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bestworstcase · 16 hours

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And what does Salem want? Narrative has been saying “end the world so she can rid herself of the curse,” and sure, that might not be it because it’s based on faulty assumptions. But wouldn’t her end goal be to get out of immortality?

well. the narrative has said a lot of things:

to “change the world,” qrow says, “is exactly what the enemy wants” (v4)

salem “can’t be stopped, can’t be reasoned with, and will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet,” says raven (v5)

salem’s rebellion sought to “destroy their old masters” and “claim the powers of their creators for themselves, and in turn, perfect their own design”

millions of years after that crushing defeat, she tells ozma they could “become the gods of this world” and “create the paradise the old gods could not”—same goal.

”why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could replace them with what they could never be?”—in essentials, irrespective of how you read her specific meaning, this is “why should we try to go back to the old ways when we could make something new?”

salem is doing all this to “tear down the huntsmen academies,” ruby says (8.5)

“you’ll only be helping her bring about the end, for all of you!” oz shouts in a desperate attempt to scare cinder out of bringing the staff to salem (8.6)

hazel believes she’s trying to create a “new world order” with no huntsmen academies and no kingdoms (8.7)

oz deliberately misrepresents the nature of salem’s immortality to support his claim that “all she craves now is release. death,” while trying to scare hazel into turning against her

tyrian believes she’s “destruction incarnate” and “wishes to see the end of it all!”

salem tells cinder “in pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great” (8.14)

in WOR episodes and her soliloquies, salem speaks highly of humanity and of the democratic councils but is utterly disdainful of the huntsmen academies (which exist to “protect a lifestyle,” in her view) and of ozpin’s “guardians” and “monuments” to a “so-called ‘free’ world”—her protégée grew up a slave in the heart of atlas, ozma’s crowning achievement—and she declares that his guardians will fail him, his monuments will fall, and that she “can’t wait to watch [him] burn.”

so… on balance, not only is “salem intends to change the world” the first thing we’re directly told about her, it’s also the narrative that aligns with both salem’s history (on three separate occasions in 6.3, she rejects the divine order and envisions a new world without the brothers) and everything salem herself has said (“in pursuit of a new world” + her specific ideological problems with the “lifestyle” huntsmen uphold, a lifestyle that turns a blind eye to child slavery, inequality, genocide—remember the faunus had to fight a war to stop the human kingdoms from trying to forcibly “centralize” the faunus population in menagerie (1.12)?—and relies on using children as cannon fodder while restricting all training in self-defense to an elite warrior class that more or less exists above the law, bc people who live outside the kingdoms don’t need huntsmen)

the only character who truly, unquestionably believes that salem wants to Destroy The World is tyrian, who is off his rocker.

everything oz says about her plans in v8 has to be taken into consideration that he’s 1. a practiced liar and 2. actively trying to manipulate salem’s agents by appealing to their fear of her, so he has a strong incentive to distort the truth—which he does, by misrepresenting her immortality as a ‘curse’ and lying about what the end clause is. (the brothers didn’t curse her, per se; they dropped her into the fountain of life and told her she could “rest” only once light was satisfied that she’d learned her lesson).

and then raven phrases “she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet” in an ambiguous way that could mean either “salem wants to destroy humanity” or “salem is going to confront the gods and get everyone killed again” depending on how much raven actually knows.

the other factor to consider is that. it’s really strongly implied in the lost fable that salem accepted that she might never be mortal again before she even incited the rebellion. “if she were to turn humanity against light and darkness, she could rid herself of their curse, or at the very least… she could make them suffer.” <- she hoped that she could find a way to become mortal again, but she knew it wasn’t a certainty. the god of light implied to her that only he and his brother could restore her mortality; she dedicated herself to destroying them anyway.

like. she made a choice, then. that she wanted to topple the brothers even if it meant she would never ever be able to die. and even after they butchered the world and left her deathless in the ashes for millions of years, even after she became desperate enough to throw herself into the pool of grimm… when ozma told her there was a way to call the brothers back and plead for mercy, salem didn’t hesitate even for a second before saying no. she has no interest in redemption.

if she wanted to die the only thing she’d have to do is go to ozma and tell him she’s ready to repent. they both know that’s what it will take for the world to be spared, salem humbling herself before the gods to repudiate her rebellion. and it’s not like salem has any pride; she says “it’s all my fault” with her whole chest and describes exactly how she erred with cinder in front of her whole inner circle (and ozma), and she calms down when yang tries to provoke her on purpose.

it doesn’t matter if she’s actually repentant or not. she knows the brothers aren’t omniscient; all she has to do is bow down and say the god of light was right about life and death and she’s sorry for being so selfishly arrogant. and then she could rest.

but… “we finally had freedom.” and “your monuments to a so-called free world.” and her song: “you can’t have my life/i'm not your sacrifice/you can try, but i’m free/and you won’t conquer me/i won’t crawl/most of all/i won’t fall/for you.” and hell even the myth she quotes to ozma when she rejects the mandate: “This land is no less hospitable than where we came from,” the people on the beach said. “But here at least we have control of our fates, free from the influence of others.”

freedom. over and over and over again, what salem wants is to be free; first from her tower, and then she finds her freedom in ozma’s eyes, and then immortality is her prison only for as long as she’s trying to kill herself to reunite with ozma but becomes her greatest weapon the moment she turns her attention to liberating the world from the tyranny of the brothers, and then she believes she’s found freedom with ozma again until he admits his true his intentions and:

she’s back in the tower again.

the divine mandate, ozma’s endless crusade to destroy her, to rid the world of her influence, to keep her in exile by casting her as the root of all evil while he tries and fails and tries and fails again to unite the world without her so he can summon his gods and be rid of her forever—that’s her tower, now. salem just wants to be free.

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quietwingsinthesky · 3 months

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i think it would be less that even doesn't have a moral compass anymore after All That Shit and more that they just. need it to be re-calibrated a little bit. their ability to tell right from wrong got a bit fucked up in the need to survive a little longer, and if you just put them in a slightly healthier environment, they would figure it out.

#and separate them from the master. that's also essential.#even is kind of. easily influenced? which was a. well. mostly a Good Thing when their influence was coming from the doctor & co.#and much less good when their influence is coming from miss 'dissolving people for fun and profit'#and obviously then: there are things even could be convinced to do if it meant surviving.#things that they could not be influenced towards in any other situation because they *would* recognize it as wrong.#and it's. im saying even has killed a man. and possibly more. and per doctor who's party line: that fucks you up forever :)#im just spitballing ideas around rn to figure out how to fit even into 12's seasons and put them with missy for fun #and. the thing is. the thing is. i don't think they would have a problem with the cyberman plan.#(i think. in a way. the idea of cybermen is unfortunately appealing to even (<- guy who is feeling Too Much Always and remembers how much #easier it was to just have a job and do the job and be the job)#and this also contributes to it.)#but that plan. give the doctor an army and he can protect the whole universe if he just accepts it. missy wants that for selfish reasons.#to prove a point. but even. if presented with it that way. would want it for their own selfish reasons.#fresh off the trauma horse - even just wants there to be no more hurt. they want the doctor to come save everyone. they want the doctor to #fix it all. which is an old part of them that survived.#again just spitballing this is all preliminary thoughts trying to figure it out #but it really boils down to. if the only people you knew were constant in the universe were someone you knew you could rely on to fuck #everyone over to get what she wants. and someone who you believed would take any opportunity to just save as many people as possible.#wouldn't you end up trusting. that plan would come together. and nothing would have to hurt anymore.#and then. of course. it doesn't.#dw oc

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monsterblogging · 2 months

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"I know JK Rowing is a terrible person but her books are so good-"

You sure about that?

I mean, just for a start, have you taken a good look at her fantasy creatures lately? A whole bunch of them are straight-up based on malicious and dehumanizing stereotypes about actual people.

Remember the werewolves? And being a werewolf was made into a kind of metaphor for having AIDS?

And you know how AIDS was first associated with gay men? And how conservatives back in the day were claiming gay men were preying on children in order to convert them to gayness?

Remember how Fenrir Greyback preyed on children in particular? Yeah, she put that subtext in there. She was an adult in the 90's. She knew damn well what she was doing.

Remember the house elves? Remember how most of them loved to serve and needed to have a home and a master or else they just wouldn't know what to do with themselves?

Did you know that's literally what slavers in the American South said about the Black people they kept enslaved? Go look up the happy slave myth.

Do I even need to get into the goblins and the antisemitic tropes they're based on? No, folkloric goblins were not gold-hoarding bankers waiting for their chance to stab humanity in the back.

"But the characters are so good!"

Are you kidding me?

Most of her characters are pretty one-dimensional, including Harry. Her idea of making a morally complicated character is giving a tragic past to a bully. Numerous characters are little more than stereotypes. (Looking at Fleur right now.) Literally anybody, including you, can easily make dozens of characters just as good, if not better. (It doesn't exactly take a lot of character designing skill to go, "hey, actually, having a sad backstory doesn't make it okay to bully children" or "hey, maybe I should not base a character on the first stereotype that pops into my head.")

"But the rest of the worldbuilding!"

Sorry, but her worldbuilding is just as basic as her characters. Magical castles and secret passages are stock tropes. Magical people who keep their true nature secret from humanity is the premise of pretty much every White Wolf TTRPG. Most of her fantasy creatures are just common European fairy tale and folklore creatures with shitty stereotypes projected onto them.

I'm not saying "basic worldbuilding bad." I'm saying, you could do just as good, if not better, with minimal effort.

Also there's her magical bioessentialism, where only Harry's abusive blood relatives could provide him with supernatural protection from Voldemort. Rowling thus effectively declared that non-biological family isn't quite real family, and that abusive biofamily can give you some essential thing that a loving, supportive family that isn't related to you just can't.

The Hogwarts houses are one of the most insidious elements of her worldbuilding. The idea of being sorted gives you a little dopamine hit because wow now you have a li'l niche where you belong!

But the actual function of the houses and sorting system and the House Cup is teaching children to see each other as rivals, and ensure that the most toxic views of the upper class get passed on to every new batch of kids sorted into Slytherin.

Hogwarts effectively prepares children for a dystopia where magic serves to distract its citizens from how nightmarishly awful it is. Economic inequality is so bad that people like Arthur and Molly Weasley can barely afford to put their kids through school, casual sadism is just an accepted norm in everyday society, and non-humans are second class citizens. Rowling sorta acts like she thinks this is a bad thing with certain lines she gave to Dumbledore, but in the end, her special boy protagonist becomes an auror; IE, a defender of the status quo. So.

If you've never seen it, Lily Simpson's video goes into even more detail on how the worldbuilding of Harry Potter is actually incredibly fucked up, and how it betrays small-minded attitudes on Rowling's part. There's no separating the art from this artist, because Rowling's rotten values pour out of nearly every page.

youtube

Yes, there are many things in Harry Potter that evoke feelings and inspire people, but there's absolutely nothing in it that this series has a monopoly on. You can find those same experiences in much, much better media.

#harry potter #jk rowling #Youtube

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vexwerewolf · 1 year

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The thing is, D&D is not a game.

I know that sounds insane, but hear me out: D&D is not a game, it is a games console. You don't actually "play D&D." You play "Dragon Heist" or "Tomb of Annihilation" or "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "your GM's homebrew campaign" or "the plot of Critical Role Season 1 reconstructed from memory" on D&D.

For quite a long while now - possibly literal decades - D&D hasn't even been the best games console, but it's been "the one everyone knows about" and "the one my friends have" and in fact it's "the one whose name is almost synonymous with the entire medium of TTRPGs," like how "Nintendo" or "Playstation" could just mean "games console" to people who didn't understand games consoles. They might not have heard of a "tabletop roleplaying game," but most people have heard of "Dungeons & Dragons."

For this extended metaphor, D&D is Nintendo back in the 90s, or Playstation in the 2000s. Sometimes you say "oh let's go to my house and play Nintendo" or "c'mon dude I wanna play Playstation" but you're not actually playing Nintendo or Playstation, you're playing Resident Evil or Super Mario Bros or Jurassic Park or Metal Gear Solid or whatever on a Nintendo or a Playstation.

Now, this metaphor is going to get even more tortured, but remember how when the PS2 and the original X-Box came out, they used a standardised DVD format, but the Nintendo console in that generation, the Gamecube, used discs but they were this proprietary tiny little disc format that they had control over? That essentially meant that it was really difficult to make third party titles for the Gamecube that did literally anything that Nintendo didn't want them to do, and also essentially gave Nintendo an even greater ability to skim money off the top of any sales?

So that must've seemed like a smart business decision in their heads. But the PS2 and the X-Box used DVDs. This was a standardized format which gave Microsoft and Sony way less control over who made games for their consoles, but that actually turned out to be a good thing for gaming, because it meant that the breadth of games that you could play on their consoles was massively increased even if some of them were games Microsoft and Sony didn't really approve of. (Also it's worth nothing that the PS2 and the X-Box could just play DVDs, which meant if your household was on a budget, you didn't need a separate DVD player - your games console could do it for you! This was actually a huge selling point!)

What Wizards are currently trying to do now is kinda-sorta the equivalent of Sony suddenly announcing that the PS5 will only accept a proprietary cartridge format they hold the patent on, will control the content of and charge money for the construction of. This possibly seems like it could be a moneymaker in your head because you hold market dominance (apparently the PS5 has 30 million units shipped compared to X-Box Series X 20 million units) and so many people make games for your console, but what it actually means is game devs and publishers will abandon your product. If it takes so much more work, the scope of what they're allowed to do is so much more limited and they're going to make less money off of it, they just won't bother. They'll go make games for the X-Box or PC instead.

To use another computer metaphor, D&D is Windows - it might not be the best system but it's the system most people are familiar with and so it gets the most stuff made for it, but there's is an upper limit on the bullshit people will take before they decide fuck it and get an Apple or learn how Linux works.

TTRPG systems are a weird product because you're not selling people a game, you're selling people a method to play a game. All the actual games are created by the community - even prewritten campaigns needs to be executed via a game master. Trying to skim money off the community will mean they'll eventually give up on you.

#open gaming license #dungeons and dragons #ogl #ogl 1.1 #opendnd #wizards of the coast #one dnd #d&d #dnd #tabletop gaming #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpgs

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juniperskye · 1 month

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Why are you in my head?

Sneak Peek: Eddie and you are soulmates. The legend of soulmates is that you start to hear one another’s thoughts around age 16 – not all the time, but when you’re feeling a strong emotion. It simply flows out of you and into the other, the legend also states that the closer you are, the more you can hear them. **The events of season 4 did NOT happen** I did also use some of the dialogue

Bold are Eddie’s thoughts; Italics are reader’s thoughts. (mind you, they are essentially hearing both sets of thoughts)

Eddie Munson x Fem Sunshine! Reader (Soulmate AU)

Fluff - Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Word count: 1364

REQUESTS ARE OPEN - not edited - please be kind. Feedback is welcome if it's constructive!

Warnings: My blog is 18+, minors DNI, explicit language, let me know if I missed any!

That being said I do not own the characters portrayed in this story.

You had known all about soulmates, your mom had told you bedtime stories about soulmates and how she and your dad met throughout your entire childhood. They had been hearing one another’s thoughts for quite a while before your dad saved your mom from being run over by a biker as she stepped off the curb. She’d tell you how when their eyes met she could hear him thinking about how beautiful her eyes were and he heard her thinking about how handsome he was. You have hoped and dreamed of meeting your soulmate since you were four years old.

You had a soulmate, that much you knew. You had been hearing his thoughts for the last few years, they were few and far between which frustrated you. Your mom had explained it just meant he wasn’t close by, which sucked. You were hoping that the distance would decrease, given your family’s plans to move.

Hawkins, Indiana wasn’t exactly a town that people were flocking to…but here you were. Your mom had been offered a job at their hospital there as the supervising nurse and your parents had decided it was too good an offer to pass up. Your dad had contacted the local police department to see if they had any openings, to which they asked for a letter of recommendation and pretty much offered him the job.

Things were working out well for your parents. You hadn’t really been sure about the move. Your soulmate’s thoughts had been pretty quiet the last few days but, a part of you knew it was because your anxiety of this move was clearly drowning out his thoughts.

The car finally came to a stop, and you glance up for the first time since you’d gotten in the car that morning, too focused on the music playing from your Walkman and rereading The Hobbit, again. You looked up to see a modest home in a cookie cutter neighborhood, you were grateful for your parents and their ability to provide you with the things you need, but some days you wished your family wasn’t so…average.

“Sweetie, why don’t you head in and pick your room?” Your mom suggested.

“Really? I get to choose?” You asked.

“You have your pick, other than the master bedroom. You and I will organize the remaining rooms.” Your mom explained.

Damnit, if I could just get the chords right.

You quickly jogged up to the door, letting yourself in. You made your way upstairs first, checking out the two small bedrooms up there that were situated opposite the master bedroom, separated by a full bathroom. While both rooms were nice, they didn’t give you nearly enough room to “express your creative freedom” as your mom had encouraged. On the main level there was a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, powder room, and living room. There had been a door leading under the stairs, you were pleased to see it led down into a fully finished basement that had a full bathroom.

“MOMMMMM! I chose my room!” You called as you ran up the stairs.

There we go.

*Eddie’s POV*

Hell yeah! This is fucking perfect!

The thoughts had rung out like an alarm in his head. Her thoughts had never been this loud and clear. What had changed?

She better let me make the basement my room!

Had she finally moved? He had been hearing all her nervous thoughts about packing up and moving across the country. She must be closer now if her thoughts were coming in like this now.

YES! YES! YES! Now…how to decorate?

He smiled to himself. She seems sweet based off what he knows. He had asked Wayne about soulmates when he was growing up. He’d asked questions like “why can’t I just think of my address, so she could find me?” and Wayne had explained that it didn’t work like that. Thoughts were passed back and forth at moments it was needed – in times of excitement, or when we needed comfort, or to vent. There was some sort of neurological algorithm as to what thoughts were sent when.

*End Eddie’s POV*

You had started unpacking pretty much the second your parents agreed to let you make the basement your room. Your dad had even agreed to take you to the hardware store to pick up paint this weekend.

“You’ll start at the high school on Monday. The principal confirmed that he received your transcripts and all your credit hours transferred, so you’re right on track.” Your dad explained.

“Oh, awesome! Did he happen to send my schedule or anything so I could familiarize myself with it beforehand?” You asked.

Oh fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck! I am so late. O’Donnell is gonna kill me!

Your hand flew to your head, the volume of his thoughts brought forth a pounding in your head. They had never been this loud before.

“Bug? You okay?” Your dad looked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m okay! Just a headache. Too many thoughts in there I guess.” You chuckled lowly.

“Honey, was it his thought?” Your mom questioned.

You hadn’t told your parents much about your soulmate, only that you had been able to hear him and that he was, in fact, a him. They had also been aware that you hadn’t been able to hear him lately – that was when your mom explained that your thought can sometimes drown out theirs.

“Yeah, it was and uh, I don’t know, I guess it was kinda loud.” You shrugged.

“How loud?” Your mom asked.

“I don’t know, loud enough to give me a headache. It was like he was in the room with me.” You looked at your parents, a knowing grin making its way onto each of their faces. “What?”

“Nothing bug. Let’s go see if your principle sent that schedule over.” Your dad wrapped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you into his side.

Monday morning had come way too soon, though you’d had an incredibly productive weekend. Your room was painted and decorated, you’d finished rereading The Hobbit and had begun rereading Pet Cemetery, you’d also memorized your class schedule.

Your dad dropped you off at school, he also told you he was planning to go and check out a car for you after his shift – that had left you pretty excited.

Finally! My own car!

The day was dragging on pretty slowly…truthfully you were ready for lunch.

Then Vecna will make a surprise return.

What the hell?

This campaign is going to be epic!

His thoughts had come and gone like this since you’d arrived in Hawkins. Just back and forth with random tidbits that left you more confused than anything.

The bell ringing had been your saving grace. It was finally time for lunch, and now you were feeling anxious again…where were you meant to sit?

You looked around and before you could take a step, a voice stopped you dead in your tracks.

Here we fucking go.

“We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game. But as long as you're into band or science ...or parties or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets...”

God he’s hot.

“It's forced conforming. That's what's...killing the kids!”

Assholes.

Kids were either laughing at his outburst or calling him horrible names, but you just stood there. Could this really be him? This super-hot guy who just caused an entire scene in the cafeteria.

“Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final, I'm gonna walk that stage next month, I'm gonna look Principal Higgins dead in the eye, I'm gonna flip him the bird, I'm gonna snatch that diploma. I'm gonna run like hell outta here…This year is different. This year is my year.”

He took a step back and bumped right into you, but before you could fall to the ground, he grabbed your arm and pulled you up and against his chest.

Holy shit.

You both let out a quiet chuckle.

All at once, colors were brighter, smells were sweeter, touches were softer. Everything came together in that moment; you couldn’t believe it. Here he was.

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chiscribbs · 11 months

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[***NOTE: Leo's design here is no longer accurate, link to the updated version.]

I know there are already a lot of "the brothers are separated at a young age and raised by different people" AUs floating around, so this isn't especially original, but- I've yet to see one with this particular parent-child arrangement, so...

Here’s some rough concept art for what I’m calling the “Grown Apart AU” Which I've also been affectionately referring to as the "Everyone's a Disney Protagonist" AU for quite some time... you'll see why.

Here’s the gist: Basically, Splinter is only able to save Mikey and Leo from the lab explosion - Raph is immediately picked up by Huginn and Muninn and handed back over to Draxum; Donnie is lost mid-escape and later found by Big Mama's goons, who show up for Lou but bring Don back with them instead when Lou is nowhere to be found.

Details of each turtles’ upbringings (as well as how/when they meet April) below the cut:

RAPH

Draxum raised Raph to be everything he originally intended the turtles to be: a ruthless, obedient super soldier whose sole purpose in life is to protect the Yokai by eliminating the human threat. Draxum taught him to hate humankind and trained him up to be virtually undefeatable in battle. However...because Draxum isn't the most attentive parent, most of the caretaking for Raph was actually provided by Huginn and Muninn. And the two little well-meaning gargoyles - mostly unintentionally and outside of their master's knowledge - wound up nurturing a much softer and friendlier side to their supposedly bloodthirsty warrior-in-the-making. As a result, Raph has essentially been living a double-life under Draxum’s ownership; playing the part of a perfect soldier for his father/general, who he's determined not to disappoint, and only feeling free to be himself when he's alone (or with H&M.)

Raph has always known that there were supposed to be other mutants like himself but grew up believing that he's the only one who survived the experiment, making him the only one left in existence (until Draxum’s oozesquitos create more, that is). Even though he had H&M to keep him company, being an only child could still be pretty lonely sometimes, so Raph would often imagine what having brothers - other mutants like himself that he could have grown up alongside - would have been like.

Raph is the only one of the turtles that knows his human DNA comes from Lou Jitsu - just like Draxum, though, he has no idea that Splinter is actually Lou Jitsu.

DONNIE

Donnie had a posh and cushy upbringing in Big Mama's hotel - she raised him as her own son(unaware that he’s actually Lou’s)/apprentice and uses his technological talents to aid her multiple businesses: he supplies new weapons and battlegrounds for the Battle Nexus, as well as automated assistants and security for her hotel, and even pitches in with her more off-the-record dealings that last one being without Donnie’s knowledge. Big Mama's kept him pretty much wrapped around her little finger; praising him for his intelligence and usefulness whenever he does a good job or makes her nice things. When he hasn’t, however, she’s a less-than-affectionate mother. Donnie will do absolutely anything it takes to impress and earn approval from her.

Donnie is largely sheltered and knows very little about the world outside of the hotel - especially the human world, about which most of his knowledge comes from what he finds on the internet. He doesn't even know that he's a mutant, believing himself to be just some uncommon type of yokai, since that's all he knows. He’s not allowed to fraternize freely with the hotel guests and has a somewhat contentious relationship with Big Mama’s assistant, whom he’s always viewed as competition for her affection. The closest thing he's had to a friend is S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N, whom Donnie built to have someone to talk to (besides Big Mama's boring, no-nonsense henchmen).

Don finally met April when he was about 11 yrs old; he secretly sent one of his spy bots out to explore the human city and she intercepted it. The two have been best friends and stayed in-touch with each other online ever since - April being unaware that Donnie isn't human.

Donnie knows of Lou Jitsu purely because he was Big Mama’s favorite champion in the history of the Battle Nexus - he idolizes him, having watched recordings of many of his fights, and dreams of one day fighting in the Battle Nexus himself (if Big Mama would allow that).

Leo & Mikey

Leo and Mikey were still rescued by Lou/Splinter and brought up in the NY sewers. Splinter felt extremely guilty for not managing to save the other two baby turtles and, for the first few years following the incident, spent much of his time searching for them. Once Leo was old enough, Splinter would start leaving him and Mikey in the Lair while he searched. He eventually gave up his search, presuming them both dead or lost for good, and resigned to keeping the remaining two as safe as possible - teaching them how to defend themselves and warning them never to leave the sewers unless he was with them.

Leo and Mikey were inseparable as kids - they would do everything together, refusing to even sleep in separate rooms until they were too big to fit in one bed anymore. Leo took his job as Mikey's big brother very seriously and always tried his best to protect him, even when they were simply playing games with each other. As they got older, though, the two brothers began to drift apart - Leo started to feel a little smothered; craving more freedom to do what he wanted when he wanted, without the older sibling responsibilities hanging over him 24/7. And Mikey started feeling like he couldn't go/do anything without his brother's judgement or approval, resenting the idea that he needed constant protection.

Finally, when he was about 13, Leo secretly snuck out of the lair one night to check out the city by himself and get a little taste of independence. After that one trip, it quickly became a habit and he soon began making regular “secret” trips into the city.

Somewhere along the way, his innocent quests for freedom and fun grew into opportunities to stir up some trouble - Leo eventually met and became involved with a group of yokai teens with whom he would pull pranks and play jokes on the city's human occupants (harmless ones...usually. They just enjoy causing a little mischief.)

Mikey, having to figure out other ways to keep himself occupied since his brother is usually by himself or busy with his new friends, has picked up a multitude of different skills and hobbies, trying absolutely everything he can get his hands on. His main hobby is spray-painting, which he uses to spruce any wall he can find with his own personal touch. By the time he's 13, much of underground New York has been covered by his handiwork. Mikey eventually finds out about Leo’s secret outings and follows him when he leaves one night - the two end up meeting April, who's never seen mutants before (having only talked to Donnie online and not seen his face) and promptly freaks out before realizing they're not dangerous. The three soon become friends, too, and April starts making plans to introduce the boys to Donnie - knowing he could use more friends besides S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and herself.

The four brothers' fates finally collide with one another when an escapee from Draxum's lab - Mayhem - shows up out of the blue and catapults Mikey and Leo to the Hidden City, where they have an unexpected reunion with their eldest brother.

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vaguely-concerned · 2 months

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Ever since watching The Wire for the first time, my brain has doggedly kept working away at the Especially the lies of it all, and specifically at how much the structure beneath the different stories Garak tells contributes to the overall meaning of what he’s trying to say. While the contradicting narratives of course expertly obscure the factual circumstances of his getting exiled, using them also allows him to tell aspects and facets of the emotional truth I don’t think he ever could have, if he’d simply told the actual story of what happened. (It’s very Varric-core of him honestly.)

The first story — the ‘oh, you think you know me?’ story — says I have done things that would sicken you if you knew any detail of it. It’s clearly meant to scare Bashir away so he’ll leave him to die shamefully in peace already lol. But it’s also one of his (probably much-needed lbr) little lessons to Julian that are so frequent in the beginning, given while Garak still has some hold on himself — “Don’t be so quick to forgive me if you don’t even know what I’ve done; what would you do if this really were the sum total of what I am?” (And Julian seems to surprise him by going ‘Well, exactly the same thing, because no matter who you are I am a doctor. But I sort of take your point.’)

The second story — the letting the orphans go story — says I have failed to smother my soul in its cradle when it was required of me, and I regret that more than anything I’ve done. To my ears this is the one most shot through with active self-loathing too, which is interesting. He’s officially lost the control he’s been clinging to and it’s about to get ugly. His TL;DR is ‘Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all’, even all the way back here. (Which is the one lesson Julian steadfastly refuses to learn, which I think in turn does some serious rearrangement of Garak’s soul over the course of the show haha. Get uno reversed into the process of loving and being loved without shame asshole.) This is also where he builds up to admitting to having any sort of need for companionship or closeness at all and — so much worse — that Julian’s role in his life actually has fulfilled some of that need, and he’s DRIPPING with defensive venom over it b/c well I get it Garak vulnerability is scary it can take a person like that.

(I also feel there’s something honest and forbidden in ‘Suddenly the whole exercise seemed utterly meaningless’. I suspect ‘actually… why the fuck are we even doing this???’ is not a welcome sentiment in an Obsidian Order water cooler environment, no matter what you’re saying it about lmao. The very first seeds of him deconstructing the things he’s been taught about Cardassia and his work might be hinted at here, though they of course take a looong time to come to any real fruition.)

The third story — the ‘Elim was my best friend’ story — says hey, remember that thing you said once, about how sometimes, you have to be loyal to yourself before you can be loyal to anything else? Well. guess what. I couldn’t even be that lmao. It also furthers that thread of being divided from yourself, split, that having ‘Elim’ as a separate person around in all versions of the story brings in. He’s in control of himself again, but he essentially hands his life and soul over to Julian to decide what should be done with them.

I’ve done horrible things and it finally caught up with me, I’m getting what I deserve → I let sentiment master me and the fact that I’m too weak to do what’s needed of me shames me more than the evil I’ve done → I fucked up. I betrayed myself and everything I held to, all for nothing, and I have no one to blame for it but myself. But it’s very nice that you’re here anyway, Doctor. (Wow. I didn’t realize quite how isolated and lonely that last one was before right now. The way Tain has shaped him really has just… locked him completely into himself, huh.) We can also see a movement through from a completely professional context in the first story, to an intensely interpersonal and internal context in the last one — even his fake stories spiral in towards intimacy, which I think is what he longs for here even if he can’t quite like. Touch that without the stories as a buffer yet, it’s clearly like touching a hot stove for him to interact with it too directly.

And you know what I find incredibly interesting the whole way through? Even on his deathbed, where he’s dying from the thing Tain had put in his head, he’s protecting Tain. He puts all the blame for where he is on himself (‘My future was limitless, until I threw it away’), even if he has to employ a strange twisty logic where he’s split himself into two to do it. Don’t get me wrong, Garak has done horrific things all on his own haha, but it’s notable that he almost isolates Tain from that. ‘Tain was the Obsidian Order. Not even the Central Command dared challenge him. And I was his right hand.’ Tain in Garak’s stories is this infallible implacable weirdly distant figure, even now. Indeed, as will make a lot of sense with the revelations further down the line, more than anything it seems the gaze of an abused child desperate for recognition looking up at an idealized (if not in any way nurturing) parent.‘He was retired at that point; he couldn't protect me’, Garak says, as if what he’d need protection from in the first place isn’t Tain himself lmao, as if Tain had no active part in any of this. He never lets blame touch Tain at all. At this stage he would rather consider himself a broken flawed tool than accept that the hands that have wrought and wielded him have ever had any fault in them. AND in the middle of it all, with plausible deniability, on death’s door and knocking meekly to be let in before he must finish the mortifying ordeal of being known and test the even more daunting possibility of being loved, Garak at the same time manages to drop the breadcrumb trail of clues to make it possible for Julian to find Tain if he so chooses and gets in the ‘sons of Tain’ thing too for future dramatic irony purposes. Truly he is the Michelangelo of lying. Every falsehood a multifaceted masterpiece. Elim ‘achieving a state of intertextuality in real life is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself’ Garak. I love him so much.

I think all of this is why “I forgive you. For whatever it is you did,” works so well, because it too works on a structural level. It’s such a deceptively multilayered response — it has the syntax of a joke, in a way, and it is kind of funny even under the circumstances, but delivered with such earnest warmth and fondness. It’s both recognition and acceptance (forgiveness!). It’s saying ‘I finally understand enough of what you’re trying to tell me beneath and through all that, in whatever way you’re capable of, I see you’ and ‘my answer hasn’t changed (bitch)’. The forgiveness Julian offers here is complete — on principle, and out of personal feeling and empathy (only one of which Garak deigns to respond to during the second story, where he calls it ‘smug Federation sympathy’, placing it more completely on the principle side than it probably is. ‘Dude you’re my friend please don’t just lie down and die in a completely avoidable way on me, who else is going to not only tolerate but actually gleefully enjoy me being annoying as fuck over lunch’ seems to be the subtext that’s a lot harder to acknowledge and invite in for both of them. And yet Tain seems perfectly clear on the fact that Julian is Garak’s friend, which, y’know. Must be fun living with the knowledge that Tain has eyes everywhere looming over you every day haha guess you’d just have to tune that out.)

Most of all — ’Don’t give up on me now, Doctor’... and he didn’t! He didn’t. Augh. Ow.

#garashir #elim garak #julian bashir #star trek ds9 #ds9 #star trek #ds9 meta #S2EP22 The Wire #alternate title: baby's first brush with unconditional love through unreliable narration lol #I'm not sure I got to say everything I want to in this/found the exact right words in places or hit all the nuances #but god help me I so desperately need this out of my brain to free up some disc space so go forth little meta haha be free #I'm sure I'll come back to you in time #meta #enabran tain #(derogatory)

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meruz · 1 year

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sorry if this has been asked before, but i wanted to ask about your lineart! the weight and line economy are just so nice, i get stars in my eyes looking at your lineart and doodles. could i ask what your approach to lineart is and what tips you might offer?

Wow I love these questions - Line is so interesting!!! It's a really big topic so I feel like any tips I give will be just barely scratching the surface. It's like deceptively simple...any given line drawing is essentially taking all the information we glean from seeing something irl ie light, shadow, dimension, texture, perspective, etc and boiling it down to the simplest possible visual information.

I think most commonly my line is informed by light source so like. thicker more continuous lines face away from the light and thinner more broken lines towards. and a lot of my spot blacks r simply cast shadows.

here's a more extreme example

BUT like everything to do with art there's no hard and fast rules. I use blacks when I think it'll be effective or interesting and I leave them out when I don't need em. umm couple things I find myself doing a lot... using spot blacks to make the separation between characters clearer. I like casting shadow in between characters so its easy to separate and read their silhouettes even when they're mashed together.

u can go even further to purposely create a silhouette like

to draw attention to a finger or tongue LOL. There's some comic book artists who are absolute masters at this type of stylization. Alex toth and his spiritual successor Chris samnee come to mind for me right away.

(toth)

(samnee)

I feel like I'm also often using line weight to separate planes receding in space

im naturally a really heavy handed and scribbly drawer(...?) draftsman. and im nearsighted so when i see things i percieve and break it down into big shapes over thin contours. so stuff like spot blacks and shadows came easy to me, the tricky part was making the rest of the lines lighter when they needed to be so the blacks could actually have impact LOLL. a lot of effective visual communication is about balancing contrasts. like I had to really train myself to press less hard on the pen. I think this is actually really evident if u go back in my archive to older sketches LOL

I actually feel like a lot of how I trained my hand to tackle line weights was thru stuff like hand lettering where you rly have to focus on being sensitive to that kind of thing.. contrasting strokes etc.

also exercises like figure drawing will have you flexing those muscles constantly

I'm starting to just regurgitate lessons from freshman year of art school so I'll stop here with the demos but yeah...I hope this was helpful!? I love line!!! I want to get even better at line work so I can feel confident posting work that's only line no color or value... I'll leave you with a bunch of artists who I think have particularly expressive and beautiful linework (not including toth and samnee who I already mentioned and who's work I love so much). You can probably learn much more from them than you can from me...!

Charles dana gibson LOL

Matias bergara

tonci zonjic

naoki urasawa

Daniel warren johnson

shiyoon kim

michel breton

also yoji shinkawa, tomer hanuka, leo romero, I feel like I'm gonna post this and think of so many more. there's so many good artists...!

#goodnight #ask #edit: true to my word i added more artists LOL

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velvet4510 · 7 months

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Rosie Cotton does not get enough praise. This gal was truly a queen among hobbits. There’s a darn good reason Tolkien himself dubbed her “absolutely essential,” because she is.

(Samfro shippers especially need to appreciate her rather than erase her.)

The love of her life abruptly left the Shire and was gone for a whole year, when she was expecting them to get married. Think of how painful that must’ve been for her. Then she had such a strong intuition that she somehow sensed the Ring’s destruction and knew he was going to come back. Nobody else had this feeling but her. There’s definitely something special about Rosie Cotton, if she was able to sense this out of nowhere.

But then, when Sam finally did return safe and sound, he was head over heels for his master and planning to move in with him.

How did Rosie react? She accepted that being with Sam meant including Frodo, that there wouldn’t really be just the two of them like a typical marriage. And she basically said to Sam, “Let’s get married anyway and live with him.” Her love for Sam never went away, and not even his feelings for Frodo could make her want to marry anyone else. She knew what she wanted and wouldn’t settle for anything less. She took Sam exactly as he was, Frodo and all.

Not only that, Rosie literally allowed Frodo to name her firstborn child. Not her husband, not herself, but Frodo. She settled on the name that Frodo chose for her own daughter: Elanor. Talk about generosity; that alone really shows just how closely she let Frodo into the family.

And it was Rosie’s presence that gave Sam strength and a will to live when he needed it most. If it hadn’t been for her, Sam would’ve been left all alone and heartbroken with nothing, because Frodo would’ve either left on the ship or withered away and died in just a few years, maybe even months. Even if Sam had left on the ship with Frodo, he would’ve yet again given up his life and dreams for Frodo and lost his chance at cultivating his beloved Shire and having a family. Frodo would’ve just felt guilty and it would’ve likely tainted their relationship. It was Rosie who gave Sam something to live for in the Shire, and gave Frodo the peace of mind that he’d be leaving Sam in good hands. And she accomplished all this just by offering Sam the unconditional love, care, and support that he needed, and by respecting and loving Frodo when very few Shirefolk did. This is why Samfro shippers should never erase Rosie or blame her for the separation; Frodo was forced to leave Sam, either way, and Rosie was the miracle that they needed in order to survive the separation.

And then Rosie proceeded to (somehow) birth and raise a total of 13 children(!!), while also rising from simple farm girl to the Mistress of Bag End, the grandest estate in all of Hobbiton, and the Mayor’s wife, essentially leading the entire community of the Shire alongside Sam. She got a total of 62 years with the love of her life - who she once thought she’d lost forever - and lived to be 98.

Regardless of who you ship, respect Rosie Cotton. She deserves it.

#lotr #jrr tolkien #rosie cotton #lotr books #samfro #frodo x sam #frodo x sam x rosie #sam x rosie #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #lord of the rings

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daisymintt · 6 months

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Merlin Fic Prompts

Arthur gets separated and injured while on patrol and is taken in by the kind forest Druid Merlin who nurses Arthur back to health. During this time Arthur sees a side of magic he’s never been exposed to before and questions everything he’s been taught.

A series of letters Merlin’s writes to his mom telling her about his adventures in Camelot

Winter Soldier AU where Morgana discovers Merlin had magic but doesn’t know he’s Emrys. Uses the Fomarrah on him and instead of killing Arthur orders him to swear undying loyalty to her, to do anything she asks. Merlin essentially becomes like her Winter Soldier and wrecks havoc on villages. When Arthur hears about a dangerous sorcerer named Myrddin attacking villages he goes to investigates, still depressed about the lose of Merlin, and is shocked to discover that it Myrddin is Merlin except Merlin doesn’t remember him or anything before the fomarrah was implanted. Arthur now has a new goal of getting his best friend back and break Morgana’s hold on him.

The Purple Tunic. Merlin’s birthday comes and goes with no celebration, Gaius being overrun with patients and Merlin stuck with an impossibly long list of chores from Arthur. When Arthur learns that Merlin’s birthday had passed he feels bad and leaves the purple tunic for him in his room as a gift.

Arthur kills a Druid women and as she lays dying she roughly grabs his arm and curses him to experience suffer any wound he deals. Arthur struggles with his self worth now that he can’t protect his people as a knight without hurting himself

Arthur and Merlin get cursed so that whenever one gets hurt the other suffers the same wound (like Barbara and Strickler from Trollhunters)

Merthur WandaVision AU

S3 E12 AU where Merlin does actually fight Gwaine and Arthur is the one that has to be physically held back

Seeing Double. Merlin has always had a lot of work what with helping Gaius, being Arthur’s manservant, and saving everyone’s lives in a near daily basis. One day he is so busy he tries a new spell that’s suppose to create a double of you that lasts for 24 hours. Arthur thinks he’s going mad because he keeps seeing double of Merlin.

Mama’s Boy. Hunith is taken prisoner by some bandits and that sets Merlin on a warpath to get her back with Arthur at his side.

Merlin gets captured by a dark sorcerer who knows he’s Emrys and has him chained up in cold iron. While he’s imprisoned the sorcerer bloodlets him, planning to sell the blood of Emrys on the black market keep Merlin alive enough not to fight back.

Arthur falls and hurts his arm. Merlin examines it and diagnoses it, “You’ve fractured your ulna.” Gwaine perks up at this, “Ulna? I think I dated an Ulna once.”

While picking herbs for Gaius Merlin finds an injured and orphaned fox kit and brings it back with him. One day it gets out of his room and chaos ensues. He nearly catches it in Arthur’s room when Arthur returns and he tries to play it cool.

AU where as Freya lay dying in Merlin’s arms they get married, using blades of grass as their rings. The knights don’t notice at first but eventually one of them asks about it and Merlin gets all sad.

Merlin wakes in the middle of the night to someone breaking into Gaius’s chambers, covered in blood

A servant of two masters AU where instead of sending Merlin in to assassinate Arthur she makes a sting bulb of Merlin and sends it in. A day after it gets sent away Merlin breaks out of Morgana’s and races to save Arthur. Stabs a sword through his clone’s stomach. When it dies it turns into a pile of humus. Arthur starts to get suspicious of Plant!Merlin when he stops eating and he swears he saw Merlin stick his finger in water and drink it. Plant!Merlin also gets weak after long period’s without sunlight and ‘wilts’. Gwiane refuses to give up on his search for Merlin and sets out on his own. Finds Merlin in Morgana’s hovel and together they escape back to Camelot.

Modern Day Merlin, Merlin starts suffering from symptoms of Mahd Wy'ry which affects and causes him to have psychotic episodes at random, due to the weight of his memories. Leon finds him during one of these episodes.

That scene from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron where Merlin holds an injured Arthur on the banks of a river when the bad guys find them and tear them apart despite their pleas. The knights find Arthur and once he’s stronger they set out to save Merlin.

Merlin and Arthur argue that the other wouldn’t last a day in the others shoes so Arthur comes up with the idea of ‘swapping places’ while they are visiting another kingdom that has never met Arthur before. The knights are in on it. They swap clothes and for a week Merlin is Arthur and Arthur is Merlin.

When kids start disappearing in the middle of the night Merlin sets out to investigate and is nearly killed

Morgana visits Gaius because she feels nauseous and while she’s there she throws up on her dress. Merlin lets her borrow some of his clothes and Arthur walks in sees her and thinks they’re courting. Arthur gets jealous.

That scene from Disneys Robin Hood where they dress as fortune tellers but it’s Merlin and Arthur and they do it in order to get into a bandits keep without arousing suspicion and getting something of importance they stole (Arthurs mothers sigil? His mothers ring?)

Merlin has parasomnia and often wanders the castle at night, often to Arthurs room

Merlin opens a haven for magical creatures/beings/people. Arthur wanders into and is nearly drowned by a naiad but Merlin saves him

Merlin Tarzan AU with a hint of Valka from HTTYD2. Balinor refuses to help Uther trap the last dragon and instead frees it. He takes shelter in Ealdor where he falls in love and has a child with Hunith. One day Uther finds them and, finding themselves cornered with no chance of escape, Balinor calls upon Kilgarrah. Balinor is killed and Hunith is taken prisoner to be used as bait for Merlin someday. Kilgarrah takes baby Merlin to a safe haven for dragons where he is raised by dragons. Many years later Merlin heard about the legend of the dragon egg and sets out to find it. During this journey he meets Prince/King Arthur. Although rivals at first they soon realize they have the same goal, return magic and dragons to Camelot.

Dragonlord side effects. The days following the activation of his Dragonlord powers Merlin starts to experience some side effects. Each chapter is a different side effect.

After Arthur becomes king he reinstates the holiday Saturnalia. Merlin gets elected the “Mock King” giving him a free pass to cause as much mischief and mayhem as he would like

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comradekatara · 6 months

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hello! I’m rewatching atla atm, and I’m on the s1 finale. I was wondering if you’ve ever imagined what an extra northern water tribe ep could look like? personally I feel like they could’ve easily scrapped the great divide and added another ep to this mini arc, after the ep where katara slays paku. I’m just not sure what the conflict would be. a sokka ep would be great, maybe some of his warrior training & socializing with the average nwt man. the way this could contribute to sokka & masculinity & protection I would Die. ofc more time with yue. but anyway, I’m interested in your thoughts

oh this SUCH a good question!! the nwt is my favorite mini-arc in the show (yue being the absolute scene-stealer that she is) and i have always secretly wanted an extra episode set there, whether by removing “the great divide” (objectively bad episode apart from the aang lying stuff which is great) or by simply adding one extra episode to s1 at no cost.

if i could rework those episodes as self indulgently as possible, i would make “the waterbending master” more katara (and kanna) focused and then make the extra episode more sokka (and yue) focused. yue could still be introduced to us and sokka in that episode, but time spent on sokka’s subplot could instead be afforded to flashbacks of kanna in the nwt. we only get very limited glimpses of kanna, in flashbacks or otherwise, and i think seeing more of her, especially in an episode that sheds so much illuminating light onto her character & thematic role as she informs katara, would have been really cool to see. kanna as a child, giggling with baby yugoda as she would later do with hama. kanna at age 16, looking like a slightly older katara, hesitating over her marriage to a younger pakku, ultimately making a difficult choice. katara’s arc in that episode wouldn’t change (i mean, it’s already so perfect), but for the audience, seeing kanna would help contextualize that chiasmus and further move us.

a common criticism i see from detractors of sokka/yue’s relationship is that it feels too rushed, and i agree to an extent, but we also know that they did develop a sincere friendship during the timeskip between “the waterbending master” and “the siege of the north.” we simply do not know for how long that timeskip actually lasted. we can assume that it was a not insignificant amount of time, considering that katara basically mastered waterbending in that interim, but we never actually see that friendship develop, so to some, it can feel cliched and insincere (because they simply do not understand the power of uhaul lesbianism). so on a very self-indulgent level, i would love to see more of sokka and yue’s relationship development, since we are only privy to the most essential beats (which, granted, we can extrapolate from, but im being selfish rn shut up).

an episode where sokka and yue (both separately and together) comprise the a and b plots (and the c plot can be katara and aang adorable training montage) would be really nice to see, especially, as you said, wrt the gender politics of the nwt. it would be cool to see yue directly interact with arnook and/or hahn to provide a starker contrast between the burdens placed on her as a girl/daughter/wife/princess versus how sokka treats her (because that implication is already crucial, but framing it more overtly would be nice). and then seeing sokka in the throes of his “warrior training” being like “i don’t think any of these dudes have ever actually seen battle…” and having to deal with the tension of being denigrated and disrespected as a southerner, but also clearly having more experience than them and being frustrated by their myopia (realizing that not too long ago, he also had no experience, and oh god is that what he sounded like??????? yes.) .. and then of course sokka and yue together, flirting as “just friends” (over pai sho perhaps????) and being in their own little totally platonic rom com world. but sokka and yue’s relationship is obviously very thematically significant on top of just being lovely and adorable, so using that extra space to explore their parallel commitments to their (patriarchal) Duty, the burdens and expectations placed on them, and how it reflects their societies and the role colonialism plays in shaping them. would love to see it!!!!

#dejaentends #asks #katara #kanna #kanna&katara #sokka #yue #sokkaxyue #<- butch/femme uhaulers. to me #YEAHHH BABYYYYYY #this is exactly what is rotating in my mind at all times HOW DID YOU KNOWWWWW #if I wrote fanfiction btw. it would be this

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mythicalartistx · 7 months

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So people blame Terra....

And it's not his fault.

Like essentially he wanted to do good and he wanted to help people.

Maleficent manipulated him like she did with Riku.

Terra and KH1 Riku are actually similar

Xehanort was probably a mentor he looked up to and he didn't know he was bad. Like from the viewer everyone is like he screams bad guy it's Xehanort— but Terra didn't know this.

Xehanort planted the seeds in his head and had him use darkness. Though Darkness isn't inherently evil, Eraqus was only worried.

Because of DR events where the darkness killing all of Eraqus and Xehanort's friends, Eraqus was worried for Terra. Xehanort , however, by experiencing that and seeing that went astray after the fact. Eraqus however knew this about Xehanort.

Maybe he thought he changed with putting Ventus in his care.

But because of DR events, Eraqus was worried and wanted him to be safe (he viewed him like a son) and would rather him just stay at the land of departure.

That's why he tasked Aqua with watching him. But at kh3 Eraqus admits he shouldn't have done what he did.

First seeing BBS you think oh he's a bad teacher when actually he's one of the better ones. He's just worried they will turn out like what happened in his and Xehanort's past. He only knew darkness as bad at this point too, they didn't have anyone like Riku who is in the light but also used Darkness for good

He keeps Ven sheltered, asks Aqua to bring them back and watch over them, and has Terra go out to prove Eraqus is wrong.

But by having them leave, Xehanort takes advantage of it.

Eraqus admits he was a foolish teacher and asked so much of them.

The reasons Terra was different from Riku is that he knew that darkness was bad and didn't want to use it. He then uses darkness to protect Ven something Riku probably would have done and that's when Eraqus realizes what he did was sorta wrong too and that he shouldn't have raised his hand against them.

However, Xehanort, takes that opportunity to attempt and kill him as Eraqus hides in Terra's heart.

Xehanort set the three of them on a path that led to distrust and separation.

It's no one's initial fault. It's bad circumstances.

After the final battle, Aqua saves Terra by sending him and her armor to the world of light.

And before anyone says she shouldn't of done that because he ends up causing his problems with Xehanort obtaining his body, Aqua didn't know that would happen.

Literally none of the characters knew the outcome of things. They didn't know Xehanort was filled with darkness, trying to sway them. Ventus lost his memories from being split from Vanitas.

They trusted their master for some reason let Xehanort around, that's the only thing I honestly really question.

He probably was just wanting to reconnect with their tragic yaoi

I see people hate on Aqua too but it's not her fault. She didn't really let being Master go to her head, she just wanted to do what was right and what she was told. Again because of separation there was distrust.

Anyone it's just Xehanort's plan, no one is at fault.

#kingdom hearts #kh #wayfinder trio #wayfinder #terra #terra kh #ventus #ven #ventus kh #ven kh #aqua kh #aqua #birth by sleep #kh discussion #discussion post

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tmcsartstuff · 20 days

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Long af rant about Velvette's old design and character as I share my art of her :D

Pilot Velvette/ Og Velvette gives extreme babydoll harley quinn vibes, which is a stark contrast from how she ended up being in the show. I like to imagine that something extreme happened to her, like a horrible breakup or betrayal, and she went all crazy. This is the version of her we see in the pilot. The Voxtagram stories seemed to lean into this, depicting her as more immature, bratty, and murderous. She also depended more on Vox and Val like she saw them more as father figures than co-workers. (Just a thought.) However, as she adapted more to the landscape of hell she became the Velvette in the show; A fashion icon girlboss who is much more independent and while not serious, much more mature than her pilot counterpart, and even the other Vees. They ditched her psycho vibe to replace it with something that made more sense to her character.

Something that I personally wonder is: Why was Velvette like this in the beginning if she was meant to focus on fashion? A puffy Lolita dress goes against the Vees whole idea of being up to date, so what was the original vision for her? People have complained about Velvette already having too much going on for her, being both the overlord of fashion, master of social media, backbone of the vees, selling a love potion, etc. If those ideas were already there, did they just think a crazy serial killer girl would be even more extra clutter to her personality?

A concept many fans I've talked with is if the Vees personalities in the pilot stayed. Val would be pretty much the same, but the other two were almost different characters. In the Voxtagram stories, Vox let Val beat him around, had a goofy pet, and seemed to care less about his public image to remain more villainous. Velvette I already discussed was extremely different, the only thing connecting her to our Velvette is her connection with the Vees and fashion. In this universe, would Velvette see Vox and Val as toxic dads who kept breaking up and getting back together again, instead of seeing them as equals and KEEPING THEM TOGETHER? it's a wild shift.

Essentially, Pilot Velvette acted more like a bratty little girl, while her show version acts more like a annoyed but controlling teen. We see her pilot look as her profile picture, so this 'phase' of hers is still canon. I know she already died as an adult, which is why I'm so curious as to why she originally acted this way. Did Viv think she would be a better contrast to Vox and Val like this? To be fair, a spoiled brat AND annoyed girlboss are both contrasts of their personalities, just two different approaches. Was their originally going to be a backstory for her as to why she was this way? or was she just crazy to BE manipulative? or you know, just liked murder while looking cute like Niffty. speaking of Niffty…

I think Niffty is the most likely reason why they changed Velvette's design and personality. we already have a little crazy girl who admires 2 men she sees as older figures and enjoys murder for mysterious reasons. It mightv'e seemed a little counter-intuitive if there was 2 versions of the same character stereotype. Another reason they could've changed her is that she stands out more. If we're supposed to take Velvette as an overlord seriously, how are we supposed to do that when she leans back on the other two guys and looks like she's from a horror movie? Sure, I'm positive pilot Velvette could've been intimidating at times when she got legitimately frightening. however, this didn't seem like her vibe 95% of the time. It might've made her blend more into the background of the Vees than she practically already does. (Which is just a problem for female Vivzie characters but that's a whole separate rant.)

A headcanon of mine is that this was just her psycho little girl brat phase, and she is hella embarrassed over it. like a teen being embarrassed over their phases of when they were a kid. and Vox and Val would constantly piss her off by reminding her of it. That could lead to some fun banter in the future I would love to see as a reference to the pilot.

Anyways, sorry for the literal Essay I wrote here again, just a ton of over-analyzing which I'm best at. Personally, I do vibe with Velvette's new design and character for the show, I just cant help but think of why she used to be so different and arguably had the BIGGEST character shift from pilot to show In Hazbin Hotel.

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intrepid-fictioneer-7 · 3 months

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I've come to the conclusion that, in my humble opinion, Higashide is the writer in TYPE-MOON who makes the best ships involving Heroic Spirits.

Which might sound really weird. After all, the central couple in Fate/Apocrypha is Sieg/Jeanne d'Arc, and it's a pretty divisive one. No offense to those who like it, but it's always a dynamic I thought made no real sense narratively and didn't have much chemistry. Sieg on his journey of self-affirmation and personhood didn't need a romance (except maybe with Astolfo, with whom the dynamic is much more fun). Jeanne, the historical figure who rejected a marriage proposal, wore male clothing, and whose famous nickname refers to her celibacy, getting into a romance just never vibed with me (especially when it felt like the parallels/relationship between her and Shirou Kotomine were far more relevant). Add to that the ending copying Last Episode without what made LE have a strong impact, and it makes the whole even less appealing.

But despite that, Apo is also the work where there is the surprising ship of Shirou Amakusa and Queen Semiramis of all people: the semi-legendary Assyrian queen credited with making one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world falling in love with the young charismatic Japanese Christian who rebelled against the shogunate and failed. It's a very strange crossover ship between two people who never could have met if not for being brought back and it somehow works in being endearing.

(Achilles and Atalanta kinda count I guess, but it's a one-sided ship with little reasoning, that I care so little about, and is eclipsed by the more compelling foils each get, Chiron for Achilles, Jeanne for a Jackie the Ripper-driven mad Atalante.)

Higaside having grown and improved as a writer by the time of FGO, what followed this growth was him not doing a repeat of Sieg/Jeanne, but writing better ships mostly involving Servants. Asterios the Minotaur and Euryale the Gorgon; last Byzantine emperor Constantine IX and fictional Popess Johanna; heck, you can even see the relationship between Mordred and Dr. Jekyll this way (it also works as simple close friendship). Being characters from usually completely different mythologies and historical cultures, there is care done to make it clear why they fall for each other and as a result these couples are very different from one another instead of being the same formula everytime. In a game where a lot of (female) Servants are made to fall for the last Master of Chaldea for sometimes very little reason, these are a breath of fresh air.

For all my problems with her, Sakurai does something similar, though her ships are usually people who canonically were together in their legends: Sigurd/Brynhild, Aslaug/Ragnar Lodbrok, Julius Caesar/Cleopatra, Ozymandias/Nefertari, Tomoe Gozen/Kiso Yoshinaka, etc. They can be one note and there is a repeated thematic tendency of hers of writing "inhuman woman discovering humanity by falling in love", but they tend to be very cute and I easily understand that these people are in love even beyond death, so I root for them to reunite. Higashide also has "canonical" pairings, but the results are more muddled here: Siegfried and Kriemhild are adorable as a divorced couple where there are clearly still feelings, no matter what the tsundere wife says. But Rama and Sita are just...there. I understand the point of their separation, but it's not very engaging and Rama essentially disappeared after the American Singularity, while Sita was yeeted to Arcade. A mark against Higashide, but not as bad as Sieg/Jeanne and overshadowed by the numbers of better ships he wrote in FGO.

And there's Orion and Artemis, where I'm split. Super Orion and LB Artemis was really good and poignant. Orion the teddy bear and ditzy Artemis are a realy bad joke that overstayed its welcome.

FGO prioritizes Master/Servant relationships, both because the last Master of Chaldea is a blank slate for players to self insert into, and also because human×Servant is the type of ship Nasu specializes in (Shirou/Saber, Rin/Saber, Kuzuki/Caster, Caren/Angra Mainyu, and to a lesser extent Bazett/Cu, Yukika/False Assassin, and Ayako/Medusa in FSN; Fate/Extra as a whole; Ritsuka/Castoria in FGO). But even there Higashide made better choices than when he penned Sieg/Jeanne. Charlotte Corday is a surprisingly well-done choice for her archetype, it seems like it's going to be another Kiyohime but no, he actually makes her a good character you get attached to.

And then there is Kadoc and Anastasia. Words cannot describe how much I love them, how their personalities clash and complement each other in the best way, how aesthetically good they look put next to each other, etc. And it's not even just that we got a MasterxServant relationship outside Ritsuka, though that helped.

Basically, Higashide has become my go-to source for good ships, especially intra-Servants ones where Ritsuka is not involved and characters are allowed to not orbit around their Master. Sakurai also provides in that last aspect, but Higashide is doing that and also giving that crossover flavor you see in things like that one Cartoon Network ad with Johnny Bravo and Velma, and that works really well for me.

#yuuichirou higashide #fate series #fate grand order #fate/grand order #fate/go #fgo #shipping #ramblings #not tagging all of them

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starrygetou · 3 months

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clingy asf!stsg who literally needs to be ripped away whenever they kiss. it’s never just a quick kiss ang go, they always do a peck and then it turns into them tonguing each others throats for hours.

it’s especially bad whenever they have to go on separate missions, holding up the travel lines in an airport bc they act/feel like they haven’t seen each other in eons and they’re coming back from war.

sentimental!stsg who always keep some sort of good luck charm on their persons at all time. satoru keeps a small scale from suguru’s curse dragon in his pocket, and suguru keeps that eraser he threw at satoru all those years ago when he finally mastered his Infinity technique.

retired!stsg who loves to visit jujutsu tech to see the new generation come up. the kids always get so excited seeing THEE Satoru Gojo, but gojo always makes sure to mention and emphasize how it was him and suguru who did it all together. suguru always appreciates it especially after he left and how he was essentially black listed from the jujutsu world, but was only ever starting to get mentioned again after coming back. suguru also is a heavy advocate for making sure the new generation of sorcerers have support, mental health wise. he was the one who paved the way for guidance counseling and official grief counseling for the sorcerers and mandatory debriefings with mental health professionals after longer/more involved missions.

growing old!stsg who eventually move into the countryside to live the rest of their retirement in peace. they own a small patch of land and suguru taught satoru how to do some farming. satoru loves this newfound sense of pride in being able to grow crops from seed and soil to acres of produce.

growing old!stsg who always takes strolls around the property. satoru having a habit of picking flowers during the walk and putting them in suguru’s now graying hair.

growing old!stsg is still playful. suguru sending weak little curses to annoy gojo if he’s out in the fields or doing housework. gojo always threats to exorcise them and suguru says he doesn’t really care anymore, since his life as a sorcerer are behind him. gojo has a full circle moment and breaks down crying in suguru’s arms, realizing that they survived and lived to old age together.

STOP HERE IF YOU WANT HAPPY FEEL GOOD ENDING

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

they have their final meal that night, cooking each others favorite foods before watching some of their favorite movies. they barely watch since they’re too busy reminiscing their youth. both getting equally emotional and holding one another like their lives depend on it. they take one last bath together, not even really in the mood to do anything other than bathing each other. satoru taking extra time to brush suguru’s hair, feeling every strand between his fingertips, attempting to remember what was going on in their lives when suguru’s hair was at that specific length—what struggles they had, any friends they had possibly lost, everything.

when it’s time for bed, they get comfortable together in their pjs. satoru finally getting rid of his lavish 1000 count silk thread pjs for some simple beat down sweats and tank top that’s been well worn through the years.

they fiddle around with comfortable cuddle positpositions before satoru says,

“thank you.”

“… for what? if i may ask,” suguru says with his signature smile. still having that same sparkle in his eyes after everything he’s been through.

“for never giving up on us.”

suguru doesn’t even know how to respond other than gently squeezing satoru’s hand underneath the sheets.

“i love you.”

they exchange a final, long kiss before resting their foreheads together. falling asleep for one last time in one another’s arms.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #geto suguru #jjk geto #jjk gojo #gojo satoru #satosugu #jjk fanfic #gojo x geto #jjk drabbles #jjk angst #stsg makes me so incredibly ill #stsg finally getting the happy ending they deserve

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wazzappp · 3 months

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FINALLY. FUCKING FINALLY FINISHED JESUS CHRIST.

Ok so. Heres the general breakdown for attack types:

Basic attacks: These attacks just use the weapons that manifest during their magical girl transformation. Theres no limit to using these. They don't utilize all that much magic but are still effective because the weapons are technically MADE of magic.

Ult attacks: Utilize more magic and have a recharge time of about 5 to 10 minutes (which is a pretty long time in a fight). They can only be used after quite a bit of practice, as they require the ability to channel a lot of magic in a short amount of time. A familiar and their person must be able to work together in order for it to be effective. The familiar has to be capable of funneling the magic to the caster, and the caster has to have experience CASTING it.

Specialized spells: Each one of these attacks is different from person to person. These don't necessarily have to be attacks, they can also be defenses or evasions. These are usually the most difficult for a caster to master and take even more magic than the Ult attacks. A magical girl typically uses it the first time on accident, during the heat of the moment where they are desperately drawing on more magic to defend themselves. After that it is a concentrated effort to cast these spells. It's usually a signifier that the magic is starting to settle in them and that they're ready to cast more. The recharge time for these spells is 10 to 15 minuites.

The recharge time for casting spells will decrease the more a caster is composed of magic... which is a post for later lmao. As much as I would love to get into the fun ship of Theseus glitter body horror in this post it would just take to long lmao but its COMIN EVENTUALLY I PROMISE.

Johnny is an excellent fighter because of his POWER and his RANGE. He's best suited to fighting merged ghosts because it's one big target to aim a lot of power at. His Ult spirals out from around him and can help prevent him from getting caught if a bunch of separate ghosts try to swarm him. The downside is that its harder to direct, and he's in danger of hitting teammates if they're in his range (which I said earlier is pretty large). His specialized spell conjures essentially a cannon of fire, which he can aim wherever he pleases. His magical recharge time is slightly shorter than he norm, and he strikes me as the type of person who would use them IMMIDIETLY after he recharges.

Johnny has trouble if he doesen't have enough room to move his Scythe around. He works best in big open spaces. Hallways and elevators and the like are a BIG nope.

Robbie is unique among the other ghost fighters because 1. He's the least experienced and 2. He probably has the MOST trouble getting along with his familiar (I cant see him and Eli getting along in any fuckin universe tbh). Because of this he's not as adept at channeling large amounts of magic. When he does try at an Ult attack it usually has a much smaller effect than the others (see top right with him swinging his hammer). This means he focuses mostly on non magical attacks; having two modes to use his hammers (regular and on the end of chains to give him range). He's not as powerful so he has to be more CREATIVE. His magical recharge time is about what I described at the top.

He fights best at close range and can use his chained hammers to drag enemies that are usually too far away closer to him (GET OVER HEREEEE fuck yeah mortal kombat). His big weakness is that his smaller weapons dont allow him to block as easily, so he needs to focus on dodging or using his specialized spell, teleporting, to get out for the way (mostly dodging though. he's not great at teleporting). He HAS to stay aware of his surroundings or he could get surprised very easily.

Im gonna need. A whole nother post to try and figure out how the charger fits into all this lmao.

Dannyyyy!!! His funky moon staff was so fun for me to think about. One idea that I thought of after getting everything drawn is him sticking it around a ghosts neck and using it to guide them around and use that ghost as a shield. He has similar weakness to Johnny in that he needs space to move and cast spells. His arm guards make him just the littlest bit more able to block attacks but he still primarily uses his staff to stop attacks from going through (most of the others do. Yayyyyyy spinny capabilities).

@moosemonstrous made the WONDERFUL suggestion of his specialized spell being THROWS ACID ON YOU THROWS SO MUCH FUCKING ACID ON YOU REDUCED YOU TO YOUR BASE ELEMENTS GET FUCKED NERD GET ACIDED cause of his green era lmfao. He really REALLY does not enjoy this and uses it as little as possible. His magic recharge time is also just a little shorter.

@rokhal YOUUUUU. You mentioned Frank having time manipulation like Homura from Madoka Magica and it spawned this whole class of spell I blame you for this.

Frank has the most experience with magical girling by FAR and its very apparent in his fighting style. He sometimes uses the magic manifested by preparing his Ult without actually COMPLETING the spell which is like. Fighting with RPG backblast in magical girl world.

Franks staff is more infused with magic than the other fighters weapons, which allows him to manipulate its length (Robbie does something to a similar effect with his chains at the cost of his magical attacks not being as strong. Frank has no such limits lol).

His specialized spell stops time for about 5 minutes. If he extends himself he can sometimes push this time longer but it is VERY tiring. He also has to be REALLY careful of his team mates movements. Positioning some metal shards for a ghost to fall onto is all well and good, unless Robbie manages to teleport directly onto it. His recharge time is much MUCH shorter than the others, it usually only takes him 2 minutes to recharge an Ult and 7 minutes to recharge his specialized spell (though that time does increase the more he uses it, so there are still consequences for expending that much magic)

ALSO CREDIT TO MOOSE AGAIN for starting the idea to have all of them be. Sort of afraid? of their specialized spells. Johnny is terrified that he will somehow manage to literally burn the, surprisingly sort of happy, life he's built to the ground. Robbie is scared one day he'll just pop out of existence entirely. That he'll just go to teleport and get stuck in the weird inbetween space of being composed of magic and thought without real form forever. Danny is almost too afraid to go near people while his spell is active because Please Jesus Christ don't get dissolved please please. Fuck this acid ability fuck it fuck this. Frank's is a nightmare and a dream in one. What if he finds a time so nice, so happy, that he just freezes it and gives everything he has to stay there forever? It's been so long since he's had a family. What if he cant bear to let this one go?

#drempen I promise the 'everyone falling flat on their face and slamming into asphalt' is still happening its just coming a little later #now i can get to the glitter body horror as a little treat before jumping into familiar lore lets go lets goooooooo #I need it out of my head dude i need it OUT.#ghost rider magical girl au #my art #sketch #robbie reyes #johnny blaze #danny ketch #frank castle #ghost rider #thank you for screaming about this with me mooseeeeeee it was very productive #okok I have asks to answer and @s to respond too now that this monster is out of the way like jesus christ

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