Daddy, don't go.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

CFC 190

1. He Li is not the greatest human being, but I feel terrible for him -his whole world crashing and so publicly, being escorted to see his mother with newspapers salivating for a glimpse. Not to forget, he’s only 15. How nice that the fucking up of kids and teens continues.

2. Wei Rong also killed Chen Lisheng? Really? And not anyone else in the org? Hmmm.

3. I find it interesting that XQC can talk to WR so calmly. This is the woman who killed his parents and wrecked his whole life with the chain of events (hell, she had the car run him over and all the suffering that followed) and who He Yu, who he loved, died to bring to justice. But he’s still so calm. It reminds me of what he told HY back in the mental hospital when they thought XX might be dead - that he would keep going no matter what. That is both admirable and terrifying. Except for when he was a kid who tried to kill himself, he has never broken since. He is utterly broken as a person but he has never had that final crack - does that make sense?

4. XQC saying that the one good thing WR did was to have HY grow into a person different from He Li but the thing is - I suppose with a mother like that, neglect would be better than doting, but He Yu brought up himself with the guiding beacon of XQC’s presence and help of Vivian’s genetics (she was clearly the only OK person in that family) but the reason HY turned out to be a decent person is 99% to He Yu’s credit and is innate. He needed that anchor of XQC yes, but the fact is he was the kind of person for whom this was enough.

5. WR losing it and saying XQC brought up HY correctly, by sleeping with him like a prostitute. Lady, shut up! At least HY knew who he was sleeping with, which is more than I can say for his father. But she’s just lashing out, tryingto hurt as much as she can, with anything. Her saying XQC is the same as she, just using HY to avenge his parents and discarding him - wtf! First of all, XQC had no idea that is what HY was up to but also even if somehow he was, vengeance for parents’ murder is different in replacing some lady because you want to bang her husband and then embarking on the life of Lady Pablo Escobar.

6. What is Wei Rong’s fixation on pedigree and gay people? (Though if her attitude is shared by the org, which is clearly is, it explains why they were so quick to experiment on the poor - they really don’t see them as fellow humans.)

7. Now XQC is referred to as an ice sculpture. I love how often ice is associated with XQC (just as Meatbun in general is fond of the terms of cold and warm) - earlier it was as HY was melting that ice and now HY is gone and so it’s frozen more solid than ever, but this time, the ice won’t melt. It will just crack and shatter.

8. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!!!!! Duan Wen trusted HY because HY agreed to have a chip implanted! (All the stuff he left was before that, because once the chip is implanted, he’d not have been able to do it.) AND FUCKING DUAN WEN IMPLANTED IT IN THE HEART!!!! I was wondering why he didn’t tell the cops/XQC the truth during that last call and gun battle - it really would have been fine by then. It is because he literally couldn’t. I cannot imagine the degree of despair he was in - knowing the truth and not being able to reveal it, watching his damnation near helpless.

Also, how horrifying is it that Wei Rong watched the procedure - probably enjoying HY’s suffering and no exit situation. And I cannot even imagine what went through HY’s mind when he saw where it was implanted and that this is really no chance ever because if it’s on the wrist, perhaps you can remove a wrist, but how do you cut out your own heart! (Symbolism!) I do wonder what is with Meatbun and hearts - I love it how it’s a theme. Both CWN and Mo Ran have their cores cracked/dug out and Gu Mang pierces through Mo Xi’s heart with his weapon. It’s like a physical mark of the suffering of love. I can’t even imagine what went through HY’s heart as he realized what is happening and realizing he cannot ever get out because if he changed his mind on the operating table, Duan Wen would kill him, but if he did not, his life is OVER forever. All of a sudden, HY’s possibly missing limb is the least of his problems.

9. Wei Rong only says it to hurt but she is factually correct - the one who made HY despair and broke him is not her or the org but XQC. He Yu “died” on that ship in despair, died believing XQC betrayed him to his enemies, that XQC did not care on even a basic level, he “died” asking to be shot. And knowing what we know about the loyalty tracker in him, the fact that he had any sort of hope before that makes it all the more heartbreaking because it shows his faith in and dependence on XQC - that despite the terrible situation he was in, he still did not want to die and had some hope - he really is tenacious and able to hold on by his fingernails because that is how he was able to survive so far. But then Chen Man’s appearance pried those fingernails off one by one.

10. What the fuck!!! One of XQC’s eyes went blind when HY died? I sort of like the matching symmetry of one limb and one eye and also it makes me think of Gu Mang and his eyes but at this point, so much of the narrative really is about disassembling the both of them, not just on an emotional but on a physical level and just....

11. I love the description where he slept and it was dark and dreamless, no teddy bears or amusement parks, no endless weeping and wailing by him. It’s like he lost his humanity of even dreaming. Except when he woke up, one of his eyes is blind and there are blood and tears under it. GOD, what an image! (And I love Meatbun’s sentence about a world where nothing looks like it changed but because of a loss of a person, everything has changed - it’s so true with loss - it’s monumental for the loved ones but the world just revolves moving on, oblivious.) But also, this is clearly his subconscious demonstrating what he consciously refuses - his loss and grief and how symbolically he’s now not whole without HY, how a part of him is missing. He is going blind because He Yu, He Yu’s love and care, was the light in his life.

I kinda need a lie down now.

okay okay okay

the movie “enchanted”, but witcher-fied (sorry this got away from me a bit)

there’s a stereotypical medieval fantasyland where jaskier julian alfred pankratz is the prince of lettenhovia. he’s got the looks, voice, and affinity for attracting woodland animals of a disney princess. also, the tragic backstory: his parents died in a freak accident when he was young. but don’t worry, his creepy “uncle” stregobor took upon himself the burden of ruling in their stead, until julian grew up and became ready for the throne.

(basically, stregobitch is like rasputin, and had tricked and slimed his way into the crown’s good graces before, surprise surprise, killing off the king and queen. he left julian alive to take some of the heat off of him with that extra distraction of grieving child. alas, poor little princeling that he can play the benevolent guardian to.)

and things are gr8 for good ol streggy, julian seems more inclined to sing and wander than become bogged down with the responsibility of becoming king. everything’s comin up stregs.

and then, of course, there’s a prophecy about how julian will be his doom or whatev and he needs to get on that shit STAT like he’s never heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy before (to be fair, fantasyland doesn’t have ancient greek tragedies to learn from so rip stregosaurus). but before he can implement his sophisticated plan of julian dying in an “accident”, our dear jules wanders too far and falls down a magic well into the Real World.

and he’s like, sweet, look at all this stuff! this is great and - oh hello, very attractive man with silken white hair and eyes as golden as the dawn light falling gently upon newly blossomed lillies and thighs that can crush his head and his heart, what up. and geralt is very confused and frustrated and oddly and begrudgingly charmed by this loudly dressed and loudly singing idiot accosting him outta nowhere, but his daughter ciri seems to like him so i guess we can keep him for a night but if he pees on the rug he’s out.

cue fun family bonding, musical numbers, shenanigans, all that jazz; julian, now jaskier cuz new world new him babey,, exploring and learning and having the time of his life and trying to get this broody man to open up and show that kindness his scowl can’t quite hide.

aaaaand cut back to streginald throwing a fit that the prince has cleverly evaded his dastardly plans, he has underestimated him it seems, and he can’t just let this massive loose thread keep flappin in the breeze, so he sends yennefer to deal with him.

now, yennefer is streggo my eggo’s daughter in this, and he’s raised her to be his right hand woman, his evil apprentice, the (much smarter) kronk to his yzma, and she’s been promised power once her dad fully claims the throne, so ofc she gets right on tracking that crafty twunk down to kill him. in the process, she comes across roach, julian’s horse and bff talking animal companion, by the magic well, gathering up the fucks to go after her wayward idiot. a struggle ensues, and yen and roach both go through the portal.

so now we got the side plot of these two trying to find jaskier, yen to kill him and roach to huff reproachfully at him for getting into this mess and if anyone is gonna kill him she will for dragging her across realms (she does not like portals, okay, they feel weird) not some uppity witch. so they got their tomfoolery of yen almost killing an unaware jaskier but then roach foiling her plans. she also tries to kidnap ciri as bait for a trap, but she can’t hurt this kid she’s too precious, ow ow ow, why does her chest feel weird?? she’s actually starting to find the boundaries to her thirst for power and it kinda sucks and feels nice at the same time??? 0/10 do not recommend

during this, geralt’s quiet life is being upended by this weird dude and he’s never danced so much in his life and his child is conspiring against him to set him up with this clearly deranged but very nice and pretty man but he’s not staying ciri we have to get him back to .....wherever tf he came from i don’t even like him, what are you talking about,,,

it all comes to a head at the costume ball, where geralt and jaskier are dancing and making eyes at each other until roach bursts in and tries to charades her way into warning her idiot to run motherfucker but she can’t talk in this realm so ugh and geralt horsegirl rivia is just like omg ur best friend is a horse that’s so fucking cool i love you even more.

and then yen bursts in; she’s kinda struggling to fulfill her mission, cuz she’s been watching jaskier and geralt and they just seem like two idiots that couldn’t possibly threaten anything, let alone her father’s power grab. she’s also made frenemies with roach, she’s the only motherfucker who can handle her in this city. so she just tries to scare jaskier into never returning, which works pretty well because she is v v scary, and then stregobonkers comes strolling in like wtf why is this taking you so long just kill him!! and yen is like i’ve kind of grown this pesky con- 🤢 consci- 🤢, wait, just, give me a min,,,, conscience!! yeah, that’s the bitch! anyway, stop telling me what to do dad and stregobego drops a bomb and goes i always knew you had a weakness to you, just like your parents!

and it’s just,,

silent.

what? what do you - my parents?

and it turns out he saw the power she held and wanted it under his control, so he killed her parents (it’s like, his signature move at this point) and groomed her to be his obedient little weapon. and, understandably, yen is pissed off and hurt and goes to lash out at him, but he just smirks and clicks his fingers while muttering under his breath, and everything stops for yen a second time as her mind blanks.

sneaky streg had put in a fail safe, in case she ever got out of line, and the amulet he gave her “for protection and focus, you must never take it off” lights up and puts her under his command and she turns into a sickass dragon that starts tearing up the dance floor, literally, in her rampage to kill jaskier.

geralt and jaskier go oh shit and dodge for their lives and things are looking pretty dire, but then jaskier looks at the suits of armor set up for decoration and goes wait a minute and grabs a sword to toss at geralt and just goes cover me boo and aim for that amulet and if you miss we’ll probably all die so no pressure!! and just sprints out and distracts angry dragon!yen and geralt goes goddamnit jaskier and sneaks around until he can jump at her and do a completely improbable matrix leap to stab at the amulet, and because this is a romcom and i get to choose my coping mechanisms, he makes it and yen is free from streg egghead’s power and she turns to him, still a dragon, and smiles wide with all them sharp sharp teeth and he goes ohhhh shiiiit and tries to run, but jaskier very helpfully trips him up and goes eat up my lady and dragon yen does, with great relish.

in conclusion, everyone lives happily ever after except streggles. geralt gets over his baggage and professes his love for jaskier, jaskier goes i’m not that easy geralt there needs to be wooing! i deserve to be wooed!! before heavily making out with him in the next five seconds. jaskier gives yen his blessing to become queen of lettenhovia, because he never really wanted the job anyway and she deserves it after what she’s been through. she still comes back every sunday for brunch and to teach ciri how to fight (she’s mine now, i’ve adopted her so she needs to learn the fine art of pointy things geralt) and geralt, jaskier, and ciri take holidays to fantasyland and roach is free to roam wherever she wants and becomes an advisor to yen.

the end

(extra dramatic addendum: geralt finally brings jask home to meet his family; vesemir opens the door and geralt goes this is my boyfriend, jas- but vesemir cuts him off with a choked out pRiNcE JuLiAn?! and it turns out vesemir is also actually from fantasyland. he worked for julian’s parents; the prevalence of monsters had been steadily rising, and so they had the idea to create witchers to combat them. kaer morhen was created under their sanction and vesemir was a teacher there, but he became disenfranchised with every boy that didn’t make it through the trials. when the keep was attacked by fanatics against witchers, he smuggled out eskel, lambert, coen, and geralt, and hid them away. he looked at these traumatized kids and went well that won’t do, followed up on some rumors of a new world, had a mage friend alter the boys’ memories, and skedaddled for our world. very shocking reveal, angsty angst-ness as geralt and the others deal with repressed memories and the fact that jaskier’s parents were responsible for it all, y’know, all that good stuff)

BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY

if you’re following my blog or if you read my fanfiction, you may have seen me talking in tags or comments about how the radiance hollowknight was a pacifist. “feral, wtf?” you may have thought. “she’s the freaking final boss and tries really, really hard to kill you and all her attacks do 2 entire masks damage. where on earth do you get pacifism out of that???”

to you specifically i say, that’s an understandable reaction! the short version of how i got here was that i started thinking about the story implications of radi not inflicting contact damage and took a deep dive into game mechanics and lore. when i came up for air i had made myself Very Sad.

if this intrigues you and you would like to know more, come along with me, i am happy to point out the things i noticed and share the Big Sad around.

this essay is also available on dreamwidth for accessibility purposes, since my layout’s text may be too small for folks on pc with high-res screens.

CONTENT WARNING: This essay discusses pseudo-zombie plagues and associated body horror, colonialism and genocide, horrible things that happened in real life Australian history... you know, the usual topics that come up when I’m talking about Hollow Knight.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE: TPK fans of the “TPK meant well/was working for the greater good”/“TPK and Radi are equally bad”/“TPK is bad but Radi is worse” variety please give this one a pass, it ain’t for you.

finally if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay

BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY: The Radiance Doesn’t Deal Contact Damage And That’s Kind Of Fucked Up And Sad

The vast majority of hostile creatures in Hollow Knight deal contact damage: This is to say, if the Wandering Knight (who I’ll probably spend most of this essay calling by their affectionate fan name Ghost) touches a hostile creature, this harms them.

There are exceptions to this rule. The most notable and most oft-memed example is the game’s literal actual true final boss, the Radiance. Not only will Ghost not be harmed by running into any part of her body, but during her stagger animation, where she drops to the boss arena floor on her front with her whole body splayed out, Ghost still isn’t harmed if she lands on top of them! What’s more, this holds true for her full-power form Absolute Radiance, the secret final boss of the Godmaster quest/endings.

A lot of people find this amusing, because it’s a little absurd that a game’s final boss is an exception to such a consistent element of gameplay! Hence all the “haha moth too soft and fluffy for contact damage” jokes. It is objective facts that Radi is very soft and very fluffy, so it’s very easy to understand why people don’t overthink this too much.

Thinking about things I like in gross detail is unfortunately my hobby. When it comes to Hollow Knight this usually leads to me making myself really sad. I’d like to share the fruits of my theorizing with the class, so other people can be sad with me.

Now, from a game design perspective I can think of a lot of reasons why Team Cherry chose for Radiance not to inflict contact damage. Her hitbox only covers the central part of her body. Her limbs are large, so because of the way she floats, if she did contact damage she would be protected from nail strikes from below and to either side. This would give a player who prefers nail combat a punishingly small margin through which they could inflict damage without also taking a hit, potentially forcing them to adapt to a new and unfamiliar play style at the very end of the game. That’s not fun for anybody and tends to make players feel very frustrated.

In addition to this, Radiance’s attacks are all bullet hell-style spells. All of them except the floor hazards inflict two masks of damage, meaning if you want to stay alive and identify points where it’s possible to heal, you need to learn the spell patterns and dodge a lot. Radi is a large boss. If running into her hurt you this would make the bullet hell elements of her fight extra punishing.

So, I think the purely game mechanics reason for Moth Too Soft And Fluffy is in interest of keeping her boss fight fair, and helping players feel like they have a chance of actually defeating her.

Part of why we all love Hollow Knight, though, is that there’s not much in the game that only exists for purely mechanical reasons. There’s always some form of story or lore integration.

So what on earth is the story reason behind why Radiance doesn’t deal contact damage?

OTHER ENEMIES THAT DON’T DEAL CONTACT DAMAGE

Radi isn’t the only enemy (here defined as fightable/killable creature) in Hollow Knight who doesn't inflict contact damage, so let’s take a look at her fellow exceptions to the rule to see what we can learn.

Broadly speaking there are two categories of Enemies That Don’t Deal Contact Damage. The first is enemies or bosses who used to be hostile, but have become friendly to the player. For instance, when characters like Ogrim and Hornet are not being fought in boss battles, touching them won’t cause damage to Ghost. These story characters who Ghost has more or less reconciled with can’t be damaged by the player out of combat either.

In terms of generic enemies who used to be hostile but have become friendly to the player, we have the mantises of the Fungal Wastes and the Siblings/Ghost’s Shade. We learn from the game’s lore that the mantises Did Not Like The Pale King and were hostile to Hallownest, but that they established a ceasefire conditional on their keeping the people of Deepnest (who were also hostile to Hallownest) from leaving through the area’s main entrance/exit in the Fungal Wastes - essentially the two native kingdoms were pitted against one another by the Pale King.

Now, just because there was a ceasefire, that doesn’t mean the mantises take kindly to Hallownest bugs brazenly trespassing into their dang house; they will get in your face and try to kill you unless you have permission to be there. But once you’ve defeated the Mantis Lords in combat and proven yourself worthy of the mantises’ respect, they’ll let you pass through their turf unmolested. They are no longer actively hostile and don't deal contact damage.

(You're still able to attack them, though - maybe because you’d be locked out of receiving the Hunter’s Mark if you complete the Respect quest/achievement before you’ve successfully killed enough mantises? - and if you attack them, or if your pet charm familiars attack them, any mantises you aggroed will fight back and deal contact damage again.)

The Siblings, as well as Ghost’s Shade, are initially indiscriminately hostile. Our window into Shade psychology is limited, but we know that the Shade died violently and the Siblings probably did too; they may be lashing out. They’re also Void creatures, and Ghost looks a lot like the Pale King, whom we can guess from context clues pissed the Void off significantly by using it as his personal play-doh to make tools and toys with and also using its house as his personal garbage dump for baby corpses.

However, once Ghost recalls their past and breaks the mask of the Kingsoul charm to reveal the Void Heart at its core, the Void recognizes them as a part of it, and Ghost becomes able to direct/lead the Void to some extent. As an extension of this, the Siblings and Ghost’s shade become docile and can now be killed by any weapon in one hit instead of just the Dream Nail (which is made of Radiance’s Light and is the Void’s natural weakness). They don’t deal contact damage anymore either.

That’s it for “enemies that inflict contact damage at one point, but stop inflicting it after becoming friendly or neutral to Ghost”.

The generic enemies which don't inflict contact damage include shrumelings, maggots, maskflies, and lightseeds/lifeseeds. These enemies are incapable of inflicting any damage on Ghost whatsoever, because by themselves they are completely helpless entities with no natural defenses.

Shrumelings are infant members of the mushroom clan who are usually protected by adult fungi like shrumal warriors and ogres. Lightseeds and lifeseeds are harmless single-celled organisms. Maskflies are similarly harmless. Maggots, we glean from the Hunter’s Journal and dialogue from False Knight/Failed Champion, are the bottom rung of Hallownest’s society because they are weak and helpless, and are forced into menial and slave labor by other Hallownest bugs because they cannot defend themselves. The maggots’ plight is the whole reason why False Knight/Failed Champion stole Hegemol's armor in the first place, as he wanted to protect his people.

All of these enemies flee when Ghost approaches them. (Some maskfly groups’ flight triggers are set to specific areas on a map and won’t flee if you can avoid stepping on/passing through those areas, but this is clearly due to a programming oversight because their whole Thing is running away.)

But, there’s something interesting to be observed in the case of lightseeds and maggots: They can fight back against and harm Ghost if they use tools. The little flock of lightseeds you chase around the Ancient Basin eventually get sick of Ghost’s shit and take over Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s corpse, which they puppet around to try to murder you. By doing so they gain access to Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s considerable combat prowess and become very dangerous, contact damage included in the bargain. (The lightseeds’ doing this seems to evoke the vessel’s spirit, since they reach for Ghost when defeated. That’s not a gesture the lightseeds have any reason to make. The Lost Kin fight, by which the spirit seems to gain some form of closure, becomes available here too.)

False Knight/Failed Champion’s fights work on the same general principle. Now that he has a weapon he can attack Ghost, and his armor deals contact damage. The maggot inside the armor does not inflict contact damage; essentially both his boss fights consist of your whacking the armor until he’s stunned and pops out of the armor for a moment so you can hit his vulnerable real body, which is the only part of him that yields Soul when you smack him. In fact, his boss fights will last forever if you let him recover from being stunned on his own.

Between these two groups, Radiance very obviously doesn’t fit in the first, as she’s the final boss and is very vigorously trying to kill Ghost with various magic spells. You can tell from her Dream Nail dialogue that she’s furious about what the Pale King did to her and her people, and is afraid for her life. She is willing to use everything at her disposal to try to destroy Ghost so she can survive, go free, and get revenge for the Pale King’s crimes. If she could do contact damage to Ghost she would.

So, the only logical conclusion to make is that Radi falls into the second group of enemies that don’t inflict contact damage. She is physically incapable of causing any harm to anyone with only her body. Her magic is deadly as all get out and the 2 masks damage explosion noise probably haunts the nightmares of anyone who’s struggled fighting her, but without it she is helpless.

WHY CAN’T RADIANCE DO CONTACT DAMAGE?

It might be pretty hard to reconcile the fact that a character with Audre Lorde energy as potent as Radi Hollowknight’s is has a whopping 0 ATK. The biggest clues we get in terms of story context for her inability to inflict physical harm of any kind can be found within the culture of the moth tribe, who were her people.

Thistlewind, the backer-designed moth ghost who can be found in the Resting Grounds, tells you that the majority of moths were pacifists, and that individuals like them and like Markoth who learned to wield a nail were in the minority. Thistlewind appears to have learned to fight as a means of self-defense while they explored the crater area, and describes Markoth as having done so in order to “[brave] the edges of this world, hoping to uncover a truth long forgotten”. It sounds to me like Markoth was trying to recover parts of moth culture that were lost when their tribe was assimilated into Hallownest, or maybe even searching for Radiance or trying to learn what happened to her. (Judging that his corpse is hidden behind one of the Pale King’s shade gates it seems this didn’t go well. Thanks TPK.)

As far as fighting moths go there’s Marmu too, but she seems to be a special case, possibly raised in Hallownest's culture instead of with her tribe. We don’t actually get any sort of canon explanation for how a baby moth wound up as a child soldier who died defending the Queen’s Gardens, but given the overall tone of Hollow Knight as a game and all the colonization/Australian history parallel subtext, some horrifying possibilities come to mind.

So, if Thistlewind, Markoth, and Marmu are Outliers Lepidoptera and should not be counted, how did the majority of moths spend their time? According to Seer, who knows more about the tribe’s history than most (and to Quirrel, who points you to her if you defeat Uumuu before picking up the Dream Nail), the moths’ main prerogative was cultivating and developing dream magic. From the way the Seer describes dreams as a living history as you collect Essence, dream magic seems to be a parallel to the Dreaming (or Dreamtime), a spiritual concept in Indigenous Australian religion related to both history and myth.

To translate this into simple terms, the moths were by and large pacifists whose culture celebrated art, history, and spirituality.

Team Cherry tends to adapt at least some aspects of real-life bug behavior and biology into their sad cartoon bugs, so moths-as-pacifists tracks: Real moths do not really have any way to fight. They defend themselves from predators via their mobility and their markings, which tend towards either camouflage that helps them hide or bright markings intended to scare predators off by indicating they’re poisonous (therefore not good to eat) or look like the face of something much bigger and more dangerous than they are.

There's not that much we can glean about the moths in pre-Hallownest society aside from Seer’s dialogue, because Hallownest destroyed their civilization so thoroughly: Except in the Dream Realm (which is filled with Essence spirographs and the wisteria charms that decorate Seer’s room), their architecture can only be found anymore in hidden parts of the Resting Grounds and at the very top of the Crystal Peak where Radi’s statue and a fuckton of lore tablets Ghost doesn’t know how to read are located.

But, we know that the crater pre-Hallownest was home to a ton of diverse bug nations - the mosskin, the mushroom tribe, the mantises, Deepnest, the Hive, the flukes - and every SINGLE one of those had some kind of warrior tradition, as well as their own unique cultures. In the midst of all that it was only the moths who were pacifists, so from there we can tentatively assume that they were on good enough terms with their neighbors for there not to be any fighting. The mosskin in particular also had and still have a Higher Being on their side, though in the modern day Unn seems to be rather conflict avoidant to say the least.

And we know from Hallownest’s past dealings with the mantises and Deepnest that even having Two (2) Higher Beings isn’t enough to keep rival civilizations off your nuts if they hate you, so it’s improbable that Radiance just did all the moths’ fighting for them.

The only hint that the moths ever had beef with anyone at all is one of Radiance’s Dream Nail lines, “ancient enemy” - this is popularly theorized to refer to the Void and might be corroborated by the Void’s willingness to follow Ghost into Radi’s boss fights and fight alongside them. As the Void seems to be some sort of Higher Being/god of darkness and nothingness, and the Dream Nail’s only offensive ability is to kill Void creatures, the Void and creatures of Light appear to be in a position of mutual vulnerability. Some of the Pale King’s writings in his workshop, which identify the Void as a power in direct opposition to his, support this too.

It’s unclear whether the Void civilization and Radiance ever directly came to blows or whether they were just giving each other the stink eye over being natural enemies - personally I think the latter is more likely because the two civilizations existed on opposite sides of the crater*, and again, the moths were pacifists; plus when Ghost brings the Void along to Radi’s boss fight she is quickly and gruesomely overwhelmed by it.

What I am saying here is that if pacifism was such an integral aspect of moth culture, and Radiance epitomized her people’s culture, and she is 100% incapable of inflicting physical harm, she was probably a pacifist too.

DEEP DOWN YOU KNOW YOU WEREN'T BUILT FOR FIGHTING

Hallownest flourished for a long, long time between the Pale King and White Lady first establishing it and the initial outbreak of the Infection.

There’s no conclusive information in-game as to why this is. We can only guess: Maybe Radiance was so badly hurt or weakened by the moths’ assimilation that it simply took her That Long to become capable of the mass dream broadcast to Literally Everyone In Hallownest that would eventually become the Infection when Hallownest’s people tried to suppress it. Or, maybe it just took a long time for her to come up with a way to fight back. It’s possible that it took her a while to find the resolve to actually fight back, too, with her principles of pacifism in conflict with the necessity of defending herself and taking her people back. Maybe there was a change in the moths’ situation in Hallownest somewhere down the line that compelled her to step in - all the moths are super extremely dead at the time Hollow Knight starts, after all. Even Seer is eventually revealed to be a revenant like Ze’mer the Grey Mourner, only lingering in the world to pass on the Dream Nail and tell Radiance’s story. Maybe it was a combination of all those factors. Barring Team Cherry dropping in to explain this bit of Sekret Deep Lore, we are never going to know.

All we DO know for sure is that when we mosey into Hollow’s brain (and/or Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny our way to the top of Hallownest’s Pantheon) and challenge the literal actual sun to a fight, Radi takes the challenge with extreme prejudice and comes in swinging.

Something interesting I noticed while comparing the Radiance boss fights with the Pure Vessel fight is that some of their attacks are vaguely similar. Where warrior-mage characters like Xero and Markoth have physical weapons that they summon and manipulate with magic, Radiance and Pure Vessel both create nails and daggers out of Essence and Soul respectively. Both characters’ magical weapon attacks are similar in nature too: Some are used to create hazards that must be dodged or avoided, and some are fired directly at Ghost in radial patterns.

This begs a very sad chicken-and-egg question. Did Radi and Hollow develop these battle techniques independently of each other, has Hollow in their prime form somehow absorbed similar techniques to Radi through osmosis since they’re currently chained together by the brain... or is Radi mimicking and innovating on these attacks she knows Hollow can do?

All her other attacks seem very obvious for a light-themed character, after all: Beam attacks and blobs of light. A flash of bright light is also how she shakes off the Void the first time it tries to grab her, too, making for a strong argument that that’s the original natural defense she possessed, and that’s what she based most of her attack magic off of.

Making sword’s and knive’s from Essence when most of her people didn’t even handle these sorts of tools even at the height of her power and influence, though... that seems less like something that would come naturally to her. i don’t really know i don’t have a definitive answer or theory for this one it just Seems Possible and it’s fucking me up guys

Even the Infection - which began life as Radiance’s attempt to communicate, let’s remember, before it progressed to “The End Of Eva Disease Will Continue Until Someone Actually Listens To Me” and then finally Radi screaming “FUCK U LET ME OUT, GET THAT NEW SUNNY D BOTTLE THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, HALLOWNEST EAT SHIT” during canon - does not appear to be fatal to living bugs until the tumorous growths grow so large they impede bodily functions, like real cancer. We can observe this phenomenon via a number of NPCs and enemies that are rediscovered as tumorous corpses after the whole Crossroads area becomes infected.

At least to me, all of this points to Radiance being a character to whom violence and causing harm doesn't come naturally, and who has resorted to these methods in desperation.

It actually reminds me a lot of False Knight/Failed Champion. It’s a very common theory among fans that when he stole Hegemol’s armor he killed Hegemol - this is a reasonable thing to believe, since Hegemol is the only one of the Five Great Knights of Hallownest who never appears at all in-game, not even as a corpse like Dryya and Isma. Like Radi, False Knight/Failed Champion is a character who rose up and turned to violence in order to protect his people, despite the maggots not being a belligerent species.

False Knight is one of the game’s first major bosses, sometimes the first boss that players encounter at all. And so Hollow Knight’s story bookends with two separate victims of a predatory system, one who lived within and was cannibalized by it, one outside of it who was deliberately targeted by the Pale King. Neither of them started out as a fighter, but both of them still adopted violence as a tool to protect themselves and their people. Radiance is as doomed as False Knight by the Pale King’s genocide, but just like False Knight, she has no intention of going quietly, and will rage against the dying of the light as only the literal actual sun can.

Cue Deedee Magno Hall voice clip. You all know the one.

*A footnote: There’s no conclusive evidence to tell us whether the Void civilization was contemporaneous with the other pre-Hallownest indigenous bug nations or whether it predated them. Mask Maker has a line suggesting that the Void civilization tried to expand throughout the crater in its heyday and that maybe this was linked to its collapse, but in general the Void lore is just too darn thin to draw firm conclusions - it’s like trying to speculate on the ancient stone age cultures of the Americas that came before pre-settler Indigenous countries when the only sources you can easily access are elementary school level US history textbooks. (To non-Americans: We mostly teach kids propaganda until they hit college-level courses and it sucks so much ass.) This is very realistic worldbuilding, but also please Team Cherry I want to know more about these ancient bugs who apparently got lost in the sauce

Moceit/found family Superfamily AU

(Tw: mention of panic attacks, depression, anxiety, death, kidnapping, human trafficking. Nothing is shown in huge detail at all but be warned)

Also this is a long plot so bare with me:

Okay so Janus Trần was a 20 year old law student by day, world famous super hero named Deceit by night

His power was that Janus had the ability to mind control people if they looked him in the eyes

And while Janus had always used his powers for good, most people (especially the media) still feared Deceit for what he could potentially do

But that was fine, right? I mean he didn’t really have any friends as Janus and as Deceit the world hated him, but he worked better alone! He was definitely not suffering from crippling loneliness... definitely not...

Everything changed when, while stopping a back robbery, another hero named Morality thought Deceit was the one robbing the bank and tried to fight him

And even when after the mixup was cleared up, Janus was still pissed

Except staying mad at Morality was kind of hard. Because instead of trying to justify himself, Morality told him he was really really sorry and insisted on taking Deceit out for lunch to make up for it

During lunch Janus learned a couple of things:

1) Morality had no concept of keeping secrets. He revealed that his real name was Patton Saleh, he was 22, he had two moms and worked at their bakery, and his powers were to manipulate the weather around him based on his emotions

2) Patton was one stubborn SOB. He payed for the meal (despite Janus’ arguing), he gave Janus his number and started texting him later that night, and decided that they were going to be friends, whether Janus liked it or not

3) Janus was already falling in love with this human ball of sunshine... well shit

The two began hanging out as heroes almost daily (Janus swore that he was annoyed by this) and even began teaming up together to fight together

And that actually worked out really well! They both had way better success rates when they fought together, and Janus really felt happier then ever now that he finally had a friend

The issue was that Janus still didn’t want to give up any of his secrets. About a year after they first met (a year of keeping his growing and growing crush on Patton hidden) and Patton still didn’t know Deceit’s real name, age, occupation, or literally anything

This caused a wedge between the two of them that eventually turned into a huge argument. This ended with Patton screaming that he refused to give his heart to someone who won’t give anything back in return and storming off

The two didnt talk for months and the depression and loneliness hit Janus way harder then ever. He even considered not being a hero anymore because of it

Then one day he saw on the news that Morality got hurt in a battle. Badly hurt. And it was a fight that the two of them could have easily won together but because he was alone, Patton was hurt. Because of him, Patton was hurt

Janus booked it over to the Storytellers’ headquarters (Thomas had the ability to heal wounds and acted as the superhero medical assistance for anyone who needed it)

Storyteller explained that Patton would be fine but he would probably be unconscious for a while and that Janus could sit by his bed to wait

While there, seeing the love of his life so pale and lifeless, Janus broke down and told Patton everything. He confessed his name and his whole backstory- how his parents kicked him out when he was 16 because of his powers. He confessed that he had been scared of opening up ever since then and getting hurt again. And he confessed that he loved Patton so so much, even though he didn’t feel worthy to love someone as wonderful as Patton

Three days later, Patton woke up. And the first thing he did is ask for Janus; not Deceit though, he asked for Janus. Meaning Patton had heard everything while he was out. Once Storyteller gave him the all clear to go into his room, Patton immediately pulled Janus in for a kiss and said that he’d been in love with Janus since that first lunch

Janus wasn’t crying. He was not sobbing hysterically and holding Patton’s hand like a lifeline thank you very much.

Once Patton got back on his feet, the two started dating for real. And sure, they still occasionally fought about Patton not putting himself first or Janus hiding things, but they worked through these things each and every time

Half a year later and the two moved in together

And a year after that and they finally got married

Fast forward to when Janus was 31 and Patton was 33. Patton owned his own restaurant, Janus was a very successful lawyer, and the hero thing was going great

One day while Janus was in court, Morality was patrolling the city when he noticed a figure in black hood and mask graffitiing a building. He went to stop the person but as soon as he touched them, he started having vivid, graphic hallucinations of his worst nightmares until he collapsed on the ground screaming and crying

Eventually Janus got a call saying what happened, and he rushed downtown to pick up his husband and take him home

The hallucinations didn’t end until twelve hours later and the first thing Patton said when he was able to speak was that they needed to find the person who did that to him. But not to get revenge like Janus thought, but to help them

Janus tried to appeal to his husband but Patton was deadset that before the person lashed out, he saw their eyes and they looked like a scared child that needs help rather then a villain

After a week of searching the duo tracked down the kid and found him robbing a 7/11. The kid was hesitant to explain anything, but he didn’t attack them. Before he ran away though, he told them to call him Anxiety and that he was sorry he hurt Morality. Patton considered the interaction a win

Over the course of a year, they continued to reach out to Anxiety. They bought him food whenever they saw him, got him warmer clothes in the winter, they even invited him to sleep over at their house when he got sick or too tired to go home. But he still refused to give his name or take off his mask, even when Janus or Patton trusted him enough to reveal theirs

And Janus found himself getting attached to this sarcastic, introverted little kid. He taught Anxiety to better control his powers (turned out that that first day with Patton was an accident because Anxiety was stressed out) and how to defend himself without powers

The breaking point was reached when one day, Anxiety came to them in the middle of a panic attack. They calmed him down enough for him to explain that, when he was eight his powers manifested, and his mom started abusing him and calling him a monster- and now she has been threatening to kill him

Janus and Patton felt their hearts’ break for their kid so they promised they wouldn’t let him go back to her. Finally Anxiety took off his mask and told them his name was Virgil Brown and he was 15 years old

Thanks to Janus’ lawyer skills, getting Virgil’s mom thrown in jail and obtaining custody of Virgil was easy (when they asked Virgil if he wanted to live with them, he started crying because no one had ever made him feel as safe as Patton and Janus had)

The family got Virgil a therapist and continued to help him with his powers and everyone was content with their perfect little family

Until one day two years later Janus got intel that a local gang was transporting a dangerous weapon to a new location and him and Patton went to intercept the gang before they could

The bust went well but when they went to break down the door of the transport van, they were shocked to find not a weapon, but a seven year old kid chained up and giving off waves of electric energy

Patton flashed Janus the puppy dog eyes so of course they took the kid home with them. The kid was scared out of his mind but with some gentle coaxing from Patton, he told them his name was Roman, he was actually ten but he had been starved his whole life so he was quite small, and when he was five his mom, dad, and twin brother were killed and he was kidnapped to be used as an energy source

Janus and Patton already mentally signed the adoption papers in their heads at this point. And Virgil saw this scared child and saw his past self in him so of course Virgil immediately decided he would die for his new brother

They slowly worked to get Roman back to a physically healthy point and to open up about what happened to him while he was kidnapped, and it turned out that Roman was actually a very talkative, excitable kid when he was not fearing for his life

And each detail Roman gave about how he was beaten and locked away just cemented the fact that Janus and Patton were going to give this kid the childhood he deserved

Life had been going well. Virgil graduated high school and started both med-school and going out on patrol with his dads on occasion, and Roman thrived in school as one of the most popular kids

Of course that was not the end of the story because their lives have never been that simple

Fellow hero Mindmeld died in a building collapse and in his will, he asked someone to go to his apartment and get all his affairs in order

Janus decided he would and lawyers up to go over to the given address. And when he got there, he immediately freaked the fuck out because why was there a kid in the apartment?

Turned out Mindmeld had a four year old son named Logan whose mother died years ago and who was now an orphan with no other relatives. A four year old who also had his late father’s telekinetic abilities that made his toys fly around the air and attack Janus when he tried to pick Logan up

You get the picture by now, of course they adopted Logan

And at first Logan was super uncomfortable and closed off to these strangers and kept asking for his dad

But then one night he had a nightmare and when Patton and Janus came to help him, he sleepily called the duo Dad and Papa and they knew they were making progress

Roman and Virgil were both kind of jealous of Logan at first because to them it looked like he was the favourite of the family as the baby, but Logan was such a curious, sweet little kid that no one could really be mad at him for very long

So Patton and Janus had three kids. Three super powered, traumatized kids.

Except that number soon went up to four. One of the members of the gang that had kidnapped Roman- who was now twelve- confessed from prison that they had never actually killed Roman’s brother

Instead they had sold Remus across the country to a supervillain organization that dealt in trading superpowered kids. Apparently Remus had the ability to manipulate soundwaves

So the parents left Virgil in charge and hauled ass to this organization.

Through some potentially illegal interrogation techniques, they managed to find out which warehouse Remus had been kept in this whole time

They found Remus- who had been locked away in a soundproof cell alone for years- and Remus immediately freaked out and lashed out with his powers when they freed him

The sound wave he released knocked down the buildings around him and ended up temporarily deafening Janus and Patton

Remus started freaking out because he thought they were going to hurt him but both of them were only concerned with this poor, scared kid’s safety

Patton told Remus that they had Roman in safety and immediately Remus calmed down and started sobbing and begging to see his brother

They brought Remus home with them and as soon as the brothers saw each other, they were both hysterical. They refused to even let go of each other for a whole week

Remus took even longer then his brother to adjust. He outright avoided being around anyone in the family other then Roman

Finally Remus confessed that he felt horribly guilty about what he did to his new dads and that he was scared he’d hurt someone again

But then Virgil sat down with his new brother and talked to him about the first time he met Patton and how he hurt him too. He tells him about how he knows what it feels like to think that no one could ever love you unconditional, but assures that with Janus and Patton it’s possible. They all have a group hug afterwards, and Remus soon blossomed around his family

And that where the story ends off: a long, long way away from the silently suffering Janus from the beginning who kept to himself, because he thought that no one would ever love him for who he really was.

Because sometimes a family is

a nine year old kid genius who skipped two grades and is in the habit of recreating the Matilda scene for fun

two sixteen year old twin boys that are known citywide as Deceit’s former sidekicks turned solo heroes named Lightning and Thunder

a twenty-four year old nightmare bender who now mentors under Storyteller as the newest superhero healer

and two forty/forty-two year old retired heroes that love their kids and each other to the ends of the Earth and back

Sorry I know it's a lil late, but if you're still taking oc asks (these ones I mean), maybe 13, 19, 24, 38/39/40, 43, 45, 47, 64, and/or 74/75/76? again, for any OC you'd like

It’s never too late to ask me about my OCs! I could talk about them until the cows come home! X3 Not to mention, this is great since I’m currently working on my next chapter and I needed a little break! So, thank you! ❤️❤️

***

13. How many siblings does your OC and what is his/her relationship with them?

So, the only OCs that have a sibling are Fane and Mhairi. Fane is Mhairi’s brother and Mhairi is Fane’s sister. Fun fact: orginally these two were supposed to be twins when I made them because they looked very similar (Fane had platinum blonde hair like Mhairi and their overall faces had like features). Now, they’re three years apart (Fane is 24 and Mhairi is 21). 

As to their relationship, it is 100% wholesome and devotion incarnate. Everything Fane does and has done is for Mhairi, and he takes the role of both a father and a brother for her. It’s one of the few times Fane is actually soft with another person. Mhairi is his whole world until Inquisition, and it makes everything later one even harder for him. *side eyes* Mhairi is in the same boat as Fane because she is highly obsessed with showing him that she can handler herself and that he doesn’t have to keep running himself into the ground to keep her safe and happy. She constantly bakes him his favorite treats, gifts him with raw materials for his weapon crafting, crafts him articles of clothing and trinkets to elicit a single smile to his face. Mhairi just wants him to be happy above all else since she can tell something changed him, but she doesn’t know what. As such, she does become a tad jealous when Fane and Solas’s relationship comes to light, but only because she’s just as protective with him as Fane is with her.

19. What does your OC think of children- either in general or about having them?

I wrote a fic about this actually! It was told from Solas’s POV, but it gave glimpse into how Fane responds to children. Fane adores children and he secretly craves a small family--just one child because he wants to give the love his mother had given him. Gentle, calm, and patient. He just thinks he doesn’t have it in him for that, especially because of what he is. (hint: watch for fics that have the appearance of the baby dragon that Solas and Fane adopt. It’ll be important waaaaay later. *winks*)

Estoria is along the same lines as Fane. She loves, loves, loves children. When she was traveling as a mercenary, the band would occasionally visit smaller cities where there were alienages and Estoria would spend her free time there. She would sing songs to the children, teach them how to do menial, but important tasks like washing clothes or planting crops, and would tell them stories of her time on the road. Deep down inside, she would adore a little girl of her own because she wants desperately to be a mother. 

24. Who are the people your OC dislikes/hates?

So, surprise! Fane doesn’t actually ‘hate’ or ‘dislike’ anyone (other than his father lol). But if we’re talking in terms of the inner circle, again, he doesn’t hate anyone, he just feels indifferent towards them. The only one that he shows any kind of passionate distaste for is Cassandra, but most of that is from a lack of communication on both their parts in the beginning (Fane is not in a good mental state during Haven’s arc due to being framed divinity and the slow realization of what he is making him lash out violently). 

Mhairi though...eheheh. She doesn’t like Solas. At all. For a very long time. They butt heads constantly because of elven history, religion, and magical theory, but also because of Mhairi’s main insecurity of being abandoned. She’s worried Solas will take Fane from her and that frightens her beyond belief. *side eyes AGAIN*

 38. How does your OC react to and handle stress?

Reacting to stress, Fane either becomes incredibly overwhelmed and irate, or he shuts down completely. He turns into a shell that simply walks through the halls with a dead stare, or he becomes the warped version of what he is--breaking, smashing, and snapping anything in his path. When that happens, in either form, Fane hides away in the more desolate parts of Skyhold where no one can find him (other than Solas or Cole). He’s like a cat, actually. He can see everyone else, but they can’t see him. He’ll do that until he calms down enough to where he isn’t overcome wit the urge to snarl or crack open a noble’s skull.

39. How does your OC handle anger?

Badly. Well, Fane does anyways. Pffft. Mhairi tends to cry when she’s angry, so also badly. Estoria...ohhhh, boy. Watch the thorns because they are laced with poison. All my OCs handle anger badly. That probably says something about me, huh? *curls up in the corner* 

40. How does your OC handle grief?

Due to his abuse, Fane rarely cries--he was commanded not to for five years and the fear of doing it lingers. However, when he does cry it’s because of something utterly heart breaking. In fact, every time the group goes to fight a dragon, Fane scurries off at the end of the battle to literally crumble into a heap of snot and tears because it physically hurts him. It’ll be revealed more in my fic as to why, but just know it’s a..bad time. Again, Fane’s go to is to be alone with his emotions until they settle down. It’s a bad habit of his and one that takes a lot of support from Solas, Cyfrin and his sister to work out.

Mhairi is very open with her emotions (her and Fane anathema to each other). So, when their mother passed and their father disappeared, she was inconsolable for months and the feeling of abandonment lingers with her still. Usually, Mhairi just goes to Fane or Cyfrin if she’s feeling lonely or grief stricken and just...cry until she passes out.

43. What kind of sense of humor does your OC have?

Fane’s humor is morbid. Cyfrin and he get locked in discussions of dark, dark humor. Such as:

“If you don’t stop commenting about how my eyes will make a ‘lovely’ ballad, I will crack your skull and make a vase. I could use some bright macabre decoration in that dismal aravel, anyways.”

“Do I at least get to be painted in pretty floral patterns and intricate designs of trees? Maybe roses?”

“I’ll make the roses blue. Just for you.”

“Ah-ha! Now we’re talking! A man after my own fluttering, flying heart!”

“I’ll make your heart fly in a minute..”

“A confession?! I knew it would be a joyous day!”

“Just shut up, Cy.”

I’m serious. This is them and I have no shame. *laughs nervously* It’s all empty, though. Cyfrin helps Fane relax a little and never judges him for his darker aspects. If anything, it helps mitigate a potential outburst because Fane can look as it as a joke rather than something that genuinely hurts him. Unless he’s in a really foul mood, then Cyfrin adopts his more caring side to calm Fane down. (I have a lot of thoughts with these two. Just wait. Juuuust wait.)

45. What are some things that annoy your OC?

What doesn’t annoy Fane? 🤣🤣 But specifically, Fane can’t stand when someone is willingly ignorant nor can he stand when they’re filled with disgusting forms of pride.

Estoria is highly annoyed by racial labels. She was taken in by a human, and as such, she got to mingle with a lot of different races throughout her time as mercenary. She got to see those races as people and when organizations like the Chantry and what have you only see race and see it as a bad thing sometimes, she goes off the handle. Estoria doesn’t shy away from being an elf, but she doesn’t believe that’s all she is nor does she believe anyone else is just their physical race.

47. How easily does your OC forgive?

Fane is slow to forgive, even if that person is highly dear to him. However, it does depend on what happened in the first place and there’s a big, big plot point later on in my story that shows a heavily development in this characteristic. 

Estoria is an easy forgiver. She’s very openminded and realizes everyone has their struggles, but if it’s something truly deplorable with no other reason besides causing harm or death or gaining influence then that changes quickly.

64. What are some habits your OC has picked up?

Fane has picked up on a lot of habits due to how long he’s lived and what his nature entails. He has a habit of squeezing his arms if he’s agitated, crossing them in an attempt to steady himself, and growling. Fane growls constantly, even if he’s not irritated. It’s an involuntary reaction from being a dragon. 

He also has a habit of tracing patterns in wood with his eyes--pointing out shapes and faces. He also has a habit of..twisting the truth. *side eyes once AGAIN*

74. What is your OC’s favorite color?

Fane -- Blue (Don’t look at me like that.)

Estoria -- Grey (reminds her of her father’s eyes)

Mhairi -- White (she likes the symbolism of purity)

75. What is your OC’s favorite scent?

Fane -- Gladiolus

Estoria -- Rain

Mhairi -- Vanilla

76. What is your OC’s favorite animal?

Fane -- Wolf (DON’T. There’s more to it, I swear!)

Estoria -- Cats (she used to play with them in alley ways)

Mhairi -- Halla (she adores being around them since her mother would take her to them when she was little)

****

Thank you for the ask, lovely person! Have a splendid day! ❤️❤️

SwitchTale

(Im not sure if that name is taken and its just a temporal name, it will be changed later)

Tws: Genocide, death

Just a heads up, this will be a long post cause i have no idea how read more works in mobile, also i do not know if someone has had this idea before so bruh, anyway here we go:

Basically, the concept is that instead of Chara being the first fallen child, Frisk will be the first one to fall instead in an underground where Asriel hasn't been born yet, effectively swapping Chara and Frisk's roles

And also Asriel is still just a child on Chara's arrival and he will help them go through the underground

This idea was based mostly on Epictale! But in this case it's on the classic undertale. Epictale by @yugogeer012

Frisk being the first one to arrive made A LOT of changes in the underground, some of them being by example:Toriel and Asgore didn't get divorced or anything, but they have been separated for decades, some monsters being more passive, while others are more aggressive, a similar yet fairly different underground with new chara-cters and more.

I still haven't figured out a lot of stuff so yeah this will have plenty of plotholes or things that make no sans-e. But anyway

Characters:

Frisk:Attack 20 Defense 25

*The first fallen human

*A rather kind and passive human child who heavily dislikes humanity and loves their monster family,while most of the time they act very nice sometimes they can lash out revealing their not-so-friendly side,their metods to achieve what they want or to do what they think is right are a bit extreme sometimes,loves puns and dominates flirting, their favorite food is charamel and chocolate

Chara: Attack 30 Defense 20

*The last fallen child

*A sassy and almost creepy human child,they hate humans but they're a bit more nice to monsters, they love chocolate,hugs and golden flowers

*Asriel is their best friend

(Chara's personality will heavily change depending on the route)

*Toriel: Everyone's favorite goat mom, she stays mostly the same but she is more protective and better trained at fighting, her fight is significantly more difficult in all routes

Asgore: The king of the underground and a big fluffy dad, his fight is a lot more difficult since he feels even more guilty and he's more desperate to end this, he wields his good ol'trident and will sometimes use a knife, he fights in genocide too. Asriel is forced to stay on the entrance to the throne room by royal guards so you have to face the king alone

Asriel: Everyone's favorite fluffy boi, he becomes Chara's best friend in just a couple days and he will help them go trough the underground

He's against murder but he will protect Chara either way and might even take a life for them

In genocide he will disappear after Toriel's death

He's 12 years old

THE GREAT PAPYRUS: Paps is a former member of the royal guard and he is a lot more serious with his job, he still won't kill you and there's also a lot less puzzles on Snowdin because of his job and instead there's a lot more royal guards in the way (mostly dogs)

He still hates his brother's puns and still has great self esteem but he is more aware of many things,he has a bit of knowledge on timelines and resets thanks to Sans but he still does not know when a load happens

Sans: The funny bone man, brother of Papyrus and another member of the royal guard (against his will) Sans is one of the characters with the most changes, he joined because of Papyrus and now has 2 Defense and 2 Attack, still 1hp, still does a lot of puns but just like Papyrus he's more serious and he will fight you once before the fight with paps to prepare you (he can't be killed in that fight as he will dodge and he will use only some simple bone attacks). He fights you on all routes in the last corridor unless you're in neutral and you didn't kill Papyrus, he is not the last genocide boss anymore, still has gaster blasters and karma but both are used only in genocide

Mk:????

Undyne: More ruthless and negative, her fights are all harder but not too much, she is even more determined than before and bleeds during genocide route, her undying form is pretty much the same but the heart in her armor is constantly changing from green, yellow and to white

You'll depend on Asriel to survive

Alphys: Our number 1 lizard nerd

Alphys is another character that's pretty different, she's more confident but she still is very shy, she's also more less kind at the start so you'll have to make her trust you first, she'll be against you for a bit in hotland but she will start to help you once Mettaton tries to kill you with the chainsaw (which by the way it's an usable item here and you get it on all routes after the Mettaton fight, it's the second most powerful weapon only behind the true knife)

Mettaton: He's literally the same, in fact he's a bit easier but has a longer fight and a couple new weapons, in genocide his NEO form can take only 7 hits but the attacks are very long and devastating. Asriel stays out of this one as it's a 1v1

Napstablook: they're a little bit more confident but still incredibly shy, their fight is easier but takes a couple more turns and you will need Asriel to help you

Muffet and Grillby: They united their places in order to have a better chance for their businesses to survive, it worked out really well but they constantly fight. Muffet is the exact same but a bit more stressed and Grillby is more talkative, Muffet offers drinks now aswell as spiders, and the same goes for Grillby

Temmies: hOI

Red: yes baby Red is here too, she appears around the CORE with 2 dog guards (which she mentions on her original fight) and she's an main boss and character

W.D:????

There's some additional characters that i added, like Captain froggit, yes their name is literally captain so their position is quite convenient, and a few more here and there

Toby isn't here, instead there's a wolf with... An smiling face? (yep that's me)

A few additional changes:

Frisk is viewed as an mostly chaotic neutral and inclined to chaotic good, but in genocide this changes ti chaotic evil

Yes Frisk is the narrator and acts somewhat similar to Chara

Both Chara and Frisk use they/them, i personally view em both as female and nonbinary respectively but i'll leave it like this to avoid discourse or anything

Napsta is nonbinary and uses they/them and he/him, prefers they tho, i left them like that since i haven't seen much discourse about Napsta's gender so bruh

Sans and Paps are ??????'? sons

Since im no Toby Papyrus can use his special attack (which is a blaster here) but he will hold back by himself in his fight

Some notes:

There's some guard campaments and the royal guard headquarters, only the campaments are accessible but you can see the hq from far away

You can ask me any doubts or anything idm

There will possibly be a comic, plenty of art, a written version or even possibly a couple playable fights in the future, but it will be a while before that happens

Odds are it will be all written but im not sure yet, references will be on an individual post

The au name is subject to change

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME DOING ANYTHING LIKE THIS SO ITS A TOTAL MESS IM SORRYYYALCKAOFKAOC

Disney Princesses as Strong Women: Esmeralda’s Empathy

That one Disney movie about genocide and also religious hypocrisy and lust, with an actual torture scene complete with screaming casually thrown in, a pole dance, and a few jokes about attractive goats (I'm not making any of this up; that’s all like blatantly in there).

However, it’s also like my second-favorite Disney film, and underrated. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the novel (a favorite novel of mine as well, but they’re veeeeery different stories), but is still a good story on its own.

As per my requisite disclaimer, there is absolutely room for legitimate criticism of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and this is not going to invalidate any valid criticism of the film or of Esmeralda, but rather offer a different perspective on her film and specifically on Esmeralda as a character.

The film begins with this question: who is the monster and who is the man? It’s the central question of the film. The story is structured so that there are four characters who mainly foil each other: Frollo and Esmeralda most directly, but also Quasimodo (whose name means ‘half-formed’) and Phoebus (whose name means ‘sun god’). Both the names’ meanings get shout-outs in the film, so it’s probably intended for us to see them as, well, one whom humanity views as subhuman, and one who is viewed as above humanity, and yet the whole film is about both Quasimodo and Phoebus finding their respective humanity by choosing between two paths: Esmeralda’s empathy and freedom, and Frollo’s utilitarianism and complete lack of personal responsibility. This whole philosophical clash is very religiously based (the whole film is, really) and not subtly so, but I won’t be delving toooo deep into that. It’s also quite Jungian in that Frollo is really Quasimodo and Phoebus’s shadows, and Esmeralda their anima.

So let’s compare and contrast Esmeralda and Frollo. Frollo is a judge, a symbol of justice, but Esmeralda is the one who screams, “Justice!” in response to his cruel commands.

The opening song tells us Frollo’s life philosophy:

Judge Claude Frollo longed To purge the world Of vice and sin And he saw corruption Ev'rywhere Except within

The bishop then warns Frollo, who has just killed Quasimodo’s mother and is about to kill Quasi as an infant:

You can lie to yourself and your minions You can claim that you haven't a qualm But you never can run from Nor hide what you've done from the eyes The very eyes of Notre Dame

In this film, Notre Dame is a symbol for the city, which is a symbol for both humanity and God, as we’ll later see. So right away we see Frollo having to be threatened to deal with God/people, because he sees himself as above them.

In contrast, we have Esmeralda’s song (one of the deepest songs in any Disney film): “God Help the Outcasts.” She approaches God as a person and converses, and notably uses empathy to do so:

Yes, I know I'm just an outcast I shouldn't speak to you But still I see your face and wonder Were you once an outcast too?

She appeals to empathy, to the idea that a God might know how she feels. This empathy appears in all of Esmeralda’s interactions, and sets up another sharp contrast with Frollo in how they relate to Quasimodo.

Quasimodo compares Esmeralda’s influence to heaven’s light in the song “Heaven’s Light”:

But suddenly an angel has smiled at me And touched my face without a trace of fright I dare to dream that she Might even care for me And as I ring the bells tonight My cold dark tower seems so bright I swear it must be Heaven's Light

The very next scene is Frollo singing “Hellfire,” which is not about Esmeralda but more about him and his desire to possess her. Frollo mocks Quasimodo for his habit of building a miniature world; Esmeralda expresses admiration.

When Frollo saves Quasimodo as an infant, he sniffs, “even this foul creature may one day prove to be of use to me.” Esmeralda, on the other hand, knows what it is like to be hated by society because of genetic traits. She intervenes to stop a horrible public humiliation of Quasimodo when Frollo does not--in fact, Quasimodo calls out “help me, master” and Frollo deliberately turns away. When Phoebus requests permission to stop the debacle, he refuses and claims there is a lesson Quasimodo needs to learn, emphasizing his utilitarian approach to humanity.

When Frollo erupts at Esmeralda for her intervention, he shouts “silence!” at her, to which she responds, “Justice!” and points again, to the fact that she can empathize with Quasimodo by saying “you mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people!"

Frollo warns Quasimodo:

The world is cruel The world is wicked It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city I am your only friend

But when Quasimodo repeats this philosophy to Esmeralda after she’s taken sanctuary in Notre Dame (symbolic of the city/hearts of humanity/God), telling her “Gypsies are evil,” Esmeralda, instead of lashing out at him, asks him who told him that. When Quasimodo replies Frollo, Esmeralda wonders:

how could someone so cruel have raised someone like you?

She’s pointing out to Quasimodo that he has choices, that despite being trapped in the cathedral, he doesn’t have to believe everything Frollo says. And because of this, Quasimodo declares that because she helped him, he will help her escape, showing how he is following in her steps instead of Frollo’s and learning empathy (he knows what it’s like to be stuck in the tower, and wants to set her free because of that). And Esmeralda invites him to come with her, but Quasimodo refuses, because he isn’t quite free of Frollo just yet, and the hearts of the people are still too influenced by Frollo as well. So Esmeralda shows Quasimodo the map to the hideaway of her people, telling him “when you wear this woven band you hold the city in your hand,” showing how she’s literally giving him the city/the key to finding humanity.

So let’s turn to Phoebus and how he, like Quasimodo, is pulled between Frollo and Esmeralda’s philosophies. When he first arrives to Paris, he comments how everything has changed since he was last there, and how he’s lost, showing that he doesn’t know how to relate to people anymore and needs a guide. He then immediately meets Esmeralda and helps her escape the guards who abuse her, showing him Option #1. And then he meets Frollo, who tortures the old captain of the guard, showing him Option #2. Frollo also declares that “the real war, Captain, is what you see before you,” while gesturing to the city and the festival below. Again, this contrasts with the scene of Esmeralda and Quasimodo marveling about how beautiful the city is.

At the festival, Frollo presides over it, pretending he hates it while lusting after Esmeralda. The Festival is Topsy Turvy Day, and the song is complete with dogs walking humans, a lobster pushing a person in a bucket of water, etc., symbolizing how the city really needs to change up the status quo and the very people most persecuted (the Romani) are going to show them how.

And of course, this is the festival where Phoebus obeys Frollo’s demands. He doesn’t help Quasimodo (who disobeyed Frollo to get to the festival), and he tries to arrest Esmeralda despite being impressed with her. But he saves her life in the cathedral, claiming sanctuary for her.

Frollo is so determined to find her (because he’s lusting after her) that he tells Phoebus he will find her if it means having to burn down all of Paris (destroy humanity). 

Phoebus complies at first, but finally refuses to burn the miller’s house with his family inside, which Frollo wants to do as an example to the people (again referencing his utilitarian philosophy towards humanity, and reminiscent of his claim earlier that Quasimodo needed to learn a lesson at the festival). But Phoebus finally refuses, showing empathy and that he’s learning from Esmeralda instead of Frollo. 

Of course, he’s rewarded with an arrow and almost drowning, but Esmeralda saves and kisses him, and takes him to Quasimodo to help him. Quasimodo is brokenhearted when he sees that Esmeralda and Phoebus are together, because he loves her, too. But he still vows to help Phoebus, because he cares for Esmeralda and is still showing empathy. But when Frollo reveals he knows the hideout, Phoebus is the one rallying Quasimodo, pointing out that “she stood up for you!" and appealing to his empathy for her, like the empathy she showed him.

Yet Frollo is the actual worst and is weaponizing Quasimodo’s empathy, showing that he even sees that as something to be used. He uses this to follow them to the heart of the city and arrests them all. In his speech before burning Esmeralda alive, Frollo declares:

This evil witch has put the soul of every person in Paris in jeopardy!

Again pretending he cares about the people of Paris, but if he gets his way, Paris/humanity is going to die.

Quasimodo is chained up in the cathedral, and he has to symbolically break those chains to save Esmeralda. He’s always been in Frollo’s chains, yet now they are literal, but he finally breaks them and saves her, screaming “sanctuary!” The outcast is telling humanity what they should do. They should save the outcasts. They should help people. 

Panicking that he is losing control, Frollo demands that the cathedral be seized. Phoebus breaks from his prison and gives a speech:

Citizens of Paris! Frollo has persecuted our people! Ransacked our city! Now, he has declared war on Notre Dame! Will we allow it?

He’s appealing to humanity: who do you want to be? And the reason he’s able to do this is because Esmeralda showed him another way.

The entire battle is incredibly karmic. Quasimodo, for example, is introduced encouraging a baby bird to fly. The birds fly in swarms to join the fight, showing that if you’re kind, you’ll be rewarded.

Notre Dame literally pours hellfire (judgement) from the mouths od gargoyles (which Frollo once mocked Quasimodo for talking to, ignoring the fact that he’d refused to allow Quasimodo to make any other friends/have anyone else to empathize with).

When Quasimodo is about to be killed, Frollo raises the sword from standing on one of those gargoyles... which glows and snaps off, because his lack of empathy literally kills him.

In contrast, Esmeralda’s empathy is what saves her and the city. Quasimodo believes she is dead, but still fights back against Frollo and finally tells him that the only thing cruel about the world is people like Frollo, and that’s the exact moment Esmeralda wakes up, because she embodies that message. The world is full of good people, but many choose evil paths. Esmeralda holds Quasimodo when he’s about to fall at the end, but she can’t keep her grip and he falls, but Phoebus is there to catch him several stories below, demonstrating again what the film thinks society should be like. As the Archbishop tells Esmeralda, you can’t save everyone or fix everything, but the film offers the hope that even what you cannot do, someone else can do, especially if your empathy inspires them. So Esmeralda’s response to the Archbishop, musing that “I thought if just one person stood up to him!” turns out to be correct. Her act of defiance in Topsy-Turvy Day did save the city, did change things.

Quasimodo then shows empathy again by happily pushing Esmeralda and Phoebus together. And they then pull him outside the cathedral, where a little child embraces him and leads him into the cheering crowd.

After all, as Esmeralda says, it only takes one person to make a difference.

Up next, another one of my favorites: Megara! Like Esmeralda, I know she isn’t technically a princess but to quote the Genie from Aladdin, she’s a prince[ss] to me, so I’m writing about her :P For previous entries in this series, see here:

Snow White’s Self-Esteem

Cinderella’s Courage and Compassion

Aurora’s Autonomy

Ariel’s Adventurous Spirit

Belle’s Bravery (and Boundaries)

Jasmine’s Justice

Pocahontas’s Power the Choose Her Path

“Run to Me (in the Dead of Night)”

(Once again, I’m later in the day than I hoped, but I do think this chapter will make up for the cliffie last week.  In fact, by the end, I think we’re headed somewhere distinctly more pleasant. ;)  There is some tense action here first though - Gold does some definite Dark One level damage and injury - just for fair warning before you start.)

Lastly, please enjoy @wingedlioness awesome and amazing art further in this chapter.  It’s actually an image of the scene that came into my mind first, and then brought about the rest of the story.

“Run to Me (in the Dead of NIght)”

chapter seven ~ old heat of a raging fire

There was no time for Killian to react; not to charge in counterattack, to retreat, to duck or dodge - he barely had time to think that the flash of silver he had seen in Gold’s hand meant nothing good for him, and it was already too late.  Though he had realized he was being followed and turned to face his pursuer in a relatively open space before they could attack unseen, it had not been his Crocodile that he expected. Knowing Gold’s vengeful nature as he did, Killian had believed (a horrible miscalculation, it would seem) that the Dark One would be at least immediately consumed with plotting his former pupil’s demise for what she had done to his clearly much beloved maid.  When he’d turned to face the person creeping along behind him, he had fully expected Cora - or possibly Regina - who were both much more likely to simply gloat and soliloquize before actually getting down to business, giving him time to figure out his defense, even if they welded magic and he did not.

His sworn enemy however offered no such luxury, striking out as soon as he had spoken, with a swift and vicious accuracy that nearly felled Killian in one disastrous motion. It would seem that Gold had not relied most immediately on his powers, but had struck first with a quite human - and deadly effective - tool.  The glint of silver Killian had spotted too late was from a small handgun, its size so compact and discreet that it had barely been visible in Gold’s grasp until he raised it to fire.

The shot struck home, and the fire that spread, not just from the spot in his shoulder where the bullet hit, but through his veins brought the further sickening realization.  The bullet was silver as well, already poisoning and draining even as the fact of it reached his brain with startling clarity.  The imp had never fought him fair, and it should really no longer be a shock.

“Coward!” Killian growled, hand immediately going to his shoulder in an attempt to focus him on staying upright in the face of his nemesis and staunching the blood he can already feel welling to the entry site.  He took a step forward, wishing in the moment he still carried the cutlass safely tucked away aboard his ship upon his person. He needed something to brandish as the old crocodile stalked closer, knowing he had injured his prey, even as Killian felt himself weakening.

Even more frightening, of course, was the fact that he would soon be forced to shift into his wolf form.  Though normally being a large, powerful wild animal with teeth and claws at his disposal to fight back would be comforting, he felt vulnerable as well having his secret, other side exposed to Rumplestiltskin against his will.  Not to mention, he also lost his human thought process and strategy against an all-too-cunning foe once he transformed. Yet, if he lost much more blood, or the Dark One landed another strike, it would become inevitable.  The werewolf body reverted back to its elemental form to heal itself, to protect so to speak, and though he could grit his teeth and stall it for a time, eventually it would happen anyway, and resisting would only make the shift more painful.

Stumbling to his knees, Killian tried to brace his hands on the rough forest floor to push himself back up.  Gold was slowly moving ever closer, and he couldn’t bear to face the fiendish villain bowed and shaking as he was - but it was to no avail.  He could feel his tendons stretching and lengthening, his face tingling and the skin pulling taut, the pressure in his head excruciating as it literally began to elongate and change shape.  His fingers were curling into claws in the dirt even as he tried to ball them together in fists, as if the whole metamorphosis could be halted by sheer force of will, despite what he knew.

A low, warning growl rumbled in his throat, reverberating through the small clearing.  Remarkably, Gold did halt for a moment, just out of reach, studying him with a maniacal gleam in his beady eyes.

“Fascinating,” he murmured, looking strangely engrossed in the process before him, giving a disturbing impression to something that normally felt as natural and simple as breathing to Killian.  “Don’t worry,” he cackled in that unnerving high-pitched voice which alerted Killian to the fact even before he could shake his head to look up with clear vision at the facade of unassuming pawnbroker vanishing to once more reveal the demon who had maimed him permanently and taken his love’s very life. “I’ll wait, mutt, until we can look at each other wearing our true faces.”

Unable to hold off any longer, Killian curled into himself slightly, and he knew the shift was taking hold.  The itchy, tingling sensation of hair sprouting thickly all over his body, his teeth growing and sharpening in what was rapidly becoming a snout, and then at last the cracking, bending, and rearranging that for a second nearly debilitated him, before he stood crouched in the dirt and dry leaves, a large, snarling black wolf.  

Knowing he had not a moment to waste before the Dark One’s morbid curiosity faded and he attacked again, Killian lunged for the monster, teeth flashing and snapping wildly.  But he never made it.  A force caught him in mid-air and threw him back to the ground with stunning force.  The same power held him there, pinned to the ground, immobilized and crushing him with ever-increasing pressure, until the pressing of the wounded shoulder into the hard-packed forest floor squeezed a yelp of pain from him.

Looking up dizzily, he saw Rumplestiltskin standing over him, hand outstretched and glowing with an eerie red light.  He was holding him down with magic, and even if the wound he had already dealt could heal with the traces of silver still in his blood where the bullet went through, he saw that the Dark One simply wouldn’t take the chance of actually fighting him fairly.  The incapacitation he was suffering was more than enough, but Killian sensed there was more yet to come.

Leaning over him now, Gold tossed the gun aside to pull out a gleaming sharp blade that he brandished before Killian’s eyes - now those of a wolf - but still capable of registering that this too was silver and capable of wringing all too much pain from him before the Dark One actually took his life.  He tried once more to snap at the hand so close to his snout, but the silver and the loss of blood had already weakened him, making it a rather pitiful gesture, and the snarl he emitted proved to be the only gesture of any real threat he could muster.

“Now, now, let’s have none of that,” Gold tsked, affecting the tone of a disappointed elder as he crouched over Killian, a tremor running through the wolf that he could not hold in.  Gold waved his hand once more, and Killian felt his jaw latch closed.  He couldn’t snap or bite - his last defense - as the silver blade was held aloft once more; the magic binding his mouth as securely as if it had been a muzzle lashed with rope.  He thrashed his head back and forth in a near panic at having nothing he could do against the coming onslaught.

“You really are a pathetic beast, aren’t you?” Gold mocked.  Running the knife along the tufts of coarse fur, teasing the way Killian’s animal instincts caused him to shiver, sensing the danger and unable to curb the natural reaction.

Slowly, the Dark One trailed the sinister weapon down a flank, and ever so seamlessly increased the pressure until he was slicing a trail of pain through fur, skin, and muscle, laying open Killian’s leg.  When he reached the paw that rested somewhat stunted and immobile on the ground, Gold dug in deeper still, forcing an involuntary whimper and carving a fiery shot of agony across what would be his human wrist to the hand which had been useless to Killian since their last fight centuries ago.

Weaker and weaker with each cut of the blade, Killian found himself rendered practically motionless and had all he could do not to whine helplessly at each new assault, not willing to give Rumplestiltskin the satisfaction of knowing how badly he’d hurt him.  At last, his enemy hissed, practically in his large, furry ear, making sure he couldn’t miss the hideous vow.  “Now that I have you where I want you - at my mercy, as you should be - nothing stops me from cutting out your heart and crushing it, ending your miserable existence at last, as I should have all those years ago.”

His next swipe of the knife was the deepest and worst of all, and Killian only a had a moment to register what he thought was an angry, desperate shout from across the clearing, before his vision went murky, swirling away from his plight, and for a moment, awareness altogether.

~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~

They had barely ventured five minutes into the passage from behind Regina’s fireplace, when Emma was arrested by such a staggering sense of panic and fear that she couldn’t ignore it.  Fumbling to a stop in the dark tunnel between Graham and her father, David walked into her at the abrupt halt and her flashlight fell from nerveless fingers and rolled away across the stone floor of the space.  Clutching at her chest, Emma gaped breathlessly for a moment, not sure what was going on, while he dad quickly recovered himself and reach out firm, solid arms to steady her.

“Emma? What is it?  What’s wrong?” Graham pressed worriedly, bending as well in trying to meet her eyes.

She shook her head helplessly, clutching David’s forearm to pull herself upright and trying to once more catch her breath.  “I’m not sure,” she managed, “but some - something isn’t right.”

“Do we need to go back?” her boss queried, his brow furrowed in concern and moving to gather up her dropped light.  “Can you make it back?”

Emma shook her head again, more vigorously as she tried to make herself clear.  “No, it isn’t with us...at least...I don’t think so.”

Shakily, she stood up straight from leaning on David and tried to bring herself back under control.  The immediate impact had dulled some, but she still felt a persistent ache in her chest; some pounding warning that things were not as they should be.  Puzzling for a moment, Emma tried to consider.  Had she heard or seen some sign that Regina or her mother were aware of their movements? Could they be walking into a trap? It didn’t seem likely.  Nothing appeared to be amiss around them, and David and Graham still stood right beside her.  There wasn’t anything she would have seen or heard in this close a space that they wouldn’t have noticed as well.

No, the danger wasn’t to them. Yet, she couldn’t ignore the niggling worry that still tingled under the surface.  As if to reaffirm, when she shook her head to clear the premonition and press on, another lancing pain shot through her chest.

She looked first to Graham, who handed her back her flashlight, and - though still appearing worried for her - didn’t press her but merely turned back to gather his things again, ready to move forward if they were.

When she glanced to David however, she sensed some sort of dawning understanding in the look he gave her.  There was a soft and almost sadly knowing expression within his eyes as they searched hers.  “Is it in your chest?” he asked gently, as if not wanting to spook her, but to help her come to some realization on her own that he had already reached himself.  “As if something is making your heart clench?”

Cold dread gripped Emma hard, sending a chill through her as she suddenly knew just what was causing her discomfort.  Her mind rebelled at the possibility after so little time knowing him, yet the moment the idea hit her, Emma knew the fear was true and her anxiety only increased.  He was the one in trouble...Killian needed her.  “It’s Killian,” she barely whispered, wide eyes locking on her father’s as he nodded in indication that he had come to the same conclusion.

Though now feeling almost harried, in a rush to go to him as quickly as possible (and again marvelling at how intense their connection was, how desperate the need to assure his safety) Emma tilted her head curiously, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet in her haste to be off but still needing to know, half wanting and half afraid to ask how her father had figured out what was going on inside her. “How did you know?”

Stepping closer, sensing it would be better accepted in her current state - his daughter might even welcome the support - David wrapped Emma into a loose hug, cradling the back of her head in his large, paternal hand.  But even he could see her almost vibrating with tension and that she wasn’t going to be able to stay still much longer.  He gave her an encouraging smile as they stepped apart again.  “I’ll tell you the whole story sometime, okay?  But for now, let’s just say I’ve felt what you’re describing firsthand… when Snow was in danger.  We weren’t even in the same place, but I knew she had been hurt all the same.  I could feel her pain in my own body.”

Emma swallowed hard, nodding her comprehension of his words, though her mind was floundering at the obvious meaning.  “So, does that mean we’re… I mean...do you think Killian and I are…”  She couldn’t quite say ‘True Loves’ in serious context, not just because she had really just met Killian, but also because up until coming back to Storybrooke with Henry, she wouldn’t have even believed such a thing existed.

David looked her right in the eye, not deflecting or putting her off, but being completely honest.  “I couldn’t say.  That’s something the two of you will have to figure out for yourselves.  I do, however, know what you’re feeling.  Don’t worry about following us right now.  I can help Graham.  It’s all under control.”

Emma gave him a relieved, lopsided smile back, her heart rate already picking up again, readying herself to take off.  “Are you sure?” she double-checked.

David nodded with certainty. “Absolutely. Right, Sheriff?”

Graham agreed easily, equally certain that they would be fine and not wanting Emma to be held back from what she needed to anymore than her dad.

“Thanks guys, really,” Emma offered sincerely.  She was already turning to go and edging back the way they had come  “I hate to ditch you like this, but...I have to go.  Something’s wrong, and - crazy as it sounds - I need to find Killian.”

“Understood,” her dad assured simply.  “Now go.”

Emma didn’t waste any time after that, moving as quickly as she possibly could through the darkened passageway they’d already traveled. She stepped out into the mayor’s office once more and nearly jogged from town hall.  The anxious feeling within her only continued to crest though, and once she was out in the open air she took off in a full-out run toward the trees, knowing that whatever was happening, her man was in the forest, and he needed her.

~~~~*****~~~~*****~~~~

Killian wasn’t sure how much longer he could withstand Gold’s torment, caught in his animal form, unable to shift back or fight him, immobilized from the silver now well into his system, he had suffered several deep cuts and lost a fair amount of blood.  Clearly the Dark One didn’t relish putting him out of his misery quickly - even if he did want him dead in the long run.

With an evil chuckle, Gold at last lifted his implement of torture, laying the knife aside, the glimmer of triumph and sadistic glee on his face almost as frightening as what Killian knew was coming.  “You made this almost too easy, pirate.  Soon, you’ll be nothing but a distasteful memory, no one will be any the wiser as to what happened, and really, would will even miss you?”

Biting back the howl of agony that rose up in his bleeding, slashed chest, Killian took in every word, though he couldn’t answer, and panted harshly, fighting just to stay conscious as Gold prodded devilishly at the incision he had made.  The feeling of an evil hand in his chest, rummaging with spiking fingers of pain to find and extract an actual organ was a sensation so strange and unnerving it was hard to convince himself he hadn’t already drifted off in some unconscious hallucination.  Shaking his head in mock sympathy, Gold’s next words sent a whole different kind of fire through the trapped wolf’s veins.  Killian snarled uselessly, hating the villain for his words almost as much as for the torment he was inflicting.  “Well, no one but poor Deputy Swan, that is.  She might miss you a bit, but soon you’ll just be one more in the long line of those who have left and disappointed her.  A perfect state to have her in really, when we need her weakened and distancing herself from others who can help her - putting her walls back up…”

A wrenching jerk alerted Killian that the imp had at last found what he sought, the pressure on his organ blindingly intense as Gold grasped it, squeezing for good measure, doing his task the messy and old-fashioned way, as it caused Killian the most pain and fear, and though his magic could have seen his enemy long dead by then.  Killian couldn’t help the pitiable low whine that escaped him at the fresh agony, much as he wanted to face his end in stoic silence, determined not to show the Dark One his defeat.  He was suffering maddeningly by that point, certain he was about to be snuffed from the world of the living.

Gold’s self-satisfaction however, faltered when he attempted to remove the heart and crush it before Killian’s eyes.  Tugging in both a debilitating and nauseating fashion, the organ simply wouldn’t leave his chest cavity.  Gulping against the heaving sensation, Killian barely staved off the blackness to at least face his final moments head-on.

Then he heard her voice - its defiant beauty ringing out like a beacon on the crisp air through the fading grey of his consciousness.  “Hey! Wanna bet?!” she challenged, bursting into the clearing ready for a fight.

Gold whipped around, startled at the interruption, but only slowly standing from his crouch, a terrifyingly eerie calm about him, even caught in the act. “Actually, Miss Swan, I would take that bet. How are you going to stop me?” As if to display how untroubled he was by her interruption, he turned back to Killian, once more plunging his hand into his chest, drawing a startled and pained yelp from his captive once more.

Emma acted without thinking; sheer adrenaline, fear, and protectiveness fueling her.  She couldn’t let this nutjob gut the man she cared for right in front of her.  Desperate to reach Killian in time, and yet knowing she physically couldn’t, pure instinct caused her to fling her hands out toward Gold, open and outstretched, and unbelievably - just as had happened with Cora - a blinding bright white light filled her palms with warmth before shooting out from her and blowing Gold back from Killian.  

The Dark One himself was taken aback, pushed head over heels to land sprawled and dazed on the ground several feet from his victim.  Acting quickly before he regained his footing or his wits, Emma rushed to her wolf’s side, one hand gently easing into the hair on his ruff, but the other still raised, warily braced for Gold to strike back.  

“I might have known,” Gold spat, sure enough only moments later climbing back to his feet and eyeing Emma with a narrowed, calculating expression.  “Product of True Love and all… I figured as much in theory, but you showed no signs…” He seemed to be racing through the turn of events in his mind before his gaze snapped back to Emma, and Killian behind her, again. Sneering in warning, his true cowardice showed through despite his threatening words when he took a step back in retreat rather than pressing his advantage.  “You may have taken me by surprised this time,” he hissed as he backed further away, clearly uncertain of just how powerful Emma was and unwilling to find out how she would fare against him, “but this isn’t over, Savior.”  He offered that last with a mocking tone given to Emma’s title. And then, before she could even respond, he had vanished in a puff of his trademark red smoke.

Emma waited a moment, pulled tight as a bowstring, fully expecting him to return and attack unawares.  Nothing of the sort happened though; she and Killian were alone now beneath the trees. A low, pleading sort of whine left the throat of the wolf before her, and as she turned anxiously to help him, and scared by the various cuts and the glistening of wet blood against his black fur, her attention was immediately fully focused on Killian.

As if he could sense the shift in her mind, the large canine lying in pain at her side attempted some sort of greeting, his tail thumping listlessly against the leaves and dirt of the forest floor.  There was a sort of knowing, a human recognition in those still stunning blue eyes, Emma noticed with affection. Even in an animal face, she could see through them how glad he was to see her, and also just how much he was hurting.  The whimpers, low and barely escaping through his still magically-shut muzzle were like little strikes to her heart, and Emma reached out, not sure what was proper or right, but needing to ease him however she could, running her fingers over his silky, dark head lovingly and scratching behind his pointed ears.  “Oh, Killian,” Emma murmured, still worried by the lethargic response.  “I’m sorry, but you’re going to be okay, alright?”

Again the soulful, sad-eyed look was levied at her and her stomach clenched at just how many cuts and tears there were along his hide.  Knowing that her father and Graham were likely to drop everything and come running - even though what they were doing was important and pressing to do before Regina showed herself or caught them at it - Emma fumbled for her cell with shaking fingers and dialed the only other person she could think of who might know what to do.

When Ruby’s voice answered on the other end of the line, Emma was so overcome with relief that she could hardly put it into words. Quickly explaining where she was and what had happened to Killian as briefly as possible, Emma hoped Ruby would know what she could do.  Valiantly she tried to ignore the emotional quaver in her voice, and thankfully Ruby seemed to do the same when she responded.

“Okay, Emma, look he’s going to be fine,” her friend promised, keeping her voice steady and in command, strengthening Emma’s own shaken nerves perfectly.  “Gold’s used silver against him, and that’s what is making the effects so severe.  He’ll be able to heal, and relatively quick at that, since he’s in wolf form.  If you can just get him someplace safe and make sure nothing else silver gets anywhere near him, he only needs a little time until the symptoms wear off, okay?”

Emma nodded, then echoed “okay” back to Ruby sheepishly upon realizing that the other woman couldn’t hear her over phone wires unless she spoke up.

“Emma!” Ruby prompted, her voice a bit sharper as she called Emma back from worried reverie.  “He’s going to be alright.  I promise.  As long as he can rest and you stay with him until his body’s reserves can replenish themselves.  Can you do that?”

“Of course,” Emma replied in a voice she hoped sounded a lot more certain than she felt inside.

“Good, I’ll let you go then.  Keep me posted, alright? I’ll let Graham and your parents know where you are and what’s happening as well.”

“Thanks, Ruby,” Emma replied, hanging up as her friend bid her farewell.

Looking back down at Killian lying before her, she found it hard to believe there wasn’t more she could be doing for him, but she was no veterinarian, and Ruby was a wolf herself, she would know what Killian needed better than Emma in this case.  Stroking a tender finger down the furry snout lying against her knee, Emma whispered, “Hang in there, Jones.  We’re going to take care of you, and you’ll be just fine.  You trust me, right?”

In a response that could have almost made her weep for joy, his long pink tongue slipped out and gently lapped at her fingers sweetly, as if wordlessly confirming that he had understood her words and was indeed confirming his belief in her. Whatever had been holding his mouth closed unnaturally seemed to have been loosed, and he could at least move his jaw normally again.  She took it for a good sign and chuckled lightly at the affectionate gesture.

“Thanks,” she said wryly after the impromptu tongue bathing, even as she was already looking for some way to transport the injured wolf.  She knew he had been headed to check out Gold’s cabin, and from what she remembered of the structure’s location, they were nearly there. It wasn’t ideal certainly, considering who had put Killian into this state.  But, in all honesty, one place was really just as safe as another when it came to Gold.  With his power, he could appear anywhere to come after them when it suited his whims.  What was more important was getting Killian into some shelter for the night so he could heal.

“Okay, buddy, here goes nothing,” Emma offered, standing to remove her leather jacket and spreading it out on the ground, patting it in some mix between cajoling a pet and playfully wheedling with a reluctant friend. “Can you scoot just a little onto this jacket and maybe I can pull you like a makeshift sled?” She really wasn’t sure if he understood her words, or if that impression was only in her mind, and she knew he couldn’t answer her.  However, she was surprised when he shook his head, almost as if saying ‘no’ with an indignant ‘whuf’ of air to accentuate the gesture.

Then slowly, painstakingly, he pulled himself to sitting and then finally standing shakily on all fours.  Emma hurried to his side, wide-eyed and trying not to let the fact that she too was trembling all over show.  Standing near enough for him to lean against her shins - which he did with nearly every step - they began to hobble forward out of the clearing and along the short path left to the cabin.

His size even in wolf form had Killian standing nearly even with her hip. Black as coal in coat, he was truly a breathtakingly beautiful animal, even limping with his head hung low as it was and with the tremors she could feel coursing through him.

Their progress was slow, but Emma sensed Killian needed to do this under his own power rather than lying helpless any longer.  She was glad he could manage it, and found her fingers sinking into the thick fur at his neck, carding the coarse hairs for additional contact, assuring herself he was still with her, still pushing forward with each labored step  She was kicking herself now for wanting to deny whatever sort of abilities she possessed; she might be able to transport them to safety or heal him instantly if she had tried to find out what she was capable of instead of denying the ability existed. Yet, if gutting this out helped Killian fight back in some way, she would lend her strength to lean on and allow them that much.

Finally, the cabin was in sight, and after barely pulling himself up the steps, Emma opened the thick wooden door and watched as Killian limped the half dozen steps to a rug by the fireplace and collapsed upon it, sides heaving horribly.  Seeing a box of matches on the mantle, Emma struck one, and lit the few small logs remaining in the hearth to generate some warmth.  She stroked a loving hand down his flank before rising from her crouch, to which a full body shiver ran through his form in response.

“Rest,” she ordered firmly. “I’ll be right back. We’ll clean you up and get you feeling better.”

Hurrying to the adjoining bathroom, she was delighted to find running water, which she turned on to get hot for bathing his wounds and began digging through the medicine cabinet above hoping to find some sort of antiseptic as well.  Rummaging through, she was startled by a sound of something tumbling in the other room.

Running back to Killian and hoping Gold hadn’t already returned to complete his attack, she was brought up short by the sight which greeted her. There by the fireplace stood Killian Jones, once more in human form, though looking more than a little rumpled and confused, and with bare skin on full display.  One hand was bracing him on the mantelpiece, while the other hand had moved to clutch at a knitted blanket draped over a rocking chair nearby in an effort to preserve his modesty, but he’d frozen when she burst back into the room, just as she had.

The firelight glinted off his muscled form, making him glow like a bronzed statue, and it was all Emma could do to pull her eyes up the expanse of dark hair covered chest and strong shoulders to Killian’s searching face watching hers uncertainly. Her cheeks flamed with both embarrassment and attraction in equal measure. She had to lick her lips, her mouth suddenly dry, in spite of herself, before her voice stuttered awkwardly to ask, “K-Killian? Are you alright?”

His ocean eyes swept up to meet hers, and their gazes locked on each other.  The air between them practically sizzled. And then he responded, “Aye, I’ll live… Thanks to you.”

Tagging: @cssns @kmomof4 @laschatzi @searchingwardrobes @spartanguard @jennjenn615 @linda8084 @kday426 @teamhook @revanmeetra87 @resident-of-storybrooke @therooksshiningknight @allofdafandoms-blog @winterbaby89 @hollyethecurious @capswantrue @kiwistreetswan @branlovesouat @quicksilvermad @aloha-4-ever

RWBY Musings #20: I don’t want to believe that Hazel is just going to be a one off villain for this season. But perhaps Oscar will unlock his semblance to help him take the first step towards dealing with his vengeance towards Ozpin as well as his own redemption.

Before I go more in depth with my point on Hazel and Oscar/Ozpin, let me kick this musing off by addressing the imminent fight between Ruby and Yang vs. Emerald and Mercury.

I think a hand-to-hand combat battle may be reserved for Ruby and Yang tag teaming to fight Emerald and Mercury.

Since using Crescent Rose failed her the first time against Emerald, possibly this rematch with her would force Ruby to think carefully this time and try hand to hand combat instead.

I think Ruby utilizing her hand-to-hand training would be better suited for her sisterly battle with Yang seeing as it holds more significance as a beautiful tie back to the Yang Volume 5 Character Trailer.

They already hinted at Yang being the one to go down into the vault to apprehend Raven and Cinder so I’m hoping that the CRWBY writers stuck to this. After all, Ruby was still very much KO’d when Nora yelled to Yang to stop Cinder, Vernal and her mom.

So I seriously trust that the writers don’t backtrack this earlier statement and have both Yang and Ruby go down to the vault. Not only will it be a plot point inconsistency but, it’d also be really, really dumb for Ruby to tag along with Yang to face Cinder knowing very darn well that Cinder is after her.

Sending Ruby to fight Cinder would literally be like sending an innocent prey straight into the mouth of its eagerly waiting predator, ready for the feed.

So yeah, for what it’s worth, I hope Yang goes solo into the Vault of the Spring Maiden. Not only does it hold more meaning cause it’ll mean the possibility of seeing Raven fighting alongside Yang and even protecting her from Grimm Fall Maiden Cinder but also cause it’s the more sensible solution.

Seriously if they make Ruby go with Yang into the Vault of the Spring Maiden, all the obscene language and colourful cuss words in the English dictionary would not be enough to voice my anger at the sheer stupidity of how foolish that will be. So...yeah for what it’s worth, I really hope Yang ventures underground alone while Ruby remains safe (well at least safe from Cinder’s grimm-y little hands) above to offer some well-needed assistance to Oscar (who by then would’ve probably reverted back to himself since Ozpin would’ve exhausted his control over his body) fighting Hazel.

Qrow has to be down after taking such a hard lash for Ozpin/Oscar. I would not be surprised if he’s either down for the count or too wounded to keep fighting. Even with Qrow’s Aura protection being at its highest, no amount of it could safeguard him from a blow like that. So I think he’s out.

 We all know poor Lie Ren, even with his bad ass gun blades of fury, is gonna be knocked out eventually too. Even if Nora was to suddenly break cover and rush to Ren’s defence, even she won’t be of much help. 

And with Jaune too focused on healing Weiss back to full strength, there’s no way those two would be joining the fray. Jaune can’t afford any distractions since he needs to concentrate all of his semblance on patching up Weiss.

And even if by some struck of a miracle, Jaune manages to fully heal Weiss, I highly doubt she’ll be ready to jump back into the battle. Would she? Nah! That’d be unbelievable.

This leaves Ruby and Oscar alone to take on the Dust Juggernaut . I have a greater inclination towards this for two very good reasons.

One, personally, I want to see Ruby and Oscar fighting together for the first time to stop Dust Hazel (maybe as one, the two younglings can work up a clever strategy to take out the four dust crystals embedded in Hazel’s arms that are the source of his power. Bonus if part of their plan involves tricking Lionheart into unintentionally using his weapon to take out one of the crystals for them which backfires and ends up knocking him out of the battle too. Either that or Ruby/Ren take out Lionheart beforehand in helping Oscar).

And secondly, I want a daring moment where Ruby tries to protect Oscar from Hazel (in the same manner as Qrow from earlier) and ends up either getting injured and knocked out or placed in a tight choke hold as Hazel threatens to end her life before Oscar’s very eyes.

I want this cause I’m hoping this will either lead to Oscar unlocking his own semblance in the heat of the moment, like Jaune or revealing one of the many so-called hidden ‘tricks’ of Ozpin’s cane to put an end to Hazel’s rampage.

While I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Oz’s weapon, my money is mostly on Oscar awakening his semblance as a result of seeing Ruby hurt.

We saw how much seeing Ruby simply unconscious resulted in a very aggressive reaction from Oscar at Lionheart’s expense. So imagine what could happen if Hazel gets his hulking hands on her and does further harm.

I’m not sure whether or not the CRWBY writers plan on making Oscar the ‘new Jaune’ by prolonging the reveal of his semblance til a future season. However seeing as the topic of both Jaune and Oscar awakening their semblance was brought to light this season, this gives me hope for us getting a taste of Oscar’s semblance soon.

I can wait for Oz’s cane tricks (unless us fans luck out and we get to see both Ozpin really use his cane and Oscar showcase his semblance all in the same episode) as I really want to see Oscar’s semblance because I feel like it can help turn the tides of the battle with Hazel.

Those of you who have been following my musings know how much I want Oscar to have a mind semblance. I’ve been preaching this possibility since the thought of Oscar possessing his own super power separate from Ozpin from brought up in the show.

If Oscar has a mind/mental-semblance, then imagine if he’s able to project his own memories onto someone else’s mind. Like what if...using his semblance, Oscar unintentionally projects Ozpin’s memories of his time spent with Gretchen Rainart into Hazel’s mind and we get a moment of a past conversation Ozpin had with Gretchen. Remember how back in Volume 1, we got those little scenes of Ozpin having one on one talks with the main four girls? 

For the sake of this example, let’s use Ruby. Remember how back in the very first episode of RWBY, when Ozpin first met Ruby, one of the questions he asked her was why she wanted to become a huntress.

Let’s say, we get a parallel memory of Ozpin meeting a young Gretchen Rainart for the first time and prompting her with the very same question. Why did she want to become a huntress? Hazel and his sister seemed to have shared a really close bond and I wouldn’t be surprised if their closeness was mostly due to her being the only family he had left. What if...Gretchen’s whole motive for becoming a huntress was so that she could train and become strong enough to protect the one person she loved the most in the world; her older brother who has always taken care of her and kept her safe. Since Hazel has always been there for Gretchen, it wouldn’t surprise me if she strongly desired to become strong enough to return the favour and become someone that Hazel can depend on too.

If Oscar possesses a semblance that can do this and show a scene like this to Hazel then...it can really change things up in the show. This is exactly why I want Oscar to have a mind semblance above any kind of hidden power. For the sheer purpose of using it to connect to someone’s heart and thoughts and help them through their pain with their memories.

And I think a power like that would suit Oscar perfectly because it’ll complement the type of strong-minded and caring individual he is.

Remember what I said regarding Chapter 5 and how Oscar’s conversation with Ruby was intended to help her rather than just reveal his own fears.

I still stand by my earlier point that Oscar reached out to Ruby since he noticed her depression over the loss of her friends and sincerely wanted to help her realize and overcome it.

The young farm boy possesses a strong willpower to help others overcome the pains of their past and their emotions, even if he doesn’t know the right words to say to bring it out. Oscar strikes me as being quite blunt in how he approaches others when talking to them about touchy subjects or their emotions; a heavy contrast to the shy way he approaches people in general. It can be appear upfront at first but this approach sometimes actually helps depending on the individual in question. It worked with Ruby and another example of this is recently with Hazel and Ozpin. I loved how the entire time Oscar fought Hazel, he never once struck him. The strikes came later when Ozpin took over. The irony is that Ozpin implied that he’s better suited to confront Hazel due to their history however the instant he took control, his method mostly involved retaliation.

And Ozpin fighting Hazel obviously did not help because it only served to anger him further. But did you know what actually worked for a short time and actually got Hazel to pause his rampage, even if it was only for a few ticks?

Oscar talking to him. I’m not saying that if Oscar had continued talking to Hazel, he would’ve stopped trying to kill him. As Ozpin so rightfully said, Hazel is too far gone in his vengeance that he is beyond verbal reasoning.

But the fact that the hulking man actually did stop to consider what Oscar was saying to him, even for a few seconds needs to be recognized. The entire time Oscar was in control, he spent it talking to Hazel. The boy tried his best to rationalize with the man. He tried to use only words as his weapon, not violence.

Doesn’t that remind you of another young huntsman who did the exact same thing with another irrational adult in an earlier episode?

Oh the parallels!

Even now with Hazel, despite the fact that Ozpin warned him not to get involved, Oscar still was determined to help in his own way because he sees Ozpin as someone he wants to stick up for. Anyone else smiled when Oscar asked Ozpin why Hazel is upset with them?

‘...Why is he so upset with us?’ is what Oscar asked Ozpin. Noticed how he said ‘us’ meaning him and Ozpin instead of ‘you’ as in Oz alone. I love how Oscar is starting to acknowledge that both he and Ozpin are a unit. This is such an interesting development from when he first started off in Volume 4 and didn’t want to have anything to do with Ozpin. Heck, there was even a point where Oscar tried ignoring Ozpin and wanted to pretend like he didn’t exist in his head.

Now look at him. Oscar’s whole demeanour towards Ozpin and overall acceptance of his profound responsibility as his incarnate has evolved so much.

He was so reluctant at first. Now he’s willing to do everything in his power to defend Ozpin (and by extension himself) cause he has fully accepted his role to become the next ‘Ozpin’, willingly inheriting all the majesties of the magic and all the burdens of the pains that come with it. I am both scared and happy about this interesting new shift in Oscar’s character. Wished we had actually gotten to see more scenes showcasing Oscar growing into this frame of mind but I’m afraid that boat’s already sailed episodes ago. For now I’m mostly just happy and currently satisfied because I’m just so proud of my gentle freckly avocado’s character growth and this squiggle meister cannot wait to see his semblance.

Also notice how really headstrong Oscar is too. Usually stubborn characters in shows can come off as very annoying if poorly written but thus far; I quite fondly appreciate Oscar’s stubborn side.

It helps that he’s that way for the right reasons, though. But it certainly doesn’t help defend my biasness towards Oscar when he looks even more adorable when he’s being all belligerent to protect the ones he cares about.

 How is it even possible for one animated CGI character to look so adorable even when he’s being unreasonable? Such a stubborn lil avocado but damn does he look good either way. Not sorry.

Is stubbornness always a good trait? No. Will it get Oscar in trouble from time to time? Yes.

But it suits him and having a mental/mind based power would also match that side of his personality. I have voiced my need for Oscar to have a mind semblance too many times. I’ve said time and time again this needs to be legit.

I think Oscar will be the one to aid Hazel with his redemption. I don’t want to think that Hazel is just a one off villain or even character. If there are any characters on Team WTCH who I can see being redeemed, Hazel is one of them.

Even his deep hatred towards Ozpin is justifiable because at its core, Hazel is no more than just a pained man grieving the loss of his sister and possibly only family who knows no other way to deal with it than vengeance.

I don’t know what promises Salem made to Hazel if he helped her succeed in stopping Ozpin.

As a matter of fact, now that I know why Hazel despises Ozpin, it brings his whole motive for working with Salem into question. Yeah sure, you can say that his entire reason would be cause, he hates Ozpin cause he blames him entirely for his sister’s death. Salem hates Ozpin and wants him dead so hey, we both hate the same person so why don’t we work together? When did Team WTCH become the Mean Girls of Remnant? But here’s the thing. Gretchen became a huntress. The huntsmen are warriors trained to fight the Grimm. If Gretchen died during a training mission, obviously she must’ve been killed during or as a result of a Grimm attack.

So my comment to Hazel is...you wanna kill the man who, yes, sent your sister on a mission to stop Grimm but was also training her to stop them so they wouldn’t kill other people and yet here you are, working with the very lady who literally grow the Grimm in her backyard like Chia Pets. I dare you to find the logic in that.

Oh Hazel, your retribution had clouded your judgement and made you f***ing stupid!

Clearly Hazel is on the wrong side, given what his true motives are and I’m honestly hoping that Oscar will be the one to help him see the truth in that; if not with words then with the use of his semblance.

Really hoping for that mind-semblance with Oscar. Since brute force isn’t enough to stop the tyrannical Hazel then maybe a deep dive into his mind will. I can really see Oscar pulling a Miss Martian from Young Justice Invasion and Professor X from X-Men, ambushing Hazel’s mind as a result of his semblance.

Oscar using his semblance for the first time to put a stop to Hazel is the only sure fire way I can see this fight concluding. It has to be Oscar and no other character to stop Hazel for this season otherwise what’s the symbolism or connection if it isn’t him.

You can’t have Hazel meet Oscar, share a history with Ozpin (and Oscar by association), then have Hazel fight Oscar then Ozpin, only for their duel to end with Hazel being defeated by...Ruby or someone more irrelevant like, Sun Wukong showing up with Blake.

No! That will result in blatant plot inconsistency along with more angry obscene language from me. Why establish this connection between Hazel, Ozpin and Oscar earlier on if the intention wasn’t to have Oscar be the one to bring the hulking man to submission.

The perfect icing to his cake would be for Oscar to unlock his semblance as a result of Hazel harming someone he cares deeply about like Ruby and that’s what finally brings Hazel crumpling to his knees. For more flavour, add an earlier scene with Ozpin/Oscar showcasing one of the tricks to his cane to fight Hazel before being overpowered and relinquishing control back to Oscar.

My money’s on that. I’m actually curious to know if the CRWBY made the conclusion of Hazel and Oscar’s fight more of the focus for Chapter 13, saving the Brawl of the Maidens and the inevitable arrival of Blake and the Faunus Calvary for the epic season finale climax or at least as a teaser for either the start or the end of the thirteenth episode. I actually wouldn’t mind that as I do believe the Hazel and Oscar/Ozpin fight deserves to be an episode focus in order to give its finish that nice satisfying punch I think it deserves. Like placing a blow on a perfectly wrapped gift.   But I guess we’ll only know once Chapter 13 arrives and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this upcoming episode.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

Warm Blood

Attention! This is mostly for followers of my stories, Little Mikau and especially the upcoming The King of the Waves. This prompt may contain some noticeable spoilers for either stories. Proceed with caution. Enjoy

Lulu panted quietly, a slur of luminous crimson bubbles drowning out her tender facial features as it beheld a pained wince. Trying to push herself up from her sore knee, she felt the muscles of her aching arms screaming in protest as they stretch the wounds of her limbs, causing a curtain of red silk to ooze from the openings. The dancing liquid entwine and twisted regally in the ghostly currents as the silver gales of the sea pick up the threads of brilliant scarlet and yank them greedily from her gashes. The red swirl in loops as the tides receded back into the depths of the night, shattering the delicate threads in which they bust into plumes of ruby mist enshrouding her beaten frame, tickling her scales as they comfort her in their cold embrace. 

Cold blood. The Malletila Zora cough in slight disgust, her sharp fangs glinting silver in the pale blue frost of the full moon's rays. She tremble with pain and once again pants, her fins scrunch up as she try her best to not cry out. Ugly gashes and bloody cuts shredded the pearly scales of her limbs, and her hands felt numb from striking constantly with her glowing amethyst claws. Her teeth ache, having bitten through metal plates earlier and even broken some off, though this does not phase her as it'll grow back by the next two days. Her ears and tattered dorsal fin were pressed back with uncertainty, and velvety fins that dress her body were pulled or ripped. Again, these appendages will eventually return in pristine condition. However, while her broken frame is the source of her current physical misery, the scent of her own and the blood of the fallen overridden her delicate senses as they engulf the dimly lit waters in rusted red or deathly black. The curse of being a shark...the curtains of red and black silk was almost intoxicating. The clouds of red and black bubbled tauntingly as they sizzle around her, teasing her, daring her to attack as they gently caress her cheeks in brisk whispers. How they toyed with her...the scent was sweet and heavenly, with the odd mixture of salt twisting their velvety plumes into whirling mist. They were sinisterly cold, she noted, a reminder of their ichthyoid ancestry. She shudder at their frigid embrace. But she dwell little on the tempting liquid consuming her rational thinking, her sights lock on the figure before her in hopes of not losing her sanity. His slick scales were a stark contrast to the darkness of the echoing seas around him; they blazed in a majestic snow white glow graced with beautiful, luminous swirling markings entwining across his lean, athletic body. The artistic patterns glisten softly, like twirling tidal waves of royal purple dotted with galaxies of starry specks glittering against the blackness. The pulsing lights reflected off of his beautifully decorated frame as they send rays of lights in every which way, though they fail to emitted their glow far enough to ignite the reef. His snowy denticles were as if they were bejeweled purely with molded pearls, slick with a brilliant, captivating majesty shinier then the brightest sapphire. Beady "pearls" which are in actuality are tint bumps that only male Zoras have naturally encrusted the grooves in between his scales, so minuscule that one would barely notice their existence least they catch a hint of light. The more she looks at him, the more his contrast between white and shadowy purple sprinkled with stars represented the time of day. He resembles the personification of night. Such beauty and loveliness of colors he has. The white represent the ghostly frost of the moon, and the waves of gentle luminescence represent the stars and constellations. Lulu can almost swear she can see the cosmos through his purple swirls of colors, and for a moment fooled herself into seeing literal space. A glitter of light blazed across his body from one marking to another effortlessly, then a shower of shooting stars races through his artistic patterns almost as if to show off and impress her, though he never looked over. The lights illuminated her face and a glint in her amethyst eyes reveal her fascination with the display of dancing lights before her. Its almost like a Moon Pearl, a sacred jewel with the ability to cast visions of the starry skies far beyond the heavens. Lulu recalled the tales concerning the scales of his kind being crafted into beautiful and exotic jewelries with different uses, and worth more then diamonds for their rarity and magical properties. And seeing his precious scales, like silvery pearly mirrors bless with an elegant glossy sheen and the rippling colors of the night, she can understand why these Zoras had been hesitant of approaching outsiders for centuries. Their attractive jewel like scales and colorful patterns alone would make them targets of men blinded with greed. He didn't say anything, nor did he look at her. Instead, his eyes, like twin sapphires, streaked with ruby stripes kissing the lower lid, stare down at the mangle body of a downed Zora, his expression unreadable. His eye lids were shaded in dark grey, a natural protection from the glare of bright light. His claws were a metallic blue, and his muscular chest, stomach and back were a midnight black rimmed with gold and electric blue, complete with entwining streams of artistic colors. Various shades of shadowy purples were adore regally on his head and across his body, and his neck and crown were adore in lilac and plum arrows respectively. Trident like symbols and arching designs ran along one of his strong arms and legs, but his right one was coated in a permanent tattoo with rivers of reds and blues with a questionable design resembling a skull on his upper arm. He looks like a Zora one wouldn't try associating with if they could help it. He was well build and very large, his colorful body ripple with lean muscles. The tattoos alone makes her weary, having associated them with street Zoras as they all wore similar looking body paint. His mouth, though close, is a chamber of teeth as sharp as steel, cutting through basically anything with ease. Perhaps that's why his kind don't necessarily have the strongest bite force among the shark Zoras; their teeth are so wickedly sharp that they get the job done with minimal effort. She seen him in action when he assaulted the Zoras, his eyes blazing madly as he cut right through their metallic armors and severed their bones with minimal effort. Just gently touching his fangs will draw an insane amount of blood even from the most armored scaled Zoras. They are basically knives, and understandably most Zoras are wise enough to leave them alone or not agitate them badly enough to trigger an attack. This also holds true to his claws. A gurgle of bubbles whooshed out of his gills, and reaching out with his left hand, he grasp tightly on his bladed fin and yanked it out of the dead Zora's skull. As it slipped out of the wound with a sheathing sound of a sword, cool black blood oozed rapidly into the sea around them, further tainting the waters in its tempting toxicity as it hurried out of the stab wound. Lulu squeak as she try to hold back to urge to bare her fangs. Not only will it cause her to inhale the vile liquid and make her loose it, but exposing her fangs might send the wrong message to the male and thus trigger a fight. She is no pushover by any means and can hold her own in a fight, but the one Zora species she never in her whole life wants to engage in battle with was his kind. The Sylovaakien Zora. The male place the large blade into an opening slit in his lower right arm, slipping it in easily and making sure it reconnected into its socket. The palms of his hands are padded to protect against the sharpness of the sword he wields. After fiddling around a bit and fixing it snugly in place, he cast his beautiful gaze towards the violent waves above them as it glows an mystical azure hue during its raging fury. They crash and battled viciously, moaning painfully as the ocean churn inside out. Like the gales of the Watarara's Sky Kingdom, the brutal underwater currents whip and lash both their fins in every which way, his long dangling ear fins, tinted in tawny gold half way down, swooshing back and forth in the rhythm of the sea's wrath. Lulu stare at his scimitar fins, the signature weapon of Sylovaakien Zoras and the only one in Zora kind, as they bend and twist to the lashing sea gales while still retaining their iconic sharpness. They are extremely flexible even when in sword forms, and even more sharper then his fangs. In fact, they are the sharpest natural weapon on Termina, sharper then the mythical Great Fairy Sword. It was glazed with a shininess that one could see their own reflections on it, but in the middle lays a beautiful bejeweled symbol of the Zora's Sapphire, embedded into his fins by the Mother herself. He turn to look at her, his eyes glowing softly. Lulu watch as he tilt his large snowy head slightly to the side as he lock his sights with her, the rays of moonlight rippling across his vibrate scales like shimmering waves. She knew that he was reading her, studying her closely just as the rest of his kind did. She knew from experience Zoran Heroes held the uncanny ability to sense wickedness within a person's heart thanks to their bizarre association with shadow magic despite their closeness to Nayru herself, and will slaughter that person on sight with zero hesitations. She by no means is a bad Zora by definition and thus he would most likely loose interest and disappear back into the inky depths, never to be seen again. So why does she feel this looming sense of distrust and dread gripping at her heart as the other stare at her? Perhaps its to do with the eerie unreadable expression he wore? Or his intimidating, erect sword fins that gives off the illusion of him being bigger then he actually is? Probably, her weariness were in relations to the fact that he wore that questionable tattoo? Or just the fact they he hadn't spoken at all the entire time they'd been here? Maybe because the current season, autumn, is traditionally the time of year that Sylovaakien Zoras breed, and he sees her as a potential plaything? Oh, hell no! She'll rip his claspers off if he even thinks of going that far. They barely even know each other! Besides, Sylovaakiens and Malletilas breeding together rarely ends well anyway. Getting in a squabble with him during a courtship ritual will get awkward and messy very fast, something she learn from her perverted relatives when they try to mate with several Zoran Heroes; it only ended with both parties spatting hissy fits at each other. During her thought process she nearly fail to realize that the male had slowly close the distant between them. He bounded over to her, bouncing with each step he took as he trotted closer to her. His caudal flippers were disrupting the silty soil as they rose in dusty clouds around his ankles. He slowly crawl to a stop as they came within striking range of each other, cautiously flicking his fins as he lower his head. He merely stare down at her now, his sapphire eyes still illuminating their ghostly glow as the lights of his marking died down. His tail slowly elongated with each breath he took as his muscular chest pumped out the water through his five gill slits. The frosty rays of the Naryu's lunar body shone from behind him, casting his faint silhouette a haunting hue of moon silver as they dance around his muscular frame. Shadows twisted and crackle from around his facial features. Lulu stare back at the great mako Zora, a brief sense of enchantment accompanying her jittery systems as her webbed hands clenched the powdery sand tensely. He was a very attractive and marvelous representation of his species, blessed with the most vibrant and beautiful patterns she seen in any shark Zora. Even more so then other similar looking Zoran Heroes...But as she stare up at the Zora, she saw that all wasn't well with his regal appearance. There were slashes and bloody holes across his mid-section and gills, and bite marks raked across his shoulders and neck. Some of the red stripes running up from his jawline to his eyes were claw marks slashing open his snow white cheek, but his captivating orb of sapphire had been unharmed thanks to its protective, transparent membrane shielding it from assaults. She also notice their was a slight limp to his gait and he's favoring his right flipper as the left was held at a an odd angle, realizing that his ankle had been shot and swollen. He's bleeding, she told herself in frustrations, knowing that if he get any closer the scent of his blood would finally cause her to snap. She slowly back away with a slight reptilian like hiss as his blood lazily slid through the openings, picked up by the whooshing currents and lash around them. It was as if the sea was trying to have her go insane and fight. The Sylovaakien didn't seem at all phase by his injuries; he simply didn't feel his wounds, at least for the moment. He stare down the growling Malletila through his now slit eyes, calculating his next move carefully. Unexpectedly he kneel down to her level, his blue eyes taking on a particular glint. His fins stiffen and the look on his face seem to change to for a brief second. The Zoran Hero sniff the waters around her, to which Lulu reacted with flagged fins flailing in warning. Her heart rate accelerated as her mind went wild with horror. 'No you fool! Stop that! The scent of blood will taint your rational thinking! Don't sniff the water! Don't sniff the water! Don't-' She were just about to rake his eye out, anticipating the inevitable attack that will transpire now... When gingerly, the male cautiously snake his arm around her shoulders and stroke her delicate dorsal fin back. She froze, unsure of how to react as he gently caress her spine. His powerful arm felt like pure iron with how hard they are, and they ripple with lean muscles, but at the same time his winter scales were as if they were made of milk and honey with how silky smooth they felt. His large hand press down her fin as he silently soothe her, the pads in his palm massaging her strong back. She felt the tense muscles relax as he relive her tension, noticing that he fingers had callous as if he played an instrument of sorts. Though having been associated with the music industry, that was her first logical conclusion. Chances are he probably did. But the curtain of blood had thicken now. The sinister waves of velvet danced around them, still mocking her and possibly the male as they engulf the pair. However Lulu realize they were no longer as icy despite Zoras being cold blooded and the autumn waters embracing the chill of the season. The male grew bolder, as he slowly brought her to his midnight chest and allow her to rest her head on him. His body seem to burst to life as the cosmos of colors shimmer from his sangria markings. Lulu was too adsorb in the blood's strange rise in temperature to pay attention to his actions. When she did took wind of his behavior, a wave of shock wash over her slender features. Zoras felt cool to the touch, hence their blood. Every Zora she had contact with always had the same comforting coolness of their skin when touched. But this male felt wrong. Extremely wrong. He wasn't a stroke of chill that ran through a human when touched. He skin felt warm, as if he were a mammal. This is wrong....Very wrong! What kind of a fish, normal or anthropomorphic, feels like a literal mammal to the touch? His blood mingle with the her own cold ones, soaking them in an unnatural warmth not commonly seen in the fish world. It stroke her cheeks and brush her fins, bathing her in tender warm calming gestures like the pleasant golden rays of Din's sun. She released a breath she hadn't known she was hold in, the sprays of bubbles pulsing through her gills like jet streams. She realize how foolish she had been as she remembers. Sylavaakien Zora evolved from Longfinned Mako Sharks (Isurus Paucus; meaning few, not many, rare, which makes sense as Zoran Heroes themselves are extremely rare) and are in the lamnidae family which consist of mackerel sharks like Great Whites and Porbeagle. These are the only sharks who are partially warm blooded thanks to special heat systems that warms the blood vessels. They rely on this for their active burst of energy during hunts, and are able to survive cold waters easily. As such Zoras such as Korieop (great whites) Makiiekdo (shortfinned twins of Sylovaakiens) and Zoran Heroes themselves are all warm blooded. The warmth also helps increase their brain power, specifically in Makos like him, making them extremely cunning and always alert. They are more intelligent then an average Zora. She simply never bother associating with these highly intelligent breeds because their beastly size and territorial behavior towards outsiders made them difficult to approach. Most Zoras wisely keep their distant from these self centered sea creatures. Never had she experience such a comforting warmth from any Zora... Except Mikau. She snap her eyes open and abruptly push away from the male. He made a startle trill as she look into his eyes. He seem to had been agitated by her sudden movements, his sharpen pectoral fins rapidly fluttering in disapproval as he burn a hole in her skull with his stunning eyes. His gills puffed to accommodate for his displeasure and the corners of his mouth twitch as they pull back ever so slightly in a hiss... Those fangs...so frightening... Lulu cursed herself for her actions, remembering how skittish Sylovaakien Zoras are. They'll attack for the slightest movements, trigger by their desire to hunt. They are true carnivores of the Zoran race, encouraged by their high prey drive, and the wrong move can be disastrous. 'Now I've done it...' But the beautiful deadly Zoran Hero wasn't growling at her, she soon concluded. Instead he held the wound in his adornment, waves of sparkling crimson flaked with hot white light flashing across his markings to signify pain, and she came to the realization that her sudden actions had accidentally hurt him. Guilt wash over her systems, and against her better judgement of taking the opportunity to get away from him, she reach out a regretful hand and gently touched his shredded cheek. He completely froze at her actions and his fins tensed dangerously, not looking up, but she knew his gaze was staring right at her for any sudden actions. As tenderly as she could, she caress his cheek and brush away the silt and mud clinging to the tooth like grooves of his pearly scales. Her fingers careful not to prod his bleeding gashes, she stroke the side of his face with much care and gentleness. His blood felt so warm as it wrap around her hand, so alien of a shark to have access to. She could feel the hot veins pumping under his skin, comfortably heating his body above the frigid water temperature. He still didn't budge from his frozen state, but she saw his regal patterns changing colors in accordance. They shifted from a stinging red to a turquoise blue, with sprinkles of cerulean dust and azure stars. Lulu could feel a slight rumble vibrating from his throat, and his colors tone to a navy blue. He close his eyes momentarily and allow her to continue stroking him before slowly lifting his great head, his sights lock right at her. Lulu felt a sudden chill when she saw those cold sapphire eyes ablaze, but she held her breath as they commit a staring contest. Despite his apparent hostility, Lulu did not remove her hand from his face despite the threat of him biting it off. She felt a kinder connection to this individual who reminded her of an old friend from long ago. His eyes were finally calm, a glint sparkling within his pools, and his muscles relaxed. To her surprise the Sylovaakien Zora lifted his right hand and set his palm atop of hers on his cheek. His hand dwarfs her own, but their fingers entwine around one another and he gently stroke her own hand with his thumb. He rumble softly, enjoying her touch, and Lulu found herself purring with him. A wave of peace wash over them both, Lulu felt her heart pounding in her chest as their gazes connected once more. It was at that moment that she finally understood his true intention. Without hesitation, she carefully lean into him and nuzzle her head onto his chest, her previous fear evaporating with the waves as the currents tumble over them, threatening to knock them over. The Sylovaakien Zora made a small whistling squeal as he now held her protectively in his strong arms, rooting himself firmly in the loose sandy ground as he resist the angry ocean. Lulu felt his heart thumping against his great chest in her ear as she held onto him for dear life, finding the rhythm relaxing as pump the soothing warmth across his body and comforted her cold scales. Her own heart hammer against her ribcage, and she felt herself trembling with a hint of joy and nervous fear as she contemplate what she'd just done. His muscles relax, and he flutter his fins lightly as he lay his head atop her crown, wrapping his long slender tail around her small frame. He close his eyes and savor the moment, chuckling sadly to himself as he stroke her. A wave of emotions flooded his conscience, memories of the past overwhelming his visions. Images of simpler times cast over the world, and in the sunny tropical bays of Zora Cape he saw himself as a pup running across the white sands as he chase a giggling Malletila guppy. Behind him was the loud cheers of a Trejax guppy, his trademark head fins nearly covering his emerald eyes as he try to keep pace with them. Soon they all pounce on each other in a heap of laughing Zoralings, tossing powdery sands and wrestling playfully as their parents watch proudly. Looking down at her, he knew this was the Zora of his childhood, and a sigh of gratidute escape him as he thanks Nayru for their reunion. Lulu remain nestle in his embrace, safe from the cruel world around them. Her breath grew raspy, and her tattered body tremble as a wave of emotion threaten to break through. She felt small bubbles pooling at the corner of her eyes as tears well up, fluttering free in twiddling dances as they escape into the open waters as tiny orbs. But she felt compel all the same and a small smile grace her lovely, gleaming face. She knew now that he would never leave her again; they had found each other at long last, and the tender warmth of his powerful arms promise her that for now on they will always remain together. That she should never fear of being left alone again. That she no longer has nothing to fear as long as he is by her side. Finally, she had found him, for she knew it at the bottom of her heart. She had reunited with Mikau.

Alright! This is the last of the Fanfictions I had written for Luku Week. This is the one that I pour the most heart into, and I think it paid off. Now comes the art. Get pump! I’m getting started on them as we speak. Warning, I’m very lazy at coloring though, and some drawings might be left uncolored. But who cares when you have more Mikau and Lulu fluff? I don’t! Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!

ah i almsot forgot: warning, the following has mainly snarky opinions on Spirit of Justice. Reader discretion is advised.

and we’re back to our scheduled programming

time to be rendered unconscious against your will you lil shit

-

“i hardly think anyone could pass out from eating something like this”

clearly you dont know what world youre living in, Sadmad.

...also he... might be allergic, guys. ever thought of that? 

-

yes, EAT! EAT OR WE WILL HARASS YOU, POSSIBLY INNOCENT BYSTANDER!!! YOU THINK YOU HAVE RIGHTS???? CRAM THAT SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT BEFORE I DO!!!!

-

...uh;

-

FIVE IS NOT AN OCCUPATION!!! EAT ANOTHER BUN AS PUNISHMENT!!!! REGRESS FURTHER!!!! HFKJGU;SUUSRSO 

coping jokes aside holy shit 

don’t hurt this tiny boy!!!

-

i hope you all feel guilty for being such pricks.

look at him. he's curled up under his jacket like a traumatized baby 

at least this personality... sort of aligns with how DID is supposed to work? But now i just feel even worse. Someone get that kid a teddy and a juice-box, stat!

-

“Its clear that none of his personalities could be the killer!”

A) one of the three could still be lying

B) there’s four so far, what’s to discount a fifth? triggered by... i dunno, a reefer brownie.

C) I'm actually glad he's not the killer anyway just wanted to point out the possibilities youre discounting there

-

i love that theyre playing the goofy X people music for a traumatized five year old who witnessed a horrific murder of a loved one.

-

“I believe the person who laid the cards out is the very person who killed the victim” WELL.... DOY.

-

“How quickly you move onto a new theory when your old theory proves false!”

WELL.......... DOY

-

I love that theyre all just yelling and screaming about murder while the tiny child cowers behind the bench

hello??? anybody with compassion anywhere? maybe in the gallery? a bailiff? anybody???

-

“his emotions are spiralling out of control! something must have really frightening him”

maybe 

THE FUCKING MURDER????

athena youre a psychologist; dont you know anything about calming people down or at least putting them at ease? youre gonna put scars on this kid’s scars!

i mean at least Cody Hackins was fairly fearless and defiant about what happened to him and only really broke down once it dawned on him what he’d actually seen. Owen is clearly very, very upset.

-

i passed out *image promptly closes eyes*

-

“poor kid, he's absolutely terrified of something”

KDJFKLDGDGL

“whatever it is, it might be the root of his out of control emotions!”

DSHFA;SLGHOHSO GIRSHG’ 

-

“see, all we got out of this boy is a tale he dreamt up”

fuck off sadmad

-

(sigh) Owen’s on his side, Shisho’s laying down, just get to it already

-

“rotating your thinking about?”

“oh! you mean turning your thinking around!”

“yeah, whatever...”

(SNERK)

-

“like the forehead, perhaps”

is that... just a random location or is it actually going to come true

also, back at the office, Apollo winces and he can’t figure out why

-

oh yeah its definitely gonna come back.

-

WHOA; OK, MANHANDLING 

MANHANDLING, NOT GOOD

STEP AWAY FROM THE ATTORNEY, BLACKQUILL

yeah just fucking manhandle the stressed out anxious girl. you piece of shit.  i knew me being your friend wouldn’t fuckin last.

-

“MOTIVE, OPPORTUNITY, EVIDENCE??? IS THAT ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE YOU STOP BELIEVING IT YOUR CLIENT?!”

to be fuckin fair, cuckoo, thats usually what loses most cases.

-

would phoenix manhandle athena?? would he berate her and shake her into doing her best?? i highly doubt it.

-

“prosecutor blackquill was just giving me a pep talk, thats all!”

athena thats unhealthy

-

legitimately simon’s been nothing but unpleasant this entire time. its fun to watch him wreck sadmad’s shit but he needs to keep the hell away from athena. whatever protective, elder-brotherly instincts he had for her in DD seem to have stayed in DD.

-

man I'm looking back at my previous commentary and i was. i was just so optimistic. how foolish. franziska, bring down your lash upon this foolishly foolish fool.

atcuall dont i bruise like a peach

-

jeez now I'm imagining Super Dad™ Phoenix Wright cross examining Owen with Athena instead and it’s melting my cold, hard heart

-

“unfortunately, i spy nothing of the sort”

again Sadmad acts like if he doesn't see the answer, then it’s nonexistent 

not very monk-y of you, Sadmad.

-

gotta admit, i love this unique murder weapon

ive actually nearly suffocated under soft, cold, gloopy stuff and lemme tell you, its not fun.

-

...i love that simon took that logic-attack for us 

maybe the animators just wanted to play his OH SHIT animation again 

-

i know it looks like i pick on everything but in fact i edit these down. sometimes i take out whole statements because i rationalize them and realize that theyre actually plausible and i let them slide. so just, y’know. if you think I'm just blindly going at it, i am actually giving this game the benefit of the doubt. you just dont see it.

...if you read these

...uh

-

they used the pre-prepped noodles in the fridge. c’mon guys, as athena would say: Andale!

-

“perhaps the victim was simply playing with the cards, and they hold no other meaning”

oh NOW THEY COULD BE UNRELATED TO THE CASE

OF COURSE, NOW THAT IT’S CONVENIENT TO YOU

you sack’a shit

-

nice cliffhanger, kid.

Oh well; I’m partially glad that the poor lil guy can get a rest, and partially upset that his last two surfaces put him through intense anguish. maybe get Uendo drunk and go to the theatre or something, guys. poor baby could use a pick-me-up.

-

n no–– rise from the ashes flashbacks–– RISE FROM THE ASHES FLASHBACKS

THE LUNCHBOXES

SO MANY LUNCHBOXES

AAAAAHHHHhhhhi gotta give bucky a hand; being drunk and riding a skateboard while supporting a tower of bentos isn’t an easy feat

-

ew slurping 

-

and simon extends his douchiness to the guys he's even shafting Athena for.

just, fuckin, lighten the fuck UP simon, CHRIST

-

TIDDIES

seriously tho; we haven’t had a proper boob joke in ages. actually Geiru kinda reminds me of April May...

 Meanwhile we’ve had several testicle references, a drunk guy, and the bloodiest overarching plot the series has ever had. I think we’ve left Ace behind and graduated to Edge Attorney

-

 to be fair the judge could totally be talking about her actual rubber balloons, considering his childlike personality at times. so maybe ITS YOU, SADMAD, WHO’S THE VULGAR ONE!

GET YOUR MIND OUTTA THE GUTTER!!

-

bloooon. i think Drifloon says that, too. Is that a japenese onomatopoeia or something? 

-

ooh he sadMad

heh

i guess its up to simon’s brilliant mind tricks to save us again..?

...yehhhh i knew it

-

...huh. didnt expect that. impressive use of air...sword... skill. 

-

IM NOT A KOORAHEENIST, SHE’S NOT GONNA HEAR ME ANYWAY.

-

i know what theyre building up and yes, i am super excited to see all those balloons pop

-

...i gotta ask tho, why does Athena think those balloon animals are bad?? theyre extremely intricate and they look a lot more like the thing she promised than most of the ones ive seen.

-

aw no the cake disappeared. i want a huge explosion at the end!!

-

“I’ma cut ya, witch!”

...

.....

........

i uh, i have to um,,,,,,, go now

-

SHES GONNA CUT OFF A TIT

GIRD YERSELF ATHENA

-

me, into my DS mic: HOLD IT. Hold IT. Hold it. hold it... hold it... bold it

athena; HOLD IT 

-

simon: athena youre stupid do something. I'm not helping you.

simon: this time I'm going to do something, but god forbid you dont run with it

i dont think we’ve ever had a co counsel add something to the testimony for us before. we’ve had them hint at answers and interrupt trials to get us out of tight spots, but never directly ordering something like that. Guess that proves just how highly BK thinks of Athena’s abilities......

-

ooh the cakes back and there was a pop

im super ready for this

-

shit thats a strong balloon. i wouldn’t advice biting very thing plastic...

-

............

the... fuck???

sadmad: here is what will prove that Geiru IS NOT the murderer!

(geiru reveals buckwheat allergy and ACUAL RED HAND)

how the fuck does that help your case, Sadmad?? We know that the killer used the dough to kill the master by suffocating him with it. Pointing out that she came into contact with the dough, WITH HER HANDS, IS PROVING SHE DID IT.

YOU JUST GOT HER CAUGHT LITERALLY RED-HANDED.

HOW DOES THIS HELP YOUR CASE??????

-

ok well apparently she could die just by being in the room but if we look at how badly her hand has reacted, and is still reacting, Geiru should probably have at least some difficulty talking if “breathing in the flour” was dangerous. If her hand reacted that badly from minor contact, her throat should be shut like a steel trap. what I'm saying is, she’s probably lying about the severity.

-

“As if I would do anything so underhanded”

oh sad-‘trigger my enemies into yielding’-mad, youre hilarious 

-

y’know i just realized, it is a little insensitive of Taifu to make/buy/keep soba around the place. if Geiru is this deadly allergic, he’s risking killing her simply because he can’t give up his precious noodles. thats like living with someone with a deadly peanut allergy and being all “can’t get enough of my PBnJ!!”

-

its time for

Off!

Brand!

Logic!!!!

-

oh. its not. ...ok

-

hang on didnt she say the dough was udon already, or am i misremembering? if she did and everyone just forgot, thats a little sad.

anyway, i guess thats... an alright twist. i still say that saying your witness is allergic to something and showing a reaction on the body part associated with the murder is stupid thing to do.

-

“dont lose your nerve now. keep charging forward or you'll feel my blade at your back”

I'm just gonna let that speak for itself.

-

ah THERES the off brand logic. and we’re finally gonna talk about those fucking noodles in the fridge. its been a long time coming.

-

i like that ‘ramen’ is a third choice every time

-

that was a pretty involved murder. “alright, kill the old man, hmm hmm... make a dish that i’m deathly allergic to to throw of the scent; just gotta get the cooking! make sure Uendo doesn’t wake up and catch me in the act~~ get rid of the dough in a way that is probably time consuming, lalala~ and there! Blooooon, the perfect crime!”

how much time did she have??

-

also how much blood did she lose form that knick on her forehead? if its enough to permeate an entire clump of dough, she should probably need a transfusion.

-

simon: dog pun. have you figured out the twist yet???? DOG PUN, BY THE WAY. JUST SO YOU KNOW.

-

all the balloons are there. its time.

-

seriously, thats gotta be a lot of blood. I'm getting Gingerdead Man flashbacks.

-

“i wanna thank you, simon. without your constant abuse, i wouldn’t have been scared enough to succeed for fear of what would happen if i failed!”

-

...its a bit premature for breakdown animations; the police haven't gotten back to us about the dough...

-

...i didnt like this balloon explosion as much as i thought i was going to. this is kinda just... uncomfortable.

-

you know, she shouldn’t have resorted to murder or blaming the crime on an innocent, but I feel like Taifu should’ve.... I dunno, either Trained her properly or let her down easy instead of forcing her to be a sexy balloon clown.

It’s clear she really, really wanted to succeed her father’s name, (which I'm a little confused about; was he one of Taifu’s students? What is Uendo’s real name then? what is any of their real names...) so I’m sure that if she just practiced enough, she’d probably be able to do what she needed to get to that level of entertainment. And if she couldn’t, letting her down easy and encouraging her to find something she actually liked instead of making her do... um... balloons would probably be a whole lot less nasty.

also wtf uendo; what did whet ever do to you

man all of these people were kind of dicks. except bucky. the guy who came to his trial drunk.

-

Sadmad: Hmm.... upon further deliberation... seeing as you won... I believe I shall afford you a basic sense of human respect.................. 

Athena: thats all I ask, prosecutor sadmahdi!

-

heyy he’s sobered up! or should I say... SOBA’D UP AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH but seriously i don’t think they’ve said drunk or hungover once in this entire case what the fu

-

“no way... i almost got convicted out of convenience?” you, larry butz, maggey byrde and a shit tonne of other characters in the series. its actually a fairly common occurrence.

-

“he didn’t give her the name because he wanted geiru to find her own calling in life...”

...you know. after foisting a sexy balloon routine on her. to encourage her to quite entertainment. 

obviously Taifu was using the Simon Blackquill approach to encouragement.

“making udon was his way of showing his support of her in her new endeavour”

...what does that... mean

“oh, i’ll make safe dough instead of the stuff THAT KILLS HER to prove that i support her!”

genius

-

“So this entire situation happened because of a misunderstanding? How sad...”

i think you mean,,, hhhh

i hate misunderstanding plots so so much

-

this entire case is just “he was being an asshole to ENCOURAGE you, see!! now you HAVE to forgive him!!”

newsflash: no i dont. you know what works better than fear tactics, threats and coercion? 

BEING ACTUALLY SUPPORTIVE

-

“he probably used some tough love on you so that the shop wouldn’t just go belly up”

I SAID SUPPORTIVE. ARE YOU DEAF???

-

see? athena is being a little misguided but at least she's using a positive -food- to try to accomplish something.

“i’ll make sure its got all the TLC Master Toneido would’ve packed in it, too!”

you got it! one ice-cold, bitter, al-dente bowl with a side of vinegar, comin’ right up!

-

no athena!! brand loyalty!! mr eldoon will never forgive you!!!

-

“do us all proud, bucky”

or else

(flashes air sword)

-

Athena: I wonder if this gave me any experience as a lawyer...

Simon: HAHA WRONG, IF I HADN’T BEEN THERE YOU’D HAVE HAD THE SHIT KICKED OUT OF YOU. YOU SUCK, ATHENA, AND YOU DO EVERYTHING WRONG. FUCK YOU~!

see what annoys me about this is that when I first played Athena, I had some issues with her being too inexperienced to be a proper lawyer, especially with her court-related PTSD which could seriously endanger her clients.

However... Why are they bringing up her lack of experience in the one case (it’s not even a full case) in a game that isn’t even about her? And ignoring all the progress she made in Dual Destinies?

The way they’re talking about it is as if theyre setting up some kind of sequel; ‘you need to improve athena, you need to practice’. Which would have been all well and good for one of the cases in the first run of her own game... but Athena has been and continues to be a side character to Apollo and Phoenix. Rather than this moment coming at a crucial moment in her own game, it comes out of nowhere during a case she got last minute, couldn’t have prepared for, and is abused throughout.

what I'm saying is, the ghosts of DD past has come to haunt us. They introduced Athena too early and are bungling up her character development. Lawyers need a full set of games to let them grow. Just make an actual Apollo Justice 2 or Athena Cykes 1, but don’t insult us by pretending that this five minute shit actually did either of them justice.

-

Simon: I hope you stay shitty so that I can always win

brilliant.

you know, usually when a character is jerk with a heart of gold, that ‘heart of gold’ thing is supposed to show up at the end.

-

i was going to ignore the horrible joke but then Widget said “ROTFL”

what a... great way to end this....... great case

-

and so we close this one off, and for a case about tasty food, it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth. 

I am well aware that you have talked about her briefly on a previous post, but what are your thoughts on Harukawa's character overall?

I have a couple of questions about Maki that I’ve been meaning to answer, so I’m going to answer them together like this!

There will be spoilers for pretty much everything about Maki as a character, and also spoilers involving Chapter 5 and onwards in ndrv3, so avoid reading if you don’t want to be spoiled that far ahead!

To be honest, the more I go through ndrv3 again and again,the more I find myself liking Maki. She really, genuinely grew on me, and whileI still would rank Ouma, Saihara, and Kaede as my top ndrv3 favorites in thatorder, Maki is a very, very close fourth.

I have seen a lot of hate on Maki lately in the tags, and I’mwell aware that many people are rather mixed on how to view some of the thingsshe did. I feel it’s honestly a shame, because Maki displayed real developmentand real progression in her behavior and attitude about things, and while I’maware that certainly Maki messed up (gravely) along the way, I feel it’sperfectly possible to hold her accountable for her actions while still enjoyingher as a character.

The twist about her talent was great. Pretty much everyoneknew or suspected that there wasn’t something quite right with her being a SHSLCaregiver, but it was just a matter of knowing what her real talent actuallywas. Her status as one of the first characters’ whose designs was released,complete with mysterious promotional art which made everyone wonder if shemight be the protagonist or not, had everyone debating over what her talentwould be and what her role in the game would lead to.

SHSL Assassin wound up being a great decision. I am,admittedly, inclined to be a little biased on this front, considering Maki isvoiced by Maaya Sakamoto, the voice actress for Shiki Ryougi who is one of thebest known assassins in anime of all time and has more than a few strikingsimilarities in common with Maki. But speaking from an unbiased perspective,the reveal about Maki and her in-game backstory was great, and I feel like alot of the potential that went unfulfilled with Mukuro as a SHSL Soldier wasbrought back around and this time used seriously for Maki instead.

Many are harsh on Maki for her stance as one of the coldest,most distant characters in the game, but I feel a lot of this is just thatpeople don’t enjoy seeing these traits in a female character nearly as much asthey enjoy seeing them in a male character (I’m going to keep bringing up theTogami comparison, yes, and while we’re at it, Kuzuryuu, who also literally hadpeople killed). Much of Maki’s coldness, and her tendency to snap a, “Do youwant to be killed?” at anyone who even mildly gets on her nerves, is heavilytied to her backstory in-game and the things she had to experience in order totrain as an assassin.

When she begins slowly but surely opening up, just a littlebit, to Momota and Saihara during their training sessions, Maki reveals quite alot that sheds light on why she acts the way that she does or finds it so hardto stop herself from expecting the same level of seriousness and ruthlessattention to detail from others that she finds in herself.

Back when she first started training for her job, she wentthrough exercises and drills so merciless that she was literally forced to do themuntil she dropped. When she would stop or collapse, she was met with the same “Doyou want to be killed?” line that she now finds herself instinctively repeatingto others. Little by little, any room for hesitation or mercy or kindness inMaki was drilled out of her, and she found herself even unable to cry at herown situation anymore. She felt empty, hollowed out, turned into a tool and aweapon to kill others without even knowing their names or why they needed todie. When describing these things to Saihara, she even says point-blank that ifasked which she felt were more “human,” herself or Kiibo, she’d pick Kiibo in aheartbeat.

In short, Maki is not someone who has ever been allowed theluxury of considering her own feelings or emotions on a daily basis, becausethese things would detract from the “ruthless assassin” image that was expectedof her. Even in a situation that no longer calls for her to kill others formoney, she still is inevitably linked to the trauma she experienced, and can’tquite stop herself from repeating the same line of reasoning that was forced onher. And even to this day, she finds herself wondering if maybe things would be different if she had never left the orphanagewhere she grew up, and maybe she would have been able to develop into adifferent person—and I find that highly understandable and very humanizing forher character.

Like Mukuro and Peko before her, Maki barely even considersherself a human being due to the atrocities she’s been forced to commit, andthe fact that most of her own emotions and ambitions were stomped out of her.But unlike those two, she is given a fantastic degree of autonomy and room todevelop by the narrative, and much like Togami and Kuzyruu, who were the “cold,loner-type” survivors before her, she finds her outer shells being strippedaway the more time she spends with people who genuinely care about her and areinterested in her.

I know a lot of people have also brought up Chapter 2 as areason they dislike Maki, with Ouma’s accusation that she only showed Ryoumahis motive video in order to purposely crush his will to live and get himkilled by someone else, thereby removing him from the game since he knew abouther SHSL Assassin identity.

But I personally don’t believe Ouma was saying these things asa 100% factual account of what happened: I think they were merely supposed tobe an accusation, and he phrased it in the most brutal, worst-possible wayintentionally because he wanted to provoke a reaction from her in front ofeveryone. For all Maki’s coldness and all her desire to remain distant from thegroup, her reluctance to talk about Ryouma in Chapter 2 struck me less asself-interested because she didn’t want the rest of them to suspect her (theywere already suspecting her because she refused to provide an alibi), and moreas her being…well, guilty, and not really knowing how to handle it very well.

Guilt is an emotion I’m sure she probably thought herselfalready well-accustomed to considering her talent, but the fact that Ryoumanonetheless died had to have hit her very hard, and she was clearly holdingherself accountable for it to some degree. Having been faced with hard truths andgrown up an orphan-turned-killer, Maki had been acclimated to the fact that shehad no loved ones and no one who truly cared for her as a sort of harsh truthto face for all her life. And she showed Ryouma his video because he keptinsisting that he wanted to see it—and then the weight of it crushed him, andit wasn’t something she had been expecting considering such a thing had nevercrushed her own will to live or kept her from going on.

Ouma is perceptive. When he sees a weak point, he strikes atit. If Maki were truly remorseless about Ryouma’s death, and only interested inkilling as an assassin, she would have simply ignored Ouma’s accusations infront of the group and then doubled back around later to try and find a way tochoke him or kill him on his own when no one else was around. The fact that shelashed out at all meant that he found a weak point in her emotions and wasintentionally targeting it, and that weak point itself was the guilt she wasfeeling. He phrased it in a way that probably resembled her own inner thoughtsand doubts about why she ever showed Ryouma that video.

But unfortunately, I think a lot of the fanbase took Ouma’swords at face value and honestly came to believe that she genuinely wantedRyouma to die. Ouma clearly meant to level the playing field: Maki hiding hertalent was unfair to the rest of the group and a definite threat to his abilityto investigate things at his own leisure, and he spilled her secret in front ofeveryone in order to remove that particular obstacle. All of this, of course,backs up the idea that he actually does hate murderers and liars, but that’sanother story for another time.

Finally, there’sChapter 5. Maki’s actions in Chapter 5 do wind up (unintentionally) resultingin the deaths of both Momota and Ouma, it’s true. And she certainly did rushinto assumptions and mess things up beyond fixing. But I feel like in DR, thisis a constant thing that happens. For all that Maki tries to maintain a façade ofbeing constantly calm and composed, her temper is actually very, very shortjust under the surface, and it’s clear to see that she’s anact-first-ask-questions-later sort of character, just as she’s been trained tobe.

Maki falling for Ouma’s act and believing that he was themastermind is not really something I can blame her for or hold entirelyaccountable for. He’s a fantastic actor, almost never letting his guard dropever, and to an assassin, the idea of “if I remove this person from the playingfield entirely then I’ll have gotten the job done” is pretty commonplace. Shenever, ever expected that Momota would become involved in the situation or windup getting hurt instead, and the fact that she rushed into things and tried toforce her own solution into the game is precisely what backfired and caused oneof the few people she’s ever cared about to get hurt.

It’s not something the narrative excuses her for or tries togloss over. She really, truly holds herself accountable and is angry andmiserable and frustrated at the realization that this person, who she initiallydidn’t want to let get close to her but who wormed his way into her heartnonetheless, is gone for good, and that it is largely her fault. It waspainful, and awful, and she truly messed up, and I thought it was brilliantlydone character development. Because where Maki before was the kind of characterto brush off death and loss as an inevitable part of life as an assassin andexpress little to no remorse or attachment to anything, by Chapter 5 she’s beenunarguably changed by Momota, and his death is one that she’ll have to carry onher shoulders, always.

The fact that Ouma died in Chapter 5 as well is regrettable,but it’s also as a consequence of his own actions. He carried his act too far,and became too tired and jaded after Chapter 4. Despite how much he likes tobluff, Ouma in the first few chapters is never a particularly big risk taker.Every action he took was carefully calculated and planned, and he never made amove unless he was at least 99% certain it would work in his favor. But inChapter 5, he began taking huge risks. He began making erratic andunpredictable moves. Ultimately, I think even though he still wanted to end thekilling game and strike a blow at the mastermind once and for all, he was fartoo on edge and deep into his self-loathing, and he lost the same level of careand calculation that he’d been able to perfect before.

Had he perhaps not pushed everyone else away or let thoselike Saihara in just a little further to the point where they could understandhim better, Ouma wouldn’t have had to go to the lengths that he went to. But hedoes decide to face death fearlessly and he goes out as a matter of his ownchoice, and I feel that should be respected, and not pinned on Maki as entirelyher fault when she fell for a ruse that he wanted her to fall for in the firstplace.

I hope this has cleared up some of my feelings on Maki allaround. I really do love her, and I think she’s a sort of female character wehaven’t ever gotten to see from a DR installment before, which is reallyfantastic. Her flaws and mistakes and her skewed sense of self-perception makeher complex and understandable without being excusable all of the time, andthat’s good writing, in my opinion.