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linderosse · 5 months

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Hi! I love your art and your Wisdom AU. I have a question about it. Are you still keeping Legend and Fable siblings after Jojo said they weren’t related in the Q and A, or are you sticking with Linked Universe canon?

Thank you!!! Glad you like it!

Hm, I haven’t seen this Q&A! Can I get a link to it? :)

The reason some Zelda fans believe ALttP Link and Zelda are related is this:

Those are the dying words of Link’s uncle. Some English fans (Edit: choose to)(Edit: nowadays) believe the end of this sentence was supposed to be “sister,” since nothing else really fits (I’ve heard “soulmate” (Edit: or “destiny”) as an option, but it seems strange for Link’s uncle to be telling him who he’s supposed to end up with). Thus the headcanon of ALttP Link and Zelda being siblings.

The Japanese text is even more ambiguous, since it reads something along the lines of “You are the princess’s…” This means the line was probably meant to say something like “You are the princess’ only hope.” Unfortunately, this version doesn’t seem to work as well with the English translation, while the “sister” line still works with the Japanese text. The intention is different from the way some fans choose to interpret it. :)

To complicate matters further, the remake (2003) removed the line from that scene, although the line is still present elsewhere in the game— Blind the Bandit disguises himself as Link’s dying uncle and repeats the same lines, and he says the original phrase (Edit: ending with, “You are the princess’…”). The devs are definitely aware of the original line. (Edit: And they’ve fixed the translation, lol.)

So there’s the background info!

Now, on to the main part: regarding following LU canon. The truth is: I am already changing a few things from Linked Universe, the most important of which are these:

Legend and Fable are siblings

Tetra and Wind are not Phantom and Spirit

Shadow and the Four Swords manga are canon

Time and Wind (and other relevant characters) remember Hyrule Warriors

Why am I making these changes for my AU?

Discussed above!

I’m much more of a Spirit Tracks fan than Jojo seems to be :). And when considering the Zeldas, Phantom is markedly different from Tetra in both personality and skills. I’m sticking to LoZ canon over LU canon here. Phantom deserves to be her own character!

I’ve been a fan of the FSA manga for a decade and a half now, so it has long affected the way I see the Zelda series. I also love Shadow and Four’s history— it adds a unique twist to the classic Zelda formula. Shadow is therefore canon in Wielders of Wisdom and the parallel LU story, The Secrets We Keep. Expect Shadow’s backstory to play a role somewhere in the combined Wisdomverse :)

I’m new to the Hyrule Warriors fandom, but I love the connection it gives Warriors with Time and Wind— and other characters :). This is also going to be addressed in The Secrets We Keep. Check that out for more info!

Many of you who write/read fanfics for LU have seen these ideas before. Interpreting canon in different ways has always been an integral part of the Zelda fandom, because canon is itself can be contradictory. That’s one of the things that makes this fandom so fun <3.

And the most important thing is that these changes fit the story I want to tell better.

I’m going to do my best to stick to LU whenever possible, but I want to tell a fun, engaging story, and sometimes that will mean taking a different path: sometimes following LoZ canon more closely, sometimes interpreting things my own way :).

So, to answer your question: I will probably be keeping Legend and Fable as siblings. It’s a popular headcanon among fans. I believe the story I’m telling for Fable works better with other romantic interests for Legend. And I want to stress that he and Fable are just as fiercely loyal to each other.

That said, I definitely don’t mind if you believe differently! I don’t really emphasize romance anyways, and I’m not here to police the fandom. Please feel free to read the references to Legend calling Fable “sister” as friendship, or just ignore it, or whatever you wish! I don’t mind who you ship with who.

Only preference is: please don’t ship the Wielders with each other, since they’re canonically related by blood and spirit :). Other than that, anything goes as far as I’m concerned.

Anyways. This got really long, didn’t it?

I wanted to answer the question as thoroughly as I could. Please feel free to ask more questions, or stop by my quiet little art streams and ask me live if you want an immediate answer! I will always do my best to respond :)

You can find all previous responses under the tag: #lin responds !

#lin responds #wielders of wisdom #linked universe #the secrets we keep #lu wielders of wisdom #lu the secrets we keep #lu fable #lu legend #lu tetra #lu wind #lu spirit #lu phantom #lu wow

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y-rhywbeth2 · 3 months

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So glancing between the original games and the third - again - and thinking about the difference between the feral and Chosen bad endings and how I'm going to interpret them in my own canon. BG3 lore is irrelevant to me from now on I'm entering the phase where I'm assimilating my playthrough into my own Realms canon.

Also, Durge appears to be soulless. I am aware of the way the game treats Durge as though they have a soul, but BG3 makes strange choices where lore doesn't match up all the damn time. Astarion is clinically dead but the rest mechanics still need food. BG3 talks like Wyll is a devil, and they definitely don't have mortal souls. Dark Urge identity crises and complicated relationship with personhood, how I love thee.

Major BG2 spoilers, so I'll put that under a cut just in case anybody would like to play those games blind.

I noticed this a while back, but Durge's situation is reminiscent of a soulless Bhaalspawn. When their soul - the portion of them that is "them" and not entirely Bhaal - is removed they start displaying the same symptoms and slipping into what is basically the feral ending, judging by Imoen's behaviour:

"Who-who... who is that? Keep back... Keep back! [...] Who is Imoen? I don't know that name. I don't know that name! She's not here! [...] Get away from me! I'll... I'll kill you! I'll rip your eyes from your filthy faces! Do not tempt my wrath! Do not... I... she's not here. I do not know that... name. [...] I see... yes... I see... She's not here... Someone else will come..."

We have dizzy spells and risks of blackouts (otherwise known as Bhaal threatening to take over):

"Your step falters, your vision spins, and you feel something is very wrong. For an instant you are conscious of nothing but the rushing of your blood."

Bhaal literally just assuming direct control rather than flooding you with the urge to murder. Also pain caused by said attempt at taking control:

"A shock of pain passes through your body, and you feel you mind slipping away, forced aside by the darkness within." - "Your blood cools, and mind and body are reunited under your control. Your will had faltered, and the essence of Bhaal was there to take advantage. The void where your soul once was overflowed with murderous fury, the mark of a deity that no longer exists. The taint of Bhaal has affected you differently than Imoen, reacting with your strength of will. You will eventually lose yourself unless your stolen soul is restored. A fate, as they say, worse than death." - "The madness fades, and the essence retreats, but if this continues you will lose not only yourself , but also everything you hold dear. The uncertainty of your condition has obviously worried those you travel with. The quest is treacherous enough without having to worry about what you might do."

Most Bhaalspawn have mortal lineage and were left to develop their own identities until they hit adulthood and Bhaal decided it was time to start pushing them into killing each other as part of the resurrection plan. Their souls are explicitly divine in nature, but they had time and freedom to develop those souls. Each demigod is a potential fledgling god.

The soul and the conscious mind aren't the same thing, so personality and decision making can continue but the emotions and personhood are... not quite there, only the echoes of it. It's been compared to wearing a mask and acting out a part in a play, rather than actually living as that person.

Durge it seems was engineered from the very beginning so that they would never have that chance. Created directly from Bhaal, with no other parent (let alone a mortal one) to dilute him; Bhaal started forcing their hand to kill from a far younger age (before puberty) rather than waiting for them to reach adulthood. and Sceleritas was following them closely ensuring that people would be around to have "accidents", like Alfira.

But it's also notable that Bhaal doesn't just want a puppet, he needs a Bhaalspawn with the drive and power to be his avatar. He somehow needs Durge blindly loyal and lacking in independence but also in possession of "strength of will" to be worthy of/able to house and use his power.

It seems that Durge does not have a soul the way their siblings do, all they have to resist Bhaal with is their mind and sheer willpower. If they disappoint Bhaal then he will simply assume control - something he can do any time he likes. Over the course of BG3 they start developing something like their own soul - judging by the way Bhaal and Sceleritas are still in touch and seemingly testing them, I can only assume this is actually according to plan; Durge is supposed to cultivate a spark of their own divine soul over the journey (and also get tadpoled and help Bhaal take over the Netherbrain and thralls through them, as Sceleritas kind of mentions).

If they fail then Bhaal goes for the feral ending; they go into the "Imoen" category where they're not worthy of his attention and he just uses Durge as a puppet.

Mystra can't force mortals to become her Chosen, they must consent, so possibly that rule applies to Bhaal too? I don't know, but it explains why Bhaal needs them to accept. If they resist then they're clearly strong enough to be worthy but wilful enough that Bhaal decides the risk of that spark of a soul is too great a risk to him and his plans and tries to destroy it but fails because it's too late, and Jergal cuts this fledgling divine soul free.

If they accept becoming Chosen then they are agreeing to be imbued with a fragment of Bhaal's divine essence. Bhaal gets what he wants and merges it with another fragment of his divine essence, presumably setting the stage for him to become a full deity walking the face Toril through Durge's/his body. The fledgling spark of individual is lost in Bhaal when the two fuse; the threat of the resist ending isn't present, because that spark is gone, so if you defy him again he just takes over and we get the punishment ending.

#/durge #headcanoning.#babbling #bg2 spoilers

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antianakin · 3 months

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@theneutralmime

There's not a TON of "canon" discussion of Anakin's apprenticeship years between TPM and AOTC, at least in terms of what's usually considered Lucas's canon which is the films and first six seasons of TCW.

He claims at the end of the Wrong Jedi arc that he's considered leaving the Order before (and clearly also chosen NOT to leave), but that could be something that's only started happening since AOTC rather than something that's been happening since he joined the Order, Anakin doesn't specify that. He also doesn't specify why he stays precisely, but when he's trying to tell Ahsoka not to leave, he says "the Jedi Order is your life, you can't just throw it away like this" so you could make a solid argument that this is likely something he's said to HIMSELF when facing those moments where he's considered leaving and then chosen not to.

So while it's fully canon that Anakin, at some point during his tenure as a Jedi, HAS considered leaving the Order and ultimately chosen to stay, it's not canon that he stayed because he wanted to be a Jedi too much necessarily. It's a VERY easy assumption to make, that Anakin chose to remain a Jedi because he believes it's the only thing he CAN be and that he enjoys being a Jedi (and the fame and glory he believes it gives him) too much to leave, but it's not spelled out.

There's one comic where Anakin, at the age of like 12 or 13, does tell Obi-Wan he's considering leaving the Order (in part due to some struggles on a particular mission they're having and the limitations they're under as Jedi that keeps them from being able to help in certain ways that Anakin would like to do) and Obi-Wan convinces him to stick it out until the end of the mission and see if he changes his mind. And in the end, Obi-Wan is able to show that while there are things they're unable to do because of the limitations the Jedi live with, there are also a lot MORE things that they CAN do because of the resources available to them as Jedi. You don't get one without the other and the Jedi have decided that the limitations of working with the Senate instead of independently are worth the benefits of the resources and legitimacy they get from that relationship. It's something Anakin figures out by the end of the story and it's why he ultimately chooses to stay, because in many ways, the Jedi have more power as a collective organization than any one of them would have alone.

What Anakin seems to want is to be able to really make a difference, to help people in an obvious demonstrative way. It's a genuinely selfless and compassionate desire, especially when he's young, but it's something that gets twisted as he gets older. By the time you get to AOTC, Anakin is already at the point where he's more invested in his own POWER to help people than he is in actually HELPING PEOPLE. He's upset about killing the Tuskens because it makes him a bad Jedi, not because he's actually feeling remorseful about the loss of life. He recognizes there's problems in their system of government, but he also 1000% believes in dictatorships as a worthwhile solution to the problem.

So he stays with the Jedi not because he wants to BE A JEDI but because he chooses to believe that being a Jedi is what will allow him the power he wants to do the things he wants. And early on, there's a more genuine desire to help people in that, but it very quickly becomes all about just HAVING POWER in general. He sort-of... hides it underneath this veneer of genuinely wanting to help people and maybe some part of him still genuinely does want that, but by AOTC, it's all about the power already. It's about getting recognition for his skills that he believes he is OWED by the Jedi (and specifically by Obi-Wan and the Council) because he believes he is special and just... deserves to do whatever he wants.

So, personally, taking all of these things into account, my interpretation is that Anakin stays with the Jedi because he wants the power to be a hero that he believes being a Jedi will grant him, because he WANTS the recognition of his power and skills he thinks he deserves simply for existing, and he tells himself that it's all about helping people who need help and maybe some small part of that is still true, but by AOTC it's already been a lie for a WHILE. It's no longer truly about helping people in a selfless and compassionate way, but about the power to do what matters TO ANAKIN. And I think Anakin maybe genuinely believes that if he leaves the Jedi, then he's throwing away an opportunity to have what he wants, that he's throwing away the sacrifices he made when he left Tatooine, and it HAS to be worth that, he'll MAKE IT worth that no matter what it takes, even if he's miserable, even if it means he has to live a lie with regards to his marriage. He DESERVES to be a powerful Jedi AND have the woman he wants or none of what he's lost was worth anything. So of course he won't leave, because that means admitting defeat and giving up on getting what he's owed by the galaxy.

As for what would happen if he'd left the Order right after marrying Padme (or, potentially, IN ORDER TO marry Padme), I just... don't think he ever would. I don't think Anakin in AOTC in emotionally stable or healthy or aware enough to actually make that choice. Like I said, Anakin by AOTC is fully in a mindset that he is OWED the things he wants simply for existing as a super special person. He'd never leave the Order to marry Padme of his own volition, without the choice being forced upon him. If the option is there to have a secret marriage and still remain a Jedi, THAT'S the choice he's going to make. He WANTS both, so he'll KEEP both right up until circumstances make it impossible.

In canon, he's faced with the choice of letting Padme die or committing a genocide against the Jedi and he chooses Padme. In an AU of sorts where the marriage came to light earlier in the war, the Council would likely force Anakin to make a choice between being married to Padme or remaining a Jedi. He cannot have both simply because he WANTS both and he's proven over and over again that he cannot actually balance this relationship with his duties as a Jedi, so I don't think the Jedi would make any kind of special exemptions for him just because his circumstances are different and he came in later. At some point, he still has to be an adult and make a fucking choice and this is one of those places I think they'd enforce that. And I do think Anakin would choose Padme here, especially since the Jedi are the ones putting him in a position where he HAS to choose which would make him bitter towards them and he already HAS issues with the Council as an authority. Whether he'd regret that choice later on in his life is debatable, whether he'd end up resenting Padme for being the thing that lost him his position as a Jedi or not is debatable, but canon tells us that when push comes to shove, he'll choose Padme over the Jedi every time.

As for whether this would make it harder to figure out Palpatine's identity if Anakin left the Order, I honestly don't think much would change there. If Anakin left the Order, he might end up GOING to Palpatine for a job or something given how close they are, which places him closer to Palpatine and even more in his debt. We also know the Jedi are suspicious of Palpatine FROM THE JUMP, they don't LIKE Palpatine even in AOTC and it's Anakin who keeps trying to insist on loyalty to Palpatine over anything else during TCW, and of course in ROTS they're already fully prepared to arrest Palpatine on charges of corruption before they even discover he's a Sith lord. So even if we assume Anakin managed to wander off after he left the Order and didn't end up in Palpatine's clutches earlier, the Jedi would continue to investigate the war and see Palpatine's corruption and decide to do something about it. And honestly, without Anakin there to be a selfish greedy turd, they might actually BEAT Palpatine before he can enact Order 66, Mace is well on his way there before Anakin showed up. If Anakin became a Sith lord EARLY, though, that could cause some issues because it might be even easier to turn Anakin against the Jedi and agree to kill them all and may not give the Jedi quite enough time to act against Palpatine, but at this point we're entering into pure speculation.

#star wars #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical #jedi #pro jedi #sheev palpatine

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erazonpo3 · 1 month

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Erazon's Characterisation Essay (Part 1 - Cynthia Edition)

General preface; This is me snowballing on a thought I had earlier about canon v fanon trends given that it's a pretty evergreen topic. Without getting too much into the subject itself, I made the point that you can use the source material as a starting point for analysing characterisation, but in a lot of cases it's highly interpretive; using Pokemon as an example, most of the non-player characters exist to enable the player's autonomy throughout the game's storyline, and only a small handful have their own detailed arcs and backstories.

Therefore if you want to build on characterisation for them for transformative fanworks, you only have a handful of dialogue lines and some environmental storytelling that borders on olympic levels of mental gymnastics. Things like backstory and character motivation needs to be invented, to which end the concept of 'canon' characterisation becomes pretty insignificant in comparison to the story you are trying to tell, and whether or not that characterisation is thematically appropriate and compelling. Everyone is going to have a subjective opinion about the 'essence' of a character, the core traits that make them who they are, and how integral those traits are for it to be a 'canon' or 'fanon' interpretation.

And yet there's still ways to analyse the games to draw some conclusions that aren't always obvious straight away.

I'm going to go into how I draw characterisation for Cynthia for Way Out, but keep in mind that I don't consider my characterisation perfect or the One True Depiction To End All Others etc and so on and so forth. There's things I need to discard in favour of the story– adults in the Pokemon games, including Cynthia, have a pretty laissez-faire attitude when it comes to kids handling crises so that the target audience (kids) can feel acutalised as they play through the story, but it's not always what I consider a core character trait so much as a function of the medium.

I play up a sense of responsibility and duty that isn't really depicted in the games but is nevertheless an easy takeaway in order to give her character a bit more depth and relateability. And when other people take her character in a different direction, I try to keep an open mind about what they're saying about her character in their story, because their story is not a video game for children nor a webcomic, and they will need to do different things depending on her narrative role.

(I don't have to like it, but I'm no less a subjective soul than anyone else).

I also pull here and there from other sources of inspiration, one I've mentioned before is a meta-analysis of how she's treated by the fandom in general, assuming she'd be treated a similar way as a public figure in-universe. A lot of my character work is about peeling back that legendary status and asking who the person underneath is and how she might deal with the pressures of being expected to consistently meet other people's high standards, and how to balance a healthy competitive streak without it becoming toxic.

But more to the point– here's some material exclusively from Platinum that I think collates to a pretty consistent depiction of her character, to keep in mind and interpret any which way, arranged into some key traits.

She is the granddaughter of a village elder in a traditional rural town.

"My grandma has this sort of bossy atmosphere about her. I think you'll recognize her right away. Yes, I'm sure you will. She's the elder of Celestic Town"

An overlooked aspect of her character that I think holds some of the ripest potential for her character is that we know a fair deal about where her family is from, potentially where she was raised. My personal conclusions are:

It is likely she has an ingrained sense of cultural values of humility, respect, duty, and tradition. While she may not be ruled by these traits, they would influence the way she interacts with the world.

Her interest in mythology is likely inspired the mural in Celestic town, and reflects a value of heritage and history.

It's a common 'fanon' that her grandmother was her primary guardian through much of her childhood, which isn't substantiated anywhere (just because we don't meet her parents as NPCs doesn't mean they don't exist) but this idea strengthens the connection she has to Celestic town and emphasises her position as the elder's heir.

Cynthia introducing herself as a trainer and not a Champion suggests humility; she positions herself as an equal to the player as opposed to a superior.

2. She is earnest and sincere

"...The places we are born. The time we spend living... The languages we speak... We are all different. But the presence of Pokémon unites us. We share our lives with our Pokémon and our happiness grows as we all become greater than we were alone. That is why we can battle and trade with anyone we choose..."

This is a reflection of her position as a narrative foil to Cyrus; where he dismisses the importance of emotion and 'spirit', she holds it in high regard. Thus;

She sees strong emotions as the source of her bond to her Pokemon and therefore the source of her success. While it's not to say she's an overly empathetic person, I think it follows easily that is generally emotionally intelligent (generally).

I think she's self-aware about how emotional she can be too, which is to say it's something she consciously embraces despite knowing she comes across a little overly earnest (and cheesy) sometimes.

"I love the sound a piano makes. I savor every note with my entire being. It's not only my ears; my spirit hears the music it makes... Ehehe, I made myself cringe saying that."

3. She is intelligent

"I think I let myself get carried away and talked for far too long. I'm sorry, and thank you"

This feels like a no brainer (ha) but it's also easy to take someone who comes across as emotional and write them off as being illogical or not having the depth for complex thought. To me, her emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with her analytical intelligence.

Her fascination with mythology is one of her defining traits, and her dialogue is the source of much of the lore surrounding the Sinnoh legendary Pokemon.

Her pursuit of knowledge is one of her defining traits; her interest in mythology and the distant past is referenced more frequently by herself and other NPCs than the fact of her being Champion. "My big sister is studying the myths of Sinnoh. She wants to know how people and Pokemon interacted in the days of myths."

As a Champion, I consider that she's very calculating and analytical. Even without the strategic held items given to her in BDSP, her Pokemon have perfect stats and have solid type coverage. It's not something she would accidentally stumble onto.

"When you are facing a Trainer in battle, you can learn everything about them. What Pokemon they have. What moves they've taught. What items they make Pokemon hold."

4. She is kind

"I want you to keep traveling to many far-off places. I want you to keep meeting all kinds of people and Pokémon. I came all the way here just so I could say that to you!"

A Champion in this game being kind isn't really a revolutionary idea, but it's still something I consider very integral, particularly in conjunction with the prior traits; there is diplomacy and there is compassion, and to me Cynthia balances both.

She is something of a mentor figure to the player, giving them the solution to obstacles on multiple occasissions (HM Cut, the Secret Medicine), and imparts a lot of lore to them. Notably she gives them an egg which hatches into a Togepi; while this event doesn't happen in BDSP and Platinum doesn't have the Fairy type, it's still retroactively made more interesting for the fact that Togekiss' modern Fairy/Flying type grants perfect immunity to her Garchomp's Dragon/Ground typing.

Some of the few interactions the player will have with her is giving medicine to the Psyduck blocking the route to Celestic town, and then delivering a charm to her grandmother– it gives an impression that she is regularly invested in small acts of kindness.

5. Other tidbits

Every time she interacts with you as the player, it is always through the lens of an adult with a public position speaking to a child; I take it as a given that all her interactions have a slight amount of professional distance, and a formality she wouldn't have if speaking to an adult friend.

She reveals that she went on a similar journey as the player character after being given a Pokedex by Professor Rowan, which could imply she experienced similar experiences to the established protagonist journey formula.

There's a slight goofiness to some of her dialogue that suggests she doesn't always take herself too seriously. "You've seen that group of Psyduck huddled with their heads in their, uh, hands...?"

It's a pretty common 'fanon' for Cynthia to have known Cyrus in her childhood, but this isn't really substantiated in text; her dialogue towards him would be a lot colder with that context as opposed to a stranger. It's a common headcanon because giving them a history together strengthens their position as foils, but in my opinion it's equally as interesting that Cyrus succeeds as far as he does because he exists in Cynthia's blind spot- she admits she didn't pay enough attention to what Team Galactic was up to, and can only stand in opposition to him ideologically, unwilling to entertain (or empathise with) his perspective. It hints at a certain stubbornness she has when she believes she's right and someone else is wrong.

This is just what I personally glean from the text; it's possible I've missed something that somebody else considers ultimately integral. But I hope that my writing in Way Out speaks for itself in how I apply all this to her character in the story, and why I feel it's important to do so. Cynthia is the character I second-guess the most in her characterisation because she should always be recognisable, even while going through different arcs. Her values, her intelligence, her sincerity, and her kindness are all things that need to be balanced with the needs of the story; how strong she is is just a relative thing to what any particular scene demands.

There's a lot I could still elaborate on but for the sake of at least attempting to keep this (relatively) concise, I wrote all this to highlight how I try to stay on track with consistent characterisation, which may not be the perfect ideal for this character but nevertheless is the best version for my story. There's nobody I hold to a higher writing standard than myself, and I try to constantly ask myself if I'm really writing what's best for the narrative or if I can do something better. I'm not interested in the most canon depiction that exists for another story, I'm interested in what's right for my story.

And uhhhh peace ✌️

#long post #like long long #it's a whole read #but if you like reading do i have good news for you #pokemon #cynthia #characterisation #tangential enough to way out that i can tag it #way out #im also open to discussions about this because it's just my ~opinion~ and again i like to keep an open mind

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moodymisty · 1 year

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Wondering if you’re in the mood to write a tooth aching Crosshair fluff? Female tall reader if you’d like specifics? I think your writing of the boys is spot on, and all your Tech fluff fics are so cute!

Author's note: Am I in the mood for- of course I am! It's been a hot minute actually since i've done something for snipeyboy, so lets rip. It's as fluffy as I feel Crosshair would get, without treading into what I'd feel was too out of character (for me! everyone has their own vibe). (Also thankies for such kind compliments, I'm glad you enjoy my interpretation of the boys)

Warnings: One or two silly little lewd jokes, shooting a rifle, references to canon typical violence

"So, what's it like?" "Like shooting. What did you expect?"

"Have you always had that same rifle?" "Maybe."

"Can I see?" "No."

Crosshair was, complicated. Is, complicated; For as long as you've known him.

He fights almost every single one of your attempts to get close, and only when the lighting is perfect and the wind sings, does he leave a tiny opening for you to squeeze in.

It wouldn't be worth it, if you didn't love him and those perfect little moments in time so damn much. How his touch lingers for ages and his lips taste like fire, you can never get enough of him because for awhile, he didn't let you have enough.

But your incessant hammering on that wall of his has left cracks, enough so that he lets you close more often now; Enjoying a part of him that no one else has seen. You just needed to prove you were sticking around. And overtime, you've learned that Crosshair enjoys the type of interactions where you can both relax and just enjoy each other's presence, when he feels like no one but you is watching.

Now is one of those moments, as you lean against the wall next to where Crosshair is standing, looking down the scope of his rifle and preparing to take another shot.

You don't really know why he even entertains a range like this; It's so far underneath his skill level that it's almost laughable. Though you've learned it's more of a relaxing thing for him to keep him busy than anything. Much like some people tap their feet or chew their nails, Crosshair shoots. You'd call it a mindless gesture, but when is Crosshair ever really mindless?

You don't mind if he does this anyhow , as it's just as entertaining for you to relax here and just watch him. It's quiet and almost peaceful, the quiet noises other than the occasional shot. He's never directly asked you to leave, and while at first you might've thought it was to show off, he also seems to just like someone being around.

You run at a different pace than Crosshair, and he's become quite attached to it over time. You doubt the words will ever leave his lips, but his body and his eyes show it enough.

He fires another shot, hitting a small rock balancing off the hillock on the far end of the range.

He always makes this sort of stuff look so easy; And though you quite well know it isn't, you can't help but be curious about it all. You're always watching him intently when he shoots, and he's probably caught on, if you're being honest. But he's never let you anywhere near his beloved rifle; The closest is when you sit next to him while he cleans it.

Maybe today he just feels different; Or perhaps your curious stare has finally wore him down enough to share his passion more intimately, as he leans back and jerks his head in the opposite direction of you.

"Come here." He's staring at you, the barrel of his rifle pointed at the ground and the butt at about his hip. It takes you a second to realize what he's trying to do.

He's actually going to let you!

You almost have to contain your excitement, after so many times of just watching him. Scurrying closer he stands just behind your right side, speaking as he does something with the scope. His fingers deftly slide over a million different unknown pieces as you watch, the barrel pointed down to the dusty ground. The all move against each other in different ways, speaking a language only he knows.

"Ever shot a rifle before?"

You’ve shot normal blasters before, but not this. The toothpick between his lips flicks from one corner of his mouth to the other, looking down as his fingers brush over the dials of the scope. The base you're at is mostly dirt and dust; Hot and dry. It makes you miss Coruscant, even Kamino.

"Nope, not like this." He hums in acknowlegment. Crosshair finishes whatever he'd been doing it to ready the rifle for you and sets it in your hands, pushing the butt into your shoulder and adjusting your hands, and then your shoulders and back.

"Handling something a bit big for your first time."

He hears the way you snicker, and sighs.

"Dirty mind."

Once you're firmly holding the rifle he doesn't back away, instead just jerking his head quickly in the direction of the far end of the range and giving you a blunt:

"Shoot."

You can feel his eyes on you; They've always been so sharp that it's as if he's cutting right into you, as they glance over your body. They don't stop when you glance in his direction of a moment, before looking down the scope. You know snipers have to take into account things like gravity and the wind, and at some points even the curvature of the planet, but this is a shitty target range on some dusty no-name planet, so you just decide to wing it and see what happens.

Finger curling over the trigger you slowly tense, feeling the way the rifle kicks back into your body as you fire it. His hand against your back presses harder, as if trying to counteract it. You then instantly pull your face away from the scope, looking down the range.

It's not a perfect shot by any means, but it's a chest shot on the target. For a novice still at such long range weaponry you'll consider it a victory.

"Not bad." Crosshair says it with no undertone, lacking the snideness or venom he usually coats his words with for others. He tells you to do it again, and so you line up as best you can, adjusting before taking another shot at the same vaguely bipedal shaped target.

Better, right in the middle of the upper chest. On a person, it would've been quite close to their heart.

"Hmm. Good job." Crosshair's hand is still laying on the small of your back, and even drifts up and down once or twice, ghosting against your skin through your clothes.

You've seen glimpses of this Crosshair before; You know he's there under all of that prickliness. It's just apparently taken some quality time alone to bring it out.

"I think I still have some practicing to do, though." He looks down towards the end of the range.

"More than some." You can see he's baiting a response from you by the way his eyes are raised and his mouth is tight, trying not to smirk. It's one you know quite well, as it's the main way Crosshair gets you to do the things he might not want to say outright.

“What, are you gonna teach me?” Crosshair let’s a out a small hum. “Depends; Are you going to listen?” He watches the way your mouth curls into a sneaky little grin, with his much more reserved amused expression.

“I’ll listen at least sixty percent of the time.” Gently taking his rifle from your hands, he switches spots with you but doesn't assume a shooting position quite yet.

"That's wishful thinking. I know you don't have any patience." You roll your eyes.

"Can you just come here so I can give you a kiss? jerk." At first he doesn't, looking at you with a shit eating grin; Before he finally relents only in the slightest. You move the rest of the way, hands cupping his jaw as the tips of your fingers brushing against his hair.

His lips are warm against your own, before he pulls away and your lips part with the smallest 'pop'.

"Awfully rude to demand things from someone before insulting them." You see the rest of the Batch walking this way, so you just shrug and smile. "It works, doesn't it?" He can't disagree with it, since it's one of his main go to's.

Especially when he's being particularly bratty.

But with the rest of the group having located you both it's probably time to head out, leaving your brief little moment to end here.

"Ready to head out, you two? We have the coordinates and the ship's engines are hot." Hunter looks between the two of you, while Crosshair puts the Firepuncher in it's case. Hopefully this isn't the last time he shares it with you.

"Lets go!" You nod, before following him with Crosshair right beside.

#crosshair x reader #tbb x reader #the bad batch x reader #Crosshair/Reader #mywriting #the bad batch crosshair x reader #reader insert #reader

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jojotichakorn · 1 year

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khabkhluen from 'star in my mind' - your next autistic fave

so, the mlm drama 'star in my mind' that came out in 2022 didn't gain much popularity (and when i post my review on it in a couple of days, you might understand why) but with the release of adjacent our skyy 2 episodes, the polls that make us decide upon which bl character has the most autistic swag over at @bl-bracket and due to the fact that i keep insisting on khluen being my favorite character specifically because i relate to him on a big level as an autistic person, there is no better time than right now to discuss this.

without further ado and in no particular order, here is a list of things that have explicitly happened in the drama 'star in my mind' that made me consider khluen being autistic canon:

♾ khluen is very particular about things

when one of the characters describes khluen's routine in high school, it has huge "we are introducing an autistic character" vibes, because he says khluen comes to school every day at the exact same time and his breakfast consists of the same sandwich and the same juice every single morning. by the way, two years later, he still only drinks that juice (at least as far as we see during the events of the drama). when khluen moves into the dorm and needs to unpack, he opens the closet and starts to place hangers in exactly the same distance away from each other (which also prompts one of his roommates to joke if he "needs a ruler for that"). according to his own words, khluen also doesn't like mess and needs things to be exactly where he puts them. he also pays attention to the smallest of details and sort of absent-mindedly expects that everyone else notices those tiny things as well. he also says that he never changes himself and doesn't like to readjust and have a lot of change in his life in general.

♾ khluen takes everything others say very literally and expresses himself literally as well

any questions khluen is asked, he does not even imagine reading into them and thinking they might be implying something other than what is being explicitly stated. at one point, khluen's partner actually says that khluen is "interpreting [something] wrong", which seems like a pattern for him. whenever he responds to questions or simply says something on his own, he expresses himself very literally and says exactly what he means as well.

there is one important-to-the-plot conversation that happens in the middle of the series and that hurts my brain and khluen's brain simultaneously and that is very relevant to this section. in essence, khluen's conversation partner does not say a single thing directly and relies fully on implications that allistics would typically recognize and understand. during that conversation, khluen is visibly confused - he tries very hard to understand what the other person is trying to say but he is failing. this alsoleads to him coming to the wrong conclusions because he is simultaneously forced to make assumptions in order to comprehend anything that is being said but is given absolutely no direct information to work with. along with this, he continues to answer questions very directly (e.g. when his interlocutor vaguely asks if he has rejected someone who has confessed to him in the past, implying his own confession, khluen misses that implication entirely and instead just honestly says "yes", as he has previously rejected someone else).

by the way, upon reflecting on the time he actually rejected someone, khluen says "i said it directly, i didn't hesitate, i didn't spare her feelings", which is not only a reflection of shitty things that other people say about him rubbing off on him (which i will talk about later) but also simply of him being self-aware as to how literal he is.

♾ khluen only speaks when he wants to and when he finds it necessary

this manifests in many different ways. first of all, he is almost entirely silent while his crush is confessing his feelings to him, and on many other occasions when he is in the middle of some emotionally taxing conversations, he speaks in incredibly short sentences, often uttering no more than three words, while the other person has already uttered a hundred. second of all, when he is asked questions that would prompt allistics to expand on the subject under discussion, he answers very directly and therefore with few words, never offering any extra information that he isn't explicitly asked for (e.g. "do you have any talents?" - "i have some"). third of all, if someone asks khluen a question he doesn't want to answer, he simply says nothing: he offers no explanation for why he doesn't want to respond, doesn't even say "i don't want to talk about it". he very literally remains silent.

♾ khluen either explains nothing at all or overexplains himself

in connection with not saying much and often preferring to stay silent, khluen is - most of the time - annoyed that people demand an explanation for everything he says, does, wants, etc. however, whenever khluen is having an important conversation with someone, he provides excessive and most of the time unnecessary clarifications (e.g. he explains that his crush had no personal impact on him breaking up with his girlfriend, because though he did it because he realized he fell in love with his crush, the crush actually had no direct hand in it - now, this is obvious, because he and his crush have literally never spoken at that point, and there was just no way in which he could have affected khluen's relationship directly and intentionally).

♾ khluen is not familiar with unspoken social rules and can't read social cues

this manifests in about a thousand different ways.

khluen isn't entirely sure how to interact with people he knows indirectly (he picks up his crush after class and his friends, who khluen kind of knows through that crush, are there but khluen has no idea how he is meant to interact with them, so he just ends up slightly awkwardly ignoring them while talking to the crush). in connection with him having a hard time identifying different levels of relationships and behavior that typically corresponds to them, there is a scene where he tries (and fails) to explain the very platonic nature of the relationship between him and one of his friends (which is later consicely and extremely accurately described by said friend as simply a sibling-like relationship).

whenever he is asked some sort of personal information, he is genuinely baffled as to why he should reveal anything to people he doesn't know that well. khluen also asks very direct questions that are sometimes considered impolite or simply wouldn't typically be asked in the given context by someone who understands social rules better. while playing a game with his friends, where they have to reveal the first impressions of each other, khluen does not sugarcoat his initially negative impression of his friend. khluen also gets into an argument with one character because of a secret he had to keep (that wasn't his) only to find out later that he was apparently stupid for not realizing he could reveal that secret to that specific person in that specific situation despite promising to never tell anyone because there are exceptions to everything in this world and khluen just doesn't understand them. one character very explicitly tells khluen that "he seems to be the only one who can't tell how [his crush] feels about him", because others are able to deduce it through his body language and other implications, which are clearly foreign to khluen. this is also why he says that he always feels like he is "one step behind" in his relationships.

in connection with this, khluen also relies on other people to read the social situations that he is in. he literally asks his crush in the middle of a very serious conversation if he can call his best friend to consult him so he could make sure he doesn't say anything wrong during the very important conversation (which does not seem like a joke on his part, it seems like something he's genuinely done before). in general, whenever someone reveals some sort of information to khluen that he knows he is unlikely to understand himself (e.g. someone liking or disliking another person), he accepts it as truth right away because he feels like there is no way for him personally to deduce that kind of thing.

♾ khluen does not really show his emotions through facial expressions during particularly heartbreaking moments

so, first of all, as not just a khluen fan but also as a fan of the actor who plays him, archen, i can confirm that this is indeed not chen's typical acting style. in fact, we can see him being very expressive even as khluen in this drama - just not in particularly heavy moments. the way khluen's face is entirely blank while his very serious crush confesses that he likes him back in high school and the way he once again isn't showing any feelings with his face while finally having a real, honest conversation with the guy he's been in love with for years are the biggest examples of this.

♾ khluen does not know how to express his feelings in a way that other people want while being very honest and direct about them

he is self-admittedly "bad at talking and expressing himself" (to allistics, i'd like to add, because i understand him quite easily). when he is asked how he felt when he fell in love, he very seriously answers "i felt love, what else was i supposed to feel?" because there is a bit of a disconnect between what he's actually feeling and how to put it into more words - he directly states that he is in love and isn't sure what else he could say otherwise. in connection with expressing feelings (in a way that allistics do) being something that is difficult and overwhelming to khluen, he also says that he is "stupid when it comes to love" (and unfortunately "hates himself for it", which fuck the world for making the boy feel like the way he expresses himself is wrong).

♾ khluen is afraid of hurting other people because he does not fully understand their boundaries and implications

khluen is very acute to any discomfort or annoyance that he might cause to the point of being anxious about making someone uncomfortable at the smallest sign of it (e.g. one of the characters mentions he is bothered by strangers shipping khluen and him, and khluen is afraid it could somehow be his fault). when his friend (jokingly, according to her) tells him that "he shouldn't be with anyone [romantically]" precisely because of his misunderstanding of other people's signs, he takes it to heart, echoing the sentiment as potentially true multiple times throughout the series. there are several moments in the drama when he cries at the thought of having hurt someone else emotionally because that was not his intention at all, and there is even one time when a character calls him out on the "emotional damage that he has caused", to which khluen desperately responds that "he means well", while not really understanding what he has done wrong in the first place. khluen also apologizes all the time, many times, for anything and everything he can, almost always feeling like he's not quite doing or saying the right thing.

♾ there are certain things that other characters say about khluen which give us an idea of how he is perceived by society in general and those he is close to

people mention on multiple occasions that he seems proud and cold. one character says that he feels like khluen is "judging him with his eyes", while khluen is very confused at the comment, as he is just standing there, looking at the character normally. the same character says khluen is "tight-lipped and likes to make stoic faces". one of khluen's friends says that "people are afraid to approach him". she also says that he is "book-smart but otherwise a dumbass", with the latter part referring to the way in which he doesn't understand other people's signs well and also doesn't express himself in a way that most people (read: allistics) understand.

however, there are two characters who percieve khluen very differently from the rest, and i think this contrast is incredibly important for the bigger picture. the first one is khluen's mother, who is a lovely woman and a great parent. though she does not directly state anything antonymous to what i've described in the previous paragraph, she does understand khluen's signals very well and also clearly perceives him as the opposite of what the majority of characters describe him as. another one is khluen's best friend who he has known for years, noel, who once again does not directly wax poetic about khluen, but who supports him in a genuinely helpful and understanding way (e.g. he suggests khluen should go to the bar where his crush is, but when they actually go there and noel notices the first signs of discomfort, he explicitly apologizes for taking him there and asks if they should leave). needless to say, neither of the characters ever expresses any opinion that is even remotely close to what is described in the first paragraph of this section.

♾ other facts about khluen include...

... him often being unintentionally funny by just saying what he means; his best friend pointing out that he overthinks all his social interactions; him being praised for his acting skills (which duh - so much practice with masking); sunflowers likely being his special interest; and (though this is debatable as the camera angles don't allow to say this for sure) he seems to rock back and forth to calm himself down in stressful situations.

closing statement

i believe i have provided all the information i could on why i not only personally headcanon khluen as autistic, but genuinely consider it canon, despite simultaneously being sure that this was not deliberate on the part of the writers (and unfortunately we often get the best, most authentic representation when allistic writers don't realize that the label "autism" is attached to it). that being said, i would pay anything to interview the writers on their process of creating the character and also see how the director dealt with chen on set, because khluen is seemingly unintentionally one of the most relatable autistic characters i've ever seen on screen.

as promised, @sparklyeyedhimbo

#star in my mind #our skyy 2 #archer's meta

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prototypelq · 6 days

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DMC Questions Anon here!

How would things go in a scenario where the twins weren't separated after the fire? How would the story we know go in this world? How would their characters be here? What about their dynamic?

Feel free to do this as Dante was still inside the house while Vergil was outside, they were both inside, they were both outside, or any idea you can think of for how this could go. Feel free to tackle multiple variations of this scenario.

Hi Ember, thank you for the ask!

I swear I had already written a post or reblog about this....I'll link it here if I ever find it again.

I'll answer the main question in short - I think if twins found each other after the fire, they would have been much better off in every way possible. First off, they would have each other for support against this horrible trauma, which would already like, eliminate at least 30% of canon twins issues. It won't all be smooth - I can see Vergil trying to take a more assertive/responsible role, as his mother taught him, and Dante buckling against that plus not being treated seriously, which would result in him doing something unbelievably stupid, but over all, I am sure the twins would handle everything afterwards just fine. They would probably be hunted, perhaps the demons would even find them faster than on their own, since there's now double the scent to follow, but nothing stands against Twin Sons of Sparda. They'll probably follow Vergil's idea in dmc3 and try to get their revenge on Mundus, hopefully this time their minds put together could figure a les bloody way for a hell-bound portal.

As a bonus, since this is uncharacteristically short, I do wanna tackle a scenario where V(ergil) reveals his cards to Dante, or Dante is not as blindsided to make use of his high perception skills and figure the puzzle out himself.

It would start out with an obligatory and very forceful hug, as it should with these idiots.

After that - they're probably going to lose their minds about Nero's health in the weeks of Urizen's absence. They'll probably sideline the discussion of Nero for their mutual benefit (Vergil is secretly offended Dante didn't keep Yamato for himself and passed it to Someone Else, still there would be immediate adoration of Nero, Dante does Not want to handle the fallout of his five years of lies from both Vergil and Nero) and try to brainstorm any solutions they can (most of them are hopeless, but perhaps something could stabilise Vergil's current state and win him some time.

(oh also they find actual clothing for Vergil)

Now, even with all the preparation, I don't think the Urizen-Dante match would come out any differently - Dante dies. (as per my personal interpretation that Urizen killed Dante, (unknowing sibling kill count 1-1), but he was able to hold out in the same near-death state that Vergil survived in, till the Qlipoth revived Dante and he was awakened later)

As you can imagine, Vergil is not happy about it. At all. He is being eaten by guilt of harming Someone Important, aka Nero, and the shame of having his """goal""" accomplished and having Dante defeated by "his" hand. This would likely make Vergil even more volatile in terms of his mental state, and he would not be filling around this time. Sorry, no Dancing in the Rain this time, Vergil is gunning to find his little brother.

(oh, it would be super cool if Dante lost his guns on the battlefield with Urizen and Vergil carefully picked them up. first - just to deliver them to their owner, but then to also tentatively use them (the recoil hurts like hell))

After that, the middle of the game is pretty much the same - Vergil awakens Dante (trying the near-stab as the last resort), the twins are forced to travel the crumbled family tunnel to the mansion, Dante figures SDT and flies off to catch Urizen, leaving Vergil to catch up. (not his best moment, but I don't think he would trust himself with new level of almost infinite demonic power around his frail brother)

Vergil probably is not as helpless as in canon, but he still very much appreciates Nero's help in getting to the last battlefield. He wants to believe his brother, but a lifetime of paranoia is not very kind and Vergil is still very desperate to see the battle for himself. I don't think Vergil would spill as much as he does in canon, but he would share that he and Dante are twins for sure.

Dante defeats Urizen, this time without desperate pleas, just sad about the dark thoughts that haunt Vergil's mind. Vergil catches up and is reborn after the battle. I think the events overwhelm Vergil and he bolts this time on his own. Dante sighs and feels rejected, Nero is overwhelmed, demands answers and Dante lashes out with them, then goes to follow Vergil "in case he does something stupid again".

From here...I'm not sure. I think in the scenario the twins talk it out without any battle and then fall into Hell. Vergil leaves the book as a promise and an apology. Nero doesn't get all the answers he wants, but at that point he has enough clues and the puzzle forcibly assembles itself. Dante spills the beans only in Hell, and Vergil is forced to deal with the knowledge there.

Not sure what to do with the familiars, or Nero's power moment in here, I admit. Nero could unlock his powers in the Urizen rematch fight, before SDT Dante intervenes, but it feels unfulfilling. Familiars have no reason to stop Dante in this, but in the game it's not like they really planned on it, it was more of a suicide mission, so maybe they could repeat that, everyone - them and Dante, thinking this would in one way or another aid Vergil? That's the best I can come up with at the moment.

#i hope this is fun to read it was fun to write xD #sorry nero i couldn't think of a good arc for you(#dmc questions anon #the sparda loser twins #dmc #dante sparda #vergil sparda #nero sparda

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localplaguenurse · 2 months

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hii its amorette—can i just say i freaked out when i saw capillaries updated?? i loved the latest chapter so so much!!

i love how you characterize dottore and wanted to ask if you have any tips on how you write him / things you keep in mind while writing him, since your fic really inspired me to try writing my own! i hope you have a nice day :DD

Hi Amorette!!! Glad you liked it!

I saw this right as my first break at work ended and suffice to say, it’s been on my mind all day. You’ve opened a Pandora’s box, you’re getting a whole character analysis, because Dottore is actually a royal pain to write about so I have to REALLY study this bastard. The first half is going to be just purely on his canon traits, and the rest are my interpretations and headcanons.

So canonically, Dottore is very prideful and driven by the pursuit of knowledge. No subject is off limits to him, and he doesn’t care about how ethical or moral his research is. Whatever he needs to do, he’ll do it, the ends justify the means. He’s been obsessed with surpassing the gods since he was young, which is why he was ostracized by society. Sohreh’s notes describe him as initially “frigid,” but then she goes on to say she had a good time working with him and is looking forward to spending more time with him (Rip Sohreh). He created segments of himself from different ages as a way to surpass the limits of human cognition, and because they could offer their own individual contributions to his research. Omega is described as more selfish since he was the one to nuke the other segments for the gnosis, and Webttore/Beta is more manic and prone to mood swings. Also, none of the segments like each other.

That’s all the canon stuff. With that alone, you already have a pretty solid start for how to write him. He’s a man who views himself above the people who rejected him and wants to surpass the gods that ignored him. He doesn’t really care about keeping company and he barely gets along with himself. He’ll do anything in the pursuit of knowledge and doesn’t care if someone has to die for him to get it done. If Sohreh’s notes are anything to go by, he may have been antisocial but not completely opposed to finding connection, but that’s up to how you personally interpret her notes and subsequent death. He’s very calculating, and though he does resent the gods, he’s at least mature enough to hold it together for a conversation.

Now, onto my personal take on Dottore, which I’ve sprinkled through the fic already but it won’t hurt to share here :3

So the one key thing I have latched onto personally is his name. Zandik. By this point we all know it means “heretic” but really think about that for a second. That is the name of a man who was born in a world where gods are not only real, but they actually interact with the populace. Maybe it was because my bestie got me into Ethel Cain, but I started thinking about the implications/potential of religious trauma. What sort of homelife would a kid have when his own parents named him heretic when god is actually real? Certainly not a very pleasant life. Of course at some point he’d develop a hatred of gods when he’s been seen as a blasphemous monster since he was born. Of course he’d despise society as a whole, they’ve despised him from the start. This isn’t something he asked for, but it’s all he has. He did no wrong and yet all the world hated him for being born, what did they expect him to turn into?

As a result, my personal interpretation of Dottore is that he is still that prideful, cold and calculating scientist that hates the gods and isn’t afraid to do awful things to prove it, but he is also, deep down, motivated by validation. At the very least, that’s how this all started. At this point he’s become more callous, but there’s a part of him that wants to be appreciated, genuinely, by someone or something. This would have been especially prevalent in his younger self/segments, because he’s not as “mature” as he is now. If you cut through the 400 years of his callous cruel ways, you might find a little boy full of pain and anger asking what he did to deserve all of this.

… TLDR: He’s very smart, very callous, thinks very highly of himself, and I write him as one of those “they treated me like the villain so I became the villain they feared most” characters with a splash or religious trauma for flavour.

If you want to, you're more than welcome to use some of my characterization if you ever write about him! Honestly, for as big a pain in the ass he is to write, he's really interesting to explore as a character! It's actually why my favourite chapters/moments so far are the backstory ones, or whenever he's reflecting on his relationship with widow. He's a bastard and I love him.

#ask #amorette!#dottore #dottore headcanons #dottore divorce arc #character analysis

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motherfuckingmaneater · 25 days

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What was Bellatrix like after Azkaban? How did it impact her and her relationships?

Anon I have to be honest, I hate fanon interpretation and the more I watch the movies the less I enjoy HBC's interpretation too. Don't get me wrong she's an exceptional actress and I absolutely fell in love with her the moment we saw her on screen but her version of Bellatrix is very very ooc from book canon.

There are some aspects of her I absolutely love from the films, but honestly book Bellatrix is where its at. Now, we don't know what Bellatrix was like pre-Azkaban. We get snippets of her but everything else we get is from Harry's perspective and he thinks her simultaneously repulsive and attractive.

So here's my take on post-Azkaban Bellatrix:

Mentally changed - no, not insane. Not in the way the films showed. I think she was marked criminally insane when she was sentenced to life in Azkaban however the actual meaning of 'criminally insane' is: not being responsible for ones criminal actions because of a mental disorder. She was fully aware of what she was doing and she did it all with pride for the love of her life and likely also because every action she took acted on her own personal beliefs that muggleborns and halfbloods and muggles are below her.

Similarly, a personal headcanon - she is mentally changed because she's been occluding so deeply and for so long. I think her perceptions of reality are slightly distorted, I think her perception of time is completely thrown off and I think this is because she was locked in a cell for 14 years and unable to be with the love of her life who she knew was alive but no one else believed her and she couldn't do anything about it.

I see her physically changed too. I think Azkaban didn't leave her too thin for too long and too ragged looking (like HBC's version with the birds nest hair and disgusting teeth) considering witches have a lovely little thing called magic... and Bellatrix also strikes me as too conceited to let herself look that bad. She was described 'feverish' in the department of mysteries but I personally put this down to bloodlust like a predator finally released from its cage. I think she practiced a lot of wandless dark magic in her cell whether it was rune marking - with her own blood too probably. I don't think she just sat there and rot away. I think she went deep into her magic while she occluded, calling to the stars to keep her love safe and so on.

Relationships:

Rodolphus. I think she missed him. I will forever headcanon they are best friends (who also happen to have very good sex) and they get on like a house on fire but Voldemort was always the one she felt that chemistry and deeper rooted passion with. I think they likely grow closer post-Azkaban.

Narcissa. This one is complicated. I think Narcissa is a little apprehensive of Bellatrix this time around. I think Bellatrix is a lot darker than she remembers, I think Narcissa sees a lot more of Voldemort in her sister and she begins to really resent it. I can imagine however that there's something about her darkness that Narcissa likes...something she can't resist getting close to given she too is a Black.

Voldemort. I think they find their rhythm fairly quickly. I think they spend a lot of time together, even if its just relearning each other. I think he doesn't see her as any different - if anything, he thinks her more beautiful. I think they spend every night together, I imagine her clingy and him for once not minding it. Their passion goes through the roof and I think Voldemort wants to indulge in her again and again for months on end (I mean with canon Delphi, how did that happen? Lots of hot filthy toe curling sex).

Delphini. in which of course I mean my AU where she's trio era. Now this one I think is more complicated. I love to headcanon that Delphini looks a lot like Bellatrix. I like to think Bellatrix finds her hard to look at for exactly that reason. She sees what she used to be in her daughter. I think physically she restrains herself from affection for a long time because she mentally can't take looking at her. However, I think eventually they start to heal and things will go back to normal.

Death Eaters. I don't doubt for one second every single one of them is shit scared of Bellatrix. I think they know her reputation well since pre-Azkaban and now she's even more ruthless they're not for a second going to test her.

Family: she's come out of prison 14 years and everyone she loved in her family (save Narcissa) is dead. That's a lot to wrap your head around. She loses her father, her Aunt, her Uncle (though I do like to HC Orion dies just before she goes to Azkaban) and she and Cissa are the last Blacks.

#maneaters headcanons and studies #bellatrix lestrange #bellatrix black #bellatrix black lestrange #lord voldemort #bellamort #rodolphus lestrange #belladolphus #narcissa malfoy #cissatrix #delphini #delphini black

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yukipri · 1 year

Note

Following from your tags on the Galidraan post, there's actually a canon(-ish) source that states that the Darksabre was chosen by VIZSLA as their symbol of the Mand'alor: Tor Vizsla's in-universe Ba'jurne Kyr'tsad Mando'ad, which is included at the end of the real-world book, The Bounty Hunter Code. Direct quote is: "To ensure we would be led by the most powerful, we decreed that any could challenge the Secret Mand'alor for leadership of Death Watch. And, as our symbol of authority, we chose the Darksaber, an ancient weapon liberated from the Jedi long ago." (Please ignore my editing in the image.)

(The whole text of the Ba'jure Kyr'tsad Mando'ad is on google sites: https://sites.google.com/view/bajurne-kyrtsad-mandoad/title-page)

Yep, I have that book, it's actually a really fun reference, all the books in that series are! <3

But yup, see, this is another part where I see how Legends doesn't quite match up with current canon. The info in this book is Legends, specifically Legends as published in 2013. But in New Canon, given how the Darksaber is treated in Rebels and now in the Mandalorian, I feel like it being solely the symbol of "the Secret Mand'alor" is kinda BS—it's much more treated as the symbol of ALL of Mandalore.

Of course, one could interpret all of this through the lens that Clan Wren is part of House Vizsla so all of Sabine's story is biased (I'm still not happy they made that association...), and Bo-Katan used to serve Pre so of course she's got Vizsla bias, and Din was rescued by Death Watch + Paz is in his covert so presumably his covert also has strong Vizsla/Death Watch bias.

New canon is so incredibly Vizsla/Death-Watch centric, perhaps "Vizsla's Mand'alor" is the only Mand'alor that matters anymore. Which. Ugh. But kinda feels that way.

Anyway, while it isn't based on anything official, I do feel like if the Darksaber existed when Open Seasons was written, there might have been some more history with it there. Because keep in mind, even though they're both Legends, Open Seasons still predates the Code book by over a decade, and much of Legends isn't consistent.

My own take is that IF we go by the premise that the Darksaber is the symbol of the rightful leader of all of Mandalore and NOT just Death Watch, then it should make sense that at different points of time between the Darksaber becoming the symbol and the "present," it would have passed between different clans, especially since modern Death Watch is an extremist terrorist organization that has not been depicted as being the rightful anything tbh.

Therefore to me, the Darksaber is more interesting if it's a neutral symbol planetary leadership, which may have originated from Tarre Vizsla, someone who is not synonymous with Death Watch of the Clone Wars~onwards eras. Vizsla may claim that it's only a symbol of them and their Mand'alor, but again then that makes a distinction between that and a leader who unifies all of Mandalore.

It's more interesting if Jaster and Jango once had the Darksaber and were recognized as leaders, and perhaps that too was part of why Tor Vizsla was so determined to take them down, if he felt they were unfit to wield it. His underhanded tactics in getting rid of them would then mean that he didn't win the saber in fair combat, which means that when Pre presumably inherited it, its current presence in his family isn't rightful in the first place, and perhaps he never knew. That then leads to the question of whether any current claim to the Darksaber is legitimate if the last true wielder was taken down by Vizsla manipulating Jedi from the shadows, never lifting a finger himself. That kind of moral debate of honor, of understanding the messy past of Mandalore...that kind of juicy drama, I am all for.

To be clear, I'm biased, and none of the above is me saying "this is the right way to interpret this media." This is just how I, personally, am choosing to internalize it. I don't like Death Watch and don't think they have been depicted as honorable in ANY media they're in. It does not make any narrative sense, at least to me, to put them on a weird pedestal while stripping Boba, Jango, Jaster, and the other True Mandalorians of all historical and cultural relevance. IF the Darksaber is a symbol solely of Vizsla leadership, then I cannot imagine WHY anyone would want to make it into a cool fun symbol to build a franchise around and give to a hero character. So I'm hoping that canon will eventually lean a bit towards my personal interpretation, even though I have little faith that it will.

If it doesn't, eh, that's alright! I'm more than capable of making my own lil stories and entertaining myself!

Anyway, this response went a bit longer than I expected but yeah, those are my thoughts on the Darksaber and how I've personally chosen to combine Legends + New Canon!

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

#batsutousai #YukiPri replies #Darksaber #the Mandalorian #Mandalorians #Mandalore #Star Wars #Star Wars Legends #Mand'alor #Death Watch #Vizsla #Jaster Mereel #longpost #long post #OP comment: btw this is the take on that history in all of my own works #at the same time who knows man i don't understand a lot of new canon decisions #like it makes zero sense to me why giving Din a symbol of the Death Watch king would be a cool thing to do #but it also makes zero sense to me why anyone in their right mind would think that giving a child the weapon of a Zygerrian slaver #and make that her iconic weapon is a good idea

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lion-buddy · 2 years

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Thoughts on the Tanjiro and Nezuko role swap au?

Oh i love the swap au!! I think abt it alot in my own time. Ive always wanted to like, make my own content abt it but i tend to get pretty stuck on the mechanics of everything

Like, taking the world building of kny and applying it to a swap is super interesting to me, and i like trying to work it out. But there are a lot of specifics in kny that are harder to work around in a swap au. But thats not a bad thing! If anything it leads to more interesting story telling because it ensures that the swap isnt to 1 to 1. its just, a lot of work. and would take a lot of planning. If i were to like, write out a timeline of how i think the swap au would go, id have to figure out exactly how the mechanics and all the plot reasoning first. Cuz the way i see, it once you establish the world and lore rules, you can better mold the characters around that.

To start, demon tanjiro is such an interesting concept on its own. I feel hes the easier of the two to establish a character for, because we have his canon series counterpart to go off of. We can pick and choose from the many traits we’re given in canon and apply them to demon tanjiro, and its really fun reinterpreting them. Demon tanjiro basically takes the whole Im The Eldest Sibling trait to the extreme, and turning it into what giudes his reasoning now that he's stuck in a demon mindset (presumably similar to canon nezukos). Older Brother tanjiro is the best. :D

I can still see him being that little ray of sunshine he always is and just, being stuck to nezukos side at all time, whether it be in protection, or just wanting to help her with daily tasks. Like a lost little puppy <:D. Hes just fueled by the desire to be productive and helpful because that's where he thrives, and hes just going to do what feels correct in his little demon mind. I can see him like, taking things out of nezukos hands wordlessly to carry for her because his reasoning is, “little sister shouldnt be the one carrying everything. Im the eldest sibling! I will do the heavy lifting for her!! >:[].” meanwhile nezuko just like, “brother can i pls have my bento box back pls i appreciate ur help but that's not what i need <:3!!” hes just trying to help in anyway he can, even if he doesn't fully understand why/what hes doing.

I feel tanjiros presence would also be very important to nezuko. Shes young, and the only one there for her is her demon brother. While hes not able to speak, nezuko would still have one sided conversations with him. And in moments wheres shes unsure of what to do, she’d just think, “what would oniichan do?” because even if he can’t offer advice now, he’s still her older brother, and she looks up to him, demon or not.

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Roleswap nezuko is interesting. We already have such a well established personality for tanjiro, but nezuko can be a little tricky since we dont have a lot to go off of in canon. Theres bits and pieces we can take and interpret to the best of our abilities, and it kinda makes it more fun (for me at least) cuz we get to see how people interpret her character in so many different ways. :]

i actually came up with a design for her! nezuko is canonically good a sewing, or at least knows how to. her haori is made of up her old kimono and obi. i feel the checker pattern is important to keep because its kinda what all the kamados wear. also shorts/hand cropped uniform pants. i wanted to do pants but they didnt mesh well with her black leg wraps </3 (also pluggin my old hair timeline post bc its relevant <3)

(i didnt design a swap tanjiro bc hed just look like ep 1 tanjiro but muzzled. but he might have an outfit change like nezuko did in ep one.)

My TLDR version of early story swap nezuko is basically: During the beginning of her journey as a official demon slayer, she is veryyyy determined to change tanjiro back to a human as fast as she can, and is essentially bee-lining it from mission to mission. People are fine, but she is not going to linger for too long if she doesnt have to. Shes got her brother! And thats all the company she needs :]. this of course changes as she meets, trains, and fights alongside other people. She learns to slow down and appreciate the people around her more and how they can help her cause too.

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When trying to write out how the events of a swap au would go, i try to take nezukos character into mind ensure her experiences are different from tanjiros. Because they're different characters, different people, even if they face off against the same demon/character, they're going approach it differently, and have different takeaways from the things they experience

Now as much as i would love to write out/draw detailed scenes, that's a lot of work and planning and time that i do not really have atm. And i'd need to figure out A Lot of in world mechanics in order to create something I would be proud of. But in the meantime, i can establish a scene with nezukos' emotional beats to get a feel for her :D!

In the giyu confrontation scene in ep 1, nezukos first “emotional” arc would have a very different setup, almost opposite to tanjiros. When giyu steals the now fully demon tanjiro from nezuko, she’d be really angry at him. Shes angry someone thinks they can just take her brother away from her, dare to hurt him even, just because they think theyre stronger, just because think they know whats right (giyu ofc is just doing his best but. she doesnt know that </3). At first she’d try to retaliate, fight back immediately, in any way she physically can to get tanjiro back, but of course it wouldnt work out very gracefully. Shes no where near skilled enough to face a hashira, but she doesnt care. Her actions are blinded by her grief and rage from any rational thought. All she sees is this man stabbing her brother, threatening to kill him, and shes the only one who can save him. she has too. hes all shes got left. and this man is in threatening that. She’d tire herself out pretty quickly and fall to the ground, to tired to make another move. When giyu sees this, she’d get talked at for being too brash, running into a situation without thinking, without a plan, with only a goal in mind and no way to execute it. In a battle, you need to remember the people that youre trying to protect, not just the target youre trying to destroy. You need to remember who youre fighting for, cuz you cant fight for them if youre dead. Anyway funny axe throw scene now [insert plot things that happen that i have yet yo work out yet because the involve swap tanjiro. hes gonna be intersting] and we’re done. Even if her efforts to save her brother didnt turn out, there is potential to hone that determination into something, and giyu recognizes this. He believes that its something nezuko can effectively use if trained properly, maybe even help her find answers for her brother. After waking up, giyu would send the kamados off to urokodakis to be trained.

TLDR nezuko has really bad tunnel vision <3

We’re told in canon that Nezuko was not afraid to stand up to an adult if they were being mean, even if she's the smaller one in the situation. This trait is exhibited through her actions in Nezuko vs Daki, and I thought it was good scene to reference for how this scene might play out. i find the situation to be similar here. While it may seem out of her gentle character archetype, weve seen time and time again how fiercely she protects the people she cares about. hell, we even see her do the same thing in this scene in ep 1 when tanjiro is passed out!! In this moment if swap, she’s in shock, having just lost her entire family. she has already broke, this is just pushing it!!

i reallly wanna write more for this post but it is already. long lol. i have a few blurbs of texts about certain topics, and hopefully i can share them someday because i!! really like thinking abt this stuff! i really want to solidify and share my interpretation of demon tanjiro and how he works. things like how nezuko approaches battle and her overall fighting style. how the kamados fight together and help each other protect those they care about. maybe one day!

#god i have so much to say so much i wanna draw #but alas. i have been demoted to Poor College Student #kny #demon slayer #Kimetsu no Yaiba #nezuko #tanjiro #giyu #nezuko kamado #tanjiro kamado #giyu tomioka #roleswap au

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hadesknockedupintheunderworld · 4 months

Text

Okay, so I went looking for the Sonic 2 game manual last night for...reasons, and I decided I needed to share this page

So as I've said before, it's not as if I've consumed even half of the Sonic media out there. So my idea of the origins of Sonic and Tails I gathered through a tiny bit of Osmosis, tidbits from different tv shows (namely Sonic's depiction of how he met Tails in Sonic prime), and different origin stories via tv shows and comics. This is all to say that I was more than a bit uneducated, so I was under the impression for a while that Sonic saves Tails from the bullies who pick on him, and then he decides to take him with him (and so begins Sonic 2)

But given what a friend of mine described as implications that Sonic 1 (the game) is not the first time Sonic and Eggman have fought in addition to this page, my friend pointed out that this page from the manual may imply that Sonic and Tails were crafted originally as childhood friends. And that both blew my mind (!) and caused a couple puzzle pieces to click into place in my brain.

Despite Sega getting rid of the canon character ages, we at least know from the past that Sega/Sonic Team has had no problem depicting younger (and often very young) characters as fighters in battles against Robotnik or other villains (and this isn't even to mention this in various comic or tv show continuities). Back then (at least with just this game manual as context), there is not only a non zero chance that Sonic has been fending off danger (and potentially even Robotnik) since he was very young, but also the implication that he and Tails have known each other the longest. Since there are no ages mentioned at this point (for the record, I have no access to magazines or reporting on the game at the time of release, so you can take this with a grain of salt), to me it's possible to interpret Sonic and Tails originally being only a couple to a few years apart in age. To me it's possible to interpret their backstory as this:

Before Sonic would fight Robotnik and come to be known as a hero, he'd fight off these bullies picking on this little fox kit. The fox kit himself, known to the animals as "Tails" came to regard the hedgehog as his hero, so he came to follow Sonic around and try to catch up with him. Eventually, Sonic would officially begin to travel with Tails and look out for him, but he had a tendency to leave Tails behind when going on adventures focused on fighting off villains such as Robotnik, who would threaten the natural land and its inhabitants. But the young fox, determined to be like his hero (the young hedgehog) and to not be left behind (both when it came to fighting and because Sonic tended to get a laugh out of speeding ahead while Tails struggled to catch up), would practice flying until he could keep up and learn how to fight (partly by trying to use his Tails to his advantage, and partly by watching Sonic).

And to me, this sets up an interesting dynamic with them. Sonic is a bit of a jerk, but he ultimately cares about Tails' well-being. Tails deals with his hero acting like a bit of a jerk and leaving him behind by trying so hard to be able to join/catch up with him (and later be able to stand on his own too). This also sets them up as younger, likely orphaned, children who travel together and take care of each other. With all of this in mind too, it also makes more sense to me as to why the original Sonic Movie (currently known as "the ova") depicted Sonic and Tails having their own personal home base they live at together.

And this is more of a side thing, but after reading that excerpt from the manual my friend and I just couldn't help but think about Sora and Riku (Kingdom Hearts). While I have for a while found my brain drawing many lines/parallels between these pairs (although compiling all of these would be an essay for another time), this excerpt sort of set it in stone for me. I'll explain under the cut.

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So, in case you're not a Kingdom Hearts fan or entrenched in the part of Soriku fandom doing deep dive analysis and theory making and making fan translations, I'll set up Sora and Riku for a moment.

Sora and Riku are two young boys who live on Destiny Islands. They've known each other since they were very young, and, although they had other friends, the two have always considered each other best friends. They also often went out to a small island (dubbed "the play island") to play together, where they had a "secret place" to play. This "secret place" was a place where the two played together and was to be a secret between only the two of them. The two would play and dream of adventure, and Riku would dream of leaving the islands one day. At the young age of 5, he was given proof of the existence of other worlds in the form of Terra (a stranger from another world—a keyblade wielder) who would ask him why he wants to see "the outside world".

"To protect the things that matter" is a desire that lasts even until Kingdom Hearts 3 (11 years later), and (as fan translators have found out) takes a progression over time in the original Japanese from "the precious things" to "the precious people" to "precious person" (or person I cherish). The "person I cherish" in question, is highly implied to be Sora. I don't have the space to throw evidence here unfortunately, but there is a good amount (I'd suggest checking blogs such as @/blowingoffsteam2 and looking into the necklace theory and the sleeping realms theory as a start, as these will lead you to other blogs. Or you can dm me I suppose. I have a store of screenshots and kh media to draw from, just know...it's a lot).

Anyhow, with all that in mind, I also offer up an excerpt of Riku's story from the KH character files (this is a fan translation of the Japanese version), which serves to tell us a bit about Riku, he and Sora's relationship, and his perpective of the Dark Margin scene from KH2.

Translation by keijithekit on twitter

After all, when you're a child, a year is a big age difference, so I played the older brother and took Sora around with me everywhere. When did that change?

Other fan translators have also interpreted the original japanese as saying that Riku not only played the "older brother" role, but tried (perhaps not very well) to play this role. This is a short story that gives implications of feelings (and even the roles you take in another's life) changing over time. This is to say that Riku had once tried to play older brother to Sora, protect him and play with him, but over time things...changed.

Sora and Riku, as young children and all the way through to KH2, were best friends and friendly rivals. The two would often race, spar, and start up contests, with Riku winning the most. This is an important part of their relationship—as friends who drive each other to become better through competition. As Sora would fight to catch up to Riku, to beat him just once (which would also start him down a path of proving he doesn't need to fully rely on Riku anymore), Riku would fight back, get stronger and run faster so he could still be better.

Riku in KH1 (like classic Sonic as implied by the earlier excerpt from the Sonic 2 manual) is a bit of a jerk, and he often enjoys proving that he's "better" than Sora (faster and stronger). Sonic values the idea of freedom, and Riku too wants to be free, wants to explore the outside world. And Tails is a bit like Sora, who tries until he can catch up to Riku, until he can beat him just once. When Riku tells Sora in kh1 that he can go home and he (Riku) can handle everything else, Sora proves that he has the fighting prowess to stand on his own feet now and doesn't need to leave it all to Riku. Of course, Tails is a bit like Riku too. He doesn't just want to be able to catch up to Sonic, to stand on his own two feet, he wants the kind of strength Sonic seems to have (to be able to fight on his own, and to be able to protect what he cares about). And likewise, while Sora isn't initially as driven to leave their home as Riku is (as he both wants to see the outside world with him and likes his home), he also comes to value the idea of freedom, of living your own life.

And this is all to say that the parallels aren't one to one for me (especially as I believe Sonic and Tails can each parallel both Sora and Riku), but I see them regardless.

Let's return back to the Sonic 2 manual and that excerpt from Riku's story in the character files and compare the the two possible interpretations of these different backstories.

"Two childhood best friends grew up together. The older one often took care of the younger one, and the elder would try to play the older brother role to the younger as they took the younger everywhere with them. Likewise, the younger idolized the older one. The two would often compete, which would drive each of them to become better as the older would try to stay on top and the younger would keep trying to catch up and win even once. One of them desires strength to protect the things that matter (such as their best friend). The other desires to be as strong and fast as the other, fighting to be able to rival them competitively. While the older would spend time protecting the other, the younger one day is able to prove that they can stand on their own, no longer needing the older as they once did, not allowing the older to make them stay behind."

"Once, a very young kid was saved by one just older. The younger started to idolize and admire the other as their hero and began to follow the older around. Eventually, the older would begin to take care of the younger, but the older would often show off their own speed and strength and leave the younger behind. The younger, determined to be able to catch up, to be able to stand with the older, flies and trains until they can (and desires too to be able to stand alone, to have the kind of strength the older possesses, to not need the older). As the two grow older, the younger eventually is able to catch up with and fight beside the older (and too develops their own ways to fight). The two, from this point forward stick beside each other as much as they can (to the point that if they aren't adventuring together, they are often in contact)."

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Okay, I've kept you all here long enough. I mostly was hoping I could shed a bit of light as to why this excerpt from the Sonic 2 manual reminds me so much of Soriku. Food for thought, right?

#Sontails #Soriku #Sonic the Hedgehog 2 #sonic the hedgehog #tails the fox #miles tails prower #Kingdom Hearts #parallels #essay time #i just be ramblin #The 'reasons' in this case were mostly me wondering why Sontails isn't that big of a ship (especially considering people's tendencies to #ship the two male best friend characters who fight together and especially because Tails was Sonic's first friend to be introduced)#and why the fandom has been so set on the 'they must and always will be practically blood related siblings or you're wrong' interpretation #So I looked up the Sonic 2 game manual to see if it would shed some light on what I was wondering #And what I found just gave my friend and I brainrot #(also consider that a piece of media or it's creator labeling two unrelated main characters as sibling like has never stopped people from #shipping them anyways or interpreting it as a coverup for queerness or as writers queercoding in a way that circumvents censorship)#If you liked this post at all you can thank my friend #1. For starting this discussion after I showed them the excerpt from the game manual #and 2. for saying 'oh yeah you could post about that conversation we had if you want'#Also side thing that didn't really fit in the post. If Tails was saved by Sonic and became a hero to him before Tails decided to follow him #around‚ does that not parallel Amy's story of being saved by Sonic‚ who would become her hero‚ and following him around after that?#More food for thought. Even the Archie Sonic depiction of Sonic CD (issue 25 of mainline) had Sonic racing Metal Sonic to save both Tails #and Amy‚ who both touted the 'my hero' line and were glad Sonic would come to save them #In terms of the interpretation I drew using only what I know from Sonic Prime and that game manual for context‚ I actually quite like the #idea that Sonic and Tails grew up together‚ with Tails having quite a bit of admiration and an unrealized puppy crush‚ and with Sonic #initially trying to play the role of older brother. And I like the idea that when they get older that relationship evolves until the nature #of it is unclear‚ where the only certainty they have is that they aren't like blood related siblings and that they just want to be together #forever (you know a 'is this platonic or romantic or what? who knows' kind of deal.)#unbreakable bond

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utilitycaster · 1 year

Note

this is fully hitting the wasp's nest so if you don't post it, i get it but like...i wish more of fandom was open to interacting with the material as presented than forcing into their preferred narratives. I like imodna as a concept. I've been interested in it since c3e1 and I'm intrigued to see where it may or may not go. But I would absolutely rather read your takes after an episode than the imodna fans because you're not trying to force every character action so its fit a specific narrative

Hey anon!

I really appreciate this! I hope you don’t mind me using it as a jumping off point to talk about a lot of general fandom response thoughts that have been percolating for a while, but I do want to answer you specifically which is that I’m incredibly grateful you told me. I do this too! I like to follow people who have different favorite characters or ships but who are engaging thoughtfully with canon. I genuinely have a much, much better understanding of Veth, whom I always liked but often struggled to get, because over time I've followed a number of people for whom she was one of their favorites and who write good meta about her.

With that said, people can engage how they want! It’s entirely valid to interpret things through shipping goggles/only watch because you want two characters to kiss (and you can want them to kiss for no reason other than "it would be gay”), or to like or dislike characters based on surface details. It’s just that like…to me, meta based on canon, or talking about the narrative and themes is saying “this is what I see, and I’m explaining it to you in the hopes that you can understand what I see, even if you don’t see it the same way” and shipping goggle interpretations are, ultimately, preaching to the choir. Like, honestly, I was never terribly into it, but I gave Imodna a shot! It hasn’t delivered on anything that specifically interests me and I’m more invested in other relationships for them right now. I'm also still open to things happening in canon in the future that would change my mind. But I'm not personally interested in forcing them to be together at all costs. Honestly, even for things I really, really ship, I never feel that way, because in the end I'm more interested in watching a story.

This could be a whole treatise - honestly the starting point for a lot of these thoughts is that masters’ thesis on toxic fandom behaviors w/r/t shipping that went around - but I’ll keep it relatively short here and if anyone wants me to elaborate on anything here, they can ask.

Basically, as I said above, there are lots of different ways to engage with the text, and the vast majority are valid, but looking at the canon and writing about conclusions drawn from it, or even writing fic that is deeply based in canon and makes smart extrapolations from it, are a way to make your own feelings about the text accessible to others. Saying “I think Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 should kiss with tongue” is not. It’s just as genuine and valid to say! I take it in good faith that the speaker truly wants Blorbos 1 and 2 to kiss with tongue! But If I don’t already agree, it’s not going to convince me because it’s not an argument. And, to be honest, if that’s a really common fandom feeling, and I don’t particularly care for Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2’s dynamic, I might write about the limitations I see in it from canon (on my own blog, to be clear, not as a reblog or anything obnoxious like that). And, if I do that, I don’t mind if someone looks at what I wrote, and says “anyway, I think Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 should kiss with tongue”, and continues along their way, and ignores or blocks me and finds like-minded people! I only mind if they start directly engaging with me with the intent of convincing me, without putting in the effort to provide arguments tailored specifically to me. And even then…does it matter if I don’t want Blorbo 1 and Blorbo 2 to kiss with tongue? I don’t have any more control over this happening or not happening in canon than you do.

I think there are two big reasons why discourse can get so fraught and vicious. The first is that I think a lot of people who aren’t writing in terms of narrative, canon, and argument have very personal feelings about characters, which is good and valid! But they then see a dislike of that character as a dislike of them, which isn’t actually true, both because what makes a good character or interesting ship is not the same as what makes a good real-world person or healthy relationship (insert Anna Karenina line here); and because one person’s dislike of a character can be for different reasons than why someone else relates to the character (eg: the reasons I didn’t vibe with Molly were because he was often flaky and manipulative. If you relate to Molly but it’s because you’re genderfluid and do circus acrobatics and tarot readings, then our feelings are not in contradiction; we’re just responding to different things about him). I also think some people see a preference for one character over another, even if the person expressing the preference likes both characters, as an attack on their favorite. That, to be honest, is just really stupid and they should work through that.

The second, and this is where this does get more judgmental, is that I think that sometimes, people who are responding to surface things or relatability attempt to make arguments that inappropriately co-opt the language of social justice (not that it’s inappropriate to use social justice language when apt in fandom, but like…keep it systemic and about patterns), or which are inconsistent. To use an example, during Campaign 2, I remember receiving two different anons, one in which someone basically said “funny how Essek is granted the grace that Astrid never is; fandoms hate women”; and one in which someone said “funny how Astrid is granted the grace that Essek never is; fandoms hate characters of color”, and the real answer is that Astrid and Essek are very similar but do have key differences and if the criticisms of Astrid or Essek are rooted in misogyny or racism, respectively, then that’s worth pointing out, but I think it’s really unhealthy and unkind to assume people don’t like something because they’re bigoted (and indeed, this demonstrates a no-win situation with two characters each of whom is a member of an oppressed group, so that no matter whom people prefer you can always make this accusation, which means it’s meaningless without evidence.) And, if someone says in your inbox “well I don’t like Essek because he’s a wizard who is interested in power”, then it is valid to say “ok, well, then why are you arguing that I should like Astrid, a wizard who is interested in power?” because you’re pointing out the flaws in their argument. (sidebar: I, personally, like both Essek and Astrid. This is purely for illustrative purposes.)

Anyway I think the conclusion to be made is like, everyone may like what they like, but if it’s important to you that other people like what you like, you need to put in the work, and also, it’s worth examining why this is important to you...but it's that kind of thinking that makes people insist on certain narratives rather than just watching the show, because they are trying to prove themselves right rather than providing predictions and opinions, sitting back, and seeing if they come to pass.

#answered #Anonymous #cr discourse #more in the sense that it is discourse on the discourse #long post #i am going for the vibe of that bourdain post I just reblogged tbh #on fandom

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askamiitopia · 5 months

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Greetings!

Hello! This blog is an ask blog, focused particularly on my personal portrayal and interpretation of Miitopia, specifically that of the main team, plus a few other notable figures! The timeframe here takes place 2 years after the events of the game!

You can send in asks directed towards the listed characters, and it'll get responded to via drawn replies of... varying effort. Hey, this is a for-fun thing, cut me a bit of slack here~!

Under the cut is a set of basic rules, as well as mobile-friendly links to the list of available characters and the tags for searching around!

Have fun~!

RULES;

For the love of all, keep things reasonably sfw here-- Dirty-humored jokes and less than pleasant topics are fine, and likely to pop up on their own at times, but don't go too far, and do keep in mind some of the characters here are children still. -

As previously stated, this is a for-fun blog. Which means I'm not going to overwork or overstress myself about it. It's up to me alone how quick I respond to something, with how much effort into it, and all that, and this can and probably will vary, especially seeing as I have a life(Kind of lmao) outside of tumblr, and other interests as well. -

Continuing on with the above, and as also stated previously, this blog is based on my personal interpretation of things. While primarily canon-compliant, I do have my own plethora of headcanons and worldbuilding, as well as post-game story that may be hinted at. With all that said, I ask you respect this and do not cause a fuss just because the way I handle things may be different than how you would do it. -

Don't be a bigot. Or an asshole. Or anything like that. Anything hateful that isn't just some dumb thing directed at the characters for interaction's sake will be deleted, and depending on severity can also result in a block. We have fun and be nice to people here.

[Characters Page] --- [Tag Nav]

Blog ran by @ambiguous-andromeda Be sure to also check my art blog @andromedoodles !

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saltymongoose · 1 year

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Hello! ♠️ Anon here

So...super duper cliché ask, but I got another idea, ya' know Steven Universe right? If you do then I think you know where I'm getting at with this. What if Player could fusion with their vessels? Like they change their appearance and gain some different abilities, but they also need to keep a balance in the emotions or at least be at some level of synchronization to keep the fusion together (Ex. If one part feels very different about something or experience a strong emotion but the other doesn't the fusion breaks)

Heya ♠️ Anon! Another Anon asked about this as well, complete with some art, so I'm going to compound their ask with this and share their art at the end of my response (cause there is quite a lot of it wow 0o0).

Within my own fic verse and self ship, I've added the idea as semi-canon like... What if the characters could fuse (a la Dragon Ball or Steven Universe)? What would those fusions be like, what would be their biology, their PSYCHOLOGY even? How would it embody their relationship? Would they be multiple people existing within one thing, or are they close enough that the fusion would be its own sort of person for as long as it is done?

Anyway I am leaving this to encourage you and others to think about their own spins on this! I have art of some of mine as well as interpretations of what those fusions function like, but they're all for my self insert haha. Feel free to just use them for ideas. Faers name is F94G (pronounced as "Frag" as in "frag grenade" and written in LEET/L337.) The fusions present are F94G/Hank, F94G/Doc, F94G/Deimos, and F94G/Tricky. (On my self ship blog are full descriptions of what those fusions have going on with them but like... Lil nervous to out that I'm sorry lol.) Anyway the art! Enjoy toying with the ideas! - The other Anon <3

Alright, to finally get to the topic of fusion, I think if emotional stability is what keeps it together, the Player would have a difficult time keeping it together. It's not like all of the characters are particularly emotionally volatile or unregulated, but given how experiences of strong emotion could break a fusion, there is the question of whether the type and level of love the grunts have could do so. Love to the level of obsession and ignorance of rationality at times definitely is a strong feeling, so it would at least be a lot for the Player to come to terms with.

Since we're on that topic, I think that this would also be an effective way for the boys to sort of "confess" how deep their love for you really is. It's one thing to convey it through any number of love languages, it's another to fully project the pure feelings themselves. No matter how long it may take you to fully process this sudden rush of adoration and overwhelming happiness the perspective grunt feels, you'll never doubt their feelings for you, so that's a bonus.

When it comes down to how the fusion appears, its personality, and general behavior, this can be attributed to who you'd be fusing with. With Doc and Jeb, they'd be more reserved, while Deimos, Sanford, and Hank would likely lead to a more expressive fusion. (Though a fusion with Hank is unlikely to be very verbal given how he doesn't talk a lot).

Tricky's fusion would likely be more difficult to keep together as well, considering his unpredictable personality and how the improbability drive effects him. It's a challenge that he's more than excited to take on, mind you, so even if that's a difficulty, you can make it work.

Either way, I do think the resulting fusion would be extremely confident with themselves due in no small part to your vessel's love for you (in addition to how self-satisfied they feel that they're your partner for this). You could make this a less obvious feature considering you're probably calm not completely obsessive with your affections compared to them, but it's still easy to see, regardless of who you fuse with.

Speaking of any other specific traits can be rather difficult considering how each vessel would imprint their mark on the fusion, and the fact that the character of the Player is a reader insert ofc. However, it is likely that the more dominant traits of the vessels would still make themselves apparent. For example, Hank's fusion with you would probably still find violence as the solution in a great deal of situations, while Jeb's fusion would take on much of his savior complex. If you want to get really wild, I'm willing to bet that Phobos' god complex would also permeate through the fusion you would create, and it's only enforced by the fact that you (an actual god, insofar as he's concerned) are a part of it.

As for abilities, with grunts like Sanford and Doc, you probably wouldn't gain much except for perhaps increased strength and intelligence. Hank's agility would definitely come into play, and given how The Machine refuses to let him die, they likely wouldn't let a fusion do so either. Deimos' pyrokinesis would occur in the fusion as well, as would all of Tricky's odd abilities.

I think the appearance of the fusion is better left up to your interpretation as the reader, but in my mind, you'd probably will have both a visual cross and your eyes, which is very interesting. Having more arms is also pretty basic for a fusion, so that's to be expected as well. I believe it's really up to you though, as I'm not one to assign many physical traits the Player anyway lol. Plus, this can lead to some extremely creative results, as can be seen with the wonderful art below with F94G (the other asking Anon's OC). :)

(and lastly for reference, the lil grunt doodle of F94G)

#The other Anon in this case was unable to make the ask off of their blog so this is why I answered it this way lol #(I'm including my art comments here because I feel like it would be too off topic for the central post.)#Again #very creative and I love the choices of color for the fusions! They're very visually appealing #The poses are also expressive for the characters and the linework for F94G in that final doodle is sticker worthy.#Very “tattoo-like” lines imo #and I love tattoos so that's a compliment lol #ask #chat tag #♠️ anon #other's art #other's ocs

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