#that doesn't mean I haven't seen it but I'll save my time creating for the episodes

[roxtron]

Anyone ever think about the idea that the mimic is mimicking what it did to gregory before being trapped?

probably, I'm sure I'm not the only person to think about this. but am I going to talk about it anyway? absolutely. Okay so basically.. a couple of the mimic's voicelines are copy-pasted from Security Breach, right? While this is the first time we've seen the mimic copy anyone before, I believe most of his voicelines do come from somewhere. Sorry, that sounds vague. What I mean by that is I don't believe everything the mimic says is 100% a lie it created. For example a lot of people joke about the mimic being more whiny when pretending to be Gregory. Joking about how it's the biggest red flag because Gregory was never really that scared in Security Breach. But did it really just come up with that on its own? What if it's mimicking Gregory in the state he was in when he left? What if Gregory was that scared when dealing with the mimic? And it's not just that, I think some voicelines actually give a bit of hint to this too.

"Help! Something grabbed me! It won't let me go!" I feel like this line and others like it may actually describe what the mimic did. The way Gregory refers to the mimic as "that thing," and the only other 'thing' it could be pretending to be afraid of is the blob, which already tunneled out by the time Cassie gets here. And while the mimic isn't the best at keeping its story straight.. (Claiming to be running/hiding from Roxy while it's trapped under the sinkhole, though I believe that could be him trying to cover up the real Gregory attempting to speak to her, regaining control of the situation. After all if that voice line was the mimic why would Roxy run in the opposite direction of the walkie talkie to go chase him?) I feel like if the mimic was pretending it was the blob that grabbed him, he wouldn't also admit that it tunneled out later on. (I'll get to that don't worry.) Sure, this is a fabricated lie to lure Cassie, but my point is, what story is the mimic trying to create here? What is the mimic trying to claim happened to it/Gregory? I was going to bring these screenshots up later, but..

(Original screenshot + edited version to see the handprint better.) The handprint on the vent outside where the mimic is trapped, with Gregory's backpack underneath it, if you haven't seen theories about it already it seems to clearly imply Gregory lured the mimic in through the vent, that's his handprint. Why I'm bringing this up here though, that handprint looks bloody, doesn't it? Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just the lighting, but I feel like that looks more like a bloody/liquid stain smear than a smear of dust or something. So what if what happened was what the mimic described? It grabbed Gregory, and didn't let him go, causing his arms to get stabbed through and bleed after he escaped through the vent. (If you can't picture what I'm saying or just want a cool visual of this happening, go see this post it's cool and basically shows what I'm talking about, I only thought of this detail because of their post, also the art is cool.)

Anyway, moving on..

"That thing is here again. I gotta hide. Save me."

What if getting the mimic to that specific room wasn't all of the luring Gregory had to do? What if he periodically had to deal with being chased/hunted by the mimic while trying to get it to follow him to that area of the pizzaplex? (This is probably the most speculation, there's not a lot you can get from this line, but it's still a cool idea I think.) OR, an alternate take.. The mimic is being interrupted by the real Gregory's attempts to reach Cassie, and the mimic is using this opportunity as an excuse while it attempts to block his signal. (I've theorized about the differences between each speaking a bit before, but basically, I find it notable that the only times the real Gregory seems to get through to Cassie is when the mimic is busy/distracted/unavailable. So the mimic likely has to make an active effort to block his attempts, hence why he ends up using other signals to try to reach her, like the hacked staff bot. Again this is heavy speculation, but I find it interesting if he's basically telling the story in real-time and sort of swapping him and Gregory.)

Overall there's not a lot you can gather out of this line that I haven't already mentioned in the previous one, so let's move on.

"Something tunneled out.. broke everything. Now I'm stuck here!"

Before I go over this, take it with a grain of salt. Yes I think this is him referring to the blob tunneling out, causing the 'earthquake' that broke the pizzaplex to the state it's in when Cassie arrives. Considering the tunnel in the sinkhole and seeing the blob in a tunnel early in the game, this adds up. However.. I think there might be a double meaning here. It's a bit of a reach, but what if it's also referring to Gregory a bit here? "Something tunneled out," it's implied Gregory used the vent (sort of a tunnel) to escape the room the mimic is trapped in. "Broke everything," ruined the mimic's plans. "Now I'm stuck here," well, that's self explanitory. Gregory used the vent to escape, ruined the mimic's plans, and trapped it there. I also find it interesting this seems to be the final time the mimic mentions something else down there with it. (Even during its final pleas in Roxy Raceway, it only says "Save me, it's so dark down here." Nothing about that "thing" putting him in danger.) Do I think this line is specifically the mimic talking about Gregory? No, I think its main purpose is to explain where the blob went. But I do think it's possible there's a double meaning to it, intentional or not..

Like I said that's the last line of dialogue where the mimic mentions something else down there with it, so there's not a lot more to talk about. My biggest points and evidence were in the beginning tbh, it probably would've been best to cover it at the end of this post but I wanted to go over the voice lines in chronological order to when they appear in-game. I know some of the stuff I said is reaching a bit, I'm not 100% confident that'd be the correct interpretation.. but it's something to think about, that's my point. Whether I'm right or wrong I think the theory is worth considering. If you read this far, that's cool, I hope this was entertaining or had some kind of value to you. I like writing analysis stuff like this so it's always nice when other people enjoy it too. :)

#ok tag time uhhh #fnaf #fnaf theory #fnaf analysis #fnaf ruin #fnaf ruin dlc #security breach ruin #ruin dlc #fnaf mimic #fnaf gregory #does this count as sb tag since it's the dlc.. #fnaf security breach #security breach #fnaf sb #well that's all the tags i can think of #hope you enjoyed :)

[cosmiclion]

If you thought I couldn't outdo myself more with the fluff for this AU then you haven't seen my true power yet 😈

I don't know if I got OCiel's bangs right but, realistically speaking, human hair never stays in the same place, that's how physics works so whatever lmao.

Anyway, trying to write a Black Butler AU with some fluff where Sebastian and Ciel have a parent-child like relationship WHILE keeping them in-character (Sebas more than Ciel tbh) and still basing it on canon material but making changes and making said changes make sense requires a bit of work ngl.

I mean, I know it's just a project I'm doing for fun and technically there's nothing stopping me from going nuts and making them completely OOC and disregarding canon at all, but I feel then it'd become a separate story with new, original characters who simply happen to be inspired by Kuro (which is also okay, and who knows, maybe in the future I'll repurpose the whole thing to create my own Kuro-inspired original story, even if I don't think I'll ever fully lose interest in Kuro, this cursed series has me in a chokehold lmao). Full ramble under the cut.

Sebastian is the hardest one to write, though I think I'm finally more or less figuring it out. I didn’t want to write him as suddenly learning to love the way humans do thanks to the power of cute children or something, as it just didn't feel natural (or I couldn't personally make it feel natural, I know other people have managed to write that concept very well). What I have so far is that when he does act nurturing he’s simply imitating the behavior of human parents he has observed, but he doesn’t love the kid the same way humans do because he literally doesn’t have that ability. BUT that doesn’t mean he feels nothing at all and that it doesn’t mean anything to Ciel, after all this weird creature is the one who saved his life and raised him with care and patience. The closest comparison I can think of is the relationship between people and “unusual” pets like reptiles, amphibians, insects, etc. We know they can’t love us the way other people (or even other mammals) would but that doesn’t make our bond any less significant! Some bits of canon material also come in handy here, for example I based the fact that familiar Sebas finds Ciel adorable as a kitten on the canon fact that he likes squishing his cheeks because they remind him of a cat's paws 😂 Just know he's an awkward demon who doesn't know how to human but is doing his best 🥺

I think in Ciel’s case I have more freedom since he is, after all, human, and a human’s personality is strongly shaped by their environment and life experiences. Like, what exactly counts as making a character OOC? Sure, I can agree that in a fanwork set in the exact same universe with the exact same events as in canon there’s some things a character would never say or do, but I think AUs were created as a way to explore what-if scenarios. What if this character had been raised by different people? What if they had grown up in a different place? What if this or that event hadn’t happened or had gone differently? Tbh I think it’s just fun to explore endless possibilities, it’s maybe a form of character analysis in some way. And if we think about it, canonverse Ciel was originally sweet, shy and affectionate, and if he’s the complete opposite now it’s only because he went through an utterly horrific and traumatic event that forced him to grow up before his time and toughen himself up because it left him with little to no support system, on top of having to be hyper vigilant because the only thing that "saved" him from that is a literal demon who wants his soul and is haunting him.

So I just wanted to create this alternative timeline where maybe things aren’t as terrible, or they start out as terrible but then some good things come from the most unexpected sources. Ciel is five years younger and thus has more time to process everything and try to heal as he grows up. Sebas isn’t entirely a bastard and willingly does nice things for the child, even if he still doesn’t understand human needs, and while he stills views him as a potential meal (at least at the beginning) he's actually respectful. There’s another demon who understands humans all too well and is happy to lend a hand. His friends and the relatives he has left are more involved in his life. So Ciel more or less has a support system now, albeit a weird dysfunctional one, and doesn’t entirely lose his sweetness (also like... he's 5/6 at the beginning of the story, we really can't expect a preschooler to be an edgy emo who craves violence and revenge ☠️). I imagine he grows up to be just as calculating and cunning as canonverse Ciel, maybe even just as ruthless in his job because it’s a requirement, and is still pretty much a little shit, but this Ciel is not as cold and undemonstrative. He’s still very much an introvert who prefers to be left alone, but he smiles (as in genuinely smile) more often and it’s a little easier for him to express emotions and feelings (more through actions than words, but still meaningful). Hell he may allow himself to be playful and silly sometimes if he’s in the moment.

And if it wasn’t clear from the picture, little Ciel ADORES Sebastian. Sure he's (understandably) a bit skittish around him at first, but once they bond he comes to fully view him as a parental figure. Yes, he's hurt, sad and traumatized, but he's still a resilient little kid, and with enough kindness Sebas can coax his old self to come out of his shell, and until the kid becomes more independent they're like a mama duck and her lil duckling. Their constant banter and bickering when he's older is more a teens being teens thing than anything.

#eli’s art #artists on tumblr #art #digital art #drawing #sketch #eli rambles #canon divergence #kuroshitsuji #kuroshitsuji au #kuro familiar au #black butler #black butler au #sebastian michaelis #dadbastian #mombastian #ciel phantomhive #our ciel #ociel #o!ciel #i am going to create an au that is so self indulgent #procreate app #not yoi

[cleolinda]

Sparking Joy (Jean Patou, 1930)

What's the best perfume of all time? Objectively, I don't think that's an answerable question; it might be that the absolute best perfume (which means what?) is something designed by an artisan outside the French tradition or the Arabian tradition, or not by a professional nose at all, but a single bottle mixed up by a hobbyist in some quiet little corner of the world. We just don't know. But much the way the American Film Institute decrees that Citizen Kane is the best [American] film of all time, what do Those in the Know think is the best? Chanel No. 5, right? The top seller in the world for decades?

Not at all. In 2000, the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards bestowed the public's choice for "Scent of the Century" on Jean Patou's Joy.

I remember reading this in the newspaper at the time, back when we had newspapers; I hadn't even worn fragrance since Sun-Ripened Raspberry body splash in high school, and I was shocked that it wasn't Chanel No. 5. I have to think "the public" meant "knowledgeable members of the perfume industry," because I had never heard of Joy, and most people I've talked to (who aren't hanging out on on fragrance forums) haven't, either. I feel like many of us would reflexively say "No. 5" because Chanel's done that good a job at shoring up their flagship's legend.

The story of Jean Patou's Joy is the opposite: when a fragrance isn't given the respect it deserves.

(Joy ads, 1947 and 1978; more here)

Famously, back when Joy was famous, perfumer Henri Alméras created Joy for Parisian couturier Jean Patou, as an oddly defiant, perhaps even life-affirming reaction to the 1929 Wall Street crash. At the time, it was "the costliest perfume in the world": "One ounce of the lavish scent contains 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen May roses"—and it cost $40 ($728.45!!!). And I might say it's a little obscene to create such an extravagant thing in the middle of the Great Depression—and yet, somehow, Joy was a huge success. A master perfumer created a work of art for a luxury vendor, and people bought it, and they loved it. Jackie Kennedy wore it; Vivien Leigh wore it. I've been wearing Joy for three weeks, and if I could have saved up enough pennies in 1930 to buy a tiny vial, I could see myself doing it, just to have that little something.

Joy was explicitly intended to be "a lighthouse" in a dark time of deprivation, and it wasn't overpriced just for the hell of it; it was the costliest in the sense of quality. It might best be known for its rose-jasmine pairing, but besides the entire region of Grasse crammed into every bottle, Joy also contains "leafy green notes," tuberose, ylang-ylang, aldehydes, peach (our old friend undecalactone?), lily of the valley, orris root, orchid, civet, musk, and sandalwood; Wikipedia also lists "michelia," which may mean magnolia here.

I'll admit up front that I have no idea when the sample I bought last month was produced, but the “juice,” as they say, looks very new; it doesn't have the deep dark color that I've seen on vintage bottles of Joy. It's got to be one of the newer formulations. Tom at Perfume Posse can speak for the older ones:

The [2022 sample] I received smells thinner than I remember - more skimming over those fields of flowers than just bashing into them, face-first. The Joy I remember reveled in the excess: bowers of roses, masses of lilies, clouds of tuberose backed with some of that “don’t F with me” musk that must have been civet back in the day. This is nice. Nice and sweet, with only a hint of the previous hedonist.

Angela at Now Smell This:

For the longest time, to me Joy smelled dense, like a Victorian room with the curtains pulled. I couldn’t feel my way around in it. The turning point for me came from hearing current Patou house perfumer Thomas Fontaine describe Joy’s sillage as lush and old fashioned. I’d been trying to make Joy a light, happy perfume. Really, it’s a gorgeously constructed velvet overcoat, heavy and plush and meticulously made. It’s red wine, not champagne.

The Scented Hound:

Joy (current version eau de parfum) is truly a joy when it first goes on the skin as it’s full of lush ylang-ylang and soapy white flowers and bright aldehydes. [...] As Joy continues its slow and deliberate path, a jasmine blends itself with the rose…but combined, they’re still very controlled and incredibly proper. Joy doesn’t transform or morph very much, but in the end, the florals fade and soften a bit, and what you’re left is a lightly warm breeze of light floral sandalwood musk.

The version I have is clearly the newer one—I actually would say it's more like champagne, not in the literal effervescent way (see the Coco Mademoiselles), but in the sense that this Joy is light. Not weak, but light, the way I described the aspect of No. 5 that I could stand as "limpid." In my head, Joy is a beautiful sunset pink color, sheer, almost verging into red. The jasmine comes out the strongest for me at first, maybe with the slight presence of an aldehyde, but then, on top of that, the biggest, fullest, realest rose I've ever smelled in a perfume. If I get cut flowers for my birthday, I always save any roses in the bouquet and dry them. Jean Patou's Joy smells like a rose that is so fully blown that the petals fall apart in my hand when I try to pull it from the vase. Not decaying, not that far gone, but the rose's absolute full potential of bloom, and so vividly that I can see the texture of the petals. If you want to tell me there’s 336 roses in here, I will believe you.

On my skin, the rose floats there on top, on a bed of headier florals, for at least half an hour; in my notes, I jotted down that a spicy ylang-ylang "with a slight bubblegum connotation" (see Samsara for more on the bubbleylang) shows up then, and by an hour-twenty, the whole thing has come together, all flowers present at once in a sweet, soft, heady, slightly spicy, rose-pink glow.

[Sidebar: At three hours, Joy reminded me in some non-literal way of Murray & Lanman's Florida Water, also billed as "the Richest of All Perfumes" in the late 1800s. (Of course I got myself a bottle of an actual Gilded Age perfume they still sell today for $4, are you kidding me?) I've seen a lot of Florida Water formulas (which are still used today in various spiritual traditions), and I've mostly seen lavender, clove, and multiple citrus notes as the components, sometimes with rose, ylang-ylang, and/or cinnamon as well. Unlike many, many French perfumes, Jean Patou's Joy doesn't have any citrus top notes at all, so I'm not sure what I'm getting in common with Florida Water, other than the florals and a certain spiciness that comes out late in Joy's game for me. I'd like to think it's purely the "richness" that reminds me of the Costliest Perfume in the World.]

"Warm breeze" is a good way to describe Joy's drydown; it's not heavy or old-fashioned to me at all, and I can't specifically pick out musk at any point (clearly, this sample was made after real animal musk was banned in 1979; anything animalic still here would be synthetic). I barely get sandalwood—it's just gorgeous florals, and if you (I) haven't smelled the original Joy, you aren't capable of missing it. Now Smell This has a breakdown of how the eau de toilette and the eau de parfum differed as of 2008; I got the EdP. I don't feel like it goes from light to dark, but it does smell very lush and complex to me. It feels like it sings, and you know what? When I first smelled it, I thought it smelled like a number of things I'd tried recently, particularly Coco Mademoiselle L'Eau Privée. That glowing pink rose-jasmine-ylang-sandalwood combination—and then I realized, no, those perfumes smell like Joy. Joy is so iconic that it's used as a building block, a quotation, in so many fragrances that came after it.

And it's so, so easy to wear—in fairness, I haven't worn the heavier original formulation, but I'm not even sure I'd want to. This Joy is so easy and lovely and gorgeous—I've been wondering if I'd ever find my one signature scent to rule them all, and while Joy doesn't have all my favorite notes, I wouldn't mind if it became mine.

But here's the thing: they don't manufacture Joy anymore. You can still buy what's already been produced, for now, but as existing supplies sell out, it'll only get more expensive with time. Because someone bought the rights to Jean Patou's Joy for the sole purpose of not producing it.

You're about to get a second post about who did that and why.

Perfume discussion masterpost

#perfume #perfume discussion #long post #perfume: jean patou #note: jasmine #note: rose #note: ylang ylang

[agentrouka-blog]

Criticising Dany, Jon and Robb as leaders is right but then pretending somehow Sansa will be a better leader than them is outright nonsense. We cannot judge Sansa on her leadership because we haven't even seen leading anything except when she calms the ladies during the battle which is admirable but could have been also easily done by a well meaning noble woman. Cersei is just too misanthropic.

There are two books left and we could see Sansa as a leader and how she has to deal with more serious stuff managing the food crisis, settling disputes etc. This is just within the space of being a Lady. Being a queen adds even more responsibilities. Even in the Vale, she puts no interest towards the food situation and how the prices are meant to be driven. Granted Baelish doesn't tell her but it also doesn't pique her curiosity at all. Robb, Jon and Dany fuck up many times but there is no definitive proof that Sansa also might not end up making big leadership disasters even if her intentions are well meant when considering the big picture. The child leaders like Robb, Jon and Dany are faced with insurmountable tasks. Rebuilding a new economy or trying to create a truce between Northerners and freefolk despite having centuries of bloodshed or trapped between your lords and wanting to save your sisters - they are not easy feat though I have simplified what Dany, Jon and Robb have to do.

Yes Sansa hasn't made any grey decision like the other three till now but she also hasn't been granted that kind of power to make those big mistakes or fucking up on that grand scale. You are trying to tell me no monarch ever fucked up. We don't know whether how good Sansa will be as a leader. Maybe she will be better than the three but it's equally possible she could botch up things more tha the three.

It would be really helpful if you could let me know which of my posts you're referring to, actually, because I don't think I've ever specifically said that Sansa is going to be "a better leader than Robb and Jon" (I'll accept the charge on Dany because we won't see Sansa do any of that nonsense.) Nor have I ever said that no monarch has ever made mistakes. But there's mistakes and then there's hypocritical cruelty. Jon makes mistakes - and he will be saved from what should be certain death because the narrative values his approach beyond those mistakes. Robb made the kinds of choices that GRRM put a final - tragic - lid on. Let's see about Dany, shall we?

I have specifically speculated that GRRM may give us an example of Sansa trying and failing at something more ambitious during the conclusion of her Vale arc, or that her lie about Marillion may come with short-term costs to her credibility. Seeing her deal with that is going to be fun!

That said, geez, yes, there's two books left with the actual endgame slowly shaping up now, you'd think maybe seeing what Sansa's learning arc has resulted in might be part of that? No, we don't know yet! That's the literal point of it being unfinished. But there's enough writing on the wall to make educated guesses about where GRRM may want to take it.

I'll keep on criticising Robb (enthusiastically), or Jon (kindly), or pointing at Dany with a big red arrow saying "absolutely not like that". I think GRRM absolutely encourages us to.

And I'll keep speculating about Sansa as Queen in the North too.

You absolutely don't have to like it. I like it enough for the both of us.

#sansa stark #queen sansa #anti daenerys targaryen #leadership #anon unappreciation

[maguro13-2]

Shattered Hero ~ Origins of the Ink Demon : Episode Maka Finale (9/11)

[Save this World (Orchestral Ver.) - Hideaki Kobayashi]

Tsugumi : This must be it. Planet Jupiter.

Meta Knight : So this is where Maka originally came from. This is where her origins came from this planet when the Phantonians have came to this galaxy and conquered it all. The Sancuatry was created on two of these planets Earth and Jupiter.

Tsugumi : So that's why her birth certificate was messed up. She wasn't born on earth, she was born on that planet, it's a sanctuary that no one shouldn't stepped in. I doubt that the author has been doing something with Maka's backstory. Although her records did shay that she was born in 1991. Hmm? What's that out the window? (uses spyglass to see from the view) Is that a Black Hole or is something in it?

Maka : That's no Black Hole, the gateway to Dark Nebula's domain. He's almost ready to use his powers to swallow the galaxy whole in darkness.

Tsugumi : Maka-chan! It's you, I haven't seen your face in three years.

Maka : Well I believe that things changed, Harudori-san.

Meta Knight : Maka Albarn, the 14-year old who was presumed gone from the world and has somehow returned to uncover the truth. You lived and have survived for all these years, how long did you manage to free yourself.

Maka : Someone that I have to believe in the hearts of all. I am innocent after all.

Tsugumi : Hey, Maka. When I said anything about meeting you, you were supposed to be the one responsible for saving my life, but I realized that It means much to me as a hero. But I'm not the Tsugumi that I used to be, I changed. I always knew that I would the see the day that I would see that face of yours. And go by the name Sir Halberd Knight.

Maka Albarn : Whatever you say, Sir Halberd Knight. I'm much more genuine than the rest of them. I only made myself the person that I wanted to be this way! It's not just about the fate of the world, It's about saving it with valor, same goes to Courage and bravery! Well, I'm not that kind of person that needed a helping hand. You sure got everything, that you needed? You seemed kinda lonely without any help from a person that makes a diligent effort.

Tsugumi : ....It doesn't seems right about being solo or have a one man army. Even though, without the friends I need, there will never be a story that is completed. If only there's something that we needed. (Maka puts her hand on her shoulder)

Maka : Tsugumi-chan. The Maka you needed is right here, and I needed you to complete your story. You got a part, I got a part, we all got parts of every story that needs to be part of. So, do you feel like that were in this together? Should we agree on helping out together?

Tsugumi : Hmm...Agree means "Accept", but "disagree" means i "deny it". So I nod to agree and accept! (firmly hand shakes Maka) this partnership has officially forged! Welcome to the story, friend.

Tsugumi : Same to you, buddy!

Ethan : Maka! Take care!

Maka : What about you, guys?

Ethan : You guys go on ahead to defeat Dark Nebula, I'll go stop Magashi and destroy the S.E.E.D HIVE.

Maka : But, Ethan. You sure you can stop Magashi? But this is the 06 and I let everything down, not even Sonic around while he deals with Solaris and...

Ethan : Hey, kid. Look, we have stories of our own, we're heroes. We got this. You got your part and I got mine respectively. You got a world to save.

Maka : And you got a galaxy to save as well. We'll do, Ethan. That's what being a hero is about. It's not about courage, it's about Valor.

Ethan : Right back at ya! (fists bumps each other) Good luck out there, Kid. (walks off)

Maka : ...! Hey, Ethan Waber!

Ethan : What is it?

Maka : I just wanted to tell you one last thing. May the holy light guide you, and thank you for my heart.

Ethan : Nah. That would be Vivienne's line who would say it. [walks away]

Maka : Alright, It's time to head into battle. Good thing I brought this, [pulls out a Chaos Emerald] since Sonic 06's story was reset, It's time that we use with good use. Grim found the Chaos Emerald that it was causing the events of the 06, guess all things needed in common. Girm, Moirai, Tsugumi, Soul. Everyone ready?

All : Of course!

Maka : Alright, here goes nothing...[breathes inhale and then exhale] Chaos...CONTROL!!!

*Sonic SFX : Chaos Control*

"Later..."

[S.E.E.D HIVE]

Ethan : This is it. After fighting my way through the Hive, I finally found it.

Magashi : Welcome, Ethan. You finally made it this far just to reach to the end of your journey. Today, this will be the final battle for us before the year of 06 is about to come to an end.

Ethan : Alright. It's just you and me now. This time I'll stop you for good!

Magashi : Certainly. It times when Earth will be reaching in everlasting darkness, Gurhal has been at peace after the 500 year race war changed everything. Since Dark Falz from PSO has failed to put everything in Jeopardy, I will be the one that shall bring the darkness to the Universe and the despair that shall forever be their gift.

Ethan : I just might happen to be lucky that you would gain control of the universe. For the sake of saving Gurhal, I will put end to the likes of you! (pulls out weapon) Shall we get started then? It'll be just our fight that we predicted it!

Magashi : Rhetorical theory, Ethan! I've waiting for this for a long time and now I really want to see some action! This is a duel that is worth fighting for! a duel to deliver the fates that we carry! Haaaah!! (charges)

Ethan : (charges) HUAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

[the two starts fighting as they clash their weapons]

[The Last Story - Hideaki Kobayashi]

Ethan : Just face it, Magashi! 2006 would've been a great year for Sonic and for PSU!

Magashi : Heheheheh! It's a shame that the Blue Blur himself let himself down after the 06 has effected him and his entire life, but I realized that all of the events of the 06 have been retconed by one tiny flame, and that flame is Solaris! HAAAAH!!!

(WEAPONS CLANG+ELECTRIC ZAPPING)

Ethan : Everything changed in the 06, it changed his life before I even met him! Ever since Japan's population was long lost to Maka, people started to turn against her and to think that she was a traitor to the whole world. But she was never a traitor, she wanted to become the hero that she was and become part of a story she has been! Don't you know how much that it hurt her when others do bad things to her, this caused her to go frustrated because of Soul World, the place that existed within the Real World, the universe that she grew up on!

Magashi : And all to think that the poor girl was frustrated because of Shinra Kusakabe's influence. Despite his loss after his 1000 years of death, he still remains in the Real World as a pitiful lifeform on earth. Desperate to him that he created the legacy that is nothing more than a curse! I look foward to see this day, just as watch the whole star system loses the light and shall forever be in everlasting darkness! The planets and their inhabitants shall forever lose hope, not even you can stand a chance.

Ethan : Last Chance! I do know one thing's for sure...! (Attacks Magashi directly) There will be light for Maka and for the planets, and that's called "Hope". You're nothing without something.

Magashi : I-Impossible! So be it! I shall looking foward into this power I have achieved! You should see the true fear of humanity that lies within all. But still, this is should be the final curtain call!

Ethan : Magashi, watch out! You're gonna fall off! (Magashi falls off) Magashi!....Well, guess this is the end for him.

Tonnio : Ethan! Where did Magashi go? Dang! We're must've ran late or something.

Leo : Guess he's not coming back or anything.

Karen Erra : Is he gone?

Ethan : I hope so.

Magashi : (voice heard) Not yet, Ethan Waber. It's not over yet. I still got something for one last chance in order to defeat you! To all four of each of Gurhal's kind, I considered this as a gift to your demise and despair! This is the true power of Darkness!

*rumbling*

[The Hunt ~ End of Planets - Kenichi Tokoi]

Ethan : What the-!?

Magashi (?) : Behold, Ethan! I shall put the planets into Jeopardy! Whether it's nebula or me, Dulk Fakis!

"DULK FAKIS : THE KING OF S.E.E.D"

Ethan : This is Dulk Fakis? This must be the one that awakens Darkness? What has Magashi been doing with the reactors' lately?

Tonnio : Oh man! He's huge! He's much bigger than Dark Falz himself! Talk about a nasty fight for a final boss character!

Leo : This is one tough enemy that we need to take down in order to save the galaxy!

Karen Erra : Ethan! You ready?

Ethan : Oh yeah, I am ready! I hope Maka and her buddies we'll be taking care of Dark Nebula! But right now, it's this thing that needs to be taken care of! Help me and destroy this thing!

"The Final Battle Has already just begun."

"I, Dark Nebula, Shall forever make this Galaxy in the ruling domain."

"Not even a single heart and soul would stop me from ever reaching my dream."

"This excursion will be concealed to whatever happens to this galaxy."

"In it's primordial nature cease all living beings from across the cosmos...For all eternity!"

~ Act 33 : The Galaxy's Last Stand ~

#kirby #super mario bros #super smash bros #phantasy star #phantasy star universe #soul eater #fire force #nintendo #sega #sonic team #square enix #crossover #drama #dark comedy #horror #mystery #thriller #supernatural #fantasy #dark fantasy #science fiction #action #adventure #psychological

[corruptimles]

I'd love that actually, hearing other people's takes is fun !! (most of the time anyway)

Yeee okay so again I haven't watched the last 2 3 eps yet so who knows if any of these points would change but I'll expand on my last answer below

For some more context, here's which KR shows I've watched to compare to: Kuuga, Blade, Hibiki*, W, OOO, Fourze, Gaim, Ghost*, Ex-aid, Build,. Zero-One, Revice, Geats*, Amazons*, Black Sun*

* means I'm still in the middle of them. Everything else I've at least watched the first two episodes for. I've not seen any of Showa yet.

Spoiler warnings ahead for: Geats up to ep 46, some of Kuuga, Fourze, Ex-Aid, and Gaim

Warning this is a LONG answer

It's done some things that I wasn't expecting from KR, at least from a Reiwa/Heisei 2 style. Heisei 1 had its serious/scary moments since those leaned more into the J-Drama side but those were yearsss ago so seeing it in Geats was an interesting whiplash (SPOILER: referring to some scenes/revelations that surrounded child death and existentialism)

Neon Neon Neon Neon the girl ever

She was unknowingly wished into the world to replace a murdered daughter. Her dream to have real genuine love because of her unkind parents suddenly feels further out of her reach. She was created at the suffering of others, clearly it's almost selfish to want something for herself, right?

We are originally introduced with version of her backstory where she was in a hostage situation. A saved 8yr old Neon is returned to her family.

And then the scene gets re-contextualized with Beroba revealing that it was all fabricated, and the flashback replays anew, where Akari in a body bag is brought out instead. This is the most explicit visual an focus of a child death they've had in a main series lately. The scene of her running to her mom's arms is replaced with the dead silence of a mother in grief. Everything up to this point with Neon and her parent's actions are in a new horrifically understandable light. This leads into so so so much for Neon as she struggles w the meaning of her own existence, desires, and relation to the child she replaced.

(again I say lately because some v-cinemas can get violent, Amazons and Black Sun are violent, and Kuuga is a main series that had a horrific serial killer type situation and suicides but that was 20+ years ago. Closest thing for Heisei 2/Reiwa of a human death was Gentarou dying in Fourze because you watch as his heart stops beating. Other human deaths have like. a character fading into sparkles, going off screen, or turning into the monster and then exploding)

Her relationship with her parents? Complicated. Fascinating. Riveting. Really compelling. A suffocating mother that wants her daughter to stay at home, follow the rules, never stray from her, later revealed to be fuelled from nearly losing her daughter in that hostage situation. When she gets her memory back, realizing her memory of Akari was rewritten with this stranger, that's not her daughter because her daughter died 11 years ago. She yells at her, pushes her away, only to struggle again because isn't she just losing a daughter again? but that's not her daughter except she is but.,, and it's hard! She's not a good person, she's controlling, her grief doesn't justify that, but she's so complex. Her father? losing the ability to love the day he lost his daughter. He fabricates a new one, one for him and his wife to raise but for him, as a successor to the business, not as a daughter. To secure his position. But he was still mourning, really. He focuses on Neon as a means to an end because he's still mourning Akari.

And it's not simply that the Kurama family reunites after realizing their wrongs! It took time! It took discussion and breathing room. When Neon left, it's not that she fully cuts ties, because that's not that easy. Eleven years is still eleven years. She sees her mother one last time, her father in prison, laments how he is unable to love.They're all deeply traumatized and going through revelation after revelation. Neon doesn't hate them, she understands the situation. It's alien. It's not fair. The parents don't hate her. They sit and talk to each other about this! She's still a kid they brought into this world. A child that grew up with them for eleven years. That's eleven years they couldn't truly love her because of the loss of Akari, whether intentional or subconsciously. They explicitly discuss with each other that they owe love to Neon. They acknowledge Neon's desire for true love is because they've been depriving her of that. They could do better and they want to do better.

The Kurama family had a premise that was grave and emotional and the resolution was handled with a maturity that could've easily been done hand-waved in a lighter, shallower beat. It's not new for characters that'd done awful things to be forgiven rather easily in these kinda shows which like, I get it, but,, But no, the Kurama parents still remain complicated people that did wrong and know they did wrong and it's not an easy fix, especially for the mother's controlling behaviour because that's trauma, but they're given the chance to start that I like a whole lot

[deletes my even further paragraphs about why Neon is my favourite rider girl]

I do have nitpicks but not enough to really ruin the experience for me. To be vague, it's about an arc's relevance/writing,

The Among Us Dezastar arc feels the weakest by far. It just felt so strange to me. I know it was important to introduce new cast (Daichi) and I think challenge how much characters are willing to do to win (Neon) but it could've been less awkward?

There's whiplash from the reveal that everything was in fact, a show, that their actions are broadcast as entertainment, not to really save anyone to whatever this arc was They were just kinda, hanging around? Compared to how other revelations were treated in the future, this just felt so jarring to follow up with. I thought they were gonna lean into the reality show aspect more to get into even more characterization but...

After everything Ace, Keiwa, and Neon went through, especially the last episode's scene defeating Girori, into the introduction to the new DPG where they not just ignore Keiwa as a funnee, have the weird Girls vs Boys thing, or Girls vs Boys vs Keiwa because we bully Keiwa now, that was all just kinda weird

I know Neon kinda had to throw someone under the bus because she was the culprit but there were so many scenes that just shoved Keiwa around just cuz. The revelation he had about the Jyamato acting like dead participants was serious but they're like noooo sorry you're sus loser :/ At least Ace was neutral on the matter cuz he been-knew, but man...

a specific character's writing,

Keiwa again :( I love Keiwa! But out of our main 3 (Ace, Neon, Keiwa) he has the strangest writing by the last half

He has such a strong start but then gets pushed down when the other characters are the story focus. You can have the other characters in the spotlight without needing to belittle and make fun of another. From Dezastar Arc onwards, he got fairly side-lined until the my next few points

Him getting mad at Ace for his mother being the Goddess was just, so unprecedented? Again he's been with Ace for a long while now but the 180 to 'HOW COULD YOU?' when even Ace just learned this. Ace just learned his mother was suffering as the Goddess and Keiwa, notably empathetic and world peace Keiwa, immediately went to blame rather than any sort of consolation or attempt to understand the situation.

I won't say Keiwa is not allowed to be angry or complex but they had set him up for like 70% of the series as the good hearted one, to the point that his devil in the crossover movie was still him wanting peace for others

on a related note, he did it again with Michinaga! Michinaga blaming himself for killing Keiwa's sister despite not knowing is interesting, but Keiwa once again goes over the fact the other guy is feeling just as terrible. I'm not saying Keiwa would be okay with his sister dying but he immediately treats Michinaga as if he actively, knowingly, killed his sister If this wasn't after having the exact same level of reaction to Ace's mother, it probably wouldn't feel as bad, but it did, so it felt like a 'here we go again'

Which leads to his Bad Guy arc which is not inherently bad as a concept. It's might as well after the stress they've already added to him. A character that's full of fairly naive hope losing the last family he has, learning that the system he's in has taken away his loved ones again, getting devastated and desperate when he has to listen to them die again just when he thought he had his life back I love the idea that "i want everyone to be happy but that means me too, what's the point if it's not mine and my family's too'. It's a neat take on that type of desire! But the execution was not a descent or even escalation, it was just another flip like the last two - Clothing change. Not the worst. It happened to Mitsuzane, who went from good kid to delusional fratricide. It happened to Jin, it happened to Hiiro w/ Masamune, it's just cheesy wardrobe change. (I'm going to personally believe Kekera had a part in this because he was shaping Keiwa into the rider he wanted him to be) I do wish Keiwa kept the new hair actually, it was cute lol - New edgy af henshin. Stop cracking ya knuckles. Goofy. Not the worst again, but in combination w the clothes kinda takes me out of it -overall edgy af mannerisms and movements -treatment of Tsumuri Everything escalated, he became desperate, was being manipulated, so capturing Tsumuri and making her use her new creation powers is understandable. The idea of him actively taking advantage of her empathy to his pleas and tears (which were probably real tbh) to get a new item? That's sick of him but in both a cool and awful way. What I cannot handle as an active choice from Keiwa? The god. The freakign. The classic creepy face caress when Tsumuri was imprisoned. Why did he do that!? Literally no reason!! It was just weird!! He's depressed and angry, not automatically a creep???!?! It can't really be justified as him like, mentally breaking, because it doesn't add up w literally anything else he's done. Especially when he looks normal again. We're just gonna ignore that happened? He went so close to her face so much. It felt unnecessary. Who told him to do that. Whaddahell.

I firmly believe are other ways to portray a character being threatening and aside from the overdone touchy creep(tm) style.

So just all of that in combination and in such a short amount of time was over the top. If we had to do the bad guy arc, I think we could've had more of the crocodile tears thing he had. Sad, pathetic but manipulating/guilt-tripping. We don't have much bad guys like that.

and a more inconsequential thing like lack of some specific character designs.

where are Kamen Rider Lancer and Kamen Rider Garun's designs!!! where are they!!

It has a consistent belt/power-up gimmick and is surprisingly versatile despite people only using the same one or two belt type

Realized how often I use the word 'consistent' lol. It's just one of my pet peeves if rider/power systems are just, thrown away, and people start getting belts and forms up the wazoo w no decent explanation. [deletes a bunch of typing here] That's another few paragraphs worth of explanation so I'll shorten it to this: it makes it less tv show and more toy commercial, if that makes sense.

After discussing this further w a friend I realized these points ^ only exist because I was watching this fresh outta Revice and unfortunately Revice had frustrated me quite a lot so that's something I'll spare you of for now

So those are the ups and criticisms I can recall for now. I still would probably have Geats up there on my personal favourites though. Despite how much I love Fuwa and Aruto, I like the overall story for Geats over Zero-One out of the Takahashi stuffs. Ex-aid is still higher overall. I'll need to finish those last few episodes and movie before deciding where I'll place Geats in my overall KR list.

#talk to me tag #the-one-shadowfox258 #0 days since writing an essay in response to an ask #this actually isn't as long as my mob psycho pokemon crossover essay because it has less pictures lmaooo

[hellshee]

I've seen your recent anons and replies. Mistakes can happen, I agree. However, some of them could have been easily avoided if the Duffers kept track or notes. I don't want to beat the dead horse, but them mixing up Billy/William on the gravestone and forgetting Will's birthday is a pretty lazy and serious error. Billy & Will are not my favourites, but I like them in the narrative and I care about the whole puzzle. So I expect good writing on all characters, even the ones I don't care much about. They are still important pieces and messing up such details however tiny they might seem makes me lose faith in them as writers. I like so many other made the biggest assumptions and theories based on these 2 details. Billy/William is in a short trailer for God's sake! And Will's birthday was mentioned by Joyce in a pivotal scene to try and save Will. During El's bullying scene they chose to show that date exactly on the camera recorder screen. It's normal everyone made theories. So when it turns out those were just mistakes oh oopsie, it feels like a slap in the face. I was so worried, too, because I couldn't believe Joyce or Jonathan would ever forget Will's birthday.

Sorry for prolonging but this is careless for me. I may have closed and eye or two on other things, but this is too much. I lost faith on the writers and am scared for season 5.

Also certain writing choices annoy me, and I haven't even talked about Mike's senseless monologue yet.

don't get me wrong, i think everyone is entitled or allowed to be critical of the writing the duffer brothers put out. and i do understand why messing up / forgetting details can be frustrating to fans, myself included at times. and furthermore, i understand why that creates anxiety for s5. people care about this show very much, that is pretty obvious, so i get why it's an issue. and the duffer brothers should also realize that just because the show got so big doesn't mean they shouldn't still try their best.

but i guess at the end of the day it's a question of whether or not as an individual you can still enjoy the show while knowing all of this.

i'll be honest, because of some of the mistakes + choices made this season that i do not particularly agree with, i also have my fears for s5, and my expectations are a bit lower, but there are still a lot of things i love about it and i'm curious to see where it goes.

i'm gonna be honest about one thing regarding mike wheeler's storyline with eleven this season (tho i do wanna say to anyone reading this that while i'll reblog a post or two which kind of makes fun of mike, this is not anti mike blog so do not come in my inbox with negativity like that because i will not reply to you): i do not think they should have waited till s4 to deal with a "mike can't tell el he loves her due to not being able to express himself because he didn't really have the best of models in his life"

i feel like by season 4, this should have been dealt with. like i think it's sweet that mike was there for her and encouraged her to fight when she needed the confidence, but i also feel like eleven seeing max like that should have been enough.

idk i'm also trying not to nitpick. clearly i wasn't a fan of the way they handled both mileven and byler this season and i thought we'd find mike in a better place than the "it's not my fault you don't like girls" thing he had with will last season because i'm still clueless as to why he made that hug weird in episode 1 but who knows, maybe they're foreshadowing something in s5. or maybe their intention with that scene didn't translate well enough to people in the audience like me.

from what we gather later, they didn't talk that much the past year with mike mostly talking to eleven, but i still don't see that as a reason for mike to make that hug awkward.

anyway bottom line is i get those things can be frustrating, but at the same time there's not really much to do when you're in the audience

#💌 answered 💌 #anonymous #long post #stranger things discourse #for anyone who wants to block it

[albonium]

for the not from the US ask game:B❤️ 5, 13, 16

thank you Lía !!!!!

5. favourite song in your native language

as i said before i'm terrible at picking one single favourite thing. i'll say "la cabane du pêcheur" by francis cabrel (he's the singer that originally wrote "je l'aime à mourir" that shakira covered a few years ago, my parents love him and i do too. also his songs are among the firsts i learned to play when i first got a guitar). a sader favourite of mine is "l'aigle noir" by barbara

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstition or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

i can't really think of anything rn but we never leave bread upside down? i have no idea if it's just local or for the whole country through. apparently it dates back to the middle age when baker had to save some bread for the executionner (the guy that beheaded or hang people) to pick up after "work" 💀💀💀💀. we're not really superstitious through. my (italian) aunt never puts a hanger on a bed or leave any dirty laundry on new year's eve.

where i live we have been german/part of the german empire a lot of times lol so we still do some german things like saint nicholas, in some places we get a schuletüte on the first day of the first school year. where i live we got them on our first day of "collège" (11 yo) but it's usually much earlier. it's a cone shaped paper pouch with school supplies, little toys and sweets. usually it's given to you by an older student that becomes your """mentor""".

i still have mine:

we bake a lot of ~german~ stuff too:

they call it weckmann (among other names) but we call these mannele (ours looked so bad last year lmao)

and bake a looooot of christmas cookies (bredele)

as we used to be german when some laws were passed in france they don't apply to us. our healthcare coverage is higher as we have a local regime. we have more bank holidays (december 26th for example). the separation of church and state doesn't apply here (sadly) which means that cult places get state funding and we can have religion classes in school (opt in). it creates controversies from time to time but the argument here is that if we get rid of that part we'd have to also get rid of our special healthcare regime and no one wants that here.

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and whoch one do you somewhat agree with?

i'm trying to find one french stereotype that isn't true. i haven't watched emily in paris but the little i have seen/read about pissed me off lol, everything is false.

true stereotypes: no one speaks english, it's getting slightly better with my generation and younger.

strikes and protests are really like they're portrayed in the media, even through people are softening up and not protesting as much as before sadly

we do LOVE bread cheese and wine

i know that a lot will come back to my mind some time later or tomorrow 😭

#ask #tw food

[butt-watch]

Deltarune Chapter 2 Theory

DELTARUNE SPOILERS AHEAD

I'll put under a read more, but just in case it doesn't work. Here's your warning to block "#delatrune spoilers" or scroll really fast.

Spoilers for end game and bonus boss, and a long ass dump of all the ideas I have in my head before I forget them. So, sorry if I got anything wrong or it's a mess.

I've seen a lot of theories flying around, but haven't seen this one yet. (Sorry if it is already out there and I just haven't seen it, I'm sure somebody will already have put it together better than me.) This is just some funky ideas I've been throwing around, because I'll be honest here, I love the main 3 so much, and would be sad to see any of them turn out to be evil like so many theories are suggesting.

Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, maybe it's the weird nb kid deep inside me latching onto a kindred spirit, maybe I'm on to something.

So here's the thing. I don't believe Kris is the knight.

I know, I know, but stay with me here.

There's no denying that at the end of the chapter, Kris created a new fountain, and with it, likely a new dark world. But I'd like to argue, this is the first one they've created. My evidence is shaky, but I think there's something there that could blossom.

I'll start off with the simple fact that multiple characters who have met the knight, Spades King especially, didn't recognise Kris at all, and you would have thought they'd recognise the person who's been feeding them so much information. You do also have a couple of dialogue options with the king this time, and definitely with the Queen, so it seems strange that neither of them recognise the voice of their Knight in shining armour.

This is where stuff starts to get a bit flaky, but also, a lot more intriguing.

At the end of the chapter Kris opened a fountain, and the night before, we saw Kris remove the soul inside them and brandish their knife. Assuming that Kris spent that time without the soul creating a fountain is a fair assumption to make, and I think it's possible that was Kris's intention, perhaps they have some connection to the knight, and knew how the fountains could be opened. But, they were missing one important ingredient.

In Chapter 2 we get an explanation from the Queen about how dark fountains are created, and with it a word that has largely been missing from Deltarune.

That's right, good old Determination.

Fountains are created when a determined Lightner plunges a sharp object into the ground. And here's where the theory comes in. I believe prior to the end of chapter 2, Kris didn't have Determination. Throughout the game, they've been filled with various sources of power, from Fluffy Boys and Mean Girls, to Cat signs. But at every save point we've been missing the signature Determination.

The closest we get is at the end of Chapter 2, just before the fight against the queen, when "a certain power" is alluded to.

And that lack of Determination, would have made opening the fountain impossible for them, after all, Queen spent the whole game building Noelle's determination high enough to open a new fountain. A smidge of determination doesn't seem to cut it.

So how did Kris get the determination?

Through the good old power of Friendship. Through the trials with their new friends, Kris has gained determination, even without the soul inhabiting them. And even though that started as half a joke (only half), whilst writing this post and trying to find screencaps, for the next section, I realised it's actually more likely than I suspected.

And that brings me to everyone's new favourite:

Spamton. During his dialogue and initial boss fight he offers a deal, rewarding Kris with [[Hyperlink Blocked]] if they accept. As far as I'm aware you're forced to accept the deal. (If anyone else tolerated more than a few minutes of smashing no deal like I did and managed to get a different outcome, kudos to your perseverance.)

What is [[Hyperlink Blocked]]? Well I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. I believe it may well be Determination or something similar.

During the initial confrontation, Spamton refers to the players Soul as [[HeartShapedObject]].

But prior to the boss fight against Spamton NEO, he has no qualms about saying SOUL.

I've seen a lot of people theorising Spamton is being censored, and I agree that definitely seems to be the case. From a meta standpoint though I think it's interesting that the [[Hyperlink Blocked]] he mentioned so much in his first encounter doesn't seem to be mentioned at all, now the he has slightly more freedom of speech. I personally believe it's because revealing whatever Spamton was offering would have given too much away.

So how does this come back to the power of friendship? Well, upon defeating Spamton, whether through ACTing or beating the crap out of him, he realises the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.

He suggests that together, the three of them could "break their own strings"

Following the fight, there's a moment, where Susie notices that Kris is acting out of sorts. Whichever option you choose, it's obvious that Kris is shaken by the event, even going as far as to yell the answer if you let them admit how they're feeling.

The similarity to Kris's own situation, being puppeted by the player is a valid reason for the response. Whatever shook them did so with enough effect that the fear showed despite the players control. Either that, or Kris has something they didn't have, more control. More... Determination to overcome the soul.

That last part is reaching a little, which is saying something, given the amount of shaky evidence presented in this post, so I want to wrap this up mostly with something slightly unrelated, but still a Kris theory.

Why do they open the fountain?

There are a lot of theories, about being a pawn for Gaster, being an asshole, etc.

I'd like to think Kris is just a weird kid who's gotten caught up in a mess they don't really understand. They created a scenario where Susie would be forced to stay the night, and opened up a new dark world, that Susie, their friend, expressed a want for before they left the dark world.

A place where they could get away from their lives for a little while and have more adventures together. And I can understand the reasoning, opening a new fountain isn't bad, I mean, as long as they close it at the end, nobody gets hurt and they have more memories. Where's the harm in that? Right?

As much as Kris obviously wishes to be free of the soul's control, that very soul has helped them make real friends. It's taken them on adventures and well.

Somebody had to let it out before the morning.

So to summarise, the strongest power known to man is a group of lonely teenagers, if you run through a peaceful game murdering everything and then blame a video game character for the decision you made, I'll kick your ass, and I guess I'm a Kris stan now, oh god.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #kris deltarune #kris dreemurr #The amount of people I've seen jumping on this weird kid and calling them a murder makes me feel... uneasy #Kris sweetie I got your back #and I pray to Toby that he shows mercy and doesn't do you dirty

[etheriadearie]

What if it's Adora's... and Catra's- Dream?

::It's been eight months since The Kiss and Catradora becoming canon in one of the most breathtakingly romantic and beautiful endings of all time. Now that we've all throughly gotten to enjoy that, I'd like to take some time to explore how Adora's dream might tie into everything having to do with its ending, as well as the entire romantic arc of SPOP.

This post centers on Adora's dream, with the goal of exploring the dream as a part of the Catradora romance. Really, truely, as part of their romance. Pardon my vagueness, because it is out of kindness: if you haven't finished the series, THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING. 🚨🚨🚨 ... If you don't like spoilers, now is the time to scroll on by, Horde soldier // Rebellion fighter!! (and please, return when you do- <3)

If you have finished the show, please consider joining me below, as i'd love to hear your opinion on the following theory...

💜💙💚💛🧡❤️💜💙💚💛🧡❤️💜💙❤️🧡❤️💜💙💚💛🧡❤️💜💙💚💛🧡❤️💜💙❤️

Hey Adora ~❤️

Are you still with me?

Good, then let's get this started-

It is highly probable that Adora’s 'dream' is a canon romantic moment for each of them, which not only Adora experiences, but so does Catra.

The dream is, instead, a spontaneous reaction of Etheria’s deep magic and their love, in particular because Catra is with Adora as she tries to save Adora through her love for her. They both share in the creating of the dream, but it's meaning is that of Catra showing her love to Adora: they are connected within the dream by way of this Etherian magic, which they have shared in before.

I say this because what we’re actually seeing is a simulation, much like the ones that Catra and Adora shared together during Promise: these simulations are based on memories and on emotions: it is Catra’s emotions which are being channeled as Etheria creates the dream for them.

We will indeed discuss the arc of their love in this post, but, this theory is based on the use of a oft neglected, but powerful, mode of storytelling:: Known as ‘visual cues’ this method of storytelling is employed by Noelle and Friends as the way to tell us the deeper meanings behind the dream sequence. And the use of these cues tells us that this is intended to be seen as a shared romantic moment for both girls, showing their love for one another.

I know, this might seem like a lot to process, after all, isn't what we see during the dream supposedly Adora’s subconscious response to Mara’s words of wisdom about love, when she asked Adora what she wants, and tells her to not give up?

And how would it even be possible for Catra to be in the simulation with Adora? To the former, Adora still had no answer to Mara’s question, like she didn't when Catra asked her what she wanted the night before. And in the dream, we watch as Adora spends almost all of it denying what she's seeing, believing she has failed her duty to save everyone as She-ra. Considering Adora’s resistance to the dream, does it make sense for the dream to be self actualized by Adora, or is what she sees originating from somewhere else, and if so, how?

As to whether Catra can be there with Adora, the answer is a resounding yes: and that's because we already know that Catra is in the dream with Adora, for part of the time. How we know this is that after Horde Prime traps Adora, Catra intervenes to save Adora and they interact: Catra reaches down to try and save Adora, ending famously with her beautiful love confession, which helps Adora find the strength to reach out to take her hand.

That we see Catra do this, and that she does it so purposefully, tells us that this is something that actually happens between the two of them:: Catra must have seen Horde Prime trap Adora, and Adora can see and hear Catra in her mind as she calls for her- Adora really does reach up to take Catra’s hand, and as she takes it, is pulled from the edge of death. It's not a metaphor at all, even though we know Catra is holding Adora's body in the real.

And so, if Catra was with Adora then, why not before, too?

To put it simply, all of the visions that Adora has, including her meeting Mara before the dream, is Etheria’s deep magic trying to help her, and so it helps to bridge the gap that's needed for Catra to share her love with Adora. After all, Etheria "is a living creature" (s5ep8) and Catra, actually, has a strong connection to Etheria’s magic, and to magic in general (we will revisit this later).

All that happens is tied together, which we'll talk about below: what Adora sees in the dream is the true beginning of Catra’s love confession, because Catra is coming through for Adora as her best self to save her, much like Adora did for Catra during Save the Cat.

::And that's where our visual cues come in, because as it turns out, the Dream and Save the Cat are related: they are related in storytelling and in emotion, but most importantly:: they are related visually.

This post will cover these similarities starting below. We’ll also take a look at two separate and distinct visual cues having to do with how Catra acts in the Dream to further the discussion, and lastly we'll cover how, in fact, all of Save the Cat and Heart Part 2 are related, starting well before the dream, continuing right through it, and afterwards as well.

But, to get this started, let's take a look at visual cue #1: when Catra offers her hand to Adora in her dream.

::During the dream, Adora has such disbelief when she finds herself in it, and she keeps this disbelief right up until the critical moment: when Catra turns to her and offers her hand to Adora, lovingly asking her if she's ready to go. That, is the moment when we finally see Adora give herself over to the idea of their love, she suspends her disbelief… only to have the moment so cruelly ripped away by Horde Prime...

As it so turns out, this sequence of events has happened before, almost exactly down to the frame by frame:: it happened during Save the Cat, when Adora offered her hand to Catra. These moments are visually similar, emotionally parallel, and story parallel as well. Here are the two scenes, and while you look at them, consider how the girls are arranged compositionally with each other:

What we have here is visual parallels, many more of which we'll discuss later. But, it goes deeper than that:: because on closer consideration, we see that the girls are arranged ‘mirror’ to each other. For example:

::In Save the Cat, Adora offers her hand to Catra from the left, and in the dream Catra offers her hand to Adora from the right-

::When Prime electrocutes Catra after she reaches for Adora’s hand, she falls downward on the right; when Adora is trapped by Prime, she sinks downward on the left, with her tears showing the direction of her descent (note, Catra’s tears were not depicted, but she is crying as Prime shocks her). This mirroring is shown repeatedly throughout the two episodes, and not just during the dream itself.

So why are these moments mirrored?

That's what this theory aims to prove, with all the muster that it can:: this mirroring is a purposeful artistic collaboration between the art and writing teams, letting us know by way of it, that we're suppose to understand how these scenes are parallel: with the meaning of this being that one girl is mirroring the other’s actions in order to save them.

Therefore, in theory:: what we're seeing during the dream is Catra mirroring the heroic love Adora shows for Catra during Save the Cat, and all of what we see in the dream is actually Catra showing her true love, is the true beginning of her love confession, and is done to save Adora. As for the other deeper, more involved reason, it is that Adora and Catra are actually parallel characters throughout the series, who vary by circumstance, but are struggling with much the same issues. (a discussion for another time, however)

For instance:: consider how similar the virus that Adora is fighting during her time in the Heart chamber is to the mind control that Catra fought in Save the Cat:: Prime is using the virus to control Adora, and she ultimately is able to reject Prime's control because of Catra’s actions- much like Catra did, after Adora showed up in Save the Cat to restore their love, telling Catra to fight Prime’s control, so that they can be home together again.

And here's the thing: if the artists and writers go to such lengths to make these scenes parallel… even moreso, the characters are mirrored, doesn't the meaning of it therefore demand that Catra be with Adora during her dream, to help her fight free of Prime’s control by showing her love to Adora, just like Adora did for Catra during Save the Cat?

Now really, what confirms this theory is the entire arc of the show, which, *puffs up cheeks* is a bit too much to cover here, so I'll save us some time and stick to a couple of themes instead. One of these will be the Catradora love arc, as it is integral to the next visual cues.

And these cues are that Catra’s truest love is shown during Adora’s dream, something which we don't see Catra do before this moment. So, sit tight for a bit, because this'll take some explaining-

Visual cues #2 and #3: Catra’s most earnest love is shown in the dream, and it's both what Adora needs to survive, and is fundamental to Catra’s redemption-

Redemption arcs are popular for a reason, and because the next cues relate so strongly to Catra's redemption, I'll be talking about how Catra’s redemption is fully realized by the honest and earnest love she shows for Adora, inside the dream as well as right before it.

In order for Catra to complete her redemption, or since that's cliche, ::for Catra to realize her best self:: she has to accept her truth as the absolute total romantic that she is, who through the braveness of her confession of love, is the one who helps their dreams come true, and brings Catradora into canon.

This is because, in all seriousness, Catra is and always has been a romantic, she's just blocked by her own traumatic experiences (plz consult Princess Prom if confused about how Catra is a romantic, 😼😹). And, she's always known she was in love with Adora- who, unlike Catra, never quite realizes her full feelings until Catra’s confession. And Catra needs to redeem herself by showing this love, because she chose to deny her love to Adora, as well as to herself, at the end of Promise after seeing how very little love and understanding Adora had to give to her in season 1. This next set of visual cues is all about how we see Catra’s feelings and actions change to reflect her true feelings of love, and that through accepting her own love for Adora, is able to help Adora to succeed in her final task.

::As Adora faces down her final challenge of disabling the Heart, Catra makes what could best be described as a decision of ‘radical love’: that she's willing to give everything she has- to help, love, and support Adora. We first see Catra’s decision to show such love right before the dream when she swears to stay by Adora’s side, and she then fully completes this love during the dream when we see Catra show her precious love for Adora.

In the dream, the Catra we see is much more tender, vulnerable, and intimate, than we’ve ever seen her be at any other time previous to this point in the series… her love is even more earnest than during their earliest memories as children. That's because we’re seeing a completely novel and honest expression of Catra's love, one which Catra hasn't been willing to show before this. Catra really needs to show her full feelings to redeem herself, not just a last second love confession. What we're seeing during the dream is her truest feelings, without her own self doubt or fears of vulnerability blocking her.

And this new love we see is part of the decision which Catra makes, right before the dream, swearing that she will stay with Adora no matter what, letting Adora know she has her full love and support as Adora faces her final task. This decision is the other half of the visual cue #2, and here’s the two moments together::

Is Catra ending up positioned so similarly just coincidence, or does it have deeper meaning as well? A couple things for consideration:

Firstly: Adora probably doesn't notice this shift in Catra’s behavior, especially before the dream, as Adora is completely focused on her burden of saving-the-entire-universe-along-with-every-last-person-in-it, which is rather a lot to expect one girl to do... even if she is She-ra. Also note: Adora is a romantically oblivious person, so there's that, too. And since she's so preoccupied by mortal peril, it really doesn't make sense for the sweet and loving Catra we see in the dream to originate from Adora’s subconscious, as Catra has never shown Adora this tender, loving version of herself: and so, it makes more sense that the magic of the simulation would be drawing from somewhere else entirely: it draws on Catra’s own feelings of love.

I know, these scenes vary in mood significantly, but the difference we're seeing in the dream is actually a heightened version of the love Catra shows before it, one where Catra is not only showing Adora that she values and supports her, but that Catra quite literally feels precious love for Adora. Catra clings to her, letting her know that she is treasured above all else, which is really, really REALLY sweet, and also really really not in line with how Catra has acted up to this point in the series...

Catra loves Adora, this is central to her arc, even during the times when she's aligned so strongly against her. Her story is about learning to accept her love, and she's reestablishing her love for Adora during these scenes... this is the total truth of her love and affection, that is.

She’s already established that she's willing to risk herself to protect Adora, such as when she tackles Melog on Krytis. But, Catra protecting Adora from harm physically isn't enough to fully redeem herself: she's also got to show the romantic love she feels which she denied to Adora so long ago. This love she feels is something that Adora continuously teases Catra over, constantly ruining the moment by misinterpreting Catra’s feelings simply as attraction, never fully realizing or acting on the romantic implications. This happened as recently as when Catra jumped into the fire to save Adora... Adora is a romantic idiot. (don't you worry, I say this with fondness) This is part of Catra's test: even though Adora never gives her a sign that she feels romantic love as well, Catra has to show her love because that's what it has always been about for her. Loving Adora properly means Catra has to accept Adora as she is, and not let her own romantic frustration block her. It's also simply the right thing to do, as they are out of time, and could all die if Adora fails... Adora's story, on the other hand, has been about becoming the hero, and Catra has to accept that yes, in total reality, Adora simply has never considered what she wants because of her burdens.

As Adora faces her final task and is feeling crushed by the weight of her burdens and fears of failure, Catra has to show this love to counter Adora’s own obliviousness and internalized emotional barriers, as Catra realizes how Adora really doesn't "get it" right up until Catra’s love confession. Adora is not seeing what she has to live for, and Catra's fully accepting Adora as who she is helps Catra to see how she can help Adora, because Adora's romantic awkwardness is really more about her emotional trauma than her love for Catra- Adora loves Catra, that much is clear. But is it romantic love? Catra takes a risk and shows her true feelings, because she knows Adora is struggling, and they are out of time... so no matter what, Catra has to show her romantic love to Adora, and luckily she's able to do so during the dream (because of the help of Etheria's magic).

We also need to talk about how Catra stands with Adora: in both moments she chooses to stand behind Adora. Catra is showing her true support to Adora, and her most honest feelings of love- something I discussed in my Promise discussion is how Catra never wanted power for herself, she just wanted to be safe, and to be with Adora. Here we have Catra, definitively showing after all this time that she doesn't want power, she just wants to love Adora.

The Catra we see in seasons 1-4 rejected Adora as She-ra, seeing her as two faced for ignoring and then abandoning her to continued abuse while fighting for others, breaking her final promise as she did. This was a trauma decision, but Catra is done letting trauma control her life. So here we see Catra choose to support and love Adora no matter what, like she always wanted to do, and she's even choosing to support Adora as the hero. This is further demonstrated as true during the dream, as Catra (albeit jokingly) asks Adora to save her from a determined Glimmer.

All in all, the Catra we see in the dream is very unlike anything we’ve seen before, she's outwardly in love, feelings which Adora herself feels but struggles to understand. And that Catra ends up positioned so similarity is a cue that Catra is allowing her true love to be shown during the dream. It's exactly what Adora needs to feel coming from Catra, as years of being abused and new hardships have convinced Adora that sacrifice is the only thing that makes her worthy of love- Mara tells her “You're worth more than what you can give to other people, you deserve love, too”. Sadly, when you watch this scene you see that Adora has a hard time accepting Mara's words, she shys away from them instead.

Catra’s choosing to stay with Adora, and then show her most earnest love inside the dream, helps Adora to see how she deserves to be loved: as the person she is, and not only as a hero. Catra is the only person who loved Adora before she was She-ra, and her love for her has never been about her being a hero, like Adora was told she had to be by Shadow Weaver.

That was something done out of malicious intent, as Shadow Weaver did it to control Adora and to prepare her as her sacrifice. Young Catra was there when it happened to Adora, and always knew that it was done out of some dark intent (hence her frustration during the battle of Thaymore- “Duhhh did yah just figure that out??”). Catra constantly shows that she is wise to manipulations.

... And Adora is still stuck on this trauma: the love that Catra shows Adora helps her see past her own hurt.

::Ok. I say this next part with all the sincerity I can: expecting Catra to carry the entire burden of their romance all on her own is rather a lot to expect her to be able to do. And yet… she does it. She's the one who confesses her love, she's the one who kisses Adora, and in the dream, she shows Adora that she's in love with her. This is because Catra is a person who understands what she wants. She chooses to have faith that their love is real, and so she shows her heart to Adora. How does Catra trust enough in love, considering her past mistakes, and all trauma that she's been through?

People mostly think that Catra post season 5 would be a person who is still in a state of hurting from her past, that she constantly struggles with self hatred and doubts. But, ask yourself: is that how Catra is portrayed, or do we see a person who has faced her trauma so that she can live free of it?

That Catra would be able to do this so totally is what I think throws so many people about Catra. After all, most people who have trauma struggle with it continuously, so why wouldn't Catra struggle like this too… people have a hard time accepting that she is able to change her behavior so much for the better. But, don't let that stop you from seeing her as she is presented to be, there's powerful reasons why Catra is like she is, Noelle wouldn't take a shortcut in this. The reasons are there... it's just… complicated.

Probably too complicated to cover here, but I'll try to summarize a theme here: Catra is a survivor. That's what her attitude is, and her arc. She's survived ever since that day when Shadow Weaver threatened to kill her as only a small child, and she’s survived many other near deaths and hardships getting to this point. And because of that, she's found what she really wants to live for, and she's become too strong against others hurting her to let them control her. This strength includes against her own bias of self judgement over her past actions, because she understands how her actions were the product of manipulative abuses by others who wanted to control her. She knows trauma, in fact she's somewhat blessed in this ability (see this meta). What Catra does during the dream and her love confession is to reject ALL of the trauma, the falseness, the negativity, and hurt that's been put into both her AND Adora all of their lives. She's way too strong to let her own fears block her, and as she sees Adora struggling with her own fears, Catra gives her full heart to Adora because Catra knows how important it is to want to live and to love, and if she can just get Adora to understand that too, then she can save her.

... because Catra is brave, perhaps the bravest person in all of SPOP, she comes through to save Adora from Adora's own fears by showing her the power of love. Catra sees Adora for who she is better than anyone else can: she sees her humanity, and her struggles. And seeing is very important to our next cue::

Cue #3 ‘I’m YOUR idiot’

During Save the Cat, as Adora watches Catra teetering on the edge of the platform, she implores Catra to keep on fighting. She tells her: “you've never listened to anyone in your life, are you really going to start now?”

Catra responds by very fondly calling her an idiot.

And Adora freely accepts this, saying:

“I know.”

Then we get this frame, as shown above: Adora sees Catra, and how she's always tried to find safety from those that would hurt her by not letting them control her life.

Catra only ever listened to one person: she listened to Adora, and their promise... hence the ‘idiot’ part. And Adora is saying, as she accepts being called an idiot, that ‘I should have seen it sooner, and why my love was so important. You always felt like you had to fight to survive, and I was suppose to be different than those who hurt you. I was wrong not to understand sooner, and I shouldn't have hurt you like I did.'

And she proves it to Catra with her next words: “I'm going to take you home.”

Home. The thing Catra felt she had lost when Adora abandoned her at the Horde. Adora is saying: ‘I know this is what you want.’

‘So, live.’

::In the second frame, we see Catra show absolute acceptance of her love for Adora. It's just like Adora accepting being Catra’s idiot: Catra is telling Adora: 'Don't you see how I love you? You tease me, but this is not because I like you, it's because I'm crazy about you. I'm in love with you. And I want you to see this, my silly, beautiful love. Because I want you to know how I love you. I should have seen why my love was so important sooner, and I never should have left you."

‘I do freely admit that I am your idiot.’

‘And I know you. I know that this is what you really want. And that it hurts you that you were made the hero, and how everyone expects so much of you, but they never seem to see how much it hurts you.’

‘And I know that what you want is to be loved.’

‘I see you. I know you.’

‘So... live.”

It's exactly what Adora needs to see to accept love, and not let her trauma stop her. This is part of what helps Adora overcome Prime’s virus so she can absorb the Heart's power: she needed to see that she's loved. Much like Catra did, back on Prime’s ship.

Sidebar discussion 1: thoughts regarding this theory-

How exactly does the dream come to be, how does Catra experience its creation, all of these finer points we kinda hafta leave to the 'magic' that happens. We can't know exactly how it happened, but maybe we don't need to.

As to why didn't they didn't just tell us, *if* this theory is true, that is- probably because She-ra's ending is beautiful, it's hard to imagine it being any more beautiful than it already is. It's worth watching again and again: not having everything spelled out for us just makes us want to watch it more. -etheriadearie

Part 4: How everything is mirrored starting well before the dream, as well as after🪞♾🪞

All of Heart Part 2 is a mirror of Save the Cat, starting from the very beginning. And, if you look carefully you can see stylistic elements repeated throughout each (mirroring, compositional arrangements, use of green in both to represent Prime’s corruption, etc.) They are different enough that each is worthy of being called an artistic masterpiece of its own, but everything in them is related, and what happens as Catra saves Adora is very much the story of Save the Cat being retold.

Catra’s decision to return to help Adora inside the Heart chamber is synonymous with Adora’s decision to face Horde Prime on his flagship. Neither have a plan worth mentioning, both know they could fail, but they have to try, no matter what. They love each other too much not to try.

… and the other is totally dismayed when they show up to save them, knowing how perilous their situations are, as they had resigned themselves to their fates.

Oh, hey Shadow Weaver. Looks like you slipped in to be a stand in for Horde Prime ? Could this be because you were the real villain of SPOP all along ?

Even though the one is so unhappy that the other is risking themselves like they are, each girl continues to fight to free the other. They need the other to see how much they care.

Above: Adora makes a similar declaration of love to Catra's in cue #2, more mirroring 🪞

Sidebar discussion 2: Catra’s strong connection to magic-

A subplot of She-ra is how Catra unlearns her negative perception of magic she has from it being used against her as a child by Shadow Weaver, and instead comes to see magic as something beautiful. Even though Catra professes a strong dislike of it “why does everything have to be so weird with you guys ?” (s5ep8), magic constantly seeks her out.

It starts during Promise, when Catra’s subconscious seemingly guides the memories they see, ending with her seeing her inner child's hurt. It continues in the Portal episodes when she's given up hope, and after trying to destroy herself, instead returns as Corrupted Catra, a magical being with knowledge and purpose. Then, in season 5, Melog chooses Catra, she nervously accepts their friendship and is surprised to finds them to be very good friend to her.

And so, during the dream, as Catra and Adora lie mere feet from the center of Etheria’s magic, it reaches out to help them- it is a living thing, and Catra welcomes its help, proving she has incredible harmony with magic, and by allowing herself to work with it during the dream, she completes her journey of unlearning her bias- because the truth of Etheria’s magic is love.

Like Adora's jumping off the platform after Catra falls, Catra refuses to give up, and finds a way to get to Adora~

Sidebar discussion 3: Horde Prime’s virus

Another bridge between our girls is that when the monster attacks Catra, she's infected by Prime’s virus along with Adora. This is another route by which their minds can be connected (see Catra’s right hand, above) which begs the question: is everything that Adora sees in the dream just an elaborate cruelty of Horde Prime's?

I'm going with no, because of the visions which Adora has before the dream. Most of them happen well before the infection reaches Adora’s location, and their meanings don't really make sense as part of Prime’s deceit. He also says “So this is where you've run to hide" when he interrupts Adora's conversation with Mara.

It makes more sense that it is as Razz says: "You cannot control magic, magic simply is" and the magic is communicating with Adora and with Catra. It is rather, that Catra manages to use Prime's virus against him, as she's faced his control before. Her personal knowledge of his technology likely means Catra knows to help Adora overcome his control, and this along with her confession, helps Adora to break free of his control.

As Adora struggles with her final duty as She-ra to stop the heart, feeling alone in the face of it because she alone is She-ra, the only one who supposedly can do it, she's feeling crushed by the weight of a millennia old war and other's past cruelties forced onto her life. She believes it's too much for her to do alone, and that she's not a good enough hero.

Catra’s ultimate answer to Adora is: 'Don't be.’

Catra is telling Adora to stop being the hero just long enough to realize what she already has, because she's not alone. She needs help, but it's right there with her- she doesnt have to do it alone, no one should.

And so, by asking her to stay, Catra is telling Adora: 'Forget about being She-ra, and right now instead just focus on wanting to live... because if you don't live, then I can't help you. I know, this is hard. But if you can just accept that you want to be with me, then we can figure this out, together.'

And that's exactly what they do- they face the heart together.

Adora accepts love, and so Catra is able to help her absorb the Hearts power.... because love is the strongest thing in the entire universe... 💞

A few closing thoughts regarding this theory: We don't have a lot of time with the romance between Catra and Adora, as their kiss is the apex moment. But, by way of these cues perhaps us seeing them in the dream at their most romantic is real. When Adora wakes up, she doesn't even have to say anything about what she saw- Catra was there, helping her. One of the reasons why the kiss and Adora's confession of love back to Catra seems so pure is because she's understanding Catra perfectly. In fact they both are, because of the dream they shared together.

Considering how short She-ra is, for them to actually share this romantic moment together would be is key. And I feel it makes sense that they do, as such a beautiful moment deserves to live on in their (our) memories... and a way by which they could share this moment may very well exist, *if* this theory is correct.

Noelle and Friends may have cleverly given us this answer, and as beloved as the dream scene is, I'd like to think that they're together during it. Either way, She-ra's ending is beautiful.

As always, thanks for reading... I hope that you enjoyed it. Hopefully it's not just stating the obvious ? Feel free to let me know- 😅 And I couldn't get to all of the endings complexities here (for instance, Adora's confusion on love and needing someone like Catra to show her the way is very interesting, and worth exploring), and, believe me I, too, have questions. Feel free to ask questions or give me feedback, as always I will try to respond!! Also, I will be posting something related to this regarding their arcs in the near future~ hopefully. Until then...

"Don't you get it ? I love you. I always have. So please, just this once. Stay!" 🏳️‍🌈💞💋🏳️‍🌈

~EtheriaDearie

::As always, thanks for a like or reblogg!! I'm still new to tumblr, so thank you for reading- ❤️🙇

P.S. Here's the short version of this post. Yes, the "cliff notes" 😅. For a quick share with your friends!!

#she ra #spop #catradora #she ra meta #she ra and the princesses of power #Catradora dream theory #my writing #she ra fan theory #she ra spoilers

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous transformations #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #mt of lb and cn #miraculous jewels

[fakeikemen]

The "Cave of Two Lovers" foreshadows the Zutara interactions in "Crossroads of Destiny"

[And maybe after that too; (yeah this part will be purely based on speculation)]

(See also: A meta that everybody has already written but I haven't because I was living under a rock and watched Avatar very recently)

Like seriously, it is so obvious? I see people try to interpret "The Legend Of Oma and Shu" in so many other ways; like yeah, you're free to interpret it however you want but— most people try to make sense of it while thinking that the tale is just a random occurrence? But it's not.

And here's why:

(I'm so sorry, I tried to add the "keep reading" link here because this gets kinda long but it just won't work) (Also click on the pictures if you want better resolution).

The tale of Oma and Shu is about two lovers who belonged to villages that were at war against each other. To continue meeting each other, they learnt earthbending to create caves in the mountain that divides the two villages. But one day Shu didn't come to the caves. He'd died in the war. So Oma unleashed a terrifying display of her power. And then when people were willing to listen to her, she called off the war and strived for peace between both the villages. As a result the city of Omashu was created— as a monument in remembrance of their love.

So in comparison:

1. Two people belonging to the opposite sides of the war

(Other than the 100 year old war that has been going on, Zuko and Katara are involved in a very fundamental conflict: Capture the Avatar Vs. Protect the Avatar.)

2. With the same colour scheme:

3. Share intimate moments in a cave lit by green crystals:

A popular argument for this comparison is that; Oma and Shu had a positive impressions of each other when they first met. Unlike Zuko and Katara where Katara's first impression of Zuko was pretty negative because he invaded her village.

Zuko and Katara's first proper conversation happens in "Crossroads of Destiny" i.e.; the scene I'm talking about here. After this interaction that they have, I think it's safe to say that they did have positive impressions of each other. (Until Zuko made the wrong choice.)

Other than that, about the colour scheme being a coincidence: Here and here are posts by @marsreds about how the colours are definitely not a coincidence.

But seriously guys? Oma and Shu were the FIRST EARTHBENDERS and yet, instead of greens and yellows they were designed with RED and BLUE?!? (I'll take about Oma's green dress below.)

And on that note, why were Zuko and Katara the only ones who were thrown into the catacombs when everybody else was being held at the dungeons? The dungeons wouldn't have been easy to escape, neither for Zuko nor for Katara.

It's because Zuko and Katara were meant to share an intimate moment in a cave that was supposed to jog our visual memory to remind us of the caves built by Oma and Shu.

(Seriously though, I wasn't really paying attention during CoTL and thought that the Omashu legend was just put in to consume screen time, so I missed the red/blue thing. But then I watched CoD and saw the catacombs and I was like: "Isn't this like that cave made by the lovers?" And then I proceeded to have an oh shit moment because, I knew that Zutara was not canon so I never even considered the possibility of the narrative hinting at anything between them but then this happened. I mean, it's pretty darn obvious).

The colour of the crystals being the same in both caves is no coincidence either— if they just wanted two random caves with crystals, then they could've used a different colour because crystals of different colours exist:

Moving on,

The Visual Cues:

According to the colour coding Zuko = Oma (red) and Katara = Shu (blue).

So,

EXHIBIT A:

I feel like this one speaks for itself.

(I personally think that in this parallel Oma is in red because Katara at this point still sees Zuko as the face of the Fire Nation.)

EXHIBIT B:

This sequence of frames show Oma (dressed in green, like Zuko was in the catacombs) and Shu (dressed in his usual blue), standing on neutral territory and reaching out to each other and then being torn apart by the war.

Pretty much like:

The first time they are in each other's presence without the cause of their conflict (i.e. the Avatar), Zuko and Katara reach out to each other empathetically and attain bone deep understanding of each other within a matter of minutes. This whole encounter is in Ba Sing Se, which counts for the neutral territory because it hadn't been completely taken over by Fire Nation at that point.

And honestly? The raw vulnerability and intimacy of this scene and the high emotional energy of their powerful dynamic is just— wow. (I put off my binging spree for a whole day because I didn't have the heart to see Zutara not become canon after all of this.)

And soon after, Zuko and Katara face each other in battle, their tentative friendship torn apart, as they fight from their respective sides of the war.

EXHIBIT C:

Whenever Oma and Shu appear in the same frame during the visualization of the legend, Oma is always on the left half of the frame and Shu is on the right.

Similarly, throughout all their interactions in the Catacombs, whenever the frame exclusively includes Zuko and Katara, Zuko (like Oma) is on the left half of the frame and Katara (like Shu) is on the right.

The parallels (or foils rather):

#1

In CoTL, we see Song who is a healer (cures Iroh of his poisoning). She mentions that she hasn't seen her father since a Fire Nation raid took place in her village. Zuko empathises with her and says that he too hasn't seen his father in a long while. But then he refuses to say anything else about it.

Later Song tries to reach out to Zuko and tries to touch his scar— which Zuko prevents her from. She shows Zuko her own scars to show that she understood him.

And yet, Zuko doesn't open up to her.

After a while of life-changing and eye-opening experiences, in CoD, when Katara has her meltdown and cries while saying that her mother was snatched away from her by the Fire Nation; Zuko sees an opening to offer an olive branch and he takes it, he empathises with her and tells her that how his mother was snatched away by the Fire Nation as well.

Then Zuko opens up to Katara in a show of complete vulnerability. He openly talks about his scar and what he feels about it. In response, Katara offers to heal his scar and then Zuko lets her touch his scar.

It was nothing but a deliberate choice to make Song slightly parallel Katara (a healer, lost a parent because of the war) and then making Zuko not open up to her and not let her touch the scar, only for Katara to be the one he opened up to and allowed to touch the scar.

#2

After being trapped with Aang in the cave in CoTL and sharing an intimate moment with him, as soon as they find their way out, Katara runs straight ahead without looking back.

But after her time with Zuko, trapped in the Catacombs in CoD, while leaving she turns back to look at Zuko.

Judging by the amount of time the animation puts into showing us Aang's disappointment at Katara running off and into making it clear that Katara did look back at Zuko and that Zuko looked right back at her, to me, it feels like the choice to show this was pretty deliberate.

(Turning back to look at a person while leaving is a romantic trope that has been overused to death? Or is it just bollywood?)

Also I wouldn't have paid this much attention to this small detail if not for the fact that just a hint of the Omashu legend theme is played here?

No, I swear I'm not making it up.

The Omashu legend theme is used in CoD:

The Omashu legend theme is largely dominated by the music of a stringed instrument (forgive me, I don't know what it's called) alongwith a steady melody playing in the background.

In CoD, when Katara and Zuko start conversing for real, (i.e.; when Katara says: "I'm sorry I yelled at you.") what sounds like a variation of the background melody in the Omashu legend theme, starts its subtle ascent as the background score, but sans the music of the stringed instrument.

It is when Katara says: "Maybe you could be free of it." [About Zuko's scar], when then first hint of the stringed instrument is heard. It is only a single note of the strings but it's there. And this "single note" sound keeps on repeating at regular intervals with the melody building up until Aang and Iroh burst into the catacombs.

But then, when Katara is leaving with Aang and she turns back to look at Zuko, this time the music that plays for a few seconds at best, is dominated by the stringed instrument again and this time it's unmistakable.

Also I don't think this music is used anywhere else in the course of the whole show? So it can't really be a coincidence? But I don't really know. I'm saying this on the basis of as far as my memory can reach.

And this is as far as canon stands testimony to what I am trying to say here.

But what about the second half of the story yk, the dying thing, you say?

Well this is where the speculations come in.

Speculation Time:

#1

As a thumb rule, a romance foreshadowed by a tragic tale is meant to have a happy ending.

So this time when Katara's (Shu) life is in danger (Azula's lightning bolt), Zuko (Oma) steps in at the nick of time to save her life (by jumping infront of Katara to intercept the lightning).

(Since I have crossed the limit of images in a post, here is a post by @araeph which illustrates this point.)

Yes, I am completely aware that Zuko taking the lightning bolt for Katara is not his declaration of love for her. What I mean to say is that the whole scene was so very painfully obviously romantically framed (the immediate change in music when Zuko realises where the lightning bolt was headed, both of their expressions, Zuko's agonized "Nooooo", the slow-mo throughout the shot).

I am also aware that Zuko would've taken the lightning bolt for anyone. But it is the narrative that demands that Zuko take the lightning bolt for Katara and Katara only. Because this has atleast 10 different payoffs (a direct callback to the Book 2 finale where Azula had shot Aang with the lightning; the grief of which was for Katara to bear but this time Zuko himself stands between the lightning and Katara instead of being the silent spectator, the culmination of both Zuko and Katara's personal character arcs, Zuko's scar would parallel Aang's: Aang got it because he chose Katara over the world and Zuko got it because he was willing to give up the world to save Katara, etc, etc).

Tl;dr: The lightning scene wouldn't hold all that much weight if it wasn't Zuko taking the hit for Katara because the narrative literally demands it.

#2

This is where we start wading into really murky waters.

From mucking around on Tumblr due to Zutara feels™, I came across this post where some of the ideas for Book 4 were written:

• The Southern Water Tribe experienced the longest series of attacks from the Fire Nation. Zuko and Katara become political partners and work together to help end the animosity and repair relations between their two nations.

• Just like how Zuko learned to appreciate the Earth Kingdom, he would learn to appreciate the Water Tribes. Katara also learns to respect the complexity of Fire Nation culture. There is no such thing as an “evil” nation.

And that basically means that Zuko and Katara would've been working together to de-escalate the hostility between their respective nations and improve the relations between the two nations, while learning about each other's cultures simultaneously as the world would be in the process of being rebuilt after the war and they would be major role-players in shaping the new world.

Which is quite similar to how Oma strived for peace between the two villages and then as a result of the improved relations between the villages, the city of Omashu was built as a monument to the love story of Oma and Shu; which might just be symbolic of building a new world where both the villages could live in peace due to the initiative taken by Oma on behalf of herself and Shu.

The story would've come a full circle; that's all I'm saying.

If you've stuck around for this long, thank you for taking the time to read this long ass post with points that you may already have read ♥️

#i just have a lot of feelings about zutara #i mean this was being built up so perfectly but then bryke ruined it by not making canon #oh and they said that zutara was never even supposed to be a thing #i mean everything was just there in the context #atla #zutara meta #atla meta #meta analysis #oma and shu #oma and shu parallels #cave of two lovers #crossroads of destiny #into the inferno #avatar #anti bryke #zutara #ira's posts

[robin-the-enby]

Hello!!!! Could I get a doctor who and marvel matchup/ship? I’m female/straight. I’m 5’1, athletic build, with long black wavy hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, and cat eye glasses. Im a Slytherin, Leo and chaotic neutral. I’m quite the lone wolf and extremely independent but I can be outgoing with very close friends. I’m creative, independent, confident in my own skin, and quite laid back. However, if someone tries to control my thoughts and actions I can be very stubborn. I have a sarcastic and witty sense of humor and love banter. I love art, digital art, video effects/vfx, video game design and graphic design. Literally anything to do with art combined with technology I adore. I also love kickboxing and strength training. I love playing video games and watching all sorts of movies (sci fi being my favorite). I don’t physically read much but I love audiobooks. I also love conspiracy theory, sci fi and true crime podcasts. Thank you!

Yay! A Doctor who matchup! Now, I feel like I have to apologize, because I haven't seen all of Doctor who, I think I ended somewhere in 3rd season, so I don't know many of the characters. But do not fret! I match you with:

9th Doctor

I think your personality coresponds best with the 9th Doctor.

He himself is quite the lone wolf, but your personality intrigues him so much he takes you on board as his companion.

He would genuinely enjoy being around someone as independent and laid back as you. He also very much apreciates your creativity, because I'm sure it's come in handy multiple times.

Your stubborness might cause you some problems or cause you two to fight sometimes, because Doctoor has the tendency to order you, when you two are in danger. Usually it's something along the lines of "You go back to the Tardis, I'll handle it here." if you listen or not is up to you.

You two would be such a power couple. Evenm in the middle of danger, your teasing and bickering would not cease. I can see the faces of other people/aliens staring back at you like "Is this funny to them??"

If you love art, the Doctor has no problem taking you back in time to meet your favourit artists, god knows he's friends with at least half of them.

He'll also love anything you create and would boast to anyone who would want to listen about his talented s/o.

When I tell you this man would be awed by your fighting skills, I mean it. He sees you kick some alien butt and man's like (0o0)

When you two aren't running around time and space, you can teach him how to play videogames, although I don't think he'd be a big fan of them. He'd much more like tinkering with Tardis while listening to some podcasts or audio books, while you draw or train. He'll like conspiracy theories and might even spark an idea to go and debunk them. As for true crime, I don't think he'd be into that genre either. He's seen so much death and destruction, it just doesn't do it for him. If you let him choose, he'll put on some classic comedy stuff, maybe listen to stand up.

Tony Stark

Tony and yours personalities also would go really well together.

He loves your independence and confidence, he finds it very hot, if I may be so bold :P

You both are very creative, so he often comes to you to help him with some designs and other stuff, because he likes to compare his genious ideas with the ideas of others. Y'know, to get a look from a fresh pair of eyes, that haven't been hunched over the project for weeks.

It's quite rare that Tony would try to control you or your actions, mostly in danger, like the 9th Doctor. Again, it's up to you whether you'll listen to him or not, but remember, he's doing it to save you from injury or worse, death.

Again, you two would be such a power couple. The rest of the Avengers can only shake their heads tiredly when they hear you two coming down the hall, already hearing you two bickering back and forth. And the smug smiles on both of your faces, my god -_-

Expect Tony to take you to galeries and art exhibitions and for him to buy you the best drawing equipment there is. He loves your passion for technology.

He likes the fact your into combat, at least he doesn't have to worry about you that much. you know, he has a lot of enemies, it's very much probable you'll get jumped.

Videogame nights are a must, he loves the competitive ones and horror ones and will buy the newest games and consoles.

I think Tony is the type of person who would relax to podcasts or audiobooks more than work to them, because he has to concentrate a lot while working. He's not really interested in conspiracy theories or true crime, if you let him choose, he'll pick most likely somethimg philosophical or a classic.

#the doctor #doctor who matchups #9th doctor #9th doctor x reader #9th doctor x y/n #marvel avengers #mcu #mcufam #marvel iron man #tony stark #tony stark x reader #tony stark x y/n #tony stark matchups #iron man matchups #iron man x reader #iron man x y/n

[dailydoseofserotonin]

A New Day, A New Dawn, A New Life

Words: 1,806

Beta: @bambii-brambles

Notes: Alternate Universe. Not really any ships, but some are implied, No Quirks but some people do have abilities

Warnings: Nothing besides Bakugo's language

"Report to your stations immediately. This is not a drill. We are under attack. We are under attack!"

The sound of gunfire and explosions ring out loudly as two boys join hands. Just outside, heroes known as the World's Avengers, are in the process of infiltrating a LOV base in Sokovia. 

Making her way towards the base, Creati crashes against a forcefield, the impact taking her completely by surprised. "Shit!"

"Language!" Reprimands another voice, Lemillion, as he takes down armed men. "Hatsume, what's the view from upstairs?"

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Imasuji's technology is well beyond any other LOV base we've taken" 

Landing between several men, a blonde man swings his hammer taking out several of them. This is ChargeBolt. "Sero's scepter must be here. Imasuji couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last"

Several feet away another blonde takes out more men. This one is known as DynaMight. Locking his legs around one of the soldiers, he shifts his weight and swings the man off his feet, effectively knocking him unconscious. "At long last” is lasting a little long, idiots"

Taking cover behind a tree, a duo colored hair man fires multiple arrows. "Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise"

"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Mirio just said "language?"

 "I know" He sighs as he throws his bike at some soldiers driving up in their truck. "It just slipped out"

Inside the base, Imasuji made his way down towards the science lab. "Who gave the order to attack?"

Following behind him, one of his men answers. "Goto Imasuji, it's the Avengers."

"They landed in the far woods, the perimeter guard panicked."

Cursing under his breath, he turned to the scientist, Kyudai Garaki. "They have to be after the scepter." He then turns back to address one of his men. "Can we hold them?"

"They’re the Avengers!"

Clicking his tongue, he turns away. "Deploy the rest of the tanks."

"Yes, sir."

"Concentrate fire on the weak ones. A hit can make them close ranks." He ordered. As soon as they filed out, he turns his attention back on the scientist. "Everything we've accomplished... But we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough."

"Then let's show them what we've accomplished. Send out the twins." He says.  There's a certain mad gleam in his eyes. 

"It's too soon."

"It's what they signed up for."

Shaking his head, Imasuji turns away. "My men can hold them." With that said, he makes his way towards the door. Taking the stairs he makes his way to where he knows his men are gathered. Entering the room, he takes a quick survey of the room's occupants, spying the aforementioned twins in the corner. 

Once he's in the middle of the room and has their attention, he clears his throat. "We will not yield. They sent their circus freaks to test us. We will send them back in bags. No surrender!"

"No surrender!" They echo. 

Quietly, so as to not draw any attention to himself, he turns to Garaki behind and whispers. "I am going to surrender. You will delete everything. If we give the heroes the weapons, they may not look too far into what we've been--"

"The twins." Garaki interrupts. 

"They are not ready to take on--"

"No, no. I mean... " He points to where said twins were standing, but are now gone. "Twins."

Back outside, Shoto continues to take out armed men. Just as he goes to fire another shot, lined perfectly at the enemy's bunker, his arrow is snatched right out of the air the minute he releases it. "What the.. " Frowning, he repeats the motion and fires another shot only for the same thing to happen again, however this time a teenage boy saunters onto the field, his arrow in hand. He then winks and before he knows it he's knocked on his back, the wind successfully knocked out of him. 

Smirking, the boy looks down at him as he goes by. "You didn't see that coming?" He taunts and then speeds off once more as Shoto quickly rights himself to fire another shot at him. 

Rocked from the hit and the boy's sudden emergence, he doesn't see the enemy fire coming until it's too late. 

"Peppermint!" Off to the side, Bakugo quickly runs over as his friend goes down. 

Not too far from them, Mirio also gets knocked flat by the same speedster. "We have an enhanced in the field." He relays to the others, a bit dazed. 

"Shoto's hit!" Bakugo yells, dragging him away from the bunker firing at them. "Somebody want to deal with that damn bunker?" Immediately after he voices this, a hulking mass of muscles barrels into said bunker, taking it out. "Fucking thanks"

As Mirio exchanges blows with the soldiers, he glances in the general direction to where he knows Creati is. "Momo, we really need to get inside."

"I'm closing in." She says, engaged with the enemy. "Hatsume, am I...closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?"

"There's a particle wave below the north tower." 

"Great, I wanna poke it with something." As he says this he fires at the forcefield, successfully bringing it down. "Drawbridge is down, people."

"The enhanced?" Kaminari questions as he lands besides Mirio, his landing creating a small seismic event that knocks nearby soldiers off their feet. 

"He's a blur. All the new player's we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't."

"Shoto's hit pretty bad. Fuck, we're gonna need evac." Bakugo relays over the comms.

"I can get Todoroki to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You and Momo secure the scepter." Says Kaminari. 

As they converse, reinforcements make their way closer towards them. 

"Copy that"

Gesturing towards the incoming soldiers, he cocks his head. "It looks like they're lining up."

Shrugging his shoulders, he glances their way. "Well, they're excited." 

Twirling his hammer around, Kaminari jumps into the air then slams it down on Mirio's shield with his hammer. The resulting wave from the joint attack knocks the soldiers off their feet and destroys in the incoming tank. 

Twirling his hammer once more, he addresses Mirio. "Find the scepter." He says as he flies off. 

"And for gosh sake, watch your language!"

Sighing, he looks to his feet. "That's not going away anytime soon."

Entering the LOV base, Momo makes her way through as soldiers immediately begin firing at her. "Please, stop, we can talk this through. As she says this, she knocks them out with explosives from her suit. "It was a good talk."

One of the men groans. "No it wasn't"

Typing away at his computer is Garaki. Clearly he's attempting to clean everything from the system before the heroes get to it, but he's intercepted by Momo who shoots him down. 

Stepping out of her suit, she walks over to the computer the man was working at. "Sentry mode" She orders as she looks over the files on screen. "Okay, Hatsume. You know I want it all. Make sure you copy it to Ashido at HQ."

"We're locked down out here." Bakugo says, as he surveys their surroundings.

"Then get to Kirishima, time for a lullaby." Mirio answers. 

Back inside the base, Momo continues looking around the room. "I know you're hiding more than files. Hey, H, give me an IR scan of the room, real quick."

"The wall to your left...I'm reading steel reinforcement... and an air current."

She makes her way over towards the wall, mumbling to herself as she goes. "Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door…" She pushes and the wall opens up. "Yay!" 

Back outside, Bakugo makes his way towards Red Riot. "Hey, shitty hair. The sun's getting real fucking low." 

He scowls at him as Bakugo kneels in front of him and puts out his hand. He regards his hand warily, before reaching out to touch it.  Bakugo then begins to stroke his palm slowly, smirking a bit as he calms down. 

Pulling his hand away, he stumbles as he begins to shift back into Kirishima. Still smirking, Bakugo watches as he stumbles away. 

Inside the base, Mirio encounters Imasuji. "Imasuji Goto. LOV's number one thug."

"Technically, I'm a thug for HPSC" He answers back with a smirk.

"Well then technically you're unemployed. Where's Sero's scepter?"

"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat. You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope." As he speaks, his eyes leaves Mirio's form for a second to something behind him before locking back unto him. 

"I'll put it right under illegal human experimentation" He says, unaware of the approaching figure behind him. "How many are there?" He's then blasted into the wall. Scrambling to his feet, his eyes lock unto the boy's own as he quickly leaves, sealing the door shut behind him. "We have a second enhanced. Male. Do not engage."

"You'll have to be faster than--" He's cut off as he's knocked out by Mirio's shield. 

"And I got Imasuji."

"Yeah, I got... something bigger." Inside the hidden room, she's found a variety of technology, as well as recovered artifacts from the Battle of New York, including a gigantic Nomu leviathan and some of it's scrapped armor. She then spots the scepter. "Kaminari, I got eyes on the prize."

The same figure who attacked Mirio from before creeps up behind Momo. As soon as he gets close to her, he raises his hand to her head and curls his fingers, releasing a sort of energy that creeps into Momo's mind, turning her irises red briefly. Quickly he steps away. 

Blinking rapidly, Momo shakes her head as if to clear her mind. When she glances up once more, the corpse suddenly comes to life and lunges at her. Flinching, she squeezes her eyes shut in reflex. After a few seconds, she opens them again to find her friends laid out before her, dead. Walking closer towards their corpse, she kneels beside Mirio, horror frozen upon his dead face. Suddenly, as if out of a horror film, he grabs her wrist and they lock gazes. "You… could've.. saved us.." Turning away from his body, she looks up to see Nomu's invading Earth, but it all melts away as she's snapped back into reality. 

Unbeknownst to her, off to the side are the twins, who watch as she calls her armor towards her to surround her fist. 

Stepping forward to stop her, the taller of the two is stopped as his brother raises his hand against his chest. "We're just gonna let them take it?" He questions, frustrated. 

Not answering, the brother simply smiles to himself as Momo takes the scepter. 

To be continued…

#midoriya izuku #katsuki bakugou #bnha bakugou #bhna deku #kirishima ejirou #momo yaoyorozu #mirio toogata #kaminari denki #shinso hitoshi #todoroki shōto #shindo yo #overhaul

[plasticnightmaredoll]

The full-length trailer for "Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2" DLC has been released and

AHHDBGHGAHGFFF!!!!!!

😍😍😍🤩🤩🤩😲😲😲😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺😁😁😁

id Software, why are you giving the fans what they want?!

Why does this look SO DAMN GOOD? 😫😫😫😫

I don't know if anything should be this epic?

But "The Ancient Gods Part 2" looks like iconic af already.

And with that, I have some thoughts!

My experience with "The Ancient Gods" and Doom's reboot game series

While I have played "Doom Eternal" and "Doom" 2016 a few times each, I haven't played "The Ancient Gods Part 1" yet. I do know some of the key plot points, though, namely the Dark Lord regaining his body so the Doom Slayer can kill him once and for all. I just haven't had the time, energy, or patience to play the DLC, mostly because my current job is kicking my ass, I'm super stressed, and I feel like I'm rushed on my days off. I don't have much time after work to do anything save for exercise (on a couple days), showering, and eating. It's not prime time for gaming. At all.

Also, I have been kind of hooked on survival horror games as that is technically my favorite genre of games.

I'll play "The Ancient Gods," both parts, at some point in the near future, but not sure exactly when.

The end?

Something I noticed in the trailer is it seems to indicate that "The Ancient Gods" is the conclusion to the Doom reboot story.

But that can't be right, can it? As far as I know, the Doom reboot games have done very well, and, also as far as I know, id Software hasn't pissed off a good chunk of their fanbase by doing dumb shit (like NRS and MK11)

I'm guessing this isn't truly the end. I mean, at the end of "Doom Eternal," it was said that the Doom Slayer's fight is well....eternal. And can you really destroy hell? Banish it for good? I have my doubts 🤔

They could do spin-offs, too, I suppose, since they have created a Doom Universe for the first time ever. It's a thought 🤷‍♀️

And, uh, id Software may respect their fans and their creation, but they in business to make money, and if Doom is bringing in the cash then the logical thing to do is...make more Doom. 💲💲💲💲

The Dark Lord is here!

Why the hell is this bitch hiding inside a robotic armored suit???

Get the fuck out of there and fight me like a (demon) man!

But seriously, this is the Dark Lord of Hell, so why is he not fighting the Slayer one on one WITHOUT the robotic armored suit????

HE SCARED OF THE SLAYER?

HE WEENIE?

I can't say I'm very intimidated by the guy....not after seeing this. Doesn't mean I think the game is going to be bad. I think it's hilarious that the Dark Lord is appearing in battle like this.

Lord of the Rings?!

I can't be the only one who thought of "Lord of the Rings" here.

Asgard?

This reminds me of the Bifrost Bridge and Asgard in general. I mean, it's a place that seems to be floating somewhere with waterfalls running over the edge into the air below.

I am MCU Trash and ...

The final battle for "The Ancient Gods Part 2" reminds me of the final battle in "Avengers: Endgame."

I MEAN, AM I WRONG?

Now, I know what some might be thinking:

"But this is so derivative! id Software just copied 'Endgame's' epic battle instead of making up their own 😑"

Well, here's how I see it:

Marvel hasn't placed a copyright/trademark on "Endgame's" final battle, so if anyone wants to style a fight/battle based on it, it's not illegal.

People copy each other's works all the time. Well, it's not like people copy stuff ALL the time. Sometimes, a creative idea references a previous creative idea. Writings inspired by other writings, art inspired by other art, movies inspired by other movies, songs inspired by other songs...So, this is nothing new.

If id Software wanted to have an epic final battle against the forces of Hell, it makes sense that, instead of making the Doom Slayer do EVERYTHING, there would be forces coming to fight alongside him. I'm sure plenty of beings have beef with Hell, and when someone stands up to fight against it, then it would be time to rally the troops to join the guy and kick some goddamn ass. I can't think of any vastly different ways to style/choreograph this fight. I mean, yeah, id Software could have been a little less obvious with their references/inspiration, but, I don't think it's a big deal.

If you're going to make a fictional epic battle modeled after another fictional epic battle, then "Avengers: Endgame's" final battle IS that battle.

I know some people see the MCU as trash, but I strongly disagree. I have enjoyed the vast majority of it so far, and am excited to see more.

Some people think "Endgame" is overrated and doesn't deserve to be in the top 5 highest-grossing films. Well, that's just your opinion, Guys, and I disagree with you. 🤷‍♀️ It's a 3-hour movie that feels more like 2-2.5 hours, which is an accomplishment in and of itself! I have seen movies 2 hours long that felt 10 hours long -- and not in a good way. I have seen movies 3 hours long that felt like 3 fucking hours. So, I think "Endgame" deserves some credit here.

Some think "Avatar" and "Titanic" are more worthy, especially since they have won various awards, including Oscars, and "Endgame" didn't win much. Ok, so, the Oscars are fucking bullshit anymore, just political garbage and barely anything to do with quality or talent. Winning awards doesn't always mean the world, either. "Avatar" and "Titanic" are both HIGHLY overrated in my opinion. Amazing visual effects, terrible stories. I won't go into detail because y'all wouldn't like my thoughts anyway.

"The Ancient Gods Part 2" has a fucking amazing final battle and I don't care what anyone says! It's DOOM all the way to the max! I mean, we're taking part in a massive assault on Hell for the first time in the Doom franchise. How is that NOT awesome?

The release date is what?!

As far as I know, id Software didn't advertise the release date for "The Ancient Gods Part 2" until the official full-length trailer was released on March 17th.

And we find out in said trailer that this DLC is coming out TOMORROW.

MARCH 18th.

WHAT OMG AJJHSAHAahgAHFAF?! 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲

How....is id Software allowed to be this fucking LEGENDARY?

Final Thoughts

I really hope this isn't the end for the Doom reboot series. I mean, they took the time to build a little universe in Doom Eternal, so it seems like a real shame to end the story now.

I can't get over the final battle between Hell and... The Forces of Good? Not sure what else to call them. But it's pretty much what I would expect of such a thing in a Doom game. It's grand, epic, cinematic, awesome, incredible, insane, brutal, chaotic, and pure carnage.

I seriously wonder how "The Ancient Gods Part 2" will end.....will there be a teaser/hint at future installments?

#doom #doom eternal #id software #bethesda #the ancient gods #doom 2016 #doom slayer #doom marine #the ancient gods part 2 #doom dlc #fps games #first person shooters