Team Mafia and more? Yeah. It's been three years but I finally updated! In this chapter, Hattie confronts the C.A.W agents! I don't know how often I'll update but I hope you enjoy! Until next time!

#ahit #a hat in time #ahit snatcher #ahit hat kid #ahit caw agents #ahit grooves #lol #i had written the first two paragraphs back in 2021 #so i stared at the document like 'what are you supposed to do here?!?!?!?' #but it worked out in the end i think XD #writing the caw agents is fun #but also just makes me want to very badly get to the seals again #i wove them youw honow uwu #but we've got a long way to go because the goal was to make it follow the areas as you unlock them in ahit #so..... there's a lot to do before then... #anyway thank you as always for reading and for your lovely comments!

[cainware]

Okay I might get devoured for this, but I'm gonna post it anyway, so please bare with me:

I feel like Bruce has this belief that Jason never understood why he can't kill right, but also I feel like Bruce also doesn't understand why Jason can. Like he looks at it as a moral failing in so many different iterations from writer to writer but like? Bruce, understanding is a two-way street.

Bruce thinks he'd never be able to come back from taking a life, but then you look down the line at Jason, and Jason can and does. He's not lesser because he kills when he thinks it's the right thing to do, he doesn't lose himself in the bloodbath like Bruce thinks he himself would. Jason doesn't go mad with power, he doesn't go around just murdering any random thug just because.

And I think that damages Bruce a little bit, because he doesn't want to admit that Jason's killing isn't as much of a moral failing as he thinks it should be. I think that Bruce, somewhere in his mind, wanted to believe that if he couldn't do it without losing himself, then nobody could. And I think he can't bring himself to admit to himself that in that regard, Jason has always had a better understanding of the world and his own person than Bruce ever will.

#idk i was rereading utrh and ive been absorbing a lot of other batman related content at warp speed #and maybe this doesnt make sense but to me it feels like bruce just #doesnt want to admit that its possible to take a life for the right reasons #as a direct relation to his own personal traumas #but in that same vein feels like his views on it should be universal because its no shocker that #bruce has very black and white thinking and the concept of the grey area doesnt exist very often to him #but at the same time i feel like its either a blow to him mentally to think that someone can do something he cant #or a blow to his ego that he wouldnt be able to control himself if he slipped #and this is based entirely off the more popular and rehashed versions of bruce that dont fully understand him #but unfortunately that kind of litters a lot of batman media #like dont get me wrong my favorite versions of bruce are multidimensional and has a broader understanding #of the world and gotham and all his kids and their motivations #but the more popular versions (i dont want to say badly written because every batman has their own merits) #(except for you frank miller you know what you did) dont all have that level of growth and general acceptance #of gotham and his kids being Naturally Morally Gray #i should probably shut up or not post this but its out there now so yeah #jaybirdwhistles #shut up jay stop being annoying on the tl

[juni-ravenhall]

im like dying about this now. first we thought he was stealing credit (he might kinda still be... there are unclear parts of the credits + for example he wasnt actually the producer for at least the autumn riders, etc, but at least he did in fact have several of those credits).

now it turns out he did quite likely "write" and design mechanics of the season riders games...... and then to me its like....

so he came in and took charge of ssl/ss and completely butchered the characterisation and story aspects from ssl, just got rid of them bc he deemed them not important to this new test project....

and meanwhile talks about how important it is to give girl players good games and to give players what they want and to make interesting games. while. being the one who just decided to press the delete button on the story created in ssl......

#im not even a person who played ssl as a kid. i dont have nostalgic affection for it or whatever #but i do think there was an actual story and characters there that seemed to just go poof afterwards despite their popularity w players #and the whole time when i started playing sso i was like.... whats up with this weird writing and weird story #bc so much was not explained or badly written or confusing alongside the clunky ass low quality gameplay #but i still enjoyed the quirky writing of early sso which seems similar to ssl rather than seasons riders #now that ive played ssl myself im like well these games arent great but i do get why ppl liked them a lot esp as kids #on the other hand the seasons riders games make me want to throw my computer out the window

[designernishiki]

I think one of the things that bothers me the most about mine being killed off at the end of y3 is like… you get little tiny looks here and there into his mind and at who he is, but overall because his intentions are so mysterious most of the game, he seems like a relatively 2-dimensional villain pretty much up until the very end when he monologues and reveals his worldview, background, relationship with daigo, etc. and then right after they establish him as being complex and interesting by revealing all that info AND having him take kiryu’s hand and start changing his mindset for the better– they kill him off. so it kinda feels like truly introducing a character right at the end and then getting rid of him like thirty seconds later just Destroying all the potential they just gave him. like. he was just at the start of his development basically and it just sucks to not be able to see that through and see what he could’ve become.

as much as I do totally understand the dilemma brought on by daigo waking up and the crushing guilt that’d immediately bring mine, and I totally agree that he’d absolutely TRY to dramatically kill himself in an act of self-sacrifice over it, I don’t think they particularly should’ve let him– for the sake of his potential as a recurring character, but moreover because we’ve already been through this before with nishiki and ending this incident with the same result despite kiryu actually doing things right this time and daigo showing immediate care and concern for mine upon waking up (unlike kiryu with nishiki, who got ignored and basically forgotten). I think it would’ve been more powerful and interesting and applicable to kiryu’s development in the long run to have had mine saved, both literally/physically and emotionally in the sense that he actually accepts, even if he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of it, that people truly care about him and there isn’t only evil in the world and that if he can’t live for himself he can live for the sake of those he loves. he’s been self-centered for so long and kiryu calls him out on it, so he considers that maybe, for once, he should put his fate and trust into the hands of others rather than believing himself to have the clearest judgement on what he deserves or how he should repent. and that’d mean something to kiryu, who’s at that point already grappling with a similar dilemma when it comes to stubbornly sacrificing himself for others despite those who love him telling him it’s not always necessary and that he can accept help. it’so mean something to have kiryu see that self sacrifice isn’t the only option, and even in the worst of situations a person’s life can be saved through compassion.

#long post #y3 #yakuza 3 #mine #yoshitaka mine #kiryu #kazuma kiryu #yakuza #rgg #I have. a lot of mine thoughts and it’s. frustrating #I really don’t think they should’ve killed him off #it’s partly frustrating because his death isn’t a horribly written one or anything or like. out of character or anything #I just don’t think it was the most fruitful option narratively and I’m mourning all the lost potential he had #but yeah it’s not a badly written / half assed thing like. cough. kiwami 1. cough. #but #yeah #you get it #I have a feeling mine sorta confessing also kinda doomed him #because I don’t think they’d want to follow that up in future games #given that’d be a pretty big deal at that point in time. god forbid they make the chairman of the tojo clan have a boyfriend in the year of #our lord 2010 or whatever #sigh

[mermaidsirennikita]

always wild to see people freak out over dark romance novels when you know they're also like... Spuffy shippers? or something along those lines?

I mean, I have no issue with that lmao, I've had ships that are on the same level, but I don't know, it's just like... are you romanticizing the thing you're shipping to the point that you don't recognize its own darkness, or are you fully aware of that and just knowingly hypocritical?

#romance novel blogging #every week twitter declares that society is crumbling because of silly dark romance novels #and usually not even the REAL dark shit lmao #and every week it is the dumbest moral panic i've ever seen #but yeah dude it when you can literally see people with the WILDEST ships handwringing that i get really confused #like okay so the books are undermining women #but the women falling in love with their attempted rapists onscreen... are not.................. #and to clarify to me it's just a quality of the work thing; the content itself there doesn't concern me #I MYSELF do not think spuffy as an example was handled well and the context of joss being who he is #retroactively makes it worse than a dark romance written by some random very normal lady keying into common fantasies #like mitzie or heather or whoever doesn't want to go out there and assault someone. probably #whereas joss..................... #wasn't allowed to be alone in a room w a teenage girl #and that isn't every showrunner ofc but a lot of visual representations of trauma #and romanticizations of these relationships onscreen are often written by people of the same gender as the perpetrator #whereas dark romance is often written by women--sometimes even women working out their own shit #and idk i'm kind of making that realization in real time as two why one bugs me more than the other #PERSONALLY speaking #and ofc that doesn't absolve women of handling SA whether it's romanticized or not badly #and CERTAINLY sa is not inherent to dark romance #which i think is a common misconception #dark romance in terms of genre is not 'rape and abuse as romance' it's honestly pretty broad #ANYWAY. thoughts over #just focus on the people who are actually preying on others plsthx

[crownin-thestars]

I just realised the reason why it's so hard for me to figure out how to write the bad boys hogwarts au is because Harry Potter has like the shittest world building. Like I love Harry Potter but holy crap the amount of problems there are in it's entirety

#not counting fantastic beasts i think fantastic beasts and where to find them does a fabulous job at world building #in harry potter you barely know anything about the world you don't know anything regarding the magic #and if you're confused about where purebloods live then that makes sense because there's a clear split between the muggle world and #the wizarding world but like where the hell is that because the muggle world is our world WHERE IS THE WIZARDING WORLD #LIKE THE LOVEGOODS AND THE WEASLEYS LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WHERE TF ARE THEY #Snape was a wonderful character but he wasn't written very well because he's always been percieved to dislike Harry #like absolutely 0 implication that he cares for Harry whatsoever but suddenly in the last movie we find out Snape actually cares a lot #i get he's the shapeshifter character archetype but oh my god at least give subtle hints about it #like Jax from TADC is a jackass but he has his own ways of keeping people safe which shows like YEAH HE'S NOT 100% JACKASS #and also the characters appearing out of nowhere like they weren't around at all previously but suddenly they just exist #i love this show but i also passionately hate how badly done it is #oh yeah not to mention the sheer amount of plot holes in the story #from grian <3

[bloomingbluebell]

so mad at the thing in my brain that makes me freak out whenever there is something gorey or honestly just medically gross like. do you know how many games, movies, and TV shows are entirely inaccessible to me because of this? how many i've had to stop watching because they went a bit too hard in the gore/body horror department? how much money i spent on games i'll never play again? (regretfully looks at resident evil 7 and 8 in my steam library. at least 7 was on sale)

#grumpy this morning bc can't play bg3 :( #first of all i'm pretty sure it'll make my laptop AND my pc spontaneously combust so jot that down #second of all there's just a lot of.... violence? and gore? #at least from what i heard from my friend and what i've seen #and i'm so sad about it #i really was so excited to watch birds of prey back when it came out but nope! it's actually really bloody!! #i think this is because of my OCD actually which makes me even more pissed #because people are still like 'oh i'm a neat freak i'm so OCD' meanwhile i'm like #'many pieces of media are inaccessible to me because the sight of someone being killed or injured badly enough makes me panic #to the point of needing to withdraw and stop playing but i can't say that so i'll stay until its finished and never watch this again' #no but fr i don't trust any movie a sociology instructor shows me anymoee #because the first time i watched a movie for a soci class it ended with a suicide #(not graphic but idk it just really affected me) #and i spent the rest of the day in a haze repeating that scene in my head so much i could almost feel it #i tried to explain this to people and i heard 'yeah i think that's common' no? it's really kinda not #and it makes me really upset but i don't know how to get help for this? i know it's not good or healthy #hhhhhhhhhhhg #for some reason written description for the most part is okat #(its the aphantasia it saves me) #vent #vent tw

[aria0fgold]

AO3 Tag Game!

Thank you for the tag @misty-wisp :D This looks so fun!

How many works do you have on AO3?

12! And it's steadily increasing as I get more (and randomly) ideas to write fics bout >:3c

What's your total AO3 word count?

126,004! Whoooaaa... That's a lot :o Ngl, I barely visit the statistics of my ao3 account so I didn't expect that one.

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Okay, so... it's 5? I think. On my main ao3 account it's 2 though! OMORI and Mahoyaku! Buuuut! I've written for Persona 5 (with Magic Kaito) but I'm... too shy to put it in my ao3 account so it's just in my tumblr. The other 2 is somewhere else... (I've written a oneshot for Genshin Impact in an old ao3 account that I don't wanna open up again cuz it's so embarrassing for me... I don't even wanna read that oneshot, I'd die of embarrassment. And the other one is Honkai Impact 3rd, I forgot where I put that one but I do know I wrote a oneshot with Bronya and Seele for it).

Top five fics by kudos:

It's all from OMORI!

Once again, from the beginning - I did not really expect this one to have as much kudos as it has now, like, tbf yea it's my most well planned one but it's still so crazy to see the kudos on it-- wai when did it pass that number-- I never really check the kudos but wtf happened here.

The Tune of the New Morning - How did this one get that many kudos too??? This is my very first OMORI fic and ngl, whenever I look at it I get the very strong urge to rewrite everything from the beginning cuz of how badly planned it is. If OAFB is well planned, this one is terribly planned. I literally make things up as I go.

Magician in the Mirror - Is in the top 3!!! Lookit!!! :D The work I'm proudest in cuz this is my 2nd fic and also the one I just went ham on! I wanted it out during anni and it was all a last minute thing but I'm so glad it turned out well despite that!

The Pawn and the Bishops - I didn't expect to see this one here but alas... it is... I quite like this one though! It's the first one I've written with a fairly heavy and gloomy atmosphere and I think I did pretty good on it!

And thus, the snake ate no more - I see you're here too... This one is actually like a mix of my planning between OAFB and TNM in which that it's in the middle of well planned and terribly planned. Think of it as the middle child of my longfics. With OAFB being the spoiled youngest and TNM the unplanned first child.

Do you respond to comments?

YES! As much as I can! I like receiving comments and I like responding to them as best as I can but I also get pretty nervous bout it... so I end up barely responding anyway oh boooooo.

What's the fic with the angstiest ending you've ever written?

I??? Don't think? I have written any with an angsty ending yet? I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort so most of the fics I've written so far always had a happy ending so! Maybe in the future 👀 Maybe.

Do you write crossovers?

Is the Kaito Kuroba from Magic Kaito in Persona 5 now as Akiren and Co.'s friend stuff I've written considered crossover? If so then yes! It's actually pretty fun to write one! :D

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

I don't think so? Pretty happy that I haven't yet, thank goodness!

Do you write smut?

Nope! I don't know if I would though, truth be told I don't have much knowledge with writing smut, I barely read any stories (novel wise) with it as a guideline cuz I... I can't visualize it well enough, my brain is not equipped for it (I try to read smut and spend the next few minutes figuring out the characters' positions. Yall smut writers out there impressive with it cuz honestly how).

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope and thank god for that!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I HAVE!!! AM SO HAPPY BOUT IT!!! :D Someone translated Magician in the Mirror to Chinese and it's so cool!!! I think there's only a Chapter 1 of it but it's so cool and nice and sweet and awwwwww.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Alright, sit down. This is very important. I need you to listen closely, attentively, and carefully... I Love CaiOwe/OweCai. I LOVE CAIN/OWEN!!! OWEN/CAIN!!! CAIN&OWEN I LOOOOOVVVEEE ANYTHING WITH CAIN AND OWEN!!! It's my all-time favourite ship, nothing can compare to Cain and Owen from the hit japanese game, Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku aka Mahoyaku aka mhyk aka Promise of Wizard. They're my most favourite ship I'd go to war for em, I love em so so much, I adore em sooooooo much, I see any fanart of em and my day gets better immediately. They're my lifeblood, my ambrosia, my everything. I love caiowe/owecai with all my heart...

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

Looks at oafb, tnm, and attsanm... I'd like to believe that regardless of how much time had passed, I would be able to finish any of those three though. Hyperfixation gone or not, I wanna finish em!

What are your writing strengths?

I think it'd be monologue? Inner monologue? What do you call that thing where it's just the narrator focusing on the characters' thoughts and feelings and their overall view on the situation??? I think I'm pretty good at that, maybe. And somehow I'm good at accidentally setting things up, I don't know how but I just accidentally do things that connects stuff.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogues... I'm so bad with dialogues most of the time I spend in writing is getting the dialogues right. I'm also really bad at descriptors, I'm bad at describing things so I just try to either describe something as best as I can with the help of searching through the internet or get around that part by just being poetic.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I think it's pretty neat! :o I feel like I've seen fics like that before but can't really remember though I did think it added detail to the story of it!

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Uhhh, I think it waaaaass Honkai Impact 3rd? I think it was the Bronya and Seele fic I've written somewhere that or it was the Genshin Impact fic instead. It was either of those two.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

Magician in the Mirror!!! It's my favourite I've written so far and the one I'm proudest of! And a lil biased, but the latest favourite one that I've just recently written is Look back, Orpheus which is a fic for caiowe from mhyk! Once again, from the beginning is the 2nd favourite though :3

Thank you again for the tag! Dunno who to tag though but for anyone that sees this, feel free to do it! :D

#tag game #this was so fun! #have i convinced yall yet how much i love caiowe. i rlly adore that ship a lot its my fave one ever #also am not gonna say the title of the gi fic out of embarrassment... cuz like i made that when i was still unsure #how to write 3rd person after getting trapped writing in 1st person for years. that thing along with the hi3 fic is most likely #written really badly and like-- ohmygod im not gonna look at it. i can still vaguely remember what it was about and god bro-- #embarrassing... why was my writing in the past like that its got like a needlessly mysterious air to it like gurl what are you doing #the only hint im giving for that gi fic is that it has venti and aether in it cuz it was around 1.1 days and i chose aether so like #also the reason why i yeeted away from that account and made a new one is that i wanted to start clean and as embarrassing #as the fics ive written there are (which is just the gi fic and one thats an oc fic for my old friend group that ive drifted away from) #i didnt wanna delete any of it. i think its a nice memento. i also didnt wanna orphan the account or any of the works too #so i just start with a new account! honestly glad and happy that gi fic doesnt have that many kudos. pheeeewww

[goldenkid]

ok now that wild blue yonder was actually good i can be honest and say i didn't like the star beast

#it just felt messy and badly paced and i didn't like side characters acting #and i didn't like the way they did the metacrisis #AND honestly biggest one of all i didn't like the way they wrote donna's life. like sure she's happy now she has a family who loves her #her mum especially has changed a lot and you could argue that has had a knockon effect on her overall self esteem and relationships #but the point of donna originially was that her self esteem was shit! and nerys didn't really like her but donna settled for a shit friend #and her mum was mean and lance was horrible but she thought that was the best she was gonna get #and then the tragedy of her ending was that she loses all the growth and confidence she got with the doctor and goes back to being shallow- #-because she doesn't think she deserves anything more than that. because that's all she thinks her life is ever gonna be. #gossip and hangovers and the first bloke who's 'quite sweet' are as good as her life is ever gonna get #and tbh i really really needed to see her growth and change EXPLICITLY. like her mum being better to her -> that having an effect #her having rose -> that having an effect #the doctor's subconscious -> that having an effect on her self esteem specifically #etc etc #i just feel like rtd kind of ignored the tragic ending was like look her husband is a himbo who loves her how cute! #like ok. good that she's had character development OFFSCREEN that goes UNREMARKED ON. #also her + the doctor didn't have enough interaction + the metacrisis ending felt cheap #i liked rose and the scene with donna dying and i liked the meep a lot and the trans conversations when they didn't feel shoehorned in #i thought binary binary nonbinary was stupid but fun and very doctor who #but that was mostly it #but yeah. wild blue yonder was good. solid. felt like a proper rtd episode aka well written and acted and paced. lovely lovely stuff #doctor who

[marklikely]

the results of that "is fanfic a book" poll have shown me one thing and its that this site never graduated past that absolutely insufferable phase in 2013 where everyone acted like every book is the single most sacred thing on earth

#sorry rant incoming. you know like the people who got way too offended over dog earing or carving books for art or things like that? #that's what the notes section of that poll feel like. just way too many people (on both sides) putting way too much importance on Books. #like first you have the 'um ive read fanfic that was deep and beautiful and thematic so yes all fanfic is books' votes #which like. ok. ive also read really deep thematic screenplays but that doesnt make it a book its simply not. what a book is #then you have the honestly even worse 'um your reylo au isn't like the works of the masters its not REAL BOOKS' crowd #which like. yeah most actual published books are not as good as the 'works of the masters' whatever that means. so you have proven nothing #which brings us back to the absolute worst of all 'colleen hoover & co aren't books either' SOMEHOW #like. ok well i think her work is pretty bad but it was literally edited and published into literal books so #if you're going to decide that you get to be the arbiter of what books are Good Enough to count as Real Books well you've lost already. #because no that's not how any of this works. youre fighting one of the most famous Losing Battles in all of art discourse. #a book is just. a format that writing can be in its not some holy status you have to work to acheive #and to try and turn it into that is really stupid and self important i think because like again #who gets to decide what books are Real? what motivates them to make that choice? what biases are benefited from that? #i think its worth noting in conversations like this everyone wants to deny female romance authors the title of Real Book #(which yes a lot of those books are very shallow or badly written. many have outright offensive tropes) #but nobody mentions the equally shallow and offensive stuff by/for men. like william johnstone's shitty cowboy books for example. #no matter how you try to frame it youre going to lose the second you decide something has to fit your standards to be real art. #avpost #its very reminiscent for me of the conversation around modern art where people just want to say they know what is and isn't real art #based on like whatever standards they want. 'ugh its just dots it's not real art'. do u see where im coming from. #a book is just. a piece of writing that was edited and published in the form of a physical book. that's it. its a v literal if vague noun. #it can be something with a lot of depth and meaning. it can be shallow and hacky. it can be nonfiction entirely. its not a value statement #which can also be said about art as a whole some of it is very shallow and bad. some of it is extremely skilled and profound #anyway. no fanfic isn't inherently books but some fanfics have undergone editing & publishing and became books i think #and that doesnt mean that they're 'as good as' the classics by really skilled writers. but theyre still books #tbh a lot of the published fanfic books are worse than most nonbook fanfic. them being books isnt a statement of being more valuable. #its just a literal fact. #i think its interesting to discuss but i swear its not a huge deal whether fanfic is books the bigger deal to me is #the weird attitude popping up on both sides. which i think most people would also find stupid if their brains hadnt been like #totally ruined by an uninterrupted 5 years of insufferable-on-all-sides fanfic discourse that has ruled this website.

[velvet-games]

maybe it's good to hate things actually. even if they're not made for you.

#obviously you shouldn't hurt people or be rude to people in fandom #but I think because we see how hatred can hurt we forget that it has a purpose #idk it's just something I've been thinking about #like with stoicism #how it's not about feeling neutral/good about everything #but having appropriate and logical reactions to things #which includes having negative reactions to bad things #I'm in the tdp fandom rn and it's a lot of fun!! #but I'm basically there bc I don't like the show lmao #which to be clear there's a difference between hating something bc it's just boring and/or bad and/or not made for you #and hating something bc it's interesting but badly executed #and the show is definitely the latter #I just think I get a lot of genuine enjoyment from thinking about why this show doesn't work/make sense and trying to think of how I would #write it instead #I love hating this show!! #not just to make fun of it or get riled up but bc it gives me something to bounce off of when I think about the ideas it presents #I'm writing stories for the first time in ages bc I wanted to do a rewrite inspired by it #like yes this show is literally for seven year olds but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been better or that its concepts couldn't be #translated into a genuinely well written story for older people #idk I just think hate can be a productive and positive emotion sometimes and we should be able to tell the difference #velvet rambles #tdp