Id love to hear ur interpretation and analysis on falin! She’s one of my favorite characters and and I was wondering what ur thoughts on her are

Man, I struggle to think of anything I could say about Falin that others have not already said. But she's one of my favorite things about Dungeon Meshi too.

So much of the story revolves around Falin, and she's not even there. Tumblr loves to talk about haunting the narrative, but Falin might be one of the best examples of it ever put to page. She's dead. She's alive. She's dead. She's alive. She's alive but she's missing, she's alive but she isn't herself. She's dead but she might wake. She's dead but she's frozen in ice. She's alive but she's sleepwalking. They chase her ghost and they chase her body all through the story.

I think what Kui does with her is fascinating. Not just as character with a personality we can analyze, but as an object in a narrative- that's why I say she's one of my favorite things about the story, because I also mean it in a mechanical sense. As a writer, Kui's really good at misdirection- that is, setting you up to believe or expect something about a character or a plot, and then turning that on its head. It's most apparent with Kabru, but it works really well with Falin too.

Because the precious little sister is a very well known character archetype, right? So is the gentle healer. The heart of the party. The white mage girl. The damsel in distress. The martyr.

And this isn't a Laura Palmer situation, where we find out that beneath her wholesome surface there's something dark and troubled. No, Falin truly is a kind and gentle person. That isn't where the misdirection leads (and that, too, I think, is another misdirection- it's not "Plot twist, she isn't as nice as you thought!", which would almost be too easy).

The misdirection here is more about structure than about character (but also, yeah- a little about character).

What I mean is, with these archetypes firmly in mind, along with a whole other host of fantasy genre expectations, I think anyone who goes into Dungeon Meshi un-spoiled probably expects Falin's rescue to be an endgame event; at least on a subconscious level, where you're not really thinking about it but in the back of your head you're already stretching out the story to place Falin firmly in the distance. Fire breathing dragon at the bottom of the dungeon is perfect final boss material, right? Slay the dragon. Rescue the princess.

And Falin is the perfect prize in the traditional old school fantasy that the concept of the titular dungeon is a send-up to. Blonde (white), soft-spoken, sweet-natured, beloved by everyone. An angelic figure.

Maybe that's why Ryoko Kui gave her white wings.

It is sort of jarring when chapter 23 rolls around and it's already time to fight the red dragon. And it takes a few chapters, but they succeed. And then Falin's impossible resurrection succeeds. But by then you guess that this is not going to be the story you expected it to be.

I want to point out that Falin spends a lot of time getting, well, babied, post-resurrection. Marcille washes her in the bath, despite Falin stating that she's capable of washing herself. Marcille schools her about her mana use despite Falin demonstrating that she is not hurting for mana, and brushes aside Falin's explanations. Both Marcille and Laios refuse to actually tell her what happened. Laios scruffs up her hair like she's a little kid and scolds her for something she can't remember doing. Marcille explicitly calls her a little kid when Falin tries to talk about how much she's grown.

Of course I'm not saying that Laios was wrong to act like a big brother, or that Marcille shouldn't be worried about taking care of her shell-shocked friend in the bath. But the framing of it clearly shows a Falin who is struggling to be heard.

If you'd like to address the big gay elephant in the room while we're here, I want to state for the record that- whether you read her as gay or not -I think Marcille is completely oblivious during this. Because Falin is her little friend from school. Her best friend, yes, but also the young tallman student she, in her infinite elven wisdom, had to mentor and look after. Marcille has not yet accepted that Falin is an adult now, nor has she accepted that she, herself, is only barely past teenagerhood developmentally and is not nearly as mature as she believes. Of course she'd scrub Falin in the bath and fuss over her.

Falin, meanwhile, seems more than aware of her own adult body and the inappropriate way Marcille is treating it.

The mana-sharing scene is, I think, Falin trying to get a little of her own back. How do you like it, Marcille?

And she tries again in bed.

Maybe she's wondering if their relationship will change now that they're grown ups. If Marcille prefers her as a little girl, or at least as a woman who lets herself be guided like one; if Marcille will react badly if Falin keeps trying to assert herself. She also might be subtly trying to signal to Marcille that bed sharing, like bathing, carries a different weight to it when you do it as adults rather than as children.

With all this in mind, the decision to turn Falin from the precious prize they rescued into to the vicious dragon they have to slay, hits a lot harder.

Falin with a powerful, monstrous, destructive body. Falin, who couldn't even stand to cause people pain from using healing spells, slaughtering half a dozen people in brutal ways. And that's not her, she's being mind-controlled, but as an object in the story she has completely flipped. From damsel to threat.

And I love that she carries a little bit of that with her when she's resurrected again.

Because she's no longer the girl who's going to let herself be stifled by her brother's and her best friend's co-dependency, no matter how much she loves them. She's different now: stronger, eyes open, forging her own path instead of following in their wake. Falin is still going to come back to them again, but this time it won't be because they chased her. It'll be because they let her go.

Bonjour ~ i just joined the French bookclub server! I’m looking forward to it ^^ how did you first get interested in learning French? I always love hearing people’s stories of why they started learning. Hoping to get better at French with the help of the bookclub!

Hi, welcome!

I became interested in studying French because there is a decent francophone population where I grew up and I have some French speakers in my family.

(I also had the option of learning French or Spanish in school and I heard the Spanish teacher was bad so that solidified my choice early on haha)

Who are some of your favorite fan fiction writers?

i spent hours to collect usernames of authors i enjoyed reading from, and i’m sure i missed some, but i tried.

are u ready for this?

authors you SHOULD support:

oneforthemunny / icallhimjoey / jamdoughnutmagician / rosebudsgarden / willowsgri / joequinnisgod / eddiemunsons80sbaby / chrrymunson / eddiemunsonswhxre / lonelysatellites / loveshotzz / usedtobecooler / carolmunson / upsidedownwithsteve / sherifftillman / spicysix / emsgoodthinkin / retrobutterflies / tiannasfanfic / athena-writes-i-guess / shesinchargeareyoukidding / cooliestghouliest / singularattitudeofasafetypin / babybluebex / quinnyfairy / moonchildquinn / i-me-mine / luveline / myosotisa / silent-stories / blueywrites / steviesbicrisis / munson-blurbs / ficsbypix / lovejosephquinn / eddieschains / prettyboyeddiemunson / eddieandbird /pleasantlycrazyworld / corroded-hellfire / trashmouth-richie / justmeinadaze / mopeymopeymouse / munsonslilbunnie / keeponquinning / gatorstillman / allthingsjoeq / jadeylovesmarvelxo / mysticmunson / sugarsblurbs / taintedcigs / gag-me-munson / gravedigginbbydoll / ratskcoreddie / andvys / manicpixiedreamcurl / thruheavenandhighwater / joejoequinnquinn / munsonsreputation / upsidedownmvnson / hellfiresmaster / elightysixbaby / eddiessluttywaist / littledemondani / choke-me-eddie / eddiemunsonsmum / eddiemunsonfuxks / pinkrelish / hllfireclb / indulgence-be-thy-name / wheels-of-despair / hellfiremunsonn / filthyjoetini / ghost-proofbaby / havecourage-darling / forever-rogue / queenimmadolla / josephfakingquinn / roanniom / bimbobaggins69 / songforeddiemunson / munsons-hellfire / honey-flustered / eddie-van-munson / storiesbyrhi / lovebugism / neonghostlights / harrywavycurly / chestylarouxx / courtingchaos / galaxy-siren / harringtons-cupid / hard-candy-writing / wroteclassicaly / raccoonboywrites / dr-aculaaa / palomahasenteredthechat / palomahasenteredthechat / forevermoreharrington / corrodedcorpses / strangerquinns / sunnythevampireslayer / lesservillain / stevenose / eddiesxangel / stveharringtn / spookysteddie / keeksandgigz / darlingsfandom / her-power / idkidknemore / francisquinn / inkluvs / ashwhowrites / hellfire--cult / succubusmunson / v8mpstamp / stevieswhore / munsons-maiden / rustboxstarr / corrodedseraphine / reidsbtch / lexlec / katiemcrae / the-unforgivenn / keerysfolklore / appocalipse / familyvideowithsteve / tiannamortis / joekeeryswife / bettyfrommars / cinemamunson / munson-mjstan / teddyeyeseddie / lofaewrites / mediocredreams / leasstories

OK SO

here we have 137 authors, i didn’t tag anyone cuz i would probably have disturbed half of the fandom, sorry if it’s more difficult this way, but i hope i could help you a bit.

obviously, there’s no order of preference of any kind, and i tried to put as many authors as i could but i know i’ve missed someone. if i did, i’m deeply sorry, it wasn’t on purpose and i have nothing against you! if you wish you can message me or slide in my ask and ill add you immediately!

now, i’m a bit tired after all of this, and my hand hurts but:

DON’T FORGET TO SUPPORT THE AUTHORS!!!

they put their works for free!!! everyone can enjoy media and content for free thanks to them! and it cost you nothing to reblog and share their work.

thank you for every creators / writers/ artist out there to make every single works of yours and sharing them with the world. all of you deserve so much, and thanks to you for so many people the day gets better, it’s like having a sweet little treat, like taking care of yourself, like finding a place where you are understood. so, thank you infinitely. keep it up cause you’re doing amazing!

-🤍🌻🌱

i dont think izumi has another parent honestly. i think one day zukos advisors came up to him and were like hey we need to start thinking about heirs and you arent even betrothed yet. and he was like oh ok no problem👍 and then he went on a trip for like 2 days not telling anyone where he was going and then came back with child. what happened in those 2 days? nobody knows. he wont tell anyone

trying to work out their book designs :-) feat. ursus [id in alt text]

I just want to say: A) Your art is beautiful. B) I love you. C) I will devour anything you post.

Thank you. ♥

No thank YOU‼️ You’re the sweetest! 💕

Here’s some silly little sketches of Secondo with Infestissumam Omega, Phil, and a little peak of a new character, Sister Diana 🪦💐

You’re lovely, thank you for the ask!❤️

〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️

🖤I’m slowly working through asks, please bare with me! Working on a particularly fun one at the moment 🖤

I'm curious about 'Assassination attempt turned to late night cuddles' and 'Operation: Beat a Coven Head at his best game'! For the wip ask game! 💜

Hello!

The first one is just insanely super indulgent. It's more 'cuddles that I shoved a plot around'. They don't really know/like each other, but Eberwolf wants comfort. Darius is the only one who doesn't seem like a total jerk. Darius also (secretly) wants comfort.

He thinks Eberwolf is there to assassinate him because this is the Emperor's Castle so why would anyone want anything good here?

A growl rumbled at the back of Eber’s throat, an ancient thing that sent shivers down his spine, and then the moved closer, wrapping his short arms tighter around Darius’ neck as he climbed to stand on Darius’ lap; maybe in some desperate attempt to curse Darius with more warmth ugly scratching that’s been building up in hid chest for months- Darius should shove him off. Darius should. (Darius can’t help but relax a bit more.)

Eberwolf accidentally giving Darius his own crisis after going out to look for someone to help with his own, more at 9. The second one is actually a request I'm working on that I hope to be done soon, where Hunter has to distract Eberwolf so Eber doesn't find out about a surprise Darius is pulling for him. The issue? Eberwolf is very good at discovering things when someone is very clearly hiding something from him. Surely, this'll go over very well for everyone involved.

Eberwolf smirked, taking another sip of coffee. “Word of advice Darius. Don’t make me the good coffee if you want me to think you’re not buttering me up for a favour.” Shoot. Shoot shoot shoot. “I made it actually,” Hunter slowly raised his hand with a beaming smile, his words moving faster than he could catch them. “And. And you’re right. Darius is trying to get you out of the house.” He watched Darius freeze but he kept talking. “When was the last time we spent one-on-one Eber?” Eber hummed in thought, his fingers tapping the table. “Last week. We made a big dinner because the Owl House family was coming, and Darius went out to buy dessert and was late. I taught you-” He forgot about that. “I-I-I meant for fun. For fun. When was the last time we spent one-on-one time for fun?” “The week before that. You were with me when we went to the Blights without Darius for obvious reasons-” Despite the atmosphere, Darius scoffed. “Still not happy about that.” “Of course, you aren’t."

(Hunter is going through his own inflicted hell for a bit. As a treat :3.)

Thank you again for the ask! From this ask game!

I haven't been able to get Adderall for months, so I asked my doctor if we could try an alternative. I've now been prescribed Ritalin. ...yeah we're still fighting with the pharmacy for them to give me anything and I'm mad.

Like. My inability to focus on anything is actually making me suicidal at this point. I'm so tired and so angry, please just give me the things I need to function.

hi liaaa ! i hope you're doing well and taking care of yourself ! 🫶🏼🫶🏼

- yuyusuyu (HAHSJAJSJA i giggle every time i have to do this when sending a moot a msg bc its so goofy to me 😭)

wahhh sobs deaaa 🥹 hi hi lovely, uni is acting like a bully to me rn so it's tougher to write but i try to lurk on here as much as i can (tumblr my best friend and delulu feeder forever!!) BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND WORDS didn't know i needed them you're the sweetest might have sobbed a tiny bit :,)

i will make sure to take care heheh thank you again and i really hope that you're doing the same 🫶🏻 keep being your amazing self, seeing your work on here makes me sooo proud !! ^^

ALSO I GIGGLED TOO I FIND THE NAME SO CUTE especially said out loud yuyusuyu yuyuuusuyuuu it's so yunho coded i love it ☹️

Would Dea let us peg him?

Is Jeremiah locked in a microwave right now?

I'm being completely serious when i say most of the parallels between the Espial main characters were completely unintentional at first and I only started leaning into them and strengthening them after i noticed they even existed. so i guess the nature of taking a bunch of random guys and throwing them into situations for 3 years is that the situations start repeating whether or not you're doing it on purpose

can i ask a thing about kabru as an anime-only... it's become kinda obvious at this point that there's a larger explanation for how he behaves that we haven't reached yet, but i was curious specifically in regards to those corpse retrievers that his party came across during their initial introduction. it makes sense that kabru would want to kill them considering their shady dealings, and we know that people in the dungeon can be revived, but his party did throw their bodies in the water afterwards, seemingly so they wouldn't be found and brought back to life? i was kinda waiting for this to be brought up again, but it wasn't...

Sure. The way I see it, the corpse retrievers are a seriously dangerous group playing with other people's lives for profit. Kabru in particular sees this behavior as unforgivable, and looks down on people who treat the dungeon as a "money pit" and not as a deadly threat that needs to be neutralized as soon as possible.

I'll add some visual aid from the manga, since I'm not gonna go hunting for gifs, but I won't include anything past the point we're at in the anime.

This interaction was cut for time, but early in the manga (after the Tentacles chapter), Namari explains the hazards of resurrection to the twins (and the audience):

...which ups the stakes for us during the corpse retriever confrontation, when Kabru says this:

Which shows that the corpse retrievers aren't merely killing people to revive them for profit- already really fucked up- but doing so in such a reckless fashion that they could easily botch the job and end up with corpses unable to be revived. Imagine if this had been Marcille with her trigger-happy explosion spells? They would have bemoaned the lost payday, then probably just looted what was left.

And then their leader tries to rope Kabru in on their murder-for-money scheme, on the guy's own companions, just to get Kabru to keep quiet? Kabru clearly decided these people were too dangerous to live.

With the threat to report them hanging over their heads like that, I don't think it would have boded well for Kabru's party if they had given the corpse retrievers a chance to be revived and come after them.

Even if they had miraculously decided not to hunt Kabru's party down, they were just going to keep preying on other adventurers, reducing the dungeon's own imported immune system meant to keep the ratio of monsters stable.

Which is not even as bad as it could be.

Making the choice to execute them is harsh, but honestly I can't judge Kabru that much, as a character in a story whose day-to-day includes life-or-death stakes.

In a storytelling sense, it's also helpful to see the way that Kabru is counterbalancing Laios's story: while Laios is journeying through a biological ecosystem and showing us the dungeon as an organism, Kabru shows the audience the human ecosystem that surrounds the dungeon, the political and social machinations working on it, and how these things are just as deadly as monsters. He's a big picture thinker.

More on that in ... a few episodes, probably?

On the off-chance you'd like to read it, the manga is easily accessible in its official translation here and is a very quick read. You can also see about checking it out through your local library; my roommate read it all on her e-reader that way!

I hope I helped!

You could have Sam as Randall, Henry as Sebastian, and Angela as Abigail?

ouuuu that works really well !!! i really like angela as abigail ...

i feel like having layton "replace" the farmer/player makes the most sense considering. main character or whatever ... not sure why he would have a farm but. uah

YOUR LAST ANON REPLY MADE ME CACKLE 😭😭😭😭

EHEHEHEHEHE the way some people thinks it's some great mystery

meanwhile

hey. cut the cameras. ignore what i said in my previous post. how do you guys think grinpayne kisses dea (or vice versa. but i think the answer to that one is just “carefully” depending on how healed you say grinpayne’s face is).

morning in the green box [id in alt text]