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watercolourferns · 5 months

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If there0s a villain that actually scared the soul out of me in a very raw and "I wanna get out of her presence" way, is Dra. Volumnia Gaul.

Viola Davis as a villain?? More excellent and mesmerizing than you'd think! She nailed the character, imo. And she did it so well that I think I'll have nightmares.

Don't worry, no spoilers from the movie, but by now I'm sure you've read the book.

Dr. Gaul comes off as not just villanous and 100% evil, SHE COMES OFF AS NON-HUMAN. In contrast with Highbottom, Arachne, and Grandma'am (yes, she's sort of an antagonist as she molds Snow's character negatively a lot) Dr. Gaul doesn't look like your typical villain in a dictatorship; she simply doesn't react like a regular human does.

She's not overly arrogant, nor overly spiteful, she knows she's good and she knows the power she wields not just as Game-Maker but also as a doctor; yet she's far removed from what's happening around her in the sense that it doesn't affect her negatively...up until the 10th games, but as I said, no spoilers. And even after that she recovers very well and doesn't take it personally.

She views humans and Panem literally as her laboratory and she takes her role as Game-Maker very seriously, but she's not pompous about it. She's a lot like Heavensbee in the sense they're both cunning, cold calculators... but Dr. Gaul takes it up another notch and isn't afraid of using innocent humans for her own research ends, and punishing people? A breeze. I think she doesn't regard humans as anything other than hairless apes she can do her research on. She reminds me of a certain doctor during WWII...

She's not driven by anger, hate, vengeance, pride... I'm not sure what drives her to do the things she does... it could be power? But I think it's a kind of undiluted, twisted, sick curiosity of how things work and how far she can push the limits, how much she can play to be a God before she breaks it... and part of the reason she needs to retain power is to keep the resources to continue pushing the limits of biology to satisfy her morbid curiosity... If there's a portrayal of psycopathy that isn't over the top, clownish, but has flair and is quite interesting that's Dr. Gaul.

I think she's responsible for the... feel of the Capitol in THG books and movies, that fakeness, plastic, unnatural coldness of it that puts Katniss off so much. It's like she created a psycopathic ENVIRONMENT, no empathy, no compassion, no feelings...

Re-watching and re-reading the saga I can see Dr. Gaul's trademark in a ton of things... and that's why I think she's the scariest villain... She bred a whole host of psychopaths that don't know they act psychopathic and are so vapid and shallow they can be pupeteered to do anything the people in power want... The Capitol was her largest experiment and her biggest success...

P.S. All my respect to Viola Davis... she's embodied a character that will probably mark the way villains are seen after this. I love her range and mastery of acting so so much.

#fern is speaking #thg #the hunger games #a ballad of songbirds and snakes #dr gaul #volumnia gaul #viola davis

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theerurishipper · 6 months

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Part 2 of my Paris special commentary (Part 1 here) because Tumblr is an ass and has a word limit.

Disclaimer: This is long asf.

Marinette here playing 5D chess, queen shit.

The most important thing the special confirmed is that Gabe added the word "dark" to his transformation phrase on purpose cause he's a dramatic bitch.

I am here for Claw Noir mocking Gabe. Go off, king.

"Oh nO, iT WAs aN IlLusIon!" That giggle is adorable. She's so cute.

Ladyfly is an ass name, but she looks so great.

Not Gabe getting annoyed at Claw Noir's teasing. See, now this is why we stan Claw Noir on this blog.

Gabe's plan isn't half bad, actually.

Symbolism? In my children's cartoon? It's more likely than you think.

They're having a pun-off.

RIP Chat Noir's ear.

Gabe got feathered lmao

Monarch dipped like a little bitch.

A mirror, I called it. It'll make for some nice symbolism.

"Let alone a calm and gentle mom" I wonder what Sabine is like in their world to make Emonette feel like she's so alone.

I like how they handled the villains tbh. I wasn't a fan of making it seem like Marinette was one step away from becoming a supervillain at all times, but it seems less like that's the case and more like The Supreme took advantage of her suffering and vulnerability at her lowest moments.

It's also nice that they established that Shady and Claw weren't the actual big bads and are just hurt kids who got recruited into a fight they weren't ready for. Their motivation isn't some rehash of Gabriel's, they are literally trying to survive under the rule of someone who will kill them if they don't do his bidding, and because of whom they're dying. Their life is literally full of suffering and they're trying to find something that'll give them a way out. Shady wants Marinette's life, and Claw Noir wants his mother back.

Like, it doesn't excuse their actions, but it does add a more humane element to them that lends itself better to the kind of redemption Miraculous likes to do, which is to fix things with a speech. That's why this redemption works, and Gabe's doesn't.

Anyway.

The back and forth between Chat Noir and Claw Noir was pretty funny ngl.

And we discover that Claw Noir wants his mother back. Of course.

MY POOR BABY

When Marinette was talking about how she was also angry and hurt, but chose to love herself and the world around her and chose to try and fix it... that hit hard. Honestly, it did. It's everything I love about Marinette in one speech. I love it.

And then onto my personal favorite scene in the entire special, possibly in the entire show.

That whole conversation was powerful. "I'm as well as I can be anyway," that's so profound. Like, of course you aren't going to be 100% okay after losing someone you love, but Adrien wants to move on and be happy like his mother would have wanted him to. This scene really showcases Adrien's empathy and his strength, when he acknowledges that having no friends can make it harder for Claw Noir to move on, and then he tells him that only he can make the choice to stop being alone. And that's really true. This scene really showcases everything amazing about Adrien, his hope and optimism, his empathy and his strength. How he finds the strength to keep going by choosing to not be alone. It's beautiful.

Like, it could have been so easy for both Marinette and Adrien to give into their darkest impulses, and Shadybug and Claw Noir really are just representations of how letting your hurt overpower you can lead you down a dark path, and it really highlights their strength, that they choose to make the right choices everyday, despite everything. It really highlights their characters and their arcs. And they're able to take everything they've learned, and look at what they could have been in the eyes and help them change too. It's so poetic.

It would have been a little more impactful if the show had spent more than 10 minutes out of 5 seasons focusing on Adrien's grief and how it has impacted him, but whatever.

Anyway, it also had some Adrien and Nino friendship crumbs, and I'll be darned if I didn't gobble it up like a starved animal. Also, we have confirmation that "Space Mutants vs. Ghost Shark" is Nino's favorite movie, so Nino stans please say "thank you Paris special."

And they are REDEEMED.

Shadybug fixes everything with her Lucky Charm after spending the whole special making destructive ones. My heart.

Shadybug and Claw Noir stop being evil and immediately go from hating each other's guts to flirting shamelessly. They just speedran enemies to lovers in a matter of seconds. They literally just defaulted to flirting. Truly, the natural state of Ladynoir in any universe. We stan.

Gotta be honest, I'm not a fan of the new designs. Wish they had kept the old ones. I'm one of those people whose toxic trait is liking Claw Noir's design, so I'm a little unhappy with it, but hey, it's a sweet scene.

Also, Claw Noir's hair went from the color of rotten bananas to ripe bananas. If that was intentional, I applaud the writers for being both profound and funny as hell.

Aaaaaaand Gabe is back, because we can't have nice things.

The montage going through different realities was great, it was small but I enjoyed it.

They're literally so cute omg. Couple behaviors fr. I'm so obsessed with them.

HUGS

POUND IT

They're holding hands... already... like they're in love... I'm so emotional... I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS

And they're gone. But their adventures will continue forever in my mind and in my fanfics. And in other people's art that I will ravenously consume.

Cute Alya and Marinette scene. This is really sweet, I love the exploration of the impact Alya has had on Marinette's life.

And now, I'm not an Alyanette shipper, but I think they should kis- oh, wait, never mind, they did it.

And thus, the endless night comes to an end (it happened a while ago but that's just semantics).

Final thoughts

I really loved this so much. Sure, there were some exposition dumps that probably should have happened in the actual series, but that's not the fault of this special. This is probably my bias talking but this is the best special and it's literally perfect, no I will not take any constructive criticism on that. This, this special and everything in it, this is what Miraculous is all about. This is exactly what I wanted, this is what I signed up for. It's literally the best thing ever to come out of this entire show.

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starburts-addict · 7 months

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Okay so, this idea was not 100% my idea, but I was allowed to use it, so let's go!

(I'm also using an idea from a manhwa so)

Also also, I usually do gn reader, but for the sake of hijinx, the reader is fem.

OKAY LAST THING, LILIA AND ORTHO WILL BE WRITTEN AS PLATONIC

You were a normal human on earth. Just another anime fan, you liked Twisted Wonderland, nothing out of the ordinary. That was until you died. Your life wasn't to be happy about, but you didn't think it was that bad.

You woke up. That entire dream was your past life! You woke up crying and your two older brothers came to check up on you as you slept in the same room. Your parents came to check up on you. You now know who they were. They leech family from your favorite game, but… why do you exist? You were never mentioned as a character, there was never any mention that the twins had a younger sibling, let alone a sister.

Growing up, you always questioned your existence, but you tried not to think too hard about it. Maybe it was just the celestial being's way of apologizing for your untimely death. You got to meet Azul the year you went into the equivalent of middle school. The year Jade and Floyd met Azul. You've met him before and you helped him! But after a very small handful of meetings, Jade and Floyd had purposely tried limiting your time with him. Sure he was odd as a younger version to the version you're used to seeing, but he wasn't that bad! Every Time you tried to hang out with Azul with your brothers, something always came up where you couldn't. It was strange, but you decided not to question anything. What's the point if it can ruin your happiness?

We were fine not being able to attend Night Right College, you were happy with your life! Besides you were a girl, it's impossible for yo- Your parents bribed the Headmaster to allow you to attend as a student? That's new. You never really expressed any desire to go to the school. Although Jade and Floyd do complain about not seeing you as much, must have been on their request. You didn't mind, just caught off guard. Besides! You get to see the cast! Upon realizing you needed to prepare for the story. The plot except the arrival of the protagonist was the only thing you couldn't remember. Drats, you remembered when you were younger, but now, you don't remember one bit. Guess you were going in blind.

When the time for the entrance ceremony arrived, everything went upside down. Not only was the protagonist one of the protagonists with a face, Yuuka Hirasaka, but everyone's eyes were on the both of you as the only girls on campus. You know this school is an all boys school, but did they have to make a huge deal out of it? At least the main cast didn't seem to mind too much, although Azul's eyes on Yuuka and you were unnerving. (He was looking at Yuuka too right?) You knew things were going to change the second Yuuka and grim have been deemed students and we're under your care. You may not remember the plot, but you remembered details on the main character. Like how they were not granted the position of student as soon as they arrived. Especially the fact that they were supposed to be the dorm leader of Ramshackle, not you.

When you and Yuuka left after the conundrum called the entrance ceremony, you felt like you had become prey despite being a predator. Especially with the eyes on you.

As the school year went on, you recognized that almost everyone's behavior was, even your brothers, but for different reasons. They kept driving you away from the main cast. Yuuka and Grim were the only normal ones. It wasn't until after the Heartslabyul incident that your dorm mates had revealed the reason for your brother's weird behavior and left you with more questions for the others. Apparently everyone in the main cast has been asking about you.

Was your presence in this world so impactful? No, it probably wasn't that. It was probably the difference between you and your older twin brothers. Their curiosity should calm down especially with the fact they don't even really know you.

…. Right?

Tags: @bubbles-lounge

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arotechno · 7 months

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i am not necessarily immune to this myself but sometimes i see folks arguing about the Variety of Representation and i'm like. WHAT representation. yes it is 100% objectively true that alloaros get the short end of the stick when it comes to both fictional representation and what limited public perception of aspec identities there are. this is important. but outside of that. why are we arguing over who gets scraps?

to in any way claim that aroace people have this great wealth of representation COMPARED TO ALLOACES, however little ace representation there is in mainstream media at all, is preposterous to me! as if aroace characters are popping up all over. as if aroace characters that do exist don't have their aromanticism erased! as if there isn't a substantial population of alloaces whose ace advocacy hinges on assuring the public that they're still capable of love like a Normal Person. as if aroace people haven't been shouting about being alienated from the ace community for years.

we can talk about what we want to see in our representation and i encourage that. but sometimes i see posts on this site and i'm like respectfully what the fuck are you guys talking about. show me the aro characters

#please dear god no one misinterpret this post as me saying 'aroaces have it hardest' this isn't a competition #op

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jinkieswouldyoulookatthis · 7 months

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Anti-destiel Wank (sorry but I have to)

If you hardcore ship Destiel, please just scroll on by. Please.

Ok, I'm gonna get myself in trouble, I'm sure, but I gotta get this off my chest...

Destiel may be a perfectly fine ship,

but,

IT'S JUST A SHIP.

In the actual context of the show there IS NO ROMANTIC OR SEXUAL TENSION/RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEAN AND CAS.*

Full fucking stop.

Subtext can be interpreted in ANY WAY YOU WANT. It is subjective. You will find whatever you look for in it. Please stop waving subtext interpretations around as if they were objective facts, they aren't. Subtext, by its very definition, relies on implied meaning and understanding, this means it is a subjective interpretation of the media that varies from viewer to viewer. The inherent variations are what make it fanon/headcanon instead of canon.

If you see tension of that sort there and it makes you happy to postulate the what if, then go ahead, that is what fanon and head canon and fan fiction is all about. But if the fact that the tension you think you see isn't being addressed in actual canon makes you grumpy, maybe you need to take some of the fanatic out of your fanning. If you are beginning to think the show creators are actively trying to repress Dean's "true sexuality and feelings" because they are evil, you might need to consider that you've dug in too deep.

Because, like I ship wincest. Yeah, I said it. But I am aware that canon doesn't actually include any level of sexual or romantic (in the modern sense) relationship between Sam and Dean. Wincest is not canon.

Now, are Sam and Dean the real "love" story of the show? Yes, yes they are. That has always been 100% the entire point of Supernatural, the great love story of two brothers struggling to save the world together. It's about family and everything that means, but at its heart, it is about Sam and Dean WInchester. Not all kisses and cuddles and sex kind of love, but love nonetheless. Full stop.

Now, the fact that Destiel is such a popular ship is not surprising to me in the least. Jensen and Misha are two gorgeous guys who share a lot of chemistry on screen and off. And, it is canon that Cas loves Dean. That has been evident since Lazarus Rising (4x01) when Cas was introduced. Castiel's love of Dean Winchester has been his character's main motivation all along and culminated with Cas sacrificing himself to save Dean, after telling him that he loved him in Despair (15x18)

But Dean's main motivation has always been to watch out for his brother. And though Castiel became Dean's best friend, he still comes second to Sam. Nothing against Cas, he just isn't Sam.

So why are so many people so absolutely convinced that Destiel is so real within the context of the story?

Well, I'm pretty sure that it is the same reason that they are so opposed to the idea of wincest.

As we all know, incest is bad, mmmkay? Incest is probably one of the biggest, strongest, cultural taboos we have. So it makes perfect sense that the idea of two blood-related brothers having sexual or romantic feelings for each other is considered icky. It's so off putting that it is a complete no go for even fantasizing about for most people. And that's probably a good thing, tbh, incest should be taboo. But where does that taboo spring from? Why is it so deeply off limits? There are several reasons, but the two main ones are:

That incest can lead to inbreeding.

That incest too often involves molestation or rape of children.

Both of these are seriously bad enough that we all pretty much collectively agree to avoid incestuous relationships. But, do either of these two reasons really apply in the case of Sam and Dean?

The short answer is no. Primarily this is because they are fictional characters that are being played by unrelated actors. But to humor the objectors we'll look at it closer.

We can take the first one right off the table. As two cis men, neither of them is capable of becoming pregnant, so outside of the mpreg (male pregnancy) or gender bending subsets of fanfic tropes, this is not applicable.

The second reason only becomes an issue when talking about the characters earlier in their lives, pre-show or flashbacks. Weecest or teencest, or whatever, are things, but these typically have separate ship names for a reason, because even when dealing with fictional characters this squicks a lot of folks who are otherwise down with the wincest ship. So most content is tagged or labeled as its specific flavor, so anyone can find it or avoid it. But wincest that involves adult Sam and Dean (the specific pairing I'm referring to in this post) doesn't apply to the second reason listed above.

So there really is nothing morally wrong with Sam and Dean having sex with each other. I know that statement is going to bother a whole lot of people, but it is true. Just because something is taboo does not automatically make it morally wrong. Being gay used to be taboo in our culture, and is still taboo for way too many people, even though there is nothing morally wrong with homosexuality.

Now, I wasn't in the fandom back at the beginning of the show, but I've heard tell that the very first Sam/Dean fic was posted just a few hours after the pilot episode aired. A few hours, that's all it took for some highly motivated fan to type out a story where they were more than just brothers. The story is called Reunion. If you watch the pilot, even with your anti-incest goggles on, the chemistry between Jared and Jensen is palpable throughout. There is a reason the show lasted for 15 years, and that reason is that Sam and Dean just work on screen so well together. So if it only took one episode for that ship to be born, what did all the future destiel shippers do? Well I imagine they felt somewhat uncomfortable for the first 60 episodes.

Flash forward to season four and the introduction of Castiel. Finally there was another male character for fans squicked by the notion of sweet, sweet brother loving to focus on! Cas was clearly fixated on Dean more than Sam, which followed the plot since Cas had been instructed to rescue Dean from Hell. As it would turn out, the brothers were destined to be the meatsuits that Michael and Lucifer wore to the big prize fight to determine the fate of the world. Prepping Sam for Lucifer involved him consuming demon blood, which made most of the angelic host view him as an abomination, a factor that Cas had to learn to get past in his relationship with the younger brother. But Dean was ready to go right out of the box, no assembly required for Michael. Castiel, and many of his angelic brethren, as well as a lot of Demons, seem to be drawn to Dean in a way that they just aren't drawn to Sam. Is this fair? Hell no. But I mean, look at him! Jensen has sexual tension with literally everything he comes in contact with, people, food, his car, the man oozes sexual attraction. Don't get me wrong, Jared is a sexy fucking ball of sunshine, and our Sammy is a damned attractive man, but he tends to be more repressed and less openly sexual than his brother, so it is what it is.

Where was I going with this? That's a good question. I got a bit distracted, sorry. Oh right...

At its root, destiel is a reactive projection. There is undeniable tension between characters in the show. Since all of the main cast are male, that tension is highly homoerotic. The two main characters, who are undeniably emotionally enmeshed and co-dependent with each other (a very well established canon fact btw), happen to be blood-related brothers. Oh no! Where is all that tension coming from since we cannot admit or accept that it's coming from them? Ah ha! Here is a new male character that we like, yes, it is obviously coming from his interactions with one of the brothers, even though he wasn't in the first 60 episodes. Yes, it all makes perfect sense now, all that tension was merely foreshadowing.

I've read through all the destiel subtext posts. I've gone back and watched all the scenes they reference multiple times with the express purpose of finding destiel. I'm telling you it is just a fanon ship. Which is 100% fine and good, ship that ship, just stop declaring it more canon than canon, because it's not.

And if you don't like fictional incest, cool, cool, you don't have to. But the underlying sexual tension existed in the first 60 episodes prior to Misha being cast on the show, so it was coming from somewhere. And it'd be cooler if you learned how to scroll past people shipping wincest, like I'm sure you do for all the other weirdass, squicky shit that people post all over the internet. But if it makes your heart beat a little faster to imagine that Dean and Cas have eyesex but that Dean and Sam don't, that's fine. I think it's delusional because neither ship is actually canon and both are 100% A-Ok in fanon, and honestly Jensen doesn't seem to be able to control his eyes, which is not something anyone should feel bad about (it's fucking marvelous) but you do you.

*Castiel does love Dean. He confessed as much, but Dean did not reciprocate. What I am referencing is a mutual romance or attraction, which does not exist.

#anti destiel #anti destihellers #anti hellers #wincest #canon vs fanon #fandom wank #destiel wank #I've been sitting on & adding to/refining this post since Feb 2018 time for it to see the light of day

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unhelpfulfemme · 7 months

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I feel like the Grysk work way better than the Yuuzhan Vong as the "nebulous threat" that Thrawn is fighting against because they are clearly tailor made to highlight how wrong Thrawn can be due to his own personal weaknesses.

The entire plot of the Ascendancy trilogy is the Grysk gaining footing through 100% political means - they use espionage to discover the internal divisions and weak points of a country's political system and then attack that, an issue that is probably better addressed through collaboration and the strengthening of the country's political culture and institutions (the Chiss are so quick to abandon their national interests in the face of internal divisions). Thrawn wins every single battle in that trilogy and yet everyone, including himself, is way worse off than where they started and at great risk from the Grysks simply because the Chiss political system is so unstable and because their culture sees collaboration with other races as fundamentally undesirable.

And what Thrawn, who is also either incapable of or completely uninterested in thinking about politics, concludes from all this is, "Ah, yes, this is a problem that can only be solved by throwing more military power at it. Preferably military power run by an authoritarian state that tries to eradicate any trace of political pluralism, because that will make them less vulnerable to the exploitation of the political actors' rivalries and personal interests."

And then he spends, what, fifteen years working with people like Tarkin and Krennic, while having to constantly extinguish rebellions that are popping up everywhere due to the Empire's oppressive policies, and still somehow thinks that the Grysks wouldn't be able to deal with the Empire easily. The Empire that didn't even need them to topple itself through internal conflict in less than a generation - if the Grysks wanted to conquer it, all they'd have to do is wait.

And after reading Lesser Evil I really think that at least part of it is due to some personal drives/needs he's not self-aware enough to address: he says it point-blank that he never believed the Ascendancy would give him an admiralship, and you see hints of his constant frustration at people not understanding him and him having to teach them (sometimes from a position of less power than they have, sometimes when they really don't care to be taught) both through Thrass's POV and through his very slight (but noticeable by his standards) emotional unraveling by the end of the book (e.s. the scene with Unghali where he gets all angry and scary).

Because he has never naturally arrived at the limit of his own competence but was always hamstrung by others, he has no means of differentiating between when he's theoretically right but the politics are obstructing him and when he's actually wrong and the solution is outside of his sphere of competence.

So of course that a political system where being a flag officer means that he gets to do whatever the fuck he wants as long as he convinces one guy of it, where he gets to teach people how to think better and pick only them for positions of power, in a country with no pesky norms about preemptive strikes that he constantly needs to rule lawyer around, sounds appealing.

It's not just about the Ascendancy now, it's also about showing what he can do when not too obstructed, and it's also the first time he has enough free reign to slam headfirst into the big wall of his own lack of capacity or desire to understand politics. But hey, at least he's free to fuck around and find out, not feeling constantly frustrated and overly controlled!

Truly the most character of all time, I love it. People complain about how Zahn babygirlified him in the new canon books just because they're from his POV when switching out the Vong for the Grysk makes him more unambiguously wrong than he was in Legends (where you got other people like Jacen Solo following the same rationale).

#thrawn #thrawn ascendancy

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bonefall · 3 months

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but what makes characters like fallenleaf and bb!brokenstar redeemable?

Choice. They were stripped of their power, put through extreme circumstances, and then made the choice to leave their violent histories behind them.

And you will note that it's VERY rare that I show these types of characters being redeemed. There's two 'redemptions' in a very long history of tyrants. Tigerstar, Dalestar, Skystar, Ashfur, Darktail, One Eye, Leopardstar, Mudclaw, Thistlestar technically if he had become leader. 2 out of 10 is a very small ratio.

(and fallenleaf isn't really 'redeemed' in my mind, so much as she simply stopped being a tyrant. There is no way for her to ever make up for what she did and that is a part of her character.)

And of them, Skystar is the worst individual. By far. He has no reason to want to change, nor would he ever. He loves power too much. He would look for it anywhere he went, because he hates listening to anyone tell him what to do. Having this is important to him than anything.

BB!Brokenstar is so different he's not a great comparison to Skystar, imo. He's a protector spirit, the embodiment of SkyClan's fallen 5th oak tree, and basically the logical conclusion of the "might makes right" mindset that defines Clan Culture in his era. So his redemption in finding his place as SkyClan's guardian is basically about "righting a cosmic wrong," and putting the magic to rest in its rightful place.

Brokey's a mortal when he takes the shape of one, but the story I'm trying to tell with him is that fury, righteous love, and protectiveness have their place. He comes to understand that as he watches SkyClan form, and realize that no matter how different they are from the toxic culture he was born into and molded by, he loves them, and he needs them to become what they want to be.

THIS is what that fury is for. To kill the rats and defend the besieged Clan, so they can live freely while he slumbers.

Fallenleaf's a better comparison. Both she and Skystar wanted to forcefully remake society in their own images, and would brutalize anyone who didn't live up to their strict standards.

(contrast to BB!Brokenstar who strategically took out only two cats. Raggedstar and Marigoldkit. He actually limited violence against his own Clan.)

But Fallenleaf and Skystar are very different people. Fallenleaf did what she did out of strict, obsessive dedication to the Code. She was fueled by what she'd been taught by Bramblestar, allowing Ashfur to physically abuse Lionpaw "for his own good." That you have to hurt what you love to protect it.

Still; I very much made it intentional that her punishment is SO harsh. The Lake cats HATED her. She ruined everything and she knows it. Sol gets bored of her, steals her body, and leaves her stranded 100 years in the past. She's forced to stay in those tunnels and cling to the mortal plane, just thinking about her family to keep her tethered, as civilizations rise and fall outside.

Now back in her home, she's almost unrecognizable. She's traveled so far and lost so much, and been forced to sit with her shame for a very long time. Not even StarClan is old enough to remember her crimes; and it's she alone who carries that burden. It's a weight she chooses to carry, to remind her of the worst version of herself. Something she could become again, if she isn't careful.

BB!Skystar's a venerated founder.

Nearly everything he did in life was to serve his own ends, his own ego, and he's lauded for that. His followers ate up his excuses like slop. He built the battle culture the Clans would come to know, by making a move to crush anything that mildly offended him

Of course he's not going to regret shit. Power gets him everything he wants. He's got a circling entourage of sycophants to tell him how smart and strong he is all the time, droves of warriors who pray to him for strength in battle, all of his enemies in life are now forced to treat him like a god-among-gods in heaven. And this is exactly the way he likes it.

Man got away with it, over and over. He collects his reward every starry night.

Any time where he WOULD be threatened with having his power taken away, he would simply gaslight/gatekeep/girlboss his way back to the top. What? You gonna stop him? He will kill you and then frame your murder like a grand triumph over the Great Unfairness of the world. He has the most prey in the forest. He has the strongest cats in the land. What are you, to him, besides an angry squirrel chattering atop the branch?

Why would he ever choose to be different? He wouldn't. Power gets him what he wants, and he loves getting what he wants.

#bone babble #better bones au

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 7 months

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If you were to be roommates with any of the NRC boys, who would you wanna be roommates with? Who would you not want to be roommates with?

Ooh, what a fun prompt 😂 I’ll split them into categories and then comment on my reasoning for them! (I’m responding for myself, not for my OC by the same name confusing, I know)

Side note: I know this question was limited only to the NRC boys but for funsies I’m going to comment on Neige, the Dwarves, Chenya, and Rollo who are also students 😂 just at different schools… Let me have this—

Absolutely NOT

♥️ — I would drop kick this kid the moment he starts to mouth off to me 😤 I also don’t trust him to not pollute our shared spaces with Axe body spray. Ace is basic enough to do that.

🦈 — Not a fan of people who flake on me or act fickle. It would be a massive inconvenience if Floyd promised to do something (for example, cleaning or making dinner for us roomies) but didn’t because he suddenly “didn’t feel like it”. I’d be forced to pick up after him or to change my schedule to accommodate, and that can very easily annoy me. Plus, if his own room in the game is of any indication, he doesn’t seem very tidy… @.@

🏹 — Too extroverted. I don’t want to be greeted with his dumb ol’ smiling face or French/j when I come home every day. I’d also live in fear of him watching me sleep at night or him just reciting details about me that he shouldn’t reasonably know (clothing sizes, what I did while I was out, etc.)

👑 — Look, I don’t want to deal with paparazzi or crazy fans following Vil home or something. That’s too much stress for me to take. On top of that, there’s nothing stopping an idiot reporter from printing shady gossip about Vil’s roomie being his secret lover… which could, in turn, attract hate from his followers. Please let me just live without worrying about this.

🦇 — MAN LIVES LIKE A HOARDER 😭 There are other characters with messy rooms, but Lilia literally has tons of miscellaneous stuff everywhere... Living with him also means I have to do the bulk of the cooking or risk playing gacha with my life when Lilia's allowed to be in the kitchen. Not only that, but I'd likely be spooked by him dropping on in at random times of the day--I don't think my heart could take it. Too much trouble for me to deal with on a daily basis.

***Bonus: Neige*** — Same reasoning as Vil. I’m sure he’d be cute and peppy + help out with the chores a la Snow White, but I still don’t want to deal with the stress of living with a celebrity and having to deal with potentially super parasocial fans coming at me just for the association.

***Bonus: The Dwarves*** — … I’m not running a daycare here 🤡

I’ll tolerate them

♦️ — Cater avoids being on my shit list as long as he doesn’t start begging me to be in his selfies and twisted Tiktoks or to do internet challenges with him. I’ll tolerate him if he gives me free food he got for pics but doesn’t feel like eating because it’s not to his tastes.

🦁 — Judging from how Leona has Ruggie doing a lot of his housework 💦 I feel like I'd also have to do the bulk of the housework to make up for what Leona doesn't do... Aside from that, I think I could tolerate his personality pretty alright??? I can force him to play tabletop games with me :v and get free veggies off of his plate... (He can have my extra meat, too much protein makes me feel sick.)

☀️ — With his kind of wealth, I don’t need to worry about Kalim paying his share of the rent and for shared items (in fact, he’ll probably just buy everything for us both) 😭 but I wouldn’t like Kalim always inviting a shit ton of people over to party… Another major con is that he probably needs to be taken care of since Jamil or other servants usually fulfill his every need, and I’m NOT about that. Him paying for everything somewhat balances out these grievances, but I have pride to maintain and I don’t want to 100% live off of someone else’s money.

🍎 — Nothing overtly offensive about Epel immediately comes to mind, but if this is pre-book 5 Epel then I don’t want to deal with his toxic masculinity. I could leech free apple products off of whatever his family sends.

💀 — I just KNOW this nerd would be up gaming late until like 3 am and loudly raging as he does it, but I'm a pretty heavy sleeper so I think I could put up with it (not that I want to, only if I have to). Idia wouldn’t be that much of a bother to me during the daytime (he probably just holes up in his room anyway)... And hey, free gaming partner, tech consultant, and someone to watch anime with (and then we can argue about who the best character is).

⚡️— Sebek is punctual and loud, so he's useful to have as an alarm clock (I have a tendency to sleep in). He can do laundry, move heavy furniture, and (most importantly to me) brew tea, all things which contribute to the household. But I swear, I SWEAR, if he opens his mouth to tell me why I should like Malleus, I'm going to move out ASAP.

***Bonus: Chenya*** — Chenya definitely feels like the kind of roomie that eats the food you left in the fridge and then claims he has no idea where it went (while there are incriminating crumbs around his mouth). His UM also has potential to make me feel uneasy in the same space (like… he could be anywhere x.x). The only reason I’ll tolerate rooming with Chenya is because he’s a cute cat boy.

Acceptable

🌹 — Riddle’s just... okay. I can see myself getting irritated whenever he's being a stickler about certain rules being followed or things having to be done a certain way (since I hate being told what to do). Then again, I'm also a stickler for certain things (like no outdoor shoes inside the house; always wear house slippers instead). If we can compromise and avoid shouting (assuming this is post-book 1 Riddle), that would be great. If it’s book 1 Riddle… yeah, I’m tiptoeing around him and/or he gets lowered into “Absolutely NOT”.

♠️ — Nothing that notable about Deuce or how he lives, he’s just not a very strong contender for what I’d like in a roommate. Phone calls to his mom aren't so long or so frequent that they'd be an annoyance.

🐙 — Pro: Azul does all the math for us when it comes to the bills. Saves me a lot of hassle. Con: he’ll ask for compensation for every little thing he does. It balances out, I guess.

🐬 — As much as I'd love to have a live-in butler, I don't trust Jade for one second to not be plotting something behind my back. Sure, he's polite and does all the usual malewife things, but I never know when this man has slipped a new breed of mushrooms into dinner to test the effects of its consumption on me (BRO DID THIS DURING MASTERCHEF AND I'LL NEVER LIVE THAT DOWN). Jade also seems like the type of roomie to smile to your face but shit talk you when you're not around 🤡 It's fine, I'm a masochist so I'll let it happen/j

🐉 — I mean. He's acceptable as a roommate, but Malleus feels like the kind of person you rarely even see in the apartment??? And whenever he does show up, you're shocked that you've spotted him. That means I'd basically have the place to myself for most of the time, which is great for an introvert like me.

Omg pls

🐆 — Ruggie’s got tons of experience looking after Leona, I’m sure those skills will transfer over nicely to rooming with me. I guess my only concern here would be fighting with Ruggie over small savings (like maybe a spare coin or the last of the leftovers), because we’re both frugal and want to hoard whatever he can get our grubby little paws on.

🐺 — Jack keeps to himself and wouldn’t bother me 😌 Good boy!!

💤 — He’s quiet when he’s awake and/or half asleep (and honestly, what a mood). Silver would be such a peaceful roomie… plus, all his woodland creature friends basically provide free animal therapy. Since Lilia often left Silver home alone while he embarked on worldly travels, Silver’s already got experience in homemaking and a willingness to pitch in.

🐱 — Grim is this high up only because he is cat-shaped and therefore he is basically a Real Cat. He is my pet now. I will feed him and bathe him and take good care of him. If he shreds the furniture or sets it on fire though, he’s being put in time out.

***Bonus: Rollo*** — Listen, think of the entertainment value of this 😳 Rollo would be that roommate that looks very collected and unassuming, but every so often goes on these outrageous rants once his anger is stockpiled and he can’t contain it anymore. I’d sit there listening to him go off about how magic is evil, how we’d all be happier without it, etc. And like… while I don’t necessarily agree with his rhetoric, the complete character shift to being unfiltered and unhinged is just so fascinating to observe. (… Oh yeah, and Rollo would be pretty good at cleaning since NBC students as fastidious about that kind of thing.)

You’re my new best friend

♣️ — If you give me free food then I will love you forever and ever. Trey gives free food. Therefore, I suddenly love Trey. Jokes aside though, I do see him as someone who has his shit together and wouldn’t stir the pot. He’d do his fair share of chores (including the cooking) and doesn’t have an abrasive personality that would make it difficult to be around him. Bonus, I can ask him for free dental hygiene advice and we can geek out about teeth together.

🐍 — Jamil has a similar domestic skillset as Jade, but the difference is that Jamil doesn’t go out of his way to deliberately cause problems or to enable others to act out. If I let him do his own thing and don’t get on his bad side, I think Jamil would be respectful to me as well. I’ll be happy to eat any of his delicious cooking 🤤 and in return, I’ll be his bug slayer—it’s a good deal!!

🤖 — It’s like having all of the household tools you need in one, plus a security system and a new little bestie 😌 I’d trust Ortho with my life 💕 We also save on the food and water bill since he doesn’t need those things to function, just electricity every so often to charge!

#twst #twisted wonderland #Octavinelle #Rollo Flamme #Rollo Flamm #Seven Dwarves #Chenya #Che'nya #Neige Leblanche #Heartslabyul #Savanaclaw #Pomefiore #Scarabia #Diasomnia #Grim #Ignihyde #disney twisted wonderland #question #notes from the writing raven

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braxiations · 3 months

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Hylics - The PoolWayne Theory

Preamble

So, I’ve never really seen many Hylics theories be shared online. Most of what I’ve found is limited to discord servers like the Hylemxylem. So, I thought I might put my foot into the ring and share one of my own!

Now, this theory is pretty out there. I’ve done quite a lot of examining of both Hylics 1 and 2 and to my knowledge nothing contradicts my theory. I believe my idea explains quite a lot of things pretty well and adds some fun subtext to a lot of plot beats and history. However, it’s not the pure result of thorough evidence and 100% rational thinking. It’s basically a fun idea that explains some things and, in my opinion, is interesting.

The Wayne-poolman connection

To start, I’d like to point out an odd association between poolmen and Waynes. This is first seen before we even know what poolmen are: back at the Waynehouse. Here, we see Waynes slapping poolmen dummies as training.

Now, it’s likely that this is because poolmen are Gibby’s main infantry, and this is a point I’ll return to soon. Secondly, is Gibby Redivivus’ design. Atop his head is a Wayne head… or is it? While this is also called a warpo head by some, in actuality it’s literally just the poolman model’s head colored yellow.

Poolmen’s heads are crescent shaped, so this makes sense. My thought upon learning this was “ha, are Waynes basically just yellow poolmen?” Well… Looking at the chibi sprites for both Wayne (or Sat-Wayne as I’ll call him) and poolmen do reveal a pretty clear similarity. While poolmen’s heads flop around so much in battle it’s hard to notice them as crescents, whenever shown as static or simplified they generally are shaped as such.

Now, all of this is to establish that I believe poolmen and Waynes to be mirrors or counterparts to one another in some way. Personally, I think this was actually intended by Mason himself. As you’ve probably noticed though, this post is far from over.

Why does Gibby look like that?

Specifically, why does Gibby R wear a Wayne/warpo/poolman-dipped-in-yellow-paint head anyway? As many know, Gibby’s design in Hylics 2 differs from his design in H1 because it originally belonged to a (probably) different character, Fuller. In-universe, however, Gibby’s body is referred to as a “vessel.” His remains were likely put into or molded into this form by Odozeir and his followers. So, why on Fingerhead’s beige Earth would he endow him with THE FACE OF THE GUY WHO MURDERED HIS BOSS? Well, it seems that Gibby has been repping this symbol since longgg before his reconstitution, just not as a face.

In the platforming mini-games, we get our only look at the world before the Accretion. This confirms a few interesting points:

There was at least 1 other Wayne pre-Accretion, being Sat-Wayne himself. (Likely a Waynehouse too.)

A Hylemxylem (likely the one that became the Moon) existed pre-Accretion. (Seen in the bg.)

Gibby and Odozeir were allied before the Accretion. (Their faces are on flags together.)

This last note about the flags is important as the Gibby face used is his Redivivus design. As this was being used on flags way back when, it stands to reason that Odozeir fashioned Gibby’s vessel after the symbol itself. Likewise, this would also mean that the Waynehead was being used as part of Gibby’s iconography back then too… which is strange.

Waynes as an army

The nature of Waynes is a question that dances around the edges of Hylics 2, but it never really addresses it outright. Here’s what we know:

Waynes have a huge grudge against Gibby. They seemingly spend much of their time training in the event he becomes a problem again.

They’re all equipped for combat, seemingly naturally. They do have to train and they spend much of their time doing so.

They’re seemingly all clones of one another or something analogous. They can have some differences (some are more well-trained, at least one is either fem or trans (if Decres is canon), etc,) but most are identical.

Waynes are kind of a problem, at least in the Hylics 2 zone. Chuck, when speaking of his writing process for An Endless Cycle, stated that he wanted to invoke this feeling. With the seemingly mutant Waynes we’ve seen in the New Hylics teasers, Waynes might be growing out of control, taking a role similar to that of invasive species. Tl;dr: they probably aren’t a part of the local natural order.

Perhaps Waynes are entirely natural, eusocial organisms like ants and their soldier-like training simply comes from the fact that they’re sapient. Their contentious placement in the Hylics 2 ecosystem could merely be them being invasive. Their single-minded grudge against Gibby could be explained in a few ways. If H1-Wayne is indeed the Old Wayne from H2, perhaps he dedicated his… children(?) to keep Gibby at bay because it was his most notable accomplishment. Where this explanation might falter is the Wayne head symbol used by Gibby, which is still left entirely unexplained.

So… what if the symbol came first?

The theory What we know of the Wayne species’ nature, as listed in the previous section, is highly reminiscent of sci-fi ideas of modified super soldiers. In the Star Wars prequels, for example, literal clones meant only for combat are a prevalent plot point. While Waynes as ant-soldiers sufficiently explains many of these traits, the idea that Gibby’s yellow crescent predates the Waynes could only leave an artificial origin as an option. Now, of course, this point that Gibby’s symbol is older than Waynes themselves can’t be proven for certain. The oldest point in the timeline we have access to shows Sat-Wayne coexisting with the symbol. If one was older than the other we’d have no idea. What strikes me as odd, though, is why Gibby would ever associate himself with Waynes. While we don’t know if they’ve always had an antagonistic relationship, Sat-Wayne (who is again, the first Wayne we know of,) spends much of his time attacking Gibby and Odozeir’s forces. The conflict between the two groups has been ongoing, and it seems odd Gibby would choose to honor a species that has constantly attacked him for so many years without strong reason.

With this in mind, I will propose my theory: Waynes are not a naturally occurring species. Rather, they are the descendents of poolmen fashioned into super-soldiers by none other than the forces of Gibby. As such, they were changed to resemble the yellow crescent used as a symbol of Gibby for so long. Now, the manner through which this was done isn’t super important. I like to think they were selectively bred, but it’s just as possible they were genetically modified or given some of Gibby’s royal goop. It’s really just speculation.

As we have established, poolmen may be some of the primary infantry used in Gibby’s armies, especially pre-Accretion. (I would like to suggest that poolmen are the koopas of Gibby’s army, and tyros are the goombas.) With their strong resemblance to Waynes, it stands to reason that Gibby, looking for more capable soldiers, would use the poolmen as a basis. While poolmen are capable of speech, they’re generally represented as animalistic. Their only gestures used are lambaste and multiply, as well as the ability allotrope. As lambaste is literally just hitting someone, multiply is clearly their reproduction, and allotrope is a reflex, it stands to reason they aren’t capable of the hand movements required to use actual complex gestures. (They don’t even seem to have hands.) Other enemies such as the noncomfornist clearly show this ability. Thus, it stands to reason that Gibby would seek soldiers capable of doing such things. In fact stronger, modified poolmen are clearly seen in the form of poolmagnes, but they still don’t achieve these heights.

Many stories of advanced combat technology involve betrayal or an uprising from the technology itself. Thus, we may be able to explain why Waynes hate Gibby so much anyways. Created as sapient soldiers, Waynes would effectively be slaves. They would have no choice but to fight and participate in the tyrant’s cruelty. It seems likely that they would have rebelled, and Gibby may have retaliated harshly.

Sat-Wayne is alone in the Waynehouse he emerges from. H1-Wayne is clearly the only member of his species in the Hylics 1 zone. Many have noticed that the redesign of the Ghost enemies bear a strong resemblance to the skulls of Waynes. Further elaboration falls into pure speculation, so I’ll let you come to your own conclusions here.

Ultimately, we’re left with the following timeline:

Gibby employed poolmen for war.

Wanting stronger soldiers, he ordered his forces to create a more powerful breed of poolman, capable of complex reasoning and the use of gestures.

These Waynes proved too intelligent and rebelled.

Gibby reacted harshly, wiping out nearly all of them.

This begs the question of why Gibby still, by the time of Hylics 2, choses to use the yellow crescent symbol. I think this could be explained as a form of denial. If he casts aside a symbol that was always his simply because rebels used it, he would essentially be admitting defeat. Besides, an NPC in New Muldul talks about wretched anarchists who overthrew Gibby, not realizing who he’s talking to. The fact that a Wayne was responsible for killing Gibby might not be common knowledge. Gibby can simply ignore the uprising and continue to use it.

Other notes and convenient ties

One of my favorite parts of this theory is that it retroactively explains some other oddities in the games. For example, Wayne heads notoriously occur throughout the world or even on jars. If the crescent is a symbol of Gibby, who we know has influence throughout much of the world, this is rather easily explained.

It gives us an association between Gibby and the Waynes. Many have pointed out that both have names in reference to the moon: gibbous moons and waning moons. Gibby is notoriously prideful and arrogant, so perhaps he intended the Waynes to be made in his image, giving them a similarly lunar name.

It could explain the moon soldiers and their weakness. Many have noticed their resemblance to Waynes. Perhaps, after the rebellion of the Waynes, Gibby still desired more powerful soldiers. Moon soldiers could easily just be another artificial variety of poolmen, making them basically the cousins of Waynes. Their intense weakness could be attributed to avoiding the pitfall of making soldiers that are too powerful again. Maybe he hoped someone would see the Moon covered in soldiers and simply decide to back off. (It’s worth noting that moon soldiers might not be nearly as weak as we see them. Rather, the joke might be that at this point in the game Wayne and crew have become so strong that they’re killed in an instant.)

The fighting instinct of Waynes could explain the depression, purposelessness, and exhaustion of H2-Wayne that we see explored in Absent Moon. With this theory, Waynes would literally only exist to fight. Having defeated his greatest enemy, Wayne no longer has a purpose in life. Perhaps this lack of purpose has caused unrest in the Waynehouse, and will lead into the events of the New Hylics game that features monstrous, creature-like Waynes.

Old Wayne remarks on the “forecasts” of the stars, apparently able to glean meaning from them. Perhaps an ability to read celestial bodies is a holdover from their days as Gibby’s soldiers. While the Hylemxylem had not yet developed into the false moon of Hylics 1, this may have been planned. Perhaps the Moon could have sent or shone signals for the Old Wayne to interpret and relay to the Waynes under their command.

Warpos could essentially be reverted to an older, primal state by their consumption of poolwine. This doesn’t make much sense biologically but whatever.

Random biology notes

Poolmen probably contain hard, spiny components akin to the spicules found within sponges. These spicules would be poked out of their bodies in their allotrope attack. Perhaps this developed into the skeletons of Waynes. The way Wayne’s flesh and muscles melt off of him upon death is similar to how poolmen melt upon their own deaths.

Poolmen multiply and reproduce asexually, likely meaning they’re all more or less genetically identical to one another (there would be errors of course.) Wayne reproduction is more or less elusive, but their status as clones and low genetic diversity could be a remnant of their poolman ancestors.

I have a theory that the “egg pods” we see in the Waynehouse basement might be the Wayne equivalent of the hylethems that produce poolmen. However the connection between poolmen, hylethems, and hylem as a whole is a story for another time.

Summary and conclusion

I believe that Waynes are a sort of poolmen. They were either genetically modified or selectively bred from normal poolmen, as Gibby wanted to employ them as soldiers capable of complex thinking and use of gestures. These Waynes proved too powerful and intelligent, rising up against their creator. He had many of them slaughtered, creating a grudge that would last countless years and influence the Wayne species for the rest of time.

That’s basically it. Thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts, counterpoints, or additional ideas please feel free to share! I’d really like to discuss this with people!.

#hylics #hylics wayne #wayne hylics #gibby hylics #hylics gibby #hylics 2 #hylics theory

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lillified · 2 months

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hey! curious about what the age/age bracket of hotrod (and by extension the autobot academy bots) is? (would like to know the age of all the characters honestly)

and, if i can get Two For One, what's the life-cycle of an average cybetronian in your take?

thanks for the question! In human years, Hotrod is about 19 or 20, which is on the absolute younger side of most ‘Bots alive and active at this stage of the war. There’s a big “generation gap” where population was severely declining right up to the point of declared war, and many of the sparklings not school aged were sequestered away or straight up “lost.” If the war ends, it’s unclear how they would be reintegrated into society.

For those beginning or early in their education, however, the Autobots, with their government affiliations, quickly swept them up to train them as soldiers (it’s why you don’t see a whole lot of “young” Decepticons, though defectors and exceptions do exist). Megatron is actually on the younger side of the warfaring generation—she’s the youngest of the “big three” Decepticons, and in human years she would be about 29. For comparison, Optimus Prime would be around 35.

The actual life cycle of Cybertronians is a bit complicated. Their rate of growth changes as they age: they grow at a fast pace for the first 50-100 years of life, developing from organic protoform to adulthood, and then once they cross that threshold their biological aging almost completely ceases. Mentally they still learn and develop, like humans, but their bodies do not usually show typical signs of aging. There are ‘Bots who have existed for as long as the Cybertronian race has been recorded (notably Alpha Trion and Zeta, both Primes) and mechanization has only reduced the potential threat of factors like sickness.

Contrarily, though, the lifespan of Cybertronians was actually reduced following the reign of the Quintessons: this is likely due to a combination of factors, like the shortage of Energon, the imposition of a dangerous caste system, large scale conflicts, and the inevitable failure of mechanical bodies. Working class Cybertronians are often much younger than the wealthier society, which only exacerbated the need for limiting factors on class mobility.

#transformers #ask #text post #text #lore

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fishyfishyfishtimes · 2 months

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Overview of mermaids

Many people who’ve been my followers for a while will already be familiar with Prince Ahti II. To those who don’t, here he is! The silly man in my profile picture:

Ahti II is one of my characters, and a merman. He’s a part of a bigger urban fantasy universe, one which I don’t talk about very often. Until now! I like reading others’ ideas and concepts and there must be others like me, so I have faith that perhaps my writings will entertain or inspire others. Here I’ve compiled my various thoughts and ideas about the merfolk of Ahti’s world, an overview of sorts! I try to summarise everything the best I can, but as you’ll see it is a bit hard, I have many thoughts and I’ll have to delve further into history and biology at a later date.

Memaids, mermen, mersons, or collectively merfolk or merple are humans whose ancestors were transformed into half-animal people some 10 000 years ago by a race of nonphysical beings. On the surface they’re half human upper body, ~three-quarters aquatic animal lower body, and are held together by a whooole lot of magic! Any biological weirdness is explained by the fact that they’re two incompatible parts desperately trying to make it work with compromises that are sometimes unpredictable — functionally they are a human shaped like another thing, with all-human DNA.

Merfolk have organs in both their human and animal halves. The heart and lungs are located in the upper chest cavity (the human chest) and are larger than in the average human. The esophagus is greatly elongated, and leads to the animal half where the rest of the digestive system, and the urinary and reproductive systems, is located in. The lower chest cavity contains a pseudo-heart that helps pump blood into a larger body. All merfolk have an internal skeleton throughout their whole body, even invertebrate-based merfolk. As an adaptation to the dim light of their environment, the eyes of merfolk are more sensitive to light and their pupils can grow and shrink very drastically.

Near the mid-back, aka just about where the two sides join together, fish and (many) crustacean merple have gills, and cetacean merple have a blowhole. What for? For second lungs! These lungs are connected to the upper chest lungs and allow cetacean merfolk to hold their breath for extended periods of time. Merfolk that take after fishes with swim bladders also have a similar lung-swim bladder connection, which is mostly used to control buoyancy — moving air to the upper lungs aids a merson in floating upright, for one. Sorry other aquatic tetrapod merfolk, you don’t have second lungs (…as far as I’ve decided) but I’m sure you can make do!

Due to their adaptations and limitations, merfolk tend to live underwater, in fresh, brackish, and saltwater environments. Merfolk settlements tend to be built in shallower water: most settlements are built in the first 50 meters from the surface, and their frequency dwindles down significantly after a 100 meters of depth. Merfolk prefer the warmth and light of the surface, humans as they are! Some merfolk-found, mostly underwater nations exist, all of them in shallow seas and in and around large archipelagos, but a good portion of merfolk live on the coastal areas of mostly terrestrial nations and in inland waters. In the open ocean, many nomadic merfolk communities exist too: they tend to migrate with fish schools and herd their own aquatic livestock, like fishes, krill and squids.

Underwater merfolk homes are large to account for their large size, and often very tall. In places where the surface of the water freezes over at some point in the year, many homes have one or a few topmost rooms that reach above water and function as a secondary exit and as a way to reoxygenate the water. Some merfolk homes are suspended above the water on stilts or on the shore with an underwater entrance, but the homes themselves are fully or half dry inside. These homes tend to be very low and wide instead! These are common in merfolk that need air to breathe. Between these solutions are homes that are partly submerged and partly dry at different ratios, common in so-called hybrid living conditions!

Merfolk as a whole are one of the most magical of all humans, having a lot of magic in their DNA and using a lot of magic in their daily lives. This is in part from necessity, as life underwater is very different from life on land. Contemporary merfolk tend to know at least four spells: waterspeak, lungspeak, return to form, and two-legs spell. Waterspeak allows a person to speak clearly with their vocal cords underwater, without needing to waste air from their lungs. Waterspeak is of valuable use underwater, but makes a person’s voice inaudible in the air! This is why there’s lungspeak, which creates the opposite effect and lets a person.. well, audibly speak like a in real life person lmao

The two-legs spell rearranges the organs of the merson and transforms their lower body from the human waist down into a pair of human legs. The upper body doesn’t really change in any significant way (…besides the lungs and heart becoming smaller and gaining new organs and bones and muscles) so the eyes are still tuned to see better in darkness etc. Return to original form reverses any physical transformation to the way a person was born, merfolk use it to go back to their tailed form!

The most glaring issue in the life of a merson is the fact that your body is adapted to swimming and diving, but the majority of people live on land. Even semiaquatic merfolk tend to have trouble walking great distances! Fortunately, there are solutions besides staying in your underwater or amphibious living community for your entire life (because that’s not a solution at all). One is the aforementioned two-legs spell! A major pro is that you gain two fine long distance walking legs, two cons however are the drastic transformation that must take place to become two-legged, and then learning to walk, run, crawl, jump, sit, anything and everything. Two-legs isn’t a painful spell, or even physically uncomfortable to bear. It’s just that… well. The merfolk body isn’t built as simply as head-arms-torso-tail, it’s really head-arms-torso-pectoral fins-torso-pelvic fins-tail, all parts working together and important with movement, expression and item manipulation. When a merson loses so much of their body and way of interacting with the world it is emotionally and mentally draining! Many merfolk do not want to go through the trouble of losing a big part of themselves.

Fortunately going on land as they are isn’t impossible! The upper chest cavity lungs are big enough to support merfolk just by themselves, and merple rarely, if ever, grow too heavy to exist on land. Fishy merfolk tend to have a slime coat, but on land as the slime coat dries and flakes off, the skin begins producing similar oils to the ones human skin has. Rapidly moving from water to air to water to air can cause damage overtime (eg. cracks and wounds in the skin, loss of scales), but effects can be lessened with moisturiser. Getting around on land is as easy as having a merson-fit wheelchair!

…The cons are just about the same as they would be having a wheelchair in our contemporary world, sadly. Most spaces are big enough for even a long merson in a wheelchair to pass through as humans on average are just bigger, but that doesn’t fix every other issue. Merfolk have a lot of societal pressure to change their form into a two-legged one instead of using wheelchairs, since it’s viewed as more convenient and less expensive — even transforming and using a wheelchair fitted for two-legged human is viewed as a better option. A good bit of merfolk are taught to walk on legs from an early age “just in case”, because they might just need it.

Enough of merfolk tragedies. Let’s talk merfolk joys! Traditional merfolk art is heavy on sculptures, dance and singing, three-dimensional art so to speak. Traditional merfolk cuisine meanwhile provides a diverse selection of meat from finfishes, shellfishes, cephalopods and aquatic mammals, supplemented with algae, fruits and underwater domesticated crops. Merfolk never stopped cooking and frying foods when they turned, but a lot of "bonkers" old meals can be served raw. Traditional celebrations vary a lot based on location and the seasons, but they encompass similar themes to terrestrial celebrations, like harvest. Ice covers melting in the spring to let in light and warmth is a big thing in the northern hemisphere, and fish schools seasonally migrating to a community's home area also calls for a great feast.

As magical and technological advancements have changed the world they live in, painting, drawing, and the use of instruments have gotten more common in the arts, and terrestrial cereals and vegetables in food. The gradual introduction of terrestrial delights into the aquatic world has birthed its own unique cultural quirks. One example is a niche genre of music where a merson plays a wind instrument with only the air in their lungs as long as they can, birthing a whole new form of short folk tunes when instruments started becoming common. Just about anything has been waterproofed physically or through magical means, so in the modern day there is very little difference in a terrestrial and aquatic person's quality of life.

#yippee! i did it :)#merfolk #merfolk lore #my art #art #long post

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bananasfosterparent · 5 months

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@thewillowbends Hope it's okay I moved to text post, it seemed like a better idea.

First, let me be clear: People can write whatever they want and I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't.

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"If Tav is happily evil, then we’re back to the issue of limits in the narrative functionality beyond shorter works."

If Tav HAS to be a meek, regretful abuse victim in order for a story to be lengthy and meaningful, then that is 100% a skill and creativity issue of the writer. Either them not having the ability to see the story from another perspective, or them not having the creativity level to consider other canon-friendly manifestations of the Evil Tav x Asc Astarion relationship. Those "limits" you speak of are only limits if you allow them to be and don't let yourself grow as a writer.

"As it is, game is pretty blunt about how the story of spawn Tav ends"

The game is not blunt at all. The game gives us NO ending to that. It's up to the player. The closest we have to an idea of an ending for "spawn" Tav, is this datamined title card:

(read image description for transcription)

While this was cut from the official release of the game (like all the epilogue content), it still shows what Larian had/has in mind for the direction of the Asc ending. And it's got no hints about abuse.

Astarion tells you as much if you break up with him — “I would’ve ruined your love, used your trust.”

This is called metagaming. BG3 is not like a tv show where all the little dots connect and line up. BG3 is a "choose your own adventure" novel in video game form. It works just the same. So any choices or options you DO NOT select are NOT TRUE for your character in that playthrough. So nothing Spawn Astarion says in that ending matters in regards to a playthrough with the Ascended ending. Nothing Asc Astarion says matters in regards to a playthrough with the Spawn ending. In BOTH endings, he thanks Tav genuinely, fully appreciates the choice, is glad the opposite choice wasn't made, and wants Tav to choose what their next adventure will be. Both endings have to be worthwhile and feel satisfying for the player, and the best way to do that is to have Astarion genuinely appreciate what Tav has done, in BOTH endings. And he does.

"it’s a story about cycles and the destruction of life. It’s telling you what Astarion will become because Cazador used to be in his position."

It's telling who Cazedor was and his story. That doesn't mean Astarion is doomed to repeat it. Or that a specific ending IS him repeating it. There is no warning of such. It CAN go that way, but nothing in-game says it has to. Because breaking "the cycle" isn't one specific thing. And he breaks cycles in BOTH endings.

Astarion's story is about corruption and choosing to either become more corrupt (than he already is) or try to live by the rules of society and just accept how things are. In the Spawn ending he talks about the "cycle of power", meaning the cycle of vampire culture that thrives on a pyramid of power. He is free of that headache and appreciates that. As to the quote you mention, Astarion is speculating about ascension. He has no idea what would have actually happened, he can only guess. He is an opportunistic optimist so he'd more likely see the path he couldn't take as one he shouldn't have anyway. And having him say that in-game for that ending, makes that ending feel worth it for the player.

In the Asc ending, he breaks the cycles of loneliness, living in darkness, selfishness, hunger, and wants to treat his own spawn better than Cazedor ever did. Astarion hates the word spawn and chooses to call his future ones his "children" instead. He loves the sun, it's symbolic for him. Yet, he is fully willing, without hesitation, to give up something he loves so much, so that his "children" can thrive in a world that is shrouded in fog. He also takes on a consort (vampire bride/groom) and wants to share that power, something Cazedor did not do (as far as we know).

You can break away from Larian’s story, certainly, but a lot of fanfic writers are trying to stick to what was extant within the media itself. At some point, if you pull too far away from it, you’re just writing an original story, and the issue most writers then run into is…why not turn it fully original and publish it then?

Here's the problem with this: Larian's story IS BOTH endings. There is no metaphorical build up in the game that sets up *only* the Spawn ending as his "real" or "true" ending. It's a metaphorical build up that can have TWO different solutions. One being reject the power and accept life as it is. The other being usurp power and rewrite the rules. Ascension is never shown to be a truly evil or bad thing. The worst part of it is sacrificing the 7000 spawn. But if Tav/Durge rationalizes this, there are no real negatives. The only negatives may be if one does not vibe with his confidence boost and prefers him more docile. The whole last statement you've made and way of thinking makes it seem like his Spawn ending is the real one and his Ascended ending is just some "fun and sexy" alternative but invalid thing you can do.

His story arc is BOTH endings. They are both just as bad and as good as the other, it's just a matter of what works for your Tav/Durge and for you as the player. He does not have ONE TRUE ENDING. You choose the lesser of two evils. Which one is "lesser" depends entirely on the player and Tav/Durge as individuals.

If ANYTHING, writing Ascended Astarion as an abusive, uncaring, unloving monster is just writing an original story and not sticking to what is within the game itself. Not the other way around.

Also, as a last comment... a fanfiction does not have to be a 70 chapter epic. It can be 1-3 chapters and be a complete work. Or just one chapter. Or a few paragraphs. But Tav and Astarion being happily evil together shouldn't be a reason you can't write a lengthy and fleshed out story. That's just lack of creativity. Spawn ending fans outnumber Asc ending fans, and most Spawn fans have a negative view of Asc Astarion. So that's more likely the reason why we never see many happily evil Tav x Astarion fics.

#astarion x tav #baldurs gate astarion #ascended astarion

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