#anyways. this is not all his fans I've seen just as many totally reasonable people

[cuubism]

actor hob, and pretentious asshole film director dream

[ this got so long and so weird and specific i'm so sorry ]

so hob is an everyman actor. a good actor, charismatic, funny, fan favorite, but not the type that gets cast in highbrow art films. mostly he does like romcoms, mid-budget action movies, feel-good family films, etc etc. and he's totally cool with that, he's good at what he does, and people enjoy those films, anyway. he might be getting a bit bored though, a bit stagnant. might be thinking it's time for some reinvention. and there might be a certain director whose ridiculous and nonsensical but dreamy films he's particularly enamored with...

dream makes REALLY pretentious art films. the types that get studied in graduate level film classes and have fifty different academic papers with fifty different theses trying to puzzle them out. dream is a master of themes and images and subtle construction. he is also a COMPLETE asshole and impossible to work with, an auteur in the most stereotypical way possible, he writes and directs, he micromanages all his projects, he asserts his vision and god help anyone who goes against it. nobody can handle him, nobody can STAND him, and the only reason he still gets funding for these projects is because they win awards, so many awards, and the studios want to ride on the coattails of those awards. but it's getting to the point where even his most ride-or-die producers are ready to give up.

right off the back of dream's most recent bafta, a rather naive Big Exec approaches him to direct the next installment of his Big Superhero Franchise. dream is immediately like fuck off with that bullshit but the exec pleads with him that the franchise is flagging and they really need something new to spice it up. plus the pay will be enough for dream to finance like 10 of his own ridiculous art films without having to rely on producers for money. and dream really is about to get cut off for being a complete insufferable asshole so he takes the gig. it kind of feels like prison though.

anyway, he gets to work trying to make this shitty boring film at least marginally less shitty and boring. he doesn't have a lot of leeway -- a lot of the story is locked in, half the cast is set from prior installments etc. dream immediately regrets taking this job, he'd rather die in actual prison than work on this mindnumbing piece of trash. it feels like it's taking an eternity and who could possibly stand an eternity of this???

well. enter hob, whose agent managed to snag him a 2nd-lead sort of role in this thing. it's not QUITE the reinvention he was going for but the pay and exposure are really good -- and even if they weren't, the moment hob saw that dream was attached he was immediately on board.

cue dream tearing his fucking hair out and basically being a complete menace and diva on set -- no that wasn't good, yes we have to do a 57th take, oh my god this dialogue is horrible give me that shitty script i'm writing my own thing, what do you mean the plot is linear???, wait there are how many cgi aliens????? i'm going to kill myself -- and Hob, pretty much Just Happy To Be There as always, takes one look at this beautiful dramatic emo asshole and is like oh. yes. i don't know what i'm saying yes to, but i'm saying yes. just immediately enamored with this bitch against all logic, he's like i've seen all your films i know how your mind works you brilliant nihilistic mess of a person. i'm on board. let's go.

first scene that hob's in dream is once again ranting about the atrocious script, which he did not write and is hardly allowed to change -- or, every change he makes is too weird and the studio keeps nixing it. everyone keeps sighing and being like oh my god can we please just shoot i wanna go home, meanwhile hob's like alright then. let's workshop it. and dream's just like. what. you aren't just gonna tell me to shut up? and hob's like no, youre right, this script is trash, but i know you're just going to write something really weird and psychedelic that they won't let you shoot. and dream's like you dare to speak to me that way??? and hob just puts his hands on his hips and is like listen, i actually know more about this sort of general audience family film thing than you do, mister arthouse, so are you going to work with me or not? and dream's just like what... is happening... because usually people who try to 'handle' him either just cave to his every demand like wimps, or just fight him on everything to 'prove' that they're in control, and hob is just kind of... not doing either of those? anyway dream doesn't know what to do with him.

so they workshop it. turns out hob actually DOES know how these sort of general audience all-follow-the-same-three-act-structure films work and how to improve things within those confines, and also he understands what like, normal people like, you know, casual feel good movies, not everything has to be a mindbender, jesus. so they bounce ideas off each other for like 3 hours until they finally get something that's okay enough that dream no longer wants to fling himself into the sun. meanwhile everyone on set is staring at them like 👀. then dream is like come back to my trailer we are rewriting the other 116 pages of this script right NOW. what else is hob supposed to do but follow.

then hob becomes the designated Dream Handler on set. dream starts using him as his barometer for what 'normal people' would like because he does not understand that at all. ("hob, will 'people' accept this?" "well considering youre spinning the camera around on a string i'm gonna go out on a limb and say no"). dream becomes kind of obsessed with him because his life is so like, normal, and he's okay with it?? he doesn't find existence to be an insufferable prison from which there is no escape?? and hob is like aw i know you're such a tortured artistic soul *pats him on the head*. plus, hob is actually a good actor, and he's able to put a lot of heart into even this mediocre big budget film, and kind of forces dream to confront the idea that there's more than one good type of story. that different stories serve different purposes and a straightforward happy story is okay, actually.

(and that the problem is the corporatization of the storytelling, not the story itself)

anyway the movie ends up being pretty good, dream still kind of hates it because he wasn't given full artistic license but he has to grudgingly admit that it has at least some merit. after the premiere hob is like (cheekily) so you gonna direct the sequel? and dream is like i did not write that to have a sequel. and hob's like it has a cliffhanger? and dream's like so???? and hob's like well theyre definitely gonna make a sequel. and dream's like i hate this planet. also no i'm not going to make the sequel. i'm going to fuck off to the woods and make a movie about teeth. do you want to star in it? and hob's like you're so fucking weird i'm obsessed with you i'm going to kiss you now.

so yeah, that.

#dreamling #the sandman #just chuckin aus into the void cuz who knows if i'll ever actually write them #sorry this au became insane XD #it got SO much longer and more meandering than i was aiming for i just wanted to write a little 2 paragraph summary LOL #then it grew several legs #long post #anyway dream doesn't have a 'full name' in this btw he just directs under Dream like he's beyonce or something 😂 #you can think of dream as sort of like ingmar bergman or luis bunuel #and hob is like. mark ruffalo. so you can try to imagine that dynamic if you wish XD #sort of inspired by the way art film directors keep getting roped into directing marvel and disney films for some reason?? #my writing

[messymindofmine]

I've debated whether or not to say this but it's something that's been weighing on me a lot lately. I feel like something we need to address in this fandom is the harsh judgement and lack of grace towards our wonderful characters when we see them mess up.

I know that this season really knocked us all for a loop with Carlos's big reveal. I definitely didn't love the entire "secret marriage" storyline but the way some people reacted to it baffles me. I totally understand being angry. There is no denying that the storyline was full of plotholes and didn't mesh well with what we'd seen on the show in prior seasons. That said, I have to disagree with the people saying that it ruined Carlos's character or that it didn't make sense for him. Here's the thing, Carlos has never been perfect. He's been shown as being flawed and making mistakes since the beginning. It's just that up until this season, his mistakes have often been blamed onto others (usually TK) or ignored entirely. Since the beginning, Carlos was held on an unrealistic pedestal. Even criticisms of him being a cop were met with hostility. Then this season gave us Carlos messing up in a way that could not be blamed on anyone but him and it sent many people into a tailspin. As a result, they either still tried to pin the blame onto someone else (chiefly Iris) or they acted like Carlos's character was irrevocably ruined and started to act like they'd never liked or defended him, maybe to give themselves a feeling of superiority or not to come off as hypocrites. At any rate, I understand feeling upset that a character you love has messed up in such a big way but that doesn't mean that the character is ruined. I hate that Rafa felt like he had to get people to fall in love with Carlos again because I certainly never stopped and I know plenty of others (I would even go as far as to say most of us) didn't. It doesn't surprise me that people reacted that way though. What happened with Carlos is exactly what we see happen in real life with celebrities that have been put onto a pedestal by their fans. As soon as that celebrity messes up in a human way their fans can't excuse or ignore, many of those same fans will turn against them completely and even act like they never liked the celebrity anyway because they can't handle the thought of their fave being human. Such is the danger of idealizing humans. Not every flaw needs to be defended, sometimes these flaws need to just be accepted as part of being human and given grace. And that's what makes our characters so relatable to us. They are human. That's also why the anger towards Carlos this season was so jarring. Because it is something that has never really happened before and some people have gone from one extreme to the other. Well, Carlos is a human and he has never been perfect. I am sorry to the people who were disappointed by him this season but I fail to see any reason why so many insist on acting like he's completely ruined or refuse to show any understanding or grace as to why he did these things in the first place. A character without flaws would never be a fully realized character and it would be a disservice to the fandom. I'm not saying that a lot of the criticism wrt Carlos's storylines this season aren't valid or that people aren't allowed to be upset about the way certain things were done this season. I certainly have my criticisms but Carlos is a rich, complex character and that's what makes him so realistic and lovable. Valid criticism of a character's actions is one thing but to tear a character apart and then act like you never blindly defended them is another entirely. It's just gross and hypocritical. Most of all, the people who relate to Carlos in this fandom should not have to feel threatened or that their feelings and experiences don't matter.

Iris is another character that has been torn apart by fans this season. The people who still refuse to admit that Carlos isn't perfect have decided to pin the blame for the marriage onto her even though it has been made very clear that Carlos was the one who initiated the idea. But the negativity towards her didn't start this season. It's been there since her first appearance in 1x09. Even back then when we knew nothing about her beyond her being Michelle's sister and that she had schizophrenia, people chose to hate on her rather than show compassion and understanding. Back then, I saw Iris being referred to as "selfish" and "ungrateful" for refusing treatment. She was made fun of for the behavior we saw in 1x09 and 1x10 without people taking into consideration what she would have been dealing with. This season though it was taken to another level. People were even acting like Iris forced Carlos to stay married even though Carlos himself admits that he never even visited her when she returned. Obviously, Iris didn't even know TK existed and because she needed the insurance she got from the marriage so Carlos would have needed to be the one to initiate a divorce or annulment. Beyond that, we had some scenes of her behaving in a way that is out of the ordinary to neurotypical people but the reason for that was made very clear yet people still chose to use it against her. The way people acted like she was somehow standing between Tarlos is ridiculous especially since we literally had her saying onscreen that she wanted Tarlos to have a real marriage unlike what her and Carlos had. There are people in this fandom who can relate to Iris and they don't deserve to feel like they are less than or that they are not safe because some people can't handle the idea of a character not being perfect and so pin the blame on the easiest target.

TK has been a punching bag for many in this fandom since the beginning. From the moment he walked out of that dinner in 1x02, even though we all knew why he did that, people lashed out at him and it hasn't stopped since. Until this season, even the tiniest of conflicts between Tarlos have been blamed on TK. People have gone so far as to say that he's a terrible partner because he brought a lizard home. The breakup was entirely blamed on him and I remember seeing fics that killed him off during the Push era. People straight up accused him of cheating with Cooper in 3x13. They did the same thing when he dared to smile and joke with a bartender in 2x04. Nothing TK does for Carlos is ever enough and his actions (or non-actions for that matter) are constantly twisted to make it seem like he doesn't love Carlos as much as Carlos loves him. Even his proposal hasn't been safe from this. People keep saying that it wasn't good enough because he didn't buy an expensive ring and take Carlos to a fancy dinner. And this constant criticism and judgement never goes away. People keep bringing up past actions or even things he's never even done for the purpose of tearing him down. I've even seen people say he sucked because he didn't support Carlos in 2x08 even though when everything with Carlos was happening, he was literally being kidnapped and held at gunpoint. I have actually seen people say that if they were Carlos they would've killed TK by now. I've also seen people say that TK's biggest problem is that he doesn't appreciate how lucky he is. I have seen so much ableist and offensive language used that I can't even begin to talk about it here. It's not always just anger either. I've seen people just mocking him for certain behaviors that are completely consistent for someone who deals with addiction and mental illness. There are people in this fandom who relate to TK and the microaggressions towards them (and TK) don't get called out enough IMHO. And it's worth adding that a lot of the language that has been used towards TK has also been used towards Iris. I know people who actually had to step back or leave the fandom entirely after the Cooper episode. People who can relate to TK and tried to explain why he was acting like that and what Cooper's place in his life was were attacked. And it doesn't always just pertain to the show itself either. Even now during the hiatus, if someone talks about the impact Carlos has had on TK's life or what great care he takes of TK, they are accused of not caring about Carlos or favoring TK. But if the talk about how much TK has done for Carlos, they are accused also accused of favoring TK. It seems like not only is TK not allowed to be a vulnerable, complex character with lots of wonderful attributes, people in the fandom aren't allowed to love him either. Things from past episodes and seasons are constantly brought up as "proof" of how much TK sucks. Even Ronen has talked about how he feels people often misunderstand TK or ignore his struggles. In fact, he did it just this season in a post-4x04 interview. People kept saying they wanted TK to prove his love to Carlos by rescuing him (because I guess everything else wasn't enough) and when it did happen, they complain that it wasn't good enough. When TK was the one who needed support for the first time this season during the Huntington's arc, people mocked him for being over-dramatic. Then they said that TK had better have really great vows because he needed to match what Carlos said to prove his love. Then when we saw his vows, they now say that the vows weren't good enough and that TK wasn't emotional enough even though we can see him sniffling and hear his voice crack. Basically, even when TK does the things people insist he needs to do, it's still never going to be good enough. And when any comment about the way he is treated by certain people is brought up, it's often dismissed, downplayed or ignored and the people who actually relate to TK continue to feel unsafe and ignored when they try to speak out.

If there is one character that is literally never safe from the wrath of the fandom, it's Owen. Literally everything that Owen says, does, doesn't say or doesn't do is used as a reason for people to say he is the worst father or the worst captain. It's like people watch him from a completely different lens than they do all the other characters and somehow this lens doesn't show them any of the positive things about him. Much like Carlos, Iris and TK, so much of Owen's actions can be explained by his trauma and his experiences. This is a man who deals with the worst kind of survivor's guilt and has experienced unimaginable loss since he was a child. He has a son who struggles greatly with his mental health and addiction yet in that son's own words he has never given up on him. He is the one that brought all the characters we love together in the first place and so much of the happiness they have now is partly due to him. Yet somehow people ignore all this in favor of ripping into him every chance they get. He can't even talk about sex in front of his adult son who very clearly has no problem with it without people calling him a terrible father.

To be clear, I am absolutely not saying that the issues mentioned above represent the entire fandom. I can honestly say that being a part of the LS fandom is more pleasant than any other fandom I have ever been in. But like all fandoms, and indeed like real life, there are issues that I think should be addressed even if the ones causing them are in the minority. Because the problem is that it doesn't matter how small the minority is when they're the loudest of the bunch. And sometimes it really does seem like the loud minority drowns out the majority who are just trying to have civil discussions and enjoy being a part of a fandom and that should never happen because fandom should be a place we can all feel safe.

#911 on fox #911 lone star #tk strand #carlos reyes #tarlos #owen strand #iris blake #rafael silva #ronen rubinstein

[ashe-studies]

another issue i have with sonic prime - shadow the hedgehog. ( very long )

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just gonna say this upfront - do not interact if you are a prime shadow fan and just want to insult or start an argument // debate with me in the comments.

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ever since his debut in the show, shadow in sonic prime has been frequently called 'the best he's been written in years', well loved by a large majority of the prime fandom.

because of this popularity, i was under the belief that shadow was going to be more like how he's written in sa2, satbk, or sonic 06. i've since learned that many shadow fans ( that i've seen ) just like shadow on screen

which isn't necessarily a problem, but i think it's safe to say the sonic fandom has always been a mixed bag when it comes to critiques of the games and their contents ( ever since sa1, or even before that, to sonic frontiers, but i can't comment on the comics, as i've never read them ).

so, in hindsight, i should've proceeded with caution and not take popular opinion into high account.

anyway, i'll get to the point. shadow in sonic prime is one of the worst characterizations of shadow i've seen. i think the only one worse is shadow from the sonic boom universe.

shadow is quite frustrating in this show for a few reasons:

he loses the chaos emerald within five minutes of obtaining it, like an absolute idiot.

he antagonizes sonic every chance he gets and seems to believe the only way to resolve an issue is through violence or aggression. like, yes, of course, shadow, i totally wanna listen to you after you punched me in the face so hard that i literally suffered amnesia.

does next to nothing in the entire show ( up until, like, s3? ), but acts like he's needed.

insults sonic's friends for no reason ( originals and alters alike ).

somehow thought the tech was the only reason sonic could pass through the gateways when he literally saw sonic pass into new yolk before he got the tech. it'd be one thing if he knew sonic could pass regardless and figured the tech would help himself pass through, but he just ignored or forgot what he saw, i guess??? and this is never brought up again.

real question, what does sonic need him for again? even if shadow was never there, sonic would eventually come up with the plan on his own. it's not rocket science.

keeps insisting the alters aren't real people ( this is a problem of the show in general, esp where they go back and forth with sonic in particular, but it's extremely aggravating with shadow as, even if he was right, he's basically saying that sonic shouldn't care about the people that look like his friends, even if they're copies ).

last but not least, HE KEEPS BRINGING UP THAT HE'S THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM, WHO FUCKING CARES, GET A LIFE-

( should i also mention how misleading it was for it to seem like shadow was concerned and trying to warn sonic about the shatteverse, only to immediately go on the assault when the two meet up? what the fuck? )

after i got my hopes up by the reviews and all the love for this show, this was just sad and annoying to watch. how many times is it gonna take for sega and any writers associated with them to get it?

shadow is not an overtly aggressive, hot-headed, domineering person. that was never what shadow was or was supposed to be.

shadow is a kind, loving person. yes, you might not see it from pretty much every canon media of him aside from a few select games, but that's who he was meant to be.

of course, in sa2, he did nearly destroy the world. the difference between that shadow and prime shadow is that, in sa2, he did it out of the love he had for maria and because his memories were affected, making him misremember what maria really wanted.

in his debut game, shadow is meant to be something akin to a guardian angel. the 'ultimate lifeform' meant wish fulfillment, immortality, healing. and to have shadow believe that sonic is the true ultimate lifeform instead speaks volumes of who he is and how he's changed in a considerably short amount of time.

in prime, shadow isn't any of these things. sure, he protects sonic every now and then, but for a while, i didn't even know if it was because he actually cared about sonic or if it was because it was necessary to get back home. the 'ultimate lifeform' doesn't mean anything to him or to this show. it's just to wave his big dick energy around. it shows he doesn't actually see anyone, let alone sonic, as his equal.

yes, shadow is standoffish, but it's not like he's ever been out of touch with emotions or relationships. i don't believe that it was because of maria's death that shadow had essentially 'shut down', but rather because he wanted to grant her wish as soon as possible. and even then, he saved rouge's life. while the game could've led us to believe it was because she had the chaos emeralds, they showed us that he just couldn't let her die if he could prevent it by showing that he couldn't save maria way back then.

this is what a lot of the games, and frankly, most of sonic media in general, seem to have entirely forgotten about shadow.

even as a child, it wasn't difficult for me to understand that shadow did care. that he does care. in fact, that's pretty much what drives him throughout his entire debut game, that he cares so much for maria, so much for her wish, and, eventually, so much for humanity.

i think the closest we've ever been to getting a characterization just like shadow in sa2 is in sonic 06. say what you will about the game, i personally like it ( i acknowledge it has a lot of flaws, but let me be ).

in sonic 06, shadow doesn't have any hostility with sonic. in fact, sonic gives a silent thanks to him for saving him from silver. and shadow proves that you don't have to tell your friends you love them in order for them to know, 'cause he loves rouge and omega in this game. he deeply cares about them and is noticeably disheartened when he discovers what becomes of omega in the future.

shadow doesn't become persuaded by mephiles' tactics to turn against humanity, even when he gives plausible ( but not 100% ) evidence that it is likely authorities would blame shadow for the downfall of humanity, due to his power. in fact, the only thing about any of that information that brings shadow pause is the fact omega would have been the one to arrest him in said future.

and to mephiles' face, he accepts the possibility humanity will turn on him head-on and tells him that he will choose his own fate, that he will fight like he always has, that he decides how his story ends.

i find it hilariously sad that the few games that gets shadow is a game largely hated by a majority of the sonic fandom ( this included me at some point, i'll admit ). i think i'm seeing a turnaround though, especially with P-06 in the works, so that's some good news.

but back to my main point, there's a reason why sa2 and s06 shadow work much better than prime shadow. because shadow honestly, truly, completely cares.

he saves rouge from prison island.

he works alongside sonic without a second thought.

he saves humanity from his own wrong-doings.

he acknowledges sonic's power.

he saves rouge from eggman.

he is upset about omega's possible future circumstances.

he protects sonic from silver.

he is aware of how much rouge cares for him.

he helps in bringing sonic back to life.

and he does all of these with little to no complaint, no sarcastic remarks, almost no attempt to hide his true feelings under a mask, none of that. shadow is completely true to himself. shadow doesn't only care about others, he cares enough about himself to know who and what he truly is and everything he's capable of.

like, goddamnit, shadow isn't my #1 favorite sonic character, but he's SO close in these specific games.

this is why prime shadow feels so hollow and dry in comparison. he's just devoid of almost everything that made shadow... well, shadow. and it's been like this for years!

i'm not sure why people are saying this is the 'best he's been written in years' when, for a long while, he was no different from a majority of his characterizations.

but, hey, he's better in s3, right?

well, yes, but we don't know why he's like that.

in s2, he had balls of steel for treating and talking to sonic the way he did, but now he's...

kinder? protective? actually listening? ( sort of, dude's still kinda stubborn )

what the hell happened???

did his sympathy finally kick in? did he get hit by a coconut and had amnesia for a while? was he one of infinite's copies ( honestly, i would've bought that )?

seriously, what happened?

yeah, obviously, s3 shadow still has flaws, but i think if they were established in s1 or s2 and slowly developed over the course of the show, he would've actually been a really good character.

not that the shadow i know would call the alters 'not real' anyway, but, y'know, for the prime universe and all that.

anyway, overall, i think shadow in sonic prime is one of the worst versions of shadow to date. in their efforts to make him cool ( i guess? ), they made him devoid of a lot of emotion and connection with the rest of the cast, but especially sonic.

completely pushing shipping aside, shadow and sonic do not have a healthy relationship in this show. i'm not going to ignore that sonic definitely has flaws in his writing, but the relationship is unhealthy from sonic's passiveness and shadow's aggressiveness.

due to this, i only like specific moments of prime sonadow, and all of them are in s3. which is saying something.

if it were me, i would've written shadow more true to the original, with my own minor creative liberties here and there, in terms of his personality.

with sonic, i would've made it so he's definitely more on the line of friendly allies with him, but not quite friends yet. throughout the show, their bond would've become stronger and stronger, with a lot of queer undertones ( c'mon, i'm gay and i like these little freaks, leave me be ) and mayhaps a romantically undertone ending, if i didn't wanna be bold about it? maybe? i'm as transparent as glass.

i absolutely would've included omega into the cast and make his relationships with omega and rouge very important to shadow and his character, 'cause HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT AWAY?!

generally speaking, there's just a lot i would've changed about shadow if i was in charge of writing sonic prime, but alas...

i can only write fanfiction.

and yes, i'm absolutely serious.

thank you for reading this long, ridiculous rant with me about a popular character that is guaranteed to get me some flack in one way or another.

lemme know if you'd have done anything different with shadow's character in the prime universe, or if you have any questions!

#sonic prime #prime sonic #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic prime shadow #prime shadow #shadow the hedgehog #sonic prime analysis #i guess

[frozen-spaghetti]

Why Sans & Papyrus' are from Deltarune, and how it's so controversial

In the Deltarune fandom, I've been noticing some recent debate on whether Sans & Papyrus are truly from Undertale's world or Deltarune's world. So, I've decided to make a Tumblr theory post to cover several aspects of this! Enjoy!

Part I of this post covers the evidence, II covers counter-evidence, and III covers the controversy of it.

Part I - Are they from DELTARUNE's world? Here's some of the evidence:

• In the Genocide battle against Sans, he begins speaking about "going back." To where? Well.... • This is also a parallel to some of his dialogue on the Pacifist run. He comments to Frisk that he understands their feeling of longing to return home.

• However, this could just mean the surface, right?

• With that one line, Sans has made it clear that neither the Undergroud nor the Surface is his true home.

He also is the only returning Undertale character with absolutely zero outfit or theme song changes between games.

• Okay, but what about Papyrus? He's a totally different guy in Deltarune! He never goes outside, and in Undertale, he claims to have never seen a human.

• Well, I do have a few counters to this.

• As many fans will know, Papyrus confirmed in the Summer 2023 newsletter that he used to live in a place with green grass, such as the place that he and Sans on in Hometown.

• Now, that confirms Sans and Papyrus are both from the same world, and likely the Deltarune world as previously established. They also may have gotten the means to travel from the third skeleton, Gaster, who is all but confirmed to be a major player in Deltarune.

• As for why Papyrus acts so differently depending on the worlds; well... I don't subscribe to amnesia theory. It leans too hard into giving Sans the better treatment, so instead, I'd say Papyrus is purposefully in denial. How so? Let's read some dialogue from the King Papyrus ending.

All of this makes it seem like Papyrus is used to denial and making himself forget things. This seems to cast a new light onto that "don't forget." note as well. However, with all that out of the way, let me move on to addressing some counter arguments.

Part II - Merchandise, Dust, and Kris

• Okay, if Papyrus is from Deltarune, why does he dust? Berdly doesn't dust when he dies, and Sans isn't shown to dust either.

This is explained via the "fallen down" mechanism, when monsters are near-dead but are not fully dusted. This happens to Undertale monsters, and presumably Berdly as well. Berdly enters a deathly coma which is a major symptom of fallen down, and when Sans dies we don't see him dust on-screen. He possibly entered the state, and the reason we don't see him in the overworld is because he either already dusted, or he teleported away and remained in a coma. Due to the fact we earned an LV I'd go with the former.

Merchandise. Toby promised there wouldn't be merch of Deltarune lightners, but there's a Papyrus and Sans plush!

• Well, I'd say these are just based on where they appear first, they're branded as Undertale anyway. It'd be like if Smash Bros. Ultimate labelled Sans as a Deltarune character. For now, and likely for forever unless some crazy specific stuff happens, these two will be more associated with Undertale.

Part II.I - The Kris Argument

Papyrus has never met a human! Thus, we either can't see him in Deltarune or he's from Undertale.

Well, this is a fair point, but assuming Papyrus Denial Theory is true, him blocking away all of his memories of the Deltarune world could explain this! But even ignoring that....The skeletons are known to be quite the secretive sillies, even ignoring Gaster.

So in general, with all the counterpoints out of the way, why is this controversial in general?

Part III: Controversy

Many people argue that Sans & Papyrus being from Deltarune would be a case of poor writing.

Several have expressed concerns about how Undertale characters already have a game, and how multiverse stories in recent memory have often messed up, and how Toby could fall into said traps. Last thing we want is Bad Time Megalovania 2 Strike Back right?

I've also seen it be called "Toby leaning into fandom tropes" as well but to be fair, Toby created said tropes with lines by Sans and Alphys implying AU's exist canonically, and he himself pushes Sans as a mascot all the time, though he isn't the main character.

But yeah, with the several decent counterpoints explained away, it somewhat confuses me how large the group of people is that still deny Sans is from Deltarune is, albeit I understand their concerns.

So, since this seems to be really divisive these days (though generally most agree with me..)

I'd like to ask;

Do you think Sans & Papyrus are from Deltarune?

#deltarune #undertale #sans #papyrus #gaster #kris dreemurr #theory

[imminent-danger-came]

I love reading your tags- especially when theres just even MORE info dumping there.

The least favorite character ask made me giggle a bit, "This character that appeared for a single episode is actually pretty cool. And this character is really awesome in this particular context. But ALSO I really like this character with very little actual screentime."

You‘re absolutely right though! Characters whose only purpose is to fill a particular role are chosen really well too! Like the Host Girl; sure, she doesn’t really have a personality or anything, but she doesn’t NEED to have one. As you said, she‘s collateral damage. She gives us more insight to Wukong, she shows us just how ruthless he can be. He‘s willing to kill the epitome of innocence: A child. A defenseless little girl with a cutesy voice, who was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

(It‘s also worth a mention that, contrary to Wukong, she revealed a softer side of Macaque. Not to the extent the fandom built it up, but in an arguably more meaningful way. He‘s worried/feels bad for a total stranger. Even if it was only a concerned look, she once again gave us a deeper insight to a member of the main cast.)

And the characters with less focus either have really genuine interactions (Yellow Tusk with Azure) that just endear you to them, or they drop a banger line (like the Jade Emperor) before their purpose is fulfilled.

Nothing wrong with being a plot device if it‘s done well!

This wasn‘t really much of an ask rather than me rambling. Sorry.

I welcome rambles in my ask box! Half of you that show up in my ask box could just write your own analysis posts.

And you're also totally right! There isn't anything wrong with characters that are there just to function as plot devices. Sometimes a child is there just to be a child, and that's all they need to be. I think I feel this way about Megapolis (a name for the city that hasn't even been mentioned in show). Like it's a city filled with innocent people, it's MK & the Gang's home, and that's all it kinda needs to be tbh. LMK has to be extremely tight with what it chooses to focus on because of time constraints, and it does that well. When it comes down to it, focusing on the characters/plot is more important than focusing on the setting (which I think debatably wouldn't contribute much anyways—like we don't need more of a reason to care about the city, you know?).

I have this same opinion when it comes to the Demon Bull Family, which may be an unpopular take, but the truth is that a lot of their development happened off-screen. After ROTSQ and until we see them again in 3x06, it's clear that there have been positive changes between Red Son and his parents. I think I've seen some folk want Red Son to cut off his parents entirely, but that kinda goes against the core of his character. Part of Red Son's appeal for me is his complete devotion to his family despite their flaws (saving them in ROTSQ and EYD, attempting to save them in 4x09). Red Son and Princess Iron Fan only ever wanted world domination because that's what DBK wanted, and after that failed—they gave up. They hit the bricks. Red Son then started a food business with his dad (jealous of MK and Pigsy's noodle shop mayhaps?), and I think it's telling that DBK would even agree to do that to begin with. DBK and PIF's disregard of Red Son may not be acknowledged in the way people want, and I get that, but it's not that it didn't happen. I'd say there's another jump in their development between the end of 3x14 and the beginning of 4x09, where the fact that DBK calls out for Red Son as he gets taken away shows a closeness between them that we hadn't seen before. It's also clear that DBK has grown past the person who only wanted to create the world in his own image, chastising Azure Lion:

Demon Bull King: "How many times must you be struck down chasing this same foolish dream?"

(4x09 Roast of the Monkie Kids)

-

(Plus "This pursuit of yours has warped your mind brother—it is the only reason I could imagine that you would have the nerve to assault my home and harm my family!" echoing PIF in 1x10 "Come to your senses, this power has poisoned your mind!"; Azure unreasonably considers DBK a traitor like DBK had unreasonably considered Red Son a traitor, etc.)

DBK, unlike plenty of other antagonists in LMK (Spider Queen, LBD, and Azure specifically), learned to stop and accept the world as it was. He failed as a conqueror, but he still had his family, and he could try and not fail as a father for his "half-baked son"—or that's how I interpret DBK anyhow.

((I also want to bring up the fact that DBK didn't dare use the Samadhi Fire ring he had to power himself up with Red Son's furnace in AHIB. Like, even the Mr. Bull King has some restraint—there are prices too great to pay for the world, hence why he gave up on world domination after 1x10, when he almost killed his wife and son.))

To me it makes the Demon Bull Family feel like characters that exist outside of MK & the Gang, and can grow/change even when they're not on screen with our main characters, and I think that's cool. We also legitimately didn't have time for anything else.

#So tldr on the way the DB family has been handled thus far: I get if people don't like it that's completely fair #but idk if it's objectively bad. #I know there's a Villad's interview out there where he says he thinks during s2 Red Son took a lot of time to himself #That he realized some thangs about how his parents had treated him you know #And I get if people are disappointed by that. Unfortunately they're minor characters at this point & we got a lot of other stuff to focus o #Me personally I like what we have #They are insane for paralleling the Demon Bull family's one scene in s4 with 1x10 #Like. Holy shit their writing is TIGHT #lmk #lego monkie kid #asks #lmk Red Son #lmk DBK #lmk PIF #lmk analysis #you know what I think I just realized I legitimately like DBK. Like a decent amount. #The way he looks away in shame from PIF in 3x06 before she explains the Samadhi fire's origins. Omg. Is that guilt??? #''So you can see it would be impossible for fools such as yourselves to control that power— #if even the spawn of the Demon Bull King himself could not.'' #OMG!!!!!!! #anyways

[yenforfairytales]

Might be a hot take, but I’ve always thought that Johnny is Kreese’s weakness, and Daniel is Terry’s. Like, I know some people think Terry’s weakness is Kreese (and to some extent, yes), but Daniel seems to be his absolute obsession, his total undoing. Kreese at least had the best friends/comrades in arms thing, but the Daniel thing is just plain weird from any side. This once 17 year old brat has such a hold on Silver that the man threw away 30+ years of peace at the mere mention of his name. It was never about Cobra Kai. It was always about Daniel.

YES. I completely agree. And as more time has gone by since Season 4 came out, I've noticed even the more casual fans have noticed. Someone took this screenshot from YouTube, but I've seen similar comments on reddit too.

And Kreese, being another master manipulator, knew exactly what he was doing when he brought up Daniel to Terry again in 4x01...

There was literally no reason for Kreese to bring up Daniel LaRusso unless he knew that Terry would care. Why would Terry care. 👀

Kreese knows how to get people to come to him. How to dangle something that they want in front of them that only he can seemingly give.

When no other tactic worked on bringing Terry back into the fold, Kreese brought out the big guns and dropped Daniel's name.

Not to take away at all from the love and friendship that Terry felt towards John. But it became nostalgia and obligation, ultimately ruining their bond.

Little side note-- the fact that we watched Kreese make others do what he says in order to get what they want for three seasons made the prison scene in 5x07 even more satisfying:

AND the first person to play the uno reverse card and use this tactic against Kreese was Daniel. Terry's student. You gotta love it.

There's always been a little Cobra Kai in you...

I mean, we could speak at length about the parallels between Kreese and Terry and their star students Johnny and Daniel. The narrative mirrors and foils. But it's precisely their respective relationships with their students that is more compelling.

Anyway. I'm going to quickly list examples of Daniel's hold on Terry and then focus on the meat of the issue.

Terry falls apart and goes ALL IN on everything Cobra Kai only AFTER Daniel rejects his apology.

Terry gives Daniel multiple warnings to not interfere but never tries to gets rid of him like Johnny or Kreese after no warnings at all.

Terry dated a woman who looked a lot like Daniel with similar values.

Terry treats Kenny near identically to Daniel as a student but in the sincere way he wishes he had with Daniel.

Terry loses his cool when Daniel wants to surrender and walk out of his life.

Terry tells Chozen he considers Daniel his only rival. As in Equal.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting but you can find posts in the silverusso tag about all these topics and more. x.x

Now, let's get to one of the most important and defining scenes for Terry's arc. And again, it's a direct result of Kreese's manipulation:

Kreese, knowing what makes Terry tick and how to get him further on his side, comments that Daniel really knows how to hold onto a grudge. As if he doesn't. Anyway, it's twisting the knife into Terry again when he's clearly already low.

You don't think Kreese noticed how hurt Terry was at the rejection?

He notices everything. He learned in Vietnam from his Captain how to use love against someone as a perceived weakness. Many thoughts on that.

Anyway

The way in which Kreese says, "So... what now?" Tells me that he told Terry this was going to happen. You also have to remember their conversation leading up to the garden scene:

Terry was damn near close to defending Mr. Miyagi and Daniel over Kreese's own personal grudge. To the point where Terry was rolling his eyes and sighing over his friend being overdramatic about what happened in the past.

He was tired of hearing about it.

I'm sure Daniel told Terry the truth about that Halloween night. And look who Terry seems to side with...

Kreese wanted violent retribution and Terry was the one that talked him down. It was Terry's idea to apologize to Daniel and we'll just allll get along. Easy peasy. Surely, Daniel would forgive him.

But, Daniel proved Kreese right in Terry's eyes. As I'm sure Kreese hoped would happen. Couldn't have worked out better. I bet on the car ride over to Miyagi-Do, Kreese was complaining how this was a waste of time and LaRusso isn't the sweet kid you remember etc.

From that day forward, Terry is determined to prove Daniel wrong. About him, about Cobra Kai, about everything. Terry is going to make Cobra Kai work and help kids and he'll be the best sensei ever and Daniel will be sorry!

You'll be sorry you weren't a part of it!

I firmly believe that Daniel is Terry's true weakness and he didn't even realize it. But Kreese did.

And if Daniel had seen it, then he could've had Terry eating out of the palm of his hand.

The one movie quote they haven't used in the show yet is, "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death."

I'm hoping they'll use this with Daniel realizing he can help heal himself, and Terry, by forgiving him. Of course, Terry will have to do something more to redeem himself. I'm just saying.

And then maybe Terry can see that Daniel was his weakness all along, but there's still time to make him a strength.

One could argue that he already felt that way while he was being arrested. The way he was looking at Daniel... That awe. Daniel LaRusso got the best of him, again, all because he couldn't let him go.

Here's to hoping that Season 6 ends our suffering lmao.

I mean, who else has ever given Terry Silver goosebumps?

#this got ridiculously long and i held myself back lmao #don't worry #my clown shoes on standby #thank you anon #i hoped this made sense x.x #cobra kai #ck meta #daniel larusso #john kreese #terry silver #silverusso #asks

[brutaliakent]

// Not Tim Drake friendly

Like idk how to start this but I'll just profess by saying that majority of what I talk about is about his fanon characterisation and if you get offended then in the nicest way possible idgaf

Like why is Tim so fucking infantalized in fanon like some of his fans so obsessed with making him oppressed and a victim when he's not. Its like him in comics canon and him potrayed by fandom by 90% of fics I've read are two totally different person.

He's like a mediocre person in comics at best, I dont like him but I dont mind him either. Also he is written as a misogynist and his treatment of his gfs is abominable but I let it slide cuz maybe it was the writers fault idk

But the way fans potray him to be this holier than thou- never doing anything wrong and smartest robin (cue eyeroll) is wild and wholey inaccurate cuz like he's not. Canonically they're all similar iq and they're all trained by a detective so they're quite good at it, Dick was a mathelete and Jason had solid GPA of 94.8 and Tim dropped out of school to search for Bruce. He is tech savvy and good at computers but he's not the only one from the batfamily to be that is he, I'd say Barbara is the best at that but don't forget Dick used to be a hacker too like I've seen some of yall treat him as this one dimensional sunshine person who has eldest daughter syndrome but like he also has temper and he's clever and sharp and if I'm not wrong he even as degree in Business in main dc universe but that's besides the point

Also headcanoning him as asian feels weird and very playing into stereotype of asians being this super smart people (when there's no proof he's anything but white in canon)

Fanon also for some strange reasons hold on to Jason and Damian trying to kill him and saying how much it would have caused him trauma while completely removing him from the scene except for that scenario. Let me explain for example Damian trying to kill him where they forget the instigator of some are Tim too like he was legit 17 yr old beefing with 10 yr old bffr, did we also collectively ignore him putting the same 10 yr old on a hitlist like... yall act like this was a buffet and you can pick and choose but the thing is that you can pick and choose what to accept from canon but if you're picking Tim being attacked by Dami then maybe mention what he did too instead of victimizing him

Just kinda throwing it in here cuz we're talking about it, Dick didnt fire Tim from Robin because of bad faith, I'm pretty sure it was Alfred who gave Damian the Robin suit first but Dick didnt want Tim to be Robin because Dick saw Tim as an equal rather than a sidekick.

Also the big deal of Jason's attack on Titans Tower irks me a little but like pls remember that Jason made a last minute decision to go there and just beat the shit out of Tim and that's it and it wasnt nice of him to do that but I support his wrongs too

Since we're talking about Titans Tower fics anyways I also find it incredibly peculiar that writers (fanfic) potray him much younger than he was like Tim was 17 during UTRH and around 19 during Teen Titans #29

(Also pretty sure like 99.9% sure that Jason calling Tim 'Replacement' also came from fanon and it was from j*yt*m shippers so like 😵‍💫,, although Jason did call him 'Pretender' in Batman Hush a few times)

(Also highjacking this to talk about Pit madness cuz for some reason there are too many fics about it so like please remember that pit madness and the extent of it is just a fanon thing there is no proof of it happening for more than 5 mintues in canon and Jason was not the only one besides Ra's to use it but Cassandra has also been in the pit... So like yeah Jason did some fucked up shit post resurrection and he did it willingly no supernatural green pool was involved and its ok ❤️, like let him be his own person)

That went majorly off tangent,,, anyways also Tim was never abused physically or otherwise by his parents, they neglected him and child abandonment too for sure (ALSOOOO He spent more thanhalf of his school life in boarding school so it probably won't count as child abandonment but I dont know if its canon to main universe so I'm just putting it out there)

Adding to that is a fanfic issue that is around the potrayal of him in fics where Jason didnt die or wouldn't die and Tim joined the family early, most of those are pretty harmless and wholesome and this is not the critique of those writers so don't take personally but idk how it got so polarising and popular that Tim was a tiny kid and when he and Jason met younger (most fics I've read were from 3rd pov or Jason's pov) and in most of them it is stated that Tim is smaller for his age and Jason mistakes him for a younger age which just doesnt make sense. Like it would be one thing for someone else like Dick or Bruce to make that assumption and entirely different for Jason cuz CANONICALLY Jason was shorter at 15 than Tim was at 13 and it makes sense cuz Jason was malnourished which resulted in stunted growth rate, so like you're telling me that Jason at 15 saw 13 year old Tim and assumed he was 9 like it just doesnt make sense to me

And look this may be seen as nitpicks (and it probably is) but if it was in smaller quantity it could be ignorable but its everywhere and my patience is not endless and I'm fucking tired of him.

Also just to throw that in that all the bulleted points while in themselves alone may seem annoying but harmless, arent all of them together as fanon perception of him just infantalising him overall like its not they're true or anything...

Like lets be real Tim was just a blatant robin self insert, he was 13 when he went to a grieving father whos son was recently murdered and basically blackmailed him into making him robin cuz he thought "Batman needs a Robin" like dude you're 13... also can you imagine how Bruce must have felt in situation like but I dont think blaming Tim for this is right cuz he was a child and he didn't know better

Glorifying a white, rich (because yes he was rich enough to be neighbours with Wayne) character and demeaning and villanising a person of color and a dead poor person (cant keep track of how many times there's implied or outright said that Jason's death is his fault and how Tim's much smarter than Jason and better than him despite having no street smarts on him and being a trust fund baby)

Howevere, it'll be incredibly in poor taste to say that those weren't rooted in racism and classism [because they were] and its not Tim's fault his writers were disgusting but it is furthered and accepted and preached in fanon so like that's no excuse imo

Also if we include him with Robins he is not that special like he dont stick out ... and he terribly lacks any creativity and imagination like he took the mantle of robin and then red robin which like he didnt think through.

And like I'm not dismissing his trauma from attempts on his death but he was robin for 3-4 years before Jason tried to kill him I'm plenty sure he's used to his life being in danger comes with job description and if he didnt want that.. well nobody asked him he served himself on silver platter to be traumatised so yeah

So yeah fanon tim is my number one enemy and idc about him in canon and if you disagree with this please make your own post

This was a long vent of a short(lmao) list of just things that bother me

#so yeah #wow I had a lot to say #and like you can tell this isnt coherent cuz #I'm not making an organised list #I'm just very irritated and annoyed and I had to let my steam out #I try not to say negetive things cuz like I think my energy is better spent talking about things I love #but like I said I needed to let it out #anti tim drake #just to be safe #jason todd #damian wayne #dick grayson #bruce wayne #barbara gordon #batman #robin #red hood #red robin #oracle #nightwing #comics #dc #dc comics #is this meta? #meta #comics meta #also I went back while adding tags to add some more things as I was remembering #*** #pit madness #tim drake slander

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Hello, can I ask what do you mean "in canon it's impossible for Sherlock to settle down with a woman"? Like, as a fan of Holmes and always read the books since middle school, I'm kinda confuse here, I don't mean anything negative. Sorry, do you think Poirot (from Agatha Christie) is also queer?

Maybe because I grew up with very religious mother and lived in anti-LGBTQ country, I'm kinda slow in picking up subtext. Like until now I'm still kinda confuse with my friend who have ships from any fandoms (but I still love to hear and read her headcanons or fics about those characters)....

I really agree with you, I've seen many Holmes' adaptations (cartoon, tv series, manga) but Yuumori is clearly the closest to Doyle's works. Do you think the mangaka also love to read Holmes' books?

Story time! (Welcome to "Hyper answers asks like an old lady going on an hour long barely-on-topic tangent at the slightest prompting.)

I totally get where you're coming from, I was raised in like...knockoff Southern Baptist churches. Growing up, homosexuality was presented to me as a sexual perversion incapable of involving real love. It's kind of silly, but it's true: a ship was a big part of changing that for me. I read Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as a teenager, and Kurogane and Fai had something that was inescapably romantic and beautiful but never strictly sexual (tho the potential is certainly there). Between that and an online community of LGBTQ+ adults who were incredibly patient and kind towards me even when I was suuuuper ignorant, I started to open up towards queer relationships as...well, just relationships. Relationships that can encompass sex and also encompass love and friendship and communication and partnership and all those other things I'd been taught were exclusive to monogamous straight people. And then, even as terrified as I was, I was eventually able to face the fact that I'd always had crushes on girls just as often as crushes on guys. So yeah, there's a reason Kurofai is my ship of all ships, the actual One True Pairing for me. Because it cracked open a door just enough that I could slowly lever it open the rest of the way. There seem to be quite a lot of anecdotes like this: women enjoying BL/mlm ships is often seen as fetishy (which can certainly be part of it) but for some reason I can't fully articulate it also seems to sometimes be a means for girls and women to explore their own not-straightness.

ANYWAY. SHERLOCK HOLMES. Tbh I'm not gonna go too in-depth because I would bet good money that there are a bunch of scholarly articles on Holmes' queerness. People have probably done their doctorate theses on this! Much smarter and more well-read folks than I have already covered the topic. For me, it really boils down to: he never outright expresses sexual or romantic interest in anyone (we must resist the urge to assume his respect for Irene Adler is romantic just because he is a man and she is a woman). He's almost certainly on the asexual spectrum. But when he does exhibit symptoms one might associate with romantic and/or sexual interest (particularly romantic, imo), it's always towards men (usually Watson, of course). For example, notable flirt John Watson saying that Holmes blushes at his compliments the way a girl does is...suggestive.

The whole thing is complicated by Watson being (in my opinion at least) an unreliable and sometimes downright petty narrator. He keeps going on spiels about Holmes being cold and heartless, only to turn around and describe him greeting his friends warmly and being emotionally moved by music and baby-talking puppies and charming old ladies. It makes Watson sometimes come across as one of those allo people who are so unable to conceive of a life without romantic and/or sexual desire that they start dehumanizing those who don't experience it. Alternatively and maybe more charitably, he just has a big ol' crush on Holmes, is understandably alarmed by it given the time period, and gets bitchy and defensive when he feels it might not be reciprocated.

But ultimately...do I think Arthur Conan Doyle sat down at a desk in the late 19th century/early 20th century and was like "I am going to write some ace queer representation for the tumblr girlies (gn)"? Obviously not. 😅 I do think he might have set out to create a character who very deliberately did not need to have the otherwise almost obligatory straight romantic side-plot. Holmes is never in any way set up as having a life headed towards marriage and children, in spite of how typical that was for the time. The companionship he does express a need and desire for comes in the form of another man. He's "lost without [his] Boswell." He sneakily buys Watson's practice out from under him so he'll be free to move back in and go on more adventures with him. He threatens violence when Watson is hurt. Etc etc. I think it's very fair to interpret it all through a queer lens, the quibble would be more in whether that queerness ever manifests sexually.

I definitely think the Yuumori creators have not only read ACD but also other fiction based on the stories, possibly even including some very old pastiches like this one. I love how seemingly nerdy they are about it haha! The series is full of easter eggs and callouts to other Holmesian works.

As for Poirot, I know very little about the character beyond a few episodes of the show I watched as a young'un, but that is not the mustache of a straight man (I'm joking I'm joking I have absolutely no opinion on that one! 🤣)

Thanks for the ask, and for actually reading this ramble if you got this far! 😅

#acd holmes #acd canon #yuukuko no moriarty #kurofai #rambling #asks

[cacodaemonia]

This is probably an unpopular opinion among Ted Lasso fans, but the whole Nate storyline has both bored and irked me. Don't get me wrong, I adore this show and how sweet and wholesome it is, and I totally understand if people don't want to read any complaints about it. If that's you, stop reading here. 👍

Anyway: I have issues with the recent emphasis on forgiving someone like Nate.

I loved him at first, but then when he started to show his true colors I was very much in agreement with Coach Beard. Ted was always kind to Nate, always supported him, and the Nate turned on Ted because... his own father is a dick to him? My father was a much bigger piece of shit, but I don't treat people who constantly go out of their way to be kind to me like that.

I am not a forgiving person because I've seen over and over and over what happens to people when they keep on forgiving others for terrible behavior: they become welcome mats. That doesn't mean I dwell on the people who have wrong me—I just cut them off, don't let them waste my time, and my life is much better for it. So the whole 'forgive so-and-so for your own good' thing really doesn't make sense to me. Forgiving someone who has repeatedly wronged you or done something Very Bad to you opens you up to being treated like shit again—because, lbr, unlike in stories, most people don't completely change their personalities for the better. Yeah, it happens sometimes, but it's pretty rare.

So, back to Nate. Since the beginning of season 3, the audience has seen him... develop some? He's got a girlfriend, his dad was not mean to him once, he quit working for Rupert, and he's inexplicably a good waiter when just a few months ago, he was really into demeaning people and bossing them around. I haven't seen any explanation for why he would suddenly tolerate being a waiter, which—newsflash for anyone who hasn't done it—sucks. A lot of customers treat wait staff like garbage and I cannot imagine Nate handling that with a Customer Service Smile™, you know?

So all of that is kinda weird and not really super well explained, imo. But even weirder is that, unlike the audience, most of the other characters never saw any of these changes. For all they know, he's still the same Nate who was utterly awful for all of season 2. Characters like Jamie, Rebecca, Colin, and Isaac, who were varying levels of dicks at the beginning, showed the other characters that they wanted to make amends and worked to do so. They showed that they wanted to be better and gave others a reason to eventually trust them.

But Nate hasn't done any of this with the Richmond crew, so when Isaac, Colin, and Will (who Nate was particularly vile to) show up to invite him back to Richmond, I seriously thought the show was doing a weird dream sequence or something. My partner was equally baffled because it made NO SENSE. And yeah, I get that Ted has influenced people around him to be more forgiving etc. etc. but why would they invite Nate, who was horribly abusive to so many people on the team, back??? It would be like Sam inviting Akufo to dinner at his restaurant.

Anyway, I'm really not looking to argue with anyone. Sometimes you just need to vent, you know? And I just needed to vent about the Nate storyline, which I think has gotten really lame, and about how I take issue with the insistent forgiveness message of this last season. Yeah, I know it's fiction, but they are framing the show's messages as pretty explicit life advice. And the 'always forgive no matter what' message is simply not a universally good policy.

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso critical #nate critical #but i do really love the show i just needed to vent about this #venting

[lovesitcomsandgaystuffs]

What's your opinion on the theory I've seen a ton that Azz's bloodline ability is for whatever reason going to be related to "transforming into a woman" or "swapping genders"?

I personally can't stand the theory myself but I'm curious on your thoughts about it :0

Hi! thanks for your question.

In short I can't stand this theory either, every time I read it I roll my eyes.

I think this theory is closely tied to another one where they say Azz is female and this is going to be revealed later, both really bother me.

I feel like a certain part of the fandom really wants Azz to be a woman for reasons that sound slightly homophobic.... The amount of comments I saw saying things like "Azz should have been a woman" "If Azz was a girl she'd be part of Iruma's harem" "it would be better if Azz was a girl" etc.

Now does this theory have any basis? Let's see...

One of the reasons I see used in these theories is that Azz's name is Alice which is a feminine name, personally I didn't think much of it because I can see Amaryllis giving her child the name she likes regardless of the child's gender or that even in the Underworld they don't give much importance to whether it is a feminine or masculine name.

However, for many people this detail is important and I fully understand why.

Azz is the only male character to have a female name (or the only character to have a name that does not match their gender).

Now this is not really true because

Pamela is also a feminine name curiously his last name is Incu which sounds very similar to incubus so looking at Pame's personality (stereotypes sorry) and this it would not be crazy to assume that Pamela is an incubus.

But what if in Japanese his last name is totally different from incubus and this is just a coincidence?

Incubus in Japanese is インキュバス and Pamela's last name is インキュ so I don't think it's a coincidence.

I'm going to digress and talk a little bit about Pame, sorry!!!

I find it interesting how Pamela is the only one of the first year demons that Nishi-sensei didn't show us his bloodline magic but specialty magic.

Just like Azz and fire, entice is not Incu's bloodline magic it's a magic he's good at.

And in the episode before this one Nishi-sensei reminds us that they are not the same in this scene (using screenshots of the spanish version because it fits more to what I'm trying to say lol)

Oolo: I'm glad to be on the Agares team! Your special skills are the best!

Agares: it's not my special skills, it's my bloodline magic skills.

Funny how the two male characters who have female names are Azz, son of a succubus (would that make him an incubus?) and Pame who could also be an incubus and his magic specialty is entice.

(I once read a Japanese fan with the theory that maybe this was a sort of a succubus tradition something like "for good luck give your son a female name!" or maybe they just don't care about the gender of the names)

Anyway, this brings me to another of the arguments used by those who have the theory that Azz can swapping genders/become a woman.

So far all the Asmodeus family members we have seen are female except Azz and we have only seen succubus and no incubus (maybe incubus don't exist in Mairuma?).

Incubus exist in Mairuma because in the spin off there is a character who is one, although we can take it with a grain of salt because this spin off is canon but not written by Nishi-sensei.

But Nishi-sensei already confirmed that succubi are a race of demons in Mairuma and that incubus also exist.

Last of the reasons and my favorite although not many do not talk about it.

Asmodeus and Solomon changing places (legend in the Talmud).

One of the most famous stories of Solomon and Asmodeus is where Asmodeus tricks him into giving up his throne.

'Solomon continued to keep Ashmedai imprisoned, but one day, Ashmedai in turn tricked Solomon into taking off his magic ring. Thereupon Solomon lost his power over the demon-king, and Ashmedai cast Solomon off his throne. Ashmedai assumed Solomon’s appearance and ruled in his place, while the real Solomon became a wandering beggar. Eventually, Solomon returned to Jerusalem and warned the sages about the counterfeit.

When King Solomon returned, Asmodai fled from his wrath.Similar legends can be found in Islamic folklore. There Asmodeus is called Sakhr (Arabic: صخر the Rock or the Stony One), because in Islamic lore, Solomon banished him into a rock, after he takes his kingdom back from him. There he counts as the king of the jinn'

If Azz's bloodline magic is inspired by this legend, it would make sense that he could shape-shift (or at least swapping genders).

But according to what Ifrit-sensei said Azz's bloodline magic is something he could use to defeat him in battle and I don't see how swapping genders would be useful in that situation.

Again I made an unnecessarily long post where I ramble a lot to end up saying almost nothing in one question, sorry!

Resumen, I like this theory? No

Can I stand it? Not at all

I think it is likely to be true? Honestly no

If it is true how would I react? Very disappointed

+ plus that it does not have much relation but I take this opportunity to add it since I talked about entice and Pamela.

Again, using the Spanish translation as an example because blah blah blah

I want to point out that it seems important to me that the manga tells us that magic like "entice, charm, aphrodisiac" is not a bloodline magic but a magic that basically everyone can learn it, some may have special talent for it like Pamela.

For example both Kerori and Azz (probably Ix as well) have charm among their special abilities on the sheet measuring skills in chapter 219.

"Special shows your special abilities".

So obviously the bloodline magic of the Asmodeus family is not going to be similar to a magic that in theory a lot of demons can use, if it is related to seduction it's going to be in an unconventional way, me thinks.

#i hope my jumbled thoughts make some sense. #I find Nishi-sensei's answer kinda sus lmao #mairimashita! iruma kun #mairuma #m!ik #welcome to demon school iruma kun #suzuki iruma #asmodeus alice #alice asmodeus #welcome to the demon school iruma kun #osamu nishi #welcome to demon school! iruma kun #welcome to demon school #mairimashita iruma kun #w!tds #amaryllis asmodeus

[butchladymaria]

1, 2 and 17 for the 🔥violence🔥 ask game?

also revisiting this SUPER late but -

OG POST HERE!!!

the character everyone gets wrong

would it be cliche of the guy who wrote a whole long thing about how the doll is misunderstood to say the doll is misunderstood? probably. i'm going to anyway though.

i feel like a lot of folks sometimes miss or overlook the horrifying implications of the doll? i wonder if a partial reason the horror innate to her character slips through the cracks is because she falls into the "level-up maiden" trope of the soulsborne series; which seems to be comprised of generally soft-spoken and/or somewhat submissive feminine women who help the player progress (even if they have goals of their own). i'm not here to argue that my interpretation of her is objectively correct here - but i do think the takes that posit her as a willingly subservient idealized fantasy of a woman are... shallow at best? it feels like some folks piece together that doll is made in the image of a dead woman by gerhman, and then... simply do not wrestle with the Implications of that.

for another example of this, just see adella. she seems to be reduced to "yandere psycho" at her most complex in a lot of fan interpretations, despite so much evidence indicating that it's much deeper than that.

all these examples make me wonder if the sentiment, subconscious or otherwise, that women are "meant" to be submissive and gentle is what leads these portrayals to go unquestioned or seen as more "normal" than if it were a man in that position. even maria, a canonically gender nonconforming character, has people bending over backwards to explain how she is actually totally a good little gender conformer because she... wears a hair ribbon…? (i wish i was exaggerating that claim but that has Been in my inbox lmao)

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

i've given this a lot of thought, anon, and come to the conclusion that the best (and maybe funniest...?) interpretation of this question is to answer it as follows:

miss doll would indeed never top OR bottom, mostly because i see her as asexual. i feel like the way she unless you want to consider the implications of gerhman pulling a victor frankenstein and giving his creation working sex organs. but i like to think we live in a nice world instead of a world where that is canon. eugh.

then again, i guess doll body probably isn't stopping ranni from bisexually topping the tarnished...? hmm.

in all seriousness i don't tend to have strong opinions on top/bottomhood for bloodborne characters, because i think they're mostly too catholic to fuck!

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

MORE BLOODBORNE YURI!!!!!!!!!!! vampires were literally and unironically MADE for lesbian barely-concealed-subtext babey!!!!

MORE BLOODBORNE TRANSGENDER!!!!!!!!!! i love trans people's takes on bloodborne! body horror is transition goals if you're not a coward!!!

i also just love cainhurst - artfight was a dream bc i saw SO many cute little knights :)

#percy answers :) #ask #anon #bloodborne #miss doll #lady maria

[rekikiri]

Hey, I've been thinking about reading all for the game but I really don't know if it would be my kind of books. Would you like to try to convince me? What is it about? (themes, vibes, similar books...) (the synopsis doesn't really tell me anything)

Hi okay! I’m going to preface this entire thing with read the content warnings before you decide if you want to continue. Here is a list of all the content warnings and here is a spoiler free list.

If you have read the warnings and still would like to proceed, here are some of my favorite things and reasons id give for why you should read it.

I’m listing a few none content reasons that I think they are good. These are perks not directly relating to the books and the reading of them.

Some non-book content reasons to read

I think this would be a good plus for you: I would personally lump Neil Josten in with the Percy Jackson type of main character. Both are unreliable narrators who are sarcastic, unaware of their own abilities, and also self aware of their own idiocy (affectionate). Plus, oblivious as hell.

First major point is that getting the books is cheap, even if you want the audiobook. They are very cheap on kindle. Like I’m talking about The Foxhole Court is free, then The Raven King and The King’s Men are $0.99 USD each. (And, if you like audiobooks, you can add the audiobooks onto that for $7.49 USD each). So they’d total out to about $1.98 USD for all three books on Kindle, and if you did audiobooks too it’d be around $25 USD for all three. (You could also get the audiobooks later, the discount for it on audible works even after initial purchase).

Second, the fan content is exceptional. This is actually the thing that made me finally just go ahead and read them. The fan art? The fan fiction? Fuck its fantastic. I may be biased as a huge fan of the series but I truly think the overall quality of the fan content in the aftg fandom is better than a lot of other fandoms. It’s so damn good. And if you decide to read and want to find fanfiction after, I have plentyyyy of recs I could give you.

^ along with that, I have found so much awesome merch. My aftg merch collection brings me great joy every time I look at it.

Also! A lot of extra content from the author, if you decide you want more info on them.

A couple books/series (according to google and the opinions of others)

I see a ton of people who read AFTG also read the raven cycle series by Maggie stiefvater, which is on my TBR.

Captive Print by CS Pacat. I haven’t read this, but I have seen it on multiple lists

***

ACTUAL CONTENT

I’m going to get into this, and if you have questions before you read or while you read (should you choose to do so), my DMs are open. I have read this series sooo many times, I can probably answer a lot of them.

Here is an explanation I would give, I will try to be spoiler free but I apologize if I give a bit too much away. I will also try to keep it short, but if you want more in depth or are okay with spoilers, again, let me know and id be happy to go more in depth. This isn’t a very polished explanation, I wrote this after taking my meds. Please excuse errors.

Anyways. Neil Josten is an Exy player (Exy is described as, “a bastard sport, an evolved sort of lacrosse on a soccer-sized court with the violence of ice hockey.”) The plot of the story is that he is on the run from his father, and he ends up in Arizona in a high school his senior year. He plays Exy to have something to do, and he ends up catching the eye of Kevin Day (who he met before leaving). One thing leads to another and they end up on the same team. The old team that Kevin Day was on was run by the Moriyamas, who are part of the yakuza, and they are obsessed with getting Kevin back. So a huge aspect of the plot is everyone trying to protect him from them, and Neil is trying to not have his real identity discovered. In his situation, if anyone finds out who he is, he is a dead man because his serial killer father will kill him so he is trying his best to stay alive while finding a place among the Foxes (the team he joins) for as long as he has.

There is a canon queer romance, and there are numerous canon queer characters. There are numerous gay characters, as well as a demisexual character. Though to make it clear, the romance is slow burn. Like since we are from Neil’s pov, it might seem kind of sudden but it is mostly because he is oblivious and doesn’t notice a lot of his surroundings.

But! I love this series so much. I love it, but if you start reading and end up not liking it/find it too much, that is totally fine. The series isn’t for everyone, and the triggers along could be enough to not want to read. Plus! If you have anything you specifically want to skip content wise, message me. I can tell you where to skip + a summary of what you skipped. I did this for a friend of mine on a specific chapter that was just too much for them.

#I hope this helps!!! #sorry its so long and I’m sorry if it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense #if you have anything else to ask pls do so! #aftg #fresasconsal asks #hope this helps!!! and please let me know if you choose to read #the brain rot is real for this series bro #andreil

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi, not to hark back to the same topic but I've noticed that this dislike of Loumand shippers in the fandom - and the calling them delusion for liking Armand despite his (MANY) flaws - never extends to other Armand ships like ArmanDaniel for example.

Is it because fans feel like Loumand would interfere with their OTP and that Louis should only be with Lestat? To me, as a book reader, it really doesn't make any sense because all these characters are poly and Lestat also had many other love interests in the book including Rowan (eww) and Nicki - Nickistat is one of the biggest ships in the VC fandom, especially for book readers.

Why should Lestat be allowed to have multiple love interests but Louis can only have one? And why is Armand bad to ship with Louis but totally okay for Daniel - who btw he is horribly abusive to in the books, but fans gloss over it and ship them anyway.

I guess what I am saying is, justice for Loumand! It's a ship just as valid (and as toxic) as all the other ones in the VC.

... I'm not sure that's the reason... I mean I've said it before, the "ships" in this fandom, are all more or less canon relationships... including Loumand.

I think the whole mess comes from the show's chosen (deliberate) setup (including podcast etc here) and the sheer fact that Armand ... is Armand.

That... creates friction.

I'm not sure the other relationships have really clicked for the show-only audience yet, but they are very vocal about what they think is happening.

And that is why some people have problems with it, because there is a certain subset of fans which does not want to hear the answer... even though they're (literally) asking.

That is something that is not limited to this ship though, it's something I've noticed in the "real world" as well - an unwillingness to test ones own bias or belief, and an unwillingness to learn. The world is seen as black and white only, pun not intended.

So no, I do not think we need "justice for Loumand" calls or anything, tbh, they are a canon relationship.

And Armand / Daniel is the Devil's Minion btw :)

#Anonymous #asks #amc iwtv #iwtv #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #iwtv amc #iwtv 2022 #interview with the vampire #lestat de lioncourt #louis de pointe du lac #loustat #armand #loumand #the devil's minion #daniel molloy #the vampire chronicles #vc #vampire chronicles #ask nalyra

[incarnadinedreams]

So I finally finished reading TGCF! (The main novel, I haven't gotten to the extras yet). I watched the first season of the donghua ages ago (right after I watched what was available of the MDZS donghua at the time and before I read the MDZS novel), then started reading TGCF as the first volumes of the official English versions were releasing and fell off.

My original plan was to "catch up" through book 5 and just keep up with the official releases. As soon as I finished book 5 I immediately abandoned that plan and went straight to the fan translations (whatever, I'll still be buying the officials as they release so I don't feel too guilty about it).

Anyway, I am feeling..... surprisingly normal about this book? I enjoyed it and had fun reading it and so far have not felt any inklings of obsessive derangement over it.

(Extremely long and rambling first impressions/thoughts after a single quick read below the cut, probably not that interesting. May contain major spoilers, and sorta comparing it to MDZS and specifically JC a bit just because the comparisons get pushed a lot because of the overlap in the fandoms)

Anyway, as a Jiang Cheng Enjoyer I've fairly often seen people say things like 'you should just read TGCF, Mu Qing is actually what JC stans wish Jiang Cheng was' or 'Mu Qing is Jiang Cheng but done right' and I just....... kinda don't see it?

Anyway... Is it just me? Am I stupid and missing something?

I mean, there are some obvious parallels and MXTX very clearly has a pattern/dynamic/formula she likes with the 'best friend side characters' slot, re-used some similar surface-level descriptions for Mu Qing that had been applied to Jiang Cheng (bad-tempered, sarcastic, unlikable, good looking, etc). So I'm definitely not saying people are totally wrong for seeing a connection there.

But they didn't actually feel all that similar to me beyond a handful of traits? And not only because of the tragic lack of jilfy purple electro-whip.

I think part of the problem is that Mu Qing suffered from a serious case of "tell, don't show" in his portrayal... in the text we're being told by other characters that he's so unlikable or has such a nasty personality or is so untrustworthy... but then rarely or never actually says or does anything "on camera" to show that?

Like, this isn't "he has done nothing wrong!" in the "I shall protect this precious blorbo of my heart" way, it's in the "ummmmmm... he has actually... not done anything wrong in this situation...? And I am confused as to why these characters are reacting to him in a way that is so wildly out of proportion to what has actually happened?"

As much as I love Jiang Cheng, he does at least actually say some mean things "on screen" in the novel to earn that bad-tempered sharp-tongued characterization. I might personally think he was perfectly justified in saying about 98% of them and being pissed as hell, but at least he actually does the being angry and bitter and verbal lashing out that he's characterized with. (Though I think he actually does a lot less of it than people seem to think, as most of the time he's just being pretty normal actually. But there are some scenes at least.) Of course, conversely, Wei Wuxian does also do many more actually bad things to balance it out too and make JC's on-screen anger/reactions make a lot more sense.

But Mu Qing on the other hand... a few snippy comments and some eye rolling? Everything else always ends up being someone else baselessly accusing him based on some accidental circumstances that got cleared up with reasonable explanations. His involvement in the whole turf war over the meditation place was mostly him showing up after the rest of them had already made up their minds and he was trying to de-escalate the situation without losing the job he was using to support his mother with or creating more problems.

The only kinda bad things I think he does (be okay with the idea of using the Human Face Disease against the Yong'an people to stop it from spreading in the Xianle capital city) is one of the few things that nobody actually has any issue with him for! You could argue that it was bad to get Hua Cheng kicked out of the army... but also he was 14 and there are no actual details given and tbh that kid was kinda creepy from an outside perspective (even if I liked him)...

To be honest I'd seen a few people making vague comments about his "betrayal" in the past so I knew it was coming, but "I'm gonna go take care of my mom instead of doing these former rich fuck's laundry" was so deeply underwhelming on the betrayal scale I was like "wait, that's it?"

I mean there was not even a siege involved...? Not a single declaration of hatred? Not even a little bit of threatened torture?

Anyway, I was already still feeling some kind of way about that royal laundry situation when I got to the scene in Mt Tonglu where Mu Qing is all "I was in awe of you, you're a better person than me and I wanted to be your friend" while Xie Lian is like "um well you'd spit in someone's cup but you wouldn't poison it so I don't want you to die I guess."

I just felt sort of vaguely put off by the whole exchange and the sense of a total lack of reciprocity from Xie Lian. His whole vibe is "well I don't dislike you enough to let you die, and saving people is my thing in general so, y'know, here I am saving you."

Because what made the whole dynamic work in MDZS was how (even if the characters didn't necessarily know it about the other) they just cared about each other so much, to an absolutely unhinged degree, and that felt missing here. So even though WWX has some of the same vibe of negative or resentful opinions of JC at points, it hits different because they're laid on the backdrop of an utterly unhinged sacrifice specifically and uniquely for Jiang Cheng (which, unknown to WWX, was needed because of a more standard in type but but still unhinged sacrifice of his own that was specifically and uniquely for WWX)

I don't necessarily mind that specific relationship being different or less intense in TGCF (in fact I prefer that it's not just a copy-paste of the same characters going by different names with a bit more polish, the way some people made it sound like it would be), but the way that specific scene played out given the backdrop of how MQ keeps getting treated throughout the rest of the story just felt icky to me. Idk.

A lot of the way the characters interacted with each other just felt like the action and reactions were a little mismatched or something? Something about the behaviors involved didn't ring as painfully, horribly, clearly true to me as they did in so many MDZS scenes.

Anyway I did enjoy both Mu Qing and Feng Xin as characters, I'll definitely be indulging in some FengQing content (recs/links welcome if anyone actually read this far lol), just specifically their relationship with Xie Lian did not inspire in me even a teensy fraction of the depths of absolute feral obsession that the Yunmeng Shuangjie relationship does. It... just did not resonate that way with me. If I had to speculate (in a wild and baseless fashion, source: my ass), I think that toning down the intensity might have even been intentional on the author's part this go around.

Anyway a lot of that was mostly because the expectation of a strong parallel and deep reaction to the Xianle trio's relationship was pre-planted in my mind, and such expectations are generally always doomed to fall short anyway.

As far as the rest of the novel, like I said - it was generally quite enjoyable, I had fun reading it, I'm certainly not trying to trash it! I'd say I actually overall enjoyed the HuaLian relationship developing in the novel itself more than WangXian, in terms of how the flirting was executed. Like "what if you had an extremely dangerous and fervently obsessed stalker, but also make it cute". I don't dislike WangXian, but for me their relationship was just a fun side-plot and not what I really cared about or kept reading for. I did find the Hong-er and lantern ghost flashback scenes quite touching and sweet.

The first ~200 chapters (by the web novel serialization chapter numbers) I'd say were generally constructed better than MDZS, so I see where people say there was a bit of a level up there. The last ~40ish chapters the pacing felt kind of off to me, like there was just too much crammed in and MXTX just wanted it to be over and done with.

The 'uncovering secrets of an ancient lost empire/kingdom' type of plot is my absolute jam, my favoritest trope of all time, I actually loved the concepts there. It was like a two-for-one, since we got the learn about the fall of Xianle which scratched that itch a little bit, and then the full-on mystery aspect with Wuyong. I wish there had been more time spent on the mystery/uncovering information about Wuyong aspect of the plot rather than the answers coming relatively quickly.

Unsurprisingly in addition to Feng Xin and Mu Qing, I was a huge fan of Yushi Huang, Ling Wen, Shi Qingxuan, He Xuan, Lang Qianqiu (his adorable golden retriever energy is irresistible when combined with a Tragic Backstory), Guzi, Yin Yu, Quan Yizhen

Surprise favs were Pei Ming (I'd only seen through the donghua S1 so I kinda had him categorized in my mind as the offscreen God of Fuckboys, but ended up liking him an unreasonable amount) and Qi Rong

Anyway I had all of these thoughts while I was reading then felt a bit guilty about them when I read the postscript because I am the person she was afraid of coming over to read TGCF after MDZS :x

#rambling about tgcf #and specifically some thoughts I had about the comparisons I've seen floating around between jiang cheng and mu qing #not particularly well thought out or anything

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hey m, what's your stance on separation of the art from the artist when it comes to the artist being of a questionable character?

And on a wholly separate note, did you ever talk of Letter and Jimin and Jungkook and if there's a case for interpreting the song as most shippers have done?

Wow, that is a totally separate note there, anon 😆

But let's start with the first part of your ask. I'm sure I've written about this in the past, but my tagging system is not the best. Anyway..

What I can tell you is that there is no definitive answer. Which is probably boring because we're "supposed" to pick a side and stick to it. Regardless of our position, it's almost expected for us to be radical. I've had this exact debate so many times, with people of different ages and backgrounds. It's an ongoing debate and I really don't think there is a correct way of looking at it. I think that the more we try and move away from an abstract position and rather look at the particularities, it would be easier to understand our own arguments and how/why we choose to accept or dismiss some people. Then we also have to keep in mind what is condered questionable character. Does its definition include a general understanding of a person that is accepted all across the board? Or our own character and world views influence the way we perceive other people? And sometimes, there's another element that perhaps it's easily explicable, but in my mind, it's the one about a lack of logic. I'll give you an example. It's close to impossible for me to rewatch CMBYN because of Hammer's cannibalism allegations, more than the ones of abuse against women. I also publicly and vehemently condemn Woody Allen because I believe he is guilty of what he's been accused of, but it doesn't mean I will also never watch Annie Hall. Does that say that I'm a bad person? A hypocrite? Maybe. But it also says that I can't help but be subjective depending on each singular situation and that some of my views don't have any logic even in my own mind.

But these are extreme cases, of people who had actual charges brought against them. There are countless others that are usually accused of wide range of things, from sexism, racism, homophobia to xenophobia, you name it. Everything under the sun. Some people will not care, while others will. It's an individual choice. Not only a moral one, but economic as well.

I'd like to end this though by saying that I personally don't expect art to be made only by morally righteous people. I think that's a dangerous trap that leads to just another type of extremism.

Now, the second part, a bit more fun!

The only time I mentioned Letter was in one of my early posts on the new blog. I said it reminds me of a studio Ghibli movie but that I also have a more personal attachment to it.

I know how it's been interpreted by jikookers. I personally don't subscribe to the theory, but not for some major reason. I think it's nice Jimin had Jungkook do the backing vocals and seeing him sing during a livestream was moving. That's sort of enough for me. I think it's perfectly possible for the song to really be a letter to his fans. What I'm trying to say is that as much as it is really sweet, if it's for Jungkook or not, it doesn't have a major bearing on my opinion regarding them.

But I want to be very clear that just because I believe that, it doesn't mean I have an issue or condemn any jikooker who believes in the theory that it's a song for JK and about them. It's a harmless theory that is not based on any toxic or weird narrative. People should be free to talk about it, without having condescending anons or bloggers making fun of it or even criticising it too harshly. I've seen that happen a lot after the album was released.

P.S. Anon, I just saw your second ask. I'd rather stick to my answer as it is now, without going into any RM specifics as of today. I'm not in the mood for that.

#m thoughts #art discourse #jikook #jimin letter

[pucksandpower]

hi natalia! i hope life has been treating you well and that you're doing amazing. i wanted to say, i love your account so very much! everytime i go through the f1 tags on here i'm alway searching for your username among the fics and safe to say is you have never ever disappointed me. when i first got into the fandom you were definitely one of the blogs that really hooked me in. oh girl you don't know how ecstatic i was going through your masterlist, i literally felt like i was camping in that one post going through everything in one night. still, even now i love going back and reading it again because that little spark of joy i feel clicking the links to every au is the reason i love to be on tumblr!

you never fail to deliver an insanely good level of world building like this is kind of surreal to me, because you give us such a fresh and wonderfully blissful take on social media au's. it's super cool to see you explore all types of medias like articles, blogs, twitter, instagram, youtube videos—i feel like you've used EVERYTHING girl. all your posts are sooo long and idt people realize how much work you have to put in to make a cohesive story like that?? + using all sorts of outlets ur an actual beast at this wow. and it's not just the way you deliver it, it's also all the ideas that you have. i'm a huge sucker for the deep lore ones that are like the ones involving racing teams and stuff. it's so great to see your takes on real time events and how it could've been if this or that happens. the readers are also of so much variety, i hope you keep doing that bc it adds a lot of potential and spice into the story. royal au is also sooo good! your account to me is basically girlhood personified. i'm always so immersed in it that i forget i'm reading an au... that really shows your effort in the work you put out. i can tell the time you spent crafting these pieces i mean WHO goes this far and wide if not pucksandpower?? ur the backbone of my mental health i would've gone in the trenches if it weren't for you... that's my mother ya'll. there is not one fic of yours that does not have me at the toes of my feet, all giddy to click the "keep reading" button. i wish for you to know that i, and i'm sure many others who follow you, really appreciate all the work you put in! i'm lowkey like suspicious with how real and professional some of the articles you make are bc how is that not something that would come out of an actual blog? 😭

AND OHHHMYGOOOD you are doing god's work for feeding my delusions on giving charles leclerc the team that he deserves. seeing the newey reader fic, that was when i knew you were ON to something like this girl is special she's doing all the research.. babe you could be the new damn chief tech officer if you wanted to i mean. you are operating in levels that we can't even comprehend?? one step ahead in everything. when i read your cl stuff in my heart i'm rooting for this man so bad and like if this isn't happening irl at least pucksandpower got my back like... you know what they say about delusions=manifestations so if we keep this up yall i believe it can be real trust me i've seen it in my head....

i'm sure there's a lot more that i want to say but anyways, i'm really glad that i ever found your blog and i look forward to future works you're gonna put out! cheering for you always and please take care of yourself, xx ❤️

Hi, my love! Thank you so much. I totally teared up reading this and I am not the slightest bit ashamed to admit it. Every single thing I post is crafted with love — I do it because I love working on them and because I love being able to make my fellow fans happy through my work. There truly is no more rewarding feeling. I have posted a whopping 119 fics/imagines/AUs on here and typing that number out really made me realize how crazy that is and how far I have come since I started this blog back in November

I can’t lie, sometimes the research and time I put into each of my works can feel overwhelming at first but I am always proud of the end product and especially happy to share it with you all. Some are lighthearted fun and I can have them completed in a few hours while others run deeper and can take me days upon days to finish. I truly want to build a mini immersive world through each of my AUs and I am so happy that you have been able to get that experience through them

Also I like to say that delusions make the world go round (and help keep us sports fans semi-sane) so I am more than happy to contribute on that end

Thank you again because your words mean so much to me! I can’t wait to share more work with you. Have an amazing day 🫶