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intergalacticfop · 7 months

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Minoan Kilt

The large, structural skirt worn by Minoan women in art is instantly recognizable, and when I made my own I combined current best guesses with my own personal tastes.

My kilt shape follows the hypothesis laid out by Bernice Jones in her book Ariadne's Threads: The Construction and Significance of Clothes in the Aegean Bronze Age. She describes the shape of that of a labrys, a double-headed axe with apparent ceremonial significance in Ancient Minoan culture. This garment may be depicted in Linear-B logogram *166 + we, we-being the backwards-s-shaped squiggle in the center which identifies the piece as a garment.

See pages 336 and 341 in Marie-Louise B. Nosch, The Textile Logograms in the Linear B Tablets

Actual details on construction and materials below the cut:

Construction:

The top and bottom edges of the kilt are concave, so the sides are longer than the middle. This gives the chevron-shape seen on layered kilts in art. In addition, the curved top half makes the skirt flare out, accommodating the hips and giving more freedom of movement to the legs. My kilt measured from my waist to my anklebone at the longest point, and about 1.5 times around my waist.

I chose to make a flounced kilt, with smaller strips of fabric and trim applied to a large base piece, rather than a tiered kilt, in which multiple kilt shapes of varying length are layered one on top of the other, so you end up wrangling 3 layers of fabric around the waist. The flounced kilt saves fabric and gives you a lot more freedom with whatever trim you might want. Jones' diagram for a flounced kilt is seen below:

Unlike the version in the diagram above, I chose not to attach ties to the garment itself both because the linen I used was very heavy and I was concerned about weight, and also because folding the skirt and securing it with a separate tie worked just fine for my tastes. In total I had four flounces: 2 alternating rows each of fabric and fringe.

The vertical edges of most kilts are left plain, probably representing either the selvage or an edge otherwise finished off to prevent fraying. For my kilt, however, I ended up with a couple inches of self-fringe on either side as I adjusted the fabric to the correct width. At least three examples of kilts with fringed vertical edges are known, all three from the so-called "House of the Ladies" in Akrotiri

Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Image 1. Image 2.

The vertical edges of these kilts are reinforced with a colored band or tape, probably to keep the garment from unintentional further fraying. Accordingly, I did the same on my kilt. I also like that it gave a nice vertical diagonal to counterbalance the horizontal ones.

Materials

I tried to use mainly linen and wool, the fibers most available on Ancient Crete, but some of my trim was cotton because sometimes you just have to use what's cheap and available in the today times.

The base of my kilt is a heavy, patterned linen in what's called a diaper weave, meaning that a repeating diamond pattern is woven into the pattern itself. A lot of the Minoan textiles depicted in frescoes are characterized by repeating geometric patterns, likely woven into the fabric itself, and that was something I wanted to capture in my own piece. My linen is woven with both cream and natural colored threads. The heavy weight is important to give structure to the garment--otherwise it would be kind of limp. My linen was from Burnley & Trowbridge (shameless plug), as was the plain cotton twill tape I used to bind the top and bottom edges of the kilt, and the dark red wool twill tape I used along the vertical edges.

I bought my cotton fringe from a rug supply store. I had to search a while to find a fringe that would work for me, and I ultimately chose fringes with a woven header rather than the more common knotted one, so that it would lay flat against the kilt. I hid the woven header under a layer of cotton fringed trim from Michaels (yes, Michaels) with this really great diamond and dots pattern woven in black.

The blue layers are from a bolt of vintage wool Kimono fabric. Blue appears frequently in frescoes, likely achieved with indigo or woad dye, or even murex/mollusk dye. The fabric is printed with an imitation ikat pattern of diamonds and squares that made me think "the vibes seem right!" because quite frankly, you aren't going to get "historically accurate" Minoan textiles (which there probably isn't enough archaeological evidence to definitively describe) without, like, hand-weaving it yourself or paying someone hundreds of dollars to do it for you (and that price is if the weaver really likes you). Neither of which appealed to my desire to just make a fun, low stress project. Good enough is good enough.

The narrow trim on the bottom of the blue flounces is vintage cotton/poly woven trim. This trim, while narrow, was quite thick and stiff, which was great because it added more weight and structure to the end of my flounces since the wool fabric itself was quite thin.

The top layer is a custom tablet-woven wool trim that I commissioned from MAHTAVAhandicraft on Etsy. I imagined this as the "centerpiece" of my kilt, and I'd arrange everything to complement it.

It's a kivrim pattern, which has itself only been traced to 19th-century Anatolia, but I didn't care. The way it looks like waves reminded me of how central the sea was to life in the Ancient Aegean and Mediterranean and it captured the idea and aesthetic I was pursuing. I mean, doesn't it remind you of these dolphins?

(I like the dolphins)

The whole thing was machine sewn with the exception of hemming and adding trim to the blue flounces. If you were to look at it from the back, you'd see lots of zigzag stitches, because i wanted to be fast! and have fun! not chase some unreachable ideal of "accurate."

As for wearing it, I chose to wear it with the top part folded/rolled down over a belt, so I have a thick tube of fabric around my waist. Many images, like the frescoes above of women with fringed kilts, appear to just show the kilt being tied closed. Other images are so fragmented or stylized that it's unclear what kind of skirt closure was used. Sculptures and figurines definitely show some kind of SOMETHING around the waist, whether this is folded fabric or a kind of belt is unclear. Different art could show different things!

I think I see evidence of a continuous line from the skirt to the waist-roll on the figure on the left, found in Troas, which I think indicates some kind of skirt-folding situation. The woman on the right, found in Crete, looks more like she's wearing some kind of long coiled belt, or perhaps snakes. Who knows? I don't! For my own part, I found the combination of rolled waist + tie belt the most secure for doing things like kneeling, stomping around, and wading into rivers to rescue bees. I also liked that it gave me the bulk around the hips that gives Minoan figurines such a powerful silhouette, and proportionally gives more of an hourglass shape. If you wanted to do something more firmly grounded in the sources, stick just with the waist tie or belt, wrapped around a couple times and tied in back. If you want to be like me, just say "well we don't KNOW it didn't happen" and just do whatever you want. Have fun! Whatever happens, it should be fairly easy to move around in the kilt--this is not a restrictive garment, just a heavy one.

#minoan #minoan crete #historical costuming #bronze age #reference #resources

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another-lost-mc · 8 months

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a/n: inspired by this ask and the others that have flooded my inbox since. rofl. I might tinker with these a bit more. a nsfw version might be coming later, maybe? we'll see.

➤ shadow-walking with mc | the demons + solomon

1.9k words | gn!reader | sfw | descriptions of canon-typical violence

Shadow-walking requires the demon and human to have a pact. MC is a rare human that shares this ability with all the demon brothers.

Solomon shares this ability with Barbatos and Asmodeus but rarely uses it.

It's normally used as an offensive or defensive ability as needed.

The demon brothers re-purpose it as a way of still "being" with MC and spending time with them even when they can't physically.

The demon and their human master share a telepathic bond that lets them communicate through thoughts and emotions. This allows them to "speak" to each other.

Only one demon can share MC's shadow which means there's usually a queue of demons waiting for their chance to sneak in next.

None of the demon brothers believe they need a formal system to decide who gets to spend time shadow-walking with MC because that's just embarrassing to admit. It ends up being a first-come first-serve free-for-all unless they negotiate some sort of agreement in advance (which usually involves threats or bribes).

Belphegor spends the most time in MC's shadow—his subconscious is constantly trying to gain access even when he's asleep.

Only powerful demons can sense when MC is shadow-walking with another demon if their shadow form hasn't manifested yet. This would catch arrogant lesser-demons completely by surprise if they think MC is a lonely, vulnerable target.

When the demon's shadow form "awakens," MC's shadow changes to the shape of whichever demon is shadow-walking with them at that time. This usually happens when the demon senses something is wrong or MC is troubled; it gives them more access to MC's surroundings so they can detect danger more easily.

Shadow-walking's final form is a corporeal version of the shadow come to life. It manifests as a dark, muted visage of whichever demon is present. They are generally not capable of regular speech and rarely make noise or sounds at all.

The shadow forms are capable of offensive and defensive magical abilities, and some may even fight with conjured weapons. They all have increased agility/reflexes and enhanced strength.

Shadow forms are able to communicate telepathically with Little Ds that share their sin attribute. Little Ds can also be controlled as offensive minions in MC's defense.

The demon brothers have limited control over their shadow forms. The shadows function on instinct fueled by emotion and their natural desire to protect their precious human master at all costs.

MC can use direct commands or pact magic spells to temporarily block the demon brothers from entering their shadow. This prevents any unwanted interruptions if MC is doing someone something private, or if MC simply wants to be alone.

LUCIFER

Lucifer sometimes shadow-walks with MC as an alternative to stringing up his brothers when he's frustrated.

He also shadow-walks with MC when he's working in his study or relaxing with a glass of Demonus by the fireplace. Their link allows MC to hear whatever cursed record he's listening to without succumbing to any of the negative side effects.

Shadow Form manifestation: appears in a gust of wind behind a flurry of black feathers. He hovers off the ground behind MC. Even though the shadow forms are dark and generally void of colour, his eyes and gloves are still noticeably red.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: In addition to enhanced physical combat abilities, he is capable of telekinetic control of objects. His shadow form's wings can also block MC like a shield and the feathers can slice through most materials including demon flesh.

MAMMON

Sometimes he claims he does it when he's bored or it's "his turn to babysit MC" but really, he does it because he misses them.

If MC goes to the club or casino without him, he's usually lurking in their shadow instead. MC's luck is amplified when Mammon is in their shadow, but he can't replicate that same good luck in-person which frustrates him to no end.

Shadow Form manifestation: He spawns in a pool at MC's feet and then sprints past whatever is bothering MC. The threat turns around and sees Mammon's shadow, crouched low and grinning with his fangs on display before he pounces.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: Capable of flight and is the most agile of all his brothers in this form. He normally uses hand-to-hand combat to overwhelm whoever or whatever is threatening MC. He can summon a protective barrier around MC that reflects spells/physical blows back at the attacker.

LEVIATHAN

He gets very jealous of the others when he has to wait to shadow-walk with MC.

Sometimes he'll keep gaming when he shadow-walks, but most of the time he goes to his bathtub so he can focus all of his attention on MC instead. He's more confident communicating with MC this way. He's less awkward and more outgoing, especially when he can sense how happy MC is too.

Shadow Form manifestation: His shadow ripples like inky black water before he emerges. His silhouette almost looks like a naga until he steps forward and his tail uncoils itself from around his body.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: He uses shadow-infused water magic. He can summon a defensive water shield around MC to absorb any magical or physical blows. His tail is strong enough to wrap around and crush the body of most weaker demons. If the threats are too strong or if he's particularly angry, he can summon Lotan whose immense power is enhanced with shadow magic. (He's never had to do this because he knows it should be used as a last resort—the collateral damage would be catastrophic.)

SATAN

Shadow-walking is one of the easiest ways for him to calm down.

When they shadow-walk together, they talk about school or books or movies or their other shared interests—it's like walking for a casual stroll together, but with extra steps.

Shadow Form manifestation: He crawls out of the shadow, and his sharp claws leave visible marks on the ground. The wispy shape of his feathered boa and his tail curling around his body makes him look bestial and menacing.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: His teeth and nails are longer and sharper. He attacks brutally with uncontained fury and his opponents are often left in bloody, mangled messes by the time he's ensured MC's safety. His shadow form is capable of distorted growling noises when angry or purring noises when content.

ASMODEUS

His motivations for shadow-walking are to spend quality time with MC but he's also extremely protective of them. He gets worried when he can't be there with MC directly.

He likes to shadow-walk with MC when he's having a spa night or when he's out shopping. He sends MC visual images of things he's doing or clothes he's trying on so he can get their feedback. He will purposefully block out any images of things he buys for MC so he can surprise them with gifts later.

Shadow Form manifestation: The first thing you notice before his shadow appears is a soft, condescending chuckle. It's distorted and deeper, like an old audio recording. A pair of shadowy hands curl over MC's shoulders—or around their waist—as he slowly wraps his arms around them from behind. He pulls MC against his chest and hooks his chin over their shoulder, eyes flaring and mouth widening in deadly amusement while he assesses the threat.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: His wings are stronger and capable of flight easier in this form. He uses shadow-infused charm magic that tortures his enemies with pain and batters away at their mental defenses. Sometimes he prefers a personal touch and conjures a pair of poison-tipped daggers to eviscerate anything that dares to harm his MC.

BEELZEBUB

He feels bad that fights literally break out over access to MC's shadow so he tries not to be greedy for MC's sake. Belphie will usually give up some of his "shadow time" so Beel can have that time with MC too without feeling guilty about it.

He likes shadow-walking with MC when they're out shopping or doing other errands. He can boost MC's strength so that it's easier for them to carry things that might ordinarily be too heavy on their own.

Shadow Form manifestation: His shadow form is a blur that launches itself from the ground into the sky. His wings flutter rapidly against his back while he assesses the threat. When he goes in for the attack, he's like a comet plummeting to the ground.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: His wings are constantly buzzing and he can use shadow-infused wind magic to attack enemies or create protective barriers around MC. If he enters a rampage, he prefers to attack with his bare hands and teeth—his and Satan's shadow forms are the most gruesome to witness. (Satan doesn't usually eat his victims, though.)

BELPHEGOR

He would camp in MC's shadow forever if he could. Even when he's sleeping, his subconscious is still capable of communicating with MC but he uses raw emotion and abstract images rather than telepathic speech in that situation.

Shadow Form manifestation: His shadow grabs onto MC's clothes while he climbs up their body and pulls himself off the ground. He nuzzles into MC's neck or shoulder while he yawns and flicks his tail in annoyance.

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: He can attack threats personally if he needs to, but usually he's too lazy. He drapes himself over MC's shoulder and wraps his tail around them protectively while he summons the Dark Specter of Despair and lets that do the work for him.

DIAVOLO

He's inspired by the bonds MC shares with the demon brothers but he's also regretful that he doesn't have a pact with them too.

He's able to expel the demon brother in MC's shadow with his own power, but usually they know better than to try and intrude on MC's visits with Diavolo out of respect.

BARBATOS

He can shadow-walk with Solomon but rarely chooses to do so. However, he shadow-walks with Solomon if he knows the sorcerer and MC are together. (Sometimes he and Asmo fight over Solomon's shadow if another demon brother is in MC's.)

Shadow Form offensive and defensive abilities: he mostly ignores Solomon and lets the wizard take care of himself; he focuses on protecting MC instead. He can use time-altering shadow magic to freeze or slow enemies. He can also teleport MC directly to his physical body's location out of harm's way.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He doesn't have a pact with MC and he swears he will never have a pact with MC (and will never ever want one, ever). However, he still feels prickly when he senses MC is shadow-walking with one of the demon brothers. He doesn't insult MC as much, but he does insult Lucifer loudly and with even more colourful language than usual. Most of Lucifer's brothers think this is hilarious.

SOLOMON

Most of the corporeal shadow demons are surprisingly hostile towards Solomon for no apparent reason. He finds it odd that they always appear whenever he's trying to cook something for MC. The shadow forms that are more tolerable of him are Asmo, Barbatos, and to a lesser degree, Satan.

Solomon doesn't get many opportunities to shadow-walk with his pact demons so he finds it fascinating to watch, but none of them will tolerate his experiments. He's also jealous that he doesn't get to spend much time alone with MC because one of the demons is usually lurking within MC's shadow.

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sunrise-imagines · 7 months

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I need adult Finn AND farmworld Finn to kiss me on the mouth immediately

Yayyy my first poly fic! And same omg. Hope you enjoy!

Poly! Adult Finn x Reader x Farmworld Finn Relationship Headcanons

• Although they’re technically the same person, Finn and FW Finn are very different, especially in personality, so making a relationship with the both of them work will be difficult.

• First hurdle to get over is what to call them, since they have the same name and all. Both of them think that they should be the main “Finn”, but you manage to find a compromise with FW Finn going by his full name “Finnian”.

• Both of them are obviously in love with you, but as for how they feel about each other, it’s more of mutual respect/brotherly kind of affection, like Finn had with Fern. They’re able to understand each other on a different level, practically able to read each other’s minds, which can be both endearing and creepy at times.

• Finnian does most of the cooking, as Finn doesn’t know how to make anything but meatloaf.

• Finn is a blanket hog so you have to get really close to him while you sleep, which isn’t too bad as he’s also a human heater. Luckily Finnian prefers to sleep without a blanket, as he’s used to cooler temperatures (we can all guess why)

• It takes Finnian a while to introduce you both to his kids, as he isn’t sure of how to approach the topic of having two partners, let alone one of them being an alternate version of himself. Eventually he introduces you as his girlfriend/boyfriend/partner and Finn as his long lost brother. Jay knows the true nature of your relationship, but he told him to keep it a secret from his younger siblings for now, until they’re a little older.

• Finn definitely cried when he first met FW Jake, who immediately waddled over to sit in his lap.

• You like to take baths together, as both of them have a habit of forgetting to take care of themselves for long periods of time (stinky boys). Both of them love it when you wash their hair.

• They both love the outdoors so expect Finn to take all of you adventuring together. Finnian is a lot less excited about combat, but he’s ready and willing to defend you if need be.

• They take turns kissing you one after the other, Finn usually initiating first with Finnian following up after him.

• Finn is much more able to be emotionally available and talk things through with you when you’re upset, and it’s not that Finnian doesn’t care about you, he does. He’s just still reeling with his own emotional issues and he doesn’t know what to say. He’s always there if you need someone to just hold you though.

• They bicker a lot over what they think is best for you, and you have to remind them that while you love them both dearly, you’re your own person who can make decisions for themself. They both sulk a bit but in the end they apologize and make up.

• Yeah you’re just one big chaotic family and it’s great that you have two men who are willing to go to hell and back for you <3

#adventure time x reader #adventure time imagines #fionna and cake x reader #adventure time #finn mertens x reader #finn the human x reader #fionna and cake fanfic #fionna and cake imagine #adventure time fanfic #farmworld finn x reader #finn x reader #finn x reader x farmworld finn #sfw #sfw headcanons #poly headcanons #finn x reader x finn

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lakesbian · 3 months

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here's every way wildbow accidentally made pre-meiosis "russel" thorburn transgender that i can remember. if you can think of any reasons i forgot please add on

his parents named his younger sister "ivy," as if the obvious grandmother-pandering name "rose" had already been used up. blake theorizes that they used a male version of "rose" for PMT, but this is nonsensical--there is no male form of the name rose, and everything he comes up with as a possible option (in other words, everything wildbow came up with as a possible option) is a major stretch. most don't sound even tangentially like the name "rose." it makes far more sense to assume that PMT was afab and had the deadname rose. (this also makes sense on a thematic level wrt how rose thorburn jr is supposed to be the Real heir that grandmother is forcing blake to die for, but that's getting besides the point)

rose has memories of being harassed over the inheritance by her female cousins, and the idea of these memories just being wholly pulled out of thin air when basically everything else involves memories either being split btwn blake and rose or erased altogether is weird

blake is friends with, like. a lot of gay people. textually runs in poor gay artist circles. the idea of them adopting this weirdly cool cis straight guy is funny but it makes a lot more sense if PMT was trans + gay and only got turned into a straight guy (and a straight girl) yesterday, due to the homophobia demon

PMT literally thinks "Besides, why devote any more attention to your son, when you could just start over? Have that beautiful baby girl you wanted, right?" which is also like one of the only pieces of internal narration we get from PMT in the entire story. first girl they named rose ran away and did some shit with their gender so now they have a second girl they can't name rose but can still try to raise to go for the inheritance

in the same chapter as when pmt says that, callan is like ohhh you think youre going to worm your way in-, implied sentence ending being "-to the inheritance," which is, like. the family knows it's going To A Girl. so.

PMT was childhood friends with paige, who is The Gay Cousin. it is deeply sensible to imagine them bonding over this, regardless of whether or not PMT (or even paige) knew at the time

it is, like, fully possible for a cishet dude to get sick of living with his shitty toxic abusive family and abscond at the age of 17, but also homelessness is an extremely prevalent issue among transgender kids in abusive families. the narrative of a transmasc kid growing up in an abusive, catholic extended family where girls are pressured to compete for a very gendered inheritance + leaving at the age of 17 & finding a new home among a bunch of gay artists is Significantly more compelling than the cis dude alternative. it just is.

okay i think im running out of, like, logical errors that make sense only if pmt was trans prior to the Obliteration, so as for the thematic stuff. like i said, rose being the half grammy decided was supposed to be "real" and blake being the half that's supposed 2 die for her 2 exist, rose just being unhappy and disconnected by nature of existence while blake is the parts of pmt that escaped from the constraints of the family + found happiness, so on and so forth. "catholic grandmother literally obliterated her transmasc nonbinary grandchild by splitting them into two binary gendered halves & expecting that the man they could've been die to allow the acceptable woman--literally forced to dress in grandmother's clothes--live on and do as grandmother wished" is Everything, doing the same thing but to a cis man grandchild is significantly less compelling

Others who r very old/operating on what are explicitly stated to be oppressive and antiquated gender roles as per the book's themes about inherited/traditional forms of harm keep mistakenly calling blake she/her and rose lmao

??? probably some other thangs im forgetting

#pact time #pact textpost

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phoenixyfriend · 12 days

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Can you explain the Iran-Israel situation please?

Alright, let's get to it. Please note that I'm writing this on mobile during my lunch break, so I can't include reference/source links as much as I'd like. Thankfully, most of what I'm going to be telling you should be easily located by searching for an article on one of the following: APNews, Reuters, BBC Global News Podcast, Democracy Now!, NPR, or The New York Times. Long-term background is probably best found in videos by the YouTube channels Real Life Lore or tldr global news, or on Wikipedia if you prefer text.

The short version: Israel attacked Iran's consulate in Syria to get at some of the military commanders that were there, which is legally equivalent to attacking Iran itself. Iran responded by sending about 300 bombs at Israel, most of which were shot down in transit. Given that they still called it a success, even though it seems only one person was even hurt, my understanding is that it's very likely that they only intended the rockets to be a show of force, rather than an actual escalation, because Iran can't afford a war right now.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

The long version:

Okay, let's start with some background on Israel, then Iran. This is... a lot, so if you already know the broad strokes skip down to 2023.

Israel was established following WWII by the English and French, following borders the two countries had secretly drawn up decades earlier in the Sykes-Picot agreement. The intent was to give the Jewish people a place to go... or, depending on who you ask, a place to send them. Their ancestral homeland was viewed as the best choice, sort of like a deportation millennia after a diaspora. Given that WWII had just ended by the time Sykes-Picot was actually put into effect, 'getting out of Europe' was something a lot of Jews were given to agree with.

The Arab world was not happy, as that land had belonged to the Ottomans for centuries, and had long since 'naturalized' to being Arab. I'm not going to pretend to know the nuances to when people do or do not consider Palestine to have been its own nation; it was an Ottoman state until WWI, at which point it came under British control for just under three decades, and that period is known as the British Mandate of Palestine; it ended after WWII, with the creation of Israel. Palestine's land and people have sort of just been punted around from one colonizer to another for centuries.

Iran is the current form of what was once Persia. They were an empire for a very long time, and were a unitary monarchy up until the early 20th century; in 1925, Iran elected a Prime Minister who was then declared the monarch. The following several decades had Iran's monarchy slowly weakened, and occasionally beset by foreign interventions, including a covert coup by the US and UK in 1953. The country also became more corrupt throughout the 1970s due to economic policy failing to control inflation in the face of rising oil prices.

In 1979, there was a revolution that overthrew the monarchy and the elected government, replacing the system with a theocracy and declaring Iran to be an Islamic Republic, with the head of state being a religious authority, rather than an elected one. This was not popular with... most countries. 1980 saw the closure of all universities (reopened in 1983 with government-approved curriculums), as well as the taking of over fifty American hostages from the US Embassy in Iran. You may have heard about that in the context of Ronald Reagan encouraging Iran to keep the hostages until the end of Carter's term in order to force the election.

So, the West didn't like having an Islamic state because it claims to like democracy, and also because the Islamic state was explicitly anti-American and this has some Bad Effects on oil prices. The Soviets didn't like having an Islamic State because a theocracy goes directly against a lot of communist values (or at least the values they claim to have), and weakened any influence their supposedly secular union could have on Iran and the wider middle east. The other countries in the Arab world, many of them still monarchies, didn't like the Islamic republic because if the revolution spread, then it was possible their monarchies would be overthrown as well.

(Except Oman, which is not worried, but that's the exception, not the rule.)

This is not a baseless worry, because Iran has stated that this is its goal for the Arab world. Overthrow the monarchies, overthrow the elected governments, Islamic Rule for everyone. That is the purpose of its proxies, like Hezbollah (Lebanon), the Houthis (Yemen), and Hamas (Palestine), along with less well-known groups like the Salafi Jihadists in Mali, who are formally under the umbrella of al-Quaeda, which Iran denies having any relation to but is suspected of funding. In areas where these proxy groups have gained power, they are liable to enact hard Shari'a law such as has happened in Northern Mali and other parts of the Sahel region.

While other conflicts have occurred in these countries, I think the above is most relevant.

Israel has repeatedly attacked, or been attacked by, other nations in the middle east, as they are viewed as having taken over land that is not theirs, and as being a puppet of the US government. The biggest conflicts have been 1947-1948, 1968/1973, and 2014.

And then, of course, 2023.

Now, Iran, more than any other nation in the Middle East, hates Israel. They have for a very long time, viewing them as an affront to the goal of spreading Islam across the whole of the middle east, and as being a front and a staging ground for the United States and other Western powers. Two common refrains in the slogans of Iran and its proxies are "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Due to Iran's military power and virulence towards Israel, the United States has been funneling money to Israel for decades. It has more generally been to defend itself against the Arab world at large, but it has narrowed over the decades to being about Iran and its proxies as relations have normalized with other nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Cue October 7th, 2023. Hamas invades Israeli towns, kills some people, and takes others as hostage. Israel retaliates, and the conflict ramps up into what is by now tens of thousands of dead, some half of which are children.

In this time, Hamas's allies are, by definition, Iran and the other proxy forces. Hezbollah, being in Lebanon, share a border with Israel's north. They have been trading rocket fire across the border in waves for most of the past six months. The Houthis, down in Yemen, claim to be attacking the passing cargo ships in order to support Palestine. Given that the attacks often seem indiscriminate, and that the Houthi's control over their portion of Yemen is waning in the face of their poor governance, this is... debatable. It's their official reason, but given that "let's attack passing ships, claiming that we only attack Israeli or American ships and that it is to support Palestine" is rallying support domestically for their regime, it does seem to be more of a political move to garner support at home than about supporting Palestine.

Iran, however, has not attacked Israel. They've spoken out about it, yes, but they haven't done anything because nobody wants a regional war. Nobody can afford it right now. Iran is dealing with a domestic crisis due to oil subsidies bleeding the states' coffers dry, and the aging Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, refusing to pick a successor. They are looking at both an economic crisis and succession crisis, and a regional war would fuck up both situations further. Iran funds most of its proxies, and they can't do that, and fight a war on top of it, while their economy is in its current state. Pure self preservation says they don't want a war, especially with the ongoing unrest that's been going on for... well, basically since the revolution, but especially since the death of Mahsa Amini.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Netanyahu has been looking at corruption charges and legal issues since before the Hamas attack. It's generally agreed that if Israel were to hold new elections right now, he would lose and be replaced, and also immediately taken to court. Netanyahu wants to stay in power, and as long as the war on Hamas lasts, he is unlikely to get voted out. A change in leadership in the middle of a war is rarely a good idea for any country, and he's banking on that.

However, the war on Hamas rests on the shoulders of American money and supplies. Without that military support, Israel cannot fight this war, and America... is losing patience.

Officially, America and most of the western world have been telling Israel to not fucking escalate for the majority of the war.

There have been implied threats, more or less since Schumer's big speech about how Israel needs a new election, of American legislators putting conditions on any future aid. There have even been rumblings of aid being retracted entirely if Israel follows through on invading Raffah.

So...

American aid to Israel has, for a very long time, been given in the name of defending Israel against Iran and its proxies.

Israel has been fighting this war against Hamas for six months, killing what is by now innumerable civilians, on the power of US military aid.

Netanyahu benefits from the continued war due to domestic troubles.

Iran does not want a regional war, or really any big war, due to its own domestic troubles.

The US is, in theory, losing patience with Israel and threatening to pull the plug on unconditional support. It's very "we gave you this to fight Iran. Stop attacking civilians. If you keep attacking civilians, then you're going to have to rely on what we already gave you to fight off Iran so that you won't keep wasting it on civilians."

Israel... attacks Iran, prompting a response, and is now talking about escalating with Iran.

I am not explicitly saying that it looks to me like Israel, which is already fighting a war on two physical fronts and even more political/economic ones, has picked a fight with Iran so that America feels less like it is able to withdraw support.

I just... am finding it hard to understand why Israel, which is in fact fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah, would attack the Iranian consulate in Syria otherwise. They can't actually afford to fight this war, escalating to a full regional conflict, on a third front.

Not without pressuring American into keeping the faucet of military funding open at full blast.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

#phoenix politics #current events #iran #israel #hamas #houthis #hezbollah #syria #politics #united states #military funding #military aid

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theladysunami · 5 months

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So I read i burnt thick candles aloft to shine the beauties bright by anorangecarrot and it’s an absolute delight so far. I definitely recommend it!

It also has me thinking up some alternative AU ideas…

There are loads of stories where Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu are siblings, plus some where Shen Yuan is his own character but comes across Shen Jiu as a child, but how about one where Shen Yuan transmigrates as Qiu Haitang from the start?

Shen Yuan having the advantage of A) a past life’s worth of experience, B) being genre savvy, C) being terrified of Shen Jiu’s future murderous breakdown, and D) not being blinded by ‘her’ love of ‘her’ brother, would absolutely figure out what’s going on with his new brother being a shit to Shen Jiu.

The story could go so many different interesting routes from there!

Shen Yuan wouldn’t abide by the abuse for sure, but while he’d be more privileged as a young mistress then he would be as a fellow slave, he’d still be stuck as a teenage girl in the Xianxia equivalent of ancient China. His hands would still be rather tied.

I think my favorite idea is Shen Jiu quickly picking up on how off Qiu Haitang’s behavior has been recently (he’s the future peak lord of the strategy peak, so he’d absolutely notice), and somehow getting Shen Yuan to “admit” that his fever swapped out some of ‘her’ present life memories with those from his past life (Shen Yuan probably couldn’t sell the transmigration idea, but past life memories are true enough). They then become a “fuck you Qiu Jianluo” fake-fiancés but actual sworn-siblings tag team.

Shen Jiu helps teach Shen Yuan how to manipulate people and act as ‘herself,’ while Shen Yuan acts as a genuine supportive force in Shen Jiu’s young life, and uses ‘her’ relative privilege to get them both the tools necessary to at least start cultivating properly.

Naturally they both escape to Cang Qiong Mountain eventually (possibly with some amount of murder still).

Which peak ‘Qiu Haitang’ joins, and what gendered form Shen Yuan is living in by the time Shen Qingqiu takes over as peak lord, has plenty of possibilities.

For laughs, maybe they found Airplane’s ripoff version of the cursed springs of Jusenkyo from Ranma 1/2, or something similar, so Shen Yuan actually goes back and forth. (If anyone could manage the required number of fiancés for a Ranma 1/2 ripoff, it’s Shen Yuan!)

Naturally once Luo Binghe finds his way into the sect, he’ll end up smitten with Shen Yuan in whatever form. He’ll have to stew in envy over the fake-fiancé and/or ex-fiancé current sworn-sibling situation though. Even with an improved outlook and more support, Shen Jiu probably still doesn’t like him much.

(Binghe would most likely end up in the abyss reguardless, to Shen Yuan’s frustration, because suddenly being outed as a demon when the sects are currently under attack by demons, is never a good thing, despite his and Shen Qingqiu’s altered antagonism levels).

That’s all my thoughts on this for now, but I’d love to hear what ideas anyone else might have along these lines!

#Shen Yuan #Shen Jiu #Shen Qingqiu #Qiu Haitang #Luo Binghe #BingQiu #BingYuan #SVSSS #Scum Villain's Self Saving System #SVSSS Idea #Story Idea #AnOrangeCarrot

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thankskenpenders · 7 months

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So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

#tkp post #other media

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tarjapearce · 9 months

Note

Miguel and reader are both Spider-people who have a tense relationship at best. While scouring the multiverse for Spider Society recruits, they learn that an alternate reality version of themselves are happily marriage and their child is the Spider-person of that universe.

Bit of angst undercut

Spiderman was a symbol, an icon for so many things. The heroism came hand in hand with the many responsibilities pack.

You met Miguel while fighting an anomaly, he had stopped the villian last minute before he delivered the finishing blow on you. A sense of deja vu invaded you once you started working alongside with him.

The concept of Multiverse was still something foreign and unknown to you, but knowing you had to keep it from collapsing, was all you needed.

----

If you had to describe your relationship with Miguel, would be tense. You had your temper, and he had his. Not the best combo.

Sometimes not for everyone really. And some days would pass before you started working like nothing had happened. Sure, he was your boss, a boss that sometimes applied the most unorthodox methodology to retaliate anything that came his way.

You on the other hand would try and make a solo approach on things, and gave your input not to pester him, but to offer a different approach whenever he got stuck in a situation.

Today seemed the exception though. You were as quiet as he was, staring at the screen with wide and unbelieving eyes upon what it displayed.

In this dimension you both were married, happily married with a teenage kid. This dimension reality you had a very harrowing job. You were soon to be ascended as a captain in the police force.

"Will you let them in?"

Your voice soft as you typed in your report.

His shoulders slumped softly, but it faded as quickly as it came.

"Maybe."

Was all he could offer.

In your own universe you really never had someone to look after, no partner no kids, just you and your aunt May. But, she was also gone. Detachment came so easy into your life that it felt like a second nature to you at this point.

But seeing this kid, being Spiderman, your hypothetical kid made your heart to slowly beat back to life. Even if your fate was to die in action in that universe, you'd gladly welcome the kid.

They were talented, they definitely had skills, Miguel’s height, solving skills, and of course your cunning. It was a bit odd to see you acting so mother-like and loving.

It was your own version of Miguel's wistful thinking, staring at the screen.

"I think I get it now..." You nodded his way, he just looked from the corner of his eye.

"It's crushing. It doesn't help that we can replay these moments over and over" You looked at the screen again. That version of you would soon die, according to the data Lyla provided.

"It's alot to take in. How do you do it?"

"I don't know."

"Hm..."

You didn't need to be reminded that getting too attached meant trouble. The only thing you could possibly do for the upcoming new member was to guide them without pestering. Be a silent mother you never thought you could be.

You just sat there, studying yourself. A borderline maudlin expression on your usually stoic face. Miguel just watched you, you could have a chance unlike him. The worst wouldn't happen again, and you wouldn't end up like him.

You deserved it though. Deserved to at least experience a bit of happiness. Something that seemed escape from every spider person that came into HQ.

And he would be there when everything would crumble.

#miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara x you #atsv miguel #miguel ohara imagine #miguel o'hara angst #angst #t writes✨

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ornii · 5 months

Text

Folie a Deux IV: Jealousy

(I also Made an alternate Cover! Don’t know why)

A college student finally finished their midterm exams and makes their way back to the dorm. First thing they do when they enter is check YouTube and spot the perfect video.

Jenna Ortega and (F/n) (L/n) answer the Webs most searched questions. It plays as the two sit casually together.

“Hello I’m Jenna Ortega.”

“And I’m (F/n) (L/n), and we’re here to Answer the Webs most searched questions about us.”

The video begins as the duo take a board and answer various internet searches. (Y/n) tears off one.

“Is (Y/n)… Blind.” He said, he turns to the camera, staring at it as people try not to laugh.

“…No.” He answers, “It was just a Character I was playing, I’m not actually blind, but what I will say is that acting blind is a lot harder than you think.” He explains, Jenna eyes him as he looks at her.

“Okay so let’s say we’re doing a scene, and I have to listen to you, I can’t look directly at you even though I obviously want to, I have to basically look in your general direction but not directly at you.” He said, she nodded, admitting that makes sense.

“He’s smarter than he looks she says jokingly, the interviewer continues as another question pops up.

“How did.. Jenna Ortega and (F/n) (L/n) meet.” She said, “it was… the Grammys?” She Said and (Y/n) nodded.

“Yeah it was the 2020? I remember they told I was gonna sit next to Orgeta so I thought, “oh it’s probably Brian Orgeta or something.” This was my first Awards show so I was obviously anxious and I had a few things in my brain to say to break the ice, well it didn’t end well. I look to my left and this, beautiful girl just sat down next to me and, you remember the old windows PC’s and that blue screen sound effect they make? That was my brain.” He explains without cracking a single smirk, Jenna pursed her lips, trying not to laugh, also because he said she was beautiful.

“But yeah, ever since that, and us getting casted in Wednesday we’ve been friends ever since.”

“Yeah, Friends.” She mutters.

With the last question, they both tear it off and say in unison. “Are Jenna Ortega and (F/n) (L/n).. dating.” They look to the camera to speak but the video, hilariously and abruptly ends.

“So they cut the video for dramatic effect?” (Y/n) Asks Miss Ortega as he sits at a marble table inside a beautiful kitchen, it was part of a beautiful villa in Tuscany Italy. He asks the girl walking out of the room putting on a pair of gorgeous golden earrings, her hair done so well, adorning a beautiful gold trimmed Princess Line dress. He saw her and much like before, his brain couldn’t fathom her beautiful, he simply stood up and walked to the window, looking out to see the gorgeous countryside and it’s beautiful hills, perfectly matched by the slowly setting sun.

“I really appreciate you coming with me.” He said, “I mean getting invited to some ball was pretty scary.” He explains, Jenna shook her head. “It’s funny to hear that, I’ve been doing this since I was a kid, it’s natural to me.” She explains, walking next to him she also looks out the window. Taking in the slowly setting sun over the beautiful Italian mountainside.

“I could look at this forever.” She said, reveling in the beauty of the moment. (Y/n) nods, his phone suddenly rings, checking it was his manager and he reluctantly answers.

“Hello? Oh, yeah I’m just waiting I— oh, she did?” He said, Jenna turns to him, her interest growing in his conversion.

“That’s, fine? Okay.” He hangs up, and turns to Jenna.

“Apparently Olivia’s going too, so that’s fun.” He said, Jenna was taken aback slightly. Not expecting someone else.

“It’ll be nice to see her at least, cmon we should get going.”

The two were escorted, mostly driven to there. (Y/n) was humming to “Good 4 U”. Jenna, having a taste for music picks up.

“You must really like that song.” She said and (Y/n) nods, “Love it. Actually, I guess the boys version I made was okay, but nothin compares to the original.”

“Boys?” She replied, and (Y/n) reluctantly shows a video, it was a small recap of it all. (Y/n) releasing a version that swaps the protagonists of the song. Not to diss Olivia but to show that breakups are nasty on both ends. Turns out, Olivia loved it, and obviously retweeted it.

“Breakups suck on both ends a lot of times, it’d be like if you and I stopped being friends, we’d both be hurt.” He explains, Jenna sees the look in his eyes, she always found he was always honest, even if it was painful and the look in his Eyes, he would be hurt if they stopped. Jenna reached out, her hand almost grabbing his, until the vehicle stopped, they halted and prepared to make center stage, as the door opened (Y/n) stepped out first, adjusting his suit he then turns to the door and reaches out for Jenna, she smiles, taking his hand and steps out. The duo make their presence known.

Cameras flash and (Y/n) was still a bit novice at this, Jenna took it for the moment to make her power move, her arm wrapped around his and he was surprised but didn’t make any attempt to stop her, the two walk in to the Ball, adores with tapestry and music, it felt like the 1900’s once more, a whimsical prince with a beautiful princess on his arm, this was a fantasy to many, but a dream come true for (Y/n).

It was mostly mingling and talking, the two keeping close to each other. While they weren’t locked arms they were still in yelling distance, mingling and enjoying the ambiance. Staying in the Limelight, but something caught (Y/n) in the corner of his eye, a girl with sleek black hair approaching, in a large silver Ball gown, it was Olivia. She smiled and approached, (Y/n) was caught off guard by another beautiful woman talking to him first!

“(Y/n)?” She asks. (Y/n)s pep picked up and he smiles.

“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you!” He offers a handshake and Olivia kindly shakes it. Yeah we’ve talked on the internet before but, it’s weird in person.

“You come here alone?” (Y/n) asks.

“Yeah, it was nice to not be on tour or stuck making music, good to get out, you?” She replies, (Y/n) looks over.

“No, Jenna’s with me.” He said, Olivia nods in jest, “A nice date night then huh?” She said.

“What? No it’s, she came as a friend, I’m not too good with people.” (Y/n) awkwardly admits. Olivia looks around for a moment, spotting Miss Ortega, who sees the two chatting and, isn’t in the most enjoyable mood. Olivia smiles.

“Hey, Mind if we talk in private? Something I want to run by you.” She asks, (Y/n) casually agrees and Jenna watches the two walk away to a more secluded part of the Ballroom. Her frown was very prominent, and she sulked after, slowly following them. They pass by a pillar To the outside and Jenna has lost their trail, listening to any talking she picks something up, she follows past a pillar and to smaller balcony, she was suddenly stopped as (Y/n) came around the corner. They almost bumped into each other.

“Oh! Sorry!” (Y/n) said, Jenna’s worry faded as she looks around.

“It’s fine, so, what were you up to?” She asked.

“Olivia.” He said at first, “she wants to collaborate on a song, first collab for me!” He said with a giddy smile. Jenna couldn’t help herself with a smile. (Y/n) walks out to the Balcony and Miss Ortega soon follows.

“So, music?” She asked, “Yeah, she’s working on something called.. “Vampire.” Can’t say much more.”

“You aren’t taking any more acting roles, are you?” She said, a hint of sadness on it.

“I don’t know… I’m not really fit for it. I mean I had my first kiss on a Netflix show, am I really made for this?” He says to her, Jenna shrugs off his fears.

“It’s a rough thing at first but… wait, First?” She asks, not fully catching that first part. (Y/n), lacking any awareness nods.

“Yeah, that scene we did after my character did that whole speech and Wednesday had that vision.” He explains, Jenna blinks a few times in disbelief.

“Was I..?” She asks, trailing on. (Y/n) awkwardly nods. “Yeah, you were my first Kiss. So, how did I do?” He admits, for the moment the roles were reversed, Jenna was the dumbfounded fool whose heart skipped a bit. Jenna’s face was perfectly lit by the moonlight which hid her growing blush, she turns to face the party, hiding her smile so much.

“You did… you did fine..” she said, and calmly but confidently walked back to the Ball.

#male reader #reader insert #jenna marie ortega #jenna ortega x y/n #jenna ortega x you #jenna ortega #jenna ortega x male!reader #jenna ortega x male reader #jenna ortega x reader #olivia rodrigo #olivia rodrigo x male Reader

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yuesya · 3 months

Note

I see you've taken after the Nasuverse quite well, making so many alternate versions of your main heroine :)

This latest one actually reminds me a bit of Zero from Drakengard 3. Both of them have similar backstories, being sold into slavery and suffering a cruel betrayal at the end of it. Both have a devil may care attitude towards murder and do it on a whim or as a reflexive response. Both also share similar appearances with their stark white hair and skin.

Moreover, since Shiki probably wasn't raised as a proper young lady like her canon counterpart and being more open about her visceral desires she'd likely have a more crass vocabulary. Once agian, quite similarly to her Drakengard counterpart.

Although I am a bit befuddled about Jujutsu society's response to Shiki since it seems kind of... muted. Yes, Shiki is a special grade curse user who definitely killed her fair share of sorcerers to earn that title. However, I don't think the sorcerers would let her go around committing whatever atrocities she wanted without offering some resistance, they certainly didn't with Geto.

On that topic, Geto and Satoru would also definitely take an interest in her for a variety of reasons. Geto would likely be thrilled to have another special grade helping achieve his genocidal ambitions, especially one as murderous as Shiki. Whereas Gojo would've likely encountered her one way or another since he is already on the look out for a homicidal special grade curse user.

Although given what little we know from the AU so far it's likely Shiki would reject them both. Shiki would probably want nothing to do with Geto's dream since she'd see no difference between sorcerers and "monkeys." She would also be uninterested in making the world a better place.

As for Satoru she would probably mix with him as well as oil does with water, meaning not at all given their tense interactions in a different AU. This would likely culminate in a battle between the two leading to the infamous [REDACTED] incident, which leads to both of them developing a mutual understanding to stay out of each other's way.

There are so many AUs haha. It feels like a new one crops up whenever I turn around...

Interesting parallels to Zero! And fitting, in some ways. Araya doesn't strike me as someone who would take an active parental role for Shiki; he'd probably decide to observe her 'natural behaviors' instead. Remember how in zenith of stars Shiki experiences some struggles with her desire to 'be good' versus her instinct to kill? How she initially tried to claw out her own eyes because she recognized that humans aren't supposed to visualize death?

In this 'verse, Shiki has no such restraints tempering her. She was never taught the difference between 'right' and 'wrong.' There's only Araya, who watches her silently no matter what she does.

I haven't sorted out timeline details, but Shiki would escape from Araya sometime while Geto is at large, which means that most of the jujutsu headquarters' attention is focused on Geto as the major threat. Shiki gets mistaken for one of Geto's compatriots multiple times. Geto attempts to recruit her and fails, but he doesn't particularly mind. Shiki has killed many non-sorcerers according to her whims, after all. He probably tries to direct her towards non-sorcerers as best as he can from the sidelines.

Shiki comes into prominence after Geto's death, and that's when people start realizing that this girl is a lot more dangerous than she seems at first glance. There are multiple sorcerers sent after her -all are killed. They need to cut their losses, and their last resort is Gojo Satoru-

But what if Gojo tries to recruit her to his side? The girl is like a wild beast that can't be controlled; worse than Tsukumo ever was. What kind of damage would she cause? What if Gojo succeeded in taming her? Which probably then leads into the attempt to bribe Shiki out of Japan with one of Sukuna's fingers.

I haven't made up my mind on how the meeting between Shiki and Satoru would go, but lots of collateral damage sounds like it would be on the right track haha.

#QA #zenith of stars au #villain shiki au

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gale-gentlepenguin · 6 months

Text

Gale Theories: Who is "The Supreme"?

In the Miraculous World Special: Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir it is revealed that the two villains were not the main one's causing chaos, but two villains working under someone or something called "The Supreme" and we never see what they look like, just their logo and influence.

(Spoilers below)

Shadybug and Claw Noir are both clearly terrified of the villain, Betterfly even comments that the two villains he is fighting are being used by the Supreme.

We know that the Supreme gave Gabriel his miraculous and his misuse lead to... well

But thats not all we see of the Supreme,

Tikki and Plagg are both Gagged by the Supreme, the miraculous he gave to Shadybug and Claw noir have kwami unable to speak.

We also know that even if someone were to combine the Ladybug and Cat miraculous that belong to the Supreme

Gimmi, the Kwami of reality CAN NOT grant wishes and even says

Only The Supreme defines reality. Reality is The Supreme

So this begs the Question, who could this "Supreme" be?

Now if we look at the Supreme's symbol it looks like the Order of Guardian's symbol, but with an X through it

This could imply that the being known as the Supreme has had some affiliation with the Guardians in the past or at the very least knows about their existence.

Which leads to the First Theory

The Supreme is the Evil Version of the Order of Guardians

I have seen going around is that the Supreme is an Evil version of the Guardians, and that it is simply a representative of a group as a whole, which does seem feasible, especially when we look into the picture of Gabriel facing multiple symbols but that could also be a stylistic choice.

But if the Supreme IS a group as opposed to just a singular individual than the group MUST be under the evil version of Su Han OR the Wizard that created the Miraculous originally.

I think the theory is a bit lacking as we know very little about the wizard and Su han (while being a competent fighter has shown to be incompetent in literally every other field) so him being the villain doesnt make sense.

But the next theory does hold a bit more water.

______________________________________________________________

Nathalie is the Supreme

We never see who or what the Supreme is, and we never see a version of Nathalie from the other Universe. We know Nathalie used to be a Lara Kroft like explorer and was the one that found the butterfly miraculous. It could be possible that in this timeline, Nathalie FOUND all of the miraculous and used them for her own benefit, making herself the supreme. She has shown to have a better grasp of the miraculous than Gabriel even before uncovering the knowledge.

But this is also speculation as we dont know if Fu is still around in that Universe and if the events of Feast actually happened. And while I do love an all powerful Step Milf. It is also unlikely. The next one may also seem out of left field but does have a bit more justification

___________________________________________________________

Lila/Cerise/Whomever the f***, is The Supreme

Lila as the Supreme? Well she is evil and competent enough. Lila also has the cold hearted nature to accomplish such a feat, And the ending of Season 5 does have something happening that causes our universe's Lila to freak out. An alternate universe conquering Lila does seem feasible with how well she adjusts, but with people commenting she is only 14 that it wouldnt work, what if Lila isnt 14?

The girl knows how to navigate and change persona's at the drop of a hat. The planning and way she acquires things she wants is on a much more devious method than most teens would even consider. Lila could feasibly be someone with eternal youth or a medical disorder that makes her look young. (Yes an Orphan situation). And it is basically a fandom joke at this point with how much Thomas believes that teenagers are the meanest people.

But similar to Nathalie such a possibility is limited and likely not the case.

Which leads us to the final and probable individual that is likely the True Supreme

______________________________________________________________

Fu is The Supreme

Now why would I say this is the most likely situation. On Rewatch, Shadybug does refer to the Supreme as "Him" at one point. Which could be a dubism, but if it isnt there is also the reasons below on why it could be Fu

Fu has canonically had a negative experience with the Guardians

Fu is responsible for the Guardians disappearing the first time by accident

Fu has a deep understanding of the miraculous and was trained in the ways of the guardian.

Fu going mad with power and being alone for almost 2 centuries would be a logical backstory to turn him evil

Since we know that certain events are consistent in the other universe, like Adrien losing his mother and Marinette getting bullied by Chloé. It is likely the events that created Fu are the same. And if the events are the same or similar, than the order of Guardians are no more, leaving one person who would have had ALL the miraculous, and that is Fu.

And lets say the Events DIDNT play out the same, Fu could have made a faction that simply took over from the original Order of Guardians, thats why that symbol is there and is crossing out the Original one.

Fu would also know how the wish works and thus likely made the wish to be the one to alter reality, he likely gave himself the power to have control of things. And while people may argue that Fu is incompetent, he actually has shown to be quite clever and quick to figure things out. Fu also was competent enough to pick ladybug and Chat noir to fight Hawkmoth, so he must understand what is needed.

And that is where I stand on the "Who is the Supreme"

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml speculation #ml special spoilers #ml paris spoilers #the supreme #gale theories

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lopposting · 6 months

Text

some more LOP script translation notes

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Geppetto:

Well, I suppose Carlo was mischievous. It seems you inherited his personality instead of his memories.

this line in korean + alternative interpretation

그래, 카를로는 항상 말썽꾸러기였지 기억 대신 그 성격이 네게 옮겨 갔나 보구나. Right, Carlo was always a troublemaker It seems like you’ve gotten that personality instead of his memory.

also, 기억 (gi-eok) means “memory”, but i believe it can also be interpreted as "mind” (although 정신 "jungshin" is much better). As in, even if Pino inherited his personality, he didn't gain Carlo's consciousness. If you used that interpretation, it would confirm that pino absolutely isn't carlo. again up to interpretation!!

"말썽꾸러기"

as in a troublemaker (literal) or a rabble-rouser, but denotes a child. In the korean version Geppetto implies that Carlo was insubordinate rather than “mischievous”. in english, “mischievous” denotes playfulness or malicious intent.

Carlo has such a presence in the game. We can only ever really experience him through events of the past but that's the intangible nature of death. Like how this post describes the trope of the "dead girl" - the narrative is inhabited by his absence. His death is the beginning of everything. [Reminds me of Rachel Amber from 2015's Life is Strange . And on that tangent, that's also why I really feel like they shouldn't have done the DLC prequel with her. She is dead. We may catch wisps of her voice here and there but ultimately she is wholly unreachable.]

(terrifying and ominous text message player receives near the end of the game)

Also, revisiting that line ONCE AGAIN:

그깟 늙은이, 죽어도 상관 안 해. That old bastard, he can die for all I care.

Culture cannot be separated from language. Korea is generally a conformist society with a deep emphasis for respect for your elders and your parents. The fact that Carlo uses that form of speech with his father gives us an impression of their relationship – but it also suggests his feisty nature. [edit: Even in the portrait, Carlo stares back at us in sullen defiance.]

[the fact that carlo is actually pretty venomous here is also why it feels more fitting when romeo is like "Don't be like that" even though he was aware of geppetto's neglect. “He can die for all I care." The relationship with Carlo and Geppetto was AWFUL.]

more notes:

another small adjustment to a particular line:

Geppetto (released english version): I knew you had gone astray, you troublesome little puppet!

Korean line + slightly more literal trans:

네가 엇나간다는 건 진작 알았다. 이 말썽쟁이 인형 녀석! I knew long ago that you were going astray. You troublesome doll!

perhaps it's clearer in the korean line that Geppetto had begun to suspect us since the beginning.

Carlo is romanized as kareullo 카를로. Geppetto is Zepeto 제페토 and Romeo is Romio 로미오 (English pronunciation) and not Romeyo 로메오 (italian pronunciation) [from namu wiki]. He also says "Call me Lempuwik" 램프윅(lampwick, english), and not "Lucignolo" (original italian).

And probably the most important of all: The title pun in korean. P sounds like the character for blood. also ties in to the becoming human flesh-and-blood theme of the game. (P의 거짓)

korean netizens have taken to calling it "pigura 피구라" for short too.

#lies of p #lop #lies of p spoilers #life is strange spoilers #spoilers #scary warning #tw derealization #translations #theory #speculation #spoiler #lies of p carlo

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1v31182m5 · 5 months

Note

Ooh, you have a Wish rewrite/alternate story in mind? You open to sharing anything about it?

Ohh boy jcudbfjd yes! These were my ideas before the movie came out. I don't know if anyone will read it it's long but oh well writing them down makes me think more clear

Magnifico:

So the concept of him experiencing with colonizers is still there expect it happened BEFORE he was born. İn an old kingdom. Only the aristocrats could survive it and they came to where Rosas is in right now for safe place. Expect in their time the survivers were much silent? Like there was nothing to celebrate for nothing to smile about, they just ran away from a genocide caused by horrible magic.

And because all the survivors were aristocrats they didn't had any peasents to boss around, their status meant nothing right now since the left alone people are now equal. They didn't even had a proper leader, which is where Magnifico comes along. He pulls them together, becomes king, brings laws, builds houses, Medical care camps, schools, draws the lines of the kingdom, literally makes it a whole country born by it's ashes.

As much I don't like to bring up the film we can see that kid Magnifico is floating on the picture. He had magic back them but we never got explained how? So I came up with the idea that Magnifico's parents were one of the top duke and duchesses who made a wish upon a star for the best kid they could ever have. Which lead to the child getting the best ever genes it could possibly grab from generations behind. The healthiest, handsomest, most magical coming from the ancestor's stardust's.

He was the best thing that ever happened to the people of survivers, he could bring them stuff, stuff they wished to have.

Magnifico was like the Messiah. They adored him, he was their everything. He was spoiled by the whole aristocrats of course, he's a wonder kid.

He and his parents also look different in my headcanon, this is how I imagined them to look like before what the film gave us with 3 😐😐😐 heads. İgnore the art quality I just wanted to point out how I just imagine them to look like, it's a doodle I scribbled on phone

A tip to tell the difference between my version and Disney's is,Magnifico is a natural white hair in mine along with his parents. Also is actually tan like in the concept arts. Amaya also has actual brown skin, like in the concept arts.

And before you ask no no other aristocrat could wish upon a star, only they could, this is why Magnifico is so important to them. He does what the stars couldn't automatically.

His parents died of an old age, at the same time, expect they tried their best with every single kind of potion and chemicals to keep them alive because they were scared of if Magnifico is their wish, would he be gone if they be gone? They stayed alive for about 120 years which is almost the limit of the human body, gladly enough he didn't died when they did. They wished for their kid to be the best for everyone, not just for them.

They looked like zombies when they died, it really hurted everyone to see them that way.

And for the million dollar headcanon

Trumpets

Drum drum drum

✨Amaya is a Wish✨

Magnifico wished upon a star the day his parents died just like Asha on the tree at the end of the cliff. His parents died and got buried at 6AM he made the wish at the end of the day, 11PM. Magnifico had to deal with so many things for the whole day now thay they were offically gone, they didn't even let him rest even if they wanted :(( he was exhausted at the end of the day when he was finally alone, and even though he knew that this was a forgotten miracle that only happened one time in the history, he wished upon a star,

Saying that he wanted someone here for him, to bring the best of him, whatever he could imagine and could not, ..and it came true!!!

He was in ultimate shock to see Amaya. Now unlike in other cartoons when they have a "perfect" partner it usually goes so smoothly like ohh they're obsessed with them and so clingly. Okay no that didn't happened, yes Amaya is the perfect woman for Magnifico and Magnifico is the perfect match for Amaya but she is still a human?? not just some customized girlfriend. Like why would she still stay there if he treated her like garbage?

Amaya was a human who could be the perfect wished person for Magnifico if he played his cards right and actually worked on their realationship, so it's not instant love. I hate the instantly in love without a thought tropes. They have a slow burn.

Asha:

She did got accepted as the King's apprentice.

And for the Queen's. They make her do works like Cindirella and they mutually annoy eachother time to time. The queen is slightly mean too for the funsies. They 3 got a we may be sometimes mean to eachother but Asha would ask for realationship advice to us type of realationship.

Charo is still there, their cat. Which Asha had enough of. (They make her clean after him a lot, spoiled cat 😼)

The Star boy is a boy, like in the concepts and exists. Expect I thought he would be more of a 15 year old than looking like a 20 year old to get more of his childish personality.

He's not useless like in the movie where the only helpful thing he did was opening the elevator's door and nothing else other than being Asha's new pet.

He can do magic, so does Asha. This is what gets on Magnficio's nerves. He doesn't knows about the Star boy's existence but later he finds out. He'll need to accept them both

🔥Valentione nevers speaks🔥

He was so cute as a goat who could only talk in goat language, you don't need his "low voice"

#asks #thank you for the ask!!#Disney wish #Disney wish asha #queen amaya #king magnifico #disney wish valentino

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the-awful-falafel · 6 months

Text

Okay. I returned briefly to R&M just to watch the latest episode because I heard Evil Morty came back.

... unpopular opinion I guess, based on the excitement in the tag, but I... didn't like how they executed his return that much? Like it was promising on paper, but in execution I was constantly like "... :|"

From the moment Evil Morty showed up in front of Rick C-137 and Morty Prime, he just felt like he was there to stand around and quip constantly and to get counter-quipped about how much of an asshole he was being, as well as to pull off Rick-tech cyborg badassery to fight alongside Rick in a very overblown way (his more unique manipulative skills only getting to show with the fakeout near the end). There's no... gravitas, for a lack of a better word. He just shows up and oh, he's here, and he's helping, and he feels strangely superfluous to the plot in spite of all the little ways the episode has him progress the fight against Rick Prime. It felt fanservicey and not in the good or natural way.

It also felt like there were scenes missing between the moment he appears and the moment he starts giving backhanded technobabble advice to Rick about how to improve his tech. Like... shouldn't there be more tension, instead of this casual acceptance of "oh this guy again, this is happening"? Why does the episode not give time to explain why Evil Morty decided to help our Rick kill Prime to solve the curve-fracking disruption, instead of just killing him? Why is Evil Morty giving snarky advice and/or cooperating with Rick like they're a real team with minimal preamble? It didn't go enough into the thought process from A to B for most scenes in the episode, honestly. Things were just constantly being thrown at you with no time to digest what was going on, making it all feel rather shallow (until the end, I guess)

Also, aside from that moment where he shows interest in bringing Morty along, Evil Morty gets no meaningful interactions with Morty Prime at all (who, as an aside, does so little this episode it's uncanny, even though being faced with a competent alternate version of himself who loathes Rick is perfect character development fuel, and they just keep wasting it by giving him nothing to do and not following up on the confrontation in S5 meaningfully) and in addition he's randomly acting far more tolerant to the main duo + giving them more credit for reasons that feel very OOC and more just to justify the rushed team-up. They could have done a lot with his distaste for our R&M because they represent what he hates about the abusive dynamic he left, like they hinted at in the S5 finale, but that seems quietly dropped or at least ignored. All the interesting parts of his character aside from being a hypercompetent asshole Morty got kinda glossed over due to the insanely rushed pacing and him existing as a plot device, even though I conceptually like the idea of him being less of a straightforward antagonist and more of a wild card who wants to be left alone after his escape in Season 5. He did feel somewhat more natural at the end once it he was downloading the Omega weapon information from Rick Prime, but his parting words where he shows an interest in our Rick felt so forced I cringed.

... I did like his intro backstory somewhat, but there wasn't anything really surprising in it (aside from the Evil Rick attempted suicide scene, jesus that got dark real fast and reminded me of my old fanfic), so in practice it kinda just ruined the mystique and prior applicability of Evil Morty's character to every Morty's backstory + character trajectory. Ironically, showing too much led to his character feeling smaller, not larger, and muddied what made his parting speech in S5 work so well. I feel like they should have just kept him relaxing in his private resort and dropped the rest of the intro, honestly. That was the best part, seeing how pissed he got at his peace being interrupted.

All that being said, I think a lot of the ideas in this episode were decent on paper, but it should have been a two-parter. Nothing was given room to breathe as they just hit you with canon after canon to service Rick's greater arc, and as a result Evil Morty felt really wasted here. And I was surprised since I was going into this expecting to enjoy it as an Evil Morty fan.

#rick and morty #evil morty #rnm critical #sorry if this is incoherent it's late and I just watched and I'm unhappier than I expected #tw suicide mention

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onehopefuldreamer · 8 months

Text

So I think I just figured out the optimal order of events for Stray Gods Act II for me.

Thanks to some very kind people on the Stray Gods Discord I was made aware that if you don't immediately go to Aphrodite's party but visit the Reliquary and Medusa's lair first you get completely different information from Aphrodite and Eros than if you'd first gone there. By some stroke of luck I had just done The Ritual (because I'm pretty much always replaying this game...) so I went back and redid things. And my gosh, am I never going to do The Ritual first again!

It's not only the information Grace receives that is much better, but also the flow of events actually feels much more natural this way. Especially if you romance Persephone because this gives her extra time to get to know Grace a little before you trigger You and I and it just feels so right. This also gives Grace a chance to tell Apollo she's worried about the way her investigation is going when he checks in with her instead of lying and saying she's fine. I love that! But also - you get a slightly different conversation with Pan after visiting Medusa which I liked heaps better personally.

What I ended up loving the most was that if you'd been naughty like me and flirted with everyone but Apollo when you talk with him about suspecting Pan after The Ritual he actually tells Grace to give Pan the benefit of the doubt and is very supportive of her which is completely adorable. Then, because I had been flirting with Pan, Persephone made Grace choose between her and him which was also a really nice touch and had me giggling and kicking my feet. I had no idea I needed to hear Persephone say "And what of Pan? Is he also 'incredible'?" but it gave me so much joy, you have no idea. I also ended up testing the option where you choose Pan over Persephone and she was very understanding and supportive while also shutting down any flirting from that point onwards. The only thing that disappointed me was that Persepone didn't seem to care that my Grace was also flirting with Freddie. That wasn't mentioned at all.

And now I need to do yet another replay after I finish this one and go for Pan because man, the dude has charm in spades and I love him and I wish I could romance Persephone, Freddie and him all at once. I might even like him more than Freddie which probably makes me a bad lesbian but it is what it is. His song is my favourite romance song right after You and I too, it's so catchy and joyful. Damn, I really need to romance him soon, don't I?

Fun fact: because I stopped my replay right before doing The Ritual after going to the Reliquary and visiting Medusa last night I ended up dreaming of an alternate version of Persephone and Grace's talk leading to You and I which had Persephone more open and forthcoming about Calliope and Grace very supportive and understanding. Then I'm pretty sure I dreamed a whole alternate version of You and I where Grace and Persephone actually sang together. I'm pretty pissed I don't remember any details because damn... I wish that were real. And I wish I could have recorded it. It was so good.

#stray gods #stray gods: the roleplaying musical #stray gods grace #stray gods persephone #stray gods pan #this whole experience has only made me aware that i really love pan #i'm pretty sure he's now my second favourite li after persephone #to say that took me by surprise is an understatement #but honestly i should have seen it coming #pan is the li whose voice i love listening to the most after persephone #and as much as i adore freddie her romance song is the weakest one #i can't listen to it #but pan's is just wonderful

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