#but not being allowed to speak nor have a personality or actual lore is what makes his characters so political.

[boyfridged]

willis todd appeared in maybe 2 panels and yet he is literally the most political character

#i'm ignoring everything n-52 and post-52 and so should you. hence i said 2 panels #we don't even really know his face! no distinctive features. he's more an outline than a person #but not being allowed to speak nor have a personality or actual lore is what makes his characters so political. #willis.zip

[midnightsun-if]

*cracks fingers*

FIRST AND FOREMOST are there different types of dragon shifters based on ethnicity. i.e. shifters of Asians descent are they "Chinese dragons"? Do we have drakes or wyrms? Do they look more like Smaug in the Hobbit or (my personal favorite) like Draco in Dragonheart?

How big are....actual dragons? How big do the dragon shifters get? have watched How to Train your Dragon Too Much Can we ride them?

Actually are there still dragons left in the "wild"?

If so are they like a protected species or do people just leave them alone cause they have the advantage of, quite frankly, being a fucking dragon? If not how did they die out?

Are there scales/blood/horns/ect useful in alchemy? Is there a racket for dragon parts? Or if they are not useful, is there still an underground market because of superstition that they are useful?

Can dragons speak somehow? Magic or otherwise?

...CAN THEY BREATHE FIRE? (Any ideas lore wise why?) Tagging on, can shifters once shifted breathe fire?

Are they able to manifest scales out of the shifted form this would be beyond useful in a fight and so damned cool?

Speaking of scales, does the color mean anything? Like bloodline/clan/house, from a specific region, or personality?

Do any of them have noticeable features in their human forms? Like fangs/scales/claws/reptilians eyes/this shouldnt be so sexy, I shouldnt want to grab them horns ?

Dragons in lore are infamously territorially and possessive. Are dragons in this IF the same? Do the shifters experience a reflection of that?

The gold thing, do dragons have that? Do the shifters at all have a fetish preference for gold?

It was mentioned that there was...tests to become a dragons shifted fated mate. Could a human undergo these, and live? If they cant would that mean anything per say in the long run between the couple?

Are there different types of dragon shifters?

There could, in theory, be. However, there aren’t any at the given moment due to the history between dragons and the realm that the majority of supernatural species reside within.

Are there drakes and wyrms?

There are! Just not any within this realm. At least none that stay for too long.

What do dragons look like?

Dragons have a variety of appearances, but Dragon Shifters typically take on the form of what you’d recognize as a normal dragon (Inheritance Cycle // Dragonheart // Etc). In fact, there are even some Night Fury type dragons within their realm too.

The biggest dragons, that Dragon Shifters do not take the form of, are actually wyverns (think Game of Thrones for their appearance).

How big are actual dragons?

Actual dragons can range through a variety of sizes— some are as small as a cat (though they’ve never appeared in the mortal realm). The biggest, as I’ve mentioned before being wyverns, can have a wingspan of upwards of 200 feet.

How big do Dragon Shifters get?

Dragon Shifters can have a wingspan ranging from 40 to 80 feet.

Can you ride a dragon?

In theory? Yes.

In reality? You’d more likely get fried instantly.

Dragons have to trust another being implicitly in order for them to allow you to become their rider, something that very few people are able to accomplish, much less so within a realm that has a history it does with them.

Are there any dragons left in the wild?

Within this world? No. Not really.

However, all dragons are wild. A dragon is not a slave, you’ll never be able to truly tame its spirit. Even if you were to be its rider.

Are they a protected species?

Very much so. Though they rarely ever come into this realm anymore. The Voltaire Family has a direct connection to the entrance into the Draconic Realm within Transylvania; something that’s bonded them to that realm as they were the family that stood in front of the ones that wished to ransack the nesting grounds and steal the defenseless eggs (as no one would be stupid enough to go after a fully grown dragon).

Dragons aren’t dead nor are they extinct, but one could easily make that distinction as very few still remain within the mortal realm. The majority of them stay within their own realm (think of it like a Westeros/Middle Earth type place).

Are there scales/blood/horns/etc useful in alchemy?

Absolutely, but good luck getting them.

Is there a racket for them?

Yes. The Voltaire Family has been constantly met with offers of various amounts of money in order to allow people to be able to get said materials (they’ve refused every time and have killed the ones making said offers).

Can dragons speak somehow?

No, but some of have said that a bond between a dragon and its rider can lend to an emotional connection that doesn’t need words to understand.

You could probably charm a dragon to be able to speak, and if it allowed you to do so, if it’s something you really wanted to see.

Can dragons breathe fire?

Yes. Dragonfire is one of the hottest things in existence. Hotter than even hellfire.

Can Dragon Shifters breathe fire once shifted?

They absolutely can but, like with Phoenixes, their fire isn’t as hot as the actual thing. It’s still pretty fucking hot though.

Can Dragon Shifters manifest scales when in a fight?

If they have enough control? They absolutely can, but it takes a while to master, and, to the inexperienced, can expend a lot of energy that may be needed in other areas of the fight.

Do scales denote anything of importance?

Not typically, but some people commonly give the various scale colors their own meaning (even if it doesn’t mean anything). Like red dragons typically being seen as warriors.

Only real dragons, mainly seen in wyverns, will have two shades to their scales (again think of GoT). Not all dragons will though (it’s just something that’s not seen within shifters).

Do any of them, being Dragon Shifters, have any notable draconic features when in their human form? Fangs/Scales/Claws/Reptilian Eyes/Horns?

Some can, yes! It truly depends on the Clan of Dragon Shifters though. Some Clans, like with Lexa and Zephyr, do not have horns but others do (though horns are seen on male Dragon Shifters; the opposite of Dark Fae, wherein horns appear only on females).

Reptilian eyes just varies from person to person. Some can have them, some cannot. Scales and fangs don’t really make an appearance unless the shifter wishes them to do so.

Are dragons territorial and/or possessive?

Completely. They’ll defend what is theirs to the death.

Are Dragon Shifters the same way?

Yes, but it’s not to the same extreme.

Do dragons have a thing for gold?

I mean… Some could, but it’s not an overall thing.

Do Dragon Shifters?

Beside the actual worth of it? Not really, but again there are special individuals within each group.

Could a human undergo the Dragon Trials and live?

Not at all. No other supernatural species could either. As they’re designed for Dragon Shifters only.

What would that mean for the couple in the long term?

The Trials are a way to showcase to their potential mate that they’ll be a good protector. Usually when it involves two Dragon Shifters it’s decided between them who will take that role. When it comes to other species? It’ll only ever be them. Their instincts, their entire being, would not allow it to be any other way. It’s in their genes to protect their mate, especially if they’re the one that’s given the “role” of it. The protector is also the more dominant between the two… So, I wouldn’t ever romance a Dragon Shifter if you prefer to be the more dominant one (unless you were a Dragon Shifter and could take over that role).

#midnight sun #asks #lore #dragon lore

[randomgentlefolk]

CPC CHAPTER 143

He's just acting He's just acting He's just acting

I'm having a moment about him, so I'm changing my pfp to Frederick for some times

You know this— i don't know what to feel about this chapter. As usual, let's start it lightheartedly.

Hey why is Suzanna still allowed having long hair? As far as I know long hair is forbidden in the military. Is it.. Is it a wig? 💀

But Plaidypus? I will never pronounce nor write platypus the same way ever again. It's so good wth why do I actually like it.

Yoo ngl Leland's craft skill tho 💀 man shoulda been an artistic king or smth instead of petty abusive king. He shoulda design some clothes/uniform or become an architect.

Look at how many people are complaining over the Plaid Kingdom's outift. Like how the plaid fam never changes clothes 💀 and that one military person also complained about the uniform. Speaking of never changing uniform, we finally know how the Plaid Princes never runs outta jacket in the entire series. They fr stocked it up 💀

LELAND, MAN, IS SO PETTY LOOK AT THIS LIST

"Who ate my ham sandwich that one time" BRO HOW GOOD WAS THE SANDWICH? HOW GOOD WAS IT.

My gal Isolde being a huge mood

This is my friends whenever I explain cpc lore.

Noo Isolde blaming herself :'( I saw this one coming but it still hurts so bad.

So uh, why is there a single chair in nowhere?

Why is there— for what. For what. Tell me.

I'm guessing the trio (they need a name) is becoming closer to find out where Frederick is!

Is Leland really gonna kidnap the princesses? He said the big event will be tomorrow at the Corduroy Canyon.. which is the place the princes and princesses should get married at. Or is it perhaps something else?

BLAINE NO. NO! Please, I'm trying to hard to— 😭😭 I'm trying to make excuses for you, please. You— mhm yeah this is acting haha. Even if it's not he's gonna get a big redemption yeahh. Denial is a river in Egypt.

Yooo Leland why you do that??? 👀 Saw the theory that the ghost in Plaid Kingdom is Leelathae......Maybe????????

Oh shoot, well that ain't a good ending for the trio :'l how are they gonna explain this? "Uh hey we were just chilling here right in front of the room you told me not to go into....just having some besties talk ya know....of course"

Well that's all for this week's chapter's review! I'm just gonna read chapter 126 now..(sobs)

Mono out! (But still in to hear your thoughts)

#cursed princess club #cpc

[loop-loremaster]

Hi there! I was wondering about what happens after someone wins a BR match. I was looking on the wiki, and there wasn't much really there to find. Only really, 'memories wiped and no language barrier'. Is Creative what happens after someone wins a match? Is the freed Looper is able to create to their heart's content? This idea isn't really mentioned nor expanded upon, as far as I know.

Howdy!

Creative doesn't actually have any lore importance and It's really just the obligatory sandbox game mode for the fun of it to allow players to branch out into finding other things to do in Fortnite. So, unfortunately, no!

Though it could be an interesting headcanon that a Looper could choose to stay within Reality Zero with creative abilities to create content for other Loopers who chose the same fate, maybe those who no longer have a home or reality to return to would choose this option... Hmmm...

But to answer your first part, the Looper - which in this case, would be the "someone" - is never really free, even after they win a match.

Each match is placed within the idea called 'The Loop' which is in fact, an endless time loop that lasts twenty-two (22) minutes before it resets. Each time the storm closes until there is one player / one squad left victorious on the island, which claims a 'Victory Royale'.

There are only two - debatably three ways to actually escape the loop;

One is to directly escape through the Zero Point, normally through The Bridge. And although the original may have gotten out, either way, it'll leave a snapshot of them behind.

The second is yes, getting a victory royale by eliminating all the other combatants.

The third is using rifts - yes, rifts. But not really the normal ones you would see on the island, it seems so far really only the more powerful Sideways Rifts were able to make such an alteration to allow something to enter and exit Reality Zero.

That and also external abilities that could possible allow someone to enter it, but it's debatable whether they would have the same power to get out before it's too late.

A snapshot is caused when someone manages to escape The Loop, forcing the island to replace it somehow. It does this by creating a copy of the person who escaped the loop to stay inside of Reality Zero, or in other words, a snapshot of them!

Snapshots are normally represented by the skins in the item shop and the NPCs on the island being fragments/holograms of those who have escaped at some point(?).

And yep! The Loop does wipe memories, presumably each reset that is, and the longer/more times they loop/time they spend in the loop the more their memories, personality, sense of self, and sanity slowly alter and deteriorate until they are the exact same ballistic animal as the others that they have to fight against.

And with the "no language barrier" I guess it's actually a really strong barrier because they actually cannot speak within the loop AT ALL!

The lack of speech doesn't mean they can't just communicate at all. They can still attempt to communicate non-verbally which is seen in the comics - I guess that explains all of the emotes that indicate small actions though! Sign language is also a way of canon communication as Snake Eyes and Batman demonstrate.

The only way to avoid the memory/speech impairment effects within the Loop as of current is by creating a sealed environment, - like the suits that The Seven use - IO technology such as the Portal Device that Jones kept on him or creating some sort of visor using material from the World Forge like the Batman Who Laughs.

Hope this helps! Any further or other questions I'm always happy to try and answer.

#ask #fortnite #fortnite lore

[pandemique]

come on dont be shy, write that sun/moon essay👍

even when tumblr don’t got me, i know anon got me 👍👍👍

🌞dream is a sun and a moon-lover

🌙george is a moon and a sun-lover

reasons below the cut!

i actually like that there’s discourse over this bc hearing everyone’s unique poetic takes is so enjoyable 🥰 but my belief is that it’s similar to the dnf dogboy/catboy consensus, because dream can be a dogBOY but a cat PERSON if he’s similar to a puppy but likes kittens. dream can be a sun personality type and be drawn to moon types, while george is vice versa.

☀️dream as a sun☀️

dream’s personality invites attention and exudes influence. he’s like the main character, the center of the system.

he almost ‘gives life to the world’ the way he brought fame to other streamers and joy to so many viewers

he’s like an ‘initiator/creator’ with how he comes up with most ideas and founded cultural reset typa shi like the dream smp

tl;dr he shines really bright and allows everyone else to reflect his light & shine along with him :]

(he’s also willing to burn for himself and for others, with how often he has to stand up for himself and people he loves against crazy & sometimes bad attention :[ )

florida man. leo boy. LOLLL

☀️dream as a moon-lover☀️

hopeless romantic!!!!!!!! the moon is a symbol of romance, heck even i myself have a whole song playlist named ‘lune’ (yeah shoutout musician!dream AHAH)

he prioritizes loyalty, appreciates beauty, and favors the people who keep him grounded

when asked what he likes most about george? once he answered humility (‘u don’t brag about your money or status or looks’) and in another, how he takes criticism well and is willing to change

🌙george as a moon🌙

sky @georgeliker found a quote that best encapsulates george’s moon side :>

“the moon is a loyal companion it never leaves, the moons connection to water and it’s tides represents our emotions and subconscious mind - what we see on the surface does not reflect what is going on underneath nor does it reveal its vast depths, it is reliable and straightforward but also inconceivably mysterious, beautiful and tickles our romantic instinct”

well-known for beauty, and for being a mystery, the depths of george lore will remain one of the 7 wonders of the world

everyone is drawn to him. his magnetic simp gravity........

george being known to bring up the mood in every call parallels how the moon brings up the tides

sky also mentioned the lunar phases which have been said to affect the mood, the way george seems to influence his environment easily :]

he doesn’t ‘shine as bright’ but he always shines, always cheerful, when it’s dark, when others aren’t feeling as up to it, when it counts

heck, he doesn’t even need to be present sometimes to indirectly change the course of history, /rp or otherwise

🌙george as a sun-lover🌙

“because it’s practical” LOL u know this summarizes everything

he’s drawn to bright & loving people :] also ppl with lots of influence & money SHSKSHDKS

he appreciates anyone and anything that is useful, even just a lil bit

a fan of colors despite being colorblind (abstract art as his pfp), and his fave biome is the flowers <33

☀️🌙 dnf dynamic 🌙☀️

“Tell me the story about how the sun loved the moon so much, he died every night to let her breathe” oh, the same way dream would do anything to make george happy? 🥴🤧🤕

“the sun is constant... sometimes (George) sleeps through the day, but it’s okay, because he knows the sun will be there tomorrow as well” -this post i love by @gogysglasses

dream recognizes that there’s so much more to george beyond his pretty surface and is obsessed with knowing every detail, the true keeper of george lore o7

george knows exactly how to calm dream down and keep him going, and has his phone number set to pass through do not disturb because ‘he needs him sometimes’, often easing his anxieties

“George, i’m gonna blow up, come with me” -> Dream’s light reflecting causes George to shine with him, and change the world together <3

the way they ‘link’ and don’t have to speak to understand each other, and having each other’s presence around like in calls even though they’re miles and miles away is enough to calm them & make them happy

the gravity that pulls them together is too strong ;)

written in the stars maybe?

the chances are so, so slim, but when they do meet, the whole world is eclipsed and can only watch in awe :)

🌍 by the way, hotheaded young sapnap is definitely the earth. they all revolve around each other :) 🌏

aand as thank u for sitting through my rambles, here’s a sun/moon!dnf doodle i made for yesterday’s 404cord alt stream recap!

#VERY LONG POST ALERT ‼️ #i mightt add more later bc the brainrot is strong in this one 🌞🌚 #please tell me ur thoughts on this au! #i kinda wanna do smth with dnf being reincarnations of the sun/moon so yeah :D #demi rambles #thanku for asking <3 #love u anon #thanku again for enabling me #dnf #dreamnotfound #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #main tagging bc this is v much platonic #dnf analysis

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

Actually, you know what, while im still mad from the previous post I made, lets go off on a rant. No punches pulled. Lets do this.

The lovesquare is the most terrible ship in this fandom. One girl is a hyper obsessed stalker who tracks her crush with her planner for 3 whole seasons, while the boy couldn’t learn to take a hint and stop flirting for 3 whole seasons until he decided to move on with another girl. Ironically that makes them perfect for eachother, but its in a creepy kind of way, not a loving kind of way.

Adrigami and Lukanette in the S3 Finale were wasted events and never should have occured because they were immediately axed in the first few episodes of the next season. I feel sorry for those that were hoping their ships could be real for at least a short actual while, and it makes me want to curse the writers for their story-boner for the status quo of teases

Despite what I said earlier, none of the girls are good for Adrien. Marinette’s stalkery and a borderline yandere, Kagami’s somewhat controlling and too similar to Adrien help him grow as a person, Chloe is a queen bee beyotch and honestly too much like a sibling to Adrien, and Lila is garbage. Fuck it, have Luka date Adrien and they can play some sweet music together (not like that you pervs, I meant they both play instruments).

Nino needs more love. Not only that, but there needs to be more Adrien/Nino bro moments. If Marinette and Alya can have moments together, why not the bros?

Chloe’s character is a mess, and is neither redeemable, nor notably evil. Her role as a villain in season 1 is very hamfisted, such as in the episodes Mr Pigeon and Kung Food. Not only that, Chloe also lacks any of the qualities that makes a good “bully villain” or rival to Marinette, and her sympathetic moments (which are Written by Sebastien) are mostly overshadowed by the fact that Astruc wants her to be a bully, so it just makes her bipolar and confusing when her character is tugged between two writers.

Chloe should not have joined Hawkmoth in Miracle Queen, see my other post as to why I think so. TLDR, its kinda ooc  for her to go full on 2d villain like Hawkmoth especially after Miraculer, plus Lila was being build up to be the main antagonist of S3

Chloe got kicked from the Team in Miraculer because people know her identity? Fine. Kagami gets to be Ryuko again despite being known to Hawkmoth in Ikari Gozen? Not cool. Ladybug shouldn’t be a hypocrite and be willing to break her own rules just because “Kagami is my friend and Chloe’s not”. Same goes for her breaking the rule with secrect identities with Alya, only for her to go on and on about the rules to Chat when he pries.

Zoe is a bland character who’s only notable trait that she likes Marinette, which automatically makes her worthy of a miraculous after two episodes and no actual development.

Astruc is a petty frick who makes episodes that give the finger to fans of the show that have a different opinion than him. Queen Banana, Miracle Queen, and Reverser are good examples of this (Reverser did Nathaniel dirty).

Master Fu is a shit guardian. Read my post for more.

FRICK THE FEAST EPISODE. Not only did is ruin Fu as character, it ruined all the good theories as to why the order fell, and wasted the idea of a new villain being introduced or even taking over as the main antagonist! Speaking of Feast, despite the sentimonster destroying an order when he wasn’t even big, he still go beat by 2 kids even when he was supersized!

Marinette is not a good Guardian. Her ability to choose heroes does not make her capable, and just because “tradition is stupid” doesnt mean that Marinette shouldn’t be tested like others before her!

Despite the Kwami’s being ancient magical buildings, they seem to act like kids a lot, and that annoys me when in S1 they are supposed to apparently be mentors to their wielders, like how Tikki was before she was mentally de-aged.

Lila is trash and should be removed from the show. The only reasons her lies work is because the writers dumb down every other character in the show and ignore the fact the people have smartphones with google.

The “Miraculous” Ladybug spell should require both Ladybug and Chat Noir to cast, because not only does the power have nothing to do with creation, but it also “destroys” anything created by the akuma, which thematically makes no sense. Also it would place more emphasis on the two heroes being equals and “two halfs of the same coin”

On that note, Ladybug has too many powers. Not only is she the only one who can purify akumas, and can cast a spell that can fix Paris time and time again like its no one’s buisness, but she also now gets a new suit and the ability to nullify Hawkmoth’s akumas. Like COME ON! Give Chat some powers too.

Mayura’s feather’s shouldnt be able to be purified by Ladybug since they have no dark energy, and (thematically speaking) Chat should be given an ability that allows him to “vanquish” the energy in Mayura[’s feathers similar to how Ladybug can purify Hawkmoth’s akumas. At least it would develop a rivalry between Chat and Mayura, and would make Chat necassary against Shadowmoth rather than being replacable with any other hero.

The are too many temporary heroes. They should have just stuck with the 3 heroes from s2 and leave it at that. Sure, new heroes were cool, but the overuse has made the whole hero thing feel less special. It made sense for the first 3 to have them, but now it’s just like Oprah where everyone gets a miraculous. Except Gabe.

Chat Blanc was a stupid reason as to why secret identities cant be revealed, also Chat could have told LB who Hawkmoth once he returned back to normal was and the show would be over.

Hawkmoth should not be Gabriel. Frick the lore about Gabriel’s wife dying and him going evil to get her back, it makes the story feel too much like a star wars/Darth vader reference and leaves Gabriel acting bipolar, flipping from wanting to save his wife and doing this out of necessity to being a power hungry madman wanting to take over the world ( which is said in his canon music video). Having Hawkmoth be his own character means he can be an actual maniac who wants world domination and not just have villanous plot that rely on obtaining magical jewellery (perhaps doing other evil things/taking a more active role), while Gabriel being his own character means he can be a father that has become estranged from his son due to the lose of his S,O, and thus can have a plot about him reuniting with his son (I liked the end seen in Simon says, ok?)

On that same note, I think Mayura shouldn’t have been Nathalie. Considering Hawkmoth’s plans were repetitive as heck for most of the show, when I heard about the Mayura leaks back in Season 2 (when she was called “le Paon”) I was theorising that Mayura would actually being Hawkmoth’s boss, the villain the was responsible for giving him his Miraculous and the one who destroyed the Order of the Miraculous, and would take over as the main villain in season 3 due to Hawkmoth’s failures. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Not only that, but Mayuras power is a copy paste power with some modifications to make it complement Hawkmoth’s power, by basically giving his akuma’s magic pokemon.

Speaking of Hawkmoth’s power, for a miraculous that is supposed to be used for good, how can his power mind control people and make them become evil? More importantly, for a miraculous that is supposedly weaker than the main heroes of the show, having it be able to multiply and posses people to create an army is kinda strong.

Fuck the Maribat ship that the salt fandom came up with. Its trash, it was made to bash most of the Miraculous cast sans Marinette, and anyone thinks it is good are either those same salters or are the same people who think that Rey-lo and the Twilight Saga are masterpieces of romance.

Whew! I needed that vent. Hope you enjoyed it as as much as I did, and Tune in next time on the next episode of:  Arlakos loses his Mind and Rants for 2 pages of writing!

#Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Salt #Marinette salt #Adrien Salt #Everything salt #This whole show is a salt mine #Rant Time! #I love the show but I hate how its written

[mobiused]

can you please explain your understanding of the basement to me? Some say that Jinsoul was trapped in there, then Vivi found her and let her go, they fell in love, then Yves got close with Vivi and Jinsoul was jealous, so she manipulated Olivia into going after Vivi to hurt Yves because she was a common enemy of theirs???

BUT some say that Jinsoul knew Olivia first, then OLIVIA locked her in the basement (because they were in an abusive relationship or something. like Jinsoul was mean) (and this is all obviously post-eden when Olivia was on earth. but before hi high. and before odd eye circle??) and then Vivi let her out, and oh god it's so confusing. How did she get in a basement. What is the significance of the basement. Is this before she knew Lip. Is this before she knew about her odd eye at all because it seems like in Every Day I Need You she was younger and weaker. But idk idk

okay so the facts are as follows:

- jinsoul has teleportation powers (which don't work whilst in the basement...?) - vivi finds jinsoul in hong kong - jinsoul goes to the aquarium, in korea, in her school uniform, whilst viseul are hanging out (on dates?) before the events of sweet crazy love, and vivi is already a robot at this point - jinsoul is freed from the basement (in hong kong) after EDINY hit 300k views - jinsoul is out of the basement by the time she talks to olivia on earth

more under cut

so... any theories that violate the logic of these facts, i choose to disregard. my personal interpretation is that.. okay lets take a step back.

to me, all the oec girls have this similar progression of events. kim lip has superspeed abilities, and somehow runs all the way to gimcheon (where eclipse is filmed), we see this as she picks up her backpack at the end of SCL and arrives at the... idk silo... like she travelled over 250km on foot? choerry has both dimension travelling abilities and time travel abilities, and somehow ends up in 90's busan with vives for christmas. jinsoul has teleporting powers and... ends up in a basement. this came across to me as though when they first discover their powers in SCL, they don't know how to control their powers and end up very far apart (like, on accident?), but also where they need to be. jinsoul winding up in the basement allows her to (formally) meet vivi, kim lip can do her eclipse ritual, and choerry meets vives and gets idk radicalised i guess.

oh and i also brought up the basement in this post

but then there's another aspect i remember reading in a hanbit post was about jinsoul being imprisoned, which was based on the fact the jumper she wears in EDINY is like, evocative of prisoner uniform and the SITR choreography has her surrounded by bars, which... y'know, serves as a visual metaphor for her being behind bars.

as for those theories you mentioned, i get that it's fun to imagine like, these wildly dramatic stories but... there's just no evidence for it, yk! like, olivia has never been shown to hurt anybody, not vivi, not jinsoul, not yves, nor has that been hinted at. the most violence that olivia does is burn the things that remind her of eden/yves. so i don't know why or even how she would put jinsoul in the basement - especially since egoist is just after she lands on earth and doesn't know wtf is going on, and jinsoul comes to speak to her in a supportive manner. idk what jinsouls saying (actually i wrote before about jinsoul telling olivia the things she needs to know, on behalf of yves, because olivia wouldn't have listened to anything yves said) but i think whatever jinsoul says, it's clearly not verbally abusive or anything...

i believe in (lore) vivesoul love triangle but i don't really like theories where they try and kill each other. i would rather leave things unanswered than fit them with answers that don't make sense.

#rewatched vivis letter to hong kong and forgot heejin tries to kiss hyunjin bahahaha #loona lore #loonaverse #sorry this is just a longwinded way to say I Don't Really Know #like most things #its funny #i can write so much about the lore #but my answer is pretty much always idk

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne

So now we get to what is, in my opinion, the best episode in season three. However, it’s still season three, so that’s damning with faint praise. 

Summary: Rapunzel tasks the kingdom with refurbishing the throne room. While breaking down a wall, they find a map to the Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne and Rapunzel decides to set up a race to the location. The teams, which consist of twos, are only allowed to look at the map briefly before the start of the race. However, Rapunzel's partner, Feldspar, brings a copy of the map with him and he warns her that the treasure is cursed. 

Why Are You Just Getting to This Now? 

It’s literally been months since you defeated the Saporians. Edmund had to have time to travel all this way to Corona and you’ve rebuilt an entire village since then. We’re talking at bare minimum three months or more. 

Who just leaves a gapping hole inside their home for three months? Where did you conduct the government’s important business during that time? Is there any other structural damage to the castle or the town outside from previous battles that you’ve just left unattended? I understand that rebuilding Old Corona is important but those villagers have been evacuated and living elsewhere for a year and a half now since Queen for a Day. It wasn’t a priority, but this is. 

Also this episode has to come after The Return of the King and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf because Red, Angry, and Hamuel exist. It can’t just be slotted in somewhere else in order for it to make more sense. The writers genuinely planned for Rapunzel to be this disorganized and didn’t think to give a logical reason as to why. 

Also Why Are You Conscripting Regular Citizens Instead of Hiring Professional Contractors?

Unlike Old Corona, which is a full on community that would require multiple building projects going on simultaneously and therefore could use volunteers, this is a single government building. It’s Rapunzel’s job as leader to make sure that that building is kept maintained and up to code. It’s her responsibility not the regular average citizen’s who has their own jobs to do and zero experience with construction.  

Rapunzel is literally forcing these people to be slave labor for her under the pretense of ‘community’. She’s taking their time away from their own busy lives, forcing them to work a dangerous job, and not compensating them for that time, effort, and risk. And no, they’re not just volunteers at this point; because as acting queen, no one can safely say no to her nor can they just leave even when they’re clearly annoyed and fed up at having to do the work.  

Lastly they’re untrained. They lack the skills and tools to this job. You need an architect, you need a safety inspector, you need actual carpenters and masonries ... maybe even an interior decorator... The point is you need trained professionals and part of being an administrator is using government funding to hire these people in order to make sure the work gets done safely and efficiently and create jobs and keep money circulating through the economy.       

Rapunzel may not mean any harm. She might just be oblivious and untrained herself. But this is terrible leadership and the show never points that out. It never has her learn how to be a better a ruler so by the end of the series you don't feel she’s earned that title of Queen and you fear for the kingdom’s continued existence.   

So Why Is This Here?

Why would there be a Saporian map to a king of Corona’s tomb hidden in the wall? What’s the story behind this? 

Yes we know his wife was Saporian, but that doesn’t explain anything. Why would she need a map on the wall to her own husband’s resting place; assuming he didn’t out live her himself. Why would said map be carved into the wall of Corona’s castle and not written on a scroll? Why is it in Saporian when they don't speak that language in Corona? 

Like I could come up with explanations and create this whole backstory for Herz Der Sonne and the first Saporian/Coronian War, but at this point I’d just be doing the work of the writers for them. They’re the ones who introduced this lore and had it inform plot points and character motivation; and then failed to explain any of it to the audience and adequately have it all connect back together in a way that makes sense. 

The Moment When You Realize This Whole Episode Exists Because Zachary Levi Enjoys Doing an Ed Wynn Impersonation 

Ok time to explain some behind the scenes Info.

This is Ed Wynn. 

As you can tell from the gif above, he’s famous for voicing the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. He’s also done a whole bunch of other stuff and was well known even before working with Disney, but the Mad Hatter is his most well remembered role today. 

Many actors, particularly voice actors, like to do impressions of him because he has such a distinctive voice. Including Eugene’s VA, Zachery Levi.  

Now I don’t know if the character of Feldspar was created specifically because the creators were inspired by Zachery Levi’s impression, or if they had this character already planned out and just casted him in the role since he could do it and it’d save them money. Either scenario is plausible and not unheard of in animation. But the long and short of it is, as a shoemaker, Feldspar is intended to be a parody of the Mad Hatter. That is why the character exists. 

Now as I said, this isn’t unusual for animated tv shows. Quite often you get main cast members to voice secondary and/or one off characters because it’s convenient, efficient, and doable when working with audio recordings. Also quite often voice actors will do impressions of other famous people to flesh out these background characters. It’s also not out of left field for these secondary characters to get an episode of focus if they’ve been around for awhile and keep popping up in the story. 

What is unusual, however, is to focus on said character in the final season when there are a bunch of other more important characters with unresolved arcs that need the screen time more. It’s an incredibly odd decision to highlight Feldspar here when we still got Varian readjusting back into society, Red and Angry settling into their new home, and Edmund running around off screen. And while some of these character feature in the episode, they’re just there for the jokes not for any development. 

What’s a “Sap Pond” and How Does That Even Work?

Ok its a fantasy world, I get it. But the franchise does try to have a distinction between the magical and the mundane. Or at least pretends to try and have a distinction. There’s to my knowledge no such thing as a ‘sap pond’, and if such a thing does exist I doubt it’s an actual deep pit full of tree sap as shown here. 

If you want characters to still be surprised by out of the ordinary occurrences and have the supernatural world be separate from the regular world; then you need to have the mundane world grounded in our known reality. Nature needs to function as real world nature would. If something exists in your world that doesn't in ours, then you need to either explain it or have the characters responded appropriately to it. 

But You’re a Prince Now?

Look, I’ll buy that season one Eugene didn’t have unlimited access to the royal treasury as he and Rapunzel were still new to their roles and their relationship. But it’s been over two years since the movie ended. 

Since then Eugene and Rapunzel have lived together, shared finances together, and currently are co-acting rulers of the kingdom. He’s also a bonified prince in of itself on top of being practically married to princess/queen. 

Yeah I said it. Part of what makes season three so frustrating is that Rapunzel and Eugene are functionally married at this point, they just haven’t gone through the ceremony yet, and there’s no stated reason for why they keep dragging things out.  

This is why we get out of place jokes like this that no longer reflect who Eugene is now as a person and feel like they belong back in season one or the even the movie itself. 

I can understand if he wanted to join in the competition because it’s fun, but he’s not poor. Neither he nor Rapunzel needs the treasure. I’m not sure even Lance needs it because as Eugene’s best friend/adopted brother he’s piratically nobility at this point as well. 

Royalty and the rich are not and never will be underdogs show. Stop trying to make them such. 

So Why Feldspar Again? 

This is such a half assed plot point. 

Remember Rapunzel literally pulled out a book earlier to translate the map.  Xavier not only knows the legends about the Saporians, but also keeps a book of magic lying around, and the Saporians are the only human people who have functioning magic in the show as part of their culture.    Varian spent a year living and working with the Saporian leader, and knows how to decipher ancient scrolls written in dead languages.  And said Saporians, are being currently held in the dungeons of the castle.  

But you’re telling me that only a random cobbler can read the warning clearly written on the map? 

They give some bullshit reason as to why Feldspar knows Sapoprian but it doesn’t matter. It’s a forced and contrived excuse to get the character involved in a plot he has no business being in. The story fails to justify the use him over the other more prominent characters who have closer ties to this particular subplot. 

And We’re Suppose to Believe That Herz Der Sonne Was a Good Guy?

Why would a benevolent king who supposedly brought peace to a warring land have a doomsday curse involving zombies? Why would said king be enshrined a tomb that’s not native to his culture? What even is the treasure and why be buried with it? 

There’s clearly more going on here regarding Corona’s past and the treatment of the Saporians as a people in their own right, but the show never does anything with it. Why introduce these complexities and world building if you’re not going to tell a story with them? Why have the Saporian subplot at all in a series already over stuffed with villains if you aren’t going to have them challenge your protagonist and have her grow into a more mature person? 

I’m not dunking on the series for being ambitious nor for having flavor text to help flesh out the world, but it so aggravating that there’s no follow through on the show’s set ups and narrative promises. If you’re not going to give the needed focus to something then just don’t put it in. Cause once it’s aired you’re committed to it and the audience is going to hold you to account. 

I haven’t seen plot mismanagement this bad since the 80s; back when cartoons had to battle network syndication, episode commissions instead of contracted seasons, and could be canceled at any time without prior notice. Now there’s still plenty of bad practices going on in the industry, especially as the move to streaming messes with things, but Tangled does not have the same excuses as say Johnny Quest, Dungeons and Dragons, or even Gargoyles did. 

How Do You Even Know That Would Work, Rapunzel?

No seriously, how does Rapunzel know that putting the treasure chest back on the pedestal will stop the cruse? That hasn’t been established yet by any known source of information. Heck no one knew what the curse actually entailed until it was activated. Except for Xavier who oh so conveniently didn’t say anything until the last moment. If anyone should have the knowledge to on how to end the curse it’s him. But nope we gotta make the Rapunzel the infallible hero who is always right for no logical reason.  

I don’t know how to explain this to you show, but perfect is boring. No one wants a flawless protagonist who can do it all 24/7 without any help whatsoever. And it becomes down right annoying to watch a hero who is clearly flawed still put upon a narrative pedestal as if they weren’t. 

So Why is Varian Suddenly Useless In This Fight?

This entire climax is about showcasing the ‘power of teamwork’ by having the characters use their various skills sets and work together to defeat the enemy. 

Except for Varian. 

He’s treated at best as a spectator to the unfolding events and at worst as a damsel in distress. 

Varian. You know the guy who is the series most competent and threating antagonist. Who brought an entire kingdom to it’s knees, twice. The only other character besides Rapunzel herself who could and does hold his own against other major antagonists, including super powered ones.  

If this was just a one off incident, I’d just shrug it away as him being a glass cannon; insanely overpowered when well prepared but easily out of his depth when not. But that’s not what’s happening here. 

Season three constantly nerfs Varian’s abilities, same as they did back in The Alchemist Returns, and there’s three reasons for this. 

The first is to try and stop him from overshadowing Rapunzel and Cassandra. The writers don’t want to give him any more story focus for fear of him being more popular the the two girls. Which is a ridiculous and petty reason to write a character OOC but there you go. 

The second is the on going issue of making Rapunzel needlessly the center of any and all solutions to every problem regardless of her level of involvement in the initial conflict. Yes, it’s her show, but she’s still not the whole world. Other people exist outside of her and it’s not fair to anybody when the writers ignore that simple fact.   

Last is the writers sacrificing established character for a joke. And as already pointed out, even in this very review, Varian’s not the only character to fall victim to this. It’s just bad writing. Yeah the joke might be funny in the moment but you run the risk of jarring you’re audience’s immersion. In a series like Tangled where you’re constantly asking the audience to suspend their disbelief, humor needs to be firmly rooted in the characters natural behaviors and must evolve to match any character development.   

Why not just have Varian throw a chimball or two, run out cause he wasn’t planning on fighting anybody that day, and then have the other characters rescue him? It’s not that hard to work in a joke while still being respectful of the characters.  

So What Does Anybody Learn From This Episode?

Yeah the other characters learn some vague lesson on teamwork and getting along or something, but they’re not the focus of the episode. What do Rapunzel and Feldspar learn? 

Unlike some people I don’t mind Feldspar’s existence. When’s he’s kept as a background character he works. In fact he’s one of the few townspeople who do work as intended, because he’s representative of the everyday citizen who’s often on the outside looking in on these fantastical events and therefore gives insight into what’s going on and the populous’ opinions on things without being a major player in anything. 

That's fine, needed even, and I don’t mind him getting a single focus episode to gain a greater insight into how this world works or even flesh out his character more, but that’s not what we got. Feldspar doesn’t grow as a character because of this episode. I, as the viewer watching, learn nothing about him nor his life that I didn’t already know. This resolution with him resolves nothing cause it’s a ending for a conflict that was never established beforehand.  

In fact what even was the main conflict of the story? Rapunzel being annoyed by Feldspar? Ok and..? Did she need to learn not to be annoyed by him? Was that a thing that needed to be addressed? Hasn’t Rapunzel already put up with annoying people before now? Was was this deficiency of character actually solved by this one interaction? Has she learned to be more appreciative, attentive, or open minded of others? 

If you tell me it’s Rapunzel’s show then I expect Rapunzel to actually learn shit! 

I expect the external conflicts to tie back into her interpersonal conflicts. If the external conflict does not do that than there better well be a another character who gets that focus instead without her hogging the limelight. 

This Dynamic Adds Nothing

They set up this friendship with Varian and Xavier and it doesn't go anywhere. It never comes back into play and we never see them interacting on screen together again. It also undermines a future plot point that’s coming up later. 

More over it doesn’t further either of their characters. 

Xavier is still an extraneous exposition fairy. Turning his flat characterization into a one note joke does not erase that fact. Giving him a kid to tell stories to doesn’t explain his place in the narrative or give him purpose to the story. We still don’t know why he has these connections to magic nor how he knows all the this lore, and he doesn’t push the plot forward. 

Meanwhile Varian maybe lonely but that doesn’t mean he needs yet another mentor figure in his life. We already have his father, who we barely see him interact with since coming back, and all his other ‘friends’ are way older then him already as well. Rapunzel’s the closest in age to him and she is constantly condescending to, well everybody, as she pretends to be more mature than she actually is. There’s no one in the story who Varian is on equal footing with, and no Angry and Red don't count as they’re far younger than him. 

I don’t know what this series has against teenagers but it showcases some very unhealthy depictions of them; ether by constantly infantilizing them, traumatizing them while subjecting them to parentification, or just flat out ignoring their existence all together. 

Teenagers exist and they need to be treated as teenagers. I don’t know how to put it more simply than that. Teens aren’t children. Teens aren’t adults. They’re teens. And when writing for them you need to understand that difference and acknowledge that they have a completely different phycological development and placement within society to anybody else. That’s why the category of adolescence exists separately from childhood and adulthood in the first place.   

So to tie things back to the first point. The concept of Xavier and Varian having a friendship is not a problem. But as with so many things on this show, it’s the surrounding context and lack of follow through where the issues arises. 

Varian needs a friend his age, who is his equal, more so than a mentor; if indeed Xavier is even intended to serve that function as he doesn’t do any real mentoring. This should have been an opportunity to bring Faith in and establish her better. In fact it’s reasons like this why she should have been a bigger character all along but we’ll get more into that as we get to her only ‘focus’ episode. 

Conclusion 

It’s fun seeing all the various character interactions and unique team ups. Also the humor does work. The jokes do land even if they do bulldoze through established canon. Plus seeing Rapunzel actually annoyed by shit going on around her is always entertaining as it humanizes her. If watched in isolation from the rest of season three, this is an enjoyable episode. But that’s it’s core problem. I shouldn’t have to find filler to keep me going in the last leg of the show. 

This was pretty short comparatively speaking with the rest of the ones I have to write for S3, but longer ones are going to come out more slowly just due to real life and time. As always though you’re support is helpful in keeping going, and if you feel like you can donate to my Ko-fi and leave a tip there. 

https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #rapunzel #varian #anti-tangled #feldspar

[silvadour]

Attack on Titan: The End of an Era - Final Chapter Review

Disclaimer: This blog post contains MASSIVE spoilers towards the ending of Attack on Titan as well as the greater series. If you wish not to be spoiled on certain story aspects and character revelations, I kindly suggest reading the manga or waiting for the 2nd half of the Final Season to be released in Winter 2022. Furthermore, if you are not caught up with this and read this post anyway, kindly refrain from spreading information presented here as not to spoil the experience for other readers and watchers that have yet to see the very end of the story.

And now without further ado, let is begin with the blog post.

Well, we’ve reached the endpoint, we arrived at that scenic view. Attack on Titan’s story has finally ended and if I’m being frank with you…I’m satisfied with it.

I have to say it’s always a weird feeling of coming to face the truth that a story you like and have invested many years reading has finally come to an end, there’s just an underlying feeling that you wanna deny the reality of it but you also can’t deny that sense of closure you gain from it either. While the series started way back in the year 2009, I did not get invested in the manga’s story until late 2013 when the anime’s first season finished airing. And my experience with AoT has been a strange one. As a young teen, I was impressed by the action on display so much that I began craving more of it like a crack-headed squirrel; this, in turn, led me to read through internet message boards and forums for possible new information on the stories developments which unsurprisingly led me to find spoilers of later events (particularly the case with Reiner and Bertholdt’s identities) However, even by the time I reached that revelation in the story in the existence of the Coordinate plot element came into play, I was aboard for the dramatic thrill ride ever since. And by the time I was reading it and the story shifted from fighting humanoid monsters to actual humans in the Royal Government/Coup d’etat arc, I started thinking of Attack on Titan as a rather niche series that only a few people could understand even with its ridiculous surge of popularity in the early 2010s, and I never could have anticipated back then on how emotionally attached I would be to this series nor how well it portrays a morally grey story where both participating parties of an ongoing war suffer from the circumstances of their character and nature.

The opening page to the series

As a modern monthly shonen series, I can say that it’s certainly a step above other manga of its type in how it re-frames familiar shonen archetypes in much more grounded and grim settings, and I find that it’s because of that grounded feeling found in its writing and setting that Attack on Titan has garnered such a large following for the elements in the story make themselves easier for audiences to distill themselves in similar situations, the narrative creates a sense of audience inclusivity that allows readers to imagine themselves in situations of survival. However, once I heard the series would end at 139 chapters apart of me was wondering if the series would have enough time to address aspects of established lore and give character arcs a fitting conclusion, and suffice it to say, the series accomplished that though some feelings on them I’m still processing. So knowing this I think it would be best to tackle the ending of Attack on Titan by discussing each of the established themes and characters one at a time, starting with the theme of freedom and liberty.

“To either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”

Freedom and Liberty:

One of the major recurring themes in the story of AoT is that of the nature of finding true freedom. Freedom as a concept is described as the ability to speak, act or think by one’s own accord; freedom can be individual yet it can also be shared with various individuals. The story always made the best attempts at portraying both the positive and negative aspects of freedom in a morally grey manner. While the idea of wanting to do something of your own will, it all becomes a different story altogether depending on what the actions initiated from that free will end up being. One person’s freedom would naturally come to blows with the freedom of a collective group and trying to determine who is more rightfully just in their expression is never given a clear cut answer, case in point Eren’s yearning to be free of a world where he and his people aren’t demonized or viewed as cattle comes to blows with the antagonists’ (the nation of Marley) yearning to freely put him and the other Subjects of Ymir in their place as the two parties eventually engage in a long-standing war that has spanned for centuries. In an essay by John Stuart Mill, he presents an argument for the nature of human liberty that frames it as a double-edged sword; while it may stand as a tool to defend oneself from oppression and tyranny, it in of itself can be used as a tool to enforce other individuals into compliance and agreement should they not initially comply to certain established schools of thought. The expression of freedom is never displayed in an absolute black and white morality as each of the opposing parties have valid justifications for their expressions of personal freedoms (the nation of Marley’s long history being under the terror of the old Eldian Empire, and the island of Paradis being constantly invaded by Titans from Marley due to their history), rather the expressions freedoms are made due to self-interest.

Zeke describing Marley’s plan of action in order to ensure its future as a world superpower.

This is seen numerous times throughout the series, Ymir (104th Cadet) being used as a scapegoat for the cult that took her in, Erwin’s planned scapegoat execution during the royal government arc to ensure the original monarchy’s total rule over the population within the walls, the world nations following the bandwagon of Eldian discrimination as a political tactic of gaining advantages for the development of their nations through the extortion of the many Eldians around the world. Even with the characters that are standing on the “good” side still hold feelings of seeking self-interest as they are allowed so, solely due to the fact to want and something and act upon is part of their birthright just like any other human; case in point Eren and Historia at their most standout moments before the time-skip which would eventually coalesce with Eren’s meeting of the Founder, Ymir Fritz. This now brings me to the man himself, Eren Yeager.

Eren Yeager/Ymir Fritz:

When I first got into Attack on Titan, my opinion on the writing for Eren, especially in the manga’s early run, landed generally around middling. However, over time as I got further invested in the TV adaptation, I made attempts on doing retrospective rewatches to see whether my opinions on certain aspects of the story had changed; and during this time I found that my opinion of Eren changed to that of a more positive one. Throughout the series I saw this driven teenager coming to terms with his situation as a potential key for his people’s future, learning to quell his anger, as well coming to face the reality of his various failures all to eventually crack under the weight of the expectations he has placed onto himself, finally re-discovering his self-worth through the relationships he’s made with people closest to him only to have his reality crash right into his face when he finally discovers the truth of the world which bruises his idealistic nature.

To many of the fans that have seen Eren’s exploits in the latest season, his change in character might have come as a jarring shift since he has shifted to focus on eradicating the Titans to now eradicating the invaders of his home island. While the shift to different targets might seem like a strange change on the surface, fundamentally, Eren Yeager is still relatively the same character he was initially portrayed as, the only difference is that some of his more notable traits such as his anger, his battle tactics, and self-expression have just been more hardened due to the nature of his and homeland’s circumstances.

Eren is a prime believer of freedom, that any person is entitled to live free without feeling as if their freedoms are being imposed by others, solely on the basis that they were born into the living world. Should someone pose a threat to his freedom, he will not hesitate to steal freedom from others. And from the beginning till the very ending of the series his character writing remains consistent. Eren is a man lashing out against a prejudiced world that views him and his people as pure evil, he lashes not just for the sake of his freedom but for the freedom of those he cares for. However, throughout that lashing and emotional hardening he becomes something different from how he initially perceived himself.

For most of the manga’s final arc, Eren’s detached demeanor he presents onto his friends serves to highlight how he faces his challenges; he is more of a person that suppresses his grief and other vulnerable emotions because he has no choice but to appear strong and move forward when he cries out the world for something he wants, as a person ostracized by the world, his actions are indicative of the world telling him that he is not allowed to be viewed as a human being. His repeated fighting against Marley and the other allied nations can almost be interpreted as a cry for help. And throughout these actions, Eren was always consciously aware of his actions and the consequences that would be brought upon them, but he would never reveal his true feelings until he reached his two final goals, Ymir Fritz and his ultimate fate. When Eren first encountered Ymir Fritz he saw her as the absolute ruler of the Power of the Titans and wished to use her to finally make his true ambitions become a reality, however, during that process Eren realized that Ymir was so much more than a divine being. In his embrace of the Founder and in seeing her past through the Paths realm, Eren came to realize that Ymir was simply a human that much like him was ostracized and forced to harden her emotions out of fear of being further abused for appearing as weak; who trapped herself in ethereal realm due to her misguided understanding of “love” she had for her abuser, Karl Fritz I.

In recognizing her as a human, Eren sets Ymir free to finally act upon her own will for the first time in over 2000 years.

Personally, in this particular moment of Eren embracing Ymir with a hug and telling her the words she always wanted to hear “you are a human being”, I feel as if those words themselves are what Eren wanted to hear from someone who truly understood him and his reasons for going as far as does. Eren fights because he wants to end all fighting in the world, but he doesn’t know any other method besides fighting, much like Ymir, Eren needed someone to free him from himself. I find that Kenny Ackerman’s final words resonate with this scenario very strongly in retrospect: “We humans, are all the same…every last one of us. All of us had to spend our lives drunk on something or else we’d have no cause to keep pushing on. Everyone was a slave to something” (S03E10)

Eren’s “freedom” upon reaching that scenery he foresaw in his future visions.

At the moment of that embrace, Eren was fundamentally just like Ymir, a human child unable to cry due to repressing their emotions, Eren was only able to reach his external and internal goals in the final chapter through his relationship with Mikasa and Armin in their final interactions in which he imparted his freedoms and his dream to the two people he cared about most in the entire world. That being said in his fight for obtaining the ideal freedom for himself and his people, Eren only realized in his very last conversation with Armin that the freedom he sought after wasn’t only his. Armin’s final heart-to-heart made him re-acknowledge that the weight of his dreams for an ideal world shouldn’t be his to bear, even if ended endangering him and his loved ones. By refusing to entrust his dreams onto others, Eren was becoming a slave to his ambitions (in fact his appearance as the Founding Titan portrays him as a marionette), only to be finally set free (and possibly reincarnated as a bird, a common symbol of freedom in literature) by his best friend when he comes to understand him and offer him peace for all he has done for the sake of his people.

In his final meeting, Eren’s true self as the boy who lost all things he cherished in the beginning of the series confides with his best friend Armin on the actions and choices he has made, as well as finally reciprocating Mikasa's feelings of love.

Closing thoughts:

Overall, I find that Eren’s motivations and his character arc met my expectations of how I somewhat imagined the series would end. It didn’t end on a completely misanthropic note, but rather a bittersweet hopeful one. As even though the island of Paradis establishes a new military under Eren’s splinter cell faction, the Yeagerists, there is hope found in Armin carrying out the role that Eren always saw him, a hero and a purveyor of peace, as he, Jean, Connie, Annie, Reiner, and Pieck now taking on the role as ambassadors for the remaining population of Earth, embark to Paradis to begin peace negotiations. Whether the treaty succeeds is left entirely to the reader’s imagination (or Isayama adding more context in the volume edition of this chapter), but what I find truly beautiful about this ending of a series with clearly morally gray divisions, is that the people of those same divisions finally came to the realization that they are simply just people. They are not devils or angels, they are simply just people; not that much different from one another and willing to try and exist in a better tomorrow with each other. And what I love about this ending, even more, is that it finally bookends some goals and declarations that were said in the first half of the series: Eren wanting to eradicate the existence of Titans became a reality, after Eren’s death Armin took responsibility in claim he killed in turn that leads him to be viewed as a hero and purveyor for peace, Eren wrapping his scarf around Mikasa, all of these character declarations coming back in some unique form makes me love this series even more.

Your heart and soul to the cause.

Some may complain that this ending is not that great for it still doesn’t explain certain aspects of the story such as the nature of the Power of the Titans or the identity of Historia’s baby daddy or just general lack of presence in the final arc, but personally, I am content in not receiving a clear answer to some of those aspects, mostly because they either don’t matter or are already narratively complete, plus their open-ended-ness just offers me more chances to think about some aspects of the story and promote discussions around it. And while the use of mental time-travel ala Seers from Game of Thrones that were displayed by Eren’s use of the Attack Titan’ innate ability in the Paths realm, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t unsure or somewhat conflicted by the existence of mental time-travel; especially when time-travel as a narrative concept is INCREDIBLY easy to mess up. However, aside from these minor gripes, these were my overall thoughts towards the ending of Attack on Titan, we have reached the end of the story where Eren, Mikasa, and Armin’s respective character arcs came to a narratively true and satisfying conclusion. This is definitely a notable end of an era in the world of manga and pop culture. And without much left to say, all I can do is offer a salute to the author Hajime Isayama for his dedication to this story.

Thank you, Hajime Isayama.

#Attack on Titan #manga #AoT spoilers #AOT 139 #snk spoilers #text post #long post #shingeki no kyojin #thank you hajime isayama #Eren Yeager #Ymir Fritz #Armin Arlert

[dappersheep]

Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (1/3)

So first things first, disclaimers! I do not claim nor pretend to know every nook and cranny, ins and outs of the history of FooFan's conception, existence and uncertain future. I do not own the game nor its characters, only the opinions and thoughts stated hereon out.

This was born to vent out my frustrations with how a game like this was abused poorly by its own developer and publisher instead of being nurtured to become its full potential that could have overshadowed and remained better than the likes of Tencent's Tales of Food --I could dream, but it honestly had the potential to be.

Out of respect for the main tag, I personally will not be tagging this post and the following two with the main tag. If you want to tag it yourself with it, that's your choice. Only followers of my blog will see this.

This analysis is divided into three parts: Funtoy, Elex, and the Community. It starts under the cut. Well let's get started.

Funtoy

Ah yes, the creator. The developer. You'd think that with their sudden rise to fame during their global launch, they'd have used the massive profits they earned within the first quarter of 2018 to improve certain things about the game and then trickled it down as quickly as possible towards Global, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

After playing the game since launch, I've seen and experienced way too many things that just hammer in the fact that this is one of the most unfair gacha I've played in years. Some reasons being the following:

(Note: These are experiences ONLY on Global's version, it may also apply to CN being the original server)

⦁ The game's gacha model is aimed towards maximum predation on its players. F2p are forced to either spend some money (and thus tempt them to keep spending after getting a taste of it), or risk not even getting a good ascension of the unit to be useful at all. Paying for the event packs also doesn't guarantee that you would be able to secure a spot in the ranks. In fact, if you can't comprehend how the battle mechanics work, you could even de-rank. Fun way to burn that 800$, huh? At least you have the skin from rebates.

⦁ A little less known thing and probably theoretical at worst, the long joked about spaghetti coding of the game along with an outdated spine technology for the sprites could very well be the reason why a 2D game like this experiences the shittiest lags. Also how easy it is to hack this game with the right know-how.

⦁ Speaking of bad gameplay mechanics, did you know you could spend over fifty Mirrors and not get that final enhancement from +9 to +10 simply because there's absolutely no tangible safety net before +10?

⦁ If you're F2P, this game is terrible in giving you resources to stockpile. Because Funtoy certainly doesn't have a lot of weekly/monthly or even friendly events wherein you can get resources without spending another kind of resource. The Hawthorne event's rewards are lackluster at best, Bingo is severely limited in what it gives, and Recall also doesn't give much for a big event that only happens (supposedly) every 6 months. Did I also mention that daily resource rewards also kinda suck compared to how much you burn in just one event?

⦁ Monthly subs are a scam. Yes, you heard that right. My point of comparison here is Arknights. A monthly in AK allows you to have enough to 10-pull after 30 days, on top of a bit of stamina to help you. In FooFan? You have two monthly subs that do different things and even then, you won't have enough to 10-pull by the end of 30 days, nor is the stamina you get enough to even stockpile and ease the pressure of your need to save for the Gates or that stamina event that suddenly popped up.

⦁ A conga line of 'Must procure this unit at a high ascension to do well in the following events!'. You missed the first Pizza event? Missed the first Turkey event? God forbid, you weren't able to 5* your Beer on his debut? Well sorry, that 5* Black Tea of yours isn't gonna do squat to give you good damage. No, your 2* B-52 also isn't going to do much of anything with his lackluster damage capabilities. If you want a chance to get those event URs again, you have to wait for their pool with laughably limited pulls... and a bloated price to even pull.

⦁ The events starting after the first iteration of Turkey event get even more paywalled. As far as I remember, by the time Minestrone rolled around, an F2P with ample crystal resources can only get 2* at best. 3* and above are paywalled.

⦁ The game has incompetent balancing. The devs themselves likely have little experience in gameplay design and balancing, especially for a game with a growing roster of characters . A prime example of them launching a character not knowing it would pretty much unbalance the game? Look no further than Beer. The guy had to have a couple of nerfs done to him because he was just too meta. You know what's sadder? Before the 'switch' to Brave meta, almost all meta units was built to benefit off the Beer meta.

⦁ Artifacts. Do I even have to explain how the introduction of such a game feature so early into the lifespan of this game essentially fucked over the balance even more? Not to mention, all the more reason you'd be crying with the Gates of Trials demanding so much out of your stamina and crystal resources. F2Ps are again, the ones that suffer in this part. What's their reason? Profit, of course.

⦁ The nerf of resto chests. This was the primary source for people who were saving up stamina for the Gates... until Funtoy decided they were being too generous to their playerbase and dropped the stamina probability rate to 1% or less.

⦁ Terrible UI layout and design. Come on, be honest now, you've lost several thousand of your hard earned crystals buying screws in the fishing shop because you didn't notice that shiny warning in small text and a green button with the crystal image slapped on it, didn't you?

⦁ Look at all these SRs! All of them! Wow, they even outnumber the Rs by at least 80! What's that? There's more URs now too compared to Rs and Ms combined? That can't be real. But seriously, you'd think Funtoy could make some of these SRs into Rs and add them to the perm pool/shard fusion so people aren't stuck pulling Macaron or Dorayaki every time. They could have also populated the Team Up rewards with SRs instead of Rs. But you know... that won't bring them profit. Haha... haha.... Oh and I haven't even told you about the SP class...!

⦁ Lore. Yes, I'm sure by now you're aware that the in-game lore is different from the ones in the non-SP Food Soul bios, in the SP Food Soul bios that sort of ties in with the New World story (that global will never be getting btw). At this point, Funtoy handwaves the confusion away by saying, 'they're all different timelines'. Yes yes, an easy and cliche move to explain how shitty the writing direction went after a while. I don't know what happened, all I know is that lore got weird(er) when they introduced SP Rice.

⦁ They. Keep. Adding. More. Characters! They fail to see that a lot of their earlier players have imprinted on the first few waves of Food Souls and they sadly also fail to properly give some of them more story expansion... or skins. At the moment, they're shelling out so many JP-centric Food Souls because... as I see it? They're pandering to the last bastion of whales they have.

⦁ Merchandise. And I mean a variety of merchandise that isn't using the same official art every time. Like they couldn't afford to commission a couple of artists one or two times to make unique merchandise that would sell. They started too late on that train, and they even made it too hard for anyone not in CN or JP to even procure what already exists. Not to mention, they keep using the same 'popular' set of characters for their merchandise and never really expanding out to making merch for other characters.

These are all the things I can list off at the top of my head why Funtoy as a developer sucks ass. They could sweeten their words all they want, it won't change the fact that they've certainly made way too many bad decisions and found out about it too late, and now they're desperate to keep Food Fantasy alive to keep their profits coming in to make whatever that cat girl game they have and that supposedly 'side-game' FF2 they announced.

There may have been problems out of their control that I or you do not see, but one thing is for sure, they were blinded by greed for the money they were raking in on all their servers at the start, and never actually bothered to invest in more manpower in the right places to improve the game, both gameplay-wise and worldbuilding wise. It's actually saddening that this game could have been so much more with several QoLs and a more fleshed out lore, perhaps even spacing out the number of new units they keep introducing while going back to giving their old units more attention.

That's it for Funtoy. We're moving onto Elex in the next part and boy is that also a trip.

#ravings of a madman #food fantasy but not tagged right

[oloreaa]

Hey girl! Just wanted to say sumthin' about people commenting on Pedro's post and his 'baby girl' thing.. Disclaimer, I'm not a gamer and never knew nor cared about anything even remotely related to TLOU until I heard about Pedro playing Joel. To this day I'm still clueless about it and I intend to watch it as a casual fan. I don't wanna research things about TLOU so I can enjoy the series as a TV series - not an extension of the game. I did the same with The Hunger Games. I read the books after I watched all the movies. Loved it. So I think when people went crazy about the 'baby girl' thing, it's probably because a) they have no idea that in the game he only said it to his dying daughter, if they did then hell yes that's messed up and gross; b) they're just imagining Joel saying it to them using Pedro's voice, in a 'daddy-baby girl' capacity – which, I mean, I understand if that grosses you out but I think people are allowed to have a daddy kink so long as they maintain boundaries (only fantasize about Pedro's characters, not Pedro himself). I don't know, seems kind of harsh to criticize people's excitement and paint them as freaks when they simply don't have the well of knowledge others have about TLOU. I can't say much about the explicit comments you were referring to because I haven't seen them myself, but as for the 'baby girl' part.. Maybe let people get excited and not assume negatively about their intentions?

I hope this ask doesn't come off as aggressive or hateful. I'm just standing up for fellow clueless, casual fans of Pedro who are excited about his projects (and, well, fantasize about his characters). You know Spirited Away right? That scene where the soot balls thingies are squealing and jumping around excitedly when the little star-shaped treats are thrown their way? Yeah. We're the soot ball thingies. Pedro's posts/updates are the star-shaped treats. Pleaseee tell me you get this reference 🤣🤣🤣

Hey!! Thank you so much for this ask, I really appreciate that you took the time to write this!

First of all I'm aware of that people might not know about it, I personally have never been into TLOU before the casting got announced because I'm a weenie and zombie apocalypse is just not something that had interested me💀 and the way you intend to watch it is completely valid and actually a good way to go into it with an open mind, especially when there is a lot of previously established lore for it.

As for "babygirl", I understand and expect that not everyone might know the background behind it, and I cannot speak for the people who are into that kind of thing (and like, if that's what they're into, no shame at all!!). But for me personally I was just annoyed because the name is both very personal and parental as well with a highly traumatic backdrop and not intended to be sexual at all in the context of the game/show. Again: I know not everyone might know that and I don't hold it against them.

Liking the voice or liking the man (and his characters) is allowed but since the fandom has a long history of being very sexualising and most "appreciation" being blatant fetishization, I hope that you understand why I am frustrated about this whole thing. This is not me trying to say that everyone who likes him contributes to it, intentional or not, and being a fan of him is "bad" or whatever, it's just that this fandom has a certain worrying trend and it pops up quite often, especially when new content drops.

I hope that you understand where I'm coming from and I also get that someone being negative about something you're excited about can be a real bummer, so I apologise for that!! I know that most people are just happy for the new series and it's not that people are intentionally trying to be malicious of any sort. But I also hope that people are more aware and mindful of the things they say and understand that one doesn't need to comment extensively explicit content on an otherwise non-explicit post.

(And yes, I do get the reference!!🥰 once again thank you for your ask, I really appreciate it!)

#oof do i dare tag it in the main tags #💌 #anon ask #long post #the last of us #pedro pascal #rea rambles

[greenteabtch]

your characterizations of sebastian are so interesting and got me thinking! how does meeting helena impact seb? does he go through some kind of development in his relationship to the chantry over their years? what point in terms of self-image would you love for him to get to?

Hi Gabi!! Thank you for asking :) you’re about to enter the #Deep Sebastian Lore. 

So before I begin to tackle this, I feel like it’s important to acknowledge that there are many different interpretations of Seb’s character. I consider him a lot more malleable in final interpretation than a lot of the da2 companions because his Rivalry and Friendship route actually results in two very different outcomes with regards to primary characterization. (Other characters like Merrill also have this, but I personally don’t consider a rivalry route with her or Isabela to be healthy or done well in any valid manner of speaking so I do not see it I am looking away.)

As a quick sum, Sebastian’s Friendship path commits him further to the chantry and quells his disagreement and conflict with his role as a brother, thus making him more complacent, while his Rivalry path spurs him to reclaim Starkhaven by encouraging him to give in to his dissent and impulses, eventually making him more headstrong.

Both of these are valid because each character trait that gets emphasized, depending on the path, all make up the whole of Sebastian as he is. He is compassionate, pious, and faithful, but also rash, stubborn, and witty. 

This is all set up to say that in my personal canon, I follow the rivalry path because it aligns the best with my personal experiences and identity, as well as (in my opinion) encourages Sebastian to fulfill his wants best. Unlike other rivalry paths, it is able to encourage growth and development in a manner that isn’t harsh and abusive, as it targets his ideas and ideology taught to him rather than his personality or integral core as a person. I like that it inspires him to question the chantry as an institution while maintaining his faith in a personal way.

In addition to that, (cw for mentions of neglect and abuse) the rivalry path allows him to take his faith, and his expression of that, into his own hands. From a young age, The Vaels believed that their youngest son of three, Sebastian, was a disgrace to the family name, and would be a weight around his brothers' necks. According to the wiki, Sebastian had always had faith but it was not his will to enter the chantry. His short story implicates how drastic the situation was for him, as he describes the Chantry as a prison, his room as a cell, the guard as his jailor, and even more, but notes how he is still wont to pray to Andraste for his safe escape. Even so, when he is given the “opportunity” (It doesn’t feel like a true opportunity, as I read it, but I digress) to leave, he is trapped, stuck by his parents’ descriptions of himself and what he will be if he chooses to leave. “Words race through my head: useless, aimless, selfish, alone.”

Because of this, I don’t truly believe that it is necessary for him to recommit his vows of chastity, poverty, or any others as a brother in order to stay true to his faith or his character. Traumatized by his parent’s neglect for him as the son “left in the cold,” for they already had the “heir and the spare”, Sebastian was forced to accept his position as one that would never be of value to his parents, purely because of his order of birth. He was resigned to be worthless (which, I honestly think was the reason he acted out so heavily as a youth), till his parents gave him an out by committing himself to the Chantry. As a result, I connect the friendship path of staying as a brother as one that is not the kindest (as it may appear), but the one that is the most affirming of his worst fears for himself. That he, his desires, wants, dreams, and choices, are worth nothing unless he resigns himself to a life of piety and service. In sum, there are many ways to keep that faith the way he had always had it without giving up the excitement of life and love he clearly thrives in by recommitting him to the Chantry.

Personal Canon: I believe that Helena immediately presents herself as an aloof and standoffish force for Sebastian, though one that does not deter him, but challenges him. He certainly has no trouble befriending any companion (except for Varric, but that’s more about his insecurities than Sebastian’s lmao), and Helena is no different. More than just his general disposition to making friends, though, he has a curiosity about her. Because she works directly and has no qualms about violence as a tool to aid others, he sees an inkling of his desires or questions about himself in her and she encourages that further just by her actions. Other than the attraction things (they both like to cook, they both think the other is hot, they have similar family situations, they’re both secretly compe-- ok i’ll stop) he has a vested interest in listening to her disagree with him because she is a part of a new perspective that he has never considered, nor ever been given the option to.

For my custom rivalry path, Helena expresses consistent disagreement with how Seb has been treated, both by Elthina and by his parents, and encourages him to make the choice that he wants, not what the chantry wants or what his family wanted. 

Throughout the acts, Helena allows him to vent his contentions with his role to her, usually over food as they watch the sunset outside the Chantry. For Helena, things run very simply, not exactly black and white, but in a manner where she knows exactly which group of grays each action lies in. I think this simplicity is helpful in getting Sebastian to confront his past. For example:

“My parents thought I was a disgrace to the family, so they forced me into the Chantry to make something of myself.”

Helena looks at him with wild and confused eyes. “They didn’t like how you acted so they imprisoned you? Didn’t they care for you?”

“Well… Yes, but it wasn’t as if I was a good son.”

“You were a son. That should have been enough for them.”

Additionally, her own complex relationship with Leandra allows her to identify the abusive behaviors of his parents and the manipulative actions of Elthina later. This pattern of confrontation and disagreement between them continues until Act 3, and along the while, Sebastian’s dissatisfaction with the role of the Chantry wedges him farther away from his possible recommitment. By the end, he is able to recognize that he has worth as a human being regardless of whatever choice he makes and that he doesn’t have to sacrifice his life as Andraste did in order to be considered deserving. 

It’s at that point that he solidifies his choice to retake Starkhaven, with the hopes of bringing Helena along if she’ll have him, and sticks it to his past controllers and manipulators by doing what he knows he can do better than anyone.

In terms of his self-image, I think Sebastian simply deserves to know he has worth regardless of whether or not he is the epitome of good service and faith. I want him to be able to be “selfish” and acknowledge his wants as not things that are impure and lower his value, but a part of what makes him a human being, and one that makes him a good one too. Because of his wants and desires, he retakes Starkhaven, which is ultimately the best choice for the people there because his contender for the throne doesn’t know the first thing about ruling a city-state. Sebastian, at his best, will acknowledge his desires with temperance and balance, such that is accomplished by his faith. When all is said and done, Sebastian will only be complete when he can find faith and life through his embrace of self.

#wow im so sexy for this #thank you for askin gabi T_T ily #asks #gayvhenan #sebastian vael #my meta #neglect cw #abuse cw #da2 #dragon age 2 #ship: wings sprout from broken backs

[dothwrites]

@sextualfantasy requested destiel with Jealous!Dean, and the MotW being wildly flirtatious with Cas. <3 

---

Dean grits his teeth as he stares down at the table, watching the couple--watching the two people across the table from him in the reflection of a spoon. He needs to relax. His jaw hurts from the force of his irritation, but every time he makes an effort to loosen his jaw, he hears the scraping, tinkling laugh of the kikimora. Worse yet are the cooed endearments, all dropped directly in Cas’ lap, for Cas to do whatever Cas does with compliments, but for Dean to obsess over, until he’s nothing more than a tightly wound ball of tension that’s three seconds away from exploding. 

Definitely wasn’t supposed to go down like this. 

It was supposed to be a fairly easy case--3 men, all in fairly good health, went to bed one night and never woke up the next morning. The perplexed medical examiner finally put the cause of death down to heart attack, in lieu of any other explanation. But the rictus expression of fear and the clawed hands, frozen in the act of clutching the blankets, had all spoken of something unnatural. 

It had taken them a few tries before they landed on kikimora. They’re not common. To Dean’s knowledge, Dad had come across the hint of one once, and Bobby had killed one, once, about twenty years ago. Silver and salt, was all Bobby’s journal said, and Dad’s journal didn’t even say that much. Don’t look her in the eyes, was Bobby’s other piece of advice, along with the warning that kikimora usually fixated on young men, to drive them wild with desires, and young women, to drive them mad with jealousy. This one has deviated somewhat off script in that she’s literally terrifying men to death, which means that she has to be put down. 

It had been a foolproof plan, or as close to foolproof as the Winchesters got. Find the kikimora--the instructions were a little vague there, since all the lore said was that she would be in the guise of a beautiful woman and possibly have chicken feet--but Dean had figured with Cas alongside them, there wasn’t much cause to worry. While his grace isn’t what it used to be, Cas can still venture into a bar or club and pick out any ten monsters, usually before both his feet are in the door. Plus, there was an added advantage to bringing him along.  

“After all,” Dean had said, tucking his silver knife into the inner pocket of his suit, “you’ll be able to look her in the eyes, no problem.”

Dean should really know by now not to say shit like that.

Cas clocked the kikimora from the second they walked into the bar. He’d pointed her out to Dean, a waitress with long black hair and pale, porcelain skin. They’d gone over together, Dean carefully looking into the middle distance as Cas introduced them as agents and could they just have a word--The kikimora had glanced up, taken in the whole breadth of Cas’ face--the persistent stubble clinging to his jaw, the thick dark hair curling over his ears, the piercing blue eyes--and her smile had spread, predatory and pleased, across her face. Have more than one word sweetheart, she’d said, lilting voice reaching out to Cas. You can have all the words you like. 

Cas had taken one look at her face and--

If Dean strains his ears, he can hear the low rumble and scrape of Cas’ voice. From the second that Cas looked into the kikimora’s eyes, he hasn’t looked away. And her...She must have her boss under some kind of spell; either that or she’s not a waitress at all, because this whole damn time, after the first Well hey there handsome, that she threw Cas’ way, she hasn’t shifted from Cas’ side. 

Dean tries not to think about how the lore says that kikimora fixate on attractive men. About how they’ll drive them mad with desire. 

He chances a look. 

Cas doesn’t look driven mad with desire, but he doesn’t...not look driven mad with desire. Mostly, he’s wearing that Cas look that he gets when he’s listening intently to someone--the small line that knits between his eyebrows, the determined little purse of his lips, the laser-like focus of his eyes on another person. Dean’s used to that person being him. 

An ugly emotion swirls in his gut and claws its way up his throat as he watches the kikimora laugh and reach out. Her hand rests on Cas’ wrist, fingertips daring to slip underneath the cuff of his shirt to flirt with the bare skin of his arm. Cas never shakes it off. No, Cas just leans in closer, tilting his head in the way that Dean had come to think possessively of as his. Dean watches him as he takes a sip of his drink. The beer leaves a remnant of foam shining on his upper lip. That’s when the kikimora reaches out and swipes her thumb over the curve of Cas’ upper lip, except it’s not a swipe, she’s just leaving her thumb there, resting on Cas’ lips like that’s her newfound property, and that--

Dean doesn’t register the low growl rumbling through his chest, or the fact that he’s already up on his feet, until he’s looming over the two of them.  

“Agent,” he says. He tries to repress all of the writhing emotions in his chest and it leaves his voice rough. He rifles through his brain for Cas’ alias and comes up empty. “Can I speak to you?” 

Finally, the kikimora’s thumb falls away from Cas’ lips as the angel turns to look at him. Dean keeps his eyes on Cas, ignoring the small huff of irritation from the kikimora. 

“We’re actually in the middle of something, if you don’t mind,” she says, when neither Dean nor Cas move. Her hand lands on Cas’ jaw, turning his face back towards her. “Hey sexy, I know your friend is cute and all, but he’s just going to have to wait his turn, all right?” 

For a moment, Dean forgets that they’re in a crowded bar. He forgets about all the bystanders and the need for subtlety. All he can see, through his red-tinted vision, is the kikimora, leaning in close to Cas, her hair cascading like a waterfall and hiding Cas’ face from view, as she calls him sexy. 

That’s his fucking angel, thank you very much. 

At the same time that Dean explodes out with Now look here skank, Cas leans in closer, tucks a bit of kikimora’s hair behind her ear and murmurs, “Come with me?” 

The kikimora flashes a triumphant smile at Dean as she runs her fingers through Cas’ hair, down to scrape across his jaw. “Of course,” she croons, stroking over his cheeks. “Let’s go.” 

Cas throws one impenetrable look over his shoulder towards Dean, before he’s up and walking away. Dean looks down to see that his fingers are laced with the kikimora’s. They disappear down the darkened hallway towards the bathrooms and, coincidentally enough, the back exit. The last thing Dean sees is the kikimora’s hand reaching up to twist a lock of Cas’ hair around her finger. 

Something hot and ugly curls in his stomach and Dean is out the door after them, pushing his way through various bodies as he makes his way past the bathrooms and into the alley behind the bar. It stinks back here, the dumpsters only feet away and the hood vents belching out grease, but it’s dark and private. 

His silver knife bumps against his hip and Dean draws it out, glad at least that bit of subterfuge is over with. Now there’s just the hunting things aspect of his job and he’s looking forward to that part more than usual. 

His ears pick up the unmistakable sound of a scuffle, followed by a sharp cry and an even sharper, “What the hell do you--” By now Dean’s running, the sounds of a fight sending adrenaline and anger and all those other twisted things that he likes to pretend don’t writhe around in him swimming to the surface. He rounds the corner of the dumpster to find--

Castiel, wiping blood off his angel blade, looking calm and collected as if he’s asking Dean’s opinion on which avocado is the right type of firm, I can’t quite tell the difference, and Dean has the sinking suspicion suddenly, as Castiel looks at him, that he’s never been as clueless as he’s let on. 

“Hello Dean,” Cas says, tossing the scrap of cloth onto the kikimora’s body with an almost imperceptible expression of distaste. His eyes flick to the blade in Dean’s hands. “I think you’ll find that unnecessary.” 

“Unnecessary.” Dean’s palm is sweaty around his knife; he doesn’t let it go. He stares at Cas, who looks at him as calmly as if they ran into each other in the library, but there’s something smoldering behind Cas’ eyes. Eleven years have given Dean a pretty good basis of knowledge for when Cas is fucking with him, and Cas...

Cas is fucking with him. 

“You let her put her hands on you,” Dean says. He can’t help how his walk changes--no longer the frantic, rush of worry and jealousy (all right, he can admit it, it was definitely jealousy twisting up his insides). Instead, now it’s the tight, coiled grace of a hunter. 

From the barely-there smile that ghosts across Cas’ face, he notices the difference as well. 

“She called you sexy and handsome, and she put her hands all over you.” 

“She did,” Cas agrees, smooth and easy and too fucking smug for his own good. 

Dean’s walking towards the edge of a precipice. He’s been crawling towards it for several years, but, it appears anyway, that Cas has gotten tired of waiting for him to get there on his own and has now taken the drastic step of simply drop-kicking him off the edge. 

And Dean should probably be more irritated that he was fucking played like a two dollar harmonica this whole night, but Cas is in front of him, smug and celestial, and everything that Dean ever wanted, and his, his his--

“You’re a fucking asshole, you know that?” Dean crowds against Cas, pushes him back against the wall. Hips, legs, shoulders, his hands cupping Cas’ face and tilting it up so that Cas’ eyes catch the sickly yellow gleam of the streetlight. Cas huffs out in silent laughter and the sound scours away any of the bitter jealousy clogging Dean’s veins until he’s just overwhelmed with Cas. “Fucking flirting right in front of me, what the hell?” 

“It seemed the best way to get your attention,” Cas murmurs, which is all Dean allows him to say before he’s closed the scant inch of space between them, his mouth landing messily over Cas’. 

The taste of Cas on his lips purges everything else from Dean’s memory and replaces it all with the exact sensation of how it feels to have Cas’ hands slipping underneath his suit jacket to land, scalding hot, on his waist. The kiss starts brutal but it softens after a second, Dean nipping at the swell of Cas’ lower lip, Cas tracing the seam of Dean’s lips until Dean opens to him. 

Dean doesn’t know how they kiss, there in the alley behind a dive bar. It could be minutes, it could be years. All he knows, is that when he finally pulls away from Cas, just to catch his breath, Cas tries to follow, lips finally separating from Dean’s with a soft, wet smack. Dean keeps his hands cupped around Cas’ cheeks and presses his forehead to Cas’, unwilling to pull too far away. Their breath mingles together, close and humid, in the few inches separating them. 

“We still have to take care of the body,” Cas finally says, ever the realist. Dean muffles his groan by pressing his mouth to the side of Cas’ jaw. He likes the rough scape of stubble against the tender flesh of his lips, does it again, just because. “And while I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to doing anything more, I’m quite opposed to continuing in our present location.” 

His libido kicked into high gear, Dean pulls far enough away to get a glimpse of the wicked twinkle in Cas’ eyes. “You...” he says, overwhelmed by the sheer evil genius of Cas. 

“Take care of the body Dean,” Cas tells him, with a gleam in his eye that Dean suspects has always been there. “And then we’ll...talk.”

Played like a two dollar banjo and all Dean can do is grin as he grabs the kikimora’s body and tries to figure out how he and Cas are going to handle this. 

Damn angel. 

#destiel #destiel fic #destiel fanfic #dean winchester #castiel #jealous!dean #oblivious!cas #or is he?? #dothwrites

[sidigtal-anim]

The Owl House, Season 2 Speculation

New Year, New Speculations! In the middle of the season, Owl House Season 2 is still over the horizon, and many fans (myself included) are clamouring for even the slightest bit of info. Whether its episode titles, how many episodes, a release date, etc. Many are excited for the prospect of Season 2, confirmed two months ahead of the series’ premiere!

Season 1 left many things unresolved, yet still found itself to be satisfying in some aspects. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave excitement for more episodes. This post will talk abou three main areas: character development and their anticipated arcs, the main plot introduced, and smaller side plots incorporated in Season 1.

I’m more of a casual Owl House fan, but I enjoy speculating about what is to come. So if I missed anything, let me know!

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SEASON ONE OF “THE OWL HOUSE”

Let’s begin, shall we?

Character Development and Anticipated Arcs

Luz and Amity – Obviously one of the most exciting and anticipated arcs in a very long time, since all main character queer relationships canonically happen towards the end of the series, either as a result of censorship or queerbaiting. One good and the other not as much.) From their rough first meeting at Hexside all the way to playing on the same Grudgby team, we’ve seen their relationship naturally bloom in the first season. There’s definitely gonna be tensions with the Blight family, but that falls more under plot.

Eda and Lilith – Nothing says interpersonal drama more than a complicated sibling relationship. At the end of Season 1, Lilith shares the curse with Eda after helping them escape Belos’ imprisonment. I don’t believe that they will have a happy go-lucky relationship from the start of Season 2, but I do believe that they are on the path to bettering themselves and each other. Possibly an introduction of their parents (as introduced at the end of “Covention”) but perhaps not.

Willow & Gus – Perhaps one of the more frustrating parts of The Owl House personally. Willow and Gus have very little character development for themselves in Season 1. Other episodes that focus on them were mainly narrative devices to further develop other characters. e.g. 115 - “Understanding Willow” although being about Willow, was mainly a means to develop Amity, Luz and introduce the Blight Family drama, therefore developing Amity’s arc further rather than develop Willow herself. I think it is fine for a first season to prioritise which characters to show, and which to set up for later on. My hopes for Season 2 is that they will have their own development outside of being used to further other forefront characters. 

Main Plots Introduced

Emperor Belos

The Magic of Belos

The Refueling – In 118 - “Agony of a Witch”, when Lilith enters Belos’ chambers for the first time, we see him ragged and tiredly hunched over his throne gasping for air. To rejuvenate himself, he takes what seems to be a Palisman broken from their staff and cuts it open, revealing a green goo-like energy. He drips it into his eyes, supposedly giving him power.

Witch’s Wool Cape – The Witch’s Wool Cape is the cape that Eda made for Luz in 118 - “Agony of a Witch” and Luz is seen wearing it in 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”. What remains interesting about this is what Eda specifically says about it (”It repels powerful spells. Every Witch worth their salt has a cloak like this!”) and how Belos is able to use powerful magic against Luz to slam her into the wall during their fight sequence. Does this mean Belos is using a different type of magic? Or is his magic far more powerful than the Witch’s Wool can withstand?

The Titan of the Boiling Isles & Belos’ Propaganda – The Titan is technically canon and true. In Belos’ throne room, we see his throne just under a very large beating heart. However, it’s not clear if Belos in actuality is able to speak to the Titan, or if he’s trying to maintain order and rule.

The Spy of Belos – This is more of a minor plot introduced at the very end of 119 - “Young Blood, Old Souls”, but Belos speaks to Kikimora and shows a spy wearing a Palace guard uniform and a mask that somewhat resembles Hooty.

The Portal to the Human World – This remains one of the greater mysteries of Belos, as the finale shows him to want access to the human world, yet the show does not say why. Perhaps his goal is to somehow liberate the world by the actual word of the Titan, or he wants to take over the human world under the disguise of being able to speak to the Titan. Either way, it leads to the Human World being taken over by Belos.

Hexside Academy & The Mono-Coven System – The addition of Luz is interesting, as she and the other previous members of the Detention track all have multi-coven learning. Previous to that, Eda was the only real exception who was not a part of a coven and using “Wild Magic”. It leaves the question if Belos’ tolerance for a blatant disregard for his system in Hexside will be brought to light, and how he may try to enforce his rule.

Luz Noceda

The Portal & Returning Home – The only real way for Luz to return home is through Belos’ makeshift portal, since she destroyed Eda’s original portal to protect the human world from Belos.

Letters to Luz’s Mom – A big mystery is who is sending Luz’s mom the letters pretending to be her from Boring Camp in “Enchanting Grom Fright”? Theories have been swirling around of it being Eda, Emperor Belos or even a new representative in the human world with the ability to carry out Belos’ plans. The question now is if the sender is actually from the Boiling Isles, how did they send the messages? If using the portal, only Eda has the ability. Belos has lost actual access to the portal, so he isn’t a contender. The mystery looms over us.

Learning Magic & Connecting to the Boiling Isles – As of now, Luz knows four spells: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. She has been able to connect with the Island to use magic in her paper method, and the finale showed it was the connection to and magic of the Boiling Isles which allowed her to use the magic. There are a number of Covens and spells she has yet to learn, which also leads with her own journey to self-confidence and found family. 

Eda, Lilith & The Curse

The Curse – By the end, the curse is worsened. If not for Lilith sharing the curse with Eda, the curse would have taken over Eda and she would have been lost forever. But now with the elixir no longer working halfway through the season, they must find another way to undo the magic binding them to this transformation. 

Luz’s Paper Method of Magic – Eda and Lilith are unable to do any more typical magic using their biological functions, but Luz offers to teach them her Paper technique of using magic. Eda tries and it shows that she is able to use the Light spell at the least.

Hooty - I stan Hooty! There I said it! But this is more than just me irrationally stanning the best biord house, there’s actual interesting potential in the mythology behind Hooty. First of al,l as the titular character of “The Owl House” we know nothing about how he came into existence. We don’t know his past with Eda, nor how Eda, King and him came together. Potentially after Eda was cast as an outsider, but nothing specific yet.

The Blight Family

Amity (Personal Journey) – Amity has shown to have struggled with her family, more specifically limitation by her parents and an extent of harassment by her siblings. This would also factor in several plots, such as: Belos and the mono-Coven system, Luz and her relationship with Amity, Willow and Amity, Basha, and several other related threads. I believe that the Blight Family will appear more plot related than just simply being character focused for Amity alone.

Side Plots

These are the mini plots introduced and have yet to be touched upon again.

King’s Species of the Demons –  In 104 “The Intruder” where we first learn of Eda’s curse, King speaks of his species: a group of which we haven’t seen yet. He says their weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments. We haven’t seen any other characters quite like King, so that’s something to look forward to.

The Magical Capabilities of Luz, Willow and Gus – In 106 “Hooty’s Moving Hassle” where Luz, Willow and Gus animate the Owl House with chicken legs, Eda says at the end “...[to animate a whole house.] That would take some powerful magic.” Meanwhile showing Amity and Basha’s five-person friend group unable to conjure a doll. If Amity is shown to be an exceptionally powerful witch unable to do a conjuring spell, it leaves a question of how powerful the trio actually is...

Azura Book Club – Lumity fans know the Azura book club, a.k.a Gen-Z’s way of figuring out if people are gay. (I’m half joking here.) But the Azura Book Club was mentioned last in 112 “Adventures in the Elements” and not touched upon again. 

Mattholomule, Gus and the Human Appreciation Society (H.A.S) - This isn’t that important, but Gus has been known for being very into human mythology and lore. Mattholomule is the Leader of H.A.S, but it still remains the question if Gus is still a part of it and trying to combat Mattholomule’s ridiculous human mythos to be liked.

The Palisman – There’s quite a bit surrounding this one so it forms into two topics.

The Bat Queen – A very interesting character appearing only twice (”Lost in Language”, and “Escape of the Palisman”) before never being mentioned again for the whole season. The Bat Queen has her children, as well as the protection of the abandoned Palisman by irresponsible Witches. Luz also leaves an open-ended offer to help the Bat Queen search for her original Owner. Perhaps the Titan was the Bat Queen’s original owner, or possibly a giant before the reign of Emperor Belos since she did mention it had been far too long to remember.

Palisman of the Main Cast – With the introduction of the Palisman, it leaves the question of when Luz, Willow, Amity, and Gus will get their own Palisman and which animal they would have. Luz has been shown to have the ability to use non-paper magic when in possession of a Palisman (”Young Blood, Old Souls”), so it could prove an interesting loophole for Luz to be flexible with the methods of magic she uses.

That concludes the speculation! As these are my own thoughts and opinions, I’d love to hear your speculations! Thank you for reading!

#the owl house #hooty #luz #luz noceda #amity #amity blight #lumity #willow #gus #The Owl House season 2 #eda clawthorne #king #disney

[segasister]

Simple Romance Writing Tips:

(Adapted from my twitter, but better organized)

You have two protagonists, not one. Both need focus and development. Both are agents of desire, not objects of it.

When it comes to perspective, both protagonists’ points of view are important. Remember: both are agents of desire, not just objects of desire. You can go with dual First Person POV or Omniscient Third Person POV. You decide what’s easier for you.

One character shouldn’t change for the other. Both should grow with each other. For example, while a rebellious character learns to become more sweet, their uptight partner needs to learn to become more relaxed. The best partners help you grow as a person.

Don’t end the story when your protagonists get together. It’s not only overdone, but it ends before the bigger story can begin.

You can build tension in a relationship without involving abuse (physical/emotional/etc.) or forcing a break-up (either temporary or permanent) between the couple.

That in mind, couples do have their struggles, from the mundane to the more more dramatic.

You don’t need high stakes to create a compelling story. You just need some conflict present.

Don’t forget to add in sweet moments as well (PDAs need not be overly mushy). Remind the audience why they’re together in the first place.

Grand gestures are, well, grand. However, the little things (like helping each other with tasks) can be just as romantic.

You know love languages? Use some combination of all five of them in your story. Every person expresses love differently, and you should reflect that. What are the five love languages? Words of Affirmation (“I love you.”), Acts of Service (Helping your partner put groceries away), Gifts (A stuffed bear won at a fair), Physical Intimacy (Cuddling on the couch), Quality Time (Playing video games together while a long distance apart).

Opposites attract, yeah. However, there’s no shame in having characters be alike in many ways as well. Hell, have your couple be different in some ways but alike in others. Just about every relationship, from romantic to platonic to familial, is like this.

There is concern with having your characters, “being defined by their relationships,” ie. having their only trait be, “X’s partner.” However, that shouldn’t happen if you write your character similarly to how they were when they were single. However, don’t forget that growth.

Don't have one character in your relationship revolve around the other (what, "only letting them be defined by their relationship actually means.") In real life, that could be a sign of one partner isolating the other from friends, family, et cetera, an abusive tactic. (More on that below.)

The above also applies to same-sex/polyamorous relationships. Just because it’s not straight, doesn’t mean you treat them different.

Just because you’re writing a story about abuse/bigotry/incest/etc. doesn’t necessarily mean you’re endorsing said things. It’s only endorsing if it’s not shown as a bad thing.

Want to avoid accidentally writing a toxic relationship? You can start by not writing the following power dynamics: Large age gap (adhere to Age / 2 + 7), Huge difference in life experience, Master/Boss + subservient, Celebrity + fan, Literal powers + little/none. Almost all of those can work if the one with less influence/experience/power has the opportunity to match that and eventually take care of themselves should things go south. If they’re not, they’re in an abusive relationship. Physical/Sexual violence need not apply.

One partner shouldn’t be a caretaker for the other. Sure, both must care for one another, but one partner shouldn’t do all of the caring. On the one hand, the one not doing the work is lazy. On the other hand, the carer could be doing this to make the other dependent on them.

If you do intend to write a toxic relationship, make sure it ends either with both partners maturing, either by seeking counseling or ending the relationship. This is especially true if you’re writing an abusive one. However, as in reality, it is a process. Take your time.

People heal from such relationships in different ways. Some choose to seek a new partner, some don’t. Some choose to devote their passion elsewhere (like career or family). What’s important is that they come out better than they were in the relationship. Some… don’t heal, and end up continuing the cycle, by being a victim again or by becoming an abuser. This could work if you intend on writing a tragedy. An abuse victim becoming an abuser themselves or ending in another abusive relationship isn’t a happy ending.

On that note, you can write sad endings. However, tragedy doesn’t necessarily have to end with death. Characters should leave the story changed, no matter what, but a tragedy has to end with them going through a negative change; any, not just them dying or losing a loved one.

Opposing that, writing comedy is hard. There’s a fine line between humor feeling natural and forced. Try to stay on the former side of that line if possible. I find it’s best to write humor by not trying to. You do you, but remember that humor is in the ear of the beholder.

On the subject of love triangles: Make sure both rivals have their own good qualities so it’s not one-sided/between two awful people.

Make sure it ends in a way that satisfies all parties. How you do so is up to you. (Don’t pair your leftover with the protagonist’s baby.)

Romance can be affixed to other genres as well. Slice of Life, fantasy, sci-fi, historical, etc.

The difference between Fantasy and Sci-Fi? Magic vs. Science. Both require the creativity to pull the genre off, but both can take place in a variety of settings. You can write a Pirate Fantasy or a Sci-Fi Western. Maybe you wanna to combine both Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Try it!

Do your research! If you’re basing your story on a time period in a specific place, do your research on what it was like then. Scientific accuracy also helps when it comes to research (for Sci-Fi). Even fantasy requires research, if you wish to include real world elements.

On that note, lore and continuity are not interchangeable. Continuity is making sure plot points remain consistent. Lore is making sure world building stays consistent.

Age is just a number. However, don’t pair teens with adults, or barely-adults with grown adults. The rule of Age / 2 + 7? That also applies here to ensure audiences don’t feel too queasy.

That being said, you are allowed to start the story with your protagonists as kids.

On writing minorities: don’t rely on stereotypes, and don’t write minority characters just to have them. They deserve proper development as well.

Don’t be afraid to have people of two different races together; just be careful that neither protagonist comes off as racist.

On that note, research the people and cultures you wish to write about. Be careful so as to not come across as using said people/culture as a token.

Don’t just focus on the physical/sexual aspect. Sure, physical attraction plays a part, but the personality of both protagonists are more important. How well they get along.

On the topic of sex: it’s entirely optional. There’s plenty of ways to show intimacy without having your characters engage in sex. Just have them enjoy each other’s company. You’re still open to if your audience is more mature; just don’t forget sex isn’t the only option.

Speaking from experience: you can have love without sex. But you cannot have sex without love. (That’s rape!) It’s a, “not every rhombus is a square but every square is a rhombus,” scenario. However, if you just wanna indulge yourself with your work, go for it.

There's a fine line between objectification and expressing sexual agency. It's okay for characters to show pride in that. It's okay for characters to take pride in their modesty.

Promiscuity isn't inherently a bad thing. Abstinence isn't inherently a good thing.

Play around with relationship dynamics (childhood sweethearts, enemies to lovers, etc.)

You want to write a particular romance dynamic? Go right ahead: just make sure it makes sense with the characters you're writing first. Also, some are harder to pull off than others.

When writing Enemies to Lovers, keep in mind it's not an instantaneous progress. Give the enemies time to stop being enemies before you can move on to the, "Lovers" stage. Otherwise, you'll be asking yourself the same question you ask when you see sitcom couples who clearly hate each other and are only still in it for sex/their kids: "Why are you together?"

Another popular dynamic: childhood sweethearts. Just be careful not to write them like siblings (have one see the other “like a sibling” so to speak) and you should be good.

Whatever dynamic you choose, however, don’t be afraid to experiment, bring something fresh to it.

There’s nothing wrong with having a niche, nor is there anything wrong with expanding your horizons and trying something new and taking a risk.

You don’t want to write romance? You just want your protagonists to be platonic? That’s fine.

It’s okay if you don’t have everything planned out ahead of time. It’s okay if the story strays from that initial plan. Go with it. Improvise. Adapt. Outlines help you keep on track, but your story should feel alive to the audience. Changes to the original plan are natural.

Write for YOU. Yes, it’s satisfying to hear feedback, especially positive feedback, but it’s important to write for yourself.

On criticism, be open to it, but there’s a difference between constructive criticism and just vitriol from the reader. Only the former is important.

On writer’s block: if you need to walk away for a bit, go ahead. Maybe an idea will pop in the meantime. 

It’s okay to be ashamed of what you wrote in the past. That shows you’ve grown as a writer. It’s also okay to have unfinished drafts. They can be repurposed.

Most important when it comes to writing in general, not just romance: be happy in your work. You’re gonna have off days, but only you’ll know if it’ll be worth it in the end. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to move on to another creative field, or any other altogether.

Any other authors have any tips to share? Doesn’t have to be about romance; they can be about any part of the writing process! I will reblog this post with that advice and will tag you! Or you can reblog yourself.

#Writing #Writeblr #Writing Advice

[sokkathebluewolf]

I am chickened out from gladiator because it is this long and it keeps getting longer is it worth my time to read it ??

... Uh, well. I can’t help but wonder if you’re aware this blog is run by the actual author of the story in question? I don’t know if you expect me to give you a non-biased answer when I’ve considered the story was worth 8 years of my life xD as far as I’m concerned, it absolutely has been worth it, but I can’t speak for the whole wide world when it comes to that. If you want the opinions of readers, there’s probably other blogs run by people who have read the story and who might have critical opinions about it... that may be what you were looking for. If, however, you were deliberately hoping to get my opinion on my own story... well, yes, for me it’s clearly worth it xD Otherwise, I would’ve quit ages ago.

The story is indeed very long and it keeps getting longer, and it will keep getting longer because we’re not done yet and won’t be for a while :’D if you’re the type of reader who can’t stand it when they catch up to stories and have to wait for updates, well, feel free to give it a shot when I’m done writing it, I guess? It’ll be a while until then, but it’s up to you. If you don’t like reading really long stories, then it’s probably better for you if you don’t force yourself to read this one, I know not everyone is ready to dedicate that much time to reading something, especially if they have lots of things to do. Hence, if the length daunts you, that’s alright, it daunts me too and I’m responsible for it xD it’s fine if that deters you from reading it.

But as the way you phrased your question almost sounded like you’re challenging me to give you some sort of sales pitch to catch your attention, let’s see if I can pull it off:

Gladiator is a massive ATLA AU, not only in terms of story length but also scope: it’s a complete rewrite of the entirety of ATLA in a more mature setting, starting chapter 1 with the characters 5 years older than they were in canon. Aang’s adventures in saving the world did not take place here because of a simple enough reason: Katara didn’t accompany Sokka on his boat on the fateful day when they were meant to find Aang, which means the story as we’ve known it simply doesn’t take place. I’ve taken liberties here and there, added some changes from canon when I needed to do so, in order to ensure the story works, but the gist of the story is to set a stage where the Fire Nation marched onwards, practically unopposed, and conquered the Earth Kingdom with the power of Sozin’s Comet (just in case it needs to be clarified, without certain technological developments, Ozai’s wild plan to incinerate the whole world wouldn’t happen, and if Team Avatar isn’t assembled before the Comet shows up, said technological developments simply wouldn’t exist... :’D). I’ve had to figure out how many details would change, how much of the original story would or wouldn’t happen without Team Avatar’s involvement, I think most my choices have been solid, but it’ll be up to you to decide if you think they are or not if you read the story.

The worldbuilding of Gladiator, then, is preeeetty huge and complicated because of that starting point. There’s a lot of elements that are completely new (such as the Gladiator League and all its derivates), some OCs, some lore expansion, so you can definitely say it’s an ambitious project. In a sense, I’ve reset canon to zero, and at the same time I haven’t, which makes things complicated but, for me, really fun to develop. If you’re interested in seeing more of the Avatarverse explored, characters repurposed, with new dynamics and relationships, Gladiator may just be what you’ve been looking for :D

In my experience, the main reason why most people stumble into this fic (other than by sorting FF.net’s ATLA stories by review count and drawing blanks upon glimpsing a Sokkla story on the first page xD) is because they’ve been drawn into Sokkla, or they’re looking for stories centered around Azula or Sokka. Gladiator, evidently, features all three such elements because, obviously, those two are the protagonists and their relationship is the beating heart of the whole tale. I’ve been asked in the past who’s the real protagonist and I honestly still have no idea xD but anyways, if you’re interested in reading a story with a toooooon of Azula character development, even if it takes place across a long, long time, this story may just do the trick. I’ve done the best I could to keep her character as true to what I believed a young adult Azula might become, within the circumstances of this story. She has grown a LOT in 200 chapters, goes without saying (if she hadn’t, I’d be one heck of a failure of an author x’D), so if you’re interested in seeing a slow but effective growth arc for Azula, you’ll certainly find that in Gladiator. Same is true for Sokka, but I think most people who come to this fic for Sokka are interested in seeing him being a badass, which we have plenty of as well xD still, it’s also a long and slow process for Sokka to grow into a powerful warrior, neither him nor Azula start out in the story with all the answers, and they both bump into many hurdles as they navigate their complicated lives.

There’s a lot of humor in Gladiator, perhaps more than expected with a story that has that sort of dark premise, but it’s, on great measure, because Sokka and Azula are inevitably given to banter xD if you want to read a lot of banter between those two, well, you may not be bored in 200 chapters because, while the nature of their exchanges does vary as they both develop, their conversations are usually pretty spirited and they love trying to outsmart each other all the time.

If you are already a Sokkla shipper and the main reason you’re here is because you want more Sokkla goodness in your life... I’ll just say Gladiator has become a bit of a dream come true for me as a Sokkla shipper as well, because it’s the perfect space for me to work with virtually every idea I’ve ever had for these two. Yes, there’s drama and conflict here and there, if you’re not too given to angst there’s a few parts of the story that won’t sit so well with you, though if you love angst you’ll probably enjoy them plenty... yet what I’m most proud of, with this story, is having developed their relationship not only as best I could, but I’ve also attempted to defy typical storytelling structures for romance stories, where the lead couple can’t seem to have a stable relationship because “that would be boring”. Screw that, man: these two have been in a serious relationship together in-story by now for well over half the published chapters, and I’ve had the time of my life writing their dynamics as a couple while the plot continues to develop around them. This, however, is not everyone’s cup of tea, so if you aren’t all that given to seeing such traditional romance storytelling structures dismissed because I wanted to write my favorite ship dealing with all their external struggles while finding strength in the bond they share, Gladiator may not hold your attention long enough for you to devote yourself to reading it beyond chapter 100-ish. On the other hand, if this subversion of romance structure is what you’ve been looking for all your life, or if it’s what you always wanted and never knew you wanted it, or if you’re simply curious as to whether it works or not, Gladiator may suit your interests fairly well. Again, Sokkla is the absolute center of this story, both together and independently, so if you want to see a rewrite of ATLA with them at the core of just... everything? xD that’s absolutely what you’ll find here.

That being said, there’s things I guess you should mind about Gladiator: I have some relatively controversial takes about certain things, including interpretations of fan-favorite characters that some people have been known to take offense over. I, personally, believe my interpretations of those characters don’t deviate that much from canon or that, when they do, the setting itself explains why the deviation works as it does, but due to the fact that I work with a protagonist who was in a villainous role back in ATLA, her relationships with some characters can be more complicated than a lot of people seem to believe they should be. Hence, if you’re not particularly adverse to reading content that brings up big questions about the motivations of certain characters, or how they’d react if the story from ATLA hadn’t happened exactly as it did, you’ll have enough fun in Gladiator. If, however, you don’t particularly care to see anything that shows beloved characters in a not-so-flattering light, this story may not be for you (though, if you’re willing to humor me and allow my story to question your perception of those characters, feel free to try the story as well). 

There’s also a variety of dark themes and situations in Gladiator, something that any reader should be warned about in this day and age: I am 100% against violence for the sake of violence, to name one such subject, and I generally try to portray it with as much nuance as possible, but even if I feature my own characters criticizing their violent world and wanting to put an end to the strife caused by the Fire Nation, some of the violence in Gladiator may be a little too much for the readers who prefer the tone of the original ATLA. Hence, if that’s how it is for you, it’s another reason to approach the story with caution. I won’t pretend I’ve handled every theme and subject perfectly, but I’ve never wanted the darker moments to feel gratuitous in any way, so if you’re open to reading a darker take on the Avatarverse, this may work for you after all.

Alas! If you want to see Azula growing out of the toxic Fire Nation indoctrination, if you want to see Sokka gaining confidence and strength as a man and warrior, if you want to see a fleshed-out but still very much villainous Ozai, if you want to see Toph fulfilling her dreams of joining an all-out fighting league where she can beat people up for a living, if you want to see a myriad of secondary ATLA characters (like Song, or Shoji!) given new lives and even genuine protagonism, if you want to see Zuko discovering he’s allowed to just... be happy? xD Gladiator may prove interesting enough for you.

Furthermore, if you want to see Azula being true friends with Mai and Ty Lee, discovering a dragon, developing new firebending styles, confronting her misplaced beliefs about herself, rebelling subtly (and lately, not so subtly) against her father, growing into a great leader who could change the Fire Nation’s nefarious direction...  aaand if you want to see Sokka fighting creatively (sometimes with TWO swords!), navigating the dangerous waters of interacting with Fire Lord Ozai, staying true to his beliefs while also learning that the world is not as black-and-white as he was raised to think it was, understanding himself better and making the most of his potential as a quick learner, writing embarrassing haiku and being an unapologetic rebel who goes toe-to-toe with Heads of State just because he can... yep. Probably read it? xD

Lastly... if you want to see Sokka and Azula grow through their mistakes, learning to understand each other, fighting side by side, training together, dancing to no music, learning the underrated pleasure of proper communication in a relationship, sassing each other left and right, flirting in ridiculous ways, taunting each other in many regards, laughing at each other’s terrible jokes, protecting each other fiercely, challenging each other to a spicy ramen eating contest, discovering indirect bending, being highly inappropriate at times and places where they shouldn’t be, making long, dangerous yet fun journeys together, sneaking around to meet up when they’re not supposed to, standing by each other in their darkest moments, watching over the other when they’re sick/injured, being ready to sacrifice virtually anything for each other, and even defying and defeating even death to save each other...? Well, I don’t know if there’s any other stories where you might find all of this, but I can guarantee you’ll find it in Gladiator :)

If none of this is convincing enough... that’s a shame, but I understand. If it convinced you to give it a shot, however... I guess I’ll just hope you enjoy it enough to stick around! :) thanks for taking my story into consideration regardless of whatever you decide. Have a nice day!

#anon #ask #gladiator #self-promotion I guess?