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nekropsii · 1 month

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What a about Caliborn makes him so cool in your opinion?

Go keep track of his progression as an artist alongside his development as a character and think about how these are intrinsically linked. Ponder the fact that he is both at his most obnoxious and at his most amateur when trying to ignore his unique style explicitly brought on by his canonical learning disability and mimic others rather than truly be himself. Consider how his explorations of art are genuinely cool, not a bad thing, and how we get some really neat multimedia stuff out of it.

Caliborn may be a shitty little teenage wretch but the way he is portrayed as an artist and as a disabled person is both really good and very real. It comes from a place of love. His learning disability is handled with a degree of gentle care that you would not really expect from Hussie. The place Caliborn's art style ends up in is so fucking sick and I actually unironically love it. The technique he uses is really interesting. It's intentionally reminiscent of an Etch-a-Sketch, and I'm a little obsessed with it.

This is so fucking good. I mean this seriously. He's right - that is some Pure Art Skill.

I just love the way art is employed as a necessary component of his character arc. It's so neat. You don't see visual cues that intricate too often. Usually it's just in character design, but watching his entire art style and even his medium of choice change several times over is fascinating. You can really tell Hussie had a lot of fun with him. He's also just really, really fucking funny. Just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth is Grade A Absolute Fucking Gold, and I'm honestly obsessed with his dynamic with Dirk. This may get me thrown to the wolves, but I personally think Dirk and Caliborn have way more chemistry than Dirk and Jake. Maybe that's because we actually see Dirk and Caliborn interact on screen... Lmao.

Necessary Topic: I don't know why people hate him so much. Like, I understand hating his misogyny and fatphobia, sure, but those are deliberate character points and not just Hussie-isms. I see people act like Caliborn is indicative of Hussie, as if Homestuck-era Hussie wasn't, like, famously really fucking good at writing female characters and absolutely not a misogynist. Caliborn's a parody of Homestuck Anti-Fans - which is a term we really ought to bring back, god, anti-fans are absolutely still a thing and good lord they're everywhere - who really were just shitty little bigoted haters. Calliope, the opposite side of his coin, was representative of, essentially, "the best kind of Homestuck fan" - an ultimately sweet young teen girl who willingly dedicates almost all of her time to this piece of fiction she loves so, so much, who draws a lot of fan art for the joy of it all, has OCs that don't fit any of the design conventions in Homestuck whom she pairs with the characters in it for innocent fun. Someone who has a lot of theories and analyses, writes a lot of fanfic, and is genuinely just having a lot of fun. Everyone loves Calliope. Even the characters in Homestuck love Calliope. They just think she's the cutest, sweetest little thing they ever did see. Caliborn was the worst kind. He sucks on purpose. No one likes him. He is a total nuisance to characters he is by all means trying to impress. I love them both.

It's also just funny that he's a canonical Intersex Transmasc who is probably Gay and this has, like, no relevance to anything about him, really. So no one really talks about it. Gender Hilarious, Gender Nefarious.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #cherubs #homestuck cherubs #caliborn #calliope #caliborn.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

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genericpuff · 3 months

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I wonder why christian misrepresentation are rarely talked about if compared to other religion misrepresentation. Like, I've seen people really vocal about Greek myths misrepresentation in LO and such (and it's valid because it's a culture and religion) but I rarely saw the same thing with christian even though there are many media who use christian religion innacurately, to the point where it comes off as using it as an aesthetic and not a proper religion.

Is it because of rampant religious trauma especially in western world? No ulterior motives on this question. I'm not a christian and yet I'm curious about this. I apologize if this sounds harsh.

I obviously don't have The Answer(tm) to this but personally speaking (and I'm about to get VERY personal here so take this with MOUNTAINS OF SALT), I think it's just the obvious - Christian mythology is one of the most well-documented and strongly protected out of virtually any other religion on the planet. Especially here in the West, it's commonplace for kids to go to Sunday school, for couples to have Christian weddings even if they're not practising Christians themselves, even the American anthem references the Christian God. It's simply not as easy to 'misrepresent' it because the representation is written into our very fabric of society. Even Greece itself is primarily made up of Orthodox Christians.

So anyone that does 'misrepresent' it are either completely mislead hardcore Christians, or people who are doing it intentionally, such as with the intent to make a parody of it or to deconstruct it through a different context or whatever have you. And of course, people will still get mad at those things, if you're implying that people aren't vocal about Christian misrepresentation then frankly IDK what to tell you there LOL If you want a contextual example in the realm of webtoons, Religiously Gay was dragged to hell and back during its launch for having a very crude and insulting depiction of St. Michael, and frankly, yeah I don't disagree because what the fuck is this-

(like at best it's just terrible character design lmao that said, there's also plenty else to criticize Religiously Gay for, including its fetishy representation of gay relationships and the fact that it's still just the "naive person who looks and acts like a child hooks up with mean person in a position of power" trope, blech, but the character design is definitely the first thing you notice)

There are even plenty of hardcore Christians who will deadass claim "misrepresentation" over things that ARE factually correct but they just haven't read the actual Bible and simply cherry pick what works for their own agenda. And of course those people are routinely called out by people like myself who know for a fact that Jesus wouldn't have promoted the war crimes that many modern day Christians are committing and justifying today. So it really depends on the definition of "misrepresentation" here.

The issue specifically with LO and Rachel that I personally call her out for (and many others) is that she's called herself a "folklorist" and claimed she's so much more knowledgeable on Greek myth than anyone else, while making a complete mockery of the original mythologies while not being honest about her intent as to whether LO is actually supposed to be a legitimate retelling OR a parody (because it sure acts like the latter more than the former, but she still seems to expect us to take it seriously and consider her knowledge of Greek myth superior?) Which leads to a lot of her teenage audience claiming shit like "Persephone went down to the underworld willingly" and "Apollo did assault Persephone in the original myths actually" and the classic "why would Lore Olympus lie or make up fake myths?"

You just can't pull off this extent of erasure with Christian mythology because we have a whole ass book of it that's been preserved, sold on shelves, and systematically integrated into society for thousands of years. Of course, there are people who will still try their damned best to twist the Bible to match their own bigotry with the whole "Jesus hates gays" bullshit (he would never), but it's met with equal amounts of 'misrepresentation' that are actually fully well-read and are intentionally subverting and changing things to either critique, parody, or restore the original intent of a lot of stories in the Bible without all the manufactured right-wing crap.

Greek myth, on the other hand, has some stories that are well preserved, and others, not so much. And in the modern day outside of the poems and hymns, you'll also rarely, if ever, see anyone use stories from Greek myth to ostracize, torture, and murder other people. "Misrepresenting Christianity" is more often done by actual Christians who are using the Bible to commit hate crimes than the people who have actually read the Bible and are just taking creative liberties with it for the sake of deconstructing / parodying / analyzing / subverting it. Veggie Tales "misrepresents" Christian stories because obviously Moses wasn't a fucking cucumber lmao but it still accomplishes its goal by retelling Christian stories in a way that's fun and educational for children.

By comparison (on the whole, I'm not comparing LO to Veggie Tales LMAO) LO just isn't clear in its intentions beyond Rachel's initial statements that she was trying to "deconstruct" the myths, while labelling herself as a folklorist. Therefore, I'm going to criticize how she does it because the way she's done it up until now has been very mishandled and has resulted in a lot of misinterpretations of the myths simply for the sake of fandom. And yes, these people exist in Christian media as well - they're called TV evangelists.

And that's my (very heavy) two cents.

#here's your reminder that missionaries are colonizers #find me the Hellenistic pagans knocking on people's doors asking them if they want to hear about the glory of Aphrodite lmao #honestly it also depends on what you're surrounding yourself with #obv if you take part in the LO fandom and avoid what's going on in the christian world then what you experience and see will seem skewed #like even i could be very wrong in my opinion based on my own experiences as someone who lives in the west-#maybe there ARE pagans knocking on doors and using greek myth to commit hate crimes #so yeah we all gotta try not to fall for survorship bias #there are plenty of stories of people getting mad about christian mythology and its misrepresentations on BOTH sides #lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #webtoon critical #ama #ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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beansprean · 2 years

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Guillermo tells us how to feel.

Like, consistently. He is the closest thing we have to an audience surrogate and HE tells us what our baseline expectations should be based on his reaction to the world. Luring virgins to a house of vampires to be murdered? All in a day's work! Chopping them up into bits and burying them in the backyard? Gross, but necessary! Re-deading your ex-wives in a Bachelor parody? Morally questionable but I'm not gonna stop you. Hypnotizing a man so many times his brain explodes and he dies? Sounds sad but can't talk, I'm embezzling and committing fraud atm. WWDITS is close to being an anti-comedy like IASIP or Seinfeld because the main characters are all awful people who commit terrible atrocities, but we DO care about them and their happiness because we are given that baseline to work from and know what to take seriously and what to laugh at.

The reason s4e9 felt so cruel was because Guillermo responded to it that way. Because HE was hurt and HE was upset and the last shot of the episode was his heart breaking on screen!! We are SUPPOSED to feel how he feels!! All season things have been getting better for him; he has been more appreciated and respected and has taken more control of his life and now the rug is pulled out from under him again. He/we are left wondering: Guillermo, what now? Is all this still worth it? Is it time for you to leave?

The vampires, as a rule, NO NOT CARE ABOUT HUMANS. They're livestock and free labor and occasional entertainment, and that's the way it's always been. (We haven't even talked about the fact that Nadja killed Sofia Coppola 😂😂😂) Vamps are too long-lived and jaded and used to killing to live for it to be any other way. Humans are playthings!! Unfortunately, that includes Nandor's wives. It includes Marwa, it includes Guillermo's family, and it includes Freddie. But it's starting to NOT include Guillermo.

Like Nandor, we are supposed to FEEL THE GAME ENDING. He was having fun, making a new human to play with because he was bored of his old one and getting to spend time with his best…man and literally could not compute that any of this would be upsetting to Guillermo. Because why would it? They're only toys, they can always get more. (Here, Guillermo is already held separate and above other humans)

But Guillermo was upset! He was angry! He didn't think it was fun, he didn't think it was a game, and this human was IMPORTANT to him and we see Nandor falter, stumble over his words, get quiet and soft and ashamed. The comedy is over and he stops having fun. And he does his best (best is debatable but he is very stupid) to fix it!!

Idk if these events will be specifically addressed next ep because we have important Colin things to do and there had to have been a decent time skip between Freddie leaving and Memo going to London, but I want to point out that THIS IS THE DARKEST HOUR MOMENT. Nadja is losing her club, Laszlo is losing his boy, Colin is losing his youth, Nandor lost his wife/boytoy and Guillermo's trust, and Guillermo lost his boyfriend and got his heart broken for the upteenth time. Things SUCK FOR EVERYONE right now - and that's the point!! Ep 9 of season 3 ended with Colin Robinson DYING. Next ep, things will start to look up. Right before something insane happens that makes everything SIGNIFICANTLY worse and leaves us on a year-long cliffhanger! 😃 And I for one am excited to see it lmao

(Also Marwa sidenote bc look how they massacred my girl:

I will miss Marwa and I'm sad about her (I know not everyone was fond of her like I was lol but idk if the writers expected anyone to feel a way about her regardless), and I'm left thinking "is this even Marwa?" If she has none of her own memories or body or personality left, can we even consider it her? Does Marwa no longer exist? May be the best outcome for her mental state if she now exists only in 1300s Al Qolindar again lol. But if the wishes get reversed or something else happens to return her to Marwadom I'm hopeful she will pull a Derek and return one day!! Wwdits is well known for bringing back one-off characters, and Marwa was a season regular in like 7/10 episodes so I'm not giving up on her yet... My fanart will continue.)

#wwdits #wwdits spoilers #wwdits s4e9 #wwdits speculation #not art #nandermo #freddermo #marwa wwdits #I ain’t mad bc I try not to get mad at tv shows anymore I spent all my tears on spn but I am anxious for what’s next lol #my post.#I may have to wake up at like 6 or 7 wed morning to watch

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nullbutler · 9 months

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Masterpost of Projects

Hi! I'm Null! I make way too much stuff !! Here's a comprehensive list of everything I'm proud enough of to advertise on the front of my blog! It's a lot of kuro stuff!

My COMMISSIONS are OPEN!

BLACK BUTLER : BOOK OF SPIDERS [<- watch here]

A literal season 2 MOVIE. That's right i fucking COMPILED SEASON 2 INTO A FUCKING MOVIE it's a TWO AND A HALF HOUR LONG FUCKING MOVIE. I am in no way an editing professional, but the filler is cut, the gratuitously vile scenes are either done differently or also cut, and Alois and Hannah are portrayed in a kinder light, especially with Alois's backstory being handled a lot more carefully. No original footage is added - it is merely camera tricks and framing.

"You got rid of that Ciel screaming scene and that's like 5 stars for me." -- @warmmilk-n-honey

"Truly proves that less is more." -- @pain-in-the-butler

"An actual digestible version of Season 2." - @mantomhive

2. My Webcomic: The Dead The Damned & The Devil (Read here)

What if Vincent Phantomhive came back from the dead just before his sons were sacrificed? This is a fix-it AU...kind of. Many side characters are integral to this story, like Francis and Madam Red. It's got 8+ chapters, and if you like to watch scared parents protect sad little kids, its a good read. likewise, if you already want to hug vincent, its a good read. likewise, if you want to punch vincnet in the face, it's a good...

VOLUME ONE HAS BEEN COMPLETED!!!

3. My Season 2 Video Essay (black butler season 2 is laughing at you)

watch me scream about the meta of season 2 as an exhausted season 2 fan for about two hours...it's got some original animatics, too!

4. My Youtube + some highlights such as

The Black Butler Actors OVA Abridged

exactly what it says on the tin! a 22 minute long black butler parody following what the hellish production of season 2 was actually like (and also. uh. character trauma??? somehow???)

"Cinder Soul" the angsty End-of-Contract visual novel

Sebastian and Ciel angst hours, in an AU where Ciel has quite literally lost everything. Ominous. Sad.

Season 2 Reanimation project

on indefinite hiatus -- but its still 14 minutes of technically an episode, and the ending is more 'open' than 'cliffhanger.' what if Alois and Ciel got to talk it out when they were trapped in the same body, back in episode 11? Fully originally animated (thsi is probably the largest thing I've ever made hghdfhs)

Collabs w Mel ( @weeb-cheese )

This list will probably get longer but aaa they're so cool!

youtube

Pluto video essay!

Drossel video essay!

NOT-KURO VIsual Novel

A light-hearted (?) sapphic visual novel about some ladies who LARP at garden club. On hiatus

5. Ego Te Absolvo

So what if Alois Trancy teamed up with Ash Landers and became an exorcist who killed demons? Would he be happy? Would he be free? This is a really fun fic, i've been co-writing it with @eemoo1o and its aaa!! very cool!! do be warned, it gets...darker...the longer you read it. it is an alois trancy fic after all, even if the initial concept might seem a bit silly

6. RIan Stoker Ask Blog

Don't ask me why i wanted to make this. but he's always open!

I have a number of other smaller projects that you can find by hunting through my youtube and stalking my ao3. I don't mind!! tho some of the older stuff is definitely not as good lmao thanks for reading!!

I also run @blackbutler-heritage-posts and hosted @dadbastianweek2023 !!!

#black butler #alois trancy #ciel phantomhive #kuroshitsuji #sebastian michaelis #christlois #Youtube

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thattimdrakeguy · 5 months

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HOW NCUTI GATWA STOLE (THE SHOW AT) CHRISTMAS.

Gonna be honest, do not care how brash it sounds, Ncuti Gatwa is already my second favorite Doctor. A perfect mesh of fantastic performance and good writing.

Both him and RTD just deliver what's their in my head as the 'Doctor-y bits', the things that make any incarnation of the Doctor feel like the Doctor. The stuff that if lacking can make me not care for an incarnation, or really like an incarnation.

They nail that base of the character while adding new things to make the new incarnation unique and it's wonderful.

The Doctor is an enigmatic, scientist, time traveling, adventurer, investigator, that's so eccentric. And while some criticize RTD for making the Doctor's a bit too human, I personally think he's always been very good at writing Doctor's that feel like aliens who've been around humans for hundreds of years...which is who the Doctor is.

And it makes the Doctor so wonderful.

Never liked when people say some Doctor's don't feel alien...simply because they aren't standard socially awkward. 'Cause that always felt a bit unintentionally mean spirited. There's lots of human's that are bad at social cues and stuff. A lot of them are just plum Autistic. It doesn't make them alien.

RTD makes his Doctor's feel alien by the obvious experience the Doctor has that's above any possible human. Knowledges and sciences above what we human's even know. With enough eccentricities with the way they socialize that show they're so used to being around actual aliens that they're pleasantly surprised when something unusual shows up, and they're right at home alongside it.

Now all that stuff I described is almost constantly there...'cause it is the Doctor'y Bits, but it feels more pushed to the forefront with RTD. While other writers either don't make those the elements that stand out, or they write them in a way that feels...it's hard to describe...But sometimes that stuff is written in a way that feels parody. When I feel like the humor is natural 'cause, 'Who the hell can say they done all this'. It could be a directing or performance thing over writing. It's hard to pinpoint. While focusing too much on making the character quirky to the point they feel a bit too over-the-top to mesh, or possibly maybe even inconsistent with other parts of the characterization that's been established.

It's a magnificent balance in the latest special is what I'm saying.

And thanks to the beauty of the writing, Ncuti gets to play a three dimensional Doctor right off the back. His serious side, his silly side, his teasing side, his self-doubting size, his scientific side, his adventure loving side. It's all there, and he betrays it so convincingly. It somehow feels like he's already done a full season when this is his first episode as the main Doctor.

And the episode was a total breath of fresh air.

The first three specials were amazing, and already among my top favorite episodes of Doctor Who. But by nature they were an epilogue to a story already started. Which is what made them fantastic.

But on the differing side of the coin is this special, where it's to begin a new on, in a new era, in an episode that's a truly great starting point for new viewers that may not understand the sort of show Doctor Who is.

I've seen some people say it doesn't work as that 'cause it's goofy.

No it's perfect 'cause of that. You shouldn't watch Doctor Who not expecting camp sensibilities. Even at it's most serious, the show still has elements of camp, it's just rather or not it's intentional lmao

Also Millie Gibson is insanely convincing right away. I never seen her in anything, while keeping some faith, since so far RTD has been sort of my man when it comes to Doctor Who, I consistency enjoy his choices. But like, wow, she was genuinely the stand-out to me, above even Ncuti in some ways, because obviously the Companion isn't going to be as naturally interesting as the Doctor is, since the Companion is supposed to be a more average person, while the Doctor is...the Doctor. To make the companion stand out as much as the Doctor is insanely hard...especially when Ncuti is a show stealer by showing up alone from his charisma.

Her performance was amazing though.

I've never been so impressed by a companion's performance (Anymore so than another) before like I was with Millie.

#Doctor Who #Ncuti Gatwa #Fifteenth Doctor #The Fifteenth Doctor #Millie Gibson #Ruby Sunday

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daily-teki · 4 months

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can we get a translation of ur latest post please i need to know what they're saying

Alright, so. Some of it is a little bit fucked up bc my iPad crashed a bunch of times putting all that text in so there’s lots of errors on that regard (no I will not be fixing this due to can’t be bothered) but this is how it should have originally translated;

Miku: how DARE you!? Not my fault that you two tacky eyesores are just parodies of better people!

Ranger: tf you mean two lmao it’s just Teki

[Teki shows something to Ranger, presumably a picture of Sei but honestly if you can think of something funnier then go for it]

Ranger: H-! I- Oh you trashy blue bastard! I’ll play connect four with your organs!

Miku: Didn’t you cryyy when Safalin read you The Ugly Duckling?

Teki: How did you not know about that?

Ranger: Do I look like someone who played Kai’s minisode to you!?

Miku: You’re a fucking idiot, how are we even related

Ranger: Shut the FUCK up im literally neurodivergent and probably a minor

Miku: WE’RE ALL neurodivergent and minors except for the beanie bitch, who’s just regular neurodivergent!

[Kugie stabs Ranger in the shoulder in retribution for stealing her skirt]

Ranger: OW IM BEING FUCKING VICTIMISED HERE. TEKI. TEKI COME HELP ME RIGHT NOW OR ISTG ILL SHOVE THIS KNIFE UP YOUR ASS. AND KUGIE I WILL SELL YOU TO THE HYDRAULIC PRESS CHANNEL FUCKKKKKKK

Kanna: What the hell are those guys saying

Shin: No fucking clue

I couldn’t think of anything particularly relevant for Teki to say after that so I just had her say ‘According to all known laws of aviation…’

I had a big headcanon that the ai characters would revert back to binary if they got too heated in conversation considering it’s technically the ‘first language’ of anything computer-based and so naturally I spent way too long making something way too shit.

I also have this other big hc that ranger can’t read so do with that what you will

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littlealeta · 3 months

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Ralph Breaks the Internet Review/Rant

When I first watched this film in 2018, I thought it was fairly decent. I was glad to finally see Wreck it Ralph again after 6 years. But even then, I still found it a disappointment from the first one. I hated how they did Ralph and Vanellope and I hated that Felix and Calhoun were barely in the film. Over the years, after reflecting more on this film, I realized that I might've been a bit too nice to it. So, I rewatched it again. And... yeah, it's pretty mediocre. It's still a fun time, especially for kids, but I wouldn't recommend it if you don't want it to ruin your love for the first one. I couldn't even watch the first one for years after watching this trainwreck.

This is going to be longer than some of my previous reviews because I have a LOT to say about this film, including spoilers. But you can always scroll down to the overall section if you want to see a concise version of this review.

Story

The film starts off nice. Ralph and Vanellope just hanging out in other games and talking. But, by the time the conflict comes around, the story becomes ass. Ralph and Vanellope break Sugar Rush by fucking around with a new race track Ralph created. They go through the Internet on a rollercoaster ride (using teleportation would make more sense). Then, they end up accidentally bidding 27,000 dollars for a new part at Ebay. So, now they have to gather up 27,000 dollars in 24 hours before the part expires when they could just wait for the item to expire and then re-bid. (Seriously, this whole movie wouldn't have happened if Ralph and Vanellope hadn't been idiots).

It doesn't matter, though, because Ralph somehow gets instant internet fame by making cringy youtube (called buzztube when youtube exists in that world for some reason) jokes and being a real life person somehow (that no one questions), ok. Why do we need a movie about the Internet with two characters from a movie about video games?

There are some cool concepts with the Internet, like the little avatars walking all over the place, the spamming, and Miranda Sings getting her ass kicked off by Ralph breaking her Internet. But then, there are also a lot of unnecessary Internet references. We see Google, Amazon, Twitter (with all the birds retweeting one post, like you could've had other posts instead of just retweets), Snapchat (which is an app), and Oh My Disney, which is just 5 unnecessary minutes of Disney kissing their own ass.

I will, however, say that the parody with the Disney princesses, the I Want songs, and how Vanellope interacts with the princesses (an atypical Disney princess, so you can imagine how well they bounce off of each other) is funny. The only problem is, they're just wrapped up in this terrible story. Like, if they kept the video game concept and they had something like Disney Infinity being one of the more wholesome games Ralph would send Vanellope to and then they meet the Disney princesses in there, that would be better.

The emotional scenes are just shit. Like, I can't NOT mention the contrived comment scene, the whole theme about friendship, and Vanellope glitching when she's insecure, how the fuck, lmao? The comment scene just came off like elementary school/middle school bullying instead of how people actually talk on the Internet. It gives me flashbacks of the 2011 film Cyberbully.

And the way the conflict gets resolved is shallow too, because everything is shallow in this film. I mean, "Don't read the comments"? I mean, it's kinda right for certain situations, but sometimes comments can be useful in helping you improve and seeing how other people see your videos. Sure, you should ignore bullies, trolls, and mean comments, but you shouldn't ignore every comment.

While the letting your friend go and follow their dreams message is a well-intentioned message to send to kids, the way they did it here is actually harmful and contradictory to the first film. I don't want to get too much into the characters because I have a special character section for them, so I'm just going to talk about the theme and how it relates to the world. Vanellope LITERALLY goes turbo. She ditches her Sugar Rush friends, players, and her game. Seemingly putting her friends and game in danger, yet no one questions it. I can't believe this was made by the same people who made the first.

In the climax of the film, Ralph releases a virus to protect Vanellope from the dangers of Slaughter Race. But somehow, it ends up detecting and copying insecurities? I mean, it's a cool concept, but it doesn't make sense when that wasn't even Ralph's intention to begin with.

And like a lot of things in this film, the way they resolved that conflict is anticlimatic. Supposedly, it's a symbol of the theme of the movie which is about letting friends go, which is fine, but why does it need to be in the form of a literal antagonist? Also, I feel like this whole thing is kinda breaking the Show, Don't Tell rule.

The movie also suffers from a lack of subplots. One particular subplot involving Calhoun and Felix was teased but then gets completely thrown out the window. It isn't really an original concept, but it still feels disappointing that they fucked it over.

Characters

Established characters barely even act like themselves. They say and do a lot of stupid shit. Like that contrived joke with Tron having a glitch (no pun intended) and they assume it's already fixed, but it turns out it wasn't fixed. That could've easily been rewritten as Litwak announced it was fixed, but it turns out it wasn't.

Dialogue is pretty bad, too. There's a lot of unnecessary Internet references, laughably idiot dialogue (mostly from Ralph) and a few potty humor that aren't even funny. Oh, and this movie is weirdly fond of philosophies too.

Why would Ralph be interested in a book club?

Ralph is now an idiot loser. He spends the entire film whining and crying about how Vanellope doesn't love him and his hair, even when she's saying nothing about him, it almost comes off as sus (I don't think I can say the actual word I'm thinking of). He says stuff like this.

Bitch, you could've said, "Why are you angry at the rainbow." HOW HARD IS THAT TO REWRITE, WRITERS?!?!

If Ralph just stayed the overprotective father that didn't want Vanellope to wander into dangerous games like Slaughter Race and be around sus people, that would be fine. But no, he gets upset because he and Vanellope were inseparable for 6 fucking years. That is just problematic in more ways than one. Like, Vanellope's your only friend? FELIX IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE! WTF HAPPENED TO YOU, RALPH?!?!

As for Vanellope, I think the concept of Vanellope getting bored with her game is a good concept to explore and would've been a good catalyst for character development, but here's the thing: SHE NEVER LEARNS. At the end of the film, she gets what she wants and RALPH has to be the one to learn something. Don't get me wrong, Ralph is also in the wrong for being clingy and not wanting his friend to leave his side for 5 minutes. But Vanellope was also a selfish, insensitive b!tch for putting her own game in danger and hurting her friends and her players (by the first movie's logic).

Now, on the positive side, there are some decent characters. Spamley, Yesss, the creepy Slug, Shank, and Knowsmore. Any new character in the film is amusing to watch.

Spamley is the spam junk guy. He's shady and wants to help Ralph and Vanellope get rich by looting from video games. I feel like this character could've probably been the antagonist as I always felt like he was going to backstab Ralph and Vanellope.

Yesss is the world-weary, aloof Youtube Algorithm with a loving side if she cares about you. It's how I'd imagine an Algorithm would act like if it was a person.

Knowsmore (who weirdly enough isn't google) also acts like how I'd imagine a search engine would act like. Saying what they think the other person is typing into the search engine.

The slug (I don't know if they mention his name) is aggressively creepy. He's the guy that Ralph buys the virus from. Fitting for how I'd imagine someone with a virus would act like.

Shank is the weakest of the characters because she's the one encouraging Vanellope to go Turbo, but she does have a cool personality. She may look slightly reminiscent of Calhoun, but she's not stern and hot-headed like her. Instead, she's easy-going, charismatic, and has some badass moves. I still like Calhoun better overall.

Animation/Music/Voice Acting

You can clearly tell it's a step up from the first movie. It's more fluid and cleaner. However, one thing I would like to complain about the animation is the way that some of the 2D princesses are translated into 3D. Ariel, Cinderella, and I think that was Tiana, look unrecognizable as 3D. Especially, Pocahontas, uh.

I think the voice actors were amusing to watch and portrayed their characters decently well. Sarah Silverman, however, felt somehow off to me. Like her voice is pitched up and she didn't really have as much range as she did in the first one, but it might just be the bad script and directing. Bill Hader, I thought he was great as Flint Lockwood and Fear, but his voice is a bit off in this film. Most of the time, he uses his Flint Lockwood voice (which I don't think really fits the character) and other times, he sounds different.

There's only two songs in there, one of them only lasts a second and somehow, it sounds better than almost anything about the full-length one. A Place Called Slaughter Race is not only Vanellope being a piece of shit, but it also doesn't sound particularly catchy. The melodies change like every minute and it's not even in a good way like Bohemian Rhapsody, it just sounds weird.

Overall

Ralph Breaks the Internet is just The Emoji Movie but a bit better. It does actually offer some creative things with the Internet. But it also could've done better in its portrayal of the Internet and that includes making the world feel more natural and cutting down the amount of Internet references (and there's A LOT).

The entire film wouldn't have happened if Ralph and Vanellope hadn't goofed off during work hours and forfeit the bid, but no. We GOTTA HAVE MEMES AND INTERNET REFERENCES FOR THE ZOOMERS AND ALPHAS!

BuzzTube and Knowsmore existing while Google and Youtube exists is weird. I guess they had some weird contract disagreements with these products?

There is little tension to be found as most of the conflict is resolved through anticlimatic and shallow dialogue and scenes and lame Internet jokes. And conflict is often started or ending with inconsistencies with the previous worldbuilding or with how the Internet really is.

There are barely any subplots in the film. One is teased, but never expanded upon.

Jokes are hit-and-miss. A lot of the dialogue felt unnatural and disgusting, often for the sake of making little kids laugh. Yet, the movie even tries to be r/I'm14andthisisdeep for no reason a few times.

Vanellope and Ralph are now almost completely different from how they were in the first film and of the two, only Ralph learns something and it's a pretty harmful message in the context of the film. However, I do like the new side characters. I personally think they should've done more with Spamley, but they all have fun personalities and act like how I'd imagine the Internet in character form would act like. And the parody with the Disney princesses and the interactions between them and Vanellope is actually creative to watch.

Animation is a clear step up from the first film besides the designs of some of the Disney princesses looking off. Voice acting was mostly decent except for a few characters sounding weird at times. Vanellope's I Want song is disappointingly forgettable.

Ralph Breaks the Internet gets 5.3 bells out of 10.

Also, why is it called Ralph Breaks the Internet instead of Ralph Wrecks the Internet? Ugh, they couldn't even get the title right.

Sour Bill is also one of my favorites and I would've loved to see more of him, too.

#ralph breaks the internet #wreck it ralph 2 #wreck it ralph #vanellope von schweetz #fix it felix #sergeant calhoun #shanks #review #rant

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acoraxia · 6 months

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Hey I just wanted to say that you've really inspired me! I love your headcannons, your art and also your character analysis'! And your whole rebranding? Absolutely cool, it's really neat!

It's super cool how you put so much effort into your research and how your writing has all these little bits of detail woven into it but it's also just really pleasing to read!

Also your whole opinion on shadowpeach is super neat! Tbh, the fandom made me think that Macaque was gonna be my favourite character, but then I actually watched the show and the whole tormenting children thing DID NOT sit with me (Like I get he's kind of a victim but the fandom REALLY loves to exaggerate it sometimes??)

Also, was it LMK that got you in interested in Journey to the West or was it the other way around? And what do you think was Azure, Peng and/or Golden Tusk's views on Macaque and Wukong's relationship? {Like, for example, did they see Macaque as being Wukong's lacky/sidekick?}

Anyways, hope you have a wonderful day/night/evening :3

HELLO! So sorry for the late response, I've been running around all week haha

Ngl the fandom will always like... shift away from actual characterization and basically treat the characters like they're their ocs when they're not. and it's all fun and games! but it takes away from what makes Macaque Macaque yknow? make him a good father figure and you take away the fact he has never actually cared for any of the kids in the show he just did one (1) thing and suddenly uh father figure ig cnjdksncjkds

I got invested into Journey to the West because of a silly spanish parody song summarizing Sun Wukong's origins and then I remembered seeing a trailer for LEGO Monkie Kid and found the pilot on a random website haha

Idk tbh but from what Peng says about Macaque and his unwavering loyalty—I'm pretty sure they (all) viewed them as this... inseparable pair? Just a couple of besties. I'm sure that was annoying to witness sometimes lmao

thank you sm!!

#ask #comeback kid #haha #it be like that sometimes yknow #cnjdks

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seapiglet · 10 months

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I mean I get what they're going for with the story. I understand it, it's just not what I come to Good Omens for. Good Omens to me is a quirky little parody that takes the piss out of genre tropes and centres around people being people. It's gentle and silly and doesn't take itself seriously.

I'm glad others are enjoying the pivot toward the effects of religious trauma, anguished breakups and General Angst but it's such a massive shift in tone, and the book is so firmly embedded in my psyche, that it's jarring to even think about.

If I squint very hard then Aziraphale's actions this season could feasibly be a continuation of the Aziraphale of season 1 (though I still struggle with this tbh) but they don't fit in any way with the Aziraphale of the book, and he's the one that sits right at the front of my mind.

Season 1's characters bore enough resemblance to their book counterparts that I could see them as sort of simplified hybrid versions (Crowley being more typically demonic and Aziraphale more typically angelic which... sort of missed the point but w/e it's TV) and appreciate them for what they were, enough to stay interested in a season 2, at least. This time around it feels like we've strayed so far from the book they might as well be different characters entirely.

Which, again, is fine for people who wanted that (and I know a LOT of people on tumblr wanted that) but, as much as I enjoy a bit of angsty fic, I'd prefer it didn't make the leap into canon.

Oh and to the person who sent me three asks accusing me of homophobia? I AM LITERALLY GAY lmao

#good omens critical #why am I still talking about this thing I didn't enjoy? well that would be the autism

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imunbreakabledude · 8 months

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gen v ep 4 thoughts

i guess i will put these behind a cut not that there's a lot of them

mostly just wanna say... i was very casually thinking "oh jordan/marie might be fun" before this ep but didn't fully think they'd go there just because... I don't know, I guess my ingrained belief that any sort of queer char outside the "norm" is not gonna be in a relationship with the main lead of a tv show? which is sad but I'm glad they are going for it? my one hesitation right as they kissed the first time was "shit is this gonna be a thing where it's just mariexboy-jordan and it's kinda heteronormative even w a distinctly queer character?" but the ending, i am now very much on board because yay queer marie, yay genderfuckery, and yay rivals to begrudging allies to lovers... i love it...

i was laughing that boy-jordan actor (derek something? Maybe? I am not great on the actor names for this show yet) basically did nothing this ep besides kiss marie tho lmao i do wonder in the writing/directing of the show how much they decided when each actor would be playing jordan - both for story implications but also in terms of giving the actors stuff to do, just an interesting thing to consider

also what are we callin it. jorrie? jordie? mardan? I think i like jordie

anyways i don't really give a shit about cate/andre or sam/emma i mean they're both fine but I am HERE for jordan and marie i hope it continues to be interesting and doesn't turn into any kind of sad cop out "one time thing" or shit

other thoughts i suppose

i will have to go look up what the fuck Tek Knight's power is supposed to be because it seemed like... super senses or super observation? like sherlock or the guy from psych? but i thought Tek Knight was supposed to be an iron man parody so i had been expecting something tech related... i cant decide if i found him entertaining or not... i guess, slightly. the whole "he just fucks things all the time because of a tumor" thing didn't really hit the mark for me it didn't quite land as funny nor like, an interesting way for dean shetty to one up him ... how man things he fucked in that montage IN PUBLIC SPACES i don't believe that it isn't ALREADY on instagram lol

Sam... I do like, big creds to his actor whose name i dont recall for making him so charming and sympathetic but also at the same time I am feeling a ~little~ like it's falling into that sorta fetishizing mental illness trope idk how to describe it but like similar vibes i got from anytime people (women) would go "crazy" on j*ss wh*don shows... idk idk i'm gonna see if i can find any perspectives from people with schizophrenia about this portrayal bc I don't know too much about it tbh! but yeah i... i dunno yet

i'm glad they confirmed giant emma is a thing too lol but imagine growing that large and then your bits are just on full display to everyone. your giantized bits. enlarged for easy viewing. i know a lot of people become naked with their powers in this universe so it's probably not AS weird for them but .. lol

ON THAT NOTE... JORDAN should share their secret for magic clothing that fits you perfectly no matter when your body changes with emma. lmao i kid but it's weird to me that every other character on this show whose power morphs their body in such a way that clothes would fall off or get destroyed (Emma, Golden Boy, etc) or otherwise be impracitcal (Translucent and the other invisible RA guy), they stick to the "realism" in that sense... which is just making me fixate on how the FUCK do jordan's clothes work? i mean, they have great style, but also their outfits fit PERFECTLY in both forms. and i'm like how? how does that work? they are very different sizes. Also like... are they wearing a bra? looks like it at least in some of the outfits w the tight shirts. Where's the bra go when they go into masculine form? huh? i wouldn't be asking these questions at all if the show didn't specifically call attention to clothing with everyone else's powers lmao.

Also I have to say the dick exploding scene felt really random and unnecessary .. there are times when the audacious/gory scenes on this show (and The Boys) really work but a handful of them on this show so far aren't hitting quite as much for me and feeling more like they just insist upon doing more of them to remind you "this is a The Boys spinoff!!! remember??? it's The Boys!!! Exploding Dicks!!!" like it'd be OKAY if you went an episode without genitals exploding... this show is already different... there's still people dying... we know...

intrigued by the teaser about the memory loss or whatever's going on w that...

#gen v #gen v spoilers #tvthoughts

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thychesters · 4 months

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20 Questions for fic writers

@acewithapaintbrush posted and said "go for it" so here i am! putting this under a cut because it got long lmao

How many works do you have on Ao3?

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

303,124

3. What fandoms do you write for?

dc/batman/birds of prey, with some until dawn and uncharted thrown in there. right now it's mostly one piece though.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ship to wreck. (one piece/zolu)

ocean breathes salty. (one piece/zolu)

ronald mcdonald eat your heart out. (dc/batman/bruce & dick)

the salt & the sea. (one piece/zolu/reincarnation au)

misery loves company. (dc/batman/jason & damian)

5. Do you respond to comments?

yes! i appreciate them a ton. sometimes it might take me a few days but i try to respond to every single one

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ooh that's a tough one, because while i like to include a lot of notes of angst, most of the endings have been on decent notes. maybe if you go out in the woods today (until dawn) because it's a vanishing hitchhiker au.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably the salt & the sea. (one piece)! i'd like to think all of that build up to the end and the reunion was worth it. (and it was to me, at least!)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

luckily i have not!

9. Do you write smut?

hehe i have and i want to again!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

nope! not really my thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

years ago i noticed some similarities in ideas, but nothing too major.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i haven't!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have... considered doing so...

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

since i tend to bop between fandoms, i don't really have one! right now it's zolu, but i also really enjoy the dynamics of the straw hats as a whole. i'm rotating them in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i think unfortunately the first op fic i started is going to end up being something the buzzards (me) pick at for lines and ideas. or maybe someday in the far future it will see the light of day. (i started it 70 episodes into my watch and stabbed zoro haha)

16. What are your writing strengths?

i like to think i can convey emotions and character interactions. i also enjoy some of the physicality between them, so i hope that shows as well!

17. What are you writing weaknesses?

balancing out dialogue between a large cast of characters and pacing in action sequences. want to keep enough happening to keep things moving, but not repeat myself four times.

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

why not, if it works?

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

honestly i think my friend and i wrote twilight parody fic when we were in middle school LMAO

20. Favorite fic you have written?

more recently i'm very proud of the zolu reincarnation au i've mentioned above, but i'm also really, really happy with the way the zoro pining fic ode to an ocean. turned out. that one has a few of my favorite lines in it! (also maybe my next wip ... or who knows)

thanks for the tag by proxy ace!

if they're interested in doing so, i'm tagging @lookforanewangle, @beck-a-leck, @sciencemyfiction, @ghostlandtoo, and @microcomets! (hi claire!)

#thanks ace!#ohhh man i'm going to bed ok good night everyone #kate blabs

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beevean · 4 months

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(1/2)yo, uh, hi. i've never actually interacted with you before but i think you have pretty cool sonic takes in general and are a cool individual in general. i wanted to say smth about an ask response you made a bit back about how sonic's game foils are stoic and serious while his western media foils are loudmouthed braggarts and like. jet the hawk exists. the babylon rogues are an in-universe parody of team sonic where jet is a braggart jackass, wave is snooty and prideful, and storm is stupid.

(2/2) just because a character intended as a foil to another, takes an unsavory trait of them and exaggerates it, doesn't mean they're always an accurate reflection of who they're foiling is. batman has joker and riddler as foils, completely different characters taking certain aspects of batman and shifting them to contrast him. chaos sonic takes sonic's taunts and verbal jabs and turns into a parody of what sonic is, and that's kind of like, his point. he's not sonic he's how the C.C view sonic

Lmao! My bad, I did forget about Jet 😂 the way you described them is precisely why I don't like the Babylon Rogues - sick designs and cute interactions with each other, but I don't like them as foils to the main trio.

Even then, Jet is one of many characters that work as foils to Sonic: he's his cockiness turned up to eleven, he's Sonic if he cared about winning more than anything else. But then you have Knuckles, who is the mountain to Sonic's wind: brash, aggressive, anchored to a place. Then you have Shadow: artificial, shackled to his past until his own game, introverted, cordial but aloof, more ruthless. Then you have Blaze, the fire to Sonic's wind: also introverted, straight up refusing to open up to others, burdened by responsibilities. And Metal, who is in short Sonic's power in Eggman's hands, completely chained to him.

I see more variety to explore Sonic's characters and give him different rivalries, and he has different relationships with all of these characters, from being genuine friends to being friendly rivals. On the other hand, Scourge and Surge are more or less the same archetype of "obnoxious edgy violent braggart" - Surge has a fairly interesting Shadow-esque backstory, but so far the story hasn't taken advantage of it, putting more focus on how "cool" she supposedly is (can't speak about Scourge in detail because I refuse to read Archie lol). And Chaos Sonic, well...

youtube

First of all, the problem with characters who are meant to be annoying is that they still are annoying lol. So uhhh good job I suppose? But I don't know how much I can praise you for getting on my nerves lol.

Second, Sonic here keeps making the same joke - "oh wow am I this annoying? stop talking!". He's the one who puts the focus on Chaos Sonic's singular trait: being unable to shut up. And, well... kind of? This Sonic is way more energetic and childish than Game Sonic. The joke falls flat for me because Chaos Sonic is not that exaggerated, he's just meaner.

Funnily enough, one can also see Surge and Kit as incarnations of how Starline saw Sonic and Tails: the former as a stupid (according to her) arrogant braggart, and the latter as a mindless sycopant. Get it, because he was all about being meta, blah blah blah sonic cycle :P in that case, I can accuse the writing at attempting to seem deeper than it actually was. Ah, don't let me start on the absolute mess that are S&K and how they came to be...

Anyway. The root of the problem is that generally speaking Western Sonic, from SatAM to Prime, has differed from game Sonic in having his cockiness amped up for cool points. That's his appeal here. Now, don't get me wrong, Sonic is cool in general, but he's more... effortlessly cool, I say. He's natural in his coolness, he doesn't try, he just is. That trait of his got flanderized in the '90s because of cultural differences, and writers nowadays are still playing under this misconception, from Flynn who writes a supremely arrogant Sonic (not even talking about his preaching attempts, even small things like basking in the praise of the crowd, or using his fame status to intimidate a waiter in Archie), to Prime Sonic being pitched as having to learn not to take his friends for granted, implying that he was too egotistical to care before.

And I see this reflected in the kind of rivals they create for Western media, which can be boiled down as "Sonic but meaner and all taunts, with zero redeeming qualities".

But hey, this is my opinion. Thank you for your nice words ^^

#sonic the hedgehog

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stainlesssteellocust · 6 months

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Names in the Laundry Files books are interesting because a good chunk of them might just be made up. Total in-universe lies.

The protagonist for most of the series is explicitly using a fake name, supposedly for magical real-names-are-dangerous purposes, combined with a 'don't use your real name online' gag courtesy of the series' technomagical parody elements. He isn't actually called 'Bob Howard', that is in fact just a meme name cause he's a nerd and chose to name himself after the guy who wrote Conan the Barbarian and Kull the Conqueror. And that whole Bastard Operator thing too, but Conan's the main one.

But it's a fair bet that he does this to other people, too. Including the other leads.

If he believes there's a risk to using real names (nobody else seems to care except the elves, my draft fic compares it how he doesn't like using his name on social media either), he'd change the names of the people who come up in his stories too, right? And there's evidence - if I remember right, in one book he spends time in a police station where the guy on the desk is called Fred Colon.

Of course, doylistically, that's Stross homaging Discworld. But from a watsonian perspective, that could well be Bob homaging Discworld, because he's British and a meme loving fuck*. That cop wasn't really a Sargeant Colon, Bob just reread Feet of Clay recently. His spymaster is called 'Angleton', but James Angleton was a real guy and this bloke isn't him, he's not even...Well, spoilers. Again, cutesy fake homage-name to hide dangerous knowledge.

The other leads don't do this. Explicitly, they don't bother. And you'd think that was that, right?

Except all of the other protagonists are introduced in Bob novels. Where Bob is, presumably, giving them fake names.

Is his wife Mo O'Brien really called that? Her narration says she uses her real name when she gets a solo outing, but we met her in a Bob story where he could have just made something up to sanitise people's identities and her real name is like, Sandra or something. Maybe her book is just continuing that convention because swapping names six stories in is confusing. She never tells us Bob's real name, after all.

A mutual who I won't tag 'cause they've gone quiet for a while once picked up how there's at least four guys called Alex across the series. One becomes a protagonist who does in fact use his real name, but again, he first appeared in a Bob-narrated novel so the 'real name' he's mentioned as using in story could be totally different, and the novel is just keeping 'Alex' as...legacy code, sorta. Maybe there's multiple Alex's because it's just the first name Bob jumps to? Starts with an A, Alex, Bob, A B C...

Same goes for Mhari 'Bob's psycho ex cliche rehabilitated into an actual character through the wonders of unreliable narration' Murphy/Grey, who rounds out our core narration cast. Introduced by Bob. Again.

About the only ones I'm sure of are those who were introduced in non-Bob novels. Jim is presumably an actual Jim. Maybe that Anekka girl, because it was a combo-narration outing. Cassie is...well that's its own can of worms, she's not originally called Cassie but the girl she abducted, mind-merged with like a perfect lyctor and flung into a portal to be eaten by vampires probably was (oh Cassie you're so problematic lmao). The guys in the spinoffs I still haven't read. Etc.

Of course this is very much me thinking too hard about things, and it can be safely ignored as a snarl of the setting conceit. in my fics i ignore this; their names are their names. Similarly, I don't actually think that when the leads write their case reports in-universe they're producing novel-length and professionally edited stories with dramatic flow, or are putting in lurid descriptions of their exes sex lives to fill in the gaps, or going on pop-cultural tangents, or what have you. You can usually tell when they're 'actually' delivering a report or whatever because the style changes. None of this is real; the style and naming stuff is just a quirk of fictionalisation.

But it's fun to think about, sometimes.

*it could also be fuel for fanfic in that 'people like Fred, Nobby, Dibbler, Jackrum etc are archetypes who show up all over the world and multiverse' sort of way, of course. When he makes a joke about apes in the library, maybe that was just the Librarian taking a shortcut through L-Space...

#the laundry files #charles stross #discworld #adjacent at least #if laundry! colon was really called that does that mean the unicorns got nobby #i hope not #they might get a tummy ache #writing #writing meta

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