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bonefall · 5 months

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whats your take on the “palebird not caring about talltail leaving” scene? i always thought it was WEIRD, like yes she was a little distant because she was blatantly depressed, but not to the point where she would straight up not care about her first son leaving potentially forever?? it feels like one of those scenes the writers put in to make the The Woman look bad so the Bad Dad isnt aaaasssss bad.

I feel like many of my problems with it come from the end of TR being a mess. It sets up a ton of plot threads and either goes somewhere strange with them or drops them completely.

Palebird's is one of the ones that just gets dropped.

On one hand, I'm glad that Palebird isn't demonized, but they don't seem to know what to do with her. She's cold towards Tallkit and increasingly short and snippy as he gets older, reacts in a way that's pointed out as aloof and uncaring when he leaves and when he comes back, and Talltail takes it like betrayal when she moves on with a new mate... and then they just don't really have a thesis for that.

In the end, Talltail never stops and teases out his feelings on her, they never show a conversation where some characters talk about why she acts that way, Tallkit's upbringing isn't contrasted with his halfsib's upbringings... their last talk is actually about Shrewclaw and the kits his wife's going to give birth to. Talltail's BULLY.

This book that shows an abusive father and a nasty little jackass redeems both of these boys, making a sharp 180 to say they Weren't So Bad, but has barely any interest in Palebird. When she gives Tallstar one of his 9 lives, it's laughably short;

That's it. That's the resolution. She doesn't even act happy to see him return, they have a conversation about Talltail's bully, and then after she's dead he's like, "I'll never doubt she loves me ever again."

Like, ok? All right?? Did we just miss the falling action or did Ms. Hunter not feel like it that day?

In general I have so many feelings about Tallstar's Revenge... I can't say I HATE it because it is fun to read, and I like a lot of the things it lays down, but I can't LOVE it for how every step forward it feel like 2 steps back. And the differences in the narrative's sympathy towards Sandgorse (emotionally abusive and committing child endangerment because his son is disappointing him) vs his wife Palebird (completely unsupported while displaying a near textbook case of PPD) are like a tiny little microcosm of the problems in WC.

Sandgorse gets a whole journey dedicated towards finding out he was actually a hero who gave his life saving Sparrow, abuse forgotten, but Palebird... exists, and Talltail's mad she had new kids until he's suddenly not.

So in a nutshell, my take is that this soup is bland and watery. Look at all these complicated potential feelings they just cast out the window so they can talk about Shrewclaw the Bully and his Very Sad Death.

There's much better individual examples of how the narrative tends to treat their male and female characters (which is why I compare Sparkpelt and Crookedstar more than I compare Crookedstar and Palebird), but Palebird's a good place to talk about the pervasive disinterest that WC has in its girls. And how much of a waste it is.

#Tallstar's Revenge is one of those books that I WANT to like. There's so many things in it that are appealing to me #but they can't bring them together #It's like an itch you can't reach. Scratching it would be so satisfying... but you can't. You can't get it.#In the Wise Words of one of my favorite critics; The discussion of misogyny and bad writing are not NOT related #It's not a CAUSE of the bad writing but it's like this terrible symptom. Because a lot of bad writing comes from thoughtlessness #And when you're thoughtless to interesting potential conflicts or don't really have a conclusion in mind (or at LEAST a vague roadmap)#then you end up just. missing things like this #warrior cats analysis

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astrobei · 1 year

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prompt from @strangeswift: "literally anything madwheeler. them bonding, them in the future being besties, them arguing... whatever you want. just them."

It might only be her first week of high school, but Max is already so over it.

It meaning everything. The cramped desks, the giant textbooks, the smell of the locker rooms after third period gym. The way that there had been some plausible deniability, in middle school, about the inherent repulsiveness of teenage boys– and now any minute trace of that is gone, because holy fucking shit, it’s like all of a sudden, deodorant has just totally ceased to exist.

Which isn’t great for someone like Max, by the way, who stands a glorious five-foot-three– also known as the perfect armpit height for the average pubescent boy.

Yeah. She’s so over it.

If walking the hallways hadn’t been abhorrent enough because of this and this alone– which it is, mind you, it’s plenty bad enough– there’s everything else. Everything else meaning the looks. The stares and the glances and the whispers following her as she walks from first period English to second period Geometry, trying her hardest to not get violently lost in the hallways like a total freshman. It’s embarrassing enough being a freshman, right, because you don’t know where your classes are and you have to run to the cafeteria to get a good seat and you’re not completely jaded yet, so people can one hundred percent tell that you’re new.

Max is used to being the new girl. She’s used to holding her head high and marching down the hall like she knows the school like the back of her hand, when in reality, she’d never stepped foot in it before that morning. So the being a freshman thing is a certain kind of clumsy spotlight that she doesn’t mind.

What she does mind, however, is the dead brother thing.

Stepbrother, technically. As if that makes it any better, the way that her mom won’t look at her and suddenly there’s beer in the fridge where her mom never used to keep any before. If that makes the pitying glances and whispers as she passes by any better. As if that takes away from any of it.

She knows what the girls, especially, are thinking. So few casualties at Starcourt, and Billy Hargrove– the cool new boy from California, the one with the cool car and the charm and the hair and the lifeguard job at the pool– Billy Hargrove had to be the one to die.

Max supposes she can’t really blame them either. It’s easy to get caught up in someone from afar. Easy enough to get too caught up on the ridiculous amounts of body oil and the gross open front shirts and the hair they spend hours on every day to really see the small stuff.

Like how they’re an asshole, maybe. An asshole who caked the whole house up with the stench of cigarette smoke and stale beers and sweat. An asshole who liked to push people down to lift himself up. An asshole who bullied little kids just to make himself big again, who–

The girls didn’t see any of that, of course. Max is happy for them, despite the glares and the whispers and the pity. No one deserves to see that. Let them remember Billy as a hero. The king of Hawkins High.

Don't speak ill of the dead, et cetera. It's fine. This is a secret she can shoulder on her own.

Max swings the locker door open, shoving her Geometry textbook into her bag with a soft grunt. Another reason to hate high school– or maybe love it– is that she’s going to get so scary jacked by the end of the year.

“You’re not going to tryouts today?”

The voice behind her makes her jump, even though the hallway is just as crowded and cacophonous as it always is. Mike Wheeler is looming over her, one hand clutching tight at the strap of his backpack, looking, for all intents and purposes, like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

Max frowns. “Tryouts?”

“Lucas has tryouts today,” Mike explains, slow and condescending like he’s trying to explain long division to a toddler. “Remember?”

“Of course I remember,” Max says immediately, which definitely makes her sound guilty of not remembering. But she had remembered. Of course she had remembered. It was all Lucas talked about for the last month. Basketball tryouts for the high school team. He’d said high school team like it was the big leagues that were personally recruiting him, as if he weren’t going out for JV.

“Right,” Mike says. Predictably, he doesn’t sound like he believes her. “You’re really not going?”

Max bristles. “What’s it to you?”

“Because Lucas is my friend,” Mike huffs, “and I’ve had to listen to him mope all week about you being too busy to see him at tryouts.”

“Yeah, so?” Max leans down to zip her backpack closed, the zipper catching momentarily on a stray notebook corner. She heaves it onto her shoulder and tries to pretend like it’s not as heavy as it is. Jesus H. Christ. “I can’t help being busy, Wheeler.”

“You’re not busy.”

“Yeah? How would you know?”

“Because you don’t do anything,” Mike scowls, falling into easy step beside her as she speeds down the hallway to class. The bell is going to ring any moment and– damn it.

She’s definitely lost.

Whatever, it’s fine. Geometry is, uh. It’s here somewhere. She just has to get Wheeler off her trail and then she’ll be free to be lost and confused in peace. Do not engage, she thinks. He’ll never shut up if you engage.

“You– I do things,” Max protests, despite herself. “I– I have homework.”

“Bullshit,” Mike scowls some more. He’s been scowling a lot lately, ever since summer ended. It doesn’t take an idiot to figure out why. El isn’t talking to him and the For Sale sign in front of the Byers’ just got taken down and replaced with an obnoxiously happy Sold! sign, and now Mike Wheeler’s got a dark little cloud of rain and gloom following him around like a lost little puppy. “It’s the first week of ninth grade. We have no homework.”

Max grits her teeth. “What do you want me to say? You want me to get down on my knees and grovel for forgiveness? I’m allowed to be busy, okay, Mike, I don’t owe Lucas anything, we’re not dating anymore–”

“Yeah but you’re still his friend!” Mike exclaims, throwing his hands up and nearly smacking someone walking towards them in the face. The boy scowls. Mike ignores him.

Max looks away. Was it a right down this hallway or a left? Whatever. She goes right.

“Whatever,” she says. “Of course we’re friends.”

“Friends show up.” Mike jabs her in the shoulder with one finger, and she bats his hand away. “Friends show up. You know he’ll be so sad if you don’t–”

“Yeah?” Max spins around to face him, and jabs him in the chest with one finger, just for good measure. Mike makes an offended noise and rubs at the spot with his other hand. Not so nice, is it? “Yeah? Well if friends show up, when was the last time you went to Will’s?”

Mike blanches. “That’s– different,” he gets out. Max feels a guilty rush of satisfaction at his expression, at striking a nerve. Not so nice, is it?

“Friends show up,” she parrots gleefully. “But I know you’ve been avoiding him, so why can’t I avoid–”

“Me and Will aren’t you and Lucas,” Mike splutters, face going from a ghostly sort of white to a splotchy red all in the span of one and a half seconds. “Me and Will aren’t–”

Max waits, raising an eyebrow. “You and Will aren’t what?”

Mike ignores her. “Don’t turn this around on me,” he says. “This isn’t about me.”

“Feels an awful lot like the pot calling the kettle black, Wheeler,” Max says anyway. “What is this? Some sort of intervention? Did Lucas put you up to this?”

“No way. He doesn’t know.”

Max lets out a sigh, not bothering to hide her frustration. “Then why do you care? Why can’t you just screw off?”

“Because Lucas is my friend,” Mike presses. The scowl on his face has given way to a stubborn, almost-pleading look. “And you know how much this means to him, and–”

“Well, tough shit, okay?” Max snaps, and Mike’s mouth falls blessedly shut. “I can’t do this right now. I have to go to class and– you can stop following me now, by the way. I don’t need another stalker.”

Mike’s upper lip twitches. “We have second period Geometry together, asshole,” he says, yet somehow not unkindly. “I literally sit next to you.”

Oh. Maybe he does. Max feels a little bad for not noticing, but she hasn’t been noticing a lot of things lately. She’s spent most of the first week focused on drawing as little attention to herself as possible. Getting in and out of class as soon as she can. Running home before anyone can corner her and– God forbid– rope her into hanging out or whatever.

And see, that’s the thing, is that a different version of herself– months ago, when things were good and simple and fun and wonderfully uncomplicated– would have gone. Of course she would have gone. She can’t remember the last time she had friends like this. Definitely not back in California, definitely not right before the move. The summer had been some of the best weeks of her life. Before the– you know, before the shit had totally hit the fan and Billy died and Hop died and El was moving away and she and Lucas broke up. Again.

They’d broken up before too, and they’d always gotten back together, but it seemed like a finality this time. It wasn’t the sort of thing he could make up to her with jewelry and teddy bears and chocolate from Melvald’s with the price sticker scratched off (and Mrs. Byers’ employee discount no doubt utilized).

It was different this time because he didn’t need to make things up to her. Because it wasn’t his fault, and she wasn’t dumping his ass because he’d been immature and loud and thoughtless in typical thirteen-year-old fashion.

He’d been the opposite, actually.

She turns away from Mike before he can see her face.

Lucas had been so composed about it, so mature. He hadn’t rolled his eyes or scoffed or been frustrated when she’d said it. He’d been– quiet. Sad. Accepting. If that’s what you want, he’d said, and she’d nodded quietly before stepping off the bleachers and walking away.

It was what she wanted, because it was easier this way, but something still made her frustrated and keyed up at the way he’d said it. Quiet and sad and without a fuss.

More than anything, Max wants it to be April again, when things were simple. When he’d win her back and deep down she’d be secretly pleased that he hadn’t gotten tired of this inane push and pull. That he wanted her enough to spend his allowance on that teddy bear or those roses. She’d never really been mad at him. That’s just who she was– someone who pushed and pulled on the slightest of whims. Someone who dragged everyone else along with her, just because she could.

“Max?” Mike prompts. “The bell’s going to ring, and we’re in the wrong wing, so–”

The scowl has disappeared from his face a bit. He looks strangely contemplative.

Not angry. Not pitying. Just– looking.

Max takes in a deep breath and crosses her arms. “And you didn’t tell me this before?”

“You were all– all angry and stomping around and– it didn’t seem like the time!”

“Like you’ve ever cared,” she huffs, then spins on her heel and sets off in the opposite direction.

“No, Max– go left.”

“Oh. I knew that.”

She didn’t know that of course, but it’s not like she’s going to say this out loud. Mike catches up to her in three long strides, his bag bouncing obnoxiously against his back. “So?” he prompts, and Max wants to slam her head into the wall and yell. “Are you going?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re insanely persistent? Like annoyingly so?”

Mike grins. “I consider it one of my better qualities.”

“You remind me of poison ivy,” Max grumbles, as they turn the corner into the east wing. The bell rings sharply, the sound shrill and tinny through the hall, and she startles. “Oh shit–”

“So you’ll come, right?” Apparently Mike Wheeler doesn’t care about racking up tardies in his first week here. It’s not like Max does either, but she does like to hold the moral high ground.

She shakes her head, almost smiling despite herself. “Why do you want me to so bad?”

“It’s important to Lucas,” Mike insists, “and he’ll want you there. I don’t know how many more times I can say the same damn thing.”

“I don’t think Lucas wants to see me, Mike. I broke up with him, remember?”

At this, Mike stops abruptly, right in the middle of the hallway. Max collides roughly with his shoulder with a shocked gasp.

“Hey! What’s your deal?”

Mike grabs her shoulders, frustrated. “It’s because we– I’ll kill you if you repeat this to anyone, Max, I swear– but we miss you, okay? All of us. We miss you. It’s not that complicated, seriously.”

We miss you.

If she’s being honest, Max hadn’t been aware that there was anything to miss. She visited El, sometimes, after school when the trailer park got dark and lonely and way too quiet. It wasn’t the same as before, though. Things were heavier, sadder. Too many things unspoken, hanging in the air.

El lived with the Byers now, and sometimes Will would be there too. There was something heavier and sadder about him too, but Max couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. But surely there was nothing to miss in her absence. The four of them did just fine before she came along– Lucas and Dustin and Mike and–

She glances down at his hands on her shoulders, and gets a brief flash of phantom pain– hands gripping her wrists, too tight, angry. Being pushed against walls, wrestled and manhandled and shoved into the car. Road rage.

So much anger. God, there was so much anger.

She was tired of the anger, but now she doesn’t know what to do without it. Maybe that means there’s something wrong with her. Normal people don’t think like this.

She pulls away sharply. “Don’t touch me.”

Worry flashes across Mike’s face, a split second and then it’s gone. His hands fall limply to his sides. “I– sorry.”

Max feels bad. Really, she does. She wants to go. Really, she does. She wants to laugh and tease Lucas as he misses free throw after free throw, and then congratulate him when he inevitably makes the team anyway, because of course he will. He's a shoo-in, and she wants to run down to the gym after school and shake the nerves out of him and tell him that. She wants to go.

She wants–

Mostly, though, she just wants to be left the hell alone.

“I’m sorry,” she says, and Mike’s face falls, ever-so-slightly. The guilt swells up inside her and she looks down at her shoes. They’re getting even more late with every second she waits here, unmoving, and yet– “I really can’t.”

Mike doesn’t say anything for a moment. Then he sighs, and reaches for the handle of the door to the classroom, pausing for a moment before opening it. “Next time?”

It’s weirdly hopeful. Max swallows the guilt back down. “Next time,” she lies, and follows him inside.

#i can't believe i've never written madwheeler before #this got sadder than anticipated #sorry abby #i hope this still scratches that itch #i have a max character study brewing in my mind so this is like. dipping my toes #testing the waters #god i love them #two sides of the same coin for real #fun sized fics #madwheeler #mike wheeler #max mayfield #ficlet #alexa play midnight rain #fic

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evakant · 2 years

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i know wei wuxian is first pick as god/personification of death etc. etc. (duh, perfect choice, so sexy) but i would like to propose jiang cheng for the part. in the same way elizabeth swann is death from that one post about her kisses damning the men she loves

in the way everything he touches and everything he loves seems to be doomed (sect, parents, sister, brother)

wei wuxian as life!!! as god of life!!! coming back, unkillable. life giving (core transfer, wen ning, etc.)*

jin ling doesn't die because at the end of the story, at the guanyin temple, wei wuxian is there too. to protect him the same way he protected jiang cheng

and this is why he (wei wuxian) has to go back to being yunmeng jiang's head disciple, in this essay i will—

*i'm not saying he lives well, but he lives! he fucking claws and crawls and fights his way out of the burial mounds, he just doesn't fucking quit** you know what i mean

**until he does, but that's a choice he makes.

#now i know the problem here is that wei wuxian loves and wants to protect the same things that jiang cheng does #and so why aren't /they/ safe? and i'm here to say: idk #this is not a complete theory. this is nothing at all actually #maybe because he's young and scared and sad and traumatized #or maybe it's because he thinks he doesn't deserve the love of these people idk #take jiang yanli's death for example. idk idk like i said i'm.. i'm just shooting shit out of my mouth #even that aside it doesn't work ALSO because jiang cheng saves and raises his dead sect back from its ashes. he Very Much(tm) does that.#edit: adding this in bc i had this in my drafts for literally two weeks now i wrote it in a rush after going to bed #i was half asleep already when the thought came to me so i just typed this out in a rush before going back to sleep and like idk what #to add to it. idk how to polish it. it's nothing!! but i can't delete it. i tried i just can't it's like an itch i can't scratch #i have to set it out into the world. don't @ me i know i've made better posts #untamed.txt #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #yunmeng shuangjie #fra.txt

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ninjagirlstar5 · 6 days

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I was in the mood to draw Minako Tomori, and so I did. I put her in this melancholic pose while dressed in casual clothes, like she's hanging out in public, but she started getting distracted by past regrets...

Her casual clothes are based off of this sprite edit I made of her for my fanfic:

There's no tattoo-covering-a-scar on her shoulder in this sprite cause I literally just came up with that headcanon yesterday and this sprite edit is almost a year old (I just never posted it until now). Not that you would've seen it that well from this angle anyways.

Her tattoo is based off of the flower, Sakurasou or the Japanese Primrose, btw. Kinda proud on how it turned out, ngl, as I'm not really that good in designing tattoos for characters. ^^;

Anyways, I made an off-the-cuff Minako Tomori analysis under the read more, oops:

I've been seeing a lot of Tomori family talk lately and that made me start thinking of Minako again as she's, well, kindof my favorite out of the 6.5 crew next to Dr. Ando (which led to me making this drawing of her). Now, I'm not defending her in how she raised Kizuna or her horrible attitude or anything like that. She's pretty horrible in DRA 6.5 and she gets called out on multiple times by Ryutaro and even Dr. Ando, and rightfully so. But man, from what I can understand in DRA 6.5, she's clearly a goddamn mess. From all the smoking she does to (badly) cope with the stress of dealing with her failure of a marriage to a shitty husband who is also a shitty dad, to constantly cheating on him cause she'd rather be anywhere but with him and can't divorce him due to collateral so she's just legally stuck with him so she goes off to find other men (usually younger but at least they're of age) to ignore her problems at home, puts importance on money because she's the only one trying make sure they have a fuckin' roof over their heads cause her husband is too busy gambling and drinking all their money away, and probably put importance on her appearance more than anything else cause it's one of the few things she can control about herself and feel confident in (and even then, she can't stop the passage of time that is old age). And all of this, plus how she interacts with Ryutaro in her Talk sections (a.k.a. her FTEs) by constantly calling him brat and trying to get him to go away, and no wonder Kizuna turned out the way she did. She had a dad that was never there for her or his wife, refusing to take responsibility for anything and just focuses on himself, and her mom is dealing with SO many things that she's constantly stressed about money and her appearance to the point that she's unable to be emotionally supportive to her daughter in any healthy manner that her flaws, her own attitude about men, and her beliefs in money and appearance is all that matters just ended up trickling down to her daughter and influencing her in a way that it turned her into the messed up girl she is in the short time we got to know her in DRA. Like, holy shit, Minako. You're an asshole of a parent, but when you really think about it, the poor woman got the short end of the stick in life and that really affected how she acted in raising her daughter. Again, not defending her as she's still a bad influence but it's hard not to pity her when she's left to do all the work herself, from parenting, to working, to just trying to take care of herself (by coping in very bad ways)...It's not an enviable position, that's for sure. But honestly, that's what makes Minako so interesting to me. She's not a good person, far from it, nor is she the "better" parent in this scenario. But she still cared enough about Kizuna to follow a suspicious note and getting kidnapped in the process, even when it had the underlying motivation of deciding that she had enough of her shitty husband and took the opportunity to run away from him. And whenever the other characters, particularly Dr. Ando, call her out on her nonsense, I think she gets struck silent in response. Like their words are genuinely getting to her and making her question the way she acts.

And you know what fucks me up the most?

The implication that, between finding out what happened to Kizuna and the rest of the class in DRA post 6.5 upon getting rescued and before the events of SDRA2, she actually changed and improved as a person. Minako, while she is gossiping in the epilogue, is a lot more nicer and friendlier here, is giving us a rundown of what happened after the Utsuroshima Killing Game and the rumors surrounding it to Midori, and making light-hearted jokes in an attempt to cheer Midori up by making fun of herself. And when Midori starts to cry over Teruya's death, Minako's sprite goes sympathetic and concerned and it fades to black for awhile and we come back to Midori reassuring Minako that she's feeling better now with the implication that Minako was trying to comfort her through her mourning. And then she gives out some pretty sound advice, even when dropping this bit in the process:

(The translation is an unofficial version and this bit of dialogue appears at the 3:55 mark.)

"...Go ahead and cry your heart out. You're still young, so you don't have to pretend you're strong."

"With age, the tears won't come even if you want to cry, so when you feel the need to cry, cry."

Which, OW to that last one.

Like, imagine going through so much shit through your life as an adult that you can't even bring yourself to cry about it. You just go, "Yep, this might as well happen," with all the apathy and frustration you can muster in your body.

And when Midori goes to leave to talk to the criminals, Minako has the sense to go "That's a bad and dangerous idea, Midori, don't go alone!" and points out that she JUST got out of the hospital and hasn't fully recovered yet. She even tries to convince her to stay by asking her to continue talking with her cause she's bored. (And, well, I can believe that, even when she's speaking some common sense.) But it clearly rubbed Midori the wrong way as she seems to want to be useful in any way she can, regardless of whether or not her life gets put in danger, so she goes anyway. Aaand Minako complains about Midori's parents not teaching her to treat her adults with "respect," and has brought up "worrying over Keisuke getting a scratch on his pretty face" earlier in conversation, which shows that she's still a flawed person. But I consider that good writing as just because she's a better person now, that doesn't mean her flaws are just going to go away or disappear suddenly. Taking away a character's flaws in order to make them a "good" person will only make them bland, boring, and flat as a paper. Flaws are meant to help characters be more nuanced in personality, and Minako still being abrasive is good as it's a flaw that is a part of her to be aware of and keeps her character recognizable despite the implication that she's trying to do better now. And when Midori gets kidnapped, she immediately runs over to Ryutaro and Keisuke to tell them what happened, calling Ryutaro "kid" in the process, and showing fear for Midori's safety. I don't know if the translation between Kid and Brat is any different, but it's a step up from brat, at least. (And honestly, I can see Minako using "kid" and "brat" as a more affectionate nickname to Ryutaro over time since she comes off as the type to show affection through teasing.) And to top it all off, the cigarettes from her DRA sprites have been replaced with lollipops in her SDRA2 sprites, and candy is a common way of trying to combat addiction to nicotine.

In other words, the way Minako acts in SDRA2 shows that she's trying to be a better person, even if that development happened between games. (And frankly, we shouldn't just stop everything in the epilogue just to have a flashback of "here's why so-and-so acts like this now!" Like, that would just kill the pacing of the epilogue and defeats the whole purpose of a time-skip between games.) It's just a shame that Kizuna's death was the wake-up call that put her on that track to growth in the first place (alongside the call-outs). It's through the death of her own daughter and what led up to it and why she acted the way she did in that moment that made her stop, take in the call outs she's been dealt with throughout the 6.5 chapter, and go, "Oh. I've been a shitty mom and that played a part in how Kizuna acted and led to her death." Cause think about it: if Kizuna was never concerned about her appearance, if she never had this belief that she had to extort others in order to benefit herself, whether it's men for money, affection, popularity, attention or anyone else for anything else, DRA's Chapter 2 probably wouldn't have happened the way that it did. It may not have prevented Kizuna from dying at some point during the killing game, but her behavior was something that she learned and inherited from Minako. And that realization had to sting for her as she not only lost her daughter but had to come to terms with the revelation that it was indirectly her fault for influencing Kizuna in a way that made her a terrible person that decided her only option to survive was to try and kill (which backfired on her hard). But unlike some people, who would double-down on their behavior or just grow worse through their grief, Minako seemed to have reflected on everything up to that point and decided to grow as a person instead. But even though Minako is trying to be a better person now, she can never make it up to her own daughter that she messed up the most. Because that chance is forever lost thanks to death itself.

Reflection is important, because if you don't do that much, you'll never realize what you've done wrong until it's too late and the chance to make it up to your loved one is forever stripped from you.

...At least, that's how I've interpreted Minako Tomori.

#DRA #SDRA2 #Minako Tomori #Danganronpa Another #Super Danganronpa Another 2 #DRA Spoilers #SDRA2 Spoilers #Star's Art #My Art #Fanart #sprite edit #I hope this comes across as me rambling about Minako being a complicated and flawed character #rather than “justifying her actions” or anything like that #Like no #DRA Minako is *awful*#like congratulations you've passed down your issues onto your daughter #but there's something about SDRA2 Minako being kinder than her DRA self that just...scratches that itch in my brain you know?#like how she acts now VS then is basically almost night and day #while still making her character recognizable in a way that doesn't alienate her from returning players #and I *really* like that #there's just something about terrible older adults going:#“You know what? I don't want to be like this anymore.”#and choosing to change for the better even if they can't make it up to those they've wronged #And I like that it's *Minako* that shows this capacity to change and grow as a person #even if it's implied and requires reading between the lines in her appearance in the SDRA2 epilogue

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thepoisonroom · 20 days

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honestly not to be a hater but i can't stop watching this one thrift stylist youtuber with the WORST taste truly NEVER a good pick from this gal but her certainty in her own vision entrances me

#like why are you bringing back 2000s business casual #truly her unerring instinct for picking out the ugliest shit i've ever seen at goodwill like. i can't stop watching i'm just so intrigued #like what will she do next!!!!!!#i understand that her style is not for me and that's fine because it's for her! but it does scratch a small hater itch for me #personal nonsense

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honestlyvan · 15 days

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wym ovan is a cheater?

I mean it's not explicitly in the text but listen. Come the fuck on now. Do you really think Mr Interpol-affiliated grey hat, climbs-firewalls-for-fun-and-sport, intended-play-area-is-merely-a-suggestion has ever played a single game in anything approaching a "normal" way? CC Corp were having psychological breakdowns about Ovan's presence on the service even before he became a walking system integrity error and spent, what, several years giving CC Corp the runaround on their own platform.

Ovan is just so damn wilful and composed and perpetually invested in outwitting his circumstances that he'd get bored with a game that just tells him what to do, and doesn't really offer him options to figure out what he wants to do for himself. He is patient with things exactly to the point where his influence over them begins -- and if he can give things a shove to get them cascading, he absolutely will. The game he'd be playing in The World is the meta-game speedrunners play, where it's not a matter of what you can do in-game, it's a matter of what the game technically can't stop you from doing.

I think if Ovan did start playing The World for fun rather than simply using it as an entry point into investigating CC Corp's systems, he spent his early levels trying to sequence break every single quest and then very quickly jumped to glitchhunting and rumorchasing and escalating amounts of fucking around in the black box parts of the system. He already had access to the Creator Room by the time Aina started playing, and once she got deep into the lore of the game, it would have been pretty trivial to put his PC at the level cap with maxed out equipment so that she never had to stop to grind and could keep getting deeper into the game at her own pace.

#van's answers #dothack #Ovan #.hack//G.U.#help me I'm new what tags do people use for this fandom again?#Anyway. Like I said -- this is not in the text.#I'm just hard-reading Ovan as a nerd's nerd who looooves a good opportunity to rules-lawyer an opponent that can't get mad at him for it.#Aura probably thinks it's extremely funny like oh! it's you again! :D any time Ovan shows up as the first person at yet another Lost Ground #I think if the games took place contemporaneously one of Ovan's multiple little side-hobbies is a glitchhunting YT channel #he doesn't upload often but when he does it's almost always extremely impressive. The holy grail of arbitrary code execution exploits #It scratches that phlegmatic productivity itch he gets

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sciderman · 8 months

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we need to see more non dp spidey pairings

just read the comics man! they're everywhere!

(also, please, be the change you want to see in the world, anon.)

#sci speaks #i feel great that i could introduce a lot of people to a lot of more niche ships #but also i'm just one guy and i can't feed everyone. and sometimes i like to be fed too. please. sometimes.#also i happen to really like spideypool a lot. in case you didn't notice.#sometimes it bugs my head when people say that compared to other ships spideypool is somehow inferior #like i get why people say it. i completely understand why people say it. it doesn't have the same groundwork as other ships do #but that's kind of why i liked it so much and why i have such a good time with it. all the hard work that goes into it.#spideypool will always be the One That Takes Most Brain Space for me. just because it keeps my brain working. i have to put the thought in.#scratches my brain itch like no other.#i love all of peter's other relationships i really really do. like i adore them. every single one is so good and delicious.#and i want to introduce everyone to all those relationships because they're Important. and they're entertaining and so good.#but also my heart belongs to spideypool... i'll always come back to her.#deadpool and spider-man are both my muses and i couldn't leave either one of them. so i must smoosh them together.

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ellalalala · 1 month

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I ran out of my allergy meds about 3 days ago and decided not to buy them right away because "maybe my allergies won't be so bad anyway!" well. I'm dealing with withdrawals now

#i am so dependent on my meds it's not even funny #one of my withdrawal symptoms (associated with the pills i take) is intense itchiness #well. intense is putting it lightly. i once scratched myself to blood #i couldn't even sit still because of how much my entire body itched #on top of that if i don't take my pills for a few days i feel tired. mind you i'm already a very low energy person #i miss being normal #i hate #i'd honestly pay dottore to turn me into a machine at this point like i can't do this for the rest of my life

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yoiku · 4 months

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I am getting so tired of having to check everything new for AI shit. Sometimes its hard to notice or find out (if it's not just art) and so often I dont even think to check. A new game comes out and seems fun, you buy it and learn a few days later that the main dev/devs are apparently advocates for using AI for just about anything. I'm tired. I don't want to have to go through this shit so often.

#shut up yoi #this is about Palworld specifically #grabbed it since a friend i rarely get to play with these days got super into it and I wanted to spend time with them #the hype from so many streamers i follow also made it feel like yeah this seems fun!#i enjoy a generic survial game well enough and despite it being absolutely wack and weird it scratched the itch #then the next day i come across translated tweets of the main dev/producer being all about AI shit #i clocked in too many hours to get a steam refund at this point and now i feel bad for not checking for that bullshit beforehand #it's a fun enough experience that i enjoyed the game so far but now i feel bad for even owning it #fuck me why can't we have nice things #I don't want to have to go on an internet detective adventure every time a new thing i want to buy to see if the creators have morals or no

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dorothygale · 4 months

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@taylorswift if you let me listen to the album early i promise not to tell anyone about it xoxo

#i'm having that thing where it's like nothing will scratch the itch properly #no album is exactly what i want to listen to except THAT ONE #which i can't hear for TWO MONTHS #blabs #*taylor

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vaguely-concerned · 10 months

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the absolute insane research rabbit hole I am currently going down to try to determine the one (1) specific version of the robin hood stories I listened to on cassette tape audiobook in like 2001 and that permanently affected my brain chemistry. I am going nuts. and yet I must know. if anyone by chance should happen to know what version it could have been, considering that it was likely produced in the 90s or a bit before (from memory of the state of the cassette packaging, it was quite worn) and available (in norwegian but in translation) from a small library in somewhat rural norway... please tell me and free me from this self-inflicted torment lol

some more vaguely remembered context that might help pinpoint it:

robin dies at the end, and I think he's already been parted from marian for some time before that (I don't remember if it's because she's dead or just For Reasons, but the growing melancholy of the last few chapters even before he dies were probably what made this version imprint itself on my brain). he's at a convent after falling sick and the abbess or something is an old enemy of his (and maybe his cousin??) and goes whole hog on the bleeding cure to make sure he doesn't get up again. little john (and maybe will scarlet?? some merry man at least) are there with him as he dies and little john cries while robin comforts him. this scene did permanent things to my psyche I suspect. peak 'THIS WASN'T IN THE DISNEY FILM WITH THE FUNNY ANIMALS!!'-betrayal and outrage mixed with 'but also this is so sad it's somehow beautiful...' formative childhood experience.

if I remember correctly there's a bit more of the rest of the merry men than you get in most adaptations. robin and little john had some powerful homoerotic Somethings going on to my baby queer mind but that's just what the robin hood mythos is so idk what that adds to it in terms of helping with the search

I think it must have stuck fairly close to the original ballads that we have, at least comparatively (I've had a looksie and it was definitely not howard pyle's version. I think it had a bit more somber/serious tone especially towards the end, and less of the faux-old fashioned language)

I remember finding it very funny that robin's way of making friends was just finding people who proved they could easily beat him up or were better at stuff than he was and going 'you rule do you wanna join my cool club? :D' and them all being like 'you're an annoying little twerp but also ...yeah <3'. he may also have met marian like that in this or I may be mixing it up with a different version.

from this and some other odds and ends through my downward spiral of obsession I have a tentative theory it may have been either rosemary suthcliff or antonia fraser's versions (both from the 1950s)? but especially with the layer of translation getting inbetween it's so hard to tell haha

I understand if all anyone has to offer when faced with this always sunny conspiracy board of leads is sympathy and/or rightful mockery, but all ideas are welcomed with open arms

#robin hood #this is the one formative robin hood of my childhood of which all adaptations seem like pale unsatisfying imitations #was it actually good or was it simply that I was I like. all of seven years old. who knows but I'd like to find out lol #there are so many robin hood adaptations and so few of them are actually good tho it's like an itch I can't scratch properly #(so few of them are good in the way *I* want them to be good more precisely)#it's on a list with voluspå and the whole Idea of Merlin I'd like to write a wholeass book about one day to exorcise from my mind #that 'there's something Here that no one seems to hit quite correctly and it's driving me insane like an itch in the middle of my back'#brand of narrative frustration. one day. one day my brain will be in a place where I can give it a shot. in the meantime: this nonsense lma #should I be packing for an upcoming trip. yes. did I spend all this time doing this instead. also yes

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