#crossovers aren't really my thing anymore but this was pretty fun to do

[12am-motivation]

Hey mo I know you like to play enstars, so do I so can I get your opinions on which unit each individual obey me boy would be in? I know for a fact Lucifer would be Valkyrie, mammon crazy b and Luke rabbits but everyone else... Can we get that pls 🥺🥺🥺

Heya @darkflowerav! Funny you should ask, remember that one Eichi and Solomon doodle I posted back then? I once reblogged it with some personal headcanons on which unit each Obey Me! character would be in but I eventually set it on private since I didn't know much about Enstars back then.

Now that I'm a bit more cultured *cracks knuckles* I'll revise that old list.

Note: We don't have much information about Thirteen, Mephisto, and Raphael to classify them yet so I didn't include them in this list.

(Credits to @minhyunsdick for helping me with this!)

Lucifer - Valkyrie

I remember you once commenting that Lucifer was like Shu (and even mentioned that "angel who defied god" line from Miwaku Geki / Enthralling Theatre).

Valkyrie is a unit that showcases artistic forms and is more distanced from its fans compared to the others. Lucifer also has this sense of class and nobility with his music taste and would also strive for perfection like Shu does due to his pride. But despite their arrogance, it is shown that Lucifer cares for his brothers like how Shu cares for Mika.

Mammon - Crazy:B

He has huge Rinne vibes in terms of his risk-taking / gambling addiction that often gets everyone around him into trouble, and his role as a caring older brother. No further explanation. (His personality goes much deeper than that, though.)

Leviathan - RYUSEITAI or Switch

We all know Levi's a huge geek, an absolute dork (affectionate), and a gamer so I'm sure he'd blend in with our favorite heroes and magicians. The "negative" side of his personality also has something in common with the backgrounds of these units, if you know what I mean.

Satan - Double Face

The main characteristic of the unit is in its name; it represents the duality of the unit's members. The current Satan has his gentlemanly facade to hide the wrath that lies within.

Asmodeus - Eden (Eve)

Pretty much Asmo = Hiyori; Eden's style and choreography are known to be flashy and dramatic and Asmo would be more than willing to give fanservice.

Beelzebub - UNDEAD (or Butou-kai)

He's like Adonis as a gentle giant. Taking his character song into consideration, I think Beel's voice suits UNDEAD. If shuffle units count, his physical strength could classify him under Butou-kai. (I mean just imagine Beel in FIST OF SOUL)

Belphegor - Knights (or La Mort)

I associate Belphie with Ritsu and his overall character, including his intelligence and lethargy. His soothing voice also suits those units. Not to mention they both dislike their older brothers and things between them were different in the past.

Diavolo - Eden (Adam)

Diavolo is somewhat like Nagisa in terms of character with both of them having lived in seclusion for some time. While he is the next in line to the throne and asserts authority when necessary, he also has a youthful and energetic side to him that is hidden from the general public.

Barbatos - Valkyrie or AKATSUKI (or XXVeil)

Barbatos is a demon of class and always observes proper discipline and etiquette, not to mention he's an ever-quintessential butler. AKATSUKI's traditional Japanese theme also somewhat suits him. I'd assign him to fine but he doesn't really suit the heavenly theme.

Luke - Ra*bits or fine (or Branco)

Pre-character development Luke is more like Tori and his strictness classifies him more in a unit of authority plus, his status as an angel lines up with fine's theme. But if we're talking about his character song and his overall cuteness, he'd most likely be in Ra*bits or Branco.

Simeon - fine or Knights

If Luke is Tori, Simeon would be Yuzuru. Simeon is a representative from the Celestial Realm but also has a terrifying side to him when it comes to his concealed wrath. His protective role as an angel could also line up with Knights' chivalry.

Solomon - Double Face

Cat group as Double Face; similar reason to Satan's. Solomon may be kind and is often shown to be calm and collected with a smile, but there are a lot of dark mysteries about him that we have yet to uncover. (Too bad he can't cook like Mama does)

#hope you like these! #crossovers aren't really my thing anymore but this was pretty fun to do #obey me one master to rule them all #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me #おべいみー #mo rambles into the void #queued

[sapphicwhimsy]

Pearl while sparring with Gem during the crossover accidentally rips the sunflower dress. Gem works her hardest to help fix it

thank you for your hard work solider

The sparring is nothing new. Really! They're girlfriends, it's all in good fun. They won't hurt each other too badly, the wooden swords are to make sure of that, and they'll respawn if they take too much damage. It's friendly and fun and Gem wants some of the death mementos that she'll drop, so Pearl agrees to spare.

The ground is even, the bed is set, their swords are drawn.

And Gem attacks first. It's clumsy, she isn't used to a sword in this world, Gem has admitted as such. Part of the reason for the spar, actually. Pearl joked about her losing her ability and Gem had taken it as a challenge.

And now she has Gem practically beating her to death with a wooden sword. It's fun! Really! She fights back and she laughs and it's great. The steps for both of them aren't the best, they aren't used to fighting in their dresses, and it's all great, until…

Gem jumps at her, and she doesn't back away fast enough. She jerks back but it isn't good enough, Gem lands on her new dress that's a gift from the void without her noticing but she still jerks back away further from Gem and then.

RIIIIP.

The noise is loud and grating and also so very awful. It breaks her heart more than anything she'd ever thought possible, and when Gem jumps back out of fear, Pearl can see the damage done.

"Oh no," Pearl moans in despair, and Gem is by her side again in an instance. Their swords are forgotten as they inspect the damage, and Pearl feels tears in her eyes. She didn't know something like this could rip like that.

"I'm so sorry!" Gem exclaims, as she looks at the tear along the fabric. Pearl isn't too sure what she's looking at, in all honesty. It's threads torn apart and fabric flaps in the wind and oh, her heart breaks for the pretty dress.

"Shoot," Pearl mumbles, kneeling down as best she can without possibly risking tearing it more. Her fingers lightly pick at the edges of the fabric, and she whines in the back of her throat as the damage gets to her. She can't fix this! She doesn't know how! "What am I gonna do…"

"It looks like it's just a torn seam," Gem says, without much fanfare, and when she looks up at Gem inquisitively, Gem's cheeks color as she looks away. "What? I do things without you sometimes…"

"I didn't say you don't," Pearl says in response, and Gem purses her lips as if she wants to argue, but turns her attention back to the dress.

"Anyway. It's not bad. I can fix it."

"You can?" And it's more incredulous than she means it to be, but it makes Gem scoff all the same.

"Yes! How do you think I got this dress? I made it myself, thank you." Pearl doesn't really have time to consider the implications of what that means too much, before Gem is pulling her to her feet. "C'mon. Let's get you inside and I'll get you fixed up."

"I don't have anything to wear," she protests, because she at least knows it's easier to not be wearing the clothes you're fixing up, so it probably means the same for Gem fixing her dress. Gem's cheeks shift a few shades darker and she tilts head down, determined as she leads her inside.

"I do. C'mon."

"No offense Gem, but I don't think I can fit in any of your clothes…"

"No! They're not mine. I… Ya know those overalls and hoodie ya lost last month?"

"Yeah…? What about them?" When she doesn't get an immediate reply, she spends the walk thinking, before she yelps, "Gem! Did you steal my clothes!"

"You're my girlfriend! They're soft and they smell like you, and if you wear them again they'll smell more like you again."

"That's not the point!"

"Do you want me to fix your dress or not?!" She hesitates, then relents, puffing out her cheeks as she pouts at Gem.

"Fine… But you can't go stealing my clothes anymore, Gem! I need those!"

"No promises."

#gempearl #shiny duo #pearlgem #shinyduo #whimsys writing #tournament propaganda

[coffeebanana]

20 questions for Fic Writers

Omg it took me ages to get to this but better late than never! Thanks for the tags @rosie-b, @monpetitchattriste, @lesbitorte, @kasienda and @celestialtitania!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Um. 107*... It's possible that I have a problem 😂

(*one is on anon. more on that later adfdsd)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

801,972!!! (fun fact i was just below 800k the first time i got tagged in this game so i was like "oh well i'm posting a new chapter tomorrow...i'll do this game after that so i can pass that milestone!" and then i posted the chapter but it took me close to a week to do this ahaha)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mostly just ml. i have a few spop fics too but i don't really write for that fandom anymore. or at least not right now.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Gah. okay. I'm going to answer this honestly but to do that I first need to explain that my most kudoed fic is on anon because I'm annoyed it's my most kudoed fic aksjfbksdb. Like. It's only so popular because there's a bit of lila salt? and really the fic isn't about that but i don't really write that kind of thing anymore and i don't want ppl coming to my profile and sorting by kudos and seeing that first. There are other things i'd do a lot differently in that fic now too ahaha.

Break a Leg

Cards Against Ladybug's Identity

Ladybug And The Tramp Stamp

Imaginary Friends

The Sun Will Rise Again

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do!! I reply to pretty much every comment--unless it's particularly rude/rubs me the wrong way. I know commenting takes time and I appreciate the effort ppl put into it so I like to give my thanks back!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. Although I think Girl Is A Gun is a strong contender too?

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

Uh...well, most of my fics have happy or at least hopeful endings. I don't think I can narrow this down to just a few haha.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I've ever gotten hate? Definitely some comments that aren't super nice but nothing too bad. (now i've probably gone and jinxed it 😂)

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

um. a little tiny bit but not enough to have a particular kind LOL. i've only posted it once so far. but i also have Entangled, which will have smut in the next chapter--and that's angsty smut. which i suppose would be my brand of smut if i ever write any more

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i haven't! i entertained the idea of an ml/spop crossover a couple years ago but i don't have any interest in it anymore. oh and i ALSO had an idea for a marigami spyxfamily crossover. but i don't know if i'll ever get around to that

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of! (*knocks on forehead since no wood is nearby*)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no, but that would be super cool!

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

i have not! a few times i've planned to write things with other ppl but nothing that ever really made it to the writing stage ahaha. although the littlebug vday zine is a collab in the form of a series--not exactly co-written but similar vibes

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

to write for, definitely the love square. and then catradora is so special to me because it got me back into writing and also i started IDing as a lesbian in part because i binged spop.

aside from that i can't really decide because like. there are so many shows i've seen and books i've read and ships i've loved for so many different reasons asdfbk. and then i have OC ships that only live in my head but that i love to play with sometimes before i fall asleep at night. so please don't make me choose!!

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

uh. i would say none of them? because it's only when i completely lose interest in a fic that i lose the belief i'll finish it. and that's only happened with maybe two of my wips i can think of?

16. What are your writing strengths?

Depicting emotions! And using the setting to do that by establishing the mood/tone/etc...

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i guess like...self-doubt? not that i'm awful with it. in general i think i'm pretty good that way. but it's my biggest barrier to writing when i have periods where i get in my head about my writing, and it can make me overthink and not know if i LIKE my writing. and i think my writing is at its best when i'm having fun with it (which is probably true of most ppl), so...

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

i think it makes sense when the characters are actually speaking that language for a short time but aren't speaking it for most of the fic? like i have one ml AU set in new york so they're speaking english for most of it and i used french for the first couple lines that were french (and weaved the translations into the narrative). so that's the only time i do that personally--aside for maybe one word lines like bonjour--but as a reader it doesn't usually bother me when i see it used other ways

19. First fandom you wrote for?

ahaha the Vampire Academy book series. and NO you won't find those fics anywhere, even though they are still out there somewhere

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

currently Say Something. and i very much wish i could finish writing it, but it'll happen when it happens!

I think most people I would have tagged have probably been tagged by this point...likely more than once 😂. So whoever else wants to play should do so!!

#tag game #long post

[aromanticbuck]

Okay, no. You have to tell me about bruises verse mouse/Thomas ward, I am dying.

Yes, of course! I think about my collection of spoiled rich boys (and Matt) a normal amount!

Bruises 'Verse is an AU I developed back in my Marvel/Agents of SHIELD era set after everyone gets out of the Framework? But s5 and the whole time travel/space arc doesn't happen?

As per usual, under a read more because I can't shut up about anything ever

The very short version is that Leo Fitz leaves SHIELD to process all of that trauma, as well as the fact that Radcliffe is his biological father (anyone who followed me in that era knows my URL was holdendadcliffe, it's my favorite theory, I still think about it daily), and in a year moves to the PNW (some smaller town outside of Seattle, far enough from the city that he doesn't have to worry about anything, I was undecided on the details) and becomes a middle school science teacher. There, he also runs into his... they aren't exes, because they never defined their relationship, but they did go on a date before Leo got dragged into joining the field team with Jemma. He's my original character, his name is Matthew Scott, he's a good boy who has a medical degree but decided to give up on that dream and become a librarian, completely coincidentally, in the same small town that Leo ends up in.

I wrote a whole fic about it, but before his death in s3, Grant Ward (I love him, okay? I can and will write essays about him *Jay voice* in fact, I have. many times.) wrote letters for a few people in his life as a sort of... apology? He was really obsessed with the concept of "closure" in early s3, and I leaned into that while writing and developing this little universe. And those letters got left to Thomas, with the instruction to deliver the rest of them. He kind of just mailed off the others because *gestures to SHIELD and how they treated him* but he had to track down Leo because he didn't really leave a contact address with SHIELD and purposefully dropped off the radar because he also wants nothing to do with them.

And when Thomas drops off that letter for Leo, they kind of become friends? Thomas, who was floundering to get his life back after SHIELD disrupted it, who didn't want to go back to working at the bank they found him at because it's not a Safe Place anymore. So, he also moves to that little town, and does the first thing he can think of, which is going through the police academy and having a stable job so that he can hang out with friends (honestly, just Leo and Matt at that point) and pay rent and all that fun adult stuff that everyone hates.

Lately, I've been thinking about a lot of AUs where Mouse finishes his tour with the Army and returns to the States but doesn't go back to Chicago? I have thoughts about him going to Georgia, continuing his connection with the military and using it to get a job doing tech for them. I have thoughts about him going to Los Angeles and becoming a firefighter (the 911 crossover AU is NOT thought through yet don't ask about it for at least another week) or becoming private security or something for rich start up entrepreneurs. Things like that.

It occurred to me, a few months ago, that he could have also relocated to that same small town, and become a teacher (I especially thought about it after rereading @kitthekazoo's Community Garden fic, because teacher!Mouse my beloved) at the same school that Leo teaches at!

I just thought it would be funny if the tech boys with parental trauma and other causes of PTSD became best friends??? And Mouse and Matt would get alone great (tired homosexuals who are kind of over being dragged to the bar every week, because Matt is sober and Mouse is trying to avoid anything that might become a slippery slope for a while until he fully adjusts to being in Not A War Zone), and then... Thomas is kind of his type???

Detective? Complicated relationship with his brother? Pretty eyes?

Mouse is simple and I respect that.

Bonus: Matt and Tommy rolling their eyes when Leo and Mouse start talking about their students and completely forget that their boyfriends are there because they're unhinged little science nerds

I love the concept of smashing my blorbos together in a chaotic AU and seeing what my brain does. In this case, my brain said "boyfriends!" and now Mouse gets to actually date a detective and have friends and a life outside of that little cage he was in for most of his run on CPD, and I get to make him happy!

Fun fact: Tommy is a piece of shit (affectionate) and definitely calls Matt "Mascot" because Leo made the mistake of introducing him as "Matt Scott" and, uh... the joke was too easy he had to make it

#answered #winterbonesthings #bruises verse* #oc; matt scott #mattleo #leo fitz #thomas ward #aos #agents of shield #marvel #mcu #mouse gerwitz #greg gerwitz #greg mouse gerwitz #cpd #chicago pd #one chicago #idk tommy and mouse don't have a ship name yet #thomouse? #i kind of like that one #also yes i'm aware i've given him multiple tommy's #that was not intentional it just happened #anyway! thank you for asking me about the chaos #i hope you enjoy the bruises extended universe

[ravioliet]

in the mlp au I don't think the events of odd squad the movie would have ever fully played out because as cool as weird team may try to be do they have frickin' alicorns? no

ooh!! ok ok so i actually have a rough concept for how the movie would go if i included it (which i probably will because i actually quite enjoy the movie i think it's very fun and silly, and the s1 and s2 crossover is very good as well they should've done more of that. i mean i get why they didn't but it would've been so much fun) and this got me thinking about it a bit more! but basically, i imagine that Weird Tom would be a villain somewhat akin to Trixie Lulamoon or Flim and Flam, and in my mind he and the rest of Weird Team have these badge things they wear that are actually something similar to the alicorn amulet from Magic Duel but specifically give the wearer illusion magic, including the ponies that wouldn't normally be able to cast spells like pegasi and earth ponies (i might make them still have that gadget as well but more as a decoy or something? so that non-unicorns using magic wouldn't draw suspicion).

he overthrows Odd Squad by rallying the civilians against them using the fact that they're run by alicorns who aren't even royalty, because wouldn't the citizens of equestria rather be protected by one of their own instead of some sort of fake royal? and on top of that they're WAY better at solving odd problems, just look at how quickly they can do it! everyone falls for it of course, and the movie goes pretty similarly to canon from there with the squad getting shut down and everyone going back to being normal kids (including the alicorns who lose their alicorn traits because they aren't really directors anymore, which just adds a bit of extra difficulty when they have to deal with WT), but have to come back and band together to bring odd squad back to save the world and everything. they don't go to space or anything of course so i don't know if the daves would be involved, maybe the world ending event has something to do with the side effects of the illusion charms? but anyways i imagine that given the setting there's a lot more power of friendship type stuff happening which fits with the whole teamwork thing anyways so. yeah :)

#odd squad mlp au #odd squad #mlp #answered asks

[goldenworldsabound]

gimme coffee shop, college, fake dating, and crossover for THE BOY CLAYMAN >:33c also i see that ur blog is now clayman themed hehe i love it

I owed it to him at this point to Claymanify the blog fkjdashfkjdsa

AIGHT LET'S GET TO IT

[COFFEE SHOP] - How many AU's do you have between all of your f/o's? What are they?

I answered this earlier but for Clayman I have quite a few as well!!!

College AU

Modern AU

Clayman is a magical cat AU (I love my cat AUs fkjhdsa)

Rich Bitch Trio counts here

Magical Western AU

True Dragon SI AU

Clayman is the Self Shipper AU

I think that's all of them fkdjsahfkjdsa

[COLLEGE] - What is your most developed/fleshed out AU?

Well funny you should say that it's swiftly becoming College AU, though all of these are pretty damn fleshed out. But College AU also includes a ton of other characters and it's just so FUN I love it, I'm sure I'll end up writing for it eventually fkjdsahfkjds

[FAKE DATING] - How would a reverse/personality swap AU work between your f/o and s/i?

personality swap...HONESTLY I don't- it wouldn't be us then anymore I get very confused by personality swap HOWEVER role swap is pretty interesting! If I was the Demon Lord and he was the summoned human...it would sort of shift our personalities though because it's hard to be cocky and smug the way he is in canon if he's...new to the world and lost. But I would be a lot friendlier than he was initially to me because I have excellent emotional intelligence (esp compared to him fkjdhfa). I think he would end up being the sort of subordinate Yamza is to him in canon - very aggressively and ready to tell everyone else how much they suck compared to me and to praise me endlessly. I let him- fkjdshafksa as for me...well, I would certainly be very confident. I'm not really super scheming myself the way he is in canon though so I no doubt talk to Laplace and Clayman and Kazalim and seek far more feedback than Clayman tends to in canon. Results in much better thought out plans until the mind control anyway-

[CROSSOVER] - Take your f/o and s/i and put them in another fandom! What happens? What do their stories look like now? Any big design changes?

Let's consider Genshin!!! His family strikes me as one that would work with the Fatui, even if they have their own goals related to Celestia...but they keep those under wraps. They have no qualms about doing dangerous or awful things. They also aren't human - maybe they're like Klee or maybe specifically Kazalim is like Klee (and part of the Hexenzirkel even) and the jesters + Clayman are homonculi like Albedo. Clayman's role would be to hold a rich and powerful position in Fontaine which he does fantastically. His Vision would be...

Electro, for the way he follows his family's plan for eternity. And also the electrical currents can be controlled to puppet others, allowing him to remain a sort of puppeteer, though this kind is far less suited for espionage and such and is more just terribly painful I imagine. But he could manipulate and control mechanical bodies perhaps.

As for my SI, in this case I suppose they would be living a mundane life in Fontaine, up until they are accused of a crime and almost wrongly convicted. Evidence that salvages their case is found last minute, but the whole experience traumatized them (yeah totally stealing from an actual Genshin SI's bg but shhh) and perhaps led to a Cryo Vision (which they use to create ice shards much like Tensura SI's "crystalline shards" and shields, and perhaps even wings though I doubt they could actually fly with them, more as an expression of art). Their belief and trust in gods is shaken - they understand now that their archon is quite fallible.

Clayman snatches them up straight away. I imagine he attends the trials at the Opera quite often and he sees how broken I become, and sees opportunity there. And the Vision. He also sees the Vision. And also sees that I'm pretty-

Anyway you get the idea, I am initially repulsed when I learn of the terrible actions his family does but I come to accept that since Clayman has already somewhat groomed me on their motives and goals and as such I begin to be able to look past all sorts of atrocities they slowly unveil to me, and before long I am committing them as well.

#unique skill: beating heart #ooooh this was so fun damn

[blackfire-fanfiction]

Sorry mate, my ass is getting kicked. I got so many things to do and not enough time.

Real quick crossover thought before I go back with doing things

It's quite possible that when Raphael does try spar with his Bros after everything that happened he won't try to kill them ( he's got practice and not doing that and a way to remind himself thanks to The bird ) but a non kill match I think he tortures ( a way for him to stay on not killing matchs) ? I think it's possible that he has to stop himself from breaking them. Just a thought.

It's fine, don't stress over not asking anything lately.

The non-kill fights have to be entertaining, first and foremost. Because the fighters aren't aiming to kill, there isn't the adrenaline pushing them to fight for their lives. If neither participant is willing to actually fight, their isn't much drama or tension about the outcome.

I imagine that Big Mama spices up those fights by telling the new fighters "if you win enough fights, I'll let you go", making it so even if it isn't to the death, there's still a "fight for their life" element. And for other fights, she has one of her experienced/loyal fighters be absolutely brutal. These are usually for people that have wronged her in some way. After all, if she needs to punish someone for their betrayal, why not make it profitable? Lastly, the long-term no-kill fighters are pretty chill with one another, and know how to make a fight entertaining enough for the crowd. Meaning that there's fake rivalries and fake (but dramatic) fights. Enough to keep the stands filled and walk out of their matches with only superficial wounds.

Anyway, now that I got the worldbuilding out of the way, now we can talk about what this means for Raph! I don't really remember everything I said about the fights, but I'll try to piece together what I do remember to make this make sense.

Raph doesn't do non-kill fights that often by the end of the kidnapped arc, and the non-kill fights aren't going to make a situation like you are saying anyway. BUT that doesn't mean that it can't happen.

Big Mama wants fights that entertain the crowd. I say this literally every time I make a post about the Battle Nexus. What that means, is that she doesn't want the kill fights to end quickly. In a matchup where there's a clear winner, the fights need to be drawn out. People don't want to pay for a fight that only lasts 5 minutes. And Raph is a strong champion, so there have been many fights where he needs to meet the mark where he's allowed to end it. This means tactics like torture, or letting the person he's fighting go to have a chase he needs to catch. It's a very fucked up game of playing with prey.

So in spars, it's a toss up if Raph go for the kill instinct is overrided by the torture waiting game. I think both are likely to happen at the start of his recovery, when his reflexes haven't caught up with how he's not in the Nexus anymore.

I was going to add something else but I forgot. I kind of just used this post as an excuse to throw some more worldbuilding in, but it's fun so I'm not going to apologize.

#same raph au #same raph au crossover #kidnapped arc #post rescue arc #rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #asks

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Hello Internet, welcome to GAME THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. It's time to talk UNDERTALE.

Now I don't think I've ever gotten this many requests to cover a theory, (no requests times no requests is still no requests.) Anyway, across my tumblr dashboard, NO ONE has asked for this. And honestly, I'm disappointed. True loyal theorists will know that Undertale is my favorite game of all time.

Undertale is a game where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you're saving or slaughtering them, the game makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. SANS. A skeleton named after the font, Comic Sans. ANYWAYS, Sans is, well, there's a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: UNDERTALE is a game best experienced blind. So if you haven't played it, pause your reading of this and come back after you've finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won't regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I'm feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Sans' mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven't played the game and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Sans is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the game. His partner is Papyrus, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Undertale their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what's given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Sans and Papyrus, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What's more is that, well, Papyrus is just kinda the goofy sidekick. Sans is much more complex.

He likes fart jokes, but he's also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the game, he's one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he's only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you've played through in the game. He can even count the number of times he's killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player's actions in the game, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn't belong in the underworld seems to be correct.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the game, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Papyrus asks Sans about the giant ball in the sky. Sans says, quote, “we call that the sun.” This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Sans has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Papyrus both being skeletons, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Papyrus not know the name of the sun but Sans would?

We get further clues to Sans' origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to "go home" or "go back." He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, "I know the feeling." He then continues, "maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you." As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, "look, I gave up trying to go back a long time ago." End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that's clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, "and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore either." Key word here is “EITHER.” Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It's as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he's from a different time. It's pretty intriguing. So we're left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.

But here's where things get REALLY interesting. Sans has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Sans gives you a key to his room and says "it's time you learn the truth." After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Sans and a bunch of smiling people you don't recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A hand-drawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don't forget.”

So, what does it all mean? Well a lot of Undertale theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the game. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I've seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that's what kept nagging me as I researched Undertale. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Sans? Badges just aren't important in Undertale. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn't from Undertale? What if this badge is from a completely different series? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? One of the Iskall patreon badges.

Now, for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the Iskall Patreon Badges are a pivotal item from Iskall’s patreon. You know, the one on Hermitcraft. Anyway, the Iskall Patreon Badges are a really important part of Iskall’s character. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Sans' drawer was ONE OF THOSE EXACT badges? Well first off, it made Undertale connected to my favorite youtuber, thereby making it even COOLER, but that's still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place.

In Hermitcraft Season 6, there are three Architechs. (This was before Stress joined in season 7.) These 3 were Iskall, Grian and MumboJumbo. And what does Sans happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Sans with people you don't recognize. Of course you don't know them, they're not characters present in Undertale. And note the word that's used here, PEOPLE you don't recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that's 2 items oddly linked to the Hermitcraft series.

But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Hermitcraft, Iskall is the only one who hasn’t died since the Demise game, so he sells his own body to the highest bidder. Except, it comes with a cost. Everyone is poor. As a result, and with the help of ImpulseSV, the Architechs (minus Mumbo,) are forced to finally kill Iskall, ending his streak since the beginning of demise. I watched this episode in 2020 and I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It's DEVASTATING.

Iskall says goodbye to his friends, his co-workers, this character you've grown to love and care about is suddenly promising to sacrifice his life. For all he knows, there is no possibility of him being able to come back after his Demise. It's this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful Season 6.

So what does all of this have to do with Undertale? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that the hermits are known for their, let's say, unique written linguistic style.

That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken infinity portal is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot.

If Sans wound up in Undertale via whacky infinity portal hyjinx, it could provide a reason for why he's a skeleton. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Sans has given up hope for going home. Remember the infinity portal is a time machine. By being in the underworld, he's not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he's also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. This could theoretically happen. It turned Scar into a wizard and completely disintegrated Welsknight, so the rules are… Flimsy at best.

But the crossovers between Hermitcraft and Undertale continue. In Grian’s episode, (EDIT IN TIMESTAMP) he mentions he’s amazed that Iskall only escaped his demise with a lost arm. He says Iskall had “a lot of determination to not die for real,” and that he’s going to continue to study this. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Undertale around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Sans was a key player in those experiments.

But I'm sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don't worry, because I have plenty. Take a look at Iskall and Sans side by side. Iskall’s left eye is replaced with a diamond loupe. Sans’ left eye glows blue when he’s mad. Both have extremely chill yet are known for their jokes and, dare I say, laugh.

In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Hermitcraft Cinematic Universe, (HCU) is somehow connected to the Undertale world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS SANS?

Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Sans happened to be Iskall from Hermitcraft? Sent through the Infinity Portal at the end of season 6 to go to Season 7, carrying an Iskall Patreon Badge and his photo album. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Sans’ behavior.

Remember, Sans can seemingly travel extremely quickly. And Iskall just happens to have an elytra, a device that allows people to travel hundreds of metres extremely quickly. This even explains why Sans bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human.

Oh and finally, Sans shares two out of five letters with the name Iskall. That's just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning.

But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator's previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Undertale is actually DocM77, the creator of every hermit (besides Scar.) Now, if Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, is also DocM77, creator of Iskall, we know they will most definitely share a universe. Which brings us back to Undertale. 2 faces, with “don't forget” written on it? It's Iskall, trying to remember his 2 friends. In short, Undertale is a continuation of Toby’s version of Hermitcraft Season 6, with Iskall never being able to get home, adopting the name Sans. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Ethoslab and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel.

But hey, that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!

#hcraft #hermitcraftheadcanons #iskall85 #iskall #TheScience! #posted 11.05.20 #long post #please note this is literally a copy paste of the actual script #with some changes #but yeah actual cred to Matt on this one

[tiny-space-robot]

Okay so Fire Emblem anon here!! Here's a Kinda Super Long Bc I Got Carried Away description of a few Fire Emblem games, plus some characters that seem like they hit tropes you like!

The good news is that there's not a super huge overarching timeline, there's several smaller timelines that are seperate from one another except for the crossover games. I'm gonna go with describing the newer ones that you're most likely to be able to get your hands on and play; a lot of people complain that they lean into some anime-tropey stuff and are too easy, but tbh, that's a perk just as often as it isn't. Basically, it's Game of Thrones, but rated T and with more cute girls and old men who are friendly instead of creepy.

Tbh, it's a turn-based strategy game with visual novel elements for characterization, if strategy games aren't your thing and you're just interested in the characters, watching the support conversations on Youtube might be more your thing. All the characterization, none of the resetting the same goshdang level thirty times. Anyways, description of the games in passing, including a brief description of the plot concept, pros and cons, trigger warnings, and some characters you might be interested in if you're just looking up characters.

*line break for legibility*

Awakening: for the 3DS. Follows Robin, an amnesiac mage, after they're found in a field by a band of knights called the Shepherds. Involves the undead, a twink in a mask, timey-wimey shenangians, and the usual cast of oddballs you'd expect from a Fire Emblem game.

Pros of Awakening: customizable player character, intro of Casual mode (turns off permadeath) and the Pair Up system, which lets you put characters together for shipping reasons strategy and stat boosts. Also doubles as a shipping simulator, since you can pair off characters and meet their later in the game due to said timey-wimey shenangians.

Cons of Awakening: there are some....very concerning combos of names/skin tones/plot relevance for certain characters, so go in with a warning about implicit racism. Also if you like strategy games, this game is relatively easy to break and make "too easy," but tbh that's what Lunatic Mode (the Ultra Unfair Hard Mode) is for.

Trigger warnings across the main plot: underhanded politics, attempted assassinations, martyrdom, an optional character is implied to stalk Robin but idk how to tag that, identity crises, conflicts within a family, character who isn't you looks like you, backstory child abuse, an optional character is a bad portrayal of DID if you squint?

*line break for legibility*

Fates: is actually a group name for two games set in the same universe, and a DLC bonus story: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. All for the 3DS. All three games star Corrin, a pacifist raised in seclusion in the kingdom of Nohr. Each game reflects a different path Corrin can take in navigating the war between the nations of Nohr and Hoshido: Birthright has them stand with Hoshido, Conquest with Nohr, and Revelations has them strike out (nearly) alone. Each path has a completely different storyline, cast of characters, and difficulty curve.

Pros of Fates: honestly, the characters here cater the most to the avid pro-shipper and multi-shipper. I just love this cast. Both Nohr and Hoshido have four members of the royal family you can play and get to know, each of those royal family members has two retainers who are various levels of dedicated and/or unhinged, and the cast just widens and widens. Also a character customization and shipping simulator point for the same reasons Awakening gets it. Also, canon fujoshi rights (there's a character with a skill called Daydream, which boosts her stats when two male characters are paired up near her. one of us, one of us). Also the first game with canon queer characters: both Rhajat and Niles are bi.

Cons of Fates: unfortunately, the writing is kinda rushed or badly translated in some places. Also *shakes IntSys* my lore! Give me more lore! Also, iirc, you could get both physical games in a bundle for a discount when they came out, but not anymore, so it's sorta like Pokemon with version exclusives. Which is less fun, since you can't directly trade characters. Also the fandom for this game is RIFE with discourse, which is kinda sad bc I just wanna talk my ships with ppl sjxhdjdn

Trigger warnings for Fates: child abuse might as well be Nohr's middle name, in-universe racism (since Hoshido is p obviously Japan-inspired, and a lot of Nohrians are rancid to Hoshidans), kidnapping, on-screen murder, lots of fighting your loved ones (on both main routes, you gotta fight the playable characters from the other side AAA), su-c-de, death of sibling(s) in certain routes, demonic-like possession, there's like six characters people can read as bad mental illness rep, Niles especially is discourse bait for being a kinky (yes that's canon) bi man of color but also he's awesome so die mad antis

*break for space*

Shadows of Valentia: for the 3DS. A remake of Gaiden, the second game in the series. Follows Alm, a farm boy from a small village in Zofia, and Celica, his childhood best friend. Zofia and the nation to its north, Rigel, are two nations ruled by the dragon gods Mila and Duma, respectively. Normally, they're in equilibrium, but Rigel is invading and Mila is missing, prompting Alm and Celica to independently investigate the problem.

Pros of SoV: the most like the old-school Fire Emblem games, but it also has the permadeath-off mode. also the first to be fully voice acted! The art style is gorgeous, and the plot was polished up from the old game--two characters names Berkut and Rinea were added, and they are PEAK OTP the diskhorse can die mad. Also the cast is pretty fun all around, from buddy squad and the older brother/dad figure they adopted along the way to "hello this is my gang of childhood friends, we're gonna kill a god" Also introduces Mila's Turnwheel, which lets you rewind your moves if you realize you goofed big time and screwed yourself over.

Cons of SoV: has the most references to other games, but you won't, like, be lost if you don't get them. You just might have a few interludes of "who tf is Camus/the White Wing Brigade/etc" but it's easy enough to look up on the wiki. Also tbh, the plot kinda drags in the middle, there's some filler battles to try and make it feel more realistic and it feels...weird. Also no custom character, you are Alm and Celica and you will Like It.

Trigger warnings for SoV: you know that thing where a girl character gets killed off for a guy character to angst over? the game starts with a fakeout version of that. also a character slowly goes mad over the course of the plot (but it's really well done imo?), there's some self-sacrifice stuff in there, classism is a major theme, possession/selling your soul™, there's a couple of levels where you're exploring tombs/prisons, I'm sure there's something else but I'm forgetting right now

*line break for legibility*

Three Houses: on the Switch. The newest game in the series, and the most polished imo? Stars Byleth, a wandering mercenary turned teacher at the Officer's Academy. The Academy, housed in Garreg Mach Monastery, teaches youths from across the land of Fodlan how to be warriors, commanders, and knights. Students are sorted into three houses based on their country of origin: the Black Eagles are from ghe Adrestian Empire, led by the heiress-apparent Edelgard; the Blue Lions are from the kingdom of Faerghus, led by prince Dimitri; and the Golden Deer are from the Leicester Alliance, led by Claude, grandson of the Duke. You choose one of these houses to lead, and then everything quickly goes sour.

Pros of Three Houses: It's such a rich experience! The music is incredible, there's so much lore, and you can wander around the Monastery and hang out with the students to your heart's content. Also, it's four storylines for the price of one, even if they're all relatively similar in the first half. It does a pretty solid job of weaving together its themes into a satisfying narrative that will make you consider everyone involved. Also we got our first bi main lord (Edelgard) and non-white main lord (Claude is mixed race) in one fell swoop! Also, given the setting, it's teacher/student ship heaven.

Cons of Three Houses: just gonna come right out and say it: one of the villainous factions in the game is pretty substantially tied up with some anti-semitic tropes. There's no way to ignore it, it's just bleh, and I'm not gonna send anyone in without that warning. Also, though there's some characters you can persuade to switch sides, or spare, there's no route where there's a happy ending for everyone. Also there are so many people who are fake deep about the themes of the game, so be ready for the worst takes imaginable about your faves. also super trigger heavy, see below.

Trigger warnings: MANY. Garreg Mach and the Church of Seiros are very reminiscent of catholic religious stuff, for anyone with religion triggers, blood in cutscenes, death of a parent, death of a sibling (different characters), major gaslighting vibes in some places, lots of people going unhinged, some white savior™ vibes in places, body horror, creepy ass weaponry, backstory genoc-de (mostly not related to the anti-semitism), blood magic (definitely related to the anti-semitism), in general it goes to a lot more effort than the other games to make you think about what's Actually going on, even if it doesn't always work.

*break for legibility*

As for characters you'd like, if you just want to look some characters up, my recommendations based on what I understand about you include:

Awakening: Libra fits 'gnc man of the cloth' so well it's actually a conversation in game: "so what's a woman of the cloth doing here?" "...man, sir, man of the cloth." And Then He Never Gets Misgendered Again. Also Nowi's supports sometimes feel like a jab at antis-- she's a manakete, a person who can transform into a dragon. Manaketes also grow really slowly, as in "middle aged looking manaketes are like 1000 years old," so she's got major baby face and copes with being mistaken for a teenager by making jokes. Also Gregor, who she first appears with, is pretty fun--older mercenary with a thick accent who is like 80% here for a good time. Also Walhart, who's a villain but got some content added as DLC.

Fates: any interactions between Corrin, Leo, and/or Camilla are probably right up your alley--Camilla is obsessively protective over her siblings in a way that's Very Definitely Platonic™, and Leo also canonically has a crush on her in something that was cut in the English release. Also Gunther--once upon a time he was your classic knight in shining armor, now he's semi-retired, Corrin's personal guard, and covered in scars (and his voice is gorgeous too)

Echoes: my biased answer is to listen to every single line Ian Sinclair read for Berkut because he absolutely did NOT have to go that hard. My actual answer is to point you in the direction of the pegasus sisters Catria, Palla and Est, or maybe the older gentleman who's the head of the Priory, I forgot his name oops abbdbd. Also Clive is a devoted husband to one Mathilda, who looks just like an older version of his sister Clair 🤔

Three Houses: knowing you, you'd adore Hanneman--an older professor who's extremely passionate about his work, to the point where he tends to forget personal space and such. Also Seteth, like I mentioned before (join me in simping for him and his gorgeous pecs) and like, honestly, I know ppl make jokes about Alois but he's rlly good. Soft, awkward but he doesn't care, dad jokes everywhere. And also Mercedes, both because she's the biggest sweetheart imaginable and everyone should love her, but also bc she is just walking potential for the kinds of stuff you post on this blog. On one hand, she's the oldest student at the Academy and attached at the hip to one of the youngest, Annette (tho people act like they have a way bigger age gap then they actually do) and on the other hand, she has a long-lost half brother she can encounter (who I will not name for HUGE HUGE spoilers reasons) who she spends the rest of her life with in one of her endings. Heck, he has three possible endings total! Total!

Basically I brought the games up bc I'm used to being on the side of the fandom where everyone shoos anything uncomfortable under the rug, but there's so much material here that's being wasted I SWEAR

If you have any other questions I can send another anon? Your call! Thanks for hearing me out I love ur blog :3

OKAY!!! sorry for answering so late, but this ask was pretty much a BOOK (not that I´m complaining though! thank you so much! ;;u;;)

and from what I read here, I THINK if I´m going off on my first fire emblem adventure, I´ll try and pick up three houses if I get the chance! I have read your trigger warnings (thank you so much! ;u;) and I think I can take it! >:3

again though, I am really, really not a fan of anime and the anime artstyle in general (blergh! XP) so I´m not sure how I´ll cope with that in particular, but then again, an artstyle does not make a game! u3u

AND HANNEMAN SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER TO ME!! I looked him up and OOOF!!! he may not have NEARLY as many wrinkles as I´d like him to have, but the facial hair is definitely a step in the right direction! ;3c

NOW YOU GOT ME INTERESTED!! 

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[seyaryminamoto]

I like how you do OCs. So many fanfictions make them overpowered and without flaws. But your ones come off more natural, half of them aren't even martial badasses but just regular people getting by. Like Kino, or Shouji. If I recall, Rui Shi was once some nameless caption before you developed him. Hina is, haha, yeah, a bitch, lol. Is it just me or would Ozai's assassin and Toph make a great comedy duo? The blind girl and the invisible man. Even Xin Long has personality. My fav is still Rui Shi.

Well, like I always say, Shoji isn’t an OC :’D he’s another repurposed one-time canon character who got a much bigger role in Gladiator than in ATLA, just like Song. This is him! It’s possible that it will become more obvious that he’s a canon-based character in chapter 201, but even if it’s not that obvious, now you know the truth!

Either way, I’m glad you like my OCs! Rui Shi is one of the best of them, without a doubt, so I take pride in knowing he’s your favorite. I guess there are many secrets to making OCs for fanfiction, because chances are you will need OCs in a long-term story like my own… but when I started out with the story, I always kept them at a minimum both because I wanted to use as many canon characters as I could (hence, Shoji), and because I knew of the stigma that surounds fanfiction OCs. There’s people who do like reading about OCs… but the majority of the readers will open a fic out of interest in the canon characters they already know and love. If your story isn’t outright about OCs, you risk alienating readers by introducing characters who could feel out of place in the setting (and that, I think, is what bothers you with OCs who are overpowered and flawless).

Admittedly, it may sound like I’m talking out of my ass because of characters like Rhone and Seethus, who probably do fall into the overpowered OC cliches… but uh, small secret: they’re not exactly my creations. They were a suggestion by a friend, one of Gladiator’s staunchest supporters from its very inception (being upfront, Gladiator wouldn’t even exist without him), and I did my best to accommodate them into the story despite there were some things in his original ideas for the characters that would have been quite difficult to work with. Seethus seems to have been received much better than Rhone, which is a relief for me, but the truth is that neither of them are 100% mine and they follow entirely different character-building principles because of that.

Outside of those two, though, the other OCs we have generally obey the need for these characters to exist in this world and setting: when it comes to the soldiers in the Fire Nation army, the show portrayed them as real people by the last season but I wanted to flesh out some of them further than that, beyond showing they can be nice to prisoners (Iroh’s friendly prison guard) or playful with each other (the ones from the Boiling Rock). That’s where Rui Shi came from, the most exasperated and tortured Royal Guard in the history of the position. Part of Rui Shi’s success, I think, comes from him being 100% loyal to Azula despite being 100% exasperated by her antics just as well :’D he’s a cool guy, but all he ever wanted was to protect a Princess who refuses to be protected and who seems to make a sport out of making his job more and more difficult xD which results in his constant clashes with her and his little patience for the ridiculous crap she gets up to more often than not. He serves as a counterweight, I think, to all the characters who are starstruck by Azula and Sokka: he’s a grounding character, helps us see these two are a pair of reckless dorks in love who need to get reeled back into their best behavior once in a while.

And then there’s Kino, who basically breathed life into the South Pole and created much more fun dynamics with those characters than everything that had preceded him. Kino was a REALLY lucky hit, a completely random night-time idea that came to me when I was about to go to bed… and when I woke up the next morning I couldn’t remember him anymore :’D it took a while for me to remember what that damn great idea had been… I was so glad when he returned to me, honestly xD Kino is a lot of fun, and as comedic a character as he may appear, that comedy is what makes him an individual rather than just another soldier. The idea of him being largely ignored by his fellow soldiers and commanding officers started off as a funny way to ensure he could hang out with Katara and Aang without trouble… but in Part 3 that will result in a pretty useful skill that everyone shall cherish him more for. He’s a counterweight to main characters too, in a sense, but in the opposite way Rui Shi is: he lightens up the generally serious and heavy South Pole chapters and embodies the common, ordinary Fire Nation citizen who has been indoctrinated since youth but who can find a new path for himself, learn better, cherish new ways of living once he’s removed from that very toxic environment.

I could talk for ages about the OCs in the story: Xin Long being so feisty, for instance, comes from my need to give him a visible personality, reminiscent of Azula’s own, just like Appa and Momo had in canon. Otherwise he’d feel like a mere object to be ridden back and forth between places and nothing more… which would be really demeaning for a proud creature like that, huh? :’D But I think you’ll get bored of reading too much of my OC theory, because I’ve thought about this stuff a lot xD Still, I’d like to add that there may be some characters who feel a little more complex, who may have more substance to them than initially obvious…

… And it’s because they do have more of it: I had an original story before Gladiator, pretty dense and huge story, and I’ve littered Gladiator with cameos of those OCs EVERYWHERE, it’s just not something anyone can tell because that story was never published (and never will be x’D). So… remember the Priestess of the Flames, from the Dragon’s Pit? She’s one of my favorite characters from that story xD some of her defining traits in Gladiator are outright taken from her original iteration (if you don’t remember her, no worries, you’ll see her again in the upcoming Slave Riot arc and I suspect she’ll make more of an impression there). Your Doom, his sponsor, the Ruthless Hero, the Dark Rook, Scoundrel and his sponsor too… they’re all crossovering OCs who got small roles in Gladiator xD in general, these repurposed characters have always been background or secondary characters (the ranking is FULL of these OCs, even if they might never get speaking roles, because that way I could fill up the ranks a little faster :’D), but that they already have established personalities allowed me to work easily with the ones who do have a starring role in the story, without needing to spend more time than I could afford fleshing them out so they felt believable.

I guess that really should be my final point: the OCs have to feel believable. If it looks like they have a life beyond interacting with the main cast, I don’t need to devote too much time to developing them unless strictly necessary (as was the case with Yang and Haiyan, as a quick example). OCs are, ultimately, characters: they have flaws, they have personality, they have a history just as everyone you walk past in the street does, even if you can’t fathom what it might be. As much as the world absolutely revolves around Azula and Sokka in Gladiator, each ordinary individual’s world doesn’t revolve around them. These two are as good as celebrities to admire, leaders to look up to, obstacles to overcome or nuisances to deal with… but they’re not the center of everything for the average citizen, as things stand. They’re not the only thing on their minds. Each OC has their own struggles, their own pursuits, some more mundane than others, just like every canon character does. It’s easy to think of characters, especially OCs, through a very simplistic “helpers” and “foils” filter… but real people are a lot more complicated than that, and so are they :’)

#anon #gladiator #OCs #not gonna lie I love my OCs #I mean I think most people love their own OCs #but I don't think I say it often enough about my own #and yes the Priestess owns my sorry ass #she's one of the coolest characters I've concocted #sassiest asshole with a heart of gold #writing her has always been my privilege #can't wait for you guys to see her appearances through part 2 (slave riot AND the race!)

[saebrfan]

Stephen Amell on a Divided 'Arrow' & What Has Him 'Pumped' for Oliver's Prison Stint

Arrow is back for its seventh season and things are clearly not vigilante-business as usual in Star City. Mainly because orange is the new green for Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who has be remanded to Slabside Maximum Security Prison for his Green Arrow antics and the rest of the team has been forced to curtail their own heroics in order to avoid further prosecution.

Obviously, something will have to bring the gang back into action, but it won't be Oliver. According to series star Stephen Amell, the hero who has given The CW an entire universe to play around in, has his hands full behind bars and won't be free to fight crime for a while.

Here, Amell explains what's got him so excited about the season's changes and how new blood behind the scenes has sharpened Arrow's edge.

Ok, you are a few episodes into the season, how's it going?

Stephen Amell: Everything's going great. Everything's going great, it's been a very strange, a very unique start to the season for me.

When I spoke with [showrunner] Beth Schwartz this summer at Comic-Con, she pretty much said that Oliver is not getting out of jail quickly.

Yeah, and so no, he doesn't. It's not like a season of 24 where Jack Bauer is put in prison by the Chinese government but then you realize that they're not gonna keep him in China for like nine episodes. [Laughs] He's gonna show up like 20 minutes into the show! So we've really isolated Oliver in prison and it's been a very interesting dynamic because I haven't been interacting with a ton of the cast.

Does it feel like you're on a different show right now?

It totally feels like I'm on a different show. We've seen in the preview that Oliver interacts with both Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) in the premiere, but then I go a stretch of episodes [alone]. In fact it was just last week, I worked with one of the regulars and that was the first time in months. It's been really strange, although there are people in prison that Oliver interacts with where there's some familiarity that we haven't yet seen in the previews.

Does being separated from the cast mess with your head at all?

It's strange. I always worry so much about quality control on the show, just in terms of continuity and making sure that stuff's true to character, so when I'm not around, I have a tough time loosening my grip. But at the same time, one of the things that we're doing a little bit differently this year is, we've had either a producer or writer on set for every episode and that has really empowered them to make a lot of unilateral decisions because that is their episode. And that's been very helpful because I spend a lot of time talking with them and it gives me a lot of confidence that when I'm not there, there's not any sort of dip in quality. Not that I'm the one who's solely capable of keeping up the quality of the show. Far from it! It's just it allows me to relax a little bit because I've had several episodes where, because I'm in prison, we'd block my stuff at the top of the episode. I'm on a stage, because it's prison, and then I've been off for like 10 days

So you're running to Palm Springs every break you get?

[Laughs] We've gone to Hawaii and spent a week in L.A.... I'm mentally preparing for the start of the sort of crossover season and also kind of our prison-centric episode.

OK, you have to be careful how you say this because spoilers and all, so let's just talk about when we come back. Oliver's in jail...

Yeah, we've been five months in prison.

And from everything you've posted on Instagram, it has not been a walk in the park for Oliver.

Well, he's been laying low. And also the name of our season finale was "Life Sentence," so he isn't focusing on getting out on good behavior, but he's passively avoiding conflict and trying to stay out of everybody's way. One of the things I talk with the writers a lot about is that Oliver can break out of prison any time he wants. We've broken into prison, we've broken out of prison, I can't count how many times during the show. [Laughs] So there has to be a reason that he's staying in there and right now, it's the fact that he's done this to keep his friends from being arrested, has the FBI and A.R.G.U.S. looking for Diaz (Kirk Acevedo), and Felicity and William are theoretically safe. But the moment that all three of those things go away, then there's no reason for him to be in there anymore, that wouldn't make sense for the character.

OK, and where is the team at this point?

Felicity is in witness protection. Oliver doesn't know where and Diggle's at A.R.G.U.S. and the rest of the team, they are still in Star City, just not putting hoods and masks on.

So the whole band has broken up.

The whole band is broken up, yeah.

I am assuming that this is gonna have to be, in some way, resolved before the crossover.

[Laughs] That would be a safe assumption, I think. But the one thing that I can tell you is there aren't any breakouts of prison planned, so assuming that Oliver does eventually get out, I'm very, very excited to see how he gets back into society because, again, he's out as the Green Arrow now. People know, everyone knows it. So what does that mean, how is that gonna affect him?

And before all of that, you have all your own story inside of Slabside?

I'm very pumped, I'm very pumped with the work that we've done. I've got a lot of really nice notes from staff that the show feels different, that it looks a lot different. I don't know, there's just something about what we're doing this year. And you could put your thinking cap on and come up with a hundred different ways that the first episode might end and you would never guess it.

Really? Nice.

It's fantastic. I was so pumped when I read it. I think that there's been a lot of new blood in the writer's room and, not to say that things were stale, but it's important to have that happen and I think that a lot of bold moves are being made and a lot of things are being put in the scripts that can never be undone. That's something that I feel like we did a little bit more in our earlier days and then we maybe went a little bit of the safer route in some instances and I've always said if you have a good idea, let's not save it. Another season is promised to nobody. So if you've got a good idea, let's do it.

It's almost like you had to be the safe and responsible show while you were launching all the spinoffs. Now can go back to being risky.

We have no responsibility now! We can just to go and do our own thing and it's been a lot of fun. The only thing is, we've got a lot of new team members on the set and a lot of new cast members that I just haven't had the chance to interact with yet and so it's been very strange and I always like to try and make people feel at home and feel comfortable and see if they need anything. So to have people who are now a part of the family that I've just never seen is strange.

You have so much investment in the show, have you finally decided direct an episode? It's time.

That's a great question. I do have a lot of interest in directing, but I actively do not want to direct Arrow. To that, the answer's no. I really hesitate to say never, but I'm pretty sure never.

Arrow, Season 7 Premiere, Monday, October 15, 8/7c, The CW

#arrow season 7 #arrow #stephen amell #oliver queen