#People who don't create and have in fact removed the idea that they could ever create are black holes of humanity btw

[gibaraltar]

as far as social media sites go, even if some people on here are. A Lot. And there's bad corners, as per everywhere... Still, compared to Some Other Large Sites there is an appreciation for the Human here. The experience of being human, the joy of creation, exploration of the reasons we share things and the motivations and experiences of authors. Of reflecting on how works impacted us. How even simple funne posts or whatever impact us.

#in the corner ive pruned for myself at least i feel much surer that we all understand that intention in media matters lol #like. i saw a post by some tech shithead about how “the future could be that we never have to watch or read the same thing twice” #implicitly that thanks to AI we'd never have to consume the same thing twice. #and i just. felt like an alien #bc even though he was obviously being ratioed to fuck #very few people were saying explicitly “that would blow who even wants that” #but i know for a damn fact all my mutuals here who have read the same 3 books on rotation for decades bc they were formative got me lol #personal #text post #People who don't create and have in fact removed the idea that they could ever create are black holes of humanity btw #even if you think you aren't creative most of us have at least some hobby where we make SOMETHING #whether you took to mending your own shoes or DIYing or playing guitar or dnd or woodworking or 3D printing or collecting retro synths #you likely have something you relax with #channel feelings into #these people seem to have never once experienced the human concepts of exploration or creation or play. all they have is consumption. #and its making me even more mental than i already am lol

[genericpuff]

"oh my god, the comic that opened its plot by saying that removing corporal punishments from schools was a bad idea and the teachers need to go back to beating up students turned out to be racist, who could have seen this coming!!"

Listen, okay, I don't want to dunk on the people who enjoy Get Schooled and genuinely didn't see the racism coming, but like... as someone who doesn't read Get Schooled and checked it out to see what the plot was even about following all the controversy these past couple days, y'all, the description is a hard fucking pass.

And I still checked out its first episode to give it more benefit of the doubt and... nah fam. Not saying we should have seen the racism coming a mile away but I'm baffled as to why people read this at all. I'm all for manga and webtoons with senseless or comical violence, but you still need to set the baseline for where that violence is taking place and what context it exists within. Naruto? Yeah, sure, students fighting the teachers, this is a fantasy universe based around the ninja arts, makes sense they're gonna fight each other and it seems like a mutual agreement. Assassination Classroom? The teacher literally isn't human and he's training his students on how to kill him otherwise he'll destroy their whole planet. Shit, even fucking Matilda handles it better because it's one kid being abused by the principal and that principal is so ridiculously abusive that the parents don't even believe the abuse is happening (to the point that this form of abuse and manipulation is often nicknamed "The Trunchbull Method" because it's designed to be so absurd that no one will believe the victim), so it winds up being on Matilda's shoulders to use her newfound gifts to teach her a lesson - but the story itself is meant to remind adults that kids are people and just because they're smaller and weaker than you doesn't give you a free pass to be abusive.

Point is, in all of those examples, you can create that suspension of disbelief in how the teachers and students behave towards one another because their entire plots require suspension of disbelief.

But Get Schooled is literally just... it's set in Korea, it's a normal high school story, there's nothing supernatural or unique going on with the students or the teachers, and there's no moral or lesson it's trying to express, it's literally just taking real life and saying, "hey, adults should be allowed to beat up kids". When has combatting violence with more violence ever been a solution in that kind of context? Why is this a comic that even exists, let alone on a platform that's regularly marketed to teenagers?

It's depressing. And just for the record, I was spurred on to make this post by the recent response from the team behind Get Schooled regarding the VERY racist plotline it recently released on the Korean version of the app.

Like... this is shit WT shouldn't have even been allowing to fly under the radar to begin with. The bar is on the floor. I also love how the creators of Get Schooled admitted to the fact that they were raised in a homogenous society but still thought they were up to the task of "bringing the issue [of multicultural racism] to light", when they, in fact, do the complete OPPOSITE within that episode by suggesting, "actually, if you're mixed race then you're the REAL bad guy, it's the pureblood Koreans who are the oppressed minority, there are so many immigrants these days!!" And "stopping hatred" sure is a big claim when the entire point of their comic is combatting hatred with hatred, or in Get Schooled's case, bullying with corporal punishment.

Yikes. Big fucking yikes.

#tw abuse #tw racism

[koiijournal]

Can we have more of host!reader and his yan? I love them so much <333

Omg ofc! I thought that was the least interesting one I wrote, i'd be happy to write more anon!! *´ㅅ`)ﾞ♡ (Apologies for the long wait!)

Heart that beats for you.

✩✩✩

Host!Male!Reader x Yan!Male ☆` Reader refers to you!

Ever since that day, Zuo has been a regular in the host club. You'd always find him clinging in to Reader, the school prince Charming and the main attraction in the host club!! Many were suprised by the fact that Zuo was even into anyone, but because of this, the host club business has raised even more! More male students even started to come to the host club.

As usual, inside the school in a host club room. It was lively than ever, different types of hosts having a lovely chat with the guests along with teas and desserts. And as usual Zuo is with Reader, no surprises here really.

What's Reader's thinking about Zuo? The truth inside Reader, the real you. Out of those chains of the persona of the 'Sweet Charming' prince, Reader did thought that Zuo was a weird kid, he'd whisper things about how "You're his", "You should only look at him" or "He'd remove everyone who even had the slightest idea thinking about you"

Either way, Reader would just smile at him. Still everything about him just puts Reader off. But none of that matters because in this school,in this host club, around these people, the real you doesn't exist.

"Ha.. You're so divine.. How could someone like me touch you without any consequences.. Are you perhaps an angel?" Zuo admires your looks as he plays with a few strains of your hair, twirling it around his fingers.

His thoughts was about form an idea about 'accidentally' pulling a strain of your hair (totally not for anything! It's an accident after all :>)

All of the sudden, a loud crashed sound of glass vibrates around the room. All of the people checks to see what happened.

"M'lady! Are you alright?? Did the glass pierce you?" A host came to aid for the poor guest, quickly checks around her hand for any injuries. All the other hosts begin to gather around them, including Reader.

Zuo was told to wait here while he checks for safety of others, he didn't like the fact that Reader worries about others when he's right here! Isn't he the priority to Reader..?? He felt negative emotion raising through his body but it burst when he saw Reader touching the timid looking girl on the accident. And the girl slowly closing the distance on Reader.

Oh.

So that's how they're gonna play.

His grip on the glass he was holding was crushed into pieces.

Another sound crashes into the floor, everyone turned their head on to the source. Zuo's hand was bleeding badly with his blood dripping out of his hands along with the tears on his puffy eyes.

Reader was the one who reacted first and quickly runs out of the crowd to go back to him. Ahh.. You do care about him afterall!

Reader look around Zuo's hand for a small inspection before deciding "That looks bad, come on let's go to the nursery office" Without any hesitation they both quickly walk to their destination.

The girl who had an accident glares at Zuo's back before they went out of the door.

.At The Nursery Office.

"This should heal in a week, don't move your hands too much alright?" Reader says while closes the med kit box on the bed.

Zuo only smiles at Reader and playfully swinging his leg. He's just so happy that he has all your attention right now, maybe if he injures himself more.. Would you stay with him forever?

"This wouldn't have happened if I stayed with you, my deepest apology, my love" Reader gives a small kiss on their bandaged hand. Oh there you go again, that empty action of yours with sugar coated words.

Zuo was delighted but.. It didn't made his heart create a reaction. This wasn't the you he wants, he knows you've pretend every time and he hates the fact that these are meaningless love between you two.

He wants to be the one who drags you out of those fake mask, no he will.

His face turns sad again "Can you do something for me in return..?" He grips Reader's hand softly

"..Of course" Reader stares into his dark eyes that fills with emptiness.

"Then.."

"I want you to love me."

You tilt your head in confusion "I am in love with you, my love." It pains him in every inch of his body when you're lying to him, he knows you truly do!

"No.. I'm asking for the you inside. Cut the sweet act." He puts his hand on your cheek with eyes that was no longer empty, it was filled with LOVE!

You look up to him with a paralyzed body, gathering all the energy to go against the fear to speak another word. You open your mouth slowly

"...what?"

LOVE HIM FOREVER! LOVE HIM FOREVER! LOVE HIM FOREVER! LOVE HIM FOREVER! LOVE HIM FOREVER! LOVE HIM FOREVER!

A/N : sorry if this sucks ahshwyagag.. My brain isn't braining anymore.

#male reader #soft yandere #tw yandere #yandere blog #yanderemale #yanderecore #yanderemalexmalereader #male reader insert #yandere imagines #yandere headcanons #Koiijournal

[comicaurora]

Heyo, it's the fool who wants to make a comic with zero experience in drawing or finishing stories again. A lot of people, including you, I think, mentioned that "Your first work will be bad". Any tips how…not to do that? I don't expect it to be a magnum opus or smth, but I at least want to make something people would genuinely unironically enjoy, and "first story is always not good" notion everywhere is very discouraging

It's not like I never tried anything creative ever, but this is my first attempt of putting it down on paper with intention of completing it, instead of having vague ideas of "I know what would be so cool when I make it a thing" in my head for months without acting upon any of these ideas

It's definitely a disheartening adage, even if it's supposed to take the pressure off young creators.

Unfortunately, no matter how good your starting point gets - and you can get it very good, don't get me wrong - you are still going to find it unbearably bad when you look back on it with experienced eyes. You might eventually circle back around to finding it impressive, considering it was your absolute first starting point and you had no experience, but you still won't be able to see its merit the way your audience will.

The thing is, your first project is going to teach you a lot of things you couldn't have known you needed to learn beforehand. This means everything you make after learning those things is going to be smoother in process and better in result. There's also just the fact that the more you do this sort of thing the more practiced you'll get at the mechanical side of it, making it faster and easier for you and leaving you with more energy to punch things up. Compare the Big Fight Scene from chapter 3 with the one from chapter 17 in terms of visual complexity:

Particle effects, ambient glow, soft lighting, atmospheric depth, metallic effects, light and shadow. The seeds of these ideas are present in the earlier shot, but executed in a much clumsier way. Fourteen chapters of gradually increasing complexity and just raw practice got me to the point where drawing that second panel was fun rather than exhausting. If I'd tried that in the first chapter I would've probably been so worn out just trying to finish the lineart that the quality of the rest of the image would've suffered from sheer exhaustion.

And even before that, those first chapters only flowed as well as they did because I'd been drawing hundreds and hundreds of video frames for years at this point, which had gotten my lineart muscle memory polished enough that I wasn't agonizing over every single stroke.

I was absolutely determined to start this comic off at the best level of quality I could, and that determination kept me kicking the can down the road for a decade. I think this was a good thing; if I'd started it any earlier I think I would've been a slow enough learner that the quality increase over those first few chapters wouldn't have been as steep as it was. And that first chapter was as good as I could've made it at the time; I didn't take any shortcuts or laze around, and I used every skill I'd learned over the previous decade of physical and digital art. Of course, if I knew then what I knew now there's loads of stuff I'd have changed about the way I handled the intro. In fact, I'm going to break my One Rule about "never going back or redoing things" and I'm going to walk you all through chapter 1 and what I would change/fix if I was drawing it now.

Remove the outline on the background mountains, add color variance to the further mountains so they appear farther in the background, un-muddy the color of the sky and make those clouds a little more impressive; this could've looked like a full glorious noonday sun. The forest was drawn with an experimental brush I'd created for foliage that I ended up deciding didn't produce the effect I wanted; I'd probably go through and use the technique I developed for Gleicann's forest to cel shade blocks of foliage.

Add at least the bare hint of buildings behind the sword pedestal - just gradient outlines would be fine, similar to the extended backgrounds in Zuurith. Also slap some blue cinder-y particle effects coming up off the sword. Clean up the shading layer so there aren't as many holes. Add metallic shine to the blade and marbling/stone texture to the pedestal.

Un-muddy the colors on this background; they match The Collector's color palette but that matters less than looking nice. The background needs something - speed lines, the implication of foliage - etc. The poses could also be more dynamic and drawn with more confidence. To show the power behind the blows, re-choreographs the fight to show more of the damage it does to the environment - the sword carving through rocks, ploughing furrows into the ground, starting to spark with starfire, etc.

Same problem with the foliage; the special brush adds too much detail, drawing the eye away from the important parts of the scene, and the colors are muddy to cover that up. Brighter greens and cel-shaded layers would produce the effect I actually wanted and be faster than hand-drawing every treetrunk and then shading them so they're indistinguishable anyway. Also, more intense shading on the foreground figure - a neutral tan shadow layer is functional, but it could look a lot more dramatic, and he's shaded much more lightly than the extremely muddied background is.

Of course, "if I knew then what I know now" is a meaningless turn of phrase. I needed to draw these pages this way in order to learn what I know now. If I had jumped straight into the shortcuts I've painstakingly developed without having had that intervening practice, the end result would've been just as bad - if not worse, because it would've been executed shakily, without the confidence that accompanies muscle memory. The techniques I used in this first chapter had served me well up til that point. The techniques I use now were built on these foundations. Lamenting that I could've done it better if I'd started now is like saying the pyramids would be so much taller if they'd laid the foundations at the top part instead.

There's a degree to which this work is sisyphusian. You do your best, you push yourself, and then your "best" gets better. At some point you have to accept that what was your best is still okay, even if you can't see it that way.

When I was working on this comic in the pre-actually-drawing-it years, I came to a realization that helped me get unstuck: "good enough" is a mask that "perfect" wears. Striving for perfection is a pointless task, and this is pretty well known, but it seems a lot more reasonable to just try to get "good enough" at art to guarantee that your work will be good enough. But if you unpack that concept, you likely find that your definition of "good enough" is basically "without flaws." Which is "perfect." Which is, as mentioned, unattainable. Those pages are as good as I could've possibly made them at the time, and they aren't perfect, and I never thought they were perfect, because I knew if I waited for them to be perfect in my eyes I'd never make them. I just had to grit my teeth, make them public and hope that people got something out of them that I couldn't.

There is a baseline level of artistic skill and preparation that I do recommend cultivating - figure and life drawing, anatomy studies, landscapes, reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" cover to cover - but there is no hardline starting point at which you are guaranteed to be good enough to make the story and art good. This is because "good" is subjective, and as long as you are improving as an artist, your own perspective on your old work will never be that it is "good." You have to trust that the audience that likes your story likes it for their own valid reasons.

The thing is, I know this is a bummer. This whole thing is a bummer perspective. Artists want to make good art and the nature of artistic creation is being unable to see your own art as good for long. If you believe that your art must be a certain baseline level of Good to be worthy of existing, this truth seems to be a condemnation to an eternal and pointless purgatorial struggle.

The most valuable skill an artist can develop at this stage is strangling that insecurity with their bare hands.

Trust your audience! Trust that they enjoy what they enjoy, and trust that they see something in your art, even if all you can see are the critiques you'd use to polish it! "Perfect" and "good enough" will tell you that your creation will always be hideously unlovable and must be hidden from scrutiny until it's "ready", but like all insecurities, underpinning this is the axiom that anyone who likes you or your work is lying. Strangle this falsehood, trust freely and openly that your audience is being honest with you, and while you work to improve on the creation side of things, trust that in the eyes of the people who like your work, it is Good Enough.

#asks #art stuff #writing stuff

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Idk what is it with legacy but everything seems to me like it was written on a napkin five minutes before the programming started. I'm crying about the ancient magic and the fact that nothing was done with it. The friends weren't involved with the plot enough, Fig was involved too much (were they trying to copy year 4 and 5 with Rakepick???), we CAN'T FUCKING ALLY WITH RANROK, Isodora and Bragbor successfully cooperated to create the repository but we can't have main character and ranrok paralleling that and working together.

You know, you're absolutely right.

This game was like...almost incredible. But in every area it could have been incredible, there's this pesky "almost" stuck as a prefix for this reason or that reason.

The companion mod is proof that not enough was done with the characters in this game (Amit doesn't even get a quest-line) but it's obvious that the characters are still compelling. Poppy and Natsai are three dimensional and lovable, and Sebastian's popularity speaks for itself. Even the ones who aren't meant to be in focus can be well crafted. (They rolled a real winner with Ominis, I said what I said.)

Fig was obviously meant to be a significant character (I am still not clear on what subject he teaches, does anyone know...?) and given his connection to the plot through Miriam, that's to be expected. He's a lovable guy and I don't mind him being so relevant, but it's obvious that (for better or for worse) the student characters are largely here by obligation and in the mind of the developers, they're more for side-quest content. That other characters like Fig and Lodgok are meant to be the important ones. Again, for better or for worse. I've heard it said that Sebastian's story should have just been the main storyline of the game and honestly...that's not entirely a bad idea.

Though frankly, I think a far better idea would have been just having Isidora as the villain instead of Ranrok.

Which is a good segue into talking about the other points you mentioned. I've talked about this before as well, but yes. Ranrok was beyond wasted as a character. What you describe would have been perfect, and yeah, it would have mirrored the backstory. It seems so obvious. Ranrok deserved more development and deserved to be portrayed as someone the MC might sympathize with. He deserved an ending of his own, where the player can side with him. Never mind the political, real-life reasons for why this was essential, it's just a no-brainer in an open world RPG that would have you believe it has multiple endings. (It really doesn't...)

Oh and that reminds me, this game pretends it has two endings when really, it only has one. Yes, you can choose to harness the Ancient Magic rather than becoming a Keeper, but it changes nothing about the game's ending. Half of the players were already going to head-canon their MCs as doing that anyway. The Ancient Magic is such an intriguing concept but apart from being a map marker for The Fifth Year to discover new plot threads, we don't learn much about it at all.

Honestly, the most fascinating the Ancient Magic ever gets is when we're learning about it through Isidora. The scene where she removed her father's pain was genuinely chilling, and in that I saw the glimmer of a terrifying villain wielding magic we had never seen before. Isidora would have been the best kind of villain because she would have believed she was doing the right thing and would have had understandable reason why she believed it. What she could do to those who oppose her...what she did to the people she loved, and all because she wanted to help them...the power of Ancient Magic is frightening, in no small part because we know so little about it, but we could definitely have stood to learn a little bit more, especially as it's unlikely to be featured again. (Unless they make a sequel.)

I think above all, what this story needed was more nuance. Everything is way too black and white. There are hints of something more, but they get dropped almost immediately as they get brought up. Maybe that's why Sebastian's storyline is a fan-favorite. His dynamic with Ominis and where his story ultimately goes, not to mention the sympathetic reasons why it ends up where it does...and the actual impact The Fifth Year's choices can have on this story...yeah, the rest of the game could take note. Isidora isn't developed enough, and neither is Ranrok, when they could both be exceptional characters.

You want to know my favorite scene of the game, bar none? The scene where Lodgok opens up about meeting Miriam and his grief at her death. That. That is the kind of nuance I'm talking about, and combined with the scene's atmosphere and raw emotion...I teared up. I mean it. That was so powerful. I wish more of the Ranrok storyline was like that more of the time. Any story in the Potterverse that centers around a Goblin Rebellion cannot afford to be this black and white, and we all know why. But in general, it's just better storytelling if there are more shades of gray.

#Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy #Isidora Morganach #Ranrok #Lodgok #Eleazar Fig #Sebastian Sallow #Ominis Gaunt #Harry Potter #HPHL Analysis #HPHL MC #The Fifth Year

[thefloatingstone]

After looking into the writers predicament and how it all led to the strike it made me realize that perhaps one of the reasons for the decline in quality media is becuase writers have been given less and less incentives to create good content, do you have any thoughts?

I don't think it would be exactly incentive. I would think in a certain amount of cases it would be down more to demotivation. Generally, writers for film and TV and such genuinely WANT to make a good story and, much like fanfic writers and fanartists, will do their best for very little thanks simply because it's what they DO. But not ever show or movie is going to be a passion project, in fact most of them won't. And if you're working for Disney especially, who owns 38% of all film (not counting TV and other media) so you most likely WILL end up wroking for Disney, you are going to have a TON of studio meddling on every level of writing.

As I mentioned in the other post, Mr Rick And Morty (sorry I don't know his name and I'm too lazy to check) wrote the story for the Dr Strange and the Multiverse of madness at LEAST twice when the movie's FIRST story and script was scrapped by a previous writer. The first script he wrote was heavily rewritten and changed and reworked by the studio. and then the studio just THREW OUT that script and he had write a brand NEW script 2 weeks before shooting started using all the props, sets, outfits and CG segments they had already made. And the thing is this is now STANDARD PRACTICE in working on a big budget Disney film.

Part of the reason the Barbie movie is written as well as it is, is because Mattel were almost completely hands off with the film's writing. (the only changes I heard about was them censoring one Barbie saying the word "Motherfucker" which they censored in the film by putting a Mattel sticker over her mouth) and various other things like the removal of a narration in one scene and one or two jokes were cut. You know! NORMAL screenwriting practices!

But Disney is so paranoid and controlling with literally everything they put out it is a death sentence for any kind of creativity. Even ignoring the fact that they hire brand new writers who they can control and push around easier, I imagine even if you were NOT a new writer just happy for a big break, it must be extremely demotivating to try and write a good story when you know Disney is just gonna shred it to ribbons.

This is absolutely not the ONLY reason of course. Velma's writing is so godawful because people who had only worked in live action cable comedy thought they could do the exact same thing for an animated show and it would work without knowing anything about the medium they were working in because they were arrogant, lacked restraint, and had gotten where they were thanks to being friends with the right people. HGS is so badly written because Raye Rodriquez had shopped around his story idea to EVERYONE and got rejected by all of them until Crunchyroll needed fodder to justify opening up its own studio to create "originals". Many times modern cartoons are badly written because the actual people writing the show are animators who haven't had any formal training or education in creative writing.

There are a thousand and one reasons for WHY something ends up badly written. But as for why we have gotten SO MUCH that is badly written recently I would chalk up to studio execs and the business side of Hollywood choking the creativity out of the writing process in an attempt to maximize profits in the short term.

That's an EXTREME simplification but that would be my opinion. Hell the only reason AI writing is even a conversation regarding film and TV is because it's the kind of thing these studio execs are SALIVATING over the thought of. A writer they have 100% control over that they don't have to pay and don't have to deal with all that "creative vision" or "artistic expression" bullshit which they don't like because it represents risk to sure fire income.

because most Studio Execs are businessmen who have no concept of creativity whatsoever, have no idea what being creative even means, and yet they think because they know how to make money in a corporate sense, they know how to monetise creativity to maximum efficiency.

It's like a fisherman getting rid of all the fish in the sea because they're getting in the way of him monetising the ocean.

Anyway this ask is a mess because this is a complex issue I am trying to express a simplified opinion on. But I hope you get what I mean.

#C-Puff answers

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY: Something that will forever bother me is that I thought they would change their outfits. I dont like v7 outfits too much so wehn I saw they might be on a beach. I thought, 'Cool. Maybe they'll remove some layers of theit WINTER outfits and they might look better.' BUT NO. I thought weiss and blake would lose their jackets, yang gets a ponytail, im not sure about ruby, shes fine ig. But still pretty unhappy. oh well

Yang in a ponytail, my beloved. So near and yet so far 😭

I get that it takes more time, effort, and of course money to create the new models (even overlooking the fact that RT is no longer the struggling startup it once was...) but for me, missing details like that really hinder my sense of immersion. They don't actively take me out of the story, but they don't help me stay tethered to it either, which is much more of a problem when the writing is struggling like RWBY's is.

As I mentioned in another post, I've started Demon Slayer (which is excellent) and little moments with clothing really help the storyworld to feel real. Why doesn't Tanjiro's uniform tear during all those intense battles? Oh look, here's a scene with his mentor explaining precisely how that's possible. Why doesn't Inosuke's mask fall off? It does after a particularly vicious headbutt, finally revealing his face. Here two of the characters are removing their outer layers to give someone a pillow and blanket. Here they are changing into a new set of clothes while their uniforms are washed. Zenitsu hangs onto others' robes when he's particularly scared, pulling them askew. Inosuke wears or doesn't wear a shirt depending on the situation. People comment on the bamboo in Nezuko's mouth. Tanjiro's earrings are slowly being revealed as significant... Clothing is a part of the characters and the story actually treats it as such.

In contrast, RWBY has lost almost all of that work despite starting out as a series built around the thematic significance of outfit colors. Not even their weapons, tools through which the ENTIRE conflict is built around, are given any true acknowledgement anymore, not when Weiss finds hers in a heartbeat offscreen, getting Blake's back becomes fodder for jokes, Ruby shows no inclination to get Crescent Rose back (with, more significantly, her teammates ignoring that uncharacteristic passivity), and Jaune apparently has never tried to mend his sword. Only stealing Yang's arm is even somewhat significant and likewise treated in a jokey, ultimately-unimportant-to-her-development manner.

Now take into consideration everything they DON'T do, including reacting to the tropical nature of the Ever After. Give me scenes where Yang puts up her hair, Blake takes her stockings off, Ruby tears the sleeves off her shirt, Weiss cuts her skirt to make it shorter, and she and Yang both loose their jackets because holy shit it's hot here. Also we're literally lost in a parallel fantasy world, maybe dead, who gives a crap how we look or if we need to buy new clothes later?? Give me the girls pulling off extra layers to cushion Ruby's head after her faint. Let them tear off a strip to bind a wound. Who's going to trade something like their jewelry to gain what they need? (Something we did get with Ruby's rose pendant, but it happened so fast and with no emotional punch it was just frustrating. Great idea, terrible execution.) Who's going to pick up new pieces while traipsing across the Ever After, perhaps visually signifying their acceptance of the place (something we could have gotten with Ren in Atlas)? Who's outfit gets scorched or torn or soiled because unlike Demon Slayer, there's no canonical reason for why these clothes should still be looking pristine after all they've been through?

Obviously RWBY doesn't have to do all of this, but it should do something to sell the idea that these are real people post-battle, traveling a hostile, tropical-esque land after they've been prepped for the ARCTIC. Keeping them exactly the same doesn't help me fall into the fantasy of watching RWBY, it just makes me go, "Oh, they probably want new outfits for Volume 10, so they're not bothering to change anything now :/" The viewer is already well aware that Volume 9 is a filler season that's struggling to be significant in the grand scheme of things. You don't want anything that's going to add to that feeling.

To use an old meme:

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

[kitkatnerds3]

NEW BSD EPISODE, THOUGHTS

There was a lot of cool stuff that happened this episode! The ADA reuniting scene with Atsushi tackle hugging Kunikida and Kyouka having to physically keep herself from also tackle hugging her family, Seeing Tecchou again, bunch of old man yaoi, Ranpo being an absolute delight and my favorite character he is so cool I love him and so does half of the police force, the appearance of our boy Akutagawa, And a bunch of really cool animation choices! The part where Atsushi was talking about how he was scared and then the words saying fear condensed and turned into Atsushi was awesome, and I think I saw a style change when they were talking about Fukuchi's backstory, and style changes are always awesome. We still haven't seen what the ending looks like but from what I could hear of it the song is pretty good!

What I want to talk about the most though is stuff that I heard about from the Fukuchi backstory, before that though I just wanna say,

BSD FANDOM PLEASE. I KNOW WE HATE FUKUCHI BUT THERE WAS SO MUCH STUFF ABOUT HIM THAT WE SOULD TALK ABOUT MORE!!! First of all, the fact that he has three movies based on him and that most of the united nations guys seem to have a crush on him is fucking hilarious. And second of all, this is the part I want to scream about,

ONE OF HIS PAST EXPLOITS IN THE WAR WAS ABOUT HIM GETTING RID OF A PROJECT THAT WAS CREATING WERE-PEOPLE!!! WERE-PEOPLE!!!

WHO DO WE KNOW THAT HAS A WERE-PERSON POWER, A STILL SLIGHTLY NOT EXPLAINED PAST (LOOKING AT YOU 'Compared to what your parents did to you when you were first born this doesn't even count as abuse') AND WHATEVER THE FUCK MADE HIM SO SPECIAL IN THE DEAD APPLE (LOOKING AT YOU USING YOUR ABILITY EVEN WHEN YOUR ABILITY CRYSTAL HAD ALREADY BEEN REMOVED AND ALSO IT'S BLUE WHEN ALL THE OTHER CRYSTALS WERE RED)?

THATS RIGHT. FUCKING

ATSUSHI

Am I yelling too much? Quite possibly. Do I care? NO! THIS INFORMATION COULD BE SO IMPORTANT!!! THE VAMPIRE'S THAT THEY MENTIONED APPEAED AGAIN, WHO SAYS THAT THIS MIGHT NOT SHOW UP LATER!!?

I have done the math, the war ended about 11 to 12 years ago, meaning that Atsushi had been born already while the war was still going on, it's entirely possible that he might be connected to that incident!! And while it does kinda seem like that whole thing happened kinda early on in the war, well that's what parents are for!

This could also tie into whatever is connecting him to the book, if the tiger is an artificial ability created by some government, maybe they used the book or something like that! To be completely honest I am constantly grasping at straws to figure out what the heck is up with Atsushi and the book, I have no idea what could be connecting them, but, the more theories you have the more likely that one of them will be correct!!

Now, from this point on I'm going to be discussing manga spoilers, so anime onlys beware.

I am both so hyped and so fucking scared for next Wednesday, for as we all know, Akutagawa does exactly three things in this arc, show up, be gay, and die. He's accomplished the first one, I'm excited for the second one, and the third one terrifies me. I DON'T WANT HIM TO DIEEEEEEEEEE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! But I'm also so excited for 'you know the reason yourself, don't you?' and 'run, you fool (soft smile)' and 'from the start the hole was only for his ally to escape through' because, shin soukoku canon. But also all of the gay shit comes with the knowledge of what comes next and AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! FUCK!

Also, one thing that happened in this episode kinda reminded me of a question I had.

Where the fuck are Junichirou and Kenji???

Have they just been wandering the port mafia underground this entire time? I know that Juni probably runs into them again, or at least runs into Kunikida, but does he ever meet up with Atsushi or the rest of the agency at all? Or does he just get kidnapped off screen and we don't see him until they reveal him tied to the bed? And what about Kenji?? Does he just walk around with no idea what's going on with the agency until he meets Tecchou? Where is he???

Anyways, great episode can't wait for next week!!!

#bungo stray dogs #bsd season 5 #bsd spoilers #bsd fukuchi #bsd atsushi #bsd akutagawa #bsd junichiro #bsd kenji #bsd theories #kinda

[vigilskeep]

full honesty before i look things up, when i said "the maker made the stone and then she made dwarves" i was at least partially thinking about how aulë made dwarves in lord of the rings

but there is a codex about dwarven faith in origins ("Codex entry: Dwarven Faith") and it does offer some interesting insight, since it changes depending on whether the warden is a dwarf or not. i'd quote the parts about the stone in both versions but they would make the ask extremely long; a top highlight though is brother genitivi, in the non-dwarven codex, saying dwarves don't have gods at all in the most, uh, disdainfully andrastian way, even if the dwarven side of the codex does say they don't "vie for the favor of absent gods"

also according to the wiki's page on The Stone, dwarves do indeed believe themselves to be literally born of the stone aka the earth itself, and that they venerate her but they don't worship her as a god, and that she's believed to be a "living and shifting entity with a will that surrounds and guides the dwarves" as well as "supports them, shelters them, and offers them the most priceless gifts of the earth" (including lyrium). it also brings up underground dwarves' stone sense and how, according to origins' codex entry on lyrium, dwarves "[find] veins in the Stone quite literally by ear" (<- note capitalization). apparently once they go to the surface they lose their abilities too so. yeah

re: theology finally i think, in-universe, "what is the stone" and "who made the dwarves" and all of this is probably a matter of pure unadultered "pogostick satan"-tier academic theological debate within the chantry's scholars, flipped table and all, and again what i'll say is based on my baseless silly speculation/guess, but: if andrastians do actually believe that "the maker made the stone and then she made dwarves [and so they aren't children of the maker]", my takeaway on how it works is that if a human gives birth to another human, their entire people was still created by the maker, so the baby is still a child of the maker because it was like, conceptualized i guess by the maker. he decided what babies would look like and such.

meanwhile dwarves as a people would be believed to be created by the stone, and so theoretically they weren't conceptualized by the maker, or at the very least he didnt have a direct hand in realizing the concept (idk if andrastianism subscribes to the idea that "the maker planned for everything that has ever happened and ever will"? but if it does i figure the explanation is that when the maker made the stone, he knew that it would design and create dwarves as a concept, but he didnt design and create dwarves /himself/ and instead let the stone do that, and so they're a step removed rather than being a direct creation. i figure)

all that theology does hinge on my interpretation that "they could say the maker made the stone and then she made dwarves" though, which could easily be complete and total heresy. in fact that might be why josie is nervous about inquisitorial stone veneration, because the inquisitor venerating the stone yet being favored by andraste can be interpreted as divine confirmation of a heresy from 200 years ago and that might make the chantry triple hate you

apologies for the long ask, dwarves are just interesting lol

if i write a full response to this the post will be essay length but this is all super interesting and i am eating it thank u

#theres nothing i love more than fantasy theological debate. nothing #i should tag all this #dwarf lore #long post #and yeah my instinct is also that it borrows from lotr

[cheetee]

⭐

I reblogged this ask meme then passed out immediately. Whoops! Anyway, you had the misfortune to send me this just as I finished my entire series. I'm about to hit you with literally every thought I've ever had.

EncantoTV: A Retrospective

My goal in Encanto fanfic is always, as best I can, to re-create the tone and style of the original movie. I called the series "Encanto TV Episodes From Another Timeline" because that's the level of canon compliance I wanted, not just from the plot but also from everything else, with the tone and the humour and the themes and the characters we focus on - I wanted to write something that felt like Disney had greenlit it.

(It's entirely PG except this part, which I removed briefly in early 2022 and then remorsefully put back because I literally couldn't replace the line "de-bitched their grandmother".)

Fun fact: I literally did not care for Camilo one iota the first time I watched Encanto. I don't mean I didn't like him; I mean I straight-up forgot one of the characters could shapeshift a couple of different times during the movie and had to google who the hell he was afterwards.

I put Camilo in When the Cat's Away because I thought he would be a funny narrator to a story that was primarily about Mirabel and Bruno, and then by necessity of being the narrator he got his own character arc, and that character arc spiralled into being the main emotional hook of the fic. Whoops.

The character who did get plenty of screentime from me, though: Bruno!

Here's the thing about fanfiction. Most people watched Encanto (2021), a Family-Adventure-Comedy, saw Bruno, thought he was hot, and then proceeded to write fiction about him that was also hot, such as porn, angst, porn/angst, and the great many variations of those things that exist on AO3. I watched that movie and went: "Great! I want more of this attractive, compelling character. He is a side character used primarily for comic relief, with a tragic backstory that is only ever minimally explored. Therefore, that is exclusively what I am going to write."

Hence: Bruno only appears as a major supporting character, and his main roles are to act as foil to Mirabel and comic relief, much the way he does in the original movie. I don't know what it is about that that I enjoy writing when, as far as I can tell, every other Bruno stan on the internet went down the logical route of writing fic that was about... well, him. Maybe a bit of narrative irrelevancy is just something I find attractive in a man?

Whatever about Camilo and Bruno, though. I thought Mirabel was a great character when I first watched Encanto, and now, having written 100,461 (fuck!) words about her, my feelings have only deepened. Mirabel, my daughter, life of my life!!! I adore you!!!

Seriously: I love this girl. I wound up spiralling into a whole series because there's just not enough I could say about her. I love the way the world feels when you're at a certain point in your teens, and you're smart and empathetic enough to understand the injustices of it, and you've got this whole life ahead of you to fix them and all these things to do around you and suddenly, for the briefest period of time, you have nothing but big ideas and burning passion to see them through. I wanted to capture that type of kid, somebody who's clearly very passionate and brilliant and inspired, despite the crushing lonliness and insecurity that sometimes comes with being fifteen.

Mirabel and Bruno's relationship is very dear to me. Mirabel is a teen who's pushing away her parents and the other adults in her life, feeling misunderstood. Bruno knows how to interact with the teens in a way that makes them feel treated and seen as adults, that validates their adult feelings and actions, while never actually crossing the boundary into being a friend. Bruno is a mentor, good at showing vulnerability when he needs to get through to someone and holding it back when they need strength instead. Mirabel desperately wants someone who makes her feel seen, and she needs an adult in her life she can trust. They go together like that.

The thing I'm proudest of about EncantoTV, though, is the plots. Because deciding that something is meant to be a cartoon TV episode, not a movie, not a novel, is just... a different type of story. TV plots can be bad. There are holes, there are wildly unrealistic natural disasters and uses of weapons, people run on and off the screen, and the whole thing needs to get wrapped up in a way that you can theoretically miss this episode and it still makes sense.

My finest achievement? I have gotten SO good at writing plots that are STUPID AS ALL FUCK. I'll write fucking anything in there. I put a ghost in the Encanto. I destroyed a whole fucking mountain then NEVER referenced it again. I brought back Bubo. Antonio went to JAIL. The places the characters go in Birds of Paradise? That shit makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER when you look at the timeline, because they could only have been walking for a few hours AT BEST but they still hike an entire watershed AND drive the same distance within AT MOST a couple of hours.

And you know what? AIN'T NOBODY IN THE COMMENTS TELLING ME IT WAS STUPID, CAUSE THEY CHECKED OUT BEFORE THEY GOT THAT FAR. Belissimo.

Anyway, it's 4am, and I'm definitely rambling. Here's my last point, which is about having readers!!!

My webcomic used to get a comment every 2-3 months. My fiction has been rejected from a couple of litmags. Something that has been mind-blowing, life-changing, awe-inspiring? Readers! People who read what I wrote and they liked it, and not only that they told me they liked it!!! I have written lots and lots of things, and I have never, in my life, had people go out of their way to contact me and tell me what they enjoyed and why, the way that people have done for these fics, and it's... damn!!! It's world-ending!!!

This was a long-ass post, I guess being my goodbye to the series... I want to thank you, @youmaycallmeyourhighness, for sending it, and for the various comments and messages, that shit means the WORLD to me. I am a humble college student, my grades are bad, and it is surreal that my writing is something that interests you.

To @bitchykuromi, @malewifebruno, @pinwheelwhirl, @greenvillainredemption, @originalavenuefox, @ramblesanddragons, and several others who either aren't on tumblr or I just can't find rn because it's 4am: I hope you all know how much it means to me that you liked my fics enough to read them over all this time, and find the time to tell me about it, and you are all such cool people it brings me such delight to think that I actually might have made you laugh irl.

THANK YOU WORLD FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF MAKING ENCANTOTV: IT'S BEEN REAL. Goodnight!!!!!

#encantoTV #my writing

[rodeoromeo]

It is weird to me when people don't understand the point of the Wilburys wasn't to be a supergroup making the best songs ever. That's what makes them great.

literally I think people have NOT listened to them! and doesn’t know anything about them! the point was literally the opposite- to open up the joy of shared creativity in music making and to remove the pressure of the industry’s expectations. they even had the (totally vain) hope that they could release the songs anonymously! it wasn’t about creating a commercially successful masterpiece or seeing what you could do when you get great minds and talents like that together. it was about having fun creating together and just seeing exactly what comes out of you and running with every idea. to me that’s what makes them a great band- it was a noble idea created with pure intentions that has an output that varies from beautiful heartfelt brilliantly composed songs (Handle With Care, Heading for the Light, Not Alone Anymore) to really silly downright comedic songs (Dirty World, Cool Dry Place, Last Night) to a few just like . Classically Dylan songs that found a place here like Tweeter and the Monkey Man and If You Belonged To Me. there’s so much diversity in sound across the two albums and some awesome guitar playing and fun lyrical work and through it all just the energy of some artists who had been through a lot getting back to the joy that got them into music in the first place.

if you ever hear Tom Petty talk about what the Wilburys did for him at that point in his life or George talk about what the purpose of that band was for him I feel like you enter into a really special relationship with everything they did there. not to mention the fact that each album was written and recorded over the course of a few days. yes I’m a big fan of George and Tom and Bob, but the Wilburys are much more to me than a combination of some guys I like. artistically I really respond to what they stood for and emotionally I really connect to a lot of the music. not to mention that it’s a fun, good time. not everything is about the guys who made it, but is also about the output of what they created. I’m always happy to talk about the Wilburys or to direct anyone towards more material to learn more about them. Thanks for sending this ask and giving me a chance to say something about them!

#sorry for the essay! but yeah I’m passionate about it #the traveling wilburys #george harrison #tom petty #bob dylan #roy orbison #jeff lynne #Jeff Lynne mentioned!!!!! #op #b talks

[woodblxssomcrowned]

Personal rant/vent that's not very cohesive

I've had these characters for almost ten years and they are *constantly* changing, sometimes a lot in a very short time.

I go back and forth with various ideas and concepts and ngl I often feel like a bad oc mom for it like they have no integrity as characters. Like I don't care about them, or can't create good and consistent characters.

And the fact that they are so intimately connected to canon muses is always a source of insecurity. Like their association to Hashirama is pretty integral to how they are as characters, it's not a relationship I can just remove without affecting core parts of them, but we barely know what kind of man Hashirama was in private, the only accounts we have are his own and Madaras, much less what sort of father he was to the children that are never ever mentioned ever by anyone ever, so I also often feel the need to tone them down and leave gaps in order to make room for others interpretations of Hashirama.

And also I'm trying so SO hard to not make these kids op.

I'm trying so hard to find that sweet spot of believability that they are Senju/Uzumaki which are clans known for producing members who are really strong in various ways (life force, stamina, general skill etc) and could hold up against the Uchiha for ages. That they genetically come directly from the same stock as Hashirama and Tobirama, and Mito, and would produce Tsunade. That they are still somewhat interesting and remain fun to roleplay in a verse where the vast majority of characters are fighters. While also wanting to somehow keep them low-key enough that they don't accidentally overshadow the canon powerhouses like Hiruzen and the Sannin and become unrealistically notable since nobody mentions shit about the Hashirama-offspring (or any other post-founders Senju besides Tsunade and Nawaki) in canon. It was the main reason I ended up going with Maeko not being a shinobi, to somehow justify the insignificance (I also have some old harsh critique in the mary sue category that still rings at the the back of my head no matter how much i try to let it go). But ngl its not always fun to play that way. At the same time I feel like Maeko *not* being shinobi is equally unrealistic and weird, and is definitely still something I feel uncertain about in terms of wtf she's supposed to be doing instead. Like I try to downplay them to a point where they aren't fun for me to play anymore.

It's a lot of insecurity just in my head. I know there's people who really like these characters. But still I feel so deeply unable to justify affecting canon too much, sacrificing just having fun in favor of some sort of weird 'realism', which sucks.

#;;ooc #ugh i just needed to get this out of my system #rant cw

[myfandomrealitea]

Here's the thing. Derek Hale dying would objectively suck no matter how or why, but character death can have significant meaning and can actually be impactful to the storytelling, the character's development, ect.

As a poorly done but logical example; Billy Hargrove. An abused, terrified boy who, ultimately, chose to be good and chose to willingly sacrifice himself to save people who objectively were just going to happily let him die. Billy went down fighting. Billy, for once, made his own choice out of a lifetime of being controlled by others. Billy, who had no idea about the supernatural, used his last moments to stand up to a terrifying interdimensional creature who'd used him like a meat-puppet in a fight he knew was going to be his last.

Meaningful. Impactful. Relevant to Billy's characterisation and backstory, regardless of if you liked him or not.

But Derek Hale's death means quite literally scant fuck all. It was death for the sake of death. It was solely for shock value and it was two-dimensional and it was nothing short of boring, lazy writing, and one final fuck you to the fans that Jeff Davis seems hellbent on shitting all over.

Jeff Davis effectively ensured that by the end of the show Derek Hale was not a significant character. He wrote him off as basically another pack-adjacent character in the movie too; just a single dad minding his business, trying to raise his son, occasionally helping out his old buddy Mr. Sheriff. He was objectively in the movie solely to die and once again uplift Scott McCall by providing him with a son for his happy ever after and to kick all the Derek Hale fans right up the patoot.

Remove Derek from the movie, and nothing changes. Eli could've just as easily been Isaac's son, or Jackson's. There was no solid basis for Derek's presence in the movie, or his death, other than shock value and the effective culling of the character because Jeff Davis is a tiny little man who physically can't stand when his fans don't fall into rank. And, of course, the pull of having Tyler Hoechlin back and having Derek Hale back. What's a Teen Wolf movie without the DILF factor, right?

He physically only created the movie because he couldn't stand the fact that the potential for one was there, and that someone else could produce it. He couldn't even think up an actual plot for the movie outside of a grossly predictable, flat recycling of previous villains and a frankly embarrassing reincarnation of the original pack.

The villain is recycled and completely voids the logic and lore set out by the show, and when you think about it is actually also just a boring recycling of the Kate Argent Werecreature plot, too. Main villain is killed, somehow comes back X amount of time later as a werecreature hellbent on revenge.

If you want another example of a poorly done, 'just because they can' death, look at Dean Winchester. Look at Eddie Munson. Look at Charlie Bradbury. Narratively redundant, shock value, stick-it-to-the-fans deaths that make me want to chew live wires.

#discourse #teen wolf #supernatural #stranger things #tw: death #meta #fandom meta #teen wolf meta #teen wolf movie #derek hale #sephiroth speaks #fandom #myfandomrealitea

[im-the-j-in-anthony-j-crowley]

Social structure from hell's perspective

1.- Demons/Angels

2.- Humans

As with heaven, defining humans as the inferior beings is not the hard part. We've seen how they refer to Crowley as a product of all the years he's been on earth. They don't see humans as being on the same level as them.

It is when we talk about the relationship of the demons with the angels when I expand more, the conclusion of everything that goes now is that the demons see the angels as beings at their same level, and that they hate them. And that they wish they could see them as inferior, but currently they can't.

There are three options for how demons can see angels, and here is the why I conclude that they see them as equals and my reasons for ruling out the other two

First, the three options:

Lower

Equal

Superior

The easiest one to rule out is the idea that they see them as inferior, and I would say that this is immediately ruled out when you get the idea that demons were taken out of heaven. They fought and lost. Yes, they usually say it was a draw and that it will be defined in the final battle. But in the practical terms, they were cast out of heaven and they ended up working in horrible conditions, in a pretty horrible place, they suffered. And an environment that is getting worse and worse.

I think the demons want to see the angels as inferior. But they have nothing that can confirm that for them. That's why Armageddon was such a big deal. The final fight between angels and demons was the chance for them to prove that being cast out was unfair. That they were better, that they deserved to be there.

So I think the demons don't see the angels as inferior, but that's what they're looking for going forward. They hope that one day they will be able to prove that they are better and should not have been expelled.

Then there is the part of accepting angels as superior beings, and this is one that is discarded I would say as soon as you accept the previous one. If you believed they were superior, you would have no confidence in being able to defeat them. If you believe they are something completely different from you, you would have no hope of overcoming them.

And there is also the fact that, after all, demons were once angels. I feel that one of the ways of looking at them is simply...the demons were removed from the home they had and exciliated. And I feel like that creates a lot of resentment, justified. But I don't think it can ever make you see them as superior to the people who drove you out. Especially when in practical terms you still have things in common with them.

You're both immortal, you're both miracle workers, and so on.

And they were angels before, I think deep down, the demons never saw themselves as the bad guys. Or at least not at the beginning. Yes, they talk about that many times. But at the same time... do they really want to have a horrible life? We've seen Beelzebub questioning the ways things work in the underworld. And I definitely don't think they're the only demon that's done that in 6000 years. And a lot of times I feel like they do things with a sense of mockery. Yes, the series is supposed to be comedic. But the jokes about "that things will go well" and that means they would go wrong, and then changing them to they will go horribly to express that they will go according to their plans...

6000 years, and they still have these jokes? I feel that the idea of the underworld is something that was built on an outside source calling them evil, and forcing them to do horrible jobs. And that that idea became more and more present because they had no choice. The only option the underworld has to change its conditions is by winning Armageddon. Because heaven are the ones in control, and the only thing they do there is repeat how disgusting they think the demons are.

Demons try to separate themselves from heaven, but in the end, they cannot. I feel this is quite noticeable in the last (and only) interaction we have with multiple characters from both sides.

All that time the angels act as if the demons are one level below them, grimacing in disgust, pretending to be unable to hear them. Basically what they've been doing since they fought them 6000 years ago.

On the other hand, the demons mock, yes. But I feel that what they mock most is the fact that heaven despises them. What they use most against the angels is the fact that they couldn't get rid of them completely. And they demand that they hand over Beelzebub and Gabriel. Demand.

You don't make demands if you think you are inferior to someone, nor do you mock them when they make disgusted faces. It is because of this interaction that I believe demons seen themselves as equal to angels. And they are fully aware that angels don't agree, so they use that to irritate them whenever they can.

#I'm going somewhere with this but I'm not close yet #good omens 2 #good omens #good omens demons #good omens heaven #good omens meta

[nocturne-side-blog]

I am going to start by saying I apologize for the rant I am about to go on, but I don't want Ganon to be redeemed in Tears of the Kingdom

As we slowly get closer to May 12, a surprising amount of people really want Ganondorf to have a change of heart and fight by the hero's side in ToTK. This genuinely surprises me. Here are my thoughts on the matter (despite the fact no one asked):

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. His tear, which replaced the gem on his forehead. We know he does not have this initially, so it somehow had to have ended up there. The bigger stretch of an explanation is that someone else put it there as an attempt to remove his dark power from him. But the more likely explanation? He stole it. Perhaps as an attempt to take control of its power. It will be the last year that must be gathered, but he snatches it first; and it may just be the mistake that later comes back to bite him. We've seen Ganondorf use weapons of "good" before, such as the sword of the Sages that he steals after his failed execution in Twilight Princess.

I love the idea that they show the human side of Ganondorf. It would give him so much more depth to see that perhaps he's grown tired of the cycle, but what would make it hurt more for the audience is seeing him force the cycle on by his own actions of revenge anyway. It would be much more interesting to watch Ganondorf break himself down, claiming to be a suffering man at the hands of fate, when in truth he is the one keeping it going. He was quite literally a walking corpse when Link and Zelda found him. Even if he were to realize it at the end, it seems more in character for him to only do one "good" deed, and it's to free himself.

Taking another route, perhaps Ganondorf would rather be driven insane by embracing his role in Demise's Curse. His Phantom, Calamity Ganon, is bent only on making Hyrule suffer. I wouldn't be surprised if, at this rate, all he wants is for the world to suffer. Especially now that he knows that, tragically, it's his destiny (even though Twinrova would've raised him to be kinda messed up even without the curse in play).

He doesn't deserve it. Look, I am all for redemption arcs. They're one of my favorite tropes ever. But saying Ganondorf deserves a full on redemption arc; as in, him getting to be forgiven or let off without consequences just because he's "good now"? It's unfair to every incarnation of the spirit of the Hero and the blood of the goddess that we've seen. More than that, it's unfair to Hyrule across time. It is no question that Ganondorf has killed hundreds of people. It could be even more. I hate to say it, but in the storyline of a video game, a "redemption" for that just won't work. I kind of see it how I see the redemptions of the Diamonds in Steven Universe. Besides, if Ganondorf at this point could be redeemed, then what about other villains who did less? Take Vaati, who was more than likely a child in The Minish Cap and felt like he could never live up to Ezlo? Or Ghirahim, who- like Fi- was created to be a servant with no other choice or knowledge of another route. Neither can simply walk away from their actions, but they certainly have a better blueprint for a slow redemption arc.

Nintendo probably wouldn't go that direction anyway. Let's face it, Nintendo is kind of obsessed with keeping their storylines (if they even have any) under a specific formula. While TLoZ always gives interesting spins and twists on traditional fantasy, they also are usually operating by a good vs evil formula. If they intend for a character to change, such as Byrne, it's usually not until the last second of screentime. You know, when they can't be used for a boss fight anymore.

Ganondorf as a villain is SO COOL in the context for ToTK. Even if you're tired of Ganondorf being the villain in general, you got to admit that in concept he's already a fantastic starting point for a villain. Think about it: he has been sealed away for 10,000 years. Ganondorf no longer even has the Triforce of Power, and he's still holding on to the point of being a corpse that releases it's fury in the shape of kingdom-destroying monsters. After thousands of years (even before the first Calamity) of rising again and again to fight the same battle with no end, the embodiment of Demise's Curse finally revitalizes itself when it seems that the long war is over. No matter how tired he may be, or who has to suffer, he will destroy Hyrule in honor of himself. He will leave no survivors.

tl;dr just because he looks awesome doesn't mean he's gonna start fighting demise

#totk trailer #totk theory #totk spoilers #totk

[b-lessings]

How to heal a broken heart?

" Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. " [x]

The answer to this question is Kintsugi - but the pottery is the heart and the gold is Allah's love and Allah's nur.

If I am not mistaken, Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed has talked about this in Reclaim Your Heart (which is my go-to recommendation in such situations) so my thoughts might not be that original after all, but inspired. The point is, when a heart gets broken, one should allow light to come through those little cracks, and this light will bring forth the truth: The truth that a heart can only get broken if it chased something not theirs, and that a heart can only get broken if it wasn't strong enough and soft enough, because soft things don't break, they could bend but not break. Do you know how can a heart be strong and soft at the same time? Only with Allah swt.

Now, hear me out, I know my words sound too "Al Rumi" and a little bit too dreamy or too romantic for someone who just got their heart broken. My old self would be rolling her eyes at me rn. But I promise you, it is a life lesson that I had to learn the hard way, and that now allows me to look into the eyes of anyone who is struggling and tell them confidently: I promise you, it gets better, that heart of yours that's broken, Allah swt will mend it, those dreams of yours that got lost, Allah swt will make your reality much better than you could have ever imagined, and that thing you wanted that didn't work out for you, it did work out for your best, you might not realize it now, you just gotta trust.

On a more reasonable note, I am a logical person, to fix a situation I would tackle the causes. What has led to this heartbreak? Did we get attached to someone? Well, Allah swt says we shouldn't. I have read somewhere (probably Yasmin Mogahed) that Allah swt is jealous over His slave and their heart. He swt wants the slave's heart to be only His. And their love to be solely and fully for His sake. If someone else is placed in that heart by the slave, Allah swt doesn't take competitors, so He will remove that person from the slave's life. I know it could sound too blah for certain people and that's okay. The concept is more detailed than this and that is why I high recommend you (re)read Reclaim Your Heart or watch Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed's videos. The point is, so often life gets in our way. After all we are only human, we are weak and meant to make mistakes. Life gets in our way, life seduces us, and we lose track of our priorities. We forget that we are here to worship Allah swt " I have not created mankind and jinn except to worship Me. " [51:56] and we forget that this life is only temporary,and that our hearts yearn for the eternal home that is paradise. We start chasing the temporary rewards and temptations of this duniyah, we become obsessed, we let them control us. Having dreams and goals is okay, it is encouraged in fact but beware of it turning into an obsession (هوس) - and as the Arabic proverb says (ما زاد عن حده انقلب إلى ضده). There is a certain limit after which the dream you were chasing will take over you and will control you and enslave you. Be it love, money, professional successs, power, freedom.. even those chasing " freedom " are slaves to it. Whereas, we could only be slaves of Allah swt. And if what I love controls me anyways so at least Imma love my Creator, worship Him, and please Him, which is the only safe way to love, that will guarantee you no losses. And this perspective does not say you shouldn't love people or things around you, that's no life! Love does make this duniya a little more bearable. The point is to love them a) for the sake of Allah swt, and b) not too much that it controls you.

Another concept that is mentioned in Reclaim Your Heart is that Allah swt is the only central consistent in our hearts, and everything/ everyone else is peripheral. Once you start viewing life this way, nothing can disappoint or break your heart anymore.

There is so much to talk about I feel like I have written one long ask and I am not even halfway through my thoughts.

To sum up and in reference to "Kintsugi" - you have to let the light come in through the cracks, expose the truth, look for the reasons that led to the heartbreak and fix them by seeking refuge in Allah swt, for He is Al-Jabbar (the mender), He is As-shafi (the healer) and He is Al-lateef (The kind/gentle).

May Allah swt mend every broken heart and guide them to see the truth. May Allah swt take away their pain and replace it with content and peace. May Allah swt protect the hearts of Muslim girls, purify them from the scarring of this duniya and grant them sakinah. Ameen. 🤍

#I kept staring at this ask the whole day I wanted to get my answer right for it #not only is it such a beautiful ask but also I have a soft spot for the one who sent it and I got pretty subjective #so I needed to pick my words right and organize my thoughts #Linou b7bbek ana Allah ma yeksarlek 2alb ya ro7i b3eed el sharr 3annek w salamet 2albek #ask asmaa #reclaim your heart #ustadha yasmin mogahed #yasmin mogahed quotes #yasmin mogahed