Sometimes I Need To Remind Myself That I'm Writing Fanfiction For Free And I'm Allowed To Have A Shitty

An analysis of the funny lil gremlin:

Jevil is a pretty facinating character. He's gotten obviously overshadowed by characters like Spamton. Which is justified as Jevil played an admittedly insignificant role on the plot of chapter 1 and was more confined to his role as a "secret boss" than Spamton, who did play SOME role in the plot (even though he kinda barged into it) and had a much more fleshed out backstory than Jevil. Though the clown man does play a pretty important role in the bigger picture of the game by introducing the theme of freedom in characters other than Kris, and setting the predecent of future secret bosses exploring said themes of freedom.

Jevil's whole "I'm the only one free and everybody else is the one trapped" thing is kinda odd, but it starts to make sense when you really think about it. Gaster, or whoever it was that drove him to insanity most likely gave him some degree of knowledge of the nature of Deltarune. (Or at least a bit MORE knowledge, as even regular darkners seem to be a little aware that their world works on video game logic- ie. the tutorial puzzle guys- Lancer and his sign telling you not to take the darkfruit) This is a videogame. With main characters, npc's, and a set storyline everything is supposed to follow. Everybodies actions are dictated by the plot, the creators, (toby fox) and everything in this world isn't even for the darkners or the lightners. Everything is just for the convinience and enjoyment of some otherworldly being. (the player) Nobody can choose their own fate in this world. Nothing anybody does truly matters because the story will find SOME way to keep going. (take the weird route as a prime example of that)

This knowledge obviously broke Jevil, but his mind rationalized it in an extremely strange way. If nothing he does matters, than that means he could technically do anything. There are no consequences. At least to him. This is what he means by "being free." He is free from the limitations of society, responsibility, morality. This, of course, led to him doing whatever he did to get himself thrown into prison. A prison separated from even the ones in the normal basement.

Though, even faced with obvious consequences, Jevil was way too deep in his insanity. Being stuck in a prison alone defnitely didn't help his mental state either. That's part of what makes Jevil scary in my opinion. He's somebody with absolutely no restraints. He has absolutely nothing to lose and nothing to gain from fighting you. He just does it because he's desperate for SOMETHING to happen after probably years of being stuck and alone.

He represents the joker card (I mean it's pretty obvious, but is there anything actually confirming he's the joker card?) pretty well, with all that said. Obviously there's the whole thing of "being abandoned," as typically for most card games, (there are actually games that require the joker card) the joker is set aside without being used. And also to my knowledge, joker cards can be used for pretty much any purpose you want. They can replace a missing card on a deck, be used in magic tricks, be put in the bottom of the deck to prevent anybody from seeing the bottom card, or even be something like a "skip card," forcing a player to skip their turn. It's specifically because of their lack of functionality and adherence to the 4 suites of the deck that they are able to [I CAN DO ANYTHING!] I found that pretty cool.

I also find it interesting that Spamton seems to have the exact opposite mindset as Jevil. Jevil probably(?) didn't have to struggle too much to get his position as court Jester. Even before he went crazy, he most likely always was just a little goofball who just happened to get the attention of the king with his antics. In contrast, Spamton most defnitely struggled a lot to even keep himself afloat - Wondering why all the other addisons seem to be doing fine, when he was (probably) doing the exact same thing. (at least before gaster/the mysterious entity) He was most likely given the same knowledge the entity gave Jevil, and he absolutely hated it. He actively tried to fight against it, unlike Jevil who basically embraced the idea of a world where your choices don't matter and used it as an excuse to do whatever the hell he wants. Spamton didn't want to be confined to a story. This... game. He desperately wanted freedom, and he would do anything to get it. Even when he failed he would keep trying. After all, perseverence did let him become a big shot, even for a little while, so he just had to keep trying... right? Uhh... this wasn't supposed to be a Spamton analysis, but I just found that contrast cool.

All in all, Jevil and Spamton set a really interesting precedent for the future secret bosses and I'm excited to find out how toby fox handles the next one and how that boss will tie in to the whole freedom theme.

@marsupials-of-mars submitted:

I was planning to do maybe a fic and more doodles of this but now I'm busy with school so I might as well show what I did do!

Based on how the goldilocks fic seems to posit that Bill at his best is a silly professor who loves to teach his own way

Introducing Professor Locke!

Things about this idea:

-post redemption, however that will go. I'm calling it an AU because I imagine it is not your plan for what happens after lol, but currently canon-compliant.

-Bill is at first not very on board with the idea of working in the higher education system. It's a scam and it's dumb that they tell adult people how to think.

-He's eventually convinced to bless Backupsmore with his tutelage, on the grounds that they're less stuck up there, they seem to care about giving their students opportunities despite their backgrounds, and the kids there care about learning rather than going to college just because their parents said they should.

-Ford uses his academic connections to vouch for Bill even though he is very mysterious and has no academic records. This is another reason why they picked Backupsmore: i's a little more lax when presented with a shockingly smart mystery professor. Bill gets an interview and charms the pants off the university president.

-He teaches "astrophysics" in theory (that's the job description) but he ends up teaching a little bit of everything.

-He's one of those professors you either adore or despise. He's very loud, often outright mean, and if you're too shy to speak up in class he does not give a SHIT about you. You gotta want it!

-However, his class is notoriously easy. He thinks homework and tests are facist, but he's required to have a curriculum, so his "quizzes" are like a few true or false questions and then a short answer where he asks something he thinks would be funny or wants to hear about, like "what's the dumbest thing another student has said in class since the last test and why was it dumb" or "fashion advice: what's the coolest thing I wore this last week? Extra credit: draw something cooler I SHOULD wear."

-as a result, students who have completely unrelated majors will take his class. If they end up being interested, he deems them worthy. If they're just there to be lazy, he will bully them into dropping out.

-Mabel buys him stickers to put on people's tests when they pass, or to just hand out when they something he likes. He gets along most with the college kids who know how to appreciate a classic gold star.

-He really wanted a big pretty lecture hall, where his voice would echo and he could point at a big chalkboard. But all Backupsmore could provide was a cinderblock and linoleum basement classroom. The lights buzz very loudly and it smells musty. They have stools and folding tables. Bill finds he enjoys the more intimate environment where he can walk between the tables and also sneak up on people.

-He's broken multiple folding tables by trying to do the cool professor thing where you hop up onto your desk and cross your legs and talk all casual. He is able to do this on his own desk thankfully. It's aluminum.

-Ford gets a bit nervous if he did the right thing when bill tells his school stories at the dinner table, so he finds an excuse to accompany Bill to a campus event where he can meet some of his students.

-His fears are quickly assuaged when he sees how beloved Bill is and how well he gets along with the kids. When he eventually joins in on one of these conversations, one of the students asks if he's Sixer. The students are excited by this. Bill tries to shut them up, to partial success.

OK I guess I just ended up writing the fic more or less so enjoy I guess lol.

Aww, this is adorable! Thank you! (And the fact that you're imagining a future for Bill makes me so happy.) He's absolutely be the weirdest professor in the school and he'd ADORE having a crowd full of trusting impressional minds whose parents are paying him to change the way they think. Talk about playing to his strengths.

Your idea is so wholesome, meanwhile the moment I saw "Professor Bill" I went,

Messing with files again, I found one thing really interesting thing on Episode 4.

Aparantly, the game had another ending??? Or was supposed to have multiple endings, maybe? Anyway, i found something really interesting, but had to delete that famale conselour of Rachel and find a way to get on the facility without replaying the hole thing.

After that, the normal ending scene starts tho… I really wanted to see an ending with Rachel going after Zack.

Satsuriku no Tenshi Clear Files - Wonderland Version

Scanned by me

Long time lurker, first time asker!

How do you keep different voices/characters in your fics so distinct? I'm writing my first longer than 2k word fic and it's... a time.

First, I'm going to link you the best essay I've ever read about How To Write Canon Character Voices—what's too much accent, what's too little, how to pay attention to word choice and the way they phrase things, etc. It's about Transformers but the skills are transferrable to other fandoms (or original writing). The original essay is down so all I can offer is the archive.org version, but it's worth it.

Second, I'm going to link you this post I wrote about how I study character voices. It's about Hazbin but it shows you the kinds of things I pay attention to when I'm learning a character voice.

Third, I'm going to offer you some extra general advice that isn't in the above posts:

Some people try to make characters sound like themselves by basically parroting their catch phrases or most common quotes. Do that and you're just gonna make your version of the character sound like a robot. (Note: if you're writing a character who only knows how to say a few quotes, that's okay lmao.) The readers already know what the characters said in canon, they're reading a fic to hear them say something new. Example: if you have Bill Cipher arrive on the scene and say "Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me!" word-for-word, you don't sound like you're writing Bill, you sound like you're quoting Bill from That One Scene where He Said That Thing.

But... directly borrowing characters' quotes is kind of a stepping stone on the way toward figuring out how they speak. Think about things they've already said, but use those quotes as a guide for how to write them.

Example: from that quote above, we get that when Bill shows up around people who definitely did NOT miss him, he just... decides that they did and tells them so. This shows you a bit of his sense of humor (he makes jokes to annoy someone who hates him—it's not even a mean joke, just annoying), a bit of his ego (he knows he's clowning around, but even when he's clowning he's going to say something that makes himself sound popular rather than hated), his casual & familiar attitude with someone he barely knows, his tendency to just request people do what he wants (saying "admit it, you missed me" instead of something like "I know you missed me")... etc.

And I kinda already said this in the Hazbin post, but the most important thing you can do when you're struggling with a character voice is just rewatch their episodes and pay close attention to how they speak (or rewatch their movie scenes, or reread their chapters/comic issues—whatever you're writing about). If they're from a visual/audio medium (TV, movie, podcast, etc), then if need be, read transcripts to see how their voices look when written down. Type down the transcripts yourself if there aren't any—and that's also a good physical exercise to make you slow down and pay attention to how they speak. (You notice where they tend to pause in sentences when you're the one who has to decide where to put commas; you notice their accent when you're the one who has to decide whether that word sounds more like walking or walkin'.)

Pay attention to cadence, accent, interjections, sentence length, active voice, passive voice, preferred vocabulary, preferred slang, word choice, sentence length, sentence complexity, any phrases they're fond of (but again—don't overuse a phrase unless they overuse a phrase), how they tend to refer to the people around them (by first name, last name, any titles, any nicknames—and do they change in different contexts?)... Pay attention to anything you can think of. You want to be able to hear the character's voice clearly in your head—read everything you write in their voice, and if it doesn't sound like their voice in your head, change it.

This is gonna be so harsh but- Actually it isn't going to be harsh at all I thought this through a lot. It was gonna be harsh at first but ahn fuck it I'll still say it. Damn it really seems like everyone in Haruka's case was a bit negligent.

Like I'm still curious how he even got near the second kid to be honest since the details were scarce on that but this is mostly gushing about how good that video was and how it wrapped up mostly everything about this case.

Me reading the report on Haruka,

Born in 1997, in Nagaoka, Niigata. From an early age Haruka Sakurai developed more slowly than his peers. His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs. The gap in developmental achievements between him and his peers kept widening, so much so that when Haruka 15 years old, he could still not adequately read kanji.

It was around that time that his parents simply gave up, and they shift from overprotective to disinterest. From then forth, his parents acted as if Haruka did not exist. Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.

"Tell me, why are you drifting away from me? Tell me, why do you say it’s my fault?"

"Why is it breaking? Tell me why? Please don’t change."

Haruka starts to kill animals in secret from around that time. He killed insects, he killed mice, he killed stray cats and dogs.

"It’s fine, it’s all my fault right? It’s enough, I am a “disappointment”."

"You praised me by saying “You’re crazy.” Thank you, I’ll do my best. How many more times do I have to do this so I can be human?"

He felt relieved that there was life in the world that was inferior to him. Haruka's actions soon escalate, and he starts to kill pet dogs and cats as well.

The following day, as he witness the tormented screams of the people who had suddenly lost a life they so cherished, he has a deep emotional reaction where he feels for the very first time that he is indeed connected to the world. The neighborhood increased its security soon afterwards, and Haruka's unsophisticated crime soon came to light.

The police detained and questioned him harshly. Haruka experiences a heightened sense of excitement with all of this interest and attention directed at himself.

Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:55s,

"It felt so strange warden...! Warden-san, you forgave me so, so much, it felt like a whole lot of people had accepted me! Ahh... It was the first time I've ever felt something like that!"

When he saw the faces of his parents, who were called in for him and him alone, that heightened excitement reached a fever pitch, and he fainted.

The day he was released, Haruka committed murder. The victim was a small child, clearly much less powerful than himself. It was the day of the fireworks festival. He targeted the child who had strayed away from her parents.

Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,

"This child's life was probably much more valuable than my own." "A future much brighter than mine was probably awaiting this child."

Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:30s

"It is. I felt uneasy about it this whole time... Someone as worthless as me having killed someone to gain attention, and a person who surely had more worth and more of a future than me, at that..."

"Why did I end up like this?"

"Why was I born like this? Why does it hurt so much?"

Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented.

He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest. When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.

I really love the implication here that he wasn't cognizant of his attack on the second child.

When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.

As well as the report just saying he strangled the other kid. Yes this kid is still a victim but he was not murdered like the other girl. Milgram has been making it a note since the trial three commencement to not call anything outside of murder, murder. Something I really love with how ambiguity has been used over the course of the series to claim anything outside of murder can be murder if stretched far enough.

Not specifying murder with the attack of the second child like with the case of Shidou and Amane in contrast to Haruka and Mahiru's cases to me highlights that the second incident did not escalate to murder. Because if it did they would have added clarification which Milgram has been great at doing in other cases. So this is more than likely just assault and not even attempted murder because as the report states Haruka was not cognizant when he was doing this.

Outside of that- I'm about to say some shit that sounds like victim blaming but hear me out all the way it's not that I swear.

The first incident was also a byproduct of parental negligence. Certainly the report tries to blame the child for wandering off from her parents. Like ahn well she wandered off but like she was with another child and her parents brought her there to the event. I mean it is the responsibility of the parent(s) or guardian(s) to watch the child when at a crowded public event venue where one is not sure of the intentions of all parties present.

I'm sorry I feel bad for her parents and this truly was a traumatizing and life destroying event them losing their child. However, my father wouldn't let me as a child walk around a fireworks show alone or with friends without him like a little ways away. This was contributed to by gun issues in the US but at the same time, the size of crowds at those sort of events, and how easy it is to lose a child at big events or in crowds. Yeah no he was not letting go of my hand when I was seven to high school actually.

Hell Haruka's mom does that and we have documented proof of his parents negligence now.

However, I'm once again proposing that possibly the neighborhood Haruka grew up in/around was simply so gated and peaceful residents could not comprehend, imagine, or even anticipate anything like this happening within it.

Making this less willful negligence on the girls parents part and back on Haruka's parents.

Because they knew their child was just released for killing animals. Of course at this point Haruka was a grown man he was in his twenties. One could be excused for believing what he did was now beyond his parents control. However he was still to his own admission with no information claiming the contrary provided by Milgram in the report,

Q.07  Tell us your family structure.

Haruka: My father and my mother and me.

A dependent of and living with his parents. To take it further despite being an adult when taken to be questioned by the police- The authorities called his parents in. Even if Haruka was lying about still living with his family which I highly doubt. His parents were both called in, made aware of his behavior, and still continued to do nothing to intervene or seek help for him.

Furthermore, they neglected to warn anyone of the risk he posed to others in their community animal or person. Then the authorities released Haruka and instead of even attempting to better supervise him his parents to Milgram's admission continued on as though he did not exist,

Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.

This allowed him to just go out completely unsupervised by his parents or restrained by the law which led to a child's death. Now I'm not gonna blame the authorities they more than likely kept Haruka for as long as they could considering the severity of his crime. They even reprimanded him for his actions and informed his immediate family and guardians of his behavior. At best probably went,

"Sir and madam we are releasing your son back into your care after this horrendous incident please move forward with getting him proper help and treatment as not to repeat this."

The Sakurai parents in response to this information and possible reasonable request. No he can just wander outside alone still actually. He's a disappointment he'll never get it-

"Then what should have I done instead?! Tell me! Tell me so even I can understand!"/"I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!!! Making you waste your life on someone like me...!!"

Let's speak on his parents real quick.

Anyone else remember when the mom was just getting blamed for this and no one wanted to even take a crack at the internalized bigotry and ableism parents (and people in general) carry in them when it comes developmental delays and disorders.

It was just abuse and neglect not anyone going,

Let's discuss how parents in particular behave as though having any mental health difficulties or diagnoses is a death sentence. How they behave as personally ashamed that their child is experiencing these setbacks. As well as on some level have internalized that their children having these issues reflects poorly on them genetically and as parents.

How Haruka's parents felt this way so much about what Haruka having these delays and possible diagnoses would mean about them as parents/people and for Haruka and his future that they decided like a lot of parents do they were just not gonna think about it. No instead they were just going to pretend everything was fine, there was no problem, their son was fine and did not need any extra help or accommodations. He was just like every other child because he had to be because if he wasn't what did that mean about them.

If Haruka doesn't catch up that's a personal failing not something they could have prevented because he's fine, he just needs a little extra at home attention, he isn't having those sorts of serious problems. He's not a weakling he doesn't have weaknesses or delays when it comes to his growth and education. He's a good kid.

Love that they added this line to allude to the fact it was definitely his parents being like that,

His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs.

Like I love that they note they were overprotective at first here.

That the series even implies that it was Haruka's parents' overprotectiveness and possibly fear of having their kid labeled as one of those kids that led to them not getting him accommodations that would have allowed for him to thrive. Because that is usually what causes that. Many people who are ruining their kids futures due to deeply rooted and unchecked ableism think they're helping them. They do not get up and think I'm about to ruin my kids life for no reason.

They get up and they think what many people think,

"Oh no if it's that then my kid will get bullied, my kid won't be able to get a job, my kid will have to carry this stigmatizing label on them for the rest of their lives. I'm not going to do that to my kid. Because I know how people who are different get treated. We can just figure it out in the home. If I put in a little more work the problem should fix itself. They're just a little behind it's not that big of an issue. They just move at their own pace we can work through it at home."

People who think this way truly believe that they are making their child's life easier by having them be in the same classes as everyone else their age, that their making sure that their kids don't stand out negatively for being different, or actively being shown getting treated different.

Leading to the kid seeing that they can't keep up with their peers, falling behind, and internalizing that they were just born wrong. All the while the parents who know there's a problem but don't want to put a name to that or admit that become more and more frustrated going,

"If you just apply yourself then you can get this. I know that you're smarter than this. Are you really trying. You can do x just fine so why can't you do y? Are you just being lazy? Or do you just act like you don't know to get this extra attention from me. We've been over this a million times. It's not that difficult."

Then they just go cold they just distance themselves entirely. Because they begin to associate the child being bad at school as another form of attention seeking behavior and believe that if they stop coddling them like they have been up until that point they'll figure it out. Because the world isn't going to be easy on them so better to be tough now.

Also this all definitely puts a new spin on that trial one question and answer.

Q.14   What’s an event that’s stuck in your memory?

Haruka: Fireworks

Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented. He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest.

"I was wrong. Yes, it was me."

This also explains why Weakness was like that. He wasn't saying yes it was me to get more attention he was admitting that the reason this girl was missing or found dead was because of him. Something that only makes sense now given the tidbit about him hiding the body. He was literally confessing.

Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,

Just all around really good stuff in this report. That wraps everything up so well.

more people gotta try this shit where bill has not improved and will not change but he's just chilling so its fine probably. its great

There’s literally a surprising amount to go off of as well! There’s the whole Satsuten cafe, there’s an official (?) school au out there, right? Why isn’t there more content :(

There's a extreme lack of au content and it is bad. I now know why people say this fandom is dead, au content is MANDATORY for fandom nourishment and I haven't seen any new aus for MONTHS.

Satsuriku no Tenshi Clear Files - Circus Troupe Version

Scanned by me

If I met anybody remotely similar to Zack in real life, I’d probably never want to interact with them again. Like seriously- when you really think about it he’s incredibly annoying-

Stupidly stubborn, dumb to the point it’d be an pain to explain anything generally abstract or complex, (even if he found the patience to sit through something you’re trying to explain you can just tell he only caught like 20% of it) and refuses to take care of himself to the point it’s annoying for other people- like he must smell absolutely horrendous.

But we all love the man anyways