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robotsandramblings · 2 months

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me reading the "new" "canon" heights for the Bad Batch on starwars.com:

nooo thank you, don't like those, i'll stick to the wookiepedia + my headcanons version lol ✌️

i'll save my overall analysis & ramblings for under the readmore

(here's the og thread that brought it to my attention. make sure to read op's corrected version!)

(p.s. the height chart was done by me on heightcomparison.com, it's not an official star wars image -- but the data matches starwars.com)

first off, i will acknowledge that visually, in the show, their heights are always a tricky thing. i've been referencing a bajillion screenshots since i came upon this thread. their comparative heights change in like every screenshot, due to camera angles and/or where they're standing relative to each other. we never get to see all five (5) of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder, side-by-side, in a single straight line, with an eye-level camera shot*.

i'll also acknowledge that i've always just gone off of what wookiepedia says, because it's the closest to an 'official' source that we've ever had -- but it's still not the official source. Here's the wookiepedia version, btw:

and you know what? depending on what screenshot you look at, these can both seem right. sometimes, Tech looks as tall as Crosshair; other times, Tech looks close to Echo's height. (Tech is also rarely at full height -- he's usually got his head and shoulders bent down to read his datapad. i think he slouches too.) i also find Hunter's height varies a lot too, depending on the shot.

Personally, i will be following the wookiepedia version. i think the starwars.com numbers are way, way off. (Warning: here's where the ranting part begins lol)

Wrecker has never, ever been a full head taller than Tech, Echo, or Hunter. what the actual fuck lmaooo

and 7 inches taller than Crosshair?? i don't think so lads

they're tryin' to tell me Echo is shorter than reg height??? bullshit lol. and Tech too??? also bullshit lmao

i refuse to believe Tech is only 2cm taller than Hunter; Tech should be, at minimum, 2 inches taller than Hunter.

i feel Omega's height can vary in the show, like Tech or Hunter as i mentioned. sometimes she seems very small, sometimes she seems taller than i remember.

that all said, i think the height for Omega is correct... for Season 1**. but S2? and now in S3? she's definitely grown a bit.

so i guess if i had to come up with my own numbers, i'd go primarily with the wookiepedia data, with a few tweaks...

Omega**: at least 140cm / 4' 7''

Hunter: 180-181cm / 5' 11''

Echo: 185cm / 6' 1''

Tech: 190-193cm / 6' 3'' - 6' 4''

Crosshair: 193cm / 6' 4''

Wrecker: 198-200cm max / 6' 6''

(i will hold onto Short King Hunter with a death grip until i die. even though i'll admit he looks reg/Echo height in a lot of shots. but i just really love the idea that's he's juuuust under 6' !)

**My headcanon is that in S1, Omega was approximately 10 years old. (which would match with starwars.com data, since average height for a 10-yr-old = 127-137cm.) i'm assuming we're at least 2 years later by S3, so she should be 12, which should put her height at 140-162cm.

i think in the show, they're keeping her closer to 140cm, but i'm equally onboard with her being on the taller side, closer to 162cm. i like the idea that she will eventually grow to reg clone height of 6 feet, thus she'd be on the taller end of "average" child height.

*there is one singular screenshot i came across which might be the closest. however, it's only properly showing the OG four -- Echo is in the shot, but disproportionately in front of them. it's also from their pilot in Clone Wars S7, which arguably was just a beginning stage for them, and changes were made before their own show aired, including the animation style/models.

it would explain where many of us got our idea of Tech = Crosshair same height. but Hunter is also nearly as tall as them?? certainly not 180cm lmao. so idk. take that as you will.

#the bad batch #crosshair #tech #hunter #echo #wrecker #omega #star wars #analyzingsw #sw headcanons #i spent WAYYY too long on this doign research and looking at screenshots lmaooooooooo 😅

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qprsmackdown · 9 months

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Propaganda (under the readmore)

James Bond and Q

you can guess what else i submitted based on the obscurity. sorry.

- preface i have never watched the james bond movies. my friend is obsessed with it and everything i know about these two is osmosis from xem. i cannot express this enough - these literally might be ocs at this point and xey're too stubborn to admit it's not james bond yaoi anymore

- typical soft vs hard but it goes both ways: • externally, bond is hard, he's a secret agent and goes on missions and nearly dies plenty of times. he's scarred, he's fit, he passes medicals. • externally, q is soft. he doesn't go into the field, he's the man behind the desk, directing the missions. he's skinny, he knows bare minimum self defence. he's not a barrier. • internally, bond is always on the move. he never settles down. he can't have a lover, a family, someone who gets him. it's a hazard, a risk. he, at most, has q guiding missions for consistency. • internally, q is so difficult. he has nothing dragging him from life, but he desperately wants the risk outside of work. he wants someone there that knows he's more than the quartermaster, more than someone that stands behind a desk. it's tempting, to flee, but he can't.

- bond and q are perfect foils. they have what each other crave but they can't commit to romance. even now, they don't want it, don't need it. but there's this understanding between them, that they're more than just friends. they're not in love, but they are: they know the ins and outs, how each other work, what drives the other to function. they match. they work.

- they have banter and jokes nobody else gets, but they know they're not meant to get it, it's something for bond and q to understand - they constantly worry over one another and it would physically ache if the other was damaged - they both know there's no love, but there's Love. when bond goes to sleep in the field he thinks of q, waiting there with open arms. when q works late at mi6, he watches bond on missions, silently praying for all to go well

- in fanfiction q always has cats. these cats have no canon name. i think this adds to the appeal of qbond qpr - q is literally named q he is the q in the qpr. if you flip the b in bond a few times you also get the p

- bond still seeks romance outside of the qpr and this is respected and occasionally joked upon when bond is comfortable - bond's romantic and sexual prospects aren't a liability to the relationship, instead q embraces it and encourages bond to do so, to have someone else to feel safe with because he Deserves it

- autism

The Fellowship

look i didnt think abt this until i saw the ask but ur sosososo right. they just. they support each other through everything and they learn together and grow together and even when they have to split up they remember each other always. theyre from such different places but they sill stick together and love each other and they arent afraid to show it.

#gotta admit . i was Not expecting the james bond . that really threw me for a loop . fuckin slay tho if i ever engage with james bond-#ill keep ur propaganda in mind #- mod felix #poll #round 1 #side 1 #james bond #james bond q #the fellowship of the ring #the lord of the rings

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nocturnalghoul-archive · 1 year

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I originally thought up a bunch of ghoul hockey ideas/headcannons while I was at work yesterday (which I'll probably end up just dumping into its own post as is) that I meant to follow up on and expand today but then instead I wrote the following two little things that are really only hockey adjacent lol. I blame @forlorn-crows and @askingforthesun for reminding me I like hockey and giving me the Ghoul Hockey brainrot.

The first one centers on Dew's pregame rituals and the second is a follow up concerning... zambonis I guess? The both of them together probably total about 1.2k so I'm gonna stick 'em under a readmore :)

Pre-game Ritual

After enough damage was caused by restless ghouls cooped up in the abbey during the winter, the decision was quickly made to try and facilitate an outlet for the, to work out pent up energy. A short while later, hockey gear and sticks appeared and weekly games between the ghouls have been commonplace ever since. It took a while for the idea to truly catch on in the beginning, but by the time Copia came to lead the Ghost Project it was a well loved tradition and something that the ghouls got very invested in.

Dew had first picked up the idea of a pregame ritual from Omega, who was a firm believer in the same meal before each game to bring him luck.

... It may have gotten a little out of control from there. Is it truly a superstition if it gets you the desired results though? Dew definitely didn't think so. Over the years he gained more and more "habits" as he would refer to them to help him out in games until it reached the current state of affairs. Before each game he had 5 things that he swore were essential otherwise the game would go horribly.

A good pregame meal: The first of his many quirks he stole directly from Omega then later changed to make his own. For lunch before their weekly game he would always make one of the same two chicken and pasta dishes. After he became a fire ghoul it was still the same meal, but he made them so spicy that only he or another fire ghoul could stand to eat it. Originally he claimed that is just helped him get into the hockey mindset, but that statement later changed to him saying it helped him get fired up both literally and metaphorically to hit the ice.

Zamboni time: Eventually Dew got tired of always being the one to trip on the rouge debris stuck to the ice when they played. He eventually figured out that a fire ghoul and a water ghoul could run out there before the game and together essentially create a makeshift Zamboni equivalent out of ghoul magic so that the ice would be clean and smooth. At first he and Ifrit would go out and do it, but later he and Rain continued the tradition. It was almost meditative in a way, but he kept that part to himself.

A lucky charm: This particular aspect was the only one that he was willing to admit was truly superstitious. In his pocket every time he went out onto the ice, he carried a little plastic figurine of a phoenix that Aether and Mountain had given to him just before he left to undergo the process of becoming a fire ghoul. They said it was a good luck charm and a reminder that they were thinking of him and supporting him the whole time, even if they couldn't be there. It has been one of the only constants he had in the beginning. Dew figured that if it was good luck then than it was absolutely good luck now. It also reminded him that his pack had his back both on and off the ice, however he deemed that particular sentiment a bit too sappy to ever admit out loud. He would turn the small figure around in his hands just before the game and whenever he was sitting out off the ice.

Some good tunes and a nap: It doesn't matter how sleep deprived you are, a quick little disco nap can make you right as rain and ready to absolutely crush the competition. Dew knows this is a friendly game between the ghouls to let off steam and bond as a pack but he is 100% the kind of person to let his competitive nature get the best of him in this scenario. Besides, cleaning the ice uses a lot of energy and makes him sleepy. Also listen, Dew is a musician and everybody knows that the right playlist can be essential to get into the right headspace. The nap is also an excuse to lay in his room and listen to his pregame playlist. It is most closely guarded of his "habits" and kept secret from the other ghouls lest they try to mess with it and cause it to stop working. It is totally not because it's mostly bubblegum pop and he has a reputation to uphold.

Handshakes: The final superstition habit he developed before a game was a special handshake with whoever his line mates were going to be for the evening. Sometimes the ghouls would mix up who played what position and so he developed a different handshake with each member of the team. The most complicated of which are with Cumulus and Rain. The ghoulette was originally the one to instigate this behavior the first time and then they won 3-0 so slowly everybody else also gained their own unique pattern.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A follow-up thing I thought up expanding upon the second pregame superstition. How it came to be and how it transformed

Zamboni Boys

Preparing the ice before a game became almost ritualistic at a point. Controlled melt. Shape. Smooth. Freeze.

Dew had originally thought up the idea one day after watching Ifrit accidentally melt some of the snow around him when he got startled while they were on a walk together. The frozen lake in the winter is a great opportunity for a little ghoulish hockey, but is rough and full of imperfections to get caught on. Dew, tired of always being the unlucky one to catch whatever was stuck to the surface of the ice and all its rough patches with his skates, quickly formulated a plan.

If he had Ifrit use a little fire magic to carefully melt the very top layer of the ice, sweep all the debris away, then he could use a little water magic to help the surface refreeze all smooth and pretty. Essentially making them a makeshift Zamboni. After a little trial and error to get the process right, the remainder of the lake went smoothly and the result was beautiful.

Once Dew switched elements the process was one of the few ways that he had left to tether himself to who he was before.

The first winter after he reemerged as a fire ghoul, when the time came for the weekly hockey games between the ghouls to resume Dew was crushed. He had come to relish the meditative actions of preparing the ice and found that it always brought him a sense of tranquility. To lose that was just salt in the wound. As winter drew near he had started to dread the upcoming ghoul games knowing that they would only remind him of all he had lost.

Luckily, Rain had heard from one of the other ghouls about Dew's old pregame habit. Dew was resistant at first, but later had to admit that even if he was now doing the opposite side of the job , it still made him incredibly happy. After explaining the process to Rain and some slight coaching on technique they set out to prepare the lake for the first game of the season.

For the first time in months, Dew felt truly zen. By the end of it his face was hurting from smiling and laughing so much with Rain as they had fun on the ice. The two went on to regroup with the other ghouls so that the game could begin, Dew twirling his lucky charm in his pocket and truly giddy the whole way back.

The game was a mix of some older ghouls and the new current band pack on each team in order to give the newer ghouls a chance to better pick up on how to play the game in action. As the weeks went on, and Rain and Dew continued to prepare the ice together, he started to find that not only was the time to themselves bringing him closer to Rain, but also to his former element.

#I wrote all of this while at work today so if there are mistakes sorry #Also the second thing is entirely the fault of my beautiful wonderful girlfriend #because when I asked her 'hey you are from The North how easy is it to skate on ponds?"#she replied with a 5 minute rant about tripping on stuff stuck to the ice and how rough the ice is especially as more people use it #Also ooooof this is my first time truly writing outside of the murder mystery podcast my friend runs in like SO LONG so be sweet :)#ghoul hockey time :)#the band ghost #Ghoul Hockey AU #nocturnal ramblings

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riddlerosehearts · 7 months

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time for a ✨ very late intro post ✨

hey everyone! i probably should've made a post like this for my pinned ages ago, but better late than never, i guess? i'm going to stick part of this below a readmore because it got a bit long oops. you don't have to read this by any means but it's here now if you're interested!

★ i'm starlight or star! i'm in my 20s.

★ i'm bisexual and genderfluid!! sometimes i'm a woman, sometimes i'm a man, and sometimes i am agender. please either use they/them or check my blog description for my pronouns.

★ i'm also autistic.

★ my ask box is always open whether we're mutuals or not and i love talking about my favorite characters and ships and sharing my thoughts in general! my DMs are also always open but asks are a little easier for me to reply to. either way though i promise i don't bite and i love chatting 💖

★ i have an anime sideblog over at @ritsukageyamas, a blog dedicated to the emperor's new groove at @kuzcoskingdom, and a stim blog where i make my own stimmy gifs and post stimboards over at @glitteringstardust! i've got a handful of other sideblogs too but i'm not really using any of them atm. if/when i become more active on them in the future i'll add them here.

★ i also have a harry potter sideblog at @genderfluidweasley, which i made simply because i was deeply into the series for 15 years of my life before jkr published that awful essay of hers and as such there's a part of me that will probably always be nostalgic for it. i hate jkr a lot and don't support her or the HP franchise financially, but sometimes i get the urge to reblog posts about it and i don't want people who follow me on here to have to see them if they're understandably uncomfortable with it. i'm just listing it here so anyone who chooses to read this post will know about it.

★ sometimes when i happen to be in the mood, i make gifs and edits on here too! but mostly i just reblog a ton of stuff and ramble about whatever. occasionally i liveblog things.

★ i'm very sporadically active on twitter, but you can follow me over there too if you want.

★ main fandoms and other assorted info under the cut!

★ i'm a huge animation nerd!! i especially love walt disney animation and pixar films. some of my favorites include beauty and the beast, tangled (as well as tangled the series), frozen (mainly the first movie in particular LOL), toy story 1-3, onward, and coco. i love all kinds of other animated films too but you can expect to see lots of disney/pixar stuff in general on here as it's basically my longest lasting special interest.

★ i am also deeply in love with kingdom hearts and it's one of the things you can expect to see a lot of posts about. riku is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time and i would die for sorikai.

★ if you couldn't guess by my url i'm also brainrotting hard over twisted wonderland lately and will likely continue doing so for the foreseeable future. i have soooo much love for so many of the characters i literally can't even pick a favorite dorm. but riddle and idia are practically tied for the spot of my fave character and i ship riddle/floyd and idia/vil very hard.

★ i am very into pokemon but especially the hoenn, unova, alola, and paldea regions and the pokemon mystery dungeon series. love pokemon adventures/pokespe as well.

★ so the above things are kinda the main fandoms you'll see on here but my brain is also constantly hopping between other interests and getting me in the mood to reblog and talk about different things!! some of those other things can include uhhhh the PJO universe, utdr, twewy, the original sherlock holmes stories + granada TV series, LOTR, ace attorney, avatar the last airbender, neopets, and also just. so many other things. unfortunately i shove 90% of what i like onto here instead of having sideblogs for the most part.

★ anyway--please please let me know if you need something tagged and i'll do my best to keep it in mind!!

★ uhhh let's see what else. i'm an episcopalian christian who goes to a very cool and progressive church, but i don't talk about that on this blog hardly ever.

★ i don't have a dni, i just block people who make me uncomfortable and even then i don't block people very often! so just be chill and respectful and you're probably fine.

★ hmm i guess that's all BUT whenever i update or edit this post in any way i'll mention that in the tags!

★ so anyway thank you so much if you actually read this and i hope you enjoy your day!!! 💖

#realized i should probably make one of these since i haven't had a carrd in ages lol #soooo here it is i guess #last updated 1/21/2024 #(month/day/year format)

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echoes-lighthouse · 2 months

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Secret f/o's 👀 I cast upon thee, talk about 🌌

Does your F/O believe in astrology? Bonus: what does your astrology compatibility say about you and your F/Os signs?

Do you or your F/O believe in love at first sight? Do you believe in soulmates?

What’s an often overlooked or unknown trait about your F/O that you adore? What’s your special trait that they love?

How sentimental is your F/O? Do they keep every little gift you give them? Do they carry your picture around with them?

Does your F/O feel safe you be vulnerable around you? Do you feel comfortable doing the same around them?

What would the ideal dream date be for you? What would be your F/O’s ideal dream date?

What relationship tropes would you say best describe your relationship with your F/O?

I know it's a lot of questions from the ask game, so if you want to skip some of them, I totally understand 😅

oKAY let's do it!!! *kicks up my legs and gets comfy* My relationship with this f/o is a quirky one that involves nonsexual bdsm so consider it M-rated (16+), I guess! I only get into that under the 'readmore' though because this is a LONG answer thank you anon I adore you <3 <3

(ask game: i'm answering questions about my secret f/os and my slasher kiddos right now!!)

4. I guess I was inviting this question with the emoji I chose! A version of astrology is kind of baked into the in-universe magic system, so it's not really a matter of whether we believe in it? I don't think he has a canon birthday, but I'm assigning him Aquarius on aesthetic vibes. I don't do astrology so lemme do a quick google on that... "With Libra and Aquarius, you'll find a strong connection in friendship and love, and likely good sexual compatibility — though it may take some time to develop. Communication is one area where this duo can break down a little, and they may have to work harder than other couples to really make things stick."

I mean, that's not false!

38. He definitely does believe in love at first sight, he's.... an incurable romantic, it's one of the things I tease him about. I don't, I think that love is a lot of work and commitment that doesn't happen all at once. I don't think that either of us believe in soulmates, though. The world is too complicated for something like that.

11. An overlooked trait that I love about him... is that it's very hard to get him out of performance mode. He's always trying to project one character or another, and I think that it's easy to take him at face value, because he's flashy and impulsive and it's hard to pick apart where exactly the performance stops reflecting his reality. If that makes any sense at all. I love that my job is to break down that performance.

As for a trait he loves about me... I think it would probably be my attentiveness. I've got a good sense of when his mood shifts, but even more importantly I have a good sense of the people around us. It's not quite one of his skills, reading the room (an understatement), so we make a good team on that front.

27. On a scale of 1-10, he's an 11 on the sentimental scale. He struggles with getting rid of presents from people he's fallen out with. We're not a romantic relationship, so we don't have photos of each other, but he definitely keeps things that I give him. Once our relationship went from professional to friendship, he did give me some earrings with sentimental meaning and also some protection magic, and I wear those very often! I think I'm a healthy 6 or 7 on the sentimental scale.

34. The type of our relationship kind of demands that we have to be comfortable being vulnerable around each other! That said, from the start we have a lot of systems in place to protect both of us. As the relationship progresses, those systems start to fall away and get replaced by trust and experience.

15. What are our dream dates? Oh BOY, well. I think that's something that's definitely developed over the relationship. We've been trying to get a trio scene to work with his other partner for the last while, but the dynamics have made it difficult. I think his dream day would probably be something with the three of us, if we can get our shit figured out.

As for my dream day... I'd like a little coffee date where we catch up as friends and I can hear all the hot gossip, and then we go back to his house and do an age play scene where I get to be devastatingly considerate and he cries about it. That's the satisfying scenes for me, and it takes the most trust from him.

40. We're a relationship that it's hard to define by tropes, because it's not a very traditional one. We're not romantic but we're not quite platonic. We're nonsexual but that doesn't mean that sexuality doesn't play a role in our relationship. I feel like there are still tropes that are relevant to us but I can't put my finger on them when I try. Something about class travelling (highblood finds escape in lowblood circles), something about two damaged people with compatible coping strategies (one who needs control, one who likes to give it up).

#whew!!!!#that took me a good half hour and it was a LOT of fun #i came to a cursed realization #that if i selfshipped with another character this would also be our exact dynamic #but i guess that would make the specific f/o harder to guess #since everything i said in this post does apply to both of them lol #it's just cursed because i don't selfship with the other character #but i can see a vision now where i would #anyways anyways #secret of the stars #is his tag because i said so #my selfships #ask game #kink mention #having secret f/os is so stressful how do y'all do it

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axewchao · 11 months

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Thanks for the birthday wishes, frens.

I would've replied to them the moment I got them, but I was on vacation with my folks and the WiFi provided was... shitty, for lack of better word. To the point where all I could do both here and on dA was lurk.

There's another reason as to why I've been quiet here, and that's because I recently had to say goodbye to my dog.

I'll stick the full story under a readmore.

~~~

I've been struggling with finding a way to say this without making it seem like I'm just... dumping it all on y'all. But it's not exactly something you can dance around, and it probably shouldn't be danced around.

And I didn't want to just pretend to be perfectly fine online, either. Even the idea of trying that just feels... wrong.

So... I will just say it.

I'm putting extra gaps here for emphasis that this is not pleasant talk. If you're uncomfortable with talk of lost pets, please scroll away/hit the back button/leave this post now. I'll add some squiggly lines to act as one last warning.

~~~

I know I haven't mentioned her very much online, but Zira, my beloved poodle and dearest friend for the last 14 years... was put to sleep the day before my birthday.

It broke my heart, but it had to be done; she was old, she had health problems, and the vet said she wouldn't make it by the time I came home.

I wasn't even able to say goodbye to her. Unless a "be good, doggo." counts as I dropped her off for boarding about an hour before I was given the... news.

I was left unresponsive for the rest of the 8th and most of the 9th. It wasn't until my aunt (who previously owned one of Zira's littermates and lost him to similar circumstances a few years prior) took a moment to talk to me that I finally cracked, letting out everything I was bottling up. Had it not been for her reaching out, I probably would still be in a silent state even now, unable to do anything other than lie down and cry because Zira was gone and it felt as though no one else gave a shit beyond obligatory "I'm sorry"s.

I soon learned how wrong I was in that last regard, as I eventually talked about it with my mother who, much like her daughter, isn't one for crying regularly. To actually see her upset to the point of tears over Zira's fate despite almost never interacting with her... it... I'm not sure how to put it, but it was relieving to know that my mom really did care, both about how I felt and about Zira in the end.

Zira was... well, I didn't call her my "fuzzy baby child" for nothing. She meant everything to me, and to think that starting today, I'll be coming home without her there to greet me, to lie at the end of my couch while I sleep, curl up beside me while I draw, or even so much as hear those cute little snores she made while napping... it just hurts. More than I've ever felt in my life.

I can feel myself tearing up as I type, so... I guess I should finish this off. I'm home now, and have already visited the animal hospital to retrieve the collar and bandanna Zira was wearing, which the vet was kind enough to hold onto per my request. Alongside those were a card with Zira's paw print, and a picture of my girl.

I don't know when I'll start posting again, but I'll try not to take too long. And I'll continue to lurk and talk here and there, if only sparingly.

To those who read this to end, I thank you for for your time.

And to those who still have fuzzy (or scaly/feathery) baby children of their own... Cherish them. Give them as great a life as you can, and when the time comes for them to leave... Do what my aunt told me to do; hold onto the memories of them while they were alive. It still hurts, especially since I lost Zira so recently...

But my aunt's not wrong. Because after I cry over seeing Zira's stuff, I find myself remembering my fuzzy baby child fondly, and smile when I thought I no longer could.

#axewchao chitchat

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one-winged-dreams · 5 months

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Dropping some 'what do angels dream of' lore that pertains to my insert's weapon.

(this is long as fuck so putting it under a readmore)

SO. My s/i uses a gunblade that's kind of shitty because it was the best I could afford as a 3rd class because my parents disowned me, and I had to fend for myself pretty much. I'm stuck in the vicious cycle of having to keep getting it repaired, so I can't afford a new one because I can't save up BECAUSE THE GODDAMN THING KEEPS BREAKING.

Anyway, I never articulated that Angeal and I actually meet for the first time when I'm assigned with him on a mission as like, assistance. I had advanced from 3rd class to 2nd like, REALLY quickly because, despite my debilitating fear of failure, 2nd class was pretty low-stakes and I'm a damn good fighter.

Anyway, he got to see firsthand how good I am at kicking ass, and for the last fight of the mission, my gunblade breaks AGAIN from the force of the final blow, and I just kinda frown.

And he comes over to commend me on my performance, and I'm like internally screaming because holy shit, I'm getting praised by one of the 1sts, and also he's VERY handsome.

He makes a comment about my weapon, and I'm like, "Um, yeah, it's kind of cheap. I'm gonna have to get it repaired again, I guess."

Angeal will remember this.

Anyway, after a few more assignments, we start like. Getting close. REALLY close. And I'm still using that shitty gunblade over and over again, and it keeps breaking OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

And then one day, during a particularly tough mission, it just absolutely shatters, and the mechanisms all but explode on me. And I'm sitting there holding the hilt of it and thinking about how fucked I am because there's no way I'm gonna be able to buy a new one anytime soon.

This depresses the FUCK out of me because that shitty thing had been with me since my compensation check for joining the SOLDIER program, and I guess I'll have to learn how to use a proper sword again, hopefully a good one isn't TOO expensive.

Anyway, Angeal and I are doing our couple thing, he's trying to cheer me up because, goddamn, I'm bummed the fuck out. And he's like, "You're not nervous about your assignment tomorrow, are you?"

And I'm like, "Of course I am, I haven't used a regular blade since early training, and even then I swapped over to learning to use a gunblade halfway through."

"Hm. That won't do, then, will it?"

And he stands up, and I watch him just kinda walk over to something, he looks back at me and smiles that charming smile and tells me not to look.

And I don't, and I'm confused until he comes back around with the most kickass gunblade I have EVER seen and is just like, "Would this make it better?"

And I'm just sobbing and telling him he didn't need to do that, and he's internally like, 'I don't know what I expected,' but he sits back down and hugs me and tells me of course he didn't, but he WANTED to. Okay, maybe he DID need to, how am I supposed to do assignments if I don't have a proper weapon?

And then he tries to ground me like, "This one probably has more kick to it than your old one, why don't we go to the training room and test it out?"

And we do, and holy shit, he's SO right, but I take it like a champ, and he's so proud of me. so much so that he has to SHOW me how proud he is that i can take to a powerful weapon so naturally

And that thing is my pride and joy for the longest time until the events of Crisis Core and my desertion. Of course I take it with me, it's all I have left of Angeal. When I literally toss it aside while fighting Zack because I'm just so willing to let him kill me, he barely misses and just sticks the buster sword in the ground and grabs me by my shirt and just gives me the most passionate speech ever about how I have to keep living because he and I are the last of Angeal's legacy. And he gets through to me, leaves, tells Shinra he couldn't find me, and then we never see each other again.

And about two years after Zack 😬, I'm still in that little village/town I ran off to, doing work slaying monsters and helping out to the point where 'that guy living out in the woods' is just a positive part of their lives. But Shinra found out there's a rogue ex-SOLDIER there and sends some people to ask questions, and they just keep coming back until I come and kick ass and tell them to leave and never come back. Which obviously does not work, because come on, Shinra's just evil like that. And they keep coming back, and I keep kicking ass until they bring like... IDK, a mech or something and threaten to raze the whole town. And then off I go fighting my hardest, and manage to destroy the thing, but I'm very much injured to the point of near death. And I go to the... town elder or something, idk, and tell him next Shinra shows up, show them that their SOLDIER left for good and it's pointless to keep looking for him here.

And then I present my gunblade and tell him, "Give this to the next person who comes along. Someone who dreams... of an honorable cause."

And then I fuck off back to my little hut in the woods, where Angeal is waiting to take me back to the lifestream, and OH GOD, I'M CRYING, OKAY, POST OVER, YOU'RE FREE TO GO.

WAIT, HOLD ON, NEVERMIND

In a super meta turn of events, I forgot that this is a weapon that my insert for Barret can get in the VII story lmfao.

#this was just supposed to be about the gunblade but holy shit i pretty much summed up the whole ship history in one post #FUCK #i'm emotional #what do angels dream of #pl: zack #s/i

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sol1loqu1st · 6 months

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under a readmore because. yeah. cw for discussion of like. everything happening on the news rn

i don't know how to talk about any of this without it sounding like i am making. like. Literal G*nocide (censored to avoid tags not because i think it's a Bad Word) about Me And My Mental Illness so i guess prefacing with. like. this is not any sort of #Take, i'm just processing some complicated personal feelings that i don't know how to talk about with my therapist. at the core of it all i'm scared and not sure how to help and i feel like there's so much confusion that if i ask for real, tangible things i can do, there's a not-insignificant chance i might end up helping to make things worse.

anyways like. i've probably got moral ocd and at the very least have a lot of the symptoms, and i also have cptsd from like. a million different things but partially from constant, unrelenting exposure to horrific news (specifically, in a way where the narrative tends to be both "if you aren't spending a majority of your time and effort thinking about and trying to solve this, you are complicit" AND "this is hopeless, there's nothing the average person can do, no amount of donations and calling your reps and front line activism is ever going to help") since i was a young teen, again, who probably has moral ocd, and just. idk. everything happening right now is immensely triggering on so many levels.

i don't know what's *actually* happening because it feels like there are a hundred different narratives but i know there's a horrific genocide happening and i'm terrified that by not reblogging or talking about it much i'm not doing even the bare minimum of my part. but so many of the posts i would actually reblog (specifically, posts with actual information or ways to help -- as a personal rule, i won't reblog posts that are just fear or anger or venting (not because i think that's Bad(tm) but because it just makes me feel hopeless and suicidal)) seem to go out of their way to like. pin the blame on average citizens, or even jewish people, instead of the israeli (or hell, the united states) government, and i know that like. nuance gets lost when you're scared and angry and grieving and as an outsider it would be ridiculous to tone-police but with the rise in rampant antisemitism in the last few years, at least in the US, happening alongside all of this i am so so scared for my jewish friends and i'm scared for what it means for me when i eventually start my conversion process (or if it means that i'll never start, for my own safety) and i've already been struggling with activism burnout since like 2020 and i'm just. i feel sick watching genocide happen across the world and not knowing how to help and being scared that even if i attempt to help it's going to make a different problem worse. and i feel disgusted and horrified at myself for being so paralyzed by fear and confusion and my own much less significant trauma that i'm essentially no better than someone who intentionally sticks their head in the sand and doesn't care at all. which, see above, makes me worry that i'm complicit.

i'm open to replies to this post, including ones that challenge the way i feel and especially if anyone has any suggestions on constructive ways i can help (or groups i can donate to who are doing constructive things -- i've heard someone say even donations aren't helpful right now, i don't know if that's true or not) but i'm begging for compassion because like. believe me, whatever thing you're going to say about my position of relative privilege or like. White Guilt(tm) or anything like that, my brain has already guilt tripped me about it. i'm not necessarily asking for advice on how to turn this into actually constructive activism because i know that ultimately it's kinda on me, but i'm open to hearing advice anyone has

sorry for this being kinda incoherent, i didn't want to talk about it at all since i know it is like. the way i personally feel about this is not relevant or important. but it's consuming a lot of my thoughts and energy and i'm trying to find a way to find some sort of balance where i can still function without just sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending it's not happening

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sae-mian · 9 months

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arms: Does your OC have any weapons? What weapons do they carry, and how do they wear them when they're not fighting?

favorite: Does your OC have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? What is it? What's the meaning behind it? Do they wear it all the time or do they wear it sparingly to keep it safe?

OKAY SO. the second one has been answered here! but... THAT FIRST ONE? I CAN GO ON LIKE. AN ESSAY-LENGTH RAMBLE ABOUT (and if it gets long i guess i'll just stick it under a readmore x) )

nira'sae currently possesses 3 "primary weapons":

-bow (modelled after the Asphodelos Harp-bow) -staff (modelled after the Asphodelos Cane) -chakrams (modelled after the Edengrace Tathlums)

the first two were made by their own hand - the last was made for them, but augmented by them.

though they do not visibly carry these weapons most of the time, they are always present.

(tangent alarm. here we go ┐(︶▽︶)┌ )

nira'sae, either during the process of crafting, or while augmenting/upgrading their weaponry, always takes the extra step of imbuing said weapon with a hefty amount of their own aether. they do this for a handful of reasons.

their bow, for example, at first glance? is completely stringless - and they do not rely on a quiver of arrows. the string and arrows both are born from aether, when and only when they are ready to draw and fire. they consider this a safety measure, of sorts - their weapons are quite powerful, and they do not want them to be miss-used.

this process is also what allows them to summon and unsummon their weaponry. when not in use, they can (and often do) literally dissolve their weapon into aether - always present, but not handle-able. they can swap weapons quickly this way - as well as move around covert/unburdened by them. the weapons can also never fall into the wrong hands.

they do have other weapons, but they fall outside of the "big 3" - and they're typically far less practiced with them in comparison.

#ffxiv #ffxiv oc #nira'sae #ask meme #ask answered #thank you for thIS QUESTION SPECIFICALLY #this is one of those niche ballad specific hc things i could waffle on about for days and days but #i tried to keep it at least a LITTLE concise #heh.

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purupurple · 1 year

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i believe that will be it for me this year digital art-wise considering my tablet cord has had enough of my nonsense and now it's basically dead (tablet itself seems okay though so that's good... but its pretty old...) and also i'm going out of town soon so there won't be much time to do any drawing for a good while i think. maybe i should take my sketchbook though... guess i'll put some thoughts under a readmore

well... what a year. i should write about it on my neocities before i have to fly out. remember neocities? i sure didn't for a solid six months. hey, html is hard, what can i say? that aside, i'd like to thank everyone for the support this year. my blog grew quite a lot because i was drawing quite a bit of subway boss stuff and apparently that was a good idea. like, dude... i've just been having a prolonged brainrot episode and it's still probably going to keep going for a good long while. even larry hasn't distracted me long enough to not draw ingo and emmet for one day. even without submas art i would probably still be drawing pokemon stuff, unless i decide to be real bold and re-experience my great ace attorney phase (yes i had one (no i didn't post about it. thank god)) or something like that. regardless of whether my interests shift of my activity rises or falls, and whether those who follow me now stick around or move on, i'd still like to express my gratitude for your support. and not just to people following me, but to the people liking and/or reblogging my content and to those who will follow me in the future. without the feedback, i figure i would not be posting so much. funny little notification on funny little computer make the smooth little brain become happier brain, which is a "i want to draw" brain. the amount of notes doesn't matter overall, but it's nice to be acknowledged. i still do a lot of drawing that isn't shared here because it's just stuff i do for me, but its still pretty nice to be able to make stuff that is suitable to post and to see it actually get attention.

as for the plan next year, there might be some big changes in store for me yet. and i would still like to continue to draw subway bosses. but maybe i'll start posting some original content too (like i mean i have a tag for it and i kinda haven't been using it sooooooooooooo) and more frequent posts would be nice. maybe not once a week but just here and there. perhaps i'll share more sketches. i would like to acquaint everyone with my ocs, and maybe get around to rewriting their toyhouse pages which i took down to work on and never did WHOOPSIE DOODLES

okay i think that's enough, i have to save some of this for my diary on neocities like i said... see y'all next year AYYYYYY (im so tired)

#this isnt art

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arielmagicesi · 2 years

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ok fine whatever things I’m being normal about in the wwdits s4 trailer. under a readmore for anyone who wants to wait to watch the season when it comes out:

-Laszlo and Nadja going to have sex in the dilapidated house immediately after Nandor just drowned or whatever

(also I want to see Laszlo and Nadja reconcile and have a whole thing but you know what, I’ve made a point of saying that I want the show to do its own thing and not be fanservice-y, so it’s fine if they skip that)

-THE WIVES THE WIVES I want to see Nandor’s wives! Literally I heard that one of his wives is going to stick around for the whole season, and if that’s true I will be so happy. only one more woman to go before the main cast is actually gender equaled and I can stop apologizing to imaginary commenters in the YouTube thread of my mind for being a misogynist

-why is the genie like a businessman. I love it

-ik Guillermo is describing Laszlo and Nadja’s marriage as “polyamorous” to Sean because he’s the only one who knows modern words, but I’m choosing to interpret it as him being part of the polycule (why is Nandor holding hands with Nadja in that part, hmm? the whole house is a polycule. besides the baby I guess)

-also Seanie being just, in the house chatting with them lmao. although where the FUCK is charmaine

-why were Nandor and Guillermo swordfighting. is this gonna be a regular thing now, them fighting. I support it

-Nadja’s rapping I love her. she did a great job. Also I’ve become excited to see her nightclub, fuck it, girlboss of all time

-the Guide tormenting Guillermo aaaaahhhhhh I love Kristen Schaal

-uhh the whole thing. the whole thing is very good

-wait also Nandor’s search for a wife is so funny. him using the gross pond as a hot tub for him and his date who hates it? amazing

Anyway yeah OK I think I got that out of my system. I’m fine I’m fine I’m OK

edit: lest we forget, baby Colin Robinson. fuck you if you don’t like him. he’s an icon. I love that Laszlo is trying to make him interesting. that’s hilarious. them fencing in the park is amazing. him (I assume that’s him) waking up Nandor to annoy him by wearing his armor. amazing. I can’t wait

#written by me #what we do in the shadows #wwdits spoilers #yeah no i'm... i'm normal now. my heartrate is back to normal #i think i'm just like this as a person and i have to accept who i am #before i am anything i am fandom freak. and that's ok.

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mikk1n · 2 years

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I just realized I forgot to send you an ask, I'm sorry!!!! (And I hope you feel better soon :'))

Free pass to talk about Soap!!

BARK BARK WOOF WOOF BARK (<- me when Soap is mentioned in the vicinity)

I don't even know where to start tbh. I love him a lot. He's my discord kitten. My poor little meow meow. My war criminal. My fucking cinnamon apple-

Okay I've come back to this ask after fielding opinions from my friends and partners:

So I guess this is what I'll go with!

This is gonna be long so I'll stick it all under a readmore (when I archive this post later I'll copy/paste the contents so they're preserved)

I project on Soap Hardcore, so I ran with his journal sketches and decided that he's a creative at heart! I likes to draw and paint, both digitally and traditionally (though he prefers traditional art since it's how he learned, and he likes the tactile stimulation of working with traditional materials like paints, pastels, etc.) He also plays the guitar and sings, though I feel like outside of Apoptosis he'd be really shy about his musical hobbies, especially singing.

I feel like he'd be kind of sporty too, though not really into competing; he takes part in stuff like swimming and football (soccer lol) just to enjoy them and get himself moving. I feel like he's a total fucking gym rat tho, either that or he invests in equipment so he can work out at home. Either way he exercises pretty much all the time; his free time is split between painting, singing, and throwing weights around.

I'm kind of torn on whether or not he'd be into airsoft. I'm leaning toward no, at least in canonverse, unless he's playing with people who are also in the military. I feel like he'd also be torn over it; it's a fun hobby he can take part in with his friends where no one dies and he gets to go shooty shooty, but after seeing actual combat, and war? It could get too much for him very quick. (And he might have weird feelings about playing with civilians, especially the ones who lowkey fetishize the military and go all out with tacticool gear. I don't think he'd hate or dislike them though, if that makes sense.).

In most of my AUs and in canonverse, Soap's ideal life is one where he can just...live unbothered. He can paint and make music and shoot the shit with his friends as much as he wants, without having to worry about the pressure of his fucked up family dynamic or the military. One where he has the space to heal from his trauma and actually grow into the person he wants to be. Money would be nice too, but he doesn't want to be super rich or have a lot of material items (though he does fantasize about it sometimes). Just enough to live quietly and comfortably, preferably with a lifelong companion (because he's a hopeless romantic at heart). Maybe a cat too.

#inbox #not art #saint-vulgaris #also dw about not sending an ask right away LOL I made my post early in the day #and I don't think I've reblogged it yet

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gnosticreign-a · 2 years

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@kohlapsar asked: questions for the mun - i am asking youuu the first question from each section ! :y

Questions for the mun. | accepting!

When did you first start writing?

ehhhh i wanna say 13 years old? on paper with pencils and pens. i was introduced to tmnt and for some reason i wanted to write fanfic. but i wanted to also be a part of it. ironically, the self-insert i had for that was just as shallow as literally everyone else, but it did get me started on my love of writing. i just had to learn.

What is your favorite canon muse?

on this blog, i guess it might be diluc, but i also think it's because i've projected some things onto him, both from myself and character archetypes i've much enjoyed.

as a whole, it's hard to choose, but i can at least give a handful. donnie, shredder raph, miketrap...okay so they're all canon divergent in a few ways, but shhhh.

let me put the rest under a readmore, because things do get more nuanced from there.

Who was your first OC?

honestly, this is also even more hairs to split.

there was one from a batch of my very first writings who began to show more of a personality over time, and eventually she became a longer-lasting oc, until i eventually wrote an original story for her. unfortunately, as i shared her and even rp'd her on tumblr to return her to her fandom-based origins a bit, things began to stack onto her that i hated associating with her.

people godmodded her. one even wrote in/ce/st about her and her goddamned daughter. they acted like they knew her more than i did. eventually, she no longer felt like my character, but a stranger. i still have everything for her, but i couldn't look at her the same after that point onward.

ironically, she wasn't even the self-insert of that group of characters. she just happened to develop a personality first.

HOWEVER. if you want to talk about the character i first called an oc and had the term for it, that would be roza. she was also the first self-insert that i'd made simply because hee hee hoo hoo comphet feelings.

In what fandom did you start?

that would be the tmnt fandom, both for writing and rping!

What are you looking for in a ship?

honestly, you have to hit that wire just right for me to talk for ages about a ship. i don't know how, but it really just happens sometimes, with some ships sticking to a wall better than others.

What are the trends when it comes to writing that you adore?

post-length icons are a blessing, honestly. you get a lot of room to express yourself on them, and it really helps with designing a vibe sometimes.

not sure what else i can come up with trend-wise off the top of my head tho.

#kohlapsar #— ❛❛ // 𝐫𝐢❜𝐚𝐡 ¦ ᶦⁿ ᵗᵒᵒ ᵈᵉᵉᵖ ᵗᵒ ᵍᵒ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ ᵃᵍᵃᶦⁿ ・「 ooc post ! 」#— ❛❛ // 𝐫𝐢❜𝐚𝐡 ¦ ʰᵒᵖᵉ ⁽ ᵗʰᵉ ʷᵒⁿᵈᵉʳ ᵈʳᵘᵍ ⁾ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ʷᵒʳᵏ ⁿᵒ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ・「 munday ! 」#— ❛❛ // 𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ¦ ᵒʰ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ᵃ ᵈʳᵉᵃᵐᵉʳ ˀ ・「 ask ! 」#incest mention cw

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inflammatoryfandomblog · 2 years

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you know what, i’m just gonna dump all of the thoughts i’ve had on tdp in the past year (not many) in a classic, inflammatoryfandomblog hyper-readable and not-at-all-irritating-to-read post. this one in particular was just a post that i’d saved to drafts and added to whenever i had a Thought.

some of these things were written in response to discourse that was popular a few months ago, but that i don’t remember the specifics on now and don’t remember who or what was involved--i just caught secondhand vibes.

i’ll stick this under a readmore because it’s actually quiiiite long, because i don’t edit very well. i also dislike the show, so this is not a commentary coming from a fan. if you don’t want negativity or plain just don’t like me, please do not push the “keep reading” thing.

-> unicorns are definitely not extinct and something fishy is going on here. how did claudia manage to get a unicorn horn for viren’s edgy spell if they were all gone hundreds of years ago? that’s not right. or it’s a retcon. or claudia just nabbed a unicorn horn from a museum and told viren she captured a unicorn (new short story idea: claudia’s caper). to boot, viren was super proud of claudia for capturing a unicorn. maybe the unicorns were actually super bad, who knows.

-> dark magic leading to a magical desertification makes sense. i mean, you put all those powerless humans with a handful of dark magic lords and... i mean remember that post i made about how the imprint of dark magic should make itself visible in the human cultures? this is what i’m talking about.

with the history of desertification, “(dark) magic is just an easy way out” is at once Advanced Cope and also a reasonably skeptical reaction if your history is marred by a concentration of mages/the people in charge not thinking ahead but instead of letting the natural consequences of their stupid actions explode in their faces, magic allows them to circumvent it at cost and they make bigger and bigger mistakes until they hit a problem that can no longer be solved with magic .......... wait lmao i literally described king harrow’s character. that’s literally his life from beginning to end.

they could have actually hinted at this in the show by having sarai initially object to viren’s plan with “harrow, you know we can’t keep this up. this will work for now, but what about the future? what about the next harvests? are we going to cross the border every time?” maybe other kingdoms can have differing attitudes re: dark magic and even magic in general. that’s how you imply this thing in the show instead of having the kingdoms be different flavors of sludge. just... please. anything. don’t just shove your worldbuilding in the tertiary material and have it not matter to the things on screen.

(also yes, you may notice that (dark) magic is in parentheses, this is because this is also a problem with regular magic, it’s just conveniently the type of magic withheld from humans and doesn’t sap intelligence and long-term thinking from its wielders, which makes this sort of thing more likely to happen. wow i love the dragons and grEAt oNES for trapping an entire race in their own side of the continent instead of literally anything else)

-> what’s hilarious re: the above is that magic also prevented ezran from learning anything or having any sort of character growth in season 3. i love how there’s one shot of him briefly being shocked that the troops he napalmed with dragons were... dead... before it’s revealed that thanks to the power of dark magic, he didn’t actually kill anybody. i guess you don’t have to think about any costs ever lmao. but can you imagine if that didn’t happen? the mood whiplash would have been so funny. yeah yeah “show for kids” so it can’t happen, but then they *really* shouldn’t have explicitly called attention to this theme, or maybe have ezran grow a backbone/personality and refuse to fight his people instead of having him be in the final battle because... you want an Epic Final Battle? if you wanted to have the theme of love winning out maybe have ezran watch over zym and have *him* be the one who isn’t distracted by the battle and have him be the one who confronts viren/warns the others, instead of... bad writing? like ezran spending three episodes being a peace fan and then ending the season flamethrowering those same people with a big old smile on his face is the closest thing you can have to objectively bad (that’s right i’m a STEMlord now) storytelling no matter what demographic you’re throwing it at. there are so many moments in the series like this too, it’s so frustrating to think about.

-> aaravos is boring and lame. the reason people ship viren and aaravos isn’t because they have a good dynamic (it’s so painful every time aaravos is on screen guys), it’s because the only possible explanation for anyone with even a single functioning neuron to tolerate this annoying grub for more than 5 seconds would be that they are attracted to him. coincidentally, a very disproportionate amount of artwork of aaravos in the fandom is aggressively horny. yes i am saying that aaravos is a wet paper bag, and i am still an Aaravos Hater.

-> arcanums are honestly vague as hell and i still cannot tell you what the hell callum did to unlock the sky arcanum. like if anything he’s more aligned with the moon arcanum thanks to his dubious relationship with truth-telling, and he even makes sooo many connections to the moon arcanum in season 3. the way he got it makes me think “well why isn’t there any other regular human mage if it’s so easy?” he wanted to be powerful really bad but like so did viren lmao. what’s the difference between these two besides the fact that callum didn’t get dark magic brainrot?

-> dark magic is not an analogue to science (it has nothing to do with observing the natural world, making hypotheses, etc), and i don’t really think arcanums are an analogue to spirituality. people make this comparison only because they want to make connections to atla’s four elements--which themselves didn’t have anything to do with spirituality; you just had to “understand” the element to be a better bender, which isn’t the same thing as spirituality. i’ve ragged on the avatar series for just straight-up not understanding spirituality even in the general avatar stuff (it’s new age fafa woo with eastern folklore used as set dressing in both atla and lok) and using it as window dressing and it’s even less relevant in the dragon prince.

arcanums don’t even make you wise. lujanne is a master at her arcanum and understands the source of moon magic but she is still a shallow person and not generally wise, as making your entire identity around *illusions* predictably does to you. similarly the sunfire elves are obsessed with the “true nature” of something and literally cannot see anything else. one-track mind. understanding one arcanum may give you a very particular sort of understanding, but only as it relates to one element. natural vs. dark magic is obviously meant to be more of a “connection with nature vs only seeing it as a resource to be exploited” thing than it is a science vs. religion thing. you can see this even with the slight environmental themes implied in the “magic desertification” above. i don’t like many things about how the series handles this because it has babybrain morality re: ... the entire xadia genocide thing, but it’s not science vs. religion.

-> that’s what really kills dark magic in this series, right? the fantasy “is dark magic good to use and when?” should be a jumping off point to explore all the other ways in which people value and instrumentalize power (ie sol regem literally saying the humans are inferior because they are less powerful) instead of staying only at the shallow level. just because the elves don’t use dark magic doesn’t mean they are immune to this criticism, but the show constantly puts them in this better light. human rayla is hilarious but elf callum (which relies significantly less on negative stereotypes) is insensitive. pyrrha (not a wild animal and part of a hostile social order) torching a town to keep her class’s power is okay because... it’s not dark magic? come on man. if you have politics in your show, do something with it or don’t give it this much focus.

-> the first time i saw this show, i was like “huh, that looks like the trail of tears.” it’s not really subtle guys. the story explicitly takes visual cues from the trail of tears (a real historical event) and then constructs the story to be as kind as possible to the elves instead of giving them any criticism whatsoever. and i hate the talking point that thinking this is insensitive is stupid and “thinking too much” because it’s “just for kids” and “well, you don’t understand that victims can be victimizers uwu! you’re just not used to it!!!” well sorry to say but the whole idea that victims in one context can be victimizers in another is almost always true! as any checkmate-liberals alt-right andrew jackson fan can tell you, the cherokee were no angels (oh wait they are people and had flaws and flawed social systems? well i guess we can’t say they suffered injustice, it’s a wrap, everyone!); they were humans; that’s kind of why they’re called human rights, not “perfect angels who shit rainbows” rights. we still can clearly say the trail of tears was bad. i mean, unless you’re a lemming, which apparently a lot of “hurr durr the natives did bad things sometimes too” people are.

saying “i would like any sort of acknowledgement from the show (which is for children by the way!) that this was wrong and to stop constantly making additions to the lore that essentially say ‘but the humans were no angels!!! but the humans were no angels!!!!’” this isn’t “oh boo hoo people can’t handle nuance.” stories are artificial and constructed, not outgrowths of events that happened in the real world. the presentation of the story matters. it’s totally okay for the humans to have quite serious flaws; that’s not what people are complaining about. stop playing dumb. it’s was the writer’s choice to explicitly evoke the trail of tears. they don’t get to say “it’s a y-7 show!!!” you don’t want people to draw comparisons to real life political beliefs? do not make references to real-life events.

-> there is a lot i don’t pay attention to in tdp that i would be more critical of if it wasn’t for that y-7 rating. i’m not expecting high art here. there’s a lot of pacing issues and weird character beats and narrative choices that are fine and dandy because it’s a kid’s show. my problem is that it keeps trying to be cutting-edge and dark and handwaving any complexity instead of actually depicting things in a kid-friendly way. handling issues in a kid-friendly way means handling issues in a kid-friendly way, not... ignoring them for cheap drama and saying “nuance!!!” so that your adult audience (and the adult and teenage audience for this show is quite large compared to, say, sofia the first or something) isn’t embarrassed for watching a kids’ show. this doesn’t mean realism vs. liberalism or whipping out your IR textbook from college. in many ways portraying this stuff in a kid-friendly way is even harder than talking about it to adults, because with adults you have big words, a larger body of mutual understanding, knowledge of real-world events, etc, to fall back on.

#tdp #me.txt #not really a begone thought or a whoa man... whoa... more of a really long text post really #with unconnected thoughts

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