and here’s the final redone ref sheet for the warriors au!! and with that i am finally done with the overhauling of all of my reference sheets for the fab four!! 🥳

as with all of them, a plain version is under the cut for clearer colors and details!

Geometry dash lore interpretation post

I think it's about time that I spread the lore and concepts that I modified for geometry dash because I'm really invested in the game (gameplay wise and lore wise) so here is the summary (warning: it is LONG):

The geometry dash app or game or whatever you'd like to call it is an actual facility in the middle of nowhere. If you go outside you will literally see thousands of miles of absolute darkness and the only light comes from the facility itself. Now if you enter you will find yourself in the menu where you can go to the official levels made by rubrub himself or head to the custom level section.

The darker areas signify how deep below ground the rooms are. There are also some hidden passageways that connect some places like the passageway that connects the shopkeepers shop with scratch's shop.

And I'd like to clarify that I interpret the levels as portals that the players can jump into (as well as the other characters but they aren't exactly supposed to do that...)

This is the same map but I put the in game screenshots to better understand what I mean.

Anyways now onto the characters:

(I don't have any high quality pictures of this guy, so sorry bout that.) He's the player (based off the default cube that you start off when you first boot the game). He's mostly silent and is the source of this conundrum. He represents the regular player's action: going into the levels, buying stuff from the shop and freeing those who shouldn't be freed. There are other cubes/players of course but they are usually doing what they are supposed to do and they stay out of trouble (unlike this miscreant).

We've also got the shopkeepers. The original three are the shopkeeper, Scratch and Potbor: The shopkeeper is just your regular guy just trying to make a living wage; Potbor is a special security droid that acts as surveillance but is disguised as a shopkeeper (he hasn't got a clue of what he's doing) and is rubrubs dear and precious child robot; Scratch is another robot that was thrown away and forgotten about due to his design being flawed (he is a draft design, so to speak), so he found an old abandoned shop left by another shopkeeper and is currently in hiding whilst selling whatever he can find in the trash bins.

Then there are the other new shop owners. The mechanic is the same species as the shopkeeper but due to an incident he has built and installed implants for himself and has now become a cyborg. He is also responsible for creating scratch, Potbor and the diamond shopkeeper. The diamond shopkeeper is just another regular robot shopkeeper that relies on the diamond plastered in his chest to be up and running. Without it, he is good as dead.

And as for their dynamics....

The shopkeeper and scratch are good buddies and they help each other out. And by help each other out I mean the shopkeeper is constantly panicking and saving scratch's ass from being caught.

Potbor is not aware of scratch's existence but if the two were to meet Potbor would neutralise him on the spot.

The mechanic is aware of scratch's existence (obviously) and constantly regrets not killing him when he had the chance so now he has to deal with him trying to get past his security.

And the diamond shopkeeper is...strange. He isn't the brightest tool in the shed but he makes up for it by being the mechanics bodyguard.

Enough shopkeeper stuff, let's move onto the guardians:

Glubfub or the "Key master" is the giant hulk-like beast that is in charge keeping the "demon guarding" locked up (I will bring him up later) and is the guarding of the vault of secrets.

Spooky or "the Guard" is the Tumblr sexyman and is in charge of... something. Rubrub makes him believe that he has the most important job of all and he takes it to heart. Unlike the other guardians he takes his position as a guardian very seriously (that's why he wears the suit but he doesn't really need it) and is rubrub's #1 fan.

The Gatekeeper is the oldest of the guardians and is the closest one to rubrub. Whilst everyone sees lord rubrub as this omnipotent god (which he kinda is) the Gatekeeper (or the old man as I like to call him) sees him as a coworker and is not afraid to tell things straight to his face. He also guards something (not sure what) as well as the key which unlocks one of the demon guardians locks.

And last but not least you've got rubrub himself and the demon guardian. If you know the Og geometry dash lore there's no need for an introduction. Lord Robtop or Rubrub is the boss of the facility and rarely appears within it's walls, opting to rest in his own private chambers. His mortal form is literally just a cube so he had the mechanic build him a robot body (I know he looks like Steve jobs I tell myself that every day).

The demon guardian was originally just a guardian like the others but decided that he was done with idolising and worshipping rubrub and went rogue. Obviously rubrub wasn't having any of that so he attempted to delete him. That failed and now he is this unstoppable beast that can shape shift into anyone (with some limitations) and wants to destroy the facility and escape the void. Robtop stopped him, however, and locked him away in the basement for god knows how long...till the player arrived.

And ONE LAST THING! If you're as obsessed as me you might notice a certain pattern appearing in some of the designs

Well this symbol is a sign of one's devotion for rubrub and almost every single character that is not being hunted down has it. For example: the Gatekeeper has it tattooed in his tongue, Spooky has it in his chest, and the demon guardian has it tattooed in the back of his head but scratched it of with his claws so now he has a scar.

God it’s so miserable just how transparent it is that the absurdity of trans politics is exactly the point. It’s designed to absorb, mimic and consume discourse, to waste everyone’s time, to scare people away from speaking truth to power. If anyone can be trans, and trans people are an ancient oppressed group, then that means even the most obvious oppressor who has the most to materially gain from materially oppressing might be secretly an oppressed group themselves. And this isn’t even like, for example, a rich white man coming out as gay, for his gayness does not counteract his maleness; transgenderism is a unique case in which a man can entirely opt out of being recognised as an oppressor in favour of being perceived as oppressed by the exact same people he’s actually oppressing - a complete reversal of the actual circumstances. This is not an accident, and the fact that society rapidly accepted this narrative - which necessitates believing in some sort of internal ‘identity’ separate from the body, akin to a soul - demonstrates clearly just how transgenderism occupies a purely politics space; it operates a deliberate political backlash to all the ‘SJW’ movements.

The fact that conservatives hate it is the perfect smokescreen and all that is needed to convince people of the oppression of ‘other genders’; those once making attack helicopter jokes, who naturally feel a certain amount of guilt and unease at the edgy humour they used to participate in, now get to be absolved. Superficially, it looks like the perfect righting of a societal wrong, and that’s all the mainstream culture needed; nothing really materially changes, power structures stay the same, and those who would actually care and now putting all their time and attention towards a discourse over an oppression that does not and cannot materially exist.

Simon's joke of "soup of theseus" is so damn good & way more layered than most people think.

Okay so first- what is the ship of Theseus?

So amongst his many misadventures and legends the ship of theseus was a ship the Athenians believed connected them to the divine living person that was Theseus. The thing is, he was maybe Poseidon's adopted kid/the King if Athen's son and probably not real (or at least if he did his misadventures were super exaggerated as royals = divity stories are) but the fate the Athenians had for him & Apollo (the 6 labors is a fun legend that explains their connection and what the original ship may have been) was so intense, they would constantly give maintence as a form of religious worship to said ship on the island of Delos (where Apollo's most sacred sancutary is) every year it would dock to pay respects.

Btw we don't need to know the specifics of Theseus but he did infamously slay a minotar and Finn did have a good exchange with the Mannish Man to get the enchiridion aka the book that sets Betty & Simon on the paths they are on now so that's neat af

So if you've ever heard about the ship of Theseus being paradox- it comes from the critique that's always existed about that ship's maintenance & religious practices tldr if you are constantly replacing each rotted and borken part of a ship, is it still the same ship?

The soup is a paradox like the ship

That paradox exists in many many scifi and adventure stories like the Nier series & Ghost in the Shell but in this instance we got to first look at the joke literally. Farm world's Finn's wife's soup is the same as the ship. The original soup farm world HW made no longer exists on a technicality, but the way Finn and his kids continue to add on and consume the soup is exactly like the Athenians. It's about the intent of carrying on the memory and keeping the soup around to honor the dead rather than the soup's original recipe {which also is incredibly sad & imples that farmworld Finn is both coping and never learned the original soup recipe}. It's a beautiful way to honor their dead mom/wife and it makes you wonder if that Finn did die if his kids will continue the practice.

But the paradox goes beyond the soup & into our reality

A lot of people have noticed that Fionna's last name is Campbell and Campbells is a real soup brand that would've been around before the great mushroom war. When Marceline gets sick as a kid, Simon goes great lenghts to get her chicken soup- that only worked out because the primordial version of the Mother Gum assisting {which is extreme Bubbeline foreshadowing}. And in that scene the can low key is a campbell design. But what if I told you there's more?

In Cheers, the tv show Simon is seen constantly watching and referencing throughout the original run of Adventure Time & in the recent Fionna and Cake had Carla Tortelli work at a Canpbell's Factory.

Neat references aside the soup ends the moment the main trio hit the remote button and I have a BA in psychology & interest in childrens media and entertainment that I want to milk for once. Metaphorical intention is beyond relevant episode specifics but actually the foundation of Fionna and Cake when it comes to the paradox.

Simon making the soup of Theseus joke is the main problem Fionna and Cake has to address

If Simon can summon his & Prismo's au from his head without proper MMS (Magic, Madness, and Sadness) where does Simon the human start and Ice King end?

As viewers who grew up alongside the series, the majority of 25+ watchers are finding Simon, older Finn, and Fionna painfully relatable because good fucking god we are all traumatized because of the ongoing pandemic.

If you want to focus on the main topic you can skip this part. But if you want to get very serious for a minute, please stay. The majority of people wont to accept what I just said about the pandemic being ongoing because global governments pretending the pandemic is over, the rise of depression and escapism in real time at a social level at a global level but especially in the US where the series is being made, and the daily interactions we have with most people refusing to mask up {with a violent reaction} when there still isn't a cure for COVID has created the perfect enviroment for most people to not accept change or crave extreme change. Fionna and Cake tackles these 2 very common forms of how depression tends to manifest when it's not fully manic to be displayed through Simon (self isolation from poor coping due to loss, detachment from society, dwelling on the past to the point it effects social interactions, extreme forms of religious practice, etc.) and Fionna/Finn (pretending everything is fine, avoidance, going through the bare minimum motions to survive, escapsim and dream of grandure, not caring about sel preservation, no/lack of self control with sweets/coffee, etc.). And I've noted there's a subset of AT viewers who don't relate or find the depections too real to the point they're upset the show's tone isn't as light hearted as AT. The thing is when a global disabling event happens, unless you were under 10 when it happened and even then it's a 50/50 because you probably did lose or know somebody who did die these last several years, you will have some kind of trauma response to it whether you like it or not. Hell, some of you unknowlingly have a gap in your memory about 2020 specifically due to inconsistent sleep schedules that have nothing to do with the shrinking of the brain mass COVID causes that we all call "brain fog" and now that I pointed it out you're probably going to go stare at a wall for 5 mins {sorry btw, doubly if you have long COVID and this is how you found out what brain fog partially is}. As someone who's been dealing with depression since I was a child, it's okay to be not okay given the last several years and doubly if you've been conscious long enough to see the US freefall into fascism too {which I hope encourages those who weren't aware that's been happening to go look into that because we can't get into it right now}. Because I unfortunately know what manic depression can look like - if you find yourself relating to Simon a little too much during ep 3, please talk to somebody who is licensed and trained to do so {not me, I haven't done suicide prevention work since 2017 and am not licensed- I genuienly won't be enough of a resource} okay? Don't throw away yourself nor change yourself for others only. You need to work to accept the past, move on to live in the present, and change yourself for yourself. It won't be easy and resources are out there to not do it alone, alright?

Becuase of how paradoxial and fluid mental health (espeically undiagnosed depression) can be and how AT has it's own version with MMS, could Simon have unconscious MMS still because of Betty's with without a battery but can't tap into it because of his mental state? And could Ice King as we once knew him even be considered a proper person Simon could return too?

The original wish of why Ice King's appearance & abilities is the way it is IS because of Evergreen's impression on Gunter {Evergreen was one of the ice elementals of the past btw- go watch the original Adventure Time for that context}. So Ice King isn't even an original character, just the crown building off the wishes and manifestations of each bearer by emulating a warped version of Evergreen. And that's the main reason why I speculate Ice Thing aka Gunter the Penguin is chill af to the point he got married and can exist with less gems. His wish didn't build off of power to protect Marceline (Simon) nor the power to copy Evergreen (Original Gunter).

As the main trio jump from connected universe to connected universe, more Simons and crowns will appear that are even more removed from our Ooo's crown and it's version of Ice King or Ice Prince or Winter King will only manifest because of the prior and current wishes made. So if Simon does get a crown that isn't the Ooo crown, will the Ice King that once existed even be THE Ice King he wants to be? And will Simon want to be Ice King or an Ice King when the trio do return to his Ooo?

The crown and it's many versions is a paradox that can only be resolved if Simon and Fionna can work together but also set aside their depression to address what they both really want and what that wish's intention will do to themselves and those around them. In short, shit's deep

I applaud the team for Fionna and Cake for tackling such a layered problem and I'm excited to see how Simon's soup of emotions, Fionna's growth, & magic crown of Theseus is addressed.

The whole time travel thing? The fact that getting rid of the golden weapons in the past means the mega weapon should've never been made means the devourer wouldn't have been defeated means Lloyd shouldn't have aged up means the entire episode wouldn't have happened

Help

Ooooh, I've been wanting to talk about this for a long time (as in, since middle school). So thank you for giving me an excuse to rant about this subject!

First, let's identify all the issues with the s2 time travel situation:

They went back in time and shot the Golden Weapons into space - not just the ones from that episode in season 2 (taking the form of the Mega Weapon), but also the ones from the pilots-era that Kai had found in the past.

If the Golden Weapons were destroyed in the past, Garmadon wouldn't have used them to escape the Underworld and head for the Realm of Madness, which is where he acquired his four arms. He also wouldn't have any motivation to grow two extra arms in the first place (remember that he only gave himself four so he could hold all the Weapons at once).

On a related note, Samukai wouldn't have died from wielding all four of them at once. So if not for the Weapons, he'd...probably still be alive.

Garmadon also used the Golden Weapons to defeat the Devourer. Like, I'm sure he could have killed it with a different weapon, but this definitely changes how that scene would've gone down

Without the Golden Weapons existing anywhere in Ninjago, past or present, Garmadon couldn't have been able to create the Mega Weapon.

This means all the Mega Weapon's effects are now defunct. He wouldn't have used it to rebuild the Bounty. Soto wouldn't have been resurrected, thereby nullifying his involvement in Skybound. Not to mention the Bizarro Ninja wouldn't have been created, which...doesn't have a big impact on things, honestly, but still kinda makes me a little sad.

And of course, as we're all mutually confused by, Lloyd wouldn't have had any reason to take the Tomorrow's Tea, and as such should have spent the rest of the series aging up much more normally.

When coming up with a theory to explain the s2 time travel situation, we need to make sure whatever we come up with provides reasonable rationale for all (or at least most) of the above-mentioned points. Which...okay, that's a bit of a tall order. But I think we can do it!

In the end, I've come upon a theory I personally consider to be the most believable:

Alternative History Theory

These events - Garmadon growing four arms, Lloyd growing up, all of it - was meant to be. They were simply machinations of destiny, setting up the Final Battle to happen exactly as it was intended to. These events had to happen. They were part of a master design as planned out by the Cloud Kingdom and the Overlord alike, a plan over a thousand years in the making.

Garmadon has to eventually grow four arms and Lloyd has to eventually grow up and defeat him. So long as the events occur, destiny doesn't care about how we get there.

What I'm saying is that the timeline rewrote itself to ensure things stay fundamentally the same, in an act of preserving destiny. The journey changed, but the destination remained the same. These events that had to happen, still happened, but the way they happened is now suddenly different.

In other words, Lloyd still took the Tomorrow's Tea, but now the reasons and context for his decision are different.

What messes with my head about this theory is the possibility that there's an entirely different, alternate version of the first half of season 2 that we don't know and will never see. S2 shows us the timeline the og4 got to experience, but not the timeline Lloyd and Nya remember living through.

(I admit I've always kinda wanted to write a fic exploring what that alternate timeline would look like, but I've never figured out a good way to write the premise without first writing an essay to explain the theory behind it)

So then with that in mind, let's consider how such a timeline would transpire. What would a Golden Weapons-free version of s1-2 look like?

...huh. It's actually surprisingly easy to imagine.

When you think about it, none of these events strictly necessitate the use of the Golden Weapons:

Samukai could have died another way.

While we don't entirely know the terms of his banishment, it's reasonable to assume Garmadon could've found another way to the Realm of Madness.

So long as Garmadon hit the Devourer at her weak spot, he still could have killed her with any other weapon.

Nya and Jay could have rebuilt the Bounty instead of Garmadon using the Mega Weapon to do it. They've done it several times throughout the series already, so this is well within the realm of possibility.

The Mega Weapon isn't the only means of resurrection present in this series. Even if it didn't happen by Garmadon's hand, there's a myriad of other ways Soto's crew could be brought back to life. It wouldn't even have to happen during s2 specifically.

Strictly speaking, Lloyd was only aged up because of the Tomorrow's Tea. The events leading up to this don't necessarily require the presence of the Mega Weapon. Something else entirely could've happened to require him to take the Tea, or maybe it happened on accident. Or maybe his friends were in danger and Lloyd was the only one able to save them, so he deliberately sought out and used the Tea in order to be strong enough to rescue them. Anything is possible here.

Ninjago is consistently a story about doomed narratives and the inescapable nature of destiny. No matter how something happens doesn't change the fact that it will happen. The Serpentine were meant to open the Stone Warriors' crypt - so if Lloyd hadn't released them, they would have escaped another way. The Devourer's venom was what awakened the Stone Warriors - even if Pythor hadn't awakened her, someone would have. If Garmadon didn't get his extra arms in the Realm of Madness, it still would have happened some other way.

And if the Grundle didn't force Lloyd into taking the Tomorrow's Tea, something else would have.

So yeah. Blah blah blah, destiny is inevitable, everyone is doomed by the narrative and it sucks, you get the idea. Make sense?

Wow, that was fun. Thanks for the ask <3

My standard headcanon, which I do very much like, is that Elrond and Elros are essentially curse/doom kryptonite because of Luthien mojo, Tuor-blessed-by-Ulmo mojo, etc. But it occurred to me that there could be another possibility, and I don't have time to fully write it, so y'all can run wild with it:

What if, around the time Elrond and Elros have to make the Choice of the Peredhil, they're also told that they have to choose whether to be counted as (half) Noldor or Sindar? (For right now, we'll assume Elros also has to make this choice, even though he's going to be living as a human, because it will affect how he sets up his kingdom and who he can ally with.)

The thing is, ever since they joined up with the Host of the West, they've been confusing the snot out of everybody. They look like Luthien's line. They've been raised by Feanorians for, let's say, the past forty-odd years, and it's in their mannerisms, their clothes, the way they fight. They switch, sometimes apparently at random, between using Earendilion, Nelyafinwion, or Kanafinwion as patronymics. In a camp that is ostensibly all one army, but under the surface is positively rife with different factions, they insist on making friends with people from everywhere.

The Valar are getting confused, too: what exactly are they supposed to do with these two, with their absolute trail mix of heritages?

So Eonwe or whoever finally tells them that they have to choose. Either they can be Sindar and have the friendship of Oropher's people, go by Earendilion (or maybe Elwingion, to be safe) and never speak Quenya or wear the Star of Feanor again, but have the blessing of Luthien...or they can be Noldor, and stay in touch with the people and customs they've lived most of their lives with at the expense of associating with their mother's people. Also, in that case, they'll definitely fall under some kind of doom, but it won't be so bad if they declare themselves as Nolofinwean through Idril, rather than Feanorian by adoption.

Obviously, their first response would be to be stubborn and difficult and rules-lawyering, and not choose at all. And that would be really fun to see. But say they couldn't. Say they had to choose. What then?

Let's say they split the difference. Does Elros choose to be counted as (metaphysically and by origin) Sindar so that his kingdom can thrive, and then quietly keep Elrond and Maglor and (assuming he's survived) Maedhros under his aegis so their doom can't catch up with them? Does Elrond take this on instead, since he's the designated immortal one, and try to find some way to keep in close enough touch with his brother and fathers to pass along some of his luck? How well does this work? What happens to Numenor if its first king is carrying a family curse? What happens to Elrond if he's the cursed one, trying to dodge his way through the successive ages of the world once his brother is gone?

Or let's say they both embrace the Noldor side, just to pull the rug out from under everyone who thinks they'll take this chance to ditch the people who raised them. Presumably it doesn't get as bad as it does for, say, Turin, but how bad does it get? How do they deal with the guilt crises that Maglor and Maedhros absolutely will have over this? How long does Numenor last (or does it fall in exactly the same time and manner as in canon, just with people blaming something different)? Does Rivendell exist at all? What do the Second, Third, Fourth Ages look like now?

Or let's say, for whatever reason you like, that they choose their Sindar side. Maybe because it's a side of themselves that they never got to fully explore, and they don't want to give it up out of hand. Maybe in an attempt to keep the people around them safe. Maybe because they have just a bit of foresight and see that they'll be needed in certain roles in the future and this is the best way. Maybe because Maglor and Maedhros have taken the Silmarils and vanished, and the twins think their adoptive family doesn't want them anyway. What does that look like? How do they reconcile their new lives with their old ones? How many habits do they have to break that they didn't even realize would be looked on with suspicion? How bad is the culture shock, and how long until it wears off?

Assuming they choose, how much do you think they try to fudge it, aiming for a sneaky blend of both? How well does it work? Are the attempts an open, amused secret? Or do they try and fail, over and over again, until they realize that whatever they chose is set into the fabric of reality just as their choices between Man and Elf altered something deep in them?

How will the parent(s) they didn't choose to follow react when, inevitably, they all meet again?

I have been thinking about True Endings, partially because of a post by user sorryitisandy which you can read here, though be warned it contains endgame good route spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3. Anyway Digimon Survive...

I absolutely love the Wrathful and Moral routes. Truthful route... I have a complicated relationship with. In my heart of hearts, Moral ending is the real ending. It was the first ending I got, and it felt like a truly organic consequence of my decisions. I wasn't nice to Ryo at first. I thought he was annoying, and his panic felt malicious to me throughout most of Part 1. It wasn't enough that he was scared; he was mad at Minoru and Takuma for not being as scared, literally screaming at them and belittling them for expressing determination to save Aoi and survive the night together. By the time I came to understand Ryo's point of view better, it felt like it was already maybe too late, especially because I wasn't good at talking to him. My dialogue choices calmed him down maybe about a third of the time in Part 2. The song remained the same for Shuuji in Part 5.

To be clear, under the hood, the decisions I made in the first eight parts of Digimon Survive did not matter in exactly the way I imagined on my first playthrough, but I think it's fair to say that most players had a similar experience with Ryo and Shuuji. The game does a lot of legwork to make it hard to root for them and only very slowly reveal the complexity that lies within.

A lot of fans ask people with lingering animosity toward Ryo and Shuuji to play the Truthful route to see how much better they can turn out when you save them, but to me this feels like admission of a certain level of media illiteracy. Is it cool to see Shuuji grow into the leadership role while staying true to himself? Sure. But what is the core of Shuuji's story? A boy without an emotional support network is burdened with great expectations and forced into a mold he does not fit, and then thrust into an impossible situation where everything he has striven to become is actively detrimental to his goals. You get all of this from an attentive reading of the non-Truthful routes.

I think the thing that bothers me about the existence of the Truthful route is how it frames the other routes. It is Truthful. What does that make the more interesting timelines? Just a point of contrast. Shuuji didn't really die lonely and afraid in a dark corner of another world, but imagine how bad it could have been if he had! The inverse is the more interesting proposition. What a tragedy, what happened to Shuuji. Imagine what he could have become. If you consider the Wrathful and Harmony routes, this is the dynamic we discover with Kaito and Aoi, after all.

And of course the Truthful route feels like the "real" version of the story because of the structure of the game. It's the ending you have to work the hardest for. It's the ending that stands alone. It's the ending where everything is tied up in a neat bow. It's the ending with the most lore. And all we had to sacrifice was the emotional stakes.

To be clear, I'm not saying the game would be actively improved by simply removing the Truthful ending and changing nothing else. The game was designed from the ground up with the four main endings, so this is really something that would need to be addressed at a foundation level in theoretical Digimon Survive 2, the best game that hasn't yet been made.

Anyway after that long ramble, have a shitpost that sums up how Truthful route feels to me in a hyperbolic way that only makes sense if you hate the merchandization of Evangelion.

ooc post: considering a reboot

so. a while back i realized that this blog would probably be more interesting if it took place a few years earlier, when sylvan was still... well... a wanderer. going where he wants and doing what he wants and trying to find his place in the world. also he was immensely, terribly lonely. that's probably why he would start the rotomblr blog! but hey, what's the deal with that guy he just met?! he's super weird, but also kinda cute?! sorry, that's corny.

this change would render the blog anistar-amarena non canon and obsolete, but that blog has 2 followers so who cares. the blog rover-on-rotomblr would probably stay mostly the same, any lore changes probably would only be known by me. which is good, because people like rover.

a lot of "probably"s and "likely"s and "maybe"s because like. idfk.

below the cut are some possible pros and cons of me rebooting this blog. probably would not be deleting any posts but considering them no longer canon. if i do this, it probably will not be soon unless my poor impulse control acts up. it'll probably be in september, for reasons.

pros and cons list:

pros:

sylvan will no longer be in a state where "most of the interesting things have already happened to him." there will be drama! romance! bloodshed?! maybe not that last one. maybe a little?

he'll match his url better. he's not exactly doing any wandering right now.

sylvan and i will be around the same age. that's mostly just a pro for me as the writer. but maybe it would make syl seem more... authentic? i do sometimes worry that he doesn't act his age. but also i don't think i act my age?? anyway.

i won't have to stick to the schedules i made up for my characters in my head that no one but me is forcing me to stick to.

it's a great time for me to do retcons and rewrites and rethink all sortsa lore. technically i can do retcons whenever i want but i kinda don't like just. randomly changing shit.

possible unique designs for sylvan's pokemon? cuz like i've kinda wanted to do that but it would make all the art i've done for the blog outdated. but if everything i've done so far is non-canon anyway, then...

possibly more opportunities for audience participation

possibly more angst which people seem to consider enjoyable generally.

neutral:

linnet and her brother would be retconned out of existence. i have no strong feelings on this, but maybe you do? i doubt it!

cons:

less N probably. at least for a while. and there's already not very much N. well- less of N himself directly talking. sylvan would talk about N plenty.

i'd kinda feel sucky about throwing away all the stuff i've written so far without finishing this sylvan's story :(

despite some aspects making writing easier, writing the rebooted blog in general will probably be harder. i'll have to think of interesting things to make happen!

idele would be retconned out of existence :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

it would be setting the timeline further back, from just after X/Y to just after Black/White which could probably be mildly annoying sometimes.

man, i just realized that by the time september rolls around, i'll hopefully have a damn job! so it might be harder for me to keep up with the silly rp blogs and it might, like, slow down the action of this reboot. but that's a hypothetical.

Momdark

From what I have recently discovered this is another piece of Dexter's Laboratory that must have initially started out as the comic but then managed to get animated but not without some changes to the plot direction.Our first major difference is how the two start out.In the animated version we have the matriarch driving home from the store to be greeted by her kids...

...While Mandark is spying on them from his own lab and wondering how he can get close enough to Dexter in order to destroy him.Which of course leads him to get the idea of disguising as Mama.

The comic however initially leaves us in the dark of how he managed to capture her.The tank she's also being kept in also has a few fishy details.

The disguise montage also had a bit of extra bits as well as a correction of sorts.The comic excludes the bra-wearing and sock stuffing.

But both do show off applying the pillow butt which kind of goes out of order in the comic since in the preview panel Mandark put the gloves on.

Line delivery stays the same between both interpretations of this shot

The comic gives us no clear idea of what exactly was happening that Mandark was able to get the upper hand on the mother but the cartoon shows he timed it to sneak up on her when she went to get a grocery bag left behind in the car.So in the cartoon he's just acting like she just returned in the house with that final bag.Dexter and Dee Dee are already in the kitchen doing homework so Mandark uses this chance to try sneaking into Dexter's room...But before he can open the door the father enters the picture and brings up the issue of food.

The comic differs by having him pick the lock,thinking things are going easy and he could have pulled this scheme off ages ago,and walking upstairs to the door that leads to Dexter's bedroom only to be greeted by the siblings who are now heading downstairs because they want some dinner.

At this point Mandark is freaking out over the fact he needs to make something to eat in order to keep up the act.In both versions he ends up making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but the cartoon adds the details he was originally supposed to make a chicken pot pie.

We soon enough reach the montage where husband/father,son,and daughter are asking for the help of a mother's touch for different tasks.Some of which are nearly identical copies but happening in a completely different order.

The cartoon adds that this is basically how the rest of Mandark's day went until night finally falls.Dexter demands a goodnight kiss from his "mother" which internally Mandark refuses to do but has to go through to not cause suspicion on identity.This segment is also where some of the more drastic changes begin to unroll.

Already disgusted from the fact he kissed Dexter he then comes quick to realize if that's a bedtime ritual then perhaps he can use this as an opportunity to land a smooch on Dee Dee.But she has other plans in mind involving bunnies.

But the most drastic change that had to go between the two mediums would in my opinion be THIS

After sleeping it off we get what's more-or-less a few more near shot-for-shot redraws but the comic brings a dog named Dreyfus into the mix who is a different design compared to the dog who we see the family owns when the plot finds its existence convenient.The cartoon also implies Mandark might know how to bake cookies while the comic has him just making sandwiches for everyone again.Every step Mandark gets closer to infiltrating the lab someone's calling on him to do something but in both he eventually has enough minutes to make it behind the bookshelf.Not sure how he was planning to destroy it in the cartoon but the comic shows he brought a mallet in order to smash things up...If it wasn't for the fact he was exhausted so he goes back downstairs and slinks onto the couch where the rest of the family is.

Somehow the statement of "You missed a spot" referring to the wet spot on the coffee table resonates with the real deal so she regains consciousness,breaks free from the tank,and crashes through the house window with mop in hand.Minor identity confusion on who is the "real" mother,Mandark caving in because he's realized he can't hold the act any longer(With the cartoon we also learn Mandark apparently knows how to give a good back massage).

As one final detail differentiating the scripts Mandark mentions he doesn't want to destroy the lab anymore before storming off back to his house.Taking back her official role Dexter's mother asks what the heck that statement about the laboratory was supposed to mean.All he says about it is "I don't know".

Our final scene in both takes is the trio demanding the actual woman to do some more tasks while she stares towards the reader/viewer.A minor error is in play for the cartoon since her ear has been miscolored as a part of her hair.

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆… 𝐌𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐒𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄

❝ Sebastian had never truly belonged in Auradon. He’d always known that, and it seemed that everyone around him knew it as well - but no one could ever decide where exactly he did belong. His parents, Queen Snow White and her loving husband King Florian, had seen their son’s constant dreamy expression and creative talents and gently teased that he must have come from Neverland, that place of never-ending youth and daydreams. His fellow Auradon High students, after getting a glimpse of the prince’s mischievous side and clever pranks, had hissed with venom in their voices that he belonged on the Isle of the Lost, where the land’s worst villains and their lackeys had been transported after the formation of the United States of Auradon. Generally, his teachers and other adults would conclude that his true place was somewhere between the two extremes, a non-existent haven where he would be free to dream all he liked and let that glint of wickedness behind his eyes truly shine.

But no matter where people thought he truly belonged, one thing was always the same: people in general seemed to think that the prince of Charmington was an outsider to his home country. He’d never had any true friends, not even as a child, and even now that he was in high school, his only companions were Jane, the Fairy Godmother’s shy daughter, and occasionally Prince Ben, determined as that boy was to make everyone feel accepted. Normally it didn’t bother Sebastian - he was more than happy to be left alone with his drawings and written stories - but every so often he would find himself wondering what it might be like to have some friends who understood him, who saw all of his flaws and eccentricities and stayed by his side despite them.

His wish had been granted when Ben, as his first official act as king, had decided to bring four villain children off the Isle of the Lost to attend school in Auradon. Sebastian had found his place among these fellow outsiders, with their brightly-colored hair and leather clothes, and now, almost a year after the four VKs first arrived in Auradon, it was a rare moment when Snow White’s son couldn’t be seen drawing in peaceful silence with Mal, acting as a mannequin for Evie’s latest designs, or helping Jay and Carlos run through their tourney or R.O.A.R. plays.

And when three new villain kids step through the doors of Auradon Prep - ones who, just weeks ago, had placed a spell on the teenage king and attempted to wreck havoc on the entire country - something further clicks into place for Sebastian. The quartet of VKs are his friends, no question, and they make him feel genuinely cared about and protected… but Uma, Harry, and Gil are something else. There is something about being around them, talking to them and soaking in their presence, that makes Sebastian feel more at peace than he ever has in his life. And though it takes some time, the three teenage pirates begin to feel comfortable around the prince as well, bringing him into their little trio in a way they swear they wouldn’t do for anyone else.

This arrangement is the best thing to ever happen to Sebastian, but there are two significant problems with it - the first being that the VKs, who have been rivals with the pirates for years, are not at all happy about Sebastian spending time with them, and the second being that Sebastian has started to develop deeper feelings for Auradon’s newest arrivals… all three of them.

Sebastian does not want to lose the VKs. They are the truest and most welcoming friends he has ever known, and he would be lost without them. But at the same time, he isn’t sure if he is willing to give up the three people who are starting to feel like home to him. ❞

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I know your computer's on the fritz, so I'll keep my questions simpler for now.

What does Kashov's shop look like?

I've always imagined it as a food truck like situation. He has a van that opens on the side with a little extendable counter and you can see his other merchandise hanging on the wall behind him.

The main reason I envision his shop as this is because of lore reasons. First, it makes it easier to explain why he has a location right next to wherever the War Bots fighting, he just drove there.

It also supports his character. The mobile store kinda gives him a shifty quality. After all, staying in the same place as a scam artist is not safe. It just makes sense for him.

What do you think?

Oooh, okay! To be honest I haven't given it much thought yet, the placeholder in my head is basically just the TF2 MvM upgrade store but with a guy in it. Though come to think of it, I do recall vaguely having the idea of him having some kind of old west style wagon he'd use to get around, just not as his in-game shop and more as just a story element for somewhere Wilderoad could barge in through the roof of. This was also before he was demoted from playable to shopkeeper, and I've only now recently started thinking about the mission side of things again, so it's not exactly something I've given much thought since.

I do very much like this idea, though also I think his operation is so scuffed and inconsistent that on some maps he'd have occupied an existing empty room in the player spawn room, set up a rudimentary stall out of whatever scraps he could find, operates right from his vehicle like you said, or any number of random ways he'd run things quickly.

This does also remind me of another idea I had for him, this time relating to his design. Considering he doesn't exactly need to move a lot now, a funny thought I had was that he doesn't actually have legs, and is just attached to the ground via a metal stick in a hole that can slide around a pre-determined track, like a theme park animatronic. I think it'd be a funny visual, especially when you only see him over a counter most of the time, so you'd actually have to get the right angle to find out he doesn't actually have legs. Maybe he has something shaped like a roomba to hop out into and move freely in, but he generally just sticks to his little path for convenience.

An In-Depth Story of my Pancham OC and a Major Rebrand

It has been 5 years since I first adopted my Pancham OC, and while he has changed over the years, he still represents me. Because, well, he is me.

To honor this occasion, I have drawn a new version of me as summer draws to a close. This is also a blog post explaining the history of my OC, so keep reading if ya will :P

You may have remember my Tumblr post explaining my 10 year history on the internet, and my history with different aliases over the years. That also reflected with how I chose to represent myself.

Not long after I joined on February 17, 2013, I chose to based my identity around the Koopa Bros., for a reason. The group grabbed my attention in their appearance in Super Mario Bros. Z, a flash animation by Mark Haynes that crossed Mario and Sonic characters with elements from Dragon Ball Z.

From their first appearance in Episode 4 to their um...untimely death in Episode 6, I was so rooted for the Koopa Bros. in the flash animations that I didn't realize they were originally from Paper Mario. Once I found out presumably on Super Mario Wiki, well I got into the Paper Mario series of games. They were a no-brainer as the characters I chose to represent myself...except...well...

So let me try to explain this green monstrosities. I chose the name "The Zombie Bros." because...um...I made the Koopa Bros. zombies...for reasons. It's merely swapping the yellow and white in their sprite for green, as I wasn't invested in doing art back in the day.

After this I stayed out of making any more OCs that represented me, either using an existing character (e.g. Pinkie Pie, the Koopa Bros., and later Sans) or just using letters (as seen below).

There was a My Little Pony OC that I did make...but unless you knew me as Creeperfan, you knew that I never got around into implementing him at all.

Like while I made this design myself and publicize him actually, I never used him much, I stuck with using Spike as my main representation throughout my time as a brony.

By 2017 though, I was starting to take drawing as a hobby, but for the most part the OCs during that year that represented me was any version of Sans, whether that be from a AU or not. One Sans version that I used to represent me was this take of Sans with Cappy on his head, which I did twice in that same year.

But while I did enjoy Cappy!Sans, they didn't stick as long as possible. But into August 2018, I had gotten off being represented as Tough Bippy and was into being Chespin. I was looking up Chespin related stuff on the internet, and came across Pancham.

To be more specific, it was Serena's Pancham, but regardless of what Pancham it was, this character got me really invested, and all the love I took with Chespin, from instances in Smash Bros...well...I dropped it all in favor of Pancham. The two were rivals in the anime anyways, so...I guess I skewed the results heheh...

And it couldn't have come at a perfect time, because I wanted to do a OC of Pancham. And I did! Red glasses and all! On August 27, 2018, exactly 5 years ago, I made a Pancham OC and slowly embraced him as my own.

From that point forwards, Pancham (later renamed PanchamBro) become the embodiment of me as a whole. In spite of a break during 2019 when I became Scorbunny/Raboot/Cinderace, I still somewhat represented myself as a Pancham, and Pancham (the Pokémon) remains one of my favorite Pokémon out there.

The Pokémon's namesake would inspire me to brand myself as "PanchamBro" on January 11, 2020, which then became the name of my Pancham OC...and in retrospect to me in regards to my internet identity.

Of course, with time my design has changed. I used to see myself with red glasses until December 2020. Then I began to swear clothing, just slightly.

My green sweater was drawn out of necessity for a New Year's Day art that depicts a funny in there, but now it's my default outfit.

My summer outfit consist of a white shirt and green shorts, and just this year I introduced a scarf, one that bore the Gay MLM Pride Flag colors.

A hole in the leaf was added just around the end of 2022, being a symbol for my Nookipedia presence.

And on my sweater itself, I added a badge with the Gay MLM Pride Flag, as I was proud to be gay, albeit in secret, but proud. I'm happy for the changes that I've made to my sona.

In celebration of my sona becoming 5 years old, I decided to do a major rebrand. If you haven't noticed, I've been slowly adopting a unified color base for all the accounts I have, whether that be on Twitter or YouTube.

This is what I've come up with.

These are five major colors to which they shall be used to represent me in appropriate conditions. Ideally they should be shown against a dot pattern backdrop and a gradient, but how this gradient looks varies.

You can actually see this already set in motion (except for Red, but we won't talk about that for now).

On Twitter, the banners for PanchamBro and CinderaceBro show this color preset in motion.

And on YouTube, you can see my sona being depicted differently with the color choice also reflecting this change.

Now what I hope from now is that my presence can at least have a sense of unity, if only to make sure people know what I am and what I do for a living. I've been planning this for a while now, but only got off the ground last week.

These past 5 years have given me a chance to grow my OC, and I can't thank everyone for giving me their spirit and inspiration to make my OC a somewhat bashful little fuck. Here's hoping in 5 more years, I start to grow a beard.

I’m Abit dumb but what is malice representing?

OH BOY I've been looking at this ask all day at work wanting to write about it hlkjadsf

Don't worry you're not dumb! A lot of what I talk about the Malice is pretty nebulous and vague so it's understandable.

But in short, my version of Malice is an allegory for militarism and how it ties directly to totalitarianism and tyranny. Long explanation below the cut, but CW for some heavy-handed political topics:

The way the Malice treats the monsters is evident enough. Every monster to the Malice is expendable. They're nothing but warm bodies used to accomplish its goals. They're not allowed free will or else it risks the chokehold it has. Any defectors must be immediately expunged. Any monster that is wounded beyond a threshold where it would need time to heal or would be incapacitated in some sense is deemed useless - and therefore discarded. And even worse, it is a system that is nearly completely autonomous. Once the war machine is running, it runs on its own. And it is in a constant demand of fresh bodies to push onto the front lines.

It's why Lizalfos under the Malice are never seen without tails, or why you never see Malice-filled monsters with any kind of impairment. And also how the monsters are forced into homogeny. Remember how Sterre mentioned it growing back its hair? You think that was allowed when it was in the Malice? No individualism. Under the Malice, every monster is simply a replaceable cog in the machine. And like how the Malice takes the monsters that fail too much and turn them into stall - failing the machine is often a fate worse than death. Blood for the blood god.

And as we can see with the Wizzrobes, the Malice dictates that anyone not born under the oppressive system must be educated and subjugated under the system. Free expression is not allowed - deemed weakness. Same with emotions that are anything but a vehement anger towards the enemy. They are told from as young as they can understand speech that serving The Calamity is their sole purpose - forced to believe it under harsh coercion.

Defection must be suppressed violently. It is not enough to quell the rebellions, they must be made an example. Through fear, the Malice forces the other monsters to stay in line when a sliver of guilt or regret breaks through the AGES of conditioning. Which is how it's been able to maintain its grip throughout ages before BoTW's events.

And, as we can see with Ganondorf, even if one tries to rely on totalitarianism to destroy another, it will never be satisfied. The machine demands more, there is not enough land it can conquer, not enough lives it can oppress, where it will say enough. It will find a new enemy, even one that doesn't exist. Ganondorf was trapped in the belief that all he had to do was overthrow the Royal Family and his and everyone else's problems would be solved - and continued to make that mistake again and again until he was finally convinced to break the cycle (more on that to come). But peace can never be found through dictators, no matter how "benevolent". It will simply lead to more dictators.

These are the key tenets to militarism. That is essentially what Demise and the Malice represent - and why The Calamity continues to fight long after Demise's...demise. I call it Demise's corpse because it is exactly that. It is not the original oppressor, but once he was toppled the war machine kept running. Because that's what it was designed to do. And Ganondorf mantled it because he thought he could control it. But you can't. You can never control it.

It's also extremely hard to break. Especially when that is all someone has ever known. Where they're, from birth, conditioned and forced into this line of thinking through oppression, fear, and hatred. And it's most powerful in large groups. Notice how the Malice is amplified in power when with groups of monsters? But weaker when they're isolated and alone? The line of militaristic thought is EXTREMELY difficult to undo, but not impossible. It takes effort, isolation from the source of hatred, and we (and the monsters of Hyrule in my fic) are inherently empathetic creatures. Hate is taught, but empathy is not.

And yet, sometimes it's just not enough. Some will just refuse to understand or see through reason/empathy, and defection can even happen for the wrong reasons, as you saw with the 3 Wizzrobes.

And also like in real life, once the façade is broken, and the Malice begins to lose its watertight grip and control, then it will turn even more violent - clawing and slashing as it desperately tries to maintain the stranglehold it once had.

If you're looking for the best example/inspiration in other works of fiction, I'd say the whole plot hook of The Clone Wars where the clones manage to rebel against their Order 66 brainchip is where I primarily got my idea for RATC. A lot of those themes are prevalent here as well

So yea, hope this was satisfactory :)

INQUIRING MINDS WISH TO KNOW——>

For the OC Ask Game! ✨Creating your OCs✨

1, 3, 8, 12, 16 and 19 for Ripper, Shae and Arsenic!!!

:)

Please :))

Pretty please :)))

(Don’t make me whip out my quadruple chin!!!)

@anonwyvern || Questions About Creating Your OCs

Under cut for length; I needed to talk about my babiesss.

What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? 

Shae: Shae was appearance, though and through. She'd gone through so many changes; species changes as she traveled through fandoms and back and forth between getting pulled from them to be from original concepts. Being online during the massive point online where "Mary Sue bad and you're a terrible person for making them!", she kind of just went onto this backburner with everything; looks, appearance, story, everything.

Ripper: Mostly appearance, but a super loose as hell backstory as well. Rips was originally a Left 4 Dead OC and of a concept that never actually made it to the game at that. Most of what did exist of his backstory was just that he was an asylum escapee who was turned. Rather than the straight jacket being closed up, his arms were free. He's had the most changes over his entire timespan.

Arsenic: Appearance 100%. He actually was originally a concept made by my nephew! He wanted a zombie chef, so I made a zombie chef!

3. How did you choose their name? 

Shae: I honestly don't even remember where her name came from. It wasn't exactly a popular name when I made her, damn probably about seventeen years ago now? Maybe longer, I think.

Ripper: Was originally a sort of punny name. "A scream ripping at one's throat". Where Joseph Trumoil came from, is one of those things that just... happened. Sometimes names just get stuck in my head. I'll quote him directly from the WIP of Chapter 26 of Mnemonic Impressions for why it's still Ripper: "Thanks to my old line of work, if it were humanly possible at that time, I could rip someone apart and know exactly how to do it to cause the most damage; didn’t help I used t’ do some body building. My friends were… fucked up t’ say the least."

Arsenic: I kinda thought it would be funny for an undead, zombie chef to have his name be the same as a poison.

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? 

Shae: Let's just say that I am actually very mouthy like Shae it. And, just like with her current situation with Sinjin, I need to learn how to keep my mouth shut so I don't get hurt.

Ripper: There's actually not much story wise I relate to with Rips. If anything, I'm envious of my own character. He's charismatic, charming, his style is impeccable. I guess he did get a lot of my "do no harm, but take no shit" personality.

Arsenic: The cooking! Arsenic is literally probably the person I would become (sans the murders) if I actually stayed in the food service industry.

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? 

Shae: It's actually been difficult to keep her silver tongued, combative, defiant, but also keeping her... alive. In all honesty, she would probably be dead by now if I didn't mellow her out a bit. She's legit supposed to be as vile as Sinjin is, cutting some completely reprehensible stuff, but I also know that she would have been long since dead before her story even started.

Ripper: No lie, actually nailing down his official design. Every time I think I have something solid, I go "oh, this would work with him!" and then things would change. Rinse and repeat. Now it's more just trying to nail down exactly who I wanna build his facial structure off of, because William Treat is EXACTLY how he smiles, but I also adore him having sharp features like Dum Dum from Cyberpunk 2077 has. Trying to blend the two together is... fun.

Arsenic: HIS FACE. HIS FUCKING FACE. I DID IT TO MYSELF BUT GOD WHY

16. What is something about your OC can make you cry? 

Shae: Her story. Like, god her story is fucked up and just the fact that so much about her kids was kept from her and knowing everything she's gone through, that she's the way she is through so much tragedy and just out of a necessity to survive.

Ripper: Also his backstory, but also like... this man is such a sweetheart and sensitive. Be it because he's just being so goddamn cute or because he's going through an existential crisis, he's probably gonna say something that would either turn me into a mushy mess or bawling my eyes out because why did I hurt you this much.

Arsenic: There's two things with him. When he lets his walls down and lets people in, showing that he's not just a hardened ghoul who hates everything around him. Also, if anything were to happen to Crow, this man's heart would absolutely shatter and he'd probably lose his goddamn mind. That sort of mental torment of feeling like he's lost his soul mate, knowing how he'd react to it, especially now with them in his life again.

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

Shae: Not so much of a fact of the character itself (because imho anything I really say with her will give away parts of Addicted), but the fact that she's the second OC I've ever created! She's my second oldest OC, being seventeen (plus) years old.

Ripper: He's only second generation American born in his family! His parents are the first born, his grandmother is from Palermo, his grandfather from Verona.

Arsenic: No matter what, Arsenic was meant to cook and I don't mean that just by his concept alone. He's someone who would be considered to have a natural born talent for what he does and I genuinely cannot think of anything else I would have ever even considered putting him in. If it wasn't a chef, it would've been a cafe owner.

I don't know if it's just me (hopefully not) that was rooting that Ollie stayed with The Smiling Man in Empty Smiles. Idk throughout the whole series he's been my favorite character, I always saw his character as this mysterious, scheming (and extremely fine) man?? i don't know what else to refer to him as, but he just seemed lonely in the last book. Especially when we figured he wasn't able to go into the funhouse with all the mirrors because he was always alone (and there was a high chance he was afraid to go in for it would show his true fear) anyways, do you think he was just trying to add Ollie to his collection of servants or?? opinions?

Spoilers for Empty Smiles!

No, it's not just you. The entire time my brain was just:

But I've always wanted characters to do the wrong thing in those types of scenarios with antagonists, because I find the hypothetical aftermath to be the most interesting part.

I knew logically Ollie wasn't going to say yes, and Coco wasn't going to say yes, but I'll be darned if I wasn't immediately wondering what if they did.

"anyways, do you think he was just trying to add Ollie to his collection of servants or?? opinions?"

We never get a clear answer and it's agonizing. I do think that his original offer, made the first evening he shows her around the carnival, was his attempt to make sure she can't "win" by being rescued by her friends. It was the easiest way out, to make Ollie herself agree to stay, therefore nullifying the original deal which would have given her friends a chance to save her.

Would she have been his servant if she agreed? I don't know... Assuming he wasn't hiding some tricky horrible Fate Worse than Death behind his offer, and I don't think he was since he did say she wouldn't get turned into a doll or scarecrow, I almost get the impression that she might have become someone like him in time?

Maybe he would have showed her around behind the mist, helped her explore, then eventually she might have the same tasks as he does. Not in any sinister way--like "mwahaha now you must do my job!"--but as a natural progression of being someone who exists behind the mist not trapped as a scarecrow or as a ghost who can move between the mist & regular world, but as herself. She would help keep the way open, too.

I don't think he would have turned around and like, forcibly turned her into a servant akin to the scarecrow or anything like that, though. It doesn't seem his style.

I think it's telling that the carnival car she was staying in had clothes that belonged to someone else. She's not the first person who has traveled the carnival with him. Who were they? Why were they there? Did they escape the smiling man (not something that happens often) or did he make them a similar offer--agree to stay--and they took it? Or did they turn into a doll, a failed escape? How many others have been in something akin to Ollie's position?

While I do think the original offers to stay were designed to make her give up leaving so he could win, I think Ollie was spot on when she wondered if he was lonely and he would have--in the end, especially after she made comments about "friends don't lie to each other at all" and he seemed affected by it--wanted companionship.

For instance, when he offered for the three of them to stay after they'd already gotten the keys, maybe partly it was "I am obliged to try to stop them" but I do think, in some ways, he would have been interested in having them stay behind the mist with him because they have proven themselves worthier than the countless other people he's tricked.

As for what would have happened to them, exactly... it's so murky. But perhaps it's best that way, we can come to our own conclusions.

DAD STATZ - Heights

Aka the series no one asked for at all!

I’ve been listening to this podcast for a really long time (on like my 60th relisten), and I love everything about it! I wanted to 

So the actual physical descriptions of the dads and teens can get..a little vague, which is great! Because that leaves space for a lot of fan interpretation! However, I thought it might be fun to try and gather a master source for actual stats and “prove” them in canon. This is all just for fun and not trying to ruin anybodies headcanons or anything! I love seeing different versions of the dads!

Ron is the easiest (and shortest).

The first mention we get for his height is from Episode 3: The Lord of Chaos. Beth says this “Um, I’m maybe 5’ 4” and 120-ish pounds.” This height stays constant for the rest of the pod, there isn’t any other height ever listed for Ron Stampler! Which makes Beth my favorite for this part!! Go Beth!! 

As for the rest of the dads.. Well. 

Darryl isn’t too difficult, we get a few different mentions of his height throughout the show. 

In Episode 25: Mummy Issues we get this line when they are trying to decide how tall of a body they need for the ride:

“All right, Darryl's six. So we’ll say,”

Interestingly he gets taller in Season 2! In episodes 23 and 24 (Alright and Spider-boyz: homecoming) we get two mentions of Darryl being 6’3:

“So he's like 6'3 now and he is like 140, fucking built—”

“And I gain… two— I gain one inch! I go from 6'2 to 6'3.”

With anything improvised I try to stick to the most recent information or the information that is repeated the most. Given that the sn 2 just came out, we’ll stick with Darryl at 6’3!

Now, onto the less than forthcoming dads. Henry and Glenn get a couple of mentions of their height throughout the show, nothing I could find where their characters actually mention their heights though. Going strictly off of my own character design brain, it makes sense to have them serve as the middle ground between our two extremes (Darryl and Ron), so I want to put them around 5’8-5’10. Canon mentions do seem to support this as well! 

In episode 25: Mummy Issues this is said:

“Henry's probably like, 5’8”.”

“Glenn's probably like a good average 5’8”.”

So they are both around 5’8! I considered just bumping one of them up to 5’9 for some difference, but it’s kind of silly if they are the exact same height!

EDIT: in episode 62: Sonscreen, Henry shrinks to 2'11, which is described as half of his height, so he is 5'10.

Last but not least We have Jodi Foster. Jodi wins worst dad for this week because he has ZERO canon mentions of his height! In Episode 49: Contact, we get this brief description of him 

“And next to him is a pretty handsome, pretty beefy guy who is laughing uproariously at a joke that he has seemingly just told to the young boy.”

And thats fucking it, we learn later he has a tummy, but nothing on how tall he is. 

Personally I think he is just a little taller than Glenn, mostly because it’s funny. I know a lot of people want him and Glenn to be the same height, but given that Henry and Glenn are already the same, it felt like too many 5’8 bitches. Given that Athony made them officially brothers with Episode 23 (rip closefoster shippers, if you existed?) it would make sense that they would be closer in physical appearance, but not exactly the same (they aren’t twins im pretty sure).

And that concludes dad statz! I have no idea why I spent like three hours on this at all

Ending statz

Ron: 5’4

Darryl: 6’3

Henry:5’10

Glenn:5’8

Jodi:5’10

(shoutout to my sister @purenssteele for helping me)