#but also I've never claimed to have a consistent theme and never will

[doctor-badadvice]

This man has not updated his wardrobe since 1947

There's already a few posts discussing outfits and symbolism and while I found them very interesting, I'm a person of strong opinions now writing two characters with chess related names. So here's my two cents (or should I say, nickels) about Bishop's appearance throughout the 2003 show and what tells us about the specific moment of his life that's being portrayed. The focus will be mainly on the palette, but also on whatever influences are behind the designs.

So let's get started!

1815 — Battle of New Orleans

Here's the first disclaimer. I know next to nothing about US history past what little school required me to learn and generically speaking, I've never been interested in the nuances of how people come together to kill each other. History classes were far more interesting to me when we talked about society and culture. So take what I'll say with a grain of salt. My military expertise here is a couple Wikipedia pages.

As far as Bishop's uniform goes, I have no idea what's going on. I read that uniforms were supposedly mainly blue with whatever color corresponded to what the unit's duty was, with the exception of musicians who had their colors swapped. If that's true, Bishop here could have been a musician having a not so great day at work. But the field medics later in the flashback are wearing the same color so it's probably just a choice to keep the color palette consistent.

Other than that, the belt would suggest he had some kind of rank. Though I don't think they were trying to be accurate past the bare minimum. I'm not going to guess what Bishop was up to in his mortal days.

Also, a special mention goes to Bishop's facial hair. He must have been popular in his time.

1870 — Creation of EPF

This is where colors start being relevant but first, another disclaimer. I appreciate the work wiki editors do, but it would be nice to have sources to whatever's stated on a given page, especially if you're providing estimated dates. I can't say I disagree, but it'd be nice to know where the information comes from.

So the wiki says that Bishop was supposedly born in 1776. It means that at the time of EPF's foundation he was nearing his hundredth birthday. No wonder he's dressing in all black. The average life expectancy at the time was about 40 years old. It's very possible Bishop had already outlived most, if not everyone he knew and it's probably something one would struggle to come to terms with.

Design wise, turtlenecks were nothing new at the time. Medieval knights wore garments in a similar shape under their armors well before the 15th century. And yes, I guess that's more of a coat than the average tactical turtleneck, but it still gives him a hitman, or even hunter vibe which is more or less what he was up to at the time.

1947 Roswell. New Mexico/present times

I can finally explain the title now. But first, let’s take a step back!

Bishop’s default outfit is the secret agent outfit™ we’re all well accustomed to. Specifically, I think the closest he takes inspiration from is Agent Smith from the Matrix movies (as I previously mentioned here). Guy in a black suit with shades, apparently impeccable self control and a distinctive way of talking that compels you to listen to him.

There’s so much to say about motivations and themes these two share, but let's focus on the aesthetic side.

These two fools are men in black. Yes, like the movies. The whole trope originates from some old conspiracy theories about the US government hiding aliens. These theories date all the way back to 1947 from some guy named Harold Dahl claiming a man in a dark suit told him not to tell anyone about some UFO sightings. Various fellow ufologists made similar claims over the years, making it a staple of their general paranoia.

Because of the second flashback, it’s possible that Bishop himself was one of these men in black, if not the one the rumors started from. It's a funny thought and I feel like Bishop would also find it amusing to watch people lose their minds about his fashion choices for decades.

Color wise, white has been added to the mix. It’s been a while now since the creation of EPF and Bishop has found some kind of balance in his life. He’s still dead set in his hatred for aliens and clearly enjoys inflicting pain on creatures he sees as undeserving of basic human decency, but he now has some purpose other than looking at the sky for something to shoot down. He leads an elite task force with men and funding devoted to developing a proper defense of the planet. He’s a foe not to be underestimated and a formidable fighter who can and will take on multiple opponents. But he’s also a very scared man who doesn’t wish what happened to him on anyone.

I often praise the show because Bishop can survive getting impaled but he still remains human. He will react with sheer violence to aggression and reform his ways when shown kindness. He will happily stick his hands in turtle soup for some DNA, but also be the best man at his friend's wedding and even attempt dressing up for the occasion despite having been deprived of normal human interactions for more than a century.

(I know it's a little cluttered in this point but I can't just leave out Casual Friday Bishop)

Design wise, I like just how an otherwise elegant attire works during the fight scenes and this detail specifically.

This man’s power is stored in the leggy.

Interlude

So this pic above is me right now.

For context, I usually consider the episodes of the staged alien invasion to the outbreak as part of the same arc. The entire situation is absolutely absurd from Bishop dragging the president into his fanfiction in response to budget cuts, to Baxter's bodily misadventures, to Bishop making a deal with a random ghost over the phone while New York is turning into yet another Umbrella Corp mishap.

But anyways we're here to judge this man's fashion taste and we have two outfits to talk about.

First off, a special mention goes to the catsuit and this pose specifically.

The sass is off the charts.

Though I find this one kind of depressing. There isn't a lot to read in it either other than Baxter grabbing the most generic tactical turtleneck for the sake of keeping Bishop from walking around bare chested (and the scene before this pic clearly shows Bishop isn't afraid to show some titty). But seeing him in all black right after moving to a new body kinda points out that Agent Bishop, leader of the EPF, is kinda on par with a piece of military equipment (and the president probably sees him as much to an extent). He's the mold for an army of supersoldiers for crying out loud.

But he switches back to the usual suit afterwards and what matters here is the supersuit.

S3 onward

Imagine being an alien, member of the starfleet of your planet and senior officer of the invading force tasked with taking over Earth. You have trained hard, wargamed the whole operation a bunch of times and concluded that it will be piss easy to conquer this underdeveloped planet.

You reach the surface, get into formation and then this nerd rolls up.

The best way to describe this suit is "hostile". It's hostile to the animators and to whoever has to stare at this eyesore before Bishop shoots at them.

And I love it. There's nothing quite like a black and red suit of armor with various cybernetics and lights to say that you mean business. It goes very well with how the stakes just start steadily rising from this point of the show onwards and seeing as the suit was ready during the staged invasion, we know that Bishop never really planned to retire after unleashing his army of clones.

It adds that extra bit of cyberpunk that I like to see and it shows that Bishop never truly gives up on anything since we have actually seen this design before.

Bishop was so proud of his Slayer he just stuck with him in spirit.

Couple that with a new coat to take off for extra dramatic effect and— maybe the president was right about not trusting him with unlimited budget.

2105 — New York apparently

Another century has passed and Bishop is still alive and kicking. Well, he doesn't kick as much anymore as it would be unbecoming if the beloved president of the Pan-Galactic Alliance were to go around kicking alien butt.

Jokes aside, you can disagree with Bishop's portrayal in Fast Forward, but they were still trying to do something meaningful with him. The idea of the turtles having to work with him when they were trying to kill each other just the other day is surprisingly deep for a season that felt the need to have the most unfunny robobutler ever.

They were clearly attempting a chess joke switching the palette to white with black streaks. Bishop has completely turned his life around and it even shows in the way he presents himself. It's nice to see just how much he managed to accomplish as well, even though it would have been very interesting to see him have a gradual change of mind, rather than selling us the concept through timeskip magic.

Does the design still hold up then?

Well, Bishop is clearly making an effort to look the least intimidating. He is fairly more patient when others don't immediately do as he says, even asking for help rather than blackmailing, and is still commendably dedicated to his job. He still asserts dominance by showing leggy (seriously, Mr President, that slit doesn't have to go this hard) and he's still deep down, at all times, ready to throw hands.

That's Bishop alright and it's no coincidence that he starts running around shooting aliens the second Baxter shows up in his life again. I'm not much of a fan of his new armor though. I think they were going for a futuristic design but it's the blandest they could think of. It reminds me of Obi-Wan Kenobi's armor in The Clone Wars but it just kinda comes out of nowhere. It would have been cooler if his tunic turned into a set of armor kinda like what the turtles got.

In any case, if you really want to see reformed Bishop really shine, you should check out @adenthemage / @violetvulpini 's art. You will not be disappointed.

#tmnt 2003 #agent bishop #oof #this was one hell of a ride #I haven't discussed anything in this length since uni #Tumblr also decided to complain about the number of pics I was adding #hopefully it won't be as much of a pain when I come around to talk about his fighting style

[faeriekit]

Questions for Fic Writers ✏📝💻

@chromatographic tagged me! ...And then I was at work and forgot about it by the time I got to my laptop! Sorry 😅

How many works do you have on Ao3?

My works tab claims the number to be twenty two, but at least one is a screen-reader-friendly duplicate of a Percy Jackson themed Reskin of Kids on Brooms, so it's more like...twenty one. I'd also take off of Blister Pack one-shots because they're tiny but they are one shots and those are technically valid, so...

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

355,110. Thank you, Blister Pack and Trade of Trickery!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Naruto.

...So I what I usually write and what I actually publish to ao3 are pretty different 😅 I've been doing a bunch of dp x dc fics as of late, and one dc x marvel fic, but if left to my own devices, I go back to Star Wars and Naruto and a lot of Naruto, and I have a surprising word count on a Supernatural fic which is odd considering I've never actually finished an episode of the show before.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

No idea! Lemme look:

#5: Dig Three Graves in Apartment 31C. A spooky and classic contender!

#4: The Firstborn Son. My excuse for writing a almost-canon dp x dc fairy story!

#3: The Haunting of Drake Manor. Nice 😎 You may have noticed, but I'm a sucker for baby fic.

#2: You know 'em, you love 'em, it's The Health and Wellbeing of Hybrid Entities! Who doesn't love a dissection recovery fic?

#1: Which leaves, of course, Blister Pack to reign supreme o'er the ao3 account. Who's shocked? Not me.

5. Do you respond to comments?

...there's 1,900 in my inbox right at this moment.

I want to. I love responding to comments. but it's just not feasible in the way I want it to be, and that blows.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Patchwork Memories! I don't think this counts because it was just a snippet, but, you know. Angst for the sake of angst n' all that.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Blister Pack!! Find joy in packing up and getting the fuck out of there! Who needs 'em?? Hit the bricks!!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've received stuff I honestly consider worse than hate, which is people who believe that I should think exactly what they think and write the fic as they believe canon should be interpreted, but here is the funniest exchange I've ever had on any fic ever:

9. Do you write smut fic? If so, what kind?

Once. I will occasionally write stuff for myself, but the reviews on the one posted smut chapter were generally that it was very, very funny. This does not give me much feedback to work off of lmao

10. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

The answer to both questions are dp x dc and also dp x dc. And that's generally tame as far as crossovers go.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. 👀

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of! 👀 But I'd be way more amenable to that than thievery lmao.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I would never bog someone down with my symptoms disorder. I don't trust me enough to be helpful in any creative endeavor ever

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I don't believe in genuine OTPs, but whatever Desiree!Janet and Bruce have going on in Drake Manor is hysterical to me. I hope they get divorced and then break up and then get back together and then break up again.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I want to finish Trade of Trickery. I think it will take time. But I am determined to do it. We're halfway through the Sea of Monsters and I am delusional enough to think I can make it if I just power through in some distant future

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am the recipient of divine visions which keep me going. The hard part is staying consistent when I lose steam.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am the recipient of divine visions which keep me going. The hard part is staying consistent when I lose steam.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Google translate is my friend, and I don't necessarily believe in providing translations. There's no irl subtitles. If the characters are meant to understand, I'll leave stuff around to make the context and content clear, but like, no creo que es necesario en todos situaciónes.

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

...Naruto...maybe...? No I'm wrong. It was Fairy Cube. My first divine visions/early fic thoughts were from Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series and my first fandom I actually wrote/published fic for was Fairy Cube. Don't ask what account it was on. I borrowed my friend's ffn account. I don't remember the username anymore.

20. Favorite Fic you’ve written?

....hoo boy. Tie for Quiet Respite and Trade of Trickery. I love Comets and Drake Manor has a special place in my heart, but QR feels uniquely mine in ways that my dp x dc fics sometimes don't, and Trickery really is a love story about Sally Jackson and forgotten Demigod kids. Nothing else hits. Nothing else is the same. It's about collecting what you can in your hands and taking it with you.

@newgraywolf @cyrwrites @mysterycyclone @songue85 Anyone else want to play?

Thanks for asking, Chroma! It only took...what, a week, two weeks, to finally get to it?

#ask games #faer nonsense #ao3 #dp x dc #dcu crossover #pjo fanfic

[fanfic-inator795]

WoY: A Decade Later (A personal retrospection)

Wander Over Yonder… for a time, it was - in my opinion - the best cartoon ever. It was my number one, and I wasn't sure that anything else could top it. While I don't necessarily feel the same way these days, it's still a cartoon that very much lives in my heart and I don't think I'll ever truly leave it behind.

From a personal perspective, it was probably the biggest and most active Fandom I had been in at that time. It wasn't my first fandom/hyperfixation - prior to WoY, there had been Cartoon Network's Chowder and Regular Show, as well as Disney's Phineas and Ferb. But Chowder was short-lived and RS and PnF were both shows I had lost interest in due to them beginning to dip in quality.

WoY, however, was new, fresh, exciting and growing rapidly. It inspired me to write probably at least a hundred fanfics. It was a blast live-reacting to new episodes with everyone and seeing all the art that would come afterwards. It brought me into the RP scene and, if not for that, I might have never met my best friend of 10 years (and counting! Love you, Tessa).

Looking back on it 10 years after the fact, I can't fully say that WoY is still my favorite cartoon (shows like Kid Cosmic, The Ghost and Molly McGee, Big City Greens and Craig of the Creek have all outshined it in one way or another), nor can I claim that it is/was a perfect show. But man… It sure was a hell of a ride.

(Keep reading for all my admittedly VERY LONG personal thoughts or opinions regarding this one of a kind show)

Humble Beginnings

Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I actually didn't care for WoY at first. It was the summer right before college, and I remember watching the sneak peek - The Picnic - early one morning after not being able to go back to sleep. I remember not really laughing much or even seeing the appeal… and yet the episode stuck in my mind, to the point that I ended up watching it again during a free moment I had from Freshman Orientation Week. I had a similar reaction to the show's proper pilot, The Greatest - not loving it, but not hating it either.

The fact that people/friends from my RS and PnF days were also posting about it helped keep the show in my mind (shoutout to Taylor, Erin and Darkwing). But it wasn't until two specific episodes - The Fugitives and The Good Deed - that I managed to finally start to connect with the characters myself. 

I started to see the appeal in this little furry orange spoon who just wanted to do good and make others happy, even when it was a struggle. I really liked the show's core theme of not just optimism and positivity, but also just being kind. I also started to really enjoy the show's sci-fi and space aesthetic and grew to adore its animation and gorgeous backgrounds, as well as laugh at its wacky sense of humor (I still laugh at The Fugitives/Good Deed quite a bit, even though I probably have their entire scripts memorized at this point).

So, it was official. I was hooked. Whenever there were new eps, I'd either try to watch them on the basement TV in my college dorm or wait for a livestream or FreeCartoonsOnline upload. If we're being honest, the first half of season 1, while being much more low-key than the wackiness that the show would end up eventually shifting to, was probably when it was at its most consistent. Other eps later on would reach higher highs, but getting stuff like The Bad Guy, the Prisoner, the Troll, the Pet, the Box and The Little Guy back-to-back just made my love for the show grow more and more.

The Little Guy specifically is one that is just incredibly well-crafted in its dialogue, story-telling and pacing, being both enjoyable and heartfelt. (Also the last time I watched it the ending made me bawl so, there's that, lol). Shortly afterwards, The Hero was another ep that I distinctly remember sticking in my head for whatever reason (Dracor and Demurra are still adorable, ngl). Then we had another favorite of mine, The Nice Guy.

I know I may be in the minority on this one - I remember my parents being annoyed and frustrated when they watched it with me, haha - but I absolutely love this episode. I find the jokes funny enough - the cashier is one of my favorite minor characters tbh - and the space gas station appeals to my aesthetic. But what really sells this episode for me is how it handles and portrays its moral of "being nice isn't always easy, but it's still right and still worth doing". Its ending never fails to get an "awwww" out of me, and honestly I could probably go on for an hour about all the little details and things I like/appreciate. I've also grown to really like its sister episode, the Time Bomb.

But no show is perfect, and right around here is where the show, in my opinion, started having some misses. It was mostly just "meh" affairs like The Night, The Toddler and The Big Job (weird, since I usually like heist eps… though I haven't rewatched this one in a while so *shrugs*). Other eps like The Tourist and ESPECIALLY The Helper (which I consider to be the show's worst outing, the vibes are just SO WEIRD on this one) I just didn't care for at all. 

Nothing terrible (save for the Helper), just cases of the jokes not landing or the stories being boring. This was also when the show really started leaning into the wackiness - which wasn't BAD persay, since it led to some really funny jokes and memorable moments when it was used well - it's just that looking back, I sorta miss the simplicity of early s1.

Thankfully, the season put out some real bangers by its end, with my personal faves being The Epic Quest (that ending will never not make me cackle. Again, it's a case of the wackiness actually working incredibly well), the Halloween/Christmas special, and the Rider, which is a great adventure to cap off the season and also the Horse from Horsin’ Around guest stars in it! (and does a pretty good job too. Will Arnett is def one of my favorite celeb VAs at this point, ngl)

So yeah, between the two seasons, s1 is easily my favorite. Call it nostalgia or personal taste, but for me it's all about that consistency. Adding in the fact that s2 has some pretty notable flaws and is thus a lot harder to look back on without noticing those flaws, and it's really no contest for me. 

New season, New problems

I certainly remember the excitement - as well as the fandom's stir craziness - in the lead-up to s2. There were crackships that were invented, silly RP blogs were rampant, Craig McCracken and crew (back when they were still on Tumblr) kept us fed with cool behind the scenes info as well as sneak peeks of the new season, and while I can't recall when it specifically happened, I also vividly remember the 'Bad End to Episodes' phase that the fandom was in at one point. Ah, the joys of still being in your angst phase.

Come that year's Comic Con, and a new round of hype came from the reveal that our new villain of the season was going to be a girl! …yeahhh, it sorta sucks recalling how hyped we all were about Dominator now that we know that she didn't quite work out the way we were all hoping for…

But regardless, s2 had a very strong start. Outside of the premiere, my favorites of this first batch would easily be The Boy Wander and The It for both just being incredibly funny. Although, if you had asked me at the time though, I probably would have said the Skeleton Dance fueled eps that were The Big Day and the Fremergency Fronfract - and like, yeah those eps can still be funny and enjoyable, but I've definitely cooled on the Skeleton Dance ship since these eps first premiered. (Still love a lot of the cute fanon stuff though)

Skipping past the next tent-pole episode for right now, this season had two of my favorite episodes of the ENTIRE SERIES - these being The Cartoon and The Black Cube. The former is just hilarious while the latter has a unique visual presentation and feels like an early s1 ep, and I mean that in the best possible way. I also really enjoy the Eye on the Skullship as well as the Hole… 'Lotta Nuthin' (this one especially, as it's another instance where, for as good as the ep is as a whole, it's the heartwarming lesson and hilarious ending that makes it such a winner in my book).

But for as much as the show was still putting out hits, I'll admit that there were also quite a few meh or just okay eps, especially as the season goes on. Some eps I found funny when I first watched them, but that humor doesn't hit as well when I watch them now. I also feel like there were points where it tried to be TOO silly to the point where it inhibited the actual humor and made the characters flatter and a bit flanderized compared to how they were in s1 (Hater especially got hit bad with this, where it’s less about him ‘softening up’ to show that he has the potential to be a good guy, and more just him constantly leaning into him being a bratty teenager instead of having that mix of dumb/bratty teen boy and legit evil conqueror).

Other times, it was just another case of a story not being as good as it could have been - and by this point in the season, while there are still enjoyable eps with fun concepts/jokes in the latter half of the series, the only one to get near the peak of the show's typical high quality is the musical ep, and if we're being real, it's Andy Bean's impeccable songwriting that saves this ep and makes it so good to rewatch despite its connection to the season's flawed overall story.

And I think it's about time we talk about that…

Not Quite Ready for Serialization

Being a show that was made right after Gravity Falls but before stuff like Star VS, Amphibia, and Owl House, s2 of WoY felt like a show with one foot stuck in episodic stuff and one foot trying to step into serialization. Because of this, the season’s overarching plot feels incredibly underbaked.

Now… Am I saying that I’d want the show to be like ATLA where every episode had to relate back to either the overarching story or one of the side-arcs? No, absolutely not. We’d be missing out on some of my favorite one-shot episodes if they did that, and if I had to choose between the season we have now and the season we could have gotten had the WoY crew gotten more freedom and were allowed more serialization, I’m going with the former each and every time.

HOWEVER, I still have to acknowledge just how poorly done the structure of this season was when it came to the overarching story. Basically we got four tentpole episodes acting as the season’s beginning, arc shifts and ending. During the season’s second and third arcs, there would be certain episodes afterwards reacting to the change in the show’s status quo.

Now, I get what they were TRYING to do but in my opinion it just really didn’t work as well as it could have. I’ll talk more about this in a bit but the season’s second arc (the “romance” arc) definitely got tiring after a while, meanwhile the third “Stop Dominator” arc felt like it was sort of killing time given that it was mostly just the main 4 trying to find some sort of weapon/figure out some sort of plan that ultimately resulted in some ‘funny’ failures and some quick lessons, with the occasional character piece thrown in here or there.

Now, I didn’t hate these episodes. By this point, it should be evident that one of my favorite elements of WoY are its morals and lessons, so even if the episodes themselves didn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things and were essentially filler, I can at least appreciate a message like “being sad doesn’t mean you’ve given up hope” or “allowing yourself to laugh even in the dark times can help a ton”. So yeah, not completely pointless.

Unfortunately, even with a few bright spots here and there, the overarching plot of s2 still feels underbaked somewhat - and that’s ultimately because of the new character its focused around.

Dominator’s Dilemma

Okay, fess up. Whose idea was it to completely exclude Dominator from the first six episodes of the season (after the s2 premiere)? Because WOW does this decision backfire a lot. I don’t even like Dom that much and I can still acknowledge that she needed much more screen time and focus than she got.

I don’t know if this was to build up the ‘mystery’ surrounding her or because they wanted to get back in the groove of writing the main 4, but this was the crew’s first crucial mistake. Hell, in the first two episodes she plays an active role in, she’s nearly silent in both of them, only having her little fangirl rant in The Greater Hater and a small handful of lines in The Battle Royals. (Which, if I’m being honest, is still a really fun episode for 90% of it, having both great action and absolutely hilarious jokes that still make me laugh, but I get the ending of it making people sour on the episode as a whole.)

Again, it felt like trying to build up this artificial mystery surrounding her when it really wasn’t necessary. Dominator was meant to be a MAIN MEMBER of the cast! Yet I’m pretty sure Emperor Awesome got more significant screen time than her in the end!

Things got a teeny bit better as the show went on, with Dom at the very least getting more lines and more moments to be both badass and totally villainous, but she still felt more like a goal/obstacle than an actual character. I’m not sure if the writers MEANT to do this persay, or if it was just an accident.

Ultimately, it wasn’t until The Night Out when Dom finally got a spotlight episode… which was a little over 3/4ths of the way through the season. You could argue that she also got a bit of characterization in the musical episode, but it was really more emphasizing what we already knew or could infer about her. 

The Night Out, meanwhile, gives us something new - that she’s lonely - and we get a teeny hint of this again in The Robomechabotatron before being told outright in the series finale. Ultimately, it truly does feel like too little too late - especially when her secretly desiring friends just sorta feels like it’s aping off Hater’s secret motivations of wanting to be liked/admired and to have friends/people who love him for who he is.

So yeah, the crew completely dropped the ball on Dom’s characterization, using her as just a goal/threat/obstacle/etc. for nearly all of her appearances. Not only does it make Dom feel like a shallow character, but it also just feels unfair in general. Practically everything we know about Dom is for the sake of other characters.

She’s a test for Wander, an enemy/temporary love interest for Hater, an obstacle for our main four to overcome, and a threat to the characters we already love. Again, there’s nothing wrong with having a character that’s only meant to serve a purpose in the narrative, nor is there anything wrong with a character being shallowly evil… it’s just that the WoY crew hyped her up so much and claimed that she was a fifth main character (implying that she would get about as much development as the main four), so it just felt all the more disappointing when we didn’t get that. Add in her character design - a mix of goth/punk girl energy with Hartman Hips - and it does feel just a tad misogynistic.

There were things I liked about Dom - her cool lava powers and gadgets, her excitable personality, her villain spotlight moments, and her fun vocal performance provided by Noel Wells were all excellent. But unfortunately, these were all surface-level elements, and the crew just didn’t put in enough time to give her much else, essentially saving all her deeper character stuff for the never-made season 3…

A love-hate relationship (leaning towards hate)

Of course you can’t talk about Dom without discussing the season’s second arc, which many see as both a tumor on the plot and the absolute low point of the season. Admittedly when I was watching the season for the first time, I didn’t mind the romance arc all that much. I didn’t care if Dom was getting short-changed, I was too busy laughing at Hater falling all over himself like a dork and thought all the ‘critics’ of the arc were just focusing on the wrong thing and didn’t know how to have fun with a silly cartoon.

Obviously, this was the wrong perspective to have about this sort of thing (I was in the mindset of “I don’t want to accidentally make myself hate this thing I love so I’m going to ignore all criticism of it”. Definitely not the right approach), one that I still apologize for because the critics were totally in the right. From both an objective and a storytelling standpoint, this arc was just the worst - and for several reasons.

Leaning into the overall problem with Dom herself as mentioned previously, this arc was focused solely on Hater and Wander (and to an extent Syl and Peeps as they tried to talk some sense into their respective friends). Whenever Dom was brought in, she either used Hater’s crush to mess with him or just ignored it entirely, being obviously annoyed - and that was the extent of focus that her feelings got.

Outside of those moments, however, Dom’s feelings are relegated to the background, deemed as ‘unimportant’. Sure, in the climax of the arc, she gets this big whole musical number about how she’s “not the damsel” and isn’t interested in Hater’s affections - but again, it’s at the VERY END of the arc and the moment is less about Dom standing up for herself and more about emphasizing just how cruel she can be, as instead of simply rejecting Hater’s advances, she laughs in his face, continuing to mess with him to try and make the rejection as painful as possible before ultimately trying to kill Hater.

But while the arc ends in a showy (and admittedly still kinda fun, thank you Andy Bean and your musical talents) way, the way it starts sorta proves why this idea was so rotten to the core. The ONLY reason why Wander tries to get Hater and Dom together is ONLY because he knows Hater wants a GF and believes that a ‘positive’ thing like love could only ever result in the two villains finding happiness and no longer being evil. Nevermind the fact that Wander is shown only really caring about Hater’s perspective, not once considering Dom’s feelings or even asking if she wants a BF or romantic partner in general.

We get Syl calling him out on this a couple of times, but it’s in that ‘oh that Wander, always with the crazy ideas’ way. You’d think Sylvia, the icon that she is, would be just a bit more blunt and maybe even a bit harsh about how Wander’s treating Dominator - it’s not just a matter of it being a dumb and dangerous plan, but it’s essentially objectifying Dom, treating her like Hater’s missing piece. But hey, it’s fiiiiine, because Wander learns his lesson in the end, right? Except, no not really.

Because even when Wander FINALLY realizes this and feels guilty about causing so much trouble, Syl is more concerned with comforting Wander about it, because he TRIED to do what he thought was right and that “acknowledging you messed up is the first step towards making things right”. Like… yeah I guess but you could have let Wander actually acknowledge what he did was wrong and super messed up, focusing more on the personal aspect of how his whole romance scheme affected Dom AS WELL AS Hater (not JUST Hater) instead of how his scheme broke Hater’s heart and inadvertently made Dom more powerful.

(Also we see Wander shipping and actively pairing up the little Pikmin things in “The Sky Guy” soooooo no I don’t think he fully learned his lesson)

I also have to bring up how there are fans who view Dominator and her whole anti-love thing as aphobic. As someone who only recently figured out she was almost definitely aromantic, I’m certainly not the authority on this, but I can certainly understand the critiques.

What I THINK the WoY Crew was trying to go for was a ‘strong female villain who don’t need no man’, but between Dom constantly being described as ‘heartless’ and Peeps saying that he “doesn’t think she likes anybody” and her cruelty being turned up to 11 whenever someone expressed romantic feelings towards her, it does sorta imply “She can’t love and THAT’S why she’s a villainous monster” rather than simply “she’s a villainous monster”. And because we don’t get any real development or strong characterization with Dom, it’s hard to say where exactly her cruelty comes from, so it’s hard to really argue against these implications without simply inserting headcanons like “Dom is a lesbian”.

Now to be fair, I have seen some aromantics see Dom as good representation - I recall a month or so back when I saw people praising her after she was included in one of those Tumblr polls, with this one being focused on aromantic characters, saying that they liked how she didn’t sugarcoat her rejections and seeing her as this strong, cool, badass villainous who didn’t need romance. So yeah, obviously not every person who shares an identity is going to agree on representation and whether or not it's good, but considering all of Dom’s baggage and the inability to determine whether or not her heartlessness is the cause of her evil or simply a by-product of it, I personally feel like she’s just too messy of an example of a potential aro character.

(Honestly, Syl feels like a better example of an aromantic character to me, given that she and Ryder seemed just as platonic as she and Wander are, as well as her multiple rejections of Awesome and general disinterest/discomfort with romance. Buuut given that those latter examples are specifically with villains and thus it makes sense why she’d reject them regardless of her orientation, it’s still just a vibe/headcanon).

Before I close off this section, I do wanna acknowledge that beyond the potentially aphobic nature of Dominator, WoY’s LGBTQ+ rep isn’t nearly as great as I thought it was once upon a time as a young shipper. Some parts are still pretty okay, like Wander being coded as genderfluid/agender, but overall it still feels more like an old Looney Tunes cartoon than an episode of “The Owl House”, if you get what I’m saying.

In Craig’s defense, the man has never been all too interested in romance in his shows nor has he claimed otherwise - he either uses it as a joke while portraying it as a negative (see Ms.KeenexProf.Utonium, BlooxBerry or, obviously, DomxHater) or it’s a wholesome relationship that ultimately still stays in the background because it’s not all that important (see DracorxDemurra or Ramona and Carlos Flores from “Kid Cosmic”). 

BUT given that there were LGBTQ+ crew members working on the show in s2, such as N.D. Stevenson, as well as LGBTQ+ allies, it is a shame that no proper representation came of that. We got a whole episode where the joke was “oh, Wander and Hater are planning Wander’s execution like it’s a wedding”, an episode where Peeps and Hater essentially break up when Hater fires him, and an “I just can’t quit you” sort of moment from Peeps in the s2 finale when he goes all heart-eyed over Hater deciding to continue being a villain. That’s it, all jokes but nothing substantial. Even the show’s number one lesbian/wlw pairing of SylxDom got a quick Girls Night montage and one sweet moment between them, nothing else.

Again, it’s fine if you’re just looking for jokes, and yeah the WoY Crew never outright promised any romances… buuuut given how much they chose to lean into the Skeleton Dance and DeathGlare stuff while at the same time never outright confirming any of these characters as LGBTQ+ (they didn’t even have to make any ships canon, they just had to say whether or not Wander/Hater/Peeps were gay/bi/pan/etc), I’m not gonna invalidate people who feel just a bit queerbaited about the whole thing.

Bittersweet Goodbyes

As I said before, I was starting college when WoY first premiered. It’s the show that led me to my best friend and it’s the show that helped me through those first two years of college (easily the roughest part of college). It was a show that made me laugh and got me excited, even during the times where I was stressed out or worried. For all its flaws, it was one of the brightest lights in my life at that time.

So, needless to say, when I heard the show was canceled, I was devastated. I remember crying about it that night and even the day after, and I remember joining in as many online strategies as possible to try and get the show back, from letter writing to petition signing. Of course none of that worked, but as a bright side, going through this helped emotionally prepare me for the next time one of my favorite shows was suddenly canceled (looking at you Nickelodeon. Though considering how the RotTMNT movie turned out maaaaybe it was for the best…)

Honestly, for as much as I can look at the show through a critical lens nowadays and point out all the ways it could have been better, I think there will always be a small part of me that wishes we could have gotten some sort of continuation, whether it be through a special, a TV movie or a comic - or hell, I’d even take the plans for s3 leaking at this point. Now, given that the end of WoY brought about the creation of “Kid Cosmic”, I feel like this part has faded a bit, but I’m always gonna want closure on things like Hater’s arc as well as his origins given how much they were teased.

But that in itself is another critique I could give the show. Whether it be Wander facing a different type of threat that wasn’t just another villain, Hater’s transition into becoming a good guy, Peepers getting fed up with his boss and striking out on his own, or Dom’s true characterization that the crew kept insisting was there - the show simply saved a lot of it’s most interesting ideas for a potential Season 3. It was a gamble, and it was one they ultimately lost. It sucks, but it is what it is.

There’s a few more things I could critique about the show, such as its take on the idea of character redemption and Wander becoming a bit of a karma houdini that the show pretty much stopped calling out, and while these critiques are valid I feel like there are other fans who could do a better job talking about those points. But in the end, while season 2 was both a let down in some parts and a bit of a mess in others, I still feel like there were ultimately more good things to be found within the show than bad things.

It’s not a perfect show, far from it. Frankly, I don’t look down on anyone who fell out of love with this show or enjoyed s1 but hated s2. But for what it’s worth, the memories I got from the show are still ones I treasure, and episodes like “The Good Deed”, “The Little Guy”, “The Nice Guy”, “The Epic Quest”, “The Rider”, “The Boy Wander”, “The Black Cube”, “The Hole… Lotta’ Nuthin’” and “The Cartoon” are ones I still love to bits and will probably always love as I watch them over and over.

Disney Channel itself may not care all that much about this show these days save for an occasional rerun or a quick cameo in their Chibi-Verse shorts, but I’m always gonna remember it - for better and for worse. So here’s to 10 years, WoY. I may not always like you, but I still love you.

#wander over yonder #woy #long post #personal thoughts #personal opinions #fair warning this is VERY long hence the read more #wasn't tempted not to post it because of the length #but this show was such an important part of my life #and I wanted to get all my current thoughts out about it

[yuridovewing]

Darkest Night Diagnosis: F

I think that's our first F tier. Should I be making a tierlist. Whatever.

I think this book singlehandedly killed the Warriors hyperfix, for better or for worse. I will now be significantly slower with this reread because of this book.

Look... as frustrating and bad as Apprentice's Quest, Thunder and Shadow, and Hawkwing's Journey were, they had redeeming elements. Sparkpaw is a joy when shes doing things in the Apprentice's Quest. Twigkit and Violetkit's tragic relationship is really compelling in like a meta way in Thunder and Shadow. And while that first half is god awful tedious bullshit, the second half of Hawkwing's Journey when they're actually on said journey gets really interesting, and it also had Curlypaw who is the best character.

There's... nothing like that in Darkest Night. I was bored and annoyed and miserable from start to finish. Nothing got my creative juices flowing. Nothing got me thinking about how the plot could be compelling with certain headcanons without just changing the entire thing. There is like one nice scene with Sparkpelt talking about Larksong to Alderheart and it's sandwiched in between Alder screaming at her for emasculating him and pointing out her being ooc for the sake of being a strawman, and then her getting brutalized by a dog so Alderheart can win his pride back. It's not an offensive book but it is mind numbingly boring. It's an unbearably slow read and most of it is spent meandering about.

Characters like Sparkpelt are twisted from their original portrayal for the sake of contrivances. SkyClan is miserable. Mistystar is made into an idiot for the plot to work. Things just happen without rhyme or reason. Barely anything of actual substance even happens and the things that do happen are contrived and aggravating to read about.

I know Warriors doesn't really have intentional themes, and the consistent ones are.... really, really bad. But it felt like at every turn, this book was contradicting itself, Twigpaw's arc being the biggest example. I've said it over and over, but the way this arc is trying to claim a cute found family story with Twigpaw and ThunderClan is so jarring. We're just supposed to accept that ThunderClan was good to her because... they're ThunderClan. They're The Good Ones. Every clan is awful and weird and bad compared to ThunderClan. No Matter What. Please don't talk about all the times her clanmates called her deadweight and considered kicking her out bc of her heritage if she wasn't a prophet.

And they can't even commit to "found family vs blood family" either. They hook Twigpaw up with her adoptive brother and dismiss his adoption as never having been all that important in the face of his "real" family. They dismiss and downplay Twigpaw's biological relationship with Tinycloud and her new litter for the sake of emphasizing that Twig is alone (while contrasting Violetpaw meeting Cherrytail and Hawkwing's nobody sisters). And they ship off Hawkwing and Violetpaw for most of the book so that Twigpaw can talk about how alone she feels and how it's so sad that Jayfeather isn't verbally abusing her anymore. If anyone thinks that Twigbranch has a compelling found family relationship with ThunderClan and her arc is about grappling with chosen family vs biological family, they didn't actually read the book.

And you see this with Alderheart and Sparkpelt too, sort of. They're trying to go "xenophobia is bad! Alderheart and Sparkpelt are split over their political differences!" But the book only sees Sparkpelt as bad because they've deemed xenophobia against SkyClan specifically as a bad thing. Alderheart's dismissiveness and hatred of kittypets is not only not questioned, but reinforced several times. So it's kind of weird that people paint this as like a thing where Sparkpelt is uniquely bad when Alderheart is arguably a whole lot worse, but hes not xenophobic to a clannnn. So it doesn't count I guess.

Speaking of Sparkpelt though, wow I can't blame her for wanting SkyClan gone, because I don't give a fuck about these nobodies either. They are so boring, put them back in the gorge so I don't have to keep reading about them please <3 I don't care about Leafstar or Hawkwing or any of these guys. I don't even have that much to say about them, they're just annoying and boring and I wish they'd go away forever.

Anyways, first F tier book. First book where I was just bored and miserable the whole time. I don't expect AVoS to get better from here. In fact, poll time.

If I get no, I'll just read the wiki summaries, and maybe seek out specific passages from the pdfs. Yes is for reading the whole thing.

#avos liveread

[mdhwrites]

Hi there! Yesterday I finished The Owl House and while the technical aspects were nice, I thought the writing aspects fell flat. I came across a few of your posts and thought they perfectly represent my issues with the show. I look forward to reading more.

How would you have portrayed Belos and the Emperor’s Coven? Would their goals and motives and coven system be different, would they use more magic etc…

Have you seen Gargoyles or Mistborn? Gargoyles has both simple villains and tragic villains, and does justice to all of them. It’s steeped in intriguing lore and detailed worldbuilding. The xenophobic villain Demona puts Belos to shame. Mistborn admittedly has a Deus ex Machina that seems out of place at first, but is eventually explained in a way that puts agency into the protagonists’ hands. Unlike Titan Luz.

Going backwards as I sometimes do: I am JUST too young to have watched Gargoyles as it was airing and never saw it. I've never even heard of Mistborne. As for how I would have done Belos/The EC... So, this isn't technically how I would have done it. Being in the middle of a project without hindsight is always harder than when you're in the middle of it and so if you want to claim you could have done something better, that implies that on a conceptual level, the execution is flawed. Conceptually, the EC and Belos are both fine. Not great but fine and they work for the thematics of fantasy vs. reality, conformity versus self expression, etc. like that. This is of course talking about them more as a narrative tool than a threat.

This is because the EC existing is a good idea for TOH but their physical presence is not as much. Lilith works okay in S1 because while she is the butt of a lot of jokes, her and Eda are actively having a dialogue in their actions and words about the theme of conformity vs. self expression. The sacrifices we make for safety and for freedom. This is because S1 is the only time the IDEOLOGY of Belos/The EC is ANYWHERE near consistent. It's not, don't get me wrong, but there's an attempt. Eda is a criminal. Lilith is the law. Being a wild witch is a crime. Lilith hunts Eda in part because of that as well as resources she sees Eda missing out on because of her lifestyle. In a bubble, it is actually incredibly consistent world building and characterization. No one's traits or aspects are being sacrificed for anything.

But the EC and the covens don't exist primarily to the writers for these purposes. This is where we get Eda being allowed at a school without Bump even flinching despite how much she's wanted. Her being criminal appears to be mostly forgotten about at those times. Being a wild witch is also forgotten anytime the audience is with Hexide kids. The one class only system isn't actually painted as a part of Belos' rule, besides the main nine EXISTING, but just a dumb rule of Hexide. It's never blamed as something Belos mandated and multi-classing magic in that episode, or whenever the kids are brought up until LABYRINTH RUNNERS, is never seen as even questionable to literally ANYONE. Not for reasons based in the rules of the setting. Even in Labyrinth Runners, there's no questioning if they brought this on themselves by breaking the law, it's just that the mean coven head is being a doodoo brain.

This is frankly this is the biggest problem with the EC, Belos and even the Isles. Because the show is more focused on meta commentary and how they can warp their own elements to make meta commentary, like treating the covens as normal school subjects, treating it college, etc. like that (never forget that becoming a wild witch is not something ANY of the Blight children even blink at as having potential consequences besides disappointing their parents and not LEGAL TROUBLE) that it fails to have a point overall with them or to keep an identity for any of them.

The EC is both a weapon of Belos that is to be feared where an ex wild witch will talk about her old behind hushed doors and also this thing that a bunch of teenagers are doing because it's the new fad introduced by an exchange student. Belos is an all powerful monarch that the people love but also people really easily question and betray him and leave his coven without repercussions. The Isles is both a place where a child can be threatened with a fairy wanting to literally eat their skin or where people will cheer on stage murder of a child for HOME DEFENSE PRODUCTS while also having an organized school system that is no different than ours and child endangerment laws.

It's all a part of the most damning things for TOH: Its multiple personalities and lack of commitment. Wanting to be everything while simultaneously not committing to any element either. Wasting time because even the writers don't seem to actually know what is important or care about what is important in their setting, world, plot, stories, characters, etc. even back in S1 where they spend 90% of the season treating King like a comic relief character when he is ostensibly the most important person to the story that Luz EVER meets.

So to the question of "How would I write I the EC/Belos"... The mean thing is that most SHOULD answer with "I would just remember what they are. I would care about my world building. I would respect the rules of my setting and the themes of my concept."

But that's not rewriting this element. That's just being a good writer.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #The Emperor's Coven #belos the owl house

[thebiggerbear]

Please stop posting AI generated art, it steals from artists and it's not honest work. It's also super f*cking creepy and not at all good

The consistent likes and reblogs I've been getting on several different pieces ever since I started sharing them a few weeks back attest to the opposite of your claims, Anon.

But you know what else is "super f*cking creepy and not at all good"? You hiding behind anon to make this baseless claim. Why is it the trolls never have the guts to come off of anon and continuously hide behind their computer and phone screens? Is this what you do when it comes to work, school, anything and all real life related? If so, I truly feel sorry for you.

Have you ever actually looked into AI art, Anon? Or are you just blindly and mindlessly repeating rhetoric that you heard the cool clique repeating at the lunch table on here? Sounds more like the latter.

AI art is not stealing from real artists. Not that I have seen anyway. For example, one of my latest pieces was the ship Bawson from the show Pitch eating Thanksgiving dinner. I have not been in the Pitch fandom long but I have not seen any Thanksgiving themed art for this pairing or even the fandom. Where and who did it or I steal from?

Furthermore, if it's "super f*ucking creepy and not at all good" and you're claiming I'm stealing art from people, then are you calling the original artists "not at all good"? 🤔 Which is it? You can't have it both ways.

The answer to your...request is no. I will not be stopping making AI art. I am not stealing from anyone nor is anyone in my fellow AI artist community on the site we all belong to. If anything, I have a whole new level of respect and admiration for artists of all mediums and their hard work. As some have pointed out recently, there are errors that always happen with AI whether it be deformities in the forms or too many fingers or duplicating people, etc. So while it's so sweet that you're offended for these supposed artists you're bravely cowardly (because anon) standing up for, perhaps you should actually do your research before you speak type. Writers, actors, and people with administrative, editing, and any other type of job in the world that can be threatened by replacing them with AI right now have a lot more to fear. AI art is nowhere near AI in those other areas considering it's still heavily flawed. Again, do your research.

As for me, I'll continue making AI art. Even if it's creepy and sucks as you pointed out. I started out making pieces for certain ships for certain fandoms because I wanted to contribute. Some of those ships and fandoms already have incredible fan artists and there are plenty of fan art pieces for them, but some ships, like Bawson for example, don't appear to. So I pay to make these "super f*cking creepy" pieces as you call them and share them freely with anyone who might just be happy to see their ship in a certain scenario or style or be inspired to do something with it like another form of art of write or make a video or whatever, even if just for a moment. It's meant to put smiles on people's faces, that's it. I even have done some "not at all good" pieces for ships that I don't personally ship, again to contribute. I don't make profit from it, I am not being commissioned, and I am certainly not stealing anything from anyone. I am doing it all within legal guidelines according to the site I use. So, go pick a fight with someone else somewhere else over something you don't understand. Or better yet, go argue with a wall. You might get better results.

And, Anon, I have no idea how old you truly are but I can't believe I even have to say this. If you see something you don't like, scroll past it or block the person posting it. Don't seek them out to attack them cowardly from behind anon. You think that makes you brave or smart or being part of the "solution"? It's not. You're only being part of the problem. No one else is responsible for the curating of your online social media experience. Just you. I suggest you take that advice to heart and start practicing.

If I receive any more messages like this, I will automatically block it and it will go bye bye into the ether without a response the attention (and acknowledgement) you're desperately seeking.

TTFN.

#ai art #curate your own social media experience #and stop wasting my time #shoo fly shoo #rude asks

[starvels]

Cw: Fatphobia, body shaming, disordered eating, suicidal ideation

We talking about that “””banter””” in Marvel’s Avengers when the team bullied Tony about his weight and he talks about being on a juice cleanse?? Because I hate that so, so much. Like. Tony was depressed! and isolated for 5 years!!! And like, Not Doing Ok!

@blossomsinthemist was talking about it and like :(((((( https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721606463816105984/nat-may-claim-she-never-broke-cover-to-help

Plus the fact that it’s heavily implied Nat, that takes part in the bullying, KNOWS Tony was depressed and suicidal https://www.tumblr.com/blossomsinthemist/721588267817025536/i-need-more-fics-out-squareenixs-steve-coming-to

And like you said, he is still thin in the game, but like, so what if he wasn’t? Tony can be any shape and he wouldn’t deserve that! He could still be any shape and still kick ass in a literal power suit. Like. :(

(I kinda liked how I’m the game Tony seemed to have a bit of a hunch to him, man’s a workaholic that is either typing or leaned over a work table and I liked seeing that in a character design (tho it might just be a bad rig and all the characters have it, it’s just hidden under their costumes), but -11000099999 points for the ““banter””. EG Thor all over again)

yeah! that is what i was referring to in this post. as i'm watching playthroughs to make MA content for STG, i found this scene so off-putting and it reminded me of a lot of other ones i've seen in comics. & feeling just the general vibe reading a comic that i am never gonna get to see fat people be heroic. especially not at least, without emphasizing that they're a fat person sure, but they are still heroic, don't worry!

fat heroes' heroism always comes as a caveat to their body shape and weight.

nasty!!!!

but yes blossoms' point here abt tony and perception of self and internalizing a lot of judgement values about his appearance and how fun it is to explore that are so apt!

blossoms always handles tony's relationship with his own body in such compelling and intricate ways that are very tender and vulnerable. and i agree! i also like exploring these themes and playing with how tony relates to being a public figure, as well as how he relates to himself and the ways in which he feels pleasure or contentment or beauty or pride.

to blossoms+anons second point, abt nat knowing, yeah. if you read it just in-text, it can be really complicated by their own individual and combined relationships to trauma and processing and how much info they are sharing between them. that's always very interesting to eke out of interactions w the two of them -- two people who can guard their hearts and heads so intensely.

but taking a meta-textual approach to it, i flat out think when people ascribe their own -isms to characters, they are not thinking about how it fits a character's personality or interpersonal relationships.

we, as the fans, do the labor of asking how it can be internally consistent for a character that grew up without bodily autonomy, that knows intimately how loss and trauma affect your bodily functions, who knows exactly how tony fights and what it takes to do that, who knows that bodies are only one tool in a whole box -- makes fun of someone who trusts her, on her team, for potentially gaining weight. we hypothesis and convolute the relationship and infer from the absences of a canon text. the writers don't have to do any of that work. and that more than anything generally proves to me how shoehorned in all the -isms people apply to characters are.

they're not thinking three levels deep. and to be honest, i like our collective 3 level thoughts better than there, so ! phooey on them!! they don't get a seat at our table.

it literally doesn't matter what your body looks like if you're designing a metal suit to go around it that is based on non-physical input to function. and tony's found family should abso-fucking-lutely not be (even jokingly) shaming him for disordered eating and suicidal ideation, esp not during a battle lol. but yes, tony should have a hunch and neck problems and whine and use a heating pad and tiger balm too much <3 beloved greasemonkey sun.

#our talk #tony stark #marvel's avengers #fatphobia #natasha romanov #character talk #comics talk #my talk

[acoldghostlypresence]

An exhaustingly long list of California Slim and Alcatraz headcanons

General:

In the Epithet universe everyone speaks one global language, but in RSR they introduced the concept of old world languages to justify Cragior's accent. This isn't cannon but I'm adopting it purely so that Slim can swear a people in old world Italian.

I've also decided the boys are from Island country because of course they are, its themed around the mafia for fucks sake. Specifically they're from an island called Chaparral since California doesn't exist in the Epithet universe.

•Most criminals will reconsider robbing you if you claim to have an epithet so the fact that Cal and Al specialise in cleaning up inscribed makes them very sought-after. They have a very consistent cash flow but still live like Daniel Dancer, childhood financial insecurity will do that too you.

Alcatraz:

Al is like 2 degrees of separation away from a living statue and acts like it. He's almost incapable of being bored, he'd be perfectly fine standing dead still on display for years at a time (though he'd probably still prefer to be doing something other than that), and though he can't sleep, at night when there's nothing for him to be doing he will go dormant in this manner to conserve energy.

On a related note he doesn't emote much naturally, but he intentionally exaggerates his reactions when around people because he doesn't want to seem intimidating. A 6 foot something suit of armour with no facial features is hard to read after all.

Since he never actually sleeps or looses consciousness when Slim's asleep and Al's left in the hotel alone Slim leaves the comedy channel on for him. Its the only channel that will be reliably showing the same thing all night and not suddenly leave Al unable to change the channel when a scary movie comes on. As a side effect its the cause of Al's interest in stand up comedy.

Isn't technically made of any metal, he's pure magic pretending to be a suit of armour. If you pointed an industrial magnet at him it wouldn't affect him at all until he turned around and noticed it was there, similarly Ramsey's powers only work on him if Ramsey announces what he's trying to do so that Al know how to play along. He also forgets he's supposed to rust for months at a time only to step in a puddle and be stiff and struggling to move a hour later.

To be clear this isn't something he can control, it's pure epithet instinct to fit into people's perception of him. This is also why he's randomly Scottish.

Part of the reason he's so willing to go along with Slim's bullshit is because of how he lost Bev. He's not about to let down another sibling even if that means compromising his morals.

Even though Alcatraz the sentient moral compass didn't exist until after Bev died, Alcatraz the magic suit of armour very much did. Bev would ask Slim to summon him just so she could play dolls with him, he'd always be the knight that had gotten into trouble on his noble quest and she'd be the princess who'd have to go out to save him. Al remembers every single one of the adventures even the ones Slim wasn't present for.

When Slim was available for these play dates he'd be the dragon Al need saving from.

California Slim

As much a Slim never wants to admit to ever having relied on his epithet, he was still using it for the first 17 years of his life and that experience still does colour his image of himself.

Most notably Al has healing abilities which means at some point Slim had healing abilities, healing abilities that allowed him to shrug off injuries that would have sent other kids to the hospital. That combined with his naturally high pain tolerance means he regularly neglects to seek medical attention when he should because he thinks he shouldn't need it.

Hospitals are where you go when you are weak and vulnerable! And Slim's never vulnerable and especially not weak, in fact he's strong as hell! He can take anything! He can handle himself just fine! He knows first aid!

The list of medical issues he's currently ignoring includes:

Chronic nose bleeds. Al came out his nostril and permanently fucked it up a bit, plus his high blood pressure means even sneezing can set him off on a bad day.

High blood pressure. Canonically he straight up doesn't believe the doctor who told him this, quote: "If my blood really was pressurised theoretically I could just slit my wrist and use it to squirt blood at people." He should probably be taking medication for that, or at least cutting back on smoking.

Fatigue. The stamina cost for his abilities and Al's come out of the same stamina pool and being the one with a physical body Slim's the one who feels that harder. He's constantly tired and running on coffee and spite. The switch from "night shifts" to the strictly regimented prison lifestyle is not helping.

He's lost all hearing in his mauled ear. He's been successfully ignoring this the longest but it's becoming increasingly evident he needs hearing aids. He needs the captions on for everything and regularly struggles to keep up with conversations, he's only been going out at night for ages now just to avoid big, overwhelming crowds that make it impossible for him to tell where a sound is coming from. Any attempts to bring this up to him are quickly shut down, it's sunk costs at this point.

He's always either completely apathetic to everything and won't move from his hotel for days or extremely switched on and ready to fight anything and everything that moves. The only consistency between these two moods in his putting off eating to a nebulous later that never comes.

One day in the future a treasure hunter will dig up California Slim's buried mafia treasure and they will find a metal box filled completely with old baseball cards and cool novelty knives he's never used.

There's a betting pool in the prison based around guessing Slim's real name, the punchline is that California is his real name. He's actually been introducing himself as California, Slim (as in "Hi I'm California, most people call me Slim") and everyone just misheard him. Slim is unaware of the confusion.

His full name is California Holmby Hills, Holmby Hills being the neighbourhood right next to Beverly Hills to keep with the theme.

When Bev was alive Slim would be the one to do her hair, he'd do her bow up every morning before breakfast. As a adult Slim only wears a tie specifically to have something to put a knot in while he waits for the coffee to boil.

#anime campaign #ee spoilers #california slim #alcatraz #ac alcatraz #california slim ac #cw long post #just massive post #headcanon

[skaldish]

hey i cant remember your DID blog, im sorry, idm if you answer over there if you tag me.

to start with, i have professionally diagnosed DID and have been dx'd 3 separate times, and i have something i guess i want validation for?

since i was itty bitty i was reading greek mythology, like children's versions (i could read very early - "gifted" kid) at 3-5 and it has always very much been a huge running theme in my life, well i have a lot of religious greek alters.

it makes sense that.. reading about these figures, watching movies like disneys Hercules and stuff especially while experiencing consistent trauma that i would develop these alters with my brain viewing them as powerful and comforting?

and as an adult i have developed a bit of spirituality with them, a deeply, deeply personal relationship and devotion to deific alters formed to protect and care for me

i recently had a whole issue with a friend who told me my perception of the gods were "wrong" and that they could communicate with them for me. that the gods could only visit one person at a time. and it fucked me up so bad even though i knew they were wrong. they traumatized my whole system

because the things i communicate with aren't just the gods, they dont even claim to be the real gods nor speak for them, just "real to the andromeda system". no one can communicate with my version of them because they are *alters* and my perception is based in trauma and my needs at the time of formation

i feel fakey and i generally avoid even mentioning the religious alters to therapists because i dont want to come across as attention seeking. my experience is valid right?

in terms of clarsenses.. maybe thats a part of it too? idk but these guys are inherently different from say. the spirit of the trees. idk its complicated, they can front and care for me and have a place in my headspace. i notice i get some gifts like i asked hermes to help us get the car we wanted since ours is breaking, and we're getting an even better version. i dont understand fully, i just know my experience is different and deeply personal and relevant to my trauma and DID.

last thing; i do have other alters unrelated to the greek pantheon that interact with them in the headspace. ones that are more "normal" i guess like child alters and trauma holders/persecuters and regular protectors (many of the greek ones are protecters/caregivers/managers. a small few hold trauma - like Hera holds the trauma i witnessed my mom go thru and she is a caregiver. some front. some are internal.) i guess im seeking an explanation from someone in a similar position? in terms of being spiritual with a dissociative disorder. especially considering i do feel like i receive gifts from them in the real world im just confused about myself and experiences which feel incredibly complex. it feels like my experiences go hand in hand with each other!

I'll say what I always say in these situations:

It's not a question of "valid" or "invalid," it's a question of what something is. Our feelings are always valid, but that has nothing to do with whether we're accurately interpreting them or not. Discernment is what's important, and as frustrating as it is, no one can really do that work other than you.

I can't even offer much in the way of perspective, to be honest. Despite the fact you and I are in similar positions, my experiences with dissociation and clairsenses are totally different. None of my alters take the form of deities, for one thing, but I've also never had trouble differentiating my alters from deities.

My advice would be to just give it time. Spiritual exploration is full of heavy lifting, and it's something we just work our way through over the course of time.

(Also my brain blog is @prefrontal-bastard, if you ever have questions in the future.)

#answered #thoughtposting

[melrosing]

do you think Brienne is going to sing in the books and will it be significant? I've heard a theory where brienne will sing her way out of trouble in the Stoneheart situation

I think maaaaybe she will? I do think it would have a lot more to with Brienne’s own themes and character development, though, rather than anything else. 

Did you sing for your father? Lady Stark had asked her once, at Riverrun. Did you sing for Renly? She had not, not ever, though she had wanted . . . she had wanted . . .

Brienne loves songs but has never been able to forge a true relationship with them, besides as a listener - she can't see herself in them, she thinks she's got no business singing them, she just kind of holds them in her mind as examples to try and imitate as best she can.

I think the act of singing in particular is considered part of a feminine role she believes she's not made for, and maybe even assumes that because she doesn’t appear outwardly feminine, she can’t possess a skill she’d associate with femininity: 

"I . . . please, I have no gift." Brienne pushed back from the table. 

And maybe she can sing beautifully, or maybe her voice really isn’t her strongest suit, but I think that learning to embrace her own duality will help Brienne embrace the smaller feminine pursuits she’s always felt locked out of.

That would be the performative aspect of singing, but I think there’s also pretty consistently in ASOIAF the element of a song being a gift, or almost something you can barter with (e.g. Tom of Sevenstreams singing ‘Jenny’s Song’ for the Ghost of High Heart in return for her visions, Sandor Clegane demanding a song from Sansa ‘for her life’)… so I kind of see where the ‘singing for LSH’ thing has come from, besides Catelyn asking for a song in ACOK - Brienne singing to earn Jaime/Pod’s safety (I’m not even factoring Hyle in lmao) vaguely aligns with all that.

But I think maybe we’re more likely to see it actioned as the former kind of ‘gifting a song’, where Brienne feels she has someone to give this gift, someone who gives her courage step into that role and who will receive her song no matter how she sounds (probably don’t need to say who lol). 

Also also, I think singing a song yourself is almost in part about claiming the story it tells and carving out your own relationship to it, and Brienne singing one of the songs she loved growing up is kind of a first step to seeing herself as part of that history, rather than always as an outside looking in. So if it did happen, it’d be like singing for someone she loves and singing for herself, both at the same time - which I think aligns with Brienne’s journey to learning to do things for her own happiness as well as others.

But yeah, I don't think it would be plot relevant so to speak. I don’t know if I’ve heard every version of the 'singing for LSH' theory but I’ve heard some at least, and I'm pretty sure Brienne having the pipes of Celine Dion isn't gonna make her reassess whether she wants Jaime Lannister dead or not lmao

#ask #brienne of tarth #asoiaf #lol i'm just imagining the lsh confrontation scene and brienne being like.... pod pass me my guitar

[pompettepink]

stop calling every girly aesthetic "coquette" 😡

"Girly" lol you snitched on yourself. I don't refer to anything I present as exclusively girly. You'll never catch me using tags like girly, feminine, womanly, or anything gender conforming because coquette isn't about being "girly". It's about RECLAIMING girlhood, and for many people in the comm their girlhood consists of jeans and band shirts, skateboarding, football, short hair, and swearing. None of which is viewed as "girly" but is still important.

If I called "every girly aesthetic" coquette then why do I present non "girly" subsets as coquette? And if you actually looked at my tags, or even read my header you would see that I have distinct separate aesthetic that I post! Fairycore is it's OWN thing, Larme Kei is it's OWN thing, Lolita is it's OWN thing, Gyaru it it's OWN thing. If I called every "girly" aesthetic as coquette I wouldn't need to make them their own tag, but I do, because I KNOW they're different.

This is why I said you're snitching on yourself. Got too foolish on anon and jumped to conclusions. What I DO do is present THEMED coquette fits, BUT I'm NOT claiming those themes as coquette!

For example, here's a board I made with the THEME Parisian Coquette

And Monster High Coquette

You and I BOTH now that Parisians dress differently then that, and no one in Monster High is part of the coquette gig! These are both themed boards with inspiration from coquette (also featuring traditionally "non girly aspects like short hair and bat glasses)

And here's ANOTHER example of boards I made with fashion labels that I did NOT identify as coquette

Grey academia

Beach bunny Britney

And Citrus Honeyboy

You would have been able to see all of this if you did the slightest bit of looking.

Somma y'all are so lazy and you're gonna HATE some of the GNC boards I've been planning lol!!

#anonette #know ur pompettepink lore

[tumblingxelian]

While this probably means nothing to you, I can't help but think about the perception of RWBY, not just in itself, but what it says about how other people view media in general. A lot of people just only tend to look at the surface level, and what's sticking out to me is how much this not only applies to stories that are perceived as mixed or bad because they demand more effort to understand, but also applies to shows that are considered good.

Take Ed Edd n Eddy, one of my favorites from my childhood (and an inspiration for my logo). It's considered to be one of the funniest slapstick comedy cartoons of its era. Yet that's more often than not all it's really considered: A funny slapstick.

I've tried checking up online for anything more in-depth about the series on YouTube, but that's the primary focus; how funny it was, how great the jokes are...

but there's nothing much else.

There isn't really much if any insightful videos on the underlying themes of childhood trauma and abuse and how it shaped the behavior of characters like the Eds, how each of the characters have little nuances and behavioral traits that give them more depth than you'd expect for their archetypes.

Like Kevin being the big shot bully and neighborhood cool kid and jerkass, but it's revealed several times that this is more of a facade that crumbles if he faces something that he has no real control over, and how much his behavior worsens and his facade weakens as the Eds' antics wear him down over the course of the series, eventually causing him to make terrible mistakes that basically alienates him from Nazz, who essentially acted in many ways as a parallel to Double D.

Or how Double D, for all of his genuinely upstanding behavior, is also an enabler who basically keeps on allowing Eddy to be the way he is out of him lacking anyone else he can connect with outside of his fellow Eds, and his own internal desire for freedom from his restrictive and distant parents constantly at battle with his obedience and reverence of authority. Or everything about Eddy's complicated relationship with his brother and family, and how he acts out and steadily damages his friendship with his fellow Eds in his desperation to emulate a sibling that ultimately never really deserved the adulation.

There's so much more that could be unpacked, and yet there's barely anyone who talks about such things, only about how funny the series was, how the series was cancelled, with the only serious analysis attempts being aimed at the Big Picture Show and little else. It’s kind of sad in a strange way.

And this also applies to lesser talked about media and mediums/genres like machinima. Outside of Red vs Blue, the large majority of machinima is essentially treated as disposable content or light fluff entertainment. The number of people who try to make any sort of attempt to give them the same kind of analysis and review treatment as the more mainstream entertainment I can count on one hand.

Yeah on the one hand, I understand that machinima content is rarely on par with mainstream media, and the quality is variable, it can be dated by poorly aged jokes, cultural references and such, and the numerous styles and types of machinima means that it can be hard to really evaluate them with any kind of consistent standard. But on the other hand, it just kinda bothers me for some reason just how they get treated as just... the thing that only exists to entertain them, but nothing else.

It’s hard to explain, but I guess my point is that it strikes me how much for all that society claims to value creative endeavors and such, that many people just flat out do not give much if any consideration for things that they've already labeled as shallow entertainment, and even those that are elevated beyond that also run the risk of being pigeonholed into a specific perception, with little insight or value given to thinking about any other aspects outside of it.

Honestly I can't really add anything to this, your post is incredibly insightful and now I wish I'd watched more Ed, Edd and Eddy as a kid XD

I do think you raise a series of excellent points though, how people's perceptions and first impressions can color any efforts to analyze or reflect on the media they interact with.

And how by extension that can also lead to people rejecting media, when it turns out to be more than what they were ready more.

And yeah the general lack of engagement with Machinima and such projects is quite sad, its an emerging/emergent art form but its rarely engaged with outside of novelty.

[amporella]

Stan for the bingo

BINGOOOOOO!!

Sweet beloved precious Stan. I really have a hard time ranking characters once I get past #3 or so, but Stan is very much up there, and honestly, how could he not be? He is literally perfect. Has there ever been a more tender, more sweet, more lovable character ever in all of media? I THINK NOT.

As if he was not already terrific, his outfits are also consistently amazing. Knight Stan? Stunning. Toolshed? Groundbreaking. Also, I'm kind of crazy about the theme of masculinity in Stan's outfits? His main personas - a Knight and the equivalent of a handyman - are traditionally masculine, and something about that speaks to me. Sweet baby masc Stan... I love you.

HE IS DEEPER THAN HE SEEMS. And I know that's probably a little weird considering that he is maybe the most fleshed out character on the show? But seriously, he is. @/south-park-meta has some really notably great Stan meta that I highly recommend checking out; you can appreciate Stan as a deep character just from his appearances in the show, but you can REALLY REALLY appreciate him once you read some really well-written meta about him. And fortunately, there is a lot of it!!

I do think he's gotten done dirty by fans, but not in the sense of him being too jocky or too masculine or whatever; Stan's depression certainly plays a major role in his character, but I've also seen it be brutalized quite frequently within the fandom, in a lot of ways? It is anyone's right to depict his depression in whatever way they want, but it's also generally agreed upon that there are certain portrayals that are closer to canon than others - and I'm sure we've all seen versions where his depression is romanticized, ramped up, etc that makes him really unrecognizable. And like, I think this is to be expected. This fandom has a large percentage of teenagers, and frankly, a lot of teenagers are depressed; there is bound to be a lot of projection onto a similarly depressed character, which is fine! Everyone projects, consciously or not, but I do grimace instinctively a little at the sight of fics that lean REALLY hard into it without much nuance. And I'm sure that floats some people's boats!! It's just not mine. It's the same reason I'm generally a little hesitant on goth Stan; it's easy to lean into this trope of a gothy, edgy, depressed character and forget that goth Stan doesn't embody Stan as a whole, and neither does depressed Stan.

I summed this up in Kyle's character bingo, but I'll say it again here; I do think Stan works better as part of a dynamic, and I think Kyle does too. They're canonically basically inseparable (and they gravitate back towards each other when they are separated), and they function better together - Stan did say that he would regret not forgiving Kyle for the rest of his life, and really, what more proof do you need. They're just better together!!! That's all.

I've also said this before, but yes. He has never done anything wrong. I crumpled up like a paper towel the first time I read a post claiming that Stan was abusive to Kyle in Ass Burgers, because ough no. I don't think so. It's okay to lean Kyle's side while admitting that Stan was suffering very deeply, had no ill intent towards Kyle, and was incapacitated against his will for a large portion of the episode. He doesn't deserve to be blamed for what he did; he is consistently a kind, endlessly caring character, and he's made up for saying 'fuck you' to Kyle a million times over. Don't hold it over his head. It makes me sad :(

Thank you for the ask!! Stan is my beloved and I'm deeply in love with many adult portrayals of him.

#south park #stan marsh #asks #i got another stan ask too! thank you alister #i'll get to christophe soon owo

[celticgaels]

Hello! Welcome to the Blog!

Requests: Closed for commissions and open for writing

Introduction:

Hi! My name is Taff. I occupy exactly zero braincells most of the time but feel free to message me or send me an ask! I'm a budding (insecure) artist that honestly needs a lot of practise but I think I feel ready to show some of my work. I write as well and have been writing more than I have been drawing, especially digitally, but I love learning new techniques to make my crafts better. This blog is centred mostly around OCs of mine for LEGO Ninjago and as such is recommended for those 18 and over considering the nature of my OCs and the world that comes with them.

This blog is a side blog, so likes, follows and replies in the notes will come from my main, @friedchocolate

Besides LEGO Ninjago, my other interests/fandoms are:

Marvel

Baldur's Gate

Fallout

The Elder Scrolls

The Witcher

Red Dead Redemption

The Last of Us

Uncharted

The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings

A Plague Tale

Rules:

Not much really phases me but there's still some lines I won't cross

I'm okay with writing/making art of nsfw topics seeing as my characters and the Aldmerrow Chapter do contain nsfw themes, but for now, I'll take writing requests because I personally feel that my art is not up to standard for frequent art posts just yet.

Do NOT repost or edit my art. This includes using it in a video edit and posting it onto sites like Pinterest or Deviantart. If I make a piece for you to use, do what you will, but I will not take off my watermark.

I'd prefer to keep my OC content to myself so please don't claim such things as your own. It took me years to develop everything and it's very precious to me

I will not answer asks regarding ships about Lloyd that I feel are inappropriate, such as ships with him and other ninja/older characters

I also have tokophobia (fear of and general aversion to pregnancy) and am not entirely fond of children so I would appreciate such topics to not be brought up.

Where writing requests are concerned, the above is relevant. Regarding nsfw themes like those of a sexual nature, there are things I can and cannot do for personal reasons. If you want to request such a thing from me, please see my writing rules page before sending an ask.

Note: If I'm tagged in something or mentioned in the notes/comments and I don’t respond for a little while, like a day or so, it's because I likely didn't get notified and tumblr likes to not let me see notifications so feel free to message me the post just in case re-tagging doesn't work. Usually it should, though.

Tags:

My usual tags consist of:

#anon  –  in this tag you can find posts with asks from anons

#mutual   –  in this tag you can find posts with asks from mutuals

#tw [blank]   –  in this tag you can find posts which may have triggering content or content not for minors

#ninjago / #ninjago oc   –  in this tag you can find posts that include talk of the original characters or ninjago as a whole

#oc: taliah   –  in this tag you can find posts that mention or are focused around taliah

#oc: erebos   –  in this tag you can find posts that mention or are focused around erebos

#art / my art   –  in this tag you can find posts that have art that is either submitted to the blog or art that is of my own work

#writing / my writing   –  in this tag you can find posts that include writing submitted to the blog or in which the blog is tagged, or my own writing

#aldmerrow lore   –  in this tag you can find posts that are focused on the lore of the made up world of aldmerrow from which taliah and erebos reside

#headcanon  –  in this tag you can find posts that have headcanons that are either submissions, asks, or my own

The Aldmerrow Chonicles:

The Aldmerrow Chronicles is something I've been working on since the show first came out back in 2011 alongside the two OCs that gave birth to it. I never intended to make a fan-season, but as I developed it over time, it's begun to feel that way. It works as the focus season for my two OCs, Taliah of Gideon and her partner Erebos the archgriffin. I post concepts and designs for it from time to time because actually writing the damn thing has been an on and off thing (but lets ignore the multiple info dumps and roleplays I've done with friends about it) so a fanfiction for the time being will be unavailable to the public. You can find all sorts of content for the Aldmerrow Chronicles under the allocated tags.

A brief intro, but as time goes on I'm sure more will be added and changes will be made!

#long post #intro post #no reblogging please bc yikes man #pinned post

[glassmarcus]

Not Another Triforce of the Gods

*Played in May 2023, Written in December 2023

Look, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a big ass game. I spent an irresponsible amount of time on it. So it's just not in the cards for me to write about it to the extent I write about other stuff. There's too much to dissect, especially since it’s so attached to the preceding title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is also a gargantuan beast of a game. Yes, the Ultra Hand mechanic is insane and makes this the best Lego game ever made. Yes, that Master Sword Cutscene is the most gilded cutscene in the franchise. Yea dungeons aren't boring and have unique flavors again. Yes, the Fuse ability makes the economy of this game functional...for most of the game. There's a lot about it that I want to touch upon, the main thing I feel the need to dwell on is the fact this is also just A Link to the Past again.

Hear me out. I know it's a bit played out to compare other Zelda games to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past at this point. I've witnessed many claims that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is essentially A Link to the Past with a 3rd dimension. Hell, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was explicitly link to the past 2, as its Japanese title is just Triforce of the Gods 2 (Triforce of the Gods is the Japanese title of Link to the Past (Now the title of this write up makes a bit more sense huh?)). There are elements of Link to the Past which are strongly dispersed throughout the whole franchise. It’s sort of the default Zelda that all games from it until Breath of the Wild were built upon, so games having similarities makes sense. But there is a structural, mechanical, and narrative root to it that some Zelda games have more than others. And I think Tears of the Kingdom leans a bit harder towards Link to the Past than most. If Breath of the Wild was a modern take on the original Zelda, then it would be an interesting case study to view Tears of the Kingdom as a modern take on A Link to the Past. It makes sense that would be the next thing Nintendo would do if we ignore the existence of Zelda 2 like they usually do. I wanna find out if this hypothesis holds any water, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

The first thing that stood out to me as Triforce of the Gods vibes was the story. Not in terms of structure and themes, that came later. The primary moment of being reminded of Link to the Past was referencing the same lore as that game. When Zelda said the term "Imprisoning War" I lost my goddamned mind. My atrophied Zelda Lore Muscles finally got a work out for the first time in a decade. Breath of the Wild took place so far in the future that none of the Zelda timeline nonsense I dedicated myself to understanding mattered. It was a huge bummer. While I get the team doesn't want to be constrained by the world building of past games, I prefer franchises that have consistent world building between games so that concepts can be fleshed out further.

Now if there was never any attempt at this in the first place I wouldn't yearn for it. But Nintendo themselves are insistent on making their games connect and it honestly led to them applying some cool time theory concepts because of it. Seeing the consequences of Ocarina of Time lead to 3 timelines that all vary dramatically is one of the most interesting things about the franchise. So to see them basically throw it all away in Breath of the Wild was a huge coward move. Just make it a separate canon. As much as I hate Castlevania: Lords of Shadows, I can’t help but appreciate how it doesn't mess with the lore of the Castlevania games I do like by being in its own canon. Having everything converge at the end made the timeline fuckery in Ocarina of Time feel less meaningful. It all built towards nothing and it was the most xeric move they could have made.

Tears of the Kingdom acknowledging the Imprisoning War, also known as the events of Ocarina of Time, made me loregasm even harder than Zelda did in that opening cutscene. Neurons started firing as I drew conclusions about which timeline it canonically took place in, how it connected with events in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, whether or not this was adding context to previous titles. And then I found out that there is no possible way the Imprisoning War mentioned in A Link to the Past is the same one here. There were too many inconsistencies and before I knew it, my once rock hard lore boner soon became as flaccid as a korok leaf.

Ocarina of Time is about finding a group of sages who will aid you in defeating and sealing away the Demon King. Link to the Past is about finding the descendants of those sages who will aid you in defeating and sealing away the Demon King. Link between Worlds is about finding the descendants of those sages who will aid you in defeating and sealing away the Demon King. Tears of the Kingdom is yet again about finding a group of sage descendants who will aid you in defeating and sealing away the Demon King. Though to be fair, this time it’s more about awakening the descendants than it is finding them. These games all share a basic narrative thrust. The difference with Tears of the Kingdom is that it’s not a derivation of past events, but an entire reinterpretation. You learn about both the past incarnations of the sages along with the current ones. The story of the past is fleshed out as you proceed through the main quest until it all becomes clear that this isn't connected to Ocarina of Time or Skyward Sword at all really.

I have no huge issue with the story itself in Tears of the Kingdom or its similarities to A Link to the Past. Well I am annoyed how the end of each dungeon gives you identical cutscenes, but I digress. I only take offense with the terminology this game decides to use. Why call it the Imprisoning War again? If it's a different thing, call it a different thing. I get that the story is cyclical in nature, but it’s hack writing that a similar event happened and they called it the EXACT SAME NAME by complete coincidence. I'm also kind of ticked off that the reincarnation of Ganondorf is called Ganondorf again and has a completely congruent background. Zelda is named Zelda because of tradition and this is first link that’s canonically called link. Why the hell is Ganondorf still Ganondorf though? I feel that no matter what timeline you follow the name ‘Ganondorf’ has to have lost a bit of popularity. They pulled the same crap with Twinrova in the Oracle games and it was stupid there too. But I guess I can understand from a marketing stand point why they had to do that. But the Imprisoning War was made solely to bait suckers like me to latch on to an idea that was too on the nose and hallow. Just reboot it. If they aren't gonna attempt to actually link to the past in ways that aren't shallow, I see no value in stapling this duology to the end of the series.

But those are only my inane thoughts on how this game has a similar story to A link to the Past in a very hackneyed way. The similarities with Link to the Past which exude substance lies within the world design.

If I were to zero in on the most defining aspect of A Link to the Past that hasn't become a mandatory linchpin of the traditional Zelda formula, I would have to go with The Dark World. The Dark World acted as this messed up reflection of the Hyrule you knew. You spent the first act of the game exploring a colorful world that had its problems for sure. but was for the most part pleasant. Then you travel to the Dark World which is a corrupted reflection of everything you knew. Colors are darker, the geography is shifted, enemies are meaner. It creates an oppressive atmosphere and feels oppressive because you know what it should look like.

Ocarina of Time followed suit, but with a dark future instead of a dark world. In that game you travel to a future where Ganondorf has taken over and everything has been colossally fucked. It's not an alternate world as much as it's a glimpse into what your world will be if you don’t save the day. Characters age up from the period seven years prior, but they have fallen on hard times and it's up to you to make sure they don't get this bad ending. The future functionally acts as a Dark World where you swap between time periods similar to how you swap between realms. You're only required to return to the past a couple of time though after you reach Act 2, while you return to the light world quite a bit more on Link to the Past. But honestly neither game uses the interaction between worlds that much mechanically.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages doesn't have much in common with these two games in terms of plot and structure, but it does have the two similar worlds concept and attempts to utilize it to its fullest potential this time around. Time Travel is an event that only necessarily occurs only a few times in Ocarina of Time; Time Travel is something you are constantly doing in Oracle of Ages. It's an ability you have from the beginning and almost every overworld puzzle involves switching between two time periods. It's complex and pushes the idea in a way Link to the Past couldn’t have dreamed of. But while this made for a cleverer use of having two worlds, it loses a lot by taking this approach. For one, it's annoying to use because the animation for playing the Harp of Ages takes waaay to long and you use this item A LOT. But most importantly, you never get attached to a certain time period so the contrast between the two feels dulled and unmemorable. Because there is no familiarity, the two worlds meld together into one big puzzle.

A Link Between Worlds, as per usual with this game, is the compromise between ideals. It's structurally the same as A Link to the Past, so you get the opportunity to become familiar with your home world of Hyrule. When entering the second act of the game and you gain access to the parallel world in which the kingdom of Lorule resides, the contrast between the two is powerful. It's mechanically more inline with Oracle of Ages though, with traversing between worlds having heavier emphasis. It doesn't go over board like Ages, as Hyrule is perfectly traversable without dimension hopping. It's only Lorule that requires this ability to explore. Lorule is not a sustainable healthy environment as its landscape is completely fractured and falling apart. In order for it to be a functioning map, it needs Hyrule’s help and the whole plot is kind of about that and it's a bit peak. Lorule has been my favorite take on the two worlds concept...Until possibly now.

Tears of the Kingdom has multiple worlds. This is no secret. It was marketed as having a traversable sky biome above Hyrule and it implied the game would focus on navigating between both land and sky. Kinda like Skyward Sword, but fleshed out and complete. Well the joke is on us because both games ended up having an incomplete Sky Realm. Regardless of the quality of the sky world, this approach to having multiple worlds is far different from the previous examples I brought up. It's not some alternate version of another plane, but a separate area located directly above it. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons kind of had the same approach in the opposite direction, as they implement this idea with Subrosia, an under ground civilization that feels very separate from the surface world. Only the geographic landmarks between the two worlds matters, so it's not 1:1 in the size and general structure I've grown accustomed to. The sky in Tears of the Kingdom and Subrosia are much smaller than the base world map, so it fails to scratch that same itch.

But I still left Tears of the Kingdom with no skin discomfort to be found. Why is that? Well it didn't really hit me until I started viewing the game as what it truly was: A direct sequel with heavy asset reuse. There has been a lot of complaints about how similar Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are. Complaints that it’s an extension or DLC, not a brand new game. I was resistant to this criticism at first, but now I accept it as less of a criticism and more of an objective fact. No other Zelda game has the asset reuse concentration that this one has. It very much feels like a continuation. You even keep your horses between games. I started the game and everything felt so familiar, yet so different as well. The geography was very similar, yet altered. The characters were back, but had gone through changes. Breath of the Wild was relaxed and open, while Tears has a dash of urgency and direction. Things feel dire in comparison. The feeling I got from Tears of the Kingdom, is the feeling I got from the 2nd act of Ocarina of Time. And barring the ability to travel back to past, they are essentially congruent. Tears by itself is not a Triforce of the Gods game, but the duology as a whole is.

Every Triforce of the Gods game, hell most 3D Zelda games in general follow a Three Act Structure. In Act 1 you are introduced to the world and have to surmount a set of easy dungeons before confronting the big bad of the game. Whether you get bodied in a cutscene or defeat the evil guy in a boss fight, the 2nd act starts and it's much more dire than the first with tougher enemies and dungeons to conquer. Then in the 3rd act, you confront the big bad and defeat them for real this time. Only the low profile Zelda games have escaped this structure. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask dodge it as well because it's just built different. I thought Breath of the Wild's open ended design philosophy made this structure impossible, and it does, but only when you view it as a single game.

I've lamented for years about how utterly disappointing the final boss of Breath of the Wild is. It's such a wet fart at the end of a great adventure. But while I don't excuse it, I don't hate it nearly as much as it's no longer the final boss. It's the Act 1 closer. The assault on Hyrule castle at the end of Breath of the Wild is analogous to the assault on Hyrule castle in A Link to the Past, and Calamity Ganon is the equivalent of Agahnim. The last two acts of the journey are in Tears of the Kingdom. I'm quite confident at this point if you focus and ignore the open aspects of both games as you marathon both back to back, you'll have a clear Triforce of the Gods experience. Sure it’s kinda weird how the Sheikah and Divine Beast tech dissipates into the ether without explanation between games, but other than that, it’s a pretty direct follow up. Even though there is no possible way they planned this from the beginning, the narrative structure and story content I’m looking for is present in this duology. But as I previously stated, your transition to the 2nd act is a 1 way street. There is no interaction between the future and past. So mechanically it might not feel the same. But Tears also has us covered on that end. If you want mechanical depth in world traversal, look no further than The Depths themselves.

I used to think the Tears of the Kingdom was a lame name. In a series of games with sick titles, Tears of the Kingdom couldn't really compete. But then I played the game and found out that this title was crafted by someone with a far higher IQ than my own. Now I would tier it higher than most. The pun is on an entirely different level. It's not just about the fall of the Hylian Kingdom, it's about how you explore multiple layers of it. There are 4 worlds to explore in this duology. The original Breath of the Wild Hyrule and the modified Post Time Skip Hyrule are the two main ones. The 3rd(or 2nd chronologically) that you experience is the sky above this Hyrule Shippuden. But underneath it is the best kept secret of this game: The Depths. An entire underground map that is 1:1 in size with the surface. It is a fully realized version of Subrosia. It shows the echoes of the past and future you'd see in Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Ages. It is every bit as intimidating as the Dark World and Lorule. The Depths is arguably the best version of a reflected realm these games have ever had.

With The Depths you'll find remnants of the kingdom's past. It's not as if you are literally traveling back in time, but instead getting the left overs. Faded cultures from millennia ago are present throughout the Depths. It's as if the old civilization the new one was built on top of didn't get destroyed, but was pushed down. This is why all the Easter Egg items you see in past games are located here this time, because that's logically where they should be.

The Depths are eerie and vast. When you first get down there it's so dark you can't see a thing. You use the materials to light up the area, but then you start to realize how futile it is. The Depths are not a series of caves, it is a second map entirely. One of the most gratifying things you can do in these games is get a good vantage point and note all the cool places you can go to. I remember at the beginning of the game when falling to the surface from the sky, immediately took out my ZonaiPad and started marking where I wanted to go.

You can't really do that in The Depths super easily. The only thing that stands out is the Light Roots you see in the distance, other wise you can't see jack without launching light fruit all over the place. It makes exploration absolutely terrifying, and at any point something new can pop out of the dark and attack you or you can accidentally wander into the wrong part of town and get stuck in a pile of HP decreasing sludge. The atmosphere cannot be understated. It felt like I didn't belong there. It was as if I was looting resources from a foreign planet. I got a ton on bombs on my first trip down there, but at the cost of a bit of my sanity. This makes figuring out how to light the dark a priority and one of the more satisfying things you do in this game despite me doing it 120 times.

The Depths are a reflection of the surface in ways other than theming. The underground logically has to be vaguely similar to the surface, with bodies of water and mountains acting as impassable walls while the plains are free to be what ever they want. The general grouping of areas is always identical because the underground is the foundation for the surface. When the game takes advantage of this relationship is when it's at its best. On the surface, the two main landmarks you gravitate towards are Towers and Shrines. Towers being ways to collect map data and Shrines to act as bountiful warp points. They act as sort of exploration checkpoints. Some of these Shrines and Towers are hard to find and access though. You can have a general idea of where a Shrine is, but a general idea might not be enough. A lot of Towers involve puzzles you need to solve before accessing. What does a player do if they get stumped by these landmarks? Go to The Depths.

The Light Roots act as both towers and Shrines in terms of map exploration. They are the only guaranteed source of light in The Depths and activating them lights up the whole area they reside in as well as filling out that map data AND acting as a fast travel point. Activating Light Roots is insanely valuable for further exploration of not only The Depths, but of the surface as well. Light Roots are exactly what they sound like. Bright roots that sprout from The Depths and through the surface where Shrines are blossomed. They are inverses of each other thus are always clearly linked together. Even their names are reversed anagrams of each other. Wherever there's a Light Root there has to be a Shrine directly above it. So if you know where a Light Root is, you have pretty much found a Shrine too. And because the maps for the surface and The Depths are so similar, you almost don't need the towers because you can figure out the geography from the map of The Depths you filled out by activating Light Roots.

And the best part is, this works both ways. If you have found a Shrine you have found a Light Root. If you have activated a tower, you figure out the geography of The Depths easier even without the Light Roots. This duality gives all three of these landmarks more value by how they interact with each other. It's a version of the Dark World that is perfect for an open game that focuses on exploration. The interplay between the worlds is the most fun I have with this game. Puzzles that require knowledge of not just The Depths and surface, but also the sky were the highlights of my playthrough. It's the most interesting this concept has been. But in the end, I don't think I clearly prefer it over the others.

I wish I could be completely positive in this aspect of the game, but like the Demon King Ganondorf, my inner hater will not be subdued. The major draw backs to this version of a parallel world is that it magnifies the existing issues with the game. While there are loads of fun areas to explore on the surface, the map is still plagued with repetition. There are more enemies than in Breath of the Wild, but still not nearly enough for how large this game is. There are caves now to increase the density of content, but most of those caves end up feeling the same halfway through the game. It's the same issue I had with Elden Ring. The amount of ideas the game has can't keep up with the size of the map. And because we have The Depths, the issue is multiplied by two. Exploring The Depths was fine in the beginning and early-mid game, but afterwards it became clear I've seen everything it had to offer yet there was so much left to do. Once I started running into boss rematches, I knew the game was at a loss for content.

I still hold that this the best thing they've done with this concept on a mechanical level. I only wish it was in smaller game. I've come to terms that the finely crafted 3D Zelda experiences that I prefer are dead and gone and have to be helmed by some spiritual successor. But do these games really need to be this fucking big? This is what it always comes down to. Now that we can make impressive huge games, we never stop to think if we should. While I enjoyed this bigger version of Triforce of the Gods that has a surprising dearth of Triforce, I don't think the size is worth it in the end. And I hate to keep complaining about this in everything I write that’s even tangentially related to Zelda, but it continues to be an issue for me and all open world games in general. Hopefully when they make Triforce of the Gods 5, they can reel in the size and make something truly amazing.

#tears of the kingdom

[stupid-elf]

Hi! Get ambushed with more scenes I’m never going to do anything with but that I kinda like as I explore my characters. Today on showcase: Adilus Dend

The ship was on fire, and the sensation of suspended death as the floor listed towards the planet brought was all too familiar to Adilus’s feet.

He grabbed a person by the arm as the man ran past. “Go to the shelters. Make sure the children make it to the escape pods.” He stared into the man’s eyes until certain the job would be done.

He took hold of the railing, using it to balance out his bad knee and hip as he made his way towards the bridge, fighting the tide of people streaming for the chance at life the pods held, as more of the ship succumbed to the void. A rolling volley struck the hull, and the drifting for the surface got faster. They were on course to plunge right into the planetary shields. The ship would be incinerated as it passed through, leaving nothing but droplets of molten metal to free fall to the surface.

He fumbled in his uniform for a key to the door, cursing his once-nimble fingers as he did. He pried it out, slid it over the barrier, and barged in. Surely enough, nobody was at their posts. Adilus rolled his eyes. Civilian liners. The slightest sign of trouble and discipline evaporated.

He made his way to where the propulsion panel usually was, only to find it contained a bank of environmental control modulators. The old bridge models worked perfectly, fine, why were they changing things around, when an old fool might be the only thing between a ship and disaster? He huffed.

Adilus found the proper controls on the far side of the room, and by the time he got to a chair his hip was fit to buckle. Instinct said to put all power to the forward engines, attempt to reverse the descent. Experience and training told him to make a bank job of it. He smiled, recalling the battle over Ghor, back when he still fought for the Empire. Simpler times. Darker times, but simpler. He shook himself. This was no time for reminiscing.

He pulled power from the stabilizing engines--stabilizing the ship wasn’t much good when it was actively in a planet’s gravitational lock, which would stabilize it just fine, and also falling. The diverted power was sent entirely to the right side of the ship, trying to turn their descent into an arc, at which point he could switch course and put them into orbit. If this worked, that is. If he failed, well, one sentimental old man was hardly a great loss. He could at least buy time for the rest of the people to get to escape pods.

He felt a tugging at his shirt, and his hands faltered on the controls as his eyes looked down away from the screen. The two watery brown eyes that met his belonged to a child, and now his heart faltered.

“Hey there little guy. Where’s your parents?”

“The-” the boy sniffed- “the boom...”

Adilus knew those words. He’d heard them before, from other distraught little ones, in the aftermath of other firefights. They were probably watching the stars out of a viewing port when the attack struck. As if cued by his thoughts, another rolling volley hammered through the ship. Another few and there wouldn’t be any engines left to work with. The child resumed sobbing, and suddenly Adilus was in grandfather mode, working his way out of the chair and, against his hip and knee’s protest, crouching down to look the child in the eyes, at the boy’s level. “I know this is all terribly too much, but we’ll get you back to them.” He reached out, almost choking on the lie, pulling the boy closer, letting the child bury his face in the old soldier’s broad shoulders. “Do you know how to get to the escape pods?” He knew the answer as soon as he asked the question, thinking of the maze of corridors it took to get there. And the kid was hardly in any state to wander off alone, with the alarm systems blaring as the scent of stale air crept in, the vents and doors across the ship sealing shut to try and prevent the air from leaking out.

The little face confirmed his worries with an emphatic shake of the head.

Adilus wrapped his arms around the boy, remembering his purpose in the room, lifting him up, again despite his knee and hips’ staunch protests. He retook his seat in the chair at the control panel, searching for something to do, anything to slow the ship’s descent. He could see little dots, support crew ships, maybe some planetary defense to fight the raiders, taking off on the ground. There was no way they would get there in time, not without turning off the planetary shield, and no sensible administrator would sign off on that with a Nebula-class warship actively firing on a civilian cruiser just above.

Adilus rested his hand on the little boy’s back, moving it in slow circles, as the tears continued to soak into his shoulder.

“Mister sir?” The little boy blubbered, “are we gonna crash?”

Dark sadness gripped Adilus’s heart. “It won’t be so bad.” It was a nonanswer, and they both knew it, even if the boy didn’t know the word for it. The little face buried itself back in his shirt.

Adilus felt another wave of shots rock the ship, and sure enough, the engine diagnostics were reporting no fewer than seventeen critical failure points. They were dead in the expanse. Or rather, they were without power. A jarring screech as the ship, build for space, began to groan louder under the force of gravity from the planet made it very clear they were moving. Just not in a good direction.

There was nothing more Adilus could do. He leaned back in his chair, trying to use his large form to offer the child what little comfort he could. It could never be enough. He closed his eyes.

It was all his fault. The Syndicate had been emboldened by him and Vendale, and now they were here, attacking a core world, a wealthy one, wealthy enough to afford a planetary shield no less, probably because of some tip that he, Adilus Dend, newly retired Grand Admiral of the Ravens, Chief Executive Emeritus of Dend Industries, former General of the Imperial Navy and the Galactic Confederation, one of the least valuable but most symbolic targets in the galaxy, was on board a little-armored and unarmed civilian cruiser. He could only hope that whatever rat let the secret loose would have his just penance, but he knew there was no justice in the galaxy. If not wasn’t for the little boy in his arms, why should there be any for him? He’d lived a good life. He’d used his luck already.

Dend had been counting the seconds until another barrage. It should have come already. He opened his eyes, looked out the massive window, and almost didn’t get time to register what he saw there before he was thrown out of his chair, the ship’s sudden fall halted by a massive tow cable, mounted to the rear of a liberated freight liner. The Stalemate was with them, gun banks seemingly on fire, and missiles were streaking though the intervening space between it and the Syndicate warship. The little escape pods were all clear and flying towards the planetary shield gate. Dend felt like standing up and whooping a victory cry, but he didn’t want to disturb the boy, who was now looking up, chin still firmly tucked into Dend, but he was looking up.

Dend stood slowly instead, hip pain still there but forgotten, and hobbled to the communications board, sending a hailing signal to the tow ship.

The captain of the vessel accepted the signal, and the smiling eyes of Commander Brynn met Adilus’s.

“Sorry it’s not much of a rescue, Grandpops, but we do what we can.” Brynn turned, shouting some orders to her own people, swarming around the ship.

“I’m just glad you’re here, my girl.”

“Don’t get sappy just yet, save that for when you’re back at the Roost. You should’ve seen Pops when when we got word you were under attack. “Retired my bullet,” “Get out there and teach those wastes of oxygen how things work in my stellar space,” “When that old man gets back here I’m never letting him retire again,” you know.”

Adilus settled back into his chair, putting his hand back on the little boy’s back, moving it in those slow circles again. “Yes, I do know.” He smiled. Retirement didn’t suit him anyway. “I do know.”

#scifi #old man doesn't wanna retire #I'm so sorry to everybody that follows me #but also I've never claimed to have a consistent theme and never will #this is a personal blog and I fuck around and post random shit quite a bit #anyway meet my second favorite old man