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#i love all these characters genuinely i do and i love how they use the compassion in their hearts to step up and save the world
sidsinning · 15 hours
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#1 thing I am the most curious about/eager for the series to explore is 1000% the Morningstar family, especially Lilith
Bc who even is Lilith in reality besides what we have seen her as in the eyes of the other characters
Clearest image we get of her is in their family portraits
We usually see her as the menacing mystery figure working in the background, but in these photos she's clearly a normal happy mom who genuinely loves her family as any mother/wife would. She's not just a smirking dominant figure with a hidden agenda. All she's doing is having fun with her family and has no qualms about showing a range of emotion.
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Charlie sees her as the role model she takes after and wants to make her proud. It turns out she sees Lucifer in pretty much the same light, but with the addition of having an awkward relationship bc of the distance they've had. With Lilith she never speaks about her with any lingering awkwardness, so we can assume she's been a good mom raising Charlie this whole time.
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(For those who are saying "Lilith is a bad mom bc who leaves their kid alone for 7 years???"- she is literally thousands of years old while Charlie is well into adulthood before those 7 years. It's like a business trip to them. She wasn't an absentee parent for leaving for 7 years out of Charlie's 200+. The thing that's weird is that she's not communicating with Charlie. Our girl deadass owns property with a job and employees. Just bc she's not great at it and is having Lucifer step in to help recently, doesn't make Lucifer the superior parent suddenly. He's confirmed to be a kind of shitty dad despite how much he cares for her by the creators themselves. Kind of the point of his introduction ep guys. The 7 years are a mystery to unpack. Chill tf out.)
In this flashback people are blaming Lilith for separating Lucifer and Charlie on purpose, seemingly as the cause of their distant relationship. But it feels more complicated than that, based off Lucifer's reaction.
He's sad reaching out to Charlie by the end of the flashback, but when Lilith first appears he's smiling all the same and not deterred in giving Charlie to Lilith to carry away for what reason we don't know. A normal, standard occurrence he's used to. It seems both parents have agreed it's best for Lilith to take Charlie at this age now, for whatever reason.
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Was his mental health affecting his parenting too much so they decided Lilith would shoulder the bulk of the task? Maybe Lilith really did separate the two somehow for her own reasons and convinced Lucifer with it? Another mystery reason each parent agree on?
When exactly did both of them separate? When Charlie was already an adult or around the time of the flashback when Lilith was her primary caretaker as a kid? (I'm assuming adulthood since Lucifer and Lilith seemed to still be getting along in the flashback despite her emotionless face.) Why did they separate when Lucifer seems to clearly love and yearn for her all the same, still wearing his wedding ring? 😭😭😭
And ofc what is this deal she made with Adam to stay chillin on a beach in heaven, and why did Adam, a reckless narcissist who likes yappin to whoever is gonna listen, not ever reveal this fact to her family to the very end?
There is just so much to unpack with their family and Lilith is the key ingredient rn to unlocking it
Like ofc I'm looking forward to Sir Pentious in heaven, Alastor's deal, the future of the rebuild hotel, Lucifer now being a seemingly main character in season 2, etc.
But the Morningstars,,,different level
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tobermoriansass · 3 days
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do you have any reading recommendations for authors who would like to improve their ability to bring ruination on their characters, ie, a reading list for Sickos? i have read hogg already.
Well, my recommendation is always that its less about what happens than it is about how you choose to tell the story. For example, I was perfectly capable of reading Quo Vadis, a story with a lot of graphic torture, as a small child and was relatively unfazed by it because of the level of distance between the narrator and the reader. On the other hand, The Little Drummer Girl, a novel with far less torture, but narrated far far more intimately -- by which I mean we experience the harrowing and disorienting nature of torture, because of the authorial voice chosen, the details he chooses to focus on, and the very specific things he chooses to highlight -- was a far more disturbing read for me, simply because of those choices. I realise that this is all subjective and no one reader is the same.
Also, with this list, I'm admittedly going to out myself as a fairly tame literary reader, lol. Sorry anon, my fic reading habits are far more Sickos than my non-fic reading habits. With all of this in mind:
The Little Drummer Girl, John le Carre - possibly one of the best explorations of the psychology of both gaslighting, torture, becoming embroiled in horrific things beyond your control, committing terrible crimes, being agency-less in this process. In the same vein, I recommend reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and A Legacy of Spies back to back if you want to get genuinely upset at and by the postwar anticommunist state apparatus.
The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen (and tbh, the sequel, The Committed) - similarly for taking you deep deep into the mind of a spy and then subjecting you to a harrowing ten page brainwashing and torture experience narrated in a close first person. The use of voice is very effective in making you feel fucked up at the end of it.
Euripides' Tragedies - the Greeks are always on that fucked up shit, but all of these are terrible. My personal recommendations: Hippolytus (the story of Phaedra i.e. mother-son incest), Medea (she did nothing wrong!!!), The Bacchae (what if you were struck with madness) and Ion (I still remember being FURIOUS about this as a teenager w/r/t the resolution)
I, Claudius by Robert Graves - Livia Drusilla in this is probably where my love for deeply fucked up women comes from (along with, ofc, Macbeth)
Tbh, speaking of Shakespeare - you could get a lot of mileage out of his tragedies and a number of his histories.
Hunter S Thompson & the Beats more broadly (esp. William Burroughs & Ginsberg) - if not for the subject matter (grotesque, violent), then for the narrative style (vibrant, violent, exquisite, gonzo)
er, not fiction, I guess, but The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band and Nikki Sixx's memoir The Heroin Diaries are both intense and upsetting reads that somehow manage to simultaneously be very very honest about being a grotty misogynist rockstar in the eighties and yet also wildly dishonest. Its kind of fascinating as an exercise in understanding the kind of mindset going on there.
At Certain Points We Touch by Lauren Joseph John -- didn't make it through this one fully because the style wasn't entirely to my taste, but its great at capturing queer life and a specific sort of toxic enmeshment/relationship. Lots of queer sex going on.
Moneyland by Oliver Bullough and The World for Sale by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy (you may also throw in Michael Lewis' first book on Wall Street for good measure) -- both engagingly written, horrifyingly fascinating insights into the world of finance & oligarchy today. You really don't get more sicko than this, in my opinion. At least, if you read enough of it, you will have to close your book and put it away to not feel like puking.
Ann Rice's Sleeping Beauty Trilogy -- my second foray into the world of erotica following Delta of Venus by Anais Nin. Sort of fascinating, but largely tedious (not enough psychological understory for me, personally), yet formative.
Books/authors I haven't read but come highly recommended for sickos:
Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh, Boy Parts by Eliza Clark, Monsieur Venus by Rachilde, Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire, Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (I mean honestly, you can't go wrong with the Decadence or the Libertine schools), Jean Genet, Dennis Cooper.
But also like, IDK, I'm ambivalent that reading books with Loads Of Horrible Things happening are the best and would recommend, instead that you read a lot of 18th-19th century literature, especially 19th century literature with a lot of very painstaking psychological portraits (Victor Hugo! as loath as I am to admit it, Thomas Hardy! Wilde! James! The Brontes! Dostoevsky! Tolstoy! early Huxley!) because those are usually far more revealing (and subtle) than novels where Loads Of Bad Things Happen.
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eelfuneral · 2 days
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Tech is a grown man and a special ops pilot. He can drink, use firearms, and care for children. He has male pattern baldness and lines on his face. He is a capable adult and I wish that the fandom treated him like one.
Yes, Tech is autistic and has more issues socializing than everyone else, but that doesn’t mean that he needs to be coddled in-universe or by the fandom. He is a grown man who is perfectly capable of figuring out socializing on his own, even if he stumbles more than others. Other characters not understanding him 100% at all times is a fact of life that Tech is likely well aware of as an autistic adult. He is also capable of making genuine mistakes that hurt others to the same degree that a neurotypical person would, and other characters calling him out on it is not ableist. In fact, it would be super weird and ableist for everyone to assume that he is an uwu baby incapable of understanding how to be unkind.
Tech does not need “protection” from other characters flirting with him. Being attracted to an autistic adult is not inherently predatory, and many autistic adults can and do form romantic and/or sexual relationships. Tech almost certainly knows what romance and sex are, and is capable of deciding how interested he is or isn’t in either topic. Him being autistic doesn’t make him a helpless child incapable of understanding “grown-up” topics, and if he ever feels harassed by another character, then I believe that he would not need any help sticking up for himself. Tech is assertive and blunt. He called Cid ugly TO HER FACE once. He does not need Hunter or Wrecker or whoever to intervene for him if he needs to tell someone no or call them out.
Tech isn’t portrayed as innocent and cutesy in canon, but I see this characterization a lot in fanon and I have a hard time believing that it has nothing to do with his autism. As an autistic person who has had to deal with my own classmates talking to me like I was four months old for a good chunk of my childhood, I can’t say that I love this fandom trend.
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ihatehomework · 2 days
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yall i miss jily😭😭😭 not like its gone but like the marauders used to be so happy sunshine gryffindor vibes. but also i feel like we collectively all forget how much james potter HATED slytherin. idk i also think that yes death eaters were humans BUT they also killed so many people like are we forgetting that barty crouch jr literally tortured alice and frank longbottom he is at fault for neville growing up without his parents😭 i genuinely think that people forget that evan, barty etc. actually killed people and killed people who were probably friends with the marauders. ik that everyone deserves a second chance but seriously???? do you actually think that the rosiers were good people and didn't hate and discriminate against muggleborns??? NOT EVERYONE HAS A TRAGIC BACKSTORY IDK SOME OF THEM ARE JUST EVIL. the way everyone defends evan rosier (love his character but i have beef with the way he gets away with being a death eater later on) but snape, who i absolutely detest, hate and think should have died earlier, who also actually did something that was not evil in his lifetime, is the most hated marauders character like????? and the black sisters???? yes love a complex female character but are we seriously trying to redeem bellatrix? do we not remember WHAT SHE SCARED ON HERMIONE LIKE WHAT. and love the newer marauders fandom but everyones so emo and depressed this is supposed to be FUN. also the characters feel so ooc. everytime i see casanova remus lupin im like 'huh thats supposed to be sirius and james???' love remus but my boy aint rizzing anyone up hes a shy af introvert. and jegulus is so cute but remember that james is #no.1slytherinhater and he was absolutely smitten with lily evans FROM THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. REMEMBER WHEN JILY WAS THE BACKBONE OF THE MARAUDERS? like they ate fr. this became a whole ass paragraph damn i did not know i had so much to say about this. i can lowkey already sniff the comments or thoughts saying 'oh let us have our fun its just a story' im not stopping you this is just my opinion. 'oh none of this is actually proven' please give me a break😭🙏 like most of the source material goes against the fandoms perception of the marauders. 'fuck jkr we'll do what we want' youve basically just made 10 million ocs and give them names of characters like im eating up all the marauders content but genuinely can we go back to the happier times??
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juliavaccina · 18 hours
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ive seen some of your artwork in the past, and looking through all of it now, your work is so delightful! it feels reminiscent of childrens storybooks, and like how you shade and color! how there's a noise effect with variations of a hue in it, and small painted-textures when creating a soft blend for shading - it gives a very comforting feeling. the way you draw makes each character feel like a plush too, youre art makes me very happy :D
Oh wow I wasn't expecting to see such a lovely message today!!
Pls have this kirby i painted this morning to get better at rendering + painting as a thank you note:
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Honestly, i am genuinely moved by your message. Thank you sm for going through some of my artworks and writing such a nice, detail-oriented study of my colouring process.!!
I do value colour and spend extra time and making different version of the same drawing to find the vibe/feeling that fits the characters or bgs best. I strongly believe that when the right colours or textures are used the subject can really come to life, you know? :)
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itsswritten · 1 day
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I’ve honestly loved stepping into this fandom so so much, it brought me excitement and inspiration during a time where I’ve felt so lost. I feel as though I’ve actually kind of made connections and friends here with people who have a genuine common interest with me and it’s so magical…But this space is slowly becoming so negative.
I’m know I’m not the only one who comes here to read or write, create art etc as a way to escape and connect with others…but recently this safe space has felt so tainted.
The bullying, the abuse, the obsessive ship wars has bred the most repulsive vile negative energy that I physically can’t even bring myself to finish acosf. I actually feel heartbroken for sjm, imagine building these worlds, creating these characters for us, for people to then shred one another online in the name of it.
I don’t get it. It’s not real. I know we love these characters, and gods I wish this world was real, but it isn’t. What is real are all the people that are getting torn down—why are you doing this to one another? You are hurting the very people who love something just as dearly as you. Do you not see how lovely this could all be? How amazing that we all love this one thing, but instead of bonding over this, it’s become so divisive and argumentative.
I don’t know, it just feels a bit weird in the fandom at the moment. I wish there was a way for me to filter out the noise and just focus on the magical parts.
I’m just rambling anyway :/ I should probably shut up! I’ve written some more of wtscft but I might wait to share the next parts when things feel a little more positive. 🤍
Anyway big kisses to you all, mwah! - Lottie
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indydonuts · 2 days
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Ideal partner for Sanji?💚
Hi Anon! Sorry it took a minute to answer your ask buuuuut, I've been thinking about this one for a good chunk of the day.
First, we're gonna go with an afab/female partner because that's what I default to.
Second, I like relationships that play off each other's strengths and weaknesses, so we're gonna start with some of Sanji's flaws.
Two things we know about our sweet prince are: he wants to be the white knight/hero who saves the girl, and he bases his self-worth entirely on how useful he can be. Even his fantasy about saving the girl, is rooted in his need to be useful (save the girl) to be valuable (read:loved.)
Sanji wants someone to protect and dote on, but what he needs is someone who teaches him that he doesn't have to constantly prove himself. Simply existing is enough to receive love and affection. (He's kenough.)
To me, an ideal partner for Sanji would be someone who is capable and independent. They do not need (or want) him to get all their snacks and drinks and wait on them hand and foot.
It's going to throw him for a loop at first. He probably is going to think they hate him, but I think ultimately it will force him to be a bit more open and sincere. (Not that his desire to help others is insincere, but with women especially, he uses it to hide all his insecurities and perceived flaws.)
Now, to reader's flaws. Again, someone who is independent and capable, but in addition to that, they would be the kind of person who keeps others at arms length and has a huge need to prove themselves all the time. They've been deeply hurt before and closed themselves off from others in order to prevent it from happening again. In response to this, they feel like they have to be able to do every little thing. Asking for help is not an option. Help leads to reliance, which leads to complacency, which leads to dead.
Ironically, deep down, they both have the same fear, being unlovable. It just manifested in very different ways.
So, how do they help each other grow? By tempering each other's shortcomings with their own. They start as opposites and end up balancing each other out. Reader's refusal of his help will slowly morph into conversations about how it's okay to say no.
I've always had this headcanon that Nami takes advantage of Sanji's willingness to do anything he's ask. I know it's part of the womanizing gag and I don't think Nami is intentionally malicious about it either, but at some point Sanji would learn to say, "Can you give me a few minutes?" or "I'm so sorry Nami-swan, I'm just too busy right now."
On the flip side, Sanji would slowly wear the Reader down when it comes to accepting help. It starts when he stops trying to wait on her hand and foot and turns into genuine talks about being part of a crew, the need to work together, etc. There is probably a close call in a fight or something where she really needed a hand but was too stubborn to ask for it and Sanji gets mad because she or some others got hurt.
Last thing, I think it would be more fun to have a tomboyish reader instead of a more feminine one. On one hand I think it will blow Sanji out of the water when she does dress up and I also think there's room to play with a reader who is insecure a out her appearance and Sanji can build her up.
Anyway, this turned into more of a character analysis than I intended and might not be what you had in mind, but I appreciate the ask all the same!!
TL;DR: Sanji needs a girl who is just as resistant to asking for help as he is willing to give it and only then can they both learn to chill the fuck out and be okay with themselves and their needs.
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victoriadallonfan · 2 days
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Hi, since I haven't seen anyone mention this on reddit or tumblr, I'd just like to say, as someone whose first language isn't english, Worm's cape names are fucking weird. Are all of them words? Who knows, i read Worm and Ward without knowing Eidolon and Brandish are real words and not made up words. Or they are words i know but idk wich meaning is? Is March like the month or like the organized walking verb? So do all cape names mean something, and say something about the one who chose them? I refuse to google them at this point, but Anelace? Cinereal? Myrrdin? Couldn't they pick more known 2 word combinations? Do parahumans get a discount on thesaurus? Thats all I wanted to say, thanks. PS. Wildbow, the fuck you doing using Califa de Perro as a name, couldn't you ask any Spanish speaker?, i'll kill you.
BIG ANALYSIS INCOMING
Eidolon = spectre, phantom, and idolized object/person
Brandish = to flourish and wave about an item, usually a weapon. Also an epitaph for Athena
March = to move in a uniform manner and derivative of the roman god of war, Mars
Anelace = double-sided dagger used by civilians
Cinereal = grey matter of the brain and nervous system
Myrrdin = Too many to count but generally tied to Myrddin Wylt, prophetic folklore bard and a facet of Merlin (genuinely more work than I can ever give on the topic of how insanely intertwined those myths are)
The thing about Wildbow's cape names are two-fold:
In the 80+ years of superhero genre, a LOT of cape names have been chosen and used already. Taylor mentions this to Armsmaster as a meta-joke in the first arc (ironically, DC also has a Skitter, who debuted in 2011.... the same year as Worm), so he has to be creative and sometimes creativity is simplicity.
He loves giving character names multiple meanings.
To go down the list:
Eidolon's name is ironic, because he notably not idolized (and pushed out of the spotlight compared to Legend), and he ends up becoming one of GU's spectres.
Brandish creates weapons, yes, but there's connection to Pallas (brandishing) and Athena accidentally killing him while distracted to Victoria accidentally caving her head in while distracted. (There are several story iterations, including one where they had a parental relationship).
March is about how she organizes her megacluster like an army or marching band, but also reference to her civilian name (May), the Mad March Hare from Alice in Wonderland (which her entire fight with Vista is a huge reference to), and the Ides of March (notorious for the stabby stab stab of Julius Caesar)
Anelace is a master of weapons, but he's notably reluctant about that fact, and is noted to have a healthy civilian life by other characters
Cinereal is the grey matter of the brain. She is the Atlanta Protectorate leader that turns things into grey matter (ash)
Myrddin = See the King Arthur and various clusterfuck of mythos
Even his main characters have this: Taylor tailor makes her outfits and is a silk Weaver, Khepri is an Egyptian god that bring a sunny morning... and she debuted on Gold Morning. Victoria is a Roman Goddess of Victory (Contessa uses her to find "the Path to Victory"), Antares means "Anti-Ares/Rival of Ares/Anti-War" and is the constellation "heart of the scorpion" which is Victoria inside of the wretched forcefield. We can even stretch this to Khepri and Antares: Khepri is a beetle that carries the sun on to a new day. Antares is a binary sun system (with one sun being invisible to the naked eye). In the slaughterhouse 9 fight, Taylor and her beetle (khepri) carry Victoria and the fragile one (antares) to safety (to live another day).
WE CAN EVEN GO FURTHER: Atlas is the man holding up the sky in Greek Mythology, which Taylor names her beetle. Victoria's PHO name is Point_Me_@_The_Sky (which is also a Pink Floyd reference). In Worm, Atlas holds Victoria up in the sky.
Its really fun to analyze.
Califa seems to be a simple goof. Or maybe Taylor just butchered his name.
They can't all be winners.
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southparkhcsocs · 23 hours
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kicking my feet and giggling
can you do something like the main 4 praising you whether it's nsfw or not or both
heavy on the nsfw but you can pick 🤭
It's been a while babes ❤️ remember when that's what this blog was lol
Fem!reader
Under 18s dni! NSFW under the cut.
All characters are aged up to mid 20s thx
Stan Marsh
Stan wouldn't praise you as much as you'd like.
He doesn't say much generally.
But when he's drunk. Good God.
You are a goddess to him.
Everything you do is amazing, omg stunning!
"you're soo pretty, y/n. 'm so lucky to ha ve you. Look at you. You do so mu-ch for me. I loove youu."
Whether sober or drunk he'll praise you in the bedroom
He's a pretty dominant guy but he has to make sure you know how perfect you are for him.
But it's so much more when he's drunk.
He will stop mid thrust to complement and praise you.
Will end in crying lol
"So perfect." He mumbled into your neck before going to kiss your lips. He stopped his movements to just admire your beauty. "I love you so much. You're so good to me... I don't deserve you." His lip trembles.
You need to praise him back bc bro is insecure!!
Kyle Broflovski
Kyle will praise you a nice amount I think
If he thinks you've done something well, like getting a job, promotion etc he'll genuinely praise you
"That's amazing! I knew you could do it!"
If it's something he doesn't think warrants praise, like getting groceries, cleaning, basically everyday things he won't say anything but thanks. Not that he doesn't appreciate it, he just thinks it's not a big deal.
If everyday things are something you struggle with he'll try praising you but it will be half-hearted.
I don't imagine Kyle being much of a talker during sex
I also imagine him getting quite flustered when you ask him to praise you while he's two fingers deep inside you
"I - uuuhh." His brain fizzles out. System overload as he looks into your desperate eyes. "P-praise you? H-how?" He asked. You thrust your hips to remind him to keep fingering you which kicks starts his brain back to work. "oh, uummm g-good girl. S-so precious aren't you." He burrows his face into the crook of your neck. "You feel so good around my fingers."
He'll get so embarrassed if you praise him. He's not used to it!
Kenny McCormick
Kenny showers you with praises
No matter what you've done he thinks you're amazing, he understands how difficult things can be and wants to shower you in love, complements and praises
But he's so cool and collected it's sexy
"great job, babe."
But will almost always end it with something sexual
"you deserve a reward, huh?"
In bed, he'll praise you constantly
He'll get you to praise yourself.
"you're such a good girl, aren't you? Tell me how good you are for me, baby." His words reverberate against your neck as he's 6 inches deep. Fucking you so hard that you can barely get the words out. "Come on pretty girl. Tell me how much you deserve this."
You can praise him but he'll praise you right back. So much. He'll give you butterflies.
Eric Cartman
Cartman isn't much of a praiser
If you cook him his favourite meal he'll be like "Meh"
The only time he would praise you is when he's bringing you back from subspace
"such a good girl." "You did so well." "Look how pretty you are covered in my cum."
Bro would have you begging to be praised.
"what? You think you deserve praise?" He takes hold of your jaw, forcing you to look at him. "Babe, you're only good when you're on your knees sucking my cock. If you're not doing that, what is there to praise?" His hand slides to the back of your head, pushing you down to his crotch. "You need to work for it, slut."
Nooo his ego is too big don't praise him!!!! He doesn't deserve it!
Will melt at being called a good boy.
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gerdy-sertorius · 2 days
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The Definitive Damsel Analysis (if I do say so myself)
(Disclaimer: I know it’s absurdly long, and for that I apologize. I apparently am more unwilling to make cuts than I am to present subpar work. I’m working on it. Only editing I do for my autistic ramblings is copyediting, baby! Whoo! I will be updating this for the Pristine Cut once it comes out and we get even *more* Damsel. Obviously, as I’m sure you can tell from the length, I really like Damsel. There will be all of the bias. It will be great.)
(Author’s Note: For the love of the most high God, it took me like twenty read throughs for me to standardize what I wanted to call the Scorched Grey. Here is a brief list of all the terms I used to refer to her: Scorched Grey, Burned Grey, Burning Grey, Fire Grey, Damsel Chapter 3. Sometimes but not always preceded by “the” or “The”.)
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I have oft made the statement on here that Damsel is the best route in the game, and this began as me trying to definitively prove that, by microscopically going through the route, I could establish exactly why, it would seem, that Damsel has objective superiority. It sorta… evolved, though, so instead I will be going relatively chronologically throughout, and trying to point out a couple things that all of you know about and maybe a couple things you don’t about the best character in the game. With that preamble out of the way, let’s begin with the goofy stuff, the grab bag if you will. 
This will certainly be more personal taste than anything else, but I do think there’s a lot of miscellaneous stuff that Damsel does better than the other chapters. For example, I am convinced that it has the third best music, behind Tower and her routes and then Thorn. I am genuinely obsessed with “It Was Always That Easy”. The basement has some *fantastic* art, and I think that really carries a chapter that is otherwise generally bland when it comes to actual visual activity. It’s really carried by its genuinely perfect dialogue. 
Overall, and most importantly, this chapter is the undisputed master of the idea of positive ambience. You know elevator music? How it’s there to artificially increase the cheeriness of an otherwise dreary moment, like a hotel hallway or, yanno, an elevator? Well, this is the chapter that does it perfectly. Everything is designed to make it “nicer” than it actually is. The Narrator even takes that into account when describing the basement. The sound design is fresh and relaxing, the music is uplifting, the Princess’s voice is obviously fantastically done, but also the Voice of the Smitten plays a large role in making it feel “good”. It’s something that exists in order to communicate exactly the feelings it wants the player to feel, which is all warm and fuzzy inside. But let’s move on to the actual content, shall we?
Damsel has *the* best Chapter One and it isn’t even close. Certainly not in the horror department, where I think Beast and Nightmare shine, or even in the whole characterization bit, where the award can only go to Spectre and the masterclass that is her Chapter One. But Damsel has something else to it. Damsel has tragedy, almost Shakespearean in nature. Nobody else has it (except Witch, to some extent, but nowhere close to the same level), nobody manages to reach that connection, there and then broken, to honestly feel for both Princess and Slayer. Allow me to paint a picture of a playthrough. 
You are on a path in the woods. At the end of that path is a cabin. In the basement of that cabin is a princess. You are here to slay her. But you don’t do that. That voice itching in the back of your skull, the one you quite literally call Hero, your moral compass even, raises some objections. You don’t want to kill *anybody*. That isn’t something you want to mark yourself with, especially not solely on the word of an individual you just met. For now, violence is a nonstarter.
You enter the cabin. And you hear her voice. And you see her. You even talk with her for a while. The moment is… hypnotizing. Despite the Narrator’s warning of manipulation, well, you cannot help but be manipulated. This is a genuinely nice, sweet, scared Princess who simply wants to be free. You have to save her. It is the right thing to do, it is the… only thing to do. Anything else marks you with the dirtiness of simply being unwilling to help someone in need when you had the full ability to. 
You go to get a key. Unsuccessful. The door locks. Even worse. The Narrator is moving from irritating to downright malicious, clearly enjoying recounting the lock of the door. Disgust for Him has been present since you entered the cabin, but it shifts to anger very quickly. That shift continues with full force as you attempt with what little ability you have to save the Princess, even if you don’t quite know how you will get out. The question does not last long. For the shift to anger shifts once more, to a sort of incomprehensible fury.
For the Narrator has crossed a line. Not only has he taken away any semblance of choice, not only has he raised your own knife against an innocent, someone who has been nothing but kind to you, but you are the one who must bear the shame for it. You are the only one who is doing the foul deed in any eyes but your own. Speaking of, the Princess’s eyes are filled with genuine happiness at the moment, as you are finally giving her the freedom she has yearned for such a  long time. Yet through no fault of your own, you raise the pristine blade, the one you refused to bring down to the basement in the first place. You scramble through the list of options, attempting to find anything that could provide a sliver of hope in the situation, anything without the grim finality of “Slay the Princess”. 
At last, you find one, and are able to bark out a warning to the Princess. That happiness in her eyes is shifted to a look of fear, one directed at you alone, one condemning you with such a sorrowful betrayal that it almost hurts to see. She begs for you to stop, and then she says something that almost calms the internal storm of the player: “Please, I know this isn’t you.” She recognizes that it isn’t us that betrayed her, she understands that we aren’t trying to do this, that we are flat-out trying to stop it. But the eye of that storm is passing, and soon.
And as she takes the blade, as she prepares to do what she must to live, that same look of tragic betrayal crosses her eyes, this time not directed at us, but at herself. She hates that this is her only option, the only way that she can live is to kill another, one with every intention of freeing her and no intention of harming her. And in the end, she simultaneously underscores the tragedy of the moment while confirming our perception that she could never be a threat to the world. As she plunges the blade into our chest, she has failed to even do the bare minimum of making our death painless, something that fills her with even more guilt, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tries and fails to end our own agony. The last thing we see of her are her endless cascade of both tears and apologies, as everything goes dark. 
This… is beautiful. A glorious tragedy, one with limited theming, simply two characters with emotions that feel natural. And, quite strangely, the first chapter has almost nothing to do with the second chapter. But it is still important. I’ll get to that later. Better things await now! For with the end of the tale of the Hero and the Princess, we have a new individual, everyone’s favorite buddy, the Voice of the Smitten. 
I am certain I do not need to underscore just how popular Smitten is. Easily the most fan favorite of the fan favorites, especially solidifying his place within that roster with the Kiss from a Thorn. He is jovial, passionate, he is Don Quixote, complete with the unlimited self-delusion that comes with the territory. There’s a reason people love him. Romantic in a game entitled a love story, the largest of personalities in a game stuffed with them, he is the storybook hero come to life in a game that has just as much reverence for storybook heroes as the deconstructions of them. In short, he is the visage of likability itself, with all the bombast that comes with that. Yet that is only from a wholly external perspective. 
For what I am certain I do need to underscore is just how sinister Smitten is. For all of his likability, the Smitten is also probably the single slimiest voice out of all of them with the possible exception of the Opportunist. This is not a new revelation – people have understood that since the beginning with his frankly disturbing behavior regarding the Princess. What is perhaps more interesting is his relationship with the player. For he is one of the two options that reflect the player at this point within the story. Either the player is trying to do the right thing and free an innocent, or they have somewhat… different motivations. 
The former reflects the Hero. Somewhat naive, in many routes somewhat bumbling even, but first and foremost focused on the external. That is, “how can I make a positive impact on the world around me?” As contradictory as it may seem to how the Hero is presented, it’s something of an intellectualist approach. The Hero is trying to find the best possible world and working towards that with all of his might. It is, one could say, devoid of emotion except that determination to change the world, to make it a better place. While the goal remains the same, the path to get there is fundamentally continuously being calculated. The Hero is your conscience, and as such he must *always* work overtime for that. 
The Smitten is not that. No, he has made no secret that he is the path of passion. Even when he is generally considered to be a better person, he declares that, “Whatever world would condemn two star-crossed lovers to a cycle of violence and despair isn’t a world worth saving.” His focus is internal, it is on ourself and our romance. There is no extensive study into what is the correct option, there is only what would assist in our relationship, which is somehow ordained by the universe. To put it into understandable terms, Hero is a modern hero while Smitten is a Romantic-era hero. 
There’s an important line when going down the stairs that I think speaks volumes about the type of player and playthrough currently occurring. That is “We can still do right by her without all this over-the-top fawning.” *That* is the line of demarcation between the route of the Hero and the route of the Smitten. If you decide to embrace or repudiate the Smitten at that point, I think the route is sealed. I am convinced that the game will continue on in a fixed way based on that philosophy. The point where you must, internally that is, decide if you are doing this out of a desire for what is right, or an infatuation with the Princess. 
Now, of course there isn’t anything wrong with taking the path of the Smitten, and it’s personally one of my top points in the game, but whether you admit it or not, you are long past morality being what decides your actions. That has come and gone. Now, the goal is to express the passion of the moment and delve into your romantic relationship with the Princess. I’ll be evaluating each of the routes differently, loosely organized with a focus on how it reacts to the player. After that, I’ll go on into theming of each route one by one and all that jazz.
The path of the Smitten first. The player embraces that he has been sent to save the Princess from her unjust and foul imprisonment above all else. So that is what he does. He marches downstairs, the blade being nothing but a passing afterthought as it is immediately dismissed out of hand. When it comes to the crucial point of “doing right by her”, the justification is made that two things can be done at once, that you can do this for her and do a little bit of fawning on the way. Doesn’t harm anyone.
And with that the basement arrives, and you see the Princess on the floor. She is perfect in all ways. There is nothing wrong with her. And that’s before you start talking to her. When you do begin talking to her, all of the kindness and innocence from Chapter 1 are magnified to the greatest degree possible. She can do no wrong. And, from a meta standpoint, there’s another thing that stands out – it is really, *really* funny. From everything the Smitten says to the “Then I didn’t end the world!” to the Narrator’s (a villain at this point) growing exasperation at your trust for the Princess, it endears you to the moment even more. 
Because it’s not only that it’s funny. It’s not only that the Princess is genuinely nice to you. It’s something more than that. Something that I am loath to talk about but will anyway. The Princess is incredibly – *sigh* – **cute** within this chapter. This is objective, with science to back me up, I’m sure. But she is specifically designed to be as heartwarming as possible, and every line makes her more and more into someone who should be saved by you, into, well, a Damsel. While it isn’t explicitly stated, throughout the progression of dialogue, the need to protect her becomes more pronounced. You were already primed to like the Princess, you already internally committed to a romantic future. But after stepping into the bear trap willingly, you cannot escape. 
And if you’re anything like me, you are perfectly fine with that. So you take in the moment, you rescue her from her chains and laugh at the way her hands slipped out of the chains and the Narrator’s comical anger at it. It’s all very feel-good, all cleanly written dialogue, and both the Princess and the Smitten are likable, they’re fun, and the Narrator is a fun enough villain for the Smitten and you to unite against. The Hero, if we’re being honest, barely registers, and if he does it’s usually as an extension to the Narrator, as a foil to yourself. And with her finally free, she embraces you, sealing the deal on her perfection. 
And after that, something else happens. The deconstruction begins. You want to see if her dialogue has any more of that saccharine present throughout the rest of the chapter, and are immediately rewarded with the “The princess closes her eyes in deep reflection” and the follow up joke. Hungry for more, you click through some more of the dialogue, but something begins to happen. She begins to… unwind. The Smitten seems to reciprocate in turn, to a lesser extent. In fact, she really starts to return to the horror that this chapter was a nice respite from. So you cut your losses, decide to leave with her, and everything returns to normal. Bathed in the glow of your future, you immediately forget about the deconstruction.
After that, you finally get out of the basement, get a genuinely great moment opening the door alongside the Princess, never think twice about clicking “You’re not doing that.” as fast as humanly possible, and finally await the door at the end of the cabin. You finally get your fairytale ending. The princess goes out into the world together with you. You brought her out. And then she is taken by the Shifting Mound in a way reminiscent of her dying. Even if this wasn’t your first playthrough, it still comes as a shock. For the most part, you were being that Romantic hero, living in the moment with your passion. The thought of this happening was gone entirely. This wasn’t supposed to happen. And it *hurts*. And the chapter is over. 
The route of the Hero has a different point of view on the whole situation. That’s not to say it’s not easy to get drawn in by the hilarious dialogue and sheer cuteness of the Princess – far from it. It is, after all, what drives the conflict within this. For the Hero, and the player that goes along his path, has one bit of information stand out. That the world ended after the Princess killed you. Now, you can naturally be skeptical of the information, but the Princess isn’t helping her case here. Entirely vague, entirely unwilling to mention anything about it. The only thing she seems to care about is getting on your good side. 
Now, you still want to save her. That much is clear. You still don’t take the knife in the beginning, and you saw her Chapter 1 incarnation. She is still a good person, kind and loving. But there are questions raised, important questions. Which is why not all Hero routers get the same ending. There is a conflict between how far you’re able to go before the risk of the world ending eclipses your distrust of the Narrator and your trust of the Princess. If the whole world really does end if she’s free, is it worth it? And as such you get to the major points of the Hero ending. 
The first is the Deconstructed ending. As you question the Princess, you desperately try to figure out what the best way to go forward is for you. And that starts with getting a straight answer from the Princess on what exactly she plans on doing. The operation… does not go well. As you try and push for anything, any sign that she isn’t going to end the world, the same rejoinder comes in, alongside a distorted track. “I just want to make you happy.” The Princess is not an individual anymore, and begins to change shape. But you are locked in with a horrified inability to look away, like one who sees a car accident. And with that, the Princess is a Princess no longer, and the Shifting Mound takes her away. 
There’s also the option of taking the Hero’s advice when confronted with the scenario: to leave. You don’t like what’s going on and you try to do whatever you can to undo the doing. Perhaps surprisingly, it works. And then you’re forced to deal with the cognitive dissonance of the Princess and *that* being the same individual. But you, not without a healthy dose of skepticism, still head upstairs alongside the Princess. In the end, you can’t bring yourself to kill her. Throughout it all, she still has been the beautifully endearing picture of innocence, if a questionable one, and especially with regards to the knife on the table, there is no way you can take it to her chest with no warning, especially after everything you did in the first Chapter. So you leave with her, and the “end of the world” really does come in one fell swoop with the call of the Shifting Mound. You can’t help but wonder if the decision you made was the right one, not really. Like, you still believe she didn’t deserve to die, but maybe, just maybe, it would have been a better ending.
So what if you did kill her? What happens when love *truly* melts away into skepticism. After the continuous question dodging and whatever the… other thing was, this is clearly not an ordinary Princess, it is not the same Princess that you tried to save at the beginning. There is only a sliver of her, a shadow of her former self. Slaying her, well, slaying her is probably doing her a favor. It might be doing the world a favor, too. Maybe she is an individual with malicious intent. And as you take the blade and plunge it into her chest, you instantly know you made the wrong decision. She does not oppose it. She simply lets you kill her with a single tear hanging in her eye, saying “I think this is what you want.” It’s meant to feel dirty and it does, even heartbreaking in the moment, although it is immediately counterbalanced by the effect of the Smitten killing you over it.
I won’t exactly go over Scorched Grey the same way, I think there’s generally only two frames of mind going into it, and that’s either the standard “Hero-Skeptic” framework that I’ll expand on later, or simply a completionist mindset. Plus, it’s technically not The Damsel. Plus I’m lazy. But this is the point where I will try to expand on the theming of each and every route and mindset to go through within the Chapter, and that *will* include the Scorched Grey theming. 
It’s made quite clear from the chapter that one of the primary themes is objectification, the making of the Princess into nothing more than a vehicle to live one’s fantasy into. The taking of an individual and making them into an it. The destruction of humanity by your own desire, and what that says about your desires in the first place. Ironically, this is merely one fourth wall away from the rest of the Princesses, each of them being a piece of fiction that many simply engage with *because* they are an object, but with the Damsel it is directly nodded to within the narrative. One meta-layer is peeled back, if you will. 
Nothing hammers this more home than the entirely jarring line that escapes the Shifting Mound’s lips when you ask about the vessel she holds. Unlike the rest of the fragments, which are all given an indication that they have been fulfilled after the Shifting Mound takes them, the only note she has to say is that the Damsel has “served her purpose”. There is nothing that she wished for, as anyone who has obtained the deconstructed ending can attest to. But even in the more standard runs, she is simply a tool to be used and discarded. And there are three general reactions to this line. 
The first is the hardcore Smitten route’s preferred choice, denial. “The Princess was far more than an object, she had character, she had kindness, she had motivations from the beginning! The narrative is what is wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the Princess. She. Is. Perfect. Not just from a narrative standpoint but a metanarrative one as well. She has depth, she *is* a character.” All in the hopes that if they insist on it enough, it will become true. The Damsel was not designed to be viewed in a vacuum. There are themes that run through her character, and including negative ones, and the denial of them is a far truer denial of the character than any sort of objectification could ever be. 
Then the more moderate Smitten routers get a different response. A slap in the face. They did all of this, they had fun, they laughed with her, they cried when she was taken. They were connected to her, they had a real connection to what she was. One could even accuse them of… loving her. They honest to goodness cared about this Princess, they were invested in her story. Yet, in the end, they also formed her around themselves. They “molded her to love you”. As much as they loved the Princess, that was only because they cut out a piece of the Shifting Mound that they *could* love, a caricature of her true nature. They still took an individual, and despite truly loving her, made her into something that she was not so they could do that very thing. She is not a person. She is a plot device, an individual made to love and be loved with nothing beyond that. She is an object. 
Lastly, those who went on the route of the Hero get that same slap in the face, that selfsame bucket of water poured over their heads, but in a different way. They didn’t try to objectify her. They didn’t want anything of the sort. All they wanted to do was the right thing. Right? Yet even in that desire to do the right thing, they still get that same chilling text from the Shifting Mound. They have built an individual just like those who went on the route of the Smitten. Just a different one. Not one who was built around your “glorious romance”, but rather one built around something of a glorious Romance. The need to be a Hero. The desire to do what was right, to save an unjustly imprisoned Princess. The Princess became a plot device in the end anyway, just one that needed to be saved rather than one who needed to be loved. 
I want to continue off of that. The player is trying to do nothing more than the right thing, he is simply doing what a Hero should. And that determination to do what is right leads to him getting impacted the most by that line in the ending, the line that implies that whatever right he was doing, he was still being driven by selfishness, by that need to be a Hero. That hits the player right within where it hurts, it almost could be said to strike at the one emotional vulnerability of them. To have your hard work, your pain, your desire for what is right to be considered nothing more than the delusions of a Don Quixote tilting at windmills in order to fight giants, just as lost as Smitten, that doesn’t feel too great. It almost minimizes your struggle, and it is genius. You play as a Hero because you want to feel like a Hero, not because the morality of this world means anything to you. It is stripping that meta-layer down one by one.
But objectification is not the only theme present. While it may seem like something of a potpourri topic to throw in, earlier on the server we were talking about the Damsel in particular’s perceptiveness with regards to perception. When the door shuts and locks, it is the first and only time the Princess gets visibly **negative** in any way during the entirety of the Chapter. Even when you kill her, she still does so with nary a frown on her face. Even as a tear rolls down her cheek, she still smiles. But not at the door. The narration points out quite clearly that she frowns. This is, I reiterate, the only thing that happens. And her response is not “we’re stuck down here”, it is not “I’m unable to leave now”. 
What it is happens to be “that’s not supposed to happen”. She recognizes the construct in a way very few allude to within the game. Adding onto that note, within the Scorched Grey chapter, she (correctly) determines the very nature of the construct and that inherent “cycle of violence and despair” inherent to it, even (correctly) determining that the only way to leave was to annihilate that very construct. This is shown even clearer at the other major event at the door. When you ask if the Princess can open the door, the sole question she throws back at you is “Do you think I can?”, and after a response in the affirmative, “Then I can”. In the end, it is quite clear that she is, *heavily* ironically, one of the more aware characters in the game with regards to your circumstance. 
While speaking of the Scorched Grey, I think this route also exemplifies another major theme – the nature of the Princess as a being of perception. All routes exemplify one facet of the Shifting Mound: Spectre represents the gravity of her, Tower her divinity, Prisoner the very incarnation in and of itself of her within the construct, and so on. Damsel has something different, though, and that is that she’s just a slippery little fella. Far more than anybody else, Damsel changes throughout her chapters, in ways more pronounced than anybody else. The Shifting Mound declares that we “molded her to love you”, as I quoted previously. That molding takes stage front and center throughout all of our interactions with her. 
The most obvious example is her deconstruction, which when her sole true motivation (to leave) is discarded, she begins to break down, unable to offer to the player anything beyond the only desire every other Princess has. With the compulsive need to love the player, etched into her core, there is nothing she can do other than try to add to that love, losing herself within the process. But that is not the only time she changes. Because she is willing to give up that freedom in, well, a heartbeat. Attempting to kill her does not lead to any sort of resistance from her. The one goal she had, staying alive and winning her freedom, is out the window despite being (questionably) willing to kill for it in the last chapter. Now, throughout the Scorched Grey, it’s made clear that she did not, in fact, want to die, that she just wanted to be free together, but the complete unwillingness to save her own life is a stark contrast to the first chapter. 
In fact, that perpetually changing nature alongside her being so objectified means that it’s really, *really* hard to figure out her true character. There is very little in her that does not change and very little remaining that isn’t specifically put there by you. She is an eel, wriggling out of your grasp and impossible to pin down, in a large way like the Shifting Mound herself. But… for the most part, there are two facets to her character beyond the already listed themes. And a sharp divide between them. 
Chapter One Damsel and Chapter Two Damsel are not the same person. That’s usually true for most of them, but they also usually have some semblance of similarity between their counterparts. The only exceptions I can think off the top of my head are Spectre and *maaybe* Stranger if you want to count that. The rest of them act as exaggerated versions of the existing individuals shown. Chapter One Adversary likes fights. Chapter Two Adversary likes fights. Chapter One Witch is built on the back of distrust. Chapter Two Witch is built on the back of distrust. Everything lines up nicely. 
That is not the case for the Damsel. The only thing that you can say with both of them is that they are nice and do not want to hurt you. The Chapter One incarnation (henceforth Princess) is a tragedy of a character that doesn’t want to kill you but still must to secure her own life and freedom against a renegade puppeting you. The Chapter Two incarnation (henceforth Damsel) is a Horror-”Feel-Good”-Comedic-Tragic character that shows nothing about the emotional anguish she went through in chapter one. I love both of them, but they have an unmatched disconnect. And I think that sort of adds to the character. Now, there is absolutely a benefit from an emotional through-line (there’s a reason Thorn is my second-favorite chapter), but in this case, only brief touches to the beginning enhance the story. 
The most striking thing is the sense of comedic horror that comes when Damsel just completely ignores any expected trauma from the Princess’s emotional destruction. It, depending on the route you take, either makes you love her character more and more as the humor begins to entrap you, or it begins the process of getting the player unnerved, exactly like the developers wanted. It is a key dividing point in the mindset of the player and the route that they have chosen. The Damsel says nothing about what happened, heck, she barely acknowledges it except to indicate that “You died!” 
Secondly, it sets up Damsel as a sympathetic figure while still allowing her to begin establishing herself. Without the setup from the Princess, the player has no idea how to view Damsel, potentially even seeing her as a less on-the-nose Razor, with her comedically hiding her sinister intentions. The Princess allows the player to begin on a note that the Princess is *actually* friendly rather than simply pretending to be so. At the same time, it’s divorced enough that apart from that frame of reference at the beginning, Damsel is still allowed to shine within her own character. 
Lastly, and most importantly, it sets her up for the Scorched Grey. The guilt at causing the death of an innocent and the belief that you would be unable to cause the death of an innocent yourself leads her to blame the construct and attempt to bring it down, which seals your fate in the third Damsel chapter, the only time where the two chapters meet in a beautiful climax of Passion going too far and causing pain, in attempt of running away from that very thing, morphing into something that not even the Smitten is able to remain devoted to in an awful tragedy of love being not enough in the end. 
Wait, wait, wait. Did I hear “the end” being spoken? At this time of year? Localized entirely within this essay? Well then, it’s time to talk about what puts this saga at pure perfection, shall we? I probably could just use the awesome power of Ctrl + V to get the desired effect, but I still do want to offer my narration, so I’ll compromise and do a bit of both. “Your lover drives a stake into your body. And another. And another. And another. And another. Do I miss your heart because I cannot stand to see it go? But the stakes meant nothing to you. You had a desire, and you set that desire free, you lifting me and me lifting you, forever and ever and ever, consumed by true belief, there was nothing that could hold us back.” 
Do I even need to explain why that’s so good? Definitively the best poem in the end, it isn’t even close, especially when coupled with Ms. Goodnight’s awe-inspiring delivery. Did I say that the Scorched Grey was the perfect synthesis of the Princess and the Damsel? I was lying. This is. Every word so lovingly placed, the language sounds like it comes from the pen of God Himself. It is emotionally resonant, the art is beautiful, I have not run into such a short piece of dialogue that outdoes it. Gonna be honest, mostly just wrote up this essay to gush about it. Even now, it is considered by most everyone to be one of the best lines of dialogue in a game filled with magnificent ones. 
And the other one, that of the Scorched Grey. It’s simpler, ironically. “I kill you. You kill me. Back and forth we go, faster and faster and faster. I kill you. You kill me. Hollow eyes watch from the dry corners of a memory. A home built on all of the futures that were supposed to be, preserved until the moment of reunion. The fire of the heart sets it all ablaze. I kill you and me.”
This, this right here is one of the most slept on ending poems and it’s not even funny. So fantastic at expressing the heartbreak inherent to the Scorched Grey’s character. I don’t know how you can see the line “A home built on all the futures that were supposed to be”, especially with the Scorched Grey dead and charring in a wedding gown, and not feel *something*. It’s not as good as the standard Damsel stuff, but then again, nothing is. It’s still deserving of more praise than it currently receives, and one of my top three ending poems of all time, only edged out by Prisoner. Gosh, this game belongs in a museum. 
Seems I need to debunk some stuff that happens to get a lot of traction regarding those who speculate on Damsel, too. First of all, her character motivation is not guilt nor gratitude. That sort of thing works incredibly well in fanworks, and I’m happy to see it ~~because that means I get to see Damsel in a fanwork~~. It has little to no backing within canon. Damsel is a chapter about the only motivations for the Princess being those put in place by the objectification of the player. There is nothing regarding anything beyond that, and it detracts from the existing, well-elucidated themes that are actually within the chapter. The only sort of substance to them is both Chapter 1 Princess and Scorched Grey indicating guilt for killing you, but that is almost entirely repudiated within the actual Chapter 2. 
Speaking of the Scorched Grey, another thing I saw somewhat extensively is that you somehow “taught her” that killing is the way to love one another, and that’s why she kills you in Chapter 3, and I honestly do not know how that gained any traction at all. It’s pretty clear that she views all the death as a pretty terrible and messed up thing and only kills the two of you to escape the cycle of death. It’s spoken of as a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. I am genuinely confused on how this got started, because it really just… opposes the main *in-narrative* themes of the Chapter??? Like, you don’t even have to analyze it, it’s just within the text, plain and simple. 
Anyway, I deeply apologize for the length of this once again, look forward to an appendix when Pristine Cut comes out. I’ve already played it because my uncle works at Black Tabby, but I don’t want to spoil it for you gents. If my opinions change massively after playing through the new update from today, I will change that too. Anyway, Damsel is the best character, literally does not do a single thing wrong within any of her chapters, has definitively the best Shifty stuff, and you should invest in her. As more people vocally become willing to throw money at anything related to Damsel, the likelier it is that we get Damsel merch. I need it so badly. Please. Anyway, if anything stands out to you or you disagree, I am begging you to tell me to get my act together and explain what I said wrong, so do that. Also please. 
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ishcliff · 11 hours
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currently writing a thing about how ishmael and heathcliff parallel angela and roland, and god, i love how PJM writes platonic relationships so much. it feels extremely literary with a focus on the setting as a present entity between them and influencing their personalities and actions.
i always have found it fascinating that PJM does not confirm any pairings romantically. like, not even carmen and ayin are "canon" despite their relationship being one of the main factors of the presentation of lobotomy corporation. that matters a lot to me.
in addition, it's interesting how for the rare romantic relationships that do exist, their development as a couple is cut short. the only three canon romances are roland and angelica, tommy and merry, + xiao and lowell. angelica and lowell die, and tommy and merry... y'know. and then for 2/3rds of those couples, the story focuses on the platonic bonds *after* the loss of the romantic – roland finds a best friend in angela (as well as the game in general just taking place after angelica's death), and miris becomes xiao's sole grounding presence, and their mutual respect for each other is what drives xiao's character arc even more than the death of lowell.
in the project moon universe, romance is only ever used as a tool to explore the nature of intimacy in a setting hell-bent on destroying it. the platonic foundation of community and connections with others take priority – a simpler form of love and adoration. alternatively, the corruptive, deceitful kind gets explored as average people get drawn into the cults of personality that are difficult to resist.
i don't think anything written by PJM is fanservicey enough to be called shipbait, no matter the pairing. and i think moments like heathcliff saving ishmael and getting queequeg's ID were set up enough for me to predict it happening months before the canto released (evidence on this blog, but i was making these predictions even when hell's chicken was live). not because of ship/pairing bias, but because of the specific way project moon writes platonic relationships is being showcased strongly with ishmael and heathcliff.
library of ruina is one of my favorite games of all time, and it just rules seeing one of my favorite aspects of the game (the development between angela and roland) being reflected in my two favorite characters in limbus.
i genuinely haven't even shipped anything in project moon in the couple years i've been into the series, until my URL came on. but even more important than the ship, i just greatly value the spectrum of platonic love that project moon focuses on as a rule. i'm excited for how it'll inevitably develop in canto VI.
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blue-thief · 2 days
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do you perhaps have some headcanons about mr. isagi? <3
OFC!! <3333
on top of having 2.0 vision (and well, metavision) his VVIQ score is a perfect 5
this helps him a lot with art and he's actually pretty good at it even though he's not as passionate about it as he is with football/soccer
he started drawing through doodling his favourite manga characters and he's able to recreate art styles almost perfectly
he's actually pretty careless when it comes to his schoolwork (esp for STEM) so sometimes he'll hand in incomplete work bc it looks like he's already filled in certain questions
like no. you doodled an eye instead of solving for "x"
he canonically hates science, but if he had to choose one branch as his favourite, it would be chemistry (not boring & derivative memorization like bio but not absolutely insane like physics)
something might contradict this in canon but i hc his handwriting is pretty shitty lmao
since so many sports anime characters look like him (nanase haruka, kageyama tobio, etc) i like to pretend they're all cousins and they meet up at family reunions to compete to see who's better at their respective sport
so yeah despite having no siblings he has a shit ton of cousins who he's really close to
he was conceived by accident 💀 his parents love and coddle him despite this
despite showing the exact opposite of the typical symptoms (great spacial awareness, scarily good empathy, etc) i still say he's got autism lmao. he just has a really unique type yk
his hobby is canonically walking, but i wanna expand on this a little bit
he somehow doesn't listen to music on his walks
(in fact, he doesn't listen to much music at all. that's why his fav song is from a commercial 💀)
furthermore, he rarely ever brings his phone out on walks at all. he likes being at one with his surroundings and he doesn't want his phone to distract him
which is understandable. unless we're talking about how he'll sometimes walk 2+ hours to go to a friends house AND HE DOESN'T HAVE IT?? NO GPS??? NO MAP NOTHING
he's just spent so much time walking around saitama he has a map of most of it installed in his mind
he really doesn't use his phone much at all. he has a few accounts in case he wants to check something out, but he doesn't post anything + barely follows anyone + even has a blank pfp on everything
he apparently received 0 valentine's chocolates in the previous year, but a few ppl from school had a crush on him
he's not popular or anything but some ppl over the years thought he was a genuinely sweet guy and quietly observed him from a distance
he's completely oblivious to this
his school friends all have way more romantic experience than him and they all tease him for this
he gets really frustrated about this and tries to convince himself he likes certain ppl in hopes of something sticking
when he genuinely likes someone he's oblivious to this too lmaoo
he's the type of guy to take dodgeball in PE wayyy too seriously
the first time he swore was when he was eight and got mad at his teammates for slacking off
he got in trouble for this and never swore in front of an adult ever again
(the lack of any physical adults in blue lock made him fall back on his foul mouth)
his fav class is PE in canon but i think i remember something about isagi hating baseball? that might have just been someone else's hc but yeah
he enjoys basketball and badminton, but he thinks volleyball is mid
the one time his school tried floor hockey he enjoyed it well enough
american football is just way too confusing for him
he had no backup plans in case football/soccer didn't work out, but he'd be fantastic in psychology and/or politics
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chronicbeans · 12 hours
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I'm currently looking at Lucifer and wondering how exactly he's going to develop in the whole plot of Hazbin. Not necessarily PLOT development (example: getting past Lilith, getting closer to Charlie, etc.), more like personality traits that are either going to be revealed or developed overtime.
(Okay this got a lot longer than I expected, so um... here's a read more lol. I guess this is a sort of character development inference...?)
I really like the idea that every character in Hazbin has good and bad traits, despite being in Heaven or Hell. For example, we have Angel Dust. He's a nice person, but he does have problems opening up to people (understandable given his past), as well as giving into bad vices and pushing people away. So, we've seen Lucifer's tendencies of neglecting to connect with others, but being a good person and genuinely wanting connections, especially with his daughter.
HOWEVER, I am interested in whether or not they are going to do anything with the fact that he is the Sin of Pride. I've seen a few mention how the other Sins we've seen are a bit of the opposite of their sin. Ozzie is the Sin of Lust, but unlike how a lot of people would probably view the embodiment of lust, he values consent and can make genuine romantic connections. Queen Bee is Gluttony, but does care that people at her party do not overindulge to the point that they get hurt.
However, for many of the Sins so far, they do engage with their sins in their own way. Ozzie still does indulge in lust, just while caring for every party's consent (thank God he's not a Valentino. We love that for Ozzie). Queen Bee does indulge in vices like drinking and partying to what could be seen as a negative extent, with what seems to be her limit being that no one gets hurt. Otherwise, it seems to be fair game for her.
So, for Lucifer, I'm loving how we all see him as a total Smol Bean. So far, he is a total Smol Bean. However, I'm totally anticipating SOMETHING that might be like... a bombshell for our depressed blorbo's character. Specifically, that something may be a few prideful/narcissistic tendencies coming through. Like him trying to get more attention on himself, now that he's finally taken a step out of his workshop and gotten some attention from not only his daughter, but her friends.
He may not be like "YO I'M FUCKING AWESOME GUYS LOOK AT ME" sorta prideful, but maybe more of a "Guys I'm so awful and I feel horrible and I have so many problems give me comfort" sorta... well, not really prideful, but more so manipulative and attention seeking. Possibly without even knowing it, either, considering how him and Charlie seem similar in being well meaning so far. So, if he does development a sort of manipulative tendency in order to get attention towards him, he may not even realize that's what is happening. He might just think "I feel bad and have to complain. After all, I know my family and her friends can help cheer me up!"
I think it'd be pretty interesting, at least. Like, so far, Lucifer is the complete opposite of what you'd expect the Sin of Pride to be. He's depressed, self-conscious, and has probably been isolating himself from everybody that COULD give him attention for years. However, much like the other Sins are still the embodiment of what they represent, he's still the Sin of Pride. He probably still engages, or will develop ways to engage in traits you'd see in pride. So, him using his pre-existing traits, whether unintentionally or not, to get attention would be interesting to see. It'd still keep a lot of his character together while showing that he can still have flaws that are unlikeable. (It'd probably also put into perspective Charlie's line about him only really when he's bored or needs Charlie to do something. Like, it could be that he just isn't good at talking to people, including Charlie, but it could also be linked to his identity as the Sin of Pride if his personality does go this route).
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Hazmat Hole 1: Overture
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I went back and forth on whether to do the pilot or not, but ultimately decided not to. Pilots are meant to be an episode 0 that isn’t necessary to understanding the plot. I may go back to it after episode 8 if I’m not completely sick of this.
It starts off with a story book narration about how hell started because Lucifer was a rebel or something and just states very vaguely that he had big ideas heaven didn’t like. Also Adam was the first man, Lilith was the first woman but she didn’t like Adam and liked Lucifer better they fell in love or whatever and Lucifer gave Eve the apple and he and Lilith were banished to hell. I wish I could lie and say I was skipping over details but they used more words to explain that in about as much depth as I did there. Anyway. The important part is that Charlie is a princess of hell as the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith and the angels go down to hell annually to purge excess souls.
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These two start off annoying and by god I do not see them getting any less so. Charlie is legitimately the most generic Disney Princess rip off I have ever seen in my life, complete with reading books aloud bursting into song. It’s genuinely jarring to hear her swear because you can tell the voice director basically just told her actor to pretend she’s auditioning for the little mermaid. Vaggie is annoying because she’s written like a middle schooler’s first “strong female character”. She’s the emo love interest in a B movie that was straight to video and made by people who don’t actually know what emo is.
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Appropriation Deer is literally just here to make wise cracks and occasionally move in ways that make animators cry and deviantart users in 2010 scream in joy.
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They could probably cut the budget in half by not having him in the show. Anyway no he is not here to do anything besides whine about how television sucks and emphasize that he’s only there at all because he’s into watching people fail and cry or whatever. He’s very flat as a character since he’s just there to be tumblr bait.
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Angel is here and spends the entire episode being sexually aggressive to the point of making everyone there uncomfortable and that’s the entire joke. That’s it. He’s a gay man who says penis and wise cracks and sexually harasses the men in the hotel. Because that is how vivziepop writes her mlm characters.
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We get a two for one easy joke with these two. Haha gay man is harassing a man who isn’t gay as well as haha asexual gets hit on but he says no way.
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Angel is here because “crack is expensive” and they don’t charge him rent there.
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Which he says while drinking a whole bottle of liquor to establish he’s an addict because vivziepop is as subtle as a bull in a China shop.
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And thus we are taken to our first musical number. It’s very underwhelming.
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Also Vaggie sings like she’s getting over a cold and plugging her nose and trying to do an impression of a duck.
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The opening number also leaves me with a perplexing question. Can you die in hell? Do you go to super hell if you die in hell?
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And we get our first real sexual harassment/assault joke from a giant slug flasher trying to make Charlie touch him in the middle of a musical number. I’m sure this bodes great for how angel’s abuse will be treated.
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I hate that I know this but as someone who did shamefully hate watch sausage party twice I have to point out that Adam here is literally just a rip off of a sausage party character.
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Everything down to the voice direction is literally just a rip off of the main antagonist of Sausage Party, the douche. This is probably somewhat intentional as vivziepop was a massive fan of that movie when it came out, but if you’re going to make an homage that borders on plagiarism (this is a joke I’m not accusing her of plagiarism here but it’s giving original character, donut steel), does it have to be from sausage party? Does it really? There’s other movies. Anyway he doesn’t say much, just establishes himself as a douche.
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Back at the hotel they start filming a new commercial since Alastor intentionally made their first commercial bad because he wanted to make fun of them and hates TVs just that much. Nothing very interesting happens. Angel is hot horny. Husk doesn’t want to be there. Alastor makes a deal with Vaggie to help as long as she never makes him go on TV again.
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We go back to Charlie begging Adam to stop coming to hell and killing demons by the hundreds every year and Adam says no in frankly one of the only songs that I like from this series. Sadly, it’s still terribly annoying and repetitive.
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Viv posted meme please clap.
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Isn’t this the homophobic character from the pilot? Didn’t realize she was given a male voice to imply she’s either a drag Queen or trans I guess. Great. I’m sure it’s a very artistic and respectful choice and not every other more likely reason this was the casting decision.
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The episode ends with the discovery that an Angel was killed during the last extermination so they plan to come back in just six months to kill every demon in hell. I might care if any character established themselves as anything other than a vessel to spout boring exposition and sex jokes for twenty minutes.
And that’s episode one. It’s honestly just boring and all of the explicit language sounds extremely forced and awkward.
0/10, the one okay song wasn’t enough to save it. Too much exposition dumping.
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gglitch1dd · 2 days
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Hi glitch! Hope you have a wonderful day or night so I just want to ask since I just came back reading fanfictions again and I always stumble upon almost all of your kiribaku fics and I always like how you put a great dynamic about this two but since your recent come back I've been noticing that you don't like bakugou as much as before is there a reason why? Just curious though have a great day or night! And hope your doing well and getting healthy!
Warning: Mentions of swan dives, a katsuki analysis and Izuku analysis
HEY HONEY!!!
Haha! I knew this would come up. This is a very interesting thing that some people on my discord have asked me and some people on my AO3 have asked me too.
Let me say this first and foremost, I never liked Bakugou Katsuki from the start. I'll be honest with you. The first time I saw Katsuki, the first words that came out of my mouth were "This is who everyone is simping for?" Like seriously I couldn't.
I genuinely disliked him because of a multitude of reasons. First, he's ugly (JK! He's not ugly, he just ruins his pretty face when he opens his mouth). In all honesty, I'm going to be brutally honest with you...
Five years ago, someone told me to go and... well to put it nicely, take a swan dive off the roof.
When I saw that first scene of Katsuki saying that, there was NOTHING in this world that could prevent me from not seeing a bit of the person I dislike the most IRL in Bakugou Katsuki. If you haven't experienced that in your own life, you won't realise how much it... well excuse my language but fucks with your head. It was also the moment I fell in love with Midoriya Izuku. Because in that moment I saw a boy that was so much more stronger than I ever was. Izuku continued to chase his dreams and love when I gave up for a time. It was also the moment I realised that this boy wasn't getting the justice he deserved a bit in the manga and in terms of the fandom too (que streams of fanfictions of him).
Now I've learnt to move on and accept that, but its still something painful to me and someone who says that to another person, there's always something in them that's the reason they said that. Now Katsuki is a beautifully complex character. He's strong but he's also so very weak. he's ugly but he's beautiful. He's warmly loving but he's also horrifically cold. I find him very easy to villainise in my stories because he's so... well... human. Which is why I like to use him.
As of recently, I just haven't been feeling like writing for him all that much. I never really liked writing for him romantically unless its KiriBaku, regardless. So right now it's not necessarily I don't want to write for him, I just can't. not that much anyways.
I hope that answers your question and makes some sense. I would love to debate on it if it doesn't. I went on a bit of a tangent but yah!!!
-Glitch1d
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moetartart · 17 hours
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Yet another BG3 thought of the day for the void that is my Tumblr account.
So my second favourite character is Wyll but we all know he didn't get as much content and development as others and lots of his content was cut :/ (mild spoilers ahead)
I was just thinking of how cool his ark could have been if they leaned more into the dangers of people pleasing and self sacrifice rather than him redeeming himself in the eyes of himself and others.
I genuinely think Wyll is such a complex character, he's just not developed enough. Wyll cares about what others think about him more than anyone else. He's scared of hurting others and puts on a brave face as the golden boy of the city. Think about it, he gets infected with the tadpole and as far as he knows it's a death sentence. But he wants to use the little time he has left to help the grove and save people.
How cool would it have been to be able to influence his ark to actually hold his farther accountable instead of forgiving him no matter what? To be able to do battle with Mizura with him so she can't enslave others?
I personally would have loved for example, if Mol had made a deal with Mizura instead of Raphael and we got to make the choice with Wyll about whether we should fight her for Mols soul contract, or if that would be robbing Mol of the same choices and power he had.
Mabey Wyll could even be given the choice to undoo all the work you've done on ending his contract. Mizura could offer him a bargain, a new contract in place of Mols. A soul for a soul. Really difficult choices about how much Wyll should put himself first, or always be the hero first. Choices when the morals are grey and have lasting consequences like we get for Gale choosing what to do with the crown or if Asta releasing the spawn.
In many ways I think a lot more people would relate to Wyll if they could see him struggling with his demons more. More than just protecting baldurs gate or saving his farther.
Wyll has low self worth. We see how ashamed he is when he gets his horns and that people might think he's evil. Would have been great to see someone like Karlach challenge him on that and that mabey he has biased based on being a nobel and monster hunter, and that his horns aren't the problem. Caring what people think about him is. That mabey even though he acts very high and mighty, he judged Karlach without even speaking to her and that's why he's so afraid of being judged.
The heart in conflict with itself is what BG3 is all about and I'd would have loved more of that for Wyll
I may have to write a long running Wyll x Asta fanfic/comic exploring these themes 😂
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