#he infodumped about swords again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan · 13 days

Text

Guys. Why is there even a debate here. Some of the games were explicitly written to be connected, some of them weren't. Not everything has to fit into one cohesive timeline. As a matter of fact, they can't. Now, there is some more nuance to it. Read below for my explanation (infodump) plus a more nuanced chart.

Red and blue lines are canon within the games' text. Ambiguities are filled in with green. I'll get more into that later. Let's first explain the two completely separate mini timelines.

The Four Swords miniseries stands mostly alone. The Master Sword and the Triforce are present in every other game or (mostly--looking at you, Master Sword in LoZ and AoL) have a good reason not to be, but they are not present at all in these three games. Instead, we have the Four Sword and Light Force. The only wrinkle is that Ganondorf shows up in FSA... so I don't know about that one. I don't think anyone does.

As for BotW and TotK. Oh brother. What do we do with these. Skyward Sword is intended to take place seemingly millennia, or at least several centuries before Ocarina. We see the founding of Hyrule with the first monarch and her chosen knight, the cycle of recurring evil and heroism being established, and the forging of the Master Sword

Wait. What about Rauru and Sonia? I thought they were the first rulers of Hyrule. And if the Zonai were around long before Hyrule, where is any of their presence in Skyward Sword? Huh. Alright. We don't know how much time passed between the first Calamity and the second, but from the past era of TotK to its present, we can account for at least 10,105 years of history. We don't even need to get into how Zora and Rito coexist or anything smaller like that. There's just no fucking way these two games fit with any of the others. Fine, that's fine. Moving on.

There's also a little hiccup around the Oracles. Nintendo seems to go back and force on whether the Oracles feature the same Link as in ALttP and LA, but if they do, it probably makes more sense that Oracles happen before LA (the linked Oracle game ends with Link boarding sailing off on a small ship and LA starts with him on one). So like... I guess they fit there?

Either way, let's take a second to look back at where this idea of a timeline split happened. Remember that WW and TP both clearly take place after OoT. That isn't theorizing, that's in the actual text of each game. The thing is, they're mutually exclusive. TP has Ganondorf being executed, as he would have been after the Hero of Time goes back to his original era and warns Zelda that her plan to get to the Triforce first isn't going to work (which is implied to be what happens at the "The End" screen of OoT). WW has Ganondorf coming back by breaking the seal put on him, and the Hero of Time didn't appear to stop him again (as would happen if Link was sent back in time). Fans started theorizing way back in 2006 that OoT created separate timelines, with WW and TP being mutually exclusive sequels to it as the evidence.

Some fans have asserted that Nintendo just "took" the fan theory. But come on, put everything together here. The texts of OoT, WW, and TP HEAVILY imply the timeline split. The only reason we called it a theory is because the writers didn't literally say "And then the timeline split in two". The texts are pretty clear though. It's the only thing that makes sense. That isn't to say that there needs to be a cohesive timeline, and that the split is the only way to fit it together. No, OoT is connected to both WW and TP no matter what. That was the intent. It's just that the explanation for OoT to have mutually exclusive sequels actually fits neatly into the texts of the games.

And now we come to the tricky part. Put yourself back into the 90s real quick. ALttP seems to have been written as a prequel to Zelda 1, showing Hyrule before its period of decline. Alright, let's just accept that because it may as well be true. The lore at that point was so thin that it made enough sense. I kinda slapped Zelda 1 and 2 at the end there to show it, because we do have a cohesive timeline from ALttP to TFH. That's fine, all well and good.

Likewise, OoT seems to be written as a prequel to ALttP. We see conflict over the Triforce, the origin of Ganon, the seven sages, and an earlier iteration of the Master Sword. Back in 1998, we had no reason to not believe it. These are tenuous connections that are not explicit in the games' text, so I've paired them with green lines to show it.

But wait. ALttP is ALSO mutually exclusive to TP and WW. Oh brother. What do we do about this? Even after figuring out the timeline split in 2006, fans didn't know what the fuck to do with the first four games of this franchise. They could go after TP, but that's even messier than putting them right after OoT. Yuck. This doesn't feel good at all. Oh yeah, and then there's the Four Swords games that don't fit anywhere.

Now you can imagine the position the writers of Hyrule Historia found themselves in when they were tasked with creating an official timeline. Some of the games have certain explicit connections, as detailed in my first chart. But they had to cram everything into one timeline. Well. They knew they had a timeline split in OoT, because that's what the texts of OoT, WW, and TP collectively say. The lore of ALttP also mentions seven sages (or wise men, but let's call them sages), but not a legendary hero. So... if you really stretch your brain out here... it kinda makes sense that there's a timeline where the Hero of Time died fighting Ganon. Maybe. Kinda. Not really, but kinda. And then there's the Four Swords miniseries. Fuck it, throw them in randomly.

The two-way split doesn't disagree with OoT's text at all, which said that Link won. The three-way split does disagree with it by asserting that Link lost. But if we're really trying to fit everything into one timeline, that is the cleanest place to put them. Some people really hate this, but it does seem that those are the same people that demanded that there be an official timeline in the first place. ie the same people who were gonna be pissed off with anything Nintendo gave them that wasn't exactly their own theory being confirmed.

Alright, real talk. The producers of the Zelda series have said time and time again that they think of what would make a fun game then write a story that fits around it. The Wind Waker devs wanted you to sail around the ocean. Then the writers decided "oh, we could put this after Ocarina! After all, weren't they left without a hero? What if Ganon came back with no one to stop him? How would that problem resolve itself? What if the gods just flooded the world?" Then the Twilight Princess devs wanted a spiritual successor to Ocarina, with an epic adventure on horseback across the traditional Zelda kingdom setting. So the writers went "hey, in Ocarina, Link warned Zelda about Ganon, right? What if he was executed then, and then the world was never flooded?"

We have to realize that trying to put games with this design philosophy into a neat little timeline is a futile effort. It's never gonna work because it wasn't designed to. More so than any other storytelling medium, video games take so many approaches to continuity. The Halo games were all meant to be sequential and fit neatly into a strict timeline. Pokemon is all canon within itself but the ties between games are less important than the stories of each game. Mario essentially has no canon except for recurring characters and settings. Zelda is gameplay first, canon second. That's why the two most recent mainline games don't even try to fit in the canon of the previous eighteen. That's just how it works and we're gonna have to accept that.

#zelda #the legend of zelda #zelda timeline #zelda analysis #my own #infodump #yikes man #this is precisely why I have this blog

47 notes · View notes

asterbats · 2 months

Text

Starfallification GTI edition... It's these guys....

Design/Story/Headcanon rambles below!

Virizion

Name: Aramis

Pronouns: She/It

Design Ramblings:

-Her colors are a little dull to imply a sense of melancholy. Kind of a hint that she's not exactly healthy.

-Has a battle scar on her face from one of its escapades pre-GTI

-Has a friendship necklace with Keldeo. She only starts to wear it again in the postgame.

Headcanons/Tweaks:

-Doesn't go by Aramis until far later. Insists on the more distant "Virizion" until the Great Glacier arc

-Because this is an alternate timeline where humans went extinct, the Swords of Justice never became a steady group, so there is no formal quartet. Aramis does not know her own Terrakion and Cobalion.

-She does, however, know Keldeo, of course. There was no sort of mentor/student relationship between the two, they were childhood friends and used to spar frequently. Aramis was a shy child while Keldeo was more bold, so he helped bring her out of her shell. The two had a "he talks enough for the both of us" sort of dynamic. He infodumps and it listens.

-Has always struggled with deep self esteem issues, as she doesn't feel she's particularly likable.

-It actually did know about Keldeo's entercard capabilities, which was how it recognized Umbreon and Espeon as entercard users back in the day. It was very disturbed to see Keldeo's entercard markings in the Great Glacier.

-Didn't expect to find Noodle and Parker as enjoying as they were. She honestly expected to see Parker as a pest. But she found them more and more endearing as time went on and eventually sought out their company on her own very consistently. She’s in a QPR with them.

-She's very expressionless and aloof, which leads Pokemon to assume that she has no real feelings, especially as she rejects all of them. She was like this even before Keldeo sent the letter, but it got worse afterwards, of course. She's very blunt and honest as well, not seeing the point in sugarcoating anything. Because of this, she gets along well with Espeon.

-Feels the most conflicted about their child, as its worried that they will resent her for being aloof and avoid her. Or that they would see her for "what she truly was". But their child loves and looks up to her a ton, which does make her feel better.

Emolga

Name: Parker (Insists on Emolga)

Pronouns: He/It

Design Notes:

-So when I was younger, I always figured that Emolga kinda presented himself as a superhero? Because he swoops in to save Dunsparce in Stompstump Peak, he always sticks up for the little guy, and he's very vain and outspoken. The wings also lended well to that, since they look like a cape. So I wanted to lean into that!

-He's mixed with both Theivul (for the mask, tail, and extra brown color) and Boltund (for the wavy fur and eyes).

Story/Headcanons:

-When Parker was younger, it was abandoned by its parents, and no one was willing to take the orphan in, so he had to steal food to survive.

-It was every Pokemon for itself, so Parker never grew close to other Pokemon. Due to his small size and power, he was usually harassed for what little items he had, so he never trusted anyone.

-When he was a teenager, however, he ran into Noodle. The little snake was being bullied for their money by another group of Pokemon, and was frantically trying to empty his pockets. Emolga typically would have just ignored it to save his own skin... but watching the Pokemon mock Dunsparce and berate him for not having more food, and the sheer desperation and tears in the snake's face, something in him snapped, and he swooped in to defend the Dunsparce, fighting off the Pokemon. He intended to leave soon after, but Noodle insisted on taking care of his wounds and giving the Emolga a place to stay. After that, he and Noodle were best friends.

-Parker stopped stealing after that incident- it didn't want to stay in that lifestyle anymore after seeing how honest Noodle was. Unfortunately, this meant going hungry, so he would often go into Mystery Dungeons to get supplies for them- eventually becoming a stronger fighter for it. This inspired Noodle to want to be a treasure hunter themself, although they got lost very easily- Parker would have to look for them more often than not. Not that he didn't take pride in that... he let that ego go to his head. He loved providing for the smaller Pokemon, sure, but he also craved the notoriety.

-Holds a grudge very easily. You call him a rat and he will remember that decades down the line. He finds it hard to forgive

-Despite his size, he knows how to impose himself. Its got a naturally loud voice and he usually perches himself on high ledges so he stands over people.

-He has a massive heart, though. He adores his partners and will lay himself on the line for them. He also fawns over their child a lot.

-Was the closest to Eris out of the gang for a while, besides Kiran. It taught Eris how to handle his electricity and take care of his new body properly.

Dunsparce

Name: Noodle

Pronouns: They/He

Design Notes:

-Wears a reunion cape given to them by Kiran so they don't get lost as often!

Headcanon/Story notes:

-Was always picked on for being a weaker Pokemon. Because of this, they were rather withdrawn from others, and never put up a fight against larger Pokemon- they just didn't want any trouble.

-Took Parker into their home once he saved them from a group of Pokemon that was harassing them, and the two became fast friends. Parker jokingly called them a "noodle" because of how wobbly they'd get when they were scared, and the name stuck.

-Parker inspired them to want to become an explorer... but unfortunately, they never had the strength for it. He would go into dungeons on his own, and Parker would have to swoop in and save him.

-At first, they admired Aramis for its strength, and thought that if they could only become stronger, they would be liked as well as she was. But when they both joined Paradise, they broke her walls down, and saw her for who she truly was- warts and all. And they appreciated her more and more every day for it.

-Actually fell into a more strategizing/organizer role as the events of the game went on. They came into their own as a fighter and explorer and can hold their own in a fight now, but ended up finding a lot of comfort in taking care of others.

-It was their idea to adopt their kid. The trio had found the egg in a dungeon and Noodle pushed and pushed to raise the child as their own.

#sorry to everyone who requested a different character last year. i just really wanted to do these guys...#child has no name yet btw which is why theyre referred to as such. theyre a larvesta tho :3 #also. can you tell who my favorite is LMAO #virizion #emolga #dunsparce #pmd #pokemon #pkmnart #gti #gates to infinity #starfall #canon characters

58 notes · View notes

itsagrimm · 1 year

Text

König is a bit nerdy

He might be an active, intimidating, focused and somewhat private man during missions but that basically goes out of the window as soon as he returns home.

Big into board games. It's his main friend circle and they meet up every time he gets back for a night of pizza and a new addition of Carcassonne, Munchkin or CATAN. König would love to play more Pen & Paper style of games as well but since he is in town so irregularly they never really do it.

Listens to audiobooks when traveling because it's easier than to pack all those tons of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books he is into. Currently re-'reads' Eragon because of the nostalgia.

Oh, he likes dragons (obviously).

Owns a closet full of costumes for Mittelalter Märkte / Renaissance Fairs. Also owns a traditional tent and everything else needed for a good LARP. Is 1000000% down for a couples costume.

König has the traditional not-leaving-the-house-for-a-day-when-coming-back-moment to play his favourite game (a certain AAA shooter). Due to the lack of practice and unfamiliarity with the map he isn't the best at it, which his teammates who know him irl tease him mercilessly about. Also, he prefers the sniper position and puts hours into decorating his avatar.

Used to be an avid reddit user. But got annoyed by some incels and left.

Likes going on bookstore dates with his S/O. Also really enjoys some quiet time with them just doing parallel play while being close.

Extremely specific about his keyboard preferences and cap designs. Generally enjoys researching how to improve his set up.

Treasures his old DS and was extremely happy about it turning on and working fine when he found it in an old box at his parents house.

Definitely has done the naruto run during a workout at home.

Can give a 45 minutes impro presentation about something Star Wars related. Will never grow tired of mocking Star Wars, it's a complicated relationship.

Always travels back home to Austria via Germany because the books are cheaper there and he stocks up especially on Mangas and Comics instead of paying an obscene amount for the shipping.

Has played Pathologic.

Has finished Pathologic.

Will not shut up about Pathologic. Yes, his S/O is very used to getting infodumped.

Currently learns polish to read the Witcher books in the original.

Owns and unironically uses themed kitchen utensils from his most beloved franchises. During Christmas time he brings out an absurd amount of cookie cutters for Plätzchen in fantasy themes like swords and witches. And in summer he serves up ice cubes in Death Star shapes. Has a very frilly apron because it reminds him of cliche anime stuff and he thinks him wearing it is funny. (he is right, it looks ridiculous and barely covers his chest.)

Can and will become extremely serious and intimidating again should someone say something sexist or racist or generally mean in his vicinity. He is here to enjoy himself with some nerdy shit with the people he cares about and not here to witness a hate crime or aggressions. He knows too much about that already from work and will become A TREAT if necessary. Don't try that shit around him otherwise you will be faced with spitting-fire-soldier-König and not goofy-nerd-at-home-König.

Likes cute shaped foods and always gets himself or his S/O to try out or as a gift.

Should he ever have kids they will have the most down to play games dad. They will grow up in a house filled with playful things and toys. And reading fairy tales with doing-all-the-voices-König becomes a nightly routine.

#könig headcanons #könig #könig x reader #könig cod #könig mw2 #könig call of duty #dad könig

404 notes · View notes

aoki553 · 3 months

Text

GRGRGRGRG FINALLY AN OPPORTUNITY TO INFODUMP ABT HIM!!! tysm @makifishcake and prepare for a long ramble abt best boy ever (to me) and why saijun is real... let's start with an introduction to a canon crossover character only The Loser (me) cares about! this is gonna get messy in writing near the end cuz its like 3 am for me rn.

Kouno Jun is one of the two protagonists of Asou-sensei's older work, Our Hero Studies and is one of Haganeno Ken's students at Holy Lance Academy (a private school that either exists the same town as Saiki or some neighboring one)

The only translated OHS chapters so far show us who Jun and Haganeno are as characters. Kouno Jun's a generic tsukkomi high school student with normal teenage boy interests and crushes... he's baby and a total boyfail.

Jun likes video games (Kaisou Monogatari, an in-universe franchise), ramen, melon soda and Yayumi - the class rep. Pretty normal dude that's just being constantly bothered by his classmates and the teacher he hates...

...and then there's Haganeno Ken - THE delusional cosplayer hero wannabe teacher with huge interest in roleplaying and RPG video games, who immediately takes a liking to Jun, mainly for his name (his name means shield, while Haganeno's mean sword. you see where i'm going?)

most of the ohs panels will be machine translated cuz i have no strength or motivation to continue my actual translation work ngnhnh one day maybe... 😔

He may look like a generic high school shonen manga protagonist, but it's actually really charming to me how adorable he can be despite the boring presentation lolol HIS CRUSH ON YAYUMI IS SO CUTE UGHNHNH

And yeah of course he shows up in Saiki bc WHY WOULDNT HE???

Asou-sensei put him there twice. In the Christmas chapter where he's walking with a girl (MOST LIKELY YAYUMI), sees Kusuo sitting alone and being like "haha that's so sad to be lonely on christmas lmao"... EXCEPT ITS HILARIOUS CUZ HE DOES THE SAME THING IN HIS OWN MANGA'S CHRISTMAS CHAPTER.

and in the Hero Studies crossover chapter, right at the end as an unused character. (wouldn't make sense to have two tsukkomis there tbh so i get it lolol)

Same thing happens in the anime except Jun in the Christmas episode wasn't animated like he's an actual pre-existing character, except just a background character so he looks different but has the same jacket with his initials so its definitely him.

so here's all his screentime:

his terrible sense of style was referenced by Takeru at one point as well. yes, Jun dresses terrible and he has outfits much worse than this. hes a loser and i love him

okay but what's with the saijun thing? orz

basically its a silly ship me and my lovely sweetest gf (@lu-kario ) came up with and it kinda stuck around. "omg haha what if the two protagonists from different manga dated" but yeah it became an actual thing with thought out scenarios between us.

Me saying it'd be like satousai but Kusuo finds someone "normal" with actual personality would be not giving this ship enough justice. I can't tell much rn cuz I forget 90% of the stuff i make up unless i write it down BUT all i'll say is that

I like to imagine Jun and Kusuo having a calm and nice relationship, lots of quality time spent playing video games or going out to get some ramen together. Kusuo gets to have someone more usual by his side and Jun isn't likely to be bothered by Ken when Kusuo is around (:3).

and yeah, they do get another scene together in volume zero! how lovely! the christmas episode is also one of the reasons i find the ship cool but even despite the sillies having canon scenes and illustrations together i like it simply for fun.

canon crossover ships are cool and epic

my final words: go read ohs its fully in japanese online and 5 chapters are in english so far.

seriously go read it the fandom doesn't exist its really lonely.

and if you care abt our hero studies u can motivate me in the ask box, gimme a kick on the butt so i go and translate this work again after like a year or more of hiatus

#alex rambles #our hero studies #saiki kusuo no ψ nan #saiki kusuo no psi nan #saiki k #saiki kusuo #kouno jun #jun kouno #saijun #kusuo saiki #haganeno ken #ken haganeno #kurusu yayumi #yayumi kurusu

34 notes · View notes

vicioussickle · 18 days

Text

ok hi welcome to a very long and image heavy post about the toxic yaoi story of astor the shitty wizard and skooga the wretched footsoldier...

come and ponder this wretched orb...

(this ended up so damn chaotic and messy but very on brand for tumblr infodumping i guess... this started off as just pasting a thread but it became a lot longer and informative because i realized i haven't really shared backstory here... im always yappin on twt they can never truly silence me.)

ok, also, this isnt a "ship" for the sake of romance, really, its very toxic intentionally... I feel I have implied throughout my drawings that he and skooga have something depraved going on too…. It’s skooga that initiated the pursuit, ironically too.. he wants to piss off his mom…

Wretched mommy does NOT like Astor at all due to her own history with the shitty wizard cult… she does not want her wretched son getting involved with that stuff either and it scares her that he’s pulled the wool over master kohga’s eyes… deep in her orb she has a bad feeling…

skooga hates hates his mommy as he gets older… he doesn’t remember her involvement with that cult (intentionally) but he does remember her in a way he internalized as abusive… her grief…

lamented on here:

He resents having to be raised by his brother too, he truly hates everyone and everything so ofc a freak who wants to bring forth the end of days is appealing to him, and his mommy don’t like it so he likes it even more…

i always imagined that it was due to the yiga's lack of allies otherwise that they even accepted the cult to integrate with them... (i DO have my own wack theory that the cult ARE sheikah but thats for another post. im trying really hard to make this just on toxic yaoi.)

my fanfiction is something of an au i suppose because i combine the events of aoc and make them become botw, the calamity does still happen, its just prolonged a bit... what will be will be!

skooga found the goddess harp in the woods as a child while following around his sister and link... and he's once again reminded of it while following along with astor. like. its fucking real:

skooga also has his own sort of.. political agenda? too big for his tiny shorts... he wants to run around unmasked, they all should. they shouldn't have to hide who they are, the lives they end should very well see their faces as the last thing they see. he doesnt want to be covert and anonymous... so he brings up the harp and working undercover in the castle... (shay tags along as well on the research team, she loves digging up the guardians and playing in dirt... in totk shes a depths researcher)

so he gets his wish~

he becomes the court poet, all while his songs are passed back to the yiga clan and astor as intel... i think astor knows something about that harp tho... it IS a relic of the goddess, much like the master sword... it has been passed down through her hands herself... it's been known to control time, open portals to hell -

why IS there no shadow temple in the hyrule of botwera? could it be because of the kings prior refusing to accept the bloody history of greed and hatred that comes with the land...? perhaps it lies in wait and just needs that sacred melody again... or maybe their sage is taking A NAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so the harp is a valuable asset... i like to imagine that the cult practiced bizzare tantric-adjacent rituals, and it gets weird... most likely how they all ended up being killed by the very thing they were worshipping... all but astor, he is bound to the calamity and probably has it's insentient voice in his head at all times too, astor was chosen as it's conduit to feed the beast... (as is his own demise...) it doesn't bother him tho, he enjoys the servitude.

he also enjoys toying with skooga in the same way a lunatic would torture an animal too... because skooga is kind of naive and trusting when he isn't running his mouth... and i feel like it's also a weird.. chain of command thing... he gets off on watching him do what he says, all of them, while knowing he is going to kill them all... skooga is good for milking little bits of malice.

side note: blahblah sexuality blahblah skooga never found himself attracted to women. i'd say he's quite content and comfortable being a man also, but often thinks of himself and behaves as very effeminate... hes a gay boy. A BISHONEN. ok, alright. he still worked for his mother as well... to be honest, as he became an older teen-young adult he just enjoyed gossiping with the women, especially when they had raunchy stories to tell about the royal guards who he saw regularly now as the court poet... even link's father perhaps... i wonder why the court poet doesn't think link comes from "nobility"... hm... perhaps his father liked banging whores. maybe he really liked to drink...

(more things for another post. the kids' mother grew up during the time when the sheikah were totally banished from the kingdom... as it wasn't until zelda was born, canonically, that king rhoam set out to repair that allyship... long story short for this post - the father was murdered by a royal guard because it was technically ok by the law)

Now and for context.. this takes place right after skooga’s failure flop attack… he never wanted to hurt zelda either… he was hoping to scare her and link and drive them away out of the desert… he needs to make it look like he ain’t gone soft for her too… (hes a big star, hes the court poet AND the asshole in the yiga memory!)

It works out not great, it turns out link is actually terrifying with that cursed blade… Astor also urged this attack because it would serve as a distraction while he prepares to reap the orbs of the others… he would also be delighted seeing the yiga kill their own for treason...

Then ofc zelda knows what’s going on too… she’s always sort of sensed something in her ~court poet… he’s always been on edge and hateful towards link… she can’t blame the wretched guy tho. At this point she doesn’t even value her own life. She can’t do what she’s “meant to”… this is why he sympathizes and relates to her... out of everything he's got going on, he actually enjoys the court poet gig... he wants to learn more about ancient history too... the ancient history of his people... the reason why they divided... it really hits him that his father was murdered for simply being. he never really thought about those things until venturing out among others. his sister talked about it but he called her a annoying. He doesn't want any more wars, he doesn't want to be divided, he think's zelda's father is trustworthy... he truly believes in his people's ingenuity, and has faith in their allyship... he isn't using them...

it then very suddenly hits him that that is what exactly astor is doing.... he has an existential crisis with impa:

it is all much too late, tho...

skooga worked as an excellent distraction and many were killed...

i never really thought about it until now, but he probably carries a certain grief with him as well... he was as close as one could be with astor and he went along with it. his own grief blinded him too... he was just like his mommy 💔 so that's that on that, got a little off topic in some spots but i tried... if i think of anything else that i should write a deep dive on i will... or if any of u here want to ask about anything specific always feel free. tldr; its really just. naive young man gets bamboozled by an old creep. is that a trope? idk. its toxic yaoi.

#the legend of zelda #age of calamity #breath of the wild #botw #astor #oc #skooga #fanfiction

26 notes · View notes

imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese · 14 days

Note

Hello! Me again, back to pester you about lore.

So what's going on with The Drifter? For once I know a little about the character, I read 'A Man With No Name', but I still have questions. From how the book read, Drifter convinced Felwinter to get revenge for the destruction of the village. Did that go anywhere? And what did Drifter get up to for the (unspecified very long) timeskip between the book and the game?

And with the modern day, does the Vanguard know he's running a fighting ring out of the basement? Or does every single guardian look away when Zavala tries figuring out where people keep getting these weapons? I guess first rule of fight club and all that. What's he even trying to do? He seems to be pretty against most of the Vanguard's leadership.

Anyway, another invitation to infodump about your other blorbo. I hope you don't mind XD

If you thought I was long-winded about Eris... She's maybe 400 years old whereas the Drifter may be 900... get comfy... this will not be quick.

"Dark Age was wild times."

I adore the Drifter and a good chunk of how and why I adore him is his voice - both the voice acting and the syntax/diction/phrasing used in the writing, but voice alone does not cover why I find his character so utterly enthralling and fantastic.

I wrote a short piece consisting of Eris telling Ikora what she sees in him in my story Finders Keepers. It's basically a personality analysis and some people have (I think probably accurately) accused it of being a love letter to that character. (Reminder: that link is fanfiction - I wrote it - it is not lore, but it is based on lore. However, everything else I list after this is actual lore.)

But, personality aside, ultimately the Drifter's story is what I find most compelling about him and makes him so empathetic. You mentioned you've read A Man with No Name, but there's more. A lot more.

To start, the Drifter is D2's most violent pacifist.

He doesn't want to fight and when he does, it's vicious. The Emissary of the Nine, formerly Orin (his ex-best friend and/or ex-lover, depending upon how you read it) aptly says "He hates violence. He hates it so much he'll murder anyone who tries to inflict it on him."

In A Man with No Name, we see him go from hiding in a town and having it obliterated by warlords, to running a bar at the bottom of Felwinter peak, to getting Lord Felwinter himself to avenge the town. Drifter doesn't fight anywhere in there and gets other people to do his fighting for him, which is a pretty standard tactic for him. And yes, it is strongly implied that Felwinter does indeed murder the fuck out of Lord Dryden when he says "Call Lord Dryden. Prepare my Iron Banner arsenal."

But then we get Dark Age Drifter entries where he's gunning down Fallen attackers with quotes like "He had never brought himself to shoot a human. Or anything even resembling a human. Risen included." (Bonus mention: notice "Alright" repeated here and compare to his standard Gambit opening of Alright, alright, alright...") Where he's slipping away from non-violence, specifying, in particular, that he won't shoot a human but will defend himself from aliens.

And then he becomes something else entirely in these amazing entries with what I've been calling his Breakneck crew:

Now Otto's a Sword man. He's all about "craft." Technique. Precision. It's disgusting, but I don't care how he does it, as long as it gets done, so I just let him do it. And Otto does it so beautifully that, when he's done, you're standing there holding your guts in your hands and thanking him for the show.

Never touches a gun, that girl. She likes to get close. Likes to look right in their eyes and be the last thing they see.

The chumps that run out to stop us are babies. That's the kicker with Warlords—other than ours, there's not a Ghost in sight here. Just civilians who can barely hold their guns without wetting their pants, who can't aim worth a damn, who stick their necks out for the bad guys with eternal life. Real geniuses.

Cenric stood up. That vein of his looked about ready to pop. Drifter let his feet down as he reached for his rifle, asp-quick. "And you know what we do with rats, don't you, brother."

And the thing I love about this is the character development this speaks to where he goes from pacifist who won't fight at all... to someone who will use a machine gun competently, repeating "Alright" and getting himself used to killing, but not humans, never humans... to stone cold vicious murder-Drifter talking about the lightless who die to his crew in ways that make them (and himself) seem no longer human, to gunning down his own crew, people he felt were a perfect team, when they make deals with warlords behind his back and lie to him about it.

The Drifter started out adhering to an ideal of nonviolence and it destroyed him and everyone he cared for. His sense of self, his principles, everything he believed in is eroded until he completely loses all hope and in order to survive the cruelty of the world he lives in he becomes a ruthless monster.

Either before or after his Breakneck-era crew (it's not clear), the Drifter (under the name Eli) joins the Pilgrim Guard, a group of Titans protecting lightless people as they travel to the Last City. He does this out of a desire/need to be near Orin, a Titan with a complicated past and strong ties to both Queen Mara and the Nine. But then after spending time with Eli/Drifter and the Pilgrim Guard, Orin, the one person Drifter's ever had a deep human connection with, the person he considers his best friend, leaves without a word.

It's very telling that the green snakes, the jade coin, and the red string on those same coins that form such profound parts of the Drifter's symbolism and identity all come from Orin. When the Drifter truly cares for someone, he incorporates part of them into himself, into his identity, making them part of who he becomes, so they live on inside of him.

After his time with Orin, we get into the extremely confusing, contradictory mess that is the Drifter's intersection with Shin Malfur-related Rose/Thorn/Lumina lore. And by this I mean that the Drifter, after fighting alongside people doing genuinely noble good work, in the wake of losing Orin, leaves the Pilgrim Guard and eventually ends up joining the evil cult of evil: following in the footsteps of one of the most reviled risen to ever exist - the guardian-killer: Dredgen Yor.

If you're gonna hang with me, you need to know about the Shadows of Yor. They follow the edicts of a very bad man named Dredgen Yor. And what're his Shadows after? Everything the Light can't provide. I thought they could help me find an answer to the battles of Light versus Light that raged during the Dark Age. But the longer I flew with them, the more I saw they're blind as all those who follow the Traveler. One albatross for another. I was done with 'em.

And while in the cult, in some sort of ritual, he communes with the Darkness directly and gets some sort of Darkness powers (possibly Stasis, possibly something else - it's super unclear) and the Darkness whispers to him his Dredgen name: Dredgen Hope, which is particularly brutal in context with this quote from Dredgen Yor himself:

I care only to give hope to the frightened, huddled masses so that when I come upon them they will have more to lose. Their pain will be greater. Their screams more pure… Nothing dies like hope. I cherish it.

But it is also particularly pointed because hope is the thing the Drifter doesn't have. Trust is the thing he doesn't have the ability to do any more because of his experiences (and is also the name of the hand cannon he wears shoved into his pants). He is the most jaded (literally - constantly fidgeting with a jade coin) character in the D2 universe. He loses everything and leans in on it and follows that path to full evil.

And then he walks away. Because evil doesn't work for him either.

But also (either before or after he's completely left the cult - it's ambiguous, but possibly when he's still entangled but it's already fracturing and falling apart) he finds Orin again (he's using the name Wu Ming at this point - either having returned to it, or because he hasn't changed it yet from Felwinter Peak, or perhaps this happens before Felwinter Peak - the order and timeline is somewhat fuzzy).

Orin does not remember who he is when he finds her the second time (she's pretty nuts at this point - her story is filled with madness and tragedy), and is going insane with grief over losing Namqi (the person she left with when she disappeared the first time) as well as her obsession with the Nine. And the Drifter is once more drawn to her and once more connects deeply with her:

Wu Ming leaves his questions by the wayside as he is drawn inexorably into the gravity well of her desperate honesty. Her confessions lower his defenses. He talks of himself. Of his fear. Of his loneliness. How he feels he is one fingernail away from plummeting into an abyss. How he feels vicious resentment every time he is brought back from the dead: He never asked for the gift of the Light... They make excuse after excuse to meet again. Every conversation is colored by excavated truths; every day they feel they will reach some bedrock that will break them to pieces. It is as frightening as it is intoxicating.

But then Orin finds out about him being a Dredgen, terminates their relationship, goes off to become the Emissary of the Nine and, as someone I was talking with once referred to it: 'it was a breakup so bad he had to leave the solar system.'

Things go very poorly the first time the Drifter loses Orin but the second time is far worse. He has a full-on Lovecraftian 'At the Mountains of Madness' style horror-movie-plot experience with a crew he calls his 'best friends' (which may or may not be all ex-Dredgens but there's at least evidence they might be) out on a frozen planet being stalked and driven to insane levels of paranoia by Darkness creatures able to snuff out their light:

I think I mentioned we're all raving psychos at this point. Well, we did what all measured raving psychos would do. We thought we each had been betrayed by the others. We drew on each other.

The Drifter kills them all to keep them from killing him (at least, that's what he says - no one else is alive to argue). Then his ghost, who up until now has been kind of a moralistic asshole, suggests he hunt down the ghosts of his former crew and Frankenstein them together in order to survive:

And the craziest thing happened. My Ghost snapped... But we would need parts. Ghost parts. And we knew where we could get some... The Ghosts of my former crew all fled as soon as their charges hit the dirt. So me'n mine, we hunted them... "Hey. There's always hope. For what it's worth, I'm proud of you." It was the last thing my Ghost ever said, and the last lie it ever told.

The Drifter's ghost is rendered mute from the experience (either mechanically or due to the trauma of hunting down and murdering other ghosts - it's not clear) but the plan works, they survive, and the Drifter builds the Derelict out of scrap, returning to the Tower where he sets up Gambit.

It's super unclear (again, the Shin-related lore is just a mess and deliberately confusing) but it turns out that Drifter going on about how the Man with the Golden Gun is out to get him is actually a deal he made with Shin to set up Gambit (because, spoiler: the leader of the entire Dredgen cult, Dredgen Vale, turns out to be none other than Shin Malphur, the Man with the Golden Gun, who hunts Dredgens and who the Drifter has been saying is out to get him this entire time) to draw out the truly Darkness-corrupted guardians so Shin can kill them. (And this is ultimately why the Vanguard lets him run a fighting ring in the basement - because Shin convinces them it will help find the truly bad guardians so they can be eliminated).

If you find that confusing, that's because it is. Anything to do with Shin Malphur/Dredgen Yor/Rose/Thorn/Lumnia is pretty much an acid-trip, continuity-wise. It hurts my brain.

As for where the Drifter gets the weapons he gives us for Gambit? To the surprise of no one, he's stealing them. Because of course he is. It's him.

While running Gambit, he ends up visited by the Emissary of the Nine (formerly Orin - same body, different person) and has the Haul attached to the Derelict as a 'gift' in this amazing cutscene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFtmr___dSw

And he pretty much stays in "shifty morally ambiguous guy in the basement" mode until Arrivals when the pyramids show up on Io and we get one of my favourite lore tabs in all of D2: Whispering slab.

The two sit. They speak. They listen. Linkages forged in Light and Dark of traded secrets as the Derelict hangs in orbit around the Earth. Pacts are made. Soon, there is only the silence of knowing left between them.

"Next time you fly over the Moon, dust your boots. Tracking that crap all over my floors."

Both of the Drifter's deep emotional entanglements with Orin happen when he really genuinely talks to her, and now in Whispering Slab, he's genuinely talking to someone else, plus we get the origin of why he calls that someone else Moondust.

Then, during Arrivals, we get the amazing banter between him and Eris, and in Beyond Light they learn to control Stasis together with the result being (in my highly subjective opinion) the best cutscene in all of D2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQAB-sSi6P0

At the end of Haunted we get Eris' message to him about healing and finding joy , he has this line in Plunder "What we do now matters more than who we were", we end up with the Kept Confidence lore tab during Season of the Witch where the person who previously insisted he trusted no one now is saying: "He didn't trust them. He trusted her" and then in the Gloaming Journeyer tab, he pulls her into a hug and reminds her of what she told him once (in the Prophesy dungeon dialogue): "That we'll live in the night if we have to. We do it for what comes after." (What comes after is dawn, hope, the continuance of existence after the darkest point.)

Someone in a chat I was in once summed up the core dynamic of the Drifter and Eris' relationship perfectly as "He gives her trust. She gives him hope."

There are people online who are very frustrated with the Drifter's character development, feeling that the Drifter has 'had his teeth filed off' and that he 'got his depression cured by getting a goth girlfriend' but I feel that's just people who don't like change. The Drifter has, throughout his entire storyline been constantly changing who he is. Change is part of his many self-constructed identities which he re-creates over and over as his old sense of self is destroyed and remade. Gritty vicious Drifter is still in there and he will be just as brutal as ever if he needs to be.

He doesn't want to be, though. He never has. And as someone who deals with medical-grade depression and who found themselves in a situation where they needed to reconstruct a sense of self to replace the one that was lost, the Drifter finding a way to hope and trust again after all he's been through is an extremely powerful and poignant narrative which speaks to me on many levels.

It's not trite, thoughtless happy fluffy rainbows, friendship-fixes-everything-whee! It's painful and slow and beautiful as the Drifter learns to have healthy relationships with other people. We need stories like this to speak to us at an unconscious level and tell us that even if you're not Eris Morn and you failed, and you gave up, and you didn't make it out of the Hellmouth, and you in fact gave in to despair and completely lost all hope, your experience erasing who it was you were and having that old you replaced with someone else, you can still find hope again. Even if you've been burned so severely by so many, many, negative human interactions that you cannot trust anyone, if you find the right people, you can slowly learn how to trust again.

The Drifter's story has been called a redemption arc, and I guess in a way it is that too but, for me, the essential quality of the Drifter's narrative isn't redemption: it's healing.

Stories have power. We incorporate them into who we are. Dredgen Hope ultimately does live up to his name. Within D2 he is finally starting to heal. I find that idea, of healing in spite of being so altered by one's experiences as to have had to become an entirely different person in order to survive, of being unable to trust and still finding a way to learn how to trust again, to be important and beautiful to have in my subconscious as something to draw from. It is a story that is very much needed by a lot of people. We need to be reminded that we can be irrevocably changed and have everything taken from us and still find a way to trust and hope and love again. That might seem a bit much for a shooty game, but I maintain this is why D2 has some of the best storytelling of any game I've ever played and that the character of the Drifter is a huge part of what makes that storytelling so compelling.

Sorry this took so long to answer. This seriously was as short as I could make it and still say everything that I felt needed to be said. There's more, and more detail, of course, but this is my treatise on why the Drifter is as awesome as I think he is.

That is all.

#the drifter #destiny 2 #ask me more things!#lore dump of doom #damn this was long #but so is drifter's life - dude is one of if not the oldest one!#drifteris #eris morn #drifter/eris #the drifter/eris morn

22 notes · View notes

euthyami · 7 days

Note

You should do some doodles with ambriel! I think their (not about ambriels pronouns) character design is neat but I didn't find much about them in your blog so far.

Maybe doodle them eating their favorite food or show what do they do in their free time?

ambriel answers!! also his pronouns are he/him!! he's an autistic trans man (hence him having a weird relationship with food, he also likes plain food and has a sweet tooth, he learns to bake in his free time too!)

i've decided to ramble about his general backstory and hints for the show dream zone as this is an actual show i've managed to somewhat create to fit the nicktoons timeline!!!

(also tysm for asking abt him he's my pride and joy and i have way too many notes app pages abt dream zone)

here some facts about him

- he stars in the show 'dream zone' which ran from 2002-2004, his previous hero persona, known as metzli, is inspired by the magical girl aesthetic. his goal is to keep the town of hollowbury safe from the dream zone.

- the trio that most nick shows have also happen within dream zone! ambriel, vinnie and rosalind :D (he does go by a different name, his deadname, but i will call him ambriel throughout this.)

- the dream zone, despite it's nice sounding name, is a dangerous beast, as has claimed many victims, whether missing persons or death itself. the show's finale ends with one of ambriel's friends vinnie dying within the dream zone (by accident), which causes him to die in real life.

-(this is also the incident that gave ambriel his scar on his forehead, which is basically a crack of reality that he can twist and break to his will, how he has one of his attacks, his mind sword.)

- ambriel then goes into hiding and quits the superhero gig. he becomes depressed and traumatised and lives a hermit life. literally faking his death to get away from it all.

- it's not until a portal that reappears every june 26th, (the day nicktoons unite game takes place), he goes in after not going in the time before because he thought it would be too dangerous, and then he meets the nicktoons gang after ending up in jimmy's lab

- the portal was made by jimmy recruiting heroes for nicktoons unite. it reappears every year due to some mishap- but it's not until years later ambriel actually goes through.

- after that, he decides to welcome his dream abilities again, after suppressing his powers for years, and fights alongside the nicktoons gang, renaming himself ayauha also known as ayauhteo (all based on aztec mythology btw).

- that's all for now because i don't wanna infodump everything but there's a lot of information about this i could go into detail !! but thank you for listening if you make it this far !!

#art: mine #nicktoons unite #oc: ambriel rowe #dream zone: ambriel rowe #art: dream zone #nicktoons #danny phantom #jimmy neutron boy genius #jimmy neutron #fairly oddparents #spongebob squarepants #ask: doodle request

15 notes · View notes

thehollowwriter · 2 months

Note

📚🔺🐉💚🍔🤒

All for Silas!

(Still not done sending these 😈)

I'm excited to see more!

📚 BOOKS — What level of education has your oc most recently completed/is currently in (GED, undergraduate, grad school, phd, etc)?

Absolutely none. At all. Ever. At least not "formally" or "officially." He grew up in the Abyss, and there certainly aren't school down there.

Lady Rhoda taught him how to read, write and do math as well history and biology (sex ed at 20 something is better late than never,right?), but he already had steady income, so there was no need for trying "formal" education. He does research things on his own since he doesn't like not knowing things and having that used against him, though.

🔺 RED TRIANGLE POINTED UP — Does your oc know how to use any weapons?

Silas most certainly does! While he mainly uses magic as his weapon, he knows how to use spears, harpoons, knives, and probably swords if you give him one. I feel if guns could actually work under the sea, he'll be able to use one. Also, a fun fact from Silas: seaweed can, in fact, be used to strangle if you use it right.

🐉 DRAGON — What is your oc's favourite mythical creature?

I'd say Sirens from Greek Mythos. He finds them fascinating. It does annoy him that so many think these half bird half women creatures look like merpeople, including the mer people. It's probably the first thing he'll infodump about. Finn has heard his rants about the many misconceptions about Sirens hundreds of times.

🍔 HAMBURGER — Is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? which one do they prefer?

Silas is good at cooking! Though he technically can't "cook" anything since they're underwater? But I like to imagine there are heated air vents on his property he can go to cook something, though usually it's just not worth the trip when there are many raw dishes like stuffed crab, seaweed wraps, etc that he can make.

Baking involves cooking in dry heat without exposure to flame, usually in an oven (hah! I learned that in Hospitality), so I guess he could do it in those air pockets and mini volcanoes? But it's far from house and not worth the trip, though maybe he will "bake" on special occasions. He likes it and is good it at it. He prefers cooking, though.

🤒 FACE WITH THERMOMETER — Does your oc get sick easily?

Okie angst time

Hah! Nope! He used to get sick a lot as a child, then (and kinda now too, actually...) he was just sickly because of how malnourished he was. His immune system is something else, truly, as he's been exposed to so many sicknesses and infections it'll leave doctors confounded. It's difficult for him to get sick. Well... though it wasn't necessarily an illness, he gave himself "refeeding syndrome" by trying to make up for what he was lacking when he finally had steady access to food.

Refeeding syndrome is when someone malnourished or starved suddenly begins eating again, and the quick introduction of foods can cause problems and even be fatal. This is why it's best to have the process of healing from starvation overseen by a qualified medical professionals.

Now Silas didn't trust doctors at the time, so he never went to one, but what he did do was simply go back to eating the same amount of food he used to so he didn't keep throwing up and getting sick. Morrigan eventually forced him to go to a hospital. (Silas was horrified when he learned what a feeding tube was)

Tagging: @distant-velleity @kitwasnothere @the-banana-0verlord @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @jovieinramshackle @skrimpyskimpy for Silas lore hehe

#quinn quips #quinn answers #quinn's friends #leechy #silas clearcove #twisted wonderland #twst oc #oc ask game #ask game #starvation tw

13 notes · View notes

all-i-do-is-read · 5 months

Text

Akatsuki No Yona Recap Chapters 1&2

First things first, this sword here, have we ever seen this referenced again anywhere else in the manga yet? I'm definitely keeping my eyes out for this on my re-read.

Before I start this, I am going to put a disclaimer that my recap and commentary will be based on official English translation from ShoujoBeat as they are the copies I own. A second disclaimer is that these are simply all my opinions and commentary from the way I read and consumed the manga. I would very much welcome it if you could also comment and share your opinions as these recaps progress. Also, these posts will be long, so apologies in advance.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 1: Princess Yona

Since this is a "pilot" chapter, the purpose is to quickly get to the point about who these people are and what their circumstances are in a glance. Now, I'll say this first: I think Kusanagi Mizuho, the mangaka, is a very talented storyteller and we will celebrate her through this work. Nonetheless, I also think that she is not perfect and has some misses in the way she handled some of the narratives.

This chapter has plenty of that in the employment of what I call her "storytelling shorthand." Basically, it just means infodump-y and trope-y expositions to get some points across that she would like to be dealt with immediately, so she can move to the next point of the story quickly.

(This technique does appear fewer and fewer as the story progresses, presumably as the mangaka improves in her storytelling craft, but there are still instances of them used in later chapters and I would point them out as they come)

To be honest, this is why most of the characters were kind of unappealing to me when I was only starting this manga, because of the very trope-y and, dare I say, exaggerated way they were presented to us. I think the biggest victim of this shorthand is Hak and we'll deal with that in later chapter discussions. But once I got over that, I was fine to continue with the story. Plus, again, this is chapter one, so the shorthand is useful for getting relevant context out of the way so we can quickly get to the inciting incident of this whole manga.

We begin with a narration about the Kingdom of Kohka, the Hiryuu Palace and the King who lavished all his love to his only daughter, Princess Yona. (Oh, look, it's the title of the chapter!)

This narration comes from Yona herself, but we can tell that she is reminiscing about her time in the palace, as opposed to her situation now--outside of the palace. We immediately understand that something must have happened.

Yona is imperious, spoiled and shallow, only caring about her looks. Hak is an irreverent and sarcastic general. He is also her exclusive bodyguard. He also deadpans a lot. We immediately understand that they have a close relationship dynamic in the way that Hak feels comfortable teasing the princess of his nation in front of his King (his masters, essentially) and the way Yona just immediately launches into countering his teasing.

I've seen some people put off by Yona, because she called Hak a servant here (she also called him this in a future chapter, we'll get to that), but to me, it is again one of those shorthands to inform us that Yona is simply ignorant. Plus, it clearly is not meant to insult or belittle Hak. She was just responding to Hak as he teases her. You never see her refer to other people in this way again in this manga, anyway.

Here, we also meet King Il, Yona's father who dotes on her... and the third essential pillar of the Akatsuki No Yona trio, Suwon.

Aside: Suwon looks like a princess here hahaha

We are told that Suwon is so kind and that Yona, very obviously, has a crush on him. We get into a flashback showing us that Suwon supported Yona when she lost her mother at such a young age. At this point in the manga, we were Yona, too, loving on such a gentle Suwon.

And then we are also shown and told that not only do Yona and Suwon have a pretty close relationship, Suwon and Hak are close friends, too.

With Suwon's arrival, we get the information that Yona's 16th birthday is coming up. We also learn, more or less, that Yona figures Suwon doesn't think of her romantically, King Il has a distaste for weapons (and thus a coward) and that King Il doesn't approve of Yona's feelings for Suwon. We get more shorthands here about the immediate royal family's who's who and that, at least, 2/5 of them is not among the living.

Here's another one of those shorthands (infodump exposition) pertaining to Yona's personality. Following this, Yona told her father certain information her father should already know, but for the sake of readers, is spelled out for us.

King Il tells Yona that the reason she doesn't approve of Suwon is because being married to her would put him in danger, just like how the Queen, Yona's mom, was killed by traitors.

Yona opposes, obvi, and goes to contemplate this information. But she gets stalked by an ominous presence, which more seriously brings the point about the danger of being married to her across. She runs and ends up getting into a room where Suwon is. Suwon sees her distress and comforts her. But Yona then has a thought, which to me is a glimpse of the real her buried underneath the spoiled princess surface.

Yona is someone who is able to think about the well-being of others.

Now, the next portion of this, I will skip for now and get back to later. But I'll say this: Yona being stalked in the castle even though Hak is supposedly her exclusive bodyguard is one of another "quirk" that usually happens in this manga.

Yeah, she ran away from that conversation with King Il and she was having a moment to herself, but as a bodyguard, Hak should have followed her from a respectful distance. But then if Hak did, the stalking scene and following scenes wouldn't have happened. So since there needs to be a plot beat here, some inconsistencies just have to happen, I guess. This is one instance where Hak's characterization is a victim of these "quirks," but we'll just overlook that and go straight to Yona's birthday party.

The first time I read this part, I really did believe the direction of this story is that Suwon is the one for Yona. There was also that sequence that I skipped for now that reinforced this idea to me.

So Suwon gives Yona an exquisite hairpin and praises her hair and they have that lovely moment above.

I will talk about this later: Suwon's gaze towards a smiling Yona.

Anyway, this moment is later interrupted by Hak telling Yona that King Il was looking for her. Left alone, Hak and Suwon has a conversation. Hak tells Suwon that he figures that Suwon and Yona will finally become a thing (again, based on the earlier scene with the hairpin, it does look like it, yeah? Hak is not simply projecting here, he is just saying what he has observed). He also says that he supports Suwon to be the future King. Suwon vaguely waves that away with an, "It's not what you think," and we get this little bit of Hak characterization here:

Hak is actually conscientious, as in he takes his role, place, job and status super seriously, even though he is usually irreverent (which was why it doesn't make sense that he wasn't with Yona during that earlier stalking incident, but fine, I'll let it go).

Hak and Suwon then has a serious conversation about things being a bit off in the palace. And Suwon advised Hak to take a closer look at how things are. This next bit is quite important: Hak felt confident about taking a look at things around the palace on Yona's birthday celebration that he wasn't exclusively hanging around Yona that day, because he believes he can leave her safety and protection over to Suwon.

Now as Yona's party quiets down, Yona decides she can't let go of her feelings for Suwon and goes to look for King Il to convince him, but when she gets there, she is greeted with this:

I mean, I know what the silhouette is trying to tell me, but when I was reading it, I was like There must have been an intruder or something! as foreshadowed by that earlier conversation between Hak and Suwon.

This couldn't be Suwon, right?

Yeah, no. It was him. It was Suwon.

And that's where that chapter ends.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 2: Shattered Bonds

Nothing for it, but to go directly to the second chapter. But we are treated to a cliff-hanging respite as we go to Hak this time. He is out on patrol through the palace grounds. He's approached by Minsu, King Il's attendant. Minsu offers him a drink and they chat for a bit. We don't know the laws of this Kingdom but we do know that Hak is 18, so it seems that at least he can have an alcoholic drink at his age.

Hak and Minsu talk about Yona and Suwon and we learn, what I think, is the core of Hak as a character in this story when he says this:

"I want them to be happy together."

Guy just wants the people he loves to be happy. How hard can that be to grant? Such a simple desire that, unfortunately for him, the mangaka (hereby referred to as Kusa) is about to shatter.

Now, I really like this narrative technique used here, because as Hak is confessing this desire to Minsu, we are reading it through this panel:

Hak gazing up, probably imagining the smiling faces of his two best friends in his head, and the the tip of the bloody sword that Suwon used to kill Il. I thought that was such a brilliant contrast. What a way to wring our hearts, you know. Kusa would employ this trick a few more times in the course of the story and she always picks the most devastating moments to use this.

Then we go back to Suwon and Yona.

Yona is devastated in more ways than one. Her father is dead and the man she loves is her father's killer. But Yona finds that hard to believe and so she tells Suwon that he is not someone who would do that. In response, Suwon tells Yona a secret about their families.

King Il killed Suwon's father, Yuhon. And so Suwon killed Il to avenge his father. And he has been planning to do it for a looooonggg time.

We also learn that Yuhon was, in all the ways that matter, the better choice to be the King of the kingdom. But for some reason, the former King, Suwon and Yona's grandfather, decided to choose Il as his successor. But now that Il is dead, Suwon is usurping his throne to be the ruler of Kohka.

Poor Yona cannot compute what is happening.

She thinks about multiple things. She thinks about the old Suwon who smiled at her warmly--the one who gifted her a beautiful hairpin just hours ago.

But I guess now that Suwon has finally let out the truth he had been holding on to for so long, he is a bit talkative. He tells Yona that he didn't expect her to be awake and asks her what brought her to the King's chambers that night.

I thought that Yona's response was devastating.

Even Suwon is taken aback by Yona's answer, but let's unpack that later. I promise I will get back to that.

At this point, they get interrupted by soldiers that are clearly on Suwon's side who congratulated him for finally taking his revenge. But then they notice Yona in the room and quickly realize that she saw everything and so they clamor to kill her as well. Suwon resolves to do just that, but fortunately for Yona, her survival instincts kicked in and she was able to run away.

Yona is very much shattered emotionally. While she was running away, she kept denying in her mind what she witnessed, what just happened. She wonders if Suwon actually hated her. She then gets caught by one of the soldiers.

But just as a soldier is about to strike Yona, a force of lightning appeared between her and her pursuers.

It's Hak.

And he's not happy. He considers the situation and demands an explanation from Suwon. (He even has a very good narrative excuse for not being with Yona this time [unlike that last time]: because she is supposed to be with Suwon, so he was making himself scarce).

He then turns to Yona and we see one of this manga's iconic panels: (iconic to me, at least. like when I think of ANY, this always immediately comes to mind)

Yona's response to him here is also very devastating.

"Hak, are you on my side?"

Poor Yona, she already thinks she has no one. Not surprising when the man you love commits regicide in front of your very eyes and soldiers of your kingdom wants to cut you down.

You can tell that Hak is taken aback by this question, too, because he pauses before answering her. Then he pledges his devotion and obedience to her.

Hak turns back to Suwon and Suwon gets him up to speed about the plot thus far, except Hak is not even given the grace of the full truth about the backstory of the royal family rift. So much for a best friend, really, Suwon. Instead, Hak was given a shortcut version of "King Il: Terrible, had to die. Suwon: Perfect Leader, taking over."

Hak then attacks Suwon, which, to his credit, he manages to dodge. The soldiers try to intervene, but they are warned away by Suwon by declaring that Hak is:

Hak is so remarkably strong as a fighter that he even has a famous nickname aside from being a general at his young age. The soldiers even sounded impressed at hearing his name. Now this is already the second time in two consecutive chapters where Hak's exceptional abilities in military arts or fighting arts or whatever you might call it is remarked upon. Bookmark that for now, because I will have some things to say about that in the future.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Because there are, obviously, many soldiers and just one Hak, he and Yona get cornered and all hope seem lost. Hak uses this opportunity to ask Suwon this:

"Suwon, was the man I knew just a facade?"

You get the feeling that the question was almost an imploration. Like Yona denying in her head what she is witnessing, Hak was also looking for his best friend in the face of this man in front of him through these questions.

Suwon, in fairness to him, does answer Hak, although I imagine that his answer actually pulvurized Hak's heart.

"The man you knew never existed. If anyone gets in my way, I will destroy them. No matter who it is."

I feel immense satisfaction knowing that Hak managed to wound Suwon, though. Suwon, you deserved worse.

Yona and Hak has no time to dwell on Suwon's declaration, however, as somebody fires an arrow that distracts the other soldiers. It was just enough distraction for Hak to snatch Yona and together they run away.

They are approached by Minsu and Hak remarks on his archery skills, saying it was a lousy shot (not the time, Hak). Minsu asks Yona if the king is really dead and Yona can only manage a nod.

They make a plan to escape the palace as more of the soldiers that are loyal to Suwon are gathering. Yona then despairs about leaving the palace where her father is. Hak comforts her with an embrace and gives her a reason for surviving for now.

As an act of loyalty, Minsu offers to draw the attention of the soldiers so that Hak and Yona can run away. His last words to Yona, "Please stay safe, your highness," is truly heart-wrenching to me, especially since the last page of this chapter ends with Minsu being shot in the back and with Yona, running away with Hak, taking one last glance at Minsu.

That ends chapter two.

Through all this, I have given very limited commentary about Suwon. And they are all related to the parts I said I will come back to. So here goes.

First, Suwon as the antagonist.

At the beginning, I didn't really see that, because I thought he is going to be the actual love interest for Yona. And I had that thought, because of that sequence in chapter one that I skipped, just right after the stalking incident.

Let's go back to that now.

Yona, overwhelmed by her emotions, tried to confess her feelings for Suwon, but Suwon shuts it down before she could even begin to say anything. However, Yona tries to keep pushing the subject of feelings without actually saying her feelings out loud. We get a few panels of Suwon looking like this and saying things like this:

Now, on my first read through, I thought that Suwon might have feelings for Yona. But (and spoilers for future chapters) it appears that Suwon is just truly awkward and clueless in matters about romance, hence his reaction.

But the really shitty thing about this is that when Yona says that it's enough for her that Suwon is a tiny, tiny bit aware of her, Suwon pats her head in a kind gesture, proceeds to give the hairpin to her on her birthday and then turns around and kills her father.

So given what we know now, that he kills Il and breaks the heart of his two best friends, all I can say about him is that he is a big piece of shit.

In these chapters, all we know about him is his kindness and yet his kindness turns out to be a lie. Kusa does give hints that there might be more to him on certain panels, but two particularly stands out to me.

The first one is his reaction after seeing Yona smile at the hairpin that he gave her.

Now at this point, he still had choices: turn back from his plans and choose Yona and Hak, or proceed as planned and turn his back on those two.

And he chose to be cruel.

Now notice that I am not attaching Kohka in his choices, because I truly believe it is an entirely different matter, even if the narrative and the characters keep insisting to us that killing Il and saving Kohka are one and the same. And I will get to that in later chapters. But like, way later. As in around hundreds of chapters later.

Going back, the second stand out Suwon panel to me is this:

This is him facing the consequence of that choice. Here he was, faced with the girl who, in many senses of the word, had no power. She's so powerless, she can't even choose who she can marry, but she was resolute to have a choice, to make it so that she can choose.

And she would have chosen Suwon.

You can tell from Yona's resolution before visiting King Il that she would have done all she can--all the cajoling, all the imploring, all the imperativeness in her spoiled body--just so she doesn't have to give up Suwon.

It's a choice that is impossible for Suwon to make. (Cause he's shitty)

Now, before you tell me that he had an impossible choice, because the choice was between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, all I can say is this: if Suwon wasn't a shitty person, he would have tried to make King Il answer for killing his father without having to resort to completely destroying the two people whose only crime was loving him wholeheartedly.

No, the choice was not between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, the choice was between justice and cruelty. He chose cruetly, because he is a shitty person, as I keep saying.

I will have more to say about Suwon, because I know his character gets expanded in later chapters, but my commentary on the core of his characterization will never change.

And that's it for my first Akatsuki No Yona Commentary Series. I'm sorry that it got so long, but I had to put chapters 1 and 2 together to make this make sense.

I'll be back with more chapter commentaries soon. Please let me know your commentary on these chapters if you love this manga. I would love to read more perspectives, more opinions. And thank you for reading until here. See you next time!

#akatsuki no yona #yona of the dawn #yona #hak #hakyona #suwon #analysis

13 notes · View notes

courfeyracs-swordcane · 2 months

Note

for alonzo:

What’s the lie your character says most often?

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

What’s the lie your character says most often?

Oh it’s gotta be his whole dramatic “I’m so sorry superior officer, I just couldn’t get her this time 😫 she’s always been stronger than me 😭 but I SWEAR I’ll do better next time, I promise I’ll bring her in, just send me out again and I’ll get it! 🥺🥺🥺” spiel that he does every time he uses the allotted mission time they give him to hunt Kyrie for sport to just go hang out at the tower for fun

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

He CAN and he uses this to his advantage pretty damn often. He doesn’t think about anything specific tho he just opens his eyes really wide and is under a lot of stress all the time. It doesn’t take much.

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Okay not exactly a hobby but I think he really misses going to school? The school system works different in universe and it’s a whole nother infodump but tldr he dropped out at the equivalent of 8th grade and honestly I think he would be happiest if he got to go on through higher education and do some kind of academic career instead of the whole sword for hire schtick

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

DID YOU MEAN. THE LAST THIRD OF THE PLOT. tldr he would fight like a cat in water to avoid being put in that situation but if you put him in it he’s gonna sit in the corner and not say anything and try very hard to control his face (but this is the one time he probably fails)

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

Okay so technically he can’t be fired because he gets incredible job security by virtue of Being Technically A Hostage BUT. This is also arguably the last third of the plot! (His good boss (/mentor) quit as his direct supervisor because of his actions and he gets gets daddy issues (part 2) about it)(and goes full. Never Trusting Anyone Ever Again it’s him and his evil job against the world mode)

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

,,,okay that one is lightly complicated because he is Very Good at not feeling bad when he makes mistakes. He works in the murder department he has to be good at justifying shit to himself. Also the mistakes he makes at work are on purpose usually

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

Okay I Will come back to this one someday when he’s written I know there’s something but I don’t know what it is yet

#alonzo ballad brothers #THANK YOU SASHA #this stupid neurotic bitch

4 notes · View notes

quibbs126 · 1 year

Note

hear me out on a potential rare pair: knight cookie X raspberry mousse fankid. the raspberry family seems to be super into attempting to restore the house raspberry,and while knight cookie is a retainer (a paid servant who has been employed for a long time) and bodyguard,we dont actually know a lot about him or his family. heck we dont even know what type of berry he is despite him being a hollyberrian. apologiese for the infodump

Nah, you’re good on the infodump, here’s Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie

I know what I said earlier, and I’m considering taking a break, but I was already drawing him when I posted that, and I do still have a few others I had done some half sketches for that I want to finish first, so I finished him anyways. I was going to finish the Dark Choco/Raspberry kid first, but I couldn’t figure out a design for the sword hilt, so I did him first instead

So as for this guy’s name, so I know I was originally having some trouble with it. I don’t believe Knight is a berry, even if he grew up in the Hollyberry Kingdom, since I doubt every Cookie living in a kingdom of a particular flavor is of that flavor. If that makes sense. But I wasn’t sure what he was, so I was guessing around. I eventually came to Raspberry Tart, but it was still a bit before I’d get to this one. But recently I learned his dough contains at least some white chocolate, given White Choco’s Jelly description, so I worked with that for coming up with a better name. Also I wasn’t sure how to incorporate the distinct look of a raspberry tart. An idea was to name him after white chocolate filled raspberries, but also I feel like that’d be a better thing for a potential White Choco/Raspberry Mousse kid. But in that search, I found white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, so I ultimately decided to name him after that

White chocolate raspberry cheesecake:

With his design, I’ll be honest, I was kind of making things up as I went. I know I wanted his hair to be long-ish and to have pink and yellow, and I wanted him to have a rapier, but everything else just sort of happened. I think when I originally drew this, I had planned him to have a completely different outfit, likely one closer to Raspberry, but I got what I got. I like the asymmetrical cape, which I again did by accident. I realize it should probably be on the arm opposite of the one he uses, and I fixed that in the little sketch, but I thought it looked cool on that side instead. Also with the boots, I had originally intended them to be a normal length, but doing the lineart, I decided “screw it, make them higher” and yeah. Could I have made them higher? I feel like he doesn’t look much like Knight. I had intended more blue, but I just thought the reds/pinks with the yellows worked better. Actually maybe the yellow covers it. As for the feather, in my head it’d be like, behind the ear, but since Cookies don’t have ears, it’s just like, a hair clip or something, I dunno. Also I I don’t like the color of the mouth. I don’t like the red, it doesn’t look right. But that’s what Knight and Raspberry Mousse have. But overall, I generally like how his design turned out

So as for him, I’ll admit I don’t have much. Something I should admit first, but I always think Raspberry Mousse is Spanish, despite him almost certainly being French. I think it’s because around the time I discovered him, we recently saw the Puss in Boots sequel, as well as the first movie, and I think RM and Puss look kind of similar, as well as Raspberry Mousse’s skill theme having similar instruments to him. Actually I don’t know why I mentioned this, I think I just wanted to say it

Anyways, so I guess Raspberry Cheesecake is something like what I understand Zorro or Puss in Boots to be, basically a guy who travels around the land helping those in need, but without the massive ego. He probably also has a horse

Also, in reference to the little sketch, so while Raspberry Cheesecake may appear a suave and confident fighter, he’s internally a bit of an anxious mess, constantly worrying about if he’s doing things right. He’s internally always shouting. One thing I’m thinking of is that he got made into a knight of the Hollyberry Kingdom, or at least made a proper warrior, but he got too nervous about all the pressure and just decided to instead travel Earthbread. The dude needs to get a better grasp on his confidence

Also I mentioned a Dark Choco/Raspberry kid before; while I don’t think most of the kids exist in the same timeline as each other (Panela and Turtle Fudge especially), these two do, and while they’re second cousins, they’re pretty close. I haven’t gotten much around to Black Forest Cookie (I’ll give you a spoiler and tell you their name), but I do know this. I’ll probably elaborate more there

But yeah, that’s Raspberry Cheesecake. Hope you like him!

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ovenbreak #knight cookie #raspberry mousse cookie #cookie run oc #fankid #fanchild #my ocs #my art #requests #answers #raspberry cheesecake cookie

27 notes · View notes

edtriestowrite · 1 year

Text

Yjh and Kdj as autistic persons (headcanons)

This was inspired from @dontheckinswear post! Btw, sorry if there's any mistake!

Yjh's hyperfixation is swords and interesting ways to kill people, and maybe the way the human mind works

kdjs hyperfixation is obviously twsa

yjh probably comes randomly to lgy (i BELIEVE that they have a good relationship where they infodump about their hyperfixations and talk about kdj), ysa, or kdj and it's like "i will infodump about the most interesting ways to kill people, my current hyperfixation, if that's okay"

yjh, kdj and lgy are the autistic, lgbtq family (yes, i do have the headcanon that lgy is aromantic, for some reason i don't know yet)

kdj would randomly enter into the house and read twsa AGAIN, and then go to yjh to infodump and getting excited about it (kdj to yjh, giggling: "i will infodump about twsa for the next hours" yjh, sighing: "here we go again... Yes, you can infodump about it."

kdj bought sound canceling headphones that match with yjh's

•yjh is constantly telling kdj to do not have his music so loud, even when he's with his headphones on (even though yjh does the same thing. Let him be he's worried about his husband)

kdj randomly asks yjh to just sit on his chest (for pressure therapy)

and then yjh asks for physic contact from kdj all the time. Only with kdj and biyoo.

yjh is more of, like, expressing with images of the autistic creature. He loves that thing.

for yjh, is an obligation to cook kdj's comfort food at least once a week, and even keeps the ketchup, tomato, and anything tomato-related (???) away from kdj and kdj's food as well

they compete in who makes the best thesis on their shared hyperfixations (Yjh, showing his powerpoint and thesis of 40 pages of the studio ghibli's art: "you cannot defeat me." Kdj, with his 55 page thesis, multiple powerpoints and with a GODDAMn WHOLE PODCAST about studio ghibli's metaphors, smirking)

when kdj gets overwhelmed, he just goes away from the world, and yjh helps him by wrapping him into a blanket like a burrito

when yjh gets overwhelmed, he just goes nonverbal (is not too different anyways), and only communicates with kdj via notes

hsy is their adhd bestfriend

#orv #joongdok #please adopt me #MIS AMORESSSSS #han sooyoung #hsy #headcannons #orv headcannons #yoo jonghyuk #kim dokja #yjh #kdj #omniscient reader #maybe most of kdjs hcs are related to the things i do myself- who knows

15 notes · View notes

batfam-big-bang · 1 month

Note

what Pokémon would you be and why?

Sentret bc it looks perpetually disgruntled and ready to fist-fight God in a parking lot - bri

Jess and Bri said Togepi was me-shaped and I trust their judgement. It looks like it has burst out of containment to infodump to anyone ready to listen. - Lucy

i had to consult my resident pokemon expert bc i do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of the pokedex and after 4 hours he replied with "im so sorry but you are a sobble." i think this tells you everything you need to know about both me and my friends. - jess

bri assigned me mantine "bc protection" which is making my heart explode. - shelby

ok i did my research (once again watched markiplier's smash or pass vid) and i would fall on a sword to be a cubone. gimme a little helmet and a bludgeoning weapon and let me at em (i was assigned teddiursa or poliwag by bri and tbh poliwag fits v well) - mel

#bbb ama #ama #batfam big bang 2024 #bbb24 #anon ask

2 notes · View notes

arionwind · 9 months

Note

re: BG3 alignment stuff

Alignments always seemed a bit weird to me because it always felt limiting. I preferred systems with reputation instead where it builds as you go, good or bad. Same with something like faction reputations. It was also a good reminder of who hated me or not when coming back to things after a while. lol

Oh my friend. Congratulations and also I am sorry, because this ask has unlocked not one, but two long infodumps from me! Feel free to just skip by the one on reputation systems and/or alignments, but also thank you so much for giving me an excuse to talk about both of them at once, this is an excellent gift!

=On Reputation Systems=

So I have mixed feelings about most reputation systems in most games these days. Generally speaking, for me, if a reputation starts at 0 and only goes up (or back down to 0), it doesn't do much for me. Especially when it is for an individual or a plot-relevant group/organization, it always feels to me like lazily offloading narrative character development to a player for the sake of "making choices matter" or just to boast they have such a system.

Even a lot of systems that have "negative" reps either don't really seem to have substantive consequences for going negative, or make the consequences things that probably should just be the natural narrative result of following that narrative path. Which isn't to say that happens in every game with a system like that, but I find that the majority really don't need reputation systems any more than they need alignment ones.

There are, however, two games (for which spoilers follow) that I consider the goldest of gold standards for reputation systems and that I wish other games would take cues from and implement: Tyranny and Alpha Protocol. Again, spoilers will be following, mostly minor and early ones for Tyranny, but fairly major ones for Alpha Protocol.

So in Tyranny, they have two different sets of two reputations, depending on whether it is with one of your companions or not. For your companions, their opinion is measured in Loyalty and Fear, while organizations and individuals of power/influence are measured in Favor and Wrath. Importantly though, you can build both "sides" of reputation at the same time, and get different benefits - narrative and mechanical - from each.

For example, on the companion side, your very first companion is Verse. She's a skirmisher who can swap between twin melee weapons and archery pretty freely, and getting Loyalty or Fear to a certain break point will unlock special team attacks with her. If she is sufficiently Loyal and trusts you to do your part, you get an AoE bow attack where she steps into your hands and you launch her into the air to fire a volley down. But if she Fears you enough to take whatever orders you give, you can hurl fire magic at her, which she will catch on her swords for a long-lasting melee damage buff.

Likewise, certain actions can build both sides at the same time. My favourite example of this is with Lantry, the scholarly spy/librarian/healer companion, who pretty much as soon as you get him, will take time to teach you the Life Magic rune (if you want to learn it). And he cautions you to take a while to practice it before trying to do actual spellwork with it, because the slightest mistake could spell disaster. But if you have the right character background (War Mage, in my case) you can confidently and immediately fire off a flawless Life spell as soon as he finishes his instruction, ignoring his warning. And doing so makes him Fear you, as he is pretty sure your hubris will backfire one day, but he also gains Loyalty, as he is glad to be working with such an exceptionally skilled and experienced mage.

Alpha Protocol goes a different direction, giving you a -10 through +10 opinion score with pretty much every character (and I think organization, it's been a while) that you meet. Just a single axis, but it is explicit from the start and borne out in gameplay that bad reputation is not necessarily a bad thing for your character. (Seriously, as soon as you meet your boss for the first time, he basically says outright "You are a spy. You have specific goals to accomplish and none of them include being liked by everyone. If pissing someone off is the best way to accomplish your goals, do it.")

On the simple levels of basic perks, they have some neat ideas for passive things you get in either direction. My favourite example is the agency tech expert: if he likes you, he massages requisitions and gives you more room or uses of consumable tech for your missions. If he doesn't, you get all the buggiest shit-tech . . . which still works, but zaps your character often enough to grant electricity resistance.

But then, on the major narrative end, you can also get pretty huge differences in outcomes based on reputation. The Italy area's final boss is a very coldly professional head of a PMC. By default, when you fight him at the end of that region's arc, he fights just long enough to delay you from saving everyone, then has a scripted retreat. But if - and only if - you've managed to get him all the way to -10 opinion by then, the scripted retreat scene starts, he looks at his watch, and he decides fuck it, there's still enough time for him to put an unprofessional shit like you down. And then you can kill him, changing how the final level will play out pretty notably.

Basically, if a game is gonna have any rep or alignment system, I want it to do more than numerically increment progress towards what could just as easily be natural narrative progression down a specific path.

Also, this has gotten fuck-you levels of long already, so I'm gonna just. Publish this half, then will reblog it with the talk on Alignment stuff in a day or two? xD

#essay #original ari #answered asks #snowsisterskiss

11 notes · View notes