#people who ship them can still int | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

petrichorade · 2 months

Note

Hii :D I just wanted to say I LOVE ADORE CRY SCREAM over your Ratiomei art. I love them both sm I wanna swallow them sjsjsksk

But I'm kinda new to the Ratiomei corner of the fandom, and I'm afraid I don't know much about the ship. So I would really appreciate it if you tell me why you ship them and what made you ship them. Or what lore made you ship them. ANYTHING! Lmao just give me more Ratiomei food 😞😞❤❤❤

Awwwww thank you so much for the compliment! And glad that you asked actually! I will answer your question as an excuse to spread the brainrot 😈😈😈

Kind of going chronological starting from here:

They were first introduced when Honkai Star Rail is still in 1.4 version if I remember correctly! 1.6 version Drip Marketing happened on October 31th 2023 11:00 A.M (GMT+7) at that time, and the 5 star Character that were revealed being Ruan Mei (Ice-Harmony) for the first half and Dr.Ratio (Imaginary-The Hunt) for the second half. It's pretty cute that Hoyo dropped them only 5 minutes apart (Xueyi, the 4-star as well though, after Ratio) since they usually postpone 2nd half 5-star for a day or two. This is their early drip marketing banner that some of you are familiar with!

But I really haven't start seeing things here, I love them both as their individual selves and crying a little because I want them both so bad but they literally gonna be released right after Argenti, who's been on my warp list for long long time ever since I saw his leaks ^____T (I'm an F2P Player, and still until now, so yeah)

// long story short, I receive a happy ending by attaining the 3 of them with extreme grinding + Ratio ended up being free :D //

Also I saw some of their gameplay leaks, some beta players weirdly likes to put them together in a team? Makes me goes '...hm?' But I haven't manage to see stuffs yet.

Then it all starts with THIS TRAILER. It was revealed here that there will be a new region being unlocked on Herta Space Station and it's turns out to be Ruan Mei's workspace, the Seclusion Zone. It's all cool until I realized Dr. Ratio were being placed in the SAME AREA.

I compare this trailer to previous character trailers, and literally can sense something.

Taking Imbibitor Lunae and Fu Xuan's trailer for example; them both being in the same planet (Xianzhou Luofu) but their character's animation were taken in different place, Dan Heng IL on Scalegorge Waterscape, while Fu Xuan on the Divinition Commission. Yet both Ruan Mei and Ratio's animation, not only took place in Herta Space Station, specifically the SECLUSION ZONE itself, not other places. I'm starting to lost my shit there, because I'm assuming SOMETHING goes on BETWEEN THEM if they were at the very same place.

Also I'm not sure how it this happens, I might just randomly came up with ship name myself and just search 'ruantio' on Twitter and SURPRISE SURPRISE? THE SHIP EXIST? And starting there I'm finding out they were often being referred as RatioMei instead!

The brainrot being so pure, I'm starting to sketch them out of the blue...and create something decent. But I'm not ready to reveal it yet, letting the art fermented for a while. Until hoyo, again, dropping that they will be the next Battle Pass matching profile pictures :]

Idk if some of people aware of this, but BP profile pictures most of the time always just...pair folks not coincidentally + matching themes as if they were couple. This the list of characters that were paired for BP chibi profile pictures before (also note it's so far always been male-female);

1.0 - Himeko & Welt

1.1 - March 7th & Dan Heng

1.2 - Kafka & Blade

1.3 - Jing Yuan & Fu Xuan

1.4 - Bronya & Gepard

1.5 - Jingliu & Yanqing (this one's questionable a little lol

Therefore, right after this info getting dropped, I'm finally posting the art itself, being my first RatioMei fanart 😂

－－－－－－－－－－－

Now jumping into when the 1.6 updated + the lore was revealed!

I'm going to be honest as I play along the way (and for those who's interested with this ship but not playing HSR): they basically have zero direct interactions.

But! I may have create a breakdown of they might potentially knows each other a bit, you can read it on my twitter thread here! (and sorry not sorry if everything came out very delusional)

Dr. Ratio also left so much notes on that specific area of the Seclusion Zone that looks like a greenhouse lab and were packed with her critters + the imitation of Tayzzyronth (Aeon of Propagation)'s emanator. Compiling them all ↓↓↓

Besides that, they're also mirroring each other so much;

1. Ruan Mei actually didn't want to be part of Genius Society in the beginning yet gaining Nous' gaze. She even tossed the Genius Society invitation letter to trash can when she receive it. Meanwhile Dr. Ratio completed doctoral degrees in 8 fields and actually wish he could be part of the Genius Society one day, but the moment he receive letter from Interastral Peace Corporation (IPC) instead, he thought he might never be able to gain Nous' attention at all.

2. Related to previous part, there is a literal reason why 1.6 patch were named "Crown of Mundane and Divine". These two were more of a 'two pages in the same book' as what my mutual refers it. If you completed the trailblazer mission for patch 1.6, the reward name being "Mundane Recto, Divine Verso". I want to dig deeper about this Recto-Verso concept since it's a printing terminology and it resonance so much with their overall traits, maybe I'll create separated post for this later!

The 'mundane' and 'divine' crown itself is visible on their head, being their hairpins (this is my personal approach);

Ratio -> laurels/leaves ; grows on everywhere on the branch, unnoticed -> the way Ratio saw himself being a mundane between all the mediocre people, not special. Representing Mundanity

Ruan Mei -> flower ; grows near the tip, most of the time one top of tree branches, eye-catching, facing the sky -> Ruan Mei having a goals to be an Aeon, reaching for the sky and getting Nous (Aeon of Erudition)'s attention. Representing Divinity

－－－－－－－－－－－

Fun Fact Section

Ratio literally have a voice line if he were being put in the same team with Ruan Mei + opinion about her 😂 if you want to listen to his voice, check this out. He talks about fellow Simulated Universe participated Genius Society member as well, though. But it makes me freaking ill with the fact that he CHUCKLES a little in the middle of talking when added to the same team with her like I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOVER BOY

And to note, Dr. Ratio belongs to another faction under Nous beside Genius Society, the Intelligentsia Guild. And nope, he's not (directly) part of the IPC despite he works for them according to the storyline. I have a professor irl who also works as a consultant for a corporate company beside his academic career, and that's how I kinda view Ratio 'works for the IPC' wording goes :)

Now this is the interesting part comes! Besides him, there's an eye-catching figure who belongs to Intelligentsia Guild, and it's being...Ruan Mei's grandmother! This fact was written on Data Bank, not the playable character section (where you can level them up etc.)

Another fun stuffs I found on Dr. Ratio's lore is the one I highlighted in red;

My theory is that Ruan Mei's grandma might be also part of the rumored council, supported by the fact that Ruan Mei's intelligence were mostly inherited from her maternal line. I can only assume Ratio and her grandma knows each other, and it's potential that Ratio might have heard/know about Ruan Mei not based on other people's view, but from her grandma herself (judging how eager he learns the truth from credible sources). Also here's more thing that makes me hopeful for them;

Ruan Mei's grandma have been watching her for years, and from this, I kinda feel hopeful we're soon getting Intelligentsia Guild lore + further depth about these two characters as I felt like we've only knew them at the tip of an iceberg.

－－－－－－－－－－－

Also please please try to read fic series made by @clo-verrr (I'll link it down below this post!) her RatioMei (and the other ships) fics are just *chef's kiss* I love her writings so much, and how her approach on these characters if they ever met/knew each other. It is THAT GOOD, you won't regret the reading experiences. Her fic is my roman empire moment for real. Highly recommended reads 🤌🤌🤌

－－－－－－－－－－－

This is all I can pretty much provide you of why I like this ship. And again, it's all about matters of preference, I love these two characters both as individuals and as a ship, they're very precious to me and I want to continue drawing them even more TwT so thank you so much for asking this question and make me starts my day with joy! Love you muachhhh

#dr ratio x ruan mei #ratiomei #ask box #petrichorade: ted talks

32 notes · View notes

captainmera · 8 months

Note

ok ,entonces tengo un OBVIAMENTE SHIP por Theo y Oliver , así que bombardeare con preguntas románticas !

Who would be more romantic? Who is the one who cares more about the other? Who would take care of who in a cold (why is that super romantic? I don't know), who would blush more at the other's comments? Who has more protective attitude? .....and I'll stop for now

Jag kan inte spanska! xD Ser du hur skumt det här är? Hahahaha!

And thank you for this ask! :'D <3

Both of them care for the other just as much. :) They just support one another where the other needs it. They don't have the same needs!

Oliver is the most blushy though. He's a rather shy person (sober, anyway. Drunk Oliver is very confident).

They are both protective. Theodore is just..... Well, he's a witch:

ibwr world building lore stuff:

Witches are, in the world of IBWR, a little unhinged. People fear them, they're seen as a "necessary evil" by the church and society in general. People seek them out for various reasons and aid. Often taboo things. In public opinion, witches must be a little... evil.. To be able to do certain things.

It leaves witches socially ostracised at the same time socially desired and renowned. It's fickle to navigate. They're basically the dark fairy god mother left uninvited to the party, but if they show up anyway nobody's gonna throw them out. Their association is a flex to pull, but also at the same time an association you want at arms length.

So real and genuine friendships are hard to come by for them.

This resulted in witches, generally, sticking to themselves and their families. The public opinion is that witches don't have have friends, and if they do those people will soon live to regret it. People think witches' friends are only for business or pleasure. If you're not business then you're pleasure, and if you served your purposes you're ditched without remorse. <- At least that's what people think. It's not baseless, but also not totally true.

Witches has built up, because of this, this mask of confidence that they lean into - that they're untrustworthy and mischievous, lustful and morally dubious. It's just a terrible circle, really. "IF YOU HATE ME, FINE, THEN I WILL BE ALL OF THAT WITH PRIDE!!! FEAR ME!!" like, okay, you just want friends don't you.

Because people seldom like them, at least genuinely, they become very loyal friends to those that do. Maybe a little scarily loyal. You like me? Like for real? Okay then I will help you get away with murder. Oh, that's too much? I mean, what do you mean you don't want anything?? I can give you everything. Name it and it's yours.

Witch culture revolves a lot around deals and contracts, so when they meet people (like Oliver) who asks for nothing in return they try to make up for it, it makes them a little nervous to receive something without having to return a favour. Which makes them a little too inclined to jump to their loved ones defence - out of both love and duty.

And, lucky for Theodore, Oliver is good at declining that behaviour. Which teaches Theodore he's actually loved. And that not everything is transactional. That also works great for Oliver, who has always felt like he owed the world something, so he ensures nobody feels they owe him. It leaves them both with an established genuinely: They love because it's simply that. Love. No keeping scores, no malicious or selfish intent.. Just... As close to unconditional as you can get.

Theodore still needs to work on jumping into HAHA LET ME END YOUR ENEMIES though. It's how witches show love. it's a bit toxic but that's part of his arc, he's learning who he is outside of his family and the way he was raised.

He's just as much an Ashdown witch as any of his family is. Generational trauma and family trait is not something you escape just because you can see it for what it is. Sometimes it takes a different voice in you. But it's there. You may think your family's sense of loyalty is toxic but yours isn't. We are all a little blind and needs help seeing ourselves sometimes.

Oliver isn't without his toxic traits too. He's really blind to his worth and chooses to be okay with bad things happening to him because he thinks he deserves it - He was raised to believe that he has to be quiet and put aside, that his needs are secondary and that if he wants to be loved he must allow others to use him.

His logic doesn't work, and Theodore - who's blunt and has an honest relationship with Oliver, can be frank and poke him about it "if that's true for you, then it must be true for me. If bad things happen to me, that must mean I deserve it too. Rules cannot apply to one person alone. It doesn't work like that. You can't say I deserve to be heard and loved unconditionally, and then not apply it to yourself. practice what you preach." And Oliver needs to be reminded of that sometimes. Theodore is a good reality check for Oliver.

Theodore lifts Oliver off the ground when his depression makes him lay face down in dirt. And Oliver holds Theodore back from acting on his impulsive negative emotions.

But they also encourage the other on their positive traits.

Oliver cheers Theodore on with his goals and dreams, gives him room to be authentic to the parts of himself he's repressed. He encourages him in areas where Theodore is sensitive or insecure. He validates him. And Theodore gives Oliver the space to feel safe and unjudged. He can be wholly himself and not feel like he's a burden for needing something. Oliver can speak freely and Theodore enjoys his thoughts on things, he requests his opinion and values his insights (which is good for Oliver's self-esteem).

They're both patient with one another, and put effort and time into trying to understand what the other is going through and needs.

They're friends as much as lovers.

The double taptap shoulder thing I used in my fanfic is.. it's actually.. from them. <XDDDD Oliver do that. I am regretting it a smidge that I used it for huntlow now XDDDD

OH WELL.

ANYWAY.

THAT WAS ME BLABBING ON ABOUT MY BOYS FOR TOO LONG.,

THANKS FOR READING IF YOU DID ASDFGHJKL

I wish I was further in my story so I can like.... SHOW ALL OF THIS ALREADY *SOBS* NOT JUST TALK ABOUT IT. *CRIES*

#ibwr #in blood we rise #ibwr world #ibwr lore #ibwr character blurb

78 notes · View notes

ampresandian · 3 months

Text

My (unofficial) PJO season 2 episode 5 script part 2/4 (part 1)

Images of script and copied text (bc I'm lazy and don't want to write out alt text) under the cut, just in case I didn't tag enough spoiler warning or people aren't interested <3

(this part specifically is the siren scene just in case that's important to you)

Annabeth Tries to Swim Home

ABRUPTLY: INT. QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE – DAY

PERCY wakes up with a start, breathing heavily. ANNABETH is right beside him.

ANNABETH: Percy! Percy, you were having a nightmare.

He tries to calm down.

ANNABETH (CONT): Come on. We’re approaching the island of the Sirens.

They climb the stairs out onto the deck. The heavy fog and low clouds keep it gray and dim as they make their way to the mast. Percy ties Annabeth to it.

PERCY: Is that okay? It’s not too tight?

ANNABETH: It has to be tight enough.

PERCY: Right. It’ll hold.

He finishes tying his knots, and gathers two scoops of candle wax, rolling them into earplugs.

ANNABETH: Don’t untie me. No matter how much I plead and beg.

PERCY: (nodding) I won’t. Promise.

Percy puts the wax in his ears, and all sound cuts out immediately. After a moment, we can hear the low thump of his heartbeat, and the whisper of waves against the boat.

Craggy rocks emerge from the fog as they sail closer to the island. Percy watches Annabeth, who seems fine at first.

Suddenly, she begins reacting to the music. She begins to struggle, clearly distraught.

ANNABETH: (SILENT) Percy!

He looks away from her, uncomfortable with her misery.

The boat continues through the fog, remnants of old wreckages floating in the water. Percy looks thoughtful, a hand twitching as if to reach for his ear. A low hum can be heard, under the waves and beat of Percy’s heart.

He looks back at Annabeth.

ANNABETH (CONT): (SILENT) Please, Percy! You have to let me go. Please!

PERCY: (AUDIBLE) I’m sorry.

ANNABETH: (SILENT) I thought you were my friend! Let me go!

Percy looks away again. He closes his eyes, upset.

He looks back at the mast, now empty, the ropes on the ground with Annabeth’s knife.

PERCY: (AUDIBLE) Annabeth!

Annabeth can be seen swimming towards the island. Percy jumps in after her.

PERCY (CONT): (AUDIBLE) Annabeth!

Percy is desperate, trying to keep an eye on Annabeth and avoid obstacles. Annabeth is entranced by the island, still shrouded in fog. He dips below the water again and again, coming back up to find Annabeth, further from the ship each time. He gains on her, little by little.

PERCY (CONT): (AUDIBLE) Annabeth!

Annabeth is nearly to shore. The black sand of the Sirens’ beach can be seen. Percy is finally close enough to grab her, catching hold of her ankle and pulling her back out to sea.

ANNABETH: (SILENT) Percy! No! Let me go!

Annabeth struggles against him as they sink into the water. Completely submerged, she falters, seeming confused.

Percy pulls them down, but Annabeth begins to struggle again, needing to breathe. Percy looks around, desperate again, before concentrating.

Suddenly, bubbles converge upon them, and the two teenagers are enclosed in an underwater bubble. Annabeth gasps for air. She meets Percy’s eyes and begins to sob (AUDIBLE), her head buried in his shoulder.

PERCY: (AUDIBLE) It’s okay. Just hold on. I’ll get us back to the ship. It’s okay.

Annabeth nods, her sobs beginning to subside. Percy begins to navigate their bubble back towards the dimly visible hull of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The ship has drifted away, out of range of the Sirens’ voices.

They surface, and a rope ladder drops down the side of the ship. Annabeth climbs up, followed by Percy. Again, it is silent except for his heartbeat and the lap of the waves. The sun has appeared, the fog receding behind them.

Percy looks at Annabeth, but she stares out to the horizon. Eventually, she looks back at him.

ANNABETH: (SILENT) It’s safe.

Percy removes his earplugs, and all sound returns.

PERCY: Hey. Are you okay? (winces)

ANNABETH: I didn’t realize how powerful the temptation would be.

PERCY: What did you see?

ANNABETH: (pause) I rebuilt Manhattan. It was beautiful, full of Greek pillars and rooftop gardens that never wilt. And... my parents. They were together again, and happy to see me. (another pause)

PERCY: It sounds beautiful.

ANNABETH: (sigh) Luke was there too.

It becomes tense.

ANNABETH (CONT): We started over. I rebuilt the world, and everything went right this time.

Percy: So... When Luke said you could start the world from scratch. That really hit home, huh?

ANNABETH: My fatal flaw, Percy. That’s what the Sirens showed me. It’s hubris.

PERCY: Pride?

ANNABETH: Deadly pride. Thinking I can do things better than anyone. Better than the gods.

PERCY: Do you?

ANNABETH: You don’t ever think about how messed up the world is? What if we could start over--no war, no homelessness. No racism. No useless homework or standardized tests.

PERCY: That sounds pretty good.

ANNABETH: I mean, the West is good. It represents a lot of the best of humans. But sometimes it’s so hard to ignore the bad stuff, you know? And then, like, what if Luke’s right? If it was all torn down, could we do it better?

Percy looks confused.

ANNABETH (CONT): You don’t ever think that way? Like you could do a better job running the world?

PERCY: Um... I don’t think so. That sounds like kind of a nightmare.

ANNABETH: (with a soft laugh) Lucky. Hubris isn’t your fatal flaw.

PERCY: What is, then? Doesn’t every hero have one?

ANNABETH: I don’t know, Percy.

They pause, contemplating.

PERCY: So, was it worth it? Do you feel wiser?

ANNABETH: (considering) We have to stop Luke. If he can still tempt me so easily... Well, I won’t be the only one.

Percy nods. They float in silence for a moment.

PERCY: Annabeth... The reason you hate Cyclopes so much. The story about how Thalia really died. What happened?

ANNABETH: The night Grover escorted us to camp, he took some wrong turns. The worst one was into a Cyclops’ lair in Brooklyn.

PERCY: Wait. There’s Cyclopes in Brooklyn?

ANNABETH: Tyson lives in Manhattan and you’re surprised there’s Cyclopes in Brooklyn?

Percy holds up his hands in defeat.

ANNABETH (CONT): Anyway, he tricked us. The Cyclops split us up in this house, it was like a maze of corridors, Percy. And he could mimic anyone, sound just like them. Just like... (trails off before continuing) He lured us, one at a time. Grover was running to save Thalia, and Luke too. Thalia thought she’d heard me yell for help. And I was only seven, and alone in the dark. I just kept running.

Annabeth stops talking, looking out across the sea again. Percy takes her hand.

ANNABETH (CONT): Eventually, I found the main room. The others were there too, tied up. The Cyclops was getting ready to eat them. He saw me. Spoke to me. He would’ve killed me. But... I managed to get Thalia free, and she saved us.

PERCY: Wow. That’s pretty brave, Annabeth.

ANNABETH: I really didn’t do much. And we barely got out alive.

PERCY: Still. You were only seven, and all alone. That’s plenty brave in my book.

ANNABETH: (shaking her head) I still have nightmares about it. And I still can’t like Cyclopes. It was his fault we took so long getting to camp. It gave all the other monsters time to catch up to us. If we hadn’t gotten stuck in that house, Thalia would be alive today.

Thunder rolls, far off.

PERCY: (trying for levity again) Maybe she did meet a hero’s fate.

Annabeth playfully hits his arm. Camera focuses on her face.

(PART 3 | PART 4)

28 notes · View notes

felassan · 1 year

Text

Some thoughts on the recent article on DA:D from Tom Henderson / Insider Gaming, under a cut due to potential spoilers for DA:D -

first, the usual set of disclaimers that accompany all leaks: might not be real, unable to verify at present, sometimes leakers think they're right about things but are unintentionally incorrect or got some wires crossed, games change a fair bit between development phases and final release, take with grain of salt etc

Tom Henderson is the one that leaked the game's title, 'Dreadwolf', ahead of time, along with Jeff Grubb.

all the stuff about the possible/speculated release window doesn't feel like new information really? for a while now rumors and guesses etc have been saying like 'late 2023 or 2024', sorta thing

The game still lacking features and completed character lines etc doesn't sound odd or surprising either. DA:D is currently playable from beginning to end, but not finished, as BioWare said themselves in the milestone announcement blog post a few months ago. iirc, at that stage in development there can still be placeholder assets, stuff without textures yet, 'robot-voiced' or still-silent lines, placeholder text and textures, etc.

I wonder who the sources are? playtesters? going by yesterday's Reddit leaks (DA:D spoilers at link), that wouldn't be outside the realms of possibility. I also wonder how familiar with the franchise said sources are. some bits of or language in the article make it sound like either they and/or the writer aren't super familiar.

There are 'central hubs' in previous DA and ME games, which were of course singleplayer: Party Camp, Skyhold, the Normandy etc. the PC goes to those locations between story missions and between side quests to regroup, talk to companions etc before heading out again. I'm curious what form the hub/base in DA:D will take - a camp, home, fort/castle, ship, secret base, a pocket somewhere 'in-between' worlds etc?

Recruiting and growing companions, completing missions, companions being found in the hub (or their own mini-hubs as in DAII), giving them equipment/modifications & so on - all things found to some extent in previous games. I guess it does confirm these features will return in DA:D.

Re: combat and FF15, emphasis on "the game's combat wheel" as being what's similar

also not really surprised by the description of the combat. DA changes significantly game to game and the rough trajectory since DA:O has been away from the tactics style of game towards more of an action-y RPG. it also lines up with the feel of the little snippet of combat we saw in a trailer (remember the footage of the character in Grey Warden armor doing Shield Wall?) and some comments that cropped up on ResetEra from possible playtesters in October 2022 (they mentioned God of War 2018 as a comparison point for example).

Re: controlling party members, it says "currently". that said, the playtester who was the source of the leaked screenshots and gif on Reddit also reported that they could not control the party. iirc this was also among the comments on ResetEra. this will vary from person to person, but personally for me I'm not bothered by the premise of being mostly unable to control squadmates. it's kinda like that in ME and ME:A and that was fine (for me I mean).

I'm curious about what other details they were provided with, and will be keeping an eye out for future reports. seems like quite a few leaks have been going on lately.

sometimes companies 'leak' stuff on purpose or want certain stuff to leak, in order to gather feedback, see peoples' reactions to it, as a marketing tactic etc. Mark Darrah said that wrt quantitative focus testing at least, there's a high chance of leaks and they know it. on his game development YouTube channel, on this he advised "Be careful that anything you put in there has a high probability of leaking, but that's potentially an opportunity. If you have information that you kind of want to be leaked out into the greater sphere of the internet, including it in a quant test, knowing that in all likelihood it's going to leak, might be a way to test the waters. It gives you plausible deniability if it does end up leaking. A good example of a leak like this was the concept picture of Dorian for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The concept piece includes a monkey. We never really had any intention of having a monkey for Dorian, but it was just what was drawn in the concept piece. And so we got to watch the internet react to this character, with a monkey, on the internet." I'm sure I've read or heard somewhere that the Dragon Age: Inquisition character concept feedback survey was leaked intentionally and that the devs kind of wanted the Crestwood demo to leak (and were surprised when it didn't result in many videos online).

"It’s understood that you’ll be able to move from your hub to missions by passing through a mirrored portal." - this is the most interesting snippet in this article to me. the obvious question is, eluvians? In Trespasser, Solas tells us he controls the eluvian network now, after over-riding the magic personally. So: have we gained control of part of the network (Briala controlled part of it for a time)? taken control of it or part of it from Solas? is there more than one network? have we built some eluvians of our own? In Trespasser banter Dorian was wondering about building eluvians of our own. there are some folks with eluvian knowledge kicking around like Merrill and Morrigan, and there are glassworks of note in Serault..

moving from a hub to missions through eluvians was exactly what we did in Trespasser from the Winter Palace, and it worked really well. Trespasser's setup was really enjoyable. it was a fun mechanic that helped explain fast travel and apparent teleportation. it also allowed for travelling to places all over, from the Deep Roads to ancient elven ruins to places in-between the waking world and the Fade - a variety of handcrafted places to explore still but with a tighter storyline threading through them, as opposed to open-world that felt like it was probably mandatory to include during development because of other games on the market like Skyrim and AC, but which then struggled to be filled with meaningful content to fill the space and in which that struggle was apparent. I'd be down for that. I'm just daydreaming and speculating wildly now for real (bc it's fun) but we could travel all over Thedas that way. We did that in DAI I know but you know what I mean? also what if the hub is in a pocket dimension, reachable only via eluvian? eluvian secret base..

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #solas #anthem #mass effect #mass effect: andromeda #long post #longpost #dragon age: dreadwolf spoilers

125 notes · View notes

cozylittleartblog · 9 months

Note

Oop, hello there! ^^ I remember you from DA, still think your art is so cool!! Still fond of the vintage characters and the world of Tessa n' Val! I'm currently testing the waters on Tumblr lol, hoping to get around a different vibe for documenting my projects n' chatting about stuff I like, and wanted to ask: as someone who's been on Tumblr for a while, what are your main tips for a starting artist in the platform? Wish ya a great day! Stay artful n' creative :]

HI!!!! i remember you too, i always get really excited when artists i like come here. tumblr is the only website i really use for myself and not just to post art, so it means i get to follow them and interact with their art 🥺 i ditched deviantart for everything that isn't posting art and bitching about the website via status updates lmfao, the new inbox and watched deviants tabs are so... out of the way and counter intuitive. hate it there.

anyway, I've written a general tumblr how-to post because there's been so many exoduses (exodi??) from other platforms over the last few years, but I don't think I've ever written one for artists? or at least I can't find it if I did. so here are some hot tips 😎👉👉

NUMBER ONE BIGGEST RULE: if you're an artist and you want to actively gain a following and curate your art, please have a separate art blog where you post exclusively or near exclusively art. it's ok to reblog a post here or there, but tumblr is a website About curating and having specific blogs! it's not that people don't want to see or hear about the artist behind the work, but they don't want 43289 unrelated memes and posts for fandoms they're not in 😅 admittedly i have skipped following some good artists here because their reblogs completely drown out their art and clog my dashboard. people really like curated blogs, almost every artist has a separate art blog 'round these parts. (it's completely fine to post WIPs and text posts discussing your art too, some people would like to see your process!)

speaking of curating: tags are your best friend! tumblr tracks the first 20 tags I believe, so use the first 20 tags to add your important search terms. this is where you put anything you'd want to turn up in the search. really you probably wont have more than 10 of these tags. after that you are welcome to ramble in the tags or use organizational tags for your specific blog.

not sure how to tag? search up what terms you'd use to try to find your own post if you were someone else, and see what tags popular posts in that tag used. you should ALWAYS use the #art and #artists on tumblr tags, as well as any relevant common trigger/content warning tags :D here's how i do it:

FOR FANDOM POSTS: where applicable, I tag Fandom, Fandom Acronym, Featured Characters, Featured Ships, and sometimes #[fandom] fanart and/or #[fandom acronym] fanart. FOR ORIGINAL POSTS: you can tag your art medium (digital art, traditional art, sculpting, etc), the general aesthetic or themes, time periods, and if it features your OCs you can use #oc and their names so if people want to see all your OC content they can find it. admittedly i mostly post fanart so i am very spontaneous with the tags i use on my original art posts lol

4. shorter captions seem to be preferred by the masses, I personally either dump my extra comments in the tags of the original post or I'll put them under a cut. unless it's extremely relevant to the post, like explaining ideas or headcanons

5. have all your handy links in your bio! you can use basic HTML coding to insert links with text and put in line breaks. you should have links to other socials (or something like a carrd that links them for you) and your support streams, like shops and tip jars and patreons. and ofc a little about you and what people can expect to see you draw!

6. have your inbox open! you don't have to take requests, but sometimes someone will throw a brilliant idea at you that you may Coincidentally be inclined to draw. it's also just fun to interact with people who like what you do! sweet comments go a long way

7. last one i can think of - do a seIf-reblog at some point in the day. people live in different timezones and not everybody finishes their dashboard. personally I schedule posts for 12 pm cst and then one seIf-reblog at 8 pm cst. it's also okay to reblog your older artworks for new followers to see, especially if you haven't posted in a while. TV airs re-runs and so can you B)

hope some of it helps!

#tumblr guide #tumblr how to #artists #ask #ninacti0n #will be following u from my main hehe #tumblr artists

27 notes · View notes

paperanddice · 4 months

Text

Deep ones are a species of fishlike, aquatic beings who, despite the name, actually usually dwell along shallow coastlines and even on land. Their exact origins are a mystery, but the most common legends of it claim they were creations by elder gods of the deep from human stock. Many deep ones still worship these elder gods, under names such as Father Dagon or Mother Hydra (despite these names being more commonly associated with powerful demons or common monsters, and some doubt the true divinity of these so-called gods), demanding sacrifices of treasure and blood from those they encounter. Mariners and coastal villages are often targets of these demands. Refusal brings great misfortune; damaged rudders and ship bottoms, empty fishing nets, poor weather. Complying brings wealth, as fishing nets bring up not just bountiful catches but ancient treasures, and ships find fast and effective currents to reach their destinations in less time.

Communities that regularly "trade" with the deep ones (leaving sacrifices for the fish people to take) may even intermarry with them. This is uncommon, and rarely do these marriages produce long lived children, but those who survive often become quite influential intermediaries between the surface and the elder gods that the deep ones worship. These priests guide the settlements they live in further to the worship of the elder gods, escalating the sacrifices demanded and coordinating raids on the surrounding area with other deep ones to fulfill these demands.

Inspired by the Tome of Beasts 1. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Pathfinder 2e

Deep One Creature 2 Uncommon, Medium, Amphibious, Deep One, Humanoid Perception +7; darkvision Languages Aquan Skills Athletics +7 Str +3, Dex +1, Con +2, Int +0, Wis -1, Cha +1 AC 17; Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +5 HP 40; Resistances cold 3; Weaknesses fire 3 Speed 25 feet, swim 25 feet Melee claw +9 (agile), Damage 1d8+3 slashing Frenzied Rage [reaction] (emotion, mental, rage); Requirements The deep one is not fatigued or already in a frenzy. Trigger The deep one takes damage. Effect The deep one flies into a frenzy that lasts 1 minute, until there are no enemies it can perceive, or until it falls unconscious, whichever comes first. While frenzied, the deep one gains a +1 status bonus to attack rolls with its claws, gains a +4 status bonus to damage rolls with its claws, and takes a -1 status penalty to AC.

Deep One Hybrid Priest Creature 4 Rare, Medium, Amphibious, Deep One, Humanoid Perception +9; darkvision Languages Aquan, Common Skills Athletics +12, Deception +10, Intimidation +10 Str +4, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +2 AC 18; Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +9 HP 76; Resistances cold 5; Weaknesses fire 5 Speed 25 feet, swim 25 feet Melee claw +12 (agile), Damage 1d8+6 slashing Occult Spontaneous Spells DC 18, attack +10 ; 2nd harm (×3), shatter; 1st sanctuary, shocking grasp, sleep; cantrips (2nd) divine lance, ray of frost Frenzied Rage [reaction] (emotion, mental, rage); Requirements The deep one hybrid priest is not fatigued or already in a frenzy. Trigger The deep one takes damage. Effect The deep one flies into a frenzy that lasts 1 minute, until there are no enemies it can perceive, or until it falls unconscious, whichever comes first. While frenzied, the deep one gains a +1 status bonus to attack rolls with its claws, gains a +4 status bonus to damage rolls with its claws, and takes a -1 status penalty to AC. Voice of the Deep [2 actions] (auditory, enchantment, incapacitation, mental, occult) The deep one hybrid priest speaks in a rolling, droning voice. Each creature that can hear it must attempt a DC 20 Will save. The deep one can sustain Voice of the Deep for up to 5 minutes. Critical Success The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to Voice of the Deep for 24 hours. Success The creature is fascinated for 1 round and is temporarily immune to Voice of the Deep for 24 hours. Failure The creature is fascinated as long as the deep one sustains Voice of the Deep. Critical Failure The creature is fascinated as long as the deep one hybrid priest sustains Voice of the Deep. The deep one also casts modify memory on the target, which gets an automatic failure on the save against the spell.

13th Age

Deep One Double-strength 3rd level mook [humanoid] Initiative: +5 Vulnerability: Fire Claws +8 vs. AC - 10 damage. Frenzied Rage: Whenever a deep one mob takes damage and no member is killed, one member of the mob gains a +6 bonus to damage until the end of the mob’s next turn. Swimmer. AC 17 PD 17 MD 14 HP 24 (mook) Mook: Kill one deep one mook for every 24 damage you deal to the mob.

Deep One Hybrid Priest Double-strength 4th level leader [humanoid] Initiative: +6 Vulnerability: Fire Claws +8 vs. AC (2 attacks) - 12 damage. Frenzied Rage: Whenever the deep one hybrid priest takes 10 or more damage from a single attack, it gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and a +4 bonus to damage with claws attacks until the end of its next turn. C: Ice Storm +9 vs. PD (1d3 nearby enemies in a group) - 14 cold damage and the target loses its next move action. Natural 14+: The target is stuck until the end of its next turn. Limited Use: 1/battle. Swimmer. Voice of the Deeps: 1/battle, when the escalation die is 4+, the deep one hybrid priest can use a standard action to summon 1d3+1 deep one mooks to the battlefield. They appear far away from all creatures, and roll initiative unless there is a mob of deep ones for them to join. AC 19 PD 15 MD 17 HP 116

#pathfinder 2e #13th age #homebrew #my homebrew #monster #NPC #humanoid #pathfinder level 2 #pathfinder level 4 #13th age level 3 #13th age level 4

7 notes · View notes

batrogers · 17 days

Text

More details about what they all are below. Some do contain spoilers, obviously and Dragon Pains has TOTK Spoilers to it.

Hateno Fluff: happens between Not to Me, Not if its You and Mortificaton of Ordon. Very sweet thing, still in the getting-to-know-you period of 1st Cycle. Sets up Chief & Hateno as a thing and introduces Hateno's mess of a poly unit.

Dragon Pains: happens between The Great Sea and They Held the Sky Suspended. People talk to Skyloft about the whole murder thing, and Smith gets kidnapped by the LIght Dragon, who's freaked about for Obvious Reasons given the premise of That Broken Promise. Kokiri loses his shit, and nobody has a good time.

The Second Broken Promise: everyone finds out why Kokiri is a goddamn disaster because they wind up back in his world and meet his Zelda, Nabooru, and the Witches. Sets things up for 2nd Cycle.

I probably won't publish 2nd Broken Promise until the first two are done, but I can still get the first draft of it finished.

Wants & Needs: Story of Hateno adjusting to losing his arm, winding up in a relationship with Misko, and finding out how much his prosthetic can actually help him or not. Mix of a recovery fic and a ship fic. The first chapter is posted, but it should have ~3 more.

Linebeck Fic: 2nd Cycle fic, the gang winds up in the port city of Gamelon where Outset's backstory fic is set and nothing goes well. Introduces Linebeck, what it looks like when Far actually loses his temper, and I attempt to kill Minish & Ordon too for once. Among others.

Prompts & Shorts: stuff that'll be 500-2000 words long, likely, from ask-games and ship prompts and so on, just for fun and stuff. I think I've just not been in the mood but it might help me get back int he swing of things.

Venom Reveal & Ravio are ideas I know I want to do but so far have zero concrete ideas of how to make them work, so these would be planning first then writing. Most of the rest are already somewhat started; Dragon Pains is in one of my deeper editing processes.

#That Broken Promise AU #my writing #Zelda fanfic #polls #trying to make myself accountable

6 notes · View notes

panthera-tigris-venenata · 2 years

Text

That one AU where Harriet Hook and Anthony Tremaine go to Auradon.

@dragoneyes618 @auradon-bore-a-don @idontliketomatoesleavemealone @eahravinqueen

The start of this AU?

Well, no weird soulmate dreams, for starters. Ben decides to start the Isle kids program with no dubious magic whatsoever, because he is a sweetheart like that.

So instead of taking a purple-haired girl and whover she runs with (Isle novella), or simply taking randomly-chosen children of major villains that approximately match him in age (D1) and going for a shock therapy I guess, he reaches out to Dr Facilier, the headmaster of Isle's biggest school.

(Not to Yen Sid, because I have no idea who the fact is that and he sounds suspicious anyway.)

So Ben, the soon-to-be boy-king, sends a message about his first official proclamation to the Dragon Hall.

Now, Doctor Facilier's objective is „get my kids out of there as soon as and not fuck it up for the other ones,“ which, you know, sensible enough. Good for him.

He asks Harriet and Anthony to his office, to discuss the matter, as they are more of an unpaid help than students anyway. He shows them the envelope.

„So, the Beast is dead?“ asks Harriet, which, again, sensible reaction, because why the fuck would you name a sixteen years old a king anyway.

„Unfortunately, no.“ (Which is why we can't afford to fuck this up.)

„...Shame,“ both of them sight at the same time. Dr F can't say he disapproves of that sentiment.

They look over the text for some time.

„Who is comming over?“ Anthony asks, as if he didn't care in the slightest. Honestly, Facilier is kind of surprised they hadn't made a grab for the invite yet, to get it for them and their families.

„My daughters,“ he says.

„It says four people,“ Harriet says, „With the hope of bringing more over if the first four prove that they can give up their villianous ways.“

Yeah. And what's her point?

„...You do know that your daughters would level Auradon in between them, right?“

„Excuse me?!“ His daughters do have self-preservation instincts, thank you very much.

She only lifts one eyebrow at him and jerks her head in the direction of distant explosions. ...Which are most likely caused by CJ Hook (which Harriet conveniently ignores for the moment), Zevon, and, yeah, his Freddie. Those other two are bad influence, but yes, point taken.

„Celia then. Freddie comes over in the next round.“

„Fair enough. Who's coming with her?“

In that moment, he makes the decision: „You two should come. You want the little ones out as much as I do. Oh, and you will take care of my daughter, unless you want to experience the other side, first hand.“

„Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise.“

Great, he still has it.

But, of course, there is still one spot left. Dr F leans back as they stare at it, and then at each other. This is not his problem anymore.

Harriet bites her lip: „...I want to take CJ,“ she says, her hand in a fist, „but...“

Facilier watches in amusement as Anthony briefly covers her hand with his own, and really, shame he won't see how this will play out. Celia will keep him informed, he is sure.

Eventually, they decide to take Dizzy, because she is the least murder-prone out of their relatives, and also friends with Celia. Oh, and Auradon will adore her, with her colourful dresses, sparkly tiaras and unnatural cheerfulness.

That can only be beneficial.

(Not CJ, for obvious reasons. After her fun trip, there wouldn't be much of Auradon left.)

(Not Harry, because he'd refuse to leave without Uma and their crew, and also because he might just hook the Beast, which, fajr enough, honestly.)

(Not the Smee twins, because you don't split up twins.)

(Not Sammy, because Harriet needs them to run the crew and ship in her absence. And look after CJ – Nothing to envy here. Absolutely nothing.)

(Not any other of the Tremaine cousins, as they might just throw themselves at all princess and princesses in sight, which, not a good idea in the long run, or stab when they are looked at. Generally depends on... Actually, neither Dr F nor Anthony are sure. They don't intend to find out.)

(Not any of the younger ones, either, because they picked up the stabbing habit, and also, highschool.)

Now, here is how it went down in the port:

[Several minutes of stabby Sammy Smee trying to track down the two younger Hooks]

Harriet: „Harry, CJ, I'm going to Auradon for a while.“

CJ and Harry: „What?! When-?! Unfair!“

Harriet, paying them no mind: „If it all goes well, we will be able to get you and the other kids out of there very soon.“

CJ: „Why can't I go now?!“

Harriet: „Because you'd blow something up and get sent back. Also, we need to make a good impression.“

Harry: cackles

CJ: „Hey! I can behave if I want to!“

Harriet:

Harry:

CJ: „...Fine. Point taken. But they'd deserve it.“

Harry: „And why can't I go?“

Harriet: „Would you? Alone?“

Harry: „...Point taken.“

Harriet, sighting: „That's what I thought. Meanwhile, do not die, try not to kill too much people, and remember, no open fire in the port.“

And by the Tremaines:

Anthony:„Dizzy, you are going to Auradon.“

Dizzy: „I am?!“

Anthony: „Yes. Go pack your things.“

Lady Tremaine: „Where are you going and where are you taking her?! Who will run the saloon?!“

Anthony: „You could do it, for a change, grandmother. It is in your name, after all.“

Lady Tremaine: „You-!“

Anthony: „Yeah, no. We are staying in the port until we go. Don't try to reach us.“

So, you know.

No one dies.

(That's always worth mentioning with the Hooks.)

Celia and Dizzy spend the remaining days on the Isle trying to get Harriet and Anthony to confess their love and ideally also to get Sammy to officiate their wedding. CJ helps, of course, but turns out she and Dizzy don't agree on the methods.

Anyway, the day of departure is there, the limo comes, same old, same old.

The goodbyes contain last reminder to „not murder anyone, or at least not to get caught,“ (the Hooks, on both sides), „Have fun,“ (the Faciliers, and it's terrifying), and promises to send a lot of letters and dresses and tiaras (Dizzy).

In the limousine, Anthony reminds Dizzy to not stuff herself silly with chocolate or at least wipe her face properly for god's sake, and Harriet swallows her remark that it might be poison. (She is reasonably sure that tea time with poison is not exactly normal. Won't stop her from being paranoid, though.)

Finally, they arrive to Auradon Prep, and, oh my god, the music.

What on earth is that music.

It's illegal, that's what it is.

The limo stops.

The music, unfortunately, does not.

Anthony is the first to climb out: he opens the door right into the driver's face and then he is in Auradon, the colourful kingdom of pixie dust and other glass shoes and other such insanities: Dizzy is gonna love it here.

But meanwhile, why is the world so bloody bright?!

Seriously, his eyes hurt.

And not only from the onslaught of honestly offensive pastels.

He turns around and offers his arm to Harriet to help her climb out of the limousine, as a proper gentleman, and it's only basic etiquette, really.

...Ignore Dizzy and Celia giggling.

Harriet steps out into the sun, mutters a soft „fuck“ and blinks a few times; she also keeps her hand on his for slightly longer than reasonable, but he is pretty sure no one in Auradon notices that kind of stuff. Or cares.

Either way.

They take a few steps forward, to allow the younger girls to climb out too and also to create a barrier between them and the crowd with their bodies.

Dizzy and Celia hold onto eachother for support, too, Dizzy a bit overwhelmed, but Celia seems to glow under the crowd's attention. (She has also managed to draw a totally unnatural shadow over hers and Dizzy's eyes.)

Now, a boy steps forward and introduces himself as Ben.

So this is prince Ben. How... Intriguing.

„Right,“ Harriet says, and then leans to whisper into Anthony's ear: „How old is he again?“

Of course, being the drama queen she is, she stage-whispers loud enough for the majority of the crowd to hear.

„I believe he is sixteen,“ Anthony answers, ignoring the boy-king, and actually quite amused at the expression the princess by his side is making, thanks for asking.

„Pfff. Just a baby,“ Harriet snorts, „Teenage boys shouldn't be in charge of anything, much less a kingdom.“

„You wound me, Harriet.“

„Anyway, as I was saying,“ interrupts the boy-king rather awkwardly, „I'm Ben, and-“

„Prince Ben, actually!“ the pink princess on his arm is much better at interruptions than he is, „Soon to be king!“

Anthony can see the willpower it costs Harriet not to roll her eyes, and, honestly, same.

„And I'm princess Audrey!“

So this it the game they want to play?

Fine.

He glances at Harriet and she nods subtly.

Let's dance, then.

He smooths out his suit and steps forward; he takes the shallowest bow he can afford, one that could be interpreted as much as an insult as a sign of respect.

„I'm Lord Anthony Tremaine,“ he introduces himself, and takes pleasure in the gasps of the crowd; then he moves on to introduce Harriet, as a proper gentleman should: „And this is Captain Harriet Hook of Scattered Hope.“

He takes extra care to stress her title.

She doesn't bother to as much as angle her head.

He introduces his cousins, too, as „Lady Desdemona Tremaine,“ („I go by Dizzy, actually!“ she beams at the crowd), and then Celia, who doesn't have any titles as far as he is aware of, but who has perfected the art of creepy waving and eerie smiles.

Good for her.

Now, hete comes the fun part: when the Isle kids hear „Captain Hook,“ they think of Harriet and her safe ship more often than not.

On the other hand, when the Auradon citizens hear „Captain Hook,“ a shiver runs down their spines as they remember her father.

Which is, of course, why Harriet insists on being addressed as „Captain Hook“ at every possible occasion.

Yes, even in the bullshit that is Fairy Godmother's Remedial Goodness class.

FG:„Miss Hook?“

Harriet: „...“

FG: „Miss Hook!“

Harriet: „...“

FG, sighting: „Captain Hook, your answer to following question?“

Harriet: „When I see a baby on the street, first I check whether it is a trap or not, so I take my cutlass out and poke at the shadows a bit and maybe threaten a few people. If no one shows up, I check my pockets. Then I give the baby to Sammy to take to the ship and track down that bastard that abandoned a baby. Or murdered its mother, in which case I've got another stupid murderer at my hands, and need to deal with that, too, on top of somehow getting baby formula and deciding which one of my crew will get stuck carrying for it. Does that answer your question, Fairy Godmother?“

FG: „...“

Harriet and Anthony: smile sweetly

And, of course, they get into moderately heated discussion with King Beast, which Lumiere later describes as "the shouting match a the decade".

Upon exiting his office, Anthony asks when they are going to shout at him for real;

„Just wait until my sibling get there,“ answers Harriet, „Especially CJ.“

And Anthony smiles, because he finds the image of Harriet's tiny half-way feral sister yelling at King Beast as amusing as she does.

(It happens, btw. CJ yelling at him. She needs to drag a stool over to look at him straingh, which is hilarious as it is, nevermind that the former king doesn't run because he doesn't know what is good for him.)

Shortly after the first debate, the rest of the Isle kids are brought over.

Happy end!

(I'm soft, people. How could I not?)

Also, here, enjoy some fun facts:

Anthony is an only son of a french noble family that likes to think itself better than it is. Harriet is the eldest daughter of an English noble and an Eton graduate. Of course they know etiquette. And they are not afraid to weaponize it.

They are also nineteen years old. Surrounded by sixteen years old royals that have never once prepared a breakfast in their lives. They are tired.

Rules? What rules? You mean those things we have memorised so we can break them better?

„Technically-“

Anyway, curfew, that is, like, a suggestion? Right?

Meaning, Harriet has insomnia and Anthony is not leaving her alone. They are found wandering the school grounds more often than not. Well, they are not found, as the school security sucks.

Also, Harriet has some things to say about Lonnie being Ben's only bodyguard. As has Anthony. And Celia.

She just stares at the people that told her and goes: „Well that's bloody stupid.“

„Language, Celia!“

Also, both Harriet and Anthony reflectively (and preventively) reprimand the AKs and order them around.

„Careful in those high heels, the pavement down there is broken. Are you prepared to drop them if you need to run?“

„If you want to steal the knives, hide them better.“ („I was just trying to... I was just trying to butter a toast?“)

„Don't stab eachother in the halls, please.“

(As I said, they are tired.)

None of the Isle kids wear the uniforms. Anthony and Dizzy think they are a crime against nature, Harriet doesn't care enough, and Celia complaints that it doesn't fit her aesthetic.

Harriet wears her red cloak. It flares around her when she marches down the hall and she enjoys the manner in which the AKs get out of her way.

Anthony calls her „Ettie“ in public precisely one (1) time. She reacts by saying that she will dismember him and use his bones to create a tinker toy to hang above his youngest cousin's crib.

Oh, and Anthony gets a look at the financial management of the kingdom. You wouldn't believe how bad it is.

Yeah, he and Harriet are totally dating. As in, established relationship, but they refuse to acknowledge it.

Also, Dizzy and Celia are crushing at eachother a bit. (They are, what, thirteen? That happens, right?)

If you have any questions//anything that you find interesting, I'll gladly elaborate.

#disney descendants #cj hook #harriet hook #harry hook #freddie facilier #celia facilier #anthony tremaine/harriet hook #anthony tremaine #anthony descendants

82 notes · View notes

iron-hearts-ablaze · 3 months

Note

I saw your answer to another anon about Karlach ships and I just have to ask about her and Gale. Never seen it and I cant say i see it, so Im just curious!!!!! Not critisizing just wondering!!!!!!!!!

Answering Anons

// No worries, to call it a rare-pair would be an understatement - so I don't blame you Anon. It seems so shallow at a surface level, just a simple connection of they both have something in their chests causing trouble right? Well... Allow me to dive in deeper. I'll put it under the cut, but I went from the exact position as you to realising just how much these two could work. I hope it helps to explain - but remember, we don't all have to like the same! If you still don't see it, that's valid!

// Keep in mind I have a much better connection with Karlach (obviously) than Gale. So I may not have captured his thought processes well?

Alright, yes, they both have conditions. It's well known Karlach's character sheet is almost copying directly from Astarion's and Gale's. Just with a slight alteration there and then. But...why not make that work?

They would both have an understanding of the burdens they, literally, carry. They may have gotten the conditions in different ways and take different forms, but they both function in a similar way. They both hurt...and both Gale and Karlach can easily die because of it. It causes them both a lot of pain. At least if they confine in each other, they'd understand at least that.

Despite that INT 8 stat for Karlach, she's INCREDIBLY emotionally intelligent. She speaks highly of all the companions, their best attributes and what she and the player can do to help them ("give them space" "pick them up" etc). No doubt this would expand to being there for Gale during his more melancholy times. They are both doomed if nothing is done about it. She could have gone the same way, but she firmly believes in living a life as best you can - while you can. She'd 100% help him see at least some of her perspective, it may help.

Relationships mean a lot to them. Both romantic and platonic. They were isolated so it's worth holding onto those who would care about them. Including each other. And yet, they're not able to keep anyone close during Act 1. They each have to keep their inflictions in mind, and cannot get too emotional or it could be disastrous. To be surrounded by people but feel so alienated? It'd be familiar territory.

Plus, let's just be blunt, they're pretty amorous. They both make sexual comments in-game, it's not a far stretch to place those toward each other than to the player. Not like they're unattractive!

They also work well as a team in the field? One in the back firing off spells, the other in the front lines smacking the bitches up.

They both appreciate loyalty and have a soft spot for more romantic things.

Y'know what, they're just pretty, alright? 😆

Karlach likes animals....Gale has Tara.

It's kinda funny they're the Smart-and-Dumb or City Boy Meets Country Girl dynamic. More for humour's sake.

#ooc; ~mama k~#~answering anons~

2 notes · View notes

ididgettomeetyou · 1 year

Text

i want to give my 2 scents on that infamous shipping video bryke put out in i think it was what 2008/2012??? im unsure.. anyway my thoughts are this... One it was def immature/ not great to use kids artwork to demean them.. As a lazy artist taking peoples art to insult them really bugs me.. its why i hate when people here grab zutara art and bash it.. artists put their heart int their works. talking about it in ims is one thing but posting it/bashing it is just meanspirited.

what im saying is i totally can understand why people were upset with that video..

personally as an azulaang crackshipper i thought that part was kinda funny.. but i enjoy weird darkships. and as mutliszutara shipper i obv dont think people shipping it are dooomed. while i find it a bit amusing it was def meanspirted/uncalled for.. beause at the end of the day they are adults and you dont bully children over ships. its why im mad at grey for bullying kids some years ago/ and being very weird to em in general.. im happy her adult va is gonna be different.. im hoping one day daph will too.

BUT anyway its been what 14 years now? i see no point in still being bitter over that video after 14 years.. i see zero reason to be bitter over a ship for that long.. doesn't seem healthy its more fun to just enjoy your ship and not act like the creators robbed your house and stole everything you love. this fandoms attachement to being robbed/ is riduclous.. the creators didnt owe me zutara at 2008 back when i shipped it its their show.. they can have whatever ship they want. I wanted danny/valerie i got danny/sam.. it sucked but it wasnt the end of the world.. plus Butch acutally sucks as a person..

i think its just time to let the bryke hate die cause .. its been like 14 years. and without em the show wouldn't even exist. there be no zuko/no katara... there be nothing.. ive never see a fandom hate a creator so much its just insane to me.

esp with a bazillion other writers involved. who shockling wrote for kataang/maiko. . zutara was a fun crackship but thats all it was man.. a crackship no one was robbed.

#atla fandom problems #anti zutara fandom #so they dont complain #tho they are the ones that really need to let go #like it seems so unfun to hate people after 15 years to me #except jrk cause shes disgusting

16 notes · View notes

fantasyfantasygames · 7 months

Text

40 Parsecs

40 Parsecs and a M.U.L.E, Steamroller, 2021

(No relation to 40 Degree Fever, another game on my review list. Also no relation to the antique computer strategy game M.U.L.E.)

The name is, as you hopefully guessed, a reference to "Forty acres and a mule". For those who don't know Starcraft, a M.U.L.E. is a mining machine that you can call down from orbit.

I love alternate imaginations of the future, especially when they're on the optimistic side. 40 Parsecs is an afrofuture reimagining of Starcraft and it's amazing.

Instead of the Terran Dominion's fascist monarchy, the Umoja wa Galaksi (Galactic Unity or something like it in Kiswahili) is locally-run, multi-faceted, and multicultural. Every planet has its own unique ships. Some of them are fused with Protoss psychic crystals or Zerg biotech, because, like humanity, the Protoss and Zerg are not presented as monocultures! There are overminds who embrace peace. "Dark Templar" isn't frightening or an insult. There's an assumption that everyone has a little Protoss or Zerg (or both) going on and is tapped into a shared psychic network.

The PCs are citizens of a community (there's a community-building flowchart that the whole group uses) who have pledged to defend it. You see, there are still Terrans who are fascist, Zerg who don't like anyone, and Protoss who do want to telepathically control you, and they're trying to sneak into your territory. You find them, root them out, and defend your people.

Character types let you mimic the medium-scale characters from SC1 and SC2, though without their trademark gear until shit goes down. Terrans can be Enlisted (Marine, Firebat, Reaper, etc.), Agents (Ghosts), Construction (SCVs), Pilots, and Commanders. Protoss can be Priests, Scientists, Zealots, or AIs. Zerg can be Queens, Warriors, Overseers, or Corruptors. All of those are broad categories rather than the exact unit type.

The rules for 40 Parsecs are concise and effective, with a medium amount of "swing" to the rolls. Most of it is 3d6 + bonus vs. target number. A lot is handled through opposed rolls. Combat involves a neat die-swapping trick that lets you "steal" good dice from your opponent's failed roll to add to your attack roll to get your damage. Matters of scale are handled by adding large bonuses - a battlecruiser has +40 scale, for instance, whereas Marine armor gets +10, so doing even a small amount of damage takes an amazing shot.

Ability scores include the usual sci-fi set (Str, Agi, Sta, Int, Psy, Per) plus three cultural ability scores (unique to each culture) that map to each other in the game's most complex interactions. I'm not 100% sure how well those work in practice, but they sound cool and I like the approach to culture-as-a-defining-part-of-character. You can also borrow skills through the psychic network.

The art for the ships and units is pretty good, though the character art would have benefited from a professional artist rather than the writer's cousin. Bonus points for not using any of the video game art, though!

As you might guess from the name this one's on itch - or it was until ActiBlizzsion sent them a cease-and-desist and the page disappeared. You can occasionally find a copy on file-sharing services. Be warned that for some reason it's a touch over 3.4 GB. I suspect that the image compression went badly, badly wrong.

#ttrpg #imaginary #indie ttrpg #rpg #starcraft #afrofuturism #arcturus mengsk was a nazi #fuck the confederacy #in the grim dark future there is only proxy ultralisk rush lol get rekt

3 notes · View notes

yukidragon · 2 years

Note

...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I actually LIKE the idea of Jack bringing Ian and MC together again in a hypothetical poly route. How do see that playing out? You know, hypothetically~

As I touched on with the previous post on the topic, I do think it’s going to involve quite a lot more manipulation on Jack’s part when he’s trying to turn a broken couple into a functional polyship that includes him.

This is very, very highly speculative on my part, as we still don’t know exactly how the bond between Jack and MC works, or how the tape factors into it. I’m honestly doubtful that just anyone watching the tape can wind up bonding with Jack. For all we know, it could affect someone else differently even if they did watch the tape at the same time MC did.

However, for the sake of this hypothetical scenario, let’s say that whoever watched the tape that one time released Jack, and it created the same emotional and mental bond/need between him and the people who watched it.

A lot of this would hinge on the MC and their relationship and feelings towards Jack and Ian.

For example, my version of the MC, Alice, would absolutely not want to get back together with Ian. The relationship between them had become toxic in a way that is harmful to both of them, but Ian refuses to see that.

This then would be a huge issue for Jack. Assuming that his feelings of love and need for these two are equal. He wouldn’t want to lose either of them, but he would be able to sense how painful it is for Alice to be with Ian.

Ian is already in a desperate state. He seems very vulnerable to someone like Jack who would offer him friendship and advice on how to get back together with Alice(/MC). Given that he slipped and gave in to the temptation of sleeping with someone else before, chances are it wouldn’t be too hard to convince him that a polycule is just what their relationship needs, especially if it means keeping Alice(/MC) with him.

Jack would see right away just how much hurt there is between the two, especially on Alice(/MC)’s end. Her self-confidence is shot after what happened. He would try to be a friend to them at first, get both their sides of the situation and try to mediate it.

With some MCs, Jack might be able to convince them that Ian really does deserve another chance, and that adding a third would make everyone happy. Heck, some MCs would be thrilled by it after Jack coaches Ian on how to properly understand their feelings and make amends for cheating.

Jack is clean now. He can be anything he wants to be. Surely, he can help Ian do the same.

However, with Alice... forcing her to be with Ian is not healthy for her, or for Ian really. Jack, being an outside observer who would be able to sense some level of their thoughts and feelings, would quickly realize that their relationship isn’t good for either of them. Maybe it was at one point, but the more he learns about it, the more he sees just how much damage they’ve done to each other.

Since Jack can’t mentally handle losing either of them, he would convince himself that he could fill in the gaps of their incompatibility, help them communicate more and fix misunderstandings. He would be giving more, and more, and more of himself to the point that it would be unhealthy for him as well. There’s a lot of emotional baggage between Alice and Ian, and it’s not fair to force anyone, even a manipulative yandere, to carry that burden in order to make them into a functional relationship.

Perhaps it could work out in the end after a lot of effort and manipulation, but for the Alice/Jack/Ian polycule, I don’t see it as healthy.

For a different MC? Well, it might go much better. Poly relationships are even more complicated than regular relationships. You’re taking the complications of three people and their interpersonal relationships and trying to make them all work together without jealousy or insecurities getting in the way. I’m afraid I don’t know enough about poly ships to go too deep into detail about how to generally make them work to really dig further into specifics, but I do know that it would take a lot of thought and effort to ensure everyone involved is happy and fulfilled.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars

#Sunny Day Jack #Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack #SunnyDayJack #sdj #swwsdj #Headcanon Ramblings #Ask

18 notes · View notes

gawdilykeu · 2 years

Text

VERY LONG BYLER VS MILEVEN RANT/ESSAY BUT NOT, MY ENDLESS THOUGHTS ON THE LOVE TRIANGLE IG

Table of contents thing cause this thing got so long:

Intro

My thoughts on Mileven (and why I don’t think they work anymore)

My thoughts on Byler (and why I do think they work)

Why I think Byler has a chance of being endgame

Why I think Byler might not be endgame

List of my fav Byler moments

Final thoughts

I have a LOT of thoughts on the whole “Byler vs Mileven” thing and I just need to get them off my chest for no one’s benefit but my own. First of all let me just say I like both ships, I’m not trying to yuck anyone’s yum this is all just my own opinion and interpretation okay? Okay good. Second of all I have no idea what the Duffers and Stranger Things writers are planning on actually doing and I don’t wanna pretend to know cause I honestly kinda think it could go either way at this point. So anyway, with that out of the way I will say that I personally am rooting for Byler endgame in terms of what I WANT, but I don’t hate Mileven or anything and I don’t know which one will be endgame. Also disclaimer I talk a lot. This will be long.

So first my thoughts on Mileven:

I think they’re cute and I see the appeal. Little nerdy boy meets mysterious badass (but sweet and traumatized) little girl, they go through a crazy ordeal together and help each other and become very emotionally bonded, then ensues a cute innocent puppy-love story. I get it! For years when I was more of a GA member I had never really given Byler much thought and I thought Mileven was cute but I wasn’t like invested into it or anything, and did see more issues in their relationship as the seasons progressed.

So anyway, my problems with their relationship are as follows:

- If we think about them from a real-word standpoint, the fact that they became romantically involved when they did is a little insane. If it were real life, I think anyone with a brain would agree that the last thing El in particular needed at that time was a “boyfriend”, or a boy kissing her, etc. I don’t blame innocent little twelve year old Mike, but poor little El had just barely learned what a “friend” was, and had no idea what Mike was trying to say when he tried to tell her he had a crush on her. She had no way of knowing anything about romance/what it entailed/what was healthy/what she wanted at that point. I mean really. When would she have ever had it modeled for her before? I seriously doubt she would understand the complete implications of something like a kiss. Plenty of twelve year olds with normal upbringings don’t fully grasp all the things to do with love and romance, let alone someone who was raised like El was. Again, if we were to pretend that something like this happened in real life, where a little girl escaped from a LAB where she was kept from the real world, not given a real name, emotionally and physically abused, dehumanized, and treated like an experiment for the first twelve years of her life, I think everyone would agree she would need a good amount of time to learn about/adjust to regular life. She definitely shouldn’t be getting romantically involved with anyone for a while, and especially not within the first week of meeting other people as a twelve year old. ANYWAY that was probably at least a little redundant but hopefully you get it. I don’t know how “realistic” Stranger Things wants to be in that regard, and you can have a little bit of suspension of disbelief with Mike and El’s love story, I get it, but yeah.

- As their relationship progresses and El adjusts more and more, they honestly don’t seem to have that much substance together, and while they obviously care for each other (how could they not considering their history together and how they met and bonded) their relationship is kinda immature and doesn’t actually feel that strong. They don’t really have any common interests (El still doesn’t know anything about DnD or any of Mike’s other nerdy [affectionate] interests and doesn’t seem interested in them, and also hasn’t developed too many interests of her own, but we do see she seems to like romance movies, something Mike doesn’t seem to like?), and spend most of their time ditching their friends and just kissing in season three. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of development or mutual understanding to their relationship. They have communication issues, and their relationship problems are played for laughs in season three. Again, they obviously have some kind of bond, but now that they’re spending more time together their romantic relationship doesn’t seem that compelling or healthy. Also, we finally see El start forming other close friendships that she spends one-on-one time with outside of Mike only in season 3, and only THEN does she also finally start to even think about the fact that she can have her OWN INTERESTS AND TASTES. And she had a boyfriend before this? Anyway. You get it right? A lot of the GA actually seems to have an opinion similar to this now despite Mike and El being one of (if not the) most prominently featured romantic relationships in the show.

- They both seem to put each other on pedestals and (unintentionally) make each other insecure. Mike sees El as this badass superhero who at any moment could realize he’s a loser who’s not good enough for her and will not need him anymore. He doesn’t share his nerdy interests with her and at times even seems to try to pretend he’s someone he’s not to feel worthy of her and of a girl liking him in general (see: California arrival outfit). Meanwhile El seems to try and mold herself into a “pretty” “normal” girl to make herself feel worthy of having a boyfriend. She wants to fit the role of “girlfriend” and be good enough for a normal boy like Mike. She’s insecure about being different and doesn’t really want to be just a “superhero” or a “monster”, and idolizes girls she finds pretty and normal and tries to emulate them. She is also insecure about being bullied at school and not fitting in, and deliberately keeps this from Mike and lies to him about having friends and going to parties, presumably all in an attempt to impress him and make him think she’s good enough for him. So all in all, not a lot of healthy communication going on and they both seem to see each other (and themselves in relation to the other) in a somewhat skewed way.

- This can also be lumped in with their overall communication issues, but we also have the whole thing of Mike not being able to say “I love you” or the L word at all to El, something that means a lot to her and hurts her when she notices the pattern. Their whole fight about it in season 4 was also not a very healthy fight, and for me really did just highlight all the issues with their romantic relationship. The reasoning behind Mike not being able to say it can be interpreted in multiple ways sure, but it does just seem kinda “red-flag”y to me. El needs this verbal confirmation, and even when she’s confronting Mike about it and crying in front of him about it he just deflects and denies and STILL DOESN’T SAY IT! I feel like if you really were in love with someone and saw them crying asking you to tell them as much YOU WOULD TELL THEM? Unless you wanted to beeak up? In which case I also feel like that would indicate not being super in love? I don’t know. And yes we know he says it in the monologue but like it took a life or death, end of the world, situation to do it AND even then he still had to be coaxed into it by someone else. I don’t know. It could have been the writer’s intention to have the monologue fix all their problems and all that, but I kinda hope not, because I still don’t think their relationship seems healthy after everything else I’ve listed.

Okay, now onto Byler:

Like I mentioned, I never gave much thought to Byler until season 4. I had heard about it and knew some people shipped it, and I saw the appeal you know, but again didn’t think much of it and definitely didn’t think it had a shot in hell of being canon. Then season 4 happened, my third eye was opened, and seeing Byler become halfway canon was so earth-shattering and life changing that it made me think, if it came this far, maybe it has a chance of going all the way. And now all the pieces for me have clicked into place and I am 100% a Byler endgame advocate. If it’s done right, I think it would make so much narrative sense and be such a good ending for these characters.

So here is why I think that Byler should be endgame (whether it actually is or not):

- First of all, there’s the whole list of reasons I gave above as to why Mileven isn’t actually the healthiest relationship in my opinion, so that would (for me) justify them having a HEALTHY MUTUAL BREAKUP and El being single independent (which is not me wanting to take away her happiness or not wanting her to have a happy ending, El is my babygirl and don’t you dare try and tell me different) healthy and happy. I genuinely think it’d be best for her and Mike but especially her TRUST!

- Okay now onto my advocacy of Byler themselves. Pretty much of all the problems with Mike and El’s relationship are solved with Mike and Will’s potential relationship. I’ll list all of them in a similar way. Mike and Will met at the beginning of kindergarten and have been best friends ever since, already showing that they most definitely know each other well and have had years of bonding under their belts. They feel most comfortable telling each other everything and this is made clear multiple times in the show (hello crazy together scene, just to name one example). They specifically confide in each other and the bond between the two of them in particular (out of all the boys in their four-person friend group) has been repeatedly emphasized throughout the show. They have a special relationship and have been very close for some time.

- They know and see each other exactly as the other person is and love them for it, and don’t feel like they have to put up a front around each other. They have tons of common interests that they love sharing and partaking in together. Everything about himself that Mike is insecure about in his relationship with El, Will LOVES and knows him for. That nerd that Mike thinks isn’t good enough for El and avoids fully showing to her, a.k.a. his truest self, is quite literally who Will has known deeply for years and is in love with.

- No relationship is perfect obviously, and no one’s denying that Mike and Will have had conflicts in their relationship too, but the conflicts literally only started after Mike started dating El and pretty much all of them had to do with his relationship with El too. Like actually.

- Will loves Mike the way Mike wants to be loved, and you could argue vice versa. When Mike vents to Will about all his relationship problems with El, he talks repeatedly about how he’s afraid that she’ll realize she doesn’t need him anymore, and that he knows she doesn’t, emphasizing that he evidently wants to feel needed. We then learn through Will’s speech to him about El’s his feelings for him that Will needs Mike and always will. Every single thing Will says to Mike in that speech makes Mike feel infinitely better and more loved than he probably ever has, and all of it came from Will’s feelings and most of it can also be directly disproven as being how El feels. Mike makes her feel like she’s not a mistake at all and that she’s better for being different? El directly told him otherwise just the day before and we see that it’s true. Will’s the one who feels that way. El was mean to him and pushing him away because she was scared of losing him? She actively and enthusiastically wrote him while they were apart and signed all her letters with “Love, El” and tried to remain close. Will was the one doing this and was scared of losing Mike. She needs Mike and always will? Mike said himself that he knew she didn’t, and El was shown dealing with all her problems alone and often without Mike’s support, such as her problems with Angela and the Nina Project. It’s Will who needs Mike and always will. El signed her last letter to Mike after their fight before going to the Nina Project with “From, El”. I don’t know. it all seems to add up pretty well to me. So anyway, it’s Will who loves him the way he craves, and Will’s words and painting are what made him regain hope in his relationship with El because he thought they all came from her, but literally none of them did.

Now that I’ve sufficiently contrasted the two relationships and explained why I think Byler fits better, I’m going to explain why I think Byler has a chance of being canon/endgame:

- Will is completely canonically in love with Mike. This is the huge one and the one that opened my eyes to everything else. Like I said before, if they went halfway there’s a chance they could go the rest of the way too. If they do it right, I could easily see how they could introduce Mike loving Will back in the same way. If there’s a healthy Mileven break up, whose to say Mike can’t realize he’s either been in love with Will for a while and didn’t realize (thanks to heteronormativity), or realizes he loves Will and that Will is right for him after learning that all those words in the van and the painting were all from him? I could see this potentially being done through well-placed flashbacks and providing new insights on old scenes and stuff. It’s possible I think.

- They do have a decent amount of romantic tension and subtext in season 4 in particular. The repeated interruptions during intimate moments where they both are startled out of it, the fight where they say verbatim the words: “You called maybe a couple times. Meanwhile El has like a book of letters from you.” “That’s because she’s my girlfriend, Will!” “And us?” “We’re friends. We’re friends.”, the longing stares and double takes, like come ON! That is so blatant. I am also a strong advocate for the fact that if Will were a straight female character but everything else was the same, wayy more of the GA would ship them, realize they have a chance of being canon, pick up on the romantic subtext to their scenes and their compatibility, etc. Like way more people would realize that they are a valid option for a romantic pairing and I stand by that truth. Even Will being canonically gay and in love with Mike isn’t enough for some of these people because I guess maybe they think there’s no way Mike could like him back since Will is a boy and Mike’s had a girlfriend. First of all, are we forgetting bisexual people can exist, second of all, are we forgetting comphet can exist. There’s multiple ways that Mike liking Will back is possible despite Will being a boy and Mike having had a girlfriend (I am personally a bi Mike truther cause I think he did have a crush on El initially and it would also help explain why it would take him so much longer to realize he’s attracted to boys if he was attracted to girls too, whereas Will never liked girls so he realized he was different much earlier on. I support gay Mike truthers too though I think both are valid😌).

- I do think all the deliberate pairing and framing of them, again particularly in season 4, feels significant. Like the way they’re together all season having heart to hearts while El is gone and her and Mike are having problems and how practically their entire plot is centered around the Will Mike El love triangle. And the last shot of season 4? That one seriously gets me. Like that’s gotta mean something right? Like we have three couples extremely obviously placed as distinguished pairs, literally all eight feet apart from each other, and then El in the foreground alone. Like they could have had the others places as a sort of group or something, but they made the choice to have Nancy and Jonathan standing hand in hand, eight feet away theres Mike and Will standing side by side, and then another eight feet and we have Joyce and Hopper hand in hand. Like?? Anyway. That one feels huge to me.

- Will is the only character of the main group who has not had a romantic storyline yet. He’s the only one who hasn’t had a kiss or relationship or anything. And then we find out (as some had speculated) that he is in fact in love with Mike specifically, and it becomes a central part of his storyline. We’ve also been told that Will will play a huge part in season 5 and will have his coming of age moment, so it sounds pretty plausible that he could get the boy he’s loved for years and finally have the love story he never thought he would. We even have the scene in season 3 where his mom says “You’re not gonna think it’s gross when you fall in love” and Will mumbles “I’m not gonna… fall in love” which seems like it could be foreshadowing to me. Now that we know he is in love and we know who he’s in love with, it seems like it’d be a great payoff and resolution to have him end up with Mike. And just to reiterate, I think it would genuinely be best for El herself and for her character arc to be single, I am not just saying that for Byler’s sake and I put that on everything. But for Will’s storyline, the natural, satisfying, and happy resolution feels like it should be for him to get Mike I think.

- We are shown that Will is very selfless and self-sacrificing multiple times in the show, and this is further shown with his love for Mike. Despite being in love with Mike and feeling him grow distant at times due to his relationship with El, Will does nothing but try to help Mike when he comes to him with his relationship problems. He cares deeply about El and Mike and their happiness, and so he willingly self sabotages and breaks his own heart to push them back together and try to singlehandedly repair their relationship. Like literally. He gives Mike that whole speech about how “El” feels to make him feel better and try to assuage his self doubt and make him feel needed, and it works, and as soon as Mike is feeling better about his relationship with El Will turns to the other side so Mike can’t see him and sobs his eyes out. Like oh my GOD. And then I’m what, not supposed to root for him? This also makes me feel like it’d be such good pay off for Will to then end up with the boy since he loved him so selflessly and patiently from the side all that time. So was this all intentionally set up by the writers? Only time will tell.

- Another thing that hints at a possible Byler endgame for me is the Jancy/Stancy love triangle parallels to the Byler/Mileven love triangle. People talk about a lot of Byler parallels to multiple other relationships in the show but the Jancy ones stick out the most to me. First of all we have the fact that Jancy are literally Byler’s older siblings. They could also be called Byler technically since it’s going off last names. The whole speech that Murray gives to Nancy and Jonathan in season 2 also fits sooo well with Mike and Will. Just replace Nancy with Mike, Johnathan with Will, and Steve with El. And the scene where Nancy and Jonathan sit on the car in season 2 and have a heart to heart when Nancy can’t say I love you to Steve paralleled to the scene in season 4 where Mike and Will sit on a car and have a heart to heart when Mike can’t say I love you to El. And might I also add that the Wheeler and Byers siblings sit on the same sides in both scenes, and both Wheeler siblings hold a soda can in each scene. I feel like that’s gotta be intentional. Right? And as we know, Nancy ends up breaking up with Steve and gets with Jonathan, and I’m rooting for Jancy endgame especially cause we also have them as one of those isolated pairs in the last shot of season 4.

- I do feel like it’d be kinda unsatisfying/weird to end the Will being in love with Mike storyline any other way. Will gets over Mike? Well then why did they establish him being in love with Mike for years, it doesn’t seem like something you just get over. And then what would have been the point of making his character in love with Mike anyway? Angst? They could have had him still help fix Mike and El’s relationship without him loving Mike. Will gets rejected by Mike and has to just deal with it? Again, then what was the point of making his character love him in the first place? And that just feels anticlimactic and cruel, especially considering what Will’s character has been through. I want him to have his happy ending so bad. Will meets a new boy and gets a new love interest? That would be so unsatisfying cause it would just be some rando that the audience isn’t nearly as familiar with/attached to, and for a character as central as Will it just feels lame. And I again raise the question WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE POINT OF WRITING HIM BEING IN LOVE WITH MIKE FOR YEARS? And then if the whole Will loving Mike thing/WillMikeEl love triangle is just never really addressed again in season 5 then that’d just be shitty writing. So anyway. Also, I sorta feel like Mike rejecting Will/not feeling the same way is the more “expected” thing to happen, so him feeling the same and them ending up together would actually be a more satisfying twist. And we know they love a good twist. And again, IF they did it right I think the writers could at least make most of the GA on board with Mileven breakup and Byler endgame by the time it happens.

- Mike’s monologue was not nearly as compelling as it could have been, if you ask me. Which makes me wonder whether or not that was intentional. Flashbacks are used abundantly in season 4 for emotional impact in scenes like that, and to showcase different characters’ important relationships. There was no Mileven flashback montage, in the season of flashback montages. And they totally could have done it!! There are plenty of genuinely cute and happy Mileven snippets that they could have used to make one, so I wonder why they didn’t when they did that for so many other characters. Like would Mike’s monologue not have been the time to do it, to remind the audience of all their good shared moments and reinstill everyone’s faith in their relationship? And also, the main line that irks me from the monologue is where Mike says about the first second he met El “I knew right then and there, in that moment, that I loved you. And I’ve loved you everyday since”, because…. no he didn’t? Like I’m sorry if the writers genuinely meant that to be taken at face value and taken seriously because it’s just objectively not true. Why in the hell would this distraught twelve year old out searching for his missing best friend in the rain, upon coming across a scared kid with a shaved head and wearing nothing but a huge t-shirt in the woods, have his first thought be “I’m in love”? That makes no fucking sense. And we also see that he didn’t! He looks at her in bewilderment, understandably, and that’s the one Mileven flashback we get. And, that night after they bring El back to Mike’s house we hear him telling Lucas and Dustin about how he wanted to send El back around the front of the house in the morning and have his mom deal with her. He says “she’ll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from and we’ll be totally in the clear.” Does that sound like someone who was in love at first sight? No! Because why on Earth would he have been? So anyway, if the writers were really being fr with that then I genuinely just don’t know what to say. Also the stuff where Mike talks about how she’s a superhero and can fly and move mountains and stuff. I still feel like El wants to be seen as a normal girl and a person and know that Mike loves her for that first and foremost, so those lines are iffy to me too. He could have thrown in more about what he loves about her as an individual I guess. There are so many other compelling, true things they could have potentially written to make the monologue as impactful and “Mileven solidifying” as possible, but they didn’t. I think. And they didn’t include flashbacks. Just saying. And then there’s also the thing people have brought up about how they still don’t seem totally great after the monologue, and we get another Mike and Will heart to heart afterwards where Mike says El hasn’t talked to him much. Like there’s no final Mileven cute scene, or Mileven kiss, or anything.

Okay, now for reasons that I’m not positive that we will get Byler endgame, and why I think it’s still all up in the air and could go either way:

- Mileven has been an established canon romantic pairing since season 1 that many people are used to and also like (even if I do think they’ve fallen a little bit out of the GA’s good graces over the past few seasons), and it does sometimes just seem kind of crazy to think that they’ll break them up in the last season of the show.

- Mileven has had some very cute and endearing moments, and genuinely good scenes. The season 2 reunion is still unmatched actually. Their snowball scenes are also really good, and the scenes in season 1 where Mike calls her pretty, especially after her wig is gone. And their initial love story is cute.

- I do just sometimes have doubts that such a mainstream show will make a gay relationship between two of the main main characters canon, especially when it hasn’t been completely spelled out since the beginning. Cause you know there’s mainstream shows that have blatantly gay characters at the forefront and are mainly targeted at gay audiences, like Heartstopper and stuff, and there’s mainstream shows that aren’t primarily gay shows but have token gay characters (but those characters are more often than not side characters who don’t have much more to their personality other than being gay), but there doesn’t seem to be many mainstream shows targeted at all audiences that aren’t primarily “gay” shows that introduce gay characters and relationships into the forefront. That was a run-on sentence sorry. Point is, it would be kinda crazy and legendary for Stranger Things to end with their two main male characters getting into in a gay relationship in the last season. Will I think is already pretty great representation; he’s a main character with huge plot significance, he’s super well rounded and beautifully portrayed, and him being gay in no way takes up what his character is. Like he’s definitely not reduced to just being a token gay character. He’s the Will Byers. And him being gay only became more blatant and “confirmed” as his character got older and his storyline progressed, but he was always a gay character and you can see it from the beginning if you’re not stupid. Anyway, I digress, I’m just saying I have some doubts because it’s so common to be queerbaited or not have canon gay relationships happen when they aren’t established from the beginning on such big shows that aren’t primarily for gay audiences.

Now before we go, just because I can, a quick list of my favorite Byler moments in (mostly, I think) chronological order:

- Mike biking home crying and then hugging his mom after they find Will’s body in the quarry

- Mike shoving Troy to the ground for making fun of Will and saying he was “in fairyland now, all happy and gay”

- Mike and Will reunion in the hospital where he puts his head on Will’s chest

- Mike finding Will outside the arcade snapping him out of trance putting his arm around him and taking him back in.

- Mike gazing forlornly at Will’s empty desk

- Will screaming for Mike in the upside down

- Mike finding Will and taking him away from everyone else and bringing him to his house on Halloween night when he finds him having a panic attack after a vision (the general pattern of Mike always being the one who finds Will during these things)

- Crazy together scene

- Mike demanding to be let in to the Byers’ house to see if Will is okay

- The “we won’t let him” scene where Mike comforts newly possessed Will and puts his hand on Will’s

- Will screaming for Mike while being wheeled through the hospital in agony

- Will remembering Mike’s name even when the Mindflayer’s possession starts to take over

- Mike carrying unconscious Will at the lab

- The scene where Mike cries while telling possessed Will about the first day they met and how asking Will to be his friend was the best thing he’s ever done, and possessed Will cries too even though he can’t answer

- When Will immediately turned to Mike after that girl asked him to dance at the snowball and he didn’t want to

- The Byler Lumax double date at the movie theater where the pairs sat in seperate rows and everything

- Will’s “I’m not gonna fall in love” scene

- The rain fight where Mike says “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” and they both fall silent

- Mike chasing after Will in the pouring rain immediately after the fight to apologize

- Mike and Will hugging when they’re all saying goodbye to the Byers and Will’s crying so hard

- Mike staring back at the Byers’ empty house after the moving van left and everyone rode away with Hopper’s letter narrating

- Mike going home after the Byers were gone looking empty and shell-shocked and hugging his mom, still with Hopper’s narration

- Will painting in his room for Mike with El’s letter to Mike narrating and saying “Will has been painting a lot! But he won’t show me what he’s working on. Maybe it is for a girl! I think there is someone he likes, because he has been acting… weird.”

- Will looking absolutely dopey happy while waiting for Mike at the airport with his painting

- The awkward airport reunion where Will goes to hug Mike and he doesn’t hug him back and pats him on the shoulder instead and Will’s face immediately falls and he doesn’t give Mike the painting or say what it is (why on Earth would Mike do that I feel like that must mean something else too)

- The fight at the roller rink where Mike says the “We’re friends. We’re friends.” line

- Will staring at Mike all during breakfast while Mike is distracted

- The heart to heart in Will’s room where Mike crumples and throws away the letter from El and Will comforts him

- The heart to heart in Will’s room while they’re packing where they apologize for everything from before and Will gets tears in his eyes when Mike says “It’s Hawkins, it’s not the same without you.” and all that stuff and then at the end they both smile at each other in silence and jump when the moment is broken and Jonathan comes in. And then Will decides to put his painting in his back pack

- When Will stares at Mike with the most longing look of all time when they’re out in the desert and Mike looks back at him, sees Will looking at him and does an awkward flustered triple take before going back to what he was doing and Will keeps staring

- When Mike and Will have the heart to heart on top of the car (just like Jancy) and Will says “Sometimes, I think it’s just.. scary, to open up like that. To say how you really feel. Especially to people you care about the most, because, what if- what if they don’t like the truth?” and then gives Mike a meaningful glance

- The talk in the van where Will finally gives Mike the painting but then pretends it’s from El and tells Mike how he feels and also pretends that’s from El and when Mike feels better he turns out to the window and sobs and Jonathan notices the whole thing

- So many longing stares from Will in season 4 and multiple interruptions of intimate conversations

- When Mike and Will have a heart to heart in Hopper’s broken down cabin with the sun beams coming through the broken wall and framing Will beautifully and Mike grabs Will’s shoulder

- The final shot of season 4 with Mike and Will side by side in a distinguished pair staring over Hawkins with the dramatic music

So I think I finally said everything I wanted to say. This was way longer than I expected maybe the longest post of all time. I don’t think I even said anything that hasn’t been said by someone else before but still I just wanted to get all my “Byler vs Mileven” thoughts out in one cohesive thing cause it’s been driving me crazy. But these are all the things I find relevant I guess and anyway yeah Byler endgame please Duffers but if you don’t I’ll survive I guess maybe just please end the show well that’s all I ask. ALSO one last thing if Byler becomes endgame but it’s done in a shitty way I’ll be so mad cause there’s so much potential. If any of them die also I’ll never forgive the duffers that is NOT how I want the love triangle resolved. I don’t want any of those three to be sad I want happy endings all around and that goes for the other characters too they’re all my pookies it’s just that this post was about Byler and Mileven. This is my final word.

#byler #byler analysis #byler endgame #byler endgame real #anti milkvan #anti mileven #sorry i feel so bad tagging anti mileven i dont hate them i swear but i guess this post is mostly anti mileven #byler proof #byler rant #this is the dumbest post of all time #might delete at some point who knows #mike wheeler #mike x will #will byers #eleven hopper #stranger things #stranger things season 4 #el hopper

22 notes · View notes