#and i would never make a judgement about your character or intentions based on a misunderstanding of how to go about that!

[weed-cat]

hi! hello! hi! idk if i have told you before but you are literally just so os nice and considerate and i appreciate you so much! also based as fuck, i love reading through your posts, i usually refrain from adding ob things or whatver bc i am white and european so i don't want to stick my opiniond on your stuff but i always read through them!

anyway, i hope you're having a great day or night or morning or whatever time it is for you<33

emmi that is so so kind of you. secretly I'm actually a huge bitch but I'm only allowed to be bitchy sometimes as a treat. it's so easy to be nice to you actually you are so chill and funny and epic and friendly and you don't make kind interactions difficult at all.

also you are 300% still allowed to have thoughts and opinions near me I prommy. you may be white and european but you're a person with perspectives and experiences that are just as real as anyone else's. like just don't be combative with or try to talk over poc about poc topics and you're literally fine. you have a limited perspective on certain issues but so does literally everyone else on earth. tbh within any axis of privilege/oppression, the culture of Any Person With Privilege I Don't Have Is Inherently Actively Oppressing Me And Needs To Shut Up Forever can be cathartic for disadvantaged people but ultimately leads to a lot of social regression in the long run. unpacking and disassembling systems of oppression can only be effectively accomplished as a dialogue, not a TED Talk.

#i value your opinions and it is nice to hear them and it is okay if that exposes a skewed understanding of something! #then we have something important and interesting to talk about!!! #also i know you and i know that you want to do your best to be a kind and empathetic and understanding person #and i would never make a judgement about your character or intentions based on a misunderstanding of how to go about that! #we are all people trying our best and i really appreciate you making an effort to hold space for others to discuss issues relevant to them #i personally love most good-faith discussions about controversial and/or niche issues and i welcome them on my posts or in my dms #ough this is kind of a long response #i took my adderall today for the first time in months and I'm 🫥🫥 as fuck now that my shift is over and i have nothing to zero in on #i mean all that though if you ever want to share a thought or question about something i post i sincerely welcome that #you can always dm me if you dont want to post it publicly!! #it is 6:30pm here and i have been typing this reply for half an hour peace and love

[artist-issues]

I had someone tell me recently that Zootopia is about transgenderism.

No, it’s not.

I’m well aware of who directed and wrote the movie. I don’t care. If they were trying to say “transgenderism is a good thing: you CAN be whatever you want to be!” they did a terrible job saying it. Their movie did not say that clearly.

And I don’t think that’s what they were trying to say. I think they were trying to say, “it doesn’t matter what your race or background is; we’re all the same in the ways that matter, so try to understand each other and the world will be a better place.”

That’s it. That’s what the movie said.

But you who’ve listened to the knee-jerk responses will say to me, “are you kidding me, artist-issues, they literally say the line, ‘anyone can be anything!’ all throughout the movie!”

Right. But can anyone be anything, in the movie?

No.

The fennec Fox cannot shapeshift into an elephant. If he could, that would be a great portrayal in favor of transgenderism as a valid identity instead of a mental disorder. But he can’t go from being a fox to an elephant.

That trunk is made of felt; it cannot breathe. He will never get any larger. He has no ivory growing out of his skull. He is a fox, and no amount of feelings or wishful thinking in the movie makes him an elephant—oh, but hey—that fox never actually wanted to be an elephant.

It was a scam. It was a play for sympathy, so that the grown-adult fox could trick bleeding hearts, break the law, and do whatever he wanted.

How’s that shape up, as an argument for transgenderism? Not too good.

Now, do I believe it was an intentional argument being made by the filmmakers against the transgender movement? No. I don’t. Because I know who wrote and directed that movie.

But, again: if it was an intentional attempt to say “you can be anything you want to be,” the movie did a crap job of showing it.

Unless you mean, “you can have any career or position in society you want to have, as long as you work hard, and never mind what faulty judgement gets in your way.” Then, sure, yeah, that’s what the movie was saying.

“But what about the fact that Nick says, ‘everyone comes to Zootopia thinking they can be anything. Well, ya can’t. You can only be what you are. Sly fox, dumb bunny.’ And he was proven wrong!”

Mmkay, but what was he proven wrong about? He was proven wrong about Judy having a character flaw. She has moments of being dumb—giving in to prejudices. But she grew past that, because there’s more to a person than their character flaws. Just like she says to him on the sky-tram: “you are so much more” than a shifty, untrustworthy, sly fox.

And pay attention to what NICK said. “If the world is only going to see a fox that is shifty, and untrustworthy…” Nick does not believe that he is, deep down, shifty and untrustworthy. He’s just chosen to adopt that based on how others see him.

They’re talking about character flaws. All the stereotypes in the movie are just that: they’re stereotypes, based on the type of mammal you are. Not on whether or not you’re a mammal at all, which would’ve been the clearer correlation between Zootopia’s prejudices and the real-world transgenderism discussion.

Zootopia is about racism, and maybe, if you tilt your head and squint, classism. It’s not in any way about sexuality. Nice try. Unless you’re the filmmakers, and you’re somehow spinning it so that you were intending to say something about gender: in that case, bad try. Terrible job, that’s not what your movie succeeded in saying at all.

#Zootopia #transgender #transgenderism #lgbtq+ #christianity #rocking the boat #discourse #meta #analysis #racism #Disney #Nick Wilde #Judy hopps #character analysis #fennec Fox

[cinnabun-faerie]

FFXIV: WoL wants to be bent over the nearest surface (part 2)

A/N: Yep, you read the title correctly. It's based on this request here. I feel it unfair if I do not write this for some of the other characters. I may need to make

Warning: Slightly NSFW

Characters: Erenville, Estinien, Exarch, Fandaniel, Fourchenault, Gaius, Haurchefant, Hien, Zenos

FFXIV taglist: @missnella-nova @shippyprincess @healersadjust @thai @lumeriadeborel @obscene-tevene

If you want to be added to the taglist for whenever I post, you can comment here on the original post !

Note: Established relationships

Context (the ask): Their s/o (WoL) comes up to them, clearly irritated, and just says they have been trying to be subtle about the fact they are in the mood all day but now they just want to be bent over the nearest flat and solid surface.

Erenville

so this was why you were so fidgety today

why didn't you just say so sooner?

he wouldn't have denied you

he would waste no time at all, getting you prepared

you would both get what you wanted in due time

needless to say, this would go on for the remainder of the day/night

Estinien

he wouldn't care too much about what he bent you over

and from your begging, you didn't care either

you pay no mind to the fact that you two have this habit of making love in public places

you both seemed to be a bit too impatient with minds clouded by lust for one another

luckily you've never been caught

Exarch

He's shocked when you tell him what you want

he didn't even realize you were in that sort of mood

are you sure you want that from him?

it's not that he isn't happy to oblige

he is, more than you could know

but for you of all people to ask him, the person he's wanted for the longest time-

he'd clear his throat before telling you to rid yourself of your clothes

he'd need to make it clear to the guard that no one was to enter the Ocular under any circumstances

when he returns to you, he fulfils your ever need and desire

Fandaniel

Oh he knows all about your little "problem"

but he's going to pretend not to know

he has every intention to let you suffer a while longer

should you push his buttons, he might just give you what you want

"This was your intention, was it not?"

a hate-fuck if you will

and it wouldn't be just one surface

and with your permission, he'd test your limits of how many times he could make you release

Fourchenault

Thank the gods you two don't work together

despite his better judgement and his pride, he would have had you right there at his desk

while that may have been a fantasy, it was not a reality

yes, you visited him at work in your "state", but he just couldn't risk anything indecent happening at work, should someone find out

word does spread, and he'd rather not have that be an issue

however, he would have no problem with bending you over his desk at home in his study

with you being away and him working, you two were more than willing to give into your urges

Gaius

"Is that what this is about?"

he'd be happy to oblige

be prepared because you're not going to be able to walk for a week

he wouldn't even tease you, because from how you were acting, all desperate just for him, you'd suffered enough

you deserved some relief with your pleasure

Haurchefant

there was no subtly when it came to you

he would know immediately what you'd want

"Y/N, we have better places to be, do we not? We should hurry back home."

he knew that you were impatient, but you knew that he'd give you all that you needed once he had you against the wall or on the bed

Hien

He'd tease you relentless once he'd figure out what was going on

it wouldn't be fun if he gave into you right away, would it?

eventually he would relieve you

but he was undecisive

"Where should I bend you over, Y/N? Right here, or shall I take you to my chambers?"

Zenos

He knew that you were needy

it was entertaining for him to witness you

and perhaps he's do some things to make it worse

let his hands linger on your waist or deepen the kiss, but pull away only to have you chase his lips

you weren't slick, he saw you press your legs together when he appeared in your shared room with nothing but a towel wrapped loosely around his waist

not to mention he was soaking wet

it was just enough to make your beg him, and he couldn't say no to you

#ffxiv #ffxiv headcanons #erenville x reader #estinien x reader #fandaniel x reader #fourchenault x reader #gaius x reader #haurchefant x reader #hien x reader #zenos x reader

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Para-Goom

Debut: Wario Land 3

Para-Goom is a silly little thing. Look at that. That’s the most basic a little guy can be! Honestly kind of a Nothing design. Sorry, Para-Goom. But it’s true. You look like a placeholder design that was liked enough to be used as an actual character... but Kirby already did that! And what’s that you’re holding? A parasol to be used both to gently drift down, and as a weapon? Geez, Para-Goom! You are not making a good case for your individuality here!

I don’t DISLIKE Para-Goom, though. A little guy is a little guy! And in a Wario game, a little guy is something you can pick up and carry around with you, for when you need your little guy fix. And their parasols ARE pretty neat! They can hold them out in front, or above, and if it’s above, they can gently float down! I don’t mean any ill will toward Para-Goom.

But I’m not Wario! Wario means so much ill will toward Para-Goom! A helpless Goom is the ball as Wario uses it for Regular Golf, the most evil of sports! If this Para-Goom was just rolling around after being lightly bapped about in a MINI golf course, it would probably be having at least a LITTLE bit of fun in addition to the general undesirability of the situation. But no fun allowed in Regular Golf! It’s not even fun for Wario, he just is forced to do it to open doors! Nobody wins with Regular Golf.

Para-Goom would later reappear in my beloved game which I have never played and do not plan to play, Dr. Mario 64, home of various Wario Land 3 enemies in major roles! Para-Goom is our Gracious Host, and here has a slightly changed design, with a more Chef Kawasaki-style mouth. This is a step in the right direction! Finally, a Para-Goom with some Para-“Pizzazz-onality” (that is my new hip buzzword that will never catch on)! It is still a very simplistic design, but I think it’s more fun. It could get a little more unique with each appearance. That could be its Thing.

If I were to change anything about Para-Goom, though, it would be its name. This is NO Goom! Not at all! Pirate Goom and Wanderin’ Goom, those are Gooms! Little chestnut-based guys. But Para-Goom is not chestnut in the slightest, and in fact, its Japanese name indicates no connection at all! Someone on the English localization team REALLY wanted to call this a Goom against all better judgement. And a whole team went along with it. Was it an honest mistake? Was it done with malicious intent? Do you think anyone who had a hand in this naming still thinks about it to this day?

Probably not... but for all we know, the name “Para-Goom” may be someone’s biggest regret in life! If you ever get the opportunity to name funny creatures, do not take the responsibility lightly!

#para-goom #wario land 3 #wario land #mario #mario enemies #mod chikako

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

"Perception" a Nine Essay

I started writing this back in January to take a break from brainrotting about Netflix posting EP1 of Season 3 to discuss something I had been thinking about again (ever since reviewing the end of season 2 for the umpteenth time).

I'd like to talk about the differences in how characters in Sonic Prime see Nine versus how he actually is. I know this seems like a simple topic, but I think we all do well with a reminder of just how much the characters in the show know with their limited povs (as we the audience can view everything).

I'll be going pretty much character by character (grouping some together to discuss their povs at once), and ending with Sonic and Shadow.

(Note: At the time I wrote most of this, I had planned to have it done before S3 dropped, as I felt that the messages of this essay would be good to put out there before we all inevitably saw Nine as the season antagonist. To keep up with my original intentions, this essay will only go up to what we the audience knew as of S2)

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So let's start with Rebel Rouge and Renegade Knucks. They gather their first impressions of Nine as they witness Sonic and Nine's capture at the hands of the council, although they don't properly meet Nine until they enter the Chaos Council's base.

"Are you sure we were 'best friends'?"

"Blue streak has a friend?"

"Didn't look friendly. But whoever he is, he's involved now."

They haven't yet watched the video a resistance member took of Sonic and Nine's fight, and when they do, we only know for sure that they'll watch clips of Sonic talking about Green Hill. This means that (especially since there are no references during their meeting with Nine that they saw him fight Sonic), them listening in as Nine and Sonic are abducted is baseline their knowledge of Nine before meeting him.

They consider Nine a possible friend of Sonic's as they listen in, but it’s Rebel who mentions that Nine doesn't sound very friendly. This is a fair assessment, given the tone of Nine's voice and Nine's questioning if he and Sonic even were really friends. It's enough to be suspicious of someone's character, especially in a city like this, where choosing the wrong ally in your resistance could likely get you captured, or worse. It's also worth mentioning that first impressions matter with guys like Renegade who (like Knuckles) tend to make judgements of character based on first impressions and gut feelings. He trusts Rebel quite a lot as well, even listening to her judgement when it opposes his own, so it’s not impossible that her initial judgement of Nine as unfriendly starts to inform his assumptions as to Nine's character.

But I digress. If you believe they didn't watch the full video of the Nine/Sonic fight, that small moment is enough for one or both to be suspicious of character or decide they don't like him. If you believe they did watch the full video of the fight, then I'd say that's enough evidence to form even a bit of a negative opinion on Nine and his character (after all, it does showcase Nine fighting the hedgehog they believe could be a sign of hope/an asset to the resistance. It's not too hard to come to the conclusion that Sonic and Nine may have been fighting up until being captured, even if that isn't the truth).

Now, the first meeting.

If they do have bad impressions of Nine before meeting him, Rebel and Renegade don't hold these against him. Rebel only swoops in to save Sonic from the laser and battle the eggforcers (which also allows Nine to escape captivity). As for Renegade, although he arrives after Nine has used the commotion to sneak away to the monitor, forgotten, he also never accuses Nine of any foul play or of only caring about himself. During this scene, Nine frees Sonic, saves Sonic by taking control of Rusty Rose, and ultimately aids in the battle despite fighting.

Now, as for my claim that Renegade doesn't assume Nine as a threat to the resistance or believe him to be a bad guy, let's pinpoint the scene where Nine first talks to him.

"No"

If you rewatch this scene (Season 1 Episode 2), Renegade isn't moving with intent to attack Nine. After punching an eggforcer, he bounds in the direction he's facing. He takes one step, in the direction Nine happens to be in before Nine instinctively points a mechanical tail at him (perhaps assuming that Renegade was moving to sneak up on him?). In addition, Renegade has this surprised look on his face until Nine says his next words.

"Catch up, Echidna. I'm one of the good guys."

Of course, this does no favor to Nine’s image regarding Renegade (especially as this isn't the only moment like this in terms of how Nine talks to Renegade), but it doesn't prove Nine's a bad guy. At worst, it frustrates and annoys Renegade, and if it comes off as some sort of "secret villain red flag" to Renegade, he doesn't keep this moment in the forefront of his mind. After all, he and Rebel both choose to follow Nine's idea of stealing the Chaos Council's energy crystal, and they don't mention or act like they are suspicious of Nine during the fight. This is all to say that, at the current moment, to them Nine may have an attitude, but he's not evil or intending to betray anyone.

An attitude like Nine's during this portion is either something to overlook or a trait tacked onto an indication depending on how any given person sees you. This is to say that at best if someone likes you or believes you to be good, you're "just a little rough around the edges", and if someone dislikes you or believes you to be bad, it's "of course someone bad would have an attitude like this". It's an accessory, not inherently an indication of moral character or intentions. Someone can use it to further implicate him/find more reasons to dislike him later (such as when people talk/post/write about people they think are bad people and start nitpicking their appearance in their reasoning), but for now his attitude isn't enough to make Rebel or Renegade distrust him.

After all, didn't they really think Nine would save them after nabbing the red paradox prism shard?

The shot is a bit hard to get, as they fully smile just before the show cuts back to Nine. This is the best shot of it I have at the moment. Just know that during Rebel's recount of this event in Season 1 Episode 6, Rebel and Renegade visually start to smile when they see Nine return with the shard.

Now that the mission is accomplished, we see that they're just waiting for Nine to rescue them. However, when Nine chooses to leave alone, Rebel and Renegade take it as betrayal.

Renegade is surprised before he turns angry, freeing Rebel, Rusty, himself in his rage. Rebel's expression deepens (as if angry, regretful) and closes her eyes.

These are not the reactions of people who distrusted Nine (or Sonic for that matter) from the start.

This scene pointedly shows us that Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty did not see Sonic disappear into the red shard (the doors shut before they can). Then they watch Nine leave them to their fates, making off with the shard as Sonic is nowhere to be found. It's not about Nine's attitude or unfriendlyness (or, again, Sonic's attitude for that matter. As Sonic *also* made Renegade frustrated the same way Nine did, but by calling everyone by the wrong names). It's the fact that they have every reason to believe Nine AND Sonic used them only to abandon them when they got the shard.

And this is perhaps shown best this interaction between Renegade and Sonic.

"I didn't steal the shard!"

"But your fox friend did."

Sonic had explained what happened to him to Renegade, who explained it to Rebel. Despite this, Rebel still saw him as a backstabber, angry enough to want to leave him at the mercy of the chaos council or turn him "into a handbag". Why?

Well, remember that Renegade and Rebel's first introduction to Nine was Nine bringing his and Sonic's friendship status into question. Whether they believed the two to truly be friends then, they did see the two conversing at the red crystal before Sonic disappeared and Nine left them high and dry. So even if Sonic hadn't purposely left them, I don't think it's a stretch here to say that Rebel and Renegade had assumed the two planned to leave Renegade, Rebel, and Rusty behind. Perhaps Sonic didn't make off with the shard, and perhaps he couldn't help his disappearance, but his partner made off with it.

Rebel and Renegade don't know Sonic, especially not like the audience does. Both with the knowledge they had at hand AND to deal with what was a shocking betrayal to them, Rebel and Renegade considered Nine and Sonic to both be traitors. This is also not to mention that despite Sonic's new testimony of his disappearance and his surprise that Nine would leave Rebel, Rusty, and Renegade to die, he wouldn't give Nine up to them.

Sonic has to try really hard, advocate for himself after a score of disappearances, and help the rebels a number of times for Renegade and Rebel to even consider that he's telling the truth about his helping them.

Likewise, Nine doesn't advocate for himself (or really care to). He swoops in to fight, takes Sonic to disappear again. He swoops in to fight for a bit, and then is captured by the Chaos Council.

And not only do Rebel and Renegade not know he was captured specifically, they did not see it. Earlier, before the battle, they made it clear that the red shard could not fall into the Chaos Council's clutches, or everything would be done for. Renegade even probed Sonic for Nine's location so they could make sure Nine would never give it to the coucil (even despite Sonic's testimony that Nine would never do that). Not only does Nine's capture give the Coucil the red shard, it gives them the secrets to interdimensional travel and makes them more of a threat than before.

This is all to say that, on top of the fact that Nine doesn't try to change their opinion of him as a traitor, as far as they know (influenced by their own biased impressions of him) Nine started working with the Chaos Council, betrayed them all again to get ahead.

We the audience know just as Sonic does that Nine was captured, and that he used his status to aid Sonic and their search for the prism shards from the inside.

Rebel and Renegade do not.

In fact, (now starting from Season 2 Episode 5), Rebel and Renegade are both distrustful of Sonic when he tries to tell them this (and the fact that they see it as his fault that the Council nabbed more prism shards doesn't help)

"I'm gonna bust into the Yoke, grab the shards, and rescue Nine!"

"The fox with the attitude? The one who stole the shard?"

"I...know he's a little rough around the edges..."

"It's not just the edges."

"But he saved you!"

"And then he disappeared again."

"Because he was captured! We can trust him."

"Him? We don't even trust you."

Nine's actions matter to them, and those actions color their perception of Nine for a while. Same goes for Sonic. Their trust is not easily won back after being broken.

The only reason they decide to travel to the Yoke with Sonic in the first place is because they need to make sure the Coucil doesn't keep the shards, and Sonic is going there to try to take them anyways. They don't trust him, but they do need him.

Later in the episode, "Nine" contacts Sonic to tell him of a way into the Council's fortress. We can safely infer that this "Nine" who contacts Sonic is not the real thing. The voice sounds at best like a robotic imitation, and the way "Nine" talks is suspect enough for Sonic to mention that he sounds weird and to ask if he's okay. But not only do Rebel and Renegade have no reason not to believe that this is the real Nine leading Sonic into the Yoke, Sonic himself vouches for him.

"My inside fox is gonna get us in. Come on!"

"'Bring your friends.' Why would he say that?"

"Because he's a nice guy? I told you, we can trust him."

"Not like we have another option."

Whether Rebel believes that's the real Nine or not, she suspects Sonic is being led into a trap. Even Renegade says he "doesn't like this" and mentions how ominous everything feels when the doors into the Yoke open. They only go along with Sonic because they have no other ways to get into the building.

But lo and behold, it's a trap. Sure we the audience know that this is the Chaos Coucil's doing, that Mr. Dr. tricked Nine into giving him info about Sonic that would spark the idea of Chaos Sonic's creation. We know Nine regrets this slip up and even apologizes to Sonic later for being responsible for Chaos Sonic's creation, and we know Sonic doesn’t doubt Nine's telling the truth.

But to Rebel and Renegade? Sonic just followed his so called "inside fox" right into a trap. It plays into how they already see him, just as Sonic's forced transports to the other shatterspaces before this (via touching the shards) continued to play into how they already saw Sonic as a deserter. They distrust Nine for valid reasons, but it’s because of this distrust and their ideas of who Nine is that they believe the worst of him, even when the audience can see that Nine isn’t intending on betraying any given person.

And Chaos Sonic doesn’t help this view of Nine that Rebel and Renegrade have either.

"Failure? You've got the wrong hedgehog, pal."

"Au contraire, blue hair. I know a fox that might disagree with you."

"Another trap. I knew that fox would set us up!"

So when Nine contacts Sonic himself later...

"Sonic! Are you there?"

"Sorry, pal, but I'm a little busy at the moment."

"I have a plan. Follow my directions and lead it to me."

"Ya sure?"

"Positive. But you gotta hurry!"

"What else is new?"

Here's what Renegade, Rebel, and Dread have to save about it.

"Sonic, wait!"

"Ugh. I'm starting to think he likes traps."

"Aye. He does."

Again. We the audience know this isn't a trap. After following Nine's directions, Nine uses the prism energy to blast and destroy Chaos Sonic after this.

But Rebel and Renegade don't trust Nine. They see this as Sonic falling into all of Nine's traps out of naive trust.

And Dread only agrees because he did use Sonic's trust to lead him into a trap. Dread hasn't met Nine, but if others think this is a trap, he has no reason to believe anything other than Nine being another person weaponizing Sonic's blind trust.

And aside from when Renegade saves Sonic and Nine from Dread later, this is the last time Renegade or Rebel see/hear about Nine. Sometimes Nine really does betray their trust, sometimes Nine is truly trying to help Sonic, but after the initial betrayal, everything Renegade and Rebel see (in regards to Nine’s words and actions) plays into their point of view of Nine as a traitor.

Rebel and Renegade aren't insisting that Nine is going to betray Sonic because they're right and Nine is "secretly evil" and going to do just that or whatever. Sonic isn’t ignoring the "bad" things that Nine did only for Sonic to be punished with Nine being a bad traitor villain all along.

Rebel and Renegade keep insisting that Nine is a traitor because he left them behind, because he doesn't care about them, AND because every bit of evidence they see (a miniscule bit compared to what the audience sees) just so happens to play into their existing biased view of him.

ㅤ

Let's move on to Rusty Rose.

Now this portion is shorter, as she only has a single run in with Nine. This singular run in is during the first few episodes when Nine takes control of her to help him, Sonic, Rebel, and Renegade fight.

Now here's something important about Rusty we learn in Season 2.

1. Loyalty matters to her.

2. She can choose her own alignment.

Rusty Rose's lines to Sonic when he's in the Chaos Council's clutches, in addition to the fact that the Chaos Council turned her into a fighting machine, gives us a hint as to what's going on here.

"Survival required adaptation, as you will soon learn."

Rusty Rose has always cared about her well-being. But to those she is loyal to, she would give even her life. This is to say that whether she gave herself up as the Chaos Council's weapon for her own survival or whether they saved her and she decided to work with them because of this (and because they'd destroy her otherwise), she is loyal to them. At baseline, she is loyal because she believes they will never betray her, that they will always come for her.

How exactly do we learn this?

In season 2, while Dread and his crew still have Rusty Rose in captivity, she insists the Chaos Council will come for her, and even becomes smug when the council comes for the shard.

The chaos council has come for me and the shard. Just as I said they would."

But in the end, the Chaos Council chooses to leave her after obtaining the shard. She seems surprised that they would betray her, even after following every order to the best of her ability and acting as they had programmed her to. And so, after the Council deserts her, she changes her loyalty (her eye turns pink from the red color) and decides to join Dread's crew.

This scene mirrors a point in the first few episodes.

When Nine briefly reprograms Rusty to work for him, her lone eye changes to the color yellow. Likewise, she's loyal to Nine and the rest and follows orders. And although we don't get to see her face in the Season 2 Episode 5 flashback when Nine emerges with the red shard as we do with Rebel and Renegade, we DO see her face when Nine leaves. If you look back to the screenshot I provided in the Rebel and Renegade section of this essay, you'll see that she looks sad and disappointed. She was betrayed and left behind too.

And what does she do when Nine leaves her behind? She restores her Chaos Council programming and her eye turns red again. She returns back to the only people she can seem to trust to value her.

So Rusty may not have spent much time with Nine, but loyalty matters to her. So all Rusty likely knows of Nine as of the ending of Season 2 is that he betrayed her.

I think with this in mind, it's safe to say that she has no reason to like him or believe in him at the moment either, even if she doesn't subscribe to common ideas of morality either. He betrayed his crew and it's as simple as that (and that's why she has no problem blasting Sonic when Dread frames him as a traitor).

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Now for the Chaos Council.

Now, I think it's clear given the fact that they appropriated his tech and that Mr. Dr. Eggman (in S2 E6) referred to Nine as having a "less dull mind than the usual rifraff", the Council at the very least sees Nine as someone who is a bit more intelligent than most of New Yoke's citizens. Given that their goals are to continuously conquer and *gestures to all that they're doing* they're less concerned with morals and more concerned with their own goals. This means that they just dislike/hate anyone who gets in their way. Things like morals, relationships, etc are all things to manipulate to get what you want (if Mr. Dr. Eggman's talks with Nine are any indication).

So. How does the Council see Nine? Do they see him as someone secretly about to or willing to betray Sonic?

Let's start with their first impressions of Nine (or rather, how they will remember him).

In Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2, while Nine and Sonic are captured, Nine's life and wellbeing is largely used as motivation for Sonic to follow the Council's orders. Aside from this, though, most of the focus (the camera and the Council's) is on Sonic. So, from the events of Episode 2 and 3 of season 1 where Sonic, Nine, Renegade, Rebel, and Rusty fight their way to the red shard, it's simple enough for the Council to consider them all friends (sans Rusty). Doesn't matter if they actually are. They work together (and with Sonic who considers them all friends), so they might as well be friends to the Council. This is not to mention how Mr. Dr. watches Sonic and Nine enter where the shard is, are aware via the power shutting off that their energy crystal has been stolen, and then Sonic and Nine are the two that disappear before the Council can capture them. So at the very least Nine is...cunning. In their minds, he's smart enough to take the power crystal, but not so smart as to clash with the Council's egos.

Now, whether they knew only Nine had taken the red shard or they assumed both Nine and Sonic had coordinated (like Rebel and Renegade had originally assumed), it doesn't really matter here. In S1 E6, Sonic appears (clearly shardless) mentioning the existence of other shards and asking where Nine is (thus indicating he doesn't know where Nine and the red shard are). Then, during the Chaos Council vs Sonic + Resistance battle after this, Nine appears out of a portal with the red shard upon his craft.

And if they hadn't seen "the fox who stole the shard" as Sonic's friend before, there is clear evidence can see between now and the Mr. Dr. Eggman/Nine talk that leads to Chaos Sonic’s creation that they do now.

In Episode 8 of Season 1, the Council discusses eliminating Sonic in pursuit of their conquest, but Nine voices his dissent.

"Agreed. With our work complete, I'll give our girl-bot the go ahead on Operation Elimination."

"Tch. Eliminating the hedgehog is a bad idea."

"Arguing for the life of your friend? What a shock."

After this, Nine argues against the idea that he and Sonic are friends, but he ultimately convinces the council not to eliminate him outright.

"You sent your robots to another shatterspace. Big difference. You've only barely accomplished what he's done without any technology. He's a living shatter battery!"

*The power in the yoke dies briefly, and the coucil members each groan/make sounds of frustration*

"Til we know why he gives off this power, we need him alive. What? H– Grahck!"

*An eggforcer shocks Nine*

"The rat's right. Too many questions for us to start playing exterminator. At least...not until after we wring every ounce of shatterjuice out of that blue varmint."

Not only does he smile in talking about Sonic's accomplishments, but, if you check the end of this scene, Nine lowers his head when the council laughs over Dr. Done It's final statement, he grits his teeth, and he frowns.

In Episode 4 of Season 2, the Council brings Nine out front, and Mr. Dr. sits there when Sonic arrives to see him.

"Nine?"

"Sonic, get out of here!"

*The Eggforcers shock Nine*

"No..."

In fact, when Mr. Dr. threatens the lives of Sonic’s friends if Sonic doesn’t give over the shard, he pointedly leans in Nine's direction as the eggforcers ready their electricity based weapons.

"I'll make this simple."

*Mr. Dr. Eggman moves his chair closer to where Nine is*

"Hand over the shard, or say good bye to your friends forever."

In case you don't go back to watch the episode for this, also note that he begins to lean over during the "to your friends" part of the line, and Nine is the only one of Sonic’s friends in view of the camera as Mr. Dr. gives the ultimatum. The camera only shifts to include Sonic's captured friends after shifting between Nine and Sonic's expressions, and after Sonic turns around to look at them.

So I don't think it's a stretch to say that Mr. Dr. Eggman thinks Sonic and Nine are friends by this point. At the very very least he knows Sonic considers Nine one, given how comfortable he is using Nine as leverage.

Anyhow, in all of the Nine/Chaos Council scenes between his initial capture and the scene where Mr. Dr. asks Nine how to defeat Sonic, the council isn't fully aware of Nine contacting Sonic. This means they are not yet aware of his continued contact with Sonic and do not know what the audience knows about Nine's working them from the inside. They just make Nine upgrade their shatterdrive, remark that they keep him around for his knowledge on the shatterdrive, make him deploy eggforcers, and then keep him cuffed with eggforcer supervision at all times (should he try to escape). They don't trust him enough to keep him uncuffed and completely unsupervised, and they need his knowledge regarding the shards, but they underestimate him. Dr. Don't provides him full access to their systems, even when they leave Nine alone with Eggforcers, they aren't monitoring what Nine could be saying/doing behind their back, and they seem to think they have Nine under their thumbs enough to destroy him should he attempt to fight back.

Let's move on to Season 2 Episode 5.

In Nine's first appearance in this episode, he's led into the room the Council is in by some Eggforcers and employs his "attitude".

"Ahem. You rang for me?"

"How long are we putting up with him?"

"He's built us what we want. Get rid of him already."

"Now, now. We're going to put him to work. But this one posseses a—shall we say—less dull mind than the usual riff-raff. He'll appreciate this."

Then, the council gives Nine a demonstration of the power they possess with the three shards in their possessions and uses it to build upgraded eggforcers for the purpose of quashing Sonic and the resistance. What is the purpose of this in tandem with Mr. Dr. Eggman's "compliment"? I think the next scene involving Nine and the council gives us a bit more context to form an idea.

During this scene, we see that the council has Nine standing before their display, watching Sonic and the resistance fight upgraded bots in the scareport.

"Enjoying the show?"

"It won't be enough."

"Enough?! Balderdash! My jumbo eggforcers will pound that varmint into blueberry jelly!"

"We'll see."

"Yes. We will."

With the combination of "complimenting" Nine, showing off their power and harnessing of the shards after discussing the topic of getting rid of him, and making him watch the upgraded bots fight Sonic, it's clear to me that they're making a power play here (or at least, Mr. Dr. Eggman is). Mr. Dr. is trying to make it clear the might they possess, the futility of rebellion or of trying to disobey orders.

But here, after Nine says "We'll see", I think Mr. Dr. decides to swap tactics a little. They're still trying (and failing) to defeat Sonic, and Nine seems to believe no matter what that Sonic will come out on top. Perhaps Mr. Dr. at least realizes that their display of power is not scaring Nine into submission or causing him to give up on Sonic.

"You admire him, don't you? For all of your bluster, you think of him as a friend. Funny. I thought you were smart."

And I don't see any reason why Mr. Dr. Eggman would lie about an observation like this. If it was about aligning Nine as Sonic's friend while Nine is secretly planning to betray Sonic or doesn't like him, then the focus wouldn't be on Nine's intelligence. To reiterate, Nine's friendship status (or at least, whether he believes Sonic to be his friend) is not put into question so much as how "smart" of a move it is to place his faith and friendship in Sonic. It's manipulation tactic to put Nine's trust in Sonic into question, to again try to get him to lose faith in Sonic. Why? Well...why else? Nine is Sonic's "friend" to the Council, right? So Nine is their best chance at figuring out how to destroy Sonic.

"We both know that the other members of the council won't stop Sonic. They lack vision and imagination. Unlike you."

"You think I have vision and imagination?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps you're just a stupid fox. Alone. Useless. Pathetic."

Here it's incredibly clear the way Mr. Dr. is trying to use Nine's insecurities against him. Even if he's only guessing, talking up or insulting his intelligence and talents or playing into a possible fear of loneliness and uselessness is a really good guess.

But when Nine gets ahold of himself, uses his tails to gain height and push Mr. Dr. back this time, and insults the Council's intelligence, Mr. Dr. resorts back to brute force. He laughs off the insults and brandishes one of those electricity based weapons.

"Tell me how to defeat Sonic!"

Of course, if Nine was only using Sonic for his own purposes of gathering the shards and secretly planning on betraying him, he could have done so at any point before now, or made it clear that he's set the plans in motion. But since we know Nine's confident in his ability to fight for himself and escape during episode 6 of season 2, he believes himself to have more control over his situation than anyone else does. With this in mind, as long as he's guaranteed a clean enough getaway with the shards he can choose to do so. This gives Nine the ability to manipulate the council back and use them to get the shards. And, to an extent, he does! Although Sonic fails in securing any of them, Nine puts himself in a position to use the council to get anything he wants, even telling Sonic that he's working them from the inside. With this in mind, while there is still risk involved, I believe that he doesn’t necessarily need Sonic's help.

This is all to say that any of these moments in Season 2 Episode 5 would have been a fine point to betray Sonic by telling the council everything he knows about him. The council is full of idiots (to Nine)—idiots with power, but idiots nonetheless. He very well could have used the council to get Sonic out of the way while continuing to play them so he could escape with all the shards.

And yet not only does he refuse to knowingly tell Mr. Dr. Eggman any weaknesses of Sonic’s, he trusts Sonic. Just see the way he's so sure Sonic will win, even as Mr. Dr. Eggman is trying to make him feel stupid for doing so. See how Nine talked about Sonic in S1 E8, tried to convince the council they’d be idiots to get rid of Sonic. See the way that Nine chooses to risk his own plans by contacting Sonic as regularly as he can. See just how Nine talks about Sonic when Mr. Dr. Eggman stops attempting to appeal to Nine's insecurities to get him to lose trust in Sonic:

"You can't. He's too fast. He thinks on his feet. No matter what you throw at him, he takes it. No matter how hard you hit him, he always gets back up! You'll never beat Sonic, because you can't understand him. You don't think like he thinks. You're not even in the same league.

And what does Nine do when Mr. Dr. Eggman and the Council treat those words as if he sold Sonic out (knowingly or not)? He tries to take it back. He says "what have I done?" He immediately tries to contact Sonic (likely to warn him), not realizing Dr. Don't had entered the room until he's caught in the act.

"Warning your friend? Not cool."

He doesn’t at all look pleased watching the Council create Chaos Sonic. He says "what have I done?" a second time while watching Sonic fight Chaos Sonic. Even Dr. Done It regards Nine's "selling out your blue chum" as a slip of the tongue.

And what does the Council do when they learn that Nine's been in contact with Sonic all along? Well they use this relationship to their advantage, of course.

Ah, ah, ah. Let's not be hasty. The fox can lure Sonic right to us."

After all of this, from now until the ending of season 2, here is what the council knows about Nine. They know he managed to steal all the shards out from under them again (with Sonic's assistance), and they pretty much just attempt to track him down to take the shards back. After arriving at Ghost Hill, they put most of their focus on fighting Sonic and Shadow to get to where Nine is with the shards, dealing with their immediate obstacles. They're also firmly antagonistic against Nine, as he's stolen the shards from them and is no longer under their control.

So let's summarize what we can safely assume the Council knows and believes by the Ghost Hill battle. Nine is intelligent, and his know-how and tech are extremely useful. They'd underestimated him, allowing him to steal the shards under their noses, contact Sonic to feed him information, and escape with said shards. They know that Nine trusts Sonic, considers Sonic a friend (at the very least), and believes Sonic will come out on top.

So we return to those questions.

How does the Chaos Council see Nine? As a tool to be used for his information, his intelligence, his technology, and his limbs, capable of performing work. They see him as Sonic's friend (an important one at that). He's bait for Sonic, a pawn that can be used to lure Sonic or motivate him to make certain choices. He's to be used when he can be, and to be crushed if he opposes the Council or is no longer useful.

Do they see him as someone secretly about to or willing to betray Sonic? Do they try to get Nine to betray him? Yes! They command him to dispatch eggforcers and upgrade their tech. They use his well-being as a bargaining chip or to lure Sonic into a trap. They're constantly using him against Sonic. They can see he has the potential to betray, which is exactly why Mr. Dr. appeals to his insecurities to persuade Nine to give up information on Sonic and let go of his trust in Sonic. And yet...they don't seem to think Nine is actively planning to betray Sonic. If they thought so, why spend so much time trying to convince him that placing faith in Sonic is stupid? Why not actively try to persuade Nine to work with them instead? Why do they keep on having to try? Why do they enjoy watching Nine protest as they laugh about how Nine betrayed Sonic? (And why does the insuation that it's all Nine's fault that the council could destroy Sonic get to him the way it does?)

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Let's talk about Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow (similar to Rebel and Renegade) is a character than people often forget to consider the full pov of. This is to say that I've seen people forget what it is exactly that Shadow knows, and what of his knowledge informs his actions and beliefs (like people believing that Shadow was stupid for thinking that getting Nine's tech would allow him to traverse the shatterverse, forgetting that he didn't even have a tenth of the knowledge Sonic does of everything going on, much less the audience's, by season 2).

So with this in mind, before Shadow and Sonic talk at the beginning of Season 2, what does Shadow know about Nine, and how does he act based upon this knowledge?

Before Season 2, we, the audience, largely see Shadow appear in either flashbacks or trying to talk to Sonic (which happens when he starts to run fast enough to exit the shatterspace or is hurled through the in between after touching a shard), so it’s hard to know the extent of what he knows or can even gather in those moments of communication. Luckily, Season 2 Episode 1 gives us a chance to see some things from Shadow's point of view.

Unluckily, it's a bit hard to determine what exactly Shadow can hear and see at this point, as the first Shadow pov sprinkles in a couple moments Shadow most likely could not have seen (but we cannot rule out him seeing)—moments that tell the audience what point in time everything is occurring. One such moment is when Shadow is chilling on a crystal in the space between the shatterspaces and we see the scene of Sonic being sucked into the red shard before he shoots out of the New Yoke portal entrance. This is to say, it's hard to know for sure whether Shadow is aware of all of the scenes that play out for the audience, such as the clips that play as Shadow punches the entrance to New Yoke (Sonic losing control of his feet/legs, the shot of Mr. Dr. watching Sonic run, etc).

What we can glean from context, though (during this portion, as well as later moments) is that Shadow can at the very least see and hear Sonic, even possibly some of his surroundings (within limits). At the beginning of Episode 1 of Season 2, we can see Sonic sort of partially phase through the portal and into the in between when he runs fast enough (parallel to how Shadow can begin to partly phase into the shatterspace from Sonic's pov if Shadow is around him). During Season 2, namely during the No Place portion as Sonic tries to make off with the blue shard, we can even watch Shadow hold a conversation with Sonic and see changes to his appearance (such as the red dot of light on Sonic as Dread's crew aims to blast him). And finally, during Season 2 Episode 1, Shadow admits that he saw Nine in his lab giving Sonic the tech and the lab Sonic ran fast in (scenes that played for the audience while Shadow was busy punching the New Yoke portal).

Okay, so let's consider what we can see before Shadow confronts Sonic in the space between. At the very very least, he's aware that Sonic has new tech on his gloves and shoes and can hear everything Sonic says when Shadow manages to reach him through the portals. At the very most, he has some strange unexplained telepathy that allows him to see and hear some of what Sonic sees and hears. Of course, I don't personally believe the latter, as this hasn't really come up or been explained. So in my opinion, at most he can just see and hear what's going on and Sonic’s surroundings within certain limits. Under this interpretation, I believe that it's possible he saw and heard some of the scenes the audience sees here such Nine talking about energy, Sonic losing control, etc (if his admittance of seeing Nine and Sonic in the lab as Nine puts the regulators on Sonic is anything to go by).

So what does this mean for Shadow's knowledge? I believe it's safe to infer that, from Shadow's pov, the tech Sonic got from the strange version of Tails (Nine) has some sort of effect on him (as Sonic started to move through shatterspaces after this).

The next piece of knowledge we know Shadow could learn is the existence of alternate versions of people in the different shatterspaces. When Shadow finally gets ahold of Sonic, Sonic (loudly) starts trying to sus out whether Shadow is "grumpy Shadow" or "Shadow who needs a shower" or "Sheriff Shadow" or whoever. Then, after this, he realizes that this is the original Shadow he's faced with.

"Shadow, you're...you! The real you!"

"The only me."

This is info enough for Shadow to learn there are other versions of people they (Sonic and Shadow) know out in the shatterspaces. It's even enough context to assume that they are copies of the real thing, fakes, if Sonic's wording of "the real you" is anything for him to go by.

Here are the next two bits of information to add to Shadow's abilities and what he knows (one we learn about Shadow, and one tidbit that adds to Shadow's knowledge). The first is a bit of a testimony of just what he can see when Sonic kicks up a lot of prism energy.

"Have...you been able to see me this whole time?"

"Not exactly. When you get going fast, you kick up prism energy, and it thins the veil to the void. It's like it's...opening a portal through the gateway."

So, at the very least, we know that Shadow can't just see Sonic whenever he wants, and hasn't been doing so the whole time. As Sonic kicks up prism energy by running fast, it thins the veil to the place in between, allowing Sonic and Shadow to see each other.

The second bit would be Shadow hearing about Nine for the first time.

"So that must be how I teleported into No Place. I was looking for Nine, I started running fast, and then, suddenly, I portaled out of New Yoke."

This isn't a lot, but it at least tells us that the existence of Nine has entered the equation here. A being that Sonic knows by name who exists in one of the shatterspaces, and someone that Sonic was specifically looking for.

Now, I want to bring up something interesting about Shadow's pov after he and Sonic enter Ghost Hill. Aside from some possible tidbits here and there (and more than likely experience solely through seeing and talking to Sonic), the bulk of Shadow's experiences with the shatterspaces are based upon his experience with Ghost Hill (the only shatterspace he can enter at this time).

"What’s wrong with them?"

"It's a shatterspace, Sonic. Just like the others. A cruel version to make us suffer."

"A cruel version to make us suffer"

That line alone gives us more insight into Shadow's pov. While we, the audience, can see that the existence of those who live in the shatterspaces aren't inherently existing out of cruelty/to mess with someone like Sonic, Shadow has only seen what Ghost Hill is like. This tells us that Shadow sees Ghost Hill as a cruel version of Green Hill, an imitation that allows you to see but not have. It shows you the places and faces and voices you know, but none of it is "real" (or in this case, the original). It's not even surprising for Shadow to feel that this is cruel or purposeful. I mean, he is the one trapped, unable to do anything, as Sonic just so happens to be the one with the power to fix anything. He is the one who's doomed to watch the shatterverse change while he can't do a thing about it. And so of course the only shatterspace he can enter tricks him into thinking it may have been home (the home that's gone). Of course that shatterspace is filled with imitations that seem like what he lost but cannot be.

While Sonic is on his hero's journey, Shadow is stuck in a genre more psychological. So of course, via his experiences being stuck and his only experience with one of the shatterspaces, he'd assume the entire shatterverse was designed this way.

So, to sum this up a little bit. It is entirely likely that Shadow sees the inhabitants of the shatterverse as not only fake copies, but of those whose existence is part of a cruel game to make he and Sonic suffer over the shattering of the prism and the loss of their home. Does this make sense? It not only inherently hurts, but it’s designed to be cruel.

Shadow has only met the "ghosts" of Ghost Hill at this point. He doesn't fully know what we the audience know—that the inhabitants of the shatterspaces are real people with lives and backstories.

Now, with all of this in mind, how does Shadow first approach Sonic regarding the knowledge he has? Remember. It's, baseline, that Sonic can enter shatterpaces while he can't, Sonic started moving through shatterspaces after obtaining the tech on his gloves and shoes from a being who resembles Tails, Sonic creates portals and thins the veil between shatterspaces and the void when he runs fast, that "Nine" is an inhabitant of one of the shatterspaces Sonic knows and looked for at some point, that Ghost Hill is the only shatterspace he can enter, that Ghost Hill resembles and immitates Green Hill to a degree of cruelty, and that he believes that all the shatterspaces are "cruel" versions of his and Sonic’s home with fake versions of people they know, crafted specifically to make the two of them suffer.

"Yeah...yeah, that could work! It has to work! We gotta show Nine. He's like super smart! He knows a ton about prism energy. He–"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why 'no'? I just said he's, like, super smart."

"He can’t be trusted."

If there's one bit from the Shadow portion so far I need to point out, it's this. Shadow asserts that Nine cannot be trusted. Shadow has never even met Nine at this point, only seen him standing in the lab with Sonic. How can he be so sure that Nine—or the other inhabitants for that matter—are specifically untrustworthy? Not even just fake imitations. Untrustworthy.

Why does Shadow jump to this conclusion?

"What are you talking about? Of course he can. He's just like Tails. He's just a little...angsty, that's all."

Again, there is no proof that Shadow has even seen much more than maybe an image of Nine, much less met him. Sonic's sticking up for Nine's attitude again, just like he did when talking to Rebel and Renegade, but Shadow cannot even know much of anything about Nine. He should not have a bias (beyond looks) based upon knowing Nine.

And this also means that, most likely, Shadow cannot assert that Nine is untrustworthy due to any solid evidence like Rebel or Renegade can, for example.

"He's not Tails. He's Nine. And they're not. Your real. Friends."

"Dude. He's real. This is his reality. And you know what else is real? Nine's tech on my kicks and punching sticks. So back up off Nine."

So, again. Why does Shadow jump to the conclusion that Nine and the other inhabitants of the shatterspaces are untrustworthy? This is what I think based upon the evidence we've gathered in this section.

I believe that it's entirely possible that Shadow sees himself stuck in a psychological horror. Based on his experiences living in the shatterverse so far, this reality they're in is like a punishment game. He and Sonic are both being punished for how Sonic shattered the paradox prism. Their home is gone, everything is broken. Unless they can fix it, the shatterverse is the setting of this cruel game, filled with shatterspaces (pale imitations of the home they lost) and the copies—fake beings—who inhabit it that were created with the sole purpose of hurting Sonic and Shadow. They hold similarities of the settings and the faces of the people they know as if to taunt (or to remind what they lost and cannot have). Logically under this framework, if Shadow believes that the inhabitants of the shatterverse have an inherently cruel existence and exist to make them hurt, then them seeming real is a distraction from the fact that they're designed to hurt (think...how Yen Sid tells Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2 that Nobodies are fake people, and any emotion they show is a manipulation tactic to make people believe that they're real). But Sonic is not only acting like they're real, considering them friends, he's trusting them. Perhaps Shadow feels...angry, because the only other "real" person (the one who caused all this) keeps chasing these living lies and believing them when they say/act like they can help end this hurt (help "fix" everything, restore it to how it used to be). Perhaps to him, these people (Nine included) are beings who wish to bring hurt, so why, then, would they help end that hurt or erase their own existences by "fixing" everything? Maybe Shadow thinks Sonic is being stupid, that he's placing his trust in Nine only because he sees Tails' face (falling for the lie), and is also angry because Sonic would stick up for and trust Nine rather than believe him—someone who is real and wants to end the hurt.

Okay okay, I'll stop there for now. That's moreso an interpretation I think you can derive from the beginning of Episode 1 of Season 2 up to this point rather than necessarily fact or authorial intent. I just think it's...food for thought.

Of course I also happen to think that Shadow, with his limited knowledge of who Nine even is, also chooses to insist that Nine specifically is untrustworthy because he becomes jealous that Sonic values a "fake" so much and thinks of him so highly, trusting him even over Shadow (someone who is real and clearly just wants to help Sonic as well as fix everything).

In any case, here are the facts up to this point. Shadow has heard Nine's name, knows the tech on Sonic was designed by him, watched Nine put the tech on Sonic, thinks this tech Nine created allows Sonic to traverse the shatterverse, and knows Nine is smart and "like Tails" because Sonic speaks highly of him. With this evidence, Shadow believes Nine is untrustworthy. He also believes the inhabitants of the shatterspaces aren't real and cannot be Sonic's friends. Shadow also grows angry when Sonic tries to argue and assert that Nine is trustworthy and that he and his other friends are real.

After Season 2 Episode 1, Shadow takes more of a backseat role. While we get to see his pov at times, or even watch him talk to Sonic, he can only see inside the shatterspaces to any extent while Sonic is kicking up enough prism energy. This, of course, means that Shadow is still not privy to most of the information Sonic and the audience are.

In Season 2 Episode 2, Shadow (to our knowledge) is not privy to much going on. In fact, with what we know about the limitations he has of seeing inside the shatterspaces, he could have seen during the portions Sonic is particularly speeding, but none of these occur in relation to Nine. This is all to say that we the audience could see the scene where Nine contacted Sonic through the eggforcer, explained how he was infiltrating the Council from the inside, and upgraded Sonic's tech to make gathering the shards easier, but Shadow does not.

Here is the only conversation between Nine and Sonic in Episode 2 of Season 2 that Shadow was privy to any of.

"Hang on, Nine. I'm comin' for ya."

"No. Don't worry about me. I'm working on a plan to get the shards from the inside. The best thing for you to do is to get the next shard before they do."

"Are you sure?"

"Totally! These eggheads are playing into my hands. They don't—"

"—been dowloading their tech. You just need to get to the shard first, then get out. I better go."

At that last bit of dialogue (beginning with "You"), Sonic lands on a crystal out in the place between. After Nine hangs up on him, the camera zooms out, revealing Shadow standing on the shard next to him.

"That's the first time one of them has made any sense."

It's hard to know for sure how long Shadow has been listening to Sonic's conversation, but given just how far away he'd have to be stalking Sonic when he exits Boscage maze (far enough to hear without being within range of the camera), I think it's safe to assume he's at least listened to the lines Nine and Sonic spoke as Sonic landed on that piece of crystal. That line specifically was Nine instructing Sonic to get the No Place shard before the Chaos Council does, which lines up with the immediate goal Sonic and Shadow would have. This is to say that if Shadow heard this line at least, it makes sense for him to "compliment" Nine by saying that he makes any sort of sense.

Although I also believe Shadow says "That's the first time one of them has made any sense" because Nine is one of the first inhabitant of the shatterverse Shadow's heard that isn't exactly like the "ghosts" of Ghost Hill (essentially, seems to actually think rather than repeating a single line endlessly.

What this scene adds to Shadow's knowledge is that no matter how much of the convo he heard, he has reason to believe that Nine is also seeking the paradox prism shards. However, just because Shadow knows a motivation of Nine's and more of what he's like doesn't mean he trusts him. Or, at least, Sonic takes Shadow's attitude as him still being openly distrustful of Nine. Given how short Shadow is with Sonic, even spin dashing him into the No Place portal entrance, I don't find it too much of a stretch to assert that his attitude here is a mixture of his frustration at not being able to go himself and the relationship/trust Sonic insists on keeping up with Nine (rather than just "how he acts usually").

"Nine's on our side, Shadow. And if you're not gonna help, you can–"

"Oh. I can help."

Although Shadow shows up in Season 2 Episodes 3 and 4 to talk to Sonic and to delay the Chaos Council's mothership's arrival in No Place, none of these really involve Nine. In any of the moments Shadow could have seen Sonic in No Place, they were Sonic running away for the most part (trying to escape with the shard), which of course doesn't exactly help the pov he has of the shatterverse inhabitants. Though Nine also contacts Sonic and is able to see him during this portion, these do not coincide with the times Shadow talks to him. Likewise, although Nine was on the mothership while Shadow was attacking it, neither of them see each other, and there is no evidence to suggest that they are aware of each other's presence (as in, that Shadow knows Nine is on the mothership and Nine knows that Shadow is the attacker). With Shadow being largely absent the way he is, it stands to reason he still has no chance to see the complexity and humanity of the shatterspaces' inhabitants, especially since he's in contact with Sonic as Sonic is running away (trying not to get killed).

As for Episodes 5 and 6 of Season 2. Shadow only shows up once between these two. Specifically, Shadow's pov is shown in Episode 6 as he reacts to how the shatterverse is beginning to break down. Other than that, though, the only moments he'd have to peek into what's happening (offscreen in this case) would be while Sonic is running fast enough. During Episode 5 and most of 6, these moments Sonic may be running fast enough for Shadow to peek in on him are all while he's fighting. This, again, doesn't give Shadow a chance to really gauge the character of New Yoke's residents (aside from the council), much less a chance to see what's going on with Nine.

Even in Episode 7 of Season 2, Shadow doesn't show up until the scene in which he properly meets Nine. With this in mind, aside from Episode 1 of Season 2, Shadow is very rarely present during Season 2 before his first official meeting with Nine.

So, to summarize, this is what Shadow knows/thinks about Nine before properly meeting him. Nine is similar to Tails (in both looks and intelligence), Nine built the tech that Sonic wears on his gloves and shoes, Sonic trusts Nine and fancies him a friend, even going so far as to stick up for the idea that he's real and trustworthy, and Nine is also gathering the paradox prism shards.

That's...it. That's all. And Shadow knew even less when he'd initially claimed that Nine wasn't trustworthy. Before their official meeting, Shadow saw Nine maybe once via what he saw during Sonic's first arrival in New Yolk, and he heard him speak once after S2 E2, when he told Sonic to focus on getting the next shard. He has...such little context/knowledge compared to the audience.

Now, the first meeting. After Sonic and Nine enter the space between with the shards in Episode 7 of Season 2, Shadow catches the container for the shards with Nine on top.

"It's about time."

"Nine, meet Shadow. Shadow, meet Nine."

"You're not another version of Sonic...but you could be twins!"

"Hardly. I am the ultimate life form."

"Don't listen to him. Come on."

Personally, I don't feel as if Shadow acts differently than usual in this scene. He doesn't talk very much, doesn't greet Nine, and isn't necessarily "friendly", but, again, none of this is out of the ordinary for him. The only thing I can confidently say here is that Sonic’s problem is Shadow's attitute, which is why he tells Nine to ignore him. However, he responds as this is a usual thing as well. "He's always like this. Just ignore him." He is also not going out of his way to be mean or vindictive towards Nine. Even Nine (despite his talking about Sonic and Shadow's resemblance) can't have done more than mildly annoy Shadow.

No, what's more significant than the first meeting (for the purposes of this essay) is actually Nine's reaction to seeing Tails in Ghost Hill.

"This world... It's like an embryonic shatterspace. Like it got stuck in the blueprint phase while forming. Hmm... Perhaps it would be useful in finishing The Grim."

"As long as I'm around, you'll always have a wingman!"

"This is the friend Sonic thought was like me? Heh. We're nothing alike."

After this interaction occurs, the camera switches to Shadow, who begins to make this face.

There are two bits from Nine's words I believe could be of interest to Shadow here.

"Perhaps it would be useful in finishing The Grim."

"We're nothing alike."

Why?

Well, let's tackle the first one. One thing that Shadow knows about Nine is that Nine is also looking for the paradox prism shards. Sonic seems to think Nine is on his side, but Shadow hasn't trusted Nine and his intentions from the beginning (as I went a bit into earlier going over Shadow's opinions on Nine as of Episode 1 of Season 2). So if Shadow did hear this line (and it's a bit unclear, but not impossible, that he did), he has reason to believe that Nine doesn't want the shards for the same reason Shadow believes himself and Sonic do. Or, at the very least, that Nine just has different goals in general.

As for the second one, Shadow told Sonic all the way back in Episode 1 that Nine isn't Tails, that he can't be trusted, and that Nine (as well as the other variants) isn't one of Sonic's "real" friends. A statement like "We're nothing alike" straight from Nine's mouth would be validating in this case. It validates Shadow's opinion that Sonic is being stupid and that Nine and Tails aren't the same, and it can easily give Shadow less reason to trust him. After all, if Tails is someone who generally is considered a "good" person or someone who would logically try to help fix everything, but Nine is not at all like him... That line could put Shadow off because he's already distrustful of him, and because of the potential implications Nine could be making from as Shadow's pov. This is to say that although Nine here is only rejecting the idea that he is just like Tails (or really, just like anyone and not his own unique being), Shadow is already biased against him. With Nine's wording, it's not hard for Shadow to insert intent/implications where there are none in his interpretation of the line.

Now, what I find interesting after this (in addition to Shadow's lack of hostility towards Nine despite his assumptions back in Season 2 Episode 1) is the attitude change.

Of course Shadow may have been angrier at Sonic back then, but he had also asserted so confidently back then that Nine isn't Sonic's friend as isn't to be trusted (and not even confidently, but as if annoyed or angry). But he...fulfill's Nine's wish to be alone with the prism shards, offers to take Sonic out, and gives him a calmer talk at the end of Episode 7 of Season 2.

"How do you know you can trust him?"

...

"I don't think your 'friend' wants the same thing we do."

Vs.

"He can’t be trusted."

...

"He's not Tails. He's Nine. And they're not. Your real. Friends."

There are a multitude of reasons this change in tone and demeanor Shadow has could be. It could be because he calmed down a bit more since S2 E1, it could be that he's decided to take a different approach when talking to Sonic about Nine, it could be that he's not so overly confident in his belief that the variants are all just "cruel versions to make us suffer" anymore after meeting Nine (or at least that the variants are so one dimensional), or it could even be that he's decided that Nine is helpful but Sonic should be more on guard. It's...hard to know which or how many are the truth here. All we know is that there is an outright change between these scenes and even Shadow's attitude, and that, despite the little interaction they've had, what Shadow's seen and heard is enough for him to come to the conclusion that Nine may not have good intentions and/or that Nine isn't actually trying to help them. Just like with Rebel and Renegade, whether Shadow has valid reasons or reasoning we can understand from his pov on Nine's character and intentions, his heavy bias he had even before meeting Nine colors all the information Shadow learns about him. This is all to say that (like Renegade and Rebel) it's easy for even actions/statements that have no inherent bad intentions to just feed back into his existing bias against Nine.

So, just in case, I'll reiterate. Shadow does have enough evidence to suspect that Nine doesn't truly share his and Sonic's goals, and he has enough pre-existing bias based upon his first impressions of the Ghost Hill variants to be suspicious of Nine's intentions and character. However, he has still barely met, seen, or heard about Nine second-hand. He knows very few facts about Nine other than how he's intelligent, is looking for the shards too, and is someone Sonic clearly has some attachment to. Yet...he seems to feel that Nine is untrustworthy (perhaps even on gut instinct) despite the lack of solid proof.

Well, actually, he doesn't just feel, this way. He actually tells Sonic that he distrusts Nine.

"What about him? We can't just leave him alone with the prism shards."

"Uhhh, yes we can, seeing as how he's the only one who can put them back together. You know, fix reality. You really don't trust him, do ya?"

"No."

"Of course you don't. You don't trust anyone."

He doesn’t actually tell Sonic why he doesn't. If anything, throughout this whole scene of them talking about Nine, he seems not to understand why Sonic does trust Nine (why he and Sonic aren't on the same page). Perhaps it just feels...obvious to Shadow? But even then, with Shadow's facial expressions as Sonic takes the "Why wouldn't we trust him?" stance, it seems to be that Shadow's point of view remains to be that of "Sonic is trusting him naively. This is something that could cost us."

Finally, we arrive at the final episode of Season 2. Despite his distrust in Nine (like Renegade and Rebel before him regarding Sonic), he has no choice but to join Sonic in the battle against the Chaos Council. First, Sonic's right in saying that Nine is the only person they have right now who can recomplete the prism. Second, he doesn't want to leave Sonic to fight the Council alone.

Now, while Sonic is in communication with Nine during the battle, he rarely talks to him around Shadow. The only moment he does is when eggforcers breach the mountain and put the prism's security and Nine's safety in jeopardy, to which Shadow only tells Sonic to go and protect the prism. Out of the two, I feel as if it's clear that Shadow trusts himself to hold his own over Sonic (I mean, he felt as if he (Shadow) was the best one to gather the shards in S2 E1, and he just made a statement about how badly the battles go when Sonic fights alone), so it makes sense why he'd send Sonic off to fight some eggforcers while he himself holds his own against the council, giving Sonic his chance to move. This is all to say that it makes sense why Shadow doesn't choose to be the one to protect the prism here, but we should also keep in mind just how in the dark Shadow is about what's happening with Nine.

In fact, Shadow isn't privy to anything happening in the prism chamber for a while. He didn't see Sonic and Nine's interaction, didn't watch Nine power Sonic up with the shard energy, Sonic didn't give him a detailed answer on how he got stronger and who was involved (only that he "got a power up"), Shadow doesn't see Nine power Sonic up to defeat the prismatic Titan, and Shadow–

Pause.

That scene in the final episode. You know, the one where Sonic returns after defeating the prismatic titan, Nine says that they were just using the blueprint to figure out what shards went where so they could complete the prism, and Sonic asserts they've actually been doing it to fix Green Hill? The part where Sonic and Nine disagree over whether it's possible to fix Green Hill, whether they should fix what was or move on and create a new home?

The part where Sonic accidentally implies Nine isn’t real to him?

A scene in which Shadow would be able to clearly see Nine's motivations?

The ENTIRE lead up to Nine taking the shards and deciding to leave Sonic behind?

Yeah ha ha...ha...ahah...

Shadow doesn't see any of that. You want to know when Shadow arrives? What he sees?

All he sees is Nine with all the shards at the edge of a portal, Sonic trying to get him to stay and Nine leaving (choosing not to trust Sonic). Practically all Shadow sees of Nine and Sonic interacting while they don't know he's there is Nine "betraying" Sonic and stealing the shards. He misses the entire complicated conversation and everything that lead up to the event.

Again, Shadow misses any nuance and any context that might allow him to see Nine more as he is. Nine leaving with the shards, betraying them and blowing off Sonic's attempts to appeal to him? It just feeds right back into Shadow's existing bias against Nine.

Shadow didn't trust Nine. He thought Sonic was naive for choosing to trust Nine. He felt that Nine didn't share the same goals as him.

Of course Nine steals the shards, betrays Sonic (who'd believed in and trusted him so so much, Shadow knows), and leaves them to die. Shadow already thought the variants were practically designed to make him and Sonic suffer, and what best to make Sonic suffer by having his trust broken by a fake wearing the face of his best friend, right?

Shadow did not have proof or real reason to believe Nine to be evil or planning to betray Sonic. He didn't even have half the physical proof Rebel and Renegade had when they decided Nine was traitorous. Shadow just always felt that Nine couldn't be trusted, and frustrated and annoyed for some reason that Sonic didn't agree.

Does this make Shadow a good judge of Nine's character? Was Shadow really right because he was seeing the signs all along, or was it because everything that happened just so happened to line up with his pre-existing bias (like back when Chaos Sonic implied Nine was involved with the trap, and Renegade assumed that Nine had set up the entire trap because of course the "traitorous fox" would)?

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For now, let's move on to the last point of view. How does Sonic see Nine? Is Sonic really just some naive hedgehog who trusted a fox—a fox who was clearly always planning to betray him—just because he wore the face of his missing best friend? Up until the end of season 2, did Sonic just refuse to see or miss all the red flags—all the signs that Nine was always going to betray him in the end?

Let's start from the very beginning. Season 1 Episode 1: Shattered.

What not a single person can overstate is how Sonic’s initial perception of every variant and their character is heavily rooted in his own bias. In this case the "bias" at hand is Sonic either assuming the variants are one of his original friends (like when he thought Nine was just Tails who had forgotten him), or somehow connected to them. In my Sonine Prime essay series I have talked a few times during S1 about how Sonic is largely going through Season 1 trying to guess what's happening around him with his limited knowledge of everything at hand, his lack of knowledge of the genre he's in, and his scrambling to explain things without there being someone like Tails to understand it for him. At first he believes Nine is Tails but missing some of his important memories. Then he believes that Nine, Rusty, Rebel, and Renegade are just his friends but "messed up" (still with the idea that they don't remember him). Then he realizes that there are multiple variants and comes to the conclusion that they are all part of the originals or contain pieces of the original deep down. Sonic’s idea of the reality of the variants continues to change until he at baseline believes they are all their own real people.

But where does Nine fit into all this? Just how much does Sonic's original perception of him as "just Tails" affect how he sees Nine by the end or season 2? Does Sonic actually just 100% see him as a replacement for Tails rather than his own person?

Well, I can answer that last question now if you wish. The answer is no, but the entire thing is eh...complicated.

In Episode 1 of Sonic Prime, after participating in an entire fight scene against Nine (who he believes to be Tails fighting him for some reason or Tails who doesn't remember him and home), Sonic explains what he knows of Tails' backstory. In return, Nine reacts as if Sonic knows details about him that no one should know, but then goes on to explain what actually happened to him. Sonic, of course, begins to have a reaction based on this.

I will remind you that, at this point in time, Sonic believes that Eggman succeeded in taking over Green Hill. He believes that this is is home, and that Nine, Rebel, Renegade, etc are his original friends.

"...Doesn't make sense. You are Tails, but– you're not... Here, but...gone?"

As of here through to the end of Episode 3, we have reason to believe that Sonic believes that Nine is Tails. He does his best to recognize Nine's preferred name, but he makes a number of references to getting the prism and "fixing all of this", refers to the New Yoke variants as "messed up yous", and at times even acts as if the variants should be/are like his original friends (as we see from the scene he starts introducing the variants under the names and traits of the originals). He quite literally believes that Nine is just Tails without his memories of Sonic. He thinks he just needs to stop eggman, get the prism, and make his "friends" remember.

While I will emphasize how much it makes sense that Sonic would approach the New Yoke variants initially with this conclusion, it will unfortunately affect how he perceives Nine forever.

In Season 2 Episode 6, Sonic returns to New Yoke. Rebel and Renegade are angry at him for leaving them behind, and (as we covered in the Rebel and Renegade section) they consider Sonic and Nine to be traitors. However, while Rebel and Renegade (understandably) label Sonic and Nine as traitors for the betrayal they witnessed, Sonic is...surprised when he learns that Nine made off with the shard.

"I didn't steal the shard!"

"But your fox friend did. Right before he left us high and dry."

"He...did?"

I'm going to refrain into digging too far into how Sonic sees Tails (as dredging up the evidence would be another essay), but, in short, we know that Tails is his best friend. Tails is smart, he helps fight Eggman for the greater good, and he'd never leave a friend behind, right?

By this episode, Sonic has shifted his idea of the variants already. He no longer thinks Nine or Rebel or Renegade are just his original friends missing their memories, but we know that he feels as if there are pieces or traits of his friends who reside in all the variants deep down. He tries to talk like Amy and get Thorn to be a "good friend" and make up with everyone. He tries to appeal to Dread and get him to join the crew's search for the blue shard, referring to that stubborn loyalty of Knuckles'.

So Sonic has already created an idea of Nine based upon his idea of Tails. Sure Nine is "a bit angsty" and a loner, but he'd never leave any friends behind or leave people in danger, would he?

Tails would never just leave everyone behind, and Sonic doesn’t want to believe that Nine would or to believe the worst of him. So to Sonic...it must all be some huge misunderstanding, right? Sonic will prove that he and Nine aren’t traitors. When he finds Nine there has to be a reasonable explanation for why he made off with the red shard and left Rebel, Rusty, and Renegade to the council's mercy.

Nine is Sonic's friend, and Sonic believes that Tails is in him deep down here. He refuses to believe that Nine is evil or doesn't care about others.

"If they get that energy crystal back, we're done for."

"Nine won't let that happen!"

...

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me. But I'm not a traitor and neither is Nine. Let me prove it to you. Let me fight by your side."

He thinks so highly of Nine and believes in the good in him. Most of us agree that this is because of Sonic comparing Nine to Tails and because of how he initially started trying to pull Nine into the intelligent little buddy role. But...is this all because of Tails? Is it–?

Let's take a step back for a moment. Remember how in the previous sections I talked about the character's pre-existing biases and how Nines actions would coincidentally fit into these biases, and how I've emphasized what it is the characters actually have seen?

Well, here's the truth of the situation. Sonic didn't see Nine abandon Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty. While they're clearly angry, he has no clue what actually occured, how Nine acted, and he refuses to assume that Nine grabbed the shard and just split. And when you hear that someone you've already decided to trust (even though Sonic later updates his idea of Nine as his own person, it's due to Sonic's existing bias towards Tails that he trusted Nine in the first place) has done something awful, you'd want to see that proof or know the context. You'd want to hear what happened from the one you trust. And here's another truth about the situation. Nine up to this point has never betrayed Sonic. After they talked in the scareport after their battle, had a heart to heart, Nine proved he was no longer hostile to Sonic. Nine gave him the regulators and helped him with his little running issue. Although Nine had no way to save him when Sonic was about to be blasted back at the Yoke, when Rebel and Renegade swooped in to fight, Nine freed Sonic at his first available chance. During that entire adventure in the Yoke through to episode 3, Sonic has seen Nine work together with the others as they fight for a singular goal. Even when Nine suggested they leave the others behind to get the shard, Rebel tells Sonic the same thing right afterwards.

Aside from hearsay, Sonic (by Episode 6 of Season 1) has no reason to believe that Nine is a traitor. Nine assisting with the fight in the Yoke, helping him out—all of this feeds right back into the idea Sonic has of Nine's character. He reasonably feared that Nine would keep attacking him in episode 1 after the battle, and he reasonably believed that Nine baseline cared about the well-beings of others.

Let's look at Sonic's talks with Nine in S1 E6 after Nine picks him up from New Yoke.

(For the record, as I've already taken up quite a lot of your time here, I'm going to try to be as concise as I can with this section. But if you'd like to read a more in depth analysis of Nine and Sonic during this scene I've done, you can read Sonine Prime Part 6 here.)

As I said, Nine helping out in the battle before he picks up Sonic just feeds into Sonic's pre-existing bias. Nine very clearly only came to pick Nine up from New Yoke so he could take him to the Grim (and that's pretty much what he does the moment Sonic jumps into his cockpit). Sonic, however, already asserted to Rebel and Renegade that Nine is not a traitor and that this battle for the existence of the resistance and the citizens' hope in a better future will allow him to prove that neither he and Nine are traitorous. He doesn't know where Nine is exactly before he shows up, nor does he have real reason to believe Nine will show up during this fight, but Sonic was extremely happy Nine did. Likewise, Nine doesn't know any details about the resistance's fight with the Chaos Council. He has no real reason to believe that Sonic will just go with him and leave during the battle, but he's also very happy to see Sonic and to take Sonic's attention.

So while Nine came to New Yoke to pick up Sonic, Sonic assumed Nine came to join the fight, to help the rebels fight for a better future, and to clear their names. He's assuming that Nine shares the same intentions as him and has the same general idea of what "a good person" would do that he projects onto Nine. As for Nine, he also just kind of assumed Sonic would go along with him. When talking about the Grim to Sonic, he emphasizes that it's a clean slate, he appeals to Sonic's wish for home by talking about how it can be a new home for the two of them. In addition, he also has an idea of a "good person" he projects onto Sonic, given how he tries to appeal to that assumed nature by talking about how the two of them can create a "better world" (as opposed to New Yoke, a city that only brought Nine misery, that Nine has no hope for).

Plus, as the two traverse the area between the shatterspaces, they play tug of war with the conversation at hand. Sonic talks to Nine about how they really should get back to New Yoke to help the rebels (they're fighting an incredibly important battle at the moment). Specifically he says "we should get back" (emphasis on the "we"), and talks as if he's trying to remind Nine why they should be fighting right now and why that matters.

As for Nine, especially because he's pretty detached and doesn't know or care of the extent of what's going on in New Yoke, he keeps steering the conversation towards The Grim and what he's discovered about the shards. He keeps emphasizing that this is about creating home for the both of them together, and he also talks like he's trying to remind Sonic of "their" goals and why the creation of home here matters.

It's also worth mentioning here that Nine both does not know the extent of what's happening in New Yoke (because he wasn't there with Sonic, he didn't meet the full resistance, he doesn't know about the palm tree or the specifics of that fight of the future) and doesn't really care. He also isn't malicious about it either. He's not acting like everyone in New Yoke deserves to suffer and he's purposely leaving them there to suffer. Rather, he responds to Sonic's attempts to convince him to go back to New Yoke with him and fight by talking about how the city brought him misery and he doesn’t owe it anything. He's taking a neutral stance of "That city was not my home. It hurt me and it brought me only misery. I'm not going to go out of my way to destroy it or hurt people there. As long as people there leave me alone, then I will leave it alone. It's the city's problem if it's hurtling towards destruction, not mine."

These two are just focusing on completely different things—specifically things they emotionally invested themselves in and placed their focus in before the two met again in S1 E6. And yeah! Maybe how Nine acts during this scene should have been enough to tell Sonic that Nine doesn't care about New Yoke or saving every little person in danger. Nine does make it pretty clear that he only cares about his goal of creating a new home and better world for himself and Sonic. However, Sonic is the kind of hedgehog that not only believes in Nine's capacity for "goodness" (or how Sonic personally believes one has to be to be a "good person"), but that Nine has to be a "good person". Even before he'd accepted Nine as his own person that isn't just Tails, he'd formed that solid idea of Nine's character as someone who would naturally help people in need, and he doesn’t want to admit that the idea he has of Nine in his head is wrong.

But, even with all of that in mind, is any of this really proof or "red flags" that Nine would betray Sonic all along? Sure Sonic's ignoring here in the Grim that Nine doesn't care about New Yoke or the resistance all that much, but does Nine ever give any indication that he's just using Sonic to get the shards and was planning on exerting control over the shatterverse?

No.

Nine is happy to see Sonic. We know from S2 E7 that he very genuinely had integrated Sonic into his plans, very seriously planned to create a new home to live in with Sonic (so he wasn't lying about it). He already had two prism shards and was already experimenting with using them to alter reality in the Grim, and gave no indication he wanted more. He could have continued to shape the Grim to his will, but instead he brought Sonic there so they could do it together. When Sonic seemingly rejects his proposal to create a new world together, he seems disappointed, acts like he's been rejected, helps Sonic get back to New Yoke.

Nothing about that screams power hungry fox trying to hurt people on purpose. He got exactly what he needed (a couple shards and Sonic), and if he'd had his way right then, they would have just created a home in the Grim.

All the fox wanted was to be left alone and to be home.

During this scene, how can Sonic miss "red flags" that Nine has been "secretly evil all along" that aren't even there?

Sonic's only crime is trying to hold onto the exact idea he has of Sonic as a "good person" by his own standards. And frankly, even when Sonic relents and goes to New Yoke without him, he makes it so clear that he just knows Nine will come back to fight with him, just like he knew Nine would come to help earlier (even if Nine had only actually come for him).

After their battle in S1 E1, Nine had a heart to heart with him. Nine created the regulators and helped Sonic control the energy bursting from him. Nine helped him and the rebels escape captivity/danger while they were in the Yoke, and assisted in keeping the others from harm as they all fought together. He came right in the nick of time to turn the tide of the battle for a minute in E6 of S1. And even after making it clear to the audience that he doesn’t care about New Yoke, and pushing against Sonic's internalized idea of his character, he still comes back for Sonic.

Even if he only comes back to join the fight so he can give Sonic another chance to pursue his (Nine's) goals, his coming back feeds right back into Sonic's pre-existing bias. After all, he knew Nine would come, didn't he?

Let's even go further into S2. Sonic learns that Nine got captured, and Nine makes this clear as well. He tells Sonic that he's going to use his vantage point to work the council from the inside. Both are aware of how dangerous it is for the Chaos Council to have access to so much shard energy. From the little contact Sonic has with Nine during most of this season, Nine situates himself as Sonic's inside helper and giving him direction. This is why he believes him when "Nine" leads them into the Yoke for a trap, and that's why he believes the real Nine when he leads him through the Yoke building in a plan to get rid of Chaos Sonic.

To Sonic, Nine always comes through for him, whether it's for fighting, giving him insider information, or giving him directions/plans/helping things make sense to him.

If Sonic just let himself see it, he would notice that Nine doesn't really care about anyone else but himself and Sonic, and he would know what Nine's actual goals were. Assuming that Nine naturally followed his same goals and acts regarding other people "like the real Tails would", that was Sonic's folly. That's where he was being naive and only taking in evidence that fit his bias of Nine as a good person.

But that doesn't change the fact that Nine did help people out, did help out Sonic. He prioritized his own goals over others' well-being in E6 of S1, and when he left Renegade, Rusty, and Rebel behind, but he did not do so without hesitation. It doesn't change the fact that he helped Sonic out and that Sonic had no reason to believe Nine was using him for his own purposes, because even when Nine made his true character and his goals clear, he always genuinely wanted Sonic at his side. And it doesn't change the fact that even when Nine was frustrated at Sonic, he still stuck up for Sonic. He still convinced the Chaos Council not to kill him outright. He still risks his position and safety to help Sonic, even in the face of being killed for doing so. He feels guilt and remorse for being the reason Sonic was led into a trap and attacked by Chaos Sonic. He expresses this guilt to the Chaos Council (as they jab and jeer and he goes "what have I done?"), and he expresses it to Sonic, who reiterates the trust he has in Nine.

What I'm getting at here is that Sonic’s problem was always how he didn't fully see Nine as he was, and how he just assumed Nine would go along with whatever he thought and wanted. Nine's criticism at the end of S2 was not a baseless one. However, his problem was never that he trusted Nine. No matter the place his trust in Nine began from, Sonic has never had any reason to distrust him, and, in fact, only grew to trust him more over time and Nine helped him out and proved that he cared about his well-being.

Sonic thinks Nine will go along with his goals because he's "just like Tails" and kind of assumes so.

Sonic sees "the good" in Nine and trusts that Nine is his friend because he's gotten to know Nine a bit better over time. Actions speak loud, and it says a lot that Nine continues to aid him and very specifically wants to be with him.

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Now, in the interest of not going on for too much longer, I'm not going to go piece by piece through every Nine scene to dissect exactly who he is as a person and why. Nine's exact character is an essay for another time. So for now, let's keep in mind just what we can see of Nine in the show (and in contrast to what other characters think of him).

I'm going to pose a question or two. Has Nine the Fox been secretly evil all along? Has everyone else been seeing the signs while Sonic has been blind because he doesn't want to believe "Tails" could be evil?

And now, from what we've gone over so far, here's some of what we know about Nine:

Nine isn’t the type to hurt people for no reason or out of malicious intent. He attacks in self defense and generally just wants to be left alone. Thus, if you leave Nine alone, he won't go out of his way to mess with you.

He doesn’t care about others to an extent. If he's already involved in an event, he will help out if people are in danger. However, he always pursues his goals first. He ultimately hesitates when he sees Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty captured, but ultimately chooses to secure making it out alive and with the shard over risking losing either to assist these three.

He cares very deeply about Sonic. Even when he's clearly frustrated or disappointed or says that he's not friends with Sonic, his actions show otherwise. He wanted to build a new home with Sonic, and he risked his own well-being to help Sonic in S2.

He trusts Sonic back. He believes in his ability to overcome anything, even when the Chaos Council is throwing more and more terrible robots at Sonic and trying to convince Nine that it's not worth putting faith in him.

Others actually try to convince both Sonic and Nine during the runtime of S1 and S2 that the other shouldn't/can't be trusted, and that it's idiotic to place their trust in each other. These are scenes that genuinely end up showing that each plans to stay on the other's side and features them sticking up for each other.

Nine doesn't care about others, but not in a malicious manner. He aspires to be left alone and to his own devices, to which he will leave others alone and to their own devices. Even when he's alone and not in Sonic's presence, he never expresses a wish to exert control over the shatterverse and to be its god (essentially trying to make it all better). He only wants to create his ideal home with Sonic away from everything that hurt him.

He rejects the idea that he is exactly like Tails.

He actively seeks and even becomes smug/happy when he gets Sonic's attention. Being considered Sonic's friend or even a best friend is important to him.

The only ulterior motive he ever presents in helping out Sonic is when doing so allows him to get the home he desires, a desire that he includes Sonic in on for the bulk of the runtime. Essentially, he sees Sonic as a collaborator in a goal that includes them both.

So now, I pose the question to you reading this. Has Nine the fox been secretly evil all along?

Personally, I think not. He's not a "good person", but to be evil one has to have a specific kind of malicious intent. You can argue that the Chaos Council are evil because they act in self interest, knowingly oppress the mobians in New Yoke, and don't care what they have to do or who they have to kill to get what they want. They are aware of what they are doing and that they are hurting people, and actively choose to do "evil" deeds because they want to.

Nine acts in his own self interest, he doesn't go out of his way to be a hero to others, he doesn't care what becomes of the other shatterspaces, but he doesn't go out of his way to just oppress or hurt people. He doesn't attack people or leave them to die for the enjoyment of it. He's not outright acting evil with intentions to commit evil deeds, but he never claims to be a hero either. He's a morally grey fox who acts in his own self interest who just wants a real home, and just wants to be safe.

But all in all I ask this to you because I wonder genuinely. What of Nine's actions during these two seasons betray that he's just "what if Tails was evil"? Does acting in one's self interest or selfishly, even if you believe it's for a good cause and if you don't go out of your way to hurt people, make you an inherently evil person?

Has everyone else been seeing the signs while Sonic has been blind because he doesn't want to believe "Tails" could be evil?

Renegade, Rebel, Shadow, etc. They all don't trust Nine.

But with I've gone over so far re:their povs and what they've seen and know of Nine, have all of these people been seeing something Sonic has been missing? Have they not just been doing the same thing Sonic has been (in this case, forming an idea of them based upon first impressions and continuing to paint that person in a specific light because of how their continued experiences with that person fit their pre-existing biases)? They've had less run ins with Nine than Sonic has. What makes their gut instincts and povs more valuable than Sonic's pov of Nine (or the chaos council in s1 and s2 for that matter)?

What is it even that they're seeing that Sonic is missing? Is it that Nine cares more about creating a home within the Grim than saving people or being a hero, or even more than some goal of bringing back Green Hill (even at the expense of the shatterverse and his life)?

Sure, Sonic doesn’t want to believe Nine could be evil. Heck, he doesn't even want to believe that his idea of Nine as someone who would put his life on the line for those in danger and help people when he can is false.

But what? What exactly is it that he's missing? What are the "red flags" Sonic is "ignoring" in these two seasons that "prove" Nine has been evil all along? What was Sonic missing that proves Nine was always planning on betraying him?

ㅤ

It's all food for thought my friends.

Anyways, if you've read up to this point, thank you so much! I know it's a long one, but it means a lot to me that you'd take the time to read my thoughts and analysis. In the end, the point of this essay is that I implore you all to think of how the characters see each other. The creators put genuine thought into these characters, how they act based on what happens to them, and how they act based upon what they could possibly know from their povs. I implore you to consider why certain characters assert things they do. I implore you to think why Nine would have betrayed Sonic at the end of S2, why Sonic would have trusted him, and for what reason other characters may not have trusted him. I implore you to think of Nine not as a twist villain, but to think of how he actually is and what might push a person to this point.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#sonic prime #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #the chaos council #mr dr eggman #dr done it #dr babble #dr deep #dr don't #renegade knucks #rebel rouge #sonic prime season 2 #sonic prime season 1 #nine sonic prime #miles nine prower #nine the fox #essay time #i just be ramblin #Fun fact! While I have been wanting to write this essay for a while‚ I actually finally broke down and wrote it BECAUSE it hit me again tha #Shadow missed the entire breaku– I mean. Uh. He missed most of the scene where Nine and Sonic broke u– I mean #uh dissolved their friendship. I was just consumed with thoughts over Shadow missing so much context even while I was seeing people assert #that Shadow knew what was happening regarding Nine all along #Oh also. Yes I have seen season 3. However‚ I wrote most of this up before S3 came out. So this essay only covers up to the end of season 2 #Maybe at some point I'll make a reblog or a second post where I do the same thing I did here but for the characters in S3 and how #they view Nine. #long post #Also if you've just read the post and You'd like to read more in depth looks on how Nine and Sonic see each other and why they would‚ I'd #give my Sonine prime series a shot. Yes it's focused on the shippy aspect‚ by a shipper‚ but one main purpose of it is to present the #complexities of these characters and just how integral understanding their general relationship/importance to each other is to the show #(romantic‚ platonic‚ whatever)

[onwriting-hrarby]

On endings—The last sentence

Hello, it’s been a while! After finishing Rotten Judgement I have been taking a little break with writing my novel and also reading quite a lot, but RJ has still been on my mind because I wanted to talk about endings. Or, more specifically, about the last sentence. I would also like to do a literary analysis on the last chapter (how I built the pace for it), but I feel like that would be giving too much into the readers’ readings and feelings. Yet, if you would like me to talk about building a pace (with examples), please tell me so.

In this little post, we will talk about:

The importance of an ending

How does an ending need to be?

When does an ending appear?

Motifs and themes

On changing endings—because of the people

Again, bare in mind that this is not "writing advice" per se, only my impressions as a professional in the sector :) also, tagging @writeblrsupport in case they find it interesting and want to share!

First things first—The importance of an ending

People say that while writing it’s important that you get a nice first sentence, gripping, that keeps the reader into the page. It’s not that I disagree, but I do believe that we have bubbled up this notion of “the first sentence” a little too much: it is not the first thing the reader reads. Nowadays, the first thing we might read about a book can be the review on bookstagram, and if we are in the bookshop, we might choose the book for its cover or typo—to end up reading the claim or the synopsis. This notion of the first sentence might have worked when the novels were inside newspaper, written by chapters, and the chapters needed to be gripping and auto conclusive. Of course, if the first sentence is all that—all the better.

But I consider the ending to be more, if not equally important as the first sentence. Colum McCann says something along the lines that our last sentence will be the first sentence of the imagination of the reader—of what’s further than the ending. It will be the first thing the reader is left when they finish the book.

Yet—don’t make it senseless. The ending has to be coherent with the story. Ending the last sentence with a plot twist or a shock just for the sake of it—for the “remembering” effect—is not the way to go. Mainly, because the reader will frown, take themselves out of the narration completely, and get angry. (I am speaking with knowledge: I said no to a translation because it had this problem.)

How does the ending need to be?

I guess, for me (as always, I speak from personal experience), the endings should be gripping, coherent, and satisfying. I’ve talked about coherence, but let me explain a little about gripping: When I say gripping, I don’t mean that it’s full of tension, or shocking, or leaves you breathless. That, if your story demands it, too. What I mean is that the whole path to the ending (the so-called “resolution of conflict”) should have your reader seated the whole time, wanting to know how it ends. There are different narrations and paces to this: crime, mysteries, fantasy or sci-fi generally have a faster path to this resolution of conflict, and their ending tends to be, yes, gripping (in its original sense). Other narratives, like realism, or character-based books, or non-fiction, might have a slower one. That is good, too, because as I’ve said, most of all the ending should be coherent. But still, the book should not fall out of the reader’s hands. If it does, then there’s a problem with the pace. Generally, you won’t help that with the ending, but sometimes you can do it. The reader wants to finish the book. We don’t have to sacrifice, to my view, any coherence, any intention of us as writers, or any literary quality, but we have to be aware of the grippiness of our text to balance it out to have a satisfying ending.

What do I mean by satisfying? Again, that it’s not confusing, that it makes sense, that doesn’t make the reader feel like they didn’t follow. The reader is not dumb—will never be—so you should treat him with respect. (The readers are more intelligent than the authors, and they pick up on things you wouldn’t have even thought about in your prose.) The satisfaction is that final breath when we close the book, this exhilarating feeling, that “good, very good” that we mutter after the last page. I believe we should strive to leave our readers with this kind of satisfaction.

In summary: if you have a bad beginning, you have a whole novel to make up for it; if you have a good novel but a bad ending, the thing falls into pieces at the last sentence.

When does the ending appear?

This is as easy as to answer Where do people get inspiration from—there isn’t one answer, everyone has their way. To me, though, it works best if I know where the story is going to go from the beginning.

When I start writing the story, it’s almost 6 months after I started thinking about it—not purposefully, but during walks, or talking with friends, some dialogues and scenes occur to me, and I also get to know the characters better. Because I do a character-based narrative, their motifs are the main things I need to have clear when I plot a story. I usually think about the beginning: what is the starting point for the story (which can or cannot be the same for the characters if I’m doing in media res, etc), with which scene do I want to begin? Then, normally, I will get glimpses of possible scenes that go in the middle: an important point for them, maybe the climax. But I always, ALWAYS get the ending before finishing the story. And normally I think about the ending—more like, it comes to me—before I begin writing the story altogether.

Why? Again, Colum McCann says something that pinpoints exactly the answer I would give to you (but better): if a story is a plane and the ending is a destination, we don’t need to know the exact destination, but we need to know that the plane will land.

I leave myself a chance to change the ending if I’m writing the story and I see that the ending is going to change according to what the story needs, but it rarely happens, because I tail my stories around the ending, and not the beginning or the characters. Let’s say that I’m writing a romance: if I tail the story around the beginning (the characters meet), then I have a confusing plot because there are just a million ways in which the characters can evolve from that. If I tail the story around the characters (one is cute, the other one is grumpy, they fall in love) then I have all feelings and a plot, but I don’t think I have a motif or different layers. If I tail it around the ending (the characters get together despite their differences) suddenly I have a message.

I am being a little reductionist here, but you get the gist. Again, this works for me, but it cannot work for you at all! It all depends on what you want from your story, in the end.

Motifs and themes

I feel like endings should be conclusive in the novel, too. That is: in a way, they should summarize the motif of what you want the reader to stay with in your proposal. I don’t know if I succeed with every single ending of mine, but I think I have grown the capacity of doing this kind of summarizing without being too obvious.

The book shouldn’t be a thesis, but it should put something on the table. It can be a secret pact between you and the reader, but it has to lay motifs and themes that the reader can observe and think for themselves. But if your book is too obvious about the theme or your intention as an author, the reader will get bored easily because, again, the reader is not dumb and doesn’t want to have a lecture on it. Laying out your motifs and themes has to be subtle enough for the reader to choose whatever they want to fixate on, and ending with this motif reverberating has to be subtle enough to avoid boredom but clear enough so that the reader knows they have understood and they are with you.

Following the previous point about changing endings, and to go back to the intention of this little post, I had to change my last sentence completely.

Mind you, I had the last sentence written 6 months before writing the ending! Oh my! I had it scribbled in one of my notebooks, the page marked with a dog ear so that I wouldn’t forget I had to end like this. But—stuff happened, that stuff being that my main motif of the story changed.

It wasn’t planned, and it wasn’t suddenly: the story had always revolved around love as a constant effort and life as a constant struggle. Because my main intention was to talk about the first one (and it was what I had people lured into my writing in the first place), six months before the ending I had my first sentence, which was: 

“And hands in hands, because they know that love is never the end of any story, they stare at each other and promise wordlessly to keep walking down this path—the one that is bumpy, full of trial and error. And swear to keep on trying, incessantly, every day, together.”

But I wrote that when I was in Chapter 10 (of 21) of the story, so of course, I should have given myself the space to change it. I was stubborn, and I didn’t, so when I started crafting the last three chapters and doing revisions of the other 18, I realized—late, and almost because I had to—that the story didn’t revolve around the love, but about the life. The way I had plotted the last chapter of Rotten Judgement, even, was all about a political revolution! There wasn’t love in it! Or not romantic love per se. There was a birth at home! Now it’s all clear to me, but please imagine me having to write a whole seating 30-page chapter and coming to the end and… it doesn’t work.

What happened, then? What had I done wrong?

Historia, the character who’s giving birth in the bathtub, was the character who was setting the pace of the chapter, which transitioned between the birth and the demonstration. The pace of the birth was very clear to me, and every stage signalled a change in pacing overall (I won’t say much here, this belongs to the post about the last chapter and pace per se). When Historia’s son finally comes out of the womb, it serves as a little epilogue to the fast pace of the chapter. It all stops, and then the son is born.

Mikasa and Eren, the couple, help Historia with the birth of the son. Tired but exhilarated, he kinda proposes to her, and thus the first last sentence should have been born. But ending with the love of the pair would be to neglect that even if the city was burning there was a new birth, a possibility of doing things right. So, it was clear to me that I had to end the ending with Historia grabbing her son for the first time, and the son opening the eyes to this chaotic, political life—so, my second theme.

What I did was to move the couple’s scene and first last sentence to this slow pace.

The ending to that 200k story and 30 last pages of revolution ended up like this, thus:

Amidst tearful cries in the bathroom, they [Eren and Mikasa] giggle against each other desperately. And hands in hands, because they know that love is never the end of any story, they stare at each other and promise wordlessly to keep walking down this path—the one that is bumpy, full of trial and error. And swear to keep on trying, incessantly, every day, together. From out the window, the sirens hustle closer and closer to the building now. Smoke columns rise from the avenue and the Parliament. Some screams penetrate the walls of the apartment, but the air is filled with hope and the anticipation of their friends—surely—coming back. The new mother [Historia] crouches forward to the midwife, takes the head of the newborn with care, then his whole little body, red and moving, watches his little mouth open and his closed eyes and the mother puts their baby against her chest. Little Marco falls silent for a moment as if he was taking in the arduous work of being alive.

On changing endings—because of the people

On a last note, I wanted to address writers who change the ending because they see that the fans want something specific, or that the public is not taking the leading up to the ending well. Some mentions: High School Musical The Musical The Series (they changed the ending of the main pair because they saw that another ship was very famous and the main character wasn’t in the show anymore; it resulted in a shit-show of character development); Sherlock (resulted in the worst 3rd season ever); Game of Thrones (don’t let me get started); Sally Rooney’s Beautiful world, where are you (an epilogue set in the pandemic which reads like an adding that she can’t even have written); How I met your mother (oh please), and much more.

Don’t do it—don’t! You know what the story needs. You know what you want to tell. Don’t let anyone influence you. Be Succession. End when you need to end, and with what makes sense for the story to end with.

#writerblr #writing inspiration #writing #writers on tumblr #creative writing #writers #writeblr #writing advice #writing community #writing exercise #writing tips #writerscommunity #writerslife #writersociety #writer problems #aspiring author #author #writers of tumblr #writing life #writers community #hrarbycraft

[thydungeongal]

If your turnover is above $750000 you can probably afford to give WotC their cut. If you simply have “free” content and a Patreon you don’t have to do anything. Everyone else is going to have to fill in an online form and refrain from making commercial video games, animated shows which use their IP (such as named character) and NFT’s. God forbid.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of the stuff in the 1.1 OGL is boilerplate and understandable, but even then it's bad.

Like okay, I understand their intent: they're trying to make D&D a closed ecosystem where you have to pay WotC if you want to take part in it. I can understand not wanting to give people the ability to make unlicensed video games or films or whatever. I can even understand their policy for making content for One D&D under the OGL: if you want to make content for One D&D you gotta play by their rules. Like, it's the sort of behavior I can simply chalk up to "well, shitty company being shitty" and WotC wanting to monetize their brand more. Even then, I've seen some creators (and not even ones associated with big names like Paizo) say that the $750,000 number is very low, because it refers to revenue, not profit. I understand why Wizards would do it, but even then I'm like "yeah that sucks, don't really want to support that ecosystem any more."

So yeah, there's some understandable stuff there (not wanting unlicensed D&D video games and other derivative products) coupled with stuff I think is shitty towards third party producers but in a way where it's just par for the course for a shitty company that's a subsidiary or Hasbro. Like, I can understand all of it and see why they'd want a closed ecosystem, and it's still enough for me to say "yeah nah, I don't want to support this game any more." If someone does, that's not a value judgement on them, I just don't see myself doing it.

But all of that is incidental to my main problem, which is the implication that Wizards seeks to "deauthorize" the 1.0 OGL. I get it, the OGL ended up creating some of D&D's biggest competitors, including Pathfinder, but in my view that genie is out of the bottle. I'm not a lawyer and this whole situation is messy, but based on my reading just declaring that the 1.0 OGL is "unauthorized" from now on isn't necessarily something that WotC can enforce, but they certainly will try unless someone takes them to court for it.

And like, even if Wizards is correct in stating that they can simply "unauthorize" the OGL 1.0 and that anyone (including Paizo and OSR creators) must abide by the OGL 1.1 I would still call bullshit. Even though Pathfinder and many other similarly derivative games exist by virtue of the OGL there is still a lot of creative work that goes into creating and supporting them. I do not believe that Wizards of the Coast deserves a single dime from Paizo or Necrotic Gnome or anyone else who's been producing content under the OGL 1.0.

So here are my points:

I think WotC is right to enforce whatever kind of license they want for D&D. Whether people want to partake in that ecosystem is up to them.

Having said that, many companies produce content using the OGL 1.0 and Wizards apparently trying to make that no longer possible seems extremely brazen. The fact that WotC would even try to unauthorize the OGL 1.0 (which, again, I'm not even sure if they can legally do) says enough about WotC's character as a company that I don't want to support the company in any way possible, because we're talking about WotC wanting to enforce their license on companies that produce games that are wholly unreliant on D&D 5e.

(But also where the hell did "named characters" come from? Named characters are explicitly not a part of the OGL and never have been, named characters have always been specifically stated as being product identity and thus not falling under the OGL?)

[starship-squalleater]

There’s something about people getting mad at characters that bothers me so much… watching things isn’t about deciding if the characters are smart or moral or assholes and then basing your enjoyment of the show off that, it’s about the story, right?

If you hate all the characters in something, or they bore you, or you just don’t care, that’s one thing. That’s fine. But like, hating orym for stabbing dusk? Hating laudna for being hypocritical about the nightmare king? Hating Ashton for hitting birdie, or for smashing the rock (which got fixed like two seconds later)? Hating the Calloways for working with Ira or leaving Fearne with Morri or whatever you’re mad at them for? What the fuck is up with that???

I watched a Star Trek video essay pretty recently that was talking about how people were mad about the Klingon redesigns over time, and how the first change was later given an explanation, thus making it no longer “break canon”. This person just said, “if the next season gives some side explanation for the change, would that make you less angry in retrospect? Would it change your enjoyment of the show?”

It (spoiler alert!!) is quite likely that birdie and Ollie DID know who they were working with, DID know what was going on, and tried to leave. Tried to do what people have been saying they SHOULD have done. They just couldn’t. Do you all like them now? The reason for disliking them isn’t just gone, it didn’t exist (and yes, you can have other reasons. I’m talking about this one.) in the first place.

If the story was finished. If it was done in its entirety, and none of that had been done, then sure, absolutely, make judgments. Even if the story isn’t all the way done!! If it looks like a characters story is done or they’re not going to change, be angry and all that. Just wait to make the judgements, yeah?

On that point, too, I don’t even see the necessity in making judgements. I’m not going to make a judgement on Laudna crushing on Ira, because I just want to know what happens as a result. If it goes bad, it goes bad. I’m not gonna say she’s a bad person? If it’s the real world, of course I’m side eying a person crushing on the nightmare king. Neither of them are real, though, so it’s just fun. Fearne saying “keep going” when Ollie’s nose starts bleeding. Bad? Good? I don’t give a shit, I don’t need to make that judgement right now, I just want to know what happens next. It’s not the real world!

Also there’s a difference between actual play shows and shows that are written beforehand? I know that players foreshadow things, we all know not to trust Sam’s stutters, but still. You can’t expect to judge people here the same way you can other places, things aren’t as intentional. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying they’re unintentional, but players forget things. They say things in the moment. They can’t look back at everything they’ve said or done, it’s just not how it works.

I didn’t really expect this to be a whole rant, but damn. I’ve been blocking people left and right. I never understood why people always complained about chat or fandom bc it’s usually really nice!! But man, I get what they mean now. Anyway. Just enjoy the show. You don’t have to base your morals off the characters, you don’t have to condone or condemn anything. So don’t!

#critical role #cr spoilers #also I think this will automatically have a read more thing but if it doesn’t I’m sorry #long post #critical role spoilers #fearne calloway #orym #laudna #ashton greymoore #yu suffiad #Star Trek

[relaxxattack]

I always did like tavros, since I had a knack for liking characters others thought were annoying, but I dunno around the end it felt like the story really fumbles his character? Like I was never supposed to sympathise with him and the narrative was punishing me for it. It all just put a bad taste in my mouth.

It's been years though (nearly 5 Christ) and I may feel differently upon a re-read

it’s been a longgg time since ive read anything beyond act 5 and i wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how it happens— it is no secret that hussie was a big vriska fan and an avid tavros hater because, apparently, “he’s a loser”. hussie also loved to just make character arcs fall on their faces like that; whether intentionally as a “power move” or just out of pure exhaustion of the story.

of course, the way hussie frames things doesn’t have to be how we read it— for instance i feel differently about a lot of characters than how the narrative asks me to feel, because i personally enjoy taking them out of the narrative context to exist as people.

but obviously they weren’t real people; they were lines hussie wrote to evoke certain feelings or express certain ideas; and so like it or not they are woven with hussie’s beliefs and thoughts and “artistic vision”.

i think when talking about homestuck, the story, it’s important to not take facts at face value; we have to go— “ok, but someone made this that way. someone decided this was true and wrote that— someone who’s motives and indeed sometimes even ideologies we should question.”

at the same time, when it comes to the characters themselves i feel like we do sometimes need to read them facts-only without the bias of the narrative opinion to cloud our judgement. for instance, the narrative essentially never frames tavros as someone important, someone who could win, or even really someone worthy of attention. all of the extremely traumatic things that happen to him i mentioned in the post you’re referring to were either mentioned offhand or never spoken about after their occurrence. the narrative (alongside vriska) bullies tavros, and refuses to acknowledge him. but if you take the facts of his character by themselves like i did in that post he’s an extremely interesting and sad character!

reading stories based on character alone (watsonian perspective) is not really the correct way to interpret text, i’m pretty sure— and we do need to keep author intent and bias in mind at all times. not because we care to listen to what the author is saying but because we don’t want to be convinced of something without even noticing we’re being taught it.

although of course character-based reading is probably the most popular thing in fandom now (and even culture in general), and also what i generally post about, so it’s not like by simply focusing on character arcs and motive i would really be challenging the form.

anyway wow sorry about that huge ramble! your narrative-focused ask in response to my character-focused post just really got me thinking about the differences between those two.

in conclusion: tavros is cool actually! so is vriska though, this isn’t a vriska hate post. well i mean— the things she did to people weren’t “cool”, she’s just a cool charac— oh you know what i mean

#hsmeta #my meta #homestuck #tavros nitram

[aho-dapa]

Thinking some character thoughts just in the difference in the way I think characters would talk + body language (in my fic specifically)

Feyre - definitely to the point but more practical, the type that would get accused of how cold and biting the way she speaks because of how based off reality and experience it is, has a closed off body language like having a power stance nearly all the time or crossing her arms with a scowl, someone you go to when you want to solve a problem (and expect it to get dealt with)

Nesta - also closed off but while Feyre gives off prickly Nesta gives off untouchable, her body language constantly communicates that no one is worth her time unless she deems it so, different from others once she opens up her body language and way of expression changes, more gentle and soft yet still elegant, would pick at every facet of a problem until she thought of an ideal solution

Elain - everything about her body language is loud, even when she’s not moving she gains attention, a naturally loud person that has suppressed that loudness, there is a brightness and openness to her expressions, talks a lot but also listens a lot, adept at having all types of conversations, because of this when she doesn't talk it also brings attention to her, high emotional intelligence and brings that to every relationship and conversation, would try to solve the problem with you than try to give a definite solution, would be by your side constantly as a show of support 

Tamlin - only really speaks unless he’s comfortable and only when necessary, learning how to talk was a skill he learned but not one he enjoys, the type to blurt out something randomly without thought, his actions speak louder, his body language is a bit clunky when flustered (happens often when speaking) but when relaxed his body language is fluid and almost graceful, compared to others he doesn’t have an easy openness but he does conduct himself with a naturalness to him if that makes sense, the one you go to when you want to complain about something but is mostly there to listen and use it as a moment to emotionally connect 

Azriel - rarely speaks but when he does its simple observations that are backed up by conclusive truth, words are meticulously chosen, his still body language and facial expressions reveal close to nothing, to the point but without the harshness of feyre, but his words can cut deeper than feyre’s if he wishes because it’s not just based on the surface level reality of things but also includes the emotional, would rather never speak at all, while everyone else might want to help with your problem in some way Az would simply listen without judgement 

Rhysand - never shuts up, he blathers on incessantly, almost annoying (it can be), cheeky and arrogant but in a self assured way, while not loud he does draw attention to himself with his words with an easy charisma, large movements while talking, very attention grabbing, while he does speak a lot it tends to mask the subtlety of his true intentions, would give a well rounded set of solutions until one stuck before diving more deeply into it

Lucien - also talks a lot but not as much as Rhys, rather he talks because he likes to talk, he likes expressing himself and one the best ways to do that is through talking, can also hide behind sarcastic words but it’s definitely more obvious than Rhys, actually finds it difficult to be duplicitous but was raised in the autumn court so yeah, there is a natural openness to his body language, would probably try to help you solve the problem but eventually give up and move on to other subjects to help you stop worrying (if it wasn’t that important of course)

Eris - similar to Rhys in that talking is a game that is played with careful tone and double meanings, but he doesn’t speak so much, similar to Az words are carefully chosen every time he opens his mouth even with people he’s comfortable with, him and Rhys are similar but there’s definitely more of a coldness to Eris’s than Rhy’s since Rhys also uses his warm charisma to disarm people, actions speak very loud with him which is why he’s even more careful of body language than most, in comparison to Az where stillness might come natural to Eris stillness is a trait that is hard won, would think for a while (like days or weeks) before offering a solution (one that would definitely work)

#Az is so autistic coded #that or he's severely traumatized #both are definite #can you tell how much i've thought about this specifically?? #idk what to tag this #still trying to grasp mor and cassian as characters tho #acotar era #dapa writes

[jewwyfeesh]

Fairy Tales in a Dream 1

Writer: Mitsuki

Character(s): Sakuma Ritsu, Suou Tsukasa, Narukami Arashi, Sena Izumi, Tsukinaga Leo, Shino Hajime, Tenshouin Eichi

Translated by: jewwyfeesh

Proofed by: stcrfeesh (CN), ohcheckmate (ENG)

(Otherwise, I wouldn’t be like how I am now, standing on the sidelines like a bystander, unable to speak nor move a muscle, and staring unblinkingly as everyone fights each other with weapons in hand…)

Season: Summer

Location: ES Live Stage

Tsukasa: “…With that, the Performance us Knights have prepared for our princesses draws to an end.”

Leo: “Once again, thanks for coming down to see our Live today… ☆”

Arashi: “Ufufu, look at all those enchanted smiles on your adorable faces… surely it’s because you’ve been mesmerized by my light and graceful dancing?”

“Come, come~ Riddle me this~ Who’s the fairest of them all~?”

“Mhm, thank you everyone! That’s right, I am the fairest of them all… ♪”

Izumi: “Hey now Naru-kun, aren’t you just answering your own questions? Get carried away all you want, but can you not go overboard?”

“Anyways, the most beautiful person in the world is obviously me. At best, Naru-kun can have second place. Don’t you think so, Kuma-kun?”

Ritsu: “Ehhh~ I dunno~ I’m not a magic mirror.”

(…………?)

(That’s weird… usually in these situations, Secchan wouldn’t interrupt Nacchan like that without reading the atmosphere first…)

Arashi: “Oh my, how irritating, Izumi-chan! You must be going crazy. When it comes to beauty, there’s no argument about it – I’m the one who places first.”

“Izumi-chan’s the one who’s acting a little too egoistic now, no? Surely you aren’t jealous of my beauty, are you? That would truly be too petty.”

Izumi: “Haah? Me, jealous of Naru-kun? You’ve got to be joking.”

Arashi: “Anywho, no matter what Izumi-chan says, I will never admit that there’s anyone fairer than I in this world!”

Ritsu: (What’s going on? Even Nacchan’s lost her usual sense of tact. She’s getting so easily riled up by Secchan now…)

(The temperature’s practically freezing ‘cuz of the icy stares they’ve been giving each other. Even the fans are whispering amongst each other and worriedly staring up at us from below the stage…)

Tsukasa: …………

Ritsu: (Whispering) Suu-chan, you’ve also sensed that something is amiss, right? Let’s hurry up and say something to cover up whatever this is, so that the live can end quickly and smoothly.

Tsukasa: “Hm… to be honest, I’m a little confused right now. Though, are these two seniors fighting over who’s the fairest of them all? It’s almost as if they’re acting out a scene from Snow White.”

“But if we’re making a judgement based on appearance alone, I suppose that out of all of the members of Knights, Ritsu-senpai is the one who fits the image of Snow White best.”

Ritsu: (H-H-Hey, did Suu-chan misunderstand my cue? He completely missed the point?!)

Leo: “Wahaha! I’ve already washed my hands thoroughly of the heavy burden of being a ‘King’. All I want to do is be a bard that’s as free as a bird! So, I’m gonna be taking a backseat on this one!”

Ritsu: (Not the slightest intention of trying to stop the quarrel… as expected of Tsukipi. Even though it’s troublesome, it seems like it’s up to me to step in before it’s too late.)

[————]

(Eh? I– Why can’t I make a single sound?)

Izumi: “…Since you and I are unable to persuade each other, let’s bet upon our honour as knights and engage in a duel!”

Arashi: “Yes, I absolutely support that notion! The princesses who are willing to support me, please stand behind me!”

Ritsu: (Then, at Suu-chan’s command, Nacchan and Secchan pulled out their sharp swords, leading their respective fanatical fans to rush towards the opposing faction and immediately plunging the entire venue into chaos…)

(…I understand everything now. This is merely a nightmare; something that doesn’t exist in reality.)

(Otherwise, I wouldn’t be like how I am now, standing on the sidelines like a bystander, unable to speak nor move a muscle, and staring unblinkingly as everyone fights each other with weapons in hand…)

(Aaah, I can’t take this anymore… it feels like I can’t breathe.)

(Someone, anyone, please— Please save me, wake me up—)

???: ……Onii-chan, Ritsu-onii-chan!!

Location: Garden

Ritsu: —Wah! Huuu… huuuuu…!

Hajime: Ritsu-onii-chan, are you alright?

Just now, your face was twisted in a grimace, and I was wondering if you were having a nightmare, so I woke you up…

Ritsu: Ah, turns out the voice was Ha~kun’s… That’s great, I almost thought I’d never wake up.

It really was a scary nightmare. However, the details are all fuzzy now… but it had something to do with the story of Snow White.

Hajime: Snow White… Could it be because I was reciting this particular story to Ritsu-onii-chan earlier on?

A while ago, the recital Ra*bits did of Hansel and Gretel on a radio program became a hit, which led to more commissions for us to continue performing…

So in order to give myself more confidence, I wanted to hear Ritsu-onii-chan’s thoughts on the matter. I didn’t expect to accidentally cause Ritsu-onii-chan to have a nightmare, and for that I’m really sorry…!

Ritsu: No, no. Ha~kun didn’t do anything wrong at all. It was me who unknowingly fell asleep.

After all, the sound of Ha~kun’s voice reciting the story is as soft and soothing as a lullaby before bed, so I’ll give you a hundred points yet again ♪

And I should be the one thanking Ha~kun. Thanks for pulling me out of that hellish nightmare, and back into the warmth of our reality, ouji-sama[1] ♪

Hajime: Ouji-sama[1]…?

Ritsu:Though, I do feel quite thirsty now that I’ve awoken… I’m really craving for some sweet, delicious blood.

Hajime:Ri-Ritsu-onii-chan? Your hand is really cold—

Ritsu:My beloved ouji-sama[1], if you’re going to save me, then don’t leave me hanging… could you please allow me a little taste of your blood? That way, I’ll be able to fully recover my energy~ ♪

Hajime: Uwaaah, noooo! Don’t tell me that the one I woke up is actually a dangerous vampire?!

Ritsu-onii-chan, if you’re thirsty I can brew a cup of black tea for you! I can guarantee you it’ll be way more delicious than my blood, ahaha…

Right, speaking of it… Not too long ago, Eichi-onii-chan participated in a photoshoot for OJS, a men’s magazine. Surely, he would be more ‘princely’ than I?

Ritsu: You mean ‘Oji-san’[2]? Yeah, I think that does fit Ecchan quite well~ ♪

Eichi: Achoo! …Goodness, I’m sure there’s someone speaking ill of me on purpose.

Hajime: Eichi-onii-chan! You’ve worked hard today~ Have a seat and rest for a while, tea and snacks have already been prepared ♪

Ritsu: Oh? I didn’t expect Ecchan to actually show up. Here I was, thinking that today’s tea party would only be attended by Ha~kun and I, off in our happy little two-person world…

Eichi: Haha, I suppose this is one of the places where I’m able to have a moment’s peace and quiet. So no matter how busy I may be, I will always find some time to have tea with the both of you.

For example, I overheard Hajime-kun say that ‘Eichi-onii-chan is the prince in his heart’… Aah, my spirit has been healed ♪

Ritsu: Ehh~You might wanna clean out your ears a little~ In my opinion, Ecchan’s more like the big bad villain that’s trying to kidnap my children.

How about this, Ha~kun, why don’t you run away with this little ol’ vampire, and escape the clutches of the evil ‘Emperor’ ♪

Eichi: Mhm, it does sound like a particularly interesting story. How about I close my eyes and start counting to 10, then I’ll come and catch you all.

The both of you better start running for your life, hehehehe… ♪

Hajime: W-wait a minute, what’s going on?! Are we playing hide and seek?

Ritsu: Shh… Keep it down, Ha~kun.

The game’s about to start, so we need to find a safe place to hide. We can’t be caught by the ‘Emperor’… ♪

ouji-sama means prince

here, ritsu uses the term "欧吉桑", which is pronounced "ouji-sang" in cn; and is a japanese loanword (a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification). in cn, it means "old(er) man, a man of mature years", and it's japanese equivalent is "oji-san" (uncle). ritsu uses "ouji-sang" (cn) here because it sounds similar to "ouji-sama" (jp, prince). make what you will of this :)

bloopers with the team:

#enstars translation #fairy tales in a dream #sakuma ritsu #suou tsukasa #narukami arashi #sena izumi #tsukinaga leo #shino hajime #tenshouin eichi

[cassyapper]

thank you so much for your response! please keep being insane, it’s fun to hear your thoughts.

i think what you said makes a lot of sense. really it’s interesting to me that there seems to be such a disconnect between what Araki intended and what fans see. i’m not sure i see it quite as strongly with any other relationship in the series (though admittedly i’m more cognizant of part 3 relationships than other parts), so it’s something i think about a lot.

out of curiosity, what makes you say you think Araki isn’t fond of Kakyoin? i’d never thought of him viewing Kakyoin that way, but i can kinda see what you’re saying. i’m just curious as to what it is in particular that made you draw that conclusion. the fact that Kakyoin got essentially removed for a large portion of part 3? the relative lack of art/content for him outside the main story?

i'm so glad you enjoyed it!!

and yeah, honestly, araki writing out kakyoin and not really talking about him outside of the main story is a big reason why i think kakyoin isn't one of his favs. also for making kakyoin lose the d'arby game like...really? that would've been the last fight he could've won and you still had to make it about jotaro even though jotaro has his big bad final fight right there? and previous fights to go off of nonetheless? like i love jotaro don't get me wrong but the way the d'arby the gamer fight ended really kinda pissed me off. it should've been a kakyoin or at LEAST a kakyoin and joseph moment, since they both were gonna get bodied in the dio fight and i'm sure araki at least had an idea he was gonna write that at that point, but no.

another reason is how admittedly inconsistent kakyoin's writing is, at least compared to the other crusaders (except for avdol...but araki has admitted he didn't know what he wanted from avdol until later on which is why the abrupt switch in personality in the judgement arc so this is really only going to show he didn't know what to do with kakyoin, same as avdol). it's not like...contradictory so it does end up creating a fun and delicious character who is rather unpredictable, but you can tell that wasn't araki's intention based on how sloppily he wrote it. kakyoin's insane, then he's vicious with morals, then he's polite and knowledgable, then he's insane again, etc. like obviously all these traits can be true at the same time but it's like araki forgets all other traits and just focuses on a couple every time the focus switches back to kakyoin.

also you can tell he really did want to do a "traitor" route for kakyoin (like araki's an asshole but he would not have PLANNED to pull the hermit purple spelling out ''don't trust kakyoin he's a traitor!!!!" and then be like "just kidding") but backed out because he couldn't handle the subject matter himself and/or because of fan outcry and editors breathing down his neck and i think this constraint also led to him losing interest in kakyoin

but idk! i could def be wrong. like i said i dont think he hates kakyoin i just dont think he's interested in him. it's a good thing the marketing teams are though so i was blessed with the kakyoin micro smiles <3

#cass cries

[abadnote]

Acknowledging

Do I feel great about blocking you immediately after we broke up? No. I will say that I made that decision for a few reasons, though: 1. Given your history of blocking me on a whim, it felt as if that were going to be your next move; As much as I may hate to admit it, a part of me chose to block you as a means of beating you to it. If I beat you to it, it would selfishly make things a bit easier for me to accept. Perhaps this is the singular moment where I will acknowledge that my ego did indeed come into play. 2. With that being said, a much larger part of me based the decision to block you on a desire for peace of mind. You were, whether you realize it or not, creating a significant amount of emotional distress in my life. I was attempting to soothe a raw, exposed nerve by communicating with you directly about how I was feeling and where you ultimately lead the conversation only proved to agitate it. I was seeking understanding in a moment of vulnerability and you chose to derail that by shifting blame and insulting me. You could say that, in short, I had finally reached my limit. 3. It felt like it was time to close the door; When taking the entirety of our relationship into account, I believed that to be not only the best course of action for myself, but for you as well. If the dynamic between two people is clearly unhealthy and isn't showing signs of improvement, well, I think that's when you have to learn to accept the reality of a situation. This may not be what you or I necessarily want, but I am sure that our parting ways will be more beneficial than harmful in the end. I didn't base my actions off of a desire to inflict pain, but rather a desperate, personal need for a sense of calm and emotional safety that did not seem attainable with you in my life. This is in reference to my blocking you. Now whenever I reached out to your sister, that was out of care for your well-being. I really and truly understand why you may believe otherwise, but I am asking you to also consider this: What would I, an otherwise complete and total stranger to your family, have to possibly gain from reaching out? If we're actually considering malicious intent on my end, I mean. Regardless of what I have to say, they're going to naturally be inclined to advocate for you, the person that they know and love. I had anticipated a negative reaction from the get-go, so receiving judgement in regard to my character wasn't much of a surprise. If I truly had the desire to paint myself as a victim and you a villain, I wouldn't be willing to accept this gracefully. You as well as they have the right to perceive me however. I still have love for you despite making a point to distance myself. Although I too wish that things were different, I also understand that they never will be. P.S. And for what it's worth, my favorite moments with you were when you were entirely yourself.

[1000punks]

you ever hear the phrase "the best revenge is to live well?"

some thoughts on astarion, ab-se/SA trauma and some personal reflections and opinions under the cut so cw for some very frank discussion of those topics

i want to preface this by saying that i'm not here to shit on ascended!astarion and put spawn!astarion on some sort of pedestal. my argument is that both timelines are valid responses to a great deal of trauma. one being what i'll call "the angry route" and the other being what i'll call "the formerly angry route." if i were to make an objective and moral judgement, ascended!astarion is the evil bad ending, and spawn!astarion would be the more pacifist good ending.

i don't really care either way what anyone does, because both, like i said, are valid responses to trauma but there is absolutely one objective option here that *doesn't* really contribute to character growth/development. and that's fine, it's an option that's also present in other characters in the game, not the least of which being shadowheart, gale, and wyll.

however- that's not the point of this. so read more before you bite my head off or it's 100% fine to leave this post as well, since i'm one person with one experience to share.

when it happened to me, i wanted to do exactly what you'd think. i wanted to put an end to my r-pist's life and i wanted to lash out at every single person and system in place that allowed those chains of events to happen to me. reacting with anger is exactly what i did for a very long time. acting out of anger and fear is how i dealt with what happened to me. i attempted to control the relationships around me so that what happened would never happen to me again. so yes, i can relate to and appreciate a video game character that has a storyline who can potentially reflect that and get closure on what was done to him in that way.

however, i also want to offer a caveat: attempting to control the other relationships you have and acting out of fear and anger isn't necessarily a long term solution for healing. trying to control other people and bind them up in your will, especially when and if they are people who want to have a healthy relationship with you and have done nothing to deserve it (nor have they had any intentional or personal hand in your trauma) is a bad thing, objectively. it's a valid response to trauma but it is a bad thing, because it hurts you and it hurts them.

now on the other hand, i can also relate to the narrative of "finding what you want." approaching new relationships not with the expectation that they *will* hurt you, but that they *can* hurt you is a middle ground that you might find. setting boundaries/expectations and letting the other person meet them and respect them. not being motivated by fear but being cognizant of it, i think that's what spawn!astarion's narrative end looks like, which is also a valid response to trauma. and it doesn't have to include "forgiving" the person who initially did what they did to you. it includes forgiving *yourself* and forgiving the *person right in front of you in a healthy relationship* - because you occasionally will act based in fear or motivated by your triggers, and that person approaching you in a healthy relationship will occasionally trigger you despite both of your best efforts.

i can also see a natural through-route between those two narratives. i was angry and i lashed out in ways that affected the people around me and my romantic relationships for a long time. i also calmed down a bit from that because i could see the effects in my day to day life. i still have bouts of anger because i'm not perfect and i do have the right to be angry about the things that were done to me- but channeling that anger into something constructive (like building a healthy relationship with another person), has had a far greater impact on my healing than anything else.

i had to accept that in my personal case, the only closure i would get is the closure i could give myself. and obviously, that absolutely sucks to hear because sometimes when you're healing from something like this you feel utterly powerless. how you choose to approach "taking your power back," as it were, is just that - your choice. you can choose to take it back by force, or you can choose to take it back in more subtle ways. you can choose to take it back by living and loving well, even if that makes you fearful.

#.txt #baldur's gays #i'm not tagging this out in cyberspace because i do not need ascended!stans offering their opinions on my trauma #i'm all pointy ears

[finnlongman]

So I had some Thoughts™ about this reply on my post about YA Twitter. They're not directed at the user specifically (hence I've cropped their username), but about this phenomenon in general.

I think we all agree that we don't like to give our time and money to people who are causing harm, especially when that harm is to our communities and friends. For example, when I find out an author is transphobic, it makes me deeply regret spending money on their books, because why would I want to give money to somebody who hates me and doesn't want me to exist comfortably in the world?

But that isn't the problem with YA Twitter. That isn't what has authors, particularly marginalised and debut authors, terrified to express themselves online in case they become a target. And that isn't what I wrote my post about.

What concerns me is the rise of a kind of... morality policing -- particularly in YA, where adult gatekeepers treat authors as educators rather than entertainers and consider literature to have to be suitable for younger readers. I don't deny that YA authors have a certain responsibility for the stories they tell that goes above and beyond the responsibility an Adult author, writing for an audience with more life experience, would have. But I also think teens are more discerning than a lot of these gatekeepers give them credit for being. They don't need to be spoonfed. They don't need, as somebody jokingly suggested, for every action in a book to be indicated by "(this is moral)" or "(this is immoral)", to be sure where the author stands on the topic.

And yes, some authors do go on social media and explicitly express harmful and dangerous viewpoints. It's clear that those are their views, not those of their characters, and that they have no intention of changing or listening to anyone. The harm they do can be real and intense; readers are totally within their rights to block that person and never read their books if they feel that's best. But they aren't the ones being impacted by Book Twitter, YA Twitter, whatever. They're not the main victims of this culture; they're not the focus of this intense scrutiny that has sprung up over the last few years.

The issue is that there's been this weird trend lately where people make assumptions about what authors believe or what their values are based on what characters in their books do or say. It's similar (and probably connected to) purity culture in fandom -- the idea that if you write something bad, it reflects your own behaviour or at least your own desires. They'll hold the author accountable for every opinion a character expresses. They'll screencap excerpts and quotes and use a character's behaviour as evidence for the author's prejudices. And then thanks to the nature of social media, others, who haven't read the book, will see that and accept it and cancel their pre-order or whatever. But characters ≠ authors! It seems strange that we even have to say this. I don't condone murder just because my protagonist is an assassin, and I hope nobody would assume that I do. Yet I regularly see authors held accountable for opinions expressed by fictional characters.

And that's the trouble with assuming we know somebody's agenda and basing our judgement of them and their work on hearsay. I read a book recently that reviewers had called out for racism, braced for disappointment. But all of the quotes I'd seen floating around social media were either spoken by antagonists and clearly meant to be wrong, spoken by the very acerbic protagonist who was judgemental of everyone (and wasn't praised for being so), or harmless in context. I believed those reviews and felt let down by the author because for a moment I allowed myself to buy into the "fiction as evidence" narrative... but even the fiction didn't hold up to scrutiny as evidence for the perceived beliefs of somebody who has not otherwise displayed harmful, racist behaviour.

Even when an author has unambiguously expressed something "problematic", there's absolutely no opportunity for growth in an approach that takes a "one strike and you're out" angle. Maybe an author did mess up. Maybe they were homophobic at one point, or said something racist out of ignorance. But there's a lot to be said for second chances, and cancel culture doesn't give them. And that ignores the fact that many authors are young; it ignores that nobody is teaching them how to handle social media (there are no PR courses for random YA authors!); it ignores that they may have had a sheltered upbringing. It also ignores cultural differences and language barriers and differences in accepted terminology among different communities. You cannot demand perfection from day one. You can't hold people to impossible standards and then punish them when they fail. If you want people to walk away from harmful groups and viewpoints, they need to have somewhere to go, and shunning them for their past mistakes will not incentivise them to change and grow.

Truth be told, the vast majority of the time, you probably don't know what an author's "agenda" is, or if they even (consciously) have one. Even ten years ago, it would be weird to imagine having the level of access to an author's thoughts and viewpoints that we have now, and I think it's these parasocial relationships that have developed which have led to assuming we can know an author by what they write -- not just on Twitter, as themselves, but in their fiction. And this correlation of art with artist, author with fiction, leads to nitpicking details in books, interrogating authors for their "right" to write about certain topics until they're forced to out themselves or recount their trauma, making assumptions about their views based on those of their characters, and punishing mistakes.

And THAT'S what makes it toxic, way before you hit the level of death threats. That's the issue here; that's what scares authors so much. Not that they'll be called out for their views, but because they'll be harassed for what strangers perceive as their views, or because they'll be constantly forced to violate their own boundaries and expose their private life to defend the artistic choices they made.

So that's a huge part of the toxic Twitter culture I'm talking about -- the one that's based on rumour and hearsay and decontextualised quotes, the one that holds authors to impossible moral standards and allows no forgiveness, the one that equates fiction with reality and punishes anything subversive or risky. The purity culture run rampant that subjects authors to intense and unpredictable scrutiny.

But then alongside that morality policing runs fandom culture and stan culture that violates authors' boundaries and makes it unpleasant for them to talk about their own work, and that harasses authors to fulfil their particular fandom wishes. See Tess Sharpe's experiences with her "fans" who harassed her not because of her "agenda" but because she wouldn't tell them a character's birthday so they could use it for astrology, because she didn't know. See Maggie Stiefvater's decision to walk away from the Raven Cycle world when the Dreamer Trilogy is finished, despite her love of it, because writing alongside online fandom can be unbearable. That has nothing to do with calling people out for their harmful ideas and everything to do with a social media culture that encourages entitlement and boundary violations. Readers now have unprecedented access to authors -- and with great power comes great responsibility, but not everybody is exercising it. And the ones who aren't are creating a cesspit of abuse, even against the authors whose work they claim to love.

This is a side of it that a lot of people "outside" book Twitter don't see, or don't realise is happening. (But I'm pretty sure it started on Tumblr. There's a reason Maggie Stiefvater left this platform a long time before she went updates-only on Twitter; Tumblr is not innocent in this.) This is the dark side of fandom. The entitlement that becomes abuse. The enthusiasm that becomes harassment. The love of characters that becomes demands about the direction of the books which stifle the author's creativity. And the violation of boundary between reader and author where certain readers treat authors as if they're in on the joke -- but an author doesn't know whether a death threat is a joke or not. All they see is violence. And if it happens once, maybe you can brush it off, but it happens to people for months and years on end. Imagine how much worse it is for those with trauma in their past.

All of this to say -- YA/Book Twitter's toxicity runs far deeper than overzealous responses to harmful agendas. Sometimes it's a case of reading agendas into fiction where they don't necessarily exist, but at other times, it has nothing to do with that at all.

#ya twitter #book twitter #booklr #social media #this is a long post and probably somewhat rambly #it is getting late and I'm on my phone

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

The unplanned fourth part to my apparently-a-series on Essek Thelyss in the context of real-world espionage (parts 1, 2, and 3), today we look at an aspect of his story that doesn’t always apply in a D&D world: how do you prosecute espionage? 

Psych! That’s not the real question. The real question is: do you prosecute espionage? The answer is a) not as obvious as it might seem; and b) going to differ between D&D and the real world, because D&D governments are storytelling tools and IRL governments are...not.

The benefits of prosecuting espionage are obvious: the interests of justice are served, the person responsible can be punished appropriately and in accordance with the law, the full extent of their crimes are revealed (including potentially exonerating other suspects), counterintelligence gets to chalk up a win, and other people thinking about committing espionage themselves are hopefully discouraged. But there are a surprising number of arguments in the “against” column.

Some agencies that identify enemy assets want to leave them in place for their own purposes. For about 20 years during the Cold War CIA reserved the right to just plain not tell the Department of Justice if they had proof someone was engaged in espionage because they wanted the opportunity to turn them as double agents, feed them misinformation, etc. rather than outing and punishing them (President Gerald Ford ended this arrangement by executive order in 1976). This isn’t necessarily a good idea IRL, but it forms the bread and butter of RPG espionage storylines and is definitely something to think about in a D&D context.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after a trial, and an agency often finds itself with sufficient evidence to doubt a person’s trustworthiness but not enough hard proof to take to court. In those cases agencies may decide to leave that person in place but cut off their access to classified info. Ironically, sometimes this means promoting them - moving the person into a higher-ranking job in a different area that just so happens not to deal in secrets. Sometimes the asset realizes they’re close to being rumbled and goes along with the effort, maybe taking retirement early or changing jobs before they can be pushed, and the whole matter will quietly lapse without anything so formal as a trial. Sometimes someone makes a mistake and sidelines a loyal, competent employee. That’s a judgement call.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after an open trial. Given how severe the punishments are for espionage, civilized countries do try to stick to that even though holding such a trial carries risks. Providing proof that someone stole secrets generally requires talking about said secrets, which means revealing classified info in court, which may negate trying to keep the information secret in the first place. They may also not want to reveal in court how they figured out that person was a spy, especially if it was a double agent or cryptographic source that fingered them. In D&D-land where monarchs are common and still wield judicial power, fantasy rulers may hand down whatever punishment they please based on whatever evidence they (or the DM) will accept, so this isn’t as much of a concern.

Even a D&D monarchy that doesn’t have to worry about revealing secrets in court might think twice before publicly punishing a high-ranking spy, though, because the only thing more embarrassing than failing to convict a major spy is succeeding. A government having to admit that its people were compromised, especially high-ranking people, is a body-blow to its standing both at home and abroad. It damages trust in the government, makes the public feel unsafe, and makes allies hesitant to share information lest their secrets be leaked as well. Lower-ranking government employees may think, “My boss is selling secrets, why not me too?” or “Why bother to follow security protocol when some mole will give it all away?” Every decision and contribution made by the asset becomes retroactively suspect, even those that had nothing to do with whatever secrets they leaked. The foreign nation to whom they passed information inevitably gets drawn in as well, negatively affecting those relations. And of course everyone involved looks very, very bad.

All of which leads me to say I think there’s a chance - maybe not a good chance, but a chance - that Essek could privately confess the affair to the Bright Queen without major public repercussions. Leylas Kryn could simply declare him a traitor and order his public execution without justifying herself, but it would raise a lot of questions and none of the answers would help her or the ruling dens; Den Thelyss allowing Den Kryn to unilaterally execute a high-profile member - a child of the umavi - without explanation would stoke ferocious rumors about what Essek might have done and cast a major shadow over the entire den. But publicly declaring what Essek had done also doesn’t do the Dynasty any favors. It makes everyone involved look very bad - how could they miss a spy at the highest level? so close to the Bright Queen herself?? who can be trusted??? - especially Den Thelyss, which might lose its place among the ruling three as a result. Publicly outing such a high-ranking Kryn official as compromised might set off the Dynasty equivalent of a Red Scare, too, since the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount mentions the constant and well-justified Dynasty fear of agents sent by Lolth to destabilize the Kryn out of sheer spite that they got away from her.

By the time Campaign 2 ended the latest clash between Empire and Dynasty had been settled and neither side seemed to want to stir it up again right away. The fact that both stolen beacons have been returned also bolsters the case for letting the matter lie. A confession from Essek clears up remaining doubt on the Bright Queen’s end - while he doesn’t know every Empire agent in the Dynasty, he can tell her exactly how the beacons were stolen and who else was involved, probably clearing the names of many currently under suspicion. Essek would have to resign as Shadowhand, of course, and leave the Dynasty (at least for a couple centuries), but he never seemed interested in being Shadowhand and he wants to go exploring anyway. Den Thelyss definitely wants the whole affair swept under the rug and would go along with whatever story made that happen. Other than Verin I don’t get the impression many people would miss Essek except as a lost opportunity. I hope they’d give him long enough before leaving Rosohna to pack up his cool leyline-weathervane though. He could totally mount that on Yussa’s tower. Or Allura’s!

And that concludes this particular train of thought re: Essek Thelyss in the context of IRL spies and espionage. Again, all of this is only as relevant to the campaign as the players decide it is, so don’t go giving people crap for being “unrealistic” about their versions of how the beacon trade went down. Frankly the last thing you should want here is realism, because “realistic” espionage is a callous world of deception, manipulation, and general human pettiness with no sense of narrative flow.

None of what I’ve talked about is an excuse for Essek’s actions. But it is a reason. It’s why and how a person entrusted with precious national assets could get into a headspace where it seems reasonable, even necessary, to trade them away to foreign enemies. It’s how a person of otherwise decent character & beliefs can end up committing terrible crimes. It’s why that person might sincerely regret what they’ve done, and not just because they fear punishment. The Warmind Rasputin paraphrases Octavia E. Butler saying, “Misdirected by accident or intent, intelligence can foster its own ecstasies of growth and decay.” In other words: sometimes you get too far into your own head. Without an anchor to reality, without perspective, your own mind gets twisted up. Sometimes you just need a friend (or seven) to grab your arm and say, “Breathe.”

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

#Critical Role #Critical Role spoilers #not really but just to be safe #Essek Thelyss #CR meta #hey let's talk about Cold War espionage! #trufax #And That's What I Think About That. #words words words #I hope you like words #this poor foolish drow #bless this dumbass #it's been a long pandemic