Back in 2013, Skyla was introduced in Myths of Unova Issue 33 as a lesbian, implied by her fiance being a woman (mentioned by she/her pronouns). Just from that there was a freakout in the nuzlocke forums by a certain user who was just extremely pretentious and obnoxious. This person did not have any issue with Burgh being introduced as gay in the earlier pages...my guess is because his intro was seen more as a "haha stereotypical gay" or something (legit enough criticism, I just really wanted to use my rainbow backgrounds).

The mods did shut that trainwreck down in my thread, but that user in particular started to just hatewatch my comic and bother me through bad-faith critique comments. I did not want to come off as "famous person abusing status to kick out some reader" and just tolerated it until I couldn't, and the mods threadbanned that user after I requested help. It was also seen that the same person was just a nasty homophobe/transphobe in general in other parts of the forums so was eventually banned completely from the site.

There was also some rumblings about it in /vp/ too (my works were posted often back then) but I don't go there. I also cannot be bothered to check what that was like bc thats just self-harm.

No need to apologize, I love questions!

I'm enjoying it, I think. It's kind of weird, because the reason that I dropped the Tales Series completely was because I had a brutal shock to my system courtesy of the most intense grief I've ever felt to date. When my last dog—my platonic soulmate—died, so did any interest or feelings I had for the Tales Series. It wasn't intentional; but I first got into the Tales Series via Tales of Symphonia when I was roughly sixteen, and I played it with her right beside me. We snacked on Cheez-Its or honey roasted peanuts while we played. (She loved both of those snacks, Cheez-Its especially; she knew how to open doors and one time, right in front of me, she opened the pantry door and knocked the box of Cheez-Its onto the floor so she could eat them. She was so clever.)

And it wasn't just Symphonia. I was in my college dorm for my first playthrough of Abyss, but we played it together when I was home in the summer, or later when I got my own apartment. She was with me when I played Graces F, when I played Xillia and Xillia 2. I tried to play Zestiria, which came out after she passed, but I never finished it because I just didn't have the motivation to.

So when she died, not only did I hit rock bottom emotionally and psychologically, but I lost all interest in the Tales Series. And I didn't regain it for years. She died in 2015 (January 9th to be specific), and when I visited the Tales Shop in Japan in 2018, I felt nothing. I saw merchandise for characters I had loved, and it didn't cause any emotion in me at all. I just felt empty.

But it has been ten years now, since she died. And seeing the occasional Symphonia fanart on my dash gently stirred some feelings of fond nostalgia. And when I saw in the ROMs list, I thought . . . why not. I can give it a shot.

So I did. And while I'm not itching to play it at every second (i.e. the same passion I used to have is not there), it is still a nostalgic and familiar experience. I still like the characters and the music. And it's a shock to me how much of the dialogue I still have memorized from back when I was hyperfixated on it in my youth. I could still recite the full prologue along with Kratos. I could recite the entire exchange between Raine and Lloyd in the beginning. I did a dramatic impression of ". . . your name is Lloyd?" along with Kratos at the temple. I knew everything Forcystus would say both at the human ranch ("how did a mere human make that kind of jump?") and in Iselia. This information has, apparently, just been saved in my brain all this time, waiting for its time to resurface.

So it's an interesting experience. Overall I'm enjoying it, and I don't think I'll drop it, but I also don't think this will be a reentry into the Tales Series fandom for me, lol. I still think that part of my life has passed. But it's a nice little nostalgic trip down memory lane, like rewatching a movie you haven't seen since childhood. Not enough to spark a hyperfixation, but enough to have a good time.

YESSS YES YES YESSSS SSSS

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Breaking Bad Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jesse Pinkman & Lydia Rodarte-Quayle Characters: Jesse Pinkman, Lydia Rodarte-Quayle Additional Tags: Trans Jesse Pinkman, Trans Female Character, Post-El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Post-Canon, Light Angst Summary:

Living under a new identity and working in a cozy woodshop in Alaska, Jesse thought she'd left the past behind. That is, until a familiar individual from her old life walks into her shop.