#it would be interesting to see if he really was painfully aware of what people think of him
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Oh man thank you for the Drayton angst HHH my heart goes out for him. Like from what I've seen, a lot of people just take his slacker / laziness at face value but from the bits of dialogue, you have room to imagine there's more to this kid.
Hassel advising him to avoid desperately trying to live up to the expectations of others. Drayton being strong enough that Geeta, the Champion of another region was considering in scouting him. He wouldn't have become the BB League Champion without a lot of effort put into it, not in a battle oriented academy. If he was a slacker from the beginning, realistically he wouldn't have made his way to the ranks until he beat the reigning Champion.
There's just a lot of inconsistencies with how Drayton presents himself vs how others view him. Various NPCs expressed their distaste of Drayton but most of them are consistent in saying that his one seemingly good trait is that he's a strong Trainer. It's hard to picture a talented kid like him repeating three years without some kind of cause.
My personal headcanon is that Drayton has that kind of negative perception from the students because of how he acted. One of the strongest Trainers in the academy, coming from a respected family and yet repeated multiple years? Not putting in effort? It feels like a slap to the face of those who worked hard to get where they are. Why is this guy still here if he's not going to try?
Perhaps it's the realization that he can never measure up to his talented family. Drayden being a respected Gym Leader, Iris being the actual Champion of the region--how can he compete? What can he say to those that often compare him with them? Especially during his teenage years, it's not difficult to picture that at some point, he simply gave up. Didn't bother trying for something that might just be a waste of effort in the end.
I have other thoughts I'll share in a different ask as this one has gotten rambly as it is haha
Oughghfhfhfhf your honour this is so fucking real hcnxbxn
Cause being from a family like that and being constantly compared to them would fuck up a mfer man I can vouch for that, and it's just chdmdb it's the fact y'know that there really is that awkward air in his conversations w Hassle and Geeta, like talking abt his family is a sore spot for him but he just hides it well enough that people would just think oh bc he's lazy he doesn't want the responsibilities his family has going on too, especially w how well known his family was in Unova and possibly to Dragon Specialists from other regions, given how Drayden even knows Hassle
It didn't help his sis is the Champion too, it's worse when they compare him to her
And it all leads down to the thought y'know, that he really made an effort when he was younger, but still couldn't live up to the standards of his family, that being a trainer and a strong battler is all he is, and w how Dragon Masters are, I know it takes more than strength to truly be one; especially w how the Blackthorn elder treated Clair too, I imagine it's a similar situation w Drayton. He's a strong trainer, Champion level, but he's just lacking something; that something is now a thing he'd rather not try to find out, cause in his mind even if he did, it'll never be enough, he'd still fall short, so why bother anymore right? His family can have all the titles and recognition that they want, he'd just be there vibing w his friends, least they don't compare him to his family much
#omf ur honour cbcnbcxn pls share more abt your hcs if you want this is so cool cbxndn#but also bonus bits#it would be interesting to see if he really was painfully aware of what people think of him#his friends too like they may be all close snd all w each other but he knows that like#amarys and even lacey have their own not so good opinions on him#ofc bc their parents were close to drayden and iris so they also had some sort of expectations for drayton#but i do wanna say like if dray does open up to them theyd be more understanding#or they already know what his fam was like and try to help him#but being drayton i think hed refuse the help saying theres really nothing wrong#even tho theres really smth wrong#ough your honour he makes me insane cbxndndn he just like me fr—#pokemon hcs#an ask and an answer#anon
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You and Obanai take a shortcut through the Entertainment District.
Warnings: Some suggestive themes due to the nature of the Entertainment District
It was an unexpected surprise for Obanai to be assigned to the same mission as you. With both of you working together the demon was taken care of in what might have been record time. Now you both had the long journey back to your estates.
"I almost feel bad for the demon having to deal with both of us. It never stood a chance," you said laughing sweetly. If it was anyone else Obanai would have harshly argued that demons are creatures not deserving of pity. However, your sweet laughter rang in his ears and squeezed his heart in a way he couldn't deny.
"This was a rather quick mission," he agreed.
"It took longer to get here than it did fighting the demon! I'm not looking forward to the journey back," You said with a heavy sigh.
Obanai looked you over and noticed how exhausted the mission had left you. Wanting to help any way he could he suggested a shortcut before he thought it all the way through. "We could take the shorter route through the Entertainment District," he suggested.
"Oh, is that really shorter? Let's do it, I've never been there before!" You said, bubbly as ever.
Your precious enthusiasm was almost enough to make Obanai overlook what he had actually signed you both up for.
The Entertainment District was unpredictable and full of people. Particularly men, and those looking for young women to work in their houses. Obanai wasn't worried about anything happening to you, not with him there. Anyone would be lucky to survive even looking at you.
However, that was the problem.
You were undeniably attractive and it would go without saying that you would catch a lot of attention walking through the district. Obanai took a deep breath to calm himself, reminding himself that you both were just passing through, and he would be by your side the whole time.
"What is it like there, Iguro?" You asked, becoming excited to see the district slowly coming into view.
"It's busy, so just stay close to me ok?" he said.
"Sure!" You said making it a point to match his strides and stay next to him.
When you both came upon the entrance of the district, it was busier than Obanai had ever remembered. He had only passed through once for a mission before but tonight seemed to overflow with people.
"Wow!" You mused, looking around taking in all the lights and sights to see. You quickly noticed some beautiful ladies up on a balcony seeming to call out to get Obanai's attention.
"Hey it seems like they want us to go in there," You said curiously pointing and waving back at the ladies.
Your innocence both captivated and pained Obanai. How was he to tell you what this place was actually about?
"Best to keep moving, we have more missions to worry about," Obanai decided to say hoping to pull your attention away.
"Right," you agreed, continuing to match his strides, not that he would ever let you out of his sight regardless. Becoming painfully aware of all the eyes on you Obanai took off his haori and handed it to you.
"Put this on please," He said, wanting you to cover up more from the on-looking gazes.
"What for?" you asked.
"It is a bit cold and I don't want you to get sick," He lied. A blush tinted your cheeks at his concerns.
"Oh, ok Iguro," you said and slipped your arms through the sleeves. Even with the added clothing the eyes watching you pass by were beginning to enrage Obanai causing him to protectively place his hand on your shoulder.
You looked at his hand on your shoulder feeling even more flustered. It was rare for Obanai to touch you outside of helping during battles with demons. "Just keep walking, we are almost through," He instructed.
Right as you were nearing the end you both were approached by an interested buyer.
"Sir, is she looking for a house? I would pay you handsomely," the buyer offered.
"Hu?" You turned to look confused about the statement. What you saw sent shivers down your spine. Obanai's pupils had all but disappeared and it seemed as though heat was radiating off of him. Before you could even gasp Obanai had the man's arm twisted behind his back.
"DON'T YOU EVEN INSINUATE SHE IS FOR SALE!" He yelled, as the man apologized and pleaded for him to let go.
"Iguro!" You yelled, shocked that he would attack a civilian. You had only seen him use force like that with a demon. Hearing your voice seemed to snap Obanai's senses back and he released the man who took off running.
Obanai swiftly grabbed your hand and led you out of the district.
"Are you ok?" He asked, still holding your hand.
"Of course, no one touched me! What was that about though? He asked if I was for sale. I don't understand."
Obanai looked down, now aware of still holding your hand. He let it go, and a blush swept over his cheeks as he took in a deep breath.
"You should just stay clear of this place ok," he explained.
"Do people really sell girls here?" You questioned further.
"It's not a good place." Was the only further explanation he gave. "I would never have let anyone come near you though."
"I know Iguro," You said, grabbing his hand back, causing his blush to appear again. "I never worry when you're next to me."
Obanai pulled his hand away and looked to the floor, "We better keep going." he said.
"Oh- I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." You said, trying to hide the disappointment on your face caused by the Hashira retreating from you.
Uncomfortable.
You could never make him uncomfortable. That was not the problem. You deserved so much more than him. He would die to keep you safe, all while knowing he would never be deserving enough for your love.
Uncomfortable.
He just passed all the beautiful women in the world, but they were nothing compared to you. He would give any one of them up just to graze you, but he could never admit that. Instead, he kept his burning affections to himself, in hopes that in the next life, he would be worthy of your affections.
Here it is, my first Obanai x reader. I’ve had this idea for awhile so I’m excited to finally share it! As some of you realized Obanai also has a very special place in my heart. I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading~
Shout out to the lovely @snowmist-hashira for helping me gather some words. Please check out her fics if you haven’t~
#kny x reader#kny x you#anime x reader#demon slayer#demon slayer x reader#anime x y/n#kimetsu no yaiba#demon slayer x y/n#demon slayer x you#demon slayer obanai#obanai fluff#kimetsu obanai#obanai x reader#iguro obanai#obanai x y/n#obanai iguro#kny hashira#hashira x reader#demon slayer hashira#kimetsu no yaiba hashira#hashira#serpent hashira#kny fanfic#kny fluff#kny x y/n#demon slayer fluff
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i think a lot of you undermine sam and cas' friendship.
like, we know sam isn't dean. cas isn't pathetically in love with him and sam didn't change him and he isn't the reason cas cared about the whole world. but that doesn't mean he's unimportant.
at the beginning of the series cas sees sam as the abomination. nothing but lucifer's vessel. throughout the series, sam becomes an extension of dean. cas takes care of him because he's dean's little brother and doesn't really give a much of a thought how his actions could affect him.
on the other hand, i think sam didn't have a lot of friends growing up and it shows lol. he sees cas as an instrument, and then also as an extension of dean. he's important to dean so he's kinda important to him, but he doesn't really Get why dean worries sm about cas — isn't he an angel??? sam constantly says cas is gonna be okay because he "knows what he's doing", or he simply says "it's cas... " it feels like sam is painfully aware how powerful and different he is.
the thing is, slowly but surely, they start hanging out more. they collab for dean's benefit, and then the concern they feel for the other's safety starts being more genuine instead of just "Not letting anything happen because Dean wouldn't survive it". they find out they like each other, and they can work really well together investigating and hunting (i'd argue that even better than cas and dean). this comes to a point where cas teases sam with dean (ex: telling him about the amnesia in the 50's case bc he knows it's embarrassing) and sam texting cas just because.
season 15 is what seals it for me. when cas breaks up with dean (lol), sam is the one reaching out. texting. calling. cas doesn't pick up, but sam keeps doing it. again. and again. that wouldn't have happened in season 7, or season 9, and really not much reason to do it now. but still.
plus, when people talk about cas and his love for the winchesters, they include Both of them. yes, they make the distinction between dean and cas' relationship, but they do include sam. even cas said at one point "you know me, always happy to bleed for the winchesters".
so, what i'm trying to say is: cas and sam's friendship matters!!! they should've had more time screen!!! i bet they would have so many interesting conversations because they're friends!!!
if you say that in a post-canon world you don't think sam would try to get cas to talk about his feelings, or that cas wouldn't confide sam his fears and regrets and worries BEEP you're wrong.
#i just wrote a whole ass essay#but i read a fic where cas treated sam as if he had to put up with him#because he was dean's brother#and then i realized a lot of people genuinely belive sam is jus There#and you're WRONG#sam winchester#dean winchester#destiel#supernatural#castiel#spn#casdean#sam and cas
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happy holidays! siat asim and lucius please
There's a soft trilling coming from his fireplace and Asim almost doesn't answer it. It's late and he's just come back from a shift that was hell and sometimes he wonders if he's doing any good at all or if he's just there so people can suffer differently before dying painfully.
There are so, so many ways to hurt people and often only one way to save them. He knows too much of the former and not enough of the latter.
His fireplace makes another enquiring trill and he taps the brick with his wand.
It's Lucius.
He only ever calls him for one reason.
Asim accepts the call and is unsurprised to see his fireplace empty. He's likely not in any condition to be crawling on the floor, not that his sort ever do that sort of thing. There's a reason that fireplaces tall enough to stand in are almost standard in magical homes - no one is interested in getting on there hands in knees when they could just lean forward.
He steps into the flames, finding himself spit out in the townhouse in France that Lucius started living in after graduation. It's not much distance from Abraxas, but he'd been glad of it anyway.
There can never be enough distance from Abraxas, which he's reminded of when he looks over to see Lucius laying shirtless on his stomach on the chaise, his head resting on his left arm and his other arm drags to the ground where his hand is gripped around a glass of firewhiskey.
His back looks like hamburger meat.
It's nothing but long cuts and blood, more exposed muscle than should exist outside of a butcher.
"Sorry," he slurs, eyes hazy as they slowly meet his. "Potions took care of the little stuff."
He's known Lucius long enough that he flinches at the idea of what he considers the little stuff. He's more than aware enough of what it has to be, considering the caliber of healing potions he has access too.
Broken bones take a lot. After that, healing potions can get a little confused. There's a reason bones are better healed by a spell. It was probably that, but he knows better than to ask.
Asim shoves down familiar anger and says, "How long were you waiting? You could have called another healer."
Lucius doesn't say anything even as he starts, running a diagnostic spell then beginning the time consuming process of healing every laceration separately. If he doesn't, Lucius's body just stops accepting the magic, not reacting well to broad application.
Overexposure, probably, but it's not like he can just be left bleeding. Abraxas wishes Lucius would let him add it to his chart.
His breath hitches at a particularly deep wound, then he says, "You're the only one that doesn't talk."
Asim hates people sometimes. There are trustworthy healers out there, but he supposes they don't do house calls without asking questions. He probably shouldn't, either.
But he just can't leave him bleeding.
"You should be more careful," he says instead. He knows it's not an accident, that this can't be an accident, but they never talk about what it really is. They never talk about Abraxas.
Lucius smiles, which is shocking enough that Asim stops mid-spell. "I knew this would happen. It's a price I'm willing to pay."
This is more than he's ever gotten from him before. It's oddly disconcerting. "Lucius?"
"I got engaged," he says.
Asim waits for more, but when Lucius just keeps silent and smiling as he continues to work on his back, he says, "Congratulations."
A wife of Lucius's choosing rather than Abraxas's. Maybe she can do some good.
Anyone he loves enough to go through this to have won't sit back and watch as her husband suffers. He hopes.
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FWB!Soap x InloveFem!Reader.
+18 content warning
FWB!Soap who claims to not feel romantic feelings for you, saying that he sees you as a friend and values your friendship too much to try and have a serious relationship with you. It's meaningless sex at the end of the day (at least to him), just using each other to not spend the night alone.
FWB!Soap spends most of his paid leave in your bedroom, secluded from the friends he claims to have apart from you, fucking you in every position he can manhandle your body into, your legs over his shoulder, pulling you by your arms so you don’t fall in while he fucks you standing doggy.
FWB!Soap really likes to spend his free time with his cock buried in one of your three holes, making you sob from pleasure and pain while he gets off by the way tears run down your eyes, overstimulated and spent yet still letting him do whatever he wants with you, a true sweetheart you are.
FWB!Soap who would rather kill every man that tries to court you than find another person to fuck while not being in a serious relationship, he values you too much to let another man have you (but he doesn’t love you, right?) so it’s a back and forth between talking you into not going on dates, threatening guys who approach you when you are out with him and as a last resort, talking shit about you behind your back to them when you invite them to your shared apartment. warning them about how crazy you get when you enter a relationship (you are a fucking angel, soap knows that but he doesn’t want other guys to know)
FWB!Soap who thinks he is the only one allowed to fuck other people, going out to clubs and fucking girls in a dark alleyway, (he would never bring them to your apartment) the smells of a woman’s perfume lingering on his shirt and the hickeys on his neck a clear evidence that he went and fuck someone who isn’t you. it hurts when he does it, he knows how much it breaks your heart, he has listened to you sob at night more times than he can count every time he has returned with hickeys and lipstick stains.
FWB!Soap who after he hears you crying because of him tries to cheer you up, buying you gifts of your special interest or hobbies. inviting you to eat dinner at the fancy restaurant you don’t go to often because of the high prices. and he treats you wonderfully, princess treatment to its max extent, doing everything he can to soothe the ache in your heart from knowing he fucks other girls even though you’re not a couple.
FWB!Soap who is aware of the vicious cycle he trapped himself in, fucking you for days straight, going out and fucking another girl, listening to you cry when you see the hickeys, and doing everything he can to make you feel better, hating how much he hurts you without meaning to before repeating it all again.
FWB!Soap gets undeniably scared at times, fearing you will get tired of him and his actions. he knows what he is doing is wrong but is so fucking hard for him to be in a committed relationship being constantly deployed to different countries. he tried it once and it didn’t work out, so why try again? He has you after all, and being friends with benefits fills his basic needs for the most part.
FWB!Soap is so painfully oblivious to the signals he and you give. Of course, he holds your hand when you're out in public because you get lost easily, walks closer to the street because is safer for you, stands behind you so creeps don’t look at your ass, kisses your forehead every once in a while when he’s talking to someone so you know he isn’t ignoring you.
FWB!Soap does the absolute max to be a good “friend” to you and make you feel loved since being friends with benefits with him makes it impossible for you to get a boyfriend. he knows he’s compensating you for the pain he causes you, and trust him, he does love you but he doesn’t love you. (that’s what he tells himself)
FWB!Soap who after speaking to Ghost and feels nothing short of a piece of shit for the dynamic of your situationship. “you’re going to lose her, Johnny” Simon oh so generously said to him after hearing Soap rant for almost 20 minutes about how he had taken you out to eat because he felt guilty for making you cry once again. (he is a piece of shit to the core)
FWB!Soap comes home after being deployed for almost three weeks only to see a man in your apartment, sitting on the couch like he owns the place while you come out for the kitchen with a bowl full of popcorn, surprised to see Soap standing at the door, not expecting he would be back so soon but happy regardless of his arrival.
“Johnny!” you high pitch squeal fills his ears and he feels hot from anger and joy, he lets you jump on his arms, hugging him the best you can with the height difference, his gear still on, a gun tucked on his belt holster while he hugs you back, staring darkly at the guy on the couch he is already planning how to kill. “hi bonnie” he answers a few seconds later, pulling away from the hug, his hands on your hips so you can’t move away, claiming possession of you to the man sitting not even 10 feet away from him.
He knows he shouldn’t be selfish and let you move on from him, but he is a new man after speaking to Ghost. He swears by it. He knows he loves you, he knows he wants a future with you so why don’t you wait for him just a little bit longer, why jump at the first opportunity you had to find another man? He had never brought any woman home, so why did you bring someone? you’re not playing fair, at least not by the game he put you in forcefully.
And he feels murderous, truly psychotic but doesn’t act on it, no. He would never subject you to that side of him, instead he decided to play just as dirty as you had done. “Why don’t you tell me who's your friend, Bonnie, aye?” he asks, manhandling you softly so you turn around to face the man on the couch who is awfully quiet. Soap guides you, making you walk forward, his hands not leaving your hips.
“he’s Matt, he’s one of my brother's friends” Your sweet voice rings he’s ears and for a moment he thinks that maybe this isn’t a date then, that maybe your brother’s friend just decided to visit you but Soap isn’t that fucking dumb, not when it comes to see the intentions guys have with you. “Matt, this is Johnny my…friend” you add a few seconds later, hesitating on what to call Soap, because sure, you are friends, but you also fuck, cuddle and go out on dates that neither of you ever actually called dates but the implication is there, all that is lacking is the title soap refuses to give to everything he does with you and to you.
you rather not be here in this situation, knowing how soap can get when you meet up with friends he doesn’t know about, and he wasn't even meant to come home today, not even this week and you had questions as to why he had returned so early but it wasn’t the right moment to ask, not with how fucking serious soap sounded (he is never serious around you)
“figured that one out quickly, love” Matt responds, a chuckle leaving his lips even though to Soap nothing was fucking funny right now, quite the opposite but he decides to play along with the clear joke of a man you let into your home. he does want to ripe his throat off because he called you Love and he might as well just do it (when you aren’t present of course.)
Soap sets one of his hands on his gun, moving to stand beside you so the guy can see he’s armed and isn’t afraid to kill him, he had his hands stained with people’s blood, what’s another life to take, everything for you, anything for you. defending an ownership of you he didn’t have.
“don’t mean to kick ya out mate but I rather you go, need to talk to my girl, aye?” Soap says, trying to be polite but he doesn’t give a shit if it comes out as him kicking Matt out, he is kicking him out after all, just with much kinder words for your well-being, not because he respects or wants to be him to the piece of shit on your couch.
And you caught onto Soap truly meant quickly, but it’s all overpowered by the fact he called you his girl, his fucking girl. and you know that with him you shouldn’t get your hopes high no matter how much he sweet talks you and calls you his, he’s done it before and not held up to the name he gave you.
FWB!Soap is a complicated mess when it comes to feelings and showing you how much he loves you because he truly doesn’t do well in relationships and doesn't want to break your heart. God knows how much he hates to see you hurting because of him. But maybe tonight he can’t stop caring for a few hours, just enough time to get rid of that stupid friend of yours and make sure he doesn’t ever appear in your life again, you don’t want a guy like him around, one who doesn’t respect Soap as your lover even though he isn’t.
FWB!Soap really hates breaking your heart, but he acts upon what’s best for you and your tears are a price worth paying so you can live your best life. The death of Matt shouldn’t come as a shock to you, but it does. Because although you know what Soap is capable of, you don’t expect him to just kill someone because they were interested in you and didn't shy away from trying and taking you away from him.
FWB!Soap who realizes that it’s time to make you his, because even though he doesn’t mind killing people to make you his, still is a fucking difficult job to find ways to dispose of the bodies without leaving evidence of his doing.
Boyfriend!Soap who ends up killing a few more people once he already made you his girlfriend but gladly does so when men come too close to you and are too bold and actually threaten your relationship with Soap. Maybe he should move you to a small city in Scotland, marry you, and give you a kid so you’re too busy being devoted to your family to ever notice how there are better men than Soap interested in you.
#cod x reader#call of duty#cod mw2#cod mw3#cod modern warfare#soap fanfic#soap mactavish#soap x reader#john soap mactavish#soap cod#john mactavish#john mctavish x reader#call of duty x reader#soap mctavish#soap x you#soap x y/n#soap mw2#cod men#cod mwii
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Game Of Thrones (Headcanon) - Crushing/Jealousy
Y'all I really hope this doesn't suck because the tumblr page literally refreshed as I was almost done writing so it saved NOTHING and I had to re-write every single word so. Ngl I might've shed a tear but we're not gonna talk about that :). I mixed the 'Them having a crush in you' and the 'Jealousy trope' for this one. Also. I don't know how many of these Headcanons I'll write but regardless even if I do switch up the characters or format for the posts every now and then, don't panic lmfao If I stopped I would tell you. Apologizing for any eventual errors! They'll be fixed.
Warnings: mentions of sex but nothing explicitly nsfw (okay maybe be aware for Oberyn idk), cursing, nothing much really
*I will try to keep the gender descriptions vague, just like the time periods and avoid subplots unlike the other two parts simply because I wouldn't want to make it seem like mini series or something that you kinda have to 'catch up on', I hope that makes sense.
Main masterlist and other headcanons
Lmk what you think if you feel like it :'D
ROBB STARK
Robb is painfully smitten with you from the beginning. This in the very first times made him almost quite shy, but once he gained some confidence and some desire made its way along with the platonic feelings, well. He could be very sweet one second, and make you blush on purpose the moment after. With the whole Winterfell heir/oldest Stark kid thing he never lacked much in the confidence department and it was clear in more ways than one. He is the literal defintion of prince charming. Probably the embodiement of those brave and handsome heroes his sister Sansa liked to read so much about.
Depending on the time of his life in which he met you, he would be more or less careful of showing his feelings. If he were still in Winterfell, with his family and friends around, he would allow himself to be a little more carefree, especially if his father was still the lord of the castle. Catelyn would be a mixture of anxiety and excitement, Robb being her first born and having his first actual experience with love. Ned on the other hand would be just heart warmed by seeing his son being such a good and caring young man, like he raised him to be. Arya would probably either be quite uninterested or befriend you, depending on how much she could relate to you. The same thing is worth for Sansa, even though she would still be quite interested in how things played out between you two. Theon would be annoyingly teasing him about his crush, meanwhile Jon would be more of a listener and give his support to his half brother (cousin).
Depending on how things would've gone with the whole Robert thing, you would've been probably left alone without too much talk of a strategic wedding.
If, on the other hand, we were talking about a slighlty older and king in the North Robb, the situation would probably be more difficult. Regardless, you wouldn't have been the right choice for him to marry, not necessarily for your rank, but because your family wouldn't be strategically strong enough to have important advantages in the war of the five kings. Which is what he needed, but not wanted. Catelyn knew it, he knew it and you knew it.
This Robb would've flirted in the same way more or less, just probably more on the intense and desire filled side than the 'sweet boy' one. And definetly more subtle, for war reasons but mainly because he wanted to keep you safe. Speaking of keeping you safe, he wasn't an overly jealous man by nature, especially if he knew that he was in no position to give you something better than endless pining. But if a man, or another person, were to offend you, or make you feel unsafe, he would definetly pay a little visit in a more appropriate time to the fool in question with his werewolf. He knew better than to not take precautions with the people that he cared about. And after a little scare, he would go to see you and make sure you were alright.
JON SNOW
If Jon has one issue, is how stupidly stubborn he is. Especially when he's younger. This man would rather pin over you for the rest of his life than be honest about his feelings. And you kinda hate him for it sometimes. Regardless of him being in Winterfell as the lord's bastard or a memeber of the Night's Watch, his brooding never changes. Obviously the bigger issue in the second case would be that he literally swore to not take wife or father no children, which made the whole 'being hopelessly in love with you' thing a tad more difficult. In any scenario, he would have that one person close to him to whom he just couldn't lie to. Wheter it was Robb or Sam, he knew that every time you came up in the conversation he could either blush and get out of the topic, or just blurt out his feelings.
Younger Jon would definetly be more awkward and less obvious than Robb, especially because he was nowhere near having the same confidence. He would still be very caring and sweet, just in a more subtle way. If Robb was the kind of guy that would ask you to dance with him or bring you flowers openly, Jon would offer you his fur coat if you were cold or help you get up and down a horse.
He also really enjoys people who kind of understand him as he is and don't try to pressure him that much into acting in a way that it's not himself, and this is honestly one of the things that makes him go crazy for you. He loves how interesting and funny and genuinely caring about him you are. He thinks about you all the time. But gods forbid if he was caught actually having feelings that weren't angsty. He didn't like people that much, but he liked you. Very much so.
You could see through him though, so while you didn't want to pressure him to say more than he wanted, you could get irritated about how stubborn he was sometimes. It happened more than once that other people flirted with you or apparently so, and Jon was never thrilled about that, at all. If you looked around hard enough you could probably spot him in a corner of the room, watching you from afar, brooding as usual. That made you quite sad at times, because you didn't fully understand why he just wouldn't let himself go completely with you. You sometimes played a bit into it, just a tiny bit, to get him riled up. But in the end, you were always going back to him, making sure that you would actually never betray him. He knew that, deep down.
But again, he didn't trust people much, and could get quite protective if he sensed that something wasn't quite right with someone. Before doing anything though, he would often keep an eye on them, and after that if his worries actually were proven somehow to be true, it wouldn't take him much to use a few tricks up his sleeve to scare people off.
Older Jon would be more straightforward, both in personal relationships and with the whole confronting thing. Young Jon liked the shadows, older Jon wasn't afraid to put himself on the spot if he had to.
OBERYN MARTELL
Oberyn having actual romantic feelings was news to him. Many times, especially when he was younger he had questioned himself, 'Am I just horny, or do I care?' and no, the answer is no. He thinks that he got really close at times, but mostly he ended up having great fuck-buddies and occasional dinner companions. Most times he wasn't even interested in actual non-married people, so it's not that it could've gone that far anyway unless he was ready to start an affair. But he didn't care enough for it, way too many problems.
With you though, it was new. You weren't much younger and definetly not completely inexperienced, so it's not long after that you met that you actually had sex. You seemed fine with just having this type of 'fun' relationship, so it was really just him finding himself wanting to spend time with you in other ways. Your relationships had blurred lines for a while to be honest. He was the rich spoiled prince with whom you had occasional sex with, and you were one of the lucky people to get into the prince of Dorne's graces.
Knowing his reputation and generally his personality, it took you a while to actually start to believe that he could be in love with you. Riding horses, dining and drinking together, having sex, spending time together and even painting for fun, to you only seemed the behaviour of a rich prince that had a new 'favorite' of the season. Things started to get a different tone when you noticed how possessive he could be. Not in a properly toxic way, but he did like to get you absolutely flustered in the most inappropriate places, to not so secretly show you off while dressing you with the most beautiful and expensive garments in the realm, putting you at his side at important events and even saying that he wanted you to be just his. Not that you were in the position nor desire to actually sleep around, but that statement definetly put a more defined label on your relationship.
Oberyn usually wouldn't get jealous, but he would be even more confident and showy when he wanted to warn someone off. And then usually get you in a dark spot of the palace and fuck you while he told you you were his. And if someone had some snarky things to say about you, he made sure they didn't do it ever again.
JAIME LANNISTER
Confused, insecure, protective, closed off, romantic, intense, quite jealous, vulnerable
Jaime is complicated. He just is. There's also very little chance that he could've managed to look at someone other than Cersei in his younger years, because their separation was very brief, and the immediate failure of her and Robert's marriage gave them the perfect opportunity to keep going with their toxic relationship. As soon as he gets away from her, and loses his hand in the process, he also starts to struggle with his own thoughts about who he is and who he wants to be.
When he meets you, he didn't even thought about your meeting twice. He observed you, as he always does with people, but thought nothing more of you except your beauty probably. The first time you actually talked though, he did think about it a little harder. It was news to him that someone would actually address him in a normal and respectful way, without being fake that is. He had roughed up during the years, especially since people had started to call him Kingslayer, traitor, backstabber. Any kind of degrading name. No one actually even bothered to make their own opinions or listen to his side. Robert and Ned and the whole lot of other people of the court chose a biased version and went with it.
You didn't. Wiredly enough it left him feeling quite wired, and definetly interested in you. If anything, he was curious to see if you were going to ever speak to him again, and you did. You made sure to acknowledge him every time that you saw him, even at the cost of getting the stink eye from whoever was accompanying you. Jaime started to get more interested, and wanting to know you better. Either of you had any malice in this whole thing. You were both genuinely curious to listen to what the other had to say. And slowly, Jaime started to get more and more distanced from his sister. It's like he was blind, or willingly chose not to see, what she really was. The difference was obvious when he interacted with you.
You did create a genuinely nice connections, and you didn't miss to stop and talk or even walk together when you had the chance. The real turning point for him was when he started to actually think about you. He felt confused and quite scared, to be honest. He was afraid of many things; of the fact that he could actually feel something that wasn't so wrong like what he felt for Cersei, of how worthy someone like him could be of you. These thoughts remained quite abstract, even in his own mind, until he actually felt like he was punched in the gut when you started to get courted by another person.
Now, that, was quite the wake up call. Before you actually became a thing, his general reaction to his own jealousy was sadness and self loathing. So when you got together, knowing that he could actually allow himself to be close to you, his love language definetly became touch. He just loved to touch you, whether it was in an innocnt way or not. It's like he needed it. He would also be quite affectionate and funny, definetly the cockly Lannister in him. Fortunately enough there weren't many times in which he became jealous, but when he did, he usually just fucked it right out of you both, to put it lightly. On the other way, if any type of harm should come your way, now in that case his Tywin genes would definetly come through.
TYRION LANNISTER
Insecure, not overly jealous but anxious about your well being, trusting, sweet, funny, has your back
Tyrion has trauma. He really fucking does. Love? Trust? not his forte, either of them. So was he scared when he realized that he could be falling for you? Shitless. Just the mere fact that he met you in King's Landing made him think the craziest possible scenarios of how either his father or sister could've just come to you and say 'Trick that stupid little monster again, he deserves it'. He lowkey knew that it would've been insane, and he was being paranoid but at the same time you never know with those people.
You definetly made fun of people at court together. You also liked to actually argue about some topics, too. You weren't particularly fond of sewing when you were little, so your father made sure that you were at least well spoken, and honestly you didn't mind reading at all. On that you two would relate a lot.
You actually spent so much time together, and he loved how similiar you were. Mentally, that is. He would never even imagine to compare himself with something that he considered as beautiful as you. And even after making sure that you gained his trust, that remained a big issue for him. When he did actually get a grip and you got exclusive, or at least with each other, your relationship didn't change that much, except the sex and the teasing obviously. Tyrion's version of jealousy was more similiar to Jaime's. He wasn't actually jealous, per se, but he doubted himself and what he could give you more than anything.
You never, ever, gave him reason to, though. In that sense, you probably took more care of him than he did, and he really really appreciated you for that. He would've gladly ran away with you, but you both knew better than be reckless in a place full of backstabbers like King's Landing. You kind of had each other's back, and this understanding between you two allowed you to actually live your relationship peacefully.
Now, if Tyrion did feel that someone on his reach could actually try to do any harm to your or your relationship, Bronn would've taken care of it pretty quickly for him.
#game of thrones fanfiction#game of thrones#game of thrones fic#got fic#got imagine#a song of ice and feels#tyrion lannister#tyrion lannister x reader#jaime lannister#jaime lannister x reader#jon snow#jon snow x reader#robb stark#robb stark x reader#oberyn martell#oberyn x reader#oberyn martell x reader#game of thrones x reader#preferences#one shots#fluff#smut#asoiaf#asoiaf fic#asoiaf fanfiction#house stark#house martell#house targaryen#house lannister#a game of thrones
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Broken Hearts
Characters: George Weasley x reader
Summary: George Weasley has been in love with you for four years, not that he could tell you that because he is fairly sure you’re in love with Charlie. Sometimes the world forces truths to be told for fear of losing them forever, and some truths should have been spoken sooner.
Word Count: 2333 words
A/N: The wonderful @imaginemyfavoritefics was one of my reblog draw winners and as their prize requested some fluffy George Weasley, so here you are. I am so sorry it has taken me so long, but I hope you enjoy.
At the tender age of sixteen, George Weasley fell in love. Totally, completely, heart and soul in love. Not that he knew what this feeling was when it first hit him, no, that would take him a while to figure out, although he was never certain that what he felt that first time he saw you was love, because surely love is deep and that needs more than simply seeing you, right? Although, and this theory came much later from his little sister, maybe kindred spirits recognize each other immediately and that is where the deeper connection lay.
It was a bright day despite the slight chill in the air, the beginning of the Easter holidays looked promising with talk of a little quidditch as those gathered at The Burrow chatted over breakfast. The sound of the front door opening and a familiar voice calling ‘hello’, had Molly jumping to her feet, hands clapping as she rushed to greet her second eldest.
“Charlie! I wasn’t expecting you until- oh my goodness! Hello dear, it is so lovely to finally meet you!”
His mother’s words piqued George’s interest and he exchanged a look with Fred before they both snuck to take a look. That’s when it happened, when George’s life went from a world before seeing you to a world in which he was painfully aware of your existence.
As you pulled back from his mother’s tight hug, a shaft of sunlight from the window fell upon your hair, creating a halo effect. He could have sworn his heart stopped entirely for a moment when you smiled, your face lighting up with such joy that he felt a pang of jealousy at not being the reason for it. George wanted you to smile at him like that, though he had no idea why, and then his mother had turned, guiding you towards the kitchen, towards him.
“Fred, George, why are you two always under my feet?” Molly asked in exasperation, causing you to giggle. Your eyes met George’s and he felt his cheeks heat in the warmth of your attention. He was so flustered that he didn’t even manage to say hello before you were ushered past him and seated at the kitchen table.
“Hope you two have been keeping out of trouble.” Charlie grinned at his younger brothers, and suddenly George realised something bloody obvious; you were here with Charlie.
Over the next few years, you were a frequent visitor to The Burrow, Charlie’s plus one to many events, although it was never entirely clear to people what that really meant. You had an apprenticeship working closely with the older Weasley, a great honor most people would kill for, and the two of you were clearly close. Molly already had the pair of you married off in her head, although Arthur felt the relationship was more like siblings, no romance.
George found himself looking forward to the holidays more and more, each one giving him the chance to spend some time with you. When you had given him your address and told him to write, he could have burst with excitement. Of course, you then extended the same offer to Fred which took the shine off it a little, but you had given it him first, and that was what he clung to.
It was a cold November evening at the end of Half Term that George’s fragile hopes were well and truly crushed. He had found himself sitting with you on a blanket as you watched the firework display, he and Fred had put together. A certain amount of fire whiskey had been consumed, which is possibly why he was able to speak in full sentences despite your arm touching his.
“You Weasley boys are so clever.” You hummed, eyes watching the bursts of colour in the sky above.
“Maybe you should tell some of my professors that.” He joked, stealing a glance at you as he preened at your compliment.
“Ah, don’t pay any attention to them. You and Fred will be just fine out in the big bad world. So, Fred and Angelina? He seems to be very happy, but what about you? When are we gonna hear about you asking someone out?”
George froze up a little at that. How could he possibly say that there was only one person he wanted in that way, and that you were that person, but he didn’t have to say anything as you continued on.
“You know, you shouldn’t wait for too long. That’s how you get stuck in this weird limbo where you end up with the object of your affection calling you ‘mate’ and not seeing you as a romantic option in the slightest.” Your eyes had now fallen on Charlie who was laughing and joking with Bill. As if sensing your gaze, he looked over and waved.
“Get over here, mate! You’ve gotta hear this!” Charlie called and you nodded, slowly getting to your feet and giving George a soft, sad smile.
“Whoever they are, they will be damned lucky to have you, just remember that.”
As he watched you walk over to Charlie, watched his big brother lazily wrap an arm around your shoulder and pull you against his side, George felt his heart completely shatter. Here he was pining for someone who was clearly in love with his big brother, life just was not fair.
Tugging at the bandage around his head once more, George put on a brave smile to hide just how self-conscious he felt. He busied himself with helping put up the marquee, following orders issued by his mother, avoiding actually socializing with people. He was happy for Bill, and they definitely needed a party to focus on in these dark times, but he wasn’t ready for the sympathetic looks he would be getting all day, especially not from you.
“There you are Georgie-boy.” Charlie grinned as he wandered over and patted his brother on the shoulder. “Mum told me to come give you a hand with glasses or something. Not sure what that woman is thinking giving you and me this job, may as well ask Ron while she’s at it.”
“Yeah.” George smiled, not that it quite reached his eyes. “We’d best not break too many of them.”
“You know who would be great at this?”
“Charlie Weasley, I can’t believe you have been volunteering my services!” Your voice cut through the air, the underlying amusement in your tone not lost on your best friend. As you came into sight, George felt his heart pick up speed, his tongue seeming to expand in his mouth while also drying out. You looked gorgeous, and he didn’t have the words to do you justice.
“I was just talking about you, mate! Come on, give us a hand.”
“Or maybe you could show me and George how it’s done, since you are ‘so good’ at all this.” You teased, moving to stand in front of George. Your hands came up and he swallowed thickly as your fingers adjusted his tie. “There you go. So handsome. Hey, Charlie, why can’t you look as good in a suit as you little brother?” You smirked, barely dodging Charlie’s attempt to swat your arm.
“I knew I should have brought Madeline to this.”
“You do realise I would have been attending this wedding anyway, right? Your mum would have sent me my own invite, or I could have been George’s plus one.”
“So, I’m basically saving my little brother from having to spend the entire day with you, I deserve something for that sacrifice.”
“I’ll make you a badge or something.”
“Who’s Madeline?” George finally managed to speak, he got out two whole words without his voice cracking.
“Oh, she’s the unfortunate soul who has agreed to date your brother. I mean, someone had to take that bullet.” You shrugged, a teasing smile on your face and not a hint of sadness or jealousy.
“Right, that’s it, no more plus one’s for you.” Charlie playfully scowled, heading into the tent to get to the actual task of sorting out the glass wear.
“I’ll just be George’s plus one then,” you called after him as you headed inside too, “at least until he gets himself fixed up, then I’ll just get your mum to adopt me.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, George trailed after you, smiling to himself at the thought of you being his plus one indefinitely.
The world had got so dark, everything felt heavy, and any joy had been sucked from life. George stood in the kitchen of the safehouse, staring into his mug, trying not to think about what the morning would bring. Hogwarts had always been a safe place for him, for so many people, and knowing they were on the precipice of the most important battle was terrifying. Not that he could admit that, he had to be brave, right? He couldn’t show weakness.
“Sorry we’re late.” He heard Charlie’s voice and his head shot up, even as Bill was quietly reassuring him that it was okay, he was here now.
“I’ll go put the kettle on, can’t see anyone getting much sleep tonight.” You said before walking into the kitchen, a warm smile lighting up your face as you saw George. “Hey there, handsome. You want a brew or you good?”
“I could do with a top up, this one’s a bit cold.” He admitted, feeling guilty at how happy your presence made him. He should have been praying you weren’t coming, that you wouldn’t be put in danger, but right now he realised he needed to see you, needed a reminder of what it was they were all fighting for.
“How you holding up?” You asked softly, not intending for your conversation to be overheard.
“I’m okay.”
“Liar.” You smirked, and George found himself chuckling.
“I’m shitting myself. You?”
“Yeah, pretty much trying not to think about it because I think it scares the crap outta me. We’ll be okay though. We’ve got each others backs, and we can do this.” Your hand ran over his bicep, and he felt his breath stutter.
“You’re bloody brilliant, you know that.”
“Well, my tea making skills are legendary.” You joked.
“No. I mean it. I need you to know that I think you’re amazing. You’re so smart and brave and funny and gorgeous. You make everything feel better, just by being there. I should have told you years ago, should have been telling you every time I saw you, but there’s a very real possibility that I’m not gonna get the chance after tomorrow, so, I need you to know.”
You opened your mouth to say something, but Charlie and Bill bustled into the room and whatever your response would have been was lost in the chatter. More and more people crowded into the kitchen and even though George never had a chance to steal a moment away with you, he was happy knowing he had finally told you how he felt.
Dust from all the rubble hung in the air, making it thick and clawing with each breath. George had made his way to the Great Hall, relieved to see so many of his friends and family still standing. He pulled Fred into a hug, silently thanking every god he could think of that they had made it through. His relief was short lived though as his eyes scanned the assembled crowd and he failed to find you.
Breaking away from his brother, he frantically began searching, not wanting to look at the fallen, laid out on one side of the hall, he did not want to see you in that number. Charlie stumbled into the room, a lazy half smile on his lips as he wiped away some blood from his face. Once his mother had finally released him from her embrace, George had asked where you were, and Charlie had to admit he didn’t know, he’d lost track of you somewhere near the astronomy tower.
George’s heart was beating so loud that it was all he could hear, throbbing in his ear as he tried his best to keep calm. His hands shook as a myriad of emotions crossed his face, he was about to enlist Fred’s help to go search for you when he saw Charlie’s face light up. Turning to follow his brothers gaze, he saw you helping some Hogwarts pupils into the room, clearly in need of a little medical attention.
You looked up and smiled as soon as you saw Charlie, your eyes then searching for his little brother. Once your eyes locked with George’s, you began to walk towards him, your steps getting quicker until they were a full on run. Heading straight past Charlie, you threw your arms around George and held him so tight he thought he might pass out.
“Hey, love, you’re gonna have to let go a little so I can breathe.” He joked softly, smiling as you pulled back a little and looked up at him.
“It’s not my fault, I love you. You are the one who started it.”
George felt his knees give way. Had you just said that you love him? His hands came up to cup your face, his eyes searching yours for any indication that he had misheard. When he found none, he closed the gap between the two of you and kissed you like his life depended on it.
“Finally!” Fred declared, “All it took was a war and possible imminent death.”
“He got there eventually.” Charlie smirked, placing his arm around Fred’s shoulder and pulling him away.
“Four years! I’ve had four years of him going on and on and on…”
Fred’s grumblings went on unheeded by the two of you. George was just so happy that his broken heart was now whole, and he had every intention on making sure you would be his plus one for the rest of his life.
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Vertin has an easier time of letting go and moving forward now after getting so used to it, but the past is eventually gonna catch up to her and that weight becomes unbearable. How long until she's forced to face that unprocessed grief? Until she learns how to help others without it being at her own expense?
How long would it take for her to re-learn how to enjoy the present/her life without feeling immesnely guilty for what would never be and might've been, and indulge in her interests again without feeling that its selfish?
The survivor guilt and savior complex are real. Now that she isn't alone anymore, I hope she is able to see the value in her own life as much as she sees it in others.
PREPARE FOR MORE ANALYSIS AND LORE!
Sometimes I wonder if Vertin feels like she needs to live for the sake of other people. She has to remember them because the world won't once its Reversed. She has to find the truth and stop the Storm for all the people she's lost to it. Now that she has people under her personal protection, she pushes herself even more to be everything they need her to be.
I think the one thing she wants for herself and not for the sake of others, is the truth about her mother. Mr. Man mentions Vertin's rationale a lot, but he also prods at the trauma she holds in many of their interactions. He's pretty abrasive about it too. Here is one of my favorites for character analysis reasons. Chapter 4-20 Outside the Spotlight:
Here is just one example (there is more to this and some was cut out for readability). This is kinda what inspired me to write the fic tbh because it shows how helpless Vertin really is in the face of the Storm. The idea of Vertin wanting to create a perfect shelter for those close to her might be from the trauma of loss and is a way she copes. From the context clues this is when Vertin was at a ceremony for the new St. Pavlov Foundation Squad Leaders. Vertin is shocked to see Sonetto amongst them the others on stage.
Not only that, but the same people who allowed her friends to get Reversed are saving Sonetto for her. It's like Vertin sees Sonetto as someone she is supposed to be protecting and yet, there she is. Sonetto is standing on stage with other arcanists destined to be martyrs. It's symbolic of Vertin's own failure.
Sonetto isn't safe. No arcanist is safe under the Foundation. Look at what happened to poor Ken! She is worried about her other friends, but she is made painfully aware of how little she can do.
But she tries. And she keeps trying no matter how pointless her efforts are in the grand scheme.
#reverse 1999#vertin#anon ask#sonetto#character analysis#im sorry i got carried away#im just looking for opportunities to scream how much i love Vertin#more trauma related psychubes#fun fact#sonetto shows up in a lot of things related to vertin's trauma#im not trying to squeeze her in but she keeps popping up#its like she represents everything vertin failed at#better arcanum#better grades#nearly got reversed because of vertin#vertin got their friends erased#she forgave vertin when vertin still struggles to forgive herself#needs its own post
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THEORY: The Butterfly Effect
I'd like to thank VGFM for forming the basis of this theory with theirs, the excellent "The True Identity and Importance of "Everyman"". I highly recommend reading it!
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A while ago, VGFM brought to my attention the presence of a butterfly motif in UTDR.
They noted the presence of butterflies in three specific places: Whimsun/Whimsalot's bullets, Reaper Bird/Everyman's bullets, and King's cape.
I'd like to expound on this by analyzing these usages, and also add another two instances of a butterfly motif that, all together, lead me to a conclusion about what butterflies in UTDR could mean.
1: Everyman's bullets
Probably the most memorable appearance of butterflies across Undertale and Deltarune. It's our pal Everyman!
In case it was possible to forget, here's a refresher: the amalgamate Reaper Bird in the True Lab features a guest star in their attacks. The strange, embryonic "Everyman" initially just stands there. Then their face is painfully eaten by butterflies, and they subsequently will go on the attack. Everyman has since cameoed in Deltarune a few times, but the butterflies have been conspicuously absent.
Still, this seems to be the character most obviously linked to butterflies so far.
As for what butterflies could mean here, there's only one really major thing to note: Everyman was not aggressive until the butterflies infested their face. In one of their attacks, the butterflies even seem to be "puppeting" a staggering Everyman, and are the ones actually inflicting damage by flying out of their head.
Does this mean the butterflies represent aggression? I'm not so sure. However, as we're about to see, they do seem to appear a lot in the context of antagonism.
2: King's Mantle
Another butterfly was visible in Deltarune Chapter 1, taking the shape of King's... cape?
At the time of VGFM's theory, we didn't have the Chapter 1 livestream, but Toby gave us this one for free: "Cool mantle, bro."
Setting aside the weighted term "mantle" for this theory (but rest assured, you're in good company thinking about the SkyMantle and ShadowMantle), I'd like to focus on the King himself.
Firstly: Many people refer to this character as the "Chaos King," likely due to the titular track that plays during his fight. But the character himself is only ever referred to as "(a) King." Let's squirrel this away for later.
Secondly: During said battle with King, during which he has his greyscale mantle, he is able to use a greyscale "tail" from his belly to attack us by slightly manipulating the UI.
King uses that grey belly tail to drag our box around the screen and into bullets in various ways, almost reminiscent of fighting Sans. As far as I can remember, (correct me if I'm wrong), he's one of the only DR characters who do this (ETA: @potabo pointed out Queen also has a UI-affecting attack, as does Spamton in a scrapped attack).
But after the King's mantle has flown away, we only see him using basic spade bullets. We never see the belly tail again.
Now, of course, this could just be gameplay/story dichotomy - we're in a cutscene, not in battle, so of course we don't see any grander attacks.
But it would be interesting if the mantle itself was what granted him the meta power to manipulate the UI. If true, then by extension, this might associate the butterfly motif with similar powers.
Remember what I said about "Chaos King" not being his real name? That begs the question: why is the track titled that?
3: CHAOS SABER
This one's a little sneaky.
We've all probably noticed by now that Asriel's battle is chock full of Deltarune references, and plot elements we weren't even aware of. There's plenty of theories and speculation out there about that.
But one of the elements flying under the radar is his attack "CHAOS SABER."
Not the Kris-like sword attack, or the unusual animations, or the Deltarune-like sparkles at the end... but the very sword sprites themselves.
Take a look again.
Yep - when put together, the two swords Asriel uses form a butterfly shape. (They're also reflections of each other...)
What do we know about this instance of the butterfly motif? Not much, really, aside from the use of swords to cut, the production of those Darkner-representing stars, and the title: "CHAOS SABER."
Uh-oh. Maybe we shouldn't speak too loudly of "chaos..."
4: Jevil's voiceline
Just a small one, but I think worth noting: Jevil, a character strongly associated with Chaos, has the voiceline "METAMORPHOSIS."
Yes, it's one of his references to those Line stickers. But face it: when you hear "metamorphosis," what's the first thing that comes to mind?
It may not directly spell out the word "butterfly." But fellow Line reference "I CAN DO ANYTHING" doesn't directly spell out "freedom," anyway, and that's an actual confirmed Jevil motif.
All I'm saying is, it's not out of the question that the "METAMORPHOSIS" line might tie into this ongoing butterfly motif.
5: Whimsun/Whimsalot's Bullets
You may have gone through this list wondering: where are Whimsun and Whimsalot? What profound meaning do they have? What fascinating secrets can we glean from their depiction of butterflies?
The answer is: I dunno lol.
Sorry, there was a reason I shunted them off to the end. Unfortunately, I just can't find anything that sorely sticks out! Whimsalot is one of the CORE enemies, sure, and those seem Deltarune-relevant in some way, but otherwise... I just don't know! If anyone has more profound insight to offer here, feel free to sound off - I'd love to hear your ideas. Personally, I'm gonna throw in the towel until we get another chapter.
CONCLUSION
You've probably noticed by now, but there seems to be a common thread throughout half of these instances.
Jevil, "Chaos King," "CHAOS SABER"...
In Undertale and Deltarune, butterflies may represent CHAOS.
And honestly, it makes more sense than you'd think.
The butterfly effect is pretty well-referenced in media: a single flap of a butterfly's wings, rippling out to eventually cause a hurricane somewhere else.
And what discipline, exactly, does the butterfly effect fall under?
Chaos theory.
If this is the imagery Toby Fox is trying to invoke, I wonder if our actions won't "ripple out" in a great chain of cause-and-effect, either. After all, he did state some things "only appear random. All chaos is ordered."
As for what this means for the affected characters, the one that jumps out the most as an example is Everyman. Again, in Reaper Bird's attack, the poor fellow appears to be engulfed by butterflies - so, metaphorically, by CHAOS. Only after this do they actually become aggressive. And interestingly, Toby Fox also remarks on how the Dark Fountain may have changed King's behavior.
After all, in terms of the greater plot, the most solid thing we know about the role of CHAOS is that it will apparently result when the Dark Fountains fill the sky, and cause the Roaring.
So, is "Chaos King" actually King altered by the CHAOS-causing presence of the fountain? How many more benign characters like Everyman have been spurred into aggression in this way? And how long before all this mounting CHAOS becomes a true Roaring?
It seems we'll have to keep an eye on the butterflies.
...Well, that's all I've got for today. Feel free to leave your essays about Whimsun being the most important Undertale character - once things ripple out enough, you might just be right.
(Screenshot credit: 1, 2, 3)
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Helpful, in a Heterodyne Kind of Way
Summary: Gil wakes up chained to a chair in Castle Heterodyne.
That's bad.
But he's been brought there to have dinner with the Lady Heterodyne, who is smart and pretty and interesting.
That's good.
He's been brought there by Saturnus Heterodyne, because he's under the impression that Gil is the biological son of Petrus Teuful, and thus an excellent potential suitor for his beloved granddaughter.
That's bad.
But Agatha is wonderful, and Saturnus promises to keep Gil's "true parentage" a secret. If Gil is lucky, he might get out of this with a girlfriend, and without getting fed to one of the castle's deathtraps.
Klaus would just like people to not kidnap his son, thank you very much.
AO3 Link
Gil woke slowly, but not painfully. There was no aching body or throbbing temples, just a slow ascent from darkness. He was vaguely aware of the smell of cooking meat, the warmth of a nearby fire, the sound of soft music.
And shouting.
“—kidnap the son of Baron Wulfenbach, emperor of Europa!”
Well, that wasn’t a good start.
Gil forced his eyelids to open and found himself staring at…a table. It was covered in a gilt-embroidered tablecloth and set with the most over-the top table settings, every conceivable variety of forks, spoons and knives.
His hands were chained to the chair with manacles just long enough to allow him to reach the silverware (which was gold, he realized). He also noticed what, exactly, the tablecloth’s embroidery depicted. It was not something most people would like to look at during a meal.
A sneaking suspicion began to develop.
“I don’t care how great-great-great-grandmother Thorazia would have done it!”
And that was when Gil noticed the guards, and suspicion became certainty.
There were two of them, standing side by side at the door on the far end of the room. One had horns that curled up over his head almost in a circle; the other had a snout and long, floppy ears. Both were grinning at him—grins filled with sharp, pointed teeth.
Jӓgers.
Gil tried to keep his expression one of mild interest, which the guards clearly found very funny. He drummed his fingers on the arms of the chair, humming softly and very carefully not checking to see how sturdy the restraints were.
They were very sturdy.
As casually as he could, Gil glanced over his shoulder.
Yep, two Jӓgermonster guards on that door, too.
One of them waved at him. Gil gave him a slightly strained smile, and turned back in his seat again.
Okay. Kidnapped, tied to a chair, in Castle Heterodyne. The important thing to do was to remain calm, at all costs.
“Grandfather, I don’t need your help! I am perfectly capable of finding a boyfriend on my own!”
The door flew open and in swept the most beautiful girl Gil had ever seen. She was dressed in filthy mechanic’s coveralls. Her face was smeared with grease. Her hair was beginning to fall free from the messy ponytail she’d put it in, framing her face with fine golden strands. Her eyes were bright green, illuminated behind her large glasses.
“I,” she began, “am so sorry—”
“Hi,” Gil blurted out. “I’m Gil. Uh. Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Who are you?”
She pulled up short, startled by the interuption.
“Oh. I…I’m Agatha. Agatha Heterodyne.” She shook herself. “Wait, wait, I’m apologizing. My grandfather had you kidnapped, he’s…” She blushed even harder. “He uh. He’s been trying to…”
“Find you a boyfriend, I heard.”
Agatha groaned and rubbed her face, pushing her glasses up.
“I’m so sorry.”
“That’s alright,” Gil said. “You know, it smells like dinner’s been made already, and since I’m already here…”
Agatha stared at him.
“You—really?”
He smiled at her and shrugged.
“I’d hate for it to go to waste.”
Agatha opened and closed her mouth a few times, pink rising to her cheeks.
“Oh. That’s. Very kind of you. I. Um. Should probably go get changed. I’m not exactly dressed for dinner.”
“If you’d like,” Gil said, amicably. “I think you look great.”
Agatha went scarlet and ducked her head, not quite managing to hide her smile. She began to back up out the door she’d entered through, babbling a little.
“I’ll uh. Aheh. It’s not really hygenic, I’m all covered in…I’ll just…um…Nestor, if you could serve Gil some wine or, or something while I, um…”
She slammed the door shut. Gil heard frantic footsteps tearing up the hallway, a call of I told you! and shutupshutupshutup!
A servant approached on silent feet and filled a goblet with wine, then scooched it a little closer to Gil so he could reach it without dragging the chains across the table cloth. Gil didn’t bother to ask if he could be released.
The door opened again and Gil looked up, but it wasn’t Agatha who entered.
At first, the only thing Gil could notice was the chair. From the seat up, it was, well. A chair. But instead of four sturdy legs, the seat rested on what had to be dozens of of spindly, shining, insectile legs. They were constantly moving, extending and retracting and shifting position to keep the occupant perfectly balanced as he crossed the room.
It took some effort to drag his gaze up and meet the sharp green eyes of a man who had Agatha’s nose and a wicked grin that pinned Gil in place.
“Saturnus Heterodyne!” he said, by way of greeting. “And you must be Gilgamesh Wulfenbach!” His smile twisted slyly. “Or should I say…Gilgamesh Teuful?”
Gil stared blankly.
“Uh…should you?”
“No need to play dumb,” Saturnus said, drawing up to the table beside Gil. With a casual air, he picked up one of the decanters of wine and filled a spare glass. Taking the glass in hand, he settled back in his seat and gave Gil a sharp smile. “I heard all about your paternity from that Sturmvoraus fellow.”
“Sturmv—Tarvek?” Gil sat bolt up in the chair, sloshing his wine and yanking hard on the manacles. “Tarvek Sturmvoraus told you I was Petrus Teuful’s son?”
That weasel, that snake! Everyone knew the Lady Heterodyne was more like the Heterodyne boys than like her grandfather. If she thought he was the son of one of the deadliest Sparks in the world—
“No, no,” Saturnus said. “He told his sister. But there are no secrets in Castle Heterodyne, are there?” This last was directed to the ceiling.
‘No indeed,’ said a disembodied voice, sounding quite smug. ‘But I do know when to be…discreet.’
Saturnus chuckled and waved for Gil to relax.
“Calm down, don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. I don’t blame Klaus for keeping it a secret—a man can only put up with so many assassination attempts before they begin to get tiresome.” He laughed the convivial laugh of two people bonding over a shared nuisence.
“Um. I…appreciate that, but—”
“And I certainly won’t be the one to tell Agatha! Don’t want to sway her opinion of you just yet. She’s a little too much like her uncle to believe in the whole ‘change them with the power of love’ nonsense her father did…”
His voice trailed off, his expression suddenly sobering. Gil waited, but when the man stayed silent, he cleared his throat.
“Actually, I think there’s been—”
“Wait, wait, I’m not done.” Saturnus frowned disapprovingly. “Youth these days, no patience at all. What was I saying? Oh! I remember when Klaus finally brought Teuful down. Ha, and Teuful certainly made him work for it! But when he finally fell, what did his men do? Fought harder. Fought to the death. Every man jack was there of his own free will, because he believed in Teuful. That is loyalty.”
Saturnus grinned and tilted his head back, indicating the Jӓger guards.
“And the Heterodynes know loyalty. We appreciate loyalty—and appreciate those Sparks who understand it as we do.”
“Well, of course,” Gil said. “Half of the armies we fight surrender outright because they know they’ll get a better deal with the Empire. But—”
“But indeed! A man who can inspire a soldier to fight for peace and stability, yes, all well and good, hoo-ray. But a man who can take a perfectly ordinary citizen of the world and inspire him to wanton chaos and destruction? Ah, that’s the kind of man I want for my granddaughter.”
He sat back in his chair and sighed heavily.
“I’m relieved to have found you, you know. The number of would-be suitors who have shown up here—why, the grinding machines can hardly keep up!”
“The grinding machines,” Gil repeated.
“Hmm? Oh, yes, unworthy men can be persistant, and I’ll not be having some moon-eyed, would-be-hero fluttering around her and wasting her time. So, on their way out I simply have the castle…” He made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Clean up.”
Gil felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead.
“Castle Heterodyne had boyfriend grinding machines?”
“No, of course not! I had to build them. But don’t you worry,” Saturnus said, patting Gil genially on the shoulder. “I’d never snuff out a Spark like Teuful’s so easily.”
‘But perhaps mind where you put your hands.’
Saturnus burst out laughing; the Jӓger guards joined in. Gil forced his own laugh, clutching white knuckled at the arms of his chair. As subtly as he could, he glanced down, and saw that the way the floorboards were laid out, it was not impossible that the chair was positioned over a trap door.
The door opened and Gil’s heart leapt for entirely different reasons than terror.
Agatha stood in the doorway, slightly breathless, still damp from her frantic bath, and dressed in a white and gold dress trimmed with trilobite designs that Gil would say was extremely becoming. She’d missed a spot of engine grease on her cheek, and Gil had no intention of telling her.
“Well, I’ll leave you two at it,” Saturnus said, steering his chair away from the table and towards the door. His granddaughter squinted at him suspiciously.
“Yes, you will. And so will you four,” she said, sternly, to the Jӓgers. “I already have an all-seeing chaperone, who will be silent,” she added, very pointedly. “For the duration of the evening.” Her eyes landed on the glass of wine Saturnus was not quite managing to keep out of sight. “And the doctor said no alcohol!”
“The doctor said less alcohol!” Saturnus shot back, the door slamming shut behind him.
Agatha threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, and thumped down in her seat. Then she hurriedly stood up and swept her dress out so it wasn’t crumpled. Servants closed in, laying out the first course: a bright orange soup that, upon very careful tasting, turned out to be pumpkin.
“I hope he didn’t say anything too awful,” Agatha said.
“No!” Gil said, hurriedly, very aware that Castle Heterodyne could hear every word. “He was just telling me that he was a…fan of my father’s work.”
“Yes,” Agatha said. “I’m not entirely sure he actually understands what your father does.”
“I did get that impression,” Gil said, straight faced. The chain around his wrist clanked against the soup bowl, and Agatha’s eyes went wide.
“Castle! He’s still chained?”
Gil thought he heard something like a distant, mechanical sigh of disappointment, and the manacles popped open.
“I’m so sorry about that. Again.”
Gil smiled.
“Honestly, of all the times I’ve been kidnapped and chained to a chair, this is not the worst.”
Agatha paused, spoon halfway to her mouth.
“Has that happened to you…often?”
“Once or twice!” Gil said. “But I don’t usually get wine.”
-
“—and even though he recognized that it wasn’t on purpose, or entirely my fault, the Master decided I’d just be a trouble magnet, and that was the end of Paris. I finished my degrees in Beetleburg, instead.” Agatha waved her fork vaguely. “But it worked out in the end. It was much easier to rule Mechanicsburg from there.”
Gil started.
“You were ruling Mechanicsburg long distance?”
Agatha gave him a wry smile.
“I couldn’t exactly leave Grandfather in charge unattended,” she said, dryly. “I had regular reports sent to me once a week, and I’d send my orders back same day.”
“That’s impressive,” Gil said. “Balancing your schoolwork, running Mechanicsburg, and still managing to have a social life? Most people can barely manage two of those.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that much more work,” Agatha demured, though she was blushing. “My seneschal took care of the day to day, and my generals managed the defences.”
“Well, I think it’s amazing.”
“What about you?” Agatha returned. “You’ve got two doctorates and Collette said you get into adventures every other week.”
‘My lady—’
“I asked for silence,” Agatha said. “And I specified for the duration—”
‘Yes, my lady, and no one wishes to interrupt your evening. That is why your grandfather asked me to inform you that he will handle the matter.’
“What mat—you know what, nevermind. I don’t want to know.” She rolled her eyes at Gil. “He’s probably gone to argue with the Monster’s Guild about whether the giant rats qualify for membership. I keep telling them, if they’re not sentient enough to pay union dues and attend the meetings, they belong with the Rodent Society.”
The room they were in faced west, giving them a lovely view of the mountain sunset, and no view at all of Castle Wulfenbach descending on Mechanicsburg.
#girl genius#Gilgamesh Wulfenbach#saturnus heterodyne#agatha heterodyne#gilgatha#gil/agatha#doting grandfather saturnus AU
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Decided to turn my late-night ramblings on Starstruck into an actual post for the three people who might be interested in a little bit more of Yoojae's characterization in the source material. Yoojae reacted poorly to Hanjoon's confession, to say the least, but the novel gives much more insight into why Yoojae reacted the way that he did.
Now the show didn't really explain how Yoojae found out where Hanjoon lived, but in the novel, Yoojae goes to see Hanjoon at his old home the day before the college entrance exam to give him something, only to be told by the landlord that Hanjoon and his mom moved out ages ago. The next day, after the college entrance exam, Yoojae goes to see the owner of the boxing club, who has been feeding Hanjoon meals because he doesn't have enough money for his meals. It is the boxing club owner who fills Yoojae in about Hanjoon's current predicament.
After Yoojae says, "Don't try to preserve your dignity in front of me," to Hanjoon, he also says the following:
Throughout high school, I often went to school hungry, so you invited me to your home to eat. This happened countless times. Why did you do so? Wasn't it because we're friends? So why can't I do the same for you? Why is it that I am allowed to rely on you, but you can't rely on me? If things are difficult, just say so. What's so difficult about that?
Both of them grew up in poverty in the same neighborhood so neither are strangers to not having enough money to buy food. However, while Yoojae's family has made a small fortune and moved into an apartment in a fancier neighborhood, Hanjoon and his mom have been kicked out of their home. Nevertheless, having been through similar situations himself, Yoojae is painfully aware of what it's like to be so poor as to go without meals, as well as not wanting to be seen as a charity case and pitied by others. Thus, after Yoojae's family escapes poverty, Yoojae treats Hanjoon the same as he always has, save for small things like occasionally buying a few snacks and offering to pay for Hanjoon at the comic cafe. Yoojae did not want to tell Hanjoon about his family's newfound wealth on account of Hanjoon's family's finances. Especially after witnessing his parents show off to everyone, Yoojae had no desire at all to show off or even tell others about his family's wealth. As for Hanjoon, he did not want to be a downer about his own situation in the face of Yoojae's "good fortune."
Both of them do what they think is in the other's best interests, but they still struggle to understand where the other is coming from. Moreover, a lot of Yoojae's thoughts and experiences on love and relationships seem to reflect what he has witnessed from his parents, who constantly fight and blame one another. At times, they also force him to take sides. Therefore, it's no wonder that he has such a warped view of love and relationship. And this isn't even taking into account the internalized homophobia that others have mentioned as well.
Hanjoon loves Yoojae so much, and has loved him for so long, that he takes the opportunity to express his love to Yoojae through an expensive heart-shaped box of chocolates, under the pretense of wishing Yoojae good luck on the college entrance exam. We see how happy Hanjoon is to buy the box of chocolates and give them to Yoojae, and then how crushed he is when Yoojae throws it on the floor. But all Yoojae sees is that Hanjoon spent money he doesn't have on the fancy chocolates.
Yoojae reacted poorly, there's no question about that. However, I do think that the rest of the dialogue, which was cut from the show episode 4, gives more insight into what was going on in Yoojae’s mind at the time. [edit: portions of this dialogue were in episode 5]
Are you threatening me?
Are you saying that if I don’t go out with you, I won’t be able to see you ever again? How could you say something like that to me?
You must have known that there was no way that I would ever agree to something as ridiculous as that. So why did you say it to me? Are you really going to never see me again? Are you really going to give me up just for that sort of reason?
Contact me once you’ve sorted out your feelings.
My interpretation is that Yoojae viewed Hanjoon's confession as emotional blackmail of some kind, which coupled with his own confusion regarding his feelings toward Hanjoon, led him to react even more strongly. All this is to say that yes, Yoojae was behaving like an immature teenager, but his life experiences shaped him to be that imperfect person, and he wasn't simply being a jerk just for the hell of it.
That's all I have to say about Starstruck for now and if you're still reading this, thank you for reading my word vomit💕
#starstruck#star struck#스타스트럭#korean bl#this is my very first analysis-type post on this site and it shows#i'm not able to provide deep and meaningful analysis into shows#like many of the wonderful people on this site#but i hope this post helped shed some light on Yoojae's character and thought process#for those who may be curious about what happens in the novel#and i translated the excerpts from the novel myself#so they might be kinda wonky
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*Please* tell me what don't starve is about I wasn't even aware it had characters
OH GOOD I GET TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. YOU WILL REGRET THIS
let me be clear upfront: i don't know everything. i'm just neurodivergent as fuck please correct me on any misinformation. And any DST fans in the tag right now, hi prepare to see me infodump about Don't Starve lore and I am so sorry this is so long
So lemme start at the very beginning. The year? 1901. The man? William Carter. Moving from Liverpool (becuase of course there's a british man named william in an indie game who does crimes against nature) to New York City. He's doing magician shows and he just he sucks so bad at it. No one visits his magic shows. He's in literal debt. He gets no wins. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone etc etc
Anyway in 1904 Willy Boy tries to go to Cali gets in a train accident and dies. WHOOPS the end
Okay that's a lie. He did not in fact die unfortunately (/j). However, he did get in a train crash and was pinned under a train car, but was saved in part by a strongman named Wolfgang, who really desperately wants to be the strongest he can be (he'd recently had an embarrassing failure at the circus).
But, well... I say "in part." For there's more to how Wolfgang saved him.
See, somewhere around this time, William had found a book. The Codex Umbra. This book was filled with secrets about a land known as The Constant. And more than that, it allowed William to use magic. Not the cheap magic tricks he'd been doing up to this point, the ones that'd given him nothing. Real, actual, tangible magic. Summoning shadows creatures from this mystical realm, ones that would linger for a moment before vanishing.
This was power. True, actual power. And to a man as rejected as William had been by the world, a man as desperate for fame, attention, power... well, who wouldn't be bitter? Spiteful? Who wouldn't be tempted by the allure of unfathomable knowledge?
Of unknowable, uncontrollable power?
What'd happened during the train accident was William had briefly imbued Wolfgang with strength from dark magic, allowing him to throw the train car off of him. William had fled with the Codex Umbra shortly afterwards, and was presumed dead. However, he wrote a letter to his brother, Jack Carter, basically saying "Hey, I'm alive, I found this weird book, I'll cya soon."
(Side note, Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail Carter. We'll revisit them soon.)
William continued deciphering the Codex Umbra, learning more shadow magic. And in San Francisco, he reentered showbiz, reinventing himself into someone new. A new act, and a new name. The Amazing Maxwell.
This time, his shows were appreciated. Adored. His magic acts were magnetic, and horrifying, and beautiful. After all that failure, he had finally managed to get something for himself.
(additional note: maxwell really likes referring to people as "pal." this will be important remember this)
Around this time, he put out an ad to hire a lady assistant for his magician shows, wanting someone with "a curious demeanor and a keen interest in the mysteries of the universe."
And he got her.
Let us snap our attention now to two sisters in the dreadful state of Ohio- Winona and Charlie. Winona was, to at least my knowledge, a fairly tough little girl who was always a bit boyish (take with a grain of salt i'm a bit silly). She loved tinkering from a young age, and she loved her little sister intensely- maybe too intensely.
There's a thing in the game I'll go into more later that shows Charlie's perspective on everything, and from it we can glean that Charlie felt like Winona was, to use a metaphor Charlie uses herself, putting Charlie into an unbreakable suit of armor so heavy she was unable to move. Overprotective to a suffocating degree.
We're not completely certain on that, but it's quite likely and incredibly interesting.
And Charlie... we know painfully little about her. Most likely she fit the description Maxwell wanted. She'd go camping with her sister. She may have been annoying, as a lotta little siblings are. She had a flair for the dramatic. There's a line implying she used to playfight with Winona. And Charlie loved roses.
Charlie was scared of the dark.
So Charlie became Maxwell's assistant. And they were more than coworkers, they were also good friends. They'd hang out and laugh together. Charlie at least may have had a crush on Maxwell, as in her letter to him she writes a heart after her name, and she always calls him "Maxy." Maxwell cared a lot about Charlie- I don't personally see it as romantic on his end, due to my epic aroace swag and belief in the importance of deep platonic bonds, but he did care for her, deeply. They had a sweet friendship, both caring about each other intensely.
But of course, it couldn't last. It never could.
It's 1906 and Maxwell's doing fantastic mentally. Just kidding he's losing his fucking mind
Maxwell was losing control. The Codex Umbra was driving him insane, little by little. He was losing control over the book, over the powers of the Constant. It was growing too powerful, too angry. He was taking too much from it, and it wanted something back. He started pulling away from Charlie, growing snippier with her. And fucking understandably, she was concerned.
One night, after she hadn't seen him in days, she visited his apartment to get his costume for their last performance. He wasn't there at the time. So she investigated, desperate for an answer as to why her friend was drawing away from her.
She discovered a secret room in Maxwell's apartment- the room in the image above. With all those scrawls. And... we think she discovered something else.
I personally think she discovered Them.
I'll explain Them later.
She was terrified, and fled the apartment. Maxwell later discovered she'd been there, and was clearly fucked up over it. Evidently, he didn't want Charlie to discover all this.
She left him a letter, basically begging him to communicate with her. Saying they could take a break after their final show, her older sister had a cabin they could go to if they wanted to get away. Charlie wanted answers, and she wanted them to take a break.
They never got that, though.
April 17th. 1906. The Amazing Maxwell had his final show.
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Maxwell's final act was meant to be pulling shadows out of the Codex Umbra. It was meant to be simple. A last trick before they take a break. Neither of them expected it to go this horribly wrong. I don't see how either of them could have. Especially not her.
Maxwell reached into the book. Something reached back. They reached back.
They tried to grab him, tried to drag him into the Codex Umbra. He fought back though, for a moment, clearly weakened by it. Charlie tried to help him, to ask if he was okay, not understanding what was going on, desperate to help, to know how she could help.
She couldn't.
Shadowy hands erupted from the book, grabbing them, pulling them in, and Charlie and Maxwell were gone.
Let's snap our focus away for a while. We're remaining in the real world for now. Don't worry, we'll come back to them.
In due time.
Let me introduce to you a hugely important player to the plot, Robert Wagstaff. Now he's frustrating, because we (or at least I) know very little about Robert Wagstaff. He was studying the Constant, he founded Voxola and created these radios that Maxwell later communicates through (i'll explain later), he bears a suspicious resemblance to Wilson, he may have met Maxwell at some point, and he may have intentionally sent himself to the Constant to investigate it. He's currently a hologram and may be SOMEWHERE. God knows where.
Anyway forget about him because it's time for MY FAVORITE NONBINARY ROBOT WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA AND EVIL PLANS
Meet WX-78, an automaton with a fairly vague backstory who I love so so dearly. They're evil. They're canonically nonbinary (Maxwell even refers to them as "Mx" which makes me very joyful). They lack empathy. They love bees. They love the moon. And somewhere in like the very early 20th century they became a robot and chose NONBINARY VIOLENCE
What exactly happened to WX is left vague, but here's what I believe happened. WX and Wagstaff were working on a consciousness transference experiment, which turned out to be successful. WX transferred their consciousness into a robotic body. Yaaaaaaay :D
Well hold your horses there, not "yay" yet. Because it turns out transferring your whole mind into a robotic body has negative side effects. Namely, the way WX sees themself has become... fractured. Sometimes they see themself as who they were before, their human self, but sometimes they see themself as what they are now, their robotic form. A comment under the short described it as their entire body being basically a phantom limb.
WX started wanting to create more automatons, possibly roboticize humanity, but without the heart (it's called an empathy module in canon but i'm calling it a heart because it's designed with a heart on it, and it hits harder if i call it that). The heart, where WX's memories as a human reside, where hypothetically their emotions are. Take that out, there's no pain related to once being one, right?
Wagstaff was completely against this. Consciousness transference for a single scientist is one thing, but this? To roboticize everyone in the world and take out their heart, their memories, their humanity? Absolutely not. It'd be too dangerous. Leaving humanity as cold intellectual machines would destroy everything, removing a beautiful piece of humankind. He and WX had a fight over this, and Wagstaff ended up burning all of WX's research and sending them into the Constant.
Somehow after that, WX's heart module was disconnected, and the memories were gone. They became a spectacular evil little gremlin of a thing and I love them so much
This whole explanation comes from this excellent comment under the short:
I usually resent these sorts of "explanation comments," since they try to intellectualize horror, but this one doesn't it centers it all on the EMOTIONS and also is correct
And by the way, the short where this is revealed is SO UNBELIEVABLY DISTRESSING TO WATCH (POSITIVE). See, Winona repairs the wiring to WX's heart module, causing WX to suddenly remember everything, having flashbacks to what all happened, and it's horrifying. WX flashing between who they were as a human and who they are now, the snippets of whatever happened, the vagueness, the BANGER MUSIC, it's all so hard to watch, and yet so hard to look away.
And at the end of it, after remembering Wagstaff sending them into the Constant, WX lets out this agonized wail and RIPS OUT THEIR FUCKING HEART, before they just SHATTER IT IN THEIR HANDS. They fucking HATED remembering what happened, hated it so much that they RIPPED THEIR HEART OUT AND BROKE IT so they could STOP FEELING. Whatever exactly happened HURT and they didn't want to FEEL.
And evidently, IT DIDN'T WORK. Wagstaff appears as an NPC later in Don't Starve Together, and every single quote WX has related to him is full of this raw, painful, intense rage. It's genuinely heartbreaking.
WX fucking DESPISES Wagstaff for what he did to them. For sending them to the Constant. And like- they say a LOT they have no emotions. But very clearly, THAT IS A LIE. IT'S FUCKED UP. IT'S HORRIFYING.
It's the opposite of so many robot emotion narratives- a robot who wants to feel real emotions, who wants to be human. But with WX, that is the last thing they want. They're illustrated to have at least had distaste for organic life before their roboticization, they don't want to be human. And very obviously, they don't want to feel real emotions. They don't want emotions.
They hate being human so much, they hate the connection to human pain so much, they hate their memories of being human so fucking much, that they rip out their FUCKING HEART and SHATTER IT just so they can shut off the painful emotions of their repressed memories. They don't want to be human, they want to be a cold unfeeling machine, but they clearly can't be that even though they're trying because despite everything there's a part of them that's clearly human and just- JUST WATCH THIS SHORT IT'S SO HORRIFIC
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GOD I LOVE EVIL NONBINARY AUTISTIC ROBOTS WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA
Aside from that horrorshow of a backstory WX is very silly. They love bees and the moon. They hate humanity and all organic life. They say shit like "NOW THE OUTSIDE MATCHES THE INSIDE. EVIL" and "[name] IS CAUSING NEEDLESS DESTRUCTION. GOOD." I love them so much I can't believe I just slept on how funny they are when I was a young lad hyperfixated on DST
Okay let's go down the list of characters. Remember I mentioned Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail? Let's focus on them.
Wendy was more cautious than Abby was, preferring to live in the world of books and fantasies. Meanwhile Abigail was an adventurer, loving to spend her days climbing rocks and jumping around. Despite their differences, the twins were inseparable. The best of friends, with a love so strong it could transcend death.
And it did.
We're not quite sure how it happened. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that somehow, one day, Abigail died. And this death absolutely shattered Wendy. She became morbidly depressed, obsessed with death and tragedy. She refused to move on from her sister, believing if she did, her memory would fade. (There's specifically a few lines that really fuck me up /pos but it may be triggering so i won't bring em up.)
Wendy turned to the occult to try and get Abigail back. To try and at least talk to her. She tried everything to communicate with her again, and nothing was working. And she was just about to throw in the towel, to give up, to accept that maybe she would never see her beloved sister again, to fall into complete, total despair, when...
A ragtime tune started playing, and a voice on the radio began to talk to her.
Meanwhile let's snap our attention to WILLOWWWWW WILLOWWWWWWWW MY GIRL MY BELOVED I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE"S INSANE AND I LOVE HER
Willow had a rather difficult life. Her parents either died or left when she was incredibly young, and she was left in a cruel orphanage with caregivers who hated and mistreated her. And understandably, this took a toll on her mental state, and this attracted shadow creatures.
What exactly shadow creatures are is unknown- they're what Maxwell was pulling out of the book and using for his magic tricks, and they appear in game when your sanity is low, so my personal hypothesis is that shadow creatures are drawn to misery, insanity, or in Wanda's case, Women's Wrongs. also misuse of magic
Anyway, when Willow was a little girl, shadow creatures fucking wanted to kill her, drawn to her declining mental state. Willow took comfort in her teddy bear Bernie, the only thing that seemed to drive the shadows away. But one night, after being nearly killed by one of those things, her caregivers, upset at her being awake in the middle of the night, confiscated Bernie and locked Willow in a closet.
And while she was trapped in there, shadow creatures approached again, with the intent to kill her. Willow was backed into a corner, about to die, with no defenses...
Except for a lighter.
That night, Willow burnt down the entire orphanage, managing to save herself, and left with just her lighter and her Bernie.
This moment defined every fibre of her being. From that day on, Willow became completely obsessed with fire. Flames became calming for her, letting her breathe and relax. She's burnt her life down to begin again more than once, like a phoenix with more collateral damage. Fire protects her from the monsters in the dark, lets her stay sane. And- there's this one line from her that implies she's embraced a type of nihilism.
"Why worry about the past or future? It'll all go up in flames eventually."
That quote's actually really interesting to me you could use this for a character arc about her learning to embrace one place/one group as home and her accepting that unfortunately the survivors are her found family and she loves them and- GOD I love her so much she's a menace
Alright, who's next? Ah yes, Wigfrid. This one's really tragic.
Wigfrid was an actress whose debut role was as a noble badass Valkyrie warrior, slaying monstrous beings, being a true hero. And she embodied the role, capturing the public, being launched to stardom with just that.
But after that? Nothing she did seemed to capture anyone like the Valkyrie had. Every performance she had after that fell flat. She was completely rejected by the public.
(this could be a maxwell parallel oh my god)
And so, she retreated into that role- the role of the Valkyrie. She fled into fantasies of being her, taking comfort in them. It consumed her life, her very being. Whoever she was before was destroyed, completely lost. She would give anything to be the Valkyrie Wigfrid again.
And one night, a shadowy figure told her she could get to be that role. Forever. Her name in the newspapers again. Everything she'd ever wanted.
"What do you say, pal?"
...A few weeks later, she was in the newspapers as the latest in a string of disappearances.
Who next? Ah yes- Webber. THIS ONE FUCKS ME UP.
So when Webber was a little lad, his father, a scientist, received a gift from Wagstaff, something for his experiments. And whatever it was, Webber's dad was incredibly fascinated with experimenting on it.
But as a result, he sorta started... neglecting Webber. Webber wanted his dad's attention, wanted his dad to spend time with him and play with him, but his dad just... wouldn't. He was completely absorbed in his work.
Over time, Webber became furious that his dad was ignoring him. He started acting out, trying to get his father's attention in any way he could.
And one night, Webber broke into his dad's workshop, again trying to act out for his dad's attention. And when there, he tipped over the glass case holding whatever his father was experimenting on, shattering it on the ground.
But as it turned out, this thing was a spider- a massive one too, one from the Constant. And it was radiating with dark energy from its experiments, and it lunged at Webber to eat him.
But he survived.
Instead of being devoured by the spider, Webber was fused to it. Its consciousness may be in there somewhere (#system), but Webber's definitely is. But he's been turned into a humanoid spider thing.
This is the most fucked part to me. When his dad saw him, he didn't recognize him as his son. Why would he? As far as he knew, the spider had mutated. So his dad fucking chased his own son out into the night, under the assumption that he was a monster.
In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, Webber (who btw is like ten) broke down sobbing, promised he'd be a good kid, and desperately wanted something to fix it, no matter the price.
That was when the shadowy figure started talking to him.
ANYWAY TIME FOR WOMEN'S WRONGS WITH WANDA
Wanda is an INCREDIBLY interesting character to me. Her whole conflict is basically- do you ever think about the fact that everyone is going to die one day? That no matter what we do, the passage of time will storm on, and eventually everyone you know and everyone you love will just die? That even if you don't get killed in an accident or by medical problems or through society's neglect, your body will eventually fail and crumble away? That time will eventually claim you, as it claims everyone, and you can do nothing to prevent it? That everyone and everything is already running out of time?
Sorry for giving you that existential crisis! Because Wanda's CONSTANTLY going through that. She's been running from her future for god knows how long, creating timepieces to make herself younger and prevent herself from dying of old age, and doing. Legitimate time travel!! Good for her!!
However, this doesn't come without a price. See, we've learned from Maxwell that toying with dark magic will get the Shadow Creatures hunting your gay ass down. And with how much Wanda fucks with time, she is CONSTANTLY being hunted by shadow creatures that want to kill her and take her away, to the point that her death animation has her body be pulled into the ground by shadow hands.
And one day, she was cornered. One of her timepieces was broken, the others recharging, she couldn't get away. And so she made a split second decision, trying to on the fly repair it, and what did this result in?
SHE BROKE THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM AND WAS SUCKED IN TO THE CONSTANT
(and the music in her short at that moment gives me chills don't starve together's music is so banging)
Wanda is a rare case of someone being sucked into the Constant not through someone/something tricking her or dragging her in, but through her own actions. From what we know, only one other person has done that. And he did it intentionally. But Wanda did it by complete mistake.
And her mistake resulted in her past starting to "catch up to her." Thanks to her time fuckery, she now ages twelve years every single day, and has to constantly fuck with time and deage herself in order to stay alive. She's spent years most likely terrified of the idea of aging and dying, and now she's been cursed with aging at a horrifically fast rate. It's incredibly interesting. God I love her so much she can do anything she could commit war crimes and I'd support her. Wanda Did Nothing Wrong
WANDA ALSO HAPPENS TO BE REALLY REALLY HOT LIKE UNBELIEVABLY GORGEOUS
HNHGNHBHGHBGHHHH PLEASE GOD JUST GIVE ME ONE CHANCE I WOULD TREAT HER RIGHT
Anyway who's next to talk about? Ah yes IT'S WORTOX TIME
Note, I'm gonna kinda start going through these faster because I'm close to the image limit and wanna tell you everything
Wortox is actually FROM the Constant. He's basically a little imp man who was best friends with. uhm. Krampus. And they'd go around playing silly pranks together! However eventually, Wortox started to realize that. Hm. Krampus's pranks are actually kinda mean. Like genuinely malicious at times. And Wortox really didn't wanna be mean, didn't wanna hurt anyone. He just wants to be silly and goofy. The prank's no fun if it actually hurts someone. So he tried to put his foot down and stop Krampus, but ended up whoopsiedaisy taking his soul and fully becoming an imp. And now he eats souls and is still silly but has just. Guilt. So much guilt.
Next up: WURT! Wurt, too, is from the Constant, and SHE'S JUST A LITTLE BABYYYYYY. SHE'S ADORABLE. I LOVE HER. She's a little Merm (fishy creature from the constant) and is pretty small and scrappy, and she hates pigs, and is vegetarian, and loves the swamp, and loves candy, and loves fairy tales, and wants to be a Merm princess. I love her she's adorable my beloved little guye
And now, WORMWOOD! Wormwood is basically a piece of rock fell down from the moon and gave a bundle of plants and vines life and he's the cutest little plant ever. He's ADORABLE. I LOVE him.
That's everyone FROM the Constant. Now let's speedrun through those who aren't from the Constant!
WICKERBOTTOM: To be completely honest she doesn't interest me that much lol. She's basically a librarian with a lotta knowledge, including knowledge of the CONSTANT, which she REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE. Anyway Willow burned down her library at the request of the Nightmare King and Wickerbottom got pulled into the Constant. By the Nightmare King
WOLFGANG: Brought him up earlier- we're not sure how exactly he got into the Constant, but he's just. He is a himbo. The quintessential himbo. He's a silly man. He loves his friends so much. He has the brawn, but no brains. No thoughts. Head empty. Pure of heart, dumb of ass. I love him.
WARLY: ohhh boy more tragedy. Cw for this point: dementia. yeah. Warly's mom had dementia, and she didn't recognize him most days. So he'd play her favorite music and cook her favorite foods in hopes that she'd recognize him. And she did, occasionally. But only occasionally. And he was so desperate for her to just know him, to remember him, to get that spark of recognition in her eyes... And around that time, he started to hear the voice on the radio.
WALTER: BABYYYY HE'S JUST A BABY HE'S JUST A LITTLE GUY AND HE HAS A DOGGY AND A SLINGSHOT AND IS ALLERGIC TO BEES AND DOESN'T CARE ABOUT FASHION AND I LOVE HIM SO SO MUCH
WOODIE: Woodie is an enigma. He's Canadian. He has a curse. He turns into a goose sometimes. He was forced to eat logs when he was 32. His beard might not be hair. He's canon objectum and is in a loving and healthy relationship with his axe Lucy. I love him.
here is him and lucy he goes with stanley and the bucket for number one objectum couples
If you're noticing a theme with the names: Congratulations! We've noticed it too. We have no fucking idea what it means either. Charlie's last name might start with W. Maxwell's name starts with M (upside down W) and his previous name was William. If you have a name that starts with W in the DST world you're completely fucked lmao
Anyway thatsss everyone! So I think we can move on and cover the plot! I mean, surely there's not someone I'm leaving out. Surely I have covered everyone. Surely I've talked about everyone. Surely we can move on and have full context. Surely this is not an overly long gag in order to make the inevitable person I'm leaving out's reveal hit harder.
Yyyyeah let's talk about Winona.
On April 17th, 1906, Winona's little sister Charlie vanished off the face of the planet, along with the man she was working with, the mysterious Maxwell. And Winona is three things: stubborn, determined, and willing to do anything for her family.
And so she searched for her. She refused to let Charlie's mysterious disappearance fade into obscurity, to let Charlie just vanish without a trace. She searched everywhere for her. She pulled on every thread. Tracked down every tiny clue. Questioned anyone who may have the smallest connection to the case.
For over ten years.
Finally, it started coming together. Everything was pointing to Voxola and its secretive, genius founder, Robert Wagstaff. If anyone would know anything about whatever had happened to her sister, it'd be him. So she started working there.
But not for long. Fairly soon after she did, an accident happened at the factory- a fire breaking out, and a malfunctioning portal. Wagstaff vanished that day, vanished into the Constant.
Winona refused to let him. She had searched for over a fuckin' decade for someone who could have a connection to Charlie's disappearance, and her biggest lead was right there, and she was not gonna let him just vanish like that. So armed with duct tape and her knowledge of engineering, she singlehandedly managed to repair the portal, turning it on, and-
...Whose face would appear but her beloved sister's?
Barely aged a day. Drenched in shadows. A rose in her curls.
She was disappearing into the portal, but Winona grabbed her hand, started trying to pull her back, trying to save her. She had been searching for over ten fucking years for her baby sister, and she wouldn't let her go now, refused to let her go.
But... Charlie was different. Horrifically different. And something took over her. Something with ink-black eyes and hair that moved like a shadowy flame. The monster of the night.
She pulled Winona into the Constant. The portal fell apart. Winona was presumed dead.
...
And now. I will answer a question you must've had for a while.
What the hell happened to Charlie and Maxwell?
In 1906, they were pulled into the Constant by the Codex Umbra. And Maxwell was placed on The Nightmare Throne, and given full power over the Constant. He became the Nightmare King, all-powerful ruler, chess master of the world.
Whether he wanted it or not.
Once he was sat on the Nightmare Throne, he was trapped. He couldn't get up, couldn't move from the throne, couldn't move to turn off the gramophone sitting so close to him.
He was simply sitting on the throne. Unable to be free. For eternity.
In his final speech in Adventure Mode, Maxwell says there was barely anything there when he arrived. "Just dust. And the void. And Them."
What exactly "Them" is is unknown. My personal theory, given a play telling the story from Charlie's perspective, is that "Them" is the power of the Constant. And Maxwell constantly using that power for himself angered Them. So They pulled him in, and imprisoned him on the throne. He took from Them. And in return, They now trap him.
From there, the throne- or maybe Them, or maybe the Constant itself- compelled Maxwell to pull more people into the Constant. Trap them, use them as playthings, force them to go through the wringer of everything the Constant had to offer, and eventually watch them break under its barrage of dangers and finally die.
That's what happened to everyone. How they got into the Constant. Maxwell's strategy was to communicate with someone in the real world, usually through a Voxola radio, and make a deal with them so they are dragged in. Usually they're at a low point in their life and desperate for a solution to their issues, and he gives them that.
(Interestingly, he does follow through with his promises. Just neglects to mention the whole getting-dragged-into-Constant part.)
And everyone he drags in serves their purpose, they all serve as fun playthings for a while, providing him some level of entertainment.
But he's not happy. How can he be? He's trapped in an eternal game that he cannot end. Bound by its rules that he can't bend or break. He's tried everything. Nothing has ever worked. He's trapped, for eternity. In his own words, "Even a King is bound to the board."
The Constant demands a ruler.
And he serves that role. He must drag more people into this world's trap, let it spiral in on itself forever and ever. He can't put the game to an end. He can't get off the Nightmare Throne. He can't even turn off the gramophone right next to him.
All Maxwell can do is sit on his throne, and observe whatever survivors remain, and listen to that little ragtime ditty. Forever, and ever, and ever.
And Charlie...
God. Charlie.
One heartbreaking thing about what happened to Charlie is that we still don't know exactly how it happened. With Maxwell, we can make a very strong guess- he was stuck on the Nightmare Throne, and became king of the Constant, and dragged people down with him from the real world.
But with Charlie... we know how her fate ended up. We know what she became after that. But we don't know how she went from the sweet young woman she was to... to that.
From how she tells it (in her biased view, but it's all we've got), after being dragged into the Constant, she was either grievously injured or straight-up died. But she was brought back by Them. Back to life, but not as herself.
There was something new inside her.
Now, the way canon has it, it's a split personality pop-culture-Jekyll-And-Hyde thing. However, that's fucking dumb and pretty ableist. So here, my explanation diverges from canon, because I feel it's better, and stronger writing-wise, and I am better than Klei. Here's how I personally see what happened to Charlie.
It was like a garden being taken over and destroyed by an invasive species. Like black ink seeping into a bright and colorful shirt, spreading outwards, hiding- no, destroying the colors underneath.
They gave Charlie immense power, but at a great cost. Something dark grew inside of Charlie, transforming her from the sweet young woman she'd been, into something... monstrous.
The way I see it, it wasn't a split personality thing. It was more like a virus, infecting every cell of the body and multiplying into infinity until there's nothing left. Slowly erasing who she was before, destroying her humanity and turning her into something else.
Something more.
More powerful than Charlie had ever been, than she could've ever dreamed.
In every dark shadow, Charlie is there. In every pitch-black cave, she watches you. When dusk falls, she begins to awaken. And when the moon has risen, when the stars are out, when you can barely see your own hands in the dark, she is there. Everpresent. Watching. Waiting for you to walk into her arms.
There are shadow monsters all around the Constant. But most of them can only hurt you when you've lost your mind. Charlie, though, Charlie is different. No matter how much of a grasp on yourself you have, no matter how much sanity you've held onto, she will still be able to kill you, if you're outside at night with no way to see her.
Charlie is the most powerful shadow monster of all. She is everywhere. She has been everywhere. She can be anywhere. After all, there is nowhere the dark will not eventually be. And where the dark is, she is.
Charlie is the night.
Charlie is the darkness.
Able to kill a human with a few swift blows. Unfathomably strong, unfathomably dangerous, unfathomably powerful. It's hard to believe her humanity has held on this long, considering her omnipresence. It's incredible that her mind hasn't collapsed yet.
Because her humanity has held on. The virus in her mind has consumed so much of her, yes. But she's held on. Her humanity is surviving.
However long that lasts.
You wanted to know what happened to Maxwell and Charlie.
This. This is what happened.
Maxwell was imprisoned on the Nightmare Throne. Charlie was turned into the Night Monster. Both gained unfathomable power.
And both are trapped by it.
AND NOW. AFTER ALL OF THAT. WE FINALLY GET TO THE ACTUAL PLOT OF THE FUCKING GAME.
The year? Somewhere in the 1920s. The man? Wilson Percival Higgsbury. Lover of puns. Hater of spiders. Has a skeleton under his floorboards for some reason (skeleton might be wx-78's old body). Guy with the weirdest hair ever. Wannabe scientist who's terrible at science. The very first shot we see him in he blows himself up
He's a complete dumbass and he has stupid hair and he makes dumb puns and he's pathetic and he's in his thirties and he knows how to do amputations (according to him). What more could one want in a man. He's insanely confident in himself and has this attitude where he can do anything, when really he's kinda in over his head. He's a bit of a fool and he's got a good heart and a cheerful spirit. Not to mention he's wearing a vest, which in the rule of fiction means he's trans according to me and me alone.
So he's sad about his experiments always going wrong and he also sits down on a chair that looks like a throne hope that's not foreshadowing anything. Anyway Wilson's just like "Oh Voxola radio I'm just feeling real low" and his Voxola radio is like "SAY PAL I CAN GIVE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE" and Wilson's like "Oh shit for real???" This is exactly what happened don't fact check this
So Maxwell hijacks his Voxola radio to be like "Hey hey hey you wanna do science shit right. Well guess what I can give you knowledge if you think you're ready." Wilson, of course, jumps at the chance, and Maxwell instructs him to create a machine of sorts. And Wilson works tirelessly away at it for some time, including SLICING HIS WHOLE HAND OPEN TO GET ONE DROP OF BLOOD, BECAUSE HE'S SO UNBELIEVABLY DRAMATIC I LOVE HIM
Anyway, Wilson throws the switch, thunder crashes, Maxwell laughs evilly, and
OH NOW YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF ANIMATORS
(seriously the don't starve animation and artstyle is so charming i love it. i think the framerate of the characters' animation should be lower again and the sketchiness should be more visible tho it was so much more charming than ultra smooth in my opinion)
Anyways, Wilson gets dragged into the Constant and cements himself as the greatest isekai protagonist of them all. Somehow he keeps his fairly cheerful attitude even when going through The Horrors, which is so very silly of him. He makes dumbass puns. He calls evergreen trees "piney." He hates spiders. His one perk is growing a magnificent beard. I love him. So much. He's not the deepest character, but god DAMN if he isn't endearing and lovable and so very silly.
So that- ALL OF THAT- is the setup to Don't Starve. From there on out, the plot goeth thusly:
CHAPTER ZERO, SANDBOX MODE. Maxwell greets Wilson like "Say, pal, you don't look so good," and proceeds to fuck off to watch Wilson go through it. Wilson however is a stubborn bastard who refuses to die and will literally make meat effigies of himself to not do so.
...actually that's really interesting. Hey wait that's really interesting. HEY DST FANFIC WRITERS ARE YOU UTILIZING WILSON'S STUBBORNNESS TO NOT GET KILLED TO THE POINT WHERE HE BUILDS EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF TO REVIVE HIMSELF IN YOUR FANFICTIONS BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY INTERESTING. "BUT IT REFUSED" LOOKIN ASS
UHHHH ANYWAY. THAT'S A PRETTY INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO WILSON I JUST FIGURED OUT. GO USE IT WRITERS.
So eventually, Wilson finds the scattered pieces of a portal Maxwell has, and activates it, getting dragged into Adventure Mode. LET'S GOOOOO
CHAPTER ONE, A COLD RECEPTION. And I should note here- the chapters are not in order, the order can get shuffled around. I'm gonna present them all though because it's funny.
So Maxwell is like "Wow :/ you're a dumbass :/ you REALLY think you woulda learned your lesson about activating mysterious portals :/ Anyway the seasons will be changing very fast now good luck" which is prrobably a nightmare for the ecosystem but what ever Anyway Wilson's stubborn ass doesn't die.
CHAPTER TWO, KING OF WINTER. Maxwell sends Wilson into eternal winter because he's being annoying. However, Wilson's stubborn ass STILL REFUSES TO DIE. And thus he continues.
CHAPTER THREE, THE GAME IS AFOOT! Maxwell is like "Uhm. Pal. Buddy. Why are you still alive. Please stop going onwards" and tries to feed Wilson to hounds. Wilson's silly ass is not fed to the hounds though because he is too silly.
Now. In Chapter Three, there's a chance you may find a strange setpiece, where there are these clockwork statues, trapping a strange mime. Creatures and gentlemen, allow me introduce you to the FUNNIEST FUCKING CHARACTER in Don't Starve. Wes.
Now, where do we begin with Wes? Well, let us begin with his backstory. His whole life has been plagued by a hilarious string of bad luck. He's French. He has the worst luck. He would get pied in the face. When he bites into a crepe all the filling falls out. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone. He is a silly and sad clown mime man. And yet, he simply dedicates himself to making everyone happy.
Now, how would a silly little failure such as Wes get into the Constant? Hilariously, of course. You see, he was buying a crepe one day and gave half of it to a silly monkey guye when he saw a little girl drop her doll from a window and tried to return it to her with a balloon but the wind blew the balloon away and he chased it all throughout the town and saw it'd gotten stuck on a clothesline and managed to balance on the clothesline to get it but unfortunately the clothesline snapped and Wes fell down though he managed to grab the balloon and save a falling nest of eggs and was chased by crows while trying to get the girl's doll to her and he ran into an alleyway where he accidentally knocked someone else out of the way of getting dragged into the Constant and Maxwell accidentally getting Wes pissed him off SO MUCH that he put him in a special prison just for him and Waxwell's quote upon seeing the imprisoned Wes is "He displeased me."
I mean it when I say that Wes is one of the funniest characters in the entire game. In fact, you go through all the trouble of saving him from the prison, and when you do, he immediately DIES, and you unlock him as a character, and he has the WORST STATS IN THE GAME. His hunger drains hilariously fast. His attacks are laughably weak. His only special power is balloons that do nothing but cost him sanity. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone
okay anyway you free wes and go onwards
CHAPTER FOUR, ARCHIPELAGO. Maxwell is like "UM. BITCH. PAL. TURN BACK. OR I MAY HAVE TO MURDER YOU TO DEATH EVEN MORE." However Maxwell has clearly not realized that Wilson is so stubborn that he will BUILD MEAT EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF SO THAT HE'LL JUST REVIVE FROM THE DEAD. GOD THAT'S SUCH A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO HIS CHARACTER MAN JUST REFUSES TO DIE
Anyway Wilson goes onwards. CHATER FIVE, TWO WORLDS. Maxwell's actually nice to Wilson for a sec like "Heyyy :) Say pal :) Friend :) My best friend Wilson Percival Higgsbury :) Let's make a deal :) Here :) I made you a lovely little island :) Special for you :) It's got food :) And pigs :) And gold :) And whatever you need :) You can settle down here :) Have a life :) Just PLEASE :)) you ANNOYING BITCH :)) can you GIMME A TRUCE :)) and PLEASE :))) STOP :))) GOING :))) ONWARDS :))) I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD :))) :)))"
Wilson does not stop going onwards
CHAPTER SIX. DARKNESS. Maxwell is PIIIIIIISSED, like "BITCH. YOU BITCH. YOU TINY PITIFUL INSIGNIFICANT BITCH. I AM GOD. PLEASE DIE." And so he sends Wilson into a world he will surely not survive- a world of eternal night. Surely, with Charlie all around, with Charlie being the literal night monster who I feel an immense sense of grief over, surely Wilson will not survive this. Surely Wilson will die of darkness. Surely.
But as I have been stressing, Wilson is stubborn. He refused to give up on his dream of doing science even when it was clear he was bad at it. He refused to sit back and let Maxwell win by staying in the world Max made for him. He is so stubborn he refuses to die, making effigies of himself so he can resurrect from death. Wilson is the most stubborn bastard you've ever fucking met.
If Wilson decides that he will make it through something, then by god, he will make it through.
And he does.
Epilogue: Checkmate.
After all his struggle, Wilson finally, finally gets to Maxwell, to the man who's tormented him this whole time.
Only to discover him. Trapped on the throne. The all-powerful king, and he is weak. Pitiful. Listening to a hellish ragtime melody that won't stop repeating, over, and over, and over.
You can turn off the gramophone. He thanks you, saying he's been listening to that song for an eternity.
Maxwell has this honestly excellent speech about what happened to him. How They changed him over time. How he's completely powerless, despite being in control of everything. He mentions how time moves differently in the Constant, which is a really nice touch- it's not specified how it moves differently, letting the soft magic of the Constant stay soft. We just know it moves differently. How so is left up to us.
Wilson takes pity on the Nightmare King, and unlocks the Nightmare Throne. And Maxwell stands up, stands for the first time in an eternity, pure happiness on his face, free of the Nightmare Throne, getting up for the first time in god knows how long-
...And he screams, his body rotting away into a skeleton, before he crumbles to dust.
After everything, he just fucking dies.
...The Constant demands a ruler. And well, it's got a lovely candidate right there.
Shadowy hands erupt from the ground, grabbing Wilson. Lightning strikes where the Nightmare Throne was, building a new one, and Wilson is dragged onto it as the gramophone resumes. The new Nightmare King of the Constant.
Ruler of everything, trapped forever, with no control, listening to that hellish song.
Honestly, watch this playthrough of Checkmate. It really captures how just amazing this end is. (amazing = horribly fucked)
youtube
There's something so utterly horrific about how Wilson is dragged onto the throne after watching Maxwell rot into a skeleton and turn to dust, only for the ragtime melody to resume.
This end is already horrifying to watch. But the music resuming, refusing to stop, is what turns it into a pure nightmare for me.
A melody of eternal torment, never to break. No matter what.
The cycle continues. More will be dragged into this trap, right? And Wilson has become trapped. He can't move. Can't turn off that stupid fucking gramophone.
Doomed to the same fate as Maxwell. To sit there for god knows how long, as They watch him, until someone else frees him and he dies, trapping them.
Right?
..................
SO TURNS OUT YOUR BODY ROTTING AWAY INTO A SKELETON AND TURNING TO DUST IS LESS DEADLY THAN ONE MAY HAVE THOUGHT, BECAUSE MAXWELL IS STILL ALIVE. SOMEHOW. APPARENTLY.
Anyway so Maxwell's alive. Falls out of the sky into the Constant, still got the Codex Umbra, but is no longer all powerful. He learns this upon getting ambushed by a gang of Creatures and realizes he is powerless, and immediately does the brave thing and runs away like a little baby
Anyway night is FALLING and Charlie will wake up soon. And Charlie fucking HAAAATES Maxwell. She HATES him. DESPISES him. And honestly? GIRL'S VALID. Maxwell turned her into The Shadow Creature, hating him is completely fair. And yeah Maxwell's got guilt over the fact that he did that to her. BUT LIKE. HE STILL DID DO THAT TO HER.
Anyways, Maxwell sees smoke in the distance. And where there be smoke, there be fire, which he needs if he is to Not Die. And so he makes his way over.
btw this part is told through a fantastic comic here it is
So he gets to the fire and OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE
BITCH JUST. DOES NOT DIE. MAN GOT OFF THE NIGHTMARE THRONE. SOMEHOW. STUBBORN FUCKING BASTARD. THIS GUY MADE MEAT EFFIGIES TO CHEAT DEATH, PERSISTED PAST SEVERAL HORRIBLE TRIALS TO TRY AND GET TO MAXWELL, GOT STUCK ON THE NIGHTMARE THRONE, AND IS STILL KICKING. KING SHIT. FRISK KINNIE. DETERMINATION SOUL. UNDERTALE
Anyway Maxwell is like hmmm maybe it is best to not approach the guy i tried to feed to hounds and tries to leave but the idiot steps on a branch because of course he does. Wilson assumes it is a Creature and grabs his axe to Kill, only to discover it is not a creature and is instead Maxwell. (who ig is a type of creature)
AND UPON DISCOVERING IT IS MAXWELL, HE ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES AND STARTS TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. WHICH IS HILARIOUS GOOD FOR HIM GO WHITE BOY GO KILL HIM
Anyway shadow hands put out Wilson's fire which freaks him out because of The Creature (charlie), so they run over and get the fire started up again. And unfortunately, the two must team up in order to not die. Look how thrilled they are about this arrangement
Anyway there's these panels that together are absolutely HILARIOUS of Maxwell and Wilson just sitting there glaring at the firepit over several time periods. I understand it's probably meant to show several days passing, however I find it funny to interpret it as "they just sat there glaring at the firepit not saying anything to each other for a whole day" because it's objectively hilarious.
Anyway Wilson offers Maxwell food since they're stuck together they should make sure neither of them die and he's like "Hey didn't you Die. You Died. Like turned to dust. In front of me. I saw it" AND MAXWELL'S PRETTY MUCH LIKE "death is a social construct. how did you get freed from the scary throne and how come i didn't think of it sooner"
And so Wilson explains. See, Wilson was freed from the Nightmare Throne, but he didn't manage to get off of the throne through his own sheer force of will (shockingly enough for this stubborn bitch).
He was freed by Charlie.
For her own reasons, she let Wilson out of the throne and let him free. But she also took all the powers he might have had as the Nightmare King, rendering him the ordinary survivor he was before he was trapped (though many people give him claws and/or blackened hands as a result of the nightmare throne which i find to be very cool and awesome). Charlie sent Wilson back to the Constant and Definitely Nothing Happened With Her And The Throne Afterwards Please Believe Me I Would Never Lie About Anything
So a little bit later, Wilson and Maxwell start trying to build a portal, most likely to actually get out of the Constant, since GOOD FUCKING LORD. That, or to connect to the other survivors in the Constant, which also makes sense! Pooling together the knowledge from the Codex Umbra and Wilson's own blueprints, they manage to build said portal.
The survivors manage to get to them.
Before the portal is destroyed and reshaped.
Shadow hands erupt out of the ground, pulling pieces of it into the ground, black thorny vines wrap around it, the wood is replaced with marble, shadowy flames erupt out of it, red curtains on top, making it resemble a stage.
And all around it grow roses.
The Florid Pastern is created, and above all of them, they see a strange apparition in the sky.
The Constant demands a ruler.
And Charlie, absorbing Wilson's power as the Nightmare King, became that. The monstrous part of her, the part that is cruel and dark, the shadow monster of the night that demands to be fed with hot blood and flesh, fused itself with whatever scraps of her humanity and kindness that'd not been fully consumed.
She became the virus in her mind, fused with it, merged into a whole being, rather than a fractured one.
The Shadow Queen of the Constant.
also here's an exhausted looking Wilson good lord when was the last time he SLEPT
ALSO. BEFORE I FINISH OFF. LET ME TALK ABOUT CHARLIE'S SILLY PLAY.
In Don't Starve Together, you can find a stage, with costumes for you to act in. If you put on the right costumes and choose to start acting, shadow hands briefly control you, and you start acting out a story that is pretty obviously a thinly veiled allegory for the events of Don't Starve.
Charlie is cast in the role of the Doll, and later The Queen. Winona is in the role of the Blacksmith. Maxwell is cast in the role of the King. We THINK that Them is cast in the role of the Mirror. And Wilson- I'LL GET TO WILSON.
What's interesting about this play is how obviously biased it is. The King is cast as an obviously evil man, hoarding magic to himself, shattering the Mirror and taking its power away. I mentioned this earlier- the Blacksmith loves the Doll dearly, but loves her too much, and puts her in a suit of armor that is protective, yes, but is so heavy she can't move, which god damn if that's not an effective metaphor for overcontrolling overprotective siblings.
The insight into Charlie's motives is also interesting- it's shown that the reason she didn't take Maxwell off the throne (aside from maybe spite and wanting to see him hurt which good for her) was because she legitimately didn't know where he was. And she sorta followed Wilson as he traveled so she could find the throne.
And more interestingly- Charlie is an unreliable narrator here, so her perspective is to be taken with a grain of salt, but- according to her, Charlie's motivations are to heal Them. They're broken currently, according to her, and They gave her the power she has now. And she wants to repay Them for what They've given her. Which is INCREDIBLY interesting.
AND. THE FUNNIEST PART ABOUT THIS PLAY. IS WILSON.
So, everyone's cast in different roles, right? Charlie's the Doll, Winona's the Blacksmith, Maxwell's the King, and the Mirror is probably Them, right?
WELL. WILSON. IS CAST IN THE ROLE OF "THE FOOL." HE'S CAST AS SOME FUCKIN DUMBASS WHO ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKS THE KING OFF HIS THRONE AND KILLS HIM BY MISTAKE. AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS.
What's funnier is that WILSON HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. Winona comments on the scene where Charlie casts her as suffocatingly overprotective, saying "Is there something you wanna tell me, sis?" Maxwell comments on the scene where the Doll finds the Mirror, asking if this is how she really sees him and remembers what happened.
BUT WILSON. HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT BEING CAST AS "THE FUCKING IDIOT DUMBASS WHO TRIPPED OVER HIMSELF AND KILLED THE KING ON ACCIDENT WITH HIS MERRY FOOLERY." Meaning either he DOESN'T realize that's meant to be him, he DOES realize and is just silently fuming, or he DOES realize and just ACCEPTS IT. Like "okay yeah fair." No matter how you slice it, HILARIOUS.
Anyway, here's the play, it's an interesting watch and the video's only 15 minutes long.
youtube
god the fool costume even looks like wilson if his hair was looser
Aaaaand that's the lore thus far! There's other stuff that's happened- Charlie got a new outfit and became EVEN MORE beautiful, Wagstaff is a hologram, Maxwell teamed up with Charlie as a double agent which I think was a stupid writing decision because I don't feel it makes sense for Charlie but Fine Whatever I don't care Encore isn't canon to me I'm resisting a full rant about this, Wilson has a skeleton under his floorboards, something else may be trying to get people into the Constant, Wilson looks tired as shit, WX ripped out their heart because feeling emotions was painful I'm not over that short I'll never be over it ever and don't get me started on how Don't Starve feels like it has this intense unending grief woven throughout it and
Uhm. Anyway. I'm normal. I'm SO sorry this got this long my beams got me. This is 8k words long and I spent the whole time listening to Ragtime (the song that plays on the gramophone that maxwell had to listen to for eternity)
#asks#dst#don't starve#long post#cassie rambles#i did not mean for thsi post to get THIS LONG good jesus christ
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thinking about the cut funeral scene for the millionth time on this, pink notecard of despair day! under the cut so no one has to witness my rambles. 😘
i've been pondering the story that we got without the scene in, vs. what it would have been if it had stayed. without it, it's basically: roman (rightfully) loses gerri, gerri still cares and we know but roman doesn't know that, roman is left with the bittersweet awareness of what he had and what he lost. (a little fleetwood mac there for ya!)
and then with it in ...
+ i feel like the second gerri walked past roman in 4.03, that was telegraphing that eventually she would comfort him, in the name of narrative parallels and bookends and what have you. so it fulfills that purpose in a satisfying way. (plus, gerri saying "this is fine" when he breaks the firing news to her in 4.03 and then again here. parallels! delicious parallels!)
+ i think in a way it's a healing moment for gerri too, because after spending the whole series quietly observing logan's mistreatment of roman, and being emotionally removed (on the surface anyway), she finally actually does something to outwardly support him. and does something with virtually the biggest audience they have ever had! i just think it is forever so interesting that she was so "this is only professional, this is only professional!" for all of s3 and then when roman is at his lowest, she shows up for him in a way that is not professional at all.
+ i am also very moved by the thought that roman would finally have someone express to him the sentiment "i am done with you professionally, but i still care about you as a person." acknowledging that those are two separate things, and that his value isn't totally wrapped up in who he is in the business. (i remember jsc said something in an interview about thinking that scene was important because it was beyond their differences.) like, after roman has spent the whole season hustling like a terrible beast to honor his dead father and to stay connected with his brother, like totally being consumed by the company was the only way to demonstrate his love, here's someone he loves and thought he lost at the lowest moment of his life going "it's okay, you're okay." to see someone care for him as a person separate from what he can bring and what he can do -- and the person who had the highest, most earnest hopes for him businesswise too! -- is just A Lot. (maybe it hits the Gerri Is The Good And Healing Force In Roman's Life thing too hard and that's why they cut it? too sappy? too positive? too romantic? i don't know!!!) and then he rejects it because it's so painfully far removed from his world view and his conception of himself. (secretly, in my heart of hearts, this is why gerri looks so wistful at what i'll 2013-ishly refer to as the HBIC table at the reception thingie later.)
+ uh they finally would have had some physical contact for the first time in 9 million years and that's extremely important to me. it's not actually related to anything, but it's still essential to my well-being, so i'm making it a bullet! you know everyone (cool) wanted them to touch One Last Time!!!!!! you know that's what the people wanted!!!!
anyway, those are just my paragraphs on why i think it would have been narratively enriching for both characters to keep this scene in! i think it would have done some good character & relationship work and that it would've added some tasty, fulfilling-as-we-near-the-end-of-the-story goodness to the season and the series overall.
i think it would have also made the finale really difficult, because after that interaction we all would have definitely with more confidence expected more to happen between them in it. but also: think about all of roman's reactions to gerri (on video and irl and thinking of her w/ martinis) in a universe where she comforted him at the funeral and he has that recent memory of her! because that's technically what it was when they shot that episode! and also, i'm insane! in short: i will forever carry a great burdensome fangirl sadness in my heart that they took this out.
they also should have kept in the scene of gerri winning at sauna in norway. i will die on this hill. the s4 deleted scene news was truly blow after blow for the gerriheads among us.
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It kind of saddens me how much Asgore’s character just gets boiled down to ‘funny divorce man who pines over Toriel’. There’s so much more to his character as far as I’m concerned.
Asgore is quite possibly one of the most tragic characters in the entire game. He’s such a genuinely sweet and compassionate person. He’s a great dad. He loves his people and will do anything to keep them safe and happy. And those positive traits are exactly what lead him to commit himself to do something awful. And it’s painful to see how trapped Asgore feels by his past mistakes, so that showing him there’s another way and that he isn’t as beyond redemption as he thinks he is feels really cathartic. Toby Fox managed to give him so much nuance in such few scenes. And yet, Asgore gets scraps of fan content compared to the other major characters. And when it does, he’s often reduced to a clingy ex.
This is especially irksome when you go back to the game and remember that he’s not…actually very clingy at all. Yes, Asgore still loves Toriel, of course he does. But let’s go back to that scene where they meet again in the Pacifist ending. Asgore is delighted to finally see her again at first. But the second he sees that Toriel is (understandably) still furious with him, he backs off. He takes full responsibility for what happened between them and understands that, even if he misses her, he has no right to demand the relationship that he basically threw away. I feel like people who write Asgore as desperately wanting Toriel to forgive him kind of forget that Asgore can’t even forgive himself for what he’s done. He’s actually painfully self aware of his own flaws to the point of self loathing. He was fully prepared to lose the fight against Frisk and die because he felt he deserved it after all he’d done. And do I need to mention what he potentially does if you spare him on repeat playthroughs?
And I don’t even necessarily say this to tear down the ‘Asgoriel’ ship. Truth be told, I actually like this ship quite a lot. As I’ve already somewhat touched on in my Post Pacifist Headcanons, I actually think there’s a lot of compelling story potential in seeing two people who were deeply in love and happy, wrenched apart by tragedy and poor decisions, unpacking their complicated history and figuring out how to be around each other again. Especially if they both become parental figures to Frisk. With or without the shipping aspect, and regardless of if they actually get back together, that’s a great dramatic hook that can be really interesting if written well. And I have seen it written well. But execution is everything. It’s all too easy to flanderise the two by making Asgore too clingy, Toriel too mean-spirited or just generally downplaying how messy their past is to speed up what should be a long, difficult process. Again, I like this pairing, but not when it’s mishandled in a way that ignores why I liked these characters to begin with. And that’s to say nothing of when Asgore’s supposed clinginess is used to make him the bad guy to ship Toriel with someone else, which…(sigh).
And if this was all purely in fan content, I wouldn’t really care that much. It’s not like I have to read it if I don’t want to. But this is actually my one fear about Deltarune so far. Don’t misunderstand me, Deltarune has been fantastic so far. But the way it’s used Asgore has left a really bad taste in my mouth. So far, he’s been little more than a punching bag who’s situation is comically pathetic. And the way he still chases after Toriel irks me. Now he is doing the clingy ‘Tori take me back!’ routine and I really don’t like it. This doesn’t feel like a character who’s self aware of his mistakes, and takes too much of a burden on himself. This is someone treating his mistakes like they’re fixable, pushing the responsibility for that onto Toriel in a way I don’t believe Asgore would do. It feels like fandom misinterpretation leaking back into canon. I’m still interested in hearing what the history of the Dreemurr family is this time, and how it links back to Dess. I trust Toby Fox’s writing enough to believe this is being done with the intention of building a character arc. But I can’t deny that so far, it feels like an overly mean-spirited and out of character take (though a lot of that is born out of my personal attachment to him).
I’m not even sure what my point was with this. I guess I just wanted to respond to a fandom trend that leaves me with sour taste in my mouth. I don’t really wanna tell people making memes about Asgore being ‘the most divorced man ever’ to stop having fun. Nor do I care to get into shipping debates. I just wish the discussion of this character was a little more nuanced, because I think he’s well written enough to deserve it.
#asgore dreemurr#characterisation#character analysis#undertale#deltarune#undertale spoilers#cw death mention#cw sui mention
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hi! Just found your blog, and your analysis of Astarion is so interesting and in depth, Iove it! I'm debating whether writing a story with a human monk Tav because I think that can be a fun play on opposites attract, where she's solemn and stoic, but weirdly funny and and ready to help those in trouble, so he warms to her slowly because where was she etc. now in my playthrough he got mind controlled by Nere, and attacked Tav. I can't put down how he would feel? My opinion is that he'd try to distance himself (approval was quite high by then) because he's reminded of cazador 's control and that he's more monster than man. Also, would it be realistic for him not to want tav to go to cazador because he's ashamed/afraid for her life at this point? Or is it too early in his healing for him to think like that? Sorry, long one, thank you!
Well hello there! Thank you so much, duck, I'm so so happy you enjoyed all my rambling! Really honestly, you chaps all have no idea how happy your enjoyment makes me ♥
First: Human Monk Tav x Astarion will definitely be glorious and I hope the muses bless your creative process! We all love a good slow burn opposite attracts romance, that's the good stuff. (And I'm so hyped someone else sees the humour in stoicism. That shit is genuinely funny and not enough people appreciate it, I'm calling it.)
Then, regarding the mind-control issue: Pew! That's really a pickle, because I think it definitely toes the line between what Astarion would want to do and what he is actually able to do.
Generally, I'd say Astarion is one to shy away from dealing with his problems head on - especially the problems he's caused himself because guilt is something our boy absolutely can't face. So I absolutely do believe there's some part of him that just wants to up and dust.
I don't think, however, that distancing himself is something Astarion would ever actually do for a multitude of reasons, really.
First off, and possibly most importantly: The nere-battle is still rather early in the story. That means Astarion is still very likely in survival mode, which means he is painfully aware of every dangerous thing around him.
So that means, he is acutely aware that he needs Tav and their group to survive which, in turn, means he needs Tav right there by his side because they're the only thing that stands between him and the rest of the group. He can be somewhat safe as long as Tav is there vouching for him, so he can't let anyone get in between them.
In order to achieve that, he has to stick close to Tav. Distance creates an opening that someone else could take and the minute someone else slides in, Astarion "knows" (i.e. believes) he's done for. So distancing himself is more dangerous than staying close to Tav, who may currently be miffed because he's attacked them.
Furthermore, Astarion is a master of minimsation. (Only where he is concearned, of course, he's all drama regarding everyone else.) And he's brilliant in blaming other people for things he does.
So instead of distancing himself, which could harm him more than it'd do good at this point, he's more likely to just shrug the whole thing off. He does so when he kills Tav while feeding and that was really entirely his fault, so in a situation like this? Where he can actually blame someone else, too??? Damn, that's easy pray for our pointy-toothed scoundrel. Time to down play the issue and turn up the sexy to make good old Tav forget he was a bad boy for a minute there!
I do agree, however, that being controlled like that is definitely difficult for Astarion because, as you said, it reminds him of how Cazador used him.
The wounds are still extremely fresh at this point, to the point that even I as a social worker would hesitate to work on anything regarding that area of his life, because it could easily lead to a melt down. Sometimes people need to calm down and heal a bit before you can tackle specific topics in a good way, which is definitely the case here.
Regarding the last point: Difficult to say, to be honest, as I'm not 100% sure which time frame we're specifically looking at. If we're still around the same point in the story as before - the Nere part - I'd definitely say it's slightly too early for him to worry much about it. At this point he's only just getting more comfortable around Tav and it's still a while before anything close to a relationship happens. Right now, he wants to be free and he wants to be safe and that likely takes precedence.
The further we get in the story, the more likely it is that he'll have mixed feelings about bringing Tav anywhere near Cazador and his old "home". Facing down your abuser leaves you really vulnerable and, more importantly, there's a chance Tav might leave him after finding out about all of the things he's done. Of course he slowly learns to trust them, but I think we're all well aware that this will take time.
Before Tav, he was all alone for so so long. Nobody helped him, nobody stayed with him, nobody ever did anything for him. It will take a long time to unlearn that.
Puh, you said yours was long and here's me making it even longer! I'm sorry, duck, but I hope I answered all your questions! ♥
#bg3#baldur's gate 3#baldurs gate 3#baldurs gate#baldur's gate#bg3 tav#tav#astarion x tav#baldurs gate tav#astarion#astarion ancunin#astarion romance#bg3 astarion#bg3 asks#astarion x reader#astarion asks
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Hey!
I love your analysis so much! You are the most impartial and nice person I met here so far ❤️❤️❤️
What do you think about the theory that Naruto invented harem jutsu because he wanted to get some men attention? It’s a little messed up since he was a kid, but I mean… Little girls have crushes on grown up men, boys probably have the same (Not saying he was doing it because he crushed on everyone in the village!) but there were times that he didn’t do it to gain something or anything. I’m confused. And I know that probably most of it was just for the fan service, but… I guess I like to have everything to make sense. I would love to hear you opinion on that!
Hi Nonee, thankyou so much ;-; 🧡🫶!! What a sweet thing to say!
Hm' I don't think that's the right approach to the topic.. at all. In fact, I think that's very wrong tbh..
..we're talking about a neglected child here. Naruto created the Jutsu because he knows men think a certain way and thinks they're idiots for it. In the beginning he calls the villagers morons and he's quite full of himself (saving face) despite failing in class. Naruto is painfully aware of his own flaws though and so.. has an alternative for shits and giggles because he knows the reaction it'll draw out of men and laughs in their faces.
He gets scolded for it but remember, negative attention is still attention to a deprived and neglected mind of a child.
And yes, attention towards his existence, but it has nothing to do with sexual attention from Naruto's perspective. (wth.) For Naruto that's not why he's doing it and I think it's really weird to (whomever did to) suggest that. Big difference there because for Naruto it is a way to cause trouble as he knows he's already hated (at this point didn't know why) and it is a way to pay them back because they're (as grown men and 'elite Shinobi') humiliated for their severe reactions towards his Jutsu regardless of how negatively they think about him.
Let's see some examples.
Naruto got manipulated into stealing a super forbidden and dangerous scroll and somehow was easily able to do so by using this Jutsu on the Hokage and walked away with it without a problem for hours thanks to it... Apparently it was more effective than whatever Mizuki had in store because he needed a kid to get to the scroll. Obviously Naruto at this point is just toying with all these people and it makes sense that despite him glorifying the name 'Hokage' he doesn't think very highly of Hiruzen or men who fall for it. That's not to say he doesn't respect them in other regards, because he loved Iruka and Jiraiya. But still. "The nose-bleeder":
Ebisu earned his closet-pervert-name for a reason and Naruto wasn't happy with getting training from him instead of Kakashi.
He called Naruto trash at first, thought so lowly of him and told Konohamaru that if he decided to hang out with him longer he'd become stupid (like Naruto).
Naruto used his KBnJ and Ebisu got cocky about it... until..
Because Naruto knows it works. As in "who's stupid now? You fall and get defeated by my Jutsu despite me being all these things you say I am. You loser/pervert."
So later, Naruto even said that Ebisu was 'weaker than him' because he fell for the Jutsu and I think that says a lot about Naruto's perspective on the matter. Especially because he says it so.. passionately and he reeeaallyyy didn't want any training from him.
When he meets Jiraiya for the first time he severely disliked the man. Naruto screams and scolds him for the nasty book, peeping at the women in the bath, being a pervert and committing a crime, he calls Jiraiya a liar and flips him the bird..
It's genuinely wild. Naruto is wild I'll tell ya.
But then it gets more interesting.. because for some weird reason Kishimoto thinks he should let Jiraiya say during their argument that "he doesn't like men!!!".
Which is strange imo because Naruto is a child and not a man and it has nothing to do with his request for training. So what would that do to Naruto?? He's basically saying: "I won't train you because I don't like you the way you are, thus you have to transform into the thing I do like for me to change my mind because that's the only thing stopping me from training you." And what information has Naruto at this point? He knows shallow minded men fall for his Sexy no Jutsu easily, he knows and scolded Jiraiya just a minute ago for his book, peeping and being a pervert.. Naruto is actually so much smarter than people give him credit for (throughout the entire story actually)- put two and two together and he's forced to:
.. exactly.
Naruto even tried to compliment the "nasty book" first even though he obviously didn't mean it before resorting to this Jutsu knowing and even having said before that such behavior is distasteful doing so to humiliate and manipulate Jiraiya to get what he wants (because again, he thinks they're all idiots for this specific reason only). Naruto is very aware about the situation. He doesn't do it for attention, he does it to get trained and Jiraiya quite literally said "I don't like you, you're a rude brat, why would I train you anyway? I don't like men." So what's the alternative? Become a woman (in this case desirable to Jiraiya) and manipulate this fool into getting to train him.
Naruto is extremely uncomfortable and the second Jiraiya suggests he stays that way throughout the training he undoes the Jutsu immediately and gets angry. He throws more insults towards Jiraiya like "pervert" "nasty Sannin" and calls him "totally crazy". He doesn't enjoy to get perved on, he enjoys humiliating them for being fooled so easily because their first impressions of them weren't great to say the least. Iruka always scolded him, Ebisu called him literally trash and Jiraiya was literally the worst at first. Notice how he didn't try using it during the Bell Test on Kakashi for example. He wasn't nice but it wasn't personal towards Naruto.
#asktamelee#sexy no jutsu#oiroke no jutsu#iruka talk#ebisu talk#Jiraiya talk#naruto talk#naruto analysis
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