Can't stop thinking about the fact that Astarion has a mirror next to him in camp at all times. Why is it there? Is it so he can cruelly remind himself every day of what he is? Or is it there to show that he's perhaps hopeful? The tadpole got rid of his other vampire banes after all, maybe he's hoping that one day he'll wake up and see his face again?

(This is so long, but it almost wraps up my thoughts on the most recent chapter. You've been warned. This is also in no way trying to justify AFO's current actions, I'm just over-analyzing the demon baby's childhood and how that turned into the adult demon we see today :>)

Something else I found interesting about the leaks. Baby AFO is killing people, I'm assuming for reasons of survival, either from those people being threats or they have something he needs.

But something that's really been on my mind lately is a child's perspective on death.

Children learn to love and fear different concepts by parental figures in their life, or adults in general really. It's like a pack complex, they see others react a certain way to their environment and learn how to react as a result. Children really learn how to human from other adults, which deeply shapes their view of themselves and the world around them.

But another concept that is taught to children is the concept of death... Children learn that mortality exists, and that it is something to be afraid of... By adults...

But two orphans that raised themselves in an apocalyptical society, from what we can tell from birth, they didn't have adults around to teach them anything, let alone that people do die and that it's a bad thing. At least they didn't have that during some of their most pivotal developmental years.

We see AFO as a monster, a child born evil, but for 1. We see this from a what could be considered the most unreliable narrator. 2. We don't see how he started killing, what made him start? The scenes we've seen thus far could be the first murders, but do we have evidence that it really was.

Baby Afo is so young at this point that his idea of death is a very limited one. Normally, we really start to process death and what it truly means at around 10, maybe. But he's very young here. It's possible he was attacked and so he attacked until the threat stopped moving. He was so young he may not have ever truly understood the gravity of what he had done until he grew older and was desensitized to it. Or maybe he was a hungry child with his feeble brother, who didn't know how to get any food. He wasn't given any help from the adults, possibly even paralleling Tenko. But he saw adults attacking other adults and getting food as a result. So, he followed their lead, like a child would mimic a parent, and he got a reward for him and his brother, food. Children have a large pleasure/pain complex, if their needs aren't met, they are often impatient until they receive what they want or need and can't emotionally regulate like adults can (another thing taught to them by adults). He doesn't understand that he is killing these people, he just knows he needs to stop them as a threat (either to protect him and his brother or feed him and his brother,) make sure they stop moving so they can't hurt him. It's also possible he wants to steal their quirks, something flashy, another part of the reward complex in his brain and his barely contained kleptomania.) And mind you, much of this is talking about normal human children... Not children with meta-abilities which are looking more like parasitic diseases with each new update. (Diseases that control the host and deeply influences their actions, mannerisms, and behavior. Also, something I will probably go on another rant about, let's be honest.)

Another interesting thing is this is from AFO's point of view. And all I've been seeing is that "AFO was born evil," or commenting on how horrifying AFO looked like as a child.

If this is how All for One sees himself... Well, that makes sense why he's such a damn bastard today. Not even as an infant did, he give himself the grace of looking like a normal child. We, the viewer is meant to see him as evil from birth, because that is how AFO sees himself. It's so interesting because one could even argue that AFO isn't happy, doesn't view himself as someone who has a heart or compassion. It's like because the villain in the comic book reminded him of himself, he's modeled himself to be like the villain, someone without care, someone who doesn't love. With Yoichi's death, we get a panel of the original shock, the remorse, and that progresses to the blank, empty, look in his eyes with tears falling down his face. He's always seen himself as the villain and refuses to recognize that he is indeed human. Which obviously from a DFO perspective makes sense in a truly heartbreaking way.

But I just can't get over how he views himself, it's creepy, unsettling, almost like he's afraid of himself. Like he views himself in the way his own victims view him. But someone who I always imagined views himself like a god, who's always in the right (he does believe he's always right,) I was expecting more emphasis on everything he did for his brother, the nicer clothes, he didn't look malnourished while AFO did, things like that. Or maybe a normal looking child (or hell even an unrealistically majestic child, or something.) the parts of himself that showed power, without the unexplained murder we got. I was expecting an attempt to prove how he was in the right, how he was trying to protect his brother. Emphasize the anger he still feels at losing him. But no, from what I can tell it's mainly the evil things he's done, with a small glimpse of them reading together. It lacks the depth, like he wants to appear flat instead of completely multidimensional. And honestly, that's IF he's being honest, which in and of itself is unlikely. But with how he's illustrated himself, you can look at it two ways, it's even more likely that he'd start a family, or it's less likely, because he was born evil and all he's cares about is possessing OFA/his bother. His backstory just gives me the vibe that he WANTS you to believe the second. Like he WANTS you to believe he's not human, and could never have a son, or at the least never care for any child he'd have.

He's trying too hard to prove how evil he is, how almost incapable of care or remorse he is. I'm skeptical.

But honestly, I think if this little story of his is true then... I think he should be locked in a museum. Looking at who he is, how he views himself and the world, illustrates the Dawn of Quirks in a way no Hero History book could. He was raised by a society that hated him for his quirk, honestly like most villains in BNHA.

I'm always so obsessed with the idea that Joker actually remembers/knows the identities of his victims

Some kids

I think it's really interesting the different vibes the 3 different traffic/Life series have had so far. I remember after Last Life people talking about the world feeling darker than 3rd Life and it's very true. Like:

3rd Life felt so bright. The grass was bright green, there was a desert, small hills, small forests and pretty flowers. Everyone was so friendly to start out with. They believed that having a monopoly on dark oak of all things would bring them glory and victory. Dark oak is a nice building material, but mostly just that. They were still thinking like builders, like creators, and they were so horribly naive. The ending of 3rd Life was a blur. Once the killing started it didn't stop nor slow, and nobody was spared. And then it was done.

Last Life, by contrast, felt much much more dark. The grass was dark, the lands monotone, and if you mined to the surface in a random place on the map, chances are you would have no idea where you were from geography alone- it was the same mountains and spruce everywhere. The map was bigger and it was easier to get lost in. But the biggest change was the people. Everyone was always slightly on edge, slightly paranoid. The Boogeyman curse was always on the back of people's minds, but as was the inevitable permadeath they faced. All but 3 had gone through 3rd Life, and they knew what it was like to have your series just. End. Or have someone else end it in turn. I think at one point Joel or Impulse said something like "we learned in 3rd Life not to build pretty things, they just get destroyed here". In a final bit of contrast, the ending of Last Life was loooooong and drawn out. So much chasing people down, so much struggling to survive. And as the people died off, the world felt so vastly empty and lonely.

But the weird thing is? Double Life (so far) seems somewhere in the middle of the two. People don't seem paranoid, and yet they also don't seem as naive as they did in the beginning. They *know* the server is going to end in bloodshed and death. They just don't seem to care. Soulbounds attack their own soulbounds. They lead a Warden to the surface. They're not even red yet. The world partnered them together with one another, said to protect each other, but that just made them decide to do the opposite. Some chose someone different. Some decided to try to break up others. And they all have decided to just laugh, at this point, as chaos breaks out, as the world burns down, as they're subjected to the third death game they've gone through, because at this point, what else do you do?

I'm excited to see where this will go.

They fascinate me.

They both seem to have the same "people should do what they want even if it’s harmful" mindset for others. Although for Muu, it does not apply to people she doesn’t like or who hurt her.

david attenborough style documentary on the way tumblr users talk about fox mulder in the tags

It's so interesting and odd to me (not in a bad way) that my Thomastair fics consistently get significantly more hits and kudos than my Wessa ones do. I lowkey wonder why this is since I'm pretty sure that Wessa has wider popularity in the fandom. (I think more people have read TID than TLH, which is my main logic here in addition to Wessa constantly winning popularity polls).

I wonder if maybe Thomastair fandom is simply more active right now in a post-TLH world? Or maybe it's because we have less canon content and people enjoy reading fics to fill in the gaps? I also wonder if it's a sort of self-selection bias since I'm really active in the Thomastair fandom and most of my friends are in it. This is super interesting and requires further study.

THE RINGS OF POWER 1.06 “Udûn” | requested by @wildwren​

I've been working on a character study for Hero for a little while now, coming back to it on occasion when I have the time & motivation. It all flows together in a one-shot, but it's split into 12 sections to show the 12 months. It focused around the year where he comes back to Faraway, the events preceding, succeeding and including the neutral ending.

So far, it's at 10,000+ words.

So far, I am halfway through writing the July section.

...it appears that this is going to be slightly longer than I initially anticipated.

Best character flaw of Hiccup's, (in my opinion): he tries to keep all his feelings to himself and present a happy face to the world, even when inside he has conflict and suffering. Only Toothless knows what he's truly feeling at all times.

sorry but i just imagine you made his skin from last week (he said he put the wrong skin on cleo's ep 2) and you have to hold every bit of excitements until he uses it

also when i saw the namemc spoilers on twitter i just immediately thought: ooh im sure it was his trust-worthy skin maker doing their absolutely amazing job again and i was not wrong at all

I think that time Scar was refering to his classic default skin, because I just finished the new skin this weekend haha

and thank you!

talks is such a spicy show. i love the back-to-back questions of "why did vex offer herself to pelor" and "why did keyleth offer herself to pelor" and the answers could not be more different. vex had a revelation of faith when she saw him in person and understood that he could be a loving father figure and deity to the people of exandria, whereas keyleth recognized it as a necessity to stop vecna and fell back on her long-existing, long-buried martyr complex in a gesture of "well someone's gotta do it. might as fuckin well be me"

these panels and dick!bats is something so personal to me.