#bitter people live bitter lives

[letsnotforgetabouttrace]

Someone told me to go check out the Datalounge blog because they are saying mean stuff, and it's all trolls, not one valid statement, just bitter, jealous, unhappy people hiding behind their phones as anonymous. Probably those crazy Zachary Quinto fans from a few years back posting and answering from their multiple accounts. Why anyone would go to these blogs for info is beyond me. Nothing there is meaningful information.

#internet trolls #hatersgonnahate #bitter people live bitter lives #just smile #trace lehnhoff #miles mcmillan #boyfriends #the mcmillan lehnhoffs

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I genuinely love how each character on the QSMP is living in a different genre, so two characters doing the same thing have different consequences, and it has different weight on their story / the QSMP narrative as a whole.

For example, Cellbit killing 4 Federation workers is treated very seriously, and we know his actions will have serious consequences in the future.

Meanwhile, Etoiles wiping out every single Federation worker on his way out of an infiltration mission is par for the course because man's living in a shonen anime.

#i talk #qsmp talk #This is a little bit /j but I'm serious about the ''Everyone lives in a different genre'' thing #(mostly) #The genre discussion was HUGE wrt KarmaIand discussions #and why so many people misunderstood Rubius and Vegetta's characters #because they lived by the rules of telenovelas and nobody GETS that #<- still bitter #That was KarmaIand's whole deal it ran on Telenovela rules #except for Luzu and Q. They were changing the genre so Sapo Peta had to step in and be like ''nono''

[wiisagi-maiingan]

#the nearest grocery store to me is a 30+ minute drive #i live in basically a tiny island of just homes and NOTHING ELSE surrounded by just fields #i am literally housebound rn because i don't have my license and there is NO WAY to get anywhere without driving #look tiny towns still have people in them who are just as bored as you are #and would probably be thrilled to have some clubs or library activities #hell those things are almost definitely already happening you just need to find them #anyway i'm kinda bitter about these tags don't make assumptions about people on their own posts lmao

[trans-cuchulainn]

had a really interesting convo yesterday about ethics and whether intent or results matters (eg if you tried to make an ethical purchasing choice but the business was actually exploitative as hell, does that "count") and very much came to the conclusion that sure, if you're concerned with your personal immortal soul, as a christian might be, then intention counts. but if what you're focused on is your impact on the world, then intention means nothing if the actions have negative results, right? (that doesn't mean you're to blame for them! you didn't know! but you also don't get "ethics points" for trying, you know?)

and this also got me thinking about the whole christian idea that sinful thoughts are as bad as sinful actions because. they're just not imo. maybe for the sake of your Immortal Soul they are points against you, if that's your jam. but in terms of putting good into the world, in terms of your impact on other people, the ONLY thing that matters is what you choose to do with those thoughts. there is no way that "was kind to someone who was pissing me off, for the sake of community harmony" or "helped an acquaintance with a task even though I felt resentful about the time spent doing that" is a Bad Thing for the world

and it made me wonder how much purity culture and thought policing is rooted in (mostly evangelical) cultural christianity and this idea that ethical choices are an individual thing because what matters is the impact of them on YOUR soul and not, you know, things we do because of what we owe the world around us / because of love for others / because a world where people are trying to put good into it is a hell of a lot nicer to live in than one where people are only worried about themselves

i grew up evangelical but like. fairly mild evangelical and even though there wasn't a big focus on hell and stuff, i definitely fixated on imperfect thoughts and behaviours that were putting absolutely no harm into the world, rather than focusing on what i could do to put good into it, and that individualistic vs outward-focused approach to morality has been something i've grappled with a lot as an adult. but i never really thought about it as simply as this and really that's what it boils down to. are you making the ethical choice because you're trying to put good in the world, or because it would make you a "good person" to do so? because the answer to that 100% defines whether it's the thought or the result that counts

#also i feel like Sinful Thoughts Are As Bad As Sinful Actions... #as well as being bullshit... #is just like a one way trip to moral ocd and a whole lot of guilt spirals #and i just don't think it's useful! you can't necessarily choose your thoughts! #you can however choose your actions because Good is something you do not something you are #ethics #i do think The Good Place did more to make me interrogate my evangelical upbringing and ethical assumptions than anything else #but also this idea of putting good into the world... idk. it's kind of encouraging AND scary #i don't think I'm naturally a very good person but i can choose to do good #i can be bitter and jealous and resentful and still help people and make their lives a little easier #and my feelings are not actually impacting on the world whereas my actions are #at the same time in a society built on exploitation and corporate greeed #it's hard not to be conscious of the harm my actions are doing without me trying #i didn't necessarily make an unethical choice but all of my choices cause harm to someone somewhere #living in the west and the global north and whatever you become very conscious of that

[mamawasatesttube]

society if the timkon tag wasn't just ~the batfam~ ft. a cardboard cutout labelled "kon" as set dressing, occasionally also ft. extremely tired bernard-related ooc angst, but instead was actually full of works that were actually about tim and kon and their relationship

#rimi talks #sorry. bitter again #SOMETIMES i just want to read a fic that i DIDNT WRITE #exclude tag jason todd. exclude tag bruce wayne. exclude tag bernard dowd. exclude tag jay/tim. exclude tag lex luthor #exclude tag ''bad parent clark kent'' WITH EXTREME FUCKING PREJUDICE #but not even tag exclusion can save me from people who tag kon despite having never even looked at a kon comic in their lives :(

[cerise-on-top]

Fasching with König

Because today is Faschingsdienstag, I just had to write something for him on that day! Today is the only day I can post this, afterwards I'll have to wait over a year again! Fasching is an Austrian holiday that is essentially the last day before fasting for 40 days, so people go all out with food and drinks and festivities, they even dress up in costumes! It's not nearly as fancy as what some other countries have, but it's tradition! Besides, who am I to say no to a Krapfen with König!

Mentions of alcohol, but König is Austrian, so what did you expect?

First off, he hates going to the city during that “holiday”, there are far too many people, the crowds are way too big and it’s too loud for his liking as well. The only reason he’s taking you to the city on that day is so you can experience more of Austria with him. At least that’s what he tells you, in reality he just really wants to go eat a Langos or two and drink a few beers. No one would judge him for that on Fasching, there are crazier bastards out there than him. He’s never been a fan of Fasching, not even when he was a kid. The only reason he looked forward to that day was because he could go home from school earlier than usual. But other than that Fasching had always irritated him. He was never one for playing dress up either.

He couldn’t say he was surprised when you came up to him, demanding for the two of you to dress up as something. The most König would do on his own would be to put on a pair of bee feelers on top of his head, but he would never consider putting on a full costume. Not only was there a chance people would stare at him, but he’d feel awkward as well. Besides, which place would actually sell a costume in his size? Not a common one. You’d need to be a bit annoying for him to put on more than just bee feelers. He’s more willing to play dress up with you as long as you put on something as well, though, even if it still wouldn’t be anything too fancy. If he can find one, he might put on a Winnie the Pooh onesie, but only because it’s somewhat comfortable, somewhat warm and because there are weirder people than him out there.

He’d hate seeing the Faschingsumzug, but he’d tolerate it just for you so you can see all the wagons together and comment on all the costumes. The music is far too loud, there are people surrounding him on every side and he still hasn’t had a single drink yet. Tragic. You might wanna hold onto his arm before you’re being swept away by the crowds. Although König usually isn't one for PDA, in this case he’d prefer to keep you close. It keeps him a bit calmer and you’re not getting lost in a city or town you barely know. You can drag him around all you want, though, he’ll comply, even if he might roll his eyes a bit whenever you wanna go take a closer look at some of the other costumes and wagons. However, get ready to be dragged to one of the nearest stands for a few Langos. They’re not amazing, nothing special in the slightest, but they’re not bad either. He’ll pay for them, naturally. You can choose between a regular Langos, a Toast Langos or even a Käsekrainer Langos. König will likely have eaten all three due to his massive appetite, but you’re more than welcome to take a bite out of them as well.

Once it’s finally getting a bit later and the masses are starting to disperse, that’s when König will be a bit less grumpy. He gets to finally go to a bar with you and drink to his heart's content, his highlight of the day. You can drink whatever you want, from soda to Pago, from Spritzer to Jägermeister, he’ll always go for a few beers. While he might seem a bit grumpy at first, once he’s had his first beer he’s a bit more cheerful, König just really hates big crowds. However, he got to spend another day with you, which is all he could ever want. While you’re sitting at the bar he might take out a few Krapfen for the both of you to enjoy as well. Might joke about getting some Heringsschmaus with you the next day, even if you don’t like fish. It’s tradition, it’s part of the Faschingszeit, but that doesn’t mean he’s a big fan of it either. No, he much prefers the Krapfen you can eat during Fasching. Not big on fasting, he loves beer and meat too much to give up either of those things and won’t even do so if you ask him to. He’s a simple man, he knows what he wants and he knows what he likes. You can pry his Schweinsbraten from his cold dead hands, and even then he’d put up a fight.

Although König loves spending time with you, he will be glad once Fasching is over and once you finally voice the thought of going home. He’s tired from all the people and the alcohol makes this situation only slightly better. Even so, despite all of that, he’s looking forward to the next holiday, proper or not, he can spend with you. Due to him having drunk some beers, he’ll likely stay in bed a bit longer the next day. A perfect opportunity to snuggle up to him for a bit. Afterwards you can discuss what you would like to eat together.

#cod #cod x reader #könig #konig #könig x reader #konig x reader #I was so unhappy when I had to go through town today and there was no way through so I had to go around town to get home #I was so incredibly pissed about that #but hey my father made Gulasch today! and he put a blueberry quark strudel in the oven! it was so creamy and good! #so food wise today was amazing for me! #I even wore some cat ears at wok. the other apprentice and me were the only ones who “dressed up” today which was a shame #even though he only wore devil horns and that's it so nothing big either #but there are people who dress up entirely! but you barely see couple's costumes here. I saw none today in all honesty #I saw a lot of ladybugs though! a few bees! piglets! sunflowers! #it's a colorful festival! but a lot of people drink on this day so not a lot of them will be at work tomorrow! good #the only reason König would love this holiday would be because of the beer #you guys don't understand just how much alcohol Austrians drink we're far far above the EU average #the state I live in is far above the Austrian average as well my father told me today #so yeah we drink lots and lots of alcohol. beer for the most part but Spritzer is also really popular. Spritzer is superior though #beer is just disgusting and gross. I've tried it once and it was so bitter. but this is coming from someone who likes Jägermeister haha #I didn't get a Krapfen today though which is so incredibly sad :( Maybe some other time but it won't be a Faschingskrapfen :(

[snixx]

when the same people who wouldn't shut up about you giving too much to everyone and asking you to hold back start complaining that you seem more reserved and don't have the same love and joy for the world and everyone in it as you used to once you actually take their advice...I fucking called it. I knew I should've trusted my gut. I'm not built for holding back and rationing my love and being careful with my heart. I have a big fucking heart and my love isn't expendable it grows the more of it I give and im built to love strangers and listen to people's stories and hold little parts of them in me wherever I go. I'm tired of being careful. I love people and yeah I keep getting my heart broken but it grows back bigger and stronger every time. I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything. im built to be a best friend to whoever needs me because that's what gives me joy. not all of it is a transaction and its okay if everyone doesn't return my love and kindness with the same intensity. im not doing it for a reward. im doing it because knowing a person for however long is a unique and beautiful experience and the reward in itself. I fucking love people you're the reason I want to live

#girlblogging.pdf #hopepunk #i am not built for bitterness. that's my takeaway from this sem #i gave protecting my peace or whatever a shot but I'm someone who derives my joy from being a fly on the walls of a hundred different rooms #i live to make people smile. i miss doing it. i miss trusting and hoping and loving fearlessly #i should get back into teaching kids over the break tbh. I've missed it

[wildm00re]

haven’t watched the flash in like 100 years but got jumpscared by someone posting westallens “we’re the flash scene” and complaining about it. the post had like thousands of likes and i just sit there for a moment confused (not really, everyone knows why they’re really mad) about what was so outrageous about that scene to begin with???

all iris is literally telling barry is that he doesn’t have to face things alone, that they will always find a way to face whatever problem/enemy that may come. she is comforting and being there for her soulmate and husband-to-be???

but no, you’ll have dumbass #1 and #2 commenting things like “ok iris you go fight the reverse flash then”, completely missing the point of the scene because their own hatred for iris is apparently much stronger than their media literacy ig

#i actually hope ‘we’re the flash’ haunts them for the rest of their bitter lives #iris west allen #iris west #barry allen #the flash #westallen #barry x iris #everyday im reminded how media illiterate so many people are and just hold my head #especially when it comes to female characters #and they are absolutely unbearable if said female character is black or nonwhite 😐

[flowercrowngods]

not being hateful is literally the easiest thing like i’m sorry for you but i have love and joy left in my life and don’t have to resort to being a toxic garbage waste of a person who wishes death upon people for not talking about your fav characters as much and in the exact way as you want 🫶

#iykyk #and most people probably know lmao #seriously be as mad and trolling as you like but death wishes like every other day over fandom??? be so for fucking real #like it’s obvious you’ve got nothing in your pathetic little life other than hate and bitterness but how do you even live like this #delete later

[gideonisms]

The thing is I DO work late where I'm free from the phone and the job DOES get done and I DO take my whiskey neat my coffee black and my bed at 3. Now if he added a verse about receiving smutty art in his DMs from friends who live in various far flung locations we would really be the same person

#hozier understands me #where's that article about the song's thesis that to really embrace life you have to engage with the bitter parts too #me when i complain constantly about my job but then realize how much i love getting up at 11 am + doing fuck all waiting for shipments #me when i cry about my friends being far away then realize i can visit them in fun locations with the $$ i have from living in a cheap state #me when i'm soo annoyed i can't stop mirroring people then realize i know 5 new skills from imitating them and they like me now #i'm. fully embracing the bittersweet nature of life that's what this is 👌

[emmabirb8]

WWDITS writers, please, I am on my hands and knees BEGGING YOU to take cues from OFMD in actually having the fortitude to follow through on plot points and actions from previous seasons and episodes. Emotionally repressed characters can in fact communicate about past events to a degree that is satisfying to the audience, continues story threads left hanging, and also manages to stay in character and make sense for the narrative. Traumatic events can in fact continue to affect characters for more than the duration of a single episode. Actions can have real, lasting consequences.

Shocking, I know, but. It's possible. It can be done.

IT'S NOT DIFFICULT AND CAN STILL FIT INTO A SERIES FOCUSED ON COMEDY. EVEN, DARE I SAY, HORROR SHENANIGAN-BASED COMEDY.

WITH JUST A BIT OF DEDICATION AND EFFORT, YOU TOO CAN CRAFT A SUCCINCT STORYLINE THAT WRAPS ITSELF UP IN MORE THAN JUST A THROWAWAY SENTENCE THAT'S NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. YOU CAN WRITE CHOICES AND ACTIONS FOR CHARACTERS THAT MAKE SENSE.

I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT.

IT'S. NOT. HARD.

#i'm just still SO bitter about the fallout from s3 being almost entirely skipped over #among other things #unfortunately i think i'm gonna have to live with the fact that i'll die mad about it #and with s5's questionable choices we are on VERY VERY thin ice now and i do not like it #it's sad but at this point the storylines and scenes people create in fics have become more captivating and intriguing than the actual show #which on the one hand is great bc i love reading fics but on the other hand... :/ :/ :/ #ofmd #our flag means death #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #nandermo #wwdits critical #my posts

[ambelle]

I wonder if the people being passive aggressive in Meljays tag get that it doesn’t change the fact Jayce was into one person on the show and her name was Mel.

You can call it rare and pretend to be confused as to why.

You can ask if anyone actually ships it.

It’s still canon that’s she’s the one he wants. Not your favorite skinny white person.

It’s HER

#Mel really is HER #Like these people live in her tags being weird and bitter #mel medarda #meljay

[fromtheseventhhell]

You cant just pitch the idea of Arya naming her son Micah and moving on like you didn't shatter my heart. Naming her son after the first true experience of violence and injustice before her eyes, and it happened to a normal kid who was just being her friend snd honouring a kid who no one but her would ever remember forever in naming a son after him.

I love the idea of the Starks naming their kids after characters theyve lost in the story and no one knowing where Arya got Micah from. But its okay. She remembers Micah, and now in a special way, everyone else will now too.

LISTEN, Arya and Mycah mean so much to me and I think about them a lot. Their relationship was so short-lived but it's such a significant moment in the story and to Arya's development. She is the only one who stood up for that poor boy, the only one to remember him, and the only one who tries to get justice for him. She's remembered him even books later, so I can definitely see her remembering him even longer down the line. I also think that the next generation will have some familiar names (I can definitely see some Ned's and Robb's down the line) and it would be so beautiful if Arya named a child after Mycah and kept his memory alive.

#ask #anon #arya stark #mycah #is that a tag? #asoiaf #/the ending is gonna be bittersweet heavy on the bitter/ blah blah everyone's having babies and living happily ever after George told me #god Arya naming her son Mycah and then telling people the reason behind it like imagine 😭 #or I just really want her to talk about Mycah in general since she's never really had the opportunity to

[spectra-bear]

Somebody in my inbox isnt liking me rbing these recent posts, so, if it isnt obvious, the door is right there, feel free to block me

#bear screams in cave #i am not saying to prioritize lives lost over the other #but im faiely certain that enduring decades of genocide and wanting to make a stand against it is expected #except instead of giving the people what they deserve theyre met with more blood spilled #and taking down people of their own to ensure their rule #i dont wanna keep talking bcz i feel so bitter about all the news for the past few days

[rxttenfish]

Asking because I’m extremely curious about this, how did MonProm’s writing get different over time? I remember you saying that the lore and characters feel different, and that it's missing sincere character interactions, too. I know almost nothing about the lore and I’ve only seen a few people mention the characters, so I’d be interested in a rundown of what aspects you think got worse in the series

I wouldn’t mind a very long response since I’m not that active in the fandom, I need to catch up on what happened

sorry for taking so long to answer this! i kinda waffled on it for a long bit, mainly because i started doubting myself again, and whether or not this was me simply overreacting or being tinted by nostalgia or simply being extremely picky and choosy in what i like (the last of which is true, i seldom get into fandoms at all for this reason and stay away from most popular media, but i wasn't sure if it applied here). i've posted about it already, but i'm in the middle of a psychotic episode where i can't feel a lot of pleasure to begin with + most things i do experience ending up solidly in the "very bad" category, so as you can imagine, i really didn't want to mislead and check that i was actually in objective reality.

as it is, this is also when a lot more screenshots started to be posted in the monster prom tag, and that helped me bridge the gap back into returning to the games themselves and feel like i was making a more accurate judgement. if you're one of those people who have been posting screenshots, i sincerely thank you, and i appreciated seeing you in the tag greatly.

for those not in the know — i've been in the monster prom fandom since it first released, prior to even the first additional ending to be added (the "Punch the sun" ending, and i recall the minor fandom drama that happened at that time due to it). my impression of monster prom is very much influenced by this, as what got me into the first game was the fact that the characters genuinely seemed to care for each other and were friends with each other (not merely tolerating each other's presences nor dressing it up, they sincerely thought of each other as friends and were open about that fact), on top of the wide variety of small details and statements that, if taken at face value, could create compounding complexity in the lives of each and every character and had wider implications for their lives.

no, they were not necessarily explored nor even necessarily "real", with so many conflicting events and statements, but i liked this too, because it meant a wider flexibility in what you could imagine, helping to create a more tailored experience for everyone who thought about these characters. this was what i liked about the early fandom too. what was baseline "canon" was so vague and minimal that you could have wildly different interpretations of the same characters' histories and relationships with each other. you would have radically different perspectives on what the world itself looked like, what it was like, that there wasn't really any wrong answers so long as their personalities remained the same. this is where you got the old headcanon of polly and liam being childhood friends who knew each other as humans, or that the world of monster prom was post-apocalypse where humanity itself had gone extinct or only existed in tiny pockets, or my personal headcanon that both monster and human society existed right next to each other and had minimal crossover for petty cultural reasons. this was also prior zoe-as-ro, and there were wildly different interpretations of zoe's personality, with most going for a far more disquieting creepy-cute than the deep nerd we got.

this is why you get stuff like the timeloop theory, where everyone is repeating the same weeks leading up to prom over and over, and are perhaps vaguely aware of it but broadly unconcerned. this is also why it felt like the joke that, the characters were still in high school but were all fully legal adults with most in their 20's, best landed, because it was absurd and strange and didn't quite make sense, but the world itself was inherently absurd and semi-malleable to begin with. realistically, i felt like everyone understood it was making fun of the trope of having adults play teenagers in american sitcoms and wildly casting outside the age range, but for more in-universe explanations it wasn't any different from the way that you would have a large, dramatic ending in which everything changed, but then you'd restart and everyone would be right back at the beginning with nothing different, or even having conflicting events in the same run. it was a dream-logic that fit with the tropes and, thus, diagetically made sense.

to be clear, i don't mind canon having a set, well, canon on which it refers back to itself. i don't mind expanding that or including more things which are set in stone. but there was a perceivable shift in how the games handled this over time, becoming a lot more... bitter, it felt, towards all of these different branching ideas and concepts that, yeah, the people making them knew wouldn't necessarily be "canon" because "canon" already liked to contradict itself so much. most people weren't even sold on any one idea, and there was a much greater sense of enjoying and appreciating all the varying ideas people would come up with even if you personally didn't share them. making the characters be out of character was the real crime, because then it didn't diagetically make sense in the same way, didn't wholly fit.

(again, this is not to say fanon didn't happen and characters weren't smoothed down into a simplified personality that fit these varying fan-interpretations instead of the game itself. certainly damien love/lust was just as bad as it had ever been, and everyone loved to mangle his character into a more stereotypical "bad boy with a heart of hold" all the time. but it certainly felt less set-in-stone about it than it does now, with any deviation from the norm being considered strange and odd and even broadly shunned from the wider fandom.)

all of this is setup for establishing what the writing, lore, and characters felt like in the earlier days. the characters were the strongest part, with their relationships to each other being equally as important. the lore played it fast and loose and was far less interested in setting anything in concrete because that wasn't the important part. the lore wasn't the important part, which was what made it all the more intoxicating to think about, all the more fun to play with.

montrip is easily the biggest offender when it comes to setting everything in all-or-nothing terms and demanding absolutism from the world. broadly i blame the hitchhiker conversations for the worst of it, but i think ultimately the way they handled the entire premise of the game is where this problem stems from. it's not really an exploration in the same sense that you might explore the first game, discovering different perspectives and different people with different relationships to each other. it's an exploration in the sense of a sequel that over-explains the monster, that takes the most boring option out of all those that were possible and floating around and settles on something that was blatant, obvious, typically rejected not because of how novel it is but how trite and par for the course it is in the rest of the genre.

yeah, okay. humans know nothing about monsters and there's a "monster dimension" that exists separately from the human dimension. there's no crossover between the two of them. of course there's a big grand-scale fight between the eldritch powers that zoe used to be a part of, from which not only are slayers the main organization against them, but also the merkingdom has some horse in this race too. it's an urge to make things so universal in explaining them, in revealing connecting threads which unite everything that's ever happened in here, that makes the worldbuilding and lore immediately much more boring than it ever was before.

and it didn't have to be this way! nothing in the first game contradicts any of this too explicitly (see the above, the first game loves to contradict itself), and i would even be happy if this was basically canon but never stated or confirmed to be the big overarching everything going on underneath it all. i believe you should probably know these things about any world that you create and have them in the back of your mind. the difference is that you can know these things and keep them in mind, even focusing on things where its very relevant, and still not reveal them. this is why you have lore bibles, after all. every horror writer knows exactly how their monster works and the full underlying reason for everything that happens, but that doesn't mean the audience will see it or possess this same information too, and leaving it intentionally obscure will make far better stories.

which, this is bad enough, but it wouldn't be the breaking point for me if this was all there was.

but the worst thing of all has to be the slow decay of the very same characters that sold me on this world, this lore, this game in the first place. monster prom is nothing without the characters in it. it's a dating sim, it has nothing but characters to get you to play, and liking these characters are the entire reason anyone would pick up monster prom in the first place.

and the first game pulls this off extremely well. it's all in the tagline: be your worst self. they are, indeed, all terrible people. yes, even that character that you just thought of right now. they all have points in the game where they commit atrocities, where they kill or hurt people, where they do inexcusable things that could not be ignored in a more serious setting.

but that's the point. i think there's something very powerful in creating a character who not only do you love and love their personality and the way they interact with the world, but who also are inapologetically terrible, and to have the humor and the charisma be so good that you don't get bogged down in the "this is awful". likewise, it never feels the urge to really go out of its way to justify what's going on. this is not to say theres no discussion of if someone "deserved it", but usually there's still the sense that the joke is on them, that this is still an extreme reaction specifically for comedy and not necessarily something that can be justified. you can have damien set leonard on fire and have it feel earned, without prompting the needed reaction of what it's actually like to watch someone burn to death.

this is what sets the prank masterz ending apart from the rest of the game, and really establishes it as the first real "bad ending". because nothing that you do or happens in the prank masterz ending is any different from anything else that happens in any other run. you summon evil beings from other dimensions as a throwaway gag on how visiting one location raises your stats. you kill other people and damn them to terrible fates. you watch as body horror happens. the only difference is that, in the prank masterz ending, the laugh track doesn't play.

the rest of the game and the writing echoes this philosophy, this careful interplay of tropes that keeps everything tongue in cheek and yet sincere enough to make sure emotional beats still land when they're needed. the characters feel true to themselves and their own emotions, even when the world is extreme and excessive, when everything else runs on comedy logic.

this is also what i noticed failing first as time went on.

like i said, fanon has always existed and there's always been very specific ideas as to what characters are like in the same way fanon always flattens down characters into the same tropes over and over. scott is stupid and innocent and doesn't know what sex is. damien is violent and hot and too cool for anyone else. miranda is the idiot girl character. repeat over and over and over until you get sick of it.

but it's been an issue as time has crept on that canon has started to approach fanon and began to merge with it. now, scott is so innocent that he can't even curse. polly starts being mean to her friends and saying things that would be very hurtful to hear. the merkingdom isn't really super evil and fucked up, it's just miranda that's like that. they become simpler, easier to digest, streamlined for social media posts and mass-sharing. they become less and less subversions of existing tropes and moreso just another example of them, something else to add to the collection, not their own individual stories.

even further from this, what more complex traits they had are now stated and not shown. polly is stated to be smart and clever in a way that her party girl persona doesn't imply and to be sincerely rather down to earth with the people she cares about, but we seldom ever see this anymore unless its the game specifically trying to make a point about it, in which case it won't let her do anything that implies cleverness and moreso will just outline it in the narration. vera is stated to care for people in a very genuine and heartfelt way, but seldom will get a chance to do so, and every opportunity for her to do so to their faces is missed while she will just outright state it later. it does not feel consistent, it does not feel like any of these are intended reads of their actions. it feels like the devs have something they want to do but no idea on how to actually do so. and forget it if you want these traits to manifest in small ways that show up in unrelated moments and scenes.

the dialogue becomes harder and harder to tell between each speaker, if you are just looking at what's said and not at the pictures attached to it. the characters' distinct voices have been eroded away, so that they speak more and more like each other, relaying the same terms and ideas in the same words. perspective becomes a suggestion, instead of a must.

this is something that started back in monster camp too, as all of the endings in that game felt ultimately the same as every other ending. it's very hard to place or define the full reason why, why there feels like there's no emotional stakes nor investment, why everything feels moreso like selecting different coats of paint and trying to find all the different ending pictures rather than being interested in exploring the characters as characters.

stranger yet, the series that started with the tagline of "be your worst self" has experienced a kind of... softening, for lack of a better word? what i mentioned about being able to handle the balance between terrible people who do terrible things and the light tone of the game starts to change, as abruptly the same characters who were down with violent murder in the first game start to lose their nerve, acting more and more on more typical morality. it's one of those things that feels like it's starting to damage the tone, as abruptly it's not as absurd as it used to be, demands less suspension of disbelief which could buffer and support the rest of the setting on it. there's even a part in one of the endings in montrip which involves current-polly and current-scott looking back on their monprom selves and reacting in horror at how violent and careless their pranks are, in a way that fundamentally felt like it was undercutting and disparaging all the things that felt fun and made monprom what it was.

which is odd, really, because more and more i feel like the characters in these games like each other less and less. the friendships and genuine enjoyment of each others company that brought me to this game in the first place has gone. now they don't mention each other as much, don't care for each other's feelings and reactions as much, aren't as willing to support each other. they are more and more found on their own, relied on their own, seem to seek out contact and interaction with their own friends less and less. it feels like they're all separating out into their own worlds, but also feels like they wouldn't willingly want to interact with each other if they weren't already forced together by some other outside contrivance.

if anything, i'd compare it to every other dating sim out there, where you, the player, are the most important person in these characters' lives, and they only feel ambivalent or antagonistic towards every other character. which, again, is not why i picked up monster prom or why i liked it so much in the first place.

and it's because of this that it feels like the current state of the series has to focus on its increasingly weak worldbuilding and lore, trying to form a more serious foundation without character relationships being so tightly bound together, without the characters themselves being more developed and rich, without an aspect of absurd humor to rely on.

more and more i've noticed monprom has to rely on referencing other series to make itself funny and create humor, which, again, it's always done. it was just easier to ignore back then, if you didn't know what was being referenced, because there was always more going on in the exact same scene to bolster it and give context clues as to the setup and punchline at play. it feels like the current games are much more dependent on you knowing pop culture references in order to have any fun with it, and i'm someone who, again, is very picky in what i like or what i'll seek out. i'm not interested in a stream of references about other things that i would much rather be doing than playing through a game that feels like it hates that i like it at all, when i could, again, just be engaging with the thing that takes itself seriously and knows what it wants.

#all the care guide says is 'biomass' #monster prom #asks #vanillabeenflower #this is. so long i am so sorry. #and its still not my entire thoughts because i have so many thoughts #this is an unedited ramble tbh and im very sorry for that #i have more complaints like #how fucking snide and condescending the narration is to its own characters #which it already had but gets even worse in the later games #which is why despite loving aaravi i dont want to play moncamp at all #where a character says they like something or feel something and the narration has to be so. sarcastic about it? #like how i mentioned about how it feels like how its looking down on them as people #instead of whats probably the intended read which is #more jokingly calling them dumb in an affectionate way like how you might do with friends #and ofc theres the whole miranda rant #i hate what theyve done with the merkingdom and i HATE adrien as a concept i wont lie #just. cool. this female character is too stupid to count as a lore character. we obviously need a MALE character to fill in instead #we cant just have miranda talk about this or center any of the other female characters #and how they feel about this and whats going on for them #no we need to make up a new man to talk to instead #im. im still really bitter about it i wont lie. #like i said i could go on and get way more specific about it #i just feel like any and all emotional weight to this has died and the characters are more and more obviously actors on a stage #for your own self gratification rather than their own people living their own lives #this is so bitter and i really shouldnt put this in the main tag #i am so sorry everyone who will see my rant. but my peace must be made. #dont worry im already asking myself if im just making all this shit up myself #what if some of us liked that the characters were so mean to the player and had no qualms about aggressively rejecting us #because it gave some illusion of them being able to make their own choices and decisions in what they wanted

[lokittystuckinatree]

2 months later almost to the day and I’m still literally sobbing into my pillow about the Shakespearean tragedy that was Sylki

#I’m a strange mix of pissed and heartbroken and frustrated and confused and bitter and bittersweet #it’s like my own breakup #Sylki #now I’m seeing people argue that Sylvie doesn’t love Loki back anymore or even in the first place???? really???? #it’s in written and live interviews that she LOVES him like no one she’s ever known #by the end of season 2 she is emotionally glued to him the way she was in season one #is Lokis love of her more obsessive and codependent and unconditional to the point of being unhealthy? #yes. #does she still love him as deeply as someone with her level of attachment and trust issues and stunted emotions physically can? #yesssss #stop the mental gymnastics #they just have realistic attachment styles #and she needs to be warmed up to opening herself and her life and heart to people and coaxed into a relationship like a feral cat #while Loki glomps onto anyone that shows him affection like a touch starved baby monkey #I feel like the only one who freaking GETS them