#is this a common shtick between them

[thebookishwallflower]

whenever jason gets down about needing glasses percy steels them off his faces and tells jason to insult them ‘one more time’

and jason happens to think percy looks rather adorable in his glasses

unfortunately he has to get really close to be able to see

like kissing distance close

#they’re rediculous and i love them #is this their first kiss bc jason is tired and really appreciates this #is this a common shtick between them #either way #it does end in a kiss #everytime #percy jackson x jason grace #percy jackson #jason grace #🌿

[itsnothingofinterest]

I actually find it funny when people will say the heroes need to kill more villains instead of arresting them when, from where I'm looking, every instance of the heroes killing a villain(s) has led to some consequence that would've been avoided had they just been taken in alive. (Which evidence has often shown them quite capable of doing.)

Lady Nagant was made to kill loads of people, driving her crazy and leading her to kill her boss and deprive the hero side of one of it's best. Her case feels like a big reason why killing on the regular would be incompatible with the rest of the hero shtick; 'cause it turns out people with lots of blood on their hands have trouble using them to then shake the hands of children.

People say All Might should've killed AFO; but you can tell both from All Might's dialogue in Kamino & from how AFO regrew his head that that's exactly how their first fight ~7 years ago ended. AFO's brains met the pavement that day. And I can only assume this allowed his body to be easily recovered & revived, letting him lay low for the next 6 years to mould Tomura into a successor and orchestrate a good portion of the conflicts we've seen in this series. Just saying, that sounds much harder to do from Tartarus. And at least the heroes knew when he broke out of jail way faster then when he broke out of the grip of death. Heck, it could easily be argued he only broke out of jail thanks to that 6 years of set-up.

Oh and where to start with Hawks killing Twice? Maybe how it enraged Toga & Dabi to make them more crazy & dangerous, maybe how it affected people's trust in heroes? Oh but the big one has to be how leaving Twice as a corpse let his blood be collected for Toga to get a parade off anyway; one the heroes were unprepared for too, which distracted a lot of the pros meant to keep AFO in Gunga. All of which could've been avoided if Hawks had just taken Twice in alive. (Which I must reiterate he easily could have done; I mean his quirk was shown pretty easily countering a Parade.) The heroes wouldn't have had to deal with a Parade in this war at all if Twice was sitting pretty in a jail cell next to Compress & Geten.

I can't help but think those last two cases could be a surprisingly common occurrence too if heroes killed as much as some readers say they should. Like, could you imagine if every dangerous villain in Japan's history was killed and then just dumped somewhere for a guy like Dr. Garaki to get his hands on them the same way he got Shirakumo?

So anyway, between the mental health issues it causes, combined with how villains keep finding ways to perform necromancy; I'm just not seeing a lot of evidence that things go well for the heroes when they kill villains, or that they'd go much better if the heroes were kill-happy soldiers of the war on villainy all the time.

#bnha #lady nagant #hero public safety commission #all for one #all might #shigaraki tomura #twice #jin bubaigawara #anti hawks #dabi #toga himiko #pro heroes #kyudai garaki #shirakumo oboro #hero society #Hell if I wanna be petty; even Endeavor roasting Hood might’ve made him harder to study than the USJ Nomu or Kurogiri were.

[desertleviathan]

I've included every Job I've heard people mention as speculation, no matter how unlikely I personally find it. Propaganda after the cut is all just my own feelings, and includes some very minor spoilers for recent MSQ events, Astrologian Job Quests, and the Shadowbringers patch 5.3 Dungeon:

CALCULATOR PROS: They have had some fun with Math Bosses, haven't they. It is a theme present in the game, and with precedent in earlier FF games. CONS: I can not imagine any configuration of this job that would function within the timing of FFXIV's combat. Applying simple Astrologian buffs is already tricky enough. Also, this was a real balance-demolisher in its main prior appearance.

GAMBLER PROS: FFVI has proven fertile ground for Job design concepts, between the Monk and Machinist revamps. And Setzer's armor is already in the game. CONS: Even more RNG dependent than Dancer? I don't much like the sound of that. And Astrologian has already claimed Cards as a primary tool.

GEOMANCER PROS: It canonically exists in setting. And it is on the dwindling list of Jobs in FFXI that haven't been reinterpreted in FFXIV. Probably a pretty strong contender, except... CONS: The Astrologian quests kind of ate its lunch, explicitly stating that they are heavily overlapping arts. That will be a common theme with entries on this list, Astrologian seems to be made of pieces of a ton of prior Mage jobs.

GREEN MAGE PROS: The presumptive favorite in most of the chatter I'm reading, because of a symbol on a thing in a very "we're teasing new content" feeling MSQ cutscene that matches the design of Green Mage in one of the Tactics games (I think?) CONS: Ok great but what the heck even is a Green Mage? Their whole shtick appears to be long-duration buffs and debuffs that would have been categorized as Black or White Magic in other games... and FFXIV has been very steadily removing those kinds of powers, aside from a handful of DoTs. If they crib this aesthetic, the actual mechanics will likely be something entirely unanticipated, or possibly overlapping with one of these other options, rather than a Buff/Debuff Mage. Or maybe they've just been removing long duration powers from other classes to... consolidate them? I really doubt it, but maybe.

NECROMANCER PROS: It's a solid concept, an RPG classic, and the Necromancer Boss in the Heroes' Gauntlet dungeon looks sick. Rumor has it that all the bosses in that dungeon were concepts once considered as alternate branches of base classes in the same way Arcanist splits into Scholar and Summoner, before they ditched that design. In which case it probably would have split from Thaumaturge? CONS: Rumor also has it that cultural considerations in certain key markets made this something SE didn't want to pose as a heroic archetype. Also, pet jobs. They've been pretty steadily gutting the pet mechanics of Scholar and Summoner, and I can't imagine they'd be in any hurry to add another full scale Pet Job. Maybe a Limited Job though. Also, in FFXIV the art to animate and control the dead seems to be closely related to the summoning of Voidsent, and Reaper is already doing the Demon Magic thing in a big way.

ORACLE PROS: I'm gonna be real with y'all, can't actually think of any. I see this as having zero chance. But the name keeps coming up in conversation. So maybe I'm wrong, and the apparent fan support will keep the idea afloat. CONS: Like Green Mage, it's mainly been a place to dump debuffs that originally belonged to other magic types. And the theme of prediction and prophecy has been thoroughly raided by Astrologian.

PICTOMANCER (A.K.A. Artist, Painter, Ink Mage, etc.) PROS: As I mentioned under Gambler, raiding FFVI has been a solid move, and Relm Arrowny's power set deserves a less-buggy reinterpretation. Also Ink Mages are the only common enemy in the Heroes' Gauntlet that doesn't match a job we have available. Also Yoshi P's TMNT shirt at the first fanfest may have been hinting at Leonardo's dual swords and a Ninja's scouting armor sets for Viper, but it could also have been a reference to the Renaissance Masters that the Turtles were named after. He's clever like that. CONS: The only reason this isn't my #1 guess without hesitation is that pesky Green Mage emblem. I have a theory though that Green Mage and Pictomancer might get combined and have the "green" be about painting landscapes, in which case it might also be borrowing from Geomancer turf a little. Who knows!

PUPPETMASTER PROS: Also on the short list of FFXI jobs that haven't been reinterpreted. Mammets are a big part of this setting and there would be a lot of cool aesthetics to potentially draw on. CONS: Pet jobs. I just can't see them ever doing another full Pet Job. Also the FFXI version was a blend of technology and martial arts, not a caster per se.

TIME MAGE PROS: One of the missing FF classics, with a lot more potential spells than you expect, since it also usually deals with Space Magic. CONS: Haste powers and traits became a huge balance headache in FFXI and I can't see them rushing back into that. Also, once again, Astrologian already swiped several key ideas.

#ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #Fanfest 2024 #Caster DPS speculation

[justintaco]

I've been up for almost 24 hours so

superheavy Lonetrail Muelsyse spoilers

Besides the like, uncountable amount of stuff that blew me away in Lonetrail,

linking together Mansfield Break and Dorothy's Vision with Vigilo and Walk in the Dust

creating thematic parallels with Near Light at the end,

what really blew me away was Muelsyse.

Anyone who's followed this blog for a long time knows I'm not big on shipping and I'm semi-public with my opinion that most times shipping brain completely poisons someone's ability to actually engage with a narrative. But honest to god, even to me, they seemed to be almost writing a romance with Doctor and Mumu.

Blink twice if you don't think I'm crazy.

like any gacha you have a lot of flirty lines between the player character and a million of the girls (and guys), but like, this seemed unusually genuine and romantic?

(x)

Like besides them sharing a dance and all their cute little scenes, they seemed to be creating a genuine parallel in their backstories and who they are as people here

Mumu discovers she isn't actually the last of her race but realizes that she has so little in common with them she cannot form any meaningful connection or even find a shared language with them. Her integration into human society is like, almost all just an act of survival by her own admission, she doesn't feel any belonging there either. In fact, most of the time her real body is hiding in her vivarium because the physical world itself is becoming so poisoned by originium that it's dangerous to leave using anything but a clone. Even in her flashback with Saria and Kristen, she seems to be the third wheel.

She is by every possible metric, completely alone. And it seems like her chronic teehee backstabbing is a coping mechanism to feeling completely alienated from even her closest friends and what becomes her second family with the Rhine Lab directors. Even that dysfunctional and over idealized family is gone now too. She even says the following after she betrays Doctor for one last ditch effort to throw in her lot with Kristen and maybe find somewhere out in the stars she can belong:

Compare that with the Doctor, who in this event witnesses what seems to be the death of the last member of their race. In fact, the dialogue implies that Doctor feels an incredible amount of anguish even just pulling the plug on Trevor since it's not so quick a death. Directly after this event, after escaping the big silo bunker thing, Doctor's first thought is to go seek out Mumu rather than regroup with everyone from RI (including Saria who just reentered the atmosphere Halo 3 style). It feels like a response to an epiphany.

Earlier, Doctor had managed to actually get her to tell the truth about herself during their dance. How isolated she feels without any past or family, just like Doctor. So they go directly to her, fresh off of losing the last connection to their past life besides Kal'tsit (who is implied to not only be unwilling but in some way unable to share more info with Doctor).

You then get what is this, extremely deeply intimate conversation between Doctor and Muelsyse, commiserating over their shared loneliness.

She tries to play things off with her usual shtick but pretty quickly she admits that saving those random Control goons on the ship was her failed attempt at suicide because Saria had well and truly kicked her out of the triumvirate to confront Kristen alone.

After that she begins connecting with Doctor on a deeper level than any character I can really recall. As much as I love the ex wife Kal'tsit stuff, they really don't seem to have a romantic attachment. A very very close and intimately trusting one, maybe a past romance, but never romantic with Doctor as they exist in the present since waking up. Doctor views other characters like Amiya, Ifrit, and Rosmontis as children to be protected. But this here is these two really baring their souls and it's just crazy to see in a gacha game where the format discourages stuff like this.

Just, man I love this whole conversation. They've both just learned recently that they can't shed their loneliness with what's left of their races. Muelsyse is totally at the end of her rope, but Doctor has just learned that the only thing they can do is fully commit to the people they know in the present. So despite Mumu's one final attempt to put a barrier up between her and another person, a literal physical barrier of water

Doctor walks right into the barrier and literally reaches out to her to help save her with what they just learned that same day

Muelsyse refers to the parts not in blue here (blue usually being the only confirmed dialogue Doctor says out loud in any given cutscene) when she talks to Nasti later. That means the Doctor said all of this out loud.

Again, am I crazy or does this feel like the most romantic Doctor has ever been with another character?

A lot of himejoshis on Twitter have been mad about the event and what it means for Mumu x Ho'ohleyak, Mumu x Saria, or Muelsyse x her OT3 with Saria and Kristen, and honestly

they might have a point

#needed to get this out or I'll never be able to sleep #please try to keep replies spoiler free if you do #Arknights #Muelsyse

[slavghoul]

Tobias Forge on Satanism, religion, etc.

Recently one of the most common questions I get here concerns the topic of Satanism – “Is Tobias actually a Satanist?”, “Are Ghost really devil worshippers or is this just a funny shtick?” and so on, and so forth. I have therefore compiled a few quotes from the man himself speaking about his personal views on Satanism and religion, as well as how the satanic themes translate into the world of Ghost. Perhaps it will help you form your own judgement on the matter.

On his personal relationship with Satanism

Sacramento News & Review, 2018

Are you a Satanist?

TF: From a strictly Christian point of view, if that means believing in a physical, half man, half-ram living in the underground, no, I don’t believe there is such a thing. I’m not the opposite either. And you know, I’m sure in the eyes of the beholder, if I was put in front of true god-fearing bible thumpers, I would probably be regarded as a Satanist just because I’m not a god-fearing bible thumper. But the concept of Satanism has many, many forms. In the last 50 years now, ever since [Anton] LaVey and pop-cultural Satanism, when that rose in the latter of the part of ’60s with the Church of Satan, and Black Sabbath and Black Widow and Coven and that sort of hippie Satanism, which at the end of the day, heavy metal, black metal, all that is based upon that cultural Satanism. I grew up with that. So from that point of view, I would definitely say that culturally, I am definitely, for lack of better way of putting it, I’m a devil-liking kind of guy. But I wouldn’t sacrifice a baby to a half-ram that I believe to be living in the underground. And I would never ever encourage anyone to do that.

Aftonbladet, 2016

I became interested in Satanism when I was 10-11, so I find it very difficult to have a clear intellectual approach to it. In the end, I became interested in it because I thought it was cool. Aesthetically, I think it's amazing. An incredibly fun and, for me, a very homey world. As I tell our children, the devil is our friend. The monsters are our friends. But I was much more convinced back then, than I am now. As a grown man, it's hard to buy the idea that if we take a shovel and dig into the ground, eventually we'll come across a half-buck in a burning inferno. Although it would have been an incredibly festive thought. What I know is that I haven't got a fucking clue. That's the only thing I'm absolutely convinced of.

Banger TV, 2019

Even though I am very, very, very fascinated with religion in many ways, I'm sort of staying in the pop cultural world when it comes to referencing the devil, and especially when I'm talking about my relationship to him. He appeared in my life through rock music, through films. I've been dressing myself with pentagrams and upside down crosses ever since I was 11 years old and was watching horror films and listening to music about Satan way before that. That's the difference I think between a musician born in the 40s that added the devil as a "hip" thing in 1969 to their musical movement, it was more an addition that they could do as grown-ups, whereas for me and a lot of my friends who grew up with black metal, death metal bands - it's part of our blood basically.

Psychology Today, 2018

I think in 99.9 percent of every so-called Satanist in the last 50 years, you would find that the vast majority of them have been introduced to the Devil via music. And it usually happens at a certain age as well. It was also the early '90s—so that was the rise of the death metal and black metal movement in Europe and in the world I guess. Especially in Sweden and Norway, it was a big thing. It was just right up my alley and it became such a powerful way of expressing myself, and how to not only deviate and differentiate myself from the norm and normal people but just like hand in glove with my way of seeing the world.

On the pop-cultural devil vs the biblical devil

Areena, 2019

What does Satan mean to you?

TF: For me personally, he or it, she... She has been such a faithful companion for the majority of my life - as a guide, as a mentor, as a symbol. The idea of the devil representing ‘evil’ as opposed to 'good’ does not… it clashes with my idea of the devil. Because the devil for me represents rock and roll, film, freedom, humor - essentially, my life and my background because it’s so coloured with so many “blasphemous” expressions. I think that’s one of the most common misconceptions that makes it so hard for people to fathom - that there’s obviously the biblical devil, and then you have the pop-cultural devil. The pop-cultural devil being very much a representative of freedom, intellectualism and liberation from the chains of handicapping worship of the three Abrahamic religions - because that’s what [these religions] are about, they’re about control. Satan represents, in the pop cultural sense, the opposite of that. In the Bible it represents evil, but I know very, very few things in the history of the world that have been perpetrated in the name of the devil that have been to the non-benefit of mankind, whereas… I mean, just look at the amount of abuse and human despair that has been caused in the name of 'good.’

Billboard, 2019

On the Satanic leanings: For me, it is very personal and important, but I struggle to define the differences between the pop-cultural Satan and the actual one – if you want to say it that way – because that’s even harder to define. [Since the 1960s, Satanism] has become a fun little thing for 20-somethings to play with. It has very much been embraced as a symbol of liberation, rather than a symbol of actual tyranny and evil. The pop-cultural Satan has an amazing importance for me, and that’s because I’m a born rebel and a natural ‘opposer,’ in that I oppose shit.

On whether there would be Satan without God: The Satan that we are most commonly referring to in the Western world is obviously a product of Christianity. Within the confines and context of Christianity, no. They cannot exist without the other. That’s the problem with the entire concept of Satanism because, depending on who you’re talking to – if you’re talking to a Bible thumper, Satan exists within the bras of women, and Satan exists within the confines of rock ‘n’ roll music and drugs and everything that would be considered quote ‘bad’ and ‘dangerous’ and ‘harmful.’ And I think that in rock ‘n’ roll and in pop culture, that is the thing that most people cling to. Satan as a symbol or symbolic role model represents liberation and free thought and fun. Intellectualism as opposed to regression and stupidity. But if you’re talking about Satan as the main peddler and the prime motor for evil – if I look at the world and I see evil, I think of ISIS and I think that’s pure evil, and that has nothing to do with a pop-cultural horned-goat half-man called Satan. So you really, really, really have to understand that the ‘Satan’ that has been embraced by artists in film, music, poetry, and art going back centuries was made to scare people.

On not being against religion but rather organized religion, and on not being an atheist

Rolling Stone Deutschland, 2019

I’m not against religion. I’m not against being religious. But I am against organized religion, the scriptures, because we know perfectly well that they are basically manifests put together by other people in order to control the rest. That’s not even a secret.

New York Post, 2018

The problem with religious doctrine, as with politics, because of its ability to give people authority, it has a tendency to attract people that want authority for all the wrong reasons, and that is what it has done across all time. But, then again, in all fairness, I am not saying that there shouldn’t be faith. It’s completely different things. The belief in something bigger and supernatural is not the same thing as linear religion.

Loudwire, 2015

I'm definitely not an atheist. Intellectually, obviously my intellect tells me one thing, but I want there to be something so I choose not to completely follow my intellect when it comes to the idea of there being a bigger being or beings that I cannot explain.

Psychology Today, 2018

I am not against the idea of believing. I am not an atheist. The whole institution of Christianity being based on that book, being based on the premise that he was conceived out of nowhere—it’s kind of hard to believe. But on the other hand, I do believe in the idea of a historic person named Jesus that was a kind of chill dude who was just telling people to chill and be nice to each other. And he got penalized for that. So I’m not dismissing the whole thing as bullsh*t. But I definitely believe that tormenting other people because of the Bible and for that to be—for lack of a better word, Gospel. I think that is not very nice.

Amusio, 2013

Are you afraid of death?

TF: I am not very afraid of death, only of the question of how I will die. I don't know what will happen to us when it's all over, but I'm not an atheist and I certainly believe in a higher, inexplicable existence out there with which we humans are more or less in contact. That's why I don't think that death is the end of our existence.

Rolling Stone Deutschland, 2019

How religious was your upbringing?

TF: Not very. I'd say that in my main home, which was with my mother and my brother, there was always spiritualism I would say. We were definitely not atheists, but it was more infused by the idea of there being greater things than what we know. But that takes the tools that we use to trigger these feelings and that comes from pop cultural powers, rather than scripture - if that makes sense. The power of rock’n’roll. The power of film. The power of a good book. And that combined sort of gives us hint that there might be something that we cannot explain.

US Time Today, 2022

I’ve always had an intense relationship with organized, linear religion, let’s put it that way. I’m very fascinated by the art and its history, but maybe not so much by the rules and the guilt.

On Satanism in Ghost

Pitchfork, 2013

The theme of Satanism, tongue-in-cheek or not, has a long tradition in heavy metal. How important is it to what you guys are doing?

TF: Well thematically, obviously, it’s alpha to omega, that’s what we’re doing. The sort of Satanism, or devil-worship, that we want to portray in the confines of Ghost, a very biblical version of goat worship, the sort of things that you see in a Satanic Panic movie. And obviously in the theatre that is Ghost, everything is supposed to feel like it’s orthodox devil-worshipping. As an audience member, you can choose to believe whatever you want to. And you can choose to partake, or you can choose not to.

Hard Force, 2015

We are not necessarily singing about God or Satan, we're singing about what we think and how we treat each other because of what we believe is God and Satan. All of a sudden, that's a way bigger scope than most other cult-oriented rock bands do, because normally it's just odes to this, that and the other.

Telegraph, 2022

When we’re talking about darkness, death, despair, it’s to express our discontent at the world. It’s our way to explain how shit things are.

Loudwire, 2018

We’re trying to make people happy about life. We’re actually quite humanistic. If you take all of these things that we’re saying and what we’re doing completely literally, and you believe that this is equal to damnation, then there’s no way that we can meet intellectually. As a human, I grieve for tendencies like that because I think it reflects on something somber, limited and regressive. 

#tobias forge #the band ghost #trivia

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Episode 11 Discussion

- Martin was me the entire episode, freaking the fuck out

- Eri vs Suletta is such a great fight. The two love each other, but their viewpoints and morals are on such opposite wavelengths. Eri, much like Suletta in the past, is doing everything for her mother because she wants her mom to be happy. The Eri we see is simply lines of code reconfigured into what could possibly be construed as a human being. She has Eri’s memories and feelings, but she hasn’t, can’t, grow up, unlike Suletta. Suletta loves her mom, she wants to be there for her, but she can’t accept killing people. She’s realized just how much heavy a life is and so she moves to protect it.

- Peil and the SAL have taken the mantle of final boss. If they really cared about punishing the Benerit Group, they would arrest the leaders, not shoot them with a giant fuck you laser while children are on board all while supporting the people who make nuclear child body doubles. The League is doing exactly what Delling did during the Vanadis incident, right down to the “I’ll take responsibility (but I really won’t)” shtick.

- However what’s interesting is how out of place Elan seems to be. He isn’t sitting down with the Peil ladies, he’s standing off in the corner, staring at his own reflection, and I think this shows a lot of us got his character wrong. Elan is just another child the Peil ladies are taking advantage of. He only got where he was due to sheer luck that the AI picked him, if not, he probably would have either ended up as the other body doubles or dead and discarded. It’s common with abusive parents that they’ll choose a “golden child” and use that child to put down the others, and Elan seems to fit in that mold. I hope he breaks out just like El5n and creates his own life.

- God the Schwarzette is the best fucking Gundam. Between it and Calibarn, how are they ever going to challenge it in the future? It has space rave lasers, it’s sword is the GUND bits and it can become a wing, and it has bisexual lighting.

- Lauda is too good for every one of his haters. He’s been second string to Guel for his entire life, his very name “Lauda Neill” is just a reminder of how he’s a mistress’s child. But here he proudly proclaims himself as “Lauda Jeturk.” His feelings for his brother come from both admiration and self-worthlessness. He puts his entire identity into being Guel’s brother so when Guel falters, he does as well. He wants Guel to rely on him. He wants to be his equal. He put Guel on such a high pedestal because he was everything he wanted to be.

- My poor son Guel. He’s always loved his brother, no matter the fact that they come from different mothers, but as always he has trouble understanding others. Also, we get to see a far darker part of his psyche that most others might have missed. In his fight with Shaddiq, despite being stabbed, he managed to eject and save himself, but here he waits for death. Guel has been keeping himself moving with the idea that his family still needs him, but once Lauda seemingly rejects him, he loses all that energy. He hasn’t recovered from the trauma and pain he’s been through, he’s only simply masked it. But in that moment, he’s perfectly fine with dying because he believes it would be better for everyone

- But best girl Felsi says fuck that! She reminds Guel and Lauda that the world is so much bigger than them, and that there are people who still care about them. They can’t ignore their problems, they need to talk through it. Lauda’s insecurity and Guel’s suicidal nature and guilt, these are things that can’t be held within or else they’ll bubble over and end in tragedy. Felsi the hero says cut the bullshit, and I love her so much for it. I need Felsi merch right now

- El5n was another MVP of the episode. I’m surprised just how talented he is with a gun and shoot outs. Does he have experience, either from his past life or current one? And the fact that he didn’t hesitate to get the head shot off of Prospera says so much. He’s ruthless because he has a purpose. He ain’t letting anyone die unnecessarily, but he also recognizes when the doing needs done

- And Belmeria really stepped up as well. She’s spent the entire series running away from the consequences of her actions but here she finally stands up and protects the children who have been abused by the system she supported. Her diving to protect Miorine from getting shot was beautiful, and you can tell El5n really appreciated the gesture.

- Miorine is the best wife. That’s it, that’s the tweet

- Right when Eri was about to merc Miorine and co, something interrupted them, and I believe it was Notrette, Miorine’s mom. We never learned how Miorine’s mom died, so it’s possible she also got sucked up into the data storm and resides in Quiet Zero, and that’s why Delling was working on the project. She also added a failsafe so her daughter could shut it down, one that speaks words of love. Mother of the year

- The fact that Eri’s final act is to protect her sister and mother is so sad. She never had the chance to grow up, she’s forever stuck in stasis inside a giant hunk of metal. Quiet Zero offered the hope that she could finally escape and travel the world as herself, but it still wouldn’t give her herself back. However, Suletta can still live on, and so she valiantly protects her from the big laser, giving one final smile to her little sister. I hope she can finally rest in peace.

- But will Prospera allow that. She’s watched her daughter die twice now. Everything she worked for, all the lives that were sacrificed, they now all mean nothing. The world has rejected her once again. Whether she can accept it and become a better mother to Suletta is to be seen, but I don’t think she’ll follow that path.

Really hoping we get that second half so I can see the Peil girls get fucking incinerated. Also can we paint the Schwarzette red and give it to Guel? Double the points if it’s revealed he’s bisexual.

#gundam #g witch #gundam witch from mercury #ericht samaya #suletta mercury #guel jeturk #lauda neill #prospera mercury

[gamebunny-advance]

Pikmin 4 Planet Generalizations

I added this to the big Pikmin 4 Character Trivia post, but I know most people aren't going to be checking for updates on that (btw, there's been a few, so check that out if you're interested).

These are observations I've made about similarities between castaways from the same planet. Since Pikmin has made a habit of saying that certain traits are inherent to specific races/planets, such as the Koppaites' inability to plan and being picky eaters and the Hocotatians' preference for vegetables and seeking treasure, it may be safe to say that similarities found between castaways from the same planet might be reflective of their respective races.

However, this is all speculative on my part. Do not take any of the following as fact.

I also haven't included any castaways/planets where there was only 1 castaway to get info from since unless they explicitly said so, there's no way to determine what traits are theirs and what could be attributed to their race/culture. Info like that would be a part of the main trivia post.

Sozor (Dalmo, Grace, Horatio)

Have anti-social personalities. Dalmo prefers creatures to people, Grace seems disinterested in society as a whole, and Horatio is inept at social interactions (compared to other castaways).

Flukuey (Jin, Molly, Dash, Patch)

Have unstable professions and/or are adventure seekers. Jin is an explorer, Molly is a streamer of limited success, Dash is a spelunker from a well off-family, and Patch is unemployed but purposefully puts himself in dangerous situations for the thrill.

Ooji (Francois, Kingsly)

Love flowers/plant life. Francois studies plant-life, and Kingsly is a florist. Given that Ooji is also said to have "lush jungles," flora may be very important to everyday life on the planet.

Koodgio (Lapi, Boris)

Artistic types. Lapi is a painter and Boris is an author.

Siguray (Shnauz, Kit, Osa)

Interested in the qualities and history of materials and items. Shnauz appraises treasure, Kit is interested in minerals, and Osa is interested in archeology.

The following are castaways where it's difficult to determine if their similar traits would be found in their race due to other factors:

Ogura (Sy, Pitunia)

Both are interested in studying the onion and their environmental factors surrounding it, but both are also a part of the Research Task Force, a group made of individuals that are interested in studying the planet in general, so it's hard to say if this would be something inherent to all Ogurains, or if they just happen to have a mutual interest in this area of study.

Enohee (Ren, Frise, Muggs, Wolfgang)

3 of the 4 are a part of the same TV crew, so would have common interests by default. Arguably all 4 are interested in entertainment as Ren was on a cooking show, so TV might be a very important industry to Enohee.

Neechki (Kaia, Sheeba, Keesh, Mika, Chewy)

4 of the 5 are in the same club and would have similar interests by default (and even then, Mika admits that she knows very little about planetary science), and Chewy has little in common with the rest of them. However, Chewy notes that Sheeba also resembles her boss, so it's possible that the "small" body type is very common (but not exclusive) to Neechikians.

Nijo (Santi, Bernard)

Both became pilots and were prone to changing jobs frequently, but their "Dynamic Duo" shtick of always being a part of each other's lives is played as a joke, so their similar lives/interests may not have anything to do with their race/culture.

Planets where I couldn't identify a common thread:

Enohay (Puddle, Vonda, Bernise)

I would have said creative/artistic fields due to Puddle being a stylist and Vonda being a singer, but I don't think a fortune-teller really falls under that umbrella. Perhaps they're all "dramatic"?

Conohan (Twyla, Chowder, Alpin, Fawks, Beaux)

They all have different professions and interests, two are siblings, and none have especially similar personality traits. In a sense, I suppose this would imply that Conohan is a very diverse planet.

Ohri (Yonny, Dingo)

Neither seems to have much in common with the other aside from being in the Rescue Corps.

Giya (Shepherd, Collin, Russ)

Another diverse group of only rescue officers. However, given the stark difference between Collin's and Russ's financial situations, there are implications that Giya has significant class inequality.

#gbunny writes #pikmin #pikmin 4 #i don't know how to tag this #headcanons #i guess? since i can't prove any of this i can't call it trivia

[fandom-flight]

I'm about halfway through Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint,and I'm really impressed with how it practically bleeds with themes of storytelling and our relationship with stories as humans. There's the obvious stuff, like how the main character's whole shtick is being a reader with "bookmark" and "fourth wall" abilities, but as of about chapter like 240, I've never stopped tangibly feeling how much ORV seems to want to explore the concept of stories (and not just in the sense of the novel's world where stories are like a kind of power, though that is kind of part of it). I ended up having a lot of roving thoughts, so more under the cut

Specifically what I mean by this is that almost every aspect of the world building and the plot has some kind of commentary on how people relate to stories. The constellations, for example, are very clearly kind of meant to be audience stand ins, especially in the beginning. They're watching the stories of our main characters on stream much the same way that we the readers are watching the story of ORV on our devices in the real world, and oftentimes their reactions to the events mimic our reactions from the outside– they cringe when characters do embarrassing things, they ship characters with chemistry, they hold their breath when things gets tense, and feel genuinely sad and heartbroken when bad things happen to the characters in their show. It's through their financial support that some of these stories can continue to be told, kind of the same way that fans' monetary contributions to artists enables their art to continue being made. Kim Dokja even calls out how the tables have turned early on in the series, that he used to be the one watching them through a screen, and now the situation is totally reversed. The constellations also kind of mimic the negative effect that the audience can have on art– sometimes artists have to bend to the will of their supporters even when it goes against their desired direction for their own art because that's what pulls in the money, and the way that incarnations and dokkaebi have to listen to the will of their sponsors feels like a very on the nose parallel for this. ORV sets up both the constellations and Kim Dokja as content consumers who have a love of stories in common in order to make a statement about how loving stories is universal, while simultaneously laying groundwork to make statements about the line between reader and narrative. Another thing that Kim Dokja has in common with the constellations is that both he and they are increasingly brought to the boundary of the fourth wall as the series progresses. In the same way Kim Dokja starts to realize that he IS part of the story now, and that the people he previously just saw as characters are actually real human beings that he has emotional attachments to, the constellations also start becoming characters who appear in the story and impact it directly, rather than being detached observers. This process of becoming a part of the story after being emotionally invested in it is naturally not something that literally happens to people in real life, but readers wanting to insert themselves into a narrative they love is something very human. I mean, fanfiction is incredibly popular because a lot of us humans can't just leave media that we love alone, we keep thinking about it, we want to expand on it, change it, and sometimes even insert ourselves into it. Historically, myths have had many different versions circulate over time, with some cultures borrowing figures from others and literary giants creating characters of their own (or even versions of themselves *cough Dante cough*) to insert into these legends.

In addition to the very human desire to become a part of the stories we love, ORV also calls out how humans are are kind of enamored with certain themes, and that we show this by having these themes appear in various legends the world over. Realms of death, myths of resurrection, tales of slaying supernatural evils, all of these things are shown to be so universal that constellations sometimes have copyright disputes over them. The fact that the constellations that appear in ORV are so varied is another place where ORV proves to be a love letter to storytelling. The author has such a diverse collection of gods and historical figures that I can't help but see their love for stories as something so strong that it transcended culture and nationality. Furthermore, the fact that constellations obtain their status from how widespread their stories are feeds into the theme of people being stories, which is another interesting angle to look at the relationship between people and stories. ORV has characters literally say "people are stories" out loud, and Han Sooyoung references the philosophy that people only truly die when they've been forgotten, but there isn't a single second where I really stop feeling like this holds true for everyone in the book (and not just because souls being stories and people needing stories to live ends up being part of the worldbuilding). The idea is that our stories give us value, both intrisinsically and extrinsically. ORV represents this literally, as the notoriety of a story actually makes people stronger, and also stories can be used as currency or food to some people. Even on a scale lower than the constellations, the reputations of characters and the rumors of their incredible deeds can increase their value to outsiders, the same way that a person's reputation in the real world can affect their job prospects and social connections (this is a little more obvious and would happen in any story, but I think that the mythologizing of the ORV characters in their own universe is meant to exemplify the effect of a person's stories on their perceived value).

The theme of people being stories also extends to a related but still separate (I think) theme of everyone being the protagonist of their own story. Kim Dokja begins ORV by talking about how much Yoo Sangah feels like a protagonist. She has all the qualities that a main character should have, and Kim Dokja feels like he could never match that, despite the fact that he clearly wants to be a protagonist really badly. He wants to be cool, special, and confident, but it's not until the scenarios start and he starts being able to use skills in a way unique to him that he starts realizing that maybe he can be a protagonist too. And again, this is a theme that ORV just constantly exudes– Kim Dokja often explicitly talks about how everyone is living their own life and being their own person. When he sees Yoo Sangah and Lee Hyunsung for the first time after the intermediate dokkaebi Paul separates them following the golden thrones destruction, he's impressed by their growth while he wasn't looking, and we the audience are reminded that these people learn and progress as the center of their own world. When Kim Dokja is separated from his friends after the Dark Castle arc and hears what they've been up to, he muses about how, even without him, the world continues to turn, scenarios continue to run, and people continue to live. It very much helps that the author of ORV gives every side character a vibrant and memorable personality so that we can better empathize with them as their own people with their own lives, even though they might not get as much screentime. Characters who we do not think to care much about are shown to have significant development while the main character isn't with them. Kim Namwoon matures into a calmer, happier person in the Underworld long after I forgot he existed. Han Myungoh went from bring an insufferable nepotism baby to being a determined and loving father who is willing to be an ally. The author constantly reminds us that Kim Dokja isn't the only one in this world who is a protagonist with a story worth telling, and in a way, it kind of feels like they're also telling the readers that, not only are we the main characters of our lives, but we also can never forget that the people around us are protagonists of their stories as well.

In short, ORV uses just about every character and storyline to convey that humans may love to consume the stories of others, but we can't forget that we're also writing our own stories by living them. Humans are made up of the stories they love, the ones they write themselves, and the ones they put a part of themselves into, and I just get the sense that the author has a lot of feelings about stories and how important they are to us as a species in every sentence they write. I'm definitely curious to see how the story ends because I can't imagine how the author will conclude the series when making a statement about this theme seems so important, but anything that would be a satisfying conclusion to the story would really be counterproductive to making that statement. As a reader, I want a definitive "and they lived happily ever after after solving the story's problems," but since the author actually has Kim Dokja muse on how "he never felt satisfied by 'and they lived happily ever after'," I kind of can't imagine that that's how this series will end? Because it doesn't sound like the author was ever completely satisfied with those endings either. But I also don't think ORV is meant to be a tragedy, so I'm excited to see where things go!

#orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv spoilers

[peach-moths]

If the turtles were types of birds what kind would they be?

Ok I have thought about this a lot in my own free time because I absolutely love birds ("let sam name 5 famous people and I'll name 5 birds, I'LL NAME A HUNDRED BIRDS")

I am personally a big fan of the corvid family so I think for simplicity sake I'm going to focus what kind of bird each of the brothers would be from the Corvidae family specifically also going to focus on mostly the ROTTMNT boys rather than an over all tmnt boys analysis

Let's begin

Starting with big Raphie Raph, he would be a raven! Specifically, the common raven (Corvus corax) Ravens are the largest member in the Corvidae family, they're also very defensive and protective of their young and others and will chase off large predators if theyre deemed a threat. Theyre also very social and usually spotted with another bird of its species. Ravens are also goofy!! Just like Raph, he loves his family, can be very scary, but at the end of the day he's silly and will pull pranks on his brothers. (Raven photo credit, The Cornell Lab, Christopher Lindsey)

Leo would be a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) this one is sort of self explanatory, blue jay=blue turtle but it also goes beyond that! Blue jays are clever birds and Leo is an incredibly clever character who can outwit his opponents easily when push comes to shove. Not only that but blue jays are known to be pretty loud and talkative and Leo is pretty chatty! (Blue Jay photo credit, The Cornell Lab, Scott Martin)

Donnie is one I am conflicted on, I could see him as either a black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) or a Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). The magpie is due to the fact that they are some of the most intelligent birds out there and Donatello is incredibly intelligent they're also both dramatic and bold. The Steller's jay is also an intelligent bird but I really only picked the stellars jay for the purpose of it'd match the "disaster twin" shtick the rise fandom likes with Leo and Donnie. I personally think that Donnie would most likely be a magpie if I had to pick between the two. (Black-billed magpie photo credit, The Cornell Lab, Kathryn Keith)

Mikey my favorite and sweetest most unhinged little guy he would be a Clark's nutcracker! They're one of the more smaller corvidae family members but that doesn't make them any less notable! Clark's nutcrackers are very social birds and usually travel in flocks of the same species fledglings will follow their parents around for several months and usually stay within the same flock, similar to how Mikey is very attached to his family. Clark's nutcrackers are also pretty clever and so is mikey. I could also see Mikey as the Steller's jay as Steller's Jay are very chatty and some of the most social corvids. Also the Steller's jay fabulous feather crest is so future mikey coded (Clark's nutcracker photo credit, The Cornell Lab, David Hollie) (Stellers Jay reference, The Cornell Lab, Jeff Maw)

Anyway those are the four (technically 5 birds stellers jay is there twice) birds (corvidae centric) that I think the rise brothers would be! I also have a list of what moth each of the brothers would be too if you're interested in that

#peachmoths ask tag #rottmnt #birds #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

Why is it that every time there's new material that points to a more sympathetic take on Belos' backstory (i.e. seeing Caleb go into the graveyard portal so happy without noticing him), there are fans who act so zealous and knee-jerking about it, saying that Belos doesn't deserve even a moment of sympathy?

I mean it's not like fans (most of them anyways) who take are saying Belos is justified to do his witch genocide. He's still a villain. Still wrong and immoral. The only difference is that Belos isn't the pure evil monster that fans make him out to be. Just a horrifying, monstrous figure born from common human emotions and rigid upbringings, things that hit close to reality.

In all irony, I think that if you change the word "Belos" into "witch", a lot of these retributive justice statements start to sound awfully like the villain they're all rooting against. Says a lot about our justice system.

I believe there are two factors at play here: the first is that a lot of the fans in this fandom are relatively young and tend to have a dogmatic view of things. I'm willing to bet that the people who think that Belos doesn't deserve an ounce of sympathy and the people who think that merely enjoying villain characters speaks to your moral rectitude are going to be similar, if not the same people. Those people have latched onto the idea that since Belos is an irredeemable monster, any kind of humanizing moment is the same as excusing his behavior. Which of course, is nonsense.

The second is framing from the story: The Owl House has gone above and beyond showing nearly every evil act Belos has done, how he has personally victimized several major characters, and is the sole cause of evil in this world. At the same time, they have created a very compelling, very tragic backstory but it was in the literal background in Hollow Mind and briefly shown again in King's Tide, but the audience never had time to process what was quickly being shown and we still don't have concrete answers to what exactly went down between Philip and Caleb, so everything has to be inferred and only the most dedicated Belos fans have done that. Belos' backstory was briefly told by Masha but that was quickly overshadowed by Hunter's possession. Because of this, casual audiences can take Belos at face value and focus on all the evil he has done and hate the character and ignore the more subtle portrait of him that is lurking just beneath the surface.

The irony is that the audience has a well, puritanical view of the character and any deviance from that is a form of heresy. I wish the writers had shown a more dynamic character earlier on and brought more of his story to the forefront so we could see how dangerous it is to demonize other people, even those we hate. This is basically how Philip became Belos; he allowed hate to consume him and refused to see any other way because it clashed with his ideals and worldview (that and the brother trauma).

I feel like if you only see characters one way, especially after getting new information that recontextualizes their story, then that is just a shallow way to interact with media. You're missing out on not only a great story, but a story that can challenge your preconceived notions and one in which you could possibly learn from. And it's only worse if the writers continue to justify one way of reading a character instead of expanding on that character.

My only hope for the finale is that we see a full portrait (or as full as we can get) of Belos instead of him repeating the same old tired shtick of possessing people.

Thank you for the ask!

#the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #fandom shenanigans #toh critical #asks

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

Interpersonal Aftermath, Abigail and Patrick Edition

Ben and Patrick | Ben and Abigail | Ben and Riley | Riley and Abigail

"I don’t think there’s whole articles worth of material here (I hope) but let’s spend a few minutes with each these."

My dumb ass really did think I was going to fit three different duos into this article and be done with this little series because there "wasn't much to say" about them.

I have found some things to say.

So anyway, now we get into the tertiary relationships. These are duos that don't directly interact much in the movie, but will find themselves increasingly in each others' orbits at the post-movie relationships progress.

Abigail and Patrick

Abigail and Patrick have an interesting dynamic because although they don’t interact on screen very much, their positions relative to Ben also put them in relationship with each other, and they have pretty far to go between the events of the film and the months after the treasure is found.

Patrick and Abigail’s meeting is both iconic (in the National Treasure loving world anyway) and pretty hostile.

PATRICK Is she pregnant? BEN Well, if she is, are you gonna leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold? ABIGAIL (to Riley) I look pregnant?

Granted, that hostility is directed toward Ben, and Abigail just happens to be caught in the crossfire.

Patrick’s first assumptions about Abigail are that:

she’s some floozy Ben got involved with (bad)

she’s a fellow treasure hunter (worse)

He might soften towards her a little when he learns that she doesn’t actually want to be here.

PATRICK And he dragged you two into this nonsense? ABIGAIL Literally.

However, it’s like three minutes of screen time later when Abigail makes the decision to actively involve herself in the treasure hunt (which she does by insisting that she be the one to put lemon juice on the Declaration).

Patrick is mostly focused on Ben and the fact that his son has gone from ‘ruined his life treasure hunting’ to Ruined His Life Treasure Hunting™. But Abigail is there and she is involved and he probably doesn’t need any more that that to dislike her.

Abigail, for her part, gets kidnapped, flung from a speeding van, and semi-re-kidnapped before insisting she come along to make sure these clowns don’t destroy a priceless artifact and now the guy who she was kinda flirting with before she knew he was trying to rob her museum’s dad is yelling at her? I mean he’s not yelling. He’s not even talking to her directly, but the disappointment is palpable. She just stepped in the middle of what’s clearly a big family drama and she can’t help but feel she’s on the wrong side of it, no matter where she positions herself.

And obviously Patrick’s comment is weird enough that she makes a point to ask Ben about it later.

So the footing their start out on is not exactly great.

They survive the Trinity stair sequence together, and there’s nothing like shared trauma to bond a squad, but they’re really both bonding with Ben, not each other. As we discussed in the Ben and Patrick and Ben and Abigail articles, these two relationships are the emotional pivots that a lot of the movie hinges on.

As Ben and Abigail get closer, Abigail and Patrick are going to have to get over the hurdle of awkwardness they started out on. Patrick especially has some biases to overcome about Abigail. Of course, all he has to do is talk to her for a few minutes to see that she is basically the opposite of the person he thought she was when she showed up at his door:

not a floozy

not a treasure hunter

not just a fling for Ben

not just enamored with Ben’s Indiana Jones shtick*

(*Patrick would know, he’s was Ben before Ben was)

Actually, pretty must as soon as they start talking Abigail and Patrick realize they have a lot in common. They could debate Revolutionary War history until even Ben gets bored. Abigail and Patrick both have a taste for the detail and nuance in a way that Ben doesn’t. Or, I should say, in a different way than Ben does.

Ben is necessarily obsessive about details relating to the treasure, but I don’t see him being quite as detail-oriented with topics that don’t touch the treasure. Ben is a big picture person. He sees the connections between disparate events and people, the threads that tie it all together. Abigail, and Patrick in his post-treasure hunting years, are more depth people. They can focus in on a very specific topic not because it connects to something else, but simply because it interests them.

Ben, for example, would probably not read a 400 page book about 18th century textiles cover to cover if he didn’t anticipate some kind of connection to the treasure. Abigail absolutely would and has read several 400 page books about 18th century textiles cover to cover long before she knew the treasure existed.

However, the question is, when do Abigail and Patrick have that first conversation?

I imagine it’s not right away. Too much is going on with the treasure and with both of them re/building their relationships with Ben. So that awkwardness between them festers for a little too long. It isn’t until after a few museum exhibit openings and more than a few uncomfortable non-conversations when they actually start talking to each other.

By the time Ben and Abigail start officially dating a few months later though, I imagine Patrick is Team Abigail all the way.

And, though I do love to ignore the existence of Book of Secrets, I do like how much Patrick is still on Team Abigail after the breakup.

BEN Temporary till I find a new place. PATRICK Find the old one. I like her.

He can tell that Ben's being an idiot. Everyone can tell that Ben's being an idiot.

#national treasure #the national treasure gazette #abigail chase #patrick gates #ben gates #national treasure meta

[thefandomenchantress]

My DRDT Character Ranking

I’m not going to explain my reasoning for every character but I do want to explain some of them (I’m so nervous to post this but oh well).

-First things first: I don’t dislike any DRDT character. I think they’re all wonderful. However, for characters like Arturo and especially Mai I’m going to need more backstory to like/understand them. I feel like right now I can’t really like Arturo since we don’t know too much about him besides his whole beauty shtick, which I honestly don’t find all that funny most of the time. I really want to know what the deal with his sister is, though. As for Mai…We don’t know much about her at all, so she’s just kinda meh for me right now. I like her design, though.

-I’d be lying if I said Ace wasn’t on a whole tier of his own. The sheer amount of Ace content on this blog probably proves that. He’s definitely morally questionable, but that makes him so much more interesting to me!! I feel like most of the fanbase either loves or despises Ace, and I’m definitely on the love side. Not because he’s hot (He was my favorite even when he had that Jimmy Neutron hair style), but because I think his mentality and personality have so much depth and are so much fun to analyze and think about.

-I’m one of the people who only started really liking David after Ch. 2 Ep. 11. I thought he was interesting and all that before, I still liked him, but Ep. 11 David is so entertaining and I was cackling at most of his lines (Especially the ‘What else do you want, Teruko, my hand in marriage?’ and ‘Who cares about your stupid fish?’ Lines).

-Whit is probably one of my biggest DRDT kins, since I often deflect with humor and really like puns. Honestly I’m surprised he’s not my favorite character. I really hope he gets an arc about how it’s okay to be sad and stuff. I definitely think Whit’s going to be a survivor, but he may lose Charles along the way.

-J definitely has my favorite design of the cast, so she gets extra points for being very pretty. But I think her backstory is pretty cool, too, and I totally relate to hating dresses. In my opinion, they are pure evil and made only to make you suffer. >:(

-I really like how Eden isn’t portrayed to be naive or anything, she knows the world can be evil, but she chooses to see the good anyway. Pure sunshine characters like Eden usually get on my nerves, but she strikes the balance between optimistic but not ridiculously optimistic just right.

-If Min hadn’t died so early on, I probably would’ve put her even higher, but not seeing her character as much as I’ve seen the others definitely works to her detriment for me. Her bonus episode was super interesting, though, and I think she’s super cool overall. I love her design, too, because I’m a sucker for baggy clothing in character designs.

-I feel like I could grow to like Xander more, since it seems like he had some sort of role in the killing game in his bonus episode, but much like Min, limited screen time brings him down a bit. I think that since mirroring chapter 1 of TTH is such a common thing in fangans, I was sort of expecting him to die right away and therefore didn’t let myself get too attached. It was still a really cool spin on the chapter one THH murder, though.

-I have a love-hate relationship with Teruko. I love her because she really stands out among the hopeful, optimistic protags that we usually get. I hate her because thanks to her not trusting anyone, we can’t get close to other characters and learn more about them like we usually would. One time this really bothered me was when Ace was revealing Nico tried to kill him in the cafeteria, but we didn’t get to see most people’s initial reactions because Teruko left the room. But I still really like her despite all that, and I think her arc is going to be very interesting to watch.

-I really like Nico, they’re just not my favorite. Which is kinda weird since Ace and Nico are so similar, yet they’re at opposite ends of the list. I definitely think I’m going to grow to like Nico more, especially now that they tried to kill Ace. I can’t wait for the new character depth we’ll see from them.

-MonoTV is definitely one of my favorite fangan mascots ever. It’s both funny and has a creative design, and they casted the voice actor for it perfectly.

Aaaaaand that’s it. I really love the whole cast of DRDT so honestly the tier list was sort of hard to make. While my opinions will undoubtedly change in the future, I think this is a pretty accurate ranking for me at this point in time.

#danganronpa despair time #drdt #drdt spoilers #ace markey #david cheim #nico hakobyan #arturo giles #min jeung #eden tobisa #xander matthews #teruko tawaki #whit young #j rosales #monotv #tier list

[theender36]

Recently watched Superman: The Movie (1978) for the first time in well over a decade and it really is a great movie so I got some thoughts that I want to put somewhere before I forget.

The cold open of theater curtains showing a mockup of an old Superman serial featuring Action Comics is a great nod to the character's past. Then the title flying out of the old theater screen is a fantastic visual as well as a good transition to kickstart the credits sequence accompanied by the iconic music

The set design of Krypton is phenomenal; the glowing clothes, the crystalline look, and the streamlined technology feel alien and futuristic in a unique way, although it is a little odd that everything is so white except for Kal-El's baby blanket.

The trial of Zod, Ursa, and Non has the striking combination of visuals that are the trio being held in a spotlight by spinning rings and the stern Kryptonian judges' faces being projected onto the otherwise dark dome surrounding them

Marlon Brando keeps pronouncing it "Kryptin" for some reason. Like when I'm joking about watching "The Batmins"

Genuinely very sad goodbye scene from Kal's parents

Pretty much every wide shot in Kansas is super beautiful

As is the custom, Ma and Pa Kent bring Clark up right. I appreciate the moment where Clark tells Pa about how he gets so mad at bullies that he wants to tear them apart because first off, you can tell from how he says it that he knows it'd be wrong to do that. And second, Pa doesn't yell at him for having those feelings, he tries to help him deal with them.

Clark doesn't just bail on Martha to go find himself, and he makes sure she'll have help on the farm while he's gone

The sequence of the Fortress forming itself has amazing practical effects and editing

Maybe it was because I was watching the Blu Ray version with extra scenes but the abstract montage of crystal Jor-El teaching Clark about the universe and his abilities and giving life lessons ran a little long but it was cool

Clark is very much playing up his meek, clumsy identity but him being Reporter Clark Kent as a person is not totally an act. He makes sure half his paycheck goes to Ma back home because he wants to make sure she's taken care of and he tries to be polite and helpful around the office, which tracks with who he is at his core

I think Lex being a business tycoon/scientist is pretty integral to the character but I don't mind this version's "Napoleon of crime" shtick. I like that Gene Hackman's hair being a wig in-story is hinted at when Otis is poking around the spa and he finds a spare hairpiece

I know everyone knows this already but Christopher Reeves is a perfect casting choice and he does an amazing job at making Clark and Superman superficially different but obviously the same person at heart. Even when he says something a little corny as either one, there's so much sincerity to it

Clark feeling a little guilty about enjoying being a hero is on-brand. I like that Jor-El reflects Johnathan Kent by encouraging him but also giving guidance so he doesn't lose who he is.

The moment of Jor-El saying "I've sent them you. My only son." is veering very close to the common Superman-as-a-Jesus-allegory mistake but it's the only time in the entire movie I remember it doing that, so I can't harp on it too much

Lois is just a force of nature and the only reason Clark can keep up with her as Superman is because she's starstruck

This version of Superman and Lois are down just HORRENDOUS for each other

The flying date scene is great and I think the poorly-aged flying effect is countered by the nighttime background and the chemistry between the characters. That being said, the "can you read my mind" poem is just. What. Why is this

The scene of Lex, Ms. Teschmacher, and Otis attempting to tamper with the nukes and then having to do it again because Otis screwed up is so goofy I forgot they were villains

Great moment when Superman shows he can be intimidating by just staring down Otis.

I like that Superman is saved by Ms Teschmacher because she believes in him which is a surprise to Lex because he only believes in himself

Really great effects in the scenes of the destruction from the San Andreas fault

This shot is underrated

The moments of Superman realizing Lois is dead have so much weight to them and are amazingly shot

I kind of wish they explored the consequences of him "interfering in history" because otherwise it is sort of just a convenient deus ex machina

Everything ends tied up very nicely (except the Zod squad but after two hours, nobody's thinking about that) and sometimes that's all a movie needs

It's astonishing really how much they manage to fit in this movie considering they give a lot of scenes more time than you'd expect

Overall, movie good.

#superman the movie #superman #superman 1978 #movie opinions

[showtoonzfan]

I don’t know if it’s just me, but one thing I found weird about the Loona and Octavia scene is that Loona talks as if Blitz fucked up towards her but she loves him anyway. But, like,,, no, he didn’t do anything wrong, at least not towards Loona, and especially not in this episode. All he did was politely suggest that she maybe be a little nicer to her clients, and threaten to have her replaced after she beats him up for DARING to give her constructive criticism and pulling the whole “If you don’t like it then get rid of me” shtick, which is a pretty common form of guilt tripping. Sure, he’s shown to be overprotective and sickeningly affectionate, which I get can be annoying, but considering where Loona came from, it’s understandable he’d act that way.

Point is, Blitz has been nothing but an angel to Loona, giving her a home, attention, and affection, and the ONE time he critiques her actions, she flips out, beats his ass, and is constantly rude to him throughout the episode, but in the end she’s like “My dad messed up, but I still love and forgive him” as if SHE didn’t do anything wrong. And to add insult to injury, after this so-called revelation, once she and Blitz reunite, she proceeds to shove him and kick him in the balls. What an arc ladies and gentlemen.

Nah because EXACTLY. They have Loona look at her lighter with Blitz’s symbol when she says that Stolas is “trying”, and the scene acts as if Loona is having some kind of epiphany when it comes to her and her father’s relationship, despite Blitz not even being the one in the wrong. The lesson they SHOULD have gave her was “Maybe I should stop physically assaulting this person who took me out of an abusive household and who has been nothing but kind to me for years, maybe I should stop hating him for absolutely NO damn reason”. And yet in the end, neither Loona or the relationship between her and her father change or improve, despite introducing a conflict between them regarding her behavior. If anything it got WORSE, now that we know Loona is physically abusive towards Blitz. But yeah, what an arc. What a well written show! A show that introduces conflicts within characters, doesn’t let the characters take accountability for their actions, and just magically ERASES said conflicts during the next episode. God….Adam Neylan is NOT a good writer as of now, this was his first episode, so all I can say is that I hope he improves because the emotional rifts in this episode was so goddamn awful.

#vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #helluva boss critical #helluva critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #reply #ask #anti loona

[whatudottu]

It's been a bit since I've rambled about xenobiology headcanons, and this time because I've been thinking about Andreas I thought today's edition would be about talpaedans, seeing as how I made a list that I haven't put into a post yet-

Let's go!

Between all members of talpaedan youth and development, there is an innate basic understanding of construction, as comparable to human's ability to recognise patterns and facial language (give or take a few neurodivergencies). And specific construction comprehension is linked to whatever tool talpaedan youth are integrated in, which develops over time based on what materials are consumed (a diet of concrete may make cement mixers, or a diet that requires a lot of digging may develop jackhammers) as well of course the genes of the parent/s.

And on to that 'parent/s' thing, let's bring up haplodiplody again.

On Earth, haplodiplody is the system where one sex is developed from a fertilised egg (which tends to be the females) and thus are diploid with DNA of the mother and father, while the other sex is from an unfertilised egg (males would technically be the result of asexual reproduction) and thus is only haploid with only the mother providing DNA. Talpaedans are not an Earth species, but functionally that is the basis of their sex-determination, where females would be best translated as architects and males best translated as tradies, which in of itself is rather contextually slang in English.

And even with haplodiplody, talpaedans still have a bimodal sex distribution, though tradies are neither part of the equation. Instead, fertilised eggs though typically expected to produce architects also just as often produce workers, non-reproducing talpaedan youths that are born an raised to be the most common labourers of the colony they were born under and never leave the hive, as opposed to architects who work higher profile jobs and are in line to be promoted to site queens, and tradies who pre-war were lower rung workers who took to training younglings for work as well as in general raising them. Being bimodal it's not a perfect list of traits to be considered as either an architect or a worker, though there is a bias towards architects being able to reproduce as that would be the key factor needed in promotion. Tradies that are infertile or more characteristically architects would be considered workers and are more of a consequence of asexual reproduction and the lack of genetic diversity.

Talpaedan gender has been typically correlated with sex throughout most Poiana Lüncas colonies, with the architects being the talpaedan equivalent for women and tradies as the talpaedan equivalent for men, but workers have a more diverse gender identity even in more conservative colonies, either being a third gender or having men and women and in between identities being formally acknowledged as such in worker populations. There might be a few general issues about identity especially among architects and tradies, but colonies are less focused on the individual and most of their aggression is directed to other colonies rather than it's own population.

It is this tension towards other colonies that had eventually and near inevitably sent Poiana Lüncas into many wars, though the most recent one had been the worst and the last in many years, a war that fundamentally changed how intercolonial relationships worked. A very large colony had been expanding it's borders to accrue even more resources for it's ever growing population, in turn threatening the smaller colonies on it's outer borders, elevating tensions to an all time high. The whole shtick lasted for years until a few colonies realised that alone no one could stop this large megacolony from wiping out each of them one by one, but through an alliance they could stand together and beat the ever loving crap out of the aggressor.

And how their alliance worked was through the sharing of resources and ensuring the protection of youths especially, and so began the first war-era runs of arranged 'marriages' as tradies live up to their name in a more eh... dubious sense. By sending in tradies (who's lower rung work was mining for resources and food) from colonies not on the front line, the colonies along the border had assurances that their home had well fed and well protected populations - as well as a general diverting of power - to beat back the aggressor colony and in fact not only raze it to the ground, but dug it completely out and functionally turned it into a mass grave reeking of death; No Queen's Land it would later be named, for no surviving members of the colony were left alive to name it after themselves.

With a combination of a clearly war-created desert and the whole 'ant death smell' thing that exists in ants aka the big inspiration for my talpaedan headcanons, makes No Queen's Land an omen that trade routes never cross, instead creating what would be a ring road surrounding the outer reaches of the ex-colony that would direct trade routes through the border colonies one by one. Direct trade or travel between the colonies on complete opposite sides of the pock marked, crater desert is both impossible and otherwise detested by Queens and the architects responsible for trade routes, instead being a multicolonial multigenerational process that circles the border colonies until reaching the 'opposite side of the world'.

To this day (or at least to the day that exists universally in the moment that Andreas would consider a 'this day') the trade routes affect the lives of tradies post-war. Instead of being completely locked to the hive like workers and architects, tradies at a certain age are sent to travel in as both tradesmen and concubines to whatever colony they have been raised for, a fact that had been determined early on at the development of their tools and the needs of the recipient colony. The host colony would arrange their young to be raised by tradies that once came from their own host colony, determined by their last name of [birth colony-trade colony] (as opposed to architects and workers whose last names are simply [birth colony]) in order to be raised as bilingual to understand the majority language of their trade colony and to be an example of the future youth they would need to raise speaking their birth colony's language.

Andreas was on one such trade route when Aggregor snatched the talpaedan for materials in functionally a fusion experiment, being part of a group about to be married off to a queen, an architect or as a working tradie, technically 'divorcing' the deal when Andreas was stolen away. Considering that Poiana Lüncas isn't the most peaceful environmentally, the trade routes also serve as a double use, a sharing of resources and a preventative measure for overpopulation. I mean, a colony would be pissed if absolutely none of their trade gets to them - probably spark a conflict that may get hairy - but losing numbers is an expected consequence. Andreas doesn't expect anyone to particularly care that they're missing the one or few talpaedans that disappeared in the night, especially with the generally large number a trade route sends, and Aggregor isn't going to take out a whole line of talpaedans just to get to one; a simple 'cutting off from the group' works fine enough.

And one final thing to note, now more focused on Andreas as an individual rather than talpaedans as a species. I've mentioned death smell and thought to bring it up here since, if you've seen my stuff before or straight up follow me (for my rambling or long enough to see my rambling), I love stealing @kariachi's necromancer Argit and the whole idea of him killing, healing, and reviving Andreas in the titular episode Andreas' Fault. I looked up how ant death smell works and apparently it's a constant thing that's only combated by a constant flow of life smell, so with a brief touch of death even if Andreas doesn't REEK of death, a talpaedan would probably suspect Andreas stepped into No Queen's Land and got cursed by something. But for those of y'all buried deep enough in my rambling would be confused; 'if one can smell actual literal death and associate it as actual literal death why doesn't Andreas at least even slightly suspect the idea of being briefly dead when the castle crashed?'

Well babes, you know what's an easy simple solution for this? Andreas is anosmic :D! Of course Andreas would be the last to know, Andreas' would have no frame of reference for what a 'death smell' is. Could even be how Aggregor got Andreas separated, if everyone else can smell death smell they might notice the fact that No Queen's Land reeks of the stuff. Not a great way to find out that one is anosmic admittedly, but I mean if Ra'ad is finding out that among the many neurodivergencies he does have much of his overstimulated suffering is magic and mutation that he thought every other amperi had to deal with because you find out your husband died and now has a magical mind barrier well...

Okay okay, one more final note. Given that Andreas is a tradie, Andreas's full name would be [birth colony]-Andromeda after the name Andreas actually gets married into because Earth and especially English dominated areas of Earth like last names. And I guess if Andreas gets adopted into any Earth-based packs thanks to being attached to Argit like a puppy you can shove in another last name like [birth colony]-[pack]-Andromeda.

This has been in my notes since August woops-

#talpaedan #andreas #andreas ben 10 #ben 10 #xenobiology #world building #this has been a large general and specific headcanons thing that i have been rotating in my mind for forever #even longer than when it was actually documented in at least dot point form #since i am bad at names i didn't come up with any colony names #though i could probably just look at fault lines and the people who study earthquakes maybe #eh if i come up with something i might just go around in a circle going 'who needs a last name and who can make do' for the andromeda 5 #which includes andreas but also might include galapagus because of that one elder i brought up once inspired by diego the species saviour #also i just came up with architect worker and tradies because i didn't like how females drones and males sounded #also i thought that the double entendre for 'tradies' was far too fitting for what i wanted to ignore #like they'd be the closet translation in english for poiana lüncas languages in a general sense #as in the work type influences the origin for the name of the sex which would then influence the name of any sex correlated genders #and in this case- sex AND work related terms like trade routes- lowkey the first thing that comes to mind to andreas when you say sex work

[limeeraser]

I’m a bit embarrassed to go on a rant about dsmp related things but I am oh so passionate about assigning dsmp characters as tma entities.

First of, I feel like I should clarify that there’s a difference between being an avatar of a fear, being aligned with it, and being marked by it. Like for instance Mike Crew was marked by the spiral but is a Vast avatar. Literally Mr. Sims himself is marked by ALL of the fears but you would only consider him an avatar of the eye. In addition, idk if you would consider Martin as a lonely avatar but he’s absolutely aligned with it. That being said here are dsmp characters and what fear entities go with them.

Dream: The Web avatar. I don’t feel like I need to explain that one.

Dream XD: The eye avatar. I don’t know much about the guy but isn’t he literally like god, like in the all seeing eye type way?

Wilbur: Desolation avatar. You can fight me on this and I’ll die on this hill. Wilbur’s whole shtick was that during early lmanburg days he was right at home and he belonged there. But as time went on lmanburg shifted and changed into something he didn’t recognize. He lost his lmanburg. So he didn’t care if everyone else lost their lmanburg too bc to him it was already gone. Also that and the whole explosion shit bc haha desolation avatars and their funny use of fire.

Tommy: Aligned with the Lonely, marked by the web. Mf did not spend months in exile and to DIE by dream just to say he wouldn’t be marked by the web. In addition, there’s a common theme of him being left alone by his friends like again in exile and more recently by Wilbur after he fucking left for Utah. I don’t think he’d be a lonely avatar bc it’s not like he thrives of others loneliness but more so he’s just affected by it.

Tubbo: Extinction avatar. I once again don’t think I need to explain myself just look at that man’s nuclear weapons.

Techno: The Hunt avatar. I am oh so passionate about this one bc he would absolutely NOT be the slaughter. I mean yeah idk you can argue he is but I think the hunt better fits. He doesn’t kill “just because”, he kills for reason. He only goes after people who have wronged him and has no reason to kill anyone that doesn’t deserve it.

Phil: The Vast avatar? Or maybe aligned? Little bird man haha. You can argue the end too but I feel like that’s better reserved for Kristin. Speaking of-

Kristin: The End avatar. I don’t know much about her but literally everything I’ve seen depicts her as kinda like the angel of death or a grim reaper.

Ranboo: Marked by the Spiral/web. Honestly you can argue either fear or both with this guy. I think the web fits in the sense of his fear of being controlled and the spiral with not trusting your own head. Little man is definitely not an avatar but he’s absolutely marked by it.

Quackity: The Flesh aligned. I know this doesn’t really make sense at first but lemme explain. He made an army called the Butcher Army, he ATE Schlatt’s heart, and he oh idk ATE SCHLATTS HEART???? He also tortured Dream in prison too but like, I’m sure you can argue the slaughter for him but I don’t think what he’s doing is senseless killing nor do I think it’s anything strong enough to be considered avatar material. I like to think of him as flesh aligned in the same way Martin is Lonely aligned.

Slimecicle: Flesh avatar so self explanatory. He’s just a pile of goop. Little shlimmy. Shlopping goopy gump

Bbh: Corruption avatar. The egg. I’m so right and it’s so self explanatory.

I’m tired but this is all I’m gonna write. Goodnight limeeraser nation

#dsmp #tma #the magnus archives #dream #Ranboo #Wilbur soot #tommyinnit #quackity #philza #badboyhalo #slimecicle #Tubbo #tubbo underscore #dreamxd #technoblade #rest in piece techno