I'm of the opinion that Zestial and Carmilla had and have wildly different opinions on Alastor, though Zestial's opinion probably didn't shift all too much overtime.
Now Carmilla is just a bit annoyed at the drama queen that is Alastor, but I do believe that she was concerned at the beginning of his appearance. Like dude just took out half her meeting room of overlords in a matter of weeks, that ain't fitting into her statistics. She likes control, she likes knowing what will happen and planning for it.
So, she probably met with Zestial to discuss this in a 'is this a normal problem or something we need to do something about'-way only to be met with a 'funniest thing to have happened in three centuries' banner.
It's so funny to me that Dorothea's explicit reason to come to the Academy is to find a find husband and subsequently live a comfortable life and then she's there and then couldn't give a rat's ass about any of the guys.
To the girls she's all sweet and supportive and loving and sometimes gay. And to the guys... well she's not mean to all of them but she clearly doesn't see any of them as an option until the end of a support chain and doesn't enthuisastically go out of her way to aid them.
Girl is classmates with several wealthy heirs and supposedly looking for a husband and comfortable life, but would clearly rather, happily, spend her life eloping to Brigid or fistfighting Count Varley.
A bit late, considering the hiatus is ending soon, but I just need to praise the the picture on which we unpaying leeches were left for months.
It's just so.... perfect! I didn't even mind having to wait, because I could just taste the next frame. I know who is yelling that. I even have some suspicions at who he's yelling at. I can guess how these two will react, I can guess how others will.
I can imagine it so clearly in my mind. Even if I'm wrong, the fantasy that this last picture paints was an absolute joy to have.
The first four episodes of Hazbin Hotel are just meant to lure you into a false sense of security that this Hellaverse show isn't in fact about the relationship between a dad who's trying and failing 50% of the time to connect to his estranged daughter.
And then Lucifer Morningstar and his rubber ducks come on-screen.
It's so funny to me that Dorothea's explicit reason to come to the Academy is to find a find husband and subsequently live a comfortable life and then she's there and then couldn't give a rat's ass about any of the guys.
To the girls she's all sweet and supportive and loving and sometimes gay. And to the guys... well she's not mean to all of them but she clearly doesn't see any of them as an option until the end of a support chain and doesn't enthuisastically go out of her way to aid them.
Girl is classmates with several wealthy heirs and supposedly looking for a husband and comfortable life, but would clearly rather, happily, spend her life eloping to Brigid or fistfighting Count Varley.
Honestly, sometimes I could fistfight 'update?' commenters on AO3.
This isn't even about my own writing. It's about the times I go into the comment section of a fic I love, eager for any more info the author dropped about their stories (or the observations of other more sharp-eyed readers) and what I stumble upon instead are 'when's the next update', 'update pls' and 'it's been so long since the last update, but I'm still hopeful you'll update soon' after like a month, like a fucking party guest at the dinner table, shoveling their face with food while loudly demanding where the second course is with not a hint of gratitude for the food that's already out.
And like he wasn't invited so much as he was just not thrown out when he arrived. Because that's sort of what a fanfic is. People just giving out food for anyone who comes by and leaving it to you if you wanna take it. You go into that house yourself. And then you choose to be an asshole about it.
And like I'm also sitting there on the table, staring because what the fuck. And the host is there and she sees everything of course. It's her fucking house. It's her food. And sometimes she doesn't answer and sometimes she does. Usually, when she answers, she's nice. She says not to worry, it'll be out soon. Or that she's working hard in the kitchen and she doesn't know how long it'll take but she's doing her best. Yeah the host says she's doing her best to the rudest fucking piece of shit that just came into her house and act like it's his.
And I'm sitting on my side of the table, enraged and stabbing myself with a fork, because I can't just leap over the table and tackle the guy. This isn't my house. She's already answered and she did it nicely. She must not want this to escalate. Or maybe she hasn't answered and it's already old. I don't want to drench up something that might make her uncomfortable. If I help her in a way that makes her more stressed, then that's not helping at all.
So I try to compliment her instead. I loved the food after all, and I'd love to hear how she's cooking. I love hearing all the little steps the host took to get there, what she's planning. Sometimes I guess and whether I'm wrong or not, I try to tell her how nice it made me feel. I love hearing what inspired her. Honestly, I also just love hearing what she likes. When someone writes they bring a piece of themselves in it. And chances are, if you love the writing, there's something you love about the person.
And I know it can be hard. I'm not always good at leaving comments as I would like to be. It has nothing to do with the quality of writing, there are just some days when you can better describe what made you freak out in happiness and some days where it's not as easy. And I mean, no matter my poetic waxing, I'm very shy. I worry often how to write even something that is essentially intended to be solely complimentary. Because what if it comes across as weird?
(I don't like creating while I'm absorbing, so I always write after. But after reading sometimes I'm so full of feelings I can't articulate everything well enough. And then I think this person deserves a better comment than the few phrases I could currently manage, but that's a bad excuse even if it is well intentioned. Because all that it means is that currently that person doesn't have me thanking them.)
But a comment that has nothing but badgering for updates in it? That's unacceptable.
I saw one person say they don't generally answer comments anymore, not wanting to come across badly to readers and I'm seething, because who fucking made you feel that. You're a joy, a delight, you make the world a better place with what you do, who the fuck made you feel that was anything short of praiseworthy?
And it doesn't matter that this specific case might not have anything to do with this type of commenters. What matters is that someone only interacting with you to get more without so much as a thank you for what you're giving them makes you feel shitty.
I know that. You know that. Everyone knows that. The people who don't know that could try to power up their empathy and understand, because it's not that difficult.
This isn't my house, I can't just start a fistfight. I never have.
But see sometimes I think, maybe I should. Maybe it shouldn't be the host who has to answer. Or at least maybe, the host should have someone who stands up and tells the asshole guest to get a fucking grip and some fucking manners.
One of the many things wrong with P5′s portrayel of sexual abuse and harassment is that the game tries, tries so very hard, to have Ann, who has experienced pretty terrible things in that specific way, as a sexy-dominatrix and honeypot character against her express wishes.
Like sure. I can see what you want. It’s stupid that this is the one recurring job at least one woman on the team has, but I don’t care. Make her a classic femme fatale with seduction as her job. But at least make her be okay with it!
I need to gush about this Devil’s Candy side character
Okay. So, Devil’s candy is a webcomic on hiveworks. It’s about a world of devil’s which is a shorthand for basically aything mythologically monstrous (also generally humanoid) here. It’s also about a boy imp who’s biological project is a person. It’s good. This post is not specifically about why this comic is good.
This post IS about Echo! A sidecharacter, first appearing in an intermission chapter (that’s chapter 9, 8 being the end to a big arc). This is her.
She’s a longlimbed wolf creature with starlight in her hair. She looks incredibly cool. But what I love most about her is her framing.
ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN! This will take a while.
Like I said we’re in a world of monsters. Our main characters are also monsters. However our main characters are, comparitively, weak. An imp, a fish guy with half skin invisble (you’ll see), a satyr that looks a lot cooler than he is and a vampire that limits his blooddrinking and through that his power. The strongest people in our squad so far are a cyclops girl and the biology project.
What’s important is 1) the fish/invisble skin guy called Nemo is not strong and 2) the intermission chapter is his chapter. Out of his perspective.
Got it? Great enough preamble. Back to Echo. This is her introduction:
Monstrous. And then you have the next page, that I already showed and you see a dapper young lady. And you’re like: Okay author. You got me. You got me thinking this was the big bad wolf.
But see, they did get you.
Nemo is as surprised as you are that she’s suddenly in his bathroom, but he shakes it off pretty quick and they have an amicable exchange. He needs to go to her house, because his dad pushes of PI work on him or something. Unimportant. The important thing is this happens:
And you’re like Oh does he have a little crush? So far in the comic Nemo (and yes, that is him, see through until water remember) has never really looked shy or flustered like this. And we’ve seen him pretty often.
And then she says: “You’ve got me thinking of frog legs... And I say that in the fondest way.“ And he reacts like this:
And you’re like wait. Is he afraid of her? Does he think she’ll eat him? Is that why he’s so uncharacteristically shy? And...
Yeah. She’s a big wolf and he’s a small fish. He may not run away at sight. But maybe his screaming and suddenly falling on the floor upon her suddenly appearing wasn’t only about the suddeness.
Anyway, they get to her house, she introduces him to her friends, the school’s literature club, they go into the office, they find a decapitated head.
Everyone’s terrified. Except... no. Only Nemo is terrifed. The others are pretending. And Nemo notices.
He thinks they’re gonna eat him and they’re not doing super much to reassure him that they won’t. Echo specifically.
She’s always shown from so low. It makes sense. Nemo is small and she is hella tall. But there’s more to it, it’s not that they’re always shown side by side and Nemo is a dwarf. She’s towering over him. She leans over him, closely even as it unnerves him. Often she’s just a silhouette of starlight, a monster you’re too scared to even look at directly. Whenever she’s in focus, so are her claws. So are her teeth.
Anyway, he figures out part of it all, specifically the part where they are all duping him.
He runs.
And Echo pursues.
And let me tell you, she certainly looks like the big bad wolf.
Her shape is beastly, she moves not only faster but in a way where she seems to not be bound to space. She catches him with one claw that covers his entire upper body.
She breathes starlight and tells him that he can’t run away. He has to make it to the end of the story.
And then Nemo hits you with this out of nowhere:
Which frankly slots in more with what’s cool about this comic than just Echo, so uh, topic of another post.
Anyway, look at Echo again. A scary silhouette. And when she’s not her teeth come out. Her eyes are only shown when it would be scary.
Anyway, she’s a good person. Her father and Nemo’s dad set this up as a birthday gift for her (she enjoys mystery novels). She saves our protagonists in a later chapter in a really cool way, where again she seems to be the only one (beside the attacking villain) not entirely bound to space and time.
And this is such a long explanation to say... this is new to me. I have never seen a female character, human/monster/demon/angel or whatever, shown like this. When a female character terrifies a male main character there’s always something else about it. Sometimes it’s comedic, a cute girl that has a scary look in her face or something. Usually it’s seductive, a woman dominatrix kind, whose actions are more about turning on the reader than the male character in question.
Echo has none of that. She’s an elegant character, who doesn’t so much switch into a beastly mode as much as you think she already is one all the time. She’s framed as someone who has the potential to always be terrifying. At any moment, though it wouldn’t be a snap-decision for her. And she doesn’t do much to dispel the notion, no over the top apologies about scaring anyone and it almost looks like she enjoys the occasional scaring. When Nemo asks her if she eats frogs, she says “Not the cute ones” and at the end when he asks whether ‘really‘ no one is going to be eaten she says “Only if you want to.“
But it’s very much the framing. She doesn’t say a lot of threatening things, but the few things she does say is lingered on. And since it’s all out of Nemo’s perspective and he is, of all our protagonist, the one with the most functional self-preservation instinct, we see her as very much dangerous.
In conclusion: I love her! She’s great. I stan. etc. etc.
Side-note: not sure if the comic is going for them as a pairing. Like I said, she’s very much a side-character and there are other side-characters that appear more and also I guess Nemo has comparitively the most possible romantic interests mentioned (he already made out with someone in chapter 1 technically), but I mean if this dynamic was gender-switched it would be very much like vampire romance stories, wouldn’t it? The Male Lead being somewhat scary even to the main character, even though he wouldn’t actually hurt her?
I kinda like them. Unless proven otherwise, I am interpreting Nemo as being a little bit into her, if also still quite a bit terrified.
I’ve not played Three Hopes and I don’t think I will, because I’m not really into hack and slash games, though from what I’ve seen there’s some interesting stuff in there.
But. But but but but but.
BUT! Did you really give everyone a clothing and portrait change and only ONLY kept Byleth the same?!
The urge to log into my AO3 accound on mobile to read locked stories vs the urge to stay anonymous, ensuring that I can regularly give more than one kudos to stories I like and keep revisiting.
There are always some fun things to rediscover when playing a game again after a long time. Like that Flayn is such a surprisingly excellent character or that pre-timeskip Lorenz hair is way worse than what you could ever have imagined.
My hot Three Houses Take: The story would have been more interesting without those who slither in the dark.
Think it takes away the confilct? Not really. It’s not like the system doesn’t still heavily rely on crests to be, a very arbitary characteristic that you don’t earn. It’s not even solely about families, as seen with Mikhail and Sylvain. It’s not like the church doesn’t still have a monopoly on power. And however Rhea might talk about Cyril or Cyril about her, her actions and influence had a part in shaping Fodlan’s views about foreign lands. It’s not like the secret society of slitherions invented xenophobia. And it’s not like you need a global conspiracy theory organization for people to do immoral experiments with the end product of obtaining crests. You don’t need that organization to be the only one interested in destroying countries relations with each other (i.e. what happened in Duscur).
Honestly that would clean up Edelgard’s narrative more than it would destroy it. The slitherions didn’t give her a crest, because that would give her and them status. After all, she’s hiding her crest. It’s solely about the power of a crest for them, specifically the power of the sword of the creator one might wield with that crest. And if the experimentation backstory her reason for hating crests, she should hate the slitherions and not the church, where Rhea probably has an incentive to suppress those kinds of activities. But if more people do it, for the sake of status, then that’s just a consequence from the unequal system that the church has heavily pushed (whether it intended to do so in this way or not) for.
You don’t need to make Rhea evil, but focusing on this issue would also stop her from suddenly becoming good. Whether the pre-time skip story was intended to serve as a red herring and make Rhea seem unlikeable or not, she did kind of do horrible things and was implied to be able to do worse. That’s... not really debatable. She did order the mass execution of people who were tricked and framed. And she didn’t do it, because they hurt others. She did it, because they robbed a holy site.
You know the interesting thing about Three Houses set up is that there are a LOT of players right from the start. And they all have their own histories and grudges and views on the current system. How about everything bad that ever happened and continues to happen isn’t directly linked to one group of terrible evildoers? That just makes everything boring.
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