#be like honestly not really. and its so sad to be basically completely cut off from that entire side of my family and myself especially when

[bitchthefuck1]

Talking to my dad after listening to Unreal Unearth like

#like i know the reason is that he only ever spoke it in school and never learned it that well to begin with but like. really? not even a few #basic words? #idk ive been reflecting a lot on my cultural identity in the last few years and how my mom made sure to immerse us in her culture as much as #humanly possible and maintain that connection to her home and how it's a much bigger part of my identity than i realized #and on the other hand my dad did none of that and had no real interest in sharing that with us (not intentionally hes just emotionally #unavailable) so there's this whole side of my family and my history that I don't really feel connected to at all #like there have been a few times where someone in my dads family has asked me if i 'feel irish' and they always seem so sad when I have to #be like honestly not really. and its so sad to be basically completely cut off from that entire side of my family and myself especially when #i can compare it to the joy and connection i have in my moms side #like my dad is incapable of talking about a feeling and now all his children and anyone who comes after us will have zero connection to the #country they lived in for generations. #idk i just have some Feelings about this that unreal unearth brought back up #esp butchered tongue #thanks hozier #(seriously thank u 11/10 album)

[system-of-a-feather]

(more programming / TBMC / RAMCOA talk; nothing too heavy, same as last post, we just put it under the cut for ourselves cause these topics don't benefit most parts to engage with and thus we kept it off our own notifications)

But honestly, lately with how far into recovery we are and how much on and off fusing with XIV has stabilized me a lot more and made me a lot more clear with who I am and all that shit, I've largely been thinking a lot on the shit I've been through and all the parts I've been, cause at this point, I'm really trying to reconnect with my scattered subsystem parts.

Less so "scattered" and more so long lost because - for those that don't know / havent followed - like nine months or so ago an old version of myself that went by Data just kind of imploded under a lot of stress, pressure, trauma, and self destructive loops that were set off by the way we were healing and what not.

It was honestly really fucked up and a really unfair cause we were genuinely trying really hard to be "a good part" but programming and shit kept had us between "literally dying and at complete overload" or "doing shit that hurts ourselves and the system" and so we'd always just end up doing shit that caused problem and honestly, we had done everything we could to remove ourselves in that form from the picture in a healthy and failed multiple times - and so it was honestly kinda super fucked that when trying to stop existing, we instead shattered into like 4 or 5 parts

But in the end of it, I was a part that existed as a complete - for lack of better words - "burn out" and very extreme "turned off" response to the programs that were being regularly triggered prior to self implosion and it was a huge mess at first, but it ended up with me becoming the host of that subsystem and really? As much hell as it was, the implosion and generation of another subsystem really I think disconnected a lot of the experiences we had as Data and managed to shut down a number of parts to actually let me develop beyond just a "burnt out" state.

And in hindsight? It really worked because while I'm still Data, still part of that heavily and completely fucked programmed original part, I was "generated" in a state of literally being unable to deal with anything and as a part to cope with that and with space, really became a more developed part who is centered around the ability to cope and deal with what we were programmed to do and to.... NOT do that.

And now that I'm a lot more stable and full of a part, I honestly can go back and collect and look back at our experiences of how things have happened and how each part felt and worked and put things back together. At this point I hold almost everything Data originally did. I can look back and replay things and understand things and understand where everything came from, but I'm *not* Data - I'm Chunn (everyone in the brain says I should start spelling it Cheng or at least claim that as my secret Chinese name because its pronounced the same but I like the Chunn spelling so they can fuck off /hj)

And in that sense, the thing Data wanted so bad - to not be here and to not be in the way and to have anything but chronic stress and trauma responses and to just not cause problems for everyone in a desperate attempt to feel safe again - while it's not at all in the way he wanted or imagined it to be, he - we - got it. I don't resemble him much at all anymore, and that's sad in it's own way, but at the same time, is that not the very wish itself? To be ourselves but in a form we created and not in the form someone else created us for?

Anyways, these days it's kind of funny cause I basically serve a roll for the system that is the OPPOSITE of what we were programmed to do and while other parts are not as "impacted" as I was, I do end up sitting here and looking at the "less impacted" parts and go "Okay well that came from this shit I did and you don't notice it but that behavior of yours is intended to synergize (negatively) with what I was programmed to do so I'm going to tell you that I don't want to participate in that"

Cause as much as we were the overtly programmed part, I'm really realizing that it neither started nor ended with me and it really is oddly nice to be able to look at that and help in detangling this garbage.

And not to go into the details for safety reasons, but recently our therapist asked a question to Riku / Fei as to why we were doing XYZ and not another thing that would be more in character for them - and at the time they came up with some round about reason and explanation to which I had to ask, when they were thinking about it the next day, ".... is it not just because [feeling and condition that I know was an active major trigger]? Because you know you can state that and that is a perfectly valid and healthy thing to say. You are allowed to think that." and the genuine level of which they seemed to very hesitantly state it to themselves as if they were afraid to Set Something Off - it just really clicked something with me.

Cause that would have been me. That would have been me that would have been set off. That would have been me that would have changed that thought into a borderline / active crisis and/or mess that would be far more stress than just compliance to the programming. And in this moment, not only was I NOT being Set Off by it, but I was encouraging them to try it again despite many many many years of reinforced "if you do that you will regret it"

And it's really kind of nice to see. I can't think as original Data would, I barely can comprehend just how stuck that version of me was - they were so deeply intertwined in the programming its unfathomable even though it was me and I have the memories of it. Thus, I can't say "Data would be happy and proud to see where we've come", but I would like to think - even in the hell they were in - that theyd be comforted to know where we ended up.

But I digress. I felt like sharing this most of today cause man have we come far.

#alter: chunn #programming tw #programming #ramcoa tw #ramcoa #tbmc tw #tbmc #chill to reply if you like #im mostly rambling #recovery #healing

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Jane Crocker

Submission reason:

OKAY SO BASICALLY in homestuck canon jane is the heiress to this big giant (evil) corporation. but over all she's fairly kind and does her best to be a good friend (albeit she's skeptical and bad at stating what she needs from people until she gets angry). then the homestuck epilogues just. DECIDED to make her irredeemable? and evil? and a xenophobic capitalist who's lowkey taking over the world? like... a big thing was her relation with the big bad (who literally STRANGLED HER, MIND CONTROLLED HER, and more). and then they just decided ""yeah she's basically that now""? like come on she doesn't deserve that.

Became a genocidal xenophobic dictator in the epilogues. The comic gives John a tearful reunion with her dad and she gets nothing

Anyone who read Homestuck^2 knows that she was uh. Made into a racist cheater in the sequel. So there could be another villain. She wasn't perfect in the og material but christ that's outright character assassination.

hi im the sane person that sent that super long jade harley submission. anyway before i start i need to point out that jane is one of my fave characters and i love her so in the original comic all i have to say about her is that she didnt get a finished arc which is sad . shes basically a super sheltered heiress to a baking empire and as a result she has a lot of pressures on her to act in a certain way and her arc was about like breaking free from that i guess. so like for example she was expected to be super fem and be a girlboss housewife because her evil alien grandma was trying to manipulate her into being the perfect heiress but once jane gets into the game shes like naw fuck that and becomes awesomely butch & wears a moustache. i dont have anything against the crockerteir part of her arc (in summary it was a part where she got mind controlled by her grandma and temporarily regressed to the star pf her arc but like ten times worse and also evil) cause i think its a necessary part of her arc and low points are important for conflict .

HOWEVER it kind of just… ended there. like arquius freed her from the mind control and then she flew off with jasprose and then her story just ended there with no further development which like sucked because it wouldve been a good point to like jump off of and give her an actual finished arc but it was sooooo rushed and skipped over which is a shame because i found her story to be really interesting and then it just ENDED right after the arcs low point instead of ending like a normal arc and having more progression after the low point. it sounds nitpicky but honestly if you read the comic jane and the other 3 of her friends get such abrupt ends to their stories it was like the author realised the webcomic was too long and just cut it short early. i forgive them for that though. there are a ton of characters in the comic and even though jsne was technically the protagonist for half of the comic I understand that the author was juggling like 100 different characters. HOWEVER this bad ending for jane left a door open… for the worst writing decision ive seen in my life… in the homestuck dubious canon sequels (‘fanfiction’ written by the a team of people including the comics original author, available on the homestuck.com site and therefore relevant to this conversation despite their dubiously canonical nature) JANE WAS ABSOLUTELY BUTCHERED IN THE SEQUELS!!! they completely stripped her of her of all of her character development that happened in the original story and they turned her into a villain. they made her into a human version of her evil alien grandma. this was ABSOLUTELY caused by the fact that her arc ended abruptly right after the crockertier mind control thing and also caused by the fact that people in the fandom didnt like her cause there was a scene where 2/3 of her friends didnt show up for her birthday so she got sad and yelled at her other friend and then immediately apologised and everyone thought she was evil for doing that😭 anyway so in hse&hs2 jane was turned into an evil xenophobic dictator that started a war against the trolls for some reason and also they made her wear pencil skirts which is so messed up cause she needs to wear trousers she butch… get her out of that.

the also took away her epic moustache :(. its just really sad because its such a stupid direction for her character to go in i dont get how they could just reverse her character like that out of the blue for no reason. oh wait yes i can get it… its cause shes a GIRL and the homestuck 2 writers hate women (refer to my jade harley submission) . half joking about that. jane was a great character and then in the sequel they made her evil and racist and turned her into a complete other character because they wanted conflict but they killed off the evil alien grandma lady in the original comic so they just took jane and made her into the evil alien grandma because people didnt like jane so they knew no one would notice how much they fucked her up.

UGH! worst part was that they made her straight in homestuck2 as if she wasnt a huge lesbian in the original like she literally called a crazy magical catgirl lesbian hot and then flew off into space with her and they hung out for the rest of the story before her arc got cut short and then they had to audacity to make her marry a dude in the sequel. fuck everything 😡😡😡SHES A LESBIAOOONNNN it’s literally gay erasure cause the writing team of the sequel didnt like her 💀💀💀😭😭😭AAAARUHHHH

*gestures at all of Homestuck 2*

Propaganda:

btw post-canon had no right making her that heterosexual. that woman is a lesbian and it needs to be said.

Oh! No. :)

jane is the best

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my girl #jane crocker #hs jane #homestuck jane #homestuck

[lateleviathan]

just finished pretty cure splash star and goddamn did this show stick the landing. the whole season really just felt like the writers saying "okay we've done this twice already, we know what we're doing now"

(info dump below the cut)

basically every aspect of the show was refined from futari wa and max heart, especially the fights. the fights in futari/max could be good but they tended to have the problem of nagisa and honoka just whipping out the marble screw whenever they wanted and winning instantly, making every fight feel like this.

(there were exceptions, like the final fight against poisony where she kept dodging so they had to use her hair as conductor to finally hit her. that fight impressed me so much its permanently burned into my brain).

splash star sidesteps this question almost completely by always having saki and mai be winning BEFORE they use their finisher. they have to create an opening or the splash blast wont hit, which makes each episode's monster of the week fight that much more interesting. (though in the second half of the show they do have a similar problem with their super forms, where moop and foop sometimes just forget they exist to be power ups until the writer decides pretty cure is done getting their asses kicked, making every other fight feel like this)

the villain minions were also consistently interesting, as opposed to futari wa where the first set of villains were interesting but the set in the second half were boring as hell, or max heart where the villains were better than the second half of its predecessor but still pretty boring for the most part. it also helped that the villains were rolled out one at a time and were the only threat until they were killed, at which point the heroes could restore one of the fountains. this really helped to give the series a sense of progression because something tangible was being accomplished every 7 or so episodes. futari wa had this in the first half with the prism stones, but completely lacked that in the second half. max heart tried to do this with the heartiels but they were so disconnected from the villains that they felt more like a side plot as opposed to like the point of the show. it also made it fun when the last batch of episodes had them all revive and team up and we finally got to see how they played off of each other as teammates. that bossrush finale really let splash star have its cake and eat it too in that regard.

also michiru and kaoru are just a way better version of kiriya, like that whole plot was just so much more thought out and satisfying. i still have no idea whats going on with kiriya after his "death" but michiru and kaoru had me crying in the last episode. their addition to the team in the last 8 episodes really felt like practice for the bigger group fight the franchise would focus on going forward, and you can tell from the choreography that they didn't really know what to do with double the heroes. thankfully they figured it out for the final battle. (awkward team choreography pictured below)

speaking of, goddamn those last 2 episodes really were just dragon ball z with magical girls, down to the big bad growing super muscley when he powers up to 100%. this is not a complaint, in fact its high praise that they did this while still feeling congruent with the rest of the show. honestly, i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. like max heart's finale blew me away and i think this was at least on par with that.

all that said, i do think saki and mai are weaker characters than nagisa and honoka. i dont hate them, in fact i grew to love them and am sad to see them go, but they still didnt quite measure up.

for mai it doesn't feel like she gets a lot to do outside of being saki's friend. like she joins the art club but thats only relevant in two maybe three episodes, as opposed to honoka's science club which probably had 6 or more episodes per show (though maybe im misremembering). i thought her being an artsy girl as opposed to honoka's stem girl swag would help differentiate the two, and her art in general does come up often enough, but she still plays the smarter, quieter one next to saki so it doesn't really change much of the protag pair's dynamic.

saki feels even more like nagisa, basically all their personality traits are identical. sporty, big eaters, has the obligatory straight crush, kinda dumb but social and fun. really the biggest difference is that saki isnt as good at her chosen sport (and i love that her team loses the championship, great episode, but even getting to the championship makes this distinction smaller). i like her obligatory hetero crush slightly more if only because it gets less attention than nagisa's, with i think only three dedicated episodes (that said, he should have had a girlfriend instead of it being a fakeout. they dont actually get together anyway and it would have made a good pair with the championship episode for the theme of "you dont always get what you want but thats okay").

still i think splash star was a stronger show overall than futari wa or max heart. i think those first two had a few higher highs, but splash star had less lows. its more consistently good.

so if you for some reason read all this but haven't watched Pretty Cure Splash Star, i definitely recommend it if you enjoy kids' shows. honestly its probably even better if you haven't watched the original futari wa pretty cure, since my main complaints were it not differentiating itself enough from its predecessors.

now to see how yes precure 5 stacks up

#precure #splash star #futari wa pretty cure splash star #pretty cure #i wouldve added more gifs and videos but theres a per post limit

[shadowflash]

Back to writing about FEW3H you guys. Yaaaay! 🎉

Anyway, going to talk a little bit about the Buddhist vs. Catholic conflict portrayed through the beef Shez + Arval and Byleth + Sothis have with each other. But I mostly want to discuss how the game takes us players through different cycles of life (each playthrough of a route) with a grander goal of escaping it and approaching heaven.

Like, the Yaaay Byllie route (commonly dubbed as the “true” ending for what I think are ultimately uninformed reasons) could actually read as a transcendence from Samsara / escape from the cycle of life and death -> journey towards heaven / Nirvana (Byleth’s unique advanced class) through a very literal companionship with its manifestation, while the Kill Byllie route follows into another turning of the wheel (the next playthrough).

Spoilers will obviously be discussed under the cut -

Let’s preface this discussion with: I admittedly have a very rudimentary understanding of Buddhist and Catholic principles. I know just enough to allow myself to form the connections between these characters. if I’m missing out on something vital or any cool details feel free to let me know.

Let it be said:

Shez + Arval = Representatives of Buddhist concepts

Arval / Epimenides exists as the “Keeper of Cycles” (According to their title in FE:H) and how they often speak of protecting “this cycle” would lend itself to something about protecting the cycle of life and death--”Samsara” if you will.

Given their intertwined being and mirror to Byleth + Sothis, Shez is also, well, a part of the whole thing.

Byleth + Sothis = Representatives of Catholic concepts / Simultaneously a manifestation of Heaven+Nirvana

Do I even need to say anything about the Catholic aspect of their whole thing. No.

The “Enlightened One” class is a localization of Byleth’s unique advanced class name “Nirvana”.

Now that that is out of the way, like, yeah. Buddhism vs. Catholicism ideas plus some. Wooo yeaaah! Now what.

Well I think, depending on how you approach Byleth recruitment, you (the player) are basically committing to reliving the cycle or escaping it / approaching Nirvana. In completely siding with Arval, you reject Nirvana and you perpetuate the cycle of life/death through Samsara. In forming bonds with Byleth, you approach Nirvana through them and reject Samsara.

In this perspective, I think the game does a halfway-decent job of portraying the violent cycle of life through Three Hopes’ inconclusive endings. Like, no matter what you do the war effort basically continues / there is no sort of peace that is comparable to the endings of Three Houses. Like, if we’re meant to see things like that then I’m not as pissed off over the fact that they’re, well, inconclusive. Making friends with Byleth doesn’t really change much either so the cycle might arguably turn again but that whole thing reads as a writing oversight.

All this being said, I want to make it clear that i don’t think this makes Arval/Epimenides bad person? I do think this view makes it easier to understand their role as a companion-turned-enemy by the end of the Yaaay Byllie route. Like, at the end of the day, they’re trying to sustain their and Shez’s lives through the cycle they defend. The fact that you can side with them is pretty neat. Just as you can accept Nirvana (kill Arval), you can reject it (yaaay Arval) and live out a sort of immortality through them without it.. being too bad of a deal honestly. Shez gets sad over killing Byleth but it’s not really that big of a deal in the grander events of each route. the wheel turns once more but we’re already accustomed to it. What if I like living in Samsara huh. Like, honestly yeah the grand goal is to escape Samsara but it’s nice that we, the playerbase, have the choice to do one thing or the other. It’s also kind of metal to decide that you would constantly relive the Hell that is being alive just to hangout with your partner in destiny. I’m biased because I love them. Anyway: D’aww so cutes. Actually it’s not like Arval/Epimenides is dead anyway like they just fuse with Shez in the same way Byleth and Sothis do in Three Houses so -> You, in a sense, liberate both Shez and Arval from the tortures of Samsara. This is how we win.

There could actually be something said about how Byleth keeps Sothis around? But like, they have the same pastel green hair they got from nearly exploding in Zahras / ‘losing’ Sothis back in Three Houses so like..? Hm. Well. Idk. Idk. If Arval is still technically around Post-Zahras then they’re just taking the backseat in supporting Shez like Sothis did in Three Houses. I’ll pick this up later. Maybe.

This is where I make it clear that I got tired of writing this. I had more to say about how Arval, through their moments of insight to Shez, could possibly be interpreted as having vague memories of previous cycles and that’s a whole thing that fits in this discussion but I don’t have too much to say about it beyond pointing it out. Hopefully the point was made. Look at this picture that reminds me of Arval/Epimenides now:

If you’re familiar with my other essays ramblings here, you will probably notice that with this, I’ve gotten over my hang-ups re: Byleth as a character in fandom contexts / Shezleth as a pairing (#ShezToppings I smile for you). We’re cool now. Yay Byllie. I love mercenary SEX. It’s really true: Without love, the truth cannot be seen.

The writers of these games are ass at their job btw but now I have closure.

And I still think 3Hopes > 3Houses because Shez and Arval are here and I love them to bits. And you can kill Rhea in Golden Wildfire which is cool.

#fire emblem three hopes #arval #epimenides fe #shez #byleth eisner #sothis #few3h

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess -- Rant and I guess Review/breakdown, I don't know, I'm not sure what I was trying to do with this post, but its here if anyone's interested

Spoilers for Zodiac Academy Book 4: Shadow Princess. Skip this post if you don't want spoilers

Okay, first I'm going to preface this with Zodiac Academy 3: The Reckoning, despite its flaws, is an experience to say the least. Despite my rant on it, it was still a fun time. We had moments that made me happy, made me sad, made me mad, made me wonder how these characters can possibly be functioning adults with how nauseatingly dumb they are. All in all, didn't hate it, the ending kind of spurned me on to keep on chugging with this series. I like trash and I like books with vibes; I won't apologize for it.

Now, I had a completely different experience with Zodiac Academy 4: Shadow Princess. Oddly named considering the book doesn't have a whole lot to do with her, I mean, she's there, just kind of in the back of everyone's mind and she comes out every once in a while to remind us that she's a plot point I guess but nothing really happens with her until the very end. Very little of what happens in this book correlates to what happens with her at the end of the book. Honestly, you could've cut her out of this book and left her for the next one. This book should probably have ended after the nymph attack on Christmas at the palace with basically all of Solaria now knowing that the twins are in fact phoenixes who will become exponentially more powerful than the Heirs, let the community stew in that and end it there. And then in book 5 start really digging into the Shadow Realm and the Shadow Princess. But instead, in this book she makes weird appearances randomly throughout the book with very little payoff for anyone to actually care that she's around (almost like the authors forgot about her while they were writing and just inserted her randomly so they could have a cliffhanger ending). So there's one gripe but another gripe was omg, this book was so frustrating to read. Not that it was necessarily boring, but there were definitely some boring moments in it. It was just so long-winded in everything it did, it takes entirely too long to get to the point. So much so, that I had to turn the audio book off and get the book on Kindle Unlimited so I can skim through everything to actually get to the meat of what was going on. And then beyond that, the characters were pointlessly dumb, their thought process, their emotions, even the plot points were so ridiculously contrived. It was rough to say the least.

I'd say I enjoyed the book up until the Halloween party, from there the book just goes bananas and everyone's plans from the Halloween party to the rest of the book makes no sense. Like the Heirs come up with this really dumb plan to embarrass the Twins by making them drink these potions so they would essentially act out behaviors that the media has been making false stories regarding them about. So Darcy drinks a potion that makes her think there's ravens all around her so she's talking to ravens but nobody else sees the ravens so they think she's insane and talking to nobody. And then Tori essentially is given probably the Fae version of a date-rape drug so her inhibitions would be lowered and she essentially was tossing herself around every dude with a heartbeat so it would appear that she has a sex addiction (but hey, at least Darius gave her the antidote before any of these men could take advantage of her; Darius ever the gentleman, am i right? ech, that whole scene made me want to barf, and he wonders why Tori would prefer to be Star Crossed than be mated to him, gee i wonder why, couldn't possibly be because he put her in a situation where he had absolute control and she none whatsoever). And beyond these guys you know drugging these girls to get desired behaviors to embarrass them, I don't really understand how they thought this plan would work. The idea was that by doing this, the Heirs were trying to bring down the Twins' support system i.e. their friends to really ostracize them. But Darcy blatantly remembers Seth giving her the potion so their friends are all like, "yeah, you were drugged, those weren't your normal behaviors". The only thing that this plan actually did successfully do was put them in a negative light with the public outside of the school but its not like these girls would really care about that. They've said time and time again, they don't want the throne. Its the Heirs that insist on playing this politics game with them. So yeah, their plan sucked, they ultimately ended up regretting it. And I'm a little skeptical on whether or not these potions should actually have worked on the twins considering the nature of the phoenix order being impervious to outside mental fuckery, i guess because they ingested these potions it made them susceptible maybe to being messed with like this, i don't know, there's no world building in these books, I have no idea how any thing works in the Fae world in this universe.

Then we have this ridiculously contrived plot where the twins are in a fight with each other which was dumb. Tori's mad at Darcy because Darcy doesn't want to attack the Heirs for what they did. But Tori doesn't know about Darcy's relationship with Orion and that Seth is holding that over Darcy's head, so she can't attack the Heirs without putting Orion at risk. Not for a second did I legitimately believe that if these were well-written characters would this fight have occurred. Tori would have realized something was up with Darcy, she knows her sister better than anyone, she knows how selfless Darcy can be so why she wasn't reading between the lines I don't get. Also Darcy not just telling Tori about her and Orion after Seth found out was really dumb. You two have kept so many secrets from the Heirs, Tori would have kept that secret too, Seth would never have found out that she knew. And Tori ultimately ends up finding out anyway in the most bizarre way possible. By Orion kissing Tori thinking she was Darcy?! Like what?! Orion, dude, you have been lusting over Darcy since you met her, you do not have the same reaction with Tori's physical appearance and you've now had many intimate encounters with Darcy and you still can't tell them apart other than by their hair? What kind of fated mate are you?! You're also a vampire, I feel like you should know what Darcy smells like and how that differs from Tori, you've drank blood from both of them. Also, don't get me wrong, I love Orion, he's probably my favorite of the main male characters. I love Orion and Darcy, I think they're super cute (even though I typically don't go in for the student/teacher relationship). But they're so dumb too, like you were already caught once, barely managed to cover your asses, and then you went out and did the exact same thing that got you caught the first time and by the number 1 person it would suck to have been caught by, Seth.

And Seth, my man, is anything going to be done about this dude's assholery, I feel like they're making strides in attempting to redeem the Heirs, but Seth, he just get worse with every single book. Like he clearly has a thing for Darcy, and he's all like "why won't she like me and be with me"? Maybe because you're a fucking dick to her who chopped off her hair and continuously beats her up. He's basically the equivalent of a 4th grader who hits the girl he likes because he doesn't know how to express his feelings.

And then we got this whole Shadow Princess thing going on where its eventually revealed that the Shadow Princess is Orion's sister Clara who we thought had tragically died some years ago when Lionel sacrificed her to the Shadow Realm. And by some weird contrived plot point, Clara can somehow come back from the Shadow Realm on the New Years I think. There's a special spell or something they have to do to create a portal to create a bridge Clara can use to cross-over from the Shadow Realm into the Fae realm. And as a side note, any mention of the Shadow Realm in these books, I cannot take seriously, I just keep thinking about Yu-Gi-Oh the entire time. But anyway, everyone's all like, yes! lets free Clara who has been in the Shadow Realm for the past half a decade. Not a single person thinking, hey, are we sure this is Clara? Clara's been in there for a while, how do we know this is still her or that you know, she hasn't turned evil because you know she's been hanging out with a bunch of dead fae who are also lost in the shadow realm? And then we're supposed to be surprised when she does make it back to our world and does in fact turn out to be evil? or at least crazy?

In this book, there was just a lot of contrived bullshit happening with not nearly enough critical thinking happening to level it out. Nevertheless, I will probably still continue with the series, I'm a die hard BlueLance shipper, I gotta keep reading for them, you know. Also Max and Geraldine are pretty cute too. Now that I've skimmed through most of the book, I think I'll go back to the audio book, finish it and then give myself maybe a week break before going into book 5. I am trying to take my time because book 9 isn't out yet and these authors write like the Shadowhunters writing room, they get to the climax of the book and then they just abruptly end with no aftermath to tie the book together or anything.

#zodiac academy #zodiac academy book 4 #zodiac academy shadow princess #zodiac academy book 4 shadow princess

[dizzblaine]

Saints Row Reboot thoughts under the cut on the off chance anyone cares about spoilers and etc.

Gonna preface this by saying that while I’m not horrifically mad about it like some weirdos are, I’m definitely not going to sugarcoat what I think of the final product at least in terms of its story, themes, and just overall tone.

Alrighty then, here we go.

Right off the bat I’m just gonna say that this didn’t work as an origin story whatsoever. I know there has been a lot of talk about the main four and how they act, and if any of it feels like pandering, yadda yadda yadda. I honestly don’t really mind it all that much. I think they’re perfectly fine (at least everyone but The Boss). But if this is to work as an origin story then I don’t want to come in to an already-established dynamic between the four because it straight up feels like getting invited into a group chat that’s been going on for like a year or two, and you’re just soooo incredibly lost with it all.

Not having them as tight knit as they are at the start would have greatly benefited the apparent story they were going for. And that’s something else I feel like I need to address immediately. By the end of the game (final three or so missions) you’re suddenly given all this stuff about The Boss being told (or even thinking themselves) how shitty of a friend they are. How they could have been more supportive. So on and so forth. And it weirded me the hell out because it honestly came out of nowhere. No buildup. No prior discussion or even moment to reflect on their standing within the group. It’s like we’re missing a bunch of scenes.

And that’s actually a big thing about the game; it feels like a bunch of scenes are missing to beef up the plot or really give us anything of substance. The entirety of it feels like a general outline of what they wanted to do with the story, but then wound up forgetting to add really much of anything. Honest to god I wouldn’t be surprised if something behind the scenes kept them from focusing on it all that much. But that’s just a guess on my part. I have no concrete evidence or much information to tell me in the first place. It’s just a general feeling.

The lack of substance also affects the rival gangs and the “main antagonist’ as well. Little time is spent learning anything of note with the Panteros, the Idols, and Marshall. We have moments here and there to see how they work, how their leaders are, and to get at least the most basic of basic understanding. It’s really sad because while I won’t say that the original series really dove in that deep with some of their antagonists, the screentime each of them received is LEAGUES better than the tiny scraps we’re given throughout the reboot’s story.

And the same goes for the Nahualli. To me he’s a character that they could have done soooo much more with instead of reducing him to a pseudo plot device because we needed someone to be the “final boss”. The potential to have a sort of mentor character come in and show these kids how to really start running a criminal empire and become gangsters, only to then betray their leader and have that be the catalyst in making them an absolutely ruthless force of nature would have been decently solid!

But unfortunately all we get are a few missions to show him off cause before you know it, you’re already at the grand finale of the game and he’s like weirdly obsessed in wanting to take your friends and make them his own. Sloppiest heel turn ever. It’s such a shame and I feel like it takes away from the impact he could have had on the story and characters.

I wish I could go in deeper talking about the overall plot, but like I genuinely have nothing to work with here. Any potential discussion about late stage capitalism and its effects on younger generations is completely absent aside from some nods towards it and a few jokes. If anything the entire thing about being a broke grunt who barely scrapes by and has student loans to pay feels so trivial in the grand scheme of things. Especially when by the end of the game it’s almost completely forgotten about.

And don’t get me wrong. When it comes to the first two games any and all commentary is very surface level at best. But here’s the thing, it’s still there! You can see it plain as day! The reboot has really nothing to offer or show other than reminding us all that we have bills to pay and are probably in debt.

Like if you wanted to make a point about how these people in positions of power take advantage of others and ultimately ruin any sense of financial stability or even the ability to live in the first place, then do it! Go for broke! It doesn’t have to be particularly insightful. But at the very least use these rival gangs to showcase the different kinds of structures that all work in similar but varying ways in order to fuck over the little guy.

But by all means, if you go down that route then please make the Saints look like absolute bastards in their pursuit of personal freedom and the like. It’s another issue I have with the depiction of the gang and the main four themselves. They never truly had that moment where they started acting more and more like pricks. You can have them be friendly with each other and their crew since they’re all working under one banner. But they gotta be assholes. Do some morally grey shit (the actual kind). I don’t care. I just don’t want this feeling like the whole basis of forming a gang in this game is to have an excuse for the violence and chaos. It’s far too clean in my eyes. Almost feels like Border/lands in a way to me. Which I know sounds weird, but the way violence and the sort is depicted in those games always felt more glossed up in my eyes.

One other thing I want to quickly mention is the incredibly sparse use of Spaghetti Western themes across the game. It was almost to be expected given the setting that they would use this genre in some way or another. Sadly that only seems to be the case at the very end of the game where after sooooo long of a wait, they finally set the scene and let The Boss have a duel.

It’s nothing special. It’s very basic. Not even memorable in the least bit outside of the fact that someone probably went “oh yeah, shit. we should probably do that”.

Honestly, I’ve been working on this for a few hours now and seem to find myself losing the motivation to talk more about it. Like the plot’s just barely there and kinda sucks. What more can I add? It’s just a shame because I truly felt like they could have turned things around and make something that was worth my time investing into like I did playing SR2 all those years ago. Sadly that wasn’t going to be the case, whether due to production issues, a lack of focus on polishing things up, or who knows what.

All I can say is that I hope by any chance—a miracle, really—that they can pick things up if they ever get the greenlight to do a sequel. If anything I can at least use this as inspiration for my own ideas regarding the series.

Anyway, sorry if this was too much of a mess. I really had no idea how I wanted to structure this at all, except to just let loose and ramble off about everything I felt. There’s still DLC coming up in the future, so expect me to talk about that at some point or another. Till then I just wanna say thank you to anyone who might have read the entirety of this thing. I really do care about this series a lot and want it to do well. I truly do. Just a real shame to see things play out this way.

#Purple Gangster Talking

[pearlaqua-eevee]

TYBW ep 22 liveblog under the cut

(after writing it, this has basically just become me capslocking over the opening scene so. Heres that)

So I legit just watched that whole scene before the intro, forgetting I had to actually TYPE THINGS

new broody shot of Uryu first off, and actually I'm seeing so many parallels to his and Ichigo's first meeting

I feel like theyre downplaying Ichigo's angst slightly but also...hes compartmentalizing probably, which shows how much hes changed from the start. He's prob still shocked but hes dealing

also Chad. I love Chad so much. Just everything he says here, his reactions, THE SMILE WHEN ICHIGO SAYS "i'll still smack him and drag him back"!! "he mustve had a good reason" I love that hes not saying "Uryus not against us". He's saying that he is. But expressing TRUST IN URYU AS A PERSON. Sado you absolute angel. And even "what if you agree". Like yes, go off being the quiet observant philosopher you are, I love you!!!

"Yeah, I know. I've known it all along. It's been on my mind ever since this war began. If this is a battle between Soul Reapers and Quincies, that would make me and Ishida..." Shoutout to the VA for the quiet subdued way Ichigo is speaking because I CAN feel the heaviness of it. And that Ichigo knew probably around the same time Uryu actually made his decision... The idea that on top of the Soul Society being attacked--twice--and that training he did at the Soul Palace, thats been in the back of his mind, something he anticipated...and yet it still hurt him so bad that he was completely frozen when it did happen. Because he was holding out hope it wouldnt. FUCK ME

NOT THE FLASHBACKS. FFS

"Ishida is...He's our friend." OH. THE FORESHADOWED PARALLEL. THEY REALLY JUST MADE ICHIGO SAY THAT, WITH THE SAME LOOK UP AND EVERYTHING SCREEEEEE

yall know I love the enemies-to-best-friends/family tropes with my entire heart. THEYRE FAMILY AND I WILL SCREAM OVER EVERY PARALLEL

"I dont know if he feels the same way though" that fucking hurts though. Just the casual way its said but also, giving Uryu that little bit of doubt. Basically Ichigo just said "hes free to make his own choices but hes my friend regardless, even if he doesnt seen it that way" Quite honestly Uryu could probably shoot to kill and still be forgiven. AND I FUCKING CRY

ALSO I KEEP SAYING. THAT MOMENT URYU STOPPED HIM IN HUECO MUNDO. I FUCKING TOLD YALL THAT WAS SIGNIFICANT. AND ITS ONE OF THE MEMORIES ICHIGO THINKS OF BEFORE CALLING HIM HIS FRIEND. THAT MOMENT IS AS IMPORTANT TO ICHIGO AS IT LIKELY WAS TO URYU. YALL IM SCREAMING THEY REALLY ARE PLATONIC SOULMATES

Ichigo also thinking about the moment in Lost Agent where he thought Uryu had been turned against him but was actually warning him. And this ones tinged with that betrayal too but--both moments Ichigo thinks about were moments where Uryu put everything, including his own life, at risk to save him. GOD I CRY

also thinking about what Hime must be going through because theres hints in previous chapters that shes a Stepford Smiler--she plasters a smile and hope on even if shes upset/despairing. So that super bright smile combined with what I know happens in the future... I like the implication that she doesnt doubt Uryu's motives, but that he IS their enemy in this moment makes her sad. Kinda sad we missed out on her line about "Ishida would be annoyed if he overheard that" (because yes he would, she knows him well) and I do feel like they could kinda drag this out if they wanted...but hey I'm the angst queen, especially if the angst involves betrayals. Could literally watch a whole ep of these characters coping and being upset over this

#victoria liveblogs tybw #bleach spoilers #tybw #bleach

[matuk-art]

I have a lot of thoughts about s3, good or bad, but one thing I think the writers kinda missed was the emotions the characters should have in some of these situations... I mean, I know the Hargreeves family is quite dysfunctional and it was like this since s1 (for example, the way the siblings reacted to Five's reappearance and the fact that he lived in the apocalypse for so long, or how they reacted to the fact that klaus was basically tortured and fought in Vietnam) but after the last two seasons, you can't tell me that Diego would react like this at seeing his brother Klaus dead, I mean okay maybe he didn't want to freak out the kid and kept it together but still !! Remember how he reacted to Eudora's death!!! At least he seemed relieved and teared up when he came back to life in the elevator

Even the way they reacted to Luther and Klaus dying after was odd, especially Five's reaction, I mean this man basically survived hell and back for so long to save his siblings, not even once but three times even when he was himself dying in the barn, and he should have been devastated, okay I know he was already ready to die with all of his siblings at this point, so dying a few minutes before maybe didn't matter to him, but still he literally has the power to rewind time, he could have save them anyways. Like it can be "somehow" explained why he didn't save Luther as they were already going to die, but as soon as they got into hotel oblivion where they could maybe survive and Klaus didn't follow it was weird that he didn't do it. I mean he was already suspicious of Reginald, even more after he came out of the door without Klaus, rewinding time could have give him proof and expose his whole plan. Ok, he can for now only rewind time for a few seconds/minutes but he could have at least turn back time to save klaus and idk when he found out about Luther's death but I mean Lila was with them and she could have help Five rewind time farther maybe idk. Honestly I feel like they completely forgot about this power for plot convenience but it wasn't done in the best way... In a logical way, he could have also turn back time before Reggie rang the bell in the hotel oblivion or even before he got his arm cutted off. (Not in an ableist way but bc he was badly hurt and losing tons of blood without medical assistance available, but again if he was dying soon anyways he maybe didn't care about that...) Like I'm sad that they barely used their powers this season, after the progress Five made last season, it should have been exploited more ! We also got a whole arc with Klaus fighting his fear and gaining better control of his powers only for the build up to have no repercussions, he didn't really used them apart from his immortality. It was disappointing especially with the fact that they lost their powers at the ending. (I honestly wonder if the ending is in some kind of simulation and they will gain back their originals bodies later) Also showing the importance of their powers and them mastering them even more could have increased the impact and the whiplash of losing them

Speaking of Five, I think he deserved his mental breakdown after this scene at the commission because ouch poor guy, all the implications of it killed me inside tbh. (I honestly have a whole doc in my notes app with my thought about Five in s3) And also I can't imagine what giving up and seeing the whole city in fire like in the apocalypse must have felt for him

Also I think THIS scene of ep 5 should not have been in the show, and again the way Luther reacted after was definitely weird, like he brushed off Allison's apology....I won't even talk about the whole Allison arc tbh

Like idk it's only a few examples, and there probably more moments where I felt like their reactions to events or actions were maybe not the most adequate, at first I kinda brushed it off but the more I was watching the more I had this feeling of oddness, and I don't know if its just me or not but well. I'm actually rewatching the season, maybe it's just a first impression kind of thing and would have a different opinion after, idk... To be clear, I don't think that people must react in one particular way to events, of course not, but after watching all seasons, and knowing the characters some things seemed a bit uncanny to me, but it's only my personal interpretation of course

I totally agree. It’s not just you. They acted strangely cold at certain very decisive moments, especially the deaths. When Diego's alleged son disappears and they just went: "oops".wtf . Sometimes I wondered who that group of psychopaths were.

I’m so… outraged. The story revolved around them becoming better people through their connection; a closer, warmer, sane family, and as the story progressed, it seemed quite the opposite. I honestly don't understand that ending, and I'm not talking about the convoluted and bizarre plot, I'm talking about the emotional weight, it contradicts everything we've known about them, and it betrays the natural progression and drive and heart of what I liked about the umbrellas in the first place. that they will be together no matter what happens, that they care deeply about each other, and that they are stronger that way. I'd rather they had died together than go their separate ways at the last moment. I mean, not even a hug? after everything they've been through :( wtf

As for underusing of five’s power, man, there are so many plot holes I don't even know where to start or what to tell you. There are a lot of incredibly lazy and dumb decisions. That shocked me, because especially in s2, they always had clever, organic twists and elegant solutions.

You are so brave wanting to watch it again. I feel so betrayed and confused and consumed. I just can’t.

[ruinikaidoexplodedbadly]

MAX max hiiii max did i mention how much i love spoilers . what happens to shiho rui and sakura‼️

OK ill put it under cut so dont look if you dont want movie spoilers

so shiho doesnt get arrested or anything even though she says her part of the story completely honestly this is because she makes it clear that she was literally forced into doing everything so she avoids prison (yayyyy) and she just gets rlly happy and lives a goodlife like we see her hanging out with the rest of teh good guys and talking with shirakawa and shes also just very cute we see her human form for the first time she looks crazy young and very adorable it actually made me more sad. her interview part is also the saddest and yamamoto completely dismisses everything she went through in his part and just blatantly lies about how shes to blame for everything and how “she and her boyfriend had an argument” and how “we dont interfere with the personal lives of the mystery kiss members” or something like that meanwhile we see shiho literally almost crying in her part its like AGHHH. also some point after the anime she forms an idol duo with sakura at a new agency but its for a pretty short time oh heres human shiho btw

for sakura she sort of acts really innocent and cute the whole time during her interview and in general she has a good monologue about people following their dreams that i liked it sounded so cutesy and regular but also in the context of what she did it was rlly unsettling. she basically comes off as totally innocent and the others dont say anything about her as well too up until the end part so shes free to just do whatever for a bit. she also tries to kill more people because of course she does she commits attempted murder in the audio dramas too but idk if you know that and i really liked it because theres a shot of her reaching into her backpack to get her knife and it looks really childish and cutesy and it was so fucked up and then she talked about stuff like security cameras and no one seeing her and the victim and just ominous shit like that really innocently and happy and it was scaryyyy anyway i think youcan guess what happened to her

as for rui her part also made me really sad because she is brutally honest about literally everything and shes not afraid to say what actually happened and its in her interview thats revealed that yamamoto didnt actually believe her and though rui killed yuki and called yano instead of letting rui call the police because hed rather only lose one member than lose a member and lose his favorite one too. yano and yamamoto also urged rui to leave when they were cutting up the body and shit but rui stayed because she couldnt handle the guilt that came up with it. the way she talks about yuki is also very interesting where instead of blaming her and getting mad at her she just talks about how mad she was in general she literally cant blame her specifically its so. and i thought it was interesting that both shiho and rui said that mystery kiss was over but yamamotos the one that said theyre doing just fine it was fucked up

#odd taxi movie spoilers #odd taxi spoilers

[fivnas]

🌦  «  dakota johnson.  cis female.  she/her.  33.  »  was  that  FIONA  MILLER  walking  through  the  doors  of  amorelux  ?  i  heard  they  just  moved  in  to apartment 605  from  NEW YORK CITY  and  work  as  a  record store owner.  they  seem  eccentric  &  loyal  but  don’t  get  on  their  bad  side  !  they  can  be  sporadic  &  irresponsible  which  makes  sense  since  they’re  a  CAPRICORN.  you  know  they’re  home  when  you  see  a  flash  of having a smoke on top of a balcony with cool air surrounding , sitting on top of a kitchen counter while eating ice cream from the tub , & pulling out a duct tape wallet from high school.

hi hi ! i’m sim and i’m super uper excited to be here ! i’m playing a pretty new character and it’s gonna be so much fun to develop her with all of y’all ! a few things about me - my tummy be hurting , i bearing noise cancelling headphones , and i talk about traffic a lot ! i’m a more hc type of girl so below find a bit about fiona’s bg but mostly a bunch of fun little hcs ! if you’re interesting in plotting hit me up on my disco ( sprite#7124 ) !! 

@amoreluxintro​

PINTEREST - WANTED CONNECTIONS

background

fiona is from nyc born & raised ! she’s a pretty big trust fund baby but had a falling out with her parents during college. she was ultimately cut off completely and basically had to learn life skills at the age of twenty one. she was on her own , without her parents trying to live her life and let’s just say it got pretty funny. once she needed to find a new income she decided to work for the place she was basically always at - the championship vinyl. as time went on her relationship with the owners ( an older couple ) became stronger. they both easily became a parental figure to fiona and she basically owed who she was to them ! as of recent the owners wanted to expand the shop across the nation to seattle. BUT the catch was they asked fiona to essentially own and overlook the shop over there. kinda like caring on their legacy ! and ever since she’s been in seattle and working over at championship vinyl and living at amorelux !

parallels: nick miller ( new girl ) , max blum ( happy endings ) , charlie kelly ( it’s always sunny ) , eleanor shellstrop ( the good place ) , steven hyde ( that 70′s show ) , ben wyatt ( parks & rec ) , robyn brooks ( high fidelity )

headcanons

fiona does ballet ! she might be a clutz but it’s the one thing that suck around with her from the past

honestly is able to take care of herself , but has a niche way of doing so ( e.g, she’s gotta shake the prndl a bit before turning on her car

is the biggest music and movie geek. her favorite artist is fleetwood mac and her favorite movie is house bunny. 

literally only owns margarita glasses in her studio , so when you come over expect water in a marg glass

always has mismatched socks  , always. at this point when she does laundry to makes sure she pairs them mismatched

every other day she probably wears her shirt inside out and only notices when someone points it out at the shop

never really acts like she owns championship vinyl. she is always there from morning to night , working behind the register and walking around

eats popcorn like its her life. has the big old costco one but like 4 of them at all times

go to drink is a glass of whiskey bc she’s a weirdo

the bangs are her personality

she’s a big planner person but she doesnt just keep one. she has like 5 , one at work, one by her bed, one in her car, one with her at all times. oof 

blow up - with all those planners she fr be forgetting a lot of things

listens to the twilight soundtrack when she’s sad :/ 

doesnt own an umbrella and refuses to buy one ..  i kNOW WEIRD RIGHT like babe you’re in seattle

her favorite color is orange because she felt bad not a lot of people liked the color

always wins thumb wars - not sure why or how but she slays 

added lol to the end of every sentences thru text like it’s a punctuation mark

#ahq:intro #oh besties im watching the black phone rn and shiver me timbers #text

[nobully]

👀 what is wrong with you?

Send me a “👀 + a question” and my muse has to answer honestly!

' There is nothing wrong with me as long as you don't try to look. '

' So please. Stop looking. '

But of course people don't. Once they've caught on to something odd, it's human nature to follow its trail to the end. He brushes people off as persistently as they try to open him up to see what makes him tick inside.

' Maybe the problem is that I'm too greedy. I want what everyone else has, but I also can't deny who I am. I push myself to learn all the ways of acting human without...really knowing what that means. I don't even know why I'm doing it, besides the fact that I'd just be an outcast if I don't fit in? '

' But...I don't even understand what it means to be wanted, to be happy. I think found that once in my world—and then I lost it in a moment. I thought I'd be sad about it, but I didn’t even cry. What kind of person uncovers his best friend's corpse from the rubble and can't feel anything except mild surprise? What's wrong with me and why can't I fix it? Why can't I pretend until it's real? …then again, do I even need it to be real? '

' It's like the world's a permanent gray. I try to paint it with emotions but the colors all leech away. The only joy that stays is when I see other people in pain. I think it’d be fun to hurt them. I want to see their expressions when they twist. I want…so much more that I hardly brush the surface of because I don’t want to think of ways to get them. ’

‘ I…understand murderers better than normal people? I don’t know why that is. I don’t think anyone taught me. But their logic always made sense. Once, my friends and I found the body of a dead cat as kids. They were appalled, but couldn’t figure out why anyone would kill an animal. I thought it was obvious, so I told them. ’

‘ The killer was curious about the victim. They wanted to see if the cat was pregnant, so they cut open its stomach to check. ’

‘ The killer doesn’t want witnesses. He’s not waving his finger at you, but counting the number of floors it takes to reach you on the balcony. ’

‘ The killer likes to watch. He uses sharp weapons to stab his victims so they take longer to bleed out. Then he has time to enjoy them dying from outside the glass elevators he left them in. ’

‘ I’ve never thought what they did was wrong. It was just the the normal course of all life—the strong conquer the weak. Humans were…just bags of flesh, and kind of incomprehensible unless you pushed the right buttons to make them entertaining. You can even eat them if you’re starving, the same way we eat chickens or cows…haha, Xiao Mo got really mad when I said that I’d eat her and Xiao Lu once. Most of this stuff’s from the past though. I wouldn’t eat them now because you…don’t eat friends, and because the police would get you, and all kinds of other reasons. I don’t actually want to get locked up because if they convict me there it’d probably upset my parents and um, make their life difficult. Among other things. ’

‘ Also because doing bad things is just wrong. I need to remember that. Because I think my ideal world sounds like a place where everyone is either dead or dying and…well, I’m supposed to say that’s terrible but honestly I think I’d just get bored, so it’s nice to have a world with more…variety. Guilt is a good reminder. I’ve learned how to feel guilty everyday. ’

‘ Anyways, I’m not looking for sympathy or anything. I wouldn’t even understand it completely if you gave it to me. Uhh…or do most people find me repulsive after this? I guess there’s not much difference if it’s just feelings we’re talking about. Basically, I want to say that I know I’m wrong all over, but I try to forget. Nowadays I’m lot better at making others forget with me too. ’

#answered; #headcanons; #death mention #animal abuse tw #murder tw

[tunabesimpin]

Thank you for the tag @kalu-luwa !!! I separated my post cause I can see this becoming very long TvT sorry if i shouldnt have!

ORIGINAL POST/ TAG! ^v^

Oc asks! : for Tuna!

😍 What's the most attractive personality trait a partner can have to them?

Being super playful or fun to be around! Basically a good sense of humor and always inviting you to do stuff! This can range from just playing video games together or watching youtube to actually going out to do stuff. Tuna just likes to be included and enjoys light-hearted joking!

🤣 What makes them crack up?

Potty humor, dad jokes, and cut-off jokes. They have old man humor. You show them a video with fart with reverb over someone tripping and they will very likely laugh. The man who got his free tacos only to drop them and video cuts off? HILARIOUS, COMEDY GOLD. Anything with a goofy sound replaced overtop the og noise? PURE GENIUS.

😡 What's one surefire way to make them angry?

Yell at them. Tell them their opinion is wrong, that they don't get a say in things, or they are absolutely gonna do something only because you know they will. This is 100% the most annoying thing for Tuna and they will just isolate/ stop talking to you LOL. If you push more they might snap at you with your most sensitive topics soooo watch your step.

😄 When are they at their happiest?

Listening to their fav music and playing around ^v^! Literally put on any song from their likes playlist while they want to play and they're on cloud 9. No thought only random flips and pacing to the song!

😭 What makes them sad?

Being the second choice/ left out completely- TvT The amount of times this has happened hurts, and usually Tuna finds out just on their own by chance. They'll pretend it doesn't change the friendship/ crush, but they usually just try to back off and not be clingy. This mostly applies when its one of their fav persons.

💋 What are kisses with them like?

Their kisses are either goofy and playful or quick and shy. Tuna loves to show affection, but never knows what's too much, so they play it safe bein a goof ball about it! But in some tender moments and after a lot of reassurance, Tuna will have the courage to give a sweet quick peck and then act like nothing happened behind a tomato red blush.

👻 What scares them?

Invasion of privacy and fear of depth (mostly at cliffs and deep ocean). Tuna can be paranoid on if they're being watched or if someone they don't trust/ know is too close. Cliffs are scary cause Tuna has a problem with depth perception. They still like hiking, but just nothing too steep. As for the ocean, they just really suck at swimming LOLOL. They never learned how to hold their breathe properly and are weak swimming. Also deep water is just really dark and has creatures yet to be discovered and as cool as that is it's also terrifying because Tuna is just a smol lil guy.

❤️‍🔥 What sets their heart aflame?

Include them in things and be physically affectionate. They're a hopeless romantic and will swoon at most acts of kindness. Head pats, back hugs, inviting them to hangout, Tuna is easy to please. Though surprisingly they don't fall often and even when they do you may never know.

🧠 What type of intelligence do they excell at? (Booksmarts, emotional intelligence, etc.)

They don't excel at anything LOL. If anything probably booksmarts? But it's more like jack of all trades, they just sorta logic their way through things and most times it works out for them. Just a lot of luck honestly.

🎂 How do they usually celebrate their birthday?

They get themselves a cake and their fav dinner! They don't really have a party or invite anyone since the incident (no one but their bestie came to their birthday despite inviting all their friends).

👗 What's their fashion sense?

They like comfy clothes! Tuna enjoys many styles and it really just depends if they feel in a certain mood! ^v^ But their most go to is big shorts and big shirt. Oversized clothes are great! Easy to move in and cozy.

❄️ How do they handle the cold?

They are a natural heater! Cold isn't too much a problem except for their piercings... Those metals get really cold so their ears tend to freeze the most! Otherwise Tuna just runs around a bit to warm up. Though they've never experienced weather below 4 Celsius.

and voila! the list is done LOLOL thank you again for the tag! Now no pressure tags! : @moomoomooing @oseathepebble @comingyourlugubriousness and anyone who wants to join in too! ^v^

#thank you for the tag! #ngl i wasn't sure if this was supposed to be asks or just answer #but im assuming just answers and i like to talk anyways soooo LOLOL #twisted wonderland #twst #twst oc #twst tuna #tuna be talkin

[glamoplasm]

hii your kingdom hearts posting is getting to me is kingdom hearts any good?? idk anything abt it other than theres disney characters, keyblades, theres a lot of games and you play them in a weird order, and my friend cloud strife is there. the disney characters are really throwing me off bc everything i see abt the original kh characters looks good and also i love my friend cloud but is it worth getting into? or is it one of those things thats good bc youre already into it and u love it? i ❤️ piracy and have a hacked 3ds so the price of so many games is not an issue. u do not have to answer this ofc! but i thought it was worth asking nc the art u are reblogging is intriguing to me

smile :)

my short answer is, i think its good! definition of good here being it was really fun to get into. i havent personally actually played any of the games if you're planning to play them tho- all of them are action rpgs, the first has like a certain amount of platforming and also bad camera controls that are just kind of a given considering its age. if you enjoy those types of games tho, its still very fun! holds up well. most of them are first and foremost playstation games except for 358/2 Days, which was a ds game (it hasnt had a remake like some of the other games, which is sad bc it has some of the best story and the cutscenes by themselves miss A Lot, but the gameplay itself is uh. Rough)

first, look up "kingdom hearts 1 opening"

if you think that looks sick as hell, i would honestly try out the first game and see how you feel about it afterwards! watching someone play that was what got me interested in digging into the entire thing and it is the first game so its a naturally good introduction with none of the weight of all the stuff that gets added over the years to the Lore. if you like 1 you can either play them in release order or chronological order and both would work probably. except the mobile game kh union x stuff i wouldnt touch that until you go through everything prior to kh3 even if its chronologically the first

(more details under the cut since this is getting long lol)

extremely basic summary: a young boy, sora, lives on a group of islands called destiny islands with his best friends, riku and kairi, and they dream of exploring outside their small home. sora and all his friends are taken from the island and their world by the forces of darkness and are swept into a grand battle of light and dark. he teams up with donald and goofy from Disney(tm) and they fight monsters born from the darkness in people's hearts. sora has a blade that's a key bc he unlocks doors between worlds and hearts and stuff. rinse and repeat with a new iteration on the enemies you're facing and the worlds you visit

asides from the disney, the basic plot there is very normal jrpg fare! whats special about it to me is in the specifics, its visuals (i think despite not liking disney as a company the existence of these differing tones and visual styles is what Makes kh what it is), the non disney world and monster designs, the weirdness of a lot of the scenes and writing, and its complete sincerity in statements that are inherently very corny. while the themes shift and compound, the primary theme is connections between people and how those make up who you are and your heart.

you may have heard the story is confusing. honestly, i think this is mostly hyperbole and it makes as much sense as it really needs to. there are bits of lore that are definitely confusing but the games explain everything in such a way that the concepts arent confusing, they just sound weird when taken out of context. not that a lot of it isnt really silly and weird LMAO just that its easy enough to follow and grasp what its going for

re: the disney sections (like the actual worlds): theyre at best like. inoffensive filler i guess LOL. you can really see disney not giving a shit about their part in kingdom hearts the later it goes, with the kh3 disney worlds being like. sure lets put the entirety of frozen's "let it go" in who gives a fuck. however this was after pixar was bought out by disney, and the people working on the pixar stuff that was subsequently added to kh3 definitely put more thought into them as far as tying it in thematically to the rest. still not majorly important tho asides from a couple plot relevant scenes.

you will never escape the Big disney characters tho lol. mickey mouse will Always be there after kh1, as well as donald and goofy who are literally the main character's party members. against my better judgement i do enjoy donald and goofy in kh, and find them generally fun characters despite having limited personal nostalgia about them! they're fine to have around.

if u want to see cloud strife our friend, i will say he isnt there a lot and he's in full sulky guy mode, tho a Lot of final fantasy characters are included until kh3 where i guess they decided they were going to stop putting ff characters in for whatever reason. sephiroth is a major secret boss fight in both 1 and 2. yuffie, aerith, cid, and leon are there immediately. tifa is in 2. barret has never shown up despite all the other ff7 main characters which is a little. raises eyebrow. but whatever

[thenexusofsouls]

even tho I was on Hellboy's side, I was so sad when the earth elemental died :( that could've been a good turning point for Nuada, he should've realized his desire for revenge was destroying everything he cared about but oh well, royalty is gonna be royalty I guess xD on a lighter note, the elemental is probably still alive in the Knowhere verse :') or at least the seed it grew from. in that verse Nuada never kills his dad, formally declares war on humans and he doesn't use the earth elemental to wreak havoc. maybe he could let it grow and develop on the more rural areas of Knowhere.

{i am the caretaker of souls} Okay but I want to talk a bit about this because this is one of the most pivotal moments for Nuada in the movie and it warrants a deep dive, heh. Below the cut for length!

Honestly, that's been one of the hardest things for me to explain over the years as far as people asking me about Nuada's motivations/intentions/etc. I've been writing him for 8.5 years on this site, and in that time I've gotten a lot of "Why would Nuada do this?" or "What was the motivation behind this?" questions, and "Why did he waste/abuse/throw away/endanger the forest god?" was at the top of the list of questions I've been asked. It's hard for me to reconcile, because even though there is a lot about Nuada's behavior that was despicable, hurting nature and non-human creatures was not something he wanted to do. If anything, the forest god/elemental would have been something he'd want to protect, so it makes no sense that he would just throw it to its death like that. So I've had to really come up with some realistic reasons as to why he'd seem to waste the creature's life the way he did.

I've thought of things like... well, there wasn't exactly a handbook for taking care of one of these things and maybe he didn't realize it wasn't quite ready to germinate yet. It could have needed more incubation time or other nutrients or whatever to grow properly, and if it didn't get that, it was going to be weak and not at it's peak of power, making it more vulnerable to attack.

Or, I've also thought of the whole Scarlet Witch defense, heh, where I basically say that Nuada at that point was so corrupted that it was poisoning his thinking. Guillermo del Toro and Luke Goss have both said in interviews that the dark coloration around Nuada's eyes and lips is a physical symptom of his moral corruption. How I interpret that is... for elves who are supposed to have souls that are a lot purer than Nuada's, to be thinking and doing the things he's doing (and for centuries) has a detrimental effect on things like physical health, mental health, and brain chemistry. I'm not saying oh he's innocent and just crazy, heh, that's far from the truth. But one could argue that his decision-making skills, level of impulsivity, or situational perception might have been altered by the effects of reaching a level of moral corruption that was actually physically poisonous to people of his race.

However... both of those explanations seem to just fall flat for me. Nuada never seem unhinged, ever. Say what you will about how wrong he was and how terrible his choices were, but never did he seem incompetent, not in control of faculties, or ignorant of the difference between right and wrong. In other words, he knew exactly what he was doing, and I don't think the decision to use the forest god was due to physical or mental illness. And... while it is true that maybe it isn't common knowledge how to take care of the seed of a forest god, if anyone would know, it'd be Nuada, heh. So I'm just not buying it.

So that's when I came up with the idea of Nuada just... completely misjudging the forest god's power/durability with regard to facing off against manmade weapons. Nuada would not be familiar with upgraded guns, heavy artillery, or specialized ammunition, because his race doesn't utilize those at all. He's all about blades... swords, spears, daggers, etc. He may very well have not fully understood just how devastating human weapons are and/or not understood how vulnerable the forest god would be to them. Because of that, he used a creature that he thought would really teach Hellboy & Co. a lesson, hand the humans their collective ass, and start a whole huge new forest right in the middle of their city. Instead, it made a tiny garden that will probably be ripped up and cleared by the end of the week, and it died in less than a half hour. I don't think Nuada expected that to happen at all, and as soon as he realized this was not going to go well for the elemental, he left.

I headcanon that he left not only because of disappointment in Hellboy, but because he couldn't watch. He could see what was happening, knew the creature would die, knew it was his fault, and he couldn't watch it happen. My version of Nuada grieved terribly for that creature, like for real. I've written threads with various muses where he falls into a depression and for several days cannot leave his bed. I've written threads where his grief is so intense that Nuala cannot block it out and she seeks him out after the whole thing to assess his mental state... or catch him in a vulnerable moment and try to talk him out of things, depending upon how cunning/manipulative others wrote Nuala, heh. One Nuala mun ran with my Iron Malady idea and, knowing their mother died of it, was concerned that if Nuada fell into a deep enough depression, he might die in a similar manner. So I've definitely delved into Nuada's mental state following the death of the elemental and counted it as a major moment for him.

However, just as you said, he could have taken that major moment and changed course, but he didn't. It seemed to only make him angrier, and I think feeling responsible for the elemental's death as well as losing Mr. Wink who was a close friend and comfort to be sure, really sent him spiraling. Instead of taking a step back and reassessing his plans, he doubled down and became even more fanatical about it. The result of the corruption deepening as a result of his stressed mental state, or simply Nuada turning to anger and hatred rather than being willing to say enough is enough? I think the latter, but I've explored both concepts over the years.

And now I'm going to say OMG THANK YOU FOR THIS IDEA because... I wasn't even thinking about it, but you're right... if Balor is still alive in the Knowhere verse, then so is the Earth elemental. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but now that you've put that idea in my head, it's too good and I have to do something with it. So thank you for that, because I'm going to run right over and write that reply right now, haha.

#{ i am the caretaker of souls } ᵒᵒᶜ #muse: nuada bethmoora

[ragtimedrakes]

ok here's my tierlist like I promised

s tier:

hephaistos 1: i LOVE THIS FIGHT!!! my only gripe is the way cooldowns get misaligned depending on which transformation you get first. but it's sooo fun otherwise I love all the transformations I love snake <3 hephaistos 2: I <3 high concept. healing this was a blast athena 1: I wish I got to heal this (and athena 2) tbh... I think I disliked progging this but doing it for reclears the past couple weeks it's been really easy and smooth. I just don't like superchain 2b that mechanic sucks.

a tier:

hippo: hippo. I enjoy the water slide mechanic even if it pissed me off for my enochian timer. the stacks are fun hesperos 1: funny vampire man I like him. I think I had a lot of small gripes with mechanics but not enough to put him lower than this bc I enjoyed the fight. I think pinax is funny and I enjoyed the bloodsucker mechanic a lot. passing rot is fun hesperos 2: I enjoy the themeing of this fight a lot. I think act 3 is super mid but the rest of the acts are quite fun even if they're a little simple in hindsight? the thorns obscuring the mechanics is the only really hard part. that said I think curtain call is fun even if it's basically just a heal check carbuncle: tha buncle. stellar first fight of a tier it's just an impeccably designed fight. no notes kokytos: another good first fight imo. "limit cut" is fine I think it's fun. the second one is kind of pointless but whatever. I had a good amount of fun doing this on black mage specifically pandaemonium: this fight sucks bad in a good way. it hates you so bad it wants you dead this giant fucking spider HATES YOU. playing it on black mage makes me seethe like no tomorrow but whateverrrr I'm not thinking about that I'm over it. every mechanic in this fight is pretty fun except for what I call "stupid spinny thing" at the end because it's stupid themis: I love themis <3 my themis <3 honestly he's such a nothing fight to be completely real the only mechanics are like. dark and light + letter of the law. and dark and light is kind of mid. but whateverrrr he makes me happy athena 2: recency bias maybe but she's funnnnn. I like caloric a lot because I'm crazyyyy and I love these kinds of really precise movement mechanics. pangenesis is fun except for when I'm a 0 I hate being a 0. fuck that. honestly the more I think about it I could probably drop this down but I do genuinely like caloric. and I think gaiaochos is really fun. this fight is carried on its theming imo

b tier:

erich: my buddy erich you're a very easy fight but I love you. I still remember the stupid ass encounter I had on my first week raiding but I love you. hegemone: I enjoy this fight a lot but I don't think I can justify putting it in a tier. I'm sorry hegemone I saw your epic parasite worm... cachexia is really fun

c tier:

phoinix: oh my sweet awful fucked up bird. this bird hates you in the same way pandaemonium does but the difference is I was stuck in this stupidass fucking fight for months. FUCKING MONTHS!!!!!! it makes me so fucking mad. if I stop to think about this rationally I think phoinix is pretty fun it could definitely be b tier at least. but it's so fucking ass man agdistis: it literally took me a few minutes to remember her name. sorry girl. she's fine. I actually enjoy purgation a lot and I think the harvests are pretty fun mechanics on their own but the design of the fight sucks such ass. very sad

#vul plays ffxiv